Afghanistan, 1986. Khost Province.
The desert heat beat down on me relentlessly as I rode on the horse, near the group that I set out with. We didn't speak, or at least I didn't, both not caring and not really speaking the language all that well. At least with Russian and English, I had Johnny to practice with, someone who wouldn't care and or insult me when I spoke a word wrong, or overemphasized a syllable of a word.
But with these men? I didn't care for them nor did they care for me. There was always a distance between me and the Mujaheddin, a distance that I never really minded, a distance that I made no effort whatsoever to mend, because it was a distance that I was already all too familiar with, all too used to, and all too eager to keep. These guys were fanatical militants one short step away from becoming terrorists after all. Not to mention the fact they were literally forcing me to fight as well, something that made me unexpectedly have a strong distaste for them to put it in milder terms.
A light breeze blew right by me, the harsh small grains of sand and dust being caught up in the air, lingering on and on, never changing no matter what the weather seemed to be. The ride on the horse was quite bumpy as I was still quite unfamiliar to the equestrian world, literally only copying what I saw as the others around me rose on their horses, and somehow managing to not fall off and make a complete and total ass out of myself.
Sighing, I have to ask myself, once again for the umpteenth time. Why was I here again? I thought that I was going to Kabul….Not that I was one hundred percent sure that I was going to Kabul, I just picked up and strung the words that I knew and understood together in Farsi to formulate an educated and reasonable hypothesis that I was going to Kabul. After all, when one of the high-ranking militants points at you and literally says, You, and Kabul in a sentence, you're naturally going to get the impression that you're going to Kabul.
This was of course, before the attack by the soviet armored column, attacking us as hard as they surprised us. Luckily, we managed to repel the attack after some intense fighting that was quite disappointingly no longer strange to me. And now unluckily, I was out here, in the middle of nowhere, stuck with a bunch of shit heads that I have never liked, riding a horse through the middle of the sapping desert in search of..well something.
My best guess would be a group of people. Well, how I understood it at least, but still, these people were really keeping me waiting. It's been literal hours and me and these dipshits haven't found anything but sand, sand, and sand. Which is what you would expect in a desert, but still highly irritating to me.
A snort from my black steed shakes me from my rambling thoughts. Looking up and around me, I only managed to catch the glimpse of a dead tree, dried up and completely devoid of leaves before my black horse started trotting somewhere. Puzzled, I try nudging at the reins but my stubborn horse refuses to stop, instead continuing to continue.
A moment later, I see the silhouettes of what seemed to be human bodies. Great! I swear to god, if these were the people that I was tasked to find, then I'm going to be so fucking mad. Seriously, wasting all that time only to find them dead would actually make me furious.
The silent sounds of the others now following me made me feel even more exasperated as my horse slowly came ahead to a halt in front of one the bodies. I was close enough to make out the bodies of the men accurately now. All four of them being quite the sight as I made out three white people and one obviously asian man.
A quick glance told me that they were quite in fact dead, dead as a doornail. A slight movement however caught my eye. One of the foreigners, if I'm not mistaken, squinted. It was fast and small, but it raised a brow from me.
Frowning, I get off my horse and take a closer look, looking at the foreigner more intensely now as I see him close his eyes briefly, only to squint once more, his mouth slightly ajar as he was far too weak to even utter a sound. The weak attempt of moving his head further cemented the fact that he was still indeed alive.
Taking a knee, I can't help but scowl at the pathetic sight as I digged out my canteen, and offered it to him, the pathetic foreigner managing to get in at least one good gulp before passing out as I turned my head, nodding to the rest of my small little detail as they all started getting off of their horses.
I sighed.
I was going to be in this for the long haul huh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Li Xinlin browsed the web mindlessly, now free after finding that picture of the beast of Panjshir, surfing through the web without much thought. One hand supporting her cheek as she just clicks on random link after random link, sipping on her tea on the seemingly calm and peaceful day.
