Nathalie walked through a city located in south of Ukraine with Sanderson following her lead. It was getting dark early since it was early winter and the city was dangerously quiet. There were barricades everywhere around buildings that were mostly deserted. The two of them were getting close to the location where Ukrainian soldiers had to meet them and it seemed like the situation was worse than they thought at first. When they reached the place no one was waiting for them and Silver got suspicious why there wasn't a single soldier. She picked up her rifle in a fighting position and walked forward just to stop couple of steps ahead.
"Why are you standing still?" Lieutenant asked when she turned around and looked at Sanderson. He was about to say something and she just cut him off. "I don't care what you have to say, Sergeant. Obviously something is wrong but we don't have time to sit around and wonder 'oh, no, what happened'. Get moving."
Nathalie said firmly and waited for him to respond. Sanderson didn't dare to object and lifted his rifle catching up with his superior. Silver took a few steps backwards when her friend got closer and quickly turned around to go the same direction they were headed first. They moved fairly quickly but completely empty streets and buildings didn't mean anything good so they had to take all the precautions needed. Both of them were constantly checking streets and windows for anyone scouting on them. Without seeing a single person they continued walking up until they heard gunshots and explosions. They stopped to look for the direction sounds were coming from and saw a soldier running at them from the side. Nathalie aimed at him trying to understand if he was one of the good Ukrainians or not.
"You're the British soldiers, right?" Shouted down the street putting his arms in the air. "We need your help."
"How do we know that you are not an enemy?" Asked Nathalie holding her rifle up with her fingers gripping it tightly.
"I forgot the callsign. Kak eto tam? (How is that?) Odin? Oedipus?" Soldier mumbled a little bit to himself. "Ah, odyssey."
"Yes, and the counterpart is adventure." Silver put down her weapon and took a few steps forward. "I'm Lieutenant Silver and this is Sergeant Sanderson." Nathalie nodded towards Gary and waved her hand for him to lower his rifle.
"It's good that you're here. The resistance attacked us when we were moving the people out of the part that we managed to retake. Our soldiers can't fight them and secure the civilians at the same time." Explained the situation Ukrainian.
"And I assume our VIP is in the hands of resistance." Exclaimed Silver a little unhappy with the turnout of the situation.
"Yes."
"Then what are we waiting for? Lead the way." She said and they picked up the pace. The gunfight was just a few blocks away and they jogged towards it trying not to waste any time. As they got closer the whole mess was clearly visible. Soldiers were leading civilians away from the fight. Many of them were injured from explosions that occurred in that part of the city. It was obvious from the dust and debris all covering the roads and buildings missing walls.
"Over here." Said soldier leading the two Bravo Six members and walked inside the building that used to be a supermarket. It was a great place to establish a temporary HQ as the place could supply anything for basic personal needs of both soldiers and civvies. Nathalie looked around the place and noticed the person that she was being led to. Ukrainian stopped by table where the leader was and announced the visitors to his leader. "Captain, these are the British soldiers."
"Sir." Said Nathalie walking closer to them. "What's the situation?"
"Lieutenant." Greeted her the leader of current Ukraine forces in that location. He leaned over the table where the map of the city was resting. There was a lot of scribbling with marker on it with locations marked. "The resistance captured this part of the city. We had our forces over here when we found the Englishman and called you. It looked like we had the situation under control." He explained and trailed his finger over the lines on the map when he was interrupted by a horrifying coughing from Sanderson.
He seemed getting out of breath when he couldn't stop coughing. Gary covered his mouth with his palm and tried to suppress the spasms in his chest but he couldn't do anything. Nathalie put her hand on his shoulder and whispered. "Go outside and take a deep breath. I'll be there in a minute."
When she turned back to the Captain Nathalie received a sceptical look. "What?" She asked bluntly.
"Did they really send a sick soldier?" He asked as if making fun of UK actions.
