Richard generally took pride in the amount of experience he had on the ground but this time he was almost ashamed. Maybe if I had more experience I could have done more. I'd known what to do to help Marcus save his friend. He thought despite knowing deep down that there's nothing he could have done. These thoughts of doubt and regret wouldn't leave him. It's like the voice in his head was analyzing everything and seeing how it could twist it to make it his fault.

"Most of a magazine. But if I have to lay down any amount of suppression fire I'll be out in no time." He told Marcus plainly. He hopped they would be able to pick up more ammo or guns, but that meant coming in contact with more people... Or corpses.

Rin, who was sitting on a log for a brief rest, looked upto Tess. "Once Marcus finishes his rounds I'm sure we will. And I doubt he'll waist much time." She told her. As she looked the girl up and down she evaluated her condition as in conspicuously as possible. She wanted to help her but she didn't know how.

"well we won't be going with suppressive fire.". Sighed Marcus, they just didn't have the amo for that. "Only shot if youve got a clear target, controlled bursts at most. You much if a sharp shooter?"

"You can stop looking at me like that you know.". Tess said quietly after a bit, having felt Rin's eyes in her. "Like I'm about to break. Im not, you know."

Richard nodded in agreement,though he knew if they were ambushed it could be a different story. "Not as good as I should be. I can be fast or accurate, but when I try to do both its not as reliable. Something I've been working on." he explained. His pilot training had been drilling speed and accuracy into his mind but that was in a Viper.

Rin frowned when she realized how transparent she had been. "Sorry, I'm just worried about you... Well, about everyone actually." she admitted. "But your right, you've proved your strength." she commended Tess. She hopped her lighter touch method might prove to be more productive than barking at her about how she needed to man up.

"be accurate then.". Marcus said decisively, accurate would be worth more then a jumpy finger. "I'm going to need you to guard our right flank as we keep moving, can you do that?"

Tess shook her head, taking a seat beside Rin and folding her hands in her lap. "No, I haven't.". She sighed. "I just, I don't want you all treating me with kid gloves. Cause then I'll never get that chance. I don't want to be a burden, and it for a moment felt like you all already saw me as one"

"Yes sir." Richard said clearly and straightened his stance a little. "who will be taking lead, if you don't mind me asking?" He inquired out of curiosity. It was good to know who was where, how their strengths and weaknesses would play into the group dynamic.

Rin nodded, she could understand how Tess felt. She had felt that way on missions before. "Strength doesn't always means you appear to be a brick wall." she remarked, her eyes glancing to Marcus and back. "Just keep in mind, you've already saved a lot of lives, mine included. I think your very capable, but know it's okay to be human. And unfortunately being human means being imperfect." she rambled. I'm being damn near motherly, it's almost like wheniI'm comforting Charlie . She thought to herself. "But anyways, we need to get ready to move out." she commented.

Marcus paused for a momrnt there, but only a moment. "For now, i want Rin to.". He decided, nodding in agreement with himself. "I'm going to scout ahead, we can't afford to be running blind anymore."

"Human. Soooo much fun isn't it?". Laughed Tess bitterly, wiping her face with a corner of her shirt. She straightened up when Rin said it was time to go, figuring she was right. "Ok, ok you're right. We probably should start looking for cover for the night. Right?"

"Be careful." Richard said simply then started his way to his new position. "Your taking lead." He said to Rin as he walked by. The whole time he was walking past he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, to avoid making eye contact with Tess.

Rin nodded and stood then turned her attention to the civilians. "We're moving out. Same as before, everyone stay close together and as calm as possible." She commanded loud enough for them to hear her. Moving her way up the stream she looked to Marcus. He better not die... I won't be able to live if he does. She thought repeatedly. "I take it your scouting ahead." She mentioned to him.

"Yeah, I won't be going to far." Marcus said, looking around as people started to move and chatter among themselves. "Just maybe a mile or two. We can't keep running blind into these woods. We need a sense of direction." She would be safe if she stayed with the group, so he hoped she wouldn't argue with him on this. "Then I'll come right back."

