Betrayed...but by who

[Lady Jenn]

Captain Morrison sat playing absent-mindedly with his gun as the helicopters flew low over the terrain, heading for their landing zone. He'd read the mission plan six times and still wasn't comfortable with the landing zone, but he'd been told they did this now or they didn't do it at all. He was glad he'd been given free reign to pick the two squads, he didn't need fresh-faced kids on a mission like this.

As the helicopters touched down on the ground the two teams jumped out, Morrison signalling for the others to form a perimeter.

"Tal," he said, walking over to the comms expert who was sat a short distance from him. "Send a coded message to Orion Base, tell them we've made landfall and will make contact with them once the mission is complete."

As Tal set about his work Morrison looked around him. He couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong, their approach to the landing zone had been a little too quiet for his liking. Oh well, he thought to himself, this should be done in no time.

"Petr," he called to one of the pilots as he turned around. "I want you t-"

He didn't finish his sentence, an instant later an explosion engulfed one of the two helicopters, the force of the blast knocking him off his feet. He was alive but he'd been knocked out cold as burning wreckage fell around them. One helicopter had been destroyed entirely and the other was a burning wreck, barely recognisable as the sleek craft it had been moments before.

[Animegurl5]

Skylar, often going by Sky, rode to the landing zone in silence. The loud thundering sound the chopper's blades made drowned out all other noise as she stared off into space. She was known for that, spending whatever free time she had staring out into space. Most people who saw this didn't even bother with her, thinking her a waste of time to teach. But obviously somebody else thought differently about her because she was currently on her way to a landing zone for a really important operation. Hand picked was the squad and she was one of them. The thought brought a slight smile to her face as she thought of what her old classmates would think of her now. Sky was only 19 but she was the best at what she did, and what she did was fight. She could look at a situation and figure out the best course of action quickly and efficiently, but that wasn't all she could do. Where her hand-eye coordination failed her, reflexes and balance made up for. She was most definitely a hand to hand combat kind of girl, with swift, fluid movements that quickly brought whatever enemy down. Her brain registered that the land they were flying over currently was only five minutes away from the landing zone, and this fact wiped the smile from her face. There was no time to get distracted now, it was game time and she would not disappoint. As the copter neared the ground, she jumped lightly to the earth below her, but she had only returned to a normal standing position when the helicopter blew. Her body was pushed forward, and she managed to twist so that she was rolling out of the way rather than flying to the ground. She lay on the ground for a few minutes in a daze, her mind spinning while trying to comprehend what was going on. Finally she sat up, and tried to stand but she was grounded by a series of coughs that erupted from her chest. She must have inhaled the smoke, and it was beginning to burn her lungs slightly. Grabbing her gun, she managed to bring herself to a standing position, her eyes surveying the world around them. She spotted the Captain lying on the ground and she immediately rushed to his side.

"Captain Morrison! Captain Morrison! Can you hear me?" She yelled, not wanting to move him in case of injury. She placed two fingers against his neck and determined that he was indeed alive. "Just unconscious. That's good." She breathed to herself in relief before slapping the Captains cheek. "Wake up Captain. Now is definitely not the time for a nap." She pulled out her cantine and poured it over his head, hoping to cool him down from the blaze as well as wake him up.

[Lady Jenn]

He came round, trying to sit up and instantly yelping with pain as he tried to lean on his arm. It took him an instant to evaluate the situation. Half his team lay dead and both helicopters were wrecked.

"Wha..." he said, feeling his head with his left arm. "What in God's name just happened?" he asked.

Although he wasn't a medic he could just about tell his injuries, alarmed at what his body was telling him. He had a gash on one leg that was visibly bleeding and from the pain in his arm he guessed he had broken it. Noise in the distance told him he had no time to worry about his health.

"We need to move," he said. "Every soldier for miles around will have seen that explosion and if we stay here we're sitting ducks." He tried to stand up, sitting down almost immediately as he realised he could barely put weight on his foot. "Damnit, I'm not walking anywhere like this."

[Animegurl5]

In silence Skylar unwrapped a scarf from her neck and moved to the side where his arm looked disfigured. She moved it to the position it should have been and tied her scarf into a sling for it.

