Cecilia winced as she saw Sarah go down just meters away. The Barghest's rounds had caught her as the pair crossed the street, doing severe damage to the FRAME's structural and systemic integrity. Cecilia extended her machine's hand to the crippled Handou, pulling it back into cover with her. A moment later, and Sarah popped the hatch. "I wish to make my way to the Cradle building, I have my PDW and some thermal grenades, either way I'm out this fight!"

"That's a negative!" Cecilia shot back. "It's too dangerous to charge in there alone! We don't know what their strength is, and according to Richard, they're the real-deal; spec-op types. Get to cover and sit tight until this is over."

As she finished, Bernard's voice crackled in her headset, adding to her troubles. "Cecilia, I'm in a Barghest. I was just looking at it and suddenly I got this irresistible urge to get inside."

"You're what?! ... I won't ask," Cecilia groaned. She knew better than to expect anything else but the unexpected by now. "Make sure you adjust your IFF signal; wouldn't want to shoot you in the back. Now that you're playing dress-up, see if you can raise some hell."

Cecilia pieced the engagement together on her C3 monitor. Bern had freed up some breathing room for Ryder, who was in terrible shape. Sarah's FRAME was down. At least three of the five Barghests were still operational, and who knew how many more were lurking behind the next corner? Whoever they were up against weren't slouches. Not to mention Richard was still somewhere inside the HQ. A pair of unidentified FRAMEs had entered the fray; not Barghests, thankfully, but seemingly fighting on the Panthers' behalf. If only they were using the same radio frequency. Cecilia had more immediate concerns though, as the Barghest across the street sent another salvo of rounds her way.

-----

"Dammit, Shāyú-Yī is down! Rammed his gun right through his fucking FRAME. Èr, you're acting team lead."

"They got Jīn!? Shit... copy, Sān. We need to regroup. We can't wait for Beta Team." Shāyú's new CO backpedaled north, putting some distance in-between himself and the panthers, who were encroaching on the facility.

"What's the word inside? Please tell me you've found it."

"Copy, Shāyú-Èr, we're retrieving the last of the data now. Not enough time to haul the components, but we can reverse-engineer the HFI with the blueprints. ... Let's go, people! Fill those bags! Every harddrive, disk, PADD you can find! We're leaving in three!" ... Thanks for keeping them off our backs. Sorry about the losses."

"They won't have died in vain if your data is as valuable as they say. Let's wrap this up; you know the drill?"

"We'll handle it. Out."

As the operatives threw the last bits of data they could scour into jumbo-sized trash bags, they removed their gear and BDUs, replacing their garb with Cradle employee coveralls and lab coats. Hauling their goods, they exited the R&D wing as swiftly as they'd arrived, hopping out the rear entrance and piling into a pair of nondescript construction vans. The vehicles took off, under the cover of night.

"Shāyú-Èr to all units, mission is a success. Radio silence from here on out. See you topside. Out."

The remaining pilots switched on their thermo-optic camo suites, cloaking their Barghests and vanishing into the urban jungle. An uneasy calm settled over the battlefield, with the Panthers still on alert.

-----

"Can anyone hear me? Dr. Sammick? Reed? Anyone?!" Amelia wailed into her PADD, trying to get a grasp of the situation deeper in the facility. Her hails were met with static-lined silence.

"Fuck! All our research... It'll take decades to replace these losses!" She screamed, slamming a fist into the wall she leaned on for support. Bentz listened to her vent, none too enthusiastic about the turn of events either.

"Panthers? Do you copy?"

Upon hearing Richard's voice, Cecilia answered, "Richard?! Are you hurt?"

"Not a scratch. The intruders only went after the R&D wing. But we've heard nothing from that section of the building. I'm afraid we've lost this one. More importantly, are Ryder and Sarah alright?"

"Shit! Sarah made it out okay. Ryder's FRAME took a beating, but her vitals are good. All enemy contacts have vanished from sight. Nothing on the sensors, no visuals at all. It's like they just disappeared!"

"Be careful. Get everyone to regroup at Cradle. The Sodroyan Military just entered the district. We'll figure out where to go from here."

"Copy, Bentz. Glad you're alright."

