Chapter 34

Jackson burst out of the helicopter, sprinting for a moment before slowing down and opening fire. Two enemies in front of him went down with ease. He angled to shoot a third that was about to reach the helicopter, but the pilot apparently killed that one herself. Through the smoke and fire of the chopper, bullets flew relentlessly. For a moment Jackson tried returning fire, but there were just too many 'hoses' spraying and he couldn't even tell if he was hitting anything.

That was when Lieutenant Vasquez barreled past him, spraying into the smoke. It didn't stop the hailstorm of bullets, but it did clear the air enough that it didn't feel like suicide to grab the pilot. "Jackson, pull her out of there and get back to the LZ, do it!"

Another two marines rushed forward, getting between the helicopter and the other group of enemies, spraying bullets all over the place. Just from the sheer volume of fire they sent and the sheer number of enemies charging at them, they occasionally managed to kill someone.

[Ruby: Okay, where was this kind of teamwork 'last' time?! I'm not even moving any faster or slower!]

When Jackson got to Captain Pelayo, he took a quick look at her. She seemed mostly uninjured, but of all the luck a section of her broken bird was impaled on her leg. At best there was the small mercy that the shard of metal hadn't dug into the seat underneath too deeply, that would have made things especially annoying. Guess he was going to have to carry her. As careful as he could, he got her into a bridal carry, absently wondering if she was the type to consider a man carrying her through numerous explosions and gunfire to be romantic.

"Get to the Sea Knight! We'll hold down these corners! Go!"

It was impossible to sprint carrying someone, and Jackson couldn't help noticing that the rest of the squad 'was' sprinting for the helicopter, surrounding it. Part of him wanted to scream that they were supposed to cover him while he got the pilot to safety, that they didn't need to spread out like that when the enemy only had to rush through one street to get to them. The other couldn't help noticing the enemy was reeling a little from their short push. It wasn't until he was halfway back to the transport that they recovered, opening fire with accuracy bad enough that your average Hollywood mook would laugh at them derisively.

"Lieutenant Vasquez, this is Outlaw Two Five. Now would be a good time to get the hell out of here, over."

[Yang: Oh we're leaving alright. And with a good amount of time on the clock to spare.

Weiss: I'm not sure that clock even means anything considering just how relentlessly they're coming.]

"Roger that, we're on our way!"

[Blake: And by 'we' you mean Jackson.

Ruby: The only guy in this squad who seems to be able to fight worth much of anything.]

Jackson was three yards from the ramp when the enemy fire started narrowing, becoming more accurate. A few shots managed to hit him in the shoulder, but he didn't slow down. Setting the captain down, she waited until she was in a seat before finally letting herself show pain, gripping her leg and it didn't look like she was sure if she wanted to tear the broken piece of helicopter out or just pinch the skin together to slow the bleeding down even more. Considering his very minimal training in first aid, he hoped she wouldn't try to pull the thing out. Then she might just bleed to death in the air.

Pointing his gun out the ramp, he tried not to feel intimidated at just how many enemies had managed to get pretty damn close to them. It was hard to shoot with the rest of the squad pouring in, but he tried. Three, five, eight enemies fell by the time the last man got inside, and Command was once again on the radio. "Outlaw, this is Command. We have a probably nuclear threat at the capital. Proceed to the minimum safe distance until the all clear has been given by the NEST team."

[Weiss: And just how far 'is' the minimum safe distance? You're evacuating the 'entire' city! I'm sorry but it just feels completely ridiculous!

Blake: I don't know, it's nice to hear that they're that paranoid about the lives of their men. Helps show they're the good guys.

Yang: Yeah, that'd be easier to swallow if we hadn't seen this squad go through the grinder a hell of a lot. Just letting up and giving the other side the chance to regroup? I've seen a 'lot' of explosions and I can't think of just 'completely' pulling out other than not wanting to make a kid.]

The Lieutenant banged on the door of the pilot, screaming, "Go, go!"

Outlaw began rising into the air, and as even more enemies seemed to stream into the street, firing at the retreating marines, it was hard not to feel a little angry. There wasn't a single dead marine down there, there were dozens of dead enemies, and yet 'they' got to keep their ground while the marines were the ones running away. That said, if that nuke went off it wouldn't matter 'who' was holding their ground. There wouldn't be 'anything' left alive, not even the goddamn roaches.

