For Every Action - Part Nineteen

[churbooseanon]

Wherein York is fucking not down with all these damn plans. He’s surrounded by crazies. He did not sign up for this. synnesai did, though, and let’s all give her a round of applause for the idea behind this story. Hope I’m still living up to her hopes for this as I finally get to the damn purpose she had in mind in the first place. Only took me over 70k words.

This is why I should never be given suggestions.

For Every Action - Part Nineteen

“You want us to what?!”

“Beta was only saying…”

“Stop calling me that,” Tex growled under her breath, and while York wanted to shy away from the fury in her voice, Delta seemed quite immune to noticing the anger that he had turned on them. Of course, it wasn’t like Delta’s emotional reactions were very noticeable in his holoprojected form. Still, York couldn’t even feel the slightest thread of concern from his AI, just a faint sense of annoyance.

“Excuse me. Tex was only saying that the most viable entrance scenario would be…”

“I fucking heard her Delta,” York snapped, and from the flash of a smile he caught North in and the way that Theta shuffled back and forth in mid-air he was at least amusing them. “I’m mostly just trying to fathom the insanity of her suggestion.”

“It isn’t insane, just difficult,” Tex said, crossing her arms over her chest. York just tilted his head and narrowed his eyes slightly at her, earning him a laugh half a breath long. “Okay, so maybe it’s a bit insane as well, but it’s what we’ve got.”

“Or, you know, we could do something that doesn’t rely on pinpoint timing and accuracy from the only member of our little force who doesn’t have a powerful computer grafted directly into their nervous system,” York growled. When he saw Lacey stiffen he sighed, “No offense.”

“None taken,” she said after a moment of thought, a smirk washing over her face. “I could easily get you all killed with this.”

“At least someone realizes that!” York groaned. “Come on, Nic, tell her just how crazy this is…”

“Actually,” Theta piped up almost immediately, “it sounds like a lot of fun.”

“And Tex has a point,” North added after a moment. “They aren’t just going to let Lacey fly us in to their hangar, they’ll probably even shoot at her. Seeing as all our gear and supplies are here, preserving this Pelican seems like our best bet. We need to secure the hangar for her.”

“This plan has the highest chance of success when considered together with our ultimate objectives,” Delta readily agreed.

“Looks like you’re out voted, York,” Tex chuckled as York threw his arms in the air in defeat.

“If I’d known I was going to be surrounded by crazies for the rest of my life, I never would have left the Marines. Semper fucking fi,” York grumbled as he shifted back in his seat. Almost immediately North’s hand was there, resting on the piece of armor that covered his knee. Sure, he couldn’t feel it, but the sentiment was appreciated.

“Your life has been a hundred times more exciting since you met me,” North chuckled, and as much as York hated to admit it, it was very true. But he was pretty sure that was only true because of where he’d met North.

“What if I wanted a quiet life?” York asked, and Tex just shook her head at them.

“The question is, Lacey, do you think you can do it?” Tex asked, turning her attention to the pilot.

“I’ll want the little green guy to run some calculations for me, and help me time it, but it should work,” Lacey agreed, pushing herself to her feet and already moving to the cockpit. “Send him up as soon as you can spare, Miles.”

“Getting in is, of course, only the first part of our problems,” Tex continued once Lacey was gone and Delta flashed away from York’s shoulder to go meet with the pilot and consult on the absolutely, positively insane and stupid plan they had in the works.

Keep me appraised of things, York ordered his AI as Delta turned his attention to Lacey and York was left staring at Tex.

It would be impossible for me to do anything less since it will be your neural network I will be using to run our calculations. You’ll be able to…

I know, D, but I want you to keep me appraised anyway.

“Once we’re in the hangar we need to secure it quickly so Lacey can land. The problem is we can’t safely fire until we make it through the barrier screen, so we’re going to be giving them plenty of time to take potshots at us before we can respond,” Tex observed, shaking her head. “Of course we can’t even be certain of that much. We have no clue whether they’ll have a substantial security presence, how quickly they’ll react to our approach, or how competent they’ll be.”

