Chapter 15 - Renegade
The renewed sounds of gunfire in the distance cut off any hopes of a proper reunion with his surrogate daughter, and Naruto regretted that. Sam had clearly been working hard to find him, and had made a lot of friends along the way – especially considering how closely the scrappy little blonde dude was sticking to her – but there were mostly innocent people under attack by gray skinned monstrosities just over the horizon.
"Sam, we'll have to talk later. I've got work to do." Naruto said as he dug into his coat, pulling out another Hirashin kunai to get back into the fight. He expected her to yell, refuse, and do all kinds of other things a daughter would do to hold onto her father for a few more precious seconds. He did not expect her to pull the charging handle on her Lancer and snatch the kunai out of his hand. Naruto looked at the Kashkuri girl in confusion, and she drew her free hand's thumb across the chevrons emblazoned on her shoulder.
"I've got responsibilities too, Dad. We're all going out there. I can't just stand by while they cut down what few people we have left." Naruto blinked in surprise and processed that for a few seconds, time enough for Baird to turn around and put a finger to his ear.
"Cole, Pad, we're gonna need a pick up down here at the crater. There's a village getting raided nearly a klick to the east." He reported. Naruto's ears picked up a response, but Sam stepped between Naruto and Baird, interrupting his focused stare.
"Can that, Baird. I know a guy that can get us there fast." Sam said with a wry grin. She looked toward her surrogate father expectantly, and he hefted his Hirashin kunai. Naruto returned the grin, then sized up Baird for real this time. His build and temperament clearly spoke of a more intellectual man, but the dried bloodstains on his bayonet implied that he was a capable soldier. And Naruto could see a certain attraction between the boy and his daughter by how they stood and addressed one another, something that both amused and concerned him. He gave Baird the once over as the other blonde looked between Naruto and Sam, clearly unsure what to do and why the deadliest guy on the planet was eyeing him up like a t-bone steak. Once his observation was finished, Naruto turned to Sam with a raised eyebrow.
"You know he'll puke." He said apprehensively. Sam chuckled at that and slung her Lancer to her back, beckoning for Baird to do the same. Sam put her finger to her ear to key her mic, her eyes twinkling with mischief similar to Naruto's own look.
"Pad, Cole, go ahead and head toward the village. We'll meet you there." She ordered over the radio. When her hand fell from her ear, she looked back at Baird. "Think you can handle a quick trip, Blondie?" Baird blinked in confusion, and held his now empty hands up.
"I don't know if you expect us to outrun an armored vehicle or something, but I guess I'm up for whatever you got. Just mind the hair." His tone made Naruto chuckle, earning the older blonde a questioning stare.
"I like this one. Alright, you kids hold on tight." Naruto twirled his kunai twice around his finger before grabbing Sam's hand firmly, swapping the kunai to his left hand in the same motion. Sam looked over to Baird and offered her other hand, grinning slightly even as he took a small step back.
"Come on, Baird." She chided. "Ever wanted to break the rules of the universe?" Baird didn't know what to think of that, his mind racing to all the things he had managed to pry out of Pad and Sam about what Naruto could do. Impossible stories of teleportation, rapid healing, and energy manipulation suddenly seemed more believable and at the same time, more outlandish as he stood before the man. Baird looked down at the offered hand, swallowed hard, and grabbed hold of it firmly. If anything, he'd have something to take back to Cole and talk about for hours.
"Alright, hold onto your lunch." Naruto said with an audible smile, and together the three vanished in a flash of yellow light. A million stars went from collected points of light to a series of streaks before Baird's eyes and his gut bounced up to his throat. The feeling of vertigo came and went in little more than a second, but suddenly they weren't standing in the burned out crater anymore. Instead, the warmth of a burning hut lit up the left side of Baird's face as they suddenly found themselves in the middle of the stricken village, the gunfire that had been so distant just seconds before now roaring in his ears as the inhabitants fought back against the invading Locust. Baird's mind reeled at the impossibility of what had occurred – the time to cross nearly a kilometer of land compressed into a single second, the laws of physics that clearly stated what had happened was an impossibility – as well as by how calm Sam seemed over the whole thing. Just as he managed to control his mental overload, however, Baird's stomach caught up with his brain.
As Baird hit the ground and hurled his lunch all over the cracked mountain clay, Sam and Naruto watched with a small measure of sympathy before the sounds of combat drew their attention. Naruto locked eyes with his daughter and nodded his head towards the ailing Gear at their feet.
"Once he's done painting the ground, get into the fight. Stay low, and shout if you need me." He instructed, almost lecturing as he had in her adolescence. Also as she had when she had been growing up, Sam rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation.
"Technically, I've been fighting Locust longer than you have." She reminded him. The fact gave him pause, and he shrugged and gave her that one. As Baird wiped his mouth and heaved a shaky breath, Naruto jumped up onto the rooftop of a nearby hut and looked around for the nearest target, leaving Sam to tend to her ailing teammate.