Once the transport was above the rooftops it just took off at full speed, linking up with plenty of other helicopters that had taken a while to get out. Outlaw got on the radio for a joke, unable to hide the massive amount of tension in his voice behind his humor. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We're in for some chop! Hang on!"

There wasn't any turbulence despite the constant gunfire cracking against the transport. Thankfully none of the enemy was shooting any explosives, it was just a lot of assault rifles. Still, it was so much that statistically speaking they should have been able to hit something sensitive enough that regardless of armor it would do some noticeable damage. If anything they were moving so smoothly it was like they were on a zipline. That didn't stop the pilot from saying, "Jake, give me max power!"

[Blake: If nothing else they're certainly doing a good job showing they're afraid of this nuke thing.]

Holstering his gun once the enemy was too far away to shoot at anymore, Jackson leaned back and tried to relax. For now at least he was done. Sure, they'd probably send him and the others back into the city later, but it was time to unwind, time to cool down. After several days of nonstop fighting, his body certainly wanted to consider everything done, it's just his mind that wasn't so sure.

A few RPGs flew from the rooftops, hitting none of the aircraft that were speeding by. Unaimed, dumb rockets like that had a hard enough time hitting anything when the things they were aiming at weren't absolutely desperate to escape. Hell, did the bastards shooting them even understand why the Americans were leaving? Or did they think that they actually had somehow managed to beat the United States military conventionally?

Whatever the case, Command got on the radio again. "All U.S. forces be advices. We have a confirmed nuclear threat in the city."

[Yang: We heard the first time.

Weiss: Granted, last time they said probable, but I agree. Stop mentioning it.]

"Nest teams are on site and attempting to disarm. I repeat, we have a confirmed nu-"

The first thing Jackson noticed was the static cutting off Command. The second was the flash. Searing, a miniature sun lit up behind them, engulfing most of the city and prompting him to raise his hand to shield his eyes. It was only a second, maybe two, but it felt like an eternity. Goddamnit, they actually did it..

[The entire team just went silent, jaws going slack, eyes widening. If someone had taken a picture of them right then and photoshopped their faces onto fish, it would have been extremely appropriate.]

That's when the shockwave started sweeping up dust, buildings, wiping them away like a celestial broom. And when the thunder of the explosion reached his ears. Helicopters started dropping from the sky like rocks as the EMP took out their electronics, the shockwave removing any control the rotors might have provided despite the lack of power. Jackson had only a moment to stare in horrified wonder as the other choppers stopped being aircraft and turned into glorified coffins before the EMP killed Outlaw Two Five.

Radio already dead, the lieutenant just had to scream over the ear shattering noise of approaching death, "Everyone hang on!"

Not that they had much choice as their own chopper began its death spiral, turning so rapidly even someone with a strong stomach would get sick. It was like there were three different things trying to pull them in three different directions: gravity itself, the g-forces created as the helicopter rapidly turned like the center of the devil's own Merry-Go-Round, and the wind that wanted to suck everyone out of the bird.

The man just next to him, Volker, looked like he was grabbed by a ghost and almost dragged out the ramp. Even if Jackson had wanted to, he couldn't have tried to save the poor bastard. Not when he was both glued to his seat and gripping it like a lifeline in case that glue ever broke.

[Blake: I'm amazed the girl we just saved wasn't tossed out as well.

Yang: Holy fucking..that was..yeah. That was most 'definitely' a thing.

Weiss: A very absurd thing, a very..how. Just..just how.

Ruby still had no words.]

Of course that glue was only as good as the thing it was connected to. Once the helicopter hit the ground, he just blacked out.

As the emblem of the USMC appeared on screen again, Blake couldn't help glancing at the others, more curious about their reactions than her own thoughts.

Yang was surprised, sure, but it looked like a "darn, I wish I could make things go boom that epically" sort of surprised. Like she wasn't in any way concerned with the hypothetical implications and more like she was holding in gushing about how awesome that was for some reason. Why was she holding back, anyway?

