Chapter 1:
In the Earth Federation and Duchy of Zeon's seemingly never ending quest to beat one another into submission, many different types of weapons were developed. Soon, mobile suits became the norm for combat on the ground, and in the skies. However, mobile suits are damaged, pilots are forced to eject and are left wandering uselessly around like babes in the wood. Realizing this, the Earth Federation and the Duchy of Zeon maintained their Corps of Infantry. Of these, the Federation's most infamous unit was the 127th Dragoons, 6th company, the Sandhogs. Equipped only with what they can carry on their backs, the Sand Hogs are tasked with one of the most thankless and dangerous jobs ever, going in and rescuing downed mobile suit pilots.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." Plato
Captain Alice Sims cringed at the whistle of incoming artillery shells. She had heard the sound often enough and she still found it to be extremely unsettling even if it was friendly. After making sure that there was nobody around to take pot shots at her, she pulled her tactical computer off her belt. Most of her commanders found it odd that her company only had 12 actual troops, compared to a normal company's 100 to 150 troops depending on the company's configuration. Stranger still, to an outsider, the number of troops she had was inflated from its normal eight troops by four troops on loan from the Federation's Special Air Service to give her twelve troops. While
"Ma'am, this is Travis we can't find this stupid fucker!" Her Medic, Lieutenant Evan Travis shouted over the tactical radio
"Damn it... Sparky, check the direction finder again!" Sims shouted at her electronics and coms tech, Technical Sergeant Mitch Rapp
"Says it's in this building ma'am but the damn mobile suits have too many satellites tied up in that battle and the sand storm ain't helpin much either!" Rapp replied
"RPG! GET DOWN!" Sims' SAS sniper and senior enlisted man, Master Sergeant Kieran 'Mick' McCorrason shouted
"Mick, I told you to kill that son of a bitch!" Sims shouted over the explosion of the RPG's warhead against a wall of the building
"I did, this is a different one." McCorrason replied with a laugh as he brushed some dirt off of his face and relit his ever present cigar
"Put that damn thing out and do your job!" Sims shouted as she brought her carbine to her shoulder and fired at a group of advancing infantrymen. Like all of her soldiers, except for her sniper and machine gunners, Sims carried the Mk-77 Infantry Combat Carbine. Based off of the L-85A2 bulpup combat rifle, but chambered to fire the much more powerful 6.5mm Grendel round, it could hit with pinpoint accuracy out to 500m and was more than capable of downing even armored infantry with a couple of well placed shots. Because she had not quite held the rifle quite right, her shots went wide and tore up the sidewalk instead of her intended target. Before she could correct for her miss, her Heavy Machine Gunners, SAS Sergeant Iosef Brezhnev and Lance Corporal Marcus Ferot opened up with their 7.62mm HK MG4Es.
"Captain, this is Jan, we've finished sweeping the damn building and the bastard just isn't here!" her XO, Lieutenant Batou Jan called over the radio
"Damn it all... Sparky, could he be in a different building?"
"He could be in the building across the street from us," Rapp said, after consulting with his direction finder's output on his helmet-mounted display.
"Could be here, could be there, hell for all I know he could be about ready to... never mind, I'm not gonna say that" Sims grumbled as she snatched one of McCorrason's flasks from his belt and took a swig, only to find that it was whiskey and not water.
"Wrong flask Cap'n," Kieran replied with a laugh when he saw her expression
"Damn you and your whiskey Mick!" She hissed after she gulped the whiskey down
"Damn me all you like Cap'n, but don't damn the whiskey." Kieran replied as he brought his DSR-1 up to his shoulder and ripped off one of his deadly accurate .338 Lapua rounds. The round's performance was nearly that of a 12.7mm HMG round and slammed through his target's body armor as if it was not there at all.
"Captain, I've got trucks headed this way from the east!" Corporal Velettia Tinkler, the company's anti tank specialist called over the radio from her position on the building's roof.
"Tinkler, can you take'em out?" Sims replied as she carefully crossed the building to have a look for herself
"I've only got one AT-4 left!" Tinkler replied.
"It's just a five ton with some infantry in the back, Sergeant Breakers and I can put a couple of 40's into the lead one," one of Sims' grenadiers Lance Corporal Vic Marco said,
"Vic, you take the damn truck, Breakers, you keep covering the door. If any of those fuckers come by..."
"INCOMING!" Kieran shouted as a column next to them exploded and showered everyone with concrete fragments
"APC on the southwest corner," Tinkler shouted as she brought her AT-4 to her shoulder and fired it into the turret of the APC. The HEAT round's molten copper Explosive Formed Penetrator ripped through the APC's thin turret top armor and detonated some of the internally stored ammunition. As the crew was attempting to escape, one of the APC's anti-tank guided missile warheads exploded, destroying the APC and its crew.
"Damn it all, where is the pilot?" Sims asked as she pulled a chunk of concrete out from between her tactical vest and her BDU jacket.
"I've got a better fix now that the battle to the east is dyeing down I can get a better fix..."
"Well where is the bastard?" Lt. Travis shouted
"In the building across the street..."
"The one I thought the bastard was in the first fucking place!" Sims shouted, "Listen up! Kieran get the hell up to the roof and keep the Zeeks tied up! Brezhnev get set up across from the target building door for suppressive fire! Breakers load a HE round and get ready to bust that damn door open. The rest of you get ready to storm search the building!" Sims ordered
"Ok boss, HEDP shell loaded and ready to break the doors down!" Breakers replied
"In position and ready for suppressive fire!" Brezhnev replied
"Kieran you in position yet?"
"Chill out... I'm in position. I'll deal with those guys coming from the five tonners!" Kieran said as he dropped his sniper rifle back on its sling and pulled out his Designated Marksman's Rifle. Kieran's DSR-1 was sighted in for 700m and beyond, and it only carried a five round magazine. Because of those limitations and the slower firing of its bolt action, Kieran also carried a highly accurate Designated Marksman's Rifle or DMR. Kieran's DMR was a hand built version of the Mk-14 EBR chambered to fire the same 6.8mm cartridge as the Mk-77. Taking full advantage of his rifle's deadly accuracy, he fired six rounds at the driver of the first five-ton truck. Kieran's first 6.8mm rounds slammed into the armored front windshield, cracking it and showering the driver with spall. Kieran's the fifth round impacted between his first four shots, shattering the polycarbonate window and punching an odd shaped hole through it. His sixth round passed through the hole created by the first five and killed the driver. The vehicle commander attempted to grab the steering wheel from his dead driver, but Kieran killed him with another six round burst. While the driver's foot was still on the five-tonner's accelerator, Kieran fired another six rounds at the vehicle. The driver side front wheel took all six rounds which destroyed the tire and caused the rim to fail.