-----

As the Barghests slinked into the darkness, a beeping tone emitted from the one disabled FRAME and Bernard's captured ride. A strange, red light flared on the console, which, Bernard could tell, was never the sign of anything good.

DEET. DEET. DEET. DEET. DEET. DEET. DEETDEETDEETDEETDEETDEETDEETDEET DEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Sarah had gratefully taken Cecilias' handou helping "hand". Shit Mr. Bubbles was trashed. Trashed beyond redemption actually and she knew it. Some powerful cognitive dissonance on her part however was what allowed her not to bust an ovary. She would have quite happily completely ignored her orders and ran to back up Richard in Cradle, however she felt quite woozy and drained of energy. Which was strange for her, very strange. Somewhat out of character for Sarah, Cecilias' orders hadn't been responded to with a sarcastic, angry or crude gesture or speech. But a simple disquieting,"Yes mam" before she stumbled backwards. Her CO having already moved back to continue giving orders and coverfire. Sarah fell back to the wall and slid down slowly. Sarah's tactical awareness was somewhat off she would admit, well, it was always near absent, though this, having completely missed the fact that there was actually quite a large piece of Mr. B deep into her side, real deep. Had to take the Darwin award hands down. She shivered some before her hand felt warm as she brought it to her side. Looking down to see a piece of the console had indeed lodged itself into her. "Ah..." She said softly to herself as she tried to centre her thoughts. What was the tactical situation right now? In typical Osbanian style of thought it brought her to the conclusion to say nothing. The objective had not been reached. Sarah thought to herself then commed Ms. Abdeldaker."Miss Marlene, I think...that Miss Cecilia could use some Sniper cover.. Can you reposition yourself? I really wouldn't mind it either right now. Kind of...feeling naked"

The adrenaline of fighting had started to wane. My god the pain was amazing. Probably more so than anything she had felt before, even the experiments that destroyed her eyes and ears. She didn't know how long had passed between then and suddenly hearing the the deafening silence following the battles end."Panthers do you copy!, For Osbania! For The Chairman! FOR THE MOTHERLAND!", her plants buzzed in her ears and she closed her eyes. Hearing Cecilia respond she knew a somewhat tentative all clear was sounded. She looked down and saw that their was a pretty impressive pool gathering around her. "Sorr..y Miss, Richard..I don't think...that was the case...", she gave a soft wince between gasps for air. Every breath was like being stabbed. "I..think...an I tol..d you..so Is in or..d...", sarah let out a cry. For all it seemed Sarah was actually quite the soft person. It didn't really take much to overwhelm her body, Like a crystal it would crack in the perfect circumstances.

And just like that the enemy began vanishing, withdrawing. Kat, flooded with adrenalin and excitement was aching to just chase them down and finish what she begun. After all there was now three of them against the two.

"Relax, calm down, think."

She told herself with a deep breath as she relaxed into her seat letting the tension ease from her muscles while her fingers run a heat scan.
'It's not worth the cost'
It was over and she got out pretty much unscathed.
That makes it a good day!

Having worked with and for various pilots before she knew there was only one thing worse then attaining expensive damages to a FRAME, and that was losing it to your enemy.

"... Oh shit!..." Snow leopard pounced into motion as she punched down the accelerator.

In the exact moment of that thought she noticed one heat signature stand out above the rest as it continues to rise. Without thought or hesitation she instantly charged at it. Every sensory input was targeted towards that friendly Barghest, "Open the cockpit, get ready to jump!" Her frantic yell delivered at that machine on a loop through all multiple frequencies and audio methods.

Kat could be wrong, she was running on gut instincts with a few hints of interpreted data. If she was wrong, well she would look like a fool and they would laugh at her application. But if she was right...
She didn't want to think about it, if she was right it meant she might be getting a new paint job, a fresh red coat of Panther innards...
Had to move fast.

Seconds away from rendezvousing with who ever was in that Barghest, Kat hits a straight road, wedges the accelerator up with her knee as she balanced herself on the control board and struggled with the physical manual override for the cockpit window.
"Open up you bastard," She curses at it as she hastily approached her target.

With a groan and one last exertion of strength the cockpit hisses as fresh air floods in on a gush of thundering winds, stealing the breath from her lungs and billowing her hair around her face.

"Fuck!"

