Operation: Glancing Tear

Operation: Proving Ground

Eirik's POV(3 weeks later)
      I looked at the team huddled around the steering column as we sailed through the Estonian valley heading towards the insertion point, I spoke into my headset "hey Apollo, who's going this time if rainbow gets pinned down in shore?" He chuckled and replied "it's Dynamite's turn, but I'll send you and him so you can put your new skills to use" I shook my head as Thatcher patted my shoulder "make me proud, you've done well in training" I smiled to myself as Hibana spoke "we're coming up to the insert point" I glanced around the valley and saw the key landmarks marking our approach before I glanced down at my tacpad on my forearm looking at my GPS before staring forward over the minigun. Ela asked "any word from command on the status of the hostage?" I listened as my eyes scanned the surrounding underbrush and Apollo replied "negative, the hostage is still on the target. The ISR counts 30 enemies on target, we'll be on station in 1 mike, get mean" I kept my eyes scanning sectors until we dropped from full speed to our quiet running speed. I heard sledge on the comms "how does this boat get so quiet? This shite is fucking unbelievable"
      Viking replied "we have to be able to get this quiet, we're in the worst position for an ambush we can only go forward or backward. If we're silent going in maybe we'll be able to get past any ambushes" he nodded just as Thatcher spoke "I've got eyes on the LZ" I confirmed sight "Affirm, eyes on the insert." Dynamite asked Apollo "we going in?" Just for Apollo to ask me "Spider, assess" Pulse put down his binoculars and spoke "I'm not seeing any movement, I think it's clear" I nodded and confirmed "good to advance, gun is hot" I heard the engine rev slightly as we moved towards the bank quickly. I heard Thatcher "keep your head on the swivel kid, I'll see you on the other side" I nodded and watched as Thatcher, Hibana, Pulse, Sledge and Jäger rush off the bow of the ship as I leveled my minigun and watched them disappear into the forest. I kept my gun trained on the forest edge until I heard Apollo "we're clear" I turned and asked "how do you think this hit goes?"
He looked further into the forest "smoothly, hopefully" I nodded as Viking spoke "we just need to be ready to pull our guys out fast, Spider you ready to go have some fun?" I gave him a fist bump before resting my forearms on top of my minigun as I listened to the team comms. Jäger spoke "thatcher we got one in the sniper tower at 11 o'clock high" thatcher replied "got the fucker, move around to the right well stay out of his way for a bit" Hibana spoke next "hey Thatch, we have a possible breach point on the east wall. There's a large crack in the wall, we might be able to squeeze through it" just for Pulse to add on "I can use my cardiac sensor to make sure no one's around to catch us with our pants down" sledge finished off "I can use my hammer and make it larger if we need to, mate" thatcher replied to all of them "move to that point, we'll assess before we overcommit and get into a bit of a sticky situation, clear?" I sighed as the radios fell silent and my mind's eye was left to envision terrible outcomes.
I heard Apollo speak "Spider, Dynamite, get your personal weapons ready. If this goes pear shaped I want you two ready to go ashore" I looked at Viking "if we hit the ground, take my gun. She has more of a bite than yours" he nodded as I pulled my CZ805 from its holding rack. I pulled the priming handle and let the tension pull the bolt out of my grip and slam close chambering a round, I kept my rifle on safety before slinging it across my back and standing next to my minigun waiting for a call for help. The minutes crawled as we drifted down the river silently until the familiar sound of Thatcher's AR33 shattered the silence sending a murder of crows off into the sky in a panic, I heard Apollo start the engine as he spoke through our boat comms "action stations" I gripped the handles of my minigun and heard Viking "Thatcher, what's going on? Do you need support? Have you gotten the hostage?" He yelled into the comms as the torrent of fire increased in ferocity "we're under heavy fire, we have 3 bombers with Machine Guns firing at us. JÄGER GET YOUR ASS DOWN!" The gunfire increased tenfold as Thatcher yelled at Jäger "I am requesting immediate assistance with extracting the Hostage, we have her under our control but we cannot exfil, I repeat we require immediate assistance with exfil"
I double checked my CZ805 before giving Apollo a thumbs up as Dynamite spoke to him on comms "my gun is hot and my med gear is prepped" I looked forward as we retraced our steps from earlier and headed back to the insertion point. I heard James as we approached the shore "contact in 5" I braced as the bow of our boat hit the shore before Dynamite and I jumped off and tore into the forest, I looked at him as we reached the tree line "why don't you put fall charges on the trees? We can use them to cover our escape" he grew a maniacal smile and began to place charges in a huge semi circle completely surrounding the insert and exfil point. I whistled and motioned in the direction of the base before pushing off the ground and sprinting through the thick forest until Dynamite caught me and made me stop "Spider, you need to slow down. Why are you in such a hurry?" I replied urgently "my mentor and friends are in a heavy gunfight, I'm not losing another friend now come on" he sighed but grafted his rifle and nodded as we took off running again following the sounds of gunfire through the forest.
       I heard Thatcher on the radio "relief force, where the hell are you?!" I spoke into my headset "we've moving to you now, just hold out for a bit longer." He yelled back "we don't have a bit longer!" I sighed as we reached the outer edges of the target. I swung around to the right and quickly slid through the gap in the wall before shouldering my CZ before slowly walking forward towards the sound of the gunfight which had increased in volume from a distant thunderstorm to an oppressive hellstorm. I heard Twitch on the comms "Spider if you don't get here now.... we're all gonna fucking die" the fear in her voice felt like an arrow to the lungs, the air was kicked from my body and I was left choking on my spit before I shook my head and arrived at the corner peaking around seeing a force of 30 White Masks in various pieces of cover taking turns firing upon a quickly disintegrating wall of the target building, I leaned to my left around the corner and fired into the packages of C4 on the back of a bomber watching as the mask exploded taking 5 with him.
