Chapter Text
For all the money the Wall surely reeled in for capturing criminals, they really could allocate more towards a heater.
Ellie shivered in the rickety bed oh-so-generously provided by the wardens at the Wall. Oh, and there was no blanket. Of course. Couldn’t have convicts getting too comfortable, after all!
She couldn’t help but curse that one dead convict under her breath. Leave it to one guy to make things worse for everyone else. And he got the easy way out. Ellie would probably kill for some sort of instant death like that, and she’d only been here for two weeks.
The click of the door opening startled her, and she shot up in bed to see one of the wardens– Grigori, she thinks– and two… American? soldiers standing behind him.
“Get up, convict,” he ordered, kicking her bed. “Dmitri is expecting you. The soldiers bore their guns threateningly.
Ellie cautiously stood up, raising her hands above her head instinctually. Grigori handcuffed her and the guards ushered her down several hallways and an elevator trip until they finally reached the head warden’s office. One of the soldiers rapped on the door, right underneath the fancy plaque.
Dmitri Johannes Petrov. Head Warden.
“Come in,” a voice called from inside. Grigori opened the door, and Ellie was roughly shoved inside by the two soldiers and cuffed to the armrest of a nearby chair. Dmitri stood up from his desk and nodded at them.
“You both are dismissed. You may wait with your general outside while the convict and I discuss.”
What.
The soldiers saluted and marched out, leaving Ellie alone with Dmitri and Grigori.
Dmitri produced a file and slapped it onto his desk. “Miss Rose,” he recited, flipping through it, “We went through a great deal of effort to capture you.”
Ellie nodded slowly. “Um, yeah.”
“American soldiers wait outside. They demand you be pardoned.” He closed the file and stared at her. She blinked.
“Huh?”
“Is part of United States and Canada treaty. Any American convicts are to be handed off to American government. Do you understand? But we can’t let go of such a valuable catch so easily, no.” He returned his attention to the file.
“So... am I being pardoned?” Ellie questioned. Was that the right thing to ask? Nevermind. It wasn’t really a pardon, just a transfer, most likely.
Dmitri lifted his head. “Да, they want to give you a full pardon.”
“What? Why?”
“I do not know. Something about Toppat Clan and military.” He waved his hand absentmindedly. “However, we also have conditions to the treaty.” He spun the file around and pushed it towards Ellie. She leaned forward to get a better look. The inside only read one name: Henry Stickmin.
“You may be pardoned in America, but not here, Miss Rose. Freedom for you will be very short lived if you go now. So I am making you a proposition.” He tapped the file. “Simply capture and turn in Henry Stickmin, and you will be a free woman.”
Henry Stickmin... where had she heard that name before? Ellie racked her brain and turned up nothing. With her free hand, she turned the pages of the file. There was hardly anything of use, only a blurry photo of some running guy— Stickmin, probably— with height and weight listed underneath. She glanced up at Dmitri, eyes narrowed.
“So, aren’t you supposed to give me some kind of information on this guy? Like, I don’t know, family, friends, occupation?”
Dmitri sighed and took back the file. “Henry Stickmin has done an excellent job at staying under the radar ever since the American government pardoned him. To compensate for this, we will give you four months to find and bring him back, and location of his last imprisonment.” He slid a piece of paper towards her. Ellie picked it up. She blinked at the location.
“West Mesa Penitentiary? Arizona?”
He nodded. “Yes, we believe that may be his general location. He can’t have gone very far. So, Miss Rose, do you accept your conditions?” He raised an eyebrow.
Ellie nodded immediately. She would be a genuine idiot not to.
“Good. Grigori, escort her outside. We’ve kept that captain waiting long enough.”
- -
“Ellie Rose. We have you charged with a countless number of crimes, ranging from petty theft to full scale heists. You even broke yourself out of a juvenile center once,” the captain recited, her voice just barely carrying over the sound of the roaring helicopter blades.
Ellie sat on a bench in the back of the chopper, hand cuffed to a bar mounted on the wall. She nodded along occasionally with the captain’s speech, her head falling forward every so often as she attempted to stay awake.
The captain closed the file she was holding and handed it off to a waiting soldier. “Since you have the skills, we’d like to recruit you.”
Ellie perked up at that statement. “What? To the military?”
The captain nodded. “Something of the sort. But there is obviously a condition. We can’t just be letting criminals into our ranks whenever we feel like.”
Conditions, conditions. She nodded. “What do you need me to do, then?” Ellie inquired, tilting her head.
