Hi! Ferus Olan here. Thank you for reading this far. I have had some encouragement to keep going. For a bit there I was questioning whether this story was worth it. The more feedback I've received, the better I feel about how to keep going. Continued support in this manner would demand my utmost gratitude.

Twilight AngelDemon: Thanks for your kind words. Feedback like yours really helps me address aspects of my story that need to be addressed. Plus it made myself curious about those things as well. Without you, I think I would have never thought of them. I have also begun using a grammar check program which i will work towards implementing into my previous entries. Thank you for that too. Despite spending most of my waking time staring at screens, I wasn't aware of such a thing before. I look forward to your continued support.

10

"What do I do?!"

Lightning's arm came down swiftly against her side. Both groups pushed through the gates and moved their way up the courtyard with weapons eye level. Hope and Merral led the rear with Lightning far ahead of them. As the two moved from cover to cover, mostly abandoned police vehicles, the airships above them roared towards the Academy. Hope kept his weapon ready and scanned his left, right, and rear sectors before changing from cover to cover. He kept his eyes behind the group as he led the rear in case of an unforeseen flanking route.

Once his platoon had reached the main doors to the Academy, he again stacked against the walls just as he had at the gate. Light pushed the door gently open with her hand with weapon raised. She pushed the barrel of her gun blade into the opening and let it guide her inside. As the rest of the platoon filed inside, Hope followed with the same motion.

Just inside the doors was a massive lobby littered with broken furniture, glass, and empty shells. Desks were scattered everywhere. Each GC or APD found the nearest cover they could and trained their weapons towards the end of the lobby by the doors to the main hallway. Light shuffled her hand toward one of her platoon sergeants.

"They were here all right," he said to her. Hope took a position close enough that he could overhear the two.

"Yes. But I would have thought we would have met some resistance by now. Something is not right," she replied.

"Lucky break? Maybe they saw all of us and decided not to test their strength against ours."

"I doubt it. They are after something more than just a fight. I know it. Tell your men to keep their eyes open. I'll take half the men, you take the other. Alpha and Bravo. I'll take Alpha further in and secure the VIP, you take Bravo and secure the entrance to the hallway and the lobby to make sure we can get out of here okay."

"Understood," the sergeant replied, "You six by the desks and you three on the wall there, you're with me. Secure the lobby, call it out."

"That's me," Merral said as he turned to Hope. He raised his fist letting Hope bump it with his own, "Be cool in there bro." Merral turned away to join the rest of Bravo. Hope could hear their movements about the lobby and the occasional word "CLEAR" echoing against the walls.

Lightning turned to the rest of them and motioned with her arm to push forward. As they closed the distance between themselves and the hallway entrance their pace increased. Inside the hallway, they searched each door one by one. Hope desperately wanted to run to the end of the hallway towards his father's massive office but stood his ground as each room was searched. With each "CLEAR!" he heard, he felt he was one step closer.

One door was left on the right, just before his father's office. As all other team members were securing their own room, he approached the door and breached it down with his a swift kick into the door. As soon as he did he heard a defining scream.

"HANDS! SHOW ME YOUR HANDS AND FACE THE WALL NOW!" he yelled. His weapon was trained towards the sound of the unfamiliar voice.

"Please! Please don't shoot! I'll do anything so please don't shoot!" the girl begged. As Hope adjusted to the lack of light in the room he saw a girl with light colored hair wearing shorts with a shirt and tie with yellow sleeves. She was cowering in the corner of the room while shielding her eyes from the figure in the doorway.

Hope recognized the clothing she wore and holstered his weapon as he approached her. "It's okay," he began, "We're here to help."

"Are you APD? Can you get us out of here? I've been here hiding for so long." she said through her tears.

"Guardian Corps. But APD is just outside too. I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of here, okay?" he said. Hope knelt down to her side and pulled his canteen out from his Alice pack. He uncapped the top and presented it to her. "I'm a corpsman," he continued, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, no I'm fine," she said, " A GC corpsman huh? Mr. Estheim has a son who's a…" Her words were interrupted as she took a moment to look at the face of her new hope. "Wow...you kinda look like Mr. Estheim too.."

"Do you know where he is? Is he okay? How do I find him? Is he alone?" Hope frantically asked at the mention of his father.

"Last I saw he was in his office." she stated, "That's the last anyone saw him I believe. He has the others with him and a small security detail I think."

Hope picked himself up and walked toward the door. He yelled, "clear!" before approaching Lightning.

"Well?" Light asked.

