Chapter 1

The cold wind breezed through Tyger’s orange, black striped fur, sending little shivers through his muscular body. Good thing his heavy silver armor suit has small heaters to keep him warm enough to complete this mission.

While prone next to his team on the edge of the snowy slope, he looked through his red visor, glancing down at the bottom of the mountain. Below was the entire space pirate campsite, stationed in front of the abandoned mining facility.

Planet Chione was nothing but a barren ice world with zero percent of life. Its deadly cold temperatures could turn water into solid ice in a matter of seconds. But it was a perfect place for a small army of space mutant pirates to build a settlement. Nobody set their eyes on Chione in years, even if it has beautiful mountains, underground ice caverns, and an exotic white landscape.

But the Star Alliance soon noticed their cargo ships were vanishing near Chione. A few mutant space pirates had somehow teleported into Star Alliance territory undetected and probably settled on Chione to high jack the cargo ships. Who knew how many supplies they have stolen for a while. That was why the Star Cats received the request from their admiral to investigate.

After discovering the base, they hid on top of a mountain slope above the valley tall rocky ice mountains near a canyon.

Building the base in the valley was clever. The mountain walls could block the stormy ice winds to prevent the settlement from freezing. The mutes also probably wore heaters to keep their disfigure bodies warm to survive too.

While the Star Cats looked down, Tyger pushed a button on his goggles, activating an enhance visor to get a closer look at the settlement.

“I see him!” he shouted while looking through his visor.

“Where?” Red asked as he rubbed the frost off his red mohawk.

Tyger pointed his claw down at the base. Near a closed hanger building, a green man in a mechanic body was speaking to two guards who wore black snowsuits in hoods. He looked more like a machine with just ahead, covered in flesh.

“That green man covered in tin foil is Snoke?” Red asked after he lowered his visor.

“I thought you saw the photo of his face during our briefing,” said Rila. The snow sprinkled into her long black hair, but she doesn’t seem to care.

“Perhaps too much vodka clouded my mind.”

Tyger rolled his eyes.“You should stop drinking before the job.”

“But comrade, how am I supposed to quit drinking?” Red asked. “It’s in my blood.”

“There is always rehab and non-alcoholic beverages with the same flavor.”

Red stuck his tongue out. “Bah! Those drinks are never the same. I’ll quit when I feel like it.”

Based on his criminal records, Snork’s real name was Erban Kranz. He worked at a mining site on Planet Mars until he got trapped inside a cave during an accident. Toxic radiation got released and he couldn’t escape from it. Although he was rescued, he completely changed and the Star Alliance sentenced him to the Outer Rim. Since then, Snork became a space pirate as vengeance for his exile. He inflicted too much terror on the innocent. Now it was time to put him away for good. But first, the admiral wanted information extracted from Snork’s hardware inside his brain. He knew where other hidden space pirate bases within the Star Alliance space regions. If they could end those bases, then more colonies will be safe.

Maya beamed her feline blue eyes at the camp. “It is interesting how those outlaws infiltrate our space sectors without being detected. Who could theorize how many more are out there?”

“That is what the Star Alliance are afraid of,” said Tyger. “Which is why we have to take Snork alive.”

“So how are we going to capture him?” Maya asked. “He has a lot of guards down there.”

“It would be easy if we kill him,” said Red.

Rila glared at him. “Do you got ice in your ears now? Tyger just said we have to take him in!”

“I am just saying it would be easy to just kill him. That is all. Look at his defenses. Only a mouse could crawl through their camp undetected. Get it? Mouse?”

Rila held up her fist toward Red. “I’ll turn you into a mouse if you don’t-”

“He is moving into the complex,” said Maya.

Tyger paused as he zoomed closer on Snoke through his visor. Maya was right.

After speaking to a guard, the mutant cyborg turned to the door and walked into the hanger. “He entered the structure.”

Red smiled and got up. “Good.”

From his back, he pulled out his big T-225X energy cannon and aimed it down at the camp. “This will make things a lot easier.”

Tyger held up his hand. “Wait-”

Too late.

Red fired one energy blast down the slope. The sparkling ball energy ball hit the watchtower and blew its bottom.

The guard in the tower fell off while screaming his lungs out. The tower fell to the right and crashed into a tank. When the tank exploded, it sent a chain reaction of explosions across the camp. The pirates’ equipment got caught on fire, the guards went airborne from the blasts, and the fire spread all over their stolen cargo. Everything had gone berserk, except the abandoned facility.

Tyger glared at Red as the red mohawk haired lion gave him what the heck look.

“What? You know I enjoy making big booms during our missions,” said Red.

Tyger rubbed his eye sockets. He should have remembered that Red wasn’t great at cooperating with the team sometimes. Red never enjoyed going on stealth missions that don’t require him to blow up stuff.

Well, there goes their element of surprise, but they still have a mission to complete.

“Alright rangers,” said Tyger as he loaded his T-100X blaster rifle. “Let’s move out!”