February 25th, 2150
Private Williams slumped to ground as the group came to a stop in the middle of the forest, some 10 miles from their destination. He had dared hope that the evening break would have been the nightly camp, but after that brief respite they'd managed a few more miles before the daylight started to give way to night. This time he didn't want to even bother taking off the backpack until he heard an order from the lieutenant.
"We're camping here for the night. We're outta here at first light. Mr. Derrick, Corporal Grissom, and myself will take first watch. Everyone else, get some shuteye. We got another hike in the morning and I don't want to hear any bitching about people being tired."
Jason didn't need to be told twice, groaning as he slid the large pack off his shoulder. Not that he would admit it to the lieutenant, but he was certainly regretting slacking on the training regimen Taylor and Carver had put together for the team while they were on the rig. And he knew he wasn't the only one as he saw Brian and Trent looking visibly exhausted as they readied the camp site. The growing darkness was soon punctuated by several small light packs that the team had brought with them from the Outpost. While some of the others were busy breaking out their MREs, Jason was unrolling the small pup tent he shared with Brian; thankful he'd remembered to bring a pack a bag of that panther jerky from the rig. He planned on getting to bed early and making the night's sleep last as long as possible.
The next morning Jenn rolled over to her stomach atop her sleeping mat, she absentmindedly reached out from under the blanket to drape an arm across Jarin's back only to have her hand find solid ground where her boyfriend had slept the night before. Shaking off the remnant of sleep she threw off her blanket and quickly got dressed, exiting the tent to find the camp in full tear down mode. Not spotting Jarin among the group she quickly set about getting her section of the camp packed back up, listening to the chatter around her as she worked. It wasn't hard to pick Trent out of the crowd, his boisterous spirit unhampered by the morning.
"All I'm saying is that for three months I've been all like, 'Damn, this Luna chick is hot!'." Jenn shook her head at the remark, something Trent noticed out of the corner of his eye. "Got something to say?"
Jenn smiled wryly. "Just that maybe you haven't actually said that until know is you're afraid she'd hear and kick your ass? We all saw her and Jarin sparring, she's one hell of a fighter."
"Exactly!" Trent's reply was near immediate. "That's what makes her so hot!"
The two were interrupted when the group turned at the sounds of twigs snapping when Jarin, Sam, and Luna's men returned to camp. Jenn watched as Jarin made his way over to the station team on the far side of the camp, just out of ear shot. Getting back to rolling up the tent she missed him coming over until her he knelt beside her.
As they worked to pack the tent as tight as possible into the pack sleeve Jarin felt a need to cut into the silence. "Sorry for leaving early. Had to get up and scout the first part of the trip with Sam."
Jenn punched in the tent while Jarin pulled on the drawstring. "It's fine. Just got used to living on the rig is all."
Jarin motioned for her to help him square on the pack on his back. "Speaking of, I was thinking when we get back home that I'd talk to the commander about getting some new quarters. I don't either of our single units are going to do the job." When she didn't answer he mentally face palmed. "You want to stay on the rig, don't you?"
Jenn shrugged at the question. "Hey, if the outpost had a VI interface and robots you know where I'd be."
Jarin chuckled as he shifted the weight of the pack, turning to face Jenn. "Shouldn't have a hard time convincing Williams of that, what with your total wizardry with computers and that Luna's more likely to work with people she knows."
Jenn handed Jarin his rifle. "My thoughts exactly. The real question is if he'll let you join me."
He looked her dead in the eye. "No question, if you're leaving I'm going with you. That includes me resigning to do it."
His answer stopped Jenn in her tracks. They'd known each other since they were kids and she'd always known Jarin was literally born for the military. Hearing him say he'd up and quit just to be with her made her kick herself for even entertaining her doubts about their relationship. Unsure how to handle to more serious matters she looked around the camp. "I'll just go help Brian with the radio equipment. Talk to you later!"
Jarin shook his head and rolled his eyes as she walked through the camp. He heard someone walking up behind him, and he turned his head to the right to see David walking up beside him with Bellamy right behind his hulking frame.
"Trouble on the homefront LT?"
"Actually, no. At least, I don't think so."
David looked over at his friend knowingly. "You went all serious on her didn't you?"
Jarin shrugged. "Yeah, I kind of did."
Bellamy, standing to Jarin's left looked over at the two, and followed their gaze at the woman he quite literally yesterday found out was his cousin. "So you two like a 'thing'?"
David let out a deep laugh. "They're more like 'the very second we're back home he's gonna propose to her' type of thing."
Bellamy looked surprised at the revelation, something Jarin noticed. "Something wrong?"
