Difference between revisions of "Atlantis: chapter 5"

Revision as of 15:13, 14 May 2008

Chapter 5! You're a super genius!

Please note this is a work in progress and the authors reserve the right to edit and/or re-format the book.

Chapter V: The rejoining

Tom dropped up, close behind Matt. No one saw him, and it would be more fun to see Matt whirl in surprise than just calling out his name. He crept on top of a partially melted tank, and then sprang down next to Matt, who promptly drew his knife.

Matt grabbed at a fistful of combat fatigues on Tom's chest and had him before Tom could blink. Tom laughed aloud, raising his hands in the universal, "Whoa, Nelly, take it easy" gesture.

Matt's face lit up as he recognized his friend from grade school. "Nice time to show."

"Hey, yeah, we can catch up later, but right now we're in danger of being slashed and shot at so I think we'll leave this for another time." Tom said hurriedly.

“Right! We need to airlift you and any survivors out of here, and transfer you to Research Facility 2.” Matt jumped at the reminder.

“Okay, umm, problem.” Tom answered.

“What is it?” Matt groaned.

“There are probably more survivors, but we haven't found them yet.”

"Just couldn't do it without me, eh? Whatever. Lets get to work."

"Agreed. And no, just FYI, I just got finished kicking some native butt when you so timely arrived after all the fighting."

"Aw, come on! It was just a joke. Can't you let me have my fantasies?" Matt asked comically.

"Whatever. Come on, we're wasting time."

“You heard the man! I want a sweep of the entire complex! Scan for any signs of life, friendly or otherwise. Sanders, Conners, take up take your squads and set up a defensive perimeter! Fire teams Alpha and Charlie, take buildings D and E. Delta, Echo, Bravo, buildings B and C. Tom and I will take building A."

"West, get whatever security systems you can up and running." Tom ordered.

"Roger that. Most of them have been disabled and need the security code, which only the top brass know by the way, but I'll run some programs, see what I can do. If the good doctor could come down and help, that'd be appreciated." West acknowledged.

"On my way now." Stephens answered, doing his best to sound official and military.

"Alright, ladies, move out!" Matt barked.

With that, the American soldiers sprang into action. Tom hurried off with Matt, toting his SCAR-H assault rifle.

It felt good to be back with his old friend, but that also meant that things were really serious. He, Matt, and two of their other friends, Scarlett Ottoman and Holly Dayne, were only brought together when the most serious of problems were at hand. This was fairly disturbing to anybody who knew that, as was the fact that Tom was the youngest of all of them at 18, Matt and Scarlett being 19, and Holly being 20, yet he was the best marksman, although Holly was the strongest. Matt and Scarlett were the fastest. Eventually, Tom would become the most skilled psychologically. Evidently, the expected loss of an entire Research Facility counted as a big problem.

"So, Tom, what's happened? You look... different.”

“Long story.”

“Tell me.” And so Tom proceeded to tell Matt all that had happened since the big battle with Queen Rex, including the fact that Queen Rex was almost entirely dead, why he now had Velociraptor DNA mixed with his, how it had effected him, the ensuing fight with all the Atlantians, Dinosaurs, and Iraqis, the tracer he put on the V-22 Osprey Heliplane, his spectacular fall from the roof, his wonder of how he wasn't hurt, his duel with the two Atlantians, and then finally, meeting Matt.

“Some story.” Matt said as they entered the building.

The interior/exterior blast door required an access code to open, and Tom's scrambled brain required a moment to remember the code.

He entered: SPARTANSHIELD.

The codes were all symbolic, but most of the time some spy spook from the Warfare Intelligence Office (WIO) came up with some random name he happened to think was cute.

Matt entered first, gun held at the ready. Always the tall, dark, and prepared.

His rifle swept the blood-soaked interior with characteristic steadiness. Nothing could faze Matt. Not even the bloody interior of a personnel barracks in an American aggressive research and development facility under the command of a now-probably-dead yet highly-respected-and-brutal commander.

Building A was basically the Facility's barracks, although a 'nice' one for military uses. Tom entered and found himself in another security checkpoint. The whole room smelled of death. The light fixture attached to the ceiling was damaged enough for blue sparks to be shooting out of it, and the walls had claw marks scraped like geometric patterns in the concrete walls. That wasn't good.

The autogun, which normally hung from the ceiling, was now at Matt's feet, red, yellow, blue, green wires twisted and contorted. More sparks. Autoguns were actually just cameras armed for combat. Not very big, but the one camera could pack a punch with the help of it's attached dual 9mm machine guns protruding from both sides. And it was now on the ground, useless. What had been through here? Had the Raptors alone managed to do that?

Something much bigger than a Raptor had come through. Tom didn't know what yet, but he wasn't afraid. Just a little nervous.

However, that didn't mean he had to go through a large-dinosaur-infested building without a proper means to take it down.

"Hey West, you got the combination to the Lindstrat locker down here?" Tom asked over the comm, glancing at a gun locker securely fastened with the words, "Lindstrat Air Rifle" painted at the top.

"Gimme a minute and I will. I'm still working on getting the auto defense mainframe up. Um... try 3214?"

Matt walked over to the lockers and punched in the code while Tom covered the door. The locker opened and Matt glanced inside, then at Tom.

"These are the Lindstrats I've heard so much about?" Matt asked in mock incredulousy.

"Yeah. Grab the handguns. The rifles were made for longer range combat. We'll need them to take out anything larger than the Raptors."

"I hear ya." Matt grabbed two of the modified dart guns, and then pulled open a lower drawer to the ammo.

The Lindstrats were actually just dart guns designated for military use, but what they shot out was special. The Lindstrats, in normal procedure, shot darts with a concave hollow in the center, to be filled with whatever poison or sleeper mixture required. The handguns were made to shoot up to 15 yards. The rifles were tested at 250 yards, but in the hands of a gifted marksman they could push it to 350. However, that was more range then they'd need, and the rifles form of ammo came in four-shot tubes that entered and ejected out the back of the stock. The handguns could shoot 10 darts.

Matt tossed Tom a Lindstrat and two clips of ammo. If they needed more, they were dead anyways.

"Unlocking the firearm racks... now. They should be open."

Tom strode over to the racks while Matt covered him and selected a particularly nasty-looking PSD sub machine gun/assault rifle hybrid in favor of his bulky, overpowered SCAR-H.

Tom tossed one to Matt and several magazines of ammo.

"West? Status on the defense system?" Matt asked.

"Cameras are up and working but the machine guns require some double secret access code to operate, I'll see what I can do. I have access to the computer locks on most of the blast doors. Next room is the atrium assembly area. Looks pretty clear. The two rows of stairs on either side of the room lead up to a second balcony, and from their is all the bunks. Through the double doors their is the crew mess, and it branches off on either side to the gym and rec. facilities. Uploading a tactical map to your HUD. Got a system check running for survivors in the building. I'll drop a NAV marker if I see one."

"Good work." Matt said. "Keep it up. Expect regular 10 minute check-ins."

