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Inhale, 1 – 2 – 3 – 4.

Hold, 1 – 2 – 3 – 4.

Exhale, 1 – 2 – 3 – 4.

Just stay calm, just stay calm...

The FFP battleship Leon had become isolated. It was a powerful craft unmatched in any fight with CSS ships as long as it had the accompanying support. Though while the Leon had not been the breakthrough that the Federal propaganda displayed it had made mince meat of countless craft and even forced the flag ship of the CSS 2nd Fleet to limp away. It was a growing stain on the record and now the opportunity for revenge was here though this was to be no simple feat.

The act of pulverising the Leon was not enough for the military establishment, though the option was there. The major battleships Insig and Illock lay in wait with a dozen of heavy cruiser and destroyers. If direct action had to be taken it would not fail. Though the party would not be satisfied with that, destroying the Leon was one thing but the party wanted something else, something far more embarrassing to the FFP. The intact capture of the Leon would be a victory of the greatest degree and the potential refit of the craft for use by the CSS would make a further highlight.

A divisions worth of marines was collected and the needs for the capture had been run through the simulations again and again. The marines would never be of the number to take the ship on their own. The key was for the capture and lock-down of the main systems; the reactor, the weapons, the bridge and the life – support. If that could be taken then the crew would be locked out of control and as long as the bridge and life – support could be capture then the marines could authorises a venting of the ship's atmosphere killing most inside but even before that could be done the marines had to get aboard.

It had been a four day standoff. Well maybe standoff was not the word but to refer to the situation as cowering would only demoralise the men further. Captain Derwick however was not ignorant of the situation. Rather his steely expression seemed out of place amongst the fearful looks of his crew. The whole situation was maddening; the way the Federation's fleet so willingly let themselves fade away was one of Derwick pet peeves. He may have despised the CSS and their over bearing system but some structure was not a horror. Everyone was seemingly their own admiral in the Federation. Well even Derwick could not deny he had displayed that attitude too but he was least able to make compromise.

The smell of burning materials assaulted Derwick's nose and his ears twitched to the smell. It seemed slightly insane, people tossing bits and pieces into a bonfire in the middle of a corridor but he knew why they were doing it. If the CSS did get a hold of the ship or even if they blew it too bits they'd be raking their way through the scraps. They weren't going to let them get away with that. Documents, computers, hard drives were all going into the fire. Others were also tossing bits and pieces into the corridors makeshift barricades. The fear of boarders was as high as the fear of a full attack from the rival fleet.

Derwick continued on his way more or less ignoring the chaos that was going on around him. In the back of his mind Derwick knew the die was cast the fate of his ship, the fate of Leon was to fall, left behind; not even maliciously.

“Captain we've erected barricades to hold off any boarders, do you think it's possible for us to drop the bulkheads?" Private Avon made his way over to the captain providing the customary salute though the captain was no longer seeing the point of such gestures at this time. Though Derwick couldn't help but smile, Avon was a fresh recruit to the militia, a bright looking retriever very committed to the cause.

“Try to avoid it Avon, we don't want to block off certain sections of the ship... you know what a pain it is to open those bulkheads once we get them closed" Avon gave quick accepting nod before following with another salute. Derwick reciprocated the gesture this time before leaving the private and the rest of the troops to their preparations. For someone whose first placement was more than likely about to get them killed Derwick was surprised by how well they were taking it.

Derwick finally enter the bridge, the situation was tenses the officers seemed to take the situation with a far more analytical eye then the rest. To them the doomed nature of their situation had no recovery but in the face of their captain they avoided being fatalistic.

“Sir the engines are performing way over acceptable ranges; we can only hang about here for least the next two days, maybe only a day" Geff was clear and functional in his explanation, his flat unmoving canine features seemed to signal no fear or least worked well at hiding it.

“Aye I've got it" Derwick followed up as he moved to and sat in his command chair, he scratched at his chin as one of his long rabbit ears twitching as he debated in his head what to do, when to do... When?

