My mind was ringing, everything around me was dim, silent. My head was pounding as if someone had bashed me with a steel club. Due to my immense battlefield experience, I could tell I had sustained a Grade 2 concussion, less serious than a grade three, but more than enough to put weaker guys in bed with migraines for a week. A mortar shell had landed in front of the Baffle I had been riding into combat on, flipping it upside down and tossing me from it. As I recovered from the shock,I noticed flames had engulfed the cockpit. Next second,there was a man screaming from the inside.
"NO HOLD ON!",I shouted as I began to kick at the glass.
I could put small cracks in it, but my little boot amounted to little against glass designed to stop bullets.
"Mason",Dakarai said as his baffle puled up beside me.
Dakarai was the Major of the local military, which was aiding my unit, Task Force Raven, in locating our missing friend Wyatt Clark. Dakarai was a near seven foot tall, monster of a man. He was black with brown hair and green eyes, a weird combination, but I thought it worked on hm. He was dressed in African military fatigues with a leather holster that contained a Colt Python and six extra rounds. He had a gold cross necklace hanging around his neck and a gold watch clasped around his wrist. In the short time I had known him, he had come to me as a very wise, trustworthy man and a true leader
"Dakarai you gotta help!",I shouted.
I was looking around for something I could use to brake the glass when I noticed a shovel laying beside me. I reached over, grabbed it and began smashing it into the glass
"Brake dammit!",I shouted.
It didn't brake in time, I watched as the man trapped inside baffle burned to death.
"The fire finished him",Dakarai said kneeling beside me,"sometimes it's to late to save a man,we must move out before we join him in death."
He held out his hand and I grabbed it,using him to pull myself up. One of his men ran up to him and handed him a huge grenade launcher.
"The mortar fire means the MPLA is readying for attack",Dakarai said,"if they want a fight,we'll give them a fight move out!"
I followed behind Dakarai as Hudson and Emelia flew over us and Emelia got onto the com line.
"John",she called,"massive amount of MPLA soldiers massing about a half a click north of your current position."
Emelia was around 21 or so, I wasn't really sure. Believe it or not, she was a dragon. We had found her a few weeks ago at a traveling circus in Iraq that had been the target of an Al-Queda attack, probably because of her. She was about six feet tall and about twenty feet long with wings that were about 120 feet in length. Her eyes were a bright blue while her sliver and blue scales mixed perfectly with them. She had a real sweet personality and to us, it didn't matter that she was a dragon, we loved her all the same. Emelia carried a vest that had a .308 Dillion Areo minigun strapped to it, and she knew how to use it, I shit you not when I say she can snap a pencil at seven tenths of a mile. Her secondary weapon was a Sacco Defense M249 SAW, and she was just as good with it as she was with her Dillion.
"Yeah we know!",I called back,"Dakarai's leading a counter charge."
"Man's brave",Emelia said,"I'll give him that,any word on Wyatt's location?"
"No not yet",I said as I climbed on to another baffle with Darkarai,"Darkarai expects his men to report back soon."
The baffle began to move forward into the canyon between the mountains. The mortar's were falling like a rain, and all of a sudden,they stopped. That scared me.
"The mortar's have stopped",Jonas said.
There was a loud rumble,and then a horde of me, all armed with only machetes and yelling in war cry, came charging over the hill as the mortars started again.
"Here they come!",Jonas shouted as I jumped from the baffle,"here they come my brothers! FIGHT! FIGHT MY BROTHERS!"
I unslung my 48 and charged it before shouldering it and firing a bust at the men charging me. The .30-06 slugs from the 48 easily ripped through the men's flesh and bones, dropping them dead extremly quickly. Bullets were flying all over the place as the MPLA traded fire with the African Military and I even had a few brush past my head. One then clipped my ear,ripping a hole in it and sending me to my back. I tightened my grip on my weapon as I hit the dusty grass. Within a few seconds, I was sitting up and I noticed a man with a machete held right over me, ready to drive it into my chest. Instinct clicked on and a burst left the barrel of my 48, ripping open the man's chest and splattering me with blood.
