Sword, Shield, And Family

Chapter 23, The Bird Watcher

Ruins of San Fransico, California. 1300 Hours.

~Diana's POV~
I walked through what was left of the San Francisco event that happened quite some time ago. With me was Connor, Cyrene, Rose and Harper. I propped my M75 under my arm and clicked on my COM link. "Fireteams Beta and Charlie, find anything?" Two reponses that were "Negative" and "Nothing yet" replied quickly. I heard Cyrene say "Are you sure that Raven would be here? Or at least have been here? This is enemy territory you know." I sighed and looked at her. "This is our only lead Cyrene. I'm gonna take what I can get to find him." Cyrene stared at me with her glistening purple eyes. She said "If anything, he'd either be hiding out or finding a way to get back. Or both. If he escaped that is." I kept walking and looked at the partially collapsed skyscrapers. A lot of people died here, and we were disturbing their grave. It felt strange to be here. The aftermath of the quick turning point of the war. The event that sparked humanity losing 90% of the western hemisphere. I saw movement in the skyscrapers above. I gripped my M75 tightly. "We're being followed. Stay frosty." I said to the others. I knew that there might be an ambush ahead.  Suddenly a hooded figure came into view. I aimed my M75 at them. "State your name and are you friend or foe?" The figure just turned to look at me. "Where is the Dragon's Heart?" It said in a distorted voice. My guess was that they had a voice changer. I kept my M75 aimed at their head. They were after Raven too. "I could ask you the same thing." The figure then said again. "Where is the Dragon's Heart? Where is little bird?" Connor stepped forward. "Listen. We don't know where he is. We came here to find him." The figure suddenly was directly in front of Connor. "Then you looked in the wrong place." Suddenly Tyler's voice yelled in COMs. "AMBUSH! ON OUR POSITION!" I quickly looked towards Tyler's Location. I looked at Connor and Rose. "You two help Ty. Harper with me, we're gonna get to high ground." Harper grabbed her XPL90 sniper rifle and followed me while Connor and Rose ran to their position. I went up a semi-crumbled skyscraper and looked at Harper. "What's the situation?" Harper looked through the scope. "More of those Ghost things those two rangers talked about. Lots of them too." I nodded. "Keep us covered Harper." Harper said. "Will do." I ran quickly to go help the others. I lost two soldiers, I won't lose another. I didn't care who that figure was at the time, I just had to save the others. When I reached them, they were holding up well. I fired my M75 at the "Spectres" as what we called them. We ran into them on the way here. They're tough, but they aren't invincible. I dropped quite a few of them. Once we cleared them out I checked around one last time before meeting up with the others. "They came out of nowhere." Tyler said. Marco looked at me. "You run into an edgy figure?" I nodded. "Yeah, how did-" Marco said. "Helmet cameras." I knew then. "Right." I heard Nora, the newest addition to the squad, say in COMs. "Ma'am, I found something." Nora was the new blood. She was hesitant about joining Firebreak when Smith confronted her, but she gave it a few months before giving him a call. Though she's the newest, she's still family. We treated her no different than the rest of us. I then replied. "Go ahead Nora." She continued. "Humvee treads, old tire model, fresh, just a couple days old. He was definitely here." Raven didn't know about Nora, so he might feel off about her at first. Nora was a master tracker, mechanic and survivalist. She was like a bloodhound when she tracks someone. The thing that has me worried is in her cadet corps she tended to stay solo. I then said. "Did you leave Charlie behind Nora?" Nora chuckled. "No not this time. Wouldn't do that in enemy territory." I looked at the others. "Alright, Nora hold position we're on our way." Me and the others started to head to Nora's position. There were quite a few run down vehicles. Nora looked at us through her black visor, a black rose imprinted on her chestplate. "This area has footprints all over, canine and human boots. And quite a few of the vehicles have been recently tampered with. He definitely was here. What kind of normal boot has the firebreak logo imprinted on it's sole?" I blinked in disbelief of what I just heard. I only nodded though. "Good job Nora. Everyone to the jeeps, we're going after him. Wherever he went." Nora said. "Diana if I may, Raven might have been finding a way to get back. So if we follow his tracks, we may be doing a full circle." I kept walking. "It's worth finding him." Rose looked at me. I could feel it because of the shiver that went down my spine. "Diana, we're going where Raven's been not where he is. We might see him eventually, but what if...what if he isn't himself?" I looked at Rose. "What do you mean?" Rose said. "Raven's been gone for months. We don't even know if it's him. We don't know if he's the same. I know you want to find him, but what if he's not like you expect?" I got in the jeep. "Doesn't matter. As long as we get Firebreak back to full squad." Rose got in the back of the jeep. "It won't be filled Diana..." I turned on the jeep. Sophie was gone. I didn't want to admit it, but she was gone. There was nothing I could do for Sophie. I didn't want to accept it either. Raven still was out there though, I wasn't going to leave him behind to fend for himself. We wouldn't give up until we found him. Though the war front had dialed back, and less battles have occured, I knew things would eventually get heated again, and Firebreak would be called in. Until then, I was on this search and resue op. And I knew it wouldn't be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is.