Call of Duty : Magic in Action

"Loose Ends"

Day 6 - 15:56:42

Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 141

Georgian-Russian Border

Explosive shell hit. Roach couldn't see anything.

He was pushed by an explosion. Roach fell down to the ground. His ears was ringing. His nerve was numb and senseless. The impact from explosion injured and paralyzed him. Roach surrounded by mortar explosions, that turn the surrounding into mess. Under the horrific situation, Roach heard Ghost shouts from his left.

"I've got you Roach, hang on!"

Ghost dragged Roach to landing zone and threw a smoke grenade at enemies. They flooded out from a woods and shot at Roach and Ghost.

"Thunder Two-One, I've popped red smoke in the treeline! Standby to engage on my mark!"

Red smoke popped out. A red cloud floated around in the woods. Thunder Two-One replied, but Roach barely heard. Ghost repeated the request to gunship and dragged Roach through rage mortar explosions. During Roach was dragging away by Ghost, he drew out a AK-47 Grenadier and shot at enemies to cover their retreat.

Roach put everything to bring down fearless foes. He changed another magazine as soon as his rifle was depleted and continued to fight. The enemies and Roach were firing at each other, but fortunately, Roach and Ghost were safe while they were retreating to landing zone. Enemy's RPG failed to bring down a gunship that flies past overhead Roach and clears enemies out of the red cloud. The ground was shaking. Roach was bleeding. He was dizzy and fatigued. Roach roughly wiped dirt out from his goggle with his left hand and continued to shoot, until he lost his visual and blacked out.

"Roach, hang in there!"

Ghost's voice was overwhelmed by a noise from the surrounding. Roach was unconscious until Ghost helped up him.

"Come on, get up! Get up! Get up! We're almost there!"

They slowly approaching to MH-53 Pave Low. The transport helicopter and gunships were landing in front of them. Shepherd, who sits in the Pave Low, came out and calmly walked toward Roach.

"Do you have the DSM?" Shepherd asked.

"We got it, sir!" Ghost replied.

While Shepherd was getting near Roach. He noticed something wrong about Shepherd.

"Good...that's one less loose end." Shepherd said.

Shepherd picked out his pistol and pointed at Roach's chest.

"NO!" Ghost shouted.

It's too late, The gun shot after Ghost shouted. The bullet pushed Roach away and he fell off to the ground. Ghost was drawing his rifle, but Shepherd killed him before Ghost could shoot at Shepherd.

The true face had revealed. Everything was hopeless. The effort of the team, which risked their life for this mission, was wasted by a traitorous commander. Roach was enraged, but he couldn't change anything with his badly injured body. The commander walked toward Roach and took away DMS, that collected many valuable data of Makarov, from his pouch, then Shepherd called over his men to carry him and Ghost away. Roach knew his death is near. His consciousness nearly slipped away while he was thrown down in a ditch. Upon his impacted on the ground, his head turned to his left lifelessly and Roach saw Ghost was threw along with him while Price was warning in the comm.

"...Do not trust Shepherd! I said again, Do not trust Shepherd!..."

A shepherd's man soaked Roach and Ghost with gasoline and silence quickly occupied the radio when Price was out. The Shepherd's man walked away when a jerrycan was empty. Shepherd was smoking. He walked toward Roach and briefly looked at the dying soldier. The time was slower when Shepherd threw a burned cigarette upon Roach and lit Roach and Ghost on fire. Shepherd turned away and returned to his Pave Low. Gunships was flying away. Roach and Ghost was left to die in the fire. Roach tried to get up, but his effort was going in vain when the blaze devoured him alive.

Roach died, along with other teammates who meet their terrible fate. The last moment of their life reached them faster than they expected...

[(In a monitor scene, a satellite tracks Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson in the Georgian-Russian Border and labels him "K.I.A.". Transmission and buzzing can be heard while the satellite analyzes fallen soldiers in Task Force 141 and labels them as "K.I.A." one by one. Before the system can send the data to the ground below, it is interrupted by an unknown access. The monitor is quickly flooded with critical error massages. It detects the task force profiles have been accessed and read. The satellite tries to eliminate the access, but it makes the system faces more vicious infiltration. Cryptic data quickly overwhelms the system. In the end, the satellite forces to deny all access to the data in order to prevent damage to mainframe.)]

[(When the system is rebooted, an abnormal data and unwelcome access have been terminated. The satellite checks on the profiles and detects several profiles were hacked. Meanwhile, a cryptic signal is stealthily sent away from the satellite by unknown access to outer space at unbelievable acceleration.)]

