Okay so first off the warnings. If you have a weak constitution or your not suposed to read bloody stories DO NOT READ THIS
I'm serious this is a very INTENSE story and it is ALL FICTIONAL to my knowledge as of now. Feel free to post what you think of it.
First encounter
The hour is 2345 and it's almost time for the drop. Just as a faint conversation I can hear fragments of Sarge's conversation with the pilot.
"....beacon just turned on.........ten minutes till the DZ........tell your men to ........equipment.........strong winds might.........loose buckles....."
Sarge then makes the perilous walk across the catwalk to the rear of the plane where we are sitting and waiting anxiously to be dropped. He then begins to make sure all the straps on his equipment are secure, beginning with his parachute and carbine straps, and then he turns to us and briefs us on the situation.
"Okay men, only" he checks his wrist watch " five minutes until the drop. Check your gear and make sure all the straps are tight as possible without hurting you. Fly boy up there says the wind is about 100 miles per hour after all; the math is done about our speed and such. After you check it get your partner to check it."
I secure all my equipment and turn to Calico the other point man. Looking at his face I see the name sake. His face is covered with scars and burns and does his name sake shame.
"You heard Sarge, do you want to check my gear first or should I check yours?" I ask
"Lets start with yours you always did have trouble with you chute's buckles back at training." he says with a laugh that could haunt the dead.
"Yeah yeah just hurry up okay. Then I can check yours and we'll be ready 'cause we go down first."
"Okay okay just calm down. Try to have some fun now because you might not have it after this drop." he says with another of his trademark laughs.
"Sure whatever" I sigh as I try my hardest not to shudder at his disturbing laugh.
"Okay I'm done now you do mine." he says suddenly.
"Sure I'll be done in a minute." I say as I pull on the parachutes harness to make sure the buckles are tightly secured which they are. Then I proceed to check the rest of his straps.
"Their all tighter than Match gets when it comes to food."
"You're good to." I say as Sarge stands up.
"Okay men 30 seconds till we jump. Calico, Sharp-eye!"
"SIR!" we shout simultaneously as we jump to attention.
"Open the hatch and get ready to jump."
"YES SIR!" as we start opening the rear hatch we hear the wind starts to howl at us as if it is just waiting for an excuse to rip our parachutes off.
"Five!" shouts Sarge as he begins the countdown for our jump into the dark night air"Four!"
"Three!"
"Two!" I notice Calico tenses his legs for the jump and do so as well.
"One! GO GO GO GO GO!" shouts Sarge as we jump into the darkness waiting below.
The wind is horrendous it feels as if it's trying to rip me apart. I can hear the harnesses and buckles screaming at the tremendous pressure their under and I can't help but hope they don't break. Then the training kicks in and I pull my rip cord. The jerk of the 'chute opening is almost enough to break my ribs and stars appear before my eyes for a moment. Then my feet are on the ground and I cut the harness off with my combat knife as Calico does beside me. Then we find cover.
"There's a small bunker about twenty feet to the left of our position. We need to take out the occupants as quietly as possible because our boys will be landin" on the other side of their '42s." he says
"Right small arms and knives only?" I ask as we begin to move
"You got it. This is your first time in non-training combat isn't it." he asks as we approach
"Yeah but I was top of my unit in basic at quietly confronting the Drills." I reply we begin to get in to sight range of the bunker. I look at him and notice he is signaling two guards in the bunker and one out to the side of it. I see him and can't believe he would be so careless as to relieve himself without someone watching his back. He doesn't even know we're there. I signal back to Calico and move forward quietly to take out this guard, which will only leave one more for each of us. I come up behind him and quickly finish my job without a sound, slitting his throat so that he can't scream and alert the other two. When its done Calico is beside me signaling that the other two are in the bunker with their backs to us a quick look inside confirms this. We go in silently and with two quick slices our enemy is on the ground bleeding the last of their lives out through their throats. They try to scream but all that comes out is a faint gurgling sound as their mouths open to let it out and I can see the fear in their eyes as they glaze over and I can't help but shudder.
"You did good kid, real good, for a greenhorn" Calico says in a whisper "and our boys will be safe and we have a foot hold that is easily defendable as well as stocked with previsions and ammunition."
We hear the crunch of gravel under boots and drag the bodies to the side as we turn of the light in the bunker. Calico then whistles the 'Friend or Foe' signal. It sounds like a birds whistle. We wait and I can't help but wonder if we may have missed one and then we hear the response. Relief immediately floods through my body as we turn the light back on.
"Hey Sarge good to see you and the boys made it all right." Calico says
"Yeah we touched down just in time to see you take out those guards. I'm impressed with you Sharp-eye. Maybe we should call you Dagger instead." he jokes as he pats me on the back. "But now comes the hard part. We gotta clear this town of hostiles and hold the place. Hopefully the point men of the other squads are as silent as you two at clearing bunkers." he says and we accept the praise in his voice. "But for now we rest. We start on the town after the moon goes down or when we hear gun fire which ever first. Now we need to hide these bodies and clean up this blood so their replacements don't notice we're here until they join their comrades. York you and Match take care of the clean up. Sharp-eye you and Calico rest for a bit. Pops your with me" he says as he readies to do a quick inspection of the supplies we just captured.
About ten minutes later Match and York are done and resting as well.
"Hey how'd you get your nickname any way Sharp-eye" Match asks
"Back in basic on of the Drill Sergeants said I couldn't hit the broad side of the barn because I was taking my time aiming. I proved him wrong by shooting a crow in the eye as it flew by the targets. So how'd you get yours Match?" I reply
"Back in the first great war my squad was attacked by germens with flame throwers. I killed one of 'em and took it from him and used it on his buddies. Sarge said after word I was laughing like crazy as I torched 'em and so now they call me Match."
"And you York how'd you get yours?" I ask
"Eh I'm from Manhattan. That's about it." he replies with a Yankee accent.
At this point Sarge is back and says "Hey Pops how bout you tell the boys how you got your name."
"Right. First off I'm the oldest one here, that's right I'm even older than old Calico. Second, I took a liking to grenades and got really good with them and one of my old squads boys said that blowing a trench in a bunker made a 'popping' noise and since I was always 'popping' them they began to call me Pops and it just stuck." He said while cracking a toothy grin which we couldn't help but start to have our selves. Yes we were in enemy territory but they didn't know yet, no one had been hurt or killed in our squad and we felt good about it. We hadn't even heard a single shot fired off yet and we took it as a good omen. It turned out just to be a good start of what would soon be blood filled war.
:boom:
