Derek Frost's Story

Roland Svenson was, for the most part, zoned out as the teams made their way to the objective. This was typical, for him. as he relaxed back into the seat of the transport, helmet on, head back, eyes closed. Within the soundproof, angular helmet, various power metal songs on a specific pre-mission playlist would shuffle through as the team made its way to wherever the current mission was at the time. This was Roland's ritual, to keep himself from getting stressed and helped him be ready and focused upon arrival. Sven reclined there, soundlessly tapping the index finger of each hand to the double bass drum rhythms. It was only just before Go Time that Roland would begin to ready and prime his gear and himself.

The time had come, and a repeating blip went off on his HUD. It was subtle, as to not ruin whatever song was playing, but would alert him to the scrolling text on his HUD. The text was something he'd programmed into his suit that would transpose his team's chatter into text on his HUD. The program would alert him at certain keywords while music was playing.

Responding to the alert, Roland located his weapon, inspected it once more briefly, undid his safety harness, and fell in with his weapon at the ready. Oddly to him, he was usually among the first to be ready. Not that it was a problem or really mattered, but he stood there, still with the music going, reading the text on his HUD. Being that they were all still in the ship, he didn't need to cut the tunes just yet. When one of his favorite songs came on, he started bouncing back and forth, from leg to leg, in time with the song. He also rolled his head, stretched his neck side-to-side, as well as pivoted his torso left and right. Once loosened up, he turned to his squad mates. He gave Art a nod, hoping his readiness and positivity could be infectiously transferred to his squad as easily as the deadly virus they combated. Sven then turned to the squad mate he was closest to, and not just by proximity, and turned on his comm. switch.

"'Ey, Frost, you psyched to save these poor bastards?" Roland grinned happily from inside his AEGIS. "Who knows... there could be some eye candy to be had." He gave Derek a gentle smack on the shoulder with the back of his hand.

He caught the warning blip almost as soon as it appeared, signalling that the ETA was less than 5 minutes, and moved to ready his gear. He grabbed his utility pack from beneath his seat and secured the contents to his suit. Three frag grenades on the left side of his chest, three conc-grenades on the right side, three orange smoke grenades on his right hip, his 10" knife on his left hip, a pair of bolt cutters on his back, five road flares strapped to his left upper-arm and a GPS strapped to his left fore-arm. He turned to grab his GFR-S4 from the weapon rack and saw the rest of his team had done same or were partway through doing so.

Lynch grabbed both his weapon and the pack full of ammo beneath it and laid them both on the raised bench next to him. He began securing the ammo mags to his armor while he had ALICE run a last minute diagnostic on his gun, just to make sure everything was working. When ALICE have him the green-light a moment later, he picked up his rifle and turned to his team, grabbing a mag and loading it into his gun as he did so.

"Lock and Load, Scorpion Team" he called, as he flicked his gun into burst-mode and pumped it once to load it.

"It's go time."

New day. Same story. Another mission. Switch really didn’t like survivors. Not because it meant having to carry around people who couldn’t protect themselves, but more because it was highly likely she was going to be on extra guard duty. She was the kind of soldier used to watching from the shadows and taking out targets before they ever suspected anything. Though there was always something amusing about watching the survivors through the scope and knowing how much fun she could have with them.

A small smile formed of Art’s lips behind of her helmet. Oh yeah. If she could get away with it, she was going to enjoy this mission no matter how herring it would was going to be. Though, with a glance to where her commander sat, she knew he wasn’t likely to find it amusing. She couldn’t really care less about what her other teammates thought about, but she wanted to really enjoy herself and survivors could just make it worth it especially if she had to keep them alive too.

Art was sitting between Doc and Sven. Out of the entire group they were the only ones she could count as a friend. Sure she trusted her leader and Jacks to save her ass if need be, but that didn’t mean she was going to sit down and eat beignets over coffee any time soon. No, having friend’s period became a problem. She had learned not to trust anyone or call another soldier friend. It was much too risky.

Another risk besides of the survivors they were having to evac was they were working with another team going in and once there another part of a team. Well, more like only a few soldiers. It seemed they had lost members during this. It didn’t bode well in Switch’s book about how the other two fire teams were going to fare in this little op.

