Wildlands (rskde & BurningWillows)

[BurningWillows]

When they woke they got dressed and made their way down for dinner, having a kitchen in the hotel that was in mostly working order. Kat and Arya made dinner, and afterwards everyone separated again. It was like that the next day too, everyone coming for a meal although not all at once, and then separating once again. Most seemed to have their own jobs, or just needed time to accept what had happened in La Paz.

On the third day Kat woke up early and went first to the kitchen, making two cups of coffee, then finding Shrake outside the elevator.

"Any update?" she asked, offering him a cup.

 

[Risky]

Shrake nods, taking the cup of coffee and taking a sip from it. "Narcos hired Russian mercenaries, sortve an anti ghost I guess, that's all that Harris has said, he's breaking by the day." He explains to her.

He looks around through the trees, hundreds of cartel members are crouched, watching La Paz with interest. A signal is given, a war cry erupts and the cartel members are pouring out of the trees towards the now walled town.

Citizens of La Paz fight back, firing down at the cartel members, gunfire is exchanged before a helicopter flies into the air, beginning to tear through the lines of cartel members, the helicopter is painted with yellow war paint, the symbol of the La Paz militia.

 

[BurningWillows]

With Arya on the mend, Red had been able to take the night off, but he was on morning duty till Winters took over at noon. Sitting with his rifle at the ready, his ears caught the distant sound of gunfire. Using his scope, he scanned the horizon, until he caught sight of La Paz in the far distance, the noise coming in that direction. A helicopter could be seen above it, but he couldn't make out what was going on. From the amount of noise though he guessed it was nothing good.

"Shrake," he called into his radio attached to his chest rig, knowing anyone else with a radio on could hear, "We got something going on in La Paz. Better come up here and check this out."

​

She looked disdainfully at the elevator, wanting quicker answers but knowing the man in there had training like she did, and cracking it wasn't easy.

"If you let me have him for an hour or two I might be able to crack him more," she murmured mostly to herself, already expecting him to automatically say no.

Sipping her coffee she watched the elevator door, wondering if Harris was listening.

 

[Risky]

Shrake climbs to the top of the hotel and looks over at the distant battle. "You said it's nothing good, when it is something amazing." He says to the young sniper. "It seems as though the citizens of La Paz are fighting back." He says, crossing his arms.

 

[BurningWillows]

Red just watched him, cocking his head and checking his scope again.

"The trees are hiding most of La Paz from view. All I can see is that helicopter and hear gunfire. How do you know they are fighting back? What if its just Bolivian government and cartel at it again?"

The door behind them swung open and Arya limped over, her speed faster now that she didn't need a crutch. Katerina was at her heels, having gone to grab Winters first.

"What's going on?" Arya asked, looking between Red and Shrake, "Are we getting any action today sir?"

 

[Risky]

Shrake points out. "La Paz never has any government, and if you had good vision like me, you'd see the town flag painted on that helicopter." He says, lowering his hand. "We must've given them something when we blew up that HQ, the question is if we should help them or not, I can't imagine Skull Face not wanting La Paz under his control."

 

[BurningWillows]

Kat bounced on the balls of her feet, "I'd love to shoot a few more assholes between the eyes.

Red nodded, never looking away from his scope as he watched La Paz in the distance, trying to disconcern the flag on the helicopter, "It take us a least an hour though to get there while driving. Not to mention needing a vehicle, and flying will make us an easy target to see. Walking would certainly take a few hours, but we'd be concealed. Most of the fun will be over by the time we get there any which way..."

"We can always just pick off the stragglers," Kat shrugged, still somewhat eager.

"Shrake?" Arya asked, knowing he made the final call.

 

[Risky]

Shrake laughs. "I'm not a pussy, we're taking the helicopter and firing off of the side down on those bastards, La Paz will see us as allies and won't shoot, and the cartel will take off running.. Arya, go get Al and gear up, everyone else grab your gear and be up here in five." He says to them.

Shrake is already in full battle gear, ready to go while he looks around at his squad which looks like they had just woken up, aside from Red and Arya.

 

[BurningWillows]

As Arya rushed off to grab Al, Katerina paused before going back inside.

"Uh Shrake," her voice was quiet, making sure Arya was gone before continuing, "Whose piloting? Since Em...ah..."

Arya disappeared into the hotel, beelining for Al's room and knocking on the door.

