Ch. 10
Soldier Enhancement Program Training: 34 Years Ago
Gabriel Reyes
Dinnertime at SEP was always a fucking circus. One would think that they had warped back to middle school when stepping foot into that mess hall. It was easy to rationalize that it was just soldiers blowing off steam after a hard day of training, but Gabriel couldn't stand the noise. He wished someone would try to get them to act like professional adults, but none of the officers seemed to care.
He tried his best to stay away from everyone and their loud childish behavior. Ignorance is bliss it seemed. Gabriel wasn't fooled quite as well as the other sheeplings that had joined SEP. He knew the stakes, but it was better if they didn't. Not yet anyway. Though, reality would at least shut them up. He was sick of listening to the yelling. He kept headphones in, his eyes down, and his head on the goal. Fraternizing with the riff-raff was just a distraction. Still, he could hear the two men a few seats away from him talking loudly to one another. It was annoying, and making it very hard for him to enjoy his shitty meal.
"Will you two shut the fuck up and go die in a hole or something?" He snapped at the two men who'd been drowning out the music blaring in his ears. He heard them mumble something, but he didn't care to pause the music to listen. They picked their trays up and moved down the table a ways. Gabriel smirked to himself.
"Scaring away the locals, I see," a familiar voice said between switching songs. Gabriel glanced up to see the pretty golden haired soldier who'd broken his nose. He sat his tray down beside Gabriel's and slung his leg over the bench, sitting down saddle style and facing Gabriel. He paused his music, removing the earbuds so that he could speak with Jack Morrison.
"I'm making sure they understand this is my territory," he replied.
"You gonna try that predatory shit on me?" Morrison asked.
"Hmmm I don't know," Gabriel shrugged. "We'll see what animalistic instincts I develop. Just don't try breaking my nose again." Morrison chuckled. He swung his other leg over the bench so he was facing his food.
"So why are you sitting here on your own?" Jack asked innocently, ignoring the innuendo in Gabriel's statement. He wondered if the little blondie was really that dense, or if he just elected to ignore Reyes's playful passes.
"Because people suck," Gabriel answered, taking a bite of his food.
"Sounds like you're generalizing, Reyes."
"You got proof that I'm wrong. You saying you don't suck?" Morrison cocked his head to the side.
"I'd certainly hope not," he admitted with a nonchalant shrug. Gabriel looked at him with scrutiny. The stare that met his gaze was blank and unobservant. He raised one dark eyebrow and smirked.
"Shame," he purred, brushing a stray curl from out of his face. Jack looked at him carefully.
"You cut your hair," he said, motioning at Gabriel.
"Hm? Oh yeah – I did." Gabriel ran his fingers through the short curls on top of his head. "I thought an undercut might please you better." Jack blinked in surprise.
"What? Tell me you didn't…" he started to object. Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"That was sarcasm, blondie." He folded his arms and leaned back slightly. "Though you did make me realize the long look was fucking stupid."
"I didn't mean anything by it," his tone was saddened like he blamed himself.
"Stop being so damn cute. You didn't, but it was. I was trying to grow it out for a badass metal look, but the in-between isn't really my thing. This looks better, right?" Morrison looked him over thoughtfully. He smiled.
"Yeah." Gabriel grinned.
"Good. I have the boy scout seal of approval then." He took a bite of his food.
Morrison ate quietly for a few moments. He looked concentrated – like he was trying to find some taste in the overly bland food that SEP supplied. Better than standard military rations – at least.
"Is your nose better?" he asked, looking at Gabriel with concern. Reyes shrugged.
"Yeah. That shit they injected into it did its job. Needle sucked worse than the broken bone though. I'm good to go – breaks all healed. Don't worry your pretty little head."
"Why are you such a dick?" Morrison huffed. He crossed his arms. "I'm just showing concern for breaking your nose."
"If I'm such a dick why are you here?" He put his headphones back in his ears. "I was fine just lounging around by myself. You're the one that strolled over here and started complimenting my hair."
"That's not how it went," Jack grumbled. His eyes narrowed. Gabriel laughed.
"That's how I remembered it." Morrison growled.
"Do you get off on pissing off others?" Reyes shrugged.
"Not really. It is entertaining though."
"Look, I didn't come over here to argue with you." Morrison took a bite of his food.
"Then why did you, Morrison?" He sighed.
"You looked lonely." Reyes laughed.
"I'm not lonely. I'm fine by myself." Morrison looked him over, thoughtfully.
"If that's how you feel then," He grabbed his tray and started to stand, "I'll go."
The strangest most unwelcome twang of panic rose in Gabriel's chest. It was such a familiar feeling – like he was about to lose something if he didn't act quickly. He hated the intrusion of the anxiety. He hated the emotion that stirred briefly.
