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Vonfoxfire trade story Treasure hunt COMPLETE COLLECTION

Treasure Hunt

Out in the expansive black of deep space, the Surveyor drifted lazily.

One fox lay slumped over a table in one of the many transparisteel study blisters lining the port and starboard sides of the football stadium sized science vessel.

“Ugh, three weeks in this humid tub and still no signal from the bouey. How much more time is needed to grid search this damn sector?!” Vonfoxfire snarled as he laid his head on his crossed arms atop the desk like a sleeping high school student. Just as his fur got settled and he got comfy though, the bass bazzaam of the electric door buzzer sounded, startling the eccentric science fox enough to raise his hackles into a battle fin.

Grumbling a flurry of expletives that would make even the most foul mouthed sailor run crying to their mother, Vonfoxfire opened the pneumatic door with a murderous gaze and messy hair. The relatively young lizard on the other side of the door was a low ranking scribe who had a nasty scar running like a mohawk, probably from being bashed over the head with something angular. This boy now stood awkwardly before the fuming scientist holding a datapad. “Uh, Mr. Vonfoxfire, uh, transmission for you.” The reptile mumbled hesitantly. Shaking his head, the frustrated fox grumbed unintelligibly and took the pad before nodding to the lizard and closing the door.

Seven hours of boredom and insanity inducing anticipation later, Vonfoxfire stood in the bridge of the Surveyor, looking out the windows at what appeared to be the smoldering and melted remains of a N.U.N. ship. Several shards of the burnt metal still glowed a calming and dull rose color. The robot pilot sitting in the chair to the fox’s left resembled a tin can on a a terminator body began speaking in a clear and mechanical voice. “Estimated destruction of N.U.N. vessel is two hours and seven minutes ago sir. There is an ion trail not matching any known ship design heading toward asteroid 92748.95 in sector nine. Probe unit has already been dispatched and will arrive shortly.”

Hearing this, the ears atop the predator swiveled away from the robot and back towards the windows. What weapon destroyed this ship? No bullet holes, no beam scorches, and it wasn't pulled apart by one of the Xylodeaf. Hmm, this warrants more investigation. Turning to the pilot he began to speak. “Image the entire sector to my personal archives. I want every speck of space dust mapped and recorded in full by this time tomorrow.” The fox scientist dictated to the synthetic pilot before excusing himself and exiting the cockpit swiftly.

After several more agonizing hours the fox received a signal informing him that the destination was two minutes out. Smiling to himself, Vonfoxfire opened the door of the study room and headed towards the hangar bay. The science ships hangar was a massive rectangular cut out on the bottom of the vessel with catwalks hanging in a grid above the air membrane, the thin layer of energy that kept the hangar pressurized without the need for massive doors. The catwalks made squares around eight massive docking clamps spaced equally in a two by four pattern large enough for modest sized short range craft of nearly any type to dock comfortably within the ship. On this voyage, the mostly robotic crew were equipped with four short range research pods and two light duty tug boats designed for hauling debris or salvage around open areas. However, Vonfoxfire was heading for his personal transport that he had just built himself before embarking on this archeological journey.

The mad scientist and dictator popped open the doors and climbed inside the sleek transport bearing his colors, red, black, and white. The arrowhead shaped transport heavily resembled a skinnier version of the ancient stealth bomber used by the long destroyed United Territories centuries ago. The two foldable wings were able to retract into the hull entirely or extend forty feet to grant increased cooling and maneuverability at the expense of speed. The sleek vessel unhooked itself from the clamps connecting it to the Surveyor and dropped out of the much larger ship, passing through the membrane seamlessly and into the darkness beyond.

Shifting controls over to manual, Vonfoxfire piloted his ship towards the point of interest, asteroid 92748.95. To his surprise however, once reaching the asteroid, a N.U.N. navy s.o.s. signal reached his console. Before he could react however, something bumped into the view screen. A N.U.N. navy trooper helmet. There was no way for this helmet to have come from the wreckage discovered previously, not with shrapnel and debris patterns at least. However, by far the most intriguing piece of information was the yellow hot hole in the back of the helmet.

*Alert! Hostile target locked on! Alert! Hostile has a lock!* screamed the on board AI in a staticky voice. “Furballs!” Vonfoxfire cursed through grit fangs as he banked hard to port as a missile flew past the ship, scraping the paint as it skid off the starboard hull’s curve. “Pirates! How did they get cloaking tech?!” Vonfoxfire demanded from the air in the vacant ship. *Attention! Missile lock intact!* the AI cried out just in time for Vonfoxfire to punch the engines and get another long scrape in the paint. As he looked up from the wheel, a missile was screaming straight towards the cockpit head on. Eyes wide and maw agape, his doom approached in the shape of a gleaming silver spear. At least until it detonated fifty some yards from the view screen. Tiny bits of metal imbedded themselves in the transparisteel window as Vonfoxfire peeked out from between his fingers that covered his eyes. “I- I'm alive!?” He asked the empty air. However, the empty air answered.

