Prism and The Red Wolves

Ursun and Theda stood quietly side-by-side in the brown-walled underground hallway outside of Getla Base’s second bio-generator room. Ten Etrysian soldiers were evenly distributed along the length of the well-lit hall, standing guard against any further attempts to sabotage one of the base’s power supplies. After the destruction of the base's primary docks, most of the base's soldiers had been ordered to protect the Command and Control Center at the very core of the military facility.

"We should be doing something...anything. It doesn't seem right to just be standing around on the off-chance that our enemies will appear here." Ursun said angrily while he tapped on the butt of his personal automatic weapon. He'd swapped out Gnapp's experimental magflux rounds for a magazine of Theda's disruptor bullets.

"You still hate guard duty, eh? You haven't changed a bit." Theda said with a shake of her head.

"Come on, you must find this situation just as frustrating." Ursun turned to face the pink-haired woman, leaning over slightly to look her in the eyes. "They blew up the docks, for Eizavoba's sake. We're a joke to these guys."

"And that's why we have to start acting proactively. They've caught us flatfooted over and over again."

Theda looked up into Ursun's remarkably green eyes. She'd forgotten how bright they could be, as if they were lit by the fire in his heart. She found it hard to break his eye contact, sensing his fervent need for some action in the otherwise still hallway. When she was finally able to look away from him, she managed to say "stay vigilant" as she looked over at a nearby soldier.

"You know how small these access-ways are." Ursun said while pointing to a marked panel on the ceiling. "Does Deriges really think that three adults could shimmy through one of them for almost a kilometer to get back here from the cliff-side section of the base? And the nerve-cables that run through these tubes put off enough heat to make the trek even more torturous."

"If anyone would know what was possible to do within this base, it would be its commander. And with the lateral lifts disabled by the supervirus, its not like the infiltrators have any other choice." Theda said matter-of-factly. "Deriges comes from three generations of Getla Base commanders. If he says that he thinks the infiltrators are probably going to come back through one of the access-ways in this area, then I am sure as hell going to believe him." She added with gusto.

Ursun scoffed at Theda before standing up straight again and resuming his silent sentry duty. The silence was short-lived, however. A few minutes after they finished talking, Theda and Ursun heard a soldier yell "grenade" before they saw a plume of black smoke shoot down an adjoining hallway. Neither of them could see the hallway, as it was several meters in front of them. Several soldiers within their own hallway ran away from the smoke, while some who'd been in its path began to collapse and seemingly become stuck in place while they struggled for air. As the smoke began to convalesce into a sticky black substance that adhered to the walls and floors of the section of hallway before them, Ursun and Theda knew that they'd have a tough time reaching their enemies.

"Gluifying smoke grenades...fun." Theda groaned and said sarcastically. "Do you have anything for this stuff?" She looked over and asked Ursun.

"It'll probably explode if we torch it, so no." Ursun shrugged. "We'll have to go around." He said while pointing to a connected corridor to their left, which was fortunately meters before the hallway that had been coated with flammable black glue.

"Those poor soldiers...unable to breathe as the smoke turns to glue within their lungs..." Theda said softly before she and Ursun ran around the corner of the hallway.

"We have to catch up with them somehow." Ursun grunted as he began to run. "Soldiers, with us!" He yelled to the few able-bodied guards that had managed to end up on their side of the hallway when the smoke gluified.

Ursun, Theda, and four Etrysian soldiers ran around a series of connected hallways in order to reach the area where they believed the infiltrators had appeared from. Theda had seen an access-way panel stuck on the glue-covered floor, and had reasoned that their enemies had simply dropped their grenades to cover their escape. When they saw another ceiling panel further up an unaffected section of the same hallway, Theda's suspicious were verified. Unfortunately for their group, the panel was in the middle of a four-way intersection of hallways.

"We split up. Two to each hallway. Theda, with me." Ursun ordered before taking off running down the hallway that led around the base.

"Why are we going this way? Surely the infiltrators went down the hall that leads to the CCC?" Theda asked as they continued running.

"They're smarter than that. That hallway is being extensively guarded by dozens of soldiers. They'll find another way in, if they're even headed to Command and Control at all..." Ursun said calmly while gripping his readied PAW tight.

"Where else would they be going?" Theda asked aloud. She too held her weapon at the ready as she ran beside Ursun.

"Their objective seems to involve crippling the base's seaside defenses. They've taken out a suite of cliff-cannons, and have probably neutralized a good number of the base's battleships that were still in dock. There are still the boats and subs that are further out at sea though, not to mention the battleflies that are still doing aerial sweeps above those ships." Ursun explained rather casually to Theda.

"And don't forget about the aerial fleet that Hypergeneral Aksos should be bringing at any moment now." Theda said with a determined smirk. "Oh wait..." She said worriedly after thinking about her words for a moment.

"You see it now too?" Ursun asked with a glance over at her.

"No, they couldn't. There are too many biological control redundancies, even with the virus." Theda insisted.

"Nothing has stopped these guys, Theda. They're using Kingdom-tech. Even if theirs is outdated, its still more advanced than what we've got, than what we even understand." Ursun refuted.

"If they really are able to gain control of the border guns, then we really are in major trouble. They'll shoot our own boats out of the water. They'll destroy Aksos' fleet before they even reach the base. They'll..."

"Calm down, little lady. We're going to stop these thugs." Ursun said with a confidence that comforted Theda.

They soon heard gunfire in an adjoining hallway not far from them. When Ursun and Theda reflexively turned to run towards it, Ursun received a familiar buzz in his mind. He was soon seeing Srell shooting at two infiltrators with the disruptor bullets he'd been given by Theda. Srell used a connected hallway for cover, leaning forward and back to deliver burst after burst at his silver-suited enemies. Ursun smiled as he headed closer to Srell's position, who was bringing one of the infiltrators to their knees with several perfectly-aimed shots to the head.