Still, he grabbed Jack's wrist as quickly as he could – too quickly, in truth. Morrison surely noticed. "Wait," he exclaimed a tad too loudly, as well. Gabriel hadn't thought. He had only reacted on instinct. Jack explored Reyes's face with his sky blue eyes, hesitant in his retreat.
"Fine," he hummed. Gabriel released his wrist, allowing Morrison to place his tray back down and sit.
"I didn't mean to try and drive you away. I'm not lonely, but I don't mind the company… from you anyway." Jack smirked. He had called Gabriel's bluff expertly. Somehow he'd known that Reyes hadn't actually wanted him to leave. Perhaps, he wasn't as empty-headed as Gabriel had originally assessed.
"I feel so special." It was sarcasm. Reyes liked it. Morrison was far too polite sometimes. For most of the other soldiers he liked the respect, but for Morrison he enjoyed far more to push his buttons.
"Indulge me, Morrison," Gabriel began after pausing a few moments to scarf down a few bites of food, "if you think I'm such an asshole why exactly are you sitting with me? For real…?"
"I'm not lying to you, Reyes. You just seem like you need a friend." Gabriel snorted. The word friend had become somewhat foreign to him.
"Friendship is trivial in our line of work, don't you think?"
"No? It's good to form bonds – have something to fight for." Reyes snickered.
"Ah, you're one of those."
"One of what?"
"A romantic. An idealist. I bet you joined to army to be some big damn hero too, didn't you? Big bad Jack Morrison's going to kick all the omnic ass, right?" Jack blinked at him.
"Not exactly. I did join because of the omnics though. Didn't you?"
"No. Sure that's why I joined SEP, but…" Gabriel sighed, "but I'd rather not talk about it."
"Fine then. But if you want to know I joined because of the omnics, but not to be a hero. I was going to be a field medic." Reyes almost spit out his coffee.
"You? A field medic?" he asked skeptically. Morrison smiled. It seemed he got that reaction a lot, and was more amused by it at that point than taken off guard.
"Yeah, actually. I had already started going to medical school… trying to get off the farm and all…" He rolled his eyes at "the farm," like he was trying to skip over that little detail best he could. Of course Gabriel would never let that go.
"Right, I heard you were a farm boy," he said causing Morrison to grunt.
"Yeah… I thought being a nurse or doctor or whatever would be a nice escape. Turns out running off and joining the military is just as good of one. Gets you further away, at the very least." He sighed, leaning forward pensively. "I hadn't been going for about six months when the news started reporting about the omnic rebellion in Russia. No one had any damn idea what was going on. The omniums starting going quiet… I thought maybe it'd be better to apply myself… here. I used the tiny bit I'd learned and started training in field medicine, but it turned out I was a lot more useful as a frontline soldier." Jack sighed. He scratched the back of his blonde head. It seemed like it troubled him. Like he doubted his abilities.
"Field medicine," Gabriel said, leaning forward so he was eye level with Jack. "Sounds real useful, honestly." Morrison blinked.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I mean… a kick ass running and gunning soldier who can patch your ass up in a pinch that's super fucking helpful." A light smile began to replace his frown. "You aren't always going to have access to a doctor, so someone who knows what he's doing is always going to be good to have along."
"Thanks, Reyes," he said. "I've never been too sure about this whole… soldier thing. I didn't ask to be a combatant – I was just good at it. Sure I did track and stuff in high school, but I never really thought I was athletic or skilled enough to be here with people like you." Reyes couldn't help but smirk at the compliment, but then he realized Morrison's admission actually should make him sad.
He didn't realize how big of a pawn in the game he was. Gabriel had seen his skills – in hand to hand, at least – up close and personal. It was no doubt he was capable. However, those Soldier Enhancement pricks had gone about promoting their initiative as if it was some coveted position looking for only the best. It was too risky for The Best, however. Even Gabriel had attemptedly been barred from joining. He had forced the issue. He wanted the enhancements, and SEP wanted him. His CO's begged him not to go; told him he'd be court martialed if he did anyway. SEP was an officially funded by the American military, however, and they had no actual grounds to prevent entry. He went anyway.
Gabriel would never have told Jack the truth though.
"You'll do good here, Morrison." He clapped him on the shoulder causing him to smile. Gabriel could only hope that what he was saying was the truth.
"This is state is state of the art technology designed to help train you to fight the omnics. You are going to be our first line of defense. This is going to mold your knowledge of omnic tactics long before you go into the field… blah blah blah blah blah," Gabriel stopped listening to that self-indulgent general talk about the combat simulator. Sure, it was a combat simulator, it was fucking cool. Him going on and boasting about it was not interesting at all, however. "We have compiled and designed the adaptive VI's based on omnic interactions collected from Russian soldiers and scientists in hopes that the other countries could build their own enforcements if the uprising spread. With our program the…" he explained the logistics of the simulations and how everything was going to work. "As far as you're concerned this is a real battle. Other than training you to fight omnics this will allow us to assess your leadership and teamwork skills. This is where you prove to us where you belong. Make your country proud." With that the general excused himself delegating the responsibility of actually training onto the other SEP officers.
