Authors' notes: We started round-robin writing nearly five years ago. This was the first full story to come out of that activity. 'DD' is Disney Diva's part and 'KT' is Kazthom's. We had no rule other than 'just write'. Didn't matter how much or how little.
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"Jon, turn on your suit!" Jennifer snapped. Though her lips barely moved, and she remained seated in the same position she'd been in, Jon realized her eyes were focused over his shoulder, in the distance.
His power suit materialized an instant before a shot smashed into the back of his helmeted head.
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Despite the armor, the shot knocked him to his knees. Immediately Jennifer was out of her seat and across to her fallen leader. Without thinking, she used her suited body to block any further shots.
"Jon? You ok?"
Jon shook his head, his ears still ringing from the bullet hitting his helmet. "Yes. Thanks to you. But now we are pinned down."
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More shots flew over their heads, striking the boulders behind them. From their hunched position, Jennifer tried to determine where the shots were coming from. "They're using bullets. Bullets! Where did they get them from?" Another shot pinged off the skybike and ricocheted into the boulder nearest them. Shards of rock flew toward her and she yelped at the sting of something hitting her thigh, just above the armor.
Jon toggled his communicator and snarled as he nearly hauled Pilot behind the biggest of the rocks. "Hawk, we're taking heavy fire! Old ammunition, they're using bullets! Not much cover here!"
"On our way Captain! ETA is eight minutes!" Masterson's voice buzzed in both their ears.
"Great..." Pilot muttered, ignoring her still stinging leg as she pulled a ball from her utility belt and pushed a couple of buttons. "Let's see what we've got here." The ball lifted from her hand and shot into the sky. "Scout, eye-in-the-sky deployed! Let me know what we've got!"
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"Nothing good Pilot. I see about twenty mechs moving fast towards you. All have 20th century rifles. If I had to guess, Winchesters. Stay down, our suits are made to deflect energy not old fashioned bullets. The armor will give some protection but not enough if one finds a soft or weak spot! And it's gonna hurt like hell tomorrow!" Scout reported, his voice urgent with worry through the comms.
"Where the hell did they get those?" Jennifer asked ducking as more shots rained down on her and the captain. She was nearly flat, pressed to the ground to get as much cover as she could. Dirt and sweat running into her eyes under her helmet left no room to even try and return shots.
Suddenly something exploded overhead and bits of burning robotic eye rained down on them with their only protection being their helmets. It landed in flames around them adding to the already precarious position they were in.
"Ouch! Shit!" Power screamed when a stray piece hit him on the back of his gloved hand. He shook his hand frantically to dislodge the metal, leaving a burn in his suit and an ugly red welt that was already blistering.
"Captain! " Pilot tried to crawl to him to help.
"Stay where you are Pilot! We're blind and can't afford to give them anything else to shoot at. No matter what, stay down! That's an order!" Jon yelled meeting her scared blue eyes with his own frantic ones.
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"I've lost contact with the eye!" Scout's voice came through their communicator, sounding even more worried than before.
"Shot down, debris fell on the captain and his hand is burned!" Pilot kept her eyes on Jon, though her mind was racing in a dozen other directions. "We can't take much more, Scout! One shot already pinged off the captain's helmet, I don't know how much more the suits will be able to deflect!"
Hawk broke through. "Called in a mayday to anyone available in your area! Polarski's group will be there -" and as he spoke, laser shots came from behind them, heading in the direction of the bullets.
Jennifer blew out a ragged breath as the barrage of gunfire slowed drastically. She dared a look over her shoulder and her gut began to churn. Everything was summed up in Jon's slowly drawn out, "What the hell?!"
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The stillness that replaced the weapon fire was eerie. Nothing moved. Smoke made their eyes sting, and the dirt caused their throats to close , making them cough. The ground was littered with biomechs, broken, sparking but most importantly out of commission. Bullets littered the ground around their makeshift cover. Slowly and painfully, Jon and Jennifer rose to their feet and looked around.
"Captain! Pilot?! " Polarski rose from behind their ship, holstering his weapon. " You both still in one piece?" He approached, looking over the carnage and signaling to his men to start scavenging the weapons.
"Only because of you, my friend! Thank you for the save!" Jon told him sincerely, grimacing as the pain in his hand was making him bite off another swear word. They had survived. He had to admit this time he had been scared there was no way out. That he would have to watch Jennifer die in front of him. That they would both die painfully.
The two men shook hands and Polarski nodded a greeting to Jennifer. "Just returning the save. But Captain what did you stumble into? Bullets?"
