Operation Warblood
1000 hours, 31 May
Trapped in the river of Kaljaki district near village Kaljaki Sulfa with the Second Platoon, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
Cpl. Twilight Sparkle
Squad Bravo 2-7, 1^st Battalion, 75^th Regiment

The Second Platoon along with the squad Bravo 2-7 were caught inside the shooting gallery near the river. They face very heavy resistance from the enemy militias holding up on the hills on the north of them. They can't nearly spot one of them due to the large foliage on the hill and hidden caves around the hill. They took cover behind some ruins at the shore side of the river.
*rat tat tat tat tat tat tat*

"Where's that goddamn bastard!?" shouted Jeremy in sicken as he covers his face from the flying dust as the bullets flew from the hill and hits the cover's surface.

"Jeremy, on your twelve, behind those bushes!" shouted Twilight as she crouched down behind the cover as she looks at him.

Jeremy quickly stands up and shoots the hostile on his twelve before quickly hide behind cover.

"Shit!" shouted one of the soldiers from the Second Platoon as he blindly shoots the enemy with only his hands and a weapon out from cover. "I'm not signing up for this shit!"

The situation is getting intense as the militias starting to shoot RPGs around them.

"INCOMING!" shouted Yorker via radio.

After they shoot the RPG, it flew towards Lt. Dolker, Spc. Rendor, and Pvt. Laner. They had to ran out from their current cover to the next one while they were being gunned down by the hostiles. After they take cover at another ruins, the militias shot the RPG again. But this time, it nearly blew up a soldier from the Second Platoon. The soldier was flied out on the air from the RPG Blast and fell to the ground 10 meters away from Twilight's position.

"Man down!" shouted the Second Platoon Leader as he looked at his downed soldiers before proceeding to shoots the
unseen militias.

"Corporal! Save him!" shouted Zendel while he lie down on the ground and shoots the militias as he looked back and wave his arm at Twilight.

Corporal Twilight didn't think about the bullets flying everywhere but the soldier who is downed on the ground and screamed. She ran out from cover and gave the wounded soldier her Scar H before dragging him to cover. As she dragged him, the wounded soldier shoots Twilight's rifle at the hills. Twilight got shot once in the chest but then she keeps dragging the soldier quickly afterwards even if she felt got hit by a baseball bat. After they both behind cover, the medic from the Second Platoon who was next to Twilight then quickly take a look at the wounded soldier before telling her the condition.

"His legs are badly burned, but he'll live," said the medic to Twilight, as the wounded soldier breathing in fast pace like in post-traumatic stress.

Twilight then crouched and hold the soldier's hand as she looked at his eyes. "You're gonna be okay, alright? You're gonna be fine."

"Wake up, Corporal," said Lt. Dolker as he hits Twilight's shoulder to wake her up from her sleep.

Twilight quickly startled and woke up from her dream, she then looked at Dolker who was driving the humvee. "Oh, uh, sorry."

"Daydreaming again?" asked the Lt.

"Nah, i just felt sleepy," replied Twilight. "Well, i was dreaming about our previous mission."

"Which ones?" asked Rendor, who was on the backseat of the humvee with Jeremy and behind Twilight.

"Warblood," answered Twilight. Dolker, Rendor, and Jeremy suddenly frowned.

"Well, that's one intense mission," said Jeremy.

"At least that poor soldier made it home safely," said Dolker with a sigh.

They are still on their way to the location, the convoys are 4 lead convoys which are humvees-armed minigun. 2 of them are manned by Hunter 2-1, Sgt. Foley's squad, and another 2 are manned by Bravo 2-7. Behind them are 4 additional humvees with 50. cal and two armored trucks and 2 IAV (Interim Armored Vehicle) Stryker APCs, all manned by the First Platoon. Upon reaching, there were hills ahead. They entered the hills from the west.

"Just be ready for anything," said Sgt. Foley via radio. "Those bastards will hit us with everything we got."

