Monday, December 29, 2008

Working on Chapter 3

Tonight I am going to start writing more of Chapter 3, I have to add to what I have. :)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

My Other Blog

Hey, my other blog is just my writing blog, i'm gonna start posting in it about how've i been and stuff.

the link is...

http://lukegoodhue.blogspot.com

Bravo: Chapters 1--2

Chapter 1
12:36 pm.
Afghanistan.



Smoke and the stench of death were high in the air. Sgt. Bailey and his men had been pinned down under the blanket of bullets for 3 hours. “We need to get outta here!” Bailey screamed to his men. “The terrorists won’t stop till we die!” He looked up for two seconds flat to fire a stream of hot lead towards his attackers, then ducked back down to avoid getting hit by the heavy gunfire constantly hitting their hideaway. They’d found a machine gun nest that was used earlier in the war. He was with three other men, Lt. Morrison, 2nd Lt. Carr and Private Lee. They’d been shipped off to Afghanistan seven months ago, after the last shipment had come back; the terrorist army had proved to be a formidable opponent, sending back several wounded within about three months of war. They were slowly taking back Afghanistan. More gunfire. Bodies were set to rest early on is this assault, the team was sent to destroy a weapons facility, but what they had waiting for them was an ambush. They had had twenty other men with them at the time, but as the ambush fell, so did the men. The terrorists were closing in on their position. Morrison looked up to spray the enemy with his standard issue M16-A3 assault rifle. His muzzle flashed white as bullets sprayed the area in which he was pointed.


Two enemies down. About forty more to go. Carr shouted. “I’ll give them some explosives, and then we can make our way towards that rock outcropping over there!” He pointed towards the rocks, and all the rest of the team looked, “Okay?”
“Sounds good.” Bailey said. The team nodded in agreement. Carr peeked over the edge of the sandbags and threw the grenade. “Go go go!” he yelled. Bailey and he men got up and ran for their lives; the terrorists were still occupied on the team’s previous location, not seeing that they’d moved. “Look at that! They’re still firing!” Carr noticed. The US Military as, Bravo Team knew the team. They were some of the most professional soldiers that the Kansas Military had ever seen. It seemed like time had gone by so fast after the Twin Towers had been bombed, that it was like they were just tossed onto an aircraft to make their descent into hell on earth. They took about two minutes to reload their current clips with new ones. They’d all taken out a secondary weapon. Morrison had chosen a LAW rocket. Lee the same. And Bailey settled down on an SR-25 sniper rifle, Carr on the other hand had decided on an M60. He’d brought a tripod along with him so he set it up quickly then loaded the chain of bullets into it. Bailey had taken cover in between two rocks that would make a perfect sniping position, Carr had an open area about seven feet long to set up, Lee and Morrison decided on something a little more open. They’d run out into the open behind one lone rock that was barely big enough to shield both of them. They started immediately. “Now.” Bailey said. “Carr got the message and opened fire on the enemy. He began yelling as he took down several of them. Lee and Morrison got the message and began letting out flaming hot rockets fly towards their enemies. And Bailey took his time.

Sighting an enemy through his scope, he pressed the lens to his eye and squeezed the trigger! In a split second the enemy had blood running down an open wound on his chest. He hit the ground and didn’t get up. The rockets that Lee and Morrison fired had done enough damage already; with about fifteen men perishing in their white-hot onslaught, they were reloading only to engage them again. The terrorists had nowhere to hide for cover; they’d resigned themselves to lying on the hot dry ground behind fallen comrades. It didn’t work. Carr was still yelling at the enemy while letting his clip run dry. He stopped fire for a minute to pop out his current clip to replace it with a new one. He stood up to see the enemy taking his down time to charge towards their position. He quickly slapped a clip in and immediately started firing madly. Bailey was still taking his time, ten men had perished in his sights, not even knowing what hit them, and they hadn’t had time to think before they would hit the ground. More gunfire erupted. Lee and Morrison were firing their last rockets. Whoosh! The rockets flew across the area between them and their enemies. Eight more men died in their flaming wake. Crack!


