1 Chap 1: The Ghosts

Year 2039, Day 16, September.

20 miles east of Allogny, France. A squad of 10 highly trained soldiers of the French Special Forces, equipped with modern tech, slowly moved through the forest. Each of them had a streamlined black assault rifle on their hands and Night Vision Goggles equipped as it was night time. They moved very quietly with caution.

12 hours earlier, the French Union received an information about an insurgent group which intruded into their country from the CIA. Even though the information couldn't be accurate, it wouldn't hurt to check it, so they sent one of their best team as the information said that these guys are not your regular terrorists! They are highly skilled and equipped with advanced weaponry and tech, or so the CIA said.

The team of French Special Force soldiers from French Foreign Legion lead by first lieutenant, Gabriel Adams, were deployed for the mission. His team was known to be one of the best in the FSF. They never missed their mark and have dealt with a lot of guys who planned to attack their country.

His instincts told him that this raid was rigged as the information was clearly lacking, but he still took the job as if it was true, then there is a chance of a possible terrorists attack! They couldn't let that happen.

They were staying low while moving forward.

"lieutenant, don't you think this is weird?" One of the men asked.

"Think so? This could be a trap for all we know!" Gabriel said.

"Why think that way LT?" Another one of his men asked.

"The information feels off, there's a good chance of us not leaving here alive." He smiled bitterly.

His men were shocked. Till now, they had faced gun fight many times, even with other countries forces, and their Lieutenant, who is an iron hearted man, never worried about anything! But now, he's saying that they probably won't leave here alive, if this didn't sound insane, nothing else will.

"Do you not trust us LT?" Another one of their men suddenly asked in a serious tone.

"Its not that I don't trust you, it's just this whole mission seems rigged." Gabriel smiled again as he said.

The men were confused so they looked at each other as they stopped their advance and looked at him. Gabriel knew that he had to disclose what he know or it might get them into trouble without getting prepared for what's going to come.

"Don't you all think its all just.....strange?" He stopped and asked. The men just looked at each other, then looked at him, waiting for his answer.

"CIA is such an big intelligence organization with enough manpower and equipments and yet they didn't provided us with sufficient information like, which organization these insurgents were from or how many of them are there or what type of weaponry they are in possession off, but they gave us their location, moreover they could've just dealt with this issue themselves without asking us or us knowing anything, this is actual Connerie¹!" He said.

Now they noticed the issue. This is more like a setup! They gave the location of the insurgents, they said they were armed and skilled, yet they didn't provide anymore information and disclosed that they couldn't find anything about their number or which organization they are from. Now all the piece are coming together. This raid is f*cking rigged!

They were in middle of deciding whether or not to move forward, the radio sounded.

"Lieutenant, what happened? Why are you not proceeding forward?" it was their Colonel.

Back at the base, Colonel Luigi was standing before the monitor screen and was waiting anxiously for the reply from Lieutenant Gabriel. Ever since he heard that there were insurgents, who managed to get inside their country with weapons despite the tight security, he had been anxious about it. To pass through that tight security means these guys must be as skilled as the information from CIA said or the security must be sleeping. There is no other way for them to get into France!

They can't enter the country by air cause if they did, they could be easily identified. But the main issue is, how in the world did they bring their weapons? They can't buy advanced weaponry through the local channels either.

So the only way is through crossing the border illegally along with their weapons.

But how did they manage to do that? If they came through the border, the border patrol would shoot them first and then ask questions.

France is a strong nation that can stand on its own as the fifth military superpower. Despite taking heavy blows during the two world wars, they are still a nation with strong military to defend themselves well. If anyone came through the border illegally, they are considered as a threat and immediately shot at sight. So such a country actually letting insurgents into their territory means a great issue to them.

So when the CIA told them this, they immediately sent one of their best teams to deal with the insurgents, but now, they are not moving and was talking to each other with no care at all! When they get back, they will get an earful of words from him!

He was waiting for a reply and it came immediately without a delay.

"This is Lieutenant Gabriel, Sir! This raid doesn't seem right to us, this is probably rigged." Gabriel said.

Luigi raised his eyebrow as he did not expect such answer. The technicians on the control looked at him. He knows that if Gabriel is saying this raid is a trap, then there's is a 90% chance it is.

