Almanty, Kazakstan.- Night. 9:17 PM.
December 2013.
US casualties in war; 53,719- US Division forces in region; 1,300

The wind snapped at me as I feel in formation with the others though the cold air and dark sky, hidden by the downpour of snow and our white camo that helped blend in with artillery shelling flashes on the outskirts of the other side of town.

I reached down by my waist for the parachute release cord and grabbed hold of it and waited for the signal to snap the chute. The buidings grew and leveled out in the distance as we fell and the few seconds passed.

"Airborne, snap one!" Thompson barked over the com inside our helmets.
I pulled the cord. My body shot up straight, leaving me falling feet first as the chute deployed out. Pressure squeezed through out my entire body as I rapidly slowed down from the advanced chute, they would bring you into a slight hovering fall if you waited.
I reached down for the cord beside the first and made sure that my supplies where firmly attached to the cord of the chute as well.

"Snap two Airborne!" Thompson ordered.
I pulled the cord. My body was thrown backward as the advanced chute shot out and took my supplise with it, throwing me back and into a dive where I continued my descend with the others.
The buildings rapidly grew bigger and leveled out as we decended in our dive, our supplies dropping in behind us.

I reached for the third and final cord and grabbed hold and waited as we feel.

My body grew extremely cold as we fell, creating a cold wind that went against me while I went.
"Okay team, snap three." The order finally came.

I pulled the cord and the backup chute released and deployed. My body pulled up straight again as it slowed me down.

I looked down at my landing zone. A building was in the way.
'No... no.' I said to myself aloud as I came down on the slanted roof of the building.

My feet made contact with the roof as they crashed through the snow that had built up on it. I quickly broke out into a run of about three steps so my chute could catch some wind, which it did, lifting me a few inches off the roof and over the edge and to the snow covered ground below, the chute covering me up afterward.

I jumped up as snow poured into my combat uniform some. I pulled the chute off of me and quickly began to un attach it from me and get to work stuffing it back in the bag like the others. I glanced around while I worked. We landed in a cul-de-sac of buildings. A statue rested in the middle surrounded by low concrete walls that we used for cover to reform once we finished packing up.

Our supplies soon landed afterward in the cul-de-sac with us in which we acquired and loaded back up onto our uniforms.

I was kneeled down by the front stone wall next to Jones, putting magazine ammo into my belt pouches when Thompson called us in behind the statue.
I crouched walk behind it and grouped in with the others and took a knee and finished attaching my supplise as I slid my canteen into its holster.

"Al'right, listen up." Thompson started as he stood up in front of us. "I apologize that I couldn't make a formal introduction in the chopper so I'll have go over it here on the field."
I was suprised he was taking the time to do this on the field and wondered if he was really knew what he was doing, especially seeing the wrinkles on his face it made me question him from when he was assigned to us when we boarded the chopper.
"My name is Nick Thompson. As you may notice, I'm getting up in age and am fifty nine years of age."

My eyes opened wide for a brief second in a small burst of shock that we where being commanded by a senior citizen in combat and made me worry.

I looked away from him and leaned back slightly to look around the statue and see if it was clear, fearing the enemy was possibly watching us though a sniper scope or something as we sat here.
"Hey!" Thompson barked.

I turned and faced him to find him pointing at me.
"You! Pay attention!" He barked rather loud, scaring me do to everything else being quiet except the howling of the wind. "I've listened to leaders give briefings and introductions when under fire, you can too."

He lowered his hand and instantly returned to normal, as though nothing had happened.

"You all may be questioning my age but I assure you, I have earned the privilege of fighting in this war. I have seen combat in Mexico, Iraq, Desert Storm, and as far back as Vietnam when I entered under age at fourteen in sixty eight. "

I felt relieved some to know he was a highly trained combat veteran, something the United States Army had very few of at this point.

"Now that you know me a bit, I'll commence with the detailed briefing."
He reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a map.
"I again apologize for not being able to do this in the heli so bear with me." He said as he laid it out on the ground in front of all of us.

