Until the End
Chapter 26
Fallen Heroes
As the helicopter hovered just over the ground, Lieutenant Gogol jumped out and fell four feet to the ground. When he hit the ground he tucked his knees and went into a roll, quickly getting to his feet, his rifle held ready at his shoulder. He was the leader of Team Two, and as leader it would be his responsibility to find a place where they could safely and effectively eliminate the soldiers.
Fifty yards from the LZ, there was a tall fence, at least twelve feet high. There were two soldiers at the gate, and they had to have been alerted by the helicopter.
Just behind Gogol was a Sergeant from the American Green Beret's, and he held a package of explosives in pack, along with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. It was this soldier's duty to take out the radio room, which would have to be done first, or the Chinese might be able to call in for reinforcements. The pack of explosives was there to get rid of the ammo dump. What little intelligence they had on this place said that the soldiers would have mortars and surface-to-air missiles at the base, which would be used to overwhelm them when they arrived, unless the ammo dump could be taken out.
"Take out those sentries lieutenant!" the Green Beret shouted.
Gogol slowed his run to a steady pace and lines up his shot on the first soldier. He fired, but didn't wait to see the shot hit, shifting his sights; he located and fired on the second soldier. Taking his face away from the sights for a moment, Gogol checked and saw that both sentries were down. Turning back, he gave the sergeant the thumbs-up and continued his run towards the front gate.
Already Gogol could see activity inside the base, as soldiers and personnel were running about. Remembering the layouts of the facility, Gogol checked and saw that the lights were on inside the communications room.
"We need to take out that radio room before they realize what's happening sergeant!" Gogol ordered. He was already at the gate and was in the process of removing his wire cutters to make a hole in the fence.
"I hear you lieutenant," the sergeant commented as he placed the shoulder-fired rocket launcher onto his shoulder and went down into a kneeling position. After a few moments of checking to see if his aim was good, the sergeant fired. The rocket kicked out of the long cylindrical tube and shot off, on a dead-run straight for the radio room. The Explosion rocked the compound, and Gogol fumbled with his wire-cutters before dropping them.
"Shit!" Gogol said furiously as he picked them up and resumed creating a hole large enough for the soldiers to fit through. In another twenty seconds the hole was made and Gogol stepped back to allow the sergeant access inside. Looking back, Gogol waved his arm quickly to allow the others to see that it was time to get inside the base.
Checking to see that his message was understood, Gogol knelt down and crawled through the hole and sprinted to the nearest building where the sergeant was squatting near.
"The rest of the others are coming?" he asked. Gogol nodded. "Alright, it's another hundred or so yards before I can get in a position to get the ammo dump, so I'm going to need you guys to create a diversion. If the Chinese get those mortars ready, they'll be able to chew us apart."
"Got it," Gogol said. "You get as close as you can without detection and we'll take out as many soldiers as we can."
The Green Beret nodded and jumped to his feet and took off at a sprint towards the next building. Gogol turned his head to see the progress of the others so he missed the sergeant get hit in the side and hitting the ground. But what he didn't miss was the loud crack of a rifle. Whipping his head to the side, Gogol saw the sergeant on the ground, blood staining his upper arm and high back. The sergeant was attempting to crawl to safety, but with one arm he wasn't going to make it before the others realized that he wasn't dead.
"Goddamnit!" Gogol whispered furiously before rushing to his feet and charging as quickly as he could towards the fallen sergeant. Swinging his rifle around his shoulder, Gogol grabbed the American sergeant by the arms and began to drag him behind one of the buildings. A few shouts in Chinese turned into a lot of rifle fire as Gogol heard the report as rounds flew around him and impacted the ground next to him. He barely managed to pull the sergeant to safety before he lost his grip and fell backwards. His right hand was covered with blood, which had made his hand slip off the soldier's tunic.
"Where are you hit sergeant?" Gogol asked as he pulled his trench knife from it's sheath on his leg.
"I, I think it went through my arm and into my side sir," the sergeant said, struggling to keep him calm. Gogol used his knife to rip away the fabric from the soldier's arm and checked the wound. The sergeant was right; the round had hit him in the upper arm, and gone right through, only to go in through his side. Pushing the soldier onto his side, Gogol checked his back for any other holes. There was one just above the small of his back, and it was clean.
Using his knife again, Gogol removed the fabric near the wound and placed his hand over the wound. He looked around and located the rest of the team, who were waiting on the other side behind the building he had just been behind.
"How bad is it?" the sergeant asked in a fearful voice. Gogol looked the soldier in the eyes and saw the horror that was in them.
"It was a clean hit sergeant, and as long as I can keep pressure on this, then you shouldn't bleed to death." Gogol motioned with his free hand for the rest of them to come across the opening.
Gogol heard a choking noise and looked back down at the sergeant's face, blood and thick tissue matter was streaming from his mouth. The soldier was going into shock and began to violently shake.
"Shit!" Gogol said as he tried to keep the sergeant from shaking and still keep his hand over the wound on his back. He looked up and saw that most of the soldiers were over on this side.
Once the first soldier was over, Gogol spared the time to look at him and ask, "Do you have any medical experience?"
"No sir, but Corporal Bradley does," the soldier replied, indicating another Green Beret that was on his way. "You need a hand sir?"