I quickly pulled myself up and walking beside the baffle, I pressed forward with Jonas' troops, dropping anyone foolish enough to wander into my croshairs. All at once, my 48 went click click and I shouldered it in exchange for my B32R. I unsheathed my knife from it's holster and carried it in my off hand, allowing me two forms of attack at the same time. As we came over the hill, I noticed smoke trails whispering from behind rocks.
"Mason!",Dakarai shouted,"target the mortar crews, they're behind the rocks!"
I holstered my weapons and pulled the pin on a flash bang and tossed it behind the rock. The flash went off and I ran behind the rock,finding six men and two mortar tubes.I placed the irons of my 32 on the men and shot five of them before emptying my fifteen round clip. The other man shot up and produced an RPD. I lunged forward and buried my knife in his neck, twisting it and pulling it out. I pulled open my ammo pouch and pulled a clip from it and jammed it up inside the grip of my 32 before clicking the chamber closed.
I scanned around as I ran across the battlefield,stupid move I know, but I couldn't stay behind the rock, it would be the best way to catch a bullet to the gut. I quickly found the last mortar setup, one man and one tube. I sprinted in behind him before stabbing him in the back, the tip of my knife peeked through his web gear.
"Mortar crews are down!",I called to Jonas.
A loud, thunderous crack suddenly rang from behind me and a huge projectile whistled past my head, slamming into one of the baffles and sending it up in smoke. I turned around to see a Russian made T-62 crawling over a rock.
"Shit",I said getting on the coms,"Hudson,Emelia,they got T-62 tanks in support, I need you guys to take the heat off!"
"Hang on!",Emelia called,"were about to come around!"
I ran behind one of the Baffles and holstered my B32 in exchange for my 48. I popped open the dust cover and tossed the empty box to the ground,pulled a fresh one from my vest and clicked it inplace on the bottom of my machine gun,placed the belt in the feed tray and closed the dust cover. I had just charged it when Emelia called back to me.
"Ready to take out the tanks!"
"Do it!",I shouted stepping out and firing on some enemies who were targeting them with RPG's.
"Coming around now!",Hudson shouted.
Hudson,37,was my second in command and a man with a huge grith. He stands a full six feet and ten inches and is a 350 pound wall of liquid steel. His light brown, closely cut hair stands on end and perfectly complements his soft green eyes. His usual weapon was a FNH FAL OSW, a newer version of the FAL. It carried an ACOG with a stubby 25 round clip and a front support grip with a B32R with a laser sight and bust modification, rather than full auto.
I was only 30, one of the younger ones on the team. I stood at six feet even with black hair and neon blue eyes. My favroite toy was the Sacco Defense MK-48 Mod 0 GPMG chambered for .30-06. It carried a 200 round clip, Trijjicon Hybrid Optic, front support grip like Hudson's FAL, a light two pound trigger, muzzle brake and recoil control stock. My secondary was the Browning B32R Automatic Pistol in 9x19mm Parabelum with an extended barrel and gaping, flared mag well, which allowed for super fast "knife reloads".
Their miniguns began to rip and Hudson let loose a barrage of rockets from his heli.
"Dammit!",Emelia shouted,"I'm taking fire from the ground, sooner or later one of them is gonna get lucky!"
I continued to lay suppressing fire on enemies with RPG-7's and RPD's,allowing Emelia and Hudson to worry about the tanks.
"John!",Issac called,"Hudson and Emelia have a couple of Browning fifty cal's on them,I'm pinned and can't deal with them!"
"I'll deal with them!",I shouted.
I began scaning around and noticed a white pick up truck with his weapon, a Browning M2 Ma Deuce Machine Gun, trained on the sky. Those rounds would tear up Hudson's Sea hawk and rip Emelia open like a water balloon. That wasn't going to happen, not again. I sighted in the mans head and let off one round. It struck the base of his skull, shearing his head off like nothing. I located the other truck and removed it with a single, well placed bullet.
