Location: Northern Verdansk, Kastovia.
Date: March 6th, 2020
Verdansk was currently under full control of Al-Qatala and they held the city under strict lockdown since their coup. Any and all of the remaining forces that fought against the terrorists when they initially came to power were either wiped out, were being picked off or were in hiding. In the early morning, an AQ search party was currently driving down a lone highway, scanning around the area for any one out. The light beamed over a set of bushes before they continued on, looking for anyone. From one of these bushes, a lone figure in a ghillie suit rose up, grabbed on to their radio to speak.
"Grinch to Commander Zane...Al-Qatala truck is leaving, we're clear to move." the ghillied up man, who was known only as Grinch, told his leader. From behind him three more figures approached, one in the center wore a desert tan colored beret with a green uniform and wrapped around with a hanging desert tan trench coat. The man beside him wore a grey turban with a large grey coat that went down to his knees. The final person wore an all black sleeveless attire, showing off not only his burly arms, but as well as the tribal scarring he dawned. His face was hidden behind a skull mask.
"What does their pattern look like in this part of the city, Grinch?'' the man in front of the three asked as he looked through a pair of binoculars.
"So far there are only small groups of Al-Qatala who circle around the area, sir." he answered, "I'm sure that Mace and I could have easily made them...go to sleep."
"Damn straight, we could have." The skull masked man chuckled, unlike the other two he had an American accent in his english, while Zane and Grinch's African accents stood out. Zane shook his head as he set his binoculars down.
"No, I was specifically told by our Russian ally to not raise any suspicion around this area. Now then, walk with me you three."
The four moved in the early morning towards the Zhokov Boneyard. The area in question was a large plot of land that was walled off by many people, inside were scrap heaps of old airplanes ranging from small two seaters, to commercial airliners. Inside of the old scrapyard, they scanned the area as they made their way to the point of interest; a lone warehouse.
"Remember, we are guests here. Do not take anything." Zane commanded the others as the building came into view. Grinch and Mace nodded while the third rolled his eyes, knowing the African leader was calling him out specifically. While Zane may have contracted him, that gave no right to stoop him so low.
"I'm a businessman, Zane, not a thief." he scoffed as they reached the door.
"Whatever you say, Azur." the leader muttered. The four stacked up as Grinch turned the knob slowly before peeking around with his sidearm ready. Inside the building was empty and dark save for a single light lighting up the center. Zane used hand signals to tell his team to flank around and use the dark corners as he and Azur walked towards the center.
"I do not like this one bit, Commander." The Egyptian man whispered to his boss; "Feels like there may be a trap and we walked straight into it."
"Kamarov told us to meet him here, that was fi-" Zane was interrupted by the sound of a door on the opposite end opening. The Jackal leader readied his rifle, as did Azur. While it was a possibility it was Kamarov and his team, they could not be certain. The group was deep in hostile territory. The sound of footsteps echoed; both Grinch and the Mace positioned up on the second railing. After an agonizing few seconds, a group of soldiers finally showed themselves to the light. However, this made Zane harden his jawline and furrowed his brow due to the patch on their uniforms….They were Warcom operatives. The main person in front returned the look of disgust at the African Militia group founder.
"The fuck are you assholes doing here? Helping AQ after all, huh?" the man scoffed, he had three men and two women behind him and all had their weapons trained right at Zane and Azur in case of any small move the two did. Grinch adjusted his DMR and itched his trigger for anything.
"That is the lie you wish to believe, then so be it." Zane scoffed and spoke through his gritted teeth; "Do not think I forgot your face. You were at the Aniyah Massacre."
"That's what you wanna fucking call it." the Warcom soldier took a step forward,he itched for his knife; "Cause let me tell you something, you and your special terrorists were working with AQ that day. You fired at us."
"You were the first to fire!"
"That's some bullshit. You know what? Let's settle it here and now!" the man took another step towards Zane to be right in his face. Before the Nigerian man could speak, a new pair of footsteps echoed in.
"Talon. Stand down." a female voice called out to him.
"Same for you, Zane. They are not our enemies." another male spoke up with a Russian accent. Behind them were four Spetsnaz operatives.
The two listened to their higher ups, but still stayed in a deadlock stare down with one another. The rest of the lights were turned on, exposing Grinch and Mace to the rest of the Warcom operatives.
"Blimey….thank god it didn't get any worse, yeah?" one man whispered to another, he had a thick Australian accent. He wore a blue t-shirt with a grey cap. The man he talked to had a cowboy hat on with a poncho flipped to the side to resemble Clint Eastwood and a blue uniform with the Italian flag on the side.
"You. Can. Say. That. Again." the man chuckled, his voice was very drawn out and slow. It was obvious English was not his strong suit.
"Kamarov. When you said we would be working together with some other groups, you did not mention we would work with these (bastards)!" Zane looked over to the man who had a neutral expression on his face. Talon walked over to the lady and motioned her aside.
"Kate. Are you sure about this? We're working with damn terrorists!" Talon silently shouted at her.
"They are on our side, for now."
"For now?" the Canadian gritted his teeth; "You really wanna risk my men with a shaky alliance?"
"That is exactly what I am telling you, Tauri." Kate said in a low and stern tone. The Candian shook his head but backed down. Kate walked back over next to Kamarov as she exhaled and slightly shook her head. The FSB agent just shrugged his shoulders as they waited for the soldiers to settle down for the debrief.
"To get the formalities out of the way, I am Kate Laswell. Case Officer of the Coalition; the man beside me is Sergeant Kamarov of the Allegiance."
"We are still awaiting for other operatives to arrive, but for the meantime we shall begin." Kamarov started as he walked over to start up the projection. On the screen was a map of the surrounding area of Verdansk, along the map were different key areas marked: places like the downtown district, the hospital, the airport, military base and the stadium. The Jackals, Warcom and Spetsnaz operatives present in the room analyzed the area and waited for the two to continue.
