Worn out faces
They had been walking for goodness knows how long, it went without saying that almost everyone in the squad was just about fed up with their leader. Jones had been the first to try and obtain information out of the Sergeant, it also went without saying that it ended anything but well. "So are you going to tell us what the hell is going on?" To everyones amazement the sniper had actually gone up and joined the Sergeant up front. "Or are you just going to allow us to run blindly into danger?"
"I highly suggest you hold your tongue, information is given on a need to know bases." Longmire snapped quickening his pace to get away from the woman; Jones bit her lip not amused with any of this. Her chocolate orbs glances back at the rest of her team; as usual Carmine's and Gonzales' expressions were hidden behind their COG issued helmets, the later at least gave her a shrug unsure of what to make of the secrecy. Finding no response out of Carmine she turned her sights to Pratt who like the Sergeant and herself chose against wearing the helmet. His blue eyes told her everything she needed to know, he did not want her to press the matter but if he knew her like she thought he did he would know his silent pleas had fallen on deaf ears.
Quickening her own pace Jones slapped a hand down on the Sergeants shoulder, "You know damn well that shit like that doesn't sit well with me." She could feel him tense, even under all of the armor he had on. "You should also know that I am not as obedient as other COG members." His brown eyes snapped and locked into hers. "I am sure you are also aware of the fact that I have been in this Order long enough to know that when your commanding officer or NCO tells you it is on a 'need to know bases…'" She brought her hands up to make air quotations on his quote before bringing her right hand down and indicated with her fingers her points, "That one, they have been assigned to walk their squad into bull shit scenarios that will more than likely get them killed. Or…well they themselves don't know what the hell is going on."
Walking in step next to the officer Jones noted the frown played on his features, she had obviously hit some sort of nerve. It looks like he wants to punch the shit out of me, actually. Before he could come up with any reply though a voice shot from behind them. "SNIPER!" Jones hadnt noticed how far ahead the two of them had marched forward until that very moment, Pratt's voice seemed far off. Before the two of them had time to even look for cover Jones found herself dragging the downed sergeant through a barrage of bullets.
"Get to cover!" Longmire spat out from behind her as she closed in on the barricade that was no more than fifteen yards from her. "I gave you an order, Specialist."
"Last I recall," She grumbled shoving him under cover as bullets fly all around her, only when she was sure he wouldn't get his did she fall into cover herself. "I was to only listen to you if you told me to seek out a vantage point. Nothing more, nothing less." She smirked when chuckles echoed in her ears, they would need to be in a life or death situation in order to get along. The specialist grabbed a grenade and sighed, this could very well kill me. She glanced at Longmire who was holding his pistol up against his chest. But I need time to inspect his wound. She locked eyes with the Sergeant before nodding, more to herself than anything, and standing out of cover.
"The hell are you doing Jones?" Pratt yelled from behind, she heard his calls but at the moment they were anything but important. Leaning forward she stuck the grenade in between the floor and her cover before reeling back to safety and inspecting the Sergeant. Pushing the snub pistol away from his chest the Specialist gave him a good look over, his lower body seemed fine. She lifted the both of his legs and patted them down, if he was in any pain from there she would have heard it. Moving upward without a second thought Jones patted down his waist and torso before moving her way up to his arms.
"Where are you hit Sarge?" She had to yell over the gunfire and static running through her communication link. For the first time in ages her chocolate orbs locked in with his dark browns, without a word his sights moved from her eyes to his right arm. Following his lead the Specialist grimaced at the sight, it had to have been the adrenaline rush that forced her to overlook the blood that soaked his long sleeve. "Oh son of a bitch." Jones reached into her left rear pouch to grab some gauze to dress the wound, "this is going to hurt like a bitch sarge."
"Much to your pleasure I am sure." At that she smirked as she set the bandage down and grabbed her flask. Unscrewing the lid the specialist smirk as she held out his arm and smirked, before the sergeant could reply the woman tipped the flask over and allowed the liquid to pour over his wound. "Son of a bit-" Not wanting anymore attention to be brought to them Jones shoved the flask in his mouth, douche better finish it off. No way in hell am I drinking out of there again. It went against all sorts of regulation to carry around any sort of alcoholic beverage in your canteen, or in her case flask. The only reason why Jackson allowed it was for situations like these. Luckily for Jones Vodka happened to be one of the few alcoholic drinks she enjoyed, which also made for a good disinfectant if the situation called for it.
"Told you so." Jones murmered as she stretched out the guaze and began to wrap the wound, of course it was not recommended to use any sort of drinking alcohol to disinfect open cuts but at the moment she had little to no choice. "Now sit still, shut up and finish that." Content after pinning the bandage down Jones reached up for her lancer, before glancing back at the others. Clay and Gonzalez were behind the same cover, Gonzalez looked like he was reloading while Clay was shooting at whoever he could. It took a while but she eventually did find Pratt he was much closer than the other two and was mowing people down with his Lancer. The two made eye contact before he went undercover and she popped out of hers.
