Rifle, check. Side arm, check. Ammo, low. She would have to place a requisition when they got back home.
The rest of the checks were meaningless; supplies, water and other shit she might need. It even included her thermal layers, as if she was ever going to take them off.
Why is it always fucking Siberia, or Antarctica or Alaska? Just once she wanted a beach side mission. Wear a little less and get a tan while she saves lives. Hell, maybe even go to the beach without a mission. Just relax... get some drinks, have some laughs.
Sixteen, seventeen and... Eighteen. Eighteen rounds for Hou Yi, her rifle. That was that, she was packed and ready to leave.
She considered whether she should get her things onto the shuttle now or if she should go find Ade first. "Lara?" Garrison called out.
"Here sir!" She responded, raising a hand. She quickly dropped it back down when she realised the biting cold awaited her outside of the small campfire's even smaller radius. Clumsy thumps heralded Garrison as he shifted his great mass with an appropriate lack of dexterity. His goal wasn't Lara but her fire. He lumbered with embarrassing speed as his eyes locked on the warmth.
"Cold, sir?" Lara teased as she shifted to let him closer to the fire.
"It's my old skin... Much too thin for this kind of climate. Not like you young pups." He complained. The snow rushed away and the dust unsettled as he dropped to the floor.
"More suited for retirement in the Maldives then, sir?" Lara joked. Garrison cackled at the idea. Retirement was a luxury no member of Raptor squad had ever been bestowed, though hope was there that Garrison - at his advanced age - could be the first.
"Did you speak to our new recruit?" Garrison asked.
"Yes, sir. She's about as well as you can expect. We spoke around sundown but I let her get some rest." Lara said.
He looked grimly into the fire and scratched bristled beard. "We have to be careful with her. She is not like us, she still has hope." His smile picked up and Lara could see him trying to think of a joke to cheer up the mood. She took the burden unto herself. "Keep her away from Reese then, that man'll send her suicidal." She joked. Garrison tried to laugh, though it wasn't nearly as gregarious as before.
"That brother of yours truly has developed a talent for misery over the past few years. Not that I blame him, of course. A lesser man wouldn't have made it through half of what he has been put through." He agreed. "She is a brave woman to stand by him."
"Yes... She is." A man responded from behind the two. She didn't need to turn to see who it was. There was only one man who made no sound as he walked.
"Hey, Reese." She said. "We were just talking about you. All bad things of course."
"I'm sure." Reese quipped. "Sir, a message for you." Garrison stood to tower above Reese as he grabbed a tablet from him. He shone a warm smile to him and Reese nodded.
"Are we off?" Lara asked with a mix of dread and hope.
"It would seem we are, Sergeant. Grab Ms. Tempish. Reese drag Iris away from whatever poor sap she's wasting our medical supplies on. Meet at Daphi in ten." He ordered.
"Sir!" They both responded as they headed off in their own directions.
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Cold. It was so fucking cold. There were no thoughts going through her mind just a series of expletives and slurs with one or two prayers for the downfall of 'whoever put me in this fucking hellhole in the first place'. Ade, where was she? Not in the medic tents, not by the fire pit or food hall. Where could she be?
"Kid?" Reese's voice rang out from her wrist band.
"Yup?" She responded through gritted teeth.
"You found her yet?" He asked.
"Nope, still looking." She shortly answered. Her tone must have been more aggressive than she had thought by Reese's response.
"Enjoying the cold hey, kid?" He asked through stifled laughter.
"Born for this, sir." She lied.
He laughed. "Nice and warm here, Daphi's got the heaters on full."
"Respectfully, Lieutenant, go fuck yourself." She responded with the slightest twinge of humour, but mostly annoyance. She shut her comms down and continued her search.
A thought dawned on Lara. The grave. Of course, the child was still in mourning. The loss of a father was a feeling Lara knew well, and yet she had been so far removed that the thought hadn't even been a whisper. She marched onward. It wasn't far - just over the hill.
