“Okay, so what’s the deal?” Edwards asked, glancing sideways at Stryker.
“Think about it. We thought these guys were running home after the first time we hit them. But, they just went and got more weapons and continued after us.”
“So?”
“They had to drive by around 8,000 of their dead comrades to get here. Remember, they headed south from where we dropped the overpass, got more weapons, then turned around and headed back north on the same route. So they must know we have air power from the craters that were left from the bombing, yet they continued to come at us.”
“What does that tell us?”
“They know where we are because they figured out what I understood long ago. If there is air power left, it has to be from the Navy, because the land based Air Force would be decimated by the plague.”
“Shit,” Erin muttered.
“I underestimated them. I thought they gave up and obviously, they didn’t.”
“What does that have to do with this?” Edwards looked puzzled.
“They still haven’t thrown on the towel, and why would they stop for a day if they weren’t preparing to assault us? It makes no sense. And, if they are, we need to know what is under that tarp on the semi-trailer because there can be no other reason for them stopping but to prepare for an attack.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Edwards looked even more confused.
“When we first saw them, they had the Humvees with the Stingers, but they also had the front bed of a semi-trailer covered with a tarp, and I guessed they were hiding more weapons. And, I am guessing now that they are readying those weapons for an assault on the base.”
“What do you think they are?” Erin asked from the back seat.
“No idea, but we need to know why they stopped and, if possible, what kind of weapons they have. There is no real way to protect the base if we don’t know what we’re trying to protect it from.”
They rode in silence for a half-hour, and then Stryker looked at Edwards and said, “Get Thomas on the phone and find out if they are moving. If not, have them guide us to the nearest high ground within three hundred meters.”
Edwards spoke briefly on the phone, nodded his head, and then put the speaker function on and set it between them.
“They were still camped about an hour ago, but looked like they are praying or something,” a disembodied voice said over the speaker.
Are you still on station?” Edwards asked.”
Negative.”
“Did you see any high ground around them?”
“Guessing there is some around two hundred meters north of them,” the voice replied after a few moments hesitation.
“Out,” Edwards said and severed the connection.
Stryker slowed the vehicle and turned north on a gravel road and headed to a low set of hills that were covered with low bushes and large rocks.
They parked the Humvee at the bottom of the hill. Stryker and Edwards hoisted ten AT-4s over their shoulders, and carried the M-4s in their free hands. Erin grabbed the Barret and followed them up the hill.
When the neared the crest, Stryker lowered the rocket launchers to the ground and belly-crawled his way to the summit.
Edwards followed, with Erin behind him, dragging the Barrett along to keep the muzzle low.
“What the hell?” Stryker whispered when he viewed the basin below them.
“Jesus, where did they get those?” Edwards whispered back.
“From the ordinance depot in Texas.” Stryker brought the scope of his M-4 to his eye and added, “That is some serious shit.”
They were looking down at four multiple missile launchers that apparently were bolted to the trailer of one of the semi-tractors.
“That explains why they stopped. They had to mount the missile launchers on the trailer. They knew where we were, and that we had air capability, so they kept them hidden until they were ready to strike.”
“You think they are going for the base tonight?” Erin asked.
“I would. It would be a straight shot to the base from here and they think we don’t have the ability to know what they have before they start the attack. They’ll probably drive through the night, knowing we can’t see the new weapons in the dark, and attack with the missiles right before the rest of them attack the base with the Stingers, and then the try to overrun us.”
“So, what happens if we don’t stop them here?”
“We could survive the Stingers, but the missiles are something that could overwhelm us and destroy the base,” Stryker said in a calm voice.
“You think so?” Edwards replied rhetorically.
“Those are M-270s missile pods. They are usually mounted on an Army truck.”
“And?” Erin asked.
“They can bombard the base from thirty miles away.” Stryker answered with a grim tone.
“Well, I guess we have to take them out here.” Edwards shrugged and added, “Might as well. They are here, we are here, and why not light the party candles.”
“You better call it in, but tell them we need continuous drone coverage over the battle site for the rest of the night. We need to know if they disperse and try to infiltrate the city in small groups,” Stryker said to Edwards.
He nodded his agreement and backed down the hill a few meters and had a whispered conversation with the base.
“What about me?” Erin asked.
“Keep the gunners on the Humvees off us and make sure nobody gets close to the Stingers.”
Erin nodded her understanding, but looked troubled.
“Thomas agrees we should take out what we can here,” Edwards whispered after he plopped down next to Stryker.
“Okay, let’s get some spacing between us before we fire,” Stryker answered. “Edwards, you start on the Humvees and I’ll start with the missile launchers. Take the ones closest to us first, and then I’ll join you for the ones farthest away. I’ll fire from left to right, and you do the opposite. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s get the primary safeties off all the ATs before we fire.”
