by Mark Harritt
The compound had the buildings that Mike had seen on Shar’s map, but there was something else there as well. Mike motioned for Shar to come over, “What’s that?”
There were two aircraft on the landing pad. One was the same size as Shar’s transport. There was another, larger aircraft as well. It looked like Shar’s transport, but a hell of a lot bigger.
Shar followed Mike’s finger. In fact, he’d been watching the drone operations with interest. He pointed at the smaller transport, “That is the transport of the pilot who was killed by Verjon. This other,” he pointed at the larger aircraft, “That is the transport they use for slave runs.”
Shar motioned toward his aircraft, “My transport is too small to get many slaves on. When they go into a large village, that’s the aircraft that they use to transport the new slaves in. That’s how we transport companies of soldiers onto the battlefield as well.”
Mike stared at the large transport ship. Calculations started running through his mind. His thoughts must have been transparent, or, Everett had the same idea he did, “Man, we could move all the stuff back at our compound pretty quick with that.”
Mike nodded. He looked at Shar, “Can you fly that?”
Shar shook his head, “No, I am not qualified to fly that.”
“Where are the other pilots? Think they’d be interested in helping us?”
Shar thought about it, “One, maybe. I’m not sure about the other one though.”
An evil smile painted Everett’s face, “Well, maybe we can convince him.”
The drone had been used for a mission secondary to its reconnaissance function. It had been used yesterday to set the open bottle of dragon musth on the roof of one of the buildings. Mike had watched as dragons moved in toward the compound all day. The first one didn’t cause too much commotion, but the second, and then the third caused alarm in the compound. Mike watched as Turinzoni scrambled out of the main building to man the towers. They counted the men throughout the day, tagging each one with the friend/foe identification.
Mike wasn’t sure if they’d gotten all of them, but it seemed like they’d been lucky. If anything, it seemed like there were fewer than the sixty that Shar had indicated would be in the compound. Mike knew that there was a good possibility that the additional men were still in the main building, though.
Darkness approached, and Mike knew that it was decision time. He called everybody forward, and explained the situation, “Well, I think we may have gotten lucky. It doesn’t seem like they’ve increased the amount of soldiers they have in the compound. The musth seems to have attracted enough dragons to get their attention. I just want to make sure that you agree with me.”
Mike looked around at his team. Everett nodded, “I concur. I say we go.” Tom nodded, and Mickey gave a thumbs up. Ken agreed, “Yeah, I say go.” Mike looked at Murph, “I say go.” Mike looked around the group and got a thumbs up from the rest of security. Then he looked at Caul. Caul and the rest of the hunters nodded.
Mike grinned, “Okay, let’s mount up and get ready to deal death and destruction to the bad guys.”
Jendi had been left behind at the compound. He wasn’t needed on the mission since Bobby had created a solution for their translation problem. He’d taken the program that Shar had, modified the translation A.I. and created a three-way translator that the combat A.I. could use. Since they’d left the mechs behind, Bobby had installed a computer in the transport that handled all the complicated A.I. battlefield calculations, to include the hostile/friendly heads up display. It also handled the instantaneous three way translations. Caul, the other hunters, and Shar were all wearing ear buds so that they could hear what was going on and talk to Mike during combat operations.
Mike walked back to his seat. He was going to be the first one off the ramp. Tom was sitting next to him, and would be second off. On the other side, Everett sat in the seat next to the ramp, with Mickey beside him. Security had seven and seven on either side of the aircraft. Then it was Caul and the other hunters in the very back of the transport. They all settled into the seats, and Shar hit the button to close the ramp.
He hit another button, and Mike could feel the hum of the motors in the soles of his boots through the deck. One more button, and the lights inside the aircraft shut off. Now, only the lights from the pilot’s console could be seen. Engines spooled up, and then Mike was forced down into his seat as Shar applied thrust.
