So...explanation time, I'm sure a lot of people are looking at this wondering where Chapter 22 of Project Wyvern is. I'm sorry to say but, that's not coming out this month. Chapter 22 is NOT where I want it to be, and this is a really important chapter that I want to make sure is done right. It's the beginning of the end of the Spare Arc and there is a lot to contend with. So I am not rushing chapter 22's release, I'm going to take my time, thank you for all your patience and your understanding.

A single CH-47 cut through the night, flying low, just barely skimming the trees below.

"Zero obstructions sighted in flight path, radar is clear, prepare for deployment. One hundred seconds people!"

"Roger that!" Richards gave a thumbs up, moving away from the pilots and into the main bay, colored a deep red from the small amount of lighting. "Alright people! Final gear checks! Get locked and loaded. Remember! We got Strider Two and Three on station!" She checked her SMG quickly. "And Striker Six is on standby if things go to shit."

"Where the hell is he anyways?" Thomson raise an arm in a half shrug. "You'd think he'd be going in with us! Right?"

"Knowing Striker?" Phillips sighed. "He's probably parked somewhere nearby, probably in a small clearing or something like that. You know how crazy he gets."

Kendricks groaned, making sure all her gear was secured. "Don't remind me!" She tapped her mag against her helmet before slotting it in and checking the chamber. "Bastard almost blew me and Davis to hell last week!" She pointed to the grenadier.

Davis shrugged. "He was very apologetic about it."

Richards moved to the back of the main bay, next to the door control. "What'd you think Cap?"

Basilisk One rolled his eyes. "In all honesty Striker Six is one of the most bat shit insane attack helicopter pilots ever, of all time." He sighed. "However, that is due to the fact of the matter that the OADF have taken heavy attack helicopter losses and Striker Six is the only pilot we have. Even though we have eight attack helos at the base."

"Seven boss." Hazel corrected.

"Seven?" Basilisk One looked at Hazel, then up at Richards.

She just shrugged. "First I've heard about that."

"Phillips!" Basilisk One turned towards his grenadier and favored aid. "Did we loose a copter recently?"

Phillips raised an eyebrow. "Striker Six got shot down two missions ago remember?"

"No?!"

"Boss he literally pulled you out of your cover before it got blown to bits that mission." Hazel chuckled.

"That was Striker?!" Basilisk One paused, then shook his head as the lights turned off. "We're getting off topic! I'll ask him about it later."

Richards grinned. "Sure thing boss." She checked her watch. "Alright here we go!" She opened the rear hatch, watching as the ramp lowered as they dipped into a clearing. "Go! Go! Go!" She was the first one out, running into the trees and crouching down, carefully scanning the area, glad that her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness.

Hazel and Thomson were at her side in seconds. Then Kendricks, Davis, Phillips. The last one of course was Basilisk One. Who watched as their transport quickly disappeared into the night.

Once the CH-47 was gone, they checked their bearings on a map, and started to move.

"Alright, now the Merc SOG should have landed at the same time as us, and are making their way here." Basilisk One tapped the map. "Intel says there's nothing out there, so we should be all good. If everything goes to plan, we'll meet up, exchange radio channels, then move in on the radio outpost."

Kendricks nodded. "Then…I grab the intel from the Erusean servers and we're out? Right?"

"Right, but not just you, these guys are trained in data recovery too, so you won't have to do all the work."

"Nice! Finally don't have to carry the whole team for once." She grinned.

Richards felt a smirk form, she gave Kendricks a pat on the shoulder. "Well…come on then, don't want to keep your new friends waiting huh?"

Richards took point as they made their way through the dark forest. They were moving slow, so what should have taken them just a little time took thirty minutes. Luckily, it was mostly quiet, the biggest scare being an Elk walking out from behind a particularly large tree. It just looked at them once, then moved on, huffing slightly as it did.

All of that came to a stop as Richards…heard something. She raised a closed fist, scanning her surroundings slowly. She knew this noise…a quiet grating of metal. It almost sounded like…. "A loose engine belt…"

At that very moment, two large trucks drove by, bouncing and shaking as they drove down a dirt road.

"What…" Richards' jaw dropped.

"The…" Hazel leaned forward slightly, squinting as she did.

"Fuck?!" Basilisk one pulled up his map once more, hissing as he did. "There's not supposed to be a road here?"

Richards looked over to him, then up at the sky, squinting as she did. "I'm…pretty sure we're in the right grid…"

"Holy shit there's an Erusean checkpoint!" Hazel pointed towards where the trucks drove.

