Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters obviously do not belong to me. I am writing this purely for non-profit entertainment. Yada, yada! No infringement intended, so don't sue me!
A/N: Results of the poll are out! Winner is Max with 34pts followed closely by Alec/494 with 29pts. Gab got 16pts, Matt with 4pts and Kelpy with 3 pts! Hehe! Thanks for participating! Now I have to find a way to torture your favourite characters (laughs wickedly!)….okay, okay…hold off the machete…I was just kidding! Thank you all for reading and reviewing!
Angel Of Darkness231 – Oops! Sorry! Didn't mean to upset you about 494. Lydecker just assumed, I guess! Lol! And I needed to find a way to get Max into the mission ;P. Thanks for reviewing!
A reader (anon) – Thanks for your review, whoever you are!
Mel11 – Thanks for reviewing. Arguments are definitely happening in this mission, so watch out! (Grins)
Kungfuchick – OMG! How fast do you think I can write! That chapter was 5000words! Hehe! Glad you loved the last chapter, and I hope you like this one too! Thanks for reviewing.
Pookie vampires – Thanks for your review. Glad you liked the interaction between Max and 494. Logan and familiars? They are further down in the pipeline! I should shut-up now before I give everything away ;p
Kelzaa - I guess its not too hard to guess who the visitor is! Glad you noticed the gradual change in 494…I tried to do it subtly! Thanks for reviewing!
HoneyX5-452 – No! (sobs) Don't stop reading! At least wait until I finish this story! And you are one of my first reviewers too!
Angelofdarkness78 – Thanks for your review. I meant any characters. Hope you find the mission interesting. I think it's a bit long, but tell me what you think, 'kay!
Gamegirl452 – Thanks for reviewing. Full details of the mission coming up! Lots of things happening (I hope!)
NoAngell – (Grins) I just couldn't help myself; I had to put Max in the fight, just to pit them against each other again! Thanks for reviewing!
Eva (anon) – Thanks for your review. Glad you liked the chapter. Let me know what you think of the mission!
Amelya – I know what you mean about DA stories. I love them! This one is kind of a challenge to write because I needed to develop many different characters. So I am really happy that you liked it! Thanks for reviewing.
W1cked angel – Thanks for reviewing. More coming up!
Lotamoxie – Hey! Nice to see you here! I know…I know…I really need to catch up on my NWP posting, lol! But I am getting there! Oh, and thanks reviewing at NWP and here as well!
Iridescent Twilight – Hehe! I will do it VERY subtly and then… (dramatic pause…)…Ahem, I quickly run away and hide from you! (Grins) Nah, won't kill them…might just hurt them a wee bit! Thanks for your threats...oops, review ;P
Cora (anon) – Thanks for reviewing. And you know I always do my best to update as soon as it is physically possible (grins)
Pixie-ray (anon) – Thanks for your review. Glad you liked the story! Keep on reading (winks!)
Moving swiftly on to….
RETRIEVED - Chapter 10 - Mobilisation
"…and 452," Lydecker finished, looking up from his list.
Instantly alert, Max's eyes snapped wide open as she jerked involuntarily at the unexpected sound of her designation.
WHAT? ME? The sun must have fried Lydecker's brain instead of mine. How did this happen? Max's thoughts wandered wildly in shock. How did she end up in the selection? Although she was good in the assault course, that did not mean that she was not a flight risk. She did not want to go out on missions, which most likely will involve assassination, and was banking on the flight risk factor to keep herself off the selection list.
Obviously it did not work.
Knowing that there was no way she could get out of it, she sighed inwardly, resigned to her fate. Ah well, at least her CO, Gab and Val will be around. Then it dawned on her who else was in the team.
Max swore inwardly. That jerk 494. Great. Just great! I'll throttle him if he mention yet another word about my heat.
Max fell out of line together with 735, Gab and Val. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see 494 leading three others from his unit; 480, 501 and 511. They were headed in the same direction as her unit; towards the briefing room. They silently filed behind Hales into the briefing room, standing at attention.
Lydecker entered the room and closed the door. He walked to the table and sat down on a chair behind the table, dropping the bulky folders from his arms onto the table.
