It had been a week since Taylor stepped foot back on the FSS Chevelle. He thought that perhaps once he got away from the Santana he might start to feel better, but if anything, it made him all the more broody.
The only reprieve he found was the ass kicking he received when he sparred with Stephanie. He assumed the physical pain veiled the torrential storm of thoughts that clouded his mind and Steph was one to dish out a lot of pain when it came to hand to hand combat training.
Between the shore leave and week spent sailing through space left him a lot of time to think. Granted, he was happy to hear from Helen, especially when they debunked the notion that Morrigan had been executed by the CoU. However, that opened up a massive conspiracy that haunted his mind.
During that time, he decided if there were any one he could trust outside of Helen and the crew she worked with now, it was his own team. At least enough to be comfortable around since he highly doubted a ragtag group of marine sentenced to die would have any notion to truly help aid in the machinations of the Federation outside of killing, stealing or blowing something up.
His thoughts distracted him as he made a lazy right hook at Stephanie. Despite how obvious his mind wasn’t there, that did not stop her from taking advantage of him.
She grabbed his arm, spun on her heels and vaulted him over her shoulder. He landed on the quarter inch thick training mat, hard. Twisting his arm and planting her foot in his collarbone.
The strain her move put on his shoulder caused him to groan through clenched teeth as he looked up her well honed leg.
Stephanie looked down at him completely unamused and gave him a nonchalant shrug which caused him to chuckle through the pain.
Taylor let out a painful sigh and bit down on his lip hard, simultaneously throwing his legs as well as pulling down on his shoulder at the risk of tearing something.
Despite being over six foot and well built, he had a certainly level of flexibility uncommon to his body type as he hooked the backs of his heels behind her shoulders and used his legs to pull her down.
His plan worked, kind of. Stephanie fell forward having been pulled off balance and sprawled over Taylor, smacking her forehead on the mat between his shins.
Taylor got the worse end when she toppled over him, as her left knee connected with his right eye and his nose. After the awkward maneuver finished, Taylor started laughing.
He could feel Stephanie silently laughing, her stomach bouncing against his thigh before she rolled off him.
They looked at each other awkwardly from opposite ends. Her soft, baby blue eyes pierced her veil of stubborn seriousness with light hearted amusement as she held her hands up and slapped them both on the mat.
Taylor took the gesture as “what was that?” and gave her an animated shrug. “I have no clue what that was, but it sure as hell worked,” he said in between chuckles.
She tried signing him something but all he could do was lift his hands in defeat, “sorry, still haven't picked up much of your signing.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes though he didn't think she was irritated since she was still smiling.
“What the hell are you two doing?” came a stern voice along with the hard click of heels.
They both looked over to see their Master Chief Rosaline approaching. Stephanie sat up and rested her elbows on her knees. Taylor opted to stay sprawled out as his shoulder recovered from the strain. “Just playing a game called ‘How long of a beating can Taylor take before he makes an ass out of both of us’,” Taylor chuckled.
Rosaline hummed and took a look at Stephanie, “wow, well what do you know, a smile actually suits you,” she said.
Stephanie’s face deadpanned with a raised eyebrow before giving her handler the middle finger. Rosaline took no offense though.
“There’s the Steph we all know,” she mused before taking a look at a document briefly then glancing at her watch. “Well get suited, Havoc squad is on a hot drop. Speaking of, what is with the fact no one found you? I told Ebony to assemble the team 15 minutes ago.”
Stephanie gave Rosaline of hand signs before sticking her thumb in Taylor’s direction. Rosaline stuck her nose up, “ah, well she will just have to get over it.” She took another glance at her watch, “either way, you two need to get your asses in gear. Your dropship is on deck three and dusts off in 15,” she stated firmly before turning around to walk away.
“Yes ma’am,” Taylor said as he sat up to see Stephanie give a mocking salute as Rosaline walked off. As they got up and headed to their barracks, Taylor looked at Stephanie, “so, what was it you told her?”
Stephanie shrugged while smirking. It took a moment for Taylor to remember that asking was pointless.
After gathering their armor and weapons they made their way to hanger deck three to find a large heavily armored dropship waiting for them. Though looking around, there was no sign of Havoc squad.
Stephanie pointed to the shuttle and gave the signal for “inside”. Taylor nodded and they jogged up to the rear loading ramp. With the four plasma turbine thrusters that gave the hulking ship flight and maneuverability, he was glad that the ship did not have side doors. It was a good way to have your face melted off while waiting to do an aerial insertion.
