Emily woke up at three in the morning and took a shower and got dressed. Her stuff was already packed away on the truck ready to be loaded on the helicopter. All she had to was bring her go-bag and her weapons. She put Righteous in its harness after making sure the harness was comfortable. Once righteous was in its harness she made sure she could draw it fast. She looked around her room to see if she left anything but after the third time she checked under her bed she knew she was ready.
She met up with the early risers of First and Second Platoon in the garage. Someone had gotten breakfast and set up it was a table buffet style. It was mainly fake eggs, grits, hard as rock eggs, and tasteless but greasy bacon. “At least the orange juice is good.” Emily thought to herself as she sat down. Over the next half hour, the rest of First and Second platoon came walking in to have their last cook meal before the mission started. The third platoon would be heading out that afternoon.
Jan wondered in and after grabbing a plate of food sat down next to her. She was second platoon's combat medic at Bennett. She raised her orange juice in a toast then downed it. “Is Wonder going to see us off?” Emily asked Jan. Wonder was in the Third Platoon.
“Nah bad luck.” Jan said shaking her head.
“Oh ok cool.” Emily replied.
“Hey Never, do me a favor. Remember you're a super not a god. Keep your head down and don't be stupid out there.” Jan said with her serious tone.
“Grade A coward here sister.” Emily said with a small smile making Jan laugh.
At four am, Emily climbed into a two-ton truck call a duce and headed off to the airstrip where two Chinook helicopters waited for them. Emily helped to unload the truck then following the loadmaster helped load up the helicopter which took about fifteen minutes. Then she climbed in the first helicopter which was headed to FOB Gibbens. She then sat around for a good twenty minutes while the pilots stood around drinking coffee and talking to each other outside the helicopter while she and the rest of First Platoon roasted in the hot helicopter. Emily's healing ability kept her comfortable but her platoon mates were not so lucky.
Emily was glad when the pilots decided they were done talking and climbed in the helicopter and got it going. The air conditioning was warm at first then it turned really cold fast. While she felt the cold air blowing on her she didn't really feel that cold. Emily got to watch the sunrise in the helicopter through the window as she flew towards the horizon. A little over an hour and a half later they flew over their new home FOB Gibbens and landed.
FOB Gibbens is a small FOB sitting on top of the tallest mountains in the Gayah mountain range. The FOB was built with three levels and a switchback path heading upwards towards the top tier. The bottom tier was built for single riflemen. The second tier was built for the heavy guns and the top tier was built with two SK Cannons and a mortar pit with three mortars. The top tier also had bunkers as well as the landing pad for helicopters.
The platoon that Emily's platoon was replacing were more than ready to leave. They had their stuff piled up at the corner of the landing pad ready to go. Once the last person of Emily’s platoon was off they had guys going into the helicopter to help unload. They were nice about it and didn't throw stuff around but they worked fast. As soon as the helicopter was empty they started to load their stuff on board. In less than an hour, the platoon that was leaving was done with their pass down and had everyone board the helicopter ready to go. Emily was too busy to watch them leave but she heard them.
For the next several hours the platoon got settled in. Emily ended up helping build the three new SK Cannon bunkers. The Platoon which had just evacuated the FOB left all their old heavy weapons behind with the ammunition so now instead of three SK Cannons they now had five. One of the good things about being a Ranger was that cross training was encouraged and they had more than enough people to staff the extra cannons. The mortars were an even easier problem to solve as everyone had some training on mortars as part of Ranger school.
They paused midday to have lunch and Emily found time to look out over the mountain range. It was beautiful. The land was mostly dessert but had some fir and pine trees dotting the landscape. To the north, Emily could see the farms on the valley floor beside a small river that seem to split the town. Looking through her binoculars she was surprised to learn that the Afghan people were growing rice in rice patties. She had never really thought about what they would grow here and really had not expected that they would grow rice. She had always thought that rice was an Asian thing and not really a middle east thing.
By nightfall, they had all three SK bunkers up and the guns assembled. Emily pulled a double watch rotation since she didn't really need all that much time to sleep unlike most of the other soldiers. She ended up on fire watch roaming up and down the three tiers most of the night and early morning. Emily didn't mind all that much. She loved the night especially the night sky with all the stars. She was a city girl so seeing so many stars was always startling. Even though knowing that the OCS was out there somewhere looking to kill her she was still happy to be here on top of this mountain. It was strangely relaxing.
