Operation: smoking trap

Starting to mesh

Tina's pov
I looked at Noah as he carefully unpacked, he seemed to take extra precautions to make sure everything took up just enough space for it. He picked up a leather journal and paused staring at it before a crumpled and stained piece of paper slid out and landed on the ground at my feet, we stared at it, my mind racing wondering what it could be before my body moved without me telling it to. I picked up the piece of paper gingerly and flipped it over seeing a much younger Sebastien, Kerry and myself in our old uniforms on the roof of one of the buildings in Afghanistan. The memories of that operation came flooding back, the long nights sitting on roofs pulling guard with Kerry, the raids all the memories that had faded with time had been brought back to clarity. I looked over at Kerry and asked "how many of these pictures do you have?" He looked at the leather journal in his hand before speaking "this book is full of em, why?" I looked at the picture in my hands and answered "this picture brought back some memories I'd forgotten, I wonder what the others would do"
He walked over and extended the book to me which I gingerly took it and started at the worn leather trying to convince myself to open it. Kerry asked "what's bothering you?" I looked over and replied "I don't know, I think it's the trepidation of what these pictures might remind me of" he nodded and went back to unpacking as the door opened and Apha(Aruni) and Mark(mute) walked in. They paused at the sight of Kerry before he stood and spoke "howdy, I'm Kerry. Your newest teammate" Mark walked forward and extended hand. Kerry gripped it and shook it before Mark asked "where you coming from mate?" Kerry replied "Marsoc" Mark replied "Sas" Kerry smirked and replied "always nice to work with the brits, never had a bad experience" as I slowly looked through the notebook reading his small notes next to the pictures. Apha walked forward and asked "can I trust you to have my back?" Kerry looked at her and nodded to which she replied "welcome to rainbow" Kerry dipped his head before we heard the door open and Erik was seen in the doorway, he silently looked over the group before focusing in on Kerry.
      Erik's intenseness always cause a ripple of uncomfortability through whoever he focused on, even amongst the bravest of rainbow operatives but it seemed to have no effect on Kerry who looked back impassively. Erik finally spoke "Sergeant Noah Kerry.... let's go for a walk" Kerry put down his bag and followed Erik into the hall. I heard the echo of their boots as they made their way through the silent halls before Mark asked "what do you think Thorn is gonna talk to him about?" I thought about it as I stared at a picture of Sebastien and Kerry as they wrestled "probably just giving him the run down of how the squad works" Apha spoke "maybe he's just getting to know his new squad member" Mark pointed out "Erik isn't typically that intense with new operators, it was intimidating." I pointed out "that's mainly because you're a lot younger than us, but it was pretty intimidating" Apha mused "it didn't seem to effect Kerry much" Mark commented "that's one bad motherfucker" I added in "you should see him in combat" Apha asked "you have?" I nodded and explained "we were on a task force together with Sebastien and Craig years ago"
Kerry's pov
I stood on the roof with Erik leaning on the railing overlooking the base as he stood behind me talking. I nodded occasionally before Erik asked "have you been made aware of our SOPs?" I replied "negative sir" he looked at the horizon and started explaining the way the team reacts to situations. 20 minutes later we had went over everything before Erik spoke "go grab your gear and get the rest of the team with theirs, we're running the kill house" I pushed off the rail and nodded before Erik stopped me by grabbing my arm "I don't know how the Marine Corps does things, but here at this org nothing past friendly rivalry is accepted. We clear?" I replied simply "check" as he released my arm and I walked into the building making my way back to the room. I walked in and informed the team of Erik's order "Erik said to get your gear on and grab your gun, he wants us to run the kill house" they all dropped what they were doing and began to gather their gear as I grabbed my plate carrier, prc-120 and 249 with 3 extra boxes putting them in my leg pouch.
I looked to my right and saw the other 3 were finishing up, Tina looked at me and asked "ready to go?" I replied "of course" Mark asked "what exactly do marine raiders do?" I looked over "bring death to the place your about to be" as we walked into the hallway and I heard Sebastien "why are you guys geared up? I didn't hear anything about a mission" Apha replied "we're running the kill house" he asked "again? Does Erik has you guys running it every day?" Mark replied tiredly "pretty much, there's few exceptions" Sebastien just laughed and spoke "have fun guys" as we walked out and to the building that seemed to stand alone in the courtyard. Erik stood like a statue next to the door holding his M4 laxly but with control as he watched us approach, I felt my right hand flex on the grip of my LMG in excitement. Erik ordered "attention" we all snapped to the position of attention as Erik gave his orders "we will run this kill house, we will do it perfectly. We will not hit any of the civilians and if you fail you will do it again, am I understood?" We gave our confirmation.