Her boots crunched atop the quickly freezing mud, her overcoat whipped in the breeze. She had never been so grateful for her mask as it protected her nose and cheeks from the stabbing winds.
"Left side, sergeant!" A man called out from behind her. She nearly slipped on the ice as she shifted aside but managed to hold herself straight. A convoy rumbled past her. Six-wheeled armoured cars, weaponized trucks and even a tank. She nodded to the convoy commander as he carried on towards the city.
"More fighting, officer?" She called out to him.
"Recon found an anti air battery. Our job to soften em' up so special forces can wipe em' out." He responded. Her heart sank. She had hoped they would just set off straight for Elysium but she knew that Raptor was the only special forces unit in the country.
She stomped on. The grave came into view and so did Ade. She seemed so small, so frail. She wasn't crying; she didn't even look in mourning. She was just sat reading a book beneath Lara's blanket.
"Sweetie." Lara whispered as to not startle her. "It's time to go."
Ade looked up from her book but didn't speak. She gently closed the book and stowed it away before rising to her feet.
"You shouldn't be standing yet, Ade." Lara protested as she moved to help stabilise her. Ade again didn't respond. Her eyes lay a mile ahead of her and her face fell blank. She looked to Lara - through Lara - and nodded. "Are you okay?" Lara asked hesitantly yet her question fell to silence yet again. Ade walked on with her eyes to the dirt. "Wrong way, babes." Lara called out. On a heel, Ade span but still no acknowledgment of Lara. "Follow me." Lara said with a awkwardly melodic tone.
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The two walked towards the squad. The minutes of walking felt like hours in the cold and awkward silence. The frost had set in completely by this point and rain sat heavy on the wind. Ade trudged and waded her way through while Lara slipped and stumbled along the same path. She laughed as she slipped onto her knee, not because it was funny but because she wanted to cut some of the tension. Ade continued on, unfazed. She was surprisingly graceful on the ice, it was apparent that she was in her element in the Russian winter. Lara mourned for what she considered her own element, supposedly being warmth. She had grown up in the Welsh countryside but held no affinity for rain nor love of winds. She would, however, gladly take the misery and grey skies over this hellish cold.
She could hear the ship first. The electrical whirring of the gravity prongs the ship stood on rarely inspired anything from her but annoyance, but now it meant warmth was within earshot - it meant glee. Daphi hovered an inch above the dirt. All four prongs had extended down like the legs of a dog. It may have shared the visage of a chipped old brick and stank like a dusty old factory floor; but it flew like butter and had brilliantly powerful air conditioning - an improvement Lara and Archi had spent weeks installing after the last Siberian campaign.
"Finally!" Reese called out upon spotting the two. Lara ignored him completely. She ran straight past him, budging Garrison to the side and dove into Daphi's warm embrace. Iris had beaten her to the punch and was sat directly in-front of the heating vent with her middle finger raised at Lara in anticipation of her attempting to steal her spot.
"Right. Now that we are all here, we have a mission." Garrison began as he walked up to Daphi's door. "Young Ms. Tempish, It would be expedient if you would accompany us as we go." He said as he turned to Adeladia. She bowed her head and boarded the vessel. Lara shuffled over to Garrison and Reese, though she didn't leave Daphi's warmth. "She hasn't said a word. Are you sure it's wise to bring her in this state?" She asked. Garrison glanced over at Ade. She was engrossed in her book again.
"They are clearing out the area. If we leave her here, she will be shipped off to a refugee camp and Deus knows how long it will take to track her down. I'm Sorry, Sergeant Black, but we have little choice." Garrison explained. Lara nodded and receded back into the ship, taking up her seat directly next to Ade.
"Archi? Lets go!" Reese called out. A stout, Maori man, hopped down from atop the ship with a spanner in hand. He grinned widely looking at Lara shivering in the back.
"Lazza! Kia Ora, took your time bud." He said, much too loudly for the confined cabin. He oafishly stepped over Iris in her seat, apologising with a smile.
"Had to find the VIP. I don't operate too quickly in the snow." She responded.
