Celtic Arrow/Recruitment File:Celtic Arrow
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Recruitment File: Celtic Arrow
“Pack your gear, we’re going hunting.” Jack Slayton handed a dossier over to Cherry 9, as she started looking through the documents she listened as Jack walked past her on his way to the armory, briefing her about their next candidate. Most of what he was telling her was in the dossier, who this guy was, his background as a sniper for the Corps. As she followed Jack down the hall several of the pages at the end of the dossier caught her eye as they were marked as classified, and filled with redacted information. Assassination, kidnapping, infiltration, and Intelligence Gathering, all of that on top of an already impressive service record.
When Cherry stepped up to the armory counter and received her sidearm, rifle and ammo she glanced at Jack. “I don’t quite understand sir, if this guy lives here why are we chasing him around the globe to recruit him?” Jack holstered and secured his twin .357 combat revolvers “Because, he has a knack for being hard to locate, it’s taken several months just for me to catch up with him this time around. And I’d rather get to the target before he does.” Jack slid a knife into its sheath as he finished prepping his gear. “This time around?” Cherry asked as she set the files down to pack the claymores and C4 into her backpack.
“I almost had him five months ago in Afghanistan, then again two months ago in Paris. Missed him by just a couple of hours by my guess. He’s thorough in covering his tracks.”
The Jungles of Ecuador 2 days later...
Cherry 9 crept quietly through underbrush, her rifle at the ready. Sweat dripped from her brow constantly, the Ecuadorian jungles were hot and muggy all year round. If a panther didn’t manage to kill you here the heat certainly would. The jungle was alive with sound, even in the dark the sounds of a thousand insects drowned out the ambient noise of the jungle. Cherry swore silently under her breath, why Jack insisted they come here and couldn’t wait to pop this guy when he returned to Paragon she’d never know. She swore again and froze, as the biggest centipede she’d ever seen crawled over her boot.
Once the poisonous insect was on its way Cherry let out a breath and pushed through the final patch of trees and bush to reveal a clearing occupied by several village huts and a helicopter pad. In the center of the village she could see Jack had gotten here ahead of her, the two of them had split up a mile back so they could hit the village different angles. As she approached she could see him kneeling down inspecting a body.
The place had been heavily guarded not long ago by Malta Group troops. “He’s here.” Jack said grimly, pointing to a guard 15 feet away who had stepped away from the others to enjoy a smoke. The cigarette still hung unlit in his lips as he had been unceremoniously pinned to a tree through the throat by an arrow glistening in the moonlight. “We need to hurry.” Jacks voice became urgent and even more commanding than usual. “Cherry, I want claymores set up in case company shows up. The chopper has already been rigged to blow, our boy is efficient so move fast and take cover in the northern tree line.” Picking up his rifle Jack made for one of the huts. “Yes sir.” Cherry grinned as she took off the backpack of explosives. This was the fun part of the job.
Jack moved about the inside of the hut, the place smelled of fire, several bodies were inside, burned and covered in some kind of oily accelerant. In the back of the hut was a stairway leading underground, to an elevator shaft. Jack knew what to look for, he’d been tracking this man for some time. The elevator was at the bottom floor on the walls he could see several charges of C4 and a rappelling rope dangled nearby. Jack looked at the rope, then the depth of the elevator shaft. “I’m getting too old for this.” He muttered sarcastically.
In the depths of the base Celtic Arrow was in the bases generator room planting enough explosives to cause the entire base to go up on flames, several dead guards lay nearby. Planting the last of his C4 he triggered his stealth camouflage and ran out of the room heading to the mainframe control on the other side of the base as he rounded a corner he could hear hushed whispering of several Malta troops, they knew he was here.
As he rounded the corner, the three troops caught only a brief glimpse of his stealthed form, as Celtic Stripped the rifle from the first guard, and violently smashed the butt of the rifle into the soldiers face. Throwing the rifle across the hall he grabbed the soldiers arm and twisting it painfully forcing the guard to stand straight, he rolled the guards arm over is shoulder, and hyper extended it with a sickening crack. Celtic became visible as the guard fell to the floor trying to scream through his broken jaw. The second soldier barely had enough time to raise his rifle only to have it pushed away and get struck in the throat, he croaked and started gasping for air. The third guard attempted to get a bead on the intruder but in one fluid motion Celtic grabbed the guard now clutching his crushed throat and spun him into the line of fire as the Malta soldier squeezed off a burst shot killing his comrade.
As Celtic started to fade again the Malta soldier grabbed a stun baton off his hip and came at him swinging wildly, Celtic ducked and weaved, and once the guard over extended his reach Celtic moved in kicking the guard in the knee throwing him off balance, then locking the guards arm behind his back putting enough pressure on the hold fast and hard enough to cause the soldier pain, he reached behind his back and stripped the baton away from the soldier, and came around striking him in the abdomen and head. The Malta soldier fell to the ground.
Not missing a beat he turned and ran through the twisting maze of corridors, he was almost to the Mainframe. He skidded to a stop when he realized there were several dead Malta soldiers, ones he hadn’t killed. They had been disposed of expertly and quietly. Carefully entering the room with his bow drawn there were three more bodies. And standing in front of a terminal across the room with his back to Celtic was a man dressed in black and gray, His stance was that of a military man, someone who knew precision in all things. Celtic knew he'd have a difficult fight on his hands if that's what it came down to.
“You’re a difficult man to track down Captain McConnell.” The man said as he watched the data on the screen in front of him. Celtic eased his bowstring hearing his name and rank. “In fact I had to call in more than a few favors to arrange this meeting so I would appreciate it if you lowered your weapon and heard me out.” Celtic could swear he knew this man but couldn’t place the voice. Jack looked over his left shoulder, with a confident grin. And held up a thumb drive. “And I believe this is what you’re here for.”
A bit later Jack exited the hut and headed for the north end of the camp clicking his wrist comm as he walked. "Cherry, the mission was successful we need to evac the area immediately." The comm clicked as Cherry's response came across. "Yes sir." Not long after the S.C.O.R.P.I.O. chopper met them at the extraction point and began to take them back to civilization massive explosions could be heard erupting from the remains of the Malta base behind them. Cherry 9 looked on at the devastation they were leaving behind as a confident grin crossed over Jacks face.
