A Shadow Company Tale

The Betrayal

Ghost moved over to Roach and grabbed him by the straps from his kevlar, "I've got you, Roach, hang on! Thunder Two-One, I've popped red smoke in the treeline! Standby to engage on my mark!"

A Littlebird flew in, "Roger that. I have a visual on the red smoke. Standing by."

Ghost continued to drag Roach, "Thunder Two-One, cleared hot!"

"Roger that, cleared hot. Guns, guns guns." The Littlebird opened fire with their miniguns on the advancing hired guns, wiping the majority out.

"Roach, hang in there!" Ghost grabbed him and supported him as the two pairs made it to the Pavelow. Radio chatter from Shepherd's troops crackled as the pairs continued to limp to safety.

"This is Viper 2-6, stand by for rocket attack, over. "

"Uh roger. Hit 'em hard on that hill, make sure they're down."

"Roger, I'm on it, coming around heading 2-5-0. Roger, I got 'em lined up"

"Come on, get up! Get up! Get up! We're almost there!" Ghost continued to push Roach as he looked back, Snow and Angel had collapsed but a few Shadow troops quickly ran over to them and began to evaluate their wounds.

"Gold Eagle's on the ground. Watch for snipers on thermal, over."

Toad and Archer ran to a spot that viewed the LZ, "Alright mate, we're going to make it to them."

Toad finally looked at Archer. "I fuckin' hope so, two of our friends are de-" The shot slammed into Toad's head as Archer looked to the LZ before the shot slammed into him. The next thing he felt was the complete darkness taking over.

"Roger that. All targets destroyed." A Shadow Company soldier spoke.

Two Littlebirds landed nearby, dropping their troops off. "Cover them! Move! Move! Spread out!"

The personnel pushed into the woodline to remove the remaining hired guns. "Go go go!" More gunfire was heard as the troops began to obliterate the stunned mercenaries.

Shepherd stepped out of the Pavelow with the ramp lowered. He approached Ghost and Roach. "Do you have the DSM?"

Ghost nodded his head, "We got it, sir!"

"Good. That's one less loose end." Shepherd reached behind his back as he moved to support Roach. Ghost questioned what Shepherd meant until Shepherd pulled out his .44 magnum and jammed it in Roach's stomach, firing a round.

"NO!" Ghost swung back to raise his ACR looking straight in the face with the barrel of the .44 magnum. Shepherd pulled the trigger without looking at Ghost, keeping his gaze set on the wounded Roach.

Shepherd crouched down, leaning searching through Roach's pockets grabbing the DSM. He motioned two Shadow Company soldiers over as Roach reached out weakly, grabbing the man's wrist as if asking why. Shepherd turned to Roach with a disgusted look and shook his arm off.

"Area sanitized. All targets destroyed."

"Solid copy. No movement detected. 2-6 going into holding pattern."

The two soldiers picked up Roach and threw him in a ditch, soon grabbing the body of Ghost and tossing him into the ditch as well as Ghost's radio went off. "Ghost! Come in, this is Price! We're under attack by Shepherd's men at the boneyard! Soap, hold the left flank! Do not trust Shepherd! I say again, do not trust Shepherd! Soap, get down!-"

Roach's vision went black only to open back up as the soldiers then proceeded to pour gasoline on the two of them. He weakly choked as the gas soaked his face, he rolled his head and watched as they coated Ghost with gasoline. He turned back to Shepherd who took a large puff of a cigarette and flicked the still burning bud onto the pair.