Tori turned back to the front. "All aboard, sir." The Osprey started to move forward and Tori reached for the lever to raise the ramp.

"Belay that, Lieutenant" the captain interrupted. " Leave it down. We've got one more pickup."

The lieutenant pulled her hand back and looked sharply at the pilot. What was he talking about? Then she remembered. "The javelin team," she exclaimed.

Captain Castle was scanning the northern jetty for the two Marines. "Correct, Lieutenant, they're brave men and deserve better than…Ah, there they are."

He eased forward on the throttles, and the Osprey closed the gap quickly before coming to a hover and repeating the maneuver that had worked so well at the hovercraft. The intrepid javelin gunners leaped the gap, and Tori once more reached for the ramp control. This time the captain merely nodded and she yanked it back. The Osprey picked up speed immediately as the ramp clunked home and locked. Captain Castle climbed to five hundred feet, completed the transition to horizontal flight, and the Osprey streaked for the horizon.

Gunny Fernandez broke the silence. "Thanks for coming back for us, sir."

"No problem," the captain replied. "You would have done the same for us."

"I can't believe any of us made it out of that," the lieutenant said as she removed the heavy helmet and rubbed her neck and shoulders.

"It's a little too early to assume that any of us will make it out." The bitterness in the captain's voice was evident to his two listeners.

"What?" They responded in unison.

"Think about it, you two! That was a very well planned and elaborate trap. The mission was supposed to fail disastrously. They had to have someone on our side of the table feeding them intel. Any survivors would have possibly compromised the cover of the traitor; ergo, they knew they could still bag the lot of us, even if some managed to fight their way out of the harbor."

The sergeant looked like he was in shock as he considered the implications, "What could they hit us with now, sir?"

"Well let's see, surface ships, submarines, fighters…"

SCREEE, SCREEE, SCREEE! The Osprey's threat receiver went manic.

"Or maybe whatever that is," The captain concluded drily.

Tori frantically wrestled her helmet back into place. "Lap Dance," she announced. "What kind of name is that for a weapon system?"

"Damn" the captain grunted.

"What is it sir? She asked.

"Search radar, like the Longbow radar on the Apache."

"Choppers?" Fernandez interjected.

Castle glanced back at the Marine in the gunner's seat. "Not just choppers, Gunny, gunships; specifically, Havocs or Hokums."

"Lieutenant, I'm going to do a quick 360. Give me a thermal scan, and let's see if we can locate these suckers." Captain Castle banked the Osprey to the left and held the turn through a complete circle.

"Got 'em, sir, eight bogeys, bearing two-eight-eight degrees; right on the deck," Lieutenant Ellis announced as she switched to optical and zoomed in on the group of aircraft. The single main rotor and full tail rotor were clearly distinguishable. "Havocs, sir." she stated,

The Mil Mi-28 Havoc was the current first-line helicopter gunship in service with the Russian Army. Fast, maneuverable, heavily armored, and armed to the teeth, it had been exported all over the world and was generally regarded as every bit the equal of the American AH-64 Apache.

Captain Castle was studying the silhouettes on the TV monitor. "They're not after us," he concluded thinking out loud. "They're going after the hovercraft." He glanced at the lieutenant without turning his head more than necessary.

Suddenly she shook her head slightly and straightened in her seat. Glancing around and taking a couple of deep breaths, she spoke without asking for permission, which indicated both her stress level, and the depth of trust that had developed between Lieutenant and Captain over the course of the morning. What had entered this operation as a crew of two had been forged into a unit of one.

"Sir, they can't catch us before we reach Wasp, but they are going to be all over the hovercraft. There's no way even the undamaged ones can escape."

"Raise the nearest LCAC, Tori," the Captain spoke decisively. "Tell them to stop when we close in. We're going to transfer Gunny Fernandez' guys to the hovercraft."

The sergeant leaned forward "Sir?"

"Look, Gunny," Captain Castle began patiently; "the Havocs are carrying full loads of antitank missiles similar to our Hellfire, probably eighteen each. That's more than 100 missiles for the entire flight. One missile will do a hovercraft pretty well, and then if they want to they can go after Wasp. Think of what a hundred Hellfires would do to Wasp with all the fuel and ordnance she carries, and you have a pretty good picture of what these guys could do."

"What are we going to do, sir?"

"We are going to drop you and your troops off at the nearest hovercraft," Castle replied, "and then the Lieutenant and I are going to go play with a squadron of Havocs."

"His glance traveled from captain to lieutenant and back to captain. He nodded briefly, saying, "I'll get my guys ready, then," before he rose and made his way back to the wounded.

"Sir, the bogeys now seem to be heading for the Wasp rather than the hovercraft!" the lieutenant announced, frowning. "Why would they do that?"

"Because if they cripple mama bear, the baby bears are easy meat," the captain responded. "They probably want to recapture the nukes rather than blow them up, and they figure that if they cripple or destroy the Wasp, the LCACs Rick have no choice but to surrender."

The captain could see Lt. Ellis's indignation spill over. "Haven't these idiots ever heard of Frozen Chosin or Khe Sanh? Backing a bunch of Marines into a corner can be a bit unhealthy for those doing the backing!"

"Let's hope they learn the hard way then, Lieutenant." Captain Castle gave a grim chuckle and announced, "One minute to transfer, Gunny"

The Osprey carefully came to a hover over the deck of the LCAC and dropped its ramp. The transfer was completed quickly, and Tori raised the ramp as the Osprey climbed and transitioned to forward flight, then raced to the northeast to place itself between the advancing Havocs and the amphibious assault ship with its totally defenseless LCACs.

The brutal calculus of combat did not leave much doubt as to what would happen. Eight Havocs should go through the Osprey like a chainsaw through rotten pine. Most professional bookmakers would give have given the Osprey about a hundred to one chance of being taken out without inflicting any damage to the enemy whatsoever.

But, if there is any lesson to be learned from human history, it is this: Sometimes the odds just don't matter all that much. Sometimes an unlikely combination of skill, courage, and indomitable will refactors the equations that say "impossible" and something extraordinary emerges.

When a large hand suddenly descended on her left shoulder, the lieutenant shrieked and would have levitated completely out of her seat save for the safety harness. "What the…Fernandez, what are you still here for?"

Captain Castle managed to pull out of the dive that the surprise appearance of Gunny Fernandez (and the accompanying sound effects from the lieutenant) had caused. He glanced angrily at the sergeant, eyes demanding an explanation.

"Sir, you've got two fifties back there that mount to the ramp when it's open. When you mix it up with the Havocs, if you open the ramp just a little, Corporal Peterson and I can maybe keep them off of your six."

Captain Castle felt like slapping himself upside the head. He had completely forgotten the two fifty-caliber machine guns that every Osprey carried. They had special mounts that could be attached to the end of the ramp when it was open. They were intended to provide fire support to troops being inserted or extracted from a hot LZ, but in this case, the extra sting in the tail of the Osprey couldn't hurt and might even save their lives. "Good thinking, Gunny. Looks like you just got promoted to tail gunner. Oh, and by the way? Don't ever sneak up on me like that again."

"Aye, aye, sir." The sergeant smirked and disappeared toward the rear of the aircraft.