Disclaimer: I don't own RvB.
A/N: This Season is going to be 20 Episodes long: roughly ten will be back story while the other half or so will be what's actually going on in Valhalla, including Carolina recruiting them to help her get Epsilon. Also, the back story won't line up exactly with the scenes of Project Freelancer you see in the main show and you may request certain parts of any character's back story. Now that that's out of the way, here's the official beginning of Project Red's Season 9.
Episode 52: The Death of Doctor White
"Iego?" asked Dex.
"Yes. A beautiful planet on the outer rim," Marley confirmed. "K-Unit were among the best of the best with a ninety-five success rate and sixty percent of its original members. I was one of the best doctors in the UNSC thus, I was assigned to K-Unit to make sure it stayed that way. If we were to loose a man, it would be because I didn't get there fast enough or he was medically discharged."
"You sound rather proud of yourself," Tucker remarked. Marley gave a melancholy chuckle.
"I was arrogant is what I was," she said. "Until one of the men, guys called him Wolf, took me to the mat and humiliated me before giving me a lecture that blistered my ears. Essentially it boiled down to 'you're good, but there's always someone better. You're smart, but there's always someone smarter. We're at war and if you let your ego or your confidence get too big, they will kill you and everyone around you.' I stopped calling myself the best and settled for 'one of the best.' It was also Wolf who showed me I'd need to know how to fight if I was to survive in K-Unit. But I digress. This isn't Wolf's story, it's the story of how I died."
"Wait... what?" Eagle asked, leaning forward.
"This is the story of how I died, Frankie, do keep up," Marley quipped as she kicked back in her chair and swept her feet up to rest on the table. "I remember, it had been such an innocent day..." she said, eyes growing distant as her mind cast back to the series of events that lead up to the creation of Agent Oregon... only to be interrupted by Flowdie.
"Wait. Your service records say you were recruited on Sargino." Marley laughed.
"Aye, but how do you think I survived Sargino?" she said. The men blinked. "Nah, Agent Oregon began on Iego when Wolf decided to teach me how to use a gun."
"Oh. So... you're telling us about how you learned to shoot?" Rick asked.
"At first, yes. I'm getting to the good part, I promise," Marley answered. "Anyway..."
/*/
The sun was high in the clear blue sky of Iego, the elegant forms of the local birds gliding through the fragrant air. I took a deep breath and smiled, glad to be alive. K-Unit's base had been attacked three days prior and no-one had come out unscathed. Patching up someone else is one thing, patching yourself up was another but it was something I'd had to become capable of. Even then, I had a gash on my left leg that had required a dozen stitches. But I digress. There were four men seriously injured from that battle, three that were stable but in critical condition and another who had a bad leg injury that had to be watched very carefully. We'd been lucky to find our current base of operations. In reality, it was a bombed out town with a few buildings close enough to structurally sound that we'd been able to hole up and set our wounded up with beds and solid walls. The patients no longer required my personal attention and a deployment of nurses had arrived so I was able to finally leave the makeshift infirmary. Letting out a weary breath, I made my way to the 'firing range.' "It really is amazing what you lot can do with a few empty bottles of bio foam and some concrete blocks," I remarked as I approached the soldiers. The men laughed and made a space for me.
"You pick up a few tricks when you're stuck in the wilderness," Wolf remarked lightly before tossing me one of the lighter guns. I took careful aim... and missed. K-Unit laughed behind me and I felt my face heat up in a blush. "Guess it's a good thing I decided to teach you, Doc!" Wolf howled. My face was burning as I glared at the man. I'd only been serving with him for a month and already he'd torn me down, laughed in my face, and now he was trying to get me to break my oath!
"You do realize that I swore an oath to do no harm, right?" I hissed at the man, doing my best to be intimidating. Just because I had sworn to do no harm didn't mean I couldn't lace his food with sedative or his drinks with laxatives. Or refuse to give him anesthetic during treatment. Oh yes, doctors were some of the worse people to have upset with you, right up there with maids and cooks.
"You do realize we are at war, right?" Wolf shot back. "Look, I'm not asking you to be a killer. I'm asking you to be a protector. We won't always be able to look after you, Doc, and we need you to stay alive."
/*/
"So... you were called 'Doc' as well?" the purple armored man asked. Marley chuckled.
"Yeah. That was before I allowed people to call me Marley. I... was obsessed with maintaining professionalism. It didn't last long in the face of K-Unit though," she admitted with a wistfully fond expression. No-one quite knew how to take that and so sat in uneasy silence until the woman began to speak once more.
