Opening notes: Still experimenting a little to try to figure out how to do this. It's made a little more annoying since the Modern Warfare series has a good amount of relevant dialogue and plenty going on in the loading screens. There's also the fact that transcribing absolutely every bit of gameplay is going to extend this fic by a good deal. So for now, I'll switch between the in-game/immersive main view with the girls inside the brackets, and focusing more on the girls with the game's events going on in brackets. I'll put line breaks for when the perspective shifts like that. Hope no one minds.

Speaking of mind, remember the Black trailer? Remember Blake's Words to Adam? "What about the crew members?" Yeah, it seems both the trailer 'and' the first actual mission of the game are spawning some memories. You would not 'believe' the amount of trouble I had keeping Blake from walking off right here and now, and that would take at 'least' a quarter of the appeal in this story.

Chapter 6

Are We the Good Guys Here?

Yang stood up, intending to get the first round of drinks while the first actual mission loaded, but was caught off guard when it wasn't some simple black screen with the word 'loading' in the corner. Nope, it went immediately to that same world-view-interface thing that the game started with. And as the map shifted to show that their next mission was a good distance away from the opening piece of the game, Price and Gaz had a short but 'very' ear-catching conversation.

[Price: Bravo team, the Intel on this op comes from our informant in Russia. The package is aboard a medium freighter, Estonian registration number five-two-seven-seven-five. There is a small crew and security detail onboard.

Gaz: Rules of engagement, sir?

Price: Crew expendable.]

Blake immediately sat up straight, arm suddenly grabbing the armrest so tightly it was like she wanted to rip it off and smack someone with it. "WHAT?!"

Weiss merely raised an eyebrow, surprised but not overly so. If anything, her lack of response was as surprising as Blake's violent reaction.

Yang twisted and turned Price's words, looking at them from every angle, as if trying to find an interpretation of that line that didn't sound like a military man had just 'ordered' the deaths of non-combatants. Her confused train of thought was derailed when Ruby paused the game just as the screen went white. Slowly, she put the controller on the coffee table, and started sucking in a breath. Based on the way her eyes were all-too-calmly shut, Yang suddenly flashed back to when her sister found out Santa wasn't real. Very, very scary moment. "Yang..when you had this whole 'gaming night' idea..did you know 'anything' about the game you got for it?"

Shaking her head fast enough that she might make herself dizzy, Yang quickly stuttered, "Um, no, I just, you know, asked a friend for something interesting."

Blake continued the interrogation with a bit more venom in her voice. "Yes, interesting. That's one way to put it. After all, how interesting is it to see through the eyes of the VILLAINS?!"

The biggest surprise so far, at least to the blond, was when Weiss came to her defense. Weiss..came to Yang's..defense? That just didn't sound right. At all. "Isn't it a little early to start calling them villains? We don't really know the context of anything yet."

Blake took a moment to just stare incredulously at Weiss, digested what she said..and started breaking down into a snorting laugh. "Con..context?"

The laugh then devolved into something downright terrifying and as much as Yang was suddenly curious what mental landmines this game had set off she felt like asking right 'now' would end with the at-the-moment hysterically mad girl strangling the blond with her own intestines. "Context?! What kind of CONTEXT involves killing INNOCENT PEOPLE who just HAPPEN to be on the same SHIP?!"

Most people would have backed away. Some braver people might have tried saying something to calm her down. But Weiss? She just looked at the warning signs and seemed to go 'fuck that, I've got a point I want to make'. "How do we 'know' they're innocent?!"

For a split second, the world around them seemed to pause. Yang didn't really know what to do, this was 'so' far outside what she thought might happen tonight that all she could manage to do was watch. Ruby looked seemed to be 'debating' with herself if she should save Weiss from the 'very' visibly enraged Blake, or just watch the carnage. This was a pivotal moment. In one alternate universe, Blake beat the ever-loving crap out of Weiss, and the day ended in disaster. In a slightly altered version of that branch, Ruby joined in because Weiss had given her 'ample' reason to when they first met. So what broke the tension? What saved the situation and prevented what was supposed to be a relaxing team-building moment from turning into a beating? Yang's scroll went off, and her ringtone started blaring.

[I see it in your eyes,

you're feeling paranoid

You know just what I've done

You know what I've -]

Whatever Blake was going to say derailed immediately as Yang fumbled with it, the blond quickly turning off the song and mumbling, "Ugh, I thought I told him I'm going to be busy tonight."

Taking a moment to just sit back down and smooth out her uniform, the raven haired girl somehow managed to mumble, "Sorry."

Sitting back down herself, Weiss grumbled under her breath, "And people say 'I' take things too seriously."

Yang quickly sent her reply message and then turned off her scroll. Sure, that interruption was 'very' much appreciated, but it still felt a little embarrassing. Ruby finally opened her eyes and asked, "Yang, do you happen to have anything..alcoholic in the fridge?"