“Unidentified vessel, identify yourself or I will let the next two hit.” A modulated voice demanded. “Who are you!?” Was the fox's reply. A red light and a high pitched beeping erupted from the console, alerting Vonfoxfire that somewhere, this hidden ship had definitely locked its weapons onto him again. “Wrong answer. Try again.” The voice growled, dripping with malice. “Fine. Vonfoxfire aboard the Shimmer.” growled the fox into the comms. After saying this, the ship lurched and the airlock opened. Two armored figures, one clearly a fox and one without any specific identifying features, burst in unannounced. Both figures held some kind of rifle that he had never seen before, light grey and blocky in appearance. “I've answered your questions strangers, now you answer mine!” shouted VonFoxFire as he pressed a button on the console of his ship. Almost immediately, several chihuahua sized spider robots popped out of little tubes in the cabin. The armored figures quickly adjusted their aim as twelve robots scuttled towards them at at alarming speed. The female fox shot yellow bolts from her weapon while the male dropped his rifle and, to Vonfoxfires surprise, extended two swords from the gauntlets on his arms. With a wild and maniacal grin, VonFoxFire almost salivated at the thought of a combat test for his newest design of combat security bots, the Rippers. They were aptly named after the small circular saws and pincers they were equipped with.

Surprisingly, only two robots made it close enough to leap at the intruders, the others had orange glowing holes from the yellow bolts punched straight through their armor, and the man’s blades cleaved through the last two airborne units with seemingly no resistance at all. Seeing this and knowing he was outmatched, VonFoxFire hurried to press the S.O.S. beacon button, only to yelp and recoil as the button exploded in a shower of sparks and red hot metal pieces. Whipping around to face the two intruders once again, he snarled and raised his hackles in an attempt to scare the figures away, and as expected, he got a kick in the shin for his effort. “Yow!” cried the scientist as he grabbed his elevated appendage while jumping on his other foot.

“Are you with that weird ship we blasted or are you an independent?” the man asked casually as he retracted his blades and retrieved his fallen rifle. “You tell me spaceman.” grunted the now recovered VonFoxFire indignantly. “Color scheme is completely different and the approach was executed in a way that suggests different training and experience with the craft. I think you're either not associated with or fighting against the blue ship.” stated the female fox flatly, like a robot almost.

“Alright, you know who I am, now who the hell are you two? Pirates?” Spat VonFoxFire venemously. However, this obviously struck a nerve in the male as he went rigid, and slowly turned to look at Vonfoxfire with the polarized black T-visor. In the thick and painful silence, noons moved for several agonizing moments. Finally, the silence was broken by the man. “Pirates?” He almost whispered. He turns his body to face the seated fox. Another whisper, “Did you just call us pirates?”

“I take it that you're not then.” Vonfoxfire stated without inflection. Underneath his calm and level demeanor however, Vonfoxfire was extremely nervous. Something about the visor in the man's helmet tapped into the basest instincts in his brain, inciting a mutiny of terror and feeling of inescapable death. However, Vonfoxfire was not about to show any weaknesses to these intruders. “WE ARE NO PIRATES!” The armored man bellowed harsh enough to disable the voice modulator, allowing Vonfoxfire to finally hear the natural voice of this person. Of as close as possible since the electronic devices in the helmet were sealed and relied on speakers to vocalize outside of comms, giving a rough and slightly staticky sound to the man's voice. “We are Mandalorians! Proud warriors and conquerors! Our forces conquered half the galaxy before the Jetii'se beat us back! Not simple parasites on a government's back, we obey the supercommando codex!” finished the man. “I've never heard of you, nor jet easy.” Vonfoxfire said unimpressed. All this time the two men were focused on one another, the woman on the other hand,had been thoroughly exploring the cabin of the e Shimmer. She opened one of the small crates near the airlock and looked inside. “Arka! Over here.” she called out. The man looked over his shoulder at the Fox lady before walking to her. Vonfoxfire took this opportunity to press the remote beacon on his belt.

“Dimension crystals.” Selia whispered to Arka. “What is he doing with these?” Arka murmured in thought before a loud Thwick! Looking up, Selia saw a metal rod sweeping in an arc towards her face. Clang!

Selia fell flat on her back grunting. As she sat up she saw Arka, blades extended, dueling Vonfoxfire who had acquired a metal staff somewhere. Vonfoxfire swirled launching a flurry of attacks at the Mandalorian warrior, who easily tilted his arms to sweep the blades in front of the stick. Sparks exploded from the impacts of the metal objects as they flew together several times a second. Selia could only stare in amazement as the two men lashed at each other with malevolence. The fight lasted only a few seconds and saw Vonfoxfire almost knock over Arka with a solid hew hits to the head and neck almost finished up with a leg sweep, however Arka was able to ignite the jt-12 jetpack to do a frontflip over the unprepared fox's head, catching him off guard and delivering a devastating elbow cross to the side of Vonfoxfire’s head, flooring him.

