Leonid tapped his foot impatiently, Mickey had forced Triton squad to stay behind and not fight because they were rookies, and Leonid was getting real pissed. First they told them they were gonna die, then they didn't tell them the briefing had started while they were gearing up. And now they were ultimately leaving them out of the action. The life of pure adrenaline and life or death decisions and shit never going your way Leonid and his squad had trained for their whole lives had left out everything but the last part. They were sitting in this Imperial Atheist compound - which the Punjabi somehow captured - while Baker and Delta squads were taking on tank convoys.

The other five members of Leonid's squad were spread out around the compound, trying to find something to do, most of the Punjabi didn't speak Edenite, so they had to use the translator function on their PDAs to speak.

One of the Punjabi said something in Hindi to Leonid, who turned on his translator and said "Repeat that?"

The Punjabi spoke and the translator did its job by repeating it in Edenite. "I have heard you are a commando, you and your friends, is that true?"

He nodded, although it seemed that to Mickey that wasn't good enough.

The Punjabi nodded joyfully, a smile growing over his dark brown face. "We have heard many things about your commandos. Some say you are children of the gods. Some say you do not know the meaning of fear, nor do you know its feeling! Some say that you are immortal!"

Leonid smirked. "We're about as immortal as my rifle is good for gardening!"

The Punjabi shrugged, Leonid put on his helmet to check on the others. "Anyone found anything interesting?"

"Yeah, I'm downloading some of these data files, but... That's it." Markus answered.

"Nothing over here," Lane whispered over the radio.

"Just like the last two minutes ago, nothing..." Jessica huffed out angrily. "The nerve of them! What a bullshit order! Search the compound for stragglers? This is a wa..."

Leonid noted her silence, something caught her interest. "You got anything?"

"Uh, yeah, a couple of signals in the lower levels!" She replied.

"Lower levels?" Lane cut in. "How far down? Over!"

"Level E, East Wing! They're pretty strong over!"

Leonid grabbed MPAC rifle and motioned for the Punjabi to follow, he grabbed his rifle and followed Leonid, yelling out to two others to follow them as well. "Jess, you're coming with me and Lane to check it out. Markus, you stay up here and get those files. Temper, I want you to stay and help Scratch to get those batteries online and aimed for the Imperial fleet in orbit. Over."

"Solid copy!" They agreed.

"Jess? How many readings did you get?"

"About a dozen, maybe more..." She responded. "I think they were moving when I got the readings?"

Leonid chuckled, in her excitement she abandoned her post. "Rendezvous with Lane and I at the elevator, first floor. Over."

"Yeah, well, you're gonna have to meet on the first floor because I'm already here!"

"Hey!" Lane whined. "No fair! Now we have to take the stairs!"

"Well let's be quick! Out!" Leonid finished and started jogging with the three Punjabi soldiers behind him.

It wasn't long before they found the first floor, and rendezvoused with Lane and Jessica, who had found a bilingual Punjabi. Leonid asked his name, and he replied with "Aadi, I am Aadi". And told him the names of the other three, the one whom Leonid was speaking with was named Ilesh, and the other two were Induleksh and Udayan. Leonid then explained the situation, and ordered him to translate, having grown tired of the translator.

Leonid switched out the MPAC's rifle attachments for shotgun attachments, and activated the elevator. As they passed A and B levels which were full of Punjabi, Leonid began to calm down, but when he realized that Levels C and D were empty, he grew slightly nervous.

Suddenly that bullshit order was looking a little less like bullshit and more like irritatingly precise logic.

Jessica realized this as well. "What if there are Imperials on E Level? I guess we'll get a little action after all!"

"Yep," Leonid said and checked to make sure the MPAC shotgun was loaded with shells and not rifle rounds.

"Mickey probably knew they'd either come up or we'd go down, hopefully we beat them to the punch."

