Wartime Memories

Chap. 1: Prologue & Operation Vulture

War is hell. It's always hell...but we need to go through it to get to heaven, eh? That's what all of us soldiers thought, at the time. But most of us expected to dive straight into hell, not have it come knocking on our door. This is the story of me and my squad playing the Devil's game...and here in the Persian sand, the Devil always has his due...

[Intro: Rise Against - People Live Here]

____________________________________________________________________________________________

We are Vanguards. The Vanguards are the primary special expeditionary and deep cover operation forces of Equestria, and consisting of two divisions. One being the Sentinels, and the other the Lance. Lance is the most forward armed forces, and they mostly do the fighting and pushing against the enemy.They pretty much do whatever they can to take them down as quickly as possible, more often then not. The Sentinels, are the polar opposite in some aspects, they guard foreign soil and conduct intel. operations to help our Lance asses out. Many view us as big-time heroes for ending wars and saving lives. But some of us...well...all I can say is; some of us aren't "Hero" material...

Camp Stingray, Persia, 05:00 hours

"Well at least I'm no lug-head who snores all damn night!...damn, do you hear yourself when your dreamin?"

"Oh, don't get me started, kid. If it was up to me there'd be a dog house outside with your name on it."

Shit, it's 05:00 and Rev 'n' Orion are already arguing. It's always the same thing day in, day out...they really need to get a hobby...or a room for that matter. Anyways, Camp Stingray has been buzzing since 1 AM, taking in wounded and deploying other squads for early morning ops, as well as preparing to mobilize for later. We're still scheduled to deploy later, however, so now's a good time as ever to stroll around the F.O.B., get the scoop on other happenings, and possibly a late briefing from Sentinel Officers.

After a short walk, I happened to run by my old unicorn friend, Splinter, who was hanging around the mess hall. I suppose he was easy to pick out, however. His teal coat and more un-kept light blue hair didn't exactly fit in with that of the other soldiers, eating and lounging in the vicinity. He spotted me and called me over.

"Hey, Val, come over here for a sec!" His British accent sticking out from the crowd.

I obliged him, but as I got closer I returned with "You really need to start calling me 'Captain', now...first name basis doesn't help my rep with the higher-ups, ya know?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he replies "But hey we got ourselves a new enlistee in our ranks." he proceeded to point to the younger pegasus stallion with short purple hair, pale blue fur, and green eyes, across from him.

"Says his name is 'Glint', he pulled top of his class back at advanced training and wanted to join the Lance." He adds.

I proceeded to sit down next to Splinter and took a good look at the kid, determining his sort of character...it pays to be judgmental when heading into the high ranks more often than not.

I finally utter "So Glint, what makes you want to join the Lance? I mean, someone of your caliber would do better as a Sentinel...your career would last much longer, at least."

"Well I don't want to be stuck on guard duty most of my life, sir. I was assigned to this squad specially as a translator, so now I'm here" he mentioned in return

I must say I was slightly charmed on that whole sir thing, but he's just a scrub...that's what he was brainwashed to do, really.

"You don't have to call me sir," I say, while holding up my hand in good nature "I only ask to be called by my name if we're one-on-one or just between the squad, and by my rank everywhere else, but even the rules to that are loose"

But before we could continue the conversation the Officer's whistles started blaring...time for last chance briefing and deployment.

We ran out of the mess hall and met up with the rest of the squad back at the temporary barracks. I was glad to see Rev and Orion already getting geared up, and we rushed to do the same. Rev was a pegasus with light brown fur, which blended in with some parts of the standard digital camouflage uniform, as he was putting it on, but his somewhat transparent red hair and dark green-coloured eyes definitely stood out. Orion was an earth pony and had dark grey fur, blue eyes, no hair, a brunet goatee, and a vertical scar around the temple on the left side of his face. As we entered the tent Citrus wasn't too far behind. She was well-managed earth pony with Gold fur, and medium-length mango-coloured hair, and glistening orange eyes. If you seen her you'd say she seems like she could easily take care of herself, and possibly more for that matter.

