Realigning the gun, she squeezed off another few rounds; the stock jumping into her shoulder was reassuring. The fact that none of the rounds connected with living tissue, however, was not. She could hear her captain and squad mates picking themselves up, obviously having thrown themselves to the ground for cover, despite being inside, behind a cement wall.

            Dammit. She kept her sights on the little running human, her holo-dot scope telling her it was at approximately two hundred and seventy meters distance.

            "Dammit, shoot the bastard already!"

            "I AM!" don't see you doing anything...

             "Oh, shave me bald! We have to go... NOW!"The captain said, ignoring her anger.

             "What? Why? It's dead, what in the pit are you talking about?" Too late, they were already gone, she could hear them running out of the room. Confused, the pain causing her instinct to follow her superior, she turned her attention back to the outside view.

             The human was still there, Huntress damn it, but it was still there. It looked wounded, mind you, but she could clearly see it at about one hundred and fifty meters on its knees, with some kind of tube in its hands... a glint off the end of the cylinder gave her the impression of a telescope of some kind.

             ... She stared dazedly, head still pounding, for nearly a minute before the obvious struck her; it was a targeting system, like a big damn laser pointer. The only thing anybody used those for, as they were rather expensive and only used when in need of on sight targeting, was to direct orbital strikes. Satellite or station based weapons.

             "... damn..." she practically mewed... Then, finally her fuzzy mind focused to a functional extent; we are in danger, we are going to die if we do not vacate the area... quickly. That simple realization was like a key to start an engine, from there on it was her body, muscles, not her mind in control.

             She shot off like a... startled cat. Jumping to her feet, she ran back into the room and away from the balcony, as she ran towards the exit she noted her five comrades had abandoned most of their packs in their haste to get out. She didn't blame them; the blast radius would probably consume the entire muddy expanse surrounding the building â€" a good four hundred meters.

             It felt like... well it felt really, really bad, she couldn't think of anything comparably painful that she'd ever experienced. Slowly, achingly, she pushed herself up, jaws still tightly clenched. She tasted blood, she tasted pain, she could smell a strange coppery scent, and her nostrils felt strangely clear. Her eyes were also shut, she was tearing profusely, but she managed force herself to crack them open and to continue at a limping run, less nimble this time, she bumped into things more than once.

             Finally she reached the end of the hall, and she turned and began to push on the exit door when her captains shouting interrupted her painful, single-minded escape attempt.

             On the opposite wall of the hall was an elevator door, it was cracked open slightly, and what she saw within ripped at her heart. Her captain and what looked like most of her squad was crammed inside, the morons tried to use the elevator?

             "SERGEANT SABLE! Get your thrice-damned tail over here and help us out, WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" The plea was echoed by her comrades, their paws trying to pull the door open. She knew they were dead, the door wouldn't open; it locked in case of power failure. The elevators system had probably maintained a small charge even after the power lines had been cut weeks and weeks ago, but had apparently given out, finally, after opening... and closing in on her squad.

             Wide eyed in horror, Sable slowly turned and made her way back to the emergency exit, ignoring the desperate cries for help she pushed the heavy door open... and slipped through. On the other side she leaned back against it, it shut with a whoosh of air and a final... fatal... clunk. She stood there for a moment, slumped against the door, she couldn't hear them anymore â€" it was a very thick door.

            She started forward, limping slightly, but picked up her pace as she reached the stairs.

             After a few more levels she lost all hope, death was a certainty. She contemplated just stopping, sitting down, and getting comfortable before the end. But, before she could decide she found herself at the bottom. A door, very much like the one she had entered through, stood before her. A red lettered neon sign, long dead, proclaimed ‘EXIT' above the door.

             She pushed at it, it didn't move, and her heart missed a beat... before it finally lurched and flew wide open, scraping against a buildup of dirt and debris. The door opened out on the corner of the south western side. Stepping out into the open she didn't wait for the door to close behind her, she just began sprinting, convinced that she would be vaporized at any moment... coincidentally, she was running in the same direction of an equally panicked human.

             "Echo Four-Four Advise, ‘shop-light' has target confirmation, coordinates are matched, Hammer class station has green light for ‘Pilum' bombardment, ‘rod of god' enroute, you have five to clear a four-hundred radius. ‘shop light' over and out."

             God damnit! shitshitfuckshitfuckshi... five minutes to clear? Shit!

             Five minutes for four-hundred yards is a long time, plenty of time â€" normally. Now, consider running this distance with about eighty pounds of movement inhibiting equipment, on a very slipper, very muddy field. Then, add the fact that four hundred meters is only the blast radius, and that the clouds of toxic dust would cover a much larger area. And... to put the cherry on the proverbial ice cream, the buildings all around the four hundred meter radius area are very unstable, and it wouldn't take much to topple them on any unfortunate, and flimsy humans.

             With that in mind, he can't be blamed for realizing he had left the PTD where he had dropped it, after practically rocketing up, around, and away after hearing the target confirmation. Twenty meters away he stopped, sliding a little on the slippery ground, and twisted partially around to see the PTD lying like a forgotten child, beckoning to him, thirty meters away.

