Semper Fi
Chapter 3
Rescue
"I don't see anything," Colonel Parker said as he surveyed the area from his M1 Abrams tank.
"We've got some campfires that look to have been put out maybe a week ago, but that's about all we got," Captain Hearst said as he checked out the area in his Piranha III.
The rest of the Task Force reported in, they saw no indication that anyone was still using the area.
Parker swore and picked up the radio in his tank.
"This is Pericles Six."
The voice on the other end came on immediately.
"Go ahead Six."
"We have a negative on any signs of life here; we'll look for about ten more minutes before heading out."
"Roger Six, god speed."
Parker set the radio down and turned to look at the other occupant of the M1.
He patted Ishii on the shoulder.
"Don't worry Ishii, we'll find them."
===============
Ranma didn't know how, but he could tell that he was inside.
He slowly opened his eyes, revealing the dark ceiling of some building. He realized that his head was being held by something and he couldn't move. There was a dull ache in his chest, but it did not hurt.
Ranma's left leg felt numb, almost as if he had fallen asleep on it.
He moved his eyes to the left and caught the sight of a man standing over something, crying.
Wherever Ranma was, it smelt like horse shit.
Someone stuck their head right in front of his. It took Ranma a moment to recognize it, the face belonged to Frank, the medic he had met the first day he had arrived at the POW camp.
Something kept nagging at Ranma's mind, almost as if he was forgetting something important. There was a flash before his eyes and he drifted back into unconsciousness.
===============
It seemed that he had just closed his eyes when he opened them again.
Ranma raised his head and found that it was no longer restrained. He tried to sit up, but only succeeded in having a sharp pain shoot through his body.
Someone was instantly by his side and offering their help.
Ranma was slowly lowered back down and he was offered a drink. He realized that he was incredibly thirsty. He had trouble getting the first sip down, but after that he was able to drink the whole amount that was offered to him.
Frank appeared in Ranma's sight and walked over. He knelt down beside him and smiled. The smile was one of exhaustion.
"How's it going?" Frank asked.
Ranma didn't respond right away. He waited until the pain in his head went away.
"Great, what happened?" Ranma asked, trying to quell the pain that was throbbing inside his head.
Frank looked at Ranma for a moment before replying.
"You mean you don't remember?"
Ranma lightly shook his head. The ringing inside his head didn't cease.
Frank's face changed to one of sadness. "They shot half of the POW's, including Ryoga."
At the mention of Ryoga's name, Ranma nearly jumped to his feet. Tears formed in his eyes as he stood with the support of a nearby support beam. He felt blood flowing down his chest and leg.
"Ah shit," Frank cursed. "You ripped your goddamned stitches."
Ranma wasn't listening to him; all he could think of was the memory of Ryoga being carried around the corner, and then the sound of the Chinese firing at the POW's.
Ranma sobbed as he sunk down to the floor. "Ryoga's dead?"
Frank's face twisted to one of rage. "I didn't see him. The Chinese made us bury the others in the horse manure out back."
"What?" Ranma asked in disbelief.
"We asked if we could give them a proper burial and they responded by telling us to bury them in the horse shit around the barn."
Ranma felt his heart throb. His tears stopped and his breathing returned to normal. He raised his head and got to his feet, there was an almost insane glint in his eye.
This did not escape the notice of Frank, who attempted to take Ranma and place him back on the ground. He missed; Ranma had practically slipped right through his arms.
Ranma immediately decided to go and take the gun away from the commander of this POW camp and shoot him in the head. Then he would kill the rest of the soldiers using a Shi Shi Hokodan blast.
He wasn't able to carry out his mission, because before he could even reach the door, he collapsed, the pain from his wounds finally reaching him.
"D-dammit," Ranma said as he felt the blood pour out of his wounds.
Frank ran to his side with some other men, he very quickly slapped a compress on Ranma's leg and chest. He ordered the other sailors to keep his wounds clean, and to wipe away any excess blood.
