Soap still looked awful lying on the table. His chest had been bandaged, but the wound in his chest was still seeping blood. The doctor on-site was carefully hooking a needle under his skin and pulling the thread tight.

"He's still bleeding bad," the doctor said. "And his vitals are dropping."

Jessica tucked a blanket around Soap's waist. "This should keep his body temp up. Is he going to need a transfusion?"

Price looked out the window at the helicopters approaching. "Even if he is, I doubt we have anything to transfuse him with."

"I read you can use coconut water."

The doctor rose an amused expression to her. "Do you really want to fight your way outside to get me enough coconuts to do a transfusion?" he asked. She shook her head and he chuckled. "He hasn't lost that much blood yet; as long as we keep him from going into shock and get this wound closed, he should be fine until he can transport him elsewhere."

A voice over the com startled them all. "Russian attach choppers coming over the ridge!" called one of the Loyalists.

"How many of them?!" called back another.

"Three Havocs and four... No, five Mi-17s! Commandos are fast-roping down!"

Jessica's eyes widened. "Shit!" She turned back to the doctor. "Doc, what do you need from me so we can get him out of here?"

"We won't be getting out of here without a fight," said Price. "Ready your weapon and pray Nikolai's man gets here soon so we can clear a path to the evac."

Nikolai was standing out in the hall, calling down the stars to someone coming in the back door. "Yuri!" he called. "Yuri, over here!"

Jessica released the bolt on her MP5 and looked toward the door. She locked eyes with the pale blue gaze of Nikolai's man, whose arms were covered in thick, black tattoos, possibly prison tats.

Yuri Alexyev.

They stared at each other for a long moment as they recognized one another. Yuri only peeled his gaze off her when Price grabbed his arm, explaining that they needed to get Soap out of there. He looked down at the wounded man on the table, then at the shuttered windows at the sound of low whipping.

"What is that?" asked Nikolai.

Jessica braced as the wall burst open, a Havoc burrowing in through the sheetrock and sending metal and debris across the room. The force sent them all falling against the floor, the doctor just able to throw himself over Soap to save him from being hit by anything.

Price propped himself up with a groan. "Is everyone all right?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Jess, flinching when the helicopter moaned and yowled, sliding off the roof to the ground below, revealing Mi-17s dropping troops into the courtyard.

Nikolai grabbed Yuri's shoulder. "Do whatever this man says!" he said above the commotion, pointing at Price who was looking down at the enemy troops.

"Yuri," Price commanded. "Take a position on the balcony! We need to buy the doctor some time! Keep your eyes on the courtyard."

Jessica came up to the hole in the wall and fired down on the advancing Russians. They blew open the gates and poured in, engaging the Loyalists on the ground. She leveled a few tangos, but it wasn't long before they popped smoke to conceal their advancement. Jess gritted her teeth and continued to look for movement through the smoke. "They're popping smoke, pull back if you don't want to get caught in the crossfire," she said into the com. The Loyalists started to back up and she pulled the pin on a grenade, launching it into the thick, pale grey smoke. There was a flash accompanied by screams of a hand full of men who were caught in the blast.

Above the courtyard, another Havoc hovered, its guns aimed directly at the house. A round of fire came in through the hole and Jessica looked back to see that one of the rounds went through the doctor's head.

Nikolai scrambled to grab the fallen man but dropped him when he saw that his face was mostly gone. "The doctor's down!" he cried. "Yuri, we need your help! Get over here!" Yuri darted over to him and Nikolai handed him a syringe full of adrenaline. "Give him the shot, I'm going to keep pressure on his wound!"

Jess flinched seeing him jam the needle into Soap's chest and she looked away at the door, where a man kicked it in. She bristled, raising her weapon only to lower it when Price jumped into action, grabbing the man by his throat, pushing him against the wall, and firing a shot from his pistol between his eyes.

"They're on the roof," said Price. "Hurry, we have to get Soap to that chopper!"

Nikolai nodded. "Go! I've got him!"

Price nodded. "Yuri, Lone, on me; we've got to get down those stairs into the courtyard!" he commanded.

"On it!" Jessica charged out the door and took aim down the hall at a pair of Ultranationalist soldiers standing there. When they hit the floor, a third rounded the corner from another hall and Yuri folded him with a shot from over her shoulder.

"Damn," said Yuri. "You're a good shot!"

"Thanks!" she replied. "You're pretty good with an AK, yourself. I'm impressed."

Yuri cocked a brow at her as they descended the stairs. "Da?"