"Room's clear. The last anyone saw him was in his office. He may have security with him so don't just go charging in. There's a girl in the room here. Looks like a student," he said.

"Okay," she replied, "Secure the girl and fall in line. You have your cell? Turn it on and call your dad. Let him know we're coming in and not to shoot at us."

Hope nodded and pulled out his cell. He was pleasantly surprised how sensible and adequate her solution was given the situation. "Dad? It's me. Our platoon is right outside your doors. We're coming in don't shoot 'kay?" He hung up before his father could give a response.

Lightning turned to the rest of the men and signaled them forward toward the door. She knocked and pushed it open. Hope went to the rear of the formation with the girl in tow. He held her shaking hand in his free one. By the time the whole group had finally shuffled through the office door, everyone inside had calmed down quite a bit. The girl let go of his hand and ran to his father.

"Alyssa!" his father said, "You're okay!" He turned away from Lightning who had already greeted him and was familiarizing herself with his security staff.

"Yes! Yes! I am!" she responded.

"How?" he asked.

"A GC soldier rescued me!" She turned away to reach for Hope's hand and pulled him along with her. "Here he is!"

"Goddess be damned it really was you who called wasn't it?" Bartholomew said, gazing bewilderedly at his son.

"Hey dad," Hope said, "You're okay I take it?" he asked, pointing to the pistol strapped to his father's hip questioningly.

"It is how it is, you know? PSICOM tries to shoot up my place once and the whole world changes." his father replied, "But yeah we're okay for now. My security team and I fell back and held up in here. It's big enough to keep everyone including the civilians and staff. However, I felt like it was an easier fight than it needed to be. Almost like if they wanted it like this."

"Did you tell this to Light?" Hope asked.

"I just did." he replied, "There are some service stairwells flanking both sides of the large hallway you came through to get here. They are tucked behind some of the rooms on the way in so unless you work here you don't know to look for them."

Hope had suddenly come to realize why there was no resistance, why they had yet to see any fighting. They were all bottled into the office now and with only one way out. He turned to Lightning to share his discovery but she had taken off towards his father's desk at the far end of the room and climbed on top of it.

"ATTENTION!" she yelled, "Check your weapons and ammo. We were let in here, this was no element of luck. Everyone secure the civilians around you, dig into cover, and watch the door. There's only one way out of here and they knew that!"

Light jumped down from the large desk and took a position next to Hope, training her weapon's sights towards the direction of the hallway. Hope secured himself into cover next to her behind an overturned table and did the same with his own gun blade. GC, APD, and Academy Security personnel were all staring intently at the door. The room was stark quiet as hustled footsteps and two loud thuds just outside the door could be heard. The noises prompted a collective release of safeties and chambering of rounds from everyone dug in.

Suddenly a blinding flash and deafening blast stunned everyone in the room. Hope's eyes had within an instant failed him and he was racked with a debilitating headache. He collapsed onto the ground for a moment before regaining himself. When he came to he could hear the sound of rounds whizzing past his head and saw the flashing of discharged weapons pointed at him.

"Contact front!" came a voice to his left.

Hope reaffirmed his weapon's active position, lined his sighting, and squeezed the trigger. He fired blindly into the smoke and flashing lights in front of him. The smoke yet to clear, he fired again. Suddenly, he felt someone shove him to his left hard. His body took to the wall like a tennis ball against the floor as he recoiled from the impact and landed on the hard floor below his feet. Despite the pain shooting through his spine, he craned his neck towards the source of the initial force. Light was standing where he once was, her weapon by her feet and her arms outstretched towards him still.

Hope understood immediately what she did and why. He charged towards her but only made it so far as to standing up on his feet before it happened. A small, localized explosion just behind her brought Lightning to the ground. Lightning had put herself between Hope and a grenade and pushed him away as far as humanly possible. Now, she was lying on the ground a mere couple of feet from where he stood. Hope let his weapon drop to the ground and fell to the ground beside her.

"Ligh! Light!" he cried out to her. He fumbled his hands around her neck to check for a pulse. It was there.

"Hope, I'm okay just get to...ugghh damn it…." she tried to force, clutching her groin and abdomen fiercely. "Fuck this hurts," she said as she desperately tugged on her cartridge belt.

"You're not Light. Stay still," he replied before crying out, "I need some help over here!" Hope checked her body for signs of bleeding. Fortunately, her Alice pack and combat pack she attached to the base of the ice pack had absorbed some of the blast.

No one came. Every friendly was busy engaging their source of hostile fire. Unanticipatedly, the sounds of small arms fire and blasting stopped. In the distance, Hope could hear their combatants engaging another source on the opposite side of the hall.

