========A/N: A quick clarification on weaponry.

At this point in time, nearly all military grade weapons use thermal clips. It is very rare to see a new weapon marketed to military purchasers that does not use thermal clips.

Civilian weapons rely exclusively on heat sinks; that's good enough for self defense and it doesn't cost you 10 credits per clip. They're also cheaper and of lower quality in general. The tradeoff is that they don't have the sheer long - term firepower that a thermal clip weapon does.========

Chapter Four: Survival on #location redacted#

N6 graduation test, #location redacted#, three days past landing on #location redacted#

"Dammit, Clara, we're almost out of food. Local wildlife learned to give us a wide berth quickly."

"You're the one who insisted that we shouldn't make snare traps with some of our precious string."

"And I was right, we used most of it to get our shelter up. We don't have enough left over to make even one. Given the damn predatory... Things... I think that shelter was the right choice. At least they're dumb and haven't figured out how to cut the string anchoring everything."

"Yeah, you're right. Speaking of which, we need to get some dry wood for the fire. I'd rather not have to face those things in the dark."

"You do that. I think I spotted some fish analogues in the river we're getting water from. Gonna get water and see if I can't grab one of them. Hopefully they'll have meat on them."

"You sure you can do that?"

"I've got the better reflexes of us, and we'll need to be fast to catch a fish by hand. Kills me that we haven't found anything we can use as rope though; it would be a days work to make a gill net, and then we'd be set for food for the rest of the week."

"Alright, two hours to sunset. Let's get to work."

...

One hour later, at the river.

"And that makes five!" McDougal exclaims to precisely... Nobody.

Damn, these fish are stupid. They swim right next to him time after time, and he grabs them, pulls them out of the water, and puts the blade of his knife in behind their skull before wading back to shore.

'So, that's ten fillets' he thinks to himself. 'If I can catch three more fish, we'll no longer have to worry about food, and will only have to leave the camp for water.'

Suddenly, motion in the corner of his eye. 'Damn, that things easily four times the size of anything I've caught so far. Come to papa... A little closer... Closer...' his hand knifes into the water, grabbing the monster behind the gills and pulling it up and out, putting his knife through the back of the neck before it can react.

'This is too easy. There's gotta be a catch somewhere.'

He grabs a few reeds to use as a makeshift stringer for his catch, grabs their water sack, fills it up, seals it, and begins the short trek back to the camp.

...

Three hours later, #location redacted#, campsite.

"Damn, that's a LOT of eyes looking at us" McDougal mutters. "What I'd give for a sidearm right about now. These spears will only kill one at a time, and that's if they don't have some form of ranged attack."

"We're breaking camp tomorrow. We've overstayed our welcome here."

"Yah, no shit. At least they aren't approaching the fire. If I may suggest we FUCK ON YOUR LEFT!"

A... Thing with one big hind leg and two shorter front legs and most importantly a mouth filled with sharp teeth launches itself at Clara. She quickly turns and braces the spear for the impact, and impact it does. It doesn't shatter the spear, but it knocks Clara off her feet and still sinks a quarter of its length into the animal.

Clara clambers back to her feet and grabs a second spear from the lean-to. "Those things launch hard, fuck that hurt."

McDougal takes a quick look at the fire. "Clara, the wind is blowing away from us. Quite hard, actually. We could"

Clara sharply cuts him off. "What do we do when the wind switches, then? Hope its burned itself out? Fire doesn't discriminate, Dougal. Once it's started, it's hard to stop."

"Fine then. Did you grab any sticks that might be good for use as torches? Fire is the only thing keeping them at bay, maybe we can use it to chase them away."

"Yeah, I did. On the other hand, it would take far to long to light them."

"Wait. Keep an eye for a moment, I'm going defenseless." With that, McDougal leans his spear on the lean-to and pulls off his shirt, then rips it in half.

"McDougal, what are you doing - oh, I see."

McDougal was tying half of his shirt to the end of his spear. As soon as he finished, he dipped a trailing piece of fabric in the flames and watched as it lit up. "This is either going to work, not work and I'm out a shirt, or end up with me dead. I'm betting it works though."

...

One day later, banks of the river.

"Shit, it's bleeding again."