We all had our own unique sort of personality and it often reflected on our gear, and especially on our helmets. Rev's helmet had the top of a shark's jaw painted on it. We never got a clear reason, but we all collectively thought it was a tribute to his gigantic ego. Orion had a really dark, faded, torn and beat-up helmet with an old blue and white sapper's Yin-Yang on the front, in memory of his fallen brother. Splinter's helmet had half of the Equestiran flag and half of Britain's Union Jack flag, split diagonally on the front of his. I suppose the reasoning behind that is self-explanatory. My helmet had a thin black and white striped rim with the Lance Captain's insignia on the front. It wasn't exactly my choice, since the officers made me wear it, but I didn't complain. Citrus' helmet had a picture of her sister on it, being her motivation to fight was the family she had at home. Glint already had his gear on and it seemed as if it came straight off the assembly line. He will most likely follow our tradition and do some sort of personal modification to his helmet later.

We rushed to put on the rest of our gear, and practically ran through a checklist in our heads. Within minutes we had our boots, jackets, bullet-proof Kevlar vests with added steel plate, and all other mandatory gear on and ready to go as we ran outside.

The next step in preparation for the mission was to run over to the Armory Tent. We all had to be met with a more standardized outfitting, on the count of base mobilization. As a result we were all given the standard R5-14 assault rifles with 4x magnification scopes, and A27A-3 handguns. We weren't given grenades or any add-ons of sort, but we won't even need them judging by the mass-scale trip we're taking.

As we were prepping, Rev obviously felt the need to start some small talk "So, what? are we actually using these this time? My trigger finger is getting a little itchy"

"Are you okay with carrying it and not using it, or are you willing to be shot in the arse with none to be found?" Splint mentioned, as he displayed an intimidating look,

"I-I'm good, thanks" Rev replied, with some sarcasm written on his face.

The rest of us except for Glint grinned and giggled, noting the obvious light and joking atmosphere.

Then Rev decided to get acquainted with our new addition "So uhh, kid?...Where you from?"

"I'm from a small town outside of The Crystal Empire," he replied "aaaannnd my guess is your from Manehattan or something?"

Rev donned a smug look on his face, and said "Now aren't you sharp as a tack? Yeah I came from Manehattan, but I moved out, I'm livin' in Los Pegasus now..."

He proceeded to point and the rest of the squad and name off were the rest of the team lived "And Splinter over there is from England, Sweetheart here is from Baltimare" he then pointed his thumb at Orion "and uhh...I think lug nut back there is from the moon or something, right?"

Orion chimed in with a groan in his voice "Haha very funny, I totally forgot to laugh"

I thought it was about time I put an end to that before someone gets shot "Alright fellas, pipe down and start getting your asses outside"

The briefing was absurdly long this time, and needed to be reinterpreted to the rookie "I'll try to lay out the skinny as best I can. We're currently deployed 20 miles North of Jiroft and scheduled to move even further North into the city of Kerman, where we will join up with British forces, but before that we need to push the surrounding terrorists back. That's where Op. Vulture comes in. We're not big power-players in this one, and we're In fact, much of the opposite. We've been tasked with a simple clean up of enemy forces after a C.A.S. bombardment, and before the primary convoy follows through. So we got it easy this time if you'd think of it like that. So really, you don't need to do much of anything this time around, got it?"

"Yes si-...sorry, I mean alright" he replied scrunching his face at the fact he practically forgot what I told him.

I grinned and patted his shoulder "You'll do fine...you'll do just fine"

We moved up from the camp center to the make-shift motor-pool, mounted the A.T.L.I.T.V (All Terrain Light Infantry Transport Vehicle, or 'Atlit/Atlas' in a lazy pronunciation) second from the front, and we are a total count of 5 jeeps. 3 of the total vehicles had .50 Cal. MGs and the other two were AGL-12 grenade launchers placed toward the back.

We decided our seats, without much of an argument: Rev rode shotgun whilst Orion drove, Splinter rode in the center of the back seat with Citrus on the left and Glint on the right, and I rode the center seat slightly behind the driver and front passenger, which faced toward the back, for quick deployment out the backside doors. It's also quite handy because now I'm better able to socialize with everyone.

And so as we're packed into the Atlas with rifle stocks on the floor and barrels pointed toward the ceiling, we couldn't of helped but spectate the rest of the camp pack up and into two dozen Ace Cargo Trucks for the main convoy. Next thing we know the high and mighty Lance Commander Cartridge's voice graces us with it's presence on the radio

"All forward units, move out!"

