I think that they began to accept me. I became a respected member of
their team, and they treated me as an equal. We got along, and I was as
skilled as they were. I thought of Commander Falconer, Commander
Richardson, and Captain MacDane; I almost missed them. But they had made
so many mistakes - now was my time to shine. This was the reason why I
had come to Mars. To explore. Falconer had lived his dream, as had
MacDane and Richardson. Now I was living mine.
So it happened
one day, while we were cruising near the Tnassa Mountains, that an X7
swooped down in front of us. We came to a halt, and the X7s wings
fizzled out. The forcefields linked, and a man slid out from the
vehicle. Flynn, Kruncher, and I went out to meet him. He was tall, thin,
and had a Taphrium Sniper Rifle slung over his back. He held out his
hand first to Flynn, then to Kruncher, then to me.
"My name is
Sitfig," he nodded to Flynn. "I see you are a brave little band of
warriors. But really, you don't stand a chance." Kruncher shoved him
back.
"Oh what, and you do?" he growled.
"Get off me!" Sitfig snapped. "Listen, I know what you're looking for. Wilder Frederiksen."
"Frederiksen's dead," I sighed. Sitfig laughed.
"You see? YOU SEE? This is why you don't stand a chance. Frederiksen's not dead, he's just injured, okay?" I was taken aback.
"If
this is true," I said. "We could be in very great danger." I turned to
the hunter. "Sitfig, if you can, lead us to Frederiksen. We could take
him out together." Sitfig burst out laughing again.
"Are you joking? You're crazy - Frederiksen has over twenty battlecraft. How many would we have? TWO!"
Flynn interjected quickly.
"This
tank has the strength of ten, and Frederiksen's main vehicle is the
hovercraft. We should be able to easily defeat him." Sitfig pondered
this for a moment, then grinned.
"Okay, Captain Flynn. Let's do this.
But we must take inventory. I have a lot of long range high power
weapons. You seem to have much of the opposite. If we combine these
strengths, we should be able to take them out." I smiled.
"Then my revenge will be complete..." Kruncher asked me what I meant, but I just winked, and strolled back to the ship.