Chapter 4: Rescue
"Good morning, Specialist Schnee," Ben said, with a wide grin, as Winter walked into the confined metal room.
It was the fourth day of the specialist interrogation and she has got nothing important out of the man. The only thing that Ben did speak of were a few more stories from his past and what he and his squadron did the day of his capture. However, Winter knew that the pilot was hiding something, but what, she did not know.
"I'm here to tell you that we are only a few minutes away from the city of Vale and you being handed over to General Ironwood," Winter said, making keep his grin.
"And I thought you were just enjoying my company," Ben said, making the Schnee annoyed with him. "Anyway, what do you want to hear from me today? Another story or are you gonna try and get me to spill out all my secrets again?"
"Do you enjoy shooting your mouth off?" This made Ben grin slightly lessen a bit.
"Just a good way to know that I'm still alive." This made Winter raise an eyebrow at the pilot.
From the stories that Ben had told her over the past few days, the young pilot had more combat experience than even her. Fighting in at least two different wars and hundred or so smaller skirmishes or firefights, Ben had seen a lot of death. However, he told her, what helped him make it through the fighting was the talking and singing that he and his fellow soldiers did.
For Winter, the Atlas military was more strict about its soldiers singing and sometimes talking both on and off the battlefield. But, hearing about the pilot and his squadron sing an old Osean song about a pilot's journey back home made her a bit jealous. Jealous about how those soldiers could sing a song to boost their spirits on a very sad day or just being allowed to have fun, even when on duty.
"You must miss your squadmate," Winter said, being sincere to Ben.
"Yeah, but I'm sure I'm going to be seeing them again," Ben answered, making Winter look at him with a confused expression. In return, Ben shot the woman another cheeky grin.
Before Winter could say anything, both her and Ben were sent crashing to the floor as the ship shook violently. As they were sent to the floor, Ben managed to land on top of the Specialist with his head in the crook of her neck. It was a weird way to find each other, but for Ben, he didn't mind it as he got a whiff of the Specialist hair and perfume. Both smelled of primarily of natural vanilla and peppermint.
"Get off of me, you heathen!" Winter shouted, pushing Ben off of her.
"Don't worry! I'm getting off of you!" Ben yelled back as he moved away from the Specialist, as the Winter got back to her feet. "What the hell are those idiots doing?"
"My men are best at their jobs! That shake was from an explosion." Ben only rolled his eyes, as he heard this from coming out of Winter's mouth.
"I wasn't talking about your men. I was talking about the rescue team." Winter only looked at him, with furry in her blue eyes.
"You planned this entire thing?! Didn't yo-" Before Winter could finish her screaming, the door to the interrogation room blew open.
The heavy steel-like door fell to the ground with a loud bang, as two men wearing dark grey uniforms and helmets supporting a black balaclava as well as carrying M4A1's entered. The men began scanning room, aiming the rifles at both Specialist Schnee and Ben.
"Show me your hands!" One of the men yelled, to both Winter and Ben.
Ben raised his hands, surrendering to the two soldiers. Winter, on the other hand, pulled out her sword and pointed at the soldier on the right. The soldier in response tightened his grip on his rifle, showing that he wasn't going to back down.
"Put down your weapon or we will fire!" The soldier screamed, as both of them now had their guns pointed at Winter.
The Specialist ignored the command and began summoning a glyph in front of her. The soldiers having no idea what the woman was doing, open fired at the woman out of fear. However, after both men empty their clips into the woman's direction, they found her untouched.
"This can't be good," Ben commented as he saw Winter unsummoned the glyph.
The Specialist moved in blur towards the closest soldier, before swinging her sword down upon the unexpecting soldier. The blade missed the soldier entirely but instead sliced his rifle into two. Winter then quickly kicked the man in the chest, summoning a glyph between the man's chest and her boot. The kick sent the man flying into a wall, leaving a human-sized dent in the metal wall.
The second soldier, having more time to react, pulled out his handgun and fire a round at the Schnee's head. However, instead of seeing a dead woman, the bullet was stopped by a light blue energy field that appeared out of nowhere. The soldier shocked by this kept on firing at the woman.
Round after round, the 9mm bullets were being stopped by the unknown shield. However, Ben began to notice that even though Winter's shield was stopping the bullets, it seem to be draining her of stamina. Deciding to take the opportunity, the pilot got up from the floor and charge at the Specialist. He slammed into the Specialist with his right shoulder, sending her to the ground with little ease.
"About damn time that you guys showed up," Ben said as both he and the remaining soldier stood over Winter's exhausted body.
"Sorry about being late, sir." The soldier apologized. "But, trying to get her was a bit trickier than it seems."
"No worries, as long as you have a way to get me out of here."
"Extraction point is this way. Just follow me and we can get out of here." The soldier quickly said, turning to leave, but stopped as he remembering about the other person in the room. "What about her, sir? She's still alive."
