To those that read my other story, The Third Army, I haven't abandoned you. I just got my computer back and this is what got done first. Another chapter for that one will be out soon.

WARNING: to the readers of this one, this story will not be light and happy, it will be sad, depressing, and may even make a few people cry.

I dedicate this story to my girlfriend. If you're reading this, I love you. You have no clue what I will do for you. All you have to do is ask. If you ask of it, Dante will look broken against me, Hercules weak, and Ulysses daft.

(insert unneeded disclaimer here.)


"What happened to Mommy and Daddy?" asked a sweet little girl while she looked up at her aunt.

The older woman stood over her five year old niece while her husband stood next to her with his arm wrapped around her. She looked over at him and he nodded, "They were great warriors, very great indeed."

The woman's eyes seemed to have glazed over as she stroked a scar on her wrist.

The mission was simple. A small team of Special Forces operators would be flown from the Spine to the city of Ceunon and destroy the imperial supply caches, thereby disrupting Galbatorix's campaign against Du Weldenvarden. From Ceunon, they would fly to Gil'ead and free imprisoned Varden soldiers as well as collect Intel on the Empire's troop movements. All was going according to plan, the SF operators and pilots reached the launch point without incident. Take off went on without a hitch. It wasn't until they were air born when everything went to hell.

The Black Hawk helicopter was outbound did movement catch the pilot's eye. What she saw scared her shitless. Imperial soldiers were appearing from hidden foxholes and uncovering disguised gun emplacements. They knew they were coming. Saphira throttled the helicopter as fast as it would go as the lead started flying.

"This is Blue Dragon 1, we have been compromised, I repeat, we have been compromised. Any Varden in the area please respond, we need immediate back-up and exhilaration."

Bullets were snapping around the helicopter while RPG's streaked past. The Black Hawk became increasingly more difficult to maneuver as bullets made contact. Five 7.62x39 mm rounds punched though the tail of the aircraft. Shit! This is not good! Thought Saphira as she felt the vibrations in the pedals increase.

"Arya," she yelled over the shine of the engine and screaming of rockets and bullets "get someone on the minigun and have everyone return fire! We need to get the hell out of here!"

Arya nodded as she commanded, "Hardwick, Hart, get on the miniguns! Everyone else, fire out the nearest hatch! Let's kill these sons of bitches!"

The soldiers stood and returned fire. Arya's men fought valiantly, but there were too many soldiers. For every one soldier dropped, two would take his place. A lucky shot hit Pfc. Hart in the lower gut effectively, taking him out of action. As Hart fell back, Arya shouldered her weapon and mounted the previously abandoned machine gun. As she resumed her barrage of hot lead, one of the flight of three went up in flames, a victim of a direct hit from an RPG. Two helicopters were left.

Saphira maneuvered the Black Hawk as best she could without throwing the soldiers from the interior. She weaved and dodged in and out of anti-aircraft fire as her co-pilot radioed for help. She quickly looked over at her Firnen to see if he got a response. He looked over at her and shook his head to tell him he had to such luck raising anyone on the radio. Saphira turned backing time to see the second bird in her flight to go down. Its tail was shorn clean off from one of the anti-aircraft batteries battering that section of the helicopter with .50 caliber ammunition. The damaged Black Hawk spiraled into the forest and smashed into a large tree and going up into a magnificent ball of flames.

They were almost in the clear when Saphira heard Arya cry out in pain as she was hit by automatic fire. Saphira looked over her shoulder to see if she was alright when Firnen yelled, "RPG!"

The rocket streaked through the air and made contact with the tail rotor and blew it clean off.

Saphira's hand flew to her headset and radioed, "This is Blue Dragon 1, we are hit and we are going down, I repeat we are going down."

The helicopter started to spiral as it lost altitude. Soldiers were screaming as they held on for dear life. Saphira saw her life flash before her eyes as the Black Hawk hurtled toward the ground. Her last thoughts were of home and her regret for abandoning her closest friend. A solitary tear ran down her cheek as she and everyone else in the chopper braced for impact.

Eragon

Range…95 meters

Wind speed… less than 1 mile per hour.

Breathe in… exhale…hold…hold…hol- WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!

Several explosions bounced off the trees and the mountain sides causing him to jump and nearly fall out of his blind. The sudden commotion of the explosions and the movement Eragon created spooked the deer causing it to run off. Eragon barley recovered in time to see a Black Hawk helicopter come crashing into the clearing and kick up dirt and splinter wood off trees. The helicopter continued to slide forwards towards Eragon's blind.

Eragon jumped out and dove out of the way before the Black Hawk slammed into the blind. He stood up and grabbed his rifle. He brought the weapon to ready and flicked the safety off upon seeing movement as he approached the cockpit. He rounded the side and brought the weapon to bear and saw his old friend, Saphira.


This was partially inspired by the "I miss you daddy" video, if you haven't seen it, watch it. This video made me cry and I'm the kind of guy that will look you in the eye as I kill you and your family.

Please review so I know what you guys think and so I can do a better job with future chapters.