-----4pm-----

     After yesterday's incident with the ambushers, we were all on our toes. Always on the alert, even inside our base. We were all sitting in a tent, when Powers told us our next mission. We were going to be sent to help evacuate Delta Company. They were pinned down in a small village and we were going by chopper to aid them. We would go over in three transport choppers with four attack helicopters for support. We all felt a lot safer knowing that we were going to be guarded by Apache Death Hawks. Once we were updated on our mission, we were loaded onto the choppers and off to Delta.

     During the trip, Johnson was cleaning his weapon to make sure it didn't jam up. Everyone else sat in silence just looking out the window. I was watching one of the Death Hawks most of the way there. It had two high-powered machine guns and six missiles to help us in our fight. The pilot glanced over at me and offered a faint nod.

     "Alright, listen up people!" said Powers. "We are about to reach Delta Company's positon. Once there you will immediately disembark from this chopper and move towards them. You will lay suppressing and covering fire while they are evacuated on chopper 1xB. These Apaches will focus on the Rebel's armor and other vehicles while you take out any infantry."

     We all prepared our gear during the descent and as soon as the chopper touched down, we all jumped out and rushed towards cover. Bullets came in at all directions and I started to get disoriented. I saw a Rebel tank rolling onto our positions. The heavy gun was rotating towards Delta Company. One of the Apaches saw the tank and fired two missiles. The missiles ripped into the tank and sent metal flying. One of the pieces of metal had been flung straight at another Rebel soldier. The metal shard sliced through his neck and he collapsed. He was nearly decapitated. Johnson was firing on a Rebel group that was trying to flank us. His bullets slammed into them and they quickly retreated. Majors lobbed a grenade at a jeep and everyone inside was immediately killed. Their body parts were sent flying all over the street. I could hear the heavy machine guns on the Apaches start to strafe the oncoming Rebels. The bullets mowed down any attacker that got in its way. The impact of the bullets was so strong that it even ripped limbs off. I even saw one guy get both of his arms torn off from the bullets. He was lying there struggling to get help. I watched as his fellow soldiers ignored him as if he weren't even there. Finally a fellow Rebel pulled out his pistol and shot him in the head.

     I started firing my M77 at any Rebel that I could see. Bullets streaked by my head as I continued to unleash clip after clip into the enemy advance. As I turned to run towards Delta Company, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and a Rebel soldier was charging at me with a knife. I tried to swing my rifle around but he knocked it out of my hands. I landed hard on the ground and quickly pushed myself back up. I slid my knife from my belt and we faced off. He slashed at my face and I pulled away, I quickly stepped towards him and cut him in the leg. He fell to the ground with pain but quickly lunged at me. He was on top of me and he tried to push the knife into my chest. I pushed as hard as I could and threw him off of me. I picked up his knife and threw it at him. The knife soared through the air and struck him in his left eye. He fell the ground with a thud. I picked up my rifle and shot him three times in the chest, to make sure he was dead.

     I then started my way towards Delta. The Apaches overhead were keeping the Rebels away for the moment and we quickly started the evac. We put down some covering fire and Delta made it to the chopper. They had eight people with them and two were wounded. The medic on the chopper started to mend the wounded once we put them on. We made our way towards our chopper and quickly hopped on. The engine started to whine and the blades picked up speed. Once in the air we started to head back to base. The Apaches fired their remaining bullets and missiles and left.

     The whole trip back I was thinking about the up-close encounter. How he could have easily killed me. We all sat in silence until we finally touched down. Delta company thanked us and offered to buy us a round of beer once we got leave. But until then, we still had a lot to do.

I hope you enjoyed the up-close encounter and the helicopters. I tried to integrate some new styles into this. I might also start adding cliffhangers. So there's a little heads up for the future. Thanks for reading, please comment.