Rainbow Six Siege Outbreak Fanfiction: The Nest

by reactiverainbow

Rainbow Six has uncovered intel that a Soviet Union space capsule is the source of the parasitic infection that has overrun the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Operators Ash, Finka, and Tachanka are deployed into the "dark zone" of the town, an area where the infection is the worst, to secure the capsule in hopes of finding a cure.

RAINBOW SIX SIEGE FANFICTION: OPERATION CHIMERA THE NEST

It's been days since Eliza sent the call for help in the town of Truth or Consequences sparking the launch of Operation Chimera. An unknown parasite has taken control over the town's citizens. They had no idea whether it was terrorism or if it was just an accidental release. The United States government asked Six if she could send an operator to help with military strategy in securing the town and parasite. Only warning Six gave Eliza was a text message saying she had 2 hours to pack her things for a flight to New Mexico. Since her arrival, it's been defeat after defeat in her military campaign against the parasite. It seemed their enemy was more cunning and deadlier then they thought. Eliza had no choice but to call for back up. There was no way her and National Guard could fight the parasite by themselves. The waves of infected have withered down Eliza and the soldiers she commanded. Operators from Rainbow that had training in CBRN tactics and defense were chosen for the operation. Six also added two CBRN specialists, Lion and Finka, to Rainbow's roster. Now that Rainbow Six was fully involved in Truth or Consequences, the defense force may have found the deliverance they were looking for. Valkyrie, Rainbows Six's top intelligence gathering operative, discovered information that could hit the parasite right where it hurts. After tedious work of digging through files and records, she was able to find the location and source of the parasite. An old Soviet space capsule in a redneck's barn in the town most riddled by the parasite. A literal dark zone within the town. With this information there was chance they could develop a cure if they could secure the capsule and possibly halt the parasite from spreading beyond the town. Once the intel was brought to Eliza, she immediately began to put a team together.

"3 days before the outbreak, NASA tracked a meteorite that landed in this area" Eliza said briefing the squad that would be carrying out the mission. An overhead projector flipped through satellite images of the "meteorite."

Alexandr, callsign 'Tachanka,' sat with his feet propped up on a desk flipping through his phone for new parts for his signature gadget, a mounted light machine gun. His LMG desperately needed an upgrade and he also didn't particularly care for briefings. His fellow Spetsnaz squad mate, Timur Glazkov, callsign "Glaz," Rainbow's designated sniper, sat next to Alexandr scribbling what looked like notes in his notebook. Jordan, callsign "Thermite," Rainbow's hard breaching specialist, listened intently and took notes. Marius Streicher, callsign "Jager," rainbow's pilot for the operation sat in the back of the room with ear buds in his ears listening to music.

Timur noticed Alexandr on his phone.

"Vy dolzhny obratit' vnimaniye na brifing (Alex, you should be paying attention to the briefing)." Timur whispered to Alexandr in Russian and glancing toward his phone.

Alexandr glanced at the sniper's notebook. He wasn't writing notes. He was drawing something. He grabbed the notebooks from his squad mate and examined the artwork. It was a sketch of Eliza doing the briefing. He waved the sketch in front of his squad mates face mockingly causing Timur to reach around for it wildly.

"Vau Glazkov, priyatnyye zametki, kotoryye ty poluchil zdes' (Wow Glazkov, nice notes you got here)." He whispered back sarcastically.

He tossed the notebook in Timur's face and went back to his phone.

Eliza continued with the briefing.

"We got confirmation that a local named Boid Brooks hauled the object back to his salvage yard."

"Coincidence?" Alexandr asked not even looking up from his phone as he looked at an LMG on wheels on a firearms trader site.

"No actually." Eliza said turning a laptop toward Alexandr. "He was trying to sell it online. This is why I called you."

She leaned over the laptop on her knuckles.

"Your highness?"

Alexandr sat up in his chair and examined a picture of an old space module on the internet. He recognized the Soviet Union insignia on the side of it reminding him of the time he spent in the Red Army. It partially reminded him of his age as well.

"Soviet. Very old."

Then he put two and two together and got defensive.

"Waaaiiit. I'm Russian! So, you think I'm supposed to know something about this?!"

Eliza smiled, "just thought you'd appreciate the heads up. We can leave the politics to Six. Our job is to secure it."

"What's the plan?"

"We assault patient zero's house and look for the module. Once its located and secured, we fly it out of the town where our scientists can use it to hopefully develop a cure."

Alexandr leaned back in his chair and propped his feet back on the desk in front of him.

"Assault a house, kill roaches, secure a Soviet relic and leave. Sounds straight forward to me."

Eliza shook her head in disagreement.

"Not exactly. The house is in the town where the infection is the worst. It's a dark zone. The soldiers from the National Guard and SWAT that have been sent into that area of the town have never been heard from again. Hordes of roaches lurk in the buildings and the streets, so we can't just go in guns blazing like you see in zombie movies. The roaches are attracted to sound, so we'll have to go stealthy to attract the least amount of attention. The less encounters we have with the infected, the easier this op will go and the quicker we can get out."

Alexandr frowned. Stealth ops weren't his favorite. His signature gadget was a giant mounted light machine gun. Guns blazing was what he excelled at, not stealth.

"So how do you propose we get there? It's a long walk from the FOB to that area of the town and doing it stealthily will take even longer. Plus from the intel we have it sounds like we're not going to have much time to operate very long in that sector of the town or we'll turn into one of them."

"That's why we're going to parachute in."

"No. No way."

Alexandr sat up to leave the tent and go home but Timur grabbed him by his shoulder and pushed him back into his chair without evening having to get up or look away from his sketch.

Jordan chuckled at Alexandr's reaction.

Alexandr started to wish he was never picked for Operation Chimera. He hated heights and never exactly flew so well in his Spetsnaz jump training. Eliza proceeded to give the details of the jump despite Alexandr's reaction.

"At sunset, we conduct a HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) jump. A C130 flying at 51,000 feet flies us to a mobile home park just outside of Patient Zero's home. That mobile home park will be our landing zone. We jump with a crate full of any gadgets we may need for the mission. Once we've landed in the mobile home park, we make our way toward the house quietly. The module is kept in a barn in the middle of junkyard near Patient Zero's house but we have to cut through the basement of the house to get to the junkyard. Once we've found the module, we place explosives around the source of the parasite and prep the space module for heavy lifting via helicopter."

"Blyad" Alexandr said shaking his head in disappointment.

He looked at Timur who was back to working on his sketch in his notebook. He tried to wiggle his way out of the mission.

"Timur would be a better fit for this mission since its stealth and besides, this Soviet relic hasn't jumped out of an aircraft in a long time." Alexandr said elbowing his squad mate.

Timur stopped his sketch and gave the old man a dirty look for throwing him under the bus and then returned to his sketch.

"Alex, we need your turret and defensive expertise to help establish a perimeter around the explosives. They won't go off instantly. As soon as we set the explosives the roaches are going to know we're tampering with their life source so they're going to attack us with full force. Besides, Glazkov will be covering our extraction."

"khoroshaya popytka mudak (Nice try asshole)." Timur whispered to his teammate while finishing up the final touches to his sketch.

"How much C4 will we need to destroy the parasitic source?"

Jordan jumped into the conversation with Texan accent.

"Your fellow Spetsnaz comrade, Shurat, has that covered for us. Unfortunately, he couldn't participate in Operation Chimera, but he was able to create a variation of his cluster charges that can be installed into the parasitic mass and inject high grade explosives into it." Jordan explained.

"I'll be sure to thank Shurat when I see him. I assume you're going to be part taking in the madness with us then Jordan?" Alexandr asked.

"That's a negative. I'll be your eyes and ears for this operation."

"Then who else have you selected for the operation Eliza?"

"Dr. Melinkova, the new CBRN operator, will be accompanying us in securing the package. She's already been briefed on the mission. I hate to pull her from her medical work since she's working on creating a cure, but Olivier's time is already booked, and we need one of the C-burn (CBRN) specialists for this operation."

A small file showed at the end of his lip. Dr. Melinkova was always a pleasure to operate with and she was great drinking buddy. He fancied her for that.

"Understood. Is that all?"

Alexandr was ready to hit the hay and brush up on HALO jump techniques.

"Yes, you're dismissed. We're wheels up at 16:00 tomorrow. Hydrate, get some rest and have your kit ready in the morning." Eliza commanded.

The operators stood up and started to file out of the tent.

Eliza turned and stared at the whiteboard full of notes, pictures, and intel that had been gathered since the start of the operation. She didn't blame Alexandr for being sketched out about the op. She was usually extremely confident and energetic before operations but instead she was just as anxious as Alexandr.

THE NEXT DAY IN THE EARLY MORNING

After they had finished eating breakfast, all the operators went through their pre-operation routine of checking their kits. Eliza was cleaning her G36C and Alexandr loaded mags for his LMG in the armory. Jordan walked in with a bag full of strange looking cluster charges.

In the middle of the armory laid a black crate. He put the cluster charges in the black crate as well as some of his exothermic charges.

Eliza and Alexandr put any other gadgets and ammo they would need for the mission in the crate. Once the crate was loaded two workers came and wheeled the crate out of the armory.

"Hey, by the way, Dr. Mel was looking for you and her prince charming over in the medical tent." Jordan said before he left the tent.

Eliza laughed at the comment. Alexandr gave Jordan a death stare. If looks could kill, Jordan would be dead. Jordan laughed and walked away before Alexandr could launch a fist full of lead at him.

Eliza and Alexandr made their way through the bustling FOB stationed just outside of Truth or Consequences. Soldiers moved about conducting their morning duties. The whomping noises of choppers blades cutting through the air could be heard close by.