Glancing to her left and right she watched her teammates for a few seconds before sighing lightly. She would do her job and take out the enemy before they could take out her team because as much as she didn’t call many people friends, these men were her family. The only family she had left and she’d be damned if she let them go without a fight. She had lost two families already. She wasn’t ready to lose a third.

“ALICE,” Art always felt so odd talking to a computer program for things. The Army didn’t have the technology she had at her finger tips now. She was almost giddy when she first saw what she would have within her grasp. Her job became much easier. “pull up terrain.” Her voice was low, it wasn’t like she cared being over heard or not. She just didn’t see the point in speaking at a normal tone when her request would still be heard.

It didn’t take too long before she found what she was looking for. A place to bunker down and set up shop. So she wasn’t a front line soldier. She hid in the shadows taking out the targets without anyone knowing where she was. She knew she would eventually have to move camp so she marked different locations within the perimeter to cover all her bases. While she could move out of further range than the others she liked not to move too far away. The creatures weren’t something she wanted to worry about on her own. Sometimes human marks made much more sense.

Knowing that they were approaching soon, she started to gather her own supplies, at least the ones not already on her person. Both of her Colts were strapped to her legs. One Smith and Wesson at her ankle, while the other was at her side. The switchblade she was never without was just within reach of her fingers. But today, she was bringing both of her babies. She didn’t want to take the chance. She had already preloaded her bag down with ammo including the MWS shot she and Sven had worked on. It wouldn’t be the first time it saw action, but she figured it might really be needed this time with the survivors involved.

Art watched from the corner of her eye as Sven got up. He was happy. Not a far cry from normal. He was always excited for missions. She just shook her head as she put both of her rifles over her shoulder one of each side. She always went with her handguns until she got into place. No point in shooting something close range with something as powerful as what she carried. She wasn’t as crazy as some of the other people she worked with.

She caught the nod and nodded back, but she simply wasn’t as excited as he was. She wanted to have a little fun with the survivors, but she knew she’d likely get in trouble for it. Oh well. The rules never stopped her before. Switch smirked to herself. Oh yeah having the poor bastards was going to be fun once she was done with them.

Standing up, the woman pulled one of the Smith and Wesson’s out, made sure there was a bullet in the chamber and safety was off. She had the first location she was going for. The others could do as they needed. She was just meant to keep their asses alive while they risked their lives. She was usually good so long as nothing tried to sneak up on her and she moved positions often enough.

Art might have taken Sven’s comment offensively if she had actually considered every trying to hook up with her teammates. She was more than happy to let them banter back and forth about any other woman they found so long as she remained one of the guys. It was easier that way. She was the only female on her team and on top of that she was the youngest out of all the members if her memory served her correctly. It wasn’t like she was only woman, but hell being the youngest meant she had a lot more to prove.

“Don’t go and get all happy, Sven. A chic. They are probably covered in dirt, grim, and filth, smell like fish and probably going to piss themselves more than once during this. They are de’ pouille. Sorry no eye candy.” She laughed lightly as she rolled her eyes at the boys. She was going to see to it that the survivors pissed on themselves. The thought only caused her to laugh more before she sobered herself up.

It was time to go. Mission time. The only time she deemed not music worthy until Sven who was having more than a good time listening to his. They differed in this way, but hell she understood. She just preferred silence during missions. Afterwards the earphones would be pulled out no need for ALICE once they were done. But for now she would enjoy the silence and the sound of her guns going off. They alone gave her the solace she needed.

