Tracking… Found

Sgt. John "Soap" MacTavish

22nd SAS Regiment

Hereford, UK

The helicopters had landed about an hour ago, and we were all tired. I couldn't wait to shower and get into bed. It had been a long day, what with saving Nikolai, getting shot out of the air, then fighting for more than five miles to get to an extraction point. As soon as I could, I got into bed, hoping for a long sleep. I couldn't have been more wrong. I had only been asleep for four hours when I was being shaken awake by King.

"Wake up."

"What?" I asked, sitting up and rubbing my eyes

"Price wants everyone in the war room. Let's go."

I reluctantly got out of bed and got dressed. I left my room to find King waiting outside for me.

"Price say what he wanted us in there for?"

"No, he just told me to go wake you up."

"Really?"

"Well, the exact words he used were 'Go wake up the muppet."

"Well I feel special now."

She just smiled, and we kept walking. When we got to the war room, I saw that everyone was already in there. I took a seat and watched Price pull up a file on the screen on the wall. It was Khaled Al-Asad. We waited for him to start talking, but it looked like he was still searching for what words to say.

"Are we going after Al-Asad, sir?" King asked

"Yes, but we don't know where he is. It appears that the Americans believe he's in Ahvaz, but we don't think so. The man knows too much about their movements and wouldn't put himself in the middle of the action. He's going to be as far away from this war as possible."

"So where do we think he is?" Gaz asked

"We don't know. Nikolai is currently trying to find his location, but until then, we're not going to know anything."

Later That Day

Sgt. Paul Jackson

1st Force Recon Co., U.S.M.C

Ahvaz, Iran

"Marines, we have a possible fix on Al-Asad in the capital city. 1st Battalion is en route. Intel gathered by S.A.S. indicates that Al-Asad may have a Russian warhead. Speed is critical. NEST teams have been deployed to the area. Force Recon and Wild Weasel units have taken most of the air defenses but Al-Asad's ground forces still pose a serious threat." Command said

"Looks like we're rollin' in with everything we got. We get Al-Asad, we end this war, right here, right now. Lock and load, Marines!" Vasquez yelled

I made sure the Mark 19 was ready to fire, then looked out the window. I could see an fleet of helicopters, attack or transport, flying towards the city. There was no way that Al-Asad was going to live through this. But did Shepherd really have to send in everything we have? I guess the guy just wants to be thorough.

"In formation. Approaching objective. 30 seconds." Our pilot said

"Outlaw, this is Deadly. We'll take out the big targets, mop up any troublemakers with the Mark 19."

"All callsigns, this is Overlord. We're seeing enemy armor on the bottom grove west of the river."

"Taking fire." Our pilot said

I looked out at the targets below, and saw that there were BMPs and multiple foot soldiers. I took aim and started to fire the grenades at them, watching the men explode into tiny pieces. I continued to take out targets of opportunity, hoping that I was killing all the RPGs on the rooftops. If I missed one, that could mean the end of us. After about ten minutes of shooting hostiles, Overlord started to talk to us again.

"Command, this is Outlaw Two-Five. Infantry is making a run for it. We are clear to land."

"Uh… Roger that. Ok. Bachelor Two-Seven, let's get those Abrams to the front. Outlaw, this is command. Unload half your chalk and take the rest two klicks to the west. We need you to evac an advance team pinned down in the city."

"Roger that command. Outlaw Two-Five is en route."

Our pilot flew around a courtyard, before finally landing across the street from it, opening the rear door. I watched as about five of the guys on board got off and started moving with the tank column that was rolling through. With them gone, we could now move forward and unpin that advance team. We took off and started to move closer to their location. I saw a helicopter flying away and heard that it was Deadly going to get more ordinance. Within seconds, I was able to see where the advance team was. They were on the second floor of a construction site, being surrounded by OpFor.

"Watch for friendlies near the colored smoke. Let's get our boys evac'ed and get the hell out of here!" Vasquez yelled

We landed, and this time it was our turn to get off. I loaded my M4A1 and began to move with the rest of my squad. As we got off, explosions started to go off nearby.

"Mortar fire, incoming!"

