June 17th, 2552, 5:00 AM
It was somewhat nice to wake up at five in the mourning to a night like sky, it felt normal. We all stood out in the open, right where me and my team had first dropped in at only a few days back, and already we where leaving. Two-thousand of us stood there waiting to be airlifted away. The Pelicans came into sight, there was easily over a hundred of them. Albatross dropships even came into sight.
Albatross dropships had huge squarish troop bays that could fit large amounts of troops or a few vehicles. The Albatros landed first and the Pelicans continued on overhead. Tanks, transport jeeps, and hogs where then loaded up in them. Within five minutes we had loaded up twenty tanks and around a total of thirty jeeps. The Albatross took off and the Pelicans came back into sight and landed just ahead all over the camp. Some continued to fly around and wait for more clearing to open up.
We had already
been issued to dropships by their call signs that where pained on by
the rear thrusters. We found ours, 214. This would be our dropship
for the rest of the war. Ryan, me, and my team quickly mounted up.
"Punch it!" Ryan yelled.
For the first time ever,
the back doors to the pelican shut and kept us from looking out the
back. It was dark inside the dropship except for dim red lights that
ran along the sides above our heads.
I felt the dropship lift off the ground and take off. I gazed around to find many soldiers slouching out and starting to go back to sleep. We had only slept for about three hours of so. I also found myself falling asleep. A few hours I suddenly awoke and jumped to my feet.
"Ah
shit!" I yelled and reached down to grab the back of my leg.
Everyone else suddenly awoke and looked at me confused.
"What
happening?" Dave asked me loudly.
Ryan came in from the
cockpit. "What's going on?" He asked as I hopped around
and stretching out my right leg.
"Nasty cramp!" I said
in pain.
I tried to get my leg straight, but it felt like my leg
would snap in the back if I did. After a few minutes the cramp was
gone and I sat back down, keeping my right leg straight.
"Fuck."
I said to myself quietly.
Everyone stayed awake after that.
"Shit man. I thought AA fire had cut though and hit you or
something." Dave said as he removed his helmet to rub the crust
that developed in his eyes while he had been asleep.
I came to learn we where only about ten minutes from the LZ anyway, what better way to get the blood running though me then to have a massive cramp in your leg while asleep I thought. About fifteen minutes later we started to descend. I loaded and locked my gun. The dropship shook as it made contact with the ground and the door started to open. I half expected to have bullets start flying into the back of the Pelican but it was calm and quiet. We stepped out and set up the defensive circle around the Pelican.
The Pelican took
off. I looked around. I could hear the chirp of animals and whatever
else, we where in what seemed to be a jungle. Ryan pulled out a map.
Pelicans began to land in the nearby areas, some continued on ahead.
"Well, we've been given the duty of walking to our rally
point, about a mile that way." And pointed off to my left. "We
are to check the woods as we go along for any supply dumps that are
believed to be left in the area and destroy them." He finished
as he rolled up the map and put it into his belt.
I stood up and
formed in behind him. Jake, Steve, and Dave followed me, everyone
else remained there. I looked over at them.
"You heard the
man!" I yelled. "Lets move!"
They all got up and
fell into formation. In one long line we made our way off in the
direction to the rally point.
The ground was super soft and I almost sunk into it a few times in a few areas as I walked. We glanced out in every direction of the jungle, I think we all half expected to get ambushed by the Chinese or some crazy, wild animal, but we continued on and nothing happened. After about thirty minutes of walking we made out the rally point ahead. Pelicans sat on the ground being re-supplied. We stopped on a hill overlooking the rally point and glanced around. Way out in the distance we could see mountains and nothing but trees along the way to them. I looked a bit further down and saw the rally point. It was a small village of light wooden huts that stood over a huge patch of dirt.
We walked down the hill for the rally point. We came up on a trench line and I stopped for a second and glanced up the hill. I noticed it had once been a defensive position used by armed troops from Brazil, I continued on down. They must of had supply lines in the woods back there when the fighting broke out I thought to myself.
We hopped the trench and continued on though blood covered flowers. I looked down at the flowers. There where spots where flowers where crushed in shapes while others stood perfectly. I glanced at the shapes and as we walked by and I noticed the bent flowers made the shape of people. I could make out the stretches of arms and legs along with where their heads had been at. It was also the most blood painted area.
I was still
looking down at the ground ahead and saw something shinny moving
among the flowers on the ground. I focused my attention on it and
made out what looked like a thin wire.
"Freeze!" I
yelled, but it was to late.
A guy ahead of me let out a scream
and dropped to the ground, a wire shot by around his foot and flew
back into the grass. It was a booby trap, a snake wire.
I looked at the
man. He laid screaming in pain. I looked down his body and saw that
both his feet where no longer attached to his body. Snake wires where
in the area, they must of been put there to help hold off the enemy
attack that had come up the hill. They where still here.
"What
do we do! What happened?" Someone yelled in panic.
I began
to take off my armor as fast as I could.
I removed my
armor from the waste down and approached the soldier. I dragged him
back away from the wire, it slithered toward him a bit but I got him
away quick enough. I got him to safety and the squad medic made his
way up and began to treat the man. Another squad started to come down
the hill behind us.