Vonfoxfire awoke with a thundering headache and acute barbs of pain behind his eyes. With screaming sinuses, Vonfoxfire grabbed his head with both hands and sat upright while forcing his eyes open. Grinding his sharp teeth, he assessed his new environment. The cold and uncomfortable grey metal hospital style curtain around an elevated cot engulfed him in a claustrophobic embrace. The small comfort that he definitely was thankful for, was a rather nice soft cushion and pillow on the cot. With his senses returning to full strength unbearably slowly, Vonfoxfire saw a small button panel within arms reach. The small grey square pad had several small rectangular and circular white buttons and one large skinny red one. The soft back light glowing comfortingly from inside the cold metal box. With a totally educated and not randomly mashed button pattern, the metal curtain retracted into the wall with a barely audible whirring sound. With a hiss of pain at the sudden increase of light, Vonfoxfire saw a rather spartan area before him. To his right was a cafe booth and a doorway. In the opposite corner was a small stack of metal crates and miscellaneous assortments of material. Directly in front of him was an obvious armory wall with a pegboard of dozens of blocky rifles and pistols mixed in with long machine gun looking weapons and no several scoped rifles with several large footlocker were at the baseboard underneath as well. And the other end of the area had what appeared to be an assortment of exercise equipment and a full sized bathroom across from a kitchen area. Off in the distance he also heard muffled voices if also man along woman Emin a ting from the doorway.

Slowly and as quietly as he could, Vonfoxfire approached the pegboard of weapons. Just as he reached the wall and reached out for a nice powerful looking pistol however, he heard a soft click, uncomfortably close to the back of his head. Freezing and slowly turning his head, Vonfoxfire saw a green and black shape behind him. Raising both hands and turning his body around, he came face to face with that terrifying T-visor once again, connected to an arm holding a rather scary looking blocky pistol to the back of his head. Suckling in a small breath on reflex, Vonfoxfire stared at his reflection in the abyss of the material. For almost a minute, the two men stared, (well, one fox guy into his reflection but you know what I mean.) And waited for the other to speak or move. Eventually, the palpable tension was cut by Vonfoxfire. “Can I put my arms down? They're getting tired.” “Sure” shrugged the man hidden beneath the visor in a surprisingly nonchalant way, even shrugging as he lowered his weapon to a hip fire position.

“Who are you people?” Vonfoxfire asked the two figures as he was escorted over to the booth.

“Were Mandalorians, I'm Arka and that’s Selia.” The one in green and black armor said. At the mention of her name, a fox head came peeking around the corner from the door. “Did you call me Arka?” She asked in a cute and feminine tone. “Uh, no but if you would start up dinner that would be great. I'll come help once I settle fluff butt in.” Arka asked his companion politely. With a pleasant smile the fox woman walked over to the crates nearby and started fishing through them. Once she turned away, Arka started talking again. “So, Vonfoxfire, you seemed to know how to handle yourself on your ship, who taught you to fight?” Vonfoxfire regarded the helmeted figure and eventually settled on a safe half truth. “I taught myself.” he states flatly. During this short exchange, Selia had moved over to the far end of the small ship and started messing with cupboards in the small kitchen space. “If you don't try anything, I have no problem with holstering my weapon. Let's be civilized.” With the truce applied, the two men eased up and sat in the booth, still tense and ready to fight, but not openly showing weapons. Now that they were both sitting down across from each other, Arka finally took off his helmet. Vonfoxfire was quite surprised that the creature beneath the menacing helmet was not a furred creature, but most closely resembled a sphinx cat or other naked species. The being underneath the helmet did have some hair on the top of its head though. Shaking his head to settle the dirty blonde hair on his head, Arka set the helmet on the table between himself and the man across the table. “You look surprised, what's wrong?” Arka asked Vonfoxfire after several seconds of silence. “Your furless. What species are you?” “Human. The most numerous species in my dimension. At least in my home galaxy.” At the revelation this man was from an alternate dimension, Vonfoxfire’s mind went into overdrive. He had been trying to create create a dimensional gateway for years and this person popped up, destroyed a N.U.N. cruiser, and captured him in about about a day. “You developed a dimensional portal generator? How?” Vonfoxfire leaned forward with apt attention. “No, my friend Rez invented it, I was hooked up with one to rescue him from a rather shady group in another dimension, that's where Selia came from. I helped her out and got her out of there. She worked as a negotiator and specialist for the SCP foundation in another reality. She still doesn't like divulging secrets about it but she's starting to loosen up a bit.” As he finished his sentence, Selia came over with a steaming plate of some kind of seasoned meat. “Thank you dear, I'll do the dishes when we're done. “Arka thanked his companion as she sat down next to him. “So, what did you learn about our guest?” she inquired with a soft tone. “We mostly talked about us and the hyperdrive, we haven't really gotten to anything recent yet.” Arka answered. And for several hours, the trio sat and talked technology and summarized backstories.

