Into the Mainframe [Simon 'Ghost' Riley] - Chapter 6 - Laukisaurus (2024)

Chapter Text

Las Palmas, Mexico

October 2022

You’re positioned behind a large wooden cart that's been pushed over on its side. Behind you lie the demolished stables and the greenhouse you've just cleared and leveled with the help of air support from Graves and his Shadow Company. Why don't we always have an AC airship up in the air to provide support?Right - it costs millions to even shoot those round and thus is mostly an American luxury.

Next to you Soap is directing his infrared strobe light up in the air to mark our position to Graves. Once Shadow Company picked up the strobe you hear Graves give his input. “0-7 Hold your position until we clear the area.”

You peek over the top of the cart towards the compound to see if you can spot any movement inside. You've not been able to make a positive identification of Hassan in the previous buildings, although if you're being honest you're not entirely sure with the extent of the injuries you just witnessed. Nobody comes out looking better after an airstrike, that's for sure. The villa in front of you is a large white structure with terracotta tiles lining the floor and the roof of the building. In front is a pretty water fountain that doesn't seem to be working. It seems unlikely Hassan would be hiding out anywhere else.

You've read his file. He seems like the type of guy who considers himself important. The kind of man who wouldn't sit between the tomatoes in the greenhouse to hide away from a Task Force that's hot on his tail.

Your fingers curl around the wood a bit tighter as you get onto your toes so you can see a bit more when there's some movement on the left-side of your vision. You hold out your right hand towards Ghost. “Ghost, gimme your scope.” When your hand stays empty you avert your gaze down to Ghost who's crouching beside your right side. His eyes move from your outstretched hand to your face before with a resigned sigh he drops his scope in your hand.

“Thank you.” You hold the scope up to your eyes as you follow the movement to the left of the cart. “I've got movement. There's someone on the water tower.” You say as you see a seemingly unarmed man walking on the catwalk of the tower that forms around it. He bends down and picks something of the ground and you see a rocket launcher aimed directly at your little cart. “sh*t! RPG - get away!” You yell as you jump back and grab the sleeve of Soap who didn't react right away. You all duck and move to your left to take cover behind a ruined old stone structure. You peek over the edge and spot the ground floor being flooded with more enemy soldiers. “There's more! They're coming in hot to our left!”

Ghost pulls you down by your shoulder as an other RPG makes the stone wall shake and a part falls down in large chunks to the ground. “Shadow-1, x-rays at the water tower! We're taking rocket fire from the water tower! Hit it now!” Ghost blares over the radio.

It doesn't take long before you see a bright white flash of light moving from the airship in the sky to the water tower. You brave raising your head above the ruined wall again to see the round hit it's target. The water tower explodes with a dull thump and the metal structure groans before it implodes and drops to the ground in almost slow motion.

“Ghost is hit!” Soap exclaims from next to you and your heart freezes in your chest as you drop back down to the floor on your knees to inspect the man next to you. You push the button on your radio. “Graves! I'm gonna need you to drop these сука блять!

Graves' voice comes over the radio immediately. “Roger. TV, I want a wall of fire around our boys. Start raining hell!” The operator opens fire on the cartel members, the rumble of the 25mm gun providing a satisfying backdrop of sound as you turn your attention back to Ghost. You inspect his body for any obvious signs of injury before you look at his face. “Where are you hit?” You turn your gaze to Soap. “Where?”

You're surprised when you hear a low chuckle come from below you. “Just the plate, darlin’ no fuss.” Your eyes narrow briefly at Ghost before you turn your eyes back to the previously incoming enemies when you realize that the rhythmic sound of the 25 mm gun has stopped spitting bullets.

“Ghost, no movement detected. What's your status?” Graves' voice echoes in your earpiece.

“He'll be alright. Round hit the plate.” Soap says over comms still kneeling next to Ghost, who reaches up to touch his own radio. “Affirm. Good thing your aim isn't sh*te, like theirs.”

