At last, Loren thought from his branch as the sun set in the west, we can get moving again. The second day out from the warren, gray clouds had drifted over the sky, quickly followed by a cold, misty drizzle that would have been of no consequence whatsoever if the bounce packs had been waterproof. As it was, their progress had slowed to a crawl for days, as they waited for them to dry out. Finally, the clouds had broken and the sun had baked the remaining water out. And tonight, it was time to move. Loren hopped down to the branch below, where the communications were set up. One last check. he typed. "Get this packed," he told the techs, "We've waited too long already." Twenty years too long... it was almost enough to make a squirrel scream. A three day delay just after starting, putting them far, far behind schedule. But at least they were moving again. And the time hadn't been wasted. He'd drilled the troops in firing accuracy, which from the results they had needed, badly, and with the lasers set to ultraviolet there hadn't been a flash to give their position away. The burn marks on the trees would be suspicious, but if someone was checking the tops of the trees they knew too much already. He wished he could risk a tightlink to group E, but that kind of communication could be intercepted, giving away both groups' positions. He'd hear all about it at dawn. -------- Dien Silvertail peered through the bushes at the warren entrance. This was definately NOT an abandoned warren. The entrance was far enough from any road or structure that they didn't even have to try to hide the fact that this was no warren of normal rabbits. Unlike the other warrens they'd seen, this one had only one major entrance. There were probably hidden exits scattered all around the area, but there was too much enemy activity to do a serious search. Besides, they were here to destroy the warren, not kill the devilbunnies, so one entrance was enough. They didn't have enough explosives to blow new entrances, at least, not in all three targets, but they had plenty to spare for a nice diversion. He turned to the squirrels next to him. "Tell the demolitions teams to detonate at..." he checked the time, "22:34 precisely." They ran off to give the message. Dien and the rest waited expectantly, hidden in the trees. The minutes passed. 22:34 came, with a distinct lack of explosions. "Damn reds," he said, "Can't even get the time right. Well, we don't need a diversion anyway. A slaughter is a slaughter. MOVE OUT!" The squirrels poured out of the forest, running full speed towards the entrance -- and with bounce packs, that was pretty fast. A bunny just coming out the entrance exploded under heavy fire, and then they were inside. The were guards, of course, but they weren't armored, and the lasers cut them down in seconds. The squirrels rushed forwards, down the long entrance corridor towards the main section of the warren. An alarm sounded, and heavy metal doors slammed down, cutting off their advance before they'd gotten twenty feet. But not for long. The squirrels waited impatiently while demolition charges were set, and with a deafening boom the door went down. Revealing what had to be the entire warren's military strength, at least a hundred rabbits, a few armored, all looking quite ready to fight. "No problem," Dien said, drawing his laser for the first time, "Come on guys, let's have some fun!" The squirrels started firing as the bunnies charged. With that many targets, the effect was not nearly as impressive as it had been against the guards by the entrance, since it took a few shots to take a bunny down. Still, the devilbunnies must have been unused to fighting at a distance, because they turned and ran, leaving several dead and wounded behind. The squirrels rushed forwards into the warren, after the fleeing foe. TBC!