Fic, Caged, SF team and others, 15
Sep. 7th, 2019 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fredbassettTitle : Caged
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Ryan, Lyle, Ditzy, Blade, Finn, Nick, Stephen, Jenny, Abby, Caroline
Disclaimer : Not mine (except the SF lads), no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Summary : Wat might have happened if the cost-cutting arseholes in the Home Office hadn’t slashed the anomaly project’s security budget.
A/N : Written forgoldarrow ‘s fandom stocking and posting now for Stephen Month at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
primeval_denial
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!”
Lyle looked up as Ryan stared at his phone.
“The DSF,” Ryan said.
They were about to go off shift for the first time in nearly a month. The Director Special Forces’ timing was immaculate, as ever. Lyle wasn’t surprised, though. His thumbs had been itching non-stop for the last two days. He was only surprised it had taken this long for the call to come through.
Ryan took the call. “Sir?” The captain listened intently for two minutes then said, “On it.” He cut the call and a second later, it bleeped to signify an incoming text. Ryan glanced at it quickly. “Full kit,” he said, grabbing the locked case containing his weapons and starting to kit,
Lyle was ahead of him by 30 seconds as they scrambled for the door.
****
With Fiver behind the wheel, the unmarked black Range Rover made short work of the traffic.
Twenty minutes later, they screeched at a highly illegal speed into an old industrial complex. A white-faced Jenny Lewis was waiting for them, along with Connor and Abby, who had Rex cradled in her arms, and a worried-looking mixed race woman who Lyle didn’t recognise. They’d spent the journey being briefed by Lester on what they were likely to encounter. It sounded like a total clusterfuck.
Ryan had taken the news that he was about to go up against the future freaks that had almost ended his army career with commendable lack of reaction. He’d only been back at work for the past month, and had spent most of that time bored spitless like the rest of them, hanging around waiting for something to happen. As a sop to the cabinet’s sensibilities, the Regiment now had a Sabre team permanently seconded to London, ready to be deployed in the event of any terrorist activity. Most of the time they just sat around watching daytime TV, reading books and playing endless games of cards while laying bets on how badly things were going with the bunch of cut-price private security muppets the Home Secretary had foisted onto the anomaly project.
Very badly, according to what Lester had just told them.
Jenny Lewis, clutching an assault rifle like her favourite teddy bear, showed them to the top of a ventilation shaft, while giving as much information as she could about what they would find inside. It was their job to find Nick Cutter and bring him out alive.
With Ryan on point, followed by Fiver, Ditzy, Finn and Blade, they quickly clambered down the metal ladder and started to make their way through the tunnels. Lyle brought up the rear, his thumbs still itching badly.
Ten minutes after entering the underground complex, they already blasted two predators apart, saving the life of a huge, lumbering herbivore in the process. They left the creature lowing in distress, but from what Lyle saw of its injuries, it was likely to survive.
They finally found Nick Cutter collapsed in front of a thick metal door, his head in his hands and his shoulders shaking as he sobbed.
Ryan went downs on one knee next to him. “Professor?”
Lyle went to look in the round portal in the door.
Creatures milled around inside the room like the world’s most macabre petting zoo. An oversized walrus was locked in combat with a sabre-toothed cat, two predators were trying to tear each other apart, and a large raptor was closing in on….
“Stephen’s in there! We need to get this fucking door open now!”
In one smooth movement, Ryan hauled Cutter up and thrust him out of the way as Lyle pulled a couple of shaped charges out of his pack and put them on the door’s hinges. Working in complete silence, with Ditzy and Blade doing the same, they rigged up half their total payload of explosives around the most vulnerable parts of the door in less than a minute, keeping enough in reserve for a second go should it be needed. Ryan dragged Cutter around the corner and told him to keep out of their way. Once the charges were in place, Lyle and Ditzy followed them, paying out the bang wire behind them.
Lyle heard Ryan telling Cutter to open his mouth, then he counted down from three, not really caring whether Cutter’s eardrums burst or not. His finger depressed the switch at the same moment as Ditzy pressed his and in the same fraction of a second, the door exploded inward.