When you've visually cleared and confirmed there are no more threats, you make your way to the closed villa door. Without asking another bright flash overtakes your group as it hits the door you were heading towards.

“Boom. Ghost, door's open. You're clear to proceed.” Graves says over the radio. You continue your movement towards the large entrance of the villa, the doors now busted open from one of the shots of the airspace. One door is completely missing while the second is hanging limply off its hinges.

Positioning yourself behind one of the large columns on the inside of the villa, you aim down your scope as you take out two men directly in front of you. Two men are running quickly up the stairs and you aim your sights on them but your shot is blocked by a series of columns that are between you and the stairs.

Ghost had seen them too as he calls it in to Graves. Your legs move from their position as you propel yourself up the stairs first, the others hot on your tail. You rush after them through a door that leads to an open walkway connecting various parts of the villa with each other. You push your legs to move faster as you can see the men moving inside again at the end of the walkway. As you near the door you pause for a second for the others to catch up before you push your way inside together and train your gun on Hassan and his bodyguard.

Soap steps forward closer towards Hassan. “Get down!” Alejandro then makes a gesture towards the floor with his gun. "Get down! Now!”

Hassan looks bewildered between the different group members. “Who the f*ck are you?” Alejandro then steps within arms length distance of Hassan as he gets behind him and forcibly pushes him towards the floor as he binds his hands with a zip-tie behind his back. He positions his knee on Hassan's back in between his shoulder blades as he switched from his rifle to his pistol that he aims at Hassan just on top of his own knee. “Mexican Special Forces, you're coming with us.”

Ghost presses on his radio to communicate back to Graves. “Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7. Jackpot. I say again, jackpot. Target is secure.”

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You're leaning your head against the window of the passenger side. Autumn in Mexico can be rainy, but so far you’ve seen nothing but sun and the gentle cooling that the rain brings is a welcome change. Fat droplets of water are hitting the side of the window and you follow the path down the window until they disappear from view. On the side of the road there's a large white sign that shows you've not entered the town of Olmeda.

You've opted to ride with Rodolfo while Ghost, Soap and Alejandro are transporting Hassan in the truck in front of you. Hassan pissed you off. As he walked past you when he was being escorted out he spat in front of your feet and said something derisive about women in the army. You ignored it and kept a stony face. If there's one thing the Russian army, and even more so Russian Special Forces have taught you, it's that there will always be some men who will think they're above you. And if there's a second thing it taught you - it's how to maintain a stoic façade.

Rodolfo pulls you from your thoughts when he speaks up. “I had my first date right here.” Rodolfo points to a white building with a large round arch in the middle. It's got a green canopy that shields a terrace from the sun, or in this case the rain, and it looks like a cozy little place perfect for a date. Although currently there seems to be nobody inside the restaurant at all.

“Here? Why not in Las Almas?” You stop leaning your head against the window so you can look at the man next to you. Rodolfo laughs, “This girl, she had strict parents. Was not allowed to date so she told them that she was staying late studying at school and we went to Olmeda to avoid running into anyone.”

You raise your eyebrows as a small smile settles on your face. “And, did you get away with it?”

“We thought we did.. But the next day at school her father came to me to give me an earful. Turns out one of her brother's friends worked in the restaurant.”

You laugh lightly as you turn to look forward out of the front window of the car. There's a pedestrian with a cart blocking the road, and the car in front of you with your is already slowing down when Rodolfo leans out of the window of the car. “Quidarte del camino!” But it's obvious that the pedestrian is in no hurry to move his cart off the road. Suddenly Alejandro in the car in front of you drives through the cart and steps on the gas as he speeds up. Rodolfo is quick to catch on to the plan and speeds around the broken cart as the convoy heads towards a crossing.

The sound of another fast driving vehicle leads you to whip your head to the right to see another truck at high speed heading towards the car holding Hassan and the others. Before you can even say anything the sound of metal hitting metal reaches your ears and the jeep flips on to its side and is pushed forward several meters until it comes to a stop. “It's an ambush!” You hear Graves' voice from the radio as you and Rodolfo quickly exit the vehicle to take out the two attackers that were driving the offending vehicle.