"Jackson's here with me",I thought,"I've never been able to shoot that this gun well before."
To clarify, Jackson was the team sniper. He had been killed by a Russian Special Operator in Vietnam a couple of weeks ago, the same event that had gotten Wyatt into the situation he was in now, whatever that might be. Jack's death had rattled us all to our very cores. His dogatgs hung from the barrel of my 48, shaking and rattling with every step I took and every shot I fired. Shaking myself from the voided thought, I opened up the coms.
"MG trucks are down!"
"Thanks' John!",Emelia called back,"Hudson and I are coming back around!"
Mini gun fire once again rang out and rockets flew as Hudson and our Eastern friend ripped up the enemy's armored support.
"John I'm pinned!",Issac called,"I need help!"
Issac, 32, was my older brother. He had brown hair that was of a medium length and eyes that were neon green. He stood a few inches taller than me at six feet five inches and could shot the back legs off a fly with his M-16 at a thousand yards while free standing. His rifle was decked out with a reflex sight, free floating handguard, custom compensator and a twenty round clip, all dressed in black. He held the B32R with a laser sight, long barrel and semi automatic modification in reserve, as well as packing some C4 that he was capable of doing some very nasty things with.
"Toss purple smoke to mark target's for me Issac!",Emelia shouted.
"Gotcha!",Issac called back. Seconds later, a plume of purple smoke rose from in front of a baffle with popped tires.
Emelia swopped like a hawk on prey and let a strom of lead fly from her mini.
"Come my American frined!",Dakarai said climbing abroad the baffle armed with a 20mm belt fed auto cannon. It began to creep forward as the enemy massed and began to fall back.
"They are weak!",Dakarai shouted,"we must finish them!"
I placed my weapon's cross hairs on the mass of enemy's and watched it go as I unleashed it's full 2,500 rounds a minute. The mass of thugs fell under my hurricane of lead like flies.
"Our journey to victory has begun!",Dakarai shouted confidently,"death to the MPLA!"
His troops began to scream in a war cry as the MPLA soldiers began to fall back. Once again, I placed my weapon on the mass of enemies and let the bullets fly. After twenty seconds or so, the baffle stopped, the gunfire ceased, the explosions died. Hundreds of men from both sides lay dead all over the dusty savanna. Twisted hunks of metal that had once been armored vehicles lay smoking along with the bodies. The air began to swirl as Issac and Emelia touched down. Hudson's Seahawk no longer had functioning weapons and Emelia was panting heavily.
"Ahhahaha!",Jonas thundered,"my friends from above! You killed many men today!? Yes! We all did!"
A man in a soldier's uniform ran up to Jonas and whispered something into his ear.
"Where's Wyatt?",Emelia asked.
"The MPLA is not yet defeated",Jonas replied,"that is a very dangerous rescue my Eastern friend!"
"Where is he!?",I shouted.
"He's being held captive by a Cuban gun runner a very,very dangerous man!"
"Where!",I asked.
"About two miles north on an old fishing barge in the Nolas river."
I stepped onto the chopper with Issac and Frank.
Frank was our team's demolition's expert. He was 34,stood at six feet and four inches with blond hair and hazel brown eyes. His skin was a tan color like Jackson's and he carried a H&K MP5 with a integrated handle grip as well as tapped double mags and a reflex sight. Just like everyone else on the team, he carried the B32R as a backup. He also had five throwing knives on his vest that he could throw like bullets, often faster and further as well.
"He may already be dead!"
"We'll take the chance!",I shouted back as Hudson began to lift off the helo and Emelia spread her long wings,"thank you Dakarai!"
"No thank you!",he said, dropping his weapon into his hand and holding it up in the air, a sign of victory.
"Where we headed now?",Hudson asked over the coms.
"Two miles north",I replied,"the Las Nolas,river,Jonas said Wyatt is on a barge."
"Think the intel is any good?",Emelia asked gliding about sixty feet away from us.
"Let's hope!",I called back.