“You're not falling asleep on duty are you Never?” A voice asked her over the speakers under her helmet.
She groped her shoulder mic with her left hand and keyed up. “Nope. Just a city girl enjoy the night. Are you stalking me, Grief?” She asked over the radio looking for the camera that she knew was pointed at her. Grief or Sergeant Michelson was on duty in the command bunker watching all the security cameras. She finally spotted the small black camera attached to the rock wall pointed so that it could view the path between tiers. She gave the camera a kiss before moving downwards to the first tier.
“Nope, just doing my job making sure you're still alive.” He replied over the radio.
“Don't let that prev fool you Never. He's like that creeper TSA agent at the airport who like to feel up all the GILFs.” A different voice came on over the radio.
“Do I want to know what a GILF is Tumbler?” Emily asked keying up on the radio. Tumbler was an M240 gunner who was on duty on the second tier.
“It's like a MILF but older.” Tumbler replied laughing.
“Gross.” Emily said.
The quiet night was ruined as the Com chatter got wildly inappropriate and gross. The chatter only died down as the sun started to rise. “Damn that a cool sunrise. Where else are you going to see that sunrise boy and girls?” Grief said over the radio.
“Colorado?” Someone replied.
“Dammit man stop ruining the moment.” Someone else replied.
“Dammit Jim, I am an Infantryman, not a doctor.” Came the response.
With the sunrise, her replacement on her fire watch arrived and relieved her. She stumbled to the women's bunker to get some rest. Emily was able to get a couple of hours sleep before she was awakened.
“Hey Never sorry to wake you but Captain Mathews wants to see you.” Jessica one of the few female riflewomen in the platoon said gently shaking Emily.
Emily gave Jessica the evil eye and climbed out of her bunk. Her bunk was a long wooden piece of plywood with a bunch of cement blocks under it to keeping her bed from collapsing. There was another bunk a couple feet above her that was bolted to the wall instead of the floor. Her mattress was a three inches think and was just long enough for her to stretch out on. On the floor was some old flatten cardboard boxes on top of plywood boards that had been haphazardly thrown down. The old flattened cardboard boxes were so that they didn't get splinters when walking on the floor. That and it was easy to replace.
Emily got up and dressed. She grabbed her weapons and headed out of the bunker. The command post (CP) was both a security office and the place where Captain Mathews had his office. To enter the CP you had to walk a short maze. You had to turn left imminently at a ninety-degree angle then go down a small three-foot long hallway then turn right and go down another three-foot hallway that ended in another left turn. The design was built to keep the light for leaking out of the bunker and to slow down the enemy from entering the bunker.
The security office was where all the security monitors and the platoon's main radio was located. Emily’s attention was drawn to a desk in the corner of the bunker where Sergeant Ramos sitting watching the security feeds. “He's in his office go on in.” He told her nodding to the wooden plywood door to the right.
She nodded to Ramos and knocked on the door. “Enter.” Came the reply from behind the door.
“Sir, you wanted to see me?” Emily asked walking into the office. Captain Mathews was sitting behind a crappy looking desk. He was working on a laptop but looked up when she entered his office.
“Yes. Never, in about fifteen we are going to head down to Patsah Melah to introduce ourselves to the village elders. As far as anyone knows we are just the replacement platoon and I want it to stay that way. I want you to listen but don't give away that you speak local. They won't let you in to meet the elders but I want you just outside listening in on our conversation. Our translator is an Afghan Regular and there is some concern that he might be on the take. He might just be a crappy translator or it might be intentional. If you hear something not right call me on the radio but keep it quiet. Also, ditch your M9 it's too obvious. Get someone to replace it. The elders will most likely make us wait a while before they come out to talk to us as some stupid power play. I want you to wander around by the woman and see if they will talk to you. Just don't let on that you speak local.” Captain Mathews told her. Nodding she left.
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She went to straight to the armory where the Platoon Sergeant told Emily to keep her M9 but to keep it covered. He got her a crappy M16 with no attachments and a broken optical sight. “It's just for show. If fighting breaks out drop it and use your M9. The M16 a crap gun that I mostly use for spare parts. It still works but I suggest that if things go down use the M9.” He said reassuring her.
