The Grey Chronicles Part One: New Declaration of An Old War

Chapter 10: There's Something About Salem...

Stonehaaryn outpost, surface of Luna Seven, March of 163 AL.

"Man down! Man down!"

His voice sounded muffled to Korana, her ears felt like they were stuffed full of cotton; she'd been shoved to the ground, and the next moment her ears had been set ringing by what she now realized was an explosion. That realization spurred her to action; were they under attack? Had metal team missed a group of guards?

Korana forced herself to sit up, grabbing her rifle and using it to push herself to her feet. She looked around as she raised her rifle, but she didn't see anyone. She turned in the direction of the explosion and was filled with horror as she recognized her husband's limp body lying face down on the ground.

In an instant she was at his side, weapon tossed aside and all thought of the potential attack lost to her. The man with the mohawk was next to her, grabbing Salem's shoulder and rolling him over. He gestured towards the trees around them and screamed orders; his team formed a protective circle around them, searching the forest for any sign of danger. Korana hardly heard him, partially due to the ringing and partially because her attention was fully focused on Salem; his chest was a bloody mess, it looked like he'd been passed through a meat grinder. His armor had been shredded by the explosion and hung almost as loosely off of him as the ribbons of flesh that had been his chest. He was still conscious, at least for a moment; Salem smiled at her, reached out a bloody hand and cupped her cheek, then his arm fell limp as he blacked out.

"Doc, get over here!" Mr. Mohawk yelled, "Keep that perimeter secure, where did that come from? Where the fuck did that explosion come from?"

"Land mine, sir!" One of his team screamed back, "Master General spotted a mine and dove on it, I saw him!"

"Even better, everyone stay where you are!" Grizzly-actual ordered, "We don't know if there are more of them around here."

Briarios shoved several people out of the way to reach his father, followed closely by Soluna and Augustus. He took one look at the pool of blood growing around his father's destroyed torso and gulped back his fear; he knew that wouldn't kill him, even so it was terrifying.

"Demon-five to eagle-four, come in eagle-four!" Briarios shouted into his headset, "We have a man down, I repeat man down! We need immediate medevac to the Anarchist."

"Roger demon-five, we are on our way and will touch down at your position in thirty seconds."

"Where's the medic?" Soluna said desperately, but the doctor was already shoving his way past her.

"Here, I'm here," the man said, dropping to his knees between Korana and Mr. Mohawk and opening his bag. "That doesn't look good."

"Oh, you don't say?" Mr. Mohawk snapped, glaring at his medic, "Get a move on, he's bleeding out here!"

"I'm working on it, I need you to get his armor out of the way," the medic pulled several objects that looked like whipped cream cans out of his bag and set them beside his patient. "It's so shredded that it's just getting in the way, think you can do that?"

"On it," grizzly-actual nodded, and immediately started removing what little was left of Salem's vest and jacket. Briarios knelt beside him and did his best to help, while Korana just stared slack-jawed; she was in shock, she'd never seen the inside of her husband's torso before.

After they removed his armor, the medic shook up one of the cans and jammed the nozzle into his chest. He pushed on the nozzle and sprayed a thick green foam into Salem's chest cavity. It expanded to fill the space between his ravaged organs, stopping the bleeding for the most part. The medic tossed the empty can of medifoam aside and paused for a moment, looking down at his patient; he caught sight of something odd inside his patient's torso, nestled between his diaphragm and his liver.