Officer Nowell stepped forward.
"We'll be splitting you into three groups and choosing at random each groups leader. You can micromanage other titles amongst yourselves. Group leaders have final say. We back at 'mission control' will be monitoring your comm chatter and see how you all work together as a team. Got it?"
"Yes sir!" the crowd of soldiers announced.
"This is fucking stupid," Gabriel muttered to himself a little too loudly.
"What's that, Reyes?!" Gabriel sighed.
Nowell and he had briefly been in a unit together back when he had first joined the army. Nowell'd been a shit soldier back then. Preliminary SEP studies had been his way to escape dishonorable discharge. A redemption. By some twisted sense of fate that fucker had managed to survive the pre-alpha studies while the other subjects had… well…
"I said this is fucking stupid," Gabriel repeated louder so the whole crowd could hear him. "We're not in fucking high school. I'm a higher military rank than your dumb ass. I'm pretty sure I don't need some misfits telling me that I'm command material." All eyes had fallen on Reyes's hard face.
"Are you command material, Reyes, really?" Nowell's smartass smirk made Reyes want to make him his next physical confrontation. It was knowing and it angered him. "We're not at boot camp anymore. So you're going to have to just suck it up and follow goddamn orders. If you keep this shit up it'll be your ass!"
"What're you going to do? Kick me out back to my perfectly successful military career? I'm shaking in my boots. No, you need people. You need skilled people. You need me." The other officer touched Nowell's shoulder and whispered something in his ear. He huffed, crossing his arms.
"Get in line, Reyes," he breathed, ending the argument to the best of his ability.
"We're military funded," the other officer said, "and this could affect that record of yours. Insubordination isn't pretty." The two men moved off to a control panel. "When we call your name please group up into the first team!" he called out to everyone.
Gabriel stood in the corner, smoldering in his anger while the rest of the soldiers grouped up. He hated Nowell and he hated that place even more every day. A part of him regretted his decision to join the program, but he had multiple reasons why he did so. He had to keep those in mind lest he lose sight of his goal.
"48," the other officer called Gabriel's number. "Team two."
Reyes huffed moving to the other side of the room where a few other soldiers had grouped up. He was still glowering when the officer called, "76, team two." Gabriel's eyes fell on Morrison as he moved to join their squad. He hadn't noticed that he'd even been a member of the crowd before then. He'd most likely been wrapped up in his own head. Though, with him on the same team as Morrison maybe the idiotic exercise wouldn't be too bad.
"Nice show, Reyes," he said as he joined up with the group.
"Always aiming to please, Morrison," he replied, keeping his eyes straight ahead on the officers as they dispersed the remaining soldiers into their respective teams. They proceeded to move to each group and designate each leader.
"Group two," Nowell said looking them over. He smirked at Reyes before his gaze moved over to Jack. "76," he murmured, reading his dog tags but clearly not knowing who he actually way. "Morrison. You'll do."
"Well thought out decision," Gabriel muttered with an eye roll. Jack looked over at him with confusion and slight concern. It was clear he was not confident. The officers moved on to the final time leaving Reyes to look over at Jack. "Well, Commander Boy Scout, what's our roles?" Jack rubbed the back of his head hesitantly.
"What do you guys want to be?"
"Really just like that?" Reyes asked, but he was drowned out by the voices of the other men and women shouting out which rolls they wanted to fill during the simulation.
"I always wanted to be an arms expert," one man shouted.
"Kay sounds good," Morrison agreed.
"Infiltration scout always seemed like a kick ass job!" a woman called out.
"Have at it, Kiara." He smiled as he assigned the jobs that each person asked for, aiming to please rather than succeed.
"Oh boy, are we going to lose," Reyes muttered to himself. "Morrison, how is this going to help?"
"We need to fill the roles, don't we?" he asked innocently.
"Sure, but these rookies aren't qualified. Why don't you find out their credentials before giving them jobs?"
"It's a training exercise so that the higher ups get an idea of our skills, so they're experimenting with their abilities."
"Right a military training exercise to learn how to kill omnics not laser tag in the local arcade. We need to learn, not play around." Morrison crossed his arms and stared at Gabriel without amusement.
"Ok, so tell me your 'credentials'." He snorted.
"I can do and have done everything. I could fill any of the roles, be your second, handle the guns, sneak ahead and tag enemies, I'll do fine assaulting from the front or… attacking from the rear…" He sighed. "Just put me where you want me… not where I want me. That's how this should go."
