There was a small circular object floating in the middle of the room. As soon as Sarge gave the signal, Reaper stepped towards it and was sucked in. Before Dani knew it; she and the others were sucked into it as well, one by one. As she reached the other side; Portman, and the Kid were down on their knees throwing up.

"Why do we gotts come all this way? Why can't UAC rent-a-cops take care, of this bullshit?"

"Here we go with the complaining. AGAIN." Naktura started.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Portman snapped.

"Oh I think you know what I mean, don't play dumb. Oh wait you ain't playin,' you are dumb!" 'Tura had to get Portman back, especially about that whole acting like a man thing.

"Enough!" Sarge shouted at them.

Behind him the Kid and Reaper were talking to some guy - or half of a guy anyway - in a wheelchair. Apparently his name was Pinky. Pinky checked their communication equipment and gun cameras. Sarge ordered Mac to stay behind and secure the room. Mac was clearly not happy. He thought one of the girls should have to stay behind, but after getting rip-roaring drunk and mouthing off to Sarge at the last team BBQ he knew he was just going to have to suck it up and stay behind. He hoped, if there was any battle, that he would be there for it.

The rest went upstairs to the Atruim area. It appeared all of the people who worked there had been gathered there. Portman immediately headed off to hit on some women, but was very quickly shot down. He then went after a blond who appeared to be heading towards Sarge. Sarge told him to shut up, just before one of the base administrators introduced her as Dr. Samantha Grimm.

Dani felt her breath catch in her throat. Dr. GRIMM? Was Reaper married? As much as she knew it was unprofessional of her she was suddenly both angry and hurt. He had no reason to confide in them, but how could a man never mention his wife?

Tura looked over at Dani. She could see that Dani was trying to hide her shock. Tura moved over to her friend as Reaper tried to convince Sarge not to allow the doctor to join them.

"You ok?" Tura whispered to her friend softly enough that no-one else could hear her.

Dani swallowed hard. "Yea. I'm ok."

They both listened as Sarge informed Reaper the doctor would be joining them. As they all moved to follow the doctor to the airlock Duke approached Reaper.

"Reaper, don't tell me you let a fine piece of ass like that get away from you." Duke teased.

Reaper turned to glare at Duke and growled at him, "She's my sister."

It was all Dani could do to keep her shout of joy inside. He was still single! She looked at her friend and Tura rolled her eyes at her. Dani broke into a big, ridiculous grin.

They were instructed to follow Dr. Grimm, as they did, Naktura looked around. She was pondering to herself what this mission was really about. She did see the transmission in the chopper, but didn't fully understand. She walked over towards Duke, and Destroyer.

"Y'all nervous?"

Duke, and Destroyer quickly shook their heads from one side to the other. "Hell no. You?"

"Fuck no." 'Tura put her headphones back into her ear and blasted her song up. She put the volume as high, as it could go. Sam Grimm was talking about how many people, were trapped inside. And had them listen to something, on a tape recorder. "Open the door." Sarge ordered.

'Tura had no idea what had just happened. Or what Sarge just ordered. 'Maybe I should take these out?' She thought to herself. "OHH! But this is a good song. Maybe if I nod a lot, they'll think I'm listening. Yeah I'll do that.' She started nodding.

"Goat, Portman on you."

"It's on." Goat, and Portman walked into another room, with handheld devices, scanning the walls.

"Magnesium, lead. It's all normal."

"All clear." Goat shouted, as he turned to Sarge.

Pinky gave the team a map, on the screen on a wall. Sarge thought for a second. "Portman, Naktura, Goat, genetics. Duke, you'll keep Dr. Grimm her safe here on her salvage op. Reaper, Kid and Dani check out Carmack's office. Destroyer, and I will take the weapons lab. Be safe men."

"Ahem."

"And Ladies."

It was strangely quiet for what was supposed to be a working laboratory facility. Reaper took point, with the Kid following him, and Dani covering their six. She wondered who had forgotten to pay the electrical bill. For a well funded lab they seem to have forgotten to put lights in. One by one they cleared the rooms on their way to Dr. Carmack's office.