"We have set our differences aside as we come together to fight off and eleminite Al-Qatala and those who support them."
Mace scoffed a bit at the comment of setting aside their differences, it was clear by the tension in the room that the soldiers themselves did not share the same sentiments as the two leaders said. Kamarov said nothing as he moved on to show the new logo they shared. It was a combination of the Allegiance and the Coalition logos. The new symbol had a skull in the center with a serpent swirling around the skull and the sword in the background, over the two was an eagle in an attack position showing its talons. Over the image was the name of the new group: 'Armistice.'
"Talk about a creative logo." Mace made a sly remark as he crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair. There were a few chuckles that escaped from a small number of the soldiers in the room. Laswell and Kamarov silently were happy that something good happened to ease up the tension. Once things went back down, Laswell carried on.
"Currently there are five known assailants who fuel Al-Qatala and supply them with the money, weapons and equipment they need to keep a firm grip upon not just here, but Kastovia as a whole." She then showed an image of five different people, all who connected to the big man himself, the new Al-Qatala leader.
"So. That is the big man himself." Dmitry muttered in a low tone.
"We have a name on him?" Talon, his first name being Tauri, raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing yet. All we know is he had magically rose up the ranks and seemingly appeared from nowhere. What is clear is he has an axe to grind with the SuperPowers of the world."
"I. Have. A. Name. For. Him." the Italian Warcom soldier spoke up; "(A dead man.)"
"Do you normally speak that slow, man? Not to mention your outfit." Nikodim joked, earning a slide glare by the other man.
"That aside. When do we start?" Nikto asked bluntly to Laswell and Kamarov. The masked Russian was tired of the small talk and wanting to get straight to work.
"We have already sent a small team in to do some recon of the opposite side of the city…" Kamarov began as he showed an image of the national stadium. Currently the area was surrounded with armed men and even some dawning juggernaut armor. The parking lot was also filled with some makeshift tents and vehicles.
"Currently Al-Qatala is using the stadium as a compound. From what it looks like, this is one of the central points where supplies come in and out of the area.
"So we are raiding the arena?" Mace crossed his arms.
"For now, no." Laswell answered; "Right now the stadium is heavily guarded and they have already set up jammers and S.A.M sites."
"Then what do we do? Sit and watch it as they grow stronger?" Mace scoffed.
"Calm now, my friend." Grinch patted the taller man's shoulder; "There will be time for blood."
"For now, we will keep surveillance on their convoys, see where they go. There are an unknown number of compounds the AQ have built up in the area. There's talk of them already mobilizing to the rest of the country."
"What do we do for that, exactly?" one of the Warcom women spoke, she had a French accent and was of Asian descent. She sat more upright and was more focused on the entire briefing compared to the rest of her colleagues and their new found allies. "We cannot ignore the people caught in the middle of all this and be subject to these terrorists."
"We have people already in charge of that Ms. Tam." Laswell reassured, trying to stay vague about it as possible; "Some friends will aid us to get the civilians out."
The group was left skeptical by what the CIA agent was talking about and truth be told, so was Kamarov a little. Who on earth was Laswell talking about?
Location: A few miles away from Verdansk.
"Alright, this is our stop." a female said into her headset as the helicopter her and the group she was with hovered in place. The dense forest of the land away from the big city made it a perfect spot for them to deploy. Once everyone grabbed their gear they dropped down two rappel ropes and slid down.
"Callsigns from here on people." A man said, he raised up his SCAR-H assault rifle and took a knee as he scanned the area. Some of the others did the same; once they were confident it was clear, they began moving through the woods.
"Alright, Blackbeard, Kapkan. You two take point." Maverick said, the former Navy SEAL and Spetsnaz nodded their heads. The group moved in silence, with the sound of their footsteps echoing along with the clanking of their gear. Once they began to enter more and more into the treeline, they calmed down a bit to lower their rifles, keeping them in arms reach for anything.
"Won't lie, not sure why Six sent us to deploy in the middle of nowhere." Valkyrie said as she let her MPX dangle on her sling as she pulled out a small gps device. From what it was saying,it was still quite a trek to the area they would have as a temporary safehouse.
"Ja, who knows what he is doing." Bandit scoffed; "He has been a terrible leader if you ask me."
"Like you can do a better job?" The blonde smirked, earning an eye roll from the older German man. The group continued walking in silence as they neared the end of the highly dense portion of the forest to a spot with more empty patches exposed to the sun. Alibi and Maverick took the back as they walked, both thinking of their respective significant others, once again being split off from them. The two took a quick glance at one another.
"Sanaa?" the Italian asked.
"Thomas?" the Bostonian replied back. The two chuckled as they walked.
"I hope he behaved well while you two went to Urzikstan a few months back." she said, grabbing her canteen for a sip of water. Maverick meanwhile stayed silent for a moment as he looked back at their time in the war torn country. Things have improved, with the Urzikstan Liberation Force getting many victories as well as support compared to the government that Barkov's old forces had implemented. Maverick looked back to Alibi, who simply waited for an answer to her question.
"He was alright. Showed the group his...well I'm sure you know about-"
"Yes. Yes I do." she sighed. The Italian woman closed the lid on her canteen and put it back to her side. Maverick regretted bringing up his condition almost immediately and opened his mouth before she spoke once again. "No need to apologize. Just, please do not tell anyone."
"Alright." he sighed in relief that she did not chew him out. "How many know?"
"Only some. Myself, you, I'm assuming Nokk too?" Alibi said, seeing the Bostonian nod his head to confirm, scoffing a bit at the mention of her name; they were still on mixed terms. She ignored the scoff and continued; "Six obviously knows; Doc and Finka; Ela and Vigil-"
"Wait, really? Those two of all people?"
"Well. They were the ones who found him, at least from what Thomas had told me. Can we please move topics, I would rather have him tell you about this."
