Chapter 2
I fucking hear you, asshole.
Even though Bravo was quiet for the mission. There seemed to be a collective intake of air when they heard Nicolette over the comm swear at Ghost. As far as they knew, that was grounds for insubordination. The problem was that they had no clue as to what her status was. Only that she was taking the lead with Alpha.
To Ghost, that meant things were more or less normal. He was aware that it looked odd, but it meant she was alive, and no doubt pissed at AQ. He glanced at Soap to see the man with a slight twitch on his lip at her response. He had been worried that something happened, and Alpha was completely gone, and he was worried that she didn't make it. Again, not that he would ever admit it.
Bravo- Alpha is immobile. Two confirmed dead, multiple critical. Marines that can shoot, get your asses up and guns ready!
Ghost heard a low whistle from one of Bravo. The bossy nag was up. He listened to her sitrep and responded, unaware how relieved his voice sounded, "Alpha, we're moving to building 1. Hold tight."
All we can fucking do. We'll try to save some for you.
Ghost knew that she would hold out down to where she would go down kicking and screaming. She was a fighter. The 141 learned that quick and learned she didn't like to lose when it came to a fight. He peered through his night vision at the crash site and building one.
"Ghost, we need to secure the crash site now," Soap piped up. He looked at Ghost as if it would urge the man.
As much as Ghost wanted to do what Soap was saying, he knew that they had a job to do as well. He knew Nicolette would understand. "First, we clear for Hassan, that takes the heat off Alpha. Then we secure the crash site. Clear?"
Soap was a bit reluctant, but knew Ghost was right, "Roger that."
Ghost knew that Soap was also concerned. They both worked with her and liked her in their own way and had done one too many missions to completely give up on each other. Still, his call was the right one. He also knew Nicolette would have her shooters set to return fire. They would be fine with her.
Building one was cleared rather quick. AQ knew they were there, and they weren't going to relent on their fire. Ghost gave the order to move onto building two. Soap could hear the counter fire from the crash site and could just imagine Nicolette swearing up a storm. No doubt Ghost was thinking the same thing. It was a bit of a flaw with her; she liked things going to plan and reacted badly when they didn't. It didn't stop her from being effective in a fight.
Bravo, we're taking RPG fire from building two, second deck.
Snipers get on and try to take them out.
Ghost replied, "Alpha, taking building two now. Hold fast!"
Not letting us be a sitting duck.
There was a sense of urgency now. RPG fire did a lot of damage and if they were dug in, it would be difficult to get a clear shot. Not that would stop Nicolette from trying. Soap led the breach and made his way up to the second deck. They were nearly ambushed, but the AQ combatant was taken out and Soap was able to take out the enemy rocket, "Ghost, enemy rocket's down."
Solid copy. Good work.
They finished clearing the building and there was no sign of Hassan, "Ghost, we're secure. Negative on Hassan."
Roger. Time to hit the crash site.
Bravo rallied downstairs and Ghost and Soap made their way to the crash site. Ghost let the way with Soap following. Ghost let them know they were coming and let them know they were there at entrance, "Blue, blue."
"You sure took your fucking time," Nicolette said as she stepped forward.
"Not the scenic route," Ghost replied, "Sitrep?"
Nicolette motioned for Alpha 0-2 and 2-4 to move into position. "Five KIA, 2-3 is wounded. Just us still standing."
Ghost looked her over, "You injured?"
"No more than falling into a lake," she replied. She gave a reassuring pat to his shoulder before moving into position. "We moved 2-3 to the back to take effective fire. Asshole thought he could still shoot."
"Still, can," Alpha 2-3 grunted as he righted himself. He locked and loaded a pistol and had his rifle ready over his knees.
"See what I mean?" Nicolette looked at Ghost. "I figure AQ will come from the tree line. I'm having 0-2 and 2-4 position."
Ghost was impressed at her setup. He knew she wasn't the kind to panic, and he knew she could plan an assault on a building down to the escape with a possible backup. "Alright. Get your gun up."
Nicolette checked her ammo and made sure her rifle was ready to fire. Her sniper rifle hung down her back just in case. She peered out the broken windows and saw the small fires that dotted the land between them and the tree line. "Our flank is open," she gestured at the door.