"At ease soldiers" he studied them, silently trying to assess their mood as the eight transgenics relaxed slightly. No emotion at all, he thought. No surprise there.
"Well, as you know, eight of you have been selected for this mission; half from unit 4 and the other half, unit 6. You have been selected based on your individual skills in the last few weeks of training and your performance in the assault course. And this mission would require the skills of two combined unit. You may have noticed that your 2ICs are not included in this mission, although they qualified for the selection. In the absence of 494 and 735, your 2ICs will be in charge of the rest of your unit in the facility,"
"As for the mission; Last week, two of our scientists were captured by an unknown hostile organisation. We are not sure, but we think they may be the South African Reds. We know nothing about this organisation. There was some Intel which led us to believe that these two scientists were being held in a hidden location within a nature reserve. We cannot pin-point the exact location of the stronghold,"
"Your mission would be to rescue these two scientists and gather any Intel you can about this organisation. You are authorised to terminate any obstacles. We will drop you off at the edge of the forest and you would have to make your way in by yourselves. 494 and 735 would share the role of CO. You must work together. Your cover would be as a group of friends on a camping trip in the nature reserve. You would need to do some recon to find the stronghold. Any questions?" Lydecker asked the transgenics. They were all giving him the same attentive expressionless look. A slight movement from 494 caught his attention.
"Sir, what if 735 and I cannot come to an agreement?" 494 asked. 494 was not sure what he felt at the fact that he had to share the command post. He was used to making the decisions all by himself. But he supposed that having another person to share the responsibility would not be too bad an idea. If they did not end up killing each other. He resisted the urge to look at 452's CO.
"You have to work to come to an agreement, and that's non-negotiable. We expect you to be professional enough to work together as a team. However, as there is more than one task, you could split into two groups. That should reduce the problem. Though you may find that your skill-sets require you to split your units up anyway. I have 2 sets of the mission brief here," Lydecker said. He picked up the folders and handed them to 494 and 735.
Taking the folder, 735 asked, "Sir, permission to speak, Sir!" She too felt slightly apprehensive about sharing command. She did not have much contact with 494, apart from 452's heat incident. Aware of the antagonism between 494 and 452, she hoped that the two transgenics would bury the hatchet long enough to complete the mission. Being the strategist, she has already started to form assault tactics in her head.
At her question, Lydecker nodded and said, "Go ahead, 735"
"What equipments are available to us?" she queried, wondering what they could bring. From the sounds of it, this seemed to be one of the rare missions where Manticore allowed them to figure out the strategies themselves. 735 was planning to take advantage of that fact.
"List down anything you require on this form and hand it to Sergeant Hales. He will get them for you. Report to Med Bay at 1500 for your comms implant. Then pick up your mission gear from Supply & Storage at 1600. I will leave you now to come up with the mission plans. You will be deployed at 0800 hours tomorrow. Remember, failure is not an option, understand?" Lydecker said, ready to leave the room.
"Sir, yes, sir!" the eight soldiers snapped out in unison. Out of the corner of their eyes, they watched as Lydecker and Hales left then room.
An almost imperceptible sigh of relief washed across the room when the door slammed shut behind Lydecker and Hales. The soldiers shared a look of understanding. They shuffled into the chairs around the table; unit 4 on one side and unit 6 on the other.
"So…" 735 said, eager to get started, "Shall we just read this first, then discuss?" She opened her folder.
494 nodded; his unit gathered around him. He glanced to his side to see Unit 4 reading the brief intently. He noticed 452's head bend down close to a muscular, dark haired X5 he knew as 547 from their last fight.
494 could not believe 452 got included in this mission. Surely she would be a liability. And a distraction. Unbidden, a sudden flash of memory assaulted him; her lips moving softly on his. Get a grip, soldier! Shaking his head clear, he frowned, forcing his attention back to the folder.
A few minutes of silence ensued. Then the two units moved closer together, ready to plan their mission.
494 caught Max's eyes as she looked up from the brief. She glared at him, turning away to talk to 735. He frowned as he wondered how were they meant to work together if she could not even be civil to him. Next to her, he noticed 547 giving him a look. 494 resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He turned his attention back to the mission instead.
