itiRobotech: Pyrrhic Wardance
- A Sentinels-MOSPEADA Serial
Chapter Seven: Holding the Line
By SithKnight-Galen
SK-G: Okay, people re-united, Invid splattered across the walls, now it is time to check in on the rest of this band of intrepid explorers and see how much more hell they can cause before they get wiped. Anyways, now that Ryan has had his moment in the spotlight, can his luck actually hold out long enough for the Invid, Angelina, or Brandon not to kill him. What happened to the Beta team that Dr. Zhao was leading….and what of the fighting on the line?
A/N 2: Disclaimer time. Once more, Macross, MOSPEADA, Sentinels and the Robotech franchise line do not belong to me. They are the cash cow of Carl Macek, his Harmony Gold Stoogies, and those mysterious backers with more money than sense who give it to him instead of me. If they gave it to me, I would actually fund a real RDF research project.
A/N:3 Thank you GPPR and YaoiYaoiYeah for your reviews. Please, let me know how I am doing and what you would like to see. Also, if you do decide to send flames my way, I do need to stock up since it does get a bit nippy where I live in the wintertime.
Okay, Time to stop prattling and time to start Storytelling.
==Enter Macross Theme==
The Beta streaked across the sky at near mach 4 speed, Whetstone literally putting the pedal to the metal as he tried to follow Darmouth's trail and re-trace his steps back to Lieutenant Spencer's downed Alpha. The trio in the back seemed to be just as anxious as the pilot in getting to their destination. It seemed that the Medical Doctor riding in the hot seat seemed to have a particular bone to pick, but Johnny could not tell if it was with the Major or the Lieutenant....or maybe it was both at this rate. The two armored foot soldiers just seemed to want to be anywhere but in the crowded bomb bay of his bird. Oh well, they got snagged along, so tough luck for them. They were on a time limit after all, and it sounded like the party had begun without them back at the base camp.
"So just how much farther is it to the crash site, Ensign," the Doctor asked thru his helmet's communicator, which was patched into the inter-ship comm array.
"Well, Doc, according to my former charts and the IFF transponder in Darmouth's Alpha, we should be coming up on it momentarily." Whetstone returned thru the open channel while double-checking his screens for what felt like the hundredth time in the last few minutes. "I am actually surprised that we didn't quite overtake him, since we are moving at what would be twice his maximum speed, unless he knows some sort of trick that I am not even aware of with robotechnology and aerodynamics."
'You'd be surprised at what Ryan is capable of doing, especially when it comes to Angelina. I just don't understand why he always feels that HE has to be the one to be her "White Knight", even when she doesn't even want him in her life anymore. She is a big girl after all, and has long since outgrown needing him to be her Guardian Angel,' Abraham thought ruefully to himself even as he turned to look back at the other two passengers. The two Corporals were almost a paroxysm of opposites, but they seemed to work well together, could follow orders, and were willing to die for their commander. Eric Joseph was a dark-complected man, about average in height with more than a bit of muscle to his stocky frame. He had been with the Iron walkers for awhile, since his transfer from the communications section of the Ikazuchi-class Command Carrier Kenosha, all but un-noticed until Darmouth took a notice of him during the Garudan campaign. Corporal Martin Elias was on the other hand, tall and slender, standing close to seven feet tall, and about as pale as one could get and not be considered an albino. He had just joined the Iron Walkers only a few weeks back during their last replenishment, right before Edwards' costly abortive coup of the REF headquarters back on Tirol. Elias was one of the many "astro-babies" who had come along with their parents who were part of the fleet, and then decided to join in the family tradition when they came of age. He had three older brothers who were all serving in various capacities throughout the fleet, and his baby sister was scheduled to enlist herself next year sometime. Zhao could only shake his head sadly at how like their enemies they had become. What exactly was stopping them from being another warmongering society like the Zentraedi or Invid anyways?
"I got a visual on Darmouth's bird now, at least I believe it's the major's Alpha," Whetstone's voice came over the mike pick-up in Abe's helmet, causing him to come out of his own reverie. "I guess that cloaking technology works even better than the eggheads were claiming it would, since there are Invid all over the place, but his bird seems to be intact."
"Is it safe for us to land down there then?" Corporal Joseph piped in thru the comm-channel, asking the same question that was on Zhao's mind. The field surgeon gave the armored infantryman a look but didn't say anything before Whetstone's somewhat nasally voice game back thru the tac-net.
