"Quick rundown. Favelas are basically a modern-day lived-in maze. There is an organisational system to them, but it's hard to figure out unless you're a local," Royce briefed as as the four men jogged down an alleyway, "corridors can be of varying widths and lengths, and can have all kinds of entrances and exits lining them. Keep mobile but be mindful of your surroundings."
"Sounds like fun," Shade commented dryly, "kinda like getting my teeth kicked in."
"Because the favelas are all residential," Royce continued on, "there's a guaranteed civilian presence. And the militia recruit the residents as security. So watch your fire, but don't hesitate or put yourself at risk."
"Meaning?" Roach asked, a little confused by Royce's finishing statement.
"If a civi's reaching for an AK, drop him." Meat said plainly, to both Shade's and Roach's combined shock. Shade was flat out floored by the remark, Roach less so, as he'd worked alongside the two Canadians for a long time now.
"Got it…" Shade said after a few moments of silence, holding for a bit to let the three men go up a small set of stairs. They rounded a corner and found themselves on an elevated platform that overlooked the lowest section of the favela they needed to enter.
"Let's get these civis out of here, shall we?" Meat asked rhetorically, jumping down the ledge to the muddy ground below. He raised his M4 and started firing into the air while shouting out in Portuguese, "Este lugar não é seguro!" Shade landed behind him, with Roach and Royce following soon after, and together they watched as the space around them effectively emptied out.
"Well… at least they're out of the way…" Royce said lightly, tapping Roach on the shoulder as they started to head down one of the corridors. "I'll take Roach and go right, you two head straight, and we'll see you on the other side."
"Syotos, buddy," Meat said back as he jerked his head for Shade to follow. Seconds after they passed the first building, both Meat and Shade had to duck for cover as a group of militiamen rounded the corner ahead of them and opened fire. They were quickly dispatched after their initial barrage, and the two operators found themselves repeating the pattern of move, cover, shoot multiple times a minute. Roach and Royce weren't faring any better, despite the fact that the route they were taking was wider and had clearer lines of sight. The lack of available cover was the downside to their path, though.
What felt like hours but was actually minutes passed as the two pairs fought through a nearly endless wave of militia. Royce dove into cover as an enemy opened fire with an RPD in his direction, showering him in debris. "Royce, give me a SITREP, over."
"We're facing heavy enemy resistance in the lower village, and we've got no sign of Rojas!" Royce called back over the radio, poking out to quickly shoot a militiaman that was about to ambush Roach.
"Copy that, keep searching. Call out if you need backup. Out."
"Roach! Left side!"
Dash waited anxiously, gripping her Vector tightly as she listened to the gunfire being exchanged not too far from them. It wasn't just her, either. Scarecrow was constantly flicking the safety of his M249, Rook kept looking back in the direction of where the others had gone, Robot was trying to distract himself by fiddling with his helmet patches, and Ozone was pacing around the entire room.
The sounds of torture had long since silenced, replaced by a quiet conversation that could only be heard if the rest of the room was dead quiet. The door opened and Chemo emerged, peeling a pair of bloodied blue latex gloves off of his hands. His face was a mixture of disgust and anger, and whatever questions any of the others had on the tips of their tongues were quickly kept at bay.
"The prick's just his local fixer, not really an assistant," Chemo spoke up after a few moments, "Turns out that Alex is a one-man-band that does a lot of outsourcing. Rarely hires the same guys twice unless they're really talented."
"And the fixer?" Rook asked, beating Ozone to the punch. Chemo shook his head in mild frustration.
"Not much use, though he did give us Alex's local address." He tossed the gloves into a bin and walked over to retrieve his weapon. At the same time, both MacTavish and Ghost emerged from the other room.
"We've got Rojas's living address for this area, so we're going to pay him a visit. Unfortunately, he's bought out the local militia as his security force, hence the resistance that Meat and the others are facing." The Captain said as he gestured everyone over to a map. "Alex was due for a meeting where we picked up the fixer, and was going to take this route to get here. This is where the others are now. We're going to hook around and come back down this way. With all the fighting, Alex is likely going to retreat back. We'll box him-"
"This is Roach, we need assistance urgently! Meat and Royce are both down, and we're pinned!" The radio broke the tense silence, and everyone snapped into action.
"Chemo! Rook! Go!" MacTavish called out, both men already halfway out the door by the time he had finished. "Everyone else on me!"
