Disclamer: I don't own Kim Possible and any related characters to either her or Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles
Excerpt from the journal of Lt. Kim Possible, September 15th, 2081. Day 218 of the battle for planet Earth.
"...And as such, we will see this mission through to the end, be it our end or the Queen's. I have nothing but respect for the troopers that have served under me and the troopers I have served with during the war. It has been an honor to stand beside them in battle for the last couple of years and I hope that we will survive, but I can't tell the future so I will continue to fight with all of my ability until we either succeed or die trying. To all those at home, mom, dad, tweebs. You are in my heart always. Know that if I don't survive..."
36 hours earlier...
"Aw come on, tell us!" Lucas was pestering Pauline as Kim walked into the bunk room
"What is going on here?" she asked. Lucas spoke first
"Private Timbers has a crush on one of the troopers that were just transferred here" he said and covered his head. Pauline responded to that in two ways. One, she threw her pillow at him and second
"I DO NOT!" She said, but it was obivous she did and was trying to hide it. Kim smiled, she liked to see her squad like this when off duty, relaxing and friendly with each other, not too many cares, considering what was going on in the world. Kim was about to say something when the comm came on
"Delta squad to the war room. Delta Squad to the war room. Lieutenant Possible to General Possible's office. Lieutenant Possible to General Possible's office"
"You heard the voice, get moving" Kim ordered and headed out.
"I am so gonna get you for that" Pauline threatened Lucas. Ron was doing his best to not laugh his head off, but he couldn't help letting out a laugh.
"What is going on?" Kim asked her mother as she entered her office. Anne got up and walked over to Kim
"Follow me" she said and walked out. Kim followed
"Well?" Anne said nothing on the walk to the war room. Kim wondered what was going on.
As Kim and Anne entered the war room, Kim laid eyes on a familer, green skinned woman
"SHEGO?!" Shego was talking with someone else, but turned around to face her
"Hi, Kimmie" she said, the other person turned around, it was Lt. Rico
"Lieutenant" Kim saluted, Rico returned the salute "Either of you know what is going on here?" Kim asked
"Sorry, I have no idea" Shego answered
"I dunno. Command is keeping us in the dark about this one. From what I heard, it's big though" Rico said. Kim looked around the room, her squad was there, the six troopers of Shego's squad was there, Sgt. Anders, Cpl. Derrick, Cpl. Arsica, Cpl. Kalle, Cpl. Poute. Rico's squad was present as well, Cpl Gossard, Cpl. LaCroix, Pvt. T'Phai, Pvt. FLores, Pvt. Higgins and the two latest additions to his squad - Sgt. Zim and Pvt. Brutto.
Befom could say anything further, the main doors slid open and in walked two troopers, who took up positions on either side of the door, and followed by Sky Marshell Sanchez who was flanked by Tara and Dr. Director. Kim was in awe, but said nothing, since her mother cut in
"TEN HUT!" she barked and all the troopers came to attention. The Sky Marshell walked up to the projector and pressed a few keys
"At ease. This is your mission. We believe we have located the Queen bug. Colonel?" He steps back and Dr. Director steps forward, Tara at her side. Kim listens intently
"Thank you, Sky Marshell" she turns back to the troopers "We believe the Queen bug is here..." she points to a spot on the 3D map "In the Himalayan mountain range. INTEL was able to determine that she is some where in this area. Now, we will be sending you three squads in, but due to the high concentration of warriors, and we are litterally talking thousands here, we will be dropping in several squads of troopers here, a good distance away from the mountain, but close enough to draw out a good chunk of the guard warriors away from the queen and allow you three squads the chance to get in and take her out. This is not a capture mission, this is a Search and Destroy mission. Clear?" the three Lieutenants nod
"Who is in command for this mission?" Kim asks. Dr. Director hesitates, but before she can say anything, Tara steps forward
"It was decided at the highest level by the Federal Council, that this is an INTEL mission and as a result, an INTEL officer will be in command..." all three Lieutenants winced
"It was determined that their was only one officer who had spent enough time in the sims and dealt with enough troopers that she could be trusted with the success of this mission"
"So who...?" Kim asks again
"...Me" Tara says. Kim's jaw drops. But Generals Possible and Redwing step in before Kim can say anything. General Redwing speaks first,
"All three squads will deploy tommorrow at Thirteen hundred hours" General Possible steps in
"This mission is top level classified, so tell no one and do not discuss it outside of this room. Understood?"
