[Three months ago, Somewhere in Colombia, 1856 Hours]

The smell of rotting leaves, swampy water and mud emanates from the ground as me and my team carefully move closer to our objective; a seemingly abandoned stone building that is the only remains of a fort used by the Spanish against a tribe of natives that are now long gone.

The jungle is an unpleasant and unforgiving place. It is filled with toxic, deadly flora and creatures that will kill you- or, as in our case- people who will shoot us dead.

"Target building is in sight, scanning for hostiles." Hobo says from his position behind a mud-mound while Chappy re-zeroes his scope beside him.

I lift the bottom of my balaclava and spit out the horrible taste that the dank jungle air left in my mouth. I then lift my head to look at Romero who is in kneeling right beside Jackie, who has his mark forty-six trained on the building.

"I see movement on the second floor, third window from the right." Hobo reports, which cause me to turn my head back to our objective.

Chappy had already finished setting up, so he turns his rifle carefully to the designated position.

I see three figures behind the window, seemingly talking.

"Tally three... on target." Chappy reports.

Hobo looks to me "We're in place sir."

I look to him and nod. Then turn my head to look at my watch to make sure that we are on time.

"Nobody radios unless completely necessary. They likely have equipment for eavesdropping and we cannot afford to blow our cover until it's time." Major Degarmo told us during the briefing of the mission.

The second hand ticks and circles around once... then twice...

"Engage on my mark." I say to Chappy.

I could see him focusing on his target from my peripheral- but I know that as the second hand ticks away, he's already planned out a sequence- from first to last- on who to shoot first.

I fish for my binoculars and then put it in-front of my eyes. There seems to be no other enemies on our direct line of sight for now, but I see a makeshift bridge over a hole into the ground right beside stairs that seem to lead to a basement or lower levels of the fort.

I look to Jackie. "Jackie, keep your eyes on that hole at the ground floor."

"Affirmative." He responds and shifts his weapon.

Sweep my eyes across the building one more time before looking down on my wristwatch and wait as the tiniest hand seem to crawl past ten... eleven... and finally reaching twelve.

Nineteen-hundred.

It's time.

I put my binoculars in-front of my eyes. "Mark."

Immediately after I finish speaking, Chappy pulls the trigger of his EBR- his rifle letting out a suppressed report and nailing two of the three targets in the head.

I then watch as a larger group, similarly dressed as us, burst out of the bushes and trees from across the building and then open fire on hostiles in the vicinity with suppressed weapons before kicking down the barely passable wooden door.

The others and us would seem alike, but those who have spent considerable amount of time with other delta units can pick up the quirks of teams from delta company; like shotgun carriers and more common utilization of the SCAR platform.

"Jackie, engage anybody who tries to get across that bridge or downstairs." I say as the first member of delta company enters the building.

"Wilco."

Chappy's EBR lets out another suppressed shot, and three dead bodies were made between his first and latest shot.

We couldn't see exactly what was happening inside but I do know that we caught them by surprise. They retreated from delta company's point of entry and right into Jackie's sights.

More than a dozen were cut down by Jackie through long, suppressed bursts as they were caught in the middle of the make-shift bridge or emerging from the stairs. Barely a minute has passed and our body count has already risen by twenty four. Chappy's shots are getting more sparse and he eventually withdraws himself from his rifle as targets have either been dispatched by delta or Jackie, who is letting his mark-forty-six cool down.

A team from delta company arrives on the place where Jackie has been stacking bodies. They take a moment to gauge the situation before one of them throws what I assume is a flashbang down the gap followed by a muffled 'bang' and then they move to storm the lower levels.

The hostiles down below seem to be more prepared because we could hear unsuppresed shots being fired a few seconds after the team from delta company went down to the lower levels.

Romero turns to me. "Think the rest of their guys heard those?"

I nod. "Some, yeah."

The shots coming from the lower levels of the fort eventually stopped after a while and my earpiece crackles to life. I signal the team to can their chatter as I listen intently to the transmission.

A beep sounds and a voice goes through. "Zeus this is delta one-one. Ace is not in here, I say again- Ace is nowhere here. But Two-one has found what seems to be hostages- some of them are ID' as relatives of local politicians and businessmen. Requesting instructions. Over."