When the two walked into the medical tent they saw Lera dressed in her scrubs and lab coat pulling a silvery liquid from a cannister with a big booster shot. She saw her two teammates walk into the tent.

"Eliza! Alexandr! Please! Have a seat!" Lera said with a heavy Slavic accent. She placed the two booster shots on a tray.

Ash and Alexandr sat next to each other on a cold metal bench.

"I'm sorry to bother you before the op but I need to give you your shots." Lera said trying to sound cheerful. She knew no one liked getting shots.

"Dr. Melnikova, what is this? The Roach Vaccine or something so we won't get infected?" Alexandr asked sarcastically as he rolled up his sleeve exposing his arm.

Lera giggled. She always had a thing for Alexandr. It was something about his personality that she liked.

"Unfortunately, Dr. Kateb and I are still in the works for creating a cure and we haven't had much success. We're hoping that if we can successfully extract the space module, the source to the parasite, then we might be able to create a cure. A lot is riding on the success of this mission. The shot that I'm giving you is my nanobots. They swim in your blood stream and when I activate them remotely, they'll enhance your physical and mental performance. This will only pinch for a second."

Lera took an antibacterial wipe and wiped a spot on their arms. She administered the shots and gave them a Band Aid for the puncture.

"All done. I'll see you guys in a few hours."

Eliza and Alexandr left the tent. She could hear Alexandr protesting about the details of the mission and the fact that he now has robots swimming in his body. Once they were out of sight. Lera looked down at her hands. She flexed and wiggled her fingers. She put her hands on the cold metal bench. She frowned.

"Are you sure you're up for this Dr. Melnikova?" A man asked with a thick French accent.

Lara jumped when she heard the voice behind her.

"Dr. Kateb! You're back from your field research!" She said turning around to see the GIGN doctor.

"Oui (Yes)."

He looked concerned about her.

"Are you losing feeling again?" He asked gently not to upset her. Lara's own health was always a sensitive subject to her.

She didn't answer. She looked down at her feet trying to avoid his gaze.

"Lara, please."

"No, I'm okay." She turned away from him and walked to a cabinet and put her cannister full of nanobots back in a refrigerator. Gustave walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't lie to me Lara."

She couldn't keep up the lie. Gustave had been closely monitoring Lara's neuropathy since she joined Rainbow Six. He was the only one who knew about it. Not even Six or the other operators knew about it. Her condition greatly concerned him.

"My fingers. The feeling goes in and out. Sometimes I even lose feeling in my hands." She admitted.

"So, I'll ask you again. Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked firmly.

Lara faced Gustave and looked him dead in the eye. She balled her fists that she couldn't feel. She could tell he didn't want her to go which frustrated her.

"Positive. Rainbow needs me. Especially now. Olivier and I are the only C-burn specialists Rainbow has with extensive experience with biological threats of this magnitude. I must be in the field. My fellow operators and these people being killed by this parasite need me. The cure to stopping this epidemic is riding on this."

Gustave sighed. They both shared that same humanitarian emotions. It was the sole reason why he pushed himself through medical school.

"I understand. Lera, please be careful."

"I will."

Gustave grabbed a folder from a cabinet and left the tent.

ONE HOUR BEFORE TAKE OFF

Eliza, Lara, and Alexandr walked toward the black C130 with their kit. Their big parachute bags dangled off their backs. The harnesses they wore made it difficult to walk. Self-contained breathing apparatus masks and tubes dangled off the front of their olive-green jump suits made for high altitude jumps. They wore olive green helmets with their country's flag on the side. Underneath their suits they wore their hazmat gear. Timur, Maxim, and Jordan waited for them at the end of the ramp to the C130. They saw their black crate full of equipment being loaded into the airplane. The setting sun was blocked by dark clouds. A cold breeze could be felt as they walked toward the plane creating an eerie vibe.

Timur approached his squad mates and gave them each a hug.

"Udatchi (Good luck)." He said to the group. He hustled back to the hanger.

Maxim approached Alexandr.

"Ostavaytes' v bezopasnosti starik (Stay safe old man)."

"Pozhiloy chelovek (Old man?!)"

The two operatives laughed at the joke and embraced. Alexandr walked up the ramp of the plane.

Maxim turned his attention to Lara. Lara smiled at him. Maxim had been Lara's mentor ever since she started her Spetsnaz training. He was the one who gave her the name 'Finka' after he cut her face with a knife after a CQC training drill went wrong giving her the deep scar across her face. She beat up Maxim so bad for what he did to her that she put him in the infirmary alongside her.

"Alex - bol'shoy chelovek. Ne tak manevrennyy. Ubedites', chto vy vnimatel'no nablyudayete za yego spinoy (Alex is a big man. Not so maneuverable. Watch his back closely)." Maxim said placing a hand on his student's shoulder.

He pulled out a sharp knife off his belt and handed it to her. She examined the blade. It was the same knife that cut her face years ago.

"Tarakanam nravitsya vstavat' blizko, kogda oni srazhayutsya. Dazhe shansy na eto. Udatchi. (The roaches like to get up close when they fight. Even the odds with this. Good luck)."

"Spasibo (Thank you)."

Lara put the knife in her tactical vest and clambered up the ramp of the aircraft. Maxim made his way back to hanger nodding at Eliza as he passed her. Jordan met Eliza at the bottom of the ramp. Eliza, normally the most confident operator of Rainbow Six but she looked anxious today.

"You ready?" He asked.

"Yeah I'm all set."

She looked up at the cloudy sky. The breeze made her long red braid flow in the air.

"Stay focused out there. You're gonna do fine."

Eliza sighed. She'd been the operation lead in Truth or Consequences for weeks and had yet to have a major victory in countering the parasite. They needed this mission to succeed. The fate of the town and United States depended on it. God only knows what could happen if they fail to keep the infection contained. She nodded to Jordan and nervously boarded the plane.

"God give me strength." She mumbled to herself in Hebrew.

The plane ride to drop zone was not pleasant. A tense vibe could be felt in the entire cabin of the aircraft. None of the operators said a word to each other. Alexandr sat with his feet propped up getting some shut eye. Finka sat leaning forward cradling her head in hands. The operators could hear her foot tapping nervously on metal floor. Eliza had her head bowed as she said a prayer to herself in Hebrew. The operators of Rainbow Six are the best special forces operatives in the world. They can stay calm and collected in the most dangerous circumstances, but they are not emotionless robots. They would be lying to themselves if they said they've never been nervous before an op.

The entire inside of cabin glowed a bright red and a loud beep was heard signaling they were close to the drop zone and the ramp was about to lower. The three operators and the flight engineers inside clipped on their oxygen and began to breath fresh air from their air cylinders. The back of the plane opened flooding the entire cabin with sunlight blinding the operators for a second. The wind outside rushed through the cabin. The landscape outside was stunning. The sun was beginning to disappear below the curvature of the Earth turning the sea clouds below them purple, orange and red. The operators lowered their goggles over their eyes.

BOOOOP

The operators stood up and checked each other's kits one last time.

Timur would go wild trying to sketch a pretty sunset like this Alexandr thought to himself as he checked his own gear, Lara's gear and Eliza's gear. When Alexandr checked Lara's gear he looked into her eyes. They were full of pure determination and focus. They both nodded at each other and turned toward the ramp. Eliza bounced on the balls of her feet getting ready to jump. He looked toward her squad mates and they both nodded at each other not saying a word. The operators reached down to their right ankles and activated a red flare attached to their ankles, so the operators could see each other as they fell.

BOOOP BOOOP

One of the flight engineers signaled them forward to the middle of the cabin. The operators spread themselves out across the cabin of the airplane.

BOOP… BOOP… BOOP… BOOP… BOOP…

The cabin in the plane flooded with green light.

The engineers on the plane pushed the crate full of gadgets out the back of the plane.

Then the operators ran toward the ramp and dove head first out of the perfectly good airplane like they were diving into a swimming pool. The three operators plummeted toward the dark storm clouds below them following each other's red flares.

The operators fell together keeping an eye on their altitude as they fell. They could see occasional flashes of lightning in the clouds below them. All they could hear was the wind rushing past their ears. When they entered the thick cloud barrier they lost sight of each other for a few seconds. They could feel water hitting them as it began to rain. When they finally started to pass the cloud barrier they could see bright lights below as the town of Truth or Consequences began to show itself. From the operator's altitude, they could see the destruction from the weeks of battling the parasitic infection. Fires raged in some of the buildings. Abandoned cars were scattered everywhere. Very off in the distance, bright lights from their FOB could be seen. Dark New Mexican mountains loomed over the back of town. In some areas they could see occasional streaks of lights from the streets below like they were flying above shooting stars. The National Guard soldiers in charge of defending the FOB's perimeter were engaging the roaches with tracer rounds in their rifles. Once the operators reached their desired altitude above the town they pulled their parachute cords. Their chutes deployed but the wind was so strong that operators abruptly separated them. They began to plummet toward the mobile home park below losing sight of each other.