"Sir, yes sir" quietly comes from around the room from all of the troopers.
"Good. Dismissed" Dr. Director says, but before she can leave the room, Kim runs up to her
"DR. DIRECTOR!" she calls out, the lady turns around
"Kimberly, hello, and actually, it's Colonel now" She smiles
"Right, sorry" Kim salutes, the older woman returns the salute
"At ease, Lieutenant. How are you?"
"I'm good. So I didn't know that you were millitary"
"I am now. When the war began, I was asked to serve with INTEL"
"What about GJ?"
"Global Justice has been disbanded and reformed into millitary police" Kim is taken aback
"Uh, okay" Kim says, the older woman clearly looks somewhat upset
"I was disapointed at first, but it seems to have turned out for the better"
"Really?"
"Yes. I was suprised too. Their new assignment was to keep the peace on Earth, basically the same as before, but now they are in charge of all policing matters in the civilian population. But with the war on Earth, they can't do to much and have been sitting on the sidelines, managing the civilian population as best they can while we try to defeat the arachnid threat" Kim starts to walk away, figuring that she'd best get some sim training in before the mission
"Well, here's hoping that this mission ends this war" Col. Director puts her hand on Kim's shoulder
"I hope so too" she says and walks away.
The next morning, after breakfast (and a nice conversation with Shego), Kim heads is summoned along with Lieutenant Rico and Shego as well as Lt. Col. Tara to one of the secondary lab ofices, Wade's lab.
"Good morning Lieutenants" he greets them. They nod back
"So what's this all about?" Shego asks
"I have something for you, something that should help you complete the mission" he says, Kim sighs
"This brings back memories. Good times, good times" she says and then looks around at everyone after a minute and realizes that she was day dreaming.
"Anyway, here it is" he pulls back a cloth and reveales...a slightly mishapen grenade.
"That's it? A grenade?" Shego says after a moment, she is clearly not impressed.
"It's more than just a grenade. This explosive contains the last of Toxin B3 and the nerve agent used to paralyze the bugs that was discovered by Kim and Shego's squad. We call it Agent P2" he looks around at the leaders "Yeah, thrilling, I know" and turns back to the device "When it detonates, it will release a airborne mixture of Toxin B3 and Agent P2 in a gaseous form over a wide area, killing all the bugs within range. We are hoping that it will work on the queen and even if the toxin doesn't work, the paralyzing agent should keep her immobile for long enough for you troopers to take her out" he smiles
"How wide an area?" Rico asks
"Only several meters. Now be careful, this is the only one in existence" He places the grenade inside a small case and hands it to Kim, but Tara grabs it instead
"Thank you, Mr. Load. Is that everything?" Tara asks
"Yeah, it is"
"Then thank you" she says and walks away. Kim stays behind. She really hasn't had time to speak to Wade since she learned that he was on the base and couldn't pass up this oportunity. But, as she would quickly learn, indulgent social chatting would have to wait.
"Hey, Wade" she said. He smiled
"Hey, Kim"
"So, what's the sitch?" she tried not to chuckle. She had't used that line in a long time. Wade laughed
"Been awhile since I've heard that. But I can't chat right now. I have several projects on the go and your mother is really pressing me to get these finished"
"Oh, ok"
"I do have something for you though"
"You do?"
"Yeah" Wade goes over to his desk and after opening a drawer, he pulls out a small box and hands it to her
"What is this?"