“You developed a dimensional portal generator? How?” Vonfoxfire leaned forward with rapt attention. “No, my friend Rez invented it, I was hooked up with one to rescue him from a rather shady group in another dimension, that's where Selia came from. I helped her out and helped get her out of there. She worked as a negotiator and specialist for the SCP foundation in another reality. She still doesn't like divulging secrets about it but she's starting to loosen up a bit.” As he finished his sentence, Selia came over with an steaming plate of some kind of seasoned meat. “Thank you dear, I'll do the dishes when we're done. “Arka thanked his companion as she sat down next to him. “So, what did you learn about our guest?” she inquired with a soft tone. “We mostly talked about us and the hyperdrive, we haven't really gotten to anything recent yet.” Arka answered. And for several hours, the trio sat and talked technology and summarized backstories.

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The night Vonfoxfire spent aboard the Mandalorian ship A’tin was filled with mathematical equations and scientific breakthroughs. Arka had been kind enough to lend him a datapad to record his findings on. Quantum phasing, teleportation, shapeshifting, and dimensional travels all swarmed the overtired mind as he typed furiously for several hours. He only stopped when the plasma cell powering the device died, leaving him in the all encompassing darkness within the ship, broken only by the faint white and red glows from the control panel within arms reach. The metal divider surrounding him in the small cot blocking his view of the spartan vessel and the three others who were within close proximity. With his pointed ears, Vonfoxfire even heard Arka and Selia’s breathing with Fang’s huffing and twitching in his sleep. Doubtlessly chasing some kind of quarry in a hunt or battle. To be honest, Vonfoxfire was unsure of what to make of the feral, always eyeing him like a hawk would a mouse, always assessing him as if he were just another animal to hunt. He wasn’t scared of the creature, but he wasn’t exactly going to go over and hug it either. “Humph. Well, genius needs it's sleep just as much as anyone else I guess.” Mumbled the fox before promptly falling face down into the soft pillow and snoring lightly.

Come morning, Vonfoxfire saw the metal divider being highlighted by the lights beyond shining both above and below. The smell of cooking meat was tantalizing and his mouth began watering on instinct. Licking his lips slightly, he reached over and pressed the button on the panel next to him that retracted the metal sheet, exposing him to the bright lights in the rest of the ship. Hissing like a burning vampire, Vonfoxfire shielded his eyes with his forearm until they adjusted. Once they became comfortable in the new light, he could clearly see Selia in the booth waiting for her companion Arka to finish cooking in the kitchen. But looking around, Vonfoxfire could not see the feral anywhere. Shrugging it off as irrelevant, he swung his body over the side of the cot and planted his feet on the warm metal flooring. The warm fuzzy metal flooring that was now vibrating slightly. Looking down, he realized he had just planted his feet on the feral that he had not seen. The growling canine looked up at him with frustration and stood to walk away in an overly dramatic manner, head held high and tail swishing. “Good morning to you too.” Muttered the fox as he replaced his feet on the warm metal left behind by the vornskr. Selia was the first to notice his awakening and beckoned him over. However, Vonfoxfire had to get dressed first, he wasn’t comfortable walking around without his overcoat, it held his many little notes and contraptions anyway. He only had to go over and put it on though so it didn't take very long at all. Once the garb was securely on his body he walked over and joined the vixen at the booth.

“Good morning Vonfoxfire, sleep well?” She asked in a cute feminine voice. “Good enough. I've been thinking about those helmets of yours though, the visor specifically” He replied. “What about them?” she inquired with a cute head tilt. “The way they make people uneasy. How do they do that?” He asked the other fox. “I'm not sure, you’d have to ask Arka about that, he made the armor anyway. He said he learned to forge it from the raw material and everything. But the problem with that is that if he has a bomb in his brain he can activate at any time. It was implanted to prevent people from getting the secrets of forging their own armor or anything from mandalorian iron.” She explained. “I worry that he’ll accidentally blow his own head off when he’s distracted or something. I know it's probably safe since the armorsmiths have been doing it for centuries, but it's still unnerving to me, knowing his head has a bomb in it.” She began to shiver slightly as she finished her little monologue. With her unknowing expulsion of information, VonFoxFire mentally grinned and began to think of dozens of vile plans of extorting information from his new acquaintances.

Just as she finished speaking however, Arka came over with their breakfast. Some kind of bacon and a kind of blue egg and bread. “Well good morning friend, how was your night?” He asked kindly as he sat down next to Selia. Keeping with common courtesy, VonFoxFire responded. “It was okay, I stayed up quite late with that tablet typing away hundreds of ideas I got while talking with you. The technology you described seeing on your travels was quite interesting and very different from what I have back home! All of it gave me ideas for weapons, healthcare, and damage control.” VonFoxFire grinned happily as they began to dine.

Several hours of talking eventually shifted the conversation to the helmets worn by the two mandalorians and their effects. “So I fight country sized monsters on a daily basis and feel nothing, but that helmet of yours somehow makes me uneasy. I need to know how.” Vonfoxfire stated flatly as if he were reciting digits of pi. Looking up from the small slice of pie that coincidentally served as dessert, Arka replied with mild caution. “Why is it so important?” He asked in return, a mild point in his tone.

“Like I just said, when I fight massive monsters, I feel nothing. But when I see my reflection in your helmet visor… I don't know how to describe it. It just embeds a kind of primal and unstoppable fear. Not terror, but a sense of anxiety crossed with fear. I need to know how it affects the mind and how it can activate that specific response in the brain.”

