Piper Mclean
They were packed like sardines in a can, Piper thought to herself. Like the Stormtroopers, Piper had her carbine pinned between her knees. If it weren't for the small pict screens showing footage from the vehicle's night optics.
"Inquisitor, with Medea liquidated, what are we going to do next?" Piper asked quietly. "She was our main vector of inquiry. With her brain being washed down a drain, we are back to square one."
Annabeth's eyes had hat cold glitter in them that she got when she was already planning five steps again. "Oh, I would not go that far. This endeavor has served its purpose," she said.
"Let me guess, you were working some other angle?" Piper groaned.
Annabeth winked and looked rather pleased with herself. "First things first," the Inquisitor replied. "Let us get back into orbit."
"We did torch a few heretics though," Thalia cut in helpfully.
"Cut the chatter," Jackson snapped, earning himself a scowl from the Inquisitor. "Sterile comms," he insisted and Annabeth bit her retort back, and then grinned up at the Stormtrooper, clearly accepting that at this point in time, she wasn't the one calling the shots. Piper had previously noted that Annabeth tended to respond better when Stormtrooper Captain Jackson struck a more commanding tone with her. Make of that what you will. Piper certainly did.
Piper listened to the convoy's chatter as they rattled through the night and closed her eyes. Suddenly the pitch of voices on the radio changed spiked noticeably.
"Hammer two, take point. Keep your head on a swivel. Turn next left and head south down that freight way," the convoy commander barked into his order.
"Copy Hammer One, Hammer Two taking point," came the clipped reply.
As if sensing the Stormtrooper's questioning look he explained. "Yeah, I know the Freight Way doesn't offer much cover but I want to get out of these alleyways! Too much smoke!"
Just then she heard the unmistakable ping of high-velocity projectiles bouncing off the Chimera's armored hide.
"Contact left side. Hammer Four, put fire on that first floor. I want-"
They would never find out what he wanted because just then his legs spasmed and a moment later the lower half of his torso fell out of the chair, the upper half, and everything blew away by something high calibered.
Fuck!" the Stormtrooper next to Annabeth complained when blood and entrails spilled out over his shoes.
"McLean, get in that turret," Jackson ordered.
She was well aware that it wasn't the safest place out there, especially since the last occupant had just kicked the bucket. But you just didn't argue with ill-tempered Stormtrooper Captains.
She squeezed herself past Jackson and then pulled herself into the turret, snapping her sound-protective ear mufflers into place as she did. Piper emerged into an inferno, the city around her was in flames. The air was thick with some and the heat was so intense she felt like she was sitting in a microwave.
Somehow she had missed that small part. She sat the commander of Hammer One spitting tracer rounds into the smoke as they hurled down the street.
A crimson steaked of light struck the armor plating right next to her hatch from a pile of rubble at the left side of the road. A moment later a spear of crimson light lanced past less than a foot behind her ear.
Suddenly she saw them, two outlines. One trooper shot at her, and another brought what looked suspiciously like Tread Fether to bare on their Chimera.
Just as a third las-bolt snapped past her with an earsplitting crack Piper hauled around the pintle-mounted autocannon, and keyed the twin triggers on each handle.
The autocannon roared, sending a combat mix of armor-piercing and tracer rounds towards the two men just as the man with the rocket launcher sent his missile hurling towards her. Somehow, it missed the Chimera entirely. Before the missile past them, the two men had already come apart in a cloud of pink mist.
A heartbeat later they had already thundered past it and Piper brushed aside the still-hot brass casings.. She heard Percy trying to reestablish a chain of command around him and instead glanced down at the gunner sitting at her left, inside the turret. He was staring through his optics, though what he could actually see was beyond her.
A moment later the chimera in front of her burst out into a bridge crossing the long, wide Freight Way and was just about to turn onto the onramp when a dull flash of white-yellow light lit up an alleyway on the other side of the bridge. Hammer one came to a skidding halt, as its entire turret was blown clean off as the ammunition inside cooked off. The poor bastards inside almost were vaporized before Piper even realized what had happened.
"Armor, twelve o'clock!" she screamed down into the turret. "Hammer one is cooked!"
"I see it!" the gunner screamed back, the turret traversing in the direction the shot had come from and spewing a lance of iridescent red energy at where he clearly oped the tank was from.
She heard Percy passing on a quick series of orders though could not understand what. She too brought her autocannon up and sent a hail of rounds into the alleyway.
Just then the alleyway lit up again and for half a heartbeat Piper actually thought they had killed something, right up until an armored piercing shell tore through her Chimera's left track as it followed Hammer One onto the bridge at full speed.
It's left tracks were torn to shreds, the armored vehicle slewed off course, and suddenly with a violent lurch, she felt herself being torn out of the turret as the Chimera skidded sideways and finally flipped over.
A moment later Piper hit the pavement hard and found herself rolling over a few times until she slammed into the back of an abandoned car.
