A/N: I own nothing except the laptop I wrote this story on.
They ran into trouble almost immediately.
"Shit. Patrol coming. Get in that house!" Fox whispered harshly. Osprey didn't need to be told twice: the Afghan effortlessly dove into the open door. In retrospect, it was a foolish decision: without checking to clear the building, he could have been mulch for whomever was waiting for him. If there was someone waiting for him. But he'd lucked out. There was no enemy in the hut. Fox followed in after him, and gently shut the door after him.
It was after the two of them sat down to reassess the situation that they realized they weren't alone.
There was a woman tied up in the corner of the room. Her mouth was duct taped shut, and her eyes were wide and darting back and forth between the two of them. Osprey instinctively raised his rifle towards her, but then Fox batted it down.
"Dude, what the fuck? She isn't gonna gat us with her hands tied up!"
"Sorry, I'm nervous!" Osprey hissed back. "I'm usually support staff. This is my first time in the field to fight." He looked back at the woman. "Who is she?"
"My guess is someone those bastards out there aren't happy with." Fox said.
"What do we do?" Osprey asked. Fox looked at him like he was missing his head.
"You serious?" We're getting her out of here."
"Fox, the mission was to get-"
"I know what the mission was." Fox said, an annoyed look on his face. "But there's a way around that." He looked over at the woman. "First let's see if this broad can understand us."
The lady started to glare at him. Fox smiled a toothy grin.
"Ok, looks like she speaks English." He drew his knife out. The woman started to frantically thrash about. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Shush, shush. I'm here to help you, lady." He made a motion like he was cutting something. "Gonna get you out, but you gotta keep quiet. You dig?"
The woman nodded feverishly. Fox effortlessly cut the ropes binding her ankles and feet. And then he gently pulled off the tape.
"Who…who are you?" The woman asked, beads of sweat on her forehead. Fox and Osprey looked at each other, and then Fox smiled again.
"Call us Diamond Dogs, sweetheart."
The lady's eyes widened.
"The Dogs?" She remarked.
"Oh you've heard of us!" Fox said, a little bit loud. Osprey clamped his hand over the Philly native's mouth, a panicked look on his own face.
"Are you crazy?" He hissed. He looked back at the woman. "We're looking for someone."
"And you're here to rescue me?" The woman asked. "But there are others!"
That hit them both.
"…What do you mean…others?" Fox asked.
…
From her perch in the guard tower, Badger felt an aching in her bones. She never liked it when she got that feeling. It meant that something was about to happen that was going to put any of her previous plans to pot. The fact that Fox and Osprey hadn't come out of that building in a while now was starting to make her ache even more. She didn't want to come down there and drag them by the ears out into the open.
But at the same time, there was no way that she could let them take too long on the mission.
Swearing violently to herself, Badger started to climb down the tower ladder and put on her night-vision goggles. When she found the Viscount and they were all safely aboard Pequod's ship, she was going to remind those two pups just what it meant to follow orders.
"…So there's four of you, not counting the Viscount?" Fox asked. The woman had drawn a crude map in the dirt ground to mark houses. The woman wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Randy's calling himself the Viscount?" She made a choking noise in the back of her throat. "He was always so full of himself. And now he's selling the rest of us out."
"Hang on there, sweetheart." Fox said. "We're supposed to rescue this mug. What do you mean, he's selling you out?"
…
Badger crept through the shadows. Slowly but surely, she made her way around the corner of one of the huts. There was a pair of gentlemen, most likely private contractors, standing next to a campfire, discussing something. There was a person in bindings on the ground next to them. That was odd. Intelligence suggested that the Viscount was going to be somewhere secure. Why would they be leaving him out to dry like that?
She stood up to turn back the way she came, and practically bumped into one of the PFCs guarding the village.
Reacting fast, Badger pushed the man up against the wall and kissed him as hard as she could. The man practically went rigid, having no idea what the hell was going on. That gave Badger enough time to pull out her silenced tranquilizer pistol and fire a dart into the man's neck. He slumped to the ground in a combination of kiss catatonia as well as tranquilizing agents. Badger spit bitterly on the ground. She never liked pulling that trick: most men in this profession never brushed their teeth nearly as much as they should.
At that moment, she became away of a snapping noise. She froze in both horror and rage. There was only one thing that that could have been.
…
"Are you sure that this is safe?" The woman asked.
Osprey fastened the harness to her.
"Most Fulton extractions have a 90% success rate."
"…Yeah? What about that other 10%?" She asked. Osprey shook his head.
"Margin of error." He said. "And I'm not most people. I can hook people up secure and get them back to Mother Base in one piece. But it'll be really fast and really exhilarating and really scary. So hang on tight."
"Hang on tiaaaaaaaiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The woman soon disappeared into the night sky. Both Fox and Osprey watched her go, and then Fox spoke.
"You ever stop to wonder how those things really work and all?" Fox asked.
"I usually don't. And that's probably for the best." Osprey said.
They became aware of suppressed gunfire and the sounds of shouting off to the side of the camp.
"Fuck! That's gotta be Badger!"
"Then we gotta hustle to get the rest of the prisoners out of here." Osprey said. "Remember where the next one was?"
"Yeah, that hut up there. Let's move!"
…
Badger felt the bullets whistling around her, nowhere near her hiding position and yet still too close for comfort, and try as she might all she could think about was how disappointed she was in Fox and Osprey. They had gotten her creaky bones out of position, and now she had to cause a distraction by running interference. She hated running interference. It was messy and never ended well.
She fired off a burst and saw the man's head explode. She'd probably overdone it with the modifications to her rifle, but sometimes it was best to be a bit showy with how you killed someone. It put some fear into your enemies. Made them hesitant. Made them wanna stop and think.
