Fourteen years ago in the Al-Malik Desert…
"Stay alert, they could come from anywhere."
"Yes, ma'am!" The officer nodded back to the soldiers in her care. She looked around and noted every soldier's position in the vast desert. She looked back to enemy base that was faintly visible in the approaching sand storm. "Get in, get the files, and get out," she repeated over and over in her head. She was nervous, but that was to be expected. This was her first real combat mission, her first time actually having lives in her hands, and being calm under stress wasn't her forte in Basic.
"Let's go, and stay low!" She and the other soldiers moved out slowly and quietly. They continued this as the base slowly began to come better into view. Yet as they approached on the base, she felt more and more tense. She had just been promoted to Captain before she was deployed, but that was for her academics and marksmanship, with her Commanding Officer being reluctant with her promotion because of her lack of ability in being a calm leader under stress. She had always been insecure in her leadership abilities, but she had slowly become better through joining the army.
"Everybody down!" On her order, they all went down into a belly crawl. She and her soldiers continued on, while she kept her gaze tight on the base ahead of them. Her stomach was churning; she wanted to just jump up and runaway, but she forced herself to continue on through her fears. Courage, to her, was not being without fear, but continuing on through her fears. She froze with fear, though, when she heard the gunfire ring out. She had done what she had feared most. She had walked them right into the enemy's trap and they were surrounded.
"Take cover and fire back!" she shouted after take a moment to regain her composure so her voice wouldn't come out weak and timid. With the combined efforts of the soldiers, they were able to rout the enemy. As they surveyed the battlefield after the gun fight, they noticed that the number of enemy combatants was strikingly small. But having no time to think on the matter, the soldiers continued on through a small pass between two raised plateaus leading to the base. As they came out, they were met with a bloody scene. Someone had already obliterated the enemy, and the combatants they had met earlier were likely the lone survivors.
The Captain ordered her men to search the area, for the files and any other survivors. Meanwhile she searched the middle area of the base along with a young Corporal. She could hardly bear to stand; the smell of death was thick in the base. She turned her head to the right and she noticed a girl's body among those of the dead enemy soldiers. She had been trained to let go of her emotions and not let them get in the way of the mission, but she couldn't stop herself. She walked over to pile of bodies and felt for a pulse from the girl's body. She felt the blood pumping through the girl's body; the Captain pulled back violently. She had hoped for a pulse, but she didn't expect one. She shouted out to the medic in her group, who came quickly. As he treated the girl's wounds as much as he could on scene, the Captain ordered another soldier to radio for assistance from headquarters.
She looked on as the medic tried to save the faint life. The girl appeared to be in her early teens, with reddish-orange hair that came below her shoulders. She had a gunshot wound to the right side of her chest and appeared to be wounded less severely around her face and arms. The girl was wearing a pair of torn jeans, with a white crew neck T-shirt, and a light blue jacket over that. The jacket was the first thing the medic removed, considering it was about one hundred and ten degrees outside and increasing her internal body temperature wasn't going to help. The Captain moved her view from the girl to the sky as she heard chopper blades approach. She had hope; maybe this girl could be saved. She didn't ask to become a victim of war; war chose her. The Captain was awaked from her thoughts when she felt something warm trickle down her hand. She looked down to see that her hand was bathed in blood.
