“I saw something!” yelled Lady Natalia and fired her laser pistol towards the burning ruined entrance building.

  A fusillade of projectiles hit the building and shattered all the windows of the lower level, spraying glass and splinters of window frames across them all. Lady Natalia screamed as she threw her gun away, waving her furry hands throughout her hair. The assistant leapt back and brought her gently to the ground and checked her for damage.

  “Are you hurt, my lady?” he asked.

  “Worse!” she cried, “All those pieces have ruined my hair.”

  She pulled away her hand and saw some blood,” Ahh! Blood. I’ve been hit!”

  The assistant looked closer and said quietly, ‘My Lady, it is just a small glass cut from when you tried to free your hair.” He pulled out a small bottle from his personal medical kit and sprayed a solution onto the blood, then wiped it away with a cloth. “There, all better.”

  Lady Natalia sniffed and said, “Fine. I’m sitting back here. I can see Sir Nitram for here.”

  She went to the rear of the house, the furthest from the front where all the gunfire was causing so much trouble.

  “I got one!” shouted Sir Nitram in triumph, “Tag it!”

  “We will wait and tag them all at the same time, Sir,” said Solcrend as he continued his fire keeping the Dirtlings occupied. There were a number of them and more continued to arrive. The fire was also getting more concentrated and powerful.

  “Aaargh!” cried the trailing guard who fell back clutching his neck. A projectile had burst right through the armour and the guard lay dead on the floor, blood leaking out of the armour.

  The assistant reached over and tagged him.

  “Pass me his gun!” ordered Sir Nitram, throwing his own gun behind him, “This one is faulty too!”

  The assistant grabbed the guard’s rifle and Sir Nitram’s reloaded spare one and crawled back to Solcrend, placing the spare rifle into Sir Nitram’s grasping tentacle.

  “Sir,” the assistant whispered to Solcrend, “I set his rifle to two energy units.”

  “Excellent,” replied Solcrend, ducking another projectile that hit the edge of the window from which he was firing and taking cover.

  Sir Nitram fired his rifle three times in quick succession and yelled, “This gun is much better. See, three shots!”

  “Another one!” cried Sir Nitram, as he fired two more shots.

  “And take that!” he said as he fired again. Click!

  Sir Nitram looked at his gun, “These guns are useless.”

  He stood up and said to Solcrend, “I have had enough. Let’s go.”

  Solcrend leapt and grabbed Sir Nitram, landing flat on the floor, just as many projectiles flew through the space Sir Nitram had just stood. Relieved, he pressed his communicator, “Matt! We’re ready! Take us home!”

  Nelson’s voice came back through the communicator, “We still have plenty of time if you wish to stay longer?”

  “NOW!” yelled Solcrend as he saw three dirtlings start charging towards the house.

  “One moment please,” said Nelson as he warmed up the Matter Transmission System and pressed the recall button.

  Just as one of the dirtlings leapt through the smashed window and started towards them, the hunting party disappeared.

  “Darn it!” said the ARRG trooper, part of the Boston based team, “Almost had them.”

  “Get off me, you oafs!” Lady Natalia cried out as two other ARRG troopers held onto their struggling prisoner.

  “Look what we got, Sarge” said one of the troopers cheerfully, “and we threw away the blue bracelet as per instructions.”

  Todd, the tough ARRG Sergeant, who was a veteran of multiple tours of duty, looked around at the damage and the struggling FOP prisoner.

  “And what we are we going to do with it?” he asked.

  The troopers looked at each other and shrugged.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  ****

  The HST team had been resting in full battle gear while Sir Nitram’s hunt had been progressing. It had been pretty boring and they had only been able to see the party at limited times between breaks in the cloud cover.

  They quickly awakened when they heard the recall request. When Solcrend had yelled “NOW!” they quickly prepared for action.

  The hunting party materialised in the familiar blue shimmer and Harrick counted. Sir Nitram, two damaged but alive guards, the reporters Sugen and Lurch and four dead guards.

  “Where is Lady Natalia!” he demanded.

  Sir Nitram looked around and said, “She was with us in the house. Isn’t she here?”

  Solcrend stepped forward, “We were being attacked by Dirtling military. We killed many,”

  “I killed many!” interrupted Sir Nitram.

  “And Lady Natalia was taking cover towards the back of the building,” continued Solcrend ignoring the interruption.

  “Let’s go!” said Harrick as the full Hunter Safety Team raced onto the transmission pads. They made the guards escort Sir Nitram off the pads, while the rest of his team dragged off the dead bodies, shoving them to the edge of the room..

  The rings glowed blue and Harrick gestured to Nelson.

  Nelson pressed the transmit button. He and his team were very experienced at this process now.

  The HST team disappeared in a shimmer of blue.

  “Don’t push me!” complained Sir Nitram as he shook off the guards hands, “Where is Lady Natalia?”

