A/N: Lately, I find myself picturing Sergeant Sanderson looking much like Timothy Olyphant from Live Free or Die Hard (he played the main bad guy). I dunno why... Well.. A younger version of that guy anyway... Whatever... Inspired by the music video for "Image of the Invisible" by Thrice. Also kinda inspired by "Ich Will" by Rammstein. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO FOR IT, FIND IT AND WATCH IT! (But be careful because a few have had the audio swapped if you use YouTube, but w/e) THERE'S A SCENE WHERE TILL LINDEMANN (the lead singer) IS STARING AT THE CAMERA AND IT DOES THIS LITTLE FREEZE-FRAME THING AND HE LOOKS RIDICULOUSLY LIKE SOAP IN HIS "WANTED" PICTURE DURING THE LAST PART OF THE GAME. Sorry. That was my "mind blown" moment, haha.
duvalia: Haha. Yeah, the bugs are getting worse. I have a friend in Afghanistan who's not quite arachnaphobic, but he certainly doesn't like spiders! We pick on him about the camel spiders all the time. Corporal Sebastian is actually based on him. :D
yeah-bled: I'm glad it was enjoyable. :D
PhonyPrincess: I'm working on one of those "role-reversal" scenarios, I'm just trying to figure it all out... Anyway... I'm glad you liked it.
GothicBandicoot: Thanks for the praise, dear.
xGhostxStealth: I think there are a lot of unknown artists on DA that really deserve more attention. Though, I have to admit that everytime I get a comment or review or something I jump up and down, haha. You guys are a good portion of the reason I keep writing. :D And you should go ahead and write your story. You'll never know if you're good if you never try. And writing is a learning experience. Trust me. My first few stories were total shit and I deleted a lot of them from pure shame, haha. Work at it enough and you'll get better. :D
A good soldier follows orders, regardless of what they are, and with unquestioning loyalty. A better soldier does what he knows needs to be done and takes the full weight of the blame if and when the time comes.
Roach was a damn good soldier, but one with the potential to be much better.
"Compromised, sir?" MacTavish was straining his eyes to look at a loop of grainy and jerky footage. They had sent an intelligence team behind enemy lines to do a little behind the scenes work. The footage was documentation of their capture.
"Those boys were armed to the teeth with top secret, state-of-the-art equipment. If these slipper bastards get into what our boys have, it could spell disaster for every major government currently housed on this lovely blue and green planet of ours." Sheperd warned.
Ghost rubbed his balaclava-covered face and wondered just how they were going to pull this off.
"You boys are to go in, get them out, and then get the hell out of the country before anyone realizes you're there." Sheperd continued.
"We're up for the job, sir." MacTavish promised.
General Sheperd dismissed them and told them to start planning. John grabbed the map and started plotting insertion points and Landing Zones and where to sent the Alpha, Beta and Omega teams. They had a lot of planning to do and only fifteen hours to do it. They'd get an hour for chow, four hours for sleep, and then load onto their designated transports and get the hell out.
"This is going to be one of the most difficult jobs we've ever undertaken. We can't get any outside help because none of us are supposed to be over there." John scanned the room and noticed there wasn't a single change to be found in his team. That was how most of their missions went; they were given the off-record and unofficial blessing of whatever government they were helping, but they were never there. This was something they were used to.
"Ghost, you and Roach are going to be dropped off here with me. Chemo, Meat, Royce, you two will be dropped here and you'll circle around to here. Archer, Toad, Stray (1) the three of you will be flown in ahead of the rest of us and dropped off here. You're going to sit right here and clear yourself out a nice little safe-haven and watch the world through those scopes of yours." Soap rattled off their detailed plans and Roach shifted his weight from one booted foot to the other. He had a hinky feeling about this mission...
"You alright, Roach?"
The Sergeant looked up. Ghost was leaning in the doorway, watching him. Sanderson nodded. He was sitting on his rack with his G18 disassembled on the thin blanket under him. The chain to his dogtags was gripped tightly between his teeth and he seemed incredibly preoccupied.
"You look nervous to me."
Roach just shrugged and worried the chain between his teeth a little more.
"Gary, stop lying." Ghost snapped.
