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Captain John MacTavish
Task Force 141
Firebase Phoenix, Afghanistan
Five Years after the Death of Imran Zakhaev
It's been hard these past five years. I'm not gonna sugar coat it. It's been hell. When I first got off that bridge, I believed that my entire squadron had been killed. Then I find them a year later already under Shepherd's command. I guess Command had thought that I still belonged in the SAS. It pissed me off, but the fact that I had been promoted to Captain kind of made up for it. After that, we set about getting new recruits for our unit, Task Force One-Four-One. It wasn't hard. We just searched for the best of the best. It kind of felt like we were G.I. Joe. When all else fails, we don't. And that's the way it's been for the past five years. We go into ops, find the bad guys, kill or capture them, and come home. Our new one was in the middle of Colorado. It was kind of cold there, up in the mountains, but I managed. I was born in the cold of Scotland, and I'll probably die in the cold, too. That's more than I can say for Price. Three years ago, we were on an operation to kill or capture another target, codename Kingfish. We didn't know it at the time, but we were walking into a trap. The bastard had been hunting the remnants of Bravo Team, and the last of it was walking right into his hands. A bomb went off, and we had to leg it to the extraction point. I was injured, and to cover the escape, Price stayed behind. I was put on the Osprey and Price was killed. That feeling of guilt hasn't left me since. Now I'm field commander of our forces, Price's position. I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve to live while he died. I didn't deserve to carry his pistol with me on every mission. If I was given the choice, I would gladly trade my life for his. But for right now, I would have to make do with training the two new FNGs we were getting today. Staff Sergeant Elizabeth Stratton and Master Sergeant Lily Havoc were going to be the newest additions to our ranks. And they were due to arrive at the base in, shite. Five minutes ago. I quickly got up and ran out of the office. By the time that I got down to where they were, Ghost was already greeting them. Except Ghost's idea of greeting them was scaring the bloody shite out of them.
"Listen up you muppets! Captain MacTavish seems to think that you are ideal candidates for the Task Force! I don't think so, but what the Captain says, goes! Now in my opinion, you look like a bunch of soft faced, crying-to-your-mummy-lookin' babies! Now your time here is going to be hell until you can prove to us that you belong on this team! Now you-"
"Alright, that's enough Ghost. You don't need to strike the fear of god in them." I said
Ghost turned around, and I saw that he was, as always, wearing that skull balaclava and sunglasses. I knew why he wore them, and I didn't see the point. But that was his decision, not mine. I turned my head to look at the recruits. One had Auburn color hair and the same color eyes as the gem sapphire. The other had red hair, like she had dyed it, and her eyes were emerald green. I didn't know if her hair color was part of regulations in the United States' Army Rangers, but there wasn't any of that here. That's the nice thing about making your own task force, you get to make the regulations.
"So, I have selected you to become the newest additions to the Task Force One-Four-One. This is team contains the best warriors in the world, handpicked by myself and General Shepherd. Pray that you don't prove us wrong. Your first test at this is running The Pit." I said with a smirk
I could see the fear in their eyes. I knew what they were thinking. 'What the hell is The Pit?'. Back when we ran the Task Force out of Firebase Phoenix, there had been an obstacle course at the base that everybody had to run. But that base was used too much by the United States military. There had been no hope of remaining a secret Task Force, so we were forced to move to the mountains of Colorado. I had the course rebuilt and we used it now to train the FNGs. I looked over to Ghost and nodded at him. I could see the mask move, showing that he was smiling.
"Alright, you muppets! Follow me!" He yelled
Leaving Ghost to see that they ran The Pit properly, I walked off to the rec room. I knew that I'd find Roach in there talking up a storm to Jackson. Most people knew Jackson as Caveman, but unless we were on a mission, I usually called the guys from Bravo Team by their real names. I walked into the room to see a mix of various things happening. Archer was cleaning his sniper, Gaz was reading, and Roach and Jackson were playing Mortal Kombat. I walked over to where Gaz was sitting and sat down. I looked over at the game, and saw Roach's character pick up an elderly woman and hit Jackson's, smashing the fighter into pieces.
"Oh! That's how it's done!" Roach yelled
I saw Gaz getting annoyed, his jaw clenching. I knew that if Roach didn't shut up soon, Gaz was going to show everybody why his call sign was Bear. But Roach didn't shut up. He kept boasting about the kill that he had just made. After a couple minutes, Gaz had finally had enough.
