Tracking… Found

Sgt. John "Soap" MacTavish

22nd SAS Regiment

Altay Mountains, Russia

We were running to the C-130, trying to get onto it as fast as possible. Imran Zakhaev had just taken over a nuclear launch facility and was getting prepared to launch warheads at the United States and Great Britain. If we didn't retake it fast, then the entire eastern seaboard of the United States would be turned to glass. We all loaded up, and spent the next few hours getting ready for the assault. Finally, we all jumped down into the brewing snowstorm, parachuting to the ground.

"Regroup on me." Price said

Vasquez, Jackson, Griggs's sister, Gaz, King, and I all gathered on Price. We had a large force for just our part in this mission, but it was necessary for what we needed to do. I looked around, but I didn't see Griggs. I guess Price noticed this too.

"Where's Griggs?"

"No idea sir." Gaz said

"Bravo Six, Griggs just activated his emergency transponder. He's half a klick to your south west, over." Baseplate said

"We're on our way. Bravo Six out. Let's go." Price said

"Griggs can't keep himself out of trouble, can he?" his sister muttered

"He get in trouble a lot at home?" Jackson asked

"Caveman, you have no idea."

I was confused as to why she was calling Jackson Caveman, but I was gonna leave it alone. We started to move up a dirt road, but a jeep was seen approaching. We all got low, but I guess they saw us. Two Ultranationalists came out of the truck, but bursts from King's and my rifle killed them. We continued moving up the road, but there was something else. A large patrol was looking around the trees with torches. We quickly moved up to a grouping of houses.

"They must have Griggs in one of those houses. There's an entry point through that basement door. We'll go room to room from there. Keep it quiet. Move out." Price said

We stacked up at the door, and Price opened it. We moved up the stairs, and into a living room. I gave a small jump when I saw a hostile standing near a window on the far side. I watched Price take out his knife and stabbed the hostile in the throat, severing the trachea. Price dropped the body and we continued searching the house. We searched the first floor, but there was nothing there. We continued up to the second, and I saw a room with a closed door. I could hear Russian voices and laughter, so I knew Griggs wasn't in there. I continued to the rest of the floor, and saw a hostile through an open door. I thought about killing him, but thought better to see if there was anybody else in the room. I silently moved up behind him and saw another guard. I shot him, then the other one.

"Griggs isn't here." King said

"Roger that. Regroup on me downstairs." Price said

We all went downstairs and grouped on Price, who was about to open the door leading to the next house. When we got outside, Price told me to take a look around. I guess he wanted me to find out if there were any hostiles around. I got off the front porch, and looked over at a car. There was a guard, so I shot him, but I heard someone else go "Huh?". I looked around the side of the house and saw there was another guard, so I shot him too. After that, we moved up to the next house.

"The sun's coming up. We're running out of time." Price said

We all moved over to the second house, and waited for Price to open the door. When he did and we were all inside, I could tell we were at the right house. I could hear Griggs's muffled voice coming from the second floor. Once upstairs, I could tell that they were in the room on the far side of the floor.

"Looks like this is the place." Price said

We all stacked up outside the door as Gaz moved forward and attached a breaching charge to the door. Once ready, Gaz detonated the charge, and we moved into the room. There were two Ultranationalists, but they were killed quickly. I looked off to the left, and saw Griggs sitting on top of a wooden box. The room he was in was covered in tarps. I guess things were going to start getting messy if we hadn't gotten here sooner.

"Soap, cut Griggs loose. Move." Price said

I walked over to Griggs and cut the zip tie that was holding his hands behind his back.

"Bout damn time. I was starting to think you guys were gonna leave me behind." Griggs said

"That was my first thought, but your arse had all the C4." Price said

Damn. I guess he was more willing to leave Griggs to die than I thought. I just assumed that Price wanted to save Griggs because no man gets left behind, but I guess that wasn't the case. We only saved him because he had mission critical supplies. That was kind of fucked up.

"You all right?" Price asked him

"Yeah I'm good to go." Griggs scoffed

It seemed that he was taking what Price said personally. I would too if I were in his position. Finding out the only reason that you were still alive was because you had some C4? I'd be fucking pissed. With Griggs freed, we continued with the mission, but the sun was well up by now. Any hope at retaking the launch facility when they couldn't see us was gone. We moved out of the house and started to move towards the electrical tower.

"We need to knock out that tower so the advance teams can breach the electrified perimeter." Price said

Yeah, we know. We were there for the briefing. But he was right. If we didn't hurry up, the advance team was going to get bogged down and die. They're lucky they haven't been spotted just standing around already. As we moved closer to the tower, I could hear a distinct beating sound.

"Enemy helicopters." Vasquez said

We all hit the deck and stayed still. If they saw us anywhere near this tower, this mission would go from zero to FUBAR real quick. Once the choppers were gone, we got up and started advancing on the tower.

"Charlie Six, what's your status, over?" Price asked

"Team Two in position at the perimeter. Waiting on you to kill the power, over."

"Roger. Soap. Plant the charges. Go."

Griggs turned around and handed me the C4. I ran up to the tower, and was met with a nice view of the mountains. I would've enjoyed it, had I not been in a rush to get the power to the base turned off. It was lucky that the tower was at the top of a really steep cliff. I planted charges on the two legs that were closest to the cliff, then ran away from the tower. I didn't want to be anywhere near this thing when those charges exploded. Once everyone got clear of the blast radius, I detonated the charges, causing the tower to tilt over and fall down the cliff.

