Mira grinned and then cracked into laughter as she heard Oliver's rambling. "Amen to that, brother. A-men to that! Now I hope you're all buckled in tight, coz we'll be hitting atmo in about a minute."

"A minute?" Elaine said with surprise as she leaned forward to look out the cockpit window. "How far away is the new colony?"

"Right below apparently. Convenient huh?"

Elaine leaned back and blew out a low whistle. Convenient was an understatement. For a colony to be directly underneath the Star Fort meant that it was under the highest level of protection, literally. If any dragons took to space, they would face the might of the fort as well as that of the frigates. A potent enough force to deter any kind of attack short of the one from five years ago, when the fort itself was targeted.

A minute later, the shuttle entered the planet's atmosphere and another minute later, Elaine could see the land of Cadeca... as well as the new colony.

(switch over to Cadeca now)

The surrounding land was a wide expanse of trees, grass and water flowing down from some mountain far in the distance. The colony itself was still bare with only a shield tower and some rail gun emplacements, but there was also a large military presence on the ground. Whole battalions of tanks, mechs and combat aircraft, the bread and butter of Cadeca's planetary forces.

Why are there so many troops? Elaine wondered as she looked out. Asides from the raising of outposts and gun turrets, there was no sign of anything else being built, not for settlers anyway. This was too big for mere security.

"Touching down in about 30 seconds, get ready," Mira said. "Looks like the grunts have prepared a welcome committee for you shining knights in armour."

A square landing pad marked out where the shuttle was to land and as it got closer, Elaine could make out figures of people from the congregation of war materiel. Many of them were looking up as the shuttle descended, some of them waving or pumping their fists into the air. It was then that Elaine realized what she and her squad were really here for.

"Hey, how far are we from dragon country?" Elaine asked.

"Uh, let me see," Mira said as she checked the map for surrounding regions. "Oh my... we seem to be inside it."

Now it was no longer a matter of if the dragons would attack. It was a matter of WHEN.

When the shuttled touched down on the ground and Mira gave the all clear, Elaine fought to maintain her composure as she ordered the squad to disembark. When the door opened, they were immediately met by a loud roar of voices. There were shouts of, "Yo, the Raiders!" and "Let's kick some ass!" and a myriad other cries of bravado.

This was not the construction of a new colony. This was a declaration of defiance.

"Ok, let's get to our position," Elaine said as she led everyone out of the shuttle.

"Have a good one!" Mira called out after them.

At the same time, other squads of Raiders began to arrive in different areas.

"This shit is gonna get real." Caleb spoke the words that were in the minds of his fellow Raiders since they heard they were in Dragon territory. There was no way this was going to be a peaceful time. Despite this, Caleb was cocky as ever. He had a pep in his step as he made nods to the people cheering for them. Even doing a kind of hop and flip to show off.

Nikita was unimpressed with Caleb. She was unimpressed with all of them expect for the only two she deemed as respectable. J'aquen was right beside Elaine, in front of her squad she was leading. Nikita was behind them, trying not to be seen with the other Raiders. Well, mostly Caleb.

Oliver brought on strange looks from people. He was seen lifting his nose into the air, sniffing in the wind. He seemed dissatisfied with the scent.

"More like...an old shoe." He muttered, shrugging.

S'Rye was busy waving to the people who greeted them. Of everyone there, besides Caleb, she was the most excited in a different way. This was her time to shine. That was what she felt. It was what she dreamed of. Nothing and no one could dampen the spirit.

"Here's hoping for a great run." J'aquen said.

"You wanna hope for something, hope we make it out of here alive," Elaine replied as she followed the map on her PDA. "Open plain, little cover, too many hills... we are in a hotbed for catastrophe and surrounded by plebeians that don't realize it. Just look at them all."

Everywhere around the Raiders, there were soldiers mounting up in their combat vehicles, looking for all the world like they had already rid the planet of dragons. There was even a whole unit of tanks with the word 'DRAGONSLAYER' stenciled along their turrets. Most of the soldiers appeared as young as Caleb, though here and there were some grim faces who looked like they knew what to expect. Veteran suicide squad members, perhaps. Those who were sent out along with Raiders on hunting missions and had an even lower survival rate. From experience, Elaine had noticed that they all shared the same look, that of being the last or one of the last survivors of their team.

One such person approached Elaine as she neared the position indicated on her map. He was a middle aged man with a thin moustache, brushy brown hair and permanently squinted eyes that gleamed like chips of obsidian. Standing at roughly J'aquen's own height and almost twice as broad, he was a powerful looking figure, but bore himself in the manner as one-of-the-grunts.

"You must be sergeant Chiria," he said, extending a handshake. "I'm sergeant major Hopkins, just here to bring you up to speed on what's going on here. Evidently, someone decided it was time to take the fight to the dragons and, as you can see, the troops are a little excited. Looks like we're all Raiders here now. Anyway, battle plan. Dragons come, we knock em out of the sky, you deliver the coup de grace for each and every one them, and then we rinse and repeat until they're all dead or fled. Any questions?"