"Well, it doesn't look like the LZ is hot, and the spot that both Spencer and Darmouth seemed to have picked to touch down seems to be big enough for us to be able to squeeze in, too. I am going to circle around and do one more pass just to be on the safe side, and then I'll bring us down."
The three passengers acknowledged and got settled for the bumpy landing. While VBF series veritechs were known for their versatility and even the ability to carry armored passengers from Point A to Point B relatively intact, comfort for said passengers had been left behind somewhere on the cutting room floor. Joseph and Zhao were both thinking the same curses about the Robotech Research and Development design department as the VT pilot brought them down quickly in a final approach that only VTOL style fighter jocks could appreciate. Elias, the greenie of the group, began to get a green hue to his complexion that was evident to Zhao even thru the tinted visor. Fortunately for the ground-pounders, the ride was over almost as soon as it had begun.
"We're down! All's ashore who's going ashore!," Whetstone called over the net, his voice having an obviously pleased sound to it.
The bomb bay hatch split and slid down, allowing the trio of cyclone armored soldiers access to the ground below. Joseph gave the others a thumbs up, charged up his Gallant H-90 rifle, then fell thru the opening in the floor. Elias, obviously feeling better now that they weren't moving, nodded to the doctor and quickly followed suit. There was a double chirp on Zhao's helmet comm, and then he too came down thru the hole to hit the ground below.. In his hands however, was a full field medical kit and portable crash case. With one, and possibly two injured pilots down here, one could never be too cautious. He turned to Elias, who had gotten some training as a pathfinder, and had volunteered for this because he said he could track their two wayward lambs in his sleep.
"Any sign of them?"
"Gimme just a moment, sir. Seems that there were multiple sets of tracks heading off in that direction, towards that formation of hills, or possibly caves. I would guess there were three, maybe four different groups, looks like only two of them may have been human though. One looks about 6-8 hours old, this batch of about 6 is maybe 2 hours old, and this one here is about 30 minutes if anything. It still has heat displacements where the footpads made contact with the ground."
Zhao followed the young man's trace along with his gloved finger. The kid may come in useful in this after all the RDF veteran had to think. Eric had pulled out some sort of motion or sound detection device and was fiddling with fine tuning it, pointing it in the same direction that Elias had indicated. Abe had to smirk for a few moments as he watched the other man tweak with the tracking devices. Eric was usually the group's linguist when it came to helping liberate the various people's from either Invid or Robotech Master Dominion, and it was a bit unusual for him to be doing a role-reversal with Corporal Shael. However, since the Cyclone company's First Sergeant was less than willing to part with the computer hacker, Abe got saddled with his under-study. Joseph seemed to know that the officer's eyes were upon him, as he finished with his fiddling very quickly and then began to move in the direction that the tracker had indicated. He traveled about six or seven dozen yards, when he turned back to the other two and flashed them both a thumb's up. Abe bet that the black man was probably grinning from ear to ear under his helmet visor, too. Elias nodded to Zhao and the two quickly moved out to join up with Joseph as he crested the hill in front of them.
"Hey Doc, I'm going to go ahead and link up the two working fighters, and then scuttle Spencer's bird," Whetstone's voice chimed into Zhao's helmet. The doctor had all but forgot about the pilot after he had touched back down on terra firma once more.
"Understood. Keep your eyes peeled, though. My team and I have found what appear to be some caves, and the motion detector is picking up something that could be a friendly or two inside. We may need to have a speedy extraction, so stay frosty, just to be on the safe side."
"You got it, Doc. Watch your back, and godspeed, sir."
Zhao smiled briefly as he crested the hill as he paused, and looked back to see the small figure that could only be the pilot making a beeline from his Beta to Darmouth's parked, but intact Alpha. He watched the small figure scramble aboard, then begin the process to link the two LEGIOS sections together. With that, the field surgeon turned back and followed the other two into the tunnel that they had found. After all, they all had their jobs that they had to do.
The first wave of Invid had been repelled in force, but it seemed that they had decided that they really wanted to know what these intruders on their turf were up to. Even after the first wave was annihilated and the second wave had been repulsed with heavy casualties on all fronts, the stupid slugs still could not take "NO" for an answer. And they were showing it by hammering the human defenses all across the perimeter as they had been doing with varying levels of success for the last two hours. Cyclone teams, working in co-ordination with Destroids working as fire support vehicles, were keeping the perimeter swept for the moment, but it was becoming more harrying with each new probe.
