Chapter Eleven
Multiple Fronts
Leatherneck rammed his elbow into Gung-Ho's side and growled, "Move over, Cajun! Give me some room!"
Shoving back, Gung-Ho snarled, "You think I have any room to spare, Twinkletoes?"
Wrapping an arm around his fellow Marine's neck, Leatherneck prepared to slug him in the face. "You will after I crush your ugly mug!" But before Leatherneck could swing his arm, a black-gloved hand thrust in-between the two Marines and held itself rock-steady. The feuding Joes looked back to see Snake Eyes staring at them as he held his hand between their faces. Sighing, Leatherneck and Gung-Ho stopped quarreling and looked away from each other.
Scarlett turned around from watching the immature little spat and leaned towards Lady Jaye in the front seat. "I think the guys are getting a bit claustrophobic after sitting in here for two hours, and I can't say I blame them."
Lady Jaye nodded. "This twisty-turny road is making me car-sick, an' I've got the best seat!"
"I'm also nervous about how dark it's getting. We still haven't made contact with Duke and the sunset's just about over."
"I don't think you have to worry about that any longer, Scarlett." The Joe Counter-Intelligence Trooper looked to Shockwave, who was leaning out of the van's window and pointing to the sky. Squirming across the S.W.A.T. Trooper's lap, Scarlett ignored the gasps coming from the other men and looked out of the window.
A pair of white jet fighters thundered across the dark-gray sky, heading in the direction of Banja Luka. Scarlett leaned back and turned towards the Joes in the van. "Who's got binoculars?"
"I do." Hit & Run handed her a small pair from his duffel bag.
As she grabbed the lenses, Scarlett ordered Lady Jaye, "Tell the driver to stop the van."
The dented gray vehicle screeched to a stop and its side door slid open. Scarlett hopped out and again looked up to the sky. As the other Joes anxiously exited the van, Gung-Ho asked, "What do you see up there, Red?"
Smiling, Scarlett replied, "Those were Skystrikers. And something, or more likely someone was dropped from each plane. There! Look!" She pointed northeast, and the team members looked up, then cheered as parachutes popped open and began drifting down towards the van's location.
"Oh, great," grumbled Leatherneck, "Now we've got more people to try to cram into this crummy ol' heap."
"Zip it," warned Lady Jaye. "If Duke is coming to help us, I'm all for it."
High above the Joe team, the two Skystrikers swung around and rocketed their ways northwest, no doubt heading for a U.S. army base in Germany.
Swooping across the trees, the first of the parachuting Joes landed along the road and began stuffing his 'chute into a duffel bag that he brought with him. Scarlett and Hit & Run were the first to reach him, and instantly recognized their teammate when he removed his flight helmet.
"Duke!" called out Scarlett, "You made it!"
The First Sergeant looked over to the Joes and smiled, "Scarlett, H&R, good to see you guys. Let's save the small until after we get back on the move."
Gung-Ho ran up and pointed at the second parachute approaching the ground—in a rather sporadic pattern. "Uh, Duke? Who exactly did you bring with you?"
Without having to wait for Duke to speak, Gung-Ho knew his answer. The skydiver touched town and stumbled forward, then tripped over a rock and fell flat on his face.
"Oh. Tripwire."
Frowning, Duke glared at Gung-Ho. "All right, tough-guy, get over there and help him put away his gear!" Pointing at himself, Gung-Ho was about to say something, but Duke cut him off. "That's right, you! Move!"
Saluting, the Joe Marine stood at attention. "Yes, sir!" He then jogged over to help Tripwire find his way out from beneath the giant parachute.
Leading Duke back to the van, Scarlett filled the First Sergeant in on her team's current situation. "…so we're not sure where the Commander is, but that's our best guess."
Duke nodded. "It sounds logical to me. Unfortunately for us, satellite surveillance reports that Destro has crossed the Dipanic Alps with a huge strike force. It looks like he's got a pretty good idea about where the Commander is, too." He froze in his tracks and looked at the gray van. "What the--?"
Blushing, Scarlett tipped her head forward onto her hand. "This is our transportation. It's an eleven-seater, but with all the gear we're carrying, it's a snug little ride."
Shaking his head, Duke looked at Scarlett and smiled. "No worries. Let's just get moving. As they approached the vehicle, the team waved their greetings to the new mission leader.
"Good to see you, Duke."
"Thanks, Beach Head. Glad I could come."
"No, no, watch your step! Aww, dangit!" Duke turned to see Gung-Ho helping Tripwire up off of the ground. The Joe Marine looked at the First Sergeant with a frustrated expression. "Sorry, sir, we've had a few…missteps."
