Operation: Crimson Space

New Leads

Arkady's pov
      I walked through the halls of the Hereford Military Hospital with Yumiko, I asked "so how'd the mission go?" She replied "Deimos knew we were on board, decompressed the fuselage and tried ejecting us. Brava had a shot but that would mean letting Capitaõ die." I replied "then she made the right choice." Yumiko looked at me before asking "and what if she didn't? What if we need to make sacrifices to win?" I stopped and looked at her "this is a war, sacrifices mean winning, but if you sacrifice your comrades lives to win, it's simply a Pyrrhic victory. It's meaningless." She paused for a second before saying "I think I understand." I replied as we started walking again "there's a reason so many militaries have the practice of 'no man left behind" we pushed through the door and saw the doctor. "Well your operator Ash is in a coma, we don't know when... if ever, she'll wake up." We nodded before the doctor continued "Thermite is in the room with her, I'll keep your team updated on her condition." We said our appreciations before pushing into the room, Jordan shakily stood and said "you didn't kill him"
      Yumiko replied "no, we didn't. He knew we'd be there and was willing to kill his own for a chance to kill us." Jordan looked at her in disbelief before asking "did we get anything?" I replied "Ghosteyes got the geolocation of a Brazilian compound, Deimos is using it. Should have some more intel there." Jordan asked "can we access it remotely?" Yumiko replied firmly "completely off grid, no options. Brava is gonna lead an infiltration team to find out more." Jordan barked "completely out of the question. Hibana, that son of a bitch put ash in a coma. He killed Harry. Brava had a line of fire on Deimos and didn't take the shot!" I stepped in and poked my pointer and middle finger into his chest as I angrily asked "what happened to no man left behind?! Are you so caught up in your own feelings you would suggest that we let our own teammates die to kill one man?! His entire operation is killing us all and you want to make that easier by killing each other for a chance at him!? What kind of fucking Marine are you!" He looked at me with a mix of shame, anger and sorrow.
     Yumiko stepped forward and said "I am aware of what's at stake. This is a Viperstrike and Ghosteyes operation, you get no say." Jordan said "intel says Deimos is getting ready for another strike as we speak. We need a win here." Nayara said from behind me "that's why I'm on point. I know the area and the people the best, I know how to reach that compound undetected. This is time sensitive and I can save us weeks of prep time we don't have." As Nayara turned to leave, Jordan said "if you see Deimos, you pull the fucking trigger." She replied "of course captain, I won't make the same mistake again." I commented "tell me if you think it was a mistake when this is over and we've lost people. Tell me if you think keeping even one of our teammates alive is a mistake." Jordan commented "you're awfully sentimental." I replied coldly "because I've seen the outcome of waging war the way you want to." He asked "and what was that?" I turned to walk away before stopping saying "we won, but we only missed the comrades we let die." He wilted.
      Yumiko said "keep an eye on ash, we'll let you know how this turns out." He stayed silent as Yumiko and I started walking away, she asked "what missions are on the table for Ghosteyes?" I replied "we've got a couple of missions around Nighthaven, a few following leads for Deimos and his mercs." She nodded before asking "any plans?" I replied "we got into Nighthaven's communications circuit. I've sent a message to Ela letting her know her sister is in a coma and pretty banged up. I'm meeting her at the Araxos airport, Nienke and Meghan are coming too." Yumiko looked at me and asked "why are you willing to meet her? This is a big risk." I replied with a small confident smirk "this is Ghosteyes, we always take risks." She chuckled before saying "stay safe on this one." I nodded before saying "let Taina know if you need anything from Ghosteyes, she already said we would do our best to support operations done by other teams." She nodded before bowing and saying "thank you" I returned the bow before saying "well it's time for me to get a move on, I gotta get back to Elis by tonight."
She nodded and said "have a safe flight." I replied "I hope the same for you." As I walked away and headed to the airport. After arriving in elis I walked through the airport doors and saw Nienke sitting in the driver seat of the Up Armored SUV. She smiled at me as I put my bags in the back seat, before I slid into the passenger seat. She asked "how was it?" I replied "not terrible, brava's leading a mission in Brazil. I think we're sending some operators." She nodded before starting to drive back to base I asked "if we get some free time, would you want to get some food?" She glanced at me knowingly before asking "is that you asking me on a date?" I replied with a charming smile "of course it is" she chuckled before replied "yes, I'd love to." I smiled as we drove, I saw the stadium in the distance before asking "do you think tonight goes smoothly?" Nienke said "I hope so, I'm sure Ela won't believe us off the bat." I replied "then we show her" Nienke asked "that means bringing her to the Hospital, you sure that's okay?"
