Operation: Pointed Spear

The Hit

We're back on track again apologize for any confusion my fuck up created

Alik's pov
      I walked into our dorm and saw Monika laying in bed trying to knit as I sat down on the edge and rested my hand on her knee "hey..." she put down her needles with a sigh before looking at me "hallo, how'd the brief go?" I replied "we're going" she looked surprised "seriously? I didn't think Harry would send our team" I nodded "We're working with a team from Ghost Recon, we've got their team plus 4 of ours. It's a big hit" she looked down and asked "be safe for me please? I don't want to lose you" I smiled before lifting her chin "I'll come back" she asked like a child "pinky promise?" As she lifted her hand with her pinky finger extended, I wrapped my pinky around hers "pinky promise" I asked "do you want me to bring you to the TOC after I get my gear?" She nodded and replied "I wanna watch this" I grabbed my gear and walked into the bathroom quickly changing before I looked at the mirror and saw my beard, I ran my fingers through it before sighing "I've really been here this long, time flies" as I walked out and helped Monika up before we made our way to the TOC.
      When we walked in I saw Harry and the analysts as Harry noticed us and pulled out a seat "Please put her here" I smiled before helping her sit down and jokingly asked Harry "keep her safe for me" as he chuckled and spoke "your team waits for you" as I looked at the screen and saw the body cams of all team leaders including the ghost team. I saluted before saying "well bag Feral today sir" he nodded as I turned and jogged out to the helicopters meeting with my team seeing our replacement saying "you son of a bitch" as I gripped Bird's hand and he laughed "can't let you have all the hero points" I shook my head "no we can't" as Thatcher asked "ready to go?" I climbed on the helicopter as thatcher leaned out and gave a thumbs up to the next bird behind us. I saw a pair of F-15s taxi onto the runway behind us as I asked in our comms "Do we have fighter support for this?" I heard an unfamiliar female voice "Yes, that's courtesy of us"
      I asked simply "and who the fook is 'us'?" As Thatcher warned "Achilles...." and the unfamiliar voice laughed "Ah the hot headed Achilles, Were the ghosts. Call me nomad" I groaned as Rodion laughed "hear that bro, you're hot headed" I barked "piss off" as the comms filled with laughter. Quickly they quieted down as we looked out our helicopters and headed back to the mask forts, the thing I had barely survived the first time. I looked out the door before I heard Nomad's voice "So Achilles, answer me this. Why is this Feral obsessed with you?" I sighed before answering "maybe I'm just that sexy?" As Rodion and Wendigo replied "you wish" just for Nomad to reply still chuckling "Answer honestly" I complied and answered "I don't know, he just picked me out and decided I was his favorite. They said they wanted to turn me into one of them" the jovial attitude disappeared as the truth resurfaced that the masks wanted to corrupt me. I kept looking around before I heard Wendigo "You're not gonna turn on us right?" I rolled my eyes "damn you caught me, I was gonna grease all of you and split to the other side. No, I'm not going to turn"
     He chuckled before replying "no need for the sass, we're all friends here" I didn't answer instead watching the time fly until the crew chief hooked up the rappel ropes and spoke in our closed circuit comms "we're going to drop you inside the walls, you're gonna have to be ready" I double checked my MCX before I gave thatcher a thumbs up and pulled my priming handle and leaned out the open door seeing a fury of tracers coming up to greet our helicopters. I braced for the inevitable progression of our helicopter getting shot from the sky as the gunners fired with their mini guns before the crew chief shoved out the ropes and I saw Finka and Thatcher gripping the ropes as our helicopter started whirring as we lifted before spinning violently. I braced until I felt the force of the impact and I was thrown to the ground of the helicopter, I gripped my MCX and slowly crawled my way out of the helicopter as I looked to my left and saw the rest of the operators roping into the combat zone firing at the masks as they tried to shift their defense.
      I saw Rodion, Frost and Wendigo rushing over to our position as Rodion crouched next to me and I coughed out "I'm good, get the others. I think the fuel is leaking" as I pushed myself up and leveled my rifle firing into the masks rushing forward trying to get in a position to kill my team. I saw an unfamiliar operator crouch next to me as the somewhat familiar voice of Nomad was heard "Keep moving, we need to get into the main building fast. Before that rat Feral can get away" I nodded and replied "I'm on it, take care of my team" as I sidestepped out of cover and moved forward firing into masks as they sent rounds at the other operators. We were dropping them fast, they had expected an assault, just not one from inside the walls of the fort as the F-15s streaked over head dropping the access tunnel on itself secluding the fort locking the masks in from any support. I saw a mask machine gun team setting up a heavy machine gun as Caveira yelled "MG 2 o'clock high!" And most of us shifted our aim to the team watching them drop as rounds tore through the railing and shattered sending shrapnel into the masks body dropping them.
