It has been six months since the death of the Fell Dragon, and the return of Robin, the Shepherds' Grandmaster Tactician. Peace has finally returned to the realms of Ylisse, Plegia, Regna Ferox, Valm, and Chon'sin. With the end of the Risen threat, and the Grimleal decimated, hopes for the future are high.
However, winning a war is only half of the effort, as the other half is deciding what comes afterward. Chrom, the Exalt and Sovereign of Ylisse, has his hands quite full with reorganizing the Ylissean Guard, administering to the people, and rebuilding his land after years of strife.
On this particular day, those particular tasks would have to wait. The Exalt and his wife, Queen Sumia, are journeying to the border Longfort in Regna Ferox to meet with Khans Basilio and Flavia for a diplomatic meeting. The plan is to deliver a set of documents stating Ylisse's intentions to continue friendly relations with the Feroxi people, stay for dinner and breakfast, and be back in Ylisse by sundown on the next day.
What seemed to be a simple, straightforward plan…seems to have been disrupted upon nearing the Feroxi border. The route the Exalt and his Queen planned to take has been cut off by a rockslide. In order to reach their destination on time, they must take a different path, one that cuts through the alpine forests near the mountains
The route is rarely traveled, and according to their Feroxi guide, there have been no signs of bandits for one week straight. Reassured, the Exalt and his company proceed…unknowing of what is to come when two worlds will imminently collide…
To - Lt. Colonel Scott Mitchell
Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group/Ghost Recon
Date - 09/25/2024
Subject - NEW TASKING
Lt. Colonel Mitchell,
We've got a developing situation on our hands, and it's not looking good just from what I've been told already. I'm sure you've heard of the incident in Los Alamos by now. If you haven't, the gist is that three top scientists, all of which had connections to DARPA, were kidnapped simultaneously three weeks ago. Up and gone overnight, with no trace left behind.
That would've been reason enough to worry, but we soon received word from MI5 that a similar event happened in London a week later. Two more scientists, one from ARIA and the other from CERN, vanished as well. This time, the local police were nearby, and were engaged by unknown hostiles, equipped with mil-spec hardware. The Brits obtained a cell phone from one of the abductors, and it contained details of one final target. One Dr. Alexei Carasvin.
He's a top-notch theoretical and quantum physicist, working on a side project at the FRCPPN, with personal oversight from top posts at the Kremlin. When the attackers hit his residence in Moscow, two Spetsnaz teams were already there and waiting for them. All twelve hostiles were KIA, but the Russians did get what we needed to proceed, intel-wis, and sent it over.
It seems that the Bodarks, or what's left of them, and our old friends from Bolivia, the Extranjeros, got scooped up by Watchgate Security, which is apparently merging with Sentinel Corp next month. I guess that the oil-rig protection business in Africa must've fallen apart after Operation Noble Tempest.
However, once we made that connection, the British didn't take too long to find out OpFor's HQ, a decommissioned oil rig in the North Sea. The mercs have apparently stashed the scientists there to work on some kind of pet project, on the orders of one Dr. Elias Camden.
Dr. Camden is a borderline renaissance man and a foremost expert in theoretical physics, however, he's been described as a "psychological inferno", among many other colorful descriptions. All for good reason, I have to add.
A few years ago, we were considering bringing him on at DARPA, until we heard Interpol had him on their Most Wanted list for supplying terrorists and sanctioned nations with classified technological materials, arms dealing, and plenty more. He's even suspected in three suspicious deaths at his former posts.
He went off the grid shortly after the Interpol notice reached us, but it seems Camden has reemerged back on his home turf. He's running something out of that oil platform, and judging by what he's done already…it can't be anything good.
Which is why SOCOM has agreed to a three-way joint operation to capture him and rescue the missing scientists. Two teams from the Special Boat Service and one from the Spetsnaz are deploying in twelve hours to a base in Scotland to prepare for an amphibious assault.
Which is where your unit comes in, Lt. Colonel. I need the Ghosts front and center on this operation. Normally, I would ask what teams you have available at this time, but time is of the utmost concern here. Give me every team you can spare, and I'll arrange transpo, send over their briefing packages, the operation's ROE, everything we'll need to come home with a win.
Securing Camden alive is preferable, but I don't think there'll be too many complaints if he comes back in a body bag. Anyway, I need any teams that are ready to deploy in ten hours or less. Is that something you can manage, Lt. Colonel?
