NationStates Jolt Archive

Hans felt the impact of Kaylinde's attack and was momentarily caught off-guard by her furious attacks. Nevetheless, he regained his control and saw her hatchet kick attack moving quickly toward his torso. With speeds not seen to be possessed by the other Devilish, he reached up and clamped a powerful grip around her ankle and shoved upward with great strength. It would be enough to throw the girl upward in a backward spiral.

He quickly got to his feet and roared. Instantly, the rest of the EXOs leapt from the hiding positions and attacked other members of the patrol group.

Hans squared off against Kaylinde and watched through his mask, as one of the Argonian EXOs came up behind her and clamped his arms around her torso and clenched her in a crushing bear hug. Yet, he did not kill her, as Hans approached and extracted a knife from Kaylinde's belt and inspected the blade. He suddenly flipped it about and jammed it hard into the side of her torso. He drove it so that it would not pierce any organs, but still be enough to cause great pain.

He extracted the blade and threw it viciously at Mathias, before giving the command in the alien tongue, "Move out! Bring her."

Instantly, the EXOs tossed a few grenades into random directions and waited until the explosions rocked the area. They departed and disappeared through the smoke and falling debris. The Argonian EXO kept his grip upon Kaylinde's body, restraining any possible escape efforts.

EDIT ALERT:

OOC: Tanara, check your TGs (Tanaraa)

OOC: <big EFG > Oh. I'm liking this - check your TG's Tarl ...
_______________________________________________

Kaylinde gasped in pain as the Devilsih managed to catch her desending foot. The strength of the grip amazed and shocked her as her ankle was crushed, breaking the joint out both sides. She wasn't sure how, but she managed to turn the throw into a back flip - a poorly executed back flip, but a back flip still the same. The pain flareing up from her right leg upon her ragged landing tore through her, stunning her momentarily.

She started to fall, off balance and shocked, but then something caught her from behind, squeezing in on her lower ribs, flexing them inward almost to the breaking point. This new shock had Kaylinde gasping, her eyes behind the visor of her faceplate wild, a growl chokeing in her throat.

She started to struggle, then froze as the one that was obviously the Devilish leader approached her. A plan was forming...and if he just came close enough...She began to tense her muscles, planning to bring her feet up - or at least the unbroken one - and kick out at him. But the one holding her seemd to sense her intent and squeezed sharply for a moment. Ribs cracked and she froze, gasping for air...The leader tore her long knife from her belt, and held it for a moment. Kaylinde didn't pay too much attention to that, she was too busy trying to convince herself to breathe. She didn't notice the tears of pain running down her face, they weren't important either. Perhaps attention should have been paid to what her enemy was doing with the blade...

A scream of pain ravaged her throat, tearing its way free despite what effort Kaylinde could make to halt it as her knife was savagely thrust into her side. No effort could be made to muffle an agonized gasp when her knife was withdrawn from her body - staying conscious was the important struggle at that moment.

Her senses reeling and darkness closing in about her vision Kaylinde hung limp in her captors grasp.

OOC: Tanaara, check TGs.

IC:
The EXOs moved quickly through the dense forest, dragging Kaylinde behind with them. Soon, they entered a cave far from the scene of the battle and strung the prisoner up with wires that had clamps that bound to the wrists and ankles, stretching them out.

Hans stood in front of the prisoner with his hand in front of him. He watched the armor as it extended on his fingers to a metallic version of sharp claws. With ferocity, he raked the prisoner across her face and chest.

The screams echoed out to the forests far beyond. Unfortunately, they were too far for anyone to hear them...

Fiercely as Kaylinde had struggled, they had over numbered and over powered her. Eventually the Devilishes had stripped her of weapons and armor. They had no easy time of it though having in the end to knock her senseless, leaving her with more injuries to further sap her strength. Those pains were as nothing....

Sharp pain raked her, jarring her to hazy consciousness...trails of fire left by the Devilishes claws as they tore across her face, then the tender flesh of her breasts. It was futile to try and not scream.

At first Kaylinde kept her eyes mostly closed, as if the fine skin of her eyelids could possibly frotect her eyes fron the monsters razor edged claws. Then she forced them open - she wanted her tormentor to see the utter contempt and hatred in them for the thing that was less than a man

___________________________

OOC: Tarl, check your TG's

Hans paused his torture and studied the eyes of the woman glaring back at him. She was strong, despite the deep slashes across her face and torso. She had guts, and had he not been so brainwashed by the Devilish technology, he would've complimented her.

She lowered her screams of pain to whimpers, yet still kept her hatred aimed at him.

Hans stared at her from behind the mask and armor.

She spat at him.

Hans stared some more, studying her.

Then, with an unexpected action, the face mask hissed and shifted, before suddenly wrapping backward around Han's face and returned to the spinal sheathes. The rest of his armor soon followed, and he stood before her, completely nude. Yet, he didn't seem to notice, thanks to the brainwashing.

He reached out to touch her face, gripping her chin tightly. His eyes were blank, unrecognizing. He turned his head to the other EXOs watching.

"Leave." he spoke in the alien tongue. They immediately retreated to the deeper parts of the cave, and one moved to the entrance, to stand guard in the shadows.

Throat raw, she sucked in a deep burning breath of the clammy cool air of the cave, as her tormentor paused. She let herself sag, hoarding strength, her eyes drooping closed for just a bare second. They flew open as a sillibant hiss...the armor..it was...flowing like thick liquid, leaving behind..

a face, a f..a..ce..she..knew. Her mind drew a confused blank for a second, then it hit her like the brutal fist of a tsunami.

"Ha...Hans" Her voice barely audible. She was unaware of tears beginning to fall, mingling with the blood slowly but steadily streaming down from the gashes across her cheeks. Her eyes swept over him, noting the scars of the torture the Devilsihes had inflicted on him. Then he was grasping her chin, almost painfully

She didn't notice the others departing, her eyes were locked on him, the shock still overwhelming her, but anger was slowly building back behind them like a firestorm gathering

Hans' hand immediately released Kaylinde's jaw and he stared at her blankly.

Hans?

He brought a finger to her bloodied cheek, catching an untainted tear on his finger. He brought it to his face, staring at the salty drop on his forefinger.

Hans...I know that name...

He looked back up into Kaylinde's eyes, looking deeply. If she looked, she would see a faint glimmer of true life in his eyes. He spoke at long last, still speaking in alien tongues, "You know me?"

He paused, then looked down the injuries on her. Yet, he did not do anything to help her with them. He was still deeply under the grip of the brainwash.

He looked back up at her one more time, "Hans."

Kaylinde jerked almost imperceptably as Hans released his hold on her chin. Hard won discipline stilled the fury, just for a moment, but long enough to let her think clearly. She stopped...and watched, as observant as she would have been of any of the deadly prey she had hunted in the past...This perhaps the deadliest she would ever encounter

She didn't know the language, but eyes watching for any clue..was it there or was she but imagining ...She dredged up what little she remembered learning about Hans. Her mind ached with the mental imprecations she rained upon her thick wits...

"Hans..Hans Balran" She managed..them in a flash more surfaced

"Of Tarlachia"

Hans stumbled backwards suddenly, and collapsed to the ground. He suddenly began to twitch, to convulse upon the ground. Finally he ceased and remained still.

He sat up, holding his temples with both hands. He had his eyes closed, as if he were trying to remove clamps from the immense pressure that was there. His hand slid behind his head and stopped above his cerebral cortex. He plunged his fingers through his flesh, blood freshly spewing about his fingers. They felt something small, something alien to his body. He yanked hard.

And suddenly...it was gone...

His eyes burst open and he stared back at Kaylinde. He spoke in a language that had all but been wiped from his memory, "You...are...Kaylinde..."

He looked down at the inhibitor device in his bloodied hand. He felt his flesh heal over on the back of his neck. He dropped it to the ground, and stood, approaching the woman. Looking at her restraints he spoke softly, "Let me set you free..."

Teris Stearns

Teris stared at the comm, as he replayed the request in his head. The private next to him blinked several times. "Master Sergeant? Do you want me to key in the request...?"

Teris' mouth felt dry. This was a delicate situation. If he called in the artillery support, then the Delivish would think he wasn't supporting them anymore. Yet, if he didn't, it would raise questions from his superiors AND sub-orindates that he didn't want to answer. Suddenly, a grin came to his mouth, and he grabbed the mike. "This is Master Sergeant Sterans. I copy your request for Artillery support. It's coming in. Over."

Switching the freqrencies, he checked their GPS location, and gave the Artillery boys the wrong cooridinates, placing the strike zone five miles west of the squad's current location...

~~~~~~~~

Sasha Light

Sasha injected herself with a healing stim, then turned to Aidyn, Mikkel, and Talan, "Artillery's coming in! Let's get out of here before the shells blow us all back to Earth!" She said, moving to Talen's side to administer first aid, to heal him enough so he could be mobile to fall back with the rest of them.

Mikkel smiled, he couldn't wait for the big guns to come down and tear holes in the Devilish ranks.

"Thank you sire."

He continued to fire and hung close to his squad, not wanting to end up a casualtiy of friendly fire. Mikkel heard the rumble in the distance of the cannons. The Devilish paused thier attack, Mikkel smiled. Those pricks will die.

He heard a series of explosions, but they were too far away. Oh God. Mikkel thought something was wrong with his comm unit or with his GPS. It was then the Devilish continued thier attack. Mikkel turned to Sasha.

"Sasha! The artillery didn't seem to get my message. Try on your comm."

Sasha nodded, switching freqencies and bringing up their current coorindates on her helmet's HUD. "This is Second Lieutenant Light. Artillery squad, check your error ratio. Confirm and fire on my coordinates. My coordinates are longitude 34, 18 minutes, and latitude minus 7, 11 minutes. Over."

A buzz came across her comm, followed by "Coordinates confirmed. Readjusting artillery. Stand by for payload delivery..." Sashs turned to Mikkel, and flashed him a thumbs up. Then cursed as a bolt of Plasma energy sailed assed her, narrowly missing her head. "Carps! We're not out of dodge yet!" She shouted as she fired her SMG off-handed in a fanning motion in the direction the plasma bolt came from. This time, the cannons would fire correctly.

'Oh yes just free my hands for one second' unalloyed ferocity flashed through Kaylinde’s thoughts as she found herself reflexively flinching when Hans reached out for her. Hans stopped and then went to one knee to release her ankles first. Standing to undo her wrists, a look of revulsion passed over his face. That look only served to heighten her anger. She drew a deep breath that halted abruptly as pain seared through her abused ribs. Closing her eyes for a second Kaylinde fought to center herself, calling upon her inner discipline tattered as it was. Though part of her found it infinitely preferable to the cold roboticism he had exhibited earlier.

"Yes, I'm a mess and that’s your doing!'

She hissed in a whisper that was cold with rage. The thin tee-shirt and briefs she worn under her armor had been reduced to mere shreds by his claws, and the rapidly drying rivulets of blood were poor replacement. Kaylinde really looked at what Hans's claws had done to her torso for the first time. "Hells, I'm going to be scar city!' her mind frothed up that off tangent thought. Tanaran’s had no cultural nudity taboo, and she had always been proud of her body.

Then she realized that other than the first swipe that he had taken at her, his efforts had produced a discernable pattern, some sort of symbols, and dismay flared even higher 'What I'm a Devilish rosetta stone now?' Kaylinde forced her thoughts back to more important matters - like survival, and waited for her wrists to be released, though she couldn't feel either of her feet. With her broken left ankle that was more of a help than a hindrance, or so she hoped.

The instant she was free Kaylinde leapt at Hans, though an observer might have categorized it as more of a lurching stagger. The take down wasn't pretty or graceful but surging anger gave her flagging strength a boost. She ended up atop him, pinning him firmly.

'I don't think I could have stood at all, but I'll be damned if I'll admit that to Hans' That thought distracted her 'Where did that come from?'... the next was even odder 'He's comfortable'. She found herself grinning tightly. 'We've got to' ... her grin growing wicked as a drop of her blood splashed down upon his lips - the sight distracting her from completing that thought...
Bracing one hand against the hard muscles of his bare chest, with a few quick swipes Kaylinde painted a battle mask over his features with her own blood.

"Okay, Mister Freedom"

She whispered in his ear then pulled back so he could see her eyes flicking meaningfully to the Devilish standing sentry at the entrance to the cave, his back to them.

"What's your plan for getting us out of here alive?"

Normally she hated depending on another, but her thoughts were swirling and muddled, pain and exhaustion joining forces to beckoning her seductively towards unconsciousness.

Hans did not move as he felt Kaylinde's fingers quickly smearing her blood across his face. She seemed to be enjoying this, despite the danger she was undoubtedly in. All it needed to go wrong was one of the other EXOs to spot her doing what she was doing. The blood alone would cause them to strike out, and very likely kill her.

Hans could feel her heartbeat pounding against his flesh, almost matching his own. Her breathing was ragged, a result of the injuries he had inflicted upon her. She was physically weak to some extent, but her constitution was still strong. He looked up at her, then over at the Devilish sentry.

Yes...they would be a problem. A great problem if things went wrong. With ease, he lifted her off him and stood. He glanced to the rear of the cave, and then back to the entrance.

He looked over at her, who now was standing next to him, partially obscured in the shadows. He whispered quietly, "They will know...something wrong...if walk free..."

He obviously was still having a little trouble remembering his native language, but it was coming back to him. He looked at her and then stepped back. She watched as his exoskeleton armor whipped around his body and locked into place. Once more, he was a fearsome walking tank. Yet, she knew he had changed.

He reached out to her and took hold of her wrists, snapping bindings around them, keeping them slightly loose. He brought his head closer to her ear and spoke in a deeper voice, an effect of the armor, "Trust...me..."

He lifted her easily in his arms and bound her ankles, but not too tightly. He strode toward the entrance and spoke in devilish, "Get some rest, AEXO1. We strike at dawn."

The Argonian EXO nodded, peering at Kaylinde in his arms, who held a frightened look on her face, more for effect than actual truth. Hans held her tightly. She would not be pried from his arms, nor would she be able to escape.

"Where are you going with the prisoner?" intoned AEXO1.

Hans growled at the other EXO, "My prize." he replied with a menacing tone. He continued to glare at AEXO1 until he finally turned and disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

Hans turned and loosened his grip upon Kaylinde, walking away. She looked up at him and smiled slightly. It had been too easy.

OOC: This is Tanara's post... She's having trouble with NS...

IC:
Kaylinde didn’t want Hans to know just how real that look of fright on her face was. She was scaring herself near senseless. Part of her was screaming against allowing him to put his hands on her, let alone bind her. But a larger part ignored the inner trembling, knowing that - though she wasn’t sure how she knew- Hans wouldn’t hurt her. His easy strength was reassuring, and allowed her to rest momentarily, recouping hers.

The exchange between Hans and the guarding Devilish was incomprehensible to her but Hans’s tone was fierce, and seemed to back the Devilish off as much as the actual words. She could feel Hans’s tension abate as the other disappeared in the shadowed depths of the cave. Her shoulders sagged and she rested her head against his chest, smiling only a little at him, as he strode from the cave. It had been too easy

Hans had taken less than a dozen strides from the cave when the tearing silk scream of an incoming artillery barrage rent the late evening dark. Around the escaping pair the ground quaked as ordinance began landing all about them, throwing up massive gouts of dirt, rock and small trees.

Hans instantly reacted to the incoming artillery by crouching slightly and suddenly rocketing away by the spring of his leaps away from the incoming artillery. They slammed and deformed the earth behind them, sending great smatterings of earth and rock about them. Soon, they moved out of range of the artillery and he slowed. He glanced back to survey the damage and then back to Kaylinde. He set her down and looked at her now rapidly swelling ankle. He allowed his head armor to retract, but kept the rest of the armor about him.

His cobalt blue eyes peered out from under his medium length black hair, giving a sense of sadness, of a silent fear.

"I'm sorry." he began, but then felt at loss for words. He extracted his medical kit and pulled out a small syringe and a small jar filled with royal blue liquid. He looked up at her and explained, "This will set a cast around your bones, set them back into place. It will last as long as necessary, then dissolve without side effects once the bones are healed."

She clamped a hand on his wrist, "No goddamn way." she declared, a fire in her eyes. Hans looked sadly into her eyes, then tried once more, "Please...I didn't ask for this...let me try to make this up to you..."

She returned his gaze, her eyes softening their intensity a little. Finally, she reached up with her left hand, touching his forehead lightly with her fingertips. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, holding her breath fore a few moments.

Trust him... commanded her instincts...

Finally, she exhaled and opened her eyes. She nodded silently and retracted her hand at long last.

Hans nodded in return and spoke once more, "It will force your bones to the correct positions. Pain will occur. Try not to scream..."

He then injected the formula. He could feel the cast forming and solidifying correctly around her bones, which were grinding back into position...

Teris Stearns

Teris kept checking his watch, then finally sighed, stepping back. "I gotta take a whizz. Keep an eye on things here, okay?"
He left the communication shack, whistling a tune as he calmly walked to the nearby extraction shuttle. He counted to ten in his head, just as he reached zero, a massive explosions rocked one of the walls surrounding the staging area.

The Devilish were sure prompt about their attack timings. The base would be flooded with the Devilish Grunts and Shock Troopers. He could only hope the Devilish units would remember he was on the first shuttle going up...


((OOC: Hope no one minds me setting the base to be attacked. >_>))

’Damn him!’ she whimpered mentally as Hans inadvertently pulled out her arch nemesis. She feared nothing the way she feared a hypodermic needle. Then she looked deep in his eyes, and stopped, caught by the sadness therein. And his soft voiced plea to let him repay her. Trust…her instincts had never led her wrong. She sighed and her eyes

In truth she was almost too tired to scream, but the pain was …impressive. She grabbed his free hand with both of hers and clamped down with all her strength. Just as she clamped down with her jaws – now it was pride would not let her scream.

Eventually she swallowed heavily, and released his hand.

“Thank you Hans. For warning me about the pain… for everything” Her chuckle was faint but real as she reached out and tried to scrub her blood off his face “I made a mess of your face”

"Hans, I have to go now. And you have to head away from here too. Damnnation... we are in a prime problem"

Hans reached up and held her hand to his cheek, closing his eyes and relishing the touch. She would probably never understand why he felt so grateful for a kind touch.

He pulled her hand away from his face, "Leave it. It will be my reminder of you. You have saved my life, and I am eternally grateful..."

He didn't want to leave her, but he knew she was right. They needed to figure out a new battle plan. The tides of war had shifted, and a new current had joined.

It would only become more dangerous for both of them...

He stood and helped her to her feet. For some reason, he felt the necessity to say a cheesy line.

"I'll find you."

He turned and departed quickly, heading back to the cave, making a wide circle around where the artillery had bombarded the planet's surface. His head armor returned to cover his face once more...

'Don't leave' she protested silently. But she knew that if he came back with her that there would be suspicions abounding and the chances of him disappearing into some lab and never returning were far too great. That was the last thing she wanted to have happen to him. If they had been in Tanara's military she would have had enough sway to prevent even thr thoughts of such but here she was anonymous, no one special...just as she had planned. Never foreseeing this.

"You had better!' She called afterhim softly as he faded away in the dark like a hunting wratih.

Now it was her turn to start to move. Then stop, and study the stars for a long moment, attempting to recall what information the troops had been given concerning Argonias constellations, and where in on the planet she might be.

IT was not the stars but the massive explosions signalling the attack on the marine base that clued her as to her location...Far from the fighting but not hopelessly lost.

She looked at her mostly bare, but not weaponless body and sighed. A nap would be nice but it would definitly would have to wait. A slow but steady walk at first then as she became surer of the strength of her cast ankle faster into a ground covering jog. Silently though - attracting attention was not a good idea, especially the wrong sort of attention

Hans entered the cave and switched to heat signature identification sight. Instantly, he picked up the locations of the other EXO units. He strode in, only to be confronted by AEXO1,

"Sir...where is the prisoner?"

Hans looked at AEXO1 from behind his mask, his mind quickly forming an answer. He replied in the now common cold, emotionless voice,

"I released her. She will lead us to the rest."

AEXO1 nodded, "Wise. We shall strike hard to their hearts."

Not if I can help it... Hans thought to himself as he settled down and fell into a light sleep. Dawn would soon be on them, and they were safe from the enemy troops until then...

Try as she might Kaylinde could not keep up the jog for longer than a quarter of an hour. Her ribs seemed to be squeezing in ever tighter. She was forced to stop and rest, but she didn't dare let herself sleep. The multitude of local insects conspired to assist her in that effort by finding her a convienent meal. The whelts they left were little more than a nuisance but they certainly kept her awake.

The sounds of combat rolling from the base still several miles distant did not decrease, easing her fears that the marine outpost would fall easily. She shivered as the chill of the night grew stronger

"I hope Hans is safe some where, one of us ought to be smiled on by the lady of luck" She grumbled softly as she stood and stretched before proceeding towards the continueing sounds of battle

The artillery shells smashed into the Devilish ranks, knocking many away and breaking up thier attacks. Mikkel stopped firing and let the artillery work the enemy troops. After nearly fifteen minutes of non-stop firing, the artillery stopped.

Mikkel aimed his ADL into the smoke, ready to kill any survivors. As the smoke cleared, he saw only broken foliage and twisted bodies. A grin crossed over his face, they had done it. It was then he heard the chatter and explosions behind him, back at base.

"Oh shit."

Mikkel turned back around and spotted a figure moving through the forests. Checking his SMG, he left his squad and moved off after it. He didn't know what it was, but he got ahead of it. He pulled back the charger handle and jumped out from behind a tree, his finger on the trigger.

Mikkel didn't fire as he saw he was faced by Kaylinde., he quickly lowered his weapon and moved to her.

"Oh Jesus. Come on, lean on me...Sasha isn't far away. What happened?"

'Had Mikkel lost his glasses again?'...No, a quick double check and she saw them perched precariously as ever on the bridge of his nose. Thankfully he was taking in the sight of her bare bloody body with more calm than many would have.

She found herself laughing, or trying to -but the pain in her ribs returned in a burning rush and she nearly strangled on her own coughing. When she could talk again she motioned towrd his pack

"I know you kep a tee in there, to protect your spare glasses. I think I need it more than you spares do"

"Syns dead, and I got seperated from Tylas and Mathias. The Devilish dogpiled us, landed on us like a ton of lead. I got away from them in that bombardment that came in earlier"

Sasha turne to watch where Mikkel went off to. No gunfire... That's always a good sign. She listened to the chatter coming from the base.

"Gamma Squad, suppressive fire on that..."

"... Sarge! The shuttle's leaving! Oh god, the shuttle's leav..."

"DIE Squarehead bastards!"

"... Again, Sarge. You're breaking up..."

She winced, switching off her comm. The sopunds were too much for her to bear.

Just then, Mikkel burst back into their small camp, assisting Kaylinde to walk. Sasha shot to her feet. "Kaylinde! Oh my Goddess, what happened?" Without thinking, she tore off her armor jacket, laying it on the ground next to Talan and Aidyn. "Mikkel, lay her down right here."

Shrugging off her field backpack, she retrieved her field surgical pack, and tore it open. She knealt next to Kaylinde as Mikkel laid her down. "Everything's going to be alright, Kaylinde. You're in good hands." She smiled, her tail flicking back and forth slowly...


