In All The Wrong Places ( Jak And Daxter Fan fiction)

9-Double Standards

Today was the first shift for Serena in the sewers and she was not looking forward to it, in fact nobody looked forward to it.
The place stunk worse than a hip hog in a warm barn.
The only thing she did look forward too was having fun with Delta troop.
They were the rough and fun guys of her troop who were always getting into mischief and causing trouble.
They nicknamed themselves sewer rats as they spent most of their time on sewer patrols.

Metal heads used the sewers for probe attacks into the city.
The days could go either way, be dead quiet or dead busy.
She'd lost a few good men down there, but the newly installed sentry guns were helping things out and keeping things quiet.
Serena found the men huddled under a light over a make shift table using eco barrels and old pallet crates they each had a krimzon guard crate to sit on.
Most of them didn't have their helmets on and their rifles were leaning up.
Cigarettes in mouths and cards in hands the boys were gambling.
Serena walked up behind one quietly and tapped him on the shoulder.
He promptly threw his cards in the air and turned around.
"Shit, Commander Acheron we were just.. "He stammered.
"Relax boys and deal me in, I'm in enough shit as is, let's have some fun."
"Nice shiner commander." one of the men said.
She just flipped him the bird and sat at the table and one of the men dealt her a hand, she lit a cigarette and began.

They played for a couple of hours and enjoyed each others company but time ticked on and shifts were about to change.
Serena signaled for the troop to head back up top as she walked out the main security door Erol greeted her.
"The Baron wants the latest eco shipment delivered at the fortress. " He told her.
"Alright, I can get a few of the men to help me." She responded
"Good, east wall sewer ducts of the Ammo dump, you know the drill. "
"Roger that, Commander Erol, boys you know the drill let's move out!"
The walk through the industrial sector to the fortress was quick, the barrels of eco had been delivered through the service entrance and we're awaiting in the loading bays.
One man grabbed the hover dolley and began taking the barrels through the corridors to the eastern wall.
"Remember boys, look alive and look sharp these suckers will take a chance to get at any weakness make sure your weapons are ready. " Serena commanded her boys.
She spied the hole that led into the sewer the wall had been damaged due to a malfunction of a plasmite bomb and had remained as a shipment route to the metal heads.
They set the barrels down and Serena knocked on the pipe.
A sound came from the pipe, she could hear claws on the metal and the slosh of water being dispersed by heavy foot falls.
The growl that ensued was enough to make most men turn and hide.
"Steady boys." She told them.
She had her pistol ready and the men were all staring at the black hole weapons pointed firmly at it.
The glow of yellow appeared down the hole and two large metal heads appeared.
Their teeth razor sharp dripping slime, armoured bodies and glowing yellow skull gems.
"This is the latest shipment of eco, The Baron says take it and get out! " She told the beast.
It lunged forward at her and clamped it's teeth shut an inch from her face.
She could smell the rotten flesh in it's teeth but she stared it down not giving it an inch of doubt.
She heard a gun cock " Back off! And get gone!" Her right hand man Watts threatened the beast.
The metal head snarled turned and began rolling the barrel down the pipe followed by the other.
They waited for all the barrels to be gone and filed out towards the exit of the building.

Serena stopped Watts and left the rest of the men to keep going back to the barracks.
"They are getting cockier those things.
Why the Baron keeps having us give them eco to stave them off is beyond me." She said as she talked with Watts.
"Well we need a way to keep them at bay whilst we find a way to stop them perminantely I guess. " He responded to her.
"I'll make a report but I don't want to loose any men doing double standard dealings with those things. "
He nodded in agreement.
Red lights started flashing, the siren sounded the womans automated voice come over the system.
"Missile cooling system at critical overload, cooling system malfunction, back up fail safe not responding, closing blast shields."
"Shit we have to get out of here!" She yelled over the noise, they ran for the blast door which was coming down quickly.
It was halfway closed by the time they got to it and they both slipped underneath.
They stood either side of the frame as the door was bent outwards by the impact of the explosion.
"Ah shit, talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time again. " Serena panted.
"Shit my security pass was in there. " Watts said to her.
"Don't worry I'll issue you another one when we get back to the barracks it's probably incinerated in there." She told him and smiled.
Her communicator went off and she answered.
"Acheron what the hell is going on I send you to do one single task and you screw it up! " Erol yelled down the device, she held it at arm's length and Watts gave her a sympathetic look.
"Hold on a one bloody minute! " She yelled back. "My men know what they are doing and so do I.
I have enough people to vouch we were not in the same vicinity as the missile launch bays."
"Well guess what? Organise a clean up crew and I want a full investigation report by the end of the night.
I have enough of a mess to clean up from your last mistake." The communicator went dead
"Well Watts you might as well head home, I'm not going to be leaving the palace anytime soon tonight." She sighed and began walking back.
"Commander Acheron I'll organise the clean up crew that should save you an hour or two, the troop are a group of mischievous men and we give you our fair share of grief." He told her putting his arm on her shoulder in a gesture of kindness
"Thanks Watts I owe you one." She smiled turned and walked to the security room to see what footage and information she could drag up.