Timing would be the main thing in all of this, if he could get the timing right it might have gave him the best chance.

“Captain we've got reading on hostiles craft inbound high speed" a voice rang out in the silence Derwick contemplation. It did not even surprise him that this was finally happening, now it was time to fight, “ASM on target now!"

The craft gave a disconcerting rock as countermeasures were deployed, a flurry of flares to knock off the heat seeking missiles. The boarding craft were already designed with onboard electronic countermeasures to push away radar locks. For the most part their greatest threat was the last minute chance of point defences systems tearing them apart. The craft was quite flimsy apart from the heavy front for punching into the ship.

The marines shook about even with the tight hold of their seats the forces the craft went through reverb quite uncomfortably. Roland could feel the vibration end in a horrible snap at the end of her tail and annoyingly it kept breaking her breathing.

Their mission was simple all they had to do was take the bridge. Other squads had been tasked with the capture of other key systems. Roland finally got her rhythm back calming breaths to set herself up. This was going to be extreme Roland had no ignorance of that; the C.O. had made clear the situation at hand. The Federal had been stuck here for days; they'd likely be rabid on the defence doing everything in their power to deny the CMC any inch of space, rabid enough to crash the Leon through the CSS fleet. That was the other danger here; the marines had been told their mission was timed. As much as the navy wanted it's trophy they were not vein enough to let the ship get away. If the Leon crossed far enough then the fleet would take it out, regardless if the marines had a chance to escape.

Roland couldn't deny her fear; this was her first major boarding and while she had done many before she never been sent to a Federal battle ship, never a situation where the numbers were so against them, never a situation where their own navy was more than willing to blow them to bits... She needed to stop thinking... Thinking was just going to get her killed.

Her nervous must have been showing. Garand her team leaders seemed to gesture to her with a thumbs up. Behind the tinted helmet glass it was hard to make out any expression apart from the vague outline of a wolf like head. She responded to the gesture in kind with her own thumbs up, though she could still feel her hand slightly shake.

He was going to expect a lot of her; a lot was expected of the both of them. They were the advancing force, the first ones in, the slamming sledgehammer the rest of the squad worked around. The craft rocked again, another fire of counter measures, Roland didn't think on it this time they had to be close now.

A bell rang out in the ship, the call to brace...

The impact in itself was not that bad, maybe only a little more brutal then the forces applied as the ship moved harshly or blasted out countermeasures. It was still the most terrifying moment that was the do or die. Either making contact or being blasted by a lucky point defence gun. But the jolt was comforting, now they were jammed right into part of the ship.

Green lights flashed while a muffled alarm blare could be heard just from within the tube. A door to the side of the tube began to open. The last burst of life from the boarding crafts dying batteries, its job was done and now it was all up to them.

“We are go marines!" Garand called and everyone got to their feet.

Behind Garand Roland was the second out of the craft and into the Leon. The corridor was black the power must have been knocked out least in that part of the ship. Lights were clearly working at the end of the corridor and just from their position Roland could make out the movement of figures at the end of corridor.

“There they are" Garand seemed to whisper, Roland wasn't sure on a respone, she just kept her mouth shut waiting for the rest of squad. The small congregation of humans and Yersins gathered about the lupines while a reserve of vulpines stayed at the back.

“Right let's go, Corporal with me, squad file behind" Garand was clear with his orders and with that the formation got up and moved. Getting closer to the light the view of the corridor became clear as did the sight of the silhouettes moving by.

Someone must have caught sight of them as fearful voice called out “boarders in the alpha corridors, boarders in the alpha corridor!" The sight of passing figures disappeared. The once dominate sounds of life gave way to just the marines oncoming steps and the ambient sounds of alarms and coded calls from the intercom.

“Corporal take the right, I've got the left, team half – half" the wolves split to their ordered sides, while the rats and humans divide between the two while once again the foxes stayed to the back walking in reverse to make sure no one was going to come up from behind.