“Well, I don’t think we’ll need to worry too much about enemy fire coming in,” North assured her, a faint smile on his face. “If we’re close enough to each other, Theta should be able to cover our approach. Can’t you, kiddo?”

“Leave it to me,” Theta cheered. “I promise to do my best to help David.”

“After we get there we’ll have to secure the hangar and disable any potential defenses so Lacey can land without an issue. North and I will be responsible for that while York deals with taking down any defenses they can find through the computers. Delta will help you with that?”

“He’s getting surprisingly good at it,” York agreed with a sigh. “Would have preferred not testing it in the situation we did, but there you go.”

“While you’re working, we’re gonna need you to try pulling up any schematics and information on Wash you can find,” North added, and when York looked at him he could see his lover biting his lip. “Otherwise we’re going to have to try and clear the place room by room, which will take far too long.”

“After that we’re going to have to make our way to David, get him out, and get him safely back to the Pelican, and all that with minimal civilian harm,” Tex observed, leaning back in her seat and sighing. “Someone’s going to have to watch the hangar and cover Lacey. She says she wants to refuel if at all possible while we’re there and raid for whatever supplies we can find that might be useful… I’m guessing you two are going to insist on me staying behind?”

York glanced toward North, and saw the same certainty there he knew had to be in his own eyes.

“You do realize that I’m better at this than either of you,” she continued, clearly having read their shared look. “No offense, but I’m about…”

“We could no more let you do that than you could have let us handle Alpha,” North pointed out, and York didn’t find it necessary to add anything. “Besides, if Wash really is messed up, I don’t think sending someone he’s not all that familiar with is a good idea, Tex. You… Weren’t exactly a friendly face last time he saw you. We’ll need York if there are more locks, and…”

She just held up a hand to stop his argument in it’s tracks. “I’ll be a radio call away if you need me, okay? I want you to keep in radio contact as much as possible anyway. There’s a lot of information we’re going to need to run this thing, especially with us going in blind. For one, is Wash even going to have his armor on him still? I doubt it, but if he doesn’t that changes how we have to handle the situation. Everything, no matter how inconsequential, I need to know it.”

“You do realize we have AIs that can help us adapt mission parameters on the fly, right?” York asked, not even bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.

Tex just shrugged. “Feel what you want to about the request, but it’s just that. We don’t have ranks out here, just a shared goal. In the end this is up to you two.”

With that Tex pushed herself to her feet and moved away, leaving York and North alone yet again.

How you doing up there, D?

I am going to require more time to work with Lacey on this project. I am certain I can trust you to busy yourself while I am occupied.

Yeah, I probably can, York agreed as he looked to North, whose head bowed as Theta disappeared with the pop of a firework. Just… Make sure we don’t end up splattered on the side of the ship like Georgia did.

I shall endeavor to achieve our ends with minimal unnecessary damage to you.

Unnecessary damage? All damage is unnecessary, D.

As you say.

“I could swear that Delta is actually getting sassy,” York sighed. North looked up for half a second, the brief flash of purple behind his eyes taking nothing from the concerned expression on his face.

“Hey, relax,” York found himself saying as he threw an arm around North’s shoulder and pulled the taller man toward him. North didn’t bother to resist, just let York maneuver him into the undoubtedly uncomfortable position of resting his head on York’s shoulder armor. “We’ll get him back. And the first thing we are going to do is give him a firm talking to about getting himself whisked off so we have to save him like some damn fairy tale royalty or other.”

York smiled at the laughter, honest to god pure and simple laughter, that his comment drove North to. It’d been too long since he’d heard that. Far too long. A day without Nic laughing at something was hardly worthy of being called a day.

He had every intention of filling their lives with real days again, and he meant to do it real soon.

And anything that tried to steal that from him and his partners were going to have to explain themselves to his shotgun.

* * * * * *

“You suckers ready for this?”

No. Not even remotely. Still York gave his thumbs up and waited until Delta confirmed the gesture with an appropriate ping. Truth be told, he would have been about a thousand times more ‘ready’ for this insanity if Delta’s attention had been focused entirely on him, but he understood why that wasn’t possible. They needed Delta to help time this stupid stunt; none of the other AIs were suited to the task. Theta would be too nervous, Tex was refusing to treat herself in that manner, and Omega…

Tex assured them all that Omega was still laughing his fucking digital ass off about Carolina, and promised she’d deal with him the second they were done with Wash.

