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For all his bulk, Black Rabbit moved along nearly silent. A small Galon band was on his heels and he intended to lead them properly. Humans had reportedly been spotted and he had been sent to investigate and deliver a message from the Galon Command. Hearing voices, he stopped and crouched down. Dropping his M2 he opened a pouch and loaded a shell into his rocket launcher. Shouldering it, he aim up at a forty-five and fired towards the voices.

"Staff Sergant Diontay "Friendly Fire" Collier...," A young corporal voiced in a hushed tone, though loud enough for the young commanding wolf and everyone else to hear."Now why do you think they call him that back at the CP?" The human soldier asked.

Diontay's ears twitched in slight agitation at the soldiers neglection to recognize and respect his senior officer. Moving slowly on patrol through the gritty industrial complex of the city."I wonder if it was because someone told him to sit and roll over." The soldier laughed, though in return recieving concerned glances from his squadmates."Or do you think it's because his fath---." Abrubtly cut off as Dion ((for short)) quickly grabbed him by his collar, the soldiers feet barley touching the ground.

Diontay glared at the soldier with distaste, as his sharp deep came into the soldiers view."Chill Sarge i'm just Bullshitten!!" The soldier yelped, grabbing dions wrist with both hands.

"This is no game boy..." Dion calmly said, his voice cold and sharp. Just as he let the Corporal go a Self-Propelled round exploded against the slightly risen bank that ran alongside a warehouse. Without flinching the order was given:"Fox Squad!Don't FIRE Yet damniT!!...Hold your goddamn fire!!"Diontay Commanded his voice harsh yet relativly quiet. "Johnson! Take a few of the guys and watch the open flank! Don't let anything by you! Dion barked, setting up his SAW on the small bank.

((Writing for a whole squad is long so i do apologize.))

(wish I coulda managed this with Larry Curly and Moe.....)

Following the trial of fire from the high explosive round, he smiled under his helmet as his patrol caught up with him, "That'll get thier attention. Now to deliver" he muttered to no one in particular as he loaded another round marked 'delivery modual'. Aiming slightly higher, he stood up fully and fired. Slinging the launcher around, he picked up his machine gun and headed back to base, "Beats the hell outta me why they wanted that delivered so bad."

"Hey, Seth, why are we here? Since we're attacking this god forsaken world, why would we need guerrilla tactics, or are we here to dig out the Galon forces?"

The burly squad leader shrugged, "Dunno new guy. Don't care much either. So long as we fight I'm happy. This is killing me being on reserve."

That's why these guys have such a high death rate. They got the kills to match it though.

The crump of an exploding shell had Hayden ducking for cover. A voice came over the loudspeaker in the tent. "Operational Plan Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot is in effect, squad leaders begin operations.

The 27th Recon moved out, its members glad to be moving aggressively.

Peering just over the ridge he scanned the open area that had once been a makeshift motor pool. Dion slid back down, meeting the faces of his squad, their faces calm but wanting to know what they were in for. Dion stared off in front of him, making a map in his mind."We will hold this posistion until told otherwise, got it?" He said softly, taking a swig from his canteen.

Just as the screwed the top back on his canteen another round skimmed right over the ridge and landed through the wall of the warehouse that stood behind them. "McCreary...Take whatever you need and secure the warehouse. Find out what that was and bring up the engineers to secure It and take it back to HQ." The Wolf lazily mumbled, walking hunched over as he checked the status of his combat line.

"Why the hell are we listening to a walking Flea bag!?" The corporal yelled, a young lad of about 17 who lied to join the Armed forces. Dion stood a moment, his red eyes glaring at the young boy. "Do you really want to know why they call me "Friendly Fire," boy?" Dion calmly questioned in such a tone it would make you doubt speaking up again.

Without a response from the horrified Corporal Dion continued on barking orders to his men of mixed units. Some men were of the Airbourne while others consisted of Marine and Army Snipers. Namly Green Berets and/or Rangers like himself. While a couple others were of the Navy Seals. Though all from different backgrounds they were officially rangers under his command. With a final sweep check the engineers had arrived. McCreary had reaquired his post while Johnson still watched the Northern Approach to the building.

This was going to be one hell of a Patrol.

"Langer Ansatz," came the voice of a soldier, barely audible over the ringing in Cello's ears. He rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, the wreckage of their landing craft providing an unstable footing.

"Call me 'Cello'; it's faster," he said as his head cleared. Grabbing his weapons, Cello climbed out of the burning hull and the soldier followed him quickly.

"Right. Cello. Look, the C.O. is dead, and so's half our squad. Right now, you're our ranking officer. We need orders, sir."

