Chapter Sixty-Seven: Reckless Endangerment
"I got a bad feeling about this," Theo murmured, watching the approaching Dersite military convoy through his pair of binoculars. "They're not even locking down the route…"
"Shit, Theo, you got a fuckin' bad feeling about everything," Gino growled.
"Aw, c'mon, guys!" Theo complained. "This ain't good. The Veteran warned us, he said-"
"Fuck the Veteran." Gino's scowl deepened. "We're fuckin' Heroes, guys. Heroes. Does that mean we're s'posed to just...what, let a fuckin' Dersite prick tell us what to do all the time? No! Jesus H. Fuck, they're s'posed to be doin' what we say!"
Theo made eye contact with Gwen while Gino ranted, pleading silently for help, but all Gwen could do was shrug. Gino was dead set on this course, and he would not be deterred. They had come too far to turn back.
Less than an hour ago, when Gino had woken up from his forced sleep, he had done so quite explosively. Shouting, swearing, name-calling...he had cut a swathe straight to the radio room in the basement of the Wrathful Veteran's command post, where Theo and Gwen had been working with the radio operators to hack into the military channels.
The timing had been perfect. Or terrible, depending on the point of view. What had happened was this: the moment the Wrathful Veteran finally managed to calm Gino down, the dissenters hacked into the Dersite military channels. Within a minute, the dissenters learned of Cass's location - a hospital in Long Night District. The surgeons there had stabilized Cass enough for her to be taken to Derse. The military was going to move her to a waiting ship via armored transport.
Gino, still raw from the events the day before, leaped on that. He'd demanded the Wrathful Veteran send in forces to rescue Cass before she was taken off-world. The Veteran was not convinced, however - he had expressed fears of a rescue attempt being what the Black Queen was hoping for, cautioning Gino against rushing headlong into the commandos.
Theo and Gwen had watched helplessly as Gino stormed out of the radio room, shoving past the armed guards outside. Even as he left, Theo glanced over at the Wrathful Veteran. The Dersite revolutionary leader merely nodded once and said, to both him and Gwen, "Stop him, if you can. Stall him if you cannot. I'll be behind you shortly. Rescue the Sylph if the opportunity presents itself."
Theo and Gwen had followed Gino straight to the Hub, but were unable to keep him from using it, leaving them no choice but to follow. And now, the three Heroes found themselves on the second-story rooftop of a diner, about a mile or so away from the hospital, waiting for Cass's armored transport to pass by.
"We have a plan, here, G?" Gwen asked, drumming her fingers nervously on the railing.
"Yeah, we'll hit 'em with everything we got once they drive past us," Gino replied.
"What does that even mean, 'everything we got'?" Theo spoke up again. "We're going up against an entire convoy of soldiers, dude. Soldiers. These guys have been fighting literally since they were born, and you want to go and attack all of them with just the three of us."
"Three Heroes," Gino reminded his friend. "Three Heroes can handle it, no problem. Cass is down there, bro. We gotta get her back."
"And what if we lose one of us in the process?" Gwen asked. "Would you consider it a fair trade if we got Cass back but lost Theo? Or me? Or, God forbid, you? How would that leave us in a better situation than what we're in right now?"
"Gwen, Jesus Christ, we're not losing anyone!" Gino finally snapped. "If we don't get Cass back now, they're gonna take her to the Silent Dungeon, and then we'll never get her back! It's now or never, guys! Right here, right now, now or never! I'll go up against that fuckin' convoy all by my goddamn self, if that's what it takes, but I'd rather have friends backin' me up! So what's it gonna be, huh?"
"Gino, look, we want to help you, but-"
"If you wanna help me, then follow me." And with that, Gino vaulted himself over the railing, right as the convoy started passing by on the street below, dropping down to the canopy over the diner's entrance.
"Shit," Gwen swore.
"C'mon, Gwen, he can't do this by himself!" Theo exclaimed, jumping after his friend. "Asshole's gonna get himself killed if we don't help."
