Post by Swith on Jan 19, 2016 14:32:18 GMT -4
NOMINATION 1: Fall of Team Outlaw
Nominated by: Vancon
Notes by Vancon: None
Allison's feet carried her along a lightly tread, yet familiar path. There was a part of town that rarely anyone ever came, and no one lived near. A secluded place where people rested eternally. Their souls had moved on, all but one. One restless, darkened soul. That soul belonged to one who had endured much hardship in her time. Perhaps enough to last the rest of her life. She was still young, and yet was aged by the things she'd done and seen. She was the only one there at this particular moment. She held her bouquets as she walked on until she came to a section dedicated to those who lost their lives in the line of duty. She stood in the middle, looking at three headstones. Slowly, she took her dog tags off and held them in her hand as she laid a bouquet at each grave. "I'm sorry I'm late...I should've worn something nicer..." She said aloud to no one.
Allison knelt down and studied the names engraved on the stones. She lowered her head in silence that surrounded her as she held a fist, wrapped with the chain of the dog tags, to her forehead and closed her eyes...
OCTOBER 20TH, 2074
1656 HOURS
MAMAYEV KURGAN, VOLGOGRAD
EASTERN EUROPE DARK SECTOR, RUSSIAN RED ZONE
OPERATION BLACK EYE
STANDBY SUPPORT UNIT "TEAM OUTLAW"
The area was eerily silent in it's evening. Volgograd had become a massive hive on infected when the world went to shit, and it was no surprise who's job it was to help clean up. However, assigned to the Cleanup Crew, was a support unit made up of 4 VALKs. Rumors were circulating that there were attacks recently on GAMA forces during clean up operations, from some new "religious nut-job cult" as they put it. So far, those attacks were few and far between in the recent years, and were mainly hit and run instances. They said that they were there one minute, gone the next. Though, these attacks rarely produced even a slightly worrying number of casualties. Many lived to tell about their close shaves with their new adversaries.
The entirety of Eastern Europe, from along the borders of countries like Belarus, Serbia, and Romania, had gone completely dark and was teeming with infected. The European Union did not condone the use of nuclear missiles on it's own soil like the United States had, and as a result the region became strong in infected numbers. The UN, which was based out of the only stable country in the hemisphere, had issued a grand campaign to GAMA. It's goal was to eradicate the infected in the Eastern parts and push them back for some breathing room and to buy time to come up with a better way to deal with infected. The first of these Operations went along smoothly, and the borders of infected territory were slowly being pushed back without much hassle. Now, it was moved into Russia, and the campaign was coming to a close.
"This is Outlaw 1. All Outlaws, radio check."
"Outlaw 2, radio check."
"Outlaw 3, radio check!"
"Outlaw 4, radio check."
"Team Outlaw, radios check out. Begin the operation."
The 4 VALKs stood center to about 30 others. It was a mish-mash of units from earlier in the campaign, and looked more like a ragtag band of machines just wandering through to try and find a friendly base. These other VALKs were lightly armed, though. Geared more towards killing infected without causing too much collateral damage; they carried a 25mm GAU-12/U Equalizer cannon and a 40mm L/60 Bofors gun. Both were heavily modified to fit into a more conventional housing which allowed the VALKs to carry them like rifles on their arms. However, they were squirt guns compared to the 90mm and 100mm machine guns that the Outlaws were armed with. Still, this was the first time any GAMA forces had pushed this far into Russia. Everything beyond was new territory.
"Hey, Weaver? When ya gonna pop the question to Ally?" A high-pitched voice broke Team Outlaw's radio silence.
"All in due time, Julie." A male voice replied.
"Aw c'mon! Hey, did you pop anything else with Ally yet?" The tone turned mischievous, and a certain someone was glad they didn't have a video feed for communication.
"What?! No! No. I did not do anything like that." The male took an immediate defensive tone, earning a giggle from the other girl.
"Are you suuuuuuure?" She asked.
"Will you two knock it off?! We are in the middle of a mission here. God, you two are tangling up the whole comm system." A third cut in.
"You're no fun, Mandy." Julie said back.
"But she is right." Allison said, smiling to herself as she was glad the others couldn't see her bright red cheeks. "Now let's get back in the game."
"Yes, Sergeant Fisher." Julie replied.
Allison giggled to herself as she went. Juliet Hunter was always the comic relief of the team. Bright and spunky, she always had something to say about something. Her blonde hair was always cut short, and she was also the shortest of the team under the only boy. Juliet was their hard-hitting support, geared more towards fast movements and recovery. She was the pillar of morale for the 4 of them, and always had a smile on her face.
