War

WAR

BY BEN VOLKLAND

File Database.5/21/2352: My name is Eli Jackson, I am writing to you now because, I don’t think I’ll make it. At school I was picked on, because of my name and lack of physical activities, then I was drafted into the military, so I I could serve and fight for my country.

File Database.1/13/2354: That was 2 years ago, I’ve dominated through obstacles, courses and even finished missions by myself. Just a few months ago I was promoted to Sergeant Major, and now, I am manning my own team, Private. Davis, Specialist. Ramirez, Corporal. Hunter and Lance Corporal. Greenberg. From a distance there was gun fires, 1 minute 23.04 seconds.

“Ya gotta do better private” I yell yanking his gun away.

“Sorry, Sir,” the private says back politely.

“Enough with the “Sir” bull crap, okay I’m a sergeant, you call me sarge”.

“Sorry sir, I mean Sarge”.

“Yeah, you’ll get the hang of it” I say, and walk back to my office. It was pretty late when the training happened I might as well go to sleep, besides... we have a big day tomorrow.

File Database.1/14/2354: I wake up the next morning feeling more tired than ever.

“11:30a.m Dang it! I’m late! I run and make it just in time for the meeting. I’m standing and listening to the general blab on to the privates about our mission.

“Glad for you to join us Sergeant.”

“We are going to the west side of California,” I hear the general yell. All the soldiers start cheering and yelling.

“Because!” I faintly hear the general yell again. The soldiers don’t stop cheering. I put my two first fingers in my mouth and make a screeching whistle, it almost sounded like a banshee scream. I could see the soldiers put their hands on their ears.

“Thank you Sarge!” I didn’t reply to him and he went on.

“Because, we have heard there have been sightings of covenants there, now I need you guys to take them all out, your teams will report back to us when the job’s done”. Then he raised his hand and saluted the soldiers, then they saluted back “UR-RAH”! We gather back to the bunkers to get ready on the mission.

“We’re ready Sarge”. Ramirez says.

“Can I go Sarge?” Private asked.

“No,” I say.

“But I’m ready Sarge, I know the ropes”. He said with a little sadness in his voice, almost as if he was going to cry.

“I give the orders around here private, and I say you don’t go.”

“But?” “That’s an order private”.

File Database.1/14/2354: Hours later, we get in Jeeps and then we hopped aboard a A1 Super Cobra, and as the blades whirl overhead we lift off. It takes less than 30 minutes to get there. The pilot dropped us off, it took a few minutes for the other groups to arrive, we take different positions, one group would be going north, another will be going west, the other would go east, and we will go south, I pull out my portable radio.

“Tango Charlie, do you read me?”

“Yes Alpha where is your location?” the other group asks.

“We’re 100 meters outside of drop off.”

“That’s great Alpha, we’re…” It paused for a minute.

“Charlie, what’s going on”? The line went blank after that.

Alright team, let’s move.

“What happened Sarge?” Greenberg asked.

“Something happened to Charlie,” I replied “What are we gonna do?” Hunter asked.

“We’re going to their location.” As we walk I remember what I said to private, how strict I was, maybe I should have let him come, what would happen if I did? Just under 20 meters away from the location I start hearing explosions and rumbling. We rush over to the location as fast as we can.

“Sarge, I can see Bravo and Delta,” Ramirez said, out of

breath. There they were, Bravo and Delta trying to kill an entire fleet of covenants; if I haven’t told you before, a few years ago some sort of type of aliens came to our planet. Since they never made peace with us, we never go to know what the name of their species, nowadays we just call them “covenants”. Also, they look like we always expected them to look like, oval face and big eyes the difference is they’re the average adult height and they look like they’re always going to war.

Futuristic grenades along their belt, holding a giant alien gun and wearing what looks to me an army uniform, even though it looks nothing like the uniforms we wear. Suddenly I regain sense of what’s happening at the instant. I can start to hear the gunfire and explosions again.

“Sarge we got to help them!” Greenberg yells.

“Right,” I reply a little faintly. We go in guns blazing, which really wasn’t the brightest idea. Gunfire starts getting louder as we shoot to save the other groups. We take cover for a few minutes behind a barrier. I hear multiple explosions...then blood-hurtling screams. AHHHH! I got up.

“Oh no!” There is a huge bloodbath everywhere, I don’t see any sign of group Delta, Bravo or the covenant.

“I guess the aliens here were suicide bombers,” Hunter said.

“Yeah,” Greenberg said.

“Guys, ya see that?” Ramirez asked. We looked up.

“More covenant ships!” I yell.

“Take cover!” There were more than a dozen mini-ships dropping off at our location.

“What do we do Sarge, we can’t hold them off, there’s too many off them?” Hunter asked.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to call for backup or at least for someone to pick us up,” I say. We stay behind barriers and I call the base.

“The ships are still in the skies Sarge, I don’t think they see us,” Ramirez says.

“Thanks for the report, Specialist,” I say sarcastically. I get a signal from the base.

“Sir, this is Sergeant. Jackson, our squad needs backup!” I yell.

“Why is that Sergeant?”