Cello glanced around and saw three soldiers watching the surrounding roads, and the wreckage, lodged halfway into a building, burning slowly. "On me!" he yelled, and the men quickly moved to his position, "We should be near Fox squad. Our primary objective is to rendezvous with them as soon as possible. I'll take point."

Cello, carbine in hand, started towards where Fox squad should've landed, relieved to see that the soldiers were following without complaint. Good. The last thing I need is some kind of mutiny.

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"Hey, Lord," said Rose, his feet planted on Lord's Aeshau's back, "You gonna go find those humans? Want me to come?"

"Black Rabbit already went; he can handle them fine on his own," Lord's hand skimmed over the screen in front of her as she made sure that the Aeshau was receiving the necessary sustenance; the synthetics would die if not 'fed' regularly, "But if the Federation come too close to this facility, I will kill them all." Not an ounce of feeling was in her voice; she was simply stating facts, as she always did.

"Can I come then?" Rose asked, climbing the bundles of tubes and cords that kept the Aeshaus fed.

"We'll see."

Draz'kar walked wearily, but with a slight sense of purpose, into the meadow. He had heard the sounds of what he believe to be a landing craft, there was probably a ship in orbit near his position. THis news was good, as he had grown increasingly tired of his solitude, but there was also a downside: Humans, federation, and galon troopers were probably swarming through the forest around him. He activated his camo system and his armor become a soft stripe tan color.
After a brief moment of listening to what seemed to be an explosion, he began to contemplate his position, though it was risky, he needed that drop-ship to get off this forsaken planet. He loaded his rifle and replaced its old battery. Holding the gun to his shoulder and scanning the terrain ahead, he moved on.

Orbiting above Galon...

"[Censored] thing gives me the creeps." Muttered one of the technicians, standing by the pod holding LHCS 0379, or #79 as was easiest to refer to him on the ship.

"Know what you mean," muttered another, checking the computer a third time to make sure the bindings were completely done and that the Tranquilizers were in full effect. "Looks like a zombie that spent a night with Scissorhands."

"Heh, yeah. Guess it's a good thing it's OUR little [censored] child, maybe it'll have the same effect on the Galons." A third technician came into the conversation now. Unlike the other two, this one wasn't human. Still, ship hands were ship hands, and anything that could keep THAT thing tightly secured was well enjoyed by the rest of the crew.

"Hope so, bad enough that we can't just ship this thing and the others now. In fact, [censored] bad that we can only ship this one. Why can't we just drop all of 'em and be done with it?" Started the first one again.

"Think I heard something 'bout a 'Trial Run' or something. Almost makes you feel sorry for the things if they're going to start shipping these out against 'em."

The conversation would go on and on, yet LHCS 0379 would pay no heed to it. They were non-combatants, learning or socialization was not required, and its brain was doped up enough that anything beyond 'Step this way' would likely get no response from the thing.

When the order for assault came, he'd be 'launched' into the fray, along with a failsafe code to any planet-side officers. Wouldn't do any good for the thing to 'go rogue'.

Draz now caught sight of a small roads. He followed it, the sounds of battle becoming more and more vivid. Ahead there were building, and smoke rose in the distance. He reset his camo, made sure his weapon was charged, and cautiously continued alongside the road.

With the engineers packing up and shipping the mysterious cargo, The only thing left for the squad to do was wait. The soft crackling of fire was a welcome to the moments of utter silence. The moments when Dion's Animal nature got the better of him. Using one of the Privates for a ammo run to the drop ship, he had been able to aquire some extra belts of Ammo for his Specialized M249 SAW and some clips for his M21 Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle.

He twirled a toothpick in his mouth as he heard a commotion from the North side of the complex."Rodriguez,Bennit,Wade...On me, everyone else fill in and watch your lanes of fire." He said, giving the hand signal for the men to move. "Bennit take my SAW and i want you to put fire on anything that moves in that Apartment Complex, there." Ordering the stout feline down into posistion."Wade you be his spotter, You see something even take a breath and i want it full of holes, you got me!?" Recieveing a "Hooah," from the two soldiers in return."Rod...Your on me,C'mon."

He met Johnson who was in the process of assembling a 50.Cal that had been dropped in ahead of the two Airbourne Units that had landed in the area. With the gun fixed down the road SSgt.Dion Collier stood watching...

"Sir! That smoke! What has happened to the rest of our Platoon?" Johnson asked in a calm yet worried tone. Dion just hunkered down and waited for any sign of enemy movement.