Duke frowned, "Well, you could have helped him carry some of his gear, or hadn't you thought of that?"
Gung-Ho gulped, then turned around and grabbed a large armful of the Joe Mine Detector's equipment.
Turning back to the Joes by the van, Duke put his hands on his hips and looked them over. "I have to say you guys look a bit beat-up."
"We feel it, too, sir," moaned Hit & Run.
"And where the hell did you get these weapons?" asked Duke as he took Beach Head's AK-47 and watched the ammo-clip slide out.
"From the van's driver," said Lady Jaye. "It, uh, was the best we could do in the time we had."
Tossing the thirty-year-old assault rifle into the trees, Duke cursed, "It's all crap. Get rid of it. I'm not trusting the fate of the free world to this stuff."
"But Duke," asked Leatherneck, "What do we do if we get attacked?"
"Tripwire and I have pistols and I've got my submachine gun." The Joes began murmuring to each other. "Hey, if you can't take it, then go back to Sarajevo and catch the next plane to Wimp City, because I don't want to hear it!" barked the Joe First Sergeant. "We'll find weapons by the time we reach Banja Luka, I promise you. But the fact of the matter is Cobra Commander is sitting on a nuke and Destro is going to try to take it away from him. I don't like the feel of that one damn bit. Now let's get back in the van and get the hell out of here."
A flurry of "Yo Joes!" filled the air, and the team threw their defective weapons into a ditch, then crammed back into the van. The gray vehicle sputtered back to life and started back up the curvy, narrow roadway.
After less than an hour, the rattling gray van was blanketed beneath a starry sky and walled on one side by thick forest that was either plush with life or broken to pieces by the hand of man. On the other side were steep cliffs that dropped into the Vrbas river, a moderately sized waterway that paralleled the road most of its way north.
Most of the Joes were quiet. Shockwave and Tripwire managed to start a debate about how to properly defuse bombs; otherwise it had grown depressingly stale inside the van. Gung-Ho and Leatherneck were actually leaning on each other and catching some quick Z's. Duke had taken Lady Jaye's position in the passenger seat, and was growing very annoyed with the body odor of the fat driver. Scarlett sat at Snake Eyes' side now, but the Joe Commando silently stared at the starry sky and kept his thoughts to himself.
When the driver started banging the roof of the van and crying something out in German, everyone immediately snapped out of their near-comatose states.
"Lady Jaye!" barked Duke, attempting to be heard over the panicking fat man, "What is his problem? What's happening?"
The Joe Covert Operations Trooper unbuckled herself and knelt forward between the driver and passenger seats. As the fat driver ranted on, she nodded her head and turned to Duke. "He says that there is another tunnel coming up, and Banja Luka is on the other side. But he doesn't want to go through."
Duke sighed. "Tell him we have to go through. That was our deal."
Lady Jaye relayed the information, but the driver shook his head, unbuckled his seatbelt, opened his door and ran off.
"Well, that's just great," growled Leatherneck.
Turning to the team, Duke waved his hand, "If Banja Luka is on the other side of the tunnel, then we don't need the driver anymore anyways. Gung-Ho, get up here and drive."
"Me? Why me?"
"Cause I feel like sticking you in the hot seat today, that's why."
"Yes, sir." Fighting back a bought of grumbling, the Marine crawled up to the driver's seat, turned the van back on, shifted it into gear and pressed the accelerator.
Shockwave called up to Duke, "Sir, I've got a bad feeling about this. No tunnels along this road have had any lights. Are you sure we should just be charging in?"
"What choice do we have?" replied Duke. "We don't have time to climb over the mountain." After thinking for a moment, the First Sergeant turned around and handed Shockwave his pistol. "Here. If something happens, I want you armed. Tripwire? Give Leatherneck your pistol. I've got my submachine gun. That should help cover us a bit better, okay?"
"Let's hope so," said Gung-Ho, "Cause here comes the tunnel!"
The van entered a completely black entrance that had no end in sight. Gung-Ho lowered the van's speed and lowered gears, since the only light he had to work with was coming from the van's weak yellow headlights.
"Where's the end?" asked Lady Jaye, "I, uh, don't see a light at the end of the tunnel."
"Yeah, this is weird," said Gung-Ho.
"Does the tunnel have a turn in it?" suggested Tripwire.
Duke shrugged. "It's possible. There might be a turn up ahead, but I can't see—"
The van's headlights shattered in sequence, drenching the Joe team in complete and utter darkness. They were experienced enough not to scream in panic, but that didn't mean their levels of anxiety didn't jump off the scales.
