Chapter CXX: Lack of Tact
June 16, 2544 (UNSC Calendar)/
UNSC Four Over Five, in orbit above Fumirole, Weyland System
"My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred; and I myself see not the bottom of it."- William Shakespeare
Waking up was nothing unusual, gag, throw up, spit continuously for over ten minutes. Get up, make fun of Cam's naked body, joke about some of my squad mates' penis size. You know, the usual locker room stuff with a supermodel hot girl added into the mix just for kicks. Throw in a couple of stuck up swabbies believing themselves to be better than everyone else just because they're from the ONI prowler corps and you've got yourself a party.
Not a good party, mind you, but a part nevertheless.
"Ok, I want everyone to get some chow," I ordered. "We're already above Fumirole, we'll be dropping any second now."
We had some quick lunch, ingesting large quantities of ONI food. I have to admit, it was a whole lot better than the crap that we were issued on board the Inconvenience. We had decent pasta with decent bologna sauce. Or something like that. The point is that it was decent. Drinks were drinks, you either got water, flavored water, or coke. That's the only soda that you could expect to find on any ship.
"Gunnery Sergeant," Wilkins' voice came from behind me. "Is your team ready?"
I looked around, everyone was done with their meals except for Grass, who was currently finishing the water in her glass. She swallowed and nodded. "We're good."
I did a double take when I saw that Wilkins was wearing some sort of armor, it was based off of the regular ODST design, but it was different enough for me to be surprised.
"Nice outfit, lieutenant," Angel complimented admiringly. "Why are you wearing it?"
The ONI officer crossed his arms over his chest and gave me that look. "I'm going down with you."
"What."
"One of your squad mates is unavailable."
"I was wondering where Caboose was," Pavel grunted.
"You," I pointed at him. "With me."
Pavel and I stood up abruptly, leaving behind a startled Lieutenant Wilkins. We made our way through the ship until we reached out unavailable squad mate's quarters. We opened the door to see him lying down on his bed, arms behind his head and his ever-present black cap covering his face.
"Caboose! What the fuck o you think you're doing."
The man didn't flail around and shake his limbs when I woke him up. He just shoved his hat back to cover his head and calmly sat up. "Hey Sarge."
"Don't hey Sarge me," I snapped. "Suit up."
"The doctor didn't clear me. Cryo sickness."
Pavel scoffed loudly. "You're not going down because of cryo sickness?"
I groaned angrily. "If you don't come down because of something as minor as cryo sickness then you're back to original unit," I threatened.
"Castillo," Wilkins warned.
"No," I defended myself. "This is my team, I get to oversee it and its members." I turned to Caboose. "What's it gonna be?"
"I guess I don't have much of a choice really," he shrugged.
"Not really," Pavel agreed.
Caboose looked like he would actually defy me and stick to his bed for a minute there. "Fine. Just keep in mind what the doctor said."
"The doctor my ass, now move along."
Caboose left and I nodded at Pavel to follow him down to the armory. Wilkins just leaned back against the wall and looked at me disapprovingly. "You should know better than to go against doctor's orders."
"I make a living out of doing just that, sir," I retorted. "Now what is this talk about joining us?"
"I'm going down to observe the mission. Don't worry, I will not interfere."
"Why the armor then?"
"It pays to be prepared."
The armor he was wearing was identical to the standard ODST armor from the waist down. His abdomen was covered by lighter pieces of metal than mine would be had I been fully armored. The chest piece was the same iconic one that we Helljumpers wore, but slightly smaller and a bit more angular. The gauntlets were the same, smaller and more angular. No pauldrons for him though.
"I assume you have the authority to override my orders," I stated.
"And I assume that you have the common sense not to go against me."
"I'm not stupid," I agreed. "Are we going stealth?" I asked, suddenly changing topics.
"Mission specs are up to you," he shrugged me off. "I'll just give you the briefing and you'll make the choice."
"So, what are the specs?"
