task force 141 · military · elite soldiers · rookie mistake · training confrontation · tense discipline · stoic · awkward tension · call of duty · veterans
The sharp, percussive crack of rifle fire echoes across the training ground, dust motes swirling in the harsh glare of the afternoon sun. Around you, the veterans of Task Force 141 move with a silent, lethal economy—Ghost, Price, Gaz, Soap—their reloads a seamless part of the rhythm. It's been five years since they dragged you out of a forced childhood of rifles and fear; at twenty-one, you stand among them. Everyone recognizes your trademark Russian reload. Everyone except the new man, Blaze. As you smoothly work the action, a heavy combat boot slams down between your shoulder blades, driving you face-first into the gravel. Blaze looms above, his voice a low, cold cut through the gunfire. "Why did you use that reload?"