<b>"Lieutenant!"</b>Donovan spoke into his mic.<b>"Can I get a reading on your position? I'm trying to join up - we could use the additional firepower."</b>He announced, his voice oddly flat, robbed of emotion by the intense fighting that had sprung on the almost out of nowhere. Already three people in his squad were dead, most of the others either dead as well or lost in the chaos of the breaching. He had started out with nineteen - along with the three dead, seven had disappeared entirely after the initial attack - beams of light scything through the halls and spidery drones skittering down corridors as the Marines beat a hasty retreat for a better position - and another six had disappeared moments before. A stray round had hit a bulkhead door control, sealing off the hall behind Donovan and the remaining three - the six left behind were likely dead, and the door wouldn't hold up against the kind of firepower the drones were touting, so he was doing his damnedest to run down the hall whilst covering his corners.<br/><br/><b>"I'm at junction 34J . . . "</b>He stated, glancing up at the numerals on the wall as they reached another intersection. Shouldering his carbine, the Sergeant peered around the corner, fervently praying that he wasn't about to lose anything vital, and letting out a sigh of relief as the expected laser beam didn't remove a clean section of his skull.<b>"Heading to Engineering now - I've been getting a lot of comm traffic, can't pick out where you are. We need to rejoin."</b>He finished, glancing back to the three behind him and motioning them forwards as he darted out of cover, turning left at the junction.<br/><br/>He was followed by Kachansky - an experienced man, solid in a fight - as well as Doyle and Rickard - both rookies, comparatively, who had been through training and theoretically knew what to expect, but who had never actually seen the front-lines. Donovan had trained them as well as they could, but the loss of most of the mustered squad - either to a quick, instant death or to an MIA rating in the frantic and mobile fight for survival in the smoke-hazed corridors. Donovan went first, then Doyle and Rickard with their rifles, and Kachansky covering the rear, watching behind them just as much as he was looking ahead.<br/><br/><b>"If you can hear me, please respond. Otherwise . . . I suppose I'll see you there. Godspeed, sir."</b><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>