The next morning Roach sat alone as he tucked into his breakfast, whilst Pheasant shared a table with Heaven and Cermac; Heaven, while she didn't know what happened, could still sense Pheasant's hurt and pain.

"You okay?" Cermac asked with the softness of a feather skirting down the skin, soothing and full of solicitude.

"Yeah. I had a bit of a moment yesterday but I'm fine now," Pheasant answered in between sealing mouthfuls of baked beans.

"We've all had to overcome a lot, especially us two, but we're stronger for it," Heaven explained, nodding at him. He returned the nod. "I learned I had to ignore things if I wanted to get anywhere in life. I had to ignore my dad telling me I wasn't a real woman for joining the army, I had to ignore instructors checking me out when they thought I wasn't looking, I had to ignore my Captain laughing in my face and telling me I would never make it when I told him I was going to try out for the AACC."

"We're survivors Pheasant. We're allowed to feel sad and doubt and nerves for a moment but we push past that into greater things. We have to do our best for the time we have left, and leave a legacy we can be proud of when we look back on it. All we can do is live in the moment, this one weird and wonderful place where nothing is promised but hope and opportunity. We control the moment, we have the freedom of choice to die whether we wish with it. But we have to make the right choice: to be strong and carry on," Heaven explained, Pheasant sat back in his seat, gobsmacked.

"Yeah," he uttered under his breath, "you're right. You're so fucking right. Right now it hurts but it's only temporary, everything is temporary nothing matters in the best possible way-that's what freedom is, not letting something have power over you because ultimately we are all powerless," Pheasant explained. 

"Shit when did you two turn into philosophers?" Cermac joked, chasing laughter to burst from both Pheasant and Heaven.

"Alpha Two Zero, in five minutes I want you all in the rec room," Colonel Simpson said as he entered the mess hall.

"Yes sir," Riley and a few others acknowledged.

"We best hurry this up," Heaven said as she stuffed the last of her plate into her mouth, emptying it as quickly as the rest of the unit did, Pheasant stuffed his leftover greasy bacon and quickly jogged up the sentry tower to throw it to the stray mongrel.

Wandering into the rec room Pheasnt took a hopeful seat next to Roach, who only huffed before moving away. Cermac shot him a glare before himself and Heaven sat on either side of Pheasant.

"Right Alpha Two Zero," the Colonel began as he switched on the projector, which projected an image of a map above it, with certain places marked with arrows and circles, the Colonel pointed to a area in the east, "this is FOB Whiskey," the man explained before he finger moved to an encircled area in the west, "and this is our target for tonight's raid."

"It's a confirmed weapons factory that's supplying the Ultranationalists and killing out men. We're gonna put a stop to it-and here's what we're gonna do," the Colonel said before going into the details: two Black Hawks would fly the commandos a mile away so as to not alert them, then the team would trek into the factory, splitting into two teams-one takes the first floor and the other the second, they'd then rig the place to blow before making their escape back to the Black Hawk.

"Oh, and everyone in this place is expendable."

And with that the Colonel exited the rec room, grabbing his projector and taking it with him. The rest of the day the team honed their hand to hand combat, which by the time lunchtime rolled around he descended into a brutal game of who could get punched in the face the hardest, with the lightest gloves, and not get knocked down.

"Roach gets the gloves," Lieutenant Smith said as the man handed the gloves to Roach, shoving them inside he balled his fists and shot Pheasant a glare as deadly as a knife and as sharp as its blade.

"C'mon, you little pussy faggot," Roach jeered.

"Now I know you two have been a little funny lately, but this could be a way to bond," Harrow said as he grabbed the two men, clonking their heads together.

Then he let go, allowing the two to square off.

Pheasant looked into Roach's eyes, the rest of his face concealed by his raised fists. Inside them boiled a frighteningly potent rage, pure hatred and disgust boiled within their bitter dark chocolate confines.

All Pheasant could do was laugh nervously as he began to recite the famous Rocky quote, "it ain't about how hard you can get h-.

Just as he said it he got hit, a hard and fast punch to the jaw that knocked him clean to the floor. When Pheasant hit the dirt Roach straddled him, punching him over and over in the face.

"Okay Roach I think that's enough," Briggs said by the third punch, but he kept on going.

"What the bloody fuck is going on here?!" Captain Riley exclaimed as he broke through the circle, seeing Pheasant's battered face and Roach who was sweating from the exertion.

