AN: All I'm gonna say is: Prepare for shitty attempts in British dialogue. Go check out reactiverainbow over at since I don't want to look like I'm stealing content.

Location: Aleppo International Airport, Syria

Time: 12:10

Date: June 15, 2018

The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III touched down at Aleppo international airport at about past noon. It taxied over to the apron and powered down its engines, then the huge bay doors at the rear of the aircraft lowered and people started disembarking. The people who came out of the aircraft were mostly US marine infantrymen being deployed, the marines all disembarked the aircraft and filed into a formation for a headcount and to be loaded into trucks heading to the FOB. But there were seven people who stood out of place, four men and three women disembarked the aircraft as well not wearing military uniforms. If it weren't for the fact that they were carrying weapons on them, they would've been mistaken for tourists.

The scorching Syrian heat was immediately felt by the seven Team Rainbow operators. Each one of them was currently wearing clothes that were ideal for the weather and environment, coupled with a pair of shades each as well.

Erik Thorn took a deep breath and exhaled, "Welcome to paradise, ladies, and gentlemen!"

"You're bloody right there mate," Mike Baker said, "Alright, everyone to customs first, then we go find Spectre,"

"None of you forgot your passports right?" Meghan asked. Everyone just shook their heads in response to her statement, "Good," They continued into the airport terminal.

They managed to pass through customs without a problem and went to the other side. There were vendors who lined the walls with their shops, there were the two Syrian soldiers with AKM assault rifles in hand, standing guard at the front of the airport, there was the sound of multiple people conversing in Arabic, all of the usual stuff you would see in a place like this.

"Any sign of Spectre?" Mike asked.

"Nope," Erik said

"Nie," Ela said.

"Não," Taina said.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" Olivier asked looking around.

"Yup, here is exactly where the file said he'd be at," Meghan replied

"Did they even give us a picture of him?" Jordan asked.

"Naw, the file did say that he'll be the one to find us, not the other way around," Erik replied.

"You think this guy would be a no-show?" Jordan asked his friend.

"Nah man, I know these types of intelligence elements really well, he's around here somewhere, probably making sure that it's really us he's looking at," Erik explained. He was a former intelligence officer after all.

Another couple minutes and still nothing happened. They were starting to feel awkward by just standing there.

"Let's try splitting up, give this guy a better look at us if he's even here," Ela suggested, emphasizing the last part.

"I agree with her, I'm starting to feel awkward here," Olivier remarked. The other operators gave nods of agreement.

"Fine, everyone spread out, but don't go too far and if you see anything, report back to me," Mike said, and everyone just agreed. They split up and began looking for this Spectre guy.

Ela had put a good amount of distance between her and the others before something suddenly caught her which made her gasp. Someone came from behind her and put an arm around her. The man wore black shades, a brown jacket with a white shirt underneath, tan khakis, and a pair of military grade boots. His hair was short and his beard was well trimmed.

"Act normally," The man said in Arabic, his voice was gruff and stern. Ela could feel the end of something hard point into her back. She put on a fake smile and played along with it. The man laughed and smiled as he held onto her. They both looked like a normal couple to everyone around them, which was good as neither of them wanted to attract any unwanted attention.

"Is that a gun you're poking into my back or are you just excited to see me?" Ela asked in Arabic. It wasn't the best and there was an accent, but it was understandable.

The man grinned and chuckled a bit before holstering the pistol. "It's not safe for women to walk alone in a place like this," He said, in English this time, his British accent was very noticeable. "Now, what's a pretty woman like you doing in a place like this?" He asked.

"Oh I don't know, now, is it a custom for gentlemen to point pistols at pretty women, Spectre?" Ela asked him in English.

"Where's the rest of you, aren't you guys supposed to be a team?" He asked. Before Ela could reply, Spectre was taken off him and was pinned to the ground by the larger frame of Lion.

"There they are," Ela said.

"It's not nice to randomly grab onto women you know," Olivier said as he kept the man's armed twisted to keep him from moving.

"Aw, bloody hell, someone get this guy off of me!" Spectre said as he tried to suck in the pain. The rest of the team gathered around them, most of them thinking to themselves, Is this really Spectre? Olivier eventually let go of his grip onto the man and he straightened up.

"Right, so you guys must be the clowns HQ said would be coming over?" Spectre asked wincing from the pain as he rubbed his shoulder to ease it out a bit.

"I suppose so," Mike replied.

