Desperation

It was cold. Very cold. Janek's breath came in long, steamy plumes that wisped up and away, threatening to give away his position to the three Spangelend mercenaries, covered head to toe in armor and snow-white winter gear, crunching their way through the snow. A snap of a twig, the flutter of wings, and everything stopped.

Janek held his breath. The mercenaries stopped dead, slowly sweeping the landscape rifles-first. A bird suddenly darted from the brush, and though one of them snapped their attention to it, they did not fire.

Too professional for that shit, Janek thought. The silence gave him a chance to orient himself, picking up the minutae of the sounds of the world around him, hearing the breathing of the three, the heartbeat of a squirrel nearby, then the snow being crushed underfoot as they continued to advance. They were off his trail just enough that they would pass him, he figured, though one was just far enough from the others, probably scanning their rear, that they might notice his hiding place if he waited too long.

His now snow-covered pistol, a rough steel beast of a revolver with an octagonal barrel, was already cocked and ready to fire, but he had to wait for the right moment or they would catch him between shots, and sitting as he was, legs splayed out before him, solid on his butt in the snow, he didn't have much in the way of options in moving silently.

Janek suppressed a sigh. Life had taken a very unfortunate turn in the last few months, dragging him from assignment to assignment, each leading his employer, step by step, closer to their goal, their goal which he had destroyed in a fit of insight at the last moment. The orb was dangerous in anyone's hands, stealing it would have just prolonged the inevitable. He had put two rounds into the thing and it exploded, immediately, spraying the room in shrapnel; he had gotten the worst of it, really, leaving him alive but mangled. His boss died immediately, the lucky bastard, as had Zeke and Polly, who didn't deserve their fate but hadn't seen the danger of the orb.

Janek resisted the urge to rub at his muzzle, a network of scar tissue now, as the mercenaries closed the gap. Finally the first one walked past the rocks he sat behind, sweeping before him but not turning. The second one came into view and turned to check behind the rocks.

Janek slid to the side, hitting the ground hard, and fired twice in rapid succession, the first round hitting low, landing flat on the armor of the second merc, the other one clipping the top of their helmet and snapping their head back. Janek shifted his weight to roll to the side and fired a third time, taking the merc square in the neck and killing them just as the point-man turned and sprayed fire in the general direction of the shots; one round hit the snow by Janek's head, while another made solid contact with his thigh. Janek took a fourth shot while kicking off the rock, propelling himself away from the incoming fire; his bullet was true, taking the point-man in the face, shattering his jaw and dropping him instantly.

Before he could react the third soldier, who had come around the far side, fired, narrowly missing Janek's head but not his shoulder, the bullet passing through and into the ground; Janek rolled with the impact, shoving the fresh wound into the snow to bring his pistol to bear and firing the last two rounds, both taking the remaining merc in the chest, knocking him flat onto the ground. Janek's leg refused to do as it was told but he pushed it on anyway, kneeing himself up off the ground and lunging at the prone merc before they could get up.

When it was over Janek pushed himself off the dead merc's chest, the blood on his teeth and fur stark contrast to the white around them. He finally allowed himself a deep, wracking breath, the pain coming to the forefront, and the suppressed sigh came out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janek Orz, born ∄24,957, 37 years old. Created at the Tal Mayloth facility in Nevostok, genetically derived from human and European lynx stock, raised at the facility and highly educated to act as a bodyguard and covert agent for one Shigeharu Ko, a business mogul with a penchant for collecting rare artifacts by stealing them from other people. Ko also bought two other products of the facility, Ezekiel Marin, black rhino, and Pollyanna Firth, water vole, as a package deal; the three of them had no choice in the matter. The fact that Ko treated them like people and not property was a blessing, not the norm.

Normally quiet and outwardly friendly, Janek is prone to violence when stressed, lashing out when pushed; he spends a lot of his free-time in introspective meditation, which is just starting to help. He tends to trust easily, though recent events have caused him to begin to see/suspect treachery where none exists.