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Chiricov

Chapter 7

Through the Smoke and into Danger

I woke Nina; cradling her in my arms. I gave her a gentle kiss to stir her sleeping body. She opened her eyes; blinking twice. She smiled sweetly and I leaned in; giving her another kiss.

"Morning, baby." I said softly.

"Hi, hun." She replied.

She stood up and stretched. I laboriously did the same, stretching the cramp in my back that I received from sleeping in a chair. We got dressed and together we traveled to the mess hall. Trey was already there; waiting for us with three plates of food. We ate; devouring the food in front of us.

We were just finishing our meal when three pagers echoed through the room. The room fell silent and all eyes were on us. We glanced quickly at each other and clicked the pagers to silence them. We jumped from our seats, knocking them over in the process, and sprinted out of the mess hall.

We ran down the hallways, sprinting towards the briefing room. The door was just ahead; I locked my legs, my feet still on the ground and slid smoothly across the polished floor. I grabbed the handle, pushed the door open and we ran in.

The room was pitch-black, the only light coming from the projector, which illuminated the wall with a map of Oured, Ocea's most populated city. A red box surrounded a portion of the city. We sat down and Fitch appeared from the dark corner.

"Morning" he said, "As you can see, we have a situation and I think it's time to give you a test."

We looked at him with puzzled glances.

"It pains me to say, but Oured has been hit by a terrorist attack. The red box," he said pointing to the map "Is the damage zone. This area has been hit by six, 1500 pound bombs that were placed in the back of box trucks. Air toxin screening has confirmed that these bombs were made of Mix-78."

We exchanged worried glances. Mix-78 is nasty stuff; deadly, toxic, and highly destructive.

"Now, as you know, a 500 pound bomb is capable of turning an entire city block to rubble. So, calculating these numbers, you're looking at about 18 city blocks of destruction. You are been sent in to eliminate the BLA hostiles that aerial recon has spotted. So far we have spotted 23, but we guarantee there will be more."

"Sir? Will we be the only team?" I asked nervously.

"Yes, Chiricov." He said, "You are the only team. Now, each of the BLA operatives is most likely armed with their standard AK-47. If they surrender, then 'Plasti-cuff' them, knock them out, and pick them up on your way out... That's all people; you're moving out now. Get your gear, go to the armory, and rendezvous at the hanger."

We stood up and left the room. Running to our rooms, we dressed and I grabbed my katana; strapping it to my hip. We ran to the armory and chose our weapon; strapping our kit to our waist and bergens to our backs. We then continued, running down the row of gun shelves until we reached the one with "RED TEAM" stenciled on the floor. We chose our rifles, pistols, and concussion grenades, and then left for the hanger.

Our ride was already on the pad; the nimble "Eagle" was ready to take flight. The Eagle was essentially the little brother of the much larger "Falcon"; sporting the same design, and swivel wings. We ran inside, strapped down our gear and sat down. The engines roared to life and the Eagle sprang into the air and jetted out the mouth of the landing bay.

Twenty minutes later we exited from our hyper-sonic cruising speed over the city of Oured. It looked normal, but then we noticed the blocks of city that were engulfed in dust in front of us. We stood up, strapped on our gear, and locked the HAPH- "High Altitude/Pressure Helmet" to our heads. The almost pure oxygen filled our lungs as I hit the green button; opening the cargo door.

"5...4...3...2...1..." we jumped. "C'ya soon Eagle 19." I said as we freefell through the blue sky.

"Godspeed, Red Team. Best of luck." The pilot said through the radio. "OH! And don't forget to write!" he light-heartingly joked.

We were doing what is called a LALO (Low Altitude Low Observation) jump. This meant that we would be free falling through the air until the last possible second, and then deploy our parachutes. At 150 feet we deployed our parachutes, and we drifted into the dust cloud.

"100 feet." I said into the com.

It was hard to see, the dust cloud was so think. We drifted down. 50 feet... 40 feet... A building rooftop sprang into vision.

"Landing zone sighted. Brace for impact." I said.

We braced ourselves, and we landed. Our knees crumpled and we rolled as we hit. We grabbed our chutes and rolled them up; stuffing them in empty corner. We loaded and cocked our guns; taking up our positions outside the door of the rooftop stairwell.

I nodded. "3...2...1..." I whispered.

Trey swung the door open and I tossed a concussion grenade down the stairs. There was an intense flash of pure white light; followed by the shock wave that flashbangs create. We heard a load groan, as we rounded the corner. There was a temporarily blinded Belken insurgent lying on the floor. Next to him, there was a hole in the wall, most likely from when the shock wave propelled him into there. I applied my paw to his throat, and covered his mouth. I choked him until he passed out from lack of oxygen, not killing him, but subduing him there until we got back. Trey squatted next to him, checking his pulse, and then after confirming that he was still alive, duct taped his mouth and bound his legs and arms.

"AWACS, Eagle 19. One hostile silenced and ready for transport on the top floor." I said.

"Roger that, Red 1. Eagle 19 awaiting your extraction signal."

We continued down the stairs and reach the next floor. We locked our silencers to the end of our rifles. Peering around the corner, I saw four insurgents armed with AK-47s. I held up four fingers to silently tell the number of hostiles to Nina and Trey.

Trey stepped out next to me. I nodded to him and he slipped across the hallway, taking up a position on the opposite side. We aimed carefully, and we both fired two rounds simultaneously. The rounds entered the back of the hostile's head, and they fell to the ground with a thud.

About thirty minutes later we had made it to the ground floor. A total of fifteen enemies killed or subdued. This floor put us in a tricky situation. There were ten hostiles on this floor in the lobby, and we couldn't let them fire one shot or yell for help. We didn't know how many more of the terrorists were in the area, so silence was essential. Then, we noticed that the hostiles were in small groups. One group of two was near us, and partially hidden from the view of the other groups.

"I'm going to drop these two first. Then we're down to eight, which shouldn't be that hard to handle." I said; silently unsheathing my katana.

"Agreed." They both said.

I crept stealthily behind the two combatants. Then I struck. My blade slide smoothly across their throats; slicing deep. The two fell to the ground, their throats sliced in two, dead. Trey and Nina stopped behind me.

"Wing it?" I asked.

"Wing it." The nodded approvingly.

"Alright, Trey, your count." I said.

"Okay, on three." He said. "One... Two... Three..."

We rushed from our place of hiding. Spraying bullets across the room. The remaining eight, taken by surprise, fell quickly. We kicked the AK-47s away from each of them; pooling them in the center of the room. Then we noticed one insurgent outside. He was standing at watch, oblivious to what just happened.

"Let's take him alive." I said.

"Roger." Trey confirmed.

We slipped outside, sneaking up behind him. Trey upholstered his pistol, and slammed the handle into the back of the insurgent's head. He fell to the ground and we quickly cuffed him. Then I saw him look at something in the distance and I turned to see what it was. A snarl bubbled from my throat as I saw a BLA operative shouting into his radio.

"We're goin' to have company!" I shouted.

This wasn't going to go well...