No words were spoken as they trudged over small watery hills hills, and through the murky streams.
Every now and then Gunnar made a small groan still as he cradled his arm, which still had a dull ache.

It took them a hour to reach the base, everything was as they left it, hidden and secure, Hellen didn't stop for a break and continued her pace this time trudging in Zafo's nearly faded footsteps through the hardened mud and moss.

Long after the left the base, they stumbled on the same carcass Jenny and Zafo searched earlier.
She crouched down to next to the gamorrean.
"He moved, I guess only Zafo's group was here, it was done to gently for a gamorrean, " she pointed towards mud that covered the face, and torso showing that he died on his stomach, before being turned over.

"How did he die?" asked Gunnar curiously,
Hellen's eyes skimmed over the large stature searching for any cause of death, she quickly found a rather small hole in his upper left shoulder, and another that missed his heart that entered between the shoulder blades. A large gash also showed it self on the gamorrean's right leg. Courtesy of her whip.

"I'm surprised he came this far before dying, blood loss. Poor bastard, comrades didn't even try and help, left him" muttered Dinin not finding any trace of bandages or signs that the gamorrean was treated.

"Yeah, seems like it, but we have to keep moving, break is over" called Hellen over looking at her watch, they have been walking long laboured hours now.

"Hell...caught...need...elp..f...scaped...where...you"

Hellen looked at her ComLink dumbfounded at the garbled transmission.
"Zafo, what happened?" she asked curtly and short,
"What?...cant...ear...you...wher..."  seemed Zafo couldn't hear her as well. The distorted transmission cut short, and soon the sounds of what sounded like blasters emitted from the ComLink and then only static.

The three Dragoons stared at each other flabbergasted,
"Lets move," ordered Hellen sharply.

It looks like war broke out, ashen remains of what used to be huts was still smoulders, and the few flames that managed to burn in the moist atmosphere licked the remaining huts tiredly. 

Hellen ventured in cautiously, she trudged forward slowly as she made her way through the gamorrean bodies littering the floor.

"Oh, no" she moaned, not far ahead she could see a human leg sticking out from under a dead gamorrean.
"Guys, help me!" she called and bolted forward towards the leg.
After struggling for several minutes with heaving the body, they managed to roll it over revealing the ashen face of Garet. His pale skin was smeared with a mixture of mud, blood and yet again mud. Hellen crouched down to the unconscious soldier, his breathing was laboured, and when she placed a hand on his forehead an immediate sick warmth spread emitted from it.

"He has a fever, what the hell happened here?" she asked the silence miserably, staring myopically around her. A movement from Garet caught her eye.

"You...no...we"
"Great, he is delirious" she muttered, and quickly got her backpack.
"Dinin, find a dry hut, this place is abandon, shoot anything that doesn't resemble ahuman, Gunnar give me your blanket," ordered Hellen brusquely. Dining gave a affirmative nod and jolted away.

"But I don't have one, only a few ration packs and weapons" said Gunnar,
"Look at the very bottom of your pack, small string, pull it, and you find a blanket, all the squad back packs are like this, survival thing" muttered Hellen as she cautiously began to move Garet.

Gunnar nodded, as he dumped the contents of his backpack out hastily, minutes later a small blanket protruded from the depths of backpack.

"What do you suppose happened?" asked Gunnar about a hour later, they all sat huddled in circle around a small fire Dinin managed to get going despite the damp atmosphere. The fire cracked, and log fell to the side as the one underneath him broke in two halves. Ruby coals smouldered, with a fine layer of ash over them underneath the logs.

She and Dinin just returned from their small scouting expedition. This wasn't a village as it looked, the mist played many tricks on one's eyes. It was a small camp; they found the remains of ropes that were cut lose in one of the huts. Their only guess was this is where Gio and Garet were held. She hasn't been able to get with anyone in contact the past hours except once with Gio, yet another garbled transmission, something about Garet, guarding, and chasing pigs.