“Because Squad’s Delta and Bravo are down, we’re the only

ones here!” I yell back to the radio.

“What about squad Charlie?” they ask.

“They’re the reason we’re here, we are at their location!” I start to get angry.

“Where exactly is your location?” they ask.

“We are 100 meters north of our drop off position.”

“Thanks you Sergeant, we will be there in half an hour,” they say.

“What! HALF AN HOUR!” I yell. My men turn around and look at me.

“Sorry, Sergeant that’s the closest time we can get.” I drop the radio.

“What happened Sarge?” Greenberg asked.

“We’re just going to have to hold out for as long as we can,” I say with a bit of doubt in my voice. The covenant landed right where we were. The good thing was they didn’t spot us, but soon they would.

We used that time to make a plan.

“Why don’t we just shoot at them, like we did last time?”

Greenberg said.

“Dude, that won’t work, did you see how many covenant there are out there? We will look like a bowl of chili once they’re done with us,” Ramirez said.

“Wait I got a plan,” I said.

“What is it?” Hunter asked.

“What we’re going to do is, first, there’s is a barrier right in front of us, right? What I’m going to do is distract them by making some gunshots, then while they’re not looking Ramirez and Greenberg will rush over to the barrier.”

“What do we do then Sarge?” Greenberg asked.

“Not finished...then one of you throw a flash grenade, since they will be blinded, Hunter and I will go in and all of us will shoot at them, It’s a great attack, it will hold them off for as long as we need and if they start to see again you just throw in another grenade.”

“I’m not sure it will work Sarge,” Ramirez says.

“Ya got any better ideas”? I ask. I run a few feet from my squad, so when I shoot, they covenant won’t find us. I start shooting up in the sky. That was Ramirez’s and Greenberg’s cue. They run over to the barrier while the covenant are distracted. The next thing I heard

was a faint explosion, I gave Hunter the cue, we went in and started shooting. Everything slowed down for a minute, my heart beated like a ticking time-bomb, the gun fires sounded two times slower, then a faint scream.

“RAMIREZ!” I kept shooting, I turned to my left, so was Hunter, then everything went silent. In my head I had thought, “The plan worked”! Sure enough, it did. I knew the yell wasn’t from Hunter because I was with him the whole time, Hunter and I rushed over to the barrier where Greenberg and Ramirez were hiding.

“Ramirez, you all right?” Hunter asked. Then everything went faint again. Greenberg had made the yell and Ramirez was shot on the leg by one of the covenant. Before I could say anything to him, I heard a loud hovering behind me.

“Sarge there’s another ship and it’s BIGGER!” Hunter yelled.

“Man, we can’t hold off another ship,” Greenberg said.

“Don’t worry I got an idea,” I say. I run over to one of the covenant’s body, I try to find something useful to use. There’s nothing on him except for the grenade belt, I took some of them. They all looked different in shape and size. I threw one and nothing happened, it was just a stun grenade. I threw the next one and it stuck on the ship, I threw another one that looked just like it and it also landed on the ship, for a second nothing happened, the next a huge explosion came upon the ship. It made more of an explosion than an RPG. It almost looked like fireworks.

“Wow, it’s pretty,” Hunter said in a funny way.

“Man, that’s huge,” Ramirez said, and even I was impressed on how big it was.

“Well you know the saying: ‘Great things come in small packages’.” Greenberg said.

“Dang right,” Hunter replied. I actually doubted we would make it out here alive. And I still doubt it. We waited a few minutes for the helicopter to come.

“There I see them, let’s land,” the pilot said. I was glad the helicopter was there and actually, my whole team was. The pilot came out of the helicopter and walked over to us.

“You got some guts Sergeant taking on an entire fleet of covenants,” the pilot said.

“Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to get out of here though,

without my squad, if it weren’t for them, I would be dead.” He saluted me, I saluted back. We helped Ramirez get into the helicopter and take off. It was almost like it’s was a dream, everything was blurry and...it felt like I was at home.

File Database.1/15/2354: BEEP BEEP! I wake up from the sound of my alarm clock. It was set to 1:00 p.m. I got up from my bed put on my combat boots, put on my pants and jacket and walked around the base for awhile, I kept thinking to myself: “How in the world did we get out of there alive?” “Did that really happen?” I must have been walking for a long time because when I checked my watch, it was already 2:00. It was time for privates training, I walk a few 100 feet when run into Ramirez and the General. He was in a wheel chair.

“How’s the leg Ramirez?” I ask.

“It hurts right now, but it will be fine before our next mission Sarge,” Ramirez says.

“Next mission?” I ask.

“Yes Sergeant, we just need your squad and your squad only to go in this time though, there is thousands of covenants at State College, Pennsylvania, we believe it’s the heart of the covenants, since State College is practically a wasteland now. If you take them all out, the covenant will start to retreat from the planet. That is what we believe.

“When’s the next mission?” I ask.

“Next week Sergeant,” he replied.

“Thanks General,” I say and walk away. I go to the training center, Private’s waiting.

“Morning, Sarge,” Davis says.

“Morning, Private,” I say in a good mood.