Political hostages? This just got complicated.

Another beep, but this time, it was Major Degarmo's voice that came through.

"How many are in there two-one?"

A momentary pause in the comms before it beeped back to life. "About thirty sir. We've done a count on the- What? Fuck, get-!"

My eyes went wide wide at the last piece of the transmission. "Guys, delta might be in trouble!" I say to my team, who then had similar reactions and immediately went back to their positions then readied their weapons.

I lift my rifle up and set my eyes behind my ACOG- watching the stairs leading to the lower levels.

Someone emerges from the stairs and I tighten my grip on my rifle before my alertness got replaced with shock.

Children- most probably no older than sixteen suddenly flooded out of the exit and ran into the woods with some carrying younger ones with them.

My earpiece comes to life as delta two-one transmits to me. "Delta one-one to Bravo one. Do you have eyes on the individuals?"

I recover from my shock and quickly reply. "Affirmative, seems to be six or eight individuals total- break- what the hell are these kids doing?!"

They run their way ever closer to the edge of the clearing around the house, a young girl seemingly leading them.

A beep as one-one replies. "Bravo one, I don't know- standby." A momentary pause. "Two-one says some of the kids currently running recognized them as US SOF before running away- break- Zeus, orders?"

I could see Chappy lifting his eyes above the scope as he look on to the running children.

Major Degarmo speaks again after a beep. "Pursue and eliminate two one- break- bravo one can you assist?"

I breathe out as I push the buttons on my earpiece to reply. "Affirmative."

Chappy snaps his head to me. "Wh-what?" He asks in an unbelieving voice.

I keep my eyes on the runners as I reply. "Take them down Chappy."

I could hear him choke on his words.

"I... B-bu-but sir!"

I shakily let out a breath that I've been holding in before turning my head. "Don't make me pull rank here Chappy. You can only make it quick for them."

"They're just kids!"

"DO IT NOW SERGEANT!" I shout.

His eyes widened, but only briefly. Then he goes back to his rifle, takes aim and fires the first shot.

I've returned to my binoculars when he started to take aim, and I saw as the girl that was leading the runners earlier had her head dissipate and her body to fall down to the ground.

More shots followed, and more bodies that will not be added to the count fell. And all of those shots went hit the targets from three hundred meters away while they moved erratically.

When it was all said and done, a team from delta company ran to the place where the runners are and shot the ones that were out of Chappy's line of sight, or those being carried that are now under the bodies.

It was gruesome, remorseless, and efficiently done.

Chappy never took his eyes off his scope.

---

[Present day, Area Zero, 0130 Hours]

I wake up to the sound of someone whimpering. I turn my head to the source and see Chappy's silhouette shaking slightly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I hope it was quick... I ... I..." Chappy whimpers.

Drowsily, I start to get up from my bunk and approach him. Then put my hand on his shoulders. "Hey man, wake up." and start to shake him.

"No... no..." He whimpers louder and I shake harder.

"Wake up!"

Chappy bolts upright, shouting. I immediately put my hand forward to hold him from slamming his head onto the ceiling.

"Yo man, I'm here." I say while rubbing his back through his tee.

Chappy sobs for a moment, head in hands- I look at him as his sobbing start to subside, until he, with a shaky voice, speaks.

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"I swear I didn't want to." The last part came out almost as a whisper.

I keep rubbing his back and stay silent as he stops sobbing and normalizes his breathing to calm down. And when he did, he turns his head to me.

"I'm a fucking mess aren't I Fly?" He says, eyes red and his dark skin running with tears.

I hold his gaze for a moment. Chappy has been with delta for only six months- having been a specialist in the 10th Mountain Division for two years before getting an invitation to try out to be a part of delta force- But those six months have been full of skullduggery, sleepless nights, dank weather, wet rain and brutal gunfights against Brazilian cartels and Columbian smugglers under clandestine operations. Operations where our loved ones will be told that we died in a ambush by insurgents in the sandbox or wherever our official units are deployed.

It was a uniquely brutal conflict, unlike the insurgency in the middle east. You can shoot insurgents dead, and you've just eliminated someone who would've killed your own guys at best. Or raised more targets to eliminate at worst.

