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Ace ran out the room followed by Lill and into the dust-chocked corridor. He bounced and dived over bodies crushed and destroyed beneath the debris. He checked frantically at every room to find Ellie, but she was nowhere.

"Where is it coming from?" Asked Lill, rather loudly as gunfire started wildly and abruptly.

"Iiral strike me if I know for I wish I did" He shouted in reply as another explosion shook the building. It came from below them.

"Ace! Lill! Envy of Herdes, follow me, now!" Screamed Ellie as she held a conscript by the strap of the vox-set on his back. She hurried up a rather well hidden flight of stairs, upon which many dead furs lay, only two of them the enemy. She turned and lead them down a circular hallway and into a room where a half dozen conscripts sat, firing out the window. One of them had Sergeant stripes, and the other five were regulars. One of the crates they had brought in from the lander was sat in the middle of the room, and concrete slabs were leaning against the frames of the full-length window frames of the room. It looked like this room had once been a rather modern looking meeting room for some business executives. Now it was a firing lane.

"Ace, shoot those bastards across the road. Lill, take the damned anti-tank rounds and hit those Knights!" She shouted, referring to the code-speak for the G-32 Tank. Lill drew her combat knife and used the handle to smash away the seals on the metallic box containing the two Spear anti-tank rounds. Ace rushed to the barricades.

"Captain" He shouted over the conscripts' rifles.

"Honoured Veteran?" Replied Ellie, still talking in ranks rather than names.

"Where's the rest of the 117th?"

"Inbound. Two landers were damaged and limped back, the furs moved to fresh landers and are

coming in the second wave"

"When's that?"

"Four hours"

Ace looked out at the four tanks in close battle formation, the guns of the two closest to the building were firing at the lower levels.

"They're trying to fell the building" He noted. The conscripts hesitated.

"Caster Roberts" Said Ellie, to the Vox-caster conscript she had been dragging about. "Stay here and stick to Honoured-Veteran Lill, the anti-tank lass. Take orders from her. Lill, report back to me whenever possibility and urgency overlap. Clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Shouted Lill in reply as she loaded the first Spear into her panser-jagger.

Ace spied down on the tanks through his rifle's scope and spotted one of the tank commanders showing his head through the turrets hatch. Loading an armour-piercing round Ace looked down to fire at him as bullets chinked into the concrete around him, forcing him back down. The conscript sergeant looked at him.

"Whats the matter? Too hot for you, veteran?" He said. He was a horse. A tall, skinny horse, with a stumpy face, for a creature like himself.

"Think you can do better" Mocked Ace, tapping his several-striped badge. The horse shot him an arrogant glare. Ace pointed the longshot rifle at him. "Don't get smart with me, Dirtridden, or it'll be the last thing you'll regret as I lodge my rifle into your skull" Came Ace's powerful reply, calling the conscript by his discriminating slang-name. 'Dirtridden'.

They were Dirtridden.

They never had the option to bathe and clean their armour or clothes, and usually not even their weapons. They hated it, and they hated the volunteers getting priority for such things above them. And they hated how the veterans mocked them for it.

The sergeant scoffed at him and raised himself, firing random shots across the road at the building opposite. It was a different one from before - Ace and Lill had repositioned to a different facing of the building now. One of the conscripts fired a grenade launcher down at the tanks, the cylindrical explosive harmlessly blowing a small chunk from the road.

Lill fired on the main tank, the weapon she held screamed and spat white smoke into the room behind her and coughed fire across the street at a strong downward angle towards the tank. The Spear round impacted against the tank, the purified iron-titanium tip cutting the armour like a knife through water, and its lead casing melting from the forces of the impact.

The tip shot through the front half of the turret, probably cutting through the gunner and out the bottom of the tank, some distance into the road as the liquid lead poured in, boiling the gun casings. A series of small explosions followed one larger one, as the tank commander clambered for safety he was suddenly consumed by a thick, orange ball of fire, then jet-black smoke billowed out around him as he screamed, even over the gunfire before the turret expanded in a roaring explosion, scattering itself across the road as the tank it was attached to ground to a burning halt. Ace shot at the driver as he tried to climb from the fiery tomb through his hatch above his driving seat.