"Perhaps we should list down each of our skills, probably will make it easier to allocate tasks," Max suggested.
735 nodded and motioned to the guy she remembered from the night in the jungle, "Go ahead, 494. Your unit first,"
"Apart from being the CO, I specialise in stealth tactics, reconnaissance, evacuation, rescue and… retrieval operations," 494 said, grinning at Max as he said that. Max shot a death glare at him. He replied with a smirk that he knew would piss her off even more. He turned back to the rest of then room as 511 began to speak.
"511. I am the weapons and explosives expert," 511 said. Then continuing after a short pause, he said cheekily, "Not too bad at field med either, especially if the patient is female,"
The rest of the transgenics laughed.
"501. Front lines, weapons, explosives, invasion and assault specialist," A tall olive skinned girl with chin length brown hair said.
"480. Defence, communications and field med," Max recognised him as the other transgenic who was with 494 the fateful day she got dragged back to Manticore.
"Right, I am 735, CO of unit 4. I specialise in general mission tactics and strategies – stealth, evacuations, attacks, you name it," she said with a grin.
"I am 422. My speciality is comms, espionage and telecoercion," Val noted the uneasy glances directed at her by unit 6. She shrugged and grinned, "Don't worry. I will try to not use it on you all!"
A ripple of uncomfortable laughter was heard from Unit 6. Val's grin grew wider.
"547. Front-lines, weapons, explosives, mines and demolition" Gab said.
"452. Stealth, recon and close proximity assaults…" Max paused. She scrunched up her brow as she tried to think of what else she could do.
Before she could continue, 494 interrupted with a smirk, "Hey, you missed Escape and Evade, 452!"
"Shut up!" Max snapped at 494. Jerk! What is his problem? As if no one else knows! No one is ever going to forget if he keeps reminding them.
Then realising that it would probably irritate 494, she said with a cheeky grin, "Actually, he is probably right. I excelled in that exercise for a good part of three years!"
They laughed together with her. All except 494, who had a small frown on his head, not liking the way she turned that back on him.
494 said sulkily, "Didn't find that funny at all," Changing the topic, he barked, "Well, are we going to plan or not?"
And once again they were all professional soldiers, their laughter cut short. Max gave 494 a last smirk.
For now.
Although the forest was dense with foliage, it did not pose a problem for the teenagers. There were eight of them ranging from 15 years to 16 years old, each carrying a backpack full of gear and food. They walked in pairs, headed towards a clearing where they had planned to set up camp. This would be their base. It was far enough from civilisation to avoid detection but close enough to the highway for them to evacuate easily if necessary.
They set up their tents, one tent between 2 transgenics. That night, they sat down to reaffirm their tasks. 735, being the strategist, already had a plan of action which she shared with team on the trip down.
"We have two comms experts, one has to man the base, one to go in with the Intel team," 735 had said.
"I'll stay at base. 422 would be more useful for the Intel team - she has the psy-ops skills," 480 offered, and Val nodded in agreement. Val felt slightly unnerved by 480. He looked exactly like Matt that on more than one occasion, she had almost called him by that name.
"One of you weapons lot need to stay with 480 as back-up. Any volunteers?" 494 asked, looking around at the transgenics.
"I could stay," 501 said.
"Good. Then the rest of us could form the Intel team and the Rescue team. I will head up the Intel team and 494 will command the Rescue team. 422 is with me, and I need another one," 735 looked around for a suitable soldier.
"I think you could do with a weapons expert. I'll go with you," 511 said to 735, then turned to look questioningly at his CO, "If that's alright with you?"
494 nodded, "Of course. So I guess that leaves me with 547 and 452?" He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he caught another murderous glare directed towards him from 452, and a warning look from 547. This is going to be so much fun, he thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
As darkness approached, the transgenics started setting up for night reconnaissance. They had split up in pairs to achieve a larger area sweep.
735 asked Max to pair up with her. They were both dressed in forest green camouflage to blend in with their surrounding. Their transgenic eyesight was sufficient without additional night goggles. Apart from a small rucksack with some emergency kit and some firearms, they did not need anything else.
