“When the darkness comes, keep an eye on the light - whatever that is for you - no matter how far away it seems.”
~ Jan Berry

Lynnette shook her head clear as she pulled herself from the steering wheel. She felt a wetness on her forehead and wiped her paw over it, she looked at her paw and seen that it came back bloody. She heard a groan and looked over to her right and seen the fennec starting to move.

“Fae, you alright?”

“Yeah...” The hybrid muttered. “Lets not do that again...”

“Agreed.”

The two looked out the windshield, taking stock of the carnage that was around them. The collision had happen so fast that the two barely registered the impact, it was a miracle in her mind that not only did they survived, but was also able to ram their intended target. Lynnette was certain that the trans-axle vehicle was wrecked from the drop, but the Defiant ATV still was able to plow strait into the sedan size drone tank after it had bounced off the ground roughly. The rather large ATV that was slightly bigger than a cargo van was now sticking out of the side of a building. Whitish metal was twisted all around them with a Mass Acceleration Turret that had been on top of the drone was now puncturing through the windshield, pointing at the seat between the two of them. The sound of small pieces of rubble falling onto the roof was enough to bring them out of their stupor and bring them back to reality.

“I think we better get out now.”

“Yeah...”

The two had to force the doors open because of the surrounding rubble but they quickly got out. Both were silently thankful that neither of them were injured beyond a few bumps and bruises from the crash. Minus the gash in the snow leopard's forehead.

Lynnette quickly grabbed the duffle bag and finally took notice of the gear that was piled I back. “What the?...” She said as she gazed in back of the ATV.

“What is it?” Faelynne asked as she came up next to the feline.

Lynnette nodded towards what could only be weapon cases piled in the back. “There's a small arsenal sitting in there.”

Before either of them could comment anymore, Faelynne's eyes grew wide and grabbed her friend's arms and threw the two of them away from where they were and onto the ground. Lynnette wanted to ask the medic what was going on, but she got her answer when the back of the Defiant was engulfed in an explosion that ripped the vehicle in two and sent the back flying into the air landing several feet away. The two covered themselves with their arms as shrapnel and equipment rained all around them. Lynnette looked up to see three more drone tanks crawling towards them like some spider going after their pray, and the two of them were the flies in the web.

“We got to get to Sub building D.” Lynnette said as she picked herself and helped Faelynne back to her feet.

The fennec gave Lynnette a look as if she was trying to read her mind. “Is that where the others are?”

“Most of them.” She said as she pulled Faelynne out of the way as two of the drones opened up with anti-personnel munitions, there was no high pitch whine of an energy build up but a dull crack of live munitions. The two girls quickly ducked behind a building and winced as the air was filled with dust and debris.

“Where's the building?” Faelynne called out over the noise of gunfire and rubble hitting the ground.

“This way.” Lynnette said after she regain her bearings and moved to continue down the alleyway that they were in. They had just rounded the corner when they heard a loud crack and the wall exploded behind them. Both girls gave a terrified scream as the debris rained around them. Thankfully the first alley was too small for the drone to give chase. But that didn't stop another from getting ahead of them and gaze at them with its robotic eye. “Oh Sh...” Both girls barely had time to duck into a nearby exit as bullets went flying through where they were.

Being momentarily safe, Lynnette took off the duffle bag and pulled out her compression rifle. She went to hand the medic another rifle when she held up her hand. “I prefer to stick with my sidearm.” The fennec pulled out her pistol and primed it.

Lynnette regarded Faelynne for a moment before nodding and placing the rifle back in the bag. She hefted the bag back over her shoulders and armed her rifle with a satisfying 'bweee'. “At least now we should be ready.” The two made their way through the building in hopes that the drones won't be looking for them on the other side. Thankfully when they arrived at the door, there wasn't anything waiting for them that they could see. They stopped at the door frame and Lynnette pointed out their destination. “Third building on the left.” Faelynne nodded and the two cautiously stepped out into the open, leery of any surprises. They quietly made their way down the dirt road, keeping their eyes open for any of the drones to appear.

It was more of a shock when a burly white armored humanoid came out of a doorway and nearly ran into them. “Who the hell are you?” He yelled as he went for the pulse rifle slung on his back. Lynnette reacted quickly and slammed the long side of her compression rifle into the belly of the mystery trooper, making him double over. She then sent him flying backwards when she brought the rifle up under his chin knocking the man's helmet off his head. With the man laying on his ass on the ground, Lynnette aimed the barrel in the guy's face.

“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on this planet.”