He really wants to cancel this operation, but what if the insurgent group attacks one of their cities? What if they bomb one of their attraction centers and kill hundreds? These questions were playing over and over inside his head. All he can do is trust his men and believe they can take these guys down.

He said to them on the mic.

"It could be as you suspect, but we can't leave it if there really is an insurgent group and they plan on attacking us? What will we do when hundreds of innocent lives die just because we thought that one single mission was rigged? I want to cancel this more than you guys, but I don't want to think about the consequences ! Its your call Lieutenant, do what you feel is right and I'll respect it." Luigi said.

On the other side, inside the forest, all ten of them heard the Colonel. They know that this is a heavy decision to make. One they turn back and risk the chance of getting attacked. Two, they proceed forward and there is a chance of them never going home again or going home with a win and make sure the safety of those innocents. They all looked at Gabriel, he is their Lieutenant, their leader! They will accept whatever he says cause they had been through life and death situations together and came back alive. If this is the first time they are gonna lose or win at the cost of something, they will take it down or take it down with them!

Gabriel stayed silent, he wanted to make sure that the innocent people are safe and at the same time he wants his men, who were willing to follow him to the death with him live as well. He know it is a hard choice, but he want both. He finally spoke.

"My mother once said...'Son, if you are going for it, then go high or go home' and I sure as hell am not going home, I'm going high!" The men all smirked and so did the Colonel at the base.

"Sir, the mission will proceed as planned! We will take down those Baiseurs de mère² or go down with them! Gabriel out!" He said to the colonel. Gabriel looked at his men.

They all looked serious, their resolve was clear. They will follow their leader even if it is to the gates hell, if they could ensure the safety of innocent lives and the safety of their country, its worth it.

He put on the Night Vision Goggles(NVG) and the rest of them did the same.

"Vivé la France³!" Gabriel said.

"Vivé la France!" The rest also said the same in unison. They then proceeded forward towards their target location without making a single sound, they were very stealthy.

Inside that same forest, 200 meters away from the FSF team, two dark shadows are staying low and watching the movements of the FSF team. Both of them were wearing black and black outfit that blends really well in the night. They have the high tech equipments that is enough to put the FSF unit's equipment to shame.

One of them was holding a AWR-17 advanced sniper rifle which had a silencer attached to it along with a thermal scope. The other one was looking at the FSF team with a pair binoculars which had thermal and night vision. He had an AUG A5 on his back, which is the now advanced version of AUG A3.

The sniper aimed at the FSF team, moving through the forest while looking everywhere.

"Aww, will you look at that? Ain't that sweet? Now I feel like not shooting these guys, what do you say, Tom?" The sniper said. Her voice was cute, only if she wasn't holding a deadly sniper rifle in middle of the forest during the night, she would seem like a normal High schooler.

Her teammate named Tom observed their "targets" without even looking at her.

"Stop whining and snipe them, shoot when we get the go." He said.

"Yeah yeah, roger that, even though you got a beauty at your side and you don't even bat an eye..... oh! Could it be your into men?" She grinned. A fist hammered down on her head.

"Ouch!" she whined.

"Jerry, could you please focus? These guys are not the regular strike force, they are FSF and one of the best teams in the damn French Foreign Legion! So concentrate! There, 180 meters and closing." He said while keeping an eye on them.

180 meters away, the team was closing in. They were looking in every known direction for signs of movement, but it was dead quiet, which scared them even more! There was not even a single sound! Not even the sounds of insects or owls, just the night breeze.

Suddenly, all the radio made screeching noise at the same time.

"FFL team 'Riots' of France, you are kindly asked to stop where you are and turn back, we do not want to harm you or anyone, but we will take you down if you don't take us seriously and move one step forward, please think before you act as we do not want to spill any blood and end this in a peaceful way." The transmission ended.

"Gabby! What the heck was that!? How did they talk to us!? They couldn't possibly have our frequency channel! Then how!?" One of them shouted.

The one called Gabby sat down and was scrambling on his CCD, a bracelet type computer which could be taken anywhere, anytime, with ease like a bracelet, mostly used by the military.

His eyes were wide in shock and surprise.

"They..... Hacked the whole network just to speak to us..." Gabby said with his eyes wide in disbelief.

Now it was their turn to be shocked and surprised. Even if they don't understand it to the level of Gabby, they knew it is very hard to break into their network. Yet these guys managed to do that within like 12 hours or maybe even less! The techies of these guys are scary.

