Blackwatch

Lone Wanderer

09:30 AM, Local Time

7 km outside of Arkhyz, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Russia

June, 2018

Gabriel took in the smell of the damp, earthy moss as he waited for his team. His knees crushed the dead leaves underneath, burrowing into the dirt. The sounds of chirpings and the faint sounds of gunfire slowly flowed into his ears. He checked his surroundings of the forest as he waited.

After their assignment in St Petersburg, Sombra and the FSB managed to track down those in charge of the ISIS forces hired by the corrupt senator to a village in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic which was reportedly where the remaining ISIS terrorists had made a camp for, as well as identifying the HVTs that accepted the senator's contract. A decision was made for Blackwatch to assist the Swedish and Russian Ground Forces in the advance against ISIS since both had been struggling to drive them out of the country.

Shortly, Gabriel heard footsteps from the distance and noticed Amélie, McCree and Moira heading his way.

"Safe landing, team?" He called.

"All good." Amélie replied.

"Same." Moira said.

"Almost hit a bird." McCree added.

"Alright, gather around."

Once the team arrived, Gabriel got them to kneel down with him so he could relay his orders.

"This is what's gonna happen, We infiltrate the village, eliminate the HVTs - Kadir Babaev Shah and Zoran Oborin, and destroy all anti-aircraft artillery systems to give the Russian and Swedish forces a fighting chance to clear out the remaining ISIS forces. The sooner we get this done, the easier it will be for Captain Lindholm to clean up our tracks. Let's go."

Gabriel and the team immediately stood up and turned towards the direction of their destination.

"Hold on a sec," McCree said, grabbing everyone's attention. "Where's Marvel?"

Once McCree had mentioned it, the team noticed that Marvel was nowhere to be seen. It was only the five of them for this mission with Sombra providing drone support.

"I saw his chute open while we were in the sky before he landed somewhere off from our landing route," Moira deduced. "I believe his chute malfunctioned and he had to use his reserve."

"Should we go after him?" McCree asked.

"No." Gabriel said.

The team looked at him with McCree particularly surprised.

"No?" McCree cocked his head.

"You heard me, Jesse," Gabriel bluntly said. "Mission first. We know that and so does Marvel. He'll know where to find us."

"And if he's not in one piece?"

"Then we'll recover him but the mission comes first."

McCree looked as if he was going to object but eventually, he reluctantly accepted the decision. Gabriel activated his comms and looked up at the sky.

"Shadow 1 to Shadow 4, how are we looking?"

His direction faced where the MQ-1 Predator drone fitted with Hellfire missiles would be in the sky. The drone was a gift to Blackwatch from the CIA. It would have full surveillance of his team while keeping its distance from potential anti-air missile detection radius.