/AN
Welcome back after a four month long waiting period… it's a bit shorter than my last but I hope you all find it as good as the last chapter… please enjoy it.
Now one change I have made is that I gave Harry the rank of Commander but I've changed that to the rank of Colonel as Commander is a Navy Rank. I admit I didn't look that up when I gave him that rank and plan to fix it in my last chapter too.
So with no more interruptions, lets get right into it.
Chapter 2: Wargames and Returning Home
January 7th: 2018
It had been two days since Team Rainbow had been activated and the safe house raid and the bar attack and things had been quiet for the time being. The last members of the team had flown in from their mission so the whole team was on British soil. Unfortunately the team had very little to do while the documents recovered were deciphered and analysed so most of the team was either training or working on gadgets that they needed, Kapkan in particular had amassed a huge stock of his special Entry Denial Devices and the odds of running out of those was very unlikely.
Harry in the meantime had been busy writing up his report from the bar attack making sure he had written down all relevant information before he presented the report to Six and soon found himself outside her office door with not only his but Doc's as well since he was asked to write one up being the team's chief medical officer.
"Enter." Six called out after he knocked on the door. Harry opened the door and entered the office and saw Six behind her desk working on a laptop. She looked up from her work and saw him.
"Colonel Potter, how can I help today?" Six asked.
"Mission reports from myself and Doc ma'am." Harry said as he handed the folders under his arm to Six who glanced at them before closing and placing them on her desk to be read later.
"Summary?" Six asked.
"I've put all in all information from the attack. What happened before and the aftermath, the steps we took to help all civilians and to minimise damage from the surrounding area while we assisted with the wounded." Harry summarised his report for Six.
"You did well with that incident, what are your plans now?" Six inquired.
"I've gotten the Base Commander's permission to borrow some of his men for a few war games I have planned. The usual Terrorist Hunts and extract the hostage before moving onto team on team." Harry said what he had planned for the teams.
"Ahh I wondered why we were had a better menu in the cafeteria then we normally do. You do have a good idea on rewards." Six said remembering seeing the usual MREs were not being used for the night and a more… enjoyable menu.
"What better way to motivate a soldier then a meal that has flavour and taste." Harry said with a laugh.
"Very well… dismissed Colonel." Six said and Harry saluted before leaving the room.
Harry walked through the base until he came upon a familiar sight. The Hereford Base training building. The same building he trained in when he was still at part of the S.A.S. He chuckled as the memories came back before joining the rest of Team Rainbow in a nearby field. They were all either talking amongst themselves or looking over their assigned equipment.
"Alright you lot, listen up." Harry called out and all talk immediately ceased.
"Today we're going to be running some simple war games. Now since Death Eaters don't have explosive devices or bio-weapons we're not including Disarm the bombs and Secure the Area but we will be including Extract the Hostage, Protect The civilians and simple terrorist hunts. You've all been sent team rosters on your issued phones, these teams of five are the ones you'll be working with. You'll all be running the exercises and towards the end of the day we'll be having team against teams. First, second and third place winners of team against team will be receiving a special prize while the rest will be doing exercises and drills for an extra three hours." Harry explained as the team started checking the roster to see who was assigned with who.
"What's the prize?" Lesion called out asking what everyone is thinking.
"Tonight's prize is dinner. I've been given control of the menu and tonight we're having Roast Beef with baked Vegetables with Chocolate brownies and ice cream for dessert. Everyone else will still be having the same meal but will not be able to enjoy it until they have completed an extra three hours of training." Harry said making everyone want to push themselves as they all wanted something that tasted better than their MREs.
"Right to your left is a table with weaponry and gadgets on them. These items are paint variants of the weaponry you generally use. This way we don't need to worry about anyone being killed. Grab your gear then team one, you're up first. Pulse, Doc Montagne and Glaz report to Warehouse Three." Harry said as he left the field to oversee the exercise. Warehouse Three was a storage shed on the course that held all the equipment they use in the exercises like nitro cells, barbed wire and wall reinforcements. Sledge walked into the observation room to find the teams second in command Alexsandr Senaviev, more commonly known as… TaChanka already waiting for him.