"Let's wait until we're with the rest of the team, shall we?"
"You're the boss," I said.
The squad was already dressed up in the briefing room, with Caboose only just finishing putting on his lower-body armor. They all looked at me and then to him before redirecting their eyes to different points in the ceiling and walls. I rolled my eyes at them, all of us made for a very socially awkward group.
"Light up," Wilkins ordered the holo-table. The device promptly displayed a warehouse or something that looked exactly like a warehouse. "The terrorist cell is located here, satellite intel shows that there are thirty six enemy hostiles inside the building. They are clustered here, here, and here. These two are the living quarters from what we can tell and that last one is the equivalent of a recreational room. The warehouse belongs to a local electronics business. Over three quarters of the building are covered mostly by shelves with equipment."
"Entrances?" Bee asked.
"There are several," Wilkins admitted. "We've got the standard large sliding doors for entrance on the front and smaller ones on the sides. In addition to that there are two loading docks for trailers on this side and a landing pad on the top."
"Do the insurrectionists have any vehicles?" Caboose asked, fixing his shoulder armor to his suit.
"There are several civilian trucks parked in the vicinity. No aircraft has been sighted near the warehouse for over a month, we can assume that none will appear today."
"Show me the neighboring buildings," I ordered the holo-table. The map zoomed out and showed me that the rebel warehouse was located in a cluster of identical buildings near a port. In fact, we could jump into the water from the complex. "Ok, here's what. I want Snark and Angel posted here," I said, pointing at one of the neighboring warehouses. "Snark will provide sniper cover and Angel will spray through the walls if push comes to shove." I pointed to another warehouse. "Bee and Grass, you're here, watch out for any vehicles coming in, air or ground, if they are hostile I want you to take out the drivers and crew. Silently if possible."
"Should I take a DMR?" Grass asked me.
"Yes, you too Bee."
"Got it."
"Lieutenant, you're free to choose which of the two overwatch positions to join."
"Why thank you," he mocked.
"Caboose, Pavel, and I will go in. Simple clearing procedure, shouldn't find too much trouble. Silenced weapons only. The rest of you will keep watch with thermal gear."
"Simple," Pavel nodded. "Remember, eyes peeled at all times."
"Caboose, Pavel, I want you packing SMGs and suppressed pistols. Shotguns only in case of emergency. Silencers everyone."
They immediately set themselves to grabbing weapons. I myself grabbed one suppressed M7 and my own battle rifle. I packed heavy for SMG ammo and only a couple of magazines for the BR55. I had put my armor on during Wilkins' briefing, the weight of it felt comfortable on my shoulders.
"No drop bay," Bee pointed out. "How are we going in?"
"We drop by shuttle," Wilkins started. "There's a cargo truck waiting for us down there, we'll go in as regular civilians would."
"Is the truck lead covered?"
"What do you think?" Wilkins smirked knowingly.
"Sun's setting down there," I noted. "Let's get moving."
Grass and Bumblebee had just flashed me from across the road. They were set up on the roof of their warehouse. Snark and Angel were good and ready to go too. Wilkins had opted to stick with the sniper and the Italian. Their HUD lights were all green and they seemed to be eager to get this shit started. The breaching squad, Pavel, Caboose and myself, were still inside the truck, parked right across from one of the loading docks in our target.
"Why does it always have to be warehouses?" Pavel groaned.
"Plenty of room available, animosity when buying or renting. Relative isolation but proximity to cities or ports." Caboose kept a flat tone while giving out all the suggestions, but it was clear that he was annoyed to be here. Didn't seem sick though, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Pavel.
"I thought you were sick," he taunted.
"Maybe the doc was wrong, Staff."
I loaded my SMG and noisily cocked the weapon, shutting both of them up before they got into a stealth insult match. They kept glaring at each other momentarily before loading their own weapons. I slung my battle rifle over my back after strapping the silencer on. The suppressed M7 would be undetectable to any sleeping innies and the suppressed pistol would be undetected to pretty much any innie. The BR55 could wake up someone if they were close, but I hoped that I didn't have to use it.