"Yeah. 'Cause AKs are garbage." She sent him a jeering smile and he narrowed his eyes with a grin of his own.

"Da, but at least it's easy to fix and add attachments. Can't say the same with your MP5 there," he retorted. He shifted his focus to the fight as they arrived in the courtyard, racing ahead of her to get up against the walls away from the open. "This way!" he called.

She came up beside him and fired at another swarm of tangos, felling them in a heap before the gate. Jessica reloaded her weapon and looked to Price.

The Captain was looking skyward, head lowered. "Russian drone overhead," he said. "We're gonna need some heavier firepower!"

Nikolai tapped into the com from where he stood with Soap at the door of the house. "There's a weapon cache at the edge of the town! We have a  stored there."

"Then we'll use that to get to the chopper." Price rammed the gate open with his foot and took off down the street. "Let's move!"

They made it to the town square, where enemy soldiers were shooting civilians as they ran to safety. Jessica contained a snarl of rage and shot down one man standing on the street corner, her eyes darting around at the movement of fleeing women and children.

Yuri battered one soldier with the butt of his rifle. "Keep going, we can't waste any time!"

She nodded and pushed through the crowd, firing on Ultranationalists until the team came to a build with a gate blocking the path. Jess looked back over her shoulder at Nikolai.

"The weapons are in that building directly ahead!" he said.

Price and Yuri ducked under a hail of gunfire coming through the gate. "There's too many of them between us and the chopper," said the Captain. "Nik, we need that UGV now!"

"You're almost there!" he insisted. "Go through the building!"

Yuri opened the door and checked his corners. "We're clear!" he called. "This way!"

They wove through the house and out the back door. Price looked left and there was another door. "Hold up, this is it," he said.

Nikolai tapped the com. "The UGV is in a shipping crate under the floor."

Price opened the door and found a hatch in the floor. As he lifted it, there were stairs leading down to a cellar. "I see it," he said, motioning Jess and Yuri down with him. He found a crowbar resting on a shelf against the wall nearby and pried open the crate. "Unmanned ground vehicle. 2 centimeter armor plating, mounted mini-gun, and grenade launcher," he mused, examining the machine. "Controls are going to be in Russian. Yuri, you're up." As Yuri took control from the computer, Price tapped the com. "Nikolai, what's Soap's condition?"

"Not great. We need to get him out of here!"

He nodded. "Yuri, we need you to clear a path to the chopper; we'll be right behind you!"

Yuri gave him the okay, and as Price opened the cellar door, Yuri controlled the UGV into the open, destroying man and blockade alike in his path. The little armored vehicle rolled through the road seemingly unbothered by the gunfire rapping against it.

Jessica and Price followed it, keeping a slow enough pace for Nikolai to keep up. "Do you need me to carry him?" asked Jessica.

Nik shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Just don't let me get shot, da?"

They continued to follow the UGV until there was a group of helicopters circling overhead. "Dammit," she rattled. "They're right over our evac!"

Price hugged his rifle close. "Yuri's gonna take them out, just stay out of their line of fire until he clears them out, then we can move."

Just as he'd said, Yuri gunned down the helicopters with surprising ease, and soon, they were racing onto the helicopter. "We're loading up Soap now!" said Nikolai into the com. "He's not looking good..."

Jessica grabbed Nikolai and pushed him into the helicopter and dove inside. "Drone!" she bellowed. As they all braced for the impact, it hit the UGV, turning it to crumpled metal like a crushed beer can. She looked out and up the hill to where the cellar was. "Yuri, she called. "Get out of there, run to the helicopter, and don't get hit by that drone!"

"On my way!" he replied.

A streak of fire came down, felling a tree in front of Yuri and he deftly leaped over it. His legs looked like they might break with how fast he was running. He took a sharp turn onto a rooftop to get away from the drone's fire, but one more strike landed on the roof under him and he fell through, sliding down the hill.

"No!" Jessica stood to bail out of the chopper after him but Nikolai and Price both caught her.

"Sit down," commanded Nikolai. "I'm flying us out of here, we'll see if we can pick him up down by the river."

They lifted off and passed over the river in time to see Yuri disappear under the churning, black current. Jessica's eyes searched for him, occasionally managing to see his head break the surface, and finally, he found his way to the river's edge. "There!" she said. "I see him; he made it!"

Price grinned mildly. "Good, we'll need him. We're going after Makarov."

From the back, where he lay propped up against Price's shoulder, Soap opened his eyes. "Who the bloody hell's Yuri..?"