Conway sat noiselessly in the back of the Humvee. Her silence almost seemed out of place, as compared to the roaring of the various vehicles and gunfire around her. Shepherd appeared to be on the phone up in the front seat, probably giving some kind of pep talk to the infantrymen. Anxiously, Meg began playing with the ends of her auburn hair.
The Humvee screeched to a halt in front of a helicopter, with the presumed pilot standing next to it. Shepherd hung up his phone before exiting the vehicle, striding towards the aviator.
The passenger window was open, but any conversation Conway could have possibly heard was drowned out by the rumble of tanks, jeeps, and other large vehicles passing Conway's Humvee. Meg could see Shepherd yelling at the pilot, who looked both impatient and pissed off. The pilot replied with something, and Shepherd gestured to Conway, who was trying extremely hard to look like she wasn't watching them.
"What happened?" Conway shouted over the traffic to the driver.
"OpFor blew the bridge," he replied, and seeing the confusion on Conway's face, added, "We had a squad over there doing patrols. They're trapped in the red zone unless we find them a way out."
Megan's face quickly turned to one of worry. "Well what do we do?" she asked, panicked.
"You," Shepherd shouted, approaching the Humvee, "are going with Corporal Lustig. He'll take you to a safe location, where we'll rendezvous after this shit is all over." With a quick nod to the driver, Megan rushed to the helicopter, where she climbed into the back and strapped her seatbelt on. As the bird rose into the sky, Conway watched on as hundreds of soldiers drove into the danger zone.
Meg had no idea where she was.
The pilot had veered away from the vehicle convoy and combat zone, and now they were somewhere in the desert. The seemingly never-ending sea of sand and occasional scatter of rocks gave Conway no clue as to where she was or where she was headed.
Megan leaned forward towards Corporal Lustig. "Where are we?" she said, unsuccessfully trying to hide the uneasiness in her voice.
She could make out a smirk on the pilot's face. "Don't worry, girlie. I know what I'm doing." When Conway didn't respond, the pilot glanced back at her. "You don't see combat much, do you?"
Meg shook her head. "I work as a secretary and assistant for General Shepherd."
Lustig harrumphed. "That guy's an ass." Conway sat in silence, until the corporal chuckled. "You're allowed to agree or disagree with me, you know, girlie. I'm not gonna report you or any shit like that."
"General Shepherd is 'an ass,' because he's looking out for his troops. He's a general, he knows what he's doing." Conway defended.
At this, Lustig guffawed. He laughed for a good thirty seconds before responding, "Just because someone's a high rank, it doesn't mean they're a good person. Let's just leave it at that, girlie."
"Stop calling me that. And what do you mean, Shepherd isn't a good person?"
"No. And you weren't around here five years ago, were you? Probably still in high school, stressing over exams and monitoring the halls for the teachers. Girlie."
"I was in college," Conway retorted. "What happened five years ago?"
"30,000 guys were vaporized in the middle of the desert. Didn't you hear about that? And you know who was in charge of getting them out safely? Shepherd, who didn't seem to give a shit that he had just lost thousands of good, loyal men fighting for their country. To him, we're worthless. Just flies in the desert. Damn bastard." Lustig tightened his grip on the controller and focused forward.
Conway was silent for a moment. "I heard about it, but I didn't know they were Shepherd's men." She paused. "You knew someone who was there, didn't you?"
Lustig's expression softened. "My brother was a Marine stationed over there when the nuke hit." He looked curiously at Meg in the rear view mirror. "How did you know that?"
Megan shrugged. "I pride myself on being able to read people pretty well." She hesitated for a moment. "I'm sorry about your brother… if I had known, I wouldn't have-"
"Calm down, girlie," Lustig interrupted. "You're just defending your superior, which is technically what we're all supposed to be doing. Especially these days." He chuckled, which seemed out of place to Conway. "Enough with the heart to heart. So how did a chick like you end up in the army?"
Meg sighed. "It started out just as a way to pay for college. There was a high demand for office jobs, and I had just finished getting my Bachelor's in Business Administration. I was a heck of a lot better at that than I was in the field, believe me."
Lustig chortled. "Oh man, I can just see you tripping over hurdles and getting caught in the barbed wire."
Conway rolled her eyes. "I passed basic training, alright? Then I worked in D.C. for three and a half years before coming to Shepherd." She lightly slapped Lustig's arm. "So how'd you convince your superiors to let you operate heavy machinery?"
"Haha," Lustig laughed sarcastically. "Flight school ain't easy, girlie. But I graduated top of my class," he said proudly.
"What, did you crash into everyone else?"
Lustig raised his eyebrows. "You shouldn't annoy the people flying your helicopter, girlie." Conway was about to reply with a sarcastic comment, but before she could, Lustig was jerkily veering the bird off to the left and the right. He swooped down, and Conway guessed he was about six feet above the ground before bringing the helicopter up again.
"That wasn't funny!" Meg shouted, as she tried to slow her breathing.
The corporal grinned. "Really? Because the look on your face was pretty hilarious."
Conway muttered to herself, something about the army really needing to improve its standards.
