"Viking Two, do we still got the sheep in our way?" Sergeant Walstrom radioed up the Humvee convoy to the lead vehicle that had Corporal Gomez and his team as well as his attachments included.
"Affirmative. Might be clearing the way shortly. Viking Two out." Corporal Gomez replied over the radio. Walstrom slammed the radio handset into the dash.
"God dammit. Sure enough sir is going to come up here and holler in my ear anytime soon." Sergeant Walstrom uttered, he was sitting in the front passenger seat with Lance Corporal Skolnick at the driver seat. Corporal Lehman, the team leader, was behind the driver seat. Private First Class Kovach was behind the Sergeant, and Lance Corporal Chamberlain was on the .50 caliber "Ma Deuce" machine gunner turret.
"Go figure, we actually get a patrol and we're stopped by a herd of sheep. Goooooood." Corporal Lehman said with sarcasm, shifting his M16A4 with a M203 attached to the underbarrel mount to outside the window.
"Yeah, better our luck being at the front of the convoy too." Sergeant Walstrom uttered and rubbed his eyes. They'd been outside the wire since 0500, it was 1636 now. His squad was acting as the lead element in a mechanized security and contact patrol for Forward Observation Base Oklahoma. The FOB was more of a fortified patrol base but a lot of local government forces would stage within the compound so they decided the base being called a patrol base wouldn't make sense.
"Viking" was Walstrom's callsign for his squad, they were apart of second platoon in Company E. It'd been two weeks since 2nd Platoon was sent on a patrol. They had been stuck on perimeter security after one of their trucks had broke down outside the wire because one of the Marines forgot to fill the tank with gas. Now Walstrom was trying his best to keep it so his squad could go out on patrols commonly and not be stuck on the perimeter getting barely any sleep. But thanks to the mob of sheep, they weren't helping.
"Couldn't we try, maybe firing a few rounds?" Private First Class Kovach asked with his M16A4 between his legs, poking his head up. The lean tall newest addition to the squad popping out of silence.
"Look Kovach, as much as I'd love to get a few rounds off, maybe stack some sheep. We just can't do that. You understand?" Corporal Lehman said across the seat from Kovach.
"I meant in front of them or in the air, Corporal." Kovach explained.
Lehman stopped a moment and thought to himself, "don't matter. Marines don't shoot to scare. Shoot to kill."
"Semper..." Lance Corporal Skolnick uttered to himself in the driver seat. He was the most annoyed. Stuck sitting in the most dangerous seat without the vehicle moving. Skolnick was nervous about being the driver in the morning, once they were stuck in front of the flock of sheep, he was sure it was an ambush. One would assume him to be paranoid, it was common of Skolnick, but he wasn't wrong. But after a continous hour and a half of being planted where they were was killing them.
Behind them was Viking One, with Corporal Tripp in the passenger seat being the vehicle commander and team leader. Lance Corporal Skyes in the back seat bored. Lance Corporal Pilarski at the driver seat and Lance Corporal Teitielbaum on the turret. Doc Kirby was behind the driver seat, fast asleep snoring. At this point Corporal Tripp was tired of waiting and had lit a cigarette, Kevlar helmet on the dashboard.
"Holy fuck... shoot the fucking things." Tripp cried out in annoyance before taking a puff of smoke into his lungs. Pilarski reached into his shoulder pocket and pulled out a pack of Malboro Southern Cut cigarettes.
"Hey Pilarski, hook me up with a smoke?" Asked Sykes from the back seat. The question seemed to be a cue for Doc Kirby to suddenly awake.
"So how Sykes I knew you'd ask." Pilarski groaned and held out behind him a cigarette to Sykes who took it.
"Hey throw me one too Pilarski." Doc Kirby asked patting Pilarski on the shoulder. Without another word, Pilarski held back a second cigarette.
"Can't be showing people you got smokes Pilarski. They're fucking vultures and won't be shy about begging." Tripp said taking a puff. Pilarski finally got a chance to lite a cigarette for himself. The entire humvee was smoking, except for Teitielbaum who had a pinch of tobacco in his lip that the team could occasionally hear him spitting onto the roof of the truck.
"Yeah, don't be sharing too much Ski, we probably leave around midnight. We both know you ain't got enough smokes for that." Teitielbaum explained, spitting a mouthful of tobacco ridden saliva.
"Hell maybe we'll get lucky and see the asshole who owns these fuckin' things." Pilarski complained taking a puff of his cigarette. Corporal Tripp smirked and laughed.
"You're so pissed and it's hilarious."