/*/
I huffed and took aim, seeing Wolf's words as a personal challenge. Five shots, three misses. I growled and reloaded before sighting with a fierce snarl and firing again. Wolf and the rest of K-Unit watched as I stared down the thoroughly perforated cans like they'd done me great personal wrong. "Think she'll be alright, Wolf?" one of the men asked.
"Oh, she'll be fine, Coyote. She just needed the right motivation to get her started," Wolf told him. Jackal shared looks with the other men. A moment passed and they slumped slightly with a synchronized sigh.
"Not what I meant but okay," Coyote muttered. "We're behind you, Wolf. Just... try not to break her, yeah?" Wolf laughed and threw an arm around his Lieutenant's shoulder.
"Now why would I go and do a stupid thing like that?" he asked jovially. Coyote simply gave him a flat look before correcting me, which was fortunate as I was one missed shot away from screaming profanities at the obstinate pieces of metal.
/*/
"Really? 'obstinate pieces of metal?'" asked Dex.
"I was just learning how to shoot the darned thing and those canisters were mocking me, I swear!" Marley defended. "So yes. Obstinate pieces of metal. Can we move on now?" Seeing no arguments, Marley continued with her story. "I stayed at that makeshift range the rest of the day. My nurses had to drag me away I was so determined to hit my targets. I went back every day until we were reassigned to a research base on Sargino; an inhospitable place only slightly warmer than Sidewinder. We were to be stationed there for ten months. The men and I were not well pleased with this, though it did provide us with ready targets for practicing our aim. Bundled up in layer upon layer of clothing, the men of K-Unit and I would go out and wage Civil War between our forts of snow. It was... not the best of times but certainly not the worst. Then came The Attack."
"You... just skipped a whole chunk of your story!" Kai protested.
"Would you really have enjoyed hearing all three years that I spent on Iego?" Marley asked. Everyone else winced.
"Yeah, okay. No," Dex said.
"I didn't think so," Marley said, settling back.
"Well... practicing more or less every day for three years would account for your survival on Sargino," Rick allowed.
"Indeed," Marley drawled. "The attack came swiftly. We had no warning, only the meaty thud of our sentries falling. 'Take the research and the wounded on ahead!' I told my minions..."
"Marley, they were nurses, not underlings," Flowdie said, his face in his hand.
"Who's telling the story here, Flowdie? Besides, you weren't there," Marley snipped with a mild glare at Flowdie. He did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at her.
"If you two are done acting like children," Jack drawled.
"I'm rather interested in how Marley's going to finish her story," Ed remarked, resting his elbows on the table before him and his chin on his interlaced fingers.
"Thank you boys," Marley said with a nod. "Now, as I was saying..."
/*/
"Take the research and wounded on ahead!" I yelled at my minions. "I'll hold them off and catch up later!"
"Doc! You can't be serious!?" Wolf yelled. I glared at him and cut the strap holding his BR to his back, catching it as it fell.
"Dead serious. Now move it!" I snarled as I stared him down. He must have seen something in my eyes because he sighed and deflated.
"Fine, I'll go. But know this: I will be back for you," he said, unclasping his pistols and holding them out. "Try to stay alive until then." I gave him a weak smile that I'm sure did nothing to reassure him.
"Hey, I'm the Doc. I know exactly where to hit for a one-shot kill," I said with dark humor. Wolf snorted as I shoved him. "Now get outta here! My minions are going to need all the help they can get if they're going to survive this," I told him sternly. Wolf nodded, looking at me as though he was burning my face into his memory.
"Your sacrifice shall never be forgotten," he told me before dashing down the hall as artillery fire rocked the base. I could hear the aliens just around the corner and with a final steadying breath, I brought the rifle I'd taken from Wolf and began firing into their midst. They fought back, of course, forcing me to duck behind crates of ammunition the men didn't have time to grab before hightailing it outta there. I picked my shoots carefully, trying my level best to make them count. Needler shot rained down on my position as the aliens bore down on me. Tens fell under my fire but dozens more flooded the hall. By the time five minutes had passed I looked like a macabre abstract piece of art as purple needles stuck out of flat blood roses.
/*/
"You really like that analogy, don't you, Marley?" Dex couldn't help but say. Marley glared at him, arms crossed under her bust.
"Well, it's true! You ever seen a civilian stuck so full of those suckers they look like a pincushion?" she asked.
"No... but I do know that, on average, it takes three to make a full grown man pass out and five to kill 'em. So... how are you still alive?" Dex answered. Marley grinned and sat back.
"Well now, that's what this story is all about, now ain't it?" she asked and everyone else groaned. Marley cackled before launching back into her tale.
