NOTE: This is a modified text of the mission, re-written to be easier to read, be slightly more interesting, and be in the third person instead of the second person. If you wish, you can view the raw log of the mission, including all out-of-game comments, here.

Adder sits on the bleachers at the baseball diamond waiting for a briefing again, this time with only 7 companions. The training sergeant is somewhat late. Suddenly, the tent which he uses as his office flies open and he runs over.

"All right, Privates!" he begins, rather rapidly. "Your platoon has been made official, you are now platoon AA-R2-B2-C3-P3, or 'The 69th Adamant Platoon'. Normally you'd be commanded by Sgt. Warwick, but he's undergoing some disciplinary procedures right now and may not be able to join you at your new post for a while.

"In any case, you're to go due North from here to outpost Alpha-1, where Lt. James Grand will brief you on your duties. I'd take you there myself, but I'm still needed here. Now get going!"

Adder, and Bryce next to him, join the rest of the Privates in a unanimous "Aye, sir!" as the training sergeant hurriedly goes back into his "office".

The group departs immediately, following a road stretching north almost straight to Alpha-1. After an uneventful walk, they move quickly off the path and find the light woods with which Alpha-1 is intertwined.

They arrive at Alpha-1 to find the base bustlign with activity -- 10 guards stand on watch duty, messangers run the base over, and officers climbing around doing who knows what with armed escorts trailing behind.

The entire host stares up at the base in awe. A cursory count reveals that the base is supported by . . . A LOT of trees, with multi-leveled planks with rope guards spanning the spaces between large guard platforms terraced at the perimeter of the base, large board walls for barricading, and even a couple of "rooms" made by draping heavy cloth from overhanging branches to form "walls". The colored badges of higher officers flash through the tree branches, intermixed with the staunch gray of Privates'. Floodlights and even two strobes and hung at the highest reaches of the base for illuminating targets in special night combat.

The approach does not go unnoticed, as several guards on watch spot the group and herald their approach. A young Lieutenant comes out and greets Adder as he stands at the front of his unit.

"WELCOME!" he says, beaming and offering a hand. "I am Lt. Grand, and since the new platoons are being assigned to me the command has decided that I should greet everyone arriving. Would you be the 68th?"

Stepping up next to Adder, Bryce corrects him. "69th."

"Oh, my apologies, I'm not yet used to managing an entire company. We've already got your duty schedule planned . . . hey, shouldn't there be 10 of you?"

"Yes, sir," Adder answers, "there should."

Lt. Grand stares at him quizically. "But . . ."

"I'm not sure why 2 men are missing," Adder continues, "but I know one of them is Sgt. Warwick. He's too busy to be with us . . . ."

Adder heaves a sigh.

Lt. Grand considers this for a moment. "All right, it shouldn't take too long to work out whatever problems that may have created, I'll have the schedulers get right on it. Please feelf ree to look around, I'll let you know when we've got it worked out." With this, he turns quickly and heads back to the base.

Bryce leans over and whispers to Adder "Always seem to be too busy these days."

Adder whispers back. "I know . . ." He calls after the Lieutenant, but he is already out of earshot. Adder mumbles under his breath.

"I needed to know what he wants us to do . . ."

"Well," Bryce replies, "let's make ourselves at home." Gambit sits down on the grass after extracting a terse affirmative from Adder.

Lt. Grand approaches again. "All right, the duty schedule is allw orked out, your platoon will start shifts in one hour. Kyle, you'll be one of my escorts, five others will guard the North, and the last two will guard the South. I'll let you fight over who takes what position."

Adder looks up. "I have a request, sir."

"Yes?"

"Perhaps you could use an extra guard . . . I suggest Private Gambit . . ."

He gestures toward Bryce, who grins at the use of his new nickname.

Lt. Grand smiles. "Actually, I've already got two more. That's what happens when you command three platoons . . ."

"Aye, sir," Adder continues, "but I beg to differ. This guy's good. I swear upon my honor--"

"Adder," interjects Gambit, "it's all right. I'll guard the north."

Adder sighs. "Okay . . . see ya later, Gambit."

"So long."

Adder trails behind Lt. Grand as he proceeds to a "private briefing". Lt. Grand enters one of the base's "rooms", and Adder makes to follow but is stopped by a tall figure wearing a Commander's badge.

"Not so fast, Private!" his deep voice rumbles. "Lt. Grand and I will be discussing this alone."

Adder glances over to the Lieutenant, who nods and lifts up the flap used for a door and follows the Commander into the room. Adder sits down to wait, mumbling under his breath "arrogant Commanders . . ."

After a shot while, one of the voices inside the room begins to shout. "But we can't do that! It's--"

The voice ends abruptly, as if cut off. Adder carefully listens for anything else. A second later "I don't care if you are! Lucheyv said . . ." the voice grows too faint to make out.

