A/N: Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I swear, I add one word to this in post-post editing, and word count goes from 2552 to 2638.
DMZ
Amestris-Drachma Border Region
0200 Hours
The woman had passed out about 15 miles back. Petrov tried not to bounce the truck around too much. He wouldn't be driving much longer anyways. The gas gauge had redlined half a mile ago, and he was currently driving on fumes, luck, prayer and momentum. Not necessarily in that order.
Even with the pedal nearly floored, Petrov trying to coax every last bit of distance out of the tank, the engine inevitably spluttered, coughed, and died. "Ah, shit."
The truck wasn't going anywhere else. He managed to coast it over to a small snow drift and park it. He felt confident that nobody would be finding it, hidden behind the snow as it was. Petrov pulled on a pair of woolen gloves, rubbed his hands together, then pushed open the door.
"Fuck!" The blizzard slapped him in the face. The weather reports had mentioned a blizzard, but he had no idea! "Fuck this!" He pulled the door shut, shaking off the snow that had accumulated on him. "I'm never going to be able to make it back to Briggs!"
Petrov made a move to turn on the truck's heater. He smacked the button a couple of times, but quickly gave up once he realized that no gas meant no heat. "Damn." No gas, no heat, no way to move through the snow on foot. They were stuck. "I hope the patrols are out today."
DMZ
Amestris-Drachma Border Region
0300 Hours
The balaclava was necessary, but he wished it didn't feel so damn restrictive. Dawes tugged at the cloth, trying to get it not to be so tight to no avail. He looked back at the small group following him.
Fullmetal seemed to be stuck in the snow. His brother the armor was trying to pull him out, along with the blond lieutenant. "Brother! Why are you so heavy?!"
"It's not me, it's the snow! It's grabbing my leg!"
"Dammit, this isn't working! I thought your new leg was supposed to be lighter?!"
"I just said it's the snow!"
"Can you three keep it down?" Dawes didn't bother to look back. He stared through his goggles at a green-tinted world, searching for any sign of Drachman intrusion. Private First Class Jaeger crouched beside him, behind a small boulder, radio set on his back. They both held standard issue SKS 18 rifles, Jaeger equipped with a grenade launcher.
"See anything?" Jaeger shook his head. Binoculars hung around his neck, but they were completely useless in the blizzard. As it was, they were communicating through radio headsets, the storm's howl and every other noise silenced by thick cloth.
It felt oddly peaceful, though. The white snow blanketed everything, muffling all the noise and conferring a sense of stillness on everything. It was as if the world was frozen, all motion suspended for the duration of the storm.
"One, two, three, pull!"
The stillness was shattered when a body hit him from behind. "What the- shit!" He went down in a pile of tangled limbs and bruised dignity.
"I'm free! I'm free! Praise the- oh, sorry." Havoc pulled himself up using a tree branch.
"Don't worry about it. Hey, where'd Dawes go?" He looked around, searching for the missing sergeant. Havoc thought he might have crashed into him.
From behind him, out of a small snowdrift, came a muffled "Right here, asshole." Havoc whipped his head around, searching for the source of the voice. Nothing… nothing… "Try down here." A gloved hand poked up from beneath the snow, waving around.
"Oh shit. Hey, help me out here!" Edward and Alphonse finished dusting themselves off and looked over at Havoc, who was now attempting to pull Dawes out of the snow.
"Aw, don't tell me he got stuck too?" They trudged over, Edward taking hold of Dawes' other hand and Alphonse grabbing his leg. "How'd he end up like this anyways?"
As an irate sergeant and a flustered lieutenant attempted to explain the situation, PFC Jaeger ignored the drama, choosing to focus on the mission. The storm limited visibility to only about a couple of yards in front of him. He'd complained about the weapon assignments, wanting a shotgun, or a smg, or, hell, even a carbine, but nope, they got stuck with these good for nothing rifles.
The radio set on his back acted as a relay for his team's transmissions, allowing everyone to tune in to everyone else and letting CP back at Briggs also tune in. "Come on! Pull!" Unfortunately, that meant he couldn't mute anybody.
Luckily for him, Jaeger was experienced in the art of being the radioman. He tuned out the cursing and grunting, instead letting his world shrink to what he could see through his sights. His rifle moved from left to right and back again, scanning, waiting for his comrades to finish so they could complete the patrol and get back to where it was warm.
