“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lynnette sighed as she sat in the small balcony auditorium that over looked the CIC (* Communication, Information, and Control) room. Usually the rows of seats was occupied by trainers and other high ranking officers watching the trainees running through a variety of scenarios, testing them on their reactions in different situations. Today, the seats were filled with cadets that wanted to see how today's exercise went. Including her.

Its been a little over a week since was Reg reassigned and his new unit had left for the training facility. His task was to secure the facility's grounds and 'wait for friendly forces' to relive his teams. In reality, it was a type of test. Another team was sent out the other day to infiltrate the base and either capture or 'destroy' the control room. As of right now, the main screen showed everyone's location at the facility and the so called fun was about to start. Twelve red dots moved towards the facility that had forty-eight yellow dots scattered across the grounds.

Static crackled over the speakers, “Fenrir to base, arrived at the O-Z. Beginning mission."

“Confirm. Mission is a go, Base out."

The dozen red dots soon broke off into groups of four and began to circle around the compound. They all watched and commented as one “enemy" group ran into a defending patrol. The four red dots rushed the two yellow and soon the speakers crackled with a simple message.

“Patrol neutralized."

Lynnette watched with a smile as some of the yellow dots start to move out towards the outer patrols, yet remained hidden by the walls of the facility. She thought fondly of a conversation that she had with Reg some time ago and was glad that he had taken her suggestion. With the four taking care of the two man patrol, they had failed to notice the third that was some distance away watching them. Soon, two more were neutralized by the invading team, but again, failed to noticed that there was someone watching the defenders. When the red dots entered the facility, they soon found themselves fighting three to one odds against them.

“REGROUP!" The leader yelled over the com-line, the sound of gunfire echoed in the background. The red team seemed to of been completely taken by surprise as at least two of the red dots remained where they were. The yellow team gave chase, but at least three of the dots remain stationary. The remaining red team gathered at the front gate as the yellow team formed a semicircle to pin the opposing team in a cross fire.

“Fenrir to base, we're pin downed and nee..."

“What the HELL is THAT!"

The interruption stopped Fenrir from completing the phrase that would stop the combat exercise. All the dots on the monitor stood still as if they were waiting for something when the main screen's display started to experience static and the same dots started jumping around in a scramble. The techs and other staffs that were at the computers began to frantically issue commands and barking orders, trying to figure out what was going on. Static filled the speakers again as a garbled mess of a voice that Lynnette was just barely able to pick out.

“Ma... ...ay! Un...r ...ack ...nkno... ...es! S...d im...te ...sis...ce!" The speaker went dead and all the screens that had the facility image went blank with the words SIGNAL LOST.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPEN!" A man demanded as he stepped up to the commanding officer. Lynnette recognized the man from the board of inquiry where he had threaten to have her kicked out. She watched as Commandant Hickman walked up to the man and began to explain what they did and didn't know.

Something needed to be done, but what? Questions entered her mind as her thoughts raced with everything that was going on around her. Her thoughts turned to Reg, who was in charge of the yellow team and hoped that he was alright. Her eyes darted around the chaos below her as her fellow cadets began to trade worried whispers and comments. Her gaze eventually settled on the man that had just entered the room, he was the only one not wearing an uniform of any kind that she recognized. He stood there with his arms crossed as the personnel worked before him. His head turned and looked directly at her.

In what felt like a wave that washed over her, she felt that the cadets that were out in that facility was in trouble.

Serious trouble.

A sudden sense of vertigo hit her as she leaned back in the chair she occupied. But instead of stopping with the chair's back, it felt like she fell through the chair, the floor and the very reality around her. The voices and commotion around her faded as she fell into blackness. It was like sinking in water as she went deeper, she knew that she should of been worried but there was a familiar presence that kept her mind calmed. Soon, the voices started to came back as well as the commotion. Yet... It was different.... Different commotion, different voices. Ones she recognized. Her fall accelerated and she mentally closed her eyes as she waited to hit what ever bottom she was heading for. The landing never came, but a violent shake made her open her eyes.

