Rating:R
Sorry I haven't been updating this, I had some other stuff I needed to do.
Jondy crouched down at the corner of the barb wire fence, studying her
broken comm. She had been attempting to repair the damn thing for several minutes, only
to find it mutilated beyond all use. "Shit!" The device had been dropped when two guards
bumped into her after she gave the all clear for Zane to detonate the explosives she
planted around the outer perimeter of the base. She was just hurrying along to get within
the minimum safe distance when the pair encountered her entirely by accident, merely en
route back to base, probably from some routine area patrol of some sort. She was still
amazed that she didn't notice them as they drew close, especially since they really weren't
making any attempt to hide themselves. That wasn't *too* bad of a mishap, she silenced
the first one with a suppressed Beretta 92F shot to the head, put another bullet into the
other's throat and then broke his neck when he didn't die quickly enough for her taste.
Problem was, she forgot to pick up her comm afterwards, she was too busy getting the
hell away from the ensuing explosion that turned everything to hell.
She was currently hidden from view, her back to a guard station separated
from her by the fence. She wondered if the others had forgotten about her in the ensuing
chaos. She didn't have radio or visual contact with any of them, which meant she had no
idea what was going on and if things had transpired the way they were supposed to. And
she picked up gunfire coming from inside the complex, somewhere around where Max's
target zone. |Definitely not a good sign.| She packed up her stuff and put herself in stealth
mode, weaving her way silently past the few guards that were still located on her side of
the base, limbs moving with amazing speed while still maintaining fluid grace and utter
silence. She was headed for Syl's position. There was little chance she could lead anyone
to her. It was time to figure out what the hell was going on.
|Never go back for a fallen soldier. You could place you and your team
within risk of being killed or captured.| Brin remembered well what Lydecker taught them
all those years ago. And in this case especially, trying to save Zane would be incredibly
stupid indeed, as it would only end in her joining him in captivity. Inside of her, something
hot and angry rebelled against the idea of leaving family behind, to letting them take him
back to that hell she just abandoned so recently. She was tempted to charge X7's and
open fire, maybe giving him a chance to slip away...|No. The rational, intelligent thing to
do would be to count him off as a loss. You've seen what the 7's are capable of, and they
outnumber you 10 to 1. Don't let emotions cloud you sounder judgement.| As she headed
off through the woods, easily evading the her merely human pursuers, she began to
wonder whether or not she had made the right decision by participating in this operation.
If she made the right choice by rejoining the deserters in the first place.
The decision she made was both spontaneous and not subject to more
thorough examination of the consequences of such a choice. |Even if we do get Krit out,
we'll still lose Zane, and end up no better off than we were before. And Manticore will
never stop hunting for us. Ever.| Suddenly a life forever on the run seemed highly
unappealing. And it stood to reason that sooner or later, they would end up back at
Manticore anyway, dead or alive. Preferably alive rather than dead, which would be much
more likely if they were all captured now rather then later....
Question is, would they accept her if she went back to them?
Max was frozen in a kneeling position with one knee raised, the other one
glued to the floor. Burning spasms of icy hot pain continued to erupt from her shattered
kneecap. She attempted to move the limb, but the attempt was met with yet more agony,
causing her to groan softly and rest the crippled knee back onto the cold hard floor. She
turned her head to face Eva who had rather quickly recovered from the shock she had
received, and was now pointing a gun at her. "Get up." Max didn't respond, she just sat
there nursing the pain, incredibly irritated that her condition was not understood. "I said
get up!" She just stared back at her, gripping her injured leg. Eva's eyes shifted towards
the appendage, a shimmer of understanding spreading across her face. She grinned ever so
slightly. |Looks like someone isn't going anywhere soon.| She pulled her radio from her
belt and called central command. "I have a prisoner in detention block 8. Send two teams
ASAP. Over." She put the device back into her belt holster, gun still in line with Max's
torso. "You shouldn't have come back." "What, you expected me to just leave him here?"
"Never go back for a fallen soldier. Remember? You should have done the smart thing and
stuck to what they taught us. She motioned towards the death and carnage surrounding
them. "You could have avoided all this. Why Max? Why couldn't you just come home?
Why do you keep fighting us?" Guards burst through the doorway of the room and
dragged her to her feet.
Max gave little resistance as they pulled her through the hallway, her
injured leg dragging along the pale blue floor. The pain in her leg was receeding, but it
would be a while before she could move fast enough to try something. A few more
minutes at most. Meanwhile, she just stumbled along towards whatever fate awaited her at
the hands of Renfro and her cronies. Zane and Brin should be headed this way to check
things out by now. She just needed to hold out and think of an idea. She racked her brain
for answers, ignoring the instincts that told her that it was all over.....
