Saving Corporal Baird
AN: We're nearing the end of this fic, but I have two pieces of good news - at least they're good news if you're enjoying this one. Firstly this fic is now mostly written (a few paragraphs to go), and secondly I have another idea for Baird whump and it won't leave me alone.
Cole was on the road back to Etreya and he wasn't at all happy about it. "I thought you said this was plan Z," he shouted back to Marcus.
"It's been promoted," said Marcus, who was looking back at Baird. "He's out again."
"That can't be a good sign," said Dom.
"His temperature's up, that's a worse sign. The new antibiotics aren't working," said Marcus. "That Seeder has to be taken down, or we're going to lose him to this damn infection."
"Shit," said Cole bashing the steering wheel out of frustration. They needed to be on their way back to Jacinto, not hatching some plan to take down the local Seeder. Baird needed a hospital and doctors who actually knew what they were talking about. Part of Cole wanted to just turn around and ram the roadblock, screw the consequences if it took them one minute closer to Jacinto.
He snatched a glance back at his friend and could see that Baird was sleeping restlessly again. He wasn't quite sure when he and Baird had formed this bizarre friendship that they had, but it had probably been some time back in those first few days of active duty. He'd unwittingly stopped some guys from beating on Baird in a toilet block the week before they were deployed, and after that he'd taken more of interest in the blond. Cole was pretty sure that Baird's mouth would continue to get him into more trouble, and everyone needed someone to watch their back. He soon found that his squad mate's abrasive personality hid a sharp wit and perceptive mind, and Cole had enjoyed the challenge of getting to know Damon Baird. It had taken quite some time, and some days he still wondered if Baird even realised that they were friends.
Since the toilet block incident, they'd seen enough action and saved each other's hides enough times that they owed one another a few hundred times over, although they'd both long since stopped keeping score. But they'd never had to deal with the other one being so badly injured, and Cole didn't know what to do with himself. He remembered once when Baird had been setting charges to blow a bridge and the first one had ended up going off early. Baird had ended up with a slight concussion out of that little adventure, but nothing too serious. Cole had been worried sick for days, and that was about as bad as things had ever been for them.
He supposed that they'd been lucky, they'd lost half their squad at the House of Sovereigns before Marcus and Dom found them. It could easily have been them rather than their squad mates, Rojas and Gyules. The fact that they'd been lucky until now didn't help Baird one bit though, or make Cole feel any better about their situation.
Marcus was thudding around in the back of the 'Dill now, opening up the ammo crates and taking an inventory of the explosives. They'd need to know what they had to work with.
"The Reavers are coming back round," said Dom.
"Okay, hit them if you can. Cole, concentrate on getting us back amongst some cover and then we'll head in towards the Seeder. We're going to need somewhere with some cover to get this thing rigged up right and the resident explosives expert isn't available to help us, so we're on our own this time."
Baird was good with explosives, just like anything else technical, but all of them had enough knowledge to be able to wire a trigger up if needed. Dom probably had the most experience of the conscious members of Delta, from his commando days, but Marcus was no novice at blowing stuff up either. The problem was going to be finding somewhere quiet enough that they could offload and get their ordnance rigged to blow.
Dom opened fire on the nearest Reaver, one which Cole knew he'd already managed to wound earlier. If he could just keep the 'Dill steady, then Dom would be able to take it down this time. Cole concentrated on the road and heard the reassuring sound of gun fire, followed by "yes!", meaning that Dom had hit his mark. The Reaver dropped from the sky, landing in a blood-soaked heap of twitching limbs. Dom turned his attention to the next one.
"One down, baby!" shouted the former Thrashball player.
Cole aimed for the old quarter of town. It had narrow streets that they'd already negotiated once to get out of Etreya, and he could use the remains of the buildings to hide behind. It would make it more difficult for Dom to hit his targets but right now, staying alive was more of a priority than taking down the other Reavers.
He took a corner at breakneck speed to avoid another rain of incoming fire from the second Reaver, and regretted it as Baird moaned in his sleep. He'd momentarily forgotten just how much pain Baird was in and how bumping him around wasn't going to help. Marcus steadied the gurney.
"Watch the turns, Cole," said Marcus. "I'd like to get to the Seeder before we destroy the 'Dill."
"Sorry, Marcus," Cole shouted back.
"Where is this damn Seeder anyway," said Dom, as he let off a volley of gunfire at the Reaver.
