by C. R. Daems
Fox, enemy troops approaching on the road from the north heading south. Bulldog, scrolled across my TCom screen. It was on our open channel, so everyone had seen it, and we faded as one, further back off the road, and found cover. Two minutes later, North Moech troops in their green and brown camouflaged uniforms came by at a double-time pace. They were sitting ducks, and my fingers itched to ambush them, but it soon became apparent they numbered close to two hundred, and we couldn't have survived the engagement. I opened my TCom.
Mueller, two hundred North Moech troops approaching on company three's flank. probably another two hundred on Company One's flank. Troops armed with assault weapons, hand grenades, and light protective gear. traveling fast. estimate arrival in five minutes. luan.
I had no sooner sent the message than Bulldog had us moving again, albeit slower. Freddie took over the lead and slowly moved us more east, as the area had twenty or more separate bivouacs, probably individual companies. Two hours later, we had cleared the bivouac area, and I called for a halt.
"Who's turn is it to take the lead?" I asked, and Salamander pointed to his chest. "I want to head toward Moech Alley, but before we do, I want to see if we can locate their communications tent. Wolf, Spiderman," I said thinking my communication men would be most likely to spot it. Before I could elaborate, both men rose and slipped off into the darkness. It was dark and eerie quiet considering there must be hundreds of troops in the area. I relaxed into a meditative posture while I waited for the men to return. I opened my eyes when I first heard Wolf then Spiderman slip in beside me. Cedric smiled.
"They have a small camp area about fifty meters from the last of the troops’ area. It's about five hundred meters from here. They have a generator, so they are running communication equipment of some kind. There are six men guarding the facility, another four or five inside the tent operating the equipment, and several officers." He gave me an open mouth, teeth bared snarl. I nodded.
"I want to pass that area on our way to the Moech Alley, and I’d prefer no one was alive and the generator nonfunctional when we leave. So, gather around," I said and pointed to Cedric. He gathered a few stones and broken twigs and began explaining the camp's configuration.
"The main tent contains their communication's equipment. The tent's opening faces north away from the troop encampments. To the rear of the main tent are six smaller tents. They appear to be sleeping quarters. The guards face north, east and south. None face west toward the camp. It appears they rotate the guards every so often. The area has been cleared of ground cover, but there is heavy growth surrounding the area."
"We'll reevaluate the plan when we get there, but here is a tentative one. I will position myself in the jungle facing the main tent's opening. Bulldog, you have the north side; Taipan, the south; and Mamba, the west. On my signal, Flintstone will take the tent furthest south, Firebird the next, Salamander the next, then Spiderman, Wolf, and Peppermint. Afterward, you will descend on the main tent. Flintstone, you have responsibility for the generator. The snipers will provide security cover." I paused for questions, making eye contact with each man. "Wolf, you have the lead."
It took over an hour to reach the camp as we encountered several troops wandering the area, and I thought it better to leave them alive than to kill them. Although we were going to kill the people in the communications camp, whoever discovered them would have no way of knowing from which direction we had come. If we had killed the random individuals we had encountered, they would have known we were from the south and probably from the force opposing them. Not sure if it mattered, but the less they knew the better.
I worked my way around to the eastside of the camp. I found a well-concealed area that provided an excellent view of the front of the main tent, so I settled down to await everyone's signal that they were in position and ready. Slowly, they came in over the next twenty minutes. The last was from Bulldog who had the north side and the farthest position to reach. I set my timer to thirty seconds, pressed send, sighted on the guard stationed off to the side of the main tent's flap, and tightened the pressure on the trigger as I waited. A few seconds later, I heard the chime and applied the additional pressure on the trigger. As I had thought, the generator noise masked the muffled sound from the CheyTac suppressor, and no one emerged from any of the tents.
Shadows could be seen as my team ghosted from the cover of the jungle into the camp and checked each tent. Only the far north tent had occupants–three relief guards. Now all that was left were the men in the main tent–a max of eight, if Wolf was correct. My two medical specialties faded back into the jungle, leaving four to rush the main tent.
They moved to the front of the tent. Cedric grabbed the tent flap and pulled it open and the three charged in. I only heard shots from our standard Jericho handguns with a suppressor. A minute later, Smitty stuck his head out the flap and waved for me to come. When I entered, I scanned each man and was pleased to find everyone looked healthy. Over the next thirty minutes, I examined everything in the tent and took photos of all the documents and maps laying around and forwarded them to Colonel Delgado, hoping the information would give them an edge. Smitty took only a minute to destroy the generator and communication equipment, and then we slid into the jungle in the direction of Moech Alley.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Planet Lochpin: An Unusual Farmhouse
"According to my map," I said between bites of the ration bar I was chewing, "we are about four klicks from the beginning of the narrow strip of land, called Moech Alley, which connects the north and south continents."
"What are you hoping to find, Fox?" Smitty asked.