Arka seemed to chew over his decision slowly and carefully before responding. “The material is called voidcast. It's occasionally spewed out of black holes in dimension 18431 near the Hellion nebula. I carved it into the visor slot to go over the transparisteel like a laminate film or shell. It vibrates at a very specific frequency and has a kind of… presence in the minds of any sapient nearby. I protect myself with beskar, I don't know how or why but beskar just blocks anything and everything. It can't be manipulated by the force by jetii or darjetii, can't be cut by their blades, is impervious to almost anything but other beskar items, and is just stupidly strong.” Arka monologues more to himself than Vonfoxfire. “I don't understand why or how but it's kind of like plot armor in a story so I see it as a kind of real life version of it. I can't think of anything else and I’ve kind of just given up on the whole idea of explaining it.” He finished up with a slight sag in his armored shoulders. “Okay, if you don't know how it does it, can I have a sample of it to take back to my labs on Earth to study and experiment with? Maybe I can replicate both the beskar’s effects as well as the voidcast. If I can create a synthetic version, I can protect my ships and robots with the material to prevent attacks and save lives under my jurisdiction and conquer my enemies without even fighting!” Vonfoxfire exclaimed, plans of massive war machines popping into his mind by the hundreds, laboratories shielded with domes of black fear and imposing palaces to act as governor‘s buildings to lord over the peasants below their dark and blank facades.

“I'm afraid i can't do that. I can supply you with the voidcast, but beskar is kind of a monopoly of the mandalorian people. We swore oaths to never divulge it's secrets or supply the material to anyone without specific contracts that will be enforced with blood. I have a bomb in my brain as testament to that. If i decided to betray my oath, it would detonate, killing me without so much as a pop.” Arka apologized sincerely.

“Oh, well I'll make do with what I can get.” relented the mad scientist with his ears splayed slightly to the sides in frustration. This new nugget of information that ALL people who knew how to smith the metal had explosives in their heads was a major annoyance and possible setback.

During this entire debate, Selia had sat and listened with stiff shoulders and twitching tail. “You mentioned a job when you were muttering in the night. Fang also noticed it and he was quite annoyed.” She piped in during the break between technical topics between the two males.

“Oh, I'm searching for artifacts of previous civilizations that ruled the universe before they wiped themselves out somehow. I’ve never found out how or with what, but it obliterated both superpowers within hours, decimating star clusters and eradicating planets. Sadly I can't find any relics of schematics or technology that I can actually use in my research.” Vonfoxfire said remorsefully at the facts presented.

“I’ve been hunting for anything that would give me even a hint of how some of the ancient tech of the Old ones works. I could use it to defend my territory and destroy anyone who opposes me. Which is a constant struggle with city sized giants running around stomping on everything and eating all the test subjects that live in the cities.” Vonfoxfire grumbled out before finishing up the last of his food with a scrape of his fork on the metal plate. “I'll take those.” Arka said as he picked the dishes and began to take them towards the small kitchen in the ship, leaving Vonfoxfire and Selia alone at the small booth.

“So, what is your homeworld like?” Selia asks curiously with a small wag of her tail. “Eh, nothing super special. A bunch of giant furs running amok and destroying everything. Other than that I’d imagine it’s pretty similar to all the others.” Vonfoxfire replied dismissively. “No planet is similar to another. I’ve been to hundreds that Arka was kind enough to show me and the smells, the textures, the animals, and even the air is so different! It's amazing how many types of grass are on each planet, and combined between several worlds, it's incalculable! And the scents all mesh differently and make the most wonderful of concoctions and always elicit a wonderful rush of endorphins! Oh and the animals~” Selia continued to ramble on like this for several hours as Arka washed the dishes and headed over to the cockpit to scout out hyperlanes in this new dimension.

Once Selia had finally gotten winded from her seven hour rant and gone to sit with Arka, Fang and Vonfoxfire sat in the main cabin, staring at each other. “I don't think I like you feral.” Vonfoxfire huffed as he stood up and stretched his legs which had stiffened significantly from his lack of movement. Arms raising over his head and bones creaking and joints popping into place, Vonfoxfire yawned and smacked his lips. “Ugh. Stupid stiffness. I should really invent something to brace the muscles and prevent the stiffness.” he muttered to himself before following his hosts towards the front of the ship.

Several hours of discussion and debate later, the ship lands on an uninhabited grassland planet. Tall grass and weeds are smeared across the massive world with large lakes breaking up the uniform greens with a shimmer. As the group prepared to exit the ship, Arka and Selia donned their full suits of armor and began to stash blades, bombs, and guns in several hidden compartments in their armor to add in to their already considerable arsenal strapped onto them with sashes, slings, pouches, and holsters. The green and black armor worn by Arka was scratched and burnt in uncountable places and looked quite formidable. Selia’s armor however was a deep blue and was pristine. No scratches, no burns, nothing. Once the two warriors seemed content with their weapons, they opened the small frontal ramp to exit the vessel and walk on the soft loam beneath.

