Church's Crusade #12: Familiar Faces
Anna looked up at Church. "Blood Gulch? We're going to Blood Gulch?"
"Well that's great isn't it?' said Stevens, 'You get to see all your friends again."
"No it isn't', said Anna, 'It says in the briefing that if the local forces become a problem then we have to eliminate them. We may be required to kill all of them. Caboose, Tucker, Sister, Doc, Sarge, Simmons, Donut and Grif. Plus', she said quietly to Stevens and Rourke, 'There are some painful memories there for him. He may not be able to handle it."
"I can hear you, you know', said Church suddenly, making them jump, 'You hadn't forgotten that you had improved my hearing had you?"
Anna looked at him guiltily, "Sorry sir. So what are we going to do?"
Church looked at her. "What are you talking about corporal?"
"How are we going to deal with the Blood Gulch problem?"
"We deal with it the same way we always do soldier. We follow orders as far as they take us. And when the situation demands it, we improvise…"
Three days later they had begun their descent to the planet's surface. The entire squad was decked out in brown camo gear, except Church whose armour could accommodate for him. All was silent as they watched the canyon get closer and closer through the view-port…
Tucker spun and fired at the oncoming soldiers in their brown uniforms. Four went down to his gun shots and a fifth fell as Tucker drew his knife and stabbed it through his chest. He turned again in time to see the butt of a riffle coming towards his head. The blow knocked him off his feet and the soldier was about to finish him off when he was suddenly grasped about the neck. Tucker heard the bone snap and saw the body hurled to land almost eight feet away.
Tucker looked up and saw the enormous figure of Caboose standing over him, before the blue giant rushed into the battle with a cry of "EVIL KITTENS WITH SPIKES ON THEM!"
Tucker shook his head to clear it from the fog left by the blow. He had never been able to understand the logic behind Caboose's battle cries, but whatever it was it seemed to terrify the enemy. Tucker could understand that. It scared him a lot of the time as well. As he watched Caboose's attacks break the enemy force, and saw the usually good natured figure turn and return to the base tucker began to wonder, "Will we get through this?" Then with a shrug he turned and staggered back to the blue base…
"E.T.A. 10 minutes," the pilot called back from the drop-ship's cockpit, 'Prepare to disembark."
Church sat in silence as the rest of the squad grabbed their weapons and prepared for landfall. Suddenly the radio crackled to life.
"Squad Delta-22-Ringo-Charlie, do you read, over?"
Church switched on his mike, "Roger that command, this is Delta-22-Ringo-Charlie. Sergeant Church reporting. What are your orders? Over."
"Sergeant, you are to change your trajectory and land near the Blue base. The local forces there need to be eliminated. They are putting up some resistance. Over."
Roger that command. Over and out."
Church flicked off his mike and looked up to see the rest of his squad looking at him. "What is it?" he asked.
"We heard the orders", said Rourke, "Are we really going to get rid of everyone at Blue base?"
Church shrugged, "We have our orders. We know what we've been told to do. We know what we have to do. And now", he said as he strapped his shotgun on his back, his pistols to his belt and picked up his rifle, "now we improvise." And with that he walked into the cockpit, his fist into the back of the co-pilot's head and aimed his gun at the pilot. The whole thing took only a few seconds.
"You will fly on our present course until I say otherwise. When I say, you will take your friend here and a parachute for both of you, and you will jump overboard. Is that understood?"
"Y-yes sir," the pilot stammered.
Church turned and called back to the squad, "All of you. If this you do not wish to be deemed traitors in the eyes of this army then I suggest you disembark presently. If you choose to stick with me, you will be abandoning this vessel soon anyway." With that he turned and looked back out the front of the drop-ship…
Tucker and Caboose held the advancing force off as they advanced towards the entrance of the base. Sister sat on top of the fortress and was demonstrating a surprising skill with a sniper rifle. But tucker knew that they couldn't hold the enemy off forever. As he watched, yet another drop-ship came into view as it approached the canyon. He shook his head to remove this thought from his mind and fired again…
"Now, everyone out!" barked Church. As the pilot dragged his partner to the back of the ship and the rest of his team disembarked, parachutes strapped to their backs. Church looked out as he locked the controls. As the ship sped towards it's destination he looked out at the ground drawing closer, the base becoming clearer, the first of the attacking soldiers turning their heads to look at the incoming ship…
The ship struck the soldiers with a force that shook the ground. Tucker watched as the vessel ground through the dirt, and saw a figure leap from the back of it, gattling-guns attached to each arm. As soon as he landed the man began to fire into the middle of the enemy forces. And as he watched he saw fire coming from other places as well. One man could be seen spinning a collection of ropes over his head, another was rushing the enemy with a battle rifle and a third, a young woman was firing carefully with a sniper rifle. Soon the enemy forces were running and Tucker could see their saviours marching across the grass towards the blue base, a figure in battered and dirty armour at their head, gattling-guns discarded in favour of a battle rifle. Tucker stepped out to meet them.
"Thanks for the help', he said to the leader, 'Can I ask who I'm speaking to?"
The figure looked at him for a moment, then reached up and removed his helmet. Tucker gasped.
"YOU!..."
The characters Church, Caboose, Tucker, Simmons, Sarge, Grif, Sister, Donut and Doc are owned by Rooster Teeth Productions.