Aadi translated this, and the other three Hindi soldiers nodded. The elevator ground to a halt on E Level, which was eerily dark, perfect lighting for an ambush. Leonid held up his right fist, pointed back and to Jess, and to their twelve. She nodded and crept forward into the shadows. Leonid whispered "Tactical low-light visor." And his helmet's visor lit up the darkness, turning everything different shades of yellow. He followed Jessica, scanning the area and stopped. She continued onward and he waited, then she finally turned and nodded back to him.

He waved the rest forward, taking note to the fact that the Hindi soldiers now had visors over their eyes. 'Perfect, more eyes for us,' he thought. The seven of them crept through the shadows of E Level to the East Wing, and noted the simple signs of conflict. Empty bullet shells littered the halls, and bullet holes in random places, as far as Leonid could tell, nothing more than a fleeing skirmish between security and some other fighting force. But that left only one obvious option, someone else had created utter chaos, and were probably still around to create more of it.

Leonid had guessed right, because some time later they came under fire. Leonid dove behind a metal cabinet and stuck out his shotgun, he fired, chambered the next round, and fired and fired again. Jessica had ducked behind a metal crate with Aadi, and was returning fire.

"Aadi!" Leonid shouted.

The scared man looked at him, rifle against his chest.

"Tell the others to stay down!"

He nodded, and shouted in Hindi over the gunfire. Leonid stuck out his shotgun and fired three more times. "Lane! Where the hell is Lane?" He shouted and fired again.

"I'm in the far-side of the room!" He shouted back. "I have eyes on the target!"

"Well gimme a sit-rep for Christ's sake!" Leonid yelled and fired twice.

"HMG! They're dug-in with a small squad assisting! I can get to them if you give me covering fire!"

Leonid fired again, and pulled the trigger to hear the shotgun click. "All right! Get ready!" Leonid dropped the empty magazine and replaced it with a fresh one. "Aadi! Tell the others to get ready to lay down suppressing fire just ahead!"

Aadi nodded and shouted back to them. He nodded back to Leonid shortly after. Leonid nodded. "Suppressing fire!" He screamed and threw himself onto the floor and opened fire.

Aadi screamed out in Hindi and got up and opened fire. Leonid saw Lane weaving between desks and cabinets and medical equipment of various sizes at what he judged to be their 2:30 position, closing in on a wall of desks and machines less than twenty feet away. Leonid kept firing, ducked his head when he heard a pistol shot, and continued firing. Leonid's shotgun clicked again, and he rolled back out of the line of fire and rested against the cabinet. He reloaded, and peeked out to see where Lane was.

Lane was crouching by the wall now, he took a grenade from off of his shoulder and bit off the pin. He spit it out and held the grenade for two seconds, and then lobbed it over. There were terrified shouts and Leonid saw a man get up and try to run but the grenade exploded, knocking down both him and the wall. An unsettling silence settled over the room as they all sat there, either shaking or panting in relief or in fear.

Lane nodded to himself, then to Leonid. "We got 'em, except for him," He pointed to the unconscious man who tried to run. "He's still breathing."

Leonid nodded and Jessica, he could almost see her smiling under his helmet.

"That went well!" She whispered and got up.

"Scratch! Do you read? Over!"

"Loud and clear, Leo! What's up?"

"We ran into some atheists, one of them is still alive, I'm sending him back to you! Over!"

"Uh... Solid copy?"

"Aadi, tell Induleksh and Udayan to get that man and take him back to the first floor, Ilesh and you are with us."

He nodded and translated. Leonid huffed out a satisfied breath, and enjoyed the moment, there were gonna be more throughout E Level's East Wing, and they were gonna have to sweep and clear as much of the place as possible. He got up and watched as the two Hindi soldiers picked up the moaning man and carried him back. Then he signalled for the rest to regroup and form up.

"Hey Leo!" Jessica beamed. "Looks like God had something fun planned for us after all!"

Leonid smiled under his helmet. "God had something planned for everybody when this war started, Jess. Take point."

"Copy that!"