Full Metal Panic Fan Fiction ❯ Bulletproof ❯ Shit happens! ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter two

This chapter contains some graphical violent scenes, although I did my best to remain as sober as possible without deteriorating the atmosphere I wanted to create. You've been warned.

* ... wax me

mould me, heat the pins

and stab them in

you have turned me into this, just wish that it

was bulletproof... *

The command bridge was usually a quiet place, some would say cold. But this time, it was in a frenzy, mostly due to its captain. This was worrying the others officers. That was the second time they saw her grey eyes staring with this unsettling, almost souless gaze. On the other hand, she had never been so frantic, not even when Gaul had pirated the ship. She was pacing from one end of the bridge to the other, all the time grumbling unintelligibly.

"When is the satellite supposed to cover the area?" She asked harshly.

"In fifteen minutes, ma'am" Answered dutifully the transmission officer. He suppressed a shudder. It was already the tenth time. The next question would be...

"And when should they have sent their security call?"

"Three hours ago, ma'am." - Bingo! -

"Still no answer?"

"None, ma'am"

"Thank you, keep trying..."

She sat back reluctantly in her seat and chewed on her lower lip. She wanted to scream. First, this mission had lasted longer than expected, and now, they didn't have any communications anymore. What was going on? It was supposed to be a routine mission.

Sosouke and Weber had been called back, although they wouldn't be on board before several hours. She sighed. This was taking too much time, but she couldn't blindly send troops either.

The major Karirin entered the room, as calm and professional as usual.

"Ah, major! How were the negociations with the columbian government?"

"Not very good I'm afraid, captain. You of course know that, even if most of the governments find us very... useful, provided we keep a low profile, they will never officially recognize Mithrill as a legal military organisation, because they don't have control over us and ignore who has. It means we are relatively free to act as we see fit. But it also means that, in case of problem, we are alone... Helping us would be a blow to their own military craft."

"And we know how the people would see this..." Added the young woman.

The major nodded. "...Weakness. And I won't even mention the countries who consider Mithrill as a terrorist organisation."

"Which, in a way, we are, aren't we?" With a deep sigh, she closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Her last conversation with Melissa echoing in her head. The De Daanan, the A.Ss were weapons. Everything depended on who wielded them. The last confrontation with Gaul had been a painful reminder.

Melissa...

"Ma'am, we just received the pictures taken by the satellite."

"Thank you, Mr Oliveira. Project them, please."

She felt her heart stop.

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Melissa stiffled a cry of pain. She ached all over. To follow the drug dealers had been one HUGE mistake. It had costed O'Brien's life. She was unaware of Olafson's fate, maybe he had been able to flee. If she wasn't hurting so much, she would have laughed at her own stupidity. But there she was, cuffed to a solid arm tree, beaten down by some jerk.

Another blow, in the stomach.

She coughed, unable to catch some much needed air, spitting blood at the same time. `Probably broke the same ribs. Shit! They'd just healed a month ago!' She had the time to think before another hit sent her head violently backward and in the blissful realm of unconsciousness.

Some time later, her eyes fluttered open. She had lost any sense of where she was and what she was doing there. She moved a bit and a flash of sharp pain ran through her like a lightning bolt, remembering her why she was in this state. `Am I still alive?' She found herself wondering. Whether that or she was in hell. She groaned, shutting her eyes thightly. After some agonizing minutes, she relaxed back as the pain dulled and could feel the rain pourring on her aching body. She was lying in the mud, to the feet of the tree she had been previously cuffed to.

`...'Heard t' was excellent for the skin...' She thought ironically.

She didn't want to move at all, but... She was cold. Oh so cold...

That wasn't a good sign either.