Elaine turned to J'aquen and then the rest of her squad, wondering how many of them had just heard the same thing. "Well, what do you think, Raiders?"

As J'aquen listened to Elaine and as he took in the sight around him, he could sense what was going on here. The man who had a passion for taking down Dragons, since he was a boy, wasn't fully in favor of this approach to the Dragon dilemma. For one thing, this was simply not going to be as simple as this Major Hopkins makes it out to be. They aren't fish you shoot in a barrel. If they were, imagine the fish twice the size of a house, with thick armored scales, and having the ability to melt your damn face off.

Yeah, not so simple when all you have is a small shot gun.

In fact, it almost seemed too ridiculous. Who in the hell thought this was a good idea? Was this a suicide mission? For everyone!? Most of the time J'aquen went ahead with orders without question, but sometimes, you HAD to question it. He couldn't change things, but J'aquen let it be known how he felt. Taking permission to speak, J'aquen spoke aloud what the others were thinking.

"With all due respect sir-" J'aquen said, clear as day. "-we're not all Raiders here." And that was the Gods honest truth.

"Yeah man." Oliver spoke up. "Not like I don't like...think we should kill Dragons and all, but this is the most idiotic angle I've seen in my life."

"And that's coming from a Stoner." Caleb added in. An attempt to agree with Oliver. S'Rye, however, was as straight and bent on following her orders.

"In the end, Sir, it's up to you to tell us where to go, and up to us to kickass." She said, chiming in with her views. "I'm here for it."


Nikita didn't know what to say at first. She was thinking things over and she could tell something was up, but also that there was little to be done.

"Alls fair." Nikita said, thinking that if this was a political move or not, if this was for shock value or to have a tragedy people can get enraged over so they pick up their feet on this Dragon issue, in the end there was her own reasons to stay. One down, eight more to go.

"For what it's worth, I'm inclined to agree with your views," Hopkins replied, looking a little riled up. "But there's jack and shit we can do about it, so we just have to-"

"Sergeant major," Elaine interrupted. "You've heard my people's opinions, now hear mine. It seems to me that most of the troops here don't really know what they're in for, otherwise they wouldn't look so enthusiastic, but I think we both know what to expect. Now this whole thing might end in disaster or be crazy enough to work; personally, I don't think it's worth the gambit, but at the end of the day, we're here to kill dragons and you can count on our support with that."

For a moment, Hopkins looked very confused and this worried Elaine. A heavy pause followed as the sergeant major tried to decide how to respond and when he found the words, Elaine just remembered what Colonel Baskevyl had said back on the star fort.

"Your support, as in you are the support?" Hopkins almost stammered. "Sorry if I'm misinterpreting, but you are aware this is a Raider operation, right? We're here to support YOU."

"Yes, I know," Elaine promptly replied. "I was just saying... just saying, I suppose. Good luck in any case."

The sergeant major smiled broadly and flicked a salute. "It's what's been keeping me alive all these years. Anyway, good luck to you too. I'll see you lot on the firing line."

With that, he left to join his unit whilst Elaine led the squad to their position, behind a row of tanks at the edge of the base.

"This is all Lucas," Elaine said to J'aquen. "Batshit on the field, batshit off the field, gods... no wonder my mother didn't show up for the briefing. She would never have agreed to any of this."

"Support my ass." Caleb scoffed, shoving his hands where pockets would have been there to slip into. After Hopkins left there were many choice words that followed. Especially from the over confident Caleb. The Raiders were uncertain in general already. To hear that these people were their support even made Nikita furrow her brows in momentary disbelief.

"What sort of psychotic freak show is this?" Caleb continued with his little rant.

"Place doesn't even smell like mint." Oliver added. Like that was just icing on the fucking cake. Not even the whif of mint on the air to please the nose!

"Smells more like Dragon shit." Caleb half turned to Oliver when he said this. The stoner nodded lazily scrunching his nose.

"Stop complaining, Raiders." J'aquen gave them a stern flick of his eyes. "We got our orders, so just zip your lips." The closer J'aquen got to battle the more serious he seemed to become. The guy inclined his head towards Elaine. "Where was she, do you think? Is it like her to skip out on telling someone they've got their head screwed on the wrong way?"

"You should know, you're in 2nd company, aren't you?" Elaine replied. "Anyway, I haven't seen her back on the fort for a while now and we've never met on the field, so your guess is as good as mine."

Elaine looked to the horizon as she thought about her mother being out there somewhere, probably carrying on like normal, like this big operation wasn't even happening. Perhaps, no, it definitely was her way of showing disapproval. Fail in her eyes and she'd leave you out in the cold, regardless of rank.