"Don't operate too quickly in the sun either. Took her three days to bring my tool box from one side of the barracks to the other." Archi joked as he looked at Ade. She humoured him with a smile but quickly dropped it and returned to her book. "Right, yeah. Bad timing for a yak. It'll be alright in the end, cuz. We will take good care of you." He said with a beaming smile.
"Ready up, Archi." Garrison ordered.
"Sir!" He responded as he clambered into the cockpit.
Reese sat himself next to Iris and Garrison sat next to him. Garrison shut the door and banged it twice as if to say 'let's go.'
A seemingly solid hologram of an anti-aircraft cannon appeared on the floor between Reese and Lara. "Our target is the forward artillery battery three clicks east. We can't bring in civilian transports until the guns are taken out. We hit them fast, we hit them hard, and we move on." Garrison ordered.
"Sir?" Lara voiced.
"Black?" Garrison asked.
"There is a tank crew in bound to the battery. Would it not be better to just let them take it out while we get Ade back to the towers?" She asked.
"The convoy was intercepted and destroyed en route." Garrison responded in a matter of fact tone. "They were supposed to soften them up, but alas we will have to do this ourselves." He continued.
"Orders, sir?" Reese asked.
"Hot drop and roll. Iris will maintain our camo systems, i'm on turrets and you two will dive hot. Disable close defence systems so Archi can strafe the main gun." He told them.
"Sir!" Reese, Lara and Iris all said in unison.
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"Ten seconds till drop." Archi shouted. The flak was heavy and the ship rattled around as it flew but the state-of-the-art camo system kept the missiles from finding them. The door slid open and the cold air assaulted them worse than the cannons.
"Five seconds!" Archi called.
Lara turned to Ade as she grabbed her rifle. "Watch this." She said with a sly wink.
"Go! Go! Go!" Archi called as a hail of bullets spewed from Garrison's machine gun. Lara and Reese dove out of Daphi and faced the open air as well as the rapidly approaching ground. She raised her hand towards the ground and a small field of electricity sparkled forth. A cone formed beneath her and she stood on the flat of it.
The impact was heavy, dust and dirt flew everywhere. She had no time to orient herself. They were coming. She moved to grab her rifle but quickly switched to a smaller sub-machine gun when she noticed the half dozen men moving in on her. She wasn't going to take them on, she was too exposed. She grabbed a black ball from behind her back and threw it out ahead of herself. A thick layer of smoke erupted and covered her advance. She ran straight towards where the men were. She jumped onto the first while shooting the second. She rolled the first into a divot in the dirt. She would lose a struggle so a bullet would have to do. She angled her gun against the man beneath her. He struggled to stop her but a quick boot to the nose dealt with him. The bullet landed. Four more.
"Kid, building one. Now!" Reese ordered through his comm.
"Little busy." She responded as she strangled a man with the strap from her main rifle. Two more moved into position by her feet. She rolled backwards over the man she had been choking, placing a boot to his throat while pulling the rifle strap as hard as she could. The audible crack from his neck told her that she only had three more to worry about.
"Speed it up! Hit and run, not hit and stay for breakfast!" Reese called out. She just scoffed. Bullets flew past her. She grabbed the fresh corpse and lay prone beneath it as she sent out a volley of bullets at the two's ankles. They both fell straight down.
"Please!" One begged as Lara rose to her feet. She didn't have time for mercy. She loaded a new clip and gave them a single round each.
"Done. I'm coming-" She said into her comm. A bullet rang out from ahead of her. The shock cut her off. She wasn't hit, it wasn't for her.
"Fuck." She mumbled to herself as she realised what had happened. She didn't want to turn around. She knew she had missed one and he had snuck up on her. She knew Reese had been watching her fight and his messages had simply been to piss her off. She knew he had shot the final man before he could shoot her. Most of all... She knew she would never hear the end of it.
"Missed one, Dickless." Her comm giggled.
"Yup." She responded. "Got five though."