She gritted her teeth and proceeded to stand up. She slowly brought her legs under her and pushed with her arms. It cut her breath out and her heart missed a beat or two. Her stomach reacted violently and she couldn't stop herself throwing up, eliciting new chains of pain. She was sure she was going to die at this point. Eventually, her abused organs calmed down and she could breath again. When the diziness that clouded her mind cleared a little, she was pleased to see that she had managed to stay on her knees and hands. She grabbed the trunk of the tree, and with a determined look, pulled herself upright. She hold on the tree for dear life, until the expected pain subsided once again.

Between gasps, a grim smile appeared on her face. `They haven't killed me! I'm not dead!'

Admittedly, she was as good as dead, in her state, in the middle of nowhere, without weapon. It was probably the reason the drug dealers hadn't finished her off. But in her present state of mind, she didn't care. She was still alive and that was all that counted.

"... Gonna fight `till the end. 'll make `em regret to be born at all!" She growled. "...'promised her I'd respect my contract... `nd heavens be damned, I will! ... `ll always come back!"

With that, She released her hold on the tree and slowly headed back to her destroyed camp, about three km to the west, stubbornly ignoring the protests of her body.

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`... She's always come back... She's always come back... She's always come back...' Thessa was repeating this sentence like a mantra for the past three hours. Since she had seen the pictures the satellite had taken. The pictures were obcenely precise, showing the blown A.Ss and the wrecked corpses of her men all too clearly. Melissa was nowhere to be seen. While that gave her hope, it didn't meant much either. Her body could be hidden by the trees or... Thessa refused to imagine what else could have happened.

`...She's always come back...' As if it could exorcise the movie that kept playing in her mind, where the one she loved was finally found, forever immobile, livid eyes staring blankly at the sky.

A sob escaped her lips before she could choke it down.

"Excuse me a moment..." She managed to say before she all but fled the bridge, under the even more worried stares of her subordinates.

Once in the hallway, she simply collapsed on her knees. She let her tears flow freely as terror engulfed her. She had never felt like this. It was as if a cold hand was squizzing her heart until it exploded. She had never known loving someone could bring so much pain. She felt so useless in these moments. In this particular case, it was even worse. Waiting was an agony. And that was all she could do, while the rescue team flew toward Columbia.

`Too slow! How much more time will it take?' But she knew the team, as fast as it flew, wouldn't reach the camp before another hour or so. She had such a bad feeling. `Too late...' Again, she heard this little, unwelcomed voice in her head.

When the De Danan hadn't receive any news from the mission, her first impulse had been to send troops at once. But as a captain, she didn't have the right to endanger these men, when they didn't even know what awaited them. It was her duty, her responsability. She had to remain calm and poised. Everybody counted on her to take the cold, logical decisions. To take the hard decisions.

She wanted to screw all this shit!

"...Too late..." It whispered again.

She shook her head and furiously battered it down. She didn't have the right to believe it. She wouldn't believe it... She stood back up. "Melissa isn't dead! She always comes back! She has to..." Her voice broke. "... I didn't have the time to tell her..."

"...She'll be back home!"

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Melissa stumbled once more on a treacherous root, once again, hissing in pain, she barely managed to stay upright. At least, it didn't rain anymore, but the ground was very slippery. Her movements were becoming more and more uncontrolled, her mind was fuzzy. She knew she had gone by her limits long ago, but kept on walking. `I must not fall! That'd be the end!'

However, fate wasn't on her side at all today. She saw too late that she was on the edge of a hill. Her left foot slid on the mantel of wet leaves that covered it and she fell on her side. She rolled helplessly all the way down the hill.

When she finally came to a stop, She was lying flat on her back. She laughed and coughed at the same time. That was a sad sound.

She stared up at the canopey, so far above her. "So... This is how it ends?"

It was more a statement than a question. She heard monkeys shouting in the distance, saluting the sunset, and maybe, the end of her hearthly journey too.

