The Lost Battalion

The Forest

Nick found himself waking up to the sound of what seemed to be birds and a gentle breeze, upon looking around he realized it was a forest. After a few minutes he manages to get himself off the ground then brush the dust and dirt off of his clothes. After that he retrieved his equipment.

"Where in the all mighty hell am I?" Nick asked himself before taking a look around the area. From what he could tell it looked as if he was dropped off in the middle of the Amazon due to the weird plants and wildlife, not to mention the murky river about 500 feet away from him.

"AMBER? CARTER? ALICE? BILLY? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" Nick yelled hoping his squad was nearby. "Nick? Is that you? If so would you mind helping me get down from here" a female would say from above in a calm yet slightly annoyed voice.

As Nick looked above him, he noticed Alice in a tree, her backpack stuck on a branch and Alice herself flailing. "Hang on, I'm climbing up there!" Nick said as he began to climb the tree. "Nick? Alice? Where in gods name are you two at! I've been looking you two for 30 god damn minutes!" a male would yell as Nick heard the familiar sound of an M60 Patton. Soon the tank would drive out of a group of bushes and stop near the tree.

"Damn I thought I lost you Nick, I was getting worried" another female would say as amber exited the tank's hatch after Carter climbed out. Seeing Amber calmed him down enough to retrieve Alice and climb back down to meet up with the group. "Where in the hell are we? This ain't Vietnam I know that much" Amber said as she ran over to Nick and kissed him on the cheek.

"I couldn't even begin to tell you" Nick replied. She was about to respond when a bullet whizzed by her head as all 4 of them ducked down, running behind the tank and loading they're weapons. "Contact! Are they VC's?" Nick yelled as he opened fire with his M60 GPMG in the direction the shot came from.

"How the hell should know? I don't see them!" Amber yelled in response.
Bullets began pelting the tank as the squad dug in, returning fire from behind said tank. Then the fireworks started. Billy finally appeared from the brush and sent out a stream of flames from his M2-2 Flamethrower. He made a wall of fire between the squad and whatever was attacking them temporarily.

"GET TO THE TANK, LIGHT THESE COMMIES UP" He yells and runs behind a large rock to avoid the gunfire now directed at him. Everyone else manages to climb into the M60 Patton and start it up.

"Rotate the turret 20° to the left and load HE...standby....Fire!" Nick says as Carter loads in a 105mm High Explosive Shell, then Alice rotates the turret with Amber firing the 105mm main cannon lastly. The shell streaks across the forest in the direction the gunfire was originating before it impacted something and caused an explosion. Immediately multiple female screams were heard before the gunfire died down into silence.

"Did we get them?" Alice asked as Nick pulled back and released the charging handle on the turret mounted .50 Cal M85 Machine Gun. "Doubtful....load another shell and be on standby" he replied as Carter proceeded to reload.

Out of the blue he saw someone run out of the forest with an anti tank grenade. It looked like a German AT Grenade from WWII. However they stopped and stared at Nick. He stared back, examining her. She was young...only a child, yet she had fox ears and multiple fox tails. "What the fuck is this....cosplay?" He said to himself before she charges.

"NICK SHOOT HER SHES GOT A NADE FOR FUCKS SAKES" Amber yells from inside the tank as she gets on the 7.62mm M73 Machine Gun. Nick only froze, his hands shaking while his finger refused to let him shoot a child. ".....TURN BACK LITTLE GIRL, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS" He yelled to her, but to no avail. She kept running at the tank, ready to throw the grenade.

With seconds remaining he squeezed the trigger and popped off a burst of .50 BMG rounds. One hit the girl in the right Nico Nico Kneecap, nearly blowing her right leg off and forcing her to chuck the grenade. It overshot and landed in the treeline, exploding a ways away from the tank. Another hit her in the neck and immediately killed her.

Silence filled the air as Nick visibly was traumatized seeing what he's done. He paused, hearing nothing but silence for a few seconds, his thoughts wandering off somewhere.

"Nick.......Nick!..........NICK!!!"

he suddenly snapped out of it and looked down at the person calling his name. It was Amber. "Nick it couldn't be helped... you did what you had to" she said, her words not doing any good. He was traumatized....he was trained to shoot enemy combatant's....not children with grenades. "....Tank move forward, billy get on the back and keep our rear covered" he said as billy ran over to the tank. He hopped on the back and got down prone.

With that the Patton began to press forward heading to the last known direction of the unknown hostiles.