So the plot of this just popped into my head one day and I couldn't get rid of it, so i decided to kick off the new year by giving writing a try. Hope you enjoy.

What Will It Take?

Prologue

Baghdad, Iraq 2007

"I think Daniels is bleeding out!" One of the men shouted; his voice barely audible through the sound of gunfire and rockets.

"We can't stay here, we have fall back!" Shouted another.

"We can't, we're cut off!"

"Then move to that house, across the street!"

Just then, another set of rockets came flying overhead, missing only by a few feet. More bursts of machine gun fire followed immediately afterword. The squad of twelve soldiers was currently in a heated fire fight. Clearly outnumbered and out gunned, with the only suitable cover being a few abandoned vehicles in the road.

"Christ! Alright, Isaac, take half the squad and go across to clear that house. Once it's safe, cover us as we carry Daniels in. From there, we'll triage him properly and call in for support."

"Got it Sergeant! Alright you heard the man let's go!" Isaac shouted, he and five additional soldiers getting ready.

"Covering fire!" Shouted the squad leader. He and the other remaining soldiers unleashing a volley of bullets with their rifles and light machine guns, covering their advancing allies.

Corporal Isaac and the others made the mad dash across the street, bullets whizzing by their heads and missing by mere inches. In moments, they were across. Isaac, not wanting to spend any more time in the open than necessary, used his large stature to slam into to the door and pummel his way inside. The other soldiers shuffled in right behind him.

"Jeez, you ever hear of knocking?" One of his fellow soldiers asked.

"Can it Kowalski, I didn't want to waste time trying to open it." Isaac retorted

"You looked like a fucking rhinoceros."

"Shut up and clear the rest of the rooms!"

The immediate room was clear; the small team then searched the adjacent rooms, finding them empty as well.

"First floor all clear Corporal."

"Good job Irvin. You, McConnell, and West go clear the second floor." Isaac ordered. "Norman, once they've cleared everything, set up your radio on the roof."

The three soldiers then started up the stairs, kicking in the door and rushing inside. The first room was empty, they then proceeded to check the bathroom, finding it empty as well. The adjacent bedroom was all that was left to check in the whole house. The trio approached the doorway with Irvin at the front. A rustling could be heard from inside, perhaps it was the home owners, just trying to hide from the fighting. There was only one way to find out.

"Watch your fire, we don't want any civilians harmed." Warned McConnell.

"I'll be careful." Irvin responded.

The three approached the door, ready to storm the room. On the signal, they moved in. Before the door was even fully opened, a burst of rifle fire erupted from the room. Immediately Irvin was hit and fell to the floor. With no time to react, McConnell and West rushed in, stepping over their wounded friend. Inside the room, two insurgents were firing their AK-47's, intent on killing anything that entered.

Unfortunately for them the remaining two soldiers were well experienced. Without hesitation they rushed in, with West immediately ducking below the shots and shooting the first insurgent three times in the chest. Before he even hit the ground, McConnell was already putting two shots into the other assailant. The whole engagement was over within about two seconds.

"All clear!"

"I'm hit"

"I got you Irvin, Don't worry."

"If you're the one helping me, I have every reason to be worried."

Ignoring the jab, McConnell proceeded to assess his friend's wound, seeing two distinct bullet holes in his arm. It looked painful but not life threatening. He reached into his first aid kit and pulled out two bandages. He carefully began wrapping the arm with the pieces of cloth.

"You're going to be alright buddy." He said patting him on the shoulder, "Good thing you're right handed." He then turned and shouted to the guys downstairs, "All clear, tell the others to get in here! Norman the roofs all yours!"

While he was taking care of Irvin, West was still looking around the room and immediately noticed something out of the ordinary.

"These assholes were setting up a machine gun in here."

He walked over to the window where the half-finished gun was set up. Sure enough it would have been pointing right at the rest of the squad across the street. Had they shown up a minute later, the mission would have ended barely after it began. McConnell, upon seeing the setup, immediately hatched an idea.

