Now in his element, Mal started giving orders. “Michaels, Kelly, move and scout out the area. Try to find a SAM site.” Both soldiers responded with nods and moved off to canvas the area. “Ok, Christiansen, Hikeen, go off, and try to find other groups. Report back if you find any, if not, get back in an hour. Update me every five minutes.” Mal then turned to Zoe. “Corporal Alleyne, what supplies do we have? Weapons, ammo, anything else.” Asked Mal. “Sir, we kind of have a reverse supply difficulty. The only light arms we have are two assault rifles, and three pistols. We have several portable rocket launchers and almost twenty rounds apiece. We have a mortar, with two rounds. Also a hypervelocity sniper rifle. We have a machine gun, but only thirty rounds, about three seconds of fire. We can handle tanks, but not infantry.” Zoe said. “Add my rifle to that amount, but you’re right, we don’t got enough gorram small arms. We’ll have to ambush an alliance patrol to get more.” “Sir, you need to get up here and see this, now!!” Shouted Kelly. Mal and Zoe looked at each other, and then climbed up to the top of the hill. In the distance, three flights of Independent fighters were moving in on the Alliance. They were answered by five flights of Alliance fighters. Mal wondered at why the Alliance had answered with such a small force, until the Triple-A batteries came on. Missiles lanced out towards the Independents, at such high speeds that they were invisible after the boosters went out. The Independents tried to dodge, but were too late, the missiles hit, and disintegrated four fighters. The remaining eight tried to break off, but were caught by the guns. A dozen gun batteries opened fire on the Independent fighters. Caught in a hailstorm of fire, the planes disintegrated, and fell to the ground in flaming pieces. “No wonder they don’t have forward airbases.” Remarked Kelly. “Did you see those missiles,” said Mal “If we get control of one of those bases, the alliance fighter will be down in seconds. Kelly, mark the locations of the batteries, and then let’s get down to the thicket to wait for the others.” The group scrambled down to their hideaway to wait for the other two men. They didn’t have to wait long. In two minutes, Hikeen came running into the clearing. He was panting heavily, and had a gunshot wound in his shoulder. “Sir, they ambushed us, killed Christiansen, and started chasing me. I don’t think I lost them sir, they--” his sentence was cut off by a shot. A neat little hole appeared in his forehead. Mal looked around and saw an Alliance sniper one-hundred meters away. “Ambush!!” cried Mal “Run, split up and move out, regroup later!!” Shots hitting the ground around him, he ran. He ran, and saw Zoe out in front of him. His group ran, periodically firing at the enemy around them. Mal turned, tripped, and fell flat on his feet. He saw his Michaels go down, shot in the leg. Zoe and Kelly ran over to him. Together, the group made its way into a small crevice. Mal’s dream of retaliation was shattered. He had lost half his men, and access to supplies. Although the weapons were safely hidden, the group couldn’t get them. Forced by the circumstances to reconsider, Mal carefully weighed his options.