1Rainbow Six: Rising Tide
A/N: I was hyped by the Rainbow Six: Patriots trailer as it promised a grittier, edgier story than all the other Tom Clancy games, which would examine the resorting to extreme measures by Rainbow in combating the Patriots as well loosely exploring some of the issues that set the games premise. I was cast down by the cancellation of the game and instead, replacing it with Rainbow Six: Siege, multiplayer only with a background story, one that seems equally promising if only less than Patriots. Good call on Ubisoft, tensions over the issues portrayed are high but you to those like me who wanted something more.
This is a shot in the dark as my understanding of international issues is rather slim. Still, the urge to write this story is strong so if you feel any need to correct me on anything, just tell me on the PM or Review. I would be most grateful. This a trailer-inspired oneshot in the form of... a movie trailer. Credit goes to the late Tom Clancy and Ubisoft.
Despair...
In the locker room, a Rainbow Six operative sat down hunched in gloomy as he held his smartphone. His face contorted as his mind became turbulent over his troubles.
A bosom friend entered the room. He sensed his agony. "What's wrong, brother?"
"My family's home.." he replied in a painful whisper. "It's foreclosured."
An alarmed look lit up his face. "Are you kidding me?"
"Four generations... and we lost it."
State of the world...
He can see crowds of people as he walked home, angry protesters making their voice heard as they chant their slogans against the banks other institutions. The Rainbow was walking home, the news of another banking scandal and his talk with Clark still fresh in his mind as he tried to call his home again.
Polarized opinion...
"We are a counter terrorist team," John Clerk said, standing behind his desk, sternly for the umpteenth time. "Not a posse of Lone Rangers. We are not a judge and jury."
"So that scumbag banker," cried Alois Renard from the GIGN, "who reaps trillions of dollars starving kids in Africa, is just gonna walk? We should left the bastard with the pirates!"
"We have the courts to handle that, we have the law. We protect that." He sighed deeply. "Rainbow's job is to protect the world as it is, not how we like it to be." Clark had a few of these conversations before but never this intense. "I'll give you a few days off. We'll have to discuss this at another time. And I'm serious about it."
Alois replied, voice softened. "I'm serious too. I can't help the feeling that are propping up the interest of an establishment that wants it to remain as it is."
"It's called civilization... It's always flawed, which can't be helped anymore than we do. We just keep it from tearing itself apart... Remember that if you want to stay on the team."
"That's okay, sir." The tone was apologetic but firm. "... I quit."
Rejection...
"I gave my country seven years!" said the veteran of the 1st Infantry. "Iraq, North Korea, Mexico, I've lost a leg, dammit! And here's where I come back too..." He gestured to his brother the broken house in their old neighborhood, once a vibrant working- and middle-class community. "And don't pull that unsung hero, special ops shit on me! The world's always screwing over people like us and we are screwing over people in some distant land so they'll end up like us!"
He couldn't reply as the former Green Beret stood on that porch, looking around their old home. Most of his enemies came from places like this, whether in Mogadishu or Kazakhstan. Now he knew why they'll resort to blowing up women and children: lost what little they had and have nothing left to lose.
Towards the darkness...
In an old factory building, one closed from the economic downturn, a man faces a small assembly. "We were told a lie as everything was slowly taken away from us. And now we pay for that lie, insulating the powerful few from the sins and atrocities they committed and have have us committed. Our usefulness has ceased and we are cast out to the dirt heap until we are needed again. And that cycle continues. We must end it!..."
"So, brother," he asked the former Rainbow operative. "Are you in or out?"
"You know me." He simply replied. "I'll be with you all the way." And that sealed the deal.
Leaks...
"What can you tell us about Project Rainbow?" asked the talking head as the rest and rec room was rapidly filled with Rainbow operatives watching the exclusive interview.
"Project Rainbow has been business for the past two decades - the business of enforcing the status quo for those in power." That was the response of the whistleblower. "They are a special flying column of enforcers brought together from elite special forces units, intelligence agencies, and special police squads from all over the world. Their mandate's counterterrorism. What's counter terrorism to you, Mr. Rolf? Fighting some Islamic fundamentalist group that threatens a dirty bomb in New York or propping governments that serve the interests of the one percent? Rainbow's existence is both the biggest travesty and greatest threat to our civil liberties, an indication of world governments increasingly hoarding power for themselves... They are MACV-SOG, the Cairo Gang, Gestapo... "
Clark walked away, not wanting to listen to the speech, a pained expression on his face. He could take this travesty of Rainbow being accused of thugs when many of them have died protecting the world.
Home violated...
The sniper on duty recognized the shady, hooded man in his sights. He had not showed up at the House for the past few weeks. What's he doing in a protest march? Then the guy looks up and for a moment, it seemed they were looking eye to eye. The sniper was chilled when he saw those hollowed, determined eyes.
"OUR SERVERS ARE DOWN!" screamed the female tech. "The virus is talking digging into our data banks!"
"Shut it down, NOW!"
"GET DOWN!" A Rainbow threw himself against his colleague, shielding him from the incoming RPG.
An explosion at Hereford rends the barracks asunder. Then bombings happen all over the world. A viral video opens. "We are the White Masks. You answer to us."
A declaration of war...
Shocking videos of a French banker circulate the Net as he died brutally in the hands of Nigerian terrorists. Everywhere the world is in a state of siege as the line between terror and counter-terror draws thin.
"It's time for a new balance of power."
Darkest hour...
All over the world Rainbows and their allies struggled to combat the White Masks and their own allies. Every time they succeed, three incidents happen at once, one successful terror strike, one suppressed by Rainbow and an elusive enemies continues to frustrate them.
"When can this stop?" asked a tired female Rainbow, who just a while ago held a burned, dying child. She was close to tears.
"Honestly, I don't know," was the answer from a colleague, huddled dejectedly in the briefing room. The world seemed hopeless to them as they tried to take on the White Masks and Patriots, lead by their former brothers and sisters.
Rainbow Six: Rising Tide- coming soon.
A/N: Trivia: MACV-SOG stands for Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group, a top-secret task force consisting of America's special forces units that fought in the Vietnam War, conducting unconventional warfare from 24 January 1964 – 1 May 1972; the Cairo Gang was a group of MI-5 officers who were assembled as a hit squad against Irish republicans during the Irish War of Independence, before they can conduct their work, they were assassinated first the Twelve Apostles, their opposite number under IRA commander Michael Collins.