Both men lifted the covers off the ATs twin safeties and set them down in a pile between them after activating the primary switches. Stryker grabbed his pile of the launchers and swung them over his shoulder by the slings on the weapons. Edwards did the same.
“Erin, just to make sure you understand, you have to keep everyone who tries to get a Stinger firing at us away from the vehicles. Got it?”
“Yes.” Her voice was tremulous.
“Erin.” Stryker turned to her with a serious expression.
“Yes.”
“We are going to be exposed for at least a minute firing the AT-4s. We need you to keep them off of us for that long. Can you do it?”
She looked away for a moment, seeming lost in thought, and then turned back to him and answered, “I got it.”
“Good. When I give the order to unass this place, you get down to Humvee, fire it up and get ready to get us the hell out of here.”
She nodded.
The crawled away from each other, with both Stryker and Edwards dragging the ATs behind them while Erin unfolded the bipod on her Barret and set up between them.
“You ready?” Stryker asked in a loud whisper. Both Erin and Edwards nodded their heads.
“On me,”
Stryker took careful aim at the first of the missile batteries on the bed of the trailer after switching off the secondary safety. He squinted, looked to his side at the ATs that lay in a neat row beside him. He rehearsed the order of his launches and the sequence of firing, discarding the tube, grabbing the next launcher, and firing again.
He glanced to his right, saw Erin and Edwards acquiring targets, took a deep breath, and again sighted through the scope of his launcher.
His world narrowed to what he could see through the scope, and he considered the fact that they were firing from above the targets, corrected for the elevation, and releas
ed the first projectile. He threw the expended tube to the side and picked up the next one as the first destroyed the missile battery in the middle of the truck.
He sighted again, moving to the next missile battery and fired the second projectile, which left the launcher with a loud back blast from the weapon and again tossed the tube aside and grabbed the third.
When Stryker was bringing the third target into focus, he rose to his knees for a better line of sight, and released the third rocket. It slammed into the battery closest to the semi-tractor and as he was grabbing the forth tube, the return fire stared. The earth around them puffed dust from expended rounds falling short, and the volume of fire from below grew deafening.
Stryker dropped down behind the ridge line, looked over at Erin and Edwards, and saw they were both defensive as well.
“On me, again,” he roared. “Counter fire.”
Stryker rose to his knees again and fired on a Humvee close to them and hit the vehicle, but missed the Stinger. He looked to his side, and saw both Erin and Edwards up again firing at the targets below. He grabbed the fifth tube and fired it at a Humvee that was starting toward them with a gunner at the back of the Stinger, and watched that explode. Men started advancing from behind the burnt out hulks of the Humvees and trailers, and a black-clad mass moved up the fill, firing AKs on full auto.
He again glanced to his side, and saw Erin firing the Barrett with a practiced ease, and Edwards was sighting another rocket at the enemy below.
The enemy began to return fire in even greater volume, but they only had one Humvee left, and Erin was streaming down a steady hail of lead from the Barrett, keeping them away from the remaining Stinger.
“Fire the last AT and we leave.” Stryker yelled. “Erin, get to the Humvee and get ready to get us out of here.
He lifted the last AT to his shoulder and fired at the remaining missile battery, watched as it exploded and burst into flames, and then turned and started down the hill as rounds whizzed by and over him. Erin was already fifty meters ahead, the Barrett over her shoulder.
“We got them all,” Edwards said as they jogged down the hill.
Stryker nodded and smiled back at him as Erin started the Humvee. The two men jumped in the back seat and brought their M-4s up, pointing at the ridge behind them.
“Did we get all the Humvees?” Erin asked?
“We did,” Edwards replied.
Erin pulled away from the battle scene with the pedal to the metal and the Humvee skidded around a curve and back onto the gravel road that led to the highway.
The terrorists appeared at the top of the hill and both Edwards and Stryker emptied two magazines at them to gain the distance they needed to be out of range.
Erin pulled onto the highway, and kicked the Humvee up to eighty miles an hour, glanced back, and sighed when she saw they were clear.
“Let’s not do that again,” she muttered.
“Works for me,” Edwards replied.
“It’s not over yet. We are still going to have the get the rest of them. If they haven’t quit by now, they never will.” Stryker glanced to the side as he said it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Stryker stood over the shoulder of the technician that monitored the drone feed and felt like he was looking up at a clear summer night sky filled with stars. The seemingly florescent dots were all moving west in small groups of two to three, filling the monitor with dimly flashing light.
“Well, that sucks,” he said, turning toward Thomas.
“Well, our count is around two hundred survived your attack, so that’s got to be good news.” Thomas looked at Stryker with a questioning expression.
“No, it’s not. I wanted to take them all out while they were mounted on the vehicles. We only had ten targets to deal with, and now we have what looks like one hundred.” Stryker’s expression was clearly one of frustration.
“They don’t have any surface-to-air capability left though. We can use our air power again.”
“You want to drop five hundred pound bombs on groups of two?”