Cartels on the other hand, have influence- strong influence. They smuggle into neighboring countries and into the US- and many dealers in those countries are willing to go great lengths in order to get a better deal or keep their supply.

So instead of rooting them out by kicking down their doors and dragging them away in the middle of the night (although we did do that too) we or more usually someone with authority that we escort talks to them and agrees to a deal. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we get shouted at to leave or get shot.

Those who did the latter never lived long.

Except for one son of a bitch.

I sigh and put my hand on Chappy's shoulder. "You wanna drink while we talk about it?."

He thinks it over. "I- I guess so, yeah."

I purse my lips and nod slightly before turning and moving to the side where we have a few packs of beer stacked up against a wall. I pick up a pack and follow Chappy outside.

The front of our barracks is an open space with HESCO blocks making a wall that extends a few meters to the front- providing cover from mortars or small-arms fire to anybody outside. Chappy has his back pressed against the modular wall, audibly breathing.

I look for something that we can sit on, and see a stack of chairs at the side of the barracks. I grab two and run back to where Chappy is and offer him a chair, he takes it and we both sit down.

I grab a pair of cans from the pack and pass one to Chappy. Neither one of us opened our cans and we just sat there in complete silence- with the sound of construction work in the background.

Eventually, Chappy pops his can open and chugs down it's contents- putting the can down and sighing before he speaks. "Mind if I ask you something?"

I shrug. "It depends."

Chappy sighs again, thinking over his question before asking. "You know, I've never asked this before because I feel like a fucking rookie compared to you guys. I didn't want to give a bad impression." He pauses. "I uh... Have you ever done something like what I did?"

Vaporize the heads of running children? No. Worse?

"Yes."

Chappy nods slightly. Followed by silence reigning between us before he asks another question. "How do you... or how did you deal with it?"

I turn to give him a questioning look.

"Oh uhh..." He starts but I cut him off, shaking my head.

"No, no, no. It's just the last part."

Sighing, I open my can and chug down a unhealthy amount. Putting it down, I speak. "I still think about all of it man- I just try not to make it visibly affect me."

"How do you do that?"

I shake my head. "No man. If you're thinking to follow my method- don't. I'm a leader; I need to be an example for you guys to follow."

He lowers his head and nods. "Then what should I do?"

I keep my eyes on him, and then take a deep breath. "Just talk to us about it man. I don't want you to end up in an obituary after you EAS."

Like many of the guys I've served alongside with.

A moment of silence. "How long do you plan on... like, how long do you plan to keep doing this?"

I smirk, and attempt to lighten the mood. "Being in the army? Or talking to you?"

Chappy chuckles. "Are you getting tired of talking to me already, sir?"

I shake my head "No. And stop calling me sir when we're not on some official event." I then point at my delta force patch. "I might not always like it, but I know that I'll keep doing this for as long as I can."

Chappy gives me a questioning look. "Why?"

'Why?' A question asked to me in many forms, and from many people.

Why did you join the army?

Why an officer?

Why special forces?

Why did you try out for delta?

And for all of those, there is one answer:

"To do proud, originally." I sigh and close my eyes. "But after all that I've seen? I'm here to keep the people back home safe."

It was after I spoke that I felt something wet on my cheek. And then another, and another, and another.

"Is it raining?" I ask and hold out my hand which a few raindrops landed on.

Chappy does the same. "I think so, yeah." He replies.

I stand up. "Shit, we better pack this up man."

The rain starts to get harder as we pick up the chairs and put them back where they were before. And then we run back inside the barracks with the pack of beer.

---

[Area Zero Mess Hall, 0615 Hours]

Over the course of the night, the engineers have been hard at work putting together a modular to replace the tent that served as the mess hall. Inside, the line of personnel that had just woken up to line up for their breakfast grows longer.

"Remember when we lined up for this shit for the first time?" Jackie asks us as he chows and looks on the human ant trail.

We all nod in affirmation- it was not a pleasant experience.

"The cooks say that command actually let them cook steak yesterday not because it's Friday- but because command wanted to lure out any fauna that's been hiding and estimate how far the base's odor emissions can be smelt." Hobo says, and then biting on his piece of bacon.

Romero nods. "Two birds with one stone huh? Measuring atmospherics while getting rid of potentially dangerous fauna?"