She mustered up with the rest of the two squads that were going. They were handing out boxes of coloring books with crayons where she got there. “Put two boxes in your rucksack.” One of the squad leaders told Emily. “We're going to hand them out to the elders for the village children.”
“We're giving them coloring books.” Emily asked surprised. She looked at one of the coloring books and it was written in Farsi. It was basically about a little boy with his pet goat who was learning his letters.
“Army logic. They spend ten grand on coloring books that the Afghan people won't use. It’s too western” One of the Fire team leaders told Emily using his fingers to make air quotations.
There was no trail down the mountain to Patsah Melah and even if there were the squads wouldn't take them anyway. It was too easy to set traps and ambushes along a trail. The side of the mountain they were heading down had some cover with some pine trees but the ground was made up from loose rock and sand making climbing down the mountain hard. Emily was the only one who didn't stumble and the only reason was that part of her powers was the super balance that she earned in the ball room. Also, that and her super eyesight made her a hell of a shot on the firing range. Emily was not looking forward to climbing back up the mountain especially if they were retreating under fire.
Captain Mathews was taking two Squads of ten people each down the side of the mountain along with him. Emily made sure she was in the first fire team on the way down the mountain. If fighting broke out she wanted to be in the front. In a firefight, she was expected to be up front anyways where the heaviest of the fighting was taking place.
She also wanted to keep her super scenes open in case of an ambush. It was not really super hearing or super sight like in the movies but still way better than the average norm. It wasn't like she could see through walls or hear someone say something a mile away or anything like that. Her powers just made her at the very edge of what was normal humanly possible.
Patsah Melah was a really small town or maybe a large village. Most of the houses were built right into the side of the mountain with a small but fast moving creek running down the edge of the town. On the other side of the creek from the town was where the fields of rice were planted. The rice fields took up most of the north and middle parts of the farms. The southern fields had corn growing about waist high. On the far side of the fields in the distance were some fenced in areas that had what looked like goats and sheep. Emily paused just outside the town to take off her helmet and put on her shemagh to cover her hair. She wrapped her head with the white cloth with black embroidery around her head glad that Jan had shown her how to wrap it right. She made sure her radio was covered up with the shemagh and put her helmet back on.
The squads walked up a dirt road that was in between the creek and the houses. Captain Mathews led them to a large building in the center of the town. “Ok, that would be the village elder’s house. We should be meeting the town elders soon.” He said pointing to the large building. “Spread out and keep an eye open. Now we wait for them to play their little games.”
Emily expected the townspeople to be hiding and the town itself deserted as they walked up the road but it wasn't. There was a bunch of half naked kids running around screaming and laughing by the creek without a care. An old woman with a deeply tanned wrinkled face was sitting on a porch cooking some kind of meat on what looked like a metal troth. She was watching them walk into her town and did not look all that concerned. Emily noticed that the woman had the greenest eyes Emily had ever seen. It was striking against her darker skin.
The old lady was lining up wooden sticks with meat on them along the troth letting the fire from below cook it. It smelled really good. She also had a huge pile of brown rice with something that was bright orange on it in a large circular pan that she would use to toss every few minutes. She tossed the rice up with a flip of the pan with practiced ease not even look at it
Standing on the porch of the next house was a really pissed off guy who was staring at Emily. She tried to give him a smile but he just looked even madder. “You should stay away from that man.” The old lady who was cooking said quietly in heavily accented English.
Emily walked up to the old woman and asked: “Why is he OCS?”
The old lady laughed. “That coward, no. Both his sons left him for OCS. The OCS, they promised them kids money and all they got was death. The oldest you Americans killed with your bombs. The sweet one was killed by the OCS when he tried to bring his brother back home for a proper burial. They said he was deserting the stupid bastards. He was the only good one in that family.”
“So why should I be worried about that man.” Emily asked crouching down beside the old woman who was looking into the odd-looking barbecue grill.
“He's dangerous. Just don't be alone around him. He burned his wife to death and no one around here will do anything about it. Everyone is too scared of him. I think he's a coward but what do I know I am just an old woman.” The old lady said shaking the rice again.
“Are there any OCS around here?” Emily asked her.