Roland could feel a slight jump in her nerves the closer she got to the edge of corridor. Her hands gripped tight to her MG, her claws adding to the myriad of scratches that had been put into the barrel shroud... They had to be waiting. Roland took one more breath before crossing the threshold. She made sure to mirror her movement to Garand's; the last thing they wanted was to pop out only to take a round in the back. That never came, rather a pause, a momentary stop on both sides... Maybe it was just a second, maybe less than a second. It was the make shift barricade that took Roland by surprise, the absolute heap of trash, furniture, wall panels. A rabbit seemed to stand atop the trash pile or maybe crouch just beyond the crest of it. His little eyes went wide as he spotted Roland come around the coroner but just like her he also seemed to pause, the pistol to his side seemed to stay pointed towards the ground. Though the rabbit clicked on first, he said something but in that momentary slow down Roland couldn't tell what was being said but once he finished a flurry of faces stared to crest the barricade. Not all of them were conventionally armed though it was the pop of the pistol that had Roland recoil back rather than flying bottle of liqueur and bits of metal work.

She curled back around as a couple of rounds skirted off the wall. A slight display of cowardice a pistol was nothing to fear more an annoyance if anything else. “Contact's right!" Roland yelled out and Garand snapped back to cover “clear on the left". He twisted around facing towards Roland; he could see that she lowered down slightly a nervous shudder showing as her MG shook softly... Not now, not right now. He made his way over, quickly grabbing at a shoulder strap on Roland's armour as he pulled her up and off the ground to full height. That seemed to bring her back around though making sure to keep her on target Garand was quick to bark out some orders.

“Corporal I'll cover you, get yourself across to that cover by the wall and then we'll hit them!"

Roland gave a nod of head, “Aye Sergeant". Garand let her go nodding back at Roland before he moved to the corner and then let rip on the Federals. The sound of his MG was deafening rip roar of fire so fast it left one to struggle to tell one round form the next just a single consistent sound.

Roland sprinted her way across the corridor crushing herself to the protrusion that came out of the wall. It was not the perfect bit of cover, but now that didn't matter so exposed her mind drew to the one thing she needed to do she raised her own weapon and without a second thought she squeezed down on the trigger. The sound had to be ungodly, the flash of the barrel was also quite bad even behind the tint of the visor it was still a slightly uncomfortable glare.

The Federal's fire seemed to come to stop and only after a minute of consistent fire Roland stopped, steam billowing off of the gun's barrel.

The barricade was now empty; the crest was torn to bits, splintered and burnt. The combined fire ruined it and either drove the Federal back or maybe even killed them. The accompanying rats and humans were quick to skirt up and take barricade halting at the crest. They didn't push onward but the lack of continued fire seemed to suggest that least for that moment the Federals had been driven back.

Garand moved forward, the clock was ticking and this short skirmish was costing them. “We're clear Sergeant" Zeb shouted but Garand was already passing the human as he went over the barricade. The men said nothing else and Garand needed to give no order as they all followed behind him. Roland slowly sped up to get back to the front.

“You're good right?" Garand question though he kept his gaze forward assessing for threats.

Roland couldn't help but ponder; as they came down the barricade a wonderment of gore was left to greet them. The MG fire had splintered life as much as it splintered the objects about the barricade. Some of the bodies were beyond recognition luckily most of them had died on the spot though a few were quite unlucky.

A Lepus a different one. Roland didn't notice a body matching the one that was a top the barricade... He was balled to the ground moaning and groaning as he tried his best to hold his wounds, his abdomen was perforated. A single human with a leg torn off dragged himself along the ground in a daze, the team just ignored him but Roland couldn't shake the sounds out of the back of her head; the anguished moans and whimpers, such a souring sound...

“Corporal!" Garand called again as he grabbed a hold of the wolfess, he avoided shaking but he could not deny the mounting frustration, “am fine Sergeant" she replied but Garand did not seem convinced. “Head in the game Corporal" He fired back, “aye Sergeant" she replied, a certain authority finally rung out in her voice and with that Garand let go certain that for the moment he had Roland back in order.

