Chapter 11: The Beginning of the End

Two months have passed since the SEALs had eliminated General Immortus, and the results were showing. ISIS' fighting had become more erratic and less organized and the city of Ramadi had been taken back just recently. The ultimate prize was now in sight - Falluja.

Richard was lifting some free weights when Victor approached him, "Hey Rich, you got a couple minutes?"

"Yes sir... Is there a problem?" Richard responded.

"Why does everybody always think there's something wrong?" Victor asked jokingly, "nah, you're going to like this, come on." Richard followed Victor into his office. It was a simple setup, a desk, a couple chairs, a bookshelf and several filing cabinets, the only decoration to speak of being a framed picture on the wall drawn in crayon, obviously done by a young child. "You've been doing a lot of stepping up lately, and it hasn't gone unnoticed..."

"Just doing what I can sir."

"Everybody does what they can, but you take it to a different level... You're a leader whether you realize it or not."

Richard blinked, "if I have an idea I throw it out there."

"You have a lot of ideas" Victor said, "and you've yet to have a bad idea."

Richard adjusted his seat, "I wish I could agree with that sir... But my idea last week nearly got Simmons killed."

"We're soldiers Rich, it happens... I've lost a lot of good men in my time..." Victor began, "it didn't mean my plan of attack was bad or the execution was bad, it's just something that happens... What happened to Simmons is why we wear ballistic plates, which did their job and stopped the bullet."

Richard sighed.

"Don't dwell on it, it's just something that happens, the sooner you accept that the better..." Victor opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out a small black box. "The reason I called you in here was because I wanted you to know that your leadership skills have been noticed, and now they're going to be recognized..." He opened the box, revealing an E-7 patch. "I'm promoting you to Chief."

Richard leaned forward to get a better look at the patches, his eyes went wide, "Are you serious?"

"Very, we need good men who step up in our leadership positions" Victor said.

"Wow..." Richard began, "What changes for me now?"

"Well for one nobody gets to say you're not a Chief anymore..." Victor said. "You give orders in the field, can be involved in planning, you can put entire ops together if you want, though I would have to sign off on them."

"And how often do you have to deny an op planned by one of your Chiefs?"

Victor smiled, "haven't had to yet, I don't promote any of my guys to Chief unless I trust them completely."

"So you don't trust all your guys completely?" Richard joked.

Victor shifted his glance, "not everybody can be a Chief Rich, now just smile and nod."

Richard smiled, "Thank you sir."

"We're hit!" Rachael yelled as multiple alarms sounded in the cockpit and red lights flashed. The helo was going down as she desperately tried to regain some flight control authority with no success. She watched helplessly as the ground rapidly approached...

She woke up in a cold sweat and short of breath, looking around the dark room she saw her colleagues all asleep in their cots and breathed a sigh of relief. She got up and went to the bathroom, where she splashed some cold water on her face. She leaned on the sink staring straight down with her eyes closed and taking deep breaths, after a few moments she wiped her face with a cloth.

"Rae?" A voice said.

Rachael jumped so high she nearly hit her head on the ceiling, she turned to find Karen standing in the doorway. "Jesus Christ you scared the shit out of me!"

Karen quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah I can see that, what's going on?"

"Nothing... Just a nightmare."

"You've been having a lot of nightmares lately Rae, are you sure you're okay?" Karen asked, concerned.

"I'm fine" Rachael replied quickly.

Karen wasn't satisfied, and prodded again, "Rachael, you're not fine... You were having nightmares before we went on leave, you had them on leave, now you're back and you're still having them, you have a problem." Rachael looked offended and pushed her way out of the bathroom without a word. "Hey, get back here!" Karen demanded. "This isn't just about you!" Rachael stopped. "I'm up there with you and I need to know your head is where it needs to be, when I'm sitting behind you in that tin can you need to remember I'm back there and completely at your mercy, not to mention our people on the ground!"

Rachael took a few deep breaths then turned to face her friend and partner. "You're right..." She said, nodding, "I'll talk to the shrink today."

"A Chief now huh?" Roy queried.

"Yeah, feels pretty damn awesome" Richard replied with a big smile.

"So what are you going to do with your new authority?"

"Well I thought with my first act as Chief I'd send you off on a solo mission into Falluja."

Roy laughed "Hell yeah, armed with just a knife probably too, and when I walked out without a scratch I'd have you to thank for being called a legend."

The men laughed and ate their dinner, eventually the conversation shifted to more conventional twenty-something guy topics.

