[center][h3]Cover - Behind Phase Line Alpha, Grolsk Wilderness Reserve, 4:51 AM[/h3][/center][hr]

Shots continued to fly to and fro, the light smoke with the pungent smell of the gas from the blasters blanketing the firefight, which traded shots carefully now, both sides content to wait behind their trees. Stojan's heart pounded as he let off another shot from his DL-44, one that went wide, a suppressing shot. Adrenaline surged within him, and a runner finally snuck his way forward. Sections 2 and 4 were away, and Section 3 was stuck in place with heavy casualties. He took the time to count his own section as the runner waited for a reply.

His eyes immediately fixed on a spot of crimson and black on the white of the snow, and his RTO lay mere feet away, a hole torn wide in the chest of his snowsuit, a half-cauterized mess of a sucking chest wound directly above his heart. He wished he hadn't seen the man, because Stojan knew the wound was hopelessly fatal, even as he bellowed in Uslamer, "MEDIC!"

He turned to the runner, a grimace on his face as he barked out a message. "Get the third section ready to load the wounded!" The runner nodded, running off with his A280 hanging off his bony frame and baggy snowsuit. Stojan turned back to the dying RTO, being worked on by the medic, ever-apparent that the medic was just trying to make him comfortable. Stojan worked at the straps connecting the comm pack to the RTO's back, wrestling it free. He grasped at the receiver, barking into it. "This is Captain Markovic to callsign 'Cverna', move up to last stated grid coordinates, over."

"Copy." Came the stern, static reply, and the low rumble of repulsor engines emanated from the device, or perhaps from the forest itself, further towards Phase Line Bravo.