Fire
Chapter 1
My soldiers were crammed around me, ducking for cover. There were too many of them. The Nachos had failed to find the bomb planted in the city. I hadn’t heard from Pie in days. The mission was hopeless. The insurgents had overrun the city. It would have been better to evacuate the city and have our bombers wipe it off the map, but our transportation had been sabotaged. Someone inside our forces was giving them information. The only thing we could do was fight until reinforcements were available. We were on a suicide mission. As my soldiers returned fire, I started giving orders to retreat. Two soldiers got shot, right in front of me. We were down to 10.
I woke up.
* * *
I sat up, sweat draining down my face. What had that dream been about? I thought about it for minutes, coming to the conclusion of “I have no idea”. No matter. Only a dream, right? I got out of bed, took a shower, and got dressed. I went into the leaders’ cafeteria, where the leaders could eat their meals in peace. Matre, Bob, Shab, and Luc were sitting at the table, discussing something. They all greeted me as I sat down. Matre was looking at his laptop. He slid it over to me.
“Take a look at this,” He said. I took the laptop and clicked the video from CPA Central TV. A reporter was standing on the outskirts of Fjord, a city that both the Nachos and ACP share. Smoke was coming out of many of the buildings.
“All civillians in the city of Fjord have been told to evacuate the city, as a result of heavy activity and terrorism by the terrorist organization known as Fire. Fire insurgents have been wreaking havoc in the city for a week, following unsuccessful efforts from the Fjord Police Department to drive them out of the city. ACP and the Nachos have declined comment for now as to if they plan on any millitary operations opposing Fire. That’s all the information I have now, and we’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available. Back to you, Cliff.”
Fire was a terrorist organization made a year by former soldiers of various armies with only one purpose: To terrorize ACP. The Nachos and ACP had started working together to find its’ leaders and kill them, to little success. Other armies were not happy with some of these two unlikely allies’ efforts to find Fire operatives. They believed it violated much of their privacy.
I sighed. “The FPD couldn’t handle Fire? They must be getting stronger.” Matre nodded. “We need to wipe them out before they can increase in size and start fighting us head on. You and Luc are going to take 50 soldiers and go into Fjord. Pie is going in with 50 Nachos. You guys are going to work together to get them out of the city and prevent further destruction and loss of life due to them.”
The Nachos. Even though we were technically allies now, tensions were still high between us. A lot of people on both sides remember some of the wars between us, and weren’t entirely ready to forgive some of the things we’ve done. “When do we leave?” asked Luc.
Matre smiled. “Tomorrow. We’ll start gathering the soldiers in a few hours.”
I thought to myself if my dream had anything to do with this.
Chapter 2
I stepped out of the helicopter into the moonlit sky of Fjord. We had landed just outside of the city, where the ACP had set up a base. Luc to my left, we asked to see the head of the FPD (Fjord Police Department). The head of the police seemed to be your stereotypical policeman, fat and always eating food, although he ate chips instead of donuts. He shook hands with Luc and I and I asked what the police knew at this time.
“Well,” he started. His voice was rough and low pitched. “It seems that Fire has set up a base in the heart of the city. They may have some civillian hostages with them, as we cannot be sure that everyone got out of the city okay. They have ambush’s set up everywhere. Anywhere could be a trap. Other than that, you guys are on your own.”
I scowled. “Thanks for the info,” I said sarcastically. “Oh yeah, by the way. I want your police department to patrol the outskirts of the city. Nobody gets out until you’ve made sure they aren’t in Fire. You hear me?” The man nodded. As Luc and I turned away, I shook my head in disgust. “Way to give us information. Fire’s been giving us guerrilla warfare for months now, and his only information is that they have little hidey holes everywhere?” Luc nodded.
“He obviously wasn’t much of a help, but at least we’ll have what they see from the sky while we’re in there.” he said. I shrugged. “Whatever.”
I looked around at the numerous troops in jeeps and on foot, almost ready to leave. I pulled out my commlink, and turned it to the Nachos’ channel. I then switched it to a private channel and sent a signal out to Pie’s commlink, acting commander of the Nachos’ forces in this campaign.
“Pie.” I said. “We’re about to move into Fjord. Are your forces ready?” It took a minute for him to reply. “Yeah,” he said. “We’ve just begun moving in. No problems so far. We’ll meet you guys on 4th Street.” I grunted for a response, and then switched the comm channel to the ACP’s soldiers.
“Okay, let’s move out, soldiers!”
It has begun.
Chapter 3
Empty cars lined the streets. Some of them were overturned, others looked like they had been set on fire. Bodies of civillians that did not make it out were everywhere. I grimaced. Fire did an impressive job of making this city look like a warzone. As our war jeeps plowed through the streets, I commanded the soldiers to keep an eye out for insurgents and snipers that could ambush us at any moment. The Division General that would serve as commander if Luc or I was killed, Mchappy, said to me and Luc, “I don’t like this. We could get blown to pieces anywhere, at anytime.”
