The Wild Planes

The Guardians who had fallen asleep awoke slowly but realizing that something was wrong, ignited like hot sparks. One of the Guardian's had trouble sleeping and was sitting on the window ledge, also gazing at the stars, when she heard the loud noise. Li wondered how many others were like him at night, also longing for the great universe above.

"Li! What happened?"

"There was a gunshot outside just a few minutes ago with something howling at the other end. The masked guy went out to check, he told me to wake you two. He said to protect the village and not to go after him if he went missing."

"What'd you mean to not go find him? Is he fucking stupid or something? We're mounting right now, someone go tell the night shifters to stay in the village, they won't have energy anyways. Zhou, come on!"

The taller Guardian began running towards the stables that the masked man had just left, not long ago. The two other Guardians ran after him. 

"Wait! What about me? Should I stay with the night shift?"

The girl turned, 

"Li, come with us, you can share a mount with Imani. Get your armor on though."

Li nodded and ran back to his lodge, his armor suit hung neatly. Struggling, he grasped the leg pieces first, then the main body.

His helmet came last but the sudden amount of physical activity he had to do made him slow. It came to him too that stretching was a necessity before such strenuous work but he didn't have time for that. I guess I'll pay by having a sore body for a week.

Sigh.

Li grabbed the large satchel but accidentally tipped the helmet rack. The chief's daughter awoke at the sound of Li's helmet harshly hitting the ground.

"Li, what- what are you doing? What time is it?" 

"Don't worry, something happened outside, I'll be back soon. Just alert the chief."

Li gave her a kiss then ran off, hopping on the mount of the taller man, who was apparently named Imani. 

"Took you long enough, let's go!"

The three mounts began their journey into the dark wilderness beyond. It was clear that Imani was the leader of this group and he took his role seriously.

"Here's the plan, the mounts can sniff out Aoki's mount so we follow his trail. He is probably not that far right now. Once we see Aoki, we break off. Zhou, you are the assault. You will go directly to Aoki. Nora, you stay on the perimeter and lay down cover if we need any. Li and I have the heavy weapons, we'll take Aoki's role. Everyone clear?"

"Yes sir!"

After around 20 minutes of riding, the first sign of sunlight shone on the plains. Imani's mount had sped up and Li had to awkwardly grasp his shoulder plates so as to not fall off. Something hard hit Li, almost in the head. A few dark shadows flew ahead.

"Oh fuck! It's that avian tribe. Nora, shoot them down, please. Those annoying fuckers. We can't go for an hour without putting these shitty helmets on, can we?"

Three shots confirmed Imani's order. The shadows dispersed, two of them falling to the ground but trouble was not over yet. In the distance, a pack of large shadows were trailing the three mount animals. It was a textbook example of persistence hunting behavior, only this time, they seemed to be a mix between a pitbull and lion twice the size of a male hippo back on Earth. 

"Imani, look over there!"

The group leader squinted in the direction Li was pointing too and cursed under his breath. 

"Migratory Inuraions, they shouldn't be here this time around. Let's hope they don't have their eyes on us"

"Well, we're in a good spot today, they've definitely locked onto us" Nora said from behind.

"Imani, I heard that as long as we maintain a steady pace, the Inuraions won't bother to attack, only when we falter do they begin their attack sequence"

"Attack sequence? What are they, some robots?"

"No, no, it's just the scientific term we used in place of 'getting hungry, going to eat'"

"Well, shit, this isn't good, if we make a wrong move, we're dead"

The sun was now rising, more golden beams shining across the plains, the familiar heat growing on Li's face. Far away, Li could see a growing silhouette, somewhat humanoid, possibly Aoki. 

"Imani, look over there, to the right, yeah."

"Damn, who is that? That isn't Aoki is it?" 

Zhou's mount suddenly halted, almost flinging him off. There was a large trail of blood pointing towards the mysterious figure in the distance. The other mounts had begun whining loudly. Li dismounted and,

Byuun! A large bullet flew by his head, the wind forcing his hair up. Imani shouted and flung himself off the mount, just as an even larger pullet tore through the flesh of the poor animal's internals.

A sharp clang echoed as a chunk of Zhou's helmet flew at Li. Only the girl, Nora, was unshaken now, her rifle drawn, aiming at the direction of the shots.

Byuun! Bushu! Both Nora and Zhou's mounts had been pierced, falling in front of them. While depressing, it at least provided safe cover for the Guardians from the gun fire.

 Imani was busy assembling a larger weapon as Li crawled towards Zhou, who was now bleeding heavily, part of his face missing. 

Searching frantically in his satchel, Li was glad to find a roll of painkiller-dipped wound tape which he wrapped around Zhou, only leaving one hole for his eyes.

The blood was relentless, soaking the first layer in deep red. Near him, Nora was exchanging heavy fire, the empty cartridges flying near Zhou's injured head.

"Li! Take him across that mound over there and get him taken care of. Once you're done, get back over here!" 

Struggling, with the weight and the necessity to crawl, Li pulled Zhou towards the mound. Stopping to catch his breath, he counted down.

On one, he rolled Zhou across, sighing in relief. Whoever had shot at them now had a far greater distraction.

The predator group that had followed the Guardian's were now running head first at this open prey. In any case, they would take care of whoever it was, but what happened after that was another problem entirely. Zhou had begun choking now, the swelling and blood blocking his airway. 

Blood had begun foaming around his lips and he was going to suffocate soon. Li turned him on his side, remembering the basic medical class he had endured back on Earth.

He put his finger in Zhou's mouth, clearing out warm masses of blood. The coughing had stopped and Li hoped that this didn't mean that Zhou was dead. Ripping the armor plate of his chest, Li felt around for a pulse. Zhou's heart was beating. It was going to be alright. 

Rolling back across the mound, Li joined Nora and Imani, both of whom were frozen. Looking down, Li could see that the whole pack of predators had seemed to have been killed. Whoever was down there had dragged their bodies into a large pile, seeming to have forgotten about the Guardians. 

"Fuck this. We've got to retreat. Fuck. What should we do now?"

Li could tell that as strong as he seemed, this definitely was the first major issue Imani had encountered during his career as a Guardian.