<b>"Give me a moment, would you?"</b>Donovan said into his mic, firing a burst from his carbine at the head of the drones as they scuttled down the hall. A spike of fear punctured the back of his mind as he fell back, pulling the trigger of his grenade launcher as he sprinted backwards, slipping and scrambling around the corner as another beam narrowly missed removing his left foot. The fact that the lieutenant had used his given name hadn't helped - Donovan was naturally very fluid with his interpretation of the chain of command, but he'd always known Edmund to be very straight-laced about the same things. If the LT had seen fit to address Donovan by his given name, then either he was confident, or he was resigned to his fate. Donovan didn't want to know which.<br/><br/><b>"Move, people, move!"</b>He shouted, avoiding his mic as he double-timed down the hallway. He's lost his helmet - bugger the thing - and he was holding his carbine one-handed as he did his damnedest to outrun the death that followed behind him. Rickard was dead, bisected from his groin to his armpit, and the remaining two hardly seemed willing to join him. Doyle was firing now - precise bursts, Donovan noted with satisfaction - and Kachinsky had his sidearm out. Donovan himself was fumbling with a compact grenade, trying to reload his launcher on the run as the drones chittered and clicked behind him like metal arachnids. He hated spiders, he noted idly, as he rounded another corner.<br/><br/><b>"Almost there, lieutenant - I 'ave two with me and we're under fire."</b>He spoke again into his mic, his voice breathy and energetic, reflecting his state of heightened adrenaline and fight-or-flight sensibilities. It was the latter now - he simply didn't have the firepower or the tactical positioning to engage the robotic bastards head-on, and his racing mind wasn't willing to comprehend throwing it all away in a death-or-glory final stand. He'd seen too many of those in his time, and he wasn't ready to make his own - not now, not ever.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>