The soldier didn't wait for a reply and helped Gogol attempt to keep the American sergeant from shaking. Just as it seemed that the rest of the men had crossed the opening, the first mortar fell. The round was short, by at least twenty meters, but the next one hit close.
"Where's Corporal Bradley?" Gogol asked the assembled men.
"Right here sir," a very large Green Beret spoke.
"Get over here and keep the sergeant from dying. He's been hit in the arm and through the side and back; I think he's going into shock."
Gogol relinquished his hold on the sergeant and let the American corporal take over. He turned and looked for the Russian sergeant he had chosen as his second-in-command. He found him and motioned for him to come closer.
"What's the situation here sergeant?" Gogol asked.
"Sir, two men hit the ground hard in the helicopter and most likely broke or sprained their legs. We left them to try and catch up. If that's Sergeant Garnier, than it means the Chinese have been able to successfully keep the ammo dump from going up."
Before Gogol had a chance to reply, the radio in the sergeant's pack began to squawk.
"This is Five, who's calling?" Gogol spoke into the radio.
*This is Six, Five, how goes everything done there?*
It was Parker, and from the sounds of things he was still in the helicopter.
"We've got three wounded men, one seriously, and the Chinese have us zeroed in. They have mortars and are tearing us apart. We've managed to take out the radio outpost but we've been cornered just outside the barracks, our two lines of fire have been unable to establish firing positions and we've got wounded. We might be able to get through, with a little bit of luck."
*Five, do not do anything risky.*
"We don't have much of a choice Six," Gogol said. The sound of a mortar bearing down on them made Gogol scream for everybody to get down. The mortar hit close, maybe a few yards away from their position, and the shrapnel went screaming by.
A few screams echoed out and Gogol slowly shifted into a sitting position, he checked the radio and saw that shrapnel had torn it to shreds, the Russian sergeant holding the radio wasn't in much better condition.
"Everybody alright?" Gogol asked as he did a mental check to see if all of his body parts were still in place.
Corporal Bradley was the first one to speak up. "We've lost Sergeant Garnier sir."
Gogol nodded his head. Everybody that was still able to stand stood up. He did a quick check and he came up short. He checked the bodies on the ground and found that three more men were killed by the mortar. That brought the number of men down to eight, and if the intelligence was right, and it had proven itself to be dead-on so far, then they were facing around sixty or so Chinese. Not very good odds.
"Alright everyone, we're in a bad way here, and unless we do some quick thinking, we'll end up like the others."
The American corporal, Bradley, spoke up.
"Sir, I can take Sergeant Garnier's C4 pack and take out the ammo dumps."
Gogol shook his head. "The ammo dump isn't important right now corporal, we need to get rid of those mortars."
"Oh," Corporal Bradley said. "Well, I can do that too I think."
Gogol looked at him in surprise. "Are you sure corporal?"
Bradley nodded. "I can run fast enough sir, I broke the GI record for the one hundred meter sprint in combat fatigues last year," he said confidently.
Surprising the others, Gogol laughed. "Alright you crazy bastard, grab those explosives and see what you can do, the rest of us will give you some cover fire."
Without any other word, Corporal Bradley grabbed the explosive pack and sprinted around the corner of the barrack housing.
"Team Two; let's let Mr. Bradley break his record shall we?"
===============
Living up to everything he said, Corporal Bradley was within twenty feet of those mortars in less than a minute. Using the scope on a fallen soldier's rifle, Gogol was able to see that the Chinese mortars were not evenly spaced properly, and when Bradley did throw the C4 pack, it would be enough to get rid of them.
Bradley was within ten feet when he was in the position to throw the pack. He did so, but before he could follow through with the toss, a Chinese soldier picked him off, and hit him in the chest from the looks of things. The pack fell about five feet short of the Chinese mortar team, and failed to detonate.
"Oh shit," Gogol said worriedly. "Bradley's down, and the pack didn't go off."
More mortars fell around them, and Gogol had to cover his ear's to fight the concussion blast. Once the nausea passed, Gogol picked up his rifle and, like a true marksmen, aimed down the opening at where the pack fell, and fired.
He missed, but only by a few feet. Adjusting his aim, Gogol fired again. His aim was good, and the round struck the pack. It was enough to cause the explosives to detonate. The roar was thunderous, and it shook the ground from over one hundred yards. The mortars ceased to fall, and the rest of the team began to lay down fire at the remaining Chinese soldiers.
They hadn't been able to eliminate all of them, but at least it was now a simple shoot-out.
===============
Unfortunately, while the intelligence had been correct on all accounts so far, it had failed to pick up that there might be more than one communications room. The Chinese operator was able to place a call to the PLA inside Beijing, and asked for reinforcements, but that would take almost three or four hours to get there. But before he could look for the numbers of any military base closer to them, the phone began to ring.
It was some of the guards at the POW camp just a few miles away, and they said that there was a riot in the cells, and that an American helicopter was landing outside.
The word was passed down the line to the base commander, and he ordered twenty or so men to go deal with the prison camp. The remaining soldiers, thirty-seven men, would finish off the soldiers here.
===============
The pilot of the helicopter was finishing planting the explosives inside when he heard the rumble of a truck. Peering out the canopy, he saw that a flatbed truck with a lot of soldiers in the back was heading off down the road, in the direction of the prison camp. That wasn't good, especially since the mortar rounds that had been falling intensely for the past ten minutes were silent now. Reaching for the radio the lieutenant had left him, the pilot attempted to contact the others, unless they were already dead.