A second later, a terse "yes," followed by a much louder "SIR!"

Lt. Grand steps stiffly out of the room and immediately trods off, with Adder in tow, hurrying to catch up. Adder clears his throat to try to get his superior's attention, but is promptly ignored.

Upon reaching another platform, Lt. Grand steps up next to another Lieutenant and begins to speak very quietly with him.

Suddenly Lt. Grand spins around. "Private Kyle! There's a special assignment for you, choose three others from your platoon and meet in that room I was just privately briefed in, in 15 minutes. DISMISSED!!!"

Turning on his heel, Lt. Grand quickly walks off again, followed by his other two escorts, leaving Adder standing there, gaping at nothingness.

"Wow."

As Adder turns to leave toward Gambit's post, the second Lieutenant which just had a conversation with Grand walks by, whispering "be careful, now." Adder nods his head slightly, trying not to attract attention.

Approaching Gambit's location, Adder sees one officer standing next to him, and the rest spread out along the remainder of the Northern perimeter. He approaches the unfamiliar officer. "Sir?"

As the soldier turns to face him, Adder sees the ranks to, in fact, be equal. "Yes?"

"I've had special clearance from Lt. Grand to choose 3 soldiers from this unit," Adder explains, "All right?"

The Private looks at him suspiciously. "Which unit?"

"My platoon . . . the 69th Platoon."

The Private looks at him for a second, then chuckles. "Sorry, I'm from the 67th. What you do in your platoon is none of my business." With this, he promptly turns back to his watch.

Adder quickly turns and steps up to Bryce. "Hey Gambit, come on! I've got clearance to take you and two other soldiers on a special mission. Orders from Lt. Grand."

Gambit smiles. "Yes . . . . sir?"

Adder grins back, and begins walking. "C'mon, let's go."

Sgt. Warwick walks into the tent which serves as an office for the training sergeant. The tent flap drops down behind him and the tent grows noticably dimmer. Only a few feet in front of him a small, cluttered desk lies in front of the training sergeant. The wind blows and the desk scratches against the side of the tent, prompting curiosity as to how the sergeant makes his way behind it.

"Watch your head there." the training sergeant says quietly, without looking up. Warwick stop just short of knocking his head on a sign hanging down in the center of the tent, which is attached by a short string to a roughly spherical paper object which is patterned like a soccer ball but using red and yellow, which is in turn suspended from the pinacle of the tent. The sign reads:

is the sign of a fertile mind

"Glad you could come so quickly," he says, throwing his pen down onto the desk. "You're finally moving out! You've been assigned a more permanent post away from the training grounds."

He smiles. "Your platoon has been made official, you now command platoon AA-R2-B2-C3-P3, or 'The 69th Adamant Platoon'. Most of them are already at outpost Alpha-1, you need to head up and join them."

He turns his head upward and appears thoughtful for a moment. "Funny, I thought they already had more than enough soldiers there . . ."

He regains his poise and focuses on Warwick again. "What duty assignments you end up having there are none of my business, Lt. James Grand is in charge of your company, he'll brief you when you get there. It's straight north of here."

"Oh, and Warwick?"

"Will I be the exec?" Warwick asks.

The training sergeant looks surprised. "What?"

"Will I be the exec. to Lt. Grand?"

The look of surprise is replaced by confusion. "You're a Sergeant and you haven't been . . . ah, well, they'll explain the command structue to you there. Warwick?"

"Understood. Would it be possible to get an escort to the company, preferably heavily armed. After all, you don't want the commanding officer of the platoon to be shot down on his way."

"Um, no, you'll be armed once you get there, its a trip through friendly territory so you should be OK. And Warwick, one more thing."

"I still don't have the slightest idea how you got a promotion after your performance in the training simulation two days ago, but the only thing which prevents me from running you through training all over again from the start is the fact that your acting Captain didn't technically order you to stay and guard the base. Be forewarned that most officers in this army are not as lenient."

He picks up his pen again. "Dismissed." He casually returns to filling out some report or other lying on his desk.

Suddenly he looks up. "Oh, I almost forgot! You need to tell everyone in your platoon that they need to contact Lt. Grand about what field they'd like to enter -- you know, basic combat, strategy, command, sabotage, espionage, enforcement . . . . whatever."

He turns back to his papers and begins writing again.

Adder and Gambit find themselves in one of the outpost's "rooms", the walls composed of heavy cloths hanging from tree branches. They find themselves thankful for the lack of a roof, preventing a hot, stuffy, dark environment. Gambit holds his nose against an unidentifiable stench filling the room. The room is unfurnished, with the only apparently permanent feature being ghe electric lamp hanging from the ceiling.

Lt. Grand walks in, accompanied by the same Commander Adder saw earlier, three minutes after the scheduled time. The Commander stands off in one corner and Lt. Grand quickly salutes and sits down in the room's only chair.

