A/N: I am liking the support I am starting to receive. Thank you! And hopefully it continues to grow!
CAPTAIN PINEDA: CHAPTER 20: That Girl You Used to Know
The platoon of soldiers began to prepare to leave towards the airport. The clouds began to darken and it soon was raining. If that wasn't bad enough, the sun had begun to set.
Thanks to the 10th Legion, they had left a perfect condition troop transport truck. It was capable of carrying 10 people in the back. But before they could use the transport truck, they had to get rid of the Firefly logos. They tried painting over it, but the rain just washed it off.
The soldiers gave up, they just got on and started the truck. The Humvees would be used as well to get to the airport. Before Captain Pineda got on with Cruz, his squad approached him.
"Sir, are you sure you won't need us?" asked Walker.
"I'm sure, Walker." Captain Pineda replied.
"But…"
"We'll be fine, Walker. Go get some sleep."
Commander Jett noticed that Captain Pineda had been holding them up. He walked up to the Captain to question why he hadn't gotten in the truck yet.
"We ready or what, Captain?" the Commander asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Captain Pineda said as he grabbed on to some railing and lifted himself onto the truck.
Allen walked up to the Commander with his new toy. "Hey, Commander, check this out." Allen said spinning up the minigun.
"Would be useful for this assault on the airport. However you need training with that." Commander Jett stated.
"Yeah, I know Commander, where can I get some heavy trooper training?" Allen asked.
"Meet me next Monday, and we'll discuss that."
"Yes, sir."
The rest of the squad went to the barracks to hit the hay. Captain Pineda, now inside the truck, noticed PFC. Medina. Medina was still in his flame trooper suit. Medina just nodded back at him and said, "Sup, Captain."
Every soldier in there just had the stock of their rifle on the ground and starred at it. After 20 minutes, the Commander notified them that they were 10 minutes out. Captain Pineda removed glasses, placed them in his case, and placed the case in his backpack. After removing his glasses he removed his helmet, grabbed his gas mask and placed it on his face. After placing the mask over his face, he placed his helmet back on.
The rest of the soldiers did the same, it was just military protocol. With most of the soldiers having to remove their helmet to put on their mask, Cruz didn't. All Cruz did was flip his hat back and placed on his mask. Cruz and a Tactical in the truck, just laughed with the mask on their faces.
The truck made a sudden stop, the soldiers in the truck moved to side due to the instant stop. Every radio on the soldiers' vest went off. It was Commander Jett, "Go! Go! Go!"
The soldiers rushed out of the truck. Captain Pineda jumped out and landed on his legs. He instantly noticed a horde of infected. On the runway of the airport were the A-10s and the transport planes. One of the planes had its ramp lowered, with the lights on. Next to the ramp was a small camp site.
The camp site had a tent over supply crates, which were now empty. With the rain pounding hard on them, and with the sky already darken, it would be an interesting fight against the infected. The gunners on the Humvees began firing their turrets. Infected started going down within seconds. The soldiers then began to unleash their firepower.
"Take them out!" a soldier yelled.
Captain Pineda and Lieutenant Cruz met at the camp site with Commander Jett. Commander Jett was searching through the supplies, nothing, everything was either too wet to be used, or was gone.
"Dam, they really did need supplies," the Commander admitted.
"Sir, where are the pilots?" Cruz asked.
"I'm not sure, we need to search."
"No need to."
The three turned around to find the pilots waking down the ramp, there was 13 of them. The one in the middle was the Captain of Baker Company, he carried two M9 pistols. Three of the pilots had a M4 on their hands, the other pilots either had just one M9 pistol, or had nothing.
"Captain," Commander Jett began, "You guys are alive."
"Wish I could say all of us made it." The Captain said.
"What do you mean?" the Commander asked.
"Don't you remember? Your plane crashed, the two pilots went down along with it."
"That's right. Anyway, this is Captain Pineda," Commander Jett pointed towards him, "and this is Lieutenant Cruz." Commander Jett pointed at Cruz. Cruz waved his hand towards the Captain.