From the blonde's perspective, the fighting had gotten much worse since he had run off with the Berserker. In his absence, the Locust had rallied to push back the Stranded, and the number of human corpses on the ground nearly matched that of the Locust casualties. Far more concerning and heartbreaking was the fact that some of the fallen were so very small. Naruto gritted his teeth as he saw the few children among the dead, the joy of reuniting with his own daughter dampened significantly by the sight of so many lost lives. The dead served to rekindle his anger, and a large explosion to his left gave him a direction in which to channel it.
A Boomer strutted from a small copse of trees into the village line, reloading as he marched as if he were invincible. In his small, stupid brain he probably was, and that false bravado served to end the Locust's life as quickly as his comrades'. Before he could charge the new round into his Boomshot, twin kunai knives dug into the back of his neck. The thick muscles and fat around his spine saved the ugly beast, but he roared in rage and pain anyway as Naruto rode him down from behind, using his superior strength to force the Locust to the ground from his leverage point. The Boomer took a knee and planted his free hand, the one holding the Boomshot propping the weapon up against the ground to keep him from flattening out. With so much support, Naruto couldn't afford to waste the energy of forcing the big fat ass down, and pulled one of his kunai free to try for the spine again. The Boomer grunted as the blade left his flesh and tucked his shoulder, leaning forward to throw Naruto off balance. The blonde maintained his hold on the remaining kunai dug into the creature's back and swung around, now hanging directly in front of the Boomer's face. The blonde reared back his loose hand, the kunai still clenched in his grip, and sent it rocketing into the Locust's face with all of his strength, twisting in the air to put as much force into the blow as possible. A punch from a normal human would have made the Boomer laugh. A punch from Naruto caved his face in with a shower of teeth and blood, leaving the front of the beast's head a bloody, ugly mess. The blow stunned the Boomer even more, and allowed Naruto to thrust his free knife into the Boomer's ear. The blade sank in with a loud squelch, and the Boomer spasmed as he twisted it violently. As a puppet with its strings cut, the large Locust finally slumped to the ground and released its weapon. Naruto swung his legs up in time with the collapsing Boomer and somersaulted over its corpse, pulling his stuck kunai free in the process. While the dead Boomer twitched and bled behind him, Naruto landed in a crouch, and turned to look where the fat bastard had been stomping to. Sure enough, a staggered line of Locust, mainly Drones and Grenadiers with a few Snipers in the back near Naruto, used the outer houses as cover to fire inward, slowly pushing deeper into the village. From the intelligible Tyran that could be heard over the gunfire, Stick was moving his people further into the center of the village, toward his moderately fortified city hall. If the villagers were pushed into locking the doors, the Locust could simply set the place ablaze and wait for the survivors to either suffocate or emerge into a hail of gunfire.
The wall of advancing monsters shifted slightly as their right flank was crippled by incoming fire. It seemed that Baird had found his feet again, as he and Sam mowed down Locust with expert ease as they too moved toward the center of the ramshackle village. Naruto couldn't help but beam with pride as his surrogate daughter dashed headfirst into danger, providing fire support and drawing attention from the defenseless villagers that continued to retreat from the Locust threat. TO his pleasant surprise, though Sam proved more than capable of slaughtering the Locust that were busy targeting unarmed civilians, Baird was also performing above his expectations. As Naruto watched, it almost seemed as if the two would rack up a higher kill count than he would.
Pfft. As if.
Scooping up the Boomshot he had just liberated, Naruto took careful aim at a nest of Snipers, the specially trained Drones firing from a slightly raised position on the ruined roof of a shack. Aiming upward slightly to adjust for the drop of such a heavy payload, Naruto pulled the trigger and sent the Boomshot warhead screaming into the nest. The Snipers didn't even recognize the explosive, their bodies reduced to chunks and crimson spray without ever realizing the attack was coming from behind. The explosion from the cluster bombs inside the warhead did what the earlier damage could not and caused the shack to crumble the rest of the way, turning what had been a home into a bloody pile of firewood. Naruto discarded the now useless weapon and tossed one of his own, embedding it into the back of a Drone seventy-five yards away. Before the Locust could hit its knees and pull out the knife, Naruto flashed to its location and did so for the creature, then slashed its head off with a wind-infused blade. Before the decapitated corpse could collapse to the ground the rest of the way, four more grubs suffered lacerations and stab wounds to their vulnerable spines and necks, cutting the Locust assault down from the rear. The beauty of using blades? It was done quietly.