I replied "I don't see much of another option. Nighthaven joined rainbow to recruit Operators. Ela was a keystone part of that, if we can get her to come back, try to rebuild that relationship or even realize that she misses her sister. Nighthaven's plan becomes more and more unobtainable." Nienke asked "why is she such a critical part of that operation? What's so important about Ela? What did Kali see?" I replied after a second "Ela bridged our two worlds." Nienke asked "what do you mean?" I answered "she was a civilian for longer than any of us, she went to art school, she was a PMC operator and then she went through Grom selection twice. She's tasted more failure and more successes than any of us. She is the bridge a PMC would kill for, she connects the military and civilian worlds because she's never truly been a part of either." Nienke replied slowly "I never thought about it like that." I replied "neither has most of rainbow, but PMCs are always a step closer to being a civilian than we are." She asked "you've thought about this a long time haven't you?" I replied "так, ever since those teammates left rainbow."
Soon enough we had parked and were on our way to the door, Sam walked out and greeted us at the door "welcome back Iana, Kasper, I hear you're going on a walk later tonight." I replied "yes sir" he nodded before asking "has this been thought through?" Nienke replied "As best as we could, yes." He asked me "i understand you're lead on this, what're you planning?" I replied easily "I'm just gonna talk to her, I might bring her to the hospital if she needs proof of her sisters condition." He glanced at me before saying "Ghosteyes is all about taking risks and asking questions. Let me know if you need me to requisition anything." I glanced at Nienke as we headed back to our room, I looked in the mirror and saw myself. I continued to stare until my brain played a trick on me and I saw myself as I was when I was 18, on my trip exploring Western Europe, when I first met Nienke. My musings were interrupted when I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked to my right and saw Nienke looking at me with worry and questions in her eyes.
I shook my head no and said "just reminiscing" she asked "what about?" I replied jovially "when I was 18, exploring Europe." She smiled fondly saying "that was when we first met." I nodded saying "I never knew how much that would affect my life." She nodded as I pulled out a black hoodie and khaki G3 combat pants. She asked "is that what you're gonna wear?" I nodded and said "I'm gonna wear my plate carrier too." She nodded before pulling out her change of clothes, I glanced at the clock and said "4:53, 5 hours until we meet her."
5 hours later
I stood on the tarmac with Nienke and Meghan, waiting. I heard Meghan "we sure she'll show?" Nienke replied "she has to." Meghan asked "how do you know?" I replied simply "curiosity." Just as we saw a jet coming in to land, the markings showed Nighthaven's insignia. I pushed off the front of the SUV as we saw the Private jet pull in ahead of us, I saw Meghan rest her hand on her pistol grip of her MPX. I turned and waved her hand off, she nodded and removed it as I saw the staircase open and extend.
I saw Elzbieta peak out of the doorway before she saw us, I saw her rest her hand on her pistol as we all stood waiting for her to join us. Slowly she made her way to us, very cautiously, I could tell she was worried about us trying to detain her. When she stopped infront of me about 10 feet away, she asked "so my sister is unconscious?" I replied "she's currently in the Military Hospital in Athens." She asked again "what happened?" Nienke replied "she was blown up, Deimos set a trap for Team Rainbow using Nighthaven equipment." Elzbieta said "you should've let Nighthaven handle it" I asked "and then what? The bomb would've still went off, the only difference is Nighthaven would've been breaking international law." Elzbieta said "at least my sister wouldn't be in a coma." Meghan replied "true, but then we'd have to actively engage Nighthaven." Elzbieta asked "like you did with Grim?" I countered "you mean after Kali had him trying to expose Nøkk's identity? He's actively tried killing our operators on several missions." Ela looked at me in shock as I pulled my shirt up and showed the fresh scars.
She looked at them before looking at me as I said "Grim did that, gunning for your sister. I just happened to be in the way." Ela said "no, it can't be like that." I asked "you want to come see your sister?" She glanced at me in worry as I said "I'll bring you." She nodded subtlety as I said "if you want, I'll have Sam pull up the Helmet cam footage of our engagements with grim." She asked "why are you doing this?" As we got in the SUV and headed back to the stadium. The ride was silent, Ela to my right, Nienke and Meghan sitting in the back seat staring at Ela watching for any movement that would tip them off that she was going to shoot. When we got back to base, Sam had pulled the several videos of our engagements with Grim. We stood in the tac ops center as he played them, Elzbieta watched as they played one after another, the gunfights roaring one after another, grim at each and every one. I watched ela as the one I got hit in the lower abdomen, when grim came so close to killing Zofia.
The gunfights started we fought for minutes as I started moving forward, my camera looked to the right seeing Zofia as we started to form the line of fire only for me to snap to the left as I saw grim firing. I fell and groaned in pain as I looked behind me as Zofia stared at me in shock before reengaging. I looked at Ela and said "if I hadn't moved up to try to get a better angle, Grim would've put 3 bullets in your sisters lungs." She looked at me in disbelief as Sam said "He was in the wrong place, at the right time." Ela looked conflicted at the information as Sam said "I've got the Blackhawk prepped, the hospital knows you're on your way." I nodded as I said "come on Elzbieta, let's go visit your sister." I heard Meghan "I'm gonna bow out here." I nodded as Nienke said "I trust you'll come back to me." I smiled as Ela asked "why do this?" I answered truthfully "I want some insight about why you're so important to Nighthaven's plans." She gave me an odd look before saying "you're peculiar." I nodded before saying "let's go"