"Missed one though, didn't ya?"
"Yup." She expected him to take the piss straight away but somehow his silence was so much worse. She couldn't see him but she could hear his stupid grin in his voice. "Just... Shut up." She sighed.
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She ran into the first target building where she noticed an array of explosives. The room was empty besides a single large spinning chair.
"Don't do the stupid supervillain thing." Lara pled. The chair slowly began spinning to face her. "Well, well, well." Reese mocked in an overly nasal German accent.
"Come on, we don't have time." She ordered. He laughed and threw her a detonator.
They left through the front door and snuck behind a group of sentries. Once they reached a safe distance Lara triggered the explosives, disabling the main computer servers for the anti-air.
"Report." Garrison called in.
"Target one, down. Moving onto target two." Reese responded. He nodded to Lara and pointed atop of a warehouse. He wanted her to climb it. She nodded and ran off.
A massive troop of mechs marched to investigate the exploded server house so Lara had to duck down beneath a truck. Once they passed, she pulled a rope from her pack and attached a magnet to it. She threw it as hard as she could but only managed to get half way up. Up she clambered till she got to the end of the rope.
"Struggling there?" Reese asked over comms.
"I'll manage. You just worry about you." She panted. She took a deep breath and hopped higher, stabbing a blade into the thin metal of the warehouse walls. Using windows and ledges and a creative use of duct tape Lara summited the wall.
"I'm out of breath just watching." Reese joked.
"You would be, old man." She responded.
"I'm like... Six years older than you." He defended.
"Yeah but it's a HEAVY six years. I'm gorgeous, you're creaky and wrinkled. Why Sash hasn't traded you in for a younger model yet is beyond me." Lara laughed as she set up her snipers nest. She removed her backpack and placed it beneath her rifle to give it something to rest on.
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"Whatever, I just saved your life." He bickered as he grabbed a guard and slit his throat.
"Oh, please! We are so even! I saved your life, like, last week?" She protested.
"Don't remember that... Just remember saving your life 'like' three minutes ago."
She scoped in on him as he readied to breach the second building. "Typical." She groaned.
"Ready?" She asked.
"Go." He answered as the door blew off its hinges.
Three rounds. Subsonic, effectively silent though terribly slow. Had to lead her shots. First was sat down; no issue. Dead. Second and third were dancing; mustn't have heard the explosion. Dead in one. Last. Too slow, took cover. Subsonic is low velocity, easy to rebound. Found the angle and... Dead.
"Clear." She whispered. Her tone was cold, dangerous. Lara had left the battle, in her place lay Sergeant Black.
"Second floor. No eyes. Advise?" Reese sent. He couldn't get an angle up the stairs. She pulled out a metal pipe with a small stand. A thin film pulled from atop of it and a projector was mounted behind the film. It shone a laser onto the square film.
"Setting up HLDAR." She informed. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment until her eyes lit up red. She could see outlines of the enemies within the building. The projector beside her was marking them directly into her lenses.
"Four. Deep and dispersed. Would have to go loud to hit. I don't think they know you are there." She told him. He didn't respond.
"Copy?" She asked.
"Copy. Are they at the far wall?" He finally responded.
"Two are. The other two are walking about." She said.
A rustling came through his mic. She heard him stretch out and a high pitch beep.
"Lieutenant? What's your plan." She asked. Again, he didn't respond. She swapped out her rounds for much louder, much more powerful, shots.
"I'm going to blow the floor. Take the two out, then move onto the other two. You get one, i'll get the other." He ordered, his voice hushed but confident.
"I'll catch heat, have to move quick." She worried. She planned out her route. She would rappel down the building and hide in a truck before anyone could figure out where her shot came from.
"I'll draw the heat. The explosion is high load. Gonna be loud. Hang on. Commander?" He signaled.
"I read you, boy. What's happening? We are taking fire up here." Garrison answered.
"Reese, darling... Hurry the fuck up." Iris interrupted.