Sanderson spit the chain out and ran his fingers over the flat tags. He soon dropped the tags and began reassembling the weapon.
"I've got this feeling that something's going to end up going wrong, you know?" He scratched the back of his head, gun-calloused fingers scraping through his soft brown hair. He snapped the remaining pieces of his weapon together and placed it carefully on the bed next to him. Riley sat down nearby and waited. Sanderson put the tag chain back in his mouth.
"This is going to be easy. We go in, we blow shit up, we get our men, we get out." Ghost shrugged.
"It's not going to be that easy. I know it won't." Roach mumbled around the metal string.
Ghost smiled at him gently and ruffled his hair.
"I'll keep an eye on you. This is going to be a cake walk."
It was dark and Sanderson wasn't entirely sure what continent they were over. He'd had a difficult time sleeping during the time he'd been given, and even now he was convinced things were going to go horribly wrong.
"Stay close, Roach." Ghost whispered over the comm.
"Cut the chatter, Ghost."MacTavish knew that it was all reassurance, but they needed to maintain radio silence.
"Papa Six, this is Gulf Two. We're in position, over." Archer murmured.
"Gulf Two, confirmed. Stay Frosty." Soap responded.
"Papa Six, Hotel Four is in position." Chemo panted. They'd been dropped the farthest and had taken the longest.
MacTavish glanced at Roach, who was still worrying his dogtags through his shirt. He sighed and told everyone to follow the plan. Roach chewed his lower lip and followed behind with a little more distance between himself and the Lieutenant than there should have been. He had the feeling this would be the one mission where his clumsiness would get him killed by a falling coconut or something ridiculous like that...
He heard something that could be nothing but an enemy sneaking up on him from behind and he turned, paranoid, scanning the surrounding trees. He could hear the faint rub and rustle of the officers leading the way as they pushed the underbrush aside, and then he heard nothing. Soap and Ghost hadn't noticed him stop. He sighed to himself. This was definitely just his luck... He pushed his way forward and froze, melting back into the shadows. The Captain and the Lieutenant had gotten themselves captured. They were completely surrounded and were, to be brutally honest, getting the shit kicked out of them. He waited in silence as they were carried away. Neither of them made mention of him missing.
Roach backed away from the men and went towards the relative safety of the thicker trees and tried to radio Archer.
"Gulf Two, this is Papa Nine, come in." He whispered.
There was a brief burst of static, then another, and a third, followed by three longer bursts of static, three short bursts, a yell, and then nothing. Dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, dot, dot, dot, scream. Archer was in trouble. SOS. He'd been discovered, and probably the rest of his team as well.
"Hotel Four, this is Papa Nine. Can you read?"
Roach's hand went back to his dogtags and he worried his lower lip. He received no response, not even an SOS like he'd gotten from Archer. There was nothing but silence. He tried Toad, Stray, Royce, Meat... Nothing. Just more goddamned silence. With a sigh and the expectation of the worst, he radioed command.
"Echo One, this is Papa Nine, we have a situation, over." He waited impatiently for a response, half-thinking for a moment that perhaps the reason he couldn't reach anyone else was because of some sort of small EMP. A glance at his red-dot sight and working GPS tracker showed that couldn't be the case.
"Papa Nine, this is Echo One Actual. What is the situation, over?"Sheperd's voice seemed to both calm and excite him.
"Teams Beta and Omega have been compromised. I'm the only remaining member of Team Alpha. Requesting further orders."
"Papa Nine, be advised...Emergency...Point...Helos coming... Green...When...Close."
Roach bit his tongue. There was some sort of short-range interference. He was only catching every other word from command... He listened closer to the short-range interference for a moment. Commands for the enemy were somehow being picked up on his communications system... He had to be a hell of a lot closer than he expected... Or maybe there was something wrong with the system as a whole? Roach listened for a moment, glad his mother had insisted on his multilinguality.
"Echo One, please repeat directives. I'm picking up interference, over." Roach didn't mention the interference mentioned torture for the newly captured and intense interrogation on their multinationality.
"Papa Nine, be advised, report immediately to emergency ex-fil point. Friendly helos will be coming your way. Pop green flares when you hear them get close."
