Fri Oct 30, 2020 2:42 am
Fireteam Glory Part 135
The Phantoms had landed at their destination. The subtle movements and rocking Cass had been feeling for the past hour had completely stopped. Purple glows lit up the ramps of the Phantoms as they lowered, and everyone onboard was unloaded roughly. A Brute picked up Teresa, who was too weak and tired to fight back, and dragged her behind itself. One of the large, ape-like aliens grabbed Cass and roughly brought her to her feet. She was led down the loading ramp along with everyone else. She took the opportunity to observe the area. They were in a small valley, with the jungle surrounding them on all sides. There were small, temporary Covenant structures set up all across the valley floor, with watchtowers atop large barricades covering the jungle’s edge. She saw several rings of energy fields set up nearby. Inside the shields, other marines and civilians huddled in corners or sat out in the open. There was suddenly a commotion to her left, drawing her attention. Booth and Santos were struggling against the Brutes that held them, shouting obscenities as the Brutes overpowered them. One of the Brutes got close to Santos’s face, which let him seize the opportunity to spit in the alien’s face. It was startled by the action, but it quickly overcame its shock and embarrassment while its pack laughed. It wiped away the spittle and snarled as it slammed Santos into the floor. He groaned as he laid on the ground, curled up in pain.
“Relax.” Cass said to them. “We don’t want to make these things upset.” She glared upwards angrily at the Brutes standing near her. “Not yet anyways.”
Booth snarled. “I intend to do more than make them upset when they give me a chance.”
The War Chieftain stepped forward to examine the captives. Cass stared back hard when the alien’s blood-red eyes fell upon her. Seemingly pleased with the bounty, it barked orders at its underlings. The marines were taken to one of the pens and tossed onto the muddy ground inside. No longer being handled by the Brutes, they all stood on their own and looked around at each other. A few of the prisoners who were already inside when they had arrived walked over. Looking at their tattered and muddy clothes, Cass saw that one of them was an Army trooper.
The first person to step forward was a bulky man with dark skin and a brown stubble, clad in the uniform of the UNSC Army. “So, the Covenant got you too huh? Name’s Jarvis, lance corporal Jarvis Carrigan.” He had a calm, smooth voice. That’s Calvin, a police officer from New Mombasa,” he pointed at a thinner man to his left, “and this is Nelson.” He pointed at a wider man on his right. “He’s from an Optican facility.”
“Well met, Trooper.” Cass said as she accepted Jarvis’s help sitting Santos up. “I’m Gunnery Sergeant Marissa Cassidy from the 105th Shock Troopers, just Cass for short. The rest are Marine Fireteam Glory and November Squad survivors.”
“Well, judging by your armor,” Jarvis said, “I can tell you’ve been through a lot recently. Gave the Covenant one heck of a fight, didn’t you?”
“Anything else you’d care to point out, Captain Obvious?” Booth snapped, scowling as she wiped some mud off of her arms. She took a look at their new prison. She turned to Cass. “These walls are about ten feet high and I see several watchtowers covering all the pens. Plasma turrets on each one. Looks like this is a main base of operations, Gunnery Sergeant.”
“Lance corporal,” Cass said as she looked back at Jarvis, “what’s the situation here?”
Jarvis sighed. “I’ll give it to you straight, Gunny. I have no idea. They captured us and rounded us up onto their dropships, then brought us to this camp to lock us up. We were brought here on the first flight, what, not even six hours ago?” He looked to Nelson, who nodded in agreement, then continued. “There were sixteen prisoners of us in the first set of drop offs. You came in on the second flight, so you bring our number up to twenty-two. There are nine of us in here, with the other thirteen spread out through the other pens.”
“Well, whatever the Brutes have planned, we don’t want to be here when they decide to put that plan into motion.” Cass said. “You’ve been here a but longer than us, have you seen anything of note in their patrol style or weaknesses in the perimeter?”
