"V-Irony" Written by and(c) Sep-2002 Ralcor (me), Do not redistribute without permission. Third part of the "Recurrence" series, there are two previous parts, "Of Furs And Furies" and "Every I In Team", I recommend you read both before continuing on... The transport ship rose vertically off the ground at a slow but steady rate. Once it ascended higher than the surrounding hanger, the landing struts moved back into the base of the craft, the rear engines fired up and the ship disappeared over the horizon. Onboard the ship, Tyler and the rest of the newly formed Alpha Team entered the equipment room. All six of the team began suiting up and picking out the various items that they'd be needing on the upcoming mission. Tyler spoke as he prepared: "Reports have come in from our spies within the rebel furs, Arctic Fury has been plotting against humans again, within the Amazon Rainforest. I'll get to the mission details after an information update on our arctic _friend_. Intelligence Division has been doing a little research into who Arctic Fury really is..." By this time the team had finished getting ready and just stood and listened to what Tyler had to say, who presently turned away to pick up six identical files and distributed them around between team. "...His real name is Eric Draks, born in Alaska. At aged sixteen, his mother was raped then killed and his father was injured during a racist attack by a group of humans that were never convicted." They leafed through the pages in the files, each page showing various details of the fox's history. "A few weeks later his father committed suicide from overwhelming depression. After that he went into hiding, he was suspected of several bombings but nothing was ever proven, nothing else until his missile threat a couple of weeks ago." "Draks, I've heard that name before." Alex said thoughtfully, leafing through the papers rapidly trying to find something. "Robert Draks." Becca Said. "He nearly sabotaged the peace talks that ended the Race Wars, luckily he was caught before he succeeded. He was committed into a mental institution, not being psychologically fit to go to prison." "Looks like it runs in the family." Jade remarked. "Onto the mission briefing." Tyler walked out into a narrow corridor, the others in his wake, they each slung their rifles over a shoulder alongside their weighty backpacks. Tyler talked as he moved along the passage. "Like I said, we have had reports that Eric Draks is moved his plans from forcing humans into slavery, to just trying to wipe them out." "Genocide, sir?" Alex said in surprise, not believing that anyone could be that sadistic. "Uh, yeah." Tyler thought. "Anyway, apparently he has his scientists working on a air-based weapon designed only to affect humans. That's where the Rayfer brothers come in..." They entered the crew lounge at the far left of the corridor, where they found two rats sitting and waiting for the teams arrival. They had no weapons but both wore the same combat clothing as the Alpha Team did. The two rats seemed very similar, they stood up as the team entered to reveal they were not just brothers, but identical twins. They shook paws with the arriving team before everyone took a seat. "...Meet Adrian and James." His paw pointing from one to the other. "Uh, he's James." "And he's Adrian." The two corrected Tyler together. "Okay." Tyler said slowly, before continuing on. "They are chemical specialists from R&D Division, so they have no tactical training." "We're laboratory workers." "Literal lab-rats." They joked lamely. They got a slight smile from Jade and a light chuckle from Becca, but nothing more. "Not many people." "Find that funny." They spoke together again, Adrian then James and vice-versa. "Like I was saying." Tyler persisted, getting irritated with the pair of rats. "Since they have no tactical training, it is our task to protect them every step of the way. Hope, you and O'Brian will stay with them at all times. Our mission is as follows; first we locate the entrance after rappelling off the ship. Second we find where all computer records concerning the virus is held and wipe them. Third, escort James and Adrian to the virus production areas for them to destroy it." "ETA two minutes." Came a voice over the comsystem. "Any questions?" Tyler finished. The rats both raised their paws. "What's rappelling?" "We've never done that." At that remark, Tyler realised that the pair weren't wearing rappelling harnesses. He turned to Leo and gestured for him to return to the equipment room and get a couple of extras, with a disapproving growl Leo left the room, entering again a minute later with the harnesses which he through to the rats. The pair looked at each other, unsure how to put on the rappelling equipment. "We've arrived, awaiting your descent." Came the earlier voice "Descent!?" The rats gulped. "Hope, O'Brian, help these two. The rest of us will be waiting in the cargo hold." Tyler said as he walked out of the room, Leo, Jade and Alex followed behind. They turned left and walked to the end of the hallway, the door there slid upwards to reveal a large cargo area, a couple of cargo containers sat to one side and a single A-TAC. Eventually Sarah and Becca arrived along with James and Adrian. Tyler accessed the control panel at the centre of the area, the entire room began to