Chapter 6: Life on Repeat
"Why dose waking up suck so much?" Alistar groaned rolling out of bed and looking at his clock, it was 06:16 he had gotten some sleep and that would have to do. Standing up and stretching his sore legs and back he noticed his new room had a shower and he planed to use it. After he showered he left his room and went looking for the mess hall a few minuets of wandering later he found himself near an exit and from behind him he heard Gates call to him. Turning he could see her jogging up "You look better" She said catching up "I feel better but I'm a little lost, I can't find the mess hall" "That's funny I was going to go there after I found you" "Well lets go then, Why were you looking for me?" He asked as they started walking "I wanted to see how you were doing after your session in the OR last night and to tell you that all the commanders agreed to let you prove your self in a real combat mission" "That was nice of them, I'm sure that you pushed them a little" He said looking at her "Only a little like you said but you shouldn't be complaining, though I think you have made your own decision" She replied pointing at the 64 pin he had on his uniform, he let out a small chuckle but said nothing. They walked into the mess hall and jumped in line grabbing trays, Alistar looked at the food wondering what was for breakfast and seeing a military standard of steak and eggs he looked around the room and found what he was looking for three squads of men in almost full combat rig finishing there meal he guessed that the rest of the troops were already gathering for briefing. Waiting there turn they shuffled down the line filling up there trays, coming to the end of the line Alistar looked for a table seeing a empty one he walked over and sat down. Gates sat across from him and removed her helmet he looked up and said in mock shock "A miracle has just happened" She looked at him smiling and replied just as sarcastically "Keep it down or it might not happen again" He smiled to and took the opportunity to see what she looked like. Her hair was a light brown and looked almost red in sun light she had it pulled back in a bun so it fit in her helmet, her face was pale but not like she was sick it probably was because she never took her helmet off and there was a small circular scar on her chin apart from that her features were soft nothing stuck out on its own except her eyes they were a dark deep blue that you could get lost in verry easily if you weren't carful. He grabbed his fork saying "Now that just wouldn't do not at all" She laughed at his comment and started eating, they sat talking as they ate enjoying a decent conversation for once not one filled with questions on loyalty or the stability of his mind it was nice to slow down and be people not a commander and a super soldier who had more than once come to close to loosing his humanity.
2 Days Later
Alistar sat in the briefing room waiting for Gates to show up and give them the run down on the assignment they'd been given, Bear sat next to him spinning an empty bullet casing in between thumb and forefinger. After a few minuets Gates walked in and they all stood up and snapped to attention "At ease" She said looking around the room, they all sat down again and she began "The IMC have set up a research station in the old colony that the members of the IMS Odyssey built serval years ago" As she spoke the holo table came to life in front of her and she began pointing to it helping clarify the details "Here is the facility's mane power station it has two primary generators and three back ups Bear you and your team will knock out the power station first before moving on" The plan was good it was to kill or capture as many of the researchers and command team as possible and make the base inoperable. Bear would lead the main team making entry on the compound and Gates well Gates hadn't said what she or Alistar would be doing "There is a landing pad here team two will set up there and provide sniper cover for team one, team two will be Cambel and my self any questions?" The room was quite for a second then Alistar spoke up "Isn't that pad a little close for proper sniper cover?" Gates looked at him and said "Yes it is a bit more than a little but I'm not that good with a long rifle proper so I will use a DMR, unless you can use one" Alistar stood up and moved up to the table saying "I can if you have one and I would recommend here this ridge is a better position to overlook the station" Pointing to a spot on the map "That's over twenty three hundred meters away" Bear said astounded "Is that a problem for the any of the rifles I can use?" Alistar asked looking at him "Well the only rifle that can hit hard enough at that range if the Kraber-AP its old school but it could get the job done I guess" "You guess" "Not many people shoot at that range in the Militia" "I see what do you mean old school and what caliber is