FSE

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Fear, hunger, anxiousness, excitement, all of these things flooded my thoughts as we flew ever closer to our new home, the battlefield. I tried to suppress the thought that we might be lucky to survive a year in combat, but no matter how hard I tried the thought always came back. If we were killed, what would happen to our bodies? Will they be buried or burned. Or even better, will our parents be informed about there missing children, about the project, or will they be left in the dark?

"BRAAK BRAAK BRAAK!" the sound of anti aircraft fire jolted me back into reality. The plane started to shudder violently waking the once sleeping humans from there dreams, only to realize that the real nightmare had finally begun. The fear of not knowing where we were was weighing heavily on both human and dragon hearts. Minuets that felt like hours slowly passed, and the fire finally ceased as we started to make a slow and careful decent.

The thud of the aircraft hitting the runway was a welcome feeling, and I could feel the aircraft come to a slow stop. The loud hum of the engines disappeared and a voice came over an intercom. "Welcome to paradise soldiers." the rear hatch then started to slowly open as the humans stood up and grabbed there things from underneath there seats. Faline stood, followed by the rest of us as the rear hatch came to a stop.

A cool but welcoming breeze swept through the cargo bay sending a shiver through my body. The humans then marched out of the airplane in 2 single file lines, I started to follow them, with my friends close behind me. We exited the plane and the immediate ability to see the sun rise across the desert made me think of how much the media portrayed this as a barren, worthies place. I wasn't very good at telling the time based on the sun, but my guess is that it was 6 in the morning.

"Taro," a female voice called out, causing me to turn from the most beautiful sight I had seen in a long time to a human. She was about 5'11 with black hair and blue eyes. "Are you Talon?" she asked, looking each of us over. I nodded to her and noticed a Major insignia on her shoulders. "I am Major Rachael Dunlap, Holland told me he was sending you." She said, pulling out a piece of paper from her back pocket.

"First things first, we need to get you all equipped and to your barracks." she said. She then turned and started to walk away from the plane and to an unusually large hanger numbered 4. While we walked to the hanger, I was able to get a clear view of the base. There were 9 large hangers, with a mess hall about 20 yards away from it. In between the gap, I could see multiple buildings, probably the barracks and armory. A fuel truck passed by us and I turned to take a look across the runway. The other side was barren, with nothing more but a line of 20 or more vehicles occupying that side of the runway.

More vehicles passed us, as the runway came to life with activity, most going to resupply the C-130, but others were riding down the runway, inspecting it for any faults. We entered the hanger, and the immense amount of vehicles shocked me. The most easily notable were 4 M1A1 Abram battle tanks lined up back to back.

We all had our eyes locked onto the massive tanks, amazed at the sight of them in real life. We relucantly made our way to the back of the hanger and to a door with a number code lock. There were 2 very heavy built men on each side of the door, apparently guards. "Where are we, exactly?" I asked as we came to a stop at the door. "You ever heard of Sadr City?" she replied as she bent over and started to type a number code into the lock.

I knew of the city, my father had come here to do some 'Wet work' in 2003. The city had seen the most insurgent activity of any city that had been effected by the war, and the most causalities. My fathers fire team had lost 2 men in a firefight not far from this base. "Yes, I do." I replied as the memory of my father telling me about his fallen comrades brought a wave of fear into my heart.

The door opened, bringing me from the fear into a utter joy as the sight of multiple weapon vests laying on racks welcomed us. Dunlap then walked into the room followed by the 2 men. We were next to enter into the small room as Dunlap and the men disappeared behind a tall rack. We started to explore the many different types of vests. I had my eyes locked onto a 20MM vest, observing it when Firedrake nudged me. "Taro, look at this." Firedrake said causing me to take my eyes off of the 20MM and onto a 105MM.

