A few hours later, the Water Dogs and members of a resistance group who all wore arbites uniforms showed up. There was an exhausted cheer when they were told they had survived. Cav was not ecstatic with joy as his new chance at life. To be frank, the thought that today was his last day got old after the third hour and by the time he was rescued, he was thinking more about sleep than about living. He didn't even bother to ask why they were being rescued. The answer was the orks were all dead, but he didn't find out until later.

Too exhausted to care that he had just lived through a suicide mission, Cav followed the Water Dogs back to the sewers. They bid goodbye to the arbites resisters and entered the darkness. Cav didn't remember the journey back or the evening meal of water fungus. He just found himself lying on his bunk before passing out.

He didn't get much sleep.

"What?" Cav groaned as he opened his eyes. He caught sight of Kins standing over him in full dress, looking like a stormcloud. What was he angry about? What could he possibly be angry about? Cav had just survived an onslaught of orks and the 89th had won the day all by themselves. So to hell with Kins.

"On your feet you damned strawhead!" Kins snapped his fingers as he barked. "Lystartro says your report is due. Where in the Emperor's name is it? I'm not doing the headcount for you." The report. Of course! Cav felt like hitting himself. It was like forgetting his own name to forget a detail like that. But he was so tired.

"Tired…" Cav yawned and shook his head. "What time is it?"

"Am I to understand you're not following your orders?" Kins demanded, hands on his hips.

"No commissar, I was just clearing my head. I'll get right on it." Kins would execute Cav for any reason. He would not give the short-tempered commissar a reason. Kins left and Cav took a few minutes to revive himself. He fetched some paper and began to write his report.

A half hour later, Cav found Lystartro in the mess hall where he sat with Osprey, Yueka, Kins and Arcantillius. What time was it? Cav guessed it was the evening because no one was awake anywhere else. So why were they missing sleep? At the end of the table sat four of Mhal's stormtroopers, again they were masked and suited up. They weren't eating, just sitting still and waiting. Now that he thought of it, he never saw them in the mess hall with the Water Dogs during mealtimes. He's never seen them eat or drink or, for that matter, do anything except stand or fight. He turned from them and to the circle of officers.

"Captain," Cav said, "I have my report." The headcount had frightened him. 22 left, including himself and Curth's unit. 22 out of 200. If the other two groups had collectively taken 22 losses then they were at half strength. All those boys from training, from the academy, one half of all of them were dead. They'd looked so tough, standing in formation in battledress under the eyes of their vicious trainers. It hadn't been a month and half of them were dead!

"Thank you," Lystartro said, taking the paper. Cav turned to go. "You want to join in?" Cav looked at the circle and noticed they were playing cards. Even Kins had a hand and was contemplating it closely. Osprey scratched his nose and fingered on card as if to discard it.

"What, you think because we're all officers it means you can't join?" Arcantillius asked. "I heard some pretty nasty things happened when you were out there. But your boys saved us all. You should be proud of them Cav." He slid aside to make room for him between himself and Osprey. " Sit down. Cool off. You've earned your place at the officer's table as commander of the 89th." Cav felt proud as he sat with the other officers. He gave a weak smile and took a hand of cards when the next round began. He knew the game, having learned it in basic and played it with the other boys, many of whom were now dead and rotting.

Cav won the first round, narrowly beating Kins' hand. The entire table laughed at Kins when Cav showed his hand. The commissar gave a loud, laughing exhale and looked lazily at Cav as if to say "but I'm still commissar." He had his revenge on Cav in the next round.

"…and I shot the greenskin right off the top of the turret with my rifle," finished Osprey as he discarded a card and picked another up. He'd won the last three rounds. Cav didn't think this game took much skill, but apparently it did, because Osprey was such a good player. "I got revenge on him," he touched the round scar on his forearm. "And then this one…" he stood up and lifted his shirt to show them the dent on his stomach, "was during the ork raids two years back." He sat back down.

"A bad time," Yueka added. "Lost a lot of good boys there. Mhal's troops saved my life in those old days." She laughed, but Cav couldn't guess why.

