The hunter's bow

The meet

Sanaa's POV
       I looked at Harry in the back of the Blackhawk before I pulled out a notepad and wrote down 'Harry, why are we heading to a random mountain top? What's there?' He wrote back with a small smile 'you'll see, we're picking up Nøkk and a new friend.' I looked at him intrigued as I shifted my ak and Maverick handed a note to Harry. Jaeger came over our comms "we'll be on coordinate in 30 seconds, why do you have me out here? Are we getting a puppy?" I chuckled at the antics before Harry spoke "you'll see" I silently wondered why we were suddenly breaking radio silence before Nøkk was heard "Scarface, were on target. Area secure" Harry replied "acknowledged, wheels down in 20" I sighed at the lack of information. Ash leaned out the side of the helicopter before speaking "been a while since I've been home" Ela replied "we've been busy" Harry informed us "we're gonna be a lot busier if this intel holds up" Maverick asked "you came out here for intel?" He nodded and replied "as for something of greater value" my eyes shifted to him in question but the helicopter touched down before I could ask.
I slid out of the helicopter and waited until Harry climbed out, we formed a loose circle around him before moving with him as he walked forward. We scanned the forest for any life, the world of combat zones had heightened all of our senses to be able to detect a small change in the smell of the air. We couldn't sense anything alive, many of us wondered why we were here before Maverick asked "why the hell are we out here? There's no one here" just for the shadows to move as a group of 5 figures stood and stepped into the predusk light, the sunset was about to dip below the horizon painting the world in a soft orange light. Immediately all of our guns were up and pointed at the figures until we recognized Nøkk and the insignia of the jaegerkorps on their sleeves, we started to relax as Nøkk and one of the Jaegers walked forward talking like old friends before Nøkk looked at Harry "we got it, mission went without a hitch." He smiled as the Jaeger reached into his vest and pulled out a tan envelope extending it to Harry, I saw the words 'classified: property of the Syrian government.'
I wondered to myself what Harry had the jaegers doing before the unnamed Jaeger turned and gave some hand signals while talking in Danish, I looked at him with interest before he looked at Maverick and nodded "glad to see you're back on the grid" which caught everyone except Nøkk and Harry off guard. Maverick asked with a tense tone in his voice, unusual for the collected American, "how do you know about that?" The Jaeger responded "I was with Nøkk when we found the intel about you. I've followed your story since" Harry offered "need a ride?" Ela warily looked over the silent squad before Nøkk answered for the Jaegers "ja, we could use one. It's a bit of a hike" Harry turned on his heel as the Jaeger turned to the squad and gave an order before they silently walked over to the helicopter. Jaeger asked on comms "who're these?" Nøkk replied "old friends, tombstone" I commented "interesting name" the Jaegers talked amongst themselves with hand signals, I wanted to know who are they, why they were out there, what they were doing, why we had met them and not one of their helicopters. My head swirled with questions.
      One of my questions was answered when Maverick asked "so who're you guys?" I saw Nøkk give them a couple hand signals before a deep accent came across the band "we.... we're just Jaegers..... uh, hunters, it's hunters in English nej?(no?)" Nøkk nodded as I asked "what do you go by?" He replied "I'm Onyx" the Jaeger next to him replied "I'm fritz" the Jaeger after her spoke "names chamber" and the final unknown Jaeger dubbed himself "bruiser" Harry asked "any contact on the mission?" Onyx looked at Nøkk before she replied "light, we were in and out before they knew the door was open" he smiled before Ash asked "so why are we here?" I voiced my intrigue by asking "why did we deploy just to pull a squad of Jaegerkorps out of a cold LZ?" Harry asked "you haven't figured it out yet?" Ela asked "are we recruiting them?" Harry replied "not all of them, just Onyx" onyx gave Nøkk a pointed look as his head dipped slightly and he spoke angrily in Danish. I watched and listened to the debate I didn't understand but it was obvious Nøkk had won as Onyx just sighed and leaned back, one of the Jaegers, I believe fritz, made a comment which earned him a punch to the shoulder.
Nøkk nodded to Harry which he smiled at before Ela asked "do you two know each other well?" Onyx and his squad laughed heartily speaking to each other in Danish while laughing before Nøkk hushed them and replied "Ja, I know onyx very well, Onyx is my brother" it seemed as though everything froze in place at that exact moment before Jaeger asked "was?(what?)" onyx replied "Ja, Nøkk here is my big sister." Ash commented "we never knew she had a brother" onyx replied "of course you didn't, we don't talk much" I asked Harry "is this why you're recruiting him?" He shook his head no "Nøkk just recommended him, I found out about the relationship after take off" ash was about to ask another question when Jaeger spoke "we'll be at the FOB in 1 Mike" Harry spoke "use nicknames until we're on deck, after that you can go back to names. I don't know if the comms channels are being monitored" chamber whispered something to Fritz making her laugh boisterously peaking our interest, these professionals had been silent when we were on the ground hiding from our senses mere meters infront of us but here they were laughing and joking like teenagers at a school dance.
