11 March 2017

Camp Lejeune,

United States,

1st. Raider Battalion,

Scalpel Team.

"There's a problem here, Sergeant! Can you tell me what it is?" Sergeant Major John Silver yelled at a poor infantry sergeant. Dear god. I hate SNCOs like Silver. I can understand intensity, but this guy was just a plain asshole. Sucks that these poor grunts had to deal with him. I grunted as I walked past him, barely giving him the time of day.

"Sergeant! You forgot your greeting!" He screamed at the poor kid. Dear god...

I turned and looked at him, a bored look in my eyes. "He don't have to give me shit, SERGEANT Major. As the highest ranking Enlisted, it falls to you to make the proper greeting, not to mention a proper fucking salute." I responded.

Silver just stood there and fumed. It was honestly kind of funny. "If you don't need me for anything else, Sergeant Major, I have my team to attend to." I looked him dead in the eyes. He returned my gaze saluted grudgingly, then turned back to the Sergeant. I returned the salute, and then carried on my way.

Passing the MP and flashing my Security Card, I walked into our battalion's ready room. In certain places, there were red lights mounted on the walls instead of white, in order to help us with our night vision in case of a night mission. I walked down the hallway, greeting the various Raiders who were on their way out on their various missions. Reaching Scalpel Team's Squad Bay, I knocked twice, and entered. The three dudes inside all looked at me from their bunks. Gunnery Sergeant Diaz spoke up first.

"What's the word from Papa Trump?" He asked me. I sighed. POTUS was an interesting man. The meeting went pretty well. Trump had his opinions and ideas, yet he let the Raider speak, telling him how and why some of the President's ideas were unrealistic, and how some ideas were brilliant. The only thing about the meeting that tired him out was trying to breath easy under the gaze of General Mattis. God, that man was scary.

"We're green for Operation Red Sky. Grab your gear, get ready to haul. We'll be traveling to Kandahar, and then to Firebase Reaper. ROE is kill anything that breathes, however I'm changing that to Woman and Children stay alive, but stay clear. The Haji's aren't above strapping bombs to even the non-com's. Three Day assault packs, we'll be out in the boonies. Our CAS is two HAWGs, and they will have an ETA of twenty minutes during the strike, so be ready to hold shit down for that long. This is a snatch and grab, so try not to kill our VIP. When we get to Kandahar, we'll get our briefing. Get moving." I finished. The four raiders began to pack. I exited the room, looking for the last two guys on my team. Our squid, CPO Dinesh Sook, and our Six, Captain Don O'Malley. I pounded Cap's door, and he opened a moment later.

"What's up asshole?" He asked me.

"Red Sky is green. Three day gear. We got two vehicles, and four teams. Their leads are being briefed now. We'll get the big picture once we get to Kandahar."

Captain O'Malley nodded. "No shit. I'll tell the faggot. You get your boys together. Rah?"

"Rah!" I returned as I walked back to my Squad room. Entering again, I began to pack with the other three Raiders in the room. I had a feeling this mission would change the world. I had no idea how much.

4 Weeks Later,

Firebase Reaper,

Middle East,

1st. Raider Battalion,

Scalpel Team.

"We will meet at this tree line, right here." Diaz said as he pointed to the aforementioned line on the map. "Again, CAS out of Kandahar will have a two zero mike ETA. So with your permission, sir, I'd like to call it in at the beginning of the strike."

I pondered it for a moment, and gave him a nod. "Do so Gunny. That way, if we get fucked, we can at least have them closer than twenty mikes."

Sullivan looked up from his notepad. "What are these motherfuckers packing?" He asked. I nodded to Captain O'Malley, who took over.

"Alright, standby to copy." He said, pulling out his notebook, containing the intel he had gotten from the patrols earlier that morning. "Alright, these fuckers are packing your typical Haji weapons, AK's RPGs, women with boom vests, IEDs, stolen American weapons, the usual." He said in his monotone voice. "Like Watty said, kill anything that fuckin moves, except the non-coms if you can. Boys over twelve are possible threats, so I'm gonna make the hard decision and say it's up to you. If you see a threat, kill it. This Op won't see the light of day, so those fucking media fucktards won't get to slander and sham and bitch about how pussy they are. So yeah, If it's a threat, eliminate it. I want everybody to come home alive. That means that if you fucking see something, you all betteer open your cock holsters, copy?" O'Malley finished, spinning his trademark Ka-Bar around in his hands. We laughed at the last bit, and nodded.

The rest of the briefing took about five minutes. We then set about preparing for the Op. Me and Diaz were both huge fans of Warrior cultures, so we went about performing a ceremonial Haka. It's exhilarating. Afterwards, we took our showers to get us relaxed. Going into a high stress op while already having stress is a bad idea. We all met in our assigned ready room one last time, and took out our wallets. Taking out any and all identification, pictures of family, unit identifiers, and letters to home, we put them all in an Ammo can, and gave them to a outbound pilot. He flew the stuff to Kandahar, where they would be returned to our families if we perished. We all walked out to the Motor Pool, preparing to move out for our strike. Diaz walked to the end of the row to take a piss. There was a yell of "RPG!" and a blinding flash. When we got and regained our bearings, I ran over to where Diaz was. In the place of the MRAP where Diaz had been standing next to, was a large smoking hole.

"Holy Fuck. Diaz is gone! He's out!" I screamed. "Corpsman! Get the fuck Over here!"

CPO Sook came running. "Where is he?" he asked me.

"I don't fucking know!" I yelled, looking at Sook. "HELP HIM!"

Doc looked back at me, a hurt look in his eyes. "I can't help him if he's not here." he said. "If the blast was powerful enough to erase an MRAP from existence, then we can't help him. He's in Valhalla now."

I nodded, and looked up to the night sky. I swear, I will find every motherfucking Haji, and kill them. Just like they killed Diaz. These mothefuckers were gonna pay.

A/N: Yo dudes. I just wanted to ask you guys to pray for the families of the five Marines pronounced dead after the mid-air collision in Japan.

Other than that, stay safe, and have a merry christmas.

Raider Out!