"Nice hit" Commented Ace as the smoke rose up between the tall buildings lining the roads.

"Actually I missed, I was aiming the Spear itself into the explosives. Then the lead would have poured into the engine also, its underneath the turret mechanism" She replied, loading the second - and last - Spear round into her weapon.

"One engine? In a main battle tank?" Asked the Sergeant.

"Yeah" Replied Ace. "Its a slow tank. Don't get in the way of its guns though, thats what the extra space is for. That, and the ammunition that makes them go all pretty"

"Like a firework" Finished Lill, grinning wildly.

Ace eyed over the last three tanks as they trundled slowly around the wreckage of the first. Ace shot another commander. Lill, ever the master of her weapon, launched the last Spear from her weapon, adding further to the white smog in the room as another rocket was ejected from the anti-tank gun she fought with.

The missile screeched across at another tank, striking this time in its side, passing through the track assembly and through the side-gun mounted in-between the rotating tracks. The heavy-cannon's ammunition exploded, blowing out one side of the heavy tank which covered the next tank in the formation with heated debris, and the inside of the tank was pouring with smoke. The crew abandoned their tank as the inside fuel lines ignited from the explosion, gunfire pouring from the 117th's building killing the first two escapees. The last two crewfurs, the fifth killed by Lill's shot, escaped into the cover of their own vehicle.

Lill smiled. The six-lane wide street was reduced to two-lanes effective by the fat, wide tanks blocking the path, and chocking the air with a thick, black smoke as they burned. With their formation broken, and one tank operating with no commander the other two tanks pulled back away from Lill's fearsome anti-tank fire. Fortunately, they did not know that her weapon could no longer be fed its destructive ammunition.

"Fox-hunts Fox-hunts, this is Hunting Firestorm, reporting targets down, two Knights are K.I.A, remaining withdrawn, over" Lill declared into the vox-casters radio.

Nothing. She repeated the basic coded message into the Vox system again. It was intended for ease of understanding rather than difficulty to understand. The Former being the more important in a situation similar to the one Lill found herself in.

There was briefly the crackling laughter of static answering the message once more, then the thickened, distorted voice of Ellie replied.

"Hunting Firestorm report barrel-feed over" Demanded the Captain.

"Barrel-feed inactive, insufficient deployed, over" Confessed Lill sheepishly

"Repeat Hunting Firestorm? Over"

"Barrel-feed inactive, over"

"Hunting Firestorm passover Hunting Stalker over"

Lill passed over the radio-phone to Ace replying to the code-talk.

"Its for you" She said.

"Hunting Stalker active over" Spoke Ace as the vox-caster crawled across the floor to keep up with his radio.

"Stalker, inquire hostile-lanes posture? Over"

"Hostile-lanes effective medium, negative targets over" He answered peering over the edge of the block.

"Belay that Ace!" Shouted Lill as she loaded an anti-personnel round to her missile launcher. Ace looked down as the two Knights pressed onwards, their cannons blazing from the sides into the lower floors as dozens of traitor-furs followed up behind them.

"Fox-Hunts Fox-hunts, declare! Hunting Stalker, Jay-Jay Deathwatch! Repeat, Deathwatch active, Deathwatch is active, aproaching over!" He cried down the vox. Static howled croakily back at him.

"Repeat Stalker, Deathwatch active, aproaching? Over" Asked a disbelieving Ellie

"Declare! Bi-Knights! Over!"

"Deathwatch Engage. Repeat, Deathwatch engage, unleash full, declare, break Knights Declare, over" Ordered the captain.

"Confirmed, Hunting Stalker out" He replied.

He loaded a hollow-cap into his rifle as the Vox flared again.

"Hunting Stalker, Request Hunting Stalker. Hunting Leadbelcher, receive?" It was Baaron, hunting for Ace.

"Hunting Stalker active, over" Replied the skunk-fox as he put down his rifle painfully, sacrificing an opportunistically nice shot

"Stalker, inquire Deathwatch approach?"

"South-South west, from the barricade over"

"Confirm. Inquire position"

"Third floor, facing south-south west, over"

"Request relocate to ground? Over"

"Confirm"

Ace clutched his rifle, and got up to exit the room as Lill grabbed him.

