August 20th, 2015

1300 hours

Somewhere in Afghanistan Mountain range.

The air was dry and hot, creating an uncomfortable time for a small platoon of Rangers whose faces weren’t showing their obvious discomfort, but rather determination and worry. Their eyes focused down in the valley floor as if waiting for something, or someone to show themselves. Each man held their weapon at the ready, the silence doing its work to create an unnerving atmosphere. The silence, however, was soon broken as Sergeant Richardson, one of the Platoon’s squad leads came sliding over beside both his platoon commander and the Scout detachment NCO.

“Where is this guy, sir? He was supposed to meet us here two hours ago… Something about this whole thing seems fucked.” Richardson commented, his eyes peering down the valley from their observation point.

William, a young yet experienced 27-year-old first lieutenant, eyed him for a moment, his blue eyes looking at his sergeant before looking over at the rest of his young that remained spread out, hidden behind either a large boulder or in a makeshift slit-trench.

“I know…” William replied slowly, biting his bottom lip in annoyance as he tried to come up with a better answer. “I know… but our CIA contact told us to wait for the contact here, though… shit, shit, shit… Staff Sergeant!” William slowly twisted about, looking over at the Calvary Scout NCO whose eyes were hidden behind a dark pair of tactical sunglasses.

“Yes, sir? What’s up?” Lucas asked as he twisted about, leaning his back against the boulder he was previously laying on.

The lieutenant nodded, “Any chance I could get you and your guys to go and scout up ahead?” As he asked the Cav scout he brought his M4A1 up and peered down the ACOG scope, looking for any signs of life. “Something about all this seems off.”

“Agreed” Richardson noted, his own eyes scanning the valley. “Shit seems too quiet…”

“Mhm… plus what’s more, the birds aren’t chirping.” William added quietly as he slumped down, relaxing a bit.

“Birds?” A nearby private questioned, “What you mean?”

Andre was the one to look at him and shake his head. “You should know this bro. When it’s silent as the grave like this… means something bad is on the way.”

“Ambush.” The private muttered softly, cursing under his breath as he quickly began to resume his scan of the mountain range.

Andre nodded in reply before doing the same.

“Andre, have you and your squad move to get a better vantage point to cover the scouts. I don’t want them getting fucked up when they’re doing their job.” As William made the order he looked over at Lucas who quickly nodded before keying his mic, giving the order for his team to move.

William watched both the NCO’s return to their units, each quickly carrying out his orders before suddenly a crack snapped past his helmet. He snapped down towards the area the shot had come from, his blue eyes quickly going wide in utter shock before the area was being peppered by hostile small arms.

“Contact! Front one-hundred meters!” Cried William before he brought his M4A1 up and began to return fire, his eyes looking for any muzzle flashes or any signs of life.

He quickly found one in the distance followed closely by the shapes of men running from behind rocks and bushes. His eyes went wide for a moment but his training quickly kicked in as he calmed his nerves and took aim. Squeezing the trigger, sending a burst towards the first target, the man crying out in pain as he spun about before falling dead. The second looked at his friend’s death in shock for a moment before shaking it off and bringing his AK up before William’s second volley punched through his skull. His lifeless body slumping over dead. Though the blue eyed lieutenant didn’t stop, as he began to scan for his next target, seeing his third in his sights. Firing once more the third man fell lifeless onto the rocks before another man let out a scream of pain as one of the bullets from Will’s shot ripped through the third’s torso before slamming into the other’s leg, causing him to fall screaming as he clutched his bloody leg.

As his platoon and the scouts began to return fire, his comms began to blare with numerous voices, each reporting contact to the left, right, and center positions. They were surrounded. They couldn’t do anything either to call for air support… The main radio connecting them to the base was somehow or another cut-off, essentially putting them in a small dark zone with only each other to contact, as it seemed their own short range communications seemed to be unaffected.

