Church's Crusade #2: Planning the hunt
"Sarge. Hey sergeant."
Church came back to reality with a start, his hand going immediately to his rifle before he realised the voice was addressing him. He almost laughed at that. Even after all the months away from Blood Gulch he still thought of Sarge as the dedicated, though rather incompetent leader of the Reds. With a sigh he looked up.
"What is it Eddie?" he said to the newest member of the squad. Eddie was a young recruit of about nineteen. His armour was hardly marked by the many firefights the squad had been involved in and he still had the easy, boyish enthusiasm of a new recruit.
"I just thought you should
know, the guys out there with the guns, their getting kinda
close."
Church sighed again. "I'll go have a look. Get
Rocky up here would you?"
He got up and climbed to the gap in
the wall were a look-out was posted. Anna was the only female member
of the squad, but was invaluable all the same. With sharp eyes and
good aim, she was one of the best snipers he had ever seen. She
nodded to him as he approached, but said nothing. Church moved
carefully up to the gap and looked out.
He quickly counted twelve
men moving across the rubble of the street. They held a variety of
weapons and looked comfortably assured of victory. Church ducked out
of site again and looked questioningly at Anna.
"Six with
rifles, three with shotguns plus an officer with the same, two with
rockets and two snipers back in the buildings." she said
quickly.
Church groaned quietly. Fourteen. Twice the number of his
small band and with better positions. He looked out again as Corporal
Rocky "The Rocket" Stone climbed up beside him. Church
turned to him, "What do you think?"
Rocky licked his lips before replying, "I reckon we have a chance if Anna can deal with those snipers. I can take out a few of them with a rocket. But we are in a bad position. Rourke has some broken ribs and the Stevens boys have got injuries to their arms and legs respectively. Plus were down to our last four grenades and none of us has much in the way of ammunition. Chances are this could be our last fight."
Church nodded slowly, "Alright, I'll head out and see what I can do. When I give the word I want Anna to take out those snipers and you to do what you can about the riflemen. Get Eddie on the machine-gun. I'll see what I can do about the rockets. Remember, do nothing until I give the word."
They nodded, knowing better than to argue. Church rose and slid down the pile of rubble and relayed the orders to the others then slipped quietly out of the remains of the building. Stained with dust and smoke, his armour blended almost perfectly with the surrounding rubble, its original cobalt blue almost completely removed by scratching and repairs. You almost never saw armour of its quality anymore, he thought. In fact in the entire time he had served with this group, he had not seen one other soldier wearing anything similar. As he thought about that he idly reflected that he was in fact a much better soldier now than when he had been at Blood Gulch. But then that wasn't surprising. All he had done since he left was train, with any weapon available, as he tried to forget. After all that was why he was here, to forget.
He snapped out of his reverie as he rounded a corner and saw the backs of the rocket troopers. Silently, he drew his knife and crept up behind them…
The characters Church, Caboose, Tucker, Simmons, Sarge, Grif, Sister, Donut and Doc are owned by Rooster Teeth Productions.