Aside from the techie part, they still got the warning to consider. It could be a bluff to make them go away so they won't have to fight, or it could be real. But what's more surprising is that they gave them a warning when they could have possibly taken them out. These guys are hard to understand.

"This doesn't change anything, we will move forward and look out for snipers, we are basically ducks for them to shoot." Gabriel said.

180 meters away from them, Tom kept two fingers on his earpiece.

"Affirmative." He said.

"We have the go! The moment anyone takes more than two steps forward, put them down." He said to Jerry and continued his watching .

"Solid copy." Jerry smirked as she cocked her gun and aimed at one of them.

*Pew*

179 meters away, Gabby got shot in his forehead and fell down. The medic and others rushed towards him.

He checked his pulse.

"Gabby is.... No longer with us." He said.

The rest also couldn't take it and rage could be seen eyes. Everyone of them were always together whenever they did something. Happy times, sad times and funny times they had together all flashed in their eyes. Gabby was with them in every moment they shared! He was like a geek little brother to them and now, he's gone. Rage filled within them and they lost all reasoning as they took their guns and started to fire in the direction they were going.

Tom lay down on the ground due to their suppressive fire. Jerry was aiming at them one by one like tagging them, but didn't shoot them.

Colonel Luigi was more and more anxious. Their whole military network got hacked for a few seconds and the hackers just let them go after a few seconds without even taking a peek at their top secret files. They were more suspicious about this confusing action of the hackers, but nonetheless, they were happy that their files were safe. They were trying to see if they really didn't look at their files or just pretended to not look at them. He then went near the mic and he stood while supporting himself by keeping his hands on the control panel.

"Lieutenant, you guys got anything?" He asked.

"Sir, Gabby is down! I repeat! Gabby is down! We are now laying down some suppressive fire on the enemy sniper!" Gabriel said. He fired even though he can't see where the target is.

*BAM*

Colonel Luigi hit the panel.

"How many snipers are there!? Is there anyone else beside the sniper!? Talk to me son! What the f*ck is going on there!?" he shouted.

"There is only one enemy sniper! Sir! But we couldn't pin their location!" Gabriel replied as he continued firing.

Colonel Luigi was going crazy. Even if its just one sniper, without knowing their precise location, they are just sitting ducks. Luigi was about to say something but the communications have been terminated once again. He punched the control panel in anger.

Back in the forest, Gabriel didn't know that their communication was terminated and focused on shooting.

On the other side, Jerry was patiently aiming at them. She had her finger on the trigger and was jumping from one target to the other without firing. Tom kept quiet and let her do her job.

She then finally stopped jumping around targets and aimed at Gabriel. She breathed in and let it out.

*Pew*

Just like that, Gabriel fell down with a hole on his forehead. She didn't give them time to breath and shot down another one. She just jumped from one target to the other, every time she fired, one soldier died and all of the shots were aimed precisely at the center of the head. Within 18 seconds of her first shot, nineof the best soldiers FSF lay dead inside the forest.

"Tangos down, Perimeter is secure! Returning to FOB⁴!" Tom then said as he kept two fingers on his ear like before.

"Good job, your a great shot as ever" He said to Jerry as he took his fingers off the receiver on his ear. Jerry just smiled and didn't say anything. She knows she's a great shot! She's one of the top twenty snipers in the whole damn world.

Colonel Luigi was waiting anxiously for the connection to get back. His anxiousness grew more and more for every second. The connection was finally back and there was a video sent to them, not the communication channel of Lieutenant Gabriel. He nodded his head and the operator on the seat played it.

There is only black screen.

"Mr Colonel Luigi Papres, your men did not take our warning seriously so we had to take them out, for that we are extremely sorry, we did not come here to bomb people or kill innocent lives or pry into your national secrets, our mission is something else which we are not authorized to disclose with you and once again, we are extremely sorry for what happened and we don't want the same thing to happen again" A grim voice said and the black screen played the video of FSF team being wiped out.

Luigi was running cold sweat watching the video.

'That kind of sniping skills could rank in top twenty of the world' he thought.

The video screen went black again.

"We know that you are probably thinking and thinking hard like who are we? As an apology, we will tell you our identity, we are GHOSTS." The transmission ended and every trace of it deleted itself.

Five seconds later, the whole server crashed.