"There isn't anything I can do about your leg and foot here. We need to find some sort of cover." She looked around her, noting the position for their landing zone was too far away to run to, saying as her Captain couldn't run. "What are we going to do? I can help you to cover in the trees over in that direction but I'm afraid we don't have enough time for that. Our only other real option would be to hide among the wreckage, but that would result in us most likely getting caught. I need an order, Sir." Her eyes scanned the area, her ears focusing in on the sound growing from the distance.

[Lady Jenn]

"The helicopter's the best option," he said, looking around. "If we're in luck they don't know how many were on the helicopters so they'll assume everyone's dead."

He scanned the area, letting out a sight as he saw Tal's body slumped over his comms unit, which had somehow survived the explosion itself.

"Grab the comms unit," he said. "I don't think Tal will be using it ever again. But whatever you do don't radio HQ, don't ask me why but I have a very bad feeling about this."

[Animegurl5]

"Yes Sir!" She immediately sprinted over to the comms unit and picked it from underneath the body of Tal. "Forgive me." She said as she pushed his body over and retrieved the device. She thought it odd that she was asked not to contact the Head Quarters. Wasn't that what you were supposed to do during this kind of event. "An order is an order, and you do not disobey an order." She said to herself as she made her way through the reckage. She climbed into the wrecked helicopter and ditched her bag and the comms unit there. Keeping her gun with her, she quickly returned to the Captain's side. "Let's hurry, we are starting to run out of time. And no disrespect Sir but you are going to be a pain in the but to haul over there." She completed her statement with a smile to show her amusement at the situation but offered her hand to her Commander anyway.

[Lady Jenn]

He stood up, gritting his teeth in an attempt to ignore the pain from his leg. He just about limped over to where the helicopter was, lying down behind it, holding the gun with his good arm although hoping he wouldn't need to use it at any point.

"That was a bomb," he said. "I've seen that kind of blast too many times before. The only way they could've got a bomb onto either of those helicopters is back at base before we took off so..." he paused, trying to calm the anger he felt at what had just happened. "It doesn't take a genius to guess what's going on."

Two armed men entered the clearing, speaking in a language Morrison couldn't recognise and prodding the dead bodies. He held his breath, hoping they wouldn't check the wreckage, glad to see they seemed to be avoiding the wreckage entirely.

[Animegurl5]

"Sir, you can't be serious. Are you sure that this is the work of a bomb?" Her voice was a hushed whisper, her eyes glued to the men prodding around the dead bodies. Every muscle in her body was tense and ready to react at a moments notice. "I find it hard to believe that our own country has decided to betray us like what you are implying, but I have to agree that the facts line up too closely. The drop zone is too far from easy cover and the explosion was set for right after our landing. It just doesn't make sense though. Who would compromise a mission as secret and as important as this? What is there to gain? I just don't understand." She had to hold back a growl as one of the men kicked a corpse over and laughed.

[Lady Jenn]

"We're in the middle of a country run by one of America's biggest enemies," Morrison replied. "What would be the first thing anyone suspects if the commando team is massacred before it can complete its mission?"

He breathed a sigh of relief as the two soldiers returned from where they had come from, leaving the few survivors in relative safety.

"Someone's gone to an awful lot of effort to make this look like we were killed by the enemy, which means...oh god no," he said under his breath. "Fuck, this whole mission was a set-up, someone tried tipping me off we were walking into a trap but I wrote them off as a conspracy nut. I could tell you what's going on...or what I think is...but I'm not sure if you'll like the answer."

[Animegurl5]

"You are my Commander and I am to follow your orders. If I am left in the dark on information, I will be unable to aid you to the best of my abilities. Just tell me what you think and I will make my own judgments from there." Skylar said, watching the men as they walked away from their current position. "Though whether you tell me or not, I am pretty sure I have worked out the basics for myself. If what is happening to us right now truly is what you are implying, then once these guys leave, we need to round up the rest of the surviors and try to get home. We can't trust anyone fully though, what if one of the survivors is a traitor as well?" Her thoughts began to drift as she played out sevral different scenarios in her head.

[Lady Jenn]

"They wouldn't risk putting a traitor in the squad," he replied. "I've got a reputation for spotting double agents, they'd have known I could've blown their cover too simply." He sat himself upright, leaning on part of the wreckage. "There are certain...forces within the US that believe the President is being too timid, that we have the strength to take control of half the world and he's being too much of a pacifist. Problem is they have no basis for launching a coup. That's what this mission was intended for, show the president is so incompetent he sent his best team on a suicide mission, either force the boss to resign or, if all else fails, launch a military coup. Especially good since the only person who even suspects what they're doing is, as far as they know, lying dead on the other side of the world."

