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Solo missions weren’t Soap’s ideal task on 141. The only reason he actually took it was because Laswell needed a demolition expert, and he was the first one she trusted and thought of for the job- which is nice to be chosen first for once. He worked hard for his position and it’s always nice to have someone you respect show that they recognize that work and effort. Demolition is easily handled, it’s a simple job and the most rewarding in Soap’s opinion. Tearing down buildings that shitty people use for their shitty reasons; it always lights up a special place in Soap’s heart. This though. This was too much. An active war zone for one lone demolitionist. He only has pistol ammunition left and he still has bombs left to place and until those structural support beams were lit up like a Christmas tree, Soap wasn’t getting out of here to the rendezvous location.
Just two target locations left to set up and he can get out of this hellhole just as quick as his helicopter had been downed. Soap set the timer and secures the bomb in place before hurrying to a hidden location, ducking behind a fallen wall, keeping silent as hulking armored figures jog past. Soap knows he’s good, but not good enough to take on an entire army in bullet proof armor by himself; especially right now.
His side is a mess of torn to shred skin from the impact of the helicopter landing, blood soaking into what’s left of his shirt. Pieces of the helicopter’s metal plates that had broken off in the initial crash were lodged firmly in Soap’s abdomen, the muscles and organs screaming in agony at every twist and bend he makes, blood spilling slowly from the wound with every inhale-exhale. Soap’s menial field-medic knowledge had him cutting strips of his shirt off to make a temporary tourniquet.
He’s honestly surprised most of his gear stayed intact on the crash landing he took. All he can do for now is keep himself hidden and place the last of the bombs before his injuries start to get too much to handle. He doesn’t even have someone to bother on the local comms to keep his mind off it, just him and enemy ops to keep himself company. He only hopes Ghost and König are doing well with their own duties and that he can see them back home soon. They were meant to go out before this, but an emergency mission had his two boyfriends rushing off to the scene- lucky android bastards are probably on their way home at this point. Soap wishes he could have joined them, that he wouldn’t have said yes to Laswell. Now he’s hoping to make it back safely so he can bother the hell out of Ghost and maybe get some cuddles in with König.
Seeing that the coast is clear, Soap moves out, taking the long path toward his target in an attempt to throw off any pursuers. It doesn’t work as well as he wanted, he’s been catching glimpses of a tail on him and they’re slowly approaching his position. So far, he’s kept speed, enough to keep his pursuer hiding behind debris approximately 50 yards away- too close for comfort in all honesty. He sends frequencies to Laswell, informing her of his compromised position. This person could be either an android or human, but either way Soap isn’t prepared for a fight- barely any weapons for an android battle and not nearly enough ammo for a gun fight that would erupt. Thankfully Laswell sends a message back, telling him to get out and back to the R.V. house to await pickup. He’s done enough to give their team the upper-hand and he’s grateful for the chance to get out of here early.
Gunfire from above has him ducking behind more fallen walls, he’s lucky it’s not aimed at him. Somehow, he hasn’t been seen yet aside from his tail, and it doesn’t seem like they want to draw attention to themselves either. He needs to lose them before he gets to the RV location, can’t have guests in the house unauthorized and all that. The gunshots; however, are starting to stray Soap’s way, getting a little too close for comfort. Moving isn’t an option, backed into a corner and hidden behind a crumbling wall as he is, best option right now is to stay put and hope they stop being trigger happy.
Soap focuses his attention to the shadow figure’s last known location, hoping to either find a body or a glimpse of them to update himself on their location. It’s at this moment that the wall towering behind him starts sprinkling him with dust. If he didn’t know any better, Soap would say that the wall was starting to crumble, but the gun fire hadn’t yet hit his portion of the wall, not enough to give concern at the very least.
BOOM-CRACK
Soap’s first few time bombs have started going off, he’s quickly running out of time. He has approximately 5 minutes before the next one is set to go off after the first. He needs to get out of here before the third bomb, otherwise he might as well give his last will and testimony to Laswell- the fourth group of bombs would be too close for Soap to survive through, seeing as he just set those.