The armored trooper gave her a cocky glare. “Didn't your teachers ever tell you don't point a weapon at someone unless you intend on using it. Besides, its not like you can threaten me with that toy. ”

Lynnette's eyes narrowed as she bared her fangs. The barrel dropped down which made the man grin till she pulled the trigger.

“AHHHH! GOD!!! MY LEG!!!!”

“Like my toy now?”

“BITCH! YOU SHOT MY LEG!!”

“No Shit!” Lynnette pushed the barrel into the trooper's cheek. “Now tell me what I want to know, NOW!”

“FUCK YOU!”

Lynnette growled and was ready to pull the trigger again till she felt a hand touched her shoulder. Looking back at the fennec hybrid, she gave her a knowing look. Lynnette's ear twitch in thought before she backed off a little to give Faelynne some room. The medic knelt down next to the man.

“I would suggest that you tell us what we want to know.” Faelynne said in her normal, calm voice

“What are you going to do? Have your friend blow me apart? Screw you Bitch!”

Lynnette noticed that the fennec's ear twitched at the word that the man called her. With practice ease, Faelynne reached into her med kit and pulled out a tube of some sort. She pulled a cap off exposing a rather large needle like nozzle on the one the end and, without warning, jammed the nozzle into the gaping wound in the man's leg. The man's scream was muffled by Faelynne forcing her hand over his mouth. The man screamed and thrashed against Faelynne in a mad attempt to get away, but the small hybrid remained firm and held him down. After he had settle down Faelynne pulled the tube away, making the man groan in agony.

“The HELL!” he spatted when Faelynne took her hand away.

“I only applied bio-gel to the wound to stop the bleeding.” She said matter of factly. “Though I may have neglected to use the painkiller.”

“You two are trying to KILL ME!”

“Its but a flesh wound.” Faelynne said mockingly. “Besides...” She glared at the man. “You'd be surprised at the amount of punishment that the body can take.”

“You two are CRAZY!”

“Sorry but I wasn't diagnose with schizophrenia.”

Before Faelynne could say anything more, Lynnette spoke up. “Look jackass, you got two choices right now; either answer our questions, or my friend here is going to find out how much pain your body will take. Keep in mind that she IS a medic, and I doubt that she'll let you off the hook easily.”

The three stared at each other in silence as the man contemplated his options. Finally he broke the silence. “Damn it... I'm not getting enough money to be tortured by a bunch of brats...”

“Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“My name is Perez, I was hired to come here.”

“You're a Merc?

“Ja, why else would I come to this stupid planet.”

Lynnette's eyes narrowed. “Who hired you and why?”

“To make sure that the cadet keeps their heads in the sand and out of the way.”

“Who Hired you!”

Before anymore could be said, a whizzing noise filled the air and the ground near them erupted in a shower of dirt. Lynnette grabbed Faelynne's arm and pulled her up and away from the Merc, leaving him to his fate. The two rounded the corner just in time to spot a done tank marching on their position flanked by what they assumed were two more Mercenaries dressed in the same off white armor as the first. Both Mercs raised their pulse rifles and filled the air between them with energy fire, causing bits of concrete and other small debris to fly into the air in their wake.

Lynnette stopped long enough to turn around and send her own volley at the invaders. The two continued to march towards her ignoring the compressed energy till two of the three rounds found their mark and sent the man flying back in a cry of pain as the energy burned through their armor. The second fled in shock for cover after the reality that what the girls were using weren't training weapons. The done, now alone, brought its under-slung turret to bare and aimed in Lynnette's general direction. The snow leopard fired at the drone tank while quickly making her getaway moments before the air was filled with gunfire.

She followed after Faelynne and found the medic around another corner. While she was glad that she had caught up with her friend, but the fennec unknowingly lead them into a dead end alley. Before the girls could think of their next step, the sound of the drone's foot falls were clearly getting near. “Oh... Hell...” Lynnette muttered as she looked at her friend. With their backs to the wall, the Caushae dropped to one knee and readied her compression rifle to fire on its deadliest setting.

Lynnette took a deep breath as she attempted to steady her nerves. The trampling sound of the done didn't help any as it grew louder. She only had one shot to stop the thing, and even then, it was a gamble. If she could hit the drone's robotic eye...

Time seem to slow down as the drone appeared at the end of the alley and immediately locked on the girls. Lynnette watch the sedan size tank come into view and could see that both the high powered anti-armor mounted on top and the under-slung anti-personnel turrets moved towards the two girls as she aimed. She gave a silent prayer that her aim was true and pulled the trigger, releasing the compressed energy from the barrel in a flash of angry energy. It seemed like the red bolt lingered in the air as it traveled down the alley at its intended target. In reality, the energy bolt flew fast as it cut through the air in a sizzle and struck the drone tank.