~~~~~~~~

Teris Stearns

The single on-base extraction shuttle sat on the landing pad. Once the wall had been breached, Teris filed immediately into it, donning a pilot's helmet and situating himself into the pilot's seat. Flicking on several switches, he powered up the ships core, going a quick pre-launch check-list.

The engines roared to life, as he feed more fuel to it. Outside the cockpit, he heard some of the base Marines shouting. The cockpit's canopy filtered out their sounds pretty good that he couldn't hear them, and the pilot's helmet covered enough of his face so that no one could tell it was him.

The shuttle lifted itself off the ground, engines roaring as it soared higher into the air. Forgive me... Everyone. He thought, as he fled the battlefield...

Aidyn stood, his hands behind his head as he sucked in a deep breath. He looked around him at the scene of destruction, twisted and torched trees, a few patches of leaping flames, and craters scattered across the ground. A strange silence descended upon the burned and bloodied clearing, periodically interuppted by the sound of distant explosions and gunfire.

His hands flew to the rifle hanging from his shoulder as he caught sight of a shape moving through the trees. He was lining up a shot when he recognized the shape as Mikkel and Kaylinde, the latter bare and bloodied.

Oh man, what in the hells went on out there?!

Mikkel layed Kaylinde down as Sasha opened up her surgical pack. Aidyn walked to move closer when a slight movement caught his eye nearby, and he swung around with his rifle ready...to see a writhing grunt on the ground. Aidyn moved towards it and stepped a foot onto the chest of the creature before firing a single three-round burst from his rifle, ending the writhing of the grunt. Little bastards just don't die right either... He shook a bit of gore from his boot before walking towards his squad and beaten comrade and kneeling down on a knee without saying a word.

He pulled a sack from over his back and rippped it open quickly and pulled out his folded just-below-the-knee length jacket. He handed it over to Sasha.

"She can use this when your finished up with the healin'," he stood up and looked through the thick trees in direction of the base. "Shit, sounds like things aren't going to well down there..."

"By the Hells I'm glad to see you all. But has any one seen Taylas and Mathias? We got seperated. Syns dead"

She informed the others as Mikkel laid her down gently. She flashed him a greatful look then winced as Sasha began probing the knife wound in her side. She smiled at Aidyn as he gallantly offered up his jacket.

"Thank you. They were careful not to damage me too badly, ...it was odd, they didn't try and interrogate me...just hurt me."

She wanted to tell them about Hans, reassure them, but something held her quiet for the time being. She looked where Talen lay in a healing sleep

"He looks bad...is he going to be okay?" She looked up at Sasha as her friend began working on the wounds on her face

OOC: I missed a lot so I'll just RP my meeting up with Kaylinde and that crew.

Time had seemedto slow if not all out stop dead in its tracks. Mathias had lost his way in the sea of shrubbery. He was wounded he was dizzy and confused. He no longer heard or saw any indication of his friends. Had the abandoned him.

He continued of for what felt like hours until suddenly the trees stopped and the area was cleared. He saw the eyes on him. He saw Kaylinde and smiled, remembering how she had saved him. He offered a smile before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed.

Aidyn turned back at the sound of a body thumping into the ground. He looked at the fallen body of Mathias and ran over.

"Ah shit," he said. "He's out cold..." He lifted the marine over a shoulder and walked over to Sasha and layed him down on the ground.

"What the hell happened out there? So far that's two beaten to the hells and it sounds like the base is being blown to pieces."

Before Shasha could answer Kaylinde's questions a blood covered figure staggered into the clearing and then dropped like a felled log. It was barely recognizeable as Mathias

Aidyn ran over to him and with ease scooped him up. Mathiass ended up next to Kaylinde. She looked up at Aidyn her face as worried as his

"I think there are are a lot more Devilish out there than intel told us...or we were deliberately set up. And theres a new type of Devilish out there, the ones who captured me. Their armor is almost impenatrable and they are stronger and faster than any normal human. I saw maybe a dozen."

Again the urge to tell them about Hans had to be held down. Aidyn, Mathias and Mikkel especially she wanted to reassure, they wwere the ones most upset over the loss of Hans, the ones that had most believed he had managed to survive. But she couldn't risk it, not just yet

Sashe swore lightly under her breath at the sight of Mathias. She could only fanthom what had happened to David and the rest of his squad. I hope he's okay... Please Goddess Cori, let him be okay...

She shook herself, finishing up patching Kaylinde up, taking notice of her leg. "It looks like you're leg was broken..." She motioned to the brusing around the broken leg bone, "But, it seems to be set now. How odd..."

Shrugging it off, she moved to take care of Mathias. "Hey, medic's here. You're safe now." She said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze, before going to work on him...

A few minutes later...

With Kaylinde, Mathias, Talan, and Aiyden more or less patched up, Sasha sat on the log, thumbing her helmet's comm. "Master Sergeant Stearns. This is Second Lieutenant Light. Do you copy me, over?" Only hissing static replied to her. She shook her head, "I'm not raising Stearns... It's like... He's out of comm range or something. As far as I can tell, the staging area's being over-run with Devilish, and someone stole the extraction shuttle. But why would they steal the shuttle? Without that shuttle, we're stranded here..."

She sighed once more, retrieving a MRE from her fieldpack, and ripping it open. "Anyone have any ideas on what we should do? We're sitting ducks here, but the base doesn't sound like it's in any better situation either..."


((OOC: *Does a "First post on Page 8" dance!* Sasha is, by the way, very naive, it doesn't strike her as possible that someone would purposely strand them on the planet. Feel free to have your character draw a connection between the stolen shuttle and their current situation.))

Aidyn nodded. "Yeah, I know what we need to do. We need to get movin', and get movin' now. We need to head back to base, or what's left of it, and regroup. The others will most likely try and make it back to base as well."

Aidyn looked around the burned out clearing. No shuttle, a missing Stearns, it was Stearns who was radioed to earlier about that messed up artillery...

"We need to look into this Stearns guy, somethin' is seriously fucked up here, and it's costing us the lives of other Marines. If a comrade can't walk on their own, help them. We definitely should not linger in one place like this-" He stopped abruptly, remembering that he was not in charge.

"That is a suggestion, Sir...Ma'am."

Sasha nods, nibbling on the C-ration. "When we're in the field, just call me Sasha. Formalities make my skin crawl."

She ponders it for a second. "Yeah. That sounds like a good plan. Anyone got any objections to it?"


((OOC: I'm off for now. I'll be back in a bit.))

Kaylinde tensed when Sasha briefly inspected her ankle, then slowly let her breath out as the medic turned away to deal with the barely conscious Mathais. Closeing her eyes for a few minutes was a glorious respite and her voice was much stonger when she spoke up to second Aidyns suggestion.

"That sounds good "

The rest of her comment was wiped out by an intollerably bright flash of light, followed hard by a blast of wind and sound so fierce it lifted all of them up and shoved them several feet sideways, dropping them back to the dirt to meet a heaving, rolling wave of earth acting as if were no more solid than water. The night hid the tell-tell cloud, save where it was backlighted by the firey roiling core.

"Hells"

Kaylinde's voice was a dust choked, horrified whisper

"No...."

It took a couple of tries but she managed to stand, loooking towards the firestorm that raged over what remaned of the stageing area.

________________________________________

OOC: This called upping the ante

Aidyn lay flat on his back in the dirt as bits of rock, wood, and dirt fell to the ground around him. He slowly propped himself up on his elbows and stared forward at the massive fireball and the blackness overlapping the stars. His vision seemed blurred, the sound of bells ringing in his ears.

No...no... Childhood memories flooded into his mind. A loud whistling sound, a flash of light, a wall of fire, a strange cloud...The twisted corpses of his friends, family...AARRGH! Pull yourself together! Aidyn stood slowly and sucked in a deep breath, realizing that the whole time he had forgotten to breath. He gulped down a slight urge to panic and knelt to pick up his rifle.

He rose back to his feet and stared at the sight of destruction for a moment that seemed to last hours.

"What in the name of the Gods and the Ruling Triad..." he whispered. He gripped his rifle tightly with both hands. This is bad....This is real bad....

Mikkel lay perfectly still on his stomach, it appeared that he was dead. His fingers twitched, then his arms, then legs, and finally his whole body. He rolled over and propped himself against a mound of dirt and rocks. He looked himself over, his helmet and comm unit was smashed, the same with his ADL. Mikkel took them off and put them on the ground next to him.

He stood on feeble legs and looked in the direction of the fire, it was then he noticed the world was blurry. Mikkel bit his lip and felt his face, his glasses were gone. Looking down, he saw something shine, he bent down and picked it up. His glasses were slightly bent, but the lenses were still intact. He put them back on his face.

"Looks like the Devilish destroyed our camp." He bent down and picked up his SMG90, cradling it in his arms. "We need to get the fuck outta here. I say we head the nearest high ground that is easy to defend and has a clear field of fire. We can't go back to camp...the Devilish could be waiting there for people to come and investigate."

Aidyn shook his head. "No, high ground would be too obvious, and too easy a target from the air, to easy a target for something like that," he said, nodding towards the glowing fires and disintegrating clouds of smoke. "We need to find a place to take cover from the air, while being able to defend on the ground..."

He turned to look at the others. "Anyone got any ideas? These Devilish bastards obivously got some serious powerful in there hands, and aren't afraid to use it..."