[Animegurl5]

"Absolutely disgusting how someone can so willingly send a group of innocent people to their deaths. Whoever did this though thought it through and planned everything to the very las detail. What I can gather from the blast, I believe they were expecting us to exit the helicopter slower than we did. Look at the blast area, we weren't hit with the initial blast." She pointed her finger at the ring of smoldering ground around them. "We are pretty damn lucky though to have escaped with our lives. Had we been a bit slower, we would be out there dead. Had we been just a little faster, you might not have sustained quite as many injuries." She also noted one of her own injuries that she had overlooked in her rush to get to safety. She leaned back against the wall placing her fingers on her forhead and pulling away with blood. She grimaced, frustrated with herself for not seeing it before.

[Lady Jenn]

"We can't stay here," he said, grimacing. "Even if the soldiers don't come back if any locals come past and spot us there's no guarantee they'll be in a charitable mood." He sat thinking about their options for a second in silence. "There's an...option we have, but we need to find some cover so I can radio without anyone spotting us. I shoulkd warn you it involves contacting someone who isn't...technically...officially sanctioned to help us. If you want to report me for going against orders when this is over I'll understand."

[Animegurl5]

She nodded in agreement with his words, her grimace quickly forming into a smile. "And who exactly am I to report you to? The world thinks I'm dead." She chuckled at the sick humor of it. "Alright, we need to work fast. The soldiers will most likely be back to clear the wreckage so the locals don't get hurt. While they are supposed to keep the scene secure, that won't stop some of the locals from getting curious and wandering in our direction. I think I can make it to cover without being seen by anyone smart enough to patrol the tree lining. I'll run our supplies out their and hide them." She pulled herself up to a kneeling position, grabbing her bag and strapping it to her back. Then she grabbed the comms unit and tucked it under her arm. "Think you can manage by yourself out here?"

[Lady Jenn]

"By sheer chance the blast injured my bad arm," he said, laughing. "Being right handed having my right arm still working means I can just about defend myself if any problems arise. I'll cover you, just try not to take too long." He moved himself as easily as he could with the leg injury, moving his gun so it had a clear sight of the area in front of the wreckage but was still just disguised by the remains of one of the rotor blades. He could just seen Tal's body from where he was sat. "I'm not looking forward to telling Tal's parents what happened," he said. "He only came on this mission cos I convinced him to, but for me he'd be safe at home right now."

[Animegurl5]

"It was his choice, all of our choice. We could have denied the request, infact by choosing this line of work we chose our own fate. What happened wasn't your fault, and you can't change that. What you can do is make sure that they don't get away with what they have attempted to do. And don't worry, I'm quick on my feet." She winked before sticking her head out slowly. Not seeing anybody she stepped out and proceeded with caution around the debris. When she made it to the cleared part she bolted for the tree line and quickly dissapeared into the darkness.

[Lady Jenn]

As he turned around from watching her escape he saw a movement from the opposite end of the clearing. Two men were approaching, but these two weren't soldiers. One was a man dressed like a farmer while the other was dressed in a suit. Morrison was too far away to hear the conversation properly but he could tell one thing. They were speaking in English, in a country where very few people could speak English. Part of him wanted to move closer but he knew he'd be spotted in an instant, there was no other cover between them and him. He made a mental note of what he'd seen, hoping someone would know who they were.

[Animegurl5]

Skylar didn't slow down when she reached the cover of the trees, her feet carrying her deeper into the forest. It took her a couple of minutes to find a tree deep enough in the forest and hollowed out to hide the supplies. She stashed them inside and turned to go back. She stopped on her way back, the sounds of animals startling her sevral times. "I'm getting too jumpy." She hissed to herself, pausing once again at the tree line. Scanning the area she caught sight of two men briefly but she knew that by their position, if she were quick enough she would not be seen on her return. Slowly she made her way around the larger pieces of debris, crouching low and keeping her eyes on the men at all times. It took her longer than expected to make it to the last stretch, her muscles tensing so that she could spring forward. Sliding gracefully back under cover she paused a moment to breathe. "Who are they? And.... Are they speaking English?" She asked, her chest rising and falling rapidly from her long jog. The look in her eyes giving away the fact that they could not escape until the men had gone completely.

