Covent Garden, London, Britain. 1900hours.
The wind whipped around her body and bustled the leaves falling from the trees, heavy boots splashing in puddles of water caused by the pouring rain. She would've been soaked to the bone if not for the heavy rain jacket hanging her body. Slipping between the shadows and hiding the sniper rifle under her armpit, jumping from roof to roof so she could catch her prey. Finally the car had halted to a stop in front of the royal opera house, he looked perfectly normal. Maybe even kind under the bright lights. Just a policitian surrounded by his bodyguards, he was far from normal or kind. Laying on her stomach and cursing in her head at her now soaked trousers and kevlar vest, she rested the barrel of the silenced sniper rifle on a ledge, aiming the void that could be called an eye through the scope.
"Alpha-01 to watcher-01. Target in view. Permission to take the shot?"
One second.
Then two.
"This is watcher-01. Permission granted" And after that it took only half a second for the finger on the trigger to press down and a pop hidden by the thunder, for the bullet to travel a hundred meters in just a few seconds and make a home in the politicians skull. Going limp his armed body guards aimed their pistols in every which way, even the roof she had been on, now she was gone. Slinking around in the shadows on her way towards the exfil point, feet stomping into the huge puddles of rain and soaking her socks. "Watcher-01, i'm one mike away from the exfil point." Her hand moving from the side of the radio attached on her right shoulder, now running faster as the slicing blades of the helo cut through the cold air. Rounding a corner into a park she was met with a roped ladder which she quickly advanced up, pulling her body into the safety of the metal container and finally taking a deep breath.
One of the men passed her a headset and she took it, setting on her head to be welcomed with the sound of a familiar voice. "Reaper, this is Laswell. I assume the mission went well?" The older woman on the other end of the line asked as soft crackling noises filled any silence. Clearly making small talk to dance around whatever bad news needed to be delivered, a soft sigh escaped her lips before answering. "It always does Laswell, now stop dancing around the subject and tell me what you need." The line went quiet as the woman bit the inside of her cheek, raindrops dripping from the hood of her mask and onto the hard plastic covering her face, after what felt like an eternity of silence the woman on the other end finally spoke. "You're joining a task force. 141, i'm sure that you've heard of it, you'll swap onto a carrier and be taken to mexico. Both General Shepard and I will be there." Laswell went silent, almost as if preparing for some type of back talk as always. "Okay." Was all the woman muttered before disconnecting the communication and passing the head set back as the helo blades stopped chopping through the air and finally landed.
The Reaper was pissed off to say the least, cold and wet and now she'd have to travel for hours in a metal box with who knows how many other soldiers. She knew it wasn't fair to be angry at Laswell since it wasn't her call but a warning would have been nice. Taking an uncomfortable seat on the black nets she stretched her long legs, tilting her neck each side as small cracks sounded. Feeling what felt like fifteen pairs of eyes she turned her head to look but as soon as she did all pairs of eyes had suddenly found the metal boxes of cargo more interesting.
Unsurprised that not one of them would come near she folded her arms, the muscles bulging under her still wet jacket, Reaper was a known name. Not just in the military in Britain but around the globe, soldiers even above her rank feared her and it wasn't surprisng. Stories were told around campfires by enemy sentries of encountering the Reaper, however most of the enemy sentries she did encounter were buried in mass graves around the globe. Quite frankly she liked being feared, soldiers scurrying away at her presence.
With her reputation came questions, no one had ever laid eyes on her face and any that had were chopped up into tiny little pieces and thrown into rivers held down by rocks or burned. No one knew her name either, not even the high and mighty General Shepard. And it would stay that way, she was a ghost, a bringer of death and someone who barely existed without the violence of her job.
"E-excuse me?" A young soldier timidly spoke, hands shaking and beads of sweat appearing on his face. She just grunted in response and nodded lightly to urge him to hurry up and ask the question, his hopeful green eyes met the voids in her mask and it looked like she didn't even have a pair of eyes and that's how she liked it. He swallowed and pointed to the only seat left asking without speaking if he could sit, it seemed he had drawn the short straw because his team mates had all managed to take seats on the other side. So much for friends she thought.
It was silent for a moment as if all the air on the carrier had been sucked away, she could see even his squadron looked away in fear of repercusions of his question. The Reaper narrowed her eyes under the mask and stared at him, he was the same height as her but scrawnier, it seemed with how nervous he seemed and how hopeful his eyes were that it was his first mission. Finally, the woman moved her backpack from the net and grunted a "yes" towards him, he quite obviously released a breath he was holding in and mumbled a series of thanks while sitting down.
It was hours later and most of the men had fallen asleep to the soft hum of the craft, every so often it would grumble and shift in the turbulence. The soldier beside her was writing in his journal, you could see how he smiled proudly at his words, it was his first mission. It almost made her laugh as she realised how teenagers join the force hoping it'll be like the movies, maybe once she had thought the same though she couldn't remember. But then he turned to look at her and smiled brightly as if he hadn't heard the stories "I wanna be like you when I get older, strong and badarse" It was now she could hear his accent, Liverpool. It made her shake her head and then she folded her arms again, looking over to his superior for a moment and then back at the younger soldier. Leaning closer to his face she hummed, and you could visibly hear any soldier that was awake take a deep breath in. "Do you know who I am..?" The Reaper asked, voice low and dark, he shook his head slowly. Grunting in response again.
And it was then the soldier tensed, she could see the doubt in his eyes as his liutenant giving him a look as if to say he'd tell him later. Over the intercomm the pilot spoke, cutting the silence like a knife. "This is your pilot, landing in twenty mikes." Those twenty minutes went by painfully slow, a jolt making some of the pilots stumble as the door opened even more painfully slow, soldiers making their way out into the hot desert air.
