You guys lucked out, two chapters in one day, its a miracle! Actually it was a power outage all day yesterday that gave me time to write these last two chapters. This one is small, and I got the idea from Generation Kill (if you've seen all the episodes you might know where this came from), I swear I don't know what I would do without that show feeding me ideas lol.
Again, I thank everyone for reading, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review or favorite the story, it lets me know that this is actually worth writing still.
"Bowren you got any movement," Pierce asked as he peered through his scope.
"Nothin' but the dogs," Bowren commented, only seeing several stray dogs barking at each other in the distance.
"Figured," Pierce said as he leaned back away from the scope mounted on his M4.
In front of the Marines just under a click in the distance sat a two lane bridge that crossed a deep river which was ripe with rapids. On the opposite side of the river near the bridge was a village, well, actually only several houses and what looked to be a school perhaps, Pierce couldn't fully tell. He just knew that they were tasked with observing the village for enemy activity and that is what they had been doing for the last few hours.
"Well I say this was a waste of time," Barnes interjected from behind the two sergeants.
"What are you talking about," Eckers argued, "This is a valuable use of military resources on a very valuable objective."
Barnes rolled his eyes and turned to look at Eckers who continued, "I mean, Command obviously wants to know if this five building village is safe to move through, and they want confirmation before three fucking Marine companies cross the bridge."
"Well we better report in and say the coast is clear cause those 'three fucking companies' are set to be here within ten mikes," Pierce said without turning to look at the two underlings behind him.
The Marines had set up shop on top of a ridge set above the river to their front and right. The height advantage gave them excellent view into the village and the area in front of them. Pierce and Bowren were lying on top of a giant boulder that was half buried into the dirt while Eckers and Barnes were several meters behind and below them, covering the rear. Reily was several meters to Pierce's left, off of the boulder but still elevated looking down the scope of the M40A5. It was always a good thing to have two sets of eyes on a target, Pierce had three.
"Reily you see anything on your end," Pierce asked as he leaned across the boulder and looked down at the Lance Corporal.
"Negative, just the dogs," Reily said without looking away from the scope, "Saw some women and kids a few minutes ago peaking out of a couple windows but nothing else."
"Any males," Pierce questioned.
"None, there aren't any vehicles either, besides that tractor that looks broke down."
"Alright," Pierce said as he pushed himself back to his original position, "Good work."
Bowren looked at Pierce as the two sergeants laid on the boulder, "Time to call it in then or what?"
Pierce sighed, "Tommy call it in, village is clear."
Barnes reached across his body to the radio set and dialed in the frequency, "Warrior Six, Warrior Six, this is Saber Two-One, how copy over."
The response came, "Two-One, Warrior Six, what's your status, over?"
"Warrior Six, OP in place for two hours, no signs of hostiles," Barnes started before pausing and looking up at Pierce who nodded, "Village is clear, over."
"Copy that Two-One, Warrior Six out."
"So now what," Eckers asked Pierce as Barnes put the radio aside.
"Now we just wait for the convoy to pass through," Pierce said looking to the Marines, "Then we're RTB."
"Then it's time to find a shower," Barnes said quickly looking over at Reily, "Cause you smell like shit Sean."
Everyone laughed, besides Reily, who took his eyes off his scope to turn and look at Barnes, "Why you gotta be like that man, here I am minding my own shit, nice and quiet, and you have to bring me into your bitching."
"Jesus Sean," Barnes laughed, "I was just kidding man, looks like we gotta find you a woman too once we get back, someone's wound up a little too tight."
"Well Mrs. Barnes has been slacking a bit lately," Reily grinned as he turned and looked back down the scope.
"It's true," Pierce added, causing everyone to look up, "I had to take her out of my main line up, she just wasn't bringing in the money like she used to."
"Hey my mother is not a hoe," Barnes protested, realizing that the tables had turned and everyone was now against him, "She is a very nice, classy lady."
"I guess if that's what you call them nowadays," Bowren said, in his Texas drawl, "Than Eric runs quite a few classy ladies."
"Alright, alright," Pierce said, "Focus up, we only got a few more minutes of this shit left."
The team was getting riled up and focus was changing from the mission, to Mrs. Barnes. Pierce needed to change that and keep his men combat alert; there would be time for this tom foolery back at the base.
"I got the convoy," Reily announced, causing Pierce and Bowren to gaze through their scopes at the road in the distance.
Three Humvees led the convoy, followed close by four LAV-25s, then came the AAVs, EFVs, and additional LAV-25s.
"Good thing we called this village in," Bowren noted at the vast amount of hardware the convoy was rolling with, "Things might have gotten out of hand for these guys."
"I didn't pick this mission, you think I wanted to baby sit a bridge for two hours," Pierce said catching Bowren in the corner of his eye.
Bowren grunted in agreement as the two continued to watch the convoy approach, while Reily kept his scope on the village. They watched as the convoy neared the bridge and abruptly stopped short of the crossing. The Humvees came to a halt in a line while the four LAVs stopped to the right of them, extending the line of vehicles.
Through the scopes, Pierce and Bowren could see Marines dismounting from the Humvees and taking up firing positions in cover.
"What the hell," Bowren began but was cut short.
One of the fifty cals mounted on the top of a Humvee opened up, followed by another and finally the Mk. 19 grenade launcher on the third Humvee. As if things couldn't get worse, the LAV-25s opened up with their main cannons, 25 mm chain guns, which shredded the few buildings in seconds, turning the village into a pile of rubble and debris.
"The hell are they shooting at," Reily screamed as he saw the building where the women and children had been spotted topple over.
"Tommy do we have comms with that unit," Pierce shouted as the shooting continued below them.
"No all we have is Warrior and our local net," Barnes replied as he jumped onto the boulder where Pierce and Bowren were lying to see the carnage.
They stared in shock for two minutes before the firing had stopped. The convoy then loaded up and continued across the bridge and proceeded till they were no longer seen by the team.
"Tommy you called the village clear didn't you," Pierce questioned as everyone turned to face one another.
"Yeah, fuckin' Warrior Six acknowledged it," Barnes said, trying to convince the others that he was not to blame for the mistake.
"Well there weren't any hostiles in the village," Reily shouted as he stood up from his position and cradled the M40 in his arms, "We had eyes on for two hours plus."
Pierce interrupted the two, not wanting them to kill each other over this situation, "It's not our fault, it's not Tommy's or any of us."
"They just lit up an entire village Sergeant," Reily protested as he turned to Pierce.
"We don't know what they saw down there," Pierce told Reily as well as everyone else, trying to think of a reason to justify the massacre that just happened.
Eckers spoke up, "Eye for an eye man, it's simple."
"Murder though, they just killed kids with forties and twenty-five mike mikes."
"Did you see what they did in D.C.," Eckers retorted, "I did, I was there, that was fucking murder; this is nothing compared to that."
"We're not fucking like them though," Reily said, "We're not suppose to do shit like that," he shouted pointing his left arm in the direction of the village.
The team stood there silently for almost a minute before Pierce spoke up, "What's done is done, we're packing up," Pierce looked at Reily, "I want to be oscar-mike in two," he said before walking past the Marines towards the brush where their gear was.
Bowren walked to Reily who was still standing there and patted his shoulder, "Let it go son."
Bowren then walked to Pierce and began packing the gear up also. Reily stood there for several more seconds before taking a last look at the village in the distance. The dust could be seen floating skyward, clearly marking the massacre that just happened.
"What is happening," he mumbled as he turned back towards the team.
They were back at the base in thirty minutes. No one spoke to each other or any other Marine about what they had witnessed, they still had a war to fight, and they didn't need distractions splitting the team, or the Corps.