I can never get the attachment thing to work even
though the file is a text file.

Anyway here it is:

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The Ramarian Crisis
By DarkHorse

Chapter 10: Casualties of War

*Shibuya Ward, Tokyo*


  Lt. Col. Scott Biggs looked out the window of the room he was
using as a base of operations. It was still dark, not quite
dawn. But it didn't matter. Right across the street was the
condominium the aliens were purportedly using as *their* base
of operations. It was a very fancy place. For the umpteenth
time, he wondered how those bastards were able to afford to
pay for first class accommodations. Not only that, how they
were able to afford the services of the Yakuza.

  "Sir!" A lieutenant in front of a bank of computers
called out. "We're finally getting a thermal reading."

  Biggs turned away from the window and glanced first at
his junior officer and then at the primary monitor. It was
indeed showing some thermal images. *Finally!*

  He took the few steps necessary to get a closer glimpse.
The monitor showed four men in blue, yellow and red colors
indicating their heat signatures. Even though the images do
not show enough details to determine the sex, Biggs felt
sure they were men by the way they moved. They seem to be
busy packing and moving a lot of equipment. Unfortunately,
it was impossible to determine what equipment was being
moved. Well, they were gonna find out soon enough.

  There was something off about the colors though. Biggs
had seen several thermal images in the past and the colors
on this one didn't seem right. He tapped his lieutenant
lightly on the back. "Talk to me, Evans."

  "Yes, sir," the lieutenant responded. "I'm sure you
noticed something odd about the images. Well, I've just run
a diagnostic just to make sure our equipment is functioning
fine. Well, sir, the diagnostics package didn't find
anything wrong with our scopes."

  Lt. Evans tapped one of the men on the monitor. "See the
heat signature of this person. It's all wrong. Some parts of
him that should be showing red are showing blue. Those that
are blue are showing yellow, and so on and so forth."

  "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

  "I'm saying, sir, that we hit pay dirt. Looks like our
snitch was right on the money." Lt. Evans glanced up at the
colonel before turning back to his computer. "These are non-
human heat signatures, sir."

  Biggs considered that for a moment. "Any possibility that
those men are just wearing special gear that throws off our
readings?"

  "Very unlikely, sir. Our scopes are the very latest in
technology. They'd be able to properly scan body heat
regardless of their outer clothing."

  Biggs nodded mutely. Just then, a hiss of static came
through his personal radio. The static was caused by the
special encryption system built into their communications
gear. Someone was trying to contact him.

  He reached for the radio clipped on his belt, held it
close to his mouth and depressed the Talk button. "This is
Raptor 1."

  "Raptor 1, this is Raptor 2," the voice on the radio
said. "Raptor 2" was the code for Major Ronald Cummings,
Biggs' second-in-command for this mission. Cummings had been
with his team for as long as he could remember. They'd saved
each other's lives in more than one occasion. From the last
report, Biggs knew that Cummings was currently staking out
one of suspected bases of Tanaka.

  "Go ahead, Raptor 2."

  "We found the rat's lair at Location 2. Repeat the lair
is at Location 2."

  "Roger that, Raptor 2. Lair is at Location 2." So, Biggs
thought, Tanaka's base was at that appliance warehouse. If
it were another Marine he would take the time to ask how he
was able to arrive at that assessment. But this was Ron. He
had the seemingly uncanny ability to make incredibly
accurate assessments on the field.

  "You're not gonna like this, Scott," Biggs heard on the
radio, "but there's a lot of activity here. Repeat, a lot of
activity. It looks like they're getting ready to deploy."

  "Roger that, Ron. Standby for instructions. Raptor 1
Out."

  Biggs' brows furrowed in deep thought. You never get what
you want in the battlefield. There was always something that
will come at you that you didn't expect. The primary mission
objective has always been to locate the aliens and then
terminate them. Well, they found the aliens. What the hell
was he doing still thinking about things?

  "Evans, assemble the men."
  
                          * * * * *

  Umi slowly opened her eyes and frowned into the darkness.
Even without knowing the time, she knew that this was too
early for her to wake up. But something *did* wake her up. Her
brows furrowed in mild concentration. There were, among
others, the usual early morning sounds of birds rustling the
leaves of the trees where they perched, getting ready for
the new day. There was also the sound of the scuffing of
paws digging the earth, as if searching for some lost
treasure. That could only be Hikari, Hikaru's pet dog cum
wolf. These sounds were quite faint and therefore, would not
have been responsible for waking Umi up.

