"Shit... how bad...?", Bucky growled as was in severe pain. Jacques knew he had to move Bucky to somewhere a bit safer as he saw one of the nearby bunkers and slowly dragged him over to it.
"You'll have to give me a minute to check!", Jacques told him before he got Bucky into a safe spot and started to check. It didn't look good. Jacques honestly would be amazed if Bucky would still be alive by tomorrow with how bad his injuries appeared... but; that would've been more likely what would happen had he not had his 'gift'.
Bucky replied, "I'm dying soon, ain't I?", and Jacques shook his head, "Not if I can help it.", taking off his crystal, murmuring in Atlantean, blowing air into it warmly before the crystal glowed stronger, and Bucky, not having seen the crystal all this time until now, widened his eyes, "Wh-what is that?".
"One of the reasons we went on the classified mission. We will explain later.", Jacques replied before going to touch the crystal to Bucky's wounds, using Sia's memories of healing, using his fingers to realign a rib, press a clean rag, sealing deep skin wounds, as Bucky watched in shock and awe.
After 10 minutes, Bucky's side was completely looking as new as battle-worn, with faint scars, and Jacques then worked on the mangled arm, as Bucky hissed in pain, feeling Jacques snap the shoulder into place yet it wasn't agonizing like in real pain, but like discomforting pain, and used the crystal to weave a couple of blood vessels, sealing them, and he felt better, and replied, "That's enough time, Jack! We gotta go help Steve!".
"But I haven't healed the skin wounds or cuts in this arm, and you are down on blood loss!", Jacques replied, and Bucky glared at him, "I can still shoot with my good arm! You can heal me later!", getting up shakily.
Jacques gritted his teeth, "Fine! Let me at least bandage them up!", before grabbing a few rolls of bandage from his belt, and went to wrap them around the arm quickly, "No wonder why Steve said that you are damn prideful!", as they checked their ammunition for their guns, and went back into the chaos.
Steve, like a vengeful rhino on stampede, was hyper focused and damn fast as he plowed through Nazis and Hydra troops with his shield and all, as the Rangers and the Maquis swept through the factory, and after stealing another gun once again, he was tense when he aimed for one of the abandoned offices, hearing a rumbling sound, and Mole appeared, blinking at the gun in front of him, "Jesus, Steve!".
"Mole. Did you do it?", Steve asked quickly, and Mole nodded, "All explosives set under the Hydra base. Prisoners from the Nazis prison floor is freeing prisoners on the Hydra prison floor. Got a few guns, but they gonna be out soon of ammo if Hydra base hears them!".
Steve nodded, and called out, "Anyone who's not busy, we got free prisoners down under the factory, and they need our help!", to any Ranger, Maquis, and freed prisoner, and then looked back at Mole, "See if you can find an exit from the Hydra base for everyone to clear out as going back this way, we have no idea if there are hiding tanks or something in the deeper forest north of here!".
"Right...", Mole said before Steve grabbed him by the arm. "Mole... Bucky... your timing with the tanks...", he sighed as Mole looked scared.
"I... I didn't mean to... I didn't expect them to open the door when they did... or for him to be so close...", Mole tried to explain as Steve nodded, "I know... but please... just make sure that this time everything is perfect before we blow up things.".
Mole nodded, "Yes, Captain.", realizing that Steve is in captain mode, and replied, "Don't worry, Jacques will take care of him.", and Steve replied, "I know. Now go.", as Mole then nodded, digging back down again, as he replied, "Basement door is two hallways down!", at Steve before he disappeared into his tunnel.
Steve gestured with his shield, "Men, follow me!", as he ran, with some Rangers, some Maquis including Pierre, and some of the factory freed prisoners following him, as the chaos still continued around them, with Steve slashing the Nazis basement door open and out with his shield and a boot kick.
"Take their weapons, loot them of ammo!", Pierre told the other Maquis as well as the prisoners; taking any gun they could help would go a long way even if it was normal small arms weaponry.
Steve led the way through the empty Nazi prisoner cages, and saw the litter of dead Nazi guards, and a couple of Hydra guards dead as well, with an open door behind them, and they went down the stairs into the Hydra prison basement where most of the prisoners were out, but having trouble unlocking the others as Hydra goons were shooting with the glowing guns yet they were unstable, both killing Hydra and the person at the end of the bullet.
"Cover them! Shoot the glowing guns! Go!", Steve commanded as he threw his shield, shooting his latest handgun, and even if the Maquis and Rangers were shocked to see insane weaponry, they obeyed Steve's orders, nonetheless.
Five minutes later, the waves of Hydra goons were relentless, coming out yet getting mowed by the Rangers, Maquis, freed prisoners, and Steve, but it was looking like they were running out of ammo.
"Captain, we can't keep up much longer!", Pierre shouted as he took cover behind a prison cage, bullets and crazy blue blasts everywhere, and Steve knew that they were in a hard place between a rock and a door where they can retreat back, but yet this base has to be destroyed...