"Are you gonna go and take that charge? Thats suicide!" She shouted at him over the battle.

"I can do more from lower down. Trust me" He said as he shook his arm free of her. He gave her a messy, friendly salute before he dashed out the room, spinning for the stairs as a shell landed in the room facing the stairs.

A wave of heat pushed him along, hurtling him down the stairs as debris followed, chunks of dusty concrete and twisted metals rolled after him as his rifle fell from his hands, clattering down the long staircase.

Ace tumbled and crashed to the bottom, landing on his front as his rifle bounced over him and into another room, and rocks and dust and metals rolled onto the Kevlar of his back. Howling in pain as a sharpened piece of shrapnel scythed his tail his dragged himself, his bones aching from the fell down the dozen stairs. He clutched his rifle, noticing its scope had come free in the fall.

He had little time to fix this, he would have to make do with regular sights for now. He carried on down the next flight of stairs, kicking a half slab of ceiling tile down with the capped toes of his boots as he descended. He was on the first floor now, and he could hear the spitting of automatic weapons fire coming from down the hall where the stairwell was.

Rushing down a bullet snapped past him. Diving to the floor he opened the breech gently, discovering a hollow-cap round still sat, waiting for a victim. He crawled forwards and saw the familiar figure of Baaron and Stephan in a room on his left, firing through a hole in the floor.

"Yo, what am I missing here?" Shouted Ace. Stephan turned around.

"Dude! This is awesome! There's dozens of them! Everywhere!" He shouted.

"Stephan we need to get rid of those tanks, can you get them with something from here?"

"If you can find me a window seat and a Knight within about 50 yards I can get a tube on it, sure" He replied, now at the doorway looking at the prone skunk-fox. Ace smirked.

"After we kill some bad guys" He said.

"Agreed!" Shouted Baaron, his heavy-machine-gun roaring as it spat a dozen rounds down the stairs, its chorus of noise being aided by the screams of its victims as they were gunned down running for the stairs.

Ace hurried into the small room and looked down the stairs, past the glowing barrel of Baarons machine-gun. He raised his rifle to look through the scope, realising there was none. Below him, a fur scuttled to the stairs taking advantage from the brief respite of Baarons 'Hellcannon' machine gun, and took cover behind a shattered doorway. he peered around the corner and up at Ace, his gray camouflage conflicting with the dull yellowish paint of the wall behind him. Ace took aim and fired in a blur of well trained efficiency, the round rupturing the furs leg, dropping him to the ground. Another fur shouted at him from behind cover as Stephan fired his Hellgun rifle at him, blowing chips from the cover.

There was a deep, fierce roar as one of the Knights crashed through the wall and sent debris hurtling into Ace's sight, and a wave of enbravened furs poured through the breech in the structure, which was out of the trio's line of sight, hidden away behind an awkward angle.

Baaron gripped the handle of his Hellcannon machine-gun and its spitting roar drowned out the rumbling Knight's engines as he fired into the Furs trying once more for the stairs. Ace watched as scores of them fell, some screaming silently to him beneath the weapons incredible roar, but the wave seemed endless. There were so many, so many packed into the tiny room below.

"Whats wrong with them!?" He shouted over Baarons unending fire.

"They're insane" Replied Baaron in his pitched goatish voice.

"I agree. We need to end their bullshit tanks" Shouted a grinning Stephan. He had already taken one of the long, thin tube charges from the pack on his back, and was ready to arm it. He pointed to the door. "We need to find a window!"

"Agreed" Replied Ace, rearming his rifle. He hadn't fired it, seeing its uselessness compared to Baarons merciless onslaught. "Baaron, are you okay sitting here alone?"

"I could use a loader, but I can get by, so long as they don't fire back at me" He shouted. Ace put his black, gloved paw on Baarons armoured shoulder.

"Good luck" He spoke into the goats ear. Baaron smiled as he fired another burst at the now covering Furs below, the hard kickback of his weapon shaking Ace's paw.