Pavel loaded his ACS and made sure that it was properly compacted before placing it on his back. Caboose cocked his M90 one-handed before sliding it behind his back. They were both carrying the M7Ss that I had told them to use.
"Tell Snark to start," Pavel suggested.
"Snark?"
"Oh-ho-ho," he chuckled. "I live for this part."
This was the tricky part. Snark had packed a foot-and-a-half long silencer for his SRS. The weapon was loud enough by itself, the silencer didn't do as much as I would have wanted to quiet the weapon, but it would serve its purpose. Snark cocked his weapon loudly, probably grinning as he did so. There were four sentries on the warehouse rooftop, one on each corner. Four shots rang out in as many seconds. I could just picture the bodies crumpling down, holes in their heads.
"Targets down," Snark confirmed. "All of them. Clean kills too, exemplary headshots if you ask me."
"Aren't snipers taught to fire at the chest or throat?" Grass asked.
"Yes, but I'm good enough to score easy headshots."
"So, just for kicks then?" Angel asked.
"Yup."
"Ok, go, go, go," I ordered. I climbed out the back of the trailer with Caboose and Pavel in my wake. There were two innie guards on the loading bay. They had machine pistols hanging across their chests. They looked to be a local weapon, I didn't have any idea of what they did. Not that I intended to give the men any chance to use them. One of them caught sight of the three of us, he received five rounds to the chest for his trouble. The other one went down with barely a sound before he even knew what was going on.
"We're going in," I called out. Well, calling out would be a stretch, we had our microphones off, we could only talk through radio.
Caboose opened the door quietly, stepping over one of the bodies. He waved for us to come in after him. We moved quietly through a walled-off section of the warehouse. It was mostly empty save for a few boxes full of datapad components. We cleared the room and emerged into the warehouse proper. Row upon row of shelves was what awaited us. All of them were full to the brim with something or other. They would serve as incredibly good cover if anything went wrong.
"Pavel, secure the main section, Caboose and I will clear the sleeping quarters."
"Can I take the main room?" Caboose requested.
"What, I thought you liked carving people up," Pavel teased.
"I like carving aliens up," he explained. "I'm uncomfortable with killing humans."
"Suit yourself," I shrugged. "Pavel, on me."
We walked across the main room with our weapons raised. We didn't take any detours and arrived on the other side with no incident. The door didn't have any locks on. I opened it slowly to walk inside a room full of double bunks. Every last one was occupied.
"You take the right, I take the left," I ordered. I holstered my submachine gun on my thigh and pulled out my pistol instead. The weapon barely made any noise when it fired, so it would be good for backup. I also drew my carving knife, the big one. My first victim looked to be in peaceful sleep. I pressed the tip of my knife against the back of his neck and shoved forward.
The man jerked and then stopped. The nerves connecting his body to his brain were severed. It would be a slow, albeit painless, death. The man would stop breathing, but his head would be completely aware of what was going on. Not a pleasant death, but fitting for a traitor. I repeated the process with the following two insurrectionists. They jerked equally and proceeded to die silently, a little blood coming out of their wounds. The fourth innie was a woman, not an ugly one either. I sighed inwardly as I pressed the knife against her vertebrae and pushed. She died without making a sound. In the third and final bunk I almost messed up. I killed the guy in the bottom bunk silently enough, but the one on the top bunk was asleep facing forward. When I leaned on his bed he woke up and caught sight of me. I punched his throat awkwardly, buying myself a second. My hand shot up towards his face and blocked his mouth just as my knife sliced deep into his throat. The scream died as the air powering it escaped short of its way out. Arterial spray splattered my chest, prompting me to jump backwards to avoid it.
"Clear," I groaned.
"Clear," Pavel agreed. "What happened?"
"Slip of the hand."
"Ouch."
"Only two guards," Caboose came in. "Took care of them."
