***TRIGGER WARNING FOR GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF WAR, DEATH AND BATTLEFIELD INJURY***

After Morgan brought us the news of the green light on the mission, we all found it hard to fall asleep as the sun was rising. The teams actually stayed up outside on top of the wall of the obstacle course to watch the sunrise together, hoping that this time tomorrow, we will be doing it again after a successful op. Once the sun had crested the horizon Ryan and I made our team's call it a night. We all went to get some food before turning in to try and get some sleep before the mission.

Going to sleep this morning I found actually was pretty easy. I was wiped out from training all night and was ready to just crawl into bed and not move for a while. I knew I would have to be up early because all I did when we got back from the mess hall was jump right into the shower and go right into bed.

When I woke up later that night most of the team was still asleep. The only person I found was awake already was Morgan. She was sitting at the common room table with a laptop open working away. She barely glanced up at me when I walked into the room to start a pot of coffee. Once I got it brewing, I walked up behind her and saw she was looking over personal files. After taking an extra second to listen to the room and heard nothing, I leaned down wrapped my arms around Morgan and kissed the top of her head. Morgan jumped a little but settled once she felt my fingers brush against the side of her neck.

"Living on the edge I see." Morgan said quietly.

"We are the only ones awake right now, this will probably be the only moment I'll have alone with you all day, I want to take it." I said not letting go just yet.

Morgan hmmed at my statement before closing the lid of her laptop and stood from her chair. Her arms wrapped around me tightly and I sank right into her. Neither of us said anything, we knew what could happen tonight and I just wanted a few precious seconds in my lovers arms. When I pulled my head up from the crook of her neck I made sure I didn't hear anyone stirring yet before I leaned in and kissed Morgan. The kiss wasn't supposed to be long; it was just supposed to show her my love.

When I pulled away first, Morgan chased after me but I heard someone starting to move in the bunk rooms. I leaned my forehead against Morgan's for an extra second before I pulled away from her completely and made my way over to the coffee machine. Just as I started to pour a mug for myself a door opened and I heard some grumblings behind me. Specialist Akito Tanaka was standing next to me waiting for the coffee that just finished brewing. I gave him my mug before grabbed another for myself.

After I put some sugar and a splash of milk just to change the color, I returned to our bunk room to start to get ready. The coffee was still a bit warm so I just left it on my side table to cool as I pulled out my dark camo gear for night raid. I dressed myself quickly before lacing up my boots and started to sip my coffee.

When I downed all of it, I grabbed my pistol and holster and wrapped it around my thigh before leaving the room. I put the mug into the sink and gave it a rinse before leaving the common room to grab something for breakfast in the mess hall. Even though it's about 18:00 hours, the chefs know about our night raid and how our schedules are flipped and have also been making a selection of breakfast foods for us. I grabbed some pancakes, eggs and bacon along with a slice of the chocolate cake before taking a seat at an open table.

I was able to get through my breakfast without anybody bothering me. News of our green light has probably made its way through the base today so everyone knows to steer clear of those that are on the raid. After I finished up the last of my cake, I went to the ready room and started to get ready. First I pulled out my small backpack and grabbed three MRE's from the boxes we have. Next, I filled and inserted my water bladder in my backpack. After that was secure, I put the med kit we all built with CPL Emmett into the bag before I turned my attention to loading magazines.

The front pockets of my vest is set up to hold three and then I have pockets stitched into my pants to hold another three, two for rifle magazines and one extra for my pistol. But, with the heavy fire we are expecting to encounter, I loaded three more rifle magazines and attached them to my belt. I took some time to make sure the magazines were loaded properly so I hopefully wouldn't have to worry about them jamming in the field. Once they were all loaded and tucked away into my pockets I started to get dressed. It was then that some of the team started to walk into the ready room. Everyone was pretty quiet as we got dressed.

My dress routine is always the same. Knee pads were first, then elbows. They were both followed by a black neck gaiter. Once that was in place I left the room for one final bathroom run. By the time I returned the rest of the team was getting dressed. After the silent count in my head I turned back to my locker and pulled my vest over my head and then stuck it in place. Next I grabbed my helmet and made sure my radio was fully charged before I connected it to my headset. Then for this mission I grabbed my night vision goggles off the charger and attached them to the front of my helmet.

Finally with everything set up I grabbed the dark color face paint we brought with us before standing in front of the mirror. It took me a few minutes to paint most of my cheeks and forehead so I would blend with my gear. But once I was done I took a look around the room and saw that most others were done and ready to move out.

I put away the face pant and rubbed the last I had on my hands on my pants before I turned towards my team. They all looked over to me as I knelt down on one knee. Before we leave our ready room for each op, I always say a few words to the team to get them motivative and make sure there heads are in the game. Once everyone else got down on a knee with me I grabbed onto the backs of the guys next to me, to connect us all in these final moments before we move out.

