ME: Warning: This will be both a lighter and darker chapter then my previous ones. Also, spoilers for a particularly cringeworthy scene in Part 1 of the Mockingjay movie that's like something out of those stupid James Bond films. A/N: Interlude.
The rebel prisoners were now being searched for weapons, while Flavius called a meeting of the battalion's remaining leadership.
The commander of Charlie Platoon, First Sergeant Carney, was the last to arrive.
Clearly he had participated in close-quarters combat like Enobaria had, for the Capitolite (not that he was a hedonistic debt-payer) carried his bloody Gladius in one hand and the severed head of a rebel in another.
Before joining the Peacekeepers, undoubtedly the Lieutenant would've been disturbed at the sight of a severed head. But all her training and experience caused her to only blink at the sight.
The POWs noticed this, and he tossed it at them. "These two fuckers came at me with javelin spears, okay? At this point, I'm down to my pistol so I open fire on one of 'em, but guess what? I end up running out of bullets."
"As Number One dies, his buddy Two throws his pilum-I recognized the model from my high school History class-but I'm able to dodge and draw my sword. By the time he's grabbed One's spear, I'm way too close to throw it, leading him to try and stab me."
"However, I'm able to grab the shaft with my left hand and slice off his right forearm with my right hand. Then, just as he falls to his knees screaming, some girl from Eleven who looks fifteen at most tries stabbing me with a knife. I trip her and decapitate her before she can get back up-if anything, this chick had it easy compared to Two."
"Why? Oh, he's still trying to stop the bleeding with his remaining hand. Pitying the poor bastard, I end up loping his head off and ending his misery."
"The message of the story?" Carney could've been smiling for all Enobaria knew behind his opaque visor. "Don't fuck with me, boys and girls. Or you'll end up like this guy here."
"I'm scared!" One of the child soldiers turned POW said, undoubtedly ruining his pants at Carney's not-so-empty-threat.
"Why should we trust you won't just kill us now?" A nineteen year-old male with olive skin, dark hair and gray eyes asked in a District Twelve accent.
"Because we're Loyalists," Cadet Nero replied reassuringly. "We're the good guys, the civilized side."
"Civilized?" Screamed a young woman who looked around the male's age and even resembled him-was there inbreeding in District Twelve or something? "Name's Bristel-the fact your pilots firebombed my entire home and killed nine-out-of-every-ten people there is proof that you're not civilized!"
Enobaria responded immediately: "Incorrect, Prisoner Bristel. District Twelve was destroyed by a squadron of disguised hovercraft bombers from District Thirteen by order of rebel leader Coin to both remove it as a potential staging area for a Peacekeeper assault on District Thirteen and to incite rebellion amongst the eleven other Districts not under her control."
"Bullshit!" Another rebel yelled, this one in a gray uniform and thus a Thirteener. "I saw Peacekeeper hovercrafts attack a hospital in my home of District Eight!" Or not. "Apart from setting that bitch on fire, all you've guys done is be pricks!"
Carney growled at the rebel. "Hey, don't pull the morality card on me! You assholes nearly blew up a dam in Five-do you know how much that fucking thing would cost to repair if you worthless Rebel bastards succeeded? Fuck, forget the damn money we'd have to spend, thousands of people would've drowned downstream plus all the civilians working there! Why didn't you just target the fucking substations, bitches?! You could've cut off power to the Capitol via targeting one of them or even blowing up a power line, you fuckwitted-."
Another Thirteener interrupted by saying, "Blowing up a major source of electricity with all the negative effects on District Five and Panem as a whole was never part of the plan. I hope whoever came up with that idea died slowly and painfully."
The twenty-two year old woman remembered the averted attack on one of District Five's power plants from a news report delivered by Panem's Minister of Enlightenment and Information herself, a woman named Serita Egeria that was not nearly as gaudy when it came to fashion sense as Effie Trinket.