"Bravo has cover fire," Ghost said.
"Good. I didn't have to think of everything," she replied with a smirk. She peered through her sights.
"See anything?" Alpha 0-2 asked.
"Got movement," Soap confirmed. He had pulled out his sniper rifle and was ready to take out a few AQ.
"If you have a shot, take it," Ghost gave the word.
Soap set it off and the fire fight began. He stayed on the sniper rifle to take out the shooters at the wall. He cursed when an RPG was fired at them. He could feel the vibrations in his feet. Alpha 0-2 was cursing up a storm.
"Alpha 0-2, get your gun back up. Stop fucking around," Nicolette said in a controlled tone as she fired at the enemy. It was a tone that expected to be obeyed and Alpha 0-2 complied.
The enemy started coming around their flank. Soap and Alpha 2-4 moved to protect the flank along with cover fire from Bravo. They fired until there was a lull. Soap called out, "We clear?"
"For now," Ghost replied. "Stay sharp on the tree line."
"They're going to bring in heavy armor," Nicolette added. She looked at Ghost. "Any and all means to defend Hassan," she reminded him. She took the moment to check ammo and made sure she had some extra mags. She pointed out some landmines to Soap for him to lay out and slow the enemy down if they got in close.
Ghost nodded and cued in, "7-6, call for fire. I want close air on that tree line."
Rog. Calling it in.
0-7, CAS is three minutes out.
"Roger that."
"See? Told you it'd be fun," Nicolette replied with a smirk as she got set next to Ghost. She focused on the tree line and took a couple of breaths. Truth be told, she was fucking scared. Always was when the odds were changed against them. Humor was her way of keeping her head on.
"Not with you two," Ghost replied. "Dig in lads." He peered out to watch the tree line. "Air support is inbound."
The telltale sound of smoke being popped got their attention. Alpha 0-2 called it, "Hey, we got smoke at the tree line."
"Switching to thermal scope," Nicolette called as she changed rifles and clipped on the thermal scope. She ignored the look and brought it up. "Incoming."
The second round of fire was more intense. The enemy was using grenades to add to the confusion. Soap and Alpha 2-4 covered the flank when they got in close. Nicolette was focused on the shooters hiding in the smoke. She took them out as she saw them. It startled her when she heard a high pitch whistle go by her head and the telltale sound of a bullet hitting flesh close by. She shifted to see Alpha 2-3 firing out the back of the chopper before slumping to the ground.
"2-3's hit! Man down," Alpha 0-2 called.
Nicolette glanced at the downed man. She was in slight shock since she realized, 2-3 saw that the enemy was aiming at her and took the bullet for her. "He's dead," she said before turning back to the fight.
Ghost didn't miss it. She wasn't being cold to be cruel. She was processing and taking it out on AQ. He motioned at Alpha 0-2, "Keep your gun in the fight."
Eventually, the second round was taken care of, and Ghost checked on everyone. He called for 7-2 to join them in the chopper for additional support. Soap suggested, "Ghost, we should fall back to the house."
"Negative. We hold or we push forward. Hassan is still out there," Ghost replied.
"I vote for pushing forward," Nicolette said as if it were a democracy. She gave a nod to Ghost to say that she was okay. It unnerved her at another close call she had. She knew she would beat herself up later for this.
"Not a democracy," Ghost growled at her.
"Usually is," she teased.
"Only when you insist," Soap added with a smirk. He gave a slight punch to her shoulder to let her know everything was good.
"I play fair and to win," she corrected. She turned to keep an eye out while Ghost patched into air support.
7 Actual, Kilo 0-1. Fire is one mike out.
"Kilo 0-1, you're cleared hot on anything forward our position. Danger close approved."
Roger that.
"Bout time," Nicolette muttered. She pointed in the distance.
In the haze, they could see armored vehicles coming in. Soap peered through and muttered, "Fuck Ryan. You called it."
Ghost took in the situation. It was going to be close. "Conserve your ammo. Let 'em get close."
They were ready and picked their shots when the vehicles pulled in. It was music to their ears when Kilo 0-1 called and stated that they were inbound hot and danger close. It allowed them to hold back fire while air support took out the vehicles and the secondaries on the ground. The area was cleared of enemy fire and Ghost had 7-6 task a bird for casualty evac before Bravo and Alpha converged on the third building. They still had to get to Hassan.
