Covert ops, Irvine style
by Griever
Irvine ran forward into the small room. He brought his rifle and sent an automatic burst flying down the hallway. A man in a blue uniform fell to the ground with multiple puncture wounds. Irvine continued on and changed magazines in mid run. The room he ended up in was shabby and had tatty blue wall paper. He ran over to a grate, trench coat swaying behind him. He lifted it up and dropped in, he hit the ground lightly with a look of grim determination on his face. Sweating and breathing heavily he continued on and sent 3 rounds into another mans chest. The soldier lay crumpled on the ground. Irvine was now in a pipe line that was about 8ft by 6ft with a rounded roof.
Irvine could hear men running up behind him so he went into his side pouch and pulled out some C4 plastic explosives he set the timer for 10 seconds and he sprinted round a corner. Irvine stopped and leaned against the wall he could hear the men’s shouting getting louder, he put his head round the corner and put an automatic burst down the pipe then the explosive went off. Irvine was sent flying against the opposite wall and the enemy were burned or crushed to death.
He drank a Hi-Potion then began to run down the tunnel, towards the end of the tunnel he saw a door on his left he went through it and sat on a bench. The room had limestone coloured tiles all over which made the light green also. Irvine looked round the room it was full of digging equipment. He could hear voices slowly getting closer.
“Some guy is in here. They say he was hacking the main terminal. Looking for some file ……….” It trailed off as they got further away. He sat on the bench half asleep.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed.
“Shit how long was I asleep?” Irvine thought fumbling at his cuff to peer at his watch
“Why do we always get the crap jobs like clearing rubble” Irvine heard someone moaning loudly.
“Because that’s what we do. We get crap pay we get the crap jobs…. Man I hate this” he heard another.
He clambered to his feet and looked at the door he notice a catch and flicked it to lock, but it looked rusty and wouldn’t hold for long. Irvine bounded over to the other side strapping his Lokra rifle to his back. He looked up and saw a window he jumped up to it and opened it. As Irvine began clambering through when he heard “Hey what the fuck is up with this ” he could hear banging.
“Shit those two workers are back!” Irvine looked at the door behind him that the men were trying to open.
Irvine was scrambling through the window when he got caught on the window latch. Irvine thought quickly and took out his Auto Pistol and shot the offending piece of clothing. He fell hard onto the metal walkway. Irvine could hear men rushing around by the clank of their boots so he rushed into the shadows.
He took out some compo rations and wolfed them down. He then got out his tissue map and plotted a route out of the building when a bullet whizzed past his ear. He turned rifle in hand and blasted a burst at the soldier but he missed. He spotted a pile of empty oil drums and rolled behind them.
“Crap what am I gonna do now?” Irvine racked his brain for something.
Irvine peered down the other catwalk and saw three men moving from cover to cover. He flicked his rifle to semi-auto and fired at the man on the right, the bullet went clean through his leg and ricochet of the metal railing. Irvine looked down and saw a further three levels to where he wanted to be so he ran out of cover fired 4 rounds at the other two guards on the right killing one with a head shot and the other with two rounds to the torso. He ran past a guard hitting him in the face with the butt of his rifle two shots flew past his head knocking 5 limestone tiles off the walls.
Irvine ran and fired at a man running up the stairs. The guards uniform soaked with blood as he tumbled down the steps then his neck broke with a sickening crunch. Irvine trampled on him and continued on, he shot two men who were running at him one had a wound in the leg and fell over the banister to his death. The other dropped clutching his bloody stomach Irvine quickly put a round in his head and kept running the clang of his boots off the steel was loud and easily tracked. He reached the next lot of stairs and jumped down them. He met to guards he shot one then got the dead mans click he pulled out his auto pistol and put a round in his shoulder blood dripping down his arm. The Guard lifted his weapon and fired at Irvine just missing him. Irvine turned and put a bullet through his head. The equipment including a Wolf-50C sniper rifle was heavy and Irvine began to tire. In mid run Irvine reloaded his rifle and ducked behind an ammo box bullets cracked and thudded into the wall. Unable to see his target Irvine got up and blindly fired a couple of rounds down the catwalk connecting with one man and blasting his shoulder off. He ran firing at a man on his left who slumped into a pile of blood and bones. Irvine ran down the next flight of stairs and used a key card he had found earlier. Tip toeing onto the platform hoping not to be noticed he turned and locked the door behind him. Walking briskly Irvine used the shadows as cover when he could. This room was different from the ones behind him. Its walls were grey and unpainted or tiled. This place was very quiet apart from the clink of Irvine’s boot of course. Seeing the vent Irvine keyed the code in and dropped down. He could see the target a rather fat man in a red suite. He swallowed some diazepam and swigged some water then got comfy and switched his recorder on.
“So what if they are revolting in Timber…send more troops” the man in a red suite barked at a small man in a blue suite. The small man ran off shouting. “Yes sir!”
“So what’s the situation with the Gardens then Grace?” the man in the red suit looked a splendour young lady to his right.
“Galbadia and Balamb gardens have disappeared we’ve been unable to track them down president” she said fixing her glasses.
“President huh?” Irvine said quietly as he flicked his hat over his eyes.
