Chapter 3 - Two for the Price of One

Chapter 3
Two for the Price of One

Michalov stood in front of his team. Coming clean about his past, it was a memory that he had repressed for so long. The beginning of their end was eight years ago, in Cuba. “Eight years ago, I was taking part in an operation with her…”

June 3, 2089: 0600 Hours

	“You two have a mission. Report to command to receive your briefing.” A corporal said to a group of Ghosts.

	Crystal was sitting in a room alone with her boyfriend, a fellow Ghost. The man looked over and gave a frown, “Right now?”

	The corporal looked over with a serious look, “Sorry Lieutenant, but this is urgent, come with me.”

	Crystal stood up from her chair along with her boyfriend. She hugged him and whispered a word in his ear, “Yes…”

	The man smiled and followed Crystal and the corporal through the hall. The corporal turned his head as they walked, “So what’s with the upbeat mood?” he asked in a more casual tone.
	The man raised a smiled again and raised his hand to show a ring on his finger. It was a golden band line with rubies. The corporal looked surprised, “Holy crap! Congrats you two! Michalov, you lucky bastard!”

	The couple laughed, but it was short lived as they walked into the command center. When the pair reached the operations section, they were greeted by a colonel. They both stood at attention and saluted. The colonel stood them at ease and got right to briefing, “You two are going to Cuba. A drug cartel has managed to raid a WNU base and steal some experimental technology. You two are going in to procure the tech. And if all else fails, destroy it by any means necessary.”

	Crystal spoke up, “Sir, what are our assets for this mission?”

	“You two are Ghosts. You are the assets.” The colonel said proudly.

	The two nodded, Michalov spoke up, “When do we deploy?”

	“Fifteen minutes, gear up, and report to the hangar. Dismissed.”

	Crystal and Michalov saluted again and turned to go get geared up. “Oh.”

	They turned to see what their colonel wanted to finish, “Congratulations.” He smiled as he pointed at the rings.

	Michalov grinned while Crystal laughed a bit. They then turned to get ready.

June 3, 2089: 1030 Hours

	“You ready, Crys?” Michalov said in the darkness.

	“Are you?” she replied quietly.

	It was too dark to see anything, but they both knew what expressions were on their face. Happiness, anxiety, despair, relief. They were doing what they’ve been trained for. They both loved the feeling. There was a voice in a comm speaker above the two, “Ten seconds, brace.”

	The team lowered supports over their shoulders and held tight. “Deploying…”

	Suddenly gravity felt reversed in the small compartment. They had the feeling of being lifted up instead of pulled down. Light entered the pod. The light of the white, frozen planet surface of Earth, with the sun shining on the horizon. “Entering upper atmosphere. Activating heat shields.”

	The drop pod was soon encased in flame as they entered the planet’s atmosphere. Michalov looked at Crystal who was staring back. She raised a hand, showing thumbs up. She smiled, “This is it.”

	The light became nothing but pure white for a moment, the speaker spoke yet again, “Breaking cloud. Prepare for landing.”

	Crystal and Michalov both pressed a button on their brace. Panels elevated from the pods floor, it was minimize the shock when they landed hard into Earth’s surface. “Activating stealth systems.”

	The pod quickly vanished into thin air, right before it broke cloud. “Five seconds… 4. 3. 2. 1.”

	The pod crashed to a halt on the frozen surface of the planet. Quickly two doors shot open and the two hopped out and leaped into the snow in a prone position, “Clear right.” Crystal said.

	“Clear left.” Michalov spoke right after.

	The two got together. Michalov raised his right arm; a holographic screen appeared from his armored bracer. “The rebel base is East. One days hike non-stop.”

	“Let’s get to it then…” she turned and began walking to their destination. Michalov followed.


June 4, 2089: 1300 Hours

	“This is Michalov. We are in position and are ready to infiltrate on your command.”

	A voice came up on the radio, “Legion One, provide sniper support as Two moves across the valley.”

	Crystal handed Michalov her sniper rifle. She drew her assault rifle and began moving down the hill. Michalov watching over her like a guardian angel. He said on his radio to Crystal, “Be careful…”

	Crystal grinned as she descended the snowy hill. She moved to a ruined outpost and sat inside it for a moment. She heard something, “Stand by Michalov. I hear something.” She was silent for a moment, “An engine.”