      I smirked as Dynamite threw one of his incendiary grenades, I watched with a small smile as the area around it burst into flames burning a further 4 masks to death, I radioed "Team 1, QRF is on station." As I fired another burst into a mask as he tried to react to the new threat. I laughed as I fired loving the kick of my rifle into my shoulder before I crouched to reload and noticed the spider next to my foot, I threw myself back and away from it just as the corner I was just crouched at detonated from an RPG. I heard Dynamite through the ear splitting ringing "Spider.... spider are you okay?" I looked over and nodded "yea... yea I'm good" he spoke again "then get back in the fight!" I shook my head before I finished reloading and moved to the now damaged corner and continued firing. By now Thatcher's fireteam has joined in on firing at the Masks catching them in a cross fire, their once strong force was quickly being decimated.
       The Masks made their escape while Dynamite and I made our way to Thatcher's position, I climbed up the stairs behind Dynamite as he got his medical gear ready. Dynamite called up "Blue coming up" to which Pulse called back "rog' welcome to the party" I crouched at the top of the staircase keeping my rifle pointed down the staircase as Thatcher crouched next to me "how're you doing son?" I nodded staying silent as he spoke sternly "tell me the truth" I sighed before replying "a bit shaken" he asked "were you the one they tried to RPG" I nodded before chuckling "my fear of spiders saved my life" he looked intrigued as I replied "I fell backwards and away from the corner because I saw a spider and jumped back trying to get away from it, I didn't know there was an RPG pointed at me until it detonated" he chuckled before clapping the back of my plate carrier "you're one lucky son of a bitch Spider" just as Twitch spoke "we should get moving, I've picked up some chatter on the Mask radios. They're counterattacking" I nodded as Thatcher handed out orders "Pulse, Spider, you're on point. Dynamite, you, me and Twitch are in the middle with the HVI. Jäger, Hibana rear guard." I suggested "put me on rear guard I've got more ammo than they do, if they're counter attacking I'll be able to hold the longer" he nodded before replying "Hibana, you're on point. Alright people, Let's move!"
I stood and watched as the group moved past me until it was just Jäger, Thatcher and I "go ahead Jäger we'll catch up.... you did good kid, finish out strong" I nodded as we headed down the steps and back into the smoldering courtyard. We went through the main gate in an attempt to buy time but only ended up getting spotted by the mask counter force, I yelled "Go! Get to the shore! Apollo bring in the boat, Hot extract 7 bodies." As I spun and crouched next to a tree firing into the leading masks before I heard Jäger "bounding!" To which I yelled "go!" As I fired another burst at the closest mask trying to keep his head down while Jäger was exposed, I heard Jäger behind me 15 meters "set!" To which I replied by yelling back "bounding!" SS I turned and ran past Jäger and continued on 15 meters before I yelled "set!" Before lifting my M32 and firing off all 6 tubes of tear gas at Jager's last position hearing the coughing as I yelled up to Jäger "Keep going!" As we ran through the forest having rounds fly past us.
Jäger and I ran as rounds impacted trees sending splinters flying until an RPG flew past me and hit the tree next to Jäger causing it to fall and block my path, I heard Jäger yell "Spider?! Spider come on!" I spun and fired off my magazine dropping 3 masks before I spun and climbed over the tree before we started running again. We arrived at the shore and saw thatcher's team holding a perimeter as I asked "what the fuck are you doing get on the boat?" As I pulled out my last magazine and reloaded my rifle, aiming into the forest as the assault team filed on board. Once everyone was on board I spun and jumped aboard before grabbing my minigun from Viking before Apollo asked "everyone aboard?" I nodded as I spoke "Jäger and I were rear guard" and thatcher ordered "let's get back to base, I need some fuckin tea"
Just as he said that the masks reached the shore and began shooting as Dynamite yelled "Viking take my gun, I'm checking the HVI" and I got my gun spun around before I yelled to the rest of the team "Get the fuck down! Right fucking now!" The anger in my voice caused everyone to drop as I leveled my minigun and pressed the paddles holding them as my barrels became blurs and the masks was torn apart by hundreds of rounds from both Viking and I until we disappeared around the corner and my barrels finally got to begin to cool from the glowing red hot. I sighed as I looked at the barrels "shit I'm gonna have to change these now" followed by Twitch asking "why?" I looked over "the heat can warp the barrels, it's better safe than having my gun blow up in combat" she nodded as Hibana asked "how many rounds did you just fire?" I shrugged "probably 1000, maybe 1500" just as Viking jumped in "When we get back to base drinks are on me" I chuckled and replied "you're lucky we just got paid or I'd bankrupt you" he shook his head with a chuckle "I have no idea how you haven't died of alcohol poisoning" I shrugged before smirking "maybe I'm just powered by alcohol" he nodded with a small smile "maybe" as I lifted my M32 and kicked the chamber open as I emptied the shells and replaced them with unspent ones before Thatcher joined me at the bow "you did good kid, but we still have a lot to work on" I nodded in understanding as he continued "but tonight we celebrate making it out alive" I nodded again before replying "I'll have to invite Jaimini" he looked over before asking "new friend of yours?" I looked back at him before replying "yeah, you could say that. She's a pretty good friend, her confidence boosts mine" he nodded before replying "I'm gonna check on the others keep your head on the swivel" I nodded as we headed back to the Exfil point.