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62 Days After Landing — Philpott Dam
He'd suggested the damn dam in the first place. Grey couldn't help thinking of that fact a little grouchily, even if part of him knows that there are perfectly legitimate reasons that they didn't want to blow the power to the place for the first strike, including not wanting to kill all of the captive One Hundred.
Despite grumbling inside his own mind, the Guardsman moves along on one flank of the force, the butt of his assault rifle snugged into his shoulder and the barrel pointed down. He's fought these jackholes, and he's not going to take any chances. The Trikru are casting glances and grimaces at the Engineers speaking quietly in the midst of the group, examining the interior structure of the dam and the power station within it, and the Trikru occasionally gesture between one another. Grey shrugs a little helplessly at one of the Trikru, then looks back to his assigned sector.
They enter an enormous room with a high, vaulted ceiling and a row of five heavy generators. Trikru and Skaikru alike stop or slow in their steps and stare up at the cavernous space, so unlike anything they see in their own homes. Grey looks back down at a quiet, sharp whistle from Major Wu at the head of the group, his lips tightening in a silent grimace. Well, there goes the chance to impress the brass. Caught gawking around. Sure, most everyone was, but so was he.
Advancing on the nearest of the generators, one of the Trikru calls out in Trigedasleng, and there is the soft whipp of an arrow. Almost immediately, there is a cry from further down the open area, and the crackle of gunfire. "Eyes up!" Grey calls out, "Contact ten-o'clock high!" He brings up the barrel of his rifle, sighting, and squeezes off a shot. It spangs off a catwalk railing in front of a… blue… figure? What the hell?
"Major, they're… hell, I dunno. Wearin' some kinda blue suit." Grey continues to advance as he calls out, looking for a bead on the figure that darted out of his line of sight. Around him, the team reacts, most of them spreading out to avoid return fire while a few Trikru — and Lake People and Broadleaf if Grey's going to be fair — and two of the Guard tighten up around the engineers.
Major Wu's actions are decisive, he points up to the catwalk, "Grey, Vasquez," even the brusque Guard Major hesitates for a heartbeat, and then he adds, "Leston, Ami." The two Grounders follow after Grey and the other Guard, until Grey taps Vasquez on the shoulder and steps aside.
Looking back to the two Grounders, he notes, "Stick to the right. We'll hold left, cover you." Wary nods accompany the words, and then the quartet sets out again. The Grounders head up the metal stairs first, with Vasquez covering them from the base as Grey races up behind them, holding off to the left of the two Warriors. They reach the top of the stairs, stepping onto the catwalk, and the sound of gunfire rings out from across the room, drawing eyes. Grey looks back in time to see the blue-suited figure pop out of cover again, leveling a submachine gun, and then he pulls the trigger of his already-leveled rifle, sending a bullet downrange. It rings off the machinery sheltering the Maunon, forcing the shooter back into cover, and the Grounders rush forward.
Vasquez climbs the stairs behind Grey, and the two Guard take measured turns firing at the Maunon's hiding place as the Grounders work closer. And then they cease fire, and the blue-suited figure rises up again… right into a spear and a sword. And that's the end of that. Grey's lips peel back from his teeth in a fierce grin at the approving nods the Guard get from Trikru and the Broadleaf, and the quartet move back to the main group.
From the other side of the cavernous room, another quartet come back, one Lake People Warrior holding a wounded arm gingerly, and one Guard limping from a grazed hip. Wu glances to the two returning parties, then nods, and the main force resumes its advance.
When the reach the first generator, the attackers spread out further, throwing up a loose ring around the first pair of generators and getting the engineers room to work. And everything is quiet for nearly ten minutes as they prep the first two generators to be disabled, leapfrog up to the next one, and get it prepped as well. And then one of the Guard calls out, "Bandits, twelve o'clock," just as bullets begin to buzz like angry bees around the party.
One of the Trikru goes down, clutching his side, and arrows, spears, and bullets answer the barrage. Not only are there more of the blue-suited figures, but also figures in grey-green haz-mat suits, and even a few without any protection at all beyond their armor and their uniforms. Only a matter of time, really. They had to bring out the hard-boys sooner or later.
At Wu's order, the group splinters, a couple of Trikru with bows and two Guard with rifles staying close to the third generator, providing covering fire for the engineers working on it. Grey finds himself sent around to the left again with Vasquez, Ami, Leston, and another Trikru named Penn, moving to flank the Maunon counterattack — and running right into a trio of Maunon.
Leston goes down almost immediately, clutching an arm pierced by a bullet, and Vasquez and Penn get pinned down a moment later, trapped behind a hunk of machinery by a Mountain Man fusillade. Grey nudges Ami, pointing around to one side, but the Broadleaf shakes her head, "No, same as last time. I will deal with the Maunon."
Grimacing, Grey tries to protest, but it's too late, and Ami is rushing toward the enemy. As the Maunon turn to fire on her, Grey pops up from behind cover, hosing their position down with a wave of bullets. It's enough to send two of them diving for cover, but Ami takes a hit, still pressing forward, and then Grey's mag runs dry, his rifle giving off a telltale click. Shit. It's amazing how quick thirty rounds go down the pipe. But by then, Vasquez and Penn are in position to take up the covering fire, and Grey swings his rifle around on its strap, breaking cover himself and racing after Ami.
Three steps in, and he's grasped the shock baton from his hip. Six, and he has to duck behind a console for a moment as one of the Maunon pumps accurate fire in his direction. And then Ami's in among them, and muffled shouts of dismay go up. The woman's sword flickers, drawing blood from one, two, and then the numbers begin to tell, and she is knocked to one knee by rifle-butts.
