Lieutenant Sawyer marched to the armory, where she saw Lieutenant Julianne Prowse. The women hugged and smiled.

"So you decided to join me on a nice little walk in the woods?”

Lieutenant Prowse separated. “The chipmunks in those woods have a nasty bite. Someone has to keep them off you.”

Lieutenant Sawyer grabbed her weapon. “Much appreciated. I almost ended up in one's cheeks just yesterday.” She looked over some grenades before grabbing a couple. She also grabbed a box of ammunition.

Lieutenant Prowse smiled as she grabbed some backup magazines and a couple of grenades. “And that's why you need me. I'm a natural chipmunk repellent.”

"Now, if you had had me around it wouldn't even have been close.” She returned the smile while grabbing her rifle.

"Care to join me and the other chipmunk killers?” She slung her rifle over her shoulder and left. Lieutenant Prowse followed.

* * * * *

The two lieutenants saw the other three would-be chipmunk killers and ambled up to them. Rodriguez was lost in concentration as he performed a last-minute check on three mechanical canines: The two huge rottweilers would help in combat and the beagle would help in scouting. Rodriguez synched Samuels' cybernetics to the beagle, giving Samuels access to the beagle's sensors and centering the beagle on his location. Samuels scratched the red fuzz on his head while Rodriguez worked through the connections. Walker was lost without a book in his hands so he just paced.

Only Walker saluted the two lieutenants. The other two were too busy concentrating on their tasks. Lieutenant Sawyer returned the salute, allowing Walker to relax. “They should be ready in a few moments, ma'am.” Lieutenant Sawyer nodded. She opened the ammunition box and he grabbed a handful of ammunition to fill his magazines; he was happy to have something to do.

Rodriguez sighed when he finally accomplished the pairing. “Okay, Samuels; check the connection. You should have access to the beagle's sensors.”

Samuels froze for a moment as he mentally reached out to the beagle “Looks like we're ready to go.”

Rodriguez smiled. “All systems ready, Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Sawyer slung her rifle and started walking slowly to the gate. “Let's go kill some chipmunks.”

Lieutenant Prowse smiled at the confusion of the others. They rushed to pack things up and catch up. As they caught up to their platoon leader, they fell into their customary positions: Walker was just ahead of Lieutenant Sawyers while Rodriguez fell to her rear. The rottweilers galloped to the flanks of the group, pacing a good ten meters on both sides of the group, surprisingly quiet for a three-hundred-pound metal canine. Samuels went off on his apparent own; he would be following, hidden, somewhere within a hundred meters of the group. The beagle would tromp after him and became the only sign of him. Lieutenant Prowse fell in beside Lieutenant Sawyer.

Lieutenant Sawyer quickly ran through the mission parameters of the mission to test the subvocal mics. Fortunately, it appeared that the demons had yet to tap into the localized communications; they didn't appear to be all that tech-savvy in the first place. As they left the base in the distance, she was confident that her team could handle even a small team of demons with Samuels playing sniper, two giant dogs, and the firepower they all had. While Lieutenant Sawyer would have liked some vehicles for the group their sound would have made notified every demon within half a click of them that lunch was on the way. At least their target was close.

Lieutenant Sawyer quickly established a command channel so she and Lieutenant Prowse could discuss tactics, but they just speculated on what the ring they carried could do. Samuels and Walker discussed the anomalies that they had encountered, but when Rodriguez joined in it quickly devolved into sports, with the guys spiritedly arguing how their favorite teams were doing better than those of the others. Rodriguez quickly became interested in something else, probably his arm's cybernetics and so left the conversation. The other two returned to their previous conversation.

After two hours, the priority channel screamed with a quick whistle from Samuels. In a heartbeat, all conversations went silent and weapons went from stowed to ready. Samuels blinked; his camera quickly transmitted to Rodriguez what he grabbed from the beagle's perspective. He had had the beagle go through its visual modes as they traveled; in ultraviolet, there was an object that had become visible. It was a dome, just barely visible in the distance.

"Lieutenant, possible tango at 11. Only in the UV.”

“Roger.” The pause was long enough that Samuels started to sweat. “Suggestions?”

"It's an ambusher, ma'am. Suggest a detour to your right.”

Lieutenant Sawyer consulted the map she had memorized and debated how the new path would affect the distance to their target, and if additional obstacles would pop up. “Works. Swing wide and observe the ambusher. If it moves, let me know.”

“Roger.”

The group veered to the right, with one of the rottweilers staying where it was for a moment to guard their flank. It soon resumed its place in the marching order. After a tense ten minutes, they resumed their path, with the detour only costing them twenty minutes. Samuels then radioed a warning: “Ma'am, someone is waiting for us at the destination. Leather armor, gas mask, bluish glow.”

Lieutenant Sawyer's eyes rolled. Demons were easier to deal with than mages. “Is he wearing a fang necklace?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

She allowed herself a grin. “Cover the subject as a contingency. Known contact; we should be fine.” This could actually be fun.

“Wilco.”

As the group moved into the clearing they saw the mage, just standing just outside the ruins of a library. Wizards were always wild cards, as no one could ever completely predict how they would manipulate the strange forces now in charge of their world; the slight bluish glow visible from the holes of his armor let them know they were near a mana zone, making him even more dangerous. The two lieutenants approached him as everyone else readied themselves for a possible incident with the wizard.

They quickly got within close range and Lieutenant Sawyer bowed a little. “Good afternoon, Douglas.”

The wizard pulled off his gas mask, revealing a shock of green hair covering a youthful face. His normally slightly tanned skin had a bluish sheen, and his eyes glowed blue. He reached into a pocket and grabbed a pair of brass spectacles; when he put them on the dark lenses covered the glow of his eyes, making him look almost normal. “Afternoon, ladies; I hope the journey so far has not been interesting?”

She switched to her subvocal mic: “Samuels, relax but stay frosty. You're our eyes here.” Lieutenant Sawyer smiled and everyone relaxed. She looked straight at Douglas. “Almost was, which is weird as we're sort of looking for trouble. We need a demon that is decidedly physical but with no real surprises.”

"Now I'm sort of curious. Let me see what I can find.” He closed his eyes. After a few heartbeats, the eyes opened again. “I think I just found the thing. About half a click away to the east there's a dretch, a lower-tier demon, all sharp claws and crunchy armor, big and stupid, but no surprises.”

“How close is he to The Zone?”

Douglas glared at her. “Demons don't usually leave The Zone without a good reason; without its mana, they would shrivel up and die in a few short hours.”

"Always a source of useful information. What do you figure our odds are if we were to face it?”

"Allowing for the sniper you think is practically invisible, it's going to cost you some serious ammunition, and possibly one of your larger canine units will be severe damage. But with some decent tactics, you should do okay.”

"Mind playing tour guide and maybe introducing us?”

“Sure. But think with your head and not that brass pair you obviously have.” He took off his glasses, put them away, and put his gas mask back on.

They headed out as Douglas lead them to the dretch. She hated relying on a wizard, especially as there was no predicting what they could do. That she was depending on one to lead her to a minor demon didn't make her feel any better. Yay, team!