The five ton truck's axle dug into the soft asphalt and caused the vehicle to pull hard to the right, Without a driver and down a wheel, the first five tonner swerved uncontrollably across the road until it slammed into a building.
The second 5-ton truck's driver slammed on his brakes to avoid colliding with the first truck but he was unable to stop his overloaded truck in time and the two trucks collided. Not quite satisfied with his handy work, he emptied the remaining twelve rounds in his magazine into the load bed of the first truck. He watched patiently for someone to climb out of either wrecked truck and begin taking command. His patience was rewarded a few seconds later as someone quickly began shouting orders at the dazed and confused Zeon troops. While he had been waiting for this opportunity, Kieran had reloaded his rifle and chambered a round. He leveled his crosshairs just above his target's ear and pulled the trigger. Figuring that he had overextended his welcome in that particular firing position, he ducked back below the lip of the roof and scurried back towards the stairs.
"What's the story Kieran?" Sims asked
"Relax cap, I've got'em tied up well enough; our six is secure for now but we've been static for far too long!" Kieran shouted, meaning that they had been sitting in one position for too long.
"Ok, once we're through the door you better catch up with us."
"I'll be fine." Kieran said
"Ok... Breakers hit it!"
"Master key outbound," Breakers said as he fired his grenade launcher at the door.
Because Breakers knew that the door its self would not be able to provide enough resistance to trigger the grenade's detonator, he aimed for the doorframe on the right side of the door. The 40mm HEDP round that Breakers fired was designed as a general purpose round, capable of penetrating light armor and bunker walls. While using it as a dynamic entry tool was not what its designers had intended it worked quite well. The explosion shattered the wooden door and ripped a large chunk of the wall near the doorframe out as well. Through the smoke and dust, a few Zeon infantry opened fire on Sims and her team, but they were ready for it and Brezhnev's MG-4 clattered into life in response.
"MONO EYE! MONO EYE!" Kieran shouted as he sprinted down the steps from the roof of the building
"What did you say?" Sims shouted over the radio
"There's a fucking Zaku coming! Grab some mud!" Kieran shouted as he caught sight of the team.
"Oh holy hell..." Sims muttered as she heard the Zaku's 120mm machine gun open fire.
"Sandhog Six, this is Walker Three get clear!" Sims mobile suit radio link squawked
"COVER!" Sims shouted as the friendly GM stepped around the corner firing its 90mm machine gun into the torso of the Zaku
"Holy crap..." Tinkler muttered as the stream of empty 90mm casings bounced off of the building and rattled around on the ground, a couple almost crushing her.
"Where's the pilot?" Sims shouted in Rapp's direction
"Second floor, northeastern corner!" Rapp replied, marking the position on each of the team's navigation HMDs.
"Watch the stairs!" One of Sims' riflemen shouted as a pair of Zeon infantry troopers opened fire
"They're done." Kieran said as he caught sight of them through a second floor window and pulled his DSR-1 up to his shoulder. After sighting them through the window, Frost fired his third .338 Lapua round of the engagement. The round was louder than of the other weapons on the battlefield, save for the mobile suits and Tinkler's AT-4. Everybody knew what it was and who had fired it even before the first Zeon infantryman was knocked off of his feet by the 16 grain Sierra Matchking round traveling at its maximum velocity of 820M/S. Kieran's second shot was a bit more dramatic, as the soldier brought his rifle to his shoulder just before he fired. The Lapua round was made of solid tungsten, sheathed in a thin core of lead to minimize barrel wear and its impact on the Zeon infantryman's rifle literaly shattered the rifle in his hands. Angry that his shot had not had the desired result, Frost zeroed in for a second shot, but one of the riflemen in the building caught him first.
"Keep moving!" Sims shouted as Tinkler and Marco dashed up the stairs, Mk-77s shouldered and ready to fire.
"I see'em," Tinkler called over the radio.
"Is he hit?" Sims asked.
"That's affirmative... shit he's messed up bad..."
"Ok Tinkler, I'm sending Doc in behind you guys, cover him."
"Yes ma'am."
"The rest of you secure the area. Rapp, call in the medivac team!"
"Roger that ma'am..." Rapp said as he adjusted his long range coms radio to the right frequency, "Centric Guard, Centric Guard this is Sandhog, how do you copy?"
"Sandhog, Centric Guard go ahead, we copy five by five."
"Centric Guard, Sandhog has recovered the package. Pilot is severely wounded and in need of immediate evac."
"Sandhog, Centric Guard copies... dispatching Medivac Helo and Convoy. ETA 10 and 20 minutes."
"10-4 Centric Guard, evac ETA 10 and 20." Rapp said, switching his radio to its tactical mode, "Captain, Centric Guard reports 10 on air and 20 on ground!"
"Roger that..." Sims said, looking over at Lt. Travis
"See if they can put a rush on one or the other he or ain't gonna make it!" Travis shouted
"Sandhog to all available assets, we have one critic wounded in need of immediate rapid evac!"
"Sandhog, Centric Guard. We've dispatched all available assets..."
"Centric Guard, this is Super Six Four, we're within five of the location..."
"Super six four, get over here!" Sims called
"Roger that Sandhog six; Super Six four inbound. Stand by on the roof; we'll do a hot pickup!"
"Roger that super six four! DOC..."
"I heard!" Travis shouted
"Don't hit the roof yet... Mick take your SAS boys up to the roof and clear the area!" Sims shouted
"Right, moving now!" McCorrason called as he waived to his detachment and pointed to the stairs. As they approached the roof, Brezhnev squared up on the door, with Master Sergeant Wilson 'Soap' Wash behind him, and Sergeant Ken 'Gaz' Falcon behind them. Brezhnev delivered a powerful kick to the wooden door on Mick's signal and the four of them sprinted through the door.
"Clear!" Brezhnev shouted as he set himself up on a corner of the building
"Clear!" Kieran shouted from his corner
"Clear!" Gaz shouted from over on his corner
"Clear!" Mick shouted, as he activated his tactical radio, "Six, the roof is clear! Negative hostile contact around the building."
"Roger that, we're moving up!" Sims shouted as she waived the remainder of her team up the stairs.
"Visual contact... pair of fire teams headed this way." Mick reported as he slid the safety off on his EBR
"Sandhog, super six four... mark LZ with smoke!"
