Chapter I- Unauthorized Personnel

Kevin Harkin, secondary of Disciple Two, stood at the cave entrance that led to the underground river, a cigarette firmly in hand. His right held his M-16; the running joke in Shadow, an outfit big on personally-chosen and specialized weapons, was that Harkin was the only guy in the unit who chose the old U.S. service rifle as his own when he could've had anything else.

Across from him, the leader of Disciple Two, Zack Camden, shifted his AN-94 in both hands. Throwing a glance at Harkin, he grouched, "Man, have you gotta be standin' upwind whenever you smoke those friggin' things?"

Exhaling for a moment before he answered, Harkin said, "You smoke cigars. How can you complain?"

"I can complain, motherfucker, 'cause I'm Disciple Two-Actual. I'm in charge."

Harkin shrugged. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot." Camden smirked.

Pausing for a moment, Harkin added, "What the fuck you got that Haji gun for, anyway?"

Camden glared at his second under his gray-tan helmet, only the area around his eyes visible under the black balaclavas all of them wore. In fact, their uniforms and the vast majority of their gear was black; it fit well with the dark, awe-inspiring image their CO and Shepherd wanted Shadow to project. On their left and right arms, representing active duty unit assignment and combat deployment respectively, all Shadow Company personnel wore the circular "Wreathed Spade" patch, a dark gray patch with a black spade at its center.

Its edge was ringed with words: the bottom half read "Death Waits in the Shadows", while the top bore the arched words "Vigilans et Fidelis". At the center of the spade there was a barely-visible 30, representing the 30,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines killed when would-be-President Al-Assad detonated a nuclear weapon in Wadiya's capitol, destroying the city and everyone within range. The 30 represented one of Shadow Company's most solemn vows, a goal closely relevant to their willingness to follow General Shepherd.

It could be summed up thus: "Never Again".

It had been foolish and stupid of the American people to allow themselves to ignore the threat Al-Assad represented, and then to effectively dismiss the thousands he killed for the sake of an earlier return to peace. So they could return to "the way things were". The men of Shadow intended to see to it that the one time their country was caught so woefully unprepared this decade was the only time it happened for the next century. Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and then the 30,000. Those three were more than enough, and on Shadow Company's watch there would be no more. None.

"It's not a Haji gun," Camden said, visibly irritated. "It's Russian. Best fuckin' Russki AR on the market."

"Well, what's the difference? Hajis use Russian guns, lots of 'em."

Camden glared again, not liking the attachment of the word "Haji" to his favourite assault rifle. "The difference is this fucker will jam if you get it dirty. It's made to be precise; you need skill to use one."

He considered. "And besides, I like the shit the ragheads use. AK's, RPD's, SVD's- they all work out here. Sand doesn't bother 'em for shit while we're always cleaning our guns. Remember that, the guns these towel-heads are using? A bunch of guys in pajamas didn't do so bad with 'em in Vietnam, either. You gotta respect the Haji guns."

Harkin considered for all that, standing silent and scanning the open area ahead of him with the steady, unremitting vigilance of all Shadow Company operators. Site Hotel Bravo was a series of inter-connected caves, all set right against the side of a mountain with landing sites for helicopters, ammunition and ordnance storage depots, and a full headquarters for area operations.

Behind Harkin and Camden was the tunnel that lead down to a dock, built for routine- or emergency- use by headquarters personnel. The underground river the dock led to went on for a long way, going above the surface after a short time. If anybody needed to make a quick exit from HQ, this would be place they'd go.

Shadow Company HQ was some 200 yards away, across the clearing, past a net-camouflaged mass of ammunition and weapons crates, and through another tunnel entrance. Shepherd was in there right now, working out details with Black Skull- callsign for Shadow's burly, no-nonsense CO- for whatever Shadow's next mission was gonna be.

Just as Harkin started to say something, the radio's in both their helmets spat static, followed by the chief radio operator for Shadow. "Disciple Two-Oxide, what's your status, over?"

Camden answered promptly, his voice calm. "Oxide, we're on-site outside Sector Uniform Romeo, watching and waiting, over."

"Disciple Two, have you been having any comms problems? We've lost all contact with Disciple Five and Black Skull thinks it might be a bad transmitter, or that sandstorm blowing our way, over."

Camden considered that, looking around at his team, some twelve men plus himself scattered around the clearing, two patrolling back and forth along the cliff-edge. Radio chatter came and went between them regularly; there couldn't have been any technical problems, not with Camden's unit. It was ironic; the one time HQ asked about communications like they gave a shit, Disciple Two at least wasn't having any.

"Negative, Oxide. We're all green here."

The comms chief's voice came back stern, wary- like he suspected something was wrong, but couldn't yet prove it. "Stay frosty, Disciple Two. Oxide out."

Harkin looked at his team leader oddly, the previous mood of banter-and-bullshit gone like it had never been there at all. "You want us to go safeties-off, boss?"

After considering that for a moment, Camden nodded. "Do it."

Keying his own headset, Harkin said, "All Disciple Two India's, safeties off. Stay frosty."

He turned to Camden. "Done, boss."

Pleased in spite of himself, Camden smiled a little. "That's why you're my number two."

Just as Harkin was about to say something witty, the radio operator in the headquarters cave came back on. His voice was now gripped with a terrible urgency, and instantly Camden knew something was up.

"Break, break!" Oxide called, then went on, "All units, all units, we have a security breach! Disciples Four and Five are down; I am dispatching Six to the steam room. All units, safeties off. Shoot unauthorized personnel on sight!"

That got them going. Instantly, every man in Disciple Two went passive on the comms after a few shouted commands from Camden, who had another man take his place at the river-tunnel entrance and began moving around the clearing, checking every one of his men and ensuring they were all on full alert. Whatever was going on, it was no drill- Oxide never reported two whole teams down, which almost certainly meant they were dead. You didn't drop out of contact wounded or captured in Shadow Company; you never were late for anything. If a Shadow man was absent or late to anything, it was because he was dead.

Oxide suddenly snapped on the comm; "Disciple Six- go dark! Breach and clear!"

A moment later, Raam's voice came on; "Breaching, breaching!"

Distantly, Camden could hear the sound of an explosion on the radio as Disciple Six stacked up, set a door charge, blew it and went sweeping into the darkened steam room. Camden suddenly felt adrenaline starting to surge through him. Men were going to die today, perhaps a lot of them.

Following that thought, a surge of anger- whoever was killing Zack Camden's Shadow Company brothers, he apparently had a hell of a lot more guts than brains. If he had any sense now, he'd turn around and run, and never stop running as long as he had breath in his body.

Disciple Six's team leader was nicknamed "Butcher" for no idle reason. And, for that matter, all of Shadow Company had not earned their reputation for lethal efficiency by being nice guys on the job. If they captured the one- or ones- responsible for this intrusion alive… they'd spend a long time wishing they were dead before death finally came for them.