Weapon – Active again
#2 of Weapon
I wanted to catch some sleep on the way, but status updates were coming in from the teams on the ground about troop movements and positions, so I had to revise and rebuild my plans on the fly, trying to constantly adjust until the guard patrol pasterns were sorted out.
There were two full teams prepared for assault on the ground, and another with heavier weapons ready for support, we had the base forces out numbered nearly three to one, but it was the four poor bastards deep in a bomb shelter in the middle of the mess that mattered. They had been on a cruise when the ship had been hijacked, the rest of the folks and crew had been found dead on the ship, so thankfully they were out of the equation.
We landed at an air-force base just outside Iran, it would be an hour long drive to get to the base, thankfully night will have begun by then.
Climbing out of the Jet I was greeted by a soldier, standing with his back turned. The rest of the airfield was deserted.
"Sir! The DPV is ready to roll. The whole base is under orders not to observe your person, and I am under very strict orders not to turn around. Sir!" The unnamed soldier stated. Obviously The General didn't want me to be widely known about.
I quickly glanced back at the pilot, who lifted his flight visor and gave me a big grin and a wink.
I shucked out of the flight gear, leaving me in the standard OCP forces camouflage gear, climbed into the four wheeled buggy, started the heavily suppressed engine and began following the GPS in front of me.
The little vehicle ate up the miles, the GPS giving a soft warning when I neared and then crossed into Iran in no time it flashed to tell me I was at my destination.
As I cut the motor and pulled the kill-switch a single word was spoken nearby, seemingly in my ear. "Thunder."
Resisting the urge to use the very well known world war two reply, I said quietly but clearly, "Simon."
"Good to have you here Sir, we have been holding for your go, your last plan as of fifteen hundred has been disseminated to the squads." The voice said, "Sir, we were told to, uh, be circumspect in regards to your appearance, The General was very clear that only one person knows the reply to that challenge apart from himself, and that no matter what we would be following your orders, but..." He paused a second, "Sir, are you human?"
"As far as the Docs can tell, at least three quarters still is. But I am still one hundred percent a soldier, and Ruggers thinks I am the best for this job, so I must be." I replied, a little put out by his phrasing.
"If he says so, ma'am, its good enough for us. We have two squads of seals, one is our support squad. The remaining assault squad is comprised of Aussie SAS, some real hard arsed bastards, but they know their way around."
"There will be some changes to the script Lieutenant, I will need to speak to each of the squads." I told him, thankful Ruggers had tacked on a temporary captain, onto my info he had sent. They didn't even know I was a non-com.
We made our way to the first squad, there were a few comments about my appearance, but when they realised I was the one who was setting the plays they quickly fell in.
The support squad would not need a re-brief, their role was not changing, they were to cover our arses as we pulled out with mortar and sniper fire.
"Holy fuck what are you supposed to be?" The Lieutenant from the SAS contingent said as we got closer.
"The worst nightmare of the fuckers in that base." I replied with a grin, I had dealt with SAS before, knew that if he had been really opposed to my presence I wouldn't have gotten within sight of his squad. "I have made a few changes, thanks to your spotters and their info, we should be able to do this without losing a single hostage." I handed forward the changes I had made.
"I have been over your plans, the timing will be tight, but it should be do-able. So what are you? You can't be the desert fox, that was Rommel." He stated dryly.
"Nah, I am just the right bastard for the wrong job." I replied with a grin.
"What I can't sort in your plan, you have put yourself down to lead the charge down that tunnel to the door of the bunker. I understand that's the most crucial leg of the mission, but by my estimation that's going to be a fucking shooting gallery, one hundred meters with no cover in a tight corridor. Either your mad or a god damned genius." He said, letting his thoughts of which I was hang.
"I will take it either way at the moment Soldier, so long as I can get them out of there does it really matter which?" I said.
"Fair enough. A guy I have a lot of respect for has put his arse on the line for you, see that their won't be a cock up." I blinked, and started laughing. "Good to see there's another Atkinson fan here, Captain. Say the word and we will do our part."
