Authors Note: Well I managed to get this one done way ahead of schedule. Unfortunately vacation time is over and I'm back at work, so I wont be able to update as frequently. Just a warning, if you don't know the operators real names, things might be a little confusing. Also this chapter is a lot more light hearted than the last one. Enjoy.
What Will It Take?
Chapter 1
Ten Years Later
Hereford, England
"What could she possibly want now?"
"I don't know, but it's best not to keep her waiting."
Meghan and Eliza, better known as Valkyrie and Ash, were walking down a long hallway of Hereford's headquarters building, having been called by none other than the head of rainbow herself, who goes by the code name "Six". Most people in Rainbow only knew two things about her, she's in charge, and don't piss her off.
"Eliza, I swear to God, if this is about another blown up wall I'm not covering for you again."
"What makes you think that I…" The glare she received silenced her question.
"Seriously, every time you destroy something, you're not the only one she yells at, she likes to yell at me too, for some reason." Meghan said, annoyed.
"It's because of all the Americans on the team, you're the most responsible and you're the only one who gives a damn if Six yells at you."
"No, it's not because of that. She yells at us because you keep blowing up things that weren't intended to be blown up."
"I'll just tell her Sledge did it."
Meghan took in a deep breath in order to calm her growing frustration.
"Please, just behave yourself when we get in there."
"Yes mom."
As the two women approached the entrance to Six's office, they noticed someone standing outside, their fellow operative Smoke.
"Ah James, I see you've been summoned here as well." Meghan greeted.
"Morning ladies, and yeah, no idea why either." The man responded
"Maybe it's about that wall Sledge broke." Eliza chimed in, immediately receiving a punch in the shoulder from Meghan.
"Ow!"
"What did I tell you? Behave yourself."
"Nah we took care of that rubbish." The Brit responded. "Thatcher and I hid his hammer, now he's only allowed to have it during missions and training purposes."
"You can do that?" Meghan asked.
"Don't know, don't care, at least now things aren't getting broken." James answered.
Meghan stared at Eliza, a contemplative look on her face.
"Absolutely not!" Eliza shouted, knowing just what her friend was thinking.
"If you three are done out there, please come in." A voice came from inside. Making all three of them jump.
"And so it begins." Eliza muttered.
All three of them walked into the large office. Behind the desk sat an older, dark skinned woman, who was in charge of the most lethal anti-terrorism organization the world has ever seen. She wasn't the original holder of that title, it had been passed down through many different agents over the past few decades, but she was the first female to obtain the legendary name. In front of her were three files laid out on her desk.
"Thank you three for finally joining me." She greeted as the three operators walked up to her.
"Good morning ma'am, how can we help you?" Meghan asked.
"I have a task for each of you."
"Are the White Masks at it again?" James Questioned
"No, it's nothing along those lines, this is much simpler." Six responded as she grabbed the three files. "We have three new operatives joining us tomorrow and I need each of you to take one under your wing for their first week."
In Rainbow, was customary for a new operator to be guided by a more experienced one for their first week. This was done for a few reasons. One was to show them the ins and outs of how Rainbow worked, since it was unlike any other organization in the world. It was also somewhat of an evaluation phase. Yes, by the time an operator is selected for rainbow, they have passed all the tests and met all the requirements. But test scores and checkboxes were all just paperwork, the ultimate judgement when accepting someone onto the team came from the operators themselves. After all, they would be the ones ultimately putting their lives into your hands, if they didn't feel like they could trust you with that, you didn't make the team, no matter how impressive your profile. It had happened many times before.
"You know the drill, introduce them to the rest of the team and show them the ropes." She continued, "Make sure that their transition from there old units to Rainbow is as fast and as smooth as possible. There's a new operation coming up I need them to be combat ready ASAP."
The three fighters perked up at the thought of a new operation, especially since all of them had missed out on Operation Velvet Shell.
"I specifically chose you three because you each actually have prior experience with your assigned new comer."
Now the three were really intrigued.
"Smoke, you will be looking after an agent coming from the Special Duties Unit." She handed him the man's file.