"Mkay, Reyes, then you're our field medic." Gabriel's eye lids fell half way as he stared at Morrison with the most 'go to hell look' he could manage which was a pretty intense sight.
"Of fucking course that's what you picked." Morrison's smile turned satisfied and he seemed very young in the moment – almost childlike. He chuckled, but it came across as a slight giggle to Gabriel.
"You told me to pick," he reminded.
"Yeah, yeah, fuck you Morrison."
"Ok, ladies listen up! This is how it's going to go," the officers called out pulling everyone's attention. "There will be a winner of this little test… just to motivate you all. We work on a point operated system. Your general goal is eliminate all omnics. You do that and you've already succeeded. You don't? You've lost and you're going to be running laps in the morning. Those who do will be judged on how many men you've made it out with, their condition, and how many civilians were saved. And remember… we're listening… do your jobs well and there's nothing to worry about. This will affect your placements later on." He paused. "Now get in there!"
Gabriel's team had been set up in what was emulated to look like the second story of a building. The jokingly dubbed, Commander Boy Scout, was staring out a window down at the simulated omnics below. Turner, the girl who had wanted to be his second in command, was scrolling through a tablet that was given to them. They were uploaded with information about each omnic class and how they had been observed to behave. Gabriel was sitting against the wall casually with his arms crossed tight over his chest. He observed the rookies fumble about as they discussed their strategy. It was interesting to him how into the exercise they were. Gabriel was the only one slouching off on his own while they all huddled around and whispered amongst themselves, giving their opinions on route for attack.
Morrison was an interesting one. Not many "commanders" would take so much consideration into the opinions of the "subordinates." Gabriel pegged him as a people pleaser. He was that kind of guy with a kind smile and gentle words that allowed everyone to warm up to him. Perhaps, that's why Gabriel even kind of liked him despite his distaste in people in general. Or maybe it was just because Morrison had actually cared enough to go out of his way to befriend the disgruntled solider. Effort mattered, after all. Or maybe it was just because Jack was fucking hot. One of those.
"What if we split up half and half and assault from frontal and rear positions?" Kiara, the "infiltration specialist" suggested.
"Hmmm… that'd work, but there's minimal cover on the rear path," Morrison answered. "If the Bastion units spotted you they'd tear you apart."
"I see, not a good idea then."
"Looks like its amateur hour," Gabriel muttered to himself, pulling a bit of attention to his lonely sulking corner.
"Reyes," Morrison said in revelation like he'd forgotten him. "What do you think?" He smiled when Gabriel looked up.
"You want my opinion now?" he grumbled.
"I've always wanted your opinion. I want everyone's." Gabriel sighed, pulling himself up from the ground. He took the tablet from Morrison and skimmed through some of the profiles. He already knew some of the information.
"Alright well," he murmured, "those Bastions shoot fuck tons of bullets, so a frontal attack is fairly out of the question… unless, one of you non-field medic people have some sort of… bullet deflection?" He glanced around at them. "Thought not. Best bet is to distract the Bastion units. They'll detect anyone sneaking up behind them, but if they're already firing on a target it'll be easier. They have a weak point on their back when turreted up, so anyone who gets the flank should have no problem taking out the Bastion unit." Gabriel handed the tablet back to Morrison.
"That sounds… ideal," he hummed. Gabriel smirked cockily.
"Not bad for a field medic, eh, Commander Boy Scout?" Morrison's smile was sly.
"That will be all, Medic Reyes." Gabriel shook his head.
"Back in the corner I go then. Let me know if you need any… med packs or what the fuck ever." He flopped back down, pulling his legs to his chest and observing as the planning continued on from his jump off point without him.
Eventually they decided to send the infiltrator girl and another soldier to flank the Bastions while the gun expert darted between covers to draw fire giving them the opportunity to strike. Morrison decided on taking Tuner and wiping out the smaller omnic troopers on their own, leaving the single OR unit to be taken on as a team. Gabriel was, of course, instructed to stay behind in the building in case anyone needed healing. He wasn't too happy about that.
He leaned against the single window of the room they'd set up in, watching the distraction team and the assault team get ready. Morrison and his teammate had already vanished from view, preparing to keep the omnic troopers from disrupting the Bastion takedown. He was bored out of his mind and totally disappointed with his role.
"Waste of my talents," he grumbled.
He felt like he was back in elementary school, sitting under a lone tree with a book while the other kids played on the playground. No one wanted to play with the weird kid. They were all too afraid of accidentally making him angry. Kids didn't want to give him a chance to prove he was more than the negative reputation that he would carry around all through high school.
Somehow he'd thought Jack was different.
