John 'Soap' MacTavish sat at the armory as he got ready to go with Price and Rook to the Boneyard. This was one of the two places that Makarov's hide out was, one of the two places he was hiding. He was ready to end the war the Americans were in, a war they didn't even ask for. Shepherd's plan was a forked attack to try and get the madman, but knowing Makarov, he was one step ahead.
If the plan failed, they were to collect the Intel left around. "You ready, Soap?" Price asked as he stood at the doorway, his weapon in hand as he placed his hat back on his balding head.
"Bloody right I am." Soap grinned, getting into his Ghillie suit and securing the various straps that came with it. Then the computer beeped as a message came through, which usually never happened when people got ready to go somewhere.
Nodding to Soap, Price turned away, making his way out. "I'll check it out. Finish up, sharpish." He said as he made his way into the communications room. He looked at the screen and noticed an encryption code on it, one he was familiar with. "You nutter." The Brit said, smirking around his cigar, typing the encrypted code that was the cipher to view the message.
He was nearly floored at the contents.
'$. KINGFISH is back off the grid. Friendlies in the Boneyard. Look for a dark color Heavy, Woman in Ghillie suit. Fang out.' It read before it wiped itself out.
Price thought it over, shaking his head. How on earth did the Crüe find out about this op? They weren't even supposed to be in service, last he heard. But then again, that was Five years ago. "Bloody hell. How did he know?" He wondered.
Soap stepped in the room with his M14 EBR hanging from his shoulder from its sling, his face painted up in camo colors so he wouldn't be seen as well as the human eye could register. Even through that, one could see the confusion etched in the Scot's face. "What did the message say?"
"It said that Makarov is off the grid. Came from an old friend of ours, if you know what I mean. Looks like we need to bag a leader at the Boneyard. Just stick to the plan, like always." Price said heavily, patting the Captain on the shoulder. "Once again, the bastard is one step ahead.." He added while they made way out to the helicopter.
Soap took a seat, looking up at Price before speaking."Like old times?"
"Damn right." Price grinned as they got on the Heli.
A slight crackle sounded, followed by a simple word. 'Zero..' A Russian voice whispered on the Comms.
"Da.." A feminine Russian accented voice replied. The woman was perfectly hidden in her Ghillie suit from any sight except maybe a UAV. Thankfully there wasn't one, which meant she could watch Makarov's Inner Circle even longer.
'Wolf relayed this message, friendlies are watching the meeting as well, they have I.R.s so if you see them, don't give their position away, alright? And it's hot in this suit..' The voice said.
Zero giggled silently, shifting her scope line of sight to the dark armored Juggernaut that pace the area. "Well...You certainly stick out like a sore thumb, Vosha... Are they about to wrap up yet?" Zero whispered as she readjusted her sight line to the Inner Circle.
'No, but I think this party is about to be rudely broken down. I see Americans snooping around.' Vosha said as he stopped in Zero's sight line, pretending not to notice anyone of the black clad American soldiers that were indeed snooping.
Zero panned her scope left, seeing the Americans moving forward silently, sticking close to the fuselage of planes. 'Shadow Company?' She thought before she spotted a blacked out SUV, the roof opening wide to reveal a Minigun, already spooled up before taking aim at Vosha. "Vosha..! Look out!" She commed as the gunner fired a large on the Juggernaut that was her friend. She turned as the Inner Circle began to fire back, taking out the gunner with a well-placed shot from her silent RSASS, checking to see that her friend was down. "Vosha... Vosha... Shit! Wolf, Vosha is down."
'I'm patching you through to Price, Zee. Sounds like Shepherd is tying loose ends. Get moving, you can't help him now.' Wolf answered quickly.
Wasting no time, she got up from her place on the ground, ripping the head and jacket off, leaving her in her vest and short sleeve shirt. She then darted through the downed planes, using her smaller figure to squeeze through the crawl spaces inside the husks. Then she heard the effects of betrayal flood the comms.
'Roach? Ghost? Come in, Ghost. Do you copy? Does anyone copy?' Soap tried desperately to reach his comrades over the line.
