Black Hills, SD, 12:34, 19th March 2037, Wolf's POV
I watched from a short distance as the two quadbikes disappeared down the slope. Once gone, they were on their own. Only God, and the team at the bottom was with them. The fog was rolling in below. That would no doubt make things hard on all of them. As soon as I was done, I would be sure to head down. Looking around I saw faces from other teams. None of their faces bothered me, for they all held in their emotions. Nothing could go bad, as long as we concentrated.
People who mucked up because they didn't focus are people I frowned upon. Bear was no help with that. We needed to set him straight, but that was for another time. And besides, that would be hard. I knew why he acted that way. It was a coping mechanism. After what he went through, it must have been traumatic. Even for a Navy SEAL. Everyone but him was part of the original team, when it was formed. We'd lost many along the way, and Bear was a much needed replacement, or so Command had believed.
I remembered the good old days, when as a Navy SEAL I did covert operations, inserting upon beaches and coastal towns. Riding on ships and submarines. Rescuing high value targets and taking out others. Then after the invasion, I'm fighting in a war in a rebellion.
"They will be fine" I thought to myself, to comfort myself. To focus on the mission at hand. Everyone had to do their part.
The other team leader gave a nod to everyone. We started revving our bikes. After the third rev, our vehicles went racing along the path we had been going along. Below to our left, fog was rolling in. That would certainly not help Lion's team one bit. They were going to have a tough time down there soon. So far, no gunfire below. A welcome sign that everything was going to plan. Then again, when did anything ever go to plan all the way?
My radio on my shoulder buzzed as someone tried to make contact. I clicked the talk button and listened in.
"Five-hundred metres ahead is the target. We will stop at three-hundred to avoid detection. How copy?"
"I copy" I replied back to them. Then I clicked it off. I felt so glad Bear wasn't here. He would have been making so much noise they would have been able to snipe us before we reached our holding point.
Trees and shrubs lined our paths sides, covering our approach from unwanted eyes. Couldn't have picked a better path. Then the path turned up a bit on a slope. I hated slopes. They took so long to climb. Used to leave me huffing at training. Before...all this. Those were the days. Damn, I hated to admit it but I missed those days. Better than running from city to city like going from foxholes across a battle-scarred field against heavy fire. From not so long ago, the trail had become wet by a rainstorm. The clouds had cleared some time ago. No rain would be coming for some time. Hopefully.
Our mini convoy halted at the top of the slope. Our man at the front, the other team leader, held up a hand as a halt signal. We braked then cut our engines. He made more hand signals. I stepped off my quadbike before readying my M4 Carbine with a silencer and ACOG attached. Two of my team remained on their quads. One had an M14 EBR and the other a MSR sniper rifle. They would cover our backs.
That left four of us left to attack. I approached the edge of the slope. Below was a fenced off cement building. On top were a couple of radar dishes and an antenna in between. It only consisted of one floor. Plenty for a communications outpost. If we knocked this out, bye-bye to any reinforcements.
With a flick of the team leader's wrist ahead, we moved down the slope. So far I saw a couple targets on the roof and a few along the fenceline, illuminated by the sun behind us. We halted in some shrubs a few feet away from the fence. Next to me I heard the sound of a launcher being loaded with a pop sound.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five. The launcher fred a smoke-trailed projectile over the fence into the path of two KPA soldiers. It began to spin, swallowing them in smoke. On queue we pulled down our heat-vision goggles.
"Go!" Another of my teammates withdrew a pair of wire cutters to cut by the gate lock. A snap cracked through the air, followed by a bloodspray of a soldier aiming down at us. The smoke cloud covered up his fall. The other two on the ground were cut down by our weapons. Right away, three soldiers down.
"Move in! Cole, left flank!"
"Covering left flank!"