The arms expert wasn't the deftest runner Gabriel had ever seen. His speed was lacking, and he didn't even try to move unpredictably. As he dodged from cover to cover the turreted Bastion units fired away, picking away at the armor he had graciously been given due to his role with each hit. He was a dumbass.
"How are things going?" Morrison's voice prickled in Gabriel's ear. He rolled his eyes, resting his chin in his hand as he watched the gun expert guy trip and fall.
"Pretty shitty, Commander Boy Scout," he replied.
"Shit, shit, shit!" the guy on the ground yelled, scooting back hastily as the Bastion unloaded simulated bullets.
"See," Gabriel hummed, watching in amusement.
"You ok, Johnson?" Morrison asked the downed man.
"No, no!" he yelled, shoving himself behind some cover. Gabriel examined the tablet with his team's virtual vitals on it. Johnson's was flashing red with a tiny sliver left on his life bar.
"Yeah Johnson is fucked," Gabriel said with a hint of satisfaction.
"Reyes, get down there and stabilize him then!" Morrison demanded seriously – too seriously for the little game they were essentially playing.
"Nah, I don't really feel like it." Johnson craned his neck, peeking up and around the cover to see the window where Reyes was casually leaning.
"What the fuck are you doing?! I need healing." he yelled.
The Bastion, seeing the edge of Johnson's stupid head, unloaded once more. Gabriel watched his health bar flash and turn black. A buzzer sounded from down in the field, signaling a teammate death.
"Good job, dumbass!" Gabriel yelled down to him since his "death" cut off his comm. Johnson sprung up, thrusting his arm in the air with his middle finger lifted. He pointed it towards Gabriel. He just laughed, amused by the whole situation.
"Reyes, what's going on?" Morrison chimed back in. His breathing was labored.
"Oh, nothing. Johnson's dead, though."
"What?! What happened?"
"He moved out of cover to yell at me."
"Fuck."
The other distraction guy was the next to get cut down, but he'd kept up the charade long enough for infiltration to take out one of the Bastions. The idiot decided to pause to watch it fall and that allowed the remaining Bastion to take out his health bar. With the distraction team down the Bastion's sensors then focused on those two soldiers trying to sneak up and shoot its weak spot. He got them before they could even fall back to cover. It was about that time that Turner's life bar went out.
"Shit, how many is left, Reyes?" Morrison called out over the speaker.
"That'd be just you and me, Commander Boy Scout," he answered nonchalantly. He paused. "So what's your orders?" he followed up sarcastically. Gabriel could see that Morrison had taken a few hits by the omnic troopers, but all and all it was nothing that Gabriel's abundance of medical supplies couldn't mend.
"I took out all the omnics in the room." He huffed, allowing silence to follow leaving only static. "There may be reinforcements, but hopefully we'll be clear. How many remaining on your side?"
"One Bastion. Oh, and that OR unit on the other side of these buildings."
"You think we got this?" Gabriel snorted a laugh.
"That depends on how competent you are."
"Cocky." A sly half smile spread across his face.
"I can be." The slightest laugh traveled between the comms.
"Stay where you are. I'll be there shortly. We regroup, and we take them out."
"Big damn heroes of the simulated world, right Golden Boy?"
"Getting ahead of yourself, Reyes."
It took Morrison a few minutes to return to the room, but when he did he seemed frustrated.
"Johnson said you just ignored him and wouldn't go help him out," he grumbled clearly disgruntled with Gabriel's unwillingness to play to his shitty part. Gabriel crossed his arms.
"Hey, not fair. You're not supposed to be talking to the dead bodies. How did you meet him anyway? His 'corpse' is guarded by Bastions." Morrison sighed, his square jaw tensing in irritation.
"He met me on my way here."
"Dead guys aren't supposed to move."
"Tell him that." Gabriel sighed.
"Guess I'm not a very good healer then, huh? Maybe he shouldn't have been dumb enough to peek out when a Bastion was aiming down at him?" He sighed.
Gabriel could feel anger bubbling up in his chest. He didn't want to yell at Morrison, in all honesty. So he bit his tongue, forcing down the heat of rage best to his ability. The only thing he could think of though was decking Johnson in his stupid face.
"Speaking of healer, here." Gabriel tossed a little metal device at Morrison who caught it without hesitation. "I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to represent, but it'll refill your health bar." Gabriel tapped the tablet where Morrison's bar had gone back to full. Jack looked at the device in curiosity.
"Looks like they don't care if the simulation isn't exactly accurate with the fine intricacies of field medicine," he mumbled distantly.
"I guess." Gabriel moved back to the window he had been at before, looking out at the Bastion. Morrison followed, observing their enemy. "Orders?" He didn't answer right away. Instead, he stayed silent, most likely thinking over the possibilities.
"I think we should proceed with distraction and flank," he finally instructed.
