Hey Readers, I decided it's finally time to update this story, I kind of let it fall behind my "Adventures in War" story. And I'll admit, it's stranging writing Nadine in this after... what happened in my other story. But I can't leave this one while my other one is so far ahead!. So enjoy the newest chapter for Just my Luck starring Claudia Mann. As always, read and review :)
Chapter 10- Fates Payback…
Claudia still had her hands over her ears and barely heard the early morning bugle call being played outside on the loud speakers. But soon, she felt someone hit her in the back.
"Yo, time to get up girl!" said Wendy, snickering and quickly getting dressed.
"Wake up; you can sleep when you're dead." Jane said next as she walked passed Claudia's bunk.
Claudia just rolled on her back and looked up at the top bunk above her, and she still remembered the terrible event that went on last night, mostly thanks to her. For it was her who told Nadine, and Nadine, being as honest and caring as she was, told Faldio what the others did to those poor Imperial soldiers. Also it was Claudia who lured her friend into that trap, to repay the others for snitching.
Claudia sighed "I should have stayed at home…" she thought to herself. For nothing seemed to be going right for her during her entire time in the militia thus far.
She didn't want to get out of bed, for she'd have to face Nadine, her friend, or more likely former friend, after what happened last night.
But she took a deep, nervous breath and rolled out of bed. She then stood up and turned around, but found Nadine's bunk to be empty. She wasn't in her bunk and it was already made.
"What the…" Claudia said softly, she then turned around and scanned the interior of the barracks, but couldn't find her.
Wendy was now dressed and was running past Claudia. But she slapped her on the back, "Come on girl!" Wendy said, "Thought I told you to get up and get dressed 5 minutes ago!" And she departed the barracks, towards the mess hall.
Jane was also dressed and she too was making her way hurriedly past Claudia, "Better hurry up, don't want to be the last one to the mess hall." Jane said and she too left the barracks on her way to the mess hall.
Claudia didn't know what to make of Nadine's disappearance and eventually she got dressed and made her way, alone to the mess hall.
A short while later, she entered the mess hall and saw many Gallian soldiers sitting down, eating their breakfasts. She saw a few familiar faces, such as Jane and Wendy sitting with the group who took part in the beating last night. She also saw Marina sitting alone, as usual, eating and reading a book at the same time. But still didn't see Nadine, so she just sighed and made her way towards the line up, head kept down in sadness and shame.
Just then she bumped into someone, "Oops, sorry, didn't see you there." said a familiar voice.
Claudia raised her head and saw Nadine, but her casual reaction and smile were not what she was expecting to see or hear from her.
Claudia gulped again, her heart rate increasing. "Nadine…I-" but she was cut short by Nadine shaking her head.
"Listen, talk to me after breakfast, alone." she responded and she walked past Claudia, food and tray in hand.
Claudia just nodded her head, "O-ok, a-a-afterwards then…" she said to Nadine's back.
Some soldiers looked at her curiously, causing her to blush as she turned and made her way towards the line up and took her place.
And after she got her food, she looked for a place to sit and it once again seemed all too familiar, like her first day all over again where she wasn't sure where she'd be welcome.
She spotted the same group she embarrassed herself in front of on that particular day and remembered that she wasn't welcome there. So she looked to her left and saw Nadine, sitting with Lynn, Wavy and the other members she met earlier. But she could see them all leaning towards Nadine as her mouth moved, like she was telling a story.
And Claudia's worst thoughts were confirmed when everyone turned and looked at her, giving a glare or look of disappointment. And Claudia immediately knew, that they knew about what she had done to poor Nadine. Now she knew that she also was no longer welcome to sit with them either. She turned her head and spotted Marina close by, but knew she preferred to be alone in all things, so she just sighed again and made her way to an empty table at the back of the room.
But as she was walking, someone reached up and placed their hand on Claudia's shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. "Hey girl, what's the matter?" Jane asked, "Not going to sit with your former roommates?"
Wendy was sitting next to her, eating her breakfast. "Yeah girl, you did good last night, sure impressed the rest of us with how easily you were able to lure that Dark-haired girl in for us." Wendy complimented, snickering with a mouthful of food.
