Flash

O’Hara and I were readying up for the drop at the armory, loading up either our HK416 or MP7 and a few grenades, when we heard the distinct sound of a dog barking. I look over toward where it came from, where I see Lieutenant Commander Harrison walking into the armory with a German Shepherd dog...suited up with a military-grade thunder suit. His tail was wagging and his tongue was way out, he was a very happy puppy.

“This is Flash, and you two are taking him with you. Hes well trained and will have your 6...all the time. Take him with you on the drop, Locksmith will hook up with Flash. you leave in 20 minutes, get ready to go.” Commander Harrison said.

“YES! I get a dog!!” I thought.

“Yes sir” O’Hara replied.

Commander Harrison released Flash, and walked the other direction...away from us. “Make sure he doesnt die!” He yelled.

We rolled our eyes.

I remembered the snack bar I came across on my way here, I stole a few slim jims...not that they wouldn’t mind. I took out a slim jim and threw it in the air, with Flash jumping for it immediately afterward. The slim jim was consumed in seconds. He sat his happy a*s down and waited for another one to come his way. I was about to throw him another one when i heard over the intercom, “ALPHA TEAM IS GO IN 10, REPEAT, ALPHA TEAM IS GO IN 10.”

“Lets get going, brother.” O’Hara advised.

I nodded i agreement and whistled for Flash to follow, and he happily obliged. I was having way too much fun with this dog. It took us about 5 minutes to reach the landing dock. when we eventually got there, the USAF Jumpmaster was already standing there, with a body language that said “you’re late.” He threw us the oxygen masks for us to put on. we call them jump masks, and they completely cover the face and eyes. it was black, with the visor that looked like there were goggles already there, tinted black on the outside. They kind of look like the helmets you see Marine Officers wearing in the field with the infantry guys...the “Grunts”. O’Hara and I put on the masks, then came a full HUD screen, displaying altitude, MPH, direction, and a small green square over O’Haras head, indicating he was friendly.

The Jumpmaster was a scrawny kid, he wasn’t even terribly high in rank. At most, E-6...I think. I just counted the chevrons stitched on his flight suit. O’Hara stood by one corner of the landing dock entrance, as the Jumpmaster stood at the opposite corner, looking down upon the land below as the door to the landing dock opened wide. He held his hand up high as we prepared to jump. I hooked Flash to my chest and held in close, while i used my other hand to hang on O’Hara’s pack. The sound of the engines roaring outside was deafening, with a couple of VTOL F-35s shifting sides every now and then. The Jumpmaster finally threw his hand forward, indicating it was time to jump. O’Hara threw himself out of the landing dock while i followed closely behind. I thought about the main theme music from Battlefield 3, a game I used to play when i was a few years younger, while i was descending from the sky, with a dog on my chest.

I speak up over the radio, as i grab my phone, “We’re gonna land soon and do some recon…”

I see O’Hara look at me. although i couldn’t see his face with the jump mask covering it, i knew he was looking at me.

I open the phones camera and said “...but first, let me take a selfie” as I snapped a picture of me and Flash, who made the greatest look a dog could ever have, which was a smile with his tongue extending outward. thats staying in my photo gallery forever. I heard O’Hara laugh hilariously, as he looked back toward the ground. The Battlefield 3 theme music kept replaying in my head the whole time, how perfect of a moment it would be to have that s**t actually play as we were descending. Eventually we got to a point where O’Hara reached for his parachute release cord, so i grabbed mine as well. we got to about what looked like 500 feet where we finally opened our chutes. O’Haras’ chute yanked him pretty hard, and almost flipped him, but he made it to a soft landing just in time. We finally hit the ground...well, he did. Me and Flash got stuck in this huge tree. it looked like we were suspended about 7 feet.

it took him about 30 seconds, but O’Hara finally ran under the tree we were suspended on, and said “Let Flash go, i’ll catch him.”

I pulled the locking mechanism on my suit that released Flash. O’Hara caught him, and almost tripped in doing so. The dog made it safely on the ground, and sat. He looked up at me, with a face that looked like he was saying, “what are ya doin? why are you so high?”

