Hotel Six: A Call of Duty Fanfiction

Chapter 42: The Gulag

MacTavish nodded as he wrapped up his conversation with Command. "Sixth Fleet's moppin' up. Time to move in," he said. He pulled a tablet out of his rucksack and pulled up a file. "Long history of this buildin', and not much of it pretty." He enlarged a picture of an old, rock structure, covered in scribbled marks and script. "Started out as a castle with an actual dungeon, built to withstand any siege. Buildin' survived every brutal winter. The occupants... they weren't so lucky." 

Gal flicked an ear. Given that it was the middle of winter in Russia, and already the weather was a balmy -12 degrees out, she had half the mind to wonder if Prisoner 627 was even alive. 

"Over the last century," he continued. "It's played host to anyone the government didn't want, but couldn't kill. The place is filled with living casualties of the last war... which I swear I thought we'd won." The scoff he made sounded more defeated than he had intended and noticed the concerned, saddened expressions on his teammates' faces. Quickly, he recovered by clearing his throat and shrugging it off. "But I suppose it's all a day at the races: you back the losing horse, and this is where you end up. Six-Two-Seven is the piece of meat Makarov wants, so let's cut him loose."

"Going in hot," said the pilot of Hornet Two-Two as the F-15 zipped past them toward the misty silhouette of the gulag standing on the cliffs over the Bearing Sea. In a bright flash of orange flames, a tower on the wall crumbled like shale, and the jet veered away.

The Captain hugged his rifle tight under his arm. Jessica noticed that his chest was already heaving and she knelt beside him, touching his shoulder on her way down before taking aim, herself.

"All snipers, this is MacTavish, standby to engage," he said over the com. "Hornet Two-One, stabilize." The helicopter came to a stand-still over a tower and MacTavish looked through his scope. "All snipers, clear to engage!" It wasn't but a few seconds before the tower was cleared and he ordered Hornet Two-One to shift right. 

Jessica picked off a pair of guards in the next tower, Ghost beating her to a third before they shifted again. "Leave me a few!" she teased.

"Shoot faster then," he replied smuggly with a glint of mischevious glee in his eyes. 

They shifted once more. Just as they stabilized, one of the F-15s fired on the tower, causing the helicopter to shutter and tip, and its alarms to wail. MacTavish started to slide forward out the door when Jess grabbed his shoulder, Ghost behind her grabbing her by her rucksack and Roach throwing his arm out across MacTavish's chest. "Hang on!" Hornet Two-One said, quickly regaining control of the aircraft.

Once stabilized, they collectively let out a tense breath. The Captain was shaking as he tapped the com. "Shepherd!" he snarled. "Get those fighters to cease fire immediately! That was too close!"

"I'll try to buy you some time. One man in a gulag doesn't mean much to the navy at this point," replied the General.

"It better start meaning a lot more to them right now," Jessica growled into the com link. "This is our ticket to Makarov; we need him alive."

They could almost hear Shepherd rolling his eyes. "Like I said, I'll try to buy to some time. Over and out."

"Bloody yanks," said Ghost. "I thought they were the good guys..." 

"Ghost, Lone, both o' ya cut the chatter and stay frosty," said MacTavish. "We're goin' down." The chopper touched the snowy cobblestones inside the walls of the gulag and the team bailed out. "Go, go, go!"

Galaxy seized the first foot mobile she could catch by the face and gave him a furious shake to sever his jaw. She released him, grasping a second by the thigh while Ghost finished him off with a shot under the chin with his pistol. The great wolf shifted back and took cover beside the Lieutenant, drawing up her MP5 under her arm.