The fighting restarted, harsh, brutal and quick but the Federals were on the back foot, under-armed, low level crew were never going to be able to fend off marines though they tried their damndest... It seemed all consideration for the health of the ship was tossed out of the window. Fire bombs, smoke, even explosive were tossed into the fray, the crew least seemed smart enough to come out in gas mask and rebreathers.

It seemed never ending as the bodies piled up. It was horrific but at this point Roland just steeled herself against it. She focused on each step forward, dropping down each hostile shape that came out in front, from the sides and even from behind at some points.

She paid no mind to the foreign debris that flecked off of men and materials, especially those that came off the men. Hitting someone at less than 90cm with an MG had quite the devastating effected, the kind of effect that gave one no incentive to take a second glance. If the initial shot had not killed them it was not going to take long. Though none of this seemed to trifle the Federal's determination, they were set to die on their feet then on the ground.

Roland had a momentary shudder, her boot clicked down crashing against something distinctly soft, organic. Defiantly not a floor panel; she shook it off, they were so close now and the defenders ferocity should have been a clear sign of that.

The bodies finally started to thin out, maybe lacking the man power or finally at a breaking point the crewmen recoiled, less of an organized break but a clearly organised withdrawal. Garand had the team push them over one more barricade but he was clear that he did not wanted them to go any further. “Team this is our turn off" Garand said, his attention drawn to a turn off in the middle of the corridor. “Carl I want you covering our back" Garand said as he twisted about to face his squad.

The men were a mess and the numbers clearly off. It wasn't hard to tell the 13 man team had dropped off a couple numbers; Garand clicked back to what he was thinking about “Carl!" he shouted again but the vulpine never replied.

“Carl's dead sir" Cu came over to the wolf. The vixen had removed her helmet thought the carcass of the thing hung at her side; the visor shattered beyond any use though the girl knew well enough the quartermaster would have her throat if she went back saying she left a helmet behind.

Garand made no reply as he just nodded his head, “sound off, who's still going"

“Fex is still good" Cu said. “Then get him down here as soon as you can" Garand replied, the fox gave a short salute as she moved back.

“Jones" Garand called; the human gave him a thumbs up, “Iow's gone Sarge, fucker came out of a side room, stabbed him". Garand nodded his head again but he made no comment upon the details rather just turning over to Nix. Garand paused for a second just waiting for the rat to finish with drink he was taking from his flask, he seemed to stop drinking prematurely “Ben's gone, and Ul too... Am not sure what happened to Ben but Ul got burned... I'm fine thought".

Garand just shook his head finally ignoring the rat who went back to finishing whatever was left in his flask. Four causalities, it could have always been worst... How bad had the other teams had it; where they still going? He had to wonder on that for a moment. Those moving to the reactor must have been facing stiff resistance, also those on their way to the life-support. There was least five squads operating... How much time had they spent? Things had to be drawing close, too close for comfort. “Come on squad last push and then will be off this fucking tin by the end of the day".

The words did not rally much from the squad, though they lifted their gear and pushed forward, too much had been done to have them all blown to bits, by their own side at that.

The feeling seemed to change, the spur of continues action had finally given way to a slow down. Winding corridors just gave way to silences, even the alarms had eased to just a whisper. The corridor lights had been knocked out; shot out to be precise.

Silence persisted for time even as out of place as it seemed. Getting so close to the brain of the ship and yet now it seemed like the most peaceful moment.

A light flickered from a side room. No words were shared as Garand push over to the door way having Zeb and Jones cover them. They crossed the threshold to a communication room; well that was what the wrecks of radio boxes, scanners, transceivers seemed to suggest. The place was a mess; a grand effort had been taken in ripping apart every bit of equipment to the last bolt.

They had to know this was a lost cause, so they were going to deny the CSS a grand victory. They'd make sure if they lost the Leon the CSS would get no more than a shell of a battleship a wonderful piece to display but it would have no use, least it would have no use unless the CSS was willing to reinvest in brining this rotting tin back to life.