We were close enough to each other to hear what was being said, but the undergrowth was so thick, I could barely make out the individual members of the team. I had decided to stop last night when we couldn't see where we were going and to give everyone a rest. We had been up for over forty hours since arriving on Lochpin.
"Some generals we can convince to stop the war and take their troops home. Or a battalion or a company of North Moech for you to play with," I said.
"Something to blow up would be good," Firebird said.
"Enough. Whose turn is it to lead?" I asked, having finished my ration bar.
"Still yours," Taipan said as he rose and began walking. One by one the scouts rose in their previous positions when we stopped. Finally, Smitty rose and I fell in behind him. Over the next hour, the vegetation thinned out as the elevation rose towards Moech Alley. As it did, our progress slowed as we encountered more and more seemingly stray soldiers or maybe scouts. When we were less than a klick away from the start to Moech Alley, we encountered a ridge that provided a good view of the Alley and surrounding area. There sat tents stretching back as far as I could see, which I estimated looked to be at least a thousand or more troops. Having nothing else to do, I lay there trying to determine their intention. After several hours, I decided they were waiting on orders.
I kept particular watch on a large tent in the center of the sea of tents. There troops were coming and going on what I thought were electric bikes, since they weren't making the usual gas-engine noise. I thought it strange that they appeared to be traveling south rather than east or west where the current engagements were taking place.
"Smitty, send Spiderman and Mamba to see if they can determine where those bikes are going," I said, thinking I'd like to follow them and find out the reason they were going south rather than east or west. It was possible they had another army moving deeper into South Moech territory. Just then, my TCom lit with a message.
Luan, where are you? Mueller.
I suddenly realized that I hadn't updated Mueller lately and sent a quick message.
Mueller, we are at the south entrance to Moech Alley. The North Moech have at least another thousand troops bivouacked here. They don't appear to be getting ready to move out of the area anytime soon. Luan.
As I pressed Send, Smitty slid up beside me. "Spiderman said the bike turned off on
to a dirt road, but it was speeding too fast to follow."
Before I could reply, I had a message from Mueller.
Luan, the information you sent to General Delgado indicated they were getting ready to deploy them. You apparently broke the link to whoever had authority to release them. Good work. Mueller.
I nodded to Smitty, slid back far enough so as not to be seen when I rose and joined my squad.
"Our quest, should you choose to accept the assignment, is to determine where that bike went," I said and looked around the group.
Spiderman rose and within seconds, Smitty and I followed at the end of the line. Although the road was dirt, it was in good condition and well-traveled. We had only been walking about twenty minutes, when we saw the same bike on the road returning north. Fifteen minutes later, Spiderman turned away from the dirt road to the west and the pace slowed. Thirty minutes later, he raised a fist for us to stop, and after another fifteen-minute wait, he signaled for us to join him.
"There is a large farmhouse and barn about a hundred meters ahead. Although everyone I can see is dressed as farmhands, they are all carrying weapons, and they look to have a twenty-five-meter perimeter surrounding both the house and the barn consisting of six to eight guards," he said and turned his gaze on me. I smiled mentally. He had done his job and now it was my job to decide what to do with the information.
"We could go back to base," I said and noticed slight frowns. "Or we could see what goodies they are hiding that require armed guards." That greeted me with smiles.
"They have a platoon, maybe; four squads of eight men each," Spiderman said. "And maybe ten to fifteen inside the house. Officers, senior staff, and specialists. And another ten farmers."
"Do you think they are the folks that own the farm, or are they hired help? North or South Moech?" I asked since they were involved one way or the other in the current war. If they were North Moech, they had to be killed. If they were South Moech, they were officially friendlies, but could I trust them with my troops' lives? Their sympathies may lay with the north.
"There doesn't appear to be any guards in the fields where most are working, but guards may not be necessary if they have their families secured someplace," Spiderman said, with a shrug.
"Alright, let's observe them tonight and formulate a plan based on what we see. I'd hate to see innocent families killed if we can avoid it.
We watched the activities for over twenty-four hours before I decided on a plan of attack. The six guards roaming the perimeter changed shifts every eight hours, which wasn't a good idea since after six hours, they weren't really paying attention. We estimated there were at least fifteen guards dedicated to perimeter security and another eight guards providing external security for the house.
The farmworkers all went home at night, or at least left the area, indicating they were not being held under duress. More importantly they wouldn't be there at night when we planned to attack. It was harder to tell who was in the house as few individuals ever went outside. We did get some confirmation of the numbers watching the windows as people went upstairs to go to sleep and some of the technicians had bunks in the barn. Ironically, house security was reduced to two men for the late shift.
"Alright, I think we have a pretty good estimate of the total number of guards, how many will be on duty, how many in the barn, and the number remaining in the house. And the potentially innocent people will no longer be on the property when we attack," I said when everybody had gathered. "I want to try not to harm the barn, house, or equipment, and to leave the bodies where they fall."
"Why?" several people asked simultaneously.