Whistles and catcalls came from inside as they found the rest of Havoc squad. Though Taylor could tell Ebony was seething with her back turned to them. “There’s the two love birds!” Jackson barked in a laugh.
Stephanie gave everyone the bird as she took a seat next to Aleksei and started fastening a chain into her sword. Taylor chuckled as he sat next to Jackson, “you too man?”
Jackson shrugged with a grin, “Sorry mon, you make it too easy.”
Taylor snorted before turning to those who were not brooding, “so why is it that Rose had to come find us?”
Henry sniggered from the other side of Aleksei, leaning back with his hands behind his head in his usual relaxed manner. “We tried looking in all your usual hiding places, just figured you two were somewhere new havin’ a bangin’ good time,” he said with more than needed enthusiasm. Aleksei nodding along with him.
“No one bothered to check the training rooms?” Taylor deadpanned.
Henry cackled at that, “you two were getting it on in the one space on this ship that doesn’t get washed? That’s gross even by my standards!”
Stephanie face-palmed as Taylor shook his head in disbelief, “it’s called training you asshole.”
“Training? Who does that on their spare time? Shit I was sleeping when I was found,” Henry noted.
“Sleeping is training to you Henry!” Ebony growled as she slammed her fist on the cockpit door several times.
“yeahhhh, that’s fair,” Henry admitted before nearly jumping out of his skin when Stephanie revved the motor to her chain blade. A evil grin spread across her face when she heard him yip in surprise.
Soon after, the sound of the engines igniting was the only thing they could hear as the ramp closed, and they felt the momentum shift towards the void shield that kept the vacuum of space from taking everything out of the hanger.
“So, what is job boss?” Aleksei asked as soon as the roar of the engines disappeared.
Ebony turned with a scowl as she tapped many keys on her wrist mounted computer. From the center of the floor of the dropship, a 3D hologram appeared of a large, multi-tier building surrounded with an array of gardened verandas.
“We’re heading to a resort station that has been sieged by a group of Eskarii,” she stated before zooming into the second floor and highlighted a large room towards the back of the building, “our target is this room. Apparently the Eskarii have taken hostages, some of which are high level corporate execs, and fortified this room. The contingent of marines have not made any progress in talking them down nor moving in on the position, they're too afraid of breaching the room and causing a political issue or risking injuring any of the civilians. Which is why we're being sent.”
Henry quirked an eyebrow and leaned forward, “so, they're too chicken shit to try something and they're sending in a group of convicts instead? That doesn't make any sense…”
Ebony groaned in annoyance, “because, if we fuck up and kill a hostage the Federation doesn't take the fall, we do.”
Half the squad rolled their eyes, “scapegoats,” Jackson muttered.
Ebony nodded, “precisely, so we need to be extra careful so Aleksei…”
The big looked at her wide eyed, “for the love of everything holy, take hostages into consideration,” she finished.
Aleksei cleared his throat shyly before nodding. Refraining from saying anything incriminating.
Ebony glared at Taylor before shutting down the hologram and taking her seat on the other side of Jackson.
Jackson took a look at Ebony, who was ignoring everyone then leaned over to Taylor, “women, am I right?” he joked lowly.
Taylor snorted, “no need to tell me man, no need to tell me.”
The pilot gave them a two minute warning to prepare as the dropship made its descent into the artificially generated atmosphere of the resort.
There was a high pitch singing noise that pelted the outer armor of the dropship could be heard over the roar of the engines.
As the ramp began to descend, they watched as the pilot expertly pulled a fluid 180 degree turn, facing them towards the contingent of marines that held defensive positions around the perimeter of the resort. There was a heavy duty Eskarii turret set up on the roof of the building that had been targeting the dropship.
Heavy concentrated energy rounds pelted the heavy metal plating as the pilot hovered off the ground a few feet letting Havoc squad disembark before shooting off back to the Chevelle.
Ebony jogged up to the marine waving her in as the rest of their squad took their time.
“I’m Corporal Hagart, are you all the Chevelle sent?!” the marine asked incredulously.
“Trust me sir, we're all that's needed, what's the situation?” she asked in faux professionalism.
He waved his hand at the building, “as you can see they have us pinned down with that turret, any attempts at negotiation have failed and our only ship was shot down earlier.”
