Their troubles began the second they reached the pavement. In hindsight, maybe they should have paid closer attention to the little boy that gasped upon sighting their intimidating figures, but at the time, they didn't take him very seriously at all. 

They were used to occasionally encountering an adventurous youngling out past curfew to try and catch a glimpse of an Enforcer patrolling. Jabic took the lead after the incident. Standing at over six feet in height, he was quite a bit taller than Chorlak generally were, allowing him to spot any further potential witnesses more easily.

When they reached the storage tower, a thick fog had settled across the surface of the planet. No matter. They knew the tall chrome hexagon as though the blueprints were seared into their minds. 

The building was more secure than most, not because of the food stores- a Chorlak citizen's belly was never empty- but because of the meetings that happened on the ground floor. The band of Marred Chorlak had spent a lot of time studying the structure, eventually finding the perfect way, possibly the only way, to infiltrate it. 

Jabic leaned face forward against the tall guard wall, his ridiculously large arms bracing him up against it firmly. He nodded to Avaria to signal his readiness but didn't say anything. He rarely deigned to share his thoughts, and whenever he did, he had a knack for doing it in so few words that it was almost an art form. 

Avaria climbed on his back, planted her feet on his hips, and propped her hands up on his shoulders. Gasmi and Korbak helped Tarr pull himself up their bodies, which now served as a makeshift ladder. 

“Avi, are you stable?” 

“Yeah!” Avaria called in response, tightening her grip just a bit more. His feet jammed sharply into her hips as he launched himself from his perch, covering the last few feet needed to grip the top of the wall. She stared up at him as he pulled himself forward enough to sling a leg over the wall. 

He soon sat straddling it, looking back down at them expectantly. Realizing her companions on the ground couldn't see that Tarr was in position due to the fog, she shifted her weight to one arm and pointed to the coiled rope hanging from Gasmi's waist with her newly freed hand. Avaria fidgeted her outstretched fingers impatiently while the woman fastened one end of the rope to a grate in the street and tied a rock onto the other end. 

Finally, Gasmi passed the rock to her, and she chucked it over the wall, sounding a light thump as it hit the dirt on the other side. She watched a second as Tarr skillfully situated himself to climb down the rope before she maneuvered herself off Jabic's back in quick choppy movements, earning an irritated growl from him. She ignored his protests but did offer him a somewhat apologetic pat on the back when she was on solid ground. Having lost the extra few feet of altitude, she couldn't see Tarr sitting atop the wall anymore. 

Maybe if they had been able to see, they'd have noticed the surprise reflected on his face. But they couldn't see, so when the rock tied to the rope came sailing back over the wall, they assumed all was as expected. 

They waited for Gasmi to collect the rope and then cautiously followed the wall to the back of the building, stopping at the barely visible seam that marked the back door. They didn't wait long before the door snatched backward, binging it out of alignment with the rest of the wall, then slid a couple of feet to the side. They all filed into it without a second thought, a bit too comfortable with a strategy that had worked hundreds of times. 

When Tarr looked up at them over the control panel's pedestal, his features were unusually pinched. No one commented on it.

They approached the building together, all looking as far into the fog as possible for any signs of trouble, but tragically lacking the diligence of a person who actually expected to be caught.

They reached the garage-like loading door without incident. Avaria squinted to make out the letters above the access panel, which were changed almost every day. It seemed irrational to go to such lengths to construct a place as secure as this one, and then write the up-to-date code right by the door. However, the language of the hand-written digits was not the Chorlak tongue but rather a standard intergalactic one. Only members of the Oversight could speak languages other than the one native to the Chorlak, so the structure was impenetrable to most residents of Chorlea. 

Avaria wasn't like most Chorlaks. Her father had been a member of the Oversight Board, and he had disregarded the law to teach her not one, but four common languages. Her very existence was illegal, so the ability to speak unauthorized languages really made no difference. The skill rarely served her in life except for this one task, where it was absolutely necessary.

She pushed the vocal input button firmly. 

“Access 88923.” 

The syllables of the tongue most common amongst humans felt awkward in her mouth, her tongue not used to forming them. The voice reader didn't seem to notice the slight whistle that snuck into her voice. A barely audible whir echoed into the night as the door started to slide upward.

Her stomach rumbled quietly in anticipation. She was too eager to wait for the door to open entirely and instead chose to duck under it. She blinked a couple of times to adjust her eyes as the light clicked on, barely glancing at the empty loading room before heading for the hallway door. 

“Stop!” Tarr hissed, grabbing her elbow. 

“What's up with you?” Her raised eyebrow accentuated her indignant tone. “You've been wound up since we got here. Relax.” She patted him on the bicep lightly, as if that simple act would rid him of tension.

 Of all the Marred, Tarr was the least drone-like. Although his face rarely ventured too far from the blank expression that Chorlak spent the majority of their time wearing, she knew that beneath it was a person more tender than most of the others. 

Perhaps there was a bit more to everyone than their sour faces made it seem like, but Tarr couldn't hide his thoughts as well as the rest of them had learned to. Occasionally, he would even hint at a smile when Avaria said something particularly witty. Still, he usually managed to hold up a strong, confident expression, but at the moment, barely stifled signs of discomfort were tugging at his features.

Tarr huffed and glanced around to find the others were now staring at him, also awaiting an explanation with varying levels of annoyance. Avaria pulled her elbow free as she turned to face him, her eyebrows lifting even further as he neglected to answer.

“Well?” Korbak probed, his tone testy. 

Avaria cut her eyes at him, but quickly fixed them back on Tarr to see how he'd respond. He growled slightly under his breath but didn't push back against the younger Chorlak's snappiness. “We can't go that way, not tonight.”

The hallway led into the conference room, where the group always took the elevator up to the food storage floors. 

“What exactly are you omitting, Tarr? You're not making any sense.” Gasmi's tone was even sharper than usual with her irritation. 

Avaria opened her mouth to voice her agreement, but before she could form a coherent thought, the others chimed in, all speaking at once so that no one could understand the others. If she didn't know any better, she might even think she'd heard Jabic say more than five words in a row. 

She abandoned her attempt to speak, not bothering to stop the animalish growl that formed in her throat, unimpressed with her comrades' lack of focus. She left them to their nonsensical arguing and cautiously crept down the hallway, forgoing Tarr's warning. Nothing seemed out of place, all of the doors were shut, and there were no signs of movement. The hushed, irritated voices faded behind her the closer she got to the conference room.

All of a sudden, she gasped sharply, every muscle in her body going rigid at once. An unexpected, unwelcome voice was echoing into the hall.