Experimenting with slightly anachronic order here. And yes, Nigel is capable of some incredible language. Cultured appearance and Syrian heritage or not, he's still a former Para.

This may be shorter than 12 minutes, sorry.

7: Sisters of Battle

Ruby Rose

"Shh. Checkpoint," Nigel warned us from the front of the truck. His voice was muffled by all the cloth between us.

"Get behind the boxes," Joe reminded us. I made myself as small as possible as the truck stopped.

There was a lot of talking in a weird language that I couldn't understand coming from the front of the truck. I guess the guards were asking about where we were going and why we here here.

Then there was a bright light when the guards opened part of the cloth cover. It was really tense because we weren't very well hidden and we could get caught. One of the bags with the guns in it was right beside me and that made me feel a little better.

They pushed around a few boxes before dropping the flap again and saying some more stuff to Nigel which didn't sound very nice. He thanked them (I guess) and then we started moving again.

"Shit," I heard Joe mutter. He fumbled with something and dropped it.

"What?" I whispered.

"Satphone. Missed call," he whispered back. "Talk later."

"We're clear," Nigel announced about a minute later when we got further away from the checkpoint.

Joe handed him the satellite phone through the hole where the back window might have been a long time ago. "We got a call, couldn't answer it. I think it's better if you take calls."

"Okay. Got it."

Nigel

This entire mission was fucking insane, and I can't believe I had volunteered to go on it. I'd say we Paras have a reputation to uphold... but it's not that. Ruby's sister was obviously very important to her, the only family she had left in this world. I couldn't even imagine what that was like.

If they weren't lying, but then again, why would they? Joe may be Canadian, but he's not that much of a fucking wanker.

The satellite phone rang again, and this time I was there to answer it. It would have been nice to have someone else in the other seat to do it. And I hoped nobody would notice from outside.

"Asalaam aleikum," I greeted, masking my irritation.

"Who is this?" an American-sounding voice replied in English. I glanced back at the back of the truck, but of course everyone was covered up.

"No idea," Joe said quietly from the other side of the fabric divider.

I sighed. "My name is Malik al-Rashid. That's pronounced Nigel."

There was a pause at the other end. "Are you with Samuel Georgeas, Joeseph Stevenson and Ruby Rose?"

So those were their full names. Whoever was on the end had intel- or they were trying to trap us. "Who the fuck is asking?"

I didn't get an answer. Instead, the voice asked, "Are you a local working with them?"

"Do I sound like a bloody local?" Actually, to an American- like I said, he sounded like a Yank- I might. "Nevermind, I suppose I do."

There was a pause, followed by, "Malik ibn Khalid al-Rashid, goes by Nigel. British subject. Former Parachute Regiment, correct?"

"That's correct," I replied warily. It sounded like a government on the other side. "Who the bloody hell are you?"

"Listen carefully. Yang is on her way out of Raqqa, driving North on highway 6. Look for a brown Toyota Hilux with a severely dented door. Make sure she sees Ruby first."

"Well that's brilliant fucking instruction, isn't it?" I snapped. Actually, it wasn't bad. If this really was someone's agency- probably the CIA- trying to be sneaky, they were doing a good job of it.

"OPSEC is critical," a different voice with the same accent replied tersely. "They might be able to track satphones so we're going to cut this short. Good luck."

The call ended. "Well, fuck!"

I looked to the back of the vehicle. "Did you get that?"

"No," was the whispered reply.

"She's driving North on Highway 6. Voice was American, probably, could be Canadian I suppose. My money's on the CIA."

"The CIA?"

"Someone with good intel."

"Can we trust them?" That was Sam, not Joe.

"Do we have a choice?" I shot back. "It's the best piece of intel we've got so far."

"Let's go with it," Joe replied.

Maybe we might make it out of here alive after all.

Yang Xiao Long

I drove, but my mind wasn't on the road.

Where was this place? Was I really not on Remnant? What did he mean by the land of god? Where was America and why did he think I was from there? All I knew was that this place didn't look like any of the four kingdoms, as far as I could tell.

Who was I fighting? Why did they attack me? Was it something they did? Why did they beat that woman? Were they truly evil, were they just fighting to survive, were they forced to fight? I knew nothing about them.

Who were those people who tried to grab me? Come to think about it, they were the first ones I'd met who spoke understandable Valic. They hadn't been that threatening, even after I opened the door into one of them.