"Nice to meet you two," the Captain shook both Captain Pineda's hand and Cruz's hand. "Captain Jones, at your service." Jones bowed at the two.
"Captain watched out!" a soldier yelled. A runner had made its way towards Captain Pineda. Jones ran towards it and placed a pistol beneath its jaw and pulled the trigger. Parts of the runner's head had been blown off.
"Thanks." Captain Pineda told Jones.
"Maybe now isn't the best time to introduce ourselves," Jones said.
"Agreed."
"For the Republic!" Captain Jones said running off to join the fight against the infected.
"Ready, Cruz?" Captain Pineda asked.
Cruz nodded his head at the Captain and pulled out his shotgun. The two ran and started blasting their weapons. Captain Pineda crouched, in order to control the recoil of his weapon.
A runner went down as it ran at the Captain. Captain Pineda began to fire on the infected runners. One… then two… now three. CLICK. Captain Pineda didn't like sound of that. The runner had his eyes locked on Captain Pineda. Captain Pineda pulled out his pistol, but before he could turn the safety off, the runner was shot multiple times and seemed like it tripped.
"I got you Captain!" Captain Pineda turned around to find it was Commander Jett. "You know you can't have all the fun." Commander Jett said with his mask on. Commander Jett ran towards Captain Pineda's position to get in on his share.
Captain Pineda put his pistol back, and grabbed his rifle. He removed the empty clip and placed it into a strap on his vest. Then grabbed a fresh one and placed it in the rifle.
"Keep it up boys!" Commander Jett yelled. "They're almost done for!"
Then PFC. Medina moved up, he burned every single infected in his path. "Get roasted!" Medina laughed. Captain Pineda turned around to find a soldier with a mask that was familiar to him. The soldier looked like a Tactical to the Captain.
He then knew that this soldier was a woman. She was still firing her rifle. The mask had the words Danny boy carved into it. Captain Pineda looked away and kept taking down infected.
The infected got closer to the female soldier, Captain Pineda tried to deal with his share of infected, however there was too many. The female soldier fired until her gun jammed. A runner took the opportunity, and ran at her. The runner tackled her the ground. She kept trying to push away the runner from biting her.
It was obvious she didn't have the strength to push away the runner. She then yelled. "Help!" she said through her mask. Commander Jett answered the call before Captain Pineda. Commander Jett shot the rifle. One bullet. Hitting the runner in the head. The runner fell onto of the female soldier.
She now had blood over her mask and on her vest. She pushed away the now dead runner. She got up, wiped the blood off her mask and turned towards the Commander. "Thanks Commander!" she thanked.
"Anytime Fernandez!" Commander Jett replied.
Now Captain Pineda knew who this soldier was. He had figured it out, her last name, the mask, and her voice, all gave it away. He was now filled with somewhat rage for Fernandez.
Captain Pineda turned towards one of the pilots, he pointed at the one sitting on a chair under the tent. "Pilot!"
"Yes, sir?" the pilot got up from his chair.
"Take my place."
The pilot ran towards Captain Pineda, Captain Pineda threw his rifle at him. The pilot went towards where the other soldiers had been.
He then turned towards Fernandez. "Fernandez! With me, and bring your rifle!" Captain Pineda ordered. Captain Pineda then made his way towards the plane with the lowered ramp. He walked up the ramp and sat on one of the seats on the sides.
He looked up and Fernandez await him. "Yes sir," she responded.
"Let me see your rifle." Captain told the soldier.
She handed him the rifle. He grabbed it, and inspected it. He found the problem and why the rifle had jammed. A cartridge had been stuck in the rifle's port cover. The Captain pulled out the cartridge and cocked the rifle and handed it her.
She took the rifle and asked the Captain a question. "Is that all, sir?" she said.
"No, I taught I told you not to join the army." Captain Pineda then removed his helmet to remove his mask.
She stood silent.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!"
"You told me not talk to you." Fernandez said with fear.
"You still didn't respond to what I told you earlier."
"Look, Edward I don't-"
"It's Captain to you!"
"Then why do still lead a squad then!" she turned around.