“What the heck happened!?” Bailey screamed through the gunfire. He looked over to see Carr on the ground bleeding profusely through a wound on his left shoulder. “Get up here!” he commanded his men. They brought out their M16s and went like heck to the rocks. Firing as they went. Three more down. The terrorists ceased fire, and shouted something up to the team in a foreign tongue none of them knew. “Give us some cover fire Lee.” Lee nodded. “They’ll be comin’ fast up the slope to finish us. We’ll need all you can give us.” Lee turned around and lay prone on the flat ground where Carr lay wounded. Morrison was applying some sort of antibiotic to Carr’s wound to stop infection, while Bailey elevated Carr’s head. The crack of gunfire made Lee shake. He fired at the approaching enemies, seven to start, now and six. They’d wised up a little and started using the rocks for cover, they returned fire on Lee. “He backed up a little to reload. They began to rush him! Quickly he grabbed Bailey’s M16 that had been set down and pulled the trigger. A spray of bullets went down
the narrow passageway slamming into one of terrorists. The terrorist looked down at his shirt to notice blood coming out of a hole in his stomach. He fell flat to the dirt. The other two quickly jumped to their stomachs to lie flat on the ground. Lee knew that if he stuck his head out even a fraction of an inch, his attackers would kill him for sure.


“Lee! What’s going on?” yelled Bailey. Carr looked better, but the blood was still coming through the cloth patch that Morrison had put on him, he’d wrapped Carr’s arm in cloth from his extra undershirt he had packed in his bag. Lee fired blind shots down the passage. He couldn’t hear if he’d hit something. He’d come up with something. “Bailey.” He whispered. “You got anymore smoke grenades?” Bailey nodded, and then fished them out of his pack. Lee took them out of his hand. Lee pulled the key, and then threw the smoke down the passage. He could hear coughing. He took this moment to his advantage. He hopped a rock that sat right next to him, invisible to his enemies. He was going to come up behind them. He’d started walking down the side of the passage. He spotted one of the enemies; the poor man was clueless to what was happening around him. Lee crept up behind him, grabbed his gun and smacked the man’s neck with the butt of his rifle. There was a crack, then nothing. Lee knew that the other two men watching at the bottom of the opening were oblivious to their surroundings as well. He’d take his time with these two.


He sneaked up behind the man on the left, the man hadn’t seen or heard him; the smoke shield was still covering him. Lee grabbed the man’s neck and got him in a chokehold, snapping his Colt up to the man’s head; a human shield. The other man heard something and shouted something to his comrades. He rushed to his ally’s aid. He stared into Lee’s eyes, his fearless eyes. Lee pointed the gun at the man staring at him and squeezed the trigger. Three bullets in a rapid succession punched three dime sized holes in the man’s shoulder; he dropped the gun and fell to the dirt in pain, crying out to God. The smoke was fading, and Lee saw the two lying on the ground still searching for him. He threw his human shield to the ground and stomped on kneecap; more crying and a broken leg. Lee pulled out his M16 and yelled, “Aggghhhhh!” he fired again and again pelting the ground around his enemies, several of the thirty-two shots that were fired from Lee’s barrel hit their mark, while some didn’t.

The two men were screaming at the top of their lungs in pain and anguish. Lee left them there to die; he’d done and seen enough for a while. He’d put them through enough pain, why torture them more? He ran up the slope sweating heavily, Carr was sitting up drinking water, Morrison handed him four aspirin, and Carr swallowed the pills, hoping that they’d take the edge off the pain for a while. Morrison and Bailey lifted him from the ground to sling one arm around each of their shoulders, leaving Lee to protect them against attacks. The team walked about another three-quarters of a mile to find an armored APC. Probably what the terrorists used to get over here. Bailey thought. The team piled into the armored vehicle. Inside they fund a fresh supply of guns and ammunition, along with a medical kit. Morrison and Bailey laid Carr on two seat they’d laid back and Morrison began patching him up. Lee sat in the seat that had a door directly above it for the machine gun turret on top of the vehicle. Bailey drove. The hot ground drove even hotter air up towards the soldiers, which made their drive even more painful than it already was. They were exhausted from the brawl they just had with the terrorists.