"Good," I admitted. "We've got another dorm and two rooms to go."
Pavel and I repeated our little process with the other dorm. The sleeping innies didn't know what hit them, all of them died with their brain severed from their bodies. Painless deaths, it was more than they deserved.
"I'm waiting outside the room," Caboose said. "Intel pointed out to the leaders being here."
"Don't go in yet," I told him. "Wait for us."
We walked outside of the room and made to join Caboose. Suddenly my HUD shorted out and my skin felt like it was on fire. I had played enough electricity-based games to know what was going on. Before long I was on the floor, screaming in pain. Pavel collapsed next to me immediately afterwards. Before long the pain became too much for my body to bear, I know that my enhanced physiology could take more than Pavel's, but even I could't stay conscious more than thirty seconds. My vision slowly faded with the sound of voices in the back of my head.
Ironically enough, another shock woke me up. I yelped rather embarrassingly when a metal rod pinched my neck. I tried to struggle up but my hands were firmly tied behind my back with something.
"The fuck?" I groaned. "Fuck…"
"An accurate sentiment."
"Fuck you innie," I spat out. "What do you want?"
"Well, for starters I want you and your two men dead, but that can wait."
Mistake number one.
One insurrectionist removed my helmet rather roughly before yanking me to my knees. Pavel and Caboose were both still lying on their sides, unconscious. I quickly assessed the situation, had my hands been untied I might've been able to pull off some crazy awesome badassery, but my hands were tied. Literally and metaphorically speaking.
I'm a funny guy, am I not?
"So, Helljumper," the innie in charge said in a mocking tone. The man could've passed unnoticed on most places on the world, nondescript appearance, nondescript clothing, average. I guess that's part of what made him such a good terrorist. "What is your goal here?"
"To kill every last one of you," I informed him.
"Well, I'd take it you realize that you failed."
"Well, most of your friends are dead," I shrugged him off. "So I'd say that we've done a pretty good job."
The man snarled at me and spat at my feet. "You're in no position to be cocky, grunt."
"Actually, I am," I replied. "There's enough explosives pointed at me to atomize everything inside this stupid little warehouse."
"You're bluffing," he stated.
I was, but he didn't know that. "You're willing to die for your cause, why shouldn't I be willing to die for mine."
The innie leader just rolled his eyes and clocked me good in the jaw. The punch was strong enough to knock me to the ground. It would leave a bruise. Despite the physical abuse I wasn't willing to let it stop me from being my usual charming self.
"Nice one."
"Thanks," he replied good-naturedly. Following that he pulled me back up and hit me again, this time right in the nose. I could feel the blood flowing out.
I moved my nose from side to side, testing it. It might've been broken. Scratch that, it was broken. "That one was a bit disappointing," I stated. "I could've broken your nose in more pieces with the same amount of force you used."
"I think it was pretty good myself," the insurrectionist complimented himself before hitting me again.
"Ow," I said truthfully.
"Wake the other two up," he ordered. "We're going to have a little fun."
"Are you going to tape this?" I asked. "I mean, this is only our first date." I crumpled sideways when one of the innie henchmen kneed me in the ribs. The ones that weren't titanium. I bet the man hurt his knee, because he was unarmored and I had state of the art body armor on. "Oh, so it's this kind of video."
"Are all Helljumpers as dumb as you?"
"I'm kind of a special case."
I cut my taunting when Pavel groaned. "Damn it."
"Got that right," I agreed.
Caboose grunted a few moments later. He shook his head a couple of times but otherwise said nothing. Smart man.
We were unceremoniously dragged to our feet and placed on three chairs. My hands were already tied behind my back, but they tied them to the chair too. It wasn't a flimsy wooden chair either, it was a full-blown, super-badass metal chair. Not that wooden chairs broke like they did in the movies. We were all promptly tied and Pavel and Caboose had their helmets removed. The innies set up a camera on a table in front of us. It was old fashioned too, no hover-cam.
