PoV: PFC Neji Hyuga, USMC
"Echo, get topside." Maka says over the radio, myself and one of their newer soldiers were already on the roof.
"LT, are you seeing this?" I ask as I train the sight of the SAW on a small group of locals talking.
"I see it, keep an eye on them, Delta is moving, check down the alley. Do you guys have eyes on us?" She asks as I look in the direction they were dropped off.
"Seen Albarn, happy hunting Delta team." Naruto says.
"We need to know what building you guys are on." She responds.
"Scope glare to the west is me, you see it?" Sasuke asks as he lifts his M40 in their direction.
"Seen, keep our asses safe." I continue to watch the group of individuals.
"Military age males." I say to the group.
"It's probably nothing." The girl next to me says as she continues to flip the fire selector switch on her rifle.
"Meme stop playing with that." Soul says as he pokes his head over the wall. That's when gunfire echoes out of a building just to our front and to the east. That's when one of the men uncovered a small fruit stand to actually hold AKs, not local produce.
"Shit they're armed." I nearly shouted as they ran to the building they just entered. "Albarn, those guys are armed with AK-47s, heading your way." I radio, nothing. That's when gunfire erupts.
"Reaper 1 Actual, do you copy?" Naruto asks, still nothing, Sasuke fires a shot and I look back to see someone carrying an RPG fall over.
"RPG pointed out way, had to engage." He says as more insurgents spill out of the building with the red roof and fire at our position, so we return fire. I point the sights in the general direction of where they're shooting at us and squeeze the trigger, putting a burst of five to six rounds down range. "Moving positions." Sasuke says as he rolls onto his back and slowly inched his way to another part of the roof.
"My gun isn't working." Meme next to me says.
"Hand it here." Sasuke says and she hands him it. "Get down." He shouts as I continue to fire. I get back down to see Sasuke flip the fire selector switch off of safe. "IT WAS ON SAFE YOU FUCKING MACNAMERA MORON." He goes to hand her back the rifle, but she never got down, and a stray bullet hits the back of her head, right under the helmet.
"Fuck."
"Shit, hey, that Meme girl's dead." Sasuke says as he kicks the corpse off him and continues his inching to a new spot. I get a good look at her face, or what is left of it, and I swallow whatever felt like it was coming back up and shake my head before returning to the fight.
"We gotta move." I hear Shikamaru say over the sound of the SAW. Then the thing stops, even though I'm still pulling the trigger.
"Shit, gotta reload." I pull the charging handle back, flip open the lid, sure enough the box was dry. How I went through a full box already I don't know. Grab a nex box, take the old one off, put the new one in, and feed it ammo. I slam the cover shut. "Back up."
"Alright, everyone check yourselves. Uchiha, Hyuga, you two cover us as we move to the red roofed building, once we are set we'll radio for you to move, got it?" Soul asks, and we both give a thumbs up and they head off. More insurgents heading in and out of the building, we keep putting rounds down range. Then everything goes quiet.
"I think that's it for now, I'mma reload and catch up to the rest of the team." Sasuke says as he inserts a new mag into his M40 and heads down. "Neji move." I get up and get down to the rest of Echo team.
"I got our front covered, Uzumaki, get Maka on comms." Soul says as I catch up and turn to our six.
"Delta 1 Actual, this is Echo 3." Naruto says as I take a knee. I grab my canteen and take a big swig.
"Is that as heavy as it looks?" One of the other Army ladies, Tsugami I think, asked.
"It's roughly 18 pounds, and 300 rounds of 5.56, so yeah, it's fucking heavy." I answer somewhat sarcastically.
"Sorry I asked."
"Echo 3, this is Delta 1 Actual, sorry for the delay. How do you copy?" Maka responds.
"We need to move, are you able to provide us cover?"
"Heard, where are you heading?"
"Red roofed building, can confirm it's where the supposed weapons cache is located."
"I saw that, give us one second." She responded as I wiped some of the sweat off my face and pushed the sunglasses I had on back up. "Alright, we got a vantage point. Move up when ready, and make sure to stagger."
"Copy that. Let's go, people." Naruto is the first to move, running over to a wall maybe 10 yards ahead of us. Shikamaru joins him, then Soul, who moves to a burned car just to the left of their wall, Killik grabs some cover just a few yards ahead of them. Sasuke grabs some cover via a half wall maybe five yards ahead of us. The other two move to the wall of a different building, so I move next to Naruto and Shikamaru.
