One With Shadow

Operation Snowfall: A Chilled Strategy

TW: BLOOD AND GORE, WEAPONS, FOUL LANGUAGE

Ivy

The heli lands on the outskirts of the mountain compound, one last double check of all of our gear and we exit into the blizzard that will effectively cover our tracks and keep us well hidden as we make entry. We ready our weapons, scouting the area as everyone exits, making sure there are no enemy patrols in the vicinity. 

"Comm check." Merrick says in the comms, his voice ringing clearly in our ears. We all nod confirming that we hear him loud and clear, and we make our way to the compound, checking our surroundings as we pass numerous large trees. The trees and the snow blowing fiercely will keep us relatively safe until we have the compound in sight. Merrick takes point with Gator close behind him, Bones with his imposing footsteps treks through the snow slightly while Keegan and I cover the rear. After what seems like hours in the bitter cold of the mountains, we finally hear the sound of various armored vehicles in the distance as well as metal clanging, clearly, we were in range of the compound. We approach from the North of the compound and see two large watch towers, the wall we plan to make entry in between them at the base, Keegan and I remove our snipers and scout the towers, seeing two guards stationed at both towers. 

"Poison, we take the tower on the left first, you take the guard on the left, I got right. On you." He says as he readies his weapon, I bring mine up to my face and scope downrange, my reticle perfectly lined up with the left guard's head. 

"3...2...1..." We both take out our respective guards on the left tower and shift our scopes to the right.

"Again, you take left, I'll take right. Count it down..." He says as he readies his shot. 

"3...2...1..." Again, with perfect precision, we take our shots, effectively clearing both guard towers above the wall. Merrick gives us a nod showing that he approves, and we make our descent from the hills down to the wall. We check one last time that the base of the wall is clear, and Gator removes two line launchers, handing one to myself and Keegan, and one to Merrick. We line our launchers up at the towers and make a good connection with the railing. We ascend as the blizzard covers the sound of our ascent, we hop over the rails and check our corners before we descend the stairs down to the bottom floor and make for the main building. Gator and Merrick split off and head for the security room building while Gator, Keegan, and I make for the main weapons cache. We tread carefully through the snow that goes up to our ankles, keeping our footsteps as relatively quiet as much as possible, avoiding as much of the crunching sounds our combat cleats makes as we move forward. 

---

Merrick and Gator make it to the server room, Gator pulls out a handheld pad and links up to the keypad on the wall, with a few presses of the buttons he unlocks it while Merrick covers him. The door swings open and a guard walks out, Gator immediately neutralizes with his knife straight to his throat and he drops to the snow-covered ground. Gator nods to Merrick and they both enter the server room; Merrick sets up his equipment at one monitor while Gator sets his up at another, plugging in his laptop into the system, he inputs a wide variety of codes, his screen showing various highlighter green numbers and letters that fill the entirety of the screen, his honey brown eyes darting back and forth as he follows the codes. "I'm in, extracting now." Gator says as he looks over at Merrick. Merrick nods and patches into the comms, static fills his ears before speaking into it. 

"Alpha 0-1 to Alpha 0-3, how copy?" He says as he scans through the various cameras on his monitors, checking for patrols nearby and potential compromission of their location.

"Alpha 0-3 copies, we've made it to the main building. What's your status?" Keegan says in the comms as Bones gets ready to breech the door.

"Extracting intel now, it'll take some time. We're currently at... fourty-nine percent. Clear your building and set the charges, but do not blow until we have what we need and get out." 

"Alpha 0-3 copies all, out here." Keegan responds, he looks at Bones and nods, giving him the okay. Bones pulls his massive sledgehammer from his back and adjusts his grip on the handle, Keegan gives him the nod and he smashes it in the door, breaking it completely off the hinges. Keegan tosses a flash grenade inside the room, a loud pop and various crackles echo in the room as guards grip their eyes and sway from becoming disoriented. Keegan and I both enter and take our shots, swiftly bringing them down without incident. We push into the main section of the building, various large shipment containers line the walls housing guns, explosives, launchers. We look to our left and see two large shipping containers, we open them and find controls inside, I look at Keegan with a look, a look of anxiety. Bones pulls a lever and screens start lighting up, we hear a noise and back out of the container and see exactly why this is a massive concern...

Ballistic missile launchers, and two very large ballistic missiles...

"Alpha 0-1, how copy?" I say in the comms as I set my pack down, getting ready to set up the C4 explosives. 

"Alpha 0-1 to Alpha 0-3, send traffic." 

"Merrick we have a problem... Russia has access to ballistic missiles." I say as I pass a C4 to Keegan to attach to one shipping container while I attach one to the container directly in front of me. 

"Alpha 0-3 repeat your last?" 

"I say again, Russia has access to ballistic missiles. We've located two in the main cache. We're attaching the C4 now and moving on to the rest of the containers."

"Roger that, we are at eighty-nine percent downloaded and we will rendezvous in the middle and head East to exfil. Out here."

I attach the C4 to the container and hand one to bones and Keegan to help me attach a few to the last of the containers that line the wall. Footsteps echo in the corridors that line the cache outside the door, I pick up my rifle and aim downrange. "Contact!" We take cover and start taking effective fire and follow suit with bullets of our own. "Merrick! We're taking effective fire in here, what's your status?!" I shout in the comms as Russians start pushing closer to our position. 

"Ninety-eight percent downloaded, Poison! We'll be there in five!" 

"We don't have five, Merrick!" 

"Relax, Poison. We're fine, and they'll be here!" Keegan shouts at me as he tosses a flash across the room. "We push!" 

Bones reloads his custom M2 Browning, pulling another row of ammunition into the barrel and cocks it, each shot he takes empty shells spray all around him, cutting down enemies with savage impacts. I reload my sniper and pick enemies off one by one. "Last mag!" I shout as I continue taking out enemies. 

"Blue blue on your six!" Merrick shouts in the comms as he breeches the door behind us. "Pop smoke, we'll escape through this door and head East to exfil!" Keegan pulls the pin from a smoke and throws it in front of us, covering the front of us in a dense cloud of smoke. We swiftly make our exit from the cache building and sprint to the East, taking out guards around us that bar our exit. My sniper runs empty, and I pull out my knife and sidearm, still providing cover fire as we exit the compound heading for the hills. "Blow it, Poison!" I pull out my handheld detonator and click it, the C4 flawlessly did their job, completely blowing the compound and its contents. A massive mushroom cloud forms in the sky as we can hear distant screams of Russians who did not escape the blast and instead are burning. We push for our exfil point, and Merrick shouts in the comms. "Nearly there! Start engines!" 

We come over the peak of the hill and see the rotors coming to life and we hop into the heli, shutting the door behind us. The pilot brings us into flight, and we begin to make our way back to base. I sit on the floor with my back leaning against the bench as I pant, and Gator sits next to me. He puts his hand on my shoulder and nods, the red light of the heli gleaming off of his faceplate. I nod and smile with my eyes, and Keegan nudges me with his boot. I turn and glare up at him. "What Keegan?" I ask as I raise my eyebrow. 

"You did good out there, kid. Welcome to the Ghosts." He says as he holds his fist up for me to bump it with mine, I chuckle under my balaclava and bump his fist with mine. 

Finally... The recognition I was wanting all along... Maybe Keegan will be alright to work with after all. 

(A/N Sheeeesh what a lot of action am I right? We're officially part of the Ghosts! HUGE credit to my dear Courtney for coming up with the title. Loved it and had to give her credit. See you in the next chapter!