Shade swore loudly as he tossed another grenade through the window and out into the corridor where the militia were gathering. He ducked down and stole a glance at Roach, who was busy trying to keep Royce from bleeding out. The man had taken a few rounds to his chest, one penetrating and catching him in the lower torso. He was barely conscious, and in a lot of pain. Meat was against the wall beside him, keeping one hand on another wound that Royce had sustained on his upper right leg, while also keeping a bandage on a nasty through-and-through wound on his own torso, just above his left hip.
"Come on man, stay with us! Keep talking to us!" Roach pleaded loudly to Royce, trying to keep him awake.
"It'll… take more… than… that… to shut… me up…" Royce coughed out, fighting against the pain.
"How's he doing mate!?" Shade called out as he emptied a magazine at a cluster of enemies, reloading quickly and switching targets.
"Not good! Any sign of the others?" Roach called back.
"Jack and shit!" Shade screamed loudly, poking out and letting off another long burst of fire. "I'm getting low here!" The team hadn't expected a protracted firefight like this, and as such had only packed fairly lightly as far as ammunition was concerned.
"Shade, here!" Meat called out, letting go of his leg wound to slide some of his own unused magazines across to him. "I won't be needing them!"
"Cheers!" Shade quickly repacked his vest with the four fresh magazines, then poked back out to re-engage. "I'll draw them away from you!" He said, standing up and rushing out the doorway.
"Shade?! Shade!" Roach screamed out, hopeless and now worried for his friend. Meat tied off the bandage around his leg, then shifted so that he could cover the entrance with his sidearm.
"That crazy asshole is gonna get killed," he said as he turned around.
"That crazy asshole is also an Australian. If he's going down, he'll be taking everyone with him." Roach stated quietly, looking back down at Royce. "Fuck… wake up Royce! Wake up!"
Rook and Chemo sprinted through the alleyway towards the sound of gunfire, weapons ready to go. They had tried to reach Roach over the radio to get an idea of what they were to expect, but hadn't been successful. Truth be told, he'd rather hear that they were beyond saving than absolutely nothing. That way, they were at least prepared for something.
Rook took the lead once they reached the lower section of the favela, where the others had made their entrance. The gunfire had died down, but there was still the occasional burst of what sounded like an M4 or M16. Quickly but cautiously, they made their way down the corridor in front of them.
"Shade?" Rook called out carefully, his eyes constantly scanning for any signs of life. The ground around them was littered with shell casings, and in some places a number of bodies. "Roach?"
"Rook?!" A voice called from their right, and both Rook and Chemo swivelled to see Shade jogging towards them. "Fuck me, you're a sight for sore eyes."
"No fucking kidding," Rook replied.
"Come on, this way." Shade turned around and started running back towards where Roach and the others had holed up. "Meat got tagged but is somewhat stable, Royce is all kinds of fucked though…" Chemo grunted in acknowledgement as they ran to the small dwelling.
The medic all but pushed past Shade and crouched down across from Roach, hovering over Royce as he assessed his injuries. "Rook, take Roach's place. Roach, you and Shade get back out there and into the fight. The others are headed to Alex's house up in the hills, but you need to be their blocking element."
"Shit…" Shade said as he ran a check over his remaining ammunition. Including the four magazines that Meat gave him earlier, he only had three full magazines and a partial left, not including the other partial currently loaded. "Hey, can someone spare a few extra mags?"
Rook handed him two, while Roach collected an extra five from both Meat and Royce's vest. He handed three to Shade and kept an extra two for himself. "We're set… you two sure you'll be fine?"
"We'll have to. I'll stabilise Royce and then call in Jay to pick us up." Chemo said as he went to work on Royce.
"Jay?" Shade asked, a little confused by the mention of the second medic.
"He's on standby, ground-based CASEVAC. It'll take him a few to get here, but he's our best shot of getting Royce and Meat out of here alive."
"Right… good luck guys," Roach said, tapping Rook on the shoulder as he turned to leave.
"Back at you, mate."
"This is Shade. Roach and I, we're headed back up the hill towards you guys. Chemo's getting Royce stabilised and prepped for CASEVAC, Meat's wounded and out of the fight but it's not serious." Hearing the familiar voice on the radio calmed down Dash's nerves greatly, even as they were pushing through a crowded favela street and against a fleeing crowd. "We haven't seen the bastard yet, but I think we're getting close with how much these guys are putting up a fight."