"Echo One, enemy chatter indicates Teams Alpha, Beta and Omega will be subjected to tortures outlawed by the Geneva Convention in an attempt to discover their intent and any possible other intel, over."
This silence seemed impossibly loud and the echoes of torture threats echoed louder in his head.
"Papa Nine, directives remain the same. You are to report to emergency ex-fil point for immediate extraction. Another team will be sent in at another time, over."
Roach had his orders, but he also had some strange urge to ignore his orders and do what he could to help his team members. He closed his eyes and weighed his options. He could wait for another team to go in and hope they didn't make whatever mistake it was they just made, or he could go in there and fix this himself instead of hoping everyone was still alive...
"Echo one, interference is only getting worse. Repeat last transmission, over."
The orders came through exactly the same.
"Echo one...enemy...intentional...difficult...too close..."
Command asked him to repeat the intentionally choppy message and he refused to respond. Let thim think there was something wrong with his radio (which was actually fairly logical). He took a deep breath, crossed himself, muttered a Hail Mary, and pushed through the jungle.
"Well this is just fucking dandy." Ghost muttered.
The cells were simple. Concrete floor, stucco walls, bars for doors. No windows. No cots. A threadbare blanket against one wall and a bucket for waste in a corner.
"Shut up, Ghost." Soap rolled his eyes. He was still trying to figure out how Roach had evaded capture when they hadn't. Knowing Sanderson, it was probably just a fluke. Command would no doubt call him back and make them wait a few weeks before another rescue attempt was made.
"When we finally get back on friendly turf, I'm putting in for time off." Ghost sat with his back against the wall and with his shoulder touching John's.
"For once, Ghost, I think you came up with a good idea."
"We could go ruin your sister's house."
"Hm. Every time you say that, we go to her house and she ends up using us as guinea pigs for one thing or another."
Simon smiled and closed his eyes. He knew that it was probably abnormal for him to be so damned calm about the whole situation, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He knew that this was a possible (and probable) outcome. Now the only thing he could do was wait for Sheperd to send reinforcements.
There was a scuffle from down the hall and the officers recognized the yells of Stray and Archer. The problem was that Stray's yells were getting more and more distant. The instant realization of what they were going to do hung in the air like a suffocating smoke. They could only hope these enemies were the type to torture you for a while, throw you into your cell, and come back to start over in the morning.
A silent conversation passed between the two men in their cell. It would only be a matter of time before they became targets. It wouldn't take their captors long to figure out who the targets with the most info were. Ghost looked over at the Captain and raised his right hand, bending down his middle and ring finger, leaving the others up. Soap allowed himself a slight smile and returned the gesture. (2) Sometimes words were unnecessary or just uncalled for, and thanks to John's deaf mother and Simon's interest in a deaf boy in middle school, they rarely needed their words. This was definitely a situation where their words should be chosen carefully.
Simon heard Archer scream at their captors and tell them to bring Stray back, and he heard the enemy yell back in his heathen language and he sighed. John's movement caught his attention from the corner of his eye and gave his full attention to the Captain who was frowning and tapping the fingertips of his right hand against his temple(3). Ghost shook his head. His hands curved into vague "C" shapes at chest level before he dropped them to his waist with an uncharacteristic slouch accompanying them.(4) The index finger on MacTavish's right hand was extended, leaving the others curled downwards. He pointed to his left and moved his finger from the right side of his mouth to the left. (5)
"Fuck off." Simon smiled.
John shrugged with a smirk of his own and they sat in silence and stillness for a moment. Riley raised his right hand and began to move his fingers, but the sign stopped before it could be formed. It sounded like arguing in the hall and they froze, suddenly tense and more than a little on-edge. Their captors were squabbling about something and it didn't sound pretty...
There was a scuffling, scraping noise, followed by the clinking of an opening door and the dull thud of something heavy being dropped. Archer's screams soon covered all other sounds. He yelled and cursed and, from the sounds of things, tried to attack their captors.
It wasn't long before there was nothing but the sound of Archer still yelling.
"Archer! What's wrong?" Soap demanded.
