[IC] Project Freelancer

[Eisenhorn]

Penn was silent for the most part, nodding when Iowa sounded off and the others began moving out, silent and talking amongst themselves for the most part. Penn was locked in, as it were, he would be all business and not the most sociable of fellows right now, which would be a strange shift considering all the others had seen was the nice and easy going side of him so far. "Copy Iowa, following your orders." He was quick into cover, holding only one of his pistols as he scanned for any signs of movement that was not one of their own, almost seeming to invite anyone to try and discover their operations before it was too late. He was standing by and ready to deal with them, and if things got loud, well, he was ready for that contingency as well. He could breach any number of locations to create a fast way out for the folks inside, VIP included, so that was a backup on standby which he quietly told Iowa, since he seemed to be the de facto squad leader now. "Iowa, things go loud, I can breach any number of locations for emergency extraction. Something you should be aware of." He was working over the comms, since no voice was actually coming out of his armor. That would be sloppy.

[philp123]

Iowa Took Penn’s point into account, “That sounds like a good idea Penn, if you’ve got any charges set them up on the barricades if not just use your grenade launcher, I’m thinking of fast escape, once Alaska is in the air we should have little to no resistance, Here’s what I’m thinking keep it quiet until we get a green light from Cal, if we continue at our speed, we should arrive at the objective within 5 mins, which should give Alaska south and Cal enough time to take out the vehicles.” Iowa kept moving up until finally he’d made it to the nearest cover to the base. He spotted on of the patrol members and silently took him out behind the piece of cover knocking him unconscious. He signalled to wash and Penn to move up and followed in behind them he took the front again and led the team towards the tent in which the hostage was kept in. Inside was 3 marines “Hey wash I hear you’re good in CQB?” he said throwing the knife at Wash.

[Silentsniper211]

Alaska had no objections and just nodded whilst replying in comedic tone “Understood Captain Cal” She moved up to the front wart hog and linked it up to her Suit, Doing a full EMP would cause way too much noise. Once fully linked she fired a small burst causing the warthog to be permanently disabled, unless they decided to do a full battery change, but that would take way too long. She unhooked herself from the port. She returned to the rally point and sounded off on the com to her squad. “Alaska reporting in Warthog 1 has been disabled, waiting at rally point,” Wash stuck with Iowa, He seemed to know what he was doing. The way he took out the soldier was with almost expert precision. The best part was that he didn’t kill him, a trait Wash had yet to learn. When they arrived at the tent Washington took up Iowa’s idea with open arms. He caught the knife in his right arm whilst taking his own with his left “It would be my pleasure, Give me two minutes” He activated his Strength boost and moved into the tent, He ran up to the first man and slit his knife with his right whilst spinning around and placing the other knife in his back, the third man had his gun pointed at wash’s head, but wash got there too fast he took his gun and smacked his chest with the butt of the rifle. He moved back outside the tent inviting the others in. He grabbed the knife from the body and threw at Iowa, “You might want to wash it before you use it again.” He moved up to the Man and unsecured him from his bonds. “Hey doc you want to give him the once over, whilst I report in to Cal?” he asked whilst wiping his knife against the side of the tent and deactivating his ability. He opened his com channel to everyone. “Hostage is secure, the Doc is giving him a once over, we’ll be ready to move on your mark.”

[Midna-Phobia]