I fired rounds around the right corner as a KPA foot soldier came around. In my good eye through my goggles their body glowed a bright orange. Knew that wouldn't be for too long. No shots from the enemy had been fired yet. No shouting until they were all down and they finally realised what was going on. I took an explosive charge from my pack and set the charge on the nearby cement wall then pulled the fuse. After I stepped back, knowing full well what was about to happen. An explosion was all it took on the measly thin cement wall to blow it in.
Next I tossed in a readied flashbang. One big bang and people were screaming in Korean about being blind, running around in dismay. Two of us went in; me and the team leader. Clearing left and right inside. Unfortunately for them, they hadn't gotten to shooting quickly enough. How emotionless I must have looked, it would have sent chills down the spines of my family, even of Bear. I could see the fear he had for me in his eyes. Swinging my barrel left to right, making a wave of rounds cut them down. You want to know how I felt? Truly, I was pretty scared myself. Afterwards, I had scared myself by what happened. We took no prisoners. I mean, they were people too. Just following orders. You'd think a guy like me would be used to it all after serving over twenty years. Truth is, I never got used to it. I just pushed those feelings back.
"Clear left!"
"Clear right!"
"Building clear!" Check ammo!"
So far, everything went well. Before long, we had cleared the place.
"Keep the All Clear signal on. We do not want any reinforcements coming." One of them, Cole, nodded. He headed over to one of the many tables holding radios and consoles on top.
The inside of this bunker wasn't as complex as one would think when they hear 'communications outpost'. Some would imagine a bunch of chairs and tables, radios and consoles and other machines. But no. Just one table with three radios, a computer, some consoles along one and another table with a map. Plus the cabinet across the room filled to the brim with supplies and cement walls, it was more like a bunker.
I almost jumped when something smashed behind us. Whirling around I saw nothing in the hole. Then one of the rubble rocks rocked a bit. I figured there that the little rock had fallen to the floor. Lucky us it wasn't some lucky bastard that survived the attack.
I couldn't help it, but something felt...well, felt odd. This had just been too easy. Nothing was ever this easy. For a few minutes, everything went well. And that's when I got the call that confirmed my suspicions. A call in the form of an explosion. Our heads swivelled in unison to the hole in the wall. In a hurry we rushed out to find what had caused it. Seeing the fireball shoot up, it made me feel the same way inside. I exploded. A scowl covered my face, the scar over my dead eye rippling as my scowl deepened.
"Fuck it, what did they do?! I said be quiet! And they cause an explosion!" Me and two others ran up to the quads where the two snipers waited. "Go!" They nodded and started back down the slope. I ignored the hoarseness of my voice. As quickly as one could say Alabama, I was on and started back down the slope to the meeting point. From there, we headed right down to the railway track.
Without my noticing, the fog had rolled in over the railway outpost, making way for a large column of smoke to rise above. Some flickers of light appeared as gunshots fired off all around the outpost and inside. 'Lion, I left you in charge. What the hell did you do?'
Gunshots grew louder as we closed in. It sounded like the Fourth Of July back in my hometown before the war. May have been wiser to not be seen, yet I had had enough of things going wrong. If I found out who's fault it was, I would be kicking them in the chin after giving them a death stare using my pearly-white eye.
As we got closer, I got a crackle over my radio. Immediately I answered, clicking on my radio.
"Wolf, we got a problem!"
"Damn right we do! I said to be quiet down there! You better have a damn good excuse for all of that-"
"GOLIATH!" I stopped there. Had I heard right? I wished I had heard wrong at that moment. If I hadn't, then we might as well have headed straight into a live fire range as targets. I hoped to God we still had an explosive charge left. Things were not going to go well if there was one. Another explosion ahead got my attention. A silhouette through the fog caught my eye.
"Shit. It is one." I glanced over at the others as we all came to a stop behind a fallen log. Some hand signals were passed around until a quick plan formulated. I was chosen to go right up, going over the railway. Several bodies lay upon the platform. "Great. More cleanup to get done."
