//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Sad endings, New beginnings // Story: A New Misson // by itsjustteal //------------------------------// Year: 2018 Date: 12/25/47 Location: Afghanistan "Wind is 24MPH, range is 1300 meters. Target is walking. Adjust your sights for the lead, fire when ready. Aim high, and let's make history." Said a voice on my right.. I knew who he was, of course, I mean, didn't I read the mission briefing? My mission. Many missions I've had, most had been on my own. This is one of the rare occurrences when I actually do get a spotter, and someone who would watch my back. The Spotters name for this mission: Corporal Mark Durkinscoff. In the briefing, it had said that he was a recent graduate from a sniper school back in the states. He'd been on a few missions, and had even had to take the sniper position a few times. But hey, I wouldn't trade him for any other spotter in the world. Now, my part in the mission was the assassin. I don't like putting it that way, but its basically what a sniper does, other than help his fellow troops in the field. Besides that, the 'target' just happened to be an old friend of mine. He left the U.S and joined the Al-Qaeda, thus earning the title of 'traitor'. The names Christopher Kennedy, a high ranked member of the group. "Nah man, another head shot? If this is gonna be in the books, we gotta make it presentable. Where do you think I should shoot?" I grinned, looking at him. He looked back, and grinned with me. "All I'm gonna say, aim for the torso. The bullet will tear him up anyways. A shot from a .338 Lapua round in an M98? Fella's in for a bad time, no matter where you hit" He said, looking back into his scope. I loaded the magazine into the clip, bullet in the chamber, and took my aim. As Mark said, aim for the torso. That's exactly what I did. I closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, the bullet was making its way down range. I waited for the response. ... ... ... "Shit! I must have misread the wind speed! The shot went to the thigh!" He yelled. Immediately, my eyes snapped open, and I looked back into my scope. My eyes went straight to his leg, which seemed to be perfectly fine. But how? I looked up and locked eyes with his. I swear, he was looking straight at me. The next thing we knew, he was smiling and shouting orders and pointed into our direction. "Corporal, they new we were coming!" I shouted to him, he looked at me, and I could tell he was worried. " We need to get the fu-" I was cut off by an explosion behind me, then a searing pain in my right arm. I yelled out in pain. "Sergeant!" He yelled, taking out his M4A1. I looked back and saw an enemy bird, preparing for another shot. "Don't worry about me! Its just a bit of shrapnel! Look, as much as i'd like to stay and have some tea and crumpets, we need to get the fuck outta here! Follow me, Mark!" I yelled, slinging my Barrett M98 over my back and taking out my M4. I stood up and started running to the back of the building, where we had rappels waiting. Making sure he was following me, I hooked up to the repel and jumped the wall, Mark right next to me. "Reppel!" I yelled over the bombardment of bullets. Using one hand to hold onto the wire, and the other on my M4, we began to repel down the building. A few moments later, we touched down on the pavement below. I ran to a nearby car and took out my radio. "Command! This is Echo-2-1! We are compromised! Say again, we are compromised! Need immediate evac!" I yelled into the thing. A scratchy voice came back seconds later. "Roger that Echo-2-1, EVAC is on the way ETA 5 minutes. Out" "Shit! We gotta book it to the rendezvous or we'll be left behind" I crouched down and put the radio back on the hook. I got back up " Let's g-" A bullet grazed the top of the car, inches in front of my face. "Enemy positions to our front and right flank!" Mark yelled half a second later and immediately pulled up his M4A1, firing at the enemy, hoping to buy us some time. While he was spraying on them, I was focusing on the enemies to our front. I unloaded magazine after magazine unto the advancing troops, some bullets hitting its mark. Right as I loaded another mag, a searing pain shot through my right arm again, but the adrenaline pretty much blocked out most if the pain. I let the contents of the magazine soar through the air, receiving screams in return. "Sir, you've been hit!" I heard Mark yell. I took cover behind the car and assessed the damage. I looked to my right and saw that a bullet had hit almost exactly where the shrapnel had hit, which only led to it bleeding more. "It doesn't help that its the same spot as the shrapnel! Never mind that! We need to move now, follow me!" I yelled to him, moving from cover to cover, holding my gun up to my shoulder. We finished the last of the enemies, and made our way through the parking lot, and into an apartment building. I looked over my shoulder. "Suppressors on. We don't need anymore distractions" After loading the suppressors, we started moving quietly through the building. As soon as we cleared the first room, my radio went off. "Echo 2-1 this is Command, ETA two minutes" "We're oscar mike, out" I replied, tucking my radio away. A faint shuffling caught my attention, and I turned to my left, gun ready, to see an enemy