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Chapter Nine
Anvil
McQueen and West landed the ISSCV on the designated co-ordinates and prepared their gear. As West picked up the additional rucksack containing rebreather helmets and masks he exchanged a glance with McQueen.
The Colonel seemed concentrated on the task of slipping another rucksack containing the additional O2 supply onto his shoulders but when he noticed the weary glance, he looked up.
"Everything ok.?" McQueen asked and West slowly nodded.
"Yes, Sir," he answered and handed him his rifle. As Nathan turned away to open the hatch, McQueen held him back with one hand.
"West," he said and after the young Marine had turned around to face him, he gave him one of his rare half-smiles. "It's all right to be scared," the Colonel said slowly. Nathan swallowed and nodded.
"I know, Sir. But it's not that I'm afraid to die, I'm afraid of what we find once we've reached that bunker ..."
McQueen nodded his head. He had seen too many atrocities back in the AI-wars not to fear what happened if they encountered the POWs. He squeezed the young man's shoulder reassuringly.
"Let's go!" McQueen said and both Marines left the transporter.
Slowly, the two Marines made their way through the swamps, careful to avoid any Aliens patrolling the countryside after they had camouflaged the transporter. After half an hour of continuous hiking, McQueen gestured West to duck for cover.
Nathan edged his way to the Colonel, slithering through the water. When he had reached McQueen, both men watched as a Chig patrol scanned the area. Through the fog of the swamps, the Aliens looked even more dangerous and archaic than usual. McQueen counted five Chigs, two of them carrying the dangerous photon blaster rifles whereas the remaining three only carried their scythes.
"They seem to look for something," West whispered and McQueen nodded his head.
"I just hope, they find what ever they are looking for soon," McQueen retorted, slowly adjusting his M-590, he had locked onto the nearest Chig with the TS when a sixth Chig came forward, gesturing wildly.
"What is it?" Nathan asked.
"They have probably found something," the Colonel murmured. Through the TS of his rifle, he could see that the Chigs were examining a piece of cloth. As far as he could see it was a torn piece of a standard-issue USAF flightsuit.
"Shit," he exclaimed underneath his breath.
"Sir?" Nathan asked and crept nearer.
"Either they've found the missing Marines or one of our Spades ..." McQueen answered sternly and Nathan shuddered when he saw his eyes. Besides the usual 'thousand yard stare', the young Marine saw the cold fire of bloodthirst in his eyes. Before Nathan could recover, McQueen had jumped to his feet and took the Chigs under fire. Nathan knew that IVs were quick, he had seen Cooper more than once reacting in a split second but McQueen ...
Hell, this man was a quick killer, Nathan thought before engaging his rifle as well.
When the Chigs brought me back to the cell, I heard screaming from one of the other cells. Although I had a hard time, knowing what the silicates did to the other POW I was somewhat relieved that I was not alone. That there was someone out there ...
They didn't come for me again ... Something is going on. I remembered something last night ... or was it day? I wish I could see if it was day or night. I remembered about a poker game ... It was dark and we played poker ... I remembered the faces again .... Nathan and Cooper ... and the names Wang ...Vansen ... Damphousse ... Why are those names important to me? Why do I think that they are part of me, of what I am?
And something else crossed my mind. I was part of the Wild Cards once, whatever that means. The AIs keep telling me that I should give in, but I won't, I can't. Not again! Never again!
Why am I so determined to withstand them? I got this feeling that I've gone through something like this before and everyday one small piece of the puzzle falls into place, I just don't know if I can stay alive long enough to finally realise who I am ...
Keep breathing. Keep breathing, you stupid bitch, Chambers reminded herself over and over again as her parachute opened and yanked her up again. Taking in great gulps of air inside her helmet she tried to fight the sudden dizziness she was experiencing. Falling at a current rate of twenty feet per second due to the low-oxygen atmosphere, she could count herself lucky that she had not passed out. When she heard the soft throb of propulsion engines above her head she looked up and saw Hawkes' Hammerhead giving her a wide berth.
"Ace, do you copy?" the com crackled into life and Megan slowly raised her hand to turn up the volume on her helmet.
"Copy, Jack. I hear you loud and clear!" she replied.
"Ace'o'Spades, about two klicks to your pos on forty-seven degrees left there's a clearing. Try to go down there. Repeat: forty-seven left to your pos," Cooper said, forcing his voice to a non-committal tone. But despite his try to sound all business Meg could hear the fear in his voice.
"Affirm, Jack. Forty-seven to current pos," Megan acknowledged. She grabbed the strings of the parachute and tried guiding herself towards the co-ordinates.
The falling rate increased and when she could see the first trees below her, she knew that the impact would hurt. Working like a functional automaton, Megan raised her knees to her chest, preparing herself to make a good schoolbook downer. But as she could make out the ground below her better, she thought that was not such a good idea after all. For all she knew that swamp down there could be a quagmire and she didn't want to risk drowning.
"As if I'm not mucksweating all along," she whispered as she prepared herself for the impact. She hit the ground feet first, almost spraining her ankle on a protruding root but she caught herself before she fell head-on into the mud.
"Great, just what I need, a good, soaking mud-bath in the middle of a black Op," she chided herself as she unclipped the ruck-sack and rifle. After she had unclipped the harness and despotised the chute, shoving it under a nearby tree, she shouldered her back-pack and checked her weapon.
"What are ya drivelling about?" Cooper asked over the com and Meg closed her eyes for a moment. "Get your ass over here so we can get on with the Op. With your stupid stunt we lost a helluva lot of time ..."
"Give me a break, will you?" Chambers asked through clenched teeth. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to pull such a stunt on purpose? I'm not a bloody tank!"