Aleksei’s massive form moved between Ebony and Hagart, “he-he, I got this,” he stated before a rocket screamed from the launcher that sat on his shoulder.
Everyone turned in astonished surprise as the rocket soared through the air and impacted the alien turret, resulting in a massive explosion of multicolored energy.
Marines shouted left and right in renewed energy as Aleksei slapped his massive mitt on Hagart’s shoulder, “first rule of negotiating, always lead with rocket launcher!” he told the shorter man before heartily laughing.
Ebony let out a long wistful sigh as the rest of Havoc squad followed the Martian, who had begun loudly whistling a jaunty tune. She shook her head, “just… hold the line and make sure no one escapes,” she stated before jogging to catch up.
Hagart, dumbfounded, looked between the annihilated turret and the group of hazbins who had just erased one of their problems within seconds of showing up.
“Who the hell did they send us?” he murmured to himself in awe.
ΩΩΩ
“You know, you’re a hard girl to track down,” an enchanting giggle came to Morrigan’s ears.
Morrigan froze and covered her bare chest despite having her back turned to the entrance of her newly deepened hovel. She had been in the middle of changing into the newest shirt all the prisoners were given earlier after the working hour.
She let out an amused hiss through her teeth before cautiously taking a look behind her to see Nora leaning against one of the walls near the entrance of her room. A bright, shameless smile plastered across her face as she leered in Morrigan’s direction. “Yeahhhh heh, I like it that way…” she said shyly before facing forward again as her face turned red.
Oh come on, no need to be embarrassed, Apollyon teased.
“Why the fuck did you not say anything?” She growled in embarrassment in her head at the mischievous deity.
Where’s the fun in that? Besides, we both know you're not really mad… Apollyon mused.
“That’s a pretty cool tattoo,” Nora unknowingly interjected. Morrigan took a cursory glance over her shoulder to find that the “tattoo” that resulted from sharing her body with Apollyon had grown exponentially. She was momentarily baffled that she never noticed.
“Oh, thank you…” she said meekly as she saw that the intricate line work had taken on more detail and spread over her shoulders and down her biceps. Assuming by the way Nora was staring at her, it had spread to her back as well.
Nora let out a soft chuckle as she watched Morrigan squirm in bashful embarrassment.
Morrigan hastily put the new shirt on before turning around, brushing the disheveled hair from her eyes. She knew her hair had grown considerably since she arrived at the prison, now that it was past her shoulders at that point.
Nora bit her lip as her eyes traced over her, with a thoughtful hum that broke into another bright smile, she said, “oh yeah, you definitely pull off the oversized shirt look.”
Morrigan’s rosy cheeks tightened as she smiled and looked down, realizing that the shirt she wore went down to her mid-thigh before giving a forced casual shrug, “I guess they’re not as considerate when you have hundreds of prisoners to clothe in a larger mine.”
Nora quirked an eyebrow, “you’re from a different mine?”
Morrigan fidgeted with the crease on the front of her shirt as she gave a slow nod, “yeah, 16.”
The blonde beauty shrugged herself off the wall and took slow, methodical steps into her hovel, eyeing the layout, “they never move prisoners…how did that happen?” she asked with piqued curiosity.
Morrigan let out a nervous laugh, “some worm-thing…or whatever, I was…the only survivor…”
Nora turned to her with raised eyebrows, the look on her face was adorably surprised, “you’re either incredibly dangerous or incredibly lucky to face a Castile Wyrm and live to talk about it!”
Morrigan chewed on her life, trying to maintain focus as best she could. She could feel parts of her brain slipping away as her heart beat rapidly in her chest. “Both maybe…Incredibly lucky for sure…”she said wistfully, pursing her lips with wide eyes as she recognized the double entendre she just said. All the while Apollyon cackled like a mad man in her head.
“Is that so?” Nora asked with a cheshire smile, obviously pickup on Morrigan’s panic.
Morrigan let out a breath before moving across the room, away from Nora and dug into a hide away she had and pulled out a cigarette and match, when she turned back around she lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply to steady her frazzled nerves. “Want one?” she asked, indicating the cigarette.
Nora shook her head and moved towards the raised soft patch of dirt Morrigan used as a bed, “nah, not into smoking though if you have any booze, I am definitely a drunk little fishy,” she grinned as she sprawled out on the dirt, never taking her eyes off Morrigan.
Morrigan tsked, shaking her head. “Sadly no, Tyrus took it all when I got shoved down here…” she said with a note of hatred in her voice.
