“I shot that bitch in the head! Did you see that?!” Buffy shouted, swinging her rifle up and shooting a blue up in the rafters.
Seeing Jake turn toward Buffy to tell her to calm down, Ted grabbed his arm. “It won’t do any good, so leave it alone,” Ted advised. Nodding, Jake raised his rifle, seeing a blue running for a busted-out window.
“Second wave down and landing area cleared,” Danny called over the radio.
“Team Two in new location, but requesting air support to our west side at the gray building,” David called out with a lot of gunfire in the background.
“Air support, you’re cleared to fire in support of team leaders,” Jake called over the radio as Buffy dropped an empty magazine.
“You know, I like it much better when your target doesn’t shoot back,” she said calmly, slamming the new magazine in. “It’s really hard to have a good time when you’re dodging bullets and getting blown up.”
“I’m so talking to Dad about you,” Jake mumbled, raising his rifle up and squeezing the trigger, knocking down a charging blue.
A large explosion sounded outside followed by several more in quick succession. “Contact down,” David yelled over the radio. “Need air support, four hundred meters to the west. Blues coming in waves.”
“Team Six and Seven, send one platoon each to the south and join with Team Two,” Danny shouted over the radio. Jake suddenly felt helpless and was thinking about calling a retreat as all gunfire stopped inside the building.
“Jake,” Ted said grabbing him. “They are holding. Do your job and lead.”
Taking a deep breath, Jake nodded. “Entry Team, move forward and clear,” he called over the radio. “Canine Teams, move inside to assist.”
The team formed a line and moved down the building as five troopers came in leading dogs and released them. Glancing back, Jake thought one of the German Shepherds looked like his Dad’s dog, Max. Turning around to look at the handlers, he only caught sight of one before they disappeared in the warehouse among the aisles.
“Contact,” someone yelled on the right as suppressed gunfire sounded off, making Jake forget about the handlers as he spun around, getting his head back in the game.
“Why in the hell do we have to stay in the middle?” Buffy shouted, aiming her rifle down the building. “Everyone else is going to shoot the blues before I get to.”
“Buffy, I’m not in the mood,” Jake snapped keying his radio. “Air wing, what’s your status?”
“First gunships are rearming and second wave is overhead,” Steve called back.
“Contact,” Buffy shouted, shooting a blue as it bounced across the stacked pallets running toward them. The blue jerked as it jumped from one stack to the other as bullets slammed into its body.
Jake watched as the blue went limp in midair and crashed into the pallets it was trying to jump to. When the body landed in front of them, he saw Buffy had hit it in the hip and leg. “You bitches need to stay still, so I can shoot you in the chest!” Buffy yelled out, raising her rifle and hitting a matrix kid bounding down the row of crates.
Snapping up his rifle, Jake squeezed his trigger, hitting the kid in the face before Buffy shot. “You were talking and not shooting, so shut it,” he said lowering his rifle as more explosions sounded outside toward the south.
Not liking that the first Apaches had already run out of ammunition and were rearming, Jake grabbed his radio. “Danny, have the supply teams dropped down?”
“Yes, and I’ve formed the teams into a continuous ring so move your ass. The blues really want this damn building back!” she shouted over the radio.
“Loading team, move in,” he called over the radio. “Entry team, report.”
Jake let out a sigh as the canine teams reported the building clear. “Ted, open the bay doors and stay with your crew to cover the loading team.”
“You got it, little boss,” Ted grinned and pressed his radio to give out orders.
“Buffy, we are moving outside,” Jake said, heading toward the massive bay door as several troops opened it.
“I better get to shoot some more blues,” she huffed.
Feeling a headache coming on, Jake knew that it was coming from a teenage blonde girl. Before he said anything to her, another set of explosions went off to the south. “Buffy, stay on the command net while I see what David is facing,” Jake said and turned his second radio to David’s team frequency.