The drone began to wail in a high pitch electronic scream as it's robotic eye was disintegrated into a shower of sparks and components. The unit began to flail as it started to malfunction, its turrets swiveled wildly as its possessors started to overload from the damage it received and the sudden loss of its sensory input. The two girls were trapped in the alley and could only watch while the drone tank thrashed about at the entrance. Lynnette fired twice more, hoping to burn a hole into its armor and put the thing out of its misery by destroying its internal workings. To her dismay though, both energy rounds reflected off the white armor and fly off in a random direction. After several long minutes the drone finally collapsed in a smoking heap as its internal circuits finally gave out.

Lynnette stood up and approached the drone tank, her rifle held at the ready as she approached. She walked right up to the smoking mass of metal before giving it a nudge with the barrel of her rifle. Wanting to make sure that the thing was indeed 'dead' she aimed into the hole where the camera was and fired twice into the more delicate components inside. The Caushae turned to the medic and waved her forward. Faelynne nodded as she followed the feline out of the dead end alley. They had to climb over the drone's remains some to get back onto the dirt road like path. Lynnette cursed the drone seeing where they were, the thing chased them further away from their destination.

“Lets go.” Lynnette started to say when a pulse round flew over head. Both girls dove for cover as several more energy pulses streaked by. Lynnette poked her head out of cover and quickly ducked as several of the rounds tried to hit her.

“How many?” She heard Faelynne say.

“A dozen men, maybe more.” The fennec hybrid nodded as she stepped out of cover in a kneeling position with her sidearm at the ready. She fired twice and quickly stepped back into cover as the space where she was at was filled with purple energy.

“Sixteen, now fourteen.”

Lynnette just rolled her eyes. “Show off!”

Faelynne had a bit of the advantage over Lynnette, as the medic was inside a decent size crevasse in the wall, while she was hiding behind the hulk of the drone tank with the duffle bag and had to stay at least in a sitting position to have any kind of decent cover. Both girls were pinned at their location and couldn't move without serous risk of being shot. She pulled the bag off of her and rolled onto her belly out of cover to take a few pot shots at the advancing troops. Between the angle she was at and Faelynne picking off two of them, she didn't have a clear shot at any of the enemy. Lynnette's rifle started to whine as she activates the highest power setting again and takes a shot at three of the trooper's cover. The three blasts causes dust and rubble to fly into the trooper's helmets, blinding them long enough for her to pick off two of her intended targets. The third got lucky when he stumbled backwards and fell over. Lynnette rolled back just in time to dodge the return fire as where she was, was peppered with pulse fire that kicked up a lot of dirt.

Faelynne made a risk move and poked her muzzle out into the open before quickly getting back into cover. “Good news, bad news. Twelve left, but they're getting reinforcements.”

“Are you kidding?” Lynnette grumbled as she tried to listen and peak over her cover. Sure enough, there was more white armored troops heading their way, escorting another drone tank. “Shit!” Lynnette bit her lip as she tried to think of how to get out of the situation.

Faelynne stepped out of cover and took three shots before getting back in. “What's the plan?”

Before Lynnette could say anything, three tube like objects bounced into the road by the advancing mercenaries. One of them looked down at the object and before he could react or shout a warning, the area was lit up in a blinding flash and soon filled with a dense smoke that engulfed the mercs.

“Lynnette!” A familiar voice shouted from behind the two. “This way!”

The two girls looked at each other before they broke cover and hustled towards where the voice came from. Three figures came out of the alleyway and took up firing positions as they approached, Lynnette giving a thankful grin as she recognized the smaller human.

“You are a sight for sore eyes, James.”

“So are you Lynnette,” He said as he pointed down the alley. “Take the second door on the right and follow the hall to the end, and through the room. The door will lead into the open, but we're held up across the way. With all the commotion you've been causing, whoever they are, are all out of position so you should be able to get to where we're hold up.”

“What bout you three?”

James looked at the other two that was with him, the Lycans each nodded at James before he turn back to the snow leopard. “We'll buy you guys some time to get going.”

“Here they come!” One of the Lycans shouted as he dropped to one knee and proceeded to fire into the smoke that was dissipating.

Lynnette's ear twitch as she looked at the human, despite being hopelessly out gun, the three we're willing to stall the mercenaries for as long as they could.

“I don't like your odd...” She said as she brought the duffle bag around so she could open it. “How about evening them some?” She pulled out a compression rifle and handed it to James. “Its dangerous to go it alone, take this.”