Nora rolled on her back and pouted dramatically as she watched Morrigan upside down, “booooo-Tyrus-is-a-cunt-boooo,” she complained in a childish manner.
Morrigan couldn’t keep herself from giggling at the delightful woman. She moved to sit down on the soft patch of dirt but left a healthy space between her and Nora’s head.
After a long drag off her cigarette she gave a nervous glance at the woman who stared up at her with piercing silver eyes. She swallowed hard while wracking her brain to think of anything to say. “You’re dangerous too!” she blurted.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Nora cackled with a big grin, “awe, you’re too kind,” she drawled out flirtatious.
“No really! I watched the fight with you and Huruk…I wouldn't have guessed you were a mage…didn't know there were mages here.”
Nora shrugged, “I suppose I am, not that it would've helped him if I hadn’t been,” she mused proudly. “Plus I did see you watching with your mouth hanging open,” she noted before eyeing Morrigan in teasing suspicion.
With how much she likes poking at you it’s only a matter of time till she's poking you ‘in all the right places’ hahahaha! Apollyon laughed like a mad man as Morrigan turned every shade of red possible.
Morrigan fought with every ounce of her will to keep a straight face and not scream for Apollyon to shut up, which only made Nora giggle more.
“Its okay, I thought it was adorable,” Nora followed up.
Morrigan hide her face in her hands before brushing her hair away from her face, letting out a deep sigh. “What’s up with that? With the fighting pit I mean…” she specified, trying to steer the conversation away from her blatant enthrallment.
The silver eyed blonde hummed as she stretched her arms out, “well, originally it was used to solve disputes privately between inmates, with the warren leader as judge, though Tyrus turned it into an entertainment event for the prisoners, allowing prisoners to watch and place bets and such.” Nora looked up with a sly smile, “plus it’s fun,” she added.
Morrigan’s face twisted in amused adoration and disgust, “I suppose so… dangerous too,” she said skeptically. Though if she were honest with Nora, she could definitely see herself using the fighting pit to blow off steam however, between her fractured mind and her powers, it was safer for her to keep to herself.
Nora gave her a big grin, “that's what I enjoy the most,” she let out a brief chuckle, “I’m what you would call an ‘adrenaline junkie’ the more dangerous something is… the more I enjoy it,” Nora added with a fine level of seductive musing, looking directly into Morrigan’s eyes.
Ohhh, I like her, can we keep her? I promise to make you feed her, water her, bathe her and pet her! Apollyon quipped childishly.
Morrigan let out a loud snort as she tried to hide her reaction, poorly. She could not refrain from giggling like a school girl which only seemed to make Nora’s eyes sparkle.
Without warning, Nora rolled into a stand and gave a long moan as she stretched before heading over to the entrance which drew a puzzled look from Morrigan. “As wonderful as this has been, there's a money owing ass that needs kicking,” she said in amusement as she looked back at Morrigan who stood up as well, the look on her face pleading for her not to leave.
The truth of it, Morrigan was struggling with the idea of begging Nora to stay and fighting off the panic inducing sadness that slammed into both heart and mind.
With every ounce of will to compose herself she stammered out, “but…but you can always come back…when ever you'd like, I um…I wouldn't mind at all,” her voice was an obvious reflection of her struggling thoughts.
Nora gave her a sly, contemplative smirk, “I would enjoy that.” She stepped out of the hovel without saying another word.
Morrigan squeezed her eyes tightly as her hands clutched her head. Her breathing grew uncontrolled as she smacked her hand against her head, feeling the nervous breakdown coming through. Her sadness, happiness and fear were warring within her, all threatening to take over.
“No-no-no-no No!” she bleated before staggering to the closest stone wall, hauling back and smacking her forehead against the stone.
Warm blood trailed down her face before she even hit the ground, the back of her head also bouncing off the floor.
She could vaguely hear a torrential sputter of swearing coming from Apollyon as it panicked.
Once the faint surface pain of her face stopped hurting she could hear Apollyon’s muffled gruff.
Okay, what the fuck was that! Her deity’s words sounding distant and fluid.
Her eyelids felt heavy and slowly dropped over her blurred vision as she tried to focus, yet everything in her body felt peaceful as it lay sprawled out on the cold ground.
“Fuck…” she said in a whisper before her world faded to black.
ΩΩΩ
Havoc squad came under a liberal amount of gunfire when they entered the main lobby of the resort which they returned whole heartedly as they took cover behind the green and gold marble pillars near the entrance.
