Russian Medicine

Life moves on but pain finds a home

Lera's POV 1 month later
Weve spent most of the month reviewing what we knew and the patterns in behavior of the turncoats at the pressure from Maxim. We were sitting in our makeshift briefing room as Jace was reviewing what we knew so we could get ahead on Lion. "So Ash, Thermite, Clash, Castle, Warden, Blackbeard, twitch, Montagne and Caveira were all turn coats. They're all dead so we have no further leads. What do they all have in common?" Maxim spoke up "most have a lot of rules in place to live by" Jace nodded "okay, good that's something anything else?" We couldn't think of anything so he sighed "atleast we have something to go on for now. Timur, Monika you two are on behavior observation if someone acts even the slightest degree off the normal I want to know. Elias, Shuhrat, Erik and Dominic you're our QRF shit goes sideways I need you all ready to run to help in any direction. Marius I need you to try to get anything from chatter on the way back from missions, Gustave and Lera you're our medics, Alex Maxim and I are our anchors we hold the choke points if we have to fall back during an operation were the last ones off the field" I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that but it's tactically sound. He looked at all of us "Any objections?" No one said anything "Good, you know what you have to do" we all stood up as he walked to the window and stared outside. I was about to go join him and ask what's wrong when Erik appeared besides him "She would've been so excited with what we're doing here" Jace simply nodded as Erik continued "I hope you know I never blamed you for her death" Jace looked over "while you may not, I certainly do." Erik sighed "listen kid, you're our leader you're the one in charge here, you've done well so far don't let Graces death fuck you up so badly you can't protect the ones you love" I heard Jace sigh "fair enough, just give me another hour or two to feel like shit and then I'll be back to being a reliable soldier, alright?" Erik nodded and was about to walk away when Jace grabbed his arm "I know you're hurting Erik, if you need to talk you can come to me, Gustave or Lera. I need you in A1 condition alright?" Erik nodded with a look of pain "I just might take you up on that" as Jace let go of his arm and went back to staring out the window as I moved to his side as I started "you're a lot more cut up about Grace than I thought" he sighed "Not just her" I looked over "who else then?" He looked over "Lion hit a green beret squad, no survivors." I looked down "we'll get him" I heard a knock on the door as Jace spun and motioned to Maxim and Dominic to take positions on the door as he walked towards it slowly opening the door pistol drawn I see his muscles relax as he opened the door and Harry walked in "well I've got good news and bad news" as we all moved back to the briefing table Shuhrat spoke "good news?" Harry looked at him before focusing on Jace "we know who Lion had in his pocket besides the ones you've taken care of" Jace looked thoughtful before replying "They bugged out didn't they?" Harry nodded "Lesion, Ying, jackal and Mira"
Jace's POV
I sighed "that leaves 18 unknowns" Harry nodded "But atleast now we have ideas of who to look at" Lera nodded "the friends and unit mates of those who are confirmed" Erik joined us at the table "Valkyrie, Pulse, Capitao, Nøkk, and Rook for the Unit mates" Marius spoke up "Valkyrie is friends with a good amount of the confirmed turncoats, Rook is extremely close with Twitch and Montagne and moderately close with Lion, Capitao is extremely protective of Caveira." And finally Maxim spoke "I'm interested in Pulse and the fact he didn't leave, I look at the rest of their unit and they all turned at the same time whereas he stayed. We should keep an eye on him" we all nodded as Alex asked "do we have anyone we're comfortable with and their allegiance?" I heard doc "Thatcher and Kaid" I turned to him "I never even thought about Mike, but why Jalal?" Gustave cough "I heard Mike and Jalal borderline yelling about how they wanted to kill Lion and I saw Jalal taping Lions face to his targets when he was at the firing range before my compromising condition" I smiled "good, do you know where they are?" Doc coughed again "their dorm or the firing range, Pulse joins them every now and again" my eyes widened as I realized why Pulse hadn't left "Erik, Lera, Marius come with me Now!" As I grabbed my CM901 and ran out of the room with Kilo hauling ass towards the firing range the selected operators a few meters behind me "Erik and Lera check Mike and Jalal's dorm after that check Jack's(Pulse)" they nodded and split off to go do what I told them "Marius, you and I are doing to check the firing range, we need to find Mike and Jalal before Jack does" he nodded as we picked up speed. We were coming up on the firing range when I heard gunshots and a thud, my fears rising Marius and I charged through the doors raising our gun just in time to see Mike and Jalal shifting their aim from Jack's body to Marius and I, Kilo started Growling. I sighed and lowered my weapon as did Marius, Kilo kept growling until I whistled "Kilo, Peace." Mike and Jalal didn't shift their guns I spoke calmly "mike, mike it's me Jace. We're friends we aren't trying to kill you" mike looked at me "How do I know you aren't lying like Jack, huh?!" I carefully laid down my rifle and pistol walking slowly towards Mike I pulled out a list of operators and who's marked friendly, turncoat, unknown and KIA. "Here, if you'll allow us, I'd like to being you back to our makeshift brief room so we can explain the mission Harry has given me and my team" mike lowered his gun "You've bought yourself an opportunity. Don't disappoint me son" I smiled and nodded "Follow us, we just have to swing by Jack's dorm and get Erik and Lera and any intel they could gather from there" mike nodded as Jalal remain silent watching for the slightest hint of treachery. I walked over and picked up my rifle slinging it across my back and patting kilos side "Come on girl we've got to go pick up your favorites" as I walked out the door, looking behind me I see mike looking relaxed but Jalals still tense. Sighing I returned my vision forward and picked up pace. Eventually we arrived near the dorm as I lifted my rifle "Finka?! Maverick?! You here?!" I heard Erik inside "Yeah, Rooms clear!" Relaxing I walked in and  held the door for mike and Jalal I closed the door after them "Alright, what do we have? Anything useful?" Erik looked up and smiled "Jack's phone full of messages locations and contacts" Lera spoke up "he got about halfway through destroying some records before, I assume, he met his end." I confirmed her assumption "Hes got to be cleaned up from the firing range. alright tag and bag everything you suspect could have intel. kilo, search" I turned to mike as he spoke "seems you weren't lying" I replied "I'll get you two set up in a room on my wing and have Shuhrat and Alexsandr fill you in on what we've figured out so far" Jalal spoke up "I'm glad you did not lie, it would be a shame to have to kill you" I nodded "indeed it would." Before I turned to help search the room after 5 minutes we searched every inch and only found a few more papers "alright, clear out. We're moving back to our room" we jogged back and when we entered we went to the gun lockers and placed our weapons down I turned to my right "Shuhrat, Alexsandr I need you to fill in Mike and Jalal. Monika you're good with tech, try to get in this phone and tell me what you find. Gustave, since you're still recovering look through these papers and highlight anything of importance. Erik, Lera and Marius take a break relax you did good today." As I walked to the door heading to Harry's office. As I arrived I noticed a blue light in the corner, pretending I didn't notice I walked into his office. Quickly pulling my glock I searched the corners as Harry questioned "Jace what are you doing?" I glanced over "Meghan(Valkyrie) has her camera in the upper right corner outside when was she in here?" He thought as I continued my search "maybe 5 minutes ago? Give or take a couple minutes" I nodded "you need to come with me, they're onto you" he nodded and grabbed as many files as he could setting fire to the rest and hitting the emergency alarm button on his desk sending a message to NATOs board letting them know the base is compromised as we left I shot the cam and we started moving as we moved towards the rooms an explosion ripped apart the silence. I glanced at Harry as he wore an expression of worry as I ran towards the sound. As I arrived I saw my dorm, the Russian and German dorms and Maverick's room reduced to mostly rubble and fire. I looked further down the hall and saw the briefing room had been damaged pretty badly I ran to the door and kicked it 4 or 5 times before it gave way I yelled in "Is anyone here?! Lera?! Monika?! Anyone?!" I heard a low whimper and some of the rubble move I ran in and started digging soon enough a dirty but relatively okay kilo emerged I gave her a hug before saying "alright kilo search, find the others" she started searching as I moved to where Gustave was when I left I started digging moving piece after piece until I saw Gustave's hand through some debris, digging with a renewed vigor I got him out "Gus? Gus, buddy talk to me where's the others?" He looked over towards kilo before weakly pointing I looked over before turning my attention back to him "Are you okay?" He looked down as did I and then I saw it, his wound had reopened and he was bleeding bad. I looked back at him "I've got to find Lera, I don't have the medical knowledge to help you. Keep pressure on it, okay?" He nodded weakly before I ran over and started digging pulling the debris away I saw monika, dead her eyes fearful and glassy. I felt the tears well up as I gently pulled her body out of the rubble and laid her next to Gustave. I heard the rubble move further to my left as I ran and started helping them out I started yanking on the rubble as I heard Erik scream, I stopped before yelling "Erik, just stay calm I'll get you out! I promise!" I ran into the hallway before running to maintenance further down the hall grabbing a saw and running back to my room and a couple operators showed up "Stay out of my way!" As I ran into the room and started the saw cutting into the large slab before setting down the saw grabbing the slab as Seamus walked in "what happened?!" I turned my eyes still