The man with the communication device understood that the group across the corridor was the group of interest. He quickly aimed at Alpha with his hand weapon and started to fire. His fellows imitated him.
Alpha stroke back and hid in the corridor from where they came. Their shots hit two enemies. The rest of these two guys' comrades hid behind the walls at the intersection nearby their position. Hopefully, they weren't very good or experienced. Their shots died on the walls next to Alpha. Even somewhere way before Alpha. The Black Stone people had to find a solution very fast.
Sakai spotted the entrance of a room in the corridor in which Carter had been shot, not far away from their current position. He yelled at his friends, "This way!", and pointed at the doorway.
Old Rossberg and Rousseau glanced at the direction that their fellow was showing. Rossberg ordered "You two, go!", to the men, while taking a coner out of his satchel.
Sakai rushed to the doorway. Rousseau dragged his boss. Rossberg covered the retreat, firing with the two coners.
The man who had wounded Carter tried to stop Sakai but he got shot by Rousseau. However, this hallway wasn't free as other people were progressing with caution towards Alpha.
Sakai opened the door. Rousseau rushed into the room. Sakai covered Rossberg, then, stayed in the doorway with the visitor from the future, to continue the fire and stop the enemies from approaching too much. Like Rossberg, Sakai took a coner out of his satchel and used it.
The French soldier made his superior lean against the wall that was delimiting the right side of the room, from the entrance standpoint. Rousseau and Carter were a few steps behind a big storage box that was itself a few meters away from the entrance. The man knelt on Carter's right. He got rid of his bonnet and satchel. He did the same with Carter's.
The scene was gruesome. The captain was unfortunately more conscious than she was in the corridor. Conscious enough to yell in pain, the hands on her chest rig.
Bernard grabbed her right arm and tried to calm her down, "It's okay, it's okay!"
But it wasn't.
From the doorway, Sakai and Rossberg threw a grenade.
Carter seemed to become less agitated. She switched from screaming to gritting her teeth, certainly to stop screaming, but she was suffering like hell, sweating, feeling nauseous and dizzy, and having tears in the eyes. She grabbed Rousseau's left forearm and held it so intensely because of the pain that Rousseau's forearm hurt him. The man restrained himself from showing his sudden but very short pain as the level of his pain was nothing compared to Carter's.
"Okay, I need to remove the rig." Rousseau informed instead. "Do you hear me, ma'am?"
Carter nodded after a moment. Bernard used a knife to cut the straps of her chest rig and removed the pockets. He left them on the floor, on her left. Carter writhed in pain.
Bernard saw how appalling the wound was. Carter's waist looked like a geyser propelling blood. The French soldier's face couldn't lie about the status of the American's situation. He had to stay focused, though. That was what he had learned over his trainings and missions in the special forces.
The look of fear disappeared from Bernard's face. The soldier took bandages from his chest rig to stop the hemmorrhage.
"Stay with me, stay with me, ma'am!" he prompted, his hands becoming red as well.
Carter screamed when Rousseau increased the pressure on her wound.
Sakai heard the scream despite the chaos. "How's Maryanne?!" he shouted, glancing at Rousseau.
"Not good!" Rousseau exclaimed, still focused on Carter.
The woman was resisting as much as she could. Nevertheless, with no medical assistance, she wouldn't keep up the pace. Plus, she was out of breath and each attempt to breathe had become painful.
Rousseau contacted via his throat mic the rest of the team who was in the small ship, "Enedan, Lieutenant Rossberg. Rousseau speaking. We've been attacked. We're hiding in a room and the captain's seriously injured."
In the ship, Enedan and young Rossberg became extremely worried.
Enedan asked Rousseau, "How can we help?"
"Don't think you can." Bernard earnestly responded into radio. He shouted to his companions at the doorway, "We need to get out of here!"
"And how?!" one-eyed Rossberg yelled between shots, glimpsing the French.
Bernard looked around. The only way out was the entrance. There were certainly ventilation ducts inside the walls, but Alpha wouldn't have enough time to reach them. Besides, it wouldn't be simple with an injured Carter. And there was no way that they would leave one of them behind. They couldn't use their ship either because it had no teleportation system.
Sakai shouted, "Bernard, we're not gonna hold out against them very long!", and threw a grenade.
Rousseau removed his chest rig and replied, "Take this!"
Sakai looked at Rousseau as he didn't know what his companion meant exactly. The French threw his rig to the Japanese, who caught it when it fell beside him.
Bernard's attention went back to Maryanne when he felt her right hand pulling his left sleeve. The soldier heard his companions use grenades again. He saw Carter's left hand tap the pockets of her chest rig that he had thrown on the floor.
Rousseau understood that this hand movement had a specific meaning.
Even though Carter was weak, she was still determined.
Rousseau got the message.