Chapter 2: The Fun Begins

The four warriors quickly made their way down to the armory and started loading up. Kaughn and Jackson taking up their respective load out, Nix and Feng grabbing a standard kit. Although both were strong and all had trained as marksmen, their roles were just simple riflemen, though they were still deadly SEALs.

"Who is going to carry the C4 this time?" Bellis asked.

"I'll do it," Kaughn volunteered. Jackson had done it on the last op, so he wouldn't mind taking the few extra pounds this time. It was unlikely they'd need it, but they always brought some, just in case.

They all donned special body armor, designated "Dragon Scale" for it's overlapping ceramic plates and ability to take multiple rifle rounds before being punctured. It was nothing like the standard kevlar with singular ballistic ceramic plates that could only take one or two (three if you were lucky) rounds before being quickly overwhelmed. The last things they put on were a some knee pads and their kevlar helmets before heading up to the flight deck of the Aircraft Carrier operating off the coast of Pakistan.

Waiting for them all was a C-2 Turbo Prop already spun up and ready to take on it's passengers. they all climbed into the cargo hold and sat down on the few canvas seats the crew chief had set up for them and buckled in. In a short time the C-2 was unsecured from the deck and was directed over to one of the catapults. This was Kaughn's favorite part. Slowly, the aircraft was prepped, unfolded it's wings and was attached to the shuttle. It went to full throttle for a few seconds before being suddenly launched into the air at the scheduled time of 0120.

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Kaughn woke with a start and a throbbing sensation in his shoulder as Jackson punched him awake. He stood up and checked to make sure all his equipment was secured. He then checked Jackson's parachute rig before turning around so that Jackson could reciprocate the action. Nix and Feng doing the same on the other side of the cabin. After the all finished they turned aft towards their team leader and the ramp. Lieutenant Bellis looked at them all, giving them a once over before signaling to the crew chief to lower the ramp. It wasn't the first time Kaughn had jumped at night, but he was always apprehensive about it. Too many things could go wrong, but he somehow always hit his mark.

The ramp was now fully lowered, wind violently whipping about the cabin. The Lieutenant gave them all one last look before leaping out the back, four black silhouettes following closely behind. As they swiftly neared the cold hard earth they counted down the seconds before pulling their cords and drifting silently to the ground. Kaughn took this moment to admire the beauty of the stars and moon. You could never get a view like this back in the states. He then jerked his mind back to the task at hand. He couldn't help but feel like it was going to be a long day.

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So far, the op had gone smoothly, which bothered Kaughn. Usually by now they would have hit a snag, something that caused a hiccup in the operation, but everything had gone right so far. they had crept up and found the entrance to the cave system, Kaughn and Feng taking out the few guards around it with well placed, silenced rifle rounds from their M4s. Silently gliding through the tunnels and dispatching any unfortunate insurgent they had happened upon with knife and silenced pistol, they finally found the village elder with his family. What they found sickened Kaughn. It looked like they had all been beaten. Yusuf, the elder, had had his tongue cut out. His children and wife beaten. It really pissed him off that a human being could do this to somebody. Kaughn had killed, he never liked to, he just did what was absolutely necessary and no more, but he could never imagine doing anything like what had been done to that family.

Quickly, they expedited the scared and panicked civilians to the extraction point. Of course, that was when they ran into the "snag". Their superiors had arranged for a couple of beat up trucks to be left some ways away from the op site, hidden in some scraggly bushes. They were there, but half of everything had been ripped off them, probably by poor goat herders.

"Shit," swore Bellis, "this is not the right time for this."

They were being tracked. The rest of the insurgents had caught on shortly after the small five man team had left. They could see the lights approaching in the distance.

"Damn, what we gonna do now?" asked Nix, to no one in particular. The civvies sat huddled by the trucks.

"I hope your mechanic skills are good, 'cause we're gonna put everything into one truck and do it fast. the sun is starting to come up and we need to get out of here. It's gonna be a tight squeeze for us, but we'll get outta here," stated Bellis. Everyone quickly got to work, as the sun was indeed quickly rising, making them easier to spot.

They had almost finished when they were finally spotted. An alarm went up among the insurgents as they closed in.

"FUCK!" yelled Bellis, "GHENGIS, SET UP ON THAT RIDGE TO THE LEFT; ROCKA, I NEED YOU TO LAY UP TOWARDS OUR RIGHT AND PUT DOWN SOME SUPPRESION. DICKEY, FUNGIS; KEEP ON THAT ENGINE!"

Everyone ran to comply with thier orders. As Nix and Feng continued to work on the engine, Kaughn got down into prone and flipped his selector switch from automatic to semi. He lined up and started taking shots, downing one, two, three and four tangos before coming under a hail of hostile fire. He hugged the dirt on the embamkment for a little, trying not to get hit before a rapid booming pulsed through the air, effectively bringing the deluge of enemy fire to a trickle.

Kaughn looked up and nodded to Jackson, who was tearing into the group of insurgents with a deafening roar pouring from his M240B. Kaughn started lining up again and dropping hot iron onto the AK47 wielding insurgents as bullets cracked and whined over head, some striking the front of the burm he was laying on. But he played no heed, he had a job to do.

The duo kept this up for about five minutes before the rumble of an engine could be heard behind them.