Max was not keen on using the shotgun. However, as it was a standard deployment kit for these sorts of missions, she did not have much of a choice.
"480, is Base Control set up? 452, you activated your comms?" 735 asked. She firmly tapped the embedded device behind her ears four times. Four taps to activate, and six taps to deactivate. It also served as a tracer.
"I am doing it now," Max started tapping at her comms. "Can you hear me, 735? Base, you there?" Max asked loudly, rubbing the uncomfortable spot behind her ear where the device was implanted. She was not used to this at all.
"Loud and clear, 452…No need to shout. And stop scratching. We can hear that too!" 480's voice came through, amused.
Max chuckled sheepishly, "Sorry! Can't help it. I needed to scratch. It really itches. How do you guys stand it?" she said. Although 480 played a huge role in her capture, Max did not bear him any grudges. She found that she quite like 481's twin, he was quite fun underneath all the Manticore façade.
"Hey, 452, you need any help scratching your itch? I could help!" Gab offered with a leer. Max could hear him clearly although he was quite away. She would even see him waggling his eyebrows from that distance, mischievous grin on his face. She rolled her eyes and ignored her friend.
"Count me in too. The more the merrier! Anyone else want to join in the group action?" 511 piped in, sniggering. Max couldn't see him, but she guessed he must be still within the range of the receiver. She had found that she enjoyed talking to the larger-than-life, good looking, dark haired transgenic. During the trip down, he had sat with her and Gab. Their banter almost drove the rest of the transgenics mad. 494 had finally told them to shut-up. Spoil-sport.
Grinning, Max retorted, "511, exactly what is on your mind? Care to enlighten me? We wouldn't want you to do anything you may regret,"
"Sweetheart, I am up for anything. All you have to do is ask. Nicely," 511 said jokingly in a deep voice.
Max laughed at the tone of his voice. No doubt he was trying to sound sexy, she thought in amusement.
"Can you deactivate the comms for this kind of talk? We don't really need to hear you flirt! And just as a reminder, we are on a mission here," 494 grumbled irritably.
"Sorry, sir!" 511 said, not sounding apologetic at all.
494 could hear muffled laughter coming from his comms. He was not sure why he felt irritated, but he did. Normally he would have joined in the banter, but he felt really on edge in this mission. Must be 452's presence, he thought. Then he frowned. He cannot afford to be distracted.
"Come on. Time to move out. 501, you're with me," 494 said, slinging his rifle across his back and next to his rucksack. He proceeded to head away from the clearing, 501 close behind him.
735 and Max was moving silently through the forest, their keen eyes observing the area around them in search of signs of anything out of place. The forest floor was dense with foliage, making it hard for them to see what they were stepping on. However, their enhanced eye-sight gave them a good chance of spotting any hidden traps.
Suddenly 735 stopped, signalling Max to do the same. They both crouched low, hidden in the thick bush, holding their breath. To their right, they could hear leaves rustling, but there was no breeze in the still air.
A few seconds later, two camouflage-clad men with ancient AK-47s passed ten metres away from their hideout. Judging from their behaviour, they appeared to be on patrol duty. They stopped, checked out their surroundings, and moved on.
"We must be approaching the stronghold," Max said under her breath to her CO.
735 nodded, and said "Alpha-2 to Base. We detected some activity in our vicinity. Possible sightings of enemy patrols. We are at coordinates 35N 90E from base approximately. Base can you locate our position from your tracker? All other units report? Over"
"Alpha-1 to Alpha-2. Nothing here, over," Max heard 494's voice over her comms.
"Beta-1 to Alpha-2. Nothing, just a few friendly deers, over," Gab said. He sounded bored.
"Base to Alpha-2. Your local coordinates are 37N 88E. Do you need assistance, over?" 480 enquired.
"Alpha-2 to all teams. Can we have another team here, over?" 735 requested. She decided that it would be safer for them to have some back-up. Just in case something unexpected cropped up.
"Alpha-1 to Alpha-2. We will be with you in 24minutes. Alpha-1 to Beta-1. Continue canvassing the remaining area, over" 494 instructed over the comms.
