Tracking… Found
Captain John Price
Task Force 141
Safehouse, Russia
It was early in the morning when I woke up. I've always been that way, waking up before the others. I go out of bed and went to the rec room. Nobody was there except for Griggs. It was nice to see that he hadn't died during my two year incarceration in that bloody hell-hole. I got myself a cup of coffee and sat down near him. He was watching news of what was going on over in America. It was good that I was watching this, because it's not like they kept us up on the world's most recent events in prison. Especially one where Makarov was keeping me locked up. Bastard was scared of me, and he had good reason. I just wanted to catch him because I didn't want another Zakhaev in the world. But now, it was personal.
"Price?"
I looked over at Griggs, who was staring right back. "What is it Griggs?"
"It's good to have you back, man. I didn't hear that the prisoner we were after was you until we got back here." He said
"It would be better to be back under better conditions. This world seems to be worse than the one I was just in. Russia has invaded the U.S., Makarov's on the loose, we have no leads." I said
"It's not all bad. You could still be in the gulag."
I just looked at him. I guess he found my expression amusing, because he started to laugh. I heard the door open behind us, and saw Roach walk in.
"Hey Rooster." Roach said
"What's up, Roach?" Griggs said
"Rooster?" I asked
"My call sign. Roach gave it to me when he noticed that I kept getting up earlier than everybody."
"Roach, you actually managed to give this Yank a call sign? We'd been trying for years before I got captured."
"So I've heard, sir."
"No need for the 'sir' crap, Roach. I haven't been an officer for two years, there's no point in coming back and forcing you all to call me 'sir'."
Over the next couple of hours, more people began to trickle in. After talking to some of the veterans that had saved me from the gulag, Ghost found me and said that Soap was looking for me. I walked out of the rec room and over to where Soap's office was. When I got there, I saw Soap and King standing there with a concerned expression on their face.
"What is it, Soap?" I asked
"General Shepherd wants to talk to you. Whenever he wants to talk to someone in particular, it's not good."
"Well, put him on then."
"Very well." Soap said, pushing a button on his laptop "Uplink nearly complete… General Shepherd, you're online with Captain Price."
"Back from the brink, Captain." Shepherd said
"'Out of the frying pan' is more like it. The world looks more like hell than the one I just left." I said
"We thought we'd recover the ACS before the Russians could crack it. We were wrong. Then Makarov turned the U.S. into his scapegoat. Next thing you know there's flames everywhere. What's this you're sending me?"
As he had been talking, I had been searching, an idea formulating in my mind. If the Yanks over in America were fighting the losing fight against the Russians, then maybe it would be helpful for the Russians to suddenly lose that kind of dominance. So I was sending Shepherd an image of a nuclear submarine docked about fourteen miles south-southeast of Petropavlovsk, Russia.
"You wanna put out an oil fire, sir, you set off a bigger explosion right next to it. Sucks away the oxygen, snuffs the flame." I said
"Price, you been locked away too long. Better get your mind right, son."
"Shepherd, are you willing to do what is necessary to win?"
"Always."
"We got ourselves a pretty big fire. Gonna need a huge bang."
"I'm not asking you, Price. This is an order! You're to-"
I had lost my patience and had hung up on him. I had once been Soaps commanding officer, he'd listen to me now as well as he had back then.
"Hmmm… Looks like we lost our connection." I muttered "Soap, we're going to Petropavlovsk to help the Yanks defend their county."
"Did Shepherd approve of this?"
"Soap, this is a black op. If we do as Shepherd says, the United States is going to fall to Russia. We need to do this."
"Fine, but I'm not going. Price, you can take a team, but I'm not going to be held responsible for this." Soap said
"You don't have to, just run communications for us, and we'll be fine."
Signal Lost…
Tracking… Found
Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson
Task Force 141
14 Miles SSE of Petropavlovsk, Russia
Why did it have to be windy here? Of course, as soon as I pulled my chute, I was hit with a strong gust of wind, and I was blown off course. I landed near an open clearing, surrounded by trees on all sides but one. After I landed, I looked around for anybody else's chutes, so that I could get a feel for what direction to start moving in. Before I could start moving, I heard a shout of pain from behind me and above me, so I turned around and pointed my sniper up high. The sight I was met with was Desert hanging from a tree trying to reach for her knife.
"Having fun up there?" I asked
She jumped, looking around for me, before her eyes landed on me, about fifteen feet below. "Oh yeah, I'm having the time of my life." She said
"Hold still, I'll get you down."
