Nikita

[NIKITA]

[Location: THE RUSSIAN BORDER]

"They won't give up easily; let's use plan B," Carrie said to Qiao Xi.

The two lieutenant Commanders held their own in a skirmish far away from home. It was something that any officer could settle, but this had been ȧssigned to them. This was something so new in the military system, but if the circumstances were considered, then it wouldn't have been new at all.

The government had sent its best soldiers to fix the mess that the rebels were causing at the border. It was nothing new to Qiao and Carrie, but they knew this was their punishment for taking up positions in the Pavlenko company.

They were both highly trained and highly skilled soldiers who were expected to be in the harshest of wars, and yet here they were, three thousand miles away from Todorov, camping in the grass like they were about to feast on the insects.

It was something that pissed them both off so much, but they never had an option. It was either this or a suspension, and none of them had wanted that.

In fact, they had started giving each other pep talks about how working on the grass didn't sound like a good idea when the Colonel had called them to provide them with the ȧssignment. This is what their hell looked like.

Expectedly, they had been told to ensure no one died in the stand-off, but right now, Carrie couldn't make that promise. Not only had she already lost her patience with the rebels, but the weather outside wasn't really that nice.

"Okay. You and your team take a left; I'll take the right. That will make it easier for us to subdue more of them," Qiao Xi said as Carrie nodded in agreement. They didn't need to tell each other to be careful because they always were, and it was a rule of battle.

If two went in, two would come out, or none of them would come out at all.

They were highly skilled for such missions, but the threats these rebels posed to the communities around them deserved the attention they were getting at the moment. 

"Halt," Carrie said to her team. She had managed to find her way to the old house where the rebels were hiding, and she had seen them and their machetes.

They looked so ragged and dirty it was even hard to understand why they were fighting the government instead of taking care of themselves. It didn't help that they believed that the Russian government didn't have the interest of the locals in what they did.

Carrie could see that the rebels were holding civilians, something that made her roll her eyes. She knew how this always played out.

They would try negotiating, and the damned rebels would pretend to demand more and then engage in a shootout to convince the army that they weren't kidding. Then they would encounter and get defeated.

Carrie had had enough of this playout, but then she also knew she couldn't just sit and wait for them to reach that point; besides, the only way that would happen was if they worked this shit out. And so it was that the negotiations were made, but the rebels had been adamant.

They engaged in the shootout, losing more of their men in the hands of the Russian army, men and women who were trained to ensure peace within the nation—the pride of a nation they loved.

Three hours later, Carrie and Qiao had rescued the hostages, and though a few were hurt, it wasn't severe.

The bastard rebels that had made it out alive had tried to negotiate with Carrie to end their lives, but she was a woman of honor, one who loved her uniform and everything it stood for. As much as she was pissed about the stupid punishment, she would always serve her country.

"Load them in the damn truck before I knock them out myself," Qiao Xi said to the team who followed their Commander.

"You're safe now, don't worry," Carrie said to the hostages who were loaded in a different truck. It would take them a while before they came to terms with their reality, but what mattered was that they were safe.

The government could put them in camps or something that would allow them to live their lives or try to heal from whatever had landed them in the hands of the rebels. 

"Thank you," one of the hostages said just before Carrie waved the truck off. Twenty hours in the field and being rained on had gotten the woman grumpy as fuċk, but here she was consoling people. Well, she truly loved her job.

As the trucks drove away, the two Commanders stood in the middle of the rain, trying to look heroic when in reality, they were more stressed about what was waiting for them back home.

Todorov didn't really seem like an excellent place to go back to at the moment, especially with their faces being plastered all over the media.

Of course, it was expected since they had taken up the responsibility of Pavlenko. Clearly, it didn't take long before the whole of Russia knew that the conglomerate chiefs were navy seals in the Russian army.

It was going to be more trouble than they had bargained for, but they knew they were willing to do it for their friend. All they needed was their friend, safe and alive. They were paying the price too high for Nikita, but they had made their choice.

They were brothers and sisters.

They were a team, and no matter what was at stake, all of that was useless without their small unit of family.

"Qiao, what if we disappear while they send a helicopter for us? Y'know, pretend we're lost, so the Colonel will forget we got ourselves in deep shit?" Carrie suggested, her eyes glistening with happiness despite being out in the rain for hours.

They had let their teams leave while they waited for extraction. Of course, it was a dangerous play, but what else were they supposed to do?

"That sounds like a good idea, but if we do so, it will only give Nikita more time to pretend to grieve. We're already in this shit; let's just get it over and done with," Qiao said as he pulled his best friend into a hug.

They were tired, truly tired, and even then still needed to be vigilant. What's more, they had just fought the rebels and were expected at the Colonel's office the next morning. What kind of shit was this anyway?

"Alright, fine. What's taking them so long anyway?"