Spectre smiled, "Jolly good then, let's skip the introductions for now and get going," Spectre said, and they got going. They walked over to the parking lot, and Spectre approached what appeared to be an old orange Volkswagen bus and opened the driver side door.

"What is, that?" Taina asked eyeing their ride.

"Hey," Spectre called out to her, "Judge not my baby, I've put a lot of effort into stealing her for you guys," Spectre said as he entered the vehicle. "Now come on, I don't wanna drive down the highway when it's dark, fighters would be crawling the area, waiting to ambush us."

The operators dismissed his other remark and quickly followed into the vehicle. They put their stuff in the back and began to enter the vehicle.

"Wait," Spectre said and faced them, "Who has the best eyesight among all of you?"

"I can see pretty well," Erik said.

"Good, can you ride please ride shotgun, I need a lookout." Erik nodded and walked over to the front.

"What do I need to be watching out for?" He asked as he closed the door.

"IEDs mate, IEDs. They're everywhere, almost ran into one myself as I was driving here," Spectre said and started the engine. After a minute or so they were on the road heading east towards Raqqa.

"I didn't get your names," Spectre said as he drove the van. The operators were silent for a moment before introducing themselves one by one.

"You can call me Maverick."

"Thatcher."

"Lion."

"Thermite."

"Valkyrie."

"Caveira."
"Ela."

Spectre smiled, "Good to meet all of ya, you can call me Spectre - you already knew that - and I'll be your tour guide for the rest of your time here," He said.

"What was that for?" Thatcher asked.

"What was what for?" Spectre asked confused.

"The thing at the airport," Ela said.

"I got one word," Spectre lifted up his right index finger, "Insurance."

"What the hell do you mean insurance, did you think we were fakes?" Caveira asked.

"I wasn't sent a picture of any of you, and the bloody Masks have operatives that can work undercover. I think I screwed something up during an op I ran a week ago, and they'd probably be looking for me. You guys couldn't have expected me to hold up a sign that read: 'Team Rainbow over here', did you?" The last part was more of a statement than a question. The explanation was sound and the operators couldn't argue about it, so they decided to just keep their mouth shut.

About half an hour has passed, and they were still on the road. Traffic was minimal so they had a high chance of arriving on their destination just in time. As they were advancing across the highway, one thing they were a line of Syrian T-72 Main Battle Tanks. The tanks were firing over at a bunch of buildings at the distance. Spectre could see the operators start to tense up from the rearview mirror.

"Don't worry about it. Those are friendly Syrian Army T-72s, probably providing fire support for advancing troops," Spectre explained. The operators calmed down. The thunder from the main 125mm smoothbore cannon of the T-72s shook the vehicle a bit.

After driving for another five minutes, something caught Spectre's eye. "Look!" He pointed, the operators looked around for what he was trying to point at, "Ten o'clock low, two, close-formation, fast-movers!" He called out. The operators quickly looked at that direction. There were two figures over the distance that were headed towards them.

"Warthogs," Erik said.

About ten seconds after he said that, two USAF A-10 Thunderbolt IIs zoomed above them, shaking it with its loud engines. The operators looked behind them, and the area with the building was obliterated by bombs from the aircraft.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how its done," Spectre said.

An hour later as they were driving down the highway, Maverick was scanning the area up ahead with a pair of binoculars, earlier he was given a map of where there was frequent traffic by military forces, Syrian, American, and the likes. He found out that the highway they were driving on was frequented by the US military. As he scanned the area up ahead, something caught his eye.

"Spectre stop," He ordered. Spectre knew what was up and obeyed his command. "There's a car parked on the shoulder, 250 feet up ahead," Maverick pointed out and handed him the binoculars. The operators, some of which woke up from their sleep, noticed the vehicle stop.

"What's happening?" Mike asked.

"Um, ladies and gentlemen, we have a potential VBIED right in front of us," Spectre said. Everyone tensed up, especially Ela since she used to work counter IED ops. VBIED stands for Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, and since its vehicle-borne the bomb it carried usually has a bigger boom in it.

Spectre gave a good scan of the surrounding area, he noticed all of the rocks, mounds, and bushes that were around, it made the surrounding area a perfect ambush site. After a minute or so, he and the operators began to discuss their options.

"Why not just take another route, go around it?" Mike suggested.

"This is the only straight route to Raqqa if we turn around it would take us more than a day to get there, and I don't have that much gas," Spectre said.

