Hereford Base; Female Dorm

IQ POV

You were walking through the halls back to the female dorm with Ela after having to do a workout with a group of recruits.

Ela: I swear if one more of those recruits make a sparky remark I'm kicking him in the dick.

IQ: Yea they're annoying but still don't do that.

Ela Ok fine, how about just make them do more.

IQ: Thats the spirit.

Ela: I hate this spirit.

You walked into the female dorm and you noticed all the girls were watching Zofia scream at the top of her Lungs about Derek.

IQ: Whats going on?

Zofia: That asshole, knew he was always like the rest.

IQ: Calm down, what happened.

Frost: She heard news about what he said towards you and Ela and she confronted him.

IQ: Zofia, he was hurt.

Zofia: I could give less of a damn if he was hurt, no one talks back to my sister, especially a low life like that recruit.

IQ: He was just trying to keep out of harms way. Wouldn't you like to have someone do that for you?

Zofia: Yea, its called a bullet magnet and thats all those damn recruits are.

IQ: If you even think about making one of them a bullet magnet.

Zofia: Its the same process over and over, we get recruits, they die, we get more recruits. You like them so much, thats ashame, because they'll just die soon enough anyways.

IQ: They're doing whats right.

Zofia: They're being ignorant prices who just care about nothing more than pride. Pride gets them killed.

IQ: He did night watch and was nearly killed by 8 goons and then the next day with no sleep took out an assassin. Imagine if that was Ela, she could've been killed.

Zofia: Yea well, doesn't mean a lower class should be able to talk back to a higher up. He's a recruit, she's an operator. Since when did they have the right to call the shots.

IQ: Since he became a lieutenant.

Zofia: In the military, this is Rainbow.

IQ: Nothing ever changed, he still leads his squad.

Zofia: They haven't been on a full mission yet, doubt their skills are even capable enough to survive on their own, they always need help from operators.

Valkyrie: So their last stand back at San Francisco was just a fluke.

Zofia: In the end, they couldn't take the heat and needed help from operators to finish the job.

Frost: Their job was to hold them off until operators showed up. They were on a different mission and had to pull off just to make sure no one else was hurt until we arrived.

Zofia: And they couldn't even last a few minutes.

IQ: They were like that for over 20 minutes.

Mark walks in during the conversation.

Mute: Alright, that's enough! We can here you fooks arguein' from the other side of base.

Zofia: They manipulated you guys.

Mute: You want the answers? Do what he told you to do and look up the date and location.

IQ: Grace, look it up.

Grace pulls out her tablet and looks up the location and date.

Dokkaebi: Got it, Mickey's girlfriend Veronica wrote an article about it. I'll transfer it to the T.V.

She walks over to the T.V. and plugs in her tablet on the side. The article was pulled up and we began reading it.

New York Times

Camp Dwyer Massacre By: Veronica Vail

Today on May 12th, 2017, at exactly 4:53 P.M., Camp Dwyer was attacked by Afghani forces. After an hour of a firefight,, the defense was a victory, but at what cost. The U.S. military lost alot of men and women who most were just straight out of basic. It was a massacre that costed the lives of over half a platoon. I spoke with some people on their thoughts of this and the responses were... different than what I'd expect.

I asked a local refinery worker what his thoughts were. He replied, "It's hard to know that a bunch of young men and women were slaughtered just hours ago... that was the only positive response I recieved.

Others would state at how they never should've been there to begin with or even that they deserved to lose their lives to a tragedy like this. That they were never supposed to be there in the first place or if they couldn't defend a base, why are they even in the military.

These responses crushed me and I hope they do for many others. For those who had a loved one lost during this tragedy, I am sorry. I know how you feel and hearing about the news of the attack made me also worry. My love was in the defense of that attack and I am lucky to say that he made it out alive. However, he told me afterwards that his squad leader, had himself get hit harder than anyone else. That he felt at fault for losing members of his squad... He was just a Private First Class, given a leadership role that he never wanted. He stated that his leader was heartbroken, filled with rage during the battle, that he described nothing more than pure hatred. That he really didn't care about himself during that moment, just that he was angry for not being able to do anything.

My heart goes out to all of those who have lost loved ones or children during this time. And for those who are worried for what comes forward to them next... I am too.

-Veronica V.

Frost: Half of the base... wiped out.

Dokkaebi: There's a phone number for her. I could try and contact her?

Mute: Do it.

IQ: Mark?

Mute: It's obvious she was referring to Mickey and Derek. Derek also brought up that Mickey always had a body cam that he sent to his girlfriend. If you have unanswered questions, she'll have them.