Through squinted eyes Kat could make out the Barghest, she thinks she saw someone in an open cockpit. She was too close and it was growing too fast. Her leg dropped off the accelerator, she wasn't in proper position to take back control.
She tried to slide back down into her seat, the buffeting winds made it hard to move or see, the flashing lights and warning alarms only a distraction.

Almost driving blind, she locks her Zaruga into a skid that she guesses is still on a crash course with the Barghest. As he jumps, if he jumps, she is going to have to punch the empty mech to the side then unlock the brakes and keep moving.

"Don't think about what could go wrong, don't think about it."

Kat tries to tell herself, but all she can hear is the heavy beating of her heart over the chaos of her cockpit, and all she can see is the image in her head of a deadly scrambled mess of damaged FRAME's pinning herself and some innocent young pilot down, just waiting to explode.

"C'mon, the rest is up to you." She whispers to the stranger.

And just like that, the fight was over, as the opposition made a hasty and surprising retreat. At first it felt like victory, until she remembered this was only a raid, they were the blocking-force, and the Panthers failed to break-through.

Whatever they came for, they at least managed to get their primary objective. This also meant there was a tiny window upon which to take-back what they stole. Scaling a parking-ramp, she overlooked any vehicles still fleeing the destruction. Everyone would need to be questioned, and panicky people were running in all directions when they should be seeking-aid or helping identify the enemy.

Her perch wasn't the best vantage-point, but it covered all traffic headed towards the port-side.

Then, her radio crackled:

"Miss Marlene, I think...that Miss Cecilia could use some Sniper cover.. Can you reposition yourself? I really wouldn't mind it either right now. Kind of...feeling naked"

"Panthers do you copy!, For Osbania! For The Chairman! FOR THE MOTHERLAND!", her plants buzzed in her ears and she closed her eyes. Hearing Cecilia respond she knew a somewhat tentative all clear was sounded. She looked down and saw that their was a pretty impressive pool gathering around her. "Sorr..y Miss, Richard..I don't think...that was the case...", she gave a soft wince between gasps for air. Every breath was like being stabbed. "I..think...an I tol..d you..so Is in or..d...", sarah let out a cry. For all it seemed Sarah was actually quite the soft person. It didn't really take much to overwhelm her body, Like a crystal it would crack in the perfect circumstances.

It was Sarah, nice to know she was actually paying attention back at the bar to catch her name, and in the hangar to see her prepping YASSIR.

"Already on overwatch. Looks like they're trying to leave with whatever they took amidst the confusion of our little spat. Think we have the manpower to create a few checkpoints?" She keyed-in as she popped a mortar-launched drone and watched the traffic, including a pair of white-vans traveling in-convoy through the construction-yard. The vehicles weren't out of place, the fact they were driving right through a warzone to get to there was.

"Sorr..y Miss, Richard..I don't think...that was the case..."

Cecilia's radio crackled as Sarah sputtered through her mic. All the enthusiasm she had just prior was absent from her voice, and her words were accompanied by a gurgling that raised the hairs on Cecilia's neck.

"Sarah? Sarah!!"

Dammit, why didn't she say something? And she was dead-set to go charging in by herself in this state...

Cecilia sped to where she'd left Sarah's machine and popped her hatch. She fumbled through her cockpit for the emergency kit, prying it from its hinge, and slid down the exit cable. She caught a glimpse of the wounded Panther, propped against the wall across from her FRAME. A gasp escaped Cecilia's lips when she saw the ichor pooling around Sarah's body.

"Someone, get down here!" she barked into her headset. "Sarah's in bad shape! Stay with me, Sarah, alright?"

There was a hunk of metal embedded in the girl's side, evidently a piece of her machine that caved in when it had been hit. Cecilia opened up the metal box, scattering some of its contents in her haste, searching for something, anything, to help her subordinate. She grabbed a silver can and shook it before pressing the nozzle to Sarah's wound. As she depressed the cap, white biofoam hissed from the tip. The biofoam was a temporary sealant, meant to stop blood loss until the wound could be properly treated. Removing the metal now would be disastrous.

"Sarah, look at me. You're going to be alright, okay?"