Tess got to her feet when everyone else did, leaving Marcus and Rin to themselves and heading in the opposite direction of Richard. That was something she couldn't deal with right now. Her focus needed to be on getting out of this alive with as many other people as possible. Emotional gooey messy stuff could wait till later, as could apologies if there needed to be any.

It was hours later that they finally broke for camp, the dark making it to dangerous to keep going at this march and the cold making it trickier for those dressed for the beach. Their camp was small and it's occupants huddled closely together for warmth, a fire being to risky at this time. They were gathered in the shadows of a rock outcropping, The four having agreed it was far more favaroable to sleep with something solid at their backs in place of just more forest.

So here they were, crowded in like penguins against exhausted and trembling civis. Tess was uncomfortable being so close to so many strangers, to so many people who kept looking at her and the others hopefully like they were supposed to 'pow' just turn into super heroes. It was just so weird, weird enough that she took comfort in sitting near to Richard. She hadn't spoken with him since their encounter by the stream, doing her best to convey her apologies to him through actions and by staying close to him as best she could while they continued through the trees. That would have to do for now. Until she figured out the whole word things.

Marcus sat apart from the others, having found a convenient tree near the rocks to put his back against while he crouched with a new rifle across his knees. He had come across a few unfortunate UKD sweepers when he scouted ahead for the others, and had come back with three tac vests, another gun beside the one he had now, and a scope but now sniper. Better then nothing though.

Quietly he was busying himself with cleaning and examining it, looking for any sign of wear and tear or damage. It was better then dwelling. Dwelling had always been his downfall in the field, and had often been able to keep from doing so by relying on his Squadmates. Cas would drag him into stupid conversations, Chad would chime in just enough to get Cas worked up enough for a fight, then Kyle would take Cas's place while the he and Chad would fight for real. It was a weird system. But it worked for all of them, looked to all of their needs for the damaged minds. But they weren't here now, and Marcus needed to be alert while the other's rested. So he pushed all thoughts of his Squad aside, struggling also to keep from seeing that empty door way again he had hoped so fervently to see Cas come racing through, and just cleaned his gun.

Richard had overseen the distribution of what little food they had before everyone settled in for the night. He tried to ease his mind by telling himself to pretend he was camping, but being in the dark and cold surrounded by strangers with the chance you may die at any moment somehow didn't feel like camping. The solid stone at his back did however ease his tension slightly. These thoughts were minor and short lived though.

Despite knowing there was much more important things he could be dwelling on he still found his thoughts centered around Tess. He had noticed her sticking close, especially now that they had stopped for the night. What did it mean though? Was it because she wanted to be near him and wasn't so mad anymore? Or is it that he's simply warm and familiar? He didn't know. One thing he knew for certain was that she must be freezing in that outfit. Sure it was nice for the beach but a night in the woods? Not so much. Slowly he scooted a little closer to her.

After attending to the needs of the civilians and taking a brief rest Rin made her way towards Marcus. Her eyes had adjusted to the low light which made it easier for her to carefully make her way to him. Once she got there she sat down by him. "Everyone is settled in for the night." She mentioned quietly. She wished they could lay back and hold each other, but unfortunately they couldn't. The comfort of his embrace was something she found herself craving.

Indeed Tess was freezing, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her chin atop them as she tried to keep the chill from her bones. Wasn't doing much good though, and the constant shivering and muted complaining around them wasn't helping her in the slightest. Catching movement though out of the corner of her eye she noted Richard shifting beside her. Seeming to shift closer to her actually. Was it that obvious she was cold? That was embarrassing,
Keeping this thought to herself though, she nudged a bit closer to Richard in return until her shoulder bumped his. Once there the pilot stilled, staring blankly over her knees out at the encroaching blackness of the night.

Marcus blinked up at Rin when she approached, hands pausing in their nimble examination as if tensing. Gradually they returned to the task and he watched her take a seat beside him.
"Good." He exhaled softly, tucking his feet further beneath himself once finished with the gun. "Thats something then." Carefully he set the gun aside, resting the butt of it in the pine needles around the base of the tree and the barrel against the trunk.