[(A cryptic signal is traveling at speed of light. It's soon disappears in a void of space.)]

[(At the Canterlot, the starry night covers the mighty city of Equestria with dark violet sky. The city is flashy with the light from buildings and streets. Ponies have started to pack up their stalls or close their shops. Under the realm of the night, princess Luna, the guardian of dream, is stepping in her duty to watch out the danger in nighttime.)]

[(Upon a royal castle, princess Luna is on a balcony at her watch tower. Her wavy majestic mane is flowing against the wind breezes from the west. Beside Luna, an ornate book is on a small table. In front of Luna, there is a golden telescope is placed on a tripod. She looks preciously at the land of ponykind and seldom glanced through the telescope to check the land below.)]

[(Princess Luna frowns. She levitated and opened the book, which appears to be made around tribal period. She slowly read the book. Each page is inscribed in unicorn glyphs, which describe illustrations show the event in a long past. Luna looks upon a picture. It shows a half deep blue starry night and half shining golden day over the old Equestria with peaceful cottages of Earth pony ancestors on the ground, a beautiful castle of Unicorn on the hill and a cloud-city of Pegasi in the sky. They all, in the picture, are living in harmony and prosperity.)]

[Luna : In an ancient time, pony lived together. Grew the crop, tended the cloud, circled the day and night.

The peaceful day, seemed never wipes, until the sun went dim, spread the shadow upon the earth.

The city, planed to stood forever, destroyed. The crop, didn't grow. The sky, fell without alert.

One day, monsters was raised from the dirt, overpowered the mightiest pegasi.

[(The illustration magically fades out to chaos scene of ancient ponies. Their cottages and crop fields are burned. Their castle is destroyed. Their cloud-city is fallen to the ground and collapsed. The sky slowly dyes with darkness and solar eclipse is occurred. Ancient ponies are panic while they are running away and chased by monstrous bipeds in bizarre bronze armor that raise up from the ground around a black obelisk with glowing unknown glyphs in the middle of the illustration. Clouds fall from the sky. The prosperity is vanished. Princess Luna opens to the next page, which contain the illustrations of ancient ponies in their regular day.)]

[Luna : The farmer stopped sowing, so they would, fought for living.

The poet stopped singing, and instead, took up the spear.

The scholar stopped studying, but then, resisted the horde.]

[(The illustration fades. Ancient ponies, that once enjoyed their live peacefully, have to fight the monsters that raising up from the ground. Luna stares on the picture for awhile, before she moves on to the next page. She looks on the illustration and quickly closed the book. She fidgets and accidentally bumps on a tripod, which nearly knocks the telescope over. Her face has clearly shown a sign of worry while she backs on the telescope. Around the Equestria, it isn't a normal day, which full with relief and peace. Bad fortune is slowly coming all over the realm of pony since Princess Celestia has deployed more royal guards in a mission than before when unexplained incidences are happen around Equestria, and her sister gave her the book for an unknown reason.)]

[(Time passes to midnight, Princess Luna had found nothing suspicious. She sighs in relief when there's nothing happen in the fifth night since mobilization. She sits on the balcony's floor and begins to meditate before she prepare herself into the realm of dream.)]

"Please, Gary."

...

"Gary, could you... stay."

...

"Gary?"

...

"Gary!"

...

...

...

"Gary, Please ...Don't leave me... alone."

...

"I'm sorry."

Roach awoke. He was dizzy and unable to move. He was lying on the ground. The wind was blowing softly and musing in his ears. It brought a deep mysterious and obscure noise along its current, which chanting like a song in unknown word from a distance or singing wind in a cave. The noise caused Roach feel nostalgic, like he had forgotten this song for a long time ago. Roach slowly regained his strength, along with his dizziness slightly lifted off from his head.

Roach opened his eyes but quickly shut it when he found his surrounding is too bright. He waited until his eyes could adjust to the ambient light. When the light was no longer be a trouble, he slowly opened his eyes to see the surrounding.

"Blazing Dust"

Day 0 - [Unknown]

Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson

(M.I.A.)

(Unknown)

"So shining." Roach thought. "Where am I?"

Black ashes were raining from above and piled upon his goggles. When Roach regained enough strength to move his hand, he tested his muscle by moving his neck and his limbs. His body was numb, but no longer felt painful or paralyzed. Roach checked himself and found he was mild injured. His pain was lesser than a few moment ago. Bullet wounds on his body was gone. Roach raised up to sit on the white ground. He looked around and found nothing more than pure white scenery and black ashes. Roach recalled his memory and tried to analyze the situation what is happen to him.

"... What's this place." Roach mumbled.

