Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Jondy, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the fic belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Elle/X5-164, etc.).

Notes: Thank you so much to jracklesfan77 for the help that you gave to me for this chapter!

Chapter 17: X6-312

We crept silently into the building, 941 in front leading us and 252 as our rear guard. It should be an easy mission, especially with our entire unit assigned to it. There had been some suspicious activity in this supposedly abandoned military compound out in Poland, near the Czech border. This place was pretty deep in the forests so it would be the perfect base for insurgents or other such people, even though all but one of the buildings in the base were pretty much uninhabitable. We were checking out the only good building still up and so far, things were going pretty well.

"334, are you seeing this?" 941 whispered.

"Clear as day, 941," 334 said from her spot yards away from the compound. She was in charge of the comm. and surveillance equipment for the mission. Normally that was 437's job, but 334 was a little better with the equipment that we were using on the mission so she drew the duty. Everybody else was in the building except for our medic, 728, who was back at our camp at the other end of the forest. "Nothing out of the ordinary so far."

"Right," 941 said. "941 out." He turned off his earpiece and motioned for the rest of us to move forward.

I looked around, completely alert. I briefly wondered why I or everybody else save for 941 and 252 were bothering to scan for any possible hostiles since they could see and hear better than any of us, but I quickly put that thought out of my head and remembered when 520 had asked that question once. Fortunately, he hadn't asked it when the trainers were around, only us and 941's a pretty easy-going guy. 941 had only smiled and said. "Hey, you never know. 252 and I might miss something."

Suddenly, both 941 and 252 looked upwards and a moment later, the rest of us did as well. 941 began signaling to us. Movement up above. Unable to determine exact origin of location or species. Hold here and wait for movement again. We nodded and waited for a few moments. I held my automatic rifle tightly and listened as hard as I could. No other movement as far as I could hear and judging by the expression on 941's face, nothing that he could hear either. Finally, 941 gestured for us to continue on.

We'll split up and start to search the individual rooms for any kind of evidence. 583 and 111, take this first room, 217 and 520, take the second, 437 and… 941 stopped gesturing suddenly when a group of men in military fatigues suddenly jumped out at us. Holy shit! How the hell had they been able to sneak up on us? I managed to recover quick enough to start firing with my rifle, but they dodged the bullets. What! We could evade enemy fire, but how the hell could these bastards do that?

941 rushed at one and hit him in the face with his rifle and threw a punch, but the man blocked it. How could he have blocked a hit from 941? I shook my head and tried shooting at the men some more. They couldn't completely avoid them, but this still wasn't good and it was getting closer to complete chaos with each passing moment. I watched with horror as my units mates went down one by one, either by gun shot or by the enemies own hands.

"437, down now!" 252 shrieked. She tried to shove 437 down and out of the way, but she wasn't close enough and 437 took one through the head. She turned around to shoot at the man who'd killed 437. I turned around to completely face her, ready to shout a 'way to go', but suddenly a bullet took her down and she fell almost right in front of me, her dark red blood flowing from the wound and through the lighter red of her hair, some of it dripping onto the ground in front of my boots. I couldn't believe it.

941 turned around to me and gestured frantically. Get the hell out of here, get 334, and meet us back at base.

Without you? I gestured back.

I'll meet you there. Go NOW!

I didn't question 941's orders. It had degenerated into chaos for sure by then and then the perfect opportunity came. The enemy's backs were turned and I bolted. I quickly found a side door and I ran through it and blurred through the woods. I ran around to where 334 was. She looked panicked, but she had somehow managed to pack up her equipment into her backpack and I barely had to pause as I passed by her area.

"Do you hear them?" she asked breathlessly as we practically flew through the forest. "Do you hear 941 or the enemy forces?"

"Not yet," I said. "As soon as they realize that they don't see my body around, they'll be looking." We continued to blur through the forest and I suddenly frowned. "Damn! I hear them coming up."

"ETA approximately five minutes," 334 confirmed. "What are we going to do?"

I looked down over to my left. There was a steep incline that led to a canyon. "Low road," I said. She nodded and we turned off our path and headed for the incline and dropped down and slid down the incline until we reached the bottom. We looked around and I found what we needed. A few yards down on the other side of the canyon was a small plateau with several boulders on it that were large enough to hide 334 and I from sight. The gap was still within our range for us to leap back when it was safe. I pointed the plateau out to 334 and I signaled the plan to her. She nodded and we stood up and jumped across to the plateau and landed safely and hid behind the boulders. I made another gesture to 334 and she nodded and, still hidden behind her boulder, she took out a small listening device. As small as it was, it was a powerful sucker and it also recorded what it picked up, too. She turned on the device and we listened and waited. A few minutes later, we heard with our own ears some of the enemies searching the area. They began speaking to each other in Polish and I sighed quietly, happy that I had learned that language a few years ago.