Had they been reacting to something else? Or was it something I did that set them off? Were they really not my enemy?

Maybe I shouldn't have started punching, but they shot first? Or did they? I couldn't remember.

"..bravo one, do you copy? Bravo one, do you copy?" a voice buzzed from a small device in one of the vests I had taken. It had been doing that for a while, I guess, but I was too riled up to notice it. Then the voice paused, and it asked, "Yang Xiao Long, can you hear us?"

"What do you want?" I shouted at the communicator, tearing it out of the vest.

There was no response for the device. Frustrated, I threw it out the window.

"...ing the right way," I thought I heard the voice say as it flew onto the road.

Did that mean I was going the right way? Did that mean I wasn't? Was I just imagining things?

"What the-" A van suddenly appeared in front of me, blocking the road. I think there was someone in front of it, too, but I couldn't tell who. I slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel to the left. The truck bounced once, then tipped over and rolled, tossing me around inside.

"Ugh..." I kicked the door out and crawled out of the vehicle. Aura protects us from harm, but not from dizziness.

"Yang?" A familiar voice called.

I looked up. No. I couldn't believe it. "Ruby?"

Ruby Rose

After Nigel got the call he told me to ride up front. Joe handed me one of the guns, this time out of its bag, and pushed a few magazines into my vest pockets. I pushed the gun through before climbing through the back window hold. The truck was moving which made things harder but I'm pretty agile.

"We're almost there," Nigel reassured me as I hopped into the seat. "Don't worry. We'll find your sister, get the hell out of here, and everything's going to be fine."

"I know," I replied confidently, which was hard in this really bad weird place but I had to be strong.

Nigel blinked, then muttered something about a persistent little wanker and handed me a pair of binoculars.

The road was empty for a while, and we drove quietly down the road. I scanned around with the binoculars. Because it was a desert I didn't see much, mostly just busted cars and ruined debris. I saw a dead body once and that was really gross.

"There," Nigel said suddenly, pointing. There was a very dusty truck approaching us on the road. "Is that her?"

I pointed my binoculars at them. I saw a lot of bright blond hair in the truck but even with the binoculars it was too far to see clearly. Then I remembered that she would be really dirty but her hair always stayed clean and it was unusually bright and yellow for Earth. "That's her! That's Yang!"

"Alright, I'm going to stop and block the road," Nigel told me. "Once I do, get out and get her attention."

"Got it," I replied. The truck slowed down and stopped and I heard some rude words from behind. I opened the door and hopped out.

"Take the gun, just in case," Nigel reminded me. I grabbed it.

"Yang!" I shouted, waving my arms. "Yang!"

The truck was approaching pretty fast, faster than I thought it was. I'm not sure if she saw me or our truck, but she got really close before turning off the road and then her truck rolled over.

I stepped cautiously toward the overturned truck, carrying the rifle. I remembered to chamber a round but left the safety on. I mean I thought it was Yang but it might not be her. It could be one of those ISIS bad guys.

Then the door went flying and barely missed me and an unmistakable mass of yellow hair crawled out of the broken truck. "Yang?"

She stood up, looking really dirty and beat up but also really surprised. "Ruby?"

Review reply time! As always, thanks for reviewing, and just because I didn't reply to you specifically doesn't mean I don't appreciate your review. It means I can't think of anything to say about it or I can't say anything without revealing too much or I've replied to a very similar question in another reply. And as always, I reply from oldest to newest, so duplicate names can be sorted that way (generally).

linkthetoaoftime: The situation was a little more complicated than it looked from Yang's point of view. She did overreact, but this is Yang we're talking about, and since she's arrived she's seen some pretty horrible things.

onerustybucket: Technically, the SEALs screwed up, and the powers that be are aware of this.

15delgizzij: On the other hand, officially the SEALs were never there.

Fourze: Which comments?

chaosrin: Yes.

Guest: She's scared, she's alone, she's paranoid and on edge.

LoneWolf218: There is an explanation, and the other side of the story so to speak will be told in chronological order here.

Guest: I don't keep a killcount specifically, but it's basically "Weiss killed a few and Yang killed a lot." Never played Spec Ops: The Line, but it's on my list of games I should play but don't have time for. All of the girls are going to carry some baggage, both from being in a completely new world, and from the events where they arrived.

Guest 1997: All will be explained... eventually.