Fates And Futures [IC | Heroes & Legends]

[The Cross and Davids Star]

Nev Hurn

Javelin Team

Nev laid still as the fight between Kane and Lena unfolded around him, with Kane coming out alive, but barely. Nev analyzed the situation, and came to the conclusion that he was the only one left that was capable of completing the mission. Without his legs however, he couldn’t exactly move, but he was not going to let that stop him yet. Letting go of his machine gun, Nev started clawing at the ground, eventually gaining the traction needed to drag himself across the battleground over to the unconscious Jenny.

“Come on arms, don’t fail me now.” Nev thought to himself as he pressed forward, knowing that he was the last hope in taking out the radar and allowing air support to move freely. Getting to Jenny, he grabbed her rocket launcher and pulled himself into position. He began lining up the shot, but he couldnt get the angle correctly, which would be a huge problem.

Nev knew what he had to do. Grabbing the SCARH from Jenny’s body, Nev directed the barrel at the base of his artificial legs and started to fire into them, tearing the legs off his own torso.

“Comeoncomeoncomeon.” Nev said quickly as he used his own legs as stilts to hold up the rocket launcher, adjusting it to have the correct angle to fire. Once he has everything set, all he had to do was let the rocket fly. With his hopes high, Nev pulled the trigger. The rocket launched perfectly, but then something happened. Nev didnt know how, but the rocket spun wildly out of control and missed his target by a large margin.

“no. nononoNONONONONO! NO!!!!” Nev screamed as he beat the ground in anger. “I had it! My shot was perfect and now I’ve wasted it!” He continued. Nev then had a realization that Jenny could have had more than just that one rocket, and began to search Jenny’s body to see if she had more ammunition, which fortunately, she did. Nev, while fumbling with the rocket, did manage to get another one in about 15 seconds. He fired that one but came up as another miss, then another, with another miss.

Nev had gotten nervous at this point, as enemy fire now started to concentrate on him, which led him getting struck in his left shoulder. The pain sharpened his mind and he reloaded another shot, this time finally connecting with the radar. But it didn’t fully take it out, the thing was still standing. But Nev knew that he did what he was supposed to, even if it was only temporary. Grabbing his radio, Nev decided to report in.

“Decipher to Command, radar has been disabled but not destroyed, Javelin needs a medivac as soon as possible, Kane and I are the only ones left conscious here and he’s lost an eye, so please get here quickly.” Nev said. Turning to Jenny, Nev knew that he had to keep the place safe for help to arrive, and clawed back to his gun to suppress the Legends and keep them at bay to buy the evac some time.

[Dyelli Beybi]

Imogen Vaughan/Kaleidoscope
Falcon Squad

As Rohan fell back through the portal, Imogen slumped down, falling to one knee as the adrenaline faded from her system and the extent of her exhaustion and injuries caught up with her. They had a breather for a few minutes, but for that matter so did the enemy and they had taken horrific losses in the Squad. If the enemy forces rallied and counterattacked now, there was a good chance they would be overrun.

With a wince she drew herself up to her feet, limping over to Apex. She didn't salute, not wanting to reveal the chain of command if there was a sniper still watching, "Sir! Permission to take anyone fit to walk and hit the AA batteries from the rear. If we push through we can call in air support to open up the last line of defences."

They could, in her opinion, really do with some heavy firepower about now...

She wasn't that close to Sapphira and didn't notice when the other woman decided to blow her brains out, but she heard the shotgun blast go off and instinctively dived for cover, landing awkwardly and knocking the wind out of herself. She lay on the ground gasping as the truth of what had happened gradually became clear. Suicide? In the middle of a battle? What the hell? That didn't make sense...

---

JJ Triggs/Cuttlefish
Javelin Squad

JJ lay limp and unresponsive when Kane took hold of her, her eyes closed. There was a lot of blood, evidence of some pretty horrific injuries that would have killed a normal person, though it also hid the fact that her body was beginning to knit itself back together. A small trickle ran from the corner of her mouth and while her body hadn't cooled, or stiffened with rigor mortis, to a person who hadn't seen her take serious injuries before (anyone but Imogen), she looked dead... right up until the moment Kane gave her the vitality shot.

