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Red, Black, & Grey

By,

Absolom Nightwolf

Part I:

Ravenwolf

I

"Everyone down," one of the Doctor's escorts yelled. Another one grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him down behind a pile of stone and concrete debry. Doctor Jacob Sigismund grunted his disapproval but did not protest as something exploded nearby. The Doctor had an escort of a full squad of Clan soldiers, and this area was supposed to be empty of enemies, but that had clearly not remained so. The Xelfarak had been wandering through a ruined set of buildings when they stumbled across the Doctor's group. A fire fight had instantly erupted, with bolts of red and violet energy crisscrossed through the ruins. Remarkably, not a single person had been killed or seriously hurt. Several of the Xelfarak had fallen, as the soldiers with the Doctor had reacted first. Clan soldiers were not as viscous as the aliens, but they were better trained. They had been in a running battle ever sense the aliens had received reinforcements, about twenty minutes ago. Things were starting to look dire, as the aliens were bringing in larger guns, and the Doctor had lost almost all of his data. The little he had left was crucial, but incomplete without the rest of it. Now they were being chased through the city ruins, with an increasing number of enemies firing at them.

The Doctor was young for his species, only about seventy three years of age, the only one in the group who was not human. Taller then the humans, about six feet three inches, his triangular ears added another four inches to his height. The wolf-like head seemed to add to the height as well. Though his muzzle was not long as his mother's race, the wolf-man race of the Guarden, Jacob still had the strong profile of that race. His body was covered in a soft layer of black fur, with a white throat and chest. His black hair, which he kept short, still fell down over his deep, rich brown eyes. The Doctor also lacked the tail that his mother had been so proud of. Build like a human, despite his wolfish appearance, he had a natural athletic physic, despite of the fact he seldom exercised. He was dressed in military fatigues with the extra protection of some battle plate around his chest, back, and lower arms. The boots he wore were reinforced around the shins and soles, and the gloves had a plate on the back of his hands. The Clan soldiers were similarly dressed, though they had helmets and battle plate on the upper and lower legs. Jacob had a utility belt on his waist but carried no weapons other than the utility knife strapped to his right thigh. The soldiers had their compact but powerful assault rifles, an extra side arm, mostly pistols, and a long knife that could be fitted to the from of their rifles and used as a bayonet. They too had utility belts, but most of theirs were taken up with spare power cells and first aid and survival gear.

The Xelfarak, in contrast, were completely encased in battle armor with a silvery, almost mirror like, finish. Towering about seven feet high, they had the double kneed legs of a reptile, with human like arms that ended in hands with two large fingers and a thumb. The helmets they wore where bulbous in the face and sharply angled toward the back of the head. On each side of the head where a pair of thick, spike like, antennas. The long, elegant assault rifles belied the power that they could throw over long distances, as did the rate of fire, which compensated for the lack of accuracy. On each side of their waists were metal canisters that they used as holding and supply cashes. The spare power cells for their rifles were strung on bandoliers wrapped around both shoulders. What little speech that the Doctor's team could hear sounded like a flock of birds, though it sounded organized and focused into a civilized language.

Sergeant Ritter grabbed the Doctor by his collar, lifted him up, and shoved him through the door of a nearly intact building. The interior had a series of small rooms built with solid walls. Bolts of violet energy slammed into the wall near the door, but did not punch through it. The soldiers pushed further into the building, finding a small room that was easy to secure, and then set up a perimeter around it. Two of the soldiers stood in the door frame, pointing their rifles down the hallway toward the door they had used to enter. Shortly, a Xelfarak looked through the door, then moved slowly into the hallway. A moment later, another followed, and then another. As the third one stepped in, the soldiers opened up. Bolts of red energy went streaming down the hallway, killing the first two and injuring the third. As the third was slammed backwards into the door frame, two more of the Xelfarak leaned in, their weapons raised. The two soldiers ducked behind cover as bolts of energy came flying down the hall. As the first burst of fire ended, the two Xelfarak stepped into the building, firing from the hip. They were not trying to hit anything, just attempting to keep the Clan soldier's heads down. It worked. A full squad of the aliens moved into the building behind the two who were firing. A blast came from the other side of the building, and another squad of Xelfarak moved into the newly created improvised door.

Ritter swore. They were now surrounded with no way out. The wall behind the Doctor was reinforced concrete, and was too thick to penetrate with the weapons they currently had. He ordered the men to throw up improvised barricades using any of the remaining furniture, and some fallen building materiel. It would not do much to stop the aliens, but it might slow them down and make his men harder to hit. A team of four of his men sat or crouched behind the barricades; two facing toward the entrance that they had used; two facing the entrance the Xelfarak had created. When their weapons were empty, they would change spots with another team of four as they slapped in new power cells. Weapons on both sides opened up as Ritter finished his preparations. He glanced down at the time piece built into the left vambrace of his armor and swore again. It would be another hour before their scheduled pick up would arrive. He turned to the Doctor, who was crouching behind a couple of over turned filling cabinets.

