Operation Blazing Pitchfork
Time of Operations: 2:06 A.M.
Tony cringed as he stepped on a gravel path, his boots making a slight crunch in the otherwise silent night. Just what I need, to let loose dogs barking he thought to himself, making a mental note for ten push ups for each mistake he made. So far he was at forty. At age 23, Tony was a tall man, ranging at about six foot four, with a medium build. Upon his head sat a helmet, but underneath it was dark brown hair, and behind his goggles were a pair of heterochromic eyes. The left was dark blue, his odd eye, and the right was his normal green eye. After a moment or two, Tony realized he was staring into a shop window. "I'm going to get myself killed before I find them," he muttered to nobody in particular. Fifty.
After a few more minutes, Tony was able to relocate himself around a building where he took shelter in the alleyway. He grunted as he sat down on the hard, cold asphalt. "7 fucking men. I lost..7. Fucking. Men." He checked his GPS again, looking for any signals of his team. Nothing. Not even his own. Must be a jammer in the vicinity, he thought, thinking back to his disabled GPS and radio. Nothing worked- It was as if a bomb had off, destroying nothing, but killing everyone.
But he knew that wasn't it.
It wasn't a bomb.
The group of mobsters, known formally as "The Brothers of Jakobi", were taking citizens and killing them for no apparent reason. The group of SEALs had been introduced to the Chinese town to take out the group, and figure out what they were doing. At 11 P.M., they'd be introduced into the inner city by Black Hawk Helicopters, and from there they'd take a route planned into 3 major buildings that were knowingly controlled by the Brothers. After said buildings were taken out, they'd sneak out through the back of the third building, set a door explosive to said door, and book it off into the alleyway. At 11:30, they were expected to be on the way to the main Jakobi house, where they were to cut a hole in the roof, climb in, and take the house down with suppressed weapons. At 12:15 A.M., they were to be at the extraction point one and a half miles away.
Sadly, this is not how it went. Due to difficulties in the helicopter while flying, they had to be set down where they were, or fly back to base. They chose the first option. Secondly, the building they had just landed on was an apartment building full of angry tenants. Wanting to know as to why they were woken up to a loud noise, they began to file towards the roof, but were turned away by the man in full military gear with an assault rifle in plain sight. The pilot would protect his bird no matter what.
After three miles of stealthily sneaking through the city, the team came upon the first target building. Gathering up outside of the back entrance, an explosive charge was put onto the door and lit up, knocking the door back, and allowing the SEALs inside their objective. What they met, was not pretty. In fact, it was pretty ugly. Well, as ugly as 24 cloaked men with long beards armed with machine guns can get.
Lucky is not a strong enough word for this particular encounter. The SEALs met the 24 men, who were in complete shock from the quick breach, and took out 16. The remaining eight ran off into the building to sound the alarm. Which was connected to the other two buildings and the headquarters. "Shit," groaned the entire team.
Tony shuddered, remembering the cold chill from the dead body that- "FUCK!" He screamed, finally noticing the dead body laying next to him, which was in fact, not giving off a cold chill. That was just the wind. Tony peered down at the body, familiarity rising in his mind, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The skin was white, so it was obviously not one of the locals, and there were eight bullet holes riddling the corpse's chest. Which was covered in body armor, and a dark green United States undershirt. The body glared up at him, revealing itself to be PO First John Tatums, the team sniper, and Tony could feel the panic rising in his chest. This was a teammate, someone he had vowed to protect, but by getting dissolved from the group, led to him getting killed, and possibly the rest of his team. Standing, Tony placed a GPS marker on the body's location, vowing to return for its rightful pickup after the mission was complete.
2:58 A.M.
It's been hours, Tony thought. My team could be dead, or at base by now. He continued his walk through the dilapidated alleyways heading towards an unknown objective. He was just trying to find a glimpse of his team anywhere that wasn't behind a dumpster in an alleyway.
With his boots now making no noise against the smooth asphalt, Tony moves quicker, becoming a ghost in the night. He had his HK416 poised on his shoulder aiming at all the shadows that moved, looking for an enemy that he could draw blood upon. Upon his hip sat his own Colt 1911, from the Vietnam War. It was a gift from his grandfather, and he never let it out of his sight.
With his gear fully accounted for, and the night not getting any shorter, Tony moved into the alleyway outside of the cult headquarters. He knew that his team was inside alive, or dead, and he was going to find out. Grabbing the handle of a door, he turned the handle, expecting it to be locked.
A click resounded, and the door opened.
