Pterodactyls, or at least something like them. A whole flock of them. It was the most amazing sight Kir has ever seen. Fascinating, until he heard the colonel shouting, What the hell are you doing? Get back down! That’s an order! God-damned civilians! Still crouched near the ferns, Kir knew the colonel couldn't have been shouting at him. Tearing his eyes away from the gathering storm cloud of movement, he looked around just in time to see one of them snatch up Hecate and take off for the east. C³ leapt for her, managing to grasp only one foot, but his added weight didn't even seem to slow the creature down. It lifted both humans as though they were nothing more than twigs for its giant nest.

Shoot it!, the colonel screamed from the air. Shoot the damned thing!

Jinx and her team were still fighting their way back to the portal. The other members of the military contingent were staring at the massive flock of pterodactyls in stunned amazement. None of them gave any indication of having heard him. The civilians...well, if the military were stunned, the civilians were frozen to the spot. Poor Sgt Sarai was having no luck in moving them no matter how much she prodded. She might bring her weapon into play any minute, but it didn't look like she'd heard the colonel's shout over the cacaphony of noise from the civilians. So...who was left to follow his order? Someone had to soon, though. As it was, the pterodactyl holding the two was gaining altitude. Soon, shooting it would be tantamount to murdering both the colonel and Hecate. Kir got up on one knee and lifted his weapon to take aim. He held expert marksman status with the M16, but rarely had any use for it. For the colonel and Hecate's sake, he hoped he hadn't gotten too rusty in the past six months.

As it turned out, he was destined not to find out the status of his own skills yet after all. Before he could even get the target in view, a whole barrage of shots rang out. Astra, naturally. She had always been quicker on the draw than he was. The "bird" lurched and nearly dropped its prey, but at the last moment, it readjusted its hold on Hecate. They could see her struggling against its grip, but her movements only caused it to dig its talons into her shoulders. Even from this distance, Kir could see the blood welling to the surface. And then, Hecate's boot came off and the colonel was falling. Damn! From that distance, he could be killed!

"Doctor Etana!" Kir shouted. Despite the horrifying fascination of the scene, something in Kir's voice caused Sonia to turn to him. "The colonel!" he hollered, pointing at a break in the foliage about twenty feet away where C³ had fallen. The two of them, followed by Astra, raced to the spot. "Trini, keep an eye on that ... bird! Sgt, get those people into that break in the trees, but don't go into the woods," Kir instructed, not even noticing that he was giving orders with no official authority to back them up.

"Yes, sir!" Sgt. Sarai shouted. "Alright, you mugs, you heard the man! Get moving!" she bellowed, firing a couple of shots into the air to get their attention.

It seemed that Trini had to force herself to listen. "Will do!" she agreed, gluing her eyes to the sky and the rapidly dwindling figures. Kir could only hope that whatever had distracted her earlier wouldn't interfere with her concentration again...at least for the next few minutes. They needed at least a direction to go.

Fortunately, there were few rocks in this particular area, and the huge ferns had provided some cushion to the colonel's fall. The break in the greenery turned out to have been caused by his landing. He lay on the ground, unconscious. This was the doctor's area of expertise. Kir decided he should leave the examination up to her. He stopped a few feet away to give her room to work and turned to Astra.

"Well, lieutenant," he said, taking his wireframe glasses out of his pocket and putting them on. He bent down and picked up Hecate's boot—she would need it eventually. "Now what do we do?"