"They beat the hell out of Stray! He's not hardly breathing! I swear to God, I'll kill every one of them!" Archer yelled.
Ghost calmed him a bit before he turned to Soap and raised his right hand, frowning and tapping his fingertips to his temple, mimicking John's gestures from earlier. He quickly spelled Stray's name in signs and then signed that he had to be hurt pretty damned bad. MacTavish nodded.
They began signing out plans to each other, mixing the sign language that they knew with the tactical signs the military had taught them. They were squabbling over whether or not it was feasable for the two of them to overpower whichever guards came to pull them from their cell when they heard the distinct clinking snap of a SCAR-H. That didn't sound like something the enemy would carry...
"Open the goddamned doors!"
"Roach?" John yelled.
"A little busy, Captain!" He roared.
The door slid open and Sergeant Sanderson stood in the narrow hall a struggling Tango in his grip, handgun pressed to the man's temple. Roach smiled, pulled the trigger, and dropped the body onto the floor. He wiped a blood smear from the side of his face and reholstered his weapon.
"Nice to see you guys aren't too banged up." He smiled.
"Speak for yourself." Archer hissed.
Roach's smile disappeared and he helped Archer drag Stray from the cell.
"Echo One, this is Papa Nine! I've recovered Teams Alpha, Beta and Gamma! Headed to emergency ex-fil point and request immediate extraction! Stray's down!" Roach yelled into his mic.
"Papa Nine, this is Echo One Actual. Why in the hell didn't you get out of there an hour ago when you were told to?"Sheperd growled.
"Echo One Actual, transmissions were shot. I recieved no clear directives and took the initiative to do what I could to help my team." Roach lied. Ghost could see it for what it was and signed as much to Soap, who smiled and nodded.
"Papa Nine, extraction is en route. Hurry the hell up. Echo One Actual, out."
Sheperd didn't sound happy, but there wasn't much that could be done about it. The helos were inbound and they were going to be home and safe soon. John and Simon sat next to each other and carried on conversations that were more with glances than hands, and more with hands than words. Roach let them communicate. He stared at the deck beneath his feet and hoped his ass-chewing from Sheperd wouldn't be too awful...
"Roach is a damn good soldier, sir." MacTavish growled.
Sheperd didn't seem phased by the tone and continued to look over the incident reports. He knew that Roach had gotten the directives. He just didn't have a way (or the will) to prove otherwise. He sighed and put the papers down. Dealing with the 141 could be a unique form of torture itself, given the right conditions and an appropriately pissed off member.
"No action will be taken against Sergeant Sanderson. Just make damn sure he tries a little harder to hear us next time." Sheperd dismissed the Captain and went back to whatever it was Generals do in their spare time.
Roach waited nervously on his rack, rubbing the dog-tags that had belonged to his father, years and years ago, the ones he hoped were good luck.
"You're good at what you do Roach. Sheperd doesn't get rid of people like that." John winked as he passed Gary's room.
"See? Nothin' to worry about." Chemo threw a spiral notebook at Sanderson's head for effect, though it was done with a smile.
"Yeah, yeah." Roach smiled.
AUTHOR'S NOTE 2 (MUY IMPORTANTE!) My next update will probably be off and take a long time, but I (finally) turn 18 tomorrow, so I'm going to be at my great-gram's to celebrate, followed by getting my first tattoo, and then, since I'll finally be able to, I'm going to go and sit in a bar. Just because it'll finally be legal for me to see the inside of one. Since I do most of my writing on the weekends... This messes things up a little... Sorry kids.
(1) Stray belongs to me. I don't know if he'll make a repeat appearance like Kira, but he's here for now. As far as looks go, I kind a picture him looking like Richard Kruspe from Rammstein. (Yes, that is the second reference, but I've been listening to them a lot lately, haha.)
(2) This is sign language for "I Love You". Kinda sappy, but you gotta think: as far as they know, they're going to die here. And besides, it's not like that's something they'd actually ever say to each other... Just a little out of character, you know?
(3) American Sign Language for "tired". Yes, I know the Europeans are using ASL, but just run with it, okay? I'm American and I know a little sign language, so that's what I'm running with.
(4) ASL for tired.
(5) More ASL. This one means liar.