"lets go"

Ace and Stephan ran out the room, and saw that despite the Hellcannon's spitting, the traitor-Furs had made it to the foot of the stairs, only to be met by rifle fire from the conscripts. The pair carried on further down the hallway, and turned left. They heard shouting from a lonely looking dark room as heavy shells punched holes in the concrete walls around the window. Ace saw two figures in the dark, one a rather meak looking female Jaguar, her almost purple-toned black fur shimmering in the dark of the room. The other was a slightly fat looking, but busty cow. She was shouting bitterly at the crying jaguar. Ace pointed into the room as Baaron cought up with him.

"Cannon fire" He said.

"Knights" Replied Stephan.

The two volunteers ran into the room as Ace began fitting a fresh scope to his rifle, aligning it as best he could from memory. It would be terribly off, but he needed to try.

"Who the frack are you two!?" Demanded the cow. She was wearing the largest chest-armour Ace had ever seen on someone in active duty. They were far too impractical. She clutched her conscript-issue rifle, and bore the marks of a Squad Sergeant. Ace looked her in the eyes, avoiding the temptation of looking down. Her typical cow-sized breasts weren't covered by anything but her armour.

"Honoured Veteran Private-First Ace, this is my equal Stephan. First squad, First Platoon. We're here for the Knights". He tapped his heart with his fist in salute, and Stephan did the same as another hand-sized hole exploded from the wall as one of the tanks side-cannons struck it. Ace and Steve didn't flinch, but the cow cowered from it, despite the angle it would be firing at bringing the round clear over her head.

"Are you really? Well I'm Conscripted Sergeant Falicia, this, this coward is Conscripted Private Juliet." Waffled the cow. Ace rolled his eyes and pushed forwards behind the feline baring the tubes.

"This tanks been kicking our ass for the last fifteen minutes and we've got no support! Damn them all! What happened to the anti-ta-"

"Shut up and let us fight" Shouted Ace above the barking of the Knights side-cannons as he pushed past her. She grabbed his arm as he tried to walk past.

"Don't you take that tone with me, canine!"

"Stop it!" Shouted the Jaguar. She looked up at the two heavily armoured volunteers and dived to Stephan's feet, still whimpering as she picked herself slowly from the floor.

"They're here to save us, can't you see that?" She stuttered at the cow.

"Frack you, you won't even kill a traitor! They killed your brother!" Replied the Sergeant

"Shut up! Shut up!" Came Juliet's tearful reply. Ace tried to pull his hand free, but the Cow tightened her grip on him.

"Let go of me" He demanded. He got a dirty, hateful look in reply.

"Tell me whats going on" Demanded the Sergeant.

"We don't know" Said Stephan, calmly, "But we need to get rid of those tanks"

"No shit"

"Look, lady, let us do our job and we'll leave you in this empty room, okay?"

"Only if you let me help" She replied.

"What?" Stuttered Stephan.

"Let me help you with the charges, two can't be enough"

"This is fracking rediculus, just let us do our job, we're veterans. We're better at it"

"And I'm your superior officer"

"Hardly" Commented Ace. She cow let go of him as he shook his thick arm.

"Fine" Said Stephan. Ace was about to say something in protest, but Stephan shot him a glance Ace knew all too well.

Ace sighed. "Fine then" He said. He wondered backwards towards the door, and leaned against it as he adjusted his scope again. The Sergeant and the Veteran wondered towards the window as Steve spied over the top of the window at the tank, beginning the process of its destruction with his careful estimations. Ace looked down his rifle as he fired the laser on the end of its barrel. The red dot danced around the end of the room as Ace sat back against the wall, taking a deep breath. He set about making delicately slow alterations to the scope, inching the dot of his scope to the red dot of the laser.

"Why do you do it?" Asked the Jaguar. He looked to his side and found the shimmering purple cat sat besides him in the light. She looked rough.

"Because" Said Ace as he looked at his weapon, running his finger across a dint left in its outer structure from his fall.

"Because what?" Furthered Juliet after a moments silence.

"Because I have too"

"Why do you have to?"

Ace paused.

"Because if I don't, they'll kill everything I love. Because there's more out here for me than there is back home. Because part of me can"

The conscript looked at him. Then she went back to fiddling absently with her tail.

"You know, I was only taken because my brother died" She said after a few more minutes of Ace worrying over his damaged weapon.

"Oh" he replied, half-heartedly.