Marcus stepped forwards into the cab of the 'Dill. "Over there," he pointed, and Cole could see why. They were coming down a slight incline and it gave them a better view over this area of the ruined city. The light was just beginning to fade, giving the sky a dusky appearance, but they could make out something organic, moving around behind a building less than a mile away.
"Shit, I've never seen one that big," said Dom.
"That's probably why it's been screwing up coms for miles around," said Marcus.
"Have we got enough stuff to make it go boom?" asked Cole.
"Maybe," said Marcus, which didn't fill Cole with confidence. Their squad leader was looking at the map again.
"Damn, that thing is ugly," said Cole.
Marcus pointed at the map. "It's in Tyrus Square, probably the only place big enough to hold it. There's got to be a squad of drones protecting it, at least."
"And the rest," added Dom. Cole could see what Dom had caught sight of now, and it wasn't good. There had to be an entire platoon of grubs down there, of all shapes and sizes. This was very bad.
"How are we going to get past that lot?" asked Cole.
"We're not," said Marcus, with certainty. "All we have to do is carry out the plan that Baird gave us and stand well back."
"Shit, the Reaver's coming in for another pass," said Dom and aimed his guns again. This time he hit it in the soft underbelly and the thing dropped dead on a ruined building a few feet away. It was close enough to give Cole a small scare that it could have easily dropped down on the 'Dill instead.
"Last one down for now," said Dom.
"Nice work, Dom," said Marcus. "Cole, get us as close as you can to that thing without drawing their attention. We'll park up somewhere safe and rig this thing to blow. See if you can find us somewhere undercover where we can at least keep Baird comfortable until we can medevac him out of here."
Dom looked over at his sergeant and best friend. "What are we going to do if this doesn't work, Marcus? We're giving up our only way of getting Baird out of here. There's no way we'll make it from Etreya to Jacinto on foot."
"I know," ground out Marcus. "But there is no backup plan. This has to work."
Dom gave a shake of his head, but said nothing. Cole didn't exactly feel happy about it, but at this stage what other choice did they have? He looked around for somewhere to hide the 'Dill until they could rig up the explosives. He was rewarded with a narrow alley between two buildings, one of which had partially collapsed across it, creating an alcove where they could park up that was taller than the vehicle. It would be good enough and there were a few reasonably intact buildings nearby that might be enough shelter to use as somewhere to look after Baird while they carried out the plan.
Dom headed back to help Marcus and the two went through the large collection of explosive ordnance that Marcus had collected before he left the hospital. Cole had to say that it was quite an impressive pile that he'd amassed.
"What the hell was all this stuff doing in a hospital?" asked Dom.
"Mostly it's collected from the wounded and would have been taken back to Jacinto if the grubs hadn't shown up. Some of it's from the defence cache, in case they needed to hold off the grubs while they evacuated. I found some laser trips and other booby trap stuff that kept us safe while we were holed up for the couple of nights we were on the road before you found us," said Marcus. "There's some bigger stuff in here too. What do you think, Dom?"
"I think we should blow that fucking Seeder to hell," said Dom, as he began to assemble a trigger mechanism. He glanced over at Baird. "This would be a hell of a lot easier with his help. Fuck, he'd love this."
Baird rolled his head from side to side in his sleep, and showed no signs of waking. Cole sighed. He really hated seeing his friend like this. Baird's lips moved, groaning and saying the parts of words every so often.
"I know, but he's too sick to help us," replied Cole to Dom.
He took out a cloth and wet it down with some water, before placing it on Baird's forehead. Cole had no idea if it would help in any way, but his mother had done it for him when he was sick. He seemed to remember it being soothing, so perhaps it would make Baird feel slightly better and even cool his rising temperature a little. He didn't want to make him too cold and give him a chill on top of everything else, but it might yet come to packing ice around him to bring his temperature down. He hoped not, because he wasn't even sure that they had enough ice left amongst the various medical coolers.
Cole did his best to make sure that Baird was as comfortable as he could be, and then helped Marcus and Dom to wire together the biggest bomb that he'd ever seen. It was also one of the strangest because it pulled together every single bit of explosive ordnance that they had. They were building a Frankenstein's monster of a bomb, all held together with duct tape and scavenged bits of wire.
Had he been awake to see it, Baird would have either been horrified by what they were doing or pretty damn impressed. Instead he lay shivering and twitching from bad dreams, moving restlessly. Even when he did briefly open his eyes, Cole could see that he wasn't really aware of what was going on. He probably didn't even know where he was, because he said something about a geography field trip, drank some water and fell asleep again.
