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Garrett hissed under his breath at the latest turn of events. The sandfrogs were down thank the holies, but the Drathonians were moving on them now. Sheer mass and numbers could very well do in the Terrans. With his gun on full automatic, Garrett began his retreat to the bend in the hallway. He dropped a single remote-detonation explosive in his wake then high-tailed it around the corner, his armor beginning to show some serious wear and more than one scorch mark made by plasma. By some miracle he had yet to experience another severe injury.

After Steven's suggestion, Siberia gave a quick, curt nod before turning back to Hungary. Pulling out his commanding voice, the Red Squadron Leader gave his subordinate a hard look. “Go take Albania to the brig, have them take him in for the night.” Making sure the full weight of his gaze was on the drunk giant Siberia continued, “And I mean the brig, not his bunk tied up with some rope. Do it proper this time, you hear me Warden?” Jan had used Albania's nickname to remind of them of their deal – and his duty. Assured that the man would do what was right, the Red Lead turned, leaving the man to his job.

–
Hungary nodded slowly. His eyes cleared and his face becoming extremely sober as he saluted his Siberia and likewise turned away. The giant sighed and it seemed as if all his previous bluster had been drained away, leaving only a tired and very serious man behind.
Looking towards the mechanic Hungary gave the other man a regretful nod, “Lead on, I've got business with the man you locked up.”

–
The Drathonians were charging, there was no time to talk anymore. Adrian lurched to his feet and was about to leave cover again when the whole ship rumbled. Pieces of ceiling fell and the lizards near the back of the pack were left crushed.
The older marine took it in stride, his only real worry still how serious the wound in his chest might end up being. But, rising to finish the job, the Terran sniper clenched his teeth against the pain and came out of cover, directly into the path of a surprised enemy. Unluckily for the lizardman, Adrian's sugar had been set to sniper mode and the brilliant beam that lanced through its chest hurled it to the ground.
Pain redoubled through the marine again as his shot sent him sliding across the floor with a sprawl, only stopping when he was up against some rubble. Blinded from the proximity of the discharge, Adrian was pretty sure the exposed flesh of his wounded shoulder was now also burned, along with his hands and arms. Glancing down through light and tear blurred vision, the sniper could see that the armour along his arms was melted, his rifle warped and locked in place with his hands unmoving.
Coughing and finding that his coms still worked, Adrian activated the channel. ”Damn Sir, I'm gonna need the other team's medic. Hope this rubble ain't too thick, eh?" The marine paused, taking a deep breath. "Minder you and your alien kill the rest of those scaled bastards for me!” Coughing as he ended his yell to Kai, Killy, and Cibo; the sniper slumped against the rubble - conscious but out of commission for now.

–
Siberia turned back to Steven, now that that was all taken care of he hoped that he and the other Squad Leader could talk some more. Giving the Green Squadron Lead an apologetic frown before he spoke. “I was wondering if you saw the new -” Siberia stopped mid-question, holding up a hand to gesture that he needed a second.
Turning on his heels he looked at Emma. “I'm sorry if me and my men have disturbed your evening at all Miss. Hopefully you can gleam some enjoyment out of it still and I must thank you for your cooperation during this ordeal whole-heartedly. If your superior has no further need of you, from my point of view you can go or stay, and mingle as you wish again.” The Leader's speech was very formal, but he tried to infuse some warmth into his words. He was still extremely thankful that she hadn't seemed to know what exactly Albania's intentions had been.

–
By now, hearing Siberia's voice and seeing him and Hungary together with Albania absent, quite a few of the Red Squadron members had gravitated over. All of them where currently being pointedly ignored by their leader. Siberia would tell them all about what happened quietly later and remind them who and what they where, and what duties came along with that.
That still didn't keep curiosity from running among some of the more inquisitive of pilots and soon Ukraine was trying to get Ruze's attention. Eremenko had been mostly following his wingman at a distance, the much shyer pilot being content to just watch Ivlivanevya interact and not do so himself.
The boy was always interested in any problems in the Squadron though, he frequently worried too much.
After padding up silently to his companion Ukraine spoke, “Ruze, you think everything's gonna be alright, I saw Jan's face and, well he had that 'Your all going to get a lecture again.' look on his face...” The younger pilot's voice trailed off, not sure if bothering Ruze was such a good idea, especially over what would probably turn out to be something stupid.