"I don't want to kill anyone, and the Sergeant thinks I haven't" She said, whispering now so the cow wouldn't hear her. She wouldn't have heard over the sound of weapons fire, and the loud burning of tanks, and the echo of Baarons machine gun from down the hall.

"So you have killed some one" He answered, looking up. She had his interest now.

"Yes. I had to. I was alone. In this street. He was running at me, with a knife. So.. So I shot him" She stuttered, a fresh wave of warm tears rolling down her face.

"Once?" Asked Ace.

"Yea" She replied. "I'm a good shot. I got the marksman badge in training. It was all so exiting back then. Now its..."

"Dark" Finished Ace. he looked grimly at her, and then back at his rifle as he loaded a fresh round into it for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Why did you volunteer?" She asked.

"I have my reasons" He replied, checking the pouches of ammunition he carried.

"Tell me" She leaned over at ace, her head almost resting on the overlapping joints of his shoulder armour. He sat looking at her red eyes, painful from crying and the deep blue-black fur matted to her face by her tears.

He noted how cute she was, for a dirt-ridden tearful coward coated in dusted concrete and small stones stuck in her fur. Her helmet had a dint in it, and there were a few cuts across her face.

"No" He said at length. "Its my life, and I don't want to re-live it" He added. The Jaguar sighed and sat up again.

"Are all the volunteer core like you?" She asked.

"No" he said. "Just me"

He heard a howl from Stephan followed by a sudden explosion. A wave of force pushed over the Sergeant and Stephan laughed at her from behind the wall as a ball of heat rolled into the room, brushing back the fur on Ace's face and burning into his eyes. He stood up and hurried over to Steve who looked out the window. Almost directly below them sat a Knight, its turret blown open and flaming.

"The charge went into the hatch past the commander!" Wooped the cat.

"You enjoy your explosions far too much" Said Ace as his view from the window was smothered in the thick, foul scented smoke from the fire. "Wheres the other target?"

"Fracked if I know, I've not seen it for a while" He replied, picking his rifle from the floor. "They probably need us back at the shamble of a defensive line"

"Agreed" He said.

"Like frack they do!" Shouted the cow. "I'm ordering you to stay right here with us. You're a marksman, shoot those bastards from the window!"

"Yeah, right. We're under orders from Captain Ellie herself to hit those tanks and hold the line" Said Stephan

"And she isn't here to prove that you are"

"I can't see shit out that window anyway" Said Ace.

"Damnit! Listen to my orders!" Shouted the Sergeant. She turned to Juliet. "This is your fault!" She shouted as she struck out at the jaguar. She was about to land a second, more powerful blow when Ace's rifle clattered against the back of her skull, deadlier-end-first.

"I think perhaps you should stop that" He said, holding his rifle still.

"What are you doing, private"

"I'm upholding the law. You attacked a fellow servicefur, you're being placed under arrest, and I'm the one doing it"

"You can't arrest me!" She shouted.

Ace knew he couldn't, all he could do was hold her off. He wasn't even sure what he was going to do.

"No, he can't. But I can" Said Ellie as she wondered through the door followed by a vox-fur and Lill.

"Who the frack are you!?" Demanded the cow as Ace pushed her against a wall with his rifle.

"Captain Ellie. First platoon commander, 117th. You're direct superior, you stupid bitch"

Ace lead Stephan, Juliet, Lill and the vox-fur back to down the corridor as Ellie bound the Sergeants hands together with a length of wire and left her in the dark room. Ellie had come to give Ace and Stephan a piece of her mind for taking too much time. The tank had cost another three of the 117th their lives. Rather convenient that she did, thought Ace, although he wasn't looking forward to all the hassle this would cause once they got out of this fracking building.

"How is the line?" Asked Ace as he found Baaron re-deployed in the hall.

"A big bag of fracking shit" Replied the goat.

"They've taken the stairs, but it cost them a river of damned blood. We haven't the manpower to get them moved, and they're gathering for an attack I'm guessing. We're FUBAR" Added Captain Ellie as she approached the furs from behind. "Ace, I want you and any sharpshooter you can find upstairs firing down on them, you're no use to me here. Lill, take all the ammunition you need and come back down here. We need to kill them as they come. Stephan, hold the line with Baaron. If you need me, vox me. I'll send another few squads to hold them off inside here"

"What about the other devisions?" Asked Lill.

