It was supposed to be a simple P.O.W rescue mission but it turned out to be anything but simple.

Salt Lake City, Utah
0700 hours
Mission Control
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"The P.O.W's are being held in a warehouse somewhere in Russia. Your mission is to infiltrate the warehouse, take out the terrorists and their ammo reserve and rescue the P.O.W's." "This mission is not an easy one and you will need to use your whit. Keep in mind that team work and aim is everything." Of course I wasn't paying attention when the head commander was talking. I was too busy thinking about what those terrorists are doing to our troops as we plot their demise. For all we know they could be torturing them or shooting them one by one. I was starting to get restless and wanted to tell the H.C. to hurry up but I just bit my lip and continued thinking about what I could be getting myself into. “Your insertion point is here. You will move up this path, being careful not to be spotted by enemy snipers, to their ammo reserve. Place a charge on one of the crates and get out of there. You will have 30 seconds to evacuate the premises and move to the warehouse before the charge goes off. That should be plenty of time. From there you will move to the warehouse and eliminate the terrorists that are there. This is where your element of stealth comes in. If any of the terrorists see you they wont think twice about killing the men that they do have. Once you have achieved that, rescue the P.O.W's and take them to the rendezvous point. There a chopper will escort you back here. Any questions before we depart?" No one raised their hands. "Ok then men. Departure is at 0900 hours. Good luck and God speed."

Departure
0900 hours
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My hands where trembling as I boarded the armored attack vehicle. My nails where practically gone because of my nerves getting to me the night before. As I sat down I placed my SA58 on my lap and shined it looking at my reflection in its barrel. A couple of new recruits sat next to me. I looked them both in the eyes and saw nothing but fear. I could tell they didn’t want to do this but the draft is torture to all and their families. The vehicle started up and we began our long journey to Russia. As we bounced along I looked around at all my teammates and wondered how many of them will make it out of this alive. A tear rolled down my face as I remembered my wife and daughters' face and how they would feel if they got a call that said "Sorry to have to say this ma'am but your husband has died on the front line." I imagined my lifeless body in a tux then my daughters' beautiful silluette standing over my coffin with a single tear rolling down her face, shimmering in the light of the church, with her mother right behind her in a silky black dress telling her” lets go baby." and the girl pulling away balling her eyes out now because she knows she will never see her papa again. Then the vehicle hit a pothole and woke me up from the nightmare. These next few years are going to be hell.

Arrival
2300 hours
Outskirts of Russia
---------------------------------

As the vehicle came to a stop everyone got out and gathered in a circle. I started,
"If every one knows the plans all I need to do is divide you up into groups. Alpha group: Davis, Combs, me, and Harris. Bravo group: Jonson, Sholts, Weaver, and Ford. Every one got that? Remember this is no walk in the park so be on your toes. Expect the unexpected and above all STAY WITH YOUR GROUPS!!!!Get separated and they will kill you, no if's and's or but's about it. Is every one clear on that? Good. Move out!"
And with that we set off in search for the secret ammo reserve. We traveled a couple of miles or so(or at least it felt like it) until we finally were able to see the building where the ammo was being stored. I took my SA58 off my back and loaded it then ordered my men to lay low. We approached the building with caution. As I approached the opening of the building I heard footsteps and whispering. I gave my team the go sign and we rushed in, guns ablaze. People where falling left and right, and blood was strewn over the ground. Bullets where whizzing by my face as I ran through the ammo room dodging bullets left and right,adreniline rushing and heart pumping. I found cover behind a crate and set a charge in it. While I was setting the charge I heard bullets hitting the crate and Ford say "Man Down!" As the last Russian fell I took a deep breath, stood up, and looked at the carnage that just took place and the life of my teammate that was lost. Davis was lying on the floor a stream of blood pouring from his head, with Harris looming over his lifeless corpse, tears falling from his chin and landing on Davis' dog tags. I walked over to Davis, removed his tags, and handed them to Harris.
"Ok men. Reload your weapons and get ready to head to the next check point. This mission is going to get allot hairier. A couple of you might not make it through this next part of the mission but I want you to keep your cool and be aware of your surroundings at all times. We can’t afford causality so be on your toes."
Everyone just looked at me with blank expressions on their faces.
"Don’t look at me as if you don’t have a job to do. Get moving!"
As they filed out one by one, guns at the ready, I took one last look at Davis' dead body and followed close behind.

