The piercing wail of a distant air raid siren mixed with alarms and an almost constant barrage of gunfire and explosions turned the once extremely busy, but calm, Defence Ministry in the heart of the Capital into a hell on earth with panicked civilians and military personnel trying to get as far away from the fighting as fast as possible. Standing at the doorway to the central stairwell was lion wearing an Admirals uniform, he along with another soldier waved and called out to anyone they could see as they ushered a large number of terrified mammals who had sought shelter with the military up the stairs,

"Everybody to the roof now, hurry up go, go now"

Smoke poured past the window as the intense fighting outside raged on, Thirin screeches could be heard getting louder as the radio chatter showed signs of the huge compound beginning to fall. As they urged the crowd to hurry up the stairs to the evacuation helicopters the Admiral heard someone calling out.

"Sir! Admiral Goldmane!"

An antelope pushed through everyone and stopped next to the Admiral, he was carrying a large metal case that was cuffed to his wrist.

"Simon" Goldmane looked past him into the crowd for a moment but couldn't see who he was looking for. "Simon where's Bill?"

"He's in the Operations room, he wont leave"

"Wont leave? Does he not know what's happening?"

"I don't know sir, he's looking through the computer network for something, I couldn't wait with the case"

"You did good son, get to the roof and tell them to send a chopper for us, I'll get Bill"

"But sir we need you for the war effort"

"All you need is that case, now get out of here, both of you, this place wont last much longer"

Goldmane forced his way against the flow of the crowd and in the direction of the operations room in Wing B that was adjacent to theirs.

The building shook violently as a massive explosion on one of the lower levels almost knocked him off his feet, he quickly looked out of the window and could see a hole at least three stories tall in C wing with smoke billowing out of it and what looked like hundreds of misshapen creatures that used to be mammals clambering inside the building, he was running very short on time. Without any more hesitation he ran through the corridors as fast as he could, with full evacuation of the facility underway most of the doors had automatically opened which made it faster for him to navigate through the building, but he was also acutely aware that it would also speed up the spread of Thirin throughout the facility.

He careered round a corner and through the open door to the control room as a group of soldiers at the other end of the corridor defended a makeshift barricade against the faster Thirin that had already made it to their floor. The control room was a mess with everyone having abandoned the place in a hurry, at the front row of the step tiered platforms with his back to him was another lion furiously typing away. Goldmane yelled out to him as he dashed towards him,

"Bill what the hell are you doing we have to go now!"

"I can't Chuck"

"Why the hell not"

He gestured to the large cinema sized monitor at the front of the room showing CCTV footage from across the city, the entire place was a complete warzone with fighting across the entire city that appeared heavily in the Thirin's favour.

"We've lost the city, we need to evac now they're in the building for fuck sake"

"That's why I can't leave. I'm the last Camarilla Commander on site, I have to send everything and wipe the servers so the enemy can't get it"

"But we have the case, Simon is getting evacuated now"

"The contents of that case are useless without the data."

Bill pulled a lanyard from around his neck with a keycard attached and pushed it into Chucks paw as he stared at Chuck with a determined look,

"You're gonna need this at the new site, you're in charge now, I'll follow when I can"

Chuck stared at it for a moment before putting it around his neck. The two had been inseparable through their time in the military and even though they didn't always see eye to eye he would never entertain the idea of leaving him behind, but the past week had been anything but normal for anybody. Before Bill turned back to the computer Chuck grabbed him and hugged him tightly,

"You get your ass out of here in one piece, you hear me"

"I'll try, good luck to you"

Chuck let him go and took a few steps backwards before turning and running out of the room, the doors closing remotely behind him as a the barricade the soldiers had been defending collapsed under the tide of Thirin attacking it. The soldiers were eviscerated in the blink of an eye, their corpses giving just enough of a distraction for Chuck to run the few feet across the corridor and into the stairwell heading to the B wing roof as fast as his legs could carry him. He had always kept his fitness up even though he hadn't been a front line soldier for a long time but his leg muscles were starting to burn as he ran the four flights up, he didn't slow down at all at the top and barged through the door out into the downdraught of a large chopper that had landed on the roof, the smell of the fires, propellant, and burning flesh was overwhelming as he dove into the open side door and yelled past the gunner to the pilot,

"Get us in the air now they're right behind us!"

The heavy chopper lumbered into the air as a large Thirin charged through the roof entrance, the gunner opened fire at it hitting it in the legs, preventing it from leaping onto the chopper as others had been seen to do, causing it to stumble and fall off the roof as a large number of former mammals, some of them in soldiers uniforms, poured through the door, but the chopper was far enough away from them now.

The chopper rose high above the skyline as it flew over the capital. What once stood as a beacon and testament to the country now lay in ruins. The gunner handed Chuck a headset and he put it on as he stared for a moment at the keycard and hoped Bill could somehow make it out alive. His thoughts were interrupted by the pilot calling to him.

"Admiral, what's left of high command is rendezvousing on the Nimitz off shore sir, we'll be there"

"We're not going"

"Sir?"

"If we're to survive this war then we have to meet that case. Just head south, I'll give you instructions en route"

Author Note

Well i'm back, life has been extremely busy and I will admit i have been feeling extremely lazy in what little spare time I have had, but now i'm back and will hopefully not leave it as long between updates this time. For now this is just a teaser, more coming soon.