Disclaimer: Call of Duty and Medal of Honor do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners, namely Activision and Electronic Arts.
Stirling Lines, Hereford, Herefordshire, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
September 14th, 2011.
The walk towards the demolitions course seemed to take forever, as Trooper John 'Soap' MacTavish shared with Lieutenant Gavin 'Gaz' Franks the origins of the 'most infamous nickname in the whole Army' (or at least, that was how Soap put it).
The result, had left a pause in the Lieutenant, before he laughed outrageously and hard.
And he continued this as he continued leading Soap to the demolitions course.
"Well, that's got to be one of the most funniest stories I've ever heard, Soap!"
Under the impression that Gaz was just messing with him, Soap stated, "Nah, you've heard funnier, Gaz. I'm sure of it".
Gaz shook his head, "No, no, serious! Just, the fact that you accidentally squeezed a bar of soap in your hands, three times I might add, at Catterick, man that had to have been a sight to see!"
Soap, sighing as he remembered the day he got the infamous nickname that sent fellow squaddies, and even a few Ruperts, snickering, merely nodded before saying, "If you say so".
Soon enough, Gaz and Soap reached the demolitions course, which was basically consisted of a safety pit, along with empty concrete buildings with open windows nearby, wrecked cars on a small field, targets surrounded by sandbags, and some intact cars, as well as a wooden table quite a distance from the safety pit with grenades and explosives on it.
The man behind it, smiled up at Gaz and greeted him in a Yorkshire accent, "Hey, Gaz. Great to see ya, mate".
Shaking the man's hand, Gaz smiled back, "Hey Lew. You got the course all set up and everything?"
"All ready to go, just waiting for our FNG, so to speak".
Gaz then turned his head and indicated for Soap, who was standing off to the side, to come a bit closer.
"Right. Here's Trooper Soap MacTavish".
An eyebrow raised and, "Soap?"
Soap grimaced a bit, and just simply said, "Long story. You must be Sergeant Newcastle".
A grin, "Right you are, young Soap", before beckoning him closer and extending his hand.
Soap took it and after shaking hands, Sergeant Newcastle then went, "Alright then. Let's get ourselves acquainted with these lovely beauties on the table, Soap", before indicating to a set of fragmentation grenades and asking, "You know how to use these, right?"
He nodded, which prompted Newcastle to nod his head back and say, "Well then, next to them, you see those? They are operated on the same principle, only that they do a different thing. Can you tell me what they are?"
"Flashbangs"
"Well, that's one name for them, but mainly, they're called stun grenades. Later, you'll be getting a first hand demonstration of these at the Killing House. But firstly, shall I draw your attention to these beauties?", indicating to several blocks of plastic explosive and a green rectangular convex case with a wire attached to a handheld firing device.
Newcastle asked Soap on what exactly they were, and he answered correctly.
"C4 plastic explosives. And an Claymore".
Gaz nodded approvingly, and Newcastle stated his approval also, "Very good, Soap!", before moving straight towards the safety pit, with Gaz beckoning Soap to the safety pit, where before him, was a G36 rifle with an familiar underslung grenade launcher.
Newcastle then indicated to the rifle, and asked, "So, I assume that you know how to operate the L17 underslung grenade launcher?"
Remembering his time in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Paras, Soap nodded his head, before Gaz then came (after putting down some C4, claymores and frag grenades) and gave the rifle to Soap and pointed out to the targets ahead of him.
"Alright, basically, what we want you to do Soap, is to fire off one magazine from the rifle on the targets on the ground, then once that's done, there are some targets within the windows and doorways of those concrete buildings which we want you to target with the grenade launcher. Just so to give us a first hand look of what you're made of".
Taking the rifle in his hands, Soap put the buttstock up against his shoulder, then aimed down the iron sights at the targets, landing hits on the torso, the neck area and the head, before propping up the sights of the grenade launcher, adjusting the angle as he aimed the grenade launcher, and then shouting "Firing!".