“Carr looks better.” Said Morrison. “The bullet only made it past the first two layers of skin, didn’t hit any vitals.” Bailey looked back at Carr. He looked terrible. The wound itself wasn’t that bad, but from the hot dirt and sweat, it looked like he’d just been gored. Dried blood was all over his Kevlar vest and had partly run onto his pants, dirt which was being wiped off right now, was caked all over his vest, due to the blood and sweat the dirt looked like mud. Bailey knew they were getting close to the weapons facility. The air had changed; it went from hot and musty to warm and breezy. “Lee get up there!” barked Bailey. “We’ll try to pass the security gates in their APC, but we don’t know if they’ll take it.” Bailey slowed the car to below forty miles per hour; they were going to take this thing slowly. No more wounds.

Almost there. Bailey spoke up. “Lee, you and I are going to go in. Carr can’t walk yet and needs to rest. Morrison will stay here to tend to Carr.” Bailey pulled something off his belt. A combat knife. “We’re not going to make any noise; I have C4 on my belt, along with two handguns, no noise. That clear?” he asked. Lee nodded. “We’ll set C4 packs on the buildings weak spots and then one on the main weapons reactor.” Lee nodded again, he was silent. Almost there. The facility came into view, two lookouts and a heavily guarded checkpoint. They had to play this out like they were the enemy. Lee found three pairs of enemy uniforms. Bailey halted the truck and stepped back into the back end. “Morrison, you Lee and I will put these on. Carr doesn’t need one. He’s injured and can stay laid down while we’re in there.” Morrison grabbed a pair and slipped them on over his current set of clothing. Lee and Bailey did the same.

Bailey was back in the driver’s seat headed into the checkpoint, Lee in the turret and Morrison tending to Carr, who was laid down. One of the guards put a hand to halt them. Immediately three guards were on top of the APC, they checked it over and hadn’t seen Carr. The guard waved them through. Bailey accelerated, he went in to the facility and parked inside a loading bay behind some broken down tanks. The APC was covered enough to resist sight. Lee and Bailey barreled out of the APC and started for the door to the bay. “Wait!” said Morrison. “Good luck.” He told them, and then smiled approvingly. They nodded him off then began their descent into the heart of the enemy’s base.


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Chapter 2
7:35 pm
Weapons Facility