After instruction from Alejandro you make your way to the restaurant with the green canopy as Graves informs the group over communication that there are more enemies incoming as he starts to provide support from the sky. You push your way into the restaurant that on second inspection is currently definitely abandoned as you make your way past empty tables decked out with white linen. You make your way to the roof as you take cover behind the slightly raised edge of upper deck of the restaurant. You flip the thermal vision on the scope as you lean your gun on the edge and look back out over the street. There's a gas station straight ahead with a church directly to the left.

As you've taken your position you see Cartel members coming out from behind the gas station opening fire on your position. To your left Rodolfo is requesting an helicopter for extraction and he receives the feedback that it's going to take five minutes. Through your scope you see the fire from Graves’ AC-130 taking out the majority of the cartel members that you were firing on. Your hands fumble along your vest as they dance around tapping each individual magazine out of force of habit. There are only three mags left on your AR-15 leaving you with 90 bullets and whatever you have left currently. “Low on ammo, we've got to try and preserve our bullets!” Ghost glances over at your position as he repeats towards the team to conserve their ammo.

Another clean shot from Shadow Company takes out a bushel of soldiers that started setting up and firing RPG's at the gunship.

“You are as mindless as your weapons of war!” Hassan is complaining from his tied up position in the middle of the roof.

There's a crackle on the radio “Bravo-7-1, you are cleared hot to shut Hassan the hell up.” Graves suggests and you have to admit you're tempted to take your boot to his side. Or maybe to place some duct tape over his mouth. You could've sworn you saw a roll of it somewhere on Soap's person.

“Bravo-team, Helo is moving in on your position.” The sound comes over the comms as the sound of whirring helicopter blades start to fill the air. “Get ready for extraction.”

You are just about to get up when there are three more armored vehicles coming in hot. “TV, engage all those vehicles. When are those f*ckers gonna realize Hassan's coming with us?” The familiar voice of Graves comes over comms. You have to admit the bastard is starting to grow on you. Even his zealous nature and American 'f*ck yes' attitude has shown itself to be more than useful when he's making it rain hellfire from above - not unlike the swears flowing like a torrent from his mouth. Effective fire bathes the narrow street in an orange hue and light up the belly of the helicopter as it descends down and lands nearly next to the restaurant. Graves sends the all clear for the team to move.

“Shadow-1, solid copy! We're moving now! Ghost, Neo, Soap, Rudy- we're leaving! Let's go!” You all gives your own affirmations as you rush you way back down the restaurant and into the helicopter as it's pilots flies you back to base.

You're not back on base for long, immediately filing back into two black armored vehicles that blend into the now inky dark skies. You hop back into the vehicle with Rudy, eager to avoid the blustering of the affronted but surprisingly still vocally energetic Quds Major. The drive to towards the middle of nowhere doesn't take long and you're filing out of the car as you see Soap and Alejandro drag Hassan from the backseat of their jeep.

“On your knees!” Soap orders the Major as he forcefully guides him into the wanted position with a swift kick right above his left knee. On the other end Graves is setting up a connection and it isn't long before Kate and General Shepherd both come into view.

“All right, we are live, folks.” Graves says as he steps towards Hassan who's eyes narrow at Graves at his approach. If he's nervous, his voice doesn't betray it at all when he speaks with a calm confidence as he keeps his eyes on Graves.

“Do you speak Farsi?”

“No.”

“Arabic?”

“No.”

“Course not. Then I'll speak your bastardized medieval English because you are all uneducated street dogs.” Hassan speaks with all the venom he can muster as he spits on the floor in front of him.

“Ahh, see... we're getting off to a bad start here, Hassan. I may not speak Arabic, but she does.” Graves says as he gestures towards you to step closer. You hide your surprise at the call out and take a few steps forward as you clasp your wrist in your hand behind your back.

