Eritrean Thunder

I hope you've been enjoying the story so far, I have taken on board the feedback that I've been given and have tried to express my character's feelings a bit more hopefully it's been done okay, also I have had to raise the rating of the story to M due to my let's call it colourful language but it won't change the content that is in it. So anyways onto the chapter I hope you enjoy and as always I don't own COD but I do own Anchor!

We were steaming towards the Liberian coast, we were about a day off landing and I wasn't any closer to feeling at home with mike one Juliet. Porthos still gave me the cold shoulder, I felt like my arrival had put his nose out of joint but he could go fuck himself for all I cared at that moment as I was getting to respect the leadership that One provided over his team.

I was spending some time in the gym area just waiting for something to happen, it came to the midday eight bells and the ship came to life outside the room but I couldn't see much only that one was coming back in from the fray holding onto a couple of cans.

"Yo," He shouted over to me as he chucked a small black can over to me, "We picked these up in Scotland, piss shit wrong side of the Atlantic fubar Pepsi."

"You mean doesn't taste like sweaty gargled testicles dipped in cordite coated with bullshit," I told him as I cracked open the seal on the can.

"Hey, I'm proud to support the sweat gargled cordite bullshit," One said sarcastically as he passed Porthos a can and we all sat around the table nice and politely.

"So there's gotta be a reason that we got this shit," Porthos said in his heavily accented voice, I got what he meant there's no such thing as luxury in the marines my CO once told me in Afghanistan.

I nodded to One as I took a sip from the can, "Well we're going on a vacation," One said to us both as Grommit came over and plonked himself down on the seat next to One.

"Wakacje? Count me in? Gdzie idziemy?" He said blurring between Polish and English.

"English Podolski, English," Porthos said calmly for once, "But, yeah like he said where are we going?"

"Eritrea," One said looking at the can he held in his hand.

"Where the fuck is Eritrea?" Porthos burst out with as he finished his can and threw it at Grommit's head.

"Oh it's a lovely place on the coast of the Red Sea," One told him.

"So we get a seaside view and about one point six metric fuck tonnes of sand off the shit side of Somalia," I said to him getting the first snigger out of Porthos I had ever received, "Oh but that's about one point one imperial tonnes if your disability makes it so you can't handle the metric system," I continued to poke at One.

"I know how the metric system works," One said back to me as he pulled out a map, "So we've got a lead on someone who's not been playing too nicely since we found out the intel on Makarov."

"Who the fuck is Makarov?" I asked One who just looked at the others but they didn't give him a response, "They really didn't tell you fuck all did they?"

"Only that I was needed, care to fill me in?" I told him as I looked around the table.

Suddenly I felt a hand clatter down on my shoulder, "Makarov, is a stupid cunt who has somehow become one of the most influential men in Russian politics, only no one knows who the fuck the asshole is," The deep Scottish voice echoed from behind me.

"That would be the guy," One said to me as Soap pushed past me to sit down, "Captain MacTavish, you got any more news on the HVT?"

"Only that he's now in the top spot of the PHN," Soap continued.

"Captain MacTavish? That's the first time I've ever fucking heard someone call you that," I laughed completely taking the conversation off topic.

"Well that is my name," Soap told me I guess the nick name had got tiring.

"Aye, if you say so," I nodded looking back at Soap whilst One continued.

"Anyway, so this guy is one of Makarov's links in east Africa, he's shepherding weapons between the Arabian peninsula and the horn of Africa and there's some good int that he's currently in a hideout in Assab." One paused as we took in the news.

"So where are we staging?" I asked him, just looking at the map which had several buildings in the small town marked in red with a blue boundary around the buildings.

"USS Zumwalt, it's a destroyer one of the only available in gulf for our nice little party," One answered but the name stuck in my head.

"Wasn't the Zumwalt protecting the invasion of Oman?" Grommit said as he looked closely at the map.

"Yeah she's been on a constant rotate since the invasion, currently there are two teams of SEALs on board and we're going to go in with them, that blue line is their cordon inside that we have a free fire zone, Eritrea is a rogue state they have no say on our mission, they won't even know we were there," One told us as Syrup and Jaeger came over to join the party.

"Your team coming?" I asked Soap.

"No mate, we've got to wait on standby to collect the intel that you gather," He told me, I couldn't help feeling that it would be strange going on a mission without him by my side.

"That makes sense," I told him as I looked back at One, "So when's step off?"

One pulled down his glove a bit so he could see his watch, "About thirty minutes so boys, get your shit together!" He ordered to which we became a hive of activity.

"What do I do about my fats?" I asked One as he went to go into the connecting room to put on his gear.

"There should be some spare MTP in the bunks, then come out here and we'll get you kitted out," He said as he turned to go into the room, "Oh and Anchor don't lose the other leg on this one."

"Can't say that was on top of my list," I told him as I went to the bunks to get a set of fats, as I didn't think jeans and a t-shirt would cut it. I jogged into the bunk room and pulled out a small box that was under one of the bunks, it just had MTP written on the box in sharpie but it was enough for me to know what it was. I rummaged around in the box finding a UBACS that fit along with a set of trousers, the belt I had on was the one from the fatigues I was given by the marines so it would do for all my needs. I put on the new clothes and placed my jeans and t-shirt under my blanket on the bed. I just had enough time to attach my drop leg to my belt before Syrup burst into the room.

"You got your shit together?" He asked me as I finally clipped the holster in place.

"Just about," I replied as he attached the Velcro at the sides of his body armour.