The heavy boots on all of them sank slightly into the surface almost a quarter inch. Not enough to do much but inconvenience the wearer, but still annoying. Once the group noticed this little dilemma, VonFoxFire heard a soft harumph from Arka. “Your scanners didn't pick up the soil density and moisture content?” he inquired somewhat surprised. “No, I don't calibrate them for that unless I have to. The fine tuning is difficult and it never stays relevant enough to justify the power usage.” the warrior responded.

“I'm surprised that you get by so well with such archaic sensors.” VonFoxFire stated flatly with an air of haughtiness.

“You know, our ancestors did not have any sensing equipment when they were chased off their home world and into the unforgiving void. My people were slaughtered and driven away from our homes by the IGBC and forced to flee. Ever since I was a child I swore an oath to kill as many Muun as I can to avenge my family. I try to stay as sharp as I can both physically and mentally to be as dangerous to my opponents.” Arka responded dryly. At this he ignited his jetpack and leapt in a graceful arc and landed around two hundred feet away in a defensive stance, facing VonFoxFire.

“I also have a hunch you didn't get to show me your best with that extending stick of yours when we nabbed you. Let's spar to see how good you are!” Arka declared while waiting for Vonfoxfire to initiate the battle. Grinning, Vonfoxfire complied and swung his arms to the sides while charging dark red energy balls in his hands that crackled with errant bolts of lightning that circled the spheres in chaotic bursts. “Have at thee!” Vonfoxfire screamed as he charged at Arka, sprinting on his toes and whipping the crackling red balls ahead of him.

In front of the fox man stood Arka, who nimbly spiraled away from the balls of energy and fired blue circles back at the fox from his rifle. The slow moving rings hummed through the air and were easy to evade, but once Vonfoxfire got within range, he pressed a button on his coat, and a sonic pulse shot out of a small device on the bulky coats front in all directions.. Once the pulse reached Arka, the mandalorian grasped at his head and writhed in pain. “Fierfek Aruetii!” He screamed in pain and anger before tapping some sequences into his gauntlet and appearing to have sealed his helmet from outside influence.

By this time Vonfoxfire had closed the distance between the two sparring partners and he jumped high and latched onto Arka’s shoulders, clinging onto the back of his neck and unceremoniously hammering away at the helmet with his balls of energy. The dome of the helmet easily dissipated the harsh red energy and showed no signs of damage to its surface other than scorch marks.

“FALL DOWN!” VonFoxFire screamed at his mount as he continued to bash Arka’s head relentlessly with energy spheres. He screamed at the mandalorian in frustration until he yelped as he was grabbed by the sides above the hips and lifted up and off the armored shoulders of the man below, and simply lobbed him onto the ground discombobulated. “OOF!” grunted the grey and black fox as he impacted the malleable soil. Quickly he jumped up and whipped a gadget out of his coat that he pointed at the mandalorian and fired it into his chest. An aura of blue energy erupted from the impact zone and swallowed the armored man behind him and slowly began to compress him into a smaller size.

“Fierfek!” hollered the eight inch warrior as he shrank further. Vonfoxfire then released the trigger once the Mandalorian was around three inches tall. Strolling over to the warrior with a cocky smile he vent over and picked up the green and black man.

Or he would have if that very miniman was on his snout slashing and no way at his snout with his two gauntlet swords.

Snarling and swatting Arka away, the fox dictator recoiled several feet, bleeding heavily from a rather nasty gash in front if his eyes. Vonfoxfire quickly grabbed a small flask like container and poured a thick dark grey sludge onto the wound to seal it up. In the few seconds it took for the nanites to reconstruct his flesh and bone that the little man had sliced off, he had lost sight of him in the green grasses. Standing back up and snarling viciously, Vonfoxfire pulled out a scanner from a pocket near his chest. Just before pressing the on button, the little warrior appeared on his head. Apparently having circled around behind him while he was distracted by his wound. The small man then started pulling on the hair on top of the fox's head and irritate him. Once again lowering his head and shaking violently to dislodge his passenger, Vonfoxfire continued to snarl like a rabid beast. Now the head was shaking, Arka had a clear shot to the pockets being flashed when the coat bullowed. Jumping down, he timed his effort perfectly and landed in the same pocket as the shrink ray. Pointing it at the coat pocket wall, he fired and jumped out. “Hold on- you sneaky little-!!!” was all Vonfoxfire could say before he plopped into the ground roughly, right in front of Arka who stood triumphantly over him, in a comical and dramatic pose, rifle aimed at the center of his head. Then a blue circle erupted from the end of the weapon and all went dark.

As the lights began to sting the eyes of the fox, he grumbled inaudibly. “You put up a great fight. I almost lost! Oh, and that was a great use of your shrink ray gadget too. I've never fought an opponent like you.” Arka said from nearby. Reluctantly Vonfoxfire opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. He was surprised that they were perched on the counter of the ship's kitchen, still tiny. Selia was visible in the workout area doing push ups and murmuring to herself.