"China?" James questioned.
"Yes. His name is Liu Tze Long, code name "Lesion".
"Long! Yes, I remember him, we went through the Resistance to Interrogation Program together. He also helped me create the chemical agent in my canisters." James explained, excited at the thought of working with his old friend once more.
"So he knows what's in the canister?" Eliza asked, jokingly.
"Only partially, so he gets to live." He answered, the other two couldn't tell if he was joking.
"Ash." Six called.
"Yes ma'am."
"You'll also be looking after an agent from SDU. Her name is Siu Mei Lin, code name "Ying." Six explained, handing Eliza the folder with Siu's profile.
"Oh Siu. I remember her from Tel Aviv University. Cute little thing, so short, always relaxed and easygoing. I'll look after her." She smiled.
"God help her." Megan muttered under her breath.
"Valkyrie."
Meghan stepped forward, a little confused, even with her extensive career, she had never worked with anyone from SDU.
"Your new operator is coming from Grupa Reagowania Operacyjno Manewrowego." Said Six, with surprisingly accurate pronunciation.
"What?" Asked Eliza
"It's polish for Operational Maneuvering Response Group." James answered.
"What?"
"Poland! The new guy is from Poland you dumb slag!"
"Oh." Was Eliza's only response.
This cleared things up for Meghan as well. Unlike SDU, she had worked extensively with GROM during both of her deployments in the middle east, and now she was curious as to witch of those former colleagues she would have the pleasure to work with again.
"The new comer you will be looking after is named Elzbieta Bosak."
"…crap."
The three operators were walking back to their quarters; two of them excited to reunite with old friends, the other was left unsure.
"Man, it seems like just yesterday I was looking after you for your first week, huh Meg?" Asked Eliza.
"You mean when I had to look after you?" Meghan responded flatly.
"What are you talking about?"
"On my first day in Rainbow, you blew up my door, dragged me to a bar, and got piss drunk. Then throughout the night, I had to stop you from fighting Alexandr, carry you back to base, stop you from trying to molest Emmanuelle, stop you from fighting Sebastien, drag you back to your room and spent all night making sure you didn't choke to death on your own vomit!"
"See, you were making a great first impression on everyone. Nobody doubted your status as a team member after that, and everybody has trusted your leadership ever since."
"Eliza, please just shut your mouth."
It was true. In Rainbow, there was no rank system, all operators were equal in terms of leadership and authority. However, even in total anarchy humans will still follow who they feel is the best leader, and to many, that was Meghan. Even operators from other countries would still trust her judgment and leadership.
"What's got your panties in a bunch Castellano?" James asked, finally jumping into the conversation. "You're not happy to see Elz whatever her name is?"
"Elzbieta. And honestly…I'm not sure." She responded, stopping to open the file she was given.
"Oh she's cute." Eliza commented upon seeing the profile picture.
"So what's your problem with her? Where do you know her from?" James questioned.
"We served together in Iraq in 2007, and again in Afghanistan in 2009." Meghan explained. "Well, she always had problems listening and following orders."
"So do I, and you still enjoy my company." Eliza interrupted.
"Well, that second part is debatable. As for the first, no, not quite like you." She continued. "In Elzbieta's case, it would be to the point where people would be put in danger. But then she would always accomplish something incredible in return. The mission would get accomplished, but you would be asking yourself if the added danger was worth it."
"Was she at least pleasant to work with?"
"She was very reclusive, never really seemed interested in making friends. Not really interacting with anyone outside of going on missions. In fact, the only time I remember seeing her smile was when an enemy stepped on one of her mines, and see killed them."
"So she likes killing people violently, I think she'll fit in." Eliza Commented.
"Not if she had discipline issues and can't make friends." Added James, "We may be an unusual band of wankers, but we're close, and we're precise, it's one of the reasons we're such a small group and yet so efficient."
"Exactly." Meghan agreed. "Especially since we technically have no leaders, it gives her all the more reason not to listen to anybody."
"I guess we'll have no choice but wait and see." Eliza concluded.
"I guess." Meghan responded.