Derek Frost did a routine check on his gear, pulling the clip out of his Medic Gun and checking the Ammo counter against the number of rounds in the clip before sliding it back in with a click and doing the same with his sidearm.
Next he reached behind his back and flipped a switch on the MedTech pack, a beep inside of his helmet let him know it was connected to his ALICE system, and with a satisfactory nod, he switched it back off just as a warning blip went off in his helmet.
Derek took a deep breath and looked to his other teammates. The mysterious Switch, cool and silent as always, The big guy, Murphy, and his team leader, Lynch. Then of course there was Svenson, the dude he knew would cover his ass in any situation. this was his team, and it was his job to keep them patched up, and damn did his job get interesting at times.
He knew the drill, this wasn't their typical assignment, there would be survivors, which meant more injuries and afflictions to keep an eye on. He took a deep breath and thought about the mantra his Corpsman medic trainer taught him.
Remember, steady hands, and move slow. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

"'Ey, Frost, you psyched to save these poor bastards?" Roland said, breaking him out of his reverie. Derek imagined him grinning inside of the Pyramid-Head.
"Who knows... there could be some eye candy to be had." He said before giving the Medic a gentle slap on the shoulder.

“Don’t go and get all happy, Sven. A chic. They are probably covered in dirt, grim, and filth, smell like fish and probably going to piss themselves more than once during this. They are de’ pouille. Sorry no eye candy.” Switch piped up.

Doc chuckled.
Charming as always, Switch.
"I see you got your eyes on the prize as usual, Sven. Just don't catch a disease. There's only so much I can fix.", Derek responded to his friend.

"Lock and Load, Scorpion Team", Said Lynch, the Team leader, giving his usual command before hitting the LZ.
Time to shut up, he thought to himself as he clicked the safety off of his carbine.
It's go time, the Team Leader finished.

Bishop smirked a bit to himself before pinging his mic again. "Likewise, Völundr."

The rest of Scorpion squad piled out of the adjacent transport and formed up near the center of the roof. Jacks peeled off the main group and wordlessly made his way to Blackjack 2, jumping inside and closing the hatch behind him.

Must be important, Bishop thought to himself.

Scorpion team gathered around their squad leader, Scarecrow, for instructions. Like usual Bishop was to be the forward member in the formation, followed closely behind by Scarecrow, Völundr sandwiched in the middle along with their medic, Witch-Doctor, and the Squad's marksman, Switch, bringing up the rear and keeping the squad covered from an elevated vantage point. The rendezvous location was only a few kilometers away so Scorpion squad was ordered to book it over and collect God-Slayer before continuing on with the mission, which was to be discussed in more detail once all groups were secure. A nod from Scarecrow signaled Bishop to force open the roof's entrance. The dim interior was soon cross cut and laid over with wire frame targeting structures to better identify objects in their path. Clearing rooms quickly and efficiently, Bishop lead Scorpion team to the stairwell. Scarecrow took point and grasped the handle as Bishop stood directly behind clicking the M27 to full auto. The door was opened slowly to a point where Bishop could easily slide in. Taking to the right corner of the room he quickly scanned the immediate area, moving quickly into a crouched position at the peak of the stairs.

"Clear," Bishop reported.

As the rest of Scorpion piled in behind him Scarecrow gave him a pat on the shoulder giving him the all clear to move. They made their way down the twelve flights of stairs quickly, coming to a halt at the closed door leading into the main lobby. Bishop took position on the left side of the door as a red targeting reticule highlighted over an electronic pad wired to the door.

"All you, Völundr," he said, Völundr moving in on the right side of the door to examine the pad. Within seconds the door slid open slowly and Scorpion Squad made their way through the lobby in a wide spread, keeping close to the walls and crouching low below windows. They rounded a destroyed reception desk and came to the entrance area, glass doors that had been shattered long ago hanging loosely on rusted hinges that creaked with every gust of wind. Off in the distance amidst a sea of rusted and destroyed vehicles was the target location, the still smoldering wreckage of the Blackjack several meters away from it's entrance. Bishop waited for the all clear from Scarecrow before speeding through the entrance and taking cover behind a severely damaged red sedan. He quickly scanned the immediate area down the sights of his M27 before motioning the others to follow. On his motion detector Bishop noticed their Marksman, Switch, breaking off from the pack to get into position on one of the outlying structures. The rest of Scorpion formed up, each a car away from the other and once Switch was in position Scarecrow mic'd God-Slayer to tell them it was clear to proceed to our building.

Sven assumed the usual Scorpion formation, this time with Bishop up front. Roland was starting to feel better and better as the mission went on. However, he made sure to tell himself to be ready for anything. The infected didn't give a single fuck how anyone felt. Fortunately, Scorpion team wasn't big on giving fucks either. The systematically worked their way through the building from top to bottom, scanning the gloom in all directions, like the many eyes of an arachnid predator.They only paused briefly at a door which needed some coaxing from Roland.