  No, Umi decided, it was something else. A feeling of
disquiet fell over Umi. A vague sense of something that
wasn't right. Except she couldn't really put a finger to it.
The blue-haired girl began scanning the now familiar
surroundings. Her eyes rested on the sleeping form beside
her.

  As always, Hikaru was fast asleep, oblivious to the world
around her. It amazed both Umi and Fuu that their leader
could sleep like that regardless of what had happened that
day or whatever problems they knew they would face the next
one. Looking down, Umi noted that Hikaru's hair was unbound
and it lay in glorious disarray surrounding her sleeping
head like some kind of fiery halo. Umi could not understand
why the redhead insisted in keeping her hair braided in a
pigtail when she had marvelous hair.

  For a brief moment, Umi could not reconcile this
peacefully sleeping bundle of cuteness that was Hikaru to
the fearsomely courageous Fire Knight and Pillar that was
the other side of her identity. Umi shrugged off that
particular thought and concentrated again on that sense of
unease that was gnawing at her.

  After several more minutes of introspection, she gave up.
After all, in their group, she was not the one given to
premonitions and stuff. Actually, Hikaru was the one who
usually had those strange dreams and visions. And if she's
sound asleep, perhaps everything was indeed okay.

  Umi laid back down and forcibly shrugged of her unease.
It was difficult but in the end, her exhaustion from the
effort was the one that gave her the sleep that she longed
for.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  Fuu lay wide-eyed on her bed. She had been that way for
several inutes now. Although her mind was still befuddled by
drowsiness, she was already lucid enough to realize that her
waking up suddenly at the crack of dawn was not in her
nature.

  Upon closer introspection, she discovered that she had
feelings of fear and anxiety. But fear of what? Anxious of
what?

  Fuu knew better than to dismiss these feelings. *Miss
Hikaru is going to call me*, the Wind Knight thought. *Any
time now.*

  Several more minutes had passed and...nothing. Slowly, Fuu
sat up and glanced at the glowing digital face of her clock
sitting on her desk beside her phone. Just a little past
three in the morning. Would it be all right to call?

  *This is a crisis situation*, the teenager thought. Until
the alien threat was totally eliminated they would
continually be in a crisis situation. Therefore, it was
perfectly acceptable to call.

  Having made her decision, the Wind Knight threw off her
blanket, got up and marched the three steps to her phone.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  "You have done an excellent job, Lezle," Supreme
Commander Higon commented to his assistant as he surveyed
the control room of the Amplification Chamber.

  "Thank you, Supreme Commander," the younger scientist did
not bother to hide her pleasure upon hearing the praise from
no less than the greatest scientist who ever existed. "I
have made sure that everything is as you designed."

  "Yes," Higon said softly, as if he was talking to
himself, "I can see that." The elderly scientist-turned-
Supreme Commander walked towards the thick glass that
separated the control room from the cavernous chamber
beyond. He carefully swept his eyes all over the chamber.
The moment Rogo first reported the existence of human beings
capable of generating enough energy to create wormholes, he
had already envisioned a way of harnessing that energy.

  And here, before him, was the embodiment of that vision.
Whatever Lezle lacked in inventiveness and creativity she
made up for in her ability to follow instructions perfectly.

  The wormholes created by the human females were only
large enough to allow their own kind to pass through. It was
not enough for what Higon needed. The room-sized silver
sphere suspended in the middle of the chamber by cables and
tubes was the key to amplifying the power of the females,
the key to creating wormholes large enough to allow passage
for his entire fleet.

  "What is the amplification ratio?" Higon asked his
assistant without taking his eyes off the sphere.

  "Based on our last test, it is at five hundred percent,
Supreme Commander. According to the power output
measurements Rogo has taken from the last wormhole, it
should be enough for what we need."

  "Excellent. Let's see how it works."

  "Of course, Supreme Commander," Lezle replied eagerly.
She walked over to one of the two other scientists who were
also in the room working on the various instruments and
computers that surrounded the room. "Bring in an energy
cube."

  The scientist Lezle ordered nodded, pressed a key on his
terminal and then relayed the command. From outside the
glass, the occupants of the control room could see a
platform extending from an unseen origin underneath the
control room towards the sphere.

  An outline of a door began to gradually appear on the
sphere even as the platform inched towards it. When the
platform finally touched the sphere, its door slid open
revealing three metallic reclining chairs arranged in a
triangle, their backs touching the others.