South nodded slightly, it was a simple assignment. She could manage that. Walking up towards the car the girl shifted it into neutral and began pushing it along, glad to have the suit doing all the work here. There was no way they’d be able to move one of these things even with the three of them without assistance. Once it was safely inside she let the others know and moved to sit on the back, near the turret, her legs swinging back and forth. It was strangely easy to forget they were in a simulation or even that they were in danger. From up in his perch North watched all the action in this strange gray, green and red world. Green signalled friendlies, red were enemy heat signatures and everything else was of no importance to him. So far they were doing a really good job at avoiding the patrols. There were a few snipers he could see being problematic and took them out without much thought, the silencer on his gun keeping everything nice and sneaky. It was a sim. They weren’t real. It made it a lot easier for him to think that way since he hated wasting life. He didn’t truly believe there were ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’. There were all just people who happened to have different goals and different ways of doing things. Sure some people did some pretty horrible things with their lives but he was sure that in their minds they were just doing what needed to be done. Some snipers remained, but he had no direct line of sight to them and they had no sight to his team, so they weren’t a problem right now. Recovery team moved up the city whilst team Warthog, as he’d named them in his mind, were still hanging out. He rolled his eyes slightly at the one sitting on the back, as if it was the mess hall and everything was fine. He had no doubt about who that was. However before he could get onto her to tell her off for slacking she noticed a large patrol of about five or so men headed their way. “Team Warthog- Cal! You’ve got five guys inbound, two corners away on your right. Maybe ten seconds. You need to move now! Now!” Picking up his gun he quickly moved into a better spot. He couldn’t see into the bay South was in but he had a very clear shot down the street at the corner where he knew they’d appear, watching their heat signatures move behind the buildings. He could help to take them out if needed, he had three shots left before he had to reload, but he’d rather avoid them getting detected if at all possible. Stealth was always preferable to loud and heavy, at least when you were dealing in a rescue mission for someone they had to assume had no military training. Hopefully the others had a similar thoughts and they could keep out of sight or at least quiet about it if they did decide to take action.

[Apollosarcher]

Carolina had just climbed out from under the Hog, he was the last to finish thanks to the present he had left. He heard Alaska report, she had rallied with South. However she was cut off at the end by North reporting the movement of five footmen. He didn't even think his mind already knew what to do the tactical system giving him a reading on the surroundings. "Alaska roof now, kill the pilot. South get in the drivers seat I'm going to play rabbit." With that he bolted for the forest making some noise by intentional stepping on a twig. The men drew there rifles and moved to investigate the disturbance, meaning that bought South and Alaska time. He slumped behind a tree checking assault rifle, now it came down to Alaska, he maybe had thirty seconds till they were right on top of him. He opened comm's to the squad "We go loud in thirty seconds. I've got a squad right on top of me so change of plans, South your gunning the back to the pelican and securing it, I'll stay behind to buy time and make my own way back if I can. North, if Alaska is not in the Hornet take it down first then move to cover the rescue team. If I'm not there when you get back go without me." With that he counted down to ten and turned, burying his assault rifle in the first guys stomach he emptied half a clip into him. Before firing back on the others, he took out two more before they made it to cover, at least a dozen more had come rushing, the team from the last shift no doubt. Hopefully the others were having a better time the others were having a better time then him he thought as he reload. He of course had gone back to arguing with himself in his head. This is suicide you know that right? You have no chance of making it back alive. Yes I know but... There my team, they count on me to get them home alive, beside's half of them have family. I know, I'm not arguing with your decision, just don't give them false hope you'll make it, your good Carolina but your not that good. Yeah, but if I told them I plan to die here then they would abandon the plan and get more people killed. I would have never done that, seems your time in the Sim didn't break you. It made you a better man, now the system says you've got a 0 percent chance of making it, lets beat the odds. Give me control...

[philp123]

By the time Iowa had heard Cal’s Iowa had finished checking the hostage’s vitals he was fit enough to run but he’d need some patching up, call and the sound of rifles, “Understood Cal,” Iowa replied “Penn, See if you can clear us a path take up the front you’re on demolition Duty, See if we can get a Direct route to the Evac point. Wash you can take up the rear, I will take up the middle and I’ll take the Hostage with me.” He said double checking his weapon, “Let’s move out!” Iowa bust out the tent and taking out two guys with his battle rifle he moved around the the corner with the hostage in tow.