"Good luck." I said as we left.
After a little running I broke away from the seal and took up my spot, dropping to my belly on a ridge, checking the time and settling the little modified earpiece home, the radio chatter wouldn't begin till we had started making noise, hopefully my job would be done by then.
At the designated time I started crawling forward slowly, edging closer and closer to the wire fence of the camp, with my keen eyes and knowledge of what would be happening I saw the beginning of my plan unfold, silenced weapons and black anodised knives did their work in the darkness.
I was almost to the fence when I cut it a small slice just big enough for me to get under, of course bolt cutters were not required thanks to my gifts.
I heard a dull thud beside me as a soldier who was about to find me had been neutralised by a sniper.
I saw the seals had almost cleared the way to the bunker entrance, I rose to my feet and began sprinting.
I reached the open door seconds before the first SAS, darting inside, not stopping to even acknowledge their presence, I knew they were there because I planned for them to be there.
My footfalls were silent as I raced up the passage, the soldiers piling in behind were not so and about thirty feet from the end I saw the vision slit open and a heavy calibre machine gun poke its deadly snout through the gap and start barking. "Fuck get down!" The soldiers behind me yelled in warning.
I was dicing bullets up as fast as I could, I started dealing with them at the twenty five foot mark, but due to the high rate of fire I was slowly losing the fight when I closed past the twenty five foot mark, and spared a fraction of time for my power to lance out and slice the barrel, exposing the gas feeds that would keep the weapon firing. I stopped the last round within a foot of my forehead, a little too close, but my next action was to slice the door off its hinges.
It fell down with a loud clang and the two men inside that were visible were raising pistols to the heads of what were obviously the hostages. They of course didn't last long, the gun safeties were the first thing removed, then the arms holding the guns and their heads.
The soldiers piled in behind me, "Ok get them out, we are pulling back" I told the soldiers. They moved efficiently, releasing the hostages from their bonds and carrying them.
I was about to leave myself, when I noticed some papers in a rubbish bin, there was a dropped lighter beside the bin, which made me instantly suspicious as to the documents. Grabbing them and stuffing them in a pocket I made good my escape.
We made a rendezvous with the troops outside and began pulling back, our snipers dealing with the last few soldiers in residence.
Two soldiers had been injured, neither severely. Both assault teams and the hostages mounted up into hummers that had been secluded a short distance away and made tracks for the border, as planned the support squad would return once the sight had been purged of evidence of our presence.
I rode in the vehicle that was transporting the wounded, they were still in shock but were thanking everyone they could.
"No problem mate, but we wouldn't have got this done without the Captain here, she cooked up a plan and worked some magic to get you out." One of the SAS was saying, companionably putting his arm around me, dwarfing me of course.
"What... what are you?" The civilian asked.
"She is apparently the nice lady who saved all our arses Gary, so show some respect." One of the other civvies said. "Thanks ma'am, we appreciate everything you have done."
"I guess." Gary said, "Yeah, thanks." He finished.
It wasn't till I got out at the air-field that my mind alerted me to the orders that I wasn't supposed to be seen, but it was too late, the crews at the base saw me and at first seemed taken aback, but when the special forces guys seemed to be cool with it they sort of shrugged and continued their jobs.
I was going to get chewed out for this yet, mark my words.
The ride home was much more stately, I boarded a hercules transporter and, along with the hostages, returned back to the 'States.
"Good job Sergeant." General Ruggers greeted us on the tarmac, "But there's something I would like you to take a look at if you wouldn't mind..." Fuck, here it comes, I know that tone.
He handed me a tablet playing a video on repeat, the first thing I noticed is it was of course me, getting pats on the back from the soldiers at the air-base, the second thing, fuck it all, was the fact it was posted on youtube.
"Ahh, Sir..." I began, but he had turned and was obviously leading the way back to his office.
It was going to be a longer day...