Rifle, check. Side arm, check. Ammo, low. She would have to place a requisition when they got back home.

The rest of the checks were meaningless; supplies, water and other shit she might need. It even included her thermal layers, as if she was ever going to take them off.

Why is it always fucking Siberia, or Antarctica or Alaska? Just once she wanted a beach side mission. Wear a little less and get a tan while she saves lives. Hell, maybe even go to the beach without a mission. Just relax... get some drinks, have some laughs.

Sixteen, seventeen and... Eighteen. Eighteen rounds for Hou Yi, her rifle. That was that, she was packed and ready to leave.

She considered whether she should get her things onto the shuttle now or if she should go find Ade first. "Lara?" Garrison called out.

"Here sir!" She responded, raising a hand. She quickly dropped it back down when she realised the biting cold awaited her outside of the small campfire's even smaller radius. Clumsy thumps heralded Garrison as he shifted his great mass with an appropriate lack of dexterity. His goal wasn't Lara but her fire. He lumbered with embarrassing speed as his eyes locked on the warmth.

"Cold, sir?" Lara teased as she shifted to let him closer to the fire.

"It's my old skin... Much too thin for this kind of climate. Not like you young pups," He complained. The snow rushed away and the dust unsettled as he dropped to the floor.

"More suited for retirement in the Maldives then, sir?" Lara joked. Garrison cackled at the idea. Retirement was a luxury no member of Raptor squad had ever been bestowed, though hope was there that Garrison - at his advanced age - could be the first.

"Did you speak to our new recruit?" Garrison asked.

"Yes, sir. She's about as well as you can expect. We spoke around sundown but I let her get some rest," Lara said.

He looked grimly into the fire and scratched bristled beard. "We have to be careful with her. She is not like us, she still has hope." His smile picked up and Lara could see him trying to think of a joke to cheer up the mood. She took the burden unto herself. "Keep her away from Reese then, that man'll send her suicidal," She joked. Garrison tried to laugh, though it wasn't nearly as gregarious as before.

"That brother of yours truly has developed a talent for misery over the past few years. Not that I blame him, of course. A lesser man wouldn't have made it through half of what he has been put through," He agreed. "She is a brave woman to stand by him."

"Yes... She is," A man responded from behind the two. She didn't need to turn to see who it was. There was only one man who made no sound as he walked.

"Hey, Reese," she said. "We were just talking about you. All bad things of course."

"I'm sure," Reese quipped. "Sir, a message for you." Garrison stood to tower above Reese as he grabbed a tablet from him. He shone a warm smile to him and Reese nodded.

"Are we off?" Lara asked with a mix of dread and hope.

"It would seem we are, Sergeant. Grab ms. Tempish. Reese drag Iris away from whatever poor sap she's wasting our medical supplies on. Meet at Daphi in ten," he ordered.

"Sir!" They both responded as they headed off in their own directions.

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Cold. It was so fucking cold. There were no thoughts going through her mind just a series of expletives and slurs with one or two prayers for the downfall of 'whoever put me in this fucking hellhole in the first place'. Ade, where was she? Not in the medic tents, not by the fire pit or food hall. Where could she be?

"Kid?" Reese's voice rang out from her wrist band.

"Yup?" She responded through gritted teeth.

"You found her yet?" He asked.

"Nope, still looking," She shortly answered. Her tone must have been more aggressive than she had thought by Reese's response.

"Enjoying the cold hey, kid?" He asked through stifled laughter.

"Born for this, sir," She lied.

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He laughed. "Nice and warm here, Daphi's got the heaters on full."

"Respectfully, Lieutenant, go fuck yourself" She responded with the slightest twinge of humour, but mostly annoyance. She shut her comms down and continued her search.

A thought dawned on Lara. The grave. Of course, the child was still in mourning. The loss of a father was a feeling Lara knew well, and yet she had been so far removed that the thought hadn't even been a whisper. She marched onward. It wasn't far - just over the hill.

Her boots crunched atop the quickly freezing mud, her overcoat whipped in the breeze. She had never been so grateful for her mask as it protected her nose and cheeks from the stabbing winds.

"Left side, sergeant!" A man called out from behind her. She nearly slipped on the ice as she shifted aside but managed to hold herself straight. A convoy rumbled past her. Six-wheeled armoured cars, weaponized trucks and even a tank. She nodded to the convoy commander as he carried on towards the city.

"More fighting, officer?" She called out to him.

"Recon found an anti air battery. Our job to soften em' up so special forces can wipe em' out," He responded. Her heart sank. She had hoped they would just set off straight for Elysium but she knew that Raptor was the only special forces unit in the country.

