The Commendations of Captivity

[Ilana Logan]

Sasha Shaw

One single shot rang through the tense atmosphere. The bullet shot out in an instant's notice and Sasha could merely watch Marcus getting shot in his foot. Her eyes turned back on Green and and at the same moment the crack of another gun shot split the air.

A spray of red mist fanned out over the ground.

The action took not more than a few seconds but it seemed like forever when Hope's lifeless body crumpled to the dust. Sasha could feel her heart beginning to pound, a flight response growing within her as she began to back away a step or two. Before she had a chance to realize what just happened they opened fire and she found herself cowering down. Bullets whirred overhead like angry hornets and cut into the dirt around them, the sound of the weapons firing like the tearing of fabric.

Sasha saw Rina crawling over the ground to get out of the line of fire. To what it came down eventually was, that everyone was on his or her own now. Her eyes darted around, looking for a way out, some place to hide. The buildings...

It's a long shot.

Her mind argued with the sudden decision but was ignored. And then she took off, running with all she had, head down and trying to doge the bullets that tore past her. Unbalanced Sasha charged forward, soon hit the ground with a jarring crash and a shower of grit hit her face. She looked up and blinked. The buildings were still a fair way off.

Don't. Kid. Yourself.

Against her better judgment she kicked herself forward. The bound hands on her back made it more difficult but she managed to stumbled up to one knee eventually. It was as far as she came. A stabbing pain shot through her arm and momentarily took her breath away while she fell right down again. Sasha clenched her teeth and buried her face into the ground but neither helped to stifle the groan of pain which flared through her.

[Marcus O'Terra]

Rina's words became an imperative, but Marcus recognized one person who might not have responded, Alison. With everything that was happening he wasn't surprised. He really wasn't thinking much of anything.

He just charged the girl, and tackled her as gently as he could, bringing them both to the ground, rolling to try and 'catch' her as they fell. He ended up smacking the side of his head against the ground, and his chin against Alison's forehead. His head run for a long moment before a sharp pain snapped him out of it.

One centered in his arse cheek.

"You... have.. GOT... to be KIDDING me..." He hissed as his bound hands fumbled and he winced at the shallow bullet wound in his bum. He looked to Alison, hoping she was still awake, before looking to Rina, she was struggling to get out of the line of fire, and that was a damn difficult task, bound as they were.

[Ilana Logan]

Richard Parkhill: Alliance Military

There was a roaring, the likes of which was reminiscent to that of a shooting gallery surrounding them. Muzzle flashes coming off the rifles of both sides were as eye straining as the lights coming from the opposite end of the area. But unlike a shooting gallery, there was yelling, and movement. This was very similar to many of the smaller shootouts, which took place during the war for some of the more civilized worlds like Persephone. After excessive bombing had ripped the planet to bits, and the Alliance troops began landing, there were quite a number of pockets of people who would open fire from a building. You’d have a line of roughly three to five men taking shots at a squad of nine. Back then it was fairly easy to put them down. Unfortunately the irony to these odds, were that on the homeworld of the Union of Allied Planets, it was the Federal soldiers who were outnumbered, and lacked the strategic advantage. All of this occurred to Green and his soldiers, but that didn’t matter to them because of their current situation.

The older soldier, who had been on the right, kept his assault rifle up preparing to fire. The moment the order was given he opened up with his weapon. He sprayed fairly quickly, switching target frequently. He couldn’t actually tell where the enemy was, but he knew this would give the illusion that he did, which would cause a fall back. It had worked countless times during the Unification War, here was no different. A bullet struck him in his shin, and he fell to his left. As he was falling he saw one of the only male among the prisoners, who’d already been shot, start moving as though he was running. The thought that he’d already been struck in the foot by Green didn’t occur to him, as he believed he was attempting to run to freedom. Should prisoners attempt effective means of escape, deadly force is authorized. The doctrine was very clear on that. The older soldier swung his weapon around and attempted to shoot the man dead in the back. The horrible lighting conditions made it nearly impossible for him to tell what he hit, but he saw the man go down, so he presumed he’d hit right. He shifted to fire on the enemy again, and squeezed the trigger four more times. And then a peppering of bullets ripped him to bits, as they struck his arms, his legs, his chest, and finally his head.