"This is the picture I get, Gio and Garet were tied up, Zafo came, they got lose, but not without being spotted. I'm getting a feeling that most of the damage was caused by the gamorreans. Din and I found quite a few gamorreans who were killed by vibroaxes, with no blaster wounds. Got too much to drink I suppose, and with the chaos the squad caused one big brawl broke out. Zafo, and the guys kinda left the job of killing the pigs over to them selves. For some reason they went after a the gamorreans, my guess is, the ones that was still sober must have caught a dragoon, and the guys chased after him, leaving Garet over here. But how a gamorrean landed on him heaven knows" Hellen took a deep breath,

"It sounds possible," muttered Gunnar,
Dinin said nothing as he stared thoughtfully into the fire.
Hellen did likewise, and soon silence fell over the group again, as they waited for Garet to wake up. Hellen glances at him, he knitted tightly in layers of blankets to keep warm, his armour laid forgotten against the wall. His whole torso was wrapped in bacta treatment and bandages. Hellen sighed knowing they couldn't do anything more to help him, she closed her eyes, it was roughly about twelve hours since they have landed, and she was tired. No doubt the rest of the squad was as well.

A groan from Garet attracted their attention. He was waking up; Hellen gave a relieved sigh,


-----------------------
-Dark-Dragoons-
SL/SGT Hellra/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA[LoR][ES2C][CoR]

Three voices managed to squeeze their way through the darkness into Garet's thoughts, waking him up from his rest. It seemed that the group was totally oblivious to the situation: Gamorreans had set up ambush just outside. However, in his delusional state of sickness, Garet could only respond to the questions asked. The familiar voice of Zafo said something about 'equipment', so Garet responded with the best of his ability. "In a& bag somewhere," and in delusion asked "You have them?"

Garet managed to hear Gio, who sounded like he was a little more capable than him. Zafo had his two troopers and himself guard the hut they were in, while Gio and Garet gathered their gear. Before Garet could really get ready, his four squad-mates were yelling to one another over blaster fire and squealing. From Garet's point of view, there was too much going on for anybody to really realize that he wasn't capable of a fight. Never the less, he grabbed two Annihilators and stumbled his way out of the hut.

Garet could tell that his body was exhausted from being lugged around all day through the mud; apparently the Gamorreans had poorly sealed his wound. Having little cover, he tried to stay out of the Gamorrean attack range, but this would soon prove to be a poor strategy.

Garet's movement was greatly reduced by his delusion and exhaustion, but he still managed to get off a couple quality shots. The Gamorreans were doing good for their small amount of guards, partly because they were accustomed to the swamp, partly because Gio and Garet weren't able to fight as well as they could normally. At one point Garet thought he saw some Gamorreans fighting each other, but he figured he was just seeing things.

A couple minutes into the fight, Garet saw something strange through the commotion: a Gamorrean carrying a Stormtrooper away. Garet didn't know why, but he started to laugh at this. Seeing the limp body of a Stormtrooper over a Gamorrean's shoulder felt amusing, though he had no clue why. Everything started going blurry then too. The world started to shift so the sky was in front of him, and the earth behind him. He couldn't move either, as he tried to walk. All of this was amusing to him. He just couldn't get up, so he stayed on the ground and just laughed.

He was cut short however, when the greasy face of a Gamorrean cut into view. In fact, this brought fear into him. Seeing the scarred, dirty face of his capturer in front of him scared him: the last thing he wanted to feel was the rope around him again. Garet raised his Annihilator slowly, and when it was aimed at the Gamorrean, he shot. The lifeless body teetered back, and forth, and back again, only to fall and land on Garet. The dead weight of the pig forced all the air out of Garet. "Not& the darkness again&" he murmured, chuckling, and out of breath.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Garet could think of through his sleep was the twisted look on his capturers face as he shot him. He didn't understand why the world had flipped itself 90 degrees, or why he couldn't walk, but he understood that with his capturer dead, he was safe.

Oddly though, he felt warm. Maybe the Gamorrean on top of him hadn't lost its warmth yet. He felt soothed under the warmth, and once again his mind went blank. From this stage though, he started seeing totally random images. He and three other Stormtroopers were sitting in a cozy little hut with a fire in the middle. It was odd that such an image came to his mind, because Garet had no idea what sparked it. However he embraced it, and decided that he might as well enjoy it. He pulled himself up from out of his blankets, which had replaced the Gamorrean, and sat up at the edge of a bench he was laying on.