"Run a diagnostics and try to find out why the Raptors are all over this place and how they got out." Tom added. "I know they have those genetic fail-safe collars. See if you can't run a few into the ground."

"Right. You should get moving." West agreed.

"Roger that. Over and out." Matt cut the comm.

With a slight nod from Tom, Matt pressed the 'open' control for the blast door, and it slid open with a hiss of compressed air.

The atrium was all at once large and small. Large because the higher, vaulted ceiling gave the illusion of immense space, and then small when you realized all it really was was a wide, open reception area with a desk at one end, normally staffed by a young secretary with various sofas and recliners in a semi circle around it. Bookshelves lined the walls, but they were more for show than anything. The main library in the building was housed towards the back of the facility, and these shelves just contained some of the more famous novels throughout time, elegant, hand-written, in beautiful, scrawling calligraphy. A book or two was shredded up here and there, a result of the ravenous, maybe-not-so-vicious-or-bloodthirsty Raptor pack that had recently come through. Smallish, chicken sized Compsognathus scavengers roamed around the room, looking for any deserted carcasses that the Raptors had left behind.

Tom frowned. He didn't remember them being on the list of DNA cloning. Odd.

Tom scanned around, doing a quick threat analysis. Besides the compys, nothing else really moved in the room. There was one Raptor in the corner, moping around. It had slash marks all over it's body, as if the other Raptors had attacked it. It looked rather miserable and melancholy, and Tom felt a momentary pang of sympathy before he remembered what these creatures could do to him... had done to his soldiers. His soldiers.

Unknowingly, Tom's claws slid out, and he snarled rather more savagely than he would have earlier. Tom leveled his PSD at the beast and laid out an accurate and devastating spread of leaden, Teflon coated projectiles.

The Raptor howled in agony as

It collapsed head-first onto the floor with a dull, satisfying thunk.

Tom ejected the spent clip and slapped a new one into the receiver, pulled back the cocking lever, and waited for more enemy contacts to reveal themselves.

Tom wondered at his new behavior. Normally, he wouldn't have shot that Raptor. What made him do so now?

"Let's move up to the barracks. Obviously there's nothing else in this area, and we'll get the other rooms in a sec." Matt suggested.

"Agreed." Matt lead the way up the staircase, his carbine sweeping the new terrain in long, dramatic turns.

Tom glanced at his tacmap and saw himself as a little green blip, steadily climbing the stairs to the barracks level, which was arranged around the balcony in a full circle. On the ceiling in between every barracks door, cameras swept the area, searching for threats, and Tom whished for the thousandth time that the machine gun functions of the autoguns were operational.

There were twelve barracks rooms, and comically, each of them had a 'mascot' that they got their squad names from. There was an Orca barracks, a Black Hawk, a Raptor, ironically enough, and many others. Each specialized in a different form of combat. Each Facility had a division of each separate battalion. And Tom would have to check them all. Hopefully he'd pick up a few helpers along the way...

"West. Upload the feed of the security cam in Orca barracks to my HUD. Now."

"Yes sir. Bringing it up... Gods above. Here you are sir. All yours." West choked out.

Tom put his back to the solid Titanium-A battle armored door and held up his fist, the signal for 'wait'. Matt gave an almost imperceptible nod.

The cam feed came into Tom's HUD.

Raptors were feeding, at least twenty of them. Dead carcasses lay everywhere, hanging over bunk beads, slumped across furniture, lying in dismembered heaps on the ground, everywhere. The floor was awash with ruby red blood. A Raptor came by the camera and sniffed it curiously. It moved on after a moment.

"Ideas?" Matt asked.

"Yeah. One. It'll never work." Tom said optimistically. Using the video feed as his guide, Tom delved deep within himself, searching for that familiar, burn feeling he got when he coursed with energy, like when he was about to involuntarily shift; the soldiers slang for manipulating objects with telekenesis or some other kenesis power. He closed his eyes in order to find it... there. Some forgotten section of his brain where regular humans no longer needed to use...

Hmm. Thats weird. Tom thought. I don't remember the thing feeling this strong. as waves of blue sapphire energy rippled through him. How did he know it was blue? No idea. It just felt blue.

Tom sort of, pushed the energy through the door, and manipulated it around one of the bunks in the barracks. The energy followed his thoughts, bending to his will.

The other curled around the bedpost, grabbing a firm hold, and then:

Tom pulled the bed over, crushing three Raptors that were underneath it, and catching the one on top with one of the posts; its legs caught beneath the bed but the rest of its body fine.

Matt got the idea and started throwing the boxes around, crushing Raptors against walls, knocking them senseless, pinning them to the ground. Tom pulled over another bed, getting more Raptors. The remaining seven or so ducked back, heads lowered, searching for cover.

One of them gnashed his teeth, and then ran towards the door.

Tom had a moment to think, That's not part of the plan-, and then the Raptor was out the door, being closely followed by his six buddies.

Matt spun and fired, catching two in a deadly blast of bullets. The first one was dead, the second badly wounded. That left four still playing the game.

Tom pushed out with the other, crushing a Raptors head into the door frame and practically blocking two other Raptors still in. That just left the leader-

The Raptor growled a low, terrifying growl, surprisingly close to Tom's ear. He dared not turn around for fear of being gored and gutted.

The Raptor's head slowly moved forward, now level with Tom's, practically on his shoulder. Tom glanced at it in his peripheral vision. Scary as crap. Dark. Lethal.

"Anyone have air freshener around here?" Tom asked, pinching his nostrils closed and waving his other hand in front of his face. "Cause this guy stinks!" The Raptor cocked its head quizzically, puzzled at the distinct lack of fear.

It growled again, but it was a more uncertain, half-hearted growl than anything, a desperate attempt at control.

"Yeah. Hi." Matt answered, and poured half his clip into the creature at point blank range.

It fell into the ground, thrashing madly.

Matt threw the spent clip into the beast and spit on it, then slammed a new clip into the gun.

Tom punched fists with Matt, and then he looked around at the blood on the floor. It really did smell.

"Now we're even." Matt said to Tom.

"How so?" Tom asked.

"This is the..." Matt stopped and counted on his fingers, "Sixth time I've saved you, and you've saved me six times as well. We're even." Matt said.

"Slate's clean." Tom said.

Matt chuckled.

Tom grinned at Matt, looking him full in the face. Then something blurry and out of focus moved - behind Matt.

Tom leveled his carbine, and Matt slowly turned around to face whatever it was that was moving.

"Hmm. Not good." Tom predicted cooly.

"Nope. Not good at all." Matt agreed.

"Uh, West, you getting this?" Tom asked, pointing his helmet cam at the other barracks doors, which now had Raptors, tons and tons of Raptors pouring out like locusts. At least fifty. No, seventy? Seventy Raptors, maybe closer to eighty or a hundred. Two men. Not exactly great odds even when you had Tom and Matt. A lone Raptor, sure, but a hundred, no way. Not even the best of soldiers could deal with those odds, but not because of a lack of skill. That many didn't have to use tactics or clever attacks... they could just drown them in a sea of flesh. Biting, scratching, clawing flesh.