"Copy that Shade, we're facing heavy resistance up here as well," Captain MacTavish responded, ducking behind a corner as an enemy machine gunner opened up at him. Ghost was quick to take him out. "We're headed towards Rojas' location on the upper levels, I can't send anyone else down to you, so you'll have to push through on your own with Roach."
"Got it, we'll see you there!" The radio cut off after that, and the focus returned on getting through the militia's blockade. They managed to proceed another two blocks, when Dash saw movement on a rooftop to her left.
"Sir! I've got Rojas! Top left, got a bag on him!" She called out, raising her Vector to send a few rounds in his direction.
"Don't fire on him, we need him alive! Ghost!" MacTavish replied.
"I've got him too sir! 'Crow, give me and Dash a boost!" Ghost said, running over to where Scarecrow was. Using the gunner as a platform, both Ghost and Dash climbed up to the rooftop where Rojas was running and set off in pursuit.
Dash sprinted after him, but he knew the terrain, or rather the rooftops, better than she did and was able to use that to keep a comfortable lead on her. She was fast and agile though, he couldn't lose her. Which meant he couldn't lose the rest of the team either.
"Stay on him!" Ghost called from not far behind her, rifle up and ready to eliminate any threats to himself and Dash as they raced across the ramshackle roofing. He let off a burst of fire towards an emerging enemy in a doorway, forcing him back as they sprinted past. Down below, MacTavish and the others were able to keep up a decent pace. By having Ghost and Dash break away, as well as Shade and Roach approaching from the south, they were beginning to stretch the militia's coverage thin. And with them now in three different elements, Rojas had virtually nowhere to go.
MacTavish felled an enemy and looked up to see Rojas, followed by Dash and Ghost, jump between a narrow gap above them. Pausing, he looked further down and saw that Rojas's residence, and a potential escape vehicle, was not far ahead of them. "Scarecrow, cover me!" He called, sprinting forward towards the front door of the building. The door swung open with a swift kick, and he hurried his way up the stairs.
Above, Dash landed onto a rooftop just as Rojas made a jump for another one. She looked to where he had landed and saw that he had reached the balcony of his 'house', and saw that an old-looking sedan was parked outside. Putting two and two together, she called up as much of her energy as possible to surge ahead and make the next leap. Behind her, Ghost watched as Dash jumped and was mere meters away from their target. "He's getting away!" He called out, frantic as they were so close to catching him.
Time slowed as MacTavish replied with a collected "No, he's not" and burst out through the main balcony doors, tackling Rojas into the rail and over the side, the pair landing on top of the parked car below. Ghost jumped down from the low rooftop and quickly rushed to help secure him, his M4 aimed right at Rojas' head with MacTavish straddling the top of him. Scarecrow and Robot quickly took up security, checking the nearby buildings for threats as Dash clutched to a support beam back up on the balcony, having almost been knocked off by the Captain's unexpected tackle. She sat down, letting her legs hang over the side of the balcony as she caught her breath.
Shade and Roach trotted up not long after, nearly spooking Robot who'd been checking an alleyway, "Nice of you two to join us!" she called down to them with a grin.
"Nogales ain't got shit on this!" Shade called back with a half grin, letting his rifle hang as he walked over to where Ghost and the Captain had dragged Rojas. He eyed the broken balcony and the crushed car, then looked back up to Dash. "So… who pulled a 'three hundred' on the bastard?"
"That'd be the Captain," Dash answered with a shrug, "Hell, he nearly took me down with them."
"Heh," Shade chuckled, stretching his neck around, "Kinda wish we were all wearing cameras or some shit, sounds like a kickass moment from a movie or game." He then looked back up at Dash quizzically, "Hey, how's the view from up there?"
Dash made a show of looking up and around before looking back at him, "I've seen better." With that she jumped down, landing neatly on the ground. Shade and Roach clapped politely, with Roach holding up a pretend score sign.
"I give it an eight-point-two." He said with a smirk, earning a slap on the shoulder in response.
"What's the word on Meat 'n Royce?" Dash asked curiously, turning her attention to Shade.
"Chemo was up to his elbows in Royce's gut when I left," Shade answered seriously, "and Meat took a round to his upper leg. Likely fractured a bone, but it missed his artery so relatively speaking he's okay… Last I heard was that Jay was going to pick them up and evac 'em back to Gale's angel wings." He finished, shaking his head. "They're both out of the fight for the foreseeable future, and I'm not certain that Royce'll fully recover…"
Dash grimaced, "Poor guy… They're in good hands with Jay and Chem' though, none better."