"EVERYONE IN!" the Lieutenant bellowed.

As the rest of the team piled in with the civilians and started to lay down cover fire, Kaughn and Jackson started running to the open back of the truck, their hearts pounding in their chests.

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Far back away from the heavy fighting a lone man crawled up on a small rise, dragging a dirty, yet well maintained Dragunov rifle with him. The Americans had stolen their prisoners and were now laying waste to his forces. One was quite a good shot while another was cutting down his soldiers with a wall of lead. He had to be careful. If he tried to take out their marksman, he would give away his position and come under a torrent of fire from the larger one. So he focused on the one with the large gun. He prayed to himself as he lined up on the large one running back to the truck. "Allah Akbar" he mumbled as he pulled the trigger.

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Kaughn was running back to the truck with Jackson, watching the elder and his family struggle to climb in when he heard a loud roar next to him.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH, GODDAMMIT!" screamed Jackson as the 7.62 round passed through his thigh. He crumpled to the ground in a heap. "THIS IS THE SECOND DAMN TIME THIS YEAR!" He struggled to get up, but his leg wouldn't support his weight. Kaughn ran over and started dragging his friend towards the open back end of the truck.

"I GOT YA BUDDY, HOLD ON!"

"MY RIFLE!" Jackson yelled, he had accidentally dropped it.

"LEAVE IT, I'LL GET YOU ANOTHER." Kaughn yelled back.

Jackson pulled out his side arm and started taking shots as they moved back towards the truck.

Z-ZIP, THUNKCRACK.

"UNG!" Kaughn grunted in pain as a couple of rounds struck his vest. It didn't penetrate, the armor did it's job, but it felt like a couple ribs had broken. All the while he kept going. He reached the truck and his teammates hauled Jackson into the truck bed. Unfortunately, one of the elder's daughters decided to try to run for it, jumping out of the truck, her mother screaming.

The insurgents were closing in fast and Kaughn wasn't going to let her fall back into their twisted hands. He had seen what they had done to other women, cutting off ears and noses. the truck was starting to pull away, they had run out of time five minutes ago. Kaughn ran, grabbed her and threw her into the back of the truck. The insurgents were very close now, bullets biting the dirt all around. He gave them all one look as they pulled away, beckoning him to run for it. But he knew that unless their enemies had something else to shoot at, the truck wouldn't last under the onslaught.

He gave them all a quick two fingered salute off the top of his brow before turning around and running to grab the weapon his best friend had dropped. He grabbed it and ran to a nearby crop of boulders, picking up another box of belt linked ammo they had left in their speedy exit. The current belt still had a little over half left. 'Good enough,' he thought. He set up and started firing, drawing the attackers' attention to him as he started cutting them down.

He continued to fire as the rocks around him were being chipped away. Then his weapon clicked empty. He started to reload, drawing his sidearm and taking a few pot shots to keep their heads down. As he finished reloading he thought, 'so this is how it's gonna end. One life for eight? Sounds like a good trade to me.' He hated doing this to his squad mates, his friends, hell, they were the closest he had to family, but someone had to do it. Might as well be him. Bellis, Nix and Feng all had families. Jackson still had his first child yet to be born. Kaughn didn't really have anything. 'Better me than them.'

He resumed sending back his regards to the wave of assholes that thought they were going to stop them from rescuing those people. he continued this for another two or three seconds until a stray round slammed into his left shoulder.

"SHIT" he swore, picking his sidearm back up with his right hand and trying to reload it. He started to move back as he was struck again in his right thigh, the bullet passing through the meat thankfully, but still sending searing pain rocketing to his brain. The tangos were getting closer, though they didn't seem to be tying to kill him as much as before. They wanted another prisoner. 'Fuck that shit,' he thought. He fired all his .45 caliber rounds at anyone he could see. 'Last clip, better make it count.'

As he slid the last of his clips home, he saw a flash and heard a loud snap, it felt like a large amount of electricity had ran through him. He shook it off and started firing again, this time receiving another round to his front right chest, knocking the wind out of him. He struggled through the pain, firing until the slide stayed locked back. Empty. The rest of the insurgents were only a few yards away now. He brought up his rifle only to see that one of the rounds that had struck him in the back earlier had punched through the magazine. Useless. He had four full ones on him still, but there was no time to reload without getting a bullet to the head. They were here. Chanting and screaming in victory, even though he had almost single handedly taken out half their force, not to mention the rest of he team making off with their previous prisoners.

One man broke through the crowd, a Dragunov slung over his shoulder. He still had his Balaklava on. He started speaking in Urdu to everyone else, eliciting another cry of victory from the group. Kaughn started feeling another tingling sensation, like electricity, coming stronger now. 'I'm damned if the fuckers are gonna take me back. Homie don't play that,' he thought, reaching for the detonator for the eight pounds of C4 strapped in his rucksack. He slowly primed it without the group of hostiles noticing.

The man then turned to him and lifted him off the ground, screaming Urdu into Kaughn's face. Kaughn didn't speak Urdu fluently, but knew enough to make out something like, "YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES, DOG!" Kaughn just smiled and replied as best he could in the speaker's native language, "Good luck with that."

He then held up the detonator and squeezed the trigger. The last things he remembered was the priceless look on that asshole's face, a sharp shock -as if he had been struck by lightning- then darkness.