"I'm hoping the senior people will believe the house had been discovered by accident and is still safe to use since it was left abandoned," I said but didn't elaborate. "To summarize, we will have six guards walking the perimeter and two standing guard on the house. Everyone else should be off duty and either asleep or otherwise occupied. So, forty-seven in the barn, eight guards outside and awake, an approximately ten in the house." I took a sip of water, hoping my plan precluded the surprises that seemed to accompany most plans. "The four snipers will be assigned two guards each; on my signal, we'll take them out. The others, except for Peppermint, who will stay with the snipers, will open the barn door in the rear and throw in several flashbangs, close the doors, wait a minute and then throw in several more, and then enter and begin clearing the area. The sniper group will simultaneously clear the house. Any questions?"
* * *
We waited until two in the morning before taking our assigned positions, hoping everyone would be asleep at that hour. When I had gotten a click from each individual indicating they were in position and ready, I set my timer to twenty seconds and sighted on the guard I thought most alert. Then I clicked the timer icon and waited. When I heard it chime, I slowly squeezed off a shot that killed the guard on the right. Two seconds later, I killed the other guard who was looking around rather than diving for cover. When I saw Taipan break cover, I rose and followed him and the other three toward the door. Running across the open area, I noted no lights coming on in the upper bedrooms. The front door was unlocked, and Peppermint was first through the door. We followed him up the stairs to the landing where, with hand gestures, I assigned each man a door. On my nod, each of us opened our assigned door a crack, tossed in a flashbang, and slam the door shut. Not very sporting, but this was war and we didn't start it. When I opened my door the second time, one man was crawling on the floor trying to find the chair he had hung his assault rifle on, while the other one was rubbing his eyes and screaming something in a language I didn't understand. Seconds later, they were both dead.
I exited the room and stood waiting on the landing, curbing the urge to cross my fingers as I waited for each group to report. As each man exited a bedroom, he held up fingers to indicate the number in the room: a total of eleven. Finally, I got the message I was waiting for.
Luan, the barn has been neutralized. Smitty.
While I had been waiting for confirmation from the barn, Peppermint was wandering in and out of the rooms.
"Luan, looks like we stumbled on several very senior generals, five in total, and their staff."
I opened my TCom. "Smitty, while the others search for any information our brothers can use, you, firebird, and I are going to rig the barn and this house with explosives. I want the explosives placed in areas that are unlikely to be searched or stumbled across by accident."
Over the next several hours, rooms, cabinets, and bodies were searched, while the three of us with explosive specialties placed explosive devices in the attics and ventilation ducts.
"Why did we save the house and barn if you're going to blow it up afterward?" Bulldog asked when we had finished and were getting ready to leave.
"I'm hoping a new batch of senior officers will see the house has more comfort than a tent and decide to move in," I said and smiled. Everyone clapped.
"Does that mean we're going to stay in the area?" Wolf asked.
"No, Spiderman has an antenna in the roofs of both buildings so we should be able to activate the explosives from several miles away, and Smitty has the explosives rigged with traps in case someone discovers them by accident."
"What now?" Smitty asked. It was a question I thought on everyone's mind, including mine.
I sat, not having a clue what to do next. When I opened my eyes, my entire team was sitting in a circle around me.
"I guess that house wasn't very exciting. Kind of like fishing with hand grenades," I said to nodding heads. ""Firebird, you stay and keep us up to date on what they do here. I thought the rest of us would go back to Moech Alley and wipe out a company or two. Whose turn to lead?" I asked as I rose to amused faces.
"Excellent idea," Taipan said as he rose smiling. I still wasn't sure what to do next but thought I'd like to see our opponent's reaction when they discovered their headquarters had been compromised and the senior staff killed. We saw no one on the way back to my
previous observation ridge and arrived around noon. Nothing new appeared to have happened while we were gone. I assumed they were waiting on orders from the generals. If so, they would need divine intervention.
About mid-afternoon, one of their electric bikes left and returned less than an hour later. When it did, the camp came alive. Trucks loaded with over a hundred troops left in the direction of the farmhouse, a car left north into Moech Alley, and their large tent in the middle of the bivouac area was overflowing with people.
"You do seem to have gotten their attention, Jolie," Smitty said, scanning the area with his binoculars.
I took out my TCom and typed a message to Mueller.
Mueller, we have taken out their field headquarters. they appear to be seeking guidance from North Moech. Any orders? Luan.
An hour later, I received a reply from Mueller.
Luan, keep doing what you're doing. Destroying their Field command structure has apparently disrupted operations. The latest information you sent indicated the North Moech reserve troops were being held for Wynne City as soon as Mortone and Nowice cities were secured. But they can't release them because they don't know what's going on in the field. Mueller.
Two hours later, Firebird sent an update.
Luan, they have close to one hundred troops cleaning out the building and several officers trying to determine who and how many were involved. Boring. Freddie.
I decided to wait, hoping to get higher value targets at the house before activating the explosives. There was a lot of activity in the camp, but there appeared to be no preparations to move the troops. The sun was setting when the emergency signal lit on my TCom.