"Alex." Harry said with a nod to the Russian.
"Comrade. Got everything set up?" Alexsandr said as he looked up from his tablet that he was using to monitor the building and ensuring the observer cameras were all active and working perfectly. The course has two kinds of cameras, the usual security cameras that teams can use to observe enemy progress and can be easily replaced if destroy and the observer cameras which are bulletproof and much smaller and harder to see so that observers can watch all the action.
"Everyone is properly motivated and ready to push themselves." Harry said as he picked up a nearby monitoring tablet.
"What's on the agenda today?" Alexsandr asked.
"The usual drills minus secure and disarm. I've also had to change a few things throughout the course. No suicide bombers as no pureblood would willing sacrifice themselves. No Nitro cell or barbed wire but the upside is the soldiers playing the terrorist are made up mostly of Muggleborns so there will be magical elements which the team needs to learn as the main point of focus. Although the team is unaware magic will come into play. Other than that it's the usual paintball equivalent." Harry said as team one made up of Kapkan, Zofia, Mute, Thermite and Buck readied themselves in the field the team was in. The rest of Team Rainbow having retreated to a nearby building where they can watch the progress.
"Team one is in position." Alexsandr said seeing the first team ready.
"Let's get started then." Harry said as he readied the soldiers within the training building and radioed the team.
=-= R.A =-=
"Team one, mission is a go. You're objective is to locate a hostage within the structure, eliminate any terrorist inside and escort the hostage to extraction. Command out." TaChanka said over the radio to Team one.
"Roger that Command, Team one moving on objective." Zofia said as the team began moving towards the building.
"What's our entry point? We going to walk through the front door like the good old days." Kapkan asked as they stood behind some cover assessing the building for a good entry point.
"We don't have any shield wielders to take any fire that would come our way from taking the front door but I'm more partial to rappelling to the third floor balcony and entering a window. Less likely to be monitoring that level." Thermite pointed out and the team agreed before quietly moving to the building and throwing a line to the railing and giving a few test pulls to ensure it won't come loose. Once satisfied the team took turns rappelling up the side of the building and keeping a watchful eye for any surprise attacks.
"All clear, let's move inside." Zofia said as she walked up to the window on the left hand side with Mute while Kapkan, Thermite and Buck took the window on the right hand side. They both broke the barricade on the window simultaneously and jumped in and quickly took cover. They all moved through the upper floor clearing each room as they went and finding no targets.
"Top floor clear, let's move down to the next floor." Thermite said as they moved down and once again saw no-one on patrol. Zofia assigned rooms for people to search and Mute noticed something odd on the floor in the doorway that Buck was going into. Only as Buck was about to enter the room did Mute realise that it was Runes inscribed into the floor.
"Wait, BUCK!" Mute called out as Buck walked through the door setting off an explosion causing everyone to jump behind cover and turn to the door to see Buck standing there covered in red paint signifying death. Thanks to magic the paint changes depending on the situation, yellow paint counts as injured but alive, blue signifies alive but needing assistance before they bleed out and red is dead.
"Seems Sledge forgot to mention there are magical elements that have been thrown in, should have expected it since we're meant to be fighting wizards and witches." Buck said as he tried to wipe the paint off his face. Thermite was about to reply but was cut off by the radio.
"Buck, you're dead. Sit down and stay quiet." Sledge said sounding amused over the radio. Buck grumbled as he sat down leaning against the wall and pulled out a small book as the others continued searching the floor before moving down another level which was also clear. That left only the basement, which was crawling with enemies.
"Oh if only we had Fuze with us here." Mute said as he saw how closely together the enemy was with each other.
