Rescue Mission
CW: Canon-typical violence & death, PTSD (not entirely accurate, please tell me if it's offensive), mention of torture, and rather graphic description of scars/wounds.
"We have a new mission," Kali said as he entered The Lions' shared barracks, where the other three soldiers in his squad were. He walked to the dining table, unfurling a map and setting it down on the table.
Sarabi frowned, noticing how his captain didn't sound as upbeat as usual. "A new mission?" he asked, getting up from the armchair that he had claimed months ago and walking over to where Kali was.
"Uh, not to be a worry-wart, Cap," Nala started, also moving towards Kali along with Simba. "But you're usually more excited for a new mission than you are right now. Is everything alright?"
Kali fiddled with his hands, it being unusual since he had settled back into his usual projection of authority and strength ever since he and the other Lions were reunited.
"It's a rescue mission, Commander Graves is sending us to save a Fleet Marine Corpsman who was presumed to be dead six months ago but was actually captured," he explained, ignoring Nala's question. He cleared his throat as he continued. "The people who are holding him is the terror cell called Minerva."
The name of said terror cell caused Simba, Nala, and Sarabi to bristle at the mention, all of them having a bad experience with the terror cell. After all, a year ago, Minerva was the both the mission and the terror cell that injured all three of them and caused the Marine Corps to presume they were dead. It was a sore subject for all of them, even Kali.
Simba seemed especially bothered by this new information. "The Marine Corps still haven't taken them down after what happened to us?" he inquired, a sneer heard in his voice and no doubt was on his face that was covered by the black balaclava.
Kali shrugged, barely containing his own rage. "According to the file that Graves gave me, the Marine Corps tried to take down Minerva but the squad they sent after us to another warehouse of Minerva barely got out of there alive and their Fleet Marine Corpsman—the one we're rescuing—got captured in the mayhem," he said, his hands curling into fists at the thought. "Shadow Company scouts have caught a glimpse of this Corpsman, callsign "Cerberus", in a warehouse specifically meant for prisoners of Minerva but they're all going to be moving to somewhere else soon. The window to rescue him is closing."
He let this all sink in and he looked at his men.
Sarabi was stock still, but that was usual for the lieutenant. Simba seemed perturbed at the thought of encountering Minerva again and Nala was trying to hide his fear by fiddling with his leather gloves.
They were scared and Kali couldn't blame them. Kali was the only one who managed to not get an injury during the fateful "Minerva" mission The Lions were sent on, but it still scarred him emotionally. And it had scarred his men physically.
Sarabi had his entire right side of his body, face and all, burned from barely diving out of the way when a grenade was thrown. Nala had a nasty knife scar on his stomach which still throbbed and felt like it could open out at any time. Simba had a bullet scar on his back and his legs still felt shaky despite the numerous months of physical therapy he was going to.
"I can ask Graves to assign another squad to the mission," Kali suggested after a few beats of silence. His hand reached for the closest Lion, which was Simba, intertwining their fingers together in a comforting gesture. "We don't have to do this mission, I will back you all up if you don't want to do it."
Sarabi looked at his other squadmates, all of them communicating silently. "We want to do the mission, Mufasa," he replied after a few seconds of silent communication. "There's a Corpsman in need of rescuing, assigning another squad could take more time than he has. You said it yourself, there's a window of time to rescue him that's closing."
Simba nodded in agreement with his lieutenant, squeezing Kali's hand. "Yeah, besides, we're in dire need of a Corpsman, yeah?" His comment was light-hearted and it made Nala and Kali chuckled just a little bit.
"Alright, then let's go over the plan." Kali let go of Simba's hand and took a deep breath before launching into the details of the plan.
*************
A day later, The Lions were executing their plan, having a back-up Shadow Company squad waiting in case the plan went wrong. Again.
Their entry to the warehouse was smooth, Kali leading the front of the group and shooting down enemies. They moved through the warehouse as one, Kali in the front while Simba and Nala were in the middle with Sarabi flanking the rear. They shot down enemy after enemy, making quick work at getting to the large room where the prisoners were being held.
"Simba, you have the flash grenade ready?" Kali asked as they all pressed themselves against the wall near the door, Kali on the left side of the door while while Simba was right side.
Simba nodded, holding the flash grenade. "I'm ready, Mufasa."
"On three, Simba. One, two, three."
Simba opened the door and threw the denoted flash grenade into the room. It exploded and there were sounds of enemies shouting out in surprise as they got blinded.
The Lions used the temporary disadvantage and breached the room, taking down enemies. They didn't bother keeping any alive for interrogation, as their mission was solely a rescue mission. So all of their shooting were lethal, hitting their targets efficiently.
When all of the firing was dead twenty minutes later, Sarabi and Nala got to work on the freeing the prisoners while Kali and Simba moved to the other parts of the warehouse to take down the rest of the enemies.
"We're friendlies, from the private military company called Shadow Company," Nala said, his voice soft. He got to work getting the chains off of the prisoners. "We're going to get all of you out of here and to safety. But we're also here for a specific person, a Corpsman. Callsign "Cerberus". Any of you fit that description?"
"I didn't break," a weak masculine voice said, prompting Sarabi and Nala to turn their heads to look at the man.
His brown skin was pale, dirty, and scarred with knife and whip scars that covered almost everywhere on his body. There were scars spanning six months on his arms, legs, torso, back. One could barely see the tattoo of a swallow on his left shoulder and the tattoo of an eagle flying over a globe with the words "Semper Fi" underneath it that was on his right forearm because the swallow tattoo was marred by a whip scar and the Semper Fi tattoo was marred by a knife scar going up his right arm. His black hair was shoulder-length, evidence of his six-month captivity, and when he lifted his head up to look at both Sarabi and Nala, there was a huge knife scar that went from his right eyebrow down all the way to his cheek and seemed to blind the eye as it was white and cloudy.
"You didn't break?" Sarabi asked, slowly walking towards the Corpsman. He knelt down and gently unchained the man. "You stayed true to your country?"
The Corpsman, Cerberus, nodded. "They tried to get me to turn, I held my ground," he replied, his eyes drooping as he was so dehydrated and hungry.
Sarabi felt a pull towards the Corpsman and he very slowly and gently cupped Cerberus' right cheek, running his gloved thumb across the scar.
"You did great, soldier," he murmured, smiling softly beneath the hard-plated lioness mask and his black balaclava to which Cerberus could see his eyes crinkle as he smiled.
"We're getting you out of here, you survived. You survived and you're going home."
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