Eskarii were mainly on the open second floor and the two side winding stair cases, their energy weapons burning singe marks into the marble and white-gold leafed tile floor.
“Aleksei, Taylor, Henry suppressing fire now!” Ebony called through their private community.
Taylor grunted as super heated energy blasts impacted the pillar near his face, feeling the hair of his beard curl tightly. “I got left! Aleksei go right! Pick off the top Henry!” he relayed before dropping into a fluid crouch around the pillar and fired a constant stream of bullets, angling his weapon so the muzzle climb followed the curve of the stairs.
The sharp crack of Henry’s marksman rifle echoed through the lobby before the sequential detonation from Aleksei’s grenade launcher went off.
Several of the aliens did not expect Taylor’s assault and were caught in his onslaught before the rest higher up the stairs knew to hide behind the solid wall railing.
Stephanie sprinted around from behind Taylor and she took two steps at a time, her chain blade whirring viciously as it matched the snarl on her face. As soon as Stephanie reached her targets, Taylor let off the trigger and began to reload his newly depleted magazine.
Stephanie vaulted over one of the Eskarii while plunging one of her combat knives into their back and bringing the roaring chain blade down on the other, sending orange blood cascading as it tore through armor and flesh. Without missing a beat she drew her auto pistol and fired into the final threat on the stairs before switching back to her first target and shooting them in the head in calm, acrobatic professionalism.
One of the Eskarii on the ledge targeted her however, Taylor open fired, clipping the alien in the shoulder and sending its shots wide, allowing Steph to duck behind cover.
A follow up crack blew apart the alien’s temple as Henry cackled, “oh, talk about getting head!”
Everyone that could groaned over the comment which caused Henry to just snicker.
“Everyone move up!” Ebony called a she sprinted up the right side with Aleksei.
After a round of making sure all of the threats were neutralized, they surveyed the interior of the building.
“You know, why is it we did this with only six when there’s a whole contingent of Marines out there?” Henry asked.
“One part liability and one part not enough fire power,” Taylor noted.
Ebony sniffed at that, “he’s right, the Marines here are only meant to police the resort, to make all the rich people feel safe without providing any real protection. Those guys only had basic hardware, there is no way they could handle a full scale insurgency like this. The real question is, how did the Eskarii get in?”
Aleksei hummed to himself, “Air drop.”
Everyone turned to the big man with questioning looks which he shrugged at, “the turret on top, too big to move by hand. My guess three dropships, one for the turret, two for troops. This place has no anti-air too.”
“Makes sense… Aleksei, do you have any anti-air solutions?” Ebony asked.
The Martian grinned at her as if it were a stupid question and shrugged the launcher attached to his back, “always.”
She smirked and thumbed towards the entrance, “good, go wait with the Marines.”
Aleksei’s smile fell into a look of disbelief, “Really?!”
Ebony’s bemused look didn't mask her seriousness, “yeah, really. If these assholes got in by airship then I don't want them leaving by one either. You see a mother fucking bird in the air you shoot it down, got it?”
Aleksei pouted and grumbled under his breath as he drew the rocket launcher from his back and swapped the munitions in it with anti-air rockets from the large plated pack he wore.
“If you don't like it, you can always give your launcher to one of the boys outside?” Jackson pointed out trying to meet them in the middle.
Aleksei’s face twisted in horror as he clutched the launcher to his chest, “blasphemous medic!” he barked which drew laughter from the squad. Jackson shrugged as if it was not a big deal despite being a big deal to the big guy.
Once Aleksei made his way back outside, Ebony spied the elevators, “how much you want to bet those are rigged?” She pointed.
“Not enough to bet my life on it…” Taylor replied, Steph and Jackson both nodding in agreement.
Ebony sighed and pulled out a small device that rendered a 3D model hologram of the building. “Our target is on the next floor and the stairs are a perfect choke point…” she pointed out on the map.
“Do we have any specifics on the actual layout other than the basic building schematics?” Henry asked, but Ebony shook her head.
“There’s no way to the fourth floor from here is there?” Taylor asked.
Ebony shook her head again, “if it had occurred to me earlier, I would’ve ordered climbing gear but since we don’t have any…and the stairs to the fourth floor are right next to the fortified office, we either risk dying a horrible death inside a rigged elevator or we try to not choke in the choke point…”
Everyone looked at each other, silently voting on which risk they wanted to take.
