The seconds ticked down. Is this the only one? Is it on a daisy chain? Are there secondaries?

OK. I got this. No problem. Just need to remove the detonator without jiggling the mercury switch attached to this pressure plate.

Sweating my ass off in the suit. Left eye is twitching, vision getting blurry. 110 in the shade. Been a long ass day on top of a long ass week. I may have to take up that Redbull/Gatorade mix the youngsters are mainlining. 5-hour energy, my ass.

Fuck. Is that a secondary trigger wire leading out to a cell phone? Not good, but nothing new here. Jesus loves me and so does our CREW. Thank you, Jesus.

Pull back. Quickly, calmly. I am getting too old for this shit. Thank you, Danny G.

Get the bot to set a stick on a timer, drop and pop, di-di-mau. OK. That worked.

Load up the BUFF and pull back. Get the bot back on board. Lock it down. Get out of the suit. Need help from Tim. Check. Jones is on the recorder. Good to go says the Brigade. Fire in the hole. Good shot.

Oh, shit. That was loud. Where the fuck are the Prima Donna’s when you need them? Goddamn EOD. Too busy posing for pictures with the press. That may have been over the limit. Just one more IED found in AO ROGUE.

Well that kicked over the hornet’s nest. Time to move. 3 cougars to the front. Then our BUFF and two cougars following. Combat spacing sorted out. Good comms. Check.

Hey, I wonder if our Husky will ever get out of the shop? Got to check with Chief when we get back.

Nothing to see here, move along. We are here to help you. Really.

Oh boy. This is strange. The MSR is almost empty, no moving potential vb-ieds. Just us infidels now. This is not good. Do we speed up or slow down? Slow and steady wins the race. Just not now. SPEED THE FUCK UP! We already know this area is seeded. Put a round on anything that may hide an IED. How hard is that? Hell-of-a-way to run a war. Forward, march.

Fuck. That was quick. Iraqi army is controlling the overpass. Not. Was that a Strela or RPG that just flew past? Shit! RPGs coming from both sides now. What kind? Plasma in your lap is a great way to ruin your day. We got to move. Call it in, now, LT. Need air or arty, danger close. Pray. Keep a mag for the 9. Can’t let ‘em take me alive. No headless horseman on TV for me.

Well, fuck. That RPG just bounced off the cage. Guess they were too close. Ricky got him with the Kongsberg from the rear Cougar. Sweet. No virgins for you, mofo. Is that haji really doing a death spiral over there? Unreal, dumbass. Let’s get the ma deuce in action. Glad we got the new controller installed last week.

Oh shit. Is that a fucking mosque over there? Bull shit. Not on the map. Someone swing their TVS over and record. 3 second bursts, don’t want to swap out barrels on the move and in this shit storm. Glad we switched out the 4 in 1 ball for AP. Hey, we may just survive for our courts martial. Leavenworth is better that this. Or not. Don’t really want to find out.