Operation: Crimson Space

Revelations

Arkady's pov (7 months later)
      I stood in front of Harry's desk as he said "Nighthaven has withdrawn their contract with Team Rainbow." I nodded slowly before commenting "Eliza must be happy to hear that." He replied "She was, until she heard IQ, Smoke, Fuze, Ela, Finka and Pulse joined Nighthaven and left their CTUs and Team Rainbow." I sighed and asked "So what does that do with us?" He replied "Ghosteyes is going to be busy, Nøkk and a few others are already on a mission to infiltrate a Nighthaven base." I asked "and why am I being told this?" He replied "Maverick, Iana, Yourself, Vigil and Warden are QRF. You should go get your gear on, the predator feed is telling me things are about to get heated." I nodded as Harry spoke into the PA "Ghosteyes prepare for operations, be in air in 15 mikes" I asked Harry "so are we at war with Nighthaven?" He replied slowly "I don't know" I asked "what about the masks?" He replied with certainty "they've been fairly silent, I heard some governments seized their bank accounts. At the moment they have no funding, no funding means no operations."
      I nodded slowly before saying "be careful six, something big is happening." He looked at me before asking "what makes you say that?" I looked around before saying "just a feeling, too much has changed too quickly. Kali is brash but she's not this brash. She wouldn't make an enemy of Rainbow, she knows she would never win." He muses "so you think someone else is pulling the strings." I nodded before supplying "or someone else is playing their hand." He nodded before saying "I'm moving Ghosteyes to the FOB in Elis." I nodded slowly before saying "see you when I see you" he nodded as I ran through the base to Iana's and I's room. She was standing there fastening her armor as I quickly threw on my equipment. She asked "took you a while to get here, what held you?" I replied "talking to six" she asked "anything to do with this mission?" I replied slowly "partially, I also told him about the suspicions I have." She nodded before saying "good" I also replied "Ghosteyes is being stationed to Elis." She looked at me and asked "the stadium?" I nodded as I pulled up my half mask "the stadium."
She replied "good memories." I chuckled softly as I grabbed my 416 and loaded a magazine before picking up my Glock and sliding it into its holster after racking the slide. She looked at me and nodded as we went running to the helicopter, Caveira was already on the operation which meant Maverick was our team lead for this. I looked at him and asked "what's our mission?" He replied "were to stage around the heli-pad and wait for the primary team to make their move." I heard Vigil "and what is their move?" He replied simply "to know Nighthaven's role in all this" I asked "does this have something to do with that data card Nøkk stole?" He nodded and said "that, plus the satellite surveillance is showing Nighthaven forces amassing and loading cargo onto VTOL helicopters" I nodded slowly as Iana asked "I'm assuming we're not going to open fire if they brandish weapons?" Maverick replied very clearly "under no circumstances are we to engage unless shots are fired, clear?" We all replied yes in our languages. I thought about what was going on but the bad feeling gnawed at the back on my mind.
I looked through all the intel we had been provided for this mission before the voice of Harry was heard over our comms "I'd like to be the first to inform you, your team will be transferred to the FOB in Elis." Maverick replied "any reason?" Harry replied "all squads are being positioned at different FOBs for a quicker response to potential threats." We all accepted the reasoning before slowly settling into our pre-mission mentalities. I thought over everything before I wondered out loud "anyone else wonder why this Grim guy is so focused on Nøkk? Think Kali has some vendetta against her?" Iana said "Well Nøkk's been on point for most of our operations against Nighthaven, maybe she wants to dull that point?" Warden voiced his opinion for the first time joining this conversation "I wouldn't mind taking him out, he's been a thorn in a lot of our operations sides. The man's a master tracker." I thought it over before pulling out my Tac-pad and messaging Harry "Six, I have a request." He replied "what is it Kasper?" I replied with the proposal "I believe we should take out Grim" he asked "what makes you think that?" I replied "he's been interrogating people near Nøkk, he's a master tracker, he's constantly putting our missions on tighter time frames and he always shoots to kill. He's dangerous, we've kept Nøkk's identity a secret to protect her and her family. We can't let him destroy that."
       I saw him start and stop typing several times before he replied "I'll allow it, one death isn't much of a basis for Kali to start a war." I looked at the team before saying "well warden, we can kill Grim." He looked at me before Maverick said "Six said to try to avoid causing unnecessary damage." I handed him my tacpad. He reread the conversation before saying "well I'll be damned, Grim is a level 2 target." I smirked under my half mask before I noticed Iana looking at me strangely, I asked "what?" She replied "you seem excited for this." I replied with a slight tilt to my head as she explained "you don't usually message Six to get clearance to engage targets, you're usually more reserved than this." I answered simply "this is bigger than what we used to do, we're actively engaging in covert wars with one of the biggest PMCs on the planet. If anyone's a genuine threat to this organization it's Nighthaven."