Frank immediately set out trying to stitch Ranma's wounds up.
Ranma could feel every movement his body made and the wave of pain that occurred when it did. Just as Frank's pin made its first swoop through his flesh, Ranma passed out from the pain.
===============
"Alright boys were one mile out," Parker said into the radio. "Let's lock and load."
Parker raced his M1 Abrams tank to its limits. He crashed through the shrubbery and made a straight run for the Chinese infantry encampments.
Ishii, riding in the back of Parker's M1, loaded a Canister round into the turret and fired it at the barracks set up for the infantrymen.
"There here Ishii," Parker called back as he did a last minute turn to avoid a few mines.
Ishii didn't reply.
===============
Ranma slowly awoke as he heard the explosions. He opened his eyes and saw the American POW's were backing away from the doors of the barn house. Frank bent over and picked him up, carrying him a good distance away from the direction of the barn house facing the explosions.
Ranma heard, he didn't believe he did at first, what sounded like The Saints Go Marching In, being played over a speaker system.
The Saints Go Marching In is the song that would be played by American cavalrymen when they would go riding down the battlefield in victory. Obviously some soldier had decided to change the way it was played and had adopted the use of a tank's radio system to play it.
There followed the sound of a tank running alongside the barn. The tank stopped outside of the big bay doors of the barn and rammed through them. The doors fell forward and impacted the ground, making dust and dirt rise up.
Ranma stiffly got to his feet and saw a very large, very black man standing in the entrance to the barn. He took one look around the barn before letting his eyes fall on Ranma. In obvious disregard to military order, the large black colonel ran towards Ranma with tears running down his cheeks. He enveloped Ranma in a hug and sobbed a few times.
===============
The POW's were led outside, into the bright afternoon sun. The Chinese soldiers that had not been killed had been lined up on the ground. One of the POW's, Frank West, charged towards the Chinese infantry commander, his fists clenched in an obvious signal for bodily harm. One of the tanker's from the 82nd stood in front of him and grabbed him in a bear hug, not allowing him to get by.
A medic that had been brought along with the 82nd checked out Ranma's wounds and the stitches that Frank West had put in and judged them to be in good working order.
As Colonel Parker asked Captain Saotome where Warrant Officer Hibiki was, the sound of mortars lit up the air.
An American halftrack was hit by the incoming mortars and destroyed.
Colonel Parker, sensing that they were about to be overrun, ordered the loading of the POW's into the other tanks and for everyone to haul ass out of the area. The Chinese soldiers were ordered to be loaded up and everyone that couldn't fit in to be rendered unconscious.
The tanks and halftracks from the 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion escaped from the area without any casualties.
Colonel Parker ordered the 82nd to continue on its way until they reached the home base of the American Armor Battalion.
Inside Colonel Parker's M1 Abrams, the soldier in the back was embracing one of the men that had just been rescued by the Task Force.
"Goddamn I'm glad to see you Ranma," Ishii said as he released Ranma from the hug.
Ranma nodded his head slowly, his eyes showing no joy over seeing his friends again. Ishii looked back at Parker for help but only received a shrug of the shoulders.
Ishii decided to leave Ranma alone for the time being and concentrated on looking for targets.
Ranma didn't even hear the sounds of the explosions as round after round was fired between the enemies.
===============
Major Ryan Ward had been in the United States Air Force since he was eighteen. He was a lean, athletically built man in his thirties. His features were sharp and he had very large blue eyes, which sometimes turned icy cold when he was annoyed.
His eyes were icy cold as he watched one of the maintenance crewman work on his B-2 Spirit bomber aircraft. Early that morning he had decided to get some more flight time in the aircraft and had set out to find his bird, but when he entered the hanger where he had left it, he found an F- 16CJ sitting where he had left his aircraft. He went around the hanger and found his Spirit sitting outside. The cold weather had gotten to it and it failed to start.
