Tracking… Found
Cpl. Dunn
Task Force 141
Firebase Phoenix, Afghanistan
A.N. Hey guys, what's up? So this is the last chapter before 'Loose Ends' and I'm kind of excited and nervous about it. I want to be able to keep it realistic, but also change the fact that Ghost and Roach die. So, if you have any ideas on how the hell I should do that, please, share them in a review or PM me. Thanks, OPKILLERFROST out.
"Captain." The General acknowledged MacTavish's presence
"Sir." MacTavish replied curtly
"So, as I was saying, the target is a one Major Petrov. We don't know much about him at this point, given files on him were destroyed in the attacks on Washington D.C. earlier this week. All we know at this point is that he is heading the Russian ground forces in America, and that he'll be moving to a cabin in the middle of New York. Gentlemen," He looked at the girls in the room before saying "and ladies, we need to be rid of him. You leave at 2100 hours; get it done."
With that being said, the General left the room. Thanks for giving us such great instructions and words of confidence. And people wonder why I initially didn't want to be on the Prima Donna Squad. After the General left, everybody went to get ready for the mission. Granted it was only 1500 hours, we that time would fly by and before we knew it, we'd be on that chopper moving to take out the Major. As everyone went their separate ways, I went back to the barracks to get some shut eye. I didn't sleep well last night. There's just too much going on. Between Russians still shooting the hell out of the U.S., watching so many of my friends get mowed down, it's just too fucking much. When I get there, it looks exactly the same as when I left. I shared the room with Foley, so his stuff was sitting in the far corner of the room. He might seem like a soldier who does nothing but eat, breathe, and live work, but he is the most unorganized and messy person I've ever met. And wouldn't you know it? Just as my head hits the pillow, Foley comes into the room looking for some paper.
"Dunn, have you seen-"
"No." I said, stopping Foley
It didn't matter what it was, if it was in that mess Foley called his 'files' then I had no fucking clue where it was.
"I didn't even say what it was." He said, confused as hell
"Don't matter. I have no clue what the hell is in that mess of shit."
"It's not shit, Corporal."
I hated it when he called me that, and he knew it too. He only did that when he needed me to sober up, or when he really wanted to piss me off.
"Sure looks that way to me, Sarge."
And that was how I would get back at him. Either I would start, or he would, we would just go back and forth until something that happened that made us focus. Such as a BTR rolling down the street in Virginia, or when shit was falling from the sky in D.C., which always worked. Foley just gave me a death glare and walked out of the room. I closed my eyes, a few minutes later, even though it felt like hours, I started to have flashbacks of what happened in D.C.
"What the hell are we gonna do now, man? Russians got us out numbered, shit's falling from the sky, we're screwed, man! We're totally –" I was having a panic attack. I had never been in such a stressing situation. I was in my nation's capital, running from Russians, dodging falling helicopters and jets, I was losing my grip on the situation.
"Shut up! Get a grip, Corporal! Our weapons still work, which means we can still kick some ass." Foley yelled at me
I heard a loud crash and a large… something came crashing down the street. It came to a rest next to a downed bird, cutting us off from the crash site. Then everything became eerily quiet, like Ivan just decided to pick up and leave.
"What the hell was that?!" Blackwood whispered
I glanced over at her. She looked scared as hell, and I felt the same way. I mean, between fighting for our lives, crash landing in the middle of a Russian invasion, then having shit fall from the sky, it was taxing on a person.
"Stay here." Foley said
"You're goin' out there? Are you nuts?" I said
I was sure the man had lost his damned mind. It felt like any second something would come falling from above and crush the poor bastard. But nothing falls.
"It's over. Come on, we still have a war to fight." He said
We all moved out the door cautiously. I still wasn't sure if shit was done raining on us or not, and I was scared as hell.