"Roger that, marking with orange smoke!" Sims shouted as she pulled a smoke grenade off of her tactical vest and set it off.
"Orange smoke sighted, we're on approach!" The pilot of Super Six Four, Colonel Michel Brembo, replied as he brought his tilt rotor in. The door gunner closest to Kieran's side caught sight of the fire teams that Kieran was firing at and opened fire with his minigun. Kieran cringed as a storm of 8mm rounds passed too close for comfort and ripped the fire teams to shreds.
"Crap..." Kieran grumbled as he caught sight of the devastation the door gunner caused.
"Let's go Mick!" Sims shouted from the tail ramp
"I'm coming!" McCorrason shouted over the increasing whine of the tilt rotor's twin turboprop engines. Just as the pilots began to lift the tilt rotor off the roof, McCorrason took a powerful stride and leapt onto the ramp. As his boots hit the grip-textured ramp, he wrapped his hand through the cargo netting and hauled himself into the passenger bay.
"GO GO!" Sims said over the intercom after McCorrason was past the threshold.
"We're rollin!" The Brembo shouted as he red lined his engines to clear the hostile zone as quickly as possible.
"We're in so much trouble with Centric Guard..." Brezhnev said with a rueful shake of his head as McCorrason dropped into one of the available seats
"Don't I know it?" McCorrason replied as he pulled his helmet off.
"Don't worry, I'm the one that's gonna catch all the hell." Sims said as she sat down next to McCorrason
"Like a proper officer; it's good to see you're learning." McCorrason replied.
"You watch it Sergeant, or I'll drag your ass along."
"And what, if anything would that accomplish" McCorrason asked with a sardonic grin
"Well, I might just spin it to the CO, and show off a little cleavage. And he'll get to wondering why a battle hardened First Sergeant would let me, an innocent, young, Captain do such a foolish thing."
"You try that." McCorrason said with a grin,
"What do you know?"
"While we were out in the sandbox, old baldy was supposed to be transferred out 'cause of his promotion. Word has it that the new commander is a woman. She probably won't take too kindly to the innocent young woman's cleavage routine." McCorrason said, in his most scholarly tone.
"I agree..." Soap said with a laugh, "You might be able to bribe us with it every so often, but somehow… I don't think it'll work on her."
"Yeah… somehow, I get the feeling that I shouldn't try that little stunt."
"That's a wise idea..." McCorrason whispered to Brezhnev, "when we touch dirt, I say we bail."
"Agreed." Brezhnev replied,
"What are you two planning?" Sims asked.
"Ain't planning nothin ma'am," McCorrason replied.
"Don't bullshit me; I know a thing or two about working with you old sergeants."
"Sure thing Cap'n," Brezhnev replied as he tightened his grip on the cargo webbing as the pilots banked around for the final approach.
"Where is everybody?" Tinkler asked as she looked through one of the windows.
"Dunno..." Breakers replied looking out the window by him.
"The morons are in the crash shelters... and they're even wearing flash suits!" Rapp said, twisting himself around to look out the window over his shoulder.
"I've got visual on three commander's jeeps 100 meters off the pad!" The pilot, Colonel Michael Brembo said.
"This isn't good." Sims grumbled.
"Everybody... snap your safeties on!" Brezhnev shouted over the increasing pitch of the turboprop engines as Brembo brought the tilt rotor's engines from their normal horizontal fight position to their vertical takeoff and landing mode.
"Naw... this is real bad..." Sims said as she caught sight of a trio of officers in full dress uniform
"This is gonna suck..." McCorrason said as he slid his whiskey flask off his belt.
"Don't worry; I can explain it away as medicinal." Travis said with a grin, as he tucked it away in the bottom of his backpack medical kit.
"Touchin' dirt in 1" Brembo called.
"Everybody make damn sure you've got your safeties set, and helmets on properly!" Sims ordered, staring directly at McCorrason.
"All ashore who's goin' ashore!" Brembo called as the tilt rotor's gear touched the ground and he brought the engines down to idle. The second the engines hit idle speed, the ground teams sprinted out from the crash hangers and split into three teams. The first team went right to the forward cabin hatch and popped it open; to assist with the wounded pilot's unloading. Contrary to standard operating procedure as it had been established previously, the ground team brought the pilot to the crash shelter next to the helipad before transferring him from the field stretcher to the hospital gurney.
Without needing to be told to, Sims and her company sprinted to the safety line so that Brembo could get his beloved Super Six Four clear of the landing pad for the next evac helicopter which was only two minutes out.
The whole situation struck Sims as extremely odd. She noticed the very tense expressions of the helipad's ground team. No congratulatory remarks, no ammunition techs around to replace the rounds they had expended. Even though they were on the ground and in 'friendly' territory, her brain was still in combat mode and her hands had not left stock of her rifle.
"You Captain Sims?" A severe looking woman standing off to the side by the commander's jeeps asked
"Yes ma'am." Sims replied as she peeled her helmet off
"Good, once you've showered and chainged into an appropriate unform come to my office immediately.
"Yes ma'am," Sims asked as she cast a wary glance in Mick's direction.
Kieran sat down at his customary table with the troops from the Sandhogs Company and Colonel Brembo. Given the differences in rank, and training, the group was a little strange to outsiders, but for them it provided enough varying viewpoints during the various discussions that invariably took place around the table. A transient helicopter squadron had taken up the tables across from them, and a back and forth discussion of the relative merits of a helicopter vs. a tilt-rotor began. As all such inner service rivalries, and especially those in the various base bars, the debate became quite boisterous.
"What is a tilt rotor?" One of the younger helicopter pilots asked.
"A wishy-washy queer that can't make up its mind if it's a helicopter or an airplane!" One of the senior pilots replied, to the laughter of the pilots around the helicopter squadron's tables
"Oh... Remind me again Sergeant, what is a Helicopter?" Tinkler asked, pulling out all of the stops on the dumb blond act.
"As I recall it, from my days in basic lo those many years ago... Hmm... Perhaps I have forgotten...Ah yes I remember it now! Helicopters are ugly, noisy, aircraft that don't so much fly as beat the air into submission!" Kieran said
"I'm sorry First Sergeant... perhaps your DI was working off of the old identification handbook. Helicopters are really a bunch of parts flying in relatively close formation, all rotating around a different axis. That work well until one of the parts breaks formation!"
"Is that so? Then what may I ask you is the fighter pilot's prayer?"
"God I hope they don't fall off?" Brezhnev called in reply, drawing the ire of all of the fighter pilots in the base's bar and the laughter of everyone else in the bar.