Major General Jonas Anderson, SOCOM
To - Major General Jonas Anderson, SOCOM
Date - 09/25/2024
Subject -RE: OPERATION AZURE SCAR
I understand the situation, and with all due respect, this couldn't have come at a better time. Ghost Teams Aegis and Cyclone are all stateside and green for deployment. I'll have 'em flown out to the USS Ticonderoga in two hours, they'll be in the UK six hours after that. Hunter and Kingslayer Teams are en route from Vancouver as we speak, coming back from joint training with the Canadian Army.
You tell my teams what they need to do, and they'll get them done.
Lt. Colonel Scott Mitchell.
Delta Company, First Battalion, 5th SFG
Six Hours later…
North Sea, off the coast of Scotland
Operation: Stillpiercer
0200 Hours
As seven black go-fast boats sliced through the frigid water, leaving only white froth in their wake, Captain Matthew Gates, leader of Ghost Recon's Aegis Team, tightened his grip on one of the handholds available to him. The water temperature was less than ten degrees above freezing, and Gates was particularly keen on not letting any of his gear go overboard.
As he turned to his left, he saw the team lead from the British SBS detachment motion that they were breaking off towards the left and heading for the smaller cargo ship anchored on the side of the rig.
At the same time, the Spetsnaz leader followed up, signaling their intent to break off and disable the SAM site on the rig's lower levels. The boats split into a three-pronged approach, leaving both Aegis Team and Cyclone Team to reach their objective, the rig's command center.
"Last check, we're all clear on the ROE and objectives?" Aegis Lead asked, his voice hard to hear over the roar of the waves. Second Lieutenant Thomas Sipes, or Domino, Sergeant Major Casey Edwards, or Sparrow, and Sergeant Drew Callaghan, or Rook, all gave thumbs-up in response.
"Good. Cyclone, you set?" Aegis asked over the radio, and Cyclone Lead, Captain Jason McCoy, gave another thumbs-up.
"Then let's get to work, Ghosts." he breathed, shifting off his ACR's safety switch. As the two Ghost teams anchored their boats and climbed onto the substructure, Sparrow took point with his MP7.
"All units, radio silence is lifted, you are clear to proceed." Griffin spoke over the cross-com radio. "Engage as necessary, but keep things quiet. Until those SAM sites go down, you will have no air support or reinforcements."
"Understood." Cyclone Lead replied. "Let's get to it."
As the Ghosts activated their Active Camo, and vanished with a shimmer, Rook looked over the side of the rig to see the SBS operators were grappling onto the deck of the ship, and working their way towards the bridge.
"Cardinal's on their objective, should we pick up the pace?" he asked.
"Negative. We shake this place too much, there's no telling what'll happen." Aegis Lead responded as they reached the main deck. "Griffin, any sign of the hostages?"
"Scans indicate they're inside the main barracks, judging by the grouping. However, there's little sign of any other hostiles."
"Roger that." Cyclone Lead said as he and his team appeared on the other side of the deck. "We'll keep our eyes open."
"American Team One, this is Vasiya 1-1." said the Russian team leader. "Enemy SAM turret is disabled, skies are clear. We are proceeding to the refinery wing."
"Copy, stay on your toes." Aegis responded.
"I'll tell you what, it's strange being here with no hostiles to be found." Sparrow murmured. "Do you think we missed 'em?"
"I'm not sure." Aegis Lead replied. "You've got a point, Sparrow, we should've encountered someone by now."
As the Ghosts stacked up near a doorway, Aegis activated his magnetic vision, and raised an eyebrow. Inside a room on the left, were several unknowns. Two of them were in bed and likely sleeping, one was playing a card game, and the last one was reading a book.
"Are those the hostages?" Fixit asked. "They don't seem like it to me."
"Then let's go ask 'em." Aegis nodded, and entered the hallway. As the Ghosts secured both entrances, Aegis knocked on the door loudly. He could see the unknowns inside had jumped to their feet and backed away from the hatch, through his magnetic vision.
As he swung the door open, he was relieved to see four men in lab coats, all of which relaxed significantly at seeing him.
"We're US special forces, here to extract you all." Aegis Lead said as his team entered and began checking the hostages over. "Where's Elias Camden?"
"We're not sure." one of the hostages, whose name tag read PAULSON, replied. "We were locked in here about an hour ago, and from what we could tell, all the guys with guns packed up and left."