	Michalov looked to his right and saw a truck moving toward the outpost. It was camouflaged white, almost a perfect blend with the snow. To allow its alacrity through the barren, it exchanged its tires with treads, suspending it about three quarters of a meter off of the ground.

	“Contact. Rebels. I count six.” Michalov notified Crystal.

	“Confirmed, I see six also.”

	“Alright, Crystal listen up. Activate your cloaking system when they’re eighty feet away. Remember, no kills. We aren’t here after all.”

	Crystal followed Michalov’s advice. She watched the truck advance quickly toward her. Once it reached the eighty foot mark she activated her cloak systems. Just like the drop pod, she vanished. It was too late however, one of the rebels in the box of the truck caught eye of something. He wasn’t sure what though.

	He told the driver to stop at the outpost. The truck slowed down and parked right next to the outpost Crystal was hiding in. The six rebels hopped off and out of the truck, their rifles in hand. Michalov started fearing for Crystal, he didn’t know why he was worrying so much; they had gone through situations worse than this together before.

	Crystal heard the feet of the rebels crunch the snow, giving her a good indication of where they were at.  She heard the crunches get louder, in response; Crystal lay on her stomach to lower her profile. Her movement mad some slight sound, enough to catch the attention of the approaching rebel.

	“Heads up, Crystal. You got a rebel moving towards you, what did you do?” Michalov said with concern.

	“Getting comfortable.” She replied calmly.

	“This isn’t a game, Crys. You better not start treating it like one.” Michalov said with his authoritative voice.

	“Yes ‘sir’.” she whispered in disappointment.

	The rebel above the ghost shrugged and turned to go back to the truck. Crystal slowly got up and moved out of the outpost. Keeping her eyes locked on the rebel, she made sure not to make another sound.

	“Stand by, Crystal, they’re almost gone,” Michalov ordered, “What are you doing?”

	“This mission will be ten times easier if we get some eyes in the rebel HQ. I’m planting a tracker on the truck, if need be, give cover fire.”

	Michalov sighed but agreed. He kept his crosshairs trained on the driver of the truck. “Better hurry, Crys, they’re going to start up soon.”

	Crystal was annoyed by the constant ‘guardian’ feeling Michalov was giving off. She worked better when she was on her own, so that’s what she did. Turning off her radio, she took a breath and moved closer and closer to the truck. Luckily, the cold air was giving the truck a hard time to start up, this was put Crystal’s advantage.

	“Crystal? Crystal!” Michalov realized she turned off her radio, “Dammit! This is going to get ugly, I just know it…”

	Michalov got up and started slowly moving the down the hill. As Michalov descended, he made sure not to slip on any ice that may be hiding under the fresh layer of snow. Unfortunately, his luck ran out as he slipped on a fresh patch of ice. He was thrown off of his feet, dropping his rifle in the snow, causing an unintentional weapons discharge. The rifle’s bullet flew in the direction of Crystal and the truck, hitting the vehicle just feet away from his partner.

	Crystal looked over and saw the hole in the side of the vehicle she was rigging. “You’ve got to joking…” Crystal thought to herself.

	The alarmed rebels raised their rifles and began firing at the hill. One of the rebels jumped off the side of the box to close in. Not seeing Crystal, due to her cloaking device, he landed on her. Crystal was knocked over and confused for a moment, the rebel also lost his footing but recovered much faster. “Here! WNU operative here!” the rebel yelled.

	Crystal drew her pistol and silenced the man, but she was too late. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by rebels. Taking a rifle butt to the back of her head, she became disoriented. Two rebels picked her up by her arms and threw her into the backseat of the truck. One of the rebels went back to firing at their unknown assailant, the other worked on tying up Crystal’s hands so she couldn’t fight back.

	“No, no, no, no!” Michalov hid underneath the thick snow from the gunfire, “Why, Crystal, why! Why the hell did you do that?”

	Michalov was frantically yelling into the radio, even though he knew hers was off. As soon as he heard the gunfire slow down, he emerged and returned fire. He wasn’t really firing though, more like potshots from anger and despair. He watched as the truck finally began rolling away from him, his fiancé at their mercy, which he was sure, there would be none.