"How ya& doin'?" Garet tried to say. The lack of energy for words was intriguing, considering this was a dream. One of the troopers barely glanced over from his spot where he was sharpening a bayonet, one appeared to be asleep, and the last one looked happy to see him up. It was this last one that started speaking.

"You're up!" the trooper stuck a hand out and put it on his forehead. "You're still hot."

This was also strange to Garet, that he could feel the warmth around him in his dream, as well as the cold hand touching him. "I figured, you guys looked lonely. Thought I could& cheer you up." Again with a lack of energy.

"You need to drink this," the anonymous trooper said, handing him a foul-smelling, gel-like drink. Without hesitance, Garet did so. He felt energy coming back to him, as well as a fuzzy feeling in his stomach.

"You've been out for a bit, we almost left you here," said the same trooper with a little laugh, who was now coming into view. "Feeling better?"

"I think 'feeling anything?' is the better question," spoke the one sharpening a bayonet.

"You did go through a nasty experience, apparently," said the first. Garet could tell that this trooper's voice was higher pitched than the one in the corner, though everything was still dream-like. "Not many people have the rare opportunity to be under a Gamorrean."

That Gamorrean& I remember that. "Yeah&" Garet said, followed by a groan.

"I can see you are starting to feel again. You're gonna' be aching for a while," said a now recognizable female voice. "Heh, I have a test. How many fingers am I holding up?" said the female smiling.

"Erm&" trying to focus, "Four?" The one in the corner looked over.

"Well, his vision is coming back," he said.

"I don't know what we're going to do with you, though," said the female. "We have a mission complete and you're like this; and who knows where Zafo and his group is! I didn't want this mission to be like this&" she looked back over at Garet, and came back to her initial topic. "We need to get you to a doctor."

With that last statement a whole string of memories opened up in his head. He remembered his wound, the trip to the doctor's on Tadath, the entire mission, as well as the events of a couple hours before, and most importantly: he remembered he was talking to Hellra. But with those memories came back his feeling. His whole body started to tremor uncontrollably from all the wounds that he had taken, and he fell to the floor immediately. The male in the corner showed his first sign of energy since Garet woke up. He had quickly risen with a sack of something, as both he and Hellra rushed over to Garet's fallen body.

Garet had stopped shaking, but he still felt all the pain. The cuts on his head, along his back and legs, and his blaster shot wound were all searing painful. The male trooper handed Hellra the bag as he kneeled down to keep Garet still. He held open Garet's jaw as Hellra poured the same, gelatin-like liquid down his throat. Garet's eyes started to close as the memories rushed through his head; he had decided this was no dream. He recognized the new recruit, Gunnar, who was holding him down, as well as Dinin, who had woken up and was standing over Hellra. Lights and sounds started to blur as he was closing his eyes. He managed to hear Hellra saying "Don't go again!", and feel her slap his face, which coincidentally brought him back to reality.

The pain wrenched at his back still, where his wound had opened up earlier, but he managed to pick himself up to a seated position. "Gio! Where is he?!"

Garet looked around panicked at the three faces. "Where is he?"

"We& don't know." Answered Dinin.

Garet couldn't help but feel sorry for him. If Gio had gone through the same thing that Garet did, and he was still out there, it was his responsibility to get him back. "We need to go. Now." Garet said as he stood up with a burst of energy.

"We have no idea where to go!" exclaimed Gunnar. "We lost contact with Zafo before we found you. We were even lucky to find where you were."

"But& Gio's still out there!" said Garet, getting mad.

"We need to wait for contact with Zafo," Hellra said solemnly. "I'd like to get out there and find him as much as you would, but we would be doing more harm than good going out there with no direction or trail."

"No, I saw them take him. I know which way he went." Garet said as he burst through the opening of the hut. He looked around at the surroundings. Morning had come, all the fires were mere wisps of smoke, and all the trees had turned gray around the outpost. Garet started off in one direction off instinct, and then went back past the hut into a more familiar direction. He stopped, looked around, and turned around to see Dinin emerging from the hut.

