Diamond Dogs Forever

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"All fireteams, this is CP!"

He only groaned, the words echoing fruitlessly in his head, his ears a bleeding mess. His gut a torn bag of blood and shrapnel.

"Kill Count has taken platform Three, all hands on deck immediately! Do not let them reach the R&D Platform!" Buzzed the intercom, the voice of their commander, Kazuhira Miller, shouting loudly, blaring in combat against the winds of the Indian Ocean.

It would've been an easy command to heed, had the panic of the moment not been overbearing.

It was hell.

It was chaos.

Mercenaries from both groups fighting and dying for territory. Soldiers screaming, shooting, bleeding, and fighting over platforms rising high above the water. Gunfire and grenades exploded all around, fires burned, mortars tore open the sound barrier, a helicopter piloted by callsign Queequeg flew overhead, strafing the lost platforms with machine gun fire.

All the while he watched, behind enemy lines, bleeding and lost. The nuances of war destroying everything he held dear.

Diamonds Dogs - his family - were defending their beloved home - their Mother Base - from their rivals, Kill Count. They were fighting and dying for each other, and would do anything to push their rivals back into the ocean.

Kill Count, money hungry, CEO backed demons who care for nothing of the lives of their men and anyone caught in the crossfire. They executed civilian personnel - doctors, quartermasters, and engineers - and gave no quarter to the wounded. He was only lucky they haven't found him yet.

They were a stain on the names of Private Military Forces everywhere.

No ethics.

No morals.

All that mattered was money.

And now they wanted more.

They wanted Mother Base.

But Diamond Dogs wasn't going to give in so easy.

Two platforms had been lost already, the staff of Mother Base either fleeing to further platforms or fighting to the bitter end.

Kill Count were not ones to show mercy.

Platforms Four and Three of the R&D Team have been lost, Diamond Dogs having been attacked in the dead of night when most of the men had been sleeping. They were taken completely unaware and had initially provided no resistance. But alarms soon blared, voices roared, fires blazed, and guns sounded away.

It was total war now.

The attack was so sudden that some of the Diamond Dog mercenaries were still in their underwear, fighting in the open with nothing but carbines and pistols while the entirety of Mother Base awoke from their still night.

Reinforcements had arrived from the neighboring platforms and the Security Team were the first responders. The Combat Unit had already been dispatched and more were coming in from their platform, the Medical Team were dispatching doctors and medics to the frontlines to aid the wounded and carry away the dying. The Support Unit were dispatching helicopters and supplies to the embattled forces on the R&D Team, doing their best to help their brothers-in-fate. And finally, the Intel Team were doing their best to get Big Boss home so he could lead the assault in retaking their commandeered platforms.

He was the only one who could do it, for he was their leader. He was the one each Diamond Dog looked up to. He was a hero and a legend to each mercenary, and a role model for every Diamond Dog. But he was gone, away on a mission to rescue a British captive held by another rival, the Contract Forces of Africa.

Without him, morale was already hitting an all-time low. Death and flames awaited all who arrived at the front. Kill Count snipers having been targeting the doctors and medics with extreme prejudice.

A new recruit going by the codename Emerald Hound had tried to rally everyone, grabbing a riot shield from a fallen comrade. She was a young, green haired soldier often recognized by the unique tattoo on her face: The logo of FOXHOUND - a decal of a fierce fox with a combat knife held firmly in its mouth.

She was known by everyone in her unit to be a model mercenary and a good friend. She was sent by the Medical Team as a medic to stabilize the wounded and keep them in the fight, but she was appalled by the progress Kill Count was making and had wanted to lead the counter-attack herself,

"On me, on me!" She had shouted. "I'm spearheading this shit, let's go!"

But she hadn't even made it one step before a sniper got her square between the eyes, right through the viewslot in the shield. She fell, much to the demoralization of everyone else.

Ocelot was at the Command Platform, organizing a retaliation effort alongside Miller while keeping Big Boss up to date on the situation while he was being vectored home. He had no idea how bad the situation truly was.

But despite everything, none of it could be worse for one mercenary.