“I’m not sure we have the much ordinance to spare,” Thomas admitted. “If we can get them into larger groups, we might be able to do something.”
“They will hear the planes taking off from the air station and disperse anyway.”
Edwards nodded his agreement. It was a futile move.
“Edwards, you ready to go out again?” Stryker turned toward him as he asked the question.
“Now?”
“You got a better time?”
“No, but let’s get some food and water, and have them dial up a helo to get us out there. They are still on the outskirts and we need to get as many as we can before they make it to buildings. Once they’re inside metal or brick structures, we can’t see them with the drone.” Edwards said it with a grim tone.
“Can you get your tech people in here while we go eat?” Stryker asked Thomas.
“Sure, they’ll be here in around fifteen minutes.”
“I need everyone who will be monitoring our communications or the drones for the next three days here.”
“I got that,” Thomas replied.
“Okay, we’re back in fifteen.”
Stryker and Edwards walked to the mess hall, got sandwiches, then grabbed three more each and ten bottles of water, stuffed them into their assault packs, and sat down to eat.
“What’s on your mind? Three days out? Really?” Edwards asked.
“We’re going to have the drones direct us to them and set up a series of ambushes that will keep them out of the city for now. Once they are here in the city, with all the cover, we’ll lose a lot of people before we get them all.”
“I saw the feed too, and they are moving away from each other to the north and south. We have a lot of real estate to try to cover.”
Stryker nodded his agreement, sipped his coffee and took another bite of his sandwich.
“But, they don’t have a helo, so we can be one place one minute, and somewhere else the next.”
“They’ll hear the helo and mass toward it.”
“They’ll hear the helo where we want them to hear it. We’ll already be in an ambush spot when they rush in.”
“That’s diabolical,” Edwards said with an admiring tone.
“Thanks.” Stryker shrugged and took another bite.
“So, we helo to the first site, and we’re on foot from there, with the helos landing as decoys whenever we find targets, and we take them out as they move toward it. When we get some breathing room, we use the helo to take us to the next place where we find a grouping and repeat.”
“Pretty much. There will be so many landings that they will never be able to figure out when it’s us, and when it’s not. We’ll have the helos do touch-and-go repeatedly when they aren’t moving us or drawing them toward our ambush points.”
“Gear?” Edwards asked after finishing his sandwich.
“Normal weapons; suppressors for carbines and pistols, two messenger bags full of grenades, enough water for three days, and two sat phones for us.” Stryker paused and then added, “Get the NVGs from our Humvee and the spare batteries and we both have to take full ammo loads for the weapons.”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“How about a couple of SAWS?”
“Too heavy and too loud. We’re going to be moving fast and there’s only so much stuff we can lug with us.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“I’ll go talk to Erin and have her explain things to Elle.”
“Thanks.”
“No damn it,” Erin said with a stubborn crease crossing her forehead.
“No other way.”
“I’m going.” Her expression remained stubborn.
“No, you’re not. If you do, you’ll get us killed. You’re a good shot, but you don’t have any night fighting skills or stealth training and you are definitely not going. You have to understand it takes years
of training to maneuver and fight in the dark behind enemy lines. You just don’t have that and would be a liability that would most likely get us all killed.”
She fell silent for a moment, looking doubtful, and then replied, “Okay, but I am on standby if you need help.”
“You can stay in the operation center the whole time and, please, make sure they don’t screw up any communications with us.”
“What are you concerned about?”
“We are going to fighting blind with only the feed from the drones to tell us where to go and what to do. I am going to give you a sat phone, and if anything they tell us to do seems screwed up, text me on the phone.”
“I can do that.” She looked at him with an expression of regret but recognized the truth of what he said. The fact was she would have no idea how to navigate a landscape filled with darkness.
“I feel bad about this whole thing,” Stryker said.
“Why?”
“We came here to have a less stressful life, to be around other people, and to start a family. The first thing that happens is that we find ourselves in another war. I am really sorry about that. It was never my intent.”
“It’s okay Caleb,” she replied, rubbing his bicep and looking concerned. But, I want to be in the center of whatever you have to do. I don’t want to let down my end of this thing we have.”
Stryker looked down at her and smiled. “I would say you are too good for me, but that would be overlooking my devastating good looks.
“Yeah, but the next few “Gentleman’s Quarterly” magazine covers are probably taken. She gazed up at Stryker, amazed at how she could overlook the fact that he was far from attractive and seemed like the sort of person that most people would change sidewalks to not have to walk by.
He was probably the ugliest person she had ever known.
“Good, now Edwards and I have to go gear up. You come down to the operations center and we can work out the details there.”
“Let’s go.” She stood on tip toes and smacked the lower part of his cheek. “Get your G.Q. ass back to me ASAP. I don’t want to die as a widow.”
“Hell, you’re so good looking that some other guy will come along when I am gone and make you his wife.” Stryker said it as a joke, but they both knew there was an element of truth in it.
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