ASH

When the wind picked up as she deployed her chute it turned her body around, so she lost sight of her squad's flares. She began to rapidly descend toward the mobile home estates below her. She pulled on her chute desperately trying to turn herself around. The ground got closer and closer to her. She braced for the hard impact. She landed in the middle of a street falling on her face kissing the pavement. The wind continued to blow in her shoot and began to drag her down the road on her face. She thrashed around desperately trying to disconnect the shoot. She pulled out her knife and cut the cord. Her chute blew away. She rolled over and quickly pulled out her suppressed G36C, unfolded the stock, loaded a fresh mag, chambered a round and switched off the safety. She laid still in the street not moving a muscle and intently listened to her surroundings. Her landing made a huge racket and the roaches were attracted to noise. She waited to be ambushed by roaches. The rain beaded up on her goggles and dripped off the barrel of her rifle. The black clouds had an ambient orange glow on them from the fires burning in the town. She listened to the wind howl between the homes. She heard wind chimes from somewhere, and the sound of the rain clinking off tin roofs. The occasional chatter of distant gunfire and explosions could be hurt far away from her. She unclipped the mask from her face and undid her parachute bag. She stripped off her jump suit revealing her hazmat suit underneath. She dug into her duffle and pulled out a clear APR mask and an olive-green FBI beanie. She put on the beanie took off her goggles and placed her APR over her face. She thought her yellow hazmat suit made her look like a giant banana. The sleeves on her legs and arms were taped to prevent anything from getting inside the suit. Eliza took cover on the porch of one of the homes.

"Thermite coms check. Do you copy?"

Her voice sounded funny talking with the APR over her face.

All she got was static. She tried again.

"Thermite coms check. Do you copy?"

"I read you loud and clear." A voice with a heavy Texan accent responded.

"Copy."

"Give me a sitrep"

"The powerful winds separated the squad before we landed. I lost sight of them, so I have no idea where they are. I'm okay otherwise. I still managed to land in the mobile home park, so I think I'm in relative proximity of Patient Zero's house. I have no idea where our gadgets crate landed. I'll let you know what street I'm on for directions."

"Copy that. We have a UAV in the air right now looking for the crate but it's going to be leaving soon because of the storm. I'm still waiting on contact from Tachanka and Finka. I'll give you all rendezvous point once I have your locations."

"Copy."
Ash started making her way up the street looking for a street sign.

TACHANKA

Tachanka was following Ash's strobe the entire way down with Finka right behind him. He thought everything was going according to plan until the wind separated the three of them. He lost sight of his squad as the wind pointed him in a new direction toward the mobile home estates. His chute then got tangled on a lamp post and Tachanka hung like an on an ornament on a Christmas tree from the post.

"Bylat!"

He stayed still and listened for incoming danger but didn't hear anything except the falling rain, the wind, and sound of his own breathing from his oxygen supply. He pulled a knife and slashed cords. He fell a few feet before landing on a sidewalk behind an abandoned car. He stripped off his parachuting gear and pulled his APR over his face. He loaded his suppressed AK sub machine gun and looked around. He examined his hazmat suit.

"The roaches will be sure to spot me in this." He said disgusted by the bright yellow color.

He turned on his radio. At first, he heard static and then a voice started to fade in between the static.

"… no idea where our gadgets crate landed. I'll let you know what street I'm on for directions.

Copy that. We have a UAV in the air right now looking for the crate but it's going to be leaving soon because of the storm. I'm still waiting on contact from Tachanka and Finka. I'll give you all rendezvous point once I have your locations."

He recognized Ash and Thermite's voices.

"HEY, DID YOU HEAR THAT!?"

Tachanka dove underneath the car he was behind when he heard the man's voice. He lowered the volume on his radio.

"Yeah. It came from over hear." Another man's voice said.

"Let's check it out." Said a third man.

Tachanka looked in the direction of where the voice was coming from. He kept his weapon at the ready. The voices sounded… normal. The three men came into view. They appeared to be walking normally. Their bodies looked normal. The three men wore Army uniforms. They looked up down the street for whatever noise they heard Tachanka make.

"Are they one of ours?" Tachanka thought to himself.

Yesterday's briefing began to play back in Tachanka's head. He could hear Ash's voice in his head:

"The house is in the town where the infection is the worst. It's a dark zone. The soldiers from the National Guard and SWAT that were sent into that area of the town have never been heard from again."

Tachanka began to think to himself before making his move.

"Anybody sent into this area previous to this mission haven't been heard from in a long time. These people could never survive for this long in the dark zone. They'd be dead."

Tachanka struggled to figure out what to do. He was having a moral dilemma. None of this was adding up to him. He conscious started questioning his own judgement and thoughts.

"It could be trap? Maybe they're infected but they're faking being healthy to lure me out?"

"The infected can't be that smart? Can they?"

"What if I kill them and ask questions later? What if they were healthy and I just killed 3 innocent soldiers trying to get out of here? There appears to be nothing wrong with them…"

Tachanka made up his mind. He crawled out from under the car and made his way toward the 3 men.

"Hello?" He called out.

The men stopped walking and looked toward him.

"Oh, hello there." One of the men responded.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"Please help us." Said one.

"We're in so much pain." Said the other.

"The National Guard abandoned us." Said the third.

The men started to walk toward him.

"Where are you hurt? What's going on? What do you mean you were abandoned? I don't understand?"

Tachanka stood his ground with his weapon trained on the three soldiers.

When the men got close to him he recoiled back in shock.

Their skin was dark grey and veiny. Their eyes and mouths a deep red. They started to convulse. Tachanka just stood still in shock.

"Lisus khristos…(Jesus Christ…)"

He watched spikes rip out from beneath their skin. They screamed in pain. All 3 turned and stared a Tachanka with their red eyes. All three men started to scream at him.

"THEY LEFT US HERE TO DIE"

"TO SUFFER"
"THIS TOWN WILL BURN FOR WHAT THEY DID TO US"
They charged at him with lightning speed but Tachanka's reaction time was faster. He flipped off his safety and fired a burst of bullets snapping to each targets head like a machine. He dropped the three men effortlessly. The last one falling at his feet. He double tapped each of them to make sure they were dead. He stared at the dead that laid before him through the visor of his APR. He knelt down turned one of the bodies over and stared at the disfigured face. He looked at the dog tags and the army uniform. Tachanka turned his radio on.

"Thermite come in."

"Tachanka I hear you."
"Copy that."

"Tachanka you're okay!" Ash interrupted.

"What's your status?" Thermite asked.

"I don't know where I am. I'm somewhere in the mobile home park. I know what happened to the National Guard soldiers that we sent into this sector. They're all infected but they're pretending to be healthy to lure in healthy people and infect them. 3 of them almost got a hold of me but I iced them before they could try anything. This parasite has grown much smarter and adaptive since previous engagements."

"Jesus Christ." Thermite said trying to take in the bad news.

There was a moment silence between the operators. Tachanka broke the silence.

"I'll find you a street sign, so you can figure out my location. Have we heard anything from Finka?"

"Copy that and negative. We're still waiting for her."

Back at the FOB Thermite sat in the briefing room. There was a big map of Truth or Consequences on one wall and a computer close by showed a live feed from one of their UAVs trying to track the gadgets crate. Ash found an intersection where she could report her location. He marked her location on the map with a blue thumb tack. Shortly after Tachanka did the same thing. He marked his location with a red thumb tack. He still heard nothing from Finka. The UAV circled around what looked like a black box in the middle of a parking lot. A general store sat a few feet away from the box.

"Bingo."

He marked the location on his map. Tachanka and Ash were only a few blocks from the general store. He then plotted a course from the general store to Patient Zero's house. It would take some walking, but they'd make it."

"Ash. Tachanka. Come in."

Each operator responded.

"I read you."

"Go ahead Thermite."

"We found the gadget crate. It's in the parking lot to a general store. UAV is bugging out. Ash, proceed 10 blocks East and you'll see the store."

"Copy, I'm Oscar mike."

"Tachanka proceed 13 blocks East and then 7 blocks South."

"Copy."

Thermite sat down in a chair and leaned back rubbing his eyes.

He turned toward the map.

"Where are you Finka?"

FINKA

"Ma'am she has neuropathy. Nerve damage that leads to numbness in the extremities."

"She'll most likely lose all feeling in her hands and feet by her teens."

"You'll never make it through the army. Your condition will catch up to you. It'll only lead to heartbreak."

"Are you sure you want to do this Lera?"

"My fingers. The feeling goes in and out. Sometimes I even lose feeling in my hands."

"Positive. Rainbow needs me. Especially now. Olivier and I are the only C-burn specialists Rainbow has with extensive experience with biological threats of this magnitude. I must be in the field. My fellow operators and these people being killed by this parasite need me. The cure to stopping this epidemic is riding on this."

"The cure to stopping this epidemic is riding on this…"

Finka came to consciousness in a cold sweat and hyperventilating. She looked around. It was raining. The wind was making her sway steadily back and forth. Her head pounded. Her arms dangled above her head. She realized she was hanging upside down by a lamp post. The light on the lamp post flickered. It was night time. A house burned next to her. A pool of blood laid beneath her. She put her hand to her head and felt a large dent in her helmet. She then put her hand to her nose and mouth wiping away blood. She put her hand to her ear. A little bit of blood came out of one.

"Der'mo (shit)."

She looked up at her leg. It was tangled in paracord. She pulled out the knife Maxim gave her and with one swipe she sliced the cord. She fell several feet and landed on her back on the hood of a car then rolled off onto the pavement.

She grimaced in pain. She felt really dizzy. She ripped off her parachuting gear and put on her APR mask. She pulled out her .308 assault rifle and loaded a magazine. She couldn't remember what happened to her and she didn't know where she was. All she knew was she needed help and she needed it fast. She reached for her radio to call to Thermite and her squad.

It wasn't in her vest pocket.

She looked around for it in a panic.

It laid beneath the lamp post shattered in pieces.

She fell to her kneels breathing heavily picking up the pieces trying to put it back together. Her hands trembling. Her efforts were hopeless. She began to feel sick to her stomach. She wasn't sure if it was from the dread she felt about the situation she was in or her head trauma.

She pulled up her APR and vomited. It had a light red color to it. Blood.