Unfortunately, his approach did not go completely unnoticed, as the next group of Drones he happened upon – just inside the village – were reloading and looking back when he made the scene. A guttural command was issued from the one nearest to him, and the grubs finished reloading and targeted Naruto instead of the retreating civilians. Using his superior speed and a few Hirashin kunai, Naruto disappeared entirely from the kill zone they had him in, appearing instantly behind the one closest to the houses they had been using for cover. Naruto reached forward between the grub's arm and torso, his other arm snaking around its neck. When he pulled his arms in tight, the grub's rifle was pinned to his side and Naruto lifted it bodily into the air – feet no longer touching the ground – and slammed the Locust into the ground with all of his might. Considering the crack of broken bones, his might was considerable. Naruto stomped his heel into the grub's throat to ensure its demise and continued into its comrades, hacking and slashing with a single kunai and punching and kicking where the knife was insufficient. The next two went down to open throats, red spray dancing across the wooden walls of the shacks around them as they fell. The other three attempted to close with Naruto, and were repaid for their efforts with a kunai to the chest and two broken necks. After the corpses hit the ground, what had been a formidable squad of Locust was now just a morbid collection of bleeding bodies. Naruto kicked the nearest Hammerburst rifle away from its owner's limp grasp. If it weren't for the ongoing attack, Naruto would have stopped to examine the creatures. But right now, there were lives at stake, including Sam and her blonde boyfriend. The thought brought a smirk to his face. Somehow, he doubted Sam would like him calling Baird her boyfriend, even as a joke.
The sounds of gunfire seemed to die down for a moment, and Naruto guessed that either the Locust were thinning out, or the Stranded were taking too many casualties. He had wiped out the incursion forces on this side of the village. Surely Sam and the others could handle things until he got there? With that thought in mind, Naruto scaled the nearest wall and looked out across the burning village. Sure enough, he could see muzzle flashes from the center of Landown, and the faint glow of Baird and Sam's armor could be seen tucked into the side of Stick's little city hall. From his vantage point, Naruto could also see numerous Locust lying in pools of their own blood, though the few that remained did not slack in their resolve. Naruto danced across the burning skyline quietly, his sure footing helping him across the damaged beams that served for ramshackle housing structure. As he jumped to the nearest rooftop from the square, the charred beam gave way to his weight, causing Naruto to fall into the burning shack. Heat rose up from the scorching flames as he dropped, a grimace of annoyance crossing his features when he landed onto the burning planks. As soon as he hit the ground, the suffocating smoke assaulted his senses, stinging his eyes with tears and threatening to cloud his lungs. The ninja quickly pulled a mask over his nose and mouth similar to the one his sensei, Kakashi, had used in his youth. The walls around him were licked with flames that crawled upwards with hungry fingers. Several pictures lay in the corners, their frames all that remained of the printed memories. Behind a burning couch, the former inhabitants of the cabin forever lay across the charred floor. A mother and child, the woman sporting a ragged hole in her head. The boy showed no wounds, tear streaks in the soot on his face as he clung to his mother even in death. He looked to be hardly five years old. Judging by the holes in the walls, she had likely been struck by an unlucky shot from outside, the round boring through a weakness in the wood. Her death had been instantaneous. The boy had slowly suffocated, clutching his mother and crying for rescue that never came.
One more evil in a mad world.
Naruto tore his gaze from the unfortunate sight, and resigned himself to leaving without a second look. There was nothing he could do for the dead. He wielded the Rinnegan, but he was no Nagato, and he was definitely no Sage of the Six Paths. These dead would remain so, and there was nothing he could do otherwise. The blocked door, a sturdy beam across what would have been their bid for life, for freedom, stood between Naruto and a situation he could change. The beam proved too thick for a five year old child. It likely would be too much for anyone other than a hardened Gear. Naruto was stronger than both.
If the Grenadier was surprised by the puny humans and their frightening resistance, when all others had been so easily erased from existence, the flying door that he had been using for cover really sent him for a loop. The burned chunk of oak sent the Locust flying, his Gnasher shotgun dropping from his grasp. The fire ceased abruptly, each side taking in the sight of a door being kicked down by the most powerful and pissed off man in the world. Naruto stepped through the ravaging flames, fire grasping for his coat but not quite reaching it, repelled by the seals he had placed on it long ago. Naruto reached up and pulled the mask back down, baring his elongated fangs as he stared cold fury into the few Locust that remained. The Stranded retreated further into the hall as the Locust continued to stare. Sam and Baird watched as well, but they were clearly not ready to abandon the fight. It didn't matter. They needn't have bothered.
"I'll give you one chance to leave. Any who stay will die." Naruto said out loud, his words aimed at the scaled abominations that turned their guns toward him. The impromptu leader – a nasty, scarred Grenadier Elite with a red armor pauldron and a bad attitude – had a guttural, defiant response.
"For the Queen!" He growled, and they all opened fire at once. With all of the villagers in city hall and Sam and Baird taking cover nearby, there wasn't a good outcome if the Locust focused their fire on the reinforced building. There was no time to toss any more Hirashin kunai, and if he dragged things out there would be more dead. Just like the mother and son inside the shack he had just left. The first volley entered the burning shack behind him, and Naruto rolled to the other side and planted his feet, leaning forward in a runner's stance as time slowed to a stand still.