"Dammit McDougal, I told you not to move your arm!"

"I didn't! It opened up on its own!

"Clara, heat up my knife and get me something to bite down on. It isn't closing on its own, and the risk of infection is damned high."

McDougal's gamble had worked... Mostly. He'd driven the predators away from the camp, but got to close to one and it jumped on him and got in a bite on his arm before Shepard killed it. The morning after, they'd moved to a bend in the river and McDougal laid down and tried to remain as still as possible to stop the bleeding.

"But..."

"Clara, I can see an actual doctor about it once I get back, but for now, this wound needs to be cleaned and cauterized, or I might lose the arm."

"But if I slip..."

"You won't. Toss me that scrap of cloth there after you wet it, I'm going to clean out the wound. Also, grab a chunk of hide. I'll need it as a teeth saver."

Shepard does as instructed. She puts the knife blade in the fire, wets the cloth and grabs a chunk of hide and hands them to McDougal.

"Alright, do you know how to cauterize a wound?"

"No. It wasn't covered in basic med training."

"Of course not. Alright, here's the deal. This is going to hurt like a bitch for me, which means that you need to immobilize my arm. Since we don't have fancy bindings, that will be accomplished by you kneeling on both sides of the wound. That also handily removes the need for a tourniquet to be applied above the wound.

"Once you start, DO. NOT. STOP. UNTIL. YOU. ARE. FINISHED. Every bit of that wound needs to be burned, and I'd prefer if we could do it all at once. It WILL hurt like hell while you're doing it, but better temporary pain than the loss of an arm or my life.

"Fill up the water sack; once you're done, dump it all on the burned area. Ideally, we'd boil it first as well, but that hide is flammable.

"There's your crash course in cauterization of wounds. Any questions?"

"When do we start?"

"What color is the knife blade?"

"Dark red"

"Right now."

...

Five hours later

"AGH!"

"Good, you finally woke up. How's the arm?"

"Hurts like hell still, but you did a good job on the cauterizing. What's the predator status?"

"None. Moon's light enough that I can see fine, I've got the embers of a fire ready to burn if we need it. I'd prefer not to light it if we can avoid it though. We're down an arm, and the light might attract unwanted guests."

"If we can go the rest of the week without seeing a single animal, I'll head home happy. We're set for food and water, tomorrow we get a bunch of firewood. Get some rest, I'll"

"No, you won't McDougal. You're not in any shape to be moving yet. Just try to fall asleep. We can work it out when you wake up."

"Clara, you've been up for somewhere around 30 hours straight. You need rest. If there's a problem, I'll wake you."

"... Yeah, you're right. I'm exhausted. Wake me up in four."

"Twelve."

"Eight."

"Fine. Go to bed. You've earned it."

...

24 hours to pickup

"Clara, take a look at those clouds."

"They're clouds. Why?

"Because that looks a little bit like a thunderhead. Also, the world has gotten a lot more still recently. I don't think we're out of the woods yet."

"Oh. So that's the boot. Got a read for this?"

"Panic. No, if I had to guess we're going to see high winds and heavy rain at the least. Worst case is hail and lightning. It's going to hit us in around three hours; we should not be here when it hits."

"Then we move back to the original campsite. No big deal."

"Except if it does hail, I'm not sure the hides we have will hold up - not to mention if the wind comes anywhere but from the rear quarter, we're going to lose it anyways."

"All righty then. Break camp, into the forest. I think that I saw a cave, maybe there's a collapsed tree we can shelter under."

...

"You do know where this cave is, right?"

"Vaguely. Wasn't really important at the time."

"Clara, if we don't find it in the next fifteen minutes, we need to just bunker down under the hides and hope for the best. The wind is starting to pick up, and I can hear thunder."

"Agreed. I WHOOP!" Clara was looking back at McDougal and didn't see the depression in the ground... That her entire left leg was now stuck in.

"I think we're over a cave now. Don't strain it, let me pull you out."

Clara's face is white with pain. "A bit late for that, I'm pretty sure I sprained my ankle."

"Shit. Lean on me. Up we go... There's a slope over there. Hopefully it's got an entrance to the cave you found."