She stayed slumped on knees still breathing heavily. She closed her eyes. Tears streaked down her face. She felt the cold rain pelt against her body. The wind cut past her yellow hazmat suit.

She tried to ignore the pain in her head and think about what to do but all she could hear were voices of everyone who doubted her.

"Are you sure you want to this?"

"You're not going to make it far Lera."

"The cure to stopping this epidemic is riding on this."

She opened her eyes, took a breath, and tried to stand. She used the side of nearby car to help herself up.

The cure to this parasitic infection depended on her. She can't stop now. Her squad needed her. She had to find them. The innocent needed her too. She let go of the car and steadied herself using her rifle as a cane. Her legs and arms trembled. She looked around listening for danger but didn't hear anything. She looked down the block she was on. A bright light a very long way down the street shined in her eyes blinding her. She thought she saw a rather large building bigger near the light. She needed to find shelter and figure out where she way. Maybe she could find a map in the building. She stumbled her way toward the light. The wind and rain blowing against her.

THE GENERAL STORE

"Thermite, I'm approaching the store." Whispered Ash as she observed the crate from behind a car. A huge neon sign reading 'GENERAL STORE' flickered with an assortment of colors in front of the store by the street. The store looked to be no bigger than a mini mart you'd see at a gas station. The lights were still on inside the store. It looked almost untouched from the outside.

She could see figures milling around the crate in the parking lot.

"Tachanka are you at the general store yet?" Ash asked.

"Yes. I'm about 100 meters away. I have the store's big neon sign glowing in my face."

"Okay. I'm gonna take out some of these roaches."

5 figures surrounded the crate staring at the neon light as if they were mesmerized by it. 3 others lingered near the front of the store. One of the figures at the entrance separated itself from the other 2 and started to walk down the parking lot.

Ash zeroed her ACOG on the roach's skull.

Took a breath.

Squeeze.

PEW

The rifle recoiled in her Ash's shoulder and watched the roach's body fall limp to pavement. She could hear the roach's skull crunch from the bullet impact. The other roaches didn't bat an eye to their fallen partner.

She continued the pattern of aim, breath, and squeeze until 8 bodies lifeless bodies of men and women littered the parking lot.

"Clear."

She began to advance on the crate, weapon at the ready. She glanced to her left and saw Tachanka pushing up to the crate as well. They looked around the parking lot. Once they determined they were alone. They jogged over to the crate.

"Let's get out of the rain, shall we?" Tachanka asked and started to pull the heavy crate toward the general store. Ash helped him.

Ash began to sweep the general store for any roaches. The inside of the store looked untouched despite all the chaos around it. She found no roaches. She set her rifle and supplies down on a bench by a front window and opened the crate.

"It must be Christmas morning!" Tachanka said as he started to gather his supplies. He pulled out a pack with his mounted LMG inside. Ash took the exo thermic charges and cluster charges. She pulled out her signature gadget, an M320 grenade launcher.

"Thermite, gadgets secured."

"Copy that, Ash. Hold your position in the store for a while. I've been trying to establish contact with Finka but had no luck. I'm gonna keep trying."

"We should go look for her."

"Negative. We can't risk compromising the mission."

"But she's out there all alone Thermite. She could be hurt for all we know."

"I know how you feel but the mission comes first. We have to secure the space module. If we go off course, we could risk blowing the whole mission and we'll never have another shot at securing that capsule."

"Okay."

"I'll let you know when we have contact with her. In the meantime, just hold tight."

Ash shook her head in disappointment.

"Finka could be hurt out there and we're just standing around with our thumb up our asses waiting." Tachanka said. Ash could feel the frustration boiling within him.

The two operators hunkered down in silence. Ash stared out the window. The rain was beginning to pick up. She could hear thunder in the distance. The wind blew debris around in the parking lot. She looked over to Tachanka. He was patrolling the inside of the store humming what sounded like an old Soviet tune. She stared out the window again. She thought about her family back in Israel. It's been a while since she last saw them. She remembered telling her family about being chosen to study with the FBI in an exchange program. They were so happy for her, but she could tell they didn't want her to go. And now she was here. In this hell hole. Surrounded by mutating infected people, with a Spetsnaz operative straight out of the Soviet Red Army as her squad mate, her other squad mate was MIA, and she had mini robots swimming through her blood stream. She never imagined herself ending up in a situation like this after signing that FBI contract. She smirked. She was beginning to sound like Tachanka after she assigned him to this op. She eased back in her bench and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

She perked her head up suddenly.

Peace and quiet? Tachanka was just humming a few seconds ago.

She turned around to look for Tachanka, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She stood up and shouldered her G36C.

"Tachanka you oka…."

Ash watched 190 pounds of Russian muscle sail through the air into 2 shelves and land at her feet.

"What the fuck…. HEY! ALEX? WHAT HAPPENED? YOU OKAY?" she yelled trying desperately to help him to his feet.

"In front of you…" he said weakly.

"What?"

"IN FRONT OF YOU!"
Ash looked up just in time to see a woman with long muscular legs kick her center mass. Ash flew through the glass front door of the general store and landed on her back on the pavement in the front of the center of the store.

She laid sprawled out on the pavement staring up at the rain clouds. The rain pelted against her APR mask. She tried to get up and she screamed. An intense pain in her chest kept her anchored to the ground. Then a woman's face appeared inches away from her face. Ash recognized this kind of roach. A rooter. It had the ability to appear from anywhere beneath the Earth and could use roots to entangle its prey. She'd never seen one in person. Only in the intel that the National Guard soldiers gave her at the FOB. The rooter grew roots around Ash's neck. Once the roots were grown they began to tighten. Ash could feel the life being squeezed out her. She kicked her legs wildly trying to get free, but the rooter straddled her keeping her pinned down. She tried to reach for her 1911 but the rooter reached and pinned her right arm to the ground with a free hand.

"This is it." She thought to herself as her vision began to fade to black.

Right before Ash was about to pass out a knife plunged out of the front of the rooters chest showering Ash with blood. The rooter screamed in agony. It turned around to face whoever harmed her but was met with a knife swing to the throat. The rooter fell in a heap on top of Ash. Tachanka pushed the corpse off her and cut the roots. She laid there coughing. She couldn't move. She began to hear screaming from down the street and what sounded like a stampede coming toward.

"Ash, we have to go." Tachanka said grabbing her by the front of her hazmat suit and pulling her to her feet. The pain radiated throughout her entire torso. The two operators stumbled through the rain back to the front of the general store for their rifles. Ash found her G36C by the front door of the store. She picked it up and hobbled over to the bench in the front of the store. She could see about 20 roaches running in a dead sprint toward them screaming at the top of their lungs. Tachanka ran to the back of the store to where he lost his AK. Once he found it he made his way back to the entrance. The 20 roaches were now running up the steps to the front door. Ash pulled something out of her duffel and slid it to Tachanka.

He scooped it up.

It was a nitro cell.

Tachanka smiled with delight and charged the nitro. When the roaches were just outside the front door he tossed the nitro toward them. Right before it hit the ground Ash pulled out what looked like a Nokia cell phone, tucked her body into a ball on the bench and pressed the talk button. The nitro cell ignited into a ball of fire rocking the store. Blood and entrails sprayed against the front of the store. The front windows blew out and raining down glass on Ash. Tachanka felt the shock wave in chest when it detonated and was thrown backwards. When the dust settled there was no sign of the roaches.

Tachanka dropped his rifle and walked over to where Ash was laying on the bench. Tachanka took a seat on the bench next to her. They both stared at their handy work.

"So much for staying quiet." Tachanka said breaking the silence.

They both started to giggle together in a psychotic sort of way. They both sat on the bench giggling for about a minute watching the rain wash away the blood and roach guts off the building. Ash's hazmat suit was turning more and more brown from all the roach blood that kept hitting her. There brake was ended by more screaming and yelling a few blocks down.

"Time to go." Tachanka held out his hand and helped up Ash. The screams were getting louder. They could hear their footsteps getting closer.

"Thermite this is Tachanka. Our position at the general store has been compromised. We're bailing out I need directions to Patient Zero's house from our location."

"Copy proceed about a half a click northeast of your position, how copy?"

"Solid copy we're oscar mike." They began to slog their way through the rain. The screams getting more distant behind them.

FINKA

Finka made her way slowly to the bright lights. She couldn't walk in straight line because of the dizziness. She felt like everything was spinning around her. She was also beginning to feel chilly and the rain storm has been getting worse. The light began to come into view. Her vision was slightly blurry, and her eyes were sensitive to the light. She brought her hand up over eyes to get a better view. 'General Store' it read. She started to approach the parking lot, but she heard voices in front of her. She ducked behind an abandoned car and rested her rifle on the hood. Looking through her ACOG sight she saw an entire horde of roaches milling around in the parking lot.

"Bylat."

She was in no condition to fight. She was about to find an alternative route around the horde when she noticed more roaches coming out around from around the back of the general store blocking an escape. They began to start walking toward her. No time to run now. She zeroed in on the head of the closest roach walking toward her. Her dizziness made her scope wobble around wildly. She let a shot ring out and missed wildly. All of roaches in the parking lot picked up their heads looking for where the shot came from. She tried to aim at the same roach and missed again. They all started to transform. Spikes growing out of their bodies.

Finka closed her eyes.

Took a breath.

Exhaled slowly.

She opened her eyes.

Took aim.

And squeezed the trigger.

