by James Rosone
*******
It took Jank’s team nearly an hour to carry out their checks before they felt ready to begin their ascent to the platform above. So far, they had observed a couple of roving patrols on the lower deck of the platform. Occasionally, an enemy soldier looked down into the dark, murky waters below, shining a flashlight across the surface. It was in these moments that the SEALs had to be extra careful. The platform was still powered and had a plethora of lights turned on. The operators’ only saving grace was the rain and the thick mist that hung in the air. The crappy weather meant the roving patrols didn’t spend a lot of time outside looking for trouble like they should have.
The SEALs were doing what they did best—making the inclement weather work to their advantage. It did help that, for the last three days, the ocean had been at sea state three and four, with waves of two to eight feet, intermixed with nonstop rain or rainy mist, which was common at the end of the traditional hurricane season. The rain might have complicated their climb up the rig, but the geeks at DARPA had come through for SOCOM once again—they’d developed what had affectionately been dubbed the gecko wet suit and ascension ensemble. The operators would use the gecko ensemble for scaling the side of a ship, or in this case, a massive oil rig.
Basically, it was a coiled cable housed in a Roomba-like device that would scale a surface and then pull the climber up. The only reason the SEALs even considered using this type of climbing device was that it allowed them to keep their hands free for their weapons. This was important considering that every ten minutes a roving patrol of guards would wander down to the lower level of the rig and occasionally look down at the water below.
Chances were, the first team scaling the legs of the rig would have to take the guards out or be ready to handle any additional threats that might pop up on their journey to the rig. The only drawback to this new system was its speed. The damn device was painfully slow as it crawled up the metal leg, pulling the operator. Hence why it was important to be able to use one’s weapon should the need arise.
Jank checked his Resco dive watch. The luminous hands told him it was now 0305 hours—time to start their ascent. He tapped his swim buddy and pointed upwards, and the two of them attached the climber to the metal leg and let it start the process of climbing up toward the catwalk above them.
As the eight SEALs slowly rose out of the water, two on each leg of the platform, the other eight SEALs remained in the water with weapons trained at the railing seventy feet above. Once the first group was at the top, they established a security perimeter while the rest of the platoon made their journey up to join them.
While Jank’s Roomba was pulling him up and out of the water, he watched as Chief Petty Officer Vance Cummings in the water below tossed a small object into the air. It seemed to float weightlessly for a second before it came to life and climbed soundlessly toward the top of the platform.
Cummings had thrown one of the new PD-100 Black Hornet II nanodrones the SEALs were integrating into their operations. These little bad boys were tailored specifically for Naval Special Warfare, with twin counter-rotating rotors to account for higher winds on the ocean.
They had specially equipped these drones with a dual FLIR and true-color night vision that could send real-time imagery to all of the SEALs via the specially designed 180-degree dive masks they’d recently started using. The specially outfitted masks had a built-in internal monocular for the NAVSPECWAR. It was the SpecOps version of a Blue Force Tracker, enabling a SEAL commander to know where all his people were. It also gave the operators the ability to see what the drones were seeing so they could maneuver to best deal with a threat. This newest piece of equipment, along with the microdrones, enabled the SEALs to have a near 360-degree awareness.
Jank watched as the drone rose past the platform he was heading toward. Moments later, it moved from under the platform to taking a loitering position a hundred feet above the facility. In seconds, it identified six hostiles on the west corner of the rig. The second drone stayed near the operators as they climbed up the leg of the rig. The portion of the lower platform they were nearing still appeared to be empty.
As the operators approached the platform, the drone nearest them picked up the audio from a nearby patrol that was on its way down to the lower platform.
Crap, we’ll need to take those guys out and quick, Jank thought. He was nearly to the platform himself.
Jank tapped something on his face mask and saw the video image of the drone that had captured the audio for him. He spotted a pair of Chinese soldiers walking down the metal stairs to the catwalk that would lead them directly to him and the rest of his team.
Knowing he needed to act, Jank reached down, grabbed his suppressed SIG M11A1 pistol and pointed it in the direction of the soldiers. He waited for what felt like an eternity for them to walk down the stairs. The first soldier made it to the landing and stopped. He appeared to be pulling a pack of cigarettes out of a front pocket and then lit one.
His friend said something to him that the drone’s audio wasn’t able to grab. The two of them moved down the landing to the bottom of the catwalk that would lead them directly to Jank. It took the soldiers another minute until they reached the landing on the platform and then turned to head toward him. When they appeared around the bend, Jank saw the two soldiers through his enhanced night vision goggles. They each had cigarettes in their mouths and their rifles slung over their shoulders, oblivious to what was about to happen.
Without thinking about it, relying solely on his two decades of training, Jank squeezed the trigger, hitting the first guard in the head. Jank then pivoted smoothly to the second guard, hitting him twice in the chest and once in the head before the guard even realized his friend had been shot. The two of them slumped to the deck, their rifles clattering on the metal catwalk.
