based on the world of Firefly by Joss Whedon =============================================

Shots rang out piercing the night air as Mal slammed into the sand bag Zoe was hiding behind. There was no sign of Cat, but one could bet she was out hunting taking out what she could, where she could. Zoe rained down cover fire as her Sargent jumped over ducking down and reloading the rifle in his hands.

"How many?" he yelled over the gunfire as his second looked down at him.

"Don't know. Way they're firing, I'd say a good forty maybe fifty. We already lost Jinx and Matthews."

"Gorram it." He breathed at the loss of life. "Jinx was a good kid. Suck havin' to tell his mama he's dead."

"Ain't for you to do, Sir. Leave it the ones suppose to be doin' that." She dropped to reload, bullets hitting the sand bags like hailstones on a rooftop, a dull, hollow sound.

"With all the dead, it ain't gonna get said until well into next year. At least if I send a wave, family can mourn a might sooner." His hands wrapped around the gun and he turned firing into the squad of bright lights and screaming horde.

"Where'd Cat get to?" Tracey cried out from behind him, hands shaking a bit. He wasn't a bad soldier, but when it came to fighting a big group, the young man seized up.

"She's around, Tracey. Doing what Cat does best." Zoe shared a look with the young one and then went to relieve Mal so he could again reload. It was a dance that she had done with the man for many a year. Somehow, it never seemed to get old.

********

She hid in the shadows, pacing herself as not to be discovered. Darkness made things a lot easier for her, and though she knew her unit wasn't far away, the darker side of her begged to be free. It would take very little for it to devour the campsite. Each man torn from pelvis to collarbone, guts coating the ground like a sick looking Christmas tree complete with presents, steam still rising off of them as the cold met the heat they would radiate.

A noise from the unit and she heard Mal bark an order, the repeating from his rifle and then Zoe's reminding her that there were other things more important than satiating the beast. Though purple seemed a good color to go with red, her darker side didn't really think brown clashed either. Needless to say, Cat was going to have to keep a lid on the goings on of her other half.

Hand reached for the knife at her side, it getting to act as her claws for the remained of the fight, though nothing could stop her long fangs from finding a way outside her mouth. She ran a tongue over them before sliding in behind the first enemy with a gun and slashing his throat. Blood poured over the other sand bunkers quickly absorbed as she smiled. One down....forty six...no...make that forty three to go....

*******

Mal watched as both Zoe and he nailed two in the head, Tracey catching the last in the shoulder. He had been sure he counted four, but somehow, the one was there one minute and gone the next. A shadow of something caught his eye and he had his answer. With a wave, she was then gone.

Zoe moved over toward him so Tracey could get in beside them. The boy was still shaking and Mal reached to grab his shoulder. "We're gonna be fine, Tracey."

"If you say so, Sarge." He whined and loaded the gun at his side.

"Trust me. Ain't never bit off more than we could chew."

"That might be, but you can still choke on it." Zoe grumbled as she watched four more soldiers replacing the few they had just killed.

"What was that, Zo?" Mal asked her having heard what she said. She glared at him, knowing he had heard her and wanting to make another more colorful statement as to exactly what he was known to get their little group into.

Mal only grinned that sideways smile and continued trading lead.

**********

Cat moved further in, figuring to cut off the head of this infantry before it got any braver. She was bleeding, a stray bullet from a gun...not sure friendly or otherwise had nailed her in the leg, but the wound had almost closed, the bullet dropping somewhere on the ground behind her.

Her body kept to the shadows, blending the way only one of her nature could do. Silently creeping, making no sound save for her breathing. Fingers clutched the knife at her side as she moved. They were dying slowly, picked off by her unit as well as a few she killed to even the odds. Too much blood and even she wouldn't be able to stop her transformation.

A soldier thought he was smart and came up behind her, Cat damning herself for losing concentration while hunting. Knife at the ready, the blade slid under the poor boy's helmet, it unable to protect him from death. Sadly, even Cat felt a little sorry for him. Sliding his body into the dark with her, she continued her search....though it all stopped when her alert ears picked up the sound of Zoe's voice. "Cat...where the hell are you? Mal's been shot."