Chapter Text
I walked in the lobby, they were all in separate areas; Ghost was with crossed arms, leaned against a wall. Price was on a small couch, and Gaz was sat on an armchair across from him. As I imagined, things were tense, they all looked like they had argued once more. Ghost’s head turned to look at me, he felt somewhat responsible, that much I could tell.
“What’d they say?” He asked.
“Said I’m good to go.” I replied; Instantly, his eyes narrowed.
“What did you do?” He asked, the question immediately made me take a step back.
“What do you mean?” I countered. He gave me an eye-down, I almost wanted to shiver.
“Someone like you shouldn’t be able to withstand a taser that strong. I’ve seen soldiers your size fall for less.” He wasn’t being menacing, not intentionally at least. I looked down, my hand subconsciously grazing my cheek from above the balaclava.
“High tolerance, I suppose.” I did not want to be in that conversation. I was well aware of the fact that giving a vague answer, and just walking away from the situation would not help with building trust, especially not now that I had learnt I was a replacement. But I couldn’t help it as my feet made their way to the back door, and up the stairs to my room.
❧
The week had flown by, I had managed to get a routine down fairly easily. Not like I had a choice in the matter. I would wake up exactly one hour before the alarm would ring, run one lap of the training yard’s perimeter— which would be equivalent to a 10km, shower, and get disturbed by the base’s wake-up drill. I would then head to mess hall, grab exactly one piece of toast, two sausages, and a small bottle of juice, break protocol and bring my food back to my room, eat alone, join the others in the lobby. Physical would be in the mornings, that would consist of running, getting through obstacle courses, things of such nature, to build tolerance. Then lunch would follow, once again, I’d sneak off to my room and eat alone. The afternoon would split into shooting range and gym, we’d be more action based, and focus on combat. Then there would be dinner, and once again, I’d eat alone. As always.
Evenings were optional, and more lightweight. Some would spar, others would go to the range or gym once more, it really was up to us what to do really. I’d usually be in the gym, there was one particular punching bag I had gotten a mild obsession with, if I wasn’t hitting it, then I’d be practicing my knife combat elsewhere.
❧
The time for my debut mission came faster than I had wanted. It had been years since I last was in a locker room, putting gear on, hiding a few too many knives on me. I went to loadout and picked up a gun. A standard issue M4, no upgrades, no customizations.
Ghost had noticed that, he reached for a different one and pressed it against my chest.
“That one’s shite, use this instead.” He suggested, leaving little room for arguments.
“I don’t need it. This one does the job.” I refused; He didn’t seem to appreciate that.
“You are not flunking your first mission just because you think you are some god that can clear everything with a standard issue toy of a gun!” He scolded. “Use this. No negotiations.”
The gun he had given me was one I had begun training with at the start of the week, I had gotten the hang of it rather quickly, yet it still was not my favorite, as for the longest time, my go-to firearm had been an M4 with just an optic addon that would let the the radius go from 500m to 800m. This gun was heavier, more powerful than my old one, and I was not so sure I was ready to use it out yet.
I narrowed my eyes, giving him a defying look as I placed the gun down, and went for the M4. Before he could argue with me, we got notified that transport was ready to take off.
We took our places in the truck. The mission’s location was not too far from our base, roughly an hour. I could feel his eyes on me, he was pissed. I chose not to engage in any further banters. Price was sat next to me, Ghost was sat across, and Gaz next to him.
“How we feeling?” Asked Price, as he turned towards me.
“Fine.” I replied, although it wasn’t much convincing.
“Alexei.” He leaned in, sharp eyes forcing me to not look away. I hated when he did that, giving me no room to hide, to avoid him. “You won’t be alone in this mission.”
To the others this may have just sounded like a basic textbook reassurance. It was obvious I wouldn’t be alone, all four of us were being deployed, after all. Yet to me, it was different, I needed to hear that, needed the confirmation. I let out a breath, then leaned back, looking out the window.
We landed pretty far from the area we needed to be in— standard protocol. We were in a forest, a small building could be seen in the distance, looked like a warehouse. We split up; each of us would be approaching the building from a separate direction. I had south, so I’d be in the woods the longest. Ghost had west, Price had east, Gaz was north. Within ten minutes of walking, we had gotten the first notification, Gaz was in position. Five minutes later, both Ghost and Price were in formation. I didn’t approach just yet, I had noticed a shine, either sunshine, or a sniper, but I was alert now, in hiding.