Hassan looks at you with disgust as he starts speaking in Arabic. You keep a neutral face as you can feel Graves looking at you waiting for a translation.

“He says ‘f*ck you, letting women do your job is why your nation will burn in hell’”.

The face of Graves contorts in a mixture of frustration and annoyance. “You are in bed with the cartel, Hassan. If you disappeared, no one would know where to look for the f*ckin' stain.”

The man has the audacity to chuckle at the threat before Soap pipes up to question Graves on where he managed to get the missiles from

“I don't care who they're from, I wanna know where they're going.” General Shepherd barks over the line. In the distance the sound of a pack of coyotes howling can be heard clearly at your position. You take a few steps back as the interrogation is clearly being continued in English but hover a bit closer than the rest in case you're needed.

Graves seems to have the interrogation past covered though as he makes a threat of his own. “Take a look around, Hassan. Now you can either become part of the food chain or you can start talking.” You observe the face of Hassan as you spot the first sign of some nervousness as he seems to fight his zip-tie hand prision. “I'm a hostage here. This is illegal.”

“You are a prisoner of war.” Alejandro rebuts fiercely.

Hassan looks back and forth between his captors and the video uplink as his heavy brows furrow. “Iran is not at war with Mexico. I've broken no laws. These men and their commanders are the law-breakers.”

Soap takes another step forward as he moves in next to your position. “You and your beloved General Ghorbrani broke every--”

“DO NOT SPEAK HIS NAME! You executed him and you will pay for your crimes.”.

Shepherd's voice cuts roughly across the line “I want this bastard in permanent custody or looking up at the damn grass.”

“General, killing Hassan is an act of war, keeping him is illegal. Right now, he is too hot to hold.” Ah, Laswell - ever the voice of reason. Shepherd's face contorts with frustration at the realization that Hassan is going to walk away unscathed.

“Tell me you're getting something actionable, Laswell.” Shepherd follows up as he directs his attention away from Hassan.

“Working on it. Stand by.”

Graves places the laptop on the hood of one of the trucks as he leans other the screen. “Actual, let me finish this.” And you can almost hear the pleading in his tone.

“There is nothing I would like more. But, Laswell's right. Without proof, we need to turn him loose. See where he leads us.” Next to you the waves of annoyance are almost rolling off of Soap as he speaks up gesturing with his hand towards Hassan. “He's right here. You can't be serious.”

Shepherd mirrors the disappointed feeling that's going through the room in his words. “I'm afraid I am, son.”

Hassan straightens up from his bend over position and let's out another chuckle and you make eye contact with him for a second before you look away from his smug expression.

From behind you Ghost speaks up. “Did we get anything from his phone?” You see Kate looking at another screen though the video feed. “Affirmative. We got a hit.”

“Good. Now, take him back and let him go.”

Alejandro steps in the light of the jeep that's shining their headlights on Hassan with the sackcloth in one of his hands. He covers Hassan's face as he roughly yanks him back to his feet and walks him back to the car. “Up, asshole. Let's go.” He places Hassan back in the car and shuts the door as the rest of the team gathers closer to the laptop that's still on top of the other truck.

“The data hacked from Hassan's phone in Mexico went through a cell tower off the Coast of Spain. Hassan was communicating with someone there when we caught him. There's also a hit on ” Kate explains. “Let's drop off Hassan and return to base tonight. Tomorrow we split up and go after both leads.

You make your way back to the car this time along with Rudy, Alejandro and Price while Soap and Ghost take Hassan back to f*ck knows where to let him loose. By the point you plant yourself on the backseat your legs are glowing and your muscles are aching from chasing after Hassan since the morning, jumping off cliffs and getting ambushed twice. You close your eyes as you lean your head back against the headrest but quickly open them back up again when you feel your body wanting to

go to sleep immediately. Luckily the ride doesn't take long and before you know it you've crawled into your bed and drifted off to somewhere far away.

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