He had gone to the duty officer's quarters and banged on the man's door until the duty officer came to answer it. After a much thought out ass- chewing, the duty officer called up some maintenance crewman and set them out right away to work on Ward's B-2 Spirit.
Major Ward had been one kill away from becoming an ace during the Gulf War. He had more kills than any other man in his squadron.
He was now stationed in Pearl Harbor, doing dry runs and running classes for most of the year.
He had been called into the Post Commander's office two days earlier. When he had arrived, the Post Commander had given him a large envelope that had been marked, 'Top Secret, Presidential'.
Contained within the envelope had been a new set of orders. He was to be checked out in the B-2 Spirit as quickly as possible and report back.
He had already been familiar with the B-2 Spirit, as he had flown one once during the Gulf War. Regarding that, he had been given a check flight the next day and passed it. When the Post Commander had reported back that Ward had passed his check flight, he had received a response immediately.
Major Ryan Ward was to report to the U.S.S. Nimitz in one week's time.
Ward was surprised. The Nimitz was operating in the Pacific War and he had already tried to get transferred over there and been turned down.
He had decided that the higher-ups had realized that he could be of use in the war and were granting his wishes. Ward had spent the next few days getting as many hours in the B-2 Spirit as possible.
The maintenance crewman announced they were finished and packed up their tools. Just as Ward was climbing into the cockpit, he heard an announcement come over the base intercom system.
*Major Ward, please report to the Post Commander's office as soon as possible.*
Ward swore colorfully and climbed down from the cockpit and walked the short distance to the commander's office.
Ward was a little surprised when he saw two other men sitting in the commander's office. One of the men was a large black man in a superbly tailored suit, his body was quite well-toned, making the man appear at least five years younger than he actually was. The other man was not as impressive as the first one, he was wearing the sort of suit you would expect on a bureaucrat and his body was average.
"Good afternoon," Ward greeted. He did not take a seat.
"Sorry to get you away from whatever you were doing Major," the black man said. "But we needed to see you right away."
"That's alright, I was just going to get some more time in one of the bombers out back."
"The B-2 Spirit?" the man in the bureaucrat suit asked.
Ward was not surprised that these men knew that. He nodded his head.
"Well, the reasons were here is to inform you that you will be getting a ride over to the carrier Nimitz tomorrow at 0500 hours. Will there be any problem with you getting to the base at that time?" the black man asked.
"No, I can be there earlier if you like."
The black man laughed. "Just be there at 0500 hours Major."
===============
The following morning Major Ward arrived at the base and was greeted by the impressive black man from the other day. After they shook hands, Ward was given a folder.
He looked at it questionably and then looked at the black man.
"When you get to the Nimitz, give these to the admiral, they'll help inform everyone of what you're going to be doing."
The black man said a quick goodbye and made his exit.
Ward went down to the airstrip and found his B-2 Spirit sitting in the runway. There were two men standing by the step ladder with flight suits and helmets on.
They greeted Major Ward with a nod of the head and got into the aircraft. They told Ward that he should probably just conk out in the back for awhile. He accepted and found that a sleeping cot had been placed in one of the storage spaces.
===============
A TWX was sent to the American military headquarters in Taiwan as soon as possible.
The 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion recovered fifty navy POW's early yesterday morning. Report says that fifty POW's, including one Japanese civilian were killed one day before rescue of the American sailors occurred.
===============
Author's Notes: So ends the second last chapter of Balance of Power. The Final chapter, titled "The End of a War" should be released in about two weeks. How that last chapter is accepted will determine if a sequel will be written for the story or not. An epilogue will shortly follow the final chapter.
This said, I would very much like it if everyone that reads the final chapter gave me their thoughts in the form of a review. It would be greatly appreciated.
The final chapter will be of great length, rivaling the first chapter I posted. I hope you all will enjoy it.
Thanks to everyone that has read the story this far, and a special thanks to everyone that has written a review.