Matt started hyperventilating, supercharging his body with oxygen and flooding his brain with thought-powering food. He searched around desperately for an idea. And got nothing.

Tom tried to think of something, too. But there was just no way. No, wait. That wasn't right. When something wasn't possible, you weren't thinking the correct way. Something his old drill instructors had taught him. He hoped they were right.

Suddenly an idea occurred.

"West! Get the auto defense mainframe up. NOW!!" He yelled into the whisper sensitive mike.

"Alright, I'm working as fast as I can-"

"Work faster." Matt said. "Don't talk, work." Switching off his comm, Matt asked Tom, "So what now? West won't get the mainframe up in time, not unless a miracle comes our way."

"We don't need a miracle. But I can try something." Tom answered.

Tom walked forward, slightly in front of Matt. The staircase was directly in front of him. The milling cloud of Raptors poured forward as one. Tom kept his cool and said loudly but calmly, "Stop. Come no further." Tom's command resonated curiously throughout the upper floor, but Matt didn't realize what had happened until the entire pack of Raptors ground to a halt, and if Raptors could show confusion as a facial expression, they sure were now.

Tom had sent a broadcast thought out to the Raptors. It didn't penetrate their mental barriers, but it did give a good knocking on them.

Tom stood poised at the ready, perfectly balanced on the balls of his feet, ready for anything. Matt carefully walked over to Tom as the Raptors milled about in confusion.

"Good plan." Matt whispered tersely.

"Isn't it?" Tom whispered back just as quietly.

"West? Status." Tom asked calmly.

"Almost there. Just a few more lines. Aww...!" West cursed.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's not good news." Matt guessed.

"I've almost gotten through the security encryption but I need someone to manually access the mainframe controls to get them started! From there I can access the security countermeasures and feed a worm through the program to get the activation code." West chattered frantically all in one breath. "In layman's terms, you need to flick the big override switch on the computer so I can turn the security on!"

"Where's the switch?" Tom asked calmly, in direct contrast to West's panicking voice.

"I don't know. There should be one around the atrium but I'm not sure. You need to find it, trip the switch, and stay on station so I can give you the codes. Then you press the big red security breech button."

"Wherever it is, we need to hurry. Ugly here is taking charge." Matt said, pointing at one of the Raptors. It was standing on top of a median in front of one of the barracks. It growled and coughed in its guttural language like communication system. And whatever it was telling the other Raptors, it wasn't good, because most of them turned and eyed Matt and Tom hungrily.

"Alright, we need to move. Down the stairs!" Matt ordered. "They're coming out of it!"

Tom covered Matt with his carbine while he descended the staircase. As Matt reached the center step that branched off into two separate staircases, he turned to Tom.

"You know this place better than me. Find the switch. I'll cover you."

"Roger that. But be careful." Tom stressed.

No kidding, Matt thought to himself as he turned a wary eye on the approaching packs.

One of the braver Raptors came up, not five feet from Matt. Matt started shuffling sideways. If he fired into that one, the rest would be angry. They wouldn't wait to play with their food. They'd just slice it to bits. He had to bide for time.

The Raptors knew they were in control and they liked it. The Raptor started following Matt, then lashed out all of a sudden without a warning. Matt managed to sidestep in time, and he slashed down with his knife without thinking. It only nicked the Raptor, but as it cried out in pain in the alarm, it sent a clear message. Matt would fight back till the end.

Meanwhile, Tom was hurriedly searching the room for the button. There were half a dozen reception desks, and it could be under any of them. Their was also a console in the middle of the room that Tom had no idea what it was for. He tried the console first, because it was central and obvious. The machine booted up sluggishly, and then Tom was looking at a digital library find machine, designed to find you the exact shelf a book was located on but otherwise useless.

Tom banged his fist on the machine in a rare sign of frustration, then sprinted over to the desks to begin his rapid and hasty search.

Matt continued backing up towards Tom, firing bursts of three as he went. The Raptors were in no hurry to shred him to pieces.

Finally Matt stopped to reload, and in the lapse of gunfire a Raptor lunged forward.

Matt brought around the butt of his gun; he had been expecting an attack. The Raptor dodged the attack and dove under Matt's defenses. As it came back up, it clamped down on Matt's arm, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Get - off - me!" Matt ground out, smacking the Raptor in the snout with each word. Finally, Matt opened up the other and lashed out with a bit of extra energy. The Raptor spun away reeling as the energy impacted against its head.

"I could use some help over here." Matt called calmly.

"Coming." Tom called back.

Tom found the control under the desk. West called out in his ear without prompting, "That's it! Flick the cover and plug in the key."

"What key?"

West cursed. "There's a security activation key that you need to plug in! It won't work without the key!!"

"You never said anything about a key!" Tom shouted. Tom hardly ever shouted, but when he did you knew to get out of his way and do whatever he was asking.

"I am now!" West yelled back. "It's probably in the drawer or something." West said, but without conviction. "Check-"

"Hang on..." Tom said, then reached over and emptied his clip into the swarming hoard of Raptors. Reloading, he twisted and spewed the new clip along the railing, making all the Raptors lining the the edge jump back and causing a massive traffic jam among the jostling army.

Tom slammed a new one in the receiver, then said, "I'll get back to you."

Matt called out, "I could use some help over here."

Tom called back, "It's coming."

Tom knew where the key was. Why make him search the desk when instead he could search one of six dead bodies lying in mangled heaps about the room? One of them had to be the administrator.

Let's see, six bodies. Tom thought. Lucky contestants one, two, and three are wearing soldier's uniforms. Four and five are wearing security. They might have it. Six is wearing... officer's uniform. There we go. She's got to have it.

Tom glanced back over at Matt, who was sending tendrils of energy to randomly snap the neck of some Raptor at the front of the group while emptying clip after clip of ammunition straight point-blank into the beasts with one hand, and simultaneously slashing and stabbing with his wicked (name of knife?). Tom gave a helping hand, emptying his last clip of ammunition from his gun. Not good. He still had his backup Glock 8 sidearm, but what use was that? He quickly dove down to the ground and frantically began searching the body of the dead officer, not sparing any time to preserve her modesty. Why bother? She was dead. And he would be if he didn't hurry.

The Raptor vaulted high in the air, way above Matt's head. Matt stumbled back in consternation: how could any creature jump that high?!?

The Raptor kicked out with its powerful leg as it came down in a blow that would have shredded a man's chest along with caving in his sternum and breaking more than half his ribs. But Matt was different, and he had the advantage of a full set of Mk. III TBA (Tactical Battle Armor), which sported a semi-hardened bullet-and-shrapnel proof outer shell and a hydro-static pressure supporting gel in between a layer of a survival heating/cooling crystalline system. The claw still sent him reeling and tore up the shell, but nothing was sliced internally. However, Matt was now on sitting on his combat hardened, battle armor supported rump, with his head on the ground and legs spread eagled.

The Raptor pounced, and suddenly Matt was face-to-face with a beast that lived over 80 million years ago, and scientifically wasn't supposed to be here today. And yet here it was, its weight resting on Matt's damaged armor, its claws digging into his his form-fitting combat shirt he always wore under his armor.