"Are you saying we shouldn't have helped?"
"Choices have consequences," Ghost replied in response to Soap's question. They had breached the third building after Kilo 0-1 fired on it. AQ had dug in and forced their hand. They were just mopping up and looking for Hassan.
Nicolette moved forward and scanned the leftover documents. She was quick to take a few pictures. She added, "And you assholes rely on me too much to tell you where and when." She straightened up. "Nothing much here, but every little bit helps." She looked at Ghost. "Choices have consequences," she threw back at him.
Ghost made a sound at that. He wouldn't have changed much of his actions. Hell, if he did, Nicolette would have been calling him worse than an asshole. She would have made the same choices as he would have and that was the scary part.
All Bravo- we got movement out here.
That led to them finding a building that was not with the intel package they received. It was a warehouse and was the more likely reason AQ was still there and defending the place. Nicolette didn't like it. She never liked it when she didn't have specs on a place before going in. It bothered her that intel didn't have anything on this building. To her, that signaled there was something big going on. That also meant intel to gather and work her magic, as Gaz called it.
They entered through the roll door and Nicolette removed her night vision. It was a good thing since the lights came on. Soap called it when he spotted AQ. She took cover behind some equipment and returned fire. "They have armor!"
"Fuck," Soap's voice was heard to her right.
It would just make the fight a little harder. Nicolette took a moment to study the scene. She knew Ghost would probably chew her out later, but she saw an advantage and took it. She maneuvered and it seemed like AQ forgot that she was there. Ghost said it was her deadliest talent and she was better than him at sneaking up on people.
She managed to make it up the stairs to the office above. She barged in and grabbed the closest enemy and held him like a shield while she pulled her knife and threw it at his partner. It went into the neck, instant kill. The other she twisted around and managed to break his neck. For good measure, she kicked the tottering body out the window where it landed below with a thud.
"We clear?"
"Clear up top," she said.
"Clear," Soap confirmed.
"Search it. Let's find what they were hiding." Ghost stepped forward to search. "This warehouse wasn't on the intel."
"No and it pisses me off," Nicolette replied as she came down and caught Ghost's eye. She could tell he wasn't too pissed at her. He would ask her what the hell she did and how the hell she managed to sneak up top. She walked as Bravo searched when her gaze lit on a crate. Her expression narrowed and her hand went to her right wrist to rub it. She wasn't injured, it was a tick she had when something caught her eye.
She advanced with Soap as he reached over and opened the crate, "What the fuck is this?"
Nicolette felt her eyes widen as she watched Soap pull the lever. She didn't fall back with Ghost and Soap to view the ballistic missile coming out. She heard Soap swear and he was right. She looked at the controls and sighed as she reached into her pack. She pulled out the tablet that she had built specially to withstand a heavy beating. She said, "Mobile, and will go at least a thousand miles."
"How the hell did Iran get their hands on this?"
Nicolette made a slight eye roll when she heard the tone of Soap's voice. She turned and tapped her earpiece, "Addy, are you up?"
Been online since the start. It's good that the three of you are still alive.
Nicolette snorted as she pulled a cable out and attached one end to her computer, "And whose fault is that?"
Yours of course.
She chuckled as she attached the other end to the controls. She knew that at some point they were going to destroy the missile to keep AQ and Hassan from using it. She needed everything the computer had to find out what the hell was going on. "Yeah, I know. Somehow, I walk away, and they follow me," she replied as she tapped a few keys.
Actually, people like you don't die easily.
"Good to know. Addy, I need you to secure link up," Nicolette said after indulging Addy.
Link secure.
"Downloading everything from the computer. Don't worry about analyzing now. Just need to download," Nicolette said as she brought up the progress bar. She frowned a little as it showed how slow it was.
In the meantime, Ghost asked 7-6 to patch them into Laswell. He watched as Nicolette pulled out her tablet and asked, "That fucking thing survived?"
"I built it to survive being thrown off a chopper," she replied. "Perfect for our kind of fun."
This is Watcher-1, send traffic.
"Laswell, this is Ghost, we got something," Ghost glanced at Nicolette before joining Soap.
Tell me you found Hassan.