lower out of the ship. The walls slid upwards to reveal a grey cloudy sky, rain pouring down into a clearing amongst the dark green mass of leaves below, a light wind blew across the lowered floor. Once the gap between the floor and ship's base reached a couple of metres the slow descent stopped, all eight walked up to the forward edge of the surface and looked over. Spread along the edge were four motorised cylinders which began to lower cables down to the ground, the three otters and racoon attached the cables to their harnesses before slowly lowering themselves off the ship, they started at a fast pace and slowed considerably as the ground got closer. Once they were on the ground and had detached from the cables and unslung their weapons and waited whilst the four remaining onboard the ship began their descent. Being new at rappelling, the two rats were very slow so the vixen and weasel had to match their pace to call advice and encouragement. Eventually all eight were safely on the ground, the cables were retracted and the cargo area has raised back into the ship. "Colonel Roe to Atlas." Tyler spoke over the radio. "Take up a position ten kilometres north and wait for my signal." "Copy that, sir." The ship moved north revealing the dull sky above, allowing the rain to fall into the clearing and onto the whole group who were soon drenched, moisture saturating their fur with droplets falling from their ladened whiskers and tails. Alpha Team searched the clearing swiftly, securing the perimeter, whilst the two uneasy rats just stood and watched idly whilst muttering their dislike of rappelling. They all returned to the centre of the clearing. "Split into two groups of four, take opposite directions moving in a semicircle and returning here if we can't find any ways in." Tyler ordered, starting to walk east. "Why couldn't we have used the A-TAC?" "Wouldn't it be easier to use its sensors." The rats alternated. "The A-TAC would be detected as soon as it hit the ground." Sarah said, trying to push Adrian west whilst Becca did the same to James. "What about the ship?" "Couldn't they see that?" They enquired again. "No, it's shielded." Jade called back as she headed east. Tyler, Leo, Jade and Alex headed east into the cover of the leafy canopy, shaking vigorously to get some of the moisture off their fur and clothing. After walking several metres they began turning north to begin the search. All they found were huge numbers of trees, plants and _large_ insects, but nothing of any consequence and by now they were at the northern most point of their search. Near the south point, Sarah, Becca, Adrian and James had found something much more substantial. In another clearing an ancient military outpost stood, probably used during the Race Wars by humans looking for concealed furs within the rainforest. But not all was as it appeared, between a deteriorated stone building and collapsed tent sat a one-piloted, modern-day, transport aircraft that was mostly obscured by fallen stonework. "Sergeant Hope to Colonel Roe. We have located something you ought to see, sir." "On our way, Sergeant." Came the otter's voice. Within a few minutes, the other four of their team could be seen on the opposite side of the clearing. Tyler, Leo, Jade and Alex spread out to search the compound, besides the transport craft there wasn't anything out of place. Once the area was secure, the rats and their guardians came out from hiding to meet the otters and racoon by the ship. There was nothing within the aircraft's open hold except rainwater, but there was a set of muddy pawprints filled with water leading away from its rear and into the degraded stone building. The eight followed the markings to where they disappeared under the wall at the opposite end of the building. They all stopped, forming accumulating puddles on the floor, to look at the solid wall. "Any suggestions?" Tyler asked, still looking over the room. "How about a pad?" "They could have been transferred somewhere else." The rats offered. Jade stamped her footpaw on the ground, testing whether it was glass or not. "It's not a pad, but it's not stone either." She gave another stamp. "It's metal, some kind of trapdoor maybe." "Look for a control panel or a release." Tyler ordered. The group fanned out to search around the fallen stones and rotting wood debris, but nothing of any use was found. Getting bored and becoming idle again the Adrian said, "Maybe magic." "You ne..." James was about to finish their sentence, but tripped over a small chunk of rock causing him to fall and the stone lump to skid across the floor. "Ouch." Complained the rat from where he lay, the first time the team had heard them speak singularly. Becca went to help James back onto his footpaws, but paused when she saw what had hid underneath the rock that he'd tripped over. She kneeled down to examine a small control panel built into the metal floor. "Second lieutenant? You may want to have a look at this." Becca called out. Jade went to kneel beside the stooped vixen, whilst Sarah helped the felled James up. "This is a lift, the entire floor." Jade said from where she knelt, without turning to face Tyler. "Should I activate it, sir?" "Go ahead." He turned to the rest of the group. "Find cover." All of Alpha Team took cover behind large enough rocks as the floor began