"Good to go." I say as I tap Naruto's shoulder and he moves to a small wall another 20 yards ahead. Tsugami runs up next to him. Sasuke moves up to Shikamaru and I, Soul moves up with Killik, and the latter moves to the building across the street.
"Last man move up." I call and turn to see Spartio's third recruit, the one that didn't die, is standing where she moved, and looks to be shaking. "I SAID LAST MAN."
"Nuh-uh. I can't do it." She says softly.
"Anya, it's okay, come here Anya." Tsugami calls her pal.
"Don't talk to her like a dog." Naruto turns to her before turning around. "EITHER MOVE YOUR ASS OR I'LL BE DRAGGING YOU AROUND WITH MY FOOT ENLODGED IN IT." He shouts at the top of his longs, almost like a Drill would, and this gives her the courage to hull ass… right past everyone. "The fuck is she going?"
"Anya, where are you…" As Tsugami asks this, Anya falls over, and soon the report of the round sounds.
"Shit. Anybody see where she got hit?" Shikamaru asks. "What about where the shot came from?"
"I saw a glimmer up near the tower over there." Sasuke says, pointing to a tower to our front. "And if that's where the sniper is at we're fucked."
"How so?" Killik asks.
"Religious site." Shikamaru answers.
"Well fuck, and we can't leave her out there. Okay, I got an idea. Killik, Sasuke, and I will toss our smokes out and try to block their view. Naruto, you run out and grab her. Anybody else want to say something?" Soul asks, and nobody says anything.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's do it." Naruto says as the three start lobbing smokes. Once there is enough concealment, Naruto hops over the wall and enters the smoke at a full dead sprint. A minute or so later he runs back out with the injured soldier on his shoulders. "Round went right through her chestplate, probably still in her torso."
"Let me see her." Shikamaru says as he takes a glove off and puts it to her wrist.
"Why… Why is she staring at the sky like that?" Tsugami asks and Shikamaru shakes his head. "Y-you can save her right?" She again asks as she starts to visually shake.
"She's dead. Nothing we can do for her but grieve." He answers softly.
"No… no no no. T-that can't be. Meme and Anya can't be dead." She hugs her rifle and tears start to pool up in her eyes. "THEY'RE MY ONLY FRIENDS." Now she starts screaming, having an emotional breakdown. She lunges at the now lifeless body and hugs it.
"Did you not check her pulse?" Shikamaru asks Naruto as the latter checks his ammo.
"I don't fucking know how to, do I look like a doc?"
"Guys. I probably wouldn't talk about that." I tell them.
"Echo, this is Delta 1 Actual, how is the wounded holding up?" Maka asks.
"Negative Delta 1, she didn't make it." I respond as I look back over to the tower. A shot hits the wall I'm behind so I put what little of my head was around the corner back in. "We gotta get rid of the sniper."
"No shit Sherlock." Killik responds. "Could we get Black Star to take it out with his Jav?" He asks over the radio.
"Negative, RoE says we can't hit buildings with any religious significance." One of the other voices says.
"But Anya's dead thanks to that fucker." Teugami adds.
"Can't we just ask your daddy for permission Albarn?" Naruto asks, and there is a moment of silence. "Is that a no… hello?" Still nothing, but from what I can see, everyone with us is failing to hold back a hardy chuckle.
"That's not funny private." Maka responds, and sounds a little pissed.
"Sure doesn't sound like it from here Lieutenant." He says back.
"You are sooo getting reprimanded for that." I tell him with a grin and he shrugs his shoulders.
"Overlord, this is Reaper 1 actual, we have a sniper taking shots at us from the tower of a masque, and we can't move up on the weapons cache. Permission to keep his head down or take the tower down." Maka radios.
"Reaper 1, that is a negative on your end, we'll see if we can get Maverick in the AO to take it out that way." Overlord responds, we all stay put and Tsugami regains her composer, or at the least tries to.
"You good?" Naruto asks her.
"I think so. I stopped crying mostly because my eyes ran out of tears." She answers, still breathing heavily.
"It's gonna be alright. Everyone here knew what we were signing up for. I know it'll be hard, but you gotta keep going." Naruto tells her as he pats her shoulder.
"Reaper 1 actual, this is Overlord, we cannot, I repeat we cannot touch that masque, Yad Allah may use it as propaganda against us."
"Thanks for trying Overload, Reaper 1 out."