“God damn it! They are trying to swarm us on the left! Keep your fire steady!” David screamed over the radio. “Need a Warthog to run north to south two hundred meters from my line!”
“David, you need more troops?” Danny called out.
“Negative, I have it under control. Some of my troops are just getting trigger happy and burning through ammo too fast!”
“Copy. Sending you two more ammo supply,” Danny called back and two four-wheelers with trailers sped past the open bay door, rounding the corner heading south.
“Will you fucking aim when you shoot?!” David screamed over the radio. “I swear, if you open your eyes when you shoot, you don’t have to use your entire magazine and I promise you, your chances of hitting something skyrockets!”
“David, your mic is on,” Danny called back and Jake heard David flip his throat microphone off.
Hearing the loud roar of engines Jake looked up to see a line of six Ospreys coming in. With their engines pointed up so the airplanes could land vertically, the rotor wash was sending out hurricane force winds.
“Danny, what’s your location?” Jake called over the radio as ‘Burrr’ sounded to the south, followed by a string of explosions as the Warthog finished its run.
“Northeast perimeter corner.”
When the first Osprey touched down, Jake waited till the ramp dropped down and men with pallet jacks poured out before he left. The recovery team knew where to go since they had sent a recon team in three days ago with a remote quad chopper with a camera. He’d wanted to make sure there was europium here before committing to an assault, but they hadn’t seen any blues in the warehouse then.
Watching the troops move inside, Jake trotted around the building to Danny. A hundred yards away where the ring of troops started, he found her calmly walking down the line of troops shouting orders. “Dad’s right, the women in this family are insane,” he mumbled. As he ran over, he watched Danny butt stroke one of the guys on the line across his helmet knocking him down. Danny screamed at the man as he got back up and started shooting.
Making a mental note to find out what that was about, Jake shouted. “Danny, I’m going to check on David. I don’t like all the air he’s calling in, and then reporting he’s holding with no problems.”
“You do realize we are talking about your wife’s twin, right? He knows what he’s doing.”
Before Jake replied, a series of small explosions sounded off and Jake turned to see the impact of hundreds of twenty millimeter rounds from the AC-130 overhead. “I just want to make sure, and you are in charge until I get back.”
“Oh, I’m so going to kick your ass when we get home,” she shouted and raised her rifle as a very large group of blues came around a building half a mile away.
Jake spun away in a jog. “I won’t be gone that long!”
He glanced over to see Buffy keeping up in a jog, but could tell she was favoring her hip. “You good?”
“Hell, yeah,” Buffy said with a grin. “Matt’s trying to call you on the command radio.”
Reaching down, Jake flipped his radio back to the command frequency. “Base, calling Jake,” Matt called out.
“What do you have, Matt?”
“David is getting into some deep shit. He has a really big horde building up ten miles away and won’t stagger his line, so his troops can pull back if they need to. The horde isn’t moving to you yet, but we are putting the numbers close to a million. I can’t pull any air away from your perimeter to work on the horde because you have stuck your dick in a hornet�
�s nest.”
“Fuck!” Jake shouted and broke into a run. Thinking as he ran, Jake keyed his radio. “Matt, get whatever is left of the second wave of Apaches to pull out and dump what ammo they have left into that horde.”
“Dude, the second wave is rearming and the first wave is almost empty.”
Jake skidded to a halt wanting to scream at everyone, but closed his eyes thinking as Buffy raised her rifle shooting blues charging the line. “Matt, call off any Warthogs coming in and direct them toward the horde. When the first wave of Apaches has rearmed, send half of them to David.”
“Blues are starting to press your west flank hard.”
“I’ll send one of the platoons that reinforced David. Over.”
“Copy, and the Harriers just took off and I scrambled the F15s. They should be over you in fifteen minutes.”
“Good. Direct them to any bridge around me and have them hit the west side until I get reinforcements over there.”
“Will do,” Matt called out as Jake broke back into a run.
“Moving, Buffy.”
“You don’t have to tell me every time,” she said, running beside him.