Kaylinde was torn once again. The caves where she had been held were not that far away, and filled the needs of the team perfectly. They were the hightest ground around, but were protected - the natural formations of rock would block any scanners. How ever they were in the hands of the new Devilish, Hans's EXO's as he had termed them. Or were they? The look in Hans's eyes as he had left - she was afraid that he meant to take them on by himself

She had held silent despite her suspicions. Nude, weaponless, and injured she would have been truly bad karma for him, and that she could not bear the thought of.

Kaylinde chewed at her lower lip then with uncharacteristic hesitancy spoke up softly.

"I might be able to find my way back to where I escaped from. Caves in the only high ground around."

Mikkel shook his head as Aidyn disagreed with him.

"We have to get to high ground, we don't wanna get the low ground. We'll end up like the French at Dien Bien Phu."

He looked over at Kaylinde as she brought up her idea. Once again, he disagreed.

"Caves? Are there exits to them? We could get trapped there...all the Devilish has to do is blow up the entrance and we will be buried alive. No....my vote is no on caves."

"It's been made obvious that whether we're on high ground or not doesn't matter," stated Aidyn. "Our own artillery is blowing us apart, we have no shuttle to get off this rock, and the Devilish just annihilated our entire fucking base with a single strike, what makes you think they would hesitate if we stood on a higher piece of potential rubble? I'd much rather be able to shoot the enemy in front of me and die with an empty rifle than be incinerated by an unseen Devilish firebomb."

He glanced at Kaylinde. "The Caves would only be dangerous if the Devilish knew we were there...If we try and be quiet about, we could probaly hang there until this shit cools down, then try and get a signal. Let's try and avoid making contact with Stearns, something is being done behind our backs up in that ship...I'm willing to bet a whole friggin lot on it..."

Kaylinde frowned thinking back to anything she could remember about the caves

"I think I felt air mjovement that didn't come from the main entrance. And I've done some spelunking, that air movement means that there is some sort of opening deeper in. Caves 'breath' when the openings are far enough apart that different areas of high and low pressure to affect the air in the cave system."

She turned and looked back the way she had come

"I'm at a severe disadvantage - wounded and I've no armor or weapons. And we as a group aren't in a strong position. Talen we are going to have to carry. Mikkel is wounded as well. How are you all doing for ammo? I bet all of you are low."

"And has any one been able to contact Tylas, or Thomas, or David ? The nuke's emp and the spreading radiation will probably make hash of our commo gear..."

She sighed

"If we could find ray to where Colonel Syn died, we could salvage his armor and weapons, and perhaps find some trace of Tylas as well. Our best bet would be to get to the caves, then send a small group out to try and find our missing personell."

Talen, silent for the most part as the painkillers kicked in, weakly pointed towards the buring ruins of Argonia's captial city...

"Look..."

From the fires came Tylas, leading several Marines & Argonian militia towards the battered group. It was a motley crew, armed with anything from one of the state-of-the-art BR99's to M16's to Glock handguns...

"We stay here..."

Tylas said only that sentence to end the arguement. He'd changed, most visible was the design he'd painted across his scaly features in engine grease, like the Argonian warriors of the past centuries when wars where fought with spears & swords...

"If rescue comes, they'll look here first of all. The militia has also set up a temporary base within a resort not too far from here, and stocked it with considerable firepower. The Marines that where supposed to be shuttled down after us where shot down over the city..."

Tylas jerked a thumb backwards towards the haggard bunch of seven that stood behind him...

"... They're all that's left. There's a fleet on the way, but I doubt we'll last that long..."

He looks at Kaylinde...

"The EXO units aren't invincible, either..."

Two Argonians brought forward a third, still clad in the silvery armor, but with a two-inch hole blown through his chest...

"... Your ADL's are highly effective. We caught this one during the attack that leveled most of the city. The militia has also worked up a small stockpile EMP grenades and cannons to deal with the Grunts & other frontline units. They've got some with chain-guns for arms, called Gunners; and others packing explosive-projectile firing cannons, which the militia call Bombers... Commanders are the red ones with the auto-pistol & the claws like the Grunts have. We can re-arm & rest at their base..."

With that, he turned to leave. There would be no argument on the matter: Going back into the marshes would be suicide...

"Damn it Tylas, don't you dare just turn and leave"

Kaylinde burst out as her Argonian friend turned to leave.

"Argonia may be mostly marshy, but that nuke has lit a firestorm that going to burn no matter what. And staying in its path is not a good idea, particularly since relief and rescue might not come anytime soon."

A gust of wind coming from the direction of the marine base brought odors no one wanted to think about the origins of.

"And if was a dirty nuke, the longer we stay unprotected the more radiation we are going to take."

She walked to where he had stopped and turned back to listen to her

"It's good to see you, I was worried for you"

The next few minutes seemed to be an explosion that could rival that nuclear blast not too long before. The EXOs swiftly moved from their hiding locations and attacked with a ferocious energy.

At first, a few of the grenades picked up from the base were tossed into the clearing where most of them either sat or lay down upon the ground. Second, they moved in with surprising speed and began slashing with elongated fingers sharpened to a point.

(OOC: Feel free to detail exactly what happens to you, but do not kill any of the EXOs. Feel free to engage in some fighting, but I will control the EXOs reactions.)

As shrapnel from the grenades whistled about then small group Kaylinde dove for the SMG that Sasha had set aside to free her hands to tend the wounded. From her knees she rolled into a standing position, placing herself between the incoming EXO's and the medic. Shasha was more important than she was, and less combat trained.

An Argonian EXO closed with her, shrugging of the bullets and swiping at her with viscious claws. One set of slashed through the jacket that Aideyn had given her, scoring against her ribs, drawing lines of pain down her sides. Kaylinde screamed and swung the SMG like a club against her attacker. The blow caught the EXO on the side of the head- her genetically enhanced strength rocking the creature, but its thick tail swung around catching her in the knee.

The pain was brutal and she dropped, the SMG flying from her grip as she fell.

A piece of grenade sharpnel gashed her legs, causing her to cry out in agony, clutching at it with both hands as blood started pouring from it profusely. Kaylinde jumped in front of her, buying her enough time to tie a length of cord above the wound to stem the bleeding. She'd have to patch it up fully later.

Gasping as Kayline was knocked down, Sasha cursed, drawing her Silenced S106 Pistol, and firing it at the Argonian EXO. The bullets spanged off of it's armor, serving only to direct it's fury towards her. Stepping past Kaylinde to grab Sasha by her throat, it hefted her off the ground. Sasha empited her pistol's current clip into it's torso, to no avail. She winced as it closed it's hand around her throat, choking her, it's talon-like fingers piercing the skin on her neck, drawing blood...


((OOC: Tarlachia, Hope you don't mind me having the EXO choke Sasha...))

Mathias heard the fighting, he saw the blood but he was caught in an eternal sleep that he couldn't awake from. All he oculd do was roll over and drag himself behind a rock. The world spun and he fumbled around with his weapon until he finally got the cartridge in.

He sat up, breathing heavily. He was watching carefully. Watching for the perfect EXO to feed lead. It took a long time before he found the one that concerned him most. He took careful aim and let off three rounds and ducked and covered. He was a sitting duck, but death was better than imprisonment.

When he looked to see if he had met his target he saw that his target had landed Kaylinde on the ground but the EXO was nowhere to be seen. He watched her and gave her cover as the grabbed her and dragged her to cover.

Aidyn rolled away as soon as the first grenade exploded. He jumped to his feet with his assault rifle held at his shoulder and took aim at one of the oncomcing enemies. As he was about to pull the trigger, and an arm slashed the rifle out of Aidyn's grasp and fist winded him. Aidyn staggered backwards and quickly reached for his SMG.

He squeezed off a three round burst, which glanced off the EXO's chest armor.

"Oh, son of a bitch, that ain't right!" Aidyn said. He dropped to the ground while at the same time, kicking both his feet out at the EXO's legs. The enemy dropped backwards and Aidyn jumped back to his feet, and stepped backwards as the EXO rose to its feet with surprising speed.

"Aw man, I don't like these odds," said Aidyn as he glanced around at his comrades. Damn pistol's useless if that SMG ain't workin.... He quickly ripped his combat knife out and held it tightly in his right hand while holding his left hand in front of him. He and the enemy circled around each other, Aidyn staring at the EXO, waiting for it to make its next move.

"Bring it on you ugly son of a bitch, Come on!"

Mikkel's glasses were flung off by a blast from a grenade, the man fell to the ground as he slipped on a spot of wet ground; this saved his life as an EXO charged passed him and its claws passed where his head would have been. The world was once again a blur and he began firing at anything that wasn't one of his comrades.

As he slapped a fresh magizine into place on his SMG, he quickly reliesed that the weapon was having no effect. Still, he kept firing; hoping to score a lucky hit on the massive creatures.

Mikkel spotted Sasha, he could only tell it was her by seeing a tail coming down from her, being choked to death by one of the EXOs. The man gripped his SMG by the barrel and using it like a club, charged the EXO's back and smashed it has hard as he could against the back of the EXO's head. The SMG broke into several large pieces and Mikkel stood back, hoping his blow did something.

Both the militia & the marines with Tylas opened up on the incoming hostiles, to no real effect other than wasting ammunition... Even the .500 magnum carried by one of the militia fighters did little but knock the creature back a step...

Talen fired from his position on the ground, one hand holding the SMG90, the other gripping his sidearm. He was in no shape to engage in unarmed combat with the deep stab wounds in his torso. Tylas, on the other hand, was more than capable. Sliding his ADL to Talen, he squared off with the remaining unit, assuming the stance of the Infinite Mystical Claw.

The Argonian martial art relied heavily on palm-strikes, sweeping kicks, and a few tail-strikes. Palms extended & facing his opponent, Tylas closed the distance quickly & unleashed a flurry of palm-strikes followed with a ridge-hand & ended with a spinning back-fist, all directed at the head of his opponent. There was little they could do but hope that none of the other Devilish units Tylas had mentioned earlier would show up & mow them down...

"Thanks" Kaylinde gasped as Mathias dragged her into something resembling cover.

"But we need to get Talen out of the midst of things. I'm not sure he can stand, and... HELLS!"

She swore viscously as she saw Mikkel shatter his SMG against the EXO that was chokeing Sasha.

"Help Mikkel and Sasha- Mathias use your ADL on that thing, blow him away" Kaylinde managed a small, savage grin "I'll go get Talen, I think I can carry him"

She groaned slightly putting her weight on the abused knee but she managed to stand and limp towards the prone Argonian. Her thoughts raced to Hans, wondering where he was, and hoping he was safe.

"Sleeper hold! Basic Training!"

Talen shouted at Mikkel as he hefted the ADL to his shoulder, drawing a bead on the EXO strangling Sasha...

If Mikkel could hold it still, he would probably be able to put a decently-sized hole in it with the portable laser...

OOC: "And so, he lay his evil touch upon this thread"... Another note: Very nicely done y'all. Better than I could've thought. But now, I must take command again... (evil grin)

IC:
The Argonian EXO that held Sasha tightly in its powerful metallic manacles felt the impact of the SMG upon its head. Unfortunately for Mikkel, it did little to deter him, and so, he swung Sasha by the throat violently, using her as a club against the other human. (OOC: Just let it impact, I have an idea, you'll see)

The human EXO; HEXO 3; squared off against Aidyn, the slasher-hands held threateningly in a slightly raised posture. He heard Aidyn's challenge, "Bring it on you ugly son of a bitch, Come on!"

It struck out viciously, and with great speed, striking first for the hand that held the knife. As it did so, the other hand moved under the first arm, intent to impale the challenger through his torso, and pierce his internal organs, slicing them apart with ease. (OOC: Up to you how damaging this attack will be)

Suddenly, a blast of laser illuminated the woods and slammed into the backside of AEXO 2, burning a hole with rapid speed through the armor. It screeched as it threw Sasha heavily against the attacker, the screeches of pain as the laser's burn had penetrated armor, flesh and bone to decimate its internal organs. It growled in defiance as it slumped to the ground, blood flowing freely from the wound. Its body shook and quivered until at long last, it lay dead.

A ferocious roar suddenly sounded as AEXO 1 leapt into the clearing heading directly for Talen, who was recovering from Sasha's unexpected flight toward him. Both of them looked up in surprise as the Argonian EXO closed in quickly...

HEXO 1 and 2 appeared from the forest, their claws of metal death held at the ready as they glared upon the soldiers who were now in the middle of their closing circle. KEXO, also appeared, keeping an eye upon Sasha. KEXO's tail flickered behind it, as if it were a snake waiting to strike...

Death was closing in, with eyes that hid behind mask of fear, of devilish rage...

Suddenly, a final EXO walked into the clearing, walking toward the soldiers. He too held his hands with slasher blades extending from each finger. As he approached, all eyes turned to him. He looked toward HEXO 3 and spoke in Devilish in a harsh tone. Instantly, HEXO 3 picked up Aidyn and threw him toward the other soldiers. Moments later, it too was closing in on the soldiers.

The soldiers each looked at each of the EXOs, the thoughts of death closing quickly in their mind as their weapons became useless. All except Talen's own weapon, the one that had killed AEXO 2. And suddenly, one EXO had whipped about, gripping the neck of one of the other EXOs snapping its neck cleanly. The body collapsed to the ground.

Instantly, the remaining EXOs turned to the aggressive EXO and snarled. The EXO snarled back, and growled to them in Devilish. They attacked ferociously, and together. The limbs of the EXOs thrashed and struck toward each other with vicious strength and danger as they fought.

HEXO 3's body was thrown to the soldiers' feet, dead, the limbs broken and twisted about, the head having become severed somehow in the intense combat between the EXOs.

As the EXOs fought with brutal strikes, they began to overcome the one EXO that had led them through a number of missions on this planet, now working together to strike him down. Sharp claws slashed against his armor to no avail, powerful legs kicking with great strength into his torso.

It was a battle of the Titans, and only time would tell who the victor would be...

The Alpha EXO roared in pain as a powerful number of kicks were delivered at once into him from different directions. He fell to the ground, looking exhaustedly up at the other EXOs as they circled around him, ready to deliver him his death within his own metallic coffin.

They began to strike against him, their blows impacting his head, his torso, his limbs. He struggled against them, but they were too strong together as a group. They had dismissed his leadership, and now sought to sever their weakness in their band...

Kaylinde had just made it to Talen's side as the EXO's surrounded the small group, barely dodgeing being hit by Sasha's flung body. Kaylinde went to her knees, a cry of pain escapeing her when the injured knee was damaged further by her weight coming down on it hard. She ignored it though and scrambled to where Talen and Sasha were nearly tangled together. Frantically she felt for Sasha's pulse

"Come on don't you dare be dead" Kaylinde blew out a gusty sigh of relief when she found a strong pulse. Carefully she rolled Sasha off of Talen, equally happy to see him no further injured.

The arrival of more EXO's had her groaning...then she had to bite her lip to keep from calling out...she Knew that that was Hans when he attached the others.

"Talen, shoot them, those attacking the last to arrive. Please trust me and shoot!" She cried to Talen, pointing to the group

She could see where Mikkel had fallen to the ground. Perhaps she could get to his ADL and use it. She began crawling that way. She had to help Hans

Tylas dove into the fray as his brother sighted another target with his weapon. It hummed slightly as it gathered energy, then spat a blue shaft of energy towards one of the human EXO units...

Kaylinde managed to make it to where Mikkel lay dazed from his encounter with the EXO. She unhooked his ADL from his shoulder mount

"Hold still Mikkel"

She ordered as she sighted along it. The weapon powered up with a whine and she triggered it. Lambent enery spat forth to impale one of the devilishs attacking their fellow 'monster'

Tylas followed the advice of his brother & locked in a sleeper hold on one of the EXO's... It did little to choke the being, but allowed him to have a better chance of holding it in place.

Tylas then attempted to wrap his legs around the armored warrior & bring it down, but was having serious difficulty...

Mikkel was waking up from his daze, wondering what had hit him. As he was about to try and stand, he saw a blurry shape suddenly descend upon him. He reached down for his pistol, ready to try and put a hole in it when he heard Kaylinde's familiar voice.

Mikkel lay as still as he could as she fired his ADL. Damn thing works.....mother fuck..didn't charge it up last time. He worked his jaw, trying to get the ringing from his ear. He opened his mouth to speak, but his mouth was too dry. He closed it and tried to moisten his mouth.

"Kay...don't do that again. I lost my glasses."

"Sorry Mikkel, but we're in deep trouble I think. Here let me ..."

She fumbled with his packs straps then growled and ripped them open. She dug around but couldn't find his spares.