From what I saw as soon as I vaulted onto the platform, everything was going to hell. A section of the second floor of the central building had been blown apart, part of a metal ladder hanging off. Fire rose from the destroyed building. Five mechanical beats, one with a gun on top, were scattered around the rear of the small outpost. A whole squad of KPA soldiers fired from cover, one of them using a laser designator. And in a hole in the fence, there sat what I dreaded to see. A challenge no doubt for us. The Goliath.
The Goliath was a six-wheeled heavily-armored vehicle armed with a heavy .50 caliber machine gun and rocket battery, capable of firing bursts of rockets to decimate targets. It looked like an enlarged rover armed by guns. It was autonomous, requiring no pilot to drive like much of the KPA's army.
The laser designator gave me an idea. I put my plan into action right away by going around to flank. On my right a soldier in the ruined building spotted me. I filled his mouth with led before he could empty his words. They fell back, gun falling to the ground. A rocket from the Goliath flew by a group of troops I guessed were who had survived the attack. The leftovers of Lion's team. Two I could see had been downed, laying on the ground. One of them flailing about as if he had been shot in the worst place imaginable. Something did worry me though. Their numbers, they were down by two.
I refocused on my objective. Where those two missing personnel had gone, we would have to worry on that later. I had to focus on the current matter. The Goliath remained motionless, it's turret the only thing moving. Pinning down the remnants of the base's attackers. Stalkers and KPA troops advanced slowly. A couple went down from the two snipers that had pulled back a bit, giving me covering fire.
A Stalker leaped at my side. I sidestepped, only for my back be scratched by it's metallic claws. Then it tumbled, a disembodied head clanging away after a snap of a bullet being fired. However the shot had been too late as I stumbled forward, my weapon falling from my hands. A shot fired off from the dropped rifle, drawing attention my way when the bullet barely missed a KPA grunt's head. My blind eye must have clenched closed as I winced in both pain and at how such a near miss could have proven fatal for moe, since it drew their attention my way. Gunfire came at me from both soldiers and the mounted weapon on the Alpha Stalker. The Alpha was larger than the others and had red stripes across it's head, back and legs.
Right away I began scrambling for cover, using my legs to push me through the dirt. The fog helped in covering me from their sight. But that Goliath and Stalker, they must have had thermal. Cause the still kept on hammering down on my position. Drawing my pistol, I managed to peek around and fire off some blind shots, trying to score a hit on something.
Another explosion rocked the area. More rubble spilled from a wall in front of me, the trail of the rockets carving a path through the fog. That moment, I made my chance. I sprinted out of cover, injured back stinging like someone dumped a bucket of salt over it. Trust me, that stings.
In my other hand I held a single grenade. Along the other side of the outpost ran the Special Ops team leader, going along the outside of the fence. If we timed this strike right, we could end the battle just like that.
Bullets winded past, just missing behind me. As it were, I was too fast. Or they were too stupid to aim in front of me. Then again, I was returning fire. And Lion with the others backing him up were pushing. Surely enough to gain their attention away from me. My legs already aching, my lungs seeming out of breath, it reminded me how old I really was. But I never let that stop me.
Once close enough, I pulled the pin of the grenade and chucked it as far as I could. Right at the Goliath. The EMP grenade went off, messing with it's circuits. I knew it worked when the gun suddenly jerked around and the wheels spun in random directions. It was a lucky thing the grenade had landed right beneath the gun, since that bought enough time for the person behind the drone to climb on and plant their charge. Too late did the Goliath recover as a fireball erupted from where the machine once was, a combination of the explosion from the charge, ammo and fuel. So large it knocked me off my feet.
And so were all the KPA soldiers. The two remaining Stalkers were buffeted, Alpha included, but their claws kept them upright. The large explosion did draw in their gazes, though. Then their heads fell to the ground after cut off by shots.
I just laid there as more shots sounded off around me. My lungs had given their all to keep me going. Some shouts sounded off. By the time it was all over, most of the fog had cleared off. Small fog, I guess. Sunlight revealed the aftermath. I saw it all when Lion pulled me up, patting me on the back. Little sore but I managed.