She was in a control room looking up at the ceiling. Not the CIC where she just was, but somewhere else.

“Sir!" a voice said that grabbed her attention. “Are you alright?"

“Yeah..." A male voice answered back as her view shifted towards a female cadet. Lynnette was surprised to see that the cadet's armor was caked with dust. She wanted to ask what happen and where she was, but to her dismay, she couldn't move or speak. What ever was going on, she was nothing more than a spectator and had no control over anything. “What's the sit-rep?"

“Our teams outside are being pinned down by enemy fire and while we can barely communicate locally, all outside communications are being jammed. Sir..." Lynnette could see the fear in the cadet's eyes as her voice started to break up. “We... We're on our own..."

“Hey," The male said as he gripped her shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Gannet, listen to me. We ARE going to get out of here, help Will come for us. I don't know about you but I got plans, and none of them include dying on this rock." She nodded and swallowed hard when he finished. They had to brace themselves as the ground shook and dust fell from above. “God damn... Its bad enough that we're nearly defenseless, but those damn things are over kill."

“Reggie," Lynnette watched as the vision panned to the new speaker. She was a bit surprised to see Martian standing there. “Fenrir reports that most of the cadets have taken shelter in sub building D, but there are still a few stragglers that can't rendezvous with him."

“Tell any of them to either to make their way here to the Ops center or to get into cover and hide until reinforcements shows up." The room shook again as more dust and soot fell from above, Reg sighed and shook his head. “Come on," He stated as he turned to leave “We got to see what we can do from the command...

Lynnette's eyes shot open as she gasp for breath. She was back in the CIC auditorium. Feeling dazed and a bit confused, she leaned back in her seat. Was that a day dream? No... It felt... Real. Too real. She looked down at her body, she couldn't shake the burning sensation in her abdomen. She felt around expecting to find her body wet with blood, but she couldn't feel anything aside from her cloths. Why did she feel like she was shot? She looked back down into the chaos below her and locked eyes with the man from the meeting. The look he was giving her, it was almost like he was saying 'Now that you know, what are you going to do?'

Ash quickly shook the feeling of vertigo off. His eyes watched that Caushae cadet as she came back around. He knew something was going to happen. But this?

“Commandant Hickman" The aging man stopped what he was doing and looked at the Director. “Do we have any ships in orbit?"

The Commandant tuned back to the aid as they typed commands into the terminal before straitening up and turning to face the Director. “Two ships, the LCS Nightingale and the TAFT cruiser Sunderland. But both ships are in lunar orbit."

Ash gave a light growl as he nodded. 'Shit...' Well not much that he can do at the moment about it. He turn to Hickman and spoke up. “Contact both ships. Tell the Nightingale that we need anti-armor ground combat support and ask the Sunderland to prepare their ODTs. (Orbital Drop Troopers) Our cadets need immediate reinforcements. Also, inform both that there's an intruder in our airspace and to look for possibly hidden ships. I don't know what their propose is or where they are, but, they need to be found."

“Yes, sir."

Ash watched the base commander turn and start to issue orders to the tech crews. He knew that time wasn't on their side, and that anyone who he sent from the facility would be unprepared for what they would be facing. This was a training facility filled with young adults, any assets that could actually handle the crisis was actually in high orbit over an hour away. He couldn't knowingly send young untrained cadets into an unknown and potentially lethal situation...

But...

Always a But...

He looked into the auditorium balcony and noticed that the snow leopard was gone.

He walked over to another tech. “Ensign."

“Yes sir?"

“I need you to do the following for me..."

“Lynnette, what do you think you are doing?" Faelynne's still had her calm in her voice, but her annoyance of what the feline was doing was more than evident in her tone.

“Not now Faelynne."

“You are on medical recovery leave. You shouldn't even be in this room let alone gearing up to leave."

“I need to help Reggie and the other cadets before its too late!" Lynnette said as she tried to open the locker again, only for the fennec hybrid to force it shut again.

The medic stared at her friend. “And how would you even get out there?"

“I... I don't know..."