They rounded the corner and burst into the room, taking full advantage of the shock the noise had caused. Lyle promptly took down two of the dazed predators as they lost their spider-like hold on the roof and fell to the floor. They were hard to kill, but three-round burst in the head would do the trick. Blade dealt with the pair locked in combat before the fuckers even realised what had hit them.
Ryan went straight for the raptor menacing Stephen as Lyle, Finn and Blade started taking out anything that was still capable of moving.
Ditzy left them to it and ran to Ryan’s side.
From the glimpse Lyle had got of the man, Stephen was a mass of bloody wounds. His clothes – and his flesh – were in tatters. Ryan’s face was a mask of professional detachment, but Lyle knew his friend well enough to see beyond that. Ryan had always fancied Stephen but copping off with one of the civilians hadn’t been on the agenda. By the time Ryan came out of hospital, they’d been reassigned as part of a cost-cutting exercise, and the moment had gone.
“Get him out and we’ll frag the fuckers!” Lyle yelled, trying to make himself heard over the cacophony in the room.
Ditz and Ryan lifted Stephen between then and started to half-carry, half-drag him from the room. He needed proper treatment and he needed it fast. Lyle retreated with them firing shot after shot as he went. The minute they were all out of the door, they started lobbing in flash bangs and fragmentation grenades. Subtle it wasn’t, but it would certainly be effective.
Cutter was on his feet now, his face a mask of horror as he saw what the creatures had done to Stephen. From the thumbnail sketch Lester had given them of the events of the last six months, things hadn’t gone well between the professor and Stephen after Helen’s nasty little revelation, but the remainder of Ryan’s team been pulled off the project almost immediately, so hadn’t been around to knock heads together. If they had been, maybe this clusterfuck might not have happened.
The sound of explosion after explosion rocked through the underground complex as grenades and flash-bangs detonated in quick succession. While Blade and Finn stayed behind to pick off anything trying to flee the hell of Leek’s sick petting zoo, Lyle rode shotgun for Ryan and Ditzy, who had Stephen slung between them on a emergency stretcher from the medic’s pack. Finding their way out of the bunker without trying to haul Stephen up the ventilation shaft wasn’t easy, but finally they emerged in daylight, just as a pair of ambulances arrived on site, disgorging paramedics who promptly went to work as Ditz gave them as much information as he could.
Five minutes later, one of the ambulances took off, leaving Ditzy behind to argue with Cutter. “You need checking over, so do us all a favour and shut the fuck up, professor.”
“He’s right,” Ryan said. “You’re shaking like a fucking leaf. Get to hospital and get checked out. We need to make sure nothing gets out of their alive.”
“Apart from the Scutosaurus,” Abby said.
“We’ll get it out alive,” Lyle said. “It’ll need patching up, but I think it’ll make it.” He looked at the lizard bundled up in her arms. “What happened to him?”
“Grazed by a bullet,” she said. “I think he’s going to be all right.”
“Good,” said Lyle, and meant it. “Now let the paramedics check you over as well, before Ditz starts on you as well.”
Abby gave him a wan smile. “We’ve missed you guys.”
Lyle put his arm around her and gave her thin shoulders a quick squeeze. “Don’t tell anyone, but we’ve missed you lot, too.”
A loud bellow from a large set of double doors heralded the arrival of the large lumbering turtle-faced herbivore, followed by Finn and Blade. They closed the doors behind them and let the creature stand there, blinking in the light. If the paramedics were surprised, they were professional enough not to show it.
Lyle grinned. “Over to you.” Leaving Abby to check the creature over, he walked over to where Ryan was delivering an admirably succinct report to Lester by phone. When Ryan shoved his phone back into a pocket, Lyle forestalled his query with the words, “He’s going to be fine.”
“Thumbs?”
Lyle grinned. “Never known to lie, mate.”
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Ryan, Lyle, Ditzy, Blade, Finn, Nick, Stephen, Jenny, Abby, Caroline
Disclaimer : Not mine (except the SF lads), no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Summary : Wat might have happened if the cost-cutting arseholes in the Home Office hadn’t slashed the anomaly project’s security budget.