"We have been training hard to prepare ourselves for this mission. This is the most prepared I have ever seen this team. This mission is to honor those that have fallen at the hands of our enemies. For the 13 brave men and women who were doing their duty and didn't make it home. Tonight, we honor them. Before we leave this room there is one final thing we need to do as a team." I said looking around at my team. Most of them nodded already knowing what I was about to do.

"Lord, make me fast and accurate. Let my aim be true and my hand faster than those who wish to harm me and mine. Let not my last thought be "If only I had my gun". and Lord, if today is truly the day you are to call me home, let me die in a pile of brass." My team and I spoke the words together as a chill went down my spine.

Just as we finished I stood from the circle and returned to my locker. I grabbed my helmet and clipped my radio together before putting it on my head. I made sure my headset was working before I snapped the buckle closed. Next I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder then picked up my rifle before turned back to look at my team. They were all waiting on my move. With the nod of my head, we moved out.

I took the lead and we went over to the tarmac where our ride would be waiting for us. A small plane is waiting to take us over to Turkey where we will be jumping into two helicopters to take us the rest of the way. Major Collins was waiting for us on the plane with Alpha team. Once everyone was inside and accounted for we took off. On the flight over we all attached our phones to the clips on the front of our vests and made sure they were working.

When we got to Turkey, night had fallen and we were all ready to go. After the flight touched down on the tarmac I heard Morgan's voice come through my headset for the first time of the night.

"Passing Turkey." Alpha One said into the headset.

"Copy that, passing Turkey. Safe travels." Morgan said and the little bit of relief I felt in hearing her voice made it a easier for me to get up the ramp of the helicopter.

The flight over into Syria wasn't that long, just under an hour and by the time we roped down to the deck, we were under the complete cover of darkness. We all moved for cover as the helicopters took off into the night. Once they were gone, we all moved down our night vision and were able to see each other better. After everyone was accounted for I gave the next call sign.

"Passing Syria, on the move." I clicked into the radio. Only a few seconds later we all heard Morgan's voice.

"Copy that, passing Syria." Morgan confirmed the call sign as we grouped ourselves into four smaller squads.

While training, Ryan and I thought it would be best to move quickly towards the town, trying to take them by surprise if they haven't already heard the helicopter rotors. So we started our mile trek in the dark. The terrain was pretty smooth, nothing to concerning that we had to work around other then a few large rocks. We weren't too worried about covering our tracks in the sand and dust with the cover of nightfall. We all just kept quiet and pushed forward.

As we got closer to the lights of the village, there were no surprises to the lay out. We knew where each building would be if we were blindfolded. Ryan and I got our squads together again to go over the plan one final time. We are going to be breaking up into smaller teams. Three teams of five with one team of four. That way we are able to cover more ground and our backs as we push forward. These small team leaders are Ryan, Major Collins, Rob and myself with my team being the smaller team of four. Once everyone was in position, Ryan gave the call sign and we all started to push forward.

The march up to the village was still quiet. There weren't many people outside which was both to our benefit and a problem. From the rear group, I spent most of my time watching windows we past to make sure nobody popped out. Just before the front two teams were about to round the corner Ryan held up his fist for us to hold. We all moved for cover but there really wasn't much to work with. When Ryan continued to hold up his fist, I was starting to grow anxious.

"Alpha One we need to move." I said not liking our current position.

"I count about 50 hostiles up ahead, all armed with automatic weapons and a technical weapon with a 50 cal. on it. I was thinking we could try moving another block down to avoid the technical." Alpha One answered.

"Let's move then, we are sitting ducks in this opening." I answered.

Ryan made another hand signal and we were on the move again. We push another few blocks south before we started to cut back into the village in a different direction. As we were coming up to the main town square all hell broke loose. A man with a sniper was sticking out of a window a little ways down the road when I picked him up.

"Cover cover cover!" I yelled just as I heard the first bullet out of his gun, aimed right at me. I moved a few inches to the right and felt a burn slice through my left arm just as I raised my own rifle and let a few shots fly. The sniper went down but the damage was done, the enemy now knows we are here.

I managed to duck behind a burnt-out car once the sniper was down on the side of the road where the rest of my team was hold up.

"Gold One has been hit." I heard someone say as I tried to assess the damage to my arm. Through a clean cut in my black camo, you can see my pale skin stained red with blood. In the dark like this with night vision still on, it was hard to tell how serious the damage was. But we had bigger problems at the moment because bullets were raining down from all directions.

