Echoes|| König x Reader x Ghost

38: Countdown Hell

The helicopter ride was dead silent, I looked around seeing everyone get ready. I was dragged along with Laswell for technical support, somehow both Soap and Price who were far more injured them me, yet they still get to go.

Ghost and König came back with Al-Qatala banner. We're flying to Urzikstan to see if there is a connection. We're meeting up with this Farah person again.

There are a few other marines from the British Military. Most looked old and war-hardened, but there were two young, about my age. They look excited and a little anxious. I remember my first battlefield, it was... it was something.

I remember the anxiety of my peers the constant jumping, the hypervigilance they experienced for the first time. In all I was bored to death, it was so boring but my peers entertained me.

I remember when most people got their first kill, others handled it better than others. Me and Charlie handled it well... it wasn't our first.

War... affects everyone, but I feel like war just simply passes through me. Like a movie, I half pay attention to, life and war simply flow past me. As I stand in a fast current, my legs bend but I do not flow.

The clouds parted and the sun gleamed brightly on my face, I wince as the light sends a wake of nausea and I feel sick. I sigh and squint around.

"How are you feeling?" Soap asks me, with a semi-serious look. His eyes soften as if he's trying to calm my silent anxiety.

"I'm miserable," I tell him.

"Why?"

"It's going to be hot... I have a giant migraine, and I feel like I'm going to be sick..." His eyes soften and he reaches into his bag.

"I do too, take two." He hands me a motion sickness medication. I took two and popped them in my mouth, Soap reached for his cantina. I chew the pills and turn to him. His mouth dropped open.

"G," I turn to see Gaz and the others staring at me blankly, "did you just chew it?"

"Yeah," I take the cantina and drink water before closing my eyes. My senses are killing me. My skin felt this invisible thing crawling across it, all over my body— a persistent itch, like a fall off my medication...

My medication...

Shit.

My eyes slowly open, and the sun seeps violently into my corneas, bright and nauseating. Most of the time my mind is focused on the missions, distracting me from the nausea in my eyebrow area.

Laswell and I sat behind computers, statistics, and maps laid out before me. I had a radio on listening in on the mission. Laswell did most of the work. I simply sat back. She had many things laid out before us.

Nothing felt right.

This lingering itch this lingering confusion. I'm walking into a haze of madness, a tall field of corn, a headless chicken.

My intuition was telling me something was off.

Makarov.... What is his plan?

"Six who do you have?" I look over to see Laswell talking with the team, I blank out since I'm not doing much, boring job really.

"Gold Eagle actual," I can see Laswell's face darken, and she gets a grimace. I stand up.

"Shepard?" I freeze for a second, was this the General Shepard incident I overheard? "Holly shit," She mumbles.

"I'm coming," Laswell turns to me removing her earpiece and putting on a vest. "Stay here, keep track of what's going on," She tells me. I nod and get up taking up her seat.

It took her a matter of minutes to get to them. She sounded just as heated as everyone else, but her tone was far more controlled compared to the others.

"I know Makarov's next movie," I hear a new voice says, it must be Shepard.

"What did you do to keep your sorry arse alive?" Soap roars.

"Nothing!"

"Lier!" I hear Soap roar.

"Let's move!" Everything went silent and I looked over, Charlie's team, König, and Roach hadn't radioed in. Farah's forces found two separate locations, One in the mountains and the other in a heavily guarded base.

They belive Makarov was there... It seems not.

I look over to see a light blinking and switch to a different frequency, "Charlie—"

"We found active Missiles," Charlie snaps.

"Shit, Location?" I ask. I got the location and from satellite shots, I could easily see missiles.

"Can you deactivate them?"

"Working on it." I switch over again and radio into the main group.

"Everyone, Charlie's team found missiles!" I stated, the radio turned to static before a clear voice spoke up. 

"Where?"

They immediately flew to the destination.

"Monkey! The missiles are activated!"

"Shit!"

"Can you take control?" König shouts as the thrust of the missile grows painfully loud.

"Trying!"

Charlie sprints away as the missiles begin to launch. He looks back to see the four missiles rising high into the sky. 

"What's going on?" He looks back to see Price and his team running towards him.

"They started launching!"

"G what's the statues?" Soap eagerly asks.

"Almost go it, but the fourth one I can't get control of!"

"Take it out with the other three!" Price instruct.

I flew out first before the other three followed suit a minute later. The last three crash straight into the mountainside.

"G did you get the last missile?"

"I can't! Something is blocking me."

Charlie's eyes widen and he let out a long sigh. An eerie dread set in his gut. This is war. He looks over they all have the same look.

I stared at the computer.

Cognitively I knew this meant war, that this meant we fucked up. 

I was lost in thought, it felt so surreal. It felt like seeing your first dead body, like a prop in a movie. It just didn't feel real.

I hear everyone walk in, Charlie pats my shoulder, and his hands linger longer than normal. It's warm and shocks me back to reality.

I look up to see everyone looking at me, Soap and Gaz also patted me on the shoulder, an air of unspoken sorrow. 

"Are you ok?" I look over to see Farah asking me this.

"Look at this," I turn the computer open. The string of nonsense before me was what stopped me from the last missile.

"I think Makarov knew we were coming and made provisions." Soap steps forward and frowns. One by one everyone checked it out. A specialist would have to creak this.

"It's not your fault—"

"Captian, with all due respect, I don't give a damn. I know it isn't my fault and that their death does not weigh my soul." 

"Cold," Farah hums.

"No, no empathy."

Author Note: This chapter killed me started it over and over again like 6 times. this chapter is a turning point.