Myanmar. 03/02/2013. 03:55.
Climbing the wall using only the crack between the rocks, Nathaniel moved with practice and slow movement, taking the precaution to not make any noise while making his climb. The place was originally an old monastery, modified to make a fort to guard the frontier with China during WW2 and then abandoned at least forty years ago. Since they had taken over the place, they had rehabilitated the exterior wall and added two wooden towers on the road side, equipped with machine guns and a spotlight.
That was one of the reasons that Nathaniel and his team chose to make their approach by the opposing side of the stronghold where there was less security. Hearing footsteps above him, Nathaniel froze, sticking to the wall to avoid being noticed. Waiting without moving an inch, suspended twelve feet above the ground, he starts climbing back once the man starts moving back to his original position, lighting himself a cigarette. Hoisting himself quietly on the wall, he approached silently behind the man, putting his hands on each side of his head before twisting with force, killing him before he could yell. Dropping the body slowly to avoid making any noise, his eyes looked around him to make sure that nobody noticed anything. Once he was sure that everything was good, he took a rope from his bag, tying it to the wall and sending it down.
"Wall clear, rope secured." He said in his earpiece.
"Roger."
Putting a knee to the ground, Nathaniel took in hands his HK416 equipped with a suppressor and a thermal lens, covering his team while they were busy ascending using the rope that he just sent. Once they were all on the wall, Nathaniel nodded in Scott's direction.
"We go according to plan. Move out!" Scott said in the com.
Scott took Na-Yung, Lucie and Jon with him and started walking to the west of the compound where the captives were being held while Nathaniel and Camilla started going north where the sleeping quarters of the slavers were located. Using the shadow and the poor lighting inside the camp, Nathaniel and Camilla moved unnoticed to the first building. Taking her bag off of her back, Camilla took an explosive charge from it and stuck it to the wall.
They kept moving stealthily, going building to building, continuing posing explosives until Nathaniel raised a fist in the air. Understanding the signal, Camilla stops moving and sticks to the wall near her, looking around with her rifle raised.
"What is going on?" Camilla whispers in her com.
"I'm hearing someone getting beat up and crying from the building just ahead." Nathaniel answers back.
"I'm not hearing anything." Camilla said.
"I have a good hearing, want to check it out?"
"We have strict orders, sir." She said with a dry tone.
"You are right. Scott, come in." Nathaniel said, going to the team channel.
"Go ahead." He answers a few seconds later.
"I have a civilian getting beat up here, third building north of your position. Request permission to go in and save the hostage before it's too late."
"Did you accomplish your assigned task already?"
"The explosives are set." Nathaniel answers, not liking where this was going.
"Did you secure the towers?"
"Not yet."
"Permission denied, secure those towers first. Scott out."
"Scott! I can get the girl out of her before they even know that I was there!" Nathaniel exclaimed.
"Do I need to remind you what we discussed? If anything happens and those towers are not secured, we will be sitting ducks! So do what I told you to do and shut the hell up!" Scott shouted angrily before cutting down the communication.
Clenching his jaw in anger, Nathaniel closed his eyes to calm himself. He knew that Scott was right and it was for this reason that Nathaniel named him as team leader. Nathaniel always was kind of a lone wolf and Marc was the same after he left the Seals. Scott was the perfect candidate to be in charge in the field, he was extremely skilled and experienced. Still, he was angry because he was confident he could get the hostage out without triggering any alarm. Sighing, he turned to Camilla who was uncharateristicly silent.
"Let's go Camilla, we have orders."
Walking in the direction of the towers, Nathaniel and Camilla were surprised to find one of the two men manning the towers descending the ladder, saying something to the other one. Nodding to each other, they rapidly took position on each side of the tower, hiding in the shadow. Once descending the ladder, the man died when Camilla knife sliced his throat before lowering him to the ground silently. Checking that everything was alright, Nathaniel put his HK on his back, taking his knife between his teeth and started climbing the ladder of the other tower.
Unlucky from the person guarding the tower, he never knew how he died. One second he was hearing something behind him and the next a knife was stabbed into his brain. Wiping his knife on the dead guy, Nathaniel calls Scott.
"Towers secure, how is it going on your side?"
"We breach the wall and are currently evacuating the hostages, we need you to speed up the process, this is taking too much time."
"Scott, I need to go back to…"
Nathaniel started to say when a gunshot echoed in the fort, shutting him up instantly.
"Lucie is down!" The voice of Jon said in the com.
"Jon go get her! Na-Yung covers him and finds me who is the bastard that just shot her!" Scott ordered quickly.
"On it!" Na-Yung answers.
"I… I'm good, I took it in the vest, it hurt like hell but I think I'm good. I got the one who shot me." Lucie said weakly.
Relieved that Lucie was only injured, Nathaniel kney that the problems were only getting started. That gunshot had been extremely loud and he could hear noise coming from the building where the ex soldiers were no longer sleeping.
"Scott, we have movements here, the whole fort is waking up."
"You need to hold them! We need two minutes to extract the rest of the prisoners and then we will be with you."
Scott knew exactly what he was asking. Two minutes in this kind of situation would be exactly the same at two hours, that was going to be really difficult to do but he had orders and he was going to obey them. There was no other choice.
"Camilla, you heard our orders. I'm going to take the high and stay here, take the low ground and secure my descent. Take your suppressor off, we are going to make a lot of noise to make sure that everyone goes to us and not where the prisoners are being held. Armed with the charge that we placed and get ready to blow everything up at my signal."
"Got it!" Camilla answers quickly, taking position to have a good view to the passage leading to the tower.
"I'm making sure you are going to have the time that you need. Camilla, move 8 yard to your left, there is a slight depression in the ground, you will have a better view and a better cover on the passage."
"Moving now."
"Requesting radio silence now."
Closing his eyes, Nathaniel starts expanding his consciousness outward. Overwhelmed by the huge number of persons and information he was getting, he withdrew it quickly. Taking another breath, he limited himself in a thirty yard radius around him where he could feel twenty four people moving. Having an idea, he tried to visualise the position of his weapon which was surprisingly easy to do. Keeping his eyes closed, he pressed the trigger three times in a row, hitting a wall and two doors.
Seeing where the shots landed, Camilla looked surprised at where Nathaniel was. She was well aware of how good a shot he was and wasting three shots like that did not look like him at all.
"What the hell!?" She exclaimed loudly when one of the two doors that he just shot opened, a man half dressed toppling over, a bullet wound in his head.
Keeping himself from smiling at his success, he shot five more times when the hair on his neck started standing up. Not wasting time, he jumped from the top to the tower and used the ladder as a sliding pole to descend. He had just jumped when bullets started ripping where he was just standing a few moments ago. When he was three feet above the ground, he jumped from the ladder, doing a roll on the ground to absorb the kinetic energy of the descent. Even if he did it right, he still felt the impact on his joints.
"Camilla, I'm going to cover your right flank." Nathaniel said on the radio, taking cover on the side of the building.
The position he was in was not that great, he was covered by the building but there were two paths coming in his direction and at least ten windows who had a direct line of sight to his position. Moreover, based on his location and the barracks in the fort, he was going to take the brunt of the attack. In contrast, Camilla was in a better position to defend herself and block her side of the tower as he had only one path and a few windows. That arrangement was not due to hasard, Nathaniel had decided to take the more dangerous path.
Hearing footsteps coming, he quickly checked his HK416 after changing the magazine. Even if he had shot only eight rounds of the thirty rounds in it, he preferred to have a fully loaded one, he will need all of them to hold what was coming. Hearing Camilla starting to shoot, he did not have the time to look in her direction because someone appeared on his side and he also started firing.