Weiss, well, she was muttering various things about how completely impossible explosions like that were, how no amount of Dust could cause that much devastation in a single blast and almost looking like she wanted to challenge whoever thought up the idea to an honor duel or something.

And Ruby..well, she was harder to read. Eye twitching, shoulders slumped, not really baring her teeth or gritting them but making for a surprisingly dangerous looking picture. Maybe that was why Yang was holding back. She didn't know how her little sister was reacting and didn't want to step on her toes or something.

As for Blake? Well, hypothetically, it was..more than a little horrifying. If given the option, she knew Sienna Khan wouldn't make such a suicidal, devastating thing her first option. It wouldn't even be her fifth option. The woman was 'very' proud and had a 'very' long-standing grudge against humanity, especially those in Atlas, but when push came to shove she'd sooner live to fight another day than go out in a blaze of glory like that and it would take quite the hopeless scenario for her to kill off any of her own White Fang members just to hurt her enemy a little extra. It was one thing to lose people in various missions, it was another to knowingly sacrifice them just to spread the pain out as much as possible If all options of some kind of victory were gone, though, she would do something as close to that as she could manage just to spite whoever drove her to that point.

But when she thought of Adam? Driven, angry, tunnel-vision Adam? Oh dear god, he would take the absolute first opportunity he could to do as much damage to humans regardless of the damage to his own people and cause. The mission on the train when she decided enough was enough just highlighted that. They were supposed to capture the Dust on board, and he decided to bring explosives to kill the crew. Because unlike Sienna, he didn't want to hurt the Schnees in the wallet. He didn't even differentiate between a human working as a secretary in the company or an executive, a grunt with someone important. Hell, half the time she wasn't even sure he cared if someone even worked for the company, not with the way he exuded rage whenever he saw 'any' human at all.

It was..awkward to sit back and think that a man she'd respected, learned from, and..well, it was just hard to think of him that way. Even if the evidence was firmly against him. But she was honest enough, to herself at least, to know that he wouldn't even think about it. If given a "blow everything up" button he would hit it before anyone could bother telling him the consequences, assuming he'd give enough of a damn to listen.

[Newscaster 1: Something has happened/

Newscaster 2: What appears to be an explosion of epic proportions..

Newscaster 3: Reports remain sketchy and unconfirmed at this time..]

Yang sucked in a breath at that. "Yeah, other than the big fireball on the digital map? You're probably not getting any confirmation. At least not anytime soon from anyone anywhere near 'that'."

[Newscaster 1: Damage appears to be total..to set off what appears to have been a nuclear explosion in his own country.

Newscaster 2: Maybe the start of something larger that on whether Al-Asad was among the victims in what may have been a suicidal..]

Four lists of names appeared on the screen, scrolling by too fast for any of them to read. Blake wasn't morbid enough to try counting just how many they scrolled by, even if it was a fictional casualty list.

[Newscaster 4: What I can see from the hotel here is a mushroom cloud about forty-five by..

Newscaster 5: ..continue to burn across a massive wasteland that was once a capital to a thriving nation..]

Sergeant Paul Jackson's name was highlighted in green, then the lists disappeared, a little window searching the map for his location. Blake couldn't help saying, "Wait, we're not switching to the other guy? That looked like a pretty definitive ending for the guy to me."

And finally Ruby said something. "Well..we've still got that pilot we saved, and all the other people on the helicopter, and maybe other people who managed to avoid getting killed by that blast. I know it's an action game, but I think we could use a quiet moment or two of just saving people, not gunning them down left and right."

And as the screen started fading so they'd switch back to Jackson's perspective, Blake wasn't sure what she was expecting to see. This game had already caught her off guard way too many times for her to feel like she could guess much of anything.

Author's Note: Yeah, sorry I couldn't get Aftermath in the same chapter, but at least we've finally gotten by the boom. Hope it was a fun ride to this point.

For those of you who are convinced that I end the chapters when I do because I'm a troll. I 'wish' I could plan things out like that. No, I just write until it feels like a scene is done, check how many words I've written for a given chapter, and if there are more words than a certain amount than I start cleaning it up and post it. For this fic, the word minimum I try to aim for is about 2,200. For Expanding a Pallet the word count would be about 4,000.