Syl felt Brin moving towards her through the brush, leaves making tiny
scratching noises as they brushed against each other. "No sign of her. We picked up
gunfire coming from inside the building and sounds of a struggle, but status is unknown"
Syl answered to her unspoken question. Brin noticed that she was fidgety and restless,
desperate to get a handle on the situation and do something. "Great." "It gets better. Lost
contact with Cale several minutes ago. He may be captured or dead." Brin registered the
news in slight shock, and her face let some of it seep through, despite the hardened
military exterior that was remarkably good at withholding such emotions. "How the hell
did that happen?" This was unexpected. For one fleeting moment, her heart grieved for
max. It sure as hell wouldn't go over well with her if something happened to that stupid
boyfriend of hers. She was angry at her for getting so attached to someone who was not
one of them, a civie who probably shouldn't be along for the ride in the first place. Such
emotional attachment was weakness and vulnerability, something people like them
couldn't afford. |Stupid asshole will get her killed. She ought to just dump the sorry fuck.|
But there was no time for reminiscing on Max's personal life. Something's obviously gone
wrong. Very wrong. And somebody needed to check it out. Now.
Suddenly Syl's eyes jumped in alarm as if she had forgotten something.
Someone, to be more specific. She cursed herself for being so stupid at such an important
time. "Jondy. What the hell happened to Jondy." They both paused in silence for a
moment. Brin answered. "Don't know, I assumed you or Cale kept in contact with her."
Syl's eyes narrowed in fear. "Oh no, not her too----" Just then Jondy emerged from the
brush behind them. Alive, no worse for wear. "Can either of you tell what the hell's gone
down?" Relief washed over Syl's face for a second, and then she quickly filled her in on
the situation. Jondy's face turned dark as the green eyes burned with focused intensity.
"I'm going in." She turned towards the direction of the main complex. "Not alone you
aren't" Brin called out to her. The dark haired soldier quickly grabbed her weapon and
spare ammo and started after her. "Stay here and cover us just in case something goes
wrong. Which probably will" she said to Syl with her back turned, dashing after her
younger sister. Syl settled back down into the leaves, bringing her rifle to bear on the
corner of the base where they were headed. Tension tore through her like a runaway train
as her fingers wrapped tightly around the handle, and she forced her body to settle down
in wait.
The expression on Max's face was appropriately horrified when she saw
that she wasn't the only one who had been caught . Dozens of guards filled the large
grassy knoll that was the center of the complex, most of whom had their weapons trained
on her. With them were a sizable group of X7's who had Zane securely cuffed and
restrained and down on his knees. His face was covered with bruises and cuts and there
was a large amount blood coming from his shoulder, pouring down his chest and arm,
drying and being absorbed into the torn fabric of his clothing. He looked as if he had put
up sizable resistance as they had dragged him to this location. Eva slammed her hand
down on her shoulder, dropping her on her broken knee, causing a overwhelming jolt of
pain to run through her entire leg. She looked into Zane's eyes and saw the same feelings
of hopelessness and doom imprinted like a stamp upon her own.
And then she saw Logan being dragged by several burly guards towards
the hill.
His glasses were gone now, and she saw that he was only half conscious,
his face bleeding in several locations, a limp in his feet as he struggle to walk foward, blue
eyes glazed over and empty. He stumbled to the ground, and one of the guards holding
him delivered a swift kick to the stomach before he could push himself back on his feet.
He moaned slowly as they shoved him forward once more, harder this time, growing more
impatient with the pace at which he was half gimping along.
Renfro followed close behind the guards handling him. A smug grin was
spread from ear to ear as she casually walked after them, her well pressed suit making her
contrast sharply to the grass and black suited guards all around them.
They made it within 20 feet of where Max was, and shoved him roughly
into ground. Despite his broken, wretched condition, he managed to smile at her. Max just
looked like she wanted to throw up. |This isn't happening, isn't happening, isn't fucking
happening.| But it was. She didn't bother looking for a way out anymore. She knew there
was none. "Got more lives than a cat, doesn't he?" Renfro half joked, face eager with
anticipation of what she was about to do. She raised an eyebrow at Eva. "Thought you
were sure you had taken care of the little pest." Unperturbed, Eva responded in the
robotic monotone typical of Manticore troops. The words flew past the ears of the
prisoners, not that it really mattered anyway. They were screwed and everyone knew it.
