Chapter LXXVIII: Resume Playback.
1530hrs, 26 December 2013, Socotra, Yemen.
"Have to trust someone to be betrayed," Captain Price, Modern Warfare 2.
"Are you sure?" COMUSNAVCENT asked President over the secure line.
"Yes, that is my order," POTUS said to him, stoically, trying to be as unmoved as she could possibly be. It was hard giving orders like this, but she had to stand firm and resolute.
"Of course, Madame President." COMUSNAVCENT hung up the phone and looked at his J-2.
"That's…quite strange."
"What did the President want?" the J-2 asked him, poking at his tablet computer. He quickly exited out of a game of Angry Birds and got back to the task at hand.
"She wanted me to halt all offensive operations. No naval fire, no air support, no troop movements. Just…nothing."
"But we're so close!" the J-2 exclaimed. "We've gotten this far, now all that remains is to destroy all of those UGVs! Look!" He pointed to the digital monitors, which showed a huge group of youma gathering in the center part of the island. "We can end this!"
"Orders are orders. POTUS must know something we don't," COMUSNAVCENT replied wearily to his J-2. "At least we can take stock of what our losses are…"
The communications officers in the room started to recall the aircraft in flight, per the President's orders.
"All units, you are to cease operations immediately. All callsigns RTB for debriefing."
"USS Vinson, are you sure about that?"
"Affirmative Shark 4-2. Return to base immediately. Out."
"This looks like a good spot," Mina said to Serena. They were coming up on a small dried out riverbank, down a small path from the "S1" road. "We need to stop here, rest and get collected." The area at least looked somewhat defensible, with some high ground, rocky cover, and good lines of sight. It was better than nothing.
"Okay, that sounds good." Mina stopped the buggy where indicated, and the team piled out.
Serena breathed in, taking in the smell of dust, smoke and occasionally, the smell of death from the already decomposing bodies scattered across the island. She wondered how the hell she was going to get out of this situation.
"Raye, you're hit. Again," Amy said, hopping out of the jeep, looking up at Raye. She was climbing down from the machine gun.
"Fuck, you're right." Blood trickled down her right arm, staining her uniform as it did so.
"I think I'm out of healing solution, so all I can do is patch you up and give you some local anesthetic."
"Fine, just do what you need to do." Amy opened up one of the small first aid kits that she carried on her, first cleaning the wound, then applying a bandage.
"Hey, Mina, can you look in the buggy and see if you can find any more first aid kits?"
"Sure." Mina went back to their buggy and poked around in some of the few compartments that were in there.
Amy took a further look at Raye's injury. The round had apparently gone through and through, but that still didn't mean that it wasn't lethal without proper treatment. Amy then applied some anesthetic, injecting it from a syringe. Raye didn't even wince, the adrenaline still at work.
"There, should be good for awhile at least," Amy said to her. "Did you find anything in the buggy?" she yelled to Mina.
Mina shook her head, jumping down from the backseat. "Nah. Those soldiers must have taken everything with them. Sorry."
"That's okay," Amy said back to her. Mina walked over to her, squeezed her hand, and then went to stand on security.
Amy turned her attention to Lita, who was checking her machine gun near a couple of large rocks. She had set up the machine gun, pointing down the dry riverbed toward the highway. If any vehicle was going to come running through there, they were going to have to get through her first. "How's your arm?" she asked.
"It's…" Lita winced. The pain was getting to be a little much. She took another look at the arm; there was some more damage, no doubt caused by the strenuous amount of fighting that had occurred after the melee in Beryl's office.
"Here, take some." Amy handed her some painkillers. Passing out pills was not her first course of action, but like it or not, Lita needed some quick relief.
"I don't have a lot of water here," Lita said, looking at the lone canteen that she had brought with her. She unscrewed the cap and chugged the pills down, hoping it was enough to keep moving.
It wasn't a high priority on their list, but since the President had decided to betray them, every little bit of equipment that they hadn't brought was costing them. Including food and water.
Serena's stomach grumbled extremely loudly. All that work that she had done, and now the body needed calories to continue functioning.
Mina, having heard Serena's stomach, handed her an emergency ration bar that had 3600 calories in it. Normally, Serena would have avoided such things, but having nothing else, she took it from Mina and wolfed it down. It was gross, but it wasn't supposed to be caviar or something like that. Or doughnuts.