Looking down Irvine could see a desk and three chairs. Irvine sat in waiting for 2 hours by now the Diazepam had taken affect. The president finished discussing business with Grace and they both exited.
Irvine checked the room was clear and opened the vent shaft. Swinging his leg over Irvine dropped onto the blue carpet. Turning round Irvine saw two doors he took a hold unused cream coloured one that lead onto the balcony. Irvine could see the proceedings were underway. Irvine brought his Wolf-50 up to his cheek he peered through the scope. Looking around the small stage through the scope Irvine could see the target clearly. Arneus Calgra a middle aged man who was high in authority.
Wearing a black tuxedo with a white shirt he didn’t exactly stand out but Irvine new it was him. He looked to his left, Zell was on a rappel line prepping himself encase Irvine missed he looked on the opposite side and saw Squall was doing exactly the same. Irvine looked down into the court yard, he was about 30 ft up and he didn’t exactly have a particular escape route.
He checked his watch 8:30 on the dot. He aimed his Wolf-50, he breathed out and squeezed the trigger. The shot rang out and was amplified by the courtyards shape. Irvine could hear voices behind him.
“No escape that way.” Irvine almost thought out loud.
Putting his wolf-50 on his back Irvine pulled out his Lokra rife and ran through the door. On his left a door and his right a window.
He sprinted firing a volley of shots at the window. Diving out of it he clipped his harness onto the frame where the glass had one been and jumped. He felt helpless falling at a great rate. He braced himself as the cord came to its maximum length he flew back up a few meters the he settled. Irvine unclipped the buckle and fell. Then all went blank.
10 hours later
“We have to get out of here” a mono-toned man said Irvine guessed it was Squall. “Yeah but look at the state of him, stupid idiot fell straight into a tree.” A clearly lively guy said “Ugh that’s Zell.” Irvine thought.
Trying to open his eyes Irvine felt it were as if he had been given local anaesthetic in his face
Irvine felt burning in his legs and arms, he could feel a flow of liquid coming from his arm.
“Must have an open wound.” he thought trying to open his eyes.
“Urgh” he moaned as if trying to contact Squall and Zell.
“What’s that cowboy?” Zell said, “You’re an asshole?” he continued taking the piss out of the disabled Irvine.
“Yea I know what kinda edjit would jump out a window?” The last thing Zell expected was for Irvine to leap at him.
He tumbled over and took a hard hit to the face where Irvine had punched him.
“That’s enough.” Squall said in his commander like tone as he pulled Irvine off of Zell.
Irvine looked around they were in the secret entrance at Caraway’s mansion. Just the three of them had been sent some idiot had made a cock up in intelligence and Irvine knew exactly who it was
“Nida you are so dead when I get back.” Irvine thought angrily.
Nida had told Irvine there was a 5 ftX5ft Vent shaft for access it turned out to be 2ftX2ft.
He had to smash a window then avoid security for half an hour. He returned from his day dream when Squall raised his hand to his forehead in his trademark movement he then brushed it through his hair getting stray strands out of his face. He stood there Irvine looked at him wondering how he thought how he worked. Zell got up and started randomly punching the air.
“Damn stop that you fool it’s annoying” the cowboy said putting his hat over his eyes. Zell punched the palm of his hand in a fit of rage.
“Ok we gotta get out now.”
“Irvine you got a map?” Squall said, looking at Irvine.
“Umm yea somewhere.” He fumbled around in his webbing until he pulled a map.
“This way.” Squall said leading them off. They went round and round until they found the exit at the edge of Deling City “Where now o’ mighty leader?” Irvine said at an annoyed Squall. Squall walked off the other two followed.
They headed for Timber where they could catch a train hopefully. Squall didn’t have that much Gil on him.
The walked on and on all night until they reached a ruin and they decided to stay there.
They old grey walls were marked with bullet holes. Irvine flicked his hat over his eyes and slept soundly all night.
He tossed over and hit his head on the cold hard ground. He sat up dazed and looked around then his eyes focused and he saw Squall sitting eating some rations over a gas stove. Irvine reached into his own side pouch and pulled out a bar of chocolate and started eating. “Ah so your up cowboy,” Squall chuckled to himself at the comment. Zell walked round studying the map. “How the hell.” He turned the map over so it was upside down. Squall came over and grabbed the map from Zell’s clutches “We have to hurry the early train is at 1000 hours and if we miss that we’re in for a long wait.” Squall said in the same commanding tone. He walked on with his thoughts “What if I’d died? Never seen Selphie never again?” He wouldn’t admit it but he’d even miss Zell and Squall.
He shook the thought’s off with “Nah you’re to good to die,” and with a smirk he carried on.
The three of them reached timber at 0950 hours and prepared to go stealthily through the back streets of Timber. They went through the front gate and off to the right with Squall as lead followed by Zell then Irvine of the inn. Squall went through the back gates and into the back yard which was full of bins and washing. The other two followed after Sitting down Irvine could hear a radio.
“Today it was confirmed that an unknown man has infiltrated the Galbadia’s Security office and killed up to 30 guards. The man using the Wolf-50 sniper rifle killed Arneus Calgra a high minister in the ministry of defence. A Galbadian spokes person commented “It could have been a number of people. At this moment we suspect it could have been a Timber faction funded operation.”
The three young SeeDs moved on in silence.