Bailey and Lee started for the first weak spot outside of the weapon factory. Bailey walked up to the cement wall and immediately began taking out screws that held a switch plate up. Bailey pulled out the plate and placed C4 inside the opening and ran wires to certain places inside. He placed the plate back to its original setting and left into the night. Lee had begun taking a big lead on Bailey, already fifty-five feet in front of him; he had already spotted two guards that were patrolling up and down the road inside the compound. Bailey stopped Lee from doing anything hasty, grabbing his shoulder he pulled Lee back behind a concrete lumbar support holding up the overhang they’d gotten under. He pulled out a silencer, screwed the little noise handler onto his gun and handed one to Lee. They both took careful aim and pulled the trigger. The two guards dropped like sacks. Now, they didn’t want to leave a mess, so they sneaked out into the open for a second, and dragged the bodies under a wooden staircase leading up to the terrorist housing complex. No blood was on the road, luckily. They continued towards their second point in the poor structure on the outside of the complex.
More guards. Bailey and Lee saw that the guards were coming for them, so they did something that could’ve risked their lives. They walked out in front of the terrorists. “What the-?” exclaimed the first man. He stared quizzically at them. “Why are you out here so late?” he asked again. Shifting his hand towards his walkie-talkie sitting on his hip. “Umm..we thought we’d heard something and came to notify you. Earlier today there was a transport that looked suspicious, just letting you know to keep your eye out.” Bailey glanced over at Lee. “We heard something down by the main gate. Don’t know what it was.” He told them. The guard eyed them oddly and shook his head. “Probably nothing. Get back to your quarters.” He commanded. They nodded.
The guards continued their patrol around the compound. Bailey and Lee waited until the guards rounded a corner, and then continued towards the next demo-point. Lee went first, with Bailey right after him.
There it was. The next point. Bailey walked up to the power panel sitting directly across from about six hundred volts worth of power lines. He was careful not to hit the copper. He unscrewed the panel carefully and slid the C4 into place, more wiring. He strung several wires out from the C4 pack, something held the wires in place that looked like plumber’s putty, Bailey was surprised that it could hold against all of the electricity running through it. He closed up the panel, and synchronized the detonator with the other bomb, so that when he triggered the switch, all bombs would go boom! Bailey liked that sound. He signaled Lee to follow him. He’d begun sliding himself along the cement walls, concealing himself in the shadowed darkness. Lee followed. Guards, more guards. They left them alone, no need in killing when you didn’t have to.
They could very well use stealth till they need not use it. Bailey slid his hand around a door handle, it was not locked it turned smoothly. He crept inside; it had become impossible to see. Nothing but blackness. He switched on his military standard issue flashlight. Not very bright, but it gave them light to see with. Lee held his pistol at ready, by his right ear with both hands gripping the handle firmly. Bailey had drawn his knife. They were close to another room. From the other side came voices, multiples voices. The door was cracked so Lee and Bailey glanced into it. Three people were inside sitting around a table, playing a game that somewhat resembled poker in the US. In the background, all that could be heard was a small radio, playing some sort of fast music.
Lee stood at ready, while Bailey crept over to the left side of the door to give it a slight shove. It squeaked. One man turned his head to see who was there and Lee silenced him with a shot to the head. The man fell to the ground with a thud. The other two men turned and drew their pistols; Bailey was on top of one man already. A quick slice to the man’s hand dropped his gun and another swift stab to the back collapsed the man. Lee had shot the other man through his left shoulder to reveal a quarter sized hole on one side and a fist sized hole on the other, tearing the man to the ground in pain. He screamed.
Bailey wiped his knife on the man’s uniform and sheathed it. “It’s probably better to use my gun.” He smiled. “Don’t you think?” he asked Lee. He nodded.“Come here.” Lee said. “Look at this.” He spotted what was lying on the table. It was a map of the entire compound. Bailey picked it up and looked it over. He wrapped it up and shoved it into his pack. “Let’s go.” He snapped. “We gotta go, now.” They turned to Lee’s left to reveal a staircase leading downward towards something that Bailey hadn’t expected. He took the map back out and laid it on the ground. “Lee, see this?” he pointed to a point on the map where it showed a building, that didn’t appear when they looked out the window. “I think the building we see ibis under us.” He told Lee. Lee pointed at another thing that lay in front of the building on the map. Another checkpoint. An underground checkpoint. “So you think we’ll need clearance or something to get through? Or do you think these clothes will be enough?” asked Lee.Bailey replied. “I don’t’ know. Let’s see.”