Their sniper was quite the opposite. Amanda Buster was the team sniper, with her VALK designed to be able to be locked down for more accurate shooting. Her main weapon was a 75mm long rifle with shells designed to pierce heavy armor. She was always an iffy girl, and only slightly taller than Juliet, which was about the only thing she had up on her. She was always short-tempered and easily irritated, though that was usually part of her tough girl act.
Then, there was the standard all-rounded assault. A sort of Jack-of-all-trades VALK that could easily fill in either position, but not be specifically assigned to it, piloted by a young man named Charles Weaver. Charles, or Char as Allison liked to call him, was the only boy of the team of four. While most would kill to be in that situation, Charles was having a difficult time and found himself to be the group's voice of reason whenever things got heated. It was no secret that he and Allison were an item. Both spent so much time with each other that people said they were attached at the hip. Wherever Allison went, Charles was sure to be with her. The two lovebirds were quite enjoying of each others company, as Charles could always make Allison smile whenever he wanted.
Allison Fisher herself was in her own VALK that was built more for support artillery while still maintaining it's basic ability to fight in close quarters by allowing it to perform wicked kicks. It's dual 240mm cannons could reach out and punch through armor at distances that their rifles couldn't, and could hit targets behind cover. It was also able to stabilize itself for continuous and accurate firing, but she hated using that position. Her other teammates poked fun at her calling it the "Doggy Style". Still, they didn't complain about it's advantages. She was also equipped with an experimental beam rifle that GAMA had been working on
The 4 had been idling, as they were not assigned to engage and eliminate the infected. Their mission was to provide the Cleanup Crew with added fire support should these "cultist wack-jobs" show up to harass them again like they've been doing in India, Japan, Africa, and the Pacific. The job was going well. The Cleanup Crew was making headway as they waited for the more massive hordes to try to rush in before putting them through the meat grinder they made with their gatling cannons. "A cake walk" as one of the pilots put it.
"Hey, Lessner! Get a load of this waste of ammo!" One of the pilots said as he spun his 25 up and aimed it at a small grouping of infected. The cannon rotated to being firing, but the sound of a shot rang out from somewhere else. A round punched through the VALK's cockpit. It fell onto it's back and lay motionless.
"Dawson? Dawson?!" The other pilot tried to reach his comrade, but he too was shot through the cockpit. Precise shots rang out from the East.
"Support Unit! We are under heavy fire and are taking casualties! Requesting assistance, over!" A frantic commander said over the comm link.
"That's us, Outlaws! Mandy, see if you can flush them out. Char, Julie, you're with me. Engage on sight."
"Roger that, Sarn't!" They replied as the team moved out.
It seemed very straight-forward. Hunter-killer. Amanda made her shots and radioed the positions of the enemy VALK sniper that moved, allowing Allison and Char to take them out. The enemy snipers were eliminated within minutes.
"Looks like you got 'em all!" Julie said, excited about their victory.
"Don't start celebrating yet. Something tells me that they aren't done yet." Char replied.
"What makes you say that?"
"They deployed snipers and directly targeted the Cleanup Crew. This isn't like the other hit and run attacks. They were waiting for us. More than likely they have their own support units."
"So what do we do?"
"I got this." Allison said. "Cleanup Crew, this is Outlaw Actual. Snipers are no longer a factor but we believe that this isn't over. Consolidate your forces and fall back. As of right now, your objective is on hold until we've cleared the area, over."
"Roger that. We'll pull back until you-" The radio transmission cut to static mid-sentence.
"Say again?" Allison asked.
The commander's voice was usurped by a shocked subordinate's exclamation. "The LT's been hit! They're everywhere!"
"What?"
Char turned back. "They used their snipers as bait to lure us away from the Cleanup Crew. Cheeky bastards! Come on, we've got to move!"
Team Outlaw doubled back to cover the other squad as Amanda repositioned her VALK. "I count fifteen, maybe sixteen hostiles. They're hounding our guys. You need to get down there now!"
"Roger that, Mandy. Target the enemy and take them out. Julie, get in their face. Char, you take the left flank. I'll take the right. Let's go! Diamond formation!"
"Right! Here I come~!" Juliet announced as she drew a 90mm bullpup machinegun and opened fire at the enemy VALK ranks at close range. She went about her business of jumping up to avoid fire and then landing on top of her opponent to fire down at the others.