"Silencers! Get out of the van, now!" ordered Duke as he opened his door and cocked his 45mm. Without any light to guide them, the Joes clumsily fell all over each other as they slid open the van's door and rushed out of the vehicle. Only faint metallic reflections could be seen as their eyes desperately tried to adjust to the darkness.
"Aargh!" cried out the Joe S.W.A.T. Trooper.
"Shockwave? Shockwave did you get hit?" asked Scarlett.
"Y-yes…dropped…gun."
Three loud shots echoed through the tunnel. "Leatherneck? Did you fire those?"
"Yeah, Duke. We've got to fight back!"
"There are too many friendly targets to risk hitting! Hold your fire!"
"Ow!"
"Who was that?"
"M-me, Duke…Lady Jaye. Hit in leg." The sound of a body collapsing to the asphalt could be heard.
"Who could be doing this?" asked Scarlett.
Suddenly, a powerful floodlight turned on in the tunnel, blinding every Joe in the area, causing them to cover their eyes and turn away.
"Drop your weapons!" roared out a deep, amplified voice from further down the tunnel. You are all now prisoners of Cobra Commander!"
Nearly blind, this time because all he saw was white, Duke turned to the sound of Cobras marching towards him. Although unable to focus on them, he did recognize the shade of green on their uniforms: Night-Vipers. He could also recognize the silhouette of the man standing in the center of the group.
"Zartan."
"Excellent vision, Duke. I thought for sure that this floodlight would cripple your team indefinitely, but Zandar said you would recover too quickly. It seems he may have been right."
Looking around as well as he could, Duke searched for the silhouette of Zartan's brother, but saw no one. "I don't see your kin anywhere, Zartan."
Snorting a short laugh, Zartan looked over his shoulder, "That's because staying hidden is what my brother does best. But he's not too bad at pulling off a covert operation or two when I need it." As Zartan smiled, the fat driver of the van walked up to his side. Grabbing the bottom of his neck, the driver pulled his facemask off, revealing who he truly was.
"Guten tag, Sergeant Hauser," gloated the fat driver.
"Zandar," growled Duke as he cursed.
"Of course," said Zartan's brother, "How else do you think we got past those soldier's so easy? They knew that if they stopped me, they'd die. Their plea for help was quite compelling. It fooled your friends. Hell, it fooled me!"
"I doubt that it was fake," whispered Duke.
By now, the Joes had their eyesight fairly-well adapted to the floodlight, but they were still surrounded by the Night-Vipers.
"Now where were we? Ah yes. Drop your weapons. Now!" barked Zartan.
Looking around, Duke couldn't see any point of escape—but wait! There were only nine Joes left in the tunnel, and it wasn't hard to calculate who was missing. "Do it, guys."
"Don't do this, Duke!" protested Gung-Ho.
"Do it!"
Setting down their small arsenal of weapons, the Joe team surrendered, leaving themselves open to blunt blows to the head and tackles from behind. In very little time, they were all shackled and being shoved down the length of the tunnel.
As the Joes walked out of the tunnel, Duke saw a Night-Viper speaking on a radio. Duke stopped walking and grinned. The Viper glared at him, "What do you find so amusing?"
"You're speaking German. I don't much like German anymore."
"Shut up and keep moving." Duke was pushed back into motion, and the Viper went back to his conversation on the radio.
1.
"Commander Destro!" called a Cobra Officer from the passenger section, "There is an emergency situation in the cockpit that requires your attention!"
Turning away from his Despoiler hoverjet, Destro handed the wrench he was working with to a Techno-Viper and stormed back to the passenger section of the plane. He grabbed the officer as he walked through the door.
"Ow! C-Commander! Please, let go of my neck, you're going to break it!"
"The next time you call out the words 'emergency' and 'cockpit' into a plane full of tense and trigger-happy mercenaries I will have you shot on site, do you understand?"
Attempting to nod, the officer cringed, "Y-yes, Commander. I-I'm sorry, sir." Destro let go of the Cobra agent and shoved him into an empty passenger seat.
Continuing on to the cockpit, the new Cobra Leader walked in and was deafened once again; this time, though, it was by alarms and excessive chatter over the radio. "What the hell is going on here?"
"Commander Destro! Thank goodness you are here." sighed the Air-Viper pilot. "We are in a critical situation."
"Well, then, update me."
"Yes, sir. We have entered Bosnian-Herzegovinian airspace, and are under assault by their Air Force."
Destro waved his hand. "We anticipated this. Call in our Hurricanes."