A/N : Written for
goldarrow ‘s fandom stocking and posting now for Stephen Month at primeval_denial“You have got to be fucking kidding me!”
Lyle looked up as Ryan stared at his phone.
“The DSF,” Ryan said.
They were about to go off shift for the first time in nearly a month. The Director Special Forces’ timing was immaculate, as ever. Lyle wasn’t surprised, though. His thumbs had been itching non-stop for the last two days. He was only surprised it had taken this long for the call to come through.
Ryan took the call. “Sir?” The captain listened intently for two minutes then said, “On it.” He cut the call and a second later, it bleeped to signify an incoming text. Ryan glanced at it quickly. “Full kit,” he said, grabbing the locked case containing his weapons and starting to kit,
Lyle was ahead of him by 30 seconds as they scrambled for the door.
****
With Fiver behind the wheel, the unmarked black Range Rover made short work of the traffic.
Twenty minutes later, they screeched at a highly illegal speed into an old industrial complex. A white-faced Jenny Lewis was waiting for them, along with Connor and Abby, who had Rex cradled in her arms, and a worried-looking mixed race woman who Lyle didn’t recognise. They’d spent the journey being briefed by Lester on what they were likely to encounter. It sounded like a total clusterfuck.
Ryan had taken the news that he was about to go up against the future freaks that had almost ended his army career with commendable lack of reaction. He’d only been back at work for the past month, and had spent most of that time bored spitless like the rest of them, hanging around waiting for something to happen. As a sop to the cabinet’s sensibilities, the Regiment now had a Sabre team permanently seconded to London, ready to be deployed in the event of any terrorist activity. Most of the time they just sat around watching daytime TV, reading books and playing endless games of cards while laying bets on how badly things were going with the bunch of cut-price private security muppets the Home Secretary had foisted onto the anomaly project.
Very badly, according to what Lester had just told them.
Jenny Lewis, clutching an assault rifle like her favourite teddy bear, showed them to the top of a ventilation shaft, while giving as much information as she could about what they would find inside. It was their job to find Nick Cutter and bring him out alive.
With Ryan on point, followed by Fiver, Ditzy, Finn and Blade, they quickly clambered down the metal ladder and started to make their way through the tunnels. Lyle brought up the rear, his thumbs still itching badly.
Ten minutes after entering the underground complex, they already blasted two predators apart, saving the life of a huge, lumbering herbivore in the process. They left the creature lowing in distress, but from what Lyle saw of its injuries, it was likely to survive.
They finally found Nick Cutter collapsed in front of a thick metal door, his head in his hands and his shoulders shaking as he sobbed.
Ryan went downs on one knee next to him. “Professor?”
Lyle went to look in the round portal in the door.
Creatures milled around inside the room like the world’s most macabre petting zoo. An oversized walrus was locked in combat with a sabre-toothed cat, two predators were trying to tear each other apart, and a large raptor was closing in on….
“Stephen’s in there! We need to get this fucking door open now!”
In one smooth movement, Ryan hauled Cutter up and thrust him out of the way as Lyle pulled a couple of shaped charges out of his pack and put them on the door’s hinges. Working in complete silence, with Ditzy and Blade doing the same, they rigged up half their total payload of explosives around the most vulnerable parts of the door in less than a minute, keeping enough in reserve for a second go should it be needed. Ryan dragged Cutter around the corner and told him to keep out of their way. Once the charges were in place, Lyle and Ditzy followed them, paying out the bang wire behind them.
Lyle heard Ryan telling Cutter to open his mouth, then he counted down from three, not really caring whether Cutter’s eardrums burst or not. His finger depressed the switch at the same moment as Ditzy pressed his and in the same fraction of a second, the door exploded inward.
They rounded the corner and burst into the room, taking full advantage of the shock the noise had caused. Lyle promptly took down two of the dazed predators as they lost their spider-like hold on the roof and fell to the floor. They were hard to kill, but three-round burst in the head would do the trick. Blade dealt with the pair locked in combat before the fuckers even realised what had hit them.