The bullet hit the roach closest to her center mass, but the roach only stumbled backward. Now it knew where she was exactly. The horde in the parking lot began to run at her position in a dead sprint. At least 25 of them running out in the open screaming at her. She had to act quickly. Her aim was horrible due to her head injury and she didn't have any explosives with her. She looked down at the blue button on her left glove. The 'on' switch to her nanobots. If she pressed the button she would get an energy surge that would sharpen her senses. It was also a universal effect so wherever her squad was and the situation they were in, they would feel the surge too.

"Izvinite rebyata (sorry guys)."

She pressed the button and immediately she felt an instant high. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest. She began to breeze shallowly. The pain and dizziness in her head subsided. She stood up and placed her rifle in the pocket of her shoulder. She zeroed in on a roach's head, rifle steady. She felt like she was seeing in slow motion.

She squeezed the trigger and watched the roaches head explode in her scope like she watching someone smash a pumpkin. She moved to her next target, squeezed the trigger then to next in almost a machine-like motion. Heads exploded everywhere. Brain matter flying everywhere. All Finka saw was red mist. She didn't stop till every moving person in front her was dead. The barrel of her .308 glowed red. She swapped mags and observed her work. Once she determined the area was clear, she walked toward the general store.

Finka noticed a giant crater at the front of the store and there were blood stains in front of the store. Not too far away from the crater and blood stains was a woman with roots for hair laying motionless on the pavement. She didn't recall shooting a roach that looked like that. Finka nudged the dead body with her rifle but it did nothing. To be safe she fired three rounds into the back of its head and kept walking. She walked up to the crater looking at the size, shape, and depth. She recognized the pattern of the crater.

"Nitro? Ash?"

Finka walked through the front door of the store. All the windows were blown out. Most of the inside of the store was destroyed. Debris and rubble littered everywhere. She walked over toward a bench near the entrance. She took a seat and cradled her head in her hands. Her head was starting to hurt, and she was beginning to feel dizzy making her feel nauseous. The nanobots were wearing off. She only had two more activations left. She had to use them wisely. She noticed a shell casing by her foot. She picked it up.

"Russian. 9x19VSN."
Ash and Tachanka were definitely here and they put up a hell of a fight.

She closed her eyes and listened to the rain tap on the roof the store and the wind howl as she tried to plan her next move. At least she was on their trail, but it looked like they left the general store a while ago. She began to plan her next move.

ASH AND TACHANKA

"We have sight of the house Thermite." Ash and Tachanka made their way toward what looked like a giant compound. High walls surrounded the house. There was barbed wire at the top.

"Copy that."

Ash had been wincing in pain the entire trip, but she pushed on trying not let it slow her down.

"You wanna catch your breath?" Tachanka asked looking at her with concern.

"I'm good. Faster we secure that package the faster we can go back and try to find Finka."

"I hope she's okay."

No one has been able to contact her or knows of her whereabouts.

They pushed on to the house stealth killing any roaches lingering in the area.

Ash used her suppressed 1911 pistol instead of her G36C because of her injury. They reached the giant fence. The house loomed over them. They could hear roaches on the other side of the fence. Tachanka slid the latch on the gate and pushed it open. The gate groaned as it was opened. Ash crouch walked toward the house. She could clearly hear roaches but she didn't see any outside. She crept up toward a window and peaked inside. 15 roaches milled around on the bottom floor talking nonsense to each other. Some wore normal civilian clothes. Others wore military uniform. It made her nauseous seeing the soldiers she commanded to recon the dark zone a few weeks earlier now infected. She looked around and noticed a stairwell leading to the second floor. She looked behind her. Tachanka had pushed the gate behind them cosed and crouched next her to get a look at what was inside.

"Looks like we have 15 hostiles on the ground floor. There's a stairwell on the bravo side of the house that leads to the second floor. I'll clear the second floor. Once I'm clear I'll throw a flashbang down to the first floor. You breach this window and we clear them out." Ash said.

Tachanka nodded and prepared to breach through the window. Ash made her way around the back of the house toward the stairwell. She saw a roach walking down the stairs toward the backyard and dove for cover. When the unsuspecting roach was near her she crept up behind and kicked it in the back of its knee causing the roach to fall backward. With one arm she caught the falling roach wrapping her arm around its neck placing her hand over its mouth. She pulled out her knife and stabbed it in the chest. The roach died instantly. She gently lowered the corpse to the ground and made her way up the stairs. She walked into what looked like a master bedroom. She found the door that lead to the main hallway. Down below her were the 15 other roaches. She could see the silhouette of Tachanka waiting for the flashbang to be deployed. One roach came out of a neighboring room and started to walk down the hall toward Ash. She scooted back into the master bedroom and waited for the roach to pass her. Once it past her she crouch walked behind the roach and aimed at the back of its with her pistol from point blank range. She fired a round into the back of its skull. A large splatter of blood flew out of its face onto the wall in front of her. The body began to tip backward, and Ash caught it with her free arm before it could crash to the ground. She gently lowered it to the ground quietly.

"Tachanka here comes the flash." She whispered and primed a flashbang.

She under hand tossed it off the ledge. The roaches turned and looked at the grenade with curiosity.

The flashbang exploded with a thunderous clap and a flash of light. The roaches screamed with the hands over their blinded eyes. Ash began to walk casually down the hallway with her suppressed 1911 and began to casually pick off the roaches below her not missing a single shot like she was Agent 47 from Hitman. She heard glass break from down below. Tachanka burst through the window, shouldered his rifle, switched to semi auto, and finished off the remaining roaches until they were all dead.

"Division 1 clear!" he shouted to Ash.

"Division 2 clear!" she shouted back.

Ash walked down the stairs and regrouped with her teammate. Tachanka was staring at a steel vault sealed shut. A sign on the front of it said, "JUNKYARD.'

"I'm guessing the package is through here." He said.

Ash keyed up on the radio.

"Thermite we've secured Patient Zero's house. Preparing for door breach. My breaching rounds won't be able to break the steel, so I'm use one of your charges."

"Copy that you are a go for door breach. Watch out for roaches on your position."

Ash pulled out one of Thermite's exothermic charges. She's watched Thermite prepare these charges a million times on reinforced walls. Never did she think she'd get to use his special charge. She remembered watching him go through the motion of setting the charge in the training simulations and missions. She mimicked exactly what he did by memory. She walked up to the door and rolled the mat out onto the door. She pulled out the charging handle priming the priming the charge.

"Big fucking hole coming right up." She said into her coms smiling.

"Hey! That's my line!"

"Just following tradition!" Ash said trying not to laugh.

"Pfff. Americans." Tachanka said rolling his eyes.

Ash took a couple steps back. A red light blinked on the charge signaling it was ready. She looked at Tachanka.

"You ready?"

"Do it."

She squeezed the trigger.

A bright light of sparks came from the top of the charge making a very loud hissing sound. From watching Thermite use the charge on missions and training, the sparks should make their way around the border of the charge creating the hole. The process should only take a few seconds. After that there should be a giant explosion which should blow out the wall creating the new door.

Except, the charge didn't do that. The sparks just sat at the top barely moving.

"Uh, Thermite? We may have a problem here." She keyed up.

"What's wrong?"

"I activated your charge but it's not cutting a hole. The sparks are just sitting in place at the stop of the charge."

"It's doing that because the metal is too thick. Its gonna take the charge some time to cut through all of that steel."

"Roger."

They heard screams off in the distance.

Tachanka peaked out the window he breached earlier.

"We got company."

Ash peaked out the window Tachanka was looking out. She saw a whole horde of roaches running their way.

She looked back toward the charge. It barely even moved a centimeter since they activated it.

"Fuck."

"Ash, I'm gonna anchor on the charge. Watch my back." Tachanka taking off his duffle. She could already tell what he had in mind. He began to set up his old Soviet LMG at an open window by the front of the house and loaded a magazine on top of it.

"LMG, MOUNTED, AND LOUDED!" His voice boomed through the house. Even some of the roaches hesitated when they heard the thunderous voice. There was a reason why Rainbow Six called him, "the lord."

Ash took up a position behind him between a wall and a counter top where she could cover the stairwell leading to the upstairs and the back of the house. She pulled out her G36C. Her aim may not be good because of her injury but she needed the firepower.

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK

She guessed the horde attacking the front of the house was close because Tachanka was letting lose with his LMG. From her firing position she couldn't really see how he was doing but the sounds of the roaches screaming in pain painted a nice picture of how things were going. She heard splintering wood in front of her. 5 roaches were breaking their way through a wall. Ash was the only one standing between the roaches, the charge, and Tachanka's anchor point. She raised her G36C and an immense amount of pain went through her body causing her to lower her weapon. The roaches exploded through the wall and began to rush toward the breaching charge. She gritted through the pain and raised her rifle and fired rounds at the roaches.

She missed all of them wildly.

She went into her satchel and pulled out a nitro cell and primed it. One of the roaches saw her movement and split from the group and rushed toward Ash with blazing speed almost putting her own speed to shame. Ash stood their frozen with a nitro cell primed to explode in her hand. She desperately kicked at the roach to push him away, so she could throw the nitro and pull out her 1911 but the roach side stepped, and body checked her. The body check threw her backward and her nitro cell went flying behind her. The nitro cell landed to the right of Tachanka's turret and detonated prematurely. Tachanka flew from his turret. The roaches in the area went flying with him and a giant hole opened in front of the house. Chunks and body parts of the blown-up roaches rained down on the incapacitated operators from the explosion. Ash fell to her knees coughing up blood from the hit. She tried to get up, but she felt another blow this time to her side. She screamed in pain. Then there was another blow and another. The roach stood over her screaming and kicking her relentlessly.

Then her heart began to race.

Her respiration rate began to increase.

She started to feel a surge of raw power.