“Its miles over rough terrain to get to the training facility. Even if you secured a vehicle, you're looking at over an hour drive to get out there. You wouldn't get there any faster than anyone else."

Lynnette gave a dejected sigh as she rested her head against the locker. “I know... But I got this ugly feeling that I can't shake." She turned her head and looked a Faelynne. “I need to get out there, I need to help. If I don't..." Her gaze shifted to the floor. “If I don't, more people will die. Our friends will be killed out there unless we help them. We got to do something and we got to do it now." Lynnette locked her eyes with Faelynne's.

Sighing, the hybrid shook her head as she moved her hand away from the locker. “You do realize that you're still labeled as being injured and you will probably be brought up on charges before another tribunal."

Lynnette open her locker back up and continues to grab her gear. “I don't care. I for one refuse to stand idly by and let my friends get killed." Lynnette stopped what she was doing when the sound of another locker being open caught her attention. “Faelynne, what are you doing?"

“What does it look like?" The fennec said as she started to pull her own gear out of the locker. “As a medic and your friend, I am going to help keep an eye on my patient."

“You know you're going to be court marshaled along with me right?"

“So?"

Lynnette chuckled as the two finished getting their armor on and moved to the Armory. Lynnette was skeptical that there wasn't anyone keeping watch of the equipment as usually the Armory had at least one attendant to keep watch of the weapons and gear. The two started to stowed fully functional compression rifles in a duffle bag that they grabbed as well as packed extra energy packs into it. While usually given low yield energy rifles, some of the models of rifles could be converted to full power weapons when the energy pack of the gun was swapped out. Lynnette finished out their arsenal by grabbing a box of frag grenades. While it probably wouldn't be enough for what awaited them, she felt that they were pushing their luck as it was with what they had already grabbed.

“Now..." Lynnette said as the two came out of the Armory. She checked her watch which showed her that a little more than fifteen minutes has passed since she had left the CIC. “To figure out how to get to the facility."

“I think I can help with that." The two were startled by the voice as they turn to see Rayne leaning against the wall outside the Armory. While the Lycan was suited up in her combat gear, Lynnette couldn't help but to mentally note that she was wearing a pilot's combat jumpsuit.

“Rayne... When did you... How did you... What are you...?" Rayne held up a hand to stop the stuttering feline.

“Lets just say that I seen your look when you passed me in the halls a few minutes ago and followed you into the locker room and heard your conversation with Fae. Besides," The vixen smiled. “What kind of friend and team mate would I be if I didn't at least try and help?" Lynnette looked over at Faelynne, who just gave a curt nod. “Come on, follow me."

The trio, lead by Rayne, quickly marched down to the hangers. Lynnette wasn't sure what the Lycan's plan was, but she somehow had faith in the white vixen. Rayne walked into and through the cluster of machinery and dissembled parts of a variety of aircraft like she belonged there with the mechanics. Lynnette couldn't help but to marvel at the collection that was there, ranging from helicopters, fighter crafts and shuttles. Rayne strolled in a workstation in the middle of the hanger walking up to a partly dissembled vehicle with a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the chaise.

“Hey Sammy!" Rayne spoke up as she began to slap the hood of the vehicle multiple times, causing a loud banging noise to get the mechanic's attention. “Sammy, WAKE UP!! Get your sorry hide out here."

A loud thunk of a body hitting metal was heard as the legs jolted in surprise, followed closely by a string of profanity that was barely audible over the ambient noise of the machinery in the hanger. Soon a light buff colored Almedhas rolled out from the underside of the vehicle, a hand rubbing his forehead through his shaggy black hair.

“What the hell man?" He blurted out as he sat up. Looking around his gaze fell on the three ladies before him. He started to smile till he noticed that the one was Rayne standing there with her arms crossed. “Oh no..." He muttered.

“Hey Samm..."

The rabbit cut her off before she could say anymore. “No!"

“You didn't even hear what I have to say."

Sammy glared at Rayne. “I already know what you're going to say. And my answer is no."

“But..."

“I said 'No', I don't CARE!" he leaned back and started to crawl back under the chaise he was working on, attempting to ignore the girls as Rayne tried to get him back out.