"A8 to A1, their tracks stop here," a voice said. He gave the coordinates. "No further sign of them, visually or otherwise."

"A1 to A8, I copy," another voice said. "All recon units, any sign of the one that got away?" Three other voices responded negatively. "Very well. A3, A5, A7, A8, you may all return back to base. We need to contact the general and give him our report on the trap and await further orders. A1 out."

334 and I just stared at each other in shock. This was a trap? It was starting to make a little bit of sense why the information in the briefing that we had gotten prior to leaving for Poland didn't seem like it was complete. 941 had noticed it, but the trainer had just shaken his head and had assured 941 that it was complete. What the fuck was going on?

We waited for several more minutes before we were sure that they were out of range. 334 turned off and packed up her equipment and we jumped back over to the incline and scaled it. We continued to run through the forest until we finally reached our camp. 728 was waiting for us, her eyes wide.

"Where were you guys?" she asked. "Where the hell is everybody else? Are they okay? What happened, 312?"

"941 didn't come back yet?" I said. "520, 111, and 646 haven't come back yet, either?" When I had escaped from the mess, they had been the only other ones from our unit that had gone in that were still alive.

"No," 728 said. "I haven't seen or heard from them."

I nodded and tried to fight off the panic that I was starting to feel. "I'm going to contact home for orders." 728 and 334 both nodded and I went over to the radio that we had set up at our camp. "Control, this is X6-312 awaiting orders." A few moments later, I got a response from back in Seattle.

"312, this is Control. Please advise as to your situation," somebody replied.

"The mission went belly-up, sir," I said. "It was an ambush. We got into the building as planned but we were ambushed by a unit of soldiers whose numbers matched ours. These soldiers were at least as strong and as fast as X6-941 and X6-252. We tried to fight them off, but they held the element of surprise. X6-941 ordered me to split off and get X6-334 from her position and return to our camp."

"What is the status of the unit, 312?" Control asked.

"X6s 252, 437, 811, 583, 217, 419, 155, 343, and 761 all confirmed K.I.A," I said. "The status of X6s 941, 111, 520, and 646 is unknown at this time. None of those soldiers have returned back to our camp at this point. X6-334 and X6-728 are here with me. Over."

"Transmit any and all video and audio recordings and then stand by for further orders. Control out," Control said.

"Visual and audio on their way. 312 out," I said. I nodded to 334 and she set up the transmissions and we sat back and waited for a reply back from Control.

"They're…they're all dead?" 728 finally said.

"Not everybody," I reminded her. "941, 111, 520, and 646 could still be alive. We just need to wait for them." So we waited…and we waited…and we waited. Nothing happened. They never came. A few hours passed and they still never came back to the camp. I didn't know what to do or what to say or even what to think. Fortunately, I was saved from my thoughts or lack thereof by the radio.

"X6-312, this is Control."

"X6-312 here," I said.

"Has there been any sign of X6s 941, 111, 520, or 646 yet?" Control asked.

Even though they couldn't see it, I shook my head. "Negative. There has been no sign of them."

"Control copies," Control said. "You are to pack up your camp and return to your accommodations in town. If the soldiers that are M.I.A. have not returned yet by morning, then you, X6-334, and X6-728 are to return here to Seattle as scheduled."

"As ordered, sir," I said.

"Control out," Control said.

"312 out," I said. 334 and 728 started to cry and I sat back and I couldn't help a few tears from falling down my own face. Most of my unit mates were dead. I'd never see them again and it hurt, much more than I thought it ever could. I didn't know if others, including my commanding officer, were alive or dead. It was overwhelming. I sat there and cried for a minute or two before I stopped and wiped my eyes and looked over at 334 and 728 and I nodded. "Let's move out."

TBC

More notes: Thank you so much to sirena1, angelofdarkness78, and supernateral for their reviews and support! sirena1, I'll definitely be trying to be working in more M/Z into the fic from this point on. I tried to put it in a little subtly in chapter 16. Maybe it was a little too subtle :) Thank you so all so much again! It all means a lot to me.