The Ottyo soldiers were soon replaced by a few Terran helmets, who then slid down the ladder, one of them making his way to Adrian the moment the crippled Sniper was seen. The others thudded softly to the floor, and then Kwon's voice emanated from the loudspeakers.

"Hey. Hey. HEY! What's up with you guys? Are you allright? What happened man? who were those dudes? they looked big, oh, man, did we lose another guy? Where's the LT? Hey! LT! What's Up with Yo-" And then he was stopped by Rutthinger's firm hand on his shoulder.

"Kwon, I thought you knew better than to get excited like this." the calmer marine said, simply, before striding over to help the wounded Lieutenant up, as the rest of the people in the squad made their way towards the lit portion near the soft ladder. Kendrick's body was dragged along too, and people began wondering how to hoist him out of this situation, so he could have a proper burial.

*******

Kai accepted Ruth's hand up, and observed the situation. Combat reports were rolling in that all the comm areas were nuetralized, and that the Drathonians were now beginning to destroy parts of the ship in order to kill their enemies.

"Allright marines, Let's take ours and get out of here, they're going to send in a shamshir squadron to bomb the s**t out of this thing, since it seems the Lizards won't let us take it intact. Killy, I hope your comrades know this as well, we don't want to go in and blow up our new friends, now, do we?"

Ruze merely sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "You worry too much, Ukraine. Looks like Albania just did something stupid; we'll probably get a lecture, but it's not our fault." He offered a reassuring smile then looked around at his other squad mates as they seemed to slowly migrate toward Siberia.

Garrett's miracle was short-lived, it seemed. Out of the oven and into the frying pan, he went from dodging plasma to dodging the very ceiling itself, and he didn't do so well. A chunk roughly half his size tackled him to the floor, warping his armor and eliciting a strained grunt from the Lieutenant. He managed to free himself by the time the reinforcements made their way down the gap in ceiling/floor.

He rose rather slowly, grimacing. His ribs weren't feeling very pretty, and said as much. "Think I might've even broken a couple, but otherwise I'm just peachy. Which way, Kai?" His breathing was labored, and he was bent over, one hand clutching his gun and the other resting on his knee. He looked to be in a bit of pain, but his face didn't tell even half the story: he had completely broken the rib that he'd cracked upon their rough landing. On top of that, he'd cracked two more beside it, and his left side was going to be looking ugly as Igor for awhile with all its blues, yellows, and purples.

Mortego Helped Adrian up, after administering some painkillers and stimulants to the badly injured sniper. One of Adrian's arms was slung over the medic's shoulder, to support him, and he prodded the older marine into waking up and walking. "Oi, Hendlow. I need you to administer two syringes, The painkillers, and half of a stim, to yourself. I can't treat your wounds properly, but that should be enough to keep you moving till we can dunk Adrian in a tank and get you the proper care."

******

Kai inspected the cracked forearm plate of his Savior Combat armor, while listening to what was being said. "I suppose you tw can remain on point if you feel up to it. I was going to put Ruth and Kwon on since they're a bit fresher than us, but, volunteers get first pick." the Lieutenant answered the Ottyo and Intel officer. He waited at the bottom of the ladder for everyone else to get up, and then spoke up once the group was all up "Remember, we gotta move quickly and get out of here. They're sending an Evack shuttle for us at the wreckage, so we'll head back the way we came once we go down a level, got it?"

******

Emma nodded to Steven, relieved, and then turned around, to head back towards her fighter. However, she noticed an old man standing near the entrance, smiling oddly as he watched the two squadrons Interact. "Hey, Umm, captain Kerning, I think someone's here to see you.. maybe?" she said, timidly, as the labcoat-clad man approached Steven.

