The twitch in Jae's hand wanted blood. The sting in her mind wanted to let go of the rage that had reached its boiling point. Her lips fought against good judgement as they tried so desperately let loose a scream of utter anger. It was a fight that the one-eyed woman had hoped she wouldn't run into during this mission, and yet there she stood... her fists shaking as she felt her teeth chew on the inside of her cheek.

Jae had watched the Lance Corporal walk away with barely any word She had let the silly trooper get away with talking down to her, calling her a bitch of all things. How the woman had stayed in one place during the exchange was something that even she would never be able to figure out. What she did know was that she was glad she hadn't moved, otherwise she'd have a dead, insubordinate trooper on her hands and the lost trust of everyone else. As she felt her breathing return to normal, no longer the long ragged breaths that had an undertone of pure hatred, Jaenna came had decided that remaining where she was had been the best move.

Now, though, she had work to do.

With one last deep breath the still, obviously, angry Squad Leader clicked a button on the small datapad she had attached to her wrist. Within moments Rivvett, the small simian like Slicer droid, unfolded himself and hoped down from the latch that Jae had built on her armor.

"You rang?"

Jae only gave a curt nod. "Yeah, go down that hallway," she lifted an arm to point down the hallway that her and Whiskey were supposed to have scouted, "and take any information you can. Return to my location in ten minutes. No more, no less. Understand, Riv?"

The simian like droid nodded once and bounded off down the hall, using the lights that were built into his 'eyes' in order to see through the darkness.

The woman turned and headed down the hallway that would bring her to Karash's group. Despite her sense of needing to get the job done, her anger was still sitting heavily in her mind almost refusing to let up it's relentless assault. With each step she took the woman could literally feel her rage building. It felt as though her skin were on fire. Either that or it was just hot in the underground base and she had forgotten to turn on her eviro-systems in the SCOPE armor. Whatever the reason for the heat was, it was making the woman uncomfortable, which only agitated her further.

Each time she took a breath, Jae wanted to scream. She wanted to punch the wall, she wanted to punch something that would feel pain. Every time one of those thoughts popped into her head she felt the urge to reach into her bag and grab another spice stick and smoke it down till it burnt her fingers. Though... even with this anger the woman knew that the last thing she needed right now was spice, whether or not it would definitely keep her from wringing Whiskey by the neck.

The woman's thought process was brought to a stop, which was probably a good thing, as she heard the footsteps and voice of other troopers.

Karash's voice came clear first. "I ought to-"

"You guys find anything?" It was hard not to snap with the amount of anger that was just sitting in the pit of her stomach, and yet Jae only wished that Mox, Dusk and Karash could see the sorrow in her eyes. It was too bad her helmet visor was still on.

Mox shrugged. "Not really. Just some more of those creatures that we saw before, some office rooms... Nothing else, though."

"Good. We need to meet up with the others now and get out of here." Jae turned and made the hand signal to follow her, her movements jerky as she continued to fight the agitation.

"Wait, where's Whiskey? Wasn't she paired with you?" Again it was Mox's voice.

At the very mention of the insubordinate insect, Jae's hand visibly twitched and she took a loud deep breath. "She's probably with Heliwer and Naast. Lets get moving."

It was a silent walk through the hallways, save for the sound of metal clinking against stone as Rivvett scampered back up to Jae and climbed to her shoulders. He hadn't found anything and with that Jae had given him the order to fold back up and re-latch to her back, which he did. After only a few more moments, the group of four came into eye sight of the Heliwer, Naast and Whiskey, the two males with their helmets off.

"I told you to keep your helmets on. I don't care what kind of scuffles you get into. The mold in this place could be dangerous. Put 'em back on, now." The Squad Leader left no room for pleasantries. She had already been angry, and now she had to deal with the idea that two of her troopers had obviously gotten into some sort of fight. She had seen the blood and put that together with the fact that Naast was new to the squad. The woman wasn't stupid in the least.

Without a fight both Heliwer and Naast put their helmets back on, the person who did protest was Whiskey. The Lance Corporal stood with her hands on her hips and her shoulders drawn tight in a stance of anger and hatred. Even though she wanted to, Jae had no time or patience to deal with Whiskey anymore and so she stepped toward the insubordinate trooper, holstered her StarSlasher and took a pair of metal cuffs off of her waist.

"Lance Corporal Xylonia Rose, you are hereby under direct custody of myself and RAIDERS and are to be held as such until we get back to Tadath. You are also stripped of Lance Corporal and now hold the rank of Private First Class. The charges are insubordination, treason and putting not only Commanding Officer but your entire Squad in danger by not listening to orders." Before the newly demoted Private First Class could react Jaenna reach forward, grabbed her wrists and brought them behind her back, latching the cuffs in place.

The entire scene was met with gasps, open mouths and scowls.

Heliwer stepped forward. "What'er you doing, Jae?"

"My job. Your girlfriend put us all in danger. She directly disobeyed me. I'm not going to deal with that."

That's when Whiskey began to writhe in the restraints, growling under her breath. "Yeah and the High Command deals with a drug addict!" The violet haired woman turned and spat at Jae, the loogie landing on the Squad Leader's visor.

With a quick flurry of motion, the one-eyed woman reached out and grabbed the woman's armor, pulling her close. The words that came out of her mouth were akin to a deep, guttural growl, her anger more obvious than the smell of mold in the air. "They know about it, you twit. Now learn some respect, and learn to keep your nasty mouth shut when it comes to matters you know nothing of." Jae turned to look at Naast, then. "You, big fluffy and scary. I bet you can keep her under control, yeah?" The feline nodded. "Good, you hold her." The exchange was made, Naast holding onto Whiskey by the cuffs and forcing her to walk in front of him. Jae grabbed her StarSlasher again and made the hand signal to move. "Alright lets go."

The silence hurt her ears. No one spoke, no one made any movements other than making their way to the exit and eventually walking back into the light of the late day. Even as they moved on into the dense forest the entire squad was silence. That was the reason for the confusion when a high pitched whistling noise started to catch all of their attention. The squad stopped, looking up into the air as the whistling only became louder and louder.

"Take cover!" Jae's voice burst through the com system as she realized what the noise could be.

The entire squad dove and ducked behind fallen trees. Only second later the ground shook with a mighty bang. Though it was no normal explosion. The shock wave the smashed into the group felt electrified, and moments later they were all crippled by a painful screeching in their ears as the SCOPE's built in com system went wild. Jae ripped off her helmet, throwing it to the ground. She looked around, watching as the others did the same, only Whiskey was left with hers on since her arms were behind her back.

"What the..." Jae looked down at the data pad attached to her wrist. It was dead. She quickly fished for and pulled out her other datapad which was also dead. The woman then felt movement on her back and heard the dull thunk of metal on the forest floor a moment later. She turned to see Rivvett sprawled out and 'lifeless'. It then dawned on her what happened: someone had dropped a high powered EMP on them.

The woman's lips twisted with confusion, her hands balled into angry fists. Though it was the way her eyes were wide that showed the unexpected fear. "We're under attack."

OOC:

Annnnnnnnnnd THAT'S THE END OF THE STORY! Stay tuned for information on the sequel! :3