Richardson, however, didn’t much care as he quickly went prone as he made his way to his squad who was already returning fire while reporting any contact sightings and their range. “Fuck!” Andre cursed to himself as he brought his Mk18, his gloved hand making full use of the foregrip. As he continued to fire down towards the general area the incoming fire was coming from, he heard a familiar voice over his own comms.

“Knight-One! Vehicles are under heavy fire, need support! Over!” Came a panicked tone belonging to none other than Sergeant Dylan “Bull” Smith who was in charge of the armored Humvees maintenance, along with the team of 91B mechanics he had with him.

Andre glanced over to William who shot at look back at him, his face a mix of worry and fear. “Andre! Take your Squad and regroup with the Humvees! I’ll have squads two and four cover your retreat!” The dark skinned sergeant nodded quickly.

“Charlie! Fall back! We’re moving to regroup with the Humvees!” He barked quickly as he continued to return fire.

The blue eyed commander watched for a moment longer as his 3rd squad began to make this fighting retreat back to the vehicles, before turning to spot the scouts moving to regroup with the rest of the chalk. “Boerhave! What’s your team’s status?”

Lucas was focused on covering his scouts as they made this withdrawal, each man covering the other as their training dictated. Keying his mic as he continued to fire, he opened his mouth to reply, “We’re falling back, Anderson! Our flanks and forward are under heavy fire, but otherwise, we’re all good. Moving to regroup with you. Over.”

William nodding, replied quickly, “Sounds good. Once you reach my position, we’re pulling out! We’re going to get fucked if we stay here any longer. Out.” As the final word left his lips, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his neck followed closely by the sound of a bullet slamming into the mountain behind him.

Slumping down, the young officer, quickly brought his left hand up to his neck before bringing it to his eyes to see if his fears were true, and sadly they were. He’d be hit and was bleeding. “Fuck… I’m hit… fuck, fuck, fuck… keep calm Will… don’t let up now. Not yet.” He began telling himself, his left hand holding his neck, his glove quickly getting covered his own blood. Turning over he looked around to see if he could see anyone. He quickly spotted Lucas running towards him at full speed.

“Lieutenant’s down! I need a medic here ASAP. Come on!” Lucas barked, as he pulled William up to rest behind cover.

Within moments a medic came rushing towards them, swinging around a pack before be began to pull out the necessary tools and material needed. William looked at them both calmly and grinned, “Just a scratch… Just get a Band-Aid on it or something and get to your squad man.” He said calmly, his grin still firmly across his face, in an effort to try and ease the otherwise worried expression on his friends face.

“Man… Get him out of here Evan. I’ll have my team cover you. Get a move on” Lucas ordered quickly, pushing William’s younger brother and the medic to hurry before he swung his hand around ordering his team to regroup. “Let’s go gents! We’re getting the Lieutenant out of here.” As soon as he made the order he quickly shifted his attention back at the enemy firing towards them, bringing his own M4A1 up.

Quickly spotting his first target moving up the mountain he quickly lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger. Through his scope, he saw the target crumple to the ground, a small puff of bloody mist letting him know he hit. Turning to see William now being carried off by 1st squad he began to make his own retreat. Stopping every now and again to return fire, as he slowly began to reach the crest of the hilltop.

The situation was becoming dire with every passing minute as the Taliban continued to encroach ever closer… though they were paying a bloody price for it as the more they drew closer, a Ranger would spot and put him down, hard. Though none of it really mattered since the Ranger chalk was trying its best to return to their Humvee’s which were currently under heavy fire as well. Bull was sadly in the middle of the hell storm of bullets and screams. His eyes seeing a number of targets coming past the 60-meter mark.

“Hmm… well… this isn’t good.” Dylan whispered to himself as he pulled himself behind the cover of the armored vehicle. Suddenly as he turned around he saw William’s unit come up over the hill, his eyes narrowing in on the sight of them all firing at all sides. “This REALLY isn’t good.” He repeated once more, before looking up and seeing the ranger manning the gun drop, a splash of blood being the one indicator that he’d taken a bad hit.

