Chapter 11: Opening Moves
St Athan
Alarms filled the air all around St Athan as the East Gate burned; showing sparks into the night air. Seconds later erratic gunfire filled the air as the attackers fired upon the injured and helpless guards sprawled upon the burning tarmac. The lone gunner in the pillbox desperately fired on the attackers, trying to kill them before they killed him and his friends. Worse thing was he knew everyone of the attackers; everyone had their pictures taped on the guardroom notice board, never to be allowed on the base. Local hoods, all of them.
Something hit his foot; he glanced quickly down to see what it was.
"Oh, shit…"
A hollow boom came from the pillbox as the grenade detonated, sending flames blazing through the gun slits.
"Sir, Radar reports intermittent inbound contacts which appear to be Harrier Jump jets!"
"East gate compromised, reports indicate its local hoods, not the main attack force"
"The Royal Welsh are arming up now sir! Estimate 15 minutes until complete arm-up"
"The Longbows have left the hanger, and have pre-flighted"
"Remind them to wait till the main attack force arrives" Thompson shouted through the organised din of all the reports.
The muffled din of multiple guns firing could be heard through the control centre.
"Sir! The SBS has engaged the hostiles at east gate"
Colour sergeant Lucien of the SBS was not a happy man. He had seen the number of bodies in army uniforms scattered around the east gate and the burning wreck of a car which had rammed into the guardhouse, the car, judging by the damage had been loaded with explosives, which when they had detonated had killed most of the guards. He dropped to one knee sighting around the corner, careful to keep as much of his body hidden behind the wall as possible. The hoods were firing wildly at him, obviously having little, if any practise with the guns they were using, he shrugged mentally, their loss.
He pulled the trigger, and a blonde haired hood fell, he switched rapidly from target to target, four more dropped before he had to duck behind the wall again. He tapped the corporal behind him on the arm, telling him to cover him. Lucien peeked around the corner of the wall, clear; he dashed across to the hedge on the other side, covered by the corporal who dropped 2 hoods in quick succession, leaving ten. The corporal quickly joined him; Lucien quickly glanced back over at the wall, signalling to the two SBS men still there. Four SBS versus ten hoods, bad odds, for the hoods. They fired out of their cover, catching the undisciplined hoods in a deadly crossfire. They died quickly.
"Admiral, the Rapier batteries have hard locks on inbound harriers"
"Tell them to make damm sure its harriers, not an inbound to Cardiff-Wales who didn't get the bloody message!"
"Definitely Harriers Sir, with US Marines IFF's"
"Warn them off, tell them we are under attack and if they come any closer they will be fired upon! Might just be a legitimate flight" Thompson added sarcastically.
"They dropped to the deck, and are still incoming"
"Tell the Rapiers, weapons free"
The harriers approached the Rapier SAM batteries, unaware of the danger facing them. NID's intelligence suggested only hand-held SAM's on-site, and with the Rapiers active radars switched off, the pilots never knew they were targeted. Missiles roared off the Rapier batteries, rising into the sky on a pillar of fire guided by the Infrared tracking systems of the Rapier batteries. The harriers had little chance to dodge before they began to fall from the sky, blotted out by the missiles.
A large explosion rent the air as a rapier battery was hit by a massive barrage of cannon fire. The Rapiers turned to engage this latest threat, but were unable to gain an IR lock on the large black helicopter. Another Rapier died. They switched on their search radars; even at this close range they only gained a weak return. It was enough, the Rapiers were able to transmit there targeting data to each other, enabling them to triangulate on the NID built Airwolf copy. Missiles left the launchers and blazed towards the unwanted visitor. The pilot was good, and tried all tricks he knew in-order to evade the missiles. It was a valiant attempt, but at this close range, one doomed to failure. The blazing wreck feel from the sky, crashing down onto a row of houses just outside St Athans perimeter.
"Admiral, look-out report the main ground force is crawling up to the perimeter fence now Sir!"
"Signal the Longbows, get them on their way, now!"