The Tiger's Eye

A live target

Lynn's POV
I woke up to Andrew kicking my side "Get up. We're an hour out, get ready to start prebreathing" I stood and sat down next to Manfred as I started breathing in the oxygen mix acclimating my body to the mixture as we waited to get to the target. An hour later I stood and shifted my parachute, we took our positions behind our Jumpmaster, Manfred "I called to him "Don't fuck this up! I want to go to that Chinese buffet!" He laughed but gave me a thumbs up. We waited until the light turned green before running and jumping out the rear of the C-130 before we started plummeting towards the earths surface. I watched my altimeter before I hit my target altitude and yanked my rip cord looking up as my parachute opened and slowed my descent, I looked down and saw Baron's chute disappearing into the opening in the canopy the daisy cutter had made. I followed him in and looked up trying to make sure my chute didn't catch any branches before I looked down and saw Manfred packing up his chute just as I realized I was about to hit the ground.
     I unclipped my bag and stuffed in the parachute into it before I buried the bag and lifted my m16, I looked around and heard nothing. Just then I heard crashing followed by a scream of pain, I looked at Baron and saw him matching my look of shock as we took off running in the direction the sound originated from. I pulled out my machete and cut my way through the jungle until we came across Banshee and Wolf, they were staring into the canopy in horror I asked "Wolf, what happened? Where's Samurai?" He didn't reply stuck in a trance like staring contest with whatever's in the canopy. I traced his view and felt my hand cover my mouth as I tried to fight throwing up. I looked up again after regaining my composure and looked on with horror, feeling helpless, 50 feet up the tree Samurai was stuck dead after a tree branch punched through his stomach. He had shifted so his body layer just above horizontal, the only thing keeping his corpse from spinning so his feet were facing the sky was his parachute cords. Baron spoke "someone's gotta get him down" I looked over as Wolf asked "how? We can't carry him down 50 feet of a tree"
     I sighed and spoke "Baron, I agree with Wolf. We don't have a way to get him down" I looked over and asked Wolf "has anyone reported the casualty?" Wolf shook his head no "We uh, we-we arrived just before you guys" I replied sadly "you've got to report it, we can get a recovery team in here to get his body" he lifted his radio and spoke into shakily "Uh HQ, we've got something to report" I heard Meghan on the comms "HQ reads, send traffic" he replied starting to cry "We... we took a casualty. samurai died before he reached the ground" she replied "can we get a feed from Baron?" I turned away as Baron spoke "My cam is up" Wolf replied "you should have the feed" Meghan whispered hauntedly "oh my, roger, we got the, we got it" I pulled out my map and compass as Meghan ordered "Continue with the mission, we'll send a recovery team" Wolf looked at me as I pointed in the direction that'd lead to the last known position of the mask platoon.
He started walking in the direction holding his M4 weakly in his pale ashen hands as I fell in behind him "Banshee, Baron, on me" banshee replied in a quiet whisper "Wilco" as Baron just started following me wordlessly. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream and punch things and let all of my anger and pain go, I knew Baron wanted the same thing. We had lost our brother. Meghan came over the comms one more time "When you need an extraction, call." I answered for Wolf as I keyed my mic "thanks, well radio once we find the target" she replied softly "good luck" I released my radio and wordlessly followed Wolf through the thick jungle. We walked wordlessly until it started getting too dark, we could continue moving but it'd be more dangerous. The tiger's come out to hunt at night, I voiced my apprehension at moving through the jungle at night with the risk of running into a 900lbs tiger "Think we should settle down for the night?" Wolf looked back and asked "I thought you could see at night?" I replied dryly "That's not why I want to stop" he asked "what's the reason then?" I replied simply "the Tigers, they're nocturnal" he started looking around as I asked "you didn't forget about the tigers did you?" He looked back before ordering "Alright, set up a perimeter. Find a comfortable spot off the path and don't move until first light"
     I sat against a tree and pulled my mosquito net from my pack pulling it over my head before I set a couple claymores across the thinner parts of the jungle, the places a human would walk if they tried moving against us. I had my m16 laying across my thighs as Baron sat next to me, leaning against my tree before he whispered "It's just us now" I matched his volume "The last two centurions" he sighed softly "I miss him, he should've died balls out fighting. Not stuck in a tree" I closed my eyes silently sobbing "We can only hope we go out that way" I tried to muffle my sniffling as I sobbed. I reached under my mag pouches and pulled out a picture of Baron, Samurai and I, I stared at it as the anger at the masks grew I quietly promised myself "I'll kill every fuckin one of them. There'll be no rock they can hide from me under"
I heard Baron next to me "Well make them pay, together" I lifted my closed fist as he did the same, we tapped knuckles before we stayed still and eventually fell asleep in position. I woke up to a twig snapping infront of me, I opened my eyes and noticed a tiger staring at me, I was immediately on high alert as I continued holding eye contact with the tigress. Eventually she turned and disappeared into the jungle again, my heart was threatening to beat its way out of my chest while my veins felt hot from the adrenaline. I checked my watch and saw it was 2 in the morning, I sighed silently before leaning my head back disappearing as part of the forest again. The only part of my body that moved was my eyes I scanned the jungle listening to the sounds of the jungle. I felt like I was being watched but didn't pay too much attention to it until the tiger burst from the forest sinking its teeth and claws into Andrew dragging him kicking and screaming into the forest, a couple seconds later we heard gunshots and then silence.
