JOEL: CHAPTER 18: Rough Landing
Joel had just landed on the ground. He took off his parachute and placed his backpack behind him. Ellie unclicked the belt from the chute. Joel then took out the M9 given to him by Commander Jett.
He and Ellie got behind a house. Joel noticed two Fireflies, one carrying an M16A4, the other carrying an M4 carbine. One was standing up, the other was couched searching a dead Texan soldier's body.
"Hurry up, we have to get back to the main assault. More soldiers just dropped." The standing Firefly said.
"Shut up, we are legionaries, there shouldn't be no rush," The couched Firefly said.
Joel then shot both of the Fireflies in the head. Both of the Fireflies fell back. Joel ran to the now dead bodies. He then found a hand-radio on the dead Texan soldier's vest. He picked it up and found the right frequency.
"This is Austin 2-1! Request immediate reinforcements!" the radio said.
"This is Commander Jett, my battalion is spread out throughout Jackson. It's going to take some time in order to reach you." Commander Jett said through the radio.
"Nice to hear from you Commander,"
"You too, Captain, now let's get back in the fight." Commander Jett said.
The transmission ended. Joel placed the radio in his pack.
Joel then found a nearby house that had been near the road. He broke into it.
There had been three Fireflies inside. One wounded on a table. Another applying pressure towards the wound on the Firefly. The other was just watching.
"Hey!" the one watching said.
Joel shot one in the neck the other in the head, the one shot in the head fell back. The other had his hands on his bleeding neck, fell to his knees and fell forward. Joel walked up and threw a shiv on the wounded Firefly's chest.
"Ahh!" the Firefly moaned.
"Dam Joel" Ellie said.
He kept moving and encountered multiple Fireflies, about five.
"Ellie stay behind me" Joel said.
"Hey over there!" a Firefly said.
Joel got behind of what was an APC. He manage to get the angle on one of the Fireflies. BAM! He shot his weapon. The bullet bounced off the helmet however. He then fired again. CLICK! He soon realized that the clip was empty.
He grabbed the clip from his strap, removed the empty clip and placed in the fresh one. However a Firefly got to him before he could reload the weapon completely. The legionary smack Joel with the stock of his M14 rifle.
The pistol was too far for his reach. Another Firefly came from the other side.
"Hands in the air!" the Firefly told Ellie from behind carrying a pistol.
Ellie did what she was told. The other three legionaries arrived. One of them had a legionnaire hat and the other two had riot helmets, one with the visor over his face. The one with the riot visor over his face then put his hand on his ear.
"This is Firefly Captain"
"Go on Captain" the voice scared Joel, as he knew it was Alex Johnson.
"We have a red-head, about teenage" the Firefly Captain said.
A low sound of suppressed weapons were fired. All shots were so accurate. Each hitting their target in the head. All the legionaries fell down with a gushing red head.
"Clear!" a Recon soldier said as he came out a house followed by a Tactical. Two Assaults were on the top of the house. They climbed down the house with ropes.
"Captain!" the radio said, "Are you there? Stay there!"
"Well, we got to go, in here," the Recon soldier said.
The four soldiers followed by Joel, and Ellie, entered the house. There was a table with map the of Jackson. The soldiers and Joel surrounded the table, Ellie just sat down on a couch.
"What happened here?" Joel asked.
"What happened!? Was that…" the Recon soldier was cut off by the Tactical.
"Easy sergeant, I'll handle it," he put his hand on the Recon's chest and push him back.
"Yes, sir" the Recon then turned around and went with the other two soldiers.
"Joel, I believe we have met before" the Tactical said.
"We have?" Joel said.
"I was that soldier that accompanied General Tommy, I was right next to Captain Pineda."
"That was you? What happened to your gas mask?"
"I took it off, anyway. Let me introduce myself, Lieutenant Mendieta," he shook Joel's hand.
"Okay, everyone around the table," the Lieutenant ordered. The soldiers, Joel, and Ellie surrounded the table.
Lieutenant Mendieta pointed at the eastern part of the map. "We got pushed back all the way to the community center. However we still hold the barracks and the communication uplink center. Because they are close to the community center."
