Sitting firm and silent, I look down at my rifle. It was given as standard issue, a simple yet reliable C8 Carbine fitted with a Foregrip, laser sight, and an EOtech holo sight.

I pull out the mag and look at the ammunition inside, double checking before slamming it back into its spot in the gun. The helicopter I’m currently sitting in is flying over some spot in Russia. It looks cold outside, with all the snow and such, but secluded. And it looks like we’re flying over a forested area. I look around the bay where my squad sits. In front of me is a nervous looking Newbie. I can see the beads of sweat on his head.

“Nervous rookie?” I say to him, causing him to look up at my headgear, staring into the void-like sockets of my helmet where the eyes would be before looking back down. I smirked, but he couldn’t see it. Next to him sits a calm looking soldier, seemingly not being bothered with the issue we will be soon facing. I respect that, the fearlessness.

Next to me sits another somewhat relaxed soldier, he has headphones in, getting lost in whatever he was listening to. He looks nervous, but not as bad as the rookie. I let my gaze wander around the helicopters interior for a bit longer before the speakers turn on and the pilots voice can be heard.

“Landing zone just ahead. ETA ten minutes, ready up.”

I look over my gun once more, before getting the others to check their ammunition and gear. “Alright ladies. Current objective when we land is to rendezvous with Delta. They will be waiting for our arrival, once we meet up we will be doing a breach and clear on the cabin home the Hostage is in. Your highest priority is making sure this hostage is safely retrieved. Understood?” I look around and receive nods of agreement. I stand up just as the helicopter lands and the exit ramp is lowered, revealing the clearing we landed in. We all exit and take a look around as the helicopter takes off back where it came from.

I look down at the compass on my wrist and start walking North into the woods toward the rendezvous. I walk fast, wanting to get there as quick as I can. I hear my mates following behind.

~A fair trek later~

My squad is keeping pace pretty well. The snow in the forest is a few feet deep and trudging through all of it was taking a toll on some of them but they held strong.

I look ahead and see another squad of four a bit away, Delta. I quicken my pace and make it to them, calling out for their OC. A man dressed in white camo’d gear walks towards me. When he gets close I notice the immense size comparison between him and I, me having to look down at him.

“Alpha.” He acknowledges us and I nod my head once. “The plan is simple. The cabin is just down this slope we’re on. The home itself is two stories tall with more then enough rooms for terro’s to be hiding in. We will be in groups of two, so we can push from every side. We have some ladders here for a group to take to get quick entrance to the second floor.” He motions to the folded ladders.

“Do we know what we’re up against?” I peer over the slope at the cabin.

“It’s assumed that there’s a minimum of twenty guys in there, all equipped with military grade weapons. Luckily for us, they don’t have armour. So as long as you shoot first, you’ll shred.” He replies while looking over his weapon.

“Your with me.” I say, looking at the rookie. He looks at me and gulps a bit but doesn’t argue. I grab a ladder and start sliding down the slope with ease.

When I reach the bottom I’m still behind a line of trees so my person isn’t spotted. I wait for my mate before pushing along the tree line until I see the side of the home. I stare intently at the windows and see no movement, so I move quick and reach the house in a matter of seconds, rookie right behind me. “Everyone is position?” Delta’s OC radios. I hear rookie respond with affirmative as well as the other groups.

With his response I set up the ladder and sling my weapon around my back so I can climb with both hands. Once I reach the window I check and see it’s unlocked. Lucky me. I slowly ease it open and quietly enter while sweeping the room with my sidearm.

I motion out the window for rookie to follow and he proceeds up the ladder. As he’s climbing I hear the door start to open and I look to my left, finding a conveniently placed pair of scissors. Not wanting to throw my knife I pick them up just as one of the hostiles enter the room. I quickly throw the scissors at the man and it gets lodged in his throat, silencing any screams. I make my way to him quickly and slam my palm into the scissors, implanting them deeper into his throat. Once he finally falls limp I drag him and stuff him under the bed.

