Sasha Knight had led an interesting life. She grew up in Fairfax County, not far from DC. After graduating high school, she joined the Virginia National Guard. By the age of 19, she had served a single tour in Afghanistan, although despite common belief, she had actually gone on only a few patrols outside of the base and participated in only a single bad firefight. She left with the rank of Sergeant.
Her unit had been in the US for a couple months before the virus hit. She, and all her brothers and sisters-in-arms, were immediately put under the control of the JTF; under the command of presidential appointee, Colonel Antwon Ridgeway. At first, she did her duty as any good soldier, but when the Colonel started to spiral out of control, she decided leave. Many of her battle buddies stayed. Since it all fell, she served as the tactical officer-in-chief for Manny Ortega. She had built a relationship with her superior and was loyal and believed in his hope. She would protect him at all costs.
But when three heavily armed and armored, experienced Strategic Homeland Division agents paraded towards his office with a look of determination, she knew she had no power to stop them. She followed them in as the leader kicked open the door.
"Colonel, you mind if we have a word?" Hemorrhage said in a tone, obvious to everyone, that wasn't a question.
The colonel looked down.
"Sergeant Knight, close the door and keep all others out please."
"Sir."
As soon as they were alone in the room Manny sat down in his chair. "Please, sit."
"I prefer standing."
"Agent, while I did not address the way you so rudely kicked into my office or the insubordinate tone you took with me, do not believe for one moment that I am a pushover. Now sit your ass down before I make you."
Hemorrhage grunted defiantly but sat in the chair opposite, nonetheless. Raptor and Thunderclap flanking him on both of his sides, still standing. Before Grant could even begin, he was cut off by his superior.
"I know why you're here. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not fucking blind or deaf. So before you even begin, don't bat around the bush, what do you want?"
"You don't want me to bat around the bush, fine. Where the fuck is our team leader?"
"Gone."
Hemorrhage sat in silence before he realized that Manny was finished.
"Umm, how about you take the stick that has been stuck, ever, ever so firmly far up your ass, and take it out, and, I don't know, ILLUMINATE WHAT THE FUCK YOU MEAN!"
"She isn't here. She's on a mission."
"Alone? Manny, we're a team, what if she's in trouble or worse?"
"Let me ask you a question agent. When you and Alpha Tango go on missions or patrol, why do you think you don't get attacked by outcasts?"
Jennifer and John-Francis looked at each other. They have been wondering why there was a lull in the fighting.
"Why do you think that our convoys or our western CP's aren't being attacked? I'll tell you why. Sarah has been killing them, interrogating them, and torturing them. The reason that outcasts have stopped is because they fear the reaper."
Hemorrhage sat in silence as Manny picked up a comm piece.
"Big Penn to Reaper, how copy?"
"Reaper here, go ahead."
Raptor and Thunderclap looked up with a smile on their faces as they heard their leader's voice.
"Reaper, I'm here with your team, I'm afraid they caught on to our ruse."
"Oh."
"Mind enlightening them on what you did pre-virus?"
"Manny…"
"That's an order agent."
"…You all know I was an Army ranger. Well…well rangers are often assigned to CIA missions. And…well I…picked up some techniques from the CIA on how to get information from someone."
Hemorrhage sat back in the chair defeated. While he had no trouble executing people in cold blood, he stood by his creed to never deliver more pain to a person than necessary. "Sarah…"
"Yes?"
"Why was this all kept a secret?" At this, he turned to Manny.
It was Manny's turn to lean back in his chair. He was silent for a moment. "Goochland, Bagram, please excuse us for a moment."
The two looked at each other before looking at Hemorrhage. Making eye contact, he nodded. They reciprocated the gesture and turned to leave. The room stayed in deafening silence until Manny heard the click of the door as it was closed. At that, he leaned forward.
"Remember your mission to the Jefferson Center?"
"Yes. Of course." Hemorrhage was still sore about how that mission ended.
"Remember when ISAC reported that it had been remotely hacked?"
"Yes."
"Well I began investigating and observing. Stryker and I came to the conclusion that there is some sort of fourth faction in play in DC."
"What are you talking about?"
At this point, Stryker jumped in. "He means that someone is living in the shadows. Watching, waiting. When I first arrived in DC, I was patrolling the western side of the White House district when I came upon an echo. I shared it with Manny, and we decided we should keep it top-secret."
"This mission that Sarah's on, it's more than just trying to intimidate the outcasts. We hoped that her black ops activities would lure out some in this faction. All she's come to find is that she is under surveillance."
As he wrapped up his sentence, Manny slid a small stack of reports and photos over to Grant. Manny continued as the agent quickly skimmed through the papers.
"Grant, until I decide differently, this is considered classified to the highest level. If I find out that your teammates know about this before I want them too, I will not hesitate to fry your ass. Understood?"
Hemorrhage just nodded. "Stryker, when are you…when are you done with your assignment?"
"Hopefully not too long now. I will rejoin the team by the time we assault the island."
She was sitting on a lawn chair on a roof that overlooked Navy Hill, CP November Hotel. It was frayed and the threads were rough on her thighs. She missed the cold weather of New York City. People from the south often considered the DC Metropolitan Area to be from the "north" filled with lying politicians and the like. People from the north considered DC to be in the south, filled with no-good hillbillies that didn't know what 2 + 2 was. Often making fun of the fact that they couldn't handle the cold, just like their southern brethren who made fun of their "low heat tolerances".
The truth was, in the summer, DC would be sweltering, anywhere from 80 degrees on a low day, anywhere up to 110 degrees on hot ones. That didn't even consider the humidity, well above 90% no matter the weather, throughout the summer. In the winter, the hottest it would get would be around 40 degrees, laughable to most northern states, but when night fell, it would reach 0 or below, refreezing anything that melted during the day.
Stryker sat in the shade, unfortunately, the humidity didn't give a rat's ass. Her standard layout was a white shirt with some Kevlar padding on the shoulders and forearms, with some all-terrain pants tucked into steel toed boots. Being that she was only scouting today, she had opted instead for a tank top, short shorts, and some athletic shoes. Being a rather "curvy" woman, she abhorred the way the sweat gathered around her thighs, which made sitting even more uncomfortable.
She had just gotten off the phone with Manny and her second. She had never felt ashamed when she did a job, not when she was with the rangers or the CIA. But when Grant protested her behavior, she did feel it. If only a small part of her. She hated what she had become, desensitized to everything. When she was in New York, her team had to fight for everything, and when she lost scorcher, she finally broke. She had worked so hard to build herself up after her many tours and the virus just destroyed everything once again.
She didn't have the heart to tell anyone that what she had done to the outcasts were considered level 1 of five different levels of torture. She was supposed to be scouting out the enemy control point, but she wasn't paying attention very much. It was around 3 in the afternoon, she just packed up and left for her safehouse.
She got back to her small hideout and went to her cot. Just like every night for the past year, she cried herself to sleep. She didn't know how much more she could take before she broke. Perhaps she already was. Soon, the only sound coming from her hideout was a soft, near-silent snore.
My standard setup in the game is the; Security Expert Shirt, Midnight Pants, Hunter Boots, Hunter Neck guard or brown scarf, Aviator glasses, and a camouflage hat.