"Damn I can't find them...Wait! Hhere!" She crowed as she found them at the very bottom and handed them to him.

Aidyn staggered back, staring at his stomach in shock. The sudden attack caught him off guard, he had a minor slash across his wrist, but his stomach...

He rose his hands towards his face and stared the gloved hands stained red in blood. He dropped to one knee and looked at the knife in one, and at the EXO that had stabbed him. He coughed and held a hand to his mouth. He suddenly spat a mouthful of blood to the ground before and slammed a fist into the dirt.

If I go down...that bitch is goin' down with me... He rose to his feet in a sudden bloodlust. His vision blurred, except the EXO before him. Everything around him seemed to move in slow motion. He coughed once more, blood dripping from his lips. He rose a hand to wipe his face, only smearing the blood across his face, his hair already wet with the red liquid.

The Druid tossed the knife from one hand to the other, then charged. He rushed past an EXO towards his target, his singled-out enemy. Aidyn smashed into the enemy, one gripping the back of the creature's head, the other thrusting the knife in the throat between the head and chest armor. He stared at the EXO's face as he twisted the knife around.

"You die this day you piece of shit...you die this day..." The Druid told him. He staggered back, leaving the knife embedded in the enemy. He looked back at his own wound, then at his reddened hands...Then laughed aloud, staring at his hands before collapsing back against the ground, his chest barely rising with his feeble breaths...Medic... He thought. Heh, can't even speak right now...mabye if I try a bit harder...MEDIC! MEDIC!

"Medic..." the Druid said quietly. "Medic..."

OOC: Druidic Clans, that move with the knife is basically impossible. The Devilish armor wraps around the neck and body almost like a single sheet of metal. It's almost like a liquid when it flows around the body and locks into place. I will however, allow some damage from the knife, only to keep the thread going. Next time, please leave the actual damages to my guys up to me. Thanks.

IC:

One of the human EXOs roared it's dying breath as Talen's shot seared through his torso. Massive amounts of blood poured over the armor, staining it crimson as the body collapsed to the ground next to the alpha EXO. He paid it no more attention then necessary as he continued to defend himself from his ex-clan.

Another human EXO felt Tylas leap upon his backside and struggle to choke him, but the armor prevented that. As the Argonian wrapped his legs around the EXO's armor, the EXO gripped the legs suddenly, and yanked forward, slamming the Argonians crotch into the armored backside. The arm loosened around the neck, instantly followed by the EXO reaching back and burying metallic fingers into the Argonian's scaled exposed skin and yanking the body around. Amazingly, the Argonian kept his hold to the torso with his legs. The EXO snarled into Tylas's face and brutally bashed his forehead with the Argonian's own.

Another blast from an ADL slammed into the third human EXO, its head suddenly missing three quarters of its mass. The body slumped to the ground, partially draped over the fallen Alpha EXO fighting for his life. He kicked it off and leapt to his feet at long last, finally free of the overwhelming forces.

AEXO 1 felt a human jump onto it's torso and attempt to stab it with a knife. He growled audibly as he felt the blade plunge into the armor. It dented deeply, but did not penetrate. Strangely, the human fell off, muttering to himself. AEXO 1 turned to glare down at him, and raised his foot to plunge toward the man's stomach.

The Alpha EXO squared off against the KEXO and suddenly engaged. Out of the side of his eye, he saw the remaining two EXOs fighting their own battles with the humans. KEXO lashed out suddenly with nimble movements. It caught the Alpha EXO partially off guard, and managed to throw him off balance. Nevertheless, Alpha used this to launch himself off a nearby tree and slam into KEXO. The armor was ripped clear off the head, and Hans glared down at his newfound enemy. He growled in Devilish, "I had high hopes for you, but I found life. I only wish I could have shown you what I see now." KEXO roared ferociously in a defiant act as Alpha literally ripped his face off with both hands. The chunk of meaty, raw flesh was thrown aside and the corpse convulsed violently for a few moments, shedding great quantities of blood onto Alpha. At long last, it lay still, twitching no more.

Alpha rose to his feet slowly, much like a wraith would: dark, ominous, and utterly dangerous.

With swift movements, he dispatched and ended the slaved lives of the last two EXOs, keeping them from injuring their opponnents any more than they already had.

The bodies lay strewn about, leaving only one surviving EXO and the humans. They watched as the EXO creature roared with a tremendous voice into the forest, into the skies as he claimed both victory, and sorrow for the loss of his comrades. He ceased and turned to the humans, his armor remaining about his body.

He looked at each of them from behind his armored face and stood completely still, waiting...

OOC: Druidic Clans, that move with the knife is basically impossible. The Devilish armor wraps around the neck and body almost like a single sheet of metal. It's almost like a liquid when it flows around the body and locks into place. I will however, allow some damage from the knife, only to keep the thread going. Next time, please leave the actual damages to my guys up to me. Thanks.

OOC: Woops, sorry, must've missed that detail in one of your earlier posts...My bad...

Sasha slammed into Talen, knocking him down to the ground. Kaylinde quickly came to their side, rolling the dazed Neko off of the Argonian and checking her pulse. She was alize, but hurt pretty badly.

Coughing up a fine mist of blood, Sasha somehow managed to force her aching body over onto her hands and knees. Beyond her, the EXOs fought a vicious civil war, yet all that concerned her was her MedPac. "My... MedPac... Where's my MedPac?" Her vision was blurry, tears stinging her eyes from her near brush with death. She franticly searched around, trying to locate her medical pack, yet it was nowhere to be seen. She could only hope that it wasn't flung off into the jungle when that armored thing used her as a living club.

Her ears twitched within her helmet, picking up someone weakly calling for a Medic. "I'm... I'll be there!" MedPac, Medpac... Where is it?! The knowledge that someone else needed her gave her the willpower to push her own pains to the back of her mind, riding backburner to the needs of her teammates. While she couldn't yet stand, she found the energy to crawl around some in search of her MedPac.

Then the lone EXO roared loudly. Even with the sound dampeners installed in her helmet to filter out loud sounds which could damage her delicate hearing, the roar was still loud enough to cause her to graps her helmet where her cat-ears were, trying vainly to filter out the sound even more...

The Alpha EXO glanced around at each of them once more and growled softly. He spoke in Devilish, "Allies come like the sunrise to the shadows of the night."

What they heard was "Grach meachoao krakiw toria al shapiera."

He nodded briefly and departed quickly, disappearing through the forest, changing his course frequently, even leaping up into the trees to move and confuse any that would try to follow.

Kaylinde tried to stand, to go after the Devilish, but her knee that by this time had swollen to resemble a beach ball refused to co operate. She went down to the dirt, tears pouring down her face.

Let the others think they were tears of pain

Tylas slid off the EXO, dazed, but recovered enough for a scissor-sweep to the legs from his position on the ground. The SF armor had prevented any serious damage to his groin, for which he was grateful, but the lack of a helmet had forced his skull to take the full impact of the EXO helmet. His head was ringing... Another shot like that & he'd be out cold...

'No-more choke-holds...'

He thought to himself as he struggled to sweep the EXO at the knees with his scissor-sweep, then hopefully pull it down & pin it to make Talen's shaky aim a bit better...

A few feet away, the older Kerrich struggled to get the torso of the humanoid-Devilish in his crosshairs, but blood-loss & sedatives combined with adrenaline made it difficult, to say the least...

OOC: This is assuming Hans hasn't already torn it into small, bite-sized chunks with his armored hands. I was a bit unclear in the prior posting.

OOC: All the other EXOs have been killed by now, except for Hans (Alpha EXO). If you want, feel free to try to get the group to go chase after Hans.

OOC: I don't think that any of us are capable of doing that at this moment - we are past the walking wounded stage.

((OOC: I guess it's time to play my cowardly trump card, then! Hope no one minds... >_>))

The Extraction Shuttle raced up into the air, Master Sergeant Stearns at the helm. Finally, the planet's atmosphere broke away, giving way to the cold vaccum of outer space. He stared long and hard out the viewscreen, then, inexplicably, his eyes drifted towards the scanners. For some reasons, the current GPS Locators for most of the Away Team was being displayed. It seemed that most of them had gathered together, and were now, more or less, just loafing about in one place. That couldn't be good!

He felt a pang in his heart. While he had little way to know if they were dead, wopunded, or just honky dory, he felt as if he couldn't just abandon them. He had condemned all the Marines at the Staging Area to death by stealing this shuttle. Perhaps, by saving these Marines... I can attone for my sins... If only somewhat...

Shaking his head slowly, he veered the craft back around, taking it back into the atmosphere...

~~~~~~~~
Sasha Light

Her vision was rapidly getting better, the others were in a real bad way. Aidyn seemed to be on the verge of death's door, Mathias was cowering behind some logs, still recovering from his wounds. The Kerrich brothers both seemed okay, if only showing signs of wear and tear. Kaylinde also seemed fine, as did Mikkel. Still no sign of David.

"I can't find my Field Surgeon's Pack." She announced, more to herself then to the others. She could only assume that it was gone, lost in the jungle somewhere. She crawled over to where her Fieldpack lay, and tore it open, digging in it until she found one of her smaller medical packs. While it didn't have all the tools her Field Surgeon kit carried, it would serve them for the time being, until they could find a way to get back to the ships.

Pulling this out, and silently giving a prayer to the Goddess Cori that she always remembered to carry two kits, Sasha tends to herself only lightly, bandaging her leg where the sharpnel had gorged her, then moving to Aiydn's side, beginning to work on him.

But, barely seconds after she started, she frowns and raises her head up, tilting it to one side. "Do you guys hear that?" She asked, hearing the sounds of engines fast approaching. "It's an aerospace ship... One of ours! I recognize that whine anywhere!" She noted proudly her ability to discern between the minute difference in pitch between different engines on different aerospace crafts.

~~~~~~~

Teris Stearns

He piloted the shuttle low above the treetops of the jungles, coming up on the teams' GPS locators. He had worked out a plan to see if they were alive. Use the External speakers to inquire their status, and have them answer over a specific comm channel. After that, he'd work out a LZ and pick them up there. If no one replied, then he'd know that they were all dead, and could leave to rally up the next few GPS locators.

Bringing the shuttle to a hover over the group's makeshift base camp, he switched on the shuttle's external speakers. "Any UNSSC personnel. Please respond on Comm Channel Five-Five-Niner. I repeat, any UNSSC Personnel, please respond over Comm Channel Five-Five-Niner." (559)


((OOC2: Aerospace ships are ships that can fly both in atmosphere and in outer space. Most Sci-Fi space ships are Aerospace crafts. :D Yay for BattleTech books!))

OOC: LOL I just Love it when a plan falls apart... :headbang: but don't you dare change a thing!

******************************************

If she hadn't've been all ready crying the sudden arrival of a Marine shuttle would have caused her to burst into tears. Frantically Kaylinde began looking about for something to use to improvise a brace for her knee. 'Or a crutch' she thought as she bit her lip hard enough to bleed.

"Oh by all the hells that HURTS!...and I'm not even trying to stand up" She gasped as she scootched over to the remians of a large bush and began trying to uproot it.

Mikkel put on his glasses, they were slightly bent but okay over all. He stood and heard the shuttle pass over his head. He remembered his transmitter was fried and he couldn't use it. He didn't noticed Kaylinde's crying as he jumped in joy. He fell back to the ground, his back hurt him. He looked at the group, he was the most able of them to go for the shuttle at the base.

"If no one can transmit a signal, I'll go as fast as I can back to the base."

That comment stopped Kaylinde cold

"Mikkel" She spoke with gentle irony, sniffing back tears "The base just got nuked. The fire storm it created is heading this way, and the capitol city got hit as well"

Indeed the clouds of smoke from the burning vegetation - and other things not pleasant to think about - were getting much stronger, despite the wetness of the countryside

"That guy" She nodded toward the one milita man who had survived ed after this latest assault by the Devilishs "and Taylen spoke of a resort near by, and there are the caves I mentioned....your best bet is to see if any one heres commo is working. Me? I have no idea where mine is let alone if it still works Sasha, Mathias - what about yours?"

Upon a hill in the distance, Hans stood, still encased in his armor as he watched the ship swoop from the skies and head toward the base.

Go...my friends. I am lost to you. he thought softly to himself, before turning away and disappearing into the forest once more.

Mikkel shrugged, he wasn't going to be put off so easily.

"So what da fuck? We are all dead anyway, I might as well make a crazy attempt for us to live. I'll get to the base, get in touch with the ship, and be back here with it in no time."

He pulled out his pistol, ejecting the magizine into his hand to find a full mag, he quickly slapped it back in.

"Wish me luck."

With that, Mikkel turned to go into the jungle.

"Hell's take it" Kaylinde launched herself towards Mikkel, tackling him from behind. She howled in pain as her massively swollen knee hit the ground

"The damn base no longer exists and I'm not going to let you go hareing off into the bush and get burned to death!"

She wouldn't let him up till he stopped fighting her

"The ship is calling for us to respond, will someone get on the horn and let him know we're still alive!"

Mikkel grunted as Kaylinde smashed into him. He landed almost face first in mud, he rolled over, trying to get Kaylinde off him.

"Get the fuck off me Kaylinde!"

As he struggled, he knew his options were soon narrowed down to one. Managing to squirm a hand free, he reached down to his holster and pulled out his pistol. He brought it up and pressed the barrel against Kaylinde's head.

"Get the fuck off me or I'll blow your brains out."

"If you feel you must, little brother, but I'd really rather you not. If you really want to commit suicide then make it easy on the rest of us. It's not fair to make us sit here and imagine you burning to death."

Amber eyes bored into his brown ones, as Kaylinde refused to back down. She come to care for him, for all of their small strange family, to let him kill himself with out a fight. And if that meant sacrificing her life, then so be it. She sent her thoughts winging to Hans as she waited for Mikkel to decide

Sasha pushed herself to her knees. "My comm still works." She said. But it seemed the others didn't hear her. Mikkel started to run off, and Kaylinde tackled him, now Mikkel was threatening to kill her. "MY COMM WORKS!" Sasha finally screamed, tears running down her face. "Stop... Fighting. Why are we fighting each other? We... We have to regroup. Somewhere, anywhere... Mikkel, don't run off. We... We need you, here." Her eyes were large, brimming with tears.

Wiping one hand across her eyes, Sasha thumbed her helmet's comm to the freqency the voice had requested. She sniffled back her tears. "This is Second Lieutenant Sasha Light, UNSSC Medical Corp. We're alive down here. Please pick us up. Over."

Only static answered her. She blinked, and tried it again. "This is Second Lieutenant Light, UNSSC Medical Corp. Do you copy me, over?