She stomped on. The grave came into view and so did Ade. She seemed so small, so frail. She wasn't crying; she didn't even look in mourning. She was just sat reading a book beneath Lara's blanket.

"Sweetie," Lara whispered as to not startle her. "It's time to go."

Ade looked up from her book but didn't speak. She gently closed the book and stowed it away before rising to her feet.

"You shouldn't be standing yet, Ade," Lara protested as she moved to help stabilise her. Ade again didn't respond. Her eyes lay a mile ahead of her and her face fell blank. She looked to Lara - through Lara - and nodded. "Are you okay?" Lara asked hesitantly yet her question fell to silence yet again. Ade walked on with her eyes to the dirt. "Wrong way, babes," Lara called out. On a heel, Ade span but still no acknowledgment of Lara. "Follow me," Lara said with an awkwardly melodic tone.

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The two walked towards the squad. The minutes of walking felt like hours in the cold and awkward silence. The frost had set in completely by this point and rain sat heavy on the wind. Ade trudged and waded her way through while Lara slipped and stumbled along the same path. She laughed as she slipped onto her knee, not because it was funny but because she wanted to cut some of the tension. Ade continued on, unfazed.

She was surprisingly graceful on the ice, it was apparent that she was in her element in the Russian winter. Lara mourned for what she considered her own element, supposedly being warmth. She had grown up in the Welsh countryside but held no affinity for rain nor love of winds. She would, however, gladly take the misery and grey skies over this hellish cold.

She could hear the ship first. The electrical whirring of the gravity prongs the ship stood on rarely inspired anything from her but annoyance, but now it meant warmth was within earshot - it meant glee. Daphi hovered an inch above the dirt. All four prongs had extended down like the legs of a dog. It may have shared the visage of a chipped old brick and stank like a dusty old factory floor; but it flew like butter and had brilliantly powerful air conditioning - an improvement Lara and Archi had spent weeks installing after the last Siberian campaign.

"Finally!" Reese called out upon spotting the two. Lara ignored him completely. She ran straight past him, budging Garrison to the side and dove into Daphi's warm embrace. Iris had beaten her to the punch and was sat directly in-front of the heating vent with her middle finger raised at Lara in anticipation of her attempting to steal her spot.

"Right. Now that we are all here, we have a mission," Garrison began as he walked up to Daphi's door. "Young Ms. Tempish, it would be expedient if you would accompany us as we go," he said as he turned to Adeladia. She bowed her head and boarded the vessel. Lara shuffled over to Garrison and Reese, though she didn't leave Daphi's warmth. "She hasn't said a word. Are you sure it's wise to bring her in this state?" She asked. Garrison glanced over at Ade. She was engrossed in her book again.

"They are clearing out the area. If we leave her here, she will be shipped off to a refugee camp and Deus knows how long it will take to track her down. I'm Sorry, Sergeant Black, but we have little choice," Garrison explained. Lara nodded and receded back into the ship, taking up her seat directly next to Ade.

"Archi? Let's go!" Reese called out. A stout, Māori man, hopped down from atop the ship with a spanner in hand. He grinned widely looking at Lara shivering in the back.

"Lazza! Kia Ora, took your time bud," he said, much too loudly for the confined cabin. He oafishly stepped over Iris in her seat, apologising with a smile.

"Had to find the VIP. I don't operate too quickly in the snow," she responded.

"Don't operate too quickly in the sun either. Took her three days to bring my tool box from one side of the barracks to the other," Archi joked as he looked at Ade. She humoured him with a smile but quickly dropped it and returned to her book. "Right, yeah. Bad timing for a yak. It'll be alright in the end, cuz. We will take good care of you," he said with a beaming smile.

"Ready up, Archi," Garrison ordered.

"Sir!" He responded as he clambered into the cockpit.

Reese sat himself next to Iris and Garrison sat next to him. Garrison shut the door and banged it twice as if to say 'let's go.'

A seemingly solid hologram of an anti-aircraft cannon appeared on the floor between Reese and Lara. "Our target is the forward artillery battery three clicks east. We can't bring in civilian transports until the guns are taken out. We hit them fast, we hit them hard, and we move on," Garrison ordered.

"Sir?" Lara voiced.

"Black?" Garrison asked.

"There is a tank crew in bound to the battery. Would it not be better to just let them take it out while we get Ade back to the towers?" She asked.

"The convoy was intercepted and destroyed en route," Garrison responded in a matter-of-fact tone. "They were supposed to soften them up, but alas we will have to do this ourselves," he continued.

"Orders, sir?" Reese asked.

"Hot drop and roll. Iris will maintain our camo systems, i'm on turrets and you two will dive hot. Disable close defence systems so Archi can strafe the main gun."

"Sir!" Reese, Lara and Iris all said in unison.