"Yes, sir." As the pilot radioed a squadron of Cobra Hurricanes to come escort the three Cobra cargo planes, Destro turned to the co-pilot.
"What aircraft are approaching us?"
"Four J-22 Orao attack jets are moving to intercept us. Members of the Republika Srpska Air Force. The Hurricanes should have no trouble with them."
"Agreed." Destro looked out of the cockpit window as two of the Cobra jets dropped from the sky and took positions in front of the Snake's Head cargo-plane. When the J-22's got close enough, the Hurricanes thrust forward, quickly unleashing a barrage of missiles upon the smaller jets and obliterated two of them within seconds. Firing back at one of the Cobra cargo planes, the other J-22s hit the cockpit dead-on, sending a shockwave through the air that rattled Destro's plane. The giant Snake's Head jet violently burst apart, spewing flames, vehicle parts and screaming bodies across the sky as it spiraled for the ground.
"Unacceptable!" Destro grabbed a headset and called out, "Vapor pilots! Destroy the remaining Bosnian jets! If another cargo jet goes down there will be reciprocations for every pilot here today!"
On cue, the four Hurricanes swarmed the Bosnian fighters and blasted them into the record books in almost no time at all. But Destro was still angry. "If another one of my cargo planes gets as much as a bullet-hole in it, I will remotely de-activate the power system to your Hurricanes and cause all of your untimely deaths, understood?"
As a flurry of "Yes, sirs" and "Sorry, Commanders" poured through the radio, Destro dropped the headset, turned around and walked out of the cockpit. Before he left, however, the Air-Viper pilot asked, "Can you really do that, Commander? Remotely shut off their power, I mean?"
"No. But they don't know that." Destro slammed the door and walked over to the coffee pot in the passenger section. Tea just wasn't going to cut it right now.
2.
Packed like salamis inside small meat trucks, the Joes felt worse than they did in the van. The meat trucks were obviously ones still in operation and not usually warmed up—the smell of molding beef was nearly pulling the vomit from the Joes' stomachs. Chained to meat hangers, the soldiers had little choice but to endure the torture.
Twisting herself around, Scarlett turned towards the Joe First Sergeant. "Duke, I can't keep Lady Jaye awake any longer. I don't know if she'll make it; she's lost a lot of blood."
Frowning, Duke coughed. "I can only hope that they'll take us out of these damn meat lockers pretty soon. We've been travelling for over an hour."
"Do you think Beach Head's okay?" asked Leatherneck from behind Scarlett.
"I don't know, he's in the other truck. He took a harder hit than Lady Jaye, but he was wearing armor."
Leatherneck began looking around. "Hey. What is that sound?"
Duke looked up. "Tapping. Morse code."
Smiling Scarlett looked to the truck's floor. "It's Snake Eyes. He's telling us he's underneath the truck!"
"So that's where he went!" said Leatherneck, smiling. "That guy has got some seriously big balls."
"Once this truck stops, he's going to try to free us," said Scarlett. "We need to be ready."
"Be careful," warned Duke, "We've got casualties to care for."
After a few more minutes, the truck began to slow down and shifted to a lower gear. Duke nodded to his teammates, and they all slumped down to weaker-looking poses. The truck finally stopped, jerking their bodies back and forth. Sounds of doors slamming and men talking could be heard. More door slamming, and the trucks revved their engines back up and started moving again.
"What's going on?" whispered Scarlett.
"It must have been a checkpoint," deduced Duke.
"So what do we do th—"
The sound of a man climbing up the rear doors tapped through the truck. It was followed by the sound of running across the roof. A hollow clang thundered from the front end, then cries of panic and the opening of the truck's doors. The vehicle began to shake and slow down, but after the door shut again, the truck sped up.
Scarlett heard faint screams of rage; soon after, bullets ripped through the meat truck's thick sides, flying over the slumped down Joes packed inside.
Almost.
"Damn."
Scarlett looked over to Leatherneck. "Your arm!"
Trickling with blood, the Marine's left forearm carried a hefty tear in it. "It…it went through. I'll be all right."
"Not while you're—" Cut off by more machinegun fire, Scarlett continued, "While you're bleeding like that."
"Damn it."
The Joes swung painfully from their chains as the truck accelerated even more, then swerved left. Crashing into another vehicle, the Joes now hung at an angle and Leatherneck's blood began to drip onto Duke's shoulder.
"What is that ninja-guy trying to do to us? My wrists are almost broken!" griped Leatherneck."
"Relax. There are probably a dozen Night-Vipers out there, and Snake Eyes had to take them out with only a big, bulky truck to use as a weapon."
