Author's Note: Not dead, yet at least. Sorry for the long wait and I'm really sorry that this one is so short but I hope you still enjoy regardless.
What Will It Take?
Chapter 16
Hereford, August 2016
"Oh, I'm so excited!" Lena exclaimed.
"Well could you be a little less excited and keep your eyes on the road?!" Meghan yelped as Lena swerved to avoid an oncoming car.
"Whoops! Sorry luv." Lena apologized as she focused her attention back on driving.
"Are you sure you don't want me to drive?" Meghan asked.
"Oh Meghan, we both know you don't have your license to drive in England yet. Besides, you're not used to driving on the left."
"At least I'm used to not crashing."
"Oh we'll be fine, stop being over dramatic."
"Well, you've only got a learners permit, and I don't even know how you managed that."
"And how do you expect me to get any better if I don't practice."
Lena had only had her drivers permit for a couple weeks, she had been so excited that she immediately took one the cars her parents owned in order to practice. Now the two of them were driving through the streets of Hereford. Lena was enjoying the ride while Meghan clutched the handle above the window, praying that she would survive the ordeal. As if fate itself wanted to mess with her, Lena nearly crashed again after she failed to stop at a stop sign.
"Have your parents seen you drive?" Meghan asked.
"Um, not quite." Lena answered hesitantly. "I guess you can tell them how good I've gotten when you meet them." She flashed Meghan a cheeky smile.
They were on their way to meet none other than Lena's parents, who apparently lived on the other side of town. The two of them had grown close since meting three months ago, and Lena wanted to introduce her new friend to her family. Lena was extremely excited, while Meghan was mostly apprehensive.
"How about instead I tell them about that French girl you've been staring at?"
Lena's cheeks immediately turned red as her smile disappeared. "Please don't."
"Have you even spoken to her yet?"
"Well, kind of."
"What do you mean, kind of?"
"Her names Amelie, and she just moved here from Paris."
"Does her personality match the death stare she always has on her face."
"Hehe." Lena giggled. "I actually couldn't tell you because once I heard her speak I got completely lost that accent."
The way Lena had spoken was way to adorable for Meghan to handle. "Okay, now I'm definitely telling your parents."
"No! You can't, please." Lena suddenly turned serious, catching Meghan off guard.
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Well…I haven't told them I'm gay yet, and I'm not quite ready."
Meghan felt for the girl, she had yet to tell her own mother about her sexuality. "Alright, you have my word, I wont say a thing about…Amelie." She promised, botching the accent of the French woman's name.
"Thank you."
For the first time since they met, an awkward silence fell between them, Meghan decided the girl would appreciate a change of subject.
"I'm surprised you waited this long to introduce me." Meghan commented. "Did they not find it weird than some random American was hanging out with their child?"
"Oh trust me, it's not what you think."
"If you say so." Meghan conceded. "How long until we get there anyway."
"Should only be a few more minutes luv."
"Alright then."
The rest of the ride continued in relative silence, Meghan was left to her thoughts on meeting Lena's parents. She found it odd that they hadn't asked to see her sooner. Obviously, Meghan had no ill intentions, and Lena was extremely independent, but she figured any parent would find it strange that their sixteen year old daughter had been hanging out with a thirty year old woman from another country almost every day for the past three months. Maybe she was just overthinking this.
"Here we are!" Lena exclaimed as she brought the car to a stop.
Meghan looked out of her window, and her jaw nearly dropped as she saw the place. Lena was right, it definitely wasn't what she thought.
Lena got out of the car and ran up to the gate, Meghan took her time as she took in the sight. There was a large iron fence going around the perimeter of the property with rose bushes lining the bottom. Lena opened the gate and they both walked in. There was a stone path that lead up the center, they followed it for a bit while Meghan continued to take in her surroundings. Freshly cut grass had covered the entire outside area, it was clear that the place was always well maintained.
"This way." Lena said as she strayed off the path.
Meghan followed behind the girl. Now it all made sense.
Lena eventually came to a stop and sat down in the grass. Meghan caught up with her but decided to stay standing. In front of them were two headstones, two of many that lined the cemetery in rows.