“Battery, status?” My transceiver groaned at my ear.
“Hold.” I replied, now on the floor. I was being vague, again. This was an inconvenience, yet it was so odd, that the moment I had locked onto that shine, it had vanished. But why was no one shot yet? Had I been spotted? I began regretting bringing the M4, and had no idea what to do until—
“Sniper on us. 2 o’clock.” Ghost’s voice came through. I was not alone in this, Ghost had seen this too.
“Ghost, take the sniper out. Battery, proceed with caution.” Price ordered.
The south of the building was the least exposed, meaning I had more space to hide, but also the greater chance of running into watchers. Once Ghost had claimed that the target was down, I got closer to the building.
“I’m in.” I announced. “Patrols ahead.”
Soon I received status updates from the others too. The building was heavily patrolled, It was a mild inconvenience for sure, as from the intel we had on the location, there should not have been so many soldiers. It just meant we had to be more cautious to avoid any unnecessary shootings. I had managed to get into a storage closet, and with some effort, I had infiltrated through the air vents. I avoided any form of communication in order to prevent being spotted. As I crawled through the vents I had seen both Gaz and Price try to get past the patrols, as well as Ghost, who had taken someone’s uniform to go undetected. Just when I was approaching the building’s comms room, contact had started, eyes were on us, or well, my team. I took advantage of the commotion to go through with my infiltration; I kicked down the vent, and with it, I fell through it. Landing on a soldier just as he was about to shoot Ghost. A not so quiet, yet efficient knife kill for me. My knees would remind me of the impact later on. I gave Ghost a nod, as he then kept watch while I downloaded the necessary files onto my flash drives.
“Target acquired, we’re heading out.” I spoke through my transceiver as Ghost and I made our way without getting any more attention on us.
The one thing you should be efficient in once in the special forces is, be able to handle any interference regardless of the gravity of the situation. I had that skill, to a certain extent. I had made the one stupid mistake of not checking behind me, which lead to a gun to my head and a hand over my mouth. I froze, I wouldn’t have in the past but I did now. I silently cursed myself as I attempted to come up with any method of freeing myself, but there was not much I could do in that situation. Not with that pressure. Pressure that I should have been able to handle. Ghost was already out of sight, he didn’t seem like the soldier to not notice this type of thing, and I was right, because he was not. In the blink of an eye the area had been covered with smoke, all I made out was me being yanked around until I was no longer being held. Then came the sound of a body falling as well as an almost painful grab on my shoulder. I was then dragged out of the smoke, relieved to have realized it was Ghost dragging me and not some other enemy soldier. I settled myself, got out of his grip, and avoided to look at him. Although he didn’t mention anything.
The fly back to base was quiet.
Once we reached the debriefing room was when the tension rose. The mission was labeled successful, with no casualty.
“So, what happened?” Price asked, in a not so concerned manner, but something else, something I could not make out to be.
“Thought you’d hire someone who can at least counter being held at gunpoint.” Ghost grunted, his tone disappointed.
“I can.” I defended myself.
“Didn’t seem like it.” He shut me off.
“I was at gunpoint, almost got taken, almost lost the intel.” I admitted to Price.
This was bad. A common mistake, yes, but not for someone who previously had plenty experience in the field, in these types of missions.
Price sighed. “At least we got the intel. Although you are not ready yet.” I wanted to argue, but I knew better. “You’re sitting out on active roles until you get better at overcoming obstacles.”
I looked down, at least I was still allowed on missions.
“Welcome to the team, Alexei.”
The others were as surprised at Price’s decision as I was.
“I do expect more clear communication from you, aside the close combat skills which I was under the impression you had. But you still did retrieve the intel and you did avoid it being taken from you, so that’s no situation for a penalty.”
I felt I broke some of Price’s trust, maybe I had lowered his expectations? Maybe he was reconsidering the whole deal? Before I could spiral, we were dismissed.