"A bit of outdated and obsolete technology, at least by our standards today, that I saved and did a little upgrating to in my spare time" Kim opens the box and reveals a light blue device
"My Kimmunicator!" she exclaims "I haven't seen this since..."
"Since you graduated high school and enlisted?"
"Yeah. How did you upgrade this? It was at least a decade ahead of current tech when I had it"
"I added some new features that should help"
"Cool, like what?"
"Not much. I haven't had much spare time to tinker with this thing" he turned around "I have to go, I'm expected in the main lab" he walks out. Kim sighs and drops her Kimmunicator in her pocket and heads out to her office to grab her powersuit.
"GO GO GO!" Shego yells to her troopers, ushering them onto their dropship. Kim's squad are making thier way to their own dropship, Kim is in full comabt mode, her Kimmunicator nestled in one of the pockets of her Powersuit's belt. Kim's squad is the last one to board their dropship. As the Auburn hair-coloured Lieutenant settles into her seat, she tenses up as she thinks about the mission. She has been on countless missions against unknown numbers of bugs (and several against the Skinnies when they were under the influence of the control bugs) but none of those missions were as has as such high stakes as this one. None of those missions, however, would decide the fate of the Terran people, the outcome of the war against the bugs. Kim had gone on many missions and not just missions as an M.I. trooper, the missions she went on before enlisting, but none of any of those missions, both M.I. and non M.I. had made her this tense, this apprehenisve and all she could do at the moment was sit back in her seat and hope that she didn't screw up.
Tara (in her solid black Powersuit) had made her rounds to the other two dropships to make sure that the other troopers were ready for takeoff and she was satisfied that they were ready for this, she boarded the dropship that held Delta squad and took her seat next to Kim. Standard SICON squads are made up of 8 troopers (there are exceptions, the large regiments for example, but those are rare) and most of the SICON transport craft are tuned to this. The dropships have 8 suits in 8 tubes (technically 10, but the other two are the Marauders)
"Flight path steady. Drop in two-three-zero minutes" The pilot Delta squad's dropship said over the comm. The harnesses released and Kim got up. Tara followed her
"Kim, are you okay?" she asked her friend
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tense is all" Tara didn't need to be psychic to know that (though it did help)
"I can see that. Are you in the game though?" Kim craked a small smile
"Yeah, I'm here. Here to do the job..." she replied and started to walk towards her dropsuit, but stopped, but didn't turn around "...Colonel"
Kim would've liked to pull Ron aside for a good luck kiss, but she had had been told off by Tara AND Bonnie before the mission started about how her and Ron should be more discreet, so she just smiled at him and hoped that would be enough. She had made a decision, after the war was over (and she hoped this would be the end) she would resign her commission. She had fufilled her two year comittment to the Federation, and she was now a citizen, but mostly because she couldn't keep having the secret relationship with her squad's Sergeant. Keeping the relationship secret was too much pressure and she was never ne to succumb to pressure, but this was obviously an exception.
"Approaching the drop coordinates" the pilot said over the intercom, Kim roared back into combat mode as the alarm sounded
"ALLRIGHT APES, LET'S GO FIND THAT QUEEN!" she roared like a tigress
"HO!" they responded and climbed into their dropsuits, as did Tara.
Shego's squad was doing the same, their dark red powerusits almost blending in with the bulkheads in the red light. Shego held a grin on her face that signaled that she hoped that this mission was the kind that she had been longing for. Almost like back when she was a criminal and going up against Kim and the rest of the world's police and security forces. She hasn't had such an adrenaline rush since.
Rico's Roughnecks were also settling into their dropsuits. For Lieutenant J. Rico this would be his second mission as squad commander. He was nervous, but he knew that he could count on his fellow troopers (even though he was still getting used to having Zim as part of his squad) and his friends. As teh dropsuit sealed up around him, he echoed his predecessor, his teacher...
"LIVE FOREVER APES!" he yelled and they responded
"HO!"