"We are here." He said and pointed out our position on the map.
We all leaned in and looked, me having to peak over someone shoulders, I think Armstrong's.
"Off about a six thousands yards over here is a cavalry team that's moving in on the city from the flank."
He pointed off out into a hilly region about two miles to the East, us being in the South of the city.
"They will be directing South-East and entering the city here, where a small country road enters the town." He pointed it out. "Here, down the road about three hundred yards out is the rally point."

Thompson's finger slid across the map and to a four way intersection just ahead of us and to the left of cavalry entry point by about the same distance of three hundred feet.

"Airborne reserves will be parachuting in here on the rally point once the cavalry gives the singal. Our mission is to clear or eliminate any hostile shooters that may pose a threat to the armored units at the rally point. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir." We all replied 'unevenly.'

"Al'right. Now here's how we will proceed." He started again as he pointed out our movements and things. "We will move in behind these buildings here and move down along them for the street. We will cross the street on chance and in behind the rally point on the North, using the tight quarters for control once we clear them out. We will then execute a assault to the south of the street and hold it from any forces we passed by that may try to counter attack before the armor arrives."
"Yes sir." We all replied.
"Good." Thompson answered as he folded up the map and put it into his pouch then looked up at us.

He quickly looked left to right.
"One, two, three, four, five, six..." He said quickly. "Where's Armstrong?" He finished asking.

It took me a second to think of who Armstrong was.

"He's right here." I said as I flopped my right arm down on the persons left shoulder in front of me and leaned in to look at his face.

He looked to the left at me. I could tell he wasn't Armstrong cause he said something, things Armstrong rarely did.
"I'm Night." He said.

I looked confused at him, thinking that he had been Armstrong.

I shook the snow off me some and looked around.

"There." A female voice spoke up, I quickly knew it was Chisim.

I looked over at her as she pointed out down at the end of the cul-de-sac, Armstrong was walking out and into the street that ran opposite with the sac.

"Armstrong! Get your god damn ass back here now!" Thompson's voice said quitely yet angered over the com.
Armstrong stopped and turned back toward us and stood their looking at us in the middle of the street in front of the cul-de-sac entrance.

I started waving him back toward us. He soon started walking back toward us.

He came to a stop as a light flashed in on him from behind a building at the end of the sac on the left side, out of our sight. A voice yelled out telling him. I recognized the language, it was Chinese, I knew Chinese.
The voice yelled out for him to drop his gun, Armstrong, not knowing what was being told to him, threw his hands up and looked down at the source of the light, still holding the gun.
"Cover." Thompson ordered quietly.

I dropped to the ground beside the stone statue and peaked around to watch, like most the others.

The voice continued to yell at him to put the gun down, Anderson still didn't understand what they where saying and couldn't figure out what they wanted and ended up dropping to his knees, gun still in the air.
The light on him intensified and became extremely bright, causing Armstrong to look away from it. Two people walked up to him in the light and surrounded him, one in front, one behind. One of them waved his right arm and the light dimmed back to normal.

The one in the front grabbed and pulled Armstrong's gun from his hands and looked it over, checking to see if it was loaded and everything.

'American' I heard one of the Chinese soldiers yell back to the sources of the light in his language.

Armstrong suddenly stood up when the Chinese soldier in the front wasn't looking, causing him to swing back around and the soldier behind him to jump slightly.
"Shoot them!" Armstrong yelled out.

The Chinese soldiers looked at him confused.
"Shoot them now!" He yelled again.

The soldiers looked around the area in confusion. Armstrong was going to give us away soon.

The Chinese soldier in the front looked back at Armstrong and started laughing. He soon was laughing his ass off and for no reason it seemed. He suddenly stopped and smacked Armstrong in the face with the M4A1 he took from him, knocking him to the ground. He soon began beating him with the butt of the gun over and over, stopping after about nine hits.