"What's wrong with you?" Blackbeard asked as Meghan walked into the common room.
"Oh hey Craig, it's nothing."
"Doesn't seem like it, what's up."
Meghan hesitated to bring it up, but maybe her fellow SEAL could help.
"Do you remember Bosak?" She finally asked. Craig had also served with Elzbieta and Meghan, but only in Afghanistan.
He thought for a moment. "The green haired girl?"
"Yes."
"Yeah I do. Why do you ask?"
"What do you remember about her?"
He leaned back in his chair as he thought, trying to dig up any significant memories about the girl in question.
"Smart, tough, deadly, very efficient in combat…no discipline whatsoever, couldn't follow orders if the world depended on it." Was his response.
"Did she ever talk to you about anything…outside of work I mean?"
"Hmm maybe a few times, I don't think she talked to anyone really."
"Other than Orange Sky I don't think I ever really talked with her."
"That's strange, because one thing I do remember she talked about was that she admired you."
"Me?"
"Yes, she held you in high regards."
"She certainly did a good job of hiding it." She responded, surprised.
"Why are you so curious about her all of a sudden?"
"Because she's joining us tomorrow, and I'm responsible for integrating her into the team."
"Oh." Was his response, trying to hide his surprise. "Well good luck with that, let me know if you need any help"
"Thanks." She said as she got up to leave.
"Oh, by the way, Seamus wants to know if anyone's seen his hammer."
The next morning
Meghan and James were standing outside of the operator's barracks. The bus carrying the new members was set to arrive soon, and they were anxious to meet them.
"Where the hell is Eliza?" Asked Meghan. "She's going to be late."
"First off, you of all people shouldn't be surprised. Second, if I had to guess. She's either hungover in her room, or hungover in Monika's room." James answered.
"I don't understand how she deals with her."
"Monika doesn't give up on things easily."
Just then, Eliza stepped outside, wearing her signature sunglasses and rubbing the side of her head.
"I stand corrected, she's hungover out here."
"Eliza, nice of you to join us."
The red heads only response was a middle finger to the blondes face.
"Is this really the first impression you want to give your new team mates?"
"Why not? This is what I look like almost every morning, why bother lying to them?"
"Great! Now that that's settled, we got company." James interrupted.
The two women turned to see a bus approaching. As it came to a full stop right in front of them, it opened its doors. A few moments later, an older Chinese man stepped out.
"Long!" James greeted.
"Porter my friend, what are you doing here?" Liu asked, excited to see his old friend.
"I work here now, in fact, I was one of the first guys recruited into this establishment."
"That's amazing, how are the canisters by the way?"
"Still as deadly as ever."
"That's great, I have a few gadgets to show you as well."
While the two friends were catching up, another figure had stepped off the bus.
"Siu?" Eliza asked.
"Yes." The shorter woman answered.
"I'm Eliza Cohen, I'm not sure if you remember me. We went to Tel Aviv together."
"Oh yes I remember, you were the girl who blew up the engineering lab."
"Of course." Meghan muttered.
"Yeah that's me. Anyway, I'll be showing you around for the next week."
"Thanks, I look forward to meeting everyone. By the way, is there a Masaru here?"
"Echo? Yeah, he's on a mission in Spain with most of the others, he'll be back in a few days. Why do you ask?"
"Well, we used to date."
"Oh." Was the response of all three operator's.
"Well you should probably know that he's dating another one of the operators here." Eliza pointed out.
"Oh, I know, we're still friends. I just wanted to surprise him, he doesn't know I'm here."
"Okay then."
"Seriously, it's fine. There's nothing romantic going on between us, we're just friends."
"If you say so. Well, lets get the tour going shall we."
The two women started walking towards the barracks, as they passed by Meghan, Eliza leaned in.
"Yumi isn't going to be happy." She whispered.
"She'll be fine." Meghan reasoned.
She watched the four of them walk away as they rekindled old friendships and started new ones. She didn't notice the third and final passenger had stepped off the bus.
"Ahem."