Allison and Char split and went to the sides where they saw the Proteus VALKs raining hellfire on the Cleanup Crew, who's low caliber weapons were not enough to punch through their armor effectively. They engaged them and took them off guard for the first few kills before they adjusted their fire. The team was working well as Amanda sat back at the middle point and picked off lone targets. It wasn't until about halfway through that she started getting low on ammunition.
"Ally, I'm running low on ammo. Switching tactics." Mandy said as she moved up.
Off in the distance, she was unaware of a new enemy that had snuck up. "Command, we seem to have a situation. The enemy has support units and they're destroying our forces." The pilot of the enemy VALK said.
"Eliminate them. Purge the heretics that resist us, and then the ones that kill our converted."
"Yes, command." The pilot said.
Amanda ran her VALK forward to catch up with her comrades. "Ally, I only have a few shots left. We're going to have to wrap this up soon if we're gonna-" She was interrupted when a 180mm shell took out her VALK's leg. "Agh, dammit! I'm hit!"
Allison turned around. "Amanda, what's your situation?"
"My leg's fucked up! I can't move!"
"Hang on, I'm coming!"
Allison retreated to see to Amanda. As she came into view of her friend, she watched another 180mm strike through the side of the torso. The result caused the VALK to explode.
Allison's VALK stood there as she sat in her cockpit, dumbfounded. "M-Mandy?" She asked, hoping that she'd get a response. The husk of her comrades VALK did not move, nor did any reply come to Allison.
"Ally! Get back here! We can't hold them off without you!" Char shouted as he continued to engage.
Allison didn't want to, but she knew the mission came before personal feelings. She turned around and met up with her team. "Gimme a sitrep, Char!" She said, her voice lightly laced with anguish.
"We're running low on ammo, but not targets. They're still targeting the Cleanup Crew, and we can't push them off. The acting commander of the Cleanup Crew radioed for emergency extraction, but they said it's going to take them about five minutes to get here."
"Jesus H. Christ, where are they sending them out from; Ramstein? Nothing takes five minutes!"
"Apparently, yes. Until then we've got to hold them off and-" Char stopped as he looked at his motion tracker. "Oh shit, we've got company on the right side! They're trying to make a push!"
"I've got these guys!" Juliet butted in as she leapt off another enemy. "Leave them to me! You just worry about the others!" Without any chance for either of them to voice protest, she landed directly in the middle of the enemy formation. Needless to say, they were surprised to see them. She drew her VALKs experimental beam saber and began to cut the formation down to size.
Allison and Char kept the heaviest fire off the Cleanup Crew and were still working on whittling down the enemy. It was a while longer before Char noticed something. "Juliet's VALK just went offline..." He said solemnly.
Allison slammed her fist on her controls. "DAMMIT!" She said, frustrated with the extraction team's inability to get here fast enough.
"Ally, look at me." Char said, hoping to calm her down. "We're gonna get through this. We just need to keep level-headed. The extraction team will be here soon, I know it." However, the extraction team had been running late. Allison looked over to Char's VALK and felt secure in his assurance. Then, in a split-second, that assurance was gone. Two rounds struck his VALK: One took out his leg, and the other grazed his cockpit.
"Char...? Char!?" There was no response. Allison gripped her controls as she saw red and turned to the nearest enemy VALK. Growling like an animal, her red eyes wild and full of rage, she mashed the fire button and watched as her should cannons blew the top half of the VALK away completely and the bottom half staggered to the ground before blowing up as well. Then, she turned and switched, firing her beam rifle through the center of another VALK and killing it instantly. She turned back and switched again and used her 60mm Vulcan head cannons to rip into another who tried to get the drop on her. It was riddled with shells before falling over.
Fuck not letting personal feelings get in the way of the mission; Allison was livid. She began using extreme prejudice to take out her enemies in anyway she could as she screamed an unholy raging cry. Hell hath no fury like a woman's. Period. Allison destroyed everything that she found until the enemy retreated. Once she eliminated the last VALK in the vicinity, she slowly came to. Her mood swung from anger to despair. She knew Char's VALK was disabled, but he could still be alive.
Leave No Man Behind
Allison set her VALK down and popped open the cockpit as she grabbed her katana and G36K. She hopped out and sprinted as fast as she ever had in her life to Char's VALK. The area that was blown open from the shell grazing was crawling with infected. "CHAR!" Allison cried as she opened fire on the one's that stuck out. Once her magazine was empty, she dropped the rifle and climbed up onto the top. She drew her blade and rushed in, cutting the infected to bloody ribbons. She didn't stop until she reached the cockpit.
