The screen was grainy, but it was clear what was on it.
Rikko was lying half naked, strapped onto a table with his face down. His back was covered with scratches and wounds, while all of his old scars were showing up. Suddenly, a hand yanked his head up by his hair, while an east-Asian accent told him something. At the same time, a gun is placed against the back of his head and the camera zooms in on his face. His face was black and blue, with several scars on it.
“S… Stay away…” Rikko said, with his eyes half closed “Do… Don’t come…”

Rikko had been sent out to that part of the world about two weeks before, but contact was lost quickly. Then this video came in, and Eva was pulled in to watch. At the end of the video was a demand made, concerning a boatload of money and Eva surrendering herself.

“When they know you… Are here, I will be exec… Executed… And then we lose two people… It’s not worth it…”
Eva was mostly shocked. She first asked herself how this could have happened, but then she was more amazed that Rikko kept his mind on keeping the others alive.

“Do you know why I show this to you?”
“You want me to make the decision about only his life, both or none, right?”
“You’re sharp.”
“Good, ready me a Gunship to take me to his last known position and pick me up after I return. IF I return…”
“How were you planning to do this?”
”I get in, kill everyone, pick lead up and get out.”
“Sounds stupid enough to work.”

And thus, Eva was sitting in a Gunship to get her lost leader. She was quite worried, but not only about him. This was going to become very dangerous for both of them, and she would have to be especially careful with getting captured on camera feeds. To make sure that wouldn’t happen, she equipped a new gizmo created by Declipse R&D. It was a small jammer that would maker her video profile vague enough to prevent recognition.
The Gunship seemed to move slower then they normally did, and the refuelling took ages. In the end, they were also unable to land, causing Eva to drop a line and go down using that.
Eva landed in a dense forest, somewhere in southern Vietnam. She liked the area, empty, except for the animals.

Eva started to filter the area through different visor modes. Infrared gave her nothing. Gamma rays had the same effect. Stroboscopic view also didn’t do much. X-rays did give something interesting, though…
“Three steel bars, running under the landscape…” Eva muttered to herself, making sure to record them.
Following the bars, Eva soon met some light resistance. Her distorted image made that they weren’t prepared for her, but she was mainly paying attention to the bars, so she had a light shock when she suddenly ran into a rifle. The hostile force was quickly dispatched, though.
“Must be coming closer…”

And closer she came. After about fifteen minutes of walking and evading patrols, Eva met a small turret. It was barely large enough to come over the grass line, but opened fire on her nonetheless. Eva’s shield was able to deflect the burst fire before she took cover behind a large rock. The stone was more then capable to deflect the bullets aimed at it, but Eva couldn’t hold out for too long here. She was more then certain that patrol squads would be attracted by the noise generated by the bullets being shot off and pinging off of the rock.
Holding her gun around the rock, she aligned her visor with it, allowing her to see what was in front of the gun. She carefully aimed and silenced the turret with a single shot.

“Why would they defend this area so well…”
Eva looked around herself, and noticed something. There was a small circle under which the steel bars ‘disappeared’, after which they reappeared again. After some tests, she was certain that this circle was a lead hatch, which was uncovered after she cleared away some of the grass. A strong tug on the hatch, and it opened up. A ladder leading down and a lot of darkness.

Eva got hold of the side of the ladder and placed her feet against the side, too. Sliding down went so much faster then climbing down, and she was less prone to sudden attacks. Her speed meant she would be hard to hit, too.
After roughly hundred feet, Eva had to slow down. By forcing her feet together and strengthening her grip on the sides, her speed decreased considerably. After this, she was able to jump off and turn around. Her landing area was clear so far. Though not for long.
A camera was shattered by Eva’s gun, after which she switched over to dual swords. She did this by grabbing her double sword and breaking it halfway down, causing it to split up and allowing her to double-wield.
Soon, the first hostile targets were running towards her, guns being raised. Unfortunately for them, Eva was almost just as good with the sword as her lead was, and they soon dropped to their knees with holes and missing limbs everywhere. Eva knew she had to hurry, for Rikko had told her he would be executed. That was the whole uncertainty factor of this operation. If Rikko was dead, she had to make sure she saved her feelings for later and first get out of this place.

Eva came at a t-split, forcing her to choose between left and right. Right, absolutely. Always check right first. She ended up at another lead door, but this one wouldn’t budge. Eva put a small camera through the keyhole and saw what was on the other side.
On the other side was the room she had seen on the tape, complete with a half naked, strapped down Rikko on the table. No need to be subtle, so she formed a plastic explosive around the keyhole and blew it, opening the door effectively.
Though wanting to rush in, Eva regained her composure. With victory this close, she had to be careful. Nothing went this easy.
Turrets were stationed in three of the four corners of the room. The fourth corner held a camera, accompanied by a turret control station. The camera was probably there to aid the turrets in locating their targets, but that was kind of useless here.
Eva shot the two turrets opposite to her position, and was able to approach the third turret without getting into its range. She silently disabled this one and then closed the door. Now she could rush to Rikko, and she did.
After cutting open his bindings, Eva turned him on his back. She didn’t get a reaction from him.
“My god, what did they do to you?”
Rikko’s front was just about as bad as his back, with a lot of scratches and open wounds. Eva placed a hand on his chest and started to count.
“One Mississippi! Two Mississippi! Three Mississippi! Four Mississippi! Five Mississippi! Six Mississippi!”
Four heartbeats in six seconds, roughly forty a minute, no signs of life… Probably unconscious…
Eva picked Rikko up, placing him over her shoulders. Though he was heavier then she was, she was used to the lifting of heavy weights and thus she was able to keep him up. In fact, she could even use her rifle during the walking.

The way back was slightly less then a breeze. After she went out the way she came in, alarms started to sound, making the few hostiles still alive to come around and search for her. Luckily, she was able to fight off everyone until she reached the ladder again.
“Okay, lead, here you go…”
She bound Rikko to a ladder climber. This relatively small device was able to fasten itself to a ladder and lift a load of up to three hundred kilo’s up. Seeing how Rikko didn’t reach this weight, it was ideal to use it.
The small engines did their work, allowing Eva to regulate their speed and follow it up the ladder. When at the top of the ladder, Eva climbed over Rikko and the climber and pulled them both out. After that she threw a grenade down and smashed the lid on the cover.

“Gamma One to Gunship G20H, do you read me?”
“Gunship G20H to Gamma One, I read you loud and clear.”
“Understood. Please come to my coördinates to pick me and my squad lead up. We’re out of here.”

Back at HQ, Rikko had been nursed back to full health. It took him nearly three days to wake up after the last bleedings were stopped and everything damaged had been repaired. When he woke up and heard about Eva’s adventure, he was out of his mind for a second.
“You idiot!” He said “When did I ask you to risk your life for mine? I believe I issued orders to stay away?”
“Do you think I could stay away? You were already near dead!”
“Indeed, what if I was already dead, eh? Then what?”
“Then I would have gone out again, just like I did with you on my shoulders.”
With those words, Rikko closed his eyes. Eva understood him.
“Listen, take it easy. You are still recovering from the mental torture…”
“No, that’s not it. I doubted your skills. I shouldn’t have done that…”
“You’ll have to watch out, for HQ might start to doubt your skills after this. You’d better prepare for the questioning, for it will happen.”
Eva leaned in on him, placing her arms over his shoulders and pressing her forehead against his.
“Just, for once, do as I say…”
Rikko grinned
“Okay, I’ll prepare…”
“Good boy.”
With those words, Eva pressed a last, small kiss on his lips and left him behind. She was right, the questioning wasn’t fun. But the visor logs showed that he had a good reason to be captured