Richard was relieved to feel her move towards him. It meant that she didn't completely hate him. With her shoulder against his he could feel her shivering,and he couldn't sit by and let her be so miserable. Cautiously he put his arm around her shoulders. "I've got enough body heat to share." he mumbled. Hopefully she wouldn't freak out and shoot him or anything.

Rin let out a long breath and leaned her head against his shoulder, her hands resting on the rifle laid across her lap. "You aren't allowed to die, okay?" She said plainly, her eyes looking up at him. "I won't be able to go on if you - just don't die." She continued then sighed. She felt bad about what had happened to Cas, it really was terrible, but the thought of it happening to Marcus was more than she could handle. He was her world, and without him she'd be nothing.

Tess breathed out heavily, taking this at a sort of acceptance of her wordless apology. Or maybe just him being decent, and not getting her wordless apology. It was wordless after all. Not like she had made her meaning clear or anything.
"Thanks." She said quietly, still keeping her knees tight to her chest and adjusting herself a bit so the arm around her shoulders rested more easily there. Didn't want to strain him.

"Wait, wait what?" Genuinely surprised by the request Marcus looked down at her with disbelief. "Rin, we aren't going to die out here. You don't need to worry about that," Shifting he slipped his arm around her waist, pressing a chaste kiss against her temple before looking back down at her. It was odd, not that it was something he had never heard before out here. Kyle would often order them to not die, shout at them in a middle of a fight or drag their battered bodies to their feet and hiss it into their faces. But to have it laid out in such a clear manner by Rin's tone and look, that she didn't think she'd be able to continue without him, that pulled Marcus from his field mindset long enough to reassure her. He had no doubt that if something were to happen to him Rin would be able to go on. She had shown him nothing but strength and he knew that could carry her through anything. But that wasn't the right thing to say here he figured, so instead he added "I am not going to die, and neither are you. So don't worry about it,"

Shadows moved silently not far from them, shapeless masses of darker forms moving between sources of cover and treading on light feet. There was no crackle of radios. No click of tack gear. Not even the dull shine of combat suits. Trackers didn't wear those, trackers didn't need them. Steadily though they drew their loose circle tighter around the small band of escapees. Ever growing smaller, weapons raised now. Just waiting for a signal.

A small smile crept across Richard's face. "Your welcome." he said softly. It might not be much but it made him feel better to be able to help her in some way, and to have her actually except it. Plus he felt he was helping to protect her. Without realizing it though he had allowed his guard to drop and his mind and body to be distracted.

She couldn't quite explain it but Rin felt Marcus change into the person he usually is, the loving and gentle man he is to her. Immediately it gave her comfort. "I usually don't worry about you like this when your out on missions. Maybe it's because I'm here with you or because of Cas. Either way I'm just worried about you." she explained softly.

"Well don't." Marcus said simply, pointedly refusing to dwell on any mentioning of Casper. Not dwelling, he wasn't gonna dwell. "That's what Im supposed to do. Just sit there and look all pretty you fancy pilot." He teased, nuzzling her slightly and grinning against her cheek to let her know he didn't mean it. Sure there was always friction between pilots and soldiers, and Marcus did love to tease her about it. But in the end he knew he could never do what she did and respected her for it, still it was fun to tease.

Now. It wasn't verbal, just a simple flicker of light. Like someone had opened and shut a door into a well light room in a fraction of a second. Then there was clattering and a hiss, and Tess's eyes widened in alarm as a smoking canister rolled into view. If anything could jolt her from a comfortable silence against Richard, that could.
"Gas!" She shouted, bolting to her feet and grabbing at Richard to pull him back and away further from the sinister cloud billowing out of the hissing gas grenade. Immediately there was panic from the civilians, Tess's shout of alarm stirring them all and many stumbled wildly into the growing cloud.