"Right, sorry…"
"No worries, mio amico." she smiled. The large group of Rainbow operators finally arrived at their new base of operation for the unknown amount of the time they would be present in Kastovia, a small wooden structure in the middle of nowhere. Kapkan and Blackbeard moved up to the area stacked up by the door. After a quick and silent count to three, they kicked the door open and scanned all around before calling the rest of the group in.
"Looks clear so far…" Kapkan muttered under his breath as he raised his shotgun. Slowly the rest of the group huddled into the building. Once everything was cleared, the group began to unpack their gear and begin setting up. Meghan set her MPX down and her backpack as she took a seat and began to set up a secured connection with both Rainbow and their current allies.
"So. Armistice. That was the name these secret agents chose." Dominic started as he unpacked a set of car batteries and jumper cables. "For a bunch of pencil pushers, their name choices are scheisse."
"It's blunt and gets the point across, no?" Shuhrat shrugged, taking a seat on one of the nearby chairs; "Best way I like it, if you ask me."
"Of course you think that way." Dominic rolled his eyes, getting a side glance from the Uzbek. Slowly but surely the group of Rainbow Operatives began to unpack and arm up. Meghan finished setting up her base of operations as she types on her laptop.
"Alright, the channel is secure. We're live, Six." the Californian woman said into her ear piece.
"Splendid! Do you hear me, Valkyrie?"
"Loud and Clear, bossman." she chuckled; "The rest of us here can listen in as well."
"Fantastic. Give me a moment to patch in Armistice then."
There was a moment of silence from Harry's end of the call, giving enough time for the rest of the Verdansk team to huddle around Meghan's makeshift comms station to hear the plan. After another minute or so passed, there was the sound of two more members joining the call, both with the loading screen of the new Armistice logo before showing a mugshot type of picture for both Laswell and Kamarov.
"Alright then, it looks like the connection has been established." Harry's voice spoke up; "Team, our mission here is simple: aid Armistice in any way we can in a discreet way."
"Worry not, Six." Laswell said; "Kamarov and I will keep the operations in the dark as mucha s we can."
"I hope these soldiers of yours are not afraid of getting dirty, Six." Kamarov said, a tad unconvinced of the group of Rainbow operatives. "We are still waiting for more of the Armistice soldiers to arrive. Verdansk is the main goal, but there are uprisings all over the country. Perhaps you can focus on those."
"So we're just going around to do things you do not want to risk your people with?" Morowa scoffed and crossed her arms. 'If I had a fucking pence for each time this happened...' she thought.
"That is precisely what I am saying." Kamarov stood his ground; "You want to be hidden in the background, then so be it. The news will be focused so much in Verdansk, they will ignore the rest of the country."
"He makes a good point, Morowa." a short asian woman whispered to the former British cop. However Morowa just rolled her eyes and leaned back against the wall. The short woman just shook her head, there was no point in trying to persuade Morowa right now.
"I will ignore this comment from you only once, but if you are really as great as Laswell claims you are, I will need to see it myself."
"Rainbow, your first assignment will be to contact one of our teams sent in to scout the outskirts of one of an abandoned city in Kastovia named Vensakya. Surveillance shows that Al-Qatala and their allies have used this spot as a small base of operations outside of Verdansk."
Meghan repeated the name quietly to herself as she typed on her laptop and searched for the location of the city. After a few clicks, an image popped up and then how far away it was from their safehouse. "Alright, looks like it is fifty klicks south from here….that's at least an hour drive away."
"Send in a small team, no need to send a damn army in." Kamarov added; "Do not let us down."
With that, the call came to an end, everyone took a small look over to Morowa. She was ignoring their looks as she walked outside. Erik sighed seeing his co-leader walk out of the room, 'This is going to be a long operation…' he thought to himself as he stepped up to face everyone.
"Alright people, I know some of you here may not enjoy that first impression that Armistice gave. Especially in regards to this Kamarov not trusting us entirely."
"That is just how that man is." Maxim crossed his arms as he was near his Spetsnaz brethren; "I think the four of us had the pleasure of working with him before."
"I thought the name rang a bell…" Timur scoffed; "Bastard just had me sniping the entire time."
"Well, all that aside, I guess we just gotta earn his trust." Erik continued; "Now I know Laswell since Urzikstan. I can say she is alright, especially for being CIA. So I trust her enough to be confident that we are not being sent in on suicide missions that they do not want to risk the other members of Armistice with."
"Whatever you say to boost our confidence." Dominic snarked; "But I guess we'll play along, ja?"
"Da, that is the spirit!" Aleksandr smiled and wrapped an arm around the German. He was none the wiser to Dominic's sarcasm. The former GSG9 operator opened his mouth, but just rolled his eyes as he moved away from the larger Russian.
"Now like the bossman said, a small team will be sent in, so I think it would be best to have myself, Siu, Craig, Miles and Timur go." Erik said as he had the operators he called out to step forward; "Everyone else. I want you guys to set up traps and lock this place down."
Location: Coalition Forward Operating Base Delta, Urzikstan.
The NATO base in the nation of Urzikstan was currently in full swing as people were beginning to supply and arm up available aircraft for the new orders of shifting focus to Kastovia. While Urzikstan was still in a rough spot and needed all of the aid required, it began to seem like a lost cause. The Urzikstan Liberation Force was taking many wins over them, back then the Coalition would have cheered on. Now? Now they were stuck in a rock and a hard place ever since the General had chosen to mark the group as terrorists. The current plan was to pack up all that remained and slowly but surely abandon the F.O.B. Amongst the chaos, there was one man who just looked on in confusion at all that was happening. He stood at around 5'10 with a grown out beard, he had on a half ghillie suit on and draped over his back as he carried a rifle in his hands. The man walked casually around as he looked at the other people who were in a hurry to have everything organized. Out of all the people at the base, there was only one he was focused on finding, and the man in question was a few feet away from him.