"Traps!" I yelled and they came to
a stop. "Snake wires!" I finished.
"What the
fuck is a snake wire?" The soldier yelled again.
I answered
as I looked around for it.
"A snake wire is a magnetized
piece of wire. When a source of metal come near it, it will start to
more toward it. When in range it lashes out and and spins around to
cut though the metal, given if the plating isn't to strong. They can
cut clean though ours." I told him.
"Jesus
fucking christ!" He finished and started looking around for
snake wires.
I found the one that had taken the soldiers feet and
walked up it slowly. It began to slither to me a bit, it was being
magnetized to my upper armor a bit. I stepped back and removed my
helmet and the rest of my armor. When I was finished I slowly went up
to the wire. I carefully scooped my hand under it and picked it up,
careful not to clasp it to tight and cut my hand open. My heart began
to race as I held it. If it jumped for a source of metal, I knew I
would lose my hand. I carefully made my way to the trench line and
hopped in and began to make my way down it a bit. I tossed the thing
to the ground and put a rock on top of it.
I let out a sigh
of relief and looked back at my team. Others had removed the lower
sections of their armor and where looking around for more snake wires
as they made there way down the hill. I ran over to the man who was
the victim to the wire. I kneeled down beside him. His helmet was
removed and his left ankle was bandaged up but his right was exposed,
he was shaking a bit.
"I can't get a bandage to stay on with
his bone poking out like that." The corpsmen said. "I need
to cover and stop the bleeding now, no time to get him to the rally
point." He finished.
The corpsmen looked at me.
"Give
me your bayonet." He ordered.
My eyes became wide.
"Surely
your not..." I started.
"I have to, or he will die
soon, please your bayonet." He interrupted.
The soldier
looked up at us in great fear, he knew what was about to happen. I
pulled my bayonet from my belt and handed it to the medic and turned
away.
"I have nothing that can kill the pain. This is going
to hurt a lot." The corpsmen said honestly. "You will pass
out from the pain though. It will only hurt for a minute."
The
solider began to cry a bit harder and shake more and grabbed at the
flowers by him.
The soldier
began to scream at the top of his lungs. I looked over and the
soldier had sat up some. He mouth was open extremely wide and his
eyes where wide, the medic was sawing away at the bone stump with the
bayonet. Soon nothing was coming out of the soldiers mouth but it
remained wide open. He fell back down to the ground, out cold from
the pain.
"There." The medic said and tossed a piece of
bone about three inches long to the side and began to wrap up the
soldiers ankle.
I looked at the mans leg. Strangely the wire
hadn't hacked all the way though the mans bone. The spin just took
off all the flesh that was attached to it.
The other team
approached us. Their team medic came down and assisted in the
wrapping of the soldiers legs.
"What happened?" Asked
their team commander to me in disbelief. I looked at him.
"Snake
wires." He glanced around and then down the hill at our team.
They where at the bottom. About five men started back to our
position. I stood there in my boxers and looked at the wounded man
and then made my way back for my armor.
I looked around for any possible snake wires that may have made their way to my suit while I was away. It seemed clear and I began to put it back on. I heard the sound of dirt being kicked around then the sound of a engine. I looked off to my left and saw a transport hog making it way up the hill to us. It drove past me and came to a stop where the wounded man was. He was loaded up on the vehicle and our team medic got on with him and the vehicle did a one-eighty and began making its way back down the hill.
I finished
putting on my armor and began to head down the hill myself with the
others that had come up. I came down to the rally point. Ryan was
talking to a group of CO's. They saluted him and he saluted back.
They broke off and Ryan made his way to us.
"Well make sure
that doesn't happen to the next squad that comes down that hill."
He said angrily as he came up to me. "The next team will have to
make a detour around where the combat zone was." He added.
Jake, Steve and
Dave came up to me.
"What the fuck happened?" Asked
Steve. I explained about snake wires again to them.
"There
we go." Said Ryan and nodded off to behind me.
I turned and
looked out at the hill with the others. A large team of sappers where
getting out of some transport hogs and started walking though the
grass, flaming the entire area with flame throwers. Fire destroyed
the magnetized lock on snake wires. I could see little line of fire
shooting out though the air. Snake wire where jumping out for the
armor the sappers wore but the fire threw the lock of their target
off and missed. Soon, all the flowers that where painted with blood
where painted black with smoke and fire.
"A shame.
We had hopped a team from the Brazil division would still be holding
here." Ryan started. "Looks like the Chinese took the hill,
even with snake wires all over the place." He finished as he
watched the sappers.
"What's our next course of action?"
I asked.
"Well, I believe where air lifting off to the
Brazilian capital next." He answered.
We stood there silent.
"Well launch out when the last team arrives." He added
and went quiet himself.
I looked back at
the once grassy fortified hill that had been covered with flowers. I
spotted the last two teams together. They detoured off around the
fire and began to make their way to our position. I leaned my gun up
against my shoulder, Steve coughed a bit and began to knock against
his chest plating. I looked over at him. "Heart burn." He
said.
I looked away from him and back at the flaming hill.
