Chapter 4
A Year And 10 Months Later Kandahar Airfield 0630 hours
Wilgus rolls out of his bed still half in his kit after an op with his team that helped take out a major HYDRA weapons trade route. He grabs his pistol and holster from his night stand and walks over to the bathroom to take a shower. He then hears static from his radio. He walks over to get it. "Lieutenant Wilgus…This is Colonel Hadley" a female voice says over the radio. "We are transferring Lieutenant Allie Horner to your unit as a new Executive Officer. Do you copy that?" "Yes ma'am I do" 'Good she will be at Kandahar in two hours with some new members for your team. They are Russian FSB and will be helping with some new intel, Along with a couple people who need to speak with you and your team, Lieutenant. Also I need you and your current second in Command to meet me in command center in twenty minutes. " "Copy that ma'am." Wilgus then grabs some crackers left over from his MRE dinner. The young lieutenant grabs his plate carrier and M4 and walks over to Jake's bunk. Wilgus grabs a cup of water and splashes it on his second in command's face. "What the fuck man?" Jake responds to the Lieutenant "Well, we have to go meet up with Colonel Hadley in twenty mikes…also I thought it would be a fun way to wake you up, brother." "Alright…I'll be out in ten."
1 Hour 50 Minutes Later, Kandahar Airfield, Landing Strip
Wilgus and Straka walk out in full combat gear to where the C130 carrying Horner and the FSB team has landed. As the ramp lowers Wilgus suddenly hears gun fire from inside the plane. "SHIT!" Wilgus yells as Straka and himself run to the doorway and prepare to breach. "Go, go,go!" Wilgus yells as they open the door and rush in to see a sight they've never seen. In the center of the room stands an enhanced person that is shrugging off hits from the Russian AK's. Nearby are two SHIELD agents with stab wounds through the heart, Wilgus looks to his left and about 10 feet away from Straka and himself, crumpled at the bottom of the wall lays Allie as she had been thrown against it and been knocked out. "Straka, get Allie out of here!" Wilgus yells as he points at her "But what about you, sir" Straka says. "Don't worry bro I'll be fine." Straka then runs to grab Allie as Wilgus picks up an M240 that had been in a gun rack on the wall, slings his M4 and sets up near the door. "Hey asshole" He yells as he opens fire on the super powered enemy. The robot turns and starts walking towards him shrugging off the hits. Wilgus looks at the Russian who appears to be in charge "Get your men out of here now" The commander gestures to his team and they sprint for the ramp as Wilgus sets C4 and rigs the 240 to keep firing and takes off with the detonator in his hand. He runs out and about 40 yards away from the plane detonates the charges.
The rest of his team shows up "What the hell is going on?" Moon asks the lieutenant. "This guy is taking a lot of punishment …so we better get set up." Wilgus responds suddenly they see something even worse three quinjets with Watchdog markings start firing missiles, as Wilgus sees one hit the command center he takes off running in a full sprint. "Fall back' Wilgus orders as more Watchdog troops are dropping out of the jets. "What the fuck are you doing, Ian" Straka yells over the radio. "I'm getting some more people out I'll meet you at rendezvous alpha 3, copy? Take the Russians with you." "Yes sir" Straka responds. Wilgus sees a Hydra trooper rase his rifle and quickly reacts firing two shots in to the enemy soldier's chest. He then sprints an bashes through the command center door "Colonel Hadley, Captain Sweeten are you in here?" he sees someone move. "Yeah, I'm over here" Wilgus runs over to Hadley. "Can you walk?" She looks at him "Yes, but go grab Captain Sweeten, her leg is in pretty bad shape we're the only survivors here" Wilgus nods and sprints to the young female pilot and tosses his M4 to Hadley as he picks up the unconscious Captain and draws his pistol. "Let's go, we're going to rendezvous alpha 3. My team is waiting there and already called for extraction." With that they take off running as the base is destroyed.
4 hours later C-130 headed to Rendezvous with Coulson's team.
Everyone is still in full combat gear as Wilgus leans over his close friend and the team's lead helicopter pilot, Captain Sweeten's medical bed, he holds his helmet in his hand. Wilgus being an Air Force Pararescue had set up an IV and bandaged her injuries. A couple minutes later the pilot yells back: "Wilgus, radio for you" Wilgus then walks to the cockpit. "This is Wilgus go ahead." "Lieutenant we figured out what took out Kandahar…that enemy was an Enhanced that had turned against us, we were able to figure this out from the helmet camera footage off of your team." Wilgus looks at the floor of the plane "How do we take them out if they shrug off bullets like that?" "You'll have to improvise." "Shit…" Wilgus mumbles as he looks down at the floor in anger. "…Anything else, sir?" "Negative, you should get back to your team. You are being brought back to the States. Over and out" Wilgus walks back to his team most of whom are asleep. Noticing this he takes off his JPC, grabs a book out of his pack and walks over to Captain Sweeten's medical bed and sits down. He starts reading the book, as he drinks a bottle of water he had left over there from watching over his friend earlier. As the young soldier reads he hears a moan next to him. He stands up and looks at his friend whose eyes suddenly shoot open "Where am I? The command center got hit." "You're on a C-130 back to the states Maysa, we're all gonna be fine." Wilgus tells her calmly. "What happened?" Wilgus looks at here "The W/atchdog's best troops, we took out a small amount but more and more kept showing up and they fired on the command center, I went running for you guys but only you and Hadley survived the blast. We got you back to the exfil site and then we got extracted and flown out of that hell hole." Maysa looks at her friend. "It's alright, you need to get some rest eventually Lieutenant Wilgus" she chuckles after saying this as the two had known each other from back home in the US. "I'll rest when we're home, Maysa." He says in a somber tone. "Whats up with you?" He sits down next to his gear. "Well this war has changed, we don't have firepower to take all this HYDRA and enhanced crap on…" He looks down and sighs "…I can't protect my team." She looks at the young officer "You have always protected your team and your friends. You ran into a building under fire to save Colonel Hadley and myself. You've always done what was needed to protect those you care about Ian." Wilgus looks up at her. "I feel weak, we lost Hawkins, I just don't know if I have the ability to protect the rest of my team, my family." She looks at her friend "You can't feel responsible for everything that goes wrong…stuff happens all the time like that. You are the leader of this team and you have done a damn good job." A few hours later the team lands in the US at an airfield in Miami.
2 Months Later Fort Bragg North Carolina, New Barracks for Fire Team Cougar
The team is at the firing range training with their personal weapons, as they finish of the magazines in their weapons they walk back to reload and do another round of firing. As Wilgus and Moon walk back she looks at him. "Can't wait for the next op, we've been cooped up to long." She says with a chuckle. He looks at her "Well we have a possible op in Miami as long as Sweeten is ready."