"Come on," Dinin said, "This is pointless. You're never going to find him off some delusional memory from last night. Let's be reasonable and go back inside to sit down."

This made Garet even angrier, the fact that Dinin wouldn't help to go rescue Gio. In a blunt rage, Garet turned his back to Gio and started running for the woods.

"Hey!" yelled Dinin after Garet. "Hey!"

Garet was running though, this was the direction they took Gio and this was the direction he was going. He had barely made it to the tree line before something had latched onto his back.

"Stop this! You're not going to accomplish anything!" Garet tried to haul Dinin, but fell a couple meters later. Dinin stayed on top of him, pinning him down. "Come on, I don't want to hurt you. Let's just go back to the hut and get some rest. Zafo will contact us. I know he will."

Garet's rage subsided as he lay there in the all too familiar mud. Dinin was right, none of this looked familiar to him, and he was only going to get lost again if he kept running. So with the aid of Dinin's shoulder, they walked back to the hut.
 
-----------------------
Dark Dragoons 
TRP/CPL Garet Daimun/2SQD/1PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [ES2C]

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."-Douglas Adams

"Rations are short." Said a first whisper.

"Do we have another option?" whispered a second.

"We could call back to Tadath."

"Hellra doesn't want that. She wants this mission to... succeed, at the very least."

"Well we need to do something. Sitting around is getting on my nerves."

"Listen, we all want to get going. But until she gives the word..." The sentence was cut off by Hellra walking into the hut. "Any luck?"

"No," replied Hellra, "there was nothing even at the top of the hill; no signal."

"Dammit," said Gunnar with a half growl, half moan noise.

Hellra nodded towards the body on a makeshift bed. "How is he?"

"Garet's fine. His fever his calming down. The last time he woke up he managed to eat about a fourth of a ration." Dinin pointed to a now empty ration pack.

"We have close to no rations now," Gunnar replied, trying to stir movement. "We need to do something."

Garet got up drowsily in the response to the noise. "You're back." He said looking at Hellra. "That's good."

"Guys," Hellra said, "Let's take this outside. Get some rest Garet."

Garet fell back into his sleeping position. All three soldiers stepped outside the hut.

"Night's coming," Dinin pointed out.

"This is the third we've spent here," Gunnar said anxiously.

"We need to know what's going on. If you've forgot, this is a new planet. We're blind here without communications." Hellra looked past Gunnar into the woods. "We don't know who's out there either."

"Frigging Gamorreans&" Gunnar muttered.

Dinin looked back towards where Hellra was looking, then turned back. "Garet isn't going to get much better here either. He needs medical attention. Bacta will run out sooner or later, and his wounds look pretty bad."

"I hate to say it, but that isn't our primary concern right now." Hellra said with a sad face. "For all we know, five of our soldiers could be dead."

"Couldn't we call for backup?" Gunnar suggested impatiently.

"No!" Hellra said as equally impatient. "This& this needs to be done by us. We'd be the laughing stock of the Corps if we came back defeated by some pigs." She turned away.

"It might be a good idea," said Dinin, entertaining the idea. "We understand you want to do this to prove yourself, but a whole planet is out there, one squad isn't going to cut it. You said it yourself: we might have lost five already. It's your call."

Without turning around, Hellra replied. "You two seem ready to go... I'll have my decision in the morning."


-----------------------
DarkDragoons 
TRP/CPL Garet Daimun/2SQD/1PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [ES2C]

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."-Douglas Adams

Hellen pinched the bridge of her nose in concentration while her raking hand out of habit through her hair. Tiredly dragging her tired feet over to the nearest part of the circular wall she gazed at Garet's feverish sleeping form, he seemed to be mumbling about nothing particular. Her usually rosy tinted cheeks were pale, and dark rings have made their way around her eyes due to the lack of sleep. If only she were better prepared.

