Operation: smoking trap

3 months later

Noah's pov
       I looked at Harry as the brief took place, the weird thing about this brief was 3 other teams were here. I heard Tina ask once we got to the questions "so why are there four teams here?" Harry replied "this is an important mission to secure of flank of Coalition forces pushing towards the compound. I selected my four best teams to ensure this gets done right" we nodded before Harry spoke "dismissed get ready and head to the airfield" we all stood as I felt a chill run through my nervous system. Something about this mission made me uncomfortable, I kept quiet about my bad feeling but I double checked my gear as we waited for the C17. Once it landed and we climbed on I noticed the several Humvees in it, I walked around them and ran my hand over the surface. I heard Jordan "been a while since I saw one of these" I nodded before speaking "I haven't been working with one in a while, it's mostly quads" we talked about the Corps before I heard Tina call me over. I pushed off the hood of the Humvee and spoke "I'll talk to you in a bit, the girlfriend is calling"
       He chuckled as I walked over and asked "yea?" She replied "Meghan and I were talking and I wanted to know, do you have a bad feeling about this mission?" I paused for a second before knowing that Tina would know if I lied so I answered "yeah kinda, I mean 4 teams to secure a flank? Seems excessive unless the enemies have a massive force for the flank" Meghan replied "still, we have our job and were gonna do it" I countered "I'm gonna piss and moan the entire time tho, I don't like this mission. I don't like the amount of firepower we're bringing to ensure it's done" Tina said "you assault compounds with less men than this, why is this giving you bad feelings?" I replied "cause we have to parallel a Coalition force, it's gonna make us have to move along a predictable path which will in turn make it easy for the masks if we run into any to set up fortifications that will tear us apart" the duo nodded as we thought about the mission until Alexsandr walked over and spoke in his booming voice "Haha, comrade, do not worry. My grenade launcher will make short work of anyone standing still"
I joined him in laughing "my friend I feel better already!" I got called over for a meeting with the other Team Leaders and Seconds, I guess we were figuring out who was taking what part and how our team would work with and off each other. I stood around with thorn as the other team leaders joined us, we stayed quiet as we listened to the several ideas and arguments about who would take the most dangerous sections. Eventually Thorn and I leaned against a humvee with a sigh, Sebastien noticed and spoke "why don't we let rainbow's best team put in their two cents?" The other team leaders fell silent and looked at us as Thorn stepped forward and pointed on the map, "My team will take this sector, you should stop arguing over who gets what sector based on what ever glory you're looking to earn. You'll get your teams killed if you don't" I heard Miles "So why that sector? Why'd you take that one?" I answered "it fits our teams strong suits, Erik and I have spent a lot of our time on deployments in the mountains, Tina has spent a lot of time there as well and Apha and Mark are adaptable."
       He nodded accepting my answer as Thorn spoke "that's why my team will take the ridge line." The arguments about who would take what sector died and the team leaders started picking sectors that would benefit their teams, eventually we had a decent plan. Our team would be the point of a diamond, that way no matter what side the masks did attack from they'd end up the target of attack from two sides. Luckily we'd have humvees to get us through most of the mission, these plans were just for the last quarter of it. The meeting was over and I looked at the humvees seeing the M2 browning on top of the one our team was gonna be using, I asked "who's manning the gun?" Thorn replied "we're gonna find out" as he spoke on the net "My team to the humvee" I saw the other three walk over before I asked "who's got training with the M2?" No one raised their hands as I got asked by Thorn "do you?" I sighed and nodded "of course I do, it's one of the main guns we use on our vehicles"
       I got clapped on the back by thorn as Tina leaned against me "you're our gunner, Tina you're the driver. Mark and Apha you get the backseats, Mark you're Kerry's ammo guy" they nodded as I spoke "go get some rest were on target in 6 hours" I sat down with Tina as she leaned into my side and I leaned against the side of the plane. After a while I fell asleep and enjoyed the deep serenity that came with it until i was rudely interrupted my a kick to the shin. I opened my eyes and looked up, seeing Thorn standing above me as he spoke "start prebreathing, we're an hour out" I nodded and woke Tina up relaying the order to her as we held our oxygen masks to our face, getting used to the oxygen mixture. Eventually I saw the red light signaling us all to line up, we had 2 teams on either side of the 4 humvees as the rear ramp started lowering, we checked each other's chutes and gear before signaling the person infront of us was good to jump.