"Good, follow me and we'll get your kit in line," He told me as he checked his magazine pouches and checked that his radio equipment was all in order. We kept wandering towards the connecting room Syrup still fixated on his radio but we did reach the door to the room. Syrup pulled open the door and let me in, inside was Grommit, Porthos and Jaeger who were checking their rifles in full kit, "Take whatever you want from here," Syrup told me as h pulled down a handle on the wall exposing an array of body armour, holsters and a set of pouches for various items.

"Nice," I said quietly looking over all of the items on the wall, I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I pulled a brand new Osprey Mk 4 body armour off the wall, I had forgotten how heavy the plate carrier was it felt like I was Atlas with the weight of the world baring down on my shoulders. "Jesus I forgot about this," I chuckled as I weaved the pouches onto the carrier and checked to make sure that everything was just how I remembered that I had done it in the past.

"Heavier than you remember?" Jaeger asked as he placed a HK MP7 in a dump pouch at the rear of his carrier. I just nodded and made my way over to the section of the wall which was covered in weapons ranging from minimis to AR-15s and even the javelin, one weapon did stick out however in particular, I pulled it off the wall it's rubberised grip felt as fresh as the day I had first picked it up, the cheek rest was brand new and felt uncomfortable cutting into my face as I peered through the sights, it had some form of AimPoint stuck on top which I didn't really have much choice about but at least it worked. I took out the place holder magazine and racked open the bolt it was pristine and smooth, well lubricated it felt like I had just been reunited with my best friend. I checked the side which had just the one rail running the small length of the side; it had a PEQ-16 attached to it providing my with an IR laser and flashlight if I needed it which I expected I would do.

"You quite finished bogging?" Porthos asked me as he scooped up his FAMAS and placed his hand over his 226 in its holster.

"Yeah, let's get ready to do this," I told him as I did a final weapon check and made sure everything was in place.

I picked up a simple FAST helmet and placed it over my head but did not clip together the straps, so it was loose over my head and moved as I walked through the ship, we arrived at the same port which had everyone going up it.

One opened up the hatch and we preceded out onto the deck of the sub, where a small MH-6 was on standby spooled up on the deck waiting for us, "Mike One Juliet?" The pilot challenged as we all clipped on and sat on the runs at the sides of the little bird.

"Roger that, you our ride to the USS Ford?" One asked the pilot as the helo started to lift off the deck.

"Affirmative, the Ford is only about ten nauticals from here, so should be a short hop," The pilot told us as we made our way out over the vast blue ocean. It only took about five minutes before the blue horizon was obscured by a series of black dots, as we drew in the sheer size of the vessels came into view, the USS Gerald R. Ford was a force of nature let alone a shiop in the water and its accompanying cruisers were sizable too, the USS Vella Gulf encompassed about two of the Royal Navy's equivalent ships.

"She's one big bitch ain't she?" One said to me noticing my mouth was wide open.

"Yeah you might say that," I replied barely audible over the rotors of the helicopter.

"Well you won't have much time to admire her, we are straight off this and then onto a four hour flight across Africa towards the Zumwalt in the gulf of Aden." One pointed out to me as we moved in to touch down on the deck of the huge aircraft carrier.

We climbed off the runs as soon as the helo touched down, where a sailor on the flight deck was ready to shepherd us towards our lift next to the staging area on the USS Zumwalt. We were taken around the back of the superstructure where a huge V-22 was waiting to lift off, its rotors spinning at 450rpm, its ramp lowered so all we had to do was run on board and sit down.

We all followed One and took seats on alternative sides of the airframe, I was sat between Jaeger and Porthos with Syrup, One and Grommit facing us. "I hate these things," Porthos shouted over the roar of the dual Rolls-Royce Allisons booming into life, taking us off the flight deck and into the heavens, "I always feel like they're going to fall out of the sky."

"That's because you're Welsh, too used to being in a mine!" I shouted back just as I felt the engines tilt so we would transfer from VTOL to horizontal flight.

"Haha, you funny fucker," Was what I was graced with in response with another smile, I was on a roll today.

"You know it, Sheepy," I said as the sound of the engines slowly died off as they became less strained by the horizontal flight.

"Mike One Juliet, this is your Captain speaking, we hope you have a pleasant flight, our on board entertainment includes masturbation and being shaken like a soda can, in flight beverages will not be provided so feel free to drink your own urine, and as always thank you for flying air-go-fuck-yourself." A voice echoed over the intercom through the cockpit.

"Ay, I would if I wasn't surrounded by these ugly fuckers!" I shouted hoping the pilot could hear me from his cabin. I looked around and everyone was just doing their own thing although Syrup was just staring out of a window inbetween myself and Jaeger, there wasn't much to see the sun was setting on his side of the V-22, so I wondered what he was thinking about. "You alright mate?" I waved at him snapping him out of his trace that he had himself worked into.

"Huh?" He looked confused so I made the OK hand signal across the aircraft, "Oh yeah I'm fine, just like to focus a bit before we get into contact."

"You think we'll be going hot?"

"If it's like the last mission we rode in on, then fuck yeah," He said a she placed his head up against the vibrating seat.

"Whoopdee-fucking-doo," I replied placing my head on the back of my seat and staring at the ceiling of the aircraft, it was just a network of carefully interlinked wires, it slightly troubled me that if they were severed that we would just drop out of the sky like a stone. I tried to get my eyes shut and just wait out the next four hours until we reached the Zumwalt but I just couldn't.

And another one bites the dust, so I hope that you've been enjoying the story and just enjoyed that chapter I really do enjoy writing this story and I hope it shows in the writing itself. I really do appreciate the feedback I receive in messages and review but anyway until the next time…PEACE!