It was a cold and overcast winter day outside of Hereford Base. Which is why it made even less sense that the members of Rainbow Six were outside, patiently awaiting the helicopter that Six would fly in on.
At noon on January 11th, Michael "Thatcher" Baker, Guilles "Montagne" Touré, Jordan "Thermite" Trace,
Monika "IQ" Weiss, and Alexsandr "Tachanka" Senaviev found an email in their inbox; an email from Six, the founder and leader of Rainbow Six. This email announced the arrival of two new immediate recruits that are to reinforce the GSG9. This email said that Six would arrive with the two recruits and she would brief them on the situation and that she would give them the two recruit's files that would include past experience, mental and physical stability, a full biography, and physical and mental health concerns.
That last category was added after the newest addition to the Spetsnaz joined without telling anyone about her condition at first. This gave Gustav "Doc" Kateb a nasty surprise when he was performing her physical examination.
Anyway, on the morning of January 12, the operatives had set up a makeshift welcoming party.
Originally, this party was to be more extravagant, but the cold and general unwillingness to do something that would more likely than not have little to no impact on these recruits. After the original plan fell apart, the Brits and the Americans started a couple bonfires and drank their coffees as they grumbled about the weather and why in the name of god Six and, by extension, their respective team leaders would force them to be out in this weather at this time for a couple lousy recruits.
James "Smoke" Porter was the first to grumble about the recruits, saying something along the lines of "These Krauts better be God's gift to counter-terrorism if they're gonna make us wait out in this fucking weather.".
IQ generally had no problem with bitching as long as it was justified and directed at the right people. This was justified, yes, but being angry at these poor bambis would do nothing but alienate them and drive an even bigger wedge between the international connections of the organisation. These connections had already been strained by the Russians and the Americans because, well, the Cold War. Of course both parties still majorily trusted each other to protect the other party in a gunfight. But out of battles, political ideologies did make the two CTUs quite hostile towards each other. More recent and more dangerous is the addition of Olivier "Lion" Flament. Lion was not only at odds with a member of his own team, the doctor no less, but he was also the main reason that the GIGN and the SAS member give each other sidelong looks as they pass each other in the hall ways of their barracks.
IQ realised that such an attitude could bring the GSG9 and the SAS into a similar situation (if she was being honest with herself, she didn't truly believe that an offhanded comment half blaming new recruits that might not even be liked, much less live for very long, would ignite a brawl between the two groups. However, it didn't hurt to be safe.)
"James, you shouldn't blam-" she started, but was quickly cut off by Eliza "Ash" Cohen, who was currently trying to light a cigarette in the small fire they were sitting around.
Upon being successful in her endeavours, Ash sat straighter and remarked "You know Jay-Jay," she said, using Smoke's "beloved" pet name. In actuality Smoke despised the name. "when you first got recruited it was a day just like today. And we all stood out here in the freezing cold and waited for you and Marky here!" She slapped Mark "Mute" Chandar's leg as she spoke. The youngest member of Rainbow looked rather uncomfortable.
"And you want to know the real kicker, Jaja?" she asked, rapidly getting more agitated, chewing her cigarette more and more.
Smoke, not used to hearing Ash being this angry (even if it was in a joking manner) stuttered as he asked her to finish her soliloquy "W-what's that Eliza?"
Ash took a drag from her cigarette and slouched slightly. "We waited four damn hours, and you fuckers didn't even show up!"
Thermite, who had been monitoring this exchange with a smirk from across the fire, audibly chuckled as he heard Ash's anger pouring out. He remember how bad she fumed when she learned that the new guys wouldn't show up til tomorrow. Thermite laughed as he thought about how long she must have been waiting to go off on those two and how long she had bottled those emotions up.