"You think the two of us could pull it off?" Morrison sighed running his fingers through his golden hair.
"So long as you actually do this job." Gabriel chuckled.
"I think I can. Who's the distraction?" Morrison looked Gabriel over.
"Alright, Reyes, what do you think you could do best?"
"Hm… well, I am pretty distracting, but you said you ran track in high school, didn't you?" Jack seemed surprised at the information drop. His smooth fair forehead wrinkled and his blond eyebrows rose.
"You remembered that?" he asked. Gabriel smiled.
"Of course." Jack returned the grin. "Well if you're a fast runner then you might be a little better at not getting shot as the distraction. I promise that omnic won't last long."
"Hm… I like your confidence." Morrison shoved his rifle into Gabriel's hands. "Make sure you live up to it."
"Understood, Commander Boy Scout."
Morrison moved with a certain drive. He was agile, fast, and seemed to have a lot of stamina. The spraying Bastion had immense difficulty catching him, and by the time the bullets would near their mark Jack would dodge into cover, or it would have to reload. It was quite clear to Gabriel that Morrison should've been the distraction all along. Had he started off in the positon befitting him perhaps the squad wouldn't have been wiped. Gabriel could have watched Morrison run for hours, taking in every expression, every pump of the muscle. He couldn't loiter, though. He had to be quick and quiet. Luckily, that was his specialty.
The Bastion didn't even notice Gabriel as he unloaded his clip into the bot's critical weak spot. It didn't notice the first few shots. Almost as if its threat detection sensors prioritized targets in its sights rather than those massively damaging it. By the time it did spin around it decided that its best option was to use its self-repair feature. Gabriel dodged behind a building, while Jack emerged from cover and unloaded his side arm pistol into the omnics back. When it spun back around to him, self-repair ended, and the bullets began to fly once more prompting Morrison to return to his hiding spot. It also allowed Gabriel to spring back up and finish the Bastion off. It collapsed on the ground, vanishing in a holographic flicker of death.
Jack popped out of cover, cautiously. He looked around, gaging the danger level. When he'd decided it was clear he looked over at Gabriel who had just stood there watching in interest. Morrison smiled, his thin pink lips turning into a grin that exposed perfect gleaming white teeth. Gabriel couldn't help but smile back at him whole heartedly. His adorable innocent smile was contagious.
"That was… a lot easier than the others made it look!" Jack announced.
"Don't celebrate prematurely. We still have the OR14 to take care of," Gabriel replied, shaking his head.
"Right?" Morrison sighed, leaning against a piece of rubble. "Any suggestions?" Gabriel sighed.
"Not a one."
Gabriel tossed Morrison his rifle back. Jack caught it with a surprised "oomph." He looked at him in question while Gabriel paced over to one of their downed teammates. He grabbed the guys discarded shotgun.
"Hey," the "dead" guy complained.
"You're not using them, zombie," Reyes replied, shaking his head. He looked at Morrison. "I'm more of a… shotgun guy. I like to get up close and personal," he explained. Morrison exhaled through his nose quickly.
"Why am I not surprised? C'mon let's see if we can get a view on that OR unit. Maybe we can come up with something then."
The OR14 wasn't exactly in a fortified position. It was stationed in the middle of a street with dead cars piled around it. However, due to the rows of fenced off buildings on either side there was absolutely no flanking the omnic. However, the derelict cars did provide cover for a direct attack.
"Any ideas?" Morrison asked again. Gabriel sighed. He nodded at Morrison.
"What about you, Commander Boy Scout?" Morrison shrugged.
"Charge?" He nodded.
"Let's see if we can convince it to react then maybe we can gage its motivation."
"Good idea." He jerked his head towards the large robot in the distance. "Let's go."
Morrison led the charge leading Gabriel towards the bot in a hail of bullets; a few shredded into the OR14 with sparks. It reacted jerking into attention and shooting a small metallic orb forwards causing a large half-dome shield to spring up guarding the omnic's front. Seeing this, the two soldiers dodged down behind a vehicle, slamming their backs hard against the bumper, their shoulders pressing together.
"Well, shit," Gabriel huffed.
"What are we going to do?" Morrison gasped, clutching his rifle to his chest.
"No way are we going to charge that thing. Did you see that huge ass gun on its arm! It'll shred us."
"We can't pick away at it from a distance either… that shield makes it impossible. Ugh, fuck. Why'd you have to let the whole team die, Reyes?"
He slammed his pretty head back into the grill. Gabriel thunked his head back as well. He looked at Morrison who was gasping and staring at the sky like it held the answer – his smooth white Adam's apple exposed for anyone to touch their tongue against.
Gabriel had to force himself to focus.