it" "Well it doesn't have hyper velocity rounds so there is bullet drop as for the caliber it's a 14.5x114mm round a 57 caliber" "Well hyper velocity rounds weren't around when I went to sniper school so I'll be fine, just let me look at the rifle before we go" Gates looked at him and said "You can look at it when we leave here before we go to the dropships" He nodded and studied the map more, Gates looked around and asked "Any more questions?" Everybody Stood still some shook there heads "Ok Take off is in twenty be at your dropship by fifteen dismissed" They all began working on there last minuet prep and Gates looked at Alistar saying "Come on the armory's this way" He followed her to the armory, as they walked in an older man stood up from behind a desk and said "Welcome commander what can I do for you today?" Gates shook his hand and explained what they needed "Really not many people want to use one of those, let me see I think I have one come back here and lets see" They followed the old man back to a fire room where the weapons were kept Alistar leaned forward ducking under a ammo crate and asked "Excuse me but what's your name?" The man turned with a large four foot long rifle in his hands "My name is Seth Rogen, and this is the rifle your looking for" handing Alistar the weapon. He hefted it getting a feel for the weight of it then leveled it checking the balance "I've got a holo range if you want to try it" Seth said pointing to the range "I would" Alistar said stepping up to the bench and setting the Kraber on the rest and sitting down Seth and Gates stood next to him looking through spotter scopes. Alistar turned to the computer and set the distance to one hundred meters to check the zero on the rifle a holo target appeared at the right range, he grabbed a magazine and loaded it in checking if it seated properly then racked the bolt back and forward loading the first round. Sighting up he took a breath in and then let it out and repeated this for a second or two then he exhaled stopped and squeezed the trigger the Kraber fired with a sound like an explosion ending with a cracking sound and the holo target turned red for a second then back to blue. "Not bad, but can you do better?" Seth Asked from his right Alistar said nothing but changed the range to two thousand and five hundred meters "A little over confident don't you think?" Seth asked Gates but she said nothing she knew he could do it he only did things he could do and he never intently tried to show off. Alistar did the same thing inhale and exhale after four or five seconds he exhaled and fired again the Kraber discharged again with the same sound, a second passed two, three, four Gates began to wonder if he could hit the target then the target lit up red again and this time Seth reached over and had the target moved closer to see "I'll be" Was all he could say "Its dead center" Gates said a little shocked and proud at his shot, Sarah said she might regret giving him a pin but she was wrong he was good. Alistar turned and faced Seth asking "What's the poundage on the pull of this trigger?" as he unloaded the rifle Seth looked at him and thought to him self for a second "Its three maybe four pounds" "Ok can I get it raised to about eight maybe seven and a half?" He asked and Seth replied "Sure follow me and we can tweak it a little" Gates watched as the two of them worked on the rifle and talked, finaly Alistar and Seth walked back out to the desk where Gates was waiting "Thank you for the weapon Mr. Rogen" Alistar said shaking Seth's hand "Oh no problem it was nice talking to somebody who knows there firearms, when you get back come by and I'll help you with those modifications you talked about" "I will" With that Gates and Alistar walked away going to there dropship after walking a ways Gates asked "What mods did you want to add?" "Well its mostly changing the exterior housing so it can match what the rest of my gear dose and a few things else" He replied, she took a look at it now and the two of them had changed more than the trigger pull weight now there was a sling on it and a pouch at the stock with a spare mag in it and four bullets on the outside she laughed to herself at the little personal touch he already added. Once they got to the dropship they loaded up and waited for the pilot to take off, they all had there own way of prepping for the mission Bear was quite checking his gear one more time, Gates flipped her radio over to the pilots channel and listened to them get ready for takeoff Alistar was humming to himself a tune Gates didn't know but it seamed fairly upbeat and he was enjoying himself finaly the clearance came down and the ship shuddered into life lifting off the ground and began climbing, Gates gripped the handle remembering that she didn't like flying into a combat zone the idea of her life and the life of everybody on board in the hands of the pilot never sat well with her.