"How come you guys are all the way out here?" Ellie asked.
"Well, General Tommy sent us around this area, as a… what would you call it… kind of like an outpost. The General wanted us to be his eyes and ears. By the looks of it, the Fireflies seem like they are going to make one final assault. With the 3rd Battalion recently deployed, it seems that we may be able to turn the tide." Lieutenant Mendieta informed.
"Lieutenant, how can we contact… 'General' Tommy?'" Joel asked, as he waved his hand up and down.
"We may be able to, but… there is a problem…" the Lieutenant seemed too embarrassed to say.
"What's the problem?" Joel asked.
"The soldier who was carrying the radio that is connected to the communication uplink, where the General is now, the soldier went MIA."
"We saw a dead soldier earlier, I pick up his radio, is this it?" Joel pulled out the radio from his backpack.
Lieutenant Mendieta saw the mark on the hand radio near the speaker, a CU (communication uplink).
"That's the radio!" one of the soldiers said.
"Let me see that," the Lieutenant said reaching out his arm.
Joel handed him the radio. Lieutenant Mendieta tuned it to the right frequency. Moved it half a foot from his face, and pressed the button that enables the Lieutenant to speak in the hand-radio. "General," he began, "this is Lieutenant Mendieta, do you copy?"
"Lieutenant, thought you and your men were dead." Tommy replied.
"Sir, Joel and the immune have been airdropped and are with me at this moment."
"Lieutenant, bring anything important at your station, anything else burn or scrap it," the General ordered.
"Yes sir," he pressed the mute button on the radio and placed it on his vest, "you heard the man, get scraping"
The soldiers started placing some of the maps into their backpacks. One of the Assault soldiers disassembled a nail bomb and placed the materials into his backpack.
"We ready?" the Lieutenant asked.
"Yes sir!" the Recon said.
Lieutenant Mendieta opened the door. "Brown, take point."
Brown, who happened to be the Recon, stepped forward and walked out the door.
"I'll stay back with Joel and the immune." Lieutenant Mendieta stated.
Brown made a 180 with his M14 and then announced, "Clear."
They moved up and held their guard as they made their way near the communication uplink. They saw multiple Texan soldiers move forward.
"Where you heading?" Brown asked.
They were a handful of soldiers they kept moving, but one of them turned around and stop, still carrying his rifle he then explained what was going on.
"General Tommy wants us to push forward due to the fact that the 3rd Battalion is here. Get to Tommy! He'll tell you your role in all this." The soldier then turned around and sprinted to catch up with fellow soldiers.
They reached the communication uplink. There was way more soldiers than expected implying that majority of the 3rd Battalion had rallied up. Joel found Tommy talking to Captain Pineda and a soldier with an orange helmet.
The soldier turned around, it was Commander Jett. Tommy walked and talked with Commander Jett as Captain Pineda stayed back with his squad.
"Joel," Tommy began, he walked closer to him, followed by Commander Jett. "Can't believe you survived that crash, plane left a huge wreck on the north part of Jackson."
"Yeah I guess you can say it was a 'rough landing'" Joel told his brother.
"Sir," Lieutenant Mendieta began, "what are we going to do?"
"Lieutenant, you'll be heading out with Austin 2, when I give the word."
"Yes sir"
Lieutenant Mendieta and his men went with Austin 2 and awaited the General's word.
"Joel," Tommy said to catch his attention, "grab a rifle and a vest, need you to help be a part of the push forward. Ellie can stay at the community center for now."
"Yeah I'll get it done, oh Commander, your pistol." Joel pulled out the pistol and handed it to the Commander.
"Oh thanks, almost forgot about it." Commander Jett said.
After he handed the pistol to the Commander he all of a sudden had a short burst head ache. Joel put his hands around his head and moaned in pain. Soon after the head ache he heard a voice.
They did it… Don't trust them! The voice said.
The Commander and General noticed him in somewhat pain.
"Are you okay?" Commander Jett asked.
"I'm fine" Joel told the Commander.
"You sure, Joel?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah, yeah, hand me a rifle. It's time to kill some Fireflies."