She was surprised to be such at peace, curiously. Sure, she had a lot of regrets, and one particularly important in the form of a young captain, but looking back at her life, she realised she wouldn't have changed anything. She wouldn't trade any minute of her life for anything. Okay, that wasn't entirely true, she could have done without the last day. But on the whole, it had been good... Then, at the corner of her eyes she noticed something unusual in a jungle. A boot. Curious, she let her eyes wander along the leg it protected up until they rested on the face of the owner of the said boot. Her eyes widened a little when she recognised him. Takeda. Another of her comrades. Dead. His body had also fallen there. Poor lad, always used to carry a camera on his missions to `show his future grandchildren what life he had led when he was a young man'. That always made the whole squad laugh, because he didn't even have a wife yet.

Suddenly, something clicked in her mind. `A camera?'

With unbidden determination, she forced her body to crawl to reach Takeda. She emptied all his pockets until she found what she was looking for. She sighed in relief. Miraculously, it hadn't been damaged!

She smiled genuinely. She had one thing left to do.

With some more curses, she eased herself in a sitting position, her back pressed against Takeda's curled body . Then, she set the camera as such that her face would be on the screen and hit the record button.

"Sergent major Melissa Mao, last report on mission KTP-0358... It should be directly handed to no one else than the captain of the Thuata De Danan, Theresa Testarossa..." A new serie of coughs interrupted her, a tear of blood escaped her lips. "... This report is classified secret level A..." She took a long breath to help clarify he mind. "... On the sixth of february, around 1400, local time, we were attacked in our camp by an unknown force, later identified as the mercenaries hired by the drug dealers. They destroyed all the A.Ss with portable missils and killed everyone. Only three of us managed to escape. Corporal Olafson, corporal O'Brien and myself. We tried to contact the De Danan, without success. We decided then to follow them in order to discover why none of our sensors were able to detect them, and if it was linked to the disfunction of our radios. We soon made it to their temporary camp, which they had installed only three or four km from ours!" Melissa paused and closed her eyes. "... By that time, it was already dark, and the mercenaries clearly didn't intend to travel by night... We waited for them to stop celebrating their victory. Then, when everything was quiet, we slipped in their camp. We had noticed a tent in the middle of the others, but very different. Everybody was so plastered than no one noticed us, or so we thought. In the tent we found a strange engine and indications. It seemed to be powered up by the same kind of generator our A.Ss are..." Followed a precise description and a list of technical informations she had been able to gather. "... Olafson is an expert in explosives, he was preparing the fireworks, while O'Brien and me were on guard outside. But, out of nowhere, a man irrupted next to me, he was about two meters long and almost as large, caucasian type, blond hair, green eyes, tribal tattoos on his left arm. I learned later that he's called Silent, and was apparently commanding this bunch of criminals. He sent me flying with only one kick. While I was trying to catch my breath, I watched him grab O'Brien's head and simply break his neck..." She shuddered at the memory. "... He then let go of the limp body of the corporal to attack Olafson. Olafson's a good fighter, but this monster clearly outclassed him. I came to my feet, charged and tackled him. Then I ordered to Olafson to flee. The whole camp was waking up. That's the last time I saw him. I think they sent dogs after him. I intended to do the same, but I chose the wrong way and got caught..." She then briefly related what she remembered they did to her and how she had ended there.

She let the camera run a little while, apparently having finished her report. Then her face softened and she spoke up again. "Thessa, I've still something to tell you... It... It's kindda private... this is something I'm not good at... But I wanted you to know that I... I love you. I'm in love with you... I realize that's unfair to you, but please... allow a dying woman to ease her soul..." Her body felt numb, it wasn't so bad since she didn't ache so much anymore. A peaceful smile bloomed on her face. "Please, don't hate me for this... That's why I really had to leave... I know you're not like that, but... I couldn't control my feelings..." Her eyes closed and her last words came in a whisper. "... I love you... Forgive me..."

End of chapter two

Sorry, but I was also listening at Korn and System of a down, and that's the result. I'm tempted to let it at that, what do you think?