| "Distorted Images" | ||
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24th May 2008 01.10hrs She gave non-verbal signals to Timothy and Cindy to cover the group while she made an initial check on how they were. Paige was the one lying the quietest, so she went to her first, leaving Joshua to deal with Baz. She checked her over; pulse was there, but not good, Baz was holding his shoulder, blood spilling down blackly between his fingers. She spoke into the comms unit to the tactical team, "Alpha 2 is down, Alpha 1 down as well." She heard Gray's exclamation of disgust; it was going down the pan, the whole mission. Not enough men, not enough firepower and too many tango's. The woman stirred, "No.." "Relax Paige, it's me," she finished checking the prone woman, other than the loss of consciousness and broken wrist, she was fine. That head injury was worrying, anything could happen; she couldn't be left on her own. She was satisfied that there was no back or neck injury, "Can you sit up?" she asked, undoing the pack at Paige's waist so that movement was easier. "Yeah." Was the confident reply, but it was heavily tinged with pain, Saf helped her manoeuvre in to a seated position, "Fuck, it's broke." Pointing to her wrist, which was bent at a funny angle. "Yep, that was quite a fall you took from up there," she pointed to the stack where they were sheltering, while Paige was quiet, she took the time to shine a slim torch into her eyes, the pupils reacted normally but slower than she would have preferred, "You banged your head really good as well." She took out a bandage from her pack, and opened it, readying to apply it to Paige's head wound, which was bleeding profusely as they were prone to do. "Good for me, how about Alpha 1 and 5?" Paige's voice was little more than a whisper, which was difficult to hear over the continued gun fire. "Alpha 1 took a bullet to the shoulder, it's pretty bad�" Saf replied, tying off the bandage with a loose bow, noting how quickly the blood seeped through and applied some pressure gently. If it didn't stop, she would apply a second one, over the top of the first. "Alpha 5?" Paige persisted in her hoarse whisper. `Who cares about him?' she continued her task silently, this time, helping Paige to move the wrist into a more comfortable position and securing it firmly so that further movement wouldn't cause further pain. "I'm here," he was next to her, and she hadn't heard him moving. `Get a grip on yourself Saf, he isn't a superhuman; just a man.' "How is she?" his words were directed at her, though she noticed that he kept his gaze on Paige's prone form. She could hear Joshua, his breathing was louder than normal even under stress, although she noted the tears in his vest indicating he had been hit, he was mobile, not in danger like the other two, `and frankly not worth her time or energy in seeing if he was hurt more seriously, because if he was she would feel obliged to treat him and she had enough to do without adding to her workload.' Instead she concentrated on the two casualties she had and ignored him completely, other than to respond to his question. "Broken wrist. Cut on her head," Her voice was calm, controlled, irritating she hoped. She noted the bleeding wasn't slowing much, so she unwrapped another bandage and applied it over the first one, "at least that's all I can see for now." Joshua moved away, back to Baz. Paige nodded, "I'm fine," but it was clear that she was in a lot of discomfort. Saf sighed; it was never easy with Paige. She held up her hand, "How many fingers?" "I dunno," Paige answered. Joshua was moving Baz next to Paige, "You have to stay here with Alpha 2." Saf moved to Baz, taking two bandages out of her pouch, she applied the first one over the wound, "I know." Saf saw the amount of effort it took for him to talk, even through clenched teeth, and she whispered conspiratorially, "If it helps, shoot her." Baz tried to grin, but it didn't make his eyes. She felt bad leaving him, them she corrected herself, unprotected. Cindy's voice came over the comm., "We have to move, Beta's securing the west side and is reporting heavy fire." Joshua looked at her, and then said, "Take Beta 2 and get over the stacks. Beta 3, you come with me." She shook her head, "If it was just me, I'd take the risk, but it isn't," she held his stare, cold now, irritated. "Joshua, I can hear you wheezing and that is just from moving Baz. You will only be a liability if you continue. How about you keep the egress channel clear and I will take the other two and rendezvous with Beta 1 at the second position?" Joshua stared at her, she swore she could see his hatred of her in his eyes, but then he nodded hooding his gaze from her. She had control, it wasn't what she had asked for, nor had she desired it; but in the circumstances it was the right decision to make and she would do the same thing again if she had to. Speaking slowly into her comms under his steady gaze, she contacted the other two, "Beta 2 & 3, prepare to move to second position, Sector 5 South." Clicks told her they had heard and would be moving, she had to go, but first she placed a hand on Paige's shoulder, "I'll be back, just hang on in there." Cindy had taken up position on top of on of the stacks, Timothy was waiting for her to join them, silently she motioned to him to climb up, and she took the ground level. They made slow progress, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them along with charges placed where they would do most damage. She could hear the other team also clearing a path from their ingress point, on the West side, towards the second position, and the amount of gunfire, on the edges of the warehouse was gradually reducing. Though they were still under heavy fire, which seemed to intensify as they moved towards the centre, and their