"All right, Privates. I suppose Kyle here has told you that you're going on a special mission," Lt. Grand says tersely. "To make a long story short, you're delayed fire support for an armed raid on an outpost held by the Ground Thunder Army. They're famous for holding ground-based defenses as well as everyone else holds elevated ones, such as the one you're sitting in now.

"I want all of you to take CPS 2500s and depart at exactly 1112 hours, heading due East. After going East until you reach the second path, follow it north until you come out of woods. Then follow the edge of the woods to the West until you either see or hear enemy activity. By then, you should be on the far side of the base we're attacking.

"At 1045 hours, our main force will attack the outpost from both the East and West. Your party should storm down from the North, taking out as many enemies in the initial attack as possible and then acting as fire support for the rest of the fight. Play it safe a maximum range whenever possible. Don't come down and join the attack until 1050 hours."

He throws Adder a small watch on a chain.

"Er, sir?" Adder interrupts the briefing.

Lt. Grand sighs. "What?"

"I've got a scheduling problem, I've got to be home by 10:30 toady."

"Very well, Privtae. You are excused from this mission, we'll do it with three people. Please leave now." Adder hands the watch to Gambit, and stands up to leave the room.

"Oh, and don't tell anyone else about this. The main force is leaving later than you, and they're not especting your backup, and we don't want them to fight less enthusiastically because they're expecting help. I need every one of them fighting as hard as they can from the beginning."

Adder nods, and then leaves. Lt. Grand turns back to the remaining soldiers.

"Your own weapons are in the room in this position one level down, don't take anything but the four 2500s. We will be doubling the watch during the attack to make it look like we're increasing our defenses rather than slackening them."

Lt. Grand quickly glances back at the Commander standing in the dim corner, who nods once before uttering his first word since the briefing started.

"Dismissed."

Two of the remaining Privates stand up and leave the room. Lt. Grand looks as if he's about to leave, but turns for an unknown reason and moves into the corner with the Commander.

Gambit steps forward. "Sir?"

Lt. Grand turns toward him with a look of fury on his face. "NOT NOW, PRIVATE!!!"

Gambit hastily steps out of the room.

Werewolf walks into the same tent Sgt. Warwick stood in about an hour earlier, hitting his head on the sign. The noise of the impact alerts the training sergeant of his presence, who immediately looks up.

"Ah, Private Hodgson! It turns out that I won't be needing your services here after all, it seems that Adamant Command has sent in a Lieutenant to head up the training, to whom I will be an assistant."

"Anyway, you should go join your platoon at outpost Alpha-1, follow the road straight North."

"Yes, sir." Werewolf walks out of the tent.

After a long walk, Sgt. Warwick arrives at outpost Alpha-1, instantly heralded by the watchers. A strongly dispirited Lt. Grand greets him unenthusiastically before reuniting him with his unit.

The group going ont he special mission is still present and have already acquired their weapons, but Gambit's quick glance at the watch reveals that they have to leave within about five minutes. Wasting no time, he joins up with his comrades and departs the base, heading East.

Gambit continued plodding along, diligently following the roundabout directions to this enemy base -- but only for want of a direct route. Walking West along the forest's Northern border with his teammmates, its not a long walk before an obvious lighter patch in the woods becomes visible forward and to his left.

He peers through the trees toward the enemy base, ground-based but with all the bustle of Alpha-1. Only one sentry faces North, and he appears to be incredibly bored, guarding the side facing friendly territory.

Gambit glances around. No sign yet of Adamant's attacking force. He glances at the watch to see that the time is now 1144 hours.

Sgt. Warwick watches from one of the guardians' platforms as the 22nd Adamant Company, under the command of Lt. Pery, leaves the base on "business" -- that left less than half as many soldiers at the base. Only minutes earlier, at the guard shift rotation, a double strength watch had come on duty.

Unarmed, Werewolf steps up next to Warwick and watches the procession. Having only arrived recently and not wanting to disturb the thoughtful expression on Warwick's face, he restrains his curiosity and holds his tongue.

Gambit crouches silently in the bushes with the two Privates accompanying him from Alpha-1. A glance at the watch reveals the time is 1446 hours. He checks his pressure gauge to make sure his weapon is fully pressurized, he whispers "Get ready."

He peers through the trees at the enemy base. He can make out at least 10 guards, but most of the base is covered by the same foliage which prevents his own detection. He looks at the watch. It is now 1447 hours, making the attackers two minutes late -- not really much, but this attack sounded like precision timing was important.

Making his way stealthily slightly closer to the base, he finds the guards to be getting very restless, as if they're waiting for something. His new position exposes another 5 guards, bringing the total sighted number up to 15 -- although the defenses around the base could be concealing quite a few more.

