Major Mattias' POV
John and the rest of the "Princess Retrieval Squad" filed in exactly at 1400 hours. Any other squad would have at least tried to show up earlier than him as a show of respect. Watching them, he couldn't help but think about how they were as recruits. Were they anything like the formidable squad that stood before him? He highly doubted that, though he had no way to confirm (well he did technically) but that's just semantics, as unlike John, the burden of training them fell on others. He couldn't help but be flooded with nostalgia when thinking of the past, somethinghe found himself doing too often these days.
Though one thing he could say was that John had come a long way from his snot-nosed rookie days, and he was damn proud of the role he played in shaping this young man into the formidable squad leader who stood before him with impatience written all over his ungrateful face. Mattias could humor him and start the meeting now, but where was the fun in that? After all, superior officers have a solemn duty to keep those below them on their toes(in other words be a pain in the ass).
The mission that landed in his lap was the kind of mission they'd been begging for since a few months ago. Mattias and anyone with half a brain could see they despised these rescue missions. Try as he might, his superiors wouldn't, in fact, couldn't afford to have them going on non-hostage-related ops due to how exceptional they were. It's a classic case of suffering from success. At least this op didn't have any princess to rescue, so at least it should be a change of pace for them.
He was roused from his musings by a rather rude fake cough from Tobias, to whom he immediately sent a reprimanding glare, stopping him as he was definitely primed for another outburst.
It seemed he'd been in his thoughts longer than expected, as looking at the time, 15 minutes had passed. He could clearly see the impatience on their faces, and he was kind of embarrassed he lost himself in his thoughts like that—not that he'd ever admit it.
Clearing his throat, he decided to put them out of their misery and dive straight in.
"Earlier today, a convoy traveling from the top-secret weapons research facility, colloquially referred to as by its unofficial designation, Area 51, was hit. All personnel involved in said attack were eliminated, and the secondary trackers were taken out of the cargo. Before you ask, it's way above your paygrade, and the primary trackers were cloaked with some kind of tech—"
His aide, God bless his soul because death was all that remained in his future for interrupting this briefing, ran in and handed him a satellite phone. He mouthed quite loudly, "It's the Secretary of Defense."
Well, that changes things he was still going to kill him but well timing matters you know. Grabbing the phone, he said, "Hello, sir, this is General Mattias speaking."
"Mattias, no time for chit-chat. The weapon codenamed 'The Strangler' has been activated, and we have been able to track it across the border. The hit team who stole it has been confirmed to be in Israel by a deeply embedded spy in the Israeli Aviation Authorities."
"The timeline for this op has been moved forward rapidly. Wheels up in 20 minutes. Get your squad ready. The weapon is not really singular and is designed to be divided into parts. You need to get to them before they figure out how. Do you think your squad is up to the task?"
For the first time since this conversation started, I looked up at them. Of course, they are.
"Definitely. I'll complete my debrief and they'll be off in no time," I replied.
"Very well," he said before hanging up.
I looked at them and spoke.
"Well, the timeline of this mission just got moved up. It's a classic retrieval mission, except it's in Israel. And this time, there's no princess, but there is a weapon of mass destruction. Retrieve or destroy the mission objective."
"Any questions?" Mattias asked.
"NO, SIR!" they chorused.
He expected that, the timeframe for the op was too lean for questions.
"Wheels up in 5. Your gear is already prepped."
John's POV
Well, now I know I wanted a serious mission, but damn, this is way too serious. Me and the gang barely had time to speak to each other before we were rushed into the jet for transport.
"Look alive! We are to be dropped in hostile territory. Due to the nature of this mission, backup is non-existent. Hence, this is expected to be a stealth mission. Well, y'all were asking for a change of pace. I hope y'all are happy," I finished, knowing fully well they were besides themselves with joy.
"Are you shitting me? I'm ecstatic!" Tobias opened his stupid mouth and said. "We've been waiting for this for so long. Don't tell me Pretty Boy is having cold feet?"
I'd punch him for that if we weren't so high up. I just couldn't shake the feeling that something would go wrong on this mission.
Little did John know, that feeling was probably right.
Back to Mattias's Pov
'The Strangler' really?
Whomever names these things should be fired before they themselves were strangled.
He couldn't help but feel empathetic to John after all his squad had been dubbed "Liberty squad" by one of such persons. As such the squad used that designation as sparingly as possible.
Liberty 🗽 "doesn't get more American than that"