It was the splendid view that only a proper battlefield could provide. Smoke, bodies, explosions and flashes like happy summer fireworks. A brilliant blue blast ripped through the air from the desert and just evaporated one of their control towers. That had been pretty dope, but he didn't have time to get distracted. He'd start falling any second now, so he had to take a quick scan of the fighting. He followed the path of the blast with his rifle to see some guy clad in blue at the end of it. He considered taking a shot but weighed his chances of surviving a fight with someone that could do [i]that[/i] and found himself wanting. One close brush with death today was enough. So he swiveled around to search for easier prey.

He found a few potential targets before something in particular caught his eye. Some sort of valiant human drama was occurring over by the resistance dropships, and who had decided to crash that party but his eager new friend. He was about to turn away from whatever carnage was about to ensue when the woman was struck by a hail of laser fire and set off toward it. Intrigued, Richard followed her path to a bunch of soldiers that he hadn't seen before. Camouflaged commandos, arranged in a defensive formation around...

Oh my. What was that? He zoomed in and focused on it to confirm that he wasn't just seeing things.

He fell just as the group was reforming to meet Darquesse's charge. He boosted a few times to try and kill his momentum, but the shock of his impact with the ground rattled the inside of the cockpit. "Again, again!" He said, and his men seemed to sense the urgency in his voice and quickly got back into position. Once more Richard was cast into the air, this time with a target in mind.

He spotted it in the thick of them. There were certain tell tale signs of camouflage, small little inconsistencies with the surrounding environment that stuck out to someone who know what to look for. Richard had fought in Arizona. He knew what to look for.

There were lots of reasons to sneak on the battlefield. Some important. Some not so important. A bunch of soldiers sneaking with [i]something[/i]? Something that requires more than one set of hands to carry from the look of its size? That was super important sneaking, and it was super important that your cargo remain hidden. Otherwise you would put it in some kind of transport. So the question was, what was it? A jamming device to be activated at a critical moment? Some sort of teleport beacon to beam a million extra troops right to the battlefield? A bomb sufficient to take out the whole fortress once they got it inside? Oh, Richard so hoped it was a bomb.

He found them again on his way up. Two people were standing their ground against Darquesse while the rest seemed to be beating an organized retreat. He searched until he had the cargo in his rifle sight again. For a moment he wondered whether or not he should take the shot now just in case it was a weapon and Darquesse was caught in the blast. After all, she was responsible for leading him to it. He decided to com her. 

"Thanks." spoke the little bead on her jacket.

In this way Richard soothed his conscience at the zenith of his ascent. There, in the moment of stillness between ceasing to rise and beginning to fall, Richard held his breath, focused his aim, and took his shot.

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