Blinking a bit at the unexpected question, Yang replied, "I wasn't really expecting this would be a drinking night, so..nothing all that strong. Just some random kind-of-weak beers, cokes, water, and maybe some apple juice in there. Why?"

Ruby's answer was concise and to the point. "Because if we're so high-strung that a pair of words in a story make us react like 'this', we need 'something' to keep us from doing something stupid."

Weiss grimaced at the idea. "Really? Why are you saying that 'we' need it? Blake's the one who turned into a mad woman!"

The stare Ruby sent her partner was disbelieving. "You almost seemed to be goading her on, Yang was like a deer in the headlights when things went weird, and I was actually kind of tempted to just 'let' whatever was going to happen happen. I don't know how we got this nutty, but we need 'something' in order to relax and burn off the stress before we 'really' go crazy, and frankly, this game seems like the best idea in that regard. So, unless anyone has any objections, we're going to continue this thing in a bit."

Slowly, Blake's usual mask of calm returned. "Okay..half an hour. I'm giving this thing half an hour. If it doesn't prove the main characters aren't kill-happy lunatics, I'm out of here."

And with that said, Ruby unpaused the game.

Soap didn't really pay attention to what the pilot was saying as the helicopter flew through the stormy night. He was just trying to calm himself before his first mission with the squad, hoping all the training and drills would be enough. If he was allowed to, he probably would have taken his gun apart and made some personal adjustments if he thought there was time. It was hard not to feel a little hyped up in the early morning, knowing all hell was going to break loose soon.

If Price was in any way nervous, he didn't show it. Maybe smoking that cigar was how he calmed down, or maybe he was smoking the cigar less than a minute from the drop zone because he'd seen it all, and he figured it'd be easier to feed his addiction inside a fast moving helicopter than in the middle of a brutal looking thunderstorm.

[Weiss: Ugh. Disgusting habit.

Yang: Hey, if you think you might not live to the morning, you're going to try living a little whenever you can.

Ruby: It doesn't really look like he's having 'fun' smoking that thing. More like..bored.]

They finally had reached the ship, and it looked bigger than what Soap imagined. Maybe it was a trick of the lighting, maybe it was how it was swaying due to the massive waves, but something that big could easily hold a lot of people. The question was, how much space on that thing was devoted to living quarters, and how much was for cargo? Because just one person extra body to deal with could be the difference between heading back home and ending up dead.

The helicopter began slowing down, and Soap finally heard the pilot say, "Ten seconds." That was his cue to put his mask on. It was more for the sake of keeping their origins a secret than any concern about chemical weapons. He couldn't help wondering why they should bother, though. They weren't exactly planning on leaving any witnesses anyway.

"Radio check, go to a secure channel." Something about that moment when you put on a mask where it's not fully on and your vision's obscured always felt unnerving. Maybe it was the fact that most people relied so much on their eyes to know what was going on, and he usually had to put on a mask when things were loud and you never knew what would happen in those few seconds it took for you to find those damn eye holes. Maybe it was some residual, childish fear of the dark, and his lifestyle had brought it back to a degree. Regardless, once the mask was on, he pulled out his MP5, did a quick check, and undid the safety.

There wasn't really much difference going down the rope of the helicopter in the middle of a storm and going down the rope for the CQB back at base. Maybe a little wetter, but it was hard to tell considering the gear Soap was wearing. The instant he touched the ground, he met eyes with a man behind a control panel, cup of coffee still to his lips..poor bastard.

[Weiss: Huh..so, aside from some slight differences in positioning..that..that looks like the test. That's actually pretty good planning.]

Just as the men inside the bridge started to react, Price said, "Weapons free." All in all, four people dead in less than two seconds. It was almost sad to see one of them try to run away only to get cut down by gunshots from three different angles at once.

[Ruby: What the..no aura?!

Weiss: It's the crew, I don't think they were planning on seeing any combat.

Blake: You can't even call that collateral damage, they were just 'slaughtered'.]

Gaz stated the obvious. "Bridge secure."

Price probably didn't need to say it, but said it anyway. "Hold your fire."

[Yang: Nobody's shooting..probably because there's no one left to shoot.]

"Gaz, stay in the bird until we secure the deck. Over."

[Weiss: Leaving one of your best men in the aircraft? Why? It's not like he'll be able to see much in that storm, and the pilot would probably have a better view than him, anyway.

Ruby: Maybe in case things go wrong and they need him to help from a different angle?]

"Roger that."

Kicking open the door, the squad moved from position one, and thankfully they didn't have to rush to beat some timer as they went to position 2. They could afford to be more careful. "Squad, on me."

Closing notes: I know, yet another awkward point for me to end a chapter. Especially since once again, we've seen little to no gameplay. Blame that on the tense scene at the start of this chapter. It felt like it had to be done, really, and after that I didn't have a hell of a lot of energy today. I know, I don't necessarily have to upload a chapter each day, but what can I say? I'm on a roll writing this thing and while writing for longer would let me having larger chapters, considering the way I write I don't really see it improving the look or feel of any of these scenes.

Hope you enjoyed.