"Can we send someone to investigate?" Thermite asked.

"Maybe, but if that is a bomb then whoever put it there might still be around here with a remote detonator, and he could have friends as well," Spectre said.

"Yeah, and it's too risky to assume it's not a bomb, especially around here. Besides, it could be bait as well just to get us to come closer," Maverick added.

They all contemplated on what to do, but their options were still very limited.

"Someone has to go, it's the best and safest way," Spectre said, "But don't worry, I'll do it."

"You can't go alone, it's still too risky," Maverick said.

Ela was taking all of this is in, and decided to do it, "I'll go," She said and got her case that had her Scorpion inside.

"Are you sure about this Ela?" Valkyrie asked.

"I used to work on Counter-IED operations, I got this," She said as she loaded a magazine into her SMG.

"Right then, I'll follow you out," Spectre said. He opened the door and got out, and took out an FMG-9 that was strapped to the side of the door, and unfolded it. "Hey Maverick," He looked at him, "In case anything happens, you guys get the hell away from here," He said.

Maverick hesitated at the question but came out with a reply, "Ok," He said and got into the driver's seat.

Ela and Spectre assembled at the front of the vehicle and readied their weapons.

"Ok, check comms," Spectre said and turned on his radio, "Can you guys hear me?"

"Loud and clear Spectre," Maverick said.

"Okay, you good Ela?" He asked her.

"Yeah, let's go!" She said and they began approaching the car.

After about a couple of minutes, they reached the car. It didn't appear to be running and they couldn't see anyone inside.

"Watch out for any threats," Spectre said. Ela nodded and began to watch out for anything that looked suspicious while Spectre got on the ground to check the bottom of the car. He gave it a good scan but found nothing, "There's nothing weird down here, maybe it's inside," He said as he got up, the windows weren't tinted so they could clearly see the interior, but when Spectre went for the door it surprisingly opened, meaning the vehicle was unlocked.

"You wanna check the trunk?" He asked.

"Sure," She said. They went to the back and opened it. There was nothing besides the usual stuff you'd find in a car's trunk. Spectre then closed it and radioed back to the van.

"All clear, come pick us up," He said.

"Wilco," Maverick replied.

Back at the van, Maverick was about to start it while Olivier continued to look out for any threats. He looked to the area at the left of the road when he saw what appeared to be a bush that was rustling.

"Ela, Spectre! Movement in a bush at your ten o'clock!" He called out. Before their minds could register what Lion told them, someone came out of the bushes with an AK-47. And before Ela could react, Spectre had already shot the insurgent in the head. Then more came out charging after them, Ela and Spectre took cover behind the car, and a firefight erupted. Ela and Spectre fired back with their respective weapons. Seconds seemed like hours as Ela had already burned three magazines, proving the might of her trusty Scorpion. It wasn't long for the others to arrive and support them. They were able to fend off and kill the attackers.

"Oh my God," Thatcher said. What laid in the grass in front of him were ten to fifteen men, their weapons still on their hands. They didn't stand a chance.

Olivier took out a rosary from his pocket, "Je vous salue, Marie pleine de grâce..." He began to pray.

"What do we do with the bodies?" Caveira asked.

"Well, we don't have the time nor the equipment to clean this up. I say we leave this as it is," Spectre suggested.

"Oh, now that's just fucked up!" Valkyrie said. Spectre then faced her.

"Oh I'm sorry about this mess, but If you want to clean it up, then be my guest!" Spectre retorted. The operators all began to argue, only Thatcher and Ela didn't say anything. Thatcher was looking at the scene in front of him. Meghan was right, it is fucked up, it looked like a massacre because it was. But Spectre himself had a point too, they were not in a position to begin picking up bodies and burying them. Thatcher thought about it for a moment and made a decision. He then proceeded to face the group that was still arguing.

"ALL OF YOU, THAT'S ENOUGH!" He made sure that his voice was heard by everyone. The group stopped and looked at him. "Look, I know what all of this looks like to you. It's not the first time I've seen a scene such as this, so I know. But I also know that, no matter how fucked up it looks like, Spectre is right, there's nothing we can do about it," He explained. The operators took it all in and understood.

"So, what do you suggest we do?" Olivier asked.