“Let’s get started.” Days pass and private gets better, it was almost like he was like the younger brother I never had. 1 minute .03 seconds, 57.08 seconds, 53. 02 seconds, 49.07 seconds, 44.03 seconds.

1,2,3,4! 1,2,3,4! 1,2,3,4!

File Database.1/22/2354: Today’s the day of the mission, I wake up bright and early and walk to the bunkers.

Eventually my whole squad is there getting ready for the mission, we are dressed in all black for stealth. Private walks up to me before we leave.

“Hey Sarge can I go?”

“Of course Private, I need my whole team for us to finish this mission.” Private grins. We get ready and eat tons before we go. This is a stealth mission so it’s gotta be dark when we go. It’s 9:30, we get into the same helicopter we did on the last mission the A1 Super Cobra and take off into the night. The ride is long but we make it. We jump off the plane so nobody would notice us. 1000 meters, 800 meters, 600 meters, 400 meters, 200 meters.

“Pull your chute!” I yell. We make it down nice and easy. We go forward. I tell our squad what we do.

“Guys remember, only knife don’t shoot and the most important...stay hidden. My objective was to get to the center of all the covenant and bury a bomb then we only have 20 minutes to get out of here. I see two covenant ahead.”

“Ramirez, Private go,” I whisper. They knife them as silently as possible.

“Good job,” I whisper. We continue to walk for a few miles without a covenant in sight. We reach the center of the area.

“Okay, we’re just a few feet away.” There’s a whole fleet of covenant guarding the center. It was nothing much, the center is probably a 100 foot by 200 foot room. They said it holds everything they need to over power us, they already used a few of those like the two electric bombs they dropped on Canada and Japan, it wiped out all of them. They’re going to drop the rest in a few weeks. Even if we tried to destroy them or anything like that, the splash damage from them would still wipe out nations.

“It seems like we can’t go assassin on them anymore,” Davis says.

“Huh, ya think”? Hunter asks sarcastically.

“All right, when I say three we shoot alright?” They don’t respond, just as I expected.

“One...Two...Three.” We start shooting.

“Man I thought this would be easier!” Ramirez yells while the guns fire.

“Sarge we can’t hold them off.” He’s right, we can’t. I run to

the center while my squad’s still shooting and I plant the bomb.

They’ve only one-tenth of them when I did.

“Alright team we gotta get to the pick-up sight in less than 20 minutes alright?”I ask, and we start running as fast as we can, as each deep breath comes by, it brings us closer to vulnerability, then...the alarms go off. “Dang it, they found us,” Hunter said under his breath.

We rush over to a small barrier. Ramirez looks over the barrier.

“Uh... Sarge you might wonna look at this.” I get up from the barrier.

“Uh oh.” There are millions of covenants, coming closer by every step.

“Don’t worry Sarge, the bomb will take them out.” No. The bomb won’t take them out. If the bomb does kill them, then we get killed too, plus the bombs designed to go off a few minutes after pickup. So either way we’re still screwed.

“We’re just going to have to hold out,” I say.

“For 20 minutes?” Greenberg asks.

“Yes.” “Uh...Sarge, I think it’s going to take A LOT less than 20 minutes.” Hunter says. The troops are less than 1000 feet away from us, all packed up into one pile, slowly coming toward us. I think.

“I don’t know what to do, this time I can’t get them out of it.”

“Sarge!” Everything starts coming back to me.

“Sarge!” Davis says.

“I’m gonna try to buy us some time.” Then he runs.

“What Private?” I try to grab on to the edge of his coat, but I don’t get a grip. That was the last time I saw him alive again.

“Hey guys...well what are you standing for? COME AND GET ME!” Davis yells. They start shooting while he waves his arms in the air, just enough bullets hit him to put him to the ground.

“JAMES!” I start running after him. Every second it takes to get him every second it takes for his body to fall to the ground. Loud roars start coming from the back of me, the helicopter’s here.

“Sarge this place is gonna blow to pieces, we gotta go!”

Greenberg yells. “NO! Not without Davis!” I yell with my head face down on his chest sobbing.

“He’s gone, Sarge, we gotta go!” Hunter yells.

“No!” I yell.

“Sarge...he’s gone.” Ramirez says. Trying to break me. I knew we had to leave, “Please...let me stay,” I say with a faint voice.

“I know how you feel Sarge, but please we have to go.” The explosion starts going off in the distance, it’ll only be a matter of time before this place starts blowing up too.

“See ya...brother”. I say with tears pouring down my eyes.

Hunter grabs me by the wrist and pulls on the rope. We were higher than 50 feet from the ground when our location starts exploding.

Everything started slowing down. My tears came pouring down to nose and then drip away from it with a little trickle. Then he says something.

“Sarge,” I look up at him.

“It’s okay,” he said.

“Yeah...” I say with a slowly fading tone.

“It’s over...it’s finally...” Greenberg interrupted.

“No!” My mind blurts up with memories of Davis. I look straight directly into each one of my men’s eyes, being blinded by the bright lights of the helicopter and say. “This is just the beginning.”

This is in loving memory of Corporal. James. P Davis.

“You did it kid...you did it!”

File Databases Deleted.