"Mum, Dad, here's someone I want you to meet."
Meghan awoke with a gasp, she had no idea why that memory would resurface in her dream out of nowhere. She looked over and saw Ela laying next to her, still sound asleep. She noticed the blanket only came up to the girls waist, she pulled it up to cover her girlfriends shoulder, hopefully making her more comfortable.
Herself on the other hand, falling back asleep was now impossible. She got up and walked over to the bathroom sink and splashed some water in her face. For a while, she stood there and recalled that day, what it was like to find out that Lena was an orphan. Finding out that Lena had taken over the coffee shop as a kid in order keep the only remnants of her family alive. Meghan was the first person Lena ever "introduced" to her parents, ever since then, Meghan had been a guardian to the young girl, and practically a family member.
Suddenly, there was a frantic knock on the door, pulling Meghan from her thoughts. She walked over and answered it.
"Hey, get up and get to the briefing room, both of you." It was Craig, fully dressed in his combat attire.
"What's going on?" Meghan asked.
"Something's come up, I don't know what, but Six just called us all to a briefing. Hurry." He then walked off, supposedly to gather the rest of the team.
Meghan closed the door and walked over to her still sleeping girlfriend. "Ela, time to get up." She said as she gently shook her.
The polish girl slowly woke up. "Huh, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure, but we have to hurry."
The two of them quickly got dressed and made there way to the designated briefing room.
The room was bustling with people trying to scramble in, everybody was caught off guard so gathering everyone, most of whom were still jet-lagged, took longer than usual. There was mass confusion among all of the operators, but they knew one thing, something somewhere had gone very wrong. Six and the Captain would never call a surprise meeting like this otherwise.
"Alright everyone, quiet down." Isaac ordered. "We have a serious situation."
Everyone gave the man their undivided attention as he spoke.
"Just minutes ago, my scout team was compromised and overrun by the White Masks within the theme park." He began. "We were getting ready to send a rescue team in there to get them out, but it was too late. The last transmission we received stated that they had been overtaken and there was no point in sending the rescue team. And then the broadcast went dead." Isaac did his best not to show the pain of losing two of his oldest friends.
"What's there status, are they alive?" Gustave asked.
"We don't know." Isaac answered. "But what we do know, they're both in the park, and dead or alive, we're bringing them back."
"This also means two things." Six interrupted. "One, they now know we're coming and we can't wait any longer. And two, the objectives are going to change. Along with two bomb disables, we're adding two hostage recoveries as well."
"How are we going to handle that with only three teams?" Vicente asked.
"We've come up with a solution, and it means we're going to have to change the team compositions again. Everyone pay attention." Everyone looked as the projector lit up to display the new plan, one thing that immediately stood out was an extra team. "Alpha Team will be led by Thatcher, with IQ being secondary team leader, remaining team members are Smoke, Mira and Lesion. You guys will be inserting through the bumper cars on the west end of the park."
The five of them took note of their new team.
"Bravo Team will be led by Doc, with Blackbeard as secondary, along with Sledge, Pulse and Buck. You be on the same chopper as Alpha Team, also entering through the bumper cars."
"We wont let you down ma'am." Gustave said.
"Jager will be leading Charlie Team with frost as your secondary. Fuze, Echo and Ying will be joining you. Your team will be entering through the teacup ride to the north east."
Everyone went tense upon hearing that Shuhrat and Siu would be on the same team, but it was too late to change anything now.
"Finally, Delta Team will Be led by Valkyrie, Thermite will be secondary along with Ash, Jackal, and Ela. You will be entering through the main entrance."
Meghan felt some relief that despite the team changes, her plan of attack remained almost unchanged. They would still be hitting the main entrance and if necessary, go through the side staircase, just like in the practice runs.
"What about us?" Timur asked, gesturing to the three remaining operators.