After only a second or two Renfro dropped the matter and returned her attention to
Logan's ragged form lying before her.
"The great Eyes Only just doesn't give up does he?" He met her eyes with
a casual calmness laced with cool determination and with a slight touch of humor on his
battered face. Something typical of Logan Cale. "Guess I'm not the type to know when to
quit." "Hmm. Guess you aren't. Ah well, I'm sure we can fix that. We'd kill you
ourselves, but it seems that one of our mutual acquiantances is more than willing to pay us
a considerable amount of funds in order to have that honor for themselves." Max opened
her mouth to protest, voice tinged with panic, though knowing full well it wouldn't
change the inevitable. "Let him go. He's got nothing to do with this. It's us you----" she
was cut off as a guard slammed the butt of a rifle against the back off her head. Her head
was forced down for a second, and then she slowly rose it again, panic and fear in her eyes
replaced by fiery rage at the hopelessness of their situation. Renfro's expression lost all it's
amusement and turned serious and commanding along with her voice. "Take them down
to sublevel 2, cell block 4. I'll deal with them later. I want half the teams to keep watch
over the prisoners. Don't let them out of sight, don't let them get within arms reach of you
unless securely restrained. Have the rest of our forces comb the woods and the
surrounding area for any additional trouble. Remember, if you encounter any of the rogue
X5's I want them alive. In addition---" "Over there!" She was cut off by the sound of the
guards shouting and weapons being raised to center on the solitary figure approaching
them from 100 yards behind her.
Max and Zane amplified their vision to confirm the identity of the new
figure approaching them as the guards rushed forward to encircle her.
It was Brin.
Renfro stood there, taking the new development in stride and suppressing
any surprise the appearance may have instilled in her. She walked slowly toward the
recently defected X5, attempting to determine her intentions and if she was somehow
involved with the day's events. She waited patiently as they checked her for weapons, and
finding none, they forced her onto her knees with her hands behind her head. Renfro
continued to study her for a nerve wrecking moment of absolute silence, as the X5 calmly
waited for whatever judgement she might decide to impose. Then she asked a simple
question.
"What are you doing here, X5-734?"
"To act in the best interests of Manticore. There are more rogue X5's hidden in the
surrounding area, and I can tell you where they are."
Sorry I haven't been updating this, I had some other stuff I needed to do.
Jondy crouched down at the corner of the barb wire fence, studying her
broken comm. She had been attempting to repair the damn thing for several minutes, only
to find it mutilated beyond all use. "Shit!" The device had been dropped when two guards
bumped into her after she gave the all clear for Zane to detonate the explosives she
planted around the outer perimeter of the base. She was just hurrying along to get within
the minimum safe distance when the pair encountered her entirely by accident, merely en
route back to base, probably from some routine area patrol of some sort. She was still
amazed that she didn't notice them as they drew close, especially since they really weren't
making any attempt to hide themselves. That wasn't *too* bad of a mishap, she silenced
the first one with a suppressed Beretta 92F shot to the head, put another bullet into the
other's throat and then broke his neck when he didn't die quickly enough for her taste.
Problem was, she forgot to pick up her comm afterwards, she was too busy getting the
hell away from the ensuing explosion that turned everything to hell.
She was currently hidden from view, her back to a guard station separated
from her by the fence. She wondered if the others had forgotten about her in the ensuing
chaos. She didn't have radio or visual contact with any of them, which meant she had no
idea what was going on and if things had transpired the way they were supposed to. And
she picked up gunfire coming from inside the complex, somewhere around where Max's
target zone. |Definitely not a good sign.| She packed up her stuff and put herself in stealth
mode, weaving her way silently past the few guards that were still located on her side of
the base, limbs moving with amazing speed while still maintaining fluid grace and utter
silence. She was headed for Syl's position. There was little chance she could lead anyone
to her. It was time to figure out what the hell was going on.
|Never go back for a fallen soldier. You could place you and your team
within risk of being killed or captured.| Brin remembered well what Lydecker taught them
all those years ago. And in this case especially, trying to save Zane would be incredibly
stupid indeed, as it would only end in her joining him in captivity. Inside of her, something
hot and angry rebelled against the idea of leaving family behind, to letting them take him
back to that hell she just abandoned so recently. She was tempted to charge X7's and
open fire, maybe giving him a chance to slip away...|No. The rational, intelligent thing to
do would be to count him off as a loss. You've seen what the 7's are capable of, and they
outnumber you 10 to 1. Don't let emotions cloud you sounder judgement.| As she headed
off through the woods, easily evading the her merely human pursuers, she began to
wonder whether or not she had made the right decision by participating in this operation.