"Why so he can Fuze another hostage?" Zofia said as she readied her LMG. While the hostage had lived from the cluster explosives he did need intense surgery for the shrapnel damage. Zofia placed her drone down and used it to scout around the area and saw that there were a few entrances they could use to try and take the basement. A few destroyable walls from the outside, a hatch in the room where the hostage was being held and a ladder from an upstairs room.
"There are a few ways we can do this. We don't have Buck to breach through the outside wall and while a breaching charge would work it would take too long to set up and get in position. Kapkan, you take the hatch above the hostage room and get a charge in place to blow the hatch and drop when we have their attention, Thermite you join him. You two will secure the room once we draw the soldiers out." Zofia said and watched as Kapkan and Thermite nodded and went back up to the ground floor and went for the hatch.
"In position, waiting your go. Over." Thermite said over the radio a few seconds later. Zofia nodded to Mute and they turned the corner and opened fire on the soldiers. Three dropped in the initial attack but the rest fell back behind cover and returned fire with paintball spells. The two kept up the fire and managed to draw out the soldiers guarding the hostage.
"Thermite, you're good. Over." Zofia said over the radio and heard an explosion in response as they blew the hatch. The guards turned to return to the room but were gunned down from within as Kapkan and Thermite secured the hostage. The last few soldiers were easily taken care of a few seconds later but to be on the safe side Zofia and Mute searched the two rooms and the locker area for any stragglers.
"CLEAR!" Mute called out as he cleared the last room. Zofia and Mute walked into the final room to see Kapkan looking over the hostage. Another part of their training drills was that the hostages would sometimes have 'injuries' that needed to be treated if serious or simple taken care of by bandages. Mute had a yellow paint spots on his vest indicating he was hit and injured but was still in the fight.
"Command, Team One here. We have the hostage and are requesting evac." Zofia said over her radio.
"Negative team one, be advised evac is still fifteen minutes out and a large number of hostiles are converging on your position, you'll need to fortify your location and hold out until evac has arrived, over." TaChanka said relaying all relevant information.
"Understood Command. Requesting updates every five minutes regarding evac's progress."
"Copy that Team One, will provide regular updates every Five minutes. Command out." TaChanka said confirming Team One's request.
"Listen up, I'm sure you all heard so we need to fortify this location, reinforce the walls and doors. Mute, set your jammers so they affect magic so they can't breach through the walls as they are only using magic instead of technology. Kapkan, set up your EDD's around the area, especially the upstairs room where the hatch is as we can't reinforce that location. Thermite you go with Kapkan then hold that room from attackers. Drop down the hatch if you need to fall back." Zofia finished and everyone began fortifying the magical benefit for the team was the use of magical bags so they could store larger items like wall and floor reinforces and the wooden door barricades. This allowed the team to operate easily and made manoeuvrability easier as they didn't have to worry about cumbersome items that would get in their way. It made the operators look like video game characters as they pulled large items out of thin air. The team moved with efficiency as they reinforced the location and Zofia and Mute barricaded the doors into the room after Kapkan and Thermite ran upstairs and took cover so they could watch the doors.
"Team One be advised, hostiles are on site and will be breaching the building in One Minute and Evac is five minutes out." TaChanka radioed the team and gave them their time frame. Zofia only hoped that Kapkan and Thermite managed to secure the room above them. The seconds ticked by as they waited in silence as they listened very carefully trying to hear the sounds of footsteps or movement so they could hear the enemy.
Zofia's concentration was broken as she heard gunfire from the floor above indicating Kapkan and Thermite had engaged the enemy. But she was unable to assist as the doors were blasted apart from a blasting hex to them sending wood fragments and splinters everywhere. Soldiers came running in and set off the EDD's on the doors covering one or two soldiers who tried to rush in in red paint while a couple was covered in yellow paint and was able to rush the position. Mute and Zofia opened fire as soldier began entering the room. They were being hit Hard as one of the jammers was taken out and the wall was destroyed. Mute had the hostage with him protecting him but his position was being hammered as more soldiers attacked so Mute readied his nitro cell and threw it into a large group of hostiles. Zofia pulled back from firing and hid in cover as she grabbed her radio.