Many bodies laid out. Most KPA. All but one. The other who had been laying in cover had been killed, as fate would have it. Most likely in an instant. The smoking wreckage of the Goliath would most definitely be hard to clean up. But I already had an idea formulating about that. The Stalkers would be easier. Anyway, we had about eight hours before out train came. Plenty of time, right? Of course, we had other problems.
Two people headed over to the rubble of the center building. Now that would be impossible to clean up. What I didn't think about was what lay underneath. Till I heard what Hawk shouted.
"Help me here. Bear's under here!" Got me scrambling when I heard that. I may have been annoyed by him, but that never stopped me from helping a fellow soldier.
"Lion! Get over here and pick up that rail!" Lion nodded and set down his rifle to pick up a metal railing, a cement block at one end. I grabbed one of them and tried desperately to lift. My lungs were exasperated, almost empty of air. My back ached, stung in fact. I could feel the chalky texture of the rubble in my hands. I kept on digging though. Until I came across something that stopped me. Hawk halted as well. A hand. I took the wrist. No pulse.
"I-Is that-"
"No."
"He's dead, ain't he?" Lion asked. I nodded. Yet I couldn't help but sigh in relief. This hand was tanned, but not as dark as Bear. Yes, this was a dead man. Nothing we could do. But Bear still remained here. We kept going until I finally found a boot. "Here!" Lion ran over to give me aid. Moving rubble out of the way around the boot. I grabbed the hand I saw. A pause...And a pulse came. "He's alive."
"Oh thank god." Hawk sighed in relief, said filling flooding her face. I couldn't lie, but I felt relieved too. Even the deep lines around my blind eye untensed.
"Someone get this damn idiot out of here!" We dug and dug and dug until finally we got him out.
"I'll get him out of here. Then I will help with cleaning up. Lion, meet me at the Stalkers." Lion nodded in confirmation, a mild scowl on his face at the unconscious soldier.
With him safe, I went to start moving bodies. Blood trails followed them behind. As I did this, a plan formulated in my mind. No way would the troops on the train believe this place was left unscathed. We would have to make up a story about this place having been struck, but defended. That meant disguises.
One of the Special Forces, the team leader, was suiting up. He had knowledge on the Korean language, so he would be able to act as the outpost commander. Me, I had another part in this large plan of ours.
I managed to pull a second KPA trooper into one of the rear buildings before A feeling rippled around in my chest that felt like I had just been stabbed. I fell on the floor, clutching my chest. My face contorted into one of filled with pain. I heard a shuffle behind me of boots across the cement floor.
"Wolf."
"Yes Miller?" I replied, my voice feeling hoarse in my throat. The team leader, Miller, had a worried glint in his eyes. His pale face seemed to glow in the sun.
"Get some rest. You deserve it. Especially after running out like that."
I turned my eye on him. My blind eye, piercing metaphorical daggers at his face. That usually sent chills running down other people's spines. Not Miller though.
"Don't try that with me, Al. I still remember that other brown eye being there." I sighed. Miller knew me too well. If I ever had a brother, Miller would know more about me than that brother. "You know, maybe it's better if you stayed here. On that train, it'll be tough on you. Maybe you should-"
"I'm fine."
"Alex, stop this nonsense" Miller scolded in a low voice. "It's getting worse. You know that." I held my hand against my chest, feeling my heartbeat going thump thump thump. One day there would be no more thumps. But it was not going to be this day.
"I'm fine."
Miller stood up, shaking his head. We both knew I was far from fine. My condition got worse by the day. But I was not going to back down because of something killing me from the inside. I would not be defeated. I held out my hand, and he grabbed hold to pull me up in one swift motion. But he did not let go. He just held me there, staring right at me.
"I'm telling you, not as a fellow soldier, but as a friend. Don't ignore this. It will not pass." I shrugged him off and headed out. The train would be in a few hours. We couldn't afford losing time.
