After marching confidently across the river in my EOD suit, I stomped up the hillside with a Panther phaser pistol in hand. A blue blip flashed at the edge of my personal radar in the top right corner of my HUD, growing closer to the radar's center icon (me) as I neared a metal gate at the top of the hill. A red blip also appeared on radar once I got there.
"Sven, stay hidden," I heard Alvin hiss.
I held position at the gate but peeked around it very carefully so as not to present an easy headshot to whomever may have been on the other side. What I saw was an abandoned outpost. A two-story wood and stone tower stood a good forty to fifty meters from where I was. Between the tower and I were two utility supply sheds on the left and right, which formed a sort of courtyard in the middle. Scattered about the courtyard were large barrels of aged blorp, a bunch of different empty cages that might've held slaves or wild beasts, and a stone statue of some apparently important Martian Sentinel.
Alvin had his back pressed against the blorp barrel closest to me. He was already looking in my direction and patted his own shoulder twice with an open palm; a bounty hunter's silent jump for joy. He then pointed two fingers up and to the left, to the source of the red blip on my radar. It was none other than the Terran crime lord, Borris Kalvinov, standing on the roof of the shed located on the right side of the courtyard. He was talking into a wrist device and using his other hand to keep a plasma ray hefted up on one shoulder. He half-heartedly scanned the landscape and with most of his attention on the device. I was able to move up to Norman's position unseen.
"Where's Sithandra?" he asked.
"Back at the crash site. She's in pretty bad shape."
"Dammit... I just got here a few minutes ago myself. Kalvinov has been up there talking since I got here, probably trying to get a ride out of here. Doesn't look like we'll be able to get to him without being spotted. I haven't seen any sign of Feezmo. I'm hoping he died in the crash, but I'm keeping an eye out."
Looking around, I noticed that the second level of the tower was level with the shed roofs. Certain inclines in the terrain also allowed fast access onto the rooftops. Bread and butter floated to the forefront of my mind like some kind of tired mantra, a motivational chant one clings to in the face of utter despair. Perhaps if one of us took Kalvinov head on, the other could climb up the tower and flank him from behind. These types of situations were always much easier when Iktac was around.
Another red blip suddenly appeared on radar. Judging by the gap between its first and second reading, it was moving pretty fucking fast. Something, more intuition than software, told me to turn around and look up. When I did, I wasn't feeling the slightest bit of arrogance. The Reptilian mad scientist known as Goron Feezmo was airborne, with both legs arched back and a repulsion pugil raised high behind his head.
I tried to shout a warning, but for the first time ever, my voice died in my throat. Luckily, my fellow bounty hunter was aware of the situation and needed no further notification as he dived away from the barrel. Now lying on his stomach out in the open, Kalvinov easily spotted Alvin and let loose with the plasma ray.