Just as he'd hoped, Ursun and Theda ambushed the two infiltrators, firing at them with Srell from both ends of the hallway. In a matter of seconds, the two enemies were dead on the ground. Ursun, Theda, and Srell then met in the middle of the hall to check the bodies.

"That was too easy." Srell said with a disappointed shake of his head.

"You're right. It was a distraction. Their leader must be..."

Before Ursun could finish his statement, he saw the silver suits begin to glow. He groaned before yelling to his allies to run for cover. Srell quickly ran back the way he came, while Theda reflexively led Ursun into an open storage room nearby. Seconds later, the suits detonated with a force that was magnified by the grenades they'd been wearing on their belts. Flames and shockwaves erupted down the hallway and shook the underground base for the third time that night. Srell made it a safe distance away from the blast, and continued to make his way down the hallways in an attempt to find the last infiltrator. He telepathically messaged his team to tell them what had caused the explosion that time, and to check if Ursun was still alive.

"I'm fine, but we're trapped in a storage room. Looks like this section of the base has taken one too many explosions. The ceiling in front of the door seems to have caved in." Ursun psychically communicated to his team.

"I'll tell Deriges to send a team of soldiers to dig you and the Peacekeeper out." Jaik's voice echoed to in the minds of his teammates. Jaik had managed to get to the CCC with Risa, and was within speaking distance of the base commander.

"Don't worry about us! Find the infiltrator before he can take over the border guns!" Ursun's concern roared through the telepathic link, putting his entire team on edge.

"We're nearly at the base. Should we be concerned about being shot down?" Leanna psychically asked.

"There's still time. I'm on it." Srell said telepathically to his team.

He truly believed that he was hot on the heels of their enemy, and that belief echoed through to his teammates.

"We haven't told you guys yet, but our prisoner escaped. She's headed to the base, too." Lorias stated calmly through their link.

"Unbelievable! We have this link to keep each other up-to-date as things happen!" Ursun's angry words blared in his team's mind.

"Lorias and I knew you all were busy over there. We're tracking the Sguvan woman's movements, and we'll reach the base before she does. We have the situation handled." Leanna's calm voice attempted to staunch Ursun's anger, but failed to do so.

"I want her neutralized now! Use that moth ship you're on to gun her down!" Ursun ordered.

"She's moving a bit too erratically to get a weapons lock on her. We don't want her to know that we can track her yet, either." Leanna explained.

"Are you disobeying my orders again!?" Ursun only grew angrier, and the link could barely communicate how much.

While Theda and Ursun sat in the increasingly warm and poorly-lit storage room, Theda noticed that Ursun was rubbing his forehead rather furiously as he sat silently in a corner. She figured that he was just mad about being trapped in the room, especially since their terp-comms weren't working. Theda was a bit worried herself, as that was a sign that the room's air vents were blocked, meaning that they had only a limited amount of time to get out of there before they were out of oxygen.

When Theda walked over to him, she saw that Ursun looked incredibly upset, and was even baring his teeth from time to time. She reached down to touch his shoulder, which got her an angry swing from him. She dodged the blow with a quick lean backwards, and soon saw Ursun look remorsefully back at her.

"You're really bothered by all of this. I haven't seen you like this since..."

Theda covered her mouth with her left hand; sure that she'd poured oil on the fire of Ursun's rage. She was surprised when he looked up coldly at her. His icy stare made her feel that he was looking straight through her.

"I don't have time for this. Everything's going to hell and I need to get out of this room so that I can stop it."

Ursun rose to his feet as he spoke in a loud, stern voice. It seemed more like he was addressing a crowd than just speaking to her, Theda thought. She understood his indignation, even shared it, but she knew that they couldn't stop the forces moving against Surmil all by themselves. She sighed and ran her fingers through her bobbed pink hair.

"Alright, let's get out of here, then." Theda said to him smugly.

"How!?" He shouted at her, displeased by her tone.

Theda pointed to a wall beside Ursun, where a storage shelf full of boxes of old base reports partially blocked a door to a neighboring room.

"I only noticed it when you took a swing at me," said Theda with a playful smile. "If you help me, I'm sure we can move that shelf out of the way."

Humbled by the moment of serendipity, Ursun nodded goofily at Theda before doing as she said. After a few moments of effort, they'd shifted the shelf enough to then burst open the door. They breathed easy when cool oxygenated air flowed into their lungs when they entered the lengthy, well-lit records room. And before they could speak to each other again, they saw several soldiers enter the room at its far end, several meters ahead of them.

"Oh good, you figured it out. We weren't sure if you would find the door, or if you two were even able-bodied enough to use it." One of the senior soldiers yelled over to Theda and Ursun.

"We're alright. Have any of you sighted the last infiltrator?" Theda asked on Ursun's behalf, since he was still calming down from his anger attack.

"One of your fellow Red Wolves and a few of my own have chased the queenie into a stairway leading up to the surface. For some weird reason, your buddy is convinced that the enemy is trying to hack into the border guns." The soldier explained to Ursun in an annoyingly mellow way.

"Take us there." Ursun said loudly and authoritatively, which made the senior soldier stiffen up a bit.

"Yes sir." The soldier said with an awkward salute before leading Ursun and Theda out of the records room and towards the stairway he'd mentioned.

“I’m going to stop that son-of-a-bitch,” was all that Ursun kept thinking as they ran through the long corridors of the base.

Theda felt concern for her former lover as she saw his brow furrowed and his jaw clenched, but all she did was run on beside him. She knew not to get in his way when he had a target to strike.

“Still as bearish as ever.” She mused to herself, not understanding the irony of her words.