He ordered "stack up" mute was on point with his shotgun, I was behind him, Maverick behind me, aruni was 4th and Frost was rear guard. Her traps would be able to help protect our rear from flanking attacks, I heard Maverick "show me what you got devil dog" I spoke in return "bite the pillow Pinocchio, I'm going in dry" as I felt the squeeze on my shoulder that I repeated onto mute causing him to go through the doorway. He went right as I crossed left seeing nothing in the corner before I aimed to my right holding the doorway as I called "clear!" Mute replied "clear!" As Maverick spoke "room secure" Mute, Maverick and Frost stacked up on the opposite side of the door as Aruni and I stacked up on the left. I nodded to Mute causing him to lift his shotgun and breach the room, I was in after him firing into the target in the corner as I noticed the cut out of an Ak. I shifted my aim as the thunderous reverberation of the rifles drowned out everything until I heard 3 clears.
We moved to the next doorway as Maverick ordered "Alaska, you're on rear guard" I rotated with Frost and aimed at the door we had just walked through as the team wordlessly breached the next room and engaged any targets, once I heard "room secure" I backed into the room and leaned around the door aiming at the entrance to the last room. I could tell Maverick was testing to see just how much I could deal with, he wanted to make sure I wasn't weakening his team. I can respect that, he's a good NCO, he's worried about his team's well being so he's being a hardass now. I heard him "Alaska, lead us in. Mute you've got rear guard" I switched positions with him and flexed my fingers on my fore grip in excitement as I felt the squeeze on my leg as Frost nodded to me, causing me to sidestep the doorway and lift my 249 firing into the first target before I looked to my left and noticed the front sight of an ak on this cut out, causing me to rip my LMG over and fire a long burst into the target.
I shifted my aim to the far back left target causing me to fire another burst into the target, before I called "clear!" Followed by 2 more clears from other members. Maverick threw in a curve ball as he rested his hand on Frost's shoulder "you're dead" she looked at him in confusion as he spoke "Now we've taken a casualty, how're we getting her out? Alaska figure it out" I looked at Mute and asked "Can you carry her?" He nodded as I looked at Aruni "we're gonna push through this shoot house and get to the other side. Maverick, rear guard" he room up position as Mute got Frost in a fireman's carry and I looked at Aruni "ready?" She nodded as I pushed into the second to last room. I stepped to the left and lifted my 60 gun firing a 2 second burst before I looked to my right and saw two cut outs overlapped, one had a gun the other didn't. I aimed for the head of the one with the gun and fired a short burst probably shorter than a second and watched as the head because a mass of holes.
      I heard Aruni "Clear!" I replied "room secure" Mute brought Frost into the room as Maverick backed into it. I mentally spoke "just one more room" as Aruni and I set up to breach. I looked at her before lifting a flashbang, she nodded acknowledging the plan as I pulled the pin and tossed it in the room. I gripped my 249 and went in after her as we fired and looked around before the targets started popping up behind boxes causing us to fire into anyone we saw a weapon before the targets stopped popping up and I said "clear" Aruni confirmed her side was clear as mute carried Frost through the room. Aruni and I flanked him to his 1 and 11 o'clock positions while Maverick took up position at mute's 6 o'clock as we walked out the other side of the kill house. Maverick spoke "you've done well all of you, everyone but Alaska is dismissed" I stood around as Frost gave me a look of intrigue. I waved her off watching as she walked off with the rest of the team until Erik's voice brought my attention to him, "you did better than I expected, the others panicked when I put them in charge of the situation"
      I replied matter-of-factly "I've been an NCO in the corps for almost 8 years, that's just a normal operation for me, minus the casualty" he nodded and replied "I'm happy to see you aren't going to endanger the others, you handle that saw well" I looked at it remembering the many missions it's taken me through I spoke "I've trained with it a lot" he nodded "that's clear" I asked "do you need anything else? I'd like to finish unpacking" he looked me over before replying "no, that's all for today. Be ready to run through the house again" I gave a thumbs up before I turned and walked towards the main building, I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away. When I got back to the room I hung up my kit and guns before I resumed unpacking, Tina asked from her bed still looking through the notebook I had all the old pictures in "so what did Erik want?" I paused for a second before answering honestly "we did a review of the run and he got some answers he wanted" she nodded accepting the answer for now before speaking "I forgot about this"
       I looked over and saw the picture of our task force after we hit a Taliban training camp in the mountains, a couple of us were holding our nations flags, one unit four flags. She paused and wondered out loud "I wonder what happened to Ben?" Ben was a 5'7" aboriginal Aussie who was in the task force with a couple guys from SASR, he had a very animated way of telling stories and we always looked forward to the nights he'd tell stories. I told her "he got caught in an IED 3 months after that picture, they were moving from our FOB to one of the villages at the foot of the mountain." She nodded sadly "that's unfortunate, I remember he always talked about wanting a family" I nodded numbly. Mark asked "you two have known each other for a long time haven't you?" I nodded as Tina said "2014 is when task force dagger got assembled so goin on 7 years" I looked over and asked "it's been that long?" She replied "yep, although we didn't keep in touch like you and Sebastien did" I looked down slightly ashamed of how quickly I had lost contact with my friends from the TF.