Then, he pulled the trigger on the grenade launcher, and the 40x46mm High Explosive round propelled itself out through the tube of the grenade launcher and managed to land squarely behind the propped up targets.
When the round exploded, the force of the explosion sent them crashing down forwards, to the side and backwards, whilst shrapnel shredded through the paper.
At first, there was the silence of the aftermath, before whistling came afterwards.
Turning around, Soap could see that Gaz looked very impressed, nodding his head at the display.
"Not bad Soap. Not bad, at all".
"Why thank you, Gaz".
But niceties were put aside, as Gaz then said,
"Now then, I want to see how well you do with a bunch of C4 and a Claymore", before nodding his head to one of the cars in the course and telling Soap to plant some C4 on the car, before pointing to a set of targets and telling him to plant a Claymore in front of the targets.
Getting the C4 and the Claymore, Soap then headed out to the car first, and once he got there, he started putting the C4 in certain positions that would guarantee the vehicle's destruction, then inserting detonators into the blocks of C4.
With the C4 done, it was time for the Claymore and he moved in front of a set of targets where he propped up the scissor legs and pointed the front of the mine (embossed with FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY) towards the targets, before setting it down on a nice set of flat ground in front of the targets, then unwrapping the wire connected to the clanker.
And once he was within the safety pit, Newcastle shouted, "Fire in the hole!"
Firstly, Soap triggered the C4 and an loud explosion erupted, with the sound of wrecked metal screeching following afterwards then landing on the floor with several loud thuds.
A brief moment of silence followed afterwards, then Soap squeezed the trigger to the clanker, and the Claymore detonated.
In the aftermath, Soap, Gaz and Newcastle all looked upon the results, the flaming, wrecked car and the shredded paper targets, in silence until the moment was broken with a smile from Gaz, "Ah. Music to my ears. Nicely done, Soap".
After leaving Sergeant Newcastle to clean up the aftermath of the demolitions course, Gaz then took him onwards to meet Corporal Watson, who was standing behind a table with a wide assortment of firearms and other special weapons.
The Corporal, who was checking over a LMG, then noticed Soap and Gaz, immediately putting the weapon down before heading over to greet them.
The Corporal, who had curly brown hair, in addition to grey eyes, smiled and greeted Soap with a handshake, "Ah, good to meet you, young Soap".
"And to you as well, Corporal".
"Please, just call me Watsy".
Then Gaz coughed slightly before asking, "So, Watsy, what do you have for us?"
'Watsy' then drew his attention onto the table, and indicated to the many weapons on it, "On this table, are basically the most popular shopping items for insurgencies and terrorists across the world. While we may be using non-standard to the British Armed Forces whilst on operations, there are times in which fine weapons such as those, will not be at hand, and thus we need to be ready to pick up a weapon buried in the sand, or propped up against some wall in a ruined building in a war-torn country".
Firstly there were the pistols and Corporal Watson started to introduce every one of them to Soap.
"TT-33. WW2 vintage. But still able to pack a punch, and can still work whatever is thrown at it. Definitely not something to shrug off".
"Makarov PM. Perfect concealed firearm for undercover ops. Not so much for the field. You might need to get up close and personal if you ever want to obtain a hit with this baby".
"CZ 75. Widely used around the world. There are some select fire versions that make a great machine pistol if you want additional rate of fire".
"Skorpion Vz. 61. Looks very much like a submachine gun, but it's actually a machine pistol. Has a folding stock that makes it perfect for concealing it in undercover ops".
Then, Watson led Soap over to the submachine guns,
"Sa Vz. 25. An old Czechoslovakian submachine gun that still pops up in an odd conflict every now and there".
"Uzi. One of the most popular models of submachine gun in the world. Quite popular in the Americas".
"Beretta M12. And the Walther MP. Some pretty old submachine guns that still finds itself some use".
"MP 40. I know, I know, it's really WW2 vintage, but we do get the occasional one pop up in some conflict somewhere".
