Operation: Healing Shadows

Tension Breaks Pt. 2

      I shook my head as I pulled on the rest of my gear and slid a sapi plate into my vest, I headed back to the armory holding my fmg and checking my watch. I walked in and heard thatcher "Lass, you okay? You look like you just got told you husband died at sea" I looked up and nodded "Ja mike, I'm okay. Just nervous" he patted my back "Don't worry, you'll be safe" I cocked an eyebrow "How do you know?" He laughed heartily "because if Mason's saving anyone, it's you" I rolled my eyes but didn't offer a retort as the quarter masters gave us everything. We quickly grabbed our gear and headed for the plane, everyone was on in a matter of minutes and the pilots were getting ready to take off while we loaded our weapons. I sat against the wall and thought out loud "I wonder what Mason and them are dealing with right now?"
Mason's POV
       I slammed down my cards "Blackjack" Aaron sighed but shoved the pile of money to me while Ela grumbled "fuckin' rigged bullshit" I smiled a shit eating smile "you're just mad you're bad" while Marius demanded "Run it back" and we set up a new game.
Luna's POV
      "Probably bored out of his mind watching the same street for hours" replied Lera(Finka) I heard Eliza "Or he's busy in combat" I sighed as I spoke "I hope not, for their sake" I heard Erik(Maverick) "Maybe he's playing blackjack" we looked at him like he's crazy causing him to grow confused "What? It could happen" I spoke slowly making sure I was right "So you think.... he'd play blackjack.... in the middle of an enemy city?" He nodded and spoke "The guys in a CIA compound, and they've probably patched up any weak points. He'll be fine" I shook my head before I looked at the special tag he'd got me a couple days prior for my birthday, the small metal piece had the shape of a diamond pressed into it with Gemstone written in calligraphy across it. I ran my thumb in circles on the small metal piece as I got comfortable and prepared to sleep.
     I woke up 7 hours later as we prepared to HALO jump in by starting to prebreath our oxygen mixture, I asked "How're we looking?" Our jump master Erik looked at the city below "Not good, there's tracers everywhere" I sighed but asked "any word from Ozone's team?" He shook his head no as we formed our line and started checking chutes. I radioed "Ozone, ozone come in" I heard Mason and extreme amounts of fire in the background "Oh hello Nøkk, how're you doing?" I replied angrily "That doesn't matter what happened?" He replied "A fuckin' bomb happened, they blew up the front gate while we were playing blackjack. We've been in combat half an hour, Apex get suppression on that fucking corner!" I heard Aaron's saw start tearing into the enemy while Maverick yelled "See?! It could happen!" as I replied "Jesus, do we need to redirect to save you?" It took him a second to reply but when he did he was breathing heavily "No, complete the mission we'll keep them busy. Son of a bitch, they hit my prosthetic. Hey fuck faces! Do you have any idea how expensive this leg is?! You fucking cunts, I need this leg!" I chuckled to myself as Erik jumped from the plane a second later mike, then Lera, then Eliza and finally it was my turn. I jumped into the dusk light and plummeted towards the earth keeping my eye on my altimeter as it counted down almost too fast to read, i craned my head and watched the beautiful show of tracers from the compound and faintly listened to the distinctive sounds of each team members rifle.
       I looked at my altimeter and saw that it was at 300 meters and pulled my ripcord, I felt the parachute open and went through the motions to gain control over my descent. We formed our glide ratio and followed Erik into the landing zone, the main courtyard of the mask compound. We quickly tore off our parachute rigs and lifted our rifles, the suppressors were double checked to make sure they were on and stable before we pushed to the rear door. I looked at Maverick as he held a drone, I nodded and kept my FMG leveled at the door while he crouched and drove the small drone under the door I heard some footsteps getting louder on the other side of the door and flexed my fingers in anticipation. A woman pulled the door open only to be met by my FMG as I grabbed her and slammed her on the ground and whispered "You scream, I'll kill you right here, right now" her eyes were wide and darted around in fear. I cracked her against the temple with my deagle and watched her go to sleep before resting her against the wall, Maverick spoke "I found them, 2nd floor 3rd door to the right" I spoke quietly "I'm moving in" thatcher replied matching my tone "On your six" I crouched and started moving through the building, it sounded vacant like no one was home, the gunfight down the street however was extremely present.