Twilight starting to feel uncomfortable. "Are you ready to fight, Corporal?" asked Dolker.

She then grabbed her Scar H from underneath her seat and cocked it. "Yes, sir.."

The convoys keep moving along the hils. As they drive through the bottom of the hills, Pvt. Ramirez, who is in the humvee with Foley and Dunn felt something wrong.

"This is so wrong," said Ramirez, also via radio to Bravo 2-7.

"Why is that?" asked Dunn.

"It's too quiet," replied Ramirez.

"Bravo 2-7 Actual, i think we just stepped into a trap, over," said Foley to Dolker via radio.

"Copy that, Sarge," replied Dolker. "If we got ambushed, is there any possible reinforcements that can help us?"

"Yes sir, reinforcements from the Second Platoon and a couple of tanks from our COP," replied Foley.

"Good thing, i hope they didn't bring that tank from the Second World War," said Dolker, making everyone chuckled via radio.

When they keep driving, Twilight suddenly noticed something on the ground ahead of them, 20 meters away. There's something coming out from the ground. After the lead humvee drove 10 meters, Twilight quickly recognized that it's an IED ahead of them.

"IED!" shouted Twilight. But, it was to late to stop the humvee from keep driving forward until it walked on the IED.

The lead humvee blown up and flew in the air about 2 feet. The IED blew the front tires and the humvee's hood and engine, fortunately there were not any fires on the humvee so the humvee won't explode into pieces. After the humvee flew in the air, it hits the ground and rolled 3 times before the humvee stopped rolling in vertical position with the 50 cal. side facing to the convoys behind them and the tires side facing the direction of the way they are heading and the hills. The front side facing towards the south and the back side facing the north.

"STOP THE CAR!" shouted Sgt. Foley via radio for they were startled by the explosion up ahead. "Everyone get out from the convoy, NOW!"

After all soldiers already out from the convoys, Dunn and Ramirez quickly ran at the blown up humvee in the front of the convoys. They quickly check everyone inside the humvee through the windshield on the front side of the humvee. Everyone inside the humvee are alive, but a little knocked out. Everyone inside the humvee slowly regain their consciousness.

"Uh, ????, what happen?" asked Dolker to everyone inside the blown up humvee. Everyone in the humvee were stuck in their seats due to they buckled themselves to the seat.

"Ah, that's hurt," said Twilight, already gathered her awareness. "Goddamnit..."

"Hold on, we get you out from there," said Dunn, as he tried to looked at them through the windshield with Ramirez before he turned around the soldiers near the convoy. "Oi! Someone give us a hammer!"

After Dunn, got the hammer from those soldiers, he breaks the windshield with it and get Twilight, Dolker, Jeremy, and Rendor out from their seats and the humvee. Gladly, they are okay after being blown up by an IED.

"Damn IEDs, we can't see 'em coming," said Jeremy in angry.

"Well, it was too late to avoid that," said Twilight.

The rest of the Bravo 2-7 squad ran at them in worried.

"You guys alright?" asked Laner in worried after reaching them.

"Yeah, didn't expect we still in one piece," said Rendor, relieved that they survive the blast.

"Sarge, they all alive, Sarge," said Pvt. Ramirez to Sgt. Foley via radio.

"Good thing, let's keep-" said Foley until his speech interrupted by sudden gunfire out of nowhere.

"Get down!" shouted the soldier from the First Platoon in panicked and quickly ran into cover behind the rocks next to the convoys.

the whole squad of Bravo 2-7, along with Dunn and Ramirez take cover behind the flipped humvee on their current position. The First Platoon with the rest of the squad of Hunter 2-1 take cover behind some convoys and the rocks in between the road. The 2 Stryker APCs were searching for targets around them, finding possible locations from the incoming gunshot. While the soldiers near the armored trucks take cover and use their machine guns to shoot the enemy blindly to the hills on the north and south. Twilight quickly spotted the enemies on the south, they were on the hills hiding behind some rocks.

