The Slayer could see his shots penetrate through his target's skin, causing him to stagger, but not fall over immediately. As he fired his second shot, his opponent would dodge, leaping over him with surprising grace. He would turn to try and counter, but his opponent was ready for him as he took out his own pistols and fired upon him. Despite being too late to dodge completely out of the way, most of the bullets were unable to penetrate through the praetor suit's "adamantium-esque" strength. One was able to bounce off the side of the Slayer's helmet, barely missing the glass portion of his visor. Nonetheless, it did cause the Slayer to reel in relative surprise.
But he would immediately retaliate with his own strength. Using his right armored forearm to block a few of the bullets, he would proceed to kick Dante with all of his available strength and fury, attempting to pin him against a building.
As two of the stormtroopers kept their eyes on the tracks - being FN-453 and officer FN-924 - the others formed a circular formation to guard the two guides.
"Keep on guard, men." the officer warned as he peered his gun over the surrounding area,
"Watch for any sudden movement and set your blasters on stun."He needed eyes on the field to make sure they wouldn't be picked off by any surprise ambush. While the tracks indicated only two members, that didn't mean much in the grand scheme of what they looked like and what they've armed themselves with if they are indeed armed. For all they knew they could be either wielding dainty blaster pistols or something like a smart rocket launcher, or even both. And he trees were positioned very close to one another, there were also plenty of bushes or large boulders for someone to hide behind and catch them off guard. They had to prepare for the worst.
As the most cautious of the troops, FN-602 was tasked in covering the rear-left flank. In front of him was the gravelly-voiced, FN-768, who seemed far more relaxed then his comrade behind him. Directly opposite of 602 was FN-149, a quiet-spoken soldier who barely spoke about anything, with flametrooper FS-451 "Scorch" guarding the front-right flank. They had all eyes on the field, yet outside of a few animals ranging from small rabbit-esque creatures to an occasional deer-like creature running back into the bush, they saw nothing else of their quarry.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." FN-602 groaned as he continued scanning.
FN-768 would simply reply back on his direct channel with an annoyed look,
"Stop being such a wuss."602 would look towards the back of his partner's head as if he was insulted.
"We're in unknown territory following these two guys who we only know by footprints!" he answered with a concerned and rapid tone,
"We don't even know what they look like or what they may wield. I mean they~""Shut up..." 768 demanded as calmly as he could be as to not draw too much of their commanding officer's attention before continuing with a sigh,
"You're always so damn paranoid about everything."602 took a second to compose himself.
"Aren't you a little cautious considering our circumstance too? Being stranded on a world you know nothing about and following assets we also don't know about?""Sure we are." 768 acknowledged calmly,
"But you don't see us complaining. If anything you're the most fidgety compared to all of us." He'd because for a minute to check his blaster before continuing.
"Just don't worry about it."It was then when 602 thought to have heard something moving in the bushes as he moved his rifle towards the disturbance. However, he saw nothing emerge.
He made an audible nervous chuckle at his partner's request.
"Heh, easy for you to say.""You're acting as if this is your first assignment on the ground." 768 blatantly assumed.
"Pfft, no." 602 casually let out. Both went radio silent as if 768 was expecting an actual answer. The former would catch on, sputtering initially before saying
"Second."Now 768 was directly looking back at 602 with a snicker.
"Really?" he asked, as if he didn't believe it before turning around to the front,
"Where were you first deployed?"It took a second before 602 answered back.
"It was on~"But before he could say anything, a dark-haired female emerged from the bush just a mere few feet away and dashed towards 602.
"What the~?" the smaller trooper replied before the girl attempted to grab the blaster out of his hand,
"Hey! What are you~? Let go!"Within seconds, the trooper would somehow find himself in a choke hold before screaming as he was flipped over behind her. He landed with an audible thump, losing his breath in the sudden impact with a pained moan. The commotion caused the rest of the stormtroopers to turn to face the girl, with their blasters at the ready.
"Enemy hostile!" the officer announced with a bellowing voice,
"Take her down!"The blaster troopers would begin to fire upon the girl before another figure emerged that resembled a literal walking skeleton. And yet before they could get a good look, they would be blasted back by a powerful galeforce wind, throwing them back by several meters. This prompted the two individuals to bolt out of the area, but their attempts wouldn't put the troopers down for long. FN-768 and the Officer were the first to get up, followed by FN-149 and "Scorch", as the first three began to fire at the fleeing duo. Whether or not they would hit them wouldn't matter however as soon they would find their targets to be out of range.
"Blast..." 768 cursed as he lowered his weapon.
Scorch however began to briskly walk in their directions with a peeved-off expression.
"Damn punks!" the deep-voiced flametrooper boomed as he prepped his flamethrower,
"I'll roast ya'll alive once I've~"The officer would bang him on his chest, stopping him from going on a fury of arson.
"That's enough." he ordered as the two locked eyes with one another.
Scorch seemed to protest his officer's order.
"We can't let those scum get away with this!" he objected as he pointed in their direction.
"We gotta stop them before they bring reinforcements!""Negative Scorch," the officer's tone shifted with a more serious tone,
"They're out of range. They'll be long gone by the time we start advancing."The flametrooper still seemed adamant on going after them before finally accepting the painful reality. He lowered his flamethrower and grumbled as he walked back to the center. Meanwhile, FN-453 approached where 602 was and offered her hand.
"You ok?" she asked him with visible concern.
602 groaned as he grabbed her hand and was slowly pulled back onto his feet.
"Y-Yeah..." he sputtered as he shook his left arm,
"A little shaken... a-and a little outta breath... but I'm, I'm ok. Thanks."FN-453 lightly patted her comrade on the back before returning to the squad leader. The troopers began to huddle around one another to discuss about what they should do next.
FN-453 came up and asked,
"Do we report this to the Supreme Leader?"The officer made a surprised turn towards her, before FN-768 barged in.
"Are you crazy?" he spoke out as if what she said was blasphemy,
"I don't want deal with another one of his hyper-enraged tantrums. Or you know, be killed for what he'd think was the result of our 'incompetence'.""We're the only troops that he has at his disposal currently," 453 explained rather calmly,
"I don't think he would actually kill us.""Well I don't wanna find out either way." 768 answered before rolling his head and sighing,
"He could just... summon more troopers to take our place or something."Just then, the officer held his hand up for the rest of the troopers to fall silent. As soon as everyone stopped, he would point towards the tower that's still seeable in the distance.
"Don't worry about that," he mentioned,
"We still have that tower we can take over."The others glanced at it and began to murmur to one another their thoughts.
"And what if that girl has crazy jedi-like powers up her sleeves?" 602 asked, finally speaking up,
"Or if more guys are hidden within said tower?""Then we'll retreat back," the officer answered as he primed his gun,
"If you're all scared about failing him, then this will be a second chance for us to get results back to him. Besides, once we take that, we could set up a proper command center and help scout around for our next objective. So even if the girl escapes, at least we have something of use for us."Once again, the troopers began to whisper to one another before seemingly agreeing with his statement.
"What are we waitin' for then?" Scorch eagerly asked with an evil-sounding chuckle,
"Let's go raze some hell! One gal against six of us? Better odds of winnin' I think."With seemingly universal approval, the stormtrooper squad proceeded to sneakily head towards the tower in the distance. The only person to have doubts was 602 himself, who shook his head.
"One gal against six of us..." he muttered to himself, mocking Scorch's statement,
"Oh, what can go wrong?"