Only to open into a janitors closet, which was odd. The door was on the outside, but opened into a janitors closet? What do they do, clean the alleys? Not waiting for an answer, Tony crouched inside and closed the door, locking it. Looking around, he noticed the absence of cleaning supplies. Only a bucket and mop were to be found, with a vent that looked to be able to contain his size. After checking the mop and bucket, with his hand against the vent screen, and the other using the broken mop handle to wedge behind the screen, Tony popped out the screen, sighing in relief, and then crawling inside. With his assault rifle glued to his back in the small space, Tony opts to pull out his Colt in his right hand, and crawl forward until he stumbled into someplace he shouldn't be.
3:25 A.M.
Zhi Sūn glanced at the white structure in front of him. The elliptical shape was ingenious- it could serve as any monument in any major city. The plan, was all but foolproof. Flicking two switches up, which in turn caused them to glow a dark blue, Zhi smiled, pressing the big red button. It was time he tested his invention, to see what it would do.
Suddenly, a crash sounded out of nowhere, and the room was bathed in a white light. Multiple voices yelled something at him, but it was beyond his language. He turned around, and looked at his invaders. Flashes of white and yellow filled his vision as he was toppled backwards onto the control panel of his invention. Bullets flew and tore into the machinery, ripping it to shreds. Zhi screamed as the pain rushed into his mind from his abdomen. Blood gushed from his open wounds, and he fell, writhing to the floor. As he landed, he continued to scream for only but a second, when a body toppled on him from above, ending his agony.
3:31 A.M.
Tony landed on a soft mattress from his fall in the air vent. He looked around himself, only to see multiple gray boxes and blinking lights. He slowly stood up, peeking over the nearest box. About sixteen feet away were the greatest things he had ever seen.
His team.
He kept looking at his team, waiting for them to acknowledge his presence, until he realized he was in a different room than them. The window which separated the two groups was thick, sound proof, and also covered in blood on the other side. He looked around the room he was in, and saw a staircase leading up to a side door. Walking up to it, he could see the railing from where he shot the guard in the head, and where he fell. Opening the door, Tony walked into the room, only to be scrutinized by his team members who raised their guns his way. "Shit! Tony! You're alive!" yelled a young man named Sharkbait, well, that's what they called him anyways. A man with a dark gray beard walked forward a bit, motioning to Tony.
"Welcome back Zhang. Was that you who got that guy from above?"
"Yeah, it was." Tony answered, holding up his black Colt pistol.
The bearded man smirked,"You've always had a thing for that damn gun.." He grunted, " Have you seen Tatums anywhere, Zhang? We lost him when we lost you!"
Tony sighed and pushed his lips together. "He's dead Lieutenant. I found him." He struggled out.
His beard produced a rather demeaning frown. "Shit. We're down a man. We need to get out of here. Now get back in line, you almost got us killed!" Tony walked back over and rejoined his group, relishing the feeling of having someone at his back. He sighed, and holstered his Colt, grabbing his HK.
"Speaking of killing.." the bearded man spoke, "Where the hell is everyone?!" Everyone looked around cautiously, expecting an insurgent to jump out from anywhere and shoot at them. It was then that they began to notice the sound of footsteps slamming into the ground a floor above. They continued to listen to the sound growing louder and louder above until it appeared on their floor, heading for the door they entered through. A red light began to flash, and an intercom began to speak in Chinese. Sirens filled the air around them. The footsteps got closer. A thumping was beginning. Then everything went quiet for three seconds.
BOOM
The explosion of the doors inwards blinded the SEALs, as they struggled to find cover from their attackers. Tony ducked down beneath a metal desk, and grabbed a grenade from his belt, squeezed the lever, and pulled the pin. Time slowed down as he began to count the seconds perfectly, waiting for the third one to come, before he would throw it into the group of enemies shooting at where they thought his team had been. One. Two. Three. Tony quickly threw his arm around the corner of the gray desk, flinging the medium-well grenade at his attacker's feet.
Four. Five.
Tony's eyes clenched shut as a loud explosion knocked out his hearing for a few seconds. He opened his eyes, and peeked around the corner. Smoke clouded the door, but tony could see his grenade had done it's job. Three men made a move around the corner and Tony's HK took out the first, while the other SEALs took out the other two. They fell harmlessly to the floor where they were shot. Tony stood, and ran over to his group. The bearded leader looked at Tony. "Zhang, stay here and keep this room secure. We'll clear out the rest of the building. Rig that -" he gestured at the white elliptical statue in the center of the other room, "to blow." With that, he gave a parting salute, and walked out of the room with the others in tow.