"Stryker 1-1, enemies on the south side of the flipped vehicle, on the hills!" said Twilight to the Stryker APC operator via radio. "They are hiding behind the rocks!"

"Roger that, firing into the enemy position, over," replied the APC operator via radio. The operator then turned the main turret of the APC towards the enemy position and shoot them in burst. After those militias killed by the APC, there were a lot more militias incoming from the south, the north, and the east.

"Shit, we got a lot more incoming!" said Pvt. Mccord via radio, as he shoots down the enemies around the hills on the north and south.

"It's like we're facing 50 and more motherfuckers!" shouted Foley, pissed off as he shoots back at the enemies that are shooting at the allies blindly.

"Hit them back!" shouted Dolker, ordering his men to kill them as fast as possible.

"Enemies on the west side!" shouted the soldier near the armored trucks. Soon they are surrounded by enemy militias.

"Zendel, call in the reinforcements, NOW!" shouted Twilight as she shoots back at the enemy.

"I'm on it, Corporal!" said Zendel to Twilight.

As Zendel unload his radio off his back, the soldiers starting to get casualties. 3 of the soldiers from the First Platoon got shot and died. As the situation getting more intense They dispatched those enemies quickly and they had to throw some grenades on them as the APCs shooting them down with the main turret and the rocket turret. After Zendel unload the radio and adjusted it, he called the reinforcements.

"Baker 6, this is Bravo 2-7, we have been surrounded by enemy militias more than 50 and attacking in force! We're trapped here and starting to receive casualties, requesting additional support, over!" shouted Zendel through the bag radio.

"Roger that, we're on our way to your position, ETA 5 minutes, over," said radio operator of Alpha 5 via radio.

"Copy that, hurry up! We won't last long out here, over!"

"Copy, we do our best," replied Alpha 5 radio operator before Zendel closed the radio.

"Guys, reinforcements on the way! They'll be coming in 5 minutes tops!" shouted Zendel also via radio.

"Fuck!" said the First Platoon Leader via radio as he dodge the incoming bullets by hiding behind the rocks. "We don't have 5 minutes for this shit!"

"We need to hold them off as long as possible!" exclaimed Dunn via radio as he shoots a hostile in the head.

1 minute have passed, they have lost 6 soldiers, 2 of them got shot in the head, while the other 4 shot in front and back of their bodies.

"Fucking hell, we lost some man out there!" said Mccord, worried and panicked.

"40 Mike-Mike out!" shouted Ramirez, implying he is using grenade launcher underneath his M4. He blown 12 enemies with 2 grenades.

2 minutes have passed, they have 2 minutes left until reinforcements arrive. The situation is getting much worse, because they started to send in the MG technicals and RPGs. They have lost 2 humvees due to the RPG blast and lost 4 four men, including one of Foley's men.

"Shit, i just lost one of my men!" said Foley via radio, angry. "Kill those RPG shooters!"

As they relentlessly shoot back the incoming enemy, they began to get outnumbered. Foley lost one of his men again, Mccord had to jumped out from the humvee to avoid to get hit by an RPG, one of the APC has destroyed by 5 shots of RPG, the First Platoon has suffered the casualties of 28 man. From there they had to retreat to the west. Fortunately, the west side of them is clear and there's no more incoming enemies from that side.

"Everyone retreat! NOW!" ordered Lt. Dolker as he shoots the enemies from behind the destroyed humvee. "I'll hold them off."

"No, sir!" said Twilight disobeyed his order. "I stay here with you!"

"Corporal, get out of here!" ordered Dolker, angry. "I said get out from here!"

"Twilight, come on!" said Rendor as he and Laner grabbed her and pulled her away from Dolker. "We need to get out from here!"

After they both pulled Twilight behind another destroyed humvee 10 meters away from Dolker, Twilight then shoots back at the hostiles whilst watch Dolker holds his position, fending them off to save the First Platoon, Foley's squad, and his own. Zendel, Yorker, and Jeremy had to support them with the M249 machine gun from the armored truck with Foley, Dunn, and Ramirez supporting them with explosives.

