Chapter Nine
Doisac
Mission: Awaiting
Time: November 20, 2553 1400 Hours
Franklin awoke, rapidly sitting forward. A gasp came out of his mouth, air entering his lungs. His body ached. He looked at his wounds; They had been mfilled with bio-foam, creating a long-term, temporary seal. He looked at his surroundings.
From what he could tell, he was sitting in a dark cave. "Flashlight" light gleamed on the wall, removing some of the darkness. Franklin activated his VISR so he could see better in the unlighted areas. The dark areas lit up from his 'nightvision'.
To his right, he saw two marines. One was sitting, blood splattered on his chest and a sear in some of his armor from a light plasma weapon. The other was laying was lying down, blood seaping out of a backwound. To his left was his Major along with the ODST that had shot him earlier. They both looked in his direction.
"You son-of-a-***...!" shouted Franklin, leaping up. He ran over to the now alerted troopers, and readied his fist. He leered back with his arm and heaved forward when he was within range. His fist came zipping around, but was stopped by the open palm of the Major.
"We have enough problems, Frank. Don't give us another..." The Major remained grasping his fist. When he sensed that Franklin had easied up, he released his hand.
Franklin recovered from his outburst and got enough nerve to speak again.
"Where did these marines come from? And this....fellow...ODST?"
Fredrickson moved slightly to his right, leaning against a crate.
"This soldier here," he nodded toward the helljumper," has a name, Leiutenant. It's Corporal Jakob Flint."
"Sir, yes, sir," Franklin said reluctantly. Franklin still was agry toward the corporal, but knew this hatred would have to disappear if they were to get along, let alone survive.
"We picked these marines up on the way here. We spotted them a little after they entered the brush from their crashed pelican. They had a captian with them, but he's out on his own right now, searching for supplies so we can set up shop down here. And yes, we think we're going to be down here for awhile."
Franklin took the info in. He knew they would be down here for a long time. But how long, he wondered. He looked over at the marine that had been sitting, rather than walking toward him, as he was doing now.
The marine carried a lit flashlight as he couldn't see in the darkened caves as well as the ODST's. The flashlight's light washed over the Major, Jakob, and then himself, in that order. His face was slightly scarred, his eyes were brown, he stood around 5' 11", and had a wound sealed up. His expression was grim.
"Any thing new on the fleet? Or others on the ground?" he asked.
The major looked away to the right for a moment. But then looked back at him.
"I'm getting sporadic chatter from the fleets COM. Something about Admiral Lockheed running while the rest of the fleet scattered. They're getting hit badly up there." He pointed upwards and then let his hand drop.
A scitt-scat sound could be heard from behind. It sounded like footsteps on the hard rock of the cave. Franklin spun around, M6C/SOCOM quick-drawn from his hip holster. The others followed suit with their available weapons.
A humanoid-figure could be seen, jogging toward them. The figure was human, he could tell that much. Oh, and a marine, he observed. He let out a sigh of relief The marine stopped several feet in front of the closest person, which happened to be Franklin.
The flashlight or 'torch' was shinned onto the marine. It was the captian Fredrickson spoke of earlier.
The captian spoke. "I found one other soldier, but he was KIA about a klick from here about,"he pointed daigonally to his left,"that ways some." He held up the tags and tossed them to the major who placed them on the crate beside him.
For some reason or another, Franklin still held his magnum, at firing stance, at him. The soldier looked over at him and lift his arms slightly into the air. "I give up, Frank."
"W-wha...how do you know my name? Did the major tell you?" Franklin spoke defensively.
"Frank, I've known you for, like, seven years."
Frank had a blank face, gun still pointing at the soldier, and it began to slowly drop.
"Joseph...?" Franklin said as his unseeable face was shocked.
In my times, the darkened days,
Evil invaded the world.
We farmers,
We workers of the Red Union,
We united and slaughtered them all.
The brave soul,
Above the evil,
Planted our inspiration atop their burning cities.
- Ruski