Date: June 15th, 2020

Location: Iraq, Qalat Sikar Air Base

Time: 0900

OPM

Sam looked about nervously as other officers and their second’s filed into the conference room. Sgt. Williams smirked at Sam’s nervousness.

“Calm down Corporal, it’s just another plan meeting. We’ve been going over the same plans everyday for weeks. Pretend to pay attention and don’t ask too many questions, got it? Ask me when were back at the bunks. I can read you the plan backwards.

Sam took a drink of his coffee and said nothing. The last squad leader to file in slammed the door behind him, giving a queue to the 0-3 who was presenting the briefing to start.  The 0-3 was tall and looked like he had just been rolled from bed to present the battle plans. A corporal tapped him on the shoulder as the 0-3 opened his mouth to start and handed him a cup of coffee. The man grumbled a dull ‘thanks’ and turned to his power point.

“Alright, I know we’ve been through this before, but we getting to crunch time, so we need to make sure we have this down to the letter.”

The 0-3 clicked the power point to the first slide, showing a large map that was half covered with a large black zone.

“Okay, as you all know, the Equestrian military has managed to build a defensive dome over their country, extending that barrier over much of Iraq. We don’t know how, but the towel heads in there can come and go freely. When we tried to put a squad through the barrier, they were ambushed. We have not found any survivors yet and have assumed the worst.”

The 0-3 flipped to the next slide.

“Due to our presence in the area, the barrier does not extend over the entire country of Iraq, but some parts of the barrier extend into Saudi and Iran. The Tali’s have mounted a heavy defense of the barrier in our sector, so we’ll need to mount a “quite” raid to crack the barrier. You all will be split into two squad teams. Your designations are as follows. Sgt. Williams and Sgt. Golden, you will be designate Foxtrot. Sgt. Patterson and Sgt. Cox you will be…”

Sam zoned out as the 0-3 listed off each team’s designation. In total there were seven teams. Each would be dropped off by Black Hawks four miles from the dome. From there they would hike to specific “weak points” in the barrier and try to break it by detonating bricks of C-4.

Each team was assigned one explosive expert and each squad was to be given twenty-four bricks of C-4. If they were successful in breaking the barrier, the orders were to move in and meet at a designated rally point three miles in. If the barrier held up, they were to report back to the OP.

Sam caught only a brief glimpse of the other squad leader they were with. Sgt. Golden was a short and bulky man with a bald head and bushy mustache. When the Sgt. looked towards Sam, Sam quickly turned his head back to the presentation; which was coming to a close.

The 0-3 presenter coughed once before clicking off the power point. He cleared his throat and coughed again loudly before continuing.

“Your teams will be geared up and at their assigned positions at 0400 tomorrow morning. Command is hoping to do this without being noticed, so we need as much time as we can get. Brief your squads and meet back here when this op is over for doughnuts and coffee.”

This brought a chuckle from the assembled officers. The 0-3 snapped a salute, which everyone returned, before turning and walking out of the conference room. Before Sam made any move to leave, a short, burly man plopped down next to him and started talking to Sgt. Williams. The conversation was held in a low whisper, and every once in a while the man would look over his shoulder at Sam. Sam did his best to sit there and wait while the two Sergeants talked, but he couldn’t help listen in.

As he began to peek into the conversation, Sgt. Williams shouted a loud, “YES!” drawing the attention of the entire room. She scowled at the other officers and got up from her chair. She dragged Sam to his feet and pushed him towards the door. Finding his feet, Sam opened the door for her and they both left the silent conference room.  Sgt. Williams stomped towards the company barracks with Sam in tow. As they reached the door, Sam’s head finally caught up with him.

“What was that about sir?”

Sgt. Williams took a deep breath before replying.

“That was Sgt. Golden. The SOB pisses me off every time. He usually brags to command how great he his, always trying to beg for a promotion. He’d be better suited to a desk than the field.”

Sam thought for a second before it clicked in his head. The whispers, the looks.

“He was talking about me, wasn’t he?”

Sgt. Williams snorted.

“Yeah, he was yapping about how his squad hasn’t had an injury for weeks. Probably ‘cause they haven’t been sent into hell on earth lately.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, if he’s like you say, he’ll be shot the first firefight and you won’t have to see him again.”