Marcus and Rin were far enough away to have time to get up as the fog swirled at their ankles, Marcus snatching up his gun and bringing it up and around in the blink of an eye. Twisting he snapped it around in the direction the gas grenade had come from and tapped the trigger. It was an assault rifle, not his weapon of choice, but it only rattled briefly. Short controlled bursts was all they could afford, and he was rewarded by a shout that was sharply cut off in the direction his bullets had flown.
"Catch, Wasp up!" He barked, snapping back into the right mindset at a moment's notice.

Prisoners requested. Do not take unnecessary risks. That was the order, and the Trackers intended to follow it. One bloodied but not down they sprang into action. Another gas grenade was flung into the ring of scrambling survivors, guns raised and firing with short bursts into the growing smoke aiming for crippling shots or simply to scare everyone into submission.

Richard scrabbled for his gun and got to his feet as quickly as possible. A string of curses rushed through his mind as he went for one of the smoke grenades and kicked it back towards the direction it came. Blood rushing and eyes stinging he raised his gun and fired off a few shots in the best directions he could determine. The civilians were scattering quickly, and that wasn't good. "Stay close! Follow me!" He shouted to them and did his best to herd some together and clear a path out. He could only hope that Tess was managing okay.

Rin sprung to her feet, gun immediately brought up and ready to fire. Without even thinking she turned her back to Marcus, knowing he'd have it covered. She fired a few shots off at figures of the enemy rushing through the trees, being as conservative as possible. Close by she heard one of the younger female civilians scream and as she looked over she saw a darkly uniformed figure dragging her off, but she couldn't get a clean shot. She let off a shot or two of cover then sprinted towards them. Swinging her rifle up she hit the man across the face rendering him unconscious. The girl fumbled to her feet. "Follow Richard!" Rin blurted out and returned her attention to the battle. Inadvertently she had put herself in a bad position. The soldiers had tagged her as dangerous and were starting to fire more aggressively at her. She tried to fire and move her way back closer to the others but out of no where a bullet pierced through her shoulder. She grunted in pain but did her best to react as little as possible, her rushing adrenaline aiding her greatly.

Marcus heard Richard's shout, calling the civis over to himself and leading them away from the fray. He caught a glimpse of Tess moving along with him, her gun holstered but helping injured to their feet and managing to keep pace with the rush of events. Once sure they were all moving and it seemed the stream of fire was having trouble keeping up with them he moved into the trees while hoping Rin would be following after their two friends.

Needing to move fast, he decided it was better to take the fight to the attackers the Banshee way instead of eating through amo and just taking pot shots into the dark. Sure one or two of the soldiers were running into the open, but by the rate of fire he was almost positive there were at least a dozen out here.

Breaking into a sprint he cut into the trees, slinging his gun over his back by the strap and colliding full tilt with the first dark mass he caught sight of. The opponent grunted in surprise, feeling hard and resistant to Marcus's attack but when the other threw his full weight into it the assailant hit a near by tree with shuddering force. Marcus's knife glinted in a brief blast of muzzle fire before disappearing into the soldier he had pinned to the tree. Not waiting for his body to hit the dirt, Marcus caught the front of the guy's helmet with one hand and jerked it off before yanking it down on his own head. There was a HUD, night vision, and a motion detector with friend or foe tags.

"Ready or not here we come," Marcus hummed, honing in on the first friend tag (Since that was no doubt the dead man's squad mate) and moving at the same break neck pace he had before struck out to dispatch him. This he could do, he couldn't herd unarmed and wounded people properly, couldn't lead survivors with words or hope or comfort people when they just had had to watch their homes burn. Couldn't help Casper. But he damn sure could kill the bastards who caused all this.

The dark made it hard to navigate the woods quickly, not to mention the scared and confused herd of civilians in tow. Richard was forced to sacrifice speed for the sake of those he was leading. That was part of taking care of civilians though, you have to be as patient as possible. He kept his gun raised and eyes mostly fixed ahead, only turning to check on the group as needed.

