Silas Vane POV
The ground shook as a bullet slammed into the mud inches from my face. I didn't flinch. I couldn't afford to. I was Silas Vane, the youngest Major in the history of the "Black Raven" unit, and right now, my only job was to keep my brothers alive.
"Jax! Cover the left flank! Leo, stay on my six!" I yelled over the roar of gunfire. My voice was calm, but my heart was pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird.
"I've got you, Boss!" Jax shouted back. He was a mountain of a man with a heavy machine gun and a heart of gold. He started firing, the bright flashes of his gun lighting up the dark, rainy woods.
We were in the middle of a secret mission to find a hard drive. It was supposed to be a simple "in and out" job. But the woods were crawling with enemies. We had been fighting for three hours, moving through the thick mud and rain, just trying to reach the extraction point. I could feel the hard drive in my pocket. It was small and cold, but it felt heavier than my rifle. It was the reason we were here. It was the reason my men were bleeding.
"Silas, they're closing in!" Leo screamed. He was our medic, the youngest of us, and he was currently dragging a wounded soldier behind a fallen tree.
"Hold the line!" I commanded. I popped up and fired three quick shots. Three targets fell. I didn't feel good about it; I just felt tired. I looked at my team. They were dirty, tired, and scared, but they looked at me with total trust. They followed me because I promised to bring them home. I had never broken that promise.
Suddenly, a loud, rhythmic thumping sound filled the air. My heart leaped with joy. It was the sound of helicopter blades.
"Extraction is here!" Jax cheered, waving a green flare into the air. "The General didn't forget us!"
I looked up through the rain. Two massive Black Hawk helicopters crested the hill, their searchlights cutting through the mist like giant eyes. I felt a wave of relief so strong I almost dropped my gun. General Marcus Sterling, my mentor and the man who taught me everything I knew, had sent help. He was like a father to me. I knew he wouldn't let his Black Ravens die in this hole.
"Big Bird 1-1, this is Ghost," I said into my radio, using my call sign. "We have the package. Ready for pickup."
There was a long pause of static. Then, a voice came through that made my skin crawl. It wasn't the pilot. It was General Sterling.
"Major Vane," the General's voice echoed in my ear. It sounded cold, like a winter wind. "You were always my best student. You were efficient, loyal, and brave."
"Thank you, sir," I said, confused. "But we need to move. My men are hurt."
"That's the problem, Silas," Sterling continued. His voice didn't sound like a father's anymore. It sounded like a killer's. "You're too good. You actually found it. You actually looked at what was on that drive."
My breath caught in my throat. I hadn't looked at the drive yet, but I realized in that second that it didn't matter. The General thought I had.
"Sir?" I whispered, my eyes widening as I watched the helicopters.
The helicopters didn't land. Instead, they hovered in the air, their noses dipping down toward us. I saw the large, multi-barreled guns on their sides begin to spin. These weren't rescue ships. They were gunships.
"General, wait!" I screamed. "My team is down here! Jax, Leo they're your men!"
"No, Silas," Sterling replied. "They are loose ends. And dead men don't tell tales".
"SCATTER!" I roared at the top of my lungs.
But it was too late. The miniguns opened fire.
The world turned into a nightmare of sound and light. Thousands of bullets chewed up the ground, the trees, and the people I loved. I watched in horror as Jax was hit. He didn't even have time to scream. The man who had been my best friend for ten years was simply gone, turned into a red mist before my eyes.
"LEO!" I lunged toward the medic, but a missile from the second helicopter slammed into the ground between us.
The blast was like a giant hand slapping me into the sky. I felt myself flying through the air, the world spinning in a blur of fire and smoke. I hit a tree hard, feeling my ribs snap, and then I began to tumble down a steep, rocky cliff.
As I fell, the left side of my face hit something burning a piece of flaming metal from the wreckage. I felt my skin melt. The pain was so intense that my vision turned white. I wanted to scream, but the air had been knocked out of my lungs.
I finally stopped rolling at the bottom of the ravine, landing face-down in a puddle of muddy water. I lay there, broken and bleeding. I couldn't move my legs. I couldn't see out of my left eye. Everything smelled like burnt hair and jet fuel.
I looked up with my one good eye. High above, the helicopters were circling. I could see the General's silhouette in the window of the lead chopper. He was looking down at the graveyard he had created. He didn't look sad. He didn't look guilty. He looked like he was checking a chore off a list.
The helicopters eventually turned and flew away, their sound fading into the distance. Silence returned to the woods, broken only by the sound of the rain and the crackle of fire.
I was alone. My brothers were dead. My mentor had betrayed me. And as I lay there, I heard a faint sound from my radio, which was miraculously still working near my head. It was a news broadcast.
"...breaking news tonight," a reporter's voice said through the static. "The military has confirmed that Major Silas Vane and his unit have been declared traitors. Sources say Vane stole top-secret data and led his men into an ambush before disappearing. He is considered armed and extremely dangerous...".
A traitor. They were calling me a traitor. I had given my life to that uniform, and now they were using my name to cover up their own crimes.
I tried to reach for the hard drive in my pocket, but my arm wouldn't move. My fingers just twitched in the mud. I felt the heat of the burns on my face, the skin tightening and bubbling. I was officially "deceased" to the world.
I closed my eyes, the cold rain washing the blood from my brow. My heart slowed down. I felt like I was slipping away into the dark. It would be so easy to just stop breathing. To join Jax and Leo.
But then, I remembered the General's face. I remembered the sound of his voice as he ordered the deaths of his own soldiers.
A new feeling sparked in my chest. It wasn't loyalty. It wasn't duty. It was a cold, sharp, and heavy hunger for revenge.
My eyes snapped open. The fire was gone, but the anger was just beginning.
I am Silas Vane. And I am not dead yet.