******

Istvan made his way over after whatever had been going on seemed to settle itself. He stopped in front of Captain Kerning, and held out his hand for a shake. "Steven Kerning I presume? Yes. you look like your father, don't you? I can see it here.. and here" the man babbled, pointing at different features of the fighter pilot's face, seemingly ignoring any reaction that might happen. "Ah, and you've followed in his footsteps. Well, we'll see how it goes, seems you're doing well though. Hrmm.. Maybe your squadron would be good for my new project. A bunch of skilled pilots. Your unit is very decorated, you know! From before, and even now! but, we haven't had time for a ceremony, no. too much fighting going on, bah. And look at this, such a young lady, fighting too. Quite the cute one, too, Heh."


Emma backed away a bit as The crazy old man pointed towards her and seemed to be looking her over. She was freaked out by the way he was acting, and talking, mostly to himself.

"Oh! Right! I forgot. Introductions, yes, they're Helpful. I am Istvan Villanovich Plutanovicz At your service. Number one genius inventor and the smartest man alive, if I do say so myself, heh!"

Garrett groaned and nodded before getting to work patching himself up. What a b***h, he thought, and even his thoughts seemed strained. He managed to apply the drugs without problem and stood upright with a great sigh. "Ready to roll, Lieutenant." He took up his weapon in both hands, and looked toward their destination, not meeting anyone's eyes. It was hard enough to keep a straight face without looking at them.

Arcadia Langdon had been content to be a spectator until Istvan made an appearance. She slid off the nose of her ship and strode toward the cluster of pilots with mixed curiosity and irritation.

When the old b*****d tried to make lusty comments about Emma, Langdon grew angry. She got in the doctor's face, one finger up as if to warn him. "Don't even think about it."

Even Dilshod "Ruze" Ivlivanevya was a little perturbed by his comments; the age difference was simply too drastic for him to find any humor in it. He put a hand on Istvan's shoulder. "Let's go get you a drink, Istvan."

It was not long before the Marines had gotten a move on, and were making their way towards the exit- which was in fact the entrance that they had made via Hendlow's explosives. Outside, in the dim semi-light from the lack of a sun combined with the vague burning of parts of the crashed starship, the night-vision features of the Marines' helmets illuminated a number of shuttles landed around the perimiter, with more on the way, and a few already leaving. There were other forms moving around down there as well, closer to Killy in appearance- probably the ottyo soldiers that had been deployed as well.

******

"Doh ho ho ho. Looks like I have a fan. Corporal Jan Denisov, Red Siberia. The coolest hand in Red squadron, losing his top over me. How exciting!" Istvan muttered to himself, before seeming to understand what the man had said. "Ah yes, Introductions. But I introduced myself already! Ah well, I guess I'll introduce myself better. As I said, I am Istvan Villanovich Plutanovicz, the inventor of everything! ha ha! Yes. I invented shielding, I invented the warp system, I invented the power source of this ship, I even did most of the design for your starfighters. I designed your pilot suits, ohh yes, and all the life support systems on this ship. ha! yes! I AM a genius afterall, didn't you know. And I'm One hundred and Sixty years old. I know, I know, I only look fifty or so, ahh, I remember those younger days. what a time.."

The man went on babbling about his achievements for a while, completely ignorant to whatever anyone else had to say about it. the only one who could stop him at this point was standing outside the door to the hangar, however.

Cibo was essentially the first out of the ship since she was on point, followed by Killy; she didn't so much as want to look at the alien. Because her suit was developed to be worn under normal clothing or for advanced scouting, Cibo's close fitting and now soggy helmet had the cream of optics. She didn't like what she saw; they were fast on their feet. Yes, Drathonians were fast on their feet as well, but these aliens were nimble too. 'And just what were they doing here? We could have wrapped this all up by ourselves. Maybe they thought we weren't up for the job, or maybe they wanted to grab something we didn't know about?' Cibo's paranoia rose again. 'That has to be it. Intelligence about the Drath-fags or us, or, or something!' She shot a glance at Killy, only to hear him speak.

"Once again, I remain behind."

The statement caught Cibo by surprise, and she couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of pity as the group of Terrans and one oddball moved to the shuttles.