Two years? These stormtroopers had been posted with the Water Dogs that long? It fightened Cav to think he had barely started his terrible term in this sewer-home.

"What about you captain? How'd you lose your hand?" Yueka asked Lystartro.

"A grenade exploded in my hand," Lystartro lied absently as he picked through his hand and grimaced at how bad it apparently was. "I don't suppose you have any scars in your girl places you would like to show us?" Osprey chuckled and Yueka stared at him like an angry lioness.

"Yeah, I've got one. Right here," she threw him a rude gesture.

"Yueka!" Kins warned. Lystartro waved Kins silent, without even raising his grizzled brow from his cards.

That ended the conversation about scars. Soon a new round began. This time, Arcantillius won. As Cav collected a new hand, he looked again at the stormtroopers. They were still where they were. They'd played fifteen rounds of cards and those four hadn't even shifted.

"How did you meet up with those guys?" Cav asked, nodding. Osprey and Yueka looked at each other. Yueka shrugged and looked down at her hand.

"Mhal came down with his group to give us special help. He's actually from a different company than his squad mates. I guess because losses forced them together." Osprey discarded a card and picked one up. "They don't say much."

"Truly?" asked Arcantillius, "I don't think I've ever seen any of them take off their mask, except Mhal." He squinted at them. "Do they even have names? I've served with gloryboys before and I've not met a lance of them who're as shy as this squad has made itself."

"They can hear you," Lystartro muttered to the other captain, "at least, I think so." Everyone looked at the silent four. "Hey! What are you four waiting for? Can we help?" Silence. Cav looked at Osprey and Yueka. They had their faces in their cards and huddled down. Were they trying to stay out of this? Cav looked back at the unmoving stormtroopers. Why was Osprey so nervous with his most helpful allies? Did they know Mhal suspected the Halivorians were making a return?

"Tomorrow I want to see how you got in touch with our headquarters," Kins shouted to the four statues. "So I can confirm some things. Alright?" Silence. Kins dropped his hand and stood up. "I am speaking to you. Tell your commander that I want to inspect his vox sets."

"I'll talk to Mhal about that," Osprey said, but Kins waved him silent.

"No, I will talk to Mhal about that," Kins said, "and these four are…"

"Are what, commissar Kins?" Mhal asked. Cav had just gone through a living nightmare of war and dying and he was as startled ny Mhal as he had been when the shells suddenly fell. Now, Mhal was good at sneaking, but Mhal had just had his eyes right there, where he was standing. How was it humanly possible to move that fast, that silent? Kins turned to Mhal, who had a calm face that was inspecting his pistol.

"There's some things I want ironed out," Kins stated.

"And I heard," Mhal replied. "Unfortunately, some ork rangers snuck into my hidden outpost up in the ruins and destroyed my gear. I thought I told you earlier." Kins scowled.

"You didn't," he replied. "I'd remember if you did. You are a liar Mhal." Mhal gestured to Arcantillius.

"Did his men have sets?" the enigmatic sergeant asked.

"All destroyed," Arcantillius replied.

"Ours too," Lystartro added. He looked darkly at Mhal but said nothing. Did he suspect…? No. Mhal? How could Mhal Dannit have been behind the radio's destruction? It was just a freakish accident.

"Come Cav, I want you to see someone your underlings dragged in from the battlefield," Mhal said, pointing behind himself. Cav shrugged and stood up, following Mhal without question.

"You know a lot about your people's history?" Mhal asked, offhand. "I've not met a lot of Angelspears and I've always wanted to discuss history with them. Maybe tomorrow, instead of cards, we could have a talk?" Cav shrugged, not wanting to admit he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with Mhal Dannit. Something wasn't right, something definitely wasn't right with him.

The four stormtroopers left the room shortly after Mhal. As one, they rose up at an unspoken order and trudged outside like zombies, heading down the same direction and out of sight. Kins looked down at his cards and snorted. He was waiting for the right moment to strike and demand answers.

"Like…you hate Mhal so much. What did you expect this mission would have?" asked Yueka. Kins spoke the fastest.

"The mission briefing did not mention stormtroopers and the two companies were sent separately," Kins replied. Yueka shrugged, like it was no big deal.