"But I know this," Elaine continued. "If there's anything my mother ever taught me, it's that we should be fighting smarter and want every advantage, not take massive risks like this... but that's what Lucas is all about, so here we are."

This situation did seem less than satisfactory. S'Rye was even admitting that. Nikita had stated her opinion, and that was that. Caleb, however, was beginning to let this first mission get to his head. "I may be in second company, but I wouldn't say your mother and I are on the best terms." He chuckled. Who was on the best terms with Annabelle Chiria? Give that person a medal.

J'aquen, though, tended to appreciate the strategies of Major Chiria. He felt Lucas was just a bit like-

"It's kinda shitty, but hell, let's do this!" Caleb hollered after time of thinking about things.

-a bit like that. His Rookie vibe made Nikita sick. S'Rye kinda made her sick, but not as much.

Elaine couldn't help but laugh a little at Caleb's sudden outburst. "Yeah, that about sums it up," she said. "All right, looks like there's no dragons yet so let's just-"

"4th company, this is Delta Primary," Rawne's voice sounded over the comms. "All squads, report in."

Spoke too soon, Elaine thought as she spoke into her mic, "Delta 6 reporting in. My squad's in position."

A pause as all the other squad leaders responded.

"Okay, Raiders, remain on standby. Be advised that the enemy is beginning to converge from the south and south-east. Do not engage without permission, over and out."

Elaine felt a twinge of annoyance at that last part of the transmission. Despite her thoughts on Lucas' methods, at least he trusted in the initiative of his Raiders... But then again, the order could very well have come from the Colonel himself and why not? The whole day had just been one irregularity after another so far.

"So it begins," Elaine said to the squad and then to J'aquen, "And here we are like hounds on a leash."

"Don't engage without permission..." Caleb mimicked in an annoyed fashion. It was obvious what he wanted to do. This manner in which Caleb chose to live his life, being so obnoxious, got on Nikita's nerves. A clear hint to how he will do things if it came down to it. All in all, Caleb had followed orders to a 'T', but things were already so off that day. What could possibly happen and what was going through his mind made his choice already. Permission or not, if he saw there was business to get done, he'd do it.

This was getting serious. Dragons were coming.

The idea to not engage unless they had permission wasn't well met. What if they didn't say anything on their end? What if something happened and the order to attack wasn't given or maybe the message wasn't sent right. What if it was blocked somehow? S'Rye wasn't thinking it would, but the possibility that the order to engage would fall short was on Oliver's mind. A kind of switch happened for him. He got into a mode of defense. Mostly for his little sister.

"Sometimes, hounds can chew through their leashes." J'aquen said to her. He kept a wary eye on Caleb.

Elaine followed his gaze and nodded in understanding. So far, there was every indication that Caleb was a hot-blooded rookie, the kind most likely to get killed, and Elaine realized that from this moment on, the lives of her squad were truly in her hands. She was beginning to feel the weight of her rank.

"All right, Raiders," she said. "Final check, make sure everything is working and stay alert. Just remember your training and we'll make it through this."

A few minutes later, Captain Rawne spoke again, this time to notify everyone of the coming attack, ETA 5 minutes. The dragons were moving fast. Elaine's heart rate steadily increased as the adrenaline started to flow.

In the first minute, sirens blared as the rail gun turrets prepared to fire. The air began to hum as the shield antenna was activated. Elaine knew that as long as it held, the turrets would be able to fire with impunity, but by the sounds of things, there was going to be a lot of dragons, probably more than enough to get past the initial barrage.

In the second minute, the rail guns fired a blistering salvo at targets still too far away to be seen with the naked eye. The sizzling roar of the heavy weapons were almost deafening as they shook the very air, and Elaine was forced to squint against the vision searing light as it saturated the sky. The firestorm lasted for a full minute.

By the fourth minute, the dragons were returning fire and by the fifth, they were close enough to be seen. The air rippled like boulders smashing into water as plasma beams lanced across the shield. There was a gap underneath it that allowed the turrets to fire out from, but at such a close range, they were now highly vulnerable and effectively useless. The tanks rolled forward as the rail guns were pulled back on magnetic tracks. Soldiers wearing individual mech suits followed in support.

Now that the dragons had gotten close enough, their fire became devastatingly accurate and Elaine saw five tanks explode into scrap before they could even counter attack. With the shield still holding, the only ones in danger were the people on the front line, which was exactly where Elaine's squad were just standing behind.

"Oh shit!" Jenkins yelled as several tanks in front suddenly exploded. A dull boom sounded afterwards and Elaine could see a ball of light glowing through the smoke. It took a split second for her to realize that a dragon had just landed in front of the wrecked tanks, and it was beginning to fire.

"SHIELD WALL!" Elaine shouted as she raised her energy shield and activated it, just in time to avoid getting vaporized.

Rush of excitement and fear was felt as the battle began. Well, as the attack began. So far the Raiders were all high on alert which was building up inside them. S'Rye, who was being crowded by Oliver, was anxious and this made her iris fully black out. Both eyes looked like deep pools of ink.