“Roger. Sync up, cockbites,” Tex ordered.

“Sync,” York nervously choked out while North shouted it clearly. Honestly to fuck, it almost sounded like North was excited by the prospect of their pending flight.

“Grav boot failure points set?” Tex continued, and York sighed as he checked the readout on his HUD.

“Yep. All set for Operation What-The-Fuck,” York confirmed for himself, really hating how low the force on the boots were set. Of course that was the point.

They had no jetpacks on the Pelican they had stolen, and they still needed to cover the distance between the Pelican and the hangar they were going to hit. How Tex had come up with the idea of using the momentum of the Pelican to sling shot them over that distance was beyond him, but everyone else seemed confident that it was going to work out. Hell, Delta had spent nearly an hour playing the calculations out through his mind, and every one came back with good marks… provided the timing was right.

York had far too many instances in the back corner of his mind where Delta calculated just how badly his body would be fucked up by slamming into the side of the distant ship to be comforted by the successes.

“Approaching launch point,” Lacey radioed from the cockpit. “Lowering ramp now. Good luck kiddos.”

“I think we’re going to need more than just that,” York groaned as the sound of the ramp opening came to him. Everything they weren’t hauling with them had been locked down as best as they had been able to manage… except for them. He followed Tex and North out onto the ramp when it was fully open, winced at how easily it was to lift his boots from the ramp, and what he knew had to come next.

“We’re sure about this?” he asked as he switched over to the radio, earning a scoff from Tex and a pitying sigh from North.

“Delta says it will work,” Tex grumbled at him, pulling first one and then the other of her assault rifles from the magstrips on her thighs to inspect their clips. “Can’t you at least have faith in your own AI’s calculations?”

“It’s not that,” York sighed, “It’s… The last time I went hurtling through space toward a hangar like this I had just pretty much been shot at by the MoI, spent a lot of time dodging around debris field, and barely managed to arrive just in time to do it again.”

North chuckled and shook his head, “Yeah, and that time he skidded over the flight deck on his ass for a few feet. Not exactly the most graceful entrance.”

“Like you did any better!” York protested.

“He did,” Theta insisted as he popped forth in a purple flash of light. “They were all sorts of whoosh bam bang!”

“Thanks Theta, but he knows I’m flawless when transitioning from null g to standard,” North teased, and York rolled his eyes behind his visor.

“Fine, let’s just get this bullshit over with,” York groaned. “And you better be as good as you say you are, Theta.”

“I’m better,” the AI assured him before flickering out, replaced by sets of panels from the bubble shield flashing into activity in front of the three of them.

“See?” Theta gloated over the radio as the tri-panel setups spun rapidly first clockwise then counter-clockwise. “I could do this in my sleep.”

“AIs don’t sleep, Theta,” York reminded the excitable AI, earning a look from behind North’s helmet that was clearly dirty.

“Hey guys, you’re really fucking interesting to listen to, but you clearly missed the fucking announcement that we’re approaching launch point. Shut the hell up and hold on to your boots!” Lacey barked at them.

That was all the warning they got, except for York. There was a momentary ping from Delta that made him lock his knees together and hold his breath before the Pelican jerked sharply below him. That would be Lacey putting on emergency evasive thrusters, which turned the Pelican suddenly. The grav hold on his boots failed, just like they were supposed to, and York felt Delta slip back into place in his mind as he was suddenly sailing at far too high speeds through the endless expanse of space.

“It would appear that we are on course,” Delta informed them all, sounding quite pleased with himself.

“D… That sounded suspiciously like relief,” North’s voice echoed through his helmet, and York swallowed hard as he caught on to that as well.

“You’re fucking killing me here, Delta,” York groaned into his helmet. “Are we going to make it or not?”

Because, damn, they seemed to be approaching the distant blue barrier faster than he’d expected.