Lynnette growled as Rayne attempted to get the Almedhas back out. “I had enough." She said as she went over to where Rayne was. “Move." she commanded as she pushed the Lycan off to the side. She placed a foot on the creeper that Sammy was laying on and abruptly dragged the mechanic out with another thunk to the head.

“Owww! What the he..." Was all the rabbit could say when Lynnette grabbed the front of the jumpsuit he was wearing and pulled him up off the creeper and slammed him against the side of the vehicle. Lynnette bared her fangs in front of Sammy's face, barely an inch from him.

“Listen you piece of shit," She said, making sure that she had the Almedhas' full attention. “ I am so SICK of the games everyone's been playing! Time is of the essence and lives are on the line. Rayne thought that you can help us. So you better listen to us and help or else I'll use your tawny hide as a Body Bag!" Faelynne rested a hand on her friend's shoulder, which prompted the snow leopard looked over at the fennec. Having her friend's attention, Faelynne shook her head, making Lynnette let go and back off from the startled mechanic.

“I-I... didn't know..." The rabbit stammered.

Rayne waved him off. “You didn't know..." She looked over at Lynnette as the feline hung her head down, she shook her head with a light chuckle and turned back to Sammy. “Listen, I know that you've gotten into trouble because of me before, but I... We need your help now. We need something to get to the Ravine Training Facility as quickly as possible."

Sammy sighed as he closed his eyes. “Give me a second..." He said as he moved over to a near by terminal. After clicking a few commands, his eyes scanned the screen looking for something that would help. It was a few seconds after he entered the search parameters that something popped up on his screen. “Huh,,,"

“What's 'huh'?"

“There's a craft in the system that had orders to be prepped and ready to go, but there's no attached orders or flight plan for it. Its just sitting there idling, ready to go."

“What is it?"

“You might not like it, but..."

“What?" Rayne said as she looked over Sammy's shoulders, her face visibly scrunched up in a bit of disgust. “It will have to do." She said with a growl as she turned to leave. Lynnette and Faelynne thanked the mechanic before they followed the Lycan across the hanger till they stopped at a rather large drop ship that was sitting near one of the exterior doors.

“Of all the types of crafts sitting here, they had to have this stupid old Roc."

The trio regarded the craft before them, a kind of massive dropship that had a very bulky exterior. Hard, strait lines that adorn the craft certainly gave it an older appearance, but in its hey-day it was rather sleek and streamline. A little more than a hundred years ago. It looked like an angular version of an Osprey that was used back in the 21 st century, only instead of the outstretch wings that ended with engines, it had two wings that slid into the body just above the engine housings Rocs were noted as being one of the first class of drop ships created after humanity had started to explore beyond their solar system and it would later carrying ground troops during the Colonial and the First Contact Wars. But now the serviceable design was a relic from an age past.

“Does this still fly?" Faelynne asked skeptically over the hum of the engines.

Rayne sighed. “Unfortunately, it does. Usually its given to the new pilot recruits."

Lynnette marched passed the two and up the boarding ramp. She took noticed of the Defiant ATV that was locked in the craft's cargo clamps, but didn't pay any more attention to it as she walked passed it. She was stowing the gear that they had collected when Rayne and Faelynne came up the ramp.

“Shall we get this show on the road?" Rayne said with a smile as she passed the snow leopard. The vixen continued to the cockpit and settled in the pilot's chair, humming to herself as she strapped in. Rayne barely paid attention as Faelynne came in and slipped into the copilot as Lynnette stood behind the two.

“And how are we going to leave with out without drawing attention?"

“Watch." Rayne put the headset on and keyed the microphone. “Control, this is Roc-477, call-sign Hailstorm. Requesting immediate liftoff on a..." Rayne glancing at the other two with her in thought. “Valkyrie 338-7."

The radio was quiet for a moment with static until a voice piped up. “Rayne? That you again?"

Rayne smiled sheepishly. “Errr, yes?"

The operator sighed. “Really? Its the third time this week."