"Zulu 6, this is CP. What's going on down there, over?" Jaeger shook himself out of his own little world.
"CP, this is Zulu 6. We ran into some trouble on our patrol. Sergeant Major Dawes got stuck in a snowdrift. We're getting him out now, over." Jaeger snuck a peek at the progress of the recovery efforts. The sergeant was mostly out of the snow, with only one boot still stuck in the muddy underlayer.
"One, two, three, pull!" With a final pull, the small group went down in a pile of bodies. Alphonse managed to position himself on the bottom and with his spikes facing downwards.
"CP, this is Zulu 6. Sergeant Major Dawes is now free. Resuming patrol, over."
"Zulu 6, this is CP. Acknowledged. Be careful out there. If the storm gets too bad, use your own judgement and return to base, out." Jaeger clicked his mic and waved to his team.
"Come on, let's go. This blizzards gonna get worse before it gets better, and I want to be in my bunk before that happens."
DMZ
Amestris-Drachma Border Region
0430 Hours
"Zulu 6, this is CP. We're getting some error reports from one of the trip sensors. A cable's broken somewhere in grid A9. You're patrol's the closest in the area, find the break and fix it. We'll get you a more specific location soon. CP, out."
"Got it, CP. Zulu 6, out." Dawes signed off on the mic and turned to his less than merry men. They'd all heard the radio, and were now looking glumly at each other. The prospect of spending even more time battling through snow and wind to repair a broken wire did nothing for their spirits. Dawes decided not to let them dwell on it.
"You heard the man, let's move, double time!" They forged a path through the storm, footsteps muffled by the carpet of white. After they lifted their feet, the footprints left behind were quickly concealed by the shifting snow, nature obliterating the marks of man.
Despite the calm and quiet, everyone was on edge. The blizzard made for wonderful cover, a Drachman black-ops operative's wet dream. They would gladly exploit this opportunity to take out a patrol here, a sensor there, and then sneak through to Briggs. A breaching charge on a door, and they'd be inside. Once in, a few well placed satchel charges and Briggs would be out of commission, or at least severely compromised. Off the top of his head Dawes could name at least three areas any half-competent soldier could sneak into.
"Zulu 6, this is CP. We've got a better fix on the location of the break, it's between junctions 4 and 5. Sensor 4's down. Slap a patch on that thing and mark the exact position on your map. We'll get a full team to repair the breach once you RTB."
"Got it. Zulu 6, out. Havoc, get that patch kit ready!"
"Okay, okay, no need to shout, I can hear you just fine!" Havoc swung his pack around to the front and rummaged through it for the patch kit. He found it, a bag containing a roll of duct tape, glue, a few self-firing chemical welding rigs, extra insulation, high grade cable, and a tool kit.
"If it's really a cut line, we only need the cable, welder, and insulation. Leave the rest in." Havoc complied, handing his pack over to Edward as he clipped the supplies onto his web gear.
"Squared away, let's go." Over the course of several minutes, with many map and compass consultations, and more than one backtrack, the group found junction 4, so named because of the multiple lines that fed into it. Dawes knew the other sensors would be serviced by the other junctions as well, providing redundancy. Unfortunately, thanks to bureaucracy design SNAFUs, the only junction servicing sensor 4 happened to be junction 4.
Finally, they located the break. A small tree, felled by the storm, had fallen across the cable, neatly severing it. "Jaeger, on station. Havoc, you too."
"Yes, sergeant. Lieutenant, give me a hand with this tree." Together, Jaeger and Havoc lifted the tree off the wire and hauled it some distance away. Jaeger then took the spare cable and insulation. He first put the insulation around the metal, making sure to leave a bit sticking out at the ends. He then wrapped the remaining material around the snapped section and slapped on two welding rigs. "Firing!"
The rigs were of a simple design, incorporating small thermite charges activated by a time-delayed magnesium sparkler. After three seconds, the magnesium would ignite the thermite and produce a brief burst of extremely localized intense heat. The rigs were used in everything from battlefield spot-weld repairs to sealing shut gun breaches.
After the light died down and the reaction fizzled out, Jaeger walked back over to check on the repairs. To his dismay, however, the welding had not taken.
"Godammit! I knew I should have left more on the ends! Fuck!" Jaeger gazed despondently at the disgusting melted mess of wire and rubber. He could see his rec time melting away along with the snow.