"All you, Völundr," Bishop said after approaching the sealed door.

"Roger, Fist," Sven said and broke rank to make his way to the door. The power grid in the city had been long since dead, and the door would be a bitch-an'-a-half to force open. Sven knew exactly what to do, however. He grabbed a small pack off of his AEGIS, right at hand level on his left thigh, breaking off a pick-like device, with which he gave a swift, strong jab right at the edge of the console, opening the panel. "Yeeeaaah..." sighed Roland. "That's the spot." He then pulled out a retractable cable from the box and clamped each of the two prongs in specific locations on the circuit board. Sven then pressed a button on the pack. The circuit sparked slightly from the jump-start, and the door slid open. He then secured his tools, and fell back into formation.

The team continued to progress as before. Almost no chatter, not confrontations, and no issues. They finally made it outside. This is when Sven finally started to feel some anxiety. He gave a quick glance at his read out on his HUD to ensure Switch still had his back. Now that they were somewhat out in the open, he would feel more comfortable knowing she was there. She probably gave the least fucks out of all of them, and was a damn good shot. And since he helped her design those sexy rounds of hers, he knew she'd fuck any thing up that tried to get any kind of drop on them. And Fist and Scarecrow would take care of anything brave enough to approach them. They were the pincers, Switch the sting. God Slayer would soon be in good hands.

It seemed her comment had gone over fairly well. Doc had the look, she imagined of rolling his eyes at her. Normally she would have laughed, but she was in mission mode and it was time to do work. Fun times were over. Her ability to turn her emotions on and off at a whim had earned her, her nickname when she’d joined the Rangers. She’d kept Switch ever since.

Damn, birds. Wouldn’t you know it? Something make the misere before we land. Art thought to herself as the team was finally able to touch down with one final twist. They were having a squad mate replaced. She’d met Fist before and had rather liked him as a person, but it stopped there. She could like people all she wanted so long as she never cared for another one again. So long as none of the people around her were considered friends.

As much as she hated to admit it though, Fist seemed like a better fit to the team than Jacks to begin in. This mission would test the efficiency of the new member as well as how they worked together and would prove whether or not she was correct in saying Fist should be made a permanent member of the squad or not.

Sven was one of the first people off of the Blackjack and she wasn’t surprised. He always seemed ready for missions even when others were reserved. Art came off towards the end simply because it was her job to provide support and cover. At least until she could get to a spot and then it would just be protection really. She watched over them and she used ALICE to watch her own back. Because otherwise, she was out on her own and she didn’t want a repeat of one her first missions with the creatures. She shuddered at the thought.

After formalities were out of the way, the team made their way through the building to street level. It took longer than she would have liked, but before she knew it her feet were on pavement and it was time to work. She didn’t ask or even tell anyone what she was doing. There was no point. She just made a veer off heading for one of the first positions she had marked on the transport.

Art shoved the door open and slowly she made her way up to the top. It seemed luck was in her favor as she hadn’t encountered anything. She knew the rest of the team was probably waiting on her or just making slower leeway without, so she booked up to the final stairs and to the roof. She glanced around making sure none of the birds were around before taking out her AS50 and setting up shop.

“ALICE, upload live screens of terrain behind me.” Once the maps were pulled up she looked through the scope and found each of her teammates. She smiled to herself as she watched each of them knowing she held their lives in her hands, well rather her finger, but technicalities weren’t really important. She took a survey of the area a head of her squad mates. There wasn’t anything within a near seeing distant.

“Mais, boys you’re clear.” She spoke knowing the connection the others was up and running well. She could see that from the corner of her eye, but she kept herself focused on the scope of her rifle. Moving away from her teammates she went further along the path they would have to take. So long as no one was screaming bloody murder beneath her, she didn’t see why she couldn’t do a bit of damage control and take out anything before it reached her partners. She had the range to do it especially carrying her Barrett.