She grabbed the roaches leg and twisted it foot. She heard the snap of its bones and a cry of pain from the roach. She rolled to her side and pulled out her 1911. She took aim for its head and wasted the roach point blank range decapitating it. She looked to her left and saw Tachanka back on his feet mowing down incoming roaches with his AK. He saw Ash's G36C near him. He kicked the rifle toward her with his foot. She scooped it up, chambered a round and started firing at the 4 roaches that had gotten by her to tamper with the charge. The charge was still fizzing at the top. Barely any time had passed. She took aim at the back of a roach's head through her ACOG sight and squeezed the trigger. She watched the roaches head explode splattering brain matter on her. She took aim at the next roach and the next and the next and the next. She was like a machine. A killing machine. She felt no more pain. Only the sudden urge to kill everything around her. She noticed Tachanka was starting to go to hand to hand combat. He heard a familiar screech near him.

"Rooter." He thought to himself.

As if he could see in slow motion he turned around to see the rooter just starting to emerge from the ground behind him. He grabbed the rooter by the throat before it was completely out of the ground. He ripped the rest of its body out of the ground like he was pulling a weed and choke slammed it. Then he ripped a root coming up from the ground, wrapped it around the rooters neck, and choked it to death. The two operators finished off all the roaches attacking them in a red haze. When it was all over they stood in a pile of mutilated corpses and hot brass. The barrels of their weapons were smoking. The basement door exploded sending steel flying in all directions behind them. They loaded fresh magazines and proceeded down the basement stairs without hesitation.

FINKA

Finka sat on the ground with her legs crisscrossed staring at a map of Truth or Consequences. She was able to locate the position of the General Store on the map, but she couldn't decide where to go now. She knew her squad was alive, but she had no idea if they were even okay nor did she know where they're heading to. For all she knew they could both be severely hurt and they're walking back to the Army's perimeter. They could also be continuing with the mission without her. She knew they weren't looking for her. They were in no position to wander around in an extremely hostile area to look for one person with not the slightest hint of where she could've landed. She stared at the map hoping an answer would pop out to her. A drop of blood landed on the map. She put her hand to her right ear.

When she removed her hand.

She found blood on her glove.

"Not good." She said to herself.

She took a deep breath and tried to clear her head. She could continue the mission by herself and maybe by some chance regroup with her squad. But if her squad was not at the Patient Zero's house she would be guaranteed to die. If by some miracle she managed to reach Patient Zero's house by herself, she had no way of contacting for extraction or for anything. She would essentially be leading herself to her own demise. She could try walking back to the U.S. Army perimeter but the chances of surviving the very long walk across town were not in her favor. She heard her own voice in her conscious.

"The cure to stopping this epidemic is riding on this…"

She stood up and grabbed her rifle and stared at the rainy landscape in front of her. It was decided then. She would head to Patient Zero's house. She was ready to accept her fate no matter if it were life or death. If it were death, then at least she knew she tried her absolute best to help the innocent people in need. If she found her squad, then there was still a chance for a cure. She chambered a round in her rifle and began to trudge through the rain toward Patient Zero's house. The thoughts of her teammates still being alive and waiting for her, gave her a small twinge of hope.

The General Store was a half a click from Patient Zero's house. Roaches roamed around in the streets. She stuck to the shadows staying out of sight. She couldn't risk trying to shoot roaches with her double vision and dizziness. She soon came upon what looked like a large compound. A giant fence with razor wire on top surrounded the perimeter of the property.

"Guess Patient Zero didn't like visitors."

She opened the gate and walked inside. What she saw made her jaw drop. Bodies laid all over the property. The front of the house was starting to collapse from a gaping hole in the front. She cautiously walked through the hole in the front of the house. Body parts and burnt flesh stuck to walls. She could smell burnt bodies. Then she saw something that caught her in eye in a pile of rubble. She moved some debris out of the way and heart skipped a beat. A large Soviet LMG laid buried in the rubble. She only knew one man who still used an LMG like this. She continued digging finding the parts to the LMG. She put them in her duffle. Empty shell casings littered the floor. Looks like the same ammunition Ash used in her G36C. A dead rooter laid with its own root around wrapped around its throat. She beamed. Her squad was continuing with the mission and that meant she was heading in the right direction, however, they must be battered pretty good from the way the house looked. She saw a stairwell that lead downstairs. She descended the long dark stairwell.

ASH AND TACHANKA

Tachanka and Ash slogged through the basement of the house looking for the exit to the junkyard. Rain water was up to their knees due to flooding by the rainstorm. Their pace was much slower now. The random energy boost was gone. The pain in Ash's chest was back and worse than ever. Tachanka, despite taking a nitro up close, was perfectly healthy. The right side of his yellow hazmat suit was now black from the blast. It seemed nothing could stop the old man.

"Hey Ash, question."

"Shoot."

"When we were in the house fighting that horde, did you feel, like, an energy high?"

"Yes. I'm certain I have fractured ribs right now, yet, I was able to move like I had super powers. I snapped a roach's ankle with my bare hands. I was super focused." Ash said looking down at her gloved hands.

"I don't know if you saw but I choked out a rooter with its own roots." Tachanka said completely one upping her. Ash didn't have a response for that statement. Tachanka began to hear Finka's Slavic voice in his head.

"The shot that I'm giving you is my nanobots. They swim in your blood stream and when I activate them remotely, they'll enhance your physical and mental performance."

Tachanka stopped in his tracks suddenly.

"Hey? Tachanka? You cool?"

"Nanobots."

"What?"

He looked her in the eye.

"Nanobots."

"Yeah what about them…"

Ash put two and two together and realized what happened. Their nanobots were activated somehow which only meant one thing.

"Finka." He said shakily.

"As soon as we get out of this basement we'll to tell Thermite."

Tachanka looked at her worried.

"Ash, that means she's alive and we left her behind. She's all alone out there in that fucking shit hole of a town and has no idea where we are. Also, the fact that she had to activate her nanobots means she was in trouble at some point and she needed the strength boost. We have to find her and make sure she's okay."

Ash looked down avoiding his gaze and feeling guilty. He was right. They left a fellow teammate behind. She looked back up at him.

"Alex…" She took a deep breath and tried to find her words. There was no easy way putting this bad way of thinking but unfortunately it was true, and the truth always hurts.

"… we had to continue with the mission. I wanted to go back for her too. Trust me. You heard me argue with Thermite earlier at the general store? I wanted to go back and look for her. I argued with Thermite but he's right. We didn't know at the time whether she was dead or alive. If we can secure this module, we'll be saving thousands of lives. Maybe even humanity. Think about it, if we halted the entire mission to go looking for her, we'd be putting those thousands of innocent lives on the line just for one person who we had no idea where they were or if they were even alive or dead. Thermite said, we may never have an opportunity like this every again for the rest of this operation and he's right. Its super fucked up to think of it like this but it's true. There is so much at stake with this operation. It's bigger than ourselves, Truth or Consequences, and Rainbow Six. We're talking about the world. Humanity."

Tachanka took in the words. Just the thought of leaving behind a teammate bugged him and he knew Ash felt the same feelings he did about it, but he agreed with her and Thermite's call. They had to finish the mission. Even if it's with or without Finka. As he's heard Olivier say once before, "we have to play with the hand we're dealt with." There's too much at stake to turn back. The world depended on what they did right here, right now. All they could hope was Finka was trailing behind them making her way toward the objective by herself. The two operators pressed on through the tunnel in the basement until they saw a light at the end of the tunnel. They had finally found the exit.

"Thermite, come in."

"Ash, I read you."

The rain was now downpouring. Ash and Tachanka stood by a huge wall of fence and cars. The cars were held in place by a crane blocking their path. They could see the barn they were looking for beyond the wall. They had to find a way through.

"We have reason to suspect that Finka is alive. She activated an adrenal surge while we were breaching the basement door. You copy?"

"Say again, did you say Finka is alive?"

"That's correct. Finka is alive."

"Roger that. Sit rep?"

"We're at the junk yard. We see barn we need to get to, but this wall of cars is blocking our way. Gonna try and figure how to move it with this crane."

"Copy that be careful down there."

Ash tried pressing a button on the crane control, but nothing happened.

"Hey Ash, looks like the crane runs on these two generators. Stand by."

Tachanka flipped the switches on two generators on the two sides of the junkyard. The crane hummed to life. Ash pressed the button and the crane proceeded to lift the cars… slowly.

"God damnit why can't this thing move any faster?"

She started to hear screeching from beyond one of the fences behind them. Roaches by the dozen jumped on the tall fence and began to climb.

"Incoming!" Tachanka raised his rifle and started fire rounds into the roaches. One of the roaches, a breacher, exploded into a million pieces sending some of the roaches airborne. Blood and flesh rained down on operators. There were too many for the operators to handle. The roaches eventually climbed over the fence and charged the operators. Tachanka flipped his rifle to semi auto and looked for headshots. Ash dumped mag after mag while ducking and dodging melee attacks. Part of the fence exploded near by the operators holding position in front of the crane. A big roach, known as a smasher charged its way toward Ash and Tachanka sending them both diving for cover. The smasher hit its head on the gate and looked dazed. The operators noticed fleshy, soft, glowing material on its back. Tachanka unloaded his rifle into it and screamed in pain. Ash remembered reading up on this kind of infected. Its skin was bulletproof, but its weakness was in the back. Ash ran up to a wall and faced the smasher. It turned toward and bellowed in range. Tachanka was too busy taking care of grunts to see what she was doing.

"HEY! BIG FELLA! COME AND GET ME!" she shouted and started to unload some bullets into the smasher with her pistol.