It was evening already when we were done with the briefing, the mission had taken longer than expected. I found myself in the mess hall, getting my food. Again going with my pattern of getting mostly dry food. Before I could sneak off I felt a hand on my shoulder, same as the mission— Ghost’s. But this time, less harmful, and rather just a call for attention.
“Sit with me.” He requested. I nodded. We ended up sitting at a small table close to the corner of the hall, it was less crowded, more intimate. I put my tray on it and took the chair adjacent to both walls, he sat across from me. Lifted his own balaclava just enough to reveal his mouth. He began eating, I just watched.
“You not eating?” He asked though some bites of meat.
“You never ask me to sit with you.” I changed the topic.
“Price said I need to start keeping an eye on you.” He was direct. “Now eat.” He insisted.
“Later.” I retorted.
“You’re never in the mess hall.” He pointed.
“I don’t have to be.” I countered.
“You sort of do.”
“Haven’t been told off yet.”
"Well I’m telling you off now.”
“Then I won’t be eating.” I dismissed him, which resulted to a groan.
“What could you be so fucking scared of? It’s just food.”
“I’m aware. I just don’t eat around people.”
“Is it one of your trust things?” He was almost done with his food by now. My tray still stubbornly remained untouched.
“It is not. I just don’t want to spoil people’s appetites.” That left him still for a while. His eyes were calculating.
“Everyone here has seen worse than a guy just chewing.” He didn’t get it.
“Price has no problem with me not eating in the mess hall.” I argued. “He knows why I don’t, and that’s enough.” I got up, and gathered my food. He was quiet while I did so.
“Meet me in the gym. Room Alpha.” He instructed as I took my leave.
❧
Once I was done with my meal and returned the few trays I had hoarded up from evenings I had been too unbothered to return them, I made my way to the gym. Besides the main area with all the equipment, the gym also had separate rooms, used for anything really, some people just needed more space, for combat, or to avoid crowds. A lot of soldiers needed a quiet place with no distractions at times. However, when I entered room Alpha, one of the largest available rooms. Lights were off. I assumed Ghost was not here yet.
However, just as I closed the door, I found myself in the same situation, minus the gun— An arm wrapped around my torso, prohibiting my arms from moving, and a hand was around my mouth and nose. It soon clicked. This was a test. I anchored my foot between his legs, and used my body as a pivot, I bent forwards, which resulted to him being thrown off of me. He was on the floor now and I had the advantage, for now. He was resilient, so it ended up being a wrestling match in the dark. I had to rely to my senses to pin him down, only when I’d successfully lock him in place, would he tap out. That ended up bein a rubber guard variation— He was on the floor, face up. his legs pinned between my hip and thigh, his own hips raised from the floor as i pressed down on his chest. Our breaths were both labored by now, I applied more pressure until I managed to get him to tap out. Once he did, I got up and turned on the lights.
“Where’d you get that from?” He asked, as I turned back around. He was stretching now.
“Watched plenty martial arts when I was little. Would practice on a friend.”
He nodded. “Good on you. Do that shit on missions next.” For once he was not stern with his words. I let out a soft scoff as I returned to the center of the room; looking for a round two. He complied.
Our friendly spar had taught him a few things about me; First one being I was crazy stubborn, refused to tap out even when I had no openings, at times I’d manage to turn the spar around, while other times I just mimicked a fish out of water— His words. The second thing he had learnt was my fighting style— I used more leg work than anything else, my arms only there for blocks. The difference in styles did gain me an advantage, only until he adapted and had managed to pin me.
“You’re good. I like the leg work, but you rely too much on it. The moment your legs are not an option, you get stuck.” He lectured. “Either find a way to always have a leg available, or more realistically, use your arms more.”
I nodded. And for a round, he had impeded me to use my legs unless necessary. Needless to say, that round was a free win for him. But he was right, just how he adapted, it was possible I’d find opponents able to do the same. So for the next few hours, I was tasked to get him to tap out without the use of my legs. I had almost managed, until the curfew alarm rang. He gave me a hand.
“Yield.” He suggested. “I yield.” I complied, and took his hand.
I was first to leave the gym and head out. He stayed back, decided to use the gym’s showers. I was already in my room when he was done. He noticed I had left my neckerchief behind, I usually always had it on me as a backup. So he decided to return it to me.
Once outside my door, he had noticed I had left it open just a crack.