fresh with tears "Someone set off a bomb trying to kill us! I need your help to get them out of the rubble!" As he got over his shock he ran over to the slab I was working on and with his help I managed to start pulling it out I grabbed Erik and started pulling him out before he screamed in pain again looking down I saw his leg was trapped he looked at me "Nox, you have to cut the leg" I looked at him "No! No, no we can get you out! We can get you out just give me time" he screamed "No, you have to cut the leg the longer you work on me the less time the others have if they aren't already dead! Come on, cut me! The bones powder! Just flesh and uniform keeping me here" I positioned the knife below his kneecap he yelled "come on! do it now!" I ripped up as he screamed "Seamus, get him situated I've got to find the others!" I started digging in a random spot before I heard Kilo barking, my head snapped in that direction. I ran over and started digging when I reached what kilo was digging at, I saw something I never wanted to see. Alexsandr was there pierced through the chest I carefully pulled him off the piece of rebar before setting him next to monika. 2 hours of digging and searching with some help from some other operators we managed to find every operator except for Finka. Marius, Timur, Erik, Mike and Maxim are the only survivors. Gustaves holding on but it's not looking too good. Kilo and I have been the only constants in the search for her, by the 2 and a half hour mark I was starting to lose hope when I heard some banging on the rubble. I ran over and started pulling out chunks of rubble as I yelled "Lera!" before I saw a hand emerge I took a flashlight off my vest and flashed it down into the crack and saw Lera "Lera, are you ok? Any major injuries?" She was covered in ash and bleeding. She cringed before replying "just some bruises and flesh wounds" I looked behind me "Seamus! Get the saw!," before turning back to Lera "cover your eyes, we'll get you out of there" as Seamus gave me the saw I said to him "Keep everyone out of here, beat them back if you have to" he nodded before hustling to the door. I turned to the rubble "Cover your eyes, you'll be out of there in a minute" I saw her hand go to her eyes as I started the saw and started cutting the rebar after about 45 seconds later I pulled the rubble away. Lera coughed and squinted before blinking a couple times before her eyes adjusted, she saw me and smiled as I had tears streaming down my face giving my skin its usual color instead of an ashy white, her smile disappeared when I collapsed to my knees while I repeated "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" she limped over before sitting next to me "why are you sorry?" I looked at her before looking down "Alexsandr... he.. uh, he didn't survive the explosion. Almost no one survived the explosion, I tried so hard but I couldn't save them." She looked at me, her eyes conveying the pain "who did we lose?" Her voice carrying a heavy quiver "Jalal, Elias, Shuhrat, Monika, Dominic are KIA and Erik is off the field" she started crying as I went to hug her, try to let her know she's not alone but she pushed me away before saying the words that crushed my soul "it's your fault that I lost Alex, if you weren't here Lion never would've turned rouge and started this stupid fucking war!" I stared at her wide eyed as Kilo started to snarl at her. I immediately numbed up as I stood up and walked away heading to Gustave and Erik. I walked to Gustave "how ya holding up?" He coughed "not very well" the nurse walked over "his wounds keep opening we can't keep them shut he's most likely going to bleed out" as the nurse finished talking about it the wound opened I turned to her "Get the doctors!" As I put pressure on the wound I turned to bystanders "Get a fucking doctor! Come on! Stay with me!" He started "Jace.. Valkyrie.." I looked at him "Not now Doc.. just rest" as I turned to the nurses "Get a fucking doctor! Come on Gus! Stay awake focus on me!" Tapping his face as He grabbed my plate carrier "Valkyrie..... placed the..... bomb" I pushed on the wound harder "No! No! Nononono!" I placed my glock on his chest before whispering "this belongs to you now" as I took his revolver. I turned to see Erik "don't tell me you're going to die too" he chuckled lightly before the brief moment of laughter was smothered by loss "no, but I won't be joining you in killing Lion" I sighed "better than having another dead brother" he nodded "atleast you'll have Lera with you" I shook my head "she blames me for Alex's death, can't say I blame her. I'm on my own, I'm going to hunt down valkyrie and find out what she knows" he looked at me weird "you seem oddly okay with Lera blaming you" I nodded "because it is my fault. Do you know if anyone left with Valkyrie when she made her escape?" He thought for a second before saying "Maestro" I cocked my head "Maestro? Why would he?" Erik shrugged "I don't know" I sighed "If Lera or any of the others swing by tell them I'm sorry and to keep an eye on things at the new base Harry's transferring us to, alright?" He gave a half assed salute "stay safe, brother" he smiled "you too" I went to the armory grabbed my shotgun 3 months worth of ammo for both guns and a Dirt Bike.