The old lady laughed really hard. “We used to play you Americans and the OCS off each other but a couple months ago this man comes to our town and takes Aarash's son and kills him in the road there. He uses this black knife and stabs him in the knee. When Aarash starts screaming at the Butcher he cuts the boys head clean off with his little knife. He says this town is now OCS's but were no city folk here we are Patsah Melah. We are no cowards. We follow them that night and we taught them a lesson and sent the Butcher back to Kubal. He no comes around here no more.” The old lady said scaring Emily because her tone was so nonchalant but she had an intense stare. “We are no OSC and we no belong to you Americans. We are Patsah Melah.
“Whoa, we are just here for the OCS.” Emily said holding her hands up smiling.
“You Americans say you're here for OCS. The OCS says they are here because of you Americans. Your both wrong. You are fighting an old war.” The old lady said turning the sticks of meat.
“What war? Good and evil?” Emily asked sitting down beside the old woman.
The old lady shook her head and chuckled. “There is no good or evil in war only death. Both do good things and bad things. What you are fighting is the old ways and the new. The OSC is the old ways. You Americans you are a new way. You are fighting to see which way is better. The old have more power and have worked in the past but the new have more energy. Who knows who will win. Maybe no one of you will win maybe there will be a new path that we have no see yet. I hope we find it soon. Too many sons and daughters are dying for something so stupid.”
Emily sat back and thought about what the old woman said. She had never thought about the war like that. She knew people here thought Americans were at war with Islam but was the war really about the new and old way of doing things? Before she could ponder her thoughts any further she was interrupted by a whistle. She looked over to see one of the platoon sergeants pointing towards Captain Mathews who was talking to a bunch of skinny old guys and a guy in ugly brown uniform of the Afghan army.
“I am sorry I have to go back to work.” Emily told the old lady who nodded. “Thank you. You have given me a lot to think about.”
Emily stood up and wandered over to where the group was talking. She looked back towards the angry guy but he was gone. The Captain and the group of little old guys were walking into the Elders house. So Emily stood by the door and turned back to the town pretending to guard the door. The voices in the house were muffled but Emily could still make them out.
“Thank you for seeing us.” The Captain's voice drifted out from behind the door before the translator translated what he said. The translator added a few words but he basically said the same thing.
“We have brought some gifts for your children.” Emily heard the Captain say.
Emily listened to the Captain explain that they were the new company up in the mountains he just wanted to say hi. He asked about the OCS and if the townspeople had any problems they would like them to solve. The translator was pretty bad. He got a bunch of the words and phrases wrong but the Elders must have been used to him because they kept correcting him and asking for him to clarify himself.
The meeting lasted around a half an hour with the Elders trying to get the Americans to give them money to spy on the OCS and the Captain saying that he was not authorized to give them any money. They argued for a while until the Captain got angry and told them that he had no money to give them. The Elders didn't believe him and told him they would not spy in the OSC unless the Americans gave them money.
Emily froze for a few seconds then keyed up her radio. “Captain got some Intel from an old lady that there is no OCS in the area but you might want to ask them about an OCS guy called the Butcher.”
The First Sergeant acknowledged her on the radio then Emily heard the Captain asked the Elders about the Butcher. “We have some Intelligence about an OCS man called the Butcher was in the area no to long ago.” he told the translator.
The Translator got the point across even if he called the butcher meat cutting guy. The Elders started shouting and getting really angry. The translator got overwhelmed and couldn't translate what they were saying. Finally one of the Elders suddenly started to speak in English
“This man is he in the area?” The Elder asked in really bad English.
“That's what we are trying to figure out. We have someone throwing bombs at our base. We believe he may be the Butcher.” The Captain told the Elder. The idiot translator tried to translate it but he was stopped halfway through his sentence by the elder.
“This man is cursed with the devil's strength. He is what you Americans call a Brute. He was here several months ago. He likes to stab children to scare people into helping the OCS. He killed my grandson in the street. We killed his people and threatened to burn him to death if he did not leave us alone. He left and promised not to come back.”
“Do you think it's this man that's throwing bombs at us.” The Captain asked.
The elder was quite for a while then said. “No. That man is a coward. He likes to hurt the weak. I have never heard of him attacking an American base before.”
The Captain thanked the Elders and the meeting broke up. The squads gathered up left the town. Emily reported what she heard from the old lady to the Captain who nodded and told her she did a good job. He promised he would pass the info up the chain of command. The hike back to the FOB was a lot harder because it was all an uphill climb. The only person not out of breath by the time they got back to the FOB was Emily. She stayed in the back of the squad helping those who fell too far down the mountain.