J'aquen was all business now. No time to even think about jokes, let alone crack them. Nikita narrowed her eyes. This one could be it. This one could be number two on her list. By her hand. It had to be by her hand or it didn't count. Yet even she was smart enough not to take stupid risks. No one held much hope for Caleb. He was way too mouthy and reckless.

"Let's just do this!" Caleb was antsy, fidgety.

"Stay down." Oliver warned him. Stoner he may be, but idiot he was not.

"Caleb, don't do anything-"

The tank was hit, Elaine's shout was made, and the Raiders pulled up their shields. Well, almost all of them. The image of Caleb trying to dodge the beam, just like the maneuvers of the great Major Chiria, was soon nothing more than a faded memory as the beam hit him. This sudden shock of first death made J'aquen's blood run cold. As much as Nikita didn't like Caleb, he had still been a comrade. Not enough to add to her list, but enough to get that rage in her.

"NO!" S'Rye lamented. Oliver raised his hand, as if to calm her. But what could S'Rye do but feel that loss? They were going to hang out after this mission. He was the first boy to really pay any attention to her, romantically speaking.

Now he was gone. In that one move.

"Damn it!" Elaine spat as she lowered her shield to fire her Buster gun into the smoke. The dragon immediately lifted into the air and flew away with a few flaps of its vast armoured wings, letting out a deep roar that was felt rather than heard.

It was black as gunmetal and about as large as a rail gun turret, but quick beyond anything reasonable for its size. As many tanks and mech infantry there were on the ground, they were all hard pressed to shoot the dragon down, let alone land any hits on it, but for the Raiders...

"Primary, this is 6, requesting permission to engage," Elaine said into her comms.

"Request denied," Rawne promptly responded. "Your contact is still flight capable. Do not engage until it has been grounded, do you copy?"

This is bullshit, Elaine thought as she reluctantly replied, "Yeah, I copy."

She looked up at the fleeing dragon, swearing that it wouldn't get away with what it had done, and then looked back to check on the squad. Seeing that S'Rye was looking distraught, Elaine said, "Stay focused, everybody. We'll get our revenge soon."

All around, tanks fired their cannons and the shield rippled and wavered as three dragons rained plasma from directly above. The fighter jets were scrambled to deal with them.

"We should be up there," Jenkins commented.

"I know," Elaine replied. Half a kilometre to the east, she saw another squad of Raiders moving to overwhelm a downed dragon, their jetpacks trailing blue light. As inappropriate as it seemed, Elaine felt cheated somehow.

Nikita raised her buster gun to shoot just before the beast took to the sky, but it was no use. Too far by now anyway. Without having taken a shot, she lowered her weapon. They weren't supposed to engage, which may have been the real reason why she didn't fire. That sometimes puzzled, even herself, that she had some kind of barrier placed in her mind. An order was her law.

"I don't like feeling as if we're being babysat." J'aquen gruffed.

"Speak for yourself." Oliver's eyes hadn't wavered from being alert. Just as his ears strained to keep his senses at heights. If anything, he was hoping things would keep off their shoulders. For S'Rye's sake.

S'Rye was silent, keeping her frown-pressed lips from quivering from how upset she was about Calebs death. Inside, she was feeling the ache that most Rookies feel when met with a tragedy like this. The Buster gun was held tight in her grip as she waited for their turn to attack.

The battle continued to rage on and after ten minutes, the situation remained relatively unchanged. The shield was still taking a beating, the dragons were still in the air and soldiers were still dying like flies, trying to bring them down. As far as Elaine saw, the situation was bad indeed, but still salvageable if the soldiers kept up the fight. Unfortunately, several of them didn't see it that way.

"Oh gods, what are they doing?" Elaine said as she saw a line of tanks beginning to waver, a few in full reverse.

The ones that remained on the front line were growing fewer and fewer, and as yet another tank became engulfed in flames, the armoured squadron lost heart altogether and broke into a rout. The black dragon that killed Caleb chased the tanks with plasma beams as they retreated underneath the shield umbrella.

Elaine gritted her teeth as she seriously pondered disobeying orders and going out to fight the dragon, grounded or not.

"Sergeant." Nikita spoke up. But why? She was usually so quiet. Yet watching this havoc before her eyes made Nikita's rage build up. The words she wanted to speak were on everyones mind, but it was not her to bring it up.

"It's like, now or never, man." Oliver sighed, shaking his head.

That was the hint. Though they all knew what Oliver was saying. J'aquen wanted to try again, with asking permission to attack. As much as he wanted to break orders, he was hoping those idiots would have enough sense to just let them attack!

"Serg?" S'Rye always seemed to look to Elaine for queues. This one was no different.

"Come on." Oliver urged, and he was certain that his decision to stick with S'Rye, to keep her safe, involved breaking a few rules. This was nothing but water off a ducks back 'to break rules'.

