The flight over to Germany was quiet and peaceful and I was so grateful for that. Getting to actually sleep for most of the 13 hours was a blessing. I only started to wake up during the final approach when my ears started to pop. I was able to climb out of the hammock and get seat belted into a seat before the tires touched down at Ramstein.

As we drove around base for a few minutes looking for our parking spot, I took the time to wake the few members of my team who were still asleep. Just as everyone was starting to wake up, I walked over to Major Collins and saw her starting to wake up herself. Just as she saw me coming up to her, she held out a file folder and I took it.

"We are going to be here for about an hour while the aircrew unloads everything that is staying here before we have another two hours on this plane to Grafenwöhr and the Bavaria Garrison. Alpha team is already there training for Black Spear and we are going to join them. Have you ever been stationed at the Bavaria Garrison?" Major Collins said as the hatch opened up on the back of the plane.

"A few times throughout the years, mostly joint trainings with our international counterparts." I said and watched as the aircrew came into the belly of the plane to start off load equipment.

"It's a nice base, happy we will be stationed there for the time being. The folder has your room assignments. Your team is in a private barrack not far from Alpha team. Command thought it would be good for us to start to blend our teams a bit before we head out. There are some maps in there for those not familiar with the base."

"I'll pass them out accordingly ma'am, thank you." I said and took the folder over to my seat.

It didn't take long for the aircrew to offload everything and before I knew it, we were back in the air again. This flight was about an hour and a half and by the time we landed I was so ready to get off this plane. Just as the hatch opened Major Collins came over to me.

"We have an hour before the start of our joint mission brief with Alpha team. Call me if you need anything else in the meantime." Major Collins said.

I only nodded and slid my sunglasses on as I watched as she walk off of the plane. Rob handed me the backpack with my laptop in it before I walked over to the gear stack and started to supervise my team grabbing their gear. I found my duffle and backpack along with my gun cases quickly and stood to the side. Once I had everything in hand I made my way off of the plane and found Morgan waiting for us.

"It's been a while since I've been on a base this nice, mind showing me around?" She asked and gripped onto the gun case tightly.

"Sure thing, maybe tomorrow though as we have the briefing in an hour and I want to get everyone settled in." I said and turned to watch my team slowly assemble off the plane in front of me.

"Listen up team, our combat gear will be brought over to our barracks for us, for now, we are going to head over to the bunks. Lets move Gold Team." I said and moved to find the transport truck that is going to be driving us over. It took a minute to get everyone and there bags onto the truck, but once we were in, I was able to pull out of the folder Major Collins gave me. Reviewing it was really simple, girls and guys bunks. I just put the folder back in my backpack and watched as the base rolled by.

When we arrived at the special ops wing, the truck driver stopped and opened the hatch for us. Together we worked as a team to get everyone's stuff off the truck and we walked in line to the building. I punched the code into the door and everyone filed inside. It didn't take long to find the doors with our team name on it. I punched the code in and pushed the door open with my foot to find we have a kitchen area with a large table and a white board up on the wall before there are a few doors towards the back of the room.

"Room assignments are really simple, men and women. Morgan you will be bunking with us. Guys, Rob is in charge of your room, if you need something go to him and he'll either help you work it out or come find me. Your passcode for the door is 759312, memorize it. We have 45 minutes before we need to go over to the briefing room for our mission brief with Alpha team, use that time wisely. I'm going to leave base maps on the table for those who need them." I said and turned to our door.

I punched in our passcode for the door and kicked the door open to relieve twin sized beds lined up against the wall. Each bed has a cubby attached to the headboard for storage and a trunk at the foot of the bed and I couldn't help but smile. This is definitely some of the nicer barracks I've stayed at.

"This is awesome." Monica said as she pushed past me to claim a bed for herself. I let the rest of the team inside the room while I took the bed closest to the door for myself. I put my gun cases down on the bed to free up my hands and started to pull my gear off of me. I'll go through all of it later when I have time but for now all I want to do is eat something before this meeting.

"Base rules, sidearms are allowed to be carried, all rifles are to be kept in cases or caged unless being used for training. I'm going to the mess hall now because I need to eat something then I'm going straight to the meeting room. I'll write the room number on the white board. Am I understood?" I asked the room.

"Yes Ma'am" Was yelled back at me while I took my pistol out of the case and loaded it before wrapping my hostler around my thigh and sliding the familiar weight into it.

With backpack slung over my shoulders, I went into the common room and wrote out some of the important information the team would need before grabbing a map and left our room. The mess hall wasn't far from the meeting room so I actually got to enjoy my food instead of just throwing it down my throat. Just as I was leaving the mess, a good amount of my team was walking in to grab a few small things to munch on.

