Late...every one of them were. As their Russian sharpshooter entered the room, Evelyn returned the curt nod, rather ignoring the snide body language of the Mexican sitting across from her. Lucky she didn't go into her infamous tirade about the Army being nothing but a bunch of sexless, dumbass rednecks who only signed up to shoot things and blow shit up, otherwise Evelyn would be introducing her three favorite letters to the cartel bitch...[i]CQC[/i]. So in return, Ev just shot towards Max across the table through the air ripe with tension a steely glare, [i]Fuck you too, wetback.[/i] She could tell this was going to be one hell of a mission from the start. How were these four women going to operate as a team when only one of them was a hardened soldier. Well...if anything...Ev was gonna do her damndest to make it work in the end. Next followed a raucous bang against the wall, jolting Evelyn's heart to nearly break from her chest, yet her demure composure remained on the outside. Leave it to years of close calls with IEDs, rockets, and grenades. A bomb of any sort could detonate mere inches from her and rarely she would flinch. "Sit down, Muffy." She commanded bluntly to the Irish psycho. Once they were all there...that's when Evelyn shook her head and sighed, her posture firm as she inclined forward in her seat, her voice taking on her firm, commanding demeanor, "Look....before this briefing begins, I want you to know I expect alot from you girls out there. There's no telling what this first op will entail, so I want each and every one of you to focus. We work as a team now, got it?" [b]"Attention on deck!"[/b] The booming voice of Starker soon shattered the tense silence, he and his superior...or rather their superior Jocelyn Valentine strolling in. At call, Evelyn stood from her chair ramrod stiff. "Sir!" She was hoping the other delinquents would follow her esteemed example. [color=ec008c]"You may be seated."[/color] Jocelyn spoke, her sultry, smooth voice quite the contrast to the gruff, grizzled man standing next to her. Her high heels clacked among the metal floor as casually she made her way to the front of the table, snatching up a remote and pressing a button while the women took their seats. Suddenly, the table lit up, the false wood grain digitizing into a massive satellite image of several continents, zooming into one in particular. [color=ec008c]"South Ossetia. For years Russia and Georgia have waged war over this one particular piece of land for reasons unspecified. A ceasefire was momentarily called in early 2012, but after the death of President Vladimir Borshevsky, fighting has resumed. Burning cities illuminate the night sky while bombs and artillery fire rain death upon innocent civilians...all thanks to an assassin's bullet."[/color] At this, there was a cheeky glance towards Anna with a wry smirk. Evelyn had caught onto it, wondering if it would perturb their Russian teammate. Hopefully not. [color=ec008c]"Your first mission will either be simple or difficult, depending on how you operate as a team. One of our UAV reconnaissance drones was shot down over South Ossetian airspace. The culprit is suspected to be no other than the Georgian Liberation Front, GLF for short, an extremist guerilla group responsible for several terrorist attacks across Russia, the most notorious being the chemical attacks in St. Petersburg and the massacre at Red Square in 2013. Your task is to recover the drone's onboard hard drive, which contains sensitive intelligence, at all cost. Once you have it, you'll exfil immediately. Agent Starker will brief you on the rest of the mission."[/color] The map on the table dissipated into a cloud of shimmering pixels, fading into a view a 3D model of a large aircraft while Starker resumed the briefing, [b]"You'll HALO jump by C-130 over South Ossetian airspace in the dead of night, landing approximately two and half klicks from the designated target, the GLF's forward operating base. GLF militia have a stranglehold on the region, so expect heavy enemy presence. This isn't gonna be a cake walk, ladies. You'll need your heads on a swivel at all times. Once you have extracted the hard drive from the wreckage, destroy the drone and exfil at LZ bravo half a klick due east. Any questions?"[/b] Evelyn was about to speak, but sharply she was cut off by Starker, his voice commanding ever so...and yet...grim, [b]"By the way, this mission is being played by Moscow rules, meaning, if any of your team is captured or compromised...leave them. Do not attempt to extract them. Do I make myself clear?"[/b] What....? No....no way that was happening again. Evelyn, she tried to remain calm, composed and attentive on the outside...but inside...it felt like a hawk had its black, obsidian talons clutched around her lungs, choking the life out of her as silent and demure she sat in her chair...yet her eyes betraying the cold, dark fear welling inside of her like a torrential rainstorm. She couldn't, not after....Gardez....not after what happened to Jack. No way she would leave another soldier behind. Then...it started...first the sounds of the room fading from earshot, the air becoming thinner and thinner by the second till she could barely breathe. Her nerves tensed, her palms perspired. The bombs...the gunfire...the screams... [i]Stop it![/i] She gave herself a mental shake, returning to attention. "Yes sir." Respectfully...but reluctantly...she answered. [b]"Wheels up at O-Two Hundred. Dismissed."[/b] With a brief sigh, she stood from her chair, exiting the room with the others and returning to her bunk. Once the door was shut behind her...that's when it all hit Evelyn at once. Hastily she rushed to the bathroom, throwing herself to the floor as she felt the tingling, sickening sensation creep up her throat, the disgusting flavor of vomit now flooding her mouth and spilling into the toilet. She washed her mouth out afterwards, grabbing from the medicine cabinet her pills, just a few to calm her nerves, keep her focused and ready for the mission, just a few...to keep the nightmares at bay...