Warehouse
2447 hours
Mission objective: Incomplete
-------------------------------------------

I seemed to almost pass out as I saw the silluette of the oversized Warehouse loom over the approaching hill.
"Lets take time to go over the mission specs one more time before we run in there all wily nilly.Take time to remember that we are a specially trained group of men that are willing to take on the imposible.In this half of the mission there is no room for error. One slip up and all our men they captured will die. Harris, hand me the specs please." As Harris dug in his bag for the specs a loud sound made every one jump. Even Ford, who is not easily scared, jumped a little.
"What the hell was that sir?" Harris asked.
"I’m not quite sure, but if it was what I think it was we had better get in there quick. Forget the specs, Lets get in there and save our men!" I reloaded as I ran and so did every one else. We stopped at the oversized door of the building. Sunlight gleaming off the wind sock on the roof. We had no choice. We had to scale the building. I took my grapple out of my bag and threw it with all my might over the ledge of the roof and pulled tight to make sure it would hold. It was fine and I motioned for my men to start accending.Ford went first. I was the last to reach the top so I took my grapple and put it back in my bag.
"Now that we're here we need to find a way in. Everyone split up and try to find an entrance to this place."
Just as I said that the charge I set detonated with such force the whole building shook and I fell to the ground, and as it did it sent a flurry of Russians out the front door of the facility. All my men hit the deck and two of them came over to see if I was ok.This was the chance I was waiting for. I motioned towards a hatch on the south-west part of the building and told them to stay low. We inched our way over to the hatch and carefully opened it. There was a ladder down to the bottom but it had very little lighting and a couple of the rungs where missing here and there. Very cautiously I made my way down the ladder then touched ground. It was very dark and the air smelled of sweat and gun powder. The only sound in the small corridor was my breathing and heart beating very rapidly. I made my way down the long, nearly endless, narrow corridor and into a very large, empty, room. To the left there was a wooden door and to the right there was a metal door. “Clear that door team bravo and team alpha and I will get this one."

Divide
0027(1:27) hours
Mission Objective: Incomplete
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"On three we flash and clear.One.Two.THREE!" The metal door clanged as it hit the wall behind it, and the wooden door broke into peices.Two Russians fell to the floor in a pool of blood and Combs screamed in agony. He was hit in his arm by an out of control bullet. He dropped instantly, clenching his arm, and yelled "I've been hit!" Acting quickly, my team surrounded Combs and gave cover fire so I could take him back to the other room. When I got him to the other room I took out my pocket knife, got a piece of wood from the shattered door and handed it to Combs. Combs gave me a puzzled look until I told him to bite it if he felt any pain. I opened the knife tore his sleeve off where he got hit and started the painstaking job of digging the bullet from my friends flesh. Blood was spilling from his arm as I cut and slashed layers and layers of skin away to find the misguided projectile. I had to be very precise with my incisions so as to not damage a nerve. After what felt like hours the bullet fell to the ground and I finished by sewing up his wound. I took the sleeve I tore off and made temporary gauze.
"That should keep it sterile 'till we finish what we started. You are just going to have to hang back so you don’t get hurt any worse" The piece of wood I gave him to bite was at his feet practically chewed in half from the pressure of his biting. Harris entered the room and said
"Team bravo is waiting ahead for us sir"
"Let us go then so they don’t get too far and take the credit for the mission." I was kind of hoping for at least a smile for that comment but Harris and Combs just started walking through the opposite door that we just cleared.

Location Unknown
0337 hours
Mission objective: Incomplete
--------------------------------------------

"Now that we're in the warehouse lets take a look at those mission specs. Harris if you hand them to me I would greatly appreciate it." Harris took the specks out of the pocket he shoved them in when we heard the sounds that startled everyone. I unfolded them and placed them on the ground.




