CHAPTER 19

The last thing that Nate expected to see as they got over the Hurtegan Forrest, was tall looming clouds of black smoke. He knew that the Fey were running operations in this region but, he had never thought about seeing any signs of it.

As they drew closer to the smoke, Avery noticed the Ranger Captain and his fascination with it. Avery told him, “that’s hill 231B.”

Nate was a little alarmed by how ordinary this seemed to the commando, “you know it personally, colonel? I mean, hell, we‘re pretty close to the city. Is there…? You know?”

Avery chuckled and then explained, “sometimes the Orc’s will sneak an anti-aircraft gun or two, up on the peak. They like taking pot shots at our birds as we fly by, so, the Notay’s artillery have been slowly turning that hill into a crater, every time an op flys out.”

It was rather strange to Nate that his mind would turn back towards land navigation at a time like this. He knew how the army numbered hills, by their elevation, and the name of this hill sounded like just that. He laughed at the next thought and that caused the colonel to become curious and ask. Nate answered him, “guess some map maker is going to have to rename that hill, pretty soon, don‘t you think?” Avery laughed too.

The next brush with war was not so much of a laughing matter. Nate had been looking out the open door of the Blackhawk, marveling at the sight of trees that would give the California redwoods a good run for their money, when he saw a bright yellow streak flying up from out of those trees. Everything after that happened pretty quickly and, as Nate was horrified to find out, there was very little he could do about it.

For all of Avery’s blustering about rank not meaning anything out here, Nate realized that this was mostly horseshit. Since he was a Captain he rated one of the extra headsets that allowed him to patch in to the helicopters intercom. Right now he was wishing he was a private, and had not gotten the cool toy because, no sooner than he saw the flash on the ground, he heard a very disturbed and panicked call from the pilot who was yelling, “break! Break! Break!”

The chopper banked hard to the right and Nate lost sight of the tracer that, only a moment ago, was flying right at him. Nate felt his body weight pushing against the straps. First he went in one direction, then he went in another, and finally his weight settled back in his seat just as he saw tree branch’s flying by the side of the chopper.

Nate did not stop screaming until the little specialist, a girl named Thompson from Delta’s first platoon, grabbed Nate’s arm and squeezed before yelling over the noise of the chopper, “I think we’re ok sir. You can stop screaming!”

After catching his breath Nate asked the girl, “I was screaming?”

The reply actually came over the intercom as their pilot told him in an agitated tone, “yes you were Captain! Mind turning your vox off next time!” Nate looked to Avery. The ranger captain was wondering how the Aussie might react. As it turned out, Avery was laughing his ass off.

It was Sergeant Simmons, a twenty two year old kid from East Los Angeles, who leaned over and yelled to Nate, “don’t worry sir, least you didn’t wet yourself.”

Nate was actually kind of thankful when the Thompson girl changed the subject and asked, “Captain, why did they give me this big ass M-60? I’m the littlest one in the squad?”

Angie had no idea how the colonel heard her. She wondered if he even did. He still seemed to know exactly what she was saying when he yelled back, “that’s exactly why you have it Specialist. You’ll draw more fire and you’re a little target.”

That bit of information caused Angie pout and she looked back up at the engine covers, over her head, and then bitched, “and I had a fucking dream job till this shit.”

Bitching soldiers was an area that Nate was far more experienced at handling and he jumped on the chance to do so. He cheerfully told her, “don’t worry Thompson. At least you didn’t wet your pants.”

Angie had a strange expression when she slid a look at her company commander who then just defended himself by pointing to Simmons and saying, “it sounded good when he said it.”

They all busted out laughing at that point but, it proved to be short lived. Something that was almost ear splitting popped all around them. It was so loud that even the engines and blades were drowned out. Before Nate could even collect his wits he saw Avery slapping the crew chief, in front of him, who was hurriedly tossing ropes out the open door. Then Avery yelled towards the crowded compartment, “hot eL-Zee! Action left on contact!”

It looked as if Avery was saying something else and, if it had been Nate he figured the words would probably have been something along the lines of either, “we’re roping in” or “kiss your ass goodbye.” Nate was hoping it was the whole rope thing but, then, something slapped the chopper hard, left a ringing metallic sound, and made a flash that was so quick and bright that Nate had spots in his eyes long after it was over. Some one was also screaming in terror and everything was going by in a blur.