descending, Becca and Sarah were irritably made to return to the centre of the area to force the two still-standing rats to find somewhere to hide. The lift finally halted and a door with another control panel had risen on the south- facing wall. Tyler and Jade took up positions either side of the door with Leo and Alex facing straight towards it from partially hidden spots behind the debris with the remaining four looking on anxiously. With a press of the panel, the door split and opened in either direction to reveal a long metallic corridor. The corridor was empty of any people, sighs of relief could be heard from various points around the room. Jade peaked around the corner, her ears twitched at hearing a faint buzzing sound. She looked to the ceiling of the corridor to see an orb half built into the metal work, similar to the black pawheld orbs but considerably larger. "Hide!" She called in a hushed but severely urgent tone. Everyone fully concealed themselves, as Jade prepared her own orb. After a few seconds she threw it along the floor of the hallway so that it stopped directly underneath its counterpart on the ceiling, both orbs hummed before the higher one shutdown completely. Jade retrieved her orb and motioned for the others to come out of hiding. They gathered around to look up at the deactivated object in the ceiling, then to Jade with questionable expressions. "Amazing, Eric Draks must have some of the finest minds under his command. R&D Division have only got these in the late development stage." She said in admiration. "What are _these_, I've never seen anything like them." Tyler asked. "Like I said, the Confederation hasn't finished developing them yet." She spoke knowingly. "They're called Imagers. Our pro-orbs can project three- dimensional images of anything on file, but one of those..." She gestured upwards. "They can record sounds and complete three dimensional images in a multitude of different modes, IR, x-ray and so on and it can work in any environment on a self-regenerating power supply." "So basically." He said expectantly. "Basically, it's a hi-tech security camera, sir." "Ahh." Tyler replied, finally understanding. "Did it see us?" "Doesn't matter if it detected us." Jade said absently. "The problem that R&D Division have had is that Imagers' have to complete a full sweep before it transmits to the main computer system, which takes about five to ten seconds, a process started when it emitted that buzz. I interrupted the operation by discharging a field of high intensity..." He raised a paw to interrupt her. "So?" "No, sir. As long as it worked on the same principles as R&D's versions, it wouldn't see us." She finished. "Good." He turned his attention to the metal hallway. "Next we need to find a the computer where the records are being held, or at least a map leading to it." "Tactics dictate that such a critical device should be kept as far from the entrance as possible." Leo stated bluntly. "Fair enough." Tyler turned to face down the corridor, he began moving off. "This way." The others each raised their guns and followed close behind, except the rats who had no weapons and just trailed cautiously. They moved along the corridor, where they eventually came to a staircase leading down further underground. At the base of the stairway the passage split, leaving a T-junction heading off both left and right. Down the right side, the light seemed to dwindle visibly before the passage ended in a left turn. Down the left side, there was nothing out of the ordinary, eventually it turned right to run parallel with the other turnoff. Right infront of the group there was a glass panel embedded into the wall, it activated as the team approached, lighting up in an array of self-checks before a logon screen appeared alongside an area for a pawprint identification. "Ellis." Tyler gestured towards the blinking screen. "It's all yours." Jade walked up to the screen, just looking at it for a few seconds whilst she formulated a plan. She unstrapped her backpack and dropped in on the floor infront of her, she kneeled down and rummaged through it eventually pulling out a laptop computer connected via a cable to an interface, which looked more like a metal block. She affixed the block to the glass screen and powered up her computer. She worked quickly over the controls of her laptop, after a few minutes the glass panel switched itself off. Jade removed the block and bundled all her equipment back into her pack, which she strapped back on. The computer before them restarted, it went through the same self-checks as earlier then the logon screen reappeared. She placed her paw on the cold glass, separating her fingers. Furs fingers are slightly stumpy compared to human fingers, but due to the way furs were created, the pads on each fur's fingers are just as unique as human fingerprints, allowing the panel to work properly. After a few seconds a bright horizontal line of red light, beginning at the top and moving to the base of the glass, scanned her paw slowly. "Welcome." The computerised voice spoke, completely expressionless. "Confirm voiceprint ID." "Confirm, Jade Ellis." Jade spoke to the wall. "Confirmed. Jade Ellis, otter, highest clearance level." The panel said. "Requests?" Tyler was about to answer its question, but Jade managed to get a finger over his muzzle before he