A Soldiers Story: Ghosts of the battlefield

Chapter 2: Old friends

3rd Person POV

Blitz jumped up from his seat and locked eye contact with the new op, eyes narrowed, which Richard mirrored.

They went towards each other. The whole room was completely silent, expecting something bad.

Standing directly in front of Blitz, Poltergeists 1,85m height made him look like a giant in front of the comparably smaller Blitz.

Suddenly Blitz expression changed dramatically to one full of happiness. His arm shot in the air. „Brezel!" he shouted.

Poltergeist: „Bratwurst!" he yelled doing the same.

They both laughed hysterically as the other operators sighed in relief.

It was astonishing how fast such serious, grown man could seem like they were children again and joking about when they were put together with one another.

All the while Six just had a content smile on his face.

But what only Maestro noticed was that Alibi didn't take her eyes of Poltergeist.

Maestro: „Do you know him?" He asked her in Italian.

She nodded slightly

Maestro: „Work or private?"

Alibi: „Work..." she said giving him a slight death glare to let him know he should stop asking.

He raised his hands in defence but kept a slight smirk.

~Timeskip~

Poltergeist POV / Baracks / Training area / Equipment storage

Six: „And this one's yours. Your equipment was already brought here but it's up to you to unpack everything and furnish it to your liking. If you need anything, let me know." He said gesturing at the cage locker.

Inside were different pre-built shelves, a workbench and various military crates and weapon cases.

There were also two crates which stood out: Both had fingerprint scanners.

In these were a backup and a prototype of the Poltergeist Cloaking System. Short PCS.

Six: „Do you remember the code I gave you?" He pointed at the keypad at the cage door.

Poltergeist: „Yes I do and thank you, Henry."

Six: „Normally we would have already prepared a workbench for you, but you know; getting you into the team was a bit out of schedule."

Poltergeist: „I'll probably make a list."

Six: „Good idea. Can you find your way back to your dorm?"

Poltergeist: „Probably." I said jokingly.

Six laughed slightly; „Have a good evening, Richard."

Poltergeist: „You too."

With that Six left and I went to the keypad in the door, put in the code and pulled it open.

Immediately I knelt down to the crate with the fragile prototype in it and put my thumb on the scanner.

I cautiously open it.

'They're alright. Thank God.' I thought and slowly closed it.

„That was quite a show today." someone behind me said in a low Italian accent. „Richard, was it?"

I turned around, still kneeling „Yes, and you are?"

Maestro: „Adriano Martello, codename: Maestro. GIS."

Poltergeist: „The man with the evil eye, right?"

Maestro: „How'd you know?"

Poltergeist: „I knew someone else from the GIS. We often talked about our CTUs while working on this." I gesture to the boxes and the PCS pieces on my clothing. Sadly, we lost contact shortly after the PCS was completed because of new missions that came up."

Maestro: „That's one of the downsides of being an operator. But what I wanted to ask you was if you got time so that I could introduce you to some of the team."

Poltergeist: „If it doesn't take too long, sure."

Maestro: „Then follow me."

We walked down the hallways in the direction of the dorms. Each operator had their own room which was sorted by the CTUs.

Near the end of the hallway, we stopped. On this door, it said „Alibi". Maestro knocked on it.

„What is it?" a familiar female voice shouted behind the door in Italian. One of the few things I still remembered.

Maestro answered something which I didn't understand.

„Fine." she yelled followed by light steps towards the door. It opened and Aria stepped forward. My eyes opened wide.

I shouldn't have been surprised that she made it here, but I never thought I'd see her again.

She looked like she was about to say something but stopped as soon as she saw me.

Poltergeist: „Aria? It- It's been too long."

Alibi: „Yes it has, Richard..." she said with a slight smile.