"Char I-" She stopped and gasped loudly. There, the cockpit had been torn open and so had Charles. The controls and seat were coated in his blood as he lay there with his chest and abdomen bloodied. Allison had tears streaming down her cheeks as she dropped her sword and jumped into the cockpit.
"Char? Char you're gonna be okay." She said, her voice trembling like her hands. "Can you hear me? Please, say something. Char!" Allison waited and waited, but so far nothing. She couldn't hear in her subdermal comm link that the extraction team had arrived and was looking for her. She laid her forehead against his and was about to start sobbing before he moved.
"A...Alli...son?" He asked, opening his eyes.
"Char! Char, look at me, you're gonna be fine. You hear me? You're gonna be just fine!" Allison replied.
"No...no I'm not..."
"Wh-what are you saying? Of course you are! I'm gonna get you out of here, I promise!"
"No...no you're not..."
"Char, please don't say things like that. Your'e scaring me."
"Ally...I'm infected..."
Allison blinked as she looked at her lover. Char's body had been ripped open and was bleeding everywhere. His arm also looked like it had been bitten into.
"You were...the light of my life...you know that? You were the one...I wanted to spend....the rest of my days with..."
Allison couldn't help but cry her heart out before him as she listened to him.
"You know...what you have to do..." He said, taking out his standard Colt Python revolver and handing it up to her. "Please...for us..."
Allison slowly clasped her hand around the revolver, knowing exactly what Char was asking. Still, knowing didn't take away the pain of what she was about to do.
"I love you, Char." She cried. "And I always will. No matter what." She said as she leaned in and kissed him on his pale lips. After a few seconds, she pulled back and sat up.
Char smiled at her to try to put her at ease. "No matter what...you have to rid this world...of this plague..." He coughed. "Make it a place...where people can...live again..."
"I promise you I won't quit until every last infected it burned. I promise..." She said back, slowly raising the sights of the revolver to meet her eye. The gun shook in her hand, prompting her to grab on with the other to help steady it to aim at his Char's head. A million things were racing through her mind. Memories of them spending the happiest times together. With their team. Their first kiss. All the training they went through together. Their first meeting. She slowly squeezed until the gun kicked back from recoil. The shot rang out louder than Allison had ever heard in all her life. There was a stillness in the air after that shot, and it was only broken by her. Allison cried out to the sky in agony as the extraction team stood outside.
I Want Love
After a few moments, Allison climbed out of the VALK with Char's bloody body in her arms and tears flowing down her face. She walked to the APC and saw two other figures covered in a black tarp lying inside. She lay the third on the bench opposite to her and then took one of the dog tags off each of the bodies before taking her place as the fourth and the only one uncovered. She cried the whole way back.
When they arrived back at base, there was a funeral service for the fallen. Allison stood in front of the middle casket of three in the first row. She looked down at the revolver she still had, before walking up and laying it inside the casket. "I'm sorry..." She said before walking back. The Honor Guard gave a 21 gun salute to TAPS after the eulogy was read. The Honor Guard commander gave Allison a black folded Gama flag with the casings fired from the salute tucked inside. She was the last one to leave after the bodies were put to rest in their graves.
When she returned, the base commander told her that he was reassigning her to New Mexico. She didn't care to respond with anything but "Yes sir" in a monotone with a stone-faced expression. The reassignment to the place she came to Ramstein from was not only to hopefully get her into a better recovery environment, but also for the reason of rotating her into a new team. This meant stripping her of her rank as Sergeant, as only team leaders were given ranks. The base commander didn't want to say it out loud, but he knew that Allison was in no position to lead right now.
After she was done, she returned to the three graves with three bouquets of flowers. Zinnias, Forget-Me-Not's, and purple hyacinths. She laid one at each grave before wrapping the dog tags around one of her hands and clenching it into a fist. She crouched down on one knee and held the fist up to her forehead before bowing it. For the last time that day, she cried...
OCTOBER 20TH, 2076
RAMSTEIN BASE
PRESENT DAY
Allison slowly opened her misty eyes. The clouds above had darkened slightly and rain began to fall. It started slow, and turned into a drizzle. It was a soft pour of rain from a grey sky. Tears slowly streaked down Allison's cheeks as she looked up at the graves. "I swear on your memory - they won't rest, while I'm alive." She said before standing up. The rain pattered onto her face and blended with the tears she silently cried. After a while, she put her dog tags back on and turned to walk back to where she had parked the SUV she drove into town, hoping that everyone might be done eating.