"Its just a graze, we need to push forward and get better cover before we get pinned here. Alpha One, continue on mission, we will catch up." I clicked into my walkie as I started to fire my rifle in the direction of the enemy.

Most of my shots hit there marks easily but I could tell that our fire fight here in this road has drawn a lot of unwanted attention of those we left behind. While reloading, could see the two front teams pushing forward towards the target building and I know we needed to move now before we are stuck.

"Gold Nine, cover fire now." I said and pushed SPC Elizabeth and PFC Micah out in front of me in the direction of the other teams. PFC Lionel continue to unload his weapon when I spirited to catch up with them. Once I got into position behind Major Collin's team, I provided cover for PFC Lionel to make his way over to us.

As a larger group, we were able to pick off a lot more of the enemy as Alpha One and Rob's teams pushed forward to the target building.

"RPG!" I heard someone yell from my left and I turned my head to see a hostile holding the rocket launcher aiming right at us. I pushed my team out of the way and stood from my position and pulled the trigger. I heard a click and I knew my gun jammed but I didn't have time to fix it. So I drop my rifle so the strap will catch it and I pulled my pistol from my hostler and stood tall to fire. I watched as the hostile fired the rocket but quickly fell once my bullets landed. Because the rocket was already being fired when he was falling, the rockets path changed direction and hit the side of a building. Rocks and debris littered the air and street as I held my ground at the rear of the group to make sure there weren't any more surprises.

Once the dust started to settle I noticed there were less bullets being fired so I quickly walked my way backwards toward the team and felt them grab my back and pull me behind cover. The force was a lot harder then expected and I ended up falling on my but. Emmett was in front of me a few seconds later checking me over. My ears were ringing a bit from the explosion so it took a second to realize he was speaking to me. When he tried to wrap my arm up I started to push him away.

"Leave it, the white from the bandage is going to be too noticeable right now. We have a mission to finish first. You can patch me up later." I said. Emmett didn't look happy about me pushing him away but I didn't care right now.

"Alpha One, we good to move yet?" I asked into the walkie and then pulled my magazine out of my rifle to clear the jam. It took a few seconds but I found the problem and was able to fix it and salvage the magazine as well. With it reloaded into my rifle I took a look around the main square and saw most of the hostiles were down and out.

"There are only a few stragglers here Gold One, we can pick them off when we start to push forward. Suggesting we colipase into two teams going forward, one in the front and other to cover the rear while we work our way through the roads." Alpha One said as I continued to take stock of my teams positioning.

"Copy that, lead the way." I said and got ready for the team to move.

We started to move as one down the roads to the HVTs location. Along the way we encountered hostiles but none as much as we did in that town square area. I have a feeling that's going to change once we get closer to the HVTs location. After another two more turns we got onto the street and had to immediately take cover as we were met with heavy enemy fire. I switch com channels and radioed base.

"HAVOC this is Gold One, passing Israel, met with heavy gun fire. Currently returning fire." I informed command.

"Good copy Gold One, passing Israel." Morgans smooth voice said. I quickly got into a prone position in the street up against the car we are taking cover behind. From here it was easy for me to start picking people off.

"Alpha team is breaking off to continue on to the HVT building, starting to secure a perimeter around the building to seal it off." Rob said as I continue to send shot after shot into any hostile holding a weapon.

"Gold One copy that, Gold team, advance and take positions to cover Alpha. Gold One and Gold Nine will stay in current position in the rear to supply cover fire." I relayed to my team before having to reload my rifle. When I looked up from my spot on the ground I saw PFC Lionel in position next to me crouched behind a half retaining wall watching my back.

"Don't forget to check windows and rooftops." I yelled over to him as I got in position again.

"Yes Ma'am." PFC Lionel barely had time to reply before he was firing rounds again. I focused in front of me again and picked off another hostile who was trying to reach the 50 cal. that was on top of a truck. This was the fifth guy who has tried to use it. I don't carry grenades on me so I looked over at Lionel when I had a break in the action.

"You got any grenades?" I asked.

"No, didn't think they would be a good idea in this close of quarters." Lionel said as he was in the middle of reloading.

"Okay, ready for a bit of a sprint?" I asked and I started to get up.

"Where are we going Ma'am?" Lionel said and hopped the wall to come up next to me.

"To the 50 cal. We need to take it off line then push forward some more towards the HVTs location." I said.

"Lead the way." Lionel said.

After making sure the coast was clear, I tapped Lionel on the shoulder and took off running towards the weapon. I did a baseball slide when I got close enough and turned as I watched Lionel follow behind me. Once we were together I had him stand guard as I hopped on top of the gunner platform and started to pull apart the weapon. I only managed to get a few pieces of the weapon apart when an explosion rocked the whole block. It was so hard I almost went tumbling off the top of the platform.