     I entered a room and saw two masks loading their rifles I looked through my holo and fired two bursts hitting both of the masks in the head and neck before I checked corners "Clear" I rejoined the stack as we slowly walked up the staircase, my aim was glued to the top while Ash kept hers squarely on the bannister to the right. I sidestepped up to the 3rd step from the top when I was propelled back down to the level area halfway up the stairs, I felt a radiating pain in my back and my head throbbed with pain, Lera was next to me in a second "What hurts?" I replied after a couple seconds "My... my back and my head..." she sat me up and pulled up the back of my shirt "You're gonna be bruised pretty badly but you'll be okay" I asked groggily "What happened?" She looked up the stairs and I saw it, half the second floor had been reduced to rubble and the smell of fire was in the air "they blew up the floor, they must've known we were coming" I called out "Who's up?!" Maverick, Ash and Thatcher called "We are" I slowly stood and sighed in relief "Thank god" I heard Lera distractedly "Those pilots...." I suddenly remembered about the pilots we were there to save. I stood despite the pain and ran towards the room that Maverick had said the hostages were in and saw the wall was blown wide open and scorch marks covered the floor, ceiling and walls around the hole. I saw the remnants of two people, a few hands, a torn patch of jeans, boiled blood from the explosion "Shit..... shit!" I heard Eliza behind me "Please tell me that isn't what I think it is...." as she stared at the boiled and curdled blood stains.
      I heard the gunfire in the distance go silent as Aaron came over the radio "Hey, we've got a break. What happened? We heard the explosion" Thatcher replied "The pilots.... they're uh, they're gone" I heard Ela "What? But.... oh no" Maverick replied "yeah, we're moving to you. We need to egress, now" mason took charge of the situation "Alright, make your way to us, we'll meet you halfway. Stay safe guys, no more casualties" ash replied "got it" as we all stood and stared in horror at the room. I turned as Finka spoke "let's go, the sooner we get out of here the sooner this fucking smell goes away" I walked through the group as Thatcher lifted his rifle and started back through the building, we took a couple of steps before the beams and floor started creaking I yelled "Get out now! The house is coming down!" We started running, when we got to the stairs I jumped over the railing and landed wrong, my ankle was radiating a white hot pain as I fell. Maverick yelled "go! I'll get her!" As the team faced the dilemma. I felt Erik grab my plate carrier and rip me out the door tossing me 3 or 4 feet into the courtyard as the building started coming down.
I tried to stand but my leg gave out "Fuck..." the gunfight started again while I saw the team looked unsure of what to do until Eliza radioed "Ozone, we've got a problem." He came back as we could hear the cracking of a supersonic round as it flew past his head "What?! What could possibly be worse!?" She spoke slowly "Nøkk, she injured her leg and we won't be able to make it out of the city and to safety with her" he came back with a threatening yell "Any of you motherfuckers leave her there, and I will kill you. It's a fucking promise, you hear me?! You leave her and you fucking die!" The team recoiled at the anger, we've never heard that much anger from him even when he yelled at the enemies. Eliza stammered out "Yea, Yea we hear you" Maverick looked at the team as he crouched next to me "If any of you were even thinking about leaving her, you're a disgrace to the team" I heard the familiar blast of an M67 frag grenade, followed by another and then another, I quickly realized it was Mason throwing his army of frag grenades. The gunfight seemed to be going well as I heard shouts and then a truck tore past the compound with some people in the back screaming incoherently in Arabic.
     Maverick propped me against the wall and asked "How're you feeling? 1-10" I spoke with a grimace "like a 7" just as he was about to reply we heard the low, slow powerful bark of a .50 caliber I saw mike staring at the road as he muttered "shit..." the gunfight picked up in ferocity. We heard each weapon of Mason's team firing at different points in time but the .50 just kept laying down hate, Finka radioed "hey, what's happening over there?" This time it was Jäger who responded "Were a little fucking busy!" As the distinct report of his 416 was heard. Ela must've been on rear guard since Mason asked "Ela, how're we looking?" And she responded "we got a secondary force moving on our six, I need at least 2 more people to hold this" mason replied quickly "Got it, Doc, Jäger go help her keep our six. Apex, we're going fishing" I didn't hear Aaron's reply but the gunfire increased.
