Your mind was infested with recurring thoughts on Ghost's last words to you as you prepared for the mission — the entire time, your blood pounded in your veins and your throat was dry. You were so close to finding Kilgore. So close.
Your brows furrow in anger the more you thought about it. You were so so close. All Ghost had to tell you was one thing. Why wouldn't he tell you?
You strapped a fresh new heavy sniper on your back and stuck a lightweight pistol in your pocket, sticking a loaded magazine into each one and keeping extra in your pockets. As you geared up for your first mission on Task Force 141, you couldn't help put steal glances at the masked man a few feet away from you.
You felt hatred for him, but aside from that, you felt challenge.
The way he spoke to you when you first met eyes with him... it was dangerous and exciting. It made your head spin and your heart pound in ways it hadn't in years.
You're known as emotionless and fearless to your peers in German Special Forces, and even when you first became a recruit when you were eighteen. It's like you had a switch in you — the moment you stepped onto dangerous territory, you became a shell of a woman. You became deadly.
But with him, that melted away. You felt more alert, more reckless.
You felt alive.
Maybe you were exaggerating. You've only known him for a few hours. But this feeling was like no other.
You shook it off, secured your pistol in your holster, and focused your sight on Graves.
He gave the team a quick nod, and gestured for you to follow.
Once outside, you observed a pack of secured vehicles waiting for you. Everyone got into one, but as you were about to step up into the backseat of one of the vehicles, your boot slipped and you stumbled a bit. You cussed as you lost your balance.
Ghost, already sitting in the backseat on the opposite end, look down on you and made an amused "hm" sound. You glared at him and carefully stepped in the vehicle, seething silently to yourself.
Dick.
The ride there was intense and quiet. The grumbling of the vehicle was lulling, yet your eyes were wide open and your attention was perked. You heard your new earpiece crackle as Shepherd's voice sounded through for everyone to hear.
"Coordinates obtained through interrogation of El Sin Nombre confirm an oil rig 400 nautical miles offshore the Gulf of Mexico."
You readjusted your collar, as if the mere mention of your current location made you feel overheated. It was rather hot here, especially during this time of year.
"The rig is no longer active and is currently in use by the cartel as a smuggling dead drop," Shepherd continued. "A cargo ship is anchored 500 meters to its northwest. Survellience saw personnel moving a large container from the ship to the rig."
You blinked, focusing on his words closely.
"That container is now on top of the platform. We believe this is the missile."
As you were listening to the task at hand, you felt the pressure of eyes on you. Growing irritated, you turned your head the opposite direction and watched the small civilizations on the dry land in Mexico as they passed you by.
"Task Force 141, Colonel Vargas, and Shadow Company will infil three boat teams for a simultaneous takedown of both targets."
When Shepherd said the next part, you couldn't help but steal a glance at the man beside you.
"Ghost and Odile will lead the ship assault team to disarm the missile. Graves, Soap, Alejandro will engage the oil rig. Your orders are to eliminate all threats."
The line went dead.
Of course you were with the jackass. Of course.
You close your eyes and rested your head on the window for the rest of the car ride.
. . .
"Wake the fuck up. No time for naps, Lieutenant."
A gritty, low voice spoke to your left. You felt the vehicle halt and you jerked your body upwards.
"Va te faire foutre," you said. I wasn't even asleep. Ghost didn't reply and got out the vehicle. You mirrored him, forcing your attention back on the mission.
I just need to get this over with and then I can go to Austria to find Kilgore.
You went to the dock, boarded the boats and the mission was set ablaze. Once you made it to the ship with Ghost and some other men, you all grappled upwards to get to the top. It was warm and wet outside, and rain pounded against the surface when you reached it.
You crouched and snuck behind a cargo box, taking your sniper rifle off your back and scanning the area for potential targets. Normally, in a close quarters situation like this, snipers would be frowned upon — but you're very skilled at what you do, and on the spacious main platform of the ship you were stationed at currently, you could make an exception for the time being.
"Two targets spotted behind a stack of cargo. I can take them both out."
Ghosts low voice sounded through your earpiece, catching you off guard for a moment. "Go for it."
You aimed your rifle and flawlessly took off both their heads. The shots were silenced, so any surrounding enemies were unaware of what happened.
"Another one by the rail. He's alone."
"You know what to do."
Annoyed at his continuous commentary, you hastily took the shot and moved your sniper to your back, pulling out a lightweight SMG and staying low as you moved upward.
You called through your earpiece. "You know, I really didn't need the commentary. I would have took the shot anyway."
He didn't respond.
Hm. So that's how it's gonna be. You mentally noted.
The team regrouped and then spread out, heading for the main station of the ship. You skillfully and precisely took out every target crossing your path.
"Second deck clear," you informed your team.
As you passed through a hallway, you heard a noise coming from behind you.