"I could lead a company of soldiers if I wanted to, but instead I decided to be a part of a special operations unit."
Fernandez kept her head down, with her arms now crossed. She turned around in front of the Captain. She had tears in her eyes.
"Look, Katya, I didn't mean to make you cry," he said now feeling bad.
"You just left me there. After what happened to Daniel. You just left me there," Katya said weakly.
"I didn't want to believe that he actually… With that mask on, you can't wipe your tears," Captain Pineda said intending to show some humor.
"Stop it!" she said with laughter.
"Get back to your platoon, they'll need you."
Fernandez turned around walk down the ramp, she turned around one more time to take a look at Captain Pineda and then ran to rejoin the fight.
Captain Pineda placed his mask back on along with his helmet. He walked down the ramp find Commander Jett sitting on a chair under the tent. "What's going on Captain?" he asked.
"Nothing much, how about you?"
"Well as you can see, we have dealt with the infected on the runway," Commander Jett got up and showed the Captain the dead infected that littered the runway.
The soldiers now stood guard now some near the tent, others making a perimeter around the tent and vehicles.
"Hey," the Commander began, "want to help us clear out the building? We need to find a way to refuel the planes."
"As much as it was fun to deal with this group of infected. I have to decline to your offer. It's a lot more risky, and I've been fueled only by energy bars."
"Ah, I see Captain, I see that you're tired."
"Yes sir, been awake for at least for a couple of days."
"Well, Captain, I'll be sending back the truck and the Humvees, you can take a ride back with Cruz. I've contacted one of my companies, A Company will be sending B platoon over."
"Alright later Commander," the Captain turned around, "Cruz let's go!" Cruz was with the other soldiers, just there, next to one of the soldiers was Fernandez. Now both Captain Pineda and Fernandez just starred at each other for a while.
"What you looking at, Captain?" Cruz asked.
Captain Pineda stopped starring and just looked down. "Nothing Cruz."
"You ready to go, Captain?" Cruz asked.
"Yeah-" before Captain Pineda could finish a clap of thunder filled the sky. Captain Pineda and Cruz then headed for the troop transport truck.
The truck's engine woke up from its nap. The two just sat in the seats. After the truck moved for a bit, Captain Pineda decided to remove his mask. He hooked the mask back on his leg. Then grabbed a case from his backpack. Opening the case, he pulled out his glasses and placed them over his eyes.
"Captain," a voiced called. Captain Pineda look back at Cruz, who now had removed his mask. "Who were you starring at? Was it her?"
"Well, yeah," he said in a low voice.
"I see, do you remember that day?"
"Yeah, I remember, still hurts to think about it though."
"That's the day we first met."
"I know Cruz, can we not talk about this now."
The truck made a sudden stop, "This is your stop," the driver said.
The two got out of the truck, the platoon had been waiting. The platoon made their way into the Humvees and into the truck.
"Let's go people!" the platoon's Lieutenant yelled.
Cruz and the Captain just past him without any trouble. The two began to make their way towards the barracks. They walked on the wet roads to get to the barracks. Along the way they saw wrecked APCs, Humvees, and ever the giant transport plane.
After a couple of minutes they made it to the barracks. Captain Pineda opened the door to find his squad mates still awake. His squad had their own section in the barracks.
"Why are you guys still awake?" asked Captain Pineda
"Well," Allen began, "we've been waiting for you."
"Why?" the Captain asked.
"We wanted to know what happened," Baker blurted out.
"So did anything happen, Captain?" Walker asked.
Cruz began to speak for his Captain, "Well, he meet someone from his past, and he is now going through something."
"Who is this someone?" Allen asked.
"I tell you about it later." Captain Pineda said.
"Come on Captain." Walker complained.
"Fine! It was about 10 years ago, maybe even more. I had just been a year since I enlisted. I was a Sargent First Class, about to be promoted to Master Sargent…"
A/N: The next Chapter will continue this story. But what's with the "Firefly Empire?" What has happened to Joel? Will Texas declare war on the Fireflies? Stay tuned to find out in the later chapters of, The Last of Us: Texas Rising!