The brisk night air rushing across my face was the only indication that we made any headway into the night. Because we had our lights off for tactical purposes I was driving sightless, tucked into the seat of an M109 Paladin with only my head peeking out and the section leader, Staff Sergeant Watkins, was up top with a pair of night vision goggles, directing me over the intercom system. The emptiness absorbed even the ground rushing by closest to me. Only the occasional rabbit fleeing from beneath the rampaging behemoth broke the stillness of the inky surface. Stretched out across the landscape like fingers lurching forth from some hand, abysmally veiled in the heavens, our platoon wheeled headlong into the Mojave. Brandishing this hand unilaterally…show more content… Bounding forth into the indefinite, suddenly everything seemed more sinister. I found myself becoming more unnerved as I vanished further into the Mojave.
We marched into the horizon as the earth fell away around us, making the gloom seem to open into oblivion, leaving naught but the stars and an iron rim for me to see in an ocean of desolation. Time trudged on as the ground rolled by going up more often than down when out of a wall of black a single white monolith emerged. By this time our platoon had formed a line from muzzle to rear in order to traverse the mountainous terrain. I was in front which put me face to face with a ninety degree bend in the ground that was the only path forward and I felt fear. I had the lives of five men in my hands and my inability to move 27 tons of metal up a ridiculously steep hill was what could kill them. Time seemed to stop in an amalgamation of fear and excitement. I was elated and then I heard him. “Push it to the floor Russ, let’s go, you got this baby” the staff sergeant bellowed through a crackling headset. I didn’t hesitate, which surprised me since this was insane. I was a man in an iron box trying to climb the