===============
The simpler handset radio's that were issued so each soldier could talk to each other began to squawk, and Gogol had to lay down his rifle to pick it up.
"Go ahead," Gogol said. "This is Five."
*A truck filled with soldiers just left the base and is heading towards the prison camp,* the voice Gogol recognized as the pilot's informed.
"Okay, be advised that we are pulling out. Be ready to blow the ride in less than five minutes," Gogol informed the pilot. He set the radio handset on the ground and turned to the others. "Alright boys, they snuck some guys past us, and they're headed for the prison camp, we need to get out of here on the double."
There was about ten or so soldiers left on the Chinese side, and Gogol was hoping that instead of pursuing, they would stay here and do some damage control.
He gathered the team together and then led them towards the rear of the base, where they had entered.
===============
The pilot blew the helicopter at exactly 1645, local time, and joined the remainder of Team Two, which was double timing it over the hilly roadside to quickly reach the base. It took about twenty minutes for all of them to get into a position where they could see the entire compound, and from what they saw, things were not good.
The POW's were being loaded up in trucks and very quickly being driven out of the prison camp and off to the west. The truck carrying the Chinese soldiers was less than one hundred meters away from the camp when the last of the trucks pulled out and onto the road. Believing that they could relax, the soldiers stopped running and took a relaxed pace, searching for areas where they could effectively eliminate the soldiers in the truck. Gogol however, noticed a jeep with four occupants try and pull out of the parking lot, only to have the truck carrying the soldiers speed up after them.
"We've got friendlies in that jeep!" Gogol announced. "Someone take out the driver of that truck!"
As the soldiers got into firing positions, Gogol saw a Chinese soldier trying to aim a RPG at the jeep. Dropping his binoculars, Gogol swung his rifle around and took aim. The shot was just over two hundred yards, not an easily accomplishable shot. He fired, but hit low and a little late.
The round struck the Chinese soldier in the arm, which must have caused a muscle spasm, and he fired the rocket, the shot was wide, but not wide enough. The jeep was hit and it began flipping end over end off the road.
"Don't let them get out of range!" Gogol shouted, and the other soldiers began firing. Gogol himself decided to aim for the truck itself, and put a few rounds into the front hood of the truck. It did not disable the truck, but it scared the driver, and he panicked, throwing the truck hard to the left, and in effect spilling the occupants in the back out and into the road. The truck was traveling at around sixty-five miles per hour and the soldiers hit hard.
"Move up Team Two!" Gogol shouted. "Eliminate anything that you interpret as an aggressive action."
===============
The last order Gogol had issued had little relevance once they got closer. Nearly all the soldiers were dead, either from hitting the ground at such a speed, or from the shooting of the others earlier on. A few were still alive, though they were in no condition to do much of anything other than moaning and screaming in pain. Gogol had the team check the conditions of the Chinese soldiers and search for anyone that might have escaped.
He grabbed two soldiers and ran towards where the jeep had crashed into the brush. While the snow on the ground was thick, it wouldn't have been very significant in stopping someone falling out of a speeding jeep from being seriously injured when they eventually hit the ground.
As they approached, Gogol could see that a Japanese male, was the closest to the road, but he was most certainly dead. From the position of the crushed scenery, the jeep had rolled right over the place where the body lay, and judging from the lack of rise and fall of the chest, his life was expired. It took Gogol a moment to realize that it was the soldier that he had seen earlier in the war, Ranma. Gogol walked past the body and reached the jeep. The driver, another Japanese male, wearing a soldier's uniform, was alive, though the gravity of his wounds wouldn't allow him to survive for more than a few hours. Shrapnel from the shoulder-fired explosive must have hit him directly, after it tore through the sides of the jeep. His right arm was a bloody mess, simply consisting of torn tissue and bone fragments. Several fragments must have struck him in the neck as well, for there was a distinct sound of air escaping his throat though making a sick gurgling noise as it passed the blood.
Gogol ordered the two soldiers to administer first-aid to the Japanese soldier and then continued on. The next body he came across was very hard to see. The man had very deep scraggly hair, as if he hadn't had a hair-cut in a long time, and he was in deeply stained clothes, most likely of an American tanker. The man was obviously suffering from malnutrition, as he was almost cadaverous in appearance. Leaning down, Gogol could see that he hadn't received any great damage, though he was on death's doorstep as well.
Before he could begin to try and assist the man, a loud groan sounded from a little ways off and Gogol quickly snatched up his rifle and made his way over. It wasn't hard to recognize the soldier, as his large body and very black skin made him easy to identify. His hand shaking uncontrollably, Gogol approached Phil's body and knelt down beside him. Judging from the way his body was twisted, he had struck the tree that he was now lying beside. Gogol couldn't tell, but Phil most likely had suffered a spinal cord injury.
"Phil, can you hear me?" Gogol asked. Parker's eyes opened and he looked at Gogol for a moment before trying to shift his position.
"I can't feel my legs or my arms," Parker announced in a rough voice that was filled with fear.
"Just stay there Phil," Gogol said. "I think you might have hurt your spine when you hit the tree."