Corporal David Scott Shael and Staff Sergeant Hector "Deadpool" Diaz jumped behind another batch of rocks to use as makeshift cover. A barrage of plasma bolts lanced the air above them just as they made it to cover. After a few moments, the air still smoldering from the kinetic discharges of the Invid rounds impacting with the hard rock, Diaz and Shael poked their heads over the embankment. Diaz in one fell motion popped out his arm-mounted EP-40 cyclone pistol and cored a pair of scouts thru their sensor eyes. Shael dropped the third with a semi-controlled 10 round burst from his heavier infantry support rifle. Even as the three Invid mecha fell to the ground in death convulsions, the two cyclone riders ducked back under cover once more.
"Good grief! Just how many of these things are we going to have to wax anyways!," David puffed out as he popped his visor and took a long, refreshing drought from his canteen.
"I really wouldn't know.. Then again, we aren't paid to ask those kinds of questions, now are we?" Diaz quipped back as he scanned their immediate area with his laser rifle now that he had a chance to change out clips and smack a fresh one in. While the ATR-766 Penetrator's were nicely balanced and packed one hellova punch, their lack of ammo for the long haul was a distinct weakness that a lot of snipers had to make concessions for quickly if they were to survive.
"Gah, I knew I should have pushed harder for that transfer to the fleet."
"And what makes you think that….aha, there's a pair of sneaky bastards there….,' the lanky Latino man then quiet real quiet for a moment, then pressed the trigger to his instrument of death with two quick shots, dropped both of the inorganic cougars that were trying to sneak past their position with two well placed shots that blew through the armor of their craniums and disintegrated their central processors. He then glanced back at the Corporal, flashing the younger man his perfect white smile.
"Oh yeah, as I was saying. So what makes you think that the fleet would take a flat foot, bike jock like you anyways?"
"Oh, I don't know," David replied lazily with a smirk as he slid his visor back down over his helmet and sealing it back again. "Maybe they heard that I am the hottest thing behind a keyboard since Bill Gates and Chauncer McFrackney."
"Ahh gotcha, must be the ego then," Diaz retorted as he tracked a command Pincer, then drilled a hole thru it's brain-pan. He then began to line up his next shot without even losing stride.
"Ahh, you are a regular riot act, Sarge. Perhaps you should joi……Watch it!!"
Hector looked up and spun around even as he heard, no, felt the burst of energy go zipping just over his shoulder. The Invid enforcer had somehow gotten right up on them and was zeroing in it's rifle at the pair when it suddenly grew three smoldering holes in it's chest cavity. The sniper looked back to the Corporal as the Invid collapsed before the two of them only to see the kid pale from the split-second action. He wasn't quite so bad off as being shell-shocked, but the veteran knew that Shael could slip into it if he weren't distracted and quickly.
"Comon, Davey, break time's over. We gotta move to the next position," Hector said with a tone of urgency in his voice as he tapped the other man on the shoulder to get his attention. Motioning with his head, Diaz pointed out the other REF hit and fade squads re-positioning themselves yet again. Shael seemed to be a bit slow to respond so the non-com punched the other in the arm hard enough to knock the younger man sideways slightly. Shaking out the cobwebs in his head, David nodded in understanding to the sniper, his face still pale although his eyes were now focused. The duo went leap-frogging back with the others, setting themselves up to repel the next the Invid horde sent their way.
"I am here to rescue you, as I said already. You know that I would not leave you behind to be taken by the enemy," Ryan stated with a winning, yet cocky smile playing on his dark face.
The woman opposite him glared daggers thru Darmouth in a manner that was hard for the veteran Military Specialist to ignore. She had taken the time Ryan was congratulating himself on a job well done to stand up and was now beginning to simmer. Of all the people that it had to be, it was HIM! And she also knew in the back of her mind that he would have been the only one to pull of this kind of foolishness.
"And just what makes you think that I needed rescuing of any sort, Major Darmouth?'
Angelina's words slammed into Ryan and the smile faded from his mouth as a line began to crease it. However, he surprised even himself with the next words that came out of his mouth.
"Oh yes, you were most definitely putting up a hellish fight indeed from what I could see Angelina. But, how remiss of me, when have you EVER really needed anyone's help?"