"Elaine?" J'aquen looked at her with concern.

Elaine shut her eyes as she wrestled with the decision. The smoke of the battlefield drifted all around and the first tank to retreat was but a few metres away now, set to keep on trundling past the Raiders. Even as the soldiers had withdrawn to safety beneath the shield, the dragon's barrage of plasma beams was unrelenting. It was the perfect storm of noise, dust, fire and fear.

Now or never, Oliver's words echoed in Elaine's mind. Yes, something had to be done. The soldiers were in retreat and the dragon had been left free to wreak havoc in their zone, something had to be done now.

Her mind now made up, Elaine raised her gun towards the sky and said, "Raiders..."

Charge, she was just about to say until a missile flew out from under the shield and exploded against the dragon's wing. Several more followed, each impacting against roughly the same spot and with no time to respond, the dragon failed to evade any of them. As it let out a roar of agony and began to plummet, Elaine turned to see the soldiers who brought it down, emerging from the smoke of the battlefield.

"Hold the line!" the voice of Hopkins sounded from the mech trooper in the lead. "Hold the fucking line you assholes!"

The unit had been outside of the shield, fighting as skirmishers and taking full advantage of their mobility. Now it seemed they were coming back to do what the tanks had failed to do and reestablish some order. Elaine watched with frank amazement as Hopkins single-handedly bullied the tanks back into line.

"Oi, what are you waiting for?" the sergeant major called out when he noticed Elaine and her squad. "There's a dragon that needs killing!"

Elaine nodded as a sign of acknowledgement and respect, then waved her gun forward as she shouted, "All right Raiders, let's go!"

A heartbeat later, Rawne's voice sounded through the squad's comms, "6, the dragon in your vicinity is down, you are clear to engage."

The anticipation was driving the Raiders up a wall. They were so intent on Elaine that J'aquen felt like the woman was some kind of starters gun. Just look at their faces. Nikita was half glaring, but not in an insulting way. She was just, intense. Oliver had been glancing between J'aquen and Elaine. One was his old and dear buddy and the other was his Sergeant. Either-or had authority in his eyes. Sometimes Oliver felt like J'aquen was the guy he'd rather follow, in any mission. S'Rye was simply going to do what Elaine did. In her mind, she was the best one to follow.

"Yes." Oliver seemed to fist pump when Elaine had began to make the call to attack. Yet, when Hopkins came around and set those guys straight, that made his spirit spark too. Even Hopkins was in on the same idea. Kill them dragons!!

"Let's do this." J'aquen nodded and it was all the more of a relief, especially to Nikita, when Rawne spoke.

Charging ahead, All the Raiders made for the dragon, buster guns up and ready to attack. Nikita was the first one to shoot. A rage face as her expression. The once docile and blunt woman now was pissed off and ready to kill. The rest were just as eager.

In the air or on the ground, a dragon was still deadly and Elaine made sure to never forget it. In this instance however, she was fine with throwing caution to the wind as she dashed past the tanks and out from under the shield. At this very moment, the dragon had just hit the ground and was still reeling from the shock of so many missiles slamming into it. It was the perfect opportunity to charge, but speed was of the essence.

As Nikita fired on the run, Elaine didn't even pause to admonish the waste of energy. She only waited for the right moment to take to the air, and as the squad ran faster than any animal in existence, quick enough to close the distance in a matter of seconds, Elaine saw the dragon recovering and preparing to fire, and she knew that it was now or never. It was time to strike!

"JUMP!" Elaine shouted as she leaped ten metres into the air and fired her jetpack, speeding towards the dragon like a rocket.

The dragon opened its maw to spit plasma and at the last second, Elaine activated her grav-belt, halting in midair so she could twist around and fire her jetpack in another direction, narrowly dodging the beam.

"Surround and harass," she instructed the squad as she rocketed into the sky, looking down to assess the situation. "Only close if there's a decent opening."

Not expecting a reply, she cut off her jetpack and dropped towards the dragon again, ready to dodge or block another attack at a moment's notice as it twisted this way and that, trying to focus on a target.

Flying with one push off the ground felt exhilarating, despite the overwhelming sense of fear at the back of their minds. Raiders were dragon killers, but Dragons killed too. Caleb was one such example. One that would haunt S'Rye. Elaine would know how that is.

J'aquen had loved and lost, but he was not like the women around him. Or so he thinks. In his mind, it's a tragedy when a comrade dies. It's a loss. Each soul that is hit down, each man or woman that gets blasted off the face of existence, they ALL matter. But, you gotta keep it going. Why should life get the last laugh? Why should dragons get the last laugh? J'aquen's not the kind of guy to let this happen.

Running with the others after hitting ground again, J'aquen shouted out to Oliver, who was guarding his sister like she was some wolfy-pup. "Cut the Pipsqueak loose, and get to the right, Olly" He demanded.