“Second," Rayne corrected, seemingly out of hand.

“Look Rayne, if you keep taking off with the training equipment, someone is eventually going to notice and I don't want my as..."

“Listen," Rayne spoke up, raising her voice with a bit of urgency. “We don't have time for lectures, this IS an emergency and we need to get going, NOW!"

"Yeah right..." The operator muttered over the com and everyone could just imagine them rolling their eyes. “Fiiiine..." They growled over the channel. “I don't know what is going on, but Roc 477, you're cleared for emergency takeoff on a Valkyrie 338-7. The skies are currently clear of any traffic."

“Strange..." Rayne said to herself. “Understood Control. Taking off on emergency vector. I owe you one. Roc-477 out."

“You owe me more than one! In fact, you owe me..."

Rayne cut the radio out as she increased the power to the engines. Slowly the transport craft moved out of its parking spot with practice ease and soon cleared the hanger's exterior walls. The engines let out a whine as power was directed to the VTOL systems and started to clear the ground under its wheeled landing struts. Soon the Roc transport was climbing up into the sky and was well above the main training facility before Rayne added forward thrust and the craft shot gracefully through the atmosphere.

“Rayne?"

“Hmm?"

“Why don't you like using this transport? It seems to be running fine."

“I don't like Rocs in general." The Lycan said nonchalantly, “No music player." Both Lynnette and Faelynne shook their heads as Rayne opened up the throttle.

The trio could see smoke rising well before the converted facility was visible. Rayne eased the throttle back and kicked on the craft's hover mode as they neared the outer perimeter. While a good portion of the facility's buildings was usually covered by the surrounding jungle's thick foliage, the facility was now standing out with the surrounding flora in flames or knocked completely down. Lynnette could make out several destroyed buildings as well as more than a few large hole blown into the sides of those that were still standing. Rayne maneuvered the Roc in a circular pattern so the trio could view the devastation around them as she went to the landing pad that was against the ravine on the other side. With as much smoke that was raising from the ground, it was hard to tell if there was anyone alive down there or not.

Something on the dash started to beep drawing the girls attention. Rayne's looked at which alarm was going off, then her eyes went wide with realization, “HOLD ON!" She barked as she slammed the control stick over and nearly throwing everyone around in the cockpit as the craft lurched in response to the new input. Lynnette was about to question the Lycan's maneuver when a Loud heavy thud sounded from the aft section and the Roc's engine's whine in protest. The transport started to go into a flat spin as Rayne lost partial control and careen past the building and landing pad into the ravine below.

Multitude of alarms and klaxons sounding wasn't helping the vixen as she worked the controls feverishly as she attempted to save the group from crashing into the hard ground below. Rayne seemingly pulled the craft out of its spin and added power to the VTOL engines, just keeping them out of the trees on the ground. All three visibly slumped as they were out of danger at the moment.

“That was fun..." The fennec said from the copilot seat.

“Yeah..." Rayne said, sounding exhausted. “Lets Not do that again."

“What happened?"

“Lock on warning, something was taking a pot shot at us."

Lynnette frowned. “We got to get back up there."

Rayne looked over her shoulder at the snow leopard. “Are you Crazy??? We barely survived that!"

“And what about those that are still trapped in that facility? Are you just going to leave them to die after coming this far?"

Rayne looked at her friend and sighed as she shook her head muttering. Slowly she began to add power to the Roc's engines as she tested the controls, seeing how effective they responded (or if they even worked,) making mental notes of the response. The Roc's altitude as they climbed in front of the cliff, leery of what they might find on top of the cliff. In less than a minute, the Roc started to clear the rock face and landing pad. What they seen made the three gasp and understood why they heard the thunk. In front of them on the other side of the landing pad stood a stout looking tank.

The thing looked like some kind of insect, with a large armored body that was supported by four multi joint legs. The thing must have been an AI drone, as the body looked too small to house a person inside, as it was, the back had a turret that had a lot of its moving parts exposed if someone was able to get the right angle to disable it.