I took my knife, my beautiful 8 inch blade, and cut the paracord holding me and the chute together. I landed on my feet, later fell to my side. I felt it, with a “thud”, but it didn’t hurt that much. I managed to get up and pull my rifle to the front.

“Rifle ready” O’Hara commanded.

“Check. Flash, you good?” I ask

Flash replied with a bark.

“Good boy.” I say with a smile.

O’Hara took off his radio pack on got on the line with Linebacker Actual, Commander Harrison.

“Linebacker Actual, Linebacker 1, boots on the ground, making way to IP, how copy?” O’Hara calls.

we waited for about 5 seconds, but Actual eventually got back to us. “Solid copy, 1. Proceed to IP and conduct recon on the base. Relay every detail back to Azimuth, out.”

“Lets get going.” O’Hara advised as he started running to get closer to the IP.

“Rog’. Flash, come” I order

Flash happily obliges, as he follows closely behind.

“Commander Harrison really doesn’t like any of us. He just wants to move up the CoC to get away from us. He’s filed for a promotion like, a million times, but is still stuck at Lieutenant Commander, has been for years.” O’Hara speaks.

He gets up close to a rock, more like a boulder, and points his MP7 towards the area in front, looking for anyone to light up. He found none, and continued running.

“F*****g glory hound.” He finishes.

Flash barks in what i assume was an agreement. Nobody likes Commander Harrison, and he didn’t like us. I bet $10 that Flash doesn’t like him either.

“We better watch what we say, theres a camera with audio on Flash.” I advise.

He stops running as he looks at the thunder suit attached to Flash, there was a rod protruding outward on the lower back of the suit, which held a camera. Flash had a Name tape, a PO2 rank tape, and an embroidered SEAL trident patch on the velcro, for decoration. He also had the US flag velcro patch. everything like that on his suit.

O’Hara waved it off, “eh, f**k ‘em. they dont care.”

Just as he begins to restart his run to the base, he stops immediately and looks to his right. Flash starts growling. Im looking around to see whatever it is that they are looking for.

“Truck. Diesel. Troop transport. 30 meters...east. Small convoy. Flash, can you smell it out?” O’Hara questioned.

Flash responded with a bark, and stuck his nose up in the air, following the scent. O’Hara and I pull our weapons to the front and follow Flash, making sure nobody else was nearby and coming to kill us.

About 5 minutes into the hump with Flash, we got to the point where Flash lowered his whole body and tail, and quietly growled at a wall...more like a rock, about 4 meters away.

“Down boy” I order as I stroke his head, trying to calm him down.

“He’s probably growling at something behind that wall that he doesn’t recognize. We need to take it down, kill it if need be.” O’Hara whispered. “Rifles up, knives ready, copy?”

“Check.” I whisper back, setting my rifle to my front, turning on my EOtech sight and pulling my magnifying scope away.

O’Hara pulls his MP7 to his front, with one hand, as he grips his knife with another. Flash stays put while O’Hara and I make our way to whatever is behind the wall. Once there, with our backs to the wall, O’Hara pulls a mirror and pokes it out of the edge, to see what’s on the other side.

“One dude, MAM, AK to his left, binoculars on hand, probable lethality. Take down, do not kill.” O’Hara estimates and commands.

“Rog” I reply as i make my way to the other side, only 3 feet from O’Haras side.

I hear him whisper “go” as i rush to the other side and take this guy down, and threw his AK away from him. He was whispering in his own language, African i think, and a little bit of broken English...saying s**t and lies like “I love America! I love America!”. Really? he’s already coming to that excuse?

“Flash, come!” I command.

Within seconds, Flash was on site with us, growling at the man. His teeth were showing, he really wanted to kill him.

“Flash, search.” I command.

Flash then proceeds to crawl all over the man and sniff every angle of him. Even his groin...which was weird for a dog to do. When Flash finished searching, he barked a few times, signifying that the guy was clean.

we got him on his knees, and I held him in place with one hand with the other on my suppressed Sig Saur pistol...peacefully undisturbed in its holster.

O’Hara bent down to face him, “The trucks, where are those trucks going?”

“Trucks” the man responded in broken English.

“Yes, trucks. where are they going?” O’Hara responded.

“Trucks…” The man replies.