A dead body lay amongst the wreckage, collapsed amongst a pile on wires as if they were some type of pillow. The blood still looked fresh, a single gunshot wound to the head, self – inflicted. They must have finished tearing apart the radio equipment and either sensing the approaching marines or seeing no further point to fighting decided this was the best way out.

Roland took one last gaze at the carnage, though just as she went to leave her gaze settled on one more things amongst the trash and scrap. A white rabbit... For a moment Roland thought it was no more than another body like the last, though as she looked at it for a little longer she finally had her eyes click with the rabbits. The small pink eyes stared deeply into hers, even piercing through the tinted visor.

It was an odd sensation, uncomfortable. The white rabbit's pistol shook about in her hand as she looked up at the imposing figure. Roland's own MG just shook softly in hers. The two just stared, she didn't like this... Killing the enemy was one thing but looking at that scared face... Her gun felt uncomfortably heavy in her arms. The training was telling her to shoot but something inside her was screaming against it... No one seemed to notice the rabbit, they all filed out and Roland was the last one. It could have been so easy to leave. Just let it go.

The rabbit seemed to crack under the pressure, maybe more time had passed then Roland had felt, maybe the rabbit was seeing it all go a million miles a minute... Likely terrified to what a CSS bruits would do... She slid the pistol into her mouth; it all went to fast for Roland to process, by the time she put a hand up in a meek display of amicable feeling, it came too late. A loud bang completely smashed the silence. There was no second thought in that choice and as quick as the eyes settled on the choice the life seemed to flood out of them.

Garand snapped back into the room though he said nothing.

“Con-tact" Roland seemed to squeak the word out as she watched the body slowly slump to the side.

The place went quiet again and as squad filed away from the broken coms rooms the corridor became eclipsed in darkness again. An uncomfortable silence was finally able to dominate, the alarms had finally faded away and only the marines boots took the dominate place. They weren't that far away now, the signs read as much, just about visible through the suits meek N.V. setting. /Command Bridge/

“You ever considered a reassignment?" Garand spoke in a hushed tone as he looked over to Roland. She knew her answer, she felt that way since the day they placed those blue uniforms in her hands. If she could get out of here she would have jumped on the chance. Though she knew better than giving the true answer; it wasn't like Garand was some kind of extremist on the matter of service but she knew some military busy – body, pencil pusher would be assessing every second of what these troops would have been doing, she could already feel some anxiety over that white rabbit. Would they notice the pause... Maybe she was being too sure of the power of the CSS systems... No she wasn't going to push it despite how much she'd love to spill her mind.

“Roland?" Garand spoke again, he could tell she was pondering the question, she was pondering the many answers she could give and she was pondering that quiet tapping... Tapping?

Roland lifted her head as she looked deeply into the darkness, Garand stopped too. They both stared into the dark, a first it seemed like there was nothing of note, it wasn't till the wolfess looked a little deeper she finally clicked to the two little red dots in the distance. For a moment they were still observing little dots, the tapping continued. It wasn't till Roland stared into the red dots, the tapping stopped... A foreboding feeling hung for a moment, thick like the feeling before a lighting strike. The red lights bobbed about slightly until one vanished. The tension finally reached a peak and maybe on a gut feeling Roland was the first to call out “Contacts!"

This time she called with far more gusto and the whole squad curled to what cover they could get from the corridor walls. Bursts of rifle fire finally set the place ablaze, federal troops had been waiting on the far end of the corridor and these were not desperate crewmates; these were the real Federal soldiers. The sound of glass shattering came up behind them; a body fell amongst them but in the dark and the middle of a fire fight it was hard to tell who was hit.

“Come on marines, let'em have it" Garand called out in a frustrated tone. Roland opened fire first, the continues blare of her MG provided an amazing sources of light as the endless flash of rounds lit the corridor. The Federals were quick to pull back. Momentary shots of frustrated expression were just visible in the muzzle flashes as the dogs ducked behind a turn off in the corridor, likely to set up again.