Riley pulled Roach off of Pheasant and shook a barely conscious Pheasant. The Captain sent a glare at every one of the his team, but most of all Roach, "you fucking twat, this bastard needs medical attention-you might've postponed the fucking mission tonight, I swear to God if we get any more reports of death I'll kick your own arse," he roared at  Roach who cowered like a mouse from a lion, "you're on shit burning duties for a month for pulling this oh so clever stunt you utter, utter dickheaded fuckface."

Riley's attention returned to Pheasant's eyes that slowly focused on his superior, "sir," he spluttered before his head slumped back down to the floor.

"Don't try to move or talk," Riley said before he lifted his head and cried, "medic!".

The base medic cane running over, carrying a bruised and swollen Pheasant over to the medical tent where he applied ice picks to his swollen face as the scrawny recruit groaned in pain.

"I didn't think Roach had it in him."

"If it makes you feel better he's up to his neck in shit and that shit is rapidly rising, and soon he's going to drown in shit," the medic answered, the nonchalantness to their voice making their statement even funnier to Pheasant.

"I don't want him in trouble though," Pheasant sighed.

"Too late. He made his bed and, like it or not, he's going to lie in it," the medic said before he stood up, "alright I've done all I can do. If the swelling seals your either of your eyes shut come to me, pretty much all we can do is hold an ice pack it and hope for the best, come back to me when they melt and I'll give you a new one."

Pheasant simply nodded before leaving the medic tent, they had roughly six hours before the raid and he hoped it would be enough time for the swelling to go down.

He retired to his room, dozing off to sleep as the adrenaline of the slug fest had long since worn off.

A few hours later he was woken up by the sound of knuckles knocking against the wood of his door.

"You weren't in the medic tent, figured I'd find you here," Cermac said through the closed door.

"Come in," Pheasant said, Cermac pushed open the door and stepped inside his room that had welcomingly cool air from the ceiling fan.

"You've seen better days hey?" he joked, nudging Pheasant, who only flinched at the touch-still sore.

"Yeah. Where's Roach?".

"I can't find him. He's hiding away," Cermac explained, "raid on that weapons factory is in an hour. You up for it?".

"Course I am."

"It's a shame you didn't at least get a shot of morphine out of it. They gave me that when I fractured my arm, that's a long story in itself, shit felt better than an orgasm," Cermac explained.

"Oh I'm sorry Mr Trainspotting I thought we were soldiers not junkies," Pheasnt quipped dryly, earning an entertained chuckle from the Chief Perry Officer.

"Alright mate, rest up but get ready for the raid," Cermac said, patting Pheasant's shoulder before leaving his quarters.

Decided he was done with sleeping he got changed into his gear before making himself a coffee in the rec room, where Briggs and Smith were playing table tennis and Riley was watching the news, all with ten minutes to go.

"Oh shit," Heaven said, Pheasant turned around a quirked a confused brow.

"We're matching, one of us is going to have to change," she explained, earning a peel of laughter from the amused man, she found herself laughing with him before she glanced at his eyebrows, "what's up with those slits in your brow, are you part of a gang back home?" she teased, a genuine delighted smile crept across his lips and caused the corners of his eyes to crinkle.

"I got my eyebrows pierced when I was thirteen, they left those slits when they grew out," Pheasant explained, Heaven nodded along.

"How very chavvy of you," she teased, Pheasant flicked her on the forehead.

Then Roach walked inside.

Instinctively Heaven stood between the pair, Roach only huffed at Pheasant while Pheasant stared, heartbroken, at him. Pheasant just wanted his friend back.

Soon enough the entire team had filled the rec room, through the windows a dusky, grey darkness had settled across the sky that the helicopter blades slashed through as they whirred quietly, both having touched down just outside of the base walls.

The ream piled into the Black Hawks, one from Alpha team and one for Bravo team, that quickly lifted upwards into the air. The refreshingly chilled air blew past their faces, cooling them down in their laden kits.

Soon Riley lifted up five fingers, meaning five minutes till their arrived. Shortly after the landing slides of the helicopter kissed the dirt and the teams jumped out of it before making their way towards their target.

As soon as the weapons factory came into sight, an imposing building that stood tall and proud, they gripped their guns a little steadier, fingers closing in on the trigger. Closing in the air was tense with electricity, the commandos had a deadly stillness in their eyes, a kind of calm under crushing pressure that made them elite soldiers.

The same second Riley caught a flash from the rooftop he screamed at the top of his lungs, "everybody down," before he hit the exposed dirt, a magazine's worth of bullets flying over their heads and slamming into the dirt.