[Lady Jenn]

"They are," he said. "I researched this place thoroughly before we came out here, at least as far as the CIA are concerned no-one in this country speaks English. So either the CIA are wrong or those guys aren't natives." He kept watching as the two men got closer to the wreckage, causing him to duck under the cover and keep Skylar down as the footsteps approached, stopping short but now their discussion could be heard.

"We need to be sure they're dead," one of the men said. "The boss won't be pleased if we've left any alive."

"Even if they survived the blast they have nowhere to run," the other man responded. "As far as the local military are concerned they're American invaders, they'll be picked off in no time. We'd better go before the locals return."

Morrison grimaced, if he'd been 100% fit he'd have jumped out and forced both men to talk, but in his current state he would never have stood a chance. He could barely disguise the anger in his eyes as the two men's footsteps vanished into the distance.

[Animegurl5]

Skylar was still breathing heavily when the men approached their hiding spot forcing her to cut her air with her hand. Her eyes were blazing with disgust and hatred, something not often seen with her. It took all of her will power not to jump out there and beat them with more pleasure than interrogation purposes. Her face had begun to turn a slight shade of pink and was certainly grateful for their departure. She released her nose and mouth, panting and coughing as she did so.
"I have.... no luck.... at all." She coughed between breaths. It took her a minute to recover but then she was ready to go. "We have to go. They aren't the only ones who need to be concerned about locals." She stood to her feet and offered her hand to her Captain, turning her head to look out the way she had come.

[Lady Jenn]

He took her hand gratefully, gritting his teeth to try and ignore the pain from his leg as he limped at what speed he could manage towards the treeline, finding where the comms unit was and slumping down in order to catch his breath before he did anything else. "Fuck, I'm not going to get far without medical attention," he said, beginning to feel dizzy. "There's only so far adrenaline will get me." He sat up fiddling with the comms device until he found the frequency he needed. "This is Yogi Bear looking for Major Tom, Major Tom please respond." There was no reply, Morrison thinking this was a bad moment for his luck to run out. "Those are our codenames for each other," he said, noting her confusion with a certain amount of amusement. "Its the one way we can be sure no-one will get suspicious about us hopefully."

[Animegurl5]

"Yes, because Yogi Bear and Major Tom are so inconspicous." She rolled her eyes as she picked through her supplies. She pulled out a small first aid kit and began to rummage through it. "Damn, they only sent us with the basic. There isn't much that I can do here, they really weren't expecting any survivors." She sighed, looking at the comms unit and hearing nothing. "Do you want me to watch that for you while you rest? Your body is under a lot of stress right now, it needs time to slow down for a while."

[Lady Jenn]

He nodded. "If you get a response the guy's name really is Tom," he said, laughing slightly. "His codename at least makes a bit of sense. Tell him we need an airlift from as close to our position as he can get ASAP, he'll have a way of getting us out of here I'm sure." He lay down, drifting off to sleep in an instant. Within mere moments of him falling asleep the comms unit burst into life. "Yogi Bear this is Major Tom, considering your position and the fact you're using our emergency frequency I'm guessing this isn't a social call?"

[Animegurl5]

"Great timing Major Tom." She said into the unit with a hint of sarcasm. "You just missed your Yogi Bear, he's resting right now. But you have made a correct assumtion. I'm not sure how much I can say over this but we need an airlift as close to our position as possible, and we need it ASAP. We are low on medical supplies that are worth a damn too, so if you can bring some with you?" A snapping twig made her jump but after listening closer it had a beat to it that hinted at a four legged animal. "Can you help us?"

[Lady Jenn]

There was silence for a few seconds before he responded. "I can't pick you up from there even at night, you're in luck though. About 20 kilometres south of you is a small village which I just happen to have a contact in. Go there, ask for Arun, he should have medical supplies with him. I'll get a Raptor out to pick you guys up as soon as I can but that's pretty rough territory to be sending even a non-US Army chopper in to retrieve people from. The helicopter will radio you on this frequency with the call sign Monster, if anyone else calls you on that radio that isn't me or the chopper do NOT reply, no-one else should be attempting contact."