"Corporal, this is some shit like even you can't deny it." Pilarski said looking around the window. They were on a dirt road that was slightly elevated above the fields surrounding them. It was dried up wheat fields that they could describe it as. The scary part was that if any insurgent really wanted to, all they had to do was crawl through the fields on their stomachs and they could get dangerously close without the Marines noticing. Even though the Marines were bored and annoyed, they still kept an eye out in their perspective areas for anything.
"Cheer up Pilarski, you could think of something positive. Like getting promoted." Teitielbaum joked with sarcasm.
"We all know that'll never happen." Skyes said with a smile as he exhaled cigarette smoke.
"Hey, hey. I'm capable. Don't doubt me." Pilarski argued before finishing the last puff of his smoke before tossing the cigarette butt out the window.
"Nah, you're fucked." Doc Kirby said before busting out into laughter. Skyes and Teitielbaum joined him.
"You can, you have a lot to learn however." Corporal Tripp explained before he opened his door and stepped out, tossing his cigarette out. He grabbed his M4 by the grip and stepped out. "If you don't mind me, I'm going to try to see what the fuck is going on. And why we're still here."
Tripp then walked up the convoy towards the lead vehicle. Skyes groaned and took off his Kevlar helmet to scratch his head. "This blows."
Corporal Gomes had his feet crossed and head propped against the window of the door, practically falling asleep. Lance Corporal Beckner was stuck behind the wheel, playing with a DS Lite while Lance Corporal Vazquez was leaning back on the opening of the turret hole with hands clenched on the Mk. 19 grenade launcher.
"Beck, be sure to keep an eye out man." Vazquez said down to Beckner who was glued to his video game.
"Vaz, chill man. We haven't been shot at it weeks. The assholes of the Daesh realized they fucked with the United States and got raped. You saw what the Air Force did to their train yard and airfield dude."
Beckner was talking about when the Air Force launched numerous airstrikes onto key locations in the providence of Albachr Qusad. The squad's unit was assigned to sweeping through the ruins of the airfield and eliminate any remaining enemy forces that decided to hold the flight deck. Command had them ride inside of AAV's all the way up to the treeline outside of the airfield. They got out and got on line, letting the AAV's move in to provide support only to find much of nothing. Vazquez saw a injured Daesh fighter try to fight back against the Marines, but another Marine from 2nd Platoon shot him dead before he got to fire the AK he had.
The sound of someone walking on rock gravel was approaching behind Vazquez, he turned around to see Corporal Tripp approaching. Vazquez gave Beckner a quick kick to the shoulder to stop him from doing what he was doing. Tripp then smacked the palm of his hand on Gomes' flak vest, stirring the Marine awake.
"Sleeping, outside the wire?" Tripp asked.
"Hey man, I need to get some sleep. Was up last night drawing up this patrol." Gomes explained.
"So was I, don't see me sleeping though. Anything change with the... herd?"
"Nah, fuckers are still being dicks. Where's the shepherd of these pricks, I'd love to have him move them." Gomes said adjusting his M16A4/M203 rifle on his lap.
Vazquez cared little for the conversation. He looked to the left, mind racing in other places but his eyes still saw the treeline and fields. He was wondering about home, how much he missed his folks and family. Something caught his eye. There, in the trees. To the vehicle, it was there ten o'clock.
"Hey, I think I see something." Vazquez said outloud, the Marines stopped talking and got into the zone.
"What is it?" Corporal Gomes asked leaning over his seat trying to look.
"Ten o'clock could've sworn I saw someone or something moving in the trees."
"Worth radio-ing up?" Beckner asked out loud into the air. Sounded like he wasn't trying to really ask someone more like throw out an option. Gomes reached to the radio and pulled the handset.
"Viking Three this is Viking Two, one of my guys has spotted movement outside the trees-"
An explosion erupted along the elevated road right before the Humvee that made the Marines stir in shock, surprised by the sudden act. Corporal Tripp knelt down and covered his head, Corporal Gomes shook off the explosion that made his eyes ring, Vazquez covered his face from the flying debris, while Beckner lost his DS as it flew into the backseat.
They all had a moment to collect themselves, in shock.
"God damn RPG!" Someone yelled.
Then the bullets started to fly. From the convoy's left came a sudden series of gunshots that rippled around the vehicles. Gomes opened his door and jumped out dragging his rifle with him, rolling on the ground to his feet. Beckner had a grip on his M249 SAW, crawling across the seat and console before two rounds pierced through the windshield and into the driver seat. Vazquez turned the turret and dumped a burst of grenades into the treeline. Tripp got behind the front of the humvee and emptied a few rounds into the enemy's position. He had no clue of exactly where they were, but he had to shoot back. Both Beckner and Gomes had now gotten themselves set to engage. Beckner was laying behind the truck, using bipods he mounted the SAW on the ground, firing away automatic fire. Gomes fired his rifle in quick three round bursts.