But Claudia shook her head, "I'm sorry… I'd much rather be alone right now if you don't mind." Claudia said and she left Jane, Wendy and the others and continued on.
"Tch… why even bother?" Cezary asked, "I still don't think we're fully even after she told on us."
Jane shook her head as she stirred her scrambled eggs around, "Nah, she just still hasn't learned who she can trust and who she can't. But she'll learn, soon enough, those Darcsens are the last people she should be making friends with."
And at the back of the room, Claudia found and empty table and sat down, looking at the empty seat on her left, then on her right and finally across from her. She sighed sadly and began to scoop scrambled eggs into her mouth, eating friendless and all by herself. Regretting even more now, that she decided to leave home and join the militia.
For life seemed so much simpler when she was a shut in. She had things to preoccupy her time and keep her mind off of the loneliness. But here, she was constantly surrounded by people, good and bad and she was always making so many mistakes with trying to fit in. The social life didn't seem to be the thing for her, she thought as she continued eating alone.
A short while later, she finished faster then the others. As they were sitting, talking and socializing as they ate their breakfasts. But Claudia didn't have anyone to talk to, so without that distraction she finished a lot quicker.
Claudia nervously gathered her tray and garbage and made her way to the back of the mess hall. Finally, after taking care of that, she exited the mess hall and waited on the steps, just outside of the mess hall. And as she waited, she thought long and hard about what she was going to say to Nadine. But try as she might, she couldn't think of a good apology or even a good excuse to explain why she betrayed her.
Eventually, after a few nervous minutes, Nadine came out, with her group of friends. Which consisted of Aisha, Dorothy, Wavy, Lynn, Oscar and Emile. They were happily chatting together, but once Claudia came into view, everyone immediately stopped and paused. They were all giving her displeased looks, like they knew what happened.
Nadine sighed and made her way to the front of the group, then turned to everyone else. "I'll just be a few minutes guys, so go ahead without me." Nadine said and everyone reluctantly nodded and went ahead, but nearly all glared at Claudia as they moved past.
Claudia gulped nervously and walked up to Nadine, "Look Nadine I…" Claudia started, but her heart was beating furiously, sweat forming on her face.
"Don't worry, I'm not mad." Nadine said
This clearly shocked Claudia, "B-but why?" She asked "I would be, after what I did."
Nadine smiled and shook her head, her dark blue hair swaying with her heads movements. "I keep telling you… I'm Darcsen." she replied, "Revenge is not an idea that we follow, nor is holding grudges. We are, after all, together in the same squad. Should we keep up this game of getting back at one another all throughout the war, because I could think of lots of ways to get back at you… but I won't."
"No… no I guess not." said Claudia
"Though I do not agree with what you've done, or the group you hang out with… these are your choices." Nadine said "We Darcsen also believe that every deed done, good or bad, will eventually come back to you in the form of punishment or reward. What you've done… to those poor soldiers and to me… I know you'll have to answer for it later. So I'm not worried about hating you for it, most of all it's against the beliefs of my people, the Darcsens."
Claudia was a little confused "So… we're good then?" she asked
Nadine closed her eyes and shook her head, "No… sadly, I don't think we can be friends anymore. Just know I don't hate you or anything, we just seem to be far too different people."
Claudia lowered her head, "Alright… I understand."
Nadine nodded her head and continued on past Claudia, leaving her alone on the steps of the mess hall.
2 hours later, near noon, Squad 1 was called together for a meeting. Their new mission was to head to the Kloden wildwoods and scout out an Imperial supply base stationed there. No one knew the strength of the garrison or what other things they could expect. But it was vital so the Militia and the Army, to know what they were going to go up against. Everyone knew it would be dangerous, going ahead of the regular army and alone.
But orders were orders, so they went back to their barracks and got ready to move out. And as Claudia was putting on her backpack, she happened to look over at Jane and Wendy. Both seemed eager for their first mission and to kill as many Imperial soldiers as possible.
"I can't wait to get out there!" Jane said, laughing as she put on her body armour.