The youngest soldier, the one on the right, had been the last to start firing his weapon, but he was also firing the slowest. He couldn’t see where the enemy was, and was trying to judge it by the muzzle flashes. He was trying to line up his shots, and firing short bursts towards what he thought was the enemy. He stood like normal, but was backing up while taking aim. He’d fire a shot, then he’d hear more bullets, and then he’d fire again. Finally he thought he’d found a good muzzle flash, and aimed through the sights on his rifle. He brought his finger to fire. Right as he was squeezing something came into view. He knew he wanted to stop, but he was already pulling down, as a shot tore from his weapon, and went through the upper arm of the woman prisoner who Green had been zapped first. He brought his rifle down. He didn’t want to do that, he had nothing against these prisoners. Unlike the others who were hardened soldiers, he was just a stationary guard. He hadn’t actually ever seen combat. He’d been holding the box of possessions the entire walk forward, so when he shot the woman, he had a sinking feeling. He saw her hit the ground, and thought he’d might have hit something vital. Against his better judgment he went running forward. ”Oh God! Are you o………..” He didn’t finish before he suddenly felt a severe pain in his chest. It was a large amount of pressure that through him backward. It had ripped through his plate-vest, and slapped him to the ground. A heavy series of bullets from multiple weapons had slapped him right in the chest. He fell to the ground, alive for only a moment before everything faded to darkness.

Green had been backing up through the prisoners the whole time hoping it would provide him with at least some cover. These people wanted the prisoners, so why would they shoot into a group of them? But his plan seemed to lose effectiveness as the prisoners all seemed to move towards the ground or away. And as that happened the bullets zipped and whizzed around him. The clatter of them pelting the ground, centimeters from his feet was the only thing he was really hearing. To his left he saw the solder fall, struck by fire. Then he looked to his right, the soldier there charged forward, and also was put down by fire. That left only Green himself. He still had no idea if they’d had any effect on the enemy what so ever. And he couldn’t very well fight them off on his own. The only thing he had left to do was to get to the shuttle, and return to a staging area, where they’d be collecting wayward pods and shuttles from the Dominion. And that’s what he would do. He took several steps back, but instead of his foot landing flat, on the forth step it caught something and began to fall backwards. As he went down, it was as though he could see the bullet coming towards him. It was a small speck in the light but got bigger and bigger. It was pointed right towards him, and it came close. He felt the air around the front of his neck grow hot, and then the searing pain of it slipping through his throat, and then the crack of his spine. His eyes were wide, he squeezed the trigger on his gun, and his head colliding with the ground as he tasted blood in his mouth and died.

[Ilana Logan]

The Rodeo Boys

The bald man and his line of men were watching every movement that the soldiers had made. They were greatly illuminated and though the soldiers seemed to have trouble seeing them, these men saw them perfectly. But when the bullets began firing from the lead soldiers weapon, they were taken a bit by surprise. They had anticipated surrender. It wasn’t often when an Alliance Soldier was outnumbered and outgunned, and when it did happen they tended to crack under the pressure. That’s how it had been for them during the war, so they didn’t understand why this one was so bent on defying them. But these men didn’t care. They had been lining up shots since the shuttle had landed. Unfortunately they’d lost those shots when the bullets began flying, as they had to take cover behind hard metal crates they’d set out, but they’d get them back soon enough. It was like the soldiers were just firing at random, while the men of the line were rippling well-aimed shots in return. They struck the soldier on their adversaries left first. He kept fighting, but he went down easy enough. The next one was the man on the right, who had been charging at them for some reason. The last down was the lead soldier, who someone had gotten a fine shot through his neck. It was clear as day, and they all saw it. The lead soldier fired a final burst from his weapon into the air as he’d gone down, which immediately ended the clatter.

Seeing they were done, the men continued to move forward, weapons still ready. They checked the bodies of the soldiers first to make sure they were actually dead. Once they’d confirmed none were moving they moved towards the prisoners.