"Except maybe actual surgeons," Scarecrow chimed in as he approached the group, "but we got them out well within the Golden Hour... plus I'm sure that Meat'll drag Royce through his recovery, kicking and screaming if he has to." A slamming door had them all look towards a decrepit shed that Ghost, MacTavish and Rojas seemed to have occupied. Shade let out a low whistle.
"Bastard'll get what's coming to him now," he commented, "Ain't no way that the Boss is gonna let this slide…"
"No shit…" Roach agreed, rubbing his face with a bare hand, his gloves discarded as they had been coated in Royce's blood down in the lower levels. "Any word on our exfil?"
"Not a clue, though it doesn't sound too good." Robot spoke up, walking over with a grimace on his face. "But look at this." He said, holding his phone out for everyone to see. On the screen was a press release from the US Department of Homeland Security.
RUSSIAN FORCES MAKE LANDFALL ON CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ALL CIVILIANS ADVISED TO SEEK EVACUATION OR SHELTER IN PLACE.
"Well shit…" Shade's words echoed through the empty lot, summing up everyone else's thoughts.
Fifteen minutes later, though the time felt like an eternity to those involved, MacTavish and Ghost emerged from the shed. Ghost's gloves were particularly bloody, though the Captain's hands weren't that clean either. Wordlessly, he summoned the six remaining soldiers to gather around. Ghost, however, was the one to start. "All we got out of Rojas is that the only person that Makarov hates more than an American is imprisoned in a Russian gulag."
"That's not the only pressing concern though," MacTavish interjected, "We're down four men, and with most of the US Military engaged with homeland defense, we're effectively on our own."
Shade and the others barely suppressed a groan, internally dreading having to either escape out of Rio with a low profile or having to fight their way out. "So what's the plan then?"
"I know a guy, he works locally doing odd-jobs for the highest bidder. I made sure to call in a few favours though, and he's on his way to pick us up from the south-east side of the Favela." MacTavish continued. "I called in with Chemo; Royce is stable but critical. Both him and Meat are being evacuated by another military transport back to base. Rook and Chemo will meet us on our evac flight, then we'll proceed to get the hell out of Brazil."
Distant gunfire caught the attention of the group, and everyone separated to secure their perimeter while Ghost climbed to the roof of Rojas's home. "Sir, the Militia's closing in. Roughly two-hundred of them, front and back!"
"Let's go," MacTavish called, gesturing for everyone to follow, "We're going to have to fight our way out of here."
"Time to embrace the suck," Shade muttered out as he rushed past Dash, "fuckin' hope we don't run out of ammo on the way. Didn't exactly pack for a long fight."
The group of eight made their way out of the small courtyard, leaving the battered and bruised Rojas behind, and were quickly engulfed by heavy enemy fire. The militia effectively swarmed the team as they returned fire. Cover was sparse, with any decent solid cover a rarity as the heavy 7.62mm rounds from the militia's many AKs and FALs tore through timber, brickwork and metal like paper.
"Thought you'd know better by now, Shades! Especially after we went to Plan S in Nogales!" Dash teased over the noise, "We always pack for a long fight!"
"I like my firefights the way I like my women: short and quick but full of violence and action!" Shade shot back as he lobbed a grenade towards a cluster of fighters around a small shack.
Ghost ran up between them and ducked down to reload. "Will you two stop bloody flirting? There'll be plenty of time to suck face on the chopper out of 'ere, now get your arses moving!"
"Technical!" Roach screamed loudly, everyone taking cover as a battered pickup truck drove into the fight, the heavy fifty-calibre machine gun mounted in the tray firing off rounds inaccurately towards the team. Roach, crouched back from the corner of a brick shack, readied his underslung grenade launcher and keyed his radio. "The fucker has me suppressed; somebody draw his fire for me and I'll nail 'im with a forty."
Dash peeked around the corner of her cover and settled with the first plan to come to mind, "I'm on it! You better be ready on that launcher, Bug!" With that she dashed out of cover and planted her feet, right in the open, "Ey! Pendejo!" She shouted, firing a few shots from her Vector in the technical's direction before diving behind the nearest, hopefully solid, cover.
Sparks showered down as the large rounds passed through the sheet metal above her, cutting out fairly quickly as a large explosion sounded out. She poked her head out and saw that the remaining militia fighters were beginning to retreat, the technical that had been suppressing them now a burning wreck. She shook her head and saw that Shade was jogging over with a bemused expression on his face.