I left them to there own devises and made my way to the meeting room, wanting to get there early. But of course, when I walked inside, Major Collins was already inside with a few other Majors involved on this operation. I quickly just found my seat at almost the head of the table and sat down. Just as I started to pull my notebook from my backpack Alpha One himself walked into the room. I stood from my seat and held out my hand for him. Ryan took it and gave it a firm shake before he took his seat across from me, pulling out his own notes for this meeting.

"Glad to see you back Eagle." Ryan said after a minute and I couldn't help but smile at the codename.

"Glad to be back in the saddle Alpha One." I answered.

Not long after Ryan took his seat, the rest of his team came into the room and took there seats next to him. Just as the clock hit an hour since we touched down, the door to the meeting room flew open and my team rushed inside. I glared at all of them as they took their assigned seats and got settled. They were all going to be paying for there lateness during training.

Once everyone quieted down, Major William Roman started to speak. He is leading this operation and has been coordinating everything between Major Collins and all of the intelligence personal who put together the target package.

"Glad to see Gold Team landed in one piece and arrived on time. We are going to be going into detail on preparation for this operation. Alpha is going to to lead with Gold team coming in to assist in the ground fight we are expecting. Our HVT for this mission Abu Ilbrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, he is currently the leader of the Islamic State group and played a part in ordering the bombing of the Kabul International Airport which killed eleven Marines, one Army Special Forces Solider and a Navy Corpsman." Major Roman took a pause before he started speaking again.

"Al-Qurayshi's home is located in the rebel-held northwestern corner of Syria. We are expecting heavy resistance from them which is why Gold team is assisting because one team won't be enough to win in a firefight in this area. Al-Qurayshi is known to never leave his home, which is on the third floor of his apartment building. He currently lives there with his wife and small children; we believe there are three but are uncertain of the number because they do not leave the house.

"The two teams will arrive via helicopter and drop into this field which is about a mile away were they will continue on foot to the house. Mission objective is to capture or kill. Intelligence would love to have the opportunity to interrogate him but if he isn't going to go willingly, we have the green light for this to be a kill mission. Once the mission is complete, try to capture any and all electronic devices, black bag them and bring them back to base. Your exfill will be in the same field by helicopter.

"Master Sergeant Strome and Staff Sergeant Donovan will train their teams individually and work together as one team to work through what they believe would be the best strategy to complete the mission objective. Right now we have a little bit of a cushion in time to prepare for the mission. Green light for this operation to go is three weeks. It should be plenty of time to get everyone on the same page with a workable plan." Major Roman concluded.

"Questions?" Major Collins asked speaking up for the first time.

"I thought we only had two weeks to prepare before we would have a green light?" I asked remembering my first meeting with Major Collins in her office.

"We thought the extra week training on the ground together would be more beneficial then just two. We are also using this extra week to really put together a time line for the HVTs movements." Major Collins said.

"How big of a firefight are we expecting?" Ryan asked.

"Anywhere from 50 to 150 armed combatants, it could be less, it could be more." Major Collins said.

"The latest ISR flights have tried to narrow that number down but it looks like it could be closer to 200." Morgan spoke up from the back of the room.

"Sounds like this guy has a whole army protecting him." I said and was already running through difference drills I could run my team through to prepare for an all-out assault.

"And higher ups didn't believe we needed Bravo Team to be brought in on this mission?" Ryan said from across from me, our minds already thinking alike.

"Not at this time no. The target package is for a night assault so with the cover of darkness and suppressors, two spec ops teams should have the capability to get the job done. When this operation goes live, you will be wearing cameras that are going to be streamed into the situation room at the White House." Major Roman stated.

Ryan and I looked at each other once to know we have our work cut out for us. Now that we know the president will be watching, we have to preform at the top of our game with little to no room for errors. After a brief moment to breath, Major Roman brought over a 3D model of what is believed to be al- Qurayshi's home. We took some time to go over the model and floors of the home. All intel points that the HVT will be on the top floor so Alpha team will have to move quickly into the home and up the stairs to reach him. But then Monica brought up her concerns for the HVT to click off an S-Vest in close quarters. The structure will be brought down on all our heads if that happens.

The meeting stalled over that fact for a while as Morgan brought up prior intel that former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi blew himself up when he realized the US military was closing in. Monica and a member of Ryan's team were going to take a few days to try and think of something from a long range that can detect an S-Vest and we will go from there.

It didn't take much longer after the discussion of the explosive vests for the meeting to conclude. For now, we were going to be left to train and get up to speed with Alpha team and what they have been doing. We were all dismissed with the promise of having another meeting in a weeks time with team leaders only to go over any new intel and make sure everything is still on course.