soldier and noticed hes had better days. A knife was sticking out of his neck. I looked to my right and saw Durkinscoff smirking at me. I smiled back and nodded my head. "Keep moving" We strolled threw the rest of the building, and exited through the back. Our EVAC site was only one hundred yards away, and the sound of the Chinook was getting louder. "Sir? Its too quiet" I nodded in agreement. "We're almost there, lets book it" I said, taking off the suppressor, Mark doing the same. I stood up, and made a bee-line for the clearing. We arrived a minute later, and took cover behind a dead mule. Yes, a dead mule. We are in a clearing, aren't we? Meanwhile Mark took cover behind a rock, barley able to keep him cover. He glanced at me, and I glanced back. Something's not right. No more enemy contact, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just puts us on edge. We did just try to assassinate a high valued target. I took a glance at my watch and noticed that the chopper was supposed to arrive over 30 seconds ago. I fished for my radio as fast as I could, but to no avail. I couldn't find it anywhere. I looked at my spotters gear, and saw that his radio was busted completely. Our eyes met once again, and he motioned with his head out in the open. My eyes darted to the open, and there, lying right on the ground, was my radio. I looked back to Mark and said the words that might be my last. "Cover me" And with that, I bolted from cover and ran as fast as humanly possible towards my radio. When I reached the radio, I hastily bent down and fetched it, and as soon as I got back up, I was knocked to the ground in pain. I tried to open my eyes, but everything was just a blur mixed with a side order of pain, and there was a lot of it. The realization dawned on me, I was shot. I felt all over my body for the shot, and my hand brushed past an increasingly wet spot on my chest. I focused looking at my chest, and my eye sight slowly turned back to normal. What I saw, actually scared me. A small hole through my chest, which let out a profuse amount of blood. "Sergeant!" I heard Mark yell from behind. While he was running to me, I gingerly rose up to my knees, clutching my chest and my arm, which now bled more than it should have by now. Seconds later, I felt a pair of arms pulling me up, and realized it must have been Mark. When My arm was draped over his shoulder, I saw that it was not him, but another marine soldier. In the time I went to get the radio, the Chinook arrived. Man did I feel stupid. I collapsed to the ground once more and was now being dragged to the open helicopter door, firing my weapon on the arriving enemy troops. About halfway through, I dropped my gun, for I was too weak to hold it. Every few seconds a little cloud of dirt would spring up besides me. In a final attempt to get out of here, I drew my M9 and fired away at the enemies. There must have been about thirty or so, but it didn't matter. Everything counts. What seemed like hours later, I was being pulled into the Chinook, and being propped up on one of the seats. A few of the other marines were gathering outside the door, taking a few of the enemy soldiers before climbing aboard. I was looking out the door, just staring at the death, not even thinking anything about it. Suddenly, I felt a hand placed on my shoulder and looked over, seeing Mark screaming at the other men for a medic. I was no doctor, but I was guessing that I lost too much blood. I don't think they would be of help. While the medic was checking for my vitals, I clutched Mark's hand as the pain was too much. I got close to his ear and whispered, "I think that tea would be lovely right now" I said, giving a weak smile. "The crumpets too". He chuckled, finally. Another wave of bullets gets thrown at us from all directions and we returned fire seconds after. The medic seemed to have stopeed the bleeding in my chest and arm, and had gone to tend to another injured soldier. I looked over and found that it was Mark, his hand clutched over his stomach, face wretched in white hot pain. "Mark!" I yelled at him over the gunfire. He looked back at me, tears forming in his eyes. "Man does this hurt!" He yelled. With the strenght that I had left in me, I pulled myself over to Mark and clutched my hand with his. "Why isn't this bird in the air yet!" I yelled out. I looked back to Mark, him looking back up at me. "Mark, you're gonna be fine, do you understand?," He gave a slight nod. "Everythings gonna be alright, were gonna get outta this soon," I looked back up, "Get this chopper in the air now!" My command was soon heard as the chopper painstakingly stated to rise in the air. I looked to my left and saw that one of the soldiers had gotten my Barrett off the ground. Like that'l make a difference. Seconds went by as I crouch next to Mark, speaking soft and soothing words. I lift his hand up and saw two bullet holes that had gone straight through his stomach, inches apart. I looked out the open back of the Chinook and saw that we were almost out of the war zone. The gunner was still going ham on the enemies below us with his mini gun. " Can you stop the bleeding?" I yelled over the gunner. He looked to me with a smile. "I've already stopped the bleeding, we just need to cover the wou-" "RPG incoming!" The pilot yelled out to us.