This is it. Matt thought. I'm dead. Well, if he was going to die, he was taking this one with him.

Tom found the key in the last pocket he searched. Typical. His Karma just wouldn't allow it to show up in the first one, would it?

No, it dragged out his search until the very end.

But now he had the key. It was a plastic card about the length of his palm, and a little less wide. He grabbed it and ran at top speed back to the control panel. He reached out and inserted the key. A glowing green screen asked him if he wanted to activate the security measures, and he jabbed the 'YES' console only about a thousand times.

Matt kicked up with his legs, catching the Raptor in its fatty tissue towards the rear. The Raptor was thrown head-over-heels forwards, crying out in alarm as Matt levered it away. It landed in a heap-

-three feet away. The next one came up as Matt was struggling to get to his feet, but Matt drove out with a blast of fire, sending the beast scampering away. Yet another came up, and Matt rolled away to his right. As the creature's claws stuck into the tile, Matt rolled onto his knees, un-clipping his sidearm holstered to his hip as he did so. Not waiting to check his aim, Matt fired until the clip ran dry. But before he could do so much as stand, a Raptor came out of the herd and tackled him from behind. Matt went sprawling on the floor, struggling with all his might to get back on his feet, but to no avail. His armor was hanging off of him in rags now. It just wasn't meant to take this kind of beating. Nor was he.

The Raptor brought down it's foot. Or tried to. When it's claw was an inch away from Matt's neck, it was blasted off of him by a high caliber incendiary and magnetically charged slug that was fired from the security turret fixed above the entry door to the atrium. The round was meant as a precaution in case some larger dino got into the facility. It could blast apart just about anything, and the over-powered round took the Raptor directly in it's chest. It took away half of it, too, and continued straight on its linear path; into the next unlucky, clueless Raptor directly behind the first. The round took off this Raptor's head, still traveling on into the next one, taking off it's right leg, and struggled farther at a dissipated rate. Unfortunately, its path was now so low that the next Raptor only got caught in the foot before the round drove partway into the floor.

Even with the loss of their comrades, their were still close on eighty or so Raptors, and all pressed forward at once onto Matt. The Incendiary launcher took five seconds to recharge after each shot. However, there were two more turrets mounted on swivel platforms that could strafe in a linear right or left direction around the room on rotational belts that circled the upper barracks platforms. And these turrets were good old fashioned chain guns that fired 12mm APSP (Anti-Personnel Soft Projectile) rounds. The soft projectiles meant that the rather large bullet deformed when it hit the target, spreading out and flattening to cause maximum internal damage. The bullet would enter through a small hole it drilled itself in the front and exit, if at all, with a large, gaping chunk of your back missing.

The chain guns strafed the crowd of Raptors, stitching holes in flesh and tile. But there were tons of them, and only two guns, plus the Incendiary launcher that tore the crap out of three or more Raptors every five seconds. The hoard started dissapating, spreading out to the corners of the rooms to escape the lethal open center.

Meanwhile, Matt was still faltering where the Raptors had left him, hoping his FOF (Friend or Foe) tag didn't malfunction and cause the turrets to count him as an enemy.

Suddenly Tom was there, lifting Matt by his shoulder to his feet. They hobbled out the door from the atrium, continuing their path of search and rescue. They also had to get out of their while the Raptors were distracted by the turrets.

But their 'luck' must have run out. Just as Tom dragged Matt out the door, a Raptor turned its head eerily towards them. It cough-barked a warning to its team, and a dozen more heads swung around to watch them go.

One of the Raptors coughed another order, and all the remaining twenty Raptors rushed to follow the fleeing soldiers. Tom hooked one hand under Matt's armpit and with the other held his carbine, firing one handed bursts into the substantially lessened crowd.

The doors clanged shut and Tom unceremoniously draped Matt over his shoulders, then sprinted off down the hallway, doors on either side containing storage, conference, briefing, and debriefing rooms, one an armory, and one a kitchen/Mess Hall facility. The barracks facilities were shaped like a large letter 'I', with a little knub at each end that was the security checkpoint and doorway. The First horizontal line was the atrium and barracks rooms, with the long, vertical part being the hallway with the other rooms branching off of it. The second horizontal line was the gym and rec. center. It contained all sorts of weights and equipment to stretch and tone almost every muscle of the body.

The gym also had a large in-door heated pool for exercising and relaxation, but Tom spent most of the time here at the shooting range or in his cot. The rec. center housed a communal commons room in the center, with movie theaters displaying the latest flicks and movies. There was also a computer interface station to send e-mails and voice chat with home. In one corner was a sparring rink.

No time to look at the familiar scene. Tom dragged Matt into a large, walk-in storage, propping a chair against the handle to prevent it from turning. Even in the highest of tech, statest of the state of the art facilities with automatic utility in the restrooms and sliding automatic doors and just about every other kind of automatic technology thing in the world, they still had low-grade old fashioned handles on the utility closets. Lucky for him. Assuming that Raptors could even figure out how to turn the handle to open the door. They probably could, so why take the chance?

Tom set Matt down on the far side of the closet on a utility table, leaning against a wall. Matt made sure his carbine was fully loaded. With his last clip.

Tom saw the dilemna and dropped the rest of his clips in a pile next to Matt after loading his carbine with a fresh one. Now Matt had five clips total and Tom had one. Matt was too tired to argue, so he sat stiffly against the wall like a wood dummy holding a gun. Tom arranged three aluminum utility tables around Matt in a protective barricade around Matt. Then he leaped the barricade and removed the chair from the door.

"I'll be back for you." Tom said. Matt nodded weakly. Tom hesitated with his hand on the door. Was he seriously about to open the only barrier between himself and a group of bloodthirsty, pissed off Raptors? Was he letting go of sanity? Why shouldn't he simply wait it out with Matt in the closet and call for backup? Let it be their problem. Not his. Anyone's but his. But he was the only one around, the other squads probably had their hands as full or fuller than his, and it would take them too long. Besides, he needed more ammunition, and to do that he had to go back to the armory. At least he had his sidearm. Not that it would do much.

Tom opened the door with his carbine drawn. No targets in sight.

"West, this is Tom. We're alive. Hostile positions?

"Roger that. We got approximately fifteen tangos spread out around the Gym area. The Raptors followed you guys. We've also got a curious thing in one of the supply storage rooms. Can't see for certain because the camera's blocked."

"You mean disabled?" Tom asked.

"No, I mean blocked. Either something is wrong with the camera feed or something is resting against the camera. I can see little patches of light in a corner, but the rest is dark."

"Alright. That must be the big guy we're looking for. You don't see any survivors in the rooms off the hallway?"

"Negative."

"Alright. Over and out." Tom ended the comm.

Time for a game of hide and seek. And it would be extremely lethal.

Chapter IV pt II

“Yeah, good plan.” Tom agreed. They moved around the racks of metal boxes so that they enclosed the door in a rectangle-shaped clearing, replacing gaps on the shelves with more boxes from other shelves, so that the Raptors couldn't get out except the way they had come in. Even this was to be covered , because a shoulder's width gap between a side rack and the wall enabled somebody to push a last rack through, completely encasing the Raptors, where they could stick their guns through narrow cracks between the boxes. Full proof. Except that they didn't anticipate the incredible strength the Raptors wielded.