      She looked at me before nodding and saying "well according to Six, we're not at war." I looked at my right sleeve and the stitched hole where a bullet had grazed through before saying "так, because people you're not at war with shoot at you." She chuckled softly before Maverick said "remember we're not trying to wipe Nighthaven out, we're just pulling security and, if we get the chance, taking out Grim." Warden replied "we'll get the chance, I'm sure." Maverick nodded slowly before Vigil said "well, we gotta get through this mission first. Who knows maybe he'll be there and we'll be able to bush wack him there." I heard Iana "something feels off about this?" I looked at her in questioning while Maverick asked "what is it?" She replied "why be so open about moving resources and troops? Kali's always had Nighthaven load and unload their helicopters in their underground hangars." I paused for a second before saying "it almost feels purposeful, or she's in a hurry. Maybe she's got a lead on who killed Yahata, we know it wasn't them." Maverick said "if she does, it doesn't change that she can't go fighting everyone because of it. We're gonna neutralize that, then we can focus on why."
       I shrugged before sitting quietly the team threw out theories before we hit the LZ, the crew chief threw the rope out of the cargo hold of the Blackhawk. I grabbed the rope and slid down it when the CC gave me a nod, I saw Maverick doing the same on the far side of the helicopter. When we hit the ground we pushed out and found cover as the rest of the team hit the ground and did the same. We sat quietly for about 15 minutes, longer than we normally would but we had noticed a slower response time from Nighthaven to catch us talking. When we were sure they didn't know we had been inserted we rallied and Warden pulled out the map, his red light shined dully, as he put his compass on it before pointing and saying "this way." Maverick replied "You're point Kasper. Fix suppressors." We all screwed on our suppressors before I started in the direction, warden had pointed. We moved quietly but tried to move quickly, we had to be in position and ready so both team's mission timelines lined up.
After about 30 minutes of walking we reached the edge of the forest and the cliff that overlooked the helipad Nighthaven was using. We all took our little hides and sat quietly, Iana sat next to me and whispered "does it feel like we're missing a lot of the picture?" I nodded slowly before she said "I don't like this, there's something else going on here. There has to be." I answered "I agree, but we definitely need to neutralize Nighthaven before any of this moves forward. They're getting dangerous." She nodded slowly as we saw Kali and a couple of her operators walking across the helipad yelling "Someone has stolen our tech. Target anyone using our gear and put 'em down!" I noticed Solis standing in a Nighthaven poncho, I wondered out loud "what's the plan here guys?" Kali turned and yelled at solace as I saw Caveira running with a knife in her hand. She grabbed Kali and growled something at her as drones popped out of the cargo boxes causing all of us to perk up with anticipation, fully preparing to get into a gunfight.
      We lifted our weapons and aimed, only for Solis to lift her arms, hands formed into finger guns as Kali flipped Caveira and held her CZ75 to her head as the rest of the primary team threw their cover, shot the drones and then aimed at Kali. She yelled "I didn't kill Yahata! Someone stole Nighthaven ordnance and is selling it, jeopardizing our operation!" As we made our way down from our overwatch positions Solis replied "we know but that doesn't mean you get to start a war over it!" Caveira slammed Kali on the asphalt and said "this is Rainbow's operation now." Kali replied angrily "not sure your butter knife will cut it, darling. You'll be up against very loud guns." I crouched next to Kali's head and asked "what do you know?" She replied "I know you aren't ready for what you're facing" I narrowed my eyes before saying "Call Grim off" she glared at me "why would I do that!? You lot are doing your best to be a pain, especially you Nøkk" I replied simply "If you want your man to survive, you should call him off." She looked at me in doubt before seeing the seriousness in my eyes.
     "You wouldn't dare! It'd be war!" She replied, I said "we've already got clearance to shoot him, you can't win that war Kali. Call him off or we put him 6 feet under." She stopped talking causing me to sigh before standing, I looked at Nøkk before Caveira said "you're going to sit this one out" I watched as Caveira pulled Kali to her feet and cuffed her before calling for extraction. Nøkk looked at me in interest before asking "do you actually have clearance to kill him?" I pulled out my tacpad and tossed it to her, I saw her head tilt as Iana walked forward teasing "big show for a quiet guy" I nodded as I watched Nøkk's head subconsciously tilt with intrigue as she read the conversation. Iana said "well now we wait" I heard Caveira "All Ghosteyes, set up security. 1 hour to extract." We all took cover in different buildings, the 2 story house I was in contained Nøkk, Maverick, Iana and Myself. I leaned against the wall with my left foot resting against the wall about halfway up my leg, I stared out the window before Nøkk handed me my tacpad and Maverick said "this mission was far less exciting than I thought it would be." I chuckled softly before Iana stepped next to me, she tapped my shoulder with her knuckles before saying "Don't worry, Kasper has a habit of getting fun missions." I just shook my head remembering the series of several hour gunfights I've been in since joining Rainbow and Ghosteyes.