The captain rolled down a projector screen and whipped out a pointer. Ellie almost laughed at the absurdity of it, then caught herself. The laugh was instead compressed into a very awkwardly timed snort. The captain simply stared.
“If you find this so amusing, we can always send you back, Miss Rose.”
Ellie shook her head frantically. “No, sorry ma’am, please continue.”
The captain sighed. “Anyways. About a week ago, the Toppat Space Station was blown up by two of our agents, one of whom unfortunately was KIA.”
“Wait. The Toppats have a space station?”
“Had. Like I just said, it was blown up. The survivors have attempted to reestablish any bases back on Earth. There are quite a few of them, and with their numbers, it’s been difficult to track them down. Luckily, we managed to locate a base in the desert of northern Arizona. Which is where you come in.” She aimed the pointer at Ellie to emphasise.
The slide on the projector changed. “We need you to infiltrate this base and shut it down. Preferably so that they can be easily arrested afterwards. Our base in Arizona can take care of the aftermath, but they’re counting on us to weaken them first.” She rolled up the projector screen and turned to Ellie. “We don’t really care how you do it, as long as it’s within reason. Any questions?”
She lifted a finger. “Right… what do you mean by ‘within reason’?”
“No war crimes, mass murder, nuclear bombing, etc. Basically, nothing that violates the Geneva Conventions. Any other questions?”
Ellie shook her head. “I get it. So, infiltrate this Toppat base, take ‘em out, and then leave the arrests to you guys?”
The captain nodded. “Pretty much.” She reached behind some boxes and tossed a blanket and pillow at Ellie. “Rest up. It’s a long flight. We’ll discuss strategy when we arrive.”
The convict immediately turned herself into a burrito and leaned against the wall. What a strange day, she thought as her eyes drooped.
- -
She was jolted awake a few hours later by the helicopter arriving on the landing pad. The captain marched up to her. “We’ve arrived. Get ready. I’ve already assembled the rest of the team.” She tossed a set of clothing and an earpiece towards Ellie.
Ellie fumbled to catch it and rubbed her eyes in an attempt to clear her blurry vision. “Thanks, Captain..." she trailed off.
“Grit. Captain Victoria Grit. We will be waiting at the dropship.” She unlatched Ellie’s cuffed hand and departed.
The ex-convict (could she call herself that yet? No?) quickly dressed herself and hurried over to where Captain Grit and three other agents were waiting.
“Ah, Miss Rose. You are here,” the captain commented. She gestured to the three agents. “These are your squadmates for this mission. There is Amelia Esteban, our demolitions expert,” she gestured to a young brunette woman glancing expectantly at her watch, “John Pilkson, our stealth specialist,” a man wearing a bandana around his head saluted, “and Gordon Banks, our electronics specialist,” the man in question tipped his sunglasses at her. “Everyone, this is Ellie Rose. She will be assisting us on this mission. The Arizona base is counting on us, so get to it. I’ll be providing backup from here if needed.” She readied a handgun and disappeared into the cockpit.
“Okay, let’s get on with it. Rose, how do you want to do this?” Amelia questioned, looking up from her watch.
Ellie tapped her chin thoughtfully. The Toppat base was simply a large building in the middle of the desert, which complicated things slightly. Any traps they set could easily be outmaneuvered by the members outside.
“We’ll have to lure them all inside of the building somehow. And keep them there.” She slammed her fist against her palm for emphasis.
John grunted in agreement.
Amelia grinned. “All right, let’s swing on down and get inside. Ready, Frog?”
John nodded and handed everyone a parachute bag. “Pull this tab to release when you’re in the air. We’ll be landing behind the base, so our chances of being spotted are minimal.” He jumped out of the dropship, and the rest of the squad followed closely.
With the wind whipping against her face, Ellie could just barely make out the incoming ground. She pulled the tab and felt a strong force sweep her back into the air. Well, the parachute worked. That was a win. She landed softly on the sand among the others.
“Okay guys, I have a plan. Frog, you get us a way inside undetected. Eel managed to get a map of the entire base while we were waiting for Rose on the dropship, so that’s how we’re getting around. There’s a security room on the third floor, so we’re gonna aim for that. I have some remote bombs we can detonate if we need a distraction. Everyone good with that?”
Ellie held up a hand. “Wait, wait. Sorry. Frog? Eel?”