Jackie nods. "I didn't think about the first part but yeah."

I speak out with more skepticism. "Speculation?"

Hobo shakes his head. "Nah, they say their CO told them so."

I raise an eyebrow. "And they didn't warn us?"

Hobo shrugs. "They did warn everybody in the base, but we came back here almost two hours into the grill."

Ah, right.

"Anything interesting happened from it?" Jackie asks.

"Dunno man, I didn't ask." Hobo replies.

I nod at receiving the piece of information. And then turn to my side to see Chappy quietly eating his meal. The team is aware of what happened last night- and they let him know that he can talk to them, and not be only listened to but also understood.

I was about to ask him if he's up for a jog later when I see a familiar figure run past the window, followed by multiple base personnel.

I wasn't the only one to see and one of the guys in the mess hall spoke up. "Hey, was that a native running away?"

It was as if the monotonous and usual atmosphere of the mess hall was suddenly changed as the guys inside ran to the window to see the backs of some medical personnel who is running after a familiar native.

I immediately got up and my team near-instinctively followed me as I run outside and join the chase.

I run faster than the medical guys and also start to catch up with the native. She looks back and her eyes widen in surprise as I was only a few meters behind.

She turns around and takes up a poor fighting stance which I could've easily overcome were it not for her moving her hands in an all too familiar way.

It was my turn for my eyes to widen. "Hey! Hey! Hey! Fucking stop that!" I shout.

She forcefully extends her hands towards me and I jump to the side- expecting a gust of flame, or some other magical shit coming out from her hands.

But none came, and I look up to see her looking at her hand with with a confused face.

"Runner in sight!" I hear a familiar voice shout, and the native jumps in surprise and then freezes in fear.

I look up to see another delta operator in full gear taking aim on the native, just as someone jumps over me and cause me to look back to see Chappy putting himself between the operator and the native.

The operator motions Chappy to move to the side. "Get away from the native sergeant!"

Chappy shakes his head. "No sir! You're fucking scaring her!"

"Sergeant I'm ordering you to do so!" The operator shouts in reply.

I get up from the ground as they exchange words and then shout. "Two-one put your weapon down! Goddammit Anderson, the native is scared and is acting erratically!"

The first lieutenant keeps his weapon raised but turns his head to me. "Sir, this native turned violent in the medical ward and attacked the staff. She is a fucking liability!"

I shake my head. "Well she hasn't stabbed one-five in the back now hasn't she? Put your weapon away!"

"HEY! What the absolute fuck nugget is going on in here?!" Major Degarmo's voice sounded as he ran around the corner of the modular behind Anderson.

Anderson turns his head back to the native. "Sir, bravo one-five is refusing to comply in pacifying this violent native."

I shake my head and look to the major. "Sir, the native is only acting erratically because of delta two-one chasing her with perceived hostile intent!"

The major turns to look at the native, Chappy, me, and then Anderson before pointing a knife-hand at Him.

"Anderson, restrain the native!" He says and then turns to me and Chappy. "Holt, Hoyer, make sure that the native doesn't do anything stupid because Anderson can use any means to defend himself if she turns violent!"

"Yes sir!" I affirm alongside the rest.

It was at this time that the rest of the team caught up with me and Chappy, while also some of Anderson's team did so with him too.

The native looks at me and my team and speaks something that we couldn't understand. Chappy tries to convey it in hand signals, and the native seem to understand as she starts to repeat words more slowly but to no avail. And when it became apparent that she doesn't understand that she is about to be restrained, Chappy comes up with a solution.

"Sir, can you tie my hands up as well?" He asks.

Anderson turns to look at Chappy. "As long as it doesn't waste anymore time for me and my guys."

Chappy nods. "Yes sir, I just want to show this native that she will not be harmed- hell, keep me tied up till we reach detention."

"Is this really necessary?" Jackie asks from behind us.

Chappy turns to him. "I'm not getting anyone killed if I could help it." He says. Anderson scoffs but Chappy either didn't hear or ignored him before he proceeds to try and tell the native to look at him before extending his hand to Anderson.

Anderson ties up Chappy's hand with a zip-tie as the native looked on with apprehension. After Chappy has been restrained, he looks to the native and tries to tell her to not be scared and most importantly not do anything stupid.