I turn and see the rookie staring at me with slight fear in his eyes. Good. I turn back and peek around the hallway with my rifle aimed wherever I look. “Clear.” I say, pushing deeper into the cabin. Me and my mate slowly traverse down the hallway until we hear someone yelling, and another frantically speaking in Russian.

“Hostage located. Preparing for breach and retrieval.” I say quietly into the radio. I don’t wait for a response and move to the side of the door where the voices are coming from, the rookie taking the spot opposite of me. I pull out a flash bang and quietly open the door enough to toss it in. Just before I can pull the pin, gunfire erupts and I see rookie get obliterated by penetration fire. I dive backwards and land on my back, aiming my rifle at the door.

I see the door open and a head peek out, only to receive a bullet to his unlucky noggin. I quickly stand and finally toss the flashbang into the room. I wait and hear them start to panic, just before the sound of a loud popping goes off and the smell of phosphorus takes over. I immediately kick open the door and shoot whoever’s unfortunate enough to be holding a gun, making quick work of the terrorists inside the room.

I look around quickly before finding a bloodied tied up man in a suit sitting on the ground. I walk towards him and go to remove his bonds but I see his eyes look over my shoulder and widen. I push the man back and quickly sweep around, knocking the man sneaking up on me over. He drops a somewhat large knife and I move to grab it, but receive a kick in the face, throwing me back a little bit. I regain my stability before dodging a swipe of his large knife. I notice that the hostage has removed his binds and is crawling to the corner of the room, so I use this added space to finally end this encounter.

I wait a couple more swipes and jabs before finally finding an opening in the mans attacks. I take this opportunity to quickly grab is arm and snap it before pulling him toward me and snapping his neck, killing him. I let the body fall and walk back towards the hostage. “This is October. We have multiple terro’s confirmed dead. Hostage secured. But we suffered a casualty.” I look out the door and see Rookies bloodied hand. I receive a response from Alpha’s OC and get a confirmation.

“Roger Oct. the rest of the house has been cleared. Grab the hostage and get ready for exfil.” I sign off, and move towards the hostage. “Can you walk?” I question while looking at his wounds.

“Y-yes. Can I have your name?” He responds. I look at him and stare for a second. “I want to know who I should reward for saving me.” He says again, looking grateful.

“October.” I say. Getting the man to look down quizzically. He eventually nods and shakily stands up. I begin to lead him out of the room and out of the house. I send him off with the rest of my squad and Alpha. Looks like Rookie was the only casualty. How unfortunate.

I return to my fallen squad mate and kneel over his body. I take a moment of silence before grabbing his weapons and ammo, planning on returning them to HQ for more use.

I leave the house and look at my wrist again wanting to find which direction I need to head. But the fucking things gone haywire and is spinning in both directions with immense speed. I tap the thing a couple times hoping to realign it but nothing happens.

I give up and just assume where the LZ is before walking. Before long I had began humming an old tune to myself to try and make the walk seem less lonely. I do a quick spin around while walking to look at my surroundings and get a better depth of the area. I’m not in as dense as woods as I was before coming down the slope, so the trees had a fair bit of space between them in this area.

I hear a sound behind me and quickly turn with my sidearm drawn to see a large eight foot tall creature, who seems to be made up of varying different animals. While confused, I don’t let my gun lower, keeping it pointed directly at its head.

“Hello October. I need your help.” It says. I’m taken aback by its ability to speak but before I can respond it snaps it’s fingers and I see a white flash, before falling over. “All will be explained in due time. When you wake up, follow the northern star.” It says before I fall into a deep sleep.

Author's Note

My first attempt at a story. I wrote this with no sleep in around 25 hours so don’t criticize too harshly. And mind any grammatical errors you may find, I’ll be looking to improve my story writing.

Sorry if it seemed rush. Again, will improve over time