"WILL YOU SHUT THE HELL UP YOU BLOODY MUPPET! YOU DON'T NEED TO BOAST ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU DO DURING THIS GAME! SO DO US ALL A FAVOR AND JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!" Gaz yelled
And that's why he's Bear. When he gets angry, he explodes and yells at the top of his lungs. I watched Roach sink back down into his seat and continued to play quietly from then on out.
"You really need to explode like that, mate?" I asked him
"'Tavish, you've known me since your first day in the Regiment. You should know the answer to that already."
"Fair enough."
I with that being said, I looked at my watch and saw that it had already been half an hour. Ghost should have finished up with the FNGs by now. I got up and started to walk over to The Pit. When I got there, I headed up to observation. Ghost was there with one of the recruits, and the other one was running The Pit. Why the hell was she still going at it?
"Ghost, why is she still running the course? I left them with you half an hour ago."
"After I mentioned my record on the course, she insisted that she hadn't done her best. Besides, I enjoy seeing her trying to beat my record."
"Ghost, you know that the recruits only get one run at The Pit. You shouldn't let them run themselves until they pass out just because it amuses you."
"I was going to stop her. At some point."
"Ghost."
"Fine. I'll tell her to come up after she finishes."
At least we only had to wait another five seconds. Ghost told the FNG to come up to observation, and to make it fast. I watched her practically sprint up to us. I guess that Ghost had really made them scared of him. She arrived moments later, out of breath.
"How'd… How'd I do?" She asked
"I don't know. Ghost?" I asked
"I could see room for improvement, but overall, they both ran the course remarkably well. I think this one even beat Roach's time. Did the entire thing with only a pair of Desert Eagles." He said pointing at the one with the auburn hair.
"What's your name, soldier?" I asked
"Staff Sergeant Elizabeth Stratton, sir." She said
"Welcome to the team, both of you. Follow me." I said
"Where are we going, sir?" The one with red hair asked
"To the barracks. I'm showing you your rooms."
I left observation with the two of them following me. I walked over to the barracks and indoors. I kept walking until I found an open room. I felt bad for Stratton. She had to share a room with Roach.
"Stratton, this will be your room. You'll be bunking with Roach." I said
I pulled out my key card and opened the door. The other FNG and I kept walking, and I found another room that was open, the only other one. Ghost was going to be pissed at me for this, but nobody else had an open room. The only other one was Price's, and that room would remain vacant until he returned to us. I knew that he wasn't dead, he couldn't be. Price was too hard of a bastard. We were going to find him and return him to us. I turned to the FNG and realized that I didn't even know her name.
"What's your name?" I asked
"Master Sergeant Lily Havoc, sir."
"You were in the Rangers, right?"
"Affirmative, sir. I served under the command of Sergeant Foley."
"We have a couple of other Rangers here. You'll fit right in."
"Thank you, sir. May I ask who's room am I sharing it with?"
"Ghost."
I watched the blood drain from her face. I could tell that she was scared as hell, but I knew what I was doing. Ghost had been distant from everybody ever since he joined the team. The only person that he confided in was me, and that was only when he was in a good mood. I knew that if he was forced to share a room with somebody, he would have to open up in front of somebody rather than in private. I was growing tired of Ghost being more machine than person. He needed to know what it was like to care again. I pulled my key card back out and opened the door. She walked into her room, and I walked away towards the rec room. When I got there, I saw that the room was empty except for Ghost. I walked over to the kitchenette that was there. Well, it wasn't really a kitchenette, it was really just a refrigerator. I pulled a beer out and walked over to where Ghost was sitting. I took a seat and sat there for a minute, just drinking my beer.
"So, what do you think of the new recruits?" I asked
"What do I think? I think that they're just like every other person that comes through here. I think that they're just a soldier following orders until they either die or they retire." Ghost said
"Do you really believe that?"
"Yeah, I do."
I just sighed. Why did he have such a pessimistic attitude? I understand that he went through a lot of painful things four years ago, but there was no reason for him to believe that there was no point in life. There was no damn reason for it. There were plenty of men who had died instead of him, and he was wasting that gift thinking that there was no damn point to life. One way or another, I was going to convince Ghost that there was more to life than to just get up, go about your life, biding your time until you die. It was going to happen, one way or another.
A.N.: So there's a little chapter with the team having downtime at the base. They got the FNGs that would later become the people we know as Havoc and Desert. But now that we've had this downtime, I think that it's time to move on with the events of Modern Warfare 2. So, please, R+R, PM, and I hoped you enjoyed. Until next time, OPKILLERFROST, out.