Hoist the Colours III
The bell has been raised
from its watery grave...
Hear its sepulchral tone.
"Sergeant Zim!" A civilian clothed girl turned in surprise. She adjusted her blue sweater and eyed her sneakers sheepishly. When the sergeant gave her a formal salute, she ran her fingers through her chocolate brown hair and returned the gesture quickly. "Right. I keep forgetting about the rank thing. Virtual Command's a bit more free for all." She apologized.
"I'm a sergeant just until 0800, Commander Sanders." The sergeant gave her a small smile as he stepped into the Roughnecks' squad room in the grounded Valley Forge. "I don't know what you're taking about. I'm just here to collect items left--" He took a deep breath. "For the families." He explained.
The officer offered him a friendly yet sad smile when she lifted a small laptop from underneath a bunk's mattress. "You don't have to worry about this one's." She replied. "I'm collecting her things for Virtual Command and Sean--" She winced at the mistake and corrected herself at once. "I mean, Sgt. Lavigne."
"I've been meaning to contact her mother. It isn't on file..."
"You shouldn't." Sanders quickly said. Sgt. Zim turned to face the Intel officer shaking her head. "You could but you shouldn't. Disowned is disowned. Sean and the band were her family and has been for a very long time." She explained while running her fingers through the bunk's metal underbelly to find several things lodged inside. She eyed them with much amusement before placing them inside a pocket of her bag. "I heard you were strict sergeant. Don't you check their bunks?" She chuckled when she found a small plastic frog jammed into the frame's corner.
"Lt. Rico's Alpha squad is bit more free for all." He replied mimicking the her words.
Commander Sanders grinned. "Touche." She siad before picking up her vibrating phone. She moaned when she saw the number. "Duty calls." She apologized before plopping down on her friend's bunk. "Madhatter." She greeted sourly placing the phone on speaker. "It's five in the morning. It better be important."
"Where are you?" A man on the other end asked.
"Earth-side starship." She answered quickly. "This better be good."
"It is. Listen to this." The phone was suddenly spewing out music. Sgt. Zim didn't know the song but when the girl buried her face onto her hands and growled, it was quite obvious she did. "Did you hear it?" The man suddenly asked.
"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down-- shall I go on?" She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Tell me you've tracked this evil Rick Roller."
There was sigh on the other end. "That's the thing. It's gone everywhere and it hasn't done anything but play the chorous looped. It's on a really low frequency too. It's not on any line we use. SICON or civy. It also not from anything SICON or civy. It's not from here, Princess which doesn't make sense. It has to come from somewhere." He informed the officer.
Sgt. Zim saw the girl straighten and stare right at him. "It does because the signal goes everywhere. The signal can't be stopped." She barely manage to say over the phone. "Beam up RageGarden, Neo and Slayer. Give it to them. Tell them that I say it's Indigo Grey Clover. I repeat. Indigo. Grey. Clover." She ordered before disconnecting the call. "Sorry. I know it sounds weird but it's easier for us to go by screen names." She apologized while taking out a small laptop from her bag. She started typing quietly staring at the screen before her. And suddenly, the sergeant was reminded of the trooper who used to do the same thing on that bunk.
He could see the ghosts start coming out of the bunks. Their owners happily throwing a football around while others slept. The endless chatter about nothing in particular filled the room. Above the typing girl's bunk was the bunk of the reporter filming everything. The football flew. Someone wasn't able to catch it and the football hit a pile of paperwork on another bunk, sending handhelds and paper to the floor. That man left his bunk and instead of getting angry like he was suppose to, he joined in the welcome interruption.
"Sergeant Zim." The quiet girl called to him. "Sergeant Zim!" She repeated more urgently. Just like that they were gone. The room was empty except for the young Commander Sanders waving a hand at him from where she sat.
"Sorry, I just--" He tried to apologize.
"I don't care." She answered quickly handing her phone over to him. "I know you know the Sky Marshal's private line. I need to speak with the Sky Marshal." She said evenly.
"With all due respect, Commander, but you said it yourself. It's five in the morning." Sergeant Zim argued offering the phone back to her.
