TW - Gore

NOVA
============
11/01/2003
Alto, New Mexico
Silverwing Base

It only takes me a few steps outside of my cabin to realise that it's absolutely fucking freezing.

There's a thin sheet of snow covering the entire base; resting on the roofs like a blanket. The grass that had been green and lush is now completely invisible. One thing that is visible is my own breath, as it disperses into the air ahead of me.

Training in this type of weather is not particularly ideal.

"What should we start with today?" Lisa asks, glancing over at me; cheeks completely flushed because of the cold breeze.

"As long as it's indoors, I don't mind." I chuckle, she nods in agreement as we head towards our training area.

Yamato is already in there, practicing some hand to hand combat. He turns around and briefly waves over at us, finishing off his round and heading over.

"Cold, huh?" He mumbles, folding his arms around himself as though it's going to help.

"You don't say." Lisa grimaces.

We aren't all in a particularly talkative mood as we head over to the wall littered with guns, she picks up a rifle, I just pull the Smith and Wesson from my belt.

"You really can't let go of that thing, can 'ya Novie?" She says with a chuckle, earning a nod from me.

"It may as well be surgically attached to me at this point," I say, checking the safety as Lisa grins.

We begin our target practice drill, Yamato joining us as we stand in a line facing the targets. It's still unusual to have training sessions without them being consistently interrupted by him.

==

"You're not as good as you think you are y'know, Shields?" Leo snickers as he loads up his own rifle, standing in the box next to me.

"I have the skills to blow your head off, though." I jab back at him. He shakes his head slightly and looks away, glimpsing back at my face with a small smirk.

"You act as though you're some sort of force to be reckoned with." He murmurs.

"Maybe it's not an act, Hendrix." I hiss back at him with an angry glare. He just looks away and back down at his rifle with another smirk.

"Maybe you're right." He mumbles after a few seconds.

==

For some strange reason, especially since I'm thinking about my time at the Hawk group, I feel like now might be a good opportunity to speak to them about the phone call I had seven months ago when I was there. I've kept it right against my chest up until now.

"They found my Mom's wedding ring."

The gunfire immediately stops as they both turn to face me in unison, pulling out their earplugs.

"What? Where?" Lisa exclaims, putting down the rifle.

"Our old plot. Apparently they were digging up a part of the yard, found it near our old vegetable patch. A little scuffed, it had been in the ground for seventeen and a half years after all." I say quietly with a shrug.

They both look equally as shocked as each other.

"When the hell did this information come out?" Yamato speaks in a soft tone.

"7 months ago. I've tried not to think about it, but since you guys have asked me about her recently, I thought I should say."

Lisa seems to be deep in thought for a few minutes, rubbing the underside of her chin before she looks back to me.

"So, what does that mean? Did she just leave?" She murmurs, as though she doesn't want to ask me the question.

"I suppose so. I don't know what other reason there'd be." I shrug slightly. They both frown at me.

"That's so shit," Yamato mumbles, "I can't imagine how it felt finding out about that."

"Pretty damn shit indeed." I chuckle. They definitely don't know what to say as they just stand here, fidgeting awkwardly.

"It's okay, I've come to terms with it. Just happy to know she's alive at least." I say quietly, earning a nod from both of them. After a few tense seconds of silence, we get back to training.

==

"Southeast Asia? A terrorist group? When did this come out?"

I speak with some shock in my voice, looking straight at Vincent.

"There's been reports of the group for a few years, but they've clearly been underestimated; they're responsible for a double homicide of two US tourists. Posted it to the government via email."

"Holy shit." Lisa mutters. If a US citizen is captured and executed, its a pretty big fucking deal for us.

"Do you have the video?" I say quietly. I don't want to have to watch it, but I also want an idea of what we could be dealing with.

He nods slowly, opening up his Panasonic Toughbook and turning it around to face me and us both.

It starts with some text.

'This is a message to the special forces of the United States. For years, you've taken things from us. We are retaliating. This is the consequence of your actions. They will not end here."

The black screen then fades, now showing two men kneeling on the ground with bags over their heads, in what appears to be an open space, a line of trees in the background.

There's a masked man stood behind them with a machete in hand, speaking to the 'cameraman' in a foreign language.

I glance away from the screen in the nick of time as the executor suddenly brings down the weapon on the back of the first man's neck. I hear a sharp gasp escape from Lisa.

The execution continues for about a minute, violent sounds of cracking and gurgled screaming emitting from the dusty speaker of the laptop, until it stops.

Once Vincent shuts the Toughbook, I glimpse back up at him.

"What country is this from?" I speak after a tense few seconds, me and Lisa still comprehending what the fuck we just watched.

"We traced it back to the Philippines," He mutters, a shiver crawling up his back as he shakes it off discreetly.

The Philippines. It's been a long damn time since I've heard much about that country, the last time being when Nicholas the prick was in the picture; with him being half Filipino and all.

Annise, his biological Mom was from the Philippines; met my Dad on one of his excursions not long after Vietnam, apparently.

I chew on my lip in thought for a second, "is this maybe because of Vietnam? All those years ago?"

Vincent shrugs slightly, he seems completely clueless.

"It seems to be a terrorist act of Anti-Americanism. The real reasons are being analysed by our intel groups. The terrorists have been known for causing issues in Southeast Asia anyway, but now they've gotten our citizens involved. They've attempted to carry out attacks in our country, we've managed to foil them in time. We've also arrested some of the terrorists in the process."

"Do we have an estimate of how many Americans are in Southeast Asia right now?" I brace myself for the answer.

"It's in the thousands. We're working on getting them extracted from the country, but it could take months," he sighs irritatedly, "until then, we need to focus on getting our forces out there. My best guess is that they want their prisoners back."

He hesitates for a moment.

"They've got hostages. 20 of them. They're going to use them as the leverage."

Twenty fucking hostages?

"Jesus Christ," I murmur, leaning back into my seat. Lisa looks just as stressed about the whole situation. "Where are the prisoners located? Can we interrogate them? Try and get information?"

"The BlueJay's are working on that. They're at ADX Florence right now. The last I heard, they weren't having much luck."

"Where are the hostages being held?"

"Again, work in progress. All we know is that it's somewhere within the Philippines. We need to get our units deployed as soon as possible, ready to take action when necessary," he stops momentarily to catch his breath,

"I've spoken with the government officials of the Philippines, they're aware and want to help tackle the issue. Because the hostages are our citizens, however, we need to take the forefront action. Terrorists are already trying to overthrow their government. They've been around for years, like I said, yet it's not been this severe. It's as though they've suddenly taken off on a mad spree."

This is a whole lot of information, and there's no doubting this will be the most intense mission of our careers.

"Does this 'group' have a name?" I say quietly, grasping at the situation.

Vincent nods slowly.

"Altashih. Translates to 'The Correction.'"