"Is this the part where I give my name, rank, and number?" I asked. "Cause I'm legally bound to keep my name secret and I forgot my number."
This time they hit my face with the barrel of a pistol. I could feel blood falling from my brow.
"You'd have better luck hitting me with the handle," I taunted.
The next whipping broke my cheekbone.
"Ah fuck."
"There are times for everything Gunny," Pavel warned. He groaned when he was hit on the side of the head with the same pistol that had hit me.
"But I'm having so much fun!"
"Quiet!" Caboose urged.
"Helmets off," the leader ordered.
Caboose and Pavel were already helmet less.
"Um…" one of the innies said.
"Forget it, take off that guy's head cap."
Caboose struggled when they removed his coif-like hat, but otherwise remained quiet.
"Holy shit," the innie taking off the black cap said. "Sir."
"Well I'll be damned. Grigori Konstantinov."
What.
"Wasn't it enough that you killed five of us when you left?" the leader asked. "You just had to come back."
"You what?" Pavel exclaimed. "You never told us that you had killed some of these assholes when you deserted."
"Oh, and sharing the story," the leader growled. "I'd never think you'd fall so far from grace."
"We are at war," Caboose started. "A war for survival."
"Aye, we are," the leader agreed. "We have been for a couple of centuries now."
"We're in war for humanity's survival!"
Caboose shut up when he was hit in the face five times in a row by one of the insurrectionists holding us captive. When I glanced at him I could see that his face was bleeding. His nose was gushing copious amounts of blood and his eyes would soon be swelling beyond recognition. What called my attention though, was the burnt in tattoo covering the top of his head. I couldn't quite make it out, but I was pretty sure that it had innie slogans or symbols.
What the fuck?
A bright light hit my face.
"The UNSC has once again failed," the innie leader started. I thought about interrupting it for the hell of it, but decided that one broken cheekbone was more than enough for me. "They sent these three men, their best special operators with the goal of assassinating every member of our group."
I wondered whether voicing out loud that we had almost succeeded on that matter.
"The UNSC and the UEG once again show their incompetence for anything more than hammer-type assaults. Their oppression knows no limits…"
To that both Pavel and I sighed after rolling our eyes. The man ignored us and went on for a few minutes more. I blew a raspberry at the camera while he went on and on about how we oppressed them and they were freedom fighters and all that. He wasn't that great a speaker. Not very original or engaging.
"And now," he started closing off. Instead of saying what he would do, he just pulled out a pistol from a holster. It was one of the older M6s, what surprised me the most was that it was even gold-plated. So much for the voice of austerity and equality for all humans, earthborn or not. He walked at me and raised the gun, aiming it right at my head. He cocked the pistol.
Contingency plans, contingency plans…"
"," I begged.
"What?" he groaned in annoyance.
Mistake number two.
I shoved myself sideways, falling down to the floor with the chair.
"What the hell is tha-"
A sniper round straight through the neck. Cut him off. The other insurrectionists just stared at the remains of their leader's head splattered on the walls and floor before looking at Pavel and Caboose. Both of my squad mates did the same thing that I did and tossed themselves to the side. Three more round punctured the walls and a couple of lungs (see what I did there?).
"Damn," I grunted. I shuffled and rolled sideways until I banged on a table. The table where all of our weapons had been piled up inside. More rounds hit more innies through the walls before I managed to stand up on the my feet. I grabbed a knife and started sawing at my bonds. Soon enough my hands were free. I cut off the ropes that attached my feet to the chair and rolled my wrists and ankles before getting Pavel and Caboose out. All the insurrectionists were dead.
Well, all the innies in the room at least. One had been standing guard and came to see what the ruckus was all about. He immediately spotted me and aimed at my chest. I had already thrown my knife forward. It spun twice before embedding itself in the man's shoulder. The burst of gunfire hit everywhere but me or the other two ODSTs. I lunged forward and tackled the man to the floor. Once there I yanked the knife from his shoulder and slammed it down on his throat. More arterial spray splattered my face with blood.