"I know, I look forward to finally be able to throw some grenades around!" Wendy said next.
Claudia shuddered at the thought of real combat and at Jane and Wendy's eagerness to experience it. She shook that thought away and made her way over to the ammo lockers. Every engineer was given a key to access it anytime they needed, as they were the ones who would need supplies and ammo out of it, more then anyone else.
Each soldier was only given so much ammo for that day. But Wendy and Jane walked up to Claudia as she was taking ammo and supplies out of the nearby ammo lockers.
"Hey girl, can ya spare a few extra grenades and ammo for your former roommates?" Wendy asked.
"Oh… I-I'm not supposed to…" Claudia said, looking around nervously.
"We'll probably need them anyways, so why not give them to us ahead of time." Jane said next, "We're gonna do a lot of shooting after all today."
Once again Claudia was being talked into doing something she didn't want to do. But she finally gave in, but kept a close eye out as she reached into the machine gun ammo and took a few extra clips out and gave them to Wendy and Jane, who quickly concealed them in their pouches. After that, Claudia gave each girl, 3 extra grenades, way more then they were assigned.
"Thank girl!" Wendy said, snickering as always "We owe ya one!"
"We won't forget this favour." Jane said, smiling rather evilly.
Claudia lowered her head, "What am I doing…" she thought sadly. But she gave her head a shake and finally finished gathering what supplies and ammo that she'd need for the day and finally set out.
A few hours later, Squad 1 was deep in the Kloden wildwoods, all the soldiers gathered around their leader's tank.
Faldio then appeared from the turret hatch, took out a pair of binoculars and scanned the area. Birds were chirping, the sun was shining and all seemed peaceful. But it was a rather unsettling feeling, knowing that somewhere out there, the Imperials had a base set up and lots of soldiers in the base or patrolling around the base.
Faldio finally lowered his binoculars and looked at all of his soldiers.
"Alright, split up into groups and fan out." Faldio ordered, "Proceed slowly and with extreme caution, for we don't know what we're up against."
Jane looked at Wendy and nodded her head, she responded with a smile and snicker. The two then began to walk away from the tank, but not before Wendy reached over and grabbed a distracted Claudia by the back of her collar, dragging her along with them.
"Come on girl, you're coming with us, tee-hee." Wendy snickered
Hermes and another scout joined them, Nil Daerden joined them as well, and they followed Wendy and Jane. So the 6 of them set out together. But Claudia looked back and saw Nadine joining another group and heading off in another direction.
"Good luck…" she said quietly.
A few minutes later and deeper in the forest, Claudia and her group proceeded slowly through the tall grass, between trees and waded through bushes. But so far, all was quiet and they had seen nothing. Had it not been a war, it might have been a very peaceful nature hike, with plenty to see and smell.
It was a whole new experience for Claudia, for she had been born and raised in the city. The sounds of car horns blaring, people chattering loudly and the other sounds of the city were replaced by birds chirping, squirrels chattering loudly, wind blowing through the grass and the leaves of trees rustling in the wind.
Claudia walked at the back of the group, a huge smile on her face as she looked around at the beautiful forest landscape. A life completely opposite of what she was used to.
Just then she stopped and giggled as she saw a giant, beautiful butterfly with black and orange wings, flapping and circling all around her head. It then moved in front of her, floating and flapping its wings.
Claudia was so transfixed by this that she stopped walking and ever so slowly began to reach out with her right hand, to touch it.
Suddenly, out of no where, there was gun fire, bullets whizzing past her head, and mortar explosion. The beauty and peace of the forest was taken away in an instant. The birds took to the sky, cawing and screeching in terror, the squirrels scurried back into the tops of the trees and into their nests. But sadly, some of the trees they were in fell over and crashed to the ground after being hit by the exploding mortar blasts. Even the beautiful butterfly was cut into two pieces as a bullet struck it.
Claudia looked forward and saw Wendy and Jane running back to her, "Ambush! Get back Claudia, GET BACK!" Jane screamed as tracer bullets flew past her, some hitting the poor scout on her right side, Hermes got struck in the back of the legs. He fell to the ground in pain, while the other scout hit the ground dead as the others ran towards her.