"Din, Greg, go to sleep, I will watch over him. We need all the sleep we can get." She ordered towards her two barely awake comrades. Greg opened his mouth in protest but Hellen simply glared at him.
"Get. To. Sleep. Now." She whispered dangerously low with a threatening glare, Greg gave a meek nod at this while Dinin shook his head. In mere minutes both Dragoons were curled up in small balls to hug more heat into their cold bodies, which even the fire couldn't succeed into warming. Rubbing her neck tiredly she threw some extra logs on to the fire.

They were tired and hungry, their rations weren't going to last. On the one hand, its madness to chase after Zafo, on the other she couldn't just abandon them. Calling backup in might be a bit to drastic, or she has to much pride.

Hellen sucked her breath in deeply, and sighed gravely. She dropped her self against the wall carelessly and slid down to the ground before covering her face in her knees while hugging her self. What should she do, and what was she able to do?

Next morning
"Ok, boys, get up! Rise and shine!" called Hellen out with a small smile threatening to break. Two groans grumbled from there. She darted over to Garet happily checking his wounds. For a second her smile faltered. Dinin was right, Garet needed proper medical treatment, a quarter of his pain caused by her.

"With your extremely chirpy behaviour I guessed you came up with a solution?" asked Greg hopefully. Hellen gave a happy nod. Dinin gave a small smile; she genuinely seemed to have a solution. For a change she had a hope in her attitude again.  Hellen dropped her smile; her eyes' spark faded a little bit, the whole situation coming back to her.

"What's your plan?" asked Dinin curiously. His hands were playing around with a small twig, snapping it into smaller pieces repeatedly. Hellen, who now has gotten to know him better, knew it was his nerves showing through. She shifted her gaze to Greg.

"Greg, you stay here with Garet, while Din and I go back to the base camp to get some rations, and the omninode Com set, it will work better then our ComLinks, better signal. Dinin, we should probably get some flares as well. How does it sound so far?"

Dinin and Greg stared at her before glancing at each other,
"I like it, its better then nothing" answered Greg, Dinin folded his arms over his torso, he looked at Hellen curiously,
"What do you plan next?"
The rest of Hellen ghostly smile faded,
"We have two options here, I want to set up a satellite strong enough to reach Tadath if possible, then we wont be laden with that job when we get back here,-"
"Get back here???" asked Greg with wide eyes while Dinin stared at her indecorously.
"Don't interrupt me, I'll explain everything" said Hellen with a disapproving frown.

"Anyway, option one: Get the stuff we need, and get back to here, option two: I stay to set up the satellite, while Dinin comes back alone"

"Maybe we should just go with option one, we can set up the satellite when the whole squad is back together." Suggested Dinin, Greg nodded his head, agreeing with Dinin. Hellen sighed,
"I suppose so, its madness to split up, and very risky as well. But I want the mission to be halfway complete at least, we have been on this planet for almost a week and we have done nothing that comes even close to fulfilling our mission objectives! We are chasing each other and the rest of these pigs trying to get our group together,"

Silence lingered between the Hellen and her two Dragoons.
"How long will you be gone?" asked Greg,
"Fifteen hours I guess, six to get to the base camp, one hour to get everything, six back here, and then two additional hours in which we rest or fight if we meet up with some company. Answered Hellen tiredly; she forced a smile on her face,

"We are wasting time, lets get ready"

 
-----------------------
-Dark-Dragoons-
SL/SGT Hellra/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA[LoR][ES2C][CoR]

It felt like he was in a dream.

This cant be real..., he thought.

The sounds and sights of the forest whirled and mixed into one intangible blob around him.  He could hear the voices of his teammates, and could feel the crunch of the twigs and mulch under his boot. He could feel his hot breath condense on the inside of his helmet.

His thighs began to cramp, sending hot flashing pains all throughout his leg. Lucky for him, the pain almost served as a wakeup call.  He remembered now where he had been, and listening to the chatter of his teammates, he now knew where they were going.

"You're running pretty slow there for someone whos been resting for the past few days..." said a familiar voice.  Giovanni instantly recognized it.

"Why don't you go f-" responded Gio before catching himself. "I'm sorry Sam. My muscles feel like they're about to fall off my bones..."