"Command, we are being overrun, where is that evac!" Zofia asked loudly.
"Evac will be on station in one minute, get the hostage and yourselves topside to the parking area." TaChanka said as Zofia held her position from a soldier trying to rush her.
"Understood, team form up on Mute's location. We need to get out of her." Zofia ordered as she used her launcher to fire off concussion rounds so she could move.
"I'll be there when I can, Kapkan took a few rounds and is down and needing assistance." Thermite said over the radio to the team. Thermite ran to where Kapkan was downed, firing his rifle as he ran and grabbed Kapkan and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman's hold as he backed up to the hatch. Thermite grabbed Kapkan's drill and his last EDD and drilled it into the wall to cover their retreat and dropped down the hatch and landed in a crouch only to drop Kapkan behind the low wall and drop into cover as a few paint rounds narrowly missed him. Mute, Zofia and the hostage was opposite him pressed against the brick wall as Zofia reloaded her launcher with concussion rounds.
"This went to hell quickly." Thermite said as he 'patched' up Kapkan and got him back into the fight. Zofia dropped the empty drum from her LMG on the ground and grabbed a new one and fed the bullets into the gun and slammed the top down and cocked it before once again opening fire.
"We're going to have to run through this lot or we'll miss our extraction window. I have an idea get ready to run." Zofia said as she readied her launcher and fired another round of concussion grenades. The team waited for them to go off before bolting and running through the enemy lines and into the room behind the enemy lines and out the door. They kept running and took the stairs two at a time and ran for the parking lot as enemies started firing behind them.
Kapkan turned and dropped to a knee to fire back into the enemies letting the team run past him. He jumped back up to follow but took rounds in the back splattering red paint. The three survivors ran into the parking lot to find a Humvee waiting and got the hostage inside. The three looked around and saw that the lot was clear and they all went to get into the Humvee to evac when they heard a loud crack and felt someone grabbed their backs and throw them to the ground.
Zofia looked up to find three people in balaclavas in front of them. One of them nodded and the other two raised their pistols and fire a round into Mute and Thermite and the one who nodded readied his gun and fired at Zofia.
Zofia closed her eyes as the paint round hit her splattering red paint across her chest with some paint hitting her cheek. She opened her eyes to see the man holster his pistol and remove his balaclava revealing Sledge and saw Pulse and Doc follow suit behind him.
"You're dead Zo…" Sledge said making Zofia slump back and sigh in defeat. "RESET THE COURSE!" Sledge called out to the people nearby who nodded and ran to the course to reset for the next round. He turned to Zofia and offered his hand to help her up to which Zofia grabbed his hand and pulled herself to her feet.
"What did we miss?" Zofia asked knowing they missed something since they failed the exercise. While getting the hostage to safety was the primary objective, the secondary is to come home alive.
"Let's wait until Buck and Kapkan show up before we start. Head for debriefing… I'll be there shortly." Sledge said before heading for the course to make sure it's reset. Zofia sighed as she, Mute and Thermite headed for the debriefing room. They were seated for a few minutes before Kapkan and Buck joined them also looking put out by the outcome. Sledge walked in not a minute after them.
"Alright can anyone tell me what went wrong?" Harry asked the team.
"We weren't prepared for magical aspects." Buck said after few minutes remembering how he was taken down by the ward trap.
"Correct that was one and a big one at that. The main thing I saw was that you went in like you would normally do if we were fighting the White Mask. These aren't White Mask, these are Death Eaters they think very differently. Let me let you in on a secret. I designed this course so you would fail. Wards, overwhelming odds and an ambush. Team Rainbow is a counter terrorism unit we weren't recruited for long drawn out battles and while we can handle overwhelming odds on some occasions the sort of numbers the Death Eaters have are considerably higher than that of the White Masks. The Death Eaters easily can be considered an army in some cases. Harry explained.