"Hey Al?" she called, knowing he probably wouldn't answer, "Get your game face on. We have an op...of sorts. Cartel is outside La Paz and we are going to show some support. Meet you on the roof."

 

[Risky]

"I will be, no need to worry, grab your gear Kat." He says to the woman, walking over to the helicopter and doing a quick systems check to make sure it would get off of the roof, as to not endanger his fellow ghosts.

Al nods, grabbing his gear and quickly putting it on, he grabs his sniper rifle and walks out of his room, heading up to the roof and getting into the chopper.

 

[BurningWillows]

Red packs his rifle up, following Shrake and climbing in as Arya appears, finding her own seat. Al comes next, and then Kat, saying Winters was right behind her.

"Everyone looks excited," Red grinned, looking at them, "Ready to knock some heads?"

"Yes please," Katerina smiled, finding a spot well wedged between him and Winters, not wanting to get any closer to Al or Arya.

 

[Risky]

Shrake takes off and takes them over La Paz, the battle is worsening for the Militia, even with their helicopter support. "Door gunners, open up, the rest of you conserve ammo, only shoot if you have a shot." He says over the radio, signaling the other helicopter pilot that they are friendly. The La Paz pilot nods and calls it in on his radio, the Ghosts and La Paz are allies for this battle.

 

[BurningWillows]

Red uses his sniper, his arm looped through a cloth handle to keep him from falling as he leans out the side, catching one man in the head. Katerina is behind him, not used to helicopters and unstable. She gets a hit here and there but for the most part has to spectate, not as good an aim from far off like Al and Red are.

Arya on the other hand seems to be having a having a blast, grabbing the helicopters minigun and letting them have it as she sprays bullets down below.

 

[Risky]

Shrake flies them around for about five minutes before the cartel breaks, starting to run away from the town, Shrake pulls off and starts headed back to the hotel, a grim expression on his face as he sees the casualties La Paz has taken.

 

[BurningWillows]

She got a few hits in, but from the air her aim was often off. Katerina wasn't a sniper, that was for sure.

As the cartel broke ranks and retreated, Shrake pulled them back. Kat stole the seat in the passenger side, vacant while the team rained hell down. It didn't take them long to get back to the hotel and most of the team jumped out while Shrake shut the blades off.

"That was somewhat disappointing," Kat stated as she joined Winters on the roof, "I only got, maybe five men."

"I lost count," Arya grinned, heading inside, "Time for some lunch!"

 

[Risky]

Shrake walks inside, ignoring the call for lunch. He walks down to the elevator shaft, activating the microphone. "Any info for me, Harris?" He asks.

Harris looks up, he is skinnier and weak, refusing to have eaten for three days before giving in, he opens his mouth to speak, deciding to give another piece of information.

"Before I left, Lion had Katerina's laptop, he broke into it and discovered the information she deleted, he's moving it to the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, his hideout is the tallest building there, lots of cartel guards, big skyscraper type of thing, lots of security measures." He says before watching the food enter the elevator.

He digs in, wolfing down the food his stomach had been screaming for all day, he feels despicable for betraying Skull Face, for losing his cool and authority that he seemed to have over the Ghosts.

Al goes back to his room, changing out of his gear and sitting on the edge of his bed, grabbing a power bar and eating it quickly before going into his bathroom, closing the door and taking a quick five minute shower, he then dries off and gets changed, laying down in his bed to rest.

 

[BurningWillows]

Katerina followed Arya down to the kitchen, Red at her heels. The redhead had asked Winters to stand guard on the roof at least until Red could get a meal in and possibly a quick nap.

"Go ahead and take the afternoon," Kat smiled to Red as they made their way down, "I'll grab a meal for Winters and he can stand guard for a couple hours. You've barely slept properly."

He couldn't really complain or deny it. Shrake had been able to see that helicopter and he couldn't, meaning he was already far too tired. He nodded and thanked her, before opening the kitchen door to let her in first.

An hour later Katerina knocked on Shrake's 'unofficial' office, bringing him a plate of reheated chicken from the night before and beans.

"Lunch," she offered, stepping in and placing the food on the end of his desk, "Nothing special, but its warm."

Sitting down in one of the free chairs, she leaned back and played with a piece of dirt in her hair, "You look busy. New op?"