Directly above Jank’s squad, the drone spotted where the soldiers had come from. An awning had been set up, presumably to give the guards on patrol someplace to shelter and take a seat between patrols. The few soldiers were sitting around under the awning, smoking cigarettes and talking amongst themselves, oblivious that the war had started.
With the first squad of eight SEALs on the lower deck of the platform, Jank tapped Cummins on the shoulder, indicating that it was time for them to secure the place. The other team of eight operators was already halfway up the platform while the third and final group was getting ready to start their own ascent.
Cummins did a quick assessment of the area based on the images from the drones. He sent a short message over their closed coms link to Jank that they should take out that group of soldiers on the next deck above them. They posed the greatest threat right now.
Jank concurred with the plan, and Cummins organized the operators on the deck. They detailed off a single SEAL from each of the four squads to take out what the drone had identified as six hostiles standing around the awning.
Jank didn’t have to, but he opted to go with them—he wanted to stay with them as they cleared this next level of the platform in case things went sideways and they had to make an adjustment to their original plans.
When they reached the next landing, Jank heard voices in Chinese laughing at something. One of them was showing the others something on his phone, which made them laugh again.
While they were occupied, Jank and the four other operators continued to slip closer toward them. The men were still talking and laughing, unaware of the danger sneaking up on them from the shadows.
One of the ChiComs must have pulled another cigarette out. When he flicked his Zippo to light it, a brief flash of lightning struck the water a few miles away, illuminating the area around the soldiers. Suddenly, the shadows the operators had been lurking in weren’t so dark.
The enemy soldier who had been looking in their direction stopped what he was doing. It was as if he saw them, but he couldn’t quite believe what he saw. After a momentary hesitation, the soldier tried to unsling his QBZ-03 assault rifle.
Jank tapped his radio, talking barely above a whisper via his throat mic to Chief Cummins. “Targets neutralized. Is Kilo Platoon ready to roll?”
“Kilo’s up. Juliet is ascending right now,” came the short reply.
A few minutes later, the two SEAL platoons were organized and ready to begin clearing the decks of the rig.
Juliet Platoon, along with the EOD techs, was tasked with clearing out the lower levels of the platform and making sure the oil pipes and storage tanks weren’t rigged with explosives. With their assignments in hand, the platoon broke itself down into squads and moved out. Kilo Platoon was tasked with securing the upper portion of the rig and the control room.
Jank watched as the lead squad advanced, each man covering the man in front of him. As they reached an open door, they stopped and cleared it. They needed to make sure they didn’t leave a room full of hostiles behind them as they advanced through the facility.
When they approached one of the stairwells, they spotted two guards strolling toward them, completely unaware of the Americans’ presence. The lead SEAL fired several rounds from his suppressed Mk 16 SCAR-L. The guards fell down the stairs in a heap.
For the briefest of moments, no one moved. They stood there listening to see if anyone might have heard the shots or the bodies falling to the deck.
The first magazine in their rifles was loaded with subsonic 5.56mm rounds. While not completely silent, they were a lot quieter than the nonsubsonic rounds in the rest of their magazine pouches.
When no one else showed up to investigate the sound, they continued to head toward the control room. When they reached it, First and Second Squads stacked up against the side of the door and got ready to move. Third Squad moved down one side of the platform level, while Fourth Squad moved down the other. These two squads would clear this level of hostiles while the other squads secured the control room.
Approaching the control room, the lead operator, a man who went by “Scarface” reached down and gently turned the handle of the door. He was the breacher, so it was his job to get them inside the room. He motioned briefly with his other hand, a countdown.
Three…two…one…
“Breaching!” Scarface roared to be heard by everyone around him.
In the flash of an eye, he was in the room with his FN SCAR assault rifle tucked in his shoulder and at the ready as he broke to the right side of the room, allowing quick access for the following man to break left and the third man to rush forward into the center of the room.
As Scarface moved into the room and cut to the right, he fired several shots from his rifle while the second operator moving left fired a couple of quick shots of his own. The third person in the stack was in the room fractions of a second later, firing three shots at the soldier standing in the center of the room before he could even hit the alarm button.
A fourth and fifth Chinese soldier who hadn’t been hit by the initial barrage of bullets dove for cover behind a table. One of them had his QBZ assault rifle ready at lightning speed and sprayed bullets at the charging SEALs.
Jank followed the fourth man into the room just in time for the man’s body to be thrown back into him, causing the two of them to fall backwards through the door they had entered and to the deck.
As their bodies hit the deck, Jank knew the SEAL on top of him was dead. He wasn’t even trying to move. Jank rolled the corpse off him to the left as he sought to bring his own SCAR to bear on whoever might still be alive and trying to kill them inside the control room.
Before Jank could get back to his feet, he heard the operators shouting, “Clear,” as they finished securing the room.
The sound of the enemy soldiers’ rifles going off had probably alerted the rest of the guard force that they were being boarded. It wouldn’t take long before more shooting would start. Jank and his teams had to move swiftly to neutralize them and secure the platform.
