Operation: Crimson Space

Cleaning duty

Arkady's Pov
Slowly we crept up the stairs to the turf surrounding the stadium, the roar of the gunfight was monstrous. I heard Blitz "This is getting serious." As we reached the corner of the building I watched our rear, I double checked my rifle hoping it wouldn't jam again. I heard Maverick "All rainbow callsigns, we're engaging. I repeat strike team is engaging" Hibana and Nøkk replied "Solid copies." As I heard blitz's shield clank before the team started around the corner and I heard the rifles and sub machine guns firing. I turned and followed the team around the corner lifting my 416 to a low ready as we jogged, we pushed hard to pieces of cover. Nighthaven reeled at the reveal action of our strike team on their flank, when they tried to reposition their forces to engage us they exposed themselves to our comrades on the walls. I heard Caveira "I leave my team for a day and you all get into fights." I heard Zero "Welcome back Captain. I take it Redhammer is with you?" She replied quickly "yes, they're with me. We'll be there in 3 minutes." I carefully fired round after round, trying to minimize the impact on my wound.
      I fell to a prone as a round ripped past my ear, the sonic pop of 5.56 throwing my balance off. I heard Thatcher to my left "Oi Mate! Get back in the fight!" I yelled back "Tak!" As I pushed myself back up and fired the rest of my magazine watching a Nighthaven operator fall as rounds hit him in the chest. I went to throw a grenade before Valkyrie stopped me and a frisbee like disk was seen ripping through the air in my night vision, Blitz yelled "Wamai is here!" I heard Maverick "Be advised Wamai is on premises! Wamai is here!" I looked at the dark shapes moving before radioing "I'm gonna turn on my IR Illuminator. Try to spot Wamai" I pressed the button on my PEQ-15 laser box before lifting my rifle and peaking over the cover to try to spot him. I slowly moved my rifle side to side before I heard Valkyrie "Got him! 1 o'clock next to the ball of tree roots." I pressed the button quickly turning off my illuminator as Thatcher passed in the information to the rest of the defenders.
     I saw the brunt of the fire get shifted to the ball of roots, I smirked before hearing Caveira "We're coming in from the west. 2 trucks, 10 operators. This is going to get messy." We traded fire until I heard impact after impact to my right, I saw Blitz standing firm with his shield taking round after round to his shield. I was amazed, none of Ghosteyes carried shields, this is the first time I've seen any of Rainbow's shield operators in action. It was impressive. I got drawn back to the gunfight as a round hit the tree trunk infront of me peppering my face with bark, I heard Maverick "Kasper! You up?" I nodded and yelled "Tak!" Blitz looked at me and thatcher and said "Let's go! We can push up!" I scanned the battlefield ahead of us and yelled "You see those rocks at 12 o'clock!?" He replied "Ja!" Thatcher caught on and said "Let's move there!" Maverick ordered "go! Valkyrie and I will cover you!" Thatcher and I carefully made our way over to Blitz before pushing over the tree trunk and following him as we slowly made our way to the rocks.
As we reached the rocks and spread the line of fire to a wider field, the Redhammer humvees tore around the stadium Blackbeard and Thorn started engaging with the M2 .50 caliber machine guns, quickly Caveira and the rest of Redhammer disembarked from the humvees and started engaging. I glanced at my watch and saw the gunfight had been going on for 4 hours, I sighed but continued firing. The introduction of more Rainbow Operators to the gunfight caused Nighthaven to abandon their attack, we fired as the last couple contractors turned to run causing me to mutter "you not getting away this time" as I fired a couple rounds into the back of a Nighthaven contractor. We set up a perimeter before I heard Caveira on the Net "All wounded rainbow operators, come into the Stadium. The medics are ready to begin treating wounded." We drew back to the stadium and the able bodied players set up their perimeter while we who had been wounded were brought into the medical wing and the medics started running around trying to get all of their equipment and materials together to begin treating us. I asked on if the docs "How's Vigil?"
      She looked at me and said "he took a good hit, it caught the left side of his lung. We're working on it but right now we don't know if he'll pull through." I nodded slowly, I worried terribly for my friend. The doctor said "your wound is better than I expected." I replied "Olivier had one of Doc's Stim pistols. I used it." She nodded and said "a good thing too, it'll cut down your recovery time by miles." I asked "how long will it take?" She replied "I'm expecting you to be fully back to service in a week or two." I nodded slowly before Zero walked in "think you can pull guard?" I pushed myself up and said "Tak" the doctor said "I really must pressure against this." I heard Zero "I understand that doc but you won't be here to pressure against anything if Nighthaven strikes again and our defenses aren't ready." She sighed before saying "if this is how it goes down, let me give him some morphine." The doctor pulled out a needle and put it in my arm, I felt the pain fade away as I pulled up my 416 and heard Zero "head to your station, we'll know by dawn if they've fully retreated or if we're getting hit again."