But Claudia was frozen in place as she looked all around; suddenly remembering that she was in a war, not on a hike after all. And it took Wendy grabbing her by jacket as she ran past to get Claudia to finally get her to move.
The group then ran for a short distance and got behind a large fallen tree and set up behind it. Crouching down low and aiming their guns just over top of the tree and firing into the forest. But try as she might, Claudia couldn't see any sign of the enemy. Just muzzle flashes amidst the bushes, trees and tall grass in the distance. They were out there, but Claudia couldn't pick out any targets to fire at.
Despite that, Jane slapped Claudia in the back of the head. "Shoot! Shoot damn it!" she screamed right into Claudia's ear.
So Claudia raised her rifle up to her shoulder and fired wildly, swinging her rifle left and right as she pulled the trigger and fired into the forest up ahead. But she couldn't tell if she hit anything, and it didn't seem to matter if she did. For there were now, even more muzzle flashes, of all kinds. Evenly paced rifle flashes, quick, rapid machine gun flashes and everything in between. And falling, screeching mortar rounds, falling all around them.
And as Claudia lay on her back, trying to load another clip into her rifle, the portable radio she also carried crackled to life.
"This is Lieutenant Faldio to all groups. Pull back, pull back now! Enemy resistance is far too heavy, there's nothing a single squad can do against this many." said Faldio, in the background it sounded like firecrackers were going off, but it was much worse then that. For it seemed that all the groups, were encountering the same heavy resistance that she and her group were.
Claudia was still fumbling with her ammo clip when Jane reached down and grabbed her, hauling her up to her feet. "Run damn it! RUN!" Jane screamed. Wendy and Nils were already on the move, hauling it back to the squad.
Claudia nodded and began to run, bullets flying past her as she ran, mortar rounds exploding to her left and right as she ducked low and ran.
Just then a tree branch sticking out of a nearby tree scratched Claudia in the side of the head and she winced in pain, but continued to run. But after a few more running strides, she instinctively touched her forehead and found it to be bare, her headband was gone.
"Oh no!" she cried, stopping in her tracks and looking back the way she had come.
Jane also stopped, "Come on Claudia, we've got to get out of here!"
But Claudia remained where she was, she then looked back at Jane "…I'm sorry…" she said, she then turned and was actually running back towards the gunfire and Imperials.
"CLAUDIA!" Jane screamed at Claudia's retreating form, she then looked down at the ground and cursed loudly.
Wendy came running back, "What happened, what happened?" she asked.
"The fool went back… I have no idea why." Jane replied. And the two watched Claudia get further and further away.
Meanwhile Claudia was searching high and low for her headband; it was something she wasn't going to lose, no matter what. But as she waded through a pile of bushes, her backpack got snagged, by the shoulder strap. So she pulled and pulled, but it just got tangled far worse.
"Ah… just my luck!" she cried, cursing her bad luck. Unable to free herself she took off her backpack and tool belt and left them behind as she continued on alone.
The firing seemed to quiet down as she continued to look for her headband. But she heard distant, heavily accented voices yelling all around her, voices of the enemy.
Just then, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned and saw a long, red piece of fabric flapping in the wind, snagged on a branch.
She smiled when she realized it was her fathers red headband, she had found it at last. And as she walked towards it, everything around her seemed to fade; all other sounds and sights disappearing as she fixed her sights on her headband. She then reached it and walked around it, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She then set her rifle down and worked on very carefully getting it free, without causing any further damage to it. She smiled once again as she finally had it free and in her hands once more.
Just then, from behind her, she heard a man, screaming loudly, growing louder. She was then kicked hard in the back and sent to the ground, getting the wind knocked out of her from the hard fall. She quickly turned and saw an Imperial soldier in grey armour, raising his rifle up and taking aim at her.
But he was then struck with bullets by unseen shooters and fell back, dead before he even hit the ground. Claudia looked back and saw Wendy and Jane making their way back to her.
"Pay attention girl!" Wendy screamed, "You're lucky your roommates still watch over you!"