Cecilia's voice was shaky as she tried to hold Sarah's attention. Next, she slid a needle through her arm - a shot of pain suppressants for good measure. Then, she grabbed a pair of plastic sacks, one red, one yellow. Sarah needed blood and plasma transfusions to replace what she'd lost, and quickly.

"Richard, we need medical here, now. This field kit isn't going to cut it for long."

"I've made the call. Our people are on the way."

True to his word, an emergency-response vehicle from the Samigina arrived on the scene moments after. The staff hurried over to Sarah, releasing a stretcher and more professional equipment from the back of the vehicle. Cecilia stepped aside as they relieved her from playing doctor, all too glad to let them handle the business.

Richard came running from the steps of Cradle, Amelia not far behind. Both looked ragged from today's ordeal.

"Get her to the Samigina's medical bay. Is Ryder hurt? She took some bad hits of her own."

"Not as far as I know," Cecilia replied.

She was interrupted by the sound of a thunderous blast a few streets down, as the timer of the Barghests reached zero. A brief flash of orange was followed by a cascade of smoke that slithered from the detonated FRAMEs.

"What the hell?!"

And then Cecilia remembered Bernard had snatched one.

"BERN? BERN?!"

Sarah felt odd. Peaceful actually. She just lay there, looking at nothing in particular. Her skin was growing colder and colder. The pool of blood looking quite pretty in the moonlight. Sarah was Osbanian, the only thing that mattered to her was the collective, the goal of the collective and the leader of the collective. Her life paled in comparison to it and to distract her CO or anyone else from that objective was tantamount to treason. "I urgh....don't ..think so...", she commed in reply to Marlene as she caught a glimpse of Cecilias frame, the lassie was now coughing quite a large amount of whatever blood she had left. When she saw her she simply gave a weak smile to her commander. Her teeth were now a blood stained white. "It..w.s fun...right?", a tear left her eye as she witnessed the fear in her commanders eyes. The poor girl could barely flinch as the biofoam began expanding within her, whimpering softly. Trying to grip something, anything. This was definitely a new kind of pain. Sarah had been instructed on what it was and how to use it but the Osbanian military had nothing like it. It wasn't deemed important enough. She simply smiled once more, trying to keep her eyes open. Least she could do was follow orders, for once in her life. When Cecilia punctured her vein she would be able to note how cold she was. She was definitely right, if she didn't get the blood now. Then there would be no point wasting it. By the time the medical team got to her she was finding it difficult to keep her eyes open. It was surprising to her too, all that energy and where in gods name had it gone?

Absolutely nowhere. It was all going to keep those eyes open. If she thought that the biofoam was painful, that was nothing in comparison to being lifted onto the stretcher that was a hell even the painkillers couldn't stop. It was a very strange sensation. Like being weightless after being injected with those painkillers. Her head rolling to the side to see Richard standing next to Cecilia and managed to raise her hand a little to wave before things faded to black. Just as the explosion abused her senses. It was too late for her to be able to consciously think about it. She had already been attached to every machine someone needed for life support. So she was simply able to drift off into unconsciousness. It was quite the long operation, caused by the massive internal bleeding, the punctured kidney and intestine. And it had badly bruised her spinal chord. The biofoam though having stopped the immediate threat posed yet another. They couldn't remove the shrapnel as they needed to be able to stop the bloodloss first. Yet the biofoam was stopping the bleeding. It was a bit of a catch twenty-two but they pulled her through the long surgery.

The dreams. They were horrendous, well, they always were. Sarah's dreams were far from that, they were night terrors. Repeats of the invasive procedures she went under and ruthless tests. All the more exaggerated by the fear and adrenaline they brought with them. The scars of her childhood never left her, literally as well as figuratively. That kind of pain would never leave anyone, having your eyes being gouged out while fully concious. Having pain signals blocked meant nothing, in order for them to fully understant what they were doing they needed the feedback. Thusly, they, as well as her father had no problem in allowing her to experience it in vivid detail, those damned implants didn't help either. They stored her memories perfectly. She could remember the colour of the doctors eyes. The feeling of the clamps on her skin. The pain she felt when they first weened her from the medication, the blinding light of calibration. The burning of the leakage, which caused the fractal burning pattern circling her eyes. All of these supposed memories were her dreams. Locked in by the fear of having to return to her home country. There is little they wouldn't do to such a traitor.