All that Nate knew for sure was that he saw a severed leg in the floor of the chopper. He also heard the tell tale sign of shooting as the two rotary guns, on each side of the chopper, began spitting out tracer rounds. Then Nate felt a slap on the side of his face. He could barely hear the words but, he saw Avery’s mouth screaming at him. Then the man jumped right out of the chopper door! Did he hook up to the rope?

Suddenly, like someone flipped a switch, Nate had no idea why but, his senses cleared and he found himself looking at a hyperventilating Specialist in the seat next to him. Thompson’s entire right side was covered in blood. Nate began slapping at the other Rangers until they were moving towards the ropes and heading for the ground. He then grabbed Angie and shook her as he yelled, “are you hit?”

“Uh,” Angie looked across the compartment and then pointed at the slumped over body of Private Crossman. He was still gushing blood out of the stump that used to be his right leg. She could not say much more so Nate shoved her to the door as he yelled, “we have to go now!” He was a little surprised when Thompson hooked up and was sliding down the rope without so much as a word from him. Her training had taken over and she did it all without even thinking. Nate hoped he would be that lucky.

In fact, Nate was hoping he remembered how to slide down the rope until his feet hit the dirt and he unhooked his O-ring. Then he realized he must have remembered. Now if he could only remember actually remembering. Then he didn’t give a shit when the fizzling, hissing, burst of light came flying by his head. Nate jumped to the ground next to an extra thick root that was pretty much a wooden wall in it’s own right. He rolled over on his back and then, he saw the Blackhawk above him. It was trying to gain altitude and there was black smoke swirling through the backwash of it’s rotors. Then it just turned into a giant fireball.

Nate thought the explosion was one of the neatest things he had ever seen. Then he realized all the little black specks were debris and both them, and the fire, were falling right back towards him. He jumped to his feet and yelled, “cover! Incoming!” He took off running for some imagined safety and wound up jumping behind another huge root, as he felt the heat, and was blinded by the flash that came with it.

Was it a minute later? Was it only seconds? Nate was not really sure as he found himself laying on the hot and mushy ground. He was behind another thick root and, as he looked up, he saw the smoking piece of metal that was stuck in it. Nate’s first thought was how that thing could have been his head. Then he forgot about that when he realized the ground was moving beneath him. He heard a muffled cry as well!

Nate rolled off and a demon from hell rose up from the mud. Luckily, it turned out to be Specialist Thompson and she was not very happy about Nate jumping over the root and landing on her. She was coated with a muddy soup that had now caked over the blood she was previously covered in and it did not help matters any. She snarled at Nate, slapped him across the chest, and then growled, “fucker! That hurt!”

Nate almost said something along the lines of “sorry ma’am,” but mostly out of a deep seated habit that was born of a home where manners were preached like religion. Instead, he reached down and pointed Thompson’s head towards the burning trees and small crater that had been the chopper that they flew in on. He then said to her, “not as much as that would have, I bet.”

“Holy shit,” was all Angie had to say about it. Then, slowly, her mind began to realize what her ears had already been detecting. Somebody was shooting at somebody else. Now Angie had time to be afraid. She rolled over and checked the barrel of her weapon for mud. As she had suspected, it had a nice plug wedged in there. Angie frantically and furiously began to clear it out. She did her level best to keep from panicking. The idea that there were these monsters out here, and that they wanted to kill her, was settling in.

Nate was also realizing his worst fears. He was lost! Not only had the chopper ride turned him all around but, the crash of said chopper was also of no help. He had none of the navigational aids he had been trained to use for his entire career! He had no compass that would work in this godforsaken place and, worst of all, he could not even look up and see where the sun was rising or setting! Now Nate understood why the operators called that big ass planet, up in the sky, Crummy Ass!

Suddenly Angie screamed and Nate was not far behind her. Angie swung the barrel of her weapon up and, a second later she would thank her lucky stars that she had forgotten to switch the safety off. The first reason was she had yet to the get the mud out of her barrel and it would probably have blown up in her face. The second reason was because the target was Simmons.

Angie deflated and reached out. She laid her hand on Simmons arm and told him, “thank god!”

Nate slid up the side of the tree and asked his man, “do you know where the rest of the platoon is?”

“Yes sir,” Simmons was still trying to catch his breath. He raised his free arm to point and said, “they back…”

The loud crack was almost simultaneous with Simmons splitting in half at the waist. A murky liquid and mangled flesh came flooding out of is torso like a river. It started to ebb just as the upper half of his body collapsed on his falling legs. The halved body landed in an ever expanding pool of murk.