Orion shifted into gear to follow the lead jeep and started us on the move through the barren Persian planes on Highway 91.

After a short while Splinter's voice pierces the silence "Sheesh...better hope the bloody sods are dead when we roll by...we got a lot on the line, here"

"Damn straight" I added

"Uhh excuse me but..." Glint asked "What exactly is the reasoning behind this war?"

I was pretty amused by that question...most soldiers don't care for listening to both sides of the war and would rather focus on the objective...the kid's quite observant, and I really admire that.

"Hey, Citrus" I call "You wanna' handle giving our new friend, here, a nice little history lesson?"

"Certainly" she joyously responds "You see, Persia as it is now, is a newly liberated country from a totalitarian regime, so realistically it needs to rebuild it's Government to the extent where it can defend it's self...so ironically Persia is practically a satrapy for the time being, leaving it very weak. Nonetheless, we must move to help the country stay mostly in one piece. Why this is called a 'war', however, is because recently the terrorist forces have spent a considerably large amount of funds purchasing heavy military gear...that or they are being funded and armed by an outside source all together. What we do know for certain about these armaments are: their primarily H.A.T.s, T.O.W.s and even a few armored cars...admittedly they turned into quite the paramilitary...aaaaaaaannnyway, Persia holds vital oil reserves we must get back to keep the country's head above water, considering terrorist cells now own most of the country, we must fight for every town to push them back into the dark caves they crawled out of"

I cut back in "Good work explaining...what we're doing now is a stone's throw away from a massive counter offensive to take the country back"

Rev hopped in with his massive ego as always "Well it don't really matter to me, we're shooting the rags off of their heads an-"

Rev was interrupted by the scout element stopping and the sound of distant gunfire from an unknown location. Rounds start pinging off the front Atlases and ricocheting off the ground around us.

It's time for some action now, so I ordered "Everyone stay in the damn jeep, 'till we can find and pop these idiots"

After a moment of scanning Glint spotted some slight muzzle flash off of the jeep's right side "Hey I think their over there!" he pointed

And there the bastards are, about 60+ meters away. Instinctively Splinter hopped on the gun and spun the bulletproof turret and Kevlar camouflage canopy right in the general direction of the insurgents and started laying down fire on their location of a few small hills. Meanwhile, the rest of us popped open the compartment holding the box mags. for the MG and got ready to pass them to him. The MG burned through the rounds quickly, and soon the cartridges started to cover the gunner's area, and also lay out on the ground. Sometimes Splinter stopped periodically to toss out all of the spent cartridges as well.

Over all the gunfire I hear Glint yelling "Are they seriously trying to attack us like that! do they really expect to kill us?"

"Don't let them hear you, they might actually grow a brain for once!" Rev answered

After having them suppressed for long enough, Splinter stopped, checked around and yelled out "Why the hell aren't anyone else shooting?"

Taking notice I order "Rev, hop out and let everyone else know of the current situation. Move, move, move!"

The radios were only on emergency channels or 'all clear' lines so we had to rely on runners for the mission. Splinter looked right to notice an AGL-12 gunner was in the middle of the line and completely confused about the action going on in front of him.

He started yelling at the gunner and pointing towards the contacts in the distance "Hey! Hey You!...Yeah you! Over there! Point your bloody gun over there and shoot the bastards!"

After some yelling the AGL gunner began to turn and fire whilst Rev was still running and letting everyone else know.

Splinter continued to yell "No, no, NO! Fire higher! Higher!"

The AGL gunner was finally effectively compensating for the bullet drop and landing grenades on the insurgents' position. The rest of the scout element finally reacted and started firing and moving directly on the insurgents' position, quickly dislodging and killing them. One even got back up and was hopping away, as he appeared to be missing a leg, but a grenade launcher round quickly ended that. In the end 3 insurgents went down, and their blood coated the sand.