      The laughing stopped as quickly as it began, the switch from loud and boisterous to focused soldiers was shocking in its abruptness. I felt the air grow warmer and the familiar soft jolt of the wheels touching down before Jaeger spoke "while you had no choice danke for flying air German, you'll get your double flight miles by the flight attendant as you exit" I slid out and stretched, sighing at the extended stretch of low activity missions, no fights makes me nervous. I heard Harry "Aksel, Freyja and I will swing by your barracks later to talk about recruiting you. Around 1800, that good? Great" as Harry walked off. Aksel looked at his sister and asked "is he always like that?" She nodded now removing her veil and helmet "he's a nice guy but he's still a CO, things go by his clock. If the world says it's 17:00 and he says it's 17:01, it's 17:01" Aksel nodded before walking off with purpose towards the barracks, his team close on his heels. Erik asked "so you and your brother brought me back to the world?"
Freyja nodded and replied "he's reckless and prideful but I trust him more than anyone else, he's never let me down" I listened quietly while Eliza spoke "he seemed like two different people, like a kid trying to have fun and a seasoned veteran" I nodded confirming the characterization as Freyja explained "he tries to stay jovial so his squad doesn't let the weight of their missions get to them, but he still has to be there and stand firm so his team has that leadership to grasp on to" we started walking to the mess hall as Marius asked "what were you two arguing about in the helicopter?" Freyja chuckled and responded "he was mad I didn't tell him about Harry wanting to recruit him, he wants to stay with his team but our father always pushed him to be the best he could be. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't cracked yet" I asked "why? Don't you believe in him?" She looked at me with a healthy amount of annoyance before replying "my father wanted him to be the greatest, to bring pride to the family name, since he was 8 my father pushed him. He didn't even show up to his jaegerkorps class graduation, the queen of Denmark did but my father was too busy. I had gotten off a mission 4 hours earlier and I still made it"
Ela asked "and there's no resentment there?" Freyja shook her head no, her black hair covering her face as she released her bun, "he's glad my father did what he did, it set him on this path and he loves it. I just wish he could make time to take a break" Marius asked "so why him? Why suggest him? Besides the fact he's your brother" Freyja replied "he's one of Jaegerkorps best squad leaders, he's never lost a man, he's been hunting terrorists around the globe since he turned 21, plus he's a top of the line stealth expert" Erik jokingly asked "can he kill you silently?" Freyja nodded "he carries a recurve bow with 12 arrows on every mission, 6 normal arrows, 6 high explosives ones" Eliza spoke like she had made a discovery "so that's why we couldn't tell they were 4 meters infront of us, they've been trained by him" Freyja nodded "even I couldn't tell they were there and I trained him"
       I wondered out loud "would he be willing to train me?" Erik patted my shoulder "well there's only one way to know, why don't you go ask him?" My stomach growled loudly causing my face to flush red as Ela laughed "ask him after you get some food, sounds like you could eat a horse" I rubbed my face trying to hide my embarrassment as Eliza all but yelled "race ya" as she took us causing the rest of us to start running as well. Freyja peeled off which confused me before I shrugged it off and continued trying to catch up to Eliza as she sang "gotta go fast, faster, faster, fasterfasterfaster" while running at full tilt. Erik and I started falling behind as Marius and Ela stayed hot on eliza's heels. I breathed heavily "too old.... for..... this shit" Erik laughed and replied "too tired for this" we turned the corner and saw Freyja and the rest waiting. Erik asked "who won?" To which Eliza pouted "Frey, she found a shortcut" I chuckled as Marius opened the door and held it. We all walked inside and grabbed our food before sitting down and chatting, about 15 minutes later Aksel walked in and grabbed 4 trays and food for all of them before expertly stacking them and walking out.
       We looked at each other in question until Freyja explained "his team eats together in their barracks since the mess hall has a no gun policy, Aksel goes no where without his gun" we all nodded slowly in understanding before continuing to eat and chat. Half an hour later Harry walked in and spoke "Freyja, it's time." She stood with a huff and threw away her garbage before returning the tray and walking over to Harry as he stood next to the door. He asked as they exited "is he gonna give us trouble?" I looked at the table and asked "think he's gonna join?" Erik and Marius shook their head no as Ela replied "tak, I actually do. I think he'll want to spend more time with his sister" Erik countered "you don't want to spend time with yours, why do you think he'll want to spend time with his?" Ela countered "did you see how they interacted when we got on the chopper, they're obviously close." I interjected "still, I don't think he'll leave his squad. They're just as close" Marius offered "I guess we'll just have to wait and see" we nodded at the resignation.