"Light, it's Bravo. They heard us. Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here. I promise," he said to her as he helped her to her feet. She cried out in pain as she put her legs underneath herself and hobbled her way towards her weapon. Hope knelt down to pick it up and handed it to her before tucking himself under one of her arms. He directed her toward the doors and started moving.

"Move up!" Lightning commanded through groans and labored coughing. "Secure the hallway and assist Bravo!"

Hope let the rest of Alpha move through the hallway first, the duo bringing the rear. Once they were in the lobby, Lightning collapsed onto Hope, her legs not responding. Hope dragged her to the nearest cover, a bullet-battered couch, and kept her there. Hope peered over the armrest he hid behind for a view of the fighting.

"What do you see?" Light asked.

"Twenty plus small arms combatants, about half trained to us and the other trained to Bravo by the entrance. They are armored and have reinforced their own cover," Hope said.

"Tell the men to hold, two of them need to go back to the office to re-secure civilians. Get Bravo up on my comm line," she ordered, holding her earpiece and radio clipped to a metal ring attached to her jacket. "Tell Bravo to pull from the building back to the gates. Once they do, tell Alpha to push forward and flush them out. We need them where out airborne platoon can get a visual."

"Understood." Hope took her radio and did exactly as she ordered. He reached the Bravo sergeant who pulled his men back out into the courtyard and toward the gates as Alpha pushed forward. Once the enemy had made it outside, Hope could hear weapons fire from the airships.

"We have one down! Watch for launcher fire from the courtyard!" Hope heard over his comm. Unfortunately, now that the enemy had been forced outside, they were no longer afraid to use their heavy weapons as the walls of the building from inside no longer posed a danger for friendly blasts or fire.

Light picked herself up and threw her arm over Hope before shifting her weight onto his shoulders. "We gotta keep moving. We can't stay here. We'll get shredded if they decide to pop on of those off into the building."

Hope nodded in agreement. He picked her up and pushed forward through the large threshold of the open doors and outside. The rest of Alpha pushed forward moments before they had. The battle outside was much grander, the explosions were bigger, the small arms fire was greater, and a couple downed airships littered the courtyard.

Hope and Lightning pushed their way toward the gates, now standing center of the building and gates to the courtyard. Suddenly, the two were thrown to the ground by another explosion. Lightning rolled on top of him and back onto her feet. She staggered for a moment before digging back into cover behind a stone bench.

"Hope! Watch for falling debris from the airships taking explosive fire! Get covered!" Hope! Hope?!" Light screamed.

Hope was on the ground clutching his right shoulder. Hope cried out in agonizing pain, screaming louder than he had ever before in his Life. Lightning ran to him wit severe distress on her face.

"Hope! Oh no, please, please, please no! Hope!" Lightning bellowed. Upon looking at him she started to fear the worst. She rolled him onto his back, Hope screaming in pain as she did. She yanked his corpsman's combat pack from his left hip and tore it open. She fumbled with some gauze and sulfanilamide powder, pressing both against his right shoulder. In doing so, more ripe, pungent smelling fluid escaped his chest and shoulder to stain the concrete beneath him. Within seconds, her hands and sleeves were soaked through. In vain, she continued to press the soaked gauze into his open, free-flowing wound.

"You're bleeding Hope. Shit, you're bleeding everywhere," she said. "How do I fix this? Tell me! What do I do?!"

Hope struggled to make out her words. He could only hear and see things in spurts, and when he did they were hazy and unclear. Hope had felt a piece of the blast penetrate his shoulder and rip through the muscle. He felt his shoulder being forced out of place and the snapping of his bones while what breath he did have was completely robbed of him. His right side felt very warm one minute, and then colder than ice the next. The sensations were getting weaker and eventually he couldn't hear anything.

With each passing second, the image he saw of a hazy figure frantically tossing about their arms above him faded and ultimately faded away completely. He tried to call out to her, opening his mouth to scream for her, but his words never surfaced. He had no breath to force out his words, and in an effort to take one in, he tasted not the rain-drenched air he sought for but a severe thick bitterness. The moment it passed into his throat, Hope convulsed violently against the ground below him as he ejected anything he could from his mouth. He frantically grasped at the ground for support, digging his nails into the concrete fiercely enough to draw blood from the nails. With each convulsion, each time he forced up his own vomit and blood, each labored and unproductive gasp for air, each frantic and weakened beating of his heart, he could feel his life draining away.

Finally, he was overtaken by black, by a nothingness. He had never felt more alone.

He had never been more afraid.