But she didn't take it back. "It's about Alpha Squad." She revealed. "We need to extract them from Alliance Territories. I need the Sky Marshal's authorization to gain entrance to their system to find the signal's location." She answered promptly.
"There's not such thing as Alliance Territories." He offered the phone back to her again.
This time, the Commander stood from her seat and forcefully pushed the phone back to him. "It's on a need to know basis. You didn't need to know." She smiled sweetly at him. "Now make the call, sergeant." She ordered.
"You might outrank me, sir, but you're just a kid who rose far too fast in the chain." The sergeant narrowed his eyes at the girl in defiance. "Alpha squad-- my Alpha squad-- was on a transport when they were--"
Tiffany Sanders rolled her eyes and grabbed the older man's collar and pulled him down to her level. "Do you see that, sergeant?" She pointed at the laptop's screen filled letters and numbers. "That's the rickroller's code. That's MY code." She let him go. "In my fourth year of military high, the undefeated sector 700 finally had their plate of chips handed to them by Sector 4320 in a little computer exercise. 4320 went at it sideways. They infected the outside with a message instead of directly attacking the components of 700 like everybody else. The message spread everywhere until finally it inevitably got into 700's systems. 4320 was the last system standing." She related. " I was team captain of 4320. We rickrolled them and it was fun." She glared at the sergeant. "That year, a merit scholar transferred in. Administration was worried that the new senior would have a hard time adjusting to the program especially since we did Basic training in our last year. No matter how smart a peson is, even with several AP courses done, Basic Training takes the crap out of you. A student mentor was given to help with the adjustment. I was that mentor. Ashley Anderson was the weird new scholar. We were five in a room. Me, Neo, RageGarden, Slayer and she was our fifth." She smirked haughtily. "We taught Andy. She wasn't on the team so SICON didn't offer her a placement right off the bat. But when she had free time, she did help debug my code." She pointed at the screen again. "That code." She picked up the laptop and pointed at the bottom of the screen. "If you still don't believe me, this part wasn't in the original. That's extra after the sound bite. That's Morse. If you can't read it, that says 1178433 SOS." She placed the laptop back on the bunk.
"Private First Class Ashley Anderson, Serial number--" He paled.
"1178433. Your Roughneck. Our Clover." Sanders finished for him. "Sending out a SOS to the world knowing that if it reaches us, it would have to pass through me. Andy would never replicate that just for fun because she knows I'll be beyond annoyed. Which tells me she was ordered to. Now who do you think would do that?" She folded her arms. "Make the call, sergeant. Consider it as an order from your Lt. Rico."
A call to all,
pay heed the squall
and turn your sail to home!
Rifles were raised against them. Five armed soldiers standing behind Atherton Wing were ready to shoot and execute them at his command. The child knew there was nowhere they can go. He could see the tense yet defiant expression the woman carrying him was sporting. She was staring them down, bravely. And so, he decided, should he.
He set his gaze at the man with the sword. He remembered him. He was the one who worked in government. The man would walk past his room. He would never play with him. Nobody ever did. Instead, they would just ask him questions. He would just ask him questions, tell him to behave and put him to sleep. He didn't like him. And he liked that the lady carrying him didn't like him either.
He could feel it.
"Ath," The man called Captain stepped forward and placed himself in between-- right in the line of fire. Captain spread his arms. "We were wondering what happened to you?" He said as if nothing was wrong. As if there wasn't a firing squad ready to shoot.
"You know very well what happened to me, Reynolds." He walked out of the elevator shouting.
The Captain shrugged innocently. "Heard you had a private room in the hospital." He admitted. Captain Reynolds glanced back briefly. "Didn't we hear that Zoe? Word's out that he got sick. " He asked.
"Yes we did, Captain." Zoe gave an affirming nod.
"From what pray tell?" Mal Reynolds continued on his inquiry. "Flu maybe?" He guessed.
"Flu?!" Atherton Wing charged connecting the pommel of his sword with the Captain's jaw. "I'll show you flu!" He glowered as Mal fell to the ground.