"Where are Ranma, and Ryoga?" Parker asked, his voice sounding as though he were more worried about them then the condition that he was in.
Not wanting to tell Phil the truth, Gogol avoided the question. "Just wait there and I'll go get some help." Getting to his feet he quickly marched out of the brush and signaled to the remaining troops by the disabled Chinese truck and motioned for them to come over. He also asked one of the soldiers working on the Japanese soldier in the jeep to go try and find a vehicle in the parking lot of the prison compound and head off to the rendezvous and find the others.
Phil hadn't moved at all since Gogol had left, something that filled him with dread. While it might be that he just simply was in too much pain and the loss of control of his limbs was temporary, Gogol wasn't one to put too much faith in blind hope.
Kneeling down next to him, Gogol talked softly to Phil.
"I've sent a soldier to go track down the others Phil, and then were going to try and hide while we wait for the Navy planes to come," he announced as he began to check Parker's legs for any signs of life. He pushed and prodded but Parker made no response. As he went to check his arms, Parker spoke up.
"How are the others?" Parker asked. It was obvious that he meant the men that were with him in the jeep, but Gogol purposely misunderstood.
"We lost twelve men at the base, but the rest are alright, and if the rest of team two and the POW's made it out of here than there are no more casualties."
Parker craned his neck and looked at Gogol intently. "What about the men that were with me?"
It would be impossible to misinterpret that, so Gogol heaved a sigh and looked down at the snow covered ground. "Ranma's dead Phil, he was crushed when the jeep rolled over him, and he must have hit the ground hard. The driver is most definitely going to die in the next few hours, unless we can somehow get him to a surgeon, which is impossible. The last man, the one that was a POW, might survive, but from what I can tell he probably won't last out the three days."
Parker closed his eyes as he swore sadly. His chest began to heave as the mountain of a man began to weep. Tears ran feely from his eyes and he was unable to wipe them away, as he could still not use his limbs. They had come so far, deep into the heart of the beast, and done everything short of a miracle but it didn't matter. Ranma was dead, along with Ryoga, who had spent half a decade in this desolate place. After everything, none of it mattered, and it was lost.
Suddenly, Parker's expression changed, his look of saddened depression was changed to one of rage.
Goddamn this war anyways! Damn the Chinese! Their greed, along with the Japanese government was enough to cost the lives of all these great men, and was responsible for thousands of other deaths.
"Take me to them," Parker announced suddenly.
"Huh?" Gogol said, surprised that Parker was talking.
"Take me to Ranma and Ryoga, I want to see them for sure, cause there's no way I'm accepting that they're dead till I see them," Parker said. "Drag me if you have to but I need to see them for myself."
Gogol was apprehensive, but ended up dragging Parker to Ryoga's body. He helped Parker to his feet, which did little more than drag behind him, and allowed him to lean heavily on his shoulder. Parker stared at Ryoga with a broken look, like he had just been beaten a thousand times over. The thin Japanese man's body was still, though his chest continued to rise and fall. Parker looked down at the ground and said a few prayers.
"There's no way we can save him?" Parker asked in a hopeless voice.
Gogol shrugged, or did the best he could while carrying Parker's massive weight. "It depends, once the other team gets here, I want a real medic to go over him and see if it's possible to keep him alive until we can get to a Navy ship where he'll be transported to a hospital ship."
Parker nodded sadly. "C-can you take me to see Ranma?"
The sadness portrayed through his voice made Gogol want to hug him to his chest but that wouldn't help anything.
Gogol supported Parker as they moved towards where Ranma's carcass lay. Gogol looked down and saw that Phil's legs were beginning to move with him, a good sign. Gogol was to intent on watching Parker that he walked within a few inches of where Ranma lay.
"Why did we stop?" Parker asked, confused. Gogol looked at him confused and then looked down at where the body was, thinking that maybe Phil couldn't see it. But when he looked down, Ranma was gone.
"What the hell?" Gogol asked in shock as he let Parker fall from his grasp and hit the ground. Phil made a loud curse and looked up at Gogol, annoyed. Gogol paid him no heed and instead trudged out towards the road, where the soldiers had pulled the Japanese soldier from the jeep.
"Where did you put the other body?" Gogol asked. The remaining shoulder looked at him oddly before answering.
"There isn't any out here Lieutenant. The rest of the troops are coming now, if that's what you mean."
Gogol didn't answer and instead walked back into the brush to where he had left Phil. He was about to say something to Parker when he noticed the look on Phil's face. He was staring in absolute shock towards a tree just out of Gogol's field of vision. Approaching cautiously, Gogol noted that the sound of very deep breathing could be heard from just beyond the thick brush. Pushing it aside, Gogol looked in and nearly shouted in surprise.
Leaning against the large tree was Lieutenant Ranma Saotome. His face was a bloody mess, and he was using one arm to keep himself upright, while the other was used to hold his ribs. He smiled wryly at Gogol, and then at Phil.
"What? Don't tell me you thought I'd go yet did ya?
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Author's Notes: I know I know, I'm a horrible person. Gone over two weeks without writing a thing. For those reader's that are just about fed up, I promise that I will not take this long to push the rest of the chapters out, as I'm almost done wrapping everything up. Now that the kids are back at school I'll be able to get some more writing done.
Please give me your opinions, that is, if they're not something that would involve bodily harm to me.