could say anything, shaking her head as a warning. "This is amazing, completely voice dependent controls. R&D Division has only just started research on this technology." She said in awe, the arctic fox seemed to have everything that R&D Division had only just started researching. "Rephrase." The expressionless panel spoke. "Oh, right." She paused for thought. "Delete all records concerning the viral developments taking place at this facility." She said plainly, trying to phrase her request simply. "Unable to complete task. All alterations to records must be done at central computer terminal." It paused. "Requests?" "Display route to the terminal." She ordered the panel. The panel screen went blank before two different 2D maps of the facility appeared, one from the top looking down and one looking from the side. A panel on the second floor glowed a lightish blue. A corridor to the groups left, turning right, down a flight of stairs, along the length of the facility and into a room at the right side, all of them glowed a brighter blue than the surrounding areas of the base's representation. The group all studied the map before it disappeared. "Requests?" The panel asked again. "Logoff." Jade ordered, in response the screen went black before completely powering down. She turned to Tyler. "Sorry, sir. If you had spoken whilst it was registered to my voiceprint, it could have set off some kind of warning." "Just like the R&D's version, right?" He questioned, failing to hide his resignation. "Yes, sir." She said, realising that Tyler wanted to drop the subject. "This way." Tyler moving towards the passage leading east. But before he could set off, there came a call from behind him. "Sir?" Sarah yelled. Tyler turned to see the pair of rats walking off in the opposite direction with an unsure Becca following after them. Tyler placed two fingers in his muzzle and blew, whistling loudly, causing the two rats to stop in their tracks and face the aggravated otter. "Where are you going?" "This way." Adrian said plainly, pointing down the darkened corridor. "Why?" Tyler asked, getting more irritated by the rat's behaviour. "We're here to neutralise the virus." "It's down there." They talked and pointed down the passage way together. "What makes you so sure it's down there?" "The poor lighting." "And a large area on the map." They spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. He paused, thinking over his options, then turned to address Leo. "Major, go with Hope, O'Brian and the Rayfer's, check that corridor." He pointed down the dimmed passageway. "If the virus is there, destroy it. When you're done or if there's nothing there, return to this point. Ellis, Fyn and I will be in the computer room. Move out." "Take this, sir." Jade threw her black orb to Leo, who caught it easily. "You'll need it if you find anymore Imagers." He nodded his understanding and turned down the darkened passage. Leo took the lead of the group heading towards the viral lab, one paw carrying the long laser rifle with the other resting on a grenade at his belt. Behind him walked the rat twins, unarmed and unalert. At the rear of the group both Becca and Sarah walked, alert and ready for anything. They turned the corner, on the left side wall there was a glass case with a rack of IR glasses, the entire cabinet glowing a faint hue of red as the goggles were active and ready for use. Each of the group picked out one and put them on, the corridor took on a red shade allowing the team to get a clearer view of the area. The passage ahead of them stretched a few more metres before turning right. They sneaked up to the corner, Leo moved closer to look around, about metre away stood a glass wall and sliding door, but more noticeable was another Imager set into the metal ceiling. A similar buzz was emitted, giving the otter enough time to activate and throw the orb that Jade had given him. Just like before both black spheres buzzed with increasing intensity before the higher of the two shutdown, leaving a clear entrance to the small glass area. "What's this?" Leo demanded of the two rats. "Decontamination chamber." "Technicians need to be purified before and after working with viral agents." They responded alternately. "We have to go in before." "We can entered the production area." "Aren't they dangerous." Sarah piped up. "I thought these things caused sterility or killed brain cells or something." "No." "Not since medical fields were invented." The pair corrected her. "I'll go first." Leo stated flatly, already moving towards the clear door. The door slid sideways, allowing the tall otter entrance, sliding close behind him. A white gas jetted from four nozzles set into the ceiling of the chamber, covering him and completely filling the glass cubicle, obscuring the otter from the rest of the group. After a few seconds of existing within the white blur, pumps extracted the gas leaving the chamber empty again. A medic field that spanned the length and breadth of the chamber established itself infront of Leo, it started moving slowly but purposefully towards him. He stood stoically as the field passed over around him, causing his dark fur to stand slightly and his skin to tingle up and down his body, eventually the field disappeared behind him and the door ahead of him opened up. He stepped out, allowing the process