"So what? War's a pain in the tail," she smiled at her hand and made ready to show it. "What was your mission?"

"Meet up with someone named Agent 33 and help them get off Urbanis 1," Kins replied. "This Agent 33 person was supposed to be right there at the drop site. Agent 33 wasn't and Mhal showed up long after we were expecting him." Yueka rolled her eyes.

"Or her," she said.

"Mieel?" Cav hurried across the bunkroom, past the three old women who were knitting gloves, to Mieel, who sat alone at the rearmost bunk. With a polite nod, Mhal dismissed the women and stood behind Cav. Mieel wore his dirtied uniform and smelled bad. He looked into Cav's face and his eyes widened slightly. Cav sat beside him.

Mhal quickly explained how Tigerson and Curth brought him in.

"Wow, you must be tired," Cav said with a smile. "And lucky too." Mieel said nothing and Cav remembered what Lystartro said about battlefield shock. "Come on Mieel, speak up. You're not in the killing anymore, you're with the Water Dogs." Cav explained everything he knew about them, as well as Mhal, to Mieel. "Cool, huh?" Cav asked. Mieel said nothing. "Come on Mieel…" Cav tried to remember which of the countryside villages Mieel lived in, to cheer him up with it. He couldn't recall. Damn!

"Can you do something for me?" Cav asked with a false smile. "Can you help out old Cav? Can you write down what happened to you if you can't speak it?" Mieel did not move or talk. Perhaps it was just as well. Cav had no paper…

"Here's paper," Mhal said, producing a crisp white sheet from…from…where did he get that? "A pencil too." He handed Mieel both items, but the boy didn't take them. So Mhal laid them on the table beside his bunk and left. Cav knew he couldn't get anywhere, not yet.

"Well, it's good to have you back," Cav smiled. "I'll write about how lucky you were in my diary? Okay?" Mieel didn't respond. "Okay," Cav ruffled his hair and bid him goodnight. He turned off the lights, leaving him in the dark.

An hour passed. The card game in the mess hall ended and everyone went to bed.

Two hours passed. The underground hideout was now asleep.

Before the third hour passed, a light lit up the room. It was a small light stick Mieel had found on one of the bunks. His eyes were dribbling tears and he sniffled a few times. With a shaking hand, he reached for the page. He knew Cav was angry with him, but if Cav knew how scared he was, he'd feel sorry for him. Why was the world so mean to him? What did Mieel have to do to escape it? Still, he had indeed seen something that night in the urban wilderness, which had killed those men. The memory in his head was too painful for him to describe, so instead he put his pencil to the paper and he began to draw what he saw.

When he was done, he threw his drawing on the floor, having grown afraid of it. He hid under his sheets, but that didn't make him safe. The drawing was still there. So he took the drawing and opened the door.

A stormtrooper was standing there, the staring mask lit by Mieel's light stick. Mieel recoiled, but froze when the stormtrooper held out his hand. Mieel gingerly passed the drawing to him and closed the door. Then he ran back to his bunk, turned off his light stick and cried.

Outside, the stormtrooper quietly walked to the mess hall, where Mhal and the other stormtroopers awaited in silence. He handed the drawing to one of the other stormtroopers, who looked at it.

"We have a problem," a voice said from behind the trooper's mask. "The boy saw this." From hand to hand, it was passed around. Mhal took it last and drew a deep, worried breath when he saw what Mieel drew.

"So, it is true then," he said. "We cannot wait. If we are to succeed, we have to act soon if they are this bold. What shall we do?" He looked around at the masked faces for answers. "I suspect the Guardsmen are catching on to our ruse. We might have to make a fast escape."

"Our priority is still the same. We must eliminate them before they make their move," one of the troopers said. Mhal nodded slowly, still thinking.

"We should summon the others," he finally said, "from what we've seen, the enemy is definitely on the move. We'll meet up with the rest of our brethren in the city and take our search from there."

"What will we tell the Water Dogs?"

"The truth: that we're scouting," Mhal finished. He folded up Mieel's drawing and pocketed it.