Vasquez drills one of the Maunon looming over Ami, and then Grey's there, caged lightning crackling from his shock baton. His first blow is caught by a rifle stock, but the second finds blue-sheathed flesh, driving the Maunon back with a yelp, and Ami is back on her feet. Now it's two on two, with Vasquez and Penn closing fast, and that's enough.
Grey catches a looping hook from one of the jackholes wearing military haz-mat gear with his left arm, and then slaps his shock baton to the underside of the woman's extended arm. She screams inside her mask, but stays on her feet, staggering back, and Grey follows. The next baton strike hits flak jacket, crackling ineffectively, and then he sweeps it backhand across the woman's throat, beneath her mask, and she goes down, twitching and screaming. Leston is back up by then, and he drives his spear into the fallen woman's stomach, finishing her, even as Grey raises a hand, "Wait, what about…" he subsides under a dark look from the Trikru, nodding grudging acceptance.
Vasquez isn't so sanguine, arriving in time to see Ami leans down and put her swordblade to the throat of the Maunon clutching at a cut hamstring. "Hey! We're supposed to be taking prisoners here, Grounder!"
Ami looks up, and then very deliberately cuts the Mountain Man's throat, noting flatly, "He did not surrender."
Grey looks away, paling a little under his dark skin, but he gets it. He's heard the stories straight from Lip's lips, and he's not sure he'd be able to hold back. Hell, he couldn't hold back the last time he was in the Mountain, pounding the poor bastard half to paste after he was already dead. And it was only a few of his friends, of his family, that were in danger of being drained. The Mountain'd been draining Grounders for decades. The shock baton is collapsed and put away, and he reloads his rifle, "We're done here, Vasquez. Better get back to the group."
The other Guard manages not to vomit, looking at the dead Mountain Men — especially how the ones in haz-mat suits burn from the radiation in the air. Grey… Grey's just not looking at them, real careful-like. He doesn't want to know what that nasty-ass sound is.
Pushing on, the quintet slowly make their way further into the flank, until they can spot a pair of Mountain Men guarding a door out of the room and providing covering fire for the main Maunon force in the generator room. Grey opens his mouth, but Leston rumbles, "Same again." Damned stubborn Trikru.
Grey grabs his unwounded arm, hissing, "Hey man… we can really screw with these jackholes if we move along the wall."
But Penn shakes his head as well, "No. Same again. They are two. The others are out of easy bow-shot in this room." And he draws back an arrow, readying to step out and attack with Leston and Ami. Vasquez and Grey share a look, and then Grey shrugs, "I think we got outvoted."
The other Guard grumbles, "Crazy way to run a war," but nods, and moves around to a place to provide cover-fire. Penn breaks cover first, launching an arrow, and then Leston and Ami are rushing forward. Vasquez fires in bursts, but Grey keeps his shots measured, slow, working to pin down the two Mountain Men.
It works, the trio of Grounders closing fast. One soaks up one of Penn's arrows to the gut, sliding down the wall but still firing with his pistol — until Leston and Ami reach them. They make short work of the wounded Mountain Men and the other runs, but that means they're too far away when one of the Maunon without haz-mat gear drops down from the catwalk right between Vasquez and Grey.
It happens in a flash for Grey. One moment he's just lifting his fire as his allies-for-the-moment get in close with their ancestral enemy, and then next he's tumbling to the ground, watching a broad back wearing khaki turn toward Vasquez. There's the snap of a pistol shot and Vasquez is falling backward, arms drawing in close to clutch tight. And the jackhole is turning toward Grey, lifting up a heavy revolver with smoke still drifting up from the barrel.
This close, the thing looks as big as a house, the barrel yawning black and huge. Grey's shock baton is still at his belt, as is his pistol, and he lost the assault rifle somewhere in the fall, so he grabs his last weapon, the dropship shard he sharpened into a knife himself, and lashes out, driving the point down into the top of the Maunon's foot. The larger man screams, more in anger than in pain, and the revolver goes off — but he's fired too soon, and the bullet hits the concrete floor and ricochets, barely creasing Grey's calf.
Despite the blossom of pain in his leg, Grey ready to move again, and he wraps his arms around the back of the man's knees and surges to his feet, planting his shoulder right into the man's gut. It's a perfect form-tackle, even if it's performed rising from the ground instead of running full-tilt toward the jackhole, and a grin creases Grey's lips as the man's shoulderpads clatter on the floor.
Grey draws back a foot, plants it right between the jackhole's legs, and the Mountain Man curls around it, making a wheezy little squeak of pain. Grey kicks again, and then kneels down, "This one's for Hanne, you shitty fuck-stick." The makeshift knife moves again, and warm arterial blood pulses over Grey's hand, the Maunon choking on it as he scrabbles at his throat, trying vainly to stop the spurting.
Vasquez watches through pained eyes as Grey reverses his grip on the dagger, punching it up into the dying man's side, just beyond his flak jacket, "And Cookie. And Ruth. And Adam. And goddamn it, for Rawlins." Four thrusts, four bloody wounds, and not one peep of protest from Vasquez.
Grey looks up, and there are Penn, Leston, and Ami, watching him with solemn, approving eyes. There are a series of explosions behind them as the five generators are disabled all at once, and a moment later, Grey's earpiece crackles to life with Major Wu reporting to Kane and Lexa at the main entrance. "Power is down. Repeat, power is down. Casualties light. Moving in."
Right, because even after this big dam adventure, there's still work to do chasing the Mountain Men back into Mount Weather. He grabs the revolver, and rifles through the Maunon's pockets for more ammo, finding a couple of speedloaders.
Next time, Cookie's name'll come first.