'They're dead, Soap. Shepherd's cleaning house. I'm working my way back to you.' Price said, trying to fight through Makarov's men.
There was silence on the other end, but it seemed that the silence spoke volumes before the Scotsman spoke again. 'Shepherd betrayed us.' Soap said angrily, his voice shaking with rage and dishonor.
Price was quick to answer. 'Have to trust someone to be betrayed. I never did. Nikolai, come in. Do you have our location?'
'Da. Inbound, Price. But I am not the only one. You've got Shepherd's men on one side, Makarov's on the other.' Nikolai spoke while he piloted his AC-130 towards the Boneyard.
'We'll have to take them all out then.' Price said, almost cocky.
'Or let them take each other out. Either way, I'll see you on the other side, my friend.' Nikolai replied quickly, switching off their link.
After listening to the audio between them, Zero took cover under a downed wing as she saw a few German Shepherds running after groups of Inner Circle. "Captain Price. This is Lieutenant Liv Kirrill, Skeleton Crüe. I am on my own here and my man is down." She said as she avoided another firefight.
'Wolf's little bird. Right. Meet us at these coordinates, then we'll talk. Soap! Shepherd's trying to wipe out us and Makarov at the same time! Head for rally point Bravo to the west! Trust no one but a lady.' Price said.
'Copy. Just yell out Cobra.' Soap replied.
Zero swapped to her suppressed AK-47 Red Dot and began to take out a few that were getting close, using the distraction of other guys against them. With a smirk, she began to run, making her way around the hail of lead before she narrowly missed running into a man in a Ghillie suit, much like the one like she wore earlier.
Barely registering that the woman was an ally, Soap grabbed his G18 and held it in her face, close to pulling the trigger until she shouted the word she was told to say and the next thing he knew, she was pushing him down and letting out the rest of her final clip into a Shadow Company pair.
'Nikolai! This is Price! Be advised, the LZ it hot, I repeat, the LZ is hot!'
'Ok, Captain Price, I am on the way! Try to get the situation under control before I get there, ok?' Nikolai said jokingly.
'Right, whatever you say, Nikolai! Just get here sharpish! Soap, Liv, let Makarov and Shepherd's men kill each other off as much as you can. We can use their comms to listen in on their radio traffic. I'm going to try to contact Makarov.' Price commed, gunfire flooding his side. 'Makarov, this is Price. Shepherd's a war hero now. He's got your operations playbook and he's got a blank check. Give me what you got on Shepherd, and I'll take care of the rest...'
Zero looked to the Scotsman she was helping up, her brow raised. "He's not fucking serious, is he? He's asking that ass hole for intel?" She asked as she tossed her empty AK away for her TMPs, checking that she only had two other clips left. After earning a shrug from Soap, they continued on Silence reigned the comms.
'I know you can hear me on this channel Makarov.' Price chided, trying to appeal to the madman. 'You and I both know you won't last a week.'
It must have struck a chord, as Makarov finally replied, albeit cocky. 'And neither will you.'
'Makarov... You ever hear the old saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?' Price asked, gunfire quietening down, meaning he had managed to thin out those that were attacking him or he got away.
'Price, one day you're going to find that cuts both ways.' Makarov paused, as if he was looking for something before he spoke again. 'Shepherd is using Site Hotel Bravo. You know where it is. I'll see you in hell...' the terrorist chuckled.
'Looking forward to it. Give my regards to Zakhaev if you get there first.' Price said, ending the link.
Deciding they had spent enough time with just sitting there and hiding as they listened to the two talking, Soap and Zero took to moving, avoiding the bullets as they did so. "Let's move, Lieutenant! We got to get to the rally point!" Soap said as they both rushed on towards a road, though they both stopped quickly as a BTR came sliding to a stop in front of them and an SUV crashed into it head on, exploding the two vehicles somehow. Soap grabbed ahold of Zero, steering her away from a potential ambush point and they both rushed up a fuselage as Nikolai's AC-130 flew over from behind them, popping Angel Flares to avoid Stingers.