"I'm sorry, buddy the fighter pilot's prayer is Lord I pray for the eyes of an eagle, the heart of a lion and the balls of a combat helicopter pilot!" The commander of the helicopter squadron called in reply, pissing off the fighter pilots again, but nobody really cared, as fighter pilots were known for their fragile egos.
"Aye... but keep in mind, flying helicopters is like masturbation, you enjoy it while it's happening but you're kind of embarrassed when you're done!" Kieran shouted. The Helicopter pilots all stood up quickly, in some cases, knocking their chairs over. Rising to the implied challenge, the Sandhogs all leapt to their feet. Silence spread quickly through the bar as everybody turned to see what would happen next.
"Enough children!" Sims said as she walked between the two groups.
"Saved by your old woman? Infantry... dumb mama's boys!" The helicopter squadron commander said with a cocky grin.
"What did you call me?" Sims shouted as she wheeled on the helicopter squadron commander.
"I believe it was old woman ma'am." Kieran said, knowing how much that pissed her off.
"Is this true?" Sims asked, staring right into the eyes of the helicopter squadron's commander.
"It is Captain Sims." Brembo said with his most sincere voice, wanting to see how the diminutive captain would respond.
"I am not an old woman, you asshole!" Sims shouted as she drove her fist through the Helicopter Squadron commander's face. The startled pilot fell backwards off his stool and landed with a heavy thud against the floor. A helicopter pilot attempted to sucker punch Sims in the side, but Kieran intercepted the punch and picked the person that threw the punch and literally hurled him into the assembled mass of helicopter pilots. Several helicopter pilots dove after Kieran, but he caught one of them and threw the caught pilot into another one of the charging pilots. Their numbers halved, the two helicopter pilots attempted to retreat, but froze in place as MPs barged in through the bar door, quickly followed by the base commander.
"What the hell is going on here?" Lieutenant General Dunan Knute shouted from the doorway
"Simple recreation ma'am," Tinkler said, snapping to attention.
"A sporting match between two teams ma'am," Kieran replied, as he wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Ok... Someone please explain to me how..." General Knute started to say but was cut off by Kieran's pager.
"For the love of god..." Brembo said as his own pager began going off.
"We're not even the duty team!" Gaz moaned as his own pager began chirping
"What the hell?" Soap asked when he felt his vibrating in his pocket
"Come on, guys... chop the bull and let's roll." Sims commanded.
"Well, you heard the boss!" Kieran called over his shoulder as he headed for the door.
"Hold it!" Knute shouted as Sims and her Sandhogs walked out the door.
"We can't ma'am, we've gotta get moving! Brembo shouted as he sprinted off in the direction of his squadron's ready room so that he could put on his gear.
"Colonel's got a point Ma'am." Kieran pointed out.
"I'm coming with then." Knute shouted.
"What?" Sims asked.
"Go get ready; I'll meet you on the flight line!" Knute shouted.
"Christ... she's serious ain't she?" Breakers muttered as Knute made to follow them to their armory.
"Well... Whatever, it'll just make the night more interesting won't it?" Kieran muttered as they jogged to their armory to grab their combat gear.
The ride through the air to the drop zone was completely boring by Kieran and Brembo's standards. They could all feel the tension, but most of it was caused by having General Knute aboard rather than going in on a combat mission. Brembo signaled to them over the intercom that they were ten minutes out from the drop zone, and the tension was jacked up by a notch or two. At the two minutes signal, the crew chief slid over to the tail gate and hit the switch to lower it. While the crew chief was lowering the tail gate, the rest of the Sandhogs stood up and checked to make sure they had rounds chambered and safeties off.
"Go Go!" The crew chief shouted as Brembo brought their tilt rotor into a hover.
With practiced ease, the troops of the Sandhogs sprinted out from their tilt rotor's tailgate and set themselves up in a loose defensive perimeter. Once all of the soldiers were clear, the crew chief signaled to Brembo, and he maxed the throttles out to clear the drop zone. Without waiting for orders, Rapp activated his direction finder. The Direction finder's three antennas were mounted as part of his communications radio backpack, and had the ability to detect a Pilot's Personal Locator Beacon or PLB from ten miles away, depending on the conditions.
"Anything?" Sims asked.
"Nah... We're too far out from the pilot's ejection point."
"Right... McCorrason!"
"Roger that, moving out," McCorrason said, as he poked his head above the sand dune in front of him and brought his binoculars to his eyes.
"See anything?" Brezhnev asked as he slid to a stop behind McCorrason.
"Nah, don't see anything... Scratch that, I've got Zeek troopers 2000 meters out, Permission to engage?" Kieran reported as he brought his DSR-1 up to his shoulder.
"Hold fire Master Sergeant! They could be looking for us, don't fire until you're sure of a hit.
"General..." Kieran said, "They're miles inside my effective range..."
"More like 500 meters." Sims said with a laugh.
"Al... you're supposed to be helping me here." Kieran said.
"Al?" Knute asked.
"My first name is Alice," Sims said by way of explanation.
"You know each other by your first names?" Knute asked.
"We've been working together for about five years now, so yeah, we know each other's first names." Sims said as she brought up her own binoculars.
"Ma'am, they're at 1500 meters now... I can drop all three of them before the last one even comprehends what's happening."
"Do it." Sims said.
"Right."
At the order to fire, Kieran began regulating his breathing as he leveled his crosshairs on the first Zeon soldier's chest. Because they were past 1000 meters, he wasn't comfortable with taking a headshot, because the range was just a little too far for the weather conditions. After a couple of deep breaths, Kieran exhaled, held his breath and pulled the trigger. Without waiting to see the effect of his first shot, Kieran quickly repeated the process for the two remaining Zeon soldiers.
"Nicely done sarge, three up and three down," Brezhnev said.
"Works for me... Wait one... one of those bastards is still moving..." Kieran said angrily as he brought his rifle to his shoulder again.
"What are you doing?"
"Euthanize the bastard." Sims ordered just before Kieran pulled the trigger again.
"What do you mean Euthanize the bastard?" Knute asked.
"He was going to die one way or another, I felt compassionate and shot him again." Kieran said coldly as he scanned for more targets.
"Compassion is it? Odd way of showing it that's for sure." Knute said with a snort.
"Moving along from the unimportant to the important, I don't see anybody out there Cap'n; by your leave, we'll go and scout ahead."
"Get on with it." Sims said, shoving him over the sand dune that they had taken cover behind.
