"The Wisp Of A Ghost" Simon Ghost Riley x Female OC

Chapter 7

We've been cycling through the roations for a full twenty four hours.
Ghost and I would supply Soap and König with anything they needed and they did the same for us - food, water, tea. Thankfully Soap was smarter than Ghost, having packed a tea supply that would last the four of us for about four weeks before we'd have to go back to the hideous, years old one stocked in the cabinets. The mint tea there was to my taste though - I'm not really a picky person anyways.
When Soap starts to ask for coffee instead of tea, I'm sure he only packed the tea for Ghost, knowing him well enough to know he'll forget.
The two of us occasionally hang out together down in the living room, and I'm happy to find that Simon was starting to warm up to me.
"I still can't believe I didn't see you.", he says as we're sitting on the couch, talking about my Prices test for me.
"Keeping you up at night?", I ask with a chuckle.
"I'm not joking when I say it does. I swear I looked up that bloody tree."
"Maybe you really are getting old. Or maybe I'm just good.", I wink and he scowls at me, his mask above his lips.
"You ever take that thing off?", I ask and gesture to his balaklava. He wasn't wearing his ballistic skull mask over it today, so I was able to see his eyes better. Ever since he took that one off, I feel a pang of anxiety around him, which confuses me as it should be the other way around. But god, his eyes framed by his brows are glorious, even with the smudged facepaint around the area.
"I did once, in front of the whole team. But never since."
"You sleep in it too?", I ask in a teasing voice and he rolls his eyes.

At noon it's our turn at the binoculars again.
König let's me try a bit from his austrian MRE, and an hour later he brings me a cup of mint tea - none for Ghost.
I can practically feel Ghost tense up next to me as I thank the looming giant behind us as I thank him in german.
König, as intimidating as he is really is a sweetheart, already having caught on to my taste of tea and bringing me some without me asking for it.
We exchange a few words as I sit at the laptop this time when Ghost cuts in.
"Well would you look at that.", he remarks at a low voice.
"Russians. High ranking personnel from what I see, probably to advise."
He gives me more detail for me to send to command - headcount, aircraft they arrived in, descriptions of each - and I flag the entry as urgent before I send it off.
"It was just a question of time though. Last time they helped the Serbs as well.", I remark and glance over at Simon as he nods.

Right before it's time for Soap and König to relieve us, a message pops up on my screen.
"Bosnia officially declares war on Serbia."

"Seems like Bosnia just entered the chat.", I say before reading the message out loud to Ghost.
A minute later the activity at the base increases and we can barely keep up with the amount of information that we now have to relay.
Pilots hurrying to jets to increase patrol volume, soldiers hurrying to their positions at the anti-aircraft guns, getting ready for an impending attack.
"Ghost, come in.", I hear Laswell over the radio and hand the comms over to him.
"Laswell.", is all he replies.
"NATO has promised Bosnia support, Croatian forces are moving to support them as they advance to the border, our own troops are preparing to go in."

We relay the info to Soap and König as they relieve us from our post before we head down to the bedrooms to get some sleep.
We are not anticipating any attacks on our location tonight, but soon it could be a different story. Russia has not promised Serbia support yet - if they do, this war could go on for a long time, turning into yet another proxy war between the east and west.
My sleep is uninterrupted, and when I get up and get ready to relieve Soap and König, they tell us that that more Russians have arrived and everything points to them joining the fight - yet they did not make it official until 8am, soon after which the first russian jets arrive at the air base.
"Say what you will about the Russians, but god the Su-34 are fucking hot.", I remark when a Sukhoi fighter jet taxis off the runway.
"Didn't know you were into jets.", Ghost grumbles next to me while he types into the laptop
"Who could resist? I mean - look at those fucking curves."
"I'm more of a Warthog kind of guy. I'd love to fly one of those.", he replies.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?", I chuckle.
"Can you blame me? It's a bloody flying machine gun. Would love to get me one of those."
"With your driving skills I doubt you'd even know how to fly."
"Don't you say anything about my flying lass. Pretty sure I'm a better pilot than you."
We continue to banter about jets, helicopters and other aircraft and I manage to get an occasional chuckle out of him which sends a tingling through me. I'm not sure what to make of the sensation, but I decide to put it down to his deep reverbarating voice.
Throughout the day, a steady flow of Russians and their supplies arrive, some of the troops immediately boarding transport to head out to Bosnia and Kosovo.
Soon a big cargo plane arrives and I gasp as I see the load.
"Well I'll be fucking damned. Give me the camera.", I say in a stunned whisper.
"What is it?", Simon asks as he hands me the camera with the telelens we had sitting next to the laptop.
"Command is about to go nuts as they receive thw first pictures of that mysterious tank Russia has been working on."
I zoom the camera in on the heavily armoured vehicle and click the shutter, taking as many pictures as I could while they transport it off to load onto a truck, two others of them following closely behind.
"Bloody hell.", Ghost murmurs as I hand the camera back and he transfers the images to the laptop.
"I'm almost glad I'm not in the fight, what with that thing in action.", I remark and Ghost chuckles.
"This gonna get Soaps panties wet."

