Rainbow Six

Sledgehammer

     We arrive at the house in about ten minutes. The bright lights inside the house contrasted harshly with the night. The bullet proof interior of the Big Rig was lined with so many guns you can't just choose one, but of course by now we all have our favorites. Merrick got out and walking around the back, away from the house, and entered the large container we transformed into our moving fortress.

     From the outside, the truck is a sleek black, with only the letters R6 on the side, to separate it from the other divisions' rigs. Merrick reached under on of the benches lining the side of the wall, and brought out of box of four drones. They were really just little flat boards with a wheel on either side, and a camera in front. We each take a screen, which is the controller, and after syncing the controller with the drone, we open a little hatch on the ground at the rear of the container, made for deploying drones.

     We each choose where we want to enter the house with our drones. I just went right under a board on the front door, and made my way upstairs to look at the target room. Again, there was another misplaced board.

     "I see three in the target room, one aiming out the window, while the other two set up shields in opposite corners, and are hiding out." I share my findings with the group.

     "Just did a sniper search, came up negative. No snipers covering the front yard, and with that, you guys should be good" Merrick announced to start the mission.

     "In position" I say over the radio. I'm hanging from a hook on the roof, bound by climbing cord, and standing on the window.

     "In position" I hear the other 3 say, relatively together, but enough separate to sound messy. I set my breach charge on the window, and carefully opened it, as to not make too much noise. My cord wiggles a bit as I do, but not yet enough to make me feel like I'll fall off the wall.

     "Everyone's breaches set?" I hear Merrick say, and we all respond with an unenthusiastic, whispered yes. He counts us down, and since I have a special circumstance, I kick off the wall on one, and blow my charge on zero, just like the others. When he hit zero, it felt like the whole house shook, because it did. Flint hit the garage door with all he has, Spark exploded the roof, and I'm breaching a window. Jim, meanwhile was climbing through the vents, using the explosions to mask his noise.

     I fall through the window and unhook extremely quickly, drawing my ACR immediately after. If I were to take any more than half a second on those movements, I could be on the floor shaking hands with the grim reaper right now. Luckily, no terrorists were in my room.

     "The electronic device is a bomb. I don't think these terrorists are playing around, so if they feel threatened, they'll ignite it. Defuse quickly and use your time meaningfully" Merrick announces over the radio. I hear some muffled silencer shots coming from Sparks direction, and then a moan from a falling terrorist.

     "Confirmed kill, second floor three rooms from target" Spark follows with immediately.

     "Two confirmed kills in the garage...they were trying to ambush me. There's a big dent in the wall where one met their fate" Flint said proudly. We all knew how to sweep the house and make our way to the target room, we've done it hundreds of times, but not with these level terrorists...and not with a bomb. The mission felt timed, like a clock floating over our shoulders ticking down until it hits zero, and the house goes up in flames. Jim would be the first to go, since he's in the room. Then me and Spark, but Flint has a chance.

     I waved the thought from my head. I've done this like a hundred times, this is no different. I meet up with Spark up just a few rooms down, and we go to the kitchen and wait for Flint. The entire house is swept, except for the target room. We all make out way towards the room, and the end is near.

     "Ok, Jim are you in position?" I say over the radio. Jim is in a vent leading into the room, so we need to be careful breaching the roof.

     "Yeah, you ready for me to smoke the room?" He replied in a very hushed voice.

     "Not yet, but when we are ready, all we need is just a normal smoke grenade, nothing else." I told him, making sure he heard before we continued. Since there's three of us, we slightly modified the plan so that Flint would enter through the corner of the room, that opens to the outside. It's not really a corner, just a curve but it's a good entry point. Spark would breach and jump in from the roof, and immediately begin defusing, while I cover them with my ACR.

     I try to remember the layout of the room. One gunner aiming at the window, one aiming at the boards, and then two shields we couldn't see behind in our scouting, but we had everything planned. Flint is hanging from the roof, and standing against the wall. Spark is on the room, charge in place, Jim is in the vent, smoke grenade I hand, and I was ready to break the boards on the door.

     "Jim...smoke 'em" I say, read to kick it off. Right as we hear the smoke explode, I wait a few seconds, and toss a grenade under the boards. At the exact same time as the grenade went off, Flint blew the wall and Spark blew the roof. Everything was so well choreographed, this might as well had been scripted. I bust down the boards and shoot the one target I see through the smoke, using my night vision goggles.

     The smoke clears in about two minutes and Flint and I confirm our two kills. Spark is defusing the bomb and everything is quiet. Jim breaks open the vent door and finally is free when he crawls out and falls face first on the floor, giving everyone a good laugh. Spark was almost done defusing the bomb, when the peaceful silence was broken. On the the shields in the corner flew out of its place, and a crouching juggernaut stood up. His armor was probably the mass of Spark and Flint combined, and that's saying a lot. He picks up a massive machine gun that was on the ground, and only made for juggernauts, and he loaded it.

     "RUN! Go behind the wall outside the room, he can't hear us and he's too big to leave through a door way without opening a blind spot to attack him from!" I yell to the rest of the team, and we all follow just as I said.

     A few grenades, stun grenades, and clips of bullets later, we hand no shot. The bomb was still active and will explode any second, we had no idea. The juggernaut hadn't fired in a couple minutes, so Jim decided to barely stick his head around the corner of the door frame.

     The deafening sound of a heavy machine gun bullet broke the silence. Jim fell backwards and quickly crawled back to cover. After I look at him one more time, something is missing...his left calf. Spark immediately moved to help him by bandaging, and Flint stood up.

     "This is never going to end." He reached to his pocket and grabbed a grenade. Without consulting any of us, he ran into the room.

     We all leaned in to see what was going to happen. Even Jim. Flint swiftly slid between the juggernauts legs, grabbing his leg while he did. The juggernaut struggled to get up, but was disoriented. When he finally did, Flint yanked the pin on the grenade, and holding it in his hand, hugged the juggernaut. In the five seconds before the grenade went off, Flint jumped out the hole he previously breached in the wall, taking the juggernaut with him. We heard faint struggling over the radio, until the grenade exploded.

     We all sat in shock for maybe a minute, until I spoke up, scared to even know the answer to my request.

     "Merrick, heartbeat sensor update on Flint" I ask Merrick, who is in the control center in the big rig.

     "Results...came up...negative" Merrick said shocked. "He's...he's dead"

     I was previously crouching, very alert, but then I fell back to a sitting position. It's impossible. We can't lose Flint, perfectly healthy Flint, in an instant. Why would he do that? Why would he risk his life like that? We could've retreated and Flint would still be alive.

     We all made our way back to the front door, where we were greeted by our Big Rig. Merrick checked the side of the building where the explosion happened, and he warned us not to go back there. Our mission was done. Emergency response workers would work on cleaning up behind us.

 
     Even on the ride home, I didn't believe Flint was dead. I tried to convince myself this was all a dream. It wasn't working. Flint was gone.