"That could be questioned, Chambers. After all your father sure is!" Hawkes retorted to her challenge and Megan had to laugh despite herself. Over the passed days, Hawkes had begun to treat her with an air of superiority and he had tried to do his best to ignore her. But she had known better for she had caught his eyes on her every time she had happened to look at him.
"Whadda ya know," she said in an exaggerated drawl. "I sure ain't forgetting when you keep reminding me!"
"Would you stop babbling and advance to my pos?" Cooper suddenly asked with an exaggerated sigh and for a moment Meg could figure him as a CO himself in a few years time.
"Don't push a Royal Air Force Squadron Leader, Lieutenant!" she growled and switched on her digital compass. She could make out Cooper's PLB just a few hundreds away from her and quickly, she made her way towards him.
Hawkes had landed his Hammerhead according to USMC manuals and after he had booby-trapped the jet, he staked out the immediate area. He heard Chambers even before she came into sight and he asked himself what she had learned about black Ops during boot camp.
"You sure skipped 'stealth' during your HIST," he greeted her, his voice dripping with sarcasm, as she came forward between two large trees. Megan rolled her eyes to the tree tops and sighed.
"Cut it out, Hawkes. You're talking standard-issue US Marine Corps HIST here. I've only got a RAF HIST where I learned to be a jet-jockey ..."
She checked the compass again but when Cooper did not give a retort, she looked up. Cooper was standing right in front of her.
"You scared the shit out of me, Meg," Cooper said hoarsely. "And I swear to you if you do anything like that kamikaze stunt again, I gonna kick your ass. VC or not ..." He was so flustered about what had happened that he almost reached out to kiss her, but then he remembered that they both were wearing rebreathers and not on speaking terms with each other. Megan had to grin despite herself. This idiot really cared, she thought. Perhaps she wasn't on a lost cause crusade after all.
"What's so funny, uh?" he asked gruffly.
"You sure make a woman feel cared for ..." she retorted and grinned. Cooper just stood there, watching her.
Yeah, he cared, so what? he asked himself, not sure why she had reacted to his yelling and ranting in such an unusual way. After all why shouldn't he care? She had scared the living daylights out of him when he saw her engaging the emergency exit. The Marine shook his head and turned away but Meg's laughter still followed him.
This woman can drive a man nuts with her teasing, he thought. His first intention had been to throttle her as soon as he could get his hands on her, but when she had stepped out of these trees, seemingly unscathed, he had been relieved. Cooper looked up from the SRR and squinted his eyes. The initial terror of almost loosing Chambers and his urge to break her neck for scaring him so much had worn off and as he looked over to Chambers who was standing a few yards away from him, he imagined doing different 'stuff' to her, like kissing.
Oh, boy, he thought; you're sick, pal, you're really sick. What you need is a vacation. He almost laughed.
Right; that's what got me into this in the first place.
The SRR showed no enemy movement in the immediate area and he let out a sigh. Chambers had heard it over the com and her head jerked up abruptly.
"What is it?" she asked over their com-channel and Cooper shrugged his shoulders.
"No enemy movements so far!" he answered according to the rules. He had to smile at that. When Shane had been his CO, he had deliberately unnerved her with his off the book remarks.
He changed the SRR channel to detect the PLBs of the rest of the five-eight. He picked up Nathan's and McQueen's signs about one and a half klicks to the Southwest, slowly advancing towards their point.
"We should move on," Coop said and switching the SRR off, he handed it over to Megan. Picking up his M-590, loading it without giving the rifle another look, he waited until Chambers had joined him. Slowly, they advanced onto the co-ordinates of the bunker. Over the passed fifteen mikes, Megan had been able to detect several PLBs coming from the bunker, but either the atmospheric disturbances or some material in the walls of the bunker prevented him from getting definite readings.
Steadily, they moved to the bunker co-ordinates, their boots squelching in the mud of the swamps they were crossing, making every step they took difficult. Cooper had just helped Meg out of what looked like a small baby quagmire when they both saw the disabled ISSCV-cockpit. Both pilots rushed forward, crashing through the calf-high water as they approached the cockpit.
Hawkes eased the hatch open carefully with Megan covering him from across his position.
"Calling card?" she inquired but Hawkes shook his head no.
"Cover me ..." he simply said and swung himself over the rail into the cockpit. The cockpit was empty, only the faint light of the databars glowing in the darkness. After he had checked the readouts, he switched them off and looked around. The distress beacon had not been engaged and he could not find any clues about the whereabouts of Shane and 'Phousse.
Megan had circled the cockpit and when she stood on the far side of it, she detected something lying on the ground. She had almost stepped on it and when she squatted down and examined the carefully cleared rock beneath her feet, she held her breath.
"Coop?" Megan asked over the com. "I think I've found something ..."
Hawkes rushed out of the cockpit and immediately was at her side. When Megan pointed her hand towards the rock on the ground he drew in his breath. Someone had carefully cleaned the rock, making sure that the flat surface was dry. On top of it lay a shattered piece of the cockpit's window.
"Shane and 'Phousse?" Megan asked and held up a small torch light. Cooper nodded and directed her hand towards the glass. Beneath it lay a ripped off five-eight squadron patch and a small packet of sugar.
At least Shane survived the crash, he thought and had to smile despite himself. He hadn't known that Vansen still stashed sugar, harking back to their distressing stay on Demios.
"They are alive ..." Megan whispered and put a hand on Cooper's shoulder. She watched as he picked up both and tucked them in one of his breastpockets beneath his armour.
"McQueen has to see this ..." he said and stood up. Together they made their way towards the bunker.
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