On the wrong side
Gunde was a good soldier but he had gone rogue. Couch was given orders to hunt him down and capture him alive to face the punishment of his actions.
Couch had been on a handful of missions with Gunde, so knew him quite well that he was a good man. Couch couldn't get his head around why Gunde would betray his country all of a sudden. But orders where orders.
Intel had it that Gunde was hiding in between the Gahrara mountains. Couch was given a team of 5 soldiers and given an ultimatum to get the Job done in the next 48 hours.
Couch would normally had been given the previlege of selecting his team but this was a high profile mission and those in charge of affairs considered it a priority.
At 16 hundred hours, Couch and his men set out on the mission. The truck transporting the team had to stop some miles from the foot of the mountains. The team had to continue on foot to avoid raising alarm.
When the team got to the foot of the mountains, they set up their formation and went through the plan for the mission.
When every member of the team had fully understood the course of action, the team waited till sundown before making their move.
Couch motioned for the soldiers to stop. They had successfully manoeuvred the rough terrain of the mountains but to his bewilderment, there stood Gunde right before them unarmed like he had been expecting them.
Gunde saw Couch as a brother and wanted to have a talk. Couch obliged to hear what he had to say. Gunde told Couch and his team that they were on the wrong side of the war. And that they were all in darkness and he had seen the light. He told them he could prove it but before he could say anything else a sniper dropped him to the ground.
Couch couldn't believe what was happening. He had found out the sniper and had made him feast on his fist and asked for him to be tired up. The sniper had fired without a direct order from the team leader.
Couch thought the sniper would be disbanded if possible but to his surprise he was released. He was angry but again he thought the action of the authorities could be right given Gunde was an enemy of the state.
Two weeks later, Couch recieved deployment on a mission to intercept enemy troops going to get supplies.
This time Crouch was allowed to pick his team. The exact orders were to blow up the camp they had set up and make sure no one left there alive.
When Couch and his men arrived at the location given them, they only found refugees mostly women and children. He made a call to make sure and he was told there was no mistake and for him to go ahead with his orders.
But Couch couldn't see himself killing women or children and neither could he give the command for soldiers to kill the same.
At that time Couch remembered the words of Gunde, was he on the wrong side?. These women and children must have been the ones Gunde was helping and he was accused of aiding enemy troops.
Couch knew what it meant to defy orders but he also knew this was a hideous crime.
Couch had seen the light, he was probably at the wrong side of the war but now he was to choose between two evils — defy orders and be called rogue or finish the order and lose his humanity.