Letting it go, Jake ran behind the circle of troops that formed a perimeter around the warehouse. Since the south line was almost a mile away from the warehouse, it took him six minutes to reach it. When he came around a building, Jake skidded to a halt at the war in front of him. Blues were coming in waves. They were dying in waves, but it seemed there was an endless supply of them.
Flipping back to David’s channel Jake called out, “David, what’s your location?”
“Center of south line.”
As he ran down the line, Jake knew if it wasn’t for magic bullets, the thirty-five hundred troops on the ground would already be dead. “This is fucking awesome,” Buffy shouted as a Warthog zoomed past half a mile away, dropping a string of bombs and throwing blue bodies into the air.
Seeing David, Jake ran over, skidding to a halt as David yelled in his radio. “Send fifty troops to the right flank before they get closer!”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were in deep shit!” Jake screamed grabbing David.
“Because I’m not!” David screamed back.
“Stagger your line and be prepared to pull out under attack,” Jake said as another Warthog made a run. “If your line fails, we all die!”
“No shit,” David said keying his radio. “Stagger line.”
“I’m taking fifty troops to pull to the west side. You have a horde building ten miles away.”
“You’re the commander, send some planes to kill them!”
“I can’t because you are using all of them to keep from being overrun!” Jake screamed. “Fast movers are coming in. When they hit, pull your line back to the original perimeter so we aren’t so extended. You remember how to do that, right?”
“Jake, I’m not in the mood,” David growled grabbing his radio. “Ammo supply needed to southeast perimeter.”
David let his radio go and looked at Jake. “These government troops may be bad ass in a war, but they are fucking freaking out seeing waves of blues coming at them. You tell daddy Bruce, I’m kicking Gene in the nuts for sending pussies out here.”
Jake nodded, “You will send fifty of those to the west perimeter that are all original Omega.” David nodded, grabbing his radio to give the order as Jake keyed his radio. “Ted, are you there?”
“Yeah, little boss.”
“Pull your team to the south line, like right fucking now. Gene’s troops are freaking out seeing waves of blues coming at them.”
“Are you shitting me? Half of Omega are teens and females and those troops are wetting their pants?”
“Just get your ass here, so I can get David to pull back to his original line, shrink our perimeter, and concentrate our fire.”
“See you in three minutes.”
“Breach!” someone screamed behind them and Jake turned to see four blues in the air, actually jumping over the line of kneeling soldiers.
“Hold the line!” Jake screamed raising his rifle and shooting two in the air. He swung toward the other two as they landed and he couldn’t shoot. Jake knew if he pulled the trigger the bullets would go through the blues striking the troops on the line.
Seeing a small form move past him in a sprint, Jake yelled. “Buffy!”
Not paying Jake any attention, Buffy’s small form jumped in the air drop kicking one of the blues in the back as it turned to attack the troops on the line. The blue collapsed with the blow as Buffy flipped her wrist, swinging her arm down and burying Herman in the blue’s skull.
Seeing the other blue spin to face Buffy, Jake let his rifle go, pulling his pistol and then saw a form tackle the blue. Buffy jumped up and ran over to help the trooper who’d tackled the blue, raising her knife and driving it in the blue’s skull.
Jake saw two troops on the line stand up and look back at the dead blues behind them. Seeing them get wide-eyed and preparing to run, Jake calmly stepped over raising his pistol and pointing it in one’s face. “You leave this line before ordered and I’ll kill you slowly, do you understand?”
The young man looked down the barrel of the XDM and nodded with a pale face then turned back around, getting on one knee and continued firing. “Are you stupid?” he heard Buffy scream and turned to see her yanking Marty up off the ground after she’d killed the blue he’d tackled. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again!”
“I’m sorry, Dad, for every time I’ve acted like an ass,” Jake said holstering his pistol and raising his rifle, squeezing off rounds quickly. Dropping the empty mag, he slammed another one in and helped to stem the wave of blues pressing them.