Chapter 26
Fallen Heroes
As the helicopter hovered just over the ground, Lieutenant Gogol jumped out and fell four feet to the ground. When he hit the ground he tucked his knees and went into a roll, quickly getting to his feet, his rifle held ready at his shoulder. He was the leader of Team Two, and as leader it would be his responsibility to find a place where they could safely and effectively eliminate the soldiers.
Fifty yards from the LZ, there was a tall fence, at least twelve feet high. There were two soldiers at the gate, and they had to have been alerted by the helicopter.
Just behind Gogol was a Sergeant from the American Green Beret's, and he held a package of explosives in pack, along with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. It was this soldier's duty to take out the radio room, which would have to be done first, or the Chinese might be able to call in for reinforcements. The pack of explosives was there to get rid of the ammo dump. What little intelligence they had on this place said that the soldiers would have mortars and surface-to-air missiles at the base, which would be used to overwhelm them when they arrived, unless the ammo dump could be taken out.
"Take out those sentries lieutenant!" the Green Beret shouted.
Gogol slowed his run to a steady pace and lines up his shot on the first soldier. He fired, but didn't wait to see the shot hit, shifting his sights; he located and fired on the second soldier. Taking his face away from the sights for a moment, Gogol checked and saw that both sentries were down. Turning back, he gave the sergeant the thumbs-up and continued his run towards the front gate.
Already Gogol could see activity inside the base, as soldiers and personnel were running about. Remembering the layouts of the facility, Gogol checked and saw that the lights were on inside the communications room.
"We need to take out that radio room before they realize what's happening sergeant!" Gogol ordered. He was already at the gate and was in the process of removing his wire cutters to make a hole in the fence.
"I hear you lieutenant," the sergeant commented as he placed the shoulder-fired rocket launcher onto his shoulder and went down into a kneeling position. After a few moments of checking to see if his aim was good, the sergeant fired. The rocket kicked out of the long cylindrical tube and shot off, on a dead-run straight for the radio room. The Explosion rocked the compound, and Gogol fumbled with his wire-cutters before dropping them.
"Shit!" Gogol said furiously as he picked them up and resumed creating a hole large enough for the soldiers to fit through. In another twenty seconds the hole was made and Gogol stepped back to allow the sergeant access inside. Looking back, Gogol waved his arm quickly to allow the others to see that it was time to get inside the base.
Checking to see that his message was understood, Gogol knelt down and crawled through the hole and sprinted to the nearest building where the sergeant was squatting near.
"The rest of the others are coming?" he asked. Gogol nodded. "Alright, it's another hundred or so yards before I can get in a position to get the ammo dump, so I'm going to need you guys to create a diversion. If the Chinese get those mortars ready, they'll be able to chew us apart."
"Got it," Gogol said. "You get as close as you can without detection and we'll take out as many soldiers as we can."
The Green Beret nodded and jumped to his feet and took off at a sprint towards the next building. Gogol turned his head to see the progress of the others so he missed the sergeant get hit in the side and hitting the ground. But what he didn't miss was the loud crack of a rifle. Whipping his head to the side, Gogol saw the sergeant on the ground, blood staining his upper arm and high back. The sergeant was attempting to crawl to safety, but with one arm he wasn't going to make it before the others realized that he wasn't dead.
"Goddamnit!" Gogol whispered furiously before rushing to his feet and charging as quickly as he could towards the fallen sergeant. Swinging his rifle around his shoulder, Gogol grabbed the American sergeant by the arms and began to drag him behind one of the buildings. A few shouts in Chinese turned into a lot of rifle fire as Gogol heard the report as rounds flew around him and impacted the ground next to him. He barely managed to pull the sergeant to safety before he lost his grip and fell backwards. His right hand was covered with blood, which had made his hand slip off the soldier's tunic.
"Where are you hit sergeant?" Gogol asked as he pulled his trench knife from it's sheath on his leg.
"I, I think it went through my arm and into my side sir," the sergeant said, struggling to keep him calm. Gogol used his knife to rip away the fabric from the soldier's arm and checked the wound. The sergeant was right; the round had hit him in the upper arm, and gone right through, only to go in through his side. Pushing the soldier onto his side, Gogol checked his back for any other holes. There was one just above the small of his back, and it was clean.
Using his knife again, Gogol removed the fabric near the wound and placed his hand over the wound. He looked around and located the rest of the team, who were waiting on the other side behind the building he had just been behind.
"How bad is it?" the sergeant asked in a fearful voice. Gogol looked the soldier in the eyes and saw the horror that was in them.
"It was a clean hit sergeant, and as long as I can keep pressure on this, then you shouldn't bleed to death." Gogol motioned with his free hand for the rest of them to come across the opening.
Gogol heard a choking noise and looked back down at the sergeant's face, blood and thick tissue matter was streaming from his mouth. The soldier was going into shock and began to violently shake.
"Shit!" Gogol said as he tried to keep the sergeant from shaking and still keep his hand over the wound on his back. He looked up and saw that most of the soldiers were over on this side.
Once the first soldier was over, Gogol spared the time to look at him and ask, "Do you have any medical experience?"
"No sir, but Corporal Bradley does," the soldier replied, indicating another Green Beret that was on his way. "You need a hand sir?"