"At objective two now. Once it blows, we are going to get some serious heat. We need you to strafe the gun straight away to pull attention, copy?" Reese requested.
Garrison deferred to Archi for a response. "No worries, bud. I'll have a squiz for a firing route now!" He confirmed.
Lara assumed that meant he was going to help but she could never be sure when it came to Archi.
"Ready?" Reese asked.
She bolted her rifle and emptied her lungs. "Ready." She confirmed.
"Bang." Reese whispered. The explosion was excessive, it took out half of the building. She heard two shots ring out to finish the first two hostiles, her own round finished the third and Reese's nuzzled cosily behind the eye socket of the fourth. "Archi!" Reese called.
"YOU SHOOT ME DOWN, BUT I WON'T FALL! I AM TITANIUM!" Archi belted over the radio as he swung in overhead. Lara counted twelve explosions, three were missiles aimed directly at the main gun.
"Perfect run." Reese coldly replied when he noticed the path the bombs had carved out for him. The perimeter walls had been reduced to rubble and a cloud of smoke obscured the route to let him and Lara sneak out without problem.
"Aw, ya big flirt." Archi responded.
Lara drowned them out, she had to move and quick. She clamped her rope to the wall and slid down so quick that she forgot to wear gloves. The rope burn was the least of her concerns, however, as the ministry troops began to close on her position. Reese shot three rounds but missed two. It was enough to slow the approaching squad and give Lara enough time to get under the smoke cover. She struggled to keep her footing as she ran through the cracked concrete with near zero visibility.
"Pickup in twenty seconds. Be careful." Iris warned them. Lara ran. She didn't look back for Reese, nor did she shoot at the men trying to kill her. She trusted him to keep himself alive and herself to keep out of the ministry troop's sights. Her mask filtered out most of the smoke from her lungs but it still stang her eyes. She couldn't think about it yet. She had to get out.
A man stood before her in the smoke, his rifle raised. She knew she wouldn't be quick enough to draw her own. A throwing knife? No, too slow, he'd get a shot off. Duck into thicker smoke? No, he'd just blind fire and hit her. She had one option and it fucking sucked. Charge. She would take the hit and hope he missed anything vital. Her SBA would protect her from most of the damage but that wouldn't make it hurt any less. She covered her head with her left arm and ran as fast as she could at him. He panicked, lucky. He managed to get six shots off but only one landed. It didn't breach her SBA, lucky again. She dove on him and quickly flung him away. A single bullet, he was dead and she was free to flee.
The door opened and she collapsed onto the floor inside Daphi. Reese followed shortly after and just as quick as they entered, they were gone.
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"Oow." Lara moaned.
"You're hit?" Iris asked checking her over. Ade sprung up to see what she could do, she started to fuss over Lara but Lara just let loose a pained laugh.
"Don't worry, didn't breach my SBA. Right in the fucking tit though, oow." She complained, with a small attempt at laugh. She breathlessly sat up as Ade helped her to her seat.
"You were slow, kid. Lucky, but slow." Reese said. His tone was severe, scolding. He was angry with her but she knew he was worried first and foremost.
"I know, I'm sorry." She admitted.
Iris placed a hand against Lara's forehead. It was warm, calming. "Now isn't the time for that. Readouts are saying you just took a 7.62 round to the chest. You may have broken ribs. We need to check you out when we get back to Elysium." Iris said in her typical tender way.
"7.62?" Lara repeated, almost in disbelief. Iris nodded. A big grin crept across Lara's face. "That's gotta be a record, right?" She bragged.
"I believe so." Garrison said with a warm, yet somewhat worried, smile.
"How are you not dead?" Asked a tiny voice from the corner of the room. Ade looked at Lara with tears welling up in her eyes. A tiny part of Lara wanted to make a joke about taking the bullet but that instinct was drowned out by the overwhelming desire to hold and protect the crying child.