MISSION SPECS

[x] Infiltrate Russian concentration camp
[x] Destroy secret Russian ammo reserve
[ ] Rescue P.O.W's
[ ] Place charge on warehouse
[ ] Safely escort P.O.W's to rendezvous point
[ ] Detonate charge when safely aboard chopper

"The commander didn't say anything about placing a charge on the warehouse in the mission briefing."
"We have to do what?!?!” Harris exclaimed.
"It says we have to detonate it when we are 'safely' aboard the chopper."
"Does he know what a shockwave from a blast like that can do to a small chopper like ours?" Harris said with a little concern in his voice.
"An explosion of that magnitude could send the chopper out of control and into the ground, and the commander wants to chance that. I know we aren't supposed to Question our commander but he can't be sane. He’s putting everyone’s lives at stake just to erase a Russian concentration camp off the map." The more Harris spoke the more the mission sounded dangerous and, for some reason, fun. Call me crazy but just narrowly escaping death before retiring sounds like a good story to tell my grandkids.
"We decided to take this mission no matter how dangerous it was, or turned out to be and I’m going to stay with it no matter what. If you don’t want to continue then you can turn around and leave but im going on." Harris stayed silent, so I rolled the specs up and passed them back to him. He stuffed them back in his pocket angrily and walked in the direction that team Bravo was waiting. I guess the stress of the mission was finally getting to him, or maybe he was slowly starting to lose his mind. What ever it was I had to keep a very close eye on him. I didn't want him to threaten the fabrics of the mission, especially since there are people’s lives hanging in the balance.

Location Unknown
2000 Hours
Mission Objective: Incomplete
--------------------------------------------

"Now that we are all together again we can take a rest before we head to camp. We need to come up with a plan of action that we can carry out first thing in the morning to rescue our fellow troops. Any one got an idea?"

L.A., California
6:00 pm
Bedroom
--------------------------

17 Nov 2017



Dear diary




My husband has been in the war for too long and im wishing they would just nuke Russia and come back home. Being an army wife is the most stressful thing that could ever happen to me, but yet again it is the best thing that has happened to me also. We get free meals and we don’t even have to pay rent. I just don’t like the fact that I don’t know what’s going on over there and I don't even know if my husband is still alive. Im dreading the day I get that faithful call that says my husband has died and im now a widow. I just don’t know what I would do with myself if that ever happened to me. I am just about to sit down and write to him and hopefully I get his reply before I go insane. My daughter is missing him so much she is talking to him in her dreams and when she wakes up and finds out it was just a dream she starts crying her eyes out. I could tell its starting to get to her too because she still puts the plate in the spot where he used to sit at the table for breakfast. After she realizes he’s not coming down to eat she removes his plate with a depressed look on her face and a single tear in her eye. I just wish he were here for her and here with me so this constant mourning time can end.

Camp
2200 Hours
Tent
--------------------------

“Mail time guys. Grab the letter addressed to you and only you." I grabbed the letter from my wife and sat down in my tent while the sound of thunder and lightning could be heard outside. I tore open the letter unfolded it and smelled the scent my wife’s perfume I bought her last year. Rose pedal with a hint of Vanilla. My eyes started to water as I remembered my wife’s beautiful face. The letter read:











Dear Tim












Alicia and I miss you so much. We wish






we could have you with us right now.






Alicia is just about to fall apart because






she doesn't have her father to play with






or hang out with. All I ask you if you have






to stay over there is to please be careful






and be safe. Please write back. Sorry this






letter is so short but I know that you can't






have extremely long letters.














Xoxoxo












Jen Cooper



















I folded the paper back up and laid it on the ground beside me. I know that this is tearing them up but I could do nothing about it. I signed up for four years of service and I can’t leave until I serve all four years. It probably would have torn them up if I was brought in by drafting instead of me signing up but either way I have to do what I have do and that’s final. If I had a choice I would leave right now and be back in my wife’s arms in a few hours and I would be able to see my daughters glowing face again and feel her soft cheek on mine as I hugged her but that is all a dream until I serve my full four years. I picked up a pen and a piece of paper and started to write back to my wife's heartfelt letter as the rain started to pour down like the tears from my eyes, with thunder rolling and lightning crashing. It's as if the heavens feel my pain.

Camp
0800 Hours
Mess hall
----------------------

The food was almost cold as usual. I ate my breakfast in solitude as all my comrades conversed with each other. The Images of the previous days played like a broken record in my mind. The bullets flying and the body of Davis hitting the floor with a lifeless thud. Me having to cut a bullet from someone’s flesh. The next few legs of this mission are going to be the most hardest. The closer we get to the Russians the more and more they are going to fight back and the harder it is going to be to get them to give up. I have a feeling someone else is going to lose their life and hopefully it’s not me. I took out the specs that I took from Harris yesterday and analyzed them. We still have to get to the P.O.W's holding position and rescue them.