Chapter 10 – Get a Brew On
'Right, rock paper scissors.' Del declared.
'What are you on about?' Kruz asked.
'To pick a brew bitch, the loser makes the cups of tea or coffee for the day, 1st rule of any decent op planning is to have a steady stream of brews flowing. So hands in ladies, time to pick the brew bitch.' Del explained. McFarlane happily put his hand forward as did Kruz, Sousuke didn't. He looked on with great distaste.
'We should not be wasting time playing games to make cups of tea, if you're going to re-plan this rescue operation we best not be wasting time, Topaz1 will be executed and the exercise will be a failure.' He complained.
'I have never failed a mission that I have led, this is part of the process and it hasn't failed me yet, when it does I will change so for now get your hand in Sgt; that's an order.' Del stared him out, Sousuke tried but he backed down and put his hand in. As they all counted to 3 and bounced their hands in unison. Del lost and was nominated brew bitch; Sousuke soon stopped complaining. McFarlane had managed to get hold of bigger maps and satellite images. They over laid them and started marking things off and made notes on the map and pictures.
'Ok, so we have the four outlying command posts, each with an MSR running into the jungle for about a mile and then it becomes untraceable. So we've figured out that the main HQ must be in this area in the centre of the four command posts; but it's still large area to search.' McFarlane said point to the correct areas on the map.
'They would not pick a random spot either, it would be defendable, have a fresh water supply.' Sousuke added.
'I agree, so 1st of all; water supply. Are there any rivers or steams or springs even; in the area?' Del asked studying the map hard. Nothing was jumping out at them.
'Wait. A river would expose them easily and leave them open to a water based assault or sabotage. They'll be using a well fed via an underground river. Look here,' Sousuke pointed to 2 points on the map.
'This stream flows down here then vanishes off the map, then reappears a few klicks away but its wider and is classed as a river and look where it crosses through though.' He tapped the map; it was the area they wanted to search.
'Well spotted, that narrows it down to a few square kilometres to search instead of 20odd. Ok now we just got to figure out a place for the LZ and until the pilots turn up we can't really finalise that.' Kruz said.
'Ok, weapon load outs. What you going to be using?' Del asked looking at the others.
'Barrett M107. Big, powerful and perfect for recce work, stand off a mile away and they won't be able to see you watching them; and perhaps a P90 or an MP7 on the side.' Kruz explained.
'Put a suppresser on the sub and you're sorted. I'm going to be packing a HK417 suppressed with a M203 along with an FN5-7 suppressed.' Del replied.
'XM8-LMG as it's designed to take an ACOG on the lid and those twin drum mags are handy, nothing gets caught or rattles about. I'll be packing a sub as well, MP5SD or something like that.' McFarlane added.
'And what will Sousuke be carrying on our little trip?' Del asked.
'I will be carrying an M4 carbine with a silencer as this is clearly a stealth recon mission and a Glock silencer as well.' He answered.
'Perfect we'll all be carrying bits of C4 and 1 AT4 rocket each, as me may very quickly turn from a recce to a rescue mission very quickly and it always helps to have a heavy punch backing you up in case you end up the proverbial creek without a paddle.' Del explained when a knock came at the door; it was the two chopper pilots and their co-pilots accompanied by King.
'These are the pilots and we've located Topaz 1, they are being held in an enemy compound in this...' she had looked at the map and noticed the markings the boys had made on the map. 'Has some one already told you?'
'No we just worked it out, process of elimination. We found out that there was an underground river and guessed it would be the perfect place to set up a camp as there is no obvious signs of a water supply and its removes the chance of a waterborne attack. So where are they exactly, I gather we must be extremely close.' McFarlane explained.
'Well the centre of your cross is about 1Km out and it's not just an underground river, there's an underground lake; a huge one as well.' King explained.
The boys smiled and Del was chuffed that he'd almost perfectly located the enemy camp before the Int officers had. They introduced themselves to the chopper crews. Oskar Forst had flown for the KSK (German Special Forces) when it was still know as GSG9 and his co-pilot/navigator Anton Stepanov was the best the Russian Army had ever produced; he'd proven GPS to be wrong on several occasions. The other crew was led by Jonathan Rose aka 'Rosey', who was ex RAF and had flown for the SAS and the Ghosts, turned out he'd flown Del and his team into many shitholes over the years and his co-pilot was Nakajima Shinichi who had also flown with Japanese Special forces.