Richards crouched, moving forward quickly as she tried to get a better look at the checkpoint. She reached the tree line near the road and stopped. Hazel and Thomson came up right behind her.

Hazel pulled out a pair of binoculars, moving around a little to get a better look through the trees. "Holy shit!"

"Hazel how many times are you going to say 'holy shit'?" Thomson sighed.

"Fuck you I have good reason!" She hissed at him. "We're not just in the right grid, we're at the RV point!"

"Wait…what?! Are you sure?" Thomson leaned closer.

"Yeah! Look!" She pointed a bit to the left. Off in the distance was a watchtower, just behind that. The radio tower for the Outpost.

Basilisk one walked forward slowly, looking at the map, then at the landmarks Hazel had pointed out. Then back down to the map. "Oh Fuck…She's right. We're exactly where we need to be." He sighed.

"Except there's a road…in the middle of our RV point sir." Davis grumbled sightly.

"What the hell is this shit?! Who gave us our intel? The Peacekeeping Corps?" Basilisk One jabbed at the map with an index finger. "Seriously. Satellite imaging didn't see any road here! They didn't see a checkpoint either! There was one paved road in and out, we were going to meet up on the opposite side! Plenty of cover and tons of space for us to meant up with the SOG team." He groaned deeply. "Fucking bullshit! I swear if I get my hands on…"

Richards squinted slightly, seeing movement on the other side of the road. "Hey boss…"

"I will end whoever thought it was a great idea to send a spec ops team in with horribly outdated intel."

She tapped Hazel, pointing towards the opposite treeline, then turned back. "Boss!"

"Like you cannot tell me this was all set up in a few days! There's an entire flattened dirt road and a whole ass checkpoint! That means whoever sent us the sat images was at least….At Least! A month late!"

"Captain!" Richards hissed out the word.

He froze up, looking at her.

"Contact! Twelve O'clock!" She pointed forwards.

His eyes snapped forward, seeing armed troops ahead. Taking a deep breath. He quickly pulled out a small signal light, flashing it three times.

They waited.

Two lights flashed back.

"Oh thank the lord at least that's worked out." Basilisk One sighed. "That's our Mercenary friends, right on time."

Phillips nodded. "Worked out rather well actually."

"Mhmm…now we just need to…" Basilisk One paused. "Oh…shit…"

Richards tilted her head. "Well…how the fuck are we going to tell them what radio channel to take so we can communicate with them effectively?"

"Richards…"

"Yeah boss?"

"Shut up…please…"

She nodded, shutting her mouth into a thin line.

It was going to be a long night.

Half an hour had passed, Richards had switched from crouching by the treeline to slowly walking around their perimeter.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Thomson gave an angry shrug, making sure to dramatically mouth his words.

"I dunno! Their hand signals make no sense!" Phillips cursed under his breath as he once again signed the standard OMC signal for identify.

To which the group on the other side of the road did a weird 'okay' hand signal mixed with devil horns.

"Maybe they're just really big heavy metal enthusiasts? I mean there are just some songs that you just can't help but rock out to, you know?" Hazel gave an awkward laugh.

Thomson glared at her.

Basilisk One lifted up his night vision goggles rub his eyes, sighing as he did. "Well they aren't shooting us, they gave the correct response to our singal, therefore they know who we are. So that's a benefit I guess. But that doesn't fix the matter that we can't communicate." He huffed, trying to figure out an idea. "Anyone got a piece of paper actually?"

"What? Something that's bigger than a few inches? Nah, no way." Kendricks sighed. "We're fucked."

"Oh yeah sir, just give me a moment to grab that eight and a half by eleven cardstock I always keep next to my canteen." Hazel huffed.

Richards let out a groan, she was bored, very bored. The best idea she could come up with was just walking over there and letting the team on the other side know which frequency to switch too.

…

Wait…

She stood up, holding up her SMG for the unknown team to see. Once they had taken notice, she shoved it into Thomson's hands.

"Ah! Hey! Richards what the f-" He froze.

Richards just started striding forward, out of the brush, and into the road.

The team on the other side froze as well, quickly glancing towards the Erusean checkpoint.

Everyone watched with bated breath, weapons ready.

Nothing changed.

Crickets kept chirping, wind rolled through the trees, and Richards' boots crunched through leaves on the dirt road.

She strode across the road sighing to herself, this was seriously this easy? It's like those times when she would get into the officer's barracks when she was in training. Just walk with a purpose and know that you're supposed to be there. Even if you aren't. She smirked as she approached the tree line, pushing a branch out of the way. She took a moment to take in the squad of ten in front of her, before crouching down next to the nearest solider.