     By now the other two had woken up and tried figuring out what happened, I spoke "There's a tiger, it just grabbed Wolf. Get your guns, let's go. We gotta get him back" they nodded as Baron stood and followed me deeper into the jungle as I radioed "HQ, possible casualty. Wolf was taken by a tiger, we're trying to locate him now" I listened as Mike replied "Keep me posted" and I followed the trail as Banshee prepped her medical supplies until we came across the scene. "HQ, Wolf's gone." His throat had been torn out by the tiger that laid dead next to him, Andrew's stomach was torn to ribbons and his neck was broken so violently his vertebra popped through the skin. Mike spoke "Tell Baron to turn on his helmet cam" I nodded to Baron as he replied in comms "Cam's on" as I turned on my shoulder mounted flashlight and shined it on the scene Mike replied "Alright, I've marked the coordinates" I turned off my flashlight and spoke "Let's move, if any masks are in the area they heard the shots and might be coming to investigate" Banshee out away her medical supplies and sighed "I've got a bad feeling about this mission"
     Mike asked "do you want to continue the mission or abort it?" I looked at the team for their input Baron replied "I want to keep going, we can't let them die in vain" I looked at Sarah and she hesitated before nodding "I want to finish this" I replied to Mike "We're going to finish it" he sounded surprised "Alright then. Remember, you just have to find them. Don't try to kill them all" I answered "I'll keep you posted" as we started moving towards the target area. It was quiet until we reached the target the next morning, we walked out into the small opening in the jungle the masks had used as a camp. I saw the foot prints in the mud heading down a trail in the jungle, I gave the hand signal to check it out as we all lifted our weapons and headed into the darkness. I was behind Banshee since her mossberg would hurt anything we came across, we walked deeper into the jungle until I noticed there were fresh tracks. The older ones had crusted over from the water evaporating out of them but there were new tracks that still had small puddles in the bottom, I keyed my mic "Be advised, we've got fresh tracks. Stay frosty, tangos may be close"
I got acknowledgment from the other two as we walked slowly forward, on high alert but we tried moving fast hoping we could come in contact with the masks so this mission would be over. We walked deeper until we started walking through a small pass and the masks appeared on either side firing at us, I radioed "HQ, we're in contact! Heavy contact! We found the fuckers!" I crouched and fired back at any mask I could see before I yelled to Baron "Don't spray! We need to take as many masks as we can!" Mike came over the radio "Affirmative, we're sending the evac chopper now. Just hold out for an hour" I looked to my left and saw Banshee curled in a ball praying. I yelled "Banshee! Get in the game!" As rounds struck near her head. I walked on my knees over and rolled her so she was looking at me as I yelled "Start shooting! I need you!" She just tucked her head in her arms and started praying again.
I sighed and yelled to Baron "Banshee's broken, she's shutting down!" He sighed and yelled back "We need to get out of the kill zone!" I nodded as grabbed Banshee pulling her as we tried to pull back just for rounds to strike Baron in the back, he dropped face first as more rounds impacted his corpse as I pulled banshee into the tall grass only for her to yell "God have mercy on your souls! All of you!" Giving away our position as I yanked her up and through the forest as rounds hit the trees around me, my heart was the only thing I heard until I felt dead weight in my grip, I looked back and saw Banshee's head was missing the top half of it. My eyes widened before I dragged her body to the tree line and loaded a smoke grenade in my m203 before turning and firing it behind me. I grabbed Banshee's rucksack and ran as hard as I could trying to get away from the trailing force "HQ.... Mike.... they're gone.... all of them.... I don't think I'm making it out of here alive" as I heard yells behind me in the distance and he replied "Just stay hidden for another hour, you can do it. Strip down to the bare minimum and rely on your E&E training. I'll be here the entire time, Valkyrie has already gone to tell Six that your fire-team's been wiped out" I found a hollowed out tree and pulled off my rucksack and buried it after pulling out my canteen, purification pills, MREs, a couple extra magazines and another smoke grenade before I pulled the radio off my plate carrier and magazines out of their mag pouches before sliding all my needed gear in my dump pouch using the cord to tie it shut before I buried my plate carrier and then i did the same with Banshee's rucksack, pulling out her journal, her bible and a couple of flash bangs before burying that too. I marked the coordinates on my gps before I turned and started running deeper into the jungle, heading to the secondary LZ at the top of the mountain a klick away.