11

Having achieved his objective of antagonizing Evan and getting rid of the granola bar he'd found in his pocket from who knows when, Nocks needed only deliver the finishing verbal blow to cement his personal victory over the monotony of field service.

As he stood there, just outside the doorway leading to the ladder and bridge, ruminating over effective comebacks to Evan's return fire, something in the distance on the absolute edge of his peripheral drew his full attention. In that same moment, something about the environment underwent a sudden change. He couldn't say whether the visual cue in the distance had served as the instigator of the change or worked in tandem with it, but the circumstances of its presence had already taken root as the primary problem he needed to solve. Resulting in the following words falling from his mouth.

"When did that get there?"

Falling from his mouth, as in the sound of his voice abruptly died off towards the end of his question. A fresh wave of confusion threatened to sweep over Nocks when the penetrating voice of Lux cut a path straight to his senses.

"Nocks! Hit the deck!"

Nocks managed to shake the confusion inhibiting his behavior just in time to react to Lux's warning, throwing himself through the doorway and nearly down the ladder as a hail of gunfire sprayed the back deck. The urge to cry out in frustration presented itself but couldn't be realized for some reason, frustrating him further.

Just then the sensation of wetness around the back of his left calf made itself known, indicating that he'd been hit. A closer inspection of the wound site indicated a ricochet. Undoing his belt, Nocks rolled up the pant leg and applied the makeshift tourniquet above the calf but below the knee. Some sense must have returned to him if he was making the conscious decision to place the belt under his pants instead of over them. The ingrained need to hide the contents of one's belt rearing its ugly head.

Getting to his feet, he tested putting weight on his left leg and concluded doing so wouldn't exacerbate the damage. The pain also proving manageable. Gunfire continued to rage outside the doorway as Nocks thought back to the visual cue.

A flagpole. Someone had planted a flagpole along the side of the route. But based on where he'd seen it, in an area the convoy had just passed through, there was no way that it could have gone unnoticed by all of the security officers on deck beforehand. Meaning someone had placed it in the brief window of time that the convoy passed the flagpole's current position and Nocks noticing it.

Had the raising of the flagpole been a signal to attack the convoy? Maybe its purpose was to relay the convoys current position to allies further down the route. Ugh. Speculating was difficult to do with the throbbing of his calf and roar of gunfire in the background.

Hobbling his way into the bridge, Nocks felt a pang of irritation at the relative composure on display by its two occupants. Only when the girl turned and saw him enter did she show signs of concern, specifically at the state of his leg.

"You should sit down!" She urged as she brought the chair reserved for comms over. Nocks shooed her away and directed his attention towards Cade.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Despite the fire behind his words Nocks couldn't muster the necessary volume to express it. As a result his words came out more like a gentle scold then angry confusion.

"I'd say the joint raiding-faction just gave us it’s best crack at guerrilla warfare."

"You sound awfully unimpressed jackass! From the safety of the bridge that is!"

"Speaking of sound, why is your voice struggling so much? Cade questioned as he finally turned away from the controls and scrutinized Nocks's physical condition.

"How the hell should I know?! More importantly, what kind of guerrilla tactic involves planting flags behind us?!"

"They planted a flag? Behind us?"

"The attack has subsided." The comms girl chimed in from her spot hovering nearby.

Sure enough the sounds of gunfire had ceased and only the gentle hum of moving Crusaders remained.

"The Head Communications Officer is also reporting that a security officer aboard Crusader C314 recovered something of interest."

"Use shorthand Esma, the information is more important than who supplied it."

So the girl's name was Esma. Must be new.

"Apologies. Apparently no casualties are being reported and the condition of the injured is still being assessed."

"Well fell free to report the bug bite on my calf. I'm gonna go check on the others." As he made to leave he felt Esma following within arms reach.

"I don't need help."

"I wasn't intending to give it. Unless you want someone to scratch your bug bite for you. I need to see if any of the other security officers have injures to report."

This girl had one hell of a mouth on her. Come to think of it, Lux mentioned someone speaking out against Heenan earlier. Said girl brushed pasted him and began to descend the ladder, a prospect Nocks and his calf weren't looking forward to.

"Yo Esma, Cade crying up in the bridge or is he keeping it together?"

Lux and Evan appeared from down below, both on their way to the bridge from the front deck. Esma pulled herself back up and moved aside so they could both ascend. Evan looked worse off than Lux, her oversized jacket having seen better days.

"And Nocks is still kicking! You want to thank me now or later for saving your ass?"

"Did either of you feel a change in the surroundings before shots were exchanged?"

"Way to change the subject." Evan remarked as she went out onto the back deck.

"Nothing outside of the usual sense of impending doom. I only called out because one of raiders moved prematurely, a mistake he'll never be making again."

"You were able to call out just fine though, right? You felt like you could project?"

"You heard me from the back deck didn't you. What I want to know is why everyone else stayed so quiet during the exchange?"

"Your voice is back to normal now." Esma pointed out to him. "At least I assume this is its usual volume. Haven't exactly spoken to each other much."

Lux looked over inquisitively at Nocks, "What got you so choked up?"

Just then Evan returned from scoping out the back deck. "By the way, Tristler lost a chunk of his right ear Esma, I already applied some basic first aid before coming up."

Esma nodded and concluded she had all the information required to make her report to Flannery. Cade having already checked up on Vedmann via speaking tube. Lux followed Esma back into the bridge leaving Nocks and Evan on standby by the entrance.

"Don't suppose that granola bar survived the chaos? I could use a snack to take my mind off things."

"Sorry, needed to distract Tristler while I worked on his ear."

If there was ever a time to take long swig.