He looked at her in slight shock, glancing at her shoulder to see the Osean flag.

She nodded slowly. "Heya, hiya, you guys the merc spec ops team?"

"Yes?" The solider glared at her in anger and slight shock.

"Cool, Cool, cool…" She pursed her lips, tilting her head slightly. "We're Basilisk team, OMC Spec ops attached to the LRSSG."

"I mean…we assumed that." Someone else moved over and crouched next to her.

She smiled brightly. "Awesome! I'm here to give you…." She paused, looking down at the second solider's weapon. It was an SMG of some sort, one she had never seen before. A drum magazine when into the pistol grip, an extended stock, suppressor over an extended barrel, ACOG scope, skeleton grip, laser sight, hell that's just what she could notice. She slowly crouched down staring at the weapon in question, it was starting to look somewhat familiar. "Is that…." She stared at the small boxy body of the gun, it was so familiar, but also so strange and otherworldly.

"Ummmm…you okay there ma'am?" The solider fidgeted awkwardly. Obviously not too happy with someone who just walked out of the woods, said a few words, and then just started staring at him.

"Is that a fuckin' Uzi?"

"What?"

"Is that…" She pointed at the gun in his hand. "An Uzi?"

"Oh! Yeah it totally is." The solider chuckled. "Pretty cool huh?"

"That's awesome! Seriously! How stable is it though? I know those things kick like crazy."

"Stable as a painter's hand dude." He held his hand out straight. "Never had an issue with it honestly, perfectly controllable recoil."

"Noooo way!" Richards laughed. "That's amazing!" She leaned back more, squinting at the other merc.

The merc glanced at her, took a moment to process, then slowly tried to hide their rifle.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" She quickly moved forward, still crouched. "Don't you dare." She pointed at the Merc.

The Merc sighed. "Fine…" Accepting his fate, he held out his weapon.

Richard's grin returned as she looked over the weapon, her hands carefully place behind her back. "Ooooo! A Sterling! Oh man I love you guys already! Sub Machine Guns are my favorite!" She nodded slowly. "Oooo good scope choice…never seen that type of tac light. How is it?"

"Very good." The Sterling merc nodded.

"Very good!" The Uzi Merc crouch walked his way over to them. "Fuckin Two-Four is giving you an understatement! That thing is bright as an active cordium vein!"

Richards scoffed. "What? That thing? That's no bigger than the tac light on my MP5, and that thing's one of the standard issue garbage tac lights we get handed out."

"Look, Look, I'm telling you because Two-Four here doesn't say much." The Uzi merc pointed at Two-Four with a thumb. "If we were to have him turn on his tac light. Half of Erusea would know we're here."

Richards whistled slightly. "Wow…that's crazy."

"Mhmmm, we blinded a few guys weeks back with it."

"Sorry what?!" She laughed lightly.

"Oh yeah! Super dark room, everyone had night vision, we were out of flashbangs, so I tell Two-Four here to just quickly turn his tac light on and off and point it at them. Next thing you know, we just hear screaming, so we move in. Next thing you know, we've got ten combatants neutralized without even firing a shot. Luckily we didn't permanently blind or really hurt anyone."

"Damn…" Richards' eyes widened. "Where can I get one of those tac-lights?"

"Hey! You three!"

Richards looked up, turning towards the sound.

Standing there was another merc, who had a air of authority around him. A grizzled veteran of many battles, obviously looking for answers as to why on earth some random chick had come walking over to their side of the road during a very sensitive operation.

Of course, all of that went over Richard's head. "Is that a tommy gun? With an ACOG sight?" She moved a bit closer as she looked at the weapon.

"I…" The man frowned and sighed. "Look that's not important, who the hell are you?"

"Oh…Sergeant Richards, of Basilisk team." She glanced down at the rifle again. "Oh man I can't wait the guys about this. Just wait until our Thomson hears about this!"

"Why are you so excited then if you already have a Thomson?" Two-Four raised an eyebrow.

"No, no, no, his name is Thomson. Actually…maybe I should get Thomson a Thomson? Questions for later." She shook her head. "You guys are Ronin? Sicario SOG?"

"Didn't you already ask that?" The Veteran raised an eyebrow, trying to hold back his laughter.

"Well…I asked him…" She pointed to the merc with the Uzi, then turned, snapping her finger and pointing at the veteran. "Now I'm asking you."