"What the hell happened here?" Sandler asked
Sandler. He would be with us here in the Task Force if he hadn't been gunned down during the assault on Whiskey Hotel. I was right behind him when a spotlight caught us sprinting for cover. The guy on the .50 cal sent a swarm of bullets towards us, most of them finding homes in Sandler's body. I remember I dragged him out of more gunfire as Ramirez shot the spotlight. I held Alex in my arms and sat there, helpless as his life seeped out faster than the blood from his wounds. Finally, his eyes showed that I held a body that contained the life force of a once great friend and warrior. I closed his eyes and payed my final respects.
"Rest in peace."
I was jarred from my thoughts as I heard a knock on the door. I got up and went to check who was there. I turned the handle and pulled the door open just enough for me to peek out. Ava stood there, her arms across her chest.
"Need something, Blackwood?" I asked
"No, just letting you know that we're leaving in ten mikes." She said, smirking
I looked over at the clock, which undoubtedly, said 8:50.
"Shit." I said, running past Ava to the armory so I could get ready for the mission. How the hell did the time slip by so fast? Last time I checked that damned clock, it said that it was 4:00. How do four hours and fifty minutes go by just from thinking about the past that's traumatized you? Whatever, right now, I just need to focus on getting ready. I ran through the door, right to my locker that held my new equipment. I grabbed the fleece, with zippers that seemed to be everywhere, and tugged it on. I threw on the vest that would hold all my ammo and tac knife. I grabbed my M4A1 and SCAR-H and ran for the chopper. I am so fucking late it's not even funny. Well, at least not to me it wasn't. Blackwood on the other hand, was laughing her ass of as she watched me haul ass from the armory to the chopper. I ran up the ramp and took a seat in between Roach and Hazard.
"Nice that you decided to join us, Dunn." MacTavish said
"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world, sir." I said sarcastically
"Well aren't you just the jester?" Neon muttered as I walked past
"Hmm. Jester, I like it." MacTavish said
"Like what?" Spirit asked
"I think we just found Dunn's new call sign."
"It's official. Welcome to the 141, Jester." Price said
I smiled at the new name. Now, only to few, I was still Scott Dunn. Now, I'm Jester.
"Ready up." Ghost said
I looked out one of the windows and saw trees, trees, and more fuckin' trees. We touched down in a small clearing, which was obviously used by the Russians because there were supply drops and weapons all over.
"Let's move. We don't want to be here when they get back." MacTavish said
I looked around, trying to see if there were hostiles around, but found nothing showing any signs of recent movement. I moved into the trees with the rest of the group, praying to god that this mission would just go as planned.
"We're about a click northwest of the target building. Jester, Ramirez, Roach, Ghost, and I will move around and flank from the east, while the rest of you will move in and attack from the west. He'll have nowhere to run." MacTavish said
From there, we split up. I wish MacTavish had put me with Blackwood. Ever since she shot Ghost, she hadn't been quite the same. It was barely noticeable, but every time she held a gun, I could see the fear in her eyes. The fear that said she was scared of hurting anyone ever again. I just didn't want to her to get hurt because she was too scared to end someone's life when she was looking at someone ready to end hers. I was jarred from my thoughts when MacTavish said something about nearing the house.
"I've got a tango on the balcony." Ghost said
The Russian was leaning on a railing outside a door, which, I think, leads to the kitchen. Below him was a door for access to the basement.
"Weapons free. Suppressed weapons only." MacTavish said
I aimed down the red dot sight on my M4A1 and fired two shots into the Russian's chest. He fell over the railing and hit the ground with a thud. We moved up to the tree line and waited for the others to get into position.
"Team Two in position." Price said
"Roger that, Bravo-Six." Soap muttered
"I see two- wait- no, three tangos patrolling outside the house. Two are moving around the perimeter, one is standing guard at the door."
"Roger. Any snipers you can see?"
"Negative, Soap. We're in the clear unless the bastards are in ghillie suits."
"Roger that. Price, take out the tangos so we can move up."
"Roger that, Soap."