Nominated by: Vancon
Notes by Vancon: None
ENTRY BEST ACTION OR FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT SINGLE POST
Allison's feet carried her along a lightly tread, yet familiar path. There was a part of town that rarely anyone ever came, and no one lived near. A secluded place where people rested eternally. Their souls had moved on, all but one. One restless, darkened soul. That soul belonged to one who had endured much hardship in her time. Perhaps enough to last the rest of her life. She was still young, and yet was aged by the things she'd done and seen. She was the only one there at this particular moment. She held her bouquets as she walked on until she came to a section dedicated to those who lost their lives in the line of duty. She stood in the middle, looking at three headstones. Slowly, she took her dog tags off and held them in her hand as she laid a bouquet at each grave. "I'm sorry I'm late...I should've worn something nicer..." She said aloud to no one.
Allison knelt down and studied the names engraved on the stones. She lowered her head in silence that surrounded her as she held a fist, wrapped with the chain of the dog tags, to her forehead and closed her eyes...
OCTOBER 20TH, 2074
1656 HOURS
MAMAYEV KURGAN, VOLGOGRAD
EASTERN EUROPE DARK SECTOR, RUSSIAN RED ZONE
OPERATION BLACK EYE
STANDBY SUPPORT UNIT "TEAM OUTLAW"
The area was eerily silent in it's evening. Volgograd had become a massive hive on infected when the world went to shit, and it was no surprise who's job it was to help clean up. However, assigned to the Cleanup Crew, was a support unit made up of 4 VALKs. Rumors were circulating that there were attacks recently on GAMA forces during clean up operations, from some new "religious nut-job cult" as they put it. So far, those attacks were few and far between in the recent years, and were mainly hit and run instances. They said that they were there one minute, gone the next. Though, these attacks rarely produced even a slightly worrying number of casualties. Many lived to tell about their close shaves with their new adversaries.
The entirety of Eastern Europe, from along the borders of countries like Belarus, Serbia, and Romania, had gone completely dark and was teeming with infected. The European Union did not condone the use of nuclear missiles on it's own soil like the United States had, and as a result the region became strong in infected numbers. The UN, which was based out of the only stable country in the hemisphere, had issued a grand campaign to GAMA. It's goal was to eradicate the infected in the Eastern parts and push them back for some breathing room and to buy time to come up with a better way to deal with infected. The first of these Operations went along smoothly, and the borders of infected territory were slowly being pushed back without much hassle. Now, it was moved into Russia, and the campaign was coming to a close.
"This is Outlaw 1. All Outlaws, radio check."
"Outlaw 2, radio check."
"Outlaw 3, radio check!"
"Outlaw 4, radio check."
"Team Outlaw, radios check out. Begin the operation."
The 4 VALKs stood center to about 30 others. It was a mish-mash of units from earlier in the campaign, and looked more like a ragtag band of machines just wandering through to try and find a friendly base. These other VALKs were lightly armed, though. Geared more towards killing infected without causing too much collateral damage; they carried a 25mm GAU-12/U Equalizer cannon and a 40mm L/60 Bofors gun. Both were heavily modified to fit into a more conventional housing which allowed the VALKs to carry them like rifles on their arms. However, they were squirt guns compared to the 90mm and 100mm machine guns that the Outlaws were armed with. Still, this was the first time any GAMA forces had pushed this far into Russia. Everything beyond was new territory.
"Hey, Weaver? When ya gonna pop the question to Ally?" A high-pitched voice broke Team Outlaw's radio silence.
"All in due time, Julie." A male voice replied.
"Aw c'mon! Hey, did you pop anything else with Ally yet?" The tone turned mischievous, and a certain someone was glad they didn't have a video feed for communication.
"What?! No! No. I did not do anything like that." The male took an immediate defensive tone, earning a giggle from the other girl.
"Are you suuuuuuure?" She asked.
"Will you two knock it off?! We are in the middle of a mission here. God, you two are tangling up the whole comm system." A third cut in.
"You're no fun, Mandy." Julie said back.
"But she is right." Allison said, smiling to herself as she was glad the others couldn't see her bright red cheeks. "Now let's get back in the game."
"Yes, Sergeant Fisher." Julie replied.
Allison giggled to herself as she went. Juliet Hunter was always the comic relief of the team. Bright and spunky, she always had something to say about something. Her blonde hair was always cut short, and she was also the shortest of the team under the only boy. Juliet was their hard-hitting support, geared more towards fast movements and recovery. She was the pillar of morale for the 4 of them, and always had a smile on her face.
