Ninety One
The resulting explosion flung the commando sergeant up and hard against a boulder.
So hard, it broke the almost impermeable katarn armour over his chest. He heard the crack and then the feeling as though he couldn't take a breath. He was more than winded, the armour had embedded itself into his chest, but he didn't have time to assess the physical damage, the Krish were lining up to have another go. He utilized the 360 degree HUD of his bucket and yelled at the female agent behind him.
"Head back, under there. Now!"
"Niner, you OK?" Darman had seen the explosion and had made the most of the chaos it offered to drag Corr behind some vegetation and pulled part of a log over the two of them. They were hidden, and more importantly safe, for the time being.
Niner faced off against the two alien humanoids, they were yelling between each other, reloading the weapon and getting it ready to fire again.
"Not so fast," Niner said under his breath as he flicked the vibro blade open and released it from his gauntlet. Jostling it quickly in his right hand he aimed and threw it towards the one on his left. It embedded in the thick skull and Niner waited the obligatory five seconds for the Krish to finally succumb and drop to his knees before falling face forward to the ground.
It was too late for Niner to regroup as another hand held cannon pulse was fired towards him, he turned quickly to ascertain the location of the RIA and was immediately aware of the pain biting at his chest. As if in slow motion he moved towards her and the area she was trying in vain to scramble under.
The noise from the tumbling rocks was deafening and the commando momentarily thought of the woman minus a bucket and the obligatory baffles. Niner's helmet went into hyper drive, registering all sorts of air contaminants; dust, mould, soil content and crushed rock. He completely dwarfed her body, pinning her down under the armour knowing he could sustain more in the safety of the encapsulated suit. All the while his chest was screaming in retaliation of being put in another strenuous situation. He breathed through the pain until he felt confident that the avalanche had stopped.
Slowly he rolled off her but not before a small whelp escaped from him involuntarily. He was in pure agony, but would to wait a minute for the dust to settle before reaching for the analgesics.
Niner had to regroup.
They had survived the initial battle, now they had to get through the trial the elements had thrown at them.
Where was Darman and Corr? Had Atin managed to get an answer out of Intrepid?
All this was racing through his pain muddled mind as he automatically began trying his comm.
"Sarge, sarge! You copy?" It was Darman beating him to it.
"Yeah, we're good. Corr and Atin?"
"Atin is still up on the peak, he's good. Corr is, is with me." Niner knew something was up by Darman's tone.
"Dar, what's your status?"
"Corr has taken two shots to the torso. He's stable and we are in a good position out of sight."
"Keep it that way. We are ok in here, once we get reinforcements on the ground we can get them to dig us out."
"Sarge, I saw you take the heat of that blast, you ok ner vod?"
"Repeat, we are ok in here, just keep that boof head of yours down and make sure Corr stays alive. Kal will have me if we get him killed on the first trip out."
Darman chuckled slightly, "he's stable sarge. The agent?"
"A-ok."
"Ulyc ner vod."
"Copy that."
Niner closed down his comm to low and removed his helmet and surveyed their new surrounds. They were completely buried in a small cavern. They had minimal room, no light and were unable to sit up completely.
"Just as well I don't suffer claustrophobia," she mumbled to herself before she continued. "Agent Tanner Mills."
"Pardon ma'am?"
"My name is Tanner Mills."
"They call me Niner." He didn't mean to sound off hand and uninterested, but right then, the commando had a bigger agenda; pain management.
She nodded her head and watched as he turned on the external light of his helmet and placed it in front of them and began to strip down to get a look at the damage his armour had caused.
"Argh," he growled as he pulled the grey fragment of katarn from his chest, and swore when he saw the blood quickly soak through the black bodysuit.
Tanner could see the agony etched on his face, the small beads of sweat together with this white complexion a dead give away at the level of pain he was trying hard to disguise.
"Here, with your permission," she said moving forward and tugging at the fine black material.
Niner helped her move the body suit down to his waist and strained his head to take in the wound.
"Fek."
It was bad.
The katarn armour had been compromised and had split, causing a serious laceration to the left side of his chest, extending deep, into the underlying muscle. He had to staunch the flow of blood a-sap and began fumbling for his kit.
Tanner quickly grabbed the bag from the commando's hand.
Finding the field med pack she began pulling items out and lining them up in front of her. Being with Intelligence she had previous army med training for just such an event. She retrieved the hypos and injected the Morpha first before unwrapping the sterile gauze. She then angled her body up against the commandos and pressed hard on the wound with the material, holding it still as he sucked in a long, pain fraught breath through his teeth.