"How dare you?!? Then you really do not know me after all, you pompous bastard! You may have been able to snow command with the crap that you pulled about my mother, but I've seen your true colors," Spencer spat out with venom as she moved a bit closer to the man.
"Obviously I know well enough, especially if you are like your mother. Actually, now that you bring it up, perhaps I should have just let the Invid cart you away. I mean they know exactly what one of their own kin…."
The right cross to Ryan's jaw was enough to send him reeling back, but in spite of the weight and force that was put behind it, it wasn't quite enough to knock the cyclone armored soldier off of his feet. Ryan's own eyes flashed red at the blindside shot, but he loosened his own fist, relaxing his shoulders and muscles before he could spring back at the woman.
"Don't you dare compare me to my mother, not like that, you murderer! You were the one that shot her in cold blood. You knew that the base hospital could have gotten that thing they put in her out, but you just had to fulfill your vengeance and killed her where she stood!" Angelina's eyes had steadied on a dark hue that was beginning to mist up even as her face paled from the pure emotion she was feeling at the man that she had once called a lover, and had vowed to destroy if she ever got the chance.
Darmouth merely smirks coldly at her, his own darkish eyes taking on a dangerous glow as he hears her charge. The taste of copper was still in his mouth, but he refused to give her the satisfaction of seeing him spit it out, much less acknowledge it at the moment.
'What the hell? She still blames me for THAT? I was following orders, and she knows that. Besides, what was I supposed to, let that old bag kill me instead, kill everyone else who had trusted her with their lives…kill you and our…but that didn't matter afterwards either because you blamed that on me too…that everything is my fault.. and I held all that…until now…..'
"Good God, woman, you must be mental," Ryan growled out loud, his words sounding more guttural then normal thru his clenched teeth. "You were there, you know everything that happened and what the Invid had done to here in that damned lab of theirs, yet you still blame me, and I just want to know, why in the hell am I the bad guy in all of this? That thing was not your mother anymore, Angie."
"And just how in the hell would you know? Who made you God to make that decision? It must be so easy for you to just kill someone in cold blood like that and not even think twice about it, don't you, Major? Must be that infusion that granted you those all so mighty abilities, wasn't it Ryan? Wasn't it?"
The other man did not answer her, his own gaze hard, but the myriad of emotions running thru his eyes made his expression unreadable. He seemed almost to have stopped noticing that she was still in the cave with him, even though they were only three feet apart. He seemed almost to be brooding, but that dangerous glint in his off-colored eyes eventually forced Angelina to seek some kind of reaction from the man.
"Why the hell won't you answer me, you bastard? Why did you murder her? What did she do to you? You knew that damned slug was controlling her, just like you claimed one tried to control you…why didn't you help her? Answer me, Damn You!"
Spencer punctuated her last words with another more forceful swing of her right fist. However, this time the punch was blocked and caught before it could connect with her target. Ryan appeared to be studying the shaking fist that he had caught and restrained within one of his armored gauntlets with a sort of detached curiosity. He then spun it counter-clockwise as he put sufficient pressure on Angie's wrist causing her to release the fist as he lowered her hand. His own eyes took on an odd amber-ish hue as he glared evenly back at her now dark brown orbs. Then, Ryan looked slightly away for a moment, conceding this minor psychological victory to Spencer.
"You know good and well why I took Andrea down. There was simply no choice when it came to putting that round thru her head or watching her kill you," Ryan began in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "There really was no choice when it came down to it, even if you don't believe it, just like now. There was no way I was going to leave you down here, especially to those things." The last word comes out with more than a hint of venom in his voice.
"And why didn't you just do that, Major Darmouth? You know that you could have saved her? You could have taken another way other than killing her! The doctors saved you, why couldn't you have given her the same chance? What did she do that made you hate her so much? You claim that you still love me and that everything that you do, you do for me, but the one time that I really needed something from you, you failed me!," Angie shot back as the flood of tears and pent up pain finally rushed through her battered defenses. It was all Ryan's fault, he took her mother down because Ryan hated her for something and saw that as his way to take her out.
"Now you and I both know that you are reaching, Angelina. Colonel Andrea McMasters-Spencer was the woman who backed my admittance into the fleet and backed me up Do you think that that was something that I wanted to do. If it was anyone else other than you, I probably would have been still in shock until the came back around to finish me off like she did with the rest of my combat team. She may have been your mother once, but the woman that day was not the woman that you knew and loved. That creature was only an Invid agent of destruction at that point."