"Okay, okay," he muttered. "It can't shoot us both… So let's split up. You go up the right side, and I'll go left. I'll draw its attention while you move up and you draw it so I can move up. Once we get close enough… let's charge through its shield at the same time and… and hope for the best…" Jack nodded.
"Yeah, seems like the best approach…" Gabriel nodded.
"When I get its attention, fucking go."
At that Gabriel leaned out from behind the car and fired on the omnics shield. It, seeing a hostile, began to unload its big ass arm gun. Gabriel ducked back down, but the force of the hard rounds pegging into the car caused him to be knocked onto the ground. He would have fallen onto Morrison had the blond soldier not already charged up and gotten behind another car. When the bullets ceased Gabriel peeked around the corner. Morrison was crouched a few cars away, readying his rifle for his part of the distraction. He glanced over to where Gabriel was still hiding. Their eyes met – brown on blue – and Jack nodded once. He spun, leveling his rifle on the trunk of his cover and firing on the omnic's protective bubble. Gabriel quickly jumped up, rushing from his spot as he heard the OR unit's bullets shred the air and slam into Jack's car. Dodging behind another set of cover, Gabriel looked back over to Morrison. Their eyes met once more and Jack smiled assuredly. Gabriel laughed lightly to himself and gave Commander Boy Scout a thumbs up. He swung back out of cover, repeating the assault on the shield to draw fire away from his new partner.
It took countless rinse and repeats for both men to work their way up to parallel positions with the omnic's shield. Both squatted behind cars, panting and peeking around at the enemy waiting for a chance to move in.
"You ready, Commander Boy Scout?" Gabriel asked jokingly.
"On three," Jack assured. Gabriel could see him ready his weapon and he followed suit. "One," Gabriel took a breath. "Two," Jack and Gabriel exchanged a glance. "Three."
Gabriel lost sight of Morrison as he heaved his body up onto the car he had been hiding behind. He focused only on his careful movements as he rushed up and over the hood, leaping off and through the omnic's shield. He angled himself facing the OR14 and began to unload his shotgun repeatedly into the bot. He could hear the sound of a rifle's fire near to his right and could see its bullets rip through their target's armor.
For a split second during the action that he processed in near slow motion, Gabriel thought that he and Morrison might just be able to pull this off. They probably wouldn't win… after all most of their men had "died." However, due to he and Jack's impressive display they would most likely be favored by the superiors at SEP. Gabriel wasn't sure if he cared about some dumb training exercise or what the officers would think of his performance. He thought that his previous military record served more than enough to prove his capabilities. However, he had gotten caught up in the fun of the activity within itself, and with Morrison. Jack was an interesting and genuinely nice guy and Gabriel was starting to really like him… The thought was scary…
Gabriel was just starting to plan his victory ceremony – ironic, of course – when the whole plan crumbled apart.
Instead of firing on its two attackers, the OR unit shot a strange green orb. At first, Gabriel thought it had missed since the thing had just floated past he and Jack, moving behind them as the two soared through the air firing upon the omnic. 'Stupid thing,' he had thought to himself or at least tried to. He had only managed to consider the OR14's mental processing for a millisecond before all the momentum gravity had built on his moving body seemed to be halted. One second he was falling to the ground and the next he wasn't. He began to move up, instead, and backwards. He couldn't even begin to fathom what was happening before he was yanked hard and fast towards where he had come from. He flew back through the shield they had worked so hard to move past, and his body went smashing right into Morrison, who had been caught in the singularity as well. The two men went crumbling onto the ground. Gabriel hit the concrete first, his head slamming into it with a crack. Morrison came tumbling after, landing hard on top of the other man.
Gabriel was dazed for what felt like only moments, but was undoubtable unconscious minutes. Through his eyes he saw only stars and darkness. When he managed to blink his vision back it was Jack he saw. The blond man was crouched down in front of him, worry on his face. The lighting in the area seemed different. Everything was more artificial and the background behind Morrison's head was gray. Though, the beaming incandescent light shined through his gold hair in a yellow hue that made him seem almost angelic. Jack's blue eyes searched Gabriel's face for something – a sign of consciousness, perhaps. Gabriel could feel a soft warmness on the back of his head, though there was also a wet and sticky sensation. He shifted, moving into the grip that was holding his head up. Morrison was cradling his head, it seemed.
"Reyes?" He asked in a voice that was so velvety.
"Mmmmmorrison," Gabriel moaned unintentionally. He shifted further into his grasp, turning his head so that his cheek was rubbing into Morrison's semi-callused palm. The sticky wetness spread to the side where he touched. "Mmmorrison… you're bleeding," he moaned. The knock to the head had disoriented him quite intensely.
"No, Reyes… you're the one bleeding," he replied. His gold eyebrows knitted. "Reyes, stop squirming." Jack grabbed his chin, securing his head from turning further. He held him in place.