"Ass!" Mick called good-naturedly over the radio as he recovered his footing and began carefully scaling down the sand dune with Brezhnev, Soap and Gaz in tow. She tried to follow them down the dune, but the four of them were in the Special Air service, and could disappear in an open field if the circumstances were right. As they advanced over the dune, Kieran held his fist up, and they all came came to an immediate stop. Brezhnev looked around; trying to figure out exactly what it was that caused Kieran to call an emergency halt. After a couple of seconds, Brezhnev noticed Kieran waiving him over, so he dropped to his belly and combat crawled to his friend's side.
"What's up?" Gaz asked as he crawled up next to Brezhnev.
"See it?" Kieran asked
"The house there?" Brezhnev asked as he pulled his binoculars out from their pouch on his tactical vest.
"Yeah... Where's that muppet Rapp when we need him?" Soap groused
"Before we rolled the dunes, Sparky said that the bastard was too far away for his DF gear to work."
"I think he's a muppet. I'm willing to bet the first of the two turkeys is up in that three story house right there!"
"And I still want to know why you think the pilot is in that damn building..."
"Did you see that flash?"
"Yeah..."
"Hold on a second..." Kieran said as he brought his DSR-1 to his shoulder and activated his night vision scope, "Oh damn... He is in that damn building..."
"Shit and he's not exactly there by choice is he?" Brezhnev muttered.
"This ain't good… The four of us going to be enough?" Gaz asked
"Naw... Let's at least call up Breakers and Tinkler." Brezhnev replied
"Naw... if we call them up, Captain Sims will come along and if she comes along that damn General will too and then it'll become a fucking Barnum and Bailey down here."
"Fuck... like the old days then, sneak back up; steal a little C-4..."
"Learned my lesson from that adventure, brought some along this time." Kieran said as he patted his tactical pack.
"Sounds like fun, let's go kick a damn door in." Soap said with a laugh
"You got it." Brezhnev said as they carefully scaled over the top of the sand dune. Neither one really thought that it was sensible, what they were about to do, but he knew that it was the right thing to do.
While the four of them were advancing towards the house, they all too turns fixing suppressors to their weapons. Because Brezhnev was unable to fit a suppressor to his MG-4, he slung it across his back and pulled out his backup weapon, a deadly little Heckler and Koch MP-7 machine pistol, which was silenced.
Sims watched from the cliff, wondering exactly what her SAS team was up to. She found out a few seconds later when a loud bang, followed by a bright flash, an even louder bang and then the distinctive crash of a fragmentation grenade going off reached her ears.
"Stay here! Don't go anywhere..." Sims said as the distinctive snarl of Brezhnev's MG4 reached their ears.
"What the hell are they doing?" Knute shouted.
"What they do best, pissing me off." Sims said with a sigh.
"Shouldn't we go back them up?" Knute asked.
"If there's one thing I have learned from working with those four goofballs, it's that getting in the way of SAS trained operators is a bad idea. Before you ask why they aren't with the SAS anymore, I can't say because I don't know."
"I see..."
"Baseplate, this is Hawkeye do you copy?" McCorrason called over the radio as Gas and Soap swept the building to clean up any remaining hostiles.
"Roger that Hawkeye, Baseplate copies, what's your status?" Sims asked angrily
"Pilot number 1 recovered; tell that muppet Sparky to get on the damn radio and get hold of Centric Guard." Frost said
"Right... Rapp, get hold of Centric Guard and request medivac for one of the pilots."
"Roger," Rapp said as he switched on his satcom unit, "Centric Guard, Centric Guard this is Sandhog do you copy?"
"Go ahead Sandhog, Centric Guard copies." one of the communicators in the Centric Guard control room replied
"Sandhogs report recovery of first pilot and request medivac."
"Roger that, medivac inbound; ETA fifteen minutes, repeat Medivac ETA fifteen minutes."
"Roger that Centric Guard, Sandhogs signing off." Rapp said as he put his satcom receiver into standby mode
"So, how long until the medivac team gets here?" Sims asked
"Centric Guard reports ETA at fifteen."
"Which means more like half an hour" Kieran said over the radio.
"Yeah, that sounds about right to me." Sims said, "You need me to send Doc over?"
"Negative, Doc and you guys need to stay right the hell where you are. We'll be there in five." Kieran said
"Right... Rapp, satcom's beeping." Sims said
"I hear it," Rapp said, flipping the receiver back on again
"Sandhogs, Sandhogs, this is Centric Guard, do you copy?" A different communicator from Centric Guard said urgently.
"Centric Guard, this is Sandhogs; we copy five by five." Rapp replied
"Your medivac tilt rotor just got shot down. Nearest unit to your position is five hours out. Repeat nearest unit to your position is five hours out."
"What the hell happened to Super Six Four?"
"Sorry Sandhogs had to RTB with a mechanical failure." Brembo replied apologetically.
"Roger that... Centric Guard, stand by over."
"Roger that, Centric Guard standing by."
"Ma'am, Centric Guard reports our medivac chopper got shot down, and Super six four is RTB with a mechanical failure of some sort. Our backup is five hours out."
"Christ... Tell them to get their feet in it and haul some ass. I don't like the idea of being out here with a damn Prima Dona mobile suit pilot and a General for more than a couple of hours." Sims groused as Kieran, Brezhnev, Soap and Gaz scrambled over the dune with the pilot on a field stretcher between them
"Did I just hear what I thought I did?" Kieran asked pointedly
"Indeed you did..."
"For crying out loud... why didn't the buggers have a second damn bird on standby?" Kieran asked rhetorically.
"What's got you so worried?" Knute asked, "It's only five hours..."
"Ma'am, two things have us worried. You and the damn mobile suit pilot; he's wounded and you're a ball and chain around our ankles."
"Watch it mister!" Knute snapped.
"All due respect ma'am, he's correct in his assessment. We survive by remaining mobile. With you and a wounded pilot, we aren't mobile."
"Can't you call in for backup or something?"
"Centric Guard would have told us of available backup assets, and they would have detailed them to us after the medivac helo got shot down. We're on our own out here for five hours..." Sims replied
"And we didn't bring field shelters or anything..." Tinkler groused
"Not much we can do about that..." Breakers said
"Ok guys... here's the plan, or as best of one as I can make right now. Kieran, you and I will keep watch in the direction of the town with Gaz and Soap. Breakers I want you and Tinkler watching the road over there. Brezhnev I need you and Ferot standing by to back us up in a hurry. Doc, I need you to keep that damn pilot alive. The rest of you… Batou, take charge of the rest and form a tight defensive perimeter around the Doc. In addition, Batou, detail a couple guys to make dinner. Move out people!" Sims said
"This isn't so bad..." Kieran muttered to himself as her rolled over on his stomach and set his DSR-1's bipod up.