"Well, as I said, there's we can do, besides get back in the van and keep going," Thatcher said. The operators already knew it, of course, they just couldn't get themselves to accept it at first. It was just so wrong. They just said some things under their breath and headed over to the van. But one operator stood still. Ela had not moved from her spot overlooking the dead bodies since the end of the firefight. It was a hell of a lot for her to take in. She's only seen a sight like this a couple times before. One time was when she was still a PMC in Iraq, and the other time was during Orange Sky.

"Hey Ela!" Valkyrie called out to her which took her out of her trance.

"Huh, what?" She said looking around confused.

"You coming or what?"

Ela looked at the sight behind for a second more, "Yeah, I'm coming," Ela picked herself up, and headed over to the vehicle.

"Come on now, the last thing I want to happen is for all of us to get blown up by an American patrol," Spectre said as he got back in the driver seat. The operators ignored his statement and went about their business. The Volkswagen bus was silent again as it was earlier, some of the operators began to doze off again while some just looked out to the Syrian landscape.

We got this! Do we got this? The Masks are advancing, we gotta retreat! Bomb is still active! It doesn't matter, this was a loss from the beginning anyway...Ela felt herself coming out of unconsciousness, she had taken multiple hits in the body. She could see the defuser right in front of her. She mustered all the strength in her body and crawled over to it. She opened it up and the display lit up.

Do you wish to abort?

|Yes| |No|

She weakly moved her finger to the keys. She selected the Yes option and pressed enter.

Loading...ERROR DETECTED, ABORT DENIED! REBOOT REQUIRED!

"WHAT? NOOO!" Ela tried desperately to defuse the bomb. She tried to reboot the system, but she was severely weakened due to the blood loss. She could feel her hands starting to go limp before she could press the keys to reboot the defuser. "No, no, I-I can't fail," She told herself. She knew that whatever she did was futile, but she can't get herself to accept it.

"Forget it, Ela, you failed already," She heard above her. Ela was able to roll over a little bit to see that all of her friends were right there looking at her.

"I...I...I ca..." Ela tried to say.

"Look at her, how pathetic, she can't even talk straight," Eliza said.

"ca...ca..."

"I knew you would be a disappointment from the start," Six said.

"ca...can."

"Stop trying already, you're horrible as you are, already," Monika told her.

"sssssti...sti..."

"Oh, Ela. You should've just accepted that I was better," Zofia said. Her words pierced her like a sword.

"I can still...I can still," Ela felt tears starting to stream from her eyes.

"Just quit it already. Come on everyone, we don't have to waste our time here anymore," Meghan said. All of Team Rainbow, her family, began to file out of the room, leaving her behind.

"Sir, over here, Ela's here!" Someone else called out.

"Sergeant secure the bomb," Another man ordered.

"I...can...still...do..."

Someone then approached her and kneeled down to her, and faced her. He wore full black military gear, and his face was covered by a balaclava. He wore a beret which had the Polish eagle sewn onto it, he even had the Polish flag sewn onto his left shoulder. More men came in but they seem to pay any attention to her or the mysterious man. One of them ran up to the defuser and knelt down onto it.

"It's too late," The man on the defuser grimly said.

"It's not over yet," He said in his old gruff voice.

5..4..3...2...

There was a loud bang for only a split second, and everything became very bright.

*BEEP!* *BEEP!*

Ela was awoken by the sound of the horn of Volkswagen bus. She scanned her surroundings, they were stuck in traffic with lots of people walking around carrying all sorts of stuff.

"Move it for fuck's sake!" Spectre cursed as he continued to honk the horn, "It's bloody England all over again!"

"Tell me about it," Thatcher said as he got comfortable in his seat.

"Where are we?" Ela asked.

"We've just arrived at Raqqa, but now the damn traffic has clogged up," Maverick said from in front. Ela slumped back in her seat and buried her face in her hands. It was just a dream, thank God, but yet it felt so real.

"You okay?" Valkyrie asked from beside her.

"Huh? Yeah, just a bad dream. Don't worry about it," She said.

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure, don't you want to talk about it?" She asked, unconvinced.

"Yup, it's just a dream, no harm done," Ela replied.

"Okay then," Valkyrie reluctantly said. She knew her best friend too well to know that something was up, but she decided to leave it.

About thirty minutes later they were finally able to escape the traffic jam. They drove across the city towards their safehouse. Friendly Syrian and American troops were already present in the area, but they have not yet fully retaken the city. Still, life continued as usual for most of the inhabitants, especially on the side where it was occupied by friendly forces.

Spectre drove down the road until he stopped next to a small two-story building.