I smiled. “You don’t have to like it, but we still gotta do it.” As our convoy turned onto 4th street, the Nachos were instantly visible. Their pretty hard not to miss, with their yellow and orange uniforms and sombreros. Of course, the sombreros aren’t the useless, huge hats they wore back in the old days. These ones they were now were smaller and had storage space in them, specialized for every Nacho. Some stored ammo in it, others grenades. Some have been known to be able to shoot missiles. From their hats. And even with missiles in them, they weigh as much as your average baseball hat. The Nachos guard that particular piece of science that they use very carefully.
Anyway, I got out of our Jeep and walked over to Pie. I shook his hand, looked at the 50 Nachos that surrounded him, and recognized some of them from previous dealings. I noticed that many of them did not look excited at all to see us. ”Best of the best, eh?” I muttered to Pie. He grinned and said, “Best of the best and the ones with the most hatred for you guys.” I shook my head and noticed how tense the moment seemed. Both my troops and Luc were not talking and socializing as they had they had during the drive over here. They were just standing there, silent. I walked back over to my troops and said, “Come on guys, I know we’ve had bad dealings with the Nachos in the past, but we have to work together.”
I called over to Pie, “Should we just wait here and head out tomorrow?”
He nodded. “I don’t see why not. We didn’t really expect to do anything today. Let’s just have our troops get some rest and start tomorrow.”
I nodded my head and turned away as a Nacho fell to the ground, shot in the head.
Chapter 4:
“Ambush!”
I raced for cover behind the army jeep that I had come in. Luc was already over there with Mchappy as both the ACP and Nachos began to search for the sniper. “Hand me a gun,” I told a soldier as I ducked down behind the jeep. I had a pistol in my belt, but with a sniper, I needed as much protection as possible. I quickly turned my comm channel on to all ACP soldiers as they searched the windows in the buildings above for any suspicious activity.
“Squad 3 and 4 go into the buildings on either side and search for insurgents; Mch will go with you.” Mch dashed off with squad 3 as about 10 soldiers ran into a couple of buildings. Suddenly, one of the Nacho soldiers pointed at a building. “Up there!” A few Nachos went up with him. There were some shots fired and a scream. Then one Nacho poked his head out the window.
“Pie, sir,” he said. “You should see this.” Pie went over the to the building. I followed close behind. There were some Nachos up there. One was bleeding slightly in the leg. There were two men sitting on the ground. One of them appeared to be dead. The other one had a long beard and a sniper rifle layed across his chest. “Uh, is that guy awake?” I asked.
One of the Nachos that had gone up there sighed and said, “Yes. He’s trying to play dead in the hopes that we’ll leave.” I grabbed the man by his shirt, and pulled him into a sitting position. “Listen, if you don’t answer my questions, I’m going to put a bullet in your head.” I told him. That made the guy wake up. His eyes bulged open, bloodshot as they were. “No!” He exclaimed. “Don’t kill me! They forced me to do this.”
This time, it was Pie that spoke. “Was it Fire that forced you to?” The man nodded, his face the symbol of complete fear. “How’d they tell you where to go? Did they know we were here?” Now the man smiled. It was clear by now that he was insane. His smile made me want to run away from him. “Oh yes,” he said. “They know. They always know. You better watch out.” And with that, he let his head back and started laughing. I looked at Pie. “Do you think it’s safe to leave him here?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
But that didn’t matter. A bullet ripped through the wall and hit the man in the head. Dead. Once again, the ACP and Nachos started looking for the culprits. Explosions started ripping through the street. I felt my eyes bulge out. “GET OUT!” I screamed. I made a mad dash for the door, ran down the stairs, and back on to the street, Pie and those Nacho soldiers at my feet. The street had been torn up. Cars that had sat peacefully on the side of the street were now on their side or flipped over, burning and black. 5 ACP soldiers lay on the ground, dead. We sprinted for our separate jeeps. As I jumped in, I found Luc and Mchappy already sitting there, ready to drive. “What happened?” I managed to gasp.
“Land mines,” said Luc. “Now isn’t the time. We have to get out of here.” The convoy of ACP and Nacho jeeps got out of the area of fire just as another mine was set off and some more unseen snipers and firearms lit up the place. I held up the M4A1 machine gun I had been holding and started firing blindly along with the other soldiers in jeeps as we raced through the streets of Fjord. Eventually we stopped in a park clearing towards the eastern outskirts of Fjord. As we staggered out of our Humvee’s and started to set up our temporary base, I asked Pie, “What happened? They obviously knew exactly where we were going to be.”
Pie shrugged. “I don’t know. Information leak? There could be a spy among us.”
Luc, who had been standing there, said, “I’ll be watching the soldiers like a hawk from now on. If there is a rat, I’ll find him or her.” Both Pie and I nodded.
Not even a day into this mission, and 6 people already dead. As I walked to the portable beds that we brought, I heard some Nachos venting their frustration with this message in the form of expressing their mistrust of ACP. As I lay down to sleep for the night, I wondered if things would get better. They had to.
Onest said,
July 9, 2010 at 1:56 am
Great story so far. I wish I could be in a story or write one.