“Yes, Trucks.”

“Trucks.”

“YES! F*****G TRUCKS!!” O’Hara seemed frustrated

“Trucks go...that way…” The man said, pointing his face toward the direction of where the trucks are going.

O’Hara looked toward that direction, which had ambush written all over it. Dense trees and very dark. The man was about to speak again until Flash started barking. I looked over toward Flash, who was sniffing a blanket...a very...very, dirty, mud-ridden blanket. I threw the man on the ground and tore the blanket from whatever it was covering. I found a walkie-talkie.

“Radio. This guy had a radio.” I said, with some anger in my voice.

O’Hara stood up, rifle slung across him, pointed at the ground. “What the f**k…” he said.

The man tried to get up and run, but was stopped short when O’Hara slammed his foot onto the mans back, knocking him back down. Flash started barking his eyes out at the man.

O’Hara bent down again to the man, “Where did the radio come from?” he said.

“radio, what radio, what radio” the man replied...broken English again.

“THE RADIO, RIGHT THERE! WHY DO YOU HAVE THE RADIO!?!” O’Hara yelled...pissed off.

while he was talking to the man, with Flash barking like crazy, I heard something over the radio. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I looked around for a minute, throwing on my nods. The surrounding area was bathed in a green hue. I saw some bright flashes of white through my nods, indicating separate sources of light...flashlights, for example. I could make out the barrels of a few AK47 rifles. A sinister chill shot down my spine.

“Lieutenant…” I speak.

“WHERE DID THE F*****G RADIO COME FROM!?!?! TELL ME!!!” O’Hara screams, stomping on the mans back over and over again, with Flash bouncing each time he barked.

“I dont know what radio…” the man said.

“Lieutenant!”

“I WILL F*****G KILL YOU!! TELL ME WHERE THE RADIO CAME FROM!!! DID YOU HAVE IT!?!?”

The man started laughing.

“LIEUTENANT!!” I yell for his attention.

“WHAT!?!?!” He roars.

I hear the crack of an AK47 in the distance, as its bullet smacked the rock behind me, headshot level, but missed.

“CONTACT!!!” I yell.

O’Hara takes the aim of his rifle away from the man and runs to cover, sliding behind a large tree. I began running behind the rock, trying to make a hole for me to shoot out of...but to no avail. Flash pounces on the man and bites his neck, a fine stream of blood spewing out of the wound. Flash pulled his head back from his target, leaving a big hole in the neck of this man. dead.

“FLASH!” I call. He come running over and lays down next to me behind the rock. He wants a belly rub. yeah, whatever.

More AK47 rounds kept smacking against the rock wall. Smaller rocks kept breaking off with each round that hit. I grabbed by M67 frag grenade, and listened to where the shots were coming from. I eventually found where they were coming from, and pulled the pin, but kept the spoon on. the spoon is what keeps the grenades fuse from burning, not the pin, as most would think.

“Frag out!!” I yell to O’Hara.

He nodded to confirm what he heard as i threw it toward the enemy combatants. 4 seconds later came the boom. not so much deafening like every other explosion i’ve ever come across. Some of the AK47 rounds stopped, but a few still went off. I walked a little to the left of the rock and aimed down my EOtech sight, within a second or two I got a glimpse of the head of some random combatant hovering over my sight. Trigger, pulled. Hostile, KIA. The bullet went through the barrel with a “PSS!” and into the skull of my target, dead before he hit the floor. I think it went through his skull, because I saw some bark launch off a tree directly afterward. Flash got up and ran toward the gunfire. only seconds later i heard the screams of extreme agony, then gagging, then nothing. Flash came back with blood all over his teeth.

“Good boy” I admit.

“We good?” O’Hara questioned.

I look over the wall, nobody else was either firing for moving positions. Flash wasn’t barking, or chasing after anybody, it looked like we were good to go.

“Yeah, we’re good.” I confirm.

“weapons on safe, lets get a move on. The patrols will surely have heard those shots. Hide the bodies before they get here...nobody needs to know we’re here.” O’Hara ordered.

I hate combat clean-up duty...but it was something everyone had to do at least once.

Once.

Author's Note

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cheers! :)