"Yeah, being starved for a few days'll do that to you" said a voice near the front of the group. It was Zafo.

"Someone give the man a ration pack. We just busted our arses rescuing him, no use in having die of exhaustion on the way to base..." he continued, half-jokingly.

"I hope i have a better meal waiting for me at HQ.  Im starving and these ration packs still suck."
 
-----------------------
*DarkDragoons*

*Sergeant Giovanni A. Bryden*

FTL/SGT Giovanni Bryden/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE/[LoR][ES][1st Class]

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

It was a long and energy-consuming task managing their way back to base. More energy then they could afford.

Hellra wiped the sweat from her face as she teared her way through bushes, the base a few minutes walk away from them. She took a quick glance at Dinin. His tiredness matched hers equally. They were both tired and hungry. Leaving their rations behind for Gunnar and Garet, while heaving a standard blaster rifle and blaster pistol through this godforsaken swamp turned out to be more of a challenge.

Their first few hours on the hike went without a glitch, but in their quick rest they were attacked. Nothing serious, but their broken spirit combined with their fatigue caused the fight to be much more challenging. One gamorrean wouldn't be a problem, but then another came just as they bought their first assault to the ground.

If it wasn't for Dinin's quick thinking they may have lost their lives, he quickly toppled them both in a very foul smelling pit of water where they hid when the rest of the two fallen gamorreans' comrades arrived. For a second Hellra though she was going die when they didn't come up for air. Now drenched in mud and water they were slouching the last moments back to base.

Hellra buried her knuckles in her eyes. Her Combat Engineering knowledge failing her completely. Her usual perfect memory now lost in a haze of forced memories she was trying to recall of her classes. It had been hours since they at last reached base. It took eight hours to reach base instead of the estimated six. It has been five hours since they arrived, three hours longer then planned. They underestimated themselves, their endurance and the swamp. It would take at least another two days before they could get back to where Gunnar and Garet were.

Hellra stared at Dinin's sleeping form, as she expected he protested when she ordered him to go to sleep, but with sleep came more productivity. More productivity she could manage in this jumble of wires. She tore her gaze away from Dinin and the fire back to what was occupying her hands, but not her thoughts.

She has managed to sort out most of the wires, but to what they should be connecting struck her blank. If only she had her&
Wait a second& dropping the wires carefully so it wouldn't touch the moist soil. She didn't need a short-circuit Hellra darted up from her crouched position beside the satellite.

With a smile cornering her lips she trudged back to her wires. Her manual book clutched tightly under her arm. Now she will get somewhere at least.

Losing track of time, she continued sorting the wires out. She stopped occasionally when she grew bored with it to make some minor adjustments to the satellite's coordinates. Or to wrestle with the book's instructions. She cursed the book for not covering satellites, but at least it helped her partly. Realizing with a grain setting satellites up were not a job cut out for Combat Engineers she nodded off to sleep, her last thoughts lingering on Garet and Gunnar all alone, with Zafo and the rest of the squad also somewhere, perhaps even dead calling nightmares to her mind.

They were back on Stassia, a single blaster shot rang in silence, though in the original event there was no silence. Hellra stood horror stricken, the scene in front her of frozen. A dark hazy fog clouded her vision creating silhouettes of everything around her. Her fingers were still curled around the trigger she just pulled. Knowing the scene all to well Hellra's eyes followed the stray shot. White-hot energy lingering on the red blast before plunging it self into Garet's upper left torso. She let out a silent scream; it was like running through a rehearsal again, and again. She knew exactly what would happen now.

She would run forward, break her way through the oncoming enemy forces, and then crouch at his side while feverously trying to stop the blood flow. But it never came, instead her feet stood frozen to ground. What was wrong?  She was supposed to help him out now, but instead the enemies were disappearing. Suddenly the Lancers and Raiders were walking towards her. Each carried an unpleasant hate. It wasn't anger waiting to explode, to kill. It was icy and cold-sending shivers down her back as accusing eyes bore down on her. She couldn't make their faces out, each still a shadowy silhouette.