Soap shook his head as the Shadow Company began to fire at them and forced them into cover. "Shite, there's too many of them. Makarov's men are getting to be quite annoying now." He said as he looked to his M14, shaking his head as he tossed it.
'I'm on the SAT-FEED with borrowed time. Don't let them pin you guys down! You got one minute!' Wolf commed.
Zero grimaced as she brought out her twin TMPs and slid down first, her weapons spraying all over the area in front of her. Shadow Company and Inner Circle fell around her and she rolled to a halt, dropping her twin machine pistols before she got back up, picking up a fallen Shadow Company soldiers Vector, sending a .45 round into an Inner Circle member's head.
Soap rejoined her, only to sprint past her with his MP5K, firing at a pair of Russians that tried to get the jump on them. "Thirty seconds!" He yelled as he dropped an empty clip, opting to choose the ACR that lay on the ground and a pair of clips that were in the vest of a dead man.
Zero wasted no time as she dropped the captured Vector and sprinted to catch up, her Remington now residing in her hands as she unscrewed the mounts for her scope.
'We gotta do this fast! We are about to pull up at the rally point, so be there and get in.' Price commed.
With burning lungs to catch up to Soap, Zero spun around, aimed down the iron sights and blasted a few of the High-Velocity rounds into the Jeep that followed Price and Rook, sending that vehicle into a flip before it crashed into a Technical.
"Get in! Nikolai we are inbound!" Price said as the two jumped in the Jeep that both he and Rook had taken, Zero next to Price with her now scope less RSASS in hand, using it like an FAL against the following Shadow Company while Soap was in the front seat, loading the ACR.
Rook sped off to the runway, driving like a pro through tanks and other obstacles that caused their tails to crash and burn. Of course the others were taking out any threat that had tried, and failed, at trying to take them out.
'Feels like Azerbaijan don't it Zee? Nikolai, I have your landing pad. Aircraft carrier SC111409-024. Sending coordinates.' Wolf sounded as the AC-130 began to land.
'Copy that, my friend. Captain Price, you have thirty seconds.' Nikolai reported.
"Copy that, Nikolai. Step on it Rook!" Price said as they slid around the corner, stopping on the runway as Nikolai rolled slowly past them before Rook started to drive again, moving to try and get the trucks off their tails. Zero smiled ever so slightly while sniping drivers until she saw a spray of blood out of the corner of her eye and Rook slumped over the wheel, foot slamming on the accelerator.
"Shite! Rook is down! Hang on!" Soap yelled, grabbing the wheel and trying to keep on course as enemies tried to ram the truck off the side of the runway.
Price held steady as he unloaded into the truck next to them, the driver of that vehicle slamming on the breaks in a dead spasm and causing the car behind him to slam into it, effectively freeing them from pursuit. "Ramp, Nikolai! Lower the bloody ramp!" Price yelled as they sped towards the rear of the AC-130.
Not a moment too soon, the ramp lowered, allowing the jeep to coast into the cargo bay of the plane. Zero got out, rushing over to the door and closing it to prevent the truck from falling out as the others tried to check over their fallen team mate, carefully taking the man from the vehicle.
"Any luck?" Price asked, looking at Soap hopefully as he earned a solemn shake of the head from his fellow captain. "Bugger.."
After a few seconds of crackling, Zero tapped her comms to clear up the signal, hearing her own Captain speak. 'Zero, are you alright?' Wolf asked.
Zero was silent as she gazed over the dead body of Rook, thinking of Vosha. He didn't stand a chance, just like Vosha, as he was shot in the side of the face, the one responsible for that death now laying under a twisted mass of vehicle. "This war is only going to get worse..." She whispered.
'I know. I'll meet you on deck, alright?' Wolf said, awaiting her answer.
"Da. See you then." She responded quietly as she watched the two men take the Rookie's dog tags, carefully placing him in a bag. At least he would be able to be seen by his family one last time.
Noting her distant look, Price "Lass, one question... Where the hell are we headed?" Price asked, zipping up the body bag.
"Indian Ocean. You get to see how we do business..." Zero smirked, lighting her cigarette.