It took them at least an hour to rig up their improvised explosive device, with a concussion trigger that would go off as soon as the 'Dill hit the Seeder. Then it took another half hour for them to locate somewhere that they were happy to transfer Baird to until the Seeder had been destroyed. The main criteria were that it needed cover to hide behind and a roof, which in any other city probably wouldn't have been so hard. However, Etreya had seen some serious fighting because it was at a major river crossing, and it had taken more than its fair share of mortar attacks from both sides. They found a tattered house that suited them half way down the street, and moved all of the medical equipment that they needed into it. It was another slow process.
The last thing to do was to move Baird. This time they had two of them to carry the stretcher and another to hold up the IV liquid pouch. It was much more effective than Marcus's early attempts at bumping their patient across uneven ground, and probably more comfortable for Baird. The blond briefly opened his eyes to roll them around his surroundings, before letting his lids drop back down. He muttered some things that were too indistinct for Cole to hear.
They placed the stretcher on the ground, tucked into a corner, well away from the windows. Cole placed another blanket over Baird to ward off the cold of the evening air. He was shivering again, but his temperature was still rising. This wasn't the most salubrious of locations, the floor was littered with the discarded possessions of the people who had once called this home. A mouldy looking couch and armchair sat in the middle of the room, facing towards the remains of what was probably once a television. Cole didn't care what the state of the place was, it was simply a defensible location.
"Cole, Dom," said Marcus. "You stay with Baird."
Cole immediately shook his head and he could see Dom was about to object too.
"I don't want to hear it," said Marcus. "Baird needs protecting. As soon as this thing goes off, the grubs are going to be looking for where it came from. That means it's going to be crawling with them round here. You need to keep him safe and make sure the Ravens can land. I'll get the 'Dill on its way and then I'll make my way back to you."
Dom didn't look at all happy. "I don't know, man. You're going to have to get close enough to know that it's going to hit. It'll be a suicide mission on your own."
Marcus didn't flinch. "I know, Dom. But I don't think two of us going in there is going to make any difference."
"You'd have a gunner," said Dom. "You're just being stubborn and over protective. Like always."
"Don't start with me, Dom," said Marcus. "Chain of command."
"You're not pulling fucking rank on me," replied Dom. "I'm coming with you. End of discussion. Besides, next to Baird, I'm the best one of us with explosives."
"I think all I need to do is make them go boom," said Marcus, an edge of humour in his tone.
"Me and Baird will be fine on our own," said Cole, with a glance back at his friend. "We're kind of used to it just being us two, and you need someone to watch your back more than I do."
Marcus sighed, clearly not used to being told what was going to happen. "Fine, since I'm overruled, we'll do it your way."
Dom just gave a nod of acknowledgement but said nothing.
"You got everything you need, Cole?" asked Marcus.
"Yeah, I'm set, baby. I'll take good care of Baird, and as soon as that Seeder's down, I'll call in the Ravens," said Cole.
"Okay, come on, Dom, let's get going." Marcus gave a glance towards Baird, as he moved towards the door. "We'll be back here before you know it."
Cole remembered that the two of them, Baird and Marcus, had come a long way together and he doubted that their relationship would ever be exactly the same again after this. Somehow they'd all shifted from being mere squad mates to becoming people who relied on each other, he'd even hazard at calling them friends. Baird didn't have many friends.
Dom made eye contact for a moment, silently wishing him luck. Then Cole was left alone with the worryingly silent form of Damon Baird, who had transitioned from restless into still. Cole was actually more worried about Baird's survival than that of either Marcus or Dom in that second. At least Marcus and Dom could fight, whereas how Cole fought Baird's enemy, he had no idea.
Marcus didn't want Dom there with him, but he knew when to give in to his best friend. Occasionally he just wasn't going to win the argument, and this was one of those times.
"He saved my life," said Dom, unexpectedly as they walked back to get the 'Dill.
"Who saved your life?" asked Marcus.
"Baird," said Dom. "I never expected it of him. He was injured and he could have been killed, but he shot that grub that was coming for me and another one nearly killed him because of it."
"I hope you're not doing this out of some misplaced sense of guilt, because we've been saving his ass since Maran," said Marcus.
"Nah, it's just that maybe I've had him wrong all this time. It's kind of a front, all that annoying acid that he spouts," said Dom.
"Yeah, I think I only got that a day before you did. He just can't help himself. If it's too easy then he's not happy," said Marcus.
They reached the 'Dill and Marcus climbed into the cab.
"Who said that you were driving? You drive like an old woman," said Dom.
