Operation: Healing Shadows

The resurgence

Aaron's POV
       I looked out the helicopter and saw the forests of the Congo turn into the savannah as we made our way towards Tsavo, I glanced around the helicopter and saw thatcher and Ash talking amongst themselves while Blackbeard and Iana silently checked their gear. I spoke to myself "Mason what have you gotten yourself into?" I heard thatcher next to me "whatd ya say mate? I couldn't catch it over the helicopter" I shook my head no "nothing, just thinking" he nodded as Blackbeard spoke "I've always wanted to see tsavo, ever since I watched the movie" I listened quietly while they talked. Eventually we reached the LZ and I hefted my Mk48 while the doors got pulled open, I heard Marius "touchdown, move" I pushed off the helicopter and bounded our double checking my bolt before looking at Craig "think they decimated the masks?" He nodded before replying "they're always so destructive" I chuckled as Eliza replied "let's go, I wanna be there soon" I rolled my eyes at her attempts to rush to the building. Thatcher started towards the base slowly forcing ash to slow down while we made our way through the bush, I felt chills shoot up and down my spine as the stories Mason told me echoed in my head. My hand flexed on my lmg until I heard Iana "no need to be nervous, your gun is many times more likely to malfunction than a lion is to attack you" I asked inquisitively "is that true?" She shrugged before pointing out "no matter, it worked on calming your nerves" I sighed but return my eyes to the bushes and savannah around us.
       It was a quiet walk my mind preoccupied with thoughts of simpler times until I heard Blackbeard "Were almost there, just another 60 meters to the gorge that leads to the target" I nodded and wiped my mind of all thoughts except for the ones of the mission. The comfort of familiarity warmed my fingertips as we walked until we moved down into the gorge, I sat on a rock laying my Mk48 across my legs before pulling out a picture from my kids party. I stared at it before making a silent promise "I'll make it back to you, I'll walk you down the isle when you're older." My eyes were pulled up when I heard Ash "Iana and I can scout the base, see if we're walking into an ambush or a wasteland" Thatcher looked unsure as he replied "I don't know, I don't want to split our forces" before I spoke "quick peak then they're back, They can cover each other. We need that information, information wins wars" he sighed before motioning to Iana and Ash "Keep you're head on the swivel and do not fuck about, you go, you look, you come back, got it?" Iana nodded while Ash snipped "Yes dad, I got it. We'll be back in a jiffy"
     I crouched and rested my left elbow on my knee pad before looking around and thinking out loud "if the feds framed Mason and Luna and they're so high profile, what's stopping them from framing us?" Mike looked over at me, the large lifeless orbs of his gas mask seemed to drill into my soul before he spoke "nothing, absolutely fuckin' nothing. We're takin the piss if we say they can't" I heard Craig "to think I signed my life to the government and they could do this" I sighed before falling quiet. A couple minutes later Ash and Iana walked into our perimeter "Blue, blue." I lowered my Mk48 and asked "sitrep?" To which Iana replied "well the base is.... undistrubed, there's no body's, no round impacts, no blood, just masks walking around normally" I looked over and saw Blackbeard looking surprised, his mouth slightly agape with his sunglasses sagging a bit as he muttered "they never leave anything undestroyed, they're literally some of the most destructively nuclear operators I've ever worked with. Mason literally walked back into a burning building to finish off the last surviving mask, how the fuck did this base get away unscathed?"
       Ash responded "I don't think they actually attacked the base, it doesn't look like there was any struggle" I heard Thatcher think out loud "maybe they got what they needed without having to engage?" I questioned in return "maybe they found something they wanted to make sure survived and getting into a gunfight would've endangered it?" Iana replied with a tone of boredom "whatever the reason we need to clear out this base" I pushed myself up from my crouch and hefted the machine gun before Thatcher nodded "let's get going then" Ash spun and was about to rush off when Thatcher spoke firmly "Ash slow the fuck down. I will not have you making this go tits up because you want to hurry" she sighed as Thatcher walked past and spoke disapprovingly "Learn to control yourself or you're going to get people killed" she looked down before pushing her glasses up and nodding.