Matt lured them through the door. At least 15. Maybe more. As soon as the last one made his silent way into the trap, Tom pushed the last rack through the gap, and the Raptors were done for. At least they would have been, except that one broke into a savage rage when it learned it couldn't get out, and head-butted a rack, making it wobble, then again, and again. The other Raptors got the idea, and started head butting the same rack over and over. It would have been fine still, because even all of them charging, they wouldn't all hit at once, and the rack was pretty heavy. Problem: They were smarter than that. They could even count seemingly, as the lead Raptor, or Alpha Male, as Tom knew he was called, let out a strange gargling hiss, then the same kind of noise, but at a higher pitch, then a final sound even higher pitched then the one before, and they all charged. Fifteen Raptors hitting one 400 pound rack. Raptors win. The rack toppled over, narrowly missing Tom. Not good.

Tom couldn't believe that they were going to die, right here, right now, because of a gang of Raptor's intelligence, and a gang of humans' stupidity.

No. It wasn't going to end like this, not for Tom. He grasped hold of his power tightly, unlocking a door in his mind previously undiscovered, and released the power, driving it out the door with all his force. It erupted like a caged beast, hurtling to the startled Raptors at the speed of light. The power punched a gaping hole in every Raptor, right through it's heart.

Then it was over.

“Whoa, cool! Nice work, Tom.” Matt said appreciatively a moment later. Tom was dazed, and felt like he was going to fall unconscious at any moment.

“Uhh,” he groaned. Matt reached over and offered him a steady hand.

"Here, take it." Matt said, hand extended with an instant-energy bar clutched loosely. Basically, these field rations were glucose in hardened form, the body's fuel, so to speak.

"Thanks." Tom mumbled.

“Anytime.” Matt replied, wiping some sweat off his forehead. Tom got up and stealthily crept through the next door, just in case more Raptors that hadn't been trapped were still in here. His caution payed off, but not until it was almost too late.

Tom looked around the room, closely followed by Matt, who had told the others to guard the door outside. Nothing living in sight, except the soldier. They walked over to him.

“Come on with us,” Tom told the man, who was still pretending to be dead. He didn't stir. “It's okay, we're friends.” Matt said encouragingly. The soldier cracked open his eyes partway, and at once leaped up into the air, shouting with joy.

“Oh, oh, my god, I was so scared! I thought you had left already when I heard the hovercrafts outside!”

“You're in luck, we're still here, and we're ready to go.” Matt answered.

“Shh!” Tom hissed.

“What is it?” Matt asked in a whisper.

“I dunno, I thought I heard something...” Tom whispered back after a moment. Just then, a Raptor that had been sleeping in a corner behind the door awoke with a dreadful snarl, sending waves of terror down everyone's spine. It started creeping closer, an inch at a time. And closer. And closer still. Just then, the sound of gunfire erupted outside the door, and the Raptor turned its head, momentarily distracted. Tom seized his chance.

Faster than a normal human, Tom sprinted up to the wall beside the pre-historic beast, and in a moment of unreal power and control, he sprang upward like a jacked-up jackrabbit ten feet in the air, and, pulling his katana out in a fluid motion, pounced onto the unlucky raptor and plunged his sword into its head. The creature sagged to the floor as blood oozed from all areas of its cranium.

Now back to the gunfire. As it turned out, they were under attack. Not by men, not by Raptors. Three Utah Raptors. Matt bounded out the door into the enclosed area of shelving that they had set up. He saw an enormous creature, about the size of a T-Rex, but its arms more powerful, its claws more deadly. A sparking gun turret hung from the cieling, apparently gutted by the dinosaur.

They had pushed the metal shelves back in place, but these stood no chance against three Utah Raptors.

To buy more time before all of the shelves came toppling over when the Utah Raptors rammed them, Tom gathered up his energy, squatted down, and got ready for a 20 foot jump. A moment later, he was soaring through the air, and he felt so free, so powerful, he wished he could remain up here forever. But gravity was not his best friend, and so Tom reached for a rafter in the ceiling just over his head. He caught onto it, and with a tremendous effort, pulled himself up using only his arms, over the top, and finally into a standing position on top. Two of the Utah Raptors were looking at Tom hungrily. The other was too busy ramming the shelves to see Tom.

Matt was pumping lead, lead, and more lead into the Utah's muzzle, but the beast, huge as it was, was not seriously hurt. Tom gathered up a wad of energy into a tight ball, releasing it at the last second before it exploded inside him. It hit the Utah closest to Tom with a devastating effect: A chunk of it's flesh was now gone, and it toppled to the ground awkwardly, bending its neck so far as to kill itself if it had not already been dead. The other two turned to look at a slouching Tom. His strength was failing him. Fast.

With one last effort, Tom leaped from the rafter onto the closest Utah Raptor. He clung to its back in a death hold, mentally accessing the dinosaur's stored reserves of fatty energy by breaking though the mental barrier it presented, and started sucking energy out of it like a leech. The Utah gave a strange, gargling cry, “Agghilonaaaaaa....” then fell to the ground. Tom stood up calmly, feeling re-energized and powerful. The last remaining Utah was looking at his fallen comrade in confusion. Matt took advantage of this, and he leaped over the shelves, rolling as he struck the ground, came up, and a pyro-wave surged out of Matt's body, enveloping the thing in flame hotter than lava. It didn't stand a chance.

Crying out in agony, it sprinted down the corridor towards the door, or at least so Tom thought, until he heard something that sounded like breaking of re-inforced concrete.

Tom turned to Matt with an incredulous expression on his face. Matt shrugged.

Shaking his head, Tom sprinted down the corridor after it, anxious to see what damage it had done. He rounded a corner, and was surprised to see a gaping hole in the wall.

“That wall was 6 inches thick!” Tom shouted at Matt.

“It's pretty strong.” He answered calmly

“Nawww, really?” Tom said sarcastically. "Whatever. Let's get out of here."

“Anyways, we gotta get back to the Hovercraft. The others are probably wondering where we are.”

After navigating their way back through the wreckage of the Living Quarters and out into the courtyard, they found the rest of the men loading up the Hovercraft. They had found at least twenty grateful survivors between the buildings. West walked out from behind one of the Hovercraft, Dr. Stephens following close behind.

“Tom! What a marvelous job you've done. We'll be transporting you straight to Research Facility No. 2, along with all the survivors.” Dr. Stephens explained excitedly.

After a few minutes of explanations, they were in a Hovercraft, on their way back to Facility 2.

“If you need anything, just let me know,” One of the crew said to Tom.

“Thanks. I'll let you know if there's anything you can do,” Tom answered. Matt, less inclined to be so polite after a battle, told the crewman gruffly to bring him a Diet coke.