"And you are telling me that you would have done the same thing if it was me that had been infected by that spore instead of my mother?," Angie queried, the question barbed to Ryan on multiple levels. She wiped her at her eyes while she watched him, the anger still very evident along with the pain.
"You already know the answer to that."
"But I want to hear you say it. I don't care if both you and Command claim that it was your duty and you only following orders when you took the shot, I still want to hear it from your own mouth, Darmouth."
"We have already been over this before, and I don't see a purpose to this now, especially right now with us being this deep in enemy territory, oh, and umm, I forgot to mention this before because it wasn't exactly important, but I wasn't exactly sanctioned to come back to get you. Umm, as far as mission command is concerned, you were a write-off and well, even if I do bring you back, I probably will be spending the rest of this war in the stockade, provided we both live long enough to make it back."
Angelina paused for a moment at Ryan's word, as well as the obviously intense look on his face. She knew that the man could be evasive with information when he had to be, but when it came to military protocol or something that he usually felt was direly important he was unfortunately brutally frank about such matters. If Ryan Darmouth had actually gone to the point of dis-obeying a direct order and doing even half of what he said that he did….. then maybe the situation is more dire than Angie was willing to admit or thought that it was. Although yet again, he was being evasive with her question, even if it was somewhat valid with the more pressing news he had just relayed to her.
"You still didn't answer my question, Major Darmouth," the woman uttered in a low voice as she turned slightly towards the ledge that Ryan had popped thru a few moments before.
"That was because I did not see a reason to, Lieutenant Spencer. What would be the point in me even trying to answer a question like that to your satisfaction? After all, you are not the first to ask me, and I can assure you, you would not be the first that would probably be less than pleased with any answer that I could give."
"Don't presume to know me THAT well, Major. I can still be more than unpredictable if you force my hand. Now why can't you give me even a simple answer for this?"
"Maybe because there isn't a simple answer for that question," Ryan cryptically responded as he began checking his on-board systems diagnostics. His face darkened momentarily as he registers the results. He looked up to see that Angie was watching him from above with a less than perfectly hidden look of situational concern on her face.
"What's going on?"
"Hmm, seems we might be getting company before too much longer. Someone just tripped the anti-tamper sensors I had rigged to my bird."
"Can you tell if they are friendlies or not?"
"Not yet, and not from here. We are too deep underground at the moment."
The worry was evident in Spencer's face now as she looked about with a bit of frantic anxiety in her already stiffened movements. She then perched herself behind an outcropping near the mouth of the tunnel leading back to the surface. Angie stared down the natural corridor intently, hand thumbing the firing selector stud to her re-claimed energy handgun She didn't notice the almost quiet thump of the metal shod boots landing on the ground behind her, and Angie nearly shot Ryan out of reflexive habit and fear than any conscious desire to drill him.
"Wow, didn't know that you wanted me dead that badly, Spencer," Darmouth quipped with a slight smile on his face visible thru the colored displays in his helmet. He had his rifle back out and was re-calibrating the scope with one hand even as he used the other to cut back on his emissions output with his wrist mounted systems board.
"I do, Major, I really do, but I do have to set some sort of priorities. And you did pretty much sacrifice your career to come after me, although I pretty sure that you'll end up getting a medal for all of this."
Darmouth's response to that was another quirk of his lip as his eyebrow shot upwards. He then tossed Angie his Gallant rifle and took her pistol.
"Well, it's good to hear that there are still some consistencies in the universe. You'll want the rifle, since you were always better than me at making people keep their heads down, and my Cyclone can probably take another hit or three before I am completely down and out," Ryan quipped as he checked the hand blaster's charge, nodding with approval.
"Well you would know, as you were the one who taught me how to do that. How else do you think a fighter pilot would come across those kind of skills?" Angie replied back, giving Ryan the first faint smile, as small as it was, that the man could remember in a long time.
The smile disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared, however, as Angie's greenish-brown eyes panned over Darmouth's body armor. She had know than he was hiding something, but wasn't exactly sure as to what it was until she looked at where the Invid has scored a lucky hit against the veteran cyclone jockey. Despite the dim light that the HUD in Ryan's helmet and the now active pen type searchlight attached to her flight helmet both provided, she knew now that the minor amount of liquid on the surface of the damaged area of the Cyclone power armor was not just lubricants.