"No clue. One minute we are waiting for a data tape from an informant, the next we are being shot at. With bullets." Jennifer answered though her eyes were on Jon's hand and how blistered and red it was. Her heart was still thumping wildly in her chest, and everything hurt. She was really worried about how Jon was holding his burned hand.
Polarski looked both of them over with a practiced eye. It was obvious the Captain was in pain, his hand had red welts and rather large weeping blister on the backside of it. Not to mention the blood dripping down the side of his head from an ugly gash on his left temple and a huge dent in the back of his helmet, where'd he obviously taken a shotPilot had various cuts and abrasions on her hands and face, and he noticed patch of spreading red on her thigh. Had she been shot?
Just as Polarski was about to offer help, the sound of the Jumpship's engines were heard overhead. The ship swung around and made a rather bumpy landing causing Jennifer to frown. The ship had not sounded like that this morning!
Polarski moved away and intercepted Hawk as he and the others exited the ship, fully suited and ready for battle.
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"They're roughed up and are going to need some medical attention, but they're otherwise intact." Elzer's words were meant to calm the older man, whose concern was apparent on his face.
Matt shook his hand. "We can't thank you enough." The gratitude in Masterson's voice was evidence of the bond between he and Power.
Scout clapped Polarski on the shoulder as he hurried past in the direction of Power and Pilot.
With the need to assess injuries, confiscate anything they could use and figure out exactly how the hell mechs ended up with such an archaic form of ammunition, Elzer turned his attention back to the young woman. "Hey, Pilot! Your leg."
She nodded. "Yeah, it hurts. But everything hurts at this point." She seemed to brush it off, but Scout was already in front of her, kneeling down. "Scout, what - ?" she fumbled for words, almost slapping his hand away as he reached for her thigh.
"You've been shot!"
All eyes were now on her and she looked down at her leg. Blood had continued to soak into her suit under her armor, saturating her thigh. It was then that she realized just how much her leg throbbed. "What the hell?"
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Scout pushed her hands away, already assessing the wound. "Sit down." Several pairs of hands eased her onto the ground without her even realizing it and Scout straightened her leg, gently pulling back on the suit's torn fabric. "The armor is designed to deflect high velocity impacts, but apparently, the soft part is not."
One of Elzer's team appeared at Scout's side, a field medical kit dropping to the ground beside them. "Abraham Carter," the newcomer said as introduction. "Been the medic for these guys for a while, but we haven't yet met. Let's see what we have here."
Again, Jennifer attempted to push the hands away. "One of the rocks fragmented when a bullet hit it. It's probably just a scratch. Jon's hand is burned. You need to tend to him first."
"That is NOT just a scratch. You're bleeding and he's not. That's how we triage things." Carter carefully peeled the fabric back but stopped as it hit the armor. "Can we remove this so I can get a better look?"
All eyes were now on Power, and Jennifer quietly spoke. "My suit is damaged but didn't turn off. Is it safe to power down?"
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"That is definitely a bullet. How did the shot get through the armor?" The medic ignored the comment about powering down, still trying to peel back the rest of the cloth. "Never mind, you can't tell me because of the suit technology."
Hawk took Pilot's hand and squeezing it gently. "Doing good, Kid."
Pilot smiled back at him, but the smile did not reach her eyes.
Jon pushed away from Scout's effort to get the get captain to accept first aid for his hand. He was more concerned about Pilot. The moment Elzer had mentioned the shot Jon felt guilt sweep through him that he had not noticed it before. He knew she had been intensely worried about his hand. He moved quickly to be by her and see how bad the wound was.
"Pilot, easy," he said calmly meeting her eyes. He could feel her tension and little of it had to do with the actual wound. She was not used to letting others help her, especially when she was wounded. Too much attention always made her retreat.
"Jon, what do you think about suit? Can we power down?" Matt asked kneeling down and helping the medic tend to her more superficial wounds while they decided what to do about the suit.
"I think so, but Scout check in with Mentor and let us know his analysis. In the meantime, get pressure on it and try to stop the bleeding. Is the bullet still in there?" Jon asked as he eased back down to the ground to sit next to his injured teammate. He knew his presence would calm her and he could feel how uncomfortable she was getting. Not to mention pale. " Can I get some water?"
Water was immediately given to both him and Pilot and then Matt and the medic went to work to stabilize her wound while they waited for Scout. It was hard to get to the wound but after a minute Matt held up his thumb indicating that the bullet had exited from her thigh. They applied more pressure and moved her leg to get in a better position. Blood continued to seep out.
"I don't feel so good." Pilot said suddenly slumping back. Jon immediately wrapped his arms around her pulling her limp body to his chest. Her breathing and color suddenly very shallow.
"Hawk what's happening?!"