Simon wasn't wrong. When they come to relieve us and we show them what we saw, Soap is examining the images with excitement, but also a hint of jealousy.

The next days go by slowly as we get steady updates about the advance of Bosnia supported by Croatia and other NATO forces into Serbia. With the Russians now pitted against them, it's a slow advance, but they steadily win ground. We know it's only a question of time until the fighting reaches us, the location too important to ignore.
Other than that we barely get any info about what's going in, the group chat mostly quiet with everyone too busy to text. Except for Captain Price who occasionally sends us pictures of him and Nikolai drinking Rakija and smoking cigars. He doesn't even add a message to it, and other than the occasional "Bugger off", no one replies.
Soap and König spend their time off gushing about explosives and the best strategies to clear a house, while Ghost mostly ignores me except for the occasional banter, occupying himself with a thick book about asymmetrical warfare he brought, his lips quietly moving while he read.
I mostly occupy myself with making inventory of our supplies and the ones stored around the house, bringing everyone tea and water, keeping everything as orderly and tidy as I could.
On the fourth day we start to hear explosions in the distance, the wind carrying the sounds into our direction.
This is where we start to get nervous. By now the base is in range of missiles and if our allies don't do their job well, one of them might strike our location.
At night, the sirens start to go off and we all scramble into position to surveil the situation, all of us already wearing full gear, our backpacks packed since we heard the explosions in the distance, ready to evacuate at a moments notice.
"They could have warned us at least. Always the fucking same with command.", Ghost snarls, just before the serbian air defence springs into action, firing several rockets into the air.
Hours later no missiles penetrated the defense, rockets shot down well before they reach the base.
It's four in the morning, and despite having been relieved by König and Soap at our stations, we don't go to sleep.
It was certainly the right decision as we now start to hear a quiet, low brumming in the sky. High altitude bomber.
I decide to head outside and train my eyes upwards, trying to spot it in the sky, but the same way the night is hiding me, the same way it is hiding the bomber from sight.
Seconds later, the quiet hum is joined by the sounds of serbian and russian fighter jets, scrambling overhead to find what the radars couldn't spot.
An ominous feeling spreads through me, and soon the first bomb hits the ground, just north of the runway. Another bomb explodes on the tarmac, and then a third south of the base, narrowly missing the barracks.
Cold sweat builds on my body, drenching my hands, as the bomber now flies over our location, but no other bombs are dropped and I let out a deep breath I was holding as the humming recedes, the fighter jets overhead following it.

The rest of the night and following day it's relatively quiet except for the occasional attempts to breach the bases defence, almost reminding me of the iron dome in Israel.
The attack of last night left a crater of destruction close to the hangars but it didn't put a dent into the comings and goings of the Serbians and Russians, the other two bombs only having left craters in the fields framing the base.
In the evening we receive a report from Laswell.
"We've received intel that the Russians are transporting something sensitive to your location. I want you to find out what it is and report back to me immediately. By our calculations they should touch down by dawn."