Operation: smoking trap

Catching up with some friends

Tina's pov(Modern day)
I looked through the pages of pictures from that attack and remembered everything, I paused on a picture of Sebastien, myself, and Kerry. The two taller men had sandwiched me in a side hug and I saw a giant smile on Kerry's face, it was right after the attack, his head had just been bandaged and we were just getting ready to go do guard duty. I heard Kerry at the foot of my bed "what're you lookin at?" I said "just some pictures" as I watched him step around the bed and walk up next to me. I showed him the picture and watched his eyes traverse everything before he spoke "I remember you were pissed about being on my team" I nodded and looked over at him, his beard was slightly grizzled and his black eyes still looked young and hopeful, the scar on his forehead from the rpg blast was still clearly visible, he noticed me looking at him and asked "what? Am I that pretty?" I playfully shoved him "you wish" his booming laugh was heard as I said "you know Seb used to say you loved me" he looked over and asked "yeah?" I nodded before asking "was he telling the truth?"
I saw Kerry look at the photo of us smiling broadly "yeah, I did. I didn't see it at the time but hindsight is always clearest" I heard Seb from the doorway "I told you so" we looked up at him as he stepped in before I handed him the scrap book and Sebastien looked over the pictures before speaking "look how young we were" Kerry stood and replied "we're only in our 30s" Sebastien countered and replied "yeah but we were only in our 20s during this" Kerry paused "yeah fair enough" Sebastien looked at me before speaking "although it seems someone never ages" I chuckled as Kerry asked "how long have you been looking at these pictures Tina?" I replied "I don't know, I think 20 minutes? I started after my shower" Sebastien looked at me before asking "Thorn had you guys running the kill house again?" Kerry replied "we run it almost every day, why?" Sebastien replied "I think my team runs it once a week" I replied "yeah but Erik is a tier 1 operator, that's what they do. They train, do missions and train again"
Kerry pointed out "we've been running tier 1 missions since we joined, and we've run them before we joined" I nodded as Sebastien asked "why don't we head down to the chow hall and talk about the times between TF dagger and now? It's been a while" Kerry looked at me and asked "you up for that?" I pushed myself up and replied "let's go, I wanna hear what's happened with you kerry" we walked through the halls before Kerry opened the door to the chow hall and held it as we walked through. I followed Sebastien all the way to the back left table and sat down joined by Kerry a minute later, I heard Seb "so Ker, what've you been up to? Anything exciting?" He looked over and replied "I got blown up, I think that's the most exciting thing that's happened to me" I felt my eyes widen and saw the look of shock on Seb's face as well as I asked for clarification "like you were near an explosion?" Kerry replied "no, I was blown up. The IED was directly under me" I blinked away my shock as Sebastien asked "how aren't you dead?"
        Kerry replied "we got lucky that we heard reports of IED activity in the area and requisitioned ied proof Mraps" I asked "how'd it effect you?" He replied "my ears were ringing and my door got flash welded closed, then we got engaged" Sebastien spoke "bro, you are the most unlucky operator I've ever known" he laughed before I asked "has anything less exciting happened?" He replied "I got to sit on a boat off the coast of Israel for 3 months" I shook my head before Kerry asked "what about you two? Anything fun happen?" I looked at Sebastien as he replied "I got sent to central Africa to help train local forces, they were fun guys. After that I went to combat dive school" Kerry replied asking "I thought you two were in the same platoon" I answered "we were until 2017" Kerry nodded slowly before he asked "what about you Tina? What were you doing?" I answered "I was pulling security at one of our embassies, after that I was stationed at home as an instructor for the selection process" I heard him ask "so I was the only one always in combat?" Sebastien and I nodded, he seemed disheartened at the revelation.
I asked "got any stories to tell?" Kerry looked over and replied "I've got a lot, uh, wanna hear the one where we got engaged by a sniper?" I leaned on the table clearly excited to hear it as Sebastien teased "given tina's reaction, I think we have to now" I blushed in embarrassment as Kerry started "So we were in the outskirts of a city in Iraq, doing patrols when the snap of a round was heard, you know the one." We nodded as he continued "So immediately we found cover and started working out where this guy was, it had to be a sniper since it was only one round and we all know the masks do full auto. So after a couple of strategies we narrowed it down to an 8 story apartment complex under construction, now I just had to think of a way of dealing with him. So we laid down suppressing fire while I talked with different assets trying to figure out what I had at my disposal." I looked on in interest before Seb asked "doesn't the US have tanks or something to deal with snipers?" Kerry replied "I'm still here aren't i?" I chuckled at seb's expense.