Twilighy took another last sight of Dolker, then everything starting to slow down around her until, Dolker has been shot by the hostiles. He has been shot a lot of times right in the chest and his stomach, his kevlar vest can't save his life now. He then fell back to the ground and his helmet has been detached from his head and thrown away. He was bleeding.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" shouted Twilight, she don't want to let him die.

She has gone in rage. She then ran out from her cover as Rendor failed to hold her from running back at the deadly firing range. While she was on the run, she quickly took a SAW machine gun that was left on the ground quickly. And then, in rage, she starts to shoots her machine gun at her enemies as she holds her position near Lt. Dolker. She screamed in rage as she fires her machine gun from the hip, and eventually she had already killed at least 50 enemies, either on technicals or not, only with 30 bullets.

She keeps screaming and firing at the enemies with somehow a very great accuracy. The talibans has receive very extreme casualties, they had lost over than 100 man due to the firing of a machine gun from Twilight. She keeps screaming and firing until, she ran out of ammo. She had killed at least 375 hostiles from 1 magazine of the machine gun. 4 of the hostiles has lost their legs and arms. While Twilight got shot twice in the chest and she bled pretty little.

The Talibans starting to grew fear, after seeing a soldier has killed 375 of their man with only one mag of her machine gun. The Talibans then just keep shooting at her, but this time their accuracy starting to get worse because of their morale is low. Twilight changed her weapon to Dolker's G36 and she keep shooting at them. While shooting at them, suddenly, the Talibans has sent in a tank into the battlefield. The Talibans morale has raised up, but not for long. The allied reinforcements have arrived. There were Second Platoon along with two tanks. The tanks are M1 Abrams and M4 Sherman.

"Look out a tank!" shouted Ramirez at the Second Platoon and the tanks.

The Talibans tank have shot the M4 Sherman with its main gun and 3 of RPG shooters have shot the M4 Sherman again. Twilight then stopped firing and looked back at the M4 Sherman tank. Surprisingly, the Sherman tank was still in one piece, and not even a single dent was left on the armor plate of the tank.

"Sorry, dumbasses, we just upgrade our armor plates with vibranium and steel!" said the tank operator of the Sherman tank before he proceeds to destroy the enemy tank.

The Sherman has destroyed the enemy tank only with one shot. the tanks main turret has been thrown, until it fell on top of 5 talibans and crushing them. After the enemy tank destroyed, the Talibans gone scared off and retreating with haste. As the enemy retreat, the Allies firing at them with full firepower. Twilight continued firing at them after gladly seeing the Sherman tank is still okay. She screamed with fierce at the enemies as she shoots with the G36 until the enemy had no dare to shoot her back. The Talibans have retreated and fended of as the Allies ceased their fire upon their retreat.

"How the hell that damned tank is still okay?!" asked Sgt. Foley in a shout and confused.

"It was Twilight's idea to upgrade our armor with vibranium," replied the tank operator of M4 Sherman.

"Where the hell they got that kind of metal?" asked Ramirez to Dunn. "I though that metal were only used by Captain America."

"I don't know," replied Dunn, raised his shoulder as he looks at him.

The reinforcements along with the surviving two squads and the First Platoon came forward to Twilight. They saw Twilight was still aiming her gun at direction to the east near Dolker that still lay down on the ground, wounded and bleeding. Twilight then lower Dolker's G36 then dropped it, she then crouched and looked at Dolker quickly as she holds his wound as his blood coming out a lot from his wound. Everyone suddenly came to them as Sgt. Foley ordered a runner to get the medic here.

"Hold on, Dolker!" said Twilight, she is nearly cried. "You gotta be okay!"

"I... said that a lot to soldiers," said Lt. Dolker, lifting his head for awhile before his head fall back to the ground in pain.

The whole of Twilight's squad then assist her to keep Dolker alive. "Stay awake, just stay awake, MEDIC!"