The soldier didn't wait for a reply and helped Gogol attempt to keep the American sergeant from shaking. Just as it seemed that the rest of the men had crossed the opening, the first mortar fell. The round was short, by at least twenty meters, but the next one hit close.
"Where's Corporal Bradley?" Gogol asked the assembled men.
"Right here sir," a very large Green Beret spoke.
"Get over here and keep the sergeant from dying. He's been hit in the arm and through the side and back; I think he's going into shock."
Gogol relinquished his hold on the sergeant and let the American corporal take over. He turned and looked for the Russian sergeant he had chosen as his second-in-command. He found him and motioned for him to come closer.
"What's the situation here sergeant?" Gogol asked.
"Sir, two men hit the ground hard in the helicopter and most likely broke or sprained their legs. We left them to try and catch up. If that's Sergeant Garnier, than it means the Chinese have been able to successfully keep the ammo dump from going up."
Before Gogol had a chance to reply, the radio in the sergeant's pack began to squawk.
"This is Five, who's calling?" Gogol spoke into the radio.
*This is Six, Five, how goes everything done there?*
It was Parker, and from the sounds of things he was still in the helicopter.
"We've got three wounded men, one seriously, and the Chinese have us zeroed in. They have mortars and are tearing us apart. We've managed to take out the radio outpost but we've been cornered just outside the barracks, our two lines of fire have been unable to establish firing positions and we've got wounded. We might be able to get through, with a little bit of luck."
*Five, do not do anything risky.*
"We don't have much of a choice Six," Gogol said. The sound of a mortar bearing down on them made Gogol scream for everybody to get down. The mortar hit close, maybe a few yards away from their position, and the shrapnel went screaming by.
A few screams echoed out and Gogol slowly shifted into a sitting position, he checked the radio and saw that shrapnel had torn it to shreds, the Russian sergeant holding the radio wasn't in much better condition.
"Everybody alright?" Gogol asked as he did a mental check to see if all of his body parts were still in place.
Corporal Bradley was the first one to speak up. "We've lost Sergeant Garnier sir."
Gogol nodded his head. Everybody that was still able to stand stood up. He did a quick check and he came up short. He checked the bodies on the ground and found that three more men were killed by the mortar. That brought the number of men down to eight, and if the intelligence was right, and it had proven itself to be dead-on so far, then they were facing around sixty or so Chinese. Not very good odds.
"Alright everyone, we're in a bad way here, and unless we do some quick thinking, we'll end up like the others."
The American corporal, Bradley, spoke up.
"Sir, I can take Sergeant Garnier's C4 pack and take out the ammo dumps."
Gogol shook his head. "The ammo dump isn't important right now corporal, we need to get rid of those mortars."
"Oh," Corporal Bradley said. "Well, I can do that too I think."
Gogol looked at him in surprise. "Are you sure corporal?"
Bradley nodded. "I can run fast enough sir, I broke the GI record for the one hundred meter sprint in combat fatigues last year," he said confidently.
Surprising the others, Gogol laughed. "Alright you crazy bastard, grab those explosives and see what you can do, the rest of us will give you some cover fire."
Without any other word, Corporal Bradley grabbed the explosive pack and sprinted around the corner of the barrack housing.
"Team Two; let's let Mr. Bradley break his record shall we?"
===============
Living up to everything he said, Corporal Bradley was within twenty feet of those mortars in less than a minute. Using the scope on a fallen soldier's rifle, Gogol was able to see that the Chinese mortars were not evenly spaced properly, and when Bradley did throw the C4 pack, it would be enough to get rid of them.
Bradley was within ten feet when he was in the position to throw the pack. He did so, but before he could follow through with the toss, a Chinese soldier picked him off, and hit him in the chest from the looks of things. The pack fell about five feet short of the Chinese mortar team, and failed to detonate.
"Oh shit," Gogol said worriedly. "Bradley's down, and the pack didn't go off."
More mortars fell around them, and Gogol had to cover his ear's to fight the concussion blast. Once the nausea passed, Gogol picked up his rifle and, like a true marksmen, aimed down the opening at where the pack fell, and fired.
He missed, but only by a few feet. Adjusting his aim, Gogol fired again. His aim was good, and the round struck the pack. It was enough to cause the explosives to detonate. The roar was thunderous, and it shook the ground from over one hundred yards. The mortars ceased to fall, and the rest of the team began to lay down fire at the remaining Chinese soldiers.
They hadn't been able to eliminate all of them, but at least it was now a simple shoot-out.
===============
Unfortunately, while the intelligence had been correct on all accounts so far, it had failed to pick up that there might be more than one communications room. The Chinese operator was able to place a call to the PLA inside Beijing, and asked for reinforcements, but that would take almost three or four hours to get there. But before he could look for the numbers of any military base closer to them, the phone began to ring.
It was some of the guards at the POW camp just a few miles away, and they said that there was a riot in the cells, and that an American helicopter was landing outside.
The word was passed down the line to the base commander, and he ordered twenty or so men to go deal with the prison camp. The remaining soldiers, thirty-seven men, would finish off the soldiers here.
===============
The pilot of the helicopter was finishing planting the explosives inside when he heard the rumble of a truck. Peering out the canopy, he saw that a flatbed truck with a lot of soldiers in the back was heading off down the road, in the direction of the prison camp. That wasn't good, especially since the mortar rounds that had been falling intensely for the past ten minutes were silent now. Reaching for the radio the lieutenant had left him, the pilot attempted to contact the others, unless they were already dead.