Before my team started to gather there stuff I got there attention to let them know we are going to be having a team meeting at 20:00 hours tonight and then I dismissed them to whatever they wanted to do. After collecting my notes I stood from my seat and was able to catch up with Ryan as he was leaving the briefing room. We agreed to grab dinner together at the mess hall at 18:00 hours tonight so I can pick his brain about how he has been training with his team so far.

When we went our separate ways I returned to our bunks to find Major Collins waiting for me in front of the door.

"I just want to show you to your gear room so you guys can start to unload your weapons there." She said and I nodded and just followed along her. Our gear room was only down the hall from our bunks so it was a short walk. Major Collins gave me the passcode to open the door and we walked inside. The room was small, almost like a locker room for a team. There are twelve spots along the wall with our gear crates in the middle of the room.

"When you answer this question, I want you to speak freely. What are your thoughts on the current mission plans?" Major Collins said and took a seat at one of the lockers.

"That this is going to be a toss up, either the plan is going to work or the mission will be FUBAR once we hit the deck. I definitely won't say no to another team joining just to have the gun support if we are going go be going up against all of those hostiles. We are going to have to be quiet, deadly and invisible." I said and sighed before taking a seat across from her.

"If I join you on the ground, would you be okay with that?" Major Collins asked.

"Are you volunteering to join this shit show?" I asked and looked at her sidewise.

"You said it yourself, you need another gunner. I would just be pacing back and forth in command watching from a screen while Major Roman runs the op. I have a lot better uses in the field then on the sidelines." Major Collins said.

"Annabelle, no bullshit, if you are going to be joining the team to come on the mission, then you need to train with us and be 100% committed. This mission isn't something you can half ass. The last week of training here before we leave for the mission I already want the team to change there sleep pattern so we can be awake all night to train. If you want in, you need to be able to commit to training with us." I said laying everything on the line for her.

"I'm going to try and press for another team to join you, if I can't make anything happen in the next 24 hours I'll join you on the ground." Major Collins said.

"Okay" I said took a breath before leaning back into the locker.

"Go get settled in, you're going to have your work cut out for you." Major Collins said.

"Oh trust me I know. Before you go, are we allowed off base?" I asked wondering as it wasn't written anywhere.

"You, Owens and Rath are allowed off base, but only for supply shopping, as much as you guys want to get out there and travel around we can't afford it with this mission. Maybe after we get back from the op we can talk more about it." Major Collins said and got up from her seat.

"Understood." I said and stood with Major Collins and together we left the gear room. I made my way down the hall to our bunks and let myself inside.

When I got inside I took a seat at the table and pulled out my phone. It's just after 15:00 hours here and with a quick check at the world clock I have on my phone I dialed my mom's phone number. It took a few seconds for the call to connect but once it did, it rang three times before she picked up the phone.

"Hello?" She asked, sounding mostly asleep still.

"Hi mom" I said and tried to push away the tears that started to form in my eyes just from hearing her voice.

"Oh, hi chicken, it's so good to hear from you. I guess you are getting settled in Germany now?" Mom asked sounding more awake now.

"Yea, I'm finally back in our barracks for the mission after a long morning of meetings. I'm going to unpack in a little bit and then have dinner with a teammate who I'll be working with." I said.

"That's good chicken, I'm glad to hear you are safe for the time being. Hold on, Peyton's here, she wants to say hi quickly before you have to go." Mom said and I heard some shuffling as the phone got past.

"Dani?" Peyton's voice rang through the phone.

"Hi mom." I said and smiled.

"There's my girl, I hope your barracks are nice and clean. When you get a chance you can send us over the address for your new home and we can send you anything you need." Peyton rattled off quickly.

"I will, I'll give you a call when I have the info, if I miss you guys because of the time difference I'll leave a voicemail. Can you send a text to Dom and Mallory telling them that we got here okay?" I asked.

"Sure thing. Let us know if you need us to do anything else." Mom said as I'm guessing Peyton put the call on speaker.

Before I could response the door to our barracks opened and in walked Corporal Dexter Herrera, Specialist Akito Tanaka and Private First-Class Cosima Taylor. I knew I needed to wrap up this phone call.

"I will, I got to go now though, I love you both, talk soon." I said and hung up before I could hear there response.

"Someone special boss?" Dexter asked as he walked into the room on his way towards the men's bunk room.

"I'll never tell." I said and got up from the table and took my notes with me into the women's bunk room.

a/n: here are the mission plans for operation Black Spear. next two chapters you get to see more of Dani being a leader to her team and a little bit more of who her team is. then we get some training and a few stolen moments between Morgan and Dani. Chapter 23 is the mission.

fair warning now, I just went on a job interview friday and I think I'll be getting the job. on the flip side, this job is going to be a lot more time consuming. updates might get knocked off course again. I'll let you guys know some more details when I eventually find out if they are going to offer me the position, so stay tuned.