• Sparks showered a young woman as a solid projectile bounce off the top of the maintenance port she was working in. She frantically brushed some of her black hair out of her face where it had fallen and started to stick due to sweat, with the hair gone she wiped her hand across her brow to try to get rid of as much sweat as possible, wouldn't do to have some drip into her green eyes. As a second bullet buzzed past, this time barely missing her shoulder, she yelled out, "Baichi! Can't you keep their attention on you for even a few seconds! It's a wonder I haven't been hit yet!"

    A little ways below her on the floor of the tunnel the maintenance port was in lay another woman with the same black hair and green eyes as the one that was hanging half-way through the port. She lay behind a barricade that was receiving plenty of bullet hits as well as multiple energy blasts. In her hands she held a primitive bolt action solid projectile rifle. She fired a few rounds at their attackers before she glanced up, "Well if you'd hurry up Jie instead of yelling at me you'd have been done. Now zhuzui!"

    The woman in the maintenance port shook her head, It was typical of her sister to yell at her to shut up when she should be keeping her own mouth shut. She sighed as she looked down at a piece of paper that she had laid in front of her. The paper was covered in complex electric schematics and even more complex instructions in Traditional Mandarin. Scribbled hastily however in many locations in both english and simplified mandarin were short cuts and directions. As she stared at the familiar handwriting she paused to wipe tears from her eyes. She shook her head again. 'I'll cry later...later when me and Ryh are safe with the rest. When this is over...' she thought to herself. She then looked up to the wires infront of her and finished following the directions. She paused for a second before cutting the last wire and has she did she heard a loud thump as if a huge weight just fell, accompanied by a sickening crunching sound and a yell of pain. As she dropped down from the port she looked at the huge blast door that just dropped in place in the tunnel blocking it off. near the door on the floor lay a severed arm, its hand still clutching an energy pistol. The fall of the blast door must've seperated it from its owner who was probably trying to advance. She looked away as her face paled and as she felt as if she was going to puke.

    Her sister got up from her prone position and turned to face her, her face just as pale and her eyes wide, "M-maria...I-I s-saw..."

    Maria shook her head as she approached her sister, who stood a full six inches shorter than her. "No Ryhana, no mei. Don't think about it. Don't think about it..." She wrapped her arms around the slimmer girl as she began to lead her sister down the tunnel, safe now from their pursuers, safe from the soldiers. Safe for the moment at least. As she continued to walk with her sister she whispered, "Don't think about it..."

    ~~~~~~~~
    "Qiji!" A man exclaimed as two girls emerged from a tunnel. Both girls had Black hair and green eyes, and other than a height difference and one had a bit more muscle to her, they were practically identical. Both wore slightly tattered dresses that were caked in dirt. Once the dresses might have been beautiful and worn only to parties, but now they only served to keep their owner's decent.

    Maria and Ryhana smiled weakly at the man as he approached. The man stood a good head taller than Maria the eldest of the two. His brown hair was already showing signs of graying and he wore an old military uniform that looked as if it hadn't been washed in many weeks. On the uniform collar was a gold cross that signified him as a military reverend. He returned their smile briefly, "It’s good that you've survived! Did you complete the job you set out to do?" He paused as he looked around then looked at them with a slight frown, "And where are the twins? Did they not go with you?"

    Both girls broke down into tears. "They...they...were killed! ai! They fell as we...as we retreated..." Maria barely managed to gasp out between sobs. Both girls fell to their knees as they continued to cry. "Duibuqi Father. We couldn't save them...we had...we had to leave them to those monsters!"

    The man smiled sadly down at them and rested a hand on their shoulders. "You did you're best. It’s a miracle that you managed to return to us. And don't cry for the twins, they're souls are in a better place now. And our prayers go with them."

    "Our prayers go with them! Our Prayers go with them!" A shrill voice called out. The owner of the voice was fast approaching, an older woman whose light brown hair was already streaked with gray, and her clothes tattered and dirty, more so than the Father's or the girl's. "They were my sons! MY SONS! And all you can say is 'Our prayers go with them!' Go with them where Father! Huh? To Heaven? Huh? If I could laugh right now I would. My sons are dead! DEAD!" She broke down into tears, sobbing heavily.

    The Father started to reach out to rest a hand on her shoulder when another stronger hand gripped his wrist, "I wouldn't she's liable to bite it off now." The man that now gripped the Father's wrist was a big man with blond hair, green eyes, His shoulders were broad and he was well muscled.

    The woman looked up at him, "Zhuzui! It’s your fault they're dead! You sent them off on that suicide mission! You could've gotten the schematics from them! You could’ve gone! NO! You had to send them...you had to! It’s your fault Malig! Yours!!" She had gotten up and started beating on him with her fists while the Girls and the Father looked on.

    He looked down at her sadly and let her beat on him for a while, he then sighed and grabbed her hands, "You forget Jess, that it could have been me grieving just as easily, I risked my daughters on the same 'suicide' mission, as well as my own life. We needed those able to shut off the passages so the soldiers couldn't get to us. We're all that’s left of the resistance. If they get who we guard they'll win. They will control every man, woman, and child. We can't allow that."

    Maria finally spoke up at this point, "Speaking of whom, where is this special person dad?" She looked at Malig waiting for a reply.

    Malig smiled and shook his head slowly, "I know you wanted to play with her a little Maria when you got back but she's sleeping now, for the first time in days. She needs her rest."

