Apologies for the long wait but we're back now! Keep in mind when reading that I never said this was going to be exactly canon - just going where the story takes me. Any feedback is greatly appreciated as i'm not completely happy with this chapter but here it is anyway, please review and hopefully enjoy!

oOo

Chris' heavy footsteps reverberated around the alleyway as he led the newly constructed Alpha team toward their destination 'The Ace of Spades' tenement building; here several UN workers were being held hostage by bioterrorists whose motive remained unknown. The mission brief was the same as it always was – go in, save the relevant people, gather as much intel as possible and get out before the bombs start to drop. Quite literally in this case, the BSAA didn't seem too concerned with the amount of collateral damage caused as long as they got what they wanted – a trait Chris wasn't entirely comfortable with.

It felt like they had been walking through the same stretch of anonymous market stalls and alleyways for hours – the expectation for some fresh horror to be waiting around the next corner was etched onto every one of the men's faces. The team worked and moved in silence – the easy banter that had been thrown around on the plane here had subsided as soon as they had landed in China – one of the most heavily populated countries in the world – to find the market streets devoid of life. Human life anyway, if the noises they all could hear were to be believed. What little information HQ had been able to give them matched with what they were seeing on the streets – abandoned cars, bloodstains and an occasional body part, were all convincing evidence that this new BOW – the J'avo – had either gotten loose or been unleashed (the latter being the less appealing and more likely scenario), and these poor people had never stood a chance.

With both Bravo and Charlie teams fighting against a heavy onslaught of fresh BOWs at the Four of Hearts, Alpha team was on its own until the rendezvous with Delta at the Ace of Spades. As Chris and his team continued down the route that had been planned for them, the streets became less deserted the closer they got to the centre of the city, the streets became full of both terrified and injured civilians as well as hostiles. As the bullets whistled past his ears Chris almost longed for the old days when the enemies were all just mindless biting machines rather than machine gun wielding mutating madmen.

"Captain!" Piers voice rang out urgently even above the din of the terrified screams of civilians mixed with the unintelligible cries of the J'avo and the gunfire. Chris retreated back behind cover before turning his attention to his second in command, "We need to get off the streets! We're not gonna get there in time to relieve Delta if we're bogged down here!" Chris didn't like the idea of leaving these J'avo free to roam around, leaving innocent civilians somewhere they wouldn't survive did not sit right with him – but Piers was right. This was a rescue mission – but not for these people. They had to get the UN workers being held hostage and get the fuck out of dodge before whoever had organised this whole thing got whatever they wanted from them. Meeting Piers gaze he nodded quickly and began to speak into the radio strapped to his shoulder – "HQ this is Alpha team, we need another route preferably off the main streets or we're not gonna get to the hostages in time!" The voice on the radio was silent only a few seconds before a reply crackled through "Roger on that decease with route four and proceed with route niner – being patched to your GPS now, over". Chris gave the download a good thirty seconds to process before switching to the new route and motioning for his team to move up and towards the alley on the right. Chris provided covering fire for the men as they kicked down the door of the building they were to cut through in an effort to avoid getting caught in another shoot out with yet more J'avo approaching from the west. A well delivered headshot to the closest enemy resulted with the satisfying sight of him going down in one – shooting the rocket launcher he was aiming at Chris' men into scaffolding directly above the rest of the BOW's sending it tumbling down with all its crushing weight directly on top of them. Noting that the team had managed to get the door open by this point Chris threw an incendiary grenade in case of any remaining enemies and followed his men into the dark, abandoned building.

Navigating this new route had been a good idea – there were still J'avo to kill but no where near as many as were roaming the streets. Chris wasn't arrogant enough to think they could take them all on and survive – much less make it to the hostages and protect them. They had already been briefed on the new virus and what it created after they had encountered them in Edonia. "Extremely intelligent, incredibly strong and have the ability to mutate in response to physical trauma" was the description given at the time by the rookie of the team Finn Macauley – he had been a sweet kid, maybe a little naïve but skilled nonetheless. That was until Chris had watched him turn into a monster before his eyes – hand outstretched, Finn had been reaching for him even as he felt the virus mutating his body… Chris shook himself out of his reverie. 'Not the time' he chastened himself, angry that he almost let himself get distracted by the memory of the dead when more of his men were relying on him.

The journey to the target destination was a rapid blur of gunfire, mutated claws, and the odd direct order from HQ. Despite all that had been thrown at them so far the new Alpha team had managed to stay calm and collected and now they were at the ace of spades – ready to save the day. Chris felt a small rush of pride that these men had flourished under his command – especially as they hadn't actually been his men until a few weeks ago. Chris was brought back to the present by the voice of HQ crackling once more through the radio – "HQ to Alpha. We have your mission brief. Rescue the hostages on the first and seventh floors, and then get out of the building. As soon as all teams are clear we will commence bombing." The click of the radio signalled the end of the transmission and the real beginning of this mission.

oOo

Chris looked back at the blazing ruin that he had been fighting his way through only moments before. The bombing had definitely done the job; all that remained of the building were the bare bones of the place – reaching up into the sky like a skeleton of some long dead behemoth. Escaping by the skin of his teeth was something Chris had gotten used to after the first dozen or so times – but escaping burning to death by literally seconds had a way of reminding him that his life was fucking dangerous. Chris heaved a heavy sigh and turned away from the smoking ruin to check on his team. With the hostages safely being transported to the nearest airfield after receiving swift and rudimentary first aid from BSAA operatives that Chris just about recognised - there was nothing more to do than get his own men back to base and begin the process of sifting through he intel they had gathered here and hope that there was something that could be used in the fight they all knew was brewing on the horizon.