"Return fire," Riley cried as his eyes desperately sought cover. There was none.

Instinctively he began to return fire, from the windows of the building they began to take fire from multiple directions, the bullets growing more and more accurate.

Briggs ignored the sharp, burning sting that radiated from his shoulder and continued shooting at them.

Riley knew they couldn't keep this up, they needed a strategy, "Smith focus on the far left top window, Heaven focus on the top window to the first right of Roach's one, Cermac middle top window, Harrow you've got the window to the right of the top middle one, Briggs cover the far right top window, Pheasant cover the bottom far left window, Roach cover the bottom window next to it, Smith take the middle bottom window, Ghoul take the bottom window to the right of the middle one, and Wilson you take the far right bottom window."

Even having implemented this strategy when the team had to pause to reload they were open targets, Riley commanded the team Alpha retreat while Brave provided covering fire, then Alpha lay down covering fire whilst Bravo treated in a sort of leap frog technique-hoping the enemy would leave them alone.

But they didn't. As soon as they tactically retreated the enemies filed out from the factory to continue engaging them, fanning out so they were harder to spot and shoot-causing more missed shot which was thinning out their ammo supplies.

It was chaos about to turn into a bitter bloodbath, so Riley made the judgment call to request back up from FOB Whiskey, who told him they would send in paratroopers to the rescue.

"Hold on, paras are five minutes out," Riley called out to the rest of the team, they were almost out of ammo and most switched to their Glock 17's.

Soon they heard the noise of a helicopter that made the ground shake as it whipped up a miniature sandstorm, some paratroopers rappelled down ropes whilst others took shots from the helicopter, eventually they all dropped down onto the dirt and finished off the surviving enemies.

Riley got his orders from the Colonel-the mission was still greenlit, they had to search the factory for any intelligence.

Riley exchanged a handshake with the paratrooper CO (commanding officer), "all rivalries aside thanks for getting us out of a tight spot, nice one," Riley said, a flicker of a smile appearing before disappearing just as fast.

"Not a problem mate."

"So we meet again," Pheasant said as he eyed Soap, who only rolled his eyes.

The two units, paratroopers and commandos, made their way back to the weapons factory. When Pheasant misplaced a step his boot crushed down on an enemies chest, expelling their lungs of air that made a blood chilling sighing noise that freaked out the rookie Pheasant, who immediately aimed his gun at the enemy-thinking he was still breathing.

"Chill rookie, he's dead," Cermac said, Pheasant nodding before pushing upward.

Both teams went quiet as they approached the weapons factory, sticking to the plan, Alpha team stacked up by the front door whilst Bravo team climbed up to the second floor.

Riley held up a fist, telling the team to hold on. But when he heard they were in position he kicked down the door, "weapons free," he yelled, his voice echoing off the walls of peeling whitewash as he raised his weapon and shot a man who was stood on the front step clutching an AK47.

"We're taking fire!" Captain Riley yelled as enemy shots rung out from down the hallway.

"I'm about to be on fire when I waste them," Pheasant quipped in a voice that was so aggressive yet also so aggressively posh it sounded like someone who invited their enemies to tea parties, not shootouts in weapons factories in the middle of a desert.

"Watch out, posh spice is getting pms rage," Cermac retorted in a sly tone.

"The only thing bleeding is these tangos," Pheasant answered as one of his shots scraped the arm of an enemy before Cermac fired the fatal shot.

"Clear downstairs, what's it's looking like upstairs?" Riley asked over the comms after a few minutes of clearing rooms full of weapons, before he turned to his team, "grab all the intel you can find. Paperwork, laptops, et cetera, get to it," he barked loudly.

"Got two more rooms to clear," Smith answered back as Riley's team took our black evidence bags from their bergens, grabbing intel with their gloves hands before carefully placing it inside the bags.

"All clear," Smith said a few minutes later, the team cheered and hi fived as they were careful not to slip up on the blood or trip over the bodies.

Soon both teams left the weapons factory and disappeared into the dark, overburdened with intel that the paratroopers helped carry, "cor this shit don't half remind me of the endurance march," Pheasant sighed exhaustedly as he saw the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk within sight.

"Too bloody right," Cermac answered as the commandos piled into their helicopters and the paratroopers climbed into their own.

As the helicopters lifted off from the ground Pheasant allowed his body to relax, his eyelids slid shut as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Nice work everyone," Riley said over the comms, "we did good today."