Switch smiled to herself when she found one of the creatures and in the opposite direction her squad mates would be going which would cause a good distraction. She watched the thing for a few seconds before she squeezed off one round and watched it fall. She smirked to herself. Nine left to go before I’ve got to pull out another mag. She watched the area around the fallen creature before moving back to her team. She made sure they were doing fine before going back to surveying the area. It could get rather boring watching from the wings, so she always made sure to give herself a few free shots and this mission at least meant she could have fun with the survivors, so long as no one else got upset with her. Not like she cared. Everyone got their kicks from being on the ground with the creatures. She rarely had face to face altercations and that was only when she’d screwed up.

Moving the rifle’s scope again she went in search of where her team would meet up with God-Slayer because she doubted even with survivors that they would sit put. The 102 didn’t seem to gather members who sat on their asses. When she didn’t see what she was looking for, she pulled out her spotting scope so she could get in closer and find out just how far out they were. Finally she found what she was looking for.

“It appears God-Slayer is making their way towards us. I’ll clear a path if need be.” She went silent again knowing she wasn’t likely to get a response anyway. She put the scope away before moving back down into position with a quick glance at the terrain behind her. The last thing she wanted was one of the creatures to sneak up on her or even the birds from earlier. Once there she went back to looking for creatures in the two teams’ paths and taking them out.

Derek was glad to know Fist would be joining them on the mission, and knew by default that Switch and Sven were glad too.
"Nice to have you a long for the ride, Bishop", he said as they hit the ground in standard formation. "It's ass-kicking time".
The team fell in order, Roland beside Derek, Scarecrow and Fist in the front, Murphy close in the back and Switch tailing from a tactical point. Witch-Doctor always felt safe when Switch had her eyes in the scope. Nothing would be getting too close to them.

As they moved through the building, Derek habitually kept an eye on his teams vitals, especially Switch's, which were linked to his HUD by Alice. Everything appeared normal, if anything, the crew just had a bit of excitement with a hint of nervousness, a slightly elevated pulse and breath rate, which was to be expected any time they went on an Op such as this. The only person who's vitals seemed eerily normal was Switch's, which was to be expected with one knowing her profession and the meaning behind her Callsign.

Satisfied with the teams vitals, Derek pushed his chin into the comm activator in his helmet, turning the team-communications on.
"Gonna check in with God-Slayer. I need to take a mental note of injuries and survivors so I can prep for triage if needed". With that he lifted his chin off the mic button with a click.

"Alice, patch me through to the surviving members of God-Slayer. Thanks".
Derek heard a beep confirming that connection was made with God-slayers communications.

"Hey gents, this is Witch-Doctor from Scorpion team, I'll be your resident ass-patcher for today. I need you guys to let me know how many civvies ya got, and what injuries are present on yourselves as well as the other survivors so I can take mental notes for Triage upon arrival."
Before the other team could respond, the green-translucent border surrounding Switch's vitals flash red once, indicating that her weapon was fired once.
Derek quickly commanded Alice to switch communication back to his own team, but to alert him when God-Slayers survivors responded.
"Switch, everything cool up there?", the medic asked asked.

Scorpion team continued on toward the objective. They kept closing distance to the museum just up ahead, keeping the area scanned for contacts, of which there were none. They made their usual swift progress and were at the building in about a minute. All while Switch covered them from above, and Witch-Doctor touched base with God-Slayer.

"Don't you worry about Switch, Doc," Roland grinned. "Anyway, how're things looking in there? What did they say?" Roland spoke as the team took their positions around the front door, Scarecrow on point. On his say, they entered into the museum. Next, to locate and secure the people within. "ALICE," Sven said. "Gives us an overlay with the building layout and the positions of Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie." A basic, opaque floor plan came up with green blips for each soldier. Five, five, and three. Sven sighed. Well, we'd better get them home.

As they made their way through the museum to Charlie team's position, Roland couldn't help but look about the place. He'd always been a History guy, and always wanted to visit New York to see this very museum. He'd never guess it would have been like this. Better this than nothing, I suppose. Sven continued on, making sure he didn't divert too much of his focus to the relics about him, and made sure to keep ready for any infected that might be lurking in the shadows.