"Commenicing drop" the lead pilot said. Outside, the circular hatches opened and 22 large, bulkly dropsuits fell out of the three small ships, falling back towards Earth. More specifically, the Himilayan mountain range. While Tara would be the commander for this mission, Cpl. Timbers would be the guide, as she liked to hike in the general area, or did before the war.
Kim felt a sense of familiarity as the drop suit broke away and she looked down at the fast approaching mountains and fired her powersuit's jump jets as she got closer. She looked over and saw Ron and the rest of her squad do the same so she turned her concentration back to the rapidly approaching ground.
It was cold, very cold. Even with the her powersuit's temperature control, Kim still felt the chill of the mountain air on her.
To say that Lt. Rico was nervous would be a massive understatement. Sure, all the troopers on this mission were nervous, but this is only his third mission as a Lieutenant and he still hasn't gotten being a leader down pat, but after his first mission defending Kaiana point (and the chat with Zim), he felt a lot more confident, but this took everything to a whole new level.
Not suprisingly Shego was in her element. Almost alone and in a extremely hostile enviroment surrounded by droves of the enemy. The only thing about this mission that made her even the slightest bit tense was the cold breeze against her powersuit. And even though she couldn't feel it, she knew it was there and she hated the cold, so that was enough. However, as nervous as they all were, none were quite as nervous as Tara. After all, this is not only her first field mission (not counting the sims) but her first mission as the mission C.O. so one can only imagine how nervous she was, but she didn't let it show. What she didn't know is that Kim could tell, though she also said nothing.
"This way" Cpl. Timbers said after a couple minutes and points to a small trail, or what appears to be a small trail.
"But SICON scans place the bug nest this way" Tara said, pointing in another direction
"I know. But this way will be faster. I've hiked this exact path before, I know" she said and began to walk along it. The area they had landed in was a small valley and they were now heading up a small path that looks to head up the cliff face.
The weather had been clear when they had landed and the first hour up the cliff was fine (except Kim swore she had spotted bugs at least twice and she wasn't wrong) but after about an hour, a snowstorm hit and visiblity hit near zero so the troopers had to hook onto each other through lizard lines.
About a half hour and several feet of snow later, Cpl. Timbers started to head off the path, pulling everyone else with her. Tara (who was right behind her) came up
"Where are you going?" she asked
"There is a cave about 30 meters that way" she pointed the way she was headed
"How do you know that?" Tara asked
"Hikers leave sensor flares in areas like this to signal a rest place in case of this kind of weather. Flip down your visor and you should see it" Tara did so and as soon as she did, she spotted the flare and started to head for it.
The cave was about 2 meters high and 2 meters wide at the entrance. Inside it was about 5 meters tall by 5 meters wide about about 10 meters deep. Once everyone was inside, Shego spoke up
"Why are we here? We need to keep moving" she said in a tone that made it obvious that she was slightly annoyed
"We can't see anything outside. We are safer and have a better chance of succeeding in the mission if we wait till the storm passes or at least dies down a little it" Tara says
"She's right" Rico adds "We're no good to anyone dead"
"I still don't think that..."
"Uh, Lieutenants?" Cpl. Gossard speaks up, he is near the rear of the cave
"What is it, Corporal?" Tara asks
"I think this cave goes on further" he places his hands on several parts of the wall "In fact, I'm pretty sure of it" he says
"How do we find out, that wall looks pretty solid?"
"I have an idea" Shego says, holding up her rifle
"No. This mission is to be stealth until we find the queen" Tara says, Shego sighs and puts down her rifle
"I have another idea" she gets up and heads to the wall, her hands glowing.
