Hey, restarting this story, sorry for frustration. The old version had some issues with it.
Thanks to Blackberry Avar for helping me become a better writer.
First Contact
"So let me get this straight: They want us to infiltrate a structure we know nothing about, located in the middle of who knows where, neutralize any contact we come across, whoever that may be, and extract an object... weapon... whatever shit it is they want."
Jonathan King, USMC Staff Sergeant, standing at around 6 foot 2 has experienced many messed up situations, scenes, Missions, etc... but usually they were given a little bit more information then what was offered on this op.
King was part of a 5 man MARSOC (Marine Corps Special Operations Command) fire team. 1st Battalion, 1st Platoon, Alpha section, 2nd Squad. Nicknamed fire team Zulu for short.
The others operators in the team include Sergeant Andrew Starks. Starks, being the newest member of the team, was still in the traditional process of proving he's worth within the team. Though silent most of the time, he has proven reliable in the last 2 missions since being with the team. But this mission will truly test his ability both mental and physical.
Corporal Michael Perez and his step brother Corporal Jose Escabeto could be looked at as the optimistic 2 in the group. These 2 unknowingly tend to keep the weight of whatever situation the team finds themselves in quite light.
Then there's Staff Sergeant Cameron Schmitt. Being the most senior in the team he has been appointed team leader. His bold characteristic mixed with his understanding personality formed him into an inspiring leader.
"Yep" Schmitt replies while tapping away on his computer
"Cool" King sheathes the knife he has been sharpening for the past half hour and starts for the door out of the op center.
"Where's the others?" King turns his head before heading out the hatch.
"The brothers are probably knocked out in there racks and that new guy I last saw heading for the chow hall... tell 'em we're loading up in 3 hours, I don't need SgtMaj crawling up my ass again"
"He really did that?" King smirked
"King I'm serious, we're supposed to be on top of it, how are we supposed to be trusted with mission critical missions if we can't even show up on time?" Schmitt's light, humorous tone dropped, he stops what he's doing on the computer and glares back at King.
"Ok, I got it, I'll go inform them now, anything else?"
Nope, that should do it" His regular attitude returning as he resumes tapping away on the keyboard.
"Roger" with that King slides through the door and makes way for the barraks.
Fort Leatherneck, Afghanistan. As far as luxury is concerned it isn't much but it's home. Helicopters fly overhead readying up for Fire team Zulus arrival.
King makes his way to the barracks doing his best to avoid any unnecessary conversations with the infantry men. They tend to ask to many questions about what it is he does or is doing.
Successfully making it past the infantry platoon King slides in through the back door of the barracks and finds himself in front of room 206.
Just before banging on the door, Perez rounds the corner making way for his room, stops, and goes to parade rest out of force of habit after seeing the Staff Sergeant.
"You're good, no need for that bro, get your brother and Starks; you can find him at the chow hall currently, and get over to the ops room in 2 hours for finale debrief and departure"
"Aye Staff Sergeant, you ready for this"
"As ready as I'll ever be Corporal"
The Staff Sergeant, once feeling confident the Corporal could get the task done, went to his own room
To check his pack making sure all items are secured.
Sleeping system, shovel, TP, flash light, spoon and knife, personal journal. It all seemed to be there.
Before leaving the room he takes an iPod along with head phones and a couple charger packs and stuffed them in one of the side pockets of the pack.
King lays on the sorry excuse for a bed to catch a few z's before the op. It may not look like much but the ancient mattress is going beat what they're going to be sleeping on for the next few days. At least that's what the team keeps telling them selves.
Half awake, King rolls over looking for his wife whom was no where to be seen. Disappointed he gets up and gets dressed in the usual blue jeans and solid color shirt.
As King went in to shave the peaceful morning was soon interrupted by mumbled screams from down stairs.
Dropping the cream, King rushed out of the room toward the stairs.
"What's wro-"
King was cut off by 2 gun shots coming from the kitchen and the slamming of the door.
"No, no, no"
King makes it down the stairs and rounds the corner into the kitchen.
King jerks awake, alarm blaring in his face.
He picks up the innocent clock and chucks it across the room, shattering it into pieces.
Gathering his items he makes way for the op room.
He sees his 4 teammates sitting at a long table, Schmitt taking the head seat.
"Now that we're all here we can get this briefing out of the way and be wheels up at 2245"
Schmitt throws King an extra power bar from his MRE as takes his seat at the table.
