<Don't worry about it right now; let's just get far enough away from the base to get our bearings. At this point, I've had no contact from Norm. I'm going to assume either he's dead, or the comm center has been destroyed. In the mean time, I'm going to go up and take a look around. If you have the energy after two morphs, Shaun, you might want to become something with wings.... Just a suggestion.>
I darted out into the open air outside the berm into which the base had been constructed. A blast of hot, dry air shook me again, but I managed to keep enough air speed to stay aloft. The little bird was plenty maneuverable, but he wasn't built for hot air or to gain much altitude; it was all I could do to climb and stay up without the air turbulence forcing me to stall out.
After a minute or two of ascension, I managed to get a better look at the base and the jagged terrain around us. A sinister-looking dark greenish-grey ship was hovering maybe a quarter mile away from the base, and two Howlers stood under it. There had to be at least two more... one to operate the weapons that had wrecked the base from the ship, and the one who was inside the base and howling.
This wasn't good.
If we were going to survive to see the next sunrise, we had two options now:
1. run away and hope backup arrives on base so we don't have to do the mission. Unlikely, but possible.
2. Team up; take down the Howlers one at a time. There was no way imaginable for just the three of us to defeat them if they managed to regroup.
This was bad. I called down to the 'team', as I was just starting to think of them.
<Guys, there are at least four Howlers out here. Two are visible right now, and I'm sure one is still in the base. We need to get some cover before we try to do anything else, I think. I can see a cave from here; it won't be easy for them to sight from their ship. I'm going that way now.>