Operation: Explosive mirrors

Revelations

Shawn's pov
I heard Mira behind us "Madre? Are you two siblings?" I replied simply "yeah" archer added on "he's my older brother." Mira mused "so that's why you were so quiet when we were moving" sledge said "how far to the rendezvous?" I heard ash "my GPS says 10 klicks" I checked my watch "02:43, we need to take a break." Archer asked "you sure about that?" I looked over and said "we don't take a break, we don't make the 10 klicks. We're already running on wits end." She sighed but nodded. We jogged for a bit longer getting into the thick underbrush as I ordered "Ash, Sledge, Archer take a break get some rest. I'll wake you in an hour" they worked their way under the pine tree and got comfortable. All switched their weapons to safety as I moved a way a couple meters and sat down. I felt Mira's presence next to me, I glanced over and asked "how're you holding up?" She replied shakily "it's a lot. I find myself wondering if we're gonna lose anyone else" I answered "don't worry about that, life'll take it's course we just have to go with it"
      She nodded before saying "you didn't tell us Archer's your little sister" I looked around "didn't think anyone wanted to know" she said "we've got a pair of sisters at Rainbow, they're always fighting. Not like you and Archer" I laughed before saying "Archer and I fight all the time" Mira asked "really? It seems like you get along great" I replied "it's cause we're in the field. We're tier 1 operators, i outrank her. in the field, my word is law and she understands that. She'll bring up problems she has with how I did things when we debrief. Everyone in my unit gets to voice their opinions but that's after we leave the field." She nodded slowly before asking "you rose through the ranks really fast, how'd you manage that?" I replied with a small smile remembering the early days of my career "it just kinda happened, I went to West Point and now I'm here" she nodded before saying "same with me at rainbow, I went from a field op to lead of R&D. It happened so fast" I snorted before leaning back against the tree trunk. I commented "it's a terrible day for rain"
Mira looked over and replied "it's not raining?" I felt the tears streaking down my cheeks as I replied "yes... it is" she looked up at the sky, seeing the deep dark clouds overhead. I heard her comment "I know we're not supposed to think about things that happen in the field until we get off it, but I can't stop thinking about leaving Maverick's body there" I nodded before saying "you know we were always told in basic we never leave a man behind, we bring them home or we bring their body home. I'm beginning to think this mission, we're only bringing home their memory" she looked over at me before saying "I can't wait to get back to base, this guerrilla bullshit is on my nerves" I looked up at the clouds as a small opening appeared and I saw the stars, I mumbled "Ad astra per aspera" I heard Mira "eh?" I translated "through adversity to the stars" she traced my view and repeated "through adversity to the stars" I chuckled before saying I hope tomorrow is the end of all this" I heard Mira reply simply "me too" as I flipped up my nods and rubbed my eyes.
     She looked over and asked "nod burn?" I looked over and said "yeah, they've been on for a couple hours" she chuckled as we fell quiet. A comfortable silence between us. We sat for a couple hours until it was our turn to get some sleep, I woke up the other 3 and got comfortable. The next morning I woke up SS the sun crested the nearby mountain range. I heard Archer "Baseplate touched in with us, the recovery task force is being inserted this morning. We need to reach the rendezvous today" I rolled up my woobie and strapped it to my bag, I looked at the group and said "let's go, we got 10 klicks to cover" and so we set off. I heard Sledge "any of you lot wonder how the masks got on us that fast last night?" I replied after a second "I think we were fools to think they were ever off us." He sighed as Ash said "I think you might be right" we fell into a tense silence and continued on the course to the rendezvous, each hopeful this was the last day of the ordeal.