Now came the tricky part. It was good that Mike could listen in on what Shar was saying, because he still didn’t trust him completely. And now, Shar had to contact the Turinzoni to get permission to land. Mike was pretty happy that Bobby had set up the translation software the way he had.
Shar turned the transport and flew below the mountains until he could fly in on an azimuth from the combat operations in the valley. It had been more than week since the Turinzoni had heard from the Caon, so hopefully they could use that lack of information to get them inside the compound.
Once he was on the correct heading, Shar increased elevation until he could raise the compound, then he started transmitting.
“Base four three, base four three, this is transport one nine one. Base four three, base four three, this is transport one nine one.”
Mike’s mind kept adding the word, ‘over,’ to Shar’s transmission. It was a habit that was hard to break. Still, another world, another military.
Eventually, Shar received a response, “Transport one nine one, this is base four three, where in the fourteen hells have you been? You’re two days late. We were going to send out the other transport to find out if you were still alive.”
Now, Shar had to sell the story, “It’s a good thing you didn’t. Caon Verjon met stiff resistance at the target site. All of the men have been wiped out. I have Caon Verjon on the transport, but he’s wounded. He’s going to need immediate medical attention as soon as I land.”
A new voice came on the radio, “What do you mean, heavy resistance?”
“Caon Tharth, I acknowledge you, sir. The men have been wiped out. I only escaped because Caon Verjon had been wounded, and he told me to abandon the men and fly to the base.”
Mike could hear the anger in the voice of the compound commander, “He did what?”
“Sir, I’ll let him explain it to you. We’re fifteen minutes out. He’s unconscious, but he can explain better than I can when he wakes up. He needs medical attention.”
There was a pause on the other end of the conversation, and Mike could hear the venom dripping as the base commander spoke, “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be there to meet Caon Verjon to get the information directly from him.”
“What about the medics?”
“Don’t you worry about that, Shar. I’ll take care of Caon Verjon’s medical needs personally.”
Mike was grinning from ear to ear when Shar spoke, “Okay, I’ve cut comms.”
“Well done, Shar. I think Caon Tharth is going to be very surprised when he sees what comes out of the back of your transport.”
Mike imaged a command in his mind and his A.I. lit up his head’s up. Now he had an overhead display of all the hostiles in the drone’s area. The drone painted most of the hostiles in the towers. Each tower was numbered one through six, and had seven to ten hostiles in it. That was where most of the wet work was going to be conducted tonight. Still, there was a smaller group out close to the landing pad. It looked like there was going to be five men to greet them.
“We’re five minutes out. I repeat, five minutes out.”
Mike responded, “Roger, five minutes out. Everybody, make sure your head’s up display is working. Everett, Mickey, Tom, let’s get into position.
Mike slid out of his seat and took a knee. On the other side of the aircraft, Everett did the same thing. Mickey stood up over Everett, and Tom mirrored him and stood over Mike. Now, they could bring four weapons to bear.
They’d added a different weapon to their kit. For this mission, they need stealth, so Mik
e, Everett, and Mickey were carrying suppressed MP5s with their Sig 716s slung on their backs. They needed the suppressed weapons for close quarter combat, but the distance between the towers would make the MP5s ineffective if it came to swapping bullets at a distance. Tom kept his Desert Tactical SRS as his main weapon to deal long death if needed. The security team had switched out two of their rifles for crew served weapons. Murph and Yee were right behind the team with the SAWs. Murph and Yee would keep an eye on the other towers while Mike and the team assaulted the individual towers. Hopefully they wouldn’t need the SAWs, but better safe than sorry.
Mike felt the transport slow, and then, almost imperceptibly, the aircraft was on the ground. Shar didn’t cut the engines. He would keep the aircraft engines on and spooled up in case things went bad and they had to get out quickly.
The ramp started lowering, and then it was down completely. Mike could see five men walking towards the aircraft. He could also tell who was in charge, because the man looked incredibly pissed.