"I swear, it wasn't on p-purpose," she stammered. Suddenly the ground started shaking, causing her to sway around like a rag doll, to her utter perplex not one of the Imperials in front of her lost their balance. Slowly as the shaking continued their faces came into view, their facial traits still hidden, but their eyes standing out with an intensifying light. Accusing her of unspoken crimes. The ground continued shaking.
" Please, I sw--

"I swear it,"
"Hellra..."
"I swear, I didn't meant it, just?"
"HELLRA!"  Hellra's clouded mind wakened abruptly to something shaking her, she bolted up bewildered, her chest heaving up in down out of fright. Dinin hands were gripping her shoulder tightly, almost painfully as he tried to wake her.

"Calm down Sarge, get your self together" yelled Dinin at her. Hellra stared at him myopically, her breathing losing its intensity. Her pale face continued staring at him as if she didn't know what was going on.

"Are you okay?" Dinin asked knowing she wasn't, suddenly as if realizing her surrounding her eyes got a bit of her old spark back.
"Sorry, nightmare, this place drives you insane doesn't it" she said rhetorically.
Dinin gave a silent nod, still unsure if his squad leader was losing it. Hellra knew without looking what was going on in his mind. She was losing it. All this guilt, Garet had to know, even if it meant losing a friend. But she couldn't cope with this guilt.

"Sorry, lets get back to that satellite"
"No" said Dinin.
Hellra looked up alarmed, her eyes narrowed as she regained her composure. She looked at him sharply, and spoke the latter as well.
"Don't defy me Corporal, I am your squad leader and?"
"You need sleep, you have been going without sleep now for days" Dinin glared at her with a disapproving stare.
Hellra looked down embarrassed, embarrassed to be reprimanded by her own trooper.
Knowing it would be childish to disagree and just plain idiotic to fight. If she couldn't even look after her self how could she look after the squad? She gave a silent nod, Dinin's face lit up slightly as he handed her his blanket.
"Don't worry, that's your problem. I know this squad, and believe me they have been through a lot more then you think, a lot more then you went through in the Empire I believe. But they haven't yet experienced a SL who lost her calm,"
Feeling dumb and stupid Hellra gave another nod.
"Don't be to hard on your self, you're still only seventeen, you have much to learn"

Hellra gave another meek nod, soothed by his words. She chose wisely to remain silent about her true age, which was one year younger then Dinin thought. He was right though; she couldn't let some mistake of the past be her distraction and caused her to make more. Tiredly she obeyed Dinin's order to go bed. To be a leader one had to admit when he wrong, and needed to listen to those around him, and not himself.


"This is Sergeant Hellra to base"
Hellra and Dinin waited in anticipation, not sure whether hey had made connection. 
Hellra was about to call again when the small speaker crackled with static before it cleared.
"This is base, everything alright there?" asked a young voice.
"No, mission is failing, we need backup and medical help as soon as possible." Hellra felt her pride dropping a few notches. It took pride to admit defeat as well.

"Request for backup granted, nearest squad will be sent soon, can we have your ground coordinates?" Hellra felt her cheeks flush.
"We don't have our ground coordinates, ask Captain Wein Risprin. He was the one charge of our shuttle at that time."
"I see" said the voice dryly.
"When can we expect them?"
"In the next six hours minimum" answered the voice.
"Okay, see them then" answered Hellra, without replying the connection cut.
"Not to pleased are they" commented Dinin with a smirk. Hellra merely slapped him across the head.
"Hush you" they both managed to crack a smile before worry replaced it again.

"Zafo, this Hellra, " static crackled for a few seconds before Zafo's tired voice sounded.
"Thanks heaven for the communication, we arrived at the camp where you left Garet and Gunnar. Gunnar was quite frantic saying you should have been back yesterday. You were supposed only to be gone for fifteen hours, not three days" said Zafo, but Hellra caught his unasked question.

"Took longer then we expected, some of the equipment got damaged by the water, I don't understand it. They were sealed." Said Hellra, her frown deepened.
"It must have cracked when the gamorreans attacked as at the base. When are you leaving, or should we meet you there?

