Chandra’s sensor sweep turned up little by way of security. <It’s simply not a good situation. Look at the way they are bunched up. The camp is thick with patrols.>

“Picking our way through the patrols is going to be a bitch,” Epyc Ro said.

“Being a bitch is what we do best,” Anitra said.

“There’s no way we can get in, explore the terrain, and get ghost without raising an alarm. We’d never make it back to the extraction point,” Robin said.

“I don’t see the problem. It looks like a brief run and we’re free,” Ellis said.

“Yeah, but you’re barely out of whatever passes for diapers around here. So your opinion don’t count.” Anitra glanced back at them. “I’m just fucking with you, big dog.”

“A single soldier could slip in unnoticed and wreak havoc, opening a door for a small group.” Epyc Ro kept surveying the target. “Anitra, you up.”

“I’m on it.” Anitra slid her navsuit helmet into place and hopped over the barricade of stone down the rocky slope.

“We can’t just wait here.” With the impatience of youth, Ellis’s loyalty was to their family, their tribe, not either of these two invading interlopers, be they ally or enemy. “We should’ve gone in all at once.”

“This is our show and we’re waiting on Anitra to clear a path for us.” Epyc Ro turned to them, her voice not inviting debate. She needed to be straight with them. “The only reason this mission is remotely viable is because the Interstellar Alliance is pulling up stakes. Otherwise, we are outgunned, outmanned, and outmaneuvered. But our biggest advantage is they lack heart. That’s been shown in every encounter. So you’ll do things our way or you can leave.”

“Anitra can’t go it alone.” Something more than concern thickened Ellis’s voice.

Epyc Ro stared at them, managing not to roll her eyes in annoyance. Her mood and focus left no room for adolescent pining.

“She’ll get us in. You’ve obviously not seen an Anitra in the wild.” Robin summoned the holovid feed of Chandra’s drone tracking Anitra’s movement. She started narrating the action in a low baritone. “Observe how she approaches the guard. Notice how she slides up to them unseen and unheard. How she takes out the first guard before the other even knows there’s a problem.”

The silent projection showed Anitra grabbing the nearest alien, covering their mouth, and dragging them into the shadows to subdue them. Even had the sound been available, her fluid movements would’ve produced no noise. Robin continued her narration.