 

[Risky]

He waves her off. "I'm planning an op, I do better on a half empty stomach." He says to her, writing some notes on a map. "We found your laptop, and apparently Lion found your deleted files." He explains to the woman in front of him, he places down his marker and looks up at her. "So what exactly did he find, that's the question." He says, looking at her questioningly.

 

[BurningWillows]

Katerina looked unperturbed by the news, only smiling as one of the folders she deleted contained less than flattering pictures of Narcos in bed with her. She told him, smiling as she did so how she had paid a guy to take the photos. How she kept him from snitching she left out, but she was sure Shrake could guess where she hid the body.

"I didn't delete much," she thought back, "My handler always asked me not to in case they needed it. The fact they got passed all that encryption is surprising though. The most they can gleam from what I deleted is facts about you Ghosts."

It wasn't much she had been given either, just the code names, where Casper was, and how to contact them. She told Shrake that, but none of it would be useful to the cartel. The code names wouldn't help them any more than identifying them, Casper was already exposed, and any chance to contact them died when they moved.

"Its empty threats," Kat summarized, thinking about it harder, "Wait Harris knew about the encryption cracking but not what they cracked. And he knew where to send us. No one has coming looking for him yet either. Do you think its possible Skull Face served him up to us, in hopes of setting another trap? Harris would have pretty much spent all his usefulness after that kidnapping. Narcos would know I could I.D him. They are luring us, trying to make me think I deleted something I didn't that we need to retrieve. Skull Face is underestimating me here."

Her voice grew more annoyed as she spoke, her hands clenching into fists. He was still treating her like a dumb blonde, still making her insides crawl.

 

[Risky]

Shrake shakes his head. "How do you know Harris even told Skull Face where he was going? We can't assume things here, that's why we have watches, and mines set everywhere, if the cartel doesn't come, that doesn't mean it's a trap, it could mean they don't know where Harris is, as I said, assuming will get us killed no matter what we are assuming." He explains to the woman.

"Either way we're going after Lion, while the information might be.. 'Useless' as you think, it still confirms the fact that we, as United States Special Forces, are illegally here, Skull Face has a bribing tool and we need to take it away from him, so we're going to do just that, soon." He says. "For now, enjoy some time with Winters or make yourself useful somehow, try not to think about the mission so much." He says to her dismissively.

 

[BurningWillows]

Katerina nodded at his dismissal, taking her leave. Jogging up the many flights of stairs to the roof she decided to join Winters for the afternoon, getting comfy against a pillar and watching him patrol, keeping him company as the day ticked away.

 

[Risky]

Shrake sighs and rolls up his map, he checks the time and decides to head out to sleep, making sure to check the lock on the elevator before doing so, he falls on to his bed and closes his eyes, diving into unconciousness.

Winters keeps a strong watch on the area around the hotel, making sure nothing was coming for them tonight, he decides to pull an all nighter, the amount of sleep he had gotten before hand was sufficient to last him anther day.

 

[BurningWillows]

Days past and everyone fell into routines between taking patrol shifts or kitchen duties. Arya eventually started talking to Kat again, although any talk about Em was off the table. Trying to talk to Al was more of a challenge as she rarely saw him, and when she did he refused to speak to her.

As time went on Katerina grew more bored, used to the cartel life, not sitting around the hotel. She took her frustrations out on Winters, stealing him every chance she got to their room. An hour with him helped her get through the rest of the day. Without she got grumpy and moody.

On one of the nights, while everyone was doing their own respective duties, Katerina had nothing to do oddly. She ended up at the elevator, taking a seat against the door.

"Hello in there," she called over her shoulder, "Can you hear me through the door?"

It was a long shot but she was bored, and annoying Harris could prove entertaining for a bit.

 

[Risky]

Harris looks up, hearing her voice. "Yeah, hi.. Thanks for waking me up." He says sarcastically, leaning his head against the wall. "I'm getting tired of staring at this wall everyday, when is Shrake gonna cut me loose?" He asks her, tapping his fingers against his leg.

 

[BurningWillows]

She leaned into the door, listening to him before laughing, "As soon as we are done with you, that's when."

And from what I hear, when Shrake's done your all Al's, she thought, not giving anything away.

"At least its cozy in there," she added sarcastically, "Definite upgrade from feather pillows and whiskey by the bottle, am I right?"