[Silentsniper211]

Alaska followed Cal’s orders “Roger that moving out now.” She found the nearest ladder and climbed up onto the roof and jumped behind an AC block, the pilot was refueling just as shots started to fly down below, "So much for stealth,"she uttered to herself. She pulled out her magnum and placed five shots in his chest, she dragged him away from the Hornet making sure that there was no fuel that could ignite with anything. She pulled up the HUD of the Hornet, and took off, down below she saw the firefight between Cal and the soldiers, “Hey Cal, You look a bit outnumbered, down there do you want some fire support or should I focus on the others?” Wash followed Iowa’s orders moving out from around the back of him he managed to take one guy out with his pistol but there was more coming, the problem was they were heading towards Carolina.

[Midna-Phobia]

South looked around in alarm as North called out that there were guards on the way. However at his plan she instantly moved towards the driver’s seat of the warthog, placing herself in it and taking hold of the steering wheel. Starting the vehicle up she took a few small breaths before reversing it out of the repair bay and turning down the street. Quickly abandoning his post North made his way to the Pelican, however when he arrived and turned, expecting to see South driving up in the Warthog he saw she was going in the wrong direction. “South! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” There was no response. “South! Answer me! You’re supposed to be coming here to help me get this thing going!” “I’ll tell you how to do it from here, it’s not hard.” She finally answered. “What are you doing?! This isn’t part of the plan!” Once again South refused to answer him. “Madison!” Suddenly there was a strange silence and North realised South had turned off her radio completely. “Fuck!” North swore as instructions began appearing on his visor. He needed to stay focused and on plan. If they didn’t get this bird in the air no one was getting out of here. Driving an army vehicle in a real life was a lot harder than it was on simulation. A lot bumpier and louder. Turning the wheel South felt the vehicle lean dangerously as she screeched around the corner and Cal came into sight. She could hear the hornet flying overhead and could only hope it was on her side or else that North would take care of it. He was going to be so mad at her later. Pushing the peddle to the floor South accelerated towards her teammate, who was taking heavy fire. Stepping on the breaks at the last possible moment the car left dark skid marks on the road and she felt her body shift forward before slamming back into the seat as it came to a stop. “Need a lift?” The girl asked with a small gasp.

[Apollosarcher]

Carolina was surprised, mostly at how well he was doing, he refused to be cold calculating like his mentor instead choosing to stand his ground, he at chuckled when a group of the idiots took cover behind a hog, he pulled out his grenade launcher and popped a shot that bounce right over it flipping it on to them. He kept popping grenades behind there cover scrambling them having move into a shallow ditch now for a better angle. With the break in action he responded to Alaska. "Negative, your covering the extraction team, I'll be fine." He cut the channel and sighed then finished with. "I'll be fine, they'll kill me and I'll be out." However he was soon out of grenades and swapped back to his assault bringing down target in hails of lead. He must have brought down damn near fifteen of them, then again there still looked to be thirty more. He sighed and checked ammo counter, he could maybe buy them another two- The hell? South was... Heading right towards him in the hog, damn it, he should have known she wouldn't listen. As she slid in front of him he raced for the turret chucking all three of his grenades. "South, I'm little pissed but I'm also happy enough I could kiss you." He was telling the truth, he was glad she came for him. He climbed onto the turret, magnetic locks holding him in place as began to gun down the soldiers before him. He spotted one with a rocked launcher advancing. "South, you might want to punched it, NOW!"

[philp123]

Iowa moved out only to be caught in a firefight, “Fuck, Okay wash I’m gonna make a dash for it wait for you sister and meet me at the pelican.” Iowa ran whilst carrying the hostage over his shoulder, he took a hit to the lower leg and started bleeding heavily, "Balls," He made it half way to the pelican before he collapsed, He managed to get back up and rested on the shoulder of the hostage, they hobbled up to the door of the pelican and he sat down. He managed to put some armor filler in to stop the bleeding but it was still painful."North Alaska's coming soon, i'm sure she'll give you some tips on what on earth you're doing" He sat there waiting for the others. Hoping that they'd come soon.