===============
The simpler handset radio's that were issued so each soldier could talk to each other began to squawk, and Gogol had to lay down his rifle to pick it up.
"Go ahead," Gogol said. "This is Five."
*A truck filled with soldiers just left the base and is heading towards the prison camp,* the voice Gogol recognized as the pilot's informed.
"Okay, be advised that we are pulling out. Be ready to blow the ride in less than five minutes," Gogol informed the pilot. He set the radio handset on the ground and turned to the others. "Alright boys, they snuck some guys past us, and they're headed for the prison camp, we need to get out of here on the double."
There was about ten or so soldiers left on the Chinese side, and Gogol was hoping that instead of pursuing, they would stay here and do some damage control.
He gathered the team together and then led them towards the rear of the base, where they had entered.
===============
The pilot blew the helicopter at exactly 1645, local time, and joined the remainder of Team Two, which was double timing it over the hilly roadside to quickly reach the base. It took about twenty minutes for all of them to get into a position where they could see the entire compound, and from what they saw, things were not good.
The POW's were being loaded up in trucks and very quickly being driven out of the prison camp and off to the west. The truck carrying the Chinese soldiers was less than one hundred meters away from the camp when the last of the trucks pulled out and onto the road. Believing that they could relax, the soldiers stopped running and took a relaxed pace, searching for areas where they could effectively eliminate the soldiers in the truck. Gogol however, noticed a jeep with four occupants try and pull out of the parking lot, only to have the truck carrying the soldiers speed up after them.
"We've got friendlies in that jeep!" Gogol announced. "Someone take out the driver of that truck!"
As the soldiers got into firing positions, Gogol saw a Chinese soldier trying to aim a RPG at the jeep. Dropping his binoculars, Gogol swung his rifle around and took aim. The shot was just over two hundred yards, not an easily accomplishable shot. He fired, but hit low and a little late.
The round struck the Chinese soldier in the arm, which must have caused a muscle spasm, and he fired the rocket, the shot was wide, but not wide enough. The jeep was hit and it began flipping end over end off the road.
"Don't let them get out of range!" Gogol shouted, and the other soldiers began firing. Gogol himself decided to aim for the truck itself, and put a few rounds into the front hood of the truck. It did not disable the truck, but it scared the driver, and he panicked, throwing the truck hard to the left, and in effect spilling the occupants in the back out and into the road. The truck was traveling at around sixty-five miles per hour and the soldiers hit hard.
"Move up Team Two!" Gogol shouted. "Eliminate anything that you interpret as an aggressive action."
===============
The last order Gogol had issued had little relevance once they got closer. Nearly all the soldiers were dead, either from hitting the ground at such a speed, or from the shooting of the others earlier on. A few were still alive, though they were in no condition to do much of anything other than moaning and screaming in pain. Gogol had the team check the conditions of the Chinese soldiers and search for anyone that might have escaped.
He grabbed two soldiers and ran towards where the jeep had crashed into the brush. While the snow on the ground was thick, it wouldn't have been very significant in stopping someone falling out of a speeding jeep from being seriously injured when they eventually hit the ground.
As they approached, Gogol could see that a Japanese male, was the closest to the road, but he was most certainly dead. From the position of the crushed scenery, the jeep had rolled right over the place where the body lay, and judging from the lack of rise and fall of the chest, his life was expired. It took Gogol a moment to realize that it was the soldier that he had seen earlier in the war, Ranma. Gogol walked past the body and reached the jeep. The driver, another Japanese male, wearing a soldier's uniform, was alive, though the gravity of his wounds wouldn't allow him to survive for more than a few hours. Shrapnel from the shoulder-fired explosive must have hit him directly, after it tore through the sides of the jeep. His right arm was a bloody mess, simply consisting of torn tissue and bone fragments. Several fragments must have struck him in the neck as well, for there was a distinct sound of air escaping his throat though making a sick gurgling noise as it passed the blood.
Gogol ordered the two soldiers to administer first-aid to the Japanese soldier and then continued on. The next body he came across was very hard to see. The man had very deep scraggly hair, as if he hadn't had a hair-cut in a long time, and he was in deeply stained clothes, most likely of an American tanker. The man was obviously suffering from malnutrition, as he was almost cadaverous in appearance. Leaning down, Gogol could see that he hadn't received any great damage, though he was on death's doorstep as well.
Before he could begin to try and assist the man, a loud groan sounded from a little ways off and Gogol quickly snatched up his rifle and made his way over. It wasn't hard to recognize the soldier, as his large body and very black skin made him easy to identify. His hand shaking uncontrollably, Gogol approached Phil's body and knelt down beside him. Judging from the way his body was twisted, he had struck the tree that he was now lying beside. Gogol couldn't tell, but Phil most likely had suffered a spinal cord injury.
"Phil, can you hear me?" Gogol asked. Parker's eyes opened and he looked at Gogol for a moment before trying to shift his position.
"I can't feel my legs or my arms," Parker announced in a rough voice that was filled with fear.
"Just stay there Phil," Gogol said. "I think you might have hurt your spine when you hit the tree."
