The War for Nonpo-- Stepping Off The Sand

[Martzin]

The morning was spent marching through the moist autumn-covered jungle to reach a nearby worker village half a klick from the landing zone. Alpha Squad alone was sent out to contact the locals.

At 6 AM, a native had came out of the jungle and made contact with India Company. A translator was brought out, and stated that this nearby asset was harboring NNF militiamen and multiple weapon caches. Alpha Squad's job was to clear out any troops and destroy the caches.

The acting squad sergeant Vanechka led her men through the tropical rainforest. They were surrounded by a dense fog that engulfed the entire jungle. They were forced to navigate an old dirty path covered in vines, boulders, and trees that were thrown onto it from the air-bombing.

"What's the name of this place again, boss?" hefted Ed, hurling himself over the 250th tree they'd hurled on the trail, sweating like a pig in his combat fatigues and helmet.

"Pinghai's the name," Sleepy responded. "First in-land operation on America's side."

"Pinghai... Pinghai my ass," Trevor lamented before tripping over a rock and face-planting on a log. "Ah! Fuck!"

The rest of his squad laughed as they walked past him. Lochlann kicked him in the side lightly and said, "Get up!"

Trevor sighed loudly. "Fuckin' idiots..." he lifted himself back on his feet and rubbed his nose, continuing down the trail.


Garth heard the sudden sound of a buzz zipping past his ear, jerking his hand and slapping the side of his neck at the sensation of a minute tingle. "Aagh... damn bugs," Taking a quick look at his palm revealed a little splatter of green guts.

"These bugs are fucking huge, man! Ain't seen nothing like it!" Rotten exclaimed.
"Tell me about it," Garth groaned, wiping his hand on his trousers.

...

A beep emanated from Penkina's waist. The column stopped and she pulled out her motion tracker, detecting one life-source ahead of them.
"One sig down the trail, be ready."

They resumed their trek, their senses perked and guns ready. The beeping faintly continued amidst the chirps of birds and other-worldly animal sounds...

Along the way, as they carefully climbed through the debris that peppered the gravel trail, the foliage began to clear up and the debris cleared. There, on a tree stump, a man sat with a lit cigarette in his mouth, nicotine smoke rising above him.

"Civvie detected, at-ease marines,"
The man turned his head, his eyes widening at the column and he froze. He looked like a deer in the middle of headlights.

The column continued walking while he glared at them stupidly. "Garth, Ed, bring the man with us."

Garth nodded, "On it, ma'am," the two broke off and walked over. He was stiff as a rock when they grabbed him by the arms and dragged him by the feet. "You're comin' with us, alright sir?" Ed said to him.

He reluctantly nodded, still being held by the arms and they continued. Finally, they had made it to Pinghai; a smaller settlement established near the mouth of the Togohashi River.

"Time to get to work," Penkina thought aloud. "Boys, rally up the locals and look for weapons! Leave no stone un-turned!"

The column spread out. Citizens on the streets were grouped up and lined against the walls, sitting on their knees.

"Sergeant Sleepy!"
Penkina turned around, seeing Garth and Ed restraining the man by his arms, a cigarette still hanging out his mouth.
"We got him, ma'am! What do we do with him?"

"Line him up with the rest of the civvies," she pointed to the wall of a dome where five others were already sitting.

They dragged him over, and plopped him on the ground. "Keep yourself up against the wall," Garth spoke in his ear as they laid him on his knees.

They started clearing houses afterward.

...

"Let's go ma'am, you have to move out," Lochlann was funneling a family out of their small dome-house. One elderly woman in particular persisted, ranting in Japanese as she sat sunken on a couch with her cane in hand.

"Can you understand a lick of what she's saying?" Rotten spoke as he whipped a carpet off the kitchen floor, revealing a hard-wood cover underneath.

"Nope," Healy shook her head. "You find anything?"
"Found a wooden floor..." Dan kneeled down, pulling at one plank; it squeaked, and he could see blackness under the crevices of wood...

"Hold on--" he gripped it, yanked it forward, ripping the plank upward. Underneath was a square wooden crate.

"Jackpot... Healy, I got something over here!"
The Smartgunner ran over. "What's- Oh, I see."

"Here, give me a hand with this." Rotten grabbed the lid, and they both peeked inside...
revealing a smaller metal safe within, only as big as a pistol holster.

"Well, shit, you think they've got something inside?" Rotten queried as he grabbed it and shook it next to his ear.

"Sounds like a gun..." he said.

...
...

"Fuckin' hell, Garth! Look at all these munitions!"

"Yeah, they have quite the arsenal here..."

At their feet stood a hole filled with semi-automatic, bolt, and automatic rifles. Along with these were bandoliers of grenades, boxes of shotgun slugs and hunting bullets, and one RPG with three rockets.

"...Well, they wont be using it anymore. Got the lighter?" Powalski continued.

"Fuckin' A," he pulled the zippo from his pants and flipped it open.

Garth pulled a stick of dynamite from his backpack, rolling it in his hand. "This puppy'll blow the whole dome apart," he said. "Go tell 'em outside."

As Powalski kneeled beside the hole, Trevor walked to the front porch, yelling "WE'RE BLOWING MUNITIONS, EVERYONE GET BACK!"

Walking back, he lit his zippo, kneeled back down and hovered it over the tiny string.

"Now fuckin' move," Garth spoke, and they both sprinted outside.

BOOM


The roof up-heaved and the door flew into the air, colliding into a wall on the opposite side of the road. Smoke and fire blew out the shattered windowsills accompanied by muzzle flashes exploding above the roof all in a split-second before the ceiling collapsed into itself, and the sound of erupting ammunition was muffled by the steel debris.

"God damn that was nice," Garth slipped a cig out placing it in his mouth. "All in a day's work, ey Ed?" he glanced at the grunt.

A chunk of metal suddenly landed on the road five feet in-front from them, sticking into the road and launching gravel around them. They felt their helmets getting pelted by rocks.

The two stared at it in silence.

"Damn..." Ed muttered, adjusting his helmet into place.

Powalski shook his head. "Let's go back, man," and the two jogged to the center of town.


...
...
...

"They counted twenty-five men," Healy spoke as he sat in his fox-hole, laying his smartgun on his lap.

"How many houses did you blow up?" Ray spoke chewing on a protein bar.

"Just three. Nobody started any trouble. Whole op went smooth, our only casualty was a PFC getting struck by glass after a door smashed into a window... nothing mortal though, guy got fixed up in thirty minutes."

"Door smashing into a window? How does that happen?"

Healy shrugged. "Hell if I know."

"Sounds crazy, man, wish I was there to see it."

Healy leaned back resting his head on his hands. "Sure was something, beats doing work detail here all day."

"That's for damn sure," Ray muffled through chewed food as he stood up and wiped the crumbs off his trousers. "I'm headed back. Night, Healy."

"Night," Healy closed his eyes and listened to the ambience of men talking and the ominous chirps and squawks that emanated from the jungle. It sounded other-wordly in the Purple Forest, and the noises unnerved him... He wondered, "What else is hiding behind those trees and bushes?"

https://youtu.be/jf-brTKOOo8?t=239

[completelynewguy]

Good read. Can't wait for the first big firefight.

[Kavlo]

Only just got about to reading it, and I regret not reading it sooner because that was a pretty good read.

[Karmac]

still hype for everything to go horribly wrong

[Imperator_Titan]

door smashing window confirmed most effective weapon

anyways, pretty good read and almost missed it entirely, keep it up my dude