After the small skirmish we checked out with Strategic Command on one of the emergency lines and were given the A-OK to keep rolling. So we mounted back up to the Atlases but this time with Splinter and I trading seats. We finished securing the vicinity, and moved on. The rest of the trip had no action, and proved to be a good time getting to know Glint and his background as well as tell him ours. Turns out, Glint is one of a very long line of military brats whose fathers and sons served in the military, but he is the first to join the Equestrian Vanguard. Of coarse he has had a rough background, like the rest of us, being that he has had to deal with an alcoholic dad who left him and his mom for dead, which pretty much forced Glint to take care of them both...he's still a good kid, though...his sort life is really humbling. I honestly can't say the same for Rev, whose filthy rich parents abandoned him, so he pretty much lived off the street all alone and played Robin Hood for random people on occasion...no wonder why he cops up an attitude sometimes. And Citrus, who grew up in the most normal way possible, but a few heavy hitting things brought her life down on top of her, especially when she had her own dad die in her arms because of a random street shooting. Splinter didn't even have his mom around, and practically grew up in the military on the count his dad was pretty high up in the British Royal Guard. Orion always muscled his way out of talking about his past, and I surely don't blame him...he's been through some shit...a lot of it. I would say we had our fair share of bad occurrences, but now? Now were together and watching out for each other...like a real happy dysfunctional family.

In the mater of a day and a half of careful trucking, we made it to the outskirts of Kerman to rendezvous with the British Army. The British checkpoint was really old, and it had a few huts scattered around it, along with a few palm trees. After pulling into a spot to park the Atlases we dismounted and stretched our legs a while. It was around 19:00 hours at the time. Rev and Orion stayed awake across the night and the entire day whilst the rest of us slept-in, so they well-earned the R&R. Once we got out Orion found a spot to nod off at without being bothered by anyone, but as I was about to talk to whoever managed the checkpoint to give him an updated briefing on the Op. Rev had to pull me aside with the biggest grin across his face, along with the sound of him trying to keep back his mischievous laughter.

"Alright spill it, dipstick" I snapped at him

"Hah, yeah? a dipstick? well at least I'm not a little lovebird like you two were" He murmured, still trying to not burst out laughing

"What?" I say in return

I honestly thought sleep deprivation was getting to him, up until he flashed a picture in front of my face. The picture was taken from an instant-print reconnaissance camera he had found, and it had Glint, Citrus and I in frame, with Glint sleeping on his own side, but with Citrus resting her head on my shoulder and my head resting on hers. She was also holding my left arm as I had both my arms loosely crossed.

But just as quickly as he had shown me the photo, he took it back, and started to walk away saying "I am SO showing this to Citrus"

I quickly grabbed him by the back of his vest collar, spun him around, held my fist to his face and said "Hey, Rev, you look a little tired, you want me to help you get to sleep?"

"Uhh noooooo sir. I appreciate having teeth in my head, thanks" he replied as he threw up his hands, closed his eyes and put on an innocent smile, allowing me to take the photo.

I know he won't say anything now, since he knows I'm genuinely serious about that little warning. I'm sure I'll be giving Citrus the photo sooner or later, but I don't think now is the correct time to do so, so instead I put the photo in my fatigues pocket. Overall the Operation was entertaining, but it's nowhere near the strenuous and intense action I'm used to. I proceeded to find the checkpoint manager and explain the set-back we had as well as reassure him the primary convoy will show up soon. He advised me to stick around and wait for the rest of the camp to come around. I didn't complain at all. What I didn't expect was the manager brought me back and told me the Lance Commander was on the radio asking for me, I obviously had no way to say 'no'.

"Hey, is this Lance Captain Valor?" His voice rang out, above some slight static chatter

"Yeah, sir" I replied

"Hey" he went on "I was informed you and your squad luckily caught out 3 panicky insurgents, others might have overlooked...just wanted to say that they were planning to I.E.D. the convoy, and unlucky for them, they opened fire on you because they thought you seen them, and were obviously cut down in good time...anyway just calling to say thanks again, for taking control of the situation and slaughtering them instead of thinking their harmless and just let them slip...you boys certainly keep true to your reputation of tactics and initiative in battle...should be hearing from me up in our Command Center when we get it up soon, Cartridge out." the light static cut out as he left abruptly

I gave the soldier his radio back, and returned to the rest of my squad back at the Atlas...there's one thing that makes him very different from us, and he doesn't even know it. It's that he can change the tied of battle with a simple radio, but we change the tied of war with a mind and a simple gun...

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I expected more daunting tasks to be sent out from Command for Wolf Squad and I in our near future...everything we got after this we didn't expect...