"What about the ambush at the end?" Mute asked.
"You were overwhelmed inside the course correct… that is basically the cannon fodder of the Death Eaters. Doc, Pulse and I were high level or inner circle Death Eater who are made up of purebloods in magical Britain's society who would never risk their lives in a battle for fear of dying and ending their family lines. They would be nearby to coordinate their forces and attack once the enemy was fatigued and wounded and claim the easy victory and take the credit saying they put down the enemy. While recruits or common Death Eaters are relatively stupid, the high level and inner circle Death Eaters are not. We specifically waited until you looked around and went to get into the Humvee before we apparated in and attacked. This whole exercise was meant to teach you how Death Eaters think. Do you understand better how they think?" Harry explained and asked as he finished.
"I believe I do, The purebloods will throw the lower levels to try and take us down and ambush us if they fail to kill us. I understand what you mean by the Death Eaters not being true soldiers but cowards." Buck said.
"Everyone is going through this excersises and they will all have varying degrees of failure. It's test you can't win so don't feel bad. Is there any last questions" Harry explained and asked looking at the five and watched Kapkan raise his hand.
"Do we still have a chance for a better dinner tonight?" Kapkan asked making everyone laugh.
"Chances for dinner are based off the team matches. You're still good." Harry said after he finished laughing only to laugh more when Kapkan sighed in relief.
=-= R.A =-=
The war games was an wakeup call for the team as it showed them they were out of their depths and would need to adapt to be able to fight the threat of the Death Eaters. A few of them teams came close to completing the course but we're taken down by the ambushes making quite a few grumble at the loss but appreciate losing here and learning from the experience because in an actual encounter with Death Eaters there would be no second chances.
Finally after a few hours the exercises ended with everyone covered in red paint, of course everyone was hoping Sledge and his 'ambush' team would be participating in the Five v Five matches… wouldn't even care if they lost the chance at enjoying dinner early and having to endure an extra few hours of drills, payback would be a bitch.
After the last team had run the course and been debriefed by Sledge by going through everything they needed to improve on to survive a wizarding war, they gathered on the field they started on awaiting Sledge and TaChanka who finally left the observation room and joined the rest of Team Rainbow.
"Alright good effort today everyone. Now I'm aware most of you are hoping to see Doc, Montagne, Pulse, Glaz and myself to get a little payback for what we did at the end but don't worry, you'll get your chances." Sledge said receiving a cheer from the team, especially those brought down at the evac point. "Now I would like to say that many of you adapted to the situation well, many disabled the ward traps within the building, though a few fell to them… won't name any names, 'cough' Buck 'cough'" He continued receiving laughs from everyone besides the named operator who choose to try to glare at the team leader instead but couldn't help the grin that broke out on his face instead. "The only thing we need to work on is dealing with overwhelming odds. We normally work in teams of three or five and while five man teams would be good on occasion, three man teams are just asking for trouble and on some operations teams maybe comprised of more operators and we will work on strategies for dealing with overwhelming odds. Over to you TaChanka" Sledge finished up by explaining his plans on how they could ready themselves for this war.
"We'll be beginning team matches in a few minutes when the training base has been cleaned up and repaired from the damage we left behind. Teams will remain the same and it will be first to three. Matches will last for five minutes, one minutes prep and four minutes action, if you lose you will be knocked out. Any questions?" TaChanka asked looking at the teams looking for any questions but none came.
"Alright, let's get too it." Sledge said as he and TaChanka went to grab his weapons and equipment but were stopped as they heard their names being called and saw a soldier running up to the group.
"Colonel Potter, Captain Senaviev!" The Soldier called out as he came running up to them and stopped to take a breath as he caught them.
"Go ahead soldier." Sledge said.