[Silentsniper211]

Once Iowa moved out between the cars wash provided cover with his shotgun, it wasn't much for long range but it made one hell of loud noise when It was fired. He noticed him taking a shot to the leg as moved out but he looked like he could make it. Alaska arrived just as Iowa moved out of sight, she opened a Com channel to her brother; “Hey hope I’m not interrupting,” she said firing a volley of missiles at the marines, and suppressing wash with machine gun fire. She landed on the car he was behind and was hopped onto the side as they took off for the pelican, “Took your time didn't you.”Washington said slyly, “I’m sure those guys back there would be willing to take you back wash, don’t make me, you know I will.” When they arrived back at the pelican, wash jumped off and Alaska landed the hornet and proceeded to torch it. Alaska walked in to the sight of north messing around with the controls, he’d obviously just been sent some instructions as by the looks he kept looking around for something. Alaska entered the cockpit as wash held back, She Cleared her throat and said: “Nice try north but you might want to read the instruction manual next time.” She exited the vehicle and took off the pads keeping the vents clear and then moved back inside and flicked a switch, to start the jets. She tapped north on the shoulder, “not bad for a first timer,” Wash took off his helmet and sat down, he turned his head to north, “you’ll get used to her, eventually” Wash turned his attention towards Iowa, inspecting his leg, “Good job it’s a simulation doc, that’s one hell of a wound” He shouted over to Alaska, "how long we going to be it’s not going to be long until the sim take him out due to blood loss,” Alaska came back into the back to reply, “We’re good to go we’re waiting on captain Cal”

[Midna-Phobia]

South looked up, her eyes widening when she saw what Cal looking at. “Punching it!” She replied, before effectively stalling the vehicle. “Crap!” The man with the rocket launcher was getting in position as she started the warthog back up and attempted to move off. It wasn’t exactly ‘punching it’ and there were a few very bad gear changes before she managed to get them going and put a building in between them and the rocket launcher, which fired off anyway, blasting into the wall. Turning the corner the vehicle leaned dangerous as the tires skidded trying to find traction. North groaned in annoyance, he had no clue what he was doing and even if South’s instructions had made any sense he was too mad and worried to think clearly. When Alaska interrupted him and took over he was relieved and happily stood back to let her do her thing, chuckling at Wash’s comment. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to sisters honestly.” He replied, the worry and anger coming through clear in his voice. South brought up a map on her helmet display, giving her directions back to the pelican and the others. She was pretty sure Cal would never let her drive after this again and if there hadn't been the magnetic locks she probably would have thrown him off miles back. The pelican appeared in the distance, growing quickly as they accelerated towards it. South didn’t break as hard as she had last time, but she still left the breaking until a point where she had to press it hard to get them to stop without hitting the large ship. Jumping out of the ship she stopped for a moment to check to see if Cal was still with her before hurrying into the ship. She didn’t dare look up at North. No doubt he was still mad at her. They’d agreed beforehand not to use their real names. So for him to shout it out over the com… she moved to sit down and stared at the floor, twiddling her thumbs.

[Apollosarcher]

Carolina smiled as they cleared the building, South was not the worst driver but she pretty damn close. Even with magnetic clamps she still almost tossed off him off. Still he picked off a few targets with the chain gun as they faded into the distance he jumped off and removed his helmet taking a seat beside her on the pelican. "Thanks for coming back for me, I planed to draw there fire and order you all to leave." He was admitting what would have basically been suicide on a real op. "But next time South please stick to the plan, I don't want to think anyone got killed trying to save my ass. A leader makes sure his people go home alive not himself." Carolina sighed then looked at the other then at the briefcase. "North seal up the hatch and Alaska, take us home." He sighed leaning against the wall his red hair sweat and matted, he missed this, he loved the rush of it all the challenge. He looked at North, he knew he was pissed, he decided to say something even if might not have been the right time. "North I get it, your angry she broke from the plan but South knew what she was doing and she ended up saving me from my own plan. So if you want to be angry, it's my fault not her's.