"PPSh-41. Another WW2 vintage that finds itself in the hands of irregular military somewhere around the world".
Afterwards, Soap was given a tour on a bunch of different variety of AKs, as Watson picked up one and started indicating to each one,
"AK-47. Just absolutely one of the most reliable weapons on the planet. I don't think I need to say more about that".
"AKM. An slightly improved version of the AK-47, but otherwise, still works just as well, even in the most harshest of conditions".
"AKS-74U carbine. A shortened version of the AKS-74, and the Soviet version of the Colt Commando. Perfect for much more close quarters combat than the standard AK would be".
"Type 56 assault rifle. The Chinese version of the AK-47. You can always tell it apart from an AK by it's fully enclosed hooded front sight, and folding spike bayonet".
"Vz. 58 assault rifle. Okay, while it looks like an AK-47, it's actually rather a different design altogether, based on a short-stoke gas piston operation rather than the AK's gas operated rotating bolt and thus, it shares no parts with it, not even the magazine".
Next came squad automatic weapons,
"RPD. A supremely old LMG that can only fire in full automatic. So, always fire in short bursts as so not to wear the barrel out".
"RPK. The LMG version of the AK that not only can use it's 40-round magazine, but can accept the 75-round drum magazine and even the standard AK magazine".
"PK. The closest thing to the Soviets have to the Jimpy. A really rugged, tough weapon that can either use non-distentigrating metal belts fed into the weapon from the right, rather than our left-side feeding system, or the PK can use 100 and 250 round ammunition boxes. Can be fired from it's standard bi-pod, or can be fitted onto a tripod".
After that, sniper rifles and other rifles.
"Dragunov. More of a designated marksman rifle than a true sniper rifle, but still effective as a sniper rifle".
"Mosin-Nagant. A five-round bolt-action rifle that has origins going all the way back to the Russian Empire. A favourite of Soviet snipers in WW2, it's also popular with insurgents everywhere".
"Lee-Enfield. A vintage from WW1, that's still popular around the Kyber Pass area, and still used in Afghanistan by the Taliban".
"SKS. A semi-automatic rifle that can be fitted with a sniper's scope. Contains a folding bayonet as well".
Then, rocket propelled grenades.
"RPG-7. Number one most popular anti-vehicle weapon in all the world's most popular hot spots. Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan, you name it, it's there. Even though, it does have one hell of a kick and accuracy is shoddy at best. So, always watch out for the wind speed and direction".
"RPG-18. A one-shot rocket-propelled grenade that is the Soviet equivalent to the M72 LAW. Simply, aim, fire, then throw away".
"RPG-22. Another one-shot rocket launcher, this one being a bit of an improvement from the RPG-18".
"RPG-29. This one is not, I repeat, not to be underestimated. This weapon is deadly enough to take on modern tanks, so a deadly weapon that we find amongst irregular forces across the world".
Then, Anti-tank missiles.
"AT-3 Sagger. Man-portable, wire guided anti-tank missile. A deadly weapon with a maximum range of 3,000 meters, but still requires a bit of skill to master. You need to constantly be alert at all times, operating this. It isn't a fire-and-forget weapon, so remember that".
"AT-4 Spigot. As it is a semi-automatic command to line of sight, rather than the Sagger's manual command to line of sight, it's much more easier to use than the Sagger, and packs a heavier punch".
"AT-14 Spriggan. One of the latest of Russia's anti-tank guided missiles, it is guided by a laser beam so a bit much easier to handle than wire-guidance".
And finally, Anti-air missiles.
"SA-7 Grail. Even though the performance does really suck on this, upgraded variants do have much more reliability and it can be very deadly to helicopters".
"SA-16 Gimlet. Very much the successor to the SA-7, it is much improved and much deadlier".
With that done, Watsy had Soap bring out a selection of these weapons to the outdoor firing range, where he was told to handle the weapons and demonstrate safe operating procedures with the weapon.