"Babes, i'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." She said in a new tone she had never heard herself speak in before. She wiped away Ade's tear and looked deep into her eyes. "I have an SBA. 'Subdermal Ballistic Armour'. It's like a shield that turns on or off depending on my adrenaline levels. It can stop bullets and disperse kinetic energy. It is how we jumped out of Daphi earlier. We focus the shield below us and it disperses all of the energy across the ground meaning we can survive falls from small heights that would usually kill." She explained.
"Why didn't my father have one?" Ade asked.
Iris answered. "He did." She paused to consider her words. "It isn't a miracle worker, darling. They are very rare, only special forces usually wear them. We gave your father one as we believed him at high risk of assassination. It is designed to stop one; maybe two bullets. Not a grenade. I'm sorry Ade but there was nothing that could have saved your father." Iris finished.
The silence was tense, palpable. Nobody knew how to break it. This was not a group of people used to silent mourning. When a Raptor dies, the pack celebrates their life. This girl was not in the mood to celebrate. She was heartbroken and angry. It would be a long journey to Elysium if the silence persisted.
"I really wanted a beach day after all this wintering." Lara complained. She couldn't handle the silence anymore and simply said the first thing that came to mind.
"What's stopping you? Take a leave day." Reese said.
"Not when i've got a huge purple bruise on my chest! Imagine the tan?" She nearly shouted.
"Do bruises affect tanning?" Garrison asked.
"Oh, errm. I don't actually know?" Lara admitted. She looked to Iris for her opinion.
"Exposing bruises to UV radiation breaks down bilirubin in small doses which turns the bruise yellowish brownish. Though prolonged sun exposure could thin the skin worsening the bruise. The bruise is, however, beneath the skin and so you would still have a full tan after the bruise heals... I think?" Iris lectured. Her confidence waned the longer she spoke until she shrank away into silence.
"I was raised in the woods... I don't know what half of those words mean. All I know is i'm not wearing a bikini top with a purple chest." Lara joked. Even Ade chuckled.
"I've never been to a beach." Ade admitted.
"I'll take you once this bruise is gone, you'll love it. We will get some drinks-"
"She's too young for drinking" Garrison interrupted.
"She's Russian. Sixteen when it comes to drinking is basically twenty three." Lara said with a smile.
"Not how that works. No alcohol till 17, Alliance rules." Garrison had the final word, as always.
"It's not too bad, in Hypatia you've gotta wait till you're thirty-five." Iris said.
"And in the undercity, you have to wait till you are at least... Five, maybe even six years old!" Reese joked.
They chatted for a while, bantered back and forth. Nothing of substance just in-jokes and insults. Ade seemed to drown it out. She was entranced with the scenery. Her head flickered back and forth as if she were tracking specific trees and buildings as they disappeared underfoot.
"Ever flown before?" Lara gently asked.
"Once. In an old propeller plane" She admitted. Her tone was dreamy, distant.
"With your father?"
"No." She whispered. "My mother. She was an engineer. She built it from scraps."
"Damn. A whole plane from scratch?" Archi exclaimed from the pilot seat. "A lady after my own heart."
"Was she a pilot?" Lara asked.
"No." Ade laughed a little at the question. "She was awful at flying. Nearly crashed the first time she flew."
"So did Lara." Iris pointed out with a cheeky grin.
Lara would have thrown something at Iris, preferably a shoe, had her lungs not been on fire from the likely broken rib. A squinted side eye had to suffice.
"It's a shame I never got to meet her, she sounds great." Lara regretted.
"I don't remember much of her. I was young when she..." Ade trailed off and looked back to the scenery outside.
"I introduced them, you know?" Garrison said beaming with pride. "She hated him at first. He was in love within the first hour." Ade didn't respond but she did smile while she looked out of the window. "You look like her. You have her smile." He ended.
"Ladies and gentlemen - and Reese - if you look out to your left side, you will - err - see the outer rings of Elysium, also known as - err - Styx base." Archi announced, mimicking a mid-western American airline pilot's.