other target; the data centre. Cindy and Timothy were trying to provide covering fire, but they were pinned down. Saf saw Eric start to make his move, realised that he was trying to get to her position, and she fired off the rest of her magazine to provide him with cover. She snatched a spare magazine, ejected the empty one, and reloaded within the space of 12 seconds, but in that time the enemy was attempting to move in on them. As one she and Eric turned and fired, their combined firepower swept the enemy out of their positions, and this gave the others in their group an opportunity to add their firepower and began their drive of the enemy back. "Thanks." She said, checking her palm for an update. "Where's Joshua?" Eric asked, looking around. "He's injured," she stated calmly, "by the sound of his chest, he is bruised if not suffering from broken ribs." She said, preparing another charge, wondering how or even if to tell him that she had taken control. She finished her task and turned to look up at him, and found him waiting. She had to do it; she knew that, the plan was never going to work unless one person was in charge. Resolutely she spoke, "We do what we set out to do," her voice was calm, controlled, "We have a mission to fulfil and wounded to retrieve. I suggest Jordan and Timothy start retrieving the data, and the rest of us set the charges and cover them, unless you have an alternative?" It wasn't a challenge; instead she just calmly stated her intentions, while allowing him to feel that he could contribute if he felt the need to. It had been easier that she had expected, she had found herself saying the words as though she were telling him to follow directions. Though she was concerned in case he challenged her authority, but she urged him silently not to challenge her because she would have to force his hand and that wasn't the way she wanted this to go, but if she had to, she would. He looked at her for a long moment, and then he nodded. "Sooner we are done, the sooner we can go." He replied. She grinned, in relief as much as anything, "How many charges have we got? I've got 2 left, Cindy has 1. We used the rest already." "The brood has 4 left, burners not explosives." Eric nodded, before he turned to check that their way forward was clear. `The brood', she had heard him mention that before, but it didn't mean anything to her. She made a note to ask him about it sometime. But for now, she had a task, and that was to get the data. The next 20 minutes seem to fly past, Jordan and Timothy set to with gusto at the terminals, Saf watching over them, protecting them, while the others set the charges. When finally they were done, the final charges were placed under the data centre, and they started to withdraw. She sent Timothy and Jordan in front of her, protecting their backs was her task. As they approached the second position, the sound of bullets striking the pallets to her side alerted her to a new problem, a stray sniper was unaccounted for. "Alpha 3, Beta 2. Get out of here." She turned back to lay down covering fire, but it was quiet. Whoever it was had moved, `damn, damn and more damn.' Jordan and Timothy had moved out of her sight; she ran after them zagging to prevent whoever it was taking a shot at her, and stopped at a junction. She sheltered on the corner, trying to hear which aisle they had gone down. She should have known better, afterwards, but at the time her attention was all on protecting the data. A figure, dressed in black attacked her from the right, sending her flying. She got to her feet, rescued her gun from where it had fallen and returned. "Why?" she pointed the weapon at him, only to realise that he was clutching his side, trying to hold his weapon and not succeeding. She knelt down beside him, checking him over and her hand came away wet; with his blood. She was speechless, realising he had pushed her out of danger, and had taken the bullet meant for her. "Can you stand?" she urged him to his feet, knowing that he was too heavy for her to carry and the others had already moved on and somewhere close by was a damn good shot; too good to risk leaving anyone behind. He nodded, and she realised that he wasn't capable of speaking much. He was carrying a 9mm gun, same as her, the mp5 was missing, but she didn't know when or how he had disposed of it. Leaning heavily on her, she moved him to a different aisle, with more cover, but they still had a distance to travel. Their final destination was the Eastern egress position, but she wanted that shooter; it was personal now. "Have you got a flash?" she whispered to Eric. "Pocket." His voice was tight; she could hear the pain behind it though he tried to cover it up well. It was a disadvantage being a medic; you got accustomed to hearing beyond the invisible. He motioned with his good arm and she reached into his vest pocket and pulled out two flashes. She lit one, and threw it on top of the stacks, moving her and Eric forward down the aisle; she waited for it to go off. She had set it for 5 seconds, and as she had expected the shooter fired at it before they had realised what was happening. If it didn't work, she would try the second. She had already raised her weapon in anticipation of the facts, cursing because she hadn't expected to have to lay down this amount of covering fire, she breathed slowly, concentrating on the task and when the gunman fired she returned fire; offloading a full magazine at his location or where she thought it was given where the flashes had come from. The sound of something heavy falling told her she had been successful. Eric had slid slowly down against the stack, and she pulled him upright. "Come on," she urged him. "We have to go; the charges are going to explode in under 5 mins." Return |
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