The pistols were pretty straight forward, submachine guns too, and the AKs. Light machine guns, the rifles, the RPGs, anti-tank missiles and anti-air missiles needed a bit more instruction, but eventually, Soap got the hang of it and made a good show of handling each one.
After that, Gaz clapped his hands slowly, before nodding his head impressively at Soap and congratulating him, patting his shoulder.
"Very impressive Soap. Looks like we'll be making an operator out of you yet".
Then, Gaz indicated for Soap to follow him, adding,
"Now, I believe Corporal Quinn will be giving you a quick rundown on signals".
A desert area just off an offroad track near a desert plain in Northwest Azerdistan.
September 14th, 2011.
A convoy of 4 Toyota Land Cruiser technicals with DShK machine guns and SPG-9 recoilless guns on the back, 2 Mercedes Benz Unimog trucks with a contingent of troops in the back, and 3 UAZ-469 jeeps had just turned off from their offroad track in the middle of the desert, and were now in an area where no one would take vehicles.
Not unless you had a reason to do so, as this convoy did.
After 2 minutes of traveling down this route, the convoy then stopped, with the soldiers offloading from the trucks, and the technicals taking up defensive positions.
While the squads of soldiers taking up positions in places indicated by their squad leaders, some soldiers with shoulder-launched SAMs stood at the ready, ever alert as planes and helicopters from the government were known to pop up unannounced and unleash serious damage.
And needless to say, a lot of preparation had been put into arranging this meeting, so everyone was on constant alert.
Everyone present, looked uneasily towards the sky, knowing that the US had it's spy satellites and it's infamous drones, ready to spot them, notify their puppet Al-Fulani and send someone to undo all their hard work, if they were not careful.
Hence the reason that once the helicopter landed, their guests would be instantly getting in the jeeps, and everyone would drive away from the landing site as quickly as they could, not wasting time with greetings that could be saved for later.
A few minutes, and soon, the helicopter arrived.
Everyone had tensed up when they heard it, initially thinking that it was a government helicopter, or an American special ops helicopter, but things calmed when they saw the helicopter, an white MD 500E with no identification markings, which they knew was the helicopter that they had been expecting.
Making a rapid descent, the helicopter landed and out came their guests.
Vladimir Romanovich Makarov, Yuri Mikhailovich Vatutin and Lev Kravchenko.
Immediately, they rushed to the jeeps, and the helicopter took off, heading off to await the call to come back and pick up it's three passengers.
Getting in the jeeps, Vladimir was now in the back seat, next to the one whom he had arranged to meet.
Khaled Al-Asad.
The man in question, smiled at his guest, "Vladimir".
Makarov did not smile, but did greet back with a simple, "Khaled", before going straight to business, "Imran sends his greetings and apologies that he can't be here in person".
Al-Asad nodded his head and said, "I understand. He must be a very busy man, going up against the government loyalists".
"Yes. Even more so. The government forces have just fended off an attempt to take Saratov, and we are being pushed deeper back towards Kyzyl".
Conversation would have gone on, until they arrived at a small airfield, and everyone got out.
Al-Asad and Makarov exited the vehicle and made for a small barracks to have their discussion, accompanied by Yuri, Kravchenko and Khaled Al-Asad's second in command, General Nasir Ayad.
Inside, a table had been set, with a map of the entire country of Azerdistan laid down on it.
Crowding around the table, they then got straight to business, with Al-Asad stating his progress.
"So, as you can see, I have my forces ready to move down the highway towards the capital. A contingent of helicopter troops will be flying in, presumably under the cover of being government troops. Then once they are in the capital, they will then open the gates to the city, hopefully, just in time for my forces to move towards the capital. And just as my forces arrive at the gates, all Al-Fulani can simply do, is delay the inevitable".
Stirling Lines, Hereford, Herefordshire, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
September 14th, 2011.
After the rundown in signals with Corporal Quinn, Soap was now getting a rundown (More like, a short refresher, in Soap's mind) on medical training with Corporal Branagan.
