Prologue

It was quite a foggy morning this day. The smell of humidity permeated ones nostrils. It was actually unusually foggy this morning. The current season of this planet wouldn't allow for the cold and humid air to form, too hot and dry. It was quite some time ago the last time it rained.

Still the few people that mingled around in these foggy wastelands didn't give it a second thought. They had better things to do, like maybe investigating the other smell that lingered in the fog. The smell of smoking bodies and battle.

This was also not quite unusual for the ones that were brave enough to be out here. Everybody was aware of the action that was getting more frequently lately. The never ending war was coming closer, like every now and then. But they were not worried, for it was their livelihood, scavenging the battlefields.

These scavengers were not worried of the danger these places posed. It meant profit, they knew how to go about this. It was all they did, all their meager lives. Too much such opportunities for quick cash in short reach.

This time was not much different than any other time. Body parts strewn around, corpses mangled, burnt, chopped, riddled, incinerated and on the rare occurrence even melted.

Maybe the fog was put there by the will of the world on purpose. Fortunate for the organics in nearby land. The sun unable to reach the dead flesh, for it to begin reeking even more than it already does.

The ground crunched when walking upon it. Almost glassed earth visible at some areas, again shattered by another explosion. The crystallized material mixing with the gravel and the occasional bit of flesh, to give it the telltale sound the scavengers already knew all to well.

The scene was not very observable, but it looked like a transport of some sort had been attacked, it was obvious by the burnt husk of the transporter. That what was left, the only original parts of the vehicle, the modifications still observable. It had been patched up from previous heavy damage. Maybe this particular craft would one day be found fitting, and be fixed up for service, only to again be destroyed. The frames of these things surprisingly sturdy, a burnt husk like this one could often be seen in Bellum's landscapes.

This means that there might be still some nice loot here, whoever won probably too busy to escape with the payload. Everybody here slowly realized, the tension growing in the air. Trust was not very common around here. Especially not in a place like this, at a time like this, within the company of people like this.

The visibility was very lacking and the fog didn't help to relax the current tension hanging in the air. Nobody was fully concentrating on the ground anymore, occupied with locating the fellow opportunity seekers, trying to map them out in their heads to not be in a disadvantageous position in case things went violent.

Finally everybody snapped from their timid states, something exploded in a dull explosion, the sound telling of a thermal imploder grenade. Did someone just accidentally activated it or did someone break in the pressure and decided to attack? It didn't matter, quickly everyone scrambled behind a rock cropping or similar safe cover.

Apparently not everybody made it in time, before the debris and pieces of the unfortunate soul even touched the ground again, a head got popped. The fall of the rest of the body now visible to most, rather than before the explosion. The blast scattering the fog to make a slight clearing. Nobody heard a blaster get fired, brains racking themselves to think of the origin of the very possible threat.

Finn slowly let out his breath, pulling the bolt back to extract the equivalent of a cartridge out of his rifle. Gas escaping with a satisfying hiss from the hydraulic recoil dampeners and the cartridge extraction mechanism. It was a electromagnetic sniper rifle, way more advanced than the Gauss rifles from back home. If you could still call it that, he doesn't remember that much about his life before anymore.

His home was this wretched planet now. It fired a projectile about 6cm long with a spike like appearance. It was almost absolutely silent and fired it's ammo at an incredible speed of about mach 4. Enough to easily and accurately cover the current distance of approximately 3207 meter. Ahhh the marvels of science.

In his mind the perfect long range weapon. An engineering pinnacle of what you were capable around here. Many would surely disagree with him, praising the blaster and it's many variants. He despised them, always inaccurate even at shorter distances. A shot like the one he just made would be impossible to replicate with a blaster rifle. At least as far as he knew, at that meant that he was obviously right of course. He wouldn't waiver away from his opinion. If you believe it, it's true.

He counted 13 left. It would end in either of two scenarios. The first one is that they would mistrust each other too much and in the panic he set up, would then hopefully kill each other. It could very well happen, but its still improbable.

The second one would be him picking them apart one by one, he was prepared to sit still for three days. The weather was much in his favor. He had an advanced infrared scope capable to penetrate the mist, which would eliminate the line of sight from his victims and also make sure that everyone would be picked up by the thing. The difference in the heat easier to detect than the otherwise scorching and humid weather, which would make sniping at distances almost impossible by conventional means.

The low-lives have not yet fired among themselves, sadly they seem to be somewhat intelligent at least. It was time to activate the blaster he set up at the site, to emulate blaster fire among them. A click on his communicator made small streaks of heat visible on the screen of his scope.

Finn adjusted his elbows and shoulders slightly making himself ready and more comfortable, in order to pop some melon shaped organic objects. At this distance the red light was not visible in the fog, neither the sound. It was almost serene. Only a humming sound could be heard from a barely visible unnatural shape on top of the rocky hilltops, it's melody continuing until being interrupted occasionally by a violent swish, click, clack, hiss and a rare almost cute sounding chuckle afterwards.