Gabriel tried to shake the fog in his brain. He focused on his sensations. His eyes stayed trained on Jack's beautiful face while his ears listened in on the sounds of his breathing. He smelled rust… blood… fresh blood… Was it his? He could taste the blood, as well, though he wasn't sure why. For a few moments he thought his body was numb, but when he concentrated he could feel Morrison on top of him. He straddled Gabriel's left leg partially and he weight pressed lightly into him. Morrison's stomach leaned against Gabriel's arm as he bent to examine the injured man.
"Damn Reyes we haven't even began the injections and you've already hurt yourself twice," Morrison joked, smiling, trying to lighten the mood. Gabriel snorted, finally getting his bearings on the situation.
"Both your fault," he grumbled, a little too harshly. He had meant for it to come across as a joke. "Hmm… what happened?"
"The OR14 kicked our ass," Morrison replied. "That graviton field yanked us back and you hit the ground pretty hard. You broke my fall, though." He paused. "Thanks for that, by the way." A chuckle. "You busted your head open…"
"Fuck… does that mean I'll have to get another shot?" Reyes asked almost innocently. The idea caused a shiver to go up his spine. Jack smiled.
"I don't think so. I don't think you fractured your skull… You may need some stiches though." Gabriel groaned.
"Ugh… more needles…" He took a breath, trying to steady himself. "Will you come with me?" The question sounded childish, and the tone must have taken Jack off guard because his mouth gaped open. He blinked his sky blue eyes in surprise. He nodded, though, seeming to understand Gabriel's issue.
"Yeah," he whispered. "I'm here for you." Gabriel sighed.
"Thanks, Morrison. Nowell's never going to let me live this down."
"Needless to say, we lost… Hope you're ready to run laps in the morning," Morrison said as he entered Gabriel's exam room. He had returned from the debriefing with the officers. His pale face was flushed, having obviously rushed from where all the other soldiers had been held to get to Gabriel's side.
"Fuck…" Gabriel grumbled, trying not to move as the nurse examined his wound. She was standing over him with a stern look on her face, looking annoyed that he'd returned with another injury so soon.
"If you'd just played along like the rest of us," Morrison lectured.
"Dammit," Gabriel snapped. His body jerked accidentally due to the reaction. He groaned and the nurse tsked in disapproval. "Don't you get it? This isn't a game. This could become a war. People could die." Morrison shook his head.
"I know that! I was trying my best. I've never led anyone before, and I don't know why they picked me." He looked down, clearly ashamed at having voiced his insecurities. "You could've tried though. You made fun of me wanting to be the hero, but you were the only one trying to stand out back there."
Gabriel stared at Morrison hard as he turned around, running his fingers through his gold hair in frustration. He lowered his head, causing the nurse to make another noise of irritation. Gabriel dealt with his own uncertainties. However, Morrison was right. If Jack had put past what made him anxious then Gabriel could have too. He sighed.
"You're right, I'm sorry… I shouldn't have." Jack turned back around, looking at Gabriel critically. He examined him carefully, trying to read his countenance. There was no lie. Jack sighed and smiled assuringly.
"It's ok," he said. "Though, the others might not be as forgiving." Gabriel snorted.
"Like I give a fuck what they think," he blurted, not quite realizing that he'd made it obvious that he'd grown to care about Morrison's opinion. Morrison didn't seem to catch the proclamation, however.
"Alright, 48," the nurse said. "This will need some sutures." She stepped back.
"Fuuuck," Gabriel groaned.
"No bone damage this time, though. Good job at… avoiding that, at least." She moved over to a table to ready the stitches. While she was turned away Gabriel looked at Jack in semi-desperation.
"Help," he mouthed. Jack smiled sympathetically. He moved over and sat beside Gabriel.
"I'm right here," he assured. The nurse returned, positioning herself behind Reyes. Jack took Gabriel's hand as the grouchy old woman stuck the needle into the side of Reyes's head causing him to grip Jack tightly. "It'll be ok," his smooth voice assured. He squeezed back to prove his existence to the squirming man. "I'm right here."
A/N: This was a pretty tough chapter for me. Though, oddly most of it was written in a very short period. I don't know what it is about past Reaper76, but it IS difficult. Though, I'm glad to have a nice little fight scene back in the story since it's been like 7 chapters since the last. Anyway, I'd like to think a special guy who is always super helpful when it comes to these stories. Not only is he my sort of BETA reader he also helped me structure the OR14 fight when I prompted him with the question "So how do you think 76 and Reaper would take out Orisa on their own. Oh, and also Reaper can't wraith." His support is most likely one reason this story has gotten as far as it has, honestly. 3
Thanks for reading and don't forget that comments/reviews are SUPER DUPER APPRECIATED!