The duo performs an awkward three legged walk over to the slope, and lo and behold, there's an entrance big enough to crawl through into the hillside. McDougal goes through first; the cave is empty, and so he calls Clara in.

"Let me get a look at that ankle." Clara pulls off the bindings she used to protect her feet and shows it.

"Damn." Clara's ankle is bent at a 90 degree angle to her leg. "Clara, that's not just a sprain, that's a straight up broken ankle as well. I'll be right back; try to get a small fire going. We have a smokepipe anyways." McDougal crawls out, leaving Ckara alone with her thoughts.

She starts trying to get sparks off the piece of flint they had found, trying to light the leaves and kindling that they had brought along. It's something she can do to draw the focus away from the pain in her ankle.

Finally, she gets sparks to light the leaves. Gently blowing on the fire, she coaxes it to life. She hears the pops, snaps, and then a clatter as McDougal returns.

"I got some straight wood for a splint, and some larger pieces so that I can hopefully set up a door. At least it's tall enough to stand in here. Good job on that fire. You're nice and all, but only having body heat to share makes for a cold night for all involved.

"I'm going to get the door set up first; that's a bit more pressing. Drink some water, eat some fish. It's gonna be a long night."

"No crutch?"

"I didn't have enough time to cut down a young tree or climb up an older one. I'll get you one when the storm passes. Not like we're moving tonight anyways. Give me five minutes to make our door, then I'll take a look at your ankle."

"Alright. I'll find a strip of hide to bite down on."

...

Fifteen minutes later.

The rain is pouring down outside, and the wind is tearing at the trees.

Inside the cave, they don't even notice.

"HNNNGGGGGGH!" Clara once again pulls her foot away from McDougals attempt to set it.

"Clara, I know it hurts, but I need you to stop pulling away. It will feel better once it's set and splinted, I promise."

Clara's body is covered in sweat. Her eyes are scrunched shut, her mouth is tightly clenched around a piece of hide, and her hands are bunched up in her shirt.

"Clara. I need you to listen to me. Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in... Breathe out... Now, I need you to focus on your breathing. Keep that steady pace you've set. I'm going to try to set your ankle again. Focus on your breathing." He reaches forward and pulls Clara's ankle to him once more. He grabs the bottom of Clara's foot and the spot right above the ankle. "Keep breathing, Clara. Focus on your *ker-pop* breathing. There. We've set the ankle. Now keep breathing as I splint it."

...

Five hours to pickup

"McDougal, we can't stay here any longer. With my ankle still not being all there, we really need to get moving now."

"Fine. Just let me know if you need to lean on me; that crutch I found you can't be too comfortable."

"It's only two klicks."

"It's two klicks with you on a crutch over unevn terrain. We need to be careful. There's a reason I delayed until the sun was up for two hours."

"Take the knives, leave the rest?"

"Agreed."

...

SSV Agincourt. Medbay. Two days later.

"Congratulations, McDougal and Clara Shepard. In light of your record of service and training, you are hereby granted the rank of N6. As per your request, you have both been inducted into N6 at the same time, and although we cannot make it a policy, it has been noted in your files that you work best together, and splitting you up would be a bad decision. This was widely known throughout the Marines anyways, but now it's official.

"You are also hereby granted a month of shore leave, staring as soon as we drop you off on Elysium. Your weapons and armor are in lockers D23 and D24; I would suggest taking them with you on your leave."

"Thank you, Captain. Where do we report when our leave is over?" Shepard inquires.

"The military base in Elysium's capital."

"Thank you, sir."

McDougal quickly asks "Sir, are we cleared to leave the medbay?"

"That's something to ask the doctor, Lieutenant. Is there anything else?"

"No sir." Comes from the mouths of Shepard and McDougal.

"All right then. I'll leave you to each others company." The Captain walks out the door.

Clara turns to McDougal. "How's the arm?"

"Healed up nicely with medigel. Some surface scarring, nothing major. How's the ankle?"

"Doc just gave it a shot of medigel and gave me some painkillers. Said you set it properly, the medigel was just to mend the bones and torn muscles."

"Good. Where's that hotel you mentioned?"

"A taxi away from the LZ."

"Good. I can't wait to sleep in an actual bed."

"You and me both, brother."

========A/N: Offer to beta this is still open. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.========