The ride to Facility 2 was a short, if uncomfortable trip, because the hovercraft was being continually forced to weave through the trees, so it was more like one big roller coaster than anything else. Regardless, Tom had time to snooze, as he hadn't really slept at all in the past 30 hours, before the battle. When he was in the Hospital bed, his sleep was disturbed by the flashbacks, which had lasted about 24 hours. After that, he had skirmished multiple times, gotten himself almost killed at least six times, and now, as he landed and got out of the hovercraft, he was mentally preparing himself for an onslaught of questioning.

The craft landed, and Tom and the rest shuffled out into the sunlight. The gates were partially opened, and Tom could see the layout of the buildings through the crack. Much different than the Facility 1. Less of the one major monolithic building type layout, Facility 2 opted for a wider, more open space with lots of courtyards and the like, exactly like a college campus.

Ten men stood just inside the gates; Nine of them were marines dressed in combat fatigues with guns aimed past Tom outside into the jungle.

The other man was a lieutenant, rough features, gruff expression.

"Hello, representative Mike Tucker, speaking for General Jacob Fritz. He needs you in the debriefing rooms ASAP. We need to collect whatever information you may have." Mike said. Obviously this was one man who went by the books.

"Yes, lieutenant. On our way." Tom and Matt assured him. "We'll head down there as soon as we drop our stuff off." Tom said, as Matt was clutching a leather bag holding various toiletries and clothing. Odd stuff.

"Very good, sirs. Out."

“Gee, nice guy huh?” Matt commented.

“He's probably just had a rough day.” Tom said tiredly.

“Who around here hasn't, though?” Matt pointed out. After a long and luxurious steaming hot shower, Tom felt ready again to take on the world. He had about 15 minutes to kill before his debriefing with a so called Dr. Shang from whom the had gotten a text message. He met up with Matt in the hallway.

“Hey Tom,” Matt said.

“Yeah?” Tom asked.

“Who's in the room across from us?” Matt inquired.

“Dunno.”

“There's something about those rooms that seems... familiar. I can't think of what it is.”

“Lemme check it out.”

“How?”

“RV.”

“Remote Viewing? Wouldn't that be invasion of privacy?” Matt asked, troubled.

“Yeah, but oh well. Something does seem familiar about this area.”

“Do you know how to use RV?”

“No, but you do.” Tom hinted. After a moment of arguing, Matt reluctantly pried through the door without physically touching it, entering a state of being which rendered his body clueless to his actions and the actions of those around him. For this reason alone, RV was not covered much in Matt's Psycho-kenesis classes, so he had a little difficulty attempting this maneuver.

After a moment of careful prodding, Matt let out an exclamation of surprise, and suddenly ran up to the door and jammed the doorbell at least half a dozen times. A disgruntled Holly Dayne flung open the door to chase off whoever was calling her, and froze in mid action. She was followed a moment later by Scarlett Ottoman.

“Oh my God!” Scarlett screeched, and rushed out the door into Matt's arms.

Holly just stood there blankly, as if she couldn't believe that they were there.

“Oh my god! I can't believe it's you guys!” Scarlett exclaimed as Matt's grip on her loosened.

“Yeah, neither can I,” Matt replied. They stood there in the hallway for a long, long time, just staring at one another.

“Alright you four, come on! Dr. Shang wants you in the debriefing room in five minutes, but you were supposed to have come early.” Dr. Stephens's voice rang out behind them.

"Just a minute!” Matt called. A pause.

"Now what on earth do you think you guys are doing, just showing up like that?” Holly scolded, kidding. She then started laughing as Tom and Matt's expressions froze into fearful frowns, and eventually everyone broke out into elated laughter. Once the humor died down, Tom realized that they were running late.

“Come on guys, we can catch up later.” Tom broke the happy party up, and they all started downstairs toward the debriefing room. They got there with two minutes to spare, but Dr. Shang was in a vehement mood, and so he scolded them for being late.

“Did I not say, upon your entrance to this building, that you were to receive and carry out any orders that I gave you?” He asked menacingly.

“Yes sir!” The four said together, their eyes fixed slightly above Dr. Shang's head.

“Then why, may I ask, are you all late?” No one spoke after this comment. “I see...” he continued. “Oh well, for now, I have some questions for all of you.”

Dr. Shang launched into a stunning array of questions, from why Tom helped out West when he got knocked to the ground to how the Biological cloning technology worked. Many of these, no one could answer, and whenever this happened, his mood slipped yet more into the category of insanity. From his first glance of Dr. Shang, Tom had gathered that he didn't like this man. Now here was more proof, as if he needed it.

“... and how, may I ask, did the Raptors get out of the holding pens?”

“I can answer that.” Tom volunteered. “We underestimated their intelligence. There have been numerous examples of it in the past couple hours.”

“Like what?” Dr. Shang sneered.

“Well sir, for one thing, they can speak. They have a complex language system beyond anything we could ever have imagined. When we were searching for survivors in the Facility complex, we could here strange sounds coming from the Raptors. Hissing and clicking, extremely weird noises and growls.” As he relived the details of the carnage, the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he had been terrified. He also hadn't realized up until now how alien the creatures sounded. Something about the sounds unsheathed his primal instincts, like something too horrible for words. “And they can count.” he continued. “We trapped a bunch of them in between a couple of metal storage racks. We didn't anticipate them escaping, but they only did so because they could count, and on a certain sound, they all rushed forward, hitting the racks at the same time, so that their combined force was more than that of the racks, and predictably, the racks toppled over. They must have done something similar with the holding pens.”

“I see...” Dr. Shang didn't believe him. It was obvious in his voice. “Well, at any rate, they escaped. But how on Earth can they have taken out an entire facility within the span of an hour or two?”

“It wasn't just them sir.” Matt answered. “After they escaped, they some how teamed up with a band of maybe 200 Iraqi troops, all heavily armed.”

“And what were the Iraqis after?” Tom sensed where this was going, and instinctively he realized that Dr. Shang would be upset over the loss of the Heli-plane, regardless of whether or not he knew where the enemy base was.

“Sir, they were after our vehicles. When Dr. Stephens and I...”

“Save it!” Dr. Shang exclaimed. “I do not need to know of any acts of valor that Dr. Stephens has contributed to whatever happened at that facility. Just tell me what they were after and why!” Venom rang clear through his voice. Tom realized that Dr. Shang must have been a huge rival of Dr. Stephens.

“Yes sir,” Tom murmured. “As I was saying, they were after our vehicles. When I was on the roof, I saw most of the Iraqis in the courtyard. They were all moving towards the garages, and sure enough, five minutes later, they had commandeered just about every vehicle out of the place. How they got the things started up is beyond me.”

“What all did they take? 'Just about every vehicle' is not too specific.”

“They drove out with I would say about 40 of the 50 armored Humvees, every single one of the tanks, 20 of the 25 APCs, and all of the 100 Assault Recon Motorbikes. I managed to jack, I mean, take back one of them, but how much good one of a 100 will do I don't like to consider. As for air units, they took all of the Apaches and Cobras, which is about 30 of each. The Hueys they left alone, the Chinooks they took about 10 of the 20, from the airfield, I don't think they took anything besides one A-10 thunderbolt.”