There were six vehicles total. One armored transport, two tanks, and three humvees. The two tanks formed both the front and rear of the convoy, with the armored transport among the humvees in the middle. Gino went straight for the lead humvee, right behind the first tank. He sprinted out into the road, right into the convoy's path. The commandos were surprised, for a few moments, that the attack they were no doubt expecting was happening in such a direct and forthright manner.
Theo watched Gino shove what appeared to be a grenade into the exhaust pipe of the moving humvee. When the grenade detonated, it took the humvee's fuel tank with it, causing the entire vehicle to brew up in flames. Two of the commandos inside managed to bail before the flames got to them, but none of the others made it out.
Gwen had already retrieved her Walther handgun from her strife specibus. When she landed on the street, she dropped to a knee, took aim, and fired, felling one of the surviving commandos. The second commando managed to get back to his feet and raise his weapon, but Gwen had already readjusted her aim, clipping the Dersite soldier's neck. The Dersite commando went down, blood spurting from the wound in his neck. He was not dead, but he was down for the count.
By now, the commandos in the other vehicles had recovered from the initial shock of being blindly attacked by three Human teenagers, and they started to return fire. Commandos were offloaded from the remaining two humvees, and the turrets mounted atop the two vehicles came roaring to life. The three teens were forced to take cover behind the burning wreckage of the destroyed humvee.
While the destroyed humvee proved suitable as cover from the commandos' weaponsfire, there was one thing it could not protect the Heroes from: the lead tank. The tank in the front of the convoy had already stopped, its upper portion swiveling around. When it made a full one-eighty degrees, the tank's main cannon would be pointing right in the Heroes' faces.
"Gwen, cover me!" Gino shouted, springing up to his feet, retrieving his powered knuckledusters from his own strife specibus.
"Cover you?" Gwen hollered back. "How the fuck am I s'posed to do that? Ask all the commandos out there politely to please stop discharging their fucking firearms in a public place?"
"Just empty a goddamn clip and make them duck, or some shit!" Gino snapped. "Don't let them get me, or that tank's gonna turn us into fuckin' sunshine!"
"It's not a 'clip', smart one, it's a magazine!"
"Just fucking cover me!"
Gwen broke cover screaming, firing away at any commandos within her direct line of sight. When her magazine ran empty, she retrieved another one from her sylladex, reloaded, and started picking her targets more carefully. Theo was helpless - he did not have any guns. And even if he did, he had no clue how to use them. Playing an insane amount of Call of Duty was one thing, but actually holding a weapon and firing it at a living creature… He clutched the unbreakable baseball bat from his strife specibus, the bat his grandma had given to him as a gift, holding it like a security blanket.
During all this, Gino sprang back up to his feet and broke cover, rushing the lead tank. He jumped up and grabbed the barrel of the main cannon, hanging from it as if he was playing on the monkey bars. He then swung himself up on top of the main cannon, balling his free hand into a fist, and bringing it down onto the barrel. His powered knuckledusters flashed with white light as they registered the shock of the blow.
Normally, Gino would have walked away from that tank with nothing to show for his efforts but an incredibly bruised and throbbing hand. But the powered knuckledusters, alchemized with omnicrystal, greatly amplified the impact force of his blows, dealing damage that should normally have been impossible.
Gwen actually managed to take out one of the commandos who was shooting at her. She was laying down suppressing fire, so she did not expect that to happen. Unfortunately, her victory, if it could be described as a victory, was short-lived. Just as the second magazine clicked empty, a stray energy bolt caught Gwen in the right shoulder. She was spun around to the right and knocked off her feet, falling to the ground screaming.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god!" Theo reached out and helped Gwen pull herself back up against the wreckage, his eyes widening at the blood beginning to flow from her shoulder wound. Theo's breathing started to grow shallow. "What do I do? What do I-" He was cut off suddenly by Gwen grabbing him by his shirt with her left hand and giving him a good shake.
"Listen to me!" Gwen yelled in his face. "You gotta pull yourself together! Pick up my gun!"
"Gwen, I don't know how to shoot-"
"Pick up the fucking gun, Theo!"
Theo scooped up Gwen's Walther. The first thing he felt was surprise at the weight of the Walther - handguns were much heavier than they looked. Certainly heavier than Nerf weapons.