The smasher responded with a roar and charged her. Ash was known throughout Rainbow for her outstanding agility. She side stepped the charger with ease and plunged a knife into its back. She began to stab it multiple times. The smasher screeched in pain and swatted at Ash with lightning speed. If Ash didn't have an injured rib cage she could have easily dodged the strike, but her injury prevented her from moving as quick as usual. Ash got slammed in the shoulder. She felt like she'd just been body checked by a hockey player. She skidded across the mud. She couldn't get up. She held her side rocking back and forth grimacing. The charger got up and started to walk toward her to finish her off.

"ELIZA! GET UP! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" her own mind screamed at her.

The smasher towered over Ash and lifted its massive arms to smash her into the ground. Right when she thought she was about to get pounded into ground beef, the smasher exploded.

All the roaches froze. Then they turned and ran back to wherever they came from. Tachanka appeared through the dust cloud from the explosion and helped Ash up.

"What just happened?"

"While you were busy watching your life flash before your eyes I snuck up behind the big boy and stuck an impact grenade into its back. Seemed more efficient then stabbing the damn thing to death with a pesky knife."

"Well thank you for that."

"Let's save the thank yous for all the times I've saved your ass today for when we get home."

"Fine. The gates open. Let's move."

They two operators pushed on through the rain toward the barn.

FINKA

Finka finally began to see light at the end of the tunnel. When she exited the tunnel, she was met by what looked the aftermath of her teammates. Dead roaches laid everywhere and there was a giant hole in one of the fences. There was brass and empty magazine scattered everywhere. She picked up one of the shell casings. It still felt warm. She wasn't too far behind now. She heard loud roars in the distance. Out of the corner of her eye she could hear hordes of roaches running toward a barn in the distance. She hid behind a car and watched. She heard an explosion in the distance.

She smiled.

She put her hand up blocking the rain spraying in her face and followed the roaches.

Ash and Tachanka

Ash and Tachanka made their way into the barn. They stealth killed a few roaches and cleared the entire barn with ease.

"Where's the bloody capsule?" Tachanka asked looking around. The barn was full of parasitic mass growing up the walls like trees. Tachanka eyes followed up the trunks and saw the capsule cracked open like an egg being suspended by the trunks. He squinted and saw the red Soviet Union emblem on the side.

"Hey, would you look at that! It is one of ours!" He said pointing at the emblem.

Ash rolled her eyes. She was more worried about how the two of them were going to defend the capsule and the three explosives all at the same time. The barn was mostly made of soft walls, so the roaches could easily break through them overwhelm from all sides. She keyed up on the radio.

"Thermite, we made it through the junkyard and we've secured the barn. We have the capsule. We're about to plant the charges. If you could start the extraction team and Jager that would be great."

"Great new. I'll get everyone started." The Texan responded excitedly. The mission has been stressing out Thermite the entire time and he was ready to end it.

Tachanka took the cluster charges and began to plant them. One on each parasitic trunk. 2 would be downstairs on the ground level and one would be upstairs.

"Sharat if your charges fail my ghost will haunt you for the rest of your life." He mumbled to himself as he placed the final charge.

The winded was howling and it was now a torrential down pour. He looked at Ash. She looked back them. They've come so far. This was the moment they've been waiting for.

"You ready to save the world?" She asked him.

"Yeah."

He triggered the charges and everything around them began to scream.

Thermite keyed up on the radio.

"You have 5 minutes to defend the charges. Extraction is on the way. Good luck and God be with you."

Ash pulled out her G36C and began to mumble a prayer to herself in Hebrew while she waited for the enemy to come down upon them. Despite her chest injury she was going to try and bear through the pain and use her rifle. She needed the firepower again. Within minutes the operators could hear what sounded like bulls rushing toward them. Tachanka looked out a window and saw what looked like over a hundred roaches bull rushing the front of the barn. Then 3 big yellow roaches with flaming hands came into their sights. They moved slowly behind the incoming horde. All 3 bellowed in rage. The national guard called these roaches, the Apex. They were the leaders of the roach hordes and had control over all of them. In this case, Ash and Tachanka would be facing 3 of them.

Tachanka began to unload with his assault rifle.

"MAN, I WISH I HAD MY LMG RIGHT NOW!" He said as he unloaded mag after mag into the horde.

"LET'S SEE HOW THEY LIKE MY EXPLOSIVES!"

Ash pulled out her m320 grenade launcher and loaded 1 of her 3 rounds into the chamber. She took aim at the center of the horde.

"WATCH FOR THE BLAST!"

She squeezed the trigger. The breaching round hurdled toward the horde and hit a grunt center mass. Its body flew backward, and the breaching charge exploded sending the roaches flying. The Apexes roared and summoned more grunts and breachers from the Earth to take their place. The roaches began to break down the walls and the Apexes began to close in. They separated, each attacking a side of the barn. Roaches began to pour in from all sides turning the inside of the barn into a cluster. Ash threw her last nitro cell at one of the Apexes attacking the right side of the barn. She detonated the nitro but all it did was make the Apex angry. It screamed at her and shot flames from its hands summoning more roaches. Some of the roaches began to pour down from the ceiling. A breacher ran up to the cluster charge on the upper level and blew itself up destroying the cluster charge on the second level.

The two operators were losing control of the situation. They were surrounded on the ground floor. Their weapons could not keep up with the numbers that were being sent into the barn. Tachanka was beginning to get stuck in a corner. Ash pulled out a breaching round to try and loosen up the circle around Tachanka. As she pulled the trigger on her m320 a roach came up behind her and tackled her messing up her aim. She fired the breaching charge straight up into the ceiling above her. The charge detonated knocking over a couple roaches. The grunt that tackled her jumped on top of Ash and tried to stab her with its spikes. She countered the grunts movements and held its arms back. The grunt screamed in her face and pressed its arms forward to try an impale her. She couldn't understand why the roaches kept tackling her. It was almost as if they knew she injured. Right before the grunt's spikes could penetrate her abdominal she felt a huge rush of power. Then she watched a knife come around the grunts neck and slit the roaches throat. The grunt dropped next to her. A white gloved hand reached down toward Ash. She reached for the hand and it helped her to her feet.

Right in front of her, stood Finka.

"Need a hand?" She said with her heavy Slavic accent.

"You take the scenic route to get here?"

Finka smiled at her and went back to fighting trying to cover Tachanka as he continued to defend the cluster charges. Ash noticed Finka's condition. She was severely injured. Her skin was ghostly white. Her eyes didn't have that focus that she saw the moment before they jumped off the airplane. She could see the pain in her eyes and she thought she saw bloodstains on her ears. "TACHANKA, HERE!"

Finka slid a weapon toward Tachanka.

It was his LMG.

He eagerly picked up his LMG and began to hip fire the grunts and breachers all around him. A crazy smile appeared on his face like he was enjoying the new method of using his LMG. Hot brass poured out the side of the machine gun.

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK

The cluster charges injected grenades into the trunks igniting them into flames.

"THERMITE THE CLUSTER CHARGES WENT OFF! WE FOUND FINKA! GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE NOW!" Ash screamed as she continued fighting.

"Extraction is 30 seconds out." Jager's voice came up on coms.

"Copy th…" an explosion rocked the barn sending Tachanka off his LMG. He landed in a heap in the center of the floor. His LMG was destroyed. An Apex made its way in the barn through hole it made screaming. It looked down at Tachanka and shot flames out its hands mocking him. There was a second explosion from the other end of the barn sending Finka and Ash flying. Finka laid on her back watching everything unfold around her. Ash struggle to her hands and knees with an Apex hovering over her roaring. Tachanka stood up slowly and looked at his LMG in ruins. He looked up at the Apex with absolute rage in his eyes. He pulled a knife and the Apex and Tachanka began to size each other up.

'AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" He let out a rebel scream and tackled the Apex that destroyed his turret and began to stab it repeatedly. The Apex howled in pain. They rolled away out of sight. She turned back to Ash and saw her with 8 grunts and an Apex on top of her pummeling her. She screamed and flailed her arms and legs trying to defend herself from the heavy blows to her already crippled body. The nanobots surge Finka used earlier had worn off but she had one more. She reached her glove up to activate the surge, but a grunt jumped on top of her and stepped on her hand crushing the nanobots switch. The third Apex ripped the grunt off Finka and picked her up. The Apex's face was hideous. Flesh rotted off it and smelled awful. She saw Ash's m320 laying in the corner of the room with her last round already chambered. Finka felt for the knife her mentor had given her before the mission on her vest. When she found it, she pulled it out and plunged it into the Apex's face. The Apex screamed in pain and dropped her. She scurried over to m320 and fired the round at the Apex. The breaching round plunged center mass into the Apex and the explosion disintegrated it. The grunts pummeling Ash looked at Finka laying on the ground. They rushed her. Finka saw her .308 rifle laying nearby. She reached over and grabbed it, stood up, took aim with her rifle and squeezed.

Click click

It was empty.

The lead grunt in the group made a fist and punched Finka in the chest shocking her heart. Blood flew out of her mouth and she crumpled to the floor. The grunts then turned to Tachanka who had knifed the Apex he was against to death. The roaches and last Apex tried to dog pile Tachanka, but he swung his knife wildly in retaliation keeping them at bay. Ash laid on her stomach motionless in small puddle of blood. She lost sight of Tachanka and Ash from all the roaches pouring inside. Her vision began to fade in and out.

She started to hear chopper blades cutting through the air. She looked up and was blinded by a bright search shining light through the roof of the barn. A net was lowered around the capsule. Once the net was secure, the chopper gained altitude and the capsule pulled away from the barn and flew away. There was crash somewhere near her.

The back of an APC blew through one of the walls of the barn and the ramp lowered.