"Charlie Six, the tower's down and the power's out. Twenty seconds." Price said

"Roger. We're breaching the perimeter. Standby." Charlie Six said

"Backup power in ten seconds." Jackson said

"Standby."

"Five seconds."

"Ok. We're through. Bravo Six, we'll wait for you at the rally point. Out."

"Roger Team Two, we're on our way. Out." Price said "Get that fence open!"

We all moved over to a chain-link fence, and waited for Gaz to work his magic. He pulled out a can of compressed nitrogen and sprayed it on the fence. He tugged on it a bit, and finally the frozen metal gave and he fell back. With the fence open, we moved onto the other side of it, and started to move ever closer to the launch facility. I could hear more helicopters approaching, but nobody made a move to get down.

"Gonna get real busy around here soon." Griggs muttered

We moved closer to a wall with a big ass hole in it. Was this where Charlie Team breached the perimeter? It seems kind of stupid that they were not even three hundred meters away, and we were giving them the way into the base.

"Gaz, take Soap and the rest and scout through this base. Griggs and I will look for an alternate route." Price said

With that being said, we all jumped into the hole in the wall, and started to move through the hostile base. We moved through what appeared to be a back alley of some sort before going into a building that looked like it used to be an auto-body shop.

"Contacts, west of us!" Griggs's sister said

Sure enough, there were hostiles starting to move in from the other side of a courtyard. The hostiles began to shoot at us, so we began to shoot at them. I started moving up, with King right behind me. Over the past couple missions, we started to work together more often, covering each other's back like she had done when we were trying to escape Azerbaijan a couple days ago. Damn, was that really only two days ago? It feels like so much longer. I guess time flies when you're trying to catch a Russian terrorist, but I digress. We continued moving forward, killing any and all hostiles who got in our way. We were about to continue moving forward when we heard something that nobody wanted to hear.

"Enemy RPGs on the rooftops!" Jackson yelled

"I turned my attention to the roof of a two story building to my south. There were multiple hostiles on the roof and they were carrying rocket launchers over their shoulders.

"King, I think now would be a good time to run." I said

"Good idea." She said

With that, we took off running back towards where the rest of our team was taking cover, trying to get away from the rockets. I heard two of them fire, but I didn't dare look back to see where they were flying to. All I cared about was getting behind some nice, sound cover. I ran through the car shop, and out into the alley in the back. I heard the rockets connect with the building, and saw an entire wall explode. I took this opportunity to shoot at the hostiles while they were reloading the rockets. They were dead within seconds. After more hostiles showed up, it felt like forever before Gaz gave the all clear. We continued to move through the base, going through the two story building to continue. On the other side was another courtyard filled with hostiles. This time, it was a lot quicker to kill these guys. Between the seven of us, those drunk bastards didn't stand a chance. We continued our search through the base through a garage, and once we were on the other side, we were being shot at almost immediately. I guess they had heard the gunshots farther away and set up an ambush position up here for us just in case we got this far in. Evidently, we did, so we could consider ourselves ambushed. We all fell back and tried to take cover behind a small, warehouse looking building. I was reloading my rifle when I heard them coming. I could hear the barks. I drew my pistol and waited for the dogs to appear, and appear they did. I started to shoot at them, but I couldn't hit them. Before I knew it, one of them had jumped on me and was biting at my throat. If I didn't kill this thing quick, then I wasn't going to have a windpipe for much longer. I pulled my pistol up and shot the thing three times in the head before it finally stopped moving. I pushed the thing off and got up.

"Aw, does Soap not like the little doggies?" King teased

"You can consider me a cat person from now on." I said

With that said, we continued to fight through this courtyard. There were a couple more RPGs on rooftops, but we made quick work of them. By now, Price and Griggs had rejoined us, coming through the garage. I guess they hadn't found an alternate route. Now that our force was even bigger, we were kicking even more ass. The enemies were all dead within seconds. Now there was some peace and quiet for the first time in-

"Bravo Six, be advised, three trucks packed with shooters are headed your way."

I turned the corner of a building and saw the trucks lurch to a stop. The Russians were jumping out of them even before they stopped, so by the time I could react, I was already being shot at. I quickly dove behind the building, trying to avoid gaining a substantial amount of lead in my body. I prepped a grenade, cooking it for a few seconds, then threw it. The grenade exploded almost as soon as it landed near them. I heard a few of them scream in agony, but I saw many more just die. Now that the crowd was thinned, we moved forward, killing any of the Ultranationalists that were still alive. We made short work of them. With the hostiles dead, we started to move down the road they came from. After walking for about a hundred meters, we stopped.

"Bravo Six, Sniper Team Two. We're comin' outta the treeline to the south."

"Hold your fire, it's one of the American sniper teams." Price said

I watched two men in ghillie suits come out of the bushes and link up with us.

"Good to see you guys made it. We'll give you sniper cover once you're inside the permime- what the hell is that?"

"Uhh, we got a problem here!" Griggs yelled

He was right. What appeared to be a nuclear missile had just been launched from the launch facility.

"Delta One X-Ray, we have a missile launch! I repeat, we have a missile-" Price yelled

"There's another one!" Griggs sister yelled

"Delta One X-Ray- we have two missiles in the air, over!"

"Uh… roger Bravo Six, our satellites are tracking them now. Get your team inside the facility and retake the launch control center. We're working on getting the abort codes from the Russians at this time. Out." Baseplate said

"Roger that." Price said

"It's on now, Captain." Griggs said