She turned around to see a girl with vibrant green hair that barely came down to her shoulders. She was wearing a military style backpack, a camouflaged jacket with the GROM patch on her shoulder, and some dark green pants that looked a little too form fitting. She couldn't help but notice that she was avoiding eye contact.
"Lieutenant Castellano." She said.
"Ms. Bosak, pleasure to see you again." Meghan greeted, offering her hand.
The girl said nothing, but accepted the handshake. Then an awkward silence passed between them.
"Um, welcome aboard I'll be showing you around for the next week, getting you introduced to the rest of the team, getting you mission ready, and such." Meghan explained.
Elzbieta merely nodded in response.
"Well…let's get you inside and to your room, you're probably exhausted from your trip out here."
They started walking towards the barracks.
"As you can see, this is where every operator lives, at least when we're not deployed on missions." Meghan explained.
Upon entering the building there was a large open room to the right filled with couches, chairs, a couple of TVs and a small kitchen. To the left was a long hallway with a bunch of closed doors.
"This is the common room, we use this area hang out and occasionally throw a party, usually to celebrate successful missions or a birthday, or if some of us just want to get blackout drunk. Every now and then we'll also hold briefing in here but usually that happens in the office building across the street. That's also where your new boss works, by the way." The SEAL, now tour guide, then pointed to the left at the hallway. "Those are some of the operator's rooms, the rest of the rooms, including yours, are upstairs."
The two women then proceeded up the staircase in the middle of the building. At the top were two more long hallways on the left and right, each with many doors. Each door had a placard, some with an operator's name, some blank for new operators joining in the future.
"Your room is this way." Meghan said, turning left.
They walked a short way, coming to a stop in front of a door with a blank placard.
"Here it is, room 213." She pulled out a set of keys from her pocket and opened the door. Inside was a medium sized room, on one side was a small kitchen area with a fridge, small stove and some cabinets. On the other side was a bed next to a large window, adjacent to those were two doors. "The one on the left is the closet, the one on the right is the bathroom."
Elzbieta looked around the room, as usual, not saying anything or showing any sign of emotion.
"The room is completely covered, thanks to the UN, however things like food, TV and internet you have to pay for yourself." Meghan continued. "Hope you like it, because this is going to be your new home for a while."
She couldn't help but notice the girl take a pause at the last comment.
After a moment, the Polish girl simply put her bag down and continued looking around the room.
"Well, I guess I'll leave you here to rest and get settled in. Later today, we'll continue getting you checked in, mostly just paper work and answering a few questions." She said, handing her the keys.
Again, the girl merely nodded, this was starting to get really awkward.
"Well, I'll come get you later. If you need anything, I'm in room 203 down the hall."
Meghan tuned to leave, but before she closed the door she heard the girls voice.
"Lieutenant Castellano."
Meghan stopped and turned around, realizing that the only two times that Elzbieta had spoken was to say her name.
"It's a pleasure to see you too."
With that the door was closed and Meghan was left to her own thoughts. When she had heard about Elzbieta joining Rainbow, she was unsure to say the least. Now she was even less sure. She began to reflect on her time in the military, remembering the different people she had met and bonds she had made. Soldiers who served together tend to bond quickly. In fact, even soldiers who had only served together a few weeks would usually still have gotten close enough to know whether or not they trusted one another. Meghan and Elzbieta had served together in Iraq, and again in Afghanistan, and yet the GROM fighter was still a complete mystery to her.
Meghan turned to go to her room when suddenly, one of the doors to the empty rooms exploded with a loud boom. After the dust and debris had settled, Eliza's voice could be heard cheering.
"Are you aloud to do that?" Asked Siu.
"Absolutely not." Eliza replied.
Meghan was now seriously considering following the example of her colleagues in the SAS and hiding her friends M120 launcher. She just had to decide if Eliza murdering her in her sleep was worth it.
Only one thing was certain, things were going to get a lot more interesting.
One thing that I did not foresee when beginning this project was how much filling in the blanks there was. Seriously, the lore is really vague, and the back stories here are possible, but not confirmed. Anyway, I've already started the next chapter and made considerable progress. As always, hope you enjoyed it and feel free to leave a review. Until next time.