'Why is he trying to hide this from me, too? Does he not think that I can handle that he got himself wounded trying to save me? Or is it too much to ask for him to be up-front with me for once instead of constantly trying to play the superhuman white knight that he thinks he is. Why can he never change?'
Ryan noticed that his partner had been scrutinizing him for a few moments and grew slightly self-conscious at the new-found attention. While he normally would have given his right arm for that kind of attention from the woman in this cave with him, now was not the time and not how she was studying him. He suddenly got that little nagging tingle in the back of his neck as he had a flashback to the numerous lab sessions during the aftermath of supposed mop-up actions on Tiberius and the hell that he had to go through back then. He then looked down at the spot that seemed to have caught Angie's attention, and noticed the blood seeping thru the armor for the first time.
'How interesting…I didn't think the shot was that powerful. And here I thought that this armor was better built than that. What an interesting shade that makes against the armor, though,' Ryan mused to himself as he raised his free hand closer to his face to examine his own blood after wiping a good portion of it onto his gauntleted hand.
"Just how bad is it, Major?"
The voice of his companion brought Ryan back to the present with a small start, and he tried to flash her a smile to ease her concern.
"It's just a scratch. The armor just seems to have taken a harder hit to it's hydraulics systems than I thought it did. I am waiting for the on-board diagnostics system to finish as we speak."
"If you say so, Major," Angelina replied, her voice holding a tone that suggested to Ryan that she didn't quite buy the story. However, she didn't press him anymore on it as she turned to focus on the darkness in the tunnel beyond.
'Hmm, how odd…I would have thought that she would have been happy to know that I got myself busted up even in this kinda thing. Oh well, maybe Abe was right and I should just shut off and out the past before it does destroy me…not like I haven't given it enough of a chance at it already, especially with her…..so many lost chances and so much pain,' he thought as he watched Angelina from the corner of his eye. She had changed a lot in the three years and two months since they had last been a couple, but she was still the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen, just like the first day that they had met. She still held that slightly superior look in her eyes, even as battered as she was here, and that aura of command about her had only grown in the intervening time. Ryan's heart skipped a beat as he began to travel down memory lane, but he quickly cut off that line of thought as he thought that he saw what looked like reflections of searchlights off in the distance down the tunnel.
"Looks like we are going to get some company after all," the VT pilot muttered just loud enough for Darmouth to hear as she repositioned herself into a slightly better firing position against the out-cropping she was using for cover. The military specialist's answer was to slide his visor back into position and activate his shoulder mounted targeting computer as they both waited for the unknowns to come into range.
'I wonder if I should tell her the truth. I wonder if she knows how often that I think back to that day or wonder how I could have saved any of them, but especially her….'
Corporal Eric Joseph really did not like enclosed places very much, and was not all too eager to go into the over-sized gopher hole when Marty had figured out that it was probably the most logical route that both Lieutenant Spencer and the C.O had both taken, and not too long ago either by the looks on the scanner. Eric still had to wonder why in the hell that he had volunteered to take the point when they did go subterranean. It wasn't like he was a trained tunnel rat, or even enjoyed being in the places. Truth to be told, he was slightly claustrophobic, but here he was, scurrying around in some hole looking for two people who command probably had already written off anyways. He was about ready to call this one a wash himself when he got a definite pair of pings on his scanner. The dark man paused, and ran a second sweep of the area in question, and smiled slightly when the results came back positive once more.
"Do you have something, Mr. Joseph?" Doctor Zhao's voice almost whispered through his comm-link. They were all using their comm-links to makes sure that they were less detectable, but even then it seemed that the combat surgeon was taking it to the next level, not that Eric saw an issue with that. Safety was always a GOOD thing in his book.
"I think so. I just did two sweeps of the area in front of us, and got back what appears to be two solid contacts, about 300, maybe 400 meters ahead of us and a bit down. I'll probably have to get closer to know for certain though."
"Well, the tracks made by the battle armor wearer are consistent with whatever was going down this way," Elias said while running his chest lights over a section of ground just ahead of the duo. The other corporal was cradling his rifle as he sifted thru some dirt while studying the ground and the tracks around them.
"So we are on the right track then, yes?"
"Umm, if you want to call it that, yes. However…"
"However, what Mr. Elias?" Doctor Zhao's voice came thru the TAC-Net. His enthusiasm for finding Darmouth and Spencer was still evident, but was now being bridled by well-honed caution.
