Title: Rescue Run

Author: Lady Rheena

Genres: Alternate Universe, Action/Adventure, Romance

Rating: R

Disclaimer: If you recognise it from a fandom, I probably don't own it. That includes the world of The Matrix, all its characters and the concepts it entails. The idea of the Fleet and the Planetary Coalition are technically my own, but you'll probably recognise bits and pieces from various sci-fi media.

Chapter notes: Okay, I lied when I said she was just flying around. And finally the famous Desperadoes make an appearance. Apologies to all fans of Starship Troopers. No bugs, I promise.

Part 25- Hostile Interference

For Dena Reese, the view was rather less pleasant. She was currently thanking her lucky stars that her passengers were made of stern enough stuff not to baulk or go into screaming hysterics at the apparently solid wall of sentinels in front of the Churchill's nose. The blasted machines were intelligent, all right- they had abandoned the idea of forays into the tunnel route since a few dozen of their number met the wrong end of the electro-flash mines and other little traps the Voltaire's scuttlebugs had littered the sewers with. They were also staying well away from the area where the carrier ships landed since some well-aimed large radius missiles from the marines had put an end to the original tactic of swamping the humans with sheer numbers. Instead they were swarming around the opening to the tunnel and throwing themselves- almost literally- at the shuttles as they came out. Initially the tactic had been a bloody inconvenience, but the numbers of sentinels present in the blockade was steadily increasing and soon, Dena thought, it was going to become bloody without the inconvenience however good their gunners were.

'We're clear,' Galaway said, his voice impressively even, as the Churchill burst out of the sentinel swarm to finish the run flat out for the currently landed carrier Atreyus.

'The Bristol?' Dena asked.

'They're right behind us, Captain. Looking okay.'

'If we don't get some decent firepower in support I doubt that'll be the case much longer. Get me a channel to one of those marine units, Ensign.'

'Yes ma'am,' he said as she landed the ship and released their current load. 'I've got you Captain Tirone, ma'am, on the Radical.'

'Good name for a destroyer,' Dena said with a snort, adjusting her headset. 'Captain Tirone, this is Captain Reese on the shuttle Churchill. Can any of your units be spared to make us some holes in that machine wall around the tunnel exit, Captain? Over.'

'Negative, Captain Reese, with sincere apologies. Nothing I'd like better than to whip some metal squid ass but we're under orders from Commander Pryce to hold position. Any of us moves, we make a hole in the perimeter and they're bound to aim straight for it. Over.'

'Shit,' Dena muttered. 'Understood, Captain. Reese out. Galaway, get me Wingeye.'

'Ma'am?'

'Do it!'

He scrambled to obey as Morris glanced back.

'We're ready to launch again, Captain.'

'Hang fire, Morris, and tell the Bristol to stand by,' she said as Galaway gave her the nod. 'Commander Pryce, this is Captain Reese on the surface and in heavily hostile circumstances. Where're our fighters, sir? Over.'

'Squadrons currently preparing to deploy, Captain,' Pryce's voice came back in her ear. 'Should reach the surface in approximately ten minutes. Over.'

'Currently prepping?' Dena exploded. 'They were supposed to be currently prepping when the first shuttles came down! Commander-'

'Stand by, Captain,' came the firm reply. 'One squad just launched. ETA to your position reads ninety-three seconds. Over.'

'In ninety-three seconds we can get another forty people out, squids or no squids,' Dena muttered, clamping her hand briefly over the mouthpiece, then pulled herself together. 'Acknowledged that, Commander. Be advised we are resuming our run. Out.'

'Captain, isn't that a little…unwise?' Galaway asked, a trifle nervously.

'It would be, Ensign, if I were only a shuttle pilot like our friend Lieutenant Warren. Tell the Bristol to hold onto their hats.' Dena glanced back at the two gunners. 'Ready, boys?'

'Yes, ma'am,' they had the sense to respond.

'Good. Because here we go.' She lifted the Churchill up and then arrowed her straight for the middle of the sentinel swarm in the distance. En route they passed the Hektor and the Tokyo headed for the carrier but she didn't even slow to take account of the condition of the other two ships. Morris and Jackson opened fire, and a microsecond later they were in the inside the hoarde. To Dena it was like a slightly more complicated asteroid field run- in this case the opposition didn't spin around aimlessly, it span aimed at her, and it also had legs which kept getting in the way. Fortunately the Jackson and Morris, along with the gunners on the accompanying Bristol, were good at their job and any stray limbs directly in her flight path tended to get sheared off, but the squids' intelligence apparently included a positive delight in kamikaze manoeuvres as they threw themselves at the Churchill regardless, buffeting the shuttle from all sides.

'Holy shit, there must be thousands of them,' Galaway said in a low voice.

Before Dena could respond the ping-ping of laser fire increased, and was quickly followed by the long, low whine of sound that increased in pitch sharply and then faded again. Her face broke into a grin. Makaulies! There was no mistaking the sound of those engines, even in a mess of clanking sentinels.

'Get me that squad leader, Ensign!'

'Right here, Captain.'

'Makauly squad captain, this is Dena Reese on the Churchill. That's bloody good timing! Over.'

'It's great to hear your voice again, Captain. Glad we dropped in. Over.'

She gave a whoop of delight.

'Ozzy? You bastard, I should've known the Desperadoes would be first in the fray. Over.'