I made my way outside and sat next to Iana, she looked over and asked "how're you feeling?" I replied "pretty good, the docs gave me some morphine so I'm not feeling anything at the moment." She smiled softly before saying "you were very brave" I chuckled softly before saying "so were you." She chuckled, I looked up at the night sky as she said "we watched you, blitz and thatcher push. We were so confused why you guys would do that" I laughed softly before the night stilled, the conversations died and the mood changed. We listened to groans and whimpers of pain, it seemed some of nighthavens operators were still alive, wounded but alive. I heard Hibana "Zero we've got wounded enemies out here." He replied simply "let them stay there, once we know our perimeter is secure we can decide what to do then." I glanced at Iana before looking at my watch "it's 0300 already?" Iana replied "sunrise is in 2 and a half hours." I sighed tiredly, after an hour we got relieved and headed inside of the stadium.
We all found different areas around the stadium and laid down, quickly falling asleep. Iana leaned against me while I laid half on, half off the small love seat and we quickly fell asleep. I got woken up by Maverick an hour later, I asked "what's going on?" He replied "sunrise is in 30, I want you and Iana to help me check the wounded." I asked "are we helping them or finishing the job?" He said simply "ROE states we must render aid if our point of advance is beyond them. The choice is yours." Zero was heard behind me "try to keep at least one alive, if Wamai is out there and alive we detain him." I nodded as Iana started to stir, Maverick said "meet me in briefing room 2." I explained what was going on as we got our gear situated again, we made sure our rifles were loaded and on safety. We made our way through the base until we got to the door for the room, I glanced at Iana and she nodded as I pushed the door open and followed her in. Caveira looked at me and said "nice to see you're doing well considering the wound."
I glanced at my arm and said "the Docs have done a good job of keeping me in this." She nodded before asking "Maverick has explained everything to you?" I replied "tak ma'am" Iana nodded as well before Caveira said "well Mav, explain your idea then." He said "we've been listening to these people out on the turf groaning and whimpering for hours, I figure we go put them out of their misery or we take a lot more of them into custody." Caveira paused for a second before saying "I have a couple of the operators still on guard. Zero will let them know you're going out of the wire." We nodded before Caveira said "let's get this done." I followed Iana through the base before we got to the ground floor and Maverick radioed "Zero, Cleaners moving external" he replied "Good copy, the guards know you're going out" he pushed the door open and Iana and I walked through the door. I lifted my 416 to a low ready and lead the way to the main battleground, I said "Mav, it looks like most of them have expired" he said "double tap, let's make sure"
      I fired into a couple rounds into each of the bodies before I saw the ball of tree roots, I saw all of the bullet holes and chunks punched out by the M2. I heard Iana "my god, what happened out here?" I glanced back at her and said "we kicked their asses" I heard maverick "Iana, go check if Wamai is there" she nodded as maverick and I slowly made our way through the field of dead and dying Nighthaven operators, killing the surviving enemies and checking their corpses for any intelligence. I heard Iana after a bit "we got him!" I heard Maverick "Did we punch his toe tag?" She yelled back "he's wounded, looks pretty severe!" Maverick and I shared a look before he said "you finish up here, I'm gonna help her bring him in." I nodded and continued walking forward checking bodies and shooting survivors, I was crouched feeling through a nighthaven contractors pocket when I heard a round snap over my head, I spun and lifted my rifle seeing Thatcher aiming at me. I turned slowly and saw a Nighthaven contractor on the ground flat on his back with his arm laying across his abdomen and a pistol in his hand.
      I heard Thatcher on my headset "you missed one lad." I chuckled softly before replying "tak, just one." I finished checking the bodies, killing survivors and collecting their weapons and equipment before heading inside. I looked at Caveira as she said "the docs are working on Wamai right now" I asked "how's his chances?" She laughed coldly and said "they said it's not likely but he's a good source of information if we can save him." I replied with a bit of joking "probably shouldn't have used the M2 on someone we were trying to capture." She looked at me and nodded before saying "Iana is watching the operation in the medical wing. I'm assuming she's who you're looking for?" I nodded my thanks and started through the stadium to the medical wing.