"Fuck," I cursed.
I turned around. Pavel caught my eyes and nodded imperceptibly. I nodded back.
He let out a punch straight to Caboose's ear, the man was surprised by it and didn't react until after Pavel had pummeled his head with three more punches. My friend grabbed the ONI operative by the neck and got him in a vice grip. Caboose struggled and let out a couple of weak elbow strikes, but he had lost and he knew it.
I walked forward and delivered a kick straight at his stomach, causing him to bend over and Pavel slide backwards from the strength.
"What the fuck Grigori!" I yelled. With the statement I let out an uppercut, hitting him in the jaw. "A fucking innie!"
"I deserted, I left!"
"You were a fucking innie!" I repeated, delivering another punch at his face. "You fuck!"
Caboose continued trying to explain as I messed up his face more and more. Pavel, who normally would've been the voice of reason, remained impassive as I pounded the man. A man that a few minutes ago he would've taken a bullet for.
"I left them."
"When the fucking aliens showed up." Another punch to the nose, breaking it further. "Not before."
"No," he begged, spitting out blood.
"Yes!" I shot back, hitting him once more.
"No!"
"Yes!" I repeated, hitting him again.
"Castillo! That's enough!"
I turned around to see Wilkins looking at me. Snark and Angel were flanking him, unsure of what was going on.
"OH, I don't think so," I growled. I reached for a gun on the table and cocked the thing, aiming it at Caboose's chest.
"No, please!" he begged. Not so stoic now, huh.
"Castillo, enough!" Wilkins snapped. I could hear a gun being cocked and turned to see Wilkins aiming at my face. Snark and Angel hadn't missed a beat though, and had pointed both of their weapons at the man's helmeted head. He might've had a fancy helmet, but it wouldn't do much to protect him.
"We seem to be at an impasse," I stated.
Wilkins lowered his gun, but Angel and Snark didn't. I, in turn, raised my own weapon and aimed it at his face. "You too Wilkins? A fucking innie?"
"No," he said. I was inclined to believe it. "Mister Konstantinov, on the other hand…he participated in non-violent insurrectionist movements. According to him, defected when he was put on a terror mission. His dislike of killing humans overtook any and all political beliefs."
I turned around to look at Caboose. Pavel was now holding him up by the arms. The man was doubled over, blood pouring from his nose and his mouth. I had knocked out a few teeth. Served him right.
"Weak stomach doesn't forgive treason," I stated.
"No, but information on FLP leadership does. This man was one of the main reasons why we caught the masterminds of the Haven bombings."
I lowered my gun, if that was true then Caboose had truly defected.
"How can you trust him?" I asked.
"We can't, but his service record is exemplary and he has a chip implanted in his brain that will kill him if he were to go rogue."
I thought about it for one long minute. Nobody said anything. The only noise that could be heard was that of blood dripping from the insurrectionist's, former insurrectionist's, face and to the floor.
"Fine," I grunted.
"Frank," Pavel said simply.
"We'll deal with this later," I said.
Pavel shook his head and shrugged before tossing the unconscious body of Caboose into Wilkins' arms. We all walked out of there, leaving the ONI officer to carry the insurrectionist to the roof and for extraction.
"Thanks for the help," I told Snark as Wilkins dragged Caboose to the Four Over Five's infirmary.
"No problem," he said absent-mindedly, staring at the bleeding Caboose.
"What took you so long?"
"When they shocked you they got some EMP thing up, blocking everything inside the warehouse from view."
"How'd you circumvent that?"
Snark looked uncomfortable at the question, scratching the back of his head. "I didn't. Caboose turned his helmet cam on before they took it off. The device mapped out the enemy's locations on my HUD."
"Still, that was some impressive marksmanship."
"By the way, how did you know when to duck?"