"Do you think you can finish setting it up?" McConnell asked.

"Definitely." West responded, already catching on to what he had in mind.

Meanwhile across the street, the fighting was only getting more intense. It became more and more clear that they had disturbed a hornet's nest. Sergeant Nelson was running out of time and patience.

"Come on Isaac what's taking so long, we don't have all day." The squad leader muttered to himself.

Just then, he noticed Isaac stick his head out, giving the signal that they were cleared to come inside.

"There, everybody inside now! Jacobson pick up Daniels, we'll cover you!" Nelson ordered

Instantly all the remaining soldiers were sprinting to the house, desperate to get to better cover. It was only a 50 foot run, but it felt like 50 miles. The whole time Sergeant Nelson shouting orders.

"Keep moving!"

"GO, GO, GO!"

"Don't Sto-"

…

The soldiers turned around to see Nelson on the ground, in a puddle of blood that was slowly growing bigger. Immediately, two of the soldiers turned back, all concern for their own safety forgotten. Despite the whirlwind of bullets, they managed to run back to the fallen leader. Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that Nelson was alive, but in very bad shape. The bullet had struck him in the neck, and he was bleeding profusely. He couldn't be moved without some type of treatment, and it was too dangerous to stay outside, so one of the soldiers stuck their thumb in the wound, stopping the bleeding. Carefully, they picked him up, making sure to keep the wound plugged. Slowly, they made their way back to the house, relying solely on the covering fire provided by their comrades to keep them safe, luckily West had finished setting up the machine gun and was laying down a massive amount of firepower. They had just made it to the door, two steps from being in the clear, when one of the soldiers was struck in the back.

"Stevens got hit too!" Someone yelled.

Isaac was quick to grab the wounded man and drag him in. Finally, everyone was inside, but the situation wasn't getting any less dangerous. Once the soldier was able to get a real bandage, she removed her thumb from Nelsons neck and properly bandaged his wound.

"Peterson calm down!"

"NO!"

Just then a fist made contact with her face, the wind immediately knocked out of her, but she managed to stay on her feet. She looked up to see one of her team mates standing over her, venom in his eyes, being held back to two others.

"This is all your fucking fault!" He shouted, "We were supposed to lay low and observe, not start a fucking fire fight!"

"Peterson you need to calm down, we're still in the middle that fire fight!" Said Isaac, trying to defuse the situation.

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" Peterson continued.

"We've been after that enemy officer for weeks, I finally found an opportunity." She finally spoke.

"Great!" Peterson said, sarcastically, "You got one guy. Now all of us are going to die!"

"I made a call, and we got him!"

"Fuck you Bosak! No wonder your father is so hard on you!"

To this she said nothing.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Isaac finally snapped

Suddenly a rocket came out of nowhere, striking the second floor and detonating, rocking the whole building.

"West!" McConnell screamed

The rocket had hit directly in the machine gunners window. McConnell was knocked off his feet but immediately recovered. He quickly ran over to check the fallen gunner, but it was too late.

"McConnell, what's going on up there?!" Isaac shouted from down stairs.

"West is gone."

Twelve hours later

"We stayed in that house for an hour until reinforcements were finally able to reach us. By then Sergeant Nelson had also died, and the number of wounded had reached six."

"Well if you don't mind me prodding. Your orders, as I understood them, were to only observe and assess any potential threats. So how did the fire fight even start?"

…

"Well?"

"To be honest sir, it all happened so fast, I'm not sure how it started. The village was crawling with insurgents, any one of them could have spotted us and started shooting."

"I see. And the militia leader was confirmed killed, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"And how many other insurgents would you say were killed?"

"Too many for me to remember sir"

"Very well." He sighed. "Although the loss of Sergeant Nelson and Corporal West is devastating, at least we gained something from it. With that leader out of the picture, their chain of command will be in chaos for a while, long enough for us to deal some significant damage to their forces. HQ is going to be very happy with this one."

