Jul/14/04

12:34pm

Somewhere in Iraq

The sun had already gone down hours ago as the coolness of night had already swept through the camp. With me and my rifle standing guard at the gate, I could feel the cold for the first time that day, and it sent shivers down my spine. Today was one of the rarely seen, “Easy Days” as command put it, nothing had happened. Not a single thing, no patrols, no supplies, hell, not even any taliban scouts were spotted. It was just quiet. I mean yeah, you still got the unrelenting machine gun fire just over the hill, but we seemed to ignore it. We knew it would be dealt with when we see choppers heading their way, it always had, and always will. Looking at my watch to check the time.

“00:34am, Happy Birthday me.” I said heavy breathing as my breath danced around in the night sky before disappearing.

It was my birthday, but I tend not to keep track of those things, I turned 23 today. Re taking my stance I looked behind me at the seemingly dead outpost, there were four bunkers to my right, there's where the men sleep, next to that is the Mess hall and in front of that in the center was a flag pole with a American flag that flapped in the quiet breeze. Across from that to the right, was our repair bay, most of our armored vehicles are in there. It was past my time to switch off for the guard. I began to walk back to the bunkhouses and walked into the second one. It was dark, the windows provided a small bit of light, illuminating the bunks, mixed snoring was the only thing I heard. Trying not to make much noise I walked over to the second bunk to the right and tapped on the sleeping marine.

“Michael, get up, your watch.” I said in a Loud whisper. He waved his hand way.

“Come on, I pulled my shift, it’s your turn, now get up.” I said a little louder. He pushed up and leaned on his elbows. His hair was a mess and his eye’s were hardly open.

“Fine, gimme a second.” He said pushing himself up on his bunk, now sitting up he put on his gear, slipping on his boots, pack, and tactical helmet. Grabbing his rifle next to him, he checked the mag and slipped it back seeing he had ammo. I walked over to my bunk, took off my boots and helmet and let them hit the floor next to me. I didn’t even take my pack off I just threw myself onto the bunk and fell fast asleep. I hadn't slept good the past week, due to fire fights and I.E.D scares. I would have nightmares of me and my buddies stepping on one and blowing me sky high. But nothing happened today so, nothing had troubled me.

Turning over, I caught a glance of Michael heading out with all his gear on. I would consider him my friend, not a best friend, but I knew he wouldn’t abandon me in a firefight.. His callsign was “Silver” because he had a silver bullet necklace that he wears all the time.

Turning over again toward the wall, I drifted quickly to sleep, entering another nightmare.

I was in a squad, Callsign, Bravo 1-2. It was me Michael, Jones, and Kevin All of us were fairly good friends. We were in a convoy of about four M114's, but a I.E.D went off on the lead car, destroying it in a flash. Then gunfire erupted from the surrounding buildings, we stood our ground until more resistance pilled up until we ran, the whole convoy was split up, unfortunately, Jones died on the 50. cal. We moved into a alleyway and ran away from the slaughter, we were resting when my radio picked up a voice on the other end,

“This is Bravo 1-1 to any remaining squads on this station, please respond!” He sounded scared and tried. Pushing the talk button I came back,

“Bravo 1-1, this is Corporal Jacob Snider, speaking for Bravo 1-2, what is your status over?” I asked waiting for a response. Machine gun fire sounded off in the distance, some closer some further away.

“Sir, me and the rest of 1-1 are pinned down by a gunner, we need back up, our cover is already fubar!” He said as he was cut off by the sound of a Machine Gun which was followed by a crackling sound, then it went silent. I heard witch way it was coming from and point for my squad to see. Across the alley was a road, across that road I could see flashing lights coming from the left. I signaled for one half of the squad to take the right while me and one other would suppress the gunman and give 1-2 a chance to escape before they frag the gunner with a M67. I walked over to the end of the alleyway and peaked around the corner. I saw him, he was perched in a tower at the end of the road. I looked down the road and saw 1-1, they were huddled behind a concrete divider in the middle of the street. Then I see 1-2 move up and cover for 1-1. The gunner stops shooting to reload.

There's a brief moment where nothing happened then 1-2 and 1-1 break the silence. “Suppressing fire!” Someone yelled behind the dividers. four Marines pop out from cover with M249’s and M4's and let loose on the tower, nows my chance. I pulled the explosive from my pack and pull the pin.

“Fire in the hole!” I screamed as I throw the grenade threw the open window in the tower. The gunner screams something in Arabic, then an explosion silences him as dust and shrapnel fly out the window. I threw myself back shielding my head from the blast. Then everything becomes quiet. I hear the sound of cheering as the Marines surface and began patting each other on the back and fist pumping.

“Get some baby! Hell yeah!” One of them yells. I go to join 1-1 and 1-2 again, but a sickening sound can he heard behind me. A sniper. I go to turn around and when I do the bullet impacts my right shoulder. I scream out in agony as the pain reaches my head and puts me down in the street. Then things became blurry. I look over in the alleyway across from me, and I see something strange. A pair of ice cold eyes, staring me down. I don’t remember that from that from the mission, but as soon as I see them, I wake up.

Jul/15/04

5:57am

I wake up with a cold sweat on my forehead. I look around, nobody else is up, except for me. I couldn’t go back to sleep, I didn’t want to return to that damn dream. My shoulder begins hurting thinking and remembering about the sniper. I gear up and head out into the yard. In silence, I walk over to the gate where Michael is standing, guarding. He hears me coming and spins around.