”Morison! Cut lights!” The lead bald one yelled back to where they had started. The lights cut out almost immediately revealing two separate vehicles, which had been sitting there the whole time. One of them was a large boxy truck, the other was a smaller vehicle. Both were on wheels, and typically only used for transporting goods on the rim. The rusted vehicles were a rather strange thing to see on one of the central planets, and especially Londinium. Moving over some of the prisoners, they’d realized they were wounded. ”Ay Red! Ga’ wounded up here. Need some fixins’ on it, double time.” The bald man said. A man with noticeably red hair sticking up over a pair thick goggles and head band came running up. He held a bag, and moved over towards the group. The men standing there began to help all of the former prisoners to their feet. One of the soldiers found the ‘Key-release’ off of lead soldiers belt, and started getting their bindings off.

The lead bald man watched as his men went to work. He was satisfied with his job, and had a big smile on his face. ”Well, at’s one way ta get off a cruisa’ I spose, aint it.” He didn’t laugh, but he checked the click in his weapon, and slapped it back in.

[Ilana Logan]

Sasha Shaw

Sasha heard steps approach, heard a man shout something she couldn't quite understand over the clatter of guns but nothing happened except for the shooting to continue. When she cocked her head to the side all that came into view was the bottom of a pair of boots a few feet away before she pressed her face onto the ground again. She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed against the pain emerging from her left upper arm. If she got lucky the bullet had gone right through without shattering the bone but she was unable to tell. It just hurt like hell.

Then, from one moment to the next, the whine of bullets died away. A voice called out to cut the lights and all that remained was the weak illumination from the lamps surrounding the place in front of the wearhouse-like buildings. Sasha couldn't see much from the position she was in and although it was possibly less painful to remain where she was, she pushed herself onto her right shoulder. With a thud and a shout of pain she rolled onto her back, barely noticing the wet spot on the cement caused by the blood that had dripped from the wound. The motion was effortless as she couldn't see much more than before and dizziness made her head feel light.

Clinging onto her consciousness when they lifted each of them up and released their arms she tried to bring herself under control as well as tried to get a steady stand.

"Thanks." was all she muttered to the one treating their wounds. No further questions asked. Sasha just didn't care right now who they were as long as they weren't holding guns to their heads.

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus pushed himself up onto his knees as the shooting finally came to a close. Or he tried to. The pain from his wound sent shocks up back and down his leg. He ended up rolling off Alison, at least. But only onto his wounded bum.

"OW~ DAMNIT" He kept rolling until he was on his belly, his face in the dirt. Someone came and undid his restraints, eventually. He pushed himself up, turning his head to where Hope lay. Her dead eyes were still open, staring outwards at nothing at all. "God damnit..." He hissed down into the dirt. "SOMEBODY GET THIS BULLET OUT OF MY ASS!" He screamed, not even caring about the hole in his foot, which seemed to have clotted, or maybe not. The .45 had gone right though his foot, no doubt.... if it did at least he would have a simple fix up, right?

He looked around and notice Sasha being tended to by a man with red hair, and he groaned a sigh of submission. He let himself lay flat on the ground, trying not to think about everything that'd just happened. "DAMNIT....." he growled.

[Ilana Logan]

Marina Kseniya Sebastian

When the guns fell silent, Rina gave it a count of three and flipped onto her back to see what the enemy was doing. A quick sweep showed her the Feds dead, the floodlights mercifully turned off, two heavy ground vehicles, and her friends. Marcus and Ali and Sasha were alive--especially Marcus, yelling about his wounded ass. Hope lay still and Rina staggered to her feet to go to her side, the rest of the world falling away as she focused on her fallen friend.

Hands grabbed her. Rina shrugged them off and forced on. They grabbed her again, she resisted and found herself held fast.

"Hope...," she choked out, straining against the men who held her. She felt her restraints snap open. "Let me go to her. Please."

A shove sent her forward and Rina made it to Hope's side and knelt. Hope's eyes were open, staring blindly ahead, dulled by the dust from the firefight. Everything below her eyes was a vicious bloody mess. Rina put a finger to Hope's neck, felt no pulse, and with nothing more she could do for her friend, she closed Hope's eyes.