It was then the Captain smiled a humourless smile. "I accept!" He smirked while holding his jaw. The politician's eyes grew wide with unexpressed rage. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the sword harder than he had ever had in his life.
"Captain, did I miss something?" Zoe asked slowly.
"He slapped me Zoe." Captain Reynolds pointed out as raised himself off the floor.
"I can see that Sir." His first mate nodded slowly. "But what did you accept."
Mal gave her a bewildered look. "The challenge." He answered simply while rotating his shoulders. "It's mano a mano." He pointed at him and Atherton. "Man vs. Man. Yi dui yi. Survival of the fittest. Right Ath?" He smirked. "That's your fancy rules ain't it?" He prodded. "I seem to recollect winning the last time." He continued on.
"But you won't win this time." Atherton Wing swung his sword into a wide horizontal arc. The Captain manage to duck before the blade could hit him and caught the man's arm before he could attack again. Mal twisted the politician's sword arm behind him forcing him to relinquish his hold on the sword. The sword fell to the ground.
Disarmed, Atherton used his free arm to elbow the Captain away. Once the hold on his arm was loosened, he took the opportunity to quickly slip away. He back pedaled a few steps to put some distance between them and readied himself for the next onslaught.
Yo, ho, haul together.
Hoist the colours high.
Max Brutto always had a trouble with sitting still. Sitting and waiting for something to happen never was his style. He was more used to making things happen. It was often a mixed result. Sometimes he landed into trouble-- like when words just stumble out of his mouth or when he gets into people's faces. But sometimes, the same annoying trait everyone hated in him was the same trait leading him to victory. He was fairly sure he would not have become a highschool all star athlete if he was satisfied sitting and waiting on the benches. And he knew for a fact that the instinct has saved him more times than he count against the bugs. All this time, he was just used to following his guts.
So when his guts told him that he needed food, no amount of Roughneck chatter from Rico or Ibanez would've prevented him from walking out the door. Sure. The lieutenant was kind enough to share the food a nurse brought in for him-- which the younger trooper personally found was some surreal moment. However, when the plastic lid was taken away, Brutto was certain of two things. One-- It was not going to be enough. And more importantly, Two-- It made already doubtful Infantry food look like a gourmet meal. So, he grabbed the money Rico had on him, and marched out the door as fast as he could.
"Unbelievable." He told himself in disbelief when a nurse he recognized as the one who gave Rico food, smiled and passed by him. There was a major fight right below them and these people didn't even seem to know what was going on. They were going about their merry way as the lights flickered now and then. He didn't know whether they were just pretending or if they were really oblivious to the fact that their government was doing secret experiments in their basement. He wondered if they would even believe them if he told them or if they would throw him to the loony bin. "Institution." He decided when he was a few steps shy of the lobby. "Nobody would believe anything that cliche." He shoved his hands into his pocket checking that the money was still there. "Experimenting in a basement. Every mad scientists' M.O." He rolled his eyes.
There were what looked to be armed men in uniform hassling the admitting officer making him even more aware that he should be careful not to get caught. They were probably coming to help take down the 'rebels' downstairs. It wouldn't help his friends if he got caught by a squad of Alliance soldiers.
"There's no one here by that name. You have the wrong place." The doctor insisted.
"Look." One of the men in black tapped on the counter unconvinced. "If Intel says he's here, he's here. So one more time." He held up a handheld with a picture on the top right corner. "We're looking for Lt. Juan Rico of the Strategically Integrated Coalition of Nations. Also known as Johnny Rico." He informed the doctor again. "These are his known associates." He showed another handheld with more pictures on it. "Fleet Lt. Carmen Ibanez. Intel Special Operations Officer Carl Jenkins. Corporal Doc LeCroix. Corporal Jeffrey Gossard. Private first class Isabelle Flores. Private first class Ashley Anderson. FedNet reporter Private Robert Higgins and Private first class Max Brutto." He went through the list carefully pointing to each picture to match the name.
Brutto froze when he heard his name called. He was mere inches away from the glass door but decided to sit on a nearby bench instead to make out the legitimacy of these soldiers. He didn't remember giving their ranks to Atherton Wing. And it was highly unlikely the crew of Serenity turned them in since they were wanted themselves.