Marcus glared at Dom. "You should have seen me running a Locust roadblock a couple of days ago. Stop complaining and get in."
Dom shrugged but went around to take up the gunner's position. "You realise that we're driving a bomb, right? If we get hit then we'll be half way to heaven before we even know that we've left the ground."
"No, I'd forgotten. Thanks for the reminder," replied Marcus, with a roll of the eyes. He got himself comfortable in the driver's seat, and switched on the engine. Reassuringly, it purred into life. It didn't have to last much longer now, just get them to the Seeder and then it would be in pieces like the grubs.
"Ready?" Marcus asked Dom.
"Whenever you are," said Dom.
They rolled out of their hiding place. It was a little while before any grubs noticed their presence, but once they did, it was like driving through a pinball game. If they dodged one way, then they got pushed back in the opposite direction at the next junction. They weaved their way through pockets of resistance as best and quickly as they could. The only saving grace was that they weren't driving very far. Dom also did a good job of taking out as many of the bad guys as he could, leaving them with no doubt that they meant business.
Finally they reached a point close to the Seeder where Marcus thought that they might have a chance of pulling it off. Dom set the trigger as Marcus ensured that the accelerator was depressed and locked with a metal rod against the steering column. The grubs were still firing at them and Marcus realised that the 'Dill wasn't going to make it unless they helped it out with some covering fire.
"Trigger's set, Marcus," shouted Dom.
"Dom, get behind that wall and cover the 'Dill," shouted back Marcus.
He saw Dom comply and then went to release the handbrake. It was just at that moment that a grub drone decided to make a hero of himself and slammed the door into Marcus' face. The Gear fell back into the cab momentarily disorientated and now rolling towards the Seeder. The 'Dill was getting up to speed and Marcus knew he had to get out of there, but the drone had decided to try to climb in too now. He took a better grip on his lancer and revved up the chainsaw, slicing it into the drone with all the strength that he had. Locust blood spattered across the cab of the 'Dill and Marcus shoved the body out of his way.
He gripped onto the edges of the door and took a leap of faith to the moving ground. He hit it hard and ending up rolling into a crouch. It took him less than a second to realise that he was a sitting duck out in the open now and needed to move. He caught the movement before he realised that it was Dom heading for his position and shouting at him to move. He got to his feet as bullets began to whizz past his head and ran towards Dominic as fast as he could manage. His left ankle was giving him pain, but it was nothing compared to the kind of pain that a hole in the head would have given him.
"Shit, Marcus," said Dom, as he fell into the cover of a house's wall beside him. "I turned around and you were gone."
"One of the grubs didn't want to play nicely," replied Marcus.
"There she goes," said Dom, indicating their 'Dill, and laying down more covering fire to protect the vehicle.
"Shit, we're too close," said Marcus, looking at the distance between their cover position and the Seeder.
"No time to move back, and we've got Nemacysts," said Dom. The living mortars that looked like armoured, fleshy bombs with trailing legs were heading in their direction, creating inky air behind them.
Dom and Marcus opened fire, knocking the missile locust out of the air before they could get near enough for the detonations to hurt. Marcus was only barely aiming, there were so many Nemacysts coming for them that he could just shoot and expect to hit something. They just needed to keep shooting them down until the Seeder was toast and then there'd be no more Nemacysts either.
Dom swore as one of the mortars exploded a little too close, kicking up dust and sending shrapnel towards them. He took half a step back, but quickly started firing again. Any let up would leave them vulnerable to another detonation.
"How long?" asked Marcus. He'd lost sight of the 'Dill in the blackness of the atmosphere created by the smoky Nemacyst discharge.
"I can't see it," said Dom. "It should explode as soon as it hits. Maybe another minute?"
Then Dom and Marcus were deafened by the sound of a large explosion. A wave of flames headed towards them, engulfing everything in the wake of the tide of fire. Any grubs that were in the way were turned into Locust torches, and suddenly much less of a problem for Delta. The air smelt of ash and burnt flesh.
Marcus and Dom threw themselves to the ground behind the wall and Marcus prayed that they'd done enough to destroy the Seeder. Had it taken down the monster? Or had it been hit before it could reach its destination? For now he just concentrated on breathing in the heated air and patting out the flames that were blossoming on his uniform. He coughed hard, inhaling smoke and heard Dom beside him doing the same. They needed to get out of here before they both died from smoke inhalation.
Marcus staggered to his feet, his ears still ringing from the explosion and dragged Dom up too.
"Let's get out of here," he said. Dom just nodded, and the two moved shakily towards where they'd left Cole and Baird.