Ghost paused when Soap showed him what he found. With the mask on, people couldn't tell what he was feeling or thinking. It was a good thing because he was getting the feeling that their day was going to get fucking worse. When Laswell prodded him, he responded, "Negative. We found a weapons cache. Hassan's got missiles… they're American."
0-7 This is Gold Eagle Actual, repeat your last.
"I say again, Hassan has American missiles." Ghost stared at the American flag painted on the launcher. He then moved to where Nicolette was working. "What have you got Ryan?"
"Right now, just downloading. These things have a lot of data and I need every bit of speed I can get to get it all." She looked at Ghost. "Shepherd's gonna want this to be destroyed. Nothing we haven't done to keep our fire capabilities out of enemy hands, but this is different."
Ghost knew the basics of computers. Nicolette was what they called a gray hat hacker. She could break into security systems to exploit weaknesses. Not the same in intent as a black hat, but her methods were close to it. When they made up after their fallout, she introduced him to why she always told them to never ask how she got her intel. It was the biggest sign of trust she gave him, and he aimed to never abuse it just as she never abused anything he told her in private. He looked at her tablet, "How long?"
"Five minutes tops. I plugged in as soon as I could," she replied. She shifted on her feet. "I know the big question is why the hell Hassan has American missiles. I can think of a few possibilities, but the source coding will tell me what I want to know."
Ghost nodded and made a sound. He moved in close and whispered low, "Are you suspecting foul play?"
"Can't say for sure, but I do know that in order to move these around, Hassan is going to need a smuggling partner," Nicolette said as she looked at the man. "I'm leaving that up to Mummy to figure it out."
Ghost almost choked preventing the bark of laughter that threatened to come out. Nicolette referred to Laswell as Mummy, preferring the British way of speaking. It annoyed the hell out of Laswell, and certainly had Price laughing or trying not to. He joked, "Thought you were the genius."
"You said that. I said I knew how to get things," Nicolette replied with a grin. She glanced over at the rest of Bravo. "Seems like they think something is going on."
"Don't even," Ghost replied, his voice getting gruff as he stepped back.
"Aww. You always like it when I play with the baby Marines," she cooed at him. She heard Soap cough from trying not to laugh since he overheard.
"Don't encourage her," Ghost growled at Soap. He looked at her, "Better get it to hurry up then."
"Can't rush art," she replied in sing song.
Ghost growled a little. He walked into that every time and Soap always encouraged it. It was like they purposely conspired to get him to growl at them at least once on a mission and make whoever they were working with think they were a bunch of insane lunatics. He heard Nicolette giggle and softly say, "Behave Ghost. You know I don't feel that way about you. I hate your ass as you hate mine."
Ghost shook his head, "You'll be the death of me, Ryan."
Gold Eagle Actual to Ghost- Move your team and call for fire. I want those weapons destroyed.
Ghost looked at Nicolette as he replied, "Roger that, Actual." He turned to 7-6, "Call for fire on this building." To everyone else, "Clear out. That means you too, Ryan."
Nicolette looked at the progress. It was stuck on 98%. She cursed under her breath before saying, "I heard ya. I need a few more seconds."
"I need you out now," Ghost said as he approached, ready to yank her if he had to.
Nicolette knew he would do that and said, "Addy, status?"
Almost complete. Writing file now.
Ghost heard the transmission since he was authorized to receive from Addy. "We need to go now," he said and moved to grab Nicolette by the arm.
At that moment, the bar went to 100%. Nicolette called, "Addy!"
Upload complete. Data saved.
It was quick work to get the cable undone and hoof it out. 7-6 had called it in and by the time they exited, air support was online to destroy the weapons and building. Nicolette didn't pay attention to that as she verified that the data was secure while taking cover. "Confirming data secure."
Confirmed.
Nicolette looked around. It seemed that extraction was also called for. "Alright. Begin analysis phase. I need to know everything about this missile. Start with the coding."
That will take some time.
"Time we don't have," Nicolette agreed. "Do what you can. I'll check in later."
Copy that, S64.
Nicolette turned to see Ghost waiting for her to get on the chopper for exfil. She narrowed her eyes at him since she could tell what he was thinking. She walked past him, "Don't start."
A/N: Looks like they found a missile. Stay tuned for next time...