Instantly, I knew something bad just happened. I threw the piece of the 50 cal. in the opposite direction we just came from before tapping on Lionel's shoulder then running towards the direction the blast just came from.

"HAVOC, this is Alpha One, HVT just detonated an explosive device as we were about to charge the building. All Alpha team members are accounted for. Waiting for dust to settle before we black bag the building. Still waiting confirmation on all Gold Team members." Alpha One said as Lionel and I saw the dust billowing out of the top floor of the building they were about to run into.

"Good copy Alpha, exfil is inbound, ETA two hours, HAVOC out." Morgan said as Lionel and I caught up with the rest of our team.

"Count off now! One." I yelled looking for every member of my team. The count off went like clock work and I could breath a little easier knowing all member of my team are accounted for. When I called Emmett up for an injury status update, I was happy to hear there were only minor cuts and bruises amongst the group.

"HAVOC, this is Gold One, all members of Gold team are accounted for. Setting up perimeter to cover Alpha Team." I relayed to command.

"Good copy Gold One, HAVOC out." Morgan said sounding a little relieved. I took a second for myself to breath before giving out assignment locations to my team for the perimeter. Just as I was going to take up a position myself, Alpha one call out my code name.

"Eagle, can you join us inside for this one. I want your eye." Alpha One said into the walkie.

"Copy that." I answered and hurried my way to the entry way of the building. I stood behind Alpha Six as they blew the door in.

Alpha team pushed fast through the first floor of the building, gaining control of the few remaining hostiles alive inside. While Alpha five and six start to get some information from them, the rest of us got to work, getting anything and everything that looked important to the terrorist group and threw it into a black bag. With the first floor secure, we pushed our way upstairs. It was hard to do as debris from the explosion lingered in the stairwell. We had to push a few large chunks of concrete down the stairs behind us to make it to the second floor.

When we got there, the second floor was empty. Everything was covered in layers of dust and debris from the explosion on the upper level. It didn't take us long to find a few computer hard drives up here. They were collected in another black bag before we tried to push our way up to the top floor. It proved to be almost impassable. It took some time but we were able to move some of the concrete out of the way to make a small hole for me to climb through. I had to ditch my helmet, backpack and vest to get through the hole.

Once on the inside I slipped back into my vest and helmet before taking my weapon from Alpha one who stood right at the hole. I turned on the flashlight I have attached to my rifle as I started to make my way through the mostly caved in apartment. As I came around the corner I came across a body face down on the floor with the back completely burned. I knew right away he was dead and continued on down the hall. The stench of burning flesh made me pull up my neck garter around my nose and mouth to try and block some out it.

The door to the HVTs apartment was blown to pieces so it was easy for me to gain entry. As I got inside the smell of death hung in the air as I flipped on my mic.

"HAVOC this is Gold One." I said as I slowly made my way across the apartment floor.

"Go for HAVOC." Morgan said.

"Due to the debris blocking the stairwell, I was the only one able to gain access into the apartment. There is nothing left of the HVT, there are human remains scattered around, possible of the HVT but not enough to get a positive ID. There is one female, possibly his wife and three small children, all deceased from the impact of the explosion. There remains are intact enough to get finger prints. Taking video feed offline to capture photographs of the scene before making for the exfil point." I said and let go of my rifle as I took in the gruesome scene of what once was a kitchen.

"Good copy Gold One, HAVOC out." Morgan said.

I made sure the walkie was off and the video feed was offline before making it to the corner of the room and to throw up everything that was left in my stomach. Its been a long time since I've seen a scene this bad and I knew that the image of these children will forever be scarred into my memory. It took a few seconds to recover from the shock but when I did, I did what I needed to do, checked the scene for any electronics that might have survived the blast and started to take photos. After the photos were captured, I used our mobile finger print scanner to try and obtain identities on the victims.

Once I was done, I didn't look back as I rushed down the hallway to the exit. I started to pull my gear off and hand it to Alpha One who was waiting for me. He didn't say anything as I climbed out of the hole and got myself together again. Nothing needed to be said. We did our job, another leader in the terror world is off the board. We avenged the 13 military members who were killed in the airport attack. But why does it feel like I just left half of my soul in that burnt out room?

a/n: mission complete. but the real question is how much will I continue to put Daniella through? song on the side is Until the End by Breaking Benjamin because I feel like you need a song with a great guitar riff when going into a battle scene.

**FYI - I will be posting trigger warning when we get to the graphic details of war. please note that I'm not pulling punches. Even though the actions I'm writing about are fiction, they are based in reality. below is a link for the article about the death of the real life al-Qurayshi during a US special forces raid.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-60246129