"Educated guess," I shrugged. Truly, I was confident that Snark or Grass had sights on the bad guys. We had been out for some time, so I assumed that they had positioned themselves somewhere where they could actually do something. We probably weren't out for long if it took so long for Snark to waste the insurrectionists. "Still, I owe you man. Were all the shots headshots?"
"Nah, aimed for center mass."
"Very professional," I complimented with a smile.
"You know me."
We both laughed loudly at the sheer hypocrisy coming out of his mouth before Grass gave us a queer look. Out of all of us she was the only one who had seemed alarmed by one of her friends being beaten half to death.
"Sarge, what happened down there," she asked, killing out laughter.
It was almost imperceptible, but Snark's body language changed ever so slightly so that he was facing me in a more confrontational manner. Angel and Bee were hanging further back, but took a couple of steps forward. If I had beaten a squad mate half to death I probably had a good reason for it, if I had a good reason for it then it concerned them directly.
I looked at my team, standing side by side and looking up at me expectantly. I realized that I had no idea of what I should say. They had the right to know that Caboose had been an insurrectionist, but on the other hand, if what Wilkins said was true and he had actually left behind the secessionist movement then it wasn't my place to reveal his dark secret.
"He should've told you," Schitzo said.
"Grigori," I started carefully, measuring my words. "He used to be an insurrectionist."
Angel spat out a barking laugh. He was the only one. "Wait, you're actually serious."
I nodded.
"And what?"
"I had just been apprehended by innies and my nose and cheekbone had just been broken," I growled. "What would be your first conclusion."
"Point taken," Grass nodded. "You should really get those things checked out."
I nodded and left towards the nearest bathroom, once inside I looked at my face. My nose was swollen and there was a cut right near the bridge where the skin had been broken. Blood wasn't gushing out of it anymore, but my mouth, chin, and throat were all covered with dried blood. My cheek was swollen and a huge black bruise was already forming up. In fact, it already covered my cheek entirely. The cheek was swollen up and forced my eye to close a little bit. The eye itself was looking bad, the whites were red from burst capillaries. Finally, there was a straight cut with a little blood dripping down from where I had been pistol-whipped.
"Maybe you should see the doctor," Pavel suggested from behind me.
"You too, your nose looks like shit." As I turned around I saw that my friend was holding up his datapad, the camera flicked and I stood dazed for a moment. "You sunnova bitch."
"And now it's saved everywhere. In fact, I think I'm sending this to everyone on board the Inconvenience. Oh, I already did."
"Even Darbinian?" I exclaimed.
"I'm not that much of an asshole. And I was exaggerating, just to the people that matter."
I shrugged, I was too tired to fight and my face was hurting. Look, I didn't mention it a couple of paragraphs ago because I was ashamed of it back then when I was writing that, but my face looked bad. I had always prided myself with being one good-looking motherfucker, but the multiple facial lesions didn't add to my good genetics. In fact, they made me look outright ugly. I wasn't used to that! At least it was only temporary.
The infirmary had been separated into two sections. One large one and a smaller one. Caboose was being attended to while Wilkins debriefed him or something. One doctor just looked me up and groaned in annoyance. "A pack of ice would do, ya know?"
"Thanks doc," I replied, "but I'd rather avoid the pain of natural healing."
"You know," he murmured, reaching into a drawer, "lots of people are rejecting medical treatment nowadays, refusing basic medic attention and choosing to let broken bones heal naturally."
"What kind of dumbass would do that?" Pavel asked.
"I know, right?" the doctor replied. "Still, it's good for business. When a bone heals improperly we have to break it again."
"That's cold," I said.
"Yeah, but this is a cold world we live in."
"We are in space," I reminded him.
I got a needle jabbed into my face with a whole lot more violence than needed for my troubles. I winced as whatever healing fluid was pumped into my cheek. The pain in my face increased. I groaned as he yanked the needle out. I barely had a second's worth of breath before he jabbed another one in the bridge of my nose. This time I cried out in pain.