"I don't see anything," Colonel Parker said as he surveyed the area from his M1 Abrams tank.
"We've got some campfires that look to have been put out maybe a week ago, but that's about all we got," Captain Hearst said as he checked out the area in his Piranha III.
The rest of the Task Force reported in, they saw no indication that anyone was still using the area.
Parker swore and picked up the radio in his tank.
"This is Pericles Six."
The voice on the other end came on immediately.
"Go ahead Six."
"We have a negative on any signs of life here; we'll look for about ten more minutes before heading out."
"Roger Six, god speed."
Parker set the radio down and turned to look at the other occupant of the M1.
He patted Ishii on the shoulder.
"Don't worry Ishii, we'll find them."
===============
Ranma didn't know how, but he could tell that he was inside.
He slowly opened his eyes, revealing the dark ceiling of some building. He realized that his head was being held by something and he couldn't move. There was a dull ache in his chest, but it did not hurt.
Ranma's left leg felt numb, almost as if he had fallen asleep on it.
He moved his eyes to the left and caught the sight of a man standing over something, crying.
Wherever Ranma was, it smelt like horse shit.
Someone stuck their head right in front of his. It took Ranma a moment to recognize it, the face belonged to Frank, the medic he had met the first day he had arrived at the POW camp.
Something kept nagging at Ranma's mind, almost as if he was forgetting something important. There was a flash before his eyes and he drifted back into unconsciousness.
===============
It seemed that he had just closed his eyes when he opened them again.
Ranma raised his head and found that it was no longer restrained. He tried to sit up, but only succeeded in having a sharp pain shoot through his body.
Someone was instantly by his side and offering their help.
Ranma was slowly lowered back down and he was offered a drink. He realized that he was incredibly thirsty. He had trouble getting the first sip down, but after that he was able to drink the whole amount that was offered to him.
Frank appeared in Ranma's sight and walked over. He knelt down beside him and smiled. The smile was one of exhaustion.
"How's it going?" Frank asked.
Ranma didn't respond right away. He waited until the pain in his head went away.
"Great, what happened?" Ranma asked, trying to quell the pain that was throbbing inside his head.
Frank looked at Ranma for a moment before replying.
"You mean you don't remember?"
Ranma lightly shook his head. The ringing inside his head didn't cease.
Frank's face changed to one of sadness. "They shot half of the POW's, including Ryoga."
At the mention of Ryoga's name, Ranma nearly jumped to his feet. Tears formed in his eyes as he stood with the support of a nearby support beam. He felt blood flowing down his chest and leg.
"Ah shit," Frank cursed. "You ripped your goddamned stitches."
Ranma wasn't listening to him; all he could think of was the memory of Ryoga being carried around the corner, and then the sound of the Chinese firing at the POW's.
Ranma sobbed as he sunk down to the floor. "Ryoga's dead?"
Frank's face twisted to one of rage. "I didn't see him. The Chinese made us bury the others in the horse manure out back."
"What?" Ranma asked in disbelief.
"We asked if we could give them a proper burial and they responded by telling us to bury them in the horse shit around the barn."
Ranma felt his heart throb. His tears stopped and his breathing returned to normal. He raised his head and got to his feet, there was an almost insane glint in his eye.
This did not escape the notice of Frank, who attempted to take Ranma and place him back on the ground. He missed; Ranma had practically slipped right through his arms.
Ranma immediately decided to go and take the gun away from the commander of this POW camp and shoot him in the head. Then he would kill the rest of the soldiers using a Shi Shi Hokodan blast.
He wasn't able to carry out his mission, because before he could even reach the door, he collapsed, the pain from his wounds finally reaching him.
"D-dammit," Ranma said as he felt the blood pour out of his wounds.
Frank ran to his side with some other men, he very quickly slapped a compress on Ranma's leg and chest. He ordered the other sailors to keep his wounds clean, and to wipe away any excess blood.