“Ngahh, right. Nobody told her.” John adjusted his bandana. “We’re part of a special ops team, for stealth missions and things like that, so we all have code names. I’m Frog, Esteban is Turtle, and Banks is Eel. We’ll get you one soon. Hm, we can come up with one on the way.” He patted her on the back.
“How about Cat?” Amelia– Turtle– piped up. At Ellie’s confused expression, she elaborated. “Not permanently, of course. Just for this mission.”
Eel responded before Ellie could. “Great, Cat. Okay. Turtle gave us the game plan. Does everyone understand?”
The squad nodded and got to work locating the entrance Eel had marked on the map.
Sneaking throughout the base was far easier than anticipated. Hardly any Toppats were out in the open, and Frog proposed they were likely in some sort of meeting, which sounded reasonable. Eventually, they reached the security room, and Turtle tugged on the door handle.
“It’s locked. Any ideas?”
Ellie tapped her chin, but before she could respond, Frog spoke up.
“Ngah, I have a device that can cut the hinges. We’ll use that.”
Sure enough, it worked.
“Great, everyone, get inside.” Turtle ushered everyone in and pushed a nearby box in front of the door.
Eel leapt onto the keyboard and began typing furiously. After a few moments, he turned back. “It looks like the Toppats have a bunker underneath the building. If we can lure them inside and lock it, it’ll be mission complete.”
“Oh, sandstorms are pretty common here, right? We can set off an alarm to get them in there?” Ellie suggested.
“Good idea, Cat. I can get into the alarm system from here.” Eel tapped some more on the keyboard, then frowned at the screen behind his sunglasses. “Nevermind. It seems that the alarm is offline. Two of you will need to go down and fix it.”
“Turtle and I can,” Ellie raised her hand.
“Ngah, good luck, you two.”
- -
“So, how do you want to do this?” Turtle whispered. She and Ellie were leaning over a corner, watching the swarm of Toppats roaming the cafeteria. According to Eel’s map, the electrical room was right across.
Ellie scanned the area. It was a pretty nice cafeteria, with round tables covered with tablecloths, plush chairs, a high ceiling with a chandelier– wait, a chandelier? She gestured at it. “I have an idea.” She outstretched her hand and attempted to concentrate.
Come on, come on... The chandelier wriggled slightly. Alright, there was something. She never could really do this very often- CRASH!
The chandelier had fallen into the middle of the cafeteria. The Toppats were yelling and running around. Ellie felt a tug on her hand as Turtle dragged her into the chaos. The demolitions expert scooped up two fallen top hats and handed one to Ellie. They both pulled the brims low enough to obscure their faces as they made their way through the chaos. After reaching the electrical room, Turtle shut the door behind them and the duo stopped to catch their breath.
Turtle punched Ellie lightly in the arm. “Hey, that was pretty cool back there. Why didn’t you mention you could do that earlier?”
Ellie chuckled lightly. “It... uh... doesn’t always work how it’s supposed to.” She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.
“It’s good you were able to though.” Turtle pulled out a grenade from her back pocket. “I was thinking of using this, but we could’ve risked being outed.” She waved at Ellie to follow her. “Come on. The alarm’s wiring is here.”
Sure enough, there was a loose wire. Turtle held it in place while Ellie fastened it with some stray electrical tape lying on the floor. They gave each other a thumbs up as the bulb lit up, signifying their success. Less than a minute later, the alarm blared, and an automated voice announced: “Warning. Imminent sandstorm. Return to the building immediately.”
A voice in the cafeteria yelled, “C’mon y’all! We need to get to the bunker! Has anyone seen my hat...?”
Once the voices in the cafeteria died down, Ellie and Turtle cautiously emerged and dashed outside the building. Frog and Eel joined them by the entrance.
“Ngah, we’ve sealed the bunker. Good job, everyone.”
Captain Grit’s voice rang out through their earpieces. “Good work, agents. I’ve called in backup from the Arizona base. Swinging by to pick you up now.”
Ellie shielded her eyes from the blazing sun as the helicopter descended on a nearby landing pad. Captain Grit emerged from it and walked over to the group. “And you, Ellie Rose. You’ve proven your worth and skill. I’m placing you under the supervision of General Hubert Galeforce. He was actually the one who requested you in the first place. I’ll send you over once reinforcements arrive.” She departed before the ex-convict had a chance to react.
“Congrats, Cat,” Turtle grinned, throwing an arm around her. “We can go on more missions together. It was good working with you.”
Ellie smiled. “Great working with you too, Turtle.”