"Tara, how close are we to where INTEL thinks the queen is?" Kim asks
"We're close" Pvt. Jenkins puts in, his hands on his helmet "Very close"
"Good. Then we should be..." Tara starts, but Pvt. Jenkins interrupts her
"Bugs. Closing fast from outside" he says, his eyes closed. Kim goes over to Shego
"Hate to pressure ya, but how long is this gonna take?" Shego grunts, drilling though the rock is obviosuly taking a toll on her
"I can't, unngh, say. I don't know how much rock I'm dealing with"
"Well, no pressure"
"Sure, thanks" Shego says and pushes harder
"Take up defensive positions near the entrance" Tara orders
"Goss, try and see how much rock we're dealing with there" Rico orders and nods back to where Shego is drilling.
"Got it, L.t." he says and moves back. Cpl. Timbers takes his place.
"How far?" Kim asks Pvt. Jenkins
"They're right..."
"Well?"
"...Gone. I'm not getting the reading anymore"
"What?"
"Are you sure?" Pvt. Flores asks
"Positive. I was sensing a few warriors and then they just dissapeared. Gone. Like they were never there" he says with a concerned look on his face. Tara had a look on her face that was almost as equally disconcerning to the other troopers. So she got up and walked behind Shego
"Lieutenant Go, disengage" Shego's hands stopped glowing
"Why?"
"Move out of the way, please" Tara said, as she raised her weapon towards the wall Shego had been drilling though
"What are you doing?"
"Fire in the hole" Tara said and fired a grenade into the wall as the rest of the troopers covered themselves. It exploded but when the dust cleared they could all see thorugh the meter tall hole in the rock and into what appeared to be a large cavern
"What happened to "stealth"?" Shego asked, she was obviously annoyed
"Can't be very stealth when the enemy knows where you are" Tara answered
"What?"
"I picked up on the bugs Pvt. Jenkins sensed just before he lost them and those were psychic shadows, not warriors"
"Can bugs even do that?" Pvt. Higgins asked, his camera in his hand.
"Doesn't matter, trooper" Sgt. Zim said
"The Sergeant is correct, for the moment, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that they were there because we've been detected in one form or another and that takes out the need for stealth out of the equation" Tara said as she crawled through the opening
"So, now what?" Kim asked
"We go after the queen, stealth isn't neccessary now though"
"That's what I like to hear" Shego says and heads through the passage.
Inside the larger cave, the abundance of bugs nests but lack of bugs is clearly obvious
"Guess the bugs took the bait" Pvt. Mallak commented, referring to the troopers at the edge of the mountain range.
The three squads managed to head down a long tunnel and still had not seen any bugs, be they Warriors, Workers or other. Even though the troopers had been trained to keep their cool, but the fact that, according to Tara and Pvt. Jenkins, the bugs know they are there, yet they haven't been attacked and that is all manner of disconcerning.
"Anyone else feel like we're being watched?" Pvt. Hellena asks about a half hour later
"Because we are" Sgt. Anders says
"He's right" Tara says and turns to Kim "Lieutenant, close the tunnel behind us" she orders, Kim nods and gets down on one knee and aims her weapon.
She releases a grenade into the ceiling of the tunnel behind them and then runs to catch up as a cave in seals up the tunnel behind them. The troopers enter a large cavern soon after. The cavern is large (they can't even see the bottom) and daylight can be seen coming in from the top, as well as a little bit of snow. Several small rock bridges connect the center island and the tunnels on the walls
"This seems familier" Cpl. LaCroix says
"Like the bug queen's chamber on Klendathu?" Rico asks
"Seems like"
"If this is the queen's chamber, where's the queen?" Ron asks no one in particular. All the troopers take a second to look around the whole of the chamber, or at least as much as they can see.
"This can't be the queen's chamber, it was too easy to get in here" Cpl. Kalle, one of Shego's troopers, points out after a moment.
As if on cue, the tunnels in the wall begin pouring out warriors by the dozens, none of the tunnels are free from warriors, not even the one the trooper just came out of
"FIRE AT WILL!" Tara yells. Shego rolls and then ignites her hands around her rifle, firing off a burst of her special glowing rounds into one of the tunnels, several dead warriors fall out.