"...For the last time, all the supplies are to be sent to Kastovia. Jesus, this place is just a fucking-"
"Sergeant Griggs?" the man spoke up, taking the taller man by surprise as he turned around. Griggs silently acknowledged the man and motioned him to walk with him for a moment. The man continued; "I was transferred over to join your company...sir."
"Uh huh. Hey, mind helping me carry some of these crates over to the helipad?" Griggs said, not paying much attention to the other man. He was taken back a bit by the response, but he did as asked and walked with the Sergeant.
"Listen, sir-"
"Ah, cut that 'sir' crap, brother. I'm a sergeant, not the president." Griggs let out a hearty chuckle; "What's your name?"
"Sparks. Shane Sparks." Shane answered; "Master Sergeant. If that shit still means anything."
"Well, all that matters in the end is experience, I'm sure you'll fit with my team easily."
"I hope you're right, si-Sergeant." He said as they arrived at the helipad. Waiting for them there were three more people, two men and one woman by the looks of it. Griggs motioned to a spot where Shane could set the crate down as he got the attention of the three people there.
"Alright, Demon Dogs. I wanna introduce you to our newest member of the team. Shane, this is Wayne Davis…"
"Nice to meet ya, most folks call me D-Day." Wayne shook his hand. He was clearly southern by his voice alone. By the flag on his chest rig, he was from Texas.
"Next we got Alice Valenzuela…"
"Hope you kick some ass, compa." she smirked.
"Lastly we got Damian Raines."
"Hey, how you doing, brotherman." Raines nodded to Shane.
Shane stayed silent as he looked at his new teammates, this was a change really from his old unit, but it was a welcoming one. Hopefully now he could have a chance to fight for a real purpose for something that mattered instead of whatever one single person wanted him to do. 'Just pray things won't be like they were before, Sparks.' he thought to himself as Griggs spoke.
"Right, we got a mission now given to us by some new group called 'Armistice'. According to the bosslady, we're helping a couple of people away from Verdansk."
"Respectfully, shouldn't we focus there? Ain't that where all the AQ shits are?" Wayne asked as they boarded the helicopter.
"My thoughts exactly, Davis. No clue why we gotta be sent there, but that's our orders."
"Probably some damn spooks we need to help out." Alice scoffed.
"Even so, we got our orders, so I want everyone to be on their best behavior when we go see these guys."
"So where are we heading then, if not Verdansk?" Damian raised an eyebrow, the five were already in the helicopter and placed on a headset to hear one another over the helicopter blades.
"Some place near Venskaya, heard it had been abandoned for lord knows how long, was a famous city back during the Cold War."
"Lord Almighty, why do so many of these places sound the goddamn same?" Wayne's joked.
"That is something I think we'll never know, D." Alice chuckled and nudged the Texan. Shane looked on at the group once again as a small smile crept on the edges of his lips, they really were a change from his old team. Damian took notice and gave him a small tap on the elbow.
"They grow on ya fast, huh?" he chuckled.
"Yeah. Yeah they do, how long have you all served together now?"
"Not too long really, I knew the big man himself a few years back." the man motioned over to Griggs, who was reading a briefing of the mission given to him. "I was thinking about retiring from the Marine Corps, until I was on a joint mission with him. Guess I gave a good impression that I got transferred over to the Demon Dogs."
"Yeah, I know how you feel on that retirement part." Shane chuckled; "I just barely reenlisted back, originally thinking of hooking up with my old team, then I got transferred over to you folk. Now here I am."
"Got tired of the civilian life, huh?" Damian gave a hearty chuckle; "I cannot imagine trying that back home in Chicago."
"Yeah, something like that." Shane muttered; "There was work and all, hell the pay was amazing, compared to this if I'm honest-"
"It ain't always about the money, brother. It's about how much you enjoy doing it."
"Yeah, exactly." he smiled; "Nice saying."
"Thank my wife, she's the one who came up with it." Damian laughed.
'Yeah, these guys will do just fine, Sparks.'
Location: Venskaya, Kastovia
Erik, Miles, Siu, Craig and Timur all arrived at the abandoned end of the city of Venskaya. The city was left in ruins, no one knew exactly what had occurred as in the past it was a highly populated area that could rival the capital itself. However sometime before the Cold War came to an end, many of the citizens present were needed to be evacuated out and aqs a result the city never recovered and was then left. All that remains are a few large apartment complexes and empty warehouses and factories. This gave the city the nickname: the Pripyat of Kastovia, even if there was no real nuclear meltdown in Venskaya. Once they arrived, the Rainbow operatives took a defensive circle around as they scanned the area for any hostels. Maverick then motioned for the group to push up as they walked through one of the abandoned apartment buildings to get an overhead view of the area. The inside of the building was filled with the ruined remains of those who had lived there, with the wallpaper tattered and peeling off, vegetation beginning to take its grasp on to the man made structure to reclaim it as its own. Many tables, chairs, beds and other items that belonged to former residents were now rotting away.
"Shit like this makes you wonder…" Blackbeard muttered as he grabbed a small teddy bear before setting it back down where it was.
"Da...it does." Glaz nodded in agreement as they made their way to the top. "An abandoned area such as this would make a perfect spot to lay low."
"Locals must not enjoy coming here so often that no one has decided to come investigate here." Ying shrugged, joining in on the two's conversation; "Such was the abandoned theme park in Kowloon."
"Don't remind me of that hellhole." Blackbeard groaned.
"Wasn't our best operation…" Ying sighed; "This one will be better."