“Well, I’m all for being choked, not a huge fan of confined spaces,” Henry quipped with a sly smirk.
Stephanie exasperatingly threw out a multitude of hand signs that made Henry snort in response, “yeah well, sleeping and dying in small spaces are two very different things!” he argued playfully. Stephanie just shook her head and threw a thumb back towards the stairs, casting her vote.
Taylor shook his head, “guess we go stairs?”
Ebony hummed as she bit her lip. Licking her lips she lifted her submachine gun, “fuck it, we’re paid to die, if anything, we make for an early retirement.”
Jackson and Ebony turned and made their way to the right wing stairs.
“You really think they’ll let us retire?” Henry asked jokingly only to have to animatedly dodge a lazy swing from Stephanie’s chain blade.
Stumbling back as he yelped, Henry waved frantically to Taylor, “you can have the psycho mate! I’ll go with dark and broody!” he exclaimed as he turned and jogged towards Ebony and Jackson.
Taylor turned to see a wicked grin on Stephanie’s face, highly proud of herself.
“Did you do that because he was annoying you, or because you wanted him to go with the others?” Taylor inquired.
Stephanie bit her lip and tried to feign a look of innocence as she shrugged. Taylor chuckled as she shouldered her chain blade, that same wicked grin on her face.
She nudged her head in the direction of the stairs and started walking away confidently. Taylor just shook his head sniggering, “and here I thought I was going to hate my life on a death squad…” he muttered to himself as he followed her up the stairs.
By the time they got to the top of the stairs, Ebony, Jackson and Henry were waiting impatiently. Ebony flashed in a manner that insinuated “what the fuck?”.
Stephanie and Taylor both shrugged as Henry leaned in to whisper something into Ebony’s ear, forgetting that the comm-link was in that ear.
“Probably pumping out a quick one on the stairs, not like we could hear her scream,” he whispered.
Stephanie’s eyes narrowed and she held her chain blade pointed at him and revved the engine causing him to yelp. However, the tip of the blade stuck out around the corner and a devastating barrage of energy blasts came from down the hall, surprising everyone.
As the assault ceased, Taylor dared peek the corner. Eskarii were double stacked behind portable cover with various styles of their weaponry. The good news was, there were four decorative concrete blocks with large plants on them between them and their target.
“Okay, we have some cover, four big ass planters crouching height. Thinking we should stagger until Jacks, Steph and EB can get within close quarters and pop some frags and smoke while we’re at it,” Taylor explained.
Ebony and Jackson gave him a thumbs up as Henry readied himself to lay down high powered suppressing fire.
He double checked with Stephanie who had already been crouching, gearing herself to move quickly. She looked up at him and grinned. Taylor snorted and pulled a grenade from his belt and waved it at Henry.
Henry noticed and did the same. On the count of three, they pulled the pins and threw the grenades down the hall.
Eskarii shouted in alarm as the grenades bounced towards the shimmering blue kinetic barriers they stood and crouched behind. Taylor braced his machine gun against the corner of the wall and fired with prejudice as the grenades went off. The thunderous crack of Henry’s weapon followed quickly after as the Eskarii struggled to regain their composure against the onslaught.
Stephanie yanked a smoke grenade from Taylor’s belt and threw it as the Eskarii began firing blindly over cover while the barriers they hid behind flashed repeatedly from Taylor and Henry’s barrage.
As soon as the smoke began obscuring the end of the hall, Stephanie and Ebony booked it towards the first set of cover, Jackson waited his turn, not wishing to double up on the cover.
As soon as Ebony and Steph broke cover again to move up, a bright beam of energy pierced Stephanie’s side, spiraling her to the ground in a silent scream of pain and her chain blade skittering across the ground.
Taylor swore as he watched Stephanie fall into the middle of the hall, bullets and energy blasts flying above her. “Steph!” he called out. He broke cover and rushed to her while taking a blast of energy to the shoulder plate.
He didn’t slow though as he slid to a stop and grabbed her ankle, dragging her back behind cover. Stephanie squirmed silently as she held her side.
Taylor dropped his weapon and pulled at her hands, “let me see, let me look Steph!” he shouted over the gunfire.
As she lifted her bloody hands, the wound in the side of her abdomen bled profusely, without thinking he applied pressure to the wound which caused her to silently shriek. “Medic! Jackson, Steph is hit!” he called out.