"Sir, we've already told you--"
"You didn't even look." The soldier argued. "I apologize. Our orders are to get them SICON- side ASAP. Now, I know you don't know what SICON is but let me assure you that nothing bad will happen to these men and women. We're just here to make sure they're taken care of." He reassured the doctor calmly.
The trooper had hear enough. "Hey!" He called out marching up to them. "Stop bothering the doc." He glared at the soldiers who quickly made way for him.
"Private Brutto!" The officer formally saluted him. "Orders came in from HQ--"
"You can wear as much gear as you want. It ain't make you a trooper." Brutto interrupted abruptly. "Anderson says the only SICON anything is in Ariel and we ain't there. So how do I know I can trust you?" He challenged.
"Sir," Someone to his left said tentatively. "Private Anderson..." He paused. "Well, she's only half right. The office is in Ariel. But there's always been a team in every major Alliance city. Besides, it was Intel who traced the message back and it was Sky Marshal Redwing who personally ordered your retrieval." The uncomfortable tone of his reply reminded the young trooper of Higgins.
Their commanding officer handed a small thin box to him. "It's official SICON. For the Roughnecks." He nodded a bit too smugly for his liking.
Brutto's frown grew deeper as he rolled his eyes and signaled them to follow him back to Rico's room. "You got any food?" He asked the soldiers.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.
They were both after the sword but neither of them had it long enough to use it against the other. Zoe's forehead creased with worry. When this began, she was certain that Serenity's captain would have had an upper hand. After all, they've served in the war together and numerous exploits while living in the firefly proved, at least to her, that Mal Reynolds was one of the best fighters she knew. But now she knew she was mistaken.
Not only was Atherton Wing holding his own but he was attacking and defending jabs, punches and hits like he had been doing this all his life-- which was highly unlikely for an aristocrat. He was fast and agile enough to dodge and block most things that flew his way. He got up every time he fell, more determined than ever to end the captain's life.
Zoe didn't quite catch how Atherton managed to take hold of the sword when Mal was holding it just a second before. But as the captain staggered backwards, he had left himself open for a second. Atherton lunged and the blade went through the captain's body. The silence was suddenly deafening as the sound of Mal falling to the ground echoed through the corridors.
"How does it feel to be at the other end, Reynolds." The politician growled placing the sword tip on top of his opponent's heart.
"Quite pleasant actually." Mal replied defiantly grasping his bleeding side.
Atherton Wing grinned. "Well you know what they say." He said. "Sweet dreams are made of these." He raised the sword ready to thrust it downwards.
Zoe closed her eyes and looked away. She hated that she couldn't do anything to help. The soldiers surrounding them would've done away with her before she could even try. But she couldn't watch him kill Mal. She had watched the Reaver's javelin kill her husband. She was not going to stand by and let a despicable man like Atherton Wing kill her friend. She slowly placed the child down on the floor and let him go. But just as she moved to help, the child reached for her hand and held it firmly. She looked back to see him shaking his head.
"Keep your hands in the air!" One of the soldiers the politician brought down yelled suddenly. "Mr. Wing, keep your hands in the air or we will shoot." He warned.
"What is the meaning of this?" Atherton demanded.
"New orders came through, Sir." The soldier said as the elevator door behind him opened. More soldiers streamed out of elevator, rifles ready to fire. "We have been reassigned." He informed the parliamentarian while giving his weapon up to the newer soldiers.
"Under who's command?!" Atherton glowered.
"Mine." The sea of black soldiers suddenly parted revealing a man in a hospital gown being pushed forward on a wheelchair. "And your under arrest." He informed the politician. "Sergeant, cuff him." He ordered. The man pushing his wheel chair and three more soldiers disarmed the politician and slipped cuffs on his hands.
"This is preposterous!" Atherton exclaimed.
"You got that right." He answered back. "Captain get yourself patched up."
"Lieutenant?" Mal's eyes widened in disbelief as Zoe helped him to his feet.