The marines chased after them, they couldn't allow them even a second to reorganise and Garand was right on the back of them and on this strange high of combat Roland was right behind him; the dark corridor, confined space and crack of rifle fire put her somewhere else the concerns of before were pulled away and survival was now the hyper focus...

As they turned a corner the flash of rifles started again one crashing against the wall, another scratching right across the bottom of Roland's helmet. The shot knock her NV off for a second, she pulled back for a minute banging a hand against her helmet to try and get the NV back online. “Come on" her heart was racing but the helmet wouldn't come back, she gave up on it, she didn't need it, she could just about see without it. She finally turned the corner to open fire. Once again the combined fire was enough to throw the Federals back; they got lucky on one catching him in the leg though even with the injury he scampered off.

A light was clear at the end of the corridor; they were not far away now.

“Good work Roland" Garand said even given her a pat on the back, she just nodded her head to the adoration not really thinking about it, she just pushed forward. Victory was almost here despite what had happened; least if they won the deaths from the day would not be vain. They stacked up once more by what seemed like the last corridor. A light that shun down seemed so inviting, comforting in a way, like what had been done was finally reaching an end.

Roland looked over to Garand; he was loaded a new belt of ammo into his MG, he looked over to her; nothing was said only a confident nod of the head. She could already imagine what he was going to be like when they got back, what he'd be saying, how much he would be smiling. Drink all around when they got back, she could already imagine the awkwardness of the speech the major would give after the mission, the odd amount of credit he'd give himself for doing nothing more than sitting on the ship, nothing more...

There was a flash not like the flash of a rifle; it was far brighter, like an energy weapon, it had to be an energy weapon... Garand came back around he had turned to face the corridor but after the flash he was right back. Roland was about to say something, she was about to ask if he was alright but she froze again, he wasn't fine... He was far from fine.

A mass of steam came from his helmet; the glass shattered. She couldn't see his face but just for the moment his left hand clenched, his body stiff, propped against the wall but after a moment of shaking he finally stopped and his body slid downed the wall... He was dead, he was likely dead before he touched the ground, a plasma round to the head? No one could come back from something like that...

Breath, she had to breath, but she couldn't... Her teeth gritted tight but this wasn't like before, she wasn't scared, well not like before. It was only this momentary drop in her mind before all she could see was red...

The two Borzois waited, the third hit in the leg was trying his best to patch the bullet hole. One stayed silent while the other mumbled a quiet prayer; making amends with Great Explorer before he'd have to meet him. Their lizard 'friend' stayed at the back pretty proud of himself for scoring the headshot, he'd expect extra payment for that. The silent Borzoi however was still nervous, he knew the numbers were still against them, he knew the fighting was not over and just like that hell seemed to be let lose once again.

The fire restarted with little hesitation, it took them all by surprise the dogs ducked but the lizard didn't have a chance he was shocked that after putting one of the wolves down the other was right back. The lizard felt a shunt, what a lucky shot, right into the power pack. He just shut his eyes and made his peace.

A violent blast of plasma engulfed the end of the corridor but Roland didn't stop she just kept shooting all the way until the weapon stopped luckily because the belt ran dry but at this point the barrel was red raw. Steaming and on the edge of failure. She looked over to her side, whatever was left of the humans and rats just stared.

“The hell are you waiting for, move up!" she shouted with an angry commanding tone sharp teeth on full display.

“Aye Corporal" a flurry of voice sounded off as the troops charged the corridor.

Roland stopped for a moment pulling on a hatch on the MG as she dropped the red barrel; it deformed once it hit the ground it was that hot... She reached around her back grabbing the one provided spare, she slotted it into the weapon and then reached about for a fresh box of ammo. Garand's body was still steaming and something about that pushed her forward and past the dead federals, the gore didn't shake her now, the burnt lizard even seemed to give her some catharsis.

The troops stacked up around the final door. It still seemed so quiet despite being at the brains of the operation. “Ready on your order Corporal" someone called but Roland still wasn't thinking now, was she really the head of the squad? She just gestured her fist giving the order to blast the door open...