Maverick and Castle were quietly listening to the conversation the three had as they were on the last floor to the top. Once there, Maverick lifted his balled up fist in the air to signal them all to halt, he then set down a small drone and got on his phone. The other four took up positions to cover the Bostonian as he drove the small device up the final flight of stairs, at the top, there was a sniper who was walking aimlessly, in their hand was a lit cigarette as he lazily held on to his dragunov sniper rifle. Maverick turned his phone off and in his pocket as he did a set of hand signals: 'One person….sniper….not too focused.' The others nodded their heads to let him know they understood, they all crept up the final stairs as slowly and carefully as possible, as even the slightest creek could alert the sniper of their presence. Even if they were not all that focused.
Maverick placed a hand on the doorknob and prayed in his mind that the door would be loud. He twisted the knob and pushed.
*Creak*
The five held their breath as they waited a moment before continuing, the sniper was none the wiser of the sound. After a short minute, Maverick opened the rest of the door, he then motioned for Glaz to approach the sniper to subdue him. The Russian sniper nodded his head as he crept towards the man. Glaz was meered steps away as he lunged forward to grab the enemy sniper, who's muffled calls for help came to end by the cold knife that belonged to the Rainbow operator. Glaz set down the man's body as he looked back over to his team; finally broke the silence between them all.
"Sniper's down."
"Alright, let's get a look at the place then, and see if we can find this other Armistice team." Maverick said as he grabbed a pair of binoculars and scanned around, Glaz meanwhile had his prized SVU sniper rifle at the ready. He looked through his scope to help find the group. Castle, Blackbeard and Ying were left waiting for the two so they scanned around what they could see.
"Man, you can look out for miles." Castle chuckled.
"Yeah, it kinda reminds me of back home." Blackbeard agreed as he looked out; "well, depends. Washington weather can change out of nowhere.
"Just remember we are not out here for sightseeing, boys." Ying smirked; "We're out here to-"
"To find the bad guys." Both men said at the same time. The three shared a brief chuckle; Maverick and Glaz were far too focused on the task at hand to pay much attention to them. 'Where are they….' the blonde wondered to himself as he did another scan around, there he saw a set of vehicles make their way down the road.
"Glaz Do you…"
"Da, I see them." He nodded his head as he scanned the vehicles with his rifle, hovering his finger over to his trigger. The set of vehicles pulled over to a small space in between an old factory and a set of abandoned trenches. From out of the vehicle came a group of people mostly armed with rifles and some with machine guns, notably all the weapons were of Russian origin. "These guys are big fans of kalashnikovs….supplier could be part of Russian mob."
"That is one possibility, Glaz. They had to have found someone to supply them after Barkov was thrown out of the picture." Maverick added. "Got eyes on some people getting out of the center car, they seem important."
The people in question were guarded by a set of people more armored compared to the other grunts, along with the additional armor, they dawned on a set of white masks to conceal their identity, no doubt they were White Masks. Glaz wanted to just shoot them and call it a day, but that would be easier said than done, especially when an aircraft came into view. The Russian sighed as they had missed a chance to be rid of a problem.
"Damn...this is boring as all hell." Castle sighed, Blackbeard and Ying both nodded in agreement.
"Moments like these make you wish you or someone brought along a deck of cards or something." The Former Navy SEAL said half jokingly, half telling the truth; "Valk and I would always say to make sure to bring some along, hell I got Vigil to as well even if he was all grumpy about it."
"Bro, that man is always grumpy as hell." Castle smiled.
"Well, what do you expect from someone who wears a mask even at base half the time." Ying shrugged; "But to each their own. I mean at least he-hang on, did you guys hear that?"
The three froze as they heard a faint sound of footsteps coming from the open door, they all pointed their rifles at the door as they took different angles. They could not take any chance, Ying reached down on her belt with her left hand to grab and prep a small black black ball that began shining a red blinking light that turned green. Blackbeard placed a hand in front of the shorter woman telling her to wait as he himself prepped on a clear rifle shield on his SCAR. Castle prepped his Shorty 12G shotgun and aimed it directed at the door frame, keeping his finger from the trigger for the slim chance they were enemy forces. There was a long and painful minute of waiting as finally the barrel of a rifle came into view. The user had it pointed down as he swung a right coming face to face with the African American operator, Castle was ready to fire when he noticed the man's uniform; he was a Ranger. The man looked around and paused for a moment before he set his rifle down.
"You the Armistice folks we were told to meet up with?" Blackbeard asked.
"Guessing y'all are the spooks we were meant to find." the chuckled; "Lord I almost shot y'all."
"D? You good up here, hermano?" a female voice called from below.
"Just about. We're clear so come up here." the man called back down. From the door, three more soldiers came up. D-Day motioned over to Blackbeard, Ying and Castle.
"Reckon these fellers right here are the ones, boss." he said over to Griggs.
"About damn time, we've searched damn near the whole place minus where the bad guys are." Griggs scoffed; "Of course you spooks make it difficult as all hell to be found."
"Alright, people. Glaz and I got eyes on a group of AQ and White Masks getting ready to make a de-" Maverick started before looking over to see the Demon Dogs in front of him, a small grin grew when he noticed Griggs.
"Well I'll be, how the hell are ya, Griggs?"
"If it ain't the spook who helped us get that Wolf bastard." The Sergeant smiled and offered a fistbump to the blonde; "How the hell you been?'
"Doing just about fine, fighting that fight as always."
"No rest for the wicked. So what's the Sitrep?"
"Got a sniper of mine watching over by that area between a ruined factory and a couple of trenches. We got eyes of both Al Qatala and White Masks there, possibly getting ready for a trade."
"How armed?" Girggs asked as Maverick handed over his set of binoculars for the Demon Dog leader. He scanned over to where Maverick described.
"Just rifles mostly, there were a few folks there who must be important given who guarded them."
"Yeah...no sign or that much armor, just one helicopter too." Griggs muttered; "Sparks."
"Yes, Sarg?" the man jogged over to him.
"I want you to stay up here with Maverick's sniper pal. Rest of us will p[ush on down and try and clear em out."