[Silentsniper211]

“Roger that Cal,” She rushed back into cockpit and engaged the thrusters, the pelican raised up as the main engines fired propelling the ship towards the cruiser, “This is pelican Delta 003/405 reporting in the package is on board, we have wounded on board requesting permission to land at the nearest medical bay.” The was a brief radio silence as the reply came back, “Understood Medical bay 4 has a squad ready and waiting.” The pelican pulled into the landing bay and the simulation ended. The voice of F.I.L.S.S came into her helmet, “Well done agents, the grade of B+ was achieved in this simulation, returning all members to bays, again congratulations agents.” Wash always hated flying, especially when his sister was flying, he took the time to reply to North’s statement, “You all right North you seem a bit agitated,” He replied generally concerned “we’re in the same boat if you ever need a brother on brother talk I’m here.” They pulled into the hanger and Wash put his shotgun on his back. The siblings unplugged themselves and exited the room. They both met in the hall way outside. They high fived each other and proceeded to chest bump each other. “I knew you could always fly but the UNSC must've taught you some special stuff.” He hesitantly tapped her on the shoulder, “I’m proud of you.” Alaska didn’t quite know how to complements and just kept quiet and waited for the others, she wasn't going to make it any more awkward.

[philp123]

“You two took your time,” Iowa said sarcastically doing some final checks on the hostage before taking off. “At least you’re both alive, that’s the main thing.” Once the pelican had landed he rose up supported by the bars of the pelican and limped off, he felt like an idiot being the only member of the team to sustain an injury. The simulation faded and he was left where he had started he unplugged himself from the sim and rolled his neck. He grabbed his data pad and finished resting the sim for the next user, after that he met up with Washington and Alaska outside, they were both in silence. He approached them openly, “Nice job guys,” his stomach rumbled deeply, “Well it seems that I’m in need of a bit of grub, I’ll wait for the others then I’ll move over to the canteen.”

[Midna-Phobia]

As the siblings unplugged from the sim each stood there for a few moments, removing their respective helmets and staring at the other. The others left the room and South let out a loud sigh. “Go on, get it over with.” “Okay fine. What the hell did you think you were doing back there?!” South opened her mouth to speak but North quickly interrupted. “No, you know what? I can tell you what you were doing back there. You were going to get yourself fucking killed in an effort to save Cal, who’d made his own decision to suicide it.” “Oh please! If it were you, you would have done the exact same thing.” South replied, though her words had nowhere near the anger of North’s. She sounded more upset than anything. “No, I wouldn’t have. Okay, in a real life mission I would have done everything I could have done to get him out of there safely. But that was a sim. It’s different-” “No!” South suddenly snapped back. “You can’t think like that. Yeah, it wasn’t real but that doesn’t mean you can treat it differently to a real life situation. All that will do is cause you to hesitate when it really matters. I’m not as experienced as you are in this, I get that. So I need to treat everything like it’s really life or death-” “-and because of your decision you almost got both you and Cal killed.” North snapped back instantly. “You don’t have any field experience South, you can’t kill people, simulated or no. You can’t just ignore orders. That’s not the way it works. You don’t know how to drive a warthog. Not in real life. You don’t get it do you? Cal made his decision, a dumb decision and there were dozens of others he could have made that would have put him in a better position than the one he’d ended up in. It was stupid of him and because of it you were put in danger too.” “Which was my own choice, you can’t blame Cal.” “I don’t. I blame you. You acted as if your life was worth risking to save him.” Once again south moved to interrupt but North quickly stopped her. “I can’t lose you okay!” He instead shouted at her. “Not… not again. If anything happened to you… what do I have left? Don’t… don’t ever do anything that risky again. Please.” South looked at North for a long while as the reality that he was right sunk in. If she had been in his position she would have reacted the same way. Turning, tears welling in her eyes the girl stormed out of the room, passing the others without a word before she began running down the hall, turning a corner and disappearing from sight. North emerged a few moments later, looking tired. “I need a drink.” He said with a small smirk.

