Inhale. Hold. Exhale.

Cabre closed one eye, looking through the sight of his sniper. He’d been tracking his target for weeks now and they had finally separated from their group. It was now or never. He watched the dust cloud stirred by the moving speeders disappear into the distance before he fixed his sight back onto the lone person clipping together the straps of their bag. He adjusted his aim and just as they hoisted their bag over their back and turned ever so slightly towards him, he squeezed the trigger. Not a moment later, he watched the individual drop to the ground. Without hesitation, he stood and folded his weapon in on itself, clipping it to his waist as he slid down the sand dune he’d been using as a perch.

When he arrived, he rolled them over, inspecting their features closely before pulling up an assignment log on the screen built into his bracers. As he looked it over, he pressed two of his fingers firmly into her neck, just under her jaw. He let out a small sigh of relief as the gentle thrum of her heartbeat pulsed against his fingers. The energy bullets he used weren’t meant to kill people, only incapacitate them. He’d learned the hard way that not everyone could withstand the force and power of them. He’d never made that mistake again.

“Female, short blonde hair, pale skin. I knew it.” He muttered.

Before long, he had her restrained and, with the help of his raionite carrying cords, had her strapped to his back. Pressing a few buttons on his bracer, the screen switched from his assignment to a map, pointing him in the direction of camp. With an annoyed grumble, he noted the distance he would have to travel to make it back, and set off. Why was it that The Legion could efficiently send soldiers to their assignments using the warp pads, but couldn’t bring people back? He was honored to be a Raptor, but was growing increasingly frustrated with how far his assignments often sent him compared to lower-ranking members. Granted it might have been easier if he’d been able to pass the speeder initiation class. Everyone made driving them look so easy, but he’d never gotten the hang of it. Sure, they’d accommodate by giving him the raionite carrying cords, but it didn’t lighten the load any. They just made it less awkward. Thankfully, he’d done this enough times to track his targets until they got as close to camp as he figured they would reasonably get.

The trip back was about three hours, so every hour or so he made sure to stop to sedate his target again, just in case. During his first mission, he’d made the mistake of not stopping to make sure his target remained unconscious after the effects of his stun bullet wore off. Typically, they lasted an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the person - and he’d been told that. He’d had to wrestle the person to the ground after they wriggled themself free of the restraints and started to make a break for it.

Camp Primary was about the size of a small town. It was no Foolshope, though he’d never actually been to the great city so for all Cabre knew people were just exaggerating. It was completely surrounded by a wall of scavenged metal and wood with two sets of large gates on either side. Cabre raised a fist and knocked before taking a step away from the wall. Not long after, the crude shrieking of metal grinding against metal echoed out as the gate slid open just enough for a single individual to file their way out. The man was well-built and wore the traditional uniform for Legion soldiers, complete with the hat and everything. Cabre pulled his sand goggles down around his neck and looked up at the taller soldier.

“Please inform the Patron that Raptor Three has completed his assignment and is ready for evaluation.” Cabre said, brushing a loose light brown lock away from his face.

The soldier gave Cabre a once over and quickly ushered him inside before closing and locking the gate behind them. As Cabre made his way over to the inspection office - it was more of an open tent than an office to be honest - he noticed the guard making his way towards the center of camp.

‘Good.’ Cabre thought. ‘Maybe once the Patron has his precious Celestial, I can move on to other assignments.’

The tent wasn’t particularly crowded today, a fact Cabre was grateful for. It meant he didn’t have to wait to have the weight of his target removed. Almost as soon as he stopped walking, a pair of common guards made their way over to him and helped him unclip the target's restraints from the carrying cords. Carrying the woman’s weight between them, they stopped and looked to Cabre expectedly.

“Assignment code 848.” He relayed to the two, unclipping his sniper from his belt.

With that, the two rushed off, carrying the woman to where she’d be held until the Patron was ready to see her. Though Cabre did work directly under the leader of the Legion, he was only a direct operative. He was never given any specifics. He didn’t know why the Patron wanted the Celestial so bad and, to be honest, he didn’t care. He figured it was because the last Celestial was the only one that could access the so-called Oasis, which held a wealth of resources. Who wouldn’t want to be the first to get to that?

He set his weapon down on the table in front of him, pulling it out to its active position to be inspected. With it, he placed his three different cases of ammo, his leather bag, and the hunting knife he had strapped to his thigh. Then he moved on to the next section of the tent where he hung his goggles and sand cloak for cleaning. He dusted off his uniform, finding himself as thankful as always that the Raptors uniforms were dark reds with blue accents. He’d always found the traditional uniform to be less than attractive with its earthy greens and browns.

After double-checking his pockets and boots for anything that might need left behind, he continued on through camp making his way past larger tents occupied by various people. Some were waiting on food, others were waiting on their blades to be sharpened before they left camp again. Then, the tents started to get smaller. Here, the tents were gathered into little communities, one might say. Some were smaller than others but there were no more than 10 tents in any one huddle. The smallest were pairs simply set up opposite each other. He stopped in front of one said pair made up of one taller tent constructed from a light tan cloth and the other, a lean-to made of a similar fabric. Under the lean-to, a person lay with her feet crossed and her eyes closed, napping. Next to her, a blanket had been wadded up and tossed to the side by where her boots sat.

Cabre sighed and made his way over to her, gently kicking her feet. As if she hadn’t really been sleeping, she slowly opened an eye, glaring slightly at Cabre.

“What do you want?” She grumbled, stretching her arms out over her head.

Cabre gave her a look of disbelief, resting his hands on his hips.

“Why do you insist on using my tent, Yvonne?” He scowled. “Yours is perfectly fine.”

Yvonne sat and raised her knees, resting her elbows on them as she placed her hands under her chin. Her hazel eyes sparked and a smile widened across her face as she replied.

“It’s just such a nice day, I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

Cabre rolled his eyes, chuckling slightly. He reached a hand down in an attempt to flick her forehead, but she leaned back, swatting at his hand as he did. Then she stood, flicking her dusty red braid over her shoulder as she gave herself a good while to stretch her limber form, grabbing her shoes as she did. Compared to most of the other soldiers, she didn’t look quite as strong, just like Cabre. But the two of them knew better than anyone that they were some of the strongest soldiers in the Legion. How else would they have earned the high-ranking positions of Raptor Two and Three. For as long as he’d known her Yvonne had been smart, witty and, at times, annoying, but what were siblings if not bothersome. He didn’t mind, though. His twin was the only family he had, other than the Legion, but that didn’t really count.

Boots in one hand, Yvonne walked past Cabre, playfully smacking the back of her hand against his chest as she did. She looked over her shoulder smiling as she looked at him.

“You hungry or what?” She asked, walking backward towards the larger tents Cabre had passed on his way here.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” Cabre said, a smile creeping over his face as he followed his sister through camp.