"No, Garet is no condition, "
"Same goes for Gio, he was without food for days, water as well before we found him" said Zafo.
"That's Gio, strong stuff he's made off" said Hellra with a laugh before continuing.
"I called in for backup, they will be here minimum six hours, Dinin and I will wait for them here to lead them to you"

Zafo and Hellra continued making last minute plans before cutting the connection; all they could do now was wait.


-----------------------
-Dark-Dragoons-
SL/SGT Hellra/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA[LoR][ES2C][CoR]

Garet woke up with drowsy eyes in the darkness of the hut. The fire had gone out, but it had left its smoke inside. There was no talking to be heard, no breathing, just silence. Garet sat up. His torn armor was sitting on the side of the bed, as well as his pistols. Aside from his injuries, he felt fine. His fever had subsided, and his energy was returned.

"Hello?" he called out to the unnerving darkness. Nothing came back. He grabbed on of his pistols and stood up. We walked slowly and carefully to the opening of the hut, peering his way out as he came to it. Seeing no one, he stepped out, gun in hand.

There was a faint light coming from behind the next closest hut. Garet inched his way further, crouching as he came nearer. There was a fire on the other side. It was an organized fire though, not one that was accidentally lit. There was nobody sitting around it. In fact, there was nobody to be seen outside. Garet slowly made his way into the rim of firelight. He could feel the warm air now as he stepped forward. He looked around.

There were small lights at the edge of the woods, each of them in pairs. Their neon green stare was even more unnerving than the silence. But all that was broken. As Garet dropped his gun down to his side, something grabbed him by the shoulder. He spun around in surprise and terror, only to see that it was Gunnar staring back.

"Hey," said Gunnar.

"Geez, what's with you?" Garet replied with frustration. "Don't you ever come up on me like that again."

Disregarding that statement he pointed towards the edge of the forest. "You see all of 'em?"

"Yeah. They're waiting for us."

"Yup."

"Where is everyone? And where did you come from?"

"Hellra and Dinin went back to base to set up communications; they were supposed be back yesterday. As for Zafo and his group, they're in there." Gunnar pointed his thumb over his shoulder to a door. "They got back with Gio ok."

"Is he fine?"

"Yeah, he'll make it. Believe it or not he was less injured than you."

"Well, I'm sure he didn't spend a night under a Gamorrean."

Zafo stepped out of the hut, waved quickly, and walked away. Sam soon followed, who nodded over towards Garet and Gunnar and then followed Zafo.
"They're getting restless," Gunnar said as their two squad-mates had left.

Garet looked over his shoulder at the sparkles in the woods. They were moving. "If they come after us, we won't stand a chance." A small humming started. "You hear that?"

"Yeah. Doesn't sound like something I want to get acquainted with."

"Does it seem like it's getting louder?" It was.

Zafo came running over. "There's something out there."

"You here it too then?" Garet asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yup, it isn't natural alright. Get the others up in case we have to fight. I'll get Sam back over here." Zafo made sure Gunnar got in the hut before he started to walk away. After a couple steps he turned around. "It's good to see you up, Corporal." He continued on his path towards the darkness.

Garet just stood there. It was good to be up. It had been a while since he was able to do anything. It's getting louder&

In the distance Garet could hear the braking and branches and the bristling of plants. The humming continued to grow.

Gunnar stepped out of the hut with Squall and Gio, and ran over to another hut, which Jenny was staying in. Gio came over to Garet and stared into the abyss, towards the sound.

"You ok?" Gio asked, not making eye contact.

"Yeah. You?"

"I've been better. You've been out for days, I hear."

"Guess so."

"You ready for this then?"

"You heard about me. I've been resting for days for this." Gio and Garet both smirked.

The noise was close. Gunshots could be heard, as well as shouts. Garet and Gio raised their weapons as Zafo and everyone else ran to the scene. Out of the tree line and into the firelight came a speeder; not filled with pigs, but with soldiers. A distinct shout was heard, and everyone knew who it was. Hellra and Dinin were back.

 
-----------------------
DarkDragoons 
TRP/CPL Garet Daimun/2SQD/1PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [ES2C]

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