"Just give it a minute or two," she replied calmly.
She was talking to the converted.
Niner didn't need reminding on how long it would take for the drugs to hit his system. He threw his head back down on the earth behind him and waited for the sedative to take its effect.
Tanner lifted the gauze up and ticked her tongue.
"It's not slowing down. It needs to be sutured."
"Use the Surgiglue."
She looked at the tube, moving it into the light to read the instruction for use.
"It's in Aurebesh!"
"I thought you said you were with intelligence?"
"Standard Basic would be nice under the circumstances!"
"Just open-the-tube and apply to the surface. Wipe away as much blood as possible first."
Niner was annoyed; he was trained to do this on himself since he was eight years old, every millilitre of blood compromised his fitness and ultimately his survival.
"That's gonna hurt."
"Give it to me," Niner was losing his composure with the self appointed nurse.
The fact that he couldn't sit up properly was making triage difficult.
"Lie back, I can do it."
"Well, just do it fekking quick ok?"
That was it.
The last piece of his patience gone, along with the pain.
He was annoyed at the way this mission had played out and now he was buried under God know how much earth with the one person he was tasked to bring back to Coruscant.
He just assumed that she would be safest with him.
Then he remembered something Kal used to shout at them during their training back on Kamino, 'never assume anything,' he would repeat over and over again.
Niner had made a mistake, and he had no one else to blame but himself.
Tanner worked quietly and quickly.
She wiped away as much blood as possible before opening the Surgiglue and applied it to the incision. She then pushed the skin together and counted to thirty and gingerly released her fingers in the hope that it had worked. She waited and satisfied that the glue had done its job, she dressed the newly closed wound with a field bacta patch.
"I think that'll do for now. There will be increased pressure due to internal bleeding but - "
"OK, I got it." He craned his head to look at the patch and satisfied he breathed a sound of relief.
All they had to do now was sit tight and wait for Republic reinforcements to arrive and retrieve them.
He turned his head to the woman lying next to him.
"You must be hungry? In my pack I have some rations."
"Fifth layer?"
It was like a jolt to the heart.
Fi had always packed his dry rations on the fifth layer, it was standard Republic protocol. Niner preferred them further down, next to his hygiene kit.
Agent Mills would have known where they would be stored. Niner knew that Republic Intelligence Agents often trained with the Cuy'val Dar on Kamino in secret.
Not so secret to the commandos though.
"No, no," he stammered, "here, pass it over."
Tanner looked at the soldier and moved the pack over as close to him as space allowed. Niner winced and opened the bottom layer, and found the precious dry ration cubes. He tossed them at the woman who collected and unwrapped one and offered it back to the commando.
Niner chewed and swallowed, he had no appetite; he was on autopilot and ate through no alternative other than it was time to do so.
He couldn't move his left arm to check his chrono without compromising his chest wound. He moved his right hand over his torso and began fumbling around at the clasp.
"Here, I can - "
"Leave it," he replied a little too loudly.
"Just trying to - "
"Well, don't, ok?"
Tanner rolled back down onto her back and looked up at the darkness surrounding them.
"This is all my fault isn't it?" She then began to relieve herself of the greave armour he had devised for her.
"I hate to burst your bubble ma'am, but it's our job to do as we are told; to extract people when given the order. This is just another permutation of a contingency we are trained to expect."
That's when he noticed the blood seeping through her top. Niner had inadvertently lacerated her chest bilaterally when he shucked the vibro's into the greaves to hold her into him during the free fall down the cliff face.
"Agent Mills, you're injured."
"It's ok," she said as she shimmied out of the top in the cramped space and looked over at the medpack again. Rifling through she found another two bacta patches and placed both over each breast, gingerly moving her brassiere back to hold them firmly against her skin. Niner caught a glimpse of the pure white skin stained with red and averted his eyes.
It made him feel even worse; he knew that would have been painful and she had never complained.
Agent Tanner Mills was the real deal; a true professional.
An awkward silence ensued.
Niner knew nothing of the prisoner they were sent in to extract, the Republic intel didn't even bother to mention that it was a woman they were issued to bring home. It seemed that the more the war was progressing, the less they would be told.
"How long do you think we'll be here?"
"Not sure," and it was the truth.
Niner didn't even know whether the remaining Krish had given up on the fight and had returned back to their village. They had done a good job in holding them off only to be thwarted at the last stage by a random shot to his chest and an unlucky blast to the rock face that protected them.
In fact, the cave in had probably saved both their lives.
Niner closed his eyes and let the pharma's do their job, relaxing his muscles and allowing himself a short sleep. He was woken by her voice speaking in hushed tones to Darman down the comm.