"SgtMaj. Should be here any minute... hopefully"
As if on cue, SgtMaj Moore walks through the door. 23 years in the Marines rewarded the SgtMaj with aching joints and grey hair.
The team stands at parade rest awaiting to be put at ease.
"As you were" SgtMaj takes his place at the table and sets some diagrams and folders on the table.
"As you already know, not much info was given to us about this op. What you know is what you get. A abandoned compound 3 clicks north of Sangin is suspect to holding a package that can ultimately help win the war for the Taliban. You are task with retrieving it by whatever means necessary. However I was informed to tell you not to make direct contact with the object." SgtMaj pulls silicon covered clamps along with a metallic container out of a duffle bag.
"You will use these clamps to hold the object and put in the box, any questions?"
Silence filled the room.
"Very well, good luck Marines" with that SgtMaj stands up and makes way for the door.
"Good evening Sergeant Major" the states in unison as the SgtMaj leaves the room
"Well, let's head for the air mat. Weapons are already on the copter. Get your gear an board the rear heli."
"You got it" King stands and retrieves his items from the corner of the room and makes way for the heli pad.
The group made their final goodbyes and entered the aircraft.
Once loaded up the helicopters lifted off toward their destination.
For what felt like hours the 5 were cooped up in the back of the twin blades craft awaiting arrival. The bay was quiet for most of the trip.
The once dark bay was illuminated by a green flashing light by the back entrance as the helicopter hastily descended into the compound.
The door drops open and the 5 Marines file out the back to the second helicopter and begin pulling out their gear. 2 throwing out the packs while the other 3 set up security.
Once all the gear is pulled off the door shuts and the 2 helicopters lift of to return to base.
The Marines turn toward the nearest building and start to make way until they notice someone skylining in the rooftops ahead.
Kings heart sink as he hears the all to familiar whooshing sound as a orangey red ball of light flies past them.
"RPG!!"
The 5 Marines hit the deck as bullets rain on there position.
King turns around to see the RPG hitting its mark. The rear copter spirals out of control, crashing into the ground in a fiery explosion.
Perez and Escabeto immediately start laying down suppressive fire on the building while the rest of the team rush to cover.
"Fuck, new plan... Perez, Escabeto
Rush that building there..." Ssgt Schmitt points at an building around the right flank of the enemy position. "... Starks, you hold this position. Provide accurate fire on any motherfucker stupid enough to poke his head out, King your with me we're rushing left flank. We're gonna flush those bastards out."
Stark sets up on a makeshift wall made out of a pile of trash and some bricks and provides covering fire for Perez and Escabeto. Escabeto and Perez rush cover to cover to their position on the second floor of some make shift building.
Once the Corporals set up, Schmitt and King b-line around the left side of the building.
Just before making it around the corner, King catches a round in between the sappy plates within the flack right above his rib cage and stumbles to the ground screaming in pain.
King begins to crawl the rest of the way with the assistants of Schmitt.
"Fuck man, you still got this?"
King pulls out a blood stained mag and loads it into his M4. "There going to need to do a hell of a lot more then that to kill me brother"
Schmitt looks him over before helping him up and setting position on the door.
King hands Schmitt a Grenade who, without hesitation, takes the explosive, cracks the door open and chucks before quickly shutting the door.
The sound of automatic gun fire is overwhelmed by a loud crack.
On cue, King and Schmitt enter the building covering their respective corners. The grenade did its job, 2 enemy combatants KIA, 1 heavily injured.
King limps up to the dazed fighter, steps on his throat, pulls out his M9 and double taps him.
"Room clear, package not located"
King stares still sighted in on the corpse laying below his boot.
"Ready for the next?"
"On you"
They post up on the next room. Schmitt counts to 3 and kicks in the door and peeks in to see 4 combatants immediately firing through the door way.
"We got 4... 2 left corner, 1 right, one dead center.
With that Schmitt rounds the Corner firing 4 rounds, each hitting their mark, as well as taking a round in the shoulder. A fire fighter rushes through the door opposite of theirs and sights in on Schmitt.
A single round is fired and Schmitt Squeezes his eyes shut waiting for the impact. After a few seconds he reopens his eyes to see the once threading Taliban fighter now lay lifeless on the ground.
He looks over to King who has by now managed to limp up next to Schmitt.