Entering the now-cleared control room, Jank saw Chief Cummins getting the pumps on the rig powered down, activating various built-in safety features that would lock it out from releasing oil into the Gulf. Another SEAL was flipping switches, turning off the lights and power across the rig. Plunging the facility into darkness would make it easier for the SEALs to leverage their night vision goggles.
With the rig’s communications, both internal and with the mainland, cut off, Jank radioed the leader of Juliet Platoon, Lieutenant Jack “Nipsey” Russell.
“Anvil Two, Anvil Actual. Control room secure, SITREP. Over.”
A long moment ensued before the reply came in a low whisper.
“Anvil Actual, Anvil Two. We have mov—”
Before Jank could ask him to repeat his last transmission, a thunderous explosion threw the SEALs in the control room to the deck. This was followed by a second and then a third blast. This was definitely not something Jank wanted to hear on an oil platform in the middle of the ocean.
Jank barked orders for two members to remain in the control room. He ordered the five other members of the platoon to follow him down to the next level, where Juliet Platoon was supposed to be, and figure out what the hell had just happened.
He also sent a quick message to Third and Fourth Squads to stay on task, clearing out the upper level of the platform and the helipad. Now that they had secured the control room, they had a company of Marines inbound to help them in ten minutes.
Jank and the five others ran out of the room, weapons at the ready as they headed toward the stairwell that’d lead them to the lower decks of the rig.
“Anvil Two, Anvil Actual. SITREP, over!” Jank hissed into the comms.
The team bounded down one deck and stopped, waiting to see if they could hear their comrades. What they heard was sporadic gunfire coming from within the sealed crew section of the platform. The operators immediately stacked up against the sides of the door and prepared to breach.
As they were about to open the door to move down the corridor, it opened and out stumbled Petty Officer Carlson from Juliet Platoon. The man had a terrible laceration on his right arm that crossed his chest. When he saw his comrades, he looked surprised and then collapsed.
Jank tried to catch the man’s fall and fell with him to the deck, holding him in his arms. He was lucid but losing a lot of blood.
“What the hell happened?” Jank asked.
Carlson coughed up some blood as he tried to explain. “We cleared rooms. We came to a room we heard people talking in. We stacked up and prepared to throw in a flash-bang. Then they shot at us through the walls.”
Carlson coughed again, more blood oozing out his mouth. He wheezed as he tried to speak. “We must have tripped an alarm and then…” He coughed up more blood, and it sounded like he was gargling or choking on it. His body then went limp before he could say anything else.
“It looks like he took a couple of rounds to the back, Jank. Nothing we could do,” one of the operators said.
Lowering his NVGs so he could see in the darkness, Jank motioned for his men to move forward into the corridor Carlson had just come from. The enemy knew they were coming, which meant clearing the remaining decks would be a lot more complicated. Time was unfortunately not a commodity they had in abundance on this mission either.
As they moved into the bowels of the rig, they heard the sound of more gunfire being exchanged. The sounds of QBZs and AK-74s echoed throughout the corridors. Jank also heard voices in Spanish and Chinese, shouting to each other like they were coordinating who would do what and when.
When they reached the first intersection, the team of five operators stacked up behind Jank, getting r
eady to move down the corridor where the firing had come from. Readying a flash-bang, Jank let the others know he was getting ready to toss it. He pulled the pin and peered around the corner long enough to give it a good toss.
As soon as he’d thrown it, he turned his head away, closed his eyes and opened his mouth slightly, preparing for the concussion and flash of light that was about to blind the defenders.
Bang!
In the blink of an eye, Jank was around the corner, rifle up and charging toward where he suspected the enemy soldiers were. When he rounded the corner, he saw half a dozen enemy soldiers, temporarily blinded and in various stages of shock. One of them was firing his pistol wildly in the direction of the other platoon of SEALs.
Jank sighted in on the first guy he saw and pulled the trigger, hitting him several times in the chest and knocking the man backwards to the floor. Jank advanced along the right side of the room, knowing the man behind him would be breaking to the left. In seconds, his team had wiped out the eight enemy soldiers that had their sister platoon pinned down.
“Clear!” yelled Chief Cummins as the SEALs finished off the last of the defenders.
Jank’s corpsman ran over to where the remaining five SEALs from Juliet Platoon were hunkered down. They’d all been shot at least once or peppered with shrapnel.
Lieutenant McCarthy, the platoon’s second in command, was the least wounded. He was young and amped up from the gunfight. He wanted revenge for the loss of his platoonmates. Chief Cummins had to calm him down so the corpsman could get him patched up and back in the fight. They needed Lieutenant McCarthy to help tend to his wounded operators, not think irrationally and get himself or others killed.
With the platoon rescued, Jank jumped up on the Task Unit net. He heard their reserve platoon had finally made it onto the rig. They were working on clearing the rest of it with the two other squads of Kilo Platoon.
Jank’s radio then chirped, letting him know he had an incoming message. “Anvil, Hammer. How copy? Over.” It was Blade, the leader of the second half of the Task Unit. His reserve platoon, Lima, made up the rest of the Task Unit. In this case they were the cavalry, and their added combat power would be much appreciated.