They were put down first letting them get into position before Bear made entry on the compound, Alistar had found two rocks to set up between a taller one he could lean against and a shorter one he setup the Kraber on. Taking aim on the compound he said "Bear I've got good lines of sight all around outside and some inside" He could see Bear and his team taking cover behind a low wall "Good to know we'll move in now and hit the power station" "Wait one there's a sentry above you in the tower move on my mark" "Understood" a few seconds passed "Mark" "Moving" Bear and his team started moving towards the power station with Alistar guiding them. After a minuet or two Bears team made it to the power station "In position setting demo now" Bear radioed once they all entered the building "Demos in place were moving to the research center" "Understood Bear your clear all the way for now" Alistar watched as they ran from the cover of one building to the next and stacked up on the door of the research center and he heard Bear on the comms "Breach on my mark then blow the power" Alistar checked all the sentries and they were in places that wouldn't interfere with Bears team "Three….Two….One BREACH!" He couldn't hear the breach but he heard the power station and saw it crumble into a large pile of ruble. The guards scrambled trying to figurer out what happened "Gates there is nobody here" Bear said and Alistar looked at her since he couldn't see in there "What?" "The buildings empty there's nobody here" "Then work your way to the command building" "Understood" He sighted up again and watched Bear and team one move to the building, they kicked the door in and moved from room to room he had a good view as the building had big bay windows on the side facing him. Bear called on the comms again "Commander we found the officer in charge but he has a hostage we have no shot" Gates turned to Alistar who was already looking at the man hiding behind a young girl sixteen seventeen maybe "Bear can you guide him South three or four feet" He said reaching up and turning a dial on the scope, Bear said nothing but the troops inside shifted herding the man to where Alistar asked. "Ok hold him there" He said and started to inhale, a few seconds later Gates heard him hold his breath and then the sound of the Kraber discharging "Hostile down civilian secured" "Affirmative Bear, you have incoming North East side two squads" "Take up positions" Then another discharge of the Kraber and another. They continued like this for serval minuets with Gates calling targets and Alistar dropping them and Bear and his team holding the room. After fifteen minuets or so Bear said "Clear, can you confirm?" Alistar looked over the compound and began saying "Affirmative no contacts, wait I've got drop pods coming in with possible titans as well" Alistar stood up and switched channels "Requesting titan fall on the town South side of the command building, confirmed standing by" He began running down the ridge to get to the town Gates following behind him, as they ran she asked "Why drop your titan now and not when you get there?" Alistar didn't miss a beat and said "He's smarter than the titans your used to he can help hold off the enemy titans until I get there" After serval minuets of running they entered the town Gates made a beeline for the rest of the 64 wile Alistar ran for Storm. "Storm coming up behind you" He said as he got closer, Storm turned and opened the cockpit at the same time Alistar jumped in and not missing a beat they took on the Ronin titan in front of them, the Ronin charged forward sword in hand and swung it over its head trying to bring it down on there head but Alistar moved there arm hitting the flat of the blade with there hand sending the sword into the building next to them. Now the Ronin had two choices leave the sword in the building and try a brawl or try and pull the sword out of the wall he tried that putting one of his feet on the wall and starting to pull, Alistar lunged forward sending there fist into the primary ocular unit on the front of the cockpit crushing it and denting the door so bad that wouldn't open grabbing the Ronin at the waist and pulling he ripped off one of its legs and most of the hip the Ronin now on the ground he lifted there leg and stomped the cockpit crushing the reactor destroying it. Looking up he could see a Ion and a Scorch at the end of the road, the Ion moved to its left and took cover behind a building the Scorch charged forward lunching a incendiary trap canister Alistar leaned forward and caught the canister throwing it back at the Scorch at the same time al it fired its T-203 Thermite Launcher the canister burst into flames that landed on the Scorch melting it down at a frightening pace. The Ion rounded the corner firing as it came Alistar pulled out his XO-16 and returned fire catching it across its eye and left arm making it lose its aim for a moment, he took the opportunity and grabbed the Ion's arm and pulled it off nocking it to the ground tossing the arm away he landed on top of the titan trying to punch the cockpit open but the Ion kicked him off and got up and went back around the corner. Alistar picked himself up and followed, rounding the corner he saw the pilot out of his titan trying to remove the data core with one arm he wondered why then remembered that they had been linked when he pulled it off so his arm wouldn't wake up for another minuet or so. He looked at the man trying to save his titan and felt pity, he had taken off his helmet its sparking remnants sitting on the ground and he could see the desperation on his face as he tried to save his friend he disembarked and stood next to the man for a second before reaching up and helping him remove the data core. He looked confused as he clutched the core tightly in his right hand Alistar pointed at the command building where the 64 was holding up and the man understood and began walking. They walked in and he asked Bear to look after the man and to leave him alone mostly, after that he asked "Where's Gates?" 'Well she's ov-" Bear started but was cut off by an expulsion as a AT missile hit the wall five feet from where Gates was standing. Alistar ran over with Bear to see if she survived, she was half buried under ruble and they had to dig her out. Once she was out Alistar and Bear checked her wounds she had caught some shrapnel in her left shoulder and some more in her left thigh "Bear I've got this go make sure they don't hit us again with that" He nodded and joined the others "Gates can you hear me?" He asked removing her helmet "Um. Ya. I. Can. What?" He began to bandage her shoulder "Hey stay with me, What's your name?" He asked trying to keep her conscious "It's a, it's a Elizabeth Gates" "Ok Elizabeth, what do your friends call you?" "Um they call me, is that my blood?" "Not now what do your friends call you?" he asked again "They call me El" "Ok El you'll be fine ok just stay awake and talking ok, Bear call a medivac!" She stayed awake until the dropship arrived once onboard she started falling asleep Alistar went with her trying to keep her stable until they made it back to Harmony "Come on El stay with me" He said as they started to jump "Don't let go"