Task Force 411: The Lion Guard

Chapter 2 - Cache

"What kind of a question is that?" asked Ono. He was absently tapping a Black Hornet Nano drone between his fingers. The drone in question was tiny, roughly the size of his hand. Its appearance was similar to a miniature helicopter.

Bunga raised his arms, then dropped them. "I don't know, we were supposed to be training recruits today but we got pulled for this instead. Any idea why Kion?" he asked the Lieutenant.

"Nope," replied Kion, "I just follow orders. That and I keep you all in line."

"Good thing we have you then," said Bunga.

The convoy entered a mountain range, and in order to get to the final village, had to pass through it.

"Sapper 4-1 to all stations," said the voice of Captain Alder through the Humvee's radio, "Proceeding into Coteku Mountain Range. Be careful, insurgents love to make camp in these cave tunnels. Watch yourselves out here, Sapper 4-1 out."

"Beshte!" yelled Kion, "How's it looking up there?"

Beshte, in the position of the Humvee's turret gunner, casted a quick glance down into the interior of the armored vehicle. "All clear up here!" he yelled back.

"Good," murmured Kion. He focused his attention back onto the road, eyeing the mountain cliffs.

"I'd be doing these types of missions," said Ono.

Bunga turned to the lance corporal. "Hmm?"

"Your question earlier, if I'd be training recruits or doing these escort missions. I'd choose these missions."

"Why is that?" asked Bunga, skimming through one of the pamphlets he had found somewhere in the vehicle.

Ono thought for a moment. "Well, you get to see the landscape while on these missions, you don't have to deal with foolish recruits, and you get to meet new people."

"Those seem like reasons for Fuli and Beshte," commented Bunga.

"Well," said Ono, placing the drone on his lap, "I guess it's more quiet then at base. Not as busy, is what I mean."

It was a valid reason. K4 had many Marines going about their day, leading to clutters of people in one spot. Water deliveries also had plenty of people, but the locals usually were kind enough to organize themselves into a line.

"Eh, that's a good point," said Bunga.

The convoy carried on uneventfully through Coteku Mountain Range, stopping only a few times to deal with passing civillians. There were no insurgents that ambushed and attacked the procession.

They even stopped to buy ice cream from a passing vendor. It was surprisingly nice.

Twenty minutes later, after exiting the mountain range, the convoy reached the final village. There, the soldiers once again waited for the locals to come out and have their containers filled.

As the locals filled their containers, Beshte struck up a conversation with several people, conversing about several trivial things.

"You can speak Arabic?" asked Kion, who stood guard next to Beshte.

"It's Dari," corrected Beshte. "They both sound similar, even have the same words. I can speak both."

Kion hummed. "Impressive. I can only understand a few phrases, perhaps you could teach me?"

"Sure," said Beshte.

One of the village members shuffled up to Kion, nervously glancing around. Noticing the person, Kion flicked off the safety switch on his rifle, but didn't raise it.