"Fucking pussies." I mumble to myself as Naruto lays down and reaches for something.
"Fuck it, Sasuke, get eyes on that tower." He says as he unhooks Anya's helmet.
"What's the play?" Sasuke asks as he pulls a rangefinder out of his rucksack .
"Classic sniper decoy." Naruto puts the helmet on the end of his rifle. "Got your math ready?"
"678 yards, sight is set for zero at 400. Wind is blowing to our… left at about five miles per." He starts jotting down some things. "Alright, I think I'm good."
"Good, let's get him." Naruto lifts the rifle up just enough to get the helmet just over the half wall, and shortly after Sasuke fires a shot. I pop my head around the corner and see a body falling from the tower.
"Sniper's down, move up." Sasuke says casually as I move up to where Naruto is.
"Think they're angry at you two?" I ask him as I reposition the SAW.
"Let them be. It kept everyone else alive." He answers. "If they use a place of worship for anything other than humanitarian purposes during a time of war, then turn it to rubble."
"What about, say the Vatican?" Tsugami asks him.
"Any place to worship God, Allah, or whatever you pray to should never be used for war. Now a field hospital is different, that's humanitarian. So if they used the Vatican for say a nuclear launch sight, fuck it." He answers her question as he tosses her dead friend's helmet back. "Sorry about that, by the way."
"You're good." She starts to chuckle lightly, which is concerning. "You know, Meme used to joke that if we all turned 30 and we were single, the three of us should marry each other. Anya tried to tell her that that's not how that works. It was some of the funniest things I've heard."
"You good to keep going kid?" I ask.
"I think so." She answers as Delta team comes up.
"What the hell happened?" Maka asks as they all take cover.
"I killed the sniper." Sasuke answers, causing Albarn to shake her head.
"Whatever, everyone ready, we still have to take out that cache." She says as she checks her ammo.
"Let's go." Naruto responds as he, Shikamaru, and I get up and make our way to the building. Naruto reaches first and gets to the left side of a door, I get behind him, and Shikamaru sets up on the other side. Ox from Delta team gets behind him and Naruto turns to kick the door. He gets behind me and Shikamaru flows in.
"DOWN ON THE FUCKING GROUND." He yells at an unarmed man, who follows the instructions. "I got him, check the top floor and basement."
"Copy." I respond as I head to the steps going up. "Sasuke, on me."
"On it." He stacks up on me and we slowly creep up the steps, nothing, just an attic. Sasuke turns the flashlight on his M4 Carbine and shines it into the room, and what we see shocks us. "Hey guys… y'all gonna wanna see this." Sasuke says as I pull out a small camera and take some pictures.
"What's the problem, Marine?" Maka asks over the radio.
"I think it'll be easier to explain if you see it, Lieutenant." I respond as we hear footsteps come up the steps. "Look at this shit."
"What the fuck? What is American equipment doing here?" She asks, as shocked as we are. I walk towards a case of weapons and grab one of the rifles.
"Civilian model AR-15s. This is civilian grade shit." I add.
"And civilian market MREs. How are terrorists smack dab in Afghanistan getting American civilian stuff?" Sasuke asks.
"It's all mixed in with the AKs too. The hell is going on here?" As we ponder this, Kim from Delta pops her head in.
"Maka we got a problem."
"What now?" She leads us to Ox, Naruto, and Killik.
"Big ass IED boss." Ox says as we reach the bottom of the steps.
"And our own shit up in the attic, civilian shit." I add.
"Alright, grab any ammo and supplies you guys need from upstairs, when we get out, Ox, you disabled the IED. After that we blow this to high hell and make our way to the main target building. Got that." Everyone nods. "Good, let's get it done." I hear out the door where Shikamaru, Tsugami, Star, Kid, and Jacqueline I think, all stand around our new friend, who starts pleading with them, or at least it sounds like he is pleading.
"Anybody other than Maka speak Arabic?" Star asks.
"Not a clue." I respond, everyone else shakes their heads as Maka walks up. "Lieutenant, any idea what he's saying?"
"Begging for his life. Why do you guys have American equipment?" She asks him in Arabic. He says something back, and she cocks an eyebrow. "And who's making these generous donations?" He goes quiet.
"Answer her questions or you won't like what we'll do off the books." Soul says. The man starts saying something again.
"Is that so?" She turns her back to the group, the rest of us look at her confused."Overlord I need you to run a check on a man named Richard…" She is cut off when the building we were all just in is blown sky high.