"So be it. Open."
Rock Lee had once taught him about the eight Inner Gates, and how opening them took intense training and determination. For someone who had been left alone for so long – even despite the return of his real memories, he had in fact spent the time training regardless – mastering his own body had been a necessity. And when you open the first four Gates all at once, time becomes relative. And so does pain.. The time it took him to cross the bullet torn square barely registered to the watching eye. The force behind his punch would have made a Berserker cower in fear, but to him it as nothing. To the Drone that received the punch, his target had been several meters away at one moment, the next his skull was atomized by a strike powerful enough to collapse a building. Before the full energy of his blow could dissipate, or his victim could even leave the ground, Naruto had already turned toward the next one. A pair of Grenadiers, one of them swinging a grenade on its bolo chain paused in mid air to the blonde. He moved next to them and pushed the rifle in one's hand downward, the force of him moving at such speed breaking the creature's wrist in the process. He took the grenade from the other and wrapped the chain around its owner's neck. The speed at which he did so sliced the metal chain into the grub's next like a hot knife through butter. Naruto hip tossed the strangled Locust into his limp wristed friend and left them behind to detonate.
Time slowly began to move more quickly, and Naruto began to feel the strain in his muscles from moving at such speed. Moving at such speed, the particles of the air were like a wall, requiring more effort to move through than normal. Because of his Gates opening, the pain and effort were inconsequential, but every motion cost him stamina, and the pain crept forward a little more with each step. It was still manageable, however. Three more Drones remained, spread out in front the ruined building they had taken cover behind. His fist turned the head on the closest one completely around, sending him spinning away as time marched ever faster. The second almost recognized that he was there, and he sliced through its throat as if he were clearing smoke from his own face. The third Drone actually pointed its weapon at him, but his kunai sprouted from its chest in a spray of blood long before the beast was capable of pulling the trigger.
Feeling the fatigue and looming exhaustion as his burst of super speed wore off, Naruto looked around for any more hostiles. Time continued to speed up until it ran at its normal pace, and all the bodies slumped to ground. The two Grenadiers cried out upon feeling their wounds, shortly before the rapid beeping of the grenade ended with a bang, showering the area with their chunks. As dirt and organic matter rained from above, Naruto heaved a sigh of relief when no further gunfire split the cold air. The Locust were either all dead, or a few of them had developed the intelligence to turn tail and run. In either case, the attack was over, and the Stranded were safe. Job done.
Naruto grimaced and looked upward as he waited for the unfortunate recoil of using four Gates, his eyes screwed shut in anticipation. Then it hit him; a mixture of fatigue, soreness, and oh sweet lord the pain of moving faster than the nerve conduction rate hit him all like a ton of bricks. The seasoned shinobi sunk to his knees and grunted as the efforts of the battle caught up to him. His ears rang, he tasted nothing but ash, and his vision dimmed slightly as he sagged to the ground. Faintly, Naruto could hear approaching footsteps, someone running towards him. When Rock Lee had opened four Gates in battle, the exertion had hospitalized him for nearly a week. As it stood with Naruto, he'd likely be down for a day, maybe less if he slept it all off. Just before the tunnel vision blacked his sight out completely, Samantha's concerned face crossed into his field of view.
"Dad, are you alright?" Her voice sounded far away, as if she were yelling from the other side of a canyon. Naruto limply raised a hand and gave her a thumbs up, his cheesy grin forced from the strain of his exhaustion.
"Yep. Score one for the good guys." Was all he could muster before darkness overwhelmed him, and he crashed forward like a sack of potatoes. Sam and Baird exchanged a look and then rolled him onto his back, relaxing marginally when they heard the measured breathing of sleep coming from his flared nostrils. Sam chuckled at her father's predicament and rubbed some mud from his hair, the mixed slush of ice and muck doing terrible things to his white coat. Of course, she knew better than anybody that no stain would ever last on that coat, but it was painful to look at all the same. Baird stepped back away from Naruto's sleeping form and turned toward the city hall, where several scruffy looking locals were making their way to them. Baird whistled lowly to get Sam's attention, and placed himself between the kneeling sergeant and her father. He didn't aim his rifle at the approaching Stranded, but it was a near thing.
A very intimidating man with a mohawk and a bomber jacket stomped up to them, his eyes focused on Naruto more than anything. When he got within arm's reach of Baird, the blonde stepping in front of him to impede his march. When he did so, the Stranded leader brought his piercing gaze up from Naruto to Baird, and the blonde affected his sneering asshole face flawlessly. Sam stood slowly behind him, reaching toward her back should she need to pull her Lancer.
"What are you fascists doing with this man?" The mohawked man asked irritably, and his two lackeys cracked their knuckles in eager expectation. For a couple of thugs that had been running scared just moments earlier, they certainly had pulled a one eighty now that all the big bad monsters were dead. Sam stepped up next to Baird, who remained stationary as a wall of muscle and steel in between Naruto and the Stranded.