"Hmm . . ." he whispers back over his shoulder. "What do you guys think?"

Turning his head back, he finds that both his companions have stayed back at the edge of the forest and are out of earshot of his whisper, looking apprehensively between him and the base.

He waves for them to come forward. Reluctantly, they come forward and listen to Gambit's previous question.

"There's no way we can take that base without help from the main force!"

Gambit considers this, but his thoughts are interrupted. "What time is it? Are they late?"

Gambit sighs. "They could be waiting for the right moment. Or maybe they were found out." He looks at his watch again. 1449 hours.

He looks at his teammates. "All right, we have three options: retreat, wait, attack and create a diversion for the main attack force, or search for the main attack force."

One of the Privates retorts "That's four options!"

The other looks seriously at the one who said this, then at Gambit. "So, what do we do?"

Gambit considers this. "Well, we should see if the attack group is here. If they're not, we retreat. If they are here, we get the plan."

One of the Privates appears confused. "Um . . . . how on earth are we going to do that?"

"You go search for them."

"ME!!???"

"Yes, you," Gambit replies calmly. "Or are you scared?"

The Private gets a very sullen look on his face, then tromps off and disappears into the underbrush.

"Now," Gambit concludes, "we wait."

Time passes uneventfully. The scout returns, and shakes his head.

"No sign of them."

"Warwick wouldn't have abandoned us," Gambit protests. "And we're not being hurt out here. So, we wait."

They look puzzled. "Warwick was leading the attack?"

Gambit looks startled. "Well, I thought he was, but in any case, it doesn't matter. No one from Adamant would be a wimp and go off in some corner and wait for the end of the war. They'll attack . . . just wait."

Resigned to their fate, his two companions settle down for a long wait. After a time, Gambit looks at his watch again. 1505 hours -- the attack was 20 minutes late.

Gambit looks at his teammates again, who appear somewhat tired and bored. "Go out and look again."

The same soldier slowly stands up, stretches, and plods off into the woods. The other soldier yawns.

After five minutes, the soldier returns with another negative report. "Okay, men!" Gambit says, trying to evoke excitement. "Get ready to attack!"

Both men look up at him, looks of sheer terror on their faces. "B-B-But we'll get slaughtered!!!"

"And if we retreat, our superiors will slaughter us," Gambit protests.

"But we have an excuse!" one of the others argues. "We disobeyed orders because our orders were dependent on . . . ."

He looks down, as if resigned to a fate.

"Dependent on an attack?" Gambit asks.

He looks up and nods vigorously.

"Maybe this is a test," Gambit continues. "We attack, get ready."

Fear enters his eyes. "But those are real enemies!"

Gambit continues preparing, undetered. "And our superiors are real mean. Let's go!"

Gambit leaps out of the bushes, running toward the base and firing wildly, letting out a loud, piercing warcry. His teammates follow close behind.

The opponents suddenly turn towards this small attacking force, but do not appear to be at all surprised. Fifteen weapons turn towards the small group and begin firing rapidly. Gambit looks around. Still no sign of friendly forces.

As Gambit's small group approaches the base, too many opponents to count spring up from behind the barricades. He begins entering the range where hits are likely to start happening. Still no sign of backup.

Gambit yells over his shoulder at his two teammates "Retreat if you want!"

Behind him, the two soldiers look at each other, then turn and run in the opposite direction.

Gambit turns back to the battle to see a jet of water speeding into his face. He manages to jump out of the way at the last second, but jumps sidelong into another blast.

After one last look up at his smug opponents, Gambit shoulders his weapon and begins walking out of the battle zone, eliminated from fighting for the day.

Suddenly one of the soldiers at outpost Alpha-1 yells and bells ring out across the expanse of the entire stronghold. Werewolf looks out and sees a large attack party from Ground Thunder coming throught he woods from the North, immediately accelerating as soonas they realize that they've been seen. The massive force rushes down, raising heavy XP and CPS weapons above their heads to scatter fire all over the guard platforms.

The Adamant troops scramble, the guards taking up defensive positions and everyone else rushing to the armory. Lt. Grand jumps out of the only "room" with a ceiling and motions for a nearby Private to follow him to the armory.

That Private -- by name of Ryan Ledgerwood, but known to his friends as "Smoky" -- succeeds the Lieutenant into the armory and looks around as several troops run out with weapons and Lt. Grand grabs the only visible XP 150 and straps a 25 around his waist. His glance quickly sweeps over the room and he spots a CPS 3000 and 1000, 3 XXP 275s, 2 XP 105s, and 2 XP 40s.

Lt. Grand races past him back out of the room, and he wastes no time grabbing the 1000 as more troops rush through the room acquiring weapons, which he follows quickly out of the four "walls" to see the entire base's forces concentrating on defending it against the monstrous onslaught. A few troops scramble down ropes to set up a defense on the ground. "Smoky" glances backward briefly to see an unusual sight -- half of Alpha-1 completely empty.