             Fuckit. Forty thou' outta my paycheck... fuckit!

             He turned back and continued his desperate race; a quick glance at his wrist display told him he had wasted a minute of his escape time. A minute is a very long time.

             He had been running with his head lowered, just concentrating on where his feet fell, it would not do to slip and sprain ones ankle at this point, after all. As such, he did not notice the distraught, frantic panther shoot by him

             Fifty meters, she could see the barricades that a group of humans had hid behind, exchanging fire with her two days prior. Twenty meters, she detected an all too familiar scent on the air, strong and pungent. Human.

            So immediately swerved, fearing the worst... dodging a blow that did not come. Confused, even as she kept running, she finally saw the human just a few paces ahead of her, about ten meters to her right. How the... how did I miss that?

            Irrelevant, her body told her, getting behind the barricade was all that mattered. Then she could deal with the human, if it was still there to be dealt with...

            Ten meters.

            Five.

            Vaulting up and over the barricade, she skid to a halt, and immediately slammed herself down, back to the barrier. Almost as an afterthought, she grasped empty air, before finally remembering she had left her LMG behind... she was so used to its familiar presence, hanging around her neck, against her hip. Strangely disappointed she pulled her sidearm instead.

            Sable briefly considered peaking back over the barricade to see if the human was still there, or whether there was some frighteningly beautiful lightshow rending a hole through the sky, bent on shattering the building she had just left into a million pieces.

            She thought not; play it safe and don't get the top of your head fried off, didn't run all that way for nothing.

            Then she heard the human apparently slam into another barricade on the other side of the street, no less than ten meters away. She turned and saw it connect, and flip over, twisting violently in air. It was staggeringly funny; he flew a good five feet, before once again embracing the earth head first.

            Sable couldn't help herself giving an involuntary ‘ooooh!' And flinching as the bald thing crashed harshly into the asphalt beneath.

            She watched it slowly recover, twitching, before pulling itself up on its elbows, stomach resting on the ground. It looked up and straight at her with a dazed, vacant look, as if it couldn't quite remember whether it should be in excruciating pain or not. Sable saw its slate grey eyes focus on her...

            Ow...

             He made it behind the barricade at least... so he'd survive the blast if not the fall... He slowly wiggled his toes, fingers, felt his legs and arms, and finally... cautiously, ever so gently moved his neck. It hurt like hell, but it worked.

             He slowly raised himself up on rubber arms, propping himself up on his elbows. Still looking down, he saw his forearm display flashing a one minute twenty seconds in red. The fact that he had made it, with time to spare even, slowly permeated his fuzzed brain.

             He looked up, head aching abominably, in contrast to the sharp pains in his neck. Slowly, he realized there was someone before him, just on the other side of the street, also taking cover behind a barricade.

             Well that's not right... He was supposed to be alone for this, no one was supposed to be near the blast site, no NAR personnel for at least a mile in every... di... rection. Oh shit.

             Before any thought even crossed her mind her finger had spasmed, pulling back the trigger, ratcheting against the pulse inhibitor, allowing a small charge to pass from the battery to the firing needle, which â€" in turn â€" acted as a lightning rod. Shooting off a small spark into the propellant encasing the small, needle like round housed in the chamber. The propellant earned its namesake, driving the needle forward and out of the barrel at supersonic speed, and into its target. All this in less than the time it takes one to blink.

             She watched the humans head jerk back, and then slump back to the ground face first... again.

             Arm still outstretched, she watched for a moment before she realized that she had truly just shot someone. Not exactly a traumatizing experience to her, she'd don't it before, but... still.

             The danger of orbital annihilation momentarily forgotten, she made her way on all fours over to the body, and reaching out she slid her paw to the back of its neck, where she knew she would find the little necklace chain.

             She did, and she ripped it off, cleanly. She had never done this before, but to her mildly confused mind, it made perfect sense, though she knew not why, to take it â€" as killing the human had given her the... right to take it?

             Holding it up her eyes, she read the first line of metal-punched miniature script; Sergeant Patrick Tell. She felt a whisper of air against her left paw, supporting her weight, and looked down. Her shot had dealt a glancing blow to the right side the human's helmet, he was only unconscious, it seemed.

             This must be your - very - lucky day, Patrick.

             Her attention was stolen by a loud beep coming from the humans wrist display, it read; 00:00:00.

             The obvious failed to occur to Sable, but her ears perked at an eerie whistling sound coming from above... turning to look up, she saw the dull, overcast clouds above the building - standing lonely in the mud - turn a darker shade, and begin twisting and whirling violently.

             A low rumble slowly grey in volume until it filled her ears, and she was forced to look down and grasp them in her paws, in a vain attempt to drown out the unbearable noise. A terrible shrieking punctuated by a sudden, loud, bone shaking clap filled her world, and then a wave of heat poured over her... she crouched low to the ground, paws still holding her ears, over the body of the unconscious human. To an observer it would appear that she was protecting him with her body.