'So you're the boys, who are going to fly us into the lion's den?' Kruz asked after all the handshakes had been completed.
'Indeed. And no one will ever know that we've dropped you off.' Rosey bragged.
'Now that is a lie. The amount of times you've dropped me off in a shithole and it's kicked off big style.' Del countered.
'That's because you stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble. It kicked off after we left and dropped you off. Anyway it was me that got you out the shit in Afghan a year ago remember? The quad bike extraction off the MSR; (Main Supply Route), just south of Kajaki?' Rosey argued back.
'That was you? Nice bit of flying that was mate; pretty damn fun too... Aye good times, good times.'
'Pleased someone had fun that day, my Chinook was full of bullet holes after that and I had a 762 wedged into my seat inches off my arse. Any further and it would have been in my arse, you'd have been fucked if that happened.' Rosey complained.
'What happened? Sounds like it was a bit of a tense moment.' McFarlane asked.
'Well I'd just led a team into Helmand in the Kajaki area, we were after some Taliban big wig, I forget the bugger's name now but anyway; my troop split into two four man teams as there were 2 locations to stake out. So we get dropped off and we're lying about for a day or 2 and the target turns up at my location, and we take him out. What we didn't realise is that half the fucking Taliban army was in the pissing area around the corner and we had pissed them off ever so slightly,' Del looked at Rosey and went on with the tale.
'So we're on our quads riding to the extraction point when we roll into an almighty freaking ambush one of the quads got hit and broke down half a klick later so I took her onto my quad holding onto me.. Needless to say we fucked off like bats out of hell. So we're gunning down the MSR and I'm screaming for the extraction chopper to be ready at the LZ when we got there. The fucking co-pilot or that dick is saying if the LZ is too hot he aint coming in. I told him that we'd be fucking lucky if that happened. So we're flying along; at least 7 or 8 pickups chasing us, I've got Lucy sitting on my lap, looking over my shoulder giving agro with her M4 and 203 all the time I'm feeding her mags, that's why I'm slightly deaf in my left ear. I'm sure if I went back I'd get them all back that she dropped along the way. Next thing I know is these 2 Apaches come over the hill and blast 4 of the pickups straight to Allah and the Chinook has its arse open and is landing on the road to pick us up. The rest of the troop are popping off rounds like it's going out of fashion. And we all gun it up the rear ramp of the Chinook, which is still moving forward, and away with 762 pinging off the rear, oh and into his seat,' Rosey got another nod.
'Was all in a day's work for the Ghosts.' Del finished.
'Ok so back to this then, have you been briefed on what we want you to do for us? Sousuke tried to push on.
'Only that you want dropped off somewhere in the jungle, but we have no exact location as of this time.' Oskar replied.
'Good. Intelligence has identified the camp that Topaz1 is being held at although they are not sure which building. That is the purpose of this mission; your job is to fly us in and drop us off as close as you can get without them noticing.' Sousuke explained, 'in an ideal world we'd like you to fly us up along the river and I mean literally.'
'What along the river itself? Like a few feet off the surface of the water, with trees on either side of us?' Shinichi asked, 'you know how much of a navigational nightmare that is? You'd have to almost entirely rely on GPS.'
'No you wouldn't. Do it the old fashioned way, with a map you pleb and trace your finger along it.' Stepanov countered. 'Once you're over the river and flying along it you shouldn't get lost, however I do agree that it might get narrow further up.'
'Not the end goal. We need to be dropped off tabbing (tabbing is short for Tactical Approach to Battle) distance from our target area. Even into the river if necessary; so make sure your kit is waterproofed lads. Don't want any soggy socks now do we?' Del joked.
They continued to talk and plan the infill, Del suggested that McFarlane and Kruz go on one chopper and him and Sousuke in another as it would spread the weight better. There was another Intel update from King and they presented their plan to Kalinin who gave it the green light; they were to deploy to the de' Danaan as soon as they were ready and then from there under the cover of darkness.
The op was on; and all eyes were on Del.