"Don't struggle so much," he said sternly.
I could hear Pavel snickering behind me.
"And done," the doctor finished. "Don't move your face too much, let your muscles relax. Fluid will heal the hairline fracture on your cheek and fix your nose within the day. Ice for the swelling."
Boy was that doctor kind of dry.
"Now you, kid," he told Pavel. "Your nose looks pretty banged up."
"Oh, normally it's worse." I couldn't resist it, and my self-satisfied smile elicited a wave of pain from my cheek.
"Ouch!" Pavel yelped The needle thingy was jabbed violently into his skin and deep down. It seemed like a painful procedure (it was, I had just had the same procedure done on me).
"Well, off you go," the doctor groaned. "I want to take a nap."
Pavel and I did the most sensible thing that a pair of hardcore sons of bitches could do after going to the hospital to have painful healing procedures done. We went directly to the mess hall and demanded to be fed ice cream. It was a long standing tradition in UNSC ships to give soldiers that had been wounded in action a cone of ice cream, usually it was vanilla and this time was no exception. I found myself happily licking the creamy goodness.
"What are we going to do about this business?" Pavel asked after a while.
"I don't know."
"I don't want him on my team," Pavel insisted.
"If what Wilkins said is true then we have no reason to distrust him."
"He is an innie," he growled quietly.
"Was," I corrected. "He's at least earned our trust."
"By spying on us on ONI's behalf?"
I groaned loudly and lowered my ice cream hand. "Not that way, there is a good reason for him to be here, doesn't make me glad to admit it, but it's true. He hasn't done anything to indicate that he's still a rebel."
"I won't be responsible for when he backstabs us."
"He won't," I assured him.
Schitzo appeared behind Pavel and rubbed my friend's temples before sighing in resignation. "Are you sure?"
"Are you sure?" Pavel echoed.
"No, but he deserted before, they were about to kill him down there."
"How did they know we were there then?"
"One of them woke up?" I suggested. "I don't know, but if he had organized our capture then he'd have known better than to let us stay alive for so long. He's not an idiot."
"I never thought I'd see the day when you would defend Grigori Konstantinov."
I shrugged and started eating from my ice cream again. "Truth be told, me neither, but he stays on the team."
"Suit yourself Frank, but it's not a wise decision."
"Wisdom was never my strong point."
"That I know."
He went deathly quiet and looked over my shoulder. I turned around and saw that Grigori was walking through the mess hall, he had a sullen look and his eyes were downcast. It was almost a pitiful sight. Lieutenant Wilkins just looked at us in turn for a brief moment. The pause was enough to make Grigori look up. My eyes caught his and I gave him a short nod. He nodded back before he keept walking. His walk was different though, his shoulders looked broader and his eyes were fixed straight ahead.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced in that direction. I almost cried out when I saw my uncle standing behind me, giving me a small smile and a nod. "You made the right choice."
Normally I would've been glad to see my dead uncle. Under the circumstances I was just fucking pissed at my own head for coming up with further hallucinations to torment me.
I was getting worse and there was nothing I could do about it.
Thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.
Well, there it is, we finally know about Caboose's dark and troubled past. Don't worry if I didn't go into much detail, we'll find out more soon enough. On the other hand, we've got Frank, who's getting worse and worse up in the head, hence the quote. Pretty sweet quote in my opinion, say what you will about Shakespeare, but the Bard certainly knew what he was doing. One point of interest, Frank's been badly hurt a couple of times before, but I don't think that he had ever been actually beat up, that scene was actually pretty funny to write, especially the part where he tells the guy hitting him with the pistol how exactly he should hit him. Priceless, stupid, but priceless.
I snuck in a little Alien/Prometheus reference there. Let's see if you notice it. I was pretty close to naming this chapter "Assholes and Revelations", but the rules don't allow me to, I'd still like to think of that as the official chapter name.
Oh, and Snark is badass, shooting through walls and shit.
Stay strong
-casquis