Still, nothing. Her shoulders drooped. "I... I'm not getting a reply. I thought my comms were working fine..." She folded her hands into her lap, bowing her head in shame...

~~~~~~~~
Teris Stearns

After a few seconds of nothing, a familiar voice responded over the comm. "This is Second Lieutenant Sasha Light, UNSSC Medical Corp. We're alive down here. Please pick us up. Over."

Teris smirked, then replied. "Roger. Hang in there. I'll get you guys out of there. Secon-"

He stopped as he heard her again. "This is Second Lieutenant Light, UNSSC Medical Corp. Do you copy me, over?"

He blinked several times, "Umh. I copy you fine. Please respond if there's static interference..."


((OOC: In case you're confused, Sasha's comms work fine, it's just still muted from a little while ago (She muted her comms so she wouldn't hear the chatter from the base, just after Teris stole the shuttle). Which'll mean someone can either point this out to her, or someone else can try to contact Teris.))

OOC: I'm assuming that Sasha finished with Aidyn in this one.....
IC:

Aidyn groaned and gripped the handle of his pistol tightly. Gods, this hurts! He opened his eyes and squinted, everything seeming so bright, as if he had been locked away in the darkness for days.

"Dammit, shouldn't have attacked in rage...damn knife didn't work..." He pushed himself up on his elbows and winced as a sharp pain shot through his torso. "Thanks Doc, thought I was going to pay a visit to the Seven Hells this time..."

Sasha had tried to get a reply from the ship but got nothing. Aidyn sighed, thinking quickly.

"Hey, Doc, try...try my helmet's comm, it should work, damn helmet's the only thang on me that didn't get hit..." Aidyn handed the helmet to the medic, his hands shaking from the loss of blood.

Mikkel looked over at Sasha, then back at Kaylinde. He wouldn't let his mind be changed. He pulled the hammer back on his pistol.

"Get...the fuck off me Kaylinde or I will pull this trigger. I am going to make a run for the ship, since no one can contact it."

((OOC: lol Sorry about that Druidic. lol Yeah, Sasha finished up with Aidyn. Sorry for not being clearer.))

Sasha smiled and accepted the helmet, then looked at Mikkel. He was so intent on abandoning them, it distressed her. Then, she recalled seeing something that might help in her Med kit. Rifling through it, she found what she was looking for. A hypodermic syringe filled with 40ccs of a milky fluid: Thorazine, a powerful sedative. It was what she would use to put a paitent to sleep before performing an operation on them, and usually carried a couple just in case one of the soldiers was in too much pain. She closed her hand around the syringe, hiding it in her palm.

She wasn't close enough to Mikkel to inject him with it before he shot and killed Kaylinde. The only way she could use it was if she gave it to one of the Marines, and had him chase Mikkel after Kaylinde let him up. Or maybe one of the Kerrichs would intervene, and break up the fight before then. She could only hope...

Talen heaved himself into a sitting position, swapping the ADL for the SMG90, which was a little more potent against human flesh...

"Sargeant, you will drop that weapon... If you wish to leave, then leave... Know that if you pull the trigger, I cut you down where you stand..."

Tylas was somewhat confused... Still, he raised his own handgun & aimed it in Mikkel's direction...

"Put it down, Mikkel... Why take her with you? She tried to save your life, now you want to take hers? Why?"

The younger Kerrich hoped that his kinder approach would have more effect than Talen's typical strong-arm approach...

Mikkel lay still as he stared at Talen and Tylas, his attention almost completely on them. He still had his gun to Kaylinde's head, but he placed his thumb on the hammer and gently lowered it back into its original position.

"I'm not taking her with me, I'm not going to run and no show up. All I want is the chance to make a mad dash for the base, I know it is destoryed but the shuttle is there. That is all I want. I don't wanna kill anyone, but if someone tries to shoot me I swear I will open fire."

Tylas had meant to the grave, and not literally taking her with him, but no matter...

"Then let her go. The senior NCO just gave you the option. Just let her go..."

Not that he could squeeze the trigger before Talen put a 5.7mm through his temple, but killing a fellow soldier was something he'd have to explain, as well as live with for the remainder of his days...

"Let her go, dammit..."

Talen hissed, his patience wearing thin...

"I already gave you fuckin' permission to waste your piss-ant life running for the base through ground-fuckin'-zero radiation & white phosporus napalm that'll cook you quicker than engine afterburn... Put your weapon down & get to running..."

Aidyn sat back up, propping himself on his elbows. Dammit, this is going to far... He glanced up at Sasha, who held his helmet in one hand and hid something in the other.

He reached up and grabbed his helmet and grabbed the comm. He glanced at Mikkel. Shit...he's a good guy...

"Don't you fucking move man!" shouted Aidyn, sucking in a quick breath after a sharp pain flashed through his torso. "Your gonna let me borrow that book with the Navajos, remember?! So stay the hell there, I want to read that book!"

Aidyn looked back down at his comm.

"This is Corporal Aidyn Macollic to whoever the hell is flyin' that shuttle up there! We got marines in serious need of pick-up! Over!"

Aidyn paused, waiting for a reply. Don't do anything stupid Mikkel, Gods, don't do anything stupid...

((OOC: Apparently, Mikkel doesn't realize that Teris is in that same shuttle he wants to go after.))


Teris Stearns

"This is Corporal Aidyn Macollic to whoever the hell is flyin' that shuttle up there! We got marines in serious need of pick-up! Over!"

Teris smiled. Hells. Good to see you made it, Aidyn. "I copy you, Corporal Macollic. Inform the Lieutenant her comm's receiver may be malfunctioning. I read her fine, but it seemed she couldn't read me. Anyways, there's a clearing two miles due west of your current position. Your group will have to try and hump it to the clearing so I can pick you all up. If you run into any Devilish units, holler and I'll come to provide some air cover. Over."

Teris Stearns manuevered the shuttle, and jetted towards the clearing, flying a few lazy eights around the clearing while checking the thermals for any readings, before setting the bird down. He kept the engines running, in case they needed to make a quick evac.

~~~~~~~~

Sasha tilted her head, suddenly recalling what she had heard eariler from the base. "But... Mikkel... Someone stole that shuttle from base, just before it was nuked. Even if it was still there, the bombing would have reduced it to liquid slag."

She fidgeted with the sryinge in her hand, glancing over to Talan, who was nearest to her currently. She made a small sound, just loud enough to catch his attention, then opened her palm to him as he looked her way to show him the hypodermic sryinge, making a face as if she was going to sleep and snoring, before pointing to the sryinge. Goddess Cori, I hope he understands what I'm trying to convey!

Aidyn listened to Stearns reply over the helmet comm.

"Alright, see you there in a few, over and out!" he said quickly. Aidyn then took in a deep breath and pushed himself shakily to his feet. He winced as another sharp pain shot through his torso. He sucked in a deep breath and stood up straight, leaning his weight on his rifle.

"Alright!" he said loudly. "You all calm the fuck down! I made contact with Stearns, we got a pick up point two miles west of our current position!"

Aidyn looked at Mikkel. "No one needs to die this time, man, not right now. Let's get a move on before more of those Devilish bastards come, were bound to meet their whole army after all this racket!"

Mikkel stiffened as Talen kept his gun at him.

"I can't really move if I am pinned under Kaylinde now can I?"

He expected to recive a bullet from the Aragonian but Aidyn announced he had gotten in contact with base. Mikkel breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his pistol from Kaylinde's head and shoved it back into the holster.

"Now, that someone has gotten in contact with base, there is no need for me to run for it. So, lets get moving to Stearns."

Kaylinde moved off of Mikkel and as he rolled over, his glasses slide off into the brush. He turned his back to the group and began groping in the brush for them.

"Give me a second everyone."


ooc: Krowemoh, go ahead and knock Mikkel out if you want

Talen lowered the SMG as the pistol dropped from his line of sight, but kept it aimed in Mikkel's direction...

"Now have a seat, dammit... You're an SF soldier, you aren't supposed to snap & threaten your fellow squadmates with your sidearm..."

Tylas wasn't quite ready to lower his weapon however. He kept the barrel aligned with the man's head as he pulled Kaylinde aside...

"You okay?"

He whispered, making an attempt to keep his claws from lacerating her bare skin...

OOC: Just a side note - 40 cc is a very large amount - A 12 cc syringe is hard to hide in ones hand and 40cc of Thorazine will kill a horse much less a man.

*************************************************

Kaylinde let Tylas support her, giving him a grateful look. Her injured knee certainly wouldn't accept any weight at this point. She was shivering, with the beginnings of fever, despite the thick jacket that Aidyn had loaned her earlier. Her voice was an even softer whipser than his had been. Hers had been meant for his ears alone

"I'll be ...okay. Can you help me get to the shuttle. I think this knee is going to need some heavy duty medicing...and I need to talk to you"

The last was even lower in volume, barely audible even to Tylas though she was all but in his earfin. She raiaed her voice

"Aidyn could you try reaching our misssing people? Let them know where we're going....and we'd better get moving."

Aidyn nodded and walked towards th edge of the small, burned out clearing. Shit, we almost had a shoot-out between our own damn unit...

He spoke into the comm. "This is Corporal Aidyn Macollic to fellow Marines, over." He paused, waiting for a reply. "I repeat, this is Corporal Aidyn Macollic to fellow marines, over..."

He shook his head. "Dammit, either we're the only ones left or their own comms are fucked up..." He spoke into the comm again. "This is Macollic again to all marines. If you can hear this, we are headed to a pick up point in a large clearing to the west. Look for the shuttle and follow it, Marines, pick up is to happen pronto, so get up and get moving and get there before the Devilish do. Over and out."

Man, we gotta hurry...

((OOC: lol. I never actually said she hid it good. Just that she tried hiding it in her hands. :D And thanks for the correct. I suppose 40cc is a lot, but I wasn't sure at the time. >_> Okay, let's pretend it was a 10cc syringe then? Well, no matter. Excitement's over. :D Moving on. And GS, why would Sasha subdue your char if he's already calmed down? ;P Silly head.))


Sasha followed alongside Kaylinde, to ensure that should happen to her, she was nearby to fix it.

"Well, glad that's over..." She said, sliding the syringe into a convinently placed pocket on her body armor. The group makes its way to the clearing, where their ticket home waited...

Hans slipped into the shadows of the cave and finally seated himself. He turned to watch the treetop line as the war raged on, oblivious to the quiet beast of war that now refused to engage the very enemy he had been constructed to destroy.

He raised his eyes skyward, searching for the Devilish motherships.

No more. he thought quietly to himself, Now I hunt you.

OOC: Bump! Come on people!

Kaylinde gritted her teeth as she hobbled, mostly supported by Tylas, the far to long couple of miles to where the shuttle awaited. With Shasha along side, being so helpful she didn't dare say a word to the Argonian. Too tired to cry she simply endured, and hoped that Hans would indeed find her again.

OOC: Just a side note - 40 cc is a very large amount - A 12 cc syringe is hard to hide in ones hand and 40cc of Thorazine will kill a horse much less a man.

*************************************************

Kaylinde let Tylas support her, giving him a grateful look. Her injured knee certainly wouldn't accept any weight at this point. She was shivering, with the beginnings of fever, despite the thick jacket that Aidyn had loaned her earlier. Her voice was an even softer whipser than his had been. Hers had been meant for his ears alone

"I'll be ...okay. Can you help me get to the shuttle. I think this knee is going to need some heavy duty medicing...and I need to talk to you"

The last was even lower in volume, barely audible even to Tylas though she was all but in his earfin. She raiaed her voice

"Aidyn could you try reaching our misssing people? Let them know where we're going....and we'd better get moving."

The young marine nodded...

"Indeed..."

He whispered back, as several Argonian militia forces came out of rubble-strewn streets of the once-magnificent city...

"It seems your call was heeded..."

The fifteen or so joined with the SF squad, some wearing marine battle-gear but not carrying themselves like the proud foot soldiers of the UNSSC's space fleets. It seemed the squad was the only UNSSC presence in the area...

LOW ORBIT...

Devilish boarding craft streak towards the 'Steadfast', each triangular vessel loaded with highly lethal Grunt-class units. Drop-pods streak towards the burning surface of Argonia, laden with the newest killing machine, the Hunter-Killer unit.

The HK was slightly taller than the 4'3" combat chassis used by every other Devilish battle unit. Standing at 5'0", the new HK units packed far more speed & power into a better-armored frame. Ceramic inlays in the viewscreens eliminated the possibility of a lucky kill-shot, along with double-reinforced armor plating to prevent blunt trama from disrupting the internal circuits. Several rounds in the same general area would disable the unit, but at the speeds it would be moving, such a feat would be hard to perform. Armed with combination wrist-blades & 5.7x28mm autopistols, the black armor-plated bipeds could shred an opponent with armor-piercing gunfire or razor-edged vibrating shears...

More importantly, they had been designed to counter an EXO unit that had found ways to override its inhibitor programming. Chittering between themselves as they emerged, five in total, they moved off after the last recorded location of the rogue unit, emitted from a tracer device implanted in the armor-plated spine itself to aid in strategic planning & force deployment. What had been a vital link to the command units now had become a flashing beacon for Hans' elimination... It would take more than his EXO armor & augmented abilities to escape a single HK unit, much less five of them hunting in a pack...

It had been several days since he had saved the humans from the other EXOs. By now, they would have had time to recuperate and regroup. They would return to battle the Devilish soon, he knew. After all the war was not over.

He stood at the mouth of the cave, the distant sunlight sending weak rays of light unto his battle-worn armor. It was dirty, but overall, still intact. He looked down at the armor that surrounded his body at the moment, except for his head. He looked back out at the war-ravaged lands of Argonia. The plentiful forests and swamps stretched as far as the eye could see, but one could see the major gaps in the tree cover, indicating locations of explosions. Smoke still rose from the UNSCC's old military base, now long destroyed by the EXOs. They theymselves had been swallowed into the swamps, never to be seen from again, until nature deemed it time to spew the remains of the great Devilish warriors.

The planet had been quiet for the last several days. Both sides had retreated, to recuperate and begin another assault against their enemies. Hans could tell something was about to break loose soon, something that would once again bring death and destruction upon this peaceful planet known throughout the galaxy of Argonia.

As if to confirm his prophetic thoughts, he suddenly was alerted to a series of smoke-trailing shapes that slammed into the swamps. He narrowed his eyes. There was no mistaking what those had been. Invidual pod transports, courtesy of the Devilish. He knew that the UNSCC had not sent their boys and girls back into the fray yet, therefore logical deduction left only one possible answer.

They were here for him.

He lowered his hand from the wall of the cave where it had been leaning against. He had been expecting a response from the Devilish, once they found out that their EXOs had become decimated. He wondered what unknown enemy they had sent this time. Whatever it was, he was sure of one thing. They had done their best to make an anti-EXO warrior.

He disappeared into the cave's bowels. He was ready for them. He hadn't spent the last few days idiling away the hours.

A small dark thought brooded in the back of Hans' mind as he moved into position.

He wouldn't be able to survive against these new unknown warriors the Devilish had unleashed...

Mikkel moved at the rear of the group, his head low, ashamed of what he had done earlier. Finally, he got enough courage to walk forward and move next to Kaylinde.

"Kaylinde, that EXO who saved our asses...what do you think made it do it?"

((Judging from Tarlachia's last post, I'm assuming we're back at a new base waiting to head back out into the fight...))

Aidyn hefted a crate onto his shoulder and followed another Marine to a drop off spot near a building on the compound. Since he and his band of brothers had been evacuated out of the scene of firey chaos to a so-called safe base, Aidyn had felt the need to keep moving, to keep busy. When he wasn't on patrol, he was trying to keep busy by helping the soldiers on base.

He slid the crate on top of another and headed back to pick up another. He brought that crate to the stack he had started and paused, leaning back against the wall of the building and taking off his T-shirt to use as a rag. He wipe the sweat off his brow and looked about the base.

"Shit, this planet is hot as the Seven Hells," he said, trying to remember the cool fall air of Earth. He took a breath and headed back to pick up another crate.

Always gotta keep busy... Thought Aidyn as he moved. He picked up another crate and headed back to the drop off spot.

Kaylinde had looked at Mikkel as they were flown to safety.

"I think the Marine brass wouldn't like us to know the answer to that...." The snarl in her voice wasn't hidden "In fact I know for certain that the now so very dead Colonel Syn wouldn't have wanted us to know"

She wouldn't say anything more, turning away and asking ...no demanding the strongest pain killer Sasha had in her depleted medikit

They dumped her in a regen tank for a few days and when they finally let her out, set her to physical therapy to restrengthen the leg. Kaylinde split her time between that and long sessions in the commissaries communication office. She spent hours contacting home, being uncommunicative and distracted afterwards.

At the base, Mikkel didn't talk to anyone. After Kaylinde's snarling, he had backed off and hadn't spoken to her or anyone in his unit. He had secured a tarp, a few sticks, some rope, and made himself a small little tent in a corner of the base. It was small, barely big enough to hold him and his stuff.

He felt ashamed of his conduct earlier with him and Kaylinde, he knew he would probably face charges. Mikkel emerged only for roll call and meals, otherwise he spent his days in his tent. Finally, he had made up his mind. As soon as he could, he would resign.

OUTSIDE ARGONIAN SPACE...

The relief fleet drops from hyperspace, within visual range of the Devilish carriers in a perfectly executed surprise attack, crippling one of the motherships & fatally wounding several outhers. After an extended battle, the Devilish are forced to withdraw from the planet, fleeing into hyperspace towards an unknown destination...

It had been like this for some time now. The enemy fleet would arrive, drop numerous types of units onto a planet, then would get beaten back by the pursuing fleet & bog them down with clean-up operations on the planet they'd infected with their mechanical minions while the main force escaped to sow their vile seeds on another unsuspecting world.

With a heavy UNSSC presence in the system, it was now safe to begin some sort of reconstructive effort for the scarred surface of the Argonian homeworld. By some stroke of luck in the orbital battle, the crippled mothership had lost all engine & hyperdrive functions. It now drifted like the corpse of some angular metallic beast, operational lights barely flickering.