“We’ll be fine,” Tex sighed at them. “I’m picking up activity in their hangar bay. Theta… You’re on.”

The shield panels were back almost immediately, and surprisingly it wasn’t much of a comfort to York as he watched Delta project their course over his HUD and their probability of success. Sure, the number was high, growing higher every second, but until it was one-hundred percent or they were there, he was resolved not to be comfortable with the situation.

He hadn’t signed up for this.

“Get ready,” Tex warned them after another few seconds of hurtling forth. “We should be breaching in…”

Delta curled his body into a ball, twisted him with a discrete arm motion, and York felt more than watched them go through the barrier. It was a momentary tingling across his armor, all the way through to his skin. He uncoiled on his own, feet hitting the floor in a run as he whipped his shotgun from over his shoulder and Delta highlighted targets on his HUD. He was down behind a high stacked pallet for half a second, cracking the butt of his shotgun across the side of a security force’s helmet. Her body crumpled before him as York put a hand on the top of the pallet and with a thrust of power from his armor he was vaulting up and sliding over, shotgun back in firing position.

Three quick shots while he slid, bodies crumpled to the floor, and then he was swinging his feet under him to catch him as he fell forward into a roll.

A brief ping from Delta made him duck as a body sailed easily over his back, the owner clearly having gotten too close to Tex. But there really wasn’t much of a chance to think anything more than that before York shoved a few more cartridges into his shotgun and popped around the edge of the barrel he’d come to a stop behind and fired. The damn fool who had been running in his direction went down, his legs a mess of red.

“Grenade coming in on your five, Miles,” North warned him, and York was immediately rolling to the side, trying to put as much space between himself and the explosive as possible.

Three, Delta pinged, and York came to his feet as the explosion rang in his audio feeds and he shot almost point blank into some idiot’s chest.

“Miles, check your six,” Tex bellowed over the radio, her statement almost coinciding with Theta uploading a brief motion tracker profile on what was coming. York stabilized himself on his right leg, spun, and kicked the body hurtling at him out of the air.

“Do you mind, Tex? My leg is already fucked up enough from fighting Carolina,” he winced as he got his feet back under him and returned his attention to the fire fight around them.

“You really going to let something as minor as a few bruises slow you down? I thought you earned your number three place,” Tex teased as York emptied three rounds into a man that had been charging at him with what looked like a rocket launcher. Who needed a fucking rocket launcher on what was supposed to be a medical ship?

“Not everyone is as… durable as you,” York snapped back as Delta made him duck just in time for three sniper rounds to sail through the air over his head and drop a trio who had just entered from the distant hatch.

“Listen you two, I’ll turn this breach around if I have to,” North chided them both, amusement underlying his voice as another shot rang out before Delta gave York the all clear to jump his cover and continue to the next bit he’d need to get his shotgun into effective range.

“I’m sure you will, Mom,” York teased right back, taking a moment to breathe and reload before popping up to take down another two of the rapidly thinning security force with as many shots.

“For that, you get no sex for a week,” North came back immediately. “Now get your ass over to that control console.”

“We’ll see about that,” York laughed as he threw himself at the display Delta had highlighted on his HUD. “I mean, you aren’t going to deny Wash if he wants to…”

“Finish that thought, Miles, and I will put a round in your ass,” Tex threatened, and York immediately stopped. He would have liked to think he had because he’d finally skidded into position next to the panel, but the truth was he couldn’t be sure Tex wouldn’t follow through with her threat.

“Now Tex, you may not know Miles all that well, but I promise he works better when he’s making inappropriate comments,” North chuckled, and Tex groaned. York, for what it was worth, was happy to sense North’s approach from behind. His current task wasn’t going to be a short one and having Theta and the bubble-shield to cover him was comforting.

Oh no,Delta observed as York lowered his hands to the panel.

No. No! You don’t get to 'oh no’ before I even touch the damn thing, York snapped. Dammit I’m good at this. When will…

No, it appears that one of the troopers has opted not to confront Tex, and is instead…

An alarm rent the air and York just sighed. Yeah, D, I think I get what you’re saying.

They hadn’t expected this to go easily anyway. Why be surprised when they turned out to be right?