R6S // SEE NO EVIL

➤OP-14 // OPERATION RED HERRING

       The moon cast a soft glow over the Hereford base. I marched through the halls of the barracks, duffle bag packed with food and medical supplies in on hand, weapons bag in the other. It was the night before I would be sent off to Indonesia with Nighthaven soldiers, but right now I still needed to find someone to drag along this mission to help me represent Rainbow. I looked over the mission debrief back in my room: A Whitemask cell has been reported traveling through the jungles smuggling weapons and drugs. The reason why Night Haven is joining us is that they'll provide the man-power that Rainbow would be lacking if they just sent in a small squad.

I pulled my mask down, letting the cool air brush against the scarred side of my face. Getting breaths of relatively fresh air. I knocked on the door, assuming she was still awake, the door creeked open and while most assume the door opened on its own I had gotten used to making out the silhouette of her veil against the hallway liht. "ETA-10...Why are you here?"

"Sam's sending me out on a mission in Indonesia, being supported by Night Haven soldiers...Though he told me that I needed to bring another Rainbow representative." I held up the mission file, her hand slipped out from the shadows and took it from me. "You don't have to if you don't want–"

"When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow night, I'm just prepping my luggage for now..." She handed the folder back to me before shutting the door. "Alright...Nice talk, Nokk." Don't blame her, its late in the night. Picking up my bags, I made my way to the armory planning to pack my weapons. Remarkably the armory wasn't fully dead, a few operatives tended to stay late for various reasons: Can't sleep, busy working, or just chilling until they fall asleep in their locker.

When I was walking to my locker I spotted Kitsune, he was typing away on his laptop. "Hey, Kenta, what brings you here this late?"

He closed his laptop and brought his focus up to me rather quickly, "Just...Finishing up some reports, nothing new really, what about you?"

"Mission prep, I leave tomorrow but early bird catches the worm y'know?" I shrugged, taking a quick glance around his locker cage; it was barely filled with any personal decal but everyone has their own tastes. Most notably was a photo of Kenta and Yumiko, though his face was scribbled out. "Don't care for selfies do you?"

He let out a soft sigh as he took the photo, "Not really...It's...A long story, I'd rather not talk about my younger self. It's a past I'd like to forget."

I nodded, "Yeah, I hear you. The past is something that haunts for a while, how about you pick the next topic?"

"Hm, what about..." He pointed to the locker on the lower level packed into a dim corner, "Nokk."

"What about Nokk?" I asked, straightening my back and leaning against the railing.

"You two seem...Close?" He stated, making a vague gesture with his hands which im assuming was to be the two of us. I definitely wasn't expecting this to be his topic of choice.

"She's a good friend," I answered, we haven't found much time to hangout around base since the Picadilli attack. "I think she's just been busy doing her own thing though."

"I see...How much do you truly know of her, Ethan?"

"Besides that shes danish and is mystery protagonist material? Not much" I admitted, while me and Nokk tended to gravitate toward eachother for missions, we actually didn't talk about our personal matters very much. I assume she has her reasons, and thats fine. I don't plan on prying info I don't find a necessity out of her. "But she's cool."

"What makes her so cool?" Kenta asked, leaning against the railing, reaching into his pocket and puling out a cigarette. I declined with a hand gesture. I watched him pull of his balaclava and place the cigarette between his lips, patting his pockets and looking for a lighter.

I reached into my vest pouch and pull out my own lighter, and ignited one end of his cigarette. "She knows what to do when the time is against our necks, badass in every way possible." I compliment. "She was in the infirmary waiting for me..."

"Sounds like she waits on you alot," Kenta remarked.

"Yeah..." I sighed. "I guess she waits on me alot."

Kenta patted my shoulder, giving me a light jostle. "I know that look, don't worry your head off. It's not her you should be worrying about so much." He remarked. "You are both capable soldiers, remember that, you're no village idiot" And with that he left me to finish whatever business he had elsewhere.

Was I weighing her down? We hadn't had many missions together but when we did it was usually me in some sort of trouble – maybe some kinda bad luck. It was too little times and too soon to measure accurately. Shaking my head I picked up my bags and headed to my locker. This job wouldn't finish itself.

Weapons, Cargo, Food, and Ammunitition were being loaded into the C-5M plane, the green hue of the plane interior lit up the rest of the dimly lit airfield. The remaining shadows stretched further with the fluorescent lights; no one could easily hide if they wanted to. My eyes were a bit slumped as the fatigue was kicking in. I carried my rifle against my chest and duffle bag of personal belongings in the other hand.

["You'll be wheels-up in Ten, I'll debrief you more once you touch ground in Indonesia.."]

"Understood, Ash."

["Nighthaven loading in now, get to know the Senior Officer."]

"Officer?"

["Ngũgĩ Muchoki Furaha, but they call him Wamai to make things easier."]

The truck carrying NightHaven Soldier's pulled infront of me, dressed in greyscale camo with splots of blue. Most of them were masked with the same blue lens goggles. These guys loved that color. Most notably, and who I assumed was Wamai was a fairly tall man with dark skin and oddly enough wore a wet suit instead of a normal uniform. Then again what did 'normal uniform' apply to in Rainbow.

"A pleasure to work with you," Wamai greeted and offered a handshake, to which I obliged. "We'll be riding in our own transport, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," I nodded and not too far away was the same Osprey from the stadium match. "We'll lead the way."

Wamai gave his farewell before heading off with his own soldiers to manage the Nighthaven side of things. Fortunately, the person I was waiting for had shown up. "What's the intel?" Nokk asked, suddenly appearing on my left; a slight heart attack is a good way to wake up the mind.

"White Mask cell has taken refuge deep in the jungles, it hides their trail from satellite imaging and from local traffic." I handed her the vanilla folder, it was tucked in between my vest and chest. "KOPASKA confirm their moving something big. Masks are moving it toward the Australian coast – Containers housing missiles maybe, amount and target is unknown."

"And to find out...We need to capture whoever is running the show and bring him in for interrogation." Nokk finished my thoughts. "NightHaven PMCs cut some of the red tape for us."

"Bingo...Geopoltics and suits in chairs moving us around like a chess board." I remarked, shaking my head. I looked to her, "You ready?"

"More than ready, let's go, Smukke."

"Smukke?" I asked, leaning forward just a bit ahead of her. "What's that mean?"

"Do you know Danish?"

"No."

"You'll learn." She replied.

As we boarded the C-5M, Nokk and I grabbed some seats further into the plane. The engines roaring to life and enveloping us in a deafening hum, we braced ourselves for the upcoming mission.