"Wha, what's going on?"
"Shh, it's Darman," she whispered. "There is a group of Krish doing another patrol. We need to keep quiet until they pass."
Niner swallowed hard and was more annoyed that he missed the comm message and had fallen asleep. He moved gingerly and couldn't help but cry out at the pain that had begun to ravage his chest again.
Tanner moved in quickly, pressing her hand up against his mouth, her eyes pleading him not to make another sound. Niner got the hint, and their eyes locked for what seemed like ages.
They listened at the throaty Krish language and continued to stare at one another in the subdued lighting.
It was then Niner took in her appearance fully.
For the first time he noticed the cropped reddish brown hair and her luminescent green eyes, trailing down her face to her plump mouth. She was scrappy, and she must have noticed him taking in her appearance and smiled, her white teeth a stark contrast to the dust and dirt staining her face.
Niner reached up with his right hand and clasped the one she held against his mouth, moving it slowly aside all the time holding her gaze.
Tanner had invaded his personal space.
He had never been this close to a woman before and with his chest exposed, the usually in control commando, was fighting to maintain an ounce of it.
She dropped her gaze and scanned his torso; it moved up and down in a steady rhythm, the dark hair at his chest wet from perspiration and pain.
She then moved her hand up his taunt abdominals, under the pretence of wiping away a trail of oxidised blood. She watched as his muscles flinched involuntarily, all the time aware of the two dark brown eyes staring relentlessly at her.
Tanner moved in slightly, silently questioning the man under her if she should continue, Niner shivered slightly and dropped his eyes back to her lips and she knew then, that her invitation had been accepted.
It was like nothing he ever imagined.
Niner couldn't help but be analytical.
Soft, warm and moist, then to his utter surprise she began moving her mouth gently against his. He dared to close his eyes and drew in one long, deep breath and his mouth responded.
Their lips found a natural rhythm, working as one.
It felt good, too good and he moved his right hand slowly up her torso until it reached her lingerie, relishing in the exquisite softness of her skin.
It was as if someone had flicked a switch on in Niner and he had been changed forever.
He then let go of everything he held inside for so long.
It was his time to be young, his time to forget the war and his incessant training and just be a man. Tanner crawled up and was on top of him gently and Niner had never felt more alive.
He heard a feminine murmur of desire as he continued the assault on her mouth and neck, his physical pain forgotten as the emotional watershed continued to fall.
He held her into him, their tongues meeting, caressing until the moment when everything stopped.
"Gem."
It was just a whisper, but they both heard it.
The name he imagined for so long.
They both froze their faces hovering centimetres from each other.
He had been found out.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"It's ok, I don't mind," she replied, moving her head in again, as he turned his to the left.
She didn't care that he was thinking of another woman.
But he did.
.
"Omega, this is Commander Wolffe. We have your location. Do you copy?"
"Affirmative Intrepid, nice of you guys to remember us."
"Been a little busy Omega."
"We could say the same."
Commander Wolffe smiled at the comment from the commando. Standing on the deck of the Intrepid with his hands neatly tucked into his back, and relieved that they had managed to pin point the area the elite team had been holed up.
"Omega, are you still hot?"
"Affirmative Intrepid, we have enemy located throughout the RV site."
"Omega we are going to do a fly by and assess the activity in the area, do you copy."
Atin went to mute on his comms and yelled at the top of his voice inside his bucket, "just get us the fek of this osik hole of a planet in one piece you useless excuse of a Jango." Then with a flick he replied, "copy that Intrepid, Omega out." He was anxious, Atin knew the rest of Omega were in the thick of it and he felt helpless sitting out the action keeping the comms open. But he knew it was instrumental in leading the flight crews to their new location, three klicks from the original RV site.
.
It was like music to his ears.
Niner heard the Republic missiles screaming and making contact with the earth, clearing the area of any remaining Sep sympathisers.
It was another hour before the two heard the familiar voices outside their dark tomb.
"Ner'ika, Corr is in the larty being airlifted back to Intrepid. They are going to try and get you out now. What's it look like in there?"
Niner scanned the area again, squinting in pain and exhaustion. "It's relatively secure Dar, a couple of large boulders are holding up most of the smaller stuff. We're good to go, and it sure would be nice to stand up for a while."
Darman got the hint, "we'll get you out soon ner vod."
"Where's Atin?"
"Here Sarge, giving these grunts a commando lesson in retrieval."
Niner laughed and looked at the woman lying next to him.
"We're going home Agent Mills. We're going home."
.
.