As he was about to order for them to retreat, suddenly, fresh waves of the rest of Maquis, Rangers, and prisoners joined them, led by Jacques and Bucky. Jacques commanded, "Push them back, watch each other's back, shift around in shooting rows!", as the others cheered, grabbing fresh ammo and guns that was carried by the new waves.
"Steve, the factory's clear out!", Jacques shouted as he and Bucky joined Steve, and Steve replied, "Mole's looking for the exit in the Hydra base under us, but we gotta move, clear out the base! We can't stay pinned here!".
Jacques nodded, and commanded, "Maquis, flash grenades, now!", and every Maquis grabbed every possible flash grenade they got from their persons, and ignited them as they threw them at the Hydra goons, and the flash grenades blinded the Hydra goons as they screamed in pain, moving their weapons in confusion and chaos, firing at their own comrades, and the blue blasts became bigger and even more explosive, creating a wall crater into the Hydra base, wide enough to have a row of 8 people side by side.
"Grab the ammo and handguns, anything you get from the pile of the bastards!", Bucky commanded, and Steve knew that the smoke from the wall crater explosion would last only a short time before clearing out, and Hydra will have a view like they do.
"And anything else you can get your hands on too!", Jacques ordered. "I think our allies very much want to know what exactly was going on in here.".
The fighting was cooling down a bit as the German forces were keeping themselves back now with just how many losses they had suffered. Probably a smart decision as it would keep the raid from truly taking anything fairly decent sized if they weren't all wiped out and could still harass.
Then came a familiar rumbling sound, and Mole appeared, "I found the exit tunnel, and there's a few trucks parked there, it's on the far left!".
Steve looked at Bucky and Jacques, "I'll lead the prisoners to the exit tunnel while we cover the left side.", and Jacques replied, "I will take the Maquis up the right side.", and Bucky nodded, "I'll lead the Rangers up the middle. Any cover, Mole?".
Mole nodded, "Yeah, ammo boxes, half complete mini submersibles stuck on the floor, barrels of spare parts, some machine lifters, and a couple of complete flyers like from the volcano.", and Jacques replied, "Is the one complete mini submersible still in the pool?", a small idea starting to take hold in his mind.
"Yep!", Mole answered, and Jacques replied, "See if you can take out the Hydra goons guarding that one. If they're thinking they're trapped from escaping through the exit tunnel with all of us blocking their way out, you find the control boxes for the pool, or somewhere that the submersible is away from Hydra to even reach for their last desperate move.".
Mole widened his eyes, and then nodded, "Yes, sir!", before digging back down, and Jacques exhaled, "The smoke isn't going to last even a minute now, ready for this, my friends?".
Everyone nodded as they moved fast; the goal now was just to escape and hope that their routes out of the area were good as to not worry about a pursuit or a blockade. German reinforcements surely must be coming but it would probably take some time with how isolated the area is. Maybe many hours to even half a day if they were extremely lucky.
With all the looted ammo and guns, the freed prisoners, Rangers, and Maquis went like a big tsunami, overtaking the Hydra platoons as they went on, pushing over every dead Hydra to the next, but it doesn't mean that the Hydra platoons weren't helpless, as they fought back.
A few prisoners, Rangers, and Maquis went down, yet it motivated the surviving ones to keep fighting until the very last Hydra platoon who was shocked and horrified to find that the only way out was gone in the submersible in the middle of the pool, and with a clear shot to the exit tunnel, with hacking the keys, trucks became filled with injured people of the prisoners, Rangers, and Maquis, with the still intact ones driving or running out alongside the trucks, yet in the chaos, the last platoon of Hydra didn't give up, to the last seconds of their deaths, shooting all they could, including Jacques.
Jacques screamed in pain as a normal bullet hit his thigh, and Steve, having directed the whole mass to the exit tunnel, saw one of the last Hydra men preparing to shoot one of the unstable energy guns, "Jacques, catch!", throwing his shield at him, and Jacques looked up, catching the shield in time just as the energy blast hit it, throwing him over several feet backwards, crashing into a pile of ammo boxes.
"NO!", Pierre shouted in horror, as Steve commanded, "Get out of here, go! I'll get him! Bucky, don't stop until all everyone is clear out!", as Bucky shot the last Hydra men, as the shooter was already caught in the unstable blast of the shot.
Bucky looked at him, "You better bust your ass out, Steve, or Peggy will kill me!", and Steve nodded, "I know, now, GO!", before he ran to the spot, seeing a muddy and slightly clean Mole surface nearby, and saw Jacques panting heavily, with scrapes and such, but he was intact, even with the bullet in his thigh, "Damn, Abraham was right. This packs a punch.".
