Gender Gear: Code Blue - Episode 1, "Man Down"

At Brisco County Health Clinic, Holls leaned up against a wall in an operating room where a doctor and a medtech treated Nanny's injuries. Outside the operating room, Double Jay and her flight crew sat with Sarge while he waited on news of how Nanny was doing. Enroute to the Clinic, Nanny had gone in and out of consciousness, but had slipped into a coma shortly after Double Jay had landed the Samson and the medical staff had rushed him into emergency surgery. Benny had stayed in the haul of the Samson staring at the blood covered steering wheel of the ORV that Nanny had been driving. The sound of an incoming message broke his quiet reflection.

"This is Rat One. Go." Benny said trying to keep his voice as monotone as he could.

"Rat One this is Willard. We're sending you a priority attachment now." the voice said as Benny slide into the passenger seat of his ORV.

"Roger, Willard. Be advised, we have a man down and he is currently being treated for his injuries." Benny said as he flipped up a panel on the dash board revealing the units Tactical Communicator and Computer (TCC).

"Understood, Rat One. This is a Priority Five Op. We need you back at HQ ASAP!" intoned the voice sternly as Benny continued to fiddle with the TCC as he brought up the message on the viewscreen.

"Roger that, Willard. Consider us en route. Rat One out." Benny snorted as he cut off the radio and tapped the print key on the TCC. Slipping on his headset, he pulled the message out of the printer. "Sarge, we just got new orders."

"You gotta be kiddin' me." Sarge responded with a grimace. Double Jay rolled her eyes as she over heard since Sarge didn't have his headset plugged in.

"Never that, Sarge. You know you're my favorite turd." Benny teased as he began pulling off the rigging the secured the ORV in the Samson's hull.

"I'll grab, Holls." Sarge said as he stood up and made his way for the operating room.

"Don't worry about Nanny." Double Jay added. "We'll stay with him and let the Marshal know what's going on."

"I'll help them get squared away." said Double Jay's crew chief as she raced to the Samson.

"HOLLS!" shouted Sarge, his voice reverberating off the walls.

"What are you screaming about?" Holls asked as he slipped out of the operating room and shot Sarge a look that seemed to infer that Sarge was crazy.

"We gotta go! Priority Five Op." Sarge exclaimed.

"What? Now?" Holls quizzically said. "Don't they know we have a man down?"

"Don't think 'they' care. Come on. Double Jay and the girls are gonna stay here with him." Sarge responded as he put his arm around Holls and guided him towards the door. The engine of one of the ORVs roared to life as Benny pulled out of the belly of the Samson.

"Be Safe Guys." Double Jay's crew chief said.

"I will, Nick." Holls said as he gave Double Jay's crew chief a kiss on the cheek.

"AWE how sweet." Benny remarked as he contorted his face to look as though he was about to throw up. Exchanging looks, Holls and Nick gave each other a quick hug. "Get a room." Benny responded.

"Yeah," said Sarge with a chuckle as he climbed into the passenger seat of the ORV "save some of that for the honeymoon."

"Don't pay any attention to those guys, Love. They're just jealous." Holls rolled his eyes and said as he climbed into the back of the ORV holding on to the thirty for dear life as Benny started off.

"Just make sure you come back with all your 'vital' parts, Hun!" Nick teased as the rest of the N Deep Team broke into laughter.

As the N Deep Team made their way back to base. the Team was startled by a trembling of the ground. Unshaken, the N Deep Team ignored it. Unknown to them, the Earthers had been in the Helios system for several months. There had been several very brutal space battles during that time. Earthers had fought their way to Terranova and had begun overtly landing troops planetside. The Earthers didn't have a planethead established yet, but not for want of trying. In a scramble, the Westphalia Cabinet had begun recalling Talon teams. Hence the Priority Five Op. This was the equivalent of your mom calling your name as the streetlights were coming on. You didn't care what you had going on at the time, you just know you had to go.

Apparently, a Talon team had been recalled and it was up to the N Deep Team to link up with them. On a long list of things that weren't known at the time that the N Deep Team received their message, the Fury carrying the Talons had been hit as it was making reentry and crashed. By the time the N Deep Team had gotten back to HQ, the distress signal had already been given. Begrudgingly, Sarge and his crew were forced to ditch their ORV. They had six people to pick up and even with two ORVs it would have been difficult to say the least.

However, you don't become a member of an N Deep Team without learning how to be resourceful. Ordinarily, a Badger would be used for this type of mission, but the N Deep Team had been refitting, updating and modifying an old Mongoose. It was almost as fast as their ORVs; had a reinforced chassis; had a computerized system that controlled the air pressure in the tire complete with run flat tires; had an up to date sensor suite complete with ECM capabilities which were cannibalized from a "procured" Warrior I; and most importantly for the N Deep Team, the rear drop ramp had been replaced by a make retractable door not unlike a garage door complete with a machine gun pintle mount. In addition this modified Mongoose could carry eight people comfortably (of course when it comes to Northern APCs the term comfort is relative).

"This is Rat One to Willard." Sarge called into his boom mic. With a man down, he had to crew the 20mm autocannon gunner's station.

"This is Willard, go ahead Rat One." replied the voice of an apparently bored radio telephone operator (RTO)

"Sorry to interrupt your doing nothing Willard, but we need to speak to the Chief."

"Hang on, Rat One." said the now annoyed RTO as he called for Chief. Chief had been sitting nearby, while he monitored several of the operations the NDDP HQ had going on. This was an effort to slow down the Earthers until other forces could be rallied

"Chief here, what ya got, Sergeant?" Chief asked in his usual nonchalant manner which was seemingly oblivious to communication protocol.

"Chief, we're coming up to the rendezvous point and we have no joy on that Talon team. Please advise." Sarge said trying his best to maintain a watchful eye for enemy units.

"Rat One, be advised. We've just intercepted a mayday from the Talon's shuttle crew. Transmitting coordinates." the RTO interjected.

"Sergeant, I'm looking at the sat imagery of that grid now. Vat freaks are all over that area. Stay frosty!" Chief warned as he started at the satellite images streaming in from the Hermes 72 Network.

"Copy that, Chief. Rat One out." Sarge said as the N Deep team began proceeding to the crash site of the Black Talon team.