Dokkaebi: I'll request a videocall now.

She messaged Veronica and after a few minutes of silence, she finally replied to agree on a videocall. She quickly answered and was on the T.V.

Veronica: Hi.

Dokkaebi: Hi.

Veronica: To whom am I speaking to?

Dokkaebi: Where are my manners, I'm Grace Nam. I work with Rainbow and work with Mickey.

Veronica: Oh you do?

Dokkaebi: Yes Ma'am he went back to Dallas just a couple days ago right?

Veronica: Yea he is, currently watching a football game rn with his father.

On cue you heard Mickey yell from another room.

Mickey: How do you let that go through your fucking hands!

Veronica: *laughs* Its just good to have him back for a couple days.

Dokkaebi: Yea, now to the serious business.

Veronica: What is it?

Dokkaebi: We read your article, Camp Dwyer Massacre?

Veronica: You want the footage, don't you.

Mute: We need to know why Derek is always so protective of everyone else but himself.

Veronica: Hm, same old Derek making others worry about his actions. I'll send you the footage in a few minutes once I find it. It should be in one of these folders.

Dokkaebi: Thanks for the convenience.

Veronica: Found it, you should be getting it now.

Grace looks at her tablet and sees she got the video delivered to her tablet.

Dokkaebi: We got it, thank you.

Veronica: Fair warning, you won't like what you're about to see. Thats why I couldn't post it to the world.

Dokkaebi: We're ready.

Veronica: Then I guess we're done here. If you need anything you can always call.

Mickey: *through the screen* Yes Robert I realized that they're losing!

Veronica: I better get back to him.

Dokkaebi: You do that.

Veronica: later.

She ends the video call and Dokkaebi starts up the body cam footage.

Location.... Camp Dwyer....... Year....2017.... Date.... May 12th..... Time.... 4:53 P.M......

You watched as the footage started and as usual, you were looking through the eyes of Mickey. Scurrying through his stuff to put his gear on. Derek comes rushing in with an M4A1.

Derek: We have no time to waste Mickey, they need us on the East side. *tosses M4A1*

Mickey: *catches M4A1* Yes Sir.

They both sprinted towards the East side that was under heavy fire.

Derek: Bulldog I need you on that gun!

Bulldog: Are you crazy?!? That thing is under fire!

Derek: Damnit! *on radio* Stone where the hell are you and Sphinx.

His audio was barely audible, but you could somewhat hear what this Stone guy was saying.

Stone: *on radio* We're pi-- down at --- racks.

Derek: *on radio* Stone our orders were to be at East side! Get here fast, thats an order!

Stone: *on radio* Ye-- ir.

Mickey: So we have to just hold off of a bunch of angry soldiers, great!

Derek: Zip it! NATO whats it looking like through their chatter.

NATO: They aren't using radios!

Derek: We've got mortars!

You watched as a projectile came into view as a small pixel come crashing down in front of them. Mickey quickly got back up, and the squad opened fire into the opposition. Mickey turns and you see two new masked soldiers run up to them and help fire into the Afghani Soldiers.

Derek: About time you two showed up!

Sphinx: We ran into some problems getting here.

Derek: What kind of problems.

Stone: Barracks were hanging by a thread until West side fully came over to assist.

Robert: These guys are relentless!

Stone: I have an idea.

Derek: We could use it right about now!

Stone: I need you guys to cover me while I make a run for that Humvee!

Derek: No way in hell am I letting you do that!

Stone: We need that machine gun!

Derek: You'll die trying to get there! Stay here and help just push them back.

You watched as they continued to fight back against the invaders. You couldn't help but notice that the two that showed up, they weren't in the original squad.

Derek: Bulldog watch your left flank.

Bulldog: I am, Stone lets keep giving them hell.

Stone: Took the words right out of my mouth.

Derek: Does anybody have a GL?

Sphinx: I have one.

Derek: Let me see it.

They both switched weapons and the woman gave him the nades. He slid one down the tube and fired one into the forces outside of the base. A loud explosion went off followed by some screams.

Derek: How do you like that!

Sphinx: Shit RPG!

A fast projectile came flying towards them and hit the humvee. It came flying towards mickey and destroyed the sandbag barrier they had up. The screen was black except for some dust and sand that was on the ground. Mickey slowly got to his feet as he watched Afghani soldiers come up close towards the wall and gunned down both Stone and Sphinx.

Derek: No!

Derek got up to his feet and unholstered his pistol and shot the group of soldiers. Mickey and the rest of Bravo squad got to their feet aswell and quickly grabbed their weapons off the ground.

Derek: Stone... Sphinx? Damnit!