And that's how I ended up in a tree cutting through the straps of her parachute. Once one of them was cut, I climbed down and let her cut through the other one. When she did, she fell and I caught her. I looked down at her, and saw for the first time just how much blue was in her eyes. Most of her eyes were a dark sapphire color, but there were also flecks of royal and electric blue in there as well. I guess we were both into the moment, because when MacTavish began talking, our faces were about an inch apart.
"Price, I can barely see Roach's and Desert's chutes on my satellite feed. Too much interference. Do you see him, over?"
"Roger that, Soap. I've found them. They appear to be intact. We're gonna head northwest to the sub base, over." Price's voice said behind us
I turned around and saw Price walking towards us. I still found it weird that MacTavish's call sign was "Soap". It fits in the same way that my call sign fits. He always manages to slip out of dangerous situations, like the bridge five years ago. It's going to take some getting used to, but it'll work. It was kind of hard to think of what he was supposed to be called over the radio with no call sign.
"Copy that. The rest of the team landed near Ghost, pretty far to the east." Soap said
"Tell them to proceed with the mission, we'll regroup if possible. Roach, Desert, follow me and stay out of sight." Price said
So we start to follow him down a snowy trail, heading towards the base the sub was docked at. If we didn't get there in time, the sub would dive and the States would be lost to the Ultranationalist government. Up ahead, I could see a group of hostiles walking along the road.
"Contact. Enemy patrol thirty meters to our front. Five men, automatic rifles, frag grenades. One German Shepherd."
"Dogs. I hate dogs." MacTav- I mean Soap said
"These Russian dogs are like pussycats compared to the ones in Pripyat."
"Good to have you back, old man."
"Roger that. Let's follow them quietly, and pick off and stragglers."
We begin to start moving forward, hoping to kill the guards so that our way forward was clear. This mission would be a whole lot easier without them. Before we could take them out, we had to wait for a convoy to pass. We hid in brush and started to take out the patrol ahead. Once they were dead, we crossed a bridge, and that's where any hope at maintaining stealth. Right after Price reported that there were mobile SAMs, two BTRs drove up the road, firing on us immediately.
"Incoming! Look out! Follow me! Into the woods! Let's go, let's go!" Price yelled
We ran into the woods, hoping to get away from the BTRs, but the trees were too far spread apart. They were able to just follow us. Thankfully, about a hundred meters in, the trees were close enough together that we were able to slow down and catch our breath. We heard more Russian voices ahead. We quickly hid in the bushes, trying to not be seen. We were never going to make it to the sub base in time at the rate we were going. We needed to move faster. Once the group had passed, we continued on mission. These woods were crawling with Russian soldiers, patrolling and standing around. One by one we shot and killed the soldiers in front of us, right up until we got up to a ridge.
"Soap, what's the status of our air support, over?" Price asked
"A UAV loaded with AGMs is en route to your position." Soap said
"Roger that. This ridge is perfect. Roach, take control of the predator drone."
I pulled out the laptop and started to look for any hostiles to take out with the drone, but before I could do anything, a bright flash filled the screen. I heard an explosion in the sky, and looked up to see my Predator falling from the sky in pieces. Although nobody could see it, I pouted. I liked using Predators. They make big explosions and make killing bad guys easier.
"Bollocks!" Price said
"What just happened?" Soap asked
"There is a mobile SAM site in the village. It just shot down our Predator. Soap, we need another Predator. You two- let's go."
Signal Lost…
Tracking… Found
Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley
Task Force 141
13 Miles SSE of Petropavlovsk, Russia
As I looked ahead, I could see Price, Roach, and Desert sliding down a snowy slope. The Predator that MacTavish- my bad, Soap- had just tasked us was just blown out of the sky. I took the AT4 that was hanging on my back and fired at the SAM site. With it blown up, Soap could send us a new Predator, allowing us to enter the sub base.
"Nice work on that SAM site." Price said
"Thanks, but we better get moving. Those explosions are gonna attract a lot of attention." I said
And they did. Around a group of houses that were covered in ice-covered snow, Russian foot soldiers started to pour in. We all took cover and started to fire back at them. This wasn't good. If we didn't get to the sub base in the next ten minutes, then this mission would've all been for nothing. It was hard work without the Predator to help. At one point I was almost shot from behind, but Hazard shot the Russian. The only bad part was that she shot the gun off right next to my ear. Even with the soundproof headphones on, the gunshot hurt.
"Are you trying to make me deaf in that ear?" I said
"You don't have to yell." She mouthed
"I can't fucking hear you!"