"Balls of bloody steel, D," he began, offering a hand to help her stand up, "though I'm pretty sure you were after 'idiota', the Portuguese version, not Spanish."
Dash lightly pushed his hand away and stood up, brushing off the dirt and dust she had picked up during her dive, "I'd ask how you know, but I know that Meat would've taught you all the ways to swear in other languages."
"Guilty," Shade shrugged with a smirk, "now let's go before Ghost shoves us into a dark closet somewhere. Dash rolled her eyes as the pair caught up with the rest of the team, pushing past the burnt out wreck of the technical and down the street, deeper into the favela. The fighting was fierce, with militia fighters appearing around practically every corner. By the time they were approximately halfway, Shade had estimated that as a team they had paved their way through a minimum of fifty fighters.
"Grabbin' an AK!" Roach called out as he reached out to collect a fallen fighter's weapon, his own ACR hanging on its sling around his back with all of its ammunition depleted. Everyone else was running critically low on ammunition, and soon everyone else had claimed an enemy weapon for their own use, scavenging ammunition where they could.
Shade crouched down behind a car, the stock of an FAL digging into his hip as he awkwardly reloaded the large battle rifle. Handling the weapon was taking some adjustments, but he couldn't fault the stopping power of its heavier round. Dash was struggling with similar issues, having picked up a rather banged up MP5K and a few extra magazines for it. She swapped out the magazine and slapped the charging bolt down, then looked at Shade with an exhausted expression on her face. "How many of these guys are out here?"
"No bloody clue, but they're bound to run out soon." Shade said back, popping up to send a few shots into a fighter that had emerged from cover. He looked around and saw that they were beginning to head back into a series of narrow corridors, an environment not necessarily suitable for the long-barreled FAL he had. "How much longer have we got to go?!" He called out to the Captain, who was covering around a corner across the street.
"Not far, just through that alleyway then onto the rooftops." MacTavish stepped back and lobbed a grenade into the marketplace between them and the alleyway. He charged forward just as it detonated, "Move! Push through!" Ghost, Roach, Scarecrow, Ozone and Robot followed after him, Shade and Dash bringing up the rear.
To their relief, the marketplace was the last bastion of resistance for the militia, and the eight soldiers soon reach the rooftops and had the final landing zone in sight. Shade looked up as he dodged an exhaust fan vent to see a battered CH-53 Sea Stallion fly overhead before making a turn to come down into a hover less than two hundred meters away. Ahead of him, MacTavish and the others jumped over a gap between buildings. Everyone made it, apart from Roach.
To Shade, it looked like Roach had subconsciously slowed down in hesitation without actually realising it. Without that extra speed, he had landed short of the ledge and was hanging on the edge. "Roach! Hang on!" Shade called out, causing Ghost, Dash and the Captain to turn around and rush back towards the dangling Brit.
They could only watch in shock as Roach slipped just as the Captain dove to grab him, missing him by mere inches. It was a decent drop to the ground below, maybe ten or so feet. They all peered over to see Roach unconscious and sprawled out on the ground. Shade slung his rifle over his shoulder and stood back up to assess the area. He spied a drainage pipe that fed from the gutter of his rooftop to the ground beside Roach. Making a decision right there, he tightened the sling on his rifle.
"You guys keep going, I'll get him up."
"What?!" Dash called out, looking out from across the gap.
"I'm going down. You lot head to the evac, we'll see you there." Shade ignored the protests from the rest of the team and started to shimmy his way down to the ground.
Authors' Notes
(Shade)
In the thick of it now! Shade's doing the typical stupid heroism shit, though deep down they all know they can't leave him behind. Not much else I can say about this chapter really, just that I find it hard to drag out parts from the game that drag out, like the favela fight and the rush to the chopper.
Shade (the character) is also on tumblr now, 'Shadeops21' is the page. Most of the content there will be IC though do expect me to use it to vent and bitch occasionally, heh.
(Spitfire)
Well Shade's doing the dumb shit Jay would normally do, so that happened. Dash is most definitely gonna chew him out for that. In regards to Shade's AN, the CoD rp community on tumblr is practically dead (except for this month where everyone's agreed to be active, which by the time you're reading this will be over...), so, by all means, come and check us out, revive the fandom. Jay's blog is cordemente.
Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher
~Spitfire out