  After a few moments the figure of a male Ramarian wearing
a white protective suit could be seen walking the platform
heading towards the open sphere. In his two hands he carried
a cube that was faintly glowing with blue light. He entered
the sphere and placed the cube gently on the chair facing
the entrance. He then backed away slowly. Upon exiting the
sphere he turned and walked back to where he came from. The
scientist Lezle spoke touched another key, which retracted
the platform.

  Higon saw the door to the sphere slide close. The outline
of the door began to dissipate, merging with the rest of the
surface until the entire sphere was one solid mass. The
Supreme Commander spared a moment to cast his eyes away from
the chamber to watch Lezle and the other scientists work on
their computers.

  "Supreme Commander," Lezle called out when she saw that
she had the attention of the older scientist, "I would like
you to see something.

  Higon approached Lezle and glanced at the several
monitors arrayed in front of him. One of the monitors showed
what looked like energy readings. "Those energy readings,"
he said pointing to the monitor, "those are from the energy
cube, correct?"

  "That is correct, Sir," Lezle confirmed, nodding eagerly.
"As you can see, we can monitor the energy levels of
whatever it is that's in the room. At any time we choose, we
can just touch this key," she indicated the glowing red
button amidst all the other glowing green and yellow buttons
on the terminal, "and the device will start amplifying the
energy."

  Higon nodded once. "Do it," he commanded.

  Lezle reached over and touched the red button. All eyes
then turned to watch the sphere, which almost immediately
began to glow faintly with blue energy. After a moment, the
tubes attached to the sphere began to glow as well as energy
began to transfer into them.

  All too soon, all glowing stopped. Higon glanced back at
the bank of monitors, reading the columns of numbers that
started appearing.

  "Truly impressive," Higon murmured.

  "Thank you, Sir," Lezle gushed.

  "Open the sphere."

  For a moment, Lezle's expression faltered not
understanding why the Supreme Commander wanted to see the
inside of the sphere. She eventually turned back to the
terminal and touched a few keys. The door reappeared on the
sphere and slid open. Voluminous smoke wafted out of the
entrance, obscuring whatever view those in the control room
would have had of the inside of the sphere.

  Eventually the smoke dissipated. No evidence of the
energy cube could be seen. Higon turned to look at Lezle.
"It appears that the device totally disintegrates the energy
container."

  "I'm afraid that couldn't be helped, Supreme Commander,"
Lezle responded with the right amount of regret in her
voice.

  "A pity," Higon said simply. "But then, I guess, after
the human females have transported us to their planet, we
wouldn't have any more need for them. It would have been a
good opportunity to study them though." He straightened and
turned to fully face his assistant. "That was an impressive
demonstration, Lezle. Make sure that this device is totally
ready for our guests."

  "Yes, Sir," Lezle replied enthusiastically as she watched
her hero walk out of the room.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  Lieutenants Hiroshi Ramirez and Machiko Nomuri walked
into the lobby of the Yoyogi Park Mansion condominium hand
in hand, pretending to be lovers wanting some privacy to
satisfy their desires. Both were sufficiently Japanese-
looking despite their somewhat mixed ancestry that they were
the obvious choice to perform this bit of reconnaissance.
All their playacting turned out to be for nothing as the
lobby was deserted. Why wouldn't it be? It was after all
just a little past three in the morning.

  "We're in,"Ramirez whispered, confident that his voice
was loud enough to be picked up by the miniature microphone
built into the earpiece he wore. "Looks like the
receptionist took a break too."

  "Roger that, Peregrine 1," Ramirez heard the reply in his
earpiece. He glanced at his partner as they both reached the
Reception counter. He indicated to her that she should go
ahead and scout the other areas of the lobby to make sure
there was truly nobody around. When Nomuri left, he turned
his attention back to the counter. There was an open door
slightly out of view just behind the counter covered by
wall.

  Ramirez turned around until his back was against the
counter. He planted both his hands on the countertop behind
him and pulled himself up. He swung his legs over and, using
his hands once more, propelled himself over the other side.
He landed quietly and started walking stealthily through the
door.

  Just inside the room was the receptionist contentedly
watching TV while reclining on a swivel chair, his legs
propped up on the table. Ramirez slowly reached for his
silenced Glock hidden under his jacket at his back and
pulled it out, carefully aiming it at the back of the
receptionist's head. With his left hand, he tapped the
shoulder of the receptionist.