The squad was quick to pass through the smoke and onto the bridge; the place was dead atmosphere wise. Well the faces were too, all dead-pan, scared face watching the marines walk into the room. Nothing was said, just empty stares, momentary contemplations of what could have been; choices that couldn't be made now, regrets...

The troops just lit the room up and in a matter of seconds every figure that was once standing had all disappeared in a flash of red mist. The marines flooded the bridge this was the final moment, everyone manned whatever console they could get a hand on, wiping away the gore without a moment's hesitation.

“Reactor deactivation activated!"

“Weapon targeting offline!"

Roland made her way over to the central console; the red mist was finally clearing while her mind began to crash. Her attention seemed to be drawn to a body on the ground, another rabbit, odd how it always seemed to be rabbits. His little body shivering as he melted away from the world. The red haze was gone now and Roland was forced to sit with the results of her actions and her thought... He might have been the enemy but it didn't feel right, it didn't sit right.

He looked right at her, it seemed to make her cold but the stare was not agnostic or aggressive, a small smile cropped up on his face, a consolatory look like an acceptance of defeat and just after that his body went limp. She'd done that to living things...

“Corporal!" a voice rang out as Roland snapped back. She turned to face the bridge window.

Insig and Illock were right there, right out the window. It must have been an unimaginable amount of restraint form the B.G.C; they must have been right within the limits of being fired upon.

Roland didn't need to be called upon again, she reached down to her vest and tore off the signal light turning it on and holding it up. An anxious pause, the communication was gone so there was no way to easily contact the fleet they just had to hope one of the battleships would see the light or take into consideration that the Leon had stopped and was not firing.

“Come on, come on" Roland whispered under her breath. This was it, they made it, it couldn't fail now. A light flashed back from Insig's bridge; that was it... Everyone started cheering, Roland just felt relieved...

The squad continued to mess with consoles on the bridge to make sure everything was under control, while they seemed to have the key systems knowing if that was due to intervention from their own teams or something else was hard to pin down. The internal commutation was broken but small carrier of soldiers still ferried their way across to the Leon, for all intents and purposes the ship was theirs.

Roland broke away, she talk about getting Fex and Cu but that wasn't the aim. She came back down the corridor. That lizard's body was still there but now she couldn't derive the catharsis of before, the smouldering flesh, visible skeleton and vacant eyes just made her shudder, she done that and she didn't like it, it wasn't her, it wasn't what she was raise to be and yet she could let herself be driven to that point. She stopped thinking just pushing forward back to what she came for.

Garand's body was still crouched to the ground seemingly settled into a position. The once tightly gripped fist finally became loose. Roland just looked at him, she couldn't believe he was gone, he was such a solid force and he was gone just like that. She reached over to him and just upon the slightest touch his body started to slump over to the side and before Roland could catch him he hit the ground. The content of the helmet spilling out and across the floor a strange emulsion of liquefied biological matter, Roland repressed the desire to vomit. She needed to do this one thing; she grabbed a side strap and hauled Garand's body back up taking a firm hold of it. She twisted at the helmet socket and pulled it off... He was gone, not even a remnant of his former self. The head was just a hollow the whole face melted away by flaming plasma, even the left over fur, that once sweet amber colour was just dried black falling to bits as Roland lifted the pulp of a melted jaw. There it was, she reached down into the suit and with one harsh pull she got a hold of Garand's dog – tags. Just a small bit of metal and yet that could mean so much to some pencil pusher sorting out the affairs.

“Am sorry to see him go" Cu came up behind Roland, though the vixen kept a distance, Fex was missing but Roland didn't have to ask.

“There was a lot of people trying to stop you folks" she mumbled on “but guess it's all worthwhile" Cu's voice was apathetic “nice shiny medal the perfect congrats for all the bloodshed" Roland didn't respond just getting up as she made her way back to the bridge.

She started to get her breathing in order, the major would have them all ordered up on their return and she needed to be in the right mindset for that.