"This man is my father, and we came to bring him home." Sam said, a snarl crossing her face as the two lackeys fanned out, forcing Baird and Sam to look to their sides as well as toward the Stranded leader. The man with the mohawk shook his head at that, and parted his jacket slightly to one side. Inside of his bomber next to his shirt, Sam could barely see the grip of a knife, matte black and ready to be used at a moment's notice.
"From what he told me, you COG had him on ice in some research facility up the mountain. So you'll excuse me if I think that whole father thing is crap, sweet cheeks." The man with the mohawk said haughtily. "This guy saved our bacon, and it goes against my moral code to let you murdering pigs run off with him." Baird could practically feel Sam's temper flare up from the accusation, but she turned on her heel instead of punching the guy out like Baird fully expected her to. She marched over to Naruto's prone form and reached into his coat, level with his chest. After rummaging around for a moment, the latched onto something and pulled it out, though her hand concealed whatever the item was from view. When she stomped back over to the three thugs and her partner, Sam flashed a crumpled piece of paper in front of the Stranded leader's face. It was a photograph.
"This prove enough?" She asked angrily. In the picture, Naruto had a seventeen year old Sam in a headlock, ruffling her hair playfully as the two laughed at the camera. It was taken somewhere in Tyrus, likely Ephyra if Baird were a guessing man, and it was another reminder of happier times in this world gone mad. The Stranded man examined the picture carefully, looking between Sam's granite expression and the laughing girl in the photo, before shaking his head and waving her off.
"Whatever. Take him." Stick stepped away from them, but pointed an accusing finger at the two Gears before he turned back to his people. "If this goes sideways for him, he'll be welcome here. You won't be, COG. So you'd better get moving." Without much else, the self proclaimed lord of Landown returned to his citizens, and began issuing orders to put out the fires and gather the wounded. Sam stood in place for a moment, fuming at the gall one man had when it came to reclaiming her father. Thankfully, Baird stepped between her and the retreating Stranded before she decided to do something unwise.
"Yeah yeah, ungrateful bastards and all that, but we got what we came for, right?" He placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back slightly, more suggestion than force. "Let's get the other two here and leave before the local vermin decide to grow teeth." Sam looked down slightly, realizing how closely she had come to doing something that would have put both Baird and her father in danger. Taking a shuddering breath the steady herself, Sam nodded and grinned at the blonde man before her.
"Thanks Baird. Call Pad and Cole over comm, I'll get Dad up." Baird waved off her gratitude and turned to face the Stranded, watching them like a hawk lest they try something while he put his finger to his ear. As he explained the events that had transpired to Pad and Cole via radio, Sam walked over to her father and grabbed one of his arms, pulling him into a sitting position even as he snored loudly. Sam grinned slightly at that, then wrapped her other arm around his thigh while tossing his arm across her shoulder. In one fluid movement, she shifted the shinobi from the ground to a fireman's carry across her shoulders. Despite his strength and ability, the old bastard was surprisingly light. That, and she'd channeled a little chakra to complete the movement. When he was secured on her shoulders, Naruto's mouth was closer to her ear, and his uninterrupted snoring reminded her of days when they would just lounge about, sitting on the couch or something as the days went by. Before Sam could lapse into a melancholy reminiscence of better times, Baird walked back over to her and pointed toward the east.
"They're almost here. Evidently, they weren't paying attention when I cleaned the filter all those times on the way here. What ash was left in the air nearly blew the damn engine up." Baird shook his head in acidic amazement. "Here's hoping I don't have to wipe anyone's ass, too." Sam released her father's arm and punched Baird in the shoulder. Because of the chakra she was channeling to ward off the fatigue of surviving a firefight, it was a harder hit than she meant. Baird took it like a champ, but he waited until she turned and started walking before he rubbed the sore joint gingerly. Together, they marched out of Landown, passing burning buildings and bloody bodies that had not been tended to yet. As they walked, Baird kept his head on a swivel, in case the Stranded or some lucky Locust tried anything just before they hopped onto their evac. Thankfully, nothing reared its head, and they could see the APC on the road just as they won free of the ramshackle village. The two stood side by side as the vehicle approached, watching as the ash storms that had plagued the planet for weeks slowly ebbed away. It seemed that they would be returning just in time for everything to get back into the swing of things.
"Thanks for coming with me, Baird." Sam said quietly. Baird shrugged and crossed his arms, not wanting to get all mushy when there was a padded seat and a nap rushing toward him at decent speed.
"Ah, don't worry about it. It's what I'm here for. That and fixing things, you know. You'd be lost without me." He teased naturally, not wanting to look too much into her appreciation. Sam turned her head when he said that, and he heard her mutter something, though he couldn't tell what it was.