Sparked nodded his head and walked over to where Glaz was, they gave each other a quick glance and nod in acknowledgement as they looked down their respective scopes.
"Alright, Demon Dogs, let's move." Griggs said as he took point for the six others. They each followed suit, leaving only Glaz and Sparks on the rooftop. They walked down in a brisk pace, watching each possible corner in case anyone came around to search the area; once at ground level, they moved westward. The entire time they walked, there was an uncomfortable aura of the place, one as if they were being watched. Unknown to the seven; they were.
In the ruins of what was an office building, there were two people watching Rainbow and the Demon Dogs like hawks. One stood at 6'3 with a thick auburn colored beard, his attire was grey that was heavily influenced by the medieval era, given the brown fur patches on his shoulder pads. On the chest rig of the uniform, a strange symbol was spray painted on with a Union Jack on his right arm armor pad. The other person was a woman dressed in a grey hoodie with light armor on and a pair of grey combat pants. Her face was hidden behind a white mask with messy strands of blonde hair over it. The woman was currently fiddling around with a small machine pistol before the man tapped her leg.
"Eyes up, Helvig." he said with a thick and raspy Irish accent, he grabbed a hold of a bullpup assault rifle. "We finally got us some company."
"About time." Helvig smiled under her mask, she holstered her sidearm and grabbed a Aks-74u that was leaning against a wall. She glanced out to see the seven. "Hm...(Americans)" She scoffed in her native tongue.
"Yanks love getting their bloody noses in everything." The Irishman rolled his eyes as he put his helmet on, the front was designed as a skull. He motioned his head for her to follow.
Glaz and Sparks both had eyes on their group as they moved up, occasionally breaking away from them to scan the building for anyone; all was clear and they were oblivious to the two other soldiers who were watching them. As the group walked over through the empty street, they passed a coffee shop that was about to turn the corner, when a sound from the building to their right caught their attention.
"I wouldn't keep going if I were you lads." the Irishman taunted, he kept himself hidden behind cover. The Seven scanned all around to find the source of the voice, when nothing came, Griggs took a step forward.
"Hey, why don't you just show yourself and come clean. No one needs to die."
"Pretty speech, Yankee. How would I even know you stay true to that statement? Huh? You all turned your back on Urzikstan after a single order. Zero hesitation."
Griggs fell silent to the comment, Maverick swore in his mind at the memory that the ULF were still technically terrorists in the eyes of NATO. No doubt the order was still present that Farah and her men were to be killed if even seen. After a moment of silence the Irishman chuckled as some White Masks and Al-Qatala peeked their heads out of the rubble and the second story of the buildings. They were all armed with L85's, Sig 556's, Ak-47's and PKM's. Glaz and Sparks looked on from the rooftops, the American was ready to fire, but the Russian stopped him. He turned to face Glaz with a 'what the hell' expression.
"Hold fire, we fire now, our team is as good as dead." he said in a calm tone and looked back through his scope. Sparks shook his head as he looked back through his scope. Back down below, the group were busy scanning their odds, they weren't good, but with a few well thrown smoke grenades, they could use it to make a run and flank around the enemy. Again, a risky play, but they were not fortunate enough to have many alternatives.
"Well, even so, what the hell do you guys even offer? Chaos and mayhem?" Maverick yelled back, trying to buy them some time. The attempt so far was working, as they were not shot up to kingdom come. From the other side of the building, the enemies were making quick work grabbing anything valuable and putting it inside of an armored vehicle, so it was best to stall as much as possible for them as well.
"Maybe we do. Better than to be playthings from those blocks back home. I'm sure you know what I mean. I meself was just a tool, until they threw me out for bein a liability. We all were. Who's to say your country won't turn their back on you here when they see it as a lost cause?"
"Bullshit, right there!" D-Day scoffed.
"Sir, permission to start shooting some of these sons of bitches?" Alice asked Griggs.
"No one fires a damn shot." Maverick quickly answered back; "You'll just get us all killed."
"Agreed." The Demon Dog leader nodded; "I got some smoke grenades ready whenever. Just say the word."
"Alright….here's to it not backfiring." the Bostonian muttered; "Do it….now!"
Griggs dropped a pair of smoke grenades and the ground as everyone made a mad dash for any cover they could find the enemies fired into the smoke in hopes to get a shot on them. Glaz and Sparks both took this as an opportunity to snipe some of the White Masks. The former spetsnaz member took full advantage of his thermal sniper scope, taking a few people poking their heads out with ease. Sparks did not have the fortune of having a thermal scope, so he was stuck on just looking around spots that were not covered with smoke.
"They got guts. I'll give em that." The Irishman chuckled as he and the woman made their way down the stairs and towards the armored vehicles that were now stocked up with all the important equipment. The masked woman looked on, raising up her aks. "Ah, don't bother, lass. We have better things to do than deal with these fools."
"It would be dumb to not finsh them off here and now." she scoffed, as she was still eager to go after them. The man shook his head and chuckled.
"You got fire in ya, kid, I like that. But don't forget we only came to get the supplies here. Leave these seven or whatever to these guys."
"I know you wanna fight, Freya. Believe me, I live for this shite, but it's important to know where and when ya need to."
The woman, whose name was Freya, stopped for a moment and thought she heard the gunfire coming from the opposite side, her first instinct would be to go and fight with her team. Not just sit back and let them die; something she felt her own nation had done for too long and the world suffered as a result. However, the Irishman did make some good points, they were too valuable to risk being killed in action; at least for now. Once their primary goal was achieved, she could get out and get work done. With a sigh, she walked over to the front car and opened the passenger door.
"Atta girl." he chuckled as he entered the driver's side.
"Shut up and drive, Roman." she muttered, Roman continued to chuckle as he turned the key and drove off, with the second vehicle following behind.
"Got eyes on some vehicles making a run for it." Sparks told Glaz as he took a shot at them.