      I looked forward and saw the main building of the fort, it lead down to the old dungeons where i believed IQ's father was being held. I pushed quickly crashing my shoulder into the old door sending it wide open as I traded fire with a heavily armed mask, wearing Sentinel corps gear. My rounds didn't do much before Nomad appeared in the doorframe holding a SMAW sending the rocket into the Masks chest throwing him to the ground with a large gaping hole in his chest. I nodded to her "I'm checking the dungeon, if you don't hear from me in 5 minutes send someone to find me" she replied "good luck, you'll need it" as I started down the steps that lead to the dungeon, my flashlight illuminating the dark halls as I scanned the cells that I passed seeing horribly mutilated corpses, some were missing extremities, others had parts of their body replaced with metal, others had just been left to the rats to gnaw on. I kept going determined to see if IQ's dream was right, I turned the corner and saw Gunther strapped to a cross as his eyes widened just for me to hear "Hello Alik, did you miss me?" And I got hit by a metal baseball bat.
Odin's POV
I sighed 'of course I get sent to go find the fucker' as I slowly made my way through the dungeon until I sat his radio on the ground, I groaned and radioed "We've got a problem, looks like he got taken." As I heard creaking and looked up seeing an old man strapped to a cross I radioed again "looks like we got a geezer here too" as I walked over and undid the straps watching him fall before I stood next to him waiting as Thatcher's team was the first to arrive, thatcher crouched infront of the man and asked "Gunther, what happened? Where's Achilles?" The man now dubbed Gunther replied "Feral.... feral got him.... he's gone" Rodion asked "he's dead?" As Gunther replied "nein, just captured. I don't know where they took him but feral said 'we won't go to the snow, I know how you hate it' if that helps" Pulse spoke "just take it easy" as Wendigo asked "why'd they leave you?" Gunther replied "I wasn't the prize, I was the bait. Achilles was the prize"
I groaned "they played us, they drew us here to capture Achilles" Nomad sighed before saying "we still have a lot of Intel around this fort, maybe we can find a lead" as Gunther was pulled up by Pulse and Wendigo and we started walking back to the surface. I paused in the door and looked back into the room and walking over to where my senses told me something didn't sit right, I smiled when I felt the draft "got ya" I pushed deeper into the room following the path that revealed itself before I crouched and aimed seeing Feral loading Achilles into an SUV, the other mask with a custom mask was there as I fired tagging Feral in the calf, he pulled himself into the SUV and the SUV tore off down the old mountain goat path. I radioed "Six, keep eyes on the SUV leaving the fort on the southeastern side. It's how Feral is escaping" I heard Six "do you think you're teams can intercept?" I looked down the path and spoke "it opens up maybe 12 kilometers down the path" as Harry spoke "you've got your next orders retrieve our man" as I turned and ran up climbing into the helicopter as they started to fly off setting up and ambush at the opening.
We all quickly disembarked from the helicopters and took up out positions as Gridlock tossed out her stingers and we waited watching the SUV driving extremely quickly down the goat path before it hit the stingers and the mask driving lost control hitting a tree. We rushed forward as I ripped open the driver's door and Kilo flew past me biting the mask on the arm and tearing him out of the seat before Nomad tore the wounded Feral out of the back seat and Rodion pulled an unconscious Achilles out of the trunk. I cuffed the mask that drove as Nomad cuffed Feral and Thatcher radioed "Achilles recovered, Gunther recovered. Feral and his second in command detained. We're coming home" I pulled the mask up as our 5 remaining helicopters slowly came in one at a time, we loaded Feral and his second in the helicopter with the Ghosts before loading up into our helicopters. I heard IQ on the comms "Blackout, Danke for bringing him back to me"
I didn't reply as we started the long journey back before Wendigo asked "didn't that seem a bit easy? Like there wasn't any struggle" as Rodion replied "just count your blessings brother" and Thatcher spoke "he's got a point, Feral's been alluding us for months. Almost the entire time we've been on deployment. He's always had a secondary escape route so why drive down a goat path that he can't divert from when he knows we've got helicopters" I heard Finka asked "what? Do you think he wanted to get captured?" Ying replied "no, I think he's got a plan for if he gets captured so he figured he'd give it a shot" I asked "why does it matter? They're in custody, the dumbass is back with us and the missions over. Just drop it" I heard Harry laugh "alright enough everyone, I'll have some analysts try to figure out the reason when you get back. For now, well done" I looked around the helicopter as Ying leaned into me "you don't have to be so mean to the others" I replied simply "they shouldn't ask stupid questions then" she rolled her eyes before replying "you said you'd let them have a chance" I sighed before answering "it's not my fault I've got a low tolerance for stupidity" she simply laughed and spoke "just keep your word, you'll see they aren't that bad" as every conversation died while we made our way back to safety.