"Maybe I would." Baird strained to hear her words, but the rumble of the 'Dill's engine and the shear of its tread on ice and mud drowned out her words.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, Baird. Let's go home." Sam would tell him later, when they had some time to themselves. The hatch to the 'Dill dropped forward, revealing Cole to the two conscious fighters. The big man laughed raucously when he saw Sam's package, and he waved them in.
"Is that how you bring all of them in, Boss Lady, or just the family? Ha ha ha ha!" He slapped his knee as they embarked onto the Armadillo, and Pad closed the hatch once Baird made it to his seat. Sam gently set Naruto down into the seat beside one over from Baird, fastening him into the harness so he could sleep upright and stay safe in case anything happened. Once her father was secure, the Kashkuri woman sat down next to Baird and fastened herself in, glancing at Baird a few times before looking away. If Baird noticed, he didn't say anything. Of course, he wouldn't have to either. That was just how Lima rolled. So focused were the others on their own problems – and Cole focused on the weird dude they had come so far to retrieve – no one noticed the grim line Pad set his mouth to. It also went unnoticed how quiet he was for the entire drive back to base.
"We're almost a day out, Colonel. Package in hand." If Victor were a different man, he'd have jumped and whooped for joy as Sam relayed the message. Instead, being the hard bastard that he was, he settled for a grumble.
"About damn time. Tell the package he's a year late to this damned war." Despite his intentions to remain unreadable, Sgt. Byrne laughed at his joke. The mirth was still in her voice when she responded.
"I think I'll let you tell him yourself, sir. He's nearly comatose." If it were from an injury, Sam would not have been laughing, so Hoffman chalked it up as exhaustion. At the battle of Anvil Gate, Naruto had managed to get brought in on a stretcher three separate times while he fought for the lives of the civilians. The man was incredibly skilled, but also somewhat danger prone. In any case, having the blonde juggernaut on their side was really going to shift the war into the COG's favor. If the COG survived Naruto, that is.
"I want a check in every six hours, Sergeant. We've lost too many good people for the grubs to get you know. With the ash clearing, things are going to be a lot more interesting. You're deep in enemy territory, so get out of it." There was a long pause as Sam dealt with whatever was on her end of the comm. When she replied, some of the joy was gone from her voice.
"Affirmative. We've already encounter hostiles while securing the package. Twenty to thirty contacts, including a female. All KIA. They were attacking a Stranded village." Something bothered her about the Stranded encounter, even as the Stranded themselves were only a few weeks old themselves. It was still a fresh wound to not only have survivors of the Hammer strikes, but for those survivors to rebel against the government even in the face of the Locust struck against the soldiers that had protected them for centuries. And the worst part of the ordeal was that they had every right to do so. How could Hoffman hold a deserter accountable when he had the blood of billions on his hands? It went against everything the COG stood for: unity, brotherhood, and righteousness. Now the Stranded had decided that they'd rather risk the ruins of Sera than live under a genocidal government. And right now, Victor didn't blame them for breaking away. The ones he did blame, however, were the scavengers; those who not only spat upon the Gears and their sacrifices, but picked the bodies clean of every usable tool, weapon, and spare magazine as they heedlessly desecrated the corpses of men and women Hoffman considered family. It was one thing to need weapons to defend yourself, but it was quite another to pull the rifle from a wounded Gear's hands and leave him to bleed to death, alone and crying out for help. As more patrols ventured out into the wastes and encountered the enemy, as well as pockets of Stranded, tales such as this filled Hoffman's ear every day. The scum were offered a way back into the fold, but they chose to live like animals. The only ones he truly pitied were the weak and the young.
"Return to base as quickly as possible, Sergeant. Our package is worth more than a thousand Stranded. Don't stop for anything. Hoffman out." With that, Victor set the receiver down and sighed heavily. The Stranded problem had arisen quickly, and it had created a schism within the COG community. Those fortunate enough to have made it to Ephyra and the Jacinto plateau – people were calling it Jacinto more often than Ephyra nowadays – displayed a mixture of pity and remorse for those that had not made it to the safety of the last city on Sera, and outrage at what the survivors were seen doing. The looting, shooting, and savagery that the Stranded exhibited. Chairman Prescott was adamant to issue a welcome back to any that managed to make it to the city, but few were taking the offer. And the ones that did were ostracized because of the actions of the raiders and thugs that some Stranded had turned into, further increasing the divide between citizen and Stranded.
Hoffman shook his head of the Stranded issue; it was a debacle for politicians. And there was one in particular he needed to speak with. Hoffman left the CIC and made his way to Prescott's office, passing a startling number of the seemingly ghost-like Onyx Guard as he did so. Hoffman had only dealt with the Guard a few times, and they always gave off the same air: if you weren't the Chairman or his immediate staff, you were dirt. Their haughty demeanor was cowed a bit by an utter bastard such as Hoffman, but he had earned his licks in their book. Most Guards didn't give him a problem. As he approached the door, however, he encountered the exception to that rule.