"Where did you get those?" Amy asked Mina, looking at the suspicious foil packets that she was passing out to the team.
"Back at the armory, where you got that P90 there," Mina replied, handing her one of the bars. "How's that gun treating you anyway?"
"Good, but I'm almost out of ammunition," Amy said, checking her tactical vest. There were only two magazines left for the P90, but at least there was plenty of ammunition left for her MP5-PDW.
Amy saw in the corner of her eye, Serena struggling to sit up wincing in pain from all that they had been through that day. She had gingerly placed the empty wrapper back into one of her pockets; Even far away in a foreign land, they still adhered to the Japanese form of cleanliness and proper etiquette. And plus, someone was probably going to have to clean up after all of this, so one less wrapper would be much appreciated.
"Take a rest, Serena," Amy said to her. "We can take it here for a little bit." Serena shook her head. She couldn't do that, not when they were in the middle of battle.
"Serena, take a nap," Lita insisted, from her position from behind the rocks. "We'll let you know if there's something going on, okay?"
Seeing that the rest of the team wanted her to rest up, she obliged them, propping her head up against one of the tires on the buggy. Within seconds, Serena Tsukino was asleep.
"Afternoon, Serena."
She opened her eyes to see Mamoru Chiba, her old boyfriend standing over her. He had a slight smile on his face, one that she remembered him having so long ago.
"Mamoru…it's nice to see you…" Serena said, but it was an indignant reply, one dripping with anger and bitterness. She stood up, taking in the scene around her. She was in the schoolyard of her high school, but it was devoid of students. Some more inspecting revealed that she was back in her sera fuku, the sailor uniform, and was sitting on a stone bench next to a tree. The sun was setting in the distance, casting long shadows over everything.
"It's Darien now," Mamoru/Darien said back, continuing to smile at her. The sun's rays managed to momentarily hit his white teeth, making them sparkle ever so briefly.
"Why did you change your name?" Serena interrogated.
He shrugged.
"I blame the Americans. Particularly the company I was working for." He sighed. "None of them could get my name right, so I kind of sort of changed it."
"To Darien?" That made no sense to Serena.
Darien shot back, pretending to be hurt by her words. "Hey, throw me a fucking bone here. I'm trying my best."
"Fine." Serena crossed her arms and glared at Darien, who was resting against a tree near the bench. "Why are you bugging me at a time like this?"
More shrugging.
"Is that all you do that now? Shrug? Is that something they taught you in America?"
The smile was slowly starting to fade away as Serena become more and more agitated. "Serena, look, this might seem odd…"
"Try me. In the last six months, I've been blown up, both of my legs torn off, hospitalized, outfitted with prosthetics, outfitted with microchips in my brain, killed god knows how many men in armed combat, betrayed by the most powerful nation in the world, and now you're here talking to me in a dream. Do your fucking worst."
Darien held up his hands now in actual defeat. "Hey, Serena, fine. Be that way. You were so much nicer when we were together…"
"Were we?" Serena spat back. "You tell me that! You went to America and left me all by myself! No explanation, no nothing!"
The smile was completely gone now. "Serena…"
"You just wanted a nice, young, naïve girl, someone who would look up to you, fawn over you, leap at every command…is that what you wanted?" Several tears welled up in her eyes, remembering the happy days gone past. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair! None of this was.
"So, kind of like how you got yourself into this situation then?" Darien replied to her.
"Don't." Serena held up her pointer finger and jabbed it in Mamoru's face. "This is entirely different. I don't remember killing anyone when we first slept together."
"Look, it really wasn't…"
The tears flowed down Serena's face now, remembering every single thing in graphic detail. "Mamoru, it's been so long since that day, alright? I keep losing bits and pieces of me when I think of you." She paused, looking down at the ground. This wasn't real at all, but it was just how she felt at the moment. "And these guys, this corporation, took everything I had left. So, I'm done with you. At least for now."
Mamoru/Darien looked down at his feet in shame. There was nothing he could do now; Serena had made up her mind, and that was that.
"I'm sorry it has to end this way, Serena," Mamoru said to her.
It was a long while before Serena said anything back to him. She watched as the sun finally set behind some buildings, then the horizon. The light slowly dimmed to a blackness as the rays from the sun faded away.
"Yeah," she said to him, finally. "Me too."