Lustig chuckled. "My name's Neil, by the way."
"Neil Lustig? Good, now I can write an official complaint."
"Then I'll just have to write one as well, about you undermining Shepherd's authority."
"What!? I didn't- you- you…."
Lustig laughed. "You worry too much, girlie. Calm down, I'm not that much of a cold-hearted bastard."
"That one's still up for debate."
"Attention General Shepherd…"
"Fine! Sorry."
"That's what I thought."
The rest of the helicopter ride, which turned out to be very short, continued on like that, until Lustig touched down in the middle of what seemed to be a parking lot in a large city. Conway commented on how it looked exactly like the city the Rangers was heading to.
"That's because it is," Lustig responded.
"What? Then what was the point of me being flown in circles by some crazy pilot?"
Lustig shook his head. "There's no way Shepherd's bringing you into the firefight. No, you're way too valuable to him. You should've seen how urgently he was trying to get you out of there. Trust me, he's saving you for something. Just make sure your head stays screwed on tight, girlie." The corporal paused and looked out the window. "Speak of the devil..."
Meg peered out the window and saw Shepherd approaching the helicopter with the same man she observed running the pit earlier. Private Allen, the one Shepherd had liked.
"Here comes the new 141 member," she muttered to herself. But Lustig must've picked up on it, because he asked, "the 141?"
"You've heard of them?"
"Hell yeah. Every Ranger has wanted their shot at making that task force. They're pretty badass, from what I've heard."
"They are; trust me, I do the paperwork. You wouldn't believe their mission success rate."
"I expect it's pretty high," Lustig said as he opened the door for Shepherd. "Congratulations, general," he said as Shepherd climbed into the bird. The general muttered a thanksbefore climbing into the back with Allen. Lustig gave her a look before taking off, back into the desert sky.
The rest of the helicopter trip was relatively quiet, except for Shepherd in the back informing Allen about his transfer. After a while, the general must have finished, because he barked out, "Conway!"
"Yes, sir?" Meg asked, turning attentively to face him.
"The captain of the 141 is out on a mission right now, but he'll be back tomorrow. I want you to contact him and inform him of Private Allen here's transfer. Also, I'll need you to deliver him the transfer papers, along with Allen himself. Normally, I would deliver the new recruit, but I have an important meeting with one of my contacts then." Conway picked up on the way he said contacts, as if he knew something she didn't.
"Of course, sir."
Megan turned back around to face forward, just in time to catch Lustig in the rear view mirror mouthing watch your back.
"Captain MacTavish?"
"This is he, to whom am I speaking?" The voice on the other end of the voice answered. Conway was surprised. She knew that the Task Force 141 was multicultural, but she hadn't expected the captain to have such a prominent (and difficult to understand) accent.
"I'm Corporal Megan Conway, I'm General Shepherd's secretary and assistant. I'm calling to inform you that you will be receiving a new member by the name of P.F.C. Joseph Allen in three days' time."
"Excellent. I expect Shepherd will be bringing the transfer papers when he brings Allen to the base?
"Actually, sir, I'll be the one bringing Allen to you. Shepherd has a meeting that day and can't make it."
Megan could hear a hand cover the receiver and a muffled, Scottish voice say something to another person in the room. There was a grunt of affirmation, and then the captain's voice was back to normal.
"Wonderful. I look forward to meeting the new recruit, as well as Shepherd's new assistant. Thank you, Corporal Conway."
"Of course, sir," she replied, before hanging up.
It was three days later when Conway was bringing Allen to the 141 base. As soon as she had boarded the plane, a man in black fatigues confiscated her cell phone. Judging by the uniform, it was a member of Shepherd's Shadow Company. Meg had no association with them; anything that needed to be dealt with regarding SC, Shepherd did himself.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "That's my only way of contacting General Shepherd!"
"Sorry, ma'am," the soldier replied. "We can't take any chances. 141 intel is too important, and we can't risk it getting out." Meg just sighed, before sitting next to Allen.
As she exited the plane, she could feel eyes watching her. Risking a glance over her shoulder, she noticed it was the Shadow Company man, gripping his MP5K tighter as he looked at her. Frightened, Conway faced forward again and exited the plane as quickly as she could.
As she walked onto the tarmac, she glanced back hurriedly as she walked. She couldn't believe what she saw- the SC soldier was talking on her phone. Judging by the tone of voice he was using, Conway assumed it was Shepherd, but she still felt a little uneasy by his action.
Meg was still glimpsing backwards when she ran into a hard, sturdy object and fell to the ground. She began to curse at her clumsiness when she looked up.
She was looking into the eyes of the captain of the Task Force 141.
A/N: So I've finally updated this story. :P Sorry it took me a while, but consider this my Christmas/New Year's/my birthday present to you all!
I was originally just going to have Corporal Lustig as a grumpy filler character so we could get to know Conway better, but I enjoyed writing the dialogue between him and Meg so much that I might just have to bring him back! :P
I wonder who Shepherd is meeting? What will MacTavish's first impression of Conway be? Will I bring Lustig back? Find out in the next chapter! Please review if you enjoyed it!