"These are different from the ones we used." he said quietly. He was right. The vest was about 2 inches thick, and the machinery that powered the weapons were smaller. The vest itself also covered more of the body than the training vests, going down about 7 inches on each leg, and about 3 inches up the neck. With the digitalized desert camouflage, It didn't look half bad.

"Ok," Dunlap said, catching our attention. I turned to her and noticed that she was holding a clipboard. " I have Taro with the 20MM LRR, Firedrake with the 105MM Howitzer, Faline with the 50CAL heavy machine gun, Blitz with the Vulcan Gatlyn Gun, and Tyson with the MK-19 Grenade Launcher." she said rapidly, causing us to look at each other in confusion to see if anyone had understood what she said.

"Ummmm," Tyson began. "Stop, rewind, repeat, SLOWLY." Tyson said causing her to smile and role her eyes at him. Within an hour, we all had our equipment on and I have to say, it was much lighter than the training versions. The sleeves and turtle neck would take some getting used to, but the power I felt with it on was worth it.

There was also a headset attached to the headband on my head. The speaker surrounded my left ear, but didn't limit my hearing on that side. The microphone lay halfway down my muzzle, about an inch and a half away from my muzzle and would take some getting used to. "Check, check." a man's voice came through the headset. "Can you all hear me?" the man asked. I glanced over at Blitz to see a man holding Blitz's headset, speaking through it. "Yeah I hear you." I replied. He looked over at me and gave me a thumbs up, then attached the set back onto his head band.

Dunlap then came and led us out of the room and back into the hanger. As we entered the hanger, a 3 star General approached us sending Dunlap into a salute. "At ease." the general said in a calm but dominant voice. "Is this Talon, Dunlap?" he asked her, not taking his eyes off of us. "Yes sir." she replied. "Good." he began. "If your to stay at my base your to go by my rules." he said loudly.

"Rule number 1: flying is not allowed on your missions unless completely necessary, but you are free to do so around the base." "WHAT!" I yelled at him, "What's the point of having wings if we can only use them around the base?" I asked, loudly. "2 reasons. 1, I would rather have you riddled with bullet holes than blown in half by an enemy SAM. 2, there are allot of cameras out there these days, even in this country. Now what would happen if a picture of a dragon got out?" he said in his calm but dominant voice. He was right, it was more dangerous to fly around and be exposed to everyone, than to be on the ground.

"Now," he began again. " Weather you were told this in training or not, your squad will be working with a special forces fire team, probably Marine Force Recon." I could work with that, it would be good to have someone to tell us what all is going on back in America. A smile then grew across his face, "Lets get you settled into your new homes, and some food. I don't know about you guys, but im starving." he said.

He then turned and started to walk out of the hanger with us close behind him. We exited the hanger, and as we reached the hanger marked 7, a fast moving bird like object caught my attention. I froze and turned to the objects direction as the C-130 on the runway burst into flames. The shockwave from the explosion knocked all but Firedrake off our feet.

Everything then grew quiet and the screams of injured men rang out among the wreckage. I rose to my feet and stared at the sight of the burning wreckage. Hearing the screams of the injured snapped me into action, and before anyone had a chance to stop me I was running toward the wreckage, hoping to save anyone still alive. Another birdlike object collided with the wreckage, and the shock-wave once again knocked me onto my back.

"Shit, mortars!" a voice screamed out as Faline approached my side. I couldn't breath, the shockwave had knocked the breath out of me. I managed to rolled onto my stomach and with the help of Faline, stood up. She kept me against her side until I had recovered, then we ran toward Dunlap and the General. As we reached them they both took out into a full on sprint toward the gap between the mess hall and last hanger.

There were soldiers everywhere running toward the mess hall, some were seriously hurt and were being carried. The mortars started to come down more rapidly now, about 2 every 3 seconds. As we neared the mess hall, about 13 men were sent flying into the air by a mortar, limbs flew in every direction. 2 men then stood up and continued to run from the explosions.