"Yeah... half on half off?" Sims asked as she lay down next to her with her spotting scope out
"Sounds good; you want first half?"
"I'll take first half, you eat."
"Sounds good." Kieran said as he ripped the top off a field rations pack.
"Hey Kieran... Check your scope."
"Right, where away?" Kieran asked as he set his rations pack down.
"Three o'clock... maybe three thirty... About a klick out maybe a klick and a half."
"Nice zone boss." Kieran muttered as he swiveled his rifle around to examine the area.
"Get me a better spotting scope, and I'll give you better fire zones."
"I'll talk to the supply sarge and see what I can knock out of him." Kieran said as he toggled the focus on his rifle
"Don't beat the guy senseless; we need to keep on his good side."
"I know...
"What exactly did you see?" Kieran asked as he surveyed the area.
"I just saw movement..."
"Well… I think somebody needs to have her eyes checked when we get back to base."
"Why?" Sims asked angrily
"Because that's a damn camel you clown." Kieran replied with a laugh
"Cap'n, I've sighted a convoy headed for the town!" Gaz called urgently over the radio
"Damn… we haven't even found the second pilot yet."
"No point fussing over it now Captain, Let us go check it out." Gaz asked
"I can't…"
"Come on Captain…"
"Fine, but don't get your asses killed!" Sims ordered.
With Gaz in the lead, the small detachment of soldiers moved at a fast, but sustainable pace as they advanced on the Zeon occupied town. Despite the long range, they had a general idea as to the pilot's location from his locator beacon. Because they were operating well forward of the line of battle, the downed mobile suit pilot's beacon would only connect to the Federation's GPS network long enough to get a rough location to prevent the Zeeks from being able to use their own direction finding gear to hunt for the downed pilot. Once the search teams were in the area of the downed pilot, they would activate their direction finder, which would send out a signal to activate the beacon's short-range mode.
"Are we going in hot?" Kieran asked
"There are far too many about for going in hot; everybody stay quiet for now." Soap said
With that in mind, Kieran reached into one of the pockets of his tactical vest and pulled out his SPR's silencer. Brezhnev dropped his MG4 to its sling and pulled his MP-7 from its holster on his right thigh. Both Gaz and Soap already had their silencers fixed to their Mk77s so they took the lead while Kieran and Brezhnev sorted their situation out. After Brezhnev got his SMG sorted out, he took point and Kieran took tail guard with Soap and Gaz in between them. As they advanced down the street, they all heard the familiar whine of a Zeon Cui's hybrid drive train in its 'quiet' electric mode. They all flattened against the wall of the building they were passing by and each one searched his sector, trying to locate the machine. Kieran caught sight of it on the town's main road, which was just one street over.
"You want me to take a look?" Kieran asked
"Be damn careful." Soap said
"Right..." Kieran said as he scanned up and down the street and then sprinted across. Once he was half way across the dirt street, he dropped into a slide and slid the rest of the way across. Frost paused, searched the area again, and then carefully advanced his way down the street, looking around to make sure that nobody could see his position. For an added layer of security, he switched off his IR tag even though the chance of the Zeon detecting it was slim to none. He poked his head around the corner and took quick stock of the enemy's forces and then pulled his head back around before they could see him. He waited a few minutes to make sure that the nobody had seen him before carefully crawling down the alley again back to where he could be seen. Once he was out of line of sight for the Zeon troops on the other side of the building, he flashed his targeting laser once to get Soap's attention. Soap flashed his own once, in acknowledgement. Frost scanned the area just to make sure that nobody had observed them and sprinted back over to them.
"So, what did ya see?"
"Big trouble that's what; four Cuis, a pair of Magella Attacks and a Samson carrier all manned up and ready to fight. The Cuis weren't carrying combat troops, or at least there weren't any that I saw. But they did have gomers in the turrets." Kieran said
"Christ, they're after the damn mobile suit,"
"Do we know where it went down?" Gaz asked
"Yeah, somewhere around here…" Soap said with a rueful snort of laughter.
"Chill out, I can find the mobile suit's locator with the DF equipment." Kieran said, activating it
"Works for me…" Brezhnev said
"Found the bugger," Kieran said, transmitting the location to his small detachment's HMDs. "They're pointed the wrong way, and they didn't have a mobile suit on board the carrier." Kieran said as he examined the map.
"How hard is it to turn a few Cuis and Magellas around eh?" Gaz asked
"What about the damn Samson?" Kieran asked
"That means they'll be coming here." Soap muttered as he looked at a map of the city.
"Damn, what are we going to do?" Brezhnev said.
"Ambush the bastards at the end of the block?" Gaz asked
"It narrows down pretty well there." Kieran said
"Indeed it does... biggest threat is the tanks... we've got C4 packs and a pair of AT mines, and two incendiaries a piece. What about you guys?"
"Just some C4 and four frags" Kieran said.
"C4 and a pair of incendiaries." Brezhnev replied
"We'll have to make due then."
"Right, lead off Brezhnev." Soap said, waving Brezhnev off.
They advanced down the street, carefully watching both in front of them and behind them to make sure that the Zeon did not notice them. Once they reached the spot they had planned their ambush for, Soap found a manhole cover and noticed that it was perfect for what he wanted to do. He pulled his roll of duct tape from his tactical belt and secured the mine to the bottom of the manhole cover. He also placed a pack of C4 on the wall of the manhole its self to create a cavity for the tank to fall into and to launch the manhole into the air so that the AT mine would explode just inches beneath the tanks hull. He attached manual detonator leads to each charge and tossed the spool of wire in the direction of the building he was going to take cover in. He carefully lowered the manhole cover back into its position to prevent the mine from falling off and becoming useless. To stop the tank where he wanted it to, Soap wrapped two loops of detcord around the base of a utility pole and then placed a small shape charge between the two strands of detcord. He inserted one end of the detcord into the shape charge's detonator and attached a spool of trigger wire to the detonator at the other end of the detcord. He tossed the second reel of trigger wire in the direction of his cover position. While Soap was preparing the first phase of the ambush on and under the ground, Kieran, Brezhnev and Gaz had climbed atop the buildings surrounding the area and crouched down on the rooftops. While Soap was rigging the primary ambush, Kieran, Gaz and Brezhnev attached remote detonators to some of their C4 bricks. When Soap stopped the convoy with his main charge they were going to pitch their C4 bricks at the convoy's tanks to try and disable or destroy them.