"Don't think that was a smart move, my friend…" Glaz muttered as the helicopter fr4om early circled back around and flew towards them. "Not a smart move at all!"
"Go, go go!" the American yelled as they both got up and ran towards the door, the helicopter. Turning to the side to let one of the machine gun operators fire at the two. They narrowly dodged the oncoming fire from the minigun, a few close calls from bullets whizzing by as they ran down the stairs. Glaz was swearing in his native tongue as Sparks was muttering a prayer as they neared the bottom floor. While the helicopter would continue to pose a threat, there would be more cover available.
"You good?"
"As much as I can be, mudak!" Glaz yelled out of frustration. He felt a tinge of regret a moment after and quickly tried to compose himself; "Sorry, adrenaline and all that shit."
"Yeah, I get ya, brother." Sparks nodded; "Was dumb of me to try shooting an armored car that far away."
"Griggs to Sparks." the American's radio called out; "You two copy?"
"Loud and clear, Sarg. We're okay; as much as you can after a helicopter comes charging in."
"We need some back up on us, these bastards are pushing from all sides. We're in the-oh shit, that was close. The central tan building."
"We're on our way." Glaz said as he stacked up at the door.
"They're trying to flank us!" Raines called out as he fired his M91 light machine gun at the on coming enemies, taking a few out in the process. The others took different positions as they occasionally took cover and rose to fire a few rounds. Blackbead rose up from his cover and fired, the shield mounted on his rifle absorbed a few of the oncoming bullets of the enemy, the former Navy SEAL smiled as he went back to cover and reloaded his battle rifle. Good thing the shield was better in reality compared to the simulation variant. Ying charged up one of her black grenades as the sound of footsteps below got her attention, she tossed it below and pressed the button on her clear glasses. They emitted a slight blue tinge as the small ball rolled down the stairs, at the bottom of the ground, the light blinked green as the top lid popped off and eight smaller balls popped outside of it and covered the area. The White Masks looked confused for a moment before they were blinded by the small flashbangs going off. Ying fired at the blinded men, with Alice helping the short woman out.
"You got a plan to get us out of this, Griggs?" Maverick asked him. The African American dodged an oncoming round and swore under his breath. Griggs took a moment to compose himself and turned around to face the blonde.
"Yeah. We can call in airsupport if needed, and we damn well need it." he huffed as he pulled out a radio. "Striker 3-1, we need some air support on my position."
"This is striker 3-1, good copy, on route to your location." the pilot said back; "ETA five minutes."
"Damn it all…." Griggs hit the wall next to him; "We got to hold for ten more minutes."
"Five?! Puta madre!" Alice yelled in frustration. She fired her smg blindly. More people kept coming at them. Glaz and Sparks were flanking around as they neared the building described to them, the two snipers looked around for a good spot to help from afar and from where the enemy would last expect them. Sparks nudged Glaz's shoulder and pointed over to a brick building that had a hol in the wall on the second floor. The Russian sniper gave a thumbs up as they hustled over to it, their rifles still trained up. As the two made their way up, they got a good angle on the main street, they were quick to get down in the ground and fired at them. The White Masks were confused for a moment before they noticed the two snipers in the building.
"Looks like we got a little bit of a window." Castle said as some of the Masks were focusing on the snipers who were making some quick work of them. Griggs checked his watch for the time, still only two minutes had passed from when he spoke to the aircraft pilot.
"Shit, we can't stay up here forever." Maverick muttered, he looked around and saw that the building continued further down in the directions of the trenches. He grabbed on to his M4 and motioned for the others to follow.
"I'll cover y'all, get going." D-Day said as he fired his rifle, Raines helped as well with his LMG. The other soldiers all made their way out of the the bridge that connected it to the other office building, Raines and D-Day Made their way to the others, while they placed down a few claymores hidden away for any oncoming White Masks. Maverick took point as they walked down a set of stairs and reached the ground level.
"What's our timeframe looking like?"
"Two more minutes, brotherman."
"Alright then." he nodded his head, he scanned around to see if he could see Glaz or Sparks before he noticed the oncoming Whiate Masks. He quickly raised his rifle and fired a few bursts in their general direction. At the trenches, there were a few White Maska who were all set up and waiting for them, they had some deployable cover as well as a few .50 cal turrets with a shield covering them. "Oh for fucks sake….Everyone, get to cover now!"
"Demon 1-2, be advised we will be arriving sooner than anticipated, please mark for strike, over."
"Music to my god damn ears." Griggs smiled as Raines walked over to him toi hand over a flare. The African American Sergeant then lit it up and looked over to get a good angle from where the Masks were coming from, opting to throw it in between the trenches and the factory ruin's entrance. "Striker 3-1, be advised. Targets are around a red flare, light those S.O.B's up for us, over."
"10-4, Demon 1-2. Coming in hot." the pilot said as two A-10 Warthogs came from from the North, making a familiar sound to the soldiers as the guns fired at the White Mask's, after the first one came into impacts, the surrounding spaces were then hit once again by the second Warthog, who cleaned up any stranglers. The second also focused fire on the White Mask helicopter, that was quickly disposed of as well. The two planes circled back around and entered their formation and left in the same direction they came from.
"Good effect on targets, 1-2. Stay safe down there."
The soldiers breathed out a small sigh of relief as the area was quiet as it had been when they first arrived/ The only sound there was would be the heavy breathing by the eight. Maverick slung his M4 over his shoulder and wiped the brim of sweat from his forehead. He then grabbed ahold of his radio.
"Glaz. What's your position?"
"Right in front of you." the Russian said as he and Sparks came into view. In the american's hand was one White Mask who they had captured, he was currently being dragged behind.
"This guy tried to hide when the bird came in, maybe we can get something out of him." Sparks said as he tossed him to the ground in front of the group.
"What do you suppose we do with him?" Ying asked.
"I think we can take him with us." Blackbeard suggested; "Our friend would have a lovely chat with him."