“Make a move Johnny. Make a damn move!” He whispers to himself, encouraging his legs to move him to the next safest spot. There isn’t a good opening though, too many soldiers running to the explosion site to find out what happened or perhaps find survivors from their group. Luckily, these bastards seem to be bigots and don’t have any androids on their team. Heat signatures are dead giveaways, literally a death sentence around here in no man’s land.
FA- BOOM !
The second bomb. He’s almost out of time and there’s no leeway in the crowd. “Laswell, Ah don’t have an opening to get out. Bombs are starting to go off, Ah’m almost out of time. Any chance you can get me some assistance here?”
“Negative, Soap. Too risky with their numbers right now. How close till the next one goes off?”
“Approximately five minutes.” He rushes. He doesn’t have time, but there’s a slight opening and he takes it to the next hide spot. A slight distance further from the final bomb, but nowhere near a comfortable or safe distance away.
“Fuck. Hold tight, I’ll see what I can manage for you. Keep trying to move out of there and keep in touch. I want to know when that next bomb goes off.”
Soap keeps an eye on the enemy group rushing through, convoys flying by in armored vehicles past Soap, looking for a lull in their numbers to slip by undetected.
FOOM-CRACK!
“Laswell, third bomb went off. Ah don’t have time to sit, Ah’m goin ta make a run for it. Rather get riddled with bullets than blown to bits.”
“Soap, no! Keep moving, they don’t know where you are and are probably assuming you’re no longer out there. Keep moving North, I’ll have an evac team waiting for you up on Brandy. Do you copy? Keep it quiet and get to Brandy.”
“Copy. Keep it movin’, get ta Brandy in da North.” Another opening, another run and slide to cover, wounds in his side pulling at the skin surrounding it, but he makes it just in time as a squadron rides past West to the last explosion. Just a bit further and he might be safe, he would be just a hair’s breadth out of the next explosion’s reach. “Take a risk, take a risk…” An opening and he’s running. Full sprint to reach the overhang ahead of him before his timer runs out.
KA-BOO
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-“It is very quiet on base, yes? A little, strange, is it not?”- König sends to his masked companion who only hums in response. The two pairs of footsteps echo in the stone hall, perfectly in synch side-by-side. –“I heard Soap has left for the month, a solo mission? Is that not unusual for him?”- König continues.
Ghost had to admit, without Soap on base it was eerily silent. As much as Ghost preferred it, his time spent around Soap has made silence a bitter companion when the Scot wasn’t around. Ever since his deviation, Johnny has been a constant help from the thoughts that would invade his system. König does his best, but the other android struggles enough with his own deviation as it is, and Ghost would hate to be a reason the other starts a self-destruct sequence. With Soap out in field, the thoughts and feelings have become more frequent and more destructive. This would be his twentieth night without a full recharge. The long time he would need to be “asleep” has been grating on his wires and the vivid reconstructions have caused restlessness. Johnny would usually be there to help Ghost along, ease the tension and calm the destructiveness. König does his best in Soap’s place, but he’s no Johnny, he’s no miracle worker who can bust through walls of code in a killer androids, and Ghost wouldn’t dare put any of his stress on the other- no matter how sweetly König asked him to. But König does his best to help Ghost, and it is appreciated.
This morning was rough, he didn’t have nearly enough charge to back up some bootleg social program Ghost has, almost every person and android constantly getting on his nerves. Not moving fast enough, talking too loudly, standing in his way. All this was indicative of an overload that Soap would, typically, catch and help him calm down. König noticed though, luckily for those few people Ghost had been running into and offered a sparring session to help get his mind off of things, to help them both “run some energy” off.