"Shit, Chamberlain open up on 'em!" Sergeant Walstrom shouted, jumping out of his door and resting his M4 against the hood of the Humvee to start firing rounds. Corporal Lehman and Kovach got out to get on the right side of the truck to use as cover. Chamberlain had begun to fire away the mounted .50 cal machine gun. The rounds shredded the trees, chunks of bark flew. Walstrom reached into the truck and grabbed the handset of the radio.
"Oklahoma this is Viking 2-3, we're under fire in grid 2341-8763, requesting CAS!" Walstrom demanded.
At first Walstrom couldn't tell if the FOB had returned his radio call because Chamberlain left off a long burst from the .50 cal. The shell casings landed and pinged all around Walstrom. One landed between his flak and blouse but he didn't care. The burning sensation didn't bother him. Whether it was his pure mental strength or adrealine he wasn't sure. Corporal Lehman fired off a round from his M203, followed by two-three round bursts from his rifle. Still Walstrom couldn't hear anything over the radio.
Skyes had immediately jumped out of the Humvee when the rounds started flying. Teitielbaum began opening up with his turret while Pilarski crawled across the console to get out the front passenger side door. Doc Kirby had jumped out his door and rushed around to the side, getting behind the truck.
"Looks like a squad sized element, 100 meters in the treeline!" Sykes yelled out between his quick shots of his rifle. Pilarski put the bipods of his M27 IAR against the hood of the Humvee and let loose bursts of automatic fire. The loud fire from the .50 cal that Teitielbaum was on blacked out all the other gunshots. Until it came to an ebrupt stop.
"Jam!" Teitielbaum yelled out as he scrambled to get the turret back into action.
"Covering!" Pilarski shouted out as he let loose longer bursts from his Automatic Rifle. Sykes kept snapping the trigger quicky in efforts to provide accurate shots. Doc Kirby had laid down in the prone behind the Humvee to shoot from under it to hit bad guys. Pilarski at first was firing at the congested muzzle flashes that he saw, but then he spotted a Daesh fighter sprinting for another mound and tree for cover. He sighted in and fired off a short burst. The rounds hit the militant in the leg and hip, dropping him to a knee. Pilarski fired off another burst, in a zip up method. Aiming low and letting the climbing recoil hit the rest of the target. The rounds landed more up the man's side and then a round struck the fighter in the head, sending him to the dirt in a twisting motion.
Beckner noticed the fighters were starting to break off, trying to have one firing and the other falling back. He spotted one man just starting to run back, Beckner squeezed the trigger letting loose a burst of rounds that destroyed the fighter's back. At least a dozen rounds hit square in his back. The fighter trying to cover for him popped out more and tried shooting more rounds at Beckner but Vazquez dumped two grenades that impacted beside him and on the tree. The fighter's upper torso flew off with his legs blown away.
Corporal Gomes spotted a man preparing another RPG. Quickly aiming in his RCO, he fired one shot clean in the Daesh soldier in the head. It was like a cliche movie, the man's head jerked back like whiplash and collasped. Tripp and Skolnick fired together a volley of shots into three fighters trying to flee to another trench but were gunned down. At this point, there was no more rounds being fired from the rest of the treeline. Whoever was still alive, were either fleeing or dying.
"Seize fire! Seize fire!" Sergeant Walstrom peeked out at the carnage. Barrels from the Marines' weapons were smoking. Sweat treckled down the young Sergeant's forehead and into his eyes. He took off his eye protection and used his sleeve to clean out his eye. He saw a fighter rising from the dirt injured, clearly in pain. Before any word, Chamberlain fired three rounds into him. Walstrom exhaled hard and looked to his right to see Lehman reloading his weapon while Skolnick kept his rifle aimed down and drinking from his Camelbak.
"Viking 2-3 this Viking Main from Oklahoma, repeat your last over." It was 2nd Lieutenant Klein.
"Viking Main this is Viking 2-3, we received contact from a enemy patrol. The remaining hostiles have retreated. No casualties, requesting pursuit by fire over." Walstrom asked. What he was requesting was to track down the enemy survivors and finish them.
"Negative 2-3, arrive at Checkpoint 4 Bravo and then return to Oklahoma, over and out."
Just like that, radio-ed off against finishing the remaining enemies. Walstrom turned to his old friend Lehman. "The LT call us off?"
"Yeah, mount back up and get rolling." Walstrom ordered. Lehman gave a loud whistled and gave the waving handsignal to move on. The Marines re-entered the vehicles. Luckily, the herd of sheep had ran away once the shooting had stopped. Now, the Marines continued with their route, heading back to base.