"We were supposed to come here and simply lead the VIP out of the city to the LZ. Exercise would have been good for him. But the situation changed without us knowing and you could just get to the strategy here we could just retake the city and move our separate ways." Said Nathalie and put her palms onto the table around the map. She pointed her finger to one building. "That's where the civilians were held when you were moving them. If I take one or two of your soldiers we can flank our enemies through here and then secure this area. It will create some distraction and make your job easier here."
Captain was visibly not happy with her cockiness but after a quick chat with surrounding soldiers he agreed to lend one of his soldiers to her. He also advised her to change the channel of her comms that he could contact her at any time. Silver thanked and walked around the supermarket for a little bit until she found some cough syrup for her little sick baby. As she was leaving the HQ Captain called her and asked "How did you know where they were?"
"It was written on your map. I'm familiar with Slavic languages." She smiled and left the supermarket with another soldier following her. Silver quickly walked up to Gary and threw the bottle at him. He barely managed to react and catch it.
"What's this?" He asked turning the bottle with pink liquid inside of it.
"Cough syrup. It should help you breathe easier." She said and nodded to him to follow her. Silver walked around now with two younger soldiers following her towards the flank that she decided to take. It was starting to get dark which was a thing they desperately tried to avoid leaving their base. Their fight was going to be more difficult than it would usually be during the day and by the plan they weren't even supposed to fight that day. Nathalie was concerned about Gary's wellbeing and even considered leaving him with Ukrainians to stay out of the fight but decided he was her responsibility and the only way to take good enough care was to take him with her.
"Alright from here on everyone is hostile." Said Nathalie when they reached concrete wall that served as a barricade. There were a couple soldiers in groups of two guarding the wall to make sure no one got over it from the other side. She ran towards it and jumped up to catch the ledge and pulled herself up swinging one of her legs over. Silver straightened up and looked around. There wasn't a single soul around and she nodded to her small team to move up. She leaned down to give each of the two soldiers a lift up.
Once they were on the other side Silver dashed towards the nearest wall and commanded them to stack up behind her. "We have no idea what is happening around here so we'll have to be cautious. Hug the walls and look for any possible cover. Oh, if you see anyone hostile - shoot."
Lieutenant picked up her weapon and began moving forward checking every corner and every shadow. They were moving fairly slowly because of Sanderson's condition. They weren't spotted by the enemies but if he started coughing and they actually heard him at least they wouldn't have to fight off a large amount of enemies right away. But even that strategy did not work for long. After a few blocks they reached the place where all of the enemies were nesting. Alleys were full of patrols and soldiers were walking through the buildings, checking every apartment for any civvies. Nathalie scanned her visible area and came up with a risky plan. "Go back into this building. I'll create a small distraction and we'll be able to have some cover for our attack."
"Isn't there a way to sneak past them?" Asked Ukrainian.
Silver shook her head and the two if her subordinates moved backwards to the first open door to the building. Nathalie looked at them with the corner of her eye and when they were inside she grabbed a small piece of debris and threw it at the window that she saw one of the enemies walk past. Sound of breaking glass attracted few hostiles while the rest were watching them solve this issue. Silver ran towards the entrance that her soldiers used and disappeared inside the building. She closed the door and walked away from it watching younger soldiers push a bookshelf over it. "We will have to wait for them to spread out more looking for the one who broke the window." She said and walked through the hallway carefully looking at every open door trying to avoid being seen through the windows.
"At my signal you will start firing at them. You kill one then change the window you shoot from so they can't know our exact location. Might even go to upper floors." Silver crouched by the wall and waited a little bit for her team to do the same. "Any other entrances?"
"We blocked it off." Said Sanderson sniffling a little bit. This trip was no good for him because it lasted for longer than anyone expected.
After a couple of minutes they began their fight with resistance and it looked like Nathalie's strategy was confusing them quite well. They couldn't pinpoint their exact location and the three of them managed to thin out resistance forces. Eventually they noticed the broken windows but still noticing when or where they will appear was impossible. Their fight lasted about half an hour until they could easily leave the building and drop the last of the enemies. It was quite tiresome for them but it looked like the fight took its toll on Gary.