"TARGET INSIDE THE TUNNELS!" Tara orders a few moments later. Rico shifts his fire to the bugs that are on the Southern wall, pouring out of the tunnel that they had just come through
"So much for easy" he commented and blasted a warrior with a single, well placed, shot.
Two Corporals from Shego's squad were on the other side of the small island of rock, covering two of the tunnels, Cpl. Arsica and Cpl. Derrick. They are spec ops and as such, are totally focused on what they are doing and it seems to be paying off. Not counting the other troopers in Shego's squad, they are getting the highest warrior kills (if anyone was actually counting) out of all them. Another bug emerges from one of those tunnels and is quickly killed. It falls down into the black abyss below. Two more screech as they emerge and soon fall prey to the same fate as the ones before them.
Ron is on another side of the small island and he is shoulder to shoulder with Pvt. Flores and Shego
"So, Stoppable, did you have this in mind when you enlisted?" Shego asks as a couple more of her glowing rounds take down yet another warrior. Ron kneels down and launches a grenade into one of the smaller tunnels. The grenade explodes and brings down a ton of rock on top of a couple of warriors, crushing what life they had out of them as well as much green goo.
"I don't think so" he answers "I can barely even remeber the reason I enlisted anymore" he says and sprays a warrior with a burst of fire
"HEADS UP!" Flores shouts and lauches a grenade above them. A warrior comes crashing down a second later, Shego shoots her a smile
"I have a theory as to why you did, Stoppable" Shego says
"Oh?" Ron's eyebrow perks, but he keeps firing
"Yeah, she's over there" Shego grins and unloads a grenade right into a warrior's jaws, it explodes into a billion pieces. In truth, Shego was partly right, Kim was part of the reason Ron enlisted. But mostly, he had enlisted to prove something not only to himself, but to everyone who had ever doubted that he could. (and at the time, millitary propaganda was really high, Operation Pest Control had just finished and it would be another half a year before the bugs would return to Pluto, at least)
"I thought you spec ops troopers were all high discipline and stuff. Never spoke out like that unless off duty, or so I've heard" Shego stopped firing for a second and turned to him
"I'm an exception" she said and turned back to her shooting. Flores just shook her head.
Several warriors had managed to get up to the platform/island near where the rest of Delta squad (except Bonnie, who was over with Kim and Tara) and Pvt. Brutto
"This is insane! We can't hold out forever here" Cpl. Timbers remarks
"We know" Pvt. Mallak says and launches a grenade at a warrior, it explodes.
"Then why aren't we moving on?" she asks and fires rounds into a mass of warriors that manged to get up close, withing a few feet, but the combined fire of the Delta troopers push them over the edge.
"L.T.s know what they're doing" he answers.
"Tara, we need to move on" Kim says a few minutes later and scores a couple of one-hit kills
"I know" she says, taking out another warrior
"Well, got any ideas?"
"We should probably try and seal these tunnels" she pauses and looks around, the troopers have the bugs held back
"But...?"
"But even I can't tell which one leads to the queen"
"This goes on much longer, you're gonna have to guess" Bonnie says and goes back to her shooting. She manages to quickly take out another warrior. Kim stops firing for a minute and looks around her
"Colonel, you need to choose one" Tara closes her eyes and concentrates "COLONEL!"
"Alright, opposite the way we came in, its where I'm getting the strongest reading"
"Alright then. Shall I?"
"Please" Kim huffs up
"LAUNCHERS OUT! SEAL OFF THE TUNNELS! ALL BUT OPPOSITE THE WAY WE CAME IN!"
"SIR, YES SIR!" comes back and Kim allows herself to grin for a second, but quickly moves towards their exit. Shego heads the same way
"Anders, Kalle. Take point" she nods towards the exit. The two troopers cease fire, nod and run off.
"Zim, T'Phai, go!" Rico orders
"Sir, yes sir" the troopers answer and run to join the two spec ops troopers already at the entrance.