“So, come to join the party, eh?” He says a smug look on his face. I shake my head and look over the hills to the north. There was something about those eyes I saw in my dream, made them stick out. I didn’t remember them from the mission, like something was watching me in my dream. It was strange.

“Nah, I just came to see if you were awake or not.” I said jokingly back. He chuckles and goes back to looking at the road. I walk up along side him and stare too.

“You kidding, it’s freezing out here, do you really think I would fall asleep?” He said, pulling out a cigarette box. He flips it open and pulls one out. He gestures for me, and I gladly take one. He lights his, and then he lights mine too.

“Well, ya know what?” I say putting the cigarette in my mouth.

“What's that?”

“It’s fucking nature dude, can’t change that.” I take a drag of the cigarette.

“Yeah well, whatever, don’t bother me much...”

“Sure.” As I talk the smoke leaves my lungs and fills the air around us. Footsteps could be heard behind us, I turn to see a very drowsy Lieutenant David Smithey.

“Mornin’ sir.” I say as he looks up.

“What's so good about it corporal?” He asks me.

“Not getting your neck slit the night before, that pretty good, don’t you think sir? Michael asks  smart-alecky.

“Good point Private, good point.” He says finally reaching us at the gate. I look around at the seemingly endless desert in front of me, scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Seeing nothing, I look over to the Lieutenant. He is wearing a Kevlar helmet with a camera mounted on the front. He’s holding a M4 with a Grenade Launcher on the bottom and a scope on the top. He’s wearing all of his gear, including a small hand held radio mounted on his chest.

“So anything set for today lieutenant. ?” I ask taking another drag.

“Uh, actually, yes, Bravo 1-2 and Bravo 1-3, are marching out toward a town called, uh, Bichear Al-corely, or something like that. Reports have it that the Taliban are moving around in there and to back it up, last week a British Commando Unit went in there and didn’t come back out.” Says like his flipping through a clipboard in his mind. “So they are moving in to find them and if possible, eliminate the Taliban threat.”

“Hey Jacob, ain't you in Bravo1-2?” Michael asked.

“Y-yeah, that's, my squad.” I said trying to suppress the memories of the dream. Flashing faces flooded my mind, Jones's dangling body flashed up as he hung motionless from the gunner seat. Somehow, again, the eyes came back, a darker sky blue, they glowed in the void that is my mind. Thankfully the Lieutenant broke the flashback.

“Yeah you’re leaving at 0800 hours.” He said.

“Early huh?” Michael said.

“Yep.”

Jul/14/04

12:36pm

Canterlot Castle

Last week, Princess Luna had started her own project. She can look into ponies dreams and shield them from nightmares. But recently she decided to try that same process, but on different worlds. She knew there were other worlds out there but no pony ever tried to make contact with them. So what better way to do it, is by making peace through dreams. Tonight after rising the moon she headed for her room and shut the big doors and locked them up, she didn’t want to be disturbed. She had experience on all sorts of dreams, the good the bad, and the down right ugly. But she wondered, what do aliens dream about.  

“Tonight, I shall make history, I shall be the first to make contact with another world, through their dreams. I must start, right away.” Saying this she closed her eyes and began the spell.

Her horn glowed the dark blue haze as everything around her disappeared and turned into a void. She randomly picked a planet. She picked one with a very large population.

“Earth? I have never heard of this place before, I must explore.” Doing this she began scanning for nightmares. There are billions to chose from, but one stood out to her. It was in a place called, Iraq, her curiosity got the best of her so she entered.

It was hot, very hot. Almost hotter than celestia's sun. I found the being having the nightmare. It was some sort of bipedal creature, dressed in a sandy color with a black object in his hand. He looked to be hiding behind a building, more creatures were behind him. He made some sort of signals with his appendage and the others disappeared from sight. Then she noticed what they were hiding from. There was another creature in a tower firing one of the black hand held objects, it was very loud, it sounded like fast fireworks, either that, or Pinkie Pie was on a caffeine run and couldn't stop firing off her party cannon.

looking toward her left she saw a white wall with more creatures behind them, then she began feeling with her heart.

They were scared, so scared, they held the thoughts of death in there minds as they also tried remembering, family, members. I still didn’t know what was going on until one of them yelled,

“Suppressing fire!” Then the hidden creatures stood up and began spitting what looked like fire from there, what I was guessing weapons, then the one behind cover pulled out a little green ball, with a pin and turned. Now he yelled,

"Fire in the Hole!” Throwing the ball into the tower. The creature in the tower yelled something, followed by a ear-shattering explosion that covered the area in dust.

My ears couldn't stop ringing, my vision was blured and distorted in, ways I didn't even know were possible. The creatures behind cover begin to cheer as the one hiding behind the building comes out into view. I finally get to see this creature, for who it really is. It's wearing some sort of strange sand looking clothing and a hard looking cap. It's midsection is very bulky and has lots of objects hanging off it. I go to get a closer look, but as I do a loud bang shatters the air as a cloud of red surrounds the being as a trail of, blood, spurt out his right appendage as the being collapsed to the ground. I could feel his pain, the tence nature of this dream made me fall as well, not out of pain for myself, but for his. I felt so bad, I needed to help him, but as I tried to move, he saw me.

His blue eyes meet my own and for the first time, in a long time, I felt fear. It was everywhere in this dream, even the creature in the tower felt it. Everything was feared and had its own fears. But just like that the dream closed and the weakness from the spell finally hit me and as I returned to my bedroom I collapsed and fell asleep.

Next Chapter: Operation: Grab and Go Estimated time remaining: 42 Minutes