A/N: I was given one word to include somewhere in a chapter as an exercise - Sly here is your surreal chapter. . .
One Hundred and Five
"Heard you white jobs were still around."
"Sats!" Both Whisk and Didge jumped up from the rec table and grasped their vat brother in a welcoming embrace. Still laughing, Sats held Didge back to look at him and smiled. "Steady on," he said, his eyes glistening with genuine happiness in seeing the two 501st.
"Will you look at you two! Bludging back here on Triple Zero while we are out saving the universe!"
"Look at you more like it." The 212th soldier had finally marked his armour. He had three interlocking rings on his left shoulder pauldron. One was in the orange of his unit, the other two were outlined in the infamous cerulean.
"What's with this fancy pattern?" Didge asked as he intonated to the design.
"Well," he started before Kix walked past and patted him on the shoulder.
"Welcome back Sats."
"Sir,' he replied.
Kix stopped and smiled. "How many times do I have to tell you, same rank as you brother."
Sats blushed slightly and nodded, "Thanks. Thanks Kix."
He turned back to the two eager faces of his vatties and smiled again. He looked rougher than normal. Sats had lost a tooth which he decided he could live without and was sporting a couple of fresh scars down the left side of his face. His hair was wild and woolly; he looked long overdue for a haircut. Whisk noticed his nails were dirty and he smelled like he should have gone to the refresher before entering the rec room. Sats knew Whisk was checking him over and stood a little straighter.
"You look as though you've been pulled through an exhaust pipe backwards?"
Sats smiled again, his missing tooth was something they had to get used to, but it wasn't his face that Whisk was commenting on.
"That must have hurt?"
The collective mirth stopped. Sats suddenly looked older and more battle hard than the two in blue.
"Leave it will ya," he said more quietly.
"How long were you in?" Being the medic, he just couldn't leave a dent like that alone.
Sats shook his head, "it's nothing, was nothing, OK? Come on Whisk," he implored, "it's been ages since we've all been together."
He caught Didge eyeing off the damage to the chest plate as well.
They knew it was obviously not deep enough to kill or compromise the suit, but the internal damage from a blow that hard would have sent any trooper home and into the tank for the better half of a standard week.
What was more sobering wasn't the mark or the appearance of their little brother, but the fact that Sats had made it on his own. He was surviving the war without either of them watching his back. He had found other brothers to do just what they had done for the past eleven years.
They sat at a table, continuing to argue and laugh about the war when more 212th entered the room. They all looked tired and dirty, their amour pungent with the scent of a hard fought battle. The war wasn't getting any easier to fight, it was, if anything becoming more problematic and tiresome. Sats sat up and nodded to one in particular. Chopper moved forward and sat down next to him, placing his caf heavily on the table. Unlike Sats, he was fresh from the bacta; clean and scrubbed anew.
"Here you guys have had a tough run?"
Chopper smiled and slapped Sats on his back, 'nothing we can't handle hey Sats."
.
"Move it, move it, move it." Chopper was hot on Sats' heels, yelling at him the entire time. Sats kept his head down, focussing on the building coming up fast in front of him. The wind coupled with the rain made the sprint slippery and arduous.
[Oomph]
Sats skidded and lost his footing, careering into the ground. With ease, the seasoned trooper grabbed him hard under the shoulder plate and lifted him effortlessly back up to his feet.
"I said move it rookie!"
He was then flung forward and slammed up against a partly broken wall. Chopper shucked another ammo pack into his deece and turned to check on the soldier next to him.
"That was surreal," Sats choked out.
"No, that was fekking close, that's what that was," Chopper replied laughing.
Chopper then spotted a small opening and flicked his head, "in there, now." Sats watched as the seasoned trooper moved forward and dived into the cavern and with a quick check of the periphery promptly followed.
Then everything went quiet, like all the sound had been sucked out of the air.
Choppers helmet turned to Sats slowly, "wait for it," he said quietly.
"Argh!" they both yelled in unison as the Hyenax poked his head into the hole and bared rows of razor sharp teeth. It grabbed Chopper between its jaw and the sound of plastoid cracking under the pressure was unmistakable. Sats couldn't fire his weapon for fear of hitting Chopper as he was thrashed around the small space, the creature unable to fit his head back out through the opening with its prey still in its mouth.
"Shoot!" Chooper yelled out, "shoot the fekker."
Sats followed the carnivorous canine's eye and waited. Chopper looked like a rag doll, being swung around wildly, all the time continually yelling at him to fire.
The noise was deafening.
Sats knew he had to make a decision and fast. Scrambling up against the far wall he took in a deep breath and released it slowly before he lifted his deece and fired into the right eye of the animal.
It yelped and dropped its prey with a sickening thump onto the ground. The Hyenax withdrew its head and disappeared to lick its wounds. They didn't have much time. The animal had tasted blood, and would be back to finish the kill.
Chopper, in obvious shock stood and stumbled over to Sats. "Get this fekking armour off me!" Sats knew he was in trouble, the red already staining the areas around the cracks in his armour.
As the younger soldier worked fast to strip Chopper's black body suit down, the scarred trooper watched the concern in Sats' face as he began to pack the puncture wounds with gauze.
Chopper began laughing and coughing at the same time. "Now that, my young friend was surreal."
"I wish I had my recorder on," Sats laughed, "you should have seen yourself."
"Shut the fek up, you should have heard yourself, screaming like a stuck mynock!"
Sats noticed the blood trickle out the side of Choppers mouth. Moving his deece around onto his back, Sats detached his pack and crouched down again.
"What we need to do, is get you outta here before that thing comes back for dessert. Come on, let's see if you can stand."
Sats hauled Chopper to his legs which immediately buckled under him. He had another go but failed on the second attempt.
Chopper grabbed at Sats' arm, "leave me will ya? I've had a good run."
"That'll be the fekking day. Can you imagine," Sats grunted out as he lifted Chopper onto his shoulders, "what the men would do to me if they heard I left you behind." He jostled the injured man slightly before he stepped out through the opening into the now pelting rain. Scanning the area, he called it in.
"This is CT-43-5643. I require urgent medical a-siss. Over."
"CT-43-5643, what is grid location?"
Sats relayed the co-ordinates to the strike team and headed due east with the injured man on his shoulders.
Chopper was still balanced evenly when Sats' left foot hit the running board of the medivac bird.
"Welcome aboard gentlemen," the corporal in the hold said as the medic moved forward and brought Chopper down onto the larty's floor.
.
"Hey? You guys have room for another in your dorm? We head out again tomorrow." Sats tried to smile, but exhaustion coupled with the emotion of seeing Whisk and Didge was written all over his dirty face.
Whisk stepped forward, "we always have room for you brother."
Didge stopped, "hang on," he said, "that's only if you hit the refresher first."
Laughing they walked back into the part of the barracks designated for the 501st and while Sats enjoyed a long overdue shower, Didge and Whisk moved their two cots together.
That night the three shared the makeshift double bed. Didge lay awake next to Sats, listening to his steady breathing, his thoughts travelling back to the dents on the chest plate; his fingers began fidgeting in the dark. Whisk knew the sniper was anxious and lifted his head to look over the body in the middle.
"Go to sleep. He's doing OK," he whispered. Two dark eyes shone back at him as he turned over and pulled the blanket up.
Little did they know it would be the last time all three would sleep soundly together.
.