Ron, Bonnie and Cpl. Gossard have moved back and taken out their javalin launchers to try and collapse the side tunnels as fast as they can, while still doing it right. Not that it's overly hard, but the cave is dark and with the amount of bugs pouring in, the flash from the rifles of troopers trying to cover them can get near blinding in such a confined space and Ron is having a hard time aiming properly. Luckily, most of his shots are hitting the mark, but a couple have missed.
Kim has grown impatient and makes her move
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH! EVERYONE FALL BACK!" she orders
"Lieutenant, what are you doing?" Tara asks
"This is taking too long, we seal the tunnel behind us, the other passage is already sealed anyway" Tara thinks for a moment and then orders the troopers to fall back.
With the passage behind them sealed, the three squads of troopers move on and they get a bit of a respite from being attacked by bugs, until...
The three squads are walkling along a tunnel, hoping that they are heading for the queen.
"It should be this way" Lt. Rico says, pointing to a side tunnel
"And what makes you think that?" Tara asks
"Call it a gut feeling" he says
"Pvt. Jenkins?" Tara turns to the other psychic in the group
"Hard to say" he concentrates for a second and then points a direction "That way" he opens his eyes and looks. He's pointing right at the wall, inbetween the two passages
"Well, that solves nothing" Pvt. Volcors says
"Alright, we will spilt Lieutenant Go's squad down the middle. Half will go with Leiutenant Rico and the other half with me and Leiutenant Possible. Ho?" Tara says and looks around at the faces of the other troopers
"Ho!" as the troopers begin to move, the ground begins to shake
"MOVE IT!" Tara orders but it is too late. Shego, Lt. Rico, Pvt. Volcors, Bonnie, Sgt. Zim, Cpl. Kalle, Pvt. Brutto, Cpl. LaCroix, Pvt. Flores and Cpl. Derrick fall though as the ground opens.
As Shego awakens, she looks up and at her surroundings. Her radio is buzzing, she is apparently the last one to regain concoiousness.
"Shego, are you there?" it is Kim's voice
"Yeah, I'm here" she says groggily
"Sit tight, we're coming down" Kim says
"Don't bother"
"What?"
"You heard me. Move it"
"Why?" Kim asks, Shego's face has taken on the grin that tells the other troopers that trouble is coming and Shego is looking to have some fun
"We got bugs down here. Just proceed on mission. We will catch up later" Tara's voice comes on the comm
"Very well. Leiutenant Go, you are in command of the troopers down there. Take care"
"Will do, Colonel" Shego closes the channel and checks her rifle "Let's play"
"We should go" Kim says
"Yes, lets move" Tara agrees. As the rest of the troopers that didn't fall through start walking back through the tunnel, heading the same way they were, Kim hopes thay Shego will be ok. She started out hating that woman, but now feels as if she is a close friend and Kim hates loosing close friends. She quickly reminds herself that she is Shego, she'll be fine.
A few minutes later and the tunnel ends and opens up into another large cavern. This one doesn't have a small center platform, it is long, it stretches farther than anyone can see
"Any way around?" Tara answers
"No, we'll have to go through..." she trails off as she steps up to the ledge "Oh my..." Kim steps up to the ledge and her jaw drops. The cavern is filled with warriors. From a brief glance, Kim guesses that there are at least a thousand warriors in this cavern.
"Back track?" Kim asks
"No choice" Tara answers
"Phew, I'd hate to have to go..." Ron starts but before he can finish, the ground begins to shake and the tunnel they had just come from caves in. "Guess we do this the fun way then, huh?" he asks and looks at Kim. Kim looks at Tara
"Well, Colonel?" Tara smiles and quickly responds
"Lock and load"
--
Author's note: Sorry if I over-hyped this chapter, but trust me when I say that I am building to something. How the troopers will get out of this one should be interesting. Next chapter: the second last chapter of this story!