"Shit, where's Ford?" Naruto asks, which freaks Kim out.
"Ox, are you okay? Ox do you copy?"
"Kim, breath." Jacqueline says, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"We gotta find him. Sasuke, Shikamaru, Neji, let's go." Naruto says, waving for us to follow. We reach what is left of the building and start trying to sift through the rubble.
"Ford, if you can hear us, say something." Sasuke shouts. I move around, keeping my gun up just in case, and I hear something break under my foot. I look down and see the pair of glasses he was wearing now in pieces.
"I doubt he's still kicking." I say as the rest of the group catch up.
"Yep… wait I think I got something here." Naruto responds as I turn to him and he grabs at a big chunk of concrete. "Neji, help me out here." I ran over to help and saw his legs, at least from the knee down, the rest was covered by the debris. We are able to lift it up, more shit in the way. Naruto starts to remove that, but pulls his hand back, with the tips of his fingers covered in blood. He pulls one more big chunk and what we find isn't pretty. "He didn't make it." Shikamaru and Sasuke come over and look over our shoulders.
"Damn, I hope it was instant." Sasuke says.
"Hell of a way to die." Shikamaru adds.
"Did you find him?" Kim asks as she walks up.
"What's left." I answer solemnly. I guess she looked at the mess, because after I said that she passed out. "Oh shit." We all rush to check on her.
"Give me room people." Shikamaru says as he takes the flashlight off his rifle and peels her eyelids open and shines the light into them. "She's out." He unlatches her helmet. "Uh Jacqueline… yeah Jacqueline, roll her over onto her right side. Thank you." He gets the helmet off and checks the back of her head. "No bleeding. From what I could tell by her eyes she's concussed to all hell." He pulls his glove off and puts his index and middle fingers on her neck, then her palm. "Still has a pulse. Lieutenant, we need to get her out of here."
"I'll call for a medevac." Maka responds. "Overlord this is Reaper 1 actual, we need a medevac."
"Copy that. Raptor 1 is spinning up. Hold tight, ETA 20."
"Thanks Overlord. Listen up people, we gotta get a parameter setup. Raptor 1 is on their way." Maka starts to say when a round hits a wall and everyone gets down. I look up and see a group of insurgents coming our way, firing in our direction, so I set my M249 up and start to return fire, turning one of their chests into a red mist. Everyone starts firing at the insurgents and I duck down as rounds hit the cover I'm using. I look back up and see what's left scattered.
"We're clear. Everyone good?" I ask as I check myself over.
"All green, still mean." Naruto responds as he reloads.
"Where's our new pal?" Soul asks as we turn to see the man running not too far away, and Naruto chases after him.
"Naruto, the fuck you doing?" Sasuke yells.
"Hey, get back here Marine." Maka adds as Naruto tackles him to the ground. "Your boy has some wheels on him."
"To be fair, he did run the fastest mile in our school's history." I say as we start jogging to them.
"What you hiding fucker?" Naruto asks as he grabs his arm and is able to pull it away from his chest and we see he has something. "The fuck is it?"
"What is it? Answer the question or I'm putting a round in both your fucking kneecaps." Maka shouts. "Do not tempt me."
"Looks like a detonator." I say as I take a look at it. "Must have hit it when none of us were looking."
"So that fucker killed Ox?" Killik asks as he catches up to us.
"They probably expected us not to notice the IED because they have American equipment." Maka says. "At least that's my theory."
"I'll buy it." Naruto adds, and soon we hear a chopper overhead. And soon Rapture One starts lowering to pick up any injured.
"Kim's up, still loopy." Shikamaru says as he and Jacqueline help her into the helo.
"That's good to hear." Maka responds.
"Maka." Star says as he walks up.
"Yeah." The two talk for a bit. "Fuck, alright go."
"I'm sorry."
"You better." I walk up to her as I take my helmet off and wipe sweat away from my face.
"What's happening?"
"Base wants Blake back. Lucky bastard." We all gather around and take a headcount. "Alright listen up people. We have three KIA, one injured, and base wants to see Star back at base. So here's the plan. We head to the VIP building and find our man. They have two, what we assumed was stolen, Humvees, we're taking them. Everyone copy?" We shake our heads. "Let's get it." She starts to match her way to the building, and I don't know if anyone else saw it, but there was an angry look in her eyes, here's to hoping she doesn't get us killed.