"Where is everybody?" The Kid whispered as they cleared another lab room.

Just then Dani noticed a lab coat hanging on a pipe near the floor. She picked it up to find one of the arms covered with blood. She looked up at Reaper. They both knew that whatever was going on here it wasn't good. No matter what Portman wanted to believe. This was nothing so simple as a pissed off employee with a gun. Something like that might be messy, but it usually left bodies lying around. Not just bloody uniforms.

They continued on. Dani could see the Kid was extremely nervous. She wished there was time to talk to him. To get him to calm down. Nerves like his were dangerous. Dani waited outside as the men cleared the next room. It was so dark and quiet she could almost imagine it was late at night and everyone was just safely back in their room, asleep. But she doubted anyone was sleeping right now. Unless it was the sleep of the dead.

When they came out Reaper motioned for the Kid to take the lead. He then had Dani follow him and he covered their backs. A few moments later something dropped from the ceiling and immediately the Kid began to fire. Dani raised her weapon but couldn't get a bead on anything. What was the Kid firing at?

All units report contact." Came the order from Sarge over the comms. After a moment he repeated the order "Goddamnit, all units report contact!"

Reaper quickly moved forward to assess the situation.

"It was moving," A sheepish Kid told him, indicating a loose tube that had, at some point, become loose.

Reaper said nothing to him, but his lips tightened, clearly annoyed. Then he replied to Sarge, "It's noth'n Sarge. Just wasting ghosts."

Reaper glared one more time at the Kid and then took point again. The Kid looked at her, clearly embarrassed. Dani walked up to him.

"You have to try to relax Kid," She spoke softly to him. "I know your nerves are all on edge. We are all on edge. But you have to relax or someone's going to get hurt. Now just take a deep breath and then we'll move on, ok?"

The Kid nodded. She could see he was still scared. His hands were almost shaking. After a moment he turned and started to follow Reaper.

Dani looked up and her breath caught in her throat. It might have only been a loose tube that startled the Kid, but the marks she saw on the ceiling around where the tube had been told her that it something had recently torn the tube loose. Something with claws. She looked ahead, ready to call Reaper back, but he was already going around the next turn. There would be time later. Now she needed to focus on her job and keep the men safe.

Goat was not having an enjoyable time with Naktura and Portman. They were constantly at each other's throats. "Portman lead they way. Naktura you go in the back." Goat growled.

"What? Why me. Have dipstick go in the back."

"So you wanna call me names now? This coming from the ugly female, that can't get no fucking guys."

"Oh, well, at least I fuck people."

"You're fucking asking for it--" Not knowing but their comm links were on the whole time. Most of the team found this amusing.

Pinky and Mac were laughing out loud. "They always this loud?"

"Yeah you get used to it. See as I figure it, Ports likes Naktura, but then again Ports likes anything that has two legs."

Pinky gave a sigh. "Glad I don't have two legs."

They both laughed again.

"NAKTURA, PORTMAN IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE FUCK UP, I'LL HAVE GOAT SHOOT YOU BOTH!" Sarge screamed through the comm link.

Naktura and Portman both knew Goat wouldn't shoot them, but they figured they shouldn't piss Sarge off any more. As they checked the genetics room, they heard animals growling.

"Oh it's a cute puppy-wuppy. Who's a cutey? You are." Naktura was talking to a white pitbull. Then it tried to bite her. "Well I didn't think you were that cute anyways."

Goat rolled his eyes at her and then moved forward, sweaping his gun from one side of the room to the other. The room was really creeping him out. There were jars full of body parts and containers with things in them that looked like beating hearts. It was a freaky room with a strange odor.

Portman followed Goat, though he tried not to look like he was following. He was freaked out too, but didn't want anyone to know. He had taken one of his usual pills to try and calm his nerves, but it didn't seem to be working too well.

Naktura followed further behind, careful to watch her footing. There were broken glass containers on the floor, along with books and papers. Someone had been in a damn hurry to leave that room and she was pretty sure she didn't want to know why.