“Twenty minutes to target boys, suit up.” Said Captain “Mark” Johnson.
“Sir yes sir!” Brokaw and I said back.
We were on our way to a facility in northern Afghanistan. We've had reports that Taliban had a facility in the mountains were they were making explosives there. They sent in the best of the best to take them. They sent in the Spectres.
We are armed with the latest in weapons and armor. Weapons that see around corners, light reflective camouflage, and the latest in vehicles and planes. No expense was paid to make sure we were the best team out there.
“Sir do we have any info on the target? Guards, weapons, explosives and support?” asked Brokaw.
“We have reports that there are around fifty Taliban Tier 2 soldiers there. They've put their best of the best in the facility. We also believe they are supplied with AK-47 machine guns, fragmentation grenades, and body armor. This is a bomb factory so expect high explosives in there. As far as support goes we don’t know much. What we do know is they have a few technical’s with machine guns mounted on them.” replied Captain Mark.
“Brokaw your our medic on this mission. Schmidt you got Explosive Ordinance Disposal and heavy weapons support. Lets keep it tight and get this done. I want to be out of here in 1 hour. Lets move!” Mark said.
“Oohrah sir” Brokaw and I both replied.
We go to the little area that was sectioned off as a armory in the C-130 we were going to be jumping out of. Mark grabs his trademark M16 with a silencer and ACOG scope on it, Brokaw grabs an M4A1 CQB rifle with a silencer, and I grab my MK17 Night Ops with an under barrel grenade launcher. I also grab a double handful of magazines and frags, and i grab a few blocks of C4 high explosive and some det cords.
The pilot comes over the intercom “Alright boys five minutes to jump”
“Lets move!” yelled out Mark.
As we line up at the backdoor to the plane, Brokaw and I do our customary pre-mission warm up of fifty push ups in full combat gear. As we pop back up and fist bump we see Mark shaking his head and laughing at us. Brokaw and I both laugh at him and we go back to our line up.
“Alright boys time to go!” yells the Jump Master as he hits the button to open up the door.
“Fall out!” Yells the Captain.
As I’m watching he jumps out first and disappears into the darkness, after Brokaw has counted to twenty he jumps to, Its my turn now.
I count to twenty and I step out over the side. With the wind whipping at my face I try to keep a good hold on all my weapons and gear.
“Alright boys remember to look at you altimeter and when it hits five thousand feet open up that chute, I am sending you the coordinates for the landing zone now.
“Copy that Sir.” I reply back through the our encrypted radio channel. Our channel is so encrypted it would take Russia about five years to crack it. To bad we change the encryption on it every week.
I look over at my altimeter and i see that it was at 5500 feet. I reach back and grab the handle of my chute and as I prepare to open it I look at the team update side of my HUD (Heads Up Display) and I notice that the captain was at 4500 feet and he hadn't opened his chute.
“Captain open your chute you’re too low!” I yelled over the radio.
‘My chute failed boys. You’re going to have to do this one without me.” He calmly replied back. “When you boys get back you make sure you tell my wife and kids that I love them and that I did this all to protect them.”
“No!” Brokaw yelled over the radio as I calmly replied. “Sir yes sir.”
I look back over at my altimeter and I open up my chute.
“Schmidt you are here by promoted to the rank of Field Captain, finish this mission.” He said over the radio.
“Sir yes sir.” I said back.
As we glide for a couple minutes, the captains altimeter slowly reached 500 feet.
“Goodbye boys”
It hit 0 and his vitals disappeared.
Brokaw and I hit the ground at the same time and take off running for the compound. Its about a mile to the compound so we take it easy.
“Alright Brokaw, this is going to be the most dangerous mission of our lives. There is every chance that we may not make it out of here. Its two men versus 50, but we can do it because we are Spectres. we do the missions that everyone else are to scared to do, we do the missions that they say are impossible. We do the impossible.” I said.
“Oohrah sir. Were going to do this for Mark.” said Brokaw
As we start to sneak up to the base we notice alot more Taliban than we thought. There were at least a hundred of them.
“Sir what are we going to do?” Brokaw asks me quietly.
“We are going to do our job soldier. We are going to go in there and take out that base. We are going to go in there, plant these explosives, kill as many of these Taliban as possible, and then we are going to go home and have a nice beer in the local pub. Do you understand me Brokaw?” I replied back curtly.
We start to move into the target are when our CO back at base comes over our secure radio.
“Captain we have two stealthed out F-35’s on station. Paint your targets and take them out. You may need to take out those SAM’s”
“Copy that Sir. Thank you for the support” I said back to him.
“This is Raptor 1-1 and Raptor 1-2. We will be on station in approximately 10 minutes Copy?”
“Solid copy Raptor 1-1. Alright Brokaw lets move up and get into position.” I said.
Ten minutes later as we lay down in position we get a call over the radio.
“Alright boys paint the targets lets go”
“Copy that Raptor 1-1. Painting them up”
I pull out my target laser and light up the building. I look up at the sky and notice a couple of dots about 15000 feet up in the air.
“Target acquired lighting it up.”
And a few seconds later it defiantly was light up. With two 2000 pound JTAG bombs crashing into the building.
“Good job boy’s” The CO said over the comm. “You boys are heroes today.”
“No Sir.” I replied. “The real hero is Captain Burris”