Wings of Honor: Meeting The Enemy

Chapter 21: Earning A HOG's tooth

I was sent flying, tripped into the snow. Supplies were scattered all over the place.
I looked up in the moonlight, I managed to see what happened.
The sled broke. Anthony's weight caused it to dig forcibly into the ground, catching my momentum, levering me up and around my waist, which felt like I had been shot all over again.
And I might have well been. The injury I had gotten a few weeks earlier, started bleeding again. I saw a maroon patch begin to grow on my uniform.
"Fuck!"
I looked over and saw Anthony in the snow. He propped himself against a tree but was already sinking. I managed to crawl over to him.
"Marvin." He managed to gasp out.
"Anthony." I returned.
The two of us just sat up against that tree, gasping. We stayed there for a long time, watching the moon.
But then it began to set in. My legs felt tingly. When I rubbed them, the pressure was dulled. Like I could no longer feel as good in my legs anymore. I started shivering, shivering badly. Although I gloved my hands good, they were as frozen as my legs, cold as to be ineffective.
"Marvin?"
"Anthony," I responded as I tried to warm my hands.
"You're... you're shivering."
"Yeah. So what about it?"
Anthony sat up with a hiss. "We need to get you out of here. We need to get you to a hospital."
"You first General." Then a coughing fit came over me. The frigid air stung my warm lungs, causing me to cough further. It wasn't until I restricted the flow and breathed through my fur gloves, I managed to stop.
"We... we can't stay here."
"That's... right. We can't." I struggled to my feet. Nearly stumbling from the loss of feeling. "We gotta... keep... walking"
I gingerly helped the General to his feet, he leaned into me.
With slow and short steps, waiting an eternity before the next one, we inched our way forward through the snow.
The snow became a breeze. A breeze that chilled us, and crafted long clouds from our breath. That breeze became a gust, giving us force against us. We could power through, but our energy was draining fast. That gust turned into a blizzard. Sharp snowflakes pummeled my unprotected face, but I didn't feel a thing. Not anymore.
I didn't walk by choice anymore. Every step was to keep me from falling, every breath I couldn't feel. I even closed my eyes, I didn't need sight to move forward.
Anthony became but a distant voice in my head, as we kept moving.
We kept moving.
We kept moving.
Moving.
Moving.
Moving.
I was pushing through.
And then gravel rose to meet me.

We briefed Turtle as best we could.
Needless to say, Turtle wasn't nearly as surprised as the other bombshells we've dropped on him before. However, he was definitely shaken how if a fight broke down between him and Anemone, the resulting magic use would reveal all of us.
Even though we didn't have many options outside of encountering Anemone, I figured it may as well be on our terms.
Grace would act as mediator between Turtle and Anemone, hopefully, to talk down the fight. Grace herself admitted it wasn't the best of chances, but what else could we do but try?
I would find a position as overwatch. Armed with wooden non-lethal rounds to hopefully suppress Anemone if shit went down. However, it was brought to my attention that Goldman and his team might be prowling the beaches as well, because Grace enchanted her Transformation Device. I would provide intel, and fight them off or at least delay them until Grace resolved the conflict.
It wasn't the best plan, that still had plenty of things that could go wrong, but it was the best we got.
I had already turned back into a human. (Apparently, my clothes and equipment were preserved. Magic. I don't know.) I was preparing my MKB for overwatch.
"W-w-why don't you talk with her?" Turtle pleaded with me.
I just looked to Grace.
She walked up to him, covering him with her wing. "Because she'll attack me immediately if I do. She doesn't like NightWings right now, and she'll attack me on sight. You..." she trailed off looking at his scared face. "You have a chance to talk her down."
I sighed, loading up a magazine of wooden rounds. I doubted SeaWings would be seriously hurt by 7.92 short, I know MudWings were all but impervious to anything but rifle rounds, but I didn't want to risk harming anyone. I already killed a dragon, I'm not doing that again.
"But." Turtle looked around. "But what if it doesn't work? What are the chances it doesn't work?" He looked up to Grace.
She looked off to the distance for a moment. "You-umm..." then she met his desperate gaze. Everything from his puppy dog eyes, him trying to shrink away into a tiny hole, and struggling to complete a sentence, he was desperate not to do this.
"There's only about a one-in-ten chance of this working."
Turtle made a sound that I made out to be a shaky breath overlayed with a whine.
"But Marvin will be looking after you. And I'll be hiding nearby, so that you won't get hurt."
A tear ran down from Turtle, he wiped it away. "Promise, Grace?"
Grace nodded, smiling. "I promise." She pulled him in a little closer.
I smiled. Rocking and setting the magazine filled with wooden fragmentation rounds, tapping it in, pulling back the charging handle, and letting it fly. Locked and loaded.
"There's a couple rocky boulders nearby that overlook where you two will encounter." I slid the Zf-4 scope onto my weapon, flipping the tab to lock it in place with a secure click. "I'll be there making sure nobody sneaks up on you."
"But what about my sister!" Turtle exclaimed.
I paused for a moment, choosing my words carefully. "If... you can't disengage in time, then... I will aim to wound. Nothing that will kill her."
Turtle breathed a sigh of relief. <Thank you.> he flashed in aquatic.
Grace glared at me. You know full well that shooting to wound is as effective as shooting to kill!
I hung my head. He needed to hear that. And don't you get me started, making promises you can't keep!
Grace recoiled back. "I will keep my promises! I know. I've seen them. But can you?"
I fell back, taking a shaky breath.
Turtle looked up between us, he was panic-stricken all over again.
I shut my mouth, grumbling. Again, which is why I am very careful about what I say. So that if I speak, people will listen. And if I make a promise, my word is as good as gold. Only now... he needed to hear that, and it wasn't beyond my abilities. So if I needed to tell a lie, I made sure it was a lie I could live with it. I could live with this one.
Turtle began to squirm again, and we were all pretty much done preparing. "I'll move to overwatch. Good luck and Godspeed, Turtle."
"W-w-wait!" He looked over at Grace. "Can't we just wait a little while longer?"
"No." Grace chuckled, a little stunned that I left her with him. "Come on. You'll be fi-"