      The wind whipped around the inside of the cargo hold as the humvees slid out the back and started their descent to the ground below, when the last humvee left the plane the light turned green and we started running out the back of the plane. I smiled feeling the rush of adrenaline as I began making my way down to the LZ, the large field with a river arching through the middle. I watched my altimeter as I hit the pull mark and pulled my rip cord causing my chute to unravel and slow my descent. I looked around and saw the others on this operation had managed to stay on line for the LZ. I smiled to myself atleast we won't have to look for anyone, I did a quick head count and saw everyone as my feet hit the ground and I tucked my legs in and rolled I quickly gathered up my chute and headed over to the humvee with the Ace of Spades symbol loading my chute in the back as the teams all found their members and got to their humvees, I sighed as thorn got the last of our members around the humvee and loaded.
I climbed into the turret and double checked everything before I turned around and asked on the net "everyone all set?" I got replies of confirmation until I heard Collinn "My M2 is fucked" I climbed out and walked to the rear of the convoy and climbed onto the top of his humvee looking at the M2, I looked over the receiver and then I saw it, the lock for the bolt latch was bent meaning the bolt wouldn't lock down. I scavenged around the humvee before I found the replacement, good thing I had the quarter masters put replacements in for anything weapon maintenance related. I worked on it for 10 or 15 minutes before I got the replacement in and the bolt latch would positively lock down, I patted his shoulder as I climbed down and headed back to mine before I climbed in and rotated the turret slapping the top of the humvee and the convoy started moving to the nearest road that would bring us to the top of the small mountain range that paralleled the Coalition forces push. I looked around inside my guarded position, I had a chicken plate infront of me and the newest skirts around me to protect me from the sides and back.
I looked around boredly as we moved through the heavily forested path, I radioed and asked "if anyone sees anything alive, can I shoot it?" Buck laughed and replied "no, no you can't" I rolled my eyes and focused on the road ahead. Maverick radioed "we'll be passing through a small mountain village, be on alert" I perked up at the potential for an sort of action. We drove for about 5 more minutes before we arrived in the village, I saw many of the Ukrainians looked intrigued at the heavily armed convoy passing through their village but not alarmed. I bet they've had many exercises down out here in the remote forest they call home, I gave a couple kids a small smile and a wave which sent them running to their dad causing me to chuckle. We passed through quietly, nothing really happened besides stopping to talk to the village elders and to get them to understand that there is an operation going on and we might have to evacuate them if it goes badly, they seemed slightly unnerved but agreed that it'd be the best move.
We continued on as the sun had set and we fitted on our night vision goggles and continued, I grew increasingly bored at the slow movement and lack of anything interesting. That was until an RPG streaked through the air from my 1 o'clock and hit between our humvee and the second one in the column. I yelled into the comms "Contact!" As I swiveled the gun around and fired long bursts into the forest in the direction the RPG had originated from and I we accelerated. I turned the gun and fired as we sped out of the kill zone, I sighed in relief until muzzle flashes were seen infront of us. I returned fire as I heard the thunking of the mk19 behind me and then the subsequent explosions. I saw a round impact the corner of the chicken plate and turn to shards that imbedded themselves into my right arm. I looked and saw they were deep but still able to be pulled from the skin, I returned fire figuring we could deal with my wounds after. Eventually we worked our way out of the ambush after we won fire superiority and the masks retreated.
I heard Doc on comms "anyone hit?" I replied "yeah, I've got some shrapnel in my shoulder." I climbed out of the humvee as doc walked up with a medkit as he used a pair of pliers and carefully pulled out each shard while scolding me about getting wounded in such a precarious position on the body. Once he wrapped it in gauze to stop the bleeding I climbed back in to my turret and spoke "all good, is doc back in his humvee?" I got a short "oui" as the convoy resumed our advance. Eventually I heard baseplate on comms "Flanking elements hold position, you're getting too far ahead of the main coalition force. They're facing heavy resistance from enemy combatants" I sighed as our convoy came to a stop and we set up defensive positions while we waited for the center element to crush the opposition they had met. I heard Mute ask "Alaska, how're you doing on ammo up there?" I checked my ammo and saw I only had 7 rounds left, I reached down "give me another box, I'm almost out" I felt the weight of the 100 round box of .50 caliber ammo as I pulled the empty one out of it seat and handed it to Mute.