"LZ is too hot. We'll circle back in three minutes." The pilot said

They took off, and we started moving towards the construction site. We began to walk down a deserted alley when a group of OpFor began running towards the construction site. I shot two of them, but by the time I went for a third, the others had noticed and were returning fire. I took cover, looking for a way I could kill them. I took a look to see where they were hiding, and saw that there was only one left. I guess the everybody else had taken the other OpFor soldiers out. I saw the last one, and shot him in the face as he sprang out from behind cover. We all moved back into the alley, moving towards the building. I just hoped that we got here in time. We entered the building, but found that the lower floor was infested with hostiles. We quickly took them out before moving on.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Friendlies up on the second floor! I repeat, we're up on the second floor!"

We walked up a flight of stairs, and found a group of about four live Marines. There were already about five fallen ones. May they rest in peace.

"So you're our ride out of here?" a Marine asked

"We're it, Captain! Let's move out before they regroup!"

I looked into the sky and saw something that made absolutely no damn sense. There were Russian Mi-8s dropping of OpFor troops. I understand how they got their hands on Russian weapons, those are easy to get on the black market. But Russian helicopters, those were a lot harder to get. I watched the soldiers drop out of them and would've been shot if I hadn't been dragged down.

"Are your trying to get yourself shot?" She asked

I looked to my right and saw a Marine taking cover, reloading her M4. I guess that she had been paying attention when I wasn't.

"Huh?"

"What are you a fucking caveman?"

I ignored her after that, shooting at hostiles. Who the hell did she think she was? 'Are you a fucking caveman?' who the fuck says that? Once the forward area was clear, we jumped down onto a container and started to make our way back to the courtyard. We were right on time, because Outlaw Two-Five was landing just as we arrived. We all loaded on, and I got back on the Mark 19. We took off, and now there was something else Overlord had to tell us.

"Outlaw, be advised, we have a situation here, over."

"Go ahead Command, over."

"Seal Team Six has located a possible nuclear device at Al-Asad's palace to the west. NEST teams are on the way. Until the device is verified safe, all forces are to fall back to the east, over."

We began to fly away from the city, flying side-by-side with Deadly. I watched their helicopter as we were flying, and I saw something that wasn't good. I watched, helpless, as a Stinger missile slammed into their tail rotor.

"We're hit, we're hit! I've lost the tail rotor! Mayday, mayday, this is Deadly, going in hard! We're going down."

We started to circle the helicopter, but I could tell that they didn't survive. OpFor were already at the helicopter, pulling out the bodies. I heard our pilot sigh and started to move the chopper away from the city. Minutes later, there was an explosion, and I could see a mushroom cloud erupting in the distance. I guess that was a bomb after all. I could see a shockwave moving towards us, and I prayed like hell that we were far enough away. I felt it hit us, and the chopper started shaking violently. But after a few minutes it stopped, and we kept flying. I guess that we were going to be okay.

Two Hours Later

We were temporarily staying at Firebase Phoenix as we regrouped. After we had landed, I could see that there were others who had been in the city with us. They were all looking shell shocked, as if they couldn't believe what had just happened. It wasn't every day that you watch a nuclear bomb and live to tell the tale. We all walked off towards the showers and got cleaned up. I was happy to wash all the sand and sweat off. After I got out, I walked over to where their rec room was. I walked in and saw a bunch of soldiers standing around talking. I looked around for someone I knew and immediately spotted SSgt. Griggs. I walked over and sat down near him.

"Yo, Jackson." He said nodding towards me

"Hey, Griggs." I said

"How you doin'?"

"Been better. I honestly thought I was going to die when that nuke went off."

"I was out by the time it exploded. We were near the outskirts of the city anyways, so it was easier for us to get out. I heard that you saved my little sister."

"Sister?"

"Yo, Lindsey!" He yelled

I saw a girl walk over, and she looked familiar. I couldn't put my finger on it. She didn't look a thing like Griggs, so it wasn't that. It wasn't until she spoke that I knew who she was.

"What's up, Caveman?" She asked

"So you're Griggs's sister. Never would've guessed."

"Yeah, well, I never would've guessed that you spoke English, but I guess we're all full of surprises.

I just smiled, and laughed along with them. We all sat around joking and having a good time for a while. It wasn't like we had anything else to do. With no orders, we were free to do whatever we wanted. That was, until Vasquez came in.

"Get your gear on. An S.A.S. team needs extraction and we're going to go help them."