A thick, muscled Onyx Guard, nearly broader than Hoffman and definitely taller, stood in front of the Colonel as he tried to walk past. Hoffman had no time for the standard security bullshit, but the increased number of Guards indicated that something was indeed amiss. So he decided to indulge the younger man.
"Is there a problem, Gear?" Hoffman growled. To his credit, the Guard remained exactly where he stood, though he did incline his head to look down on the bulldog of a colonel before him.
"The Chairman is in a meeting with the Intelligence Committee. You'll have to wait until he finishes," the Guard paused, before adding curtly, "sir." There was an old campfire story about how a sentry had been harassed by a general during the Pendulum Wars. According to the tale, the general had badgered, ordered, and sneered everything he had at the sentry, but the private had not let the general through. Usually, the story depicted the private knocking the general's lights out as tip of the hat to the poor bastards that stood watch for hours on end. Unfortunately for this Guard, this wasn't a fucking story.
"Let the Chairman know that his Chief of Staff is walking through that door in five seconds, and that if I have to use you as a battering ram to do it, I will!" Hoffman tirade started as a deadly whisper, but climbed rapidly in volume as his blood pressure skyrocketed, veins sticking out of his neck and his forehead as he got within inches of biting the man's helmet off. At the sound of their Colonel barking and raising immortal Hell, several passing Gears flinched and stopped what they were doing to watch Hoffman chew the poor Guard up one wall and down another.
"What's your rank, soldier? I certainly don't remember promoting anyone to Executive Fucking Doorman! Does it please the Chairman that you're scaring away all the nice little secretaries that run around here? Well here I am, but I forgot to shave my legs so maybe I'm too ugly for his precious time!" While embarrassing the Guard was his primary purpose, Hoffman was vaguely aware that whatever was going on inside the office had ceased at the sound of his tirade. As the man in front of him debated between stepping aside and possibly tangling with THE most cantankerous Gear in history, the lock to the Chairman's office clicked quietly and the doors swung inward. On the other side, a somewhat ruffled Agent Settile stepped to the side, and Chairman Prescott walked out with all the air of an admiral on inspection of the navy, head held high and everything. When he turned to face Hoffman and the unfortunate Guardsman he had been chewing on, Prescott sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Victor, I can understand that whatever you need me for is very important, but please try to be more lenient on the Guard. They're trained for a very specific role." Before Hoffman could reply, Prescott turned to the man Hoffman had been accosting, and the Guard stood a little stiffer when the Chairman's gaze fell upon him. Victor nearly puked.
"Guardsman, to avoid some high blood pressure on all of our accounts, why don't you and the boys head down to the commissary and bring back some coffee? In the time it takes you to do that, I think myself and the good colonel will be done shouting at each other." Prescott paused and leaned to one side, giving the Guardsman enough room to move past him. The big man hesitated at first, but finally nodded slowly before stomping off towards the stairs. The four other Guards fell in step behind him, and Prescott turned back around and walked into his office slowly. Agent Settile remained outside, glancing at Hoffman expectantly as she held the door for him. A long time ago, Settile and Hoffman had worked together on an op to seize the technology that made the Hammer of Dawn possible from the Indies. It had been many years since the two of them had done anything in cohesion, but Hoffman never forgot the callous way she had described the scientists. She had referred to living men and women as if they were objects, pennants to steal in a game of thrashball instead of living, breathing human beings. But she had been competent, and had gotten his Gears home. Mostly.
Victor followed Prescott into the office and crossed his arms, clearly ready for another back and forth from the Chairman. Contrary to Hoffman's expectations, however, Prescott simply sat down heavily in his chair, leaning forward with his head in his hands. Not sure how to handle a surrendering opponent, Hoffman remained silent and let Prescott make the first move in their verbal game of chess. If Prescott appreciated the silence, he didn't show it.
"Victor, what could be so important that you had to interrupt a briefing with Agent Settile and haze one of my Guardsmen as if he were fresh out of boot camp?" Prescott asked wearily. Hoffman blinked at that, and fought hard against the grin that threatened to spread across his face. The Chairman had no idea that Naruto had been secured. This would give Hoffman the satisfaction of seeing the expression on the manipulating bastard's face.
"Sgt. Byrne reported that Naruto Namikaze has been recovered, and they are back en route to the city as we speak." Victor said gruffly. "In less than a day, we'll see how well the Intelligence community can survive a ninja on the loose." Prescott's raised his head from his own grasp when Victor said this, and for once the widening of his eyes wasn't a calculated response to an expected outcome, like some actor in a movie playing a scene. Naruto coming back alive so soon clearly wasn't in the Chairman's script.