"So when you going to find yourself a girl Rich?" Roy asked.

Richard swallowed his food. "Don't know... Last one ended on some pretty bad terms."

"Yeah you told me that story, but she wasn't worth it if she wasn't going to stick by you through some hard times."

Richard diverted his eyes from his food to Roy's face, "that's something I expect to hear from someone twice your age."

"Well I am wise beyond my years" Roy said just before taking a sip of his drink.

Richard laughed and shook his head, "I'm focusing on more important things right now Roy."

"I noticed, but sooner or later this war is going to be over, you plan on staying with the SEALs or hanging up your rifle once ISIS is done for?"

"The rifle is never going to be hung up whether I'm wearing the uniform or not... It's in my blood now, I don't think that type of thing ever leaves you... And the United States has no shortage of enemies."

Roy nodded, "ain't that the truth..."

Victor walked into the room, "Team Eight, we got a mission."

The two men stood up immediately and walked to the briefing room among the rest of their colleagues.

"First off I would like to congratulate Richard Grayson on his recent promotion to Chief..." Victor began as the room darkened. "We're going after the big prize this time gentlemen, intel reports that Slade Wilson is holed up in his hideout in Al Habbaniyah, just west of Falluja..." An industrial type building appeared on screen. "Don't be fooled by the style of this building, there are plenty of residential houses thickly settled around it, this location is behind enemy lines, barely, so keep your heads on a swivel. You'll be inserting via a HALO jump just north of the target structure, unfortunately we do not have a layout of this building so we're going to have to play it by ear once we're in..." The picture on screen changed to a picture of an airport. "The primary extraction point is Al Taqaddum Airbase, three miles south, it's been bombed and all surveillance of it shows no activity, once we arrive we call it in and a plane will land to pick us up, ideally the plane will be on the ground less than five minutes... One last thing, the Army will be providing us with a single apache for air support should we need it, they'll be hanging back unless we call for them... Questions?"

"You said primary extraction is via the airport... Do we have a secondary in mind?" One man asked.

"Yes but it's not pretty, secondary extraction will be due west of the target structure, heading towards the fighting, Army has a QRF ready to punch through enemy lines and pick us up."

"Why don't they just punch the hole through anyway?" Roy asked.

"Maybe I chose my words wrong... Quick response force is north of the target structure where enemy activity is much lighter, if we need to go that route it's going to take them a lot of time to get to us... Taking into consideration that the primary extraction is three miles south as well as every other variable worth considering the secondary rally point was chosen because whoever gets there first will be waiting the shortest amount of time possible... If it were further north or further south then somebody is going to be waiting" Victor explained.

"Makes sense" Richard mumbled.

"Anything else?" Victor asked, getting silence in return, "Alright then, suit up."

Rachael walked out of the psychologists office to find Karen standing outside. "Were you waiting for me?" She asked.

Karen briefly paused before answering, "yeah... I'm your partner and your friend Rae, I worry about you."

Rachael blinked and sighed, then embraced Karen in a hug. "I don't know what I'd do without you... I probably would have gone crazy had you not talked me into going in there."

Karen returned the hug, "Hey that's what I'm here for... We support each other."

Rachael pulled back and took a breath, "Then you better never leave my side."

Karen smiled, "I'm not going anywhere Rae."

"Ah there you two are" Sergeant Crockett said as he walked up to the two women, "everything okay?"

"Yeah" the two women said in unison before looking at each other in an almost comical fashion.

Isiah quirked an eyebrow. "Well... Okay then..." He began, opting not to ask. "We have a mission, need you two in the briefing room."

Rachael and Karen were confused as to why it was only them, Isiah and Kori in the room as the presentation began. They wanted to ask what was going on but following their training saved their questions for the end.

"I'm sure you're both wondering why it's just you here... The answer is this is a single- bird mission" Kori began.

"You may recall an op a year or so ago where you covered SEAL Team Eight when they raided a yacht..." Isiah began. "Well, Team Eight is doing another raid and you're going to be their support... "They're raiding this structure but inserting about a quarter of a mile north of it, you're going to be on standby at high altitude until they call you for help."

"If they call you for help" Kori added, "as is typical with the SEALs we don't know exactly who or what they're going after, we just know they might need help and if that's the case we're going to provide it."

"Master Chief Victor Stone will be your contact with them, you may remember him from the yacht mission last year, questions?"

"When do we leave?" Rachael asked.

Isiah smiled, "right now."