"Feel free to do whatever you want with him. Just as long as you get something that'll help us get his friends out of here." Griggs shrugged. The captured White Mask shuttered a bit as Castle yanked up from the ground and yanked his mask aside. The man's face said it all: he was scared shitless.
"Oh, Caveira is going to have fun with him." Castle laughed, with Maverick and BLackbeard chuckled, Ying simply rolled her eyes. The Demon Dogs meanwhile were busy looking around the area for anything valuable. Much to their misfortune, most of what was left were some ammo caches and empty crates.
"Man. things just can't go our way." Raines sighed as he opened one of the last chests to find it empty. D-Day and Alice swore under their breaths.
"Well, at the very least, we pushed those bad guys out." Griggs tried to reassure his men; "Now they gotta run back to Verdansk with their tail between their legs."
"Well, the rest of your people can deal with that, we gotta go back to our safehouse and see what we can get from him." Maverick approached the African American, he offered his hand; "Was good seeing you again, Sergeant."
"You too, ya damn spook." he smiled back and returned the handshake. He turned around to face the other members of his team. "Alright Demon Dogs, let's get going, we won't win this war by just standing around."
"Oorah to that, bossman." Raines smiled as he and the others bid farewell to the Rainbow team.
Location: Unknown
The two armored vehicles reached their destination, which was in an unknown area of the country of Kastovia. At a stop, there were a set of guards patrolling around the outskirts of a base. One halted the cars. It took the man a moment to identify the people in front. The guard let both cars pass as he resumed his patrol. The roaded continued a little on as the path narrowed down, to a compound with a few concrete buildings up. Both cars were parked and men were quick to open the back doors and unload the contents inside. Roman and Freya both looked on for a moment before a familiar face came by to greet them.
"Ah, if it ain't our favorite one eyed looney." Roman joked, earning himself a small chuckle from Freya and an audible groan from Vikhor. The one-eyed Russian crossed his arms, very much unamused from the joke regarding his imparity. While he would have very much wanted to punch Roman right in the face, he chose to just let it pass for this last time.
"What is the situation in Venskaya?" he finally asked, this had the dumb grin on the Irishman's face drop entirely and for the woman to look down at the ground. Vikhor sighed and shook his head. So much for trying to move their forces further out of the Verdansk area. The Russian tried his best to contain his anger as he spoke to them again. "You two had one simple job...I am sure some weak nation's army would be able to stop you.
"Aye, those bastards were easy to get rid of." Roman quickly said; "It was some damn Yanks there that-"
"What?" The Russian stopped him. He did not want to believe what he had heard; "Repeat what you just said."
"About the Yanks?"
"Yes about the Americans!" He yelled at the two, his booming tone earned a few glances from the other White Masks. They quickly went back to what they were doing when the Russian looked over at them, his look alone was enough to frighten them. He turned back over to Roman and Freya. "They were not supposed to be here as soon as they are now. Bah! I knew we were too quick to kill that fucking mudak."
"Why bother delaying their arrival?" Freya asked as she kept her mask on, adjusting it slightly after she asked. "If they come now, we finish them off, simple. We have the manpower as it is."
"Plus all the resources we could ever ask for thanks to the one armed bastard, Kapano and the South African."
"But our ace up sleeve is not ready" Vikor answered bluntly, before he let out a deep sigh out of frustration; "I must go talk with Imran and know what the hell he was thinking."
Roman and Freya walked away from the olderman as he did a 180 and walked over to one of the central buildings at the site. As he walked, it was more like storming to the place, the Russians gaze was fixated at the door; not bothering to acknowledge the other White Masks who walked near him or greeted the man. Vikhor's anger only swelled as he neared the door, yanking it open as hard as he could muster and then walked in. He walked down a set of stairs to the lower levels and opened the door. Inside was the ultranationalist himself, who was having a screen call with someone else while calmly taking slow drags from his cigar. The man paused for a moment and turned around to see the angered Vikhor standing at the doorway, giving a slight nod at him before turning back.
"(I guess we shall call it here for now, ma'am. I will update you on anything that comes up.)" The screen cut to black as the lights came back on in the one armed man's office, he cleared his throat and rose up from his seat.
"(Comrade. You know I made it clear to the others that I were not to be disturbed when having private calls. You are the last person I would have thought to break that rule, Vikhor.)"
"(Cut that lectoral shit out, Imran. I am not one of those grunts out there. I was with this group larger than you were. Never forget that!)" Vikhor boomed at him, Imran took no offense to it, rather ignoring the fact that he was being yelled at as he set his cigar down on an ashtray. "(Why that fuck was I not informed that the Americans have already arrived?!)"
"(More than just Americans, Vikhor. The NATO puppets of the United States, along with our very own home have come to stop us.)" Imran corrected, Vikhor scoffed at it.
"(Yes. Because that one simple correction eases up all troubles that can occur from this? I knew it was a mistake to kill that president as soon as we had, who's idea was it?!)"
"(Who else could it be, Vikhor?" Imran asked rhetorically before he continued; "If it is what she wanted us to do, we must oblige.)"
"Why would she-I am not close to completing my supply. Sure Nova 4 is in abundance, but that will not be sufficient and pungent enough for out plan)"
"(You will get all the time needed for your project, Vikhor. Al-Asad will make sure of it.)"
The One eyed Russian stayed silent for a moment, all their planning; all these years of laying low culminated for this. While his thoughts on their end goal were meaningless to him, there was one thing on his mind that he would savor to have, someone who was alway out of his reach. Someone who fueled his will to keep going to have the honor of killing them himself. Not fast, no. After almost 40 years of running, there was no way Vikhor would deprive himself from taking his time. Vikhor looked back over to Imran.
"(He better.)"
A/N: Sorry that this took me a while to release, but better a bit late then never right? Until next time, this is Ghost, going dark.