“Lets see, what am I missing... Oh yes. I hear you had a Heli-Plane with masses and masses of currency and Biological samples in it? What has become of it?”

“Sir, there was nothing I could do but tag it with a tracer. They took off with it, and I suspect are just now unloading it.”

You let them ESCAPE!!!!!! Tom was mentally prepared for that. Instead, he got a:

“Yes. Very good job. I couldn't expect anything better.”

“Whaa...” Matt asked, startled.

“Gentlemen, I too understand the importance of the knowledge of the enemy's base. They did not promote me to General for nothing. You have done very well, or at least, on that respect. All I can ask for now is the device which is receiving the tracer signal.”

He waited expectantly as Tom mentally smacked his forehead.

“Sir, I left it in my other uniform when I was changing.” Again, Tom braced himself for yelling, but again he was disappointed.

“Only to be expected.” was the answer he got instead. “I can not expect flawlessness from men who have only just gotten back from fighting enough for a month in one day. I will give you a 10 minute break to find the device and bring it back here. Well, what are you waiting for, go get it!” He said in answer to the four's puzzled looks.

A minute later, Tom was hurriedly searching his room and laundry for his uniform. Holly was helping him, but Scarlett and Matt were too busy talking to each other to really be of much use, though they were pretending to pick through Tom's room while they did so. Tom shook his head. Sometimes those two just got on his nerves, especially since they had told him and Holly that they were in love.

"Guys, I hate to break up your love chain," Tom said exasperatedly. "But we only have another three minutes to find the thing. Can you please help?"

"Oh yeah, sorry guys." Matt answered with a startled jump.

"I found it!" Holly cried after another minute of searching.

"Alright, now, lets go, go, go!" Tom said urgently. They had 60 seconds to get to Dr. Shang. They made it back to the debriefing room with 15 seconds to go. Dr. Shang was visibly annoyed that they had taken so long. He muttered something like: "Most highly paid... Can't even find his own laundry... We trust these guys to be the defenders of America?..." He shook his head, and the four "Defenders of America" hung their heads sadly at the insult.

"Alright, at any rate, you have the device, now give it to me." Dr. Shang said out loud.

"Yes sir," Tom answered, handing him the device. Dr. Shang studied the device for a moment, his deep, concealing eyes taking in everything there was to take in of the device, and, secretly, details about Matt, Scarlett, and Holly. He had already read up on Tom. He had decided that they were obviously very good at fighting, but strangely limited in believing of their Psi abilities. "Such a shame," He thought. "They could do such marvelous things with their raw power and sheer will alone, and what they could do if properly instructed is just fantastic."

He glanced up to look at Matt. Tall, broad shouldered, stocky, high chin, thick eyebrows, blond hair, naturally big, and extremely fit. Hardly an ounce of fat on him. But these were just the physical figures that he noticed. He also had judgmental eyes, eyes that could tell a person's personality from one sweep. Matt had experienced pain, and from the looks of his dark, emotion stained eyes and the tight set of his jaw, he had had a lot of it. He thought of himself not as the savior of the world that he most certainly was, or even as the savior of America, but rather, just another common soldier doing his best to help. This was the best mindset a soldier can have, because if grown too cocky, that soldier could over estimate his powers, eventually leading to his death. He had the will to obey any order, defeat any opponent, and still stand to face the next. Matt's friendship with Tom was curious. Despite Matt being a year and a half older than Tom and having more of a visible muscle build, he believed Tom was stronger. Matt looked up to Tom, as did the rest. Tom, apparently, was the leader. Interesting. Dr. Shang thought.

Next, Dr. Shang swept over Scarlett. Like her name suggested, she sported scarlet blood hair, with thick, ruby red lips that looked like lipstick, but in fact were not. Scarlett hardly ever wore lipstick, or any makeup at all except for eyeliner, which gave her jet black eyelashes mixed with her deep, dark eyes, a mysterious and powerful quality. Muscular body, extremely tight thigh muscles, and slimmer build, but still incredibly powerful. She was most likely able to snap or at least bend a titanium rod an inch thick. She seemed to think like Matt, like a soldier, not a lady. She and Matt shared many qualities. Scarlett would get exasperated if she didn't have things her way. If she wanted to kill an enemy soldier, you would know that no matter the circumstances, that soldier would die.

Holly. She was... strong. Solidly built. Tall, and like Scarlett, didn't really use any makeup. Strength emanated from her in a feminine aura. Dr. Shang, if anything, admired and secretly feared her. She had a light-hearted soul. Dr. Shang guessed she was the jokester of the group. Yet at the same time, their was a chill to her face. She, like the others, had seen lots of pain and suffering, and it had reflected itself in her face. She had dark rims under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept in months. She also admired Tom, and Dr. Shang couldn't figure out the reason. He hoped he would figure it out some day.

Dr. Shang sighed. He wanted a nice dinner of steak and wine. He wanted to relax in the lounge. He didn't want to debrief anyone right now, even if they were to save the world.

But duty calls.

"Alright. now, tell me everything that happened from the battle to your entrance here. Starting with Tom."

"Yes sir." Tom said, then wearily began to narrate his tail so far. Dr. Shang just asked an occasional question, taking notes of the ordeals on his laptop computer. At the end of the narration, he opened a different document on his Apple Mac and glanced upward, the signal for Matt to jump in. Matt relayed all the information he had, which wasn't as much as Tom because he had only arrived to rescue Facility 1's inhabitants.

Scarlett and Holly, of course, had nothing to tell. They had been here, at Facility 2, drilling and sparring.

"Thank you gentlemen, I will take this information to the good general. You are free to go." Under his breath, Shang muttered, 'for now'. Little did Shang know that Tom's Raptor ears had picked this up, and he turned so Shang wouldn't see his now troubled expression.

"Well, off with you then!"

Tom, Matt, Holly, and Scarlett almost bounced out of the room, happy for a chance to catch up on all of their adventures for the first time in... years.

When they arrived at their rooms, the first thing that they did was fling themselves onto the bunk beds. "So, where do we start?" Holly asked.

"I dunno." Tom answered. "There's so much to talk about."

"Oh I know Tom, how many times by now has Matt saved your life?" Holly teased.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Tom asked, playing along.

"Oh, just, when you were like, ten, and Matt was saving your a..."

"Okay, we get the point." Tom cut in. "I admit, I would have been in some pretty nasty situations without Matt's assistance. However, I've gotten a lot better now."

"Let's see it." Holly challenged.

In answer, Tom lifted up the couch on the other side of the room.

"Cool." Scarlett said. "Anyways, lets hear more about the battle at Facility 1. I hear there were T-Rex's?!"

"Yeah, but they weren't there for long. Most of them ate it as soon as they popped out of the tree line into the clearing. They were easy targets for wall garrison. However, one was too far and causing havoc, but that one bought it when I ordered some air support to give suppressing fire. Sucker gave me a lot of bio samples, over his dead body. Literally." Tom chuckled.

"Yeah I heard about that." Matt said. "What happened after he fell?"