"Бог быть с вами," Rina whispered, brushing the hair from the friend's face. "God be with you, Hope." Without thinking Rina reached into her rear pocket for her handkerchief and miraculously, it was still there. She spread it over Hope's face, a gesture of respect for the dead and a parting gift for her friend, and rose. Her other friends were still alive, she and they were still captive, and there was no more time to spend on nicieties. Rina resolutely turned away and faced the men that held them and put her head back in the game.

"Who's in charge?"

[Ilana Logan]

The Rodeo Boys

The red headed one whom the bald man called over was checking the wounds of the prisoners. The first one he’d come to was shot in the arm. It had really grazed just over the bone and through the flesh. Overall it wasn’t bad. With a quick squeeze on the foam bandage dispenser, it filled the area up wound with foam sealant. It would keep an infection from spreading, and the wound at bay, until it could be properly tended to. He then moved over to the one who was yelling and screaming on the ground. The man was rolling around, moving quite a lot, and making more noise then the others would have liked. Red really only knew one way to handle this, because wasn’t going to be dealing with someone violent, but he’d seen enough things like this during the war. There was one of the men with them standing there. He looked at him. ”Old’ em down.” He said, after he pushed him to lay on his stomach. The man with him then held the wounded one by his arms so he couldn’t move. Red looked him over, and saw that on his pants there were two holes. Red didn’t have time to be dealing with this delicately. He whipped out a knife from on his belt and cut quickly across the back portion of them, creating a flap through all layers. He overlooked the wound quickly, but he came to a conclusion very quickly as to what happened. ”Er’ aint no bullet in ya man.” Red said. There was a hole in the right cheek on the mans rear, but there was another one on the left as well. ”Es, es gonna hurt a bet.” He declared, revealing a needle. He quickly jammed it into one cheek, pressed the plunger half way. But he didn’t stop here, as he did the exact same thing to the other side. He had to get a new bandage deployment gun, and he would use all of it in this mans wounds, starting from the left cheek, to right. Then filling the foot. It would keep it stable, same as the others, but it would likely have to be dealt with better later

The bald one stood over the people who were coming to grips with what was happening around them. He looked down at multiband on his left wrist and saw what time it was. He knew when the dropship had landed. They’d jammed the dropships ability to transmit signal as it had landed, but didn’t do anything about its tracker. But when he noticed the time he realized that they were taking quite a bit longer then they should have been. Granted they hadn’t anticipated any wounded, nor dead, but that was just something they had to deal with. ”Runnin’ quite behind. Dev, Bur, Carter” He said pointing at three of the men there. ”Git doze bodies loaded on the shuttle, and head fer the rally point.” He said, and those three men went to work dragging the bodies of the soldiers with all of their equipment onto the shuttle. ”Now, Ladies n’ gentlemen. We’ze got to be headin’ off quick’n good, fore our friends in Feds come sendin a scout party here. So I need ya’s that can, help iz one” He said pointing at the man who had the wounded behind. ”Onto a big truck, otherwise, just load ya selves up.” He said in reference to the one which was shot in the arm. He shouldered his weapon and turned around.

”Hey Morison! We got nothin’ up top do we?” He yelled back to the truck. A man in the truck popped his head out, hanging onto the roof of it. ”Nothin’ yet Jag, but anythin’ comes within 14-L, they’ll see us sure." He called back. The bald man was still looking at him. ”Alright, keep watchin, cut the jabberwalky, at’ll just make em know we’re here.” He said, then turning back to see how the people were moving.

[Ilana Logan]

Sasha Shaw

After the bold man had ordered them to get on the trucks she hadn't moved or not as much as those men would probably have liked them to. Sasha just stood there for a moment while she held her arm, trying to ignore the stinging feeling that came with the foam on top of the pain the wound already caused. However the pain had one good thing about it. She was still alive to feel it.

Sasha looked at Hope's motionless body for the first time after what just had happened, glad actually that a handkerchief was covering her face. She knew that girl for how long? A few weeks. Long enough to call her a friend? Maybe not a very close one but at least it was long enough that she rather wanted to remember her the way she was before the shooting. Sasha wondered if anyone would miss her. Her family? She only knew a bit about Hope's life and what it had been but for some reason she doubted that all of her family would be grieving about her death. It suddenly felt all the more wrong that they probably had to leave her here, dumped with the rest of the dead bodies that were dragged into the shuttle. She glanced up from Hope to the bold man and the men who accompanied him. They didn't seem the type to argue with about such things like taking a dead body with them. Friend or not.

