Embrace The Ground by Calia Wilde

Author:Calia Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

2003, OCONUS

—Claude

T

he joint operation mission fubar’d before the first boots hit the ground. The drop zone rough, dark, and weather sensitive. It was a fight to land on target.

Then there were the friendlies, which were supposed to be simple herdsmen. They weren’t. Not friendly, either. We drew fire before the last chute disappeared into the rocks.

Carter landed near me. He marked where Lt. Hill and the secondary team collected.

My team assembled, using the rocks as cover. But we were one short.

“Ice,” Carter confirmed. He pointed toward the steeper slopes.

If he hit there, it was possible he wasn’t mobile. I sent Carter and one other to retrieve him while we monitored enemy movement. There weren’t many of them. Maybe a half dozen. But if they had radios, it might be a couple hundred soon. I signaled to my radio operator to loop Hill in on the developments. We were losing momentum.

Hill was going to have my ass. This was a simple drop, smash, grab. Instead, it was a running firefight.

The tempo of gunfire increased to the south. Hill’s zone. There was a cluster of buildings that were our objective. We were told they were abandoned two months ago. No one trusted that assessment without seeing it with their own eyes. From the cadence, it didn’t sound like they were empty. Which matched the rumor they were now home to a small pocket of the enemy. That didn’t change, no matter the country. There were your allies, and your enemies. There was a landing zone, a target, an objective, and an exfiltration plan. Simple. Repetitive.

Carter, Ice, and the newest member, Millie, of my team returned. Ice’s knee was messed up.

“Landed wrong. I’ll walk it off.” Understatement and unlikely considering he’d field-wrapped it. But in the dim light, I had to take his word for it.

“Your trigger finger still work?”

“Fully functional.” He flipped me the bird and wiggled it. “See?”

I pointed my nose at the terraced slope above us. “You think you and Carter can set up shop?”

His smile stood out against the paint on his face. “You got it.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “If it even smells bad, you two regroup at the LZ, understood?” Our route tonight didn’t have the luxury of doubling back for him. But it grated to leave him behind. “Everyone gets home.”

The quiet chorus echoed my sentiment.

Hill was pinned down. The primary assault crew also pinned down below us. We could see them, clustered behind an ancient pile of stones which used to be a wall. Getting to him drew fire.

I slid in beside him.

“Hey, Blade. Nice night.” The teams called him Wesley Snipes behind his back. That morphed into his current nickname.

“Can it, Claude.”

Return fire came from above us. Ice, doing some heavy lifting. Two more rounds hit the rocks above us, but then went silent after a single whistle above.

“That Ice?”

“He really needs to go to sniper school.” I checked my ammo. “We lost momentum.”

“Not yet. Three hundred yards that way is the main cluster.

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