Bailey and Lee headed down the staircase to find two doors and a passageway leading into the checkpoint. One door led to a barracks, and the other led to an explosives containment chamber. Bailey chose the Chamber and Lee the opposite. There was a scientist inside the chamber, which Bailey took care of with a shot to the chest. Bailey walked up to the scientist’s dead body and searched it over. Nothing. Bailey walked over to a table, the table was laden with C4 belts, dynamite, and grenades, anti-tank weapons. Everything they needed to get past the checkpoint was here. He took some of it all. He strapped an anti-tank rocket to his back, four grenades in his pack, more C4. He left the dynamite. He started towards the barracks to give Lee plenty of explosives to blow down the Empire State building, when Lee met him. He exchanged Bailey’s explosives for a high-powered Dragnov-85 Russian Sniper Rifle and a UMP assault rifle. Why do they have Russian weapons? Bailey wondered. “Let’s go.”Bailey laid out a map he’d found inside the chamber, of the checkpoint.
Lee looked it over then pointed towards a spot on the map that appeared to be an electrical generator. “We’ll have to sacrifice some C4 for this.” He said.Bailey replied, “No.” he walked into the explosives room for a brief second then returned with five wraps of dynamite. He pointed to a hanger that led out onto a hillside. “We’ll blow it when we hit the checkpoint, then fight our way out, C4 here, here and here.” He pointed to the weak spots he’d laid C4 on previously. “And then, we’ll get a helicopter to fly out before this I blow this place to smithereens. Pick up Morrison and Carr on the way out, and BAM! Job done.” He smiled.
Carr was still resting; his wound was lightly wet with blood. Morrison looked out the APC’s window opening, the sky was dark, and with almost no stars over this hell they seem to be trapped in. The moon was full tonight and the compound was quite. Carr seemed to be stirring. Morrison glanced towards him. He was waking up; he’d soon feel the pain again. Morrison met his awakening with four more aspirin. Carr took them gladly and sat up. “Hey, how yah feelin?” asked Morrison. “You look pretty bad.”Carr grinned then said, “Ahh, I’ve been better. Still hurts a bit.” He lifted his shirt to reveal a stitched up hole about the size of a quarter.“You’ll be fine.” Morrison told him. “Just a surface wound. You were lucky.” Carr looked at him, then at the sky. “No stars tonight, huh?”“Nope. You wonderin’ where Lee and Bailey are?” he asked.“Nah, not really. They’re probably fine.” He was still staring out the window. He saw something. It was bright and seemed to envelope the APC. A searchlight.
Bailey was trudging towards the checkpoint gate, darkness shielding him. He was hidden from the enemy. Lee was straight across from him inside a building. It seemed to be a guard’s lounge or something. I wonder what’s happening to Morrison and Carr? He thought to himself. He’d drawn out his Dragnov and screwed a silencer to the barrel. He aimed the crosshairs over the man’s chest; pulled the trigger. The man dropped silently. Lee had taken out the other guard as well. They met up by the checkpoints main gate, side by side. “Let’s go.” Bailey waved his finger towards the first building inside. This checkpoint was huge, real huge. It had six internal buildings, before it reached out into more darkness, and the way to the weapons manufacturing plant. A guard’s lounge already proved empty. Then, there was this building, so far, so good. Lee signaled Bailey to lead; he’d follow. Bailey took the signal and started into the building. His flashlight, once again lit the interior of the building. It was attached to the side of his gun; the gun also had a laser sight attached as well.
Lee started into the dark building, pipes and air ducts lined the ceilings. He walked past several tables, cluttered with several pieces of random items, blueprints, maps, letters. They stopped for a second to look at it. Lee picked up a letter from a Russian General, Vladimir Kythestigic in Moscow. Bailey read it over, and then cursed under his breath. “Lee, do you know what we’re looking at?” he asked. “A letter. A letter from Mr. Kythestigic; the Russian’s most trusted general, he helped Russia bring nukes to their allies. Afghanistan shouldn’t be an ally of theirs. See what I’m saying?” he said angrily.Lee shook his head and didn’t reply. Bailey spoke up again, “So we’re not here only to destroy the weapons plant, we’re here to stop nukes from dropping all over the US!” he shouted, he didn’t care who heard him. Lee still didn’t reply, but simply kept walking into the building, trying to maintain some stealth. Bailey followed him, he was couldn’t believe what he’d just read.