She set her sights over the first drone and knocked him out without much trouble, sadly this drew a lot of attention her way. Watching as four of the six remaining drones turned to her the sniper ducked back undercover. "What's out there specialist?" Jones glanced down at the Sergeant before peering around her cover, not daring to look over it- she did like her head where it was.
"From what I could see six. The others did a great job of picking the others off and keeping attention off of us." He nodded as she pulled her second grenade from its respectful place, leaning to the right the tan skinned woman chucked the grenade at two drones who were focused on her allies behind her.
"Grena-" The voice was cut off and replaced by the sound bodies being torn apart, peeking her head out of cover once more specialist brought her lancer out with her and downed a lone drone.
"Looks like that is the last of them!" Gonzalez yelled from behind, she glanced around finding no threat the specialist looked back to the others before nodding. One by the one three of them stood out of cover and made their way over to the Sergeant and herself.
"How's Sarge?" Pratt asked kneeling down with the two of them as Clay and Amir continued onward on a search for ammo. Glancing back at the red head Jones shrugged. "What do you mean you don't know?" At that she rolled her eyes before standing and holding a hand out for him to take.
"It didn't hit anything critical, if that's what you want to know. But I don't think he will be firing a weapon anytime soon unless he is left handed." Longmire took her hand and pulled himself up just as Clay's voice echoed in the halls.
"We got a downed one!" The three of them joined up with Clay and Gonzalez who shuffled over to the fully armored gear. The four members exchanged glances to one another before nodding, Jones took out her pistol and aimed it at the drone before flipping the gun to where the barrel was in her hand and offered it to Longmire.
"This one is all yours Sarge." His brown eyes fell down to her pistol, he stood there for a moment before taking the weapon with his left hand. The specialist went for her own ammo sweep leaving the four of them with the gurgling drone, as she bent down to pick up some lancer ammo a single shot rang in the air. Horror washed over the snipers features as she dropped to the ground, clutching her stomach.
"SARGE!" Amir roared from behind her as the sound of fully armored gears hit the ground, a moment later two more shots rang in the air. One flew on to her left, obviously from the man behind her. The second grazed her nose and it was a shot that she recognized all too well, Jones reached for her longshot ignoring the footsteps running toward her. She scanned the surrounding area ignoring the pain coming from her abdomen and the strong arms that lifted her up onto the COGS shoulder. More pistol shots rang from her very own pistol as the gear continued to haul her to cover, sniper still in hand the specialist cringed as another shot rang from the sniper luckily it missed both herself and her savior and she was able to catch the light reflecting off of its scope.
Bringing her own scope to her eye the specialist shot her sights on the locusts' hiding spot and smirked as she made out his facial features in the dark crevice. "I got you now, you ass." The shot was anything but ideal, she was on the shoulders of one of her allies, being shot at by her own sergeant, it was dark, and her vision was fading- knowing she didn't have much time before she herself would black out the brunette pulled the trigger the second her crosshairs closed on the locust.
To her relief a body came crashing from above just as she was thrown off the shoulder of her comrade and into his arms as he hid behind a wall. "Are you alright?" Jones let out a sigh of relief at the familiar voice but frowned the second three more shots echoed through the halls. She couldn't bring herself to answer his question; someone in my squad is dead. "Jones?" The specialist shook her head as the edges of her vision blurred; she felt her knees buckle which forced Carmine to tighten his grasp on her. A moment later two pairs of footsteps stomped over to them as Clay positioned her to sit up against the wall, bringing a new definition of pain to erupt from her stomach.
"Jackie!" Pratt kneeled down and she could tell by the look on his expression that her injury was bad. "Why?" Jones managed to let out a chuckle but cut it short and grimaced at the pain, "You saved his ass… what the hell happened?" Amir was the next to kneel down next to her he took off his helmet for the second time in the whole time he had been traveling with them. She was pleased to see the familiar face of her old friend and gave him a quick smile before turning down to her wound.
"I am going to need help with this one." The sergeant had managed to hit her in one of the thinner parts of the female armor. Her breastplate covered all but her lower stomach, under that she wore what any other female COG did an undershirt that could deflect almost any shot. Key word almost, one of its few flaws was that it was not quite perfected- if hit close up by almost any weapon it could be punctured and was weak against sniper and torque shots. Had she been further away from the traitor before he shot- she would have been fine, sadly she wasn't and the bullet manage to penetrate the armor…sadly it didn't exit, which meant that digging the son of a bitch out was going to hurt. And she had given the traitor the rest of her vodka, so infection was a very high possibility. "Whose gonna dig this bitch out?"