A group of local rebels, aided by a District Thirteen special operations commando unit, had attempted to rush and suicide bomb the dam in question. The dam itself, formerly known as the Hoover Dam (named after a North American leader), had existed since before Panem was even founded. The largest of fifteen (all constructed during the North America Era) on the Colorado River (now named Mead River, after the dam's reservoir Lake Mead, said reservoir being named after the engineer who oversaw construction of the dam), it was one of (if not the) the largest employers in District Five.
When a local rebel who at least possessed a microscopic shred of humanity left heard of the plans and informed the local Peacekeeping Garrison, it was as though a switch had been flipped.
The civilian workers at the dam as well as the local citizens living downstream did not appreciate their traitorous and rebellious neighbors condemning them to a needless death due to a pointless, self-destructive act, and formed the only Loyalist Militia outside of the Career Districts.
The rebels had been forced to advance towards the dam from the east via the old Nevada Highway (named after a political subdivision from the North America Era known as a state; apparently they were considered equivalent to Districts) due to the mountainous terrain. Between the brave Peacekeepers and Militia volunteers defending the eastern entrance to the plant as well as Peacekeeper hovercraft and artillery, the would-be mass murderers were virtually entirely wiped out save for two-dozen prisoners.
Said rebels were marched to an old bridge downstream over the Mead River, where the dam manager (who lead the Milita volunteers defending his workplace during the battle) put a bullet in either their right or left knee before kicking them off the bridge. Even if they hadn't been killed by the fall, there was no way they could avoid drowning with their injuries, and frankly either fate, in Enobaria's eyes, were too good for the bastards who nearly committed mass murder on their own neighbors.
Even now that Five had been secured by the Rebellion, reports were that the pro-Loyalist insurgency was just as fierce if not more dedicated than their counterparts in One and Four-the fact thousands would've died in Five according to the most conservative estimates helped. Due to a large number of the local rebels defecting/repatriating (largely the ones who hadn't participated in the power plant attack, of course) or simply choosing to not fight anymore for savage barbarians, more troops from both District Thirteen and the continental Districts had to be brought in to garrison the area. Hell, a partisan had been rumored to have successfully assassinated a General from Thirteen. President Coriolanus Snow himself had congratulated the people of District Five for their courage, sacrifice and productivity, promising to have "the same educational opportunities granted to children of Districts One, Two and Four," extended to District Five post-war as a reward for their loyalty; which, of course, translated to Career training.
"Fisher!" Flavius yelled. "Are the POWs clean now?"
"Yup!" The Victor replied. "Some chick from Seven tried smuggling a knife in her boot, courtesy of my machine gun's stock she's gonna have a nasty headache for it. I was merciful, though, another guy wanted to cut her throat with the knife as an example."
"Understood, keep an eye on her!" The Major then contacted Command via his radio. "Command, this is Major Flavius, callsign Oscar Four Foxtrot. Radio check, over."
"Flavius," Thread's voice replied, surprisingly enough, "this is Thread. Reading you five-by-five, over."
"Sir," the Field Grade Officer replied, "we have driven off the enemy but have wounded and prisoners to deal with. I say again, be advised: We have wounded and EPWs, that's Echo Papa Whiskies. At least a hundred or so rebels, we'll try and identify officers among them later. In the meantime, send us some MEDEVAC birds! Over!"
"Copy all, Flavius, I'll send you what we can. In the meantime, secure your AO. Capitol's sent in some VIPs from the MOEI, seems they want to counter the Mockingjay's propos. Thread out."
"Alright!" Claudia yelled. "Any of you dickheads officers?"
After five seconds, only two prisoners (both in dirty gray uniforms, undoubtedly from being in combat) raised their hands.
"Captain Charles Coin," said the male in a District Thirteen accent worn-down by exposure to the outside world. He looked to be in his early-to-mid-twenties.
"Lieutenant Suzanne Boggs," said the female, who looked eighteen at the least or twenty at the most.