Smoky quickly gauges the distance of the enemies. Most of them are exchanging fire up close to the base, the rest are either providing fire support or still charging the base from the north. They seem to be more interested in "killing" their opponents than taking the base.

Making a quick evaluation, Smoky decides against firing from this distance. Looking around at the defensive works of the base, he spots the basic premise of platforms extending outward from the centered armory, curving once or twice, and ending with a small barricade at the tip for defense. Each of them is also supported by at least one tree. Judging the three extending directly toward the opposing force to already be too crowded, he turns right and swiftly runs down one which extends almost straight to the side.

Adder runs through the trees at the sound of warcries, almost running into two Privates he recognizes as having been chosen for the special mission he had to skip. One of them is armed with a single CPS 2500, the other with two.

"Hey guys, I'm back," Adder whispers. "Gimme a gun, we gotta save the base! . . . . or something . . . ."

They look frightened at the prospect of having to fight for the outpost, but quickly hand over the extra gun and crouch lower, glancing at their returning comrade with inquisitive expressions.

Adder reads his pressure gauge. Finding his weapon to be fully pressurized, he puts the weapon up to his shoulder and surveys the area. He stares throught he trees and thinks he sees a couple of bushes rustle during a gust of wind, but cannot see anyone.

He turns back to his recovered teammates. "OK, here's the deal. We go slowly and silently. You guys guard by right and left flanks, I'll take point. Got it?"

The pair nods, and moves into position behind Adder, out of his sight. Turning his head to put them temporarily back into view, he informs them "We're gonna create enough confusion to hopefully give our base a chance of repelling this attack."

Smoky presses up against the barricade at the end of the otherwise unoccupied platform he has stepped onto. Its at almost a right angle to his opponents, but ought to provide at least a little cover. He judges the distance again, this time deciding it to be a little less than two meters to the nearest edge of the fighting.

After taking careful aim at what he judges to be a dangerous target, Smoky fires off three quick shots, of which the later two strike the target, attracting the attention of several foes in the process.

Smoky stumbles as he tries to dodge, but catches himself on the tree holding the platform up. One shot cuts through the air where he previously stood and the other splashes off the tree an inch from his face.

Suddenly the floodlights switch on, illuminating the afternoon battle with a fiery glow. Almost simultaneously, an enormous roar goes up from just out of view to the South, East, and West -- "For Adamant!"

A large force, wearing the colors of Adamant Army, starts charging on foot toward the battlefield. All the attackers' heads turn, as do several of the defenders'.

Adder hears a large roar, and can vaguely make out the word "Adamant", in the direction of the base in the South. He smiles.

"That's us!" He points foward. "We got no time to lose, now is the perfect moment!"

He starts jogging towards the enemies' rear flank and motions the other two to follow, who enthusiastically comply.

While everyone is still processing the new information of the arriving force which their brains are feeding them, Smoky promptly ignores it and fires at the closest opponent, startling everyone back into action without actually calling any attention to himself. Roughly half the enemy force breaks off and splits up to defend against the new opponents.

Lt. Grand catches Smoky's eye, winks, and starts sliding down a rope with one hand while shooting his XP 150 with the other. He quickly hits two opponents.

Losing sight of Lt. Grand, Smoky turns and fires off two quick shots, the first of which hits a target. All of a sudden, opponents are looking at him again. Smoky presses up against the wall as two shots fly by his head.

Adder finally arrives and takes in the scene. He then cries out to his comrades "Try to keep `em ranged, guys! Split up and surround them, shoot anyone that tries to escape their larger group! Do all you can to make sure you don't die!"

With that, rushes twoard the base, noticing that the enemy force is set up to defend themselves against South, East, and West, but not the North from which he comes. The two soldiers previously flanking him split off and approach the enemy force diagonally, preparing to fire when they get within range.

Adder sets his adjustable nozzle to 5x, and looks to try to find a friend he can help out. Despite his attempts to pierce the battle with his vision and impose order on the chaos, he can't make out anyone from Adamant other than those up on the base. Giving up on the elegant approach, he races at the nearest foe and begins blasting.

After taking down one target, he turns toward the next and fires again, but only manages to strike a tree near his intended target, who turns to face this unexpected assault. Sensing imminent danger, Adder quickly begins stepping backward. At the same time, he glances at his pressure gauge to find he still has about 3/4.

After a short distance, Adder turns to find that his intended target has spoken with another member of his force, and the two begin racing after him. As soon as the two enter his range, Adder fires a quick shot at each, missing the first but striking the second. He them immediately turns and runs again.

Adder then turns, preparing to unleash the same technique on the remaining foe. The soldier looks at him, down at his own weapon, and then turns and runs back to the main force, triggering Adder's pursuit.