Instinctively, you ducked and shoved the attackers body against the wall of the hallway, whipping out your blade to slice his neck.
But the pair of eyes that stared down at you were not those of an enemy. They had long, wispy blond eyelashes and dark, ominous eyes coated in black smudge. His gaze was amused and you could feel his heart beating slowly against your forearm in which you had him pinned. He towered over you only by a few inches. His arms hung loosely by his sides and his body felt firm and padded against yours.
"Watch it," Ghost said, but he didn't sound angry whatsoever. He sounded like... nothing. Like he didn't even care.
Your heart skipped a beat at the eye contact. His eyes were half-lidded and awfully sensual considering the situation. You felt your head spin for a moment as you released him.
"Fils de pute watch who you sneak up on," you said quickly and sped away, heading closer to the interior of the station. He followed behind you.
"This areas clear," you said, still a little flustered.
On the main deck, more enemies came to attack you, but you took them out, suffering no casualties to your team. Ghost left you the moment you got there to cover the other side. The rain was pounding hard and things were getting hairy when out of no where, you caught sight of red flares coming from the rig a couple hundred meters away from the ship. You were about to alert the team when you heard static come through your earpiece.
"Shadow-1, Ghost, visual on flares coming from the rig. What's your status, over?"
Of course Ghost had to say it before you did. You sighed through your nose as you pushed further in to the other side of the ship.
Soap's voice came through the comms.
"Ghost, they're signaling the ship, they're gonna launch that missile!"
"It's first stage! There's still time!" Graves intercepted.
"I'm forcing up!" you called out.
"I'll cover," Ghost said behind you as you pushed even further.
Where the fuck did he come from? You felt confused on how he got to you so fast but ignored it.
Graves then called through the comms. Apparently, the missile was on the helipad on the rig.
The missile was on the rig, but, unfortunately, Graves spoke though the comms again to let you know that the controls were not on the rig, but instead on the ship you were on.
Ghost scanned the area as you moved behind him, and then proceeded to call through his comms when he spotted the controls. "All stations! Visual on the missile controls! I say again, missile controls are on the bridge."
"Copy that," Graves said, voice raised over the noise of the rain.
Suddenly, a bullet whizzed past your ear. Ghost slammed you out of the way onto cover behind some cargo to prevent you from behind shot.
"Merde! There's more of them!" you shouted.
Ghost scrambled off of you to take some shots on the enemy, who were a few meters away. You pulled out your sniper and began firing, disregarding the fact that Ghost just saved your life.
Graves voice sounded through your ear. "Ghost, this is 0-1! Back in the water, inbound to your position."
"Solid copy! We're taking effective fire! The LZ will be hot!" Ghost yelled back.
"Roger that!" said Graves.
Once Graves and Soap made it onto the ship with you and Ghost, you shot down all enemies and forced up to the control room. Once you got to the bridge entry and alas cleared the deck, you found the door was sealed shut. Graves out some C4 on the door to blow it open. You all stormed inside and stealthily killed all targets that came in your way.
You scoffed as the last one fell before your feet. "Pitiful."
"Odile! This way. We're going to disarm that missile!" Graves got your attention.
You rolled your eyes and followed him into the control room.
There were two men inside the control room. You aimed your SMG and took them out with no problem.
Soap raised his eyebrows and looked at you as you walked in to the now clear room. "You're good with that SMG."
You looked him up and down and then said threateningly, "You don't say..."
"Let's get in there!" Graves said as he grabbed the controls. "Tappin' in. C'mon baby... C'mon baby... C'mon baby... Fuuuck. We can't disarm it."
"Why?" Ghost questioned.
"It's too late."
"There's no abort code?" Soap said hurriedly.
"Yeah well that windows closed on that boys..." he called through his comms. "Gold Eagle Actual this is Shadow-1. Missile's in boost phase about to burn, how copy?"
Shepherd replied calmly. "Solid, Shadow. If we can't disarm, we detonate."
"Roger that, Actual. Stand by... Soap get on the controls; we're gonna have to do this together. Now, the clock is ticking, so we gotta move brother, alright?"
Soap hopped on the controls. "I'm in!"
Graves asked Shepherd for orders and he informed the team that you were going to take out the oil rig with the missile since you couldn't just disarm it. This was the only option, and at least in this case, you could kill two birds with one stone.
Ghost ordered the rest of the team on the rig to clear it in under one minute so that you could blow it up.
After a long minute of Soap on the controls with Graves guiding him, Graves and Soap stepped back to look out the window.
"Let's enjoy our handiwork, Sargeant," said Graves. "All stations prepare for the boom!"
You watched as the missile was released from the rig and was redirected back to it, exploding it with an ear splitting sound. You covered your eyes with your arm to protect your vision from the light.
You lowered your arm to look the the explosion. You smiled. "Hm. Magnifique."
You sensed a pair of eyes fixated on your form as you looked ahead.