Time flew by, making hours feel shorter. By dusk, it had arrived. A hulking mass of metal moving at a hundred and a half miles per hour. Pretty fast for a train back in the day before all this. But now, it was the GKR who had all the fast things. Nineteen cars, four of them flat cars. A massive bulk of an engine at the front. With electricity having been mostly taken out across America, it would have taken too long for them to maintain power along the track. So they stuck to older methods of coal. Billows of smoke puffed out from the top. A single large headlight led the way, lighting the track ahead.
It hissed as it came to a stop at the platform. If things were like how they were before, they would have no doubt been clambering out. Instead, they only came out calmly, some of them wearing anxious and confused looks about them. Quite possibly due to half a building missing.
From a distance I sat in a warehouse. In there was Bear. He had woken up half an hour ago. All around us were crates filled to the brim with munitions and other much needed supplies. Save for two empty ones right behind us.
"What's goin' on?" I held a finger to my lips to shush him silently. So far, nothing had happened. The squad leader from the train approached where Miller-in-disguise stood. He had taken the commanding officer's clothing. Good thing he was half-Chinese or he may never have pulled it off. Once the train squad leader arrived mere inches away from Miller's face, some talking was exchanged. I was too far to hear, and both had face masks so I could not read lips.
"Can you hear them?"
"Does it look like I can?"
"Well, I can't exactly see words going in your ears. So that's a no." I shook my head, moving my gaze away from the window and to the man beside me, leaning against the wall beneath the window.
"Bear. Can I trust you?" He looked almost baffled by my question. "When we get on that train, can I trust you to not make any quips, any unneeded remarks. I know why you do it, it's your coping mechanism. But I need you focused." Bear remained silent, though by his expression he was contemplating it. His brows furrowed as he thought on it. Then, he scowled over at me.
"You know, that ain't something I can do easily. I mean, I could try and all. But I doubt it." I sighed. What could I expect? I put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, hand clasped tightly on his shoulder.
"Just this once. I know that what happened to you was bad, and I have been there." I pointed to my blind eye. "This is an example of this. I have seen people get shot before my eyes, people fall. A man get shot down by a sniper, someone stepping on an AT mine. But listen, you have to get past it. You have to put it all behind you. People die."
At that moment, I was sure I had gotten through to him. But then his face twisted into something I had not seen yet. Anger. Full anger. His hands balled into fists. His brows furrowed into a glare. Staring daggers at me. I was genuinely surprised, but not intimidated. I sat there nonchalantly as he began speaking.
"You've seen a couple of good people die at a time. Not five, not ten. Not thirty. Not a hundred people, fighting to save others...There's a reason why it was called the Massacre of Salt Lake City." Those words hit a mark. I knew all about it. One hundred men went in to save civilians from a bombed city. Those civilians had escaped from multiple GKR settlements around the country.
Out of those one hundred, only one came out. Bloodied, ankle twisted the wrong way. I knew that day well, cause I was there when that lone soldier and ten civilians came off an Osprey aircraft. I removed my firm grip from his shoulder, a soft touch to my expression. An expression my face was not used to doing since..well, since a long time.
I was about to make a reply when I heard some chatter. Peeking up to see outside, I saw two soldiers coming. One of them one of our men disguised. The other a KPA soldier. Quickly I opened the crate behind me and put my leg over into it. Bear was doing the same as soon as I had stood up. We did our best to be quiet, and that was easy with a whistle sounding off from the train. But before I set the lid over my head, Bear said something. Something I did not forget after.
"You sure this plan will work?" Truthfully, I was too hopeful that it would. I chose not to answer and set the lid over me, concealing me in darkness. Save for two little eye holes to watch the world go by.
Here's the next chapter. And for all those wondering what's going on with Wolf, he has...
You didn't think I'd actually tell you yet, did you? No, not yet. That is for another time. So, something you may be wondering; "Why are these chapters shorter than the rest?" Well, that's because this arc is relatively short. It is more of a 'setting the stage for something else' type of arc. So I hope that satisfies whoever was wondering that. And until next time, see you all in the next chapter!