Ryan went straight for the raptor menacing Stephen as Lyle, Finn and Blade started taking out anything that was still capable of moving.
Ditzy left them to it and ran to Ryan’s side.
From the glimpse Lyle had got of the man, Stephen was a mass of bloody wounds. His clothes – and his flesh – were in tatters. Ryan’s face was a mask of professional detachment, but Lyle knew his friend well enough to see beyond that. Ryan had always fancied Stephen but copping off with one of the civilians hadn’t been on the agenda. By the time Ryan came out of hospital, they’d been reassigned as part of a cost-cutting exercise, and the moment had gone.
“Get him out and we’ll frag the fuckers!” Lyle yelled, trying to make himself heard over the cacophony in the room.
Ditz and Ryan lifted Stephen between then and started to half-carry, half-drag him from the room. He needed proper treatment and he needed it fast. Lyle retreated with them firing shot after shot as he went. The minute they were all out of the door, they started lobbing in flash bangs and fragmentation grenades. Subtle it wasn’t, but it would certainly be effective.
Cutter was on his feet now, his face a mask of horror as he saw what the creatures had done to Stephen. From the thumbnail sketch Lester had given them of the events of the last six months, things hadn’t gone well between the professor and Stephen after Helen’s nasty little revelation, but the remainder of Ryan’s team been pulled off the project almost immediately, so hadn’t been around to knock heads together. If they had been, maybe this clusterfuck might not have happened.
The sound of explosion after explosion rocked through the underground complex as grenades and flash-bangs detonated in quick succession. While Blade and Finn stayed behind to pick off anything trying to flee the hell of Leek’s sick petting zoo, Lyle rode shotgun for Ryan and Ditzy, who had Stephen slung between them on a emergency stretcher from the medic’s pack. Finding their way out of the bunker without trying to haul Stephen up the ventilation shaft wasn’t easy, but finally they emerged in daylight, just as a pair of ambulances arrived on site, disgorging paramedics who promptly went to work as Ditz gave them as much information as he could.
Five minutes later, one of the ambulances took off, leaving Ditzy behind to argue with Cutter. “You need checking over, so do us all a favour and shut the fuck up, professor.”
“He’s right,” Ryan said. “You’re shaking like a fucking leaf. Get to hospital and get checked out. We need to make sure nothing gets out of their alive.”
“Apart from the Scutosaurus,” Abby said.
“We’ll get it out alive,” Lyle said. “It’ll need patching up, but I think it’ll make it.” He looked at the lizard bundled up in her arms. “What happened to him?”
“Grazed by a bullet,” she said. “I think he’s going to be all right.”
“Good,” said Lyle, and meant it. “Now let the paramedics check you over as well, before Ditz starts on you as well.”
Abby gave him a wan smile. “We’ve missed you guys.”
Lyle put his arm around her and gave her thin shoulders a quick squeeze. “Don’t tell anyone, but we’ve missed you lot, too.”
A loud bellow from a large set of double doors heralded the arrival of the large lumbering turtle-faced herbivore, followed by Finn and Blade. They closed the doors behind them and let the creature stand there, blinking in the light. If the paramedics were surprised, they were professional enough not to show it.
Lyle grinned. “Over to you.” Leaving Abby to check the creature over, he walked over to where Ryan was delivering an admirably succinct report to Lester by phone. When Ryan shoved his phone back into a pocket, Lyle forestalled his query with the words, “He’s going to be fine.”
“Thumbs?”
Lyle grinned. “Never known to lie, mate.”
no subject
Date: 2019-09-07 07:50 pm (UTC)The action was perfection, and the reactions were spot-on.
*g* Of course Abby's going to remind them to take care of the poor scutosaurus. Lovely little moment.
And of course Cutter's going to bloody well argue - probably just for the sake of working off a little adrenalin!
no subject
Date: 2019-09-09 12:11 pm (UTC)Glad you enjoyed this!