It was with mixed feeling of hope and guilt that Harald sent the two girls off on their mission. Of the part of his squad still with him, they had adapted best to actual combat; he had to take it as an article of faith that they would meet them at the rendezvous point. After they had filed out and down the street, the Sergeant waited at the shop entrance for a minute to put some distance between the two groups, before waving his remaining two soldiers out. They were clearly nervous and unarmed too; the squad would have to stop at the armoury before risking a move northward. As they slunk down the road, Harald opened up communications with Krauss and Varrot once more. **'You guys still there? Another change of plans, we're running out of time. Head northward ASAP and begin scouting for a motorpool. The Imperials have probably left a few trucks or APCs out there and we need transport. Procure if possible and camp out somewhere in the bocage, otherwise meet us at the grain silo. We'll be there in thirty, Harald out.'** Static interference obscured any response they may have given, so Valk knew if they had received the message or if they were even still... Thrusting the thought from his mind, Harald set himself on the task at hand; arming his squad and getting the hell out of Rinneheim. The trip across town hadn't been easy on the Captain. Two minor gunshot wounds, a bayonet to the thigh and carrying Bons for over an hour had taken a toll on him. At nearly sixty, he decided, Tarquin was getting a bit old for this shit. **'Corporal are we... nearly there? This is near the edge of the city bu...'** His voice trailed off as the two militiamen froze and took to cover; whatever they had spotted was enough to spook them. A tank perhaps? Finding himself with an unpleasant feeling of uselessness, the Captain relieved Bons of his sidearm and bayonet. If push came to shove, Meulemann could take a few Imperial soldiers with him. The Corporal had gone prone, sighting down his rifle with the Private feeding him information. An enemy sniper by the sounds of it, covering the route across the road yet out of line of sight... a problem then. The four of them waited for several long minutes, with Krauss unwilling to let the sniper go and unsure of their own safety if they dared cross over. In the end, Meulemann took it upon himself to deal with the threat. Propping the still unconscious Bons up against a wall, he quietly took his leave of the two militiamen, who were still engrossed in watching the sniper's movements. A five minute detour later and the old man was on the other side of the street, working his way slowly toward the offending building. Suddenly a gunshot rung out above. _Damnation, a second one..._ Lucky that he had taken this chance; had they tried to cross the street without taking out both snipers they would have been cut to ribbons. Nevertheless this was a prime opportunity to show the young ones how to punish the foe. It didn't take long to infiltrate the building as he picked the lock with his appropriated bayonet. The fools hadn't even posted a lookout on the ground floor; if this had been _his_ unit, then heads would have rolled. He crept upstairs, taking his time to locate the sniper by the sound of his breathing and the odour of dry sweat. Wishing he could sigh, Meulemann drew himself up as he took long, slow steps toward his prey; the poor boy was clearly a rank amateur, probably a conscript. His situational awareness was lax, his self-discipline ragged... Tarquin almost pitied the lad as he pulled him into a choke hold and opened his throat with the bayonet. Once the body had stopped convulsing he took the time to loot it clean before setting up his newly acquired rifle on the other windowsill, sighting directly on the other sniper's unknowing head. He pulled the trigger.

The plan was simple enough, find and eliminate the guy in charge. Too bad that they had hit a snag. A sniper, and probably not the only one, but they needed to complete their task. She looked to Lilly, then back out at the street they'd need to cross soon. The sniper had missed the girl, but the round still flew close enough to her that it made her fall flat on her ass. So the assumption could be made that he or she was a rookie. Letting out a small sigh, she turned her attention back to Lilly. "We need to dash across. Don't stop moving" Once she said that, she stared at Lilly for a few more seconds, then got into position to move. "That's the only one we know of. There could be more. Keep moving until we're on the other side." She reminded her. After a minute or two, Brenna put her hand up, all fingers splayed, then one by one, a finger curled in. She was counting down using her hand. Once her hand was clenched, she threw it forward then began running across. Once she was in the middle of the street, a round landed near her feet, and another one nicked the back of her neck. _Lucky bastard._ But she finally made it across. She turned around to see if her partner had made it across as well.