"Ahem. Allow me to help." Jaeger turned and saw the younger Elric approaching - what was his name? Edgar?
"By all means. As long as it gets me back in my bunk." Edward grinned and rubbed his hands together.
"Excellent. Now, watch how the master does it!" Jaeger managed to step back just in time to avoid the sparks that flew from where Edward's hands clapped together. Edward slapped his hands to the puddle, then immediately brought his elbow up in front of his nose. "Dammit, that stinks!"
The transmutation did the trick, though, and the wire fused itself back together. Rubber re-wrapped itself around the cable, and current flowed once more.
"Zulu 6, this is CP! Nice work, we're getting readings again! Looks like… hold on… ah, fuck!" The radio went silent.
"CP?! CP, come in!" There was no response for a few seconds.
"Dammit! I-" Coughing came from the command post's end of the transmission. "Zulu 6, whatever you did, it just shorted the system. We got some cached data, but the sensor banks are blown. We'll have to- fuck, get an extinguisher on that already! I don't want to put on a mask! We have to get an engineering team down there soon. Standby out there! CP, out! Put that out alrea-" The radio clicked off. As soon as it did, all present turned to look at Edward.
"Brother? What did you do?" Edward grinned nervously.
"I might have used… too much energy for too little material. Sorry?" They simply stared.
After a little while, CP got back to them, having put out the electrical fire and ventilated the room.
"Zulu 6, this is CP! We've got one more thing we want you to check out before you come back in. Some of the cached data we received before the instruments blew indicated that sensor 4 got tripped. Get over there, out."
Edward mimed the speech of the CP administrator. "'Get over there, out.' Come on! Is it really so important we have to check it out?!"
DMZ
Amestris-Drachma Border Region
0630 Hours
"Come on, why haven't they found us yet? Please don't tell me that patrols were cancelled today…"
His passenger in the back wasn't doing too well. Petrov had checked on her a few times. The first time he'd tried to shake her awake she'd responded, but now she was completely comatose. Yelling in her ear barely caused her to stir.
He'd found a spare jacket and put it over her, but the combination of cold, fatigue, and severe injuries was fast taking its toll.
"I have one flare… hope I don't have to use it." The snow was piled halfway up the truck by now. Even if the tank had anything in it, the vehicle wasn't going anywhere. "Damn near white-out out there. Flare's not gonna be any use."
The near white-out conditions were why he did not hear the footsteps.
"Shit! I recognize this make, it's Drachman! I'll be damned, CP was right about something being out here." Dawes and Jaeger approached the vehicle cautiously, with the Elrics and Havoc not far behind.
"Jaeger, get around front. If there's a driver, don't let'em see you. I'll go around the other side. Havoc, cover the back. Elrics, just… just stay out of the way." The soldiers nodded confirmation while the Elrics spluttered in protest.
Trying his best not to doze off, Petrov nearly suffered a heart attack when a rifle appeared out of nowhere, pointed at his face. As it was, he fell off his chair.
"Freeze!"
"You're fucking kidding me, right?" The balaclava wearing face was not amused.
"Out of the car, on the ground!"
"Guys, can we please just do hands in the air? I really don't want my face in the snow."
"I said on the ground! Identify yourself!"
"Okay, okay, fine." Petrov got out of the truck and lay facedown on the ground. He could tell from the accent this guy was Amestrian, but the hard part would be convincing him that Petrov was an ally. "My ID's in my back pocket. You can check for yourself, but I'm on your side."
One of the man's friends came around to keep at least one gun pointed at Petrov. The first one then circled around to the back and took out Petrov's ID.
"Get this guy on his feet and cuff him. We'll verify him back at Briggs." The man's buddy nodded and slapped a zip tie onto his wrists.
"Oh, one last thing. I've got a friend in the back you should probably check on, make sure she isn't dead." The two men stared at him for a bit then the taller one, probably the senior man present, raised a hand to his headset.
"Havoc, go check out the back. Apparently our friend's got a passenger with him." There was an awkward silence for several seconds, presumably while 'Havoc' was looking in the rear. Then came a shout so loud both men ripped their headsets from their ears. Petrov managed to catch the words that caused such pain.
"Riza?!"
A/N: All hail the rebirth of the shitty chapter!