“God damn it! Jackson go to her!” Ebony yelled over the comm as the rattle of her submachine gun joined in the cacophony of gunfire, followed by another grenade. Smoke began to pour down the back of the hall.
Jackson slid from a sprint behind Taylor, “I think it hit her kidney!” Taylor informed him.
“Let me see,” Jackson demanded, stooping over Stephanie as he shined a flashlight in her eyes.
Taylor released her wound for Jackson to inspect, the look on his face not hinting at any good news.
“She’s going into shock, put something in her mouth, this will hurt more than the wound,” Jackson said calmly.
Panic set in Taylor as he frantically patted himself down trying to think of something that wouldn't break her teeth.
With nothing that came to mind, Taylor grabbed her jaw, prying her mouth open and forcing her to look at him. “This is going to hurt like hell, bite down,” he said as he stuck the outside of his palm into her mouth, the non-plated glove would provide cushion for her teeth.
As Jackson collected the proper serum, Henry sprinted into a crouch and threw his rifle to the wall and grabbed Jackson’s shotgun off the ground and ripped a handful of shells from his belt. “Focus on the mute, I’ll go help EB,” he demanded as he stuffed the shells in his pocket and charged low into the smoke screen, the sound of the shotgun roaring throughout the hallway.
“Ready?” Jackson asked them both, not really giving either time to answer as he plunged a large syringe into her kidney next to the wound and pressed inject.
The amount of force in Stephanie’s jaw surprised Taylor, thankful for the canvas material between his hand and her teeth otherwise, he was certain she would’ve taken a chunk out of his hand.
With precision speed, Jackson sprayed a thick foam into the wound and Stephanie arched her body in agony, her mouth open in a horror scream that never came.
Stephanie went cross-eyed as Jackson applied dressings to her wound, her consciousness slowly fading from the pain as the gunfire began to fade around them.
ΩΩΩ
Taylor sat in one of the nearly empty lounge rooms aboard the Chevelle, drowning his feelings in a glass of whiskey on his off time as he watched the holovid on the wall. The two Marines and dock worker were off in the corner playing cards, seemingly aware that he had wished to be left alone.
It had been two weeks since Havoc squad had assaulted the resort and saved the captives at the expense of Stephanie being injured. Since then, Havoc squad had been sent to take over a CoU pharmaceutical manufacturer, much to his hatred, was non-combative. The resulting slaughter of hundreds of workers and the handful of security guards had left a haunting feeling within Taylor.
More so, the squad felt hollow on the mission without the crazy, savage blonde and her terrifying chain blade accompanying them.
Taylor refused to admit it, though he knew deep inside his core, he was becoming desensitized to the violence.
His tour spent in the middle east on Earth left him mourning at the waste of life he had been ordered to snuff out or those of his fellow soldiers.
Now, his only qualm was with the loss of the innocent, which was the entire core of their most recent mission. However, orders were orders now. Ones he had to follow or risk execution for disobedience.
The rest of the squad had felt he had needed time to process as altercation with Henry had left the mouthy blonde man pummeled by Taylor which required Aleksei to restrain him.
Taylor knew he would need to apologize later but until then, he was more than content with brooding in the lounge.
Despite all the warring emotions he felt, his true concern was for Stephanie. Since their return, the med lab had put her into a short term medically induced coma to let her wound fully heal and make sure the regrowth serum Jackson injected into her had time to make her kidney fully functional again.
Taylor visited when he could, though Ebony and Rosaline kept Havoc squad busy with training or terrible missions, except since his assault on Henry two days before, he was placed on restricted solitary leave to have time to cool off as well as serve as punishment. Meaning he was denied access to the med lab to see his recovering squad mate.
So, Taylor made the most of what little he could do.
A knock came from the doorway to his left; Stephanie standing against the doorframe. Taylor’s eyes went wide in surprise as she walked towards him, words escaping him as he moved to stand.
“You’re okay?!” he exclaimed softly as she came closer.
The smile that came to her face was softer than normal, her eyes held the magnitude of her exhaustion. The most surprising thing was that she didn’t stop moving until her arms were wrapped around him. The anti-social knuckle busting woman hugged him tightly.
Caught off guard, Taylor slowly brought his arms around her, feeling her cheek against his collar bone as he rested his bearded chin upon the top of her head.
The moment felt like forever, and not long enough in the matter of seconds it lasted before she pulled away and gestured to the couch he had been sitting on.