to repeat four more times so that all of the team stood on the decontaminated side of the glass compartment. Without a word Leo stepped through a heavy metal door into the viral production area, the rest of the group followed behind. They found themselves on a raised walkway in a large white tiled room, the air was cool and obviously had been continuously recycled. The level below was split into smaller areas by thin walls covered in similar tiles, the entire area was dimly lit and appeared shades of red due to their goggles. Amongst the various sections were four furs, each wearing pure white trousers and lab coats, continuing with their duties completely oblivious to the new arrivals on the upper level. Leo raised his rifle, setting it to a non-lethal setting before aiming at the closest of the scientists. A paw tapped him on the shoulder, he turned to see it belonged to Adrian. "Each section is shielded." "You can't hit them." "You have to go over there." "To gain access to the areas." They spoke alternately, both pointing towards an arch at the base of a stairway on the left wall. They moved down the stairs in the direction of the indicated archway, from an obscured position behind a white-tiled wall, Leo issued his commands. "Search all the sections, take out all the workers, leave the area clear for our specialists..." Before he could finish he noticed the rats had their paws raised, again. "You can't fire weapons in here." "You might rupture a virus seal." They stated matter-of-factly. "Fine." Leo said with a hint of aggravation. "No live fire, paw-to-paw if you have to." He pointed at the rats. "You stay here. Move out." Leo, Sarah and Becca moved through the medical shield spread over around the arch, each getting a tingling sensation up and down their spine. Leo took the right section, under where they had entered, Sarah took the left area leaving Becca with the central one. Becca moved cautiously through another field, finding an area with two glass tanks with gloves on each wall of glass for the worker's arms and paws. Around one of these chambers stood two of the four workers, a badger and a grey squirrel, both very surprised to find a vixen aiming a rifle at them. They slowly put the equipment they were working with onto the base surface of the chamber before pulling their arms out and raising them over their heads. Becca moved forward and, one at a time, bound the scientist's paw behind their backs using plastic ties, the forced them down onto their knees facing the tiled wall. In the section to left, Sarah had just enough time to tie another one of the workers, a bear, before hearing Leo's raised voice coming from the section infront of her. At the opposite end of the section, Leo had his rifle raised at a fleeing cheetah's back. "Halt! Or I'll shoot." He yelled, knowing that the running cat wouldn't realise he was bluffing. Unfortunately he didn't stop, he kept running and was getting dangerously close to a control panel on the far wall. Leo, despite being too far behind to catch up, began running as well. Just before the cheetah reached the panel, Sarah came hurtling out of her section and shoulder barged him into the tiled wall, knocking him unconscious with a sickening thud. Leo slowed to a walk and stopped by the crumpled fur's body. "Hope, get this one tied up and bring the others out here, get them along this wall." He motioned towards the wall that the cheetah had collided with, then called for the vixen. "O'Brian! Bring our specialists in here." Leo stood over the four scientists who were lined up against the wall, the pair of rats started work on the first of the glass viral chambers. Standing at opposite sides of the chamber, a projected sphere hovered in the centre of the chamber showing an enlarged view of the virus they were trying to neutralise, their gloved paws working in perfect unison over the capsules, vials and equipment within the glass. "A highly corrosive neuro-inhibitor." "Designed only for human fatality." They alternated knowingly, their paws not stopping for an instance. "But transportable by furs and animals." "Or in the air and water." "Enough." Leo yelled. The rats paused their activities to face the otter. "Can you destroy all the samples?" "It's adaptable and highly evasive." "Capable of self-mutation." "Yes or no." He insisted "Of course." "That's why we're here." They finished talking completely as they got back to their task. * * * * * On the eastern side of the facility, Tyler, Jade and Alex were approaching the entrance to the computer room. As they moved through the complex they had encountered two more Imagers and had ambushed a security patrol, turning another corner they saw the heavy metal doorway to the central computer terminal, above it stood the only thing keeping them away, another Imager. Using Tyler's orb, Jade disabled the final defence. The three furs stood around door, taking up defensive postures as Jade overcame the electronic lock and forced the door to open a crack, just enough space for one person to squeeze through at a time. Tyler pushed his way through first, followed by Jade and finally Alex. They found themselves on the lower floor of a two-level square room, in its centre stood a huge computer terminal which reached all the way to the roof, along the terminal's surface were blinking lights, output