[quote=@CaptainSully]
[@Sifter][@Bee]

Seeing as I did logo's for everyone else, here are yours. Use them...dont use them...it's cool either way :cool
[center]
[hider=Pravda][img]https://image.ibb.co/dELkBd/pravda.png[/img][/hider]
[hider=Trojan][img]https://image.ibb.co/kn4Z4y/trojan.png[/img][/hider][/center]
[/quote]

Thanks man, thank you very much! I will definitely use it!

Anyway, here's the next chapter in Kirill's fun time in Afghanistan.

[hider=Kirill's Wartime Tales II]
[center][b]Sgt. Kirill Gusakov[/b]
[i]Latvijas Nacionālie bruņotie spēki[/i] (Latvian National Armed Forces)
[i]Speciālo uzdevumu vienība[/i] (Special Tasks Unit)
International Security Assistance Force
Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team
[b]"Wolverine"[/b][/center]

[hr]

[b]Combat Outpost "Pirtle-King", Kunar Province, Afghanistan
September 2010[/b]

They brought Robert out of the medical wing on a stretcher and rushed him towards the medevac Blackhawk that had just landed next to the base, waiting for them. [b]"Hold on there, Dino!"[/b] Ozy said to Robert as he followed him, along with Kirill and the medic who were carrying the stretcher and another soldier who held the IV bag above Robert. Other US and ANA soldiers followed them closely behind as they darted through the base. Robert was tightly wrapped in a space blanket, so the only thing he could do in his drugged state was to turn his head toward Ozy and comically stick his tongue out, which was an action he soon regretted when they entered the cloud of dust created by the helicopters spinning blades.

[color=limegreen][b]"Stay strong, brother!"[/b][/color] Kirill shouted to Robert as he handed his end of the stretcher to the US medics who got out of the helicopter. Smiling and waving with his right hand that he managed to get outside the blanket, Robert was put into the Blackhawk by the medics and was flown off to the field hospital back at FOB Bostick.

What happened to Kirill? Nothing happened to him - the bullets hadn’t penetrated. He was alright, just a little bit worried and shaken. He would also have bruises on his chest for the next few days, not that he would care about them. He never in his life got to find out how it felt to get shot, but that day he found out how it felt to see when one of your guys got hit. [i][b]And when that happens, you have something to be nervous about.[/b][/i]

[hr]

A crowd of soldiers had formed around Kirill and his two remaining comrades who were inspecting his damaged vest lying on a make-shift table while under a shelter from Afghanistan's scorching sun. The said shelter was simply a roof that was built around a corner of two high Hesco walls in the middle of the base, put there by its inhabitants a long time before the Latvians had even arrived to PK.

Still in his sweaty LATPAT fatigues and with a cigarette in his mouth, Kirill began removing the front ceramic plate from his vest. He managed to get it out and presented it to the crowd. Seeing the plate, different expressions could be heard from the spectators: [b]"Oh, man." "Oohh, you were fookin' close there, mate." "Oh, shit!"[/b] There were two bullets in the plate, one was right in the spot where Kirill's heart would have been, the second one had hit at an angle, right at the edge of the plate, and had dug in deep.

[b]"Yeah, you were fucking..."[/b] John chuckled. [b]"Definitely fucking lucky."[/b] A British contractor pointed at the bullet that had hit at the angle: [b]"That's still inner, innit?"[/b] Wanting to go gold hunting for the bullet and its fragments, the Brit took out his pocket knife and put his hand out. [color=limegreen][b]"Yup, should still be in there."[/b][/color] Kirill said as he handed the guy his plate. The other soldiers began helping him.


Ozy felt uneasy. He went to Sao village with Kirill and Robert, but he wasn’t with them when the shooting began. And the contact ended as quickly as it had begun, asymmetrically – as usual. Even worse, one of his men got shot. He still had no clear idea of what had happened. [b]“Kirill, tell me what happened out there? Where was the contact? Was it from long? From the cornfield, as usual?”[/b] He asked him in Latvian.

Ozy's question brought Kirill back out of his deep thoughts as he watched the guys tear his plate a new one. Looking at Ozy, Kirill began recalling his memory of what happened:  [color=limegreen][b]"They were in several positions."[/b][/color] Kirill pointed towards the bullets that the guys were trying to get out of his plate. [color=limegreen][b]"These ones came directly from the village. You know where the police post is? There was a village opposite it further up the hill. They were hiding in the bushes when they began firing."[/b][/color] He took a breath from his cigarette and continued. [color=limegreen][b]"They shot from the village and..."[/b][/color]

The Brit got one of the bullets out of Kirill's plate and presented it to him. [b]"Here ya go, mate."[/b] Picking it up, Kirill said: [color=limegreen][b]"You ought to be kidding me."[/b][/color] Taking a glance at the PKM bullet, he passed it on to the next soldier. [b]"Shut the fuck up..."[/b] The soldier swore as he passed it to John who said: [b]"You better take that thing home with you."[/b]

Looking back at Ozy, Kirill continued telling him his recount: [color=limegreen][b]"Like I said, they were firing from the village and then they also opened fire from the cornfield. From where they attacked us back in July."[/b][/color]

[i]Some of the soldiers noticed that there were some of the bullets fragments stuck in Kirill's vest and tried to get them out.[/i]

[b]"Nobody from the villagers saw anything this time too? You couldn't answer back with fire either?”[/b]
Kirill was annoyed by Ozy's questions. [color=limegreen][b]“They saw. Oh, they saw. Hell, the ones who shot at us were probably the villagers themselves.”[/b][/color] The second question actually hit a nerve. [color=limegreen][b]"And of course we couldn't fire back, there was fucking no one we could shoot at. You know how they operate; you can't even see them 'till it's already too fucking late."[/b][/color] Pissed off, Kirill inhaled another round of toxic fumes from his cigarette.

After pulling it out from the plate, a soldier gave Kirill the other bullet. It was Soviet, high-quality, steel core, too. If they were unlucky, such 7.62mm rounds could pierce the standard plates used by the coalition soldiers.  [b]"I don't think that they like you, man."[/b] John jokingly said to him. [color=limegreen][b]"You think so?"[/b][/color] Kirill sarcastically replied as he chuckled. As he kept inspecting the bullet, however, the realisation of how close he was to his own demise slowly crept up to Kirill and he gradually lost the grin on his face. He knew his job was dangerous and that he could die out here. But knowing that was different from feeling it. Puffing out the smoke from his cigarette that was nearing its end, he said: [color=39b54a][i][b]"It's my lucky day."[/b][/i][/color]

Kirill then proceeded to walk out of the shelter, into the view of Kunar Valley’s deadly beautiful mountainous landscape. He took a deep breath of the nature’s unfiltered air and listened to the ambience of the far away Kalashnikov gunfire miles away. After this moment, Kirill started sensing everything differently. He saw everything in a different way. He smelt everything in a different way. He heard everything in a different way. And, of course, Kirill felt differently. Maybe the bullet didn't kill Kirill directly, but it did kill the old Kirill Gusakov. This is where everything changed for him. Now Kirill knew why he would be fighting in Afghanistan and why he would keep fighting in Afghanistan in the future.

Kirill nodded to himself and turned back to his multi-national comrades who were watching him. He looked at his watch, then looked at them and sarcastically said:

[color=39b54a][b]"Today is September 6th, which, in reality, is actually my second birthday."[/b][/color]

And then he smiled at them with his old smile, but, however, it felt different…
[/hider]