Frank immediately set out trying to stitch Ranma's wounds up.
Ranma could feel every movement his body made and the wave of pain that occurred when it did. Just as Frank's pin made its first swoop through his flesh, Ranma passed out from the pain.
===============
"Alright boys were one mile out," Parker said into the radio. "Let's lock and load."
Parker raced his M1 Abrams tank to its limits. He crashed through the shrubbery and made a straight run for the Chinese infantry encampments.
Ishii, riding in the back of Parker's M1, loaded a Canister round into the turret and fired it at the barracks set up for the infantrymen.
"There here Ishii," Parker called back as he did a last minute turn to avoid a few mines.
Ishii didn't reply.
===============
Ranma slowly awoke as he heard the explosions. He opened his eyes and saw the American POW's were backing away from the doors of the barn house. Frank bent over and picked him up, carrying him a good distance away from the direction of the barn house facing the explosions.
Ranma heard, he didn't believe he did at first, what sounded like The Saints Go Marching In, being played over a speaker system.
The Saints Go Marching In is the song that would be played by American cavalrymen when they would go riding down the battlefield in victory. Obviously some soldier had decided to change the way it was played and had adopted the use of a tank's radio system to play it.
There followed the sound of a tank running alongside the barn. The tank stopped outside of the big bay doors of the barn and rammed through them. The doors fell forward and impacted the ground, making dust and dirt rise up.
Ranma stiffly got to his feet and saw a very large, very black man standing in the entrance to the barn. He took one look around the barn before letting his eyes fall on Ranma. In obvious disregard to military order, the large black colonel ran towards Ranma with tears running down his cheeks. He enveloped Ranma in a hug and sobbed a few times.
===============
The POW's were led outside, into the bright afternoon sun. The Chinese soldiers that had not been killed had been lined up on the ground. One of the POW's, Frank West, charged towards the Chinese infantry commander, his fists clenched in an obvious signal for bodily harm. One of the tanker's from the 82nd stood in front of him and grabbed him in a bear hug, not allowing him to get by.
A medic that had been brought along with the 82nd checked out Ranma's wounds and the stitches that Frank West had put in and judged them to be in good working order.
As Colonel Parker asked Captain Saotome where Warrant Officer Hibiki was, the sound of mortars lit up the air.
An American halftrack was hit by the incoming mortars and destroyed.
Colonel Parker, sensing that they were about to be overrun, ordered the loading of the POW's into the other tanks and for everyone to haul ass out of the area. The Chinese soldiers were ordered to be loaded up and everyone that couldn't fit in to be rendered unconscious.
The tanks and halftracks from the 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion escaped from the area without any casualties.
Colonel Parker ordered the 82nd to continue on its way until they reached the home base of the American Armor Battalion.
Inside Colonel Parker's M1 Abrams, the soldier in the back was embracing one of the men that had just been rescued by the Task Force.
"Goddamn I'm glad to see you Ranma," Ishii said as he released Ranma from the hug.
Ranma nodded his head slowly, his eyes showing no joy over seeing his friends again. Ishii looked back at Parker for help but only received a shrug of the shoulders.
Ishii decided to leave Ranma alone for the time being and concentrated on looking for targets.
Ranma didn't even hear the sounds of the explosions as round after round was fired between the enemies.
===============
Major Ryan Ward had been in the United States Air Force since he was eighteen. He was a lean, athletically built man in his thirties. His features were sharp and he had very large blue eyes, which sometimes turned icy cold when he was annoyed.
His eyes were icy cold as he watched one of the maintenance crewman work on his B-2 Spirit bomber aircraft. Early that morning he had decided to get some more flight time in the aircraft and had set out to find his bird, but when he entered the hanger where he had left it, he found an F- 16CJ sitting where he had left his aircraft. He went around the hanger and found his Spirit sitting outside. The cold weather had gotten to it and it failed to start.