"You stay put, Doctor," he said. "If there is a chance for us to break out, I want you ready to run. I don't want to take any chances here. Got it."

"Are we likely to get a chance to run?"

Ritter sighed. There was an explosion behind him in the hallway, but the men called out that everyone was all right. "Not likely, but there is a small possibility. We'll take what we can."

One of the men in the first team swapped positions with one of the men from the second team as he ejected the used power cell from his rifle, and slapped in a new one. One after another the men changed positions as their power cells drained down. Another ten minutes passed, and the fire from the Xelfarak only seemed to increase. Several of the enemy had fallen, but so far Ritter and his men had only received minor scraps, mainly from flying concrete chips, and a couple of energy burns. But they were running out of ammo. Each of them had only two power cells left, and they had started with eight. There was a pile of bodies on both sides of the hallway now, and they were thick enough to allow the Xelfarak to hide behind them. One of the barricades suddenly disintegrated under an energy explosion, and the two soldiers behind them were nearly cut in half by the following volley. The other two dived for the doorway in an effort to get out of the line of sight; the last one in received a hole in his leg for the effort. Ritter swore loudly, checked on the condition of the rest of his men, and pulled everyone back further into the room. There was another boom as the second barricade was vaporized.

Ritter turned on the emergency transmitter attached to his armor, and opened a wide band frequency. "Attention, attention, to any Clan members hearing this. This is Wolf nine-nine-five. We are cut off and surrounded by hostile forces and are in need of assistance. Emergency beacon has been activated. Again, we are surrounded and in need of assistance. Can anyone respond?"

There was a brief pause of silence and then, "Wolf nine-nine-five, this is Wolf M-thirteen. Standby for a forced extract. Keep your men together, and make sure you can identify any of the ones who have fallen. ETA is three minutes, forty-one seconds." The voice was deep and booming, and the Doctor guessed, probably altered with a voice synthesizer.

"Wolf M-thirteen? What the hell is that," asked one of the soldiers.

"It's a Marine call sign," the Doctor said.

"Marines?!" The soldiers gave each other a meaningful look. The Doctor couldn't blame them. The Clans each had their own military forces; army, navy, marine, airforce, etc.; however each of the Clans that made up the Sapphire Empire specialized in one form of military combat. Clan Dragon was known for their mobile armor, specifically their MECH s,1which filled several divisions of their armed forces. Clan Cat was known for their scouts and commando units, and more specifically their Hunter/Killer units. Clan Griffon was known for their army, which were genetically altered, and sometimes raised, to fulfill the role of hard hitting soldiers on the open battlefield. Clan Phoenix, known mainly for The Royal Family, was actually best known for its naval might. The Clan boasts the largest fleet and the best Space Knights in two galaxies, with only The Black Legion of The Council of Races coming in a close second. What Clan Wolf was known for was its Marines, all of who are genetically altered from either birth, or a very early age. Most of the Marines were orphans, or came from fractured families. Some where volunteered by families that could either not support them, or were trying to raise their prestige with the clan council, though these were a rarity. A small number were genetically modified in the labs through artificial insemination. This force gave Clan Wolf one of the hardest hitting and well armed infantry force in the galaxy, and even the soldiers of Clan Griffon were slow to mess with a Clan Wolf Marine.

Of course the soldiers already knew this as they were from the Wolf Clan army. Most of them had served along side a squad of Marines at lease once in their careers, and they knew what only a hand full of them could do. What a platoon of regular soldiers would be needed to do, only a squad of twelve Marines would be need to accomplish. Added to this was the amount of fire power that each Marine carried, and you could have a seriously bad day if you were an enemy. It also meant that someone in high command had gotten wind of the Doctor's mission, and was likely not very pleased if they were sending in a squad of Clan Wolf Marines to pull them out. Normally they would have sent a company of soldiers to blast the area into atoms and then extracted the survivors. Not that Jacob minded. The data he had retrieved was vital to the understanding of their enemy, and getting a foothold on countering anything that The United Space Forces might throw at the newly formed Sapphire Empire. It was said that The Sapphire Prince was still very upset with the rebuff from the representative of the USF, Supreme General Titus Shiro. With the political attempt meeting a dead end, everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before military action was called for. That time was quickly approaching, and that was why the Doctor was here.

The soldiers, or those that remand, had retreated fully into the room now, as the fire fight had intensified to a horrendous amount. All of a sudden, there was a devastatingly loud explosion, this time from the front of the building. As the screams and curses of the Xelfarak rang out, the deep roar of Clan energy assault weapons sounded. The fire fight out in the hallway died as the aliens shifted their attention to the new enemy. By the sound of the increased screams of the dying, it was obvious that the fight was one sided. All of a sudden, the sergeant's comm chimed.

"Get everyone down, Sergeant," said a male voice that was close to a tenor in pitch. "I'm going to blow the wall."

