And Then I Saw Her
By StormHoof
Prologue part 1
I stood there and listened as Sergeant Landers gave out the announcement that my team, a team of elite mercenaries consisting of myself, Erin Conners and Eddie Sage, were to proceed to briefing. Of course we knew this already. We were always up to date on what was going on, especially when it came to our assignments. We nodded and left the break room and walked down the hallway to the Briefing room, where General Levrette and Lieutenant Carson where both waiting.
"Anderson, good to see you." The General said.
"The same to you sir. And please, use my code name. Night Shade." I replied.
"As you wish. Now I'm sure you and your team are all wondering why you're here?" The Lieutenant asked.
"Actually, we know why we're here. You need us to take an assignment that requires us to go into an enemy territory and recover a group or person of importance that you can't get out yourself." I stated.
"Close, We need you to go across Syrian borders and slip into their closest military compound. Once inside, you need to get to their munitions and take them out. We don't care how you do it just get it done. Once that's finished, you will need to go to their missile defense control and disable it so that when we go to destroy the compound, they won't be able to stop it. Are we clear?" The General explained.
"Crystal sir. We'll head out once we're ready." I replied.
"Good, we'll have a ride waiting for you outside. Just let them know when you're ready to leave."
"Understood." I said as all three of us moved to attention, saluting both the General and the Lieutenant. When they dropped their salute, we fell out and moved to our place. I unlocked the door and walked inside with my team. We all got out our gear and began putting it on. I put on my combat uniform with the Kevlar vest on as well. I put my boots back on and once I finished lacing them up I put on my gloves, my helmet and shades. I put on my radio and placed the headpiece on and checked it to make sure it worked.
"Check, check, 1...2...3." I said.
"Check."
"Check"
The radio check being complete, we moved to the gun safe in the back. Opening it up, I grabbed my M4 and checked it, making sure it was in working order. I took out a black case and grabbed my magazines. I opened the case and removed my sight and placed it on my rifle. I took out a box of ammunition and began loading my mags, and just to be sure, I grabbed my extended mag and filled it. Placing a mag into my rifle, I checked it once more. I took out two grenades, one frag grenade, and a flashbang, which I doubted I would need. Once those were safely in place, I strapped my knife on and stowed my mags away for when they would be needed.
Once I was geared up, I put the case back and check the rest of my team. Eddie was all set and was checking his sniper in much the same manner as I had my rifle. Erin however just stood tapping his foot, waiting for us to hurry up.
"Erin, something up? Your acting like you have somewhere to be." I said, chuckling.
"We all have somewhere to be and you guys are just as slow as you always are. And aren't we supposed to be going by our code names?" He asked.
"We won't need our code names until we get to Syria. Chances are, they'll be listening in, so we might have to go with radio silence. Eddie you set?" I asked.
"All set Jack." He replied.
I nodded and walked out, the others following. I closed the door and locked it back up. All geared up, we headed out to where our ride was waiting. When we got there, we were met with a standard Blackhawk. During any mission, a Blackhawk was by far our most preferred way to travel. I hopped in and helped the other two in as well. Once we were safely inside and strapped in, I told the pilot we were ready.
Before we knew it, we were in the air and we were heading straight for the border. The base that my team and I were on was only about three or four miles from the border so the ride wouldn't take too long. I looked over at Eddie, aka Silver Bullet. He was looking out over the landscape as we flew. He always did love nature. Me, I was never a nature lover, especially when nature seemed too perfect. I learned early on in my life that if something seemed perfect or too perfect, then something was up, or something was going to happen.
I learned this because back when I was a kid, I had been running around in the forest behind my house. Being a kid, I was taking sticks and was using them like swords or guns. Oh man, my imagination knew no bounds. After a while, I stopped to listen to the sounds of the forest, and that's when I heard it. A loud gunshot rang through the air. I was curious and followed the sound back to my house where my mom was making lunch. When I got home however, a guy all dressed in black was running from a broken window in our living room. I ran inside to see if he took anything and that's when I saw her. My mom was lying on the living room floor and she was lying in a pool of her own blood. I have never cried harder than I did that day.
That day was the reason why I became a mercenary in the first place. I wanted to be able to not only protect innocent people, but I wanted to get rid of any and all bad people in the world.
Suddenly I was yanked from my thoughts as the pilot yelled over the radio.
"We are hit, I repeat, we are hit! Brace for impact!"
I immediately grabbed Eddie and Erin, aka Black Light, and we prepared for the worst.