  The receptionist jumped, clearly startled. Instinctively,
he turned and was about to give a yelp of surprise only to
find the barrel of a large gun deep in his mouth, almost
causing him to gag. His eyes were totally wide with fright.
The receptionist raised both his hands reflexively. He
couldn't believe this was happening to him. He thought
things like this happened only on television.

  Ramirez smiled wickedly down at the frightened boy. He
raised his left pointer finger and placed it against his
lips in a universal sign of silence and then again gestured
for the boy to start rising out of the chair.

  "Do not be afraid," Ramirez said in perfect Japanese. "As
long as you follow my instructions, you won't get hurt. Do
you understand?"

  The hapless receptionist could only nod mutely, his eyes
almost bulging out of his eyes.

  "Do you have a hanky?"

  Again, a nod.

  "Good, now bring it out slowly."

  The receptionist slowly lowered one shaking hand towards
his pocket. He slowly pulled out a white handkerchief.

  "For your sake, I hope that handkerchief is clean because
you'll be stuffing it down your mouth," the Marine said with
a smile calculated to make his prisoner relax a bit but not
too much. "Now, when I remove my gun from your mouth, you
stuff that in your mouth. Understand?"

  The receptionist nodded, only slightly less shakily as he
realized he might not die after all. As he raised his hanky
towards his mouth he noted that the man was reaching behind
and under his jacket. He then pulled out a thick roll of
duct tape with a flourish.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  When Ramirez emerged from the room he was already dressed
in the receptionist's uniform. It was a bit ill fitting but
it should do for now. He saw Nomuri already surrounded by
around twenty black clad members of his team, all armed to
the teeth. Nomuri, herself, was already armed with a
silenced MP5 with another one in her left hand. This she
tossed at him. He caught it neatly in his right hand and
immediately stowed it in a shelf just under the counter.

  "The central electrical controls are in that room,"
Ramirez said, indicating the room he had just emerged from
as he lifted part of the countertop to allow his teammates
to pass through. Nomuri nodded and rushed through the divide
to enter the room accompanied by a black clad Marine
carrying a large duffel bag filled with an assortment of
tools and electronic equipment.

  Ramirez closed the gap once more and turned towards the
group still waiting. "Go," he said simply. He watched as
nineteen fully trained, fully armed Marines quickly but
quietly emptied through the door leading to the stairwell.

  *This'll teach those alien bastards not to mess with Earth
people*, Ramirez thought darkly.

                          * * * * *
  
  Rogo packed the remaining power core into his backpack
when Lam emerged from his room.

  "All set?" Lam asked.

  "We're ready," was Rogo's immediate reply.

  "Good. Let's g--"

  "Wait a minute!"

  Both Lam and Rogo turned to Crata who seemed to be busy
behind her computers.

  "What is it?" Lam asked, approaching the technology
officer.

  "The computers are detecting several motion signatures
coming from the stairwell. They're heading up." Crata
punched a few keys and two other monitors came to life
showing thermal silhouettes of...men climbing the stairs at a
quick pace. They were armed. Crata punched another set of
keys. This time another monitor turned on. It seemed to show
an image of the roof. There they saw several humans
abseiling from two helicopters hovering several feet from
the roof.

  Lam and Rogo exchanged glances. "Alert everybody," Lam
ordered.

  "Got it." Rogo raised his wrist to issue the command to
defend on his communicator when the lights went out. "What
in the--"
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  "The lights and elevators are out, Sir," Lt. Evans
reported.

  "Good," Biggs responded. He swept his eyes across the
large bank of monitors set up in their room. Each monitor
showed the night-vision image captured from the cameras
mounted on each Marine's headgear. "Have the men stay put.
Those aliens should begin to emerge from their rooms
shortly. When they do, instruct the men to fire at will."

  "Yes, Sir," Lt. Evans replied.

                          * * * * *
  
  "What the hell are they doing just sitting there?" Grat
asked.

  "What else," Lam said, "they're waiting for us to rush
out of rooms so that they can take us down."

  "Humans are so stupid," Dasma commented with a smirk.

  "Well, let's not disappoint them. They want us to come
out of our rooms, let's all come out of our rooms then--with
guns blazing," Lam said with a wicked smile. "Instruct all
the others to do the same."

  "You got it," Dasma said with a feral smile of her own.

  As one, all the occupants of the various rooms raised
their high-powered weapons and trained them on the walls
separating them from the human attackers lurking out in the
hallways.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  "Sir, they're not coming out of their rooms," Evans
reported after a while.