"Grr." Oliver wasn't so happy about that. "Whatever you say." He replied, breaking to the right.

J'aquen didn't need to say much to Nikita, who was on her game already. Her aim while running was a bit shaky, but she was getting in some good shots. If anyone was there that wanted this kill, it was Nikita. Her whole body language denoted one of great rage and determination. From the way she grit her teeth and scrunched her nose in focus.

S'Rye dodged a tail swipe, and leaned to her left to attack. She was feeling hot tears fill her eyes. But no, can't cry right now! Damn female emotions! If this dragon was gonna be taken down, she wasn't gonna be taken down with it!

While the dragon was distracted with the others, Elaine descended on it with her shield held at the ready to strike. Just as the dragon was opening its jaws and preparing to spit plasma again, Elaine swung her shield with the hard light field activated for a fraction of a second before shattering like a clap of thunder, delivering a massive blow to the dragon's skull and smashing its jaws shut into the ground.

"NOW!" Elaine shouted.

"I got it!" Jenkins replied, the first to close in on the dragon.

With his jetpack on full blast, Jenkins rocketed towards the dragon's left eye with his gun held in both hands, the bayonet aimed liked a spearhead.

The adrenaline rush had reached its peak in the Raider when he realized that this would be the death blow, and he could have sworn that the closer he got, the more time slowed down. Time enough to see the scales, see all the seams in the overlapping plates and look into the dragon's baleful eye.

See him and know what it's like to feel fear, dragon, Elaine thought with savage approval as Jenkins moved to strike. For a moment, she held her breath and in that point of time, she knew that everyone who was watching must have been thinking the same thing. Could this be it?

... And then horror struck.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl when Jenkins saw with perfect clarity that the tip of his bayonet was but a hand span away from the dragon's eye. After stabbing deep into the black pool of its malevolent stare, Jenkins then would have fired his Buster gun at full power, which would have pierced the brain and killed the dragon, making one less terror to deal with in this mad assault.

Instead, Jenkins found himself surrounded by darkness and heat, wondering in confusion about where he was, and then he felt nothing at all.

Quicker than anyone could see, the dragon had reared up its head with jaws wide open, wide enough to swallow a Raider whole. Not only did Jenkins disappear into the dragon's maw, but the moment a ball of light began to form, the Raider was also instantly vaporized.

"Move... MOVE!" Elaine commanded as she fired her jetpack to escape the imminent plasma beam.

Another.

Nikita's glare filled eyes raged with a inner fire that marked the Dragons hide as her kill. She wasn't the only one to see red when they gazed upon the beast. Yet the two deaths that had occurred heightened her passion to attack. Listening to Elaine call out 'Move' and not 'retreat', gave room for interpretation. Moving TO the Dragon is still 'moving', you see?

"Niki!" J'aquen shouted. "NIKI!"

"She said MOVE" Nikita shot back, making a hard zig-zag towards the Dragons right. J'aquen shook his head, but he 'moved' towards the Dragons left. Oliver shoved S'Rye to the side, throwing her off balance, but not to compromise her. A message to stay back. He shot up, ready to block with a shield if he had to. That was his distraction, wanting to shoot the face of it with his buster gun.

"RAH!" J'aquen yelled as loud as he could. So did Oliver. Nikita was like a burst from a buster gun herself, racing for the tender spot.

As half the squad followed Nikita's example and charged towards the dragon, it swung its head from side to side in a wide arc whilst firing its plasma beam, scything through the air and two Raiders who were a few milliseconds too late to react. That made four people lost to this one dragon now. As if that wasn't bad enough, it then raised its wings and flew away before anyone could get close.

Elaine knew the effects of a shield stun could vary wildly, depending on the dragon's resilience, but this one had managed to recover almost instantly. In fact, it was quicker than any other Elaine had ever seen before. It was almost maddening.

"We have to cut it off," Elaine said urgently as she fired her jetpack and gave chase.

At full speed, it was possible to catch up to the dragon while it was still just taking to the sky, but before Elaine could get close, Thaddeus' voice spoke through the link, "Sergeant Chiria, you're leaving your zone. Return to it at once."

Elaine gritted her teeth in frustration. "Sir, my target's getting away, I have to pursue."

"That was an order, Sergeant. Return to your zone. Now."

"... Yes sir."

Elaine activated her belt and hovered in the air a moment, watching with resentful eyes as the dragon fled. All that effort gone to waste.

"Fall back," Elaine said to her squad as she turned around and returned to the base. "We lost this one."

We

Lost

This

One

Those words tightened Nikita's lips and her fist. Her throat felt tight with a slight hot throb. Like fire was rising up in her esophagus. Her com was off, but anyone would know what she would sound like. Everyone was sure they knew what Caleb WOULD have said. Probably cussed, blown a fuse. J'aquen only set a hand on her shoulder to console. This didn't help. It only did one thing. To let her know J'aquen still breathed. Still lived.