"Oh, no, not at all. It's just a bit weird to hear people actually have a healthy relationship after the last few months." His words hung in the air as he looked over at his three friends.
David nodded. "I could imagine. I read through some of Sam's briefings. Brutal stuff."
Seeing everyone in the camp was packed up Jarin stepped up to the center of the camp. "We have nearly a dozen miles in front of us. Let's go see what's waiting for us."
Knowing the area better than the rest of the group, Derrick and his men scouted the trail ahead, and had already gotten a fire going at the base of a steep bank of rocks and dirt by the time Jarin and the rest arrived. While Clarke and company hunkered down with Derrick's crew, the Outpost soldiers stood in position, waiting for all the clear.
Jarin and Sam ditched their packs. While Sam was gulping down some water Jarin caught Derrick's attention. "We in the right place?"
At Derrick's nod Jarin and Sam quickly clambered up the steep hill to get a look at their surroundings. Once at the top the pair looked over the flat, broken forest in front of them. Patches of trees dotted the open landscape, but as both men internally noted, it was as through the forest behind them simply hit a wall right where they'd set up camp, transforming into an open plain on a dime. Looking through the binoculars Sam tapped Jarin's arm and pointed to his right. Grabbing the lenses, Jarin quickly focused in and saw what Sam did, not that it was hard by any means, as a vertical wall of vines stretching well over a hundred feet long tends to stick out, even in a landscape untouched by civilization for nearly a century.
Scrambling back down the hill Jarin gave a quick nod to the troops, who quickly started removing their gear, before he saw Derrick waver him over away from the group and jogged over to the man.
"Something wrong?"
Derrick nodded. "Probably."
"And that something would be?"
Derrick started walking along the bottom of the hill, away from the camp and Jarin followed. "I've been here once before, many years ago under the last Commander. He had taken his most elite guard away from Polis, trying to find weapons to fight against the Mountain. When we arrived, invisible guns cut through my friends. Only the Commander and me made it back to Polis."
"And I didn't hear this back at the rig because…?"
"I didn't know they were the same place at the time. Once we got here, I knew coming was a mistake." Suddenly, Derrick threw his arm across Jarin's chest, stopping him from advancing past the point where the hill began to die off into a flat plain. "Watch."
Jarin looked over at Derrick, who'd bent down to pick up a small white rock, maybe six or seven inches across. He watched as Derrick sent the rock flying into the air, but suddenly, before he could react, three gunshots rang out and the rock exploded into cloud of dust.
Standing there, trying to work out what just happened, Jarin missed Jenkins running up behind him with a med kit. "Who got shot this time?"
Jarin turned around, seeing the whole group running their way. Once they huddled around him, he nodded of the Derrick. "Do it again."
Once again Derrick let a rock fly high and away from the group, and once again the shots rang out, reducing it to dust.
Jenn, ever the scientist, was the first to guess what the situation was. "Gotta be sentry guns."
Sam snapped his fingers. "Yeah. Gotta be rigged to shoot down projectiles, probably enemy soliders as well, otherwise we'd be seeing a lot of animal bones past this hill."
In the back of the group Jason smacked his forehead, drawing the group's attention. "Everyone stay here for like, two minutes."
The two dozen strong group watched as the young soldier sprinted back to camp, exchanging confused glances as to what he had meant. The fact that he was carrying just his backpack when he came running back did little to answer their unasked questions. When he rifled through his pack, fishing out a small metal cylinder with a red LED on top it dawned on Jenn what he was thinking.
"Holy crap, that's genius!" She turned around to explain to the group, or more specifically, the station survivors and the men from the rig. "Back home we have a similar type of gun. We use these tags," she pointed to the cylinder that Jason was holding. "so that the guns recognize us as friendly, and don't shoot at us. It's been a while since we've ever even had to turn them on since we moved them to the Gerald Ford's main deck, but given the level of tech this base and our own probably shared when the bombs dropped, this just might work."
Clarke slid between Jasper and Bellamy, trying to see what was going on. "What might work?"
Jenn caught the roll of tape Jason tossed her from his bag while he held the cylinder against the outside of the pack so she could fasten it. She picked up the bag and looked over at Clarke. "This." She pressed the bottom of the cylinder and the LED blinked on, then she whirled around, letting the bag fly where Derrick had tossed the rock earlier. The group watched as it sailed through the air, bouncing and rolling along the ground for several feet.
"Well son of a bitch." Jasper was the first to remark on the situation, and turned to look at their new 'friends' from the south. "So now what?"
A/N: Sorry this got so late. Tried to get it up before RTX, but then I fell victim to the con crud which knocked me the hell out of a few days and then ramped up on Twitch and a few other things. But don't worry, still actively working on this guy, even if it will be slow going from here on out.