He had gone to the duty officer's quarters and banged on the man's door until the duty officer came to answer it. After a much thought out ass- chewing, the duty officer called up some maintenance crewman and set them out right away to work on Ward's B-2 Spirit.
Major Ward had been one kill away from becoming an ace during the Gulf War. He had more kills than any other man in his squadron.
He was now stationed in Pearl Harbor, doing dry runs and running classes for most of the year.
He had been called into the Post Commander's office two days earlier. When he had arrived, the Post Commander had given him a large envelope that had been marked, 'Top Secret, Presidential'.
Contained within the envelope had been a new set of orders. He was to be checked out in the B-2 Spirit as quickly as possible and report back.
He had already been familiar with the B-2 Spirit, as he had flown one once during the Gulf War. Regarding that, he had been given a check flight the next day and passed it. When the Post Commander had reported back that Ward had passed his check flight, he had received a response immediately.
Major Ryan Ward was to report to the U.S.S. Nimitz in one week's time.
Ward was surprised. The Nimitz was operating in the Pacific War and he had already tried to get transferred over there and been turned down.
He had decided that the higher-ups had realized that he could be of use in the war and were granting his wishes. Ward had spent the next few days getting as many hours in the B-2 Spirit as possible.
The maintenance crewman announced they were finished and packed up their tools. Just as Ward was climbing into the cockpit, he heard an announcement come over the base intercom system.
*Major Ward, please report to the Post Commander's office as soon as possible.*
Ward swore colorfully and climbed down from the cockpit and walked the short distance to the commander's office.
Ward was a little surprised when he saw two other men sitting in the commander's office. One of the men was a large black man in a superbly tailored suit, his body was quite well-toned, making the man appear at least five years younger than he actually was. The other man was not as impressive as the first one, he was wearing the sort of suit you would expect on a bureaucrat and his body was average.
"Good afternoon," Ward greeted. He did not take a seat.
"Sorry to get you away from whatever you were doing Major," the black man said. "But we needed to see you right away."
"That's alright, I was just going to get some more time in one of the bombers out back."
"The B-2 Spirit?" the man in the bureaucrat suit asked.
Ward was not surprised that these men knew that. He nodded his head.
"Well, the reasons were here is to inform you that you will be getting a ride over to the carrier Nimitz tomorrow at 0500 hours. Will there be any problem with you getting to the base at that time?" the black man asked.
"No, I can be there earlier if you like."
The black man laughed. "Just be there at 0500 hours Major."
===============
The following morning Major Ward arrived at the base and was greeted by the impressive black man from the other day. After they shook hands, Ward was given a folder.
He looked at it questionably and then looked at the black man.
"When you get to the Nimitz, give these to the admiral, they'll help inform everyone of what you're going to be doing."
The black man said a quick goodbye and made his exit.
Ward went down to the airstrip and found his B-2 Spirit sitting in the runway. There were two men standing by the step ladder with flight suits and helmets on.
They greeted Major Ward with a nod of the head and got into the aircraft. They told Ward that he should probably just conk out in the back for awhile. He accepted and found that a sleeping cot had been placed in one of the storage spaces.
===============
A TWX was sent to the American military headquarters in Taiwan as soon as possible.
The 82nd Heavy Tank Battalion recovered fifty navy POW's early yesterday morning. Report says that fifty POW's, including one Japanese civilian were killed one day before rescue of the American sailors occurred.
===============
Author's Notes: So ends the second last chapter of Balance of Power. The Final chapter, titled "The End of a War" should be released in about two weeks. How that last chapter is accepted will determine if a sequel will be written for the story or not. An epilogue will shortly follow the final chapter.
This said, I would very much like it if everyone that reads the final chapter gave me their thoughts in the form of a review. It would be greatly appreciated.
The final chapter will be of great length, rivaling the first chapter I posted. I hope you all will enjoy it.
Thanks to everyone that has read the story this far, and a special thanks to everyone that has written a review.