Command had come up with a plan to neutralize the on-planet stragglers from the Devilish force without nuking them into oblivion & destroying the planet in the process. The captiol was still a radioactive crater, and would remain like that until UNSSC cleaner crews arrived when the war was over.

The plan was to have SF Team 15 (That's us) & SF Team 22 infiltrate the crippled mothership & gather intel on the Devilish forces, such as force strengths, operational scematics, and weapons programs. After this primary objective was completed, the teams would plant charges on the reactors that powered the ship and exfiltrate via shuttle.

The orders where delivered via OSU, or Operational Status Updater, the small communication device located in the forearm portion of the SF battle suit...

'SF Team 15 has been asked to perform a highly vital assignment in conjuction with SF Team 22. You will leave when your team deems themselves ready, as it has suffered casualties out of proportion to other units of its type.

Your objectives are as follows:
Gather intel on Devilish operations, or anything else that looks useful
Destroy central Collective unit, this will neutralize all surface units
Plant charges on reactor cores
Exfiltrate via shuttle

Secondary Objectives:
Capture a Devilish unit for study & interrogation
Locate Devilish armory & upload weapons scematics

Talen studied these new orders from his cot in the medical bay, recovering from the stab wounds he'd recieved on the planet's surface... Reports had come down from the intel divison that five new square-head units had been deployed to the surface shortly before the fleet had arrived & driven the Devilish from the system...

'Probably Anti-Hans units... They most likely don't want someone with his abilities running loose in the marshes & wasting their remaining units. If we frag this 'Collective unit', whatever it is, we might be able to keep them from finding him, or it could wipe them both out... I'll have Tylas run it past Kaylinde...'

"Tylas! Get in here!"

The older brother shouted from his prone position on the pristine medical cot. A glassy-eyed Tylas entered the medical bay from the waiting room outside. He looked like he'd dozed off, from the bloodshot look of his remaining organic eye...

"Yes brother? There's no need to shout..."

Talen shook his head good-naturedly. He'd have never awoken his younger sibling if he didn't yell...

"Go find Kaylinde & Mikkel, then bring them in here so we can discuss if we want to do this or not..."

Tylas, still groggy, nodded & slowly made his way out of the medical building. The new UNSSC base was on a flat plain outside of a great lake, away from any major settlements. Remaining militia forces had set up camps around the walled compound, giving it the look of a castle under siege from the times of knights & royalty...

He found Kaylinde easily enough, she'd been in the communications center for the past few days, spending her accumulated talk-time in a large, single dose. It wasn't like the team really had much else to do. The majority of them where wounded, and their CO had been killed some time before...

"Excuse me, Kaylinde... Talen wants us all to meet in the med-bay so we can discuss these new orders command gave us. There's a possibility we'd be able to help Hans return to normal if we found information on the treatments they used on him... By the way, where can I find Mikkel?"

Kaylinde had indeed managed to find enough privacy to let both Tylas, and upon his urging, Talen know what she had discovered. The bitter information of what the Devilishes did to those the captured. She flinched though when he spoke of Hans aloud, though she was certain that neither he not talen had passed the information along to the authorities...and a chance to rescue Hans, was one she could not pass up

"He's over in that little tent, brooding over his 'foul up'...and he shouldn't be" She sighed and admitted "I think I was too harsh on him, and left him in the dark and he has taken it wrong. Let me go get him and Aidyn - he kept his head well through out this and should be counted in."

She lowered her voice "Don't trust Stearns...I think he came two steps from deserting...and I think he's...well as Sasha would say..'doesn't smell right'..."

"But I don't want any new missions until I know a couple of things for certain. I have something on the way, gifts for us all you might say. Things to give the Devilish's a surprize or two. Tell Talen that we'll be right there...and grab your self a meal you still look worn through'

To his surprize she hugged him tightly, then turned to go get the others

outside of Mikkel's tent she stopped and called softly

"Mikkle, can I come in?"

Aidyn finished his task and leaned walked away from the stacks of crates to a table and chairs under a tent canopy. The table was surrounded by a number of soldiers that had a card game going in the shade provided by the canopy. Aidyn walked into the shade and sighed of relief from the heat and leaned back against a sturdy pole. He dabbed his shirt to his face and jammed it into his pocket. He looked past the table to see Kaylinde enter Mikkel's tent and shook his head.

Man, Mikkel's been acting weird lately, seems to be taking all this a bit hard. Too bad to, good guy...

Inside the darkness of the tent, silence answered Kaylinde. She stood there for a minute or so before moving to open the flap a little more when something shiny appeared coming out of the tent. Kaylinde moved in time to see a tin cup flying past her head, the cup hit the earth and tumbled for several feet before coming to a halt.

Mikkel appeared at the tent opening, pushed Kaylinde back from his tent and closed the flap again. He spoke in a quiet, yet angry voice.

"Fuck off Kaylinde."

Aidyn stood up straight and stared.

"Ah shit Mikkel, don't act like this again," said thinking aloud. He yanked his shirt back on as he strolled across the earth towards the tent. "She's a damned officer," he muttered.

He walked to a nearby jeep and leaned against the hood and stared on. Guess I'll wait to see how this goes, if it goes bad I'll head over...

"I probably should, but I won't. I'm sorry Mikkel. I snarled at you when I shouldn't have. Can we talk, please?"

Kaylinde waited patiently for his reply

Silence answered Kaylinde and Aidyn. There was a brief rustling inside the tent, then silence. Five minutes passed before Mikkel responded.

"I said..fuck off."

Aidyn balled a hand into a fist, feeling a slight surge of anger course through him as the phrase 'fuck off' slowly began to ignite his short temper. What the hell happened to this guy?

"I think he's finally snapped," said Aidyn, glancing towards to Kaylinde. He then whispered quietly to her, "You think he's got his gun in there with him?"

Kaylinde frowned and shrugged. Mikkel's continueing hostility was not something she was willing to deal with at this time.

"I don't know Aidyn. Talen and Tylas want to tak with us, some new orders have come in..and I have some things to say as well. Lets just leaving him be."

Before she turned away she raised her voice and repeated what she had said. She glanced at Aidyn, shrugged once more and headed over to the medical center, the tension in her shoulders easing as she moved out of line of fire from the tent

Aidyn was about to turn and follow, but paused to look at the tent once more.

"I don't what's got into you lately man," he said quietly. "But you're one of us, you got a problem, we all got a problem, and we all gotta deal with it. So suck it up and move on."

Aidyn turned sharply on his heel and followed Kaylinde away from the tent.

Mikkel lay there in the dark of his tent, listening to Kaylinde and Aidyn outside. All he wanted was to be left alone for the moment. He didn't want any soothing lecture or words from Kaylinde, telling him he had taken her words the wrong way. Same bullshit his parents had fed him when he had been angry at them when he was a kid.

They didn't have everyone in the whole fucking squad pointing thier guns at you...ready to blow you away when you try to do a good thing.

He lay there for several minutes before sighing and sitting up on his cot. Mikkel stood, went to the entrance, moved a flap and gave a sharp whistle. He waited for Kaylinde to turn around before motioning her to come over with a brief jerk of his head before closing the flap.

Mikkel went back into the cool darkness of his tent and sat down on the cot, waiting to see if Kaylinde would come.

Kaylinde rolled her eyes, but motioned Aidyn to continue on to the medical center, before turning back to Mikkel. Ducking warily into his tent she gave him an exasperated look. Noteing that he had no weapon in hand seh nodded and sat crossed legged on the floor of the tent without speaking, waiting for him to open the conversation.

Mikkel sat there quietly before looking up at Kaylinde. He spoke in a quiet, slightly scratchy voice.

"Okay...what do you have to say?"

"Like I said, I'm sorry that I snapped at you. If you want to mob out, I can understand I'm pretty fed up to. We gen another officer like Syn and he may just get fragged some dark night"

She stood up and started to duck out of the tent, stopping to look at hi

"But if you want to go kick some ass, come over to Medical. Then she was gone striding quickly to join the others

Tylas returned to the medical bay, greeted his brother with a shrug, then sat down next to his cot...

Mikkel sat in his tent for several more minutes, staring at the ground. He finally sighed and dragged himself off his cot and exited the tent. He headed over to Medical.

Kaylinde found Talen's room and joined Aidyn and Tylas

"Okay Talen, whats going down?... and I don't know if Mikkel will show, though I hope he does."

She hoped that they could stll on these new orders until the package from home arrived. What it would contain would give them a huge edge over the Devilish

The recovering NCO waved them all in closer...

"I've heard some of you muttering about jumping ship the first chance you get... Don't bother explaining. Tylas and I have been having the same thoughts. They nuked our own people..."

Talen's eyes narrow as he begins again, clearly angry...

"Tylas hasn't mentioned it yet, but we lost more than some fellow marines... Our parents where killed by that nuke. We're all that's left of our family line..."

The Argonian pauses again, struggling to contain the hot rage within him...

"This upcoming mission gives us a perfect chance to escape without giving up our gear or leaving Hans to fight those new units by himself. My plan is to form two groups: Group one will secure the Devilish ship & frag the Collective thing. Group two will go planetside & locate Hans, then get aboard the ship we've secured to pick the rest of us up in the insertion shuttle, then jump to hyperspace, someplace on the far outer rim where we can disappear..."

Talen's slit-pupiled eyes sweep the gathered troops, people he'd grown to trust with his life...

"Either we all go, or none of us go. If anyone gets left behind they'll be grilled for info, then shot for treason. We'll wait for Mikkel to get here before we vote. In the meantime, does anyone have anything to add?"

Kaylinde's face and heart went cold

"Wait..you mean that was our people that nuked the base? I thought it was the devilish..."

She stared at the two Argonian's, hurting for them.Then she cleared her throat, and admited somewhat shame facedly

"Guys, I've got some pull back home. Tanara isn't apart of the UNSS...I had to get special permission to come and join...You don't have to go hiding out on the rim. Tanara would accept all of you as citizens or visitors in a second...and I've got some stuff coming from the family store that will make everything the marines have given us look like childrens toys. The order should be arriving in less than two days"

She turned to look at Aidyn

"Yes Hans is still alive, the Devilsih tried to turn him into those killers we fought down below. He saved himself, broke free of them. He was the one that waded in and took on the others. The Devilish are doing that to pow's and the marine higher ups knew it...and lied to us....I'm sorry I didn't tell you before"

Mikkel slowly moved towards medical, his mind had drifted to possibly going home, seeing his family and spending nights at the pub having a beer with his friends. He nibbled on his lip, wondering if he should stay or go home. He walked into medical.

Mikkel wandered into the room where everyone else was after Kaylinde had spoken to Aiydn. Mikkel sat down in a chair and loked at everyone.

"So...what is going on?"

Aidyn was knelt as Kaylinde mentioned Tanara and a way out. Shit...it was our own guys that screwed us over out there... He looked up when Kaylinde spoke of Hans...

Alive? They turned him into one of them?! Aidyn slammed his fist into the ground.

"Son of a bitch!" he said with a tone of ice. "And those treacherous bastards in charge were never gonna tell us the Devilish were doin' this to our guys?!" Aidyn stood and took a breath.

Aidyn thought quickly, trying to piece everything together. Base blows after the dropship leaves with one man, the enemy knew whats was goin' down, one man on the intercom...

"Alright boys and girls," said Aidyn, glancing towards the entrance as Mikkel entered. Knew he'd come through... "Here's my idea. We take out that Collective thang, and get Hans, of course. Then we head back up, and we get ourselves some payback. That nuking of the base wasn't an accident, and the one dropship leaving before hand wasn't an accident, and the one man on that dropship wasn't an accident. I got a pretty good idea who's fuckin' us over here...Two of us can break apart from the rest of the group and head back to ship and take care of Stearns, I'm willin' to bet that he's the traitorous son of a bitch that screwed us over, no way he's lucky enough to be the sole man on a dropship to get out just before the big boom...After Stearns is dead, the two break from the big ship in a dropship and load up on the get away...Then we hightail it to Tanara and keep low for a while. From there we make our own path...What do you say?"

Aidyn glanced around the group...

Mikkel looked at Aiydn, a puzzled look on the man's face. He had missed out on the conversation and everything Aiydn had said made no sense to him.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Hans is dead...dead as a doornail. Is everyone here snorting coke or something? I thought this would be serious..not a make believe idea time."

Mikkel got up from his chair to leave.

"Woah, Mik, hold it man," said Aidyn, motioning for Mikkel to stay. "Damn, I know it's weird brah, but I can't explain it too well, I just learned about this myself...Kaylinde, mabye you should explain this to him..."

Mikkel stopped, turned and leaned against the wall. He looked over at Kaylinde.

"Alright Kaylinde...give this shit to me."

"No he's not dead, he rescued me and..."

Her eyes showing her pain clearly, Kaylinde went on to explain to Mikkel what had been done to Hans, what he over come, what he had broken free of and that it was he that had risked his life when the other EXO's had tracked them down.

"They- our own higher ups lied to us, our own higher ups bombed the base and Argonia's capital city. Talen and Tylas lost their parents to that...I can get us to the safety of Tanara, I've got pull...and yes Aidyn, I think Sterns is a traitor...but not the only one."

Mikkel rolled his eyes.

"Why the fuck would the higher ups nuke our own bases and the Argonia capital? What reason? You trying to tell me Hans is still alive and ticking? You are also trying to tell me we should all go AWOL...is that is?"

Aidyn thought a moment. She's right, Stearns is most likely not the only one...

"Then let's blow up the whole damn mother ship," Aidyn said referring to the command ship. "Two of us get on board, get into to the Weapons Controls area, turn the ship's weapons into a time bomb. We'd have to hightail it pretty quick, though, or we'd be disintegrated in an explosion that big...So it'd be three groups. One to get Hans, one to take out the collective mind, and one to take out the ship. The ones with the getaway ship pick up the Hans team, then pick up the team on the command ship, and we run like a bat outta hell..."

"Yes, Hans is still alive...Talen and Tylas have no reason to lie to us...Look Mikkel I don't know what your problem has been lately, but you can get over it."

He did not know it but his death waited behind her eyes, watching and judgeing him dispassionately. She had no intention of letting him jeopardize them all. She sincerely hoped that it would not come to that however

She considered what Aidyn had suggested and offered an alternative suggestion as she waited for Mikkel's response

"I think that's splitting it too thin Aidyn. If what Talen says is correct then just blowing the ship will destroy that mind controller as well, since that is where the controller is.. So if it is just two groups, one for the ship and one for Hans -there is less division of force"

Mikkel took off and cleaned his glasses. He put them back on his face.

"What evidence do you have our own guys nuked the base and Hans is alive?"

Aidyn smiled. "Kaylinde, I'm talking about taking out our command ship. I'd be happy to take 'em out myself. The bastards were playing with my life also. You can lead the group to find Hans, Tylas can take out the Collective mind and bring that ship around to get you guys and then if there's time, can get me outta there before our command ship goes boom, taking out any pursuers that might have had a chance in getting us. Typical getaway that we did back on Earth, the bigger the boom, the better the get away."

Aidyn glanced at Mikkel. "Mik, think a moment, I know your good at that. Stearns is a commanding officer. Piece him in with all that's fucked up lately, his whereabouts, and his lucky conviences in being just away..."

"Kaylinde, I'm talking about taking out our command ship. I'd be happy to take 'em out myself. The bastards were playing with my life also.

Kaylinde's eyes went wide at that. but he was right their 'own' people had tried to kill them...that negated any possible loyality, and it sure sounded the same for Aidyn. Slowly she nodded. It would make an excellent diversion. She looked at Talen and Tylas, letting them and the other see the agreement on her face. Then she turned to Mikkel and said exasperatedly.

"Mikkel, I saw Hans, he's the one that took me away from the Devilish, took me from the ones that were tortureing me. Where the hell did you think I got all those injurues from?"

"I figure the baddies had had enough fun Kaylinde."

Mikkel looked around the group. He couldn't believe his ears, what they were talking about was treason and insaity.

"What the fuck has gotten into you people? Taking out our own guys for what Stearns might have done? I don't believe this bullshit. I'm leaving."

Fed up, Mikkel turned to leave.

Tylas, silent throughout the exchange, cut in, latching onto Mikkel's arm with enough force in his grip to send a clear message through his claws...

"Of course it was a UNSSC-fired nuke... The militia where ill-equipped & the marines where taking heavy losses. They where being over-run, and with the SF teams on patrol in the jungle being hit hard, they freaked. When faced with a mighty foe, softskins have been known to over-kill their enemies... While I do not agree with destroying our one of our own ships, because thousands of loyal servicemen work aboard it, I do agree with the plan..."

