The Rain soaks our clothes and we have to stand in front of the Tent, waiting for our superiors .
Lieutenant General Shepherd, an old General who looks just the way you imagine an old General to look like...Around five days ago he showed up at our Camp but as a Sergeant I don't get to talk to Generals, a few days later I was told to pack up and that I was going to some sort of selection led by this Shepherd. Apparently I'm not the only one to be selected for whatever Shepherd wants us for. All of us were given Black flightsuits with our Nationality Patches on them, I see a lot of British patches and a few Americans, two or three Australian ones excluding me and 2 Polish flags.
Shepherd finally looks up from his papers and addresses us all, "Ladies and Gentlemen.."
There's a woman among us ?
"You have been recommended for my teams of Special Operations Soldiers and will be put under a few tests today."
USSOCOM ?
"These here are the Lieutenants Yang and Dust, they will be acting as Talent spotters and are part of the Unit you will have the privilege of joining if you meet their expectations."
Three men left the Tent, one was obviously of lower rank folding out an umbrella, the one in the middle was a scruffy looking one wearing a fleece like jacket in a blueish gray color, something I never saw any military wearing, he had French patches on his shoulders and a lit cigarette in his mouth.
The other guy just pushed the Umbrella away from himself, he had his face hidden by a balaclava and an olive baseball cap, he too was wearing the same jacket but with Philippine patches, his eyes looked as if he was pissed.
"You have all been assigned numbers upon your arrival here, you will now be paired randomly, after your partner is selected enter your assigned Station!"
Shepherd took a look at his list and started shouting out numbers.
"45 and 62 station 5 ! 64 and 12 Station 8! 23- !"
Oh that's my call.
"-and 6 station 2 !" The only woman among us is my partner, she is one of the Selected from Poland.
Finally, a roof over our head, we walk through the Base and make our way to the Station.
'Number 6' is about as tall as me, she's a blonde, first thing you notice she got some muscle, looks like the type of girl that would win a fist fight in a bar.
"Which Special Forces did you belong to ?"
"GROM, 3 year Vet." She answers, noticeably with no accent.
"I'm Australian SASR, served in Afghanistan, got a name ?"
"No names, just code names." A cautious one, probably best to stick with code names though.
We enter the door with the number 2 on it which happen to be at the and of a long hallway.
The room is filled with Weapons of all sorts raging from Pistols, Assault rifles even to small rocket launchers, in the middle of the room the 2 Lieutenants from before are already waiting for us, the one with the Philippine Patches is playing with a Balisong, or Butterfly knife, the French guy is smoking a cigarette and looks like he's having the time of his life.
"The guys at Station 1 Failed." the Filipino states bluntly, still playing with his Balisong.
"First of all this is a Black Ops Task Force, we do not retrieve bodies if you die in the field, if you can't handle that get out of the room now."
This guy seems pissed...
"Go easy on them Yang, it's just the selection man." So that guy was Dust, he seemed really mellow, weird enough for a French guy he had no accent at all.
"Okay guys, we want to see if you have what it takes to join our little group, you can take any weapon from the walls and booths we got here, except the rocket launchers of course."
does this guy smoke weed on a daily basis ?
"What's the test ? CQB ?" I ask him. The Girl doesn't seem mildly interested she just went to a wall full of Shotguns and absently examines them one by one.
"You got to be flexible, when your ready, go up the ladder and rappel down." Is the only hint Dust gives us.
"WOW ! YOU GUYS GOT AN AA12 !" The Polish girl jumps for joy with a Full Auto Shotgun in her hand and a smile that reaches from one ear to the other.
For the first time Yang doesn't look pissed, I think he smiles under that mask, same for Dust the edges of his mouth move upwards. I check the Assault rifle wall and find a nice piece of kit, a Bushmaster ACR, it is colored oddly its upper receiver, mag and cheek rest are concrete gray but the rest of it flat black, I take it anyways.
"Okay guys, you all set up ?" Dust and Yang are already in an observatory booth a few meters above us. "Yang holds the record time of 19 seconds on this course, I'm second with 24, you have to beat 40 seconds to pass, good luck."
I turn to face the ladder as my partner says: "I'm Shadow, by the way." and she climbs up the ladder to start the test.
The test turns out to be a variation of the UK's KILLING HOUSE the SAS uses for training, it is incredibly tricky, the dummies raise up from the most unexpected spots and are filled with fake blood, probably to prepare future soldiers for warfare.
I blast a few dummies in quick succession before I hear an incredibly menacing bang,
The sound of Shadow's AA12 shotgun is just as terrifying as the blast the Shotgun makes, it tore a dummy right in half. There are stairs leading down, a target to my right, I blast its head off.