Dylan quickly popped open the door, and the moment his sight came to rest on the fallen ranger he could see the man was dead, as blood seeped from an open head wound. “Fuck!” Cursing softly he pulled himself into the Humvee before dragging the dead man from the gunner position and slipping the body onto the seat before he took the fallen rangers place. Quickly popping up, he checked the gun, noting how the blood seemed to have missed the actual .50cal. Grinning, Dylan quickly went through the motions, making sure it was ready to fire, he took aim and opened fire.

As the 50 opened up, two of its first victims, Dylan assumed were the ones responsible for his fellow Ranger’s death, were torn asunder as the large caliber rounds ripped through their bodies like a knife through butter. All that remained of the two attackers was a bloody mess of limbs. Though he didn’t let up the fire, quickly shifting the turret around he began to fire on another group of Taliban fighters that drew too close. Four men in total tried to hide behind a large bolder but to no avail as the .50 cal ripped through the stone before ripping the four men up. Bull did his best to continue the fire, and as he did so, his own team quickly began to return fire with the other Humvee 50’s, turning the attackers to a bloody paste.

“Hey, short stuff! You miss us?” Came the sarcastic tone of Andre who came rushing up to Dylan’s vehicle.

Bull just grunted before grinning widely, “Tyrone.” He replied warmly, his focus still on keeping the wall of fire going.

In truth, both friends were happy to see that neither was harmed. But the moment Andre saw William being carried by both the medic and Will’s brother Evan, his happy mood soon soured.

“What happened?” Richardson asked as he came rushing up to help.

William looked up smiling, “Got a bit unlucky with getting a minor wound to the neck, but nothing to worry about. What’s the situation right now?” He soon waved the medic away, before finally also getting free from his brother. “It’s a flesh wound, nothing more… worry about the others.” He told the medic who looked like he was going to protest, but was more or less cut off by the lieutenant pointing towards one of his rangers who dropped holding his arm.

Richardson looked at Evan who gave the same worried look before they both shook any questions aside saving them for later. “We have two wounded, one KIA from Dylan’s team.” Andre reported with a slight sigh.

The blue-eyed officer cast his gaze to the dirt in thought as he heard that one of his rangers had been killed. “Dammit… Right, let’s get everyone mounted and get the hell out of here before things get worse.”

Both Andre and Evan nodded in agreement before they returned to their respective squads, and vehicles. Within moments the entire chalk was mounted and on the move again, the entire exit out of the valley being a constant firefight, with Dylan in the lead vehicle with William as he continued to lay down heavy suppressive fire down on the Taliban until finally they reached open ground once more and had communications with base as they came out of the dark zone. As they escaped the valley, the unit thought the roads would be littered with IED’s but thankfully there were no sightings. Rather it was a silent and smooth trip back to base, which was nothing short of a miracle in the eyes of every man in the unit.

William visibly relaxed in his seat as the adrenaline began to leave his system. His hand covering the area he had been shot, which was now wrapped up. As they drove down the road back towards base, his mind, like many of the other Rangers was filled with the one question, ‘what happened?’ A thought that would continue to plague them for the next few hours as they drove through the country onto their road.

Dylan sighed lightly as he rested his back against the frame. “Safe…”

Will nodded in agreement, as did both Evan who was currently driving the Humvee, and the medic who was looking over the body of the fallen ranger. “Yeah… safe… though we should never have been in danger in the first place.” William commented aloud.

“Yeah, well, that’s what we get for trusting a spook. Most of those guys tend to be off carrying out their own agenda.” Dylan grunted in annoyance. “They couldn’t give two shits about us. I bet the bastard sold us out to save his own ass… or to get something from the fucks who attacked us.”

“Mhm, I agree with Bull.” Evan said flatly, his tone showing his utter neutrality to the matter as his focus remained solely on the road.

William just shrugged, before looking out the window once more, “Maybe… maybe.” Right now, he was only focused on trying to think up what to put on the report. But for now, he pushed even that thought aside as pain shot through him due to the wound on his neck. “OWE! That bloody hurts!”