"Stuck. The attack ground to a halt, so we're gonna have to keep this building. As long as we can hamper their reinforcement to the front line we can win this fight"

"Can we keep it? The building, I mean" Wondered Juliet aloud.

"Damn right we can" Replied Ace.

"How? Why?" She furthered

"You ask alot of questions" Noted Ace. Ellie sighed.

"We're holding this building because it looks out onto the crossing of two massive roads, its a junction any fool could use to counter-attack across, reinforce through and shift anything they'd need to shift. We were supposed to be reinforced, but I'm told that our re-enforcements are trying to further the main advance before it becomes a stalemate. We're just stuck here"

"On our own?"

"Yes. Now go" Ordered Ellie, nodding to Ace.

"Yes sir" replied Ace, as he grabbed Juliet's arm and dragged her towards the next flight of stairs.

The pair hurried up the debris scattered stairs and carried on until they came across another Sergeant sat watching his squad firing out into the street.

"Sergeant" Shouted Ace as he approached, "where is Petti?" The Sergeant, a lion called Kylios turned to face Ace.

"Ace" He said, smiling. The pair had a small friendship with each other. "He's in here" Said Kylios, nodding at Petti.

"Ordered to take him to the roof with me. He's the only other marksman here that I know of"

"He is? Where is everyone else?"

"No idea. Where are the weapon crates?"

"In here too" He said. "I know we only brought three platoons, but only two snipers?"

"Three. Juliets got the badge"

"But no weapon" Noted Kylios

"Thats why we need the crates. Lill will be up wanting the rockets soon, too"

"Whats the situation?"

"The traitors have a foothold inside the building, we're trying to keep them from the first floor now" Said Ace, grimly. Kylios frowned.

"Petti!" He shouted into the room. "Get the spare rifle and take it too the roof!" He shouted. "And take the spare Vox with you. You two, give him a hand" He added, looking back to Ace and Juliet.

"Yes sir" Replied Juliet as she ran to the green metallic crates and took the unassembled weapon from it. Petti took the Vox caster and held it in his free hand, his more basic rifle in the other as Ace took boxes of ammunition. Kylios spoke to the vox-fur who then spoke into the phone-like device on the radio. After a few moments, he looked back up at Kylios and shook his head.

"Ace" Shouted the lion. Ace looked up as he heaved the heavy box onto his shoulder. "There's no other sharpshooters apparently. Thought I'd save you the task of looking"

Ace nodded in reply. "Thanks for the info"

"Move with the envy of Herdes" Said Kylios to Ace as the group of snipers moved towards the stairs.

"Reus watch you" He replied as he ran up to the roof.

Ace reached the roof as machine-gun fire sprayed out of the opposite buildings from a dozen directions and laced the 117ths current positions. The guns looked like daemonic eyes staring out from the dark, hidden rooms in the buildings, firing across into the quickly thinning ranks of the platoon.

"Free fire?" Asked Pettie as he looked down onto the street.

"Free fire" Replied Ace as he took the voxing equipment and set it down besides him. He kicked a box of ammunition across the to Pettie and sat next to Juliet, who clutched her rifle and looked down at the road.

"Okay, you're going to need a crash course in sniping" He said. She sat silently looking down at the fire-bathed streets. "Juliet!"

Her ears slacked and she looked at him out the corner of her eyes.

"I don't want to kill anyone" She muttered

"If you don't, we'll die" he said. She looked at the pieces of her rifle.

"I don't even know how this thing works"

Ace took the weapon as he began to assemble it, being sure Juliet watched.

"Its easy" he said, as he took the shoulder rest and the mechanism. "The rest clips on here and here" he demonstrated as the pieces snapped together with a little force. "The scope is already aligned so don't worry about that, and the barrel screws into place, but make sure its on real tight" he added as he struggled to tighten the long barrel. "Then you pull back the bolt, and slide in a bullet. We only have standard armour-piercing rounds to use though"

She nodded.

"And its ready to fire?" She asked.

"Yes. Unless you want a bi pod, in which case you'd need mine"

She examined the weapon as she took it from Ace. Pettie fired a round as he ducked into cover. "Sniper!" He shouted.