Then, somehow catching Adder off guard, the soldier speaks with several friends and about 5 people break off and form a rear guard.

Adder's attack on the rear of the Ground Thunder force is visible, and the enemy force is starting to diminish into chaos. Smoky examines his pressure gauge and looks around to see whether he's being actively targeted. A misdirected blast shoots past him. Two people are alternating their attention between him and a few other places.

A loud call from Adder at the back draws attention and Smoky fires off several quick bursts, striking one enemy. The size of Ground Thunder's rear guard increases to 7 and the battle resumes, full-tilt. Smoky begins to re-pressurize his gun as a shot flies up, neatly arcs three feet over his head, and comes down on the opposite side.

Werewolf, on the other side of the base, falls prone on the platform, escaping another burst of water, and fires at but misses a target. He fires a second time, but still misses.

Adder stares at the battlefield, facing the seven heavily-armed members of the enemy rear guard. The battle continues to rage all over the base, and around it where the unknown Adamant force has begun its counter-attack. As he watches, Adder's two earlier comrades, apparently having snuck around, attack the force from either sides, scattering fire throughout, sowing chaos and quickly eliminating half the force.

As Adder shouts encouragement, the opposing rear guard quickly forgets him and splits into two groups to pursue the newer two threats. Adder quickly runs after one of them. As he approaches, the two enemy pursuers raise their guns, just as his teammate raises his own.

In the instant that follows, Adder sees two beams of water cut through the air where his teammate was standing while he turned, at the same time that the teammate drops to the ground and rolls a full turn before looking up at his assailants, a few feet from his previous position, and prone.

However, Adder doesn't give him a chance to fire. He quickly bursts three shots from his own weapon, defeating both opponents. He laughs.

"Man, we're good!"

His teammate picks himself off the ground and brushes himself off. "Yeah," he admits, "but it would've been nice not to have to roll over that CPS 2500."

Adder smiles. "Let's go attack some bad guys together."

His teammate grins broadly. "What? After the two of us just saved your tail by splitting up?" Nontheless, he begins following Adder as he slowly walks off.

Adder's smile widens. "Saved my tail, huh?" he begins, and moves into sarcasm. "I coulda taken on this whole army plus 50 other guys!"

Adder checks his pressure gauge and begins pumping his gun. As he looks around at the surrounding area, a battle cry rings out to his right and another opponent charges at him, firing an XP 150 madly. Adder quickly turns and runs, trying to escape the range of the 150.

Adder looks straight up to see a single tendril of water reaching out above him that looks like it is about to fall and slice him in half. He quickly jumps laterally, avoiding the water. Then he looks back to see that his attacker has been completely drenched by his teammate, who smiles at him.

"But I thought you wanted to stay together? . . ."

Werewolf lies prone on one of the outstretched "arms" of the base's platforms, battlign an enormous enemy force. Several other teammates crowd the arm of the platfrom he is on, frantically dodging within the space of only a few feet, and doing an excellent job of blocking his path back to the main platform. On the next arm around the base counter-clockwise, Smoky is pressed heavily against his own arm's wall. The next two arms clockwise are as filled as the one he is on.

Also, on the ground, several friendly attack parties have the enemy force in a 3-way attack. The enemies have divided their forces to try to maintain a perimeter guard while still attacking the base. In addition, Werewolf has noticed some of the antics Adder and his friends have put on to the North, the only direction not attacked by the friendly force.

Looking around quickly for a target of opportunity, Werewolf releases a stream of wtaer from his weapon, striking an opponent full in the chest. An identical stream of water strikes the boards of the platform he's lying on, two feet from his head, apparently originating from the opposite direction.

After spending several seconds turning himself around without getting up, Werewolf is greeted by another stream of water flying right over his head shot from an enemy with an XP 110 held up to his shoulder, looking at him straight down the side of the barrel.

Adder looks around, trying to find the group that attacked his other teammate, but to no avail. He grunts.

"Oh well, he'll probably be OK. We've got mroe important things to do."

Adder scans the area once more. The only activity in sight is the fierce battle surrounding Alpha-1, so he runs toward the base to get a closer look.

The battle still rages fiercely down below. Including Adder's little ban on the North, the attacking force form Ground Thunder is suffering from a 5-way attack -- North, South, East, West, and up. Several sections of the enemy force have broken off to defend against the perimeter. Werewolf stares down at the enemies still surrounding the base. He can count more than ten of them, including a handful of CPS weapons. In turn, he looks back up at the friendly forces in the base -- there's Smoky, himself, Sgt. Warwick, and one Private he doesn't recognize.