Jarvis shook his head. “Negative. They’ve got the place locked down as far as I can see. Patrols are constantly coming by and those watchtowers are watching the jungle for any approaching threats… or escaping prisoners.”
Booth looked to the south of the encampment, seeing a large path that led into the jungle that was covered by a single watchtower with minimal guards and no walls.. “Think I have something. I’ll describe it to you, don’t want to draw too much attention to it. They seem to have left a gap in the defenses, likely used for sending out vehicle patrols. Only two of the gas-suckers and a beak on top with no sign of a plasma cannon.”
Cass nodded, taking a chance to grab a look at the opening. “Understood, Staff Sergeant. We’ll keep that entrance in mind. I want you to keep an eye out for vehicles coming and going, let’s see what they’re sending out into the jungle.”
Near where Cass and Booth were talking, Teresa and Santos were sitting on the wet ground. Santos could still feel the ache in his back from when that Brute had thrown him to the ground. He looked over to his right, staring at Teresa a meter away. She was staring far into the distance, seemingly oblivious to everything around her. Santos decided to slide a little closer to her and see if he couldn’t get her attention.
“Hey,” he said to her, “are you alright, Doc?” She looked pale and he could see thin lines where small tears had run down her face. Gently waving his hand in front of her view, he realized that she wasn’t focused on anything. “Hey, Elizabeth?”
Booth spun around immediately at the use of her first name. She wasn’t pleased by the distraction from her observation. “What is it Santos, can’t you see I’m-” She immediately shut her mouth when she saw why Santos had called for her. “Teresa…” she whispered as she looked at the deathly still medic. “Teresa, can you hear me?” Reaching out and putting her hand on Teresa’s shoulder, she was minorly relieved when the touch snapped her out of her trance.
Teresa breathed heavily and fast, suddenly aware of her surroundings. She softly muttered something inaudible to everyone, then broke down crying.
“Teresa!” Booth gently grabbed the medic by her shoulders. “Hey, come back to me. Calm down. It’s a lot to take in, but I need you to focus right now.”
“They’re dead!” Teresa cried. “They’re both dead, and there was nothing I could do to save them!”
Booth felt a small pang of sadness in her heart. She knew that the ‘they’ Teresa was referring to was Ivanoff and Lawrence. She looked at the ground for a minute, trying to suppress the tears welling up in her own eyes. Ivanoff has been like a brother to her, and he had been a good leader through thick and thin. She couldn’t help but feel lost without him there to help her think of a plan to escape. She had barely known Lawrence, despite having been in the same unit for nearly a year and a half. In her experience, the new guys rarely lasted long so she hadn’t bothered with getting too attached. She hated that she was right this time, as she knew that Teresa and Lawrence had been starting to become good friends after all they had been through.
“I know we’ve lost two teammates in one night, but you can’t just give up Teresa!” Booth said as she tried to comfort Teresa.
“Just leave me alone…” Teresa muttered. “There’s nothing we can even do right now. I just want to sleep.” She tucked herself further into her knees, hiding her face in her legs so that nobody could see her crying.
Booth let go off Teresa and backed away to give her space. Santos did the same and took a place at Booth’s side.
“She might be right, you know. Maybe there isn’t anything we can do now.” Santos said, looking at Booth with a serious concern in his eyes.
She had always respected that about Santos. Even if she couldn’t stand his personality most of the time, at least he knew when it wasn’t time to joke around. At least most of the time.
“We aren’t just going to give up.” Booth said, clenching her fists. “There has to be a way to get out of this, and we’ll find it… or die trying.”
“Well, I just hope we can get out of here without anyone dying.” Santos forced a nervous laugh out of himself. “I know it's a long shot, but do you think the kid made it?”
Booth sighed. “His chances are slim, but I really hope he did. If all else fails, he might just be our only way out of here.” Looking up into the sky, she let some of the light rainfall run down her face as she caught faint glimpses of the stars in the night sky.