Opening his backpack, Tony grabbed two packets of his most favorite thing in the world; C4 Explosive. He walked towards the staircase heading into the other room, and went down. The other room was as he left it, and he walked up to the white statue. Placing the two packets on each side of the ellipse, he carefully stood back, examining his good work.
He walked back up the stairs, and into the control room. Sitting next to the wall behind a next, Tony leaned he back onto the wall, and escaped a sigh of relief. His body was sore. He open up his vest pocket, and pulled out a small little journal, and began writing in it. "Found dead body, shot a body, threw a grenade at bodies, shot another body, and placed some C4." He wrote. He glanced at his watch, to find it had only been eighteen minutes since his team had left him. he heard the occasional popping as they cleared out the building, but wasn't worried nonetheless.
Of course that changed when he decided to take out a cigarette and light it, but do his dismay, his radio began to produce static, and then finally voices. He listened closely, and was able to pick out his name. "There's a lot of them Tony!" It was Sharkbait, yelling into his radio at full volume, panic filling his voice. "Blow the charges! Blow them! Meet up with us!"
Tony's blood went cold, and he tried to return the call, "SHARKBAIT! LIEUTENANT! WHERE ARE YOU?!" He screamed into the radio. His eyes began to go into tunnel vision as footsteps made themselves down the hallway. He raised the HK, firing into the crowd of men running into the room. They all fell, as he reloaded another magazine.
More rushed in, with one yelling in English, "PROTECT THE PORTAL!" Tony fired more bursts of fire into the groups, cutting them down with ease. He had been the best shooter at the yard. More men rushed into the room, gaining cover, and began firing back at Tony, who instinctively backed up. His thigh hit a button behind him, and a rumbling sound was heard. More men rushed into the room, forcing tony into the "portal" room.
Sailing down the guardrail on the staircase, and landing on his feet with a hearty grunt, Tony rushed into the only cover in the room; The White Portal itself. He poked his HK out the side and fired at the men who ran down the staircase. Five came, five died. Then, the door shut. The firing stopped. On the intercom a voice speaking in English sounded, "Well, it's a lot cleaner this way."
"What is?! What's cleaner you Chinese scum!!" Tony screeched at full volume, his voice scratching his throat. He began to violently cough. Falling to one knee Tony did the only other thing he could think of- Pulling out his remote C4 trigger. With his hand on his trigger, and a blue aura surrounding his entire body he pulled the trigger.
"WAIT- WHAT THE HELL IS THI-" Tony yelled as both explosives blew, shattering the white portal to pieces.
Final GPS Signal: 3:52 A.M.
A massive funeral was held in Washington D.C. for the fallen SEALs, all 8 of which were K.I.A. or M.I.A. Five caskets were used, and three were empty. The bodies of PO1 Tatums, Ens. Zhang, and Lt. Reid were never recovered. Over the course of three months,numerous video were sent to the United States concerning Cap. Reid, but the ransoms were left unanswered. The event faded into history as a war against Jakobi's broke out, taking over three Southeast Asian countries.
The U.S. answered the call, and sent their troops to protect the world against the tyranny of communistic values. The Eight SEALs just became engraving on the war memorial.
Location: Unknown
Tony's body laid in the shade underneath the only tree in the small oasis in the desert. A convenient place to be found in, considering he had not woken up since the explosion. Looking at him, you could see a steady rise and fall in his chest, showing that he was still alive. Two hours passed until he began to regain consciousness, at which point he began rubbing his eyes furiously, trying to wipe the sand out of them. Sitting up with his back against the tree trunk, he looked over his surroundings, noting the lush desert grass around him, and the flock of birds floating in the spring off to his right. Looking to his left, one could only see dunes of sand, rising high into the horizon, demoralizing even the heartiest of beings.
Tony stood, and began to walk towards the water. Grabbing his canteen from his pack, he laid it in the water, bubbles gurgling to the surface as it began to fill. After the bubbling stopped, and taking a water sterilization pill from his pack, he dropped it in, and screwed the lid on. Thirty minutes.
I should check over my equipment, maybe see if I can get some sort of signal out here, or figure out where the hell I am, Tony deeply thought. Pulling out his black and green Garner GPS, he flicked the on button, and watched the device begin to calculate his position on the earth. ANALYZING POSITION it read, a few dots blinking beneath it. It continued on, and Tony began to think there may be no satellite reception in this dry desert, until the screen finally popped up: ERROR: NO VALID LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE FOUND. His heart skipped a beat, as the realization hit him. There wasn't a desert on Earth that didn't have satellite reception, especially with clear skies. Pulling his radio up to his ear, he pushed the button, sending static into his hearing. Nothing.