“Why are we still small?” Vonfoxfire grumbled to the man nearby. To answer this, Arka rubbed the back of his helmet and shrugged. “I'm not exactly a genius, I didn't want to mess with that shrink ray and accidentally break it or make us smaller. So I just waited for you to wake up and do it yourself.” he replied uneasily. “Fine. I'm just glad you’re no Gary Stu.” Vonfoxfire replied in a snooty manner as he began to stand up. To his surprise, an armored glove was extended, taking it in his hand it hauled him to his feet. The two men stood staring at each other, well, one to the visor. Shivering with the unease caused by the voidcast, Vonfoxfire pulled out the device from his coat and flipped a few switches. “There. Now we can just grow back to normal.” Vonfoxfire said before shooting Arka in the chest again. This time however, a green aura surrounded the armored figure and he began expanding in all dimensions.

Sitting on the counter now that they had been returned to their full sizes, both men stayed silent for a time. Then the two looked at each other and laughed in comradery. “Nothing like a good fight to start getting a bond set up eh?” Arka asked.

“I admit, it was fun. A bit painful when you gored my snout but fun overall.” The mad scientist dictator replied.

Over several days and sparring sessions, Vonfoxfire began to respect the warrior and his allies more and more. But he still had a mission to find artifacts and uncover the secrets of the ancients.

Several days later, and several painful bruises and sparring sessions that left both men panting in the marshy grass afterwords, the group had become aware of an unspoken respect for their skills. Through this new respect, the four eventually became attuned to each other and could think like a pack. One stimulus would elicit the exact same reaction from the entire group and they attuned themselves to the others nearby enough to pick up their thoughts through breaths over a commlink or a small movement that would be unnoticeable to any other person or creature. The group, now armed with a modest level of trust, finally broke enough metaphorical ice to begin discussing their task in earnest.

“So fuzzbutt, you’ve been aching to ask us something for a few days now. Spit it out before you choke on it.” Arka stated abruptly over lunch after a particularly intense sparring match between the three humanoids in a free for all match that used mock explosives and an old Jedi training sphere that had been a little bit of a pet project for Selia as of late. The old globe was in quite a state of disrepair when they recovered it from a salvage ship that had picked a fight with their comparatively small vessel when they passed by a space station that acted as a temporary hub for the salvage op in that sector. Selia had found the little bot in one of the many salvage crates in their ship when the A’tin popped itself onto the docking ring after disabling the scavver ship that had attacked them as a target of opportunity, only to grossly underestimate the capability of the small vessel.

“You are a capable group and I need some people to help me recover those ancient artifacts that I mentioned before. The many probes I sent out either found nothing or never reported in. So, I decided to come out here myself to see what is causing the mayhem with my discovery forces.” Vonfoxfire said. “What's in it for us if we help you unearth these dusty relics?” Arka asked the vulpine. “I can pay you with technology and weapons if you please, if not I can give you some combat robots from my base.” replied Vonfoxfire calmly. “Seems fair to me. I'll help.” Arka decided as the two men shook hands and sealed the deal. That was too easy. He has to have something planned. Vonfoxfire thought suspiciously.

Later that day the group sat in the ship as it cruised through an asteroid field and wove through the several massive lumps of rock and metals. The lazily spinning ship twirled and ducked around doznes of asteroids and comets with the little rocks peppering the navigational shields with a constant dink and plink sound in the background noises of the ship. The impacts barely audible over the low humming from the engines and the small talk in the cockpit.

“Over the years I’ve found many pieces of evidence that all point towards a schism in the ranks of the ancients that led to a pair of factions brawling it out with the inclusion of the subordinates and subjugated species that they held clout with.” Vonfoxfire said. “Sounds like a clan dispute to me.” Arka commented flatly. “Don't interrupt or I’ll fry your tongue with an errant discharge by accident.” The fox man sneered with displeasure of being interrupted. With that Arka looked over his shoulder and shrugged dismissively. “Sure, sure, I’ll be quiet for now.” he mumbled to placate his passenger, Selia bristled silently however. “Now, where was I, Oh yes, the ancients then made something that wiped out both factions almost completely and then disappeared as quickly as they appeared. The trillions of dreadnaughts and innumerable other vessels cleanly destroyed and planets obliterated in a manner of minutes.” Vonfoxfire continued. “They all disappeared and left a few pieces of their technology behind, just enough to jumpstart several civilizations into the space age from tribal villages and such. Their minions that survived the war also either joined other civilizations or were absorbed by force. All in all, there’s not too much technology left to go around nowadays. That’s where you come in. Were going to take some from other empires and maybe find some of our own.” Vonfoxfire finished.

Arka looked over at Selia and then to Fang under the chair of the cockpit. After a moment, he looks back up to the fox. “Sounds fun, we’re in.”

Several days of discussion and deliberation with some more lessons of the ancients, the A’tin drops back into realspace just in front of the asteroid field where Vonfoxfire’s ship was left. “Detecting IFF of the Shimmer. We’re about a minute out.” Arka reported as they approached the large rocks. “Good. I'll need the scanning equipment on board if we’re going to be hunting down the old tech.” Vonfoxfire said with a hint of contempt. I'll need as much equipment as I can get and I obviously can't do that on the mandalorian ship. What was it, a teen? Whatever. Sensors, radar, and so on.