"I...see. And you came to, what, rub it in my face? Exult in the fact that he'll come hunting for me?" Prescott shook his head and reached into his desk, pulling out a glass decanter full of an amber liquor. Like the political animal he had been raised to be, Prescott offered a glass to both Settile and Hoffman, though both declined. With a shrug, the Chairman poured three fingers of whatever concoction was worth stashing in the desk of the most powerful man in the world and threw it back as if it were water. Another two fingers went down before Prescott focused on anything other than the glass, and he put the slightly depleted stash of alcohol away for later. When he stood up, his nerves seemed settled slightly, though Naruto returning clearly still gave him pause.
"I came here to offer advice. Direct men like Naruto are more at home on a battlefield than in some boardroom. He's going to respect three things: honesty, humility, and responsibility. If he thinks you're some egotistical maniac with no concern for the average citizen or Gear, he'll punt your head all the way across the continent." Hoffman honestly believed that was not an exaggeration, and Prescott slowly nodded in agreement. Both of them were convinced of one thing; an angry Naruto could destroy what was left of humanity, even if he only killed Prescott.
"I thought you said he was a close friend. Does your word have no sway with him?" Prescott implored, not quite begging for Hoffman to bail him out of the problem. He didn't sound like he'd reject help, either. Hoffman shook his head in the negative.
"I can talk him down from just about anything. But Dalyell fucked him over good. And the people that perpetrated Sam's kidnapping are the very same shadows running around doing your dirty work. Naruto is a calm, free thinking individual. But even I can't save your spooks from what's coming." Hoffman's eyes cut to Settile for a moment, and she returned the look with a scathing glare of her own.
"Clearly you think we're just waiting around to die, Colonel. I assure you, my people can disappear if need be." She replied haughtily. Prescott pinched the bridge of his nose at that, and Hoffman outright laughed.
"Oh, they'll disappear alright. You'll never see them again, they'll disappear so well. Your 'Intelligence Committee' seems to be lacking in information on the guy that should have you all running scared." Hoffman snorted. "As far as you are concerned, he's the fucking boogeyman. And he's coming for a few in particular." Prescott nodded gravely, knowing exactly who it was Hoffman spoke of. Kim and the others, the ones that Dalyell had employed to kidnap Samantha Byrne and use her as leverage to blackmail Naruto into the welcoming arms of New Hope. Of the ones that had handled Dawnbringer, many of the spooks were still active.
"You want me to willingly sacrifice several brilliant agents for the sake of one man? I don't care how effective he is, Victor, no man is worth the death of another." Prescott was adamant about this. Unfortunately, he wasn't seeing the picture.
"Chairman, listen to me." Hoffman implored. "I'm not saying you are going to have to choose which one will die. I'm saying that you will have to haggle to where only a few die, and not the entire Intelligence community. That's the scale of what is driving towards us right now. So own up to it. You didn't make the decision, but you didn't set him free once you found out either. Invite him into the office and lay everything out for him. Naruto is a good guy, but he needs his pound of flesh. If you're honest with him, he'll likely only take the one that actually planned the op. Everyone else will live." Hoffman could hardly believe the words that were coming from his mouth; bargaining with lives was a practice he was used to on the battlefield, but doing it in a cushy office was an entirely alien feeling. Prescott stood up quickly enough to send his chair scraping backwards, his right hand gripping a fistful of black-gray hair as he stomped over to the window.
"Sacrificing people to save people. This feels more like bargaining with some criminal overlord than a respectable warrior. I don't like playing with the lives of our men, Victor." Prescott said angrily, facing away from the colonel as he watched the ash fall in a fraction of the thickness it had been at a week prior. The stuff was a constant reminder of what he and the others had done to the world. He was no stranger to gambling lives, but so help him he'd never enjoy it.
"I think we gave up the right to say we don't do that when we turned those keys, Chairman." Victor had a habit for probing the weak spots. "Now's not the time to get skittish. Just answer to what Dalyell did, and ask him what he wants. They took away the only family he had for seventeen fucking years, sir. He'll either take one of them, or all of them." Settile stepped back as the two men spoke, feeling very left out in a conversation that could determine whether she lived or died. Nevertheless, she put her faith in Prescott and waited mutely. The Chairman said nothing for some time, swirling the little alcohol that remained in his shooter before knocking it back and turning to face Victor face to face.
"Very well. When he gets here, let him know that I would like to see him as soon as he is available." Prescott said humbly. "There's only enough that I can do." Victor nodded and turned back toward the door.
"That's all I ask sir. He'll be the most powerful ally you'll ever make, and he's a dedicated friend. We just have to absolve your sins against him first." With that, Victor opened the door and left, having said his piece. His absence left Settile and Prescott alone in the room, and the leader of the Coalition sighed again for what had to be the millionth time. Settile crossed over to his side, but a raised hand stopped her from physical contact. The Chairman shook his head slowly, then looked up at her.
"I've made plenty of mistakes already, Louise. But I hate to pay for the sins of my predecessor as well." He confided sadly. "There's nothing we can do, except beg forgiveness from him. And hope he is the compassionate man Victor and Sgt. Byrne claim he is."