For a moment her vision blacked out and all she heard from the world was the roar of las cannons, the chatter of automatic weapons firing, metal screaming across the pavement, and blood rushing through her ears. She was quite sure that if she hadn't already been wearing body armor, she would have probably not gotten up again at all.
After what couldn't be more than a few moments Piper rolled over onto her stomach, every single bone in her body protesting. Ignoring her pain, her teeth gritted she pushed herself up into her knees and looked around. They had run right into an ambush. The convoy had come to a violent halt, with the first Chimera ablaze, the second turned over, and a third had clearly taken a hit, with crew and passengers bailing out.
A streak of angry red light missed her by mere inches. Small arms fire, Piper thought to herself, realizing that 40k Medicaeenemy infantry had joined the battle. Instinctively Piper threw herself flat and rolled behind the car she had slammed into.
Staying in cover, the young woman pulled an injector from one of her chest rigs pouches. Dr. Will Solace, the retinue Medicae had provided each of them an exact dose to which they were to set their injector based on their body weight and metabolism. Piper, being the good soldier she was, applied the conventual wisdom that if something worked well, more would be better. Almost instinctively she set the injector at twenty percent over the recommended dose, pressed the injector to her thigh, and pressed the button on the other side.
She grunted in pain as the injector pumped the drug cocktail into her thigh muscle.
At first, she thought she had done something wrong, and already began to consider a second injection when she felt the pain beginning to be drowned out just as the pain began to recede, replaced by an odd dullness.
Endorphins flooded her system, her at this point poor temper suddenly replaced by a sense of exhilaration and she was torn from her stooper.
The battle had picked up the pace, with now the Imperial side having dismounted aswell, and brought up their crew-served weapons. A mad storm of tracers and energy beams cut through the loud. The noise level was deafening, even through her ear mufflers.
Suddenly she broke out of her stupor. The Inquisitor! Piper looked around and spotted the overturned Chimera not too far away Her carbine lay only a few steps away on the ground and she clambered towards it and picked it up before sprinting towards the next car, chased by las fire.
A squad of Stormtroopers were moving up in a line abreast, sending strobes of energy beams into the enemy position as they advanced towards the overturned Chimera.
Using the moment where she wasn't the most interesting target Piper burst out of cover and sprinted towards the overturned Chimera. One of the enemy tanks fired again, the armored piercing shell tore through an abandoned delivery truck just left of her. Finally, she reached the Chimera, just as the rear doors were kicked open and Piper found herself looking down the barrel of the Stormtrooper's sidearm until he recognized her.
Piper skidded to a halt in front of him.
"Status of the Inquisitor!" Piper yelled over the battle and knelt down at the Chimera's corner to cover the exit.
"Alive!" the Stormtrooper replied, clambering out aswell. She could tell from how he moved that he was injured. The commando didn't complain though and stacked up behind her.
Piper glanced around the corner and spotted a mob of dozens of enemy troopers rushing towards them across the bridge. They weren't very high-tear infantry, she knew that. Most were only armed with whatever they could get their hands on, clubs, and knives, though some held some ranged weapons. She knew though that if those raving fanatics got too close, they were in deep trouble,
Piper raised her carbine, flicking the safety into single fire mode, aimed at the closest of them. Then she squeezed the trigger. The las bolt struck the man in the chest. The heretic stumbled over his own legs and didn't rise again.
"Incoming!" she warned and then began to systematically shoot into the crowd. Someone was paying attention behind her because the support weapons fire and las-bolts tore into the mob of charging heretics.
Piper just continued. How many she killed? She had no idea, it had to be a few though those few seconds only stayed with her as a blur. A stormtrooper suddenly appeared next to her, and then a second, and they then added their Hellgun fire into the mix. Only for a moment though, the second taking a shot in the face a moment later. He toppled backward out of her peripheral view.
"Medic!" she screamed over her shoulder but didn't take her eyes off the engagement. Suddenly someone struck her in the chest with the force of a sledgehammer, knocking her down on her back. She felt a strong hand grabbing her by the straps of her chest rig, and haul her into cover and found Perseus standing over her.
"You okay, McLean!" he yelled. He was bruised and battered.
"I am shot!" she yelled, searching her chest.
"Mills! Augustus! Take the right!" he yelled and leaned back into the Chimera to pull a limp and motionless Annabeth out of view.
"McLean, call in a fire mission!" he yelled. "I need heavy Arty on the other side of that bridge. Level the entire fucking block if you have to!"
Piper was still searching herself for holes when she found the red hot slug wedged inside her chest plate.
"Vox fucked!" she yelled back, realizing why she hadn't been getting any chatter.
"Look after the Inquisitor!" he yelled and then started barking orders into his vox-beed. "This is Spartan to all units. Spartan to all units. Be advised. Archangel down! I repeat, Archangel down! Gray two one. Call in Artillery support on those buildings. Cops?" He continued yelling into his vox-beed, leaving her free to try to be helpful.
She joined one of the Stormtroopers that had moved up with her at the blond woman's side. "Status!" she asked.