It was as beautiful as the first time she saw it. Lara only wished she could see it through Ade's eyes. The outer rings spanned for miles around. Nestled within a crater, surrounded by mountains and horizoned by clear blue waters. The walls were tall as skyscrapers and two kilometres thick. From Daphi's height, the people walking the walls looked like ants. There were thousands. The outer walls weren't inhabited but were densely occupied by workers during the days. Hangars and garages lined the bottom of the walls while turrets and weapons nests choked the roof. Spiraling pathways led deeper. Tunnels to the next ring, Lethe. Not as tall, nor as thick. Coils rose above and bent inwards creating the beginnings of a dome. Golden fields surrounded the space between walls and farming equipment dotted them. Small huts sat on river streams and pure white bridges arched over. Daphi continued past. She weaved between the coils and struts effortlessly and with complete grace. Gliding like a leaf in the wind. The bridges spiraled and twisted inwards towards the final ring. The central tower. Tall as a mountain and just as wide. An entire civilisation could exist within it's white steel walls. A nation of its own within the crater of the bomb that wiped out a continent.
"That's our stop." Lara said as she pointed to a small hangar in the main tower. Ade was entranced. Her eyes wide and her mouth agape. Words failed her when she tried to describe it. Lara laughed and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
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The hangar stank of grease and oil. Hammers clanged and men shouted as they maintained a shuttle parked beside Daphi's landing space. The shuttles legs dropped and sought the ground as they slowed. A gentle thud marked their arrival and the door slid open to usher in a blast of thick warm air.
"Finally! Food." Lara groaned as she tried to rise from her seat.
"Nope." Iris declared as she forced Lara back into her seat. "First, hospital. Then you can get some food."
"I don't need to go to the hospital, I need a burge-" Lara said until she was interrupted by a finger prodding her ribcage. The pain took her breath away and cut her lies short.
"I thought so. Hospital, now." Iris ordered. Lara groaned like a petulant teenager but knew there was little point in arguing.
"I am going to debrief with the Arbiter. We will meet tonight." Garrison declared before dismounting . "Oh, and show Ms. Tempish to her father's office." He finished with a slight bow to Ade.
"No, first she is getting checked out, then cleaned up and fed. Then she can worry about working." Iris declared.
"By all means." Garrison aquiested as he left view.
Reese left first and helped Lara out. She slung her arm over his shoulder and he took her weight.
"ow, ow, ow." She groaned.
"You took the bullet, you can take the bruise." Reese said with very little pity for her pain.
"Come along, darling." Iris said to Ade with an outstretched hand.
The four walked off. Archi stayed with Daphi to check for damage.
The walk was agonising. Every breath burned. With every step she could feel her rib scratching against her lung like chalk on slate. She hunched forwards and placed more of her weight into Reese as the sheer damage sustained began to dawn on her. She made no noise, she didn't want to seem pained - or weak. She carried on as nonchalant as she could. She knew Reese could see through her. It seemed Ade could too. She felt her trying to help bare some weight but Lara just patted back some of Ade's frazzled hairs and smiled at her.
"You dying yet, Sergeant?" A random marine called out from his guard position.
"Not yet corporal. You lose a bet?" She joked as they passed him by.
"I had thirty Decks on one of you not making it back." He laughed. The grunts enjoyed their dead pools. It gave them a sense of control even when they lost half a squad in an hour. A bet on Raptor, however, would net a large sum. No Raptor had died in maybe three years? Before Lara had even been assigned to the squad. "It'll be you before me, sweetheart!" She called back with a pained laugh. She couldn't see his reaction but the ever growing pain in her chest distracted her from caring.
The elevator gave her joyful respite. She lent against the wall and pretended not to need to catch her breath. "Breathe, kid." Reese told her.
"I really wanted to act cool but to be perfectly honest... I think i'm about to pass out." Lara admitted. She was right, her knees buckled and she slumped down. Reese caught her and took all of her weight. "There must be internal bleeding. Let's get to the infirmary quickly." Iris started as she fuss over Lara. She shifted the hair from her face and clicked her fingers in hopes of keeping her awake... It didn't work.