"Sanderson, how are you feeling? Do you need to rest?" Asked Silver looking at her subordinate though still aiming her rifle towards the open area of the city.
"I'm fine, just give me a second." He answered and lowered his weapon. Gary searched through his pockets to take out a small bottle with pills that he got from medics earlier that day. He opened it and shook out two pills onto his palm. Without waiting he threw them into his mouth and swallowed while closing the bottle. Sanderson nodded that he was ready to go.
"Okay. Let's go. We are fairly close to the building, just watch out for an ambush. They already know we're here." Said Nathalie and moved on down the street. It seemed quiet with just gunfire in a distance to be heard.
"Lieutenant, whatever you did it worked well enough. They're retreating." It was the first time they heard Captain talking through the coms after they left the HQ. He seemed satisfied with the situation. Of course, who wouldn't want the pressure taken off of his soldiers? But Nathalie saw a worse side to it.
"Then your men need to push them harder than they are retreating. We might not reach the civilians on time and resistance will simply move them." Said Nathalie picking up the pace. There was plenty of fighting done that day and she had to get both VIP and Sanderson to safety, especially when his condition was getting worse. By the primary plan they had to be flying back to UK at the time they were rushing those alleyways to find the VIP.
Silver felt a little bit more relieved when she saw soldiers in a little bit familiar uniform going forward guns blazing. It was about time they regrouped as it was fairly dark and one could hardly understand who was friendly and who's not. They walked out into the open of the street and immediately noticed a large hotel on their left. That's where the civvies were and where they all were headed. Nathalie asked one of the Ukrainians about the situation and he replied that the resistance is retreating and no one left the hotel. She thanked him and slowed down watching the soldiers spread out and take ground control. They were almost at the entrance when sound of shattering glass and someone shouting 'Sniper' mixed up. Nathalie only realised what happened when a bullet whizzed past her. She turned to see Sanderson flying to the ground and walked around him to get hold of his armour straps and pull him to cover. Sergeant groaned while his grip around his rifle loosened. Nathalie kneeled to his left when there was enough cover to evade any more bullets that might be flying towards them.
"Sanderson, do you hear me?" She asked ripping his armour off of his chest and abdomen to see where the bullet hit him. Nathalie knew that it didn't go through him because there was no bloody trail where she dragged him and so she had to take care of the wound. She took out the dressing and pressed it onto the bleeding wound and listened to her Sergeant mumble some kind of gibberish.
"Lieutenant Silver." Nathalie heard a voice behind her. "We found your man, he's safe and sound."
"Thank you. Could you kindly bring him here? We will be leaving immediately." She said without looking at the man behind her. Without even caring about his response Silver pulled up the dressing to reveal the wound with the bleeding slowed down. Nathalie took a clean dressing and put it over the wound sticking it to his chest with a tape. She secured his weapon at his side and slowly relaxed waiting for their man to be brought outside. Sanderson was going to be okay and they secured their VIP so she had nothing to worry about.
"Here's your guy." Said one of the Ukrainians leading a man towards her.
"Excellent. We'll be leaving then." Nathalie smiled and lifted herself up from the ground at the same time pulling up Gary. She swung his arm around her neck and picked him up on her shoulders. He was heavy for what Nathalie was used to carrying when working out but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. It was her duty as a leader to take care of him. "Follow me." She said and began walking past all of the Ukrainian soldiers to the direction of the LZ. Their helicopter was in safe distance waiting for her to call them and she got to it right away. Nathalie didn't want the young Sergeant to bleed out in her arms since there were plenty of people she had lost in her life. Just that little bit of thinking about the losses brought memories about Simons back. The images of his vandalised body flew through her mind and made her shiver. Silver tried to keep her focus on the mission while walking through the wrecked city but she couldn't stop after she found a pattern between the two of her subordinates. Both of the relationships started with lots of issues and lack of trust, she did all she could to avoid both of them but in the end Nathalie just didn't have a choice but to stick with them. Eventually she took a liking on both of those guys and got quite friendly. Though in the end one of them died and the other one was bleeding out while she was carrying him in hope that it wasn't anything serious. It was a little bit relieving to hear him mumble something under his breath as they reached their transport.