“Breach!” someone shouted to his right and Jake turned to see five matrix kids seemingly fly over the line of troops.
“You see that shit! Those little blue asswipes jumped thirty yards away and still made it over the line!” Buffy shouted and raised her rifle, trying to hit the blue kids without hitting any of Omega.
“To the front,” someone yelled and Jake turned to see the wave of blues a hundred yards away.
“All elements on the south line, push them back!” Jake shouted in the radio as he raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger as fast as he could, along with every troop on the south line. The only difference was every time Jake pulled the trigger blues died and most times, it was more than one.
Hearing a dog growl, he glanced over to see a German Shepard taking one of the blue kids down. The dog had the kids head in his mouth and whipped the body back and forth violently as a man charged in with a samurai sword on the others. “I’m going to kick his ass,” Jake said as he started shooting into the wave.
Ted ran up with forty troops, spreading out beside Jake. “Damn, I know where the party is now,” he shouted as he started shooting into the wave of blues.
Four Blackhawk helicopters swooped down and hovered over the line and streams of red poured out as the door gunners opened up with miniguns and the wave melted under the onslaught of fire.
When the front line of the mass of blues was killed off and driven back to three hundred yards, Jake keyed his radio. “David, start pulling your line back. You lead the first half back and get them set, I’ll bring the rest.””
Ejecting his empty magazine, Jake patted his vest and didn’t feel anymore magazines. He looked around till he found Buffy and pulled a mag from her vest. “That’s mine, damn it,” she snapped.
Shoving the magazine in, Jake hit the bolt release chambering a round. “Call for supply and get us more magazines,” he said as he opened fire.
After half the line pulled back and David called out he was set, Jake grabbed Buffy’s vest pulling her into a run to rejoin the line behind them. “South line, pull back to original position,” he shouted over the radio.
Feeling Buffy was sprinting and letting her go, Jake saw the other half of David’s troops already kneeling down half a mile away. When several troops raised t
heir rifles aiming at them, Jake saw two troops that were pregnant run up and butt stroke those aiming at him in the head with their rifles.
“Bunch up and form lanes of fire, so they can shoot past and cover us,” Jake heard a familiar voice shout behind him.
Looking down, Jake saw a dog running beside him. “Max, you better not bite me when I hit Dad,” he said huffing.
Hearing others running beside him, he glanced over his shoulder to see the remaining troops bunch together in lines as they ran, to make lanes of fire so the rest of the team could cover them.
When he looked up, he saw several rifles flash as some on the line opened fire and Jake didn’t like the idea of charging a firing line. “Those bitches better not shoot us,” Buffy huffed.
Sprinting through the line, Jake spun around and saw the last of the troops run past him and everyone opened fire on the blues that were only a hundred yards away. “Any aircraft, make a run on the south side,” he called over the radio.
“Coming, little brother,” Steve called back and Jake raised his rifle.
“Cargo loaded and away,” Danny called out as three Apaches settled in a hover over the south line and opened fire. The front line of blues vanished under the torrent of shells and rockets.
Seeing the mass of blues get pushed back, Jake lowered his rifle. “Danny, what’s the situation up there?”
“Jake, we aren’t leaving unless we climb on top of a really fucking tall building.”
“Fuck!” Jake screamed and spun around looking at the line of troops. Giving up on that he looked for Max and saw him sitting beside a soldier with a samurai sword on his back.
Storming over, Jake stopped beside his Dad as he calmly shot into the wave of blues. “You’re here, you’re in charge,” Jake snapped.
Calmly, Bruce turned to glance at Jake then went back to shooting. “Son, I’m a dog handler and don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“God damn it!”
Keeping his rifle aimed at the blues, Bruce glanced at Jake. “Think, son and remain calm. I tell you to think out your problems, thinking long term. In battle, five minutes is a lifetime.”
Blue Plague: Hope: Book Seven Page 11