"Where the fuck am I..." Tony muttered, slowly spinning and looking at the surrounding desert. He glanced up, noting the sun almost in the middle of the sky. "And how long was I out.." He continued spinning and scrutinizing every detail of the land, until a movement caught his attention. Upon the dune to his left, was a black shadow moving horizontally. Tony instinctively dropped onto his belly, and grabbed his binoculars from his leg pouch. He pushed the black eyepieces onto his nose, and looked at the shadow. He was confused for a second, after looking at the blue horse with seemingly multicolored hair. His brain not wanting to make him turn into a drooling, uncomprehending beast, decided that the creature was either someone in a costume, or some weird, dressed up farm animal wondering lost in the desert.
Tony stood up, slid his binoculars back in his pouch, and began walking the other direction of the odd creature, toward the dune in front of his tree. He began the trek up the steep hill, sliding on the smooth sand, and barely catching his balance when he did. Occasionally he'd let a glance over to where the blue horse had been, only to see nothing but prints in the sand, which proved it did exist, but where it went, he did not know. He continued his climb, until he reached the top of the dune, and grabbing his canteen, drank a large gulp of water down. Releasing his breath, after noticing he had been holding it, he looked around from his new viewpoint. Mountains were off way to his left, where he thought the cerulean creature had probably migrated from. Off to his right was more sand, and straight ahead were salt flats. He had seemingly woken up in the middle of a desert next to a dry lake bed. He sighed. Today is going to fucking suck.
4:35 P.M.
Glancing at his watch, he noted the time from his last glance. Five minutes. He was drenched in sweat, and felt as if he'd been through Hell Week twice in one day. His water had begun to run low minutes ago at his last break, and he was still considerably far from the mountains he decided to head towards. Their green sides, and snow capped peaks seemed to grab upon his eye, drawing him like a magnet towards it, until he finally decided to go to them. He estimated that he still had many miles to go, and that unless something no less that a miracle happened, he wouldn't make it.
Continuing with his slow, monotonous pace through the loose sand, Tony turned into autopilot and letting his mind wander. His girlfriend was back at home, probably waiting for him to return from his first mission. Or she was crying, and that he was M.I.A. had reached her. Absently, he began to wipe his eyes as he imagined himself trying to comfort her. His family came to mind next- His mother, the one who he found himself intrigued with Navy with. She drove around high value people and worked as a nurse stationed at Pearl Harbor. His father, who was a lawyer only wanted the best for his children, including his son. He always joked to Tony, "If you ever need a lawyer to defend yourself against criminal scum, I'm free of charge!" Tony began to return from autopilot, and slowed his pace, drinking a bit of water.
The blue sky was looming overhead, while the sand went as far as the eye could see, until hitting the mountains. He could see what appeared to be structures on the mountainside, but if his training had taught him anything, some plants contain hallucinogenic toxins, and he had just eaten part of a cactus to gain some hydration. It didn't help much, but it kept him from falling to the ground in a heap. He sat down on a nearby rock regaining his breath. He closed his eyes, and laid back. He began to think of what had happened back in China- He had ran into the white.. portal they called it, but then everything else after that was a blur. He shot some men, and pulled the trigger on his C4 remote. This is fucked up, he thought. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes again to look upon the sky. A pair of magenta eyes looked back into his, and that's when he began questioning his choice in desert shrubbery.
"The hell are you?" The pair of magenta eyes asked in a startlingly feminine voice.
Tony stared back, his mind telling him to tell the truth, but his gut telling him to beat the snuff out of this creature in front of him. Opening his mouth to reply with "Hi! I'm Ens. Zhang of the U.S. Navy SEALs!", he quickly dropped the stupid idea, and instead opted for a jab in the creature's underbelly. The blue horse fell back, grasping at where he guessed it's lungs were, and trying to scream. With no air though, the attempt was futile. "Me? I'm a SEAL." Tony answered with acid in his voice, standing up to his full height.
The creature stopped wheezing, and looked at him, muttering under it's breath until it retorted, "Yeah, and I'm a manticore." The creature shot up, and began floating. Tony looked quizzically at the creature floating, until he realized it was flying with the wings on it's back. It smiled again, and shot at straight at his chest at a speed he couldn't follow. The creature collided with his stomach, and he could hear his ribs cracking. He looked straight ahead as his view went from speeding blue demon to the light blue sky. He coughed a bit, and some blood ran out of the side of his mouth. Grimacing, he droned, "Shit."
His vision went black, and he felt himself being lifted off the ground until he lost consciousness.