Mason's POV
       I loaded my second to last mag "You ready to do this brother?" He nodded as I radioed to Ela "Keep your position, Apex and I are bounding" she replied quickly "got it." I took in a deep breath before I stood and ran across the street and into the cover of the building, The technicals gun followed my every step until I disappeared into the alley, Aaron was hot on my heels as we came to a stop and breathed heavily. He looked at me "This fight goes on much longer and I'll be down to a pistol" I nodded as I replied "This fight goes on much longer and we'll be dead" he patted my shoulder "Then let's end this fight" I straightened and nodded before shouldering my R5 and moving through the alley checking both levels as we crept down the dark alley. I saw an AK barrel peaking around the corner and switched my hand placement so my left hand held the pistol grip and my right held my angled before I leaned to my left and crouched, sidestepping around the corner and firing 4 rounds into the man's chest watching as he fell before firing another burst into his head, I looked at Aaron as he moved past me but kept my rifle trained down the alley. We passed three buildings before we were in line with the technical I whispered to Aaron "Take the turret, I'll kill the driver and passenger" he gave me the OK hand signal as I sighted through my ACOG and placed it squarely on the head of the driver as Aaron spoke "On target" I replied trancelike "execute" as I squeezed the trigger and felt the recoil kicking my shoulder repeatedly. The driver and passenger slumped as 16 rounds tore through the cab while Aaron's burst from his MK48 ripped the gunner off the turrets and slammed him to the ground 2 meters below, I radioed "Ela, bring your team to the technical we're moving" she replied as a burst of fire was heard "Got it, let's go!" As I pulled open the door and pulled out the corpse of the driver before leaning through the truck and pushing the corpse of the passenger out.
      "Apex, on the gun" he climbed into the truck bed and checked the gun while we waited for the other three members of our team to reach us, I heard three thuds and then two hits on the top of the cab followed closely by the monstrous sound of the .50 opening up. I pushed on the pedal and heard the tires spinning until they grabbed the road and we took off. I radioed Nøkk's team "We're Oscar mike to you, be ready to move. Nøkk better be there or you will be shot" I heard a nervous Eliza "she's still here, we didn't leave her" I rolled my eyes as I saw the smoke billowing from the location of the mask compound. I forced the truck into a tight turn as we pulled onto the road that lead to the Mask's compound "We're here" I saw the team flood through the gates, Maverick and Thatcher pulled security while Finka and Ash carried Nøkk to the truck. An RPG flew towards the truck as my eyes widened "RPG 12 o'clock!" I felt the concussion of the .50 caliber directly above my head as Maverick slid into the cab and thatcher jumped into the truck bed "We're all here!" I pinned the pedal while everyone who isn't a medic started firing at the hundreds of terrorists that poured from every corner of the city, Aaron kept the .50 firing until it ran out. He stood over Lera and Nøkk firing his MK48 to make sure no stray rounds hit them. I rested my hand of my P99, Erik noticed "Hey, I wasn't ever going to leave her. We live by no man left behind" I glanced at him but moved my hand off my P99.
     I radioed the helicopter "Owl actual, this is Ozone. We are en route to the LZ in commandeered enemy transport, we have several casualties, non-fatal, the pilots were lost, No body, read back to confirm" the pilots read back "Owl actual copies all, commandeered transport, several casualties, non-fatal, primary objective failed, no body's retrieved. We'll be landing in 20 seconds, almost bingo fuel" I pinned the throttle as I faintly heard Apex speaking to ash "Of course he would've, you fucktards really thought he'd say "Oh sure just leave Nøkk to an unforgiving terrorist force", the fuck is wrong with you? A sudden rush of shit to the brain!? Is that it!?" I glanced in the shattered rear view window and saw Nøkk's team slump at his words. I turned the wheel to the left and hit the breaks as we slid before coming to a rest and stepping out, Aaron lifted Luna and handed her to me the rest of the team jumped out of the rear of the truck and I inspected them, many had small cuts but my team had several deep gashes and wounds from bullets hitting non-vital parts. The only thing keeping us standing was my patch and Doc's stim, we heard the helicopter's blades chopping the air as Owl Actual tore across the city towards us "Rainbow be advised, this will be a touch and go pick up" I nodded to Ela as she responded "Rainbow copies" I watched the chinook come in banking heavily before leveling and touching down gently, I jogged as quickly as I could with Luna and climbed up the ramp placing her on one of the seats before turning and doing a head count as the rest of the team filed past me "4, 6, 8, 10, We're all on. Clear for liftoff" the ramp started closing as the helicopter banked and the MK19s on either side of the helicopter opened up. I sat next to Luna and sighed in relief as the pain from my wounds started to seep in, luckily I had mostly superficial grazing wounds, I sighed as I rested my head against the helicopter's supports only to open my eyes when I felt Luna shift and lean back against my arm, I moved my arm and faintly her a small shriek as she fell back another 3 inches and ended up leaning against my side while I scrolled through my phone and occasionally looked up at Doc, Aaron and Lera giving medical treatment to the rest of the team. Luna shifted again causing me to look at her as  she moved an inch to the left before stilling, I shook my head with a snort as I went back to ignoring the pain in my body.