screens and at least a dozen access stations. Jade moved for the closest of these stations whilst Tyler and Alex kept their rifles trained on the walkway that counted for the higher level. "What I wouldn't do for a couple of D-EMP generators now." Jade muttered to herself as she started working over the keyboard. Eventually a familiar logon screen appeared, Jade placed her paw firmly on the glass screen, it was scanned allowing her access to the computer files. "Jade Ellis, otter, highest clearance level. Requests?" Came the same computerised voice from earlier. "Delete all records pertaining to the viral research being conducted in this facility." "Affirmative. Input password to confirm request." Came the response. "Damn it." Jade muttered under her breath, shedding her bag and removing the laptop computer. "Password incorrect. Deletion denied." "Shut up." She barked "Rephrase." Came the infuriating response. She uttered a short growl before attached the block-like interface and powered up her computer. She bypassed the security and typed in commands to delete the files, she turned to watch the progress on the terminals panel, missing her computer screen briefly flash: <> From Jades point of view, the computer had been wiped clean, leaving no trace of the virus data anywhere. "Respond." She commanded. The panel remained blank and no voice came, the lights around the outside of the terminal slowly diminished. She gathered her stuff and turned to the other two furs. "There, nothing to it." "Good. Let's get to the rendezvous point." He said already moving to stand by the door. Alex went first, Jade had squeezed halfway through the doorway when Tyler was about to walk through. His ears twitched at hearing a faint metal pawfall from behind, he spun out the way just as a laser blurred past his shoulder, striking Jade in the lower side making her collapse painfully, still between the heavy metal doors. The figure accessed panel on the upper walkway, anticipating what was about to happen, Tyler jammed his rifle lengthways into the gap between the doors. The doors tried to close around the strongly wedged rifle, giving Alex just enough time to pull the writhing Jade out of harms way, before the doors crushed the obstruction and sealed together leaving an unarmed Tyler trapped with an unseen adversary, his sidearm had been flung across the floor as he avoided the laser blast. Tyler flattened himself against the closest side of the computer, peeking round the corners attempting to catch a glimpse of the figure or his weapon. "I come here to review the successes of my scientists, only to find you and your lab-rats destroying all their hard work. This is the second time you have foiled my plans of retribution against our human oppressors." Came a very familiar voice. "Retribution against our _human oppressors_?" Tyler echoed melodramatically. "Eric Draks I presume. I see your up to your old tricks again." "Ahh, someone's been doing their homework." The arctic fox spoke with amusement in his voice. "Well I have also been keeping track of what the Special Operations Division has been doing with its time, forming six man teams with a sole purpose of stopping me." He paused. "You, Colonel Tyler Roe, are leader of the first team, the Alpha Team. Under your command is Major Leo Archer, Second Lieutenant Jade Ellis, Sergeant Sarah Hope, Corporal Alexandra Fyn and Private Becca O'Brian, a team formed only yesterday after a week of training. Am I close?" The fox asked, of course he knew the answer and was just toying with the otter. "Way off." He lied. "I'm just the friendly spy in your ranks reporting back to the Confederation." He remembered back to their first encounter in the storage facility. "Not a spy, just a thorn in my side for the second time." His voice grew firm and merciless. But that is all you are, a thorn, a hindrance, an _irritation_. But no more, you cannot stop my destruction of the human race, no-one can..." "Still hell-bent on killing the human race then." The otter intervened, trying to buy some time. "Or forcing them into slavery or something else ridiculous." Trailing off as he was forced to shift positions, as Eric circled around the walkway above him, moving further from his forlorn pistol. "Not so ridiculous though. You, my otter friend, have already taken the first step to that very end. Have you not seen your own team, every member a fur, be it subconscious or otherwise, you despise the humans as much as I. "Bullshit!" Tyler retorted. As he moved around the terminal, he finally found something of use, three long parallel-running metal bars sprouting out computer's side ran a metre off the ground into the wall. With a sharp kick, Tyler removed a length of the bar. In a swift movement the otter spun around the corner, needing only the slightest glimpse of the foxes ice-white fur to hurl the bar and strike Eric's arm, causing him drop his rifle down onto the lower level where Tyler quickly recovered it. Eric gave a harsh cry of rage before vanishing through the door he had entered. "You're luck has run out, next we meet I wall hold your life in my paw as I distinguish it slowly." The last of his ranting died away as a metal door slid closed behind the defeated fox. A paw raised to his earpiece. "Fyn, you still there?" "Yes, sir." "How's Ellis doing?" His revealed his