His head snapped back when he heard the squeal of one of the civilians. Before he had time to react to the snatch and grab of the man near the rear of the group he was taken by surprise yet again. He had let his guard down just long enough for one of the soldiers to come up behind him and toss a strap around his neck. Suddenly Richard felt the strap pulled tight as the man pulled him back. He fought his inclination to panic and focused on how to break free. Swiftly he let the butt of his rifle drop from the inside of his shoulder to down between his side and his arm then abruptly pushed it back into the man's rib cage. The man's grunt of pain was easily heard but it wasn't enough to make him set Richard free. Dropping to his knees in a forward motion he flung the man over his back, not as gracefully as when he had down it in training but it was still effective. Not even allowing himself a moment to catch his breath he pulled his knife and stabbed it into the exposed patch of the man's neck.

As the confusion whirled around her Rin realized she had lost track of Marcus. That worried her more than the bullet wound in her shoulder. He can handle himself. He's fine. Don't panic. Keep going. She repeated a few times in her head while pressing forward. The UKD soldiers seemed to be moving along with the group of civilians, therefore so was she. Keeping from the center of the action she did her best to pick them off. It didn't seem like a good idea to take on more than she could handle, she couldn't risk getting hurt further.

In a flash Tess sprinted past Richard, grabbing up his attacker's dropped automatic and snapping it up to spray a stream of bullets into the teeth of three other fast approaching men. She couldn't stop and think about, couldn't stop to see blood seep from bullet wounds or hear stuttering last breaths. If she did she would panic and freeze, and they couldn't afford that. They had to keep moving.

"Get up! You ok?" She called to Richard, trying to usher on more shocked looking civilians out of the way while keeping the gun up and looking over her shoulder at the downed pilot. Her eyes were wild, face pale and there was still mud and blood smeared on her arms and legs from before. But she was upright and helping. It was the best she could manage for now.

Marcus was never still. The HUD was a god send really, the friend or foe tags making it almost to easy to track down the fast moving attackers and pick them off. At one point the sniper ran into a party of three, startling them into panic fire which set off flashes of muzzle fire between the trees visible to the civilians and his friends. They didn't last long though and Marcus soon added their clips to the ammo belt he had pilfered from another soldier.

By now there looked to be only a few left, Marcus counted six but there were probably a few outside the range of the motion detector. It was a pretty small sensor field after all. Still better then having nothing to go on. He was also almost fully kidded out now, snatching up pistols where he could and having stored away his tac knife. Single shots to cripple or kill were faster then cutting through these guys with a knife. And it was all about getting them down fast so that the others could get away clear.

Richard was admittedly rattled by what had just happened, not enough to impede his ability to carry on but he would certainly be more aware of his surroundings from here on out. Seeing Tess spring into action was actually a relief to him. She had proved her worth in battle and showed him that she had his back, and in this situation that was comforting.

Thankfully the attacks seemed to stop, but he kept the group moving anyways. He hoped it was because they had taken them all out, but he wasn't about to stop and find out. His first priority was keeping the civilians safe, but he still couldn't keep his mind off his friends. Were they okay? Are Marcus and Rin still alive? Will he ever see them again? He could only hope so. Recognizing he couldn't do anything about that he did his best to keep his focus on the task at hand.

---

As she trailed after the group Rin saw fewer and fewer enemies. She knew though that they could simply be regrouping for another attack, so she stayed out of sight to the best of her ability. The adrenaline that had kept her going was starting to wear off though, and the pain was sinking in. There was no way of knowing what all had gotten into her wound while she was fighting. Dirt, sweat, derby, it was all likely. There wasn't anything she could do about it at the moment though.

Eventually the number of pursuers dwindled before they ceased to appear all together. That was when Marcus came out of the trees to rejoin them at the rear of the group. He had taken his helmet off, not wanting anyone to mistaken him for the enemy, but held it tightly in one hand still. It could be useful later on. To his back was strapped a single shot rifle, and he had about five pistols on his person in various places along with ammo and spare clips. Instead of shorts and sneakers, he was now wearing some unfortunate man's pants and boots. He looked much more natural this way, even with dirt and grime on his skin and a perhaps to tight grip on the helmet and pistol.

Seeing Rin was a relief, and tension was almost visible seeping out of his shoulders and stance as he watched them from behind. She might've been trailing, but she was there and still walking so Marcus took that as a win.