"L.T!" Someone called down a corridor. "We got River Tam." Higgins said trying to catch his breath. "Actually, she kind of hooked the thing up into a computer." The reporter huffed.
Dizzy Flores eyed the soldiers around them warily. "Nice wheels, Rico. But how'd you get down here?"
"Got new friends from SICON." He pointed at the soldiers around him. "It pays to be nice." He offered the girl who returned the reply with a raised eyebrow. "OK. Apparently, HQ is in Ariel but SICON's got cells in the big cities of every rock. Who knew? Even Andy didn't know for once." He shrugged.
"Where is Andy?" Doc asked the Captain and Zoe.
"Yeah. We thought she was just with your group. Isn't she with you?" Higgins added.
Zoe eyed the larger man incredulously. "Jayne, she was with you."
"Gorram it!" Jayne cursed. "She said she had this plan with this stick--" He tried to defend himself.
The lieutenant's eyes narrowed. "What plan with a stick?" Rico inquired.
Yo, ho haul together
Hoist the colours high
SICON soldiers went ahead of them. They went corner after corner passing by bodies that have fallen. So far, all of them have been Alliance. "This here's the place we left her." Jayne Cobbs said when they got to a flooded hall littered with bodies. His eyes stared at the damage inflicted on the walls. Water was still flowing down the pipes in several areas. There were large pits and cracks were all over the place. Several places had large segments of the pillars within the walls exposed. "One little girl--" He trailed on with disbelief.
"And a shock stick." Dizzy picked up the broken weapon from the shallow pool wryly. "She blew the charge. Hellfire and brimstone. They didn't stand a chance." She walked forward following Gossard and Doc nervously. They were close. She knew they were close.
"Oh no." She heard Higgins start running. "Doc!"
"Did you find her?" Doc asked running after the reporter with Gossard right behind him.
She turned the corner and saw Higgins at the end staring blankly at the adjacent hall as Doc and Gossard disappeared when they turned. Her face fell when she saw a red streak on the wall. She knew it was blood. It dipped in some parts just to come back up again. Dizzy realized that these were the spots that she fell. But she kept getting back up and walking on.
The trooper turned the corner and stood beside the reporter. They found her. Andy was crumpled near the next intersection of corridors. The smudges on the wall beside her told the redhead that she tried to get up but failed. And there she was on the floor, one hand on her bloodied side and one hand on a shot gun.
Then suddenly, the shotgun was lifted mere inches off the floor. Dizzy saw her eyes flutter open and try to concentrate. Doc and Gossard stopped in their tracks placing their hands in the air. "Andy." Gossard said tentatively. "Andy don't shoot, okay?"
The weapon dropped to floor and she watched as the two friends rushed in. All she could do was watch. "Sorry." Came an uncomfortable soft whisper from the girl.
"She's lost a lot of blood." Doc stated examining her state.
Dr. Tam quickly opened his kit beside Doc and took out a syringe. "Adrenaline." He passed the needle to Doc. "It might help since we don't know what's wrong with her yet." He took the girl's hand off her wound. Then he gave the nearest soldier a look of alarm. " It's her lungs. Get a bed down here and tell them to prep an emergency room. Now!" He ordered.
"Ran out of gas. Standby mode." She replied weakly. Her lips twitched for a moment as if to smile. "CHAS joke." She explained.
"CHAS joke." Gossard repeated in disbelief while he gently pushed strands of hair away from her face. "You're going to be fine." He said giving her a small smile. "And we're going home. Now, didn't I tell you in the ship that I'd come get you so we can all go home together? Roughnecks never leave a man behind." He reminded her.
"Silly Mech." She tried to smile but winced instead. Her eyes closed. "Not a Roughneck anymore." She whispered breathlessly before a coughing fit took over.
"Where's that bed?!" Dr. Tam demanded when he saw she was coughing out more blood..
"Andy!" Doc lightly patted her cheek trying to wake her up. "Andy!" But the girl's head just rolled to one side trying to breath in short gasps. "She's drowning in her own blood. Forget the bed. We're getting her out of here." Doc decided. "Goss."
"Got it." The mechanic said lifting the limp girl as gently as possible.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die