Their sniper was quite the opposite. Amanda Buster was the team sniper, with her VALK designed to be able to be locked down for more accurate shooting. Her main weapon was a 75mm long rifle with shells designed to pierce heavy armor. She was always an iffy girl, and only slightly taller than Juliet, which was about the only thing she had up on her. She was always short-tempered and easily irritated, though that was usually part of her tough girl act.
Then, there was the standard all-rounded assault. A sort of Jack-of-all-trades VALK that could easily fill in either position, but not be specifically assigned to it, piloted by a young man named Charles Weaver. Charles, or Char as Allison liked to call him, was the only boy of the team of four. While most would kill to be in that situation, Charles was having a difficult time and found himself to be the group's voice of reason whenever things got heated. It was no secret that he and Allison were an item. Both spent so much time with each other that people said they were attached at the hip. Wherever Allison went, Charles was sure to be with her. The two lovebirds were quite enjoying of each others company, as Charles could always make Allison smile whenever he wanted.
Allison Fisher herself was in her own VALK that was built more for support artillery while still maintaining it's basic ability to fight in close quarters by allowing it to perform wicked kicks. It's dual 240mm cannons could reach out and punch through armor at distances that their rifles couldn't, and could hit targets behind cover. It was also able to stabilize itself for continuous and accurate firing, but she hated using that position. Her other teammates poked fun at her calling it the "Doggy Style". Still, they didn't complain about it's advantages. She was also equipped with an experimental beam rifle that GAMA had been working on
The 4 had been idling, as they were not assigned to engage and eliminate the infected. Their mission was to provide the Cleanup Crew with added fire support should these "cultist wack-jobs" show up to harass them again like they've been doing in India, Japan, Africa, and the Pacific. The job was going well. The Cleanup Crew was making headway as they waited for the more massive hordes to try to rush in before putting them through the meat grinder they made with their gatling cannons. "A cake walk" as one of the pilots put it.
"Hey, Lessner! Get a load of this waste of ammo!" One of the pilots said as he spun his 25 up and aimed it at a small grouping of infected. The cannon rotated to being firing, but the sound of a shot rang out from somewhere else. A round punched through the VALK's cockpit. It fell onto it's back and lay motionless.
"Dawson? Dawson?!" The other pilot tried to reach his comrade, but he too was shot through the cockpit. Precise shots rang out from the East.
"Support Unit! We are under heavy fire and are taking casualties! Requesting assistance, over!" A frantic commander said over the comm link.
"That's us, Outlaws! Mandy, see if you can flush them out. Char, Julie, you're with me. Engage on sight."
"Roger that, Sarn't!" They replied as the team moved out.
It seemed very straight-forward. Hunter-killer. Amanda made her shots and radioed the positions of the enemy VALK sniper that moved, allowing Allison and Char to take them out. The enemy snipers were eliminated within minutes.
"Looks like you got 'em all!" Julie said, excited about their victory.
"Don't start celebrating yet. Something tells me that they aren't done yet." Char replied.
"What makes you say that?"
"They deployed snipers and directly targeted the Cleanup Crew. This isn't like the other hit and run attacks. They were waiting for us. More than likely they have their own support units."
"So what do we do?"
"I got this." Allison said. "Cleanup Crew, this is Outlaw Actual. Snipers are no longer a factor but we believe that this isn't over. Consolidate your forces and fall back. As of right now, your objective is on hold until we've cleared the area, over."
"Roger that. We'll pull back until you-" The radio transmission cut to static mid-sentence.
"Say again?" Allison asked.
The commander's voice was usurped by a shocked subordinate's exclamation. "The LT's been hit! They're everywhere!"
"What?"
Char turned back. "They used their snipers as bait to lure us away from the Cleanup Crew. Cheeky bastards! Come on, we've got to move!"
Team Outlaw doubled back to cover the other squad as Amanda repositioned her VALK. "I count fifteen, maybe sixteen hostiles. They're hounding our guys. You need to get down there now!"
"Roger that, Mandy. Target the enemy and take them out. Julie, get in their face. Char, you take the left flank. I'll take the right. Let's go! Diamond formation!"
"Right! Here I come~!" Juliet announced as she drew a 90mm bullpup machinegun and opened fire at the enemy VALK ranks at close range. She went about her business of jumping up to avoid fire and then landing on top of her opponent to fire down at the others.