“Shit!" Rayne caught the thing's movement and cut some of the power to the Roc's engines so the craft went into a controlled fall as a streak of a fast moving round went through the spot where they just were. “What the hell is a tank drone doing here?"

“I don't know. Do we have any weapons on this thing?"

“We're unarmed. Most training transports are. Besides..." Rayne looked back at Lynnette. “Even if we did, we wouldn't have anything that could puncture the armor of that thing."

Lynnette bit her lip in thought. Rayne was right, even if they had something else, most training craft were lightly armed and unsuited to go against such a drone. Heck, most transports probably couldn't even damage the training drones that were routinely used. Not without either landing on the thing with the craft itself or dropping something really heavy... Lynnette's ears perked up with the idea she just had.

“I got an idea," Lynnette said.

Faelynne's eyebrow raised up. “Oh?"

“But I doubt anyone is going to like it."

“Well out with it girl."

“Drop the ATV and ram the drone with it."

“WHAT!" Rayne blurted out as she turned and stared wide eye at the Caushae.

“I said that no one was going to like it."

“Yeah... but..."

“Who's going to drive it?" Faelynne asked.

“I will."

Rayne shook her head. “I thought you were crazy earlier, but I think you've lost it."

Lynnette sighed. “Listen, at least one of us needs to get on the ground and find out what's really going on. We need you here Rayne, to fly this thing and I'm the logical choice as I got the most combat training and I can't ask you guys to do this. It wouldn't be right since the three of us being here in the first place is on me." Silence fell between the trio as she looked between her two friends. “If either of you have a different idea, I'm more than willing to listen."

Rayne looked over at Faelynne who just shrugged at the vixen. The Lycan shook her head before turning back to the controls and started to maneuver the Roc away from the cliff. “The port engine is acting very sluggish." She finally said in a stoic tone. “I'm going to circle over the jungle and pass over the facility just above the treeline."

“Thank you Rayne."

“Just hurry up and get ready. You only got a few minutes." Lynnette nodded and went back to the rear compartment, where she began to get ready to put her plan into action. Throwing the duffel bag with the spare weapons and equipment into the back seat, she silently prayed that everyone will get out of this mess alive.

Lynnette let out a sigh as she fitted an earpiece into her ear before putting her helmet on. “Rayne, got a copy?"

“I read you, five by five."

Lynnette open the loading ramp and hesitated as soon as the door lowered to see out behind them. A thick trail of black smoke was coming from the port side as well as a off putting sputtering noise that was quite noticeable now that the compartment wasn't sealed.

“Are you sure you can handle this bird?"

“No worries, I've flown worse. Drop in two minutes."

“Understood." She released the wheel clamps before getting into the Defiant ATV and strapping herself into the seat. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“You do realize that its going to be a fifty foot drop once we reach the location."

Lynnette nearly screamed in shock as she jumped against the harness that held her to the seat. “Fae! Gods, don't scare me."

Faelynne gave a light snicker. “That wasn't my intention."

“Of course." the Caushae said as she caught her breath again. “But why are you here and not with Rayne?"

“Simple," The fennec said as she strapped the harness around her. “I am a medic. I would be mostly useless up here and I go where the injured are. Besides, Rayne is the pilot and said that she can handle everything up here." Lynnette nodded, she couldn't argue with Faelynne's simple yet effective logic.

Lynnette took another deep breath to steady her nerves. “These Defiants had been rated for a twelve meter drop and remain mostly operational."

The medic did a quick calculation. “That still leaves an additional nine foot drop."

“I know..."

The ear piece cracked. “Show time."

Time seem to slow down for the feline as she waited for just the right moment to drop. She watched as the view outside of the Roc went from the foliage of the jungle to that of the various building, mentally following their path down the main drag as they flew past the buildings that were still intact. The instant she caught sight of the white metal of the drone her foot mashed the accelerator down to the floor. All the tires broke traction with the sudden acceleration and the small bay was soon filled with the smoke of the burning rubber and the sound of squealing tires as the vehicle tried to find its traction again and pealed out of the bay like a bullet.

“Hold on!" Lynnette shouted as the ATV free-fell to the ground...