"Well, this is it," Spectre said as he pulled the parking brake and the keys from the ignition before stepping out. The operators followed him out and grabbed their stuff before following him into the building. There was a small dining area next to a kitchen, a living area where there was a table in the middle, and there were stairs going up in between the two areas. "Alright, welcome everyone, to my flat. The bunks are upstairs, there's breakfast and coffee every morning at 7 am lunch every noon, and dinner every 7 pm. Armory and mission coordination is upstairs as well. Oh yeah, there's only one bathroom, and it's downstairs. And one quick reminder, please do not clog the loo," He told all of them, "Okay, I'll give you guys the rest of the day to settle down, and tomorrow we'll begin operations."

"Okay, thanks for helping us out Spectre," Thatcher said as he extended his hand for a handshake.

"No problem, mate," Spectre took his hand and shook it. Afterward, they parted and went their separate ways. The operators went upstairs to the bunks, there was a short hallway that connected the five rooms that were upstairs. There were three bunkrooms, three beds in the first room, four in the second, and only one in the last, that would be Spectre's private room. The staircase was located in between two other rooms. The room on the left was the armory, and the one on the right was the mission room. The operators first went over to the bunks.

"It's not five star, but it'll do," Thermite said.

"I expected worse, honestly," Lion said.

"Okay, the girls stick with each other, and the guys, the same," Thatcher said and they all proceeded to their designated areas.

"Oh hell yeah, I call top bunk!" Valkyrie excitedly said as she ran up and climbed to the top.

"I'm taking the one on the right," Caveira said as she set her stuff down on the bed.

"I'll take bottom bunk then," Ela said as she sat down on the bed.

The operators took their time in unpacking their belongings and settling down. They put their weapons in the armory and set up the mission stuff at the mission room. The armory didn't have that many weapons in it, but it did have about two of each class of weapon, there was even an RPG in the corner. The mission room had two computers After that they all had dinner.

"So what's the situation here in Raqqa?" Thatcher asked.

"Well, it's still shitshow most definitely, but it's starting to get better. ISIS has lost pretty half of the city as the months past. The Americans are pushing in from the west, but insurgent elements are still scattered around the area, and if the White Masks are here, it's not gonna be good," Spectre explained.

"What do you think they'll do?" Valkyrie asked.

"Well, the usual stuff, bombings, shootings, harassing the friendly forces to slow them down until they can secure a stronghold and push them out," Spectre said.

"Shit," Thermite remarked.

"Mhmm, if they manage to create a stronghold here, then they just might be able to take the whole of Syria. And you can imagine what happens from there."

"The White Masks existing in general is already bad enough, I can't imagine what it'd be like if those filhos da puta goes big game," Caveira said.

"Yup, but now since you guys are here, we may be able to shutdown those White Mask cunts once and for all," Spectre added, "I even heard radio chatter a few days ago that special forces were in the area."

This caught the attention of Valkyrie, "Special forces? Like, Navy SEALs, or Rangers?" She asked intrigued.

"Yeah, and I don't think it's just American SpecOps," Spectre said. This caught the attention of the other operators.

"What do you mean?" Jordan asked.

"Well, first I don't know if any of this is true, but according to the radio broadcast I intercepted I heard, GROM, SEAL, SAS, KSK, Spetznaz, SAF. I think I even heard North Korean somewhere along there, but I can't confirm nor deny that, the message was very grainy and I was exhausted at the time. Hell, the whole thing may just be false information."

This intrigued the operators, the presence of SpecOps operatives in the area was a promising sight, perhaps they could make their jobs a little easier for them. But it could also be bad for them, Rainbow may know that SpecOps are here but SpecOps doesn't know that Rainbow is here, so if they encounter each other and mistake each other for hostiles, it's gonna go bad. Valkyrie is a SEAL herself, and she's not prepared to go toe to toe with her fellow SEALs, same with the others, none of them want to engage against SpecOps operatives and are praying that never do.

The operators finished their meal and headed up to bed. They did their nightly routine before heading to bed to prepare for tomorrow and the days that follow.

Little do the operators know that the course of their mission will change their lives, the lives of others, and even the future of Team Rainbow, forever.

AN: That's it for this chapter everyone. Oh yeah, I forgot to put this at the begin, but I won't be sticking with the real world for this story to work out. I'll be changing the names of various world leaders and some events will have to be altered. But a hell of a lot of things will remain the same though. Anyway thank you guys for reading and have a good day!