(A/N) Hello again! It's Saturday, so that means it's time for a new update. This chapter is brought to you by the excellent anna1795, from the perspective of her character, Agent Virginia. For all you guys anxious to meet our new cast of characters, you won't have to wait too much longer. :)
Enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-Four - Prison Break
Agent Virginia
Written by anna1795
"Virginia, Virginia…you know, I thought about her, and quite a lot. I can't seem to make up my mind on it. She's caring, but she can also pack a punch. She's determined, but afraid of something. And she doesn't like to talk about herself. She seems alright, but…it's like she's hiding something. Then again, don't we all have something to hide?" – Agent Florida's Personal Log
"Can we at least TRY to double-time it?" Virginia cringed at Pennsylvania's hiss as they ducked under trees and over vines of the jungle near New Delphi. They had all turned off their radios off except for Florida, who was keeping in tune with the MOI for information on the downed Freelancers. So far, the news was sounding bleak. There had been no developments since the "eyes in the sky" (as Virginia liked to think of the managers on the bridge of the ship) had seen Carolina and the others surrender and be taken away by the Insurrectionists. Now, the remaining Freelancers were speeding through the jungle to try and track where the Innies had gone.
"Wyoming, give me something to work with," Penn barked to the Brit, who knelt down on the ground and looked for signs of which way the Innies had gone.
"They went south from here, towards that area over there," the white-armoured Freelancer pointed south through the trees. Penn nodded.
"Wait. There's something else here," Virginia murmured, waving them over to a rather large tree with several protruding branches. A piece of fabric hung limply in the humid air, and she pulled it off the branch. It matched the same material with the armour of the Insurrectionists. "They also went north. They split here for some reason."
"How do we know that they didn't just stop here for a bit while they debated where they were going to go?" Wyoming challenged. Virginia pointed to the ground.
"I've seen this tactic before. They split off into two groups here and go around in a splinter movement back to their base. If anyone tried to follow them, then they'd split up, get confused, and fall right into a nest of snakes."
"So, where would they go then?" Penn asked.
"I think I know," Florida pulled a tablet off of his person and drew up a map. "There's a set of old mines over here. They could easily slip in there and nobody would know."
"So, we WON'T take the routes that they used, and go straight," Wyoming mused. "They'll be expecting us to come in those two directions, but we'll go straight up the middle. Then what?"
"We go in, grab the team, and get out. Simple enough," Penn shrugged, but Virginia shook her head.
"It'll take too long to go with one at a time, and they'll most likely have split them up. We need to go up the middle, like Wyoming said, but then split up and go after an assigned team mate."
"Right, so we'll go with that plan," Penn decided. "Wyoming, you go after Carolina. Florida can take York. I'll take Alaska and 479r. Virginia, you grab Massa. We'll have about ten minutes to run in there, grab them, and get out. Five minutes is more likely, though. Set your mission clocks and initiate radio silence."
"Got it!" Virginia, Florida, and Wyoming answered in unison.
"Right," Penn said finally. "Let's move." They took off again through the trees, still treading carefully so as not to draw too much attention. Sure enough, true to Florida's word, a dilapidated mine shaft came into view, looking nondescript and unassuming. The groups of soldiers and armoured vehicles swarming around the place, however, were a different story.
Virginia looked over to Penn, who held up a fist to hold them in position. He pointed to Wyoming, who snuck around to the northeast. As soon as he was out of sight, Penn pointed to Florida and directed him southwest. Finally, the team leader looked to Virginia, tapped his wrist twice, and pointed her slightly more west than south. With a salute, Virginia took off at a run, using the protruding tree roots and her training to her advantage to maintain careful silence.
She braked suddenly and ducked behind a tree trunk as a pair of soldiers marched into view, both carrying assault rifles. She drew a serrated knife from its sheath, took a deep inhale, exhaled slowly, and counted in her mind. 1…2…3! With a burst of energy, she leapt out at the petrified soldiers and plunged her blade into the unprotected gap between one soldier's helmet and his armored chest. With a gurgle and sigh, he collapsed to the ground. Wasting no time, she grabbed the other's rifle in her armoured hand, twisted it harshly from his grip, and slammed him against a tree with her elbow at his neck. Before a sound could be made, she had the knife under his ear.
"You're going to answer a question for me and do it right, or I'll shove this up into your brain. Got that?!" Virginia hissed, applying more pressure to her elbow and constricting his windpipe. The soldier gagged and weakly nodded his head. "Injured soldier, in armour like mine, woman with brown hair, taken into your base. Where is she?"
After a moment of continued gagging, the soldier spat out, "South entrance, take a left, third door on the right. Can't miss it."
"Good," Virginia muttered. With a snarl, she slammed the tip of her knife upward behind the man's ear and into his brain stem, then gave a vicious twist. The Innie in her grip stiffened for one second and went immediately slack the next, having no time to scream. Carefully, Virginia lowered him so that he was leaning against the tree, his lolling head obscuring the fatal wound to the head. Sheathing her knife, Virginia made sure her sniper rifle was secured to her back, grabbed one of the rifles, and snuck off again.
It didn't take long for said entrance to come into view, guarded by at least twenty soldiers and a Scorpion tank. She hid in a clump of bushes again as a pair of headlights skimmed over the top. Then, thinking quickly, she opened up her radio channel slightly and sent a ping off to a certain pilot.
"Yello! This is 343-R, ace Pelican pilot extraordinaire! What can I do you for?"