If she made the right choice by rejoining the deserters in the first place.
The decision she made was both spontaneous and not subject to more
thorough examination of the consequences of such a choice. |Even if we do get Krit out,
we'll still lose Zane, and end up no better off than we were before. And Manticore will
never stop hunting for us. Ever.| Suddenly a life forever on the run seemed highly
unappealing. And it stood to reason that sooner or later, they would end up back at
Manticore anyway, dead or alive. Preferably alive rather than dead, which would be much
more likely if they were all captured now rather then later....
Question is, would they accept her if she went back to them?
Max was frozen in a kneeling position with one knee raised, the other one
glued to the floor. Burning spasms of icy hot pain continued to erupt from her shattered
kneecap. She attempted to move the limb, but the attempt was met with yet more agony,
causing her to groan softly and rest the crippled knee back onto the cold hard floor. She
turned her head to face Eva who had rather quickly recovered from the shock she had
received, and was now pointing a gun at her. "Get up." Max didn't respond, she just sat
there nursing the pain, incredibly irritated that her condition was not understood. "I said
get up!" She just stared back at her, gripping her injured leg. Eva's eyes shifted towards
the appendage, a shimmer of understanding spreading across her face. She grinned ever so
slightly. |Looks like someone isn't going anywhere soon.| She pulled her radio from her
belt and called central command. "I have a prisoner in detention block 8. Send two teams
ASAP. Over." She put the device back into her belt holster, gun still in line with Max's
torso. "You shouldn't have come back." "What, you expected me to just leave him here?"
"Never go back for a fallen soldier. Remember? You should have done the smart thing and
stuck to what they taught us. She motioned towards the death and carnage surrounding
them. "You could have avoided all this. Why Max? Why couldn't you just come home?
Why do you keep fighting us?" Guards burst through the doorway of the room and
dragged her to her feet.
Max gave little resistance as they pulled her through the hallway, her
injured leg dragging along the pale blue floor. The pain in her leg was receeding, but it
would be a while before she could move fast enough to try something. A few more
minutes at most. Meanwhile, she just stumbled along towards whatever fate awaited her at
the hands of Renfro and her cronies. Zane and Brin should be headed this way to check
things out by now. She just needed to hold out and think of an idea. She racked her brain
for answers, ignoring the instincts that told her that it was all over.....
Syl felt Brin moving towards her through the brush, leaves making tiny
scratching noises as they brushed against each other. "No sign of her. We picked up
gunfire coming from inside the building and sounds of a struggle, but status is unknown"
Syl answered to her unspoken question. Brin noticed that she was fidgety and restless,
desperate to get a handle on the situation and do something. "Great." "It gets better. Lost
contact with Cale several minutes ago. He may be captured or dead." Brin registered the
news in slight shock, and her face let some of it seep through, despite the hardened
military exterior that was remarkably good at withholding such emotions. "How the hell
did that happen?" This was unexpected. For one fleeting moment, her heart grieved for
max. It sure as hell wouldn't go over well with her if something happened to that stupid
boyfriend of hers. She was angry at her for getting so attached to someone who was not
one of them, a civie who probably shouldn't be along for the ride in the first place. Such
emotional attachment was weakness and vulnerability, something people like them
couldn't afford. |Stupid asshole will get her killed. She ought to just dump the sorry fuck.|
But there was no time for reminiscing on Max's personal life. Something's obviously gone
wrong. Very wrong. And somebody needed to check it out. Now.
Suddenly Syl's eyes jumped in alarm as if she had forgotten something.
Someone, to be more specific. She cursed herself for being so stupid at such an important
time. "Jondy. What the hell happened to Jondy." They both paused in silence for a
moment. Brin answered. "Don't know, I assumed you or Cale kept in contact with her."
Syl's eyes narrowed in fear. "Oh no, not her too----" Just then Jondy emerged from the
brush behind them. Alive, no worse for wear. "Can either of you tell what the hell's gone
down?" Relief washed over Syl's face for a second, and then she quickly filled her in on
the situation. Jondy's face turned dark as the green eyes burned with focused intensity.
"I'm going in." She turned towards the direction of the main complex. "Not alone you
aren't" Brin called out to her. The dark haired soldier quickly grabbed her weapon and
spare ammo and started after her. "Stay here and cover us just in case something goes
wrong. Which probably will" she said to Syl with her back turned, dashing after her
younger sister. Syl settled back down into the leaves, bringing her rifle to bear on the
corner of the base where they were headed. Tension tore through her like a runaway train
as her fingers wrapped tightly around the handle, and she forced her body to settle down
in wait.