/*/
I'm not sure how long I laid there in a slowly freezing pool of my own blood before Director Church found me and I never asked. All I know is one minute I was praying K-Unit had made it out and the next, I was waking up on an operating table with Douchey McEyewear and Freaky Dink Shrink with a PADD standing over me. "Am I in hell?" I asked.
"No, Dr. White," Freaky answered. "You are aboard The Valiant." I remember giving him a bland look before turning to Douchey McEyewear, Director Edition.
"He always sound like he swallowed the children's dictionary?" I asked and I swear I saw Douchey...
/*/
"Can you please stop calling him that?" Al asked. Marley blinked at him owlishly.
"What would you prefer I call him? Director A-hole?" she asked, causing the vast majority of the room to erupt with laughter.
"As funny as it would be to hear you say that over and over, no," Al said. "How about..."
"Agent Whispering Freak?" offered Eagle.
"What? No," Al said. Eagle shrugged. "I was thinking something more like..."
"Okay, I'm just gonna call him 'Mr. D,' okay?" Marley said. "You can fill in what the 'D' stands for yourself."
"I didn't know Church owned a winery. Why did no-one tell me this," Dex remarked with the utmost of seriousness. If he hadn't been making a reference to an old book series, Marley could have been fooled into thinking it had been Caboose who spoke.
"You read Percy Jackson?" she asked. Dex shrugged.
"I wasn't the most popular of guys in middle school," he allowed. "Had to fill the void somehow." Marley gave him a look before shaking her head.
"Most boys at that age wouldn't turn to books, Dex," she said.
"Most boys that age didn't have Kai as a sister," the man retorted hotly, crossing his arms and giving her a stern look.
"Touche, Dex. Touche," Marley conceded, bowing out gracefully. "Anyway, for Al's benefit, I shall call Director Church 'Mr. D' and you lot can interpret it how you will," she said.
/*/
"He always sound like he swallowed the children's dictionary?" I asked and I swear I saw Mr. D's lips twitch in a repressed smile. Score Marlene!
"The Counselor can be annoying at times," Mr. D allowed, "but he is good at his job so I keep him." I gave McEyewear an assessing look. It may not have been my area of expertize but I could generally get a good read off of people. The fact that I couldn't with this guy set me on edge.
"And why do you need a shrink?" I asked.
"My agents are often exposed to... troubling things," he answered.
That set me off the edge.
"What kind of agents?" I asked, fully on guard and wishing I had the strength to hold a scalpel. Oh yeah, that was another thing that had me uncomfortable: I was doing good to move my face my muscles were so weak.
"While Dr. Hasily is convinced bio-engineering is the answer to the aliens' might, I believe mechanical augmentation would be better," Mr. D said. I quirked an eyebrow at him, mentally cheering at having that much fine control.
"And you need a surgeon for that, yes?" He smirked.
"I wouldn't dream of sidelining you to such a degree that you're merely a surgeon," he told me. The red flags sprouted bells that began ringing like crazy.
"And what would you have me be?"
"Agent Oregon," he stated proudly. If I'd been able, I would have crossed my arms and given him a death glare. As it was, I gave him the glare.
"And why would I want to be Agent Oregon?" I asked. This seemed to put Mr. D on the back foot and I mentally gave myself a pat on the back.
"Armor, weapons, highly trained team, advanced training, full access to all Freelancer medical facilities, access to some of the most advanced technology in human space, your own room, possibly even an A.I.," he said. I hummed and he felt the need to add the biggest closer ever. Of all time. "And we'll save your life otherwise... well. It would be no trouble to put you back where we found you and let hypothermia and bloodloss take care of you."
/*/
A thunderous crash shook the room as eleven sets of hands slammed into the table r owners stood and the table was sent to the floor. No-one really paid much attention to the fate of the poor table as all eyes were focused on Marley. She stared back and finally, Al spoke. His voice was calm and cool, filled with a frozen rage so cold it burned as he said, "Tell me he didn't." Marley closed her eyes and shook her head.
"He did." A sharp crack drew their attention to Al's hand. He'd just cracked the grip of his BR. A quite growling that had just barely been there grew a little louder as Dex stomped out. Marley blinked and turned to Rick.
"Target practice," he growled harshly, eyes hard like chips of jade. Marley swallowed heavily.
"I just signed Mr. D's death warrant, didn't I?" she asked.
"Maybe not, but he's in for a world of hurt," Ed said tonelessly.
"Wonderful," Marley whimpered, sinking down in her seat.
/?/
A/N: Okay, shorter than I wanted and the ending just kinda ran away with me. I don't know.