And all at once, the ferocity of the many blazing guns and exploding rounds returned. Tracer rounds flying past the girls, mortars exploding all around them. Claudia was still slightly dazed as she looked all around from her position on the ground.
"Get up, you idiot!" Jane cried as she fired her machine gun into the trees and bushes.
"Run girl RUN!" Wendy cried, firing, then turning and running, Jane doing the same.
Claudia got up and tried to reach for her rifle, but bullets smacked and pelted the ground all around it, so she left it and ran for her life, her headband still clutched in her right hand as she ran.
Jane and Wendy stopped and turned around, waving Claudia towards them. "This way!" Jane screamed above the gunfire and explosions.
But three large, loud explosions hit the ground between Claudia and Jane and Wendy. Terrified, Claudia cut hard to the left and ran in that direction.
"No, not that way!" Wendy shouted with her hand against her mouth.
Jane shook her head, "She's got to be the stupidest son of a bitch I have ever seen!"
"Let's hope she's at least smart enough to make it back to the squad alive." Wendy said, bullets striking a nearby tree snapped them back to reality.
"Nothing we can do now…" Jane said, both girls then turned and ran back in the direction of the squad.
Meanwhile, Claudia continued to run, but she was so deep in the forest and the trees were so tall that she couldn't tell up from down, or north from south, east to west.
And as she rounded a tree she bumped into something, or rather someone. She stumbled but caught her balance and came face to face with a very scared looking Nadine.
"Not that way!" she cried, grabbing Claudia by the sleeve and pulling her in another direction. A few bullets flew past both of the girls, coming from the direction that Nadine had just come from.
"They're everywhere!" Nadine cried as she ran next to Claudia. She still had all of her engineers gear, and her rifle. But like Claudia, she was alone too.
"Where is everyone!" Claudia cried, referring to her squad mates.
"Everyone on my team is dead!" Nadine shouted back.
Resistance was far heavier then anyone could have anticipated. The Imperials were everywhere in the forest and in far greater numbers then the number of soldiers that squad 1 had.
Just then two mortar rounds exploded a short distance in front of the two girls. Claudia and Nadine both shielded their heads and faces with their hands and cried out in fear at the same time. Claudia then cut right and ran, while Nadine cut left and ran the opposite way.
But Nadine ran for less then a minute before she crashed into someone, that person letting out a grunt of pain. Both Nadine and the stranger then rolled down a nearby hill, and rolled and rolled and rolled down the steep embankment. When the two finally hit the bottom, they both recovered and sat up at the same time.
Nadine gasped in fear upon looking at a young Imperial engineer in grey armour, but he looked just as terrified looking back at her. He then lurched forward and began to scamper on all fours, patting the ground, searching desperately for his lost rifle.
Nadine looked around as she sat on the ground as well, luckily her rifle was right next to her and she picked it up and aimed it at the young soldier.
"Don't move! Don't MOVE!" she ordered.
And the young soldier stopped searching and held his hands up as Nadine kept her rifle trained on him.
Meanwhile, Claudia was still running through the dense forest. She looked over her shoulder occasionally as she ran, whimpering and panting in fear and exhaustion as she ran.
She then turned and began to run up a hill, but she tripped and fell to the ground. She managed to push herself up and continued to run up the hill. And again she tripped at the top of the hill, and again she pushed herself up and tried to run again. But this time, she ran into something solid and nearly fell back.
But when she looked back up, she gasped in fear. For she had run straight into a tall, stern looking, Imperial soldier in red armour. She looked past him and saw the rest of his unit emerging from the nearby bushes and tall grass, walking towards her. There was no way she could run now, for she was far outnumbered and surrounded.
Her breathing was escaping her mouth in short, panicked gasps as she looked up at the tall Imperial officer in red. He looked back at her with emotionless, cold eyes. He was so close Claudia could see his dark green eyes and some black hair sticking out from under his helmet, he looked much older then the men of his squad and had a short, black moustache under his nose and black facial hair on his chin.