Carr started to lie down, hoping that whatever was coming, wouldn’t see him till it was too late. He was holding his M16 in his hands waiting for someone to show their face. He’d blow it off. Morrison did the same, only his M16 was under Carr and he didn’t want to make Carr move. He’d drawn his Colt .42. He kept his eyes on the light; it kept getting closer. He screwed another silencer on his gun then handed one to Carr, no noise. They’d began to hear voices. One man came up to the front or the APC and shone his light into the vehicle. Carr and Morrison were back behind a row of seats that concealed them, unless the guards stepped inside to see if anyone was in here. Morrison looked up to glance towards the guards. One of them was on a walkie-talkie saying something that Morrison couldn’t make out. The guards left. Carr eyed Morrison suspiciously, “You think they’re coming back?”“I don’t know, but from the way that guard was speaking, I think we might have more on our hands than we can handle.” He shot a glance out the window to make sure no one was there.
Bailey looked out into the night, to see where else they could hide. He saw three buildings; two of them had lights on inside and the other sat by itself, no lights on or anything. They chose that one. The two men crept along the tarmac towards the building in which they’d seek cover. Half way across to the building, Bailey’s walkie-talkie was receiving something. He took it out to hear Morrison saying something. “Morrison, Bailey here. What’s up?”Morrison spoke out, “Bailey, Carr and I will be switching positions. Probably inside of a station outside the prison. Okay?”Bailey looked surprised and angry at the same time. “What?! Why?”“Five guards came. They checked he APC, they didn’t see us. But I think they know we’re here.” He said.“How did you come across that?”“One of the men grabbed his radio and spoke into it, I couldn’t make it out. But then, they just, left. It was odd. So we’re leaving, we’ll contact you when you’re done. Roger?”“Roger that. Lee and I will be heading outta this place in a helicopter. Okay? So when we do, we’ll adjust the radio to your channel and get your position. Roger?”“Roger.” Morrison replied. “Oh. And Bailey? If you don’t hear from us it’s because we’ve been captured. Now, if that happens, I saw a prison on our way in. Okay?”“Okay.”“When you go in the main checkpoint you go down the main road, turn left and it’s about four-hundred feet away from the APC’s position. Okay?”Bailey replied. “Roger that. Bailey out!”“Morrison out!” No more conversation. Nothing but darkness. Bailey led the way into the building, gun ready, pressed up against his shoulder; things were gonna get done a lot faster now. Lee took the left side and Bailey the right. They’d done a full-scale search on this building before moving on to the next. Guards. About seven of them too. The sound of metal locking into place was heard. Bailey looked down, chamber loaded. “Open fire.” He told Lee. “Get that side and I’ll get this one.” Lee nodded.
Lee started running silently towards his post assigned by Bailey. He was ready. Shots were heard. The sound of hot lead hitting asphalt was ear splitting. The guards were taken off guard and ran to the nearest piece of cover that they could find. Shots were exchanged. The flash was seen from the enemy’s guns, but not Bailey and Lee’s. The silencers were doing their job. The enemy was just firing blindly hoping to hit something, the sound was deafening. Bailey had hidden himself with his Dragnov out, thermal scope attached. Body heat was everywhere! He took careful aim and squeezed hard. The soft whistle of his rifle was barely heard through all of the chaos. One man rolled over on his side, dead. Bailey changed position.
Morrison helped Carr out of the vehicle and gave him a rifle. Carr could walk and probably run, if had to. The wound was healing, and he didn’t show signs of pain or fatigue. The pair started towards the prison, no sign of guards; yet anyway. They could see the prison and no one was guarding the prison, surprisingly. Morrison thought that there would be someone guarding the prison, the conversation on the radio earlier sounded convincing enough to bring immediate attention to the APC and the buildings around it, but he was wrong. So he thought, anyways. The pair trudged on for the station; about one hundred feet of open road separated the them. Carr was slowing, it’d only been about three minutes, but with a wound so close to his vitals, penetrating his skin he’d be much slower soon.
Bailey and Lee were holding off quite nicely. The enemy still had no idea what’d hit them. About ten bodies littered the ground, laid in pools of blood.The remaining five men were taking evasive maneuvers. “Bailey!” Lee said into the radio. “If they escape we’re dead. We can’t have four hundred terrorists chasing us. Not now.”Bailey knew that. “Okay, I see where you’re coming from. You block their exit and I’ll back you up. Wait for my okay. Got that?”“Yeah.”Bailey started sprinting towards them firing his UMP like a wild man. “Go!” Lee started charging with him. The five turned towards Bailey, not knowing that he’d be right there. Three dropped from the spray of bullets penetrating their chests, blood was everywhere; massive wounds gushed it. Lee had hidden behind a wall, slung the key out of a grenade, and thrown it. One left. Bailey saw the last guy sneaking up to Lee, trying to knife him. Bailey ran at him. A thud was the only thing heard, then nothing. Lee turned to thank Bailey. They continued into the night.