The continuous thudding of the UH-60 black hawk helicopter rotor blades gave some people a throbbing headache after only a few minutes of being in the air. Many people liked to use a stereo in an attempt to cover up the sound with some music, but not me. I enjoyed the sound, kept me focused on the mission ahead. Kept my mind from wandering. My squad however did not share my view, so there I sat listening to the heavy bass being pumped out of the stereo speakers. I could pull rank and order them to turn it off but it wasn’t worth it. Besides, the next few hours for them were going to be hell, might as well let them enjoy it while they can.
I took a look around the interior of the black hawk and surveyed my unit. There were 6 of us in all. My demolitions expert, corporal Perra, was an extremely muscular man with very tan skin. Tall too, he stood at 6 foot 5 inches. I always found it funny that he had chosen demolitions; Perra had one of the most explosive tempers I’d ever seen. Sometimes, Perra could be a bit hard to keep under control in the field, but I always made sure to not let him get out of hand.
Sitting to the right of Perra was Corporal Winslow. I’d known him longer than anyone else in the squad. We first met at boot camp and had stayed friends since. He was my team’s sharpshooter, deadly accurate with his M40 bolt-action sniper rifle. Personality wise, he was the polar opposite to Perra. Extremely calm, even under heavy fire. He had a good body build for a sharpshooter too, only coming up to 5 foot 8 inches. His height was a great advantage when firing from a concealed position.
Then there was our communications member, Corporal Schultz. He topped out at 6 foot even and wasn’t overly muscular, compared to some others in the squad. But for what he lacked in strength, he made up for in brains. Whenever we faced a tough decision, I always took his advice into consideration.
The last two in my squad were privates Butler and Maldonado. Neither of them had any specialties, just common assault marines. But both were great shots with their M4 carbines. The only problem was that Butler didn’t think a lot of things through. This had its disadvantages and advantages. On the one hand it made him react extremely fast to any threat. But on the other hand, he could make very reckless moves that could jeopardize the entire mission.
“All right, turn that music off and listen up.” I yelled out over the roar of the black hawk and blasting song. “Were getting pretty close to the LZ, so I want to go over our objectives one more time. Our primary objective is the capture of Saddim Alhabid. Intel believes that this scumbag has been supplying terrorist forces with weapons and there’s even talk that he may have a WMD in his possession. Now, we want this guy alive so don’t go shooting the bastard on a whim, got it?”
“Secondary objectives, sir?” Schultz interjected.
“ Our secondary objectives are as follows,” I continued. “Knock out their communications tower. If were caught they could raise one hell of an alarm and their reinforcements will come running. Second, if were given a good opportunity, we are to eliminate any hostile forces in the area. Finally, if everything goes off without a hitch and we manage to neutralize everyone in the enemies HQ and snag Alhabid then we are to level the entire facility. Think you guys can handle that?”
“No worries Sarge. It’ll be a walk in the park.” Winslow said, giving me a thumbs up.
“Hell, if that facility needs to be blown apart, you certainly brought along the right man for the job.” Perra stated while hefting a brick of c4 and allowing himself a confident smirk.
Just then their headsets cracked to life and the pilots voice rang through their ears. “5 minutes to drop guys, were going dark.”
I felt the helicopter drop as it descended even lower to go under any radar that they enemy may have. A few minutes later a green light came to life letting them know that they had reached the LZ, so he hooked up a rappel line and through it out the side of the black hawk into the inky black night down to the sandy beach below. One by one they grabbed the line and zipped to the bottom, leaving heavy boot prints in the soft sand. When the last of them hit, the helicopter pulled a 180 and headed back out to sea to their aircraft carrier.
I motioned forward with my hand and as one we all sprinted to the forest’s tree line where there would be some kind of cover. They reached the tree line and hunkered down and waited in silence for a moment listening for any sign of an enemy presence. When I was satisfied that it was relatively safe, we huddled up.
“All right, where to, sir?” Butler asked, shifting his M4 to nuzzle tightly against his shoulder.
“In my opinion, sir, heading straight to their base could be a bad move, too high of a risk of an alarm being tripped. I think our best bet is to move to the communications tower and try and take it out of commission before they have a chance to catch us.” Schultz advised.
-Head North East
-Head East
-Head South
Map
Weapons and Terms used throughout the story