For a few seconds I heard nothing. Then, there were three unmistakable thuds of bodies dropping to the ground.
"All clear." Price announced
"Roger. Squad, stack up at the door."
We did as he said, Ghost lining up behind MacTavish on one side of the door, and me in between Ramirez and Roach.
"Roach, get a breaching charge on the door." MacTavish said
Roach reached into his backpack and pulled out a square, white object with a handle on one side, and a strong adhesive on the other. Roach shoved it into the middle of the door and pressed the detonator. Let's hope things will go right for a change. Yeah, right. Since when do things actually go right? They go left, forwards, backward, anywhere but right. Either way, Petrov wasn't leaving here alive.
"Go, go, go!" MacTavish said
What's with the repetition? Wouldn't once or twice worked? You had to say 'go' three fucking times? Whatever. I walked through the shattered doorway after Ramirez, and fired at the Russians who weren't dazed by the explosions. Within seconds, the room was cleared. I could hear gunshots upstairs, so Price and his team must be inside the building already.
"Jester, Roach, get upstairs and search for Petrov."
"Roger that." I said
We moved up the stairs, which, for the record, had way too many landings. We went up two steps and we hit a landing. We turned right, went up, like, ten more, then hit another landing. We finally turned right and went up a couple more and we're upstairs, but did the house really need to have two landings going upstairs. And here I am ranting to myself about how many landings on stairs there are when there's a house full of Russians shooting at me. The wonders of the human mind. Anyways, the Russians were killed pretty quickly, allowing us to sweep through the rest of the house.
"There's nobody here, sir." Foley said
"Bloody hell. Shepard isn't going to like this." Ghost said
"Too right mate." MacTavish said "Command, the HVT isn't here. We're coming home."
"Roger that. Exfil is Oscar Mike." Command said
"Let's move." Price said
We all moved out through the front doors, which had been blown to splinters when Price's team breached through it. Outside were the bodies of the guards who'd been killed by unseen enemies. We moved back among the trees. It was going to be a long trek back to the LZ.
"So what're we going to do now that Petrov isn't here?" Neon asked
"I don't know. Shepard will probably chew us out, tell us to go get cleaned up, then have us sent out on a mission tomorrow or the next day." MacTavish replied
"Ain't that the truth." I muttered. Shepard rarely let anybody rest for long before he sent them on some goddamned mission.
Fifteen minutes later, we finally managed to get back to the LZ. The chopper was just coming into sight as we broke out of the tree line. Then, like usual, things went to hell. Bullets started flying everywhere and the air was filled with the sound of gunshots and angry Russians.
"Hotel-Six, the LZ is too hot. We cannot land. I repeat, we cannot land at the primary LZ." The pilot said
"Just land! We need to get out of here now!" MacTavish yelled
"Roger."
The chopper came down, and the fighting intensified. We couldn't allow the chopper to be destroyed or we'd be toast. Before the helicopter's wheels hit the ground, I jumped into it. I would rather be in a bulletproof metal container than in the open with not so bulletproof air. We all got in and were still shooting out the back when we took off. RPGs were flying everywhere trying to take us down. It honestly felt like D.C. again when we were after those SAM sites on top of the Department of Justice. I thought that at any moment, we were going to get shot down. But we didn't. We got out of there all safe and sound.
"So, where we going next?" Ava asked next to me
I just chuckled and looked at her. She always wanted to get into the fight.
"Hey Cap, how's Boxer for Blackwood here?"
MacTavish gave me a puzzled look, like he didn't understand my thinking yet. "Why Boxer?"
"She always wants a fight."
"Alright. Boxer it is."
Ava looked at me and smiled. Oh god, don't tell me this is going to be a cliché. Are all of us going to start going out with each other before this war was over? Roach and Desert were already dating, and so were Ghost and Hazard. Was I really going to fall for Ava and date her? Yeah, I think I'm going to.
QoC: If you would want one character to die, who would it be?