"Six is requesting your presence. Something about wizards being pushy again." The soldier said immediately setting off the rest of the Team hearing that Sledge will not be taking part in the matches.
"Saved by the Director, QUIET DOWN!" Sledge yelled over the yelling from the team. "Ela! You're in charge. Run the matches and I want to hear how it went as soon as I return, understood. " Sledge said to Ela.
"Yes Sir… alright you lot shut up." Ela said as she stood in front of the team as Sledge and TaChanka left the field to find Six.
=-= R.A =-=
"What have they done this time?" Sledge asked as he walked into Six's office and saw her rubbing her forehead in frustration. She looked up to the two as they entered before picking up a piece of parchment and started reading
"The Ministry and The Order of The Phoenix request that the Leadership of the muggle group dubbed Rainbow, report to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to answer to action taken by the group when they invaded Nott Manor. Signed Minister Fudge and Headmaster Dumbledore." Six said before scrunching up the parchment and throwing it at the opposite wall.
"So we rescued a group of hostages and an important member of the Order and we're getting in trouble… why do we have to save these people?" TaChanka asked not being able to understand the logic of these people.
"I've been asking myself that for thirty-eight years. So are we ignoring it or are we going to Hogwarts?" Sledge asked trying to fight the headache that was coming.
"Unfortunately we need to respond so we will be going. I've already prepped a Helicopter, The pilots are former Hogwarts students so they know where the school is. Grab your full gear, I'm not expecting trouble but it better safe than sorry… I don't think you'll need you turret though Captain Senaviev. We leave in twenty minutes. Colonel before you go I have something for you." Six said as they went to leave the room and Sledge returned to Six's desk who opened a draw and pulled out four folders.
"We'll be receiving four new recruits. I've been through their files already and found they will be a good fit for the team.
"Names and Nationalities?" Sledge asked as he looked at the photos on the folders.
"First is Lion, a French Operator with The GIGN, Second is a Spetnaz Operator named Finka. Last two is Maestro and Alibi, Both Italian Operators with The GIS. The files contain past achievements and operations, Psych profiles, equipment and reports from past superiors." Six explained.
"I'll look through the files on the flight to Hogwarts, any idea when they will be arriving" Sledge asked.
"All four will be arriving in the next few days. I'll have them report to you first thing when they arrive. Go and grab your gear and meet at the Helicopter, Dismissed Colonel." Six said dismissing Sledge who placed the folders under his arm and saluted before leaving the room.
Twenty minutes later Sledge joined TaChanka and Six on the helipad and boarded the helicopter as it took off towards Hogwarts.
=-= R.A =-=
Harry had fallen asleep halfway through the journey after he had finished reading the files and was woken by the pilot calling out that they were coming up on Hogsmeade village and Hogwarts Castle. Harry stretched as noticed that it had fallen dark as he saw the village and castle come into view and for the first time in over twenty years he saw the place he most considered home. Hogwarts would always be considered his home… it's the people who inhabited the ancient castle that he had a problem with.
"We're coming up on the wards now Director." The Pilots warned as they flew through the ward line and felt the Helicopter shudder as the runes inscribed on every aspect of the special made aircraft stopped the heavily magic saturated area from shutting down the aircraft. Harry saw people down in the courtyard pointing up at the helicopter, many having never seen one before as it slowed and came to land in the courtyard. The wheels touched down as a group of adults came running out the door to the entrance hall with the wands held high. Many of who were familiar and made Sledge sigh in defeat.
"This is going to end badly." He said to himself as he stood up and left the helicopter feeling as if he should have put his gasmask on instead of having it hang from his belt… in all honesty, he should have put it on.
/AN
Bit shorter than my last but I wanted to get something out as it has been four months, I can only apologies for the long wait and hope you all enjoyed the new chapter.
I hope to have another up in a much shorter time and im sure you all agree… time will tell.
So lastly please favourite, follow and review… definitely helps.
Till Next Time Folks.