Weaponsfire clanked against the tank's armor plating - stray fire from the commandos in the rear of the convoy. While Theo was retrieving Gwen's handgun, Gino had struck the barrel of the main cannon twice more. The third time was the charm - a small dent was created in the metal. Gino leaped off the cannon, hurrying back to the wreckage just as the tank acquired its target and fired.
The tank shell struck the dent in the main cannon and exploded before it even left the barrel, causing the force of the explosion to ricochet back into the tank's interior. The tank slogged to the side as one of its treads was crippled. The hatch was blown open by a gout of flame, snuffing any hope for the survival of the crew inside, if anyone was hoping for that.
Under Gwen's instruction, Theo had reloaded the Walther. While the tank burned, Theo poked his head up and opened fire, shooting at any commandos he saw in that moment. He did not hit anything, unsurprisingly. Theo was shocked at the recoil, initially, adjusting his grip to avoid losing his grip on the handgun entirely and having it fly out of his hands. If that happened, there ran the risk of the handgun firing when it struck the ground, which could hit anything or anyone nearby.
Theo became aware of Gino diving back for cover, having successfully stopped the impending tank attack. "Alright, what now?"
"What?" Gino hollered back.
"We're pinned down, the commandos have a second tank back there moving into position, and this cover ain't gonna last too much longer!" Gwen shouted, picking up where Theo left off, doing her best to ignore the agony in her shoulder. "What do we do now?"
The wreckage of the destroyed humvee started to twist and heave under the combined firepower of the Dersite commandos. Chunks of metal were flying free, the structure of the wreckage buckling. As Theo said, it was not going to be able to hold out much longer. And when it went down, the three teens would be completely exposed.
Gino's eyes glazed over for a moment as he finally comprehended just how much trouble he and his friends were in. As he remained frozen, whispers started finding their way into Gino's mind, the crawling sensation that accompanied the Voices beginning to take hold. That was when Gino started moving again - shook his head, ran a hand through his hair, blinked.
"Alright…" Gino said. "...okay. That tank's gonna blow this cover to kingdom come, so we need to-"
The explosion drowned out whatever Gino intended to say next. The commandos were thrown into confusion when their second tank suddenly blew up.
More gunfire erupted from the windows of an office building, just across the street from the diner. On the rooftop, the Wrathful Veteran lowered the rocket-propelled grenade launcher, which he'd just used to take out the second tank, moving to reload.
Gino seized the opportunity. "Now's our chance, guys! Let's get that transport!"
While the commandos shifted their fire to accommodate their surprise dissenter visitors, Gino broke cover and made a beeline for the armored transport, which was caught in between the wrecks of the humvees in front of and behind it. Theo helped Gwen up to her feet and followed, doing his best to keep his breathing under control.
The access hatch of the armored transport was already open. Three commandos were emerging, and hanging limp in the arms of the third commando was Cass. She was unconscious, her abdomen wrapped in sullied bandages, her face, neck, and arms still covered in dried blood. Together, the three commandos started moving Cass towards the sidewalk. One of the commandos saw Gino coming, raised his rifle, opened fire.
Gino dove to the side, crying out in pain as one of the commandos' shots tore through his left thigh. He landed hard, clutching his leg, his face scrunching up.
Gwen shouted for her gun. Theo quickly handed it over to her. Having lost use of her right arm due to her shoulder wound, Gwen took the handgun in her left hand. Being right-handed, this was out of her comfort zone; but, luckily, when her Gramps had taken her to the shooting range, he'd trained her to shoot with both hands.
Gwen emptied the remainder of her magazine, firing a total of seven shots at the three commandos. Two of the Dersite soldiers went down - one of the shooters took a bullet to the neck and went down gurgling blood, and the commando carrying Cass crumpled to the asphalt after taking a round to the lower leg. Cass's body tumbled to the ground with its bearer.
The third commando hesitated, indecisive as to whether he should continue to attack the Heroes or grab Cass and retreat. By then Theo had reached the place where Gino had fallen. He gently shrugged off Gwen's arm. "Cover Gino," he said, retrieving his baseball bat from his strife specibus.