And if she was honest to herself, there was nothing she wanted more than to leave this place before the Feds came looking for them. They had been lucky enough to escape once. Though that was in some way still doubtful as they had no real idea of who those men were who had saved them. Yet they were still alive and Sasha wanted to keep it that way for a little while longer.

Without one last look, she turned around to get on the truck. For all it mattered, she hoped that Hope was in a better place than she had been before. There was nothing to be done about Hope's death, or Mercy's, and tears wouldn't bring them back.

[Marcus O'Terra]

Marcus grumbled as he received his first aid. The idea that he wouldn't have someone poking the inside of him for a bullet relieved him some, but his pants being cut up was a right embarrassment. He managed to get himself to his feet and hobbled over, pulling his coat down to cover his arse.

He looked back at where Hope was being picked up to be placed in the shuttle, and he turned away. He looked ahead to Alison and tried to find words but all that came out was this horse "Sorry..." He motioned toward the truck and started walking over to it. Whoever these guys were they wanted them alive enough to NOT bind and knock them out.

That had to be a good sign, right?

The whole situation seemed surreal, like something he left back during the war. None of his jobs had been like this. The deaths had been at a distance. And even when he worked with people, nobody got to know each other.

He felt sick, and now that he had the time to feel it; his whole body was shaking. He felt a pit to the pain, something to focus the pain on. Something to blame. "I'll kill him." He said, aloud. "I'll kill that bastard..." MORSE.

[Ilana Logan]

Marina Kseniya Sebastian

It didn't take more than a second's observation to suss who was in charge. The bald man was. Sasha and Marcus were tended to by the redhead medic and Ali seemed okay. Whoever these guys were, she thought appreciatively, they knew the value of hustling. Even as she took in her fellow crewmates' positions and condition, the rest of the men quickly picked up the bodies and stowed them in the shuttle. She winced as Hope was piled inside with the other corpses but Rina knew there was no taking the dead woman with them. If they were stopped by the authorities, a body would be too hard to explain. So Rina didn't protest and when the order was given to board the truck, she went willingly. She waited until her crewmates boarded before her, the better to do a headcount.

We've lost two and left them behind. Please God, no more.. Rina nodded to Marcus and Ali as she climbed aboard and took a position beside Sasha, careful not to jostle the woman's injured arm.

"How're you doing?" She asked Sasha quietly. "Can you use your arm?"

[Ilana Logan]

The Rodeo Boys

The former prisoners were loaded onto the larger boxy truck in front of them. As they were stepping on the shuttle that they’d came in screamed to life, and lifted off quickly and flew away. It’s take off was much faster and less delicate then how they’d arrived. But it was somewhat evident that these people weren’t concerned about delicate care. They moved everyone inside of the truck. It was like an iron box. Just two benches on either side, a pair of dim lights on the ceiling, and two men who were already sitting on the left side. There was nothing else inside. It was a storage unit obviously, so there was no need for windows or anything else. Once the people were all loaded up, they closed the back door, leaving them only to sit in the dimly lit room. Soon the truck kicked on and they began moving away from the warehouse district.

[Ilana Logan]

Sasha Shaw

Sasha heard Rina's question but didn't answer immediately. Outside of the truck the shuttle took off and she watched it disappear till it was just one little spot in the dark sky before the back of the truck was closed and left them in the dim light.

Leaning back against the cold metal she took a deep breath.
"It's all just fine." was the only thing she said upon Rina's questions. Sasha guessed that Rina would understand. Nothing had been 'just fine' since they left the Logan. But it would be. Some way or the other. She got as comfortable as it was possible, not knowing how long of a ride they were facing.

"You think Aiya and Julian made it?" it was a sudden thought. They had been so busy with getting off of the Dominion, dodging bullets and loosing people that had stood right next to them during all of it, that she had totally forgotten about the two of them.

[Ilana Logan]

Marina Kseniya Sebastian

"Don't know. Can't say. Not sayin' more." Rina kept her voice soft and low, hoping not to alert their guards.