Sergeant First Class Clint Bowman was not having a good day. In fact, it was a terrible day. It was a terribly hot day and a terribly long day. The patrol his platoon was participating in was fairly straightforward and one he had led multiple times over the last year. Just a simple road or route clearance operation from the Ghazni airport and out along the first 100 kilometers of the highway towards Khandahar. Just enough to make sure the Hajji's hadn't left any surprises for the semi-trucks. Today, however, was the first time their replacement unit was participating in the patrol. Which meant hours upon endless hours of stopping every few hundred meters so the new guys Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team could send their little robot out to check yet another pile of trash for any Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). All this while everyone roasted in their body armor, in 115 degree heat, in an armored Humvee, with no air conditioning.
"Hey Sergeant, we did tell these guys that the bad guys stopped hiding their shit in the trash piles like three years ago, right?" complained Specialist Adrian Martell from the back of the Humvee. "They should know its either going to be buried or in the trunk of an old car just like we told 'em."
"Can it Martell," replied Clint from the front passenger seat. "They're just doing the same thing we did the first time we had one of these operations. They trust us but none of them are eager to get blown up just yet so they're double checking everything."
Adrian sighed loudly as he sat back in his seat and made a big show of pulling out a small spiral notepad to use as an impromptu fan. Clint looked over at his driver, Sergeant Dwight Barnes, who met his gaze and they both shook their heads a bit. The large African American from Alabama mouthed out, "I'll talk with him later," before going back to scanning the various houses and alleyways on his side of the road. Clint did the same for his side until a minute later the radio crackled to life with the sound of the convoy commander.
"Ch- Chaos convoy, this is Chaos Six. Obstruction is cleared and we are moving out."
Clint winced a bit at the convoy commander's obvious lack of radio training. It wasn't necessarily bad as it got the point across, but it also wasn't right. He made a mental note to bring it up with his replacement once they got back to base.
"Is that guy fresh out of college or what?" said Specialist Louis Gonzales from the turret ring. "He's so timid on the radio that I have to wonder why his Sergeant hasn't taken over handling the comms."
"Everyone has to learn sometime," replied Clint. "It just takes experience to get comfortable on the radio and this is as good a time as any."
A hearty chuckle came from the seat behind Clint as Specialist Taito Lee decided to interject. "Yeah Sergeant, that may be the case but at least our LT didn't sound like a chihuahua the first time we went on patrol." This earned a few chuckles and Clint decided it best to not say anything. The big Hawaiian was at least partially right. The new Lieutenant did sound scared shitless on the radio, even though only he was only broadcasting to just their convoy.
The convoy continued on for roughly another mile before breaking out into what could be called the suburbs of Ghazni. The roads were not as crowded and the buildings weren't as close together. Clint figured the new group of replacements was likely starting to relax a bit. Being in the city itself was nerve racking as there was nowhere to go if you came under attack. However Clint and his platoon knew better as out here with the longer sight lines but still within the city was where the Hajji's preferred to launch their ambushes.
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Almost in response to his musings, Clint heard the turret begin to rotate more frequently as Louis began tracking potential targets. Even Adrian seemed to sit up a bit and pay more attention to the outside world. Everyone could almost feel that something seemed to be wrong. It had been a while since the last time they were attacked and the convoy had been acting with extreme caution up until this point. It was likely any Hajji's out there already knew the replacem...
BOOM!
The explosion was felt by everyone in the Humvee more than heard. A wall of dirt and stone erupted from the roadway in front of them, directly under the MRAP they had been following making the large Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle disappear from sight.
"GO, GO, GO. PUNCH THROUGH," yelled Clint.
"ON IT SERGEANT, PUNCHING THROUGH," replied Dwight.
Clint grabbed for the push to talk switch on his vest but instead had to brace himself against the thick bulletproof door as the passenger-side tires dipped into the massive crater. Dwight corrected and got them past without rolling over. Clint caught a glimpse of the MRAP on its side just on the far side of the crater as they drove past. That thing is designed to take that kind of hit, he thought, hopefully its just some minor injuries in there. Clint again grabbed for the PTT switch.
"CHAOS SIX, CHAOS FIVE. DEEP BURIED IED DISABLED CHAOS THREE. CHAOS FIVE PUSHING THROUGH AMBUSH SITE."
"Chaos five, Chaos Six," came back the crisp reply of their own LT instead of Lieutenant Chihuahua. "Displace 500 meters from ambush site and establish security."
Clint took two deep breaths before replying. The suddenness of combat out here always hit with that massive surge of adrenaline and even just sounding panicked could only get more people hurt. "Chaos six, Chaos five. Understood. Displacing 500 meters and establishing security." Clint tapped Dwight on the shoulder and he nodded both that he was okay and had heard their instructions. Clint then turned to where Louis was standing in the turret and swatted him on the leg.
"I'm good Sergeant! Turret wasn't facing forward so I didn't catch any of the blast," yelled Louis.
"How about you guys?" asked Clint to the two soldiers in the rear.
"Fine here Sergeant," said Adrian.
"Rung my bell from Sergeant Barnes's shitty driving but I'll live," replied Taito.
Clint looked ahead and saw that going the full 500 meters would put them right between a group of buildings where they would decidedly NOT be able to pull security. "Barnes, stop about 50 meters short of those buildings. There are some walls and boulders we can use for cover while maintaining clear sightlines."
Dwight simply nodded in reply, his eyes flicking around at every shadow and every window looking for any more threats as he headed to the indicated spot.
As soon as Dwight pulled to a stop, everyone began looking outside at the ground in the immediate vicinity of the Humvee for any more surprises. Hearing nothing from anyone after a solid 15 seconds Clint yelled, "Alright, everybody out! Double check the ground close for any more surprises and then push out to cover. Gonzalez, keep that turret spinnin' like a top. Shoot anything that looks funny."
The chorus of "Rogers" came back to him and everyone set about securing the perimeter. After stepping out of the humvee, Clint began scanning the ground close to the humvee and working his way out. Five/Twenty-five was what the drill was called. Before getting out of the humvee, do a quick scan for everything within five meters that you can see and then everything out to 25 meters. Repeat the process once getting out of the humvee to catch anything not visible from your seat.
"Uhh... Sergeant?" Adrian said in a strangely high pitched voice just as Clint was finishing the sweep of his area.
Clint stepped around the front of the humvee to see what Adrian was concerned about just in time to see him sweep his boot along the ground, uncovering the unmistakable shape of an old, Russian, 152mm artillery shell buried just under the surface. Clint slowly looked up at Adrian, the blood draining from both of their faces.
"RRUU-"
[ You have died. ]