"Soap, we've linked up with Ghost and the rest of the team." Price said, ignoring me yelling at Hazard
"Roger that. The second Predator is almost in position. Make it count, these things don't grow on trees." Soap said
By then, we had moved closer to the base, and we could see it now. It wasn't that big, but there were a lot of places where the guards could take cover.
"There's the submarine! Right below that crane! Roach, soften up their defenses with the Predator! Watch for the flashing strobes. That's us." Price said
Roach did as he was told, blowing a helicopter off the helipad that it was taking off of. Right as the missile hit the helicopter, the base's alarm started to sound.
"That got their attention! The whole base is on alert! You better hurry. You've only got a couple minutes before that submarine dies." Soap said
Yeah, tell us something we don't know. Ivan must've spotted us because there were bullets whizzing by our heads. We all ducked down, but started moving closer to the sub. I sprinted across a road into a building, trying to take cover from the Russians shooting at us. Unfortunately, there were some Russians who had the same idea. Before I could shoot them, the Russian tackled me into some shelving, knocking my gun away. I tried to defend myself, but with him on top, the only thing I could do was make sure he didn't land any death blows. I was trapped here, and I was going to die if I couldn't get a weapon in my hand or someone came and helped me. Neither of which seemed likely to happen, so I was on my own. I looked around for something to kill this guy with, but all I could see was a jug of lighter fluid. I grabbed it and hit the guy in the head with it. After that, I opened the jug up and dumped it all over him before pulling my sidearm and shot him in the chest. If the bullet didn't kill him, then the flames that now covered his body would. I didn't take any joy in killing the guy that way, and now that I think about it, I could've just shot him, but when my rage gets to a certain point, I lose control. I picked up my SCAR-H, and ran over to the door on the other side of the room. When I got out there, the team was at least a hundred meters in front of me. I sprinted to catch up, but when I got there, Price began running.
"I'm going for the sub! Cover me from that guardhouse by the west gate!" He yelled
"Roger that!" I saw that Roach was still on that damn computer, blowing shit up "Roach, we have to get to that guardhouse by the west gate to cover Price! Follow me!"
That got him moving. He put the laptop away and started to sprint with the rest of us to the guardhouse. Once we were up on the roof, it was easy to kill the hostiles. I just hoped that Price had enough time to do whatever it was he was doing in there.
Signal Lost…
Tracking… Found
Lt. Justin "Bear" Gaz
Task Force 141
13 Miles SSE of Petropavlovsk, Russia
My day was going fine right up until the point where I was shot. We were on the roof of the guardhouse doing our best to cover Price from up there, but something went wrong. The silo doors on the sub were opening, and Price wasn't responding. The John Price that I knew would never do something like this. He always did things by the book, never going AWOL like this.
"PRICE, DO YOU COPY?! THE SILO DOORS ARE OPEN! I REPEAT, THE SILO DOORS ARE OPEN!" Ghost was yelling
"Good." Was all that Price said
That's when the ground started shaking and a single missile was released from the submarine.
"What? Wait- WAIT, PRICE, NO! WE HAVE A NULEAR MISSILE LAUNCH! MISSILE IN THE AIR! MISSILE IN THE AIR! CODE BLACK, CODE BLACK!" Ghost screamed
Unfortunately, since we were all focused on the missile, nobody noticed the one hostile that was still alive. That's when he shot me full of bullets. Most of them hit me in the plate carrier, but one hit me in the side of the neck, and one of them hit me in the ribs. I fell to the ground, gasping for air. I felt someone rush next to me, trying to stop the bleeding. I didn't know who it was, and I never found out, because I blacked out.
Signal Lost…
Tracking… Found
Pvt. James Ramirez
1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment
Washington D.C., U.S.A.
You know one thing that wasn't on my bucket list? Crashing in a helicopter then being woken up to being shot at by Russians that were invading my home. When I had woken up, Wade had given me his M4 to shoot at the Russians, but he had been shot in the head. With all my ammo gone, all I had to work with was the magazine that was inside the weapon. I started shooting at the hostiles, shooting them all with the thirty bullets I had.
"Ramirez! Last mag! Make it count!" Foley said, throwing his magazine to me
I guess that he thought that I had the better chance at surviving all of this if he was giving me the last of his ammo. I shot the Russians that were swarming us, but the thing was, they were actually dropping in more troops from helicopters. Were we really causing that much havoc if they were sending so many men after us. But before they could kill us, something weird happened. An explosion went off in the sky, and suddenly all the helicopters were coming crashing down. A MiG crashed into a building, all the choppers dropping off troops came crashing down, and we were all confused as to what the hell was causing it, but whoever caused it, we were eternally thankful.