"Next time." He told her over the com. He couldn't hear her, but he didn't have to. J'aquen knew what she was thinking.

Next time? That's what you always say...'next time'.

A grunt was heard as S'Rye stomped up to Oliver and shoved him like he had her. She was obviously upset, obviously distraught on many levels. Her com was heard. The heavy uneven breathing, the sniffing up of snot that threatened to drip down her face just like her tears did.

"What is your problem!?" She shouted at him. Oliver had a shrug to offer her and a small sheepish smile that faded away faster than the setting sun. Nikita and J'aquen looked over at them. S'Rye hit Olivers arm. "I'm not a baby!" She yelled. "I don't NEED you to keep pushing me aside!" S'Rye took this as an offense. She had worked hard to be Raider. Every time Oliver took her under his little wing of protection, she felt like a whiny school girl that had to be sheltered.

"S'Rye, like...I'm sorry you know?" He tried to speak gently to her. S'Rye was still mad, she huffed and pushed him again.

"Hey, S'Rye, knock it off." J'aquen told her. He was like the older bro you don't wrestle with. She took a glance at him and stormed off. Oliver sighed deeply, crossing his arms. One of his shoulders did another shrug. He didn't know what to do or say. Not at this moment.

"Alright..." J'aquen frowned, then looked to Elaine.

One of the squad removed his helmet and threw it down in anger as soon as he landed, another had a haunted look on his face as he shambled about like a living corpse, and then there was S'Rye... All the time, it was always the same whenever a dragon got away. Frustration didn't even begin to describe it and Elaine felt all too responsible for the squad's current state.

"Alright," she echoed as she turned away, unable to look J'aquen in the eye or anyone else for that matter.

How much better would things have gone if he was in charge? Elaine couldn't help but wonder and as much as she tried telling herself that these things happened sometimes, all she could think about now were her mistakes.

It was on her word that Jenkins had died. It was also her unclear order that sent half the squad charging towards the dragon instead of away from it, and perhaps Caleb's death was her fault in some way as well.

Elaine was a rational kind of person and knew that she shouldn't dwell on failures. It was her first day as a sergeant, mistakes were inevitable and the Colonel himself could very well share the blame for her ad hoc promotion... but it was her desire to remain on Cadeca that ultimately brought her here.

By Elaine's reasoning, it was all on her and just as she felt like falling into despair with the rest of her squad, Thaddeus's voice said over the link, "Everyone stay right where they are, no one pursue. Let the enemies run."

Then it dawned on Elaine. As she looked up, she saw the dragon that got away was not the only one to flee. Three others had joined it and were beating their wings furiously in retreat.

A victory then, Elaine thought as she removed her helmet, feeling the wind and dust of the battlefield on her face. But at what cost?

After some time, when it became certain that the dragons weren't coming back, Thaddeus eventually gave the order for the whole company to return to the Star Fort and Elaine let out a sigh of relief.

"All right guys... let's go back home," she said as she led the way back to Mira's shuttle.

When once there were rows of smiling faces, of applause, there was none now. Or if there was, no Raider cared to look up to see it. What place did smiling have here? They had to admit that they each felt a little bit good when they walked out of that shuttle to see these people cheering for them. Yet with each thud of their feet, S'Rye could only think of the lost set of boots that would never hit the ground again. Her eyes, glazed with tears, set onto the shuttle and blocked out the world around her.

No cheering now. No smiling. Only dirty, smelly, sad shades of men and women who walked back to home with news that they had lost more than they gained. Lost people.

It's like, you want to glance beside you. Because you think that if you do, you'll see a face. A face you thought would be there always. You have this feeling that they are there, just out of your view, and all you have to do is look. S'Rye felt her mind furiously bidding her to keep forward. Because then she can't be disappointed. You won't know for sure, but, you can't be truly hurt like knives being slit into your heart.

Was his death apart of some figment of her stressed mind? Or was it truly real, and taking a look beside you makes it a cold hard reality again, that slaps you in the face.

Her blazing red eyes swirling with the deepest sorrowful blue did not leave the shuttle's doors. All else was blocked from her mind. S'Rye could hear nothing besides the quieter foot prints, and to never feel a hand in hers. A hand she opened the palm of, to no one.

Oliver watched his sister walking ahead of him. Now he knew, he made a mistake letting Caleb talk to S'Rye. To chat her up. What was he thinking? He wasn't thinking. Oliver was too preoccupied with what Caleb would do, or could do, to S'Rye, be it stealing kisses or being a bit too flirtatious, he completely missed how his death might effect S'Rye.

"She's too young." Oliver frowned, not looking up at J'aquen, who knew what he meant. Too young to know that kind of grief. "Why man? Just..."

"I know." J'aquen's face was solemn and he did not pretend to know the answer to the question he knew Oliver would ask. Why did she have to be a Raider? Everyone has their reasons. His eyes slid over to Nikita.