  "I can see that, Lieutenant," Biggs said that irritably.
He glanced up at the monitor showing thermal images of the
room across from the window. It showed six figures all
facing the far wall..."My God," he breathed, "tell the men to
fall back, NOW!"

  Just then, multiple loud explosions could be heard not
just from the building across the street but from the
speakers in the room itself. Several of the men manning the
communications equipment threw their headgears down, cupping
their ears, bending over in pain. Many of the monitors
blanked out as it became apparent that several Marines went
down. True enough, the repeated calls of "Man down!" began
streaming off the radio speakers.

  "Fire at will! Fire at will!" Biggs yelled into the radio
as the sound of distant explosions continued. The colonel
squeezed Evans' shoulder. "Talk to me, son! What the fuck is
happening!?" He demanded.

  "Sir, our men are dropping like flies. There's a bit of
confusion but the enemy seems to be using some kind of
energy weapon."

  "God *damn*! Tell them to fall back!"

  "Yes, Sir!"

  Biggs dared a glance at the bank of monitors. Of the
forty, only a little over twenty were still displaying
images...but they were gradually winking off one by one.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  "Just where the fuck do you think you're going?"

  "Where does it look like I'm going, Hiroshi?" Nomuri
asked as she chambered a round in her submachine gun. "I'm
going up."

  "Colonel Biggs ordered us to fall back," Ramirez said,
quickly trying to overtake his counterpart before she
reached the stairs. When he caught up with her, he grabbed
her arm and yanked her back. "Listen to me--"

  "No, you listen to me!" Nomuri screamed, pulling her arm
violently from Ramirez's grasp. "Our fellow Marines are
dying up there." She fixed Ramirez with a hard glare. "The
Marine Corps takes care of its own."

  Ramirez returned the glare unflinchingly but it was clear
that he was torn. "Oh fuck it! I'm going with you."

  Nomuri allowed a momentary show of relief before putting
on her mission face. She gave Hiroshi a nod and then,
together, they rushed towards the stairs.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  Dasma felt the rush in her blood as she plowed through
debris, bodies and pouring water from the sprinklers, firing
on any human she encountered. After five years of non-
action, pretending to be Danielle Fontane, reporter for the
L.A. Tribune, she welcomed the battle. Here she was in her
element. After all, she was a Ramarian warrior.

  Off to her right, she sensed--before she saw--a human
taking aim at her. She whirled, leveled her KT-10 plasma
displacement gun at her enemy and fired. The KT-10 was not
her favorite weapon. She preferred hand-to-hand combat to
this but then, one can't always choose the battle.

  She would have wanted to enjoy the neat explosion that
instantly fried the human but she realized that the human
was able to fire at her just before she got him. She could
distinctly make out three bullets speeding towards her.
Dasma leaped out of the way intending to land cleanly and
then roll but one of the bullets caught her in the arm
causing her to crash down hard on her side.

  She gave a yelp of surprise rather than pain as
unexpectedly, another bullet hit her on the shoulder,
whipping her around, causing her to drop her weapon. In
short order, tiny explosions began erupting around her on
the wet flooring as more of the enemy started firing at her
earnestly, if not blindly, through the cloud of smoke that
fortunately, shielded her from full view.

  With rising urgency, Dasma crawled for cover. She spied a
room whose door was broken down. She rushed towards it as
fast as her hands and knees could take her. Her assailants
were relentlessly firing at her.

  Just as she was about to enter the safety of the room,
she felt two hot bullets puncture her side. Dasma gave a
grunt of pain this time. Weaponless and wounded, she knew
she needed help. However, the thought of asking for help
pained her even more than her wounds.

  She was spared from having to swallow her pride when she
heard Grat's voice on the comlink. "Dasma, where the hell
are you?"
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  "You, two!" Grat shouted above the din of multiple
explosions towards the two Ramarians nearest him. They
immediately left the ongoing battle and approached him.
"Dasma is down. There are two humans on her. Follow me."
Grat began running towards the stairs. The two Ramarians
exchanged glances before hurriedly sprinting after Grat.

  Back in Ramar, if someone came to them asking for help to
save a downed Ramarian, they would have thought him insane
and abnormal. Since the destruction of their solar system,
however, each Ramarian became a precious resource. Not a bad
change of perception, both Ramarians thought.

                          * * * * *
  
  "What do you mean you're under attack?" Tanaka asked over
the comlink.