'You got us trained up well, Captain. We were ready to drop at full strength when the rest of 'em were still getting their boots on properly. How may we assist? Over.'

Full strength? That meant all eighteen ships were in the air. Dena didn't care to dwell over who had taken over captaincy of her squad in her absence, although from the sound of it Dale Osborn, her exec, was running the show. Surely they hadn't promoted the crazy son of a bitch?

'All right, Ozzy, leave half of the squad up here to make a hole for the next pair running up. The rest of you can follow us down the tunnels and give Zion dock a flyby to show 'em you're here. Over.'

'Morale purposes, Captain? Roger that. Oh, and we've got a spare part in the Riot for that heap you're currently flying if you're interested in a transfer.'

That did make Dena smile as she levelled the Churchill out along the tunnels The Riot, her own treasured fighter, had been hers for the past six years since she'd been granted the captaincy of the Desperadoes. And that little ship was where she belonged, listening to the elaborate cusses of her gunner Lu Davis rather than lugging civvies to and from a lift site.

'Make sure the shit brings my baby down okay in that dock, Ozzy. I'll see you there. Reese out.'

'Captain?' Galaway asked anxiously.

'I'm jumping ships to do my real job once we reach Zion again, Ensign. You can have a proper shuttle pilot in here who knows how to handle the big asses on these donks.'

He nodded, doing a rather good job of concealing his nonetheless obvious disappointment.

'Sorry to lose you, Cap'n,' Morris said without embarrassment. Jackson grunted accord.

'I'll make sure I keep the bastards off your behinds, boys,' she replied with a grin, quickly working the controls to land the Churchill in Zion once more.

'Captain-' Galaway began as she rose.

'What is it, Connor?'

He blushed furiously at the informal address.

'I- I just wanted to say it's been an honour to fly with you again, Captain.'

'Likewise, Ensign. Let's hope it's not the last time.' She gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder and a wink, pulling a stimulant tablet from her breast pocket as she emerged from the hatchway and swallowing it. The tabs were a slower-release energy boost than the hypo equivalent, but at the moment she was running on pure adrenalin so it didn't really matter all that much. Outside, she watched the inhabitants of Zion make appreciative noises as the nine Makaulies landed on the spare bays and popped their cockpit hatches. One lone figure jumped out and sprinted down towards her, throwing a quick salute.

'Lieutenant Lacey Cassan requesting the Churchill.'

'She's all yours, Lieutenant. Good luck,' Dena replied easily.

'Thank you, Captain.' The woman immediately went to work, ushering in the twenty passengers for her lift and then beginning to set the restraints. Dena resumed her course towards the half squad, where every head was now turned towards her- including the gunners, who faced the rear in the cockpit and so had to twist around quite a way. However when she reached the walkway to the bay they'd used she was intercepted by a large mass of human who grabbed her arm and spun her around. Wrenching herself loose, she opened her mouth for a blistering reprimand only to have it die on her lips.

'Sparks, what is it?'

He pulled off the headset he was wearing and fixed her with a pleading look, using his enormously expressive eyes to good effect.

'Den, are you seriously planning to go and dogfight with sentinels in one of those things?'

'I'm more than planning, Sparks, I'm halfway to my ship.' She resumed walking but he scuttled alongside her in a surprisingly scurrying step for such a large man.

'You're going to get yourself killed! Can't you stick to the shuttles? At least they're just in and out, not looking for trouble as they go!'

'Sparks, we've been through this,' she snapped, stopping on the pad and whirling to face him, making him pull up sharply in front of her. 'I'm a fighter pilot, not a shuttle runner.'

'Problem, Captain?' Ozzy yelled from his ship, sitting up slightly to see better.

'No problem, Ozzy,' she called back, then fixed Sparks with a steely glare.

'Just listen to me for a second,' he said fiercely. 'Those aren't asteroids up there, Dena, they're sentinels, things that hate humans and will destroy themselves without a second thought if they think there's even the slightest chance they'll take some humans with them. Are you listening to me?' he added in a half-shout when she rolled her eyes. 'They're real enemies, Dena! You can't handle them!'

'How dare you tell me what I can and can't handle with my squad-' she began, enraged.

'I don't want to see you go down in a blaze of glory! Especially with blaze being the operative word!'

'Then you won't have to see me at all!' she shot back with real venom, and jerked her head in the direction he'd come from. 'You're on dock crew. Go do your damn job.' Without waiting for a response she spun away towards the Riot, seeing Lu give her a thumbs-up.

'Dena!' Sparks roared after her, but of course there was no response. 'Goddamn it, Dena!' Then he too turned and stalked away, jamming the comset viciously back onto his head. Dena ignored him and swung herself up into the cockpit, feeling the familiar seat padding accept her, familiar smells and sounds enclose her in their almost tangible embrace. She adjusted her headset to the squad com frequency just in time for the chorus of greetings that echoed in from the nine around her.

'Going a little native, were we Dizzi?' someone said playfully.

'Rollins,' she barked, grinning.

'Captain!' said the same voice, less playfully.

'You're babysitting. Stick with the Churchill and the Bristol and see them back to the lift point.'

'Awww, Captain!' But she saw his ship lifting off to comply.

'All right, Desperadoes. Let's go do what we do best,' she said simply. A loud cheer made her ears ring as she extended the headset to cover both of them. 'All set, Lu?'

'To do what I do best, Diz!'

'Then let's show those squids who's boss. Desperadoes! Clear for lift!'