The truck's rear doors opened, letting in a rush of very welcome fresh air.
"Snake Eyes!" cheered Scarlett, unable to stop the tears pouring from her eyes.
The Joe Commando quickly hopped into the back of the tilted truck and began unlocking the chains with a blood-stained key.
Rubbing his wrists Duke stepped out of the truck and was amazed to see what Snake Eyes had hit with the truck: it was the other meat truck. Looking with pride and concern at his fellow Joe, he said, "Excellent work, Snake Eyes. Go release the rest of our team while we carry Lady Jaye out." Nodding in acknowledgement, Snake Eyes jumped out and ran to the other vehicle.
3.
Gazing across the rows of Joes standing before him, Hawk felt pride once again—but this time it was mixed with a great deal of fear. The Joe team was no longer standing comfortably in the top floor of the PIT; now they were stuffed into the cargo hold of a C-5M Galaxy. More importantly, it wasn't the whole team—most of them hadn't returned from their assignments around the world. Still, it was an impressive force, and Hawk intended to use them to their fullest potential.
"Joe team!" he called from the front end of the massive cargo plane, "We're moving on to phase two of our plan. Thanks to your efforts, Cobra's 'Save the World' program has collapsed upon itself. The Cobra Army is on the run, and from what our intelligence reports can tell us, Destro has left Cobra Island to confront Cobra Commander in Bosnia."
Gasps and murmuring filled the crowd.
"You mean Cobra Commander ain't dead?" asked Bazooka.
Hawk nodded. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you guys, but honestly, I wasn't completely sure until now. And now, it's our job to get to Bosnia and put an end to Cobra. Forever."
"You really think we can do that?" asked Short-Fuze.
"Well, thanks to you guys, Cobra doesn't have an army left. There's never been a better time to take them down. Their army is in shambles and their leadership is collapsing upon itself worse than it did during the days of Serpentor. But what it comes down to is we can't let Cobra start battles wherever they damn well please, no matter who they're fighting. So let's get in there and clean the snakes out! Yo Joe!"
The crowd raised their arms and cheered, "Yo Joe!"
Hawk smiled, turned around and entered the C-5M's cockpit. "So, Wild Bill, what's our position?"
"We just crossed Normandy and I was about to get clearance to enter German airspace. But land sakes, General, I'm a'pushin' this big goat as fast as I can, and there just ain't no way we'll get to Bosnia in time to help our boys and girls out."
Hawk looked out the cargo plane's window and watched the Conquest X-30 that was flying escort. Sunset was still a few hours away, but Hawk could feel a darkness drape over him. "We've got to do what we can, Wild Bill. My only regret is that we didn't bring any heavy vehicles. I'm putting the men into a lot of danger."
Adjusting his hat, Bill thought for a minute. "What about Armadillo's vehicle? Ain't he showing that thing off at some sort of conference in Turkey?"
If he didn't have an image to maintain, Hawk would have smacked himself if the forehead as hard as he could. Turning to the co-pilot, he ordered, "Crazylegs, get me Armadillo on the radio, then find the frequency for the Turkish government. Let's see if I can pull a few strings…"
4.
After the team was completely free of the meat trucks and Beach Head, Lady Jaye and Leatherneck were treating their wounds, Duke looked down the hill. Hit & Run had been sent on recon, and was now returning at a brisk pace.
"H&R, what can you tell me?"
"There's a big structure down by the river. It's called the Kastel and it's crawling with Vipers. It's pretty old, though. If the Commander isin there, he sure isn't worrying much about defense."
Nodding, Duke checked the ammo in the rifle he took from a fallen Night-Viper. "The Kastel isn't much more than a tourist trap nowadays. We shouldn't have any trouble getting in."
Gung-Ho sniffed his uniform and growled, "Yeah, but they'll probably smell us comin'."
"Que sera, sera," said Scarlett. "We'll just have to shoot from a distance, and these nice Night-Viper rifles should help with that."
"Beach Head, are you going to be okay up here?" asked Duke, "I can leave someone behind to watch over you guys."
"Don't insult me like that, Duke. You need all the help you can get, and Lady Jaye, Leatherneck and me would just slow you down. Go on. I can still fight, and Leatherneck is still cranky. We'll be fine."
Taking a deep breath, Duke nodded. "Okay, but I'm holding you to your words. If any of you get a scratch, you're going to join Slaughters Marauders for a year!"
"Damn, Duke, now that's just mean!"
Marching down the hill, armed only with sniper rifles, the Joe team prepared to rescue the world from the threat of a nuclear weapon.