After she had found that photo, she promptly submitted it to her superiors and was promptly congratulated with a pat on the back, along with a cushy assignment in Thailand. Which to her was quite strange, one moment they were racing to find any trace of the beast, and one moment later they were now taking things quite silent and slow.
Frowning, she gently shook her head as she continued surfing on the internet. It wasn't her place to question things, only to obey. She didn't want to end up as a traitor to the revolution after all. And there was quite the chance that she COULD be an enemy to the revolution if she did something even as remotely viewed as suspicious. Even more so regarding this current situation, what with high command being so mysterious with the beast and what not.
Now was the time to relax and get under the radar. Shed some of that heat that she inevitably picked up when she was following the beast's near mythical like tracks. Mythical like being the fact that they were so hard to find. But to find them, she did, and she was quite proud of the fact that she did so, hell, if she kept on doing her job well, there was a high chance that she could get promoted soon!
Clicking on another link mindlessly, her eyes damn near bulged out of her sockets as she was greeted with the sight of the beast once more. This time dressed in Soviet fatigues, walking with Afghanistan army soldiers. It was quite a little bit hard to make out of course, he was in the background of a much wider shot, but she could still make him out anywhere.
Spitting out her tea, she saw up straight in her chair as she frantically checked out everything. The picture, the website, the article, hell even the related posts of the website, she checked it all. And she was simply not happy with what she found.
The website was more or less the collection of war photographs taken during the Soviet Afghanistan war, the ones that could be found and were sent in to the owner of the website naturally, hell, she even found the photo that she was originally given to kick-start the hunt for the beast not to long ago.
The particular photograph of the beast had him in soviet fatigues, in what seemed to be a rather large military complex. There was no context, no title, nothing that could help her. The only thing that she could see was him, and a whole ton of Afghanistan army soldiers, along with the occasional stacks of ordinance in the background.
It wasn't until she squinted really hard at something on the bottom right corner, it was hard to make out, maybe faded writing?
8-86. There was a middle number but it was too badly smudged to make sense of.
What could it mean?
…
No!
No!
And for the last time no!
This wasn't her job anymore! He wasn't her problem anymore! And besides, she was going to enjoy a nice relaxing assignment to Thailand, even better was the fact that they wanted her to hack some corporation and steal their data, literally childs play!
She let out a slight chuckle, Life was only going to get better from here!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I said nothing as the helicopter started to land, looking both outside and at my "Saviors" as I sat there in the helicopter. The awkward silence permeating in the helicopter was deafening as I kept my poker face at the ready. Not even knowing who the hell it was that "Saved" me.
Many thoughts ran through my mind now as the helicopter made contact on the soft, grassy ground in the Thailand jungles. Looking at the people who extracted me from the hotel back in Roanapur, they said nothing as they silently got off of the helicopter, nodding their heads at me once their feet touched the soft ground with a thud.
Sighing, I took that as my que to exit the helicopter. Immediately leaving the damn thing, I was met with a flurry of activities, the sight of men dragging camouflage nets frantically as they ran up to the helicopters, (The other one now having landed) to try and cover them, men with clipboards issuing orders and practically screaming at other people with orders, men with rifles lounging around as they pay no mind to the chaos, yes, it was a familiar sight indeed.
I was in a military camp, and these men were making…no, scratch that, they were ready for war. Eager, even, if i'm looking at them correctly, their grips on their rifles tight, so damn tight in fact that I could see the whites on their knuckles.
"I must apologize for the unsightly scene, oh venerable one. We weren't exactly in the position to be laying out the red carpet you see…" A voice spoke out, and an unfamiliar one at that.
Turning around, I was met face to face with a balding man most likely in his forties, dressed with an easy going smile along with green ragged military fatigues, my read on this man is as good as yours.
Still maintaining my strict silence, I keep my poker face on as I observe him warily.
"Ah! Forgive my manners! My name is Masahiro Takenaka, leader of the protectors of the Islamic front! We came to get you because we heard that you were in a tinge of trouble. It seems that we arrived at the nick of time as well!"