"Beta-1 to Alpha-1. Affirmative. Out," Gab replied.
"Alpha-2 to Base, we will be in radio silence till Alpha-1 gets here. Over and out," 735 finished.
735 looked at Max and said, "Guess we just wait here till they arrive," She tapped her implant six times.
"I think perhaps it's safer if we got off the ground. What do you think of the trees?" Max suggested, looking up. Following 735's example, she tapped her implant.
735 grinned and shrugged, "Why not!"
They pulled themselves up the nearest tree, settling on a branch. From their perch, they could see quite a distance when not obscured by the leaves. They sat there in silence.
Max noticed the faraway look in 735's eyes. She nudged her CO, asking, "What are you thinking?"
"It's odd if you think about it sometimes. They made us all in pairs, twins. Then they keep us apart. Neither of us know of each other. Then one of us escaped, and the other one punished… I am curious. Tell me, 452. What was 734 like?" 735 suddenly asked softly, as she pushed her black hair behind her ear.
Max gaped for a moment at the unexpected subject. 735 asking about Brin?
"Um… You want to talk about Brin?" she paused, unsure. They were keeping their voice low, just within the transgenic hearing range.
"Brin was her name? Must be nice for you all to be so close, you can freely call each other names," 735 said with an almost wistful look on her face.
"Zack, our CO, named us. We treat each other as siblings, looking out for each other whenever we can. Well, without alerting Manticore. Brin was tough. I remember, when we were on the exercises, she never gives in no matter how tired or how hurt she was. She pushes herself very hard. She loves the rifle range. Like you, she also excelled in strategies and tactics – must be the genes, huh! I remember when we used to sit around bored and Brin would come up with the wackiest things to do. She would plan some elaborate game and we will all just follow her. She helped plan our escape with Zack. I have not seen Brin since the escape. But I think you would like her,"
735 sighed, "From the start, Manticore never encouraged that sort of relationship. After your escape, it got even worse. Any sign of affection between us will mean immediate dispatch to psy-ops. I think they figured that if we were not close like unit 2, we would not be tempted to escape. Before you escaped, a few of us actually had nicknames amongst ourselves. But not like yours. Ours were made up from our designations. I was called Fye, for 7-3-five and 593 was called Treve. Oh, and we used to call 332 Cass; it was one of her cover names. I know some of the others also kept their cover's name," she grinned as she took in the surprised look on Max's face, "What? You think I didn't notice?"
Max smiled, thinking of Matt, Val and few of the others they had secretly named. Behind their backs, of course. 564 was Speed for the way he runs off after some misbehaviour, 312 was named Sandy when she came into the dorm one day trailing sand all the way behind her after an exercise and 612 was Zip after an unfortunate accident. To Fye she said, "Uh... We were not too sure what your take would be on it. We didn't want to let Manticore know. But as we are older now, I am sure we could keep this from them," she reached out her hand to 735, "I am Max, by the way,"
Fye laughed, clasping Max's hand in friendship, "I know. Been wondering when you were going to let me in,"
Max smiled sheepishly and said, "Sorry! It's not you, just the fear of Manticore. And you ARE our staid CO,"
"Staid!" Fye exclaimed in an incredulous tone. She aimed a friendly punch at Max. Max ducked with a giggle.
Then they smiled at each other and continued to wait in silence for a few minutes before Fye spoke again..
"You know, Max. I saw your unit out of the window that night you ran. Sometimes, I wonder why the rest of us did not do the same that night," she said, her lips lifting at the corners.
Max started at her CO, surprise evident on her face, "It's not that great out there, you know. Well, apart from no morning drills. And don't let anyone hear you say that. Or else you'll be in psy-ops for months!" she said, looking at her CO in concern. Fye couldn't possibly be contemplating escape, could she?