James scoffed at her joke but accepted the fully functional weapon. Taking an energy pack from her, he slapped it in place and whistled at his canine companions. Once he had their attention, he tossed the weapon to the Lycan, which he snatched out of the air and replaced his training weapon with it. James was about to do the same with the other Lycan when he held up his hands and made a cutting motion with his hands. James nodded and put his own training rifle off and replaced it with the compression rifle in his hands.

“Guessing that you only have a limited supply.” James said as he looked at the feline. She nodded, she only grabbed a little over a dozen actual rifles. While she had more packs that could be used to convert the rifles that she grabbed, they didn't offer the same functionality of the regular weapons. She went to grab another power pack but James grasp her wrist. “Don't worry about it, get those to everyone else.” James looked up at Lynnette and gave her a slight shove. “So get your furry ass moving, NOW!”

Lynnette nodded and he turned to face the coming onslaught. However before she left, she rustled in the bag and pulled out three grenades. “Give them hell.” She said as she handed them over to James before turning and sprinting after Faelynne.

The two got half way through the long hallway when Lynnette stopped. The building shook from two explosions followed by a series of lesser impacts. She wanted to go back and help them and without realizing it, turned to head back till a hand gripped her shoulder. She looked back at Faelynne who just shook her head.

“We still have a mission to finish and more lives to try and save.”

“I know...” Lynnette said dejectedly as she turn back and lead the way through the rest of the building.

The two moved in silence as the building still shook from the occasional impact from the fighting outside. Getting to the door proved easy and a quick glance outside showed no surprises laying in wait for them.

“Looks clear, but lets be careful.”

They exited cautiously keeping their eyes open for any trouble as they crossed the open ground. They were halfway across when they heard an angry shout and had to double time it the rest of the way to avoid the purple pulse fire that was now coming their way. Lynnette peeked over the cover that she had got behind and seen that there were more Mercenaries that was at the other end, she might have been right in guessing that they were running to reinforce the large group that's fighting James's small squad. A whistle brought her attention to another human cadet that had appeared and was holding an Emergency Exit door open and waving at them to get in.

Lynnette got Faelynne's attention and the two quickly made their way into the safety of the building. She let out a long sigh as she relaxed a bit feeling safe being at their destination. However, she flinched at the multiple whine sounds of energy rifles powering up.

“Who are you and what are you doing here.” Lynnette looked up at the speaker, he was another Lycan, though his fur pattern resembled that of an Earth fox. While he was in similar gear to her, the rifle he was holding wasn't a LeviCorp. training rifle, but probably one of the Merc's pulse rifles that he was able to get.

“LCT Cadet Lynnette Wilkes, with me is Cadet Faelynne Aleira, who is a medic. We're here to help.” The other four visibly relaxed and started to lower their weapons, however, the Lycan held his rifle at the ready.

“Bullshit.” The Lycan spat as his hands twisted around the weapon's grips. “The coms are down and I doubt Command would send two girls here to investigate what's going on.” The two stared down the Lycan who was fidgeting slightly as he held the girls at gunpoint and the other cadets were looking at each other, confused on what they should do. The group stayed in the stand off for what seemed like hours till another voice spoke up, another one that she was familiar with.

“Damn it Aclide! Back off and stand DOWN!” A human hand gripped the pulse rifle, pushed it down and shoved the Lycan away from the girls. He turned to face them with a warm smile. “Hey Lynn...”

“Hey Justin, been a bit.”

Justin held his hand to her and when she grasp it, he pulled her into a hug making her yip in surprise. “Thank god you are here...” He said, nearly in tears at the sight of his old team mate. Lynnette squeezed the human as she felt him lightly sob into her shoulders. She could smell the blood on the human, not his own but a multitude of others. Closet thing she could figure was that he was stuck playing medic because when he was in her squad, he had the most medical knowledge out of the group. Lynnette looked at the gathered cadets, they silently watched the two with mixed emotions ranging from wanting to break down too to trying to keep their composure. After a few seconds he backed away finally and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Sorry.”

“Its okay.” Lynnette gave Justin a warm smile as she gripped his shoulder. “We're here and still alive.” She turned to regard the rest of the cadets. “So, who's in charge, I bare gifts.”

Lynnette and Faelynne was ushered inside and both were stunned when they entered the makeshift infirmary and command point. There was thirty some cadets in the room, the lucky ones only had minor cuts or bruising which was thankfully the majority. But there were still plenty that weren't as lucky as their fellow cadets. Faelynne immediately went to the nearest injured cadet and started to triage the various wounds and wounded. Lynnette left the medic to do her job as the fennec started to bark orders at the idle cadets.