"Don't worry about them. If they're alive they'll be sure to come this way. Otherwise if it moves i want it gone. No hesitation you got me?" With another set of confirming barks from his men Dion scurried back down the line wanting to make sure everyone was in position for night.

Cello signaled for the men to stop and crouched against the corner of a building. He flipped down the visor of his mask and slipped out one of the tiny cameras feeding the display screen on the inside.

After a moment, he turned back and reattached the camera. "There's an MG down the road, but I can't tell if it's friendlies. I'll go in for a closer look. Wait five minutes then move in; if their hostile, I'll cover your advance."

Cello found an exposed pipe on the side of the building and grabbed hold of it, hoisting himself up quickly. The four men found cover where they could watch their flanks easily; one support gunner had managed to survive the crash, but they were left without their communications officer or equipment.

An apartment complex loomed behind him as he pulled himself onto the roof. Positioning himself as far as possible from the road with the MG, Cello ran and leapt to the next roof, hoping he'd put himself far enough out of sight. The next jump was longer, and Cello nearly missed the ledge. With a sigh of relief, he pulled himself up and crawled to the edge overlooking the road.

Cello called down to the men, "Fox Squadron, this is mercenary Langer Ansatz. We have friendly inbound, hold your fire. I say again, hold fire; we have Arrow Squadron inbound."

He hoped they would listen to him, and he waited calmly for the reply from the Fox squad soldiers; there was still about a minute before his squad would begin to move in. He had some time left to convince them if they didn't trust him.

"Sir! Mercanary Ansatz is inbound with Arrow Squad." A soldier called, making his way towards Dion who was helping a second support gunner equip more powerful 'Armour-piercing' rounds. With the gun looking back towards the front lines Dion took the headset from the radioman confirming what he had said.

"Ansatz, this is Staff Sergent Diontaye Collier, Roger that we'll leave a light on for ya." He said with a slight smirk, his voice unexcited yet kind."I need you and your men to fall in on me for briefing be---" He was cut short once again as the SAW gun and the spotter opened up on the apartment, probably spotting a small glimpse of Ansatz or one of his troops.

"Hold your damn fire! We have friendly at our 12 and 3 o'clock down the road!"

"Ansatz if you can still hear me get you and your squad on our poistion, we'll cover your approach from here."

"Rod, Bennit, cover the tower and rail yard there, cover Arrow squads approach!."

Dion walked out to the side of the road a small flare in his hands to reveal himself to the incoming squad."Fox Squad! Eyes peeled goddammit!"

Entering the facility he was currently living at through the main gate, he asked a passing medic directions and threaded his way through the high ceilinged passages until he found it. Reporting a successful delivery of the message, he wandered around the base. Passing a door, he backtracked and entered the room, "Command will have need of your...unique skills before long. Get ready, Lieutenent." he said to Lord. the voice filters did little to remove the disdain in his voice, but he had little time for politeness.

Draz brushes aside a bush and observed the wreckage. The drop-ship was useless, its engines totally destroyed and its hull riddle with holes and dents. Cursing under his breath he began to look for traces of survivors. He picked up a trail of footsteps, following them would be risky, but he needed to follow orders.
He placed his rifle on the magnetic holster on his back. Moveing into the buildings near the crash site he heard gunfire, less distant than it had previously been. He activated his wrist mounted contained plasma sword and shield. He would be easy to spot, but that was inevitable now, and necessary for him to complete his mission.

Cello switched his headset to the proper frequency as he took up a position to cover the men, "Arrow Squadron, you're clear to move in, watch yourselves."

"They shot at us!" came the concerned reply.

Cello sighed, "Some of us are a bit tense, it was just a mistake. We've got you covered, Arrow; now move in; that's an order." The four soldiers stepped warily out from behind their cover and Cello watched them move rapidly down the road. As they drew even with him, Cello found a path down the side of the building using several window sills and other protrusions. This place is great for climbing, he thought to himself as he dropped to the ground, almost as good as home.

He moved in with his squad but broke off moments later to meet with the one Cello remembered from the briefings, if only by sight. "You must be Staff Sergeant Collier," he said, removing his mask so he could speak more easily, "I'm afraid that this is all that's left of Arrow Squadron."

------------------------------------

Lord looked up and her gaze followed Black Rabbit, "Hmph, this is unexpected... Rose, prep your Aeshau." Rose jumped gleefully as Lord began the process of disconnecting her own Aeshau from the supply dock; if the cables and tubes were disconnected suddenly, it could damage the Aeshau terribly.

"Does this mean I get to come this time?" Rose asked expectantly as he worked quickly at his own console.

Her reply came exactly as he had expected, "We'll see."