Kerry went back to his story and spoke "so after about 8 minutes of trading fire and talking on the radio I found out it just so happened a flight group of 2 F-18s were in the area after their air strikes were called off. We knew that building was empty since it was under construction so I called it in, about 5 minutes after I called the air strike, two 1000 pound bombs struck the construction site and decimated it. And that my friends, is how Raiders deal with snipers" I chuckled as Sebastien replied "never change ker, never change" he laugh boisterously before he commented "I missed this" I added on "just like Dagger" Sebastien replied "almost, you two aren't as in love anymore" Kerry rolled his eyes before asking "So Elena huh?" Sebastien nodded "she's great man, I think I caught a good one" Kerry smiled happy for his friend before we fell into a silence as we thought over the past. I heard Kerry mumble something to my right before Harry came over the intercom "Fireteam Maverick and Ash to briefing room Alpha, Fireteam Maverick and Ash to briefing room Alpha" Kerry and I stood as Sebastien said "kick their asses" I smiled and nodded as Kerry replied "hard core is the only way I go"
We jogged back to the dorm and pulled on our kits and grabbed our guns, I saw Kerry looking over his scarred LMG before checking the ammo and chambering a round in his pistol. I double checked my C1 and pistol before chambering rounds in both as Mark and Apha came rushing into the room changing into their kit as we heading down to the briefing room, I heard myself ask Kerry "what do you think the masks did?" He answered after a minute "I bet they attacked a ship or some shit" I asked "a ship?" He nodded and replied "they haven't done that before, just trying to come up with something new" I laughed before I saw Kerry open the door to the brief "ladies first" I replied "thank you kind sir" as I stepped through into the dim room and saw Maverick already waiting, we took our seats and 30 seconds later Aruni and Mute joined us. Harry commented "your team readies fast Erik" he replied with a tone of pride "I've trained them to be the best sir" Harry spoke "I've seen it in your statistics, your team score higher than any other team at rainbow"
We all smirked with pride at the fact as Ash and her team entered taking their seats, Maverick sat down infront of Alaska and I causing the brief to begin. Harry pointed to the screen and a picture of a very expensive looking yacht was seen, Harry explained "this is the yacht of a British parliament member, he was on a vacation to Crete. His name is Simon Abbe, as of 13:00 gmt his yacht emitted a distress signal reserved only for hijackings. The US has sent a drone to locate and monitor the yacht and they confirm masks are on board. The British would love to handle this themselves but the powers at play have opted to go with Team Rainbow, we'll load your teams onto 2 UH-1y venom helicopters courtesy of the United States Marine corps, they'll pick you up bring you to the HMS Prince of Wales where they'll top off and then bring you to the yacht. This is time sensitive and surgical, failure is not accepted, clear?" We gave our confirmation as Harry went over the schematics of the yacht as well as sea state and eta.
The brief carried on for 20 more minutes before Harry said "the Venoms will be here in 5 mikes, you know the plan, you know the target and security questions. Go get this done" we stood saluted and filed out I heard Erik "we've got gun on this, I've pushed you hard and prepared you for this. Make me proud, check?" I looked at him as Kerry spoke "check, Hey Erik, you ever do a naval hostage rescue?" We all tuned in for the answer as Erik replied "no, can't say I have." Kerry asked "do you care if I take lead on this?" Erik looked at him and replied by asking "have you ever done one?" Kerry nodded and replied "I'm a marine, we work with the fleet all the time. We do practice raids on destroyers so if this comes up we can do it" Erik responded "affirm, reigns are yours" I smiled at the comradery between the two, they trusted each other which means the teams will trust any solution they come up with. Kerry noticed and asked "what are you smiling about?" Apha replied "you two seem like brothers" Mark added on "I was worried about the competition between branches but I see you lads trust another"
I nodded and spoke "the shift in the team when you joined as our second in command had us all nervous, it's good to see you two trust each other. It makes it easier for me to trust the orders" Erik looked at me before speaking "we're professionals, it's what we do" I waved him off as Kerry spoke "besides the inter branch rivalry is mainly just friendly competition" we all nodded as Eliza was heard behind us "hey, you guys give em hell alright?" I heard Kerry reply "the shadow of death is the one I cast" Apha asked "so what exactly do Marsoc Marines do?" I listened intrigued at what Kerry was about to say as he looked at her with a wild glint "Lay waste to the ground of an enemy shore, wade through the blood spilled on the floor and if another one stands I'll kill some more" Erik and Mark replied "I can get behind that" Apha and I looked at the pair before I sighed "men will be men I suppose" causing the trio to laugh. I heard Collinn behind us "once a devil dog always a devil dog" I heard Kerry "oorah" as we walked out and saw the Venoms lowering to the landing pads.