"Hands up Gallian." he said in some kind of heavy eastern Europan accent, possibly one from the Empire. The rest of his unit formed up on either side of him. Claudia backed away one step and shook her head; she was far too scared to respond.
"HANDS UP!" The officer screamed.
And without even thinking, Claudia automatically raised her hands up and remained still.
The officer then turned to the men of his unit, "Search her." he ordered and the other Imperial soldiers moved forward and began to dig into her jacket and pants pockets. They recovered a few spare ammo clips, her identifying papers and some other unimportant items like gum, her wallet and a hair brush and tossed those to the ground.
As they searched, Claudia tried to scrunch up her father's headband into her hand, to conceal it and keep it from getting confiscated as well. But the Imperial officer noticed and grabbed Claudia's hand with his right, and pried her fist open with his left and took it from her.
Claudia tried to make a grab for it, but was pushed back by another Imperial soldier and forced back into her original position of hands up and remaining still.
Meanwhile the officer unfolded Claudia's red headband looking at it, turning it over and over.
"What is this, Gallian?" he asked, dangling it in front of her face.
"It's… personal." Claudia responded, "Very personal."
"I think it goes great with your uniform sir!" One Imperial soldier said.
And indeed he was right. The red matched the colour of his armour. So the Imperial officer nodded and wrapped the headband around his knuckles and kept it. Meanwhile, another Imperial soldier was looking at Claudia with an intense stare.
"Say… doesn't this girl look like a Darcsen to any of you?" he asked
"What?" asked another, "A Dark-hair?"
He then reached forward and grabbed Claudia hard from under the chin and turned her head towards him.
"Dark blue eyes… dark coloured hair. She very well could be." he stated.
"I hate Darcsens!" said another, and he loaded pulled the bolt back on his rifle and took aim at Claudia. "Let's just shoot her!"
"I gave no such order!" the officer in red shouted above the rest. He then slowly walked towards Claudia, never breaking eye contact. "How bout it? Are you a Darcsen, girl?"
Claudia quickly shook her head, denying it.
"Let me see her papers!" he ordered and they were very quickly handed to him. He opened the small book and quickly skimmed over her information.
"Claudia Mann… from the Militia… Squad 1..." he said, he flipped the pages until he came to the end. "No, she's not a Darcsen from what I can tell. And she's not the squad we were looking for; she's not from Militia Squad 7."
He then looked at her once more, "What class are you?" he asked
Claudia's eyes couldn't take his gaze anymore so she looked down and whimpered and didn't respond. But a soldier from behind her did.
"She's an engineer, sir!" he said, after looking at her Engineer symbol on the high of her back near her shoulders.
"Engineer… where's all your gear. We could use your equipment for our own cause." said the Officer.
"I… I lost it…" Claudia responded, hands still held up in surrender.
The officer shook his head, "That's too bad."
"What are we going to do with her sir?" one of the soldiers asked.
"She doesn't seem to be of much use to us. No weapon, no gear, no nothing." said another from behind her.
The officer shook his head, "We'll take her back to base, I'm sure we could find some use for her." said the officer. And with that he reached forward and grabbed Claudia and roughly moved her in front of him. He then kicked her hard in butt, causing her to fall forward. "Move Gallian!" he ordered.
The rest of his soldiers formed up behind her and on both sides, two of the soldiers taking pointed as they made their way back to base.
"Faster, walk faster!" the officer ordered as he pushed Claudia from behind, making her almost lose her footing as she walked with her hands up in the air, soldiers surrounding her from all sides.
A short while later, one of the soldiers walking next to her, reached into his pants pocket and took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth and lit it. He then dug another one out of his pack, held it out to Claudia and grinned, a rather evil looking grin.
"Cigarette?" he asked.
And Claudia's heart froze, for she remembered Nadine's words. "Every deed done, good or bad will eventually come back to you in the form of punishment or reward. What you've done… to those poor soldiers and to me… I know you'll have to answer for it later"
Was this it, was this Claudia's punishment for taking part in that prisoner massacre and for beating up poor Nadine. If so, it was a perfectly fitting one, for she was now in the same place of those poor soldiers that her group had slaughtered. A prisoner of the Empire…