"A squad of soldiers rushed up against his body for cover, and that gave the Atlantians food for thought about running up and smashing the rest of us in open warfare. If they had, they would've been mown down by the soldiers."

"Guys, lets pause for a moment." Scarlett interrupted.

"Why?" Matt asked.

"I'm starving!" she answered.

Twenty minutes later, the four of them were sitting on Tom's balcony, eating sandwiches, and looking over the courtyard of the facility. From the 30th floor, the men down on the ground looked like little ants, scurrying back and forth, carrying this, driving that, moving this, and all manner of things.

"So, Tom," Holly asked. "I heard a rumor from one of the soldiers that you jumped from forty stories high. Is it true?"

Tom took a moment to swallow his food before he answered.

"Yes it is." he replied, and waited for the outburst of excitement.

"No way!" They all said almost simultaneously.

"It's true." Tom said again.

"Whoa, cool!" Matt said approvingly.

"Nice," Scarlett agreed, slapping a high five.

"Well, I guess it is cool that you jumped from that high. How much did it hurt?" Holly asked.

"Uh, a lot?" Tom said. "I mean, what would you expect it to feel like?"

"I dunno. I've never been stupid enough to jump off a building." Holly answered.

"Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures." Tom defended.

"Oh, so, what was the desperate time? You had to go give Matt a hug?" Scarlett interjected. At this, the boy's cheeks reddened, and Tom was forced to give a detailed account of what happened at Facility 1 before they could go any farther. He again recounted the details of the gruesome battle. Although unpleasant, he was proud of his achievements.

Matt, who had already heard the story and been briefed by another general, backed Tom up.

"Yeah, that was amazing what you did with that missile launcher, blowing apart Queen Rex." he said

"Well, I guess that was pretty cool. And brave." Holly said.

"Yeah, it was." Scarlett agreed.

"So..." Tom said, casting about for a new topic. "What's everyone else been doing?"

"Well, we haven't had it exactly easy, but better than you." Matt responded.

"Same here." Scarlett and Holly agreed simultaneously. "It's been a little dicey, and we've had frequent attacks on the facility, but nothing as major as you." Holly said.

"I suppose its like that everywhere." Scarlett said. "But it was kinda weird, like, they didn't really want to fight, just draw us out. Like, they'd show up with about a hundred men, and we'd rush out, guns blazing, yada yada, we'd inflict a couple casualties here and there, and then they'd just turn and run."

Suddenly it dawned on Tom. "It was a distraction to pull all of our forces out to Facility 2." he said quietly.

"What do you mean?" Holly asked.

"Just look at this place. The rooms are jam packed. The hallways are filled with people at all hours." As if to emphasize his point, footsteps resounded outside as the men marched down to dinner. "At Facility 1, it's the exact opposite. We were running on a skeleton crew. The living quarters were almost deserted. I think they were purposely drawing all our forces to here."

"You know, you just might be right." Matt said after a moment's thought. "The more I think about it, the more I realize, when we were searching the LQ for survivors, more than half the bunks were empty. Of course, Raptors took the rest of the soldiers in there, but... You get my point."

"If so, then we have to be doubly careful now. They aren't just random idiots holding weapons. These guys are a lot better than we thought." Scarlett said gravely.

"Yeah, especially their officers. They know how to use the weapons they've got. Really well." Tom added.

"But what that doesn't explain is how the Raptors got out. I looked at the holding pens that they're making here, and they are completely Raptor-proof. Of course, they're trashing them because of what happened at Facility 1, but still. Those pens had electronic locks. The only thing that could open them was a signal from the control room. And to do that, you'd have to enter a twelve digit code. And you'd have to get past biometric access denial systems. It was completely full-proof." Holly said worriedly.

"That does seem strange." Scarlett agreed.

After a minute of silent thinking, Tom said, "The only thing I can come up with is that they had help from someone pretty high ranking." This thought troubled them all.

"If someone with access to that kind of knowledge is helping the Atlantians, we're in serious trouble." Matt said.

"Well, the Atlantians aren't really our enemies." Tom explained. "They're just puppets, and Iraq is taking full advantage of them."

"True." Matt acknowledged.

Tom finished his food, taking his tray back inside to the sink in their small apartment like room. The four of them would be sharing the room, as everywhere else was jammed packed.

Holly followed him into the kitchen, leaving Matt and Scarlett alone together.

Holly walked in and started helping Tom clean the kitchen.

"Those two'll be out there all night if we let them." Holly observed.

"Yep." Tom agreed. Being Matt's best friend, he had to listen to Matt raving on and on about Scarlett when they were together without her. "It gets sorta downright annoying, frankly."

"Well, it's almost impossible for them to not." Holly answered. "They're so alike in so many ways. Including combat style, which is a little scary."

"Speaking of which, why don't we go for a little sparring when they're done talking?" Tom asked, knowing it was Holly's favorite activity here.

Holly smiled at him. "Sure. I'd love to."

"I've missed you." Was the first thing Matt said. It just sort of slipped out...

Scarlett looked surprised, then, "Me too." she admitted.

A giant anvil lifted off Matt's chest. He was able to breath again. This was the most awkward part, the beginning. Once they started talking it became easier.

"So how are you and Holly doing?" Matt asked.

"Oh, excellent. She can be a little bossy sometimes, but not too bad. Anyways, it's really fun sparring with her. It's kind of cool to be fighting someone who has a completely different style than us. You know how we both tend to strike hard and fast first off? She's completely the opposite. She does nothing but block and evade everything I throw at her at first, then cranks her hostility meter up towards the end of the fight. She usually beats me." Scarlett said. "It's like, she knows I can't go all-out forever, so she just waits. Plus she's really good and wicked fast."

"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind the next time we go to spar." Matt said with a grin. Scarlett shouldered him in a friendly push. Matt shouldered her back.

"You've changed so much." Scarlett said.

Matt chuckled. "War and bloodshed tend to do that."

"Speaking of, as soon as we get back home, I need to show you my new place." She said.

"Oh yes, I haven't seen it yet."

"No, but you need to. It's really awesome."

"I'd like to."

They shared the silence for a minute, gazing down below at the gates.

"This place is so beautiful." Scarlett said. "This would be my dream vacation spot. I just wish when this is all over..."

"What?" Matt asked

"I just wish we had a chance to enjoy this. I mean, look at this. It's a tropical island. You've got your basic palm treas, banana trees, and a whole load of others I don't know. This place has so many wonders. Did you see the fresh fruit in the Officers' Mess? It was all picked right here, on the island. They had mangoes, bananas, coconuts, apples, plums, pears, all manner of stuff. All from right here. And the beaches! The beaches have pure white sand. We got to stroll by on patrol duty once. It was beautiful."

"Just like you." Matt said.

"Oh, come on. You watch too many movies." Scarlett said, though she sounded pleased, and Matt knew it.

They talked for a while longer, and then Holly appeared behind the sliding glass door. She opened it, and popping her head out, asked, "Anyone up for a little sparring?"

"Sure!" Matt and Scarlett answered.

"Alright, but I call I get Tom first." Holly said. "He's gonna get his butt handed to him." She said with a grin.