JJ was a rapid healer anyway and giving her a drug designed to temporarily give a normal human powers similar to her own, sent her body into overdrive. JJ was always a bit warm to the touch, but now she was boiling. Wounds closed before Kane's eyes. She shuddered then arched her back as her eyes shot open and she took a deep breath of air, "Kane?" she asked, looking a little confused as to how she had ended up in his arms, "There was a rocket and..." she trailed off, wrapping her arms around him and burying her head against his chest as memories of what had happened to her came flooding back, "Why does stuff like this always happen to me?" she mumbled.

Vulnerability wasn't something JJ usually showed, but for a few moments she didn't try to hide it behind a joke or flippant comment... "Wait a minute..." one of her eyes had crept open, "Are we still out in the field? That felt like I should have been out cold for a few days at least."That's... kinda weird. I feel... actually I feel completely fine. Just tired."

[Forest State]

As the dust cleared from the latest round of fighting, and the Syndicate prepared to push forward, the order came in from back at the main camp. They didn’t have enough firepower to win here, and they were pulling out. At least, they didn’t have enough firepower that was healthy, uninjured, and ready to take the fight to the enemy. They’d have to rely on indirect methods such as air strikes and artillery to try to get the radar down while it was damaged, but that was a tall task with the anti-air trucks completely undamaged by the assault on them. In the end, Javelin just hadn’t had enough luck to pull off a victory here. Hadn’t been able to get good shots off or get close enough that Soulja could use magnetism to destroy the trucks.

“We have orders to fall back,” Soulja said, turning from where she had been holding off the enemy soldiers with an AK-74 rifle. She fired another burst of suppression shots before running for Nev, lowering the rifle and lifting him up over her shoulder instead, almost effortlessly because of the strength she had built up through her combat and weights training over the years. She tossed a smoke grenade to cover their retreat, and fell back immediately. “There’s too many of them and we’ve already drawn enough fire with this attack, there’s no way we come out on top here. Better to get out with our lives.”

Imogen was receiving a similar answer from Apex. “The battle is already lost and there’s too many injured, we’re pulling back to the road and waiting for the helicopter transports to extract us. Fall back, along with the rest of the unit. Not to mention, it’s impossible to reach the AA trucks without passing through the entire camp, and the battle zones in the middle of it,” he said, and not long after, the order was officially issued across radio, with a broadcast coming directly from the camp that everyone had departed from. With this amount of injuries, the Syndicate had called the battle then and there. And the news was getting to everyone, as engagements broke off and the NATO forces prepared for extraction.

Back on the road where Falcon found themselves, Candace was just standing around, stunned. Not saying anything, not doing anything, just shellshocked. It was apparent that Sapphira had been… Interfered with, and that her action was unnatural, but that hardly narrowed things down and it was impossible to tell who or what had done the interference. It was quite possible that it was some enemy that they didn’t know about yet, some ace that the Legends had hidden up their sleeve and hadn’t revealed until right now. But there was nothing in the recon reports that suggested that anything like that existed.

Even Gabriella’s investigation wouldn’t indicate much. A brief moment of confusion, the feeling of an arm around the neck, and then unconsciousness. And then, when Sapphira woke up, everything happened as Gabriella had witnessed it. The sequence of events would be just as confusing as it had been the first time, and it didn’t offer any information about who was behind the strange turn of events. Or even what was behind the events, in a broader sense. Finally, Candace moved, and she spoke. “Why? Why did she do it? Just… Why? Why is this happening to me?” she asked, her voice rising with every word she uttered, until it was almost at a shout. She didn’t even pay attention to the order to retreat, because she was caught up in her own emotions.

