Assault (Red vs Blue)

4: First Impressions And Questions

4: First Impressions And Questions

Many Years Ago: The Mother of Invention (Primary freelancer facility/aircraft)

The mission at the Bjørndal Cryogenics Research Facility had been a success — for the most part. North and South had managed to retrieve an entire drive's worth of extremely valuable data; that goal had been the main objective for the mission. However, their other objective — stealth — had been a total failure. South's ignorance and desire to show off had almost gotten the two of them captured. Or, even worse, they could've been killed. North had almost made that sacrifice. One of the Insurrectionists had hopped on a turret and took aim at South. North had jumped in front of his sister and ended up taking a number of shots to the chest.

As he laid in the infirmary, North realized just how lucky he'd gotten. His armor had taken significant damage, but only two of the bullets had gone through far enough to reach him. The doctors had pointed out that one of the bullets had narrowly missed his right lung, and the other had barely missed one of his main arteries on the left side. It had also taken longer to stop the bleeding then they'd hoped for; not that North would ever tell the others that. Especially not his sister.

South had been taking what happened hard. She blamed herself for him getting hurt, and she was also pissed that Carolina had been sent in to help them. The mission to the research facility had been their first solo run. Carolina was only to be sent in if the Director thought the two of them couldn't handle it. And considering her lack of responsibility had tripped the alarms, it had made things ten times more complicated then they should've been. While North hadn't exactly been thrilled that Carolina had to interfere, he understood why. He'd have to talk to South about it all at a later time.

"Hey, look who's still alive," York teased as he and Washington walked into the recovery room. "We heard about what happened out in the field. You're one lucky son of a bitch. You know that?"

"Yeah, I think I'm aware," North said with a slight laugh, wincing as he pulled himself into an upright position. "The docs made sure I knew just how lucky I was. How's my sister been since we got back?"

"Oh, you know, pissy as ever. She's pretty upset about everything that happened out there," Wash told him.

North sighed. "Yeah, I figured that. I'll have to talk to her. Has the Director said anything yet?"

York shook his head. "Not that I've heard personally. Carolina said he was impressed with how the two of you did — up until your sister set off the alarm. And he wishes you a speedy recovery. He's waiting to debrief the three of you until you're recovered more."

"I'm not that injured. I could easily join in a debriefing right now," North stated.

"Relax, man. Let yourself heal a little bit before you worry about anything work related," Wash said.

"Don't try to argue with us. You're not gonna win," York informed him. "Ya know, this is a bit off topic, but I think there was a couple good things to come out of you getting hurt."

North arched an eyebrow at his friend. "Okay, you lost me. How was anything about what happened good? I got shot and could've died. What good is there to pull out of that?"

A grin spread across York's face. "You get a few days off of work and you get a brand new chestplate. Duh. How isn't that an upside?"

North laughed, hiding another wince that came with the action. "Real funny, York. I bet you thought you were really clever with that one."

"He always does," Wash teased, elbowing the other freelancer.

York dodged the attempt easily. "I don't know what you guys are talking about. I'm hilarious."