And after demonstrating what to do in various situations, on the patient (which happened to be Gaz, much to his slight amusement), Quinn was pretty impressed with what he had just seen, "Alright, very good Soap. Looks like you learned a thing or two from the Paras".
"Yeah, and did some great work with what I learned up in Sangin and Basra".
But before Soap could say anything more, Gaz got up and cut into their conversation, "As entertaining as this all is, I think it's time we introduce Soap to the Killing House. The rest of the guys'll be there. Time to introduce you to them, Soap".
The Killing House, the infamous building where the Special Air Service's Counter Revolutionary Warfare wing ensured that that their counter-terrorism skills were sharpened and refined.
Inside, was what seemed to be the interior of an ordinary house. Chairs, tables, cutlery, plates, glasses, candles, clocks, sofas, television sets, picture frames and curtains, you name it, it was there.
But what made this building stand out, was that the walls were coated with rubber, in order to absorb the impact of the live bullets used in every exercise, a pop-up metal and paper target of either 'tangos' or civilians was in every room, put in different places each time by the instructors, and that there were video cameras in each room and extractor fans in the building the clear out the fumes of gunfire.
Outside the building, Air Troop assembled out front as Soap was introduced by Gaz to every single one of it's members, save Captain Price, who was 'with the Colonel', when Gaz asked where he was.
Introductions began, and apart from Sergeant Newcastle, whom he had already met, there was Staff Sergeant Peter Hawkins, a former Colour in the Coldstream Guardsman who still had not lost the ability to scream across a parade ground, it seemed to Soap.
Sergeant Ian-Lloyd Jones, a former Fusilier from Wales, and a former Bombardier of the Royal Artillery by the name and rank of Corporal Thomas Paulsen.
Lance Corporal Craig Wallcroft, and Lance Corporal Michael Griffen, both formerly of the Royal Corps of Transport.
And finally, Lance Corporal Dominic Matthews, a former soldier in the Rifles who was the newest one in Air Troop before Soap's arrival.
But then, introductions were cut short, when a strong, authoritative voice, with every ounce of no-nonsense and confidence in it, cut in.
"Alright everyone, enough chit-chat, we better get ourselves ready for another date with the Killing House. C'mon lads, we best be getting a move on, before we meet the new lad".
Turning around, Soap found the owner to that voice, and knew that this was Captain Price, his new Commanding Officer.
Around 6"0' tall, the man cut an formidable figure, so much so that he could be standing in a busy crowd and everyone would knew where he was. But what Soap was more focused on, was his rather impressive beard/moustache combination.
Captain John Price, who was marching towards the Killing House and moving past Air Troop, expecting them to follow, stopped, realising that everyone was dead silent.
Turning around, his eyes laid upon Soap, for a good long while as he slowly moved to inspect him.
And then, he asked, "And who is this?"
Gaz came up right next to him, and said, "It's the FNG, sir".
Hawkins added to that, "Trooper John MacTavish...", before being cut off by the Captain, "Yes, I know who he is, Hawkins".
A pause as he then moved closer to Soap, who stood still under the Captain's inspecting gaze that could melt butter.
"Right..., what the hell kind of name is Soap, eh?', before exchanging a glance to Gaz, who sniggered a little, before continuing on giving Soap a skeptical glance, 'How did a muppet like you ever pass selection?"
Then the Captain turned his attention onto Gaz and the rest of Air Troop, "So, I gather you're still fresh from a date with the Killing House herself, lads?"
"Yes sir".
Price then gave a smile, the first that Soap ever saw him make since his introduction, and asked, "So, how about we run the Killing House again, lads? And give poor old Soap here some much needed catch-up work".
Gaz smiled, "Righto, sir".
Urgh, finally, I manage to get this done and dusted!
Now, onwards for Chapter Three!
And thus, we are now onwards towards The Coup.
The Cargo Ship mission won't be for a while, I'm afraid. Still got to get Soap adjusted to his new surroundings after all.
Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can and see you next time!