  ****

  Harrick and his team materialised directly outside the house and dropped to the ground. Smoke grenades were thrown and Clinton threw up the Silencer 200 drone. All cameras and unsecured electronic gear in the immediate area fused and burnt out.

  Using his life detector calibrated to creatures matching the Dirtlings unique properties, Hendon pointed at the building holding up fingers to indicate eight and behind them indicating eight more.

  Harrick pondered his position. He was now surrounded, but as Hendon like to quote, ‘we’re in a target rich environment’. His mission was to retrieve LadyNatalia, not kill Dirtlings. He turned his communicator to broadcast mode.

  “Attention Dirtlings. Greetings. We mean you no harm.”

  No gunfire started, so that was a good sign.

  “Do not fire. I will approach the building and we will have a nice chat,” harrick said as Clinton stared at him.

  “Are you sure, Sir?” said Clinton, “They killed four Imperial Guards!”

  Harrick looked down at Clinton and said, “You’re right. I will go with you by my side. Stand up and holster your weapon.”

  Clinton’s eyes grew wide and he looked at Hendon for support. Hendon grinned at him and said, “You wanted excitement. Off you go.”

  Clinton gulped and stood up next to Harrick. They walked out of the smoke towards the house.

  Standing at the front of the house was a Dirtling soldier. Harrick could immediately tell by the Dirtlings posture and quiet confidence that this Dirtling was like Hendon. Harrick smiled. He could deal with someone like that.

  “Greetings,” Harrick said.

  “We mean you no harm,” finished Todd.

  “Harrick wrinkled his nose and whiskers in surprise.

  “Yeah, I’ve read the training materials,” said Todd, “I figure you’re here for the princess.”

  “Princess,” asked Harrick, confused, “No, we are here for Lady Natalia.”

  “Yeah,” said Todd, “The princess. We came in the back of the house on our way to hurt your hunting fools and there she was. My boys immediately captured here and threw away the bracelet and communicator as per instructions. No harm done.”

  “May I see her?” Harrick asked.

  Todd moved his head to his men and they brought out Lady Natalia. She only had her main clothes. All her equipment, weapons and gear were not present.

  Harrick looked at Todd with a query in his gaze.

  Todd said confidently, “She lost everything when she tripped. No damage, but all her gear is gone.”

  Harrick considered. A trade of all her gear for a safe retrieval wasn’t a bad deal.

  Harrick gestured to Clinton who stepped forward and held Lady Natalia who gratefully wrapped herself inside his arms..

  “Very good,” said Harrick, “We’ll be going then.”

  The smoke lifted and Todd saw the rest of the Hunter Safety Team looking very dangerous and determined. A peaceful swap looked like an excellent idea.

  Hendon stood and looked at Todd. They recognised similarities and nodded to each other. Hendon knew what a nod meant on Dirt.

  A shimmer of blue and Harrick and his team were gone.

  Tood breathed out a sigh of relief. That went better than expected. If there had been a fight a lot of good people would have died.

  “Sarge, why didn’t we keep the Princess?” said one of the troopers.

  “Didn’t you see those FOPs? Did you you want to fight them? We got a present for the tech nerds and no one else died. Sounds good to me.”

  The trooper considered and remembered the look of confident and restrained violence of the FOPs.

  Todd barked orders, “Now let’s clean this place up and see what else we can find for the tech nerds!”

  ****

  Sugen and Lurch were professionals. All the footage captured was saved on their personal devices so even though the VideoBot 1200 was lost during the retrieval they were able to craft a magnificent story of bravery and adventure.

  Sir Nitram was shown as an excellent hunter, destroying Dirtlings and blowing up flying attack vessels, leading the party on a high adventure. Even Lady Natalia was shown firing her weapons and assisting Sir Nitram. The guards were show assisting, but none of their deaths.

  The Hunting Tours Incorporated marketing team had a bonanza and clips and full - edited - stories were shown everywhere. Sir Nitram and Lady Natalia were praised and invited to all the right parties. Hunting was exciting again and Patter gleefully watched his return on investment increase dramatically.

  But behind the glamour and facade of the special VIP hunt, Sir Nitram’s father, Lord Gubbins was not amused.

  Lord Gubbins was High Chancellor, chief advisor to the Emperor. His son was wounded while on a Hunter Planet that should have been safe. Solcrend and his assistant had already been demoted for poor performance. But the main culprit in this debacle was Dirt. The Non Compatible unimportant creatures of a stupidly named planet called Dirt.

  Hunting Tours Incorporated was an important supporter of Lord Gubbins and he fully supported the civilisational rights to have an outlet for the underlying aggression in healthy directions. The incentives and assistance from HTI was their way of assisting him in that fight for the Federations bedrock principles.

  The Emperor may not be the most clever creature in the Federation, but he was the Emperor. The right advice from Lord Gubbins would see that Dirt was properly admonished for causing his son pain.

  Dirt would pay.