The Caon and his men kept coming. They didn’t realize what was waiting for them. The Caon was so pissed off, that he wasn’t thinking straight. If he’d been thinking straight, he would have thought it odd that the engines were still on. He would have also realized that the lights in the interior of the transport should have been on. He didn’t realize it though, and kept walking, leading four more soldiers. The MP5s spit silent death. Five men were down and either dead or dying without ever knowing that they were in danger. Tom was the only one that didn’t shoot.
Mike felt Tom’s hand on his shoulder, and Mike stood up and led the way out of the aircraft. Mike and Everett advanced, put a round in the head of each Turinzoni on the ground. Behind the team, Murph went out one side, and Yee went out the other, covering opposite sides of the transport.
The rest of the security team came out of the aircraft. Four would come with Mike and his team, and the rest would be security for the transport. Murph and Yee were covering the team, and they had Drapier and Stein as their security. Ken stayed back as the leader of the transport security.
Mike checked the heads up. Everything still looked good to him. The dragons were keeping the other Turinzoni focused on the threat outside the fence. It looked like the threat was growing. There were four dragons out there now.
Mike watched as one tried the force field. Energies flashed across the dragon’s body. It bellowed its wrath as the energy from the force field crackled across its skin, burning and charring as it flared. The dragon was enraged, and attacked one of the others. Lurid light highlighted blood and carnage as the dragons ripped into each other and smashed repeatedly into the force field. The sound of the dragons’ bellows mixed with the sizzling sound from the force fields created a cacophony that should mask any sounds the team made, as well as divert attention to the outside of the compound.
They reached the first tower unimpeded. Murph and Yee settled into position to watch the other towers. Stein and Drapier turned in the other direction to make sure that nobody could sneak up on them. With security in place, Mike started up the steps. The towers were about seventy feet high. The force field stopped just short of the room at the top. There were six flights of stairs leading up.
Mike kept his submachinegun pointed directly in front of him to take out any threats coming down the steps. Behind him, he knew that Tom was looking up for threats, Everett was looking out from the tower, and Mickey was looking back down the steps. It was the most natural thing in the world to them. They’d done this so many times that it was like breathing, something they did without thinking.
Five flights of stairs later and Mike was looking up the final flight at the door that led into the tower guard room. Mike started walking, and went into a crouch as he approached the door. The door itself opened out toward them, thankfully, which made it easier to assault. Mike pointed, and Tom moved past him up the stairs. Mike moved up until he was only two steps down from the door.
Tom pulled out a flash bang. Those were the only grenades they had left in abundance, with only three fragmentation left. Tom pulled the pin, then opened the door and tossed it in. The grenade exploded, and Mike did as well. He launched into the open doorway, knowing that Everett was right behind him. The Turinzoni were completely disoriented. Mike double tapped into multiple hostiles as he walked across the room. Other hostiles that he hadn’t shot started dropping, and he knew that Everett, and Mickey were engaging hostiles as well.
All the Turinzoni went down, and none of them had fired a shot. They’d never known what hit them. Mike walked through, putting bullets into skulls. Once he was satisfied that they were dead, he said, “Clear.”
The rest of the team echoed Mike. The guard house was secure. Glass was scattered across the floor when the windows had blown out. Mike saw two heavy weapons mounted out toward the dragons. He walked up to one and tried to swivel it. It stopped before it tracked back toward the compound. That made Mike feel a lot better. The weapons couldn’t track back to use against them in the compound.
He stopped on the far side of the guard house. He looked out at the other towers. Since they were arranged in an arc, he could see every one of them from this position.
“Tom, you see this?”
Tom moved forward, “Yeah, I can see all the towers from here.”
“You want to set up shop here, provide over watch?”
Tom nodded, “Yeah, I’ll be your guardian angel. You might want to bring the SAWs up as well. From here, they have a good over watch of your movement. I’ll handle singles, they can handle anything larger than that. You might want to move them closer as you leap frog, though. Their 5.56 doesn’t have the range that I do.”