Her tightlipped mouth barley quivered, but only J'aquen would know what she was feeling as those chocolate eyes burned the sky with hatred for those beasts. J'aquen's eyes trailed down the scar on Nikita's face.

Everyone has their reasons.

Along the way to the shuttle, Elaine saw Hopkins outside of his mech suit, speaking to his men. When their eyes met, the sergeant major nodded and Elaine returned the gesture, then continued on her way. It was all that was needed to acknowledge the shared experience of the hell they had gone through; that everyone just went through, soldiers and Raiders alike.

Morale had plummeted, of that there was no doubt. Elaine thought there was something she ought to say or do to fix it, but what? She hadn't the slightest idea since her specialty was killing dragons, not dealing with people. At the very least, their fight with the dragon did not go half as poorly as many a recruit's first time in battle, but was that any consolation at all? The dragon had gotten away and that rubbed raw for anyone, regardless of experience.

When the squad reached the shuttle, Mira poked her head out of the hatch and waved enthusiastically. "Ah, the heroes return!" she called out with a wide grin, which promptly disappeared when she noticed the general mood of the squad. "Oh, it didn't go so well, did it? All right, come on in. Ya'll just take a seat and relax now."

"Helmets off, guns and shields on racks," Elaine said before climbing into the shuttle and standing by the doorway to supervise. Then, as though it were an afterthought, she added, "You all did good today."

"Eh, so it did go well?" Mira asked, bemused. "Why all the long faces then?"

Elaine shot an annoyed look at the pilot. "Shouldn't you be preparing for flight?"

"When everyone's not on board yet? Aye, that makes sense."

Elaine opened her mouth to respond, but Mira made a piteous noise as soon as she saw S'Rye's face and went over to her in a hurry, holding the girl's head in both hands.

"You're one of the new ones ain't ya? Oh, c'mere darlin'. It must have been terrible out there."

As she held S'Rye in a hug, Mira looked at Elaine and said in a reproachful tone, "This one's been crying, haven't you said a single word of comfort to her, or anyone else around here for that matter?"

Elaine had nothing to say to that and simply shook her head before retreating into the shuttle, and falling into a seat.

"Come on all of you," Mira continued. "Hurry it up and get in for some rest. The sooner we get home, the better."

Nikita was not amused to hear Mira speak 'hero's return' when she reached the shuttle. Elaine's chatter about them 'doing good' didn't help either. None of it did. She just wanted to go home. In fact, Nikita just walked passed Mira who went to give S'Rye a hug.

It was a surprise at first, feeling those two hands hold her face. S'Rye took a moment to register who it was that looked into her eyes. At first she could have sworn she saw the eyes of Caleb staring back at her. This startled her, drawing a sharp gasp from S'Rye. Her heart beat slowed when Mira's gaze revealed itself behind the haze of grief that shrouded S'Rye's mind. The hug was as unexpected as the hold on her cheeks. It took her a few moments before S'Rye raised her hands and returned the embrace. Inside, she was numbing. This small act of friendly love brought the slightest feeling back to S'Rye's heart. She did not hear words around her. Only what she could see or touch. And even that was deceiving her.

Oliver took over for Mira, wrapping an arm around her, leading her to the shuttle seats. A brotherly finger went to wipe her tears from her eyes. J'aquen watched them go in, following the rest into place. He sat besides Elaine, quiet for a moment. He knew she wasn't good with people. Sometimes, a person didn't know what to say or do, but for her, it was naturally harder to do this.

"Don't take it hard." J'aquen insisted. Nudging her with his shoulder a little. The doors of the shuttle closed. He briefly looked out the window. "This is not new, you know that..." He didn't have to say so. He turned back to face her, running his pointer finger down a streak of red dyed hair. "Remember what you fight for...be thankful you can still fight for it."

He didn't know if that helped at all. All he knew, was that things can wear people down. Even him. Yet J'aquen would rather die before he let a weakness break morale further. Even if inwardly he felt like burning forests down, or blowing up worlds out of despair, he was not about to let that drown him. To hell with that, he was bent on fighting.

"I know," Elaine said in almost a whisper as she grabbed J'aquen's hand and gently lowered it between them. "... I know."

Mira returned to the pilot's seat and the air began to thrum as the shuttle lifted off the ground. The vibrations ceased after a moment when the sky turned from blue to black, and Elaine turned her head to see what the pilot saw. An ocean of darkness and light, with Fort Prateorius steadily drifting closer in view.

It wasn't uncommon for entire squads to get wiped out. Elaine knew it could have been a lot worse, but that didn't make her feel any less weary to the bone. After watching for a minute or two longer, she closed her eyes to rest as a hangar bay opened to swallow the shuttle.

"Docking in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1 and welcome home everybody," Mira said. "You can all get out of your harnesses now."

(Switch over to Star Fort Praetorious now)