Sgt. Williams gazed at the clear blue sky thoughtfully for a minute before grinning evilly. She laughed and clapped Sam on the shoulder.

“That is a damn good thought Corporal. You’re already better than Smith by a long shot! He didn’t have a sense of humor. C’mon, let’s go brief the goon squad for the “big strike”.”

Date: June 15th, 2020

Location: Iraq, Qalat Sikar Air Base

Time: 1300

The sun was now beating down, making the barracks unbearably hot, driving everyone outside. Sam ran a rag through the chamber of his rifle, wiping out the accumulated grime from the day. Most of the squad was either sleeping or prepping gear. Sam was camped out under one of the overhangs near the airfield. He watched as a pair of Chinooks touched down and began offloading tired and wounded soldiers. Johnny sat up from his nap and stared across the airfield at the wounded filing out of the helicopters. He shook his head and laid back down.

“Do you think we’ll do it Sam? Do you think we can break it?” Johnny asked.

Sam shrugged his shoulders and focused back on cleaning his gun. He pulled a snake wet with oil through the chamber of the rifle and out the end of the barrel.

“I don’t know. The plan seems like it could work, but we also haven’t been able to break through before so I can’t be sure.”

Johnny sat up again.

“What I don’t understand is, why haven’t we tried any artillery? Like, tanks and stuff, enough of that should break it right?”

The explosives expert, a man named David Yates, laughed sourly. Johnny scowled at him.

“What’s so funny?”

Yates shook his head and turned back to fiddling with a piece of wire. Johnny asked his question again, this time more forcefully.

“I asked, what’s so funny?”

Yates looked at Johnny and sneered.

“It’s funny that you think we could just walk in their and start killing. It’s not that simple.”

Yates coiled his wire and turned his body until he faced Johnny.

“We haven’t been attacking with our big guns because our government still wants to try and “make peace” Technically; the Equestrians haven’t killed anyone yet. Our casualties have all been from Taliban soldiers defending the barrier.”

Sam breathed out heavily and shoved the cleaning rod down the barrel of his gun. Johnny shook his head and face palmed.

“So no one has died from the Equestrians, right Yates?” Sam asked

The explosives expert nodded.

“Yeah, we haven’t seen any of them at all. There’s no way they could be killing soldiers or anybody for that matter.”

Sam grimaced.

“What about Seattle?”

Yates shrugged.

“We don’t know that those people are dead. The first responders there didn’t find anything. No weird readings, no ashes. Even if they had nuked the place a hundred times, there would have been something.”

Sam snapped close his rifle and leaned it against the wall. He packed his cleaning supplies into a small black bag and set it down next to the rifle. He sat back down facing the airfield.

“What about Suicide Run?”

Johnny groaned and flopped on his back, his hands still covering his face. Yates shrugged again.

“I heard that it was the Taliban there too. Took out all of the helicopters and then killed any survivors. Some loon called in over the radio saying it was Equestrians, but command can’t say anything for certain”

Sam heard Johnny mumble something like “you dumb sonofa…” Sam looked at his hands and spit into the dirt before he looked over at Yates.

“Let me tell you something Yates, that “loon” ended up dead, everybody did. I don’t care what the reports say, because I had a witness travel to my house to tell me what happened.”

Sam sniffed and turned to stare back at the airfield.

“This is what I want you to do Yates. Go get your gun and cleaning kit and you’re going to clean your weapon in front of me, so that I know it works. I don't want anyone dying on my watch because of a little dirt”

Yates didn’t move, so Johnny got up and yelled at him.

“Well don’t just sit there private! Get your ass in gear!”

Yates scrambled to his feet and made a sprint for the barracks. Johnny shook his head and sat down. He looked at Sam who was still staring at the airfield.

“You alright?”

Sam nodded.

“Yeah, he’s right though. We haven’t hit ‘em hard cause we want to be friends with such a powerful ally and it’s costing us hell and high water to try and win like this.”

The pair sat quite for a minute until Sam chuckled under his breath and looked at Johnny.

“Well what are you waiting for PFC? I need to inspect your rifle too.”

Johnny smirked slightly and got up.

“You’ve got it sir.”

Sam watched his friend sprint towards the barracks, only to notice how much dust he was kicking up. Sam looked back at his rifle and saw that it was covered in sand and grit, the oil making a perfect coat for the particles of dust to stick in.

“Oh for the love of-…”

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