'That felt good!' The soldier yelled back to the others at the light sources.

'Hurry up and finish it, I'm want to go report it and get some food. Let someone else check the area for more!' A voice yelled back.

'Okay!'

The man in the front pulled Armstrong back up to his feet, but Armstrong slouched down a bit from his wounds.

The man behind him reached down into his holster and pulled out his handgun. He slid it up under the back of Armstrong's helmet some, at a angel that it still pointed at his head, and pulled the trigger.
The man in front jumped from the sound of the shot as Armstrong's body fell to the ground.

'That's how you do it without making a mess.' He said loudly and happy, laughing some.
"Everyone stay down." Thompson said quietly over the com.
My mouth was dropped in shock and fear. I had seen death in game and movies but to see it in person, it was far different and no amount of precision in a game or movie could resemble what it is actually like, even the ones that make you cry like you where there.
But you knew they always got back up and continued to live, but Armstrong wasn't going to. I wanted to revert to a time before the moment and change what would of happened, like in a game or to redo the scene. It was how I had always delt with death before hand and the only way I knew how to look at it, thinking I could as I lost touch with reality some. But his body continue to lay there still, even more still then the statue beside me and I knew he wasn't getting back up and I realized I wasn't ready for this.

Liquid dampened my pants as I laid there in the snowfall. My eyes where focuses on Armstrong's life-less body as it rested, being buried by the snowfall. Everything around him blurred out of my sight, he was all I could see.

That ended as my body shook, Thompson tried to gain my attention.

"The patrol car is gone, where moving." He said while not looking at me but at Armstrong's body.

I looked up at him. He took his arm off my shoulder and made his way away from me to the right.

I tried to get to my feet but couldn't, I couldn't control the shaking of my legs and couldn't get up and ended up falling back down onto the snow, my legs to weak to hold me.

I was soon pulled up to my feet by Cartland, who helped me across the curving cul-de-sac street and into a gap between two buildings with the others.

I grabbed onto a pole that ran along side one of the building walls and used it to help hold myself up as Thompson wrote something down in a pad and returned the pad to his pouch.

"Listen up." He started. "There's no doubt that Armstrongs stupid action has given us away. We will need to move more alert now, patrols may be on the look for us soon if not by now. We must secure that intersection at no matter the enemy awareness."

"Yes, sir." Everyone replied except me.

A question was running though my head. If seeing Armstrong's death shook me up this bad, then could I take someone else's? Would I be able to pull the trigger after I aim in on the person... can I even aim in on the person? Can I handle the yelling and screams of others? ...Can I handle living?

Sergeant Jones noticed and approached me as I held onto the pipe with my right hand, holding my gun with my left.

He stopped next to me and leaned in.

"He's dead, get over it." He said quietly. "He was stupid, it would be a mistake if he lived so forget it. You can't change it. All you can do is accept it. Just like with everyone else that dies. Accept it and move on, or it will be your life you regret before you die when a gun is put to the back of your head."
There was a moments pause between us before I responded.

"Regret?" I asked back quietly.
"Yeah. Regreting that you didn't accept it and you spent your time in fear. Fear, which leads to your death on the battlefield, knowing you could of accepted and moved on... fought, and lived."

He patted me on the shoulder and took my hand off the pole and had me use it to help hold my gun.

"Deny... and die. It's up to you." He finished.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and sniffed up the cold air as Jones walked back to Thompson.
"Everything taken care of?" I heard Thompson ask him in which Jones answered yes.
I thought over what Jones had said to me.
"A'lright team, form ranks, single line." Thompson's voice ordered over the com.
The team formed up a line along the wall of one of the buildings, Thompson in front being highest rank.
I took my place forth in line... well, third as of now.

The Captain started around the corner, us following behind him.
I thought over what Jones said to me carefully as we moved quietly along the building side, only the faint noise of the wet crunching noise from the snow and the wind was all that could be heard. I thought everything over. I decided to live the upcoming fight.