A
Arsenal XA4
Guest
Original poster
The bossman hesitates to enter the hold.
Something is definitely wrong here. He finally starts into the hold and I follow, checking our six every few seconds.
I gotta say, his technique is rather shoddy... Chief would call him out for it in a heartbeat. I motion for him to go down first. As soon as he's down he gives me the signal and I descend. We stack back up and proceed. I resume checking our six at regular intervals. That's when I hear him slip and fall.
"Boss, you..." What I see takes me back to Afghanistan...
A village in the Panjshir Valley where I witnessed the ass end of a slaughter...
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Somewhere in the Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan
2005...
Lonestar has point. Being from West Texas I guess that makes him better at navigating mountainous terrain. All I've ever known was the plains of Oklahoma and the seas of the world. I'm behind him and Chief and Raven are behind me.
Chief Steiner's got our 'pig', an M-60E3 machine gun. The man's an artist with that thing. Raven has an M-16A2 with an M-203 strapped to it. Lonestar is humping both an M-500 shotgun and an M-82A1 fifty caliber rifle.
I'm content to carry an M-4A1 with ACOG scope and forward grip. No flair, just enough to get the job done.
"Lonestar, I thought you said you knew where we were going." Raven says from the back of the line.
"Hey now, all in due time! Ya don't rush perfection." Lonestar shouts back.
"Would both of you shut up? The way you're bickering you'd think you were married..." Steiner snaps back. We travel in silence for about a quarter mile when we hear that unmistakable sound of Kalashnikov fire on the wind.
"Any body else hear that?" I ask.
"Yeah..." Steiner replies as he keys his throat mic. "Skyeye, this is Seiger with Fireteam Alpha. We need some visuals of any villages near our position."
"Copy that, Alpha. Stand by one..." We all take a knee, weapons shouldered. Lonestar has that monster rifle up. I've seen him shoot that thing kneeling and standing. The Field Manual recommends firing it from the prone.
I don't think they had the six foot nine Texan that is Lonestar in mind when they wrote it.
"Alpha, got a village three mikes from your location. It's crawling with ragheads." Without words we start doubletiming.
We reach the outskirts, the popping of AK fire diminishing.
"Lonestar, overwatch... Raven, left flank... Mechanical Man," That's me. "...right flank... I'm going up the middle..." Steiner's orders are clear. Raven and I screw silencers onto our rifles then move out, the Chief wrapping his head and face in medical tape. My route is uneventful up until I reach what used to be a donkey stable. I see a couple of raghead donkeyfuckers dragging a woman and what I believe to be her daughter out of a house. They have a much smaller child with them as well. Picking through the Pashtun I discern that the two women are begging the ragheads to let the baby go. In response one of them drills a slug into the mother. The older daughter starts pleading for them to spare her sister. They drill the baby in the head. I almost lose it. Somehow I maintain my stealth. The woman continues to wail. They start tearing her burqua away in order to rape her.
I don't know what happened next. I just remember Chief prying my hands from around the neck of a lifeless corpse. The second raghead had my knife jammed into his eye socket and the third's head was twisted all the way around.
"It's fucked... They slaughtered everyone here..." Raven mutters. My fists clench again, squeezing blood out of my gloves.
"Mechanical Man, get a hold of yourself. Can you do that at least?"
"They fucking murdered two people in front of my eyes and they were about to rape her..." I say through clenched teeth.
"CS1... Joel, you did what you could... Sometimes that's all a man can do." I finally find myself, my muscles slacking up. I can't bring myself to look at the woman because she reminds me too much of my sister. Even on the helo I avert my eyes, looking at the countryside as we head for Kandahar.
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I feel it again... That rage building up. Even as I help the boss up I wish his arm was the neck of whoever ordered this slaughter.
No one should be subjected to this...
Something is definitely wrong here. He finally starts into the hold and I follow, checking our six every few seconds.
I gotta say, his technique is rather shoddy... Chief would call him out for it in a heartbeat. I motion for him to go down first. As soon as he's down he gives me the signal and I descend. We stack back up and proceed. I resume checking our six at regular intervals. That's when I hear him slip and fall.
"Boss, you..." What I see takes me back to Afghanistan...
A village in the Panjshir Valley where I witnessed the ass end of a slaughter...
--------------------------------------------
Somewhere in the Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan
2005...
Lonestar has point. Being from West Texas I guess that makes him better at navigating mountainous terrain. All I've ever known was the plains of Oklahoma and the seas of the world. I'm behind him and Chief and Raven are behind me.
Chief Steiner's got our 'pig', an M-60E3 machine gun. The man's an artist with that thing. Raven has an M-16A2 with an M-203 strapped to it. Lonestar is humping both an M-500 shotgun and an M-82A1 fifty caliber rifle.
I'm content to carry an M-4A1 with ACOG scope and forward grip. No flair, just enough to get the job done.
"Lonestar, I thought you said you knew where we were going." Raven says from the back of the line.
"Hey now, all in due time! Ya don't rush perfection." Lonestar shouts back.
"Would both of you shut up? The way you're bickering you'd think you were married..." Steiner snaps back. We travel in silence for about a quarter mile when we hear that unmistakable sound of Kalashnikov fire on the wind.
"Any body else hear that?" I ask.
"Yeah..." Steiner replies as he keys his throat mic. "Skyeye, this is Seiger with Fireteam Alpha. We need some visuals of any villages near our position."
"Copy that, Alpha. Stand by one..." We all take a knee, weapons shouldered. Lonestar has that monster rifle up. I've seen him shoot that thing kneeling and standing. The Field Manual recommends firing it from the prone.
I don't think they had the six foot nine Texan that is Lonestar in mind when they wrote it.
"Alpha, got a village three mikes from your location. It's crawling with ragheads." Without words we start doubletiming.
We reach the outskirts, the popping of AK fire diminishing.
"Lonestar, overwatch... Raven, left flank... Mechanical Man," That's me. "...right flank... I'm going up the middle..." Steiner's orders are clear. Raven and I screw silencers onto our rifles then move out, the Chief wrapping his head and face in medical tape. My route is uneventful up until I reach what used to be a donkey stable. I see a couple of raghead donkeyfuckers dragging a woman and what I believe to be her daughter out of a house. They have a much smaller child with them as well. Picking through the Pashtun I discern that the two women are begging the ragheads to let the baby go. In response one of them drills a slug into the mother. The older daughter starts pleading for them to spare her sister. They drill the baby in the head. I almost lose it. Somehow I maintain my stealth. The woman continues to wail. They start tearing her burqua away in order to rape her.
I don't know what happened next. I just remember Chief prying my hands from around the neck of a lifeless corpse. The second raghead had my knife jammed into his eye socket and the third's head was twisted all the way around.
"It's fucked... They slaughtered everyone here..." Raven mutters. My fists clench again, squeezing blood out of my gloves.
"Mechanical Man, get a hold of yourself. Can you do that at least?"
"They fucking murdered two people in front of my eyes and they were about to rape her..." I say through clenched teeth.
"CS1... Joel, you did what you could... Sometimes that's all a man can do." I finally find myself, my muscles slacking up. I can't bring myself to look at the woman because she reminds me too much of my sister. Even on the helo I avert my eyes, looking at the countryside as we head for Kandahar.
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I feel it again... That rage building up. Even as I help the boss up I wish his arm was the neck of whoever ordered this slaughter.
No one should be subjected to this...