Mole replied, "That was unbelievable! Jacques, the detonation...", taking out a small case from his coat, that held the trigger for the explosives, and Steve replied, widening his eyes, "Wait, are...are you actually going to be...".
Jacques nodded, "I'm taking the mini submersible. If I'm right, the explosions will get the exit of the pool bigger and faster, flooding this place right after exploding the entire base and factory sky-high, thanks to those remaining ammo boxes and such, and I can get into the Moselle.", ripping off his second set of dog tags.
"But you can't run on that leg if the explosives are going to be really soon!", Mole gasped in horror, and Jacques replied, "That's why Steve can throw me to the pool. If I swim to the submersible in the middle of the pool, and get in, I can avoid the explosives in time. Mole, you dig the fastest as much as you can, and Steve, run like hell after you do the throw. I ain't planning to be killed by Peggy. I'll figure out a way to contact you after I heal this wound of mine...At least I can get back to Sia this way...", with a small, warm smile.
A few more shots rang out as everyone ducked before Steve fired and took care the last guards that came in. "Well, at least you can claim now that reinforcements came... everyone can put the rest together, especially when the explosives go off...", Jacques replied. Steve gave him a tight hug for the moment before breaking it, and Mole hugged Jacques just as tightly before letting go with Jacques giving him a small smile.
"You better make damn sure you get out... I don't want Sia to kill me if I have to tell her the news...", Steve said as Jacques chuckled, "You won't have to, I promise. Now go...".
Steve nodded, and lugged Jacques at a run, focusing on the pool, as Mole dug the fastest that he could, heading for the forest under the exit tunnel's earth, and with a deep breath, Steve threw Jacques at the pool just as Jacques clicked the trigger for the explosives, with Steve running like hell, with his shield locked on his back, holding Jacques's dog tags.
Jacques dived, swimming, ignoring the pain in his thigh as his adrenaline is on high, making to the ladder of the mini submersible, closing the hatch, dropping down, and fired up the controls of the submersible, and went under the water just in time for the explosives to detonate in a sky-high massive and thunderous way as a lot of barely surviving Hydra and Nazis goons didn't expect it coming, their lives ending at last as Steve screamed out, "Take cover!", just as he barely made it beyond the perimeter of the forest.
It was a spectacular sight, seen for miles, as the funnel of the Moselle River became a dam breaking open, with Jacques pushing the wheels and gas of the submersible, making it past the currents, making it into the Moselle River successfully, heading north. He knew that the Moselle River runs into the Rhine River, but most of the Rhine River goes into Germany, which means that he'd have to trail the Moselle/Mosel River right between Luxembourg and Germany, and he'd have to make the decision between the Our river that borders between Belgium and Germany or go through Luxembourg on the Sauer/Sure River which is safer in a way...
Yet the Sure River barely ends into a forest in Belgium. There's a lake just of Sure River, but he'd have to see about making a canal to the lake, or contact Steve, as there's still more tributaries of rivers, he'd have to go north to the English Channel of the North Sea...People in Germany would be suspicious if a carrier plane picks up the mini submersible as Germany is literally next door to Belgium, through nighttime would be best...but still dangerous...
Perhaps this idea wasn't the best idea he had, but at least he escaped...He wonders how Pierre and the Liberation group is reacting about his fake death...
"I'm sorry...", Steve sighed as he apologized to Pierre. The Marquis, especially Jacques' group, knew instantly what had happened the moment the explosions went off and Steve didn't have Jacques with him. "Reinforcing squads showed up...".
"And he probably was so wounded that he decided to stay behind to buy the rest of us time... and then blew them all up when they probably tried to take him prisoner.", Pierre guessed. Steve obviously didn't nod or shake his head; letting Pierre fill in the blanks.
"He will serve as a true inspiration for the Maquis...", one of the other group leaders said. "We achieved a great victory over the Nazis... and we'll use his sacrifice to honor his memory and throw every last fascist in the Spree.". Clearly, this Maquis leader planned to chase the Germans out of France and hound them all the way to Berlin.
Bucky replied, "And the Rangers will help out too...", as his group nodded in agreement as they had lost their own as well, and of course, some prisoners didn't make it either, thanks to all the chaos...
Best Steve could guess is at least 50 people lost on their side, while the Nazis and Hydra, clearly all 300 and some change is gone out, thanks to the explosions, and the gunfighting.
They truly had planned everything out to the last detail, with possibly losses and all, but for Jacques to give them the best chance for the prisoners to reclaim their freedom, for the Maquis to have more ammo, and for the Rangers to keep scrapping on and fight, it was a major sacrifice and victory to make it ever bittersweet.
Mole sniffed, "What now, Captain?", and Steve replied, "Let's get back west. With the smoke, the fire and all, it would be hours for them to discover us, so, let's move out, get the injured ones to safety and all.".
Everybody nodded, knowing that they need to get out quickly before anyone checks up hours or even a day later, thanks to the isolation of this place, and so they did.