Ka-chunk

Pshhhh

Click

Bang

The noisy return of Vonfoxfire and his newly hired guns echoed through the cluttered ship like a tomb. “We're ho-ome! “ Arka hollered into the vacant vessel as he held the airlock door open for Selia and Vonfoxfire. The latter one scowled at his attempt of humor. The group quickly shuffled into the cluttered chambers of Vonfoxfire’s fancy shuttle. The A’tin was just around a third larger than the Shimmer if you counted the wings on both vessels, but the A’tin was greatly superior in the weapons department, making Vonfoxfire think about an upgrade from his two dinky front guns.

Now that the small group of warriors stood fully in the Shimmer, Vonfoxfire marched ahead and accessed a console. As soon as the dull click of the button was heard, a shield encompassed the green and blue armored figures before shrinking into a cocoon around them. As the pair of warriors began to struggle, Vonfoxfire looked over his shoulder, and grinned as he pressed another button on the console. With that button pressed, the mandalorians convulsed in agony as electricity raced over the armored plates as steam roiled off their bodies before they both blacked out.

Arka gasps as he regains consciousness in the pitch black. “Fierfek! Ah!…” The searing pain lancing through his arms prompt arka to stop moving as the electrical discharges shoot through his body like worms thrashing beneath the skin and muscle. The fierce burning caused Arka too look behind him in a vain attempt to see what caused the undesirable feeling. Glowing dimly in the black was a small band of light blue cords wrapped around his wrists like handcuffs.

“There you are! I thought I had set off that little firecracker in your skull for a bit.” a staticky voice chimed from the e darkness condescendingly.

"Listen closely, your friends will stay with me until you find and secure what I'm after. Anything getting in your way is expendable, or else your friends here get a few more rounds with that lovely joy buzzer you were so fond of. I wonder how many times they'll survive it? It doesn't matter. Your equipment is on your ship through the door. Don't mess with that pod, it's only clinging on the hull so if that seal pops, your in vacuum. We will speak more later." And with that, the binders on Arka's wrists lost power and clanked onto the floor in the pitch black chamber.

The door to the pitch black room opens in a fraction of a second, bathing the disoriented warrior in searing light that burned the vack of his eyes. Squinting and raising his forearm like and sun visor, Arkansas crawled back into his home, the A’tin.

“This is the place. Just another dirtball. Large concentration of refined metals in the Northern hemisphere and Anda couple power signatures. That's probably my destination.” Arka mumbled under his breath while remembering the ominous instructions given to him by the traitors fox passenger who had now abducted his friends. “Selia and fang had better be safe out there.” Arka threatened the camera drone hovering beside him in the other seat in the small cockpit. “But of course. As long as you actively search and secure the artifacts you need and don't stall or disobey my instructions, your friends will be returned unharmed. Maybe even better than they were!” the tinny voice responds from inside the armored chassis of the drone. The voice of Vonfoxfire. The voice of a fox man who was cunning and undoubtedly willing to go through with any threats he stated. “You do realize that you've blacklisted yourself from any repeat business from us when this whole fiasco is over and done with right?” the borderline menacing and joking tones in Arka’s voice were a unique little quirk of his personality that had become more and more common as the drone kept observing arka through and cold and soulless lense to the man who had abducted what little family the warrior still had after his original family was wiped out like vermin. As this realization hit home in Arka’s head though, a change occurred.The memory of the scene was the equivalent of drowning and fire in napalm. Growling quietly, another comment arose from the blackmailed mercenary.

“Now, I've arrived at your little archeological dig site and it certainly looks like something large and artificial was there before getting utterly shagged.” Almost instantly, a small message appeared on the console and instruments of the ship's cockpit. Opening the message, a descent vector expanded. Sighing and mumbling a select few curses, Arka plugged the pattern into the navigation and the view screen suddenly popped up an augmented reality view of late rectangles for him to fly though to safely descend into the planet's atmosphere and approach the now visible metallic behemoth.

Far below, the planet burned with lava bubbling and black scorched rock pillars reaching up like gigantic finger bones charred pitch black and clawing out of the molten grave to kill anyone who saw it. However, on a dramatic cliff overlooking the spires sat a massive box of metal. An ancient dreadnaught. The massive warship clearly bore bore the damage expected of a ship that had need exposed to violent tectonic shifts and liquid rock splattering across it from all sides for millions of years. The massive metal behemoth loomed hundreds hundreds of meters tall and land thousands long, a testament to the engineering capabilities of the ancient race that constructed it.

As the A’tin landed nearby a broken airlock, the armored warrior stepped out of the comparatively miniscule ship wearing the standard green and black armor, but different gauntlets. The current load out and kit carried now was the JT-12 Jetpack, armor, six thermal charges for specifically stubborn doors, a cutting tool, and special heat proof shields that could be turned on for a short period of time every now and again before and gain considerable recharge time. Feeling confident enough, Arka strode forward towards the metal monster that loomed high above.