[Apollosarcher]

Cal looked South as she raced past and decided he should catch up with her, she risked her brothers wrath to save his ass. He sighed jogged after her throwing his helmet in his room as he passed it. Why did she do it? That simple question ran through his head, everyone else stayed on plan to the letter, he needed to speak with her. He knew it was his plans fault, he felt bad as he followed the sound her footsteps, the armor made them hard to miss. "South? I'd like to talk. That is if you don't mind." He said as he caught up with her, he'd never been great at talking with people, just reading them. Right now he would kill to understand the dynamic between the siblings, but he didn't time to wing it.

[philp123]

Iowa took off his helmet put it under his arm and tapped North on the shoulder, “I know just what you need, give me a minute,” Iowa rushed to his room and grabbed a bottle containing a transparent brown liquid. And grabbed a few glasses. He returned to the group and presented the bottle to north. “This is Tehran Whiskey one of the last in the galaxy. I got it with my squad in new Mombasa, I’d rather not tell you the price” he said sarcastically. “It’s something like 150 years old, I've been saving it for special occasion, I hope this counts.” Iowa moved to the canteen and grabbed himself a sandwich and sat down pouring himself a glass leaving the bottle open for the others.

[Midna-Phobia]

Looking up and seeing Cal at the door South offered him a small smile before looking back at the floor, wiping tears out of her eyes. “As long as you don’t yell at me too” She replied eventually, though her gaze never lifted from the floor. “Wanna know a secret?” She eventually said, looking up at him. “I’m not really sure why they picked me for this kind of thing. North I can understand, he’s amazing. But me… before all this I was going to prison for that whole hacking incident you heard Wash talking about earlier. Next thing I knew they were offering me a way out.” “I took it without even a second thought. I mean… it was jail or ‘a place where I’d get to use my skills to their fullest ability’ or some crap like that. I was actually surprised to see North here. I’ve never been properly trained in military stuff… I didn’t do basic like all you guys did. I never specialised in one field or another. I was just a civilian who hacked into the wrong place. North has been doing his best to train me, trying to help me be a better soldier… but it’s just… not me. I’m not like the others. I don’t have the discipline to follow orders if I think they’re stupid or wrong. He’s right though it was a dumb thing for me to do.” North walked towards the Mess Hall with the rest of the group, meeting up with Iowa as he returned carrying a bottle of… something. Sitting down he didn’t hesitate to pour himself a glass, but waited a few moments before drinking. Instead he held his glass up slightly. “I feel like my yelling at my sister isn’t a good occasion to drink to. So instead let’s celebrate our first successful mission as a group, even if it was a sim. So to successful missions past and more success to come.” He offered instead. “I just wish we could all be here to enjoy it.” He faked being teary for a moment before chuckling softly to himself.

[Apollosarcher]

He was shocked as he took a seat beside South, she was a civilian. I mean he knew she wasn't standard military but he figured she might at least have had experience working with soldiers or rifle training. "South... I'm sorry. It was my bad call and my plan that got you in trouble, Alaska had to get to the roof and I knew you couldn't really handle fighting so I decided on leading them away. It was a shit plan but it was the only I had that didn't end up with me having to protect you." He sighed putting an arm over her shoulders, it must have looked silly in all that armor. "South, you and your brother are both amazing. I mean hell I don't even talk with my siblings, there were told I died about five years back when I was doing a deep cover operation. Listen your brother just wants to keep you safe, but I'll help so how about this, you watch my back and stay close to me and I'll make sure you and brother leave this alright?"