We ran in between the mess hall and the last hanger to a mortar bunker. "Humans first!" I screamed into the microphone at my team. "COPY!" they all screamed back. We stayed outside as the mortars started to make there way across the runway, completely destroying it. I scanned the runway as the sight of a Humvee barreling across the runway toward us at full speed made my heart drop. "We got more incoming!" I said to the others making them turn to the runway.

As the vehicle reached halfway across the runway, it burst into a ball of flame. A mortar round had found its way onto the Humvee and had no doubt, killed the crew. The sight made me want to break down, but then another factor came into play, the ball of flame was rolling toward us at an extremely high speed. "UMMMMM GUYS, HURRY IT UP!" I said nervously into the headset as the Humvee grew closer to us. Firedrake and the others had began to make there way into the bunker.

"HURRY IT UP OR WERE ALL DEAD!" I screamed again as the vehicle plowed over a small barrier and continued toward us. "SHIT!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, before slamming myself into the others, sending them barreling down the stairs as the Humvee slammed into the metal door. I slowly opened my eyes to see that I was inside the bunker.

"What the hell?" Firedrake said sounding as if he had been hit by a truck. I began to laugh at the fact that we had made it out alive. But the sounds of the wounded moaning and groaning hit my ears, and I immediately felt sorrow for them. " THOSE ARABIC BASTARDS!" a black man beside me yelled, his eyes were swollen, a clear sign that he had been crying, I couldn't blame him.

"Damn mortars have been pounding us for days." the general said causing us all to turn to him. "This, is why I requested you early, to take care of them." he said. "There are 3 known mortar positions 5 miles from here on the outskirts of Baghdad, you're going to destroy them." he said smiling at us

"Flynn!" he yelled into the bunker as the black man I had landed beside yelled back. "YES SIR!" "Take this team into Baghdad and help them kill those bastards!" the general yelled to him. "How sir?" Flynn replied. The general then reached intro his pocket and removed a key from a very large key ring filled with other keys.

"There's a truck about 300 yards from here, take it and get them to Baghdad." the general said to Flynn as he stood up and walked to the door. "And Flynn," the general said, causing him to turn from the door. "God speed." "Nice knowing ya Patchilo." Flynn replied as he tried to open the door. "Its jammed," Firedrake said as he walked to the top of the stairs and pushed the door open.

We hugged the hanger wall as we made our way to the runway. We came to a stop at the end of the hanger, and Flynn pointed across the runway to a truck that had been untouched by the explosions. "There she is." Flynn said before sprinting across the runway. We began to follow him as a mortar came down and swept him off of his feet. As we reached him, I bent forward, and gripped the back of his flak jacket in my mouth, easily carrying him the rest of the distance to the truck.

I set him on the ground and he climbed into the cab. Firedrake and I stood on each side of the truck, ready to defend it until the engine started. The vehicle then came to life and we climbed into the back of the truck as it started to role across the runway, the mortars coming closer and closer to us. We rolled off the runway and past the Humvee that rammed into the bunker. The melted bodies of the people inside made me sick at my stomach.

Within minuets we were out of the kill zone and about 3 miles away from Baghdad. "I hope everything's OK back there." Firedrake said starring out the back of the truck toward the base. "Me to." I replied laying on the edge of the truck bed. Flynn then slammed onto the brakes sending everyone into the back of the cab, but I managed to stay at the edge of the truck bed. Suddenly,  Flynn yelled over the headset. 'SHIT!"

An explosion then sent the back of the truck flying into the air, launching me about 40 feet into the air. I tried to open my wings, but the explosion knocked the breath out of me and I slammed onto the dirt road. My eyes were closed as everything became silent. I then slowly opened my eyes to see the truck laying upside down with everyone laying on the road. Every part of my body was screaming out, "Get up, your not safe here," so I tried to stand only to collapse. I starred at the wreckage, no one was moving. My vision then started to blur as darkness took a hold of me.