Allison and Char split and went to the sides where they saw the Proteus VALKs raining hellfire on the Cleanup Crew, who's low caliber weapons were not enough to punch through their armor effectively. They engaged them and took them off guard for the first few kills before they adjusted their fire. The team was working well as Amanda sat back at the middle point and picked off lone targets. It wasn't until about halfway through that she started getting low on ammunition.
"Ally, I'm running low on ammo. Switching tactics." Mandy said as she moved up.
Off in the distance, she was unaware of a new enemy that had snuck up. "Command, we seem to have a situation. The enemy has support units and they're destroying our forces." The pilot of the enemy VALK said.
"Eliminate them. Purge the heretics that resist us, and then the ones that kill our converted."
"Yes, command." The pilot said.
Amanda ran her VALK forward to catch up with her comrades. "Ally, I only have a few shots left. We're going to have to wrap this up soon if we're gonna-" She was interrupted when a 180mm shell took out her VALK's leg. "Agh, dammit! I'm hit!"
Allison turned around. "Amanda, what's your situation?"
"My leg's fucked up! I can't move!"
"Hang on, I'm coming!"
Allison retreated to see to Amanda. As she came into view of her friend, she watched another 180mm strike through the side of the torso. The result caused the VALK to explode.
Allison's VALK stood there as she sat in her cockpit, dumbfounded. "M-Mandy?" She asked, hoping that she'd get a response. The husk of her comrades VALK did not move, nor did any reply come to Allison.
"Ally! Get back here! We can't hold them off without you!" Char shouted as he continued to engage.
Allison didn't want to, but she knew the mission came before personal feelings. She turned around and met up with her team. "Gimme a sitrep, Char!" She said, her voice lightly laced with anguish.
"We're running low on ammo, but not targets. They're still targeting the Cleanup Crew, and we can't push them off. The acting commander of the Cleanup Crew radioed for emergency extraction, but they said it's going to take them about five minutes to get here."
"Jesus H. Christ, where are they sending them out from; Ramstein? Nothing takes five minutes!"
"Apparently, yes. Until then we've got to hold them off and-" Char stopped as he looked at his motion tracker. "Oh shit, we've got company on the right side! They're trying to make a push!"
"I've got these guys!" Juliet butted in as she leapt off another enemy. "Leave them to me! You just worry about the others!" Without any chance for either of them to voice protest, she landed directly in the middle of the enemy formation. Needless to say, they were surprised to see them. She drew her VALKs experimental beam saber and began to cut the formation down to size.
Allison and Char kept the heaviest fire off the Cleanup Crew and were still working on whittling down the enemy. It was a while longer before Char noticed something. "Juliet's VALK just went offline..." He said solemnly.
Allison slammed her fist on her controls. "DAMMIT!" She said, frustrated with the extraction team's inability to get here fast enough.
"Ally, look at me." Char said, hoping to calm her down. "We're gonna get through this. We just need to keep level-headed. The extraction team will be here soon, I know it." However, the extraction team had been running late. Allison looked over to Char's VALK and felt secure in his assurance. Then, in a split-second, that assurance was gone. Two rounds struck his VALK: One took out his leg, and the other grazed his cockpit.
"Char...? Char!?" There was no response. Allison gripped her controls as she saw red and turned to the nearest enemy VALK. Growling like an animal, her red eyes wild and full of rage, she mashed the fire button and watched as her should cannons blew the top half of the VALK away completely and the bottom half staggered to the ground before blowing up as well. Then, she turned and switched, firing her beam rifle through the center of another VALK and killing it instantly. She turned back and switched again and used her 60mm Vulcan head cannons to rip into another who tried to get the drop on her. It was riddled with shells before falling over.
Fuck not letting personal feelings get in the way of the mission; Allison was livid. She began using extreme prejudice to take out her enemies in anyway she could as she screamed an unholy raging cry. Hell hath no fury like a woman's. Period. Allison destroyed everything that she found until the enemy retreated. Once she eliminated the last VALK in the vicinity, she slowly came to. Her mood swung from anger to despair. She knew Char's VALK was disabled, but he could still be alive.
Leave No Man Behind
Allison set her VALK down and popped open the cockpit as she grabbed her katana and G36K. She hopped out and sprinted as fast as she ever had in her life to Char's VALK. The area that was blown open from the shell grazing was crawling with infected. "CHAR!" Allison cried as she opened fire on the one's that stuck out. Once her magazine was empty, she dropped the rifle and climbed up onto the top. She drew her blade and rushed in, cutting the infected to bloody ribbons. She didn't stop until she reached the cockpit.
