"YOU'RE DEFINITELY not what I was expecting."

Ellie turns to the Scottish Sergeant who sits across the aisle from her. He has a mischievous grin on his face. His blue eyes are lit up in amusement. He reminds Ellie of a golden retriever puppy.

"Cap'n Price said we were getting an Ellison Miller. Me n' the boys thought you'd be taller. And a man. But, there you are. Short and cute. And American." He smirks and Ellie can't help but mirror his expression. "Price also says you've got a nice record. Don't look like a killer to me."

"I guess that's worked in my favor," she replies. "Also, Ellison was my mother's maiden name. I go by Ellie."

He beams as he says, "Ellie, you need a callsign. I'm Soap."

Her eyebrow raises as she questions the unique name. "Why Soap?"

"Cause I clean house," Soap answers with a wink. He's proud of that one. 

"Well, you come up with my callsign, Soap. I'm Shadow 0-2 with the Shadow Company, so that's all I've got."

"You're not with the Shadows anymore." The rough statement comes from the previously silent figure beside her, dark eyes boring into hers from behind his skull mask. "You're with the 141. We all have callsigns. Ellie's too civilian and Shadow 0-2 is too long and no longer applicable."

Ellie shifts in her seat, trying to keep her knee from touching his to no avail. He's got his legs spread and the helicopter they're on jostles them around a good bit. She crosses her arms over her chest in defiance. "Well, I technically still work with the Shadows. Phillip is my Commander."

"You're now under the command of Captain Price. Considering your promotion, I know you haven't had the chance to meet him yet," he challenges, voice sharp at the word promotion. "Besides, you call all your superiors by their first names?"

Her jaw sets before she decides to speak, choosing her words carefully before replying to the piece of work sitting before her. "Phillip was my friend before he was my boss."

He grunts softly, shaking his head at her. "I don't want you getting in my way tonight. You listen to me and Sergeant MacTavish. If I can't work with you, I'll send you back to Phillip."

His voice is biting. She hasn't even known the man for fifteen minutes and is already on his bad side. Just by existing. At least Soap is good company. In the red light of the interior of the helicopter, Ghost's eyes are obsidian. They're locked on her. She wants to hold his gaze but the heat radiating from his obvious dislike of her makes her chest feel tight.

"Bravo team offloads here," Ghost booms as he announces all the soldiers, not wavering his glare on Ellie as he stands. "Alpha team stays onboard to land downrange." He looks away and walks through the aisle of the soldiers, everyone lowering their night vision glasses. She does the same. "Both teams meet in the middle. Remember, we want Hassan alive, but this is capture or kill."

Ghost makes the orders, Ellie's eyes locked on his form as he stops at the front of the chopper, her not even having realized that they landed. Soap nods at her with a knowing smile and she stands. Ghost is waiting for them at the ramp. 

He glances her way once before looking to the Sergeant. "Keep up, Soap," is all he says. 

The gun is heavy in her hands as they sweep through the house, having already dealt with a downed helicopter, critical condition teammates, and lots of gunfire. Buildings one and two were cleared quickly.

Ellie has her gun raised as a body falls to the floor from behind a corner, ready to shoot when she realizes it has a knife sticking from the neck. Ghost appears from around the wall and yanks the knife out. She lowers the gun and almost shivers from the icy glare. Soap is behind her as another soldier leads them up the staircase. Arabic can be heard from the upstairs of the house. 

Al-Qatala is fighting to the death to defend and protect Hassan, it seems. Which she was expecting. She was on a call with Laswell, who filled her in. Ellie is prepared for a fight. However, she was not prepared for the Lieutenant to be so... well, there isn't a word for it.

The sudden bullets mowing down the soldier in front of them pull her from the thoughts of the skull mask, Soap going in and downing the assailant. Ellie goes to the downed soldier who backed away from the scene. She tries to help him but he waves her off. 

"There's one in that hallway," he groans.

She turns and raises her gun, crouching past the window of the house before rounding the corner. Ellie squeezes the trigger and eliminates the threat with just a few bullets. 

Reaching for the radio, she says, "Ghost, enemy rocket's down."

"Solid copy. Good work."

The pleasant reply makes her want to smile and it scares her. She doesn't know why she finds herself suddenly craving his approval. Soap appears beside her and motions his head down the hall. There's a tape playing of what sounds like Hassan repeatedly. He is talking about how the West will pay for their hostile acts. How they, together, will avenge the death of General Ghorbrani.

Soap starts down the corridor, Ellie close behind him. He holds a hand up as they stop behind the door. He nudges the door open and fires. Ellie quickly sweeps in behind him and sees two dead bodies, one male and one female. The gun beside the lady lets her know that she was the one who fired. 

The desperation proves that the rest of the night will be a fight. 

The soldier beside her falls to the ground, a gaping bullet hole in his head. His body lands in the grass with a thud and Ellie gasps as she lays low. After clearing two buildings and fighting at the helicopter crash site where five men were KIA, they're on their final building of the night. So far, no places have turned up Hassan so this is their last bet. Building three — and they're defending it like they're housing the Holy Grail.