*Crack* *Crack* The retorts of the rifles sounded sharply, as Lilly covered her head and scrambled across the street after her infinity more collected comrade. *Crack* *Ping* A sharp metallic ring sounded just as Lilly was about to reach the safety of the alley, and she staggered sideways as she felt SOMETHING hit her. What was that?! Was she hit? She she was dripping blood. Was she dying?! AAAHHH!! Brenna had stopped just at the entrance, and nearly got knocked over by a thoroughly terrified Lilly, who did not stop running upon reaching the alley. She kept on sprinting right past Brenna, down the alley, and crashed through the unlocked door of the house at the end of it. "KYAAAAAAAAA!!!!" Upon entering, she tripped and fell over a small chair that had apparently been propped up in a feeble attempt to deny entrance. Her scream and crash startled her just as much as it did the imperial sniper who had apparently been set up to shoot out of a window at the top of the stairs. Lilly just barely had the presence of mind to aim, before pulling the trigger as the man swung his rifle towards her. *CrackCrackCrack* When Brenna found her way into the house, she found Lilly in hysterics, a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs, and the corpse of a dead sniper with a bullet through his head (the rest landed in the wall) at the top of the stairs. "Where is it?! WhereIsItWhereIsItWhereIsItWhereIsItWhereIsItWhereIsItWhereIsItWhereIsItWhereIsIt?!" Lilly was scrambling over her arm, shoulder and side, trying to find the wound where the sniper had shot her. Her searches became increasingly frantic, until she knocked something out of her shoulder plate - a bullet had been lodged in the thickest part of the metal, leaving a nice dent, a large bruise, and Lilly completely free of bullet holes. The blood covering her had been from the still damp munitions pouch looted from the dead Gallian soldier. "OH THANK THE VALKYRUR!!" *Thud* With that, Lilly fell to her knees and slumped against the wall, overwhelmed by a combination of fright, exhaustion, and the come down from the sheer amount of adrenalin she had been functioning on. Fortunately there didn't seem to be any more soldiers on the second floor, and upon looking out the window, one would be able to see that the staging area for the imperials and their officers was actually just a couple blocks down the road in an (previously) empty lot. Once Lilly got ahold of herself, it seemed like their mission objective would only be a stones throw away.

Paul's ears were ringing, The last thing he could remember was the squad traveling down a street when his squad was hit by an ambush. The ones that weren't killed out right were forced into a small shop for cover, then the explosion happened and the world went blank. As Paul slowly regained his hearing he pulled himself to his feet, his T-MAG in hand. "Sir Wha..." Paul stopped himself as he saw his sergeant covered in blood with a fist sized hole in his stomach. The pinging of rounds on the ruins of what used to be a window display suddenly snaps him back to reality. Immediately he drops to cover as a quick burst of automatic fire teared into the space where his head used to be. _"Damn it! I need to do something..."_ Paul thought to himself as he heard the sound of several boots outside the display. _Screw it!_ he thought as he raised his weapon just over the lip of the display and lets off a burst. The sounds of several screams and several people running, yelling about picking up the grenade and throwing it. The explosion shacked the walls as Paul breathed a sigh of relief as he was happy to have survived. As the realization that he was alive hit, so to did the grim understanding that there was a odd quietness to the fire fight. Very few shot were coming from the building his squad had been in. With each shot from across the street a scream or cry from a familiar voice rang out. Slowly had squad had been killed off, many good men and women of gallia had fought and died todaay. In a fit of rage he stood up and took aim at one the Imperials. The Imperial was dragging a wounded man from the explosion when the rounds tore into both of them. Paul didn't stop firing until a round found its target in his shoulder and knocked him on his back As Paul laid on the floor of the ruin shop, his mind kept pulling back to the last time his family was together. Alexander had received leave to see the family. Dressed in his pressed officers uniform he arrived home with a smile on his face and hugged his younger siblings. After playing with his sisters going fishing with Paul, and seeing their newly born baby brother Peter the entire family sat at home for a family dinner. After telling stories of his time in basic training and his promotion to a generals staff, it was one of the happiest moments in Paul's life. After the screams of the dying, Paul could only think of how the parents of the soldiers who died would react. They all had memories like his, and family or some one that cared for them. looking at his shoulder Paul realizes it had just bounced off one of his plates, with a grunt he stands as the sound of running footsteps reaches the display window. As the Imperial tried to climb through the window Paul fired the last few rounds in his magazine. two shots rang out and hit the Imperial square in the chest.

Aaron vomited. He was one of the last survivors of Squad 9. Everybody else was either wounded badly, or dead. Aaron vomited because the smell of death was so thick where he lay. He had also taken quite a bit of damage to his armor. He stared at the Shocktrooper who had been killed next to him. Aaron decided to trade armor with him. He took off all of the armor, and traded it with the fallen soldier. The armor wasn't badly damaged because the soldier had been shot in the head. Aaron stood up. He heard some shots ring out, so he climbed over the ruined wall, and dropped prone. "This is the last time I volunteer to sweep for mines!" He said under his breath He remembered they lost their tank because he hadn't bothered to look for anti-tank mines. Then the freaking ambush had to happen. He just wanted to go back to the Federation, back to his home, except he couldn't because his family was murdered, and he would be too if he returned. That was when he heard gunfire again. Aaron crawled into a ruined building. "Hello? Is anyone still alive?" Aaron shouted. He knew he wouldn't get a reply. Most people were dead or dying. "Can anyone hear me?" Aaron laughed. He might get a few replies from Imperials, and he would be either killed or taken as Prisoner of War, but no Gallians were alive enough to respond.