"Char I-" She stopped and gasped loudly. There, the cockpit had been torn open and so had Charles. The controls and seat were coated in his blood as he lay there with his chest and abdomen bloodied. Allison had tears streaming down her cheeks as she dropped her sword and jumped into the cockpit.
"Char? Char you're gonna be okay." She said, her voice trembling like her hands. "Can you hear me? Please, say something. Char!" Allison waited and waited, but so far nothing. She couldn't hear in her subdermal comm link that the extraction team had arrived and was looking for her. She laid her forehead against his and was about to start sobbing before he moved.
"A...Alli...son?" He asked, opening his eyes.
"Char! Char, look at me, you're gonna be fine. You hear me? You're gonna be just fine!" Allison replied.
"No...no I'm not..."
"Wh-what are you saying? Of course you are! I'm gonna get you out of here, I promise!"
"No...no you're not..."
"Char, please don't say things like that. Your'e scaring me."
"Ally...I'm infected..."
Allison blinked as she looked at her lover. Char's body had been ripped open and was bleeding everywhere. His arm also looked like it had been bitten into.
"You were...the light of my life...you know that? You were the one...I wanted to spend....the rest of my days with..."
Allison couldn't help but cry her heart out before him as she listened to him.
"You know...what you have to do..." He said, taking out his standard Colt Python revolver and handing it up to her. "Please...for us..."
Allison slowly clasped her hand around the revolver, knowing exactly what Char was asking. Still, knowing didn't take away the pain of what she was about to do.
"I love you, Char." She cried. "And I always will. No matter what." She said as she leaned in and kissed him on his pale lips. After a few seconds, she pulled back and sat up.
Char smiled at her to try to put her at ease. "No matter what...you have to rid this world...of this plague..." He coughed. "Make it a place...where people can...live again..."
"I promise you I won't quit until every last infected it burned. I promise..." She said back, slowly raising the sights of the revolver to meet her eye. The gun shook in her hand, prompting her to grab on with the other to help steady it to aim at his Char's head. A million things were racing through her mind. Memories of them spending the happiest times together. With their team. Their first kiss. All the training they went through together. Their first meeting. She slowly squeezed until the gun kicked back from recoil. The shot rang out louder than Allison had ever heard in all her life. There was a stillness in the air after that shot, and it was only broken by her. Allison cried out to the sky in agony as the extraction team stood outside.
I Want Love
After a few moments, Allison climbed out of the VALK with Char's bloody body in her arms and tears flowing down her face. She walked to the APC and saw two other figures covered in a black tarp lying inside. She lay the third on the bench opposite to her and then took one of the dog tags off each of the bodies before taking her place as the fourth and the only one uncovered. She cried the whole way back.
When they arrived back at base, there was a funeral service for the fallen. Allison stood in front of the middle casket of three in the first row. She looked down at the revolver she still had, before walking up and laying it inside the casket. "I'm sorry..." She said before walking back. The Honor Guard gave a 21 gun salute to TAPS after the eulogy was read. The Honor Guard commander gave Allison a black folded Gama flag with the casings fired from the salute tucked inside. She was the last one to leave after the bodies were put to rest in their graves.
When she returned, the base commander told her that he was reassigning her to New Mexico. She didn't care to respond with anything but "Yes sir" in a monotone with a stone-faced expression. The reassignment to the place she came to Ramstein from was not only to hopefully get her into a better recovery environment, but also for the reason of rotating her into a new team. This meant stripping her of her rank as Sergeant, as only team leaders were given ranks. The base commander didn't want to say it out loud, but he knew that Allison was in no position to lead right now.
After she was done, she returned to the three graves with three bouquets of flowers. Zinnias, Forget-Me-Not's, and purple hyacinths. She laid one at each grave before wrapping the dog tags around one of her hands and clenching it into a fist. She crouched down on one knee and held the fist up to her forehead before bowing it. For the last time that day, she cried...
OCTOBER 20TH, 2076
RAMSTEIN BASE
PRESENT DAY
Allison slowly opened her misty eyes. The clouds above had darkened slightly and rain began to fall. It started slow, and turned into a drizzle. It was a soft pour of rain from a grey sky. Tears slowly streaked down Allison's cheeks as she looked up at the graves. "I swear on your memory - they won't rest, while I'm alive." She said before standing up. The rain pattered onto her face and blended with the tears she silently cried. After a while, she put her dog tags back on and turned to walk back to where she had parked the SUV she drove into town, hoping that everyone might be done eating.