“Ugghh...”, she blinked waking up in a bit of a haze. In a white room, with white sheets, everything was white. It was blinding, she looked to the side and then down. Feeling down her side to the impressive bandage wrapped around her waist. God her head was killing her. She looked up to see she still had a drip in her arm, what was it... She wanted to say something but was so out of it she didn't know if there was anyone to hear her. “KILL THE FUCKERS!”, Ah, back to normal then. She instantly sprung from the bed and... collapsed in a heap in a whole bunch of pain. If no one had heard her before then it was assured now. Every expletive in the young girls mind was being poured out of her mouth. “BASTARDS!”, she almost screamed as she realized just how fragile she was. What about Mr. Bubbles. He had to be alright, he was only scratched, it wasn't like he was obliterated. She had to get back in the fight, she had heard an explosion after the all clear was sounded. If she could just get into her FRAME she wouldn't have to care about anything else now would she. Sarah had of course, neglected to realise that almost a month had passed. She had been in an induced coma to allow her body to heal to a somewhat reasonable degree. It wasn't like you could just bounce back from something like that and be completely fine.

(I really wanted to wait for Aristro to call Marlene off, but I suppose the regular MPs would be just as super-effective)

---

Marlene was stopped from maintaining her blocking-post between the headquarters and the 'ports by a very loud, very angry buzzing sound; indicating her mech was being very brightly "painted" on several radar-scopes, followed by a stern warning from the port-authority to cease and desist, the local authorites would take-over from there...

Shrugging in defeat, knowing their foe was likely to be long-gone, hopped off from the parking-ramp and went to assist in recovering Sarah's battered frame.

Later:

Marlene woke-up from her spot in the halls just outside the infirmary to a shrill cry of “KILL THE FUCKERS!”, a loud clattering, and “BASTARDS!”; she bolted into the room, only to see Sarah collapsed on the floor beside her hospital-bed; it did not take a genious to figure out what happened.

"Take it easy. You took a large gash to your tender bits." She said as she calmly walked-over and offered to help the frail little bundle of mayhem to her feet. "Do you remember what day it is?" She asked, a bit more concern showing.

Revenants humming would have been a relaxing sound was Edward not speeding out as fast as he could, having already been far too late for the skirmish that was unfolded on the cradle grounds. Presently cursing having had chosen to take off from samigna rather than stay on standby in case of just a situation like this.

The battlefield fell silent only for a moment, gunfire ceased, only left with the silence in the moment. But why was the only question on his mind and as if to directly answer his unheard question Richard's voice came through "Panthers? Do you copy?" Edward shifted his full attention to Richard.
"The intruders only went after the R&D wing. But we've heard nothing from that section of the building. I'm afraid we've lost this one." at this, Edward could not contain himself and slammed his fist to the side of the cockpit frustrated that he had not made it in time.

"Be careful. Get everyone to regroup at Cradle. The Sodroyan Military just entered the district. We'll figure out where to go from here." As prompted he took the fastest route to the Cradle only accompanied by the humming of his FRAME.

That was until Sarah's voice came through, as if penetrating the whole atmosphere it struck him somewhere deep.
"Sorr..y Miss, Richard..I don't think...that was the case...". Even the humming of his machine fell silent in his ears as he heard a fellow panther hurt, shot down, in pain. He could only feel that if only he had made it in time this could all have been averted. He gave no sound for his agony, no voice calling out as he made his way where sarah was. He only made it there to see her being loaded in by the medical crew.

"If only..." was all he could say.

Just under a month later:

Edward was taking it back in his FRAME having made it comfortable enough that he spent better part of his time there may it be due to him adding his personal touch where it counts or a remain of guilt he took over from not being able to help Sarah. Aside from that he was waiting to get that new audio playback device so he could listen to some tunes while out and about or just for kicking back and relaxing.

He was looking into finding some sort of portable transport of sorts to cut emergency response time when it matters would another call to arms come when he was out and about on the town again but he hadn't found a suitable candidate.

Having grown bored of sitting he was starting to head the section where his injured comrade was located.
"Can't hurt to poke there for a visit, at least as much as it did her..." He muttered taking his time walking.