Sims was starting to worry about Kieran and his mates from the SAS, because they had been gone for a rather unreasonable amount of time without contacting her at all. The cold desert air allowed the sounds of the armored convoy starting up in the down below them to reach her ears but only just. It took her a few seconds to recognize the sounds for what they were, but when she did; her heart nearly came to a stop. She waived for her team to come over to her.
"You hear that?" She asked as the sound from the convoy picked up.
"Shit... they're probably still in the damn town too." Travis said
"What's going on?" Knute asked too loudly for everybody.
"Listen!" Sims commanded.
"Vehicles?" Knute asked.
"Yeah... Oh shit..." She muttered as the sharp crack of detcord being fired.
"Even more shit..." Tinkler said with a laugh as they heard the dual slam of Soap's trap for the first tank being detonated.
Kieran watched as the first tank was first disabled and then demolished by Soap's well-positioned trap. He glanced over the edge of the roof that he had taken cover on and caught sight of the top of the second Magella attack tank. He tossed the C4 brick like a Frisbee and watched it land in the open gunner's hatch on top of the Magella. He rolled to the other side of the roof and squeezed the detonator. The detonator had a five-second delay, which allowed him to use the repelling rope he had set up to slide down off the roof before the charge exploded. The gunner was unable to figure out what had fallen from the sky and landed in his tank, so he simply assumed it was a piece of shrapnel from the first tank's demise and ignored it. Just as Kieran's boots hit the ground the five-second timer hit zero and the C4 charge exploded. The charge Kieran had used was enough to destroy a bridge, and the gunner's position of the tank was wholly inadequate for stopping the explosion. While the tank didn't explode as if it would have had it been hit with a proper anti tank weapon, the fact that the gunner's position was demolished and the tank's weapon control system destroyed was more than enough for the situation. Taking their cue from the destruction of the second tank, Brezhnev and Gaz popped their incendiary grenades and hurled them into the open backs of the first two Cui transport vehicles. It was inhuman and cruel but it got the job done and that was life on the front lines for the SAS.
"Nice... that'll buy us some time." Kieran said as they regrouped at the prearranged rally point.
"Yeah, but how much?" Soap asked
"Probably not enough, but we'll have to make due won't we now?"
"I suppose.... While we're on the topic of making due, call Captain Sims and let her know we're ok." Gaz said
"Good idea, Sims'll come down here looking for us."
"Right," Kieran said, switching back to the Centric Guard operations frequency," Baseplate this is Hawkeye."
"What the hell have you been up to?" Sims replied
"Just having a little fun Captain; there was a Zeek armored convoy in town and we decided to tie them up. Do not, repeat do not enter the town at all, it is now way hot." Kieran said, hoping that she would understand the distinction between his version of way hot and her version of way hot.
"Roger that, holding position." Sims said, irritated by what they had done but glad that they were fine nonetheless.
With the recovery convoy taken care of, Kieran and his team moved off to the outer perimeter of the search area. They could hear the shouts and curses of the Zeon troops that had been ambushed behind them as they left the town behind them. In the pragmatic view of the SAS, the Federation Intelligence Command and even Centric Guard, the destruction of the highly sensitive ELINT gear aboard the mobile suit was higher on the chain of priorities than the securing of the pilot. Kieran wanted to achieve both goals, but he knew that securing the mobile suit would save more than just the pilot's life. They found the mobile suit within half a mile of where its last reported location was. Unsurprisingly, there were a few Zeon troops there, and a single Cui transport but they were combat troops, not engineers or intelligence specialists.
"How do you want to do this?" Soap asked as he surveyed the situation through his binoculars
"I've got eyes on the radio guy." Kieran said
"That's most important, next is the guy in the turret."
"I can get up behind him and take him out silently and capture the machine gun." Gaz said
"What about the driver?"
"Frag into the driver's compartment?" Brezhnev asked
"Works for me." Gaz said
With the plan decided, Kieran dropped into a kneeling stance and kept his SPR's reticule locked onto the radio operator. Brezhnev's grenade would be the signal to start the loud part of the attack, as it was the only thing they could not suppress. Brezhnev had the fragmentation grenade's safety pin out and when heard the double click over the radio from Gaz, signaling that his mission was completed he tossed it into the driver's compartment and rolled away from the hatch. The grenade's three-second fuse burned to its end before the driver could get out of his vehicle and reach around to grab the grenade. While muffled by the armor of the Cui, the grenade's explosion was loud enough to grab everyone's attention. However, the Zeon infantry had not been expecting it and most of them stared dumbly at the Cui. Taking advantage of their frozen state, Kieran fired his shot and took the radio operator out with a surgically placed headshot. Gaz watched as the radio operator fell and opened fire with the purloined machine guns. The twin 12.7mm heavy machine guns chewed through the remaining infantry before any one of them had a chance to react.
"OK guys, let's set the demo charges and get the hell out of here." Soap said as he scanned towards the town with his binoculars
"Agreed," Brezhnev said as they warily approached the smoldering mobile suit.
"I'm setting the charges, get the hell clear." Soap said as he climbed up onto the mobile suit and plugged a small transceiver into the mobile suit's wired communications unit that had miraculously survived the mobile suit being shot down.
"Right, let's get the hell out of here." Kieran said, signaling for Brezhnev to take the lead.
Rapp was dozing off next to his satcom receiver when its message alert tone sounded in his ears. He glared balefully at the satcom receiver before he switched it out of its passive receive only mode and into active mode.
"Sandhog, Sandhog do you copy?" The on duty coms officer called.
"Sandhogs copy, go ahead Centric." Rapp replied, stifling a yawn
"Sandhogs, Centric Guard here. Just wanted to let you know that your extraction table has been moved up. We managed to get another recovery helo in the air for you. Recovery helo will be on station in one hour."
"Say again Centric Guard?" Rapp asked
"Repeat, Sandhogs, Recovery helo will be on station in one hour."
"Captain!" Rapp called urgently
"What is it?" She replied
"We've got a ride boss!"
"That's all well and good, but we've got guys in the town. Get Kieran or Soap on the line!" Sims ordered as she
" Hawkeye this is Baseplate do you copy?"
"Base plate, this is Bear; go ahead." Brezhnev replied
"Bear, Baseplate; Centric a recovery helo inbound. It'll be on station in one hour, repeat recovery bird will be on station in six zero minutes."
"Stand by Base plate; Kieran, did you hear that?"