Which in turn would give her time to re-adjust her position and out-flank them. Howling Badger didn't get to be this age in the profession she was in by being stupid, after all.
…
They were sitting in the cockpit, some music gently floating through the back of the ACC. Pequod was resting his cheek on one of his hands, his eyes half-closed in sheer boredom. Dragon was resting her eyes. That's what she said she was going to do. Instead, he could hear her snoring away. It was a somewhat peaceful noise, and he was absolutely going to mock her endlessly for it.
There was an explosion in the distance, and he saw one of the huts go up in flames. The sound and fire was enough to get Dragon to wake. She let out a yawn.
"Is it fireworks here?" She asked sleepily. Now fully awake, Pequod started pressing the necessary buttons to wake Baby up and out of her long slumber. He muttered the only thought that was in his brain, repeated ad nauseum.
"Goddamn it, Fox."
…
"Okay, that's the third prisoner!" Fox said, watching as the guy went soaring into the sky. "How many Fulton kits did you bring?" He asked Osprey.
"Just got one left." He said. "And I think that the Viscount and the other prisoner are being held in the same place so-"
At that moment, bullets started peppering the ground around them.
"Shit!" Fox shouted, ducking low and starting to crawl for cover through the tall grass. Osprey followed him at his six.
"Where the fuck did they come from?" Osprey growled.
"Must have been because we weren't watching our six…" Fox said. "Aw, Christ. Badger's gonna skin us."
"Speak for yourself, dummy. You're the one that dragged me into this mess!"
"And you're the one that agreed to Fulton three prisoners out of here!"
"Shut up!"
Fox rolled over onto his back, and looked towards one of the houses. He reached in his belt and pulled out a grenade.
"Osprey!" He shouted over the din. "Second hut from the left, with the overhang roof! Did the lady say that there was anyone in there?"
"She said there was no prisoner of note in there. And nothing that she saw of importance."
"Good!"
Fox tossed the grenade. He had been a baseball player in high school; he was proud of his accuracy. And the sight of that grenade going through the window of the house made him believe that he'd nailed the best throw of his life.
And then the house went up in flames.
"Holy shit!" He shouted. "You see that shit blow?"
…
Badger had just left the house when it blew up into millions of splinters. She was knocked to her stomach, but managed to roll out of it. She didn't bother turning around and seeing what had caused it.
"Boys…" She muttered.
There was only one house that mattered now. At this rate, they were probably getting ready to splatter the Viscount's brains across the floor. So now Badger had to take a risk.
She ran up to the front door, and rapped on it sharply. She then raced over to the side of the house, and tossed in a smoke grenade that she'd already primed. She heard coughing and hacking, and then she doubled back around and leapt through the back window, shattering the glass. She had her night vision goggles on, so it was easy to cut through the smoke. And each and every one of her targets were staggered and made for easy pickings.
So that made things easy. For once.
But there were two prisoners on the ground. One of them didn't have his mouth taped. And he looked relieved.
"Oh thank god, you must be the Dogs. Get me out of here!"
"Hold on, sweetie." She said. She knelt next to the woman next to him. "This lady's a bit cut up."
"She sold us all out! They just decided to have some fun with her." The man said. "That's what you get for trying to get yourself rescued only, you bitch!" He spit derisively at the woman next to him. She was sobbing, so Badger turned towards the man.
"Don't make me smack you, son. I'm here to rescue you but that doesn't mean that things are gonna have to be comfortable." She brushed the tears away from the woman's cheek. "There, there. Don't worry, sweetie. I'm gonna get you some help."
"Are you crazy?" The man snarled. "She was a spy from another company and then worked to betray us!"
"You never said that she was a spy before." Badger said, raising an eyebrow. The man gulped.
Ultimately, she got both of them out of the building. Pequod was hovering over the LZ. And there, in the center of the destroyed town, were two very guilty-looking Diamond Dogs. Fox stepped forward.
"Ma'am, I can expl-"
SLAP.
Badger left a red imprint on his cheek with the back of her hand.
"I don't care that you wanted to go and save everyone else in the camp, we had a mission!" Badger said. "We were supposed to get the Viscount and no one else!"
"But ma'am, they're all prisoners of these fuckers." Fox said, rubbing his cheek. "We couldn't just let them get tortured or killed."
"Fox, regardless of your moral feelings on the matter or whether you're right about something, our orders for this mission were clear." Badger said. "And if you wanted to change the parameters of the mission, it should have been up to you to notify me. Breaking radio silence to ask that question is acceptable." She turned towards Osprey. "You! Get the prisoners aboard the helo. Have Pequod radio in and tell Mother Base. I'm not in the mood to take credit for this 'successful' mission."
Fox was about to speak, but then he was stopped.
"Fox, we just burned down a village in order to save a few people. Who knows how many people out there we might've deprived of homes in order to do this? There are tactical appraisals to every situation, soldier. This is not a game! There are consequences. And if something had gone even slightly differently…we'd be dead."
"Ma'am, I'm sorry-"
"Save it." Badger said. "Besides, I'm not the one you're gonna have to explain this to."
She hopped into the helicopter, and held out her hand for Fox to grab.
"Tell it to the Boss when we get back."
And somehow that was the scariest thing she'd ever said to him.
A/N: AND WE RETURN! A bit of a brief chapter as I essentially inject a little bit of life into my story. It'll start flowing more in the future, but for now gotta take baby steps to ease myself back into the plot. Feel free to check out, in addition to this story, my two new stories on my profile for both Fallout and Mass Effect.
See you next time!