…

"How are the remaining members of the team doing?"

"After everything that's happened, as well as they can be sir."

"Understandable. Do you have anything else to add?"

"No sir."

"Thank you Corporal Isaac, this concludes the after action report. Dismissed."

"Yes sir."

Isaac stepped out of the office. The remainder of the team was waiting quietly, since they got back no one said much. Isaac, Kowalski, Norman and Bosak were the only ones to make it back unscathed, at least physically. Bosak, though her face was expressionless was intentionally avoiding eye contact with the others.

"So how'd it go?" Kowalski asked.

"I just told them what happened."

"And what did they say?"

"They were pleased to hear that we killed the leader of the militia group."

"What about the fact that we lost two thirds of our squad?"

"They were more focused on the fact that we killed a high ranking enemy leader and the fact that it's going to hurt the enemy forces in that town."

"Do they not realize that they've probably already instated a new leader?" Kowalski asked, his patience running low.

"How would they realize that? They've never fought them face to face."

"So that's it? Two guys are dead, six more are mangled and they're focused how this affects the enemy?!" Norman chimed in.

"That's how they operate Norman, they're high ranking officers. All they want to see are the results, so they can brag about what they accomplished so they look good in the eyes of those in charge of them. No one cares about what happened to the men and women who sacrificed to make that happen, to get the results they wanted." Isaac said with a bitter tone in his voice.

His mind was in a million places at once, he wasn't sure which was more upsetting, the fact that they had lost so much, or the fact that no one seemed to give a damn. He was angry, but as the new squad leader he had to keep cool in front of his subordinates.

"This is bullshit. Why are they like this?"

"We're private military contractors Norman, we're a dime a dozen. The longer you stay in this business, the more you'll realize it's all about money."

Norman didn't know what to say. He was the newest member of the team and didn't have a lot of experience as a PMC. He was upset but he'd be lying to himself if he said that he wasn't also focused on the money; that the sole reason that he even took the job was because it paid well. Not wanting to dwell on the subject, he asked another question.

"What about the fact that…we weren't supposed to start fighting?"

Norman was being kind, he didn't want to single anyone out, but everyone knew who he was talking about. All eyes turned to the only female squad member.

"I told them it was too chaotic to tell what happened." Isaac responded

"When the others are out of the hospital and give their after action reports, some of them might not say the same. They'll know exactly what happened." Kowalski pointed out.

"By the time they're out, HQ won't even remember or care about what happened."

"And if they do?"

"Then we'll deal with it when we have to, until then, the report has already been given."

Silence fell between the four of them, the whole time Bosak hadn't said a single word. Not because she didn't care, she was just lost in her own thoughts, and as much as she tried to hide it, the others could see it.

"Look, we're all still in shock over what happened yesterday. We need to get some rest, let's just take it easy for now and then we can talk about what happened later okay?"

Norman and Kowalski nodded in agreement. Still, Bosak didn't say anything; she just turned and started walking back to her tent. On the outside she kept her usual demeanor on her face, seemingly devoid of emotion. But in her head she just kept flashing back to the day before, the events replaying in her mind over and over again. Every moment from the time she fired the first shot, to loading bodies into the vehicles that came to rescue them. She wasn't sure what haunted her more, the fact that every time she closed her eyes, she would relive an image of that dreadful fire fight, or the fact that each one was followed by her father's voice.

"Elzbieta, I don't understand."

"What will it take for you to listen?"

"What will it take for you to stop messing up?"

"What will it take to be like your sister?"

"What will it take?"

Author's Note: Happy 2018 Everyone. So this is my first ever fanfic, I hope you enjoyed it. I've got most of the story written in my head now I just need to transfer it to paper. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this but I'm trying for at least every two or three weeks. With that being said, please leave a review and let me know what you think. Until next time.