Roach held his wound and endured the pain while he got up. He dusted ashes off from goggles and looked at himself. Entire of his body was pure black and unreal. Roach checked on his gear. He found all his equipment is missing. His knife and rifle were nowhere to be found. Roach looked around confusedly.

"Ghost? ... Price? ... Soap?"

Only singing wind answered his call. Roach checked on his radio. It received no signal. Roach shook his head before he put the radio back and slowly moved forward into a desolate area. During wandering, Roach left black footprints upon his trail. His footprints was slowing fading away after they were imprinted. Ashes were falling off his body along the way he went through. Roach walked across the emptiness, wind and ashes under the bright sky. After long walked, he found something on the ground. Roach moved closer and picked it up.

"USP. 45?" Roach mumbled. "Not a good selection, but it's better than nothing."

Roach checked the pistol. He found its mag is fulled and the pistol's color was pure black. He held his pistol and continued to walk through the empty land. Few minutes later after obtained the pistol, Roach stopped when he heard explosion explodes from a distance. The ground was shaking and a city was raising from the ground around him. Strange enough, the city was pure black as his body. Roach looked around for awhile before he continued to move on a road when he found no threat nearby.

During the explore, the city reminded Roach when he was hunting down Rojas at Rio De Janeiro. Roach wiped ashes out from his goggles when it started to pile upon his goggles. He explored the area and tried to figure out where is he. All he could remember is he was dying in the ditch after betrayal commander had killed him and Ghost. When he got his consciousness, he was in nowhere and Ghost was missing.

"What a surprised." Roach mumbled.

While exploring the city, Roach changed route and walked through an alley when he found the road is blocked by barricades. He jumped down a ledge through a broken chain link fence and arrived at a favela (a Brazilian shanty town), which resemble to the slum where Roach and his teammates tried to capture Rojas. It was pure black as the city. Roach moved through the slum and spotted a combat knife pins on a wall. He moved closer and quickly recognized it is his knife. Roach took it and kept it on his belt.

Instantly, Roach heard another loudly explosion explodes from the same direction. Roach crouched down in quick respond and noticed falling ashes was lesser. The mysterious noise stopped and silence quickly overwhelmed the place. Roach looked up and saw a cloud of black smoke is floating in the sky.

"I'm not alone here." Roach thought. "Better be careful."

Roach moved through the favela in order to get closer to the smoke. After long walked, Roach turned around the corner and nearly reached the smoke, but Roach quickly hid behind a corner when he spotted an armed man is guarding the way. The man was pure black as same as Roach. The man's outfit showed he works for the Inner Circle. He didn't spot the sergeant yet. Roach watched out for incoming enemies until he was sure there is no other Inner Circle soldier nearby. He took out his knife and sneaked behind the man. In a blink of eyes, the armed man noticed Roach's presence when Roach had already knifed and finished him. The enemy had no change to scream out for help. Roach dragged a corpse away and put it down quietly on the ground.

"Strange... my knife nearly could't piece his skin..." Roach thought while he took the AK-47 and two magazines from corpse. Moreover, Roach had never seen the enemy's mark in any force, but in seconds later, he quickly found out it wasn't a mask. It was his face. Roach was shocked for a second, before he shook his head and hid the corpse. Its glowing eyes stared lifelessly at Roach and slightly rotted his sanity. Roach tried not to make eye contact with it.

After hid the corpse, He stood up and made his way to the smoke. Roach hoped he could find some radio or phone to contact with his teammates or find a way out of the bizarre place. After Roach get out from the favela, he found himself near a open area.

At the center, A giant tree was setting in flame, sending a big cloud of black smoke upon the sky. Two comical houses were near the tree and left untouched. Four armed men stood at the front of the tree and didn't noticed Roach and their missing friend. They surrounded a bright violet skin or fur thing, which appear to be a fiction creature. Since most of surrounding was white and black, this creature was very easy to notice. The armed men was talking with each other. Roach tried to listen what they said, but nothing was recognized at all.

In a second through, Roach heard something occurred behind him. Roach turned back swiftly and saw the favela was slowly sinking into the white ground. Roach witnessed the phenomenon silently, until he heard someone shouting behind him.

Roach knew what will happen. No hesitation, the sergeant turned back before he aimed his rifle at the nearest armed man and pulled a trigger, but it was too late for Roach to realize that he hadn't been compromised. The armed man just shouted at the violet thing. The time was running slow when Roach shot the first round. The recoil slightly pushed Roach and the rifle roared in powerful firepower. The gun sent bullets upon its targets. Roach managed to kill one armed man. Other armed men knew Roach's presence and turned back to him. Their eyes were glowing red and glaring at Roach. They drew their rifles and aimed at Roach. Roach manage to kill another two armed man, but the sergeant's fate turned from bad to worse when he couldn't finish the last armed men in time while he was aiming at Roach.