The expression on Max's face was appropriately horrified when she saw
that she wasn't the only one who had been caught . Dozens of guards filled the large
grassy knoll that was the center of the complex, most of whom had their weapons trained
on her. With them were a sizable group of X7's who had Zane securely cuffed and
restrained and down on his knees. His face was covered with bruises and cuts and there
was a large amount blood coming from his shoulder, pouring down his chest and arm,
drying and being absorbed into the torn fabric of his clothing. He looked as if he had put
up sizable resistance as they had dragged him to this location. Eva slammed her hand
down on her shoulder, dropping her on her broken knee, causing a overwhelming jolt of
pain to run through her entire leg. She looked into Zane's eyes and saw the same feelings
of hopelessness and doom imprinted like a stamp upon her own.
And then she saw Logan being dragged by several burly guards towards
the hill.
His glasses were gone now, and she saw that he was only half conscious,
his face bleeding in several locations, a limp in his feet as he struggle to walk foward, blue
eyes glazed over and empty. He stumbled to the ground, and one of the guards holding
him delivered a swift kick to the stomach before he could push himself back on his feet.
He moaned slowly as they shoved him forward once more, harder this time, growing more
impatient with the pace at which he was half gimping along.
Renfro followed close behind the guards handling him. A smug grin was
spread from ear to ear as she casually walked after them, her well pressed suit making her
contrast sharply to the grass and black suited guards all around them.
They made it within 20 feet of where Max was, and shoved him roughly
into ground. Despite his broken, wretched condition, he managed to smile at her. Max just
looked like she wanted to throw up. |This isn't happening, isn't happening, isn't fucking
happening.| But it was. She didn't bother looking for a way out anymore. She knew there
was none. "Got more lives than a cat, doesn't he?" Renfro half joked, face eager with
anticipation of what she was about to do. She raised an eyebrow at Eva. "Thought you
were sure you had taken care of the little pest." Unperturbed, Eva responded in the
robotic monotone typical of Manticore troops. The words flew past the ears of the
prisoners, not that it really mattered anyway. They were screwed and everyone knew it.
After only a second or two Renfro dropped the matter and returned her attention to
Logan's ragged form lying before her.
"The great Eyes Only just doesn't give up does he?" He met her eyes with
a casual calmness laced with cool determination and with a slight touch of humor on his
battered face. Something typical of Logan Cale. "Guess I'm not the type to know when to
quit." "Hmm. Guess you aren't. Ah well, I'm sure we can fix that. We'd kill you
ourselves, but it seems that one of our mutual acquiantances is more than willing to pay us
a considerable amount of funds in order to have that honor for themselves." Max opened
her mouth to protest, voice tinged with panic, though knowing full well it wouldn't
change the inevitable. "Let him go. He's got nothing to do with this. It's us you----" she
was cut off as a guard slammed the butt of a rifle against the back off her head. Her head
was forced down for a second, and then she slowly rose it again, panic and fear in her eyes
replaced by fiery rage at the hopelessness of their situation. Renfro's expression lost all it's
amusement and turned serious and commanding along with her voice. "Take them down
to sublevel 2, cell block 4. I'll deal with them later. I want half the teams to keep watch
over the prisoners. Don't let them out of sight, don't let them get within arms reach of you
unless securely restrained. Have the rest of our forces comb the woods and the
surrounding area for any additional trouble. Remember, if you encounter any of the rogue
X5's I want them alive. In addition---" "Over there!" She was cut off by the sound of the
guards shouting and weapons being raised to center on the solitary figure approaching
them from 100 yards behind her.
Max and Zane amplified their vision to confirm the identity of the new
figure approaching them as the guards rushed forward to encircle her.
It was Brin.
Renfro stood there, taking the new development in stride and suppressing
any surprise the appearance may have instilled in her. She walked slowly toward the
recently defected X5, attempting to determine her intentions and if she was somehow
involved with the day's events. She waited patiently as they checked her for weapons, and
finding none, they forced her onto her knees with her hands behind her head. Renfro
continued to study her for a nerve wrecking moment of absolute silence, as the X5 calmly
waited for whatever judgement she might decide to impose. Then she asked a simple
question.
"What are you doing here, X5-734?"
"To act in the best interests of Manticore. There are more rogue X5's hidden in the
surrounding area, and I can tell you where they are."