"Hey, it's Virginia. I'm sending you some coordinates. Care to come and give us a lift?" she whispered.
"Can do, missy. I knew this Pelican would come in handy for picking up chicks someday!" the male pilot crowed on the other end. With a shake of her head, Virginia signed off.
"Hey, I think I heard something over here!" One of the soldiers shouted, and Virginia tensed. Had they heard her discussion? It really HAD been too risky to break radio silence! However, out of the corner of her visor, she saw them running west of her position. She realized that they must have been distracted by something of Florida's. The Scorpion's turret turned in a different direction than where she was, as did the lights flooding from around the mine entrance. Using a sudden burst of speed, Virginia bolted for the entrance, using the rifle to mow down three soldiers that squawked at her charge, and dove through the entrance just as all the attention was turned back to where three bodies lay crumpled in the dirt. Florida would have to take care of himself from here.
True to her victim's instructions, there was a hallway on the immediate left, and Virginia slid into that to come face to face with five heavily armed Innies. She used her last three shots on the first two, shuffled backwards to avoid returned fire, and grabbed her sniper rifle. She rolled from her position and took aim, her bullets slamming into the face, chest, and stomach of two of her enemies. The last one was still standing, but not after a carefully aimed knife that lodged itself between his eyes. The last soldier fell, but Virginia's entrance hadn't necessarily been quiet. She could hear more soldiers on the way. She needed to hurry.
"Massa!" Virginia called into the third door on the right, and a pained moan was her only answer. Wasting no time with the ancient wooden door, Virginia kicked it in and grabbed her roommate, who had been carelessly dropped on the floor of the old cell. Dust and blood mixed together with who knew what else to make a nasty sludge for the unconscious woman to be laying in, and it had caked and dried on her face. Virginia holstered her rifle and scooped up her slighter teammate in a fireman's carry. Massa was a lightweight, but Virginia knew that she couldn't hold her teammate up forever if she was chased.
"Virginia?" Another voice called. "That you out there?" It was cracked and pain-laden, but there was no mistaking the voice of York. She rushed out of the cell, saw Florida join her, and pointed to where she heard York's voice come from, right across the hall. Florida took out the lock with a shot from his newly acquired shotgun, and it flew open with a bang.
York leaned against the doorway, his tan armour missing, replaced with a tattered t-shirt and trousers, his body covered in bruises and scratches, blood that trickled from scars on his face. He gave a weak grin as Florida put his arm over his shoulder. "What took you guys?" he croaked. A large bruise was turning ugly shades of green and purple on his throat. He had apparently said the wrong things to the wrong people.
"Good to see you too, York," Florida greeted the wounded Freelancer jovially. "I suppose we should take our leave?"
Virginia stopped him before he could move. "What's happened to their armour?"
"Innies took it. Were very interested in it, apparently. Penn said he'd, and I quote, 'deal with it'."
"Okay, then. Let's get out of here. 343-R should be right outside," Virginia said, directing them to the doorway. The sound of approaching Insurrectionists were DEFINITELY getting louder now. They started hustling towards the south entrance of the mine and escaped the musty air. Virginia and Florida both paused. They could see enemy soldiers running towards their position outside.
"Florida, want to help me give them a little present?" Virginia took out a frag grenade.
"I was just thinking the same thing," Florida nodded, drawing out another grenade. With careful throws, they pulled the pins and chucked the two weapons through the hole in the earth and took off running towards the trees, their charges in tow.
Virginia ducked behind a tree and pressed Massa close to her chest while Florida did the same with York. A few seconds later, and the ground literally shook under their feet. Rock and debris exploded upwards as part of the ground caved in and sank around their exit, trapping everything inside the section of the mine. The earth split and threatened to spiderweb to the jungle, but stopped partway and simply caved into the enormous fissure. The mine, and their pursuers, were gone forever.
The branches of the trees blew in all directions as a large aircraft appeared overhead. A Pelican dropped from the sky and hovered expectantly over the scarred surface. "Where am I supposed to land?!" 343-R asked indignantly over the radio. Virginia and Florida simply carried York and Massa over the remaining boulders to the closest available point and kind of tossed them haphazardly onto the Pelican. Virginia strapped the two injured Freelancers into available seats while Florida went to speak with the pilot. York had just passed out.
"Attention, passengers. This is your captain speaking. We will be departing from this airport terminal at a breakneck pace to scoop up a few other stragglers over on the other side and then make a beeline for our destination, the Mother of Invention. I'd strap in if I were you, boys and girls. The medical staff getting ready for our injured guests will probably NOT appreciate an extra load to their work. Refreshments are not served on this flight. Have a good day!" 343-R spoke cheekily and haughtily over the loudspeaker and signed off with a snap. Virginia could only shake her head as she checked Massa's pulse examined a large cut on York's head. She looked over slowly at Florida, who stood in the entrance to the cockpit.
"Nothing," he said quietly. "I won't disturb you." The blue-armoured Freelancer sat down quietly and strapped in, obviously very tired. They all would be, Virginia mused as she took a seat next to Massa while 343-R spun the plane around in a daredevil manoeuver and hovered close to the ground. She was barely coherent as Wyoming half-carried Carolina onto the deck or Penn pulling 479r from his shoulder so that he could finish hauling a mumbling Alaska on board, muttering vaguely about how the missing armour had been "taken care of". By the time the door had closed and they were speeding upwards, she was already dead asleep.