"Any relation to the renegade Mayor of District Thirteen, Alma Coin?" Enobaria asked. The Lieutenant figured dignifying the hag with her official title would only legitimize her in the eyes of the rebels.
"Unforutunately, yes," the Captain replied surprisingly. "I'm her nephew, actually."
"Then why are you at the front?" Claudia yelled. "Why aren't you being a wine-sipping communist dick-suck in that cave you people call Thirteen like your Auntie Alma, who hides behind a seventeen-year old hillbilly girl?"
"Politics," replied the Lieutenant named Boggs. "In that oversized bunker-I'm not mincing words regarding that hellhole by calling it a District-Coin's not as popular as she'd like among the masses, while Charles here is actually pretty decent and thus viewed more positively. With him dying in the mud, she gets to cry on and on in public about her nephew being a martyr to the cause then celebrate in private no longer having a potential rival."
"Indeed," the older officer-turned-POW replied. "As far as I'm concerned, President Coin can suck that pintsized ginger curmudgeon's non-existent dick." At this Claudia snickered.
"What's life like?" A Militia Volunteer asked. "I mean, what's life in District Thirteen like, Lieutenant?"
She glanced directly at him. "Hell itself, soldier. Everything from socks to food is strictly rationed-unless, of course, you're one of the elite. Commoners are only fed enough at the communal mess hall to subside, for there is no equivalent to tesserae or any currency in Thirteen. If you act out or do not meet the standards of the Party, you are executed. Anyone deemed genetically unfit by the local eugenics scientists, all of said scientists being proud Party members, are put to death. The lucky ones are publicly decapitated as an example of an impurity that would degrade the Proletariat; the unlucky are human test subjects for things like nerve gas experimentation."
"They kill people for their genes?" Nero asked, shaking. "And tell people how much they can eat?"
"Both, son," said Captain Coin. "In fact, citizens are forbidden from storing food away or even taking leftovers-it's considering hoarding, and along with the bourgeoisie as well as participating in activities deemed wasteful by the State constitutes Treason of the Community, one of the Four Treasons."
"And the other Treasons?" Flavius asked, a hint of fear entering into his voice.
"Treason of the State; anything from being an enemy combatant or particpating in espionage to simply protesting Party policy, rousing the rabble or sheltering other Traitors. Treason of the Mind; the religious, subversive arts and unapproved teachers. Treason of Humanity; sexual-slash-gender minorities and those afflicted by genetic disorders."
Claudia started spewing off a series of creative curses and swears at Treason of Humanity, and even though she seemed mainly interested in her much taller friend Enobaria remembered the redhead glancing at her occasionally.
The Lieutenant POW smiled grimly. "I see you're not heterosexual as well."
"Really?" One of the POWs asked. "That's what Thirteen is like?"
"She just said so, you dumbass!" Claudia responded. "And you really, seriously expect us to allow her to come to power?"
"Coin isn't just gonna be the new tyrant-."
Claudia laughed. "Look at what these officers from Thirteen said, moron! Think she and her asshole friends are just gonna set up some fair and equal representative democracy where everyone gets a vote?"
"At least we don't support a government that executes twenty-three children every year and passes the survivor around as a sex toy!" Snapped a woman with a District Four accent.
"Odair always was a man-whore," Lawrence reflected, "even as my mentor.
"That's because Snow murders the family of any Victor who disobeys him!" Snapped a Thirteener. "Plus he had to be given a rope by our head psychiatrist, Doctor Aurelius, just to keep him calm once Annie was arrested-and we had to make sure it was too small for him to hang himself with!"
"Impossible!" Laura replied. "My brother was able to get engaged and married to a virtuous woman, his childhood sweetheart and my friend Clara. Annie Cresta came of age two years ago-surely he could've married her well before the Quarter Quell. Or perhaps he values the payments of his clients more?"