Ritter yelled out orders for his men to take cover, and then he grabbed the Doctor and shielded him with his body. The wall in the back of the room disintegrated into a cloud of dust and pulverized concrete a moment later. As the smoke and dust began to settle, a large figure stepped through the hole that had been blown into the wall. Ritter had never seen a Clan Wolf Marine before, or at least not this close. The Marine stood eight feet tall in its armor, the helmet fashioned to resemble a stylized wolf's head. But something was off. The Clan painted its armor a sky blue, but this Marine had black armor, with blood red pauldrons, gauntlets, and greeves. The chest plate had two large horizontal ribs that expanded the chest slightly, and had the bronze sigil of a winged wolf on it. The left pauldron had the white wolf's head of the Clan, while the right had the chevrons of a captain. From the right side of the Marine's hip, and strapped to the upper part of that leg, was a holstered pistol.

Most likely a heavy energy pistol by the looks of it, thought Ritter.

Hanging from the left side of the belt was the hilt of a plasma sword, one of those that were issued to front line officers, for it lacked any kind of ornamentation. To either side of the buckle were the dispensers for the micro-grenades that were popular with the Clans, while the back of the belt was in full power cell cartridges and utility tool pouches. Strapped to the out edge of the right greeve was a combat knife.

Knife, Ritter scoffed inwardly. The blade was as long as my forearm.

As Ritter looked up at this person, he suddenly noticed something moving on the backside of the Marine. Looking closer, he saw what looked like a large, and fluffy, judging from the width of it halfway down, armored tail. Two ruby eye lenses looked around the room, pausing briefly on Jacob, and then stopping on Ritter. Ritter felt a cold shiver run down his spine, as if he was a small prey animal that was about to be pounced on by a large predator.

"Sergeant Ritter," demanded a deep, rumbling, and commanding male voice. The captain's lupine head looked down at Ritter as he instinctively stood up and went to attention.

"Sir, what are your orders," said Ritter before he realized what he was doing.

The captain motioned toward the hole. "Get your men, and your charge, out of here. I have one of my men waiting in the ally behind us. He will take you to the shuttle that we arrived in. We will hold the enemy and extract the bodies of the men who did not make it."

"Sir, yes Sir. You heard the captain, you lot, get --"

At that moment, a Xelfarak came running around the corner, trying to escape the fire fight that was quickly make its way up the hallway. In that instance, the short, compact rifle in the captain's hads spoke. With a roar, and a flash of emerald green light, three energy bolts slammed into the Xelfarak. The first round was low, hitting, and tearing off, the left leg. The second blew a hole in the aliens abdomen; and the third hit center mass, picking up the alien and throwing it through the wall behind it. For a brief moment, Ritter and his men stared in shock; he had never seen Marine weaponry in use before, and the others had forgotten how powerful those weapons were. The sergeant quickly came to his senses, however.

"Move, you lot," he barked, "before more of them come around the corner!"

Two of his men jumped through the hole in the wall and met the Marine waiting at the entrance to the ally. The Marine was dressed and equipped much like the captain had been, but he had sergeant stripes on his pauldron instead. Ritter picked up the Doctor and shoved him through the hole, and was followed by the remainder of his men. Looking back, he saw two more Marines step out of the shadows and joined the captain inside. A moment later, they emerged with the remains of the two dead men slung over their shoulders. The captain grabbed a grenade from his belt and threw it into the building. The resulting explosion collapsed the ceiling, blocking any pursuit from that direction.

The whole group moved out at a fast trot, the Marines easily keeping pace with the soldiers despite their burdens. After a few moments, they rounded a corner into an open plaza where a drop ship, that was bristling with weapons, sat waiting. The Marine sergeant ushered the Doctor and the soldiers into the ship before turning back to the captain. The two Marines carrying the bodies entered next. Once they had stowed the bodies, they made sure everyone else was strapped in and ready to depart. Three minutes passed and still they waited. After another six minutes, Ritter leaned forward in his harness and looked out of the open hatch. At that moment, eight more Marines came running around the corner of the plaza from a different direction from where Ritter's group had arrived. Together with the captain and the sergeant, they boarded the drop ship and strapped themselves in.

"Take us out," the captain said, and the drop ship began to lift off out of the ruined city as the boarding hatch closed. Ritter felt the ship accelerating until the brief moment of zero gee hit, telling him that they had left the atmosphere, when the artificial gravity took over. Ritter let out a sigh of relief knowing that they had escaped and were on their way back home.

1 Mobil Environmental Combat Humanoid/veHicle , also called walkers. Basically, a MECH is a tank with legs in place of treads and weaponized 'arms.' there are a variety of different types, makes, and sizes, but all MECH s are built to carry heavy weaponry onto the field of battle. Considerably more maneuverable than that of a standard tank, and replacing a team of operators for a single 'pilot,' MECH s have changed the face of armored warfare.