The medic quickly came to them and then checked on Dolker's condition. "Hold on, sir, i'm going to patch you up."

Dolker then grabbed Twilight's armed and he looked at her eyes. "I don't think i'm going to make it."

"No, no, you will be alive!" said Twilight, going to cry.

"I did... that, to make.. sure... my squad is... okay," said Dolker, as he coughed when he saying it.

"No..." Twilight felt her heart tore apart when she is about to lose him.

"Twi,.... 'Of... Their... Own.. Accord'..." said Dolker, waiting for her answer as he struggle to get some breath.

"'Rangers Lead The Way,'" replied Twilight as she holds his hand and cried.

Dolker smiled, but then, he blow out his last breath. He has died, in the middle of the battlefield.

"No, no, Lt, Dolker, Dolkeer!" cried Twilight very loud, her tears drastically pour out from her eyes and fell into Dolker's soulless body. She keep hitting his chest to bring him back alive, but it was useless.

"Twilight, Twilight!," shouted Rendor as he holds her shoulders and arms and then bring her stand up as Jeremy and Yorker assisted him to hold her.

"Twilight, look at me," said Rendor after he, Jeremy and Yorker able to hold Twilight. "He's dead, alright? He's dead, we can't save him."

Twilight then look away from and looked towards Dolker in deep sorrow as she cry, as the medic shook his head at the soldiers implying that he's gone.

"Hey," called Rendor, in soft tone, Twilight then looked at him in shaken. "We're sorry."

Rendor, Jeremy and Yorker then let her go. Twilight then looked around her, seeing that her comrades have died in the battle. The Rangers have casualties of 33 man killed, which including the three operators inside the APC and they lost 2 Humvees, 1 armored truck, and 1 APC. Twilight then kneel, and looked down towards the ground. She grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and hold it in front of her chest for she looked at it for awhile before she dropped the sand and looked towards the hills ahead of them.

1 hour later, everyone returned to the COP after they evacuated the bodies of the fallen back to the base, picked up by the Second Platoon. While they were still on the way, Sgt. Foley, Cpl. Dunn, Pvt. Ramirez, and Pvt. Mccord were frowned and sad after what happen. Ramirez was looking out the window, while Foley still driving and looked at Ramirez for awhile. As the other two in the back were looking down at the floor of the humvee in silent. Everyone was silent in that humvee.

Twilight and her squad were inside a surviving armored truck. Twilight seat at the front with Rendor drove the car while the four of them took their seat in the back of the truck. Rendor was felt sad and despair about their loss. Laner and Yorker were mad after their loss as they inspect their weapon and refill their magazines. Jeremy felt sad and tired after the battle until he decides to sleep at the corner of the seat. While Yorker drowned in sorrow, as he holds his dog tag around his neck and rub it with his fingers. But, for Twilight, she's very sad, she cried, and she's in heavy rage.

Twilight suddenly hit the dashboard of the truck with her fist until she broke one of the truck's compartment. Her brothers were startled except for Jeremy, for suddenly heard a bashing sound. Rendor looked at Twilight as he drive while the three back there looking towards the front seat. Twilight put her fist on her thigh as her mouth showing her angry teeth. She then closed her mouth and lean back to the seat and shook her head as she still crying. The three in the back then look away from the front seat to continue on what are they doing while Rendor then look away from her and keep an eye on the road.

"Can this always be happening?" asked Twilight, slowly and in low voice.

Rendor heard the question, he let out a sigh before answering. "yeah."

They all have returned to the COP. During in the evening, around 1900 hours, Twilight was sitting near the cliff where there is a placement for a machine gun or a sniper rifle on the sandbag. She looking towards the beauty of the night horizon in the sky. As she looking towards it, she think of nothing but Dolker and those who died as her tears keep pouring from her eyes. Dolker and those soldiers weren't deserve to die like that. Twilight has one thing to do to fulfill her promise.

"They will fucking pay for what they've done!"

Author's Notes:

I nearly cried writing this chapter.