Training rooms were typically used by the human soldiers, androids never really have a reason to train muscle that doesn’t exist, but Ghost likes the training room. A room dedicated to becoming better fighters and sparring. Perfect for an android designed to adapt and overcome. König is a great sparring partner as well, the stamina and strength contained within his vibranium casing giving Ghost a real challenge as well as a chance to improve his prediction software. Soap usually comes along to watch and, in general, try to start shit between the two of them (the brat). Ghost has a feeling that he and König both will be a tad softer with their punches today, no one to egg the two of them on this time.
Strangely, there’s no one in the training center as they push through the door. A dull, lifeless silence encompasses the room. All of Ghost’s warning protocols kick in immediately, something wrong has happened or at the very least has taken everyone by surprise. Looking to König, Ghost can tell he’s also working out the pieces, gathering information and putting together his analysis. Only a few lights are on to illuminate the concrete room, almost haphazardly either turned on or off, Ghost couldn’t tell which. Weightlifting bars are left stacked with weights, a curtsey rule that the majority of those that use the gym abide by without fail that now seems to have been forgotten. Finally, bottles of water left on and by the machines, some are tipped over and leaking on the gym floor. A surprise had occurred while he and König were away it seems.
-“I have tried to contact Captain Price, but it does not seem like he is able to respond. I will contact Gaz”.-
A pregnant pause permeates the stagnant and sweaty air before König breaks the silence again, -“Sergeant Gaz has requested we stay here, he will come to us to update us on the situation.”- Sergeant. Something serious has occurred then, and, somehow, he- they- haven’t been informed about it. It screams suspicious; Ghost doesn’t appreciate being left in the dark by his own team, especially when he’s already been on edge.
It took entirely too long, in Ghost’s opinion, for Gaz to arrive looking disheveled. “Hey! Sorry, it’s been batshit insane for last few hours, yeah? What’s up with the training room?” Gaz asks, looking around the room. “Oof, yeah, I’ll have the guys come back in here and clean their messes up. A right clusterfuck they left. Ain’t right of ‘em to leave a mess just ‘cause higherups left.” The silence from the other two invades the air, tension thick in their shoulders and an almost visible heat of anger flows from them. “I’m going to go on a limb here and say that’s not what either of y’ment, was it? No, ‘course not.”
“What happened to make the mess, Garrick.” Gaz almost couldn’t make out the growled staticky-laced words, a low mumble of barely contained rage if he had to describe it. But that’s when it hits him, no one told them. They don’t have a clue as to what’s been happening for the past five hours.
“You two really don’t know?!” Gaz exclaims, “Thought Price told ya as soon as it happened! Soap got dropped back here a few hours ago, I’ve been running around the whole buildin’, keeping things together for Price but last I heard he’s in ICU getting shrapnel removed.” Gaz motions in the direction of the medical facility. Gaz barely got out of the way fast enough, both androids bursting out of the training room doors, all the worry and anxiety overcoming the two. Weeks of not knowing where Soap was shipped to, weeks of not even having the clearance to know his status, weeks of silence all bursting to the surface in an explosion of distress. Gaz almost regrets telling them, those poor nurses are going to have the fight of their lives trying to keep two protective military grade androids out of Soap’s recovery room.
The hallways couldn’t have been made any longer, seemingly going on in an endless repeat of brick and mortar painted a lovely shade of faded mustard yellow. Heavy footsteps echoing off into the distance from two tank-built androids, barreling down like they were late for evac. In short, a terrifying sight to catch a glimpse of. “Soap” and “ICU” were the only words passing in between Ghost and König, both of them keeping the other together with theoretical hair-thin fibers. König could tell Ghost was bursting at the seams, all of his worry and anxiety over Soap coming to a head from only a few words. He couldn’t lie though, he was worried sick over Soap going on a mission alone, even more so when he found out just how classified it all was. His own emotions are blaring from now knowing just how much Soap’s body was on the line for. To König, humans are fragile, they don’t have the ability to just be put back together with some spare parts. In an active warzone the likelihood of survival tends to drop exponentially, even doubling if the person is alone like Soap was. The only anchor now being Ghost’s words coursing through their connection, -“GettoJohnnyGettoJohnnyGettoJohnny.”-
König finds it easy to deal with breaking slowly from the inside when you have a goal to complete first, his previous programming dictating that the mission must be completed first does wonders for keeping König stable. Soap will most likely be upset that he’s dealing with his stress and overwhelming emotions like this, ignoring the signs of overheating and possible shut down, but Soap is the only thing that matters- the rest can be ignored until he knows that Soap is alive. He barely notices as he and Ghost barrel through door after door, knocking people and androids out of the way if they don’t move fast enough, and ending up at the hospital ward entrance.