"Yeah... meet up with them back at the base?" Kieran said, glancing over at Soap.
"Sounds good to me." Soap said after he checked his ammunition load.
"Base plate, bear; we will meet up with you back at Centric Guard over."
"Negative Bear, negative. Recover the pilot and get back up here over."
"Fine..." Kieran said, rolling his eyes with a frustrated sigh.
Brezhnev jerked his hand up in the emergency stop gesture. Soap looked at him and cocked his head to the right, silently asking what it was. He pointed at his eyes, and then forward along the street. Soap cocked his head to the right again, wanting to know what Brezhnev had seen. Brezhnev shrugged his shoulders, the signal obvious and signaled for Kieran to come forward. Kieran flashed the ok symbol and carefully advanced to Brezhnev's position. Brezhnev pointed down the street and made a squared off upside down u shape and held up his thumb, pointer and middle fingers. Kieran translated this in his mind to three people in a doorway in the direction Brezhnev pointed.
With that information, he brought his DSR-1 to his shoulder and scanned ahead of them, taking full advantage of his rifle's powerful night vision optics. He immediately spotted the doorway in question and confirmed that Brezhnev had in fact seen hostile troops in the doorway. However, what his scope revealed to him was more than just troops were up ahead. Because they were on the outskirts of the town, what Brezhnev had spotted was actually a Zeon security checkpoint with a patrol forming up outside of the building the troops had taken over to keep themselves sheltered from the elements. Kieran turned around to face the rest of the patrol and report his findings with hand signals. He pointed at his eyes with his pointer and middle fingers, signaling that he had sighted enemy forces ahead. He repeated Brezhnev's upside down, squared off U shape, and then patted his riffle. This translated into guard post, but the point got across well enough. Soap replied with the door sign and then held his left hand palm up and waved his index and middle fingers over his hand, silently asking Kieran if he thought the pilot was in there. Kieran drew his thumb across his neck meaning that if he was in there he was more than likely dead.
With that conversation completed, Soap signaled for Kieran to take the lead, as his DSR-1's night vision scope was far more powerful than the ones that they wore. Frost called a halt so that he could check their position on his HMD's map mode against the range and bearing to the downed pilot reported by the DF module, he had 'borrowed' from Rapp. As he was about to move out again, the harsh clatter of a Zeon assault rifle being fired reached their ears. Fearing that the rounds were being fired at them, they all spilt up from one another, to make sure that a single burst could not wound or kill them all. After a few minutes of silent watching and waiting, they were able to determine that the shots were not being fired in their direction. The shots had however, worried Soap and Kieran enough that they decided to break into their two man fire teams and advance down opposite sides of the streets, with Kieran and Brezhnev in the lead.
Even though their new formation, and the different movement rules it required, slowed them considerably they still managed to find the final downed pilot in short order. What they found was unfortunately common for CSAR units dating from the Vietnam War. When they sighted the pilot, about ten Zeon infantry surrounded the downed pilot and a Gunship Heli orbited loudly overhead. Kieran waved Gaz forward and handed him Brezhnev's spotting scope so that he could observe the pilot's injuries and make a decision if he was 'recoverable' or not. To Gaz's trained eye it was obvious after a couple of seconds that the pilot was dead, and had probably been severely injured when he had ejected from his mobile suit and had passed out while trying to get away from its mobile suit's wreckage. Gaz shook his head and shared the frustrating news with the team. Brezhnev tapped his radio, asking silently if he was wanted to radio in. The four of them shared a quick glance and mutually decided that that was a bad idea given their close proximity to the Zeon infantry.
Sims was growing impatient with Kieran and his friends from the SAS. It had been several hours since they had heard from them and she was beginning to get concerned for their safety.
"Captain, I've got Tinkerbells!" Tinkler called out from her watch position
"Tinkerbells, what the hell are those?" Knute asked
"That's what we call the IR tags," Sims explained as she crawled over to Tinkler's position
"It's just the four of them, no pilot." Tinkler reported
"I noticed."
"Pilot was dead, couldn't bring the body with us." Kieran said as he slid down the other side of the dune.
"Why?"
"Because he was surrounded by about 10 Zeek infantry and had a Gunship Heli orbiting overhead.
"Have you blown the mobile suit?"
"That should be happening right about... now." Kieran said as a large fireball bloomed over the buildings of the town."
"Alright, then its mission completed for now anyhow. Sparky, radio in to Centric Guard, tell them to bring in that damn helicopter!" Sims ordered
"Yes ma'am!" Rapp said as he activated his satellite radio and connected to the Centric Guard frequencies, "Centric Guard, Centric Guard this is Sandhogs, request exfil."
"Roger that sandhogs, Exfil helicopter inbound!" Radio operator at Centric Guard replied.
"Good stuff, police up people, our ride is inbound!" Sims called over the radio.
"Sparky get on the horn to that bird and let them know it's gonna be a hot pickup! Look alive people hostile infantry at three!" Kieran called
"How far out are they?" Sims asked urgently as the sound of the helicopter approaching reached their ears.
"Helicopter' pilot reports they're 5 miles out and have sighted our IR beacon!"
"Ok people, let's get some lead downrange!" Kieran shouted as he brought his DSR to his shoulder.
As the sound of the helicopter approaching got louder, so did the sounds of battle. Kieran had been holding his fire until an officer became present. The second he caught sight of one, he quickly checked the range and pulled the trigger. He was satisfied to see the officer drop with a gaping hole in the side of his head. He was less pleased to see a pair of heavy machine gunners drop to their knees and aim their weapons in his direction. Before they could do anything about him though, Kieran heard the familiar bloop of a grenade launcher firing. The high explosive 40mm round landed between the two Zeon heavy gunners, showering both with fragments.
All of the troops on the ground cringed as the massive transport helicopter came to a hover above them. The gunners aboard the helicopter opened fire with their Gatling guns. As the helicopter settled closer to the ground, the gunners held their fire while Doc Travis and Lieutenant Jan sprinted up the ramp with the stretcher between them. With the wounded pilot secured aboard, Kieran waived for the Sandhog's regular troops to board the chopper while he and Brezhnev provided covering fire. Once they were all aboard, Brezhnev and Kieran picked up their weapons and sprinted for the tailgate.
"We're aboard, haul ass!" Kieran shouted as the crew chief brought the massive rear hatch up.
"Roger that, door gunners stand ready!" The pilot shouted as he twisted his cyclic controller to get more power to the rotors. The helicopter lifted up off of the dusty desert floor and banked sharply to head back towards Centric Guard HQ.