    Maria opened her mouth to respond when a girl of seven years walked into the chamber. She wore a clean white dress that matched her silver hair perfectly, and her skin was a soft pale color as if she hadn't seen the sun since her birth, in fact the only color on this girl were her eyes which were a bright orange. She looked around at Jess, The Father, Ryhana, Maria and Finally Malig. "They're coming..." As soon as she finished a thunderous boom could be heard from one of the tunnels.

    The walls were still reverberating from the blast as the group scrambled for their things. They all knew that they didn't have much time, the soldiers would be on them again in a few minutes and they'd be in a fighting retreat again. Malig lifted a solid projectile rifle. This was different from the primitive bolt action rifle that his youngest daughter used. In an age where combat was dominated by energy blast weapons, this rifle was able to hold its own, even if it did take longer than the old rifles to re-fire, it was a gauss rifle, capable of driving its rounds clear through most armor plating and even the walls of the tunnel. Only problem was it needed its energy cells replaced after every shot. Malig used this in only dire situations, and was glad that he hadn't had to use it once so far in their time running from the Soldiers. Malig turned towards the Father, "Take Maria and Meihui and take the lead. Don't stop going Father, don’t' stop for anything, even if we get separated."

    With that said he turned and positioned himself near the entrance of the tunnel the sounds of the blast had come from. Ryhana picked up another bolt action rifle and moved to a position beside her father. She handed him the other rifle as he set down the gauss rifle. She then got into a prone position with her rifle trained on the entrance. Maria stood there for a moment looking at them. She then rushed to her father, "No! I won't go! Dad I won't leave you, I don't want you to die!" As she finished tears were already beginning to make their way down her cheeks.

    Malig looked at his eldest daughter sadly for a moment, "Maria, don't worry neither me nor your little sister are going to die, she's too good an aim. Besides we have Jess here with us." As he said that Jess dropped down two small boxes, then as she started to pull over a larger box the two whirred noisily to life. Four sides of the small boxes lowered slowly and the top rose slightly. Inside the boxes were small auto turrets, and by the look of them it had been a good ten or so years since they had seen a good cleaning. Out of the large box she pulled out large machine gun and stand. Just like the auto turrets it was old and out-dated, but it still worked. She forced a smile at Maria and Malig as she settled down behind the large gun. Malig pulled a small gun from the back of his belt and handed it to his eldest daughter, "Take this, if you run into trouble it will be up to you to protect the Father and Meihui."

    Maria looked down at the gun; it was a small energy blaster. It looked as if it was set up for laser fire, though she knew that it could easily fire electrical or magnetic bursts as well. She looked up at her father as he handed her the extra energy cells for their only energy weapon. She looked as if she was about to say more but then just nodded and turned and walked back to the Father and Meihui. As they left the chamber she turned to look at her sister and her father as foot steps could be heard coming down the tunnel. The Father led her and Meihui quickly to their only escape tunnel; none knew where it dumped out as it wasn't listed on any schematics or plans of the area even though it looked as if it had been here forever. As they started to go through this tunnel the gunfire start.

    Ryhana squeezed the trigger and the rifle kicked back in her hands as the bullet raced its way to come to rest in its new home in the head of an on coming soldier. She didn't have time to take notice of the blood spill from the man's head, or to even realize that she had ended a man's life. There were more soldiers rushing forward. Most of the soldiers fell by shots fired from Jess's old Auto turrets and by Jess's shots. Those soldiers lucky enough to get past Jess were quickly brought down by Malig and Ryhana. They kept this up even as both energy blasts and solid projectiles came close to hitting them.

    However this didn't last for long as twin clicking sounds emitted from the Auto Turrets as they ran out of ammo and not soon after a loud ping sound rang out as the end of the ammo belt of Jess's machine gun was launched from the gun as she too ran out of ammo. "Alright we're done here!" Malig called out as he stood up from where he was kneeling. "Leave them, and take the lead," He added as he noticed Jess moving to get the Auto Turrets.

    "Dad, couldn't they use them against us later...they're only out of ammo, not broken," Ryhana said as she quickly got up from her spot on the floor. As she waited for a reply she fired her rifle down into the tunnel felling another soldier.

    Malig shook his head as a solid projectile ricocheted off the wall of the tunnel near him, "Bu, not them. They're too proud; they wouldn't sink to use out-dated equipment like that. Trust me when they use auto turrets they'll bring in the top of the line stuff." He quickly handed the rifle to Jess as he lifted the gauss rifle.

    Jess took the rifle and started to fire down the tunnel as she started to back up. Malig took aim and fired the gauss rifle and watched in satisfaction as a few soldiers fell backwards as the solid projectile passed through them quickly. He was about to order them back when he heard a strangled gasp and could smell burnt flesh. He looked over at Jess quickly to see her look at him with wide eyes, her neck blackened by a lucky shot. It was already beginning to glisten as blood seeped from cracks in the burnt flesh as she pitched backwards. "Bu! JESS!" Ryhana yelled out as she noticed Jess fall backwards, "Jess zhanli, qi zhanli." Ryhana moved quickly to where Jess laid whispering, "Jess qi shui, qi shui."

    "Nu'er, we must go, now," Malig said moving towards his daughter. As he reached out his hand to shake Ryhana he grit his teeth in pain and hissed as a solid projectile was buried deep into his arm. He turned to try to fire down the tunnel again however another bullet bit into his shoulder causing him to cry slightly in pain. By time he brought his thoughts back to the soldiers him, his daughter, and the body of Jess were surrounded by them.

    The soldiers raised their guns to fire at the remaining two Resistance fighters in the chamber when a female voice called out, "That’s enough, they're to be kept alive..."

    ~~To be Continued~~