"Shit. Any idea where they were going?" Rook asked.
"Yeah, Camden and all his guys were talking about some section of the coastline. I wrote down the coordinates I heard, it's in that footlocker."
Sparrow opened the olive-green container, and was rewarded with a post-it note with a written set of coordinates, along with several documents and folders marked with "Classified".
"What's Camden been up to?" Sparrow asked, handing the first hostage to Cyclone Lead.
"That's the crazy thing, he's building some kind of portal. Or rather, rebuilding it." said another hostage, whose name tag read "Jeremiah". "There's this weird stone archway inscribed with runes that he showed us. He kidnapped all of us in order to make a man-portable device that can stabilize, open, and close the portal remotely."
"What's it look like?" Fury asked.
"It's about the size of two soda cans stacked on top of each other, with a central touchscreen on one side." Jeremiah replied. "After we tested it, he brought us here and locked us up."
"How'd you test it? You mean that portal actually works?" Cyclone Lead asked, feeling very dubious about it.
"I swear to God it does, because the guys that kidnapped us sent a drone through two days ago. The video connection to it remained constant the entire time, so the day after that they sent two of their guys through."
"What happened to them?" Vasily practically demanded to know.
"They came back just fine, said they found a place for them to set up an HQ, and that they could communicate with one of the locals perfectly in English. Which is crazy enough, but here's the shocker, the people on the other side are humans just like us."
"Bullshit." Fixit replied.
"It's not, they took blood and DNA samples, photos, videos, hell, everything!" a third hostage replied. "I would know, I had to analyze all of them myself! Their DNA, apart from a few regional differences, is nearly a complete match to our own. I didn't have time to analyze the whole genome, but I got the important stuff down. The data's on this drive here."
"What. The. Fuck." Aegis Lead swore loudly, swiping the offered external SSD with a little more force than he meant to use. "Griffin, did you get all that?"
"Affirmative." Mitchell replied. "Ghosts, new objective. Get to that portal and stop whatever it is that Camden's up to. After that, lock down the area. I'm rerouting Hunter and Kingslayer teams to you now from the USS King's Mountain."
"Copy. We'll get it done." Aegis Lead replied. "All teams, back to the boats, we've got a new objective. Details to follow."
"Vasiya-1 copies. Moving now."
"Cardinal-1, check-check."
"Cyclone, get these civilians out of here." Aegis Lead said. "Take the first helicopter you can off of this rig. We'll take care of Camden."
"Understood."
As the two Ghost Teams split up, with Cyclone heading for the nearby helipad, Aegis Team double-timed it down the three flights of stairs to the lower decks and towards their docked boats. Once all was secure, Aegis Lead gunned the engine to maximum power.
"This has got to be the craziest op we've ever done." Rook scowled. "A fucking portal to some other dimension or crap, where the inhabitants are humans, and can speak english? Fucking hell."
"Right there with you, man." Sparrow nodded in agreement. "What I'm concerned about is the possibility of Camden having gone through already, or preparing to do so, and us not catching him in time."
"We'll deal with that when the time comes." Domino responded. "Right, boss?"
"Right." Aegis Lead nodded as the beach came into view. "No use doing this one quietly, there's no hostages here. Once we hit the beach, weapons free."
"Copy that!" the other Ghosts replied. As the boat came to a stop on the gravelly sand, the Russian and British teams soon landed and disembarked.
"Orders?" asked the British team lead, as he readied his SA80A2.
"Hold this beach, and watch our backs." Aegis Lead replied. "Vasiya Team, sweep the area and eliminate any hostiles. If we get heat, just follow our lead."
"Understood." the Russian lead replied. As they proceeded up the dunes, the archway the hostages had mentioned could be seen beneath them, surrounded by portable buildings and a fenced generator. At least twelve hostiles, armed with assault rifles and shotguns were on patrol, and four more stood near the portal, accompanied by a man wearing a suit and ballistic armor.
"Camden, I'd bet." Aegis nodded. "Vasiya, spread out and mark a hostile. Engage on our signal."
The Russians nodded and descended, with each of the operators lining up a different hostile in their sights. As the Ghosts set up their own sync shots, Aegis Lead targeted Camden's left leg in his ACR's scope.
"On my mark." he murmured. "Three…two…one…"
"Mark."