Werewolf fires his 105, striking the nearest soldier, holding an XP 150. Two streams of return fire lance out toward him, which he deftly sideslips. Smoky fires, missing an opponent holding a CPS 2000, who quickly turns toward him and joins two XP 105s in returning fire. Two of the streams of water, including the 2000's, hit the cover. The third slides past it despite Smoky's expectations, and he fails to dodge it.

Adder turns back and surveys the battle. The main enemy force is still determinedly condensed, defending the force attacking the base. The Adamant force counter-attacking is divided into five groups of five each, two each attacking from east and west composed of heavy and medium weapons and one attacking from the south with heavy weapons. It looks like those actually directly defending the base are in pretty bad shape, though.

Adder can still find to sign of his accomplice who ran off in the toher direction, or the enemies from the rear guard who were following him.

Adder moves futher south, but stays out of range of the enemy troops. There appears to be about 30 remaining, who are keeping a very tight formation, every side heavily guarded. It looks like one enormous blob.

Examining the North side, Adder decides there are about 4 people guarding it, using mostly heavy weapons. he turns to his teammate.

"OK, here's the deal. We probe the North side's defenses and try to get them to think there's more of us than there really are. That way they send troops needed to guard other places to guard us."

He stares ad Adder blankly. "You want to do what, again?"

Adder sighs. "Hm . . . nevermind that. It probably won't work anyway. Let's try taking out as many of them as possible. If they come near you, run."

He grins. "That I can understand."

Adder smiles in return. "Yeah. Now, let's give it a shot."

As the two descend upon the battlefield, the Northern guard seems to tense at their advance. As soon as Adder fires, the nearest three immediately scatter, his target jumping into the blast. Adder chuckles quietly.

In response, the nearest four enemies begin rapidly charging. Adder's teammate fires a shot towards them and misses, then turns tail and runs the other way. Adder sees this and quickly follows. He can hear a few shots strike the ground nearby, but his speed away from them is limiting the relative range of their weapons.

Adder turns to look back and see whether he's still being followed, but trips on a root and falls face down in the dirt. He only can catch a fleeting glimpse of his pursuers, and cannot tell whether they're still running towards him. His teammate looks back, then begins to turn around and come back.

Werewolf quickly glances around. Given the current circumstances, he doesn't think the board wall at the end of the platfrom will do him much good. One arm clockwise there's a tree in the center of the platform, which looks like it is probably his best bet.

Deciding against it, however, Werewolf sights an enemy. A clean bolt weases out of his gun, followed by a fine mist. The blast soars over the shoulder of his intended victim. Enemies begin taking random potshots in his general direction. Werewolf dances around a bit on the platform, but none of the attacks really comes close to hitting him. Werewolf prepares to fire back, but finds himself out of pressure.

Ignoring the random shots flying around him, Werewolf re-pumps, takes careful aim, and fires. A searing cold blast of liquid annihilation sprouts out of the barrel of his weapon, knocking out a menacing opponent holding a CPS 1500.

Apparently deriving from his actions, his opponents begin raising their weapons up next to their faces and carefully aiming at various targets throughout the base, himself included.

Werewolf sideslips a few times, moving randomly, to throw off their aim. Undaunted, they continue trying to track his movements. Werewolf fires off two watery blasts (one hitting a target) before, almost as one, the enemies taking careful aim begin firing.

As two blasts fly up at Werewolf, he successfully dodges two of them only to feel a third strike him in the back.

Adder looks up from the ground where he tripped over a tree root at his companion rushing back toward him. He looks back over his shoulder at his pursuers. He can only see them out of the corner of his eye. As he watches, they stop running and he sees some colorful movement around their torsos.

Moving quickly, Adder staggers to his feet and begins sprinting past his comrade as the latter raises his weapon and begins firing. Adder's weapon almost falls off his shoulder in the confusion.

A blast of water striks the ground six inches to Adder's right, and his teammate begins firing madly.

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!!!"

Adder turns back to see three pursuers, one with a 2000, one with a 1000, and one with a 175. He can't tell whether they are aiming at him or his friend.

His teammate glances at him, then back at the enemies. Apparently deciding disgression to be the better part of valor, he turns and follows Adder's hasty retreat.

Adder begins pumping his gun, and looks back to find himself making excellent time, a few meters ahead of his teammate who is out of range of the pursuers, and gaining distance. With a sigh, Adder stops running and turns around to confront them. His teammate takes up a position about a meter to his left.

The opponents showing no sign of slowing, Adder glances around and then ducks behind a small tree to his right. Suddenly realizing that while it provides some cover, it is not enough to hide behind, he moves out again and kneels with his weapon at this shoulder as his teammate backpedals a couple of paces.

As his enemies enter the general distance their weapons can fire, they begin weaving jets of water throughout the landscape. Adder pulses water into three bursts at the foe wielding the 1000, missing him all three times. His friend lets loose a powerful stream of water on the narrowest setting of his weapon, with similar results.