"Well, sir, it , well…there is something odd about what I am looking at, I just can't figure out what it is yet."
'Well, that was just what I wanted to hear,' Eric thought un-easily as he watched Martin go back and forth over the trail for what seemed an eternity before he motioned everyone else forward with a silent wave of his hand.
Re-gripping his Gallant in his right hand, and keeping the motion scanner firmly held in his left, Eric once more began to creep forward down the tunnel, the un-ease he was feeling refusing to go away. He kept trying to tell himself that it was just nerves, but every time he glanced back and saw the patient anxiety in Zhao's visored face or the alert nervousness in Martin's eyes every time he paused to sweep his heavy bore gun down the corridor, Corporal Joseph could tell that he was not the only one getting the spooky vibes. The trio continued to slow crunch their way down the tunnel, relying on both low-tech and high tech means to get closer to what they were hoping was their quarry. Joseph kept one eye on the monitor hooked into his HUD and the other on just about every shadow that played off of the light around them, while Elias kept himself hugged against the opposite wall from the other two, stopping and re-checking the various faint tracks on the ground ever few dozen meters.
Martin had just paused and ducked to check the ground a bit closer at yet another bend in the pass when a shot suddenly rang out, and the energy blast sizzled into the wall just above the tracker's head. All three REFers ducked to opposite sides of the cavern even as their targeting computers all came online. Eric was trying to get the scanner to lock onto a target, but the only thing the bloody computer seemed to be detecting in the immediate vicinity was the three of them and a pair of humanoids about 40 meters up ahead.
"Just what in the hell was that!" Martin yelled into the comm-link as another shot tore into the rock face just over his head.
"That is what I am trying to find out. This damned machine of Shael's just crapped out on me, though!," Eric shot back as he ventured a look down the corridor. His inquisitiveness was rewarded with a trio of quick energy shots into the wall less than a foot from his face, forcing him to duck his head back around the corner before it was blown off. Both he and Elias replied in kind by opening up with long bursts from their own guns, not exactly accurate, but it might cause the other side to duck if they valued self-preservation.
"Hold your fire, you idiots," the doctor's voice hissed over the comm-line after a moment. It was then that Joseph noticed that Zhao had re-slung his own weapon and was standing back up. "Don't you two realize that those are probably the people that we are looking for?"
"Well, doc, that is all fine and good," Martin retorted as he glanced warily back down the corridor. "But you might want to tell them that we are the good guys then, if that is really the case."
"That is what I intend to do, Corporal," Abraham replied as he popped the visor to his own Cyclone helmet. There was a confident smile on his face as he turned to look down the hole.
"This is Doctor Abraham Zhao of the Robotech Expeditionary Force's 17th Advanced Tactical Armored Corps. Who is it that I am addressing?"
"Stand down and come on forward then, Doc! You might as well bring your escorts along with you since they have more of a danger of shooting each other in the dark than actually hitting either of us!"
Abe looked down at the two enlisted men with a very enigmatically self-satisfied look on his ageless face before he began walking down to meet up with the carrier of that voice. The two younger men shrugged at each other and then as one, they both raised themselves to a standing position and followed the confident doctor the last stretched that separated them from their would-be attackers. As they approached the outcroppings and what appeared to be an opening ahead, Eric had to re-assess his earlier confident opinion about the medical officer.
When the doctor had called out to them, Angelina lowered her weapon slightly and gave Ryan a slightly surprised look. The expression on his face was not one of surprise, however, but more one of detached calculation. His eyes narrowed for a moment as he counted and made out three armored forms moving towards them. Fortunately for the REF, the Invid had rarely grasped the concept of subterfuge, so that had to be members of their assault party here to bring them back home. However, that brought up a new series of questions in the senior officer's mind. He knew that he would get those answers before too much longer, though, although whether he would like them or not would be another matter completely.
As the REF medical doctor approached, Angie smiled and sighed in relief upon seeing more friendly soldiers so far behind what could only be called enemy lines. She knew that all four of these men were here because of her, one way or another, and she knew that she was indebted to them for that, even Ryan. She got back to her feet a bit unsteadily when all three of the newcomers were in visual range.