“There’s some weird fucking shit going on right now-” Kodiak started, before stopping and hearing the order over her radio. She was going to pull out her medical supplies, but she returned her bag to her side and instead moved to hook her arms under Sage’s armpits and pull her to her feet. Even if Sage was in a pretty bad state, they had to get her to the helicopters that would arrive soon on the road that they had arrived here on. “Come on. I’ll look at the injuries while we’re on the way back, we need to get you back to the road… Just a little more walking and you’ll be able to sit down and I can give you something for the pain. I know you can do it.”

Back towards the center of the camp, Squad M also received the order. Kilean was forced to break off his pursuit of the one that had shot Minerva, and Aqua picked up Minerva’s body and carried it back outside… But they were still missing two members. “Elex, this is Kilean, come in. Have you received the order to pull back and get to the point that we were inserted from? Elex? Are you and Faye there right now?”

There was a bit of silence before Kilean received a reply. “I’m here, in the barn that we pointed out on the way in. Faye… Faye is dead, she was shot by Nightstalker, who I killed. I’m not that close but I’ll do my best-”

“Wait a second,” said Kilean, putting the radio to his ear and listening to the instructions from the base. It sounded like they had a change of plans. No longer were they being removed by air, because they wouldn’t be able to pull their trick of getting in with a combination of low flying and surprise. No, the enemy was on high alert, and that wouldn’t exactly work under these circumstances. They would have to get out the old fashioned way, by escaping into the woods and trekking far enough away that they could be picked up by a recovery team. “Start heading east. Me and Aqua will meet up with you at the tree line, we have new orders to get out of here on foot. And Minerva… Well… She didn’t make it out.”

[Durmatagno]

Sage Wilder/Sage Knight/William Wilder
Carolina "Wilder" Scardino - Not Present
Assault on Enemy Camp Tactical Retreat - Falcon Squad

"Yeah, I can do it. Just not going to be pleasant."

Sage said with a sigh as she forced herself back to her feet with Kodiak's help. It hurt like hell, but Sage had been through bad before, and she'd make it through this. She forced herself to work through the pain, supporting herself so that Kodiak didn't have to try supporting the much taller, and heavier woman, especially as Sage still had most of her armor on.

"Oh I can feel how bad it is, it's gonna be pretty bad till I can get rid of the scar. Healing is not going to be fun."

Sage stopped along the path, bending down, with pain, and grabbing the prone form of Brooding Jenny. Sage didn't know how bad she was hurt, but she sure as hell wasn't going to leave her there when even in Sage's state she could carry at least a few people, let alone one. Of course, straightening back up hurt just as bad, maybe more, than bending down did.

"Don't get mad Kodiak, I'm not going to leave her just because I'm injured. Even if it did hurt like hell, and probably make me bleed some more. Besides, you're hurt to, and I'm not going to make you carry her, or try to support me."

Sage started moving again, knowing that if she stopped again, she'd not be moving easily unless the pain was dealt with.

Hang in there Brooding, we'll get you help soon.

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Michelle Raphaella Sara Bianchi-Costa a.k.a Tetrarch
Tribe Camp, France
April 16th, 2018


"I don't know." Was all her projection said, shaking her head as she stood back up. "I'm... Not getting anything, just an arm wrapped around the neck, confusion... Nothing I can work with, nothing at all beyond the obvious that someone or something was messing with her, and probably that she was able to interfere with whatever it was long enough to... Do what she did." She placed an arm around Candace's waist. "Come on, we need to move. I'd bring Saph with us if I could, but..." She may not have liked Saph, but that didn't mean she deserved to have her body left to rot, unburied in some muddy French field. This wasn't the First World War.

---

The other three of her didn't move; they heard the order, yes, but they were the furthest back which meant they would only retreat once almost everyone else was past them. It was how you did a retreat properly, you staggered it so that it wouldn't then turn into an all-out rout because that was just a recipe for a massacre and they'd lost more than enough people today already.

So, instead they remained in position, rifle ready, binoculars scanning, searching for targets, anyone trying to pursue them while they withdrew until it was time for her to withdraw in person.