Muttering quietly, Adder springs up from the ground, accidentally stubbing his toe on another root but managing to stay on his feet. Recovering from this, he skillfully sideslips to avoid a searing blast of water.

Following his lead, Adder's companion lets loose one quick shot, hitting an opponent, and then turns to follow. Unfortunately, he is shot down as he turns to run.

"Wait!" Adder calls back over his shoulder. "What's your unit?"

Suddenly he remembers that to have gone on the previous mission he must have been in his own platoon and calls back "nevermind" before continuing his run.

Sprinting forward, Adder quickly outdistances his opposition once again. Realizing that if he keeps heading North he'll enter Ground Thunder's territory, he makes a sharp 90 degree turn to his left, throwing off the pursuit enough to stay ahead of them. Preparing for a long run, he decreases his speed, skillfully stepping lightly over rough ground. HIs opponents lag further behind.

Adder stops running again, firing a quick blast at the enemy with the XXP 175 when he approaches, striking him down. He immediately turns and runs again, exiting firing range.

Shortly thereafter, Adder pauses again to try the same trick on the last enemy, with remarkable success. He laughs out loud.

Something makes him turn back and look at the battle. A small Adamant force has pushed itself up from the South fighting fiercely, eliminating the border resistance on that side. The attack on the base itself has all but ceased as the fighting around the edge intensifies.

Adder scours the battlefield, trying to find someone of high rank, but he can't make anyone out. Running down along the west side of the battlefield, he can see what has become a small force of Adamant troops, pressing their agressive advantage on Ground Thunder, but weakened to three people.

Turning his scrutiny upon the troops from Ground Thunder, Adder can make out about 5 on this side, but the perimeter defense seems unorganized as this point and the defenders near the thresholds keep switching back and forth.

Picking out the closest target, Adder manages to hit an opponent with an XP 110 who was trying to circle around the Adamant force. Instantly reacting to his presence, the troops from Ground Thunder adjust their tactics to take him into account.

Suddenly, another event acquires attention. One of the base's defenders drops off a platform wielding a fully pressurized CPS 3000. Making a quick spin move to get the remaining Ground Thunder troops still remaining in the base's immediate vacinity, he cuts the Ground Thunder troops into a crescent. Taking advantage of his indecision, Adder manages to shoot an opponent with a 2500 in the side before he can act.

The distraction assimilated into the coruse of the battle, Ground Thunder turns to all sides and begins making random suicidal attacks, felling several Adamant troops.

Their defensive structure collapsing, the remaining handful of Ground Thunder troops draw close together and begin trying to climb up into the base, which appears at this point to be unoccupied. Adder runs up to the base's perimeter and begins raking fire across enemy foes, managing to defeat four of them with 150s quickly. Glancing around himself, he can spot only four other friendly troops left.

Adder calls to the rest of the friendly troops. "Guys, c'mere!"

His teammates glance quickly in his direction, then promptly ignore him and resume their agressive attack.

Adder growls, then runs up to one of the nearby ladders and manages to shoot down a foe clumsily trying to climb with a 3000. To his dismay, even as another foe is shot down, the remaining three reach the base. Adder attempts another organization, but what he can now see to be three Privates he doesn't recognize and a Lieutenant who comprise the remaining friendly forces seem more interested in ending the battle than organization.

Rushing quickly beneath the base before combat can break out all around him, Adder arrives at the far end of the base and leaps into a tree, attempting to shimmey up the trunk onto the platform. For once, he finds himself glad the 2500 has a shoulder strap. Fierce volleys erupts between the remaining troops, who seem to be more or less ignoring him.

A clumsy enemy with a 275 is hit and angrily drops his weapon out of the fortress. Blessing the luck he's ben graciously bestowed today, Adder makes better time than usual up the tree and manages to grab hold of the platform with his hands.

Lucky again, he manages to hoist himself up by his hands onto the platform. Glad for his reflexes, he manages to catch his gun before it smashes against the platform. The only visible enemy is not looking at him.

Successfully sneaking up, Adder fires off a blast ending in fine mist. His target turns and sees his eilemma, but too late. A cold jet of water penetrates his clothing.

Although Adder keeps silent, the remaining foe runs out of Alpha-1's armory, carrying a CPS 1000. His comrade, just shot down, nods briefly in Adder's direciton. Looking quickly over at Adder, the remaining foe instantly raises his gun to his shoulder to fire.

Fortunately, he is shot in the back by one of the Adamant troops still on the ground.

Two Privates and the Lieutenant ascend the ladders and look around. "Area is clear, sir," Adder reports, standing at attention.

The Lieutenant nods at him. "As you were!" Adder moves to the at-ease position as the Lieutenant smiles. "Give these two a hand at collecting the guns that the fallen have left lying around. Get them back into the armory."

Adder thanks him, and then sets upon his new task.