Author's note: shorter this time, sorry. Thanks, Chylea; I'm glad you can follow what's going on.
In which there's a bit more fighting
Zintercepted D Squad two corridors away from the rec room. "They know we're coming." she told them. "So we have to do this fast, and we have to do it right. There's no time for mistakes."
"What's the plan?" Cadet Browne asked.
"I'm gonna confuse them a bit." Z explained.
A duplicate stepped up and continued, "Then you come in."
"Make sure the cadets are safe." another added.
"But don't be more then ten seconds behind me." the fourth finished.
"Yes ma'am!"
"All right. Let's go."
Jack was running on empty.
Alerted by Syd and Sky's success, security had been tightened around the captive cadets; Jack had literally run into the reinforcements and been forced to phase through the wall to get anywhere near the hostages.
About half the cadets were incapacitated. Several of the able bodied ones had joined Jack in fighting, but most were either protecting the injured or huddled around the walls, avoiding the fight as best they could.
Jack was mildly amused to realize that even while fighting, he was writing a mental list of the ones refusing to fight for the next lot of evaluations.
He became aware of Sky and Syd only when he ran out of things to hit; between them the Blue and Yellow Rangers were keeping him clear, giving him a chance to catch his breath.
"What's the situation?" he asked, kicking a Krybot that got past Sky's guard.
"Z and D Squad are…elsewhere. Is this it?"
"The last of our people, bar a few. C Squad's missing; we have last reported whereabouts for Kat, Bridge and Joanne, but they're not there now."
"Who told you?"
Jack caught his shoulder and jerked him back from a kick that would have taken his head off. "Boom."
"Duck." Syd ordered and he dropped, foot-sweeping another Krybot. "Where is he now?"
"Hiding." Jack surged back to his feet, looking around. "Is that it?"
Around the room, only cadets were on their feet. Jack relaxed, looking around. "Who's the highest ranking cadet here?" he asked.
There was a moment while everyone looked at everyone else, before a female cadet stepped forward. "Cadet Stuon, sir!"
"Cadet Stuon." Jack repeated. "We're taking five volunteers. I want you to barricade yourselves in here and do what you can for your wounded. You do not open that door without a command level code, understood?"
"Understood, sir!"
"Good. Where's my volunteers?"