Tylas' grip doesn't weaken...

"We cannot go to Tanara, there'd be some huge falling out over your people harboring deserters. I belive that Talen & I can also get some free-lance work in the rim regions..."

OOC: I'm laying the groundwork for a sequel here... HINT HINT...

Kaylinde relaxed back as Tylas stopped Mikkel. He had been one short step away from death.

"Tylas, Tanara isn't part of this shitty multigovernment fubar. but if you want go head out to the rim, I understand...but I can get you citizenship to provide some sort of safety net, and passage out there....Like I said, I've got pull"

She hesitated a second and explained "I had to get special permission to leave the empire. I'm Kaylinde Althea Regina Moore- Apollon - Ruling Lady of House Moore- Apollon...The biggest weapons research and manufacturer in the quadrant...and I have a shipment of arms and armor coming that makes the stuff we're being given here look like dull swords"

Talen looked at her with nothing short of alarm, sitting bolt upright in his bed before the stinging pain of torn muscles pulled him back down again... Tylas released his grip on Mikkel's arm...

"You are who? What? I am confused..."

Talen was quicker to respond...

"I'm guessing she's some kind of royalty..."

Mikkel let out a cry in pain as Tylas grabbed his arm. He struggled, trying to break free. Mikkel nodded as Tylas spoke, praying to God he would let him go.

"You're gonna break my arm man."

The idea of pain flashed from his mind as he heard Kaylinde speak. He looked over at her, a slightly confused expression on his face. As soon as he felt Tylas let go, Mikkel leaned against the wall and rubbed his arm, easing the pain.

He looked at Kaylinde.

"What kind of weapons are these?"

"Well, economic royality. MA Arms has a lot of pull...and I'm the only living direct descent, seeing as how my parents died before I was decanted."

She smiled grimly then turned to check Mikkels arm. Relieved to see that claws had not pierced flesh, she turned back to the group and continued

"If the Empire found out that I had been put at risk like that, being nuked by our own side, they'd at the very least cut off all trade and impose heavy sanctions...if not out and out declare a war. I...theoretically...control a huge voting block, the biggest in the Upper and Lower. The govenment can't afford to 'blow me off'...but...enough of that, doesn't interest me...now to weapons and armor which does."

She went on to describe high powered, lightweight, rapid fire laser carbines, and smg's. Also plasma packet rifles, and hyper pistols, whos fletchettes were explosive tipped.

Armor, ablative laminate that shrugged off energy weapons and slug throwers. The integral tarteting , jumpacks, communications, hud, and air purifiers, built in medi kits, the c cubed for command armor and the speed of scout armor and more that made the Powered Armor deadly and space worthy as well.

The footfalls of the anti-EXO warriors betrayed their position as the sounds traveled deeply into the cave, disappearing into the depths. They had followed Hans' beacon to this cave, and knew he was inside. Now, they had become wary, knowing that Hans was extremely dangerous. However, they were built to counter such creatures, and so they stepped forth ever mindful of their surroundings.

Suddenly, a number of vines above snapped downward and whipped one of the warriors. The roar of tumbling, shifting and falling rocks suddenly filled the cave and echoed out to the night sky. A large boulder shook the cave floor, only to be followed by several other boulders sending great quakes throughout the cave. As the warriors recovered from the attack, they moved quickly to gather their forces together. However, the attack had worked, if only minimally.

They growled slightly as they beheld the crushed arm protruding from under one of the boulders. Nevertheless, one was dead. And it wasn't Hans.

They moved stealthily into the cave, their senses alert, their eyes now very carefully scanning the shadows of the night-infested cave...

Kaylinde was very unhappy inside. She was far happier talking about the arms and armour she'd sent for. Those were things she knew. Kaylinde had never spent much time thinking about her status as a child she'd grown up alone, too isolated from others.

That changed when as a teenager she had had more freedoms,... and after she had emancipated herself ...Kaylinde was not welcomed for herself, a shy, gawky rather plain duckling, but as the only scion of unimaginable wealth and power. That disaster had made her run back to the pasttimes that she could do alone..and when that had become unbearable she'd, for once, happily used that power to get the 'dodge out of hell' as one of the House Staff had so suscincetly put it ( they thought they were'nt over heard, but Kaylinde had just chuckled bitterly and kept on packing ).

Now she was certain she had lost her new friends as well...she just hoped she hadn't lost Hans....

She looked at Aiden and the others...

"Taylas is right , we shouldn't kill "our" own people for what the leaders have done...The ship that brings in the 'goodies' can hang in orbit - with the start of rebuilding there are a large number of freighters in orbit. We can send a group to the Devlish ship, and a group for Hans, then each group can make it to the Tanaran freighter....I'm willing to be that the ship they send will be a Q ship."

Talen cocked his head to one side out of curiosity...

"You where what? Decanned?"

2nd Liutenant Sasha Light blinked quickly, taking in all that was said as she listned to Talen and Tylas. "I'm in. But... I can't let you guys kill Stearns or destroy one of our own ships. It's... It's part of my oath. I can't let UNSSC personnel die while there's something I can do to stop it."

"And why are we condeming our own to death? Maybe, there's a reason Teris is doing what's he's doing, and there's something we can do to help? No one is beyond redemption..." She sighed, then shrank away from the group suddenly, feeling as if her popularity has went down a point or two. Plus, add up being out-numbered and surrounded by would-be deserters who already showed they saw nothing wrong with killing innocent UNSSC personnel for no apparent reason besides being a potentional threat to their desertion, she didn't feel as safe as she should, and it showed. Her muscles tensed, taking on a readiness to flee, even through the tent 'wall' if need be.