"She's out cold!" he yelled. "But alive. Left arm broken!"
All of the Stormtroopers had medical training, so confident that someone more qualified than her was on the task Piper proceeded to help the gunner and the last Stormtrooper out of the back of the flipped-over vehicle.
Suddenly Percy appeared at their side while more Stormtroopers linked up with them and both the gunner and driver came climbing out.
"They have armor down there, it's what hit us!" Piper yelled. "We need to move!"
Perseus cursed and glanced in the direction of where a wall of firepower was coming at them.
"Doesn't change anything. Just called in heavy Arty on the end of that bridge. We will have rounds coming in any moment now!" he retorted. Percy grabbed the unconscious Annabeth by the flack vest and unceremoniously threw her over his shoulders as if she weighed no more than a child.
"Pace!" he yelled at one of the Stormtroopers and suddenly Pipe realized that it was Malcolm and his team that had rushed to their aid. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, being Annabeth's younger half-brother. "We have the hammer come down, retrograde now!"
As if to underline his point a loud whistle announced the first heavy artillery shell that struck a moment later. A brilliant flash of yellow night lit up the firelit night, and an instant later the thunderclap struck them, as one of the buildings on the other side of the road blew up. A moment later a second grenade, then a third struck aswell, sending balls of fire and debris up in the night sky.
"Move!" he yelled and started sprinting back towards their own lines, with two of the Stormtroopers at his heels, trying to cover their leader and charge with their bodies. Piper was close on their heels The rest of them, retreated in staggered lines. While half of their number pulled back, the other half would provide covering fire. Then the next row would catch up while the first half provided covering fire. They probably wouldn't have needed to. Shell after shell blasted apart the buildings, collapsing a few entirely.
The moment they reached the safety of their lines they were led around the next street corner where Will Solace and two of his senior medics came out to meet them.
"Is she alive!" he asked when Perseus jogged over. "Last I checked," Percy replied gruffly.
"With me, now!"
"You okay, that shoulder looks nasty Captain," Will asked.
He was right. Percy had a deep laceration across his left shoulder that looked like it went down to the muscle.
"Huh, oh. Just the shoulder, I'm okay. Focus on the Inquisitor!"
Piper had to admit, she was a bit impressed at that level of contempt for his own health.
They lead her back to the medical Chimera and put her down on one of the stretchers. "You have this?" he asked. "I have a battle to run."
Will nodded impatiently, he and his assistant already stripping off Annabeth's flack vest and helmet.
Before leaving he paused next to Piper. "Stay with her," he whispered, clapping her shoulder gently. "Keep an eye on her for me, will you."
Then he was gone, leaving behind the two Stormtroopers that had escorted them behind to stand watch with their weapons at a low ready.
Piper looked back at Will's progress. They had already cut the clothes off Annabeth's body, leaving her completely naked. Her toned, athletic body was covered in bruises and scraped, and in the improved light she could now tell that Annabeth's golden blond hair was drenched in blood. While one of the medics performed a body check, the other hooked her up to a monitor. Simultaneously Will had started pushing in IV lines. When she had joined the guard, she had been very squeamish about nudity. Now she herself hardly cared, and didn't bat an eye when it came to hitting the showers with the boys after training. She doubted Annabeth would mind either. Dr Solace had seen both of them naked in the past and would do so again. That and she had a very high degree of trust in his abilities. You didn't get to work as the combat surgeon in an outfit like theirs if your abilities weren't extraordinary. Not only did you have to be a very skilled surgeon, but you also needed to pass Percy's absolutely brutal selection process.
"Is she okay?" Piper asked.
"Probably," Will commented. "Okay, confirmed humerus fracture left. Third and fourth rib probably fractured," the medic doing the body check reported. "Got a major laceration to the skull, it's bleeding and will need suturing."
"Blood pressure one seventy over eighty, the frequency at ninety-two, O2 level at ninety-seven percent," the second one reported.
Just then one of the Stormtroopers poked his head in. "Doc, we have more wounded coming in."
Will Solace sighed. It might sound harsh, but Annabeth was the priority. Protecting her was the job. They were all expendable, Annabeth simply was less expensive than they were. "Mick, help them outside. I will finish up here!" he ordered and one of the orderlies hurried outside. "Tims, you too. Mclean, you going to help me?" he asked.
She nodded and took over for the second medic after pulling on a set of bright blue surgical gloves.
"You okay!" he asked, glancing over at her. "Peachy!" Piper replied, her hands shaking slightly as she helped Will fully immobilize Annabeth on a spineboard before covering her in a blanket.
"You look like shit," he commented as he swiftly put a cast on Annabeth's arm, and then filled her up with analgesics. Piper summarized what had happened, with her being tossed out of the turret.
Will gave her a long, hard look. "You know, you should probably be lying right next to her right now?"
"I am fine!" she assured him. "You young lady are staying in his Chimera. I want you on the first bird out, after that you are heading straight for the infirmary."
"Yes, doc!" she agreed dutifully.