"Lawrence only got to marry his wife because of his parentage!" Yelled the Thirteener. "It is one thing to kill a Mayor or his family, but one of humbler origins like Finnick, or non-Career Victors like Johanna Mason of District Seven and Haymitch Abernathy of District Twelve?"
"Johanna Mason's loved ones were all murdered by an unknown serial killer, while Abernathy is a pathetic waste of life who does not deserve a family. Ever since he won his Games-by sheer chance rather then through actual skill-he has does nothing but drink and whore with his winnings. In contrast, the great Victors Brutus, Cashmere and Gloss actually made use of what money they earned through charity and philanthropy."
"First off, Haymitch is probably still a virgin," Bristel responded. "He doesn't pay starving girls to have sex with him, for all his alcoholism-that's our pervert of a former Head Peacekeeper Cray you're talking about."
"Oh, I actually oversaw his execution by flamethrower squad!" Enobaria said.
"Why thank you, actually. Second-."
"Enough!" Carney snapped. "Look, you guys lost and your Victors are all blatant screw ups, okay? Nero-can't believe I'm actually saying a Cadet's first name-you and your friend go check the bodies for tags, okay?"
"Why not just burn them already?" One of the more zealous Milita Volunteers from Two asked. "They're rebels, they're not real people-."
The senior NCO simply glared at the Militaman, and he shut up. The rebels stared at Carney, evidently not expecting him to shut up a fellow Loyalist.
"Hey," said Nero, "wasn't that guy with the mace from our CQC class?"
"Not too good at CQC parrying, isn't he?" Claudia snickered.
The quarrier's daughter simply stared at the redhead, while Nero vocalized his dismay. "Claudia Victoria, how could you say that? You and I both knew that guy!"
"And he was dumb enough to bring his mace to a gunfight!" The female Cadet snapped while she removed a pair of dog tags from the neck of a dead rebel. "While Little Miss Onesie here brought her crossbow and arrows to a fight! Look how well her trying to be all Katniss Everdeen did against my assault rifle's bullets." Claudia then secured both the weapon and the quiver of arrows to her own back. "At least I got a souvenir."
Enobaira recognized the model from her Warrior Academy days; it was more or less an assault rifle with the barrel replaced by a crossbow, and fired arrows unlike conventional crossbows that typically used quarrels/bolts.
More Loyalists starting scavenging the corpses for weapons as well. "Isn't looting illegal?" A Militia Volunteer from Four asked.
"Looting's stealing private property from civilians," the First Lieutenant answered. "They're just getting weaponry off dead rebels, something that's actually legal and they are authorized to do it, Volunteer."
"Major Flavius," her superior's radio buzzed, "Thread again. MEDEVAC birds are inbound, the MOEI team and myself will be there shortly. Do you copy, over?"
"Sir, this is Flavius," the Major replied immediately. "Copy that, standing by."
Suddenly there was the roar of engines, and they all turned to find over a half-dozen trucks and two APCs stop. Then approximately twenty-two people disembarked from the APCs.
"Oh great..." Enobaria muttered.
The men before her (only one was female, a Lieutenant judging by the one black rectangle on each of her shoulders) were Peacekeepers, but their armbands indicated they were not your average ones. Gray with white circles each containing three black capitalized S's, they were clearly members of the special State Security Service (SSS).
ME: Merry Christmas and Happy New Years everyone!
A/N: And no, the State Security Service are not a Waffen-SS/KGB Gulag Guards-analogue. I mean, totalitarian states aren't that bad. *sarcasm* The crossbow Claudia looted off a corpse is based off the TAC 15 Crossbow and it's successors/cousins and what not, which is basically a crossbow mounted on an AR-15/M16-type lower receiver instead of the upper receiver (I.e. What shoots the bullets for those not in the know) that shoots arrows instead of bolts/quarrels. And it has a range of 130 yards/118.872 meters apparently, or at least that's how long the range is as far as I know.