The third commando decided to continue shooting, but his hesitation cost him. He'd only just managed to raise his rifle when he caught sight of a flying baseball, registering in his brain only moments before it connected with his forehead, causing him to stagger, his rifle clattering to the street.
Theo sprinted as fast as he could while the commando tried to recover. He reached the sidewalk and quickly scooped up his bat from where it had fallen. The commando picked his rifle back up and struggled to aim at Theo, but the teenaged boy did not give him enough time. Just as the commando squeezed the trigger, Theo delivered a crushing blow to the side of the commando's head. The Dersite soldier was spun to the ground, blood flying. He did not get back up.
Theo felt something punch into his chest.
Theo did not know if the soldier was alive or dead. Considering the amount of red splatter on the baseball bat, 'alive' was looking more and more to be the unlikelier choice. But Theo did not have any time to think on this further, because that was when he finally acknowledged the pain in the right side of his chest and realized that he, too, had been shot. It must have been the commando's final shot when Theo clubbed him...he had not even felt the...well, no, Theo had felt the impact...an almost hollow punching sensation in his chest...
Gwen swore when she saw Theo fall to the sidewalk, blood sullying his purple pajama top. "Wait here," she said to Gino. Gwen started moving for the sidewalk, only to be stopped by a hail of gunfire. Some of the commandos at the rear of the burning convoy had taken a renewed interest in the two Heroes who were sitting out in the open.
Gwen tried to run forward a second time, but was driven back again, nearly taking a wound to the leg as a result.
"Witch! You must leave immediately!" the Wrathful Veteran shouted from the rooftop across the street from Gwen and Gino - he must have moved from the roof of the office building during all the shooting. "The Navy just landed an armored platoon to reinforce this convoy! They will be on us in less than a minute!"
Gwen would have liked to have thought that she took a long time to make a decision. She would have liked to have thought that she had made her choice reluctantly. But the truth was, Gwen had made up her mind within a second of processing what the Veteran had just said. Her eyes tearing up, Gwen cast one last glance over to where Theo and Cass lay. "I'm sorry, guys…" she whispered.
Gwen hurried back to Gino and helped him up to his feet, balancing him on his good leg. Together, they made it back to the other side of the street, limping into the nearest alleyway, away from the shooting. Gino and Gwen said nothing to each other. There was nothing to say - all they could do was keep moving forward.
The Wrathful Veteran met with Gwen and Gino in the alleyway and took them north several buildings, leading them to a back entrance of the office building that had been occupied by the dissenter guerillas. The elevator was still functioning, fortunately, so the Veteran was able to easily get the two wounded Heroes up to the top floor, where a transportalizer pad was waiting.
Gino and Gwen emerged from the Hub, staggering out into the Onyx's northern supply depot. In twos and threes, the dissenter fighters followed, returning from the office building, the Wrathful Veteran emerging last. By then, medical personnel were hurrying into the supply depot with stretchers, taking the wounded dissenters away.
When the medics came for Gwen and Gino, the Wrathful Veteran intervened. "Take the Witch," he ordered them, "but not the Prince. The Prince will make his own way to the infirmary. Leave him a couple of bandages."
The medics cast each other looks, but did not disobey their leader.
The Veteran turned back to Gino, gesturing to the bandages. "I suggest you apply pressure to your wound. The energy bolt went clean through your leg without hitting any major arteries, but you will still lose a lot of blood if you do not apply pressure. Then I suggest you make your way to the infirmary and have it treated."
"Wait, what?" Gino blinked in surprise as Gwen was taken away, but he was left on the floor. "I got shot in the leg! You...you can't just leave me here!"
"We lost the Thane because of your arrogance and your impatience, and nearly the Witch as well." The Wrathful Veteran was unsympathetic. "And I may lose three men because I chose to bring you back. For this, Prince, you will walk. Earn your right to be healed. Think on your actions."
With that, the Wrathful Veteran turned and walked away, leaving Gino alone.
"Well…" Gino murmured, struggling to get back up onto his one good foot, fighting back the tears that were threatening to form, the lump swelling in his throat. "I really fucked things up, this time, didn't I…"
Yes, Prince,the Voices replied, you have.