“Even though he's seriously injured,” Justin said as the two walked around the injured cadets. “Fenrir refuses to take any pain pills and is still in charge giving everyone orders from his cot.” They came to a cot where a white Lycan was laying propped up and talking with another cadet. Lynnette noticeably winced at seeing the Lycan, she could see that what was left of the wolf's right arm was crushed plus his right leg was also in a makeshift splint. Then there was the fact that his furry tail was missing...

Lynnette thoughts drifted to Reg, wondering where he was at and what happened to him... She shook her head and got back to the present. “LCT Cadet Lynnette Wilkes. I'm here to help.”

Fenrir looked up from the data pad and the Lycan's red eyes seemed to leer at her as he sized her up as he regarded the feline. “So it was you that pulled the crazy stunt of crashing that ATV into a drone tank?” Lynnette's posture wavered a little as the Lycan stared her down. It was several long seconds of uncomfortable silence before Fenrir broke out laughing. “God damn, I figured it must have been some crazy son of a bitch to pull that stunt! But YOU?” He smiled as he shifted in the makeshift cot, which the cadet that was acting as his aid had to help steady the white wolf when he almost lost his balance and fell out. “LCT Cadet Fenrir'kurm.” He said as he went to reach out to her in a handshake. He winced with pain as he moved the stump of his right arm out of habit. He reached out with his left hand. “Sorry, I'm a little short handed.”

Lynnette gave a curt smile as she shook his hand. “Given the circumstance, its understandable. Seeing how I invited myself to this party and kind of dropped in unannounced, what's the current situation?” She asked giving slight grin.

Fenrir gave her his own grin with a look of 'I see what you did there' before waving to his acting aid and activated the holographic function of the data pad on his lap. Between the two, they pulled up a holographic map of the facility as he started to explain what he knew.

“Unfortunately, as you can probably tell, not all of us are currently here. I know that Cadet Rossetti and a few others are more than likely held up in the command center here.” Fenrir pointed out the mid size building facing the cliff on the other side of the facility. “We haven't been able to establish contact with him or his group and with the jamming that's going on, there's no way to get a message to the outside. I've tried to send a few volunteers to check on the situation there, however, they've either went missing or been captured. We know this because a few scouts has noticed them being lead to a location here.” he pointed to an open area surrounded by different structures on the map. “What these people are and why they're here is unknown to us.”

Lynnette spoke up, “From what Faelynne and I gathered so far, they're a mercenary group that was hired to pin you guys down and make you hide out until they're accomplish doing what ever it is that they're doing. What their objective is, is still unknown. And they've brought plenty of firepower it seems.”

Fenrir nodded in thought. “Indeed. They did seem to want to keep us held up and pinned down. For the most part they haven't seem too keen on storming this building. Probably rightfully figuring that there's not much we can do aside from waiting on reinforcements. Up until now anyway, as the enemy has landed an uncertain number of troops around us, but that was also after they had dropped those accursed Drone Tanks. A bit of good news is that we've only spotted about six of them patrolling the grounds with the limited recon we've been able to do. With the stunt that you pulled, we can estimate that they're down to approximately five...”

“Four.”

Fenrir looked up at the feline. “Four?”

“Four. Before James' group found us, I managed to take and get a lucky shot. Shorting the drone out.” Fenrir regarded the snow leopard again with a raised eyebrow. She just shrugged as he shook his head and then continued.

“Well, could it be a weak point that we can exploit?” The aid asked.

Lynnette shook her head. “I doubt it, I'm honestly surprised that I was able to find and hit it. I shot its camera head, a rather small target area like hitting a bullet hole on a bulls-eye and that was because I prepared myself for it. And that armor is tough enough that it deflected the energy of our rifles, I doubt sustain fire could penetrate it.”

Upon hearing that, the collective though in the room mirrored in everyone's minds.

'Shit...'

Lynnette's gaze went back and studied the map before her. She had done so countless times before with other training missions and while she could practically recall every nook and cranny in the plans, there was just something about studying the layout that helped her think. From what she was able to get from the chaotic conversations back in the CIC, help was hours away. Yes there was the cadets back at the main facility, but who in their right mind would send more cadets into an unknown situation? Her, Reg, and a few others were towards the top of their class and the most senor trainees to her knowledge aside from the faculty members and they were already here to begin with.

As far as she knew, help would arrive too late, and she suspect that Fenrir knew this too.

“Commander!”

The shout broke everyone out of their stupor and the three turn to look at the cadet that stood in the door frame. “What is it?” Fenrir asked the cadet, keeping his voice soft and collected yet having an air of command in it.

“Trouble.” The cadet panted, the urgency ever in his voice. “Multiple contacts are heading this way, with at least three of them drones...”

They just ran out of time...

'Shit...'