Opportunities Taken

Opportunities Taken - Chapter 4

They had walked and Chase became more and more quiet, Skye noticed and turned to him.

"Chase, I never wanted to drum up bad memories," said Skye, "I really want to help, but if this is causing you more pain, you don't have to tell me right now."

Chase took a deep breath, "Skye, I really appreciate that, but if we are going to be together you need to know the messed up pup I've become. I owe you the truth."

"There is no IF," said Skye, turning Chase and kissing him. "We are together and we are going to stay together. I want all of you, if it will help you to talk about it, I'm here to listen. If not, then I still want you, your past, your future, all of you."

Chase pulled Skye into a tight hug and then sat down, "So a little over a year ago, we were deployed to an area that was reported to not have active fighting and only salvage operations were ongoing. We had driven in as the report was that a weapons cache had been located and had multiple cases of unstable ordnance among it. We were to evaluate the issues and deal with it or haul it to a safe location."

Skye sat beside him and nodded.

"We had a small security force with us as this was supposed to be a cold zone," said Chase, "We had found the weapons and were going through inventorying the contents. One of my sergeants called me over to show me a box containing mortar rounds, he said something didn't feel right. As I walked over the sergeant walked over to the box he was talking about. I heard the click that could only be the actuator for a land mine. I immediately yelled "Freeze!" to everyone. It was the teams danger phrase that meant everyone in earshot was to immediately freeze in whatever position they were because something had been observed or heard that indicated a threat. I checked my feet first and then dropped to my belly and low crawled toward my sergeant. I began to probe as I crawled. I found the mine and he was standing hard on top of the pressure sensor. I quickly dug around the device and found it appeared to be a Russian OZM-72. The device, when activated, launches itself into the air and detonates, sending shrapnel in all directions at about chest height for a human, meaning head height for a canine. If it went off it would not only kill those present, it would set off most of the ordinance in the immediate area."

Skye gasped and put her paws to her mouth.

"I began assessing the device for a way to disarm the device," said Chase. "I called out to the team to start removing all the ordinance from the area and advised what I had and to use caution to detect any similar devices. There were several more found as well as three cases that were sitting on similar devices so if they were moved they would activate, killing whoever picked up the case."

"Oh my god!" gasp Skye, "it was a trap."

Chase nodded and continued. "The guys got the majority of the ordinance away and began placing blast blankets on the cases they couldn't move. I had noticed that the device Sgt. Spike was standing on was very deteriorated and may not be able to be disarmed. I had fully exposed the device and was about to attempt to disarm it when I was stopped by another tech. He told me that I needed to back out and let one of the guys attempt this one. I began to argue and realized this is exactly the way I trained my guys. I backed out and ordered Sgt. Rex to take over, he was our best tech when it came to land mines. He moved in and I stepped away to call for retrieval and to put medical on standby. I was listening when I heard Rex say 'SHIT' seconds later they both disappeared in a cloud of smoke and debris, the blast blankets held and the extra cases didn't detonate, but they were both gone. The other cases didn't go off but they had shifted and therefore the entire area was now sensitive. I started to run back and was tackled to the ground by the Sergeant Major. He advised me that it was unstable and there was nothing I could do for them. We had to back out and blow what was left in place."