"Where?" Asked Ace as he put his head down, and dragged Juliet down behind the small wall.

"In the barricades" He said.

"Take him out, I'm busy" Replied Ace. "and my scope isn't perfect"

Pettie moved along the wall to get another shot as Ace continued.

"The wind is blowing down the road to the west, which is our left, conveniently enough thanks to the buildings acting like a big-assed tunnel. So fire slightly to the right, and slightly above them to compensate for bullet-fall. I'd be more specific, but you'll just have to figure it out, you earned your badge for a reason" He said to Juliet. "I'm gonna stay here, encase you need me, okay?" She nodded to him. "Now do your work"

She hesitantly took the weapon and pointed it over the wall, looking down the scope.

"Don't put it to your eye" He said, sighing. "The kickback will hurt that way"

Ace fired across into the buildings, firing at the crew of the weapons within them, aiming to kill with each shot. he suffered the occasional miss as more and more weapons were aimed up at them, the pangs and cracks of bullets distracting him from his shots. Juliet fired occasionally, but Ace doubted her aim.

She simply didn't want to kill.

Through the Vox, he heard the coded chatter describing a more and more desperate situation. Fifteen conscripted furs had died holding back the enemy, and more elite troops were showing up now. Baaron had been wounded and moved his weapon, and Ellie fell everyone back to the second floor. There were only three left to retreat upon now.

The fighting dragged on into the morning, and into midday. Eventually into the evening. The last Knight had pulled back by this time. A portion of the building collapsed in a series of explosions, taking a full squad with it and leaving almost a third of the structure missing, and firefights broke out over it. Petti was struck and killed by a burst of machine gun fire and slowly bled to death.

It was this event that turned Juliet. She began to fire more frequently and Ace even spotted a few of her kills. She wasn't what Ace would call a sharpshooter, but she had better aim than other furs all the same. He would recommend her for a sniping course when they get out of this mess.

It was evening of that day.

"How's the ammo count?" Asked Ace in a lull in the fighting. Most of the gunfire was coming from inside the building now.

"Not good. Fifty rounds, if that"

"Any word from the vox?"

"They're holding out on the stairs to the next floor, but its getting bloody. They're out of MG and jagger ammo, rifle ammo is low. They've taken to using pistols now. And theres not much food"

Answered Juliet depressingly. Ace sighed. He looked down the long, wide road. He could see the collapsed buildings they had come across to get here, and against the darkening sky he could make out the the glow of the fighting towards the edge of the city.

"They're not coming, are they?" Asked the jaguar.

"I fracking hope so" Replied Ace. He looked to the vox-cast as the a yellow light blinked on it.

"117th attack group, come in! Over!" Shouted a familiar voice, distorted through the Voxes loudspeaker.

There was no reply to it. Ace could hear the barking and spitting of light arms fire from below him.

"One-one-seven attack group, platoon one come in, Over!" Repeated the voice.

Still no one replied to it.

"Squad Fox-hunts!" Demanded a different voice, " High-Captain Falgrim! Honoured Volunteer, Captain, 117th Airborne Mechanised demanding First Platoon same regiment. Over!"

"Juliet, pass me the vox" He asked. She picked up the heavy radio and handed it over to him. He picked up the phone from the caster.

"Private Ace, First-class volunteer, Honoured Veteran. First platoon, 117th, over" Shouted Ace down the vox.

"Ace! Thank the gods! Is the Landing Zone clear?" Demanded the voice.

"Negative! LZ is hot! We cannot clear nor reach LZ, over" Replied the fox.

"Anywhere we can get to you?"

Ace thought for a few moments.

"The roof is reachable. So are the adjacent building for reinforcements, and further down the roads, over"

"The roof it is. Ace, tell Ellie to prepare for evac., we're pulling you out. Falgrim out"

"Who was that?" Asked Juliet. Ace looked at her quizically before realising she's a conscript, and most likely had no idea of the command structure beyond what she regularly saw.

"It was High-Captain Falgrim, he commands the regiment. We're pulling back" He answered

"Pulling out? We're saved!" She shouted, jumping up. "Saved by the Angels of Steel!"