"Where are Ranma, and Ryoga?" Parker asked, his voice sounding as though he were more worried about them then the condition that he was in.
Not wanting to tell Phil the truth, Gogol avoided the question. "Just wait there and I'll go get some help." Getting to his feet he quickly marched out of the brush and signaled to the remaining troops by the disabled Chinese truck and motioned for them to come over. He also asked one of the soldiers working on the Japanese soldier in the jeep to go try and find a vehicle in the parking lot of the prison compound and head off to the rendezvous and find the others.
Phil hadn't moved at all since Gogol had left, something that filled him with dread. While it might be that he just simply was in too much pain and the loss of control of his limbs was temporary, Gogol wasn't one to put too much faith in blind hope.
Kneeling down next to him, Gogol talked softly to Phil.
"I've sent a soldier to go track down the others Phil, and then were going to try and hide while we wait for the Navy planes to come," he announced as he began to check Parker's legs for any signs of life. He pushed and prodded but Parker made no response. As he went to check his arms, Parker spoke up.
"How are the others?" Parker asked. It was obvious that he meant the men that were with him in the jeep, but Gogol purposely misunderstood.
"We lost twelve men at the base, but the rest are alright, and if the rest of team two and the POW's made it out of here than there are no more casualties."
Parker craned his neck and looked at Gogol intently. "What about the men that were with me?"
It would be impossible to misinterpret that, so Gogol heaved a sigh and looked down at the snow covered ground. "Ranma's dead Phil, he was crushed when the jeep rolled over him, and he must have hit the ground hard. The driver is most definitely going to die in the next few hours, unless we can somehow get him to a surgeon, which is impossible. The last man, the one that was a POW, might survive, but from what I can tell he probably won't last out the three days."
Parker closed his eyes as he swore sadly. His chest began to heave as the mountain of a man began to weep. Tears ran feely from his eyes and he was unable to wipe them away, as he could still not use his limbs. They had come so far, deep into the heart of the beast, and done everything short of a miracle but it didn't matter. Ranma was dead, along with Ryoga, who had spent half a decade in this desolate place. After everything, none of it mattered, and it was lost.
Suddenly, Parker's expression changed, his look of saddened depression was changed to one of rage.
Goddamn this war anyways! Damn the Chinese! Their greed, along with the Japanese government was enough to cost the lives of all these great men, and was responsible for thousands of other deaths.
"Take me to them," Parker announced suddenly.
"Huh?" Gogol said, surprised that Parker was talking.
"Take me to Ranma and Ryoga, I want to see them for sure, cause there's no way I'm accepting that they're dead till I see them," Parker said. "Drag me if you have to but I need to see them for myself."
Gogol was apprehensive, but ended up dragging Parker to Ryoga's body. He helped Parker to his feet, which did little more than drag behind him, and allowed him to lean heavily on his shoulder. Parker stared at Ryoga with a broken look, like he had just been beaten a thousand times over. The thin Japanese man's body was still, though his chest continued to rise and fall. Parker looked down at the ground and said a few prayers.
"There's no way we can save him?" Parker asked in a hopeless voice.
Gogol shrugged, or did the best he could while carrying Parker's massive weight. "It depends, once the other team gets here, I want a real medic to go over him and see if it's possible to keep him alive until we can get to a Navy ship where he'll be transported to a hospital ship."
Parker nodded sadly. "C-can you take me to see Ranma?"
The sadness portrayed through his voice made Gogol want to hug him to his chest but that wouldn't help anything.
Gogol supported Parker as they moved towards where Ranma's carcass lay. Gogol looked down and saw that Phil's legs were beginning to move with him, a good sign. Gogol was to intent on watching Parker that he walked within a few inches of where Ranma lay.
"Why did we stop?" Parker asked, confused. Gogol looked at him confused and then looked down at where the body was, thinking that maybe Phil couldn't see it. But when he looked down, Ranma was gone.
"What the hell?" Gogol asked in shock as he let Parker fall from his grasp and hit the ground. Phil made a loud curse and looked up at Gogol, annoyed. Gogol paid him no heed and instead trudged out towards the road, where the soldiers had pulled the Japanese soldier from the jeep.
"Where did you put the other body?" Gogol asked. The remaining shoulder looked at him oddly before answering.
"There isn't any out here Lieutenant. The rest of the troops are coming now, if that's what you mean."
Gogol didn't answer and instead walked back into the brush to where he had left Phil. He was about to say something to Parker when he noticed the look on Phil's face. He was staring in absolute shock towards a tree just out of Gogol's field of vision. Approaching cautiously, Gogol noted that the sound of very deep breathing could be heard from just beyond the thick brush. Pushing it aside, Gogol looked in and nearly shouted in surprise.
Leaning against the large tree was Lieutenant Ranma Saotome. His face was a bloody mess, and he was using one arm to keep himself upright, while the other was used to hold his ribs. He smiled wryly at Gogol, and then at Phil.
"What? Don't tell me you thought I'd go yet did ya?
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Author's Notes: I know I know, I'm a horrible person. Gone over two weeks without writing a thing. For those reader's that are just about fed up, I promise that I will not take this long to push the rest of the chapters out, as I'm almost done wrapping everything up. Now that the kids are back at school I'll be able to get some more writing done.
Please give me your opinions, that is, if they're not something that would involve bodily harm to me.