She quickly fell in line behind Thatcher while I took up the middle and Blackbeard and Iana fell in line behind us, I glanced back at Blackbeard and spoke softly "I almost shot thatcher in the ass" he cocked his head and asked "how the fuck?" I chuckled as I replied "My drill sergeant always said aim where you're looking" thatcher spun around and hissed through his gas mask "Mate, you stare at my arse again and I'll kill you myself" I smirked "careful old man, my wife says the same thing. She might think you're flirting with me" Iana laughed from behind Blackbeard as thatcher sighed and muttered "Apex, I have no fookin' clue how you haven't been shot" I replied with a cheeky smile "it's cause I'm lovable" I heard the chuckles move through the team before we fell silent and moved.
Half an hour of slow walking later we came to the hill that overlooks the base, I heard Blackbeard "Apex, you got overwatch?" I nodded and propped my bipod against a rock infront of me before asking thatcher "Old man, are we doing this sneaky beaky or just big gunfight and then secure?" Thatcher looked over and spoke "You know lad, I think we should say 'ello" I smirked as I shifted my weight and aimed through my ACOG while my finger slowly shifted from above my trigger guard to the trigger. "Ash, count me down" she looked confused but counted down "3, 2, 1?" As I squeezed the trigger for two seconds as I watched 22 rounds impact the mask in the watch tower as it ripped his corpse out of the tower and 5 meters to the ground. I saw every mask infront of me freeze as they scoured the wilderness around them before I fired at a group and held down the trigger until I saw the group fall and spoke "spacing you fucking idiots, it's not worth wasting the ammo on a single man" I shifted my aim to the next group I saw as the rest of the team joined in and began mowing down the masks.
The masks mounted a defense, a failing defense but a defense none the less, my Mk48 ran out of bite causing me to yell "Reloading!" As I slid down the hill and pulled my bag off pulling out an ammo box and feeding the belt through the chamber. By the time I reached the hill the masks had retreated I growled as the last mask disappeared around the corner, I sat patiently with the team for a minute before thatcher spoke "let's go, we need to make ground" just then I heard Stevens "Sitrep" I sighed as Iana replied "we're about to start our incursion to the primary target" Stevens replied causing all of us to squirm uncomfortably "keep me updated babe" as Iana looked like she was about to throw up, she muted her mic and spoke "if he says that again, I want you to shoot me" I looked at her as Blackbeard replied "if he says that again, I'm shooting myself" I sighed and lifted my Mk48 before slowly walking over the hill and making my way into the base.
       I pressed my back against the corner and lifted my Mk48 so the barrel pointed at the sky, I felt Thatcher squeeze my bicep as I stepped around the corner and leveled my Mk48 before slowly moving my way up the wall looking for any hint of the masks, a shadow out of place or the tip of a barrel. I felt a chill run up my spine and quickly sidestepped into cover, the rest of the stack followed me just as rounds started flying, Ash yelled over the fire "how did you know?!" I yelled back as I came over the cover and squeezed the trigger spraying rounds down range just trying to gain fire superiority "I had a feeling, my feelings aren't wrong often!" Thatcher and Blackbeard joined me in firing as mask after mask dropped. I had my lmg jam causing me to crouch and yelled "Jammed!" Alerting my team and causing their volume of fire to increase, I pulled the priming handle and heard the crack as a geyser of dirt erupted in my face "Misfire, misfire!" I made sure the jam was clear before I stood and slowly walked forward firing at any masks I saw retreating until suddenly the gunfire disappeared, I heard a helicopters signature chop and slowly came to a stop watching as a huge osprey took off. "what the fu-" I was cut off as thatcher's AR33 barked in my ear causing me to duck away and hold my ear in pain, I grimaced at the wave of pain only to have Iana ask something I struggled to hear "What?!" She spoke loudly "Stop yelling, you'll be okay. It's just a blown eardrum, we have to secure the documents"
I nodded as I gripped my gun and walked into the base at the back of the stack acting as rear guard, the base was destroyed wires and cords hung from the ceiling, panels were missing, the lights flickered with each passing second. I looked down and saw a dead mask, crushed below a pile of heavy cinder blocks, I shook my head sadly and stepped over him before following the squad into the commanders office before shivering at the tickle of blood in my ear. We walked in and saw a file with the edge on fire, ash squashed the flame with her hat before flipping the cover open and flipping through each paper before she froze "Woah, guys we got something usable. It's way bigger than we thought" I stepped closer eager to see the evidence she had seen.