Anderson's team watch with weapons ready to be lifted and fired as their team leader moved to the native, who reluctantly extends her hand to be restrained to which Anderson cautiously zips her up- the process taking longer than usual. The atmosphere seem to lighten when when he pulls back with the native only looking at her wrist and not trying to kill him.

"Alright, now get moving to the detention." Major Degarmo says before turning around to the forming crowd. "Make way people! Aren't supposed to do something? Have you even eaten breakfast?" He shouts.

The crowd mutter among themselves and slowly disperse- And my team and I, alongside Delta two, walk to the detention center while escorting Chappy and the native.

When we got there, the major checks in the native and managed to not get her in a cell and instead manage to convince the officer in charge to let her stay in one of the furnished but unoccupied administrative rooms.

It was at this time that Delta went back to inform the medical officer of the development of the situation. We went inside the modular adjacent to the holding cell and into a field of cubicles- mostly unoccupied, and with two enclosed offices at the farther end of the modular.

We move to the one that was directed for us and opened it with the keys provided. We shuffle the native inside and then Romero cautiously cut the zip-tie to free her hands.

She rubs her wrist when the zip-ties came off and then looked to us, uncertain on what to do next.

"Guys? A little help?" Chappy says with his hand extended.

We turn to look at him- he's still tied up.

"Oh shit, sorry." Romero says before cutting Chappy free.

While Romero was cutting Chappy free, I grab a chair and offer it to the Native. She accepts and sits down carefully.

An awkward silence fills the room- and it lasted until I spoke.

"So, does anybody know why the hell was she running?"

Some shake their head but nobody replies.

It was the that the native tries to talk to us- but nobody could understand her and we all just stare at her collectively, causing her to stop mid-sentence.

Not giving up, her eyes dart around- I follow where she looked until she rests her eyes on a pen and she points to it.

"She wants the pen?" Romero speaks in observation.

Hobo looks around. "Anyone here scared of being stabbed with it?"

No. I think to myself and get up to grab the pen and hand it over to the native, who carefully takes it.

She sets the pen down on her pants and starts to try and write but the pen was still not clicked.

"Stop, stop, stop." Chappy says and holds out his hand to press the pen and give the native his little notepad where he makes manual calculations.

The native carefully takes the item and starts to scribble on it. We watch intently as she slowly draws something.

"Hey, I think I recognize that." Hobo says.

Chappy nods. "Yeah, I think that's her bow."

Oh, so that's why.

"So, she was looking for it? Is that why she tried to run away?" I ask Chappy.

"Think so." He replies.

It was then that the door into the modular opened and the lieutenant that has been sent to us earlier comes in and walks over to us.

He steps into the middle of the doorway. "Captain Hoyer sir? The lieutenant-colonel is waiting for you outside."

I raise my eyebrows. "Just me?"

"Yes sir."

I look at my team who also has their eyes on me. "Well, seems like I gotta go."

Hobo nods. "We'll be here Fly."

I return the nod before getting up and following the lieutenant outside to where the lieutenant-colonel, along with a number of different people in civilian clothes, is waiting for me.

"Lieutenant-Colonel sir." I salute.

The lieutenant-colonel doesn't look too pleased about something- but he salutes back. "Hoyer, these people would like to talk to you." Hey says before looking at the crowd.

A woman wearing a brown jacket over her blue buttoned shirt and jeans with her blonde hair in disarray steps forward, smiles, and extends a hand.

"Hello, I am Doctor Linda Varallo, sociologist, and you are?"

She frowns slightly as her hand hangs in the air for a moment as I do not immediately shake her hand. My eyes instead wander to her green ID card. And after seeing it, I give her hand a firm shake. "Captain Richard Hoyer."

Her frown dissipates. "Ah, I'm sorry if I look like a mess right now captain. Trying to get the natives to share or talk to us last night didn't give me much energy to fix myself, and then waking up with a possible breakthrough didn't leave much time either."

I nod in silence. Not finding anything interesting in her recent statement. "What is it that you wanted to talk with me about then, doc?"

"Ah, right." She looks to the rest of what I assume is her colleagues. "Me and my team would like to ask you for help with communicating with the natives."