"Well…" He cracked a smile. "Same answer as he gave, yes."

"Cool! Cool, Cool, Cool, any of you got a pen? I'm here to give you our radio channels so we can communicate properly." She pulled out a notepad, pausing. "Onnnn second thought maybe I should have grabbed a pen from my team…" She pouted, pulling her bandana down from her face. "Eh, details." She shrugged. "You in charge then?"

The leader nodded. "That would be me, Captain Kelleher." He gave a small salute.

"Heyyyy awesome you're the guy Wiseman mentioned!" She grinned as she gently took an offered pen, writing down the channel number, ripping out the page, then handing it off to whoever took it, then she repeated this action three more times. "Your boss had nothing but good things to say about you. Said you've been around the longest too. He also talked a bit about your guy's last mission."

"The strike against that communications hub?"

"Yeahhh! That was insane, you guys sound like a bunch of crazy SOB's, I like yah." She tore off one last page, holding it out for Kelleher. "Here you go captain." She turned slightly, holding out the pen until it was taken, keeping eye contact with the Ronin lead the whole time.

He gently took the offered paper, nodding slowly as he saw the listed number. "Well I'm glad our reputation proceeds us…Sorry about any miscommunication. I don't think any of our higher ups took into account that we'd have different hand signals."

Richards gave a small snort of amusement. "In my experience, the higher ups never take the small things into account." She gave a thumbs up. Then turned around.

"Wait…"

She paused, turning back, looking towards the voice.

The merc with the Uzi was squinting at her. "Why do you have a sledgehammer?"

Richards paused, reaching back and releasing the straps that held her hammer in place. "Oh this?" She hefted it in her hand. "This is my breaching tool and my Problem Solver." She let a wild grin cover her face.

The merc grinned back. "Badass!"

"Anywho! See ya'll on the other side!" She waved, turned, and went back across the road. Taking a deep breath of the clear night air as she did. Ronin was pretty chill actually. She was glad they were all so nice, and didn't mind her asking about their rather outlandish weapon choices, then again, they didn't question her hammer to much so it was a win wi-

She bumped into something, hard. "Hmm?" She paused, looking down whatever she had bumped into. "Oh!" She gasped. It wasn't something.

It was someone.

Someone in a military uniform who was quietly cursing in Erusean, gripping their un-helmeted head.

She sucked in a breath, and put on her thickest Erusean accent. "Oh! Pardon! Pardon!" She reached down and lifted the soldier up onto his feet. He barely weighed anything to her.

He looked up at her, a little confused and in shock. Mostly focused on the hammer she had rested on one shoulder.

He was just a kid.

She glanced to her left, looking down at the Erusean checkpoint. There was no one else on watch, and she didn't want to have to kill the poor kid. So instead she just smiled, pulled him close and started walking him towards the roadside.

Towards the silently panicking Basilisk Team.

"Constructrice?" The kid groaned out the word.

She smiled and nodded. "Oui! Oui!" She kept smiling as she walked him towards the roadside as quickly as she could.

The kid's eyes widened quickly as he realized where he was being led, but before he could do anything else, they were in the cover of the trees.

Hazel dashed forward putting a gloved hand over the kid's mouth and nose.

The Erusean struggled against Richard's grip for a few moments. His eyes slowly fluttering shut.

Then stilled.

Hazel let out a breath. "Holy Shit…" She looked up and glared at Richards. "You owe me one."

She nodded back to the Rifleman. "Absolutely, whatever you want." She placed the Erusean down, checking their pulse, it was perfectly steady.

"Why the HELL did you you bring him here!" Basilisk One marched over to them. "Did you even take a chance to think for a moment sergeant?!"

"Of course I did! He's just a Kid! Look at him!" She pointed at the Erusean solider, pulling out some bandages, noticing some blood on their head. "Did I slam him into a rock?"

Hazel nodded.

"Fuck…You're right." Basilisk One sighed. "Get them comfortable then, leave a note."

The coms crackled. "Well, she was right next to the kid." There was a sigh.

"Ronin Actual I presume?"

"Afirm…Your Sergeant handled that really well, strangely," He chuckled, "but really well. We're shaking off the shock, but ready to move out."

"Holy shit girl my heart was in my throat…"

Richards recognized the voice coming through,

"Thought we were going loud right then and there." The merc chuckled, making it obvious that it was the Merc with the Uzi from moments before.

"Yeah…me too." She finished tying off the bandage. "Fuck that was scary."

Thomson handed her back her MP5.

She held it tightly. Taking a few deep breaths.