“Hey, Murph, you hear all that? Can you and Yee come up here?”
“Sure Mike, we’ll be right up.”
Five minutes later, they entered the tower, “Where do you want us?”
Tom was set up in the window so that he could take out anybody that stuck their heads out while the trio was moving.
Mike pointed out the window, “You have perfect over watch from this tower to the next. Follow Tom’s lead. He’ll let you know if we need cover from the SAWs. Hang out here until we’re done with the next tower, and as we leap frog, you can leap frog behind us.”
“No problem. At least we won’t have to dodge falling glass anymore. Just let me know when you want us to move to the next tower.”
Mike slapped both of them on the shoulder as he went past them to get to the stairs. Everett and Mickey followed him out and down. When he got to the bottom he looked at Daughtry and Stein.
“Guys, why don’t you go up to the tower with the others? I don’t like the idea of you two down here by yourselves.”
Daughtry answered, “Got it.” He pushed Stein toward the stairs, and followed him up.
Mike stepped away from the first tower. There was shattered glass all over the concrete pad. It was surreal moving between the two towers. Just a hundred feet away, four pissed off dragons were busy mauling each other, their screams and bellows punctuated by the iridescent flashing of the force field. As they moved to the next tower, garish lights from the discharge of the force field cast frenetic shadows across the compound. The sound was deafening. If he didn’t have his helmet on with its integral sound compensation, he wouldn’t be able to hear anything at all. Still, the smell of charred flesh was overwhelming.
Mike, Everett, and Mickey moved toward the second tower. It was the same set up, six flights of stairs up. Mike felt a little better knowing that Tom was set up as over watch from the next tower.
Mike started up the stairs. It was a little different this time. They didn’t have to worry about anybody on the stairs with Tom watching, so they moved up quickly. When they got to the top, Mike trained his weapon on the door, and Everett moved past him to open it for entry. Everett pulled a flashbang, opened the door and tossed in the grenade. Mike waited for the explosion, and then moved quickly into the room, acquiring targets and
double tapping the hostiles as he moved.
More of the hostiles went down as Mickey moved into the room. Everett came in, but there weren’t any hostiles left by the time he got in. Once again, the sound of, “Clear” indicated that all the hostiles were down.
“Murph, Yee, red rover, red rover, come on over.”
“Movin’.”
Murph and Yee made it to tower two in fifteen minutes. Daughtry was with them for security. Stein had stayed to provide security for Tom.
With Murph and Yee set, Mike led the team down the stairs to head to the next target. The third tower was no different than the first two. With that kind of luck, Mike had no doubt that something would gum up the works pretty soon.
“Mike, I need you to stay put.”
“What’s up, Tom?”
“There’s a guy walking down the steps on the fourth tower. I don’t know where he’s headed. Stay in place until I give you the ok.”
“Roger, Wilco.”
They waited for a tense five minutes, not knowing where the guy was going to go. Mike didn’t want to look out the window. Then Tom gave them an update, “Mike, give it a few more minutes. Looks like the guy is headed back to the main building.”
Again, they waited. Tom called again, “Okay, you’re clear for the next tower.”
The trio waited for Murph’s team to shift, then they headed toward the fourth tower. Mike felt like the mission was taking too long. When he was back on the ground, he made the motion for them to double time over to the fourth tower. Mike leaned into a sprint, stopping at the bottom of the steps to check for any more of the Turinzoni coming out of the tower. He didn’t see anybody moving at the top, so he started up the stairs.
Mike bounded up the first five flights, rounded the corner and started up the last flight. Right at that moment, one of the Turinzoni opened the door and stepped out. He stopped half out, the door propped open by his body. The grey man was stunned by what he saw. Mike could see the grey man’s emotions go from shock, to indecision, then his face settled as he made a decision. All of this happened in milliseconds. Whatever the decision was, no one would ever know. Mike shot him in the chest and the grey man collapsed in the doorway.