"I know… Been there. Not the most pleasant part of my formative years. I think that's when I felt that I had enough. I mean, we were good soldiers. We obediently followed orders and I actually believed all the discipline, teamwork and duty shit they brainwashed into us. Went on missions. Did all the exercises and manoeuvres. We gave them no reason to punish us. But they did anyway. Why? To prevent us from running? All they succeeded in doing was to turn us against them. There were 15 of us in our unit previously. Now, including you, there are 11. A third of unit 4 didn't make it. One died of seizure, one was KIA and three didn't make it out of the psy-ops evaluation after the escape. Three! They were brain dead by the time psy-ops finished with them. It was not fair. Three of them were the youngest our unit, just children. And what sort of CO am I? I couldn't even help them," Fye took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Max could see the anger and helplessness in her eyes. She felt her heart constrict.
Max reached out, circling her arm around her CO, "Fye, listen. We all grew up here. You know Manticore. You also know that there was nothing you could have done to help them. If you tried to stop Manticore, all you would succeed in doing was to put yourself in punishment. So don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. Blame it on us, if you want. We were the ones who ran. We didn't stop to think of what they would do to the rest of you. For that, I am sorry,"
"Thanks Max. Don't blame you for running. We would have probably done something too if we had the guts to do it. Thanks for listening, I probably just need to get it off my chest," Fye smiled at her. She looked down at her watch. 21 minutes had passed. She tapped her implant.
"Alpha-2 to Alpha-1. State your position. Over," Fye said, all her emotions now buried back deep within.
"Alpha-1 to Alpha-2. We are almost there. Where are you? Over," 494 asked in a low voice.
"Alpha-1, we are up in a tree. Getting off now. Over,"
Fye and Max glanced around, and proceeded to drop down from the branch they were sitting on. As they landed, they saw 494 and 501. They nodded to the new arrivals.
"So, any more sightings?" 494 asked Fye, not glancing at Max. He had realised that she had this knack of distracting him, and distraction was the last thing he needed while on a mission. He blamed the heat incident for it. He decided that the best course of action was probably to ignore her completely.
"No. They are probably patrolling in rotation. They are not back yet," Fye answered.
"How many?"
"Two, so far. Military. Armed," Max said. 494's eyes flickered but remained on Fye. Max's lips compressed tightly as she frowned, What's with him now? Ignoring me?
"I think we should wait till they turn back, and then track them back to wherever their base is," 494 suggested to Fye.
"Sounds good to me," Fye said.
An hour or so later…
"We have visual of the sentries," 501's voice came through the comms.
"Move, Alpha-2. Alpha-1 to Base. Base, you tracking this?" 494 said.
"Affirmative," came the reply from Val. It was decided that Val should remain at base for the Recon while 501 gets a feel of the area before joining 480 later when it comes to the actual Rescue mission.
Fye, Max, 494 and 501 proceeded to follow the two sentries.
After about another hour, they finally approached an area with a scattering of buildings. They paused and 735 signalled them to spread out to avoid detection, and to cover more ground.
Max made her way towards the south. She moved about until she found a spot which gave her a good view to the building. This must be the stronghold, Max thought. She was hunched low behind a tree, looking at the building and the guards surrounding it. From her vantage point, she observed the number of guards and their schedule.
"Alpha-1 and 2 report," 494's voice came over the comms.
"Four guards at the south entrance. Entrance well lit with floodlights. Looks like rotation of 2 guards every half hour," Max said in a low voice, knowing that the rest could hear her.
"Three on the west side, no ground entrance. Same rotation. Only rooftop access. Window on the south-west face of the building appears to be barred. Possible holding site" 501 reported.
"Three here as well. There's a garage which is a possible entry point from the north. Yours, 735?" 494 queried.
Silence.
"735, you read me?" 494 asked again. His lips pursed as he frowned. The mission can't possibly go wrong this soon, he thought, as a feeling of apprehension began to grow.
Still nothing from 735. Worried, Max felt her heart rate increase.
t.b.c. (This ending sounds familiar? Hehe!)
A/N: Okay, I thought it was time to put up pictures of the cast. Mine's not as comprehensive as some of yours out there, but click on the link to my homepage if you want to put a face to the designations. Also, my other story – Remember – has one more chapter to go before it is completed, so if you have some spare time, you could check it out!
A/N: As usual, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter. I love reading your reviews.