Bulldog: Theres more coming up!

Derek: I'm going to kill them all.

Derek runs up through the destroyed wall towards the Afghani forces. Firing into them as he made a move.

Mickey: Derek! What the fuck do you think you're doing!?!

Bulldog: Just cover him. *on radio* Patch Stone and Sphinx are K.I.A. and Locust is going on a frenzy right now. Get here now!

Robert: What the fuck is he doing?

Derek ran over to one of the crashed Humvees and quickly hopped into the gunner seat. He began to fire into the exposed Afghani forces ripping through every single one. Mickey looked over the distance and saw one on a hill with an RPG in his hands aiming towards the Humvee.

Mickey: Derek theres an RPG on the hill get the fuck outta of there.

Derek quickly hopped out of the humvee as the rocket came closing into the Humvee. He rolled through the sand away from the explosion and this left him completely open. He stood up and continued to fire back at the hill, killing the lone soldier on the hill. You all scanned the area to see and hear no one.

Bulldog: Was that all of them?

Robert: Yea, I'm pretty sure it was.

Derek: It wasnt enough.

Mickey: You just massacred the rest of them on this side, I think that was enough.

The Lieutenant came up towards the squad.

Lt. Miller: Report.

Derek: Sir, Afghani forces have been neutralized in this sector.

Lt. Miller: I see that, I'm talking casualties.

Derek: Casualties are Privates Stone and Sphinx sir.

Lt. Miller: There were no other casualties?

Derek: With all due respect we were the only ones here.

Lt. Miller: Excellent work then. Major is sending out a squad now to go recon on where they came from. We're not letting them get away with this.

Derek: Permission to lead that attack sir.

Lt. Miller: Permission denied private. I'll have a couple of men take their bodies away. Stay ready for more to come just in case.

Derek: Yessir.

You could see the visible anger through Dereks eyes as the Lt. Walked away. They all just stared at their fallen teammates and Derek walked over and took both of their dogtags.

Derek: I should've just let them stay at the Barracks. It was safer there.

Mickey: Dont blame yourself for that.

Derek: The Barracks were clear, they could've just stayed there.

Mickey: Lets just set up the sand bags and get this over with. You'll have your chance to get them back for what they did.

End of recording

You all just stood there in silence, it was Mark who finally spoke up.

Mute: So, you finally get the answer you wanted?

Zofia: They still have no right to do that.

Mute: Are you fookin mental? They just witnessed two of their friends die and you wonder why he's like that. Look around, Eliza, when you were in your first leadership role, what was it like?

Ash: It always went well, that was until I had to put in my debrief my first casualty which was Sledge getting shot in his shoulder. Always felt guilty for that until I actually started getting used to it.

Mute: Exactly, now imagine that, but for your first leadership role, two of your friends are killed. Now imagine how he feels about that, he's a recruit but damn he cares more about his teammates than you ever will Zofia.

He walked out the room and slammed the door. It was silence again, you looked over at Ela and she too felt guilty for acting like a child when Derek wanted nothing more than for her to be safe.

Ela: I... need to go apologize.

She quickly walked out the door and was soon gone.

Derek POV

You were in your dorm with everyone else playing blackjack with Bulldog and NATO being the dealer.

Derek: Fuckin hell, bust.

Bulldog: *laughs* looks like someone just lost 35 dollars. NATO hit me.

NATO took a card from the deck and flipped it over onto Bulldogs pile.

Bulldog: Son of a bitch.

NATO: *laughs* looks like you both lost.

Derek: This shit is rigged.

Grizzy: Did you just say blackjack was rigged?

Bulldog: This fucker took our cash.

TheDooo: You guys watched him scramble the cards.

NATO: They're just sore losers.

Derek & Bulldog: Fuck you.

There was a knock at the door

Derek: Come in.

Ela opened the door and just stood at the doorway.

Ela: Can I speak to you for a second Locust?

Derek: I'll be back.

You stood up and walked over to the door and walked into the hall and closed the door. You leaned up against a wall and waited for her to talk.

Ela: Listen, I just want to apologize for acting like a child back there. It wasnt right.

Derek: Gonna take it you read the article.

Ela: and saw the video.

Derek: so now you know why I did.

Ela: I'm sorry Derek.

Derek: No need to apologize, just next time. Please comply.

Ela: I will.

Derek: Good, let them know I'll be on the roof.

Ela: why the roof?

Derek: Just need time alone is all.

Ela: Do what you want.

You walked away and headed towards the stairwell that lead to the roof. You went towards the edge and looked in the distance towards the city. It was nice, until something caught your attention.

TheDooo: So, how's it been Derek.