"Why didn't you tell me you can't throw a punch!?"

"Oh my stars it burns!"

Astra was on her knees, her fingers rubbing furiously at her face. I was yanking off the pants of the human male in front of me and Tempest was assessing the weapon that was used on Astra just moments ago.

She applied a bit of it to her fingertips before sniffing it and recoiling, "Oh shit."

I dusted off my hands, "Is it permanent?"

"It's a dust they used during the war, messes with your vision really bad and makes everything blurry," She grimaced, "It lasts long enough to be really annoying around lets say...a week?"

"A week?!" Astra wailed in response.

"Look," I began unbuttoning my pants "I just don't understand why you would throw a punch at one of them if you don't know how to- Tempest please help me out of these," She dropped the cannister she was holding and helped me shuffle out of the clothing.

"They were going to hit you in the back of the head, I just wanted to help," She explained before hissing and pulling out her hand "And now I have a swollen hand, could be broken even, I think I feel a minor fracture."

"Of course you do," I sighed, jumping a bit to put on the new set of pants "Who even punches with their thumb inside of their fist anyway?"

Tempest put a hand up "Wait don't tell me, you've never thrown a punch before either?"

The plan had meant to work smoothly, the humans came in the morning, right on schedule and Astra and I were waiting on them, ready to ambush. In a way we did accomplish what we needed to but as I was trying to subdue the humans Astra got caught in the battle and had her helmet ripped off and a strange substance sprayed on her face.

Tempest had arrived shortly to congratulate us and was met with a screaming Astra whilst I noticed that I and one of the humans were closer in size and so I was swapping some of my suit parts with theirs.

And stars these pants were so much more comfortable.

Oh, and Astra was in a lot of pain too.

"Someone pass me some water I want to try-" She started to blink viciously "Wait I think I can see again,"

I raised an eyebrow at her lifting her hands in front of her face and switching between widening and narrowing her eyes at them. "Have you checked what's underneath the door?" I asked making Tempest's eyes light up.

She turned around and kicked one of the humans over before grabbing the keys that were on the wrists. "Is the heat getting to me or is everything like super blurry right now?" Both of us ignored her as Tempest approached the latch and flicked it open.

I looked over her shoulder, peeking at it "They kinda look like...controls?"

She ran her hand gingerly over the multicolored buttons and nodded her head slowly "Controls for what?"

I knelt next to her "I always press the biggest green button and hope for the best."

You can never go wrong with green.

"I'm being serious guys you both look like big white blobs to me right now."

I turned to look at Astra and ran my eyes over her face "We can try wash it out later," I offered, walking up close to her. Little black dots were scattered across her face, blending in slightly with some of her dark blue freckles and staining the pale flesh.

I leaned over to her "Come here lemme," I rubbed her cheeks with my thumb, frowning as I noticed how it didn't seem to be moving. I brought it to her mouth "Lick," Her tongue rolled out of her mouth and ran across my finger and I was quick to use the dampness it caused to try rubbing the substance off again.

"Is it smudging?" She asked.

I frowned deeper "Kinda, but we'll definitely need some water to take it all off."

"I think it's a temperature control," Tempest spoke up making us both turn to look at her. "I turned this dial thing and the screen lit up," She explained, pointing at different things " I don't think they can handle Mars temperature."

I glanced up at the sun, "Is it too hot for them?"

"Probably too cold actually," Astra said so quietly I barely heard her.

Tempest slammed the lid closed "That's what they get," She hissed "Living where they're not wanted...taking what's not theirs."

"I don't understand why they would put so much effort to move planets," I found myself subconsciously looking at Astra for answers "What's wrong with their planet?"

Astra blinked at me "Earth?"

"Greedy people don't need a reason to do greedy things," Tempest answered putting her helmet back on "They just do them."

I didn't believe that, and Astra didn't look like she did either. She knew something, something she wasn't telling us. Something that I had a feeling we really should know.

"Well, thats what we're here for aren't we?' I kept my eyes on Astra's who kept takng glances at the sky "We're going to get them to leave."

The white-haired girl snapped out of her trance and looked at me "No, we're going to leave." She corrected me. Tempest crossed her arms over her chest but before she could speak another voice joined us.

"Sergeant Callaway?"

We all broke into a panic and looked around for where the voice had come from, after a few seconds of realizing that there was nothing out here besides us and the unonscious bodies we relaxed slightly. "Sergeant can you here me?"

Tempest raised up a hand at us and shrunk to her knees, flipping over one of the humans and dusting off their wrist. "Sergeant should we open the door?"

I opened my mouth about to warn her about replying when she shook her head sharply and pressed a finger to her lips. Tempest put her helmet back on before pressing the reply button on the human's suit, a voice I didn't recognize then came from her helmet "Sorry for the delay, we ran into a bit of trouble out here but we are alright now, you can open up the door now."

My eyes widened at the sophisticated and almost robotic voice that came from her. "Alright Sergeant, just as long as everything is okay with you and Doctor Mhklali."

I glanced at the other unconcious human who was now bare legged and lying on their face, their back rising ever so slightly every few seconds being the only way of showing they were still alive. Dr Mhklali huh?

Tempest tapped the side of the Doctors helmet and it unclasped revealing their face, she assessed it for a moment before replying "He got a little bit of," She looked at the can that was used against Astra before replying "Mace in his eyes but nothing a good shower won't fix."

The person behind the speaker seemed to chuckle "Happens to the best of us, I'll have the nurse's send him a little something when you guys are back inside," The voice assured. There was a moment of silence where we were left wondering if that had done it and we were answered by the loud sound of the door opening beside us.

Tempest let go of the humans wrist and ripped their communicator of their hand, "You should probably have this on you, Sergeant Callaway," She handed it to Astra "Remember not to use you actual voices at any time, there's a switch on your communicators that will make you sound unrecognizable. You guys won't be in there long enough for people to call you on your bullshit anyway," She assured.

I eyed the brown tanned male lying on the sand and his companion next to him "And the bodies?"

Tempest shrugged "I'll keep them hostage, maybe they'll tell me something useful," She began gesturing for us to get inside the door "I'll talk to you guys if you need me, if I'm ever offline it's probably becauuse I'm hunting but if you're offline, I will assume you're dead," She gave us a pointed look,

"What of my vision?" Astra asked, struggling a bit to put the communicator on her wrist.

I put an arm on her shoulder "Don't worry, I'm a Doctor."

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