A few rooms and dummies later me and Shadow finished the Test, fake blood all over us.
Dust is the first to come down the both and give us our score.
"You two passed with 27 seconds, you two are in, you have one Hour to get geared up and ready for action."
Huh ?
It happened that I had to get into action right away, but we practically knew nothing how would we be able to prepare correctly ? Be flexible ?...
"When we get you, you better be ready." Yang said as he left the room closing his Balisong as he left out the door.
What is it with that guy ?...
"Hey ! I think these are ours.." Shadow's voice came from the Booth containing Equipment and Assault rifles that had pre attached scopes and launchers. I was greeted by something blueish grey held in my face. "Just like the ones they were wearing." Fleece jackets...they got Patches on the left side, 'Task Force 141'. I never, ever heard of those guys before...Well if its black ops that's kinda logic... "Wow...it feels great." Shadow was already wearing her Jacket and had a Polish patch on her right shoulder, she looked good in it. I put mine on as well, she was right, a great fit, die comfortably huh ?...
Shadow likes a big boom, that much I can tell after being around her for a little bit more than 10 minutes, she added a stand alone grenade launcher to her gear and M9 as backup weapon. the only protective gear she choose was a Molle chest rigg in Urban camo. I decided to go basic and just choose a preset Ciras vest in AT. I stayed with the ACR and a 1911, nothing too fancy. There was a soda and sweets dispenser in the room, we didn't talk much mainly because I had nothing too interesting to share and Shadow just wolfed down one pack of Doritos after another..
The hour passed and someone came in the room, a tall muscular guy in complete protective molle gear, same jacket. "I hope you guys are ready, we're rolling out."
"Yeah, all set here." I answered, the guy seems to be American, I can't see it since his shoulder mount Molle base covers his Patches. "Alright, follow me then."
We follow him outside the Base and the rain had diminished into a little drissle, I see a heavy transport plane loading in Humvees and a Striker, there almost done people are starting to rush into that thing. "Okay guys, your about to meet the rest of unit 6, call me Shorty."
Shorty is not really a fitting name for someone who'd pass as a human Juggernaut...less with one who has a Shotgun strapped to his back, just now I notice that he is covers in Buckshot shells, every loop that is not used on his vest has a Shell stuck in it, he even has a 5 round shell holding strap on the side of his helmet.
"Okay gotta pick up the pace guys !" Shorty started jogging to the loading hatch of the Carrier, we followed, just in time, the hatch closed right after we entered the Plane.
It was a DC5 Carrier a damn big plane that could store two Abrahams Tanks in it.
The Humvees were parked at its end with the Striker taking a lot of room, a few other 141 members were sitting on the benches some even on the Striker. But Shorty went to a group of 3 two of them being Yang and Dust. "Captain, the new ones are here." Shorty told a very tall blonde man in the center of the group.
So that's our Captain ?
The man walks a few steps towards us, he is really tall, a perfect Arian so to speak.
He wears the usual Jacket that seems to be 141's trademark, German army Flecktarn pants and a worn out and faded scarf with the DDR`s symbol on it, German Patch on the right shoulder.
"Welcome to Task Force 141, I'm your commanding officer,Thor."
Thor like this guy from Mythology ? Germanic mythology ?
"You two are on my team, unit 6, how about you two introduce yourself to the rest of the team , then Ill brief you okay ?"
He sure seemed like a nice guy unlike the permanently pissed Lieutenant.
"Ladies first." A equally tall guy with a face of a guy that causes trouble grins behind Shadow.
This guy was scary ! He was like 2 Meters something and was big, he had the 141 Jacket but everything about his Gear was black, out of all the ones here in the Plane, he sticks out the most, his hair is reaching down to his back and his boots are customizes with what I hope to belive are fake skulls...No nationality patch but a torn Patch with the only thing remaining being 'Guantanamo Bay'...
Ex-Convict ?
"Okay, I'm Shadow, former Polish GROM." Shadow turns to the intimidating guy and reaches him a hand. He shakes it, "I'm Boots, and you Australia ?"
"They call me Rookie." Boots scoffs, "Why's that ? I'd have called you Hugh Jackman."
"ALRIGHT, now that meet and great is over, I'll have you briefed." Thor interrupts.
Thanks for reading the first chapter ! I hope it wasn't too boring !
No worries next chapter is gonna contain a Mission with gunfire Humvee action and a bit more meeting team mates.
(If you are interested in how the characters are to look Ill upload a few sketches and so on on Deviantart and add a link in the Description, each main character will get an introduction in the following chapters.)