Basilisk one nodded slowly. "Alright…everyone ready then?"

"Quick question Basilisk." Ronin Actual took the chance open to him. "You got the air support you promised?"

"Copy, Strider Two and Three are on station. We can call them in if need be. We have an attack helicopter on station too. Callsign is Striker Six."

"Attack Helio? For what?"

"In case we need to Exfil under fire." Basilisk One paused, putting his night vision goggles back into postion. "Oh Right, one last question. You got your own Exfil? Or you hitchin a ride with us?"

"Hitching a ride with you Basilisk. I've only got half my usual team here, so no need to worry about space."

"Alright! Glad I grabbed those extra snacks." Richards giggled. "Be sure to tip your driver well everyone!"

"Copy!"

"Copy that."

"Roger."

"Copy, see this is why I keep those quarters on me always."

"Sorry Richards, I forgot my wallet back at base." Basilisk One chuckled. "Alright people let's get a move on! Best case scenario, no one even knew we were here. Phillips, you're on point." He paused, noticing the silence, he looked to his left. "Uh…Richards?"

Richards glanced back. "Wait…you left your wallet back at base?"

"That seems like a poor choice Boss." Phillips gave an amused grunt.

"Wait what?" The coms crackled slightly. "Ronin to Basilisk. Who left their wallet at base?"

Richards snorted. "Our fearless leader did Ronin, says he won't tip the driver."

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. One-One I'm disappointed, that's always in poor taste. Plus! Someone could be rooting through your stuff right now! Always take your wallet with you man!"

"Hey! Hey! I didn't actually leave my Wallet! I was just making a…"

Suppressed laughter filled the coms, trained soldiers of Osean's Special Forces and some of the best Mercenary boots on the ground doing their best to not break down led to a collection of snorts, grunts, labored breathing, along with the occasional chuckle.

Basilisk One groaned as loudly as he could without alerting anything. "Just….just go." He motioned forwards.

"Surrrrre boss, Sure!" Richards pulled her bandana over her face, suppressing a final giggle as she tapped Phillips.

He took point, moving up towards the base.

Richards waited for her captain to start moving, but he simply stood there, watching things carefully.

"Well at least that's the main worry handled." The Squad leader sighed.

"You mean the worry that our guys wouldn't get along with each other?" Ronin's lead replied over the coms.

Richards raised an eyebrow. That was a worry? This was news to her! Though, in the long run, it made sense. A mercenary team working with an official force always to a weird butting of heads, usually due to some manner of pride. But…that didn't happen here at all.

"Yeah…Honestly, seeing how this went, with Richard's usual tact and with everyone laughing at me. I shouldn't have even worried about it." He gave an amused huff, glaring at her slightly.

She winked back. Then Paused. Did…Did he?

"Yeah…true…Your jokes need work though man." The Ronin lead chuckled.

"Oh…stuff it. Let's get this intel on that new fighter for Wiseman already Ronin Actual."

She grinned behind her bandana. He did. Her Captain made all the bad jokes on purpose to keep everyone in a joking mood. He probably knew she was going to do something as well once she got bored enough….Okay maybe she was pushing that one. Or was she? She looked at him carefully.

"Copy that Basilisk One, we're going to start by taking out some anti-air we noticed. I've got a feeling it's going to be a good night." The coms closed.

Basilisk One smiled, then started to follow after his squad, looking up at the star filled sky. "Yeah…it is going to be a good night." He closed the coms, glancing to his left again, realizing that it was just him and Richards now, and she was staring at him. It was almost like she was looking straight into his soul. "What?" He shivered slightly.

"So…how much of this was on purpose?" She smiled, nudging him a few times.

"I have no idea what you mean Sergeant…" He smiled back.

She tilted her head at him, then chuckled. "Never change Captain. Bad jokes and all, never change."

So...Basilisk Team and Ronin working together.

What could go wrong?

What could go right?

Has Richards bashed someone's skull in with her hammer? (Probably yeah)

We'll find out over time. I honestly really like working on these side stories in the background, they're a great use of building the world and fleshing out ideas. This story was fully built off of the idea of lack of communication. I originally was going to call this "Pillars of Communication" Butttt a Project Wyvern Chapter already has that name. XD Whoops.

I like the joke name though...

I also have a lot of fun with these characters.

Also some will noticed that we have a few newcomers to the Basilisk Roster. Those being Davis and Striker Six. Davis being the Second Grenadier to First Squad. Striker Six being...well...We'll find out more about him later.

Anyways! Thank you for reading! ^^