"Queequeg is in hot, find cover!" The radios buzzed, their support helicopter returning for another strafing run on the enemy combatants. The mercenary watched, vision bloodied and distant, as the helicopter torn through the air above him, a hellfire fury that the Diamond Dogs were gleeful to give. "Target acquired! In hot!" The pilot shouted.

A thunderous escapade of thunderous sounds and blinding explosions accompanied the words, and the helicopter flew away again, readying for another strafe.

But the mercenary couldn't care less, for he had bigger problems than friendly fire.

He was trapped. The enemy surrounding him unknowingly and left behind by his comrades in an attempt to regroup on platform Two.

He was gutshot, one of the initial casualties when the gunfire started in its fullness. He was on patrol, a late night guard wandering the outer platforms belonging to the R&D Team. A suppressed weapon had been used, for he heard no gunfire. Just a quick, painful blur of a moment followed by the stunning impact of his own collapse.

This mercenary was codenamed Raging Capybara. A newish member of Diamond Dogs, having been rescued in the field by their boss, and his idol, Big Boss.

It all happened so fast. A Soviet Scorched Earth Campaign, the execution of his brother, and his imprisonment for suspected cooperation with the Hamid Rebels; an Afghan resistance group.

Then, pending his own execution, he was rescued by a man with a horn and an eyepatch.

Big Boss.

He had knocked out the guards and looked at the soon-to-be mercenary, either out of pity or surprise, but Big Boss barely betrayed any emotion. He begged, in Pashto, for Big Boss to help him as he had firmly believed at the time he was a member of the Hamid, or perhaps their C.I.A. allies. Big Boss almost left him, speaking to an earpiece in English - a language that was completely alien to him at the time - stating "Kaz, we've got a prisoner here." and that "The tanks will reach the front any moment, what do you think? He got intel?" before deciding so.

He was placed on a helicopter bound for Mother Base, and it was thus he was able to begin a new life in Diamond Dogs.

He owed Big Boss everything, for Big Boss saved him from wrongful execution in a country invaded by a communist regime.

And the only way he ever repaid him was by giving out the alert.

He had survived being shot, and through great agony in the quiet of the night, managed to speak into the radio that they were under attack.

"CP…. C...P…" He had managed to groan into the radio. At the time he had no idea the fate of his nearby friends and comrades, but with the firefight ensuing in a brutal fullness, there remained no doubt in his mind. "I've...been shot! No… No shots heard! R&D P-platform Three! We're under attack!"

And now here he was. Bleeding out, forgotten by CP as the invasion took their attention completely. Behind enemy lines. His only meek way to repay the man he idolized being a pained call-out of danger.

He had wanted so much more. And if anything, this wasn't the way he expected to go out.

He was no fool. He was bleeding more than he could stop. The round was still lodged in his chest and any movement he offered only sent tremors of misery through him. He knew the medics would not arrive in time, and he would bleed out long before the platform would be retaken.

Diamond Dogs was his only family left - the Soviet's having exterminated all he held dear back in Afghanistan - and he would die to see his last remaining shred of hope survive another night.

Despite this, in his mind, being a lowly way to repay the man who had saved him, he had resigned himself to the idea that he had done his duty. How many more of his friends and family would've died silently in the night otherwise?

Had he allowed his pain to overcome him, would Mother Base have fallen already to the silent invasion?

Would his brothers-in-fate have had their throats slit while in bed?

Quite possibly, and even as he writhed and bled and groaned, he maintained a smile that only the accomplished would offer. Through his actions, he had halted Kill Count's advance.

He froze, hearing the swift approach of another.

And when they laid eyes on each other, they froze.

Only a surprised stare lingered between them, and Capybara scrambled to pull his pistol. Even with the pain flaring like madness within him, he had managed to land it on his adversary without a single tremor. And the other leveled their rifle in turn.

And in the static of the chaos, no one noticed the small standoff.

Two mercs, two opposing sides.

The question only remained:

Who shot first?

No one would know.

For both men would die that blazing night.

Capybara's last thoughts being: "Diamond Dogs Forever."