Staying calm is, a surprising chore when Ghost isn’t in his head keeping a monotone chant going between them. Hearing the android’s voice outside of his head gives him a steady hold on reality, it helps to keep his mind glued together hearing that he isn’t the only one about to break apart if Soap isn’t seen as quickly as possible. Soap is important to them both. The first human to treat them both as an equal, to help guide them through emotions when they first deviated, the first human to give them love and affection for nothing but the same in return. A miracle, as Ghost has said privately to König. Johnny is their miracle. Johnny is their partner, lover, care giver. To have such a sunshine filled person ripped from them would crush them, they both know it. But to live it… To imagine it…
It's torture.
König can feel himself slowly chipping, his programs lighting on fire the longer they stand there with the nurses arguing about seeing their sergeant, their partner. These nurses are going to kill König with the ‘please be patient’ and their ‘he’s yet to wake up’ and their ‘please go wait in the waiting room’ that they just keep repeating, all poor attempts to calm killer androids.. König can barely pay them any mind, his processing hardware feels gummed up, slowed to a point of detriment, to where König thinks only a hard reset would come close to fixing the problem. It all comes screeching to silence as Captain Price approaches them and tells the nurses to let them through. The man takes guiding the two of them to Soap’s room seriously, no need for speaking as no one present had the energy left to even try and be pleasant to one another.
It’s a surprise that neither Ghost or König have broken down yet at the sight that greets them in the room: wires connected to monitors of all sorts that keeps a constant beep lingering in the air, tubes slid down the man’s nose in an attempt to get more oxygen to his lungs, bandages and gauze partially covering the man’s face and seemingly all of the man’s body from the chest down. The man’s hair was shaved down as well, stitches keeping the skin together on the now hairless man’s head. The nicest way to describe how Soap looked at this moment was that he looked like he lost a fight with a cat with scissors for claws.
“König… Ghost…” Rasps from the hospital bed and in an instant the androids are there, one on each of the man’s bedside, holding onto surprisingly uncovered hands. König can’t seem to make himself speak, his voice modulator has always been a bit on the broken side, but this seems to go deeper than that, the static that lingers after even thinking of speaking has him in a daze- so, he settles for using morse code on the man’s hands, telling him that he's here.
Ghost seems to be more put together and manages to speak past the static, “We’re here J-nny, b-th of us -r- h-re. -t’s okay.” Yet, Ghost still holds tight to Soap’s hand, holds it like a lifeline and, in a way, it is. It’s the only thing keeping Ghost and König stable and that’s all Soap wants it to be right now. So, Soap holds onto them a bit tighter too. Holds them as tight as his weak hands can after just waking up from extensive surgery.
“’m ok. Ah’ll live, no worries…” Soap breathes deeply, “Get up here, both o’ ya. Ah wanna hug now tha’ ah’m back.” The bed is barely big enough to hold Soap, let alone Soap and two huge androids, but they gently set themselves down in the uncomfortable bed on either side of Soap and lay their arms softly on his chest. “Tha’s much better, so ‘arm now.” His voice stutters and rasps.
Soap settles his head on König’s shoulder and lays his uninjured arm on Ghost’s own which lay around his waist. His breath deepens and evens out, a slight hitch every now and then from the oxygen machine pumping life-giving air into the man’s lungs. It’s the best he’s slept since he last left base, surrounded by his boys, and being held with so much tenderness.
It’ll all be alright; nothing can hurt them while they’re together.
Nothing will take Johnny away from them now.