"Dammit!" Roach thought Roach tried to crouch down in order to avoid to be hit by bullets, but the table was turned when the last armed man was killed by a pistol and Roach's life was saved in time. The time returned to normal when the last armed man fell to the ground. Roach looked around and found a familiar skull-masked man in pure black aiming a M1911 and coming out from behind a house. It was Ghost who saved Roach in time.

Ghost sent a hand signal to Roach to approach the tree. They moved closer and checked corpses. The armed men had no sign of life. Ghost shoved the corpse with his foot and shot its face for confirmed kill. Roach kicked guns out of men's reach to make sure they won't be a trouble for them.

"All clear." Ghost said and lowered his M1911. "Roach, you should be more careful next time."

"Aha, I know." Roach replied. "So, how did you find me, Ghost? I thought you're missing."

"Actually that's my words." Ghost said. "By the way, I followed the smoke. Lucky for you that I arrived in time."

"I agree..." Roach said.

"Take everything useful from these corpses."  Ghost said. "We will move out soon."

"Roger." Roach replied.

Ghost crouched down and searched a corpse. Roach glanced around at the giant tree and houses. He noticed that the tree might used to be some kind of housing. After viewed the scenery for awhile, Roach joined Ghost to search for mags and other gears from corpses. Roach crouched near an enemy's corpse and started searching for mags and gears from a corpse. While Roach found the first mag, he heard a thud and heavy breathing from behind. He turned back to find out what caused the thud.

It was come from a bright violet living thing, that lies down on the white ground. Roach looked closely and found it's actually some kind of hybrid fictional creature. She (Roach judged on its eyelashes) had deep blue straight hair and tail with purple and pink streaks, a horn at her forehead and a pair of wink at her side with stars tattoo at her haunches. The living thing was staring weary at the ground and didn't move. Roach moved to the quadruped but kept a distance between him and the quadruped, since he's unsure that it is hostile or not. Roach touched the quadruped's head, but it didn't respond. Roach sighed and dully shook his head before he checked on the quadruped. It didn't have any wound, but only a pair of black shackle locked loosely on quadruped's hind legs. Roach tried to moved a shackle down, but the quadruped flinched and moaned upon his contact on the black steel. Roach slightly moved back when the quadruped cried out painfully. Ghost turned his head to Roach when he heard the cry. The lieutenant moved to Roach and crouched near the quadruped.

"What are you doing, Roach? Are you done with searching?" Ghost asked.

"Sorry." Roach replied. "I'm just... curious."

Ghost briefly looked at the quadruped. It looked weak and helpless.

"I know this thing is new for you, but it's better to ignore it. We have too many thing to do right now." Ghost said.

Roach nodded. In the same time, the quadruped looked up and faced Ghost and Roach. The quadruped was frightened and receded away. It clambered away in few feet before it was quickly weighted down by shackles. It crumbled on the white ground. The quadruped turned back and stared at the elite soldiers and mumbled something before it fainted.

The elite soldiers didn't say anything. Ghost stood up and peered around. The tree was extinguished and left only a burned wood and black smoke. Falling ashes were no more. The wind stopped blowing. Ghost walked away from the tree. Roach stood up and followed him.

"...there must be the way out from here." Ghost said. "Let's go and find out."

Roach nodded. Few second later, The ground underneath was rumbling and interrupted them. It was stronger than the last time. Roach and Ghost drew their rifles. They searched for enemies and prepared to engage.

"What the hell?" Roach mumbled.

"Stay alert... keep your eyes open." Ghost whispered.

Their eyes glued on their gun sight. They preciously looked around, but there was nothing out from empty space. When the rumble stopped, Roach and Ghost prepared themselves for an unexpected incoming.

"... Left clear..." Roach said.

Unexpectedly, The ground under Ghost was collapsed. Ghost was falling to the void below.

"Argh!!"

"Ghost!"

Roach attempted to catch his teammate but the ground below him was breaking and they both were falling. The ground around them was quickly collapsed and brought structures and corpses down to the abyss. The wind was hitting Roach violently upon a strong gravity. He saw the ground above him is shattering into pieces. The light vanished. The darkness soon overwhelmed them all.

Soon, everything was collapse. Roach saw only the violet quadruped hovers in the same spot. When he was about to fainted, he heard a graceful voice came out from the void.

"Twilight Sparkle..."