"Thanks"
"Don't mention it"
Schmitt scans the room. 5 dead bodies, trash, a stockpile of ammo and... a strange black cube with a deep blue light illuminating from the cracks.
"That, there, that has to be what we came here for, here take these, you secure the package, I got your back"
King nods while taking the silicon rings and box. He slowly approaches the cube, and reaches for it with the tongs. Just before grabbing it sharp pain runs through his left leg, and he falls to the ground.
2 more fighters take cover by the door and free fire into the room. Schmitt takes cover behind the crates of ammo while King flips the table toward himself, the cube sliding off landing next to him.
"Damn it, Cameron, you need to get out of there, I'll hold them off just get this thing to the LZ" King reaches for the cube.
"No don't touch I-"
Too late, As soon as Kings hand makes contact with the cube the room is filled with the blue light and Belgians to vibrate.
The last thing King sees is his friend's bloody face staring back at him. Everything goes black.
What feels like a few hours pass before King returns to consciousness.
The cool breeze felt foreign against his skin. An almost overwhelming sent of pine filled the morning air.
Still dazed from the past events, King looks around at his new surroundings.
From what he could make he was in a forest. Gigantic pine trees surrounded his position. Tall grass engulfing his body.
His futile attempt to sit up was short lived as what felt like needles driving into his side forced him back to the floor.
King looks down to find blood slowly oozing through the fabric of his desert cammies.
What the hell did that thing do to me?
Speaking of such item, he had the same odd cube in his hand.
Lifting the seemingly weightless object to his face, King try's to find some sort of symbol, or lettering, anything to at least point out an origin or maker.
Nothing. All he sees on the cube are the now lifeless cracks wrapping around the object.
Well at least I got my gear.
As King carelessly throws the object too his pack, which was lying about ten feet away, the cracking of branches rings throughout the forest.
Adrenaline shot through King's body, numbing the pain enough for him to roll to his gear and grab his M4.
He aims in the general direction of the noise.
His expectations of Taliban dwindled as he herd loud thumps moving closer to him.
The ground violently vibrated beneath him, poking at his injuries.
Maybe it's just an elephant?... in the forest? Are they normally this loud? What else could be big enough to cause that sound?
His question was quickly answered as something breaks the tree line.
Lowering his rifle, King looks up at the creature.
It was huge. Red feather-looking scales covered its body. It had two trunks for legs and a tail with white, red-tipped spikes the size of his forearm running down the length.
What caught Kings attention the most about the bizarre creature was it's wings.
On the creature back folded two gigantic wings.
As strange as the creature looked, it was oddly familiar to the Marine but he could not explain as to why.
The dragon didn't seem to notice him as it casually walks off.
Once sure the thing was gone for good King attempts to sit up for a second time.
The remaining adrenaline numbs the pain enough for him to get up completely with relative ease.
King limps over to his gear in search for his med-kit.
After unpacking a few items he pulls the red pouch out and dumps it out in his lap.
Nothing much for the wounds he has sustained but it did have some Motrin and bandages, those will get him by for now.
After dressing and wrapping the two injuries, he packs the kit and reaches for an MRE.
His breakfast was interrupted by a loud crash followed by ear rupturing howl.
King throws the MRE and grabs the M4.
King scans the direction the noise originated from and waits.
Though the loud scratches continues he saw nothing.
Whatever it was it was close.
After a minute passes, King slowly moves up to investigate.
Not too far past the tree line King stalks up on a small cliff.
As King approaches the drop he gets into the prone to avoid sky-lining.
As fast as his wounds would allow him King low crawls to the edge and peers into the drop.
It was circular in shape. A large pond took up a good portion of it. Rock walls stood at around thirty to forty feet high around the perimeter of the circle. Small boulders sprinkled across the shore of the pond. On top of one of the many boulders was the one responsible for interrupting Kings breakfast.
Atop one of the many boulders near the pond stood, facing opposite of King, a jet-black dragon.
King sighted in on the creature. At the distance and angle he was at he could not make out much detail but it was smaller than the last one he encountered.
Once again, he could not say why but this creature seemed way to familiar for it to be a mere coincidence, this one more that the last.
Where have I seen you before. Why are you dragons so familiar?
As if on cue, dragon jumps from the rock and frustratedly turns around.
The dragon aimlessly scans the terrain and makes eye contact with King.
He has seen those emerald green eyes before.
The dragon backs up slowly and snarls at the sight of the Marine.
No... it couldn't be...