Angie screamed again but, this time, she felt a hand cup over her mouth and then it pulled her back down next to the tree. She did the only thing she could think of and sunk her teeth into her attacker, only then to have her nose pinched and pulled backwards. Then she realized that the hand belonged to her Captain and he was not at all happy. He looked like he wanted to yell in pain but, was fighting it. When his furious eyes met hers his head jerked as if he were telling her to look in a certain direction.

Before Angie could figure it out, another round slammed into the tree they were behind. Her face felt like it was on fire for a moment and her vision was slightly blurred. It took a second before she realized that the Captain was holding her face in his hands. He was also doing something else and then, suddenly, more blinding pain. When Angie came too she felt of her face and was panicking, “what?”

“I pulled out some splinters,” Nate told her quietly before he also said, “ now shut up.”

Suddenly Angie realized that all of the loud noises were over. Even the nearby fire had died down to a crackle and the occasional loud pop. Why didn’t she hear any shooting? What did that mean? Shouldn’t they be moving? Where was everybody? Her mind was filling with questions and concerns but, most prominently, her fears. All she could think to do was look to the Captain.

Nate saw that questioning glance and all he could do in return was shake his head, for her to keep quiet, as he watched in the direction of the movement he was hearing. Then he saw one and, at first, Nate was not even sure he was really seeing it. They had been showing them long distance photo’s, blacked out silhouettes, and drawings of these things. Someone had even stuck pictures of them up on the toilet stall doors. To Nate, they had all looked like CGI but, this thing that was crawling out of the bushes did not. It was so incredibly not human that Nate had a hard time taking his eyes off of it.

The Orc stood up and began slowly poking at the debris of the chopper. Now that it was in the clear, Nate got a good look at it. The thing looked like some kind of disturbed, tortured, pig. It’s skin tone was murky brown and had some kind of weird design all over it. It drooled and grunted as it poked with it’s staff. If Nate was not seeing it for himself, you could have never convinced him that this thing wasn’t an animal or monster. Yet it had on what was most definitely ballistic armor that was complete with a helmet that was shaped very similar to that of the army’s first Kevlar’s. It had that staff weapon with a big blade on one end and thick counterweight on the other. It had a belt full of gear and other assorted materials that Nate could only guess at. It was, in a word, amazing.

Suddenly, Nate remember that he was supposed to kill the damn thing. He was about to raise his weapon when the Orc grunted louder, waived to some nearby trees, and was suddenly joined by a host of the creatures. He left his weapon right where it was and just continued to watch. He hoped the Orcs did not get that curious and start seriously poking around. He wondered if the last one that had taken a shot might have thought that they got him. The lack of return fire might have convinced them. Maybe the thing had never been sure that Nate was even really there?

Things got tense when the group of Orcs began to spread out in a small circle. Nate thought they were going to start looking for his position but, then, they all began moving out in a single direction. Nate let out the breath he had been holding in and then collapsed against his cover for what he figured was a well deserved break.

Now Angie stuck her head up over the root and looked around. She saw the nearby tall grass moving but, could not see what was making it move. She then ducked back down and asked her Captain, “sir? Wha… what was it?”

“Bad guys,” was all Nate could think to say.

Angie was still trying to calm down. She huffed, she felt a tear in her eye, and then she pleaded, “Captain? What do we do?”

That was a very good question and one that Nate did not have a very good answer for. Not only did he not know where he was but, he had no idea which direction was what. He had seen the maps, studied the plan, all the usual crap only now that he was out here, all of it seemed about useless. There were quite a few added problems as well.

“No shooting,” Nate quietly told the girl.

Angie nervously asked, “that’s good, right?”

“It would be,” Nate replied, “if that patrol had been ours. Since it wasn’t, I’m assuming the news is bad.” The specialist did not reply. Nate started trying to figure out a plan. The first thing he said was, “get what supplies you can off Simmons. Take his weapon and ammo, camel back, any food on him. We’ll ditch the sixty since you don’t have that much ammo for it anyway.”

Angie looked at the pile of mayhem that used to be a friend of hers. She was not sure she wanted to touch anything on him. Nate saw that look and told her, “I’ll get his dog tags.”

Angie tried to hold back her stomach as she slowly crawled towards Simmons. She tried to get her mind off of the sights in front her by asking, “what do we do then?”

Nate was keeping a look out as he quietly told her, “well those things went that way so we’re going the other. Then we try and find a creek or stream. Water always leads to civilization, one way or the other. I figure that’s probably just the same here as it is back home.”

Angie was unconvinced as she reached out and picked at Simmons’ weapon strap with two fingers. With a look of complete disgust she told her Captain, “if you say so sir.”