Goblin made it to the forces first, followed closely behind Hawkins and with Wicket bringing up the rear. Once rejoined with the resistance forces the three set up with E-webs and added their rain of fire down on the militia and New Republic Forces. Across the comm Goblin told the resistance to begin falling back. Goblin, Wicket, and Hawkins along with Jelly's group was the last to go, drifting together back into the resistance forces as the NR group followed behind.

"Look," Goblin spoke over the comm, "I know he's our SL, and face it, Doc's a great guy, but he gave me an order, and I plan to carry it out. It's about 50km between here and the safe house, and we have enemies on our tail, and Doc has an hour and a half to respond before I blow the charges. We should be about almost to the safe house in the time he gave us, but then I'm pushing the button."

A massive a wave of complaint and curses came over the comm, but Wicket's voice stood out amungst the crowd. "Like fucking hell," Wicket shouted into his comm, "You are not pushing that button until Doc is safe and clear. Orders or no orders, you are not going to kill our SL."

A series of, yea's and you tell'em came over the comm, but Goblin kept on running, determined to do what he had to. Mustang on the other hand had something to say.

"Ok, here in a bit we're going to break for that tree line about two kilometers away, and wait. It's about ten kilometers from the city and should be a good place to break away. The NR and militia troops just may catch up with the resistance and we don't need to be caught in that fire-fight. We need to give Doc as much time to do whatever he needs to do before we complete the objective." She said, voice as cool and icey as usual.

The halls of the command center were empty as Riqimo had thought they would be, the command needed to be watching the battle in the numerous war rooms.  Thus most of the base should be empty except for the few offices and the command rooms.  Riqimo primed a charge and inserted it into one of the file cabinets, This is going to be way too easy, I'll be out of here in no time at all.

As the squad leader left that particular room, someone shouted at him, "You soldier, what are you doing?"

Riqimo span around and saw a colonel demanding why a soldier of such low rank would be in the building while there was a battle going on, "Errm, I..." Riq quickly drew his pistol and fired at the colonel before he would get into an conversation that might waste his precious time.  Alarms started blaring as soon as he had done so, and Riqimo saw a camera at the end of the hallway... Oh, perfect... Riq quickly shot the camera out of commission and looked for a place to run, finding an air vent, he quickly undid the cover and slid himself in and placed the cover somewhat over the opening.  Only if someone looked closely at it, they would know what happened.

Somehow I always wind up in the vents it seems... Riqimo counted the numerous occasions that he had been in vents, all while crawling uncomfortably on his hands and knees.  Riqimo decided it would be safest to just lay all his charges in this one location and find an exit, thus he primed the last five charges and started to peek out of grates to see if he could find a way out.  After about ten unsafe grates, Riq finally found a room that was empty and eased himself out of the vent into a weapon storeroom.

Muttering to himself about stealth no longer really possible, Riq grabbed a repeating rifle and broke the window by throwing the rifle through it.  Taking an annihilator pistol out from underneath his stolen olive drab uniform, Riqimo was no ready to make us of his last thirty minutes to get the hell out of the base before it exploded.  A group of five soldiers turned the corner as Riqimo was climbing out the window and the leader shouted, "There he is!"

Riqimo fired a few shots in their general direction before sprinting off, trying to come up with an escape plan at the last minute.  The gates had to be out since they would be locked down already, all he had left was the way he had come in...  Dashing to his right, Riqimo avoided a few more shots, by now twenty soldiers were trying to get him, and Riqimo sincerely wished he had not used that smoke grenade at the command center.  Riqimo threw himself through the glass door of the administrative building, shielding his eyes from any shards before dashing full speed for the stairs.  On the way over, he fired a few well aimed shots at the control panel for the turbolift and returned some fire at the faster troopers still chasing after him.  He left a frag grenade on the stairs as he reached the third level, hoping it would buy him some time.

Finally at the roof, the Squad Leader glance furtively for something that would keep the door shut.  Unable to find anything, he jammed his silenced pistol into the loops where there was a loop for a lock.

A quick glance at a chrono gave Riqimo five minutes, which if this did not work he was certainly doomed.  Pulling out one of the jetpacks, Riq rolled it aside because it did not have enough charge.  Second pack had the same issue, and there were now milita men trying to bang the door open.  Third pack was also not as much charge as Riqimo had hoped for, but it had more than the first two.  Riq was running out of time and checking the fourth and final pack would take too much precious seconds.  Strapping the third pack on, Riq figured it must have been Hawkin's judging by how the straps were tightened.  Giving a brief prayer, Riqimo then ran towards the edge as fast as he could, fifteen seconds away from a fireworks display...

Riqimo staggered into the cantina around lunchtime, having hitched a ride by some kind, elderly civilians.  His squad mates were clustered around a table prodding at a dish sitting in the middle of the table.  Slidding into the last seat between Mustang and Jelly Bean, all attention was diverted from the so-called 'exotic' dish in the middle of the table to the tired Squad Leader.  After giving a slightly exaggerated account of what had happened, Riqimo congratulated the Eclipsers on a well done mission as they headed up the stairs to the rooms they had occupied over the past few days.  They would be packing up, and gathering any intel they had before boarding their dropship outside the outskirts of the city.

"Doc?" Griffin stepped into the room, keeping his firm military posture.

"What do you need, Grif?" Riqimo nodded in his general direction while taking flimsi off the walls and stuffing them into a box.

"What you did, you deviated from my plan.  You were not supposed to go alone."

Riqimo sighed, he could avoid this subject with Hawkins, but Griffin was another matter entirely, "Grif, you have to understand.  I look out for my troopers.  I would do anything to keep them safe, even if my own life is put to risk in the process.  You wouldn't understand."

"Riq, I read over your file... You have to realize that they joined the army knowing the risks.  They may seem to be the only family you have, but what if they lost you?  You are like a father to them."

Riqimo flinched slightly at the mention of the word 'father', but Griffin ignored it and continued, "You lost your father, what if they lost you?"

Trying to hold back any emotions, Riqimo stuttered slightly, "Th-th-th-at, can't ha-ap-apin.  Ya-you know wha-at I did?"

"Yes Riqimo, I read your entire file, past records included.  You accidentally killed a man, your father.  It is okay.  You do not have put yourself in such danger to make up for that it was a mistake."  Griffin intentionally left out the fact of self defense, a father attacking

The tears that Riq had been holding back, started to swell in the corner of his eyes, "Griff... you're right.  I can't put them through that loss."

---

The dropship touched down on the open grassy meadow, the waves of grass radiating outward from it.  The loading ramp opened slowly and before it had touched the earth, several Eclipsers were already inside, tossing their gear into the cargo area.  Riqimo waited for everyone to board before he followed suit, a minute smile starting to spread across his face.  As he stepped on the shuttle, his trademark grin gave proof to Griffin that the talk of the past night was going to make Riqimo a much better leader in the future.  In the next few minutes though, there wasn't going to be a grin on all the faces in the shuttle with one exception as Cartwheel started to lift the dropship off the planet, heading home to Tadath.

OOC:

End!  Good job!