I'm not a soldier. I'm just combat support. A Medic... They won't kill me... Erm... But there are hundreds of Medics on any one of our capital ships, and they'll blow that up just because... I'm dead. They're going to kill me! I'm so stupid! Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut? Stupid stupid stupid!

~~~~~~~~~
Teris Stearns

Master Sergeant Teris Stearns stood before a disiplinary commitiee, currently recessed to deliberate on his fate. He had already presented his case as to why he was the only one on the EVAC Shuttle just before the Forward Staging Area was blown to kingdom come.

And the case he presented was pretty convincing. It seemed orders came from one of the battle ships (Which was conviently destroyed during combat with the Devilish Fleet, so all traces from its communication logs were lost. But, luckily, Stearns provided his own copy of the base communications logs, and sure enough there was the message. Of course, it was fake, but Stearns knew enough to make it look legit to even the toughest critic), was that Stearns was to come up to the ship alone, to recieve an urgent communication marked for his eyes only. Just after the base was wiped from Argonia, he had doubled back, and began to search for survivors, putting himself at risk. Not only that, he found survivors, and they were currently recovering.

If anything, he'd probably be hailed a hero, and given a medal or two for acts of selfless bravery. Little did they know how close he came to desertion. But, that was all a moot point now.

"Yes , decanted, detubed, what ever term you want, brought to term in an uterine replicator. My parents donated egg and sperm, had them gene-teched, fertilized and went off and got themselves killed three months before I was matured enough to be hatched, born what have you."

Kaylinde said wearily. She knew that she'd really put herself in the 'wierdo' catagory now. It was perfectly acceptable in the Empire, but out here not so much so it seemed.

"No Sasha, we aren't going to kill 'our' side, but we are leaving and as for Stearns...If he's one of the traitors, well they'll find out soon enough...Calm down, your fur's standing on end"

Kaylinde teased weakly

Sasha nods slowly to Kaylinde, relaxing just a smidge. She's my friend. I trust Kaylinde. She wouldn't let the others hurt me... She reasoned to herself...



((OOC: @_@ Sorry it's uber short. Can't think of anything else to put.))

Aidyn cast a quick glance to Sasha. You've got to be kidding me...

"An oath? You are willing to let a traitor, a guy who was willin' to kill us for only the Gods know why, for an oath?!" he shook his head. "Why don't you go with the other group, I take care of Stearns, and I don't have to kill him. Just make him learn never to play with mine, or any of you guys's lives ever again..."

Kaylinde caught Aidyn's eyes and with the barest flicker told him she knew what he would be doing, and agreed. She completely agreed with him. Their group came before any possible reason the traitor could have had, any.

She turned her attention to Talen, inwardly worried for the big Argonian, he still was not completely healed and she didn't understand why he haden't been tubed for a time. Was there something going on that she was oblivious to?

"You have the intel dump, care to share it, so we can factor it into our plans"

ooc: I've been busy for a while. someone wanna catch me up on where we are so that i can jump back in relatively easily.

WA< Hope you don't mind, here comes short and intense version...

We were healed up and recieved special forces training whil enroute to the planet of Argonia ( Talen & Tylas's home planet - wet, marshy, hot and under attack by a new form of Devilish ).

Our new CO is a jerk with an ego the size of a planet - we get sent down in scouting teams. The teams get hit hard, a do the marine base and the rest of the planet. Most teams get scatterd, some we lose all contact with. Kaylinde gets captured, get tortured, gets free with the help of Hans. Has is not dead as we have been told. He has been experimented upon by the Devilsih, but breaks free and gets Kaylinde back to the rest of her group.

The 'good guys/ our side' panick and drop nukes on the marine base and the capital city. Stearms rescues the group from approaching fire storm - but after a group of the new Devilish attack the group, which are defeated only after Hans wades into the fray, hidden with in the body armor the Devilish have bonded to his body. Hans leaves with out revealing himself, but Kaylinde eventaully tells Talen and Taylas his secret.

Currently they are at a temporary base while recovering from various injuries. They have recieved new ordersr tasking them to assault a crippled devilish ship. They are discussing alternatives.

( I'd really suggest reading the 25 posts, most of them are very short, and you could easily say that your character had been listening in stunned silence to the various things being revealed and discussed )

Talen waves a hand in dismissal at Kaylinde's concerned look...

"It's a tissue wound, nothing more. If anything, I can wait on the ship while the rest of you do the fun stuff. As for Tylas and myself, we popped out of eggs, so I guess the 'decanting' process isn't that much different..."

It wouldn't have been something he'd look forward to doing, but if his future health dictated that he be laid up while his comrades knocked-and-rocked, so be it...

"And Sasha, we aren't blasting any of our own people to the depths of Hell just because they'll get in our way. I won't have it..."

The older Kerrich inhales deeply, being ever-mindful of his healing abdomen...

"As for intel, we don't have much. Plan-wise, we form two groups, just like before, with one completing the aforementioned mission, and the other going back to Argonia under the pretense of dealing with the last EXO unit, while in reality we snag him from wherever he's holed up at, the meet up back on the Devilish ship with the first team & using the insertion shuttle to escape to some remote planet..."

Again, his gaze falls on Kaylinde...

"And Kaylinde has so graciously offered her homeworld as a resting station where we can split off & go our seperate ways for a time, then meet up later on when things have cooled off a bit..."

OOC: I'll end this RP after the team jumps to Tanara, or wherever else we decide to go, but never fear, as I already have a sequel in the works... Details soon.

Aidyn cast a quick glance to Sasha. You've got to be kidding me...

"An oath? You are willing to let a traitor, a guy who was willin' to kill us for only the Gods know why, for an oath?!" he shook his head. "Why don't you go with the other group, I take care of Stearns, and I don't have to kill him. Just make him learn never to play with mine, or any of you guys's lives ever again..."

Sasha rolled her eyes at Aidyn. "Maybe an oath means nothing to you, but I take my oaths very seriously. In the grand scheme of things, we have nothing but our word, and I gave my word that I'll never let a UNSSC member die while there's something I can do to prevent it. And, this is all speculation. There's no hard evidence suggesting he's a traitor. I trust the Master Sergant, I've talked with him. He doesn't seem the traitor type to me..." As soon as the words left her mouth, this thought occured to her, Then again, I've never met a traitor before... Ah well, everyone at least deserves the benefit of the doubt until something proves otherwise... She sighed, and shook her head.

She listened to Talen speak, nodding every so often. "... I'll probably be needed more with the group going to the Devilish ship. I'll make a request to have more medical packs rationed to me." She nods slowly, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against a nearby medical instrument.

Tylas nodded in agreement. An oath to an Argonian warrior was not something taken lightly, like the oath of enlistment they'd all taken before any of them had seen combat. He'd debated with Talen for many hours in hushed tones about the pros and cons of such a decision as desertion, which carried a penalty of death. In the end, they'd decided to stock as much weaponry as they could aboard the insertion shuttle, then use it to escape with enough hardware to either deal on the black market or establish themselves in the free agent sector.

With Talen's ribs healing at a much slower rate than previously thought, it looked as if they'd need to smuggle him aboard the shuttle as well, or at least get him assigned to it to act as the coordinator for the mission itself...

"The fate of a man who has already saved our asses once doesn't concern me. Leave him to slip up & eventually get smoked out by Military Intelligence. We'll watch his execution from the safety of some seedy rim-world cantina, away from these constant suicide missions... It's been nothing short of a miracle that we've only recieved broken bones & stab wounds, much less not losing a single member of our original group..."

Tylas didn't count Syn, Roper, or Hardcastle... They hadn't been in their respective squads, and with the exception of Roper, they wheren't missed...

Aidyn looked around at the group. "So we're just gonna let the guy go then? And let someone else take care of him?" He shook his head. I guess the guys in this side of the universe don't believe in vengance as much as we did back home...

"Alright, let's just finish the plan and get down to who's with who in this thang, sittin' around this tent isn't gettin' anything done."

"I need..I want to be in the group that goes down for Hans. He'll trust me more than any one else. I can even go alone of need be. The ship is going to be harder, I think, take more of us"

Kay spoke firmly, hiding the worry she felt at the small number of combatants. 'Just me, Tylas, Aidyn, Mikkel, Mathias and Sasha...so few to get so much done' she thought as she looked at her friends

War was brewing in the tightening confines of the bowels of hell's caverns. Each movement by either the anti-EXOs, or even Hans himself was a movement on an invisible, modified chess board. He was the last king of his team facing an army with no king behind them.

Nevertheless, they could put him into checkmate. He didn't intend to let this happen though. He was the knight, the king, and rook all rolled in one. He was power.

Still, they were the entire army. Minus one. It wasn't much of a loss so far, but hell, it was a win for the single enemy.

Hans gripped the walls silently, hidden in the shadows, and hidden by the mists that rose within the cave. They covered his image well enough to avoid detection by heat signature. As the ANTIs walked underneath him, spread out and ever searching for their prey, he struck swiftly. He fell swiftly, connecting armored feet with the head of the ANTI directly under him. The ANTI roared as he fell to the ground in surprise, but quickly recovered before falling completely. He pushed back up with immense strength, throwing Hans back into a rock wall. The cave shook under the impact, sending stacilites plunging downward to the ground. One even fell upon one ANTI, but it broke under contact. It hadn't hurt him, nor injured the armor.

Hans felt the shocking vibrations still trembling through his bones as he looked up at the ANTIs. Holy mother... he gulped as he realized he was in deeper shit than he realized. He leapt to his feet, and quickly ran to his left. The ANTIs gave chase, their specialized armor giving them advanced speed, specifically modified to help them catch him.

A powerful manacle clamped down on an outstretched leg, but was released when Hans spun about and delivered a kick to the ANTI's face. He scrambled to his feet again, moving quickly away. He exploded from the cave through another exit, one that was well disguised and raced toward the forests. He would need to break up these guys, and the cave simply wasn't going to cut it.

The ANTIs appeared into the world, their roars filtering through the air in every direction as they kept the deadly chase hot. Blasts of plasma shot forth, attempting to hit Hans as he maneuvered into the forests deeper.

Few people can accomplish such a thing. Few people even get half as far as Mathias had gotten. It was days since he went into shock. He was totally irresponsive yet totally aware. When he came to it was up and out. No waiting around. Just as Kaylinde finished speaking he was up and following her. It was all he could do.

He still had his weapon in his hand as he stood. Appearently they never removed it from him. It was certainly a plus at a time like this. He had seen so much but it was just beggining to register now. It was like an over flow of information but all he could do was take it and try to stay focused on the task ahead of him.

Talen nodded...

"Then we'll have Kaylinde lead the surface team. Don't attempt contact until the first team has fragged the Collective controller thingie, we've got no way of knowing if those hunter-killer things have found him yet, or what they're capable of. If they're made to hunt EXO units, we're probably no match for them..."

He paused for a moment, considering the team for the actual, and sanctioned mission...

"Tylas will lead the infiltration team, with Sasha tagging along to patch up any wounded we might incur. I'll trust the rest of you with your own assignments, but we'll need a bigger force for the ship infiltration. I'd like at least one other person to go with Kaylinde to the surface. Remember what Gunny Roper used to say: "Don't even go to shit without your battle-buddy. Chances are some piss-ant will cut your throat the moment you sit down..."

The Argonian chuckled softly at the colorful language that had allowed the comment to stick so vividly in his mind...

Mikkel had been quiet as the plans were being laid. After several scrapes with death at the hands of his comrades, he didn't want to say anything that might incur someone to plunge a knife into his throat. He simply leaned back and thought about what to do.

"I guess I can go with Kaylinde. If that is alright with you Kaylinde."

Kaylinde looked over at Mikkel, giving him a nod and a smile

"I'll be glad to have you with me Mikkel. The armor and weapons will be here tomorrow. We can go anytime after that. Talen, you could go with me to recieve the crates and simply not return from the freighter. You can listen in over their comm set up, the built in commo equipment will be frequency compatable"

The Argonian nodded, rolling a kink out of a shoulder as he sat up, making sure he was able to move when the time came...

"That will work well."

Sasha sighed, leaning her shoulder against a piece of medical equipment. She watched the others, studied them. These were more then her comrades. They were her family now. Kaylinde and Mikkel were going to be the surface team. Kaylinde... Please come back okay... She thought to herself, taking a seat finally on one of the cots.

"Okay. So tomorrow. I'll get in contact with the quartermaster and have the extra medical supplies ready before then." She nods to herself, heaving a sigh, placing both hands on her knees, her tail flicking back and forth slowly...

Mikkel smiled slightly at Kayinde agreed to have him along with her to go get Hans. He felt much calmer, more accepted by the group again.

"Kaylinde, when you last saw Hans...what kind of condition was he in?"

"He was thin, thinner that he was before, and it hurt him terribly when he ripped out the controller. He was covered with scars, though the injury he inflicted on himself when he tore out the control device healed unnaturally quickly...His eyes were so sad and tormented....and when he came and fought the ones that found us, just before we were picked up ...I think they managed to hurt him...he moved so slow when he left."

Her voice was pensive and barely audible

"I just hope we get to him in time."

Mikkel listened carefully to Kaylinde. He could only imagine what Hans looked like now. He took a deep breath.

"Kaylinde, we know he can find us. But since he is being hunted, he ain't gonna make himself known easily. How do you plan tracking him down? He isn't gonna stay in the same spot forever."

"He'll probably find us."

She let that drop into the silence

"Talen, let our superiors know we'll take the assignment. Set it up so that it goes off day after tomorrow.

"Talen you and I'll go accept the delivery tomorrow, you stay on board the freighter to coordinate. Mikkel and I'll go for Hans. Tylas, Aidyn, Mathias, Thomas, Sasha will take the ship. We get Has and get to the freighter. You blow the Devilish ship, and get to the freighter. Freighter takes us to the safety of the empire. That the plan?"

**********************************************
OOC: Yes I know I've listed at least one person who seems to have dropped out but hey, we need numbers.

And forewarning the who is going where is going to change on the fly, but there's reason for that, so no one get upset, or retconing anything

Talen waves Mikkel closer, somewhat disturbed by his earlier reluctance to participate in the dual-purpose mission...

"Do me a favor... Take Tylas' place on the assault team. If you plan to stay, being the lead man in a successful ship infiltration will look damn good on your resume. I'd rather have you oversee it than my brother, as he tends to get somewhat wild with his shots & might space the rest of the team. If he's planet-side it won't matter..."

His voice was low, an octave above a whisper. Tylas would adapt to the assignment change with his usual quiet effectiveness...

OOC: This is that re-assignment Tanara was speaking of. The results set the scene for the second installment, so don't worry, it'll be worth it.

Mikkel looked at Talen. The young man thought about it for several minutes before nodding. Probably would be a bit safer going on the ship any how. Mikkel gave a very tiny nod and spoke in a low voice.

"Yeah, sure man."

Talen nodded slowly...

"Thank-you. If you wish to remain with the fleet afterwards, take the insertion shuttle & get clear of the square-head ship before we blow it..."

The Following Morning...

The Tanaran freighter lands at the temporary base, laden with advanced destructive devices for the SF team's use. Talen is loaded aboard & seated near some advanced communications equipment. Tylas drags one of the shiny crates down the loading ramp, bringing it to a stop in front of Kaylinde.
The others stand nearby, waiting anxiously to see what's within. There's a 'Christmas Day' feel to the whole situation...

Next to the foreign freighter sits the insertion shuttle, bascially a UNSSC dropship outfitted with forward ball-turrets containing higher-powered ADL's & a docking tube. It will be Team 1's transportation to the Devilish ship.

Tylas raps on the Tanaran crate with a scaly knuckle...

"Alright, Kaye... What has Santa brought us?"

The Argonian leans slightly on the lid, a playful look in his remaining organic eye...

Kaylinde activated the crates security devices and with a his of equalizing pressure the lid rises reavealing a suit of powered armor. There was one for each team member, including ones specially designed for Tylas and Talen. The suites were massive, but light weight and conformable to each individual wearer. The integral systems made it nearly the equivalent of a space capable MBU. With armaments to match.

"A New Years gift for each of us. And Shasha, while yours is not near as heavily armoured, you'll find that it has the equivallent of a full field surgical unit, and a complete diagnostic system as well. You can access the readings of any suits wearer and remote administer drugs to the suits wearer." She explained further as more of the crates were opened

"Tylas, and mine are scout suits, slightly lighter armor, but we're faster and have antigrav jump packs. Our sensor systems are longer ranged and more powerfull. The marauder suites are very heavily armored, with extra heavy pwoer supplies and the heaviest weaponry. Mikkel, you got the command suit, since you'll be leading the assault team."

She grinned "I've used these suites in simulations, they're fun, but you have to watch yourself. The amplified muscle power is impressive, but you need to learn that you do have to think about not breaking the egg when you pick it up. Then it clicks and you use it instinctively, the AI feedback really helps. The designers intended for it to be as natural as possible."

She located her suit and climbed in, and set about activating it, following the instructions provided. Once the suit awoke it's rudimentary AI fitted the internal sizing to her figure and began reporting the status of the various systems. Completed, all systems nominal, ready to roll, Kaylinde took three bounding strides away from the group. A slight crouch and she leapt straight up some twenty feet as the antigrav jump pack activated and 'leapt' her forward nearly eightly feet. She landed too heavily though, going down on bothknees and one hand.

"I definitely need to practise a bit" Her voice laughed over the external speaker

That same morning

The rising sun was enshrouded in the clouds of Argonia that gathered over the skies like a threatening presence. Deep within the forests, a single figure suddenly dashed past as he traveled by foot. He looked over his shoulder, checking to see if they were indeed following.

They were hardly a quarter of a mile away, their noisy movements giving their positions away to him. Hans kept going, his plan for action already having been decided the night before. He had managed to lose them for a short time, but the unknown beacon had brought them close again. Yet, in that time, he had almost fallen into a murky trap cleverly hidden in the undergrowth of the Argonian forestlands. As he ran, he leap and grasped a vine that hung nearby, swinging across an expanse of ground that seemed to dip in the terrain ever so slightly. He kept going a few more yards before halting and turning. He had only to wait for a short time before the ANTIs came running into the clearing. Instantly, they saw their prey standing in front of them, a menacing growl barely audible. Three of the four remaining ANTIs moved at an angle from the unseen danger in front of them, their paths taking them safely away and curving toward Hans.

The last ANTI roared and fired his blaster at Hans, who dove out of the way. It charged forward, its feet quaking the ground beneath it with stunning ferocity and speed. Then, in a blink of an eye, the ANTI suddenly sank falling downward into the murky quicksand. It roared in its realization of the danger as it thrashed about, struggling to extract itself from the hungry pit. At last, its head sank below the surface, an arm outstretched upward, still struggling for survival.

Hans turned and ran quickly as he saw the ANTI first take its steps and fall into the quicksand. As he ran, the forest exploded behind him as the other three EXOs suddenly appeared and gave chase. A blast shattered a tree nearby, its blast radius causing Hans to stumble and fall to his knees. He scrambled back to his feet, only to suddenly feel an ANTI grab him violently and thrusting him into the nearest tree with violence. As he rose slowly, he looked up to see them advancing, their victory clearly seen in their walk. The closest ANTI rammed one of his vibro-blades into Hans torso, causing him to scream aloud as the blade entered through the armor and into the flesh of his left side. He was silenced with a thundering smash to the face.

The limp body of the EXO now lay upon the ground, two ANTIs standing guard, their guns aimed downward at him. The last ANTI turned away to make a transmission to the Devilish command of the mission's status. In the devilish tongue the conversation was carried out.

"Subject has been captured, as commanded." reported the gruff, emotionless voice of the ANTI commander.

"How many of you are left?" came the static reply.

"Three. Two are dead. One swallowed by the planet, the other crushed by boulders." The commander gave a slight growl as he thought back on his team members.

"Pity." the voice replied flatly. "Rendevous with the dropship on the mountaintop in sector 3-1-4-6-3. Bring him with you."

"Yes sir." replied the commander as he signed off and turned back to the others. He looked down to the EXO lying unconscious at their feet. With a deep growl he stepped forward quickly and delivered a vicious kick to the EXO's torso, turning him over several times until he collided limply against the legs of the other ANTIs.

"Let's go." the commander demanded as he checked his coordinates and set off toward the rendevous site. "We've got to travel a day and a half's hike. This guy led us far from our LZ."

Mikkel looked at the suit, it looked like something out of an American sci-fi film. He removed his pistol holster and his glasses as he climbed into the suit. The young man followed the instructions and waited for the suit to come alive. He flexed his fingers, then arms, then legs.

Mikkel smiled and was jolted when he saw a small screen near him suddenly come alive with data. The screen in front of him, the team had been a blurry mess a few seconds before. Now, they were crisp and clear.This...is friggen awesome. Gotta buy one of these off the net.

Mikkel tested out his com. "Okay, I am up and running. Kaylinde, is it possible to buy one of these off Ebay?"

Kayelinde could hear how pleased Mikkel was and laughted again as she sprang to her feet.

"Nope, technically I'm violateing DORA by bringing them out of the Empire, but" Her voice went cold "Hans is more important than stuff we are less than a year from releasing to general military purchase. Nothing the marines have given us has given us any edge with the Devilish. We're dieing for lack of equipment, and thats not right."

She shook her head inside the suit, even though it couldn't be seen, and continued "Every one suit up and get a couple of hours practise in before we lift off. Can't hang around here too long."

Sasha grinned from ear-to-ear. The new suit, coupled with the surplus of medical supplies she managed to sweet talk into her possesion would really help her accomplish her goal.

Carefully, she slipped into the suit, following the instructions that came with it. The AI activated, and she started off slower then the others, getting used to the general feel of it before moving around too much. "It's kinda like... A spacesuit, almost..." She said aloud, not yet realizing that her com was on. "And it's a bit tight around my butt... Ohh... why did I eat that bagel this morning? I knew it was gonna come back and haunt me!"

Kayline laughed at Sasha moan about the rear fit "Reposition your tail, and I bet it fits better, and it's supposed to be snug. It is among other things a space suit."

She started working her way through a set of exercizes designed to familiarize herself with all the suits functionions

"I doubt that we'll be ablet to utilize even fifty percent of what these suits are fully capable of, that takes moretraining time than we've got" Kaylinde commented as she watched the others work through their own set of instructions

((OOC: Phew, didn't have so much to catch up on as I'd thought...))

Aidyn readied his equipment. He geared up his new suit and moved around in it, getting used to the feel. He examined the weapons and armor. Some fancy goods here...

"Gotta love these crazy ass missions," he said grinning. "We go down, it's sure as hell gonna be in a blaze of death and glory. Gods, once this is over, I'll pay for first of drinks."

Mikkel was quickly becoming used to the large suit and the array of sensors inside. He felt a tremor of exictment run through him as he moved around in it. He kept track of everyone on the small GPS inside of his helmet. He turned to Kaylinde.

"Ready to rock and roll and kick some ass?"

Kaylinded gave him a thumbs up and with Tylas next to her headed for in atmosphere shuttle. She'd slid some credits to the pilot to make a short detour on his assigned resupply run. She and the Argonian would be unrecorded passengers and the stop near the caves, a minor malfunction in the navigation equipment.

Behind her she could hear the big insertion shuttle spooling up. It would be taking the rest to the crippled Devilsih ship. She wished them the best of luck

Mikkel waved goodbye to Kaylinde and Tylas as he took the rest of the team into the shuttle that would take them to the Devilish ship. He took his seat and rubbed his hands together, anxious to get his over. He looked at the rest of his team.

"Everybody alright?"

OOC: Wandering Argonians will be away until August, and has asked myself and Tarlachia to take over his threads. This thread was very close to ending as it stands ( and there will be a sequel - Ascent into Hell - starting in August)

So this is one of the last posts for this RP and it begins to wrap everything up, origins wise, for our intrepid band of brothers. I hope to see all of you in August for Ascent into Hell - I've enjoyed gaming with all of you.

***********************************************

Argonian system, deep space.

A Devilish cruiser floats crippled, but far from dead, and the marine insertion shuttle appraoches cautiously, but no hositle fire comences. The docking is rough and makeshift, for the two technologies are vastly different. The Devilish ship has taken significant damage in the powerplant and engineering sectors, as well as having most of their weapons emplacents blown out. The ship is under only partial enviromental, the corridors mostly dark, the lifts unworking, and in many places the ship is breached to space. It is not easy for the team to make its way to the command center, and there are more than a few exo's and other Devilish creations to over come. There are many times when the fighting is tense, and many of the small band are certain - that despite the new armor and the much more powerful weapons, that they have failed in their mission.

None of them are willing to give up though- adapt, improvise, and over come is a marines ancient motto, and they, each in their own fashion, live up to and beyond. Hours later, tired, injured, and low on ammo they stand on the deserted bridge of the enemy cruiser. It takes some figureing out but eventually they find the core command, the controller of all the Devilish in the battered hulk and on the planet below. The controller is destroyed and powerful matter/antimatter explosives set on timer. The marines, now deserters, exit the derilict and take the shuttle to the waiting Tanaran freighter.

There they will be joined by those who went to find Hans.

(more to come)

Upon the misty swamplands of Argonia, war raged like a caged beast railing against the bars of the planet, destruction in its wake. The rescue team consisting of only Kaylinde and Tylas, having arrived precisely where Kaylinde had last left Hans, suddenly found their situation thickening in its drama and danger. They had sought out the caves and had observed the remains of the battle inside. As they were regrouping outside the caves, the two suddenly aimed their weapons at the forest not too far from them.

Each had in their sights, the three Devilish ANTIs carrying a bound figure that hung unconsciously. A fierce battle erupted once more as both Kaylinde and Tylas fought valiantly in their new suits. And yet, despite the better technology in the hands of the two marines, the ANTIs fought back as viciously as their foes.

Alas, the ANTIs fell, one by one, until the last gun finished rattling its empty cartridge and silence fell upon the area once more. Kaylinde in her sudden worry about Hans rushed to him. She pried his facial armor back, revealing his face at long last to the others. It was a face that mirrored the torture, and the battles. It was a face of war and sacrifice. "He's breathing!" Kaylinde said at last, a joyful tear running down her face. A report of other marines arriving not too far from the caves was heard, prompting Kaylinde to stand up and face the other soldier whom had become her comrade in arms.

"Go! Take him with you! I will distract them!" she commanded. She gave a long last look at the unconscious EXO. Tylas turned to her and spoke, "I am staying too."

"Tylas, he's not conscious enough to walk on his own. You'll have to get him to the pick up point." Kaylinde was adamant, and the young Argonian nodded reluctantly.

Lifting Hans over his shoulder in a firemans carry he disappeared into the undergrowth. Kaylinde waited at the site of the combat for the Marines to arrive. Her explaination was that Tylas had gone off tracking a last Devilish.

When the rest of the band of brothers landed the shuttle at the pick up site Hans, barely conscious was there, but there was no sign of Tylas. Running short of time the deserters rendevoused with the Tanaran freighter and Talen. They escaped to the safety of the Empire, and went their seperate way.

This is the end of this book, and yes there are others coming.

Please, this is ended, no more posting in this thread