Dumbfounded and partially drunk, he nodded and took a seat next to her, leaving a close gap between them. What he had not noticed before was that she held a note pad in her hands that she opened as she pulled out a pen.
Taylor watched her curiously as he took another sip of his drink before mindlessly holding the glass out to her. She looked up from what she had begun writing with raised eyebrows and accepted the glass, taking a sip that sent her into a sputtering cough.
She quickly scribbled out what she wrote and wrote something hastily as she coughed through a smile, “what the fuck are you drinking?” her written words said.
Taylor chuckled as he looked at the glass he had stolen back from her during her coughing fit, then looked at the unlabeled bottle sitting on the table, “whatever battery acid they’re passing off as whiskey around here.”
Stephanie smiled as she wrote more elegantly this time, “battery acid is an understatement!”
They both laughed at that as she continued to write, “I was told you saved me.”
Taylor’s smile faltered slightly as his memory went back to her laying on the ground in the middle of the firefight. “I mean… Jackson did the stabilizing, I only got you into cover…” he replied.
Stephanie snorted, “Don’t bullshit me, if not for you, I probably would’ve bled out before anyone knew I was down,” she scribbled out.
Taylor tilted his head in concession, “maybe, I’m just glad you’re okay now.”
Taylor watched her pause, staring at him with a blank expression before furrowing her eyebrows, “why?” she wrote.
Taylor was confused by that question, “well, you’re part of the team, and an amazing, respectable fighter…” he paused as she watched him intently, “honestly, out of everyone you’re probably my favorite person I work with…”
Stephanie tilted her head curiously, her expression still strictly studious. Her lack of movement or writing telling him to continue.
“I mean, I think we’re a lot alike; you keep to yourself, you don’t bother anyone, neither of us want to be here, give a shit about any of…this,” he gestured to the ship they were on, “if we weren’t on a death squad I am willing to bet you’d be out of the military faster than I would be…”
Taylor sighed, “even with not being able to understand what you say 90% of the time, you’re honestly the most pleasant member of Havoc squad to be around.”
Stephanie’s eyebrows were raised in surprise by the time Taylor finished talking, writing as she continued to stare at him in surprise. “Is that why I was told you visited so often?” she held up.
Now Taylor felt embarrassed that he had been outed like that. Scratching the back of his neck he nodded, “yeah, essentially. I was… worried about you. I don’t understand how the medical shit works around here but I do understand the implications of being shot in the kidney…”
Her lips pulled tightly into a purse smile, nodding vaguely at the comment before turning her head to look at the holovid.
Taylor watched her bite her lip as if contemplating.
Without any inclination, Stephanie stood up while closing the notepad and walking to the door. Before he could even form a question, she waved for him to follow.
Taylor was too lost in confusion to move which she noticed. She turned around and leaned against the doorframe again, beckoning him with her finger. The three playing cards began whistling and catcalling which earned them a wrathful glare from Stephanie before she stepped out of view.
As the gears in Taylor’s head caught up, he shifted and followed after her.
They walked silently through the ship, Taylor too confused and lost to question where they were going, until they came to the private barracks section of the ship steeping his confusion even farther.
“What are we doing here?” he finally asked as they stopped in front of one of the steel hydraulic doors.
Stephanie rolled her eyes and punched in a code on the keypad, stepping inside as the door opened.
Taylor timidly followed to find a small room filled with small plants hanging from baskets, a poster to some fantasy movie he had never seen before and a small bookshelf overloaded with books that sat next to a small bed.
Stephanie sat at the head of the bed as she watched Taylor take in the room as the door behind him hissed closed, “this is your room?” he asked as he caught the only thing he knew designating the room as hers, a small desk that had two auto pistols and three chain blades of various designed all disassembled on top of it and small boxes surrounding it filled with tiny parts and pieces.
She smiled softly and gestured to the bed and he nervously followed her instruction. Once he sat, she began scribbling again, “I think it’s time we learn to speak to each other.”
Taylor looked at her in wonder as she began writing a list of words down. When she finished, she laid the notepad between them and pointed to the first word and signed the word.
Nervously, Taylor tried to mimic her hand motion which she snorted and repeated more slowly.
Over several months, Stephanie spent their down time teaching Taylor her sign language. Though he was slow at first, once he over came his nerves he picked up on her language rather quickly. They spent a lot of their time together laughing and joking together as he learned there was significantly more beneath the silent bloodstained berserker of a woman he worked with.