There was a loud gun shot that disintegrated the last Apex trying to finish off Tachanka. The shots were so powerful that she could feel the shock wave in her chest. With every shot, a roach from somewhere dropped like a rock and didn't get back up. She heard a smoke grenade explode and saw a yellow figure run over to Ash and help her up. Tachanka ran over to Finka and picked her up bridal style. She was carried into the back of the APC and laid down on the floor. She felt pain everywhere. Someone was shouting at them to hurry up. Ash and the yellow figure sat on one of the benches and the ramp began to close behind. The yellow figure began to speak with a thick Russian accent. She could make out a Russian flag on his sleeve and the Spetsnaz initials on the back of his uniform. Glaz had come to extract just like as planned.

"DRIVER, GET US BACK TO FOB QUICKLY WE HAVE TWO IN CRITICAL CONDITION! Thermite, operators secure. Ash and Finka are critical, Tachanka is okay."

"Copy that we have medics and Doc on stand by for your arrival."

Once the door was sealed shut, Tachanka knelt to his hands and knees leaning over Finka. He took off her APR mask. Tahanka and Glaz took of their APR masks off too. Glaz started taking care of Ash. He took off her APR mask and wrapped a heavy blanket around her. She stared blankly at her feet not saying a word while he held her trembling hand and whispered words of support to her. Tachanka stroked Finka's hair through his fingers trying to comfort her. She was shaking, too and her eyes felt heavy.

"Lera stay with me. Don't close your eyes. Look at me." Tachanka coaxed her gently. She'd never heard him talk like this before. She reached up with her left hand and rested it on the side of his face. She reached with her other for Tachanka's hand. He took it and Finka squeezed it hard flexing and wiggling her fingers.

"I… I… can't…" she tried to speak with difficulty.

"What? What's wrong? Talk to me."

Tear began to trickle down her face.

"I can't…. I can't feel my hands and feet…" Her vision descended into darkness. Tachanka and Glaz glanced at each other confused and then realized she was losing consciousness. Finka could hear Glaz and Tachanka's voices as if they were yelling to her from far away.

"LERA! LEREA! WAKE UP! STAY WITH ME! BYLAT! SHES CODING! I'M STARTING COMPRESSIONS YOU START ME OXYGEN! LERA PLEASE WAKE UP….."

THE FOB

Thermite, Doc, and medical personnel ran with medical supplies for the gate when they heard the APC drive into the FOB. Doc had two gurneys with him stacked with medical supplies. When Glaz reported that Finka was coding he knew she wouldn't have much time to revive her. They all had to move quickly if they wanted her to have a fighting chance. The ramp to the APC lowered and the sight was horrifying. Ash sat in one of the seats bloodied and slumped forward staring at her feet not saying a word. Tachanka was over Finka doing CPR while Glaz had a bag valve mask over Finka doing respirations. The medical personnel helped Ash to her feet and loaded her on one of the gurneys and left. Doc and Thermite went straight for where Finka was laying and began to get to work putting her on the other gurney. Her hazmat suit had already been cut away for compressions. Her skin was ghostly white, and her lips had no color. Tachanka kept going with compressions and Glaz on oxygen. Thermite helped Doc wheel the gurney to the FOBs emergency room tent. A code blue team was in one of the rooms waiting for their arrival. Once Finka was laid down on the table in the center of the tent. A nurse came and ushered Tachanka, Thermite and Glaz out of the tent shutting a curtain in their faces blocking their view of what was going on inside.

Tachanka felt a gentle touch on his shoulder.

"Alexandr?" A female voice with a heavy southern accent said.

He turned and saw a young nurse in about her early 20s trying to get his attention.

"Darling come with me. Let's get you patched up."

He looked back to Glaz and Thermite. They both nodded their heads ushering him to go.

"We'll let you know if we get any updates. Get going with the nurse. You look like battered shit." Thermite said.

Tachanka turned and walked down the hall with the nurse not saying a word. The nurse led him to a section to a different medical tent. There was shower in the corner and a pair of clean clothes laid on a bench.

"Call for me when you're done." She said and walked out closing the curtain behind him.

He took off some of his hazmat gear and looked at himself. He never considered his own health throughout the entirety of the mission. His body was covered in bruises, contusions, and lacerations. Once he noticed his injuries he started to feel the pain from them. His entire body ached, and he began to feel sleepy. He turned on the hot water to the shower and stepped inside. He stood underneath the hot water washing away the pain. The water at his feet that went down the drain was a brown color from the blood running off him. He wasn't sure who's blood it was. His, the roaches, or his squad mates. When he was clean he dressed himself in the clean clothes and called for nurse.

The nurse was gentle but worked quickly cleaning and patching his wounds. She gave him painkillers and released him. He had no broken bones. It'll take few days for the pain subside but other than that, he was healthy. He opened the curtain and walked to the Spetsnaz tent. Timur and Maxim were in their bunks talking to each other but stopped when they saw Alexandr enter the tent. Alexandr walked inside staring at his two teammates. Maxim and Glaz stared back at him. Nobody said a word. Maxim rose from his bunk and embraced the old man. Timur stood up and joined in the hug. No words were needed. They knew how Alexandr was feeling on the inside after standing victorious against what seemed like impossible odds and watching two of their own go down. Alexandr's tensed when his teammates embraced him. He closed his eyes and took a breath. He began to relax.

The three stood in embrace and in silence. The only sound in the tent was the sound of rain pelting steadily off the roof of the tarp above them.

"dobro pozhalovat' nazad brat (Welcome back brother)." Maxim said softly.

They let go. Timur patted him on the shoulder. Maxim nodded at him. The three Spetsnaz jumped into their bunks. Alexandr didn't know what time it was nor did he care. Glaz pulled out a notebook and began to write. Probably doing a sketch. Alexandr fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He was safe at last.

ELIZA

Eliza's vison started to fade in. She was laying on a cot wrapped in sheets. She was in a hospital gown and there was an IV in her arm. Sunlight flooded through the tarp above her onto her face making her feel warm. She heard birds chirping mixed with noises of the soldiers in the FOB going about their daily tasks. Jordan was sitting in a chair reading through files in a Manella folder. She tried to sit up but winced and laid back down.

"Woah woah woah easy now. You've been out for a few days." Said a rough Texan voice. Thermite was knelt by her bed side.

"What happened?" Eliza asked rubbing her eyes.

"Your mission was a success Eliza. Your team extracted the space capsule and blew up the parasitic source."

"What about my team?"

Thermite was about to answer but was cut off by Gustave walking in. He was dressed in his usual white lab coat and scrubs.

"Doc?"

"Eliza! You're awake! How are you feeling?"

"Like battered shit."
"Getting multiple rib fractures and suffering some head trauma will tend to make someone feel like 'battered shit.'"

Eliza chuckled.

Doc did an exam on her injuries and wrote on a clipboard.

"You'll be able to return to the field soon. You're going to be receiving doses of nanobots and painkillers to speed up your recovery time to get you back in the field."

He turned to leave the tent.

"Wait!"

Gustave turned around and looked at her.

"How's Lera?"

He was about to answer but he was interrupted by another person. A doctor walked into Eliza's tent with a cart carrying a computer and medication.

"I'm doing just fine Eliza thanks for asking. Its about damn time you woke your ass up." The doctor said with a heavy Slavic accent.

Eliza recognized the accent and slicked back haircut. She beamed when she saw her face. She smiled back at her.

"Dr. Kateb can you do documentation nn the computer for Eliza's medication. My eyes are still sensitive to the light." She said as she loaded up a shot with a silvery liquid.

Gustave walked over to the laptop and documented the medicine administration.

Lera inserted the booster into Eliza's IV.

Lera looked up to Eliza's bruised and discolored face. She was crying.

"Eliza what's wrong?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WHATS WRONG' LAST TIME I SAW YOU WERE LITERALLY FUCKING DYING AND NOW YOU'RE IN FRONT OF ME LIKE NOTHING EVER HAPPENED?!"

"Eliza its hard for me to explain."

"WELL FIND YOUR FUCKING WORDS AND SPEAK!"

"My god what's with all the commotion? How are we doing today comrades" A big older Russian man said walking in.

Finka smiled at the man.

"Hello Alex. I was just about to tell Eliza about the aftermath of our mission."

Alexandr took a seat in a chair.

"I'm up for a good war story." He said.

Lera took a seat at the foot of Eliza's cot.

Gustave started first.

"When you guys arrived both of you were in bad shape. Dr. Melnikova was in defib from taking a heavy impact to her heart putting it into shock. We found no other injuries to her heart, so she's was very lucky. Because of Alex and Timur's high quality CPR, it bought her just enough time for me to revive her. I ended up giving her a few doses of epi and a few shocks from the AED and it brought her heart back to a normal rhythm. She also had a bad concussion."

"Dr. Melnikova, if you received a bad concussion shouldn't you be getting some bed rest?"

"I was doing that, but I got cleared for desk duty yesterday. I made several batches of nanobots before coming to Truth or Consequences. Each with a specific purpose. The batch that I gave to myself and you are for healing wounds post mission. They accelerated my healing tremendously and they should with you too. You'll be in good shape in a few days. We need you back in the field. Just because we extracted that capsule doesn't mean our fight here is over and our next op is already being planned."

Eliza agreed with Lera's statement. She needed to get up on her feet and help plan the National Guard's next move.

"What's this next op?"

Lera smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Do not worry about the op. Just rest. I'll let you know once you're up and well again."

Lera, Gustave, and Tachanka walked out of the tent.

"You gonna be okay if I step out for a bit?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah. I'll be fine." Eliza eased back onto her pillow and closed her eyes.

Her fight was far from over.