Serena woke up from her ever so brief catnap. It had been a spectacularly bad day it had seemed, full of running and fighting and destroying the youma that had ravaged the landscape around them. She didn't know how long she could hold them back. For hours, they had fought on. No support, no contact with the outside world, battling against ever-increasing odds. The worst part of it all, they had been abandoned. Serena took stock of their situation, looking at the SAILOR scouts…senshi…around her.
Jupiter and Mars were hurt, but could still keep on fighting. Venus and Mercury ran from position to position, trying to help SAILOR Moon prepare against seemingly unending waves of youma.
"Have you been able to contact anyone? Anyone at all?" SAILOR Moon asked Mercury, shaking her head, trying to get the memory of Darien out of her head. There would be more time to think on that later.
"I haven't been able to talk to the fleet out there," she replied. "I'm sorry."
"Goddammit," Serena cursed. "We're stuck here, trapped and running low on food and water, not to mention everything else we need."
"And we were so naive," Venus said, scanning the horizon for the enemy. "I can't believe that we were so blind."
"We all were," Mercury said. "I just wish…I just wish none of this happened." Amy sighed at the predicament they had found themselves in. She was so angry at what had happened. Why them?
"Don't mention it." Mars had limped over from her position near a well and brought over a canteen of brackish water. "It's our last full canteen. If we don't get support or something, we're going to…"
"I know, I know," Serena said. "Amy, did you try to get into contact with the fleet? Anybody friendly?"
"The youma have sealed off the entire area," she replied. "Nothing is getting in or out of this place."
"We have to keep moving, this position is not safe," Jupiter said. Her arm was in bad shape and she would be down to one good arm if she didn't get back to base soon. "We have to reach the sea, that's our only chance if we can contact someone…"
"Serena, they're coming," Venus reported. "At our twelve. I'm counting maybe three hundred. Maybe more." The huge dust trails from their movements clouded the horizon, an ominous signal of things to come.
"Okay, Amy, Venus, start packing up the stuff and get into the buggy over there," Serena ordered. "Raye and Lita will get into the…"
"More contacts!" Lita yelled out. "They're on the left."
"Oh Christ," Raye muttered. She crossed herself before realizing what she was doing. "All that Catholic schooling…"
"They're to the right!" Amy yelled.
There were now over one-thousand youma, readying themselves for an attack on five scared, young, and completely outclassed SAILOR scouts. Their survival prospects were very low at this point.
"What do you want us to do?" SAILOR Jupiter asked. "We can still make a break for it. Amy could signal those guys out at sea, and they could help…"
Serena looked out the barren landscape. Twenty kilometers to the sea. But it had taken them at least a good part of the day to cross twenty…and in their condition, they were in no shape to fight their way to the coast.
"We are so screwed."
"Oh, you're just now coming to that conclusion?" Raye snapped. "Thanks for pointing out the obvious. I came to that realization when were inside there."
"Can it, Raye," Mina said. "What do you want us to do, Serena? We'll follow you."
Serena looked at the huge dust trails that were kicked up by youma as they approached.
"I'm not going to die running," she said. "But at least some of us can make it. Mina, Amy, make a dash for the sea. Don't take the buggy, it'll make you a bigger target. Plus, it's not in good working order, after that last beating."
Mina and Amy stared at her in disbelief. "Serena, I'm not going to leave you," Mina said.
"Neither am I," Amy said as well.
"If we all die here, our story doesn't get told," Serena replied stoically. "You and Amy know the entire details of what went on here. Go. That's my final decision. Raye, Lita and I will hold as long as possible."
Mina and Amy looked at each other, but could not say anything else in objection.
"Good luck," Mina said to the rest of SAILOR them. She unslung her HK417 and handed it to Lita, giving her whatever ammunition she had left. They would need to be as light as possible, and that heavy battle rifle was only going to slow her down.
"You too," Lita said to her.
"Raye, Serena, Lita," Amy said to the three of them. Mina and Amy faced toward them, and then bowed deeply, showing their respect to the ones who were putting it all on the line so that maybe somebody, anyone, would listen to what had really happened here. They bowed back, reciprocating their respect.
Without further protest, Mina and Amy started running toward the ocean as fast as they could.
SAILOR Moon, Mars and Jupiter turned and prepared to fight one last battle.