They aren't holding back, just like she predicted. Between missiles, assault rifles, and snipers, no one from Al-Qatala has lacked the fight in them to protect their so-called hero. 

Soap shoots the sniper from on top of the building. "Who's hit?!" Ghost calls out.

Ellie sucks in a sharp breath as she replies, "7-5 is down!"

They stand and start moving forward, Soap taking down more rooftop shooters. Apparently, they have night vision. It makes this team sitting ducks in open water. More shots and grenades are fired, Ghost having the team move up as Soap covers. Ellie's forehead and back are covered in sweat. Sure, it's hot but the adrenaline inside her is making her body work overtime. 

She didn't realize when she pushed to go to Al-Mazrah, just how right Phillip Graves would be. She knows he's gonna rub it in when she gets back. 

"AQ's dug in here!" Soap says over the radio. "Whatever they're defending it's big!"

Air support has to be called in as they move in. Ellie is taking out as many as she can but she cannot deny the relief when she sees air support drop in. Ghost ordered them not to level the building but it's crumbling, for sure. 

When they move in, there's smoke in the air and muffled gunfire ringing out. Ellie goes around and runs into two hostiles. One was simple to take down, but the other decided a grenade would be fun to throw. She swaps from her pistol to the assault rifle, bullets tearing through bodies the closer they move in. Based on what she's hearing from the radio, there's no sign of Hassan.

It's a repeat scene for Ellie. Soap, her, Ghost, and another soldier are pushing up to the second floor of the building. The sound of Hassan's tape is playing again. At this point, she might be able to recite it. They come up to the second level and pause their walking at Ghost's raised hand.

Footsteps are growing closer from behind a door and she readies herself, watching intently as Ghost braces his feet down in front of where the sound is coming from. The door opens to reveal an enemy soldier carrying quite a large gun.

With zero hesitation, Ghost pushes him against the wall and unholsters his pistol. Swift movements come next, brute force behind Ghost as he holds the man in place and places two bullets in his body: one in the abdomen and one in the neck. Two shots and it's over. The body falls at Ghost's feet and he walks over it and toward the direction the man came from. 

Inside the room are two of Hassan's puppets. Ellie takes one down as Soap does the other. They also have their laptops running the infamous video.

"Hassan's everywhere," Ghost states.

"Everywhere but here," Soap replies.

After clearing the decimated building, Ellie meets back up with Soap and Ghost in a bedroom. Hassan's uniform is draped over the back of a desk chair. Soap points at it with a shake of his head.

"So, Hassan was here," he states, disappointment laced in his voice. 

Ghost nods once. "Lost him when we secured the crash site."

Ellie looks from him and Soap, asking, "Are you saying we shouldn't have helped."

The Lieutenant turns to her, voice uninterested. "Choices have consequences."

Her eyes narrow, her mouth opening to reply something smart, but the radio cuts her off. 

"Alpha, we got movement out here."

He orders them out and to circle up as they make their way to whatever movement has been spotted. Ellie is perplexed. 

"If Hassan is gone, then what are they still protecting?" she asks.

Ghost looks over his shoulder at her. "Let's find out."

They make their way across the grass to a warehouse about 40 yards from building three. They post up and enter quietly with the intent to clear it. Following the trend, the warehouse has Al-Qatala soldiers housed in it and firing at the squadron without shame. The warehouse has two levels and has a large cargo container sitting in the middle of it. 

At the all-clear, Ghost's commanding voice comes through the earpiece. "Search it. Let's find what they were hiding."

Ellie walks straight to the cargo container with Soap, him swinging open the slightly ajar doors. They come face to face with command controls and Ellie's eyes widen. It looks just like the missile launchers she's commanded with Phillip Graves and the Shadow Company. 

"What is this?" Soap asks, his hand reaching for a lever. "It's all in English."

"I know this," Ellie says, the boys turning to look at her. "It looks like what Phillip uses when he launches a missile. The control center."

Ghost doesn't say a word and Soap raises the lever, a loud creak and bang sounding as the top of the container opens. 

Ghost looks at Ellie sternly. "Control center for what?" he asks. Once the container is fully opened, he sounds taken aback. "Ballistic missiles."

"It's a mobile launcher," Soap adds. "How did Iran get their hands on this?"

Ellie walks around the launcher and climbs up the side of a few crates to look. At the sight of something familiar etched on the side of the missiles, her eyes widen. 

"Ghost!" she calls out, turning to him with a pale expression. 

"Get us through to Laswell," he orders a soldier as he walks towards her. "What is it?" 

Her hand raises and points to the American flag on the side of the weapon. He stops and she sees the gears turning behind his eyes as he sees what she's pointing at. 

Laswell speaks through the radio. "Ghost, do you have Hassan?"

He grabs his radio and speaks. "Negative. We found a weapons cache. Hassan's got missiles... they're American."