"Yes, Glaz, Tachanka and Capitao. I have a special assignment for you three." Isaac spoke up. The projector image changed to a satellite image of the park along with the surrounding jungle, there was a small area circled in the jungled area. "The spot you're looking at is where my scouts were hiding while gathering intel on this place. It's also the area in which they just had a massive shootout with our enemy and were captured. They had with them a very important piece of equipment." The image changed again to showcase a green medium-sized device. "A Talon-0621 radio system. This radio is capable of sending and receiving encrypted messages that only we can hear, it was how we managed to communicate with them without the enemy listening in."
"Maskaradnyy." Alexandr commented.
"Now, we had a protocol in place for situations like this." Isaac continued. "Should the radio be at risk of falling into enemy hands, the user was to destroy it. Although I'm confident that my radio operator followed through with this, I need you to verify that the radio was in fact terminated."
"Why is this so important?" Vicente asked.
"Because the encryption capabilities of this radio lie within its coding and hardware. If it falls into enemy hands, they could recreate it, thus they would have the ability to listen in on every single one of our communication channels."
"What makes you think it's still there and not in the park?" Timur questioned.
"They were most likely focused on taking care of the scouts. They will probably send a cleanup crew later to gather their dead and any equipment later, hopefully we can get to the sight before that happens."
"Even if they did take it with them, we will eventually find it in the park regardless." Six added.
"Once you've searched the area, you will take up an overwatch position, the same one my scouts had." Isaac continued, "When you're there, you will provide sniper and machine gun support for the rest of the raid."
"We'll get it done." Timur acknowledged.
"Now that they know we're coming, they're probably moving everything around." Isaac stated. "So now we have no idea where the bombs are, or where out two missing soldiers are being held."
"That's the bad news." Six added. "The good news, the rules are now even simpler, each team gets a defuser, if you find a bomb, disable it, if you find a hostage, get them out of there."
"Now the stakes are even higher than before. If we don't succeed here, they'll move the bombs to another location, and we'll never be able to find them again before it's too late. If those things go off, it will be Las Vegas all over again."
All of the operators reminisced about the incident from seven years ago. None of them were there for it, but everyone remembered watching their T.V. screens as the worst terrorist attack took place on U.S. soil since 9/11. The old Team Rainbow had failed to defuse a bomb in one of Las Vegas' sports stadiums, hundreds of civilians died as a result. It was also a factor that lead to the deactivation of Team Rainbow until the current Six convinced the UN to reactivate it five years later.
"Disable those bombs, bring my soldiers back, and remember, Rainbow always comes home alive. Good luck." Isaac said.
"When are we now slated to go?" Meghan asked.
"In 20 minutes." Isaac answered. "Everyone get your gear and get on the choppers. Go!"
Everyone quickly left the room and made their way to the armory, leaving Isaac and Six alone.
"You didn't tell them about Peterson." Six mentioned.
"There's already enough confusion and enough objectives to deal with." Isaac explained. "Plus, now he's taken them. They used to call that man their brother!" He yelled, his anger and pain getting the best of him. "As far as I'm concerned, he's now just another one of those mask wearing psychopaths, deserving no less than whatever happens to him once they're in there." He held his expression of anger as he looked out the window towards the direction of the park. He took a moment to reflect on everything. Meeting him along with the others back in 2003, fighting together for four years until the fateful day. Even with most of their squad gone they would still serve together, even helping with the reactivation of Rainbow. Until two years ago when he, like Bosak, suddenly cut ties and left. Now all he could hear was the screams of Norman and Irvin over the radio as they called for help, and then the realization that help wouldn't make it in time, followed by the haunting silence of the line going dead. "My only regret is that I won't be going in there myself."
Minutes later, all twenty-three operators were on board their respective helicopters and in the air.
Operation Blood Orchid had officially begun.
Author's note: So I originally wanted to have this chapter and the next be one big piece but I've been having serious writers block. Not only am I having trouble writing some of the parts but I'm also having trouble making parts I do have flow well. It also doesn't help that I'm now working longer hours until the holidays. So I figured you guys waited long enough and released what I have so far. On a side note, I have also "retired" from playing siege, the current season is not living up to what I expected and I just don't have fun playing it anymore. However, I still love this story and have every intent on working on it just as much as I always have so don't worry about that. As always, I hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave a review. Until next time.