"..." I say nothing at this, my mind eagerly consuming this information as I realized that these were the folks that were causing problems in Roanapur, as stated by the people in Sofiya's place when I snuck in there somehow not too long ago.
"Anyways, I don't believe that this place is adequate enough for a conversation, If you would follow me?" He asked, raising a brow as he looked at me with a smile, instilling a sense of discomfort in me as I gently nodded my head with a gulp.
"Much obliged!" He said with a smile, returning my gentle nod with an energetic one. Turning around, he quickly led me to another location.
"We'll talk more once we're inside the caves, But for now, I just want to tell you that you're not in any danger. After all, it was for you, and only you, that we started this whole operation after all… but again, like I said, ill tell you everything once we're indoors." he said nonchalantly, not looking at me as we continued to walk, avoiding people and walking past others who apparently thought it fit to stop what they're doing and to gawk at me.
Sigh.
I need a fucking smoke.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Did you hear about Colonel Kravchenko?"
"No? What happened?" She asked with a frown, curious as to the aforementioned colonel.
"Well, that's the thing, nobody knows exactly what happened, but he's dead."
"What? Really?" She asked, surprised at the sudden news, not so much at the death of the man, he was merely a passing acquaintance after all, but more at the news itself.
"Yep, and here's the thing, rumors have been spreading around, apparently, the man was a rat, stealing surplus weapons and racketeering to some Cuban arms dealer for a tidy profit."
"What did him in?" She asked, sipping her tea as she made conversation, intrigued by the topic now.
"Last he was seen, he was ordered to launch an attack on a militant hideout, he wasn't seen after that."
"..."
"Here's the juicy part, the guys who ran when the attack failed were going on and on about stingers. So now there's even more wild talk going around that Kravchenko was set up, and that he was forced on a suicide mission, of course nobody knows if it's true. But it sure as hell gets one talking huh?"
"Well, you're right about that. Stories like that do tend to raise a brow." She replied calmly, sipping her tea once again as she rested against her chair, resuming on reading her newspaper.
"Sigh, figures you would react like that. I try to tell you something exciting and intriguing and you just resume reading the boring paper huh?"
"Oh can it Uhlman! I didn't even know the man that well to begin with! How do you expect me to react?" She replied exasperated, looking at Miller now a raised, questioning brow.
"...Touche."
Sighing, she turned back to her newspaper and continued on reading, starting from where she left off.
"Oh yeah! I heard that you and your boys were getting transferred to Kabul, congrats! You'll be partying and living it up in the city while me and my men will be suffering here in Khost province huh?"
"Pft, if only it'll be that easy." She scoffed.
"We're set to patrol, command has been seeing an increase in militant activities and wanted us to check it out. We'll be suffering just like you, except right in the presence of civilization and not being able to do anything about it." She said with an easy going grin.
"Hah!" He scoffed, downing his drink now as he looked out of the mess hall's window.
"When do you leave?"
"Tomorrow, right at the crack of dawn."
"Really? That soon?"
"Yep, give my regards to Colonel Miller. A shame about what happened to him, what with his legs and all…"
"...Yeah, I'll send him your regards. Need anything else?"
"Not really, I'm raring to go.."
"...You're eager for patrol duty aren't you?"
"Pft, I'm never eager for patrol duty. I only act like I'm eager because it puts a smile on the men's faces."
"You're men must be idiots then." Uhlman said jokingly as he drank from his cup.
"Yep, half of the time they're like mindless zombies, but still, they're my idiots." She said with a content sigh as she cracked a gentle smile.
"...Though I would prefer it if they show more emotions though."
"Hah! I've seen your boys fight, they show plenty of emotions in battle."
"Yeah I guess you're right about that. I guess I just want them to show emotions outside of battle…And outside of drinking vodka."
"...Hah! As if that would ever happen!"
"If only it did though…" She sighed.
"If only it did."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sofiya Pavlovna opened her eyes with a scowl. And through a splitting headache, looked around at her surroundings.
She was behind bars.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Shit."