"Ahh, Major Darmouth, Lieutenant Spencer, Captain Derringer sends his regards," The doctor said with a guarded smile as he approached the duo. He seemed to regard the two closely for a moment before he spoke again, and Angie got the distinct impression that she knew him from somewhere, but couldn't quite place where.
'Ryan, before you even ask," The combat medic continued as he checked Spencer over, and dabbed a salve over her bruised and exposed skin on her leg. "The captain is about ready to spit out restraining bolts after that little stunt you pulled, but I doubt he's going to bust your chops too badly until we get back to Tirol, if we make it back."
"What do you mean?" Ryan queried as he went to the other two soldiers to get a heads-up on the situation with the rest of the mission.
"Well, there was a huge furball brewing just before we touched down. Seemed the Invid got tired of hunting down stray Zentraedi hold-outs and decided come sniff out our base camp. From the initial reports on our way in, they seemed to have knocked back the initial wave, but more were en-route."
Spencer paled noticeably and Darmouth's expression only darkened. He began stomping off the way of the entrance when Corporal Joseph stopped him, only thinking maybe he shouldn't have gotten in the way of his superior officer only belatedly. Darmouth had a look of well controlled murder in his eyes, but instead of assaulting the poor comm officer, he turned back to his friend and the woman that he still loved inspite of their painful past.
"You should not have come for us, Abraham. We could have found out own way out, and I am sure that you are more needed back at the ranch than you are out here hunting down one wayward sheep and one most definitely black coated one,' the man muttered in a low voice.
Angelina separated herself from the doctor with a surprising burst of speed and closed in on Darmouth again.
"You are one to talk. At least he had gotten official backing to do what he thought was right, Major Darmouth. Those are my friends and comrades there as well, if you hadn't forgotten, Major, and I for one, do not want to leave them to die when they need us there to help."
"Well said, Angelina Spencer, and here I always wondered what the good Major had seen in you." Abraham merely smiled politely at the mildly shocked look on the pilot's face and the just less-than-murderous one coming from his boss. "You seem fit enough for travel for the moment, so I suggest that we make a hasty egress before our ride outside begins to think that things might be getting a bit too hairy for him to stick it out for us come back out to him at our leisure."
"Then let's move it out people. We are on a timeline here!"
With that, Darmouth took the point and the five soldiers took off back towards the entrance. Darmouth gave Spencer one final look, but turned back around and focused on the task ahead of them after mentally shaking off the cold glare that she had given him back. After a few minutes of mulling it over and hearing only the crunch of the armored boots against gravel and silt underfoot, Ryan popped open his mike to speak with the good doctor.
"You know that was not very kosher, bringing that up with her, especially now."
"What harm is it going to do, Ryan? I doubt that she even remembers me, much less cares what some stray ground-pounder sawbones has to say anyways. Besides, I can now see what you like about her."
"Oh really, and what is that?" Ryan asked with a carefully neutral tone, not sure if he really wanted to hear the other's answer.
"Well she is rather cute, when she isn't too busted up…lovely eyes, great legs, a cute as.."
"Don't even think of going there, Zhao."
"Why not? She is available, after all," the doctor shot back with a smile evident on his face. There wasn't much that could get Ryan irked, but it seemed the topic of one Angelina Drucilla Spencer seemed to be one definite trigger point with his Commanding Officer.
"Well continue this when we get back, Doctor Zhao."
With that the comm-line fell silent as Darmouth concentrated on getting his little band back to the surface and back to the command that he had so recently abandoned on this little quixotic expedition for a person that should have rightfully been left in his past. Abraham had to grin at his commander's back as he thought about the situation. If they could all just survive this war, he had a feeling that he wanted the ringside seats to the next episode in this unfolding drama…unless one or both of them would decide to come clean with their feelings and stop hurting each other. Oh well, he already had placed his bets on this little drama a while back. With that, he also turned his attention to the run to the surface.
Closing thoughts SK-G: And thus, Chapter Seven is finally done and up. So Ryan rescued Angelina, but not without some cost, which are all not completely evident just yet. And what is going exactly back at the "Ranch?" Well, tune in next time to find out!!!
I also wanted to thank GPPR for her wonderful rendition picture of Major Ryan Andre Darmouth and Lieutenant j.g. Angelina Drucilla Spencer. You can see this and many other wonderful drawings by this talented woman by clicking in her name in the author's section here. I would post the address, but it seems that I am not allowed to here, check my author section for links as well.
Well, until next time!!!
==Roll Macross closing theme==