  "I mean precisely that," Lam said in that maddeningly
calm voice of his. "There are around forty humans armed with
automatic weapons attacking us."

  Tanaka could indeed make out the sound of explosions in
the background. "But who could be attacking you?"

  "That's what I want you to find out, Mr. Tanaka. In the
meantime, we will have to change our plans a bit. We'll talk
about that later..." The sound of an explosion that came
through the comlink was louder. "Could you hold...?" More
explosions. "Listen, I'd love to chat but I'm busy at the
moment."

  "Do you need help...?" Tanaka said but he noted that the
comlink went dead. "Something's not right," he said to
himself as he lifted the phone.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  Special Agent Robert Jenkins strode purposely through the
precinct looking for Investigator Hirota. As he rounded the
corner, he spotted Hirota walking briskly towards him with a
bevy of other police officers. Jenkins knew from the
expression on the other's face that something was very
wrong. He stopped on his tracks and waited for the other to
reach him.

  "You look like you're about to puke out your breakfast,"
Jenkins said as Hirota came within hearing distance.

  The premier Japanese police investigator favored his
American guest with a wry look. "You don't look too happy
yourself, Robert. And by the way, I haven't had breakfast
yet."

  "Well then, that explains it. You shouldn't start a day
without breakfast. So tell me what's *really* wrong," Jenkins
said, now walking alongside Hirota, matching him step for
step which wasn't very difficult since he was the taller
one.

  "There have been reports of multiple explosions at a new
condominium over at Shibuya," Hirota explained. "We're going
over there to investigate."

  "I see," Jenkins said, glancing at the several other
officers following them. Shouldn't they be bringing the SWAT
team over?

  "We *are* bringing the SWAT team over," Hirota said,
reading his mind. He gave the American a glance. "You were
looking for me?"

  "As a matter of fact, I was. It appears that our two
astrophysicists have disappeared. They've managed to sneak
out of their rooms past the guards."

  "Ah," The Japanese shook his head, "any ideas where they
might have gone?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "I trust you want to accompany me on this excursion
instead of finding our missing guests," Hirota said as they
finally exited the building. He made a beeline towards his
car with Jenkins keeping stride.

  "With your permission, naturally."

  "Do you think this has anything to do with our alien
visitors?" He asked just as he was about to enter his car.

  When Jenkins got into the passenger's seat he turned his
head towards his Japanese counterpart. "Anything is
possible," he said with a smirk.

  "I just *knew* you'd say that," Hirota said giving a smirk
of his own before speeding towards Shibuya ward.
                              
                          * * * * *
  
  "Stop wasting ammo," Nomuri urged as she wiped the water
from her eyes with a hand.

  "I'm not wasting ammo," Ramirez said impatiently. "I'm
*laying* cover fire. You never know with those alien
bastards." He was armed with two MP5s now, the other one
sequestered from the charred remains of one of their
comrades. It was a grizzly sight but both Marines were
already used to it having fought in Desert Storm. "Damn!
It's hard to see past all the smoke. I wish it'd clear up
already."

  Both Nomuri and Ramirez were crouching, moving stealthily
forward. Hiroshi knew he was able to hit the alien at least
twice. He was also equally certain, however, that it was
still alive, somewhere just up ahead. They were coming up
against a pile of rubble large enough for an alien to hide
in by his estimation. He turned his head over his shoulder
to look at his partner. He indicated the rubble with his
eyes and waited to see the other acknowledge his finding
with nod.

  Still in a crouch, he inched slowly towards the pile.
When he was upon it, he surged forward and twisted his upper
body, aiming his two guns at the area behind the rubble.
Empty. He called out softly for Nomuri to follow.

  "Oh no," Nomuri said forlornly.

  "What is it?" Ramirez asked, a note of concern on his
voice. He wouldn't want any harm to befall his partner. He
edged closer towards his partner who was bent over something
on the floor. It wasn't until he was upon her that he
recognized it.

  "It looks like a civilian," Nomuri said, raising her sad
eyes to look at her partner.

  Ramirez bent to take a closer look. The body was charred,
just like their other fallen comrade. Upon careful scrutiny
he could make out parts of the pajama that this person
obviously wore. His face took on a hard, steely expression
as he looked at Nomuri. "Nothing we can do for this one now.
But there is something we can do about the one who caused
it."

  Nomuri matched the expression of her partner. Together
they continued to move forward.
                              
                          * * * * *


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