"What happened?" Asked co-pilot looking at her over his shoulder.
"We encountered some unexpected obstacles." Said Nathalie and laid Sanderson over a couple of seats. She turned around to give a hand to the man that had to be brought to safety and as he was safe in his seat Silver said. "Take us to the hospital."
It was a really long day for Nathalie and so she sat down on a big chair that was in the same room where they kept Sanderson. She brought him to the hospital where they immediately started his operation. During that time Silver managed to fly back to base and secure their VIP, receive a warm but worried welcome from MacMillan and fly back to hospital. It took doctors a couple of hours to fix young Sergeant up and it was already getting late. She looked at his calm expression as he was laying in the hospital bed unconscious and decided that she needed to get some rest herself. Silver still was in her battle clothes that were a little dirty but sadly she didn't think of taking some clean ones while at the base. The only thing she could think about was Sanderson and his situation. She knew very well that she did all she could and the rest was at the hands of faith. According to the doctors that she talked with a little earlier he was going to be alright. Nathalie felt relieved as she was looking at him. She was snoozing just a few minutes later.
In the morning Nathalie was the first one to wake up. She looked over to Gary and when he didn't show any signs of waking up any time soon she walked outside where she met some nurses. One of them got her a cup of coffee since Nathalie herself did have any money. She was really sweet and kept a casual conversation with Silver while working at the reception. It was a good distraction for both of them; nurse was about to finish her night shift and only needed to wait for another nurse to take her place while Nathalie needed to stop thinking about her subordinate. After the nurses changed and she emptied the cup of coffee Nathalie walked down the stairs to the ground floor and left the hospital for a small walk. She stopped at a far corner of the where there weren't any people and pulled out a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. Nathalie promised herself to quit so many times but always fell back to it. To make things a little better she didn't buy any cheap brands that left a horrible smell in her hair, clothes, and on her skin. Nathalie lit up one of them but a second later she threw it on the ground and put it out. She was visiting a hospital and it seemed fairly inappropriate to smoke at the time. Instead of that Silver went for a little longer walk around the hospitals territory.
After an hour Nathalie walked back to the hospital and took the stairs to the floor where her friend was kept at. One of the nurses who noticed her coming back walked closer and smile. "Ma'am, your friend is awake." Said the nurse and Nathalie thanked and nodded walking past her and the reception desk.
'Ma'am? Do I really look that old?' She thought to herself while taking bold steps towards the room that she left a little more than an hour ago. Nathalie smiled and opened the door eager to see how Sanderson was doing. She walked in and closed the door behind her noticing that Gary was just as eager to see her. "Morning." She said and walked up to his bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Awesome, when can I start training?" Were his response and Nathalie really wanted to smack him for good though he was in no condition for that.
"Can you get that shit out of your head?" She asked crossing her arms on her chest. The kid was driving her crazy though she was almost the same like him. When she had to stay in hospital for a couple of months all she could think of was training. Getting stronger to get her revenge. But after all she was the superior and had to keep his mind on the right track. "If I hear you mention selection at least once until March you will be on your own."
"Why March?" He asked clearly confused by the selection of time.
"The selection will be during the first week of March. I already planned all of our actions out until then." Explained Nathalie. She really had it all mapped out for them from the very first day of January. "When you leave hospital it will be time for holidays that I hope you will spend with family. You will be grateful you've done that when you leave the country with the Task Force. Then up until March we will concentrate less on your overall skills and work more on how to get good results on the tasks you will have during selection. Happy with the plan?"
"Absolutely. I think I couldn't get a better leader than you." Smiled Sanderson and started coughing. Nathalie almost forgot that he was super sick and smiled at him softly.