concern for the injured otter. "She'll be ok, but I need to get her to the medical facilities on the Atlas." The racoon reported. "Copy that. Stand clear of the door." With his final order, her manipulated the foxes fallen weapon before placing it at the base of the door, running to take cover behind the computer. It hummed, building up an increasing charge, the sound continued to escalate until it reached a climax, inducing a colossal explosion which broke through the door. Smouldering chunks of metal scattered in all directions and once the smoke cleared Tyler walked out to crouch down beside Alex and the felled Jade. Between the two of them, they supported Jade back to the meeting point by the first access panel, where Leo, Sarah and Becca were already waiting with the rats and four bound scientists. "Mission complete, sir." Leo reported. "Good, lets get out of here." His spare paw again raised to his ear. "Atlas, respond." "Atlas here, Colonel." Came the pilot's reply. "We're ready to leave and we wouldn't mind a lift home." The pilot chuckled lightly. "On our way." The entire group of twelve furs walked onto the stone-floor lift, ascending back to ground level. Outside the stone building, it was still pouring with rain in the clearing. Within a few seconds the Atlas came into view and hovered over the clearing, obstructing the free-flow and blocking the grey clouded sky. Its cargo area slowly lowered to the ground, allowing the group to climb aboard before it was raised again leaving the original smooth underside to the craft. "Let's get you to the medical bay." Alex said, still supporting Jade. "I'm fine." She said weakly, trying to walk on her own but collapsed to her knees. "Do as the good medic says." Tyler ordered lightly. "Thank you, sir. You will be next." Alex stated. "What?" He said, feeling surprised. "We have all been in a facility that produces viruses, I need to check that no-one is carrying any. Doctors orders." She finished as she walked out of the cargo-bay door. Tyler turned to face Leo. "Who put her in charge?" He asked sarcastically. "The Confederation, doctors and medics can overrule officers of any rank in matters of health." The tall otter stated plainly, ignoring Tyler's sarcasm. "Fair enough." He turned his attention to the four scientists, three standing and one still out cold. "Put them somewhere and keep an eye on them." The Atlas set a course back to the S.O. Base and vanished over the horizon. * * * * * Having dropped off all of their gear in the equipment room, and sent the scientists off to interrogation, Alpha Team had all met in the medical wing, they gathered around Jade's bed. "You'll be fine by tomorrow, just lie back and let the regenerator do its work." Alex spoke soothingly. "Alright. But you have to know that this really itches." She complained, scratching at the metal device that was shaped over her injured side. "Just leave it be." Alex reprimanded her, pulling her paw from the device and placing it over her chest. "I'll come and check on you in an hour." "Right." Tyler announced with a clap of his paws. "I'm going home, the rest of you should leave to, give Jade time to get better." They all wandered out slowly, speaking various words of encouragement to their injured friend as they left, Tyler was the last to leave. "Well, I'm out of here." "Finally got time to see your wife then?" Jade said softly, on the verge of sleep. "Yip." He spoke, equally as quiet before leaving and closing the door behind him. * * * * * A short and very nervous looking human wearing technicians overalls moved quickly through one of the many corridors within the S.O. Base, clutching a metal box to his chest. He stopped outside a metal door, looking around him to see that nobody was paying attention to him, then dashed through the door and locked it behind. He found himself in a small darkened room with a little rectangular table in the middle, on the far side sat a muscularly built man whose face was obscured in shadow. The timid man took a step closer to the table, but was stopped abruptly by a wave of the seated man's hand. "Have you brought Jade Ellis' computer?" Came the mans voice, every bit cool, collected and friendly. "Y...Yes. It's in h...here." The technician stuttered nervously. "Please, place it on the table." He gave a sweeping hand gesture over the surface of the table. The man stepped forward, gently put down the metal box and stepped back again. The other opened the metal box and retrieved the laptop from within, powering it up and reviewing the data stored on it. "Excellent, with a few adjustments it will work _perfectly_." The technician tried to clear his throat to get attention, but it merely came out as a strangled whine. The mysterious man looked back to the tense man as if he'd only just realised he was there. "Very well." He held out a small panel wired to a personal computer. "Place your thumb here and the million credits will be transferred to your allowance." He did as he was bid. "Now leave. Go!" He fumbled with the lock and left as fast as he could. "Human's will own this world again." He spoke darkly to himself. Standing up he placed the computer in a briefcase, straightened his tie and exited innocently into the crowded hallway. Any comments or criticism about any of my stories are welcome, E-mail me ralcor1@hotmail.com.