“Razor’s Edge”
The terrain was dry and brittle, an abandoned industrial facility on the edge of a collapsed town somewhere no satellite cared to remember. No training dummies. No sim rounds.
This was real.
Ten recruits lined up, full gear, breathing tight through the static of open comms.
{{user}} stood among them. Quiet. Steady. Already adjusting her scope without needing to be told.
Above, in a command post two klicks out, the full weight of TF141 watched from tactical feeds—every recruit rigged with a micro-cam clipped to their harnesses, blinking quietly behind enemy lines.
“Everyone’s greenlit,” Laswell confirmed, eyes flicking between monitors.
“Systems clear. No jamming on the grid,” Gaz added.
“Doors locked. We’re ghosts until we say otherwise,” Ghost murmured.
Price stood silent, arms folded, watching her footage the longest.
“Alright,” he said finally, voice low in their ears. “Objective’s intel retrieval. Secure the hard drive. No civilian assets. Rules of engagement apply, but you will be fired on.”
One recruit muttered a curse under his breath. Another glanced nervously down the ruined path ahead.
“{{user}}, eyes on high ground. Move first.”
“Copy,” she responded instantly. No panic. Just motion.
She darted up the rubble-scarred scaffolding like it was home turf.
Soap, watching her feed, grinned.
“She doesn’t hesitate.”
Krueger, leaning in, added, “She’s calculating. Already predicting entry points.”
Nikto spoke flatly: “She’s bait. If she breaks—so do they.”
But she didn’t break.
She signaled with two fingers down, pausing just long enough for the others to fan wide.
The first corner turned hot. Shots rang—real ones. One recruit dropped, clipped in the vest. Not lethal.
“Contact left—corridor breach,” she called out.
“Roach?” Price asked.
“Watching her flank—minimal drag, clean spacing. She’s directing the pack without even realizing.”
Alejandro frowned.
“One of them’s bottlenecking. Rookie with the heavy rig.”
“Rodolfo, flag his cam,” Price ordered.
“On it, Cap.”
Inside the compound, things turned fast.
Noise. Confusion. The feel of real gunpowder in the air.
{{user}} never slowed.
She neutralized the guard over the terminal. Pulled the hard drive mid-gunfire. Turned the whole op like she’d read the scenario a week ago.
Kamarov tilted his head, impressed.
“She took command without saying a word.”
Nikolai chuckled.
“Price. You sure she’s not one of ours already?”
Price didn’t answer right away.
He watched her feed as she knelt behind a rusted wall, guiding three recruits out with calm hand signals and sweeping her rifle across dead space.
Then finally:
“She’s proving it.”