Ben turned towards the Specialist seeing that she was staring daggers at both him and the soldier. Ben only shook his head as he grabbed the soldier's rifle, before walking over to Schnee for one last time. The mercenary raised the rifle into the air before slamming the stock into the Specialist's head, knocking her out for a good while.
"Taken care of, now let's get out of here before more security shows up," Ben said, handing back the rifle to the soldier, walking out of the room for the last time.
"Are you an idiot?!" Ben heard his father scream at him.
It had only been two hours since Ben was freed from the airship, before arriving at the Fort Grace II. Once the pilot's feet hit the deck of the carrier, he was automatically brought into another interrogation room. From there the only two people he has seen were his father and bigger set Belkan man by the name of Pops.
Ben was sitting in a metal chair as his father was staring daggers at him from across the metal table. Pops, on the other hand, was leaning against the one-way mirror, with a neutral expression, waiting for the chaos to unfold.
"Allowing yourself to be captured!" Ben's father continued to scream. "On top of going into restricted territory, destruction of a military aircraft, and disobeying orders. And, shall I add anything else?!"
"Arson, firing on civilian targets, destroying civilian targets, punching a commanding officer- I have you read my file?" Ben asked, with a large grin on his face.
This only angered the older veteran, as he slammed his fist onto the table. This forced the grin on Ben's face to quickly disappear.
"What do you want me to say?" Ben quickly asked, this time making his father sigh. "IUN hired my squad and me to hunt down your problems. Not to take orders from a bunch of idiots that have no idea what they are doing."
"That's why the IUN is dropping your contracts." His father said, making Ben's eye widen in shock. "Your squadron's payment has been dealt with, but both you and your team are not allowed to leave this carrier until we reach Northpoint." Once Mobius One said this, he left the room without saying a word, leaving only Ben and Pops.
"SHIT!" Ben yelled as he slammed a fist into the table. "Every operation! Every mission that we have done for them, down the crapper! What was the whole point then? Afaird that all of his precious secrets where going to spill out!"
"You two aren't that different are you?" Ben heard the Belkan chuckle.
The pilot turned to the older man, seeing that he was smiling at him.
"If you compare our temper, old man, I might have to throw a table at you." Ben threaten, making Pops chuckle even more.
"That won't be necessary. I'm just trying to get a feel for ya." Pops said as he took at the other end of the table, across from the pilot. "So far, I know you want to fight and your careless."
"You are starting to sound like my father."
"Shut up and listen. From what I read from you're a fight, survivor, and one hell of a pilot. You don't play by the rules and you will do anything to get the job done. I only wish that I could hire you myself. However, there is one group that I know that will hire you."
"And who is that?"
Instead of saying anything else, Pops pulled out a round patch from his pant's pocket. The Belkan then placed the patch on the table before sliding towards Ben. The pilot stopped the patched with his own hand, before taking it away to see what it was. In his hands was the orange circle emblem of the Kingdom of Erusea.
"It'll take some convincing, but I know that Erusea wouldn't mind sending some of their own soldiers to us," Pops said, making Ben look up at him. "Before you begin asking questions, I'll clear up somethings. Your squadron will be given a new callsign and you will have to follow only the orders of me and occasionally certain personnel. Other than that, you will be in charge of your squadron and the Erusean volunteers for the time being."
"Doesn't Erusean government have to approve of this?"
"They did after hearing about the IUN firing one of their most trusted mercenary contractors. Now, what do you say?"
"I'm in, as long as my squad is." This made Pops smile some more.
"Good, cause they said yes earlier. Your new callsign will be Aquila. The Princess thought it would fit since sending over a few old planes from the days of the FEAF."
Hey, guys. Snake here, sorry about not being on lately. I've been busy with school and leaving one of the worst jobs ever. At the current moment, I'm jobless, which mean I have some more time to be on here working on my stories. It also means that I can also focus on college and try to get my program done.
Other than that, I'll try to get some more chapters done and update more often than I did in the past. For now, since I'm updating this entire series, I thought if anyone is interested if someone wants to do a new cover image for the story. Now, the reason I'm asking is that I feel that the current one doesn't fit with the story that much anymore. If you are interested, please PM me and I'll get back to you as quick as humanly possible.
Other than that let me know what you think so far and if you having ideas or requests. I enjoy the feedback and it helps me with even more. Just don't be an a**hole about it.
Other than that, have a good day and I'll get back to you later.
Death Snake signing out. Peace.
P.S. Also, for the next chapter tell me which one you like to see:
A). A chapter that focuses on Ben and squadron stepping into their new roles as Erusean-hired mercenaries. (Default Chapter.)
B). A chapter that focuses on Winter and the aftermath of the prison break.
C). A chapter that focuses on Salem and Cinder and how they are going to fit into this. (Not going to give much away into this one. Also, might be shorter or longer, I haven't decided yet.)
I will look at the votes through out next week and start working on it by the end of next week Friday, maybe.