	“Legion Actual, this is Legion One. We need a gunship pursuing a rebel truck bearing seventy-four degrees. Do not fire, I repeat do not fire, Legion Two is captive.” Michalov requested.

	All was silent for a minute, the truck was too far for Michalov to do anything, and he was still waiting for a reply. “Legion One, this is Legion Actual. Negative on the gunship support, Cuban president is already asking questions about small arms fire in your area. Extraction is en route. LZ is two miles north of your position, get there; you have some explaining to do.”

	“You aren’t going to rescue, Crystal? What the hell are you thinking?” Michalov yelled.

	“Legion One, we are fully confident in Two’s ability. She exceeds any other operative’s talent phenomenally. She’ll be fine.”

	“You aren’t getting the picture here, Le-“Michalov was cut off.

	“We understand more than you know, Legion One. Get to the LZ; we will not wait for you. If you chose to stay in Cuba then you will be declared AWOL. Any actions you commit will be held against you and you will be cut off. Do you understand?”

	Michalov looked at the truck which was now just a black speck in the distance. He sighed before replying, “I understand…”

	Michalov began heading north and soon the truck was completely out of view. He was silent; half of his mind was occupied with regret, the other with hate. He couldn’t think properly. Before he knew it, he was standing at the LZ; he heard the engines of the transport closing in fast on him. Michalov grabbed hold of a red smoke signal flare and threw it onto the ground, marking his position.

	“Smoke confirmed, making our approach.” The pilot inside the transport said.

	Michalov heard him over the radio and it didn’t make him any bit calmer. He hated the fact that he was leaving Crystal behind. It made him wonder, why isn’t anything being done to rescue their most valuable asset?

	Once the transport landed, Michalov got inside and was greeted by a colonel. Michalov saluted but it didn’t feel normal to him. The transport lifted off, only making Michalov more regretful that he couldn’t have done anything. He looked up and saw the colonel only staring at him. It was like he was being evaluated for something.

	The colonel kept staring. He knew Michalov didn’t like leaving comrades behind. The colonel walked into the cockpit, “Activate cloaking, we’re going to fly by the rebel base. Do a sweep for Legion Two.”

	Michalov looked up with surprise, “You’re sending me back in?”

	“No,” the colonel shook his head, “The information is for the platoon we’re sending in to retrieve the experimental tech.”
	“You’re raiding the place?” Michalov sounded surprised, more than normal.

	“Well, this is the first time a ghost has ever failed, might as well hit it with shock and awe.”

	The doors to the sides of the transport closed, a slight vibration could both be heard and felt as the larger cloaking device concealed the transport from view. Michalov stood up and looked out the window of the craft and took notice of the base that they were almost flying over top of.

	The pilot’s voice could then be heard over the intercom, “Uhh, sir?” it was silent for a few seconds, and “Two’s vitals just went flat. No response.”

	Michalov looked shocked, not even a day after proposing to her and she had died as a hostage to rebels. The colonel spoke up, “June 4th, 2089: 1530 Hours. Sergeant Crystal Davis declared killed in action.”

	Michalov’s head lowered, he didn’t know what to think. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry for your loss, lieutenant. She died a hero and did a great service to the WNU.”

	“A service? You force me to leave her behind, so she can be executed by guerillas? That is a great service?” Michalov’s voice was filled with anger.

	“She provided us with in-“

	The compartment in which Michalov and the colonel were sitting in went red, the whole transport began shaking. Alarms went off; the pilot could be heard over the intercom, “Jesus Christ! Sir, get in here!”

	The colonel got up and ran to the cockpit, “What is it?”

	The pilot pointed out the window to a large cloud of smoke and fire, “Heavy ordnance, two-thousand pound explosive just went off in the center of the base.”

	The flight engineer spoke up, “Uhh, we’re losing power to our cloaking systems. Seems we were fragged by debris in the explosion. We should bug out before the Cuban government detects us.”

	“Get us out of here.” The colonel ordered.

	“You don’t need to tell me twice!” the pilot exclaimed.

	Michalov kept his eyes out and stared at the kilometer high cloud of black smoke. “At least you went down with flames and a hundred enemies at your grave…” Michalov said into his radio, knowing nothing would return back.