"EXTRACTION"

BY: Fenris Wulf

The guard never saw him coming. Tanistal's hand clamped over the sentry's mouth without the slightest warning. The long-bladed fighting knife entered his back, between his third and fourth rib, and pierced the victim's lung. Robbed of his ability to yell for help, the guard could only struggle futilely and then go limp. Tanistal's reward for the silent dispatching of the guard was a soft hissing of the guard's last breath through the knife wound, and slight spray of blood that covered his hand and the knife's hilt. Tanistal laid the dead guard in the high foliage at his feet, and then the young soldier disappeared into the underbrush.

"Damn," thought Fenris, "That kid's good. I think I will request his transfer...definitely."

He looked a Bravo, and Bravo also smiled at a job exceptionally done.

The Team had crossed the five miles to the terrorist camp without incident. Eagle-eyed Aidan Pryde had picked up the look-out on the scope of his gauss sniper rifle, and Tanistal had volunteered for "Sentry-Removal." He had done an excellent job, and now the path was clear to the camp's perimeter, less than 200 meters ahead.

Quietly Fenris addressed the group on their secure channel communicators.

"Alright Team. Bravo and I are the Extraction Team. Tanistal, Aidan, and
Bear you are the Distraction Team. You have authorization to use any
means necessary to neutralize the enemy. These guys all go down, understood? Bear, you wait till you receive the all clear signal or Bravo and I go "Flat Line," either way, you blow those satchel charges, and you haul ass to nav-point Omega. Understood? Check your Chronometers."

Each member of the unit has a special chronometer that read the pulse of the wearer and transmitted it to a small digital display on the other
chronometers worn by the unit. The display was simple.

Green signaled a pulse or living comrade.
Yellow meant that the chronometer was no longer attached to the wearer.
Red meant the wearer had flat-lined. Death.

Bravo and Fenris did a final weapons check and handed their assault rifles to Aidan and Tanistal. The each drew bolt pistols and attached silencers to them. Tanistal, Aidan, and Bear, all nodded and silently wished Bravo and Fenris luck, and disappeared into the brush. Fenris and Bravo moved silently forward to the enemy camp.

When the Extraction Team neared the perimeter of the camp, they found a good spot to lay low until the sun dipped below the horizon. Dusk, the second best time to initiate an attack; Tanistal and the Distraction Team would wait until the signal from Fenris before beginning their assault, and the signal wouldn't be given until Fenris and Bravo were in position. Fenris and Bravo crept silently forward reaching an acceptable position Fenris had spied early.

From the vantage point on a small hill above the camp, Fenris & Co. surveyed the situation. Ten or so small, crudely constructed cabins made up the makeshift Terrorist Base. A liquid fuel truck, two light armored APCs and a Donar VTOL on a plank heli-pad were the total assets they could count. Fenris watched the Terrorists move from building to building. They seemed to mill about without much purpose. They were obviously green, and untrained. He wondered if there would be any resistance at all.

He spotted one building near the perimeter of the camp that no one seemed to enter or exit from. The only person he saw near it was a woman carrying a metal plate of food, and a rifle slung over her shoulder. Gotcha! He quietly tapped Bravo on the shoulder.

"That one there." He said pointing at the shack. "That's our target." Bravo and Fenris moved into the camp's perimeter.

Bravo nodded and moved behind Fenris. When the door opened and the woman was admitted inside. Fenris moved quietly but quickly down toward the Shack. Dropping to one knee, Fenris drew his fighting knife, and used the blade to mirror around the corner. He could see no enemy personnel. He set a satchel charge under the edge of the building and armed it. Bravo armed his as well, and threw it under another building more than 30 meters away. Fenris watched the 20 pound satchel sail on target. He just smiled and shook his head at the display of strength. He wonder why Bravo had chosen to be a Merc instead of a Lazer Ball Star on Solaris...but he shook off his thoughts and he focused his attention back to the task at hand.

The target building lacked windows, and no one was in sight when Fenris heard the door open again. The sounds of loud talking poured into the night. It sounded like questioning, and the moaning of someone in pain. When he heard the door to the shack open, he quickly rounded the corner and grabbed the woman who had just exited the shack as the door closed behind her.

He clamped his hand over her mouth, and she gave off a bit of a muted scream, so Fenris reached over her back and punched her hard in the stomach. With the wind knocked out of her she stopped trying to scream, and struggled to breathe. Fenris kept his hand over her mouth.

"Don't scream! We are here for the Hostage. If you stay quiet, and
cooperate, you get to live. Otherwise you will die. Understand?" To punctuate his sentence he brought up his knife and held it in front of her face, and then put its point to her chin. She jumped a bit with the cold steel point touched her neck.

She seethed against Fenris' gloved hand, her breath coming deeper now. She reeked of anger and indignation, but she was no idealistic idiot. She nodded that she understood.

"How many men are inside? Show me on your fingers." Fenris asked again, whispering in her ear. It was filthy and unwashed, and she smelt of gunpowder and chemicals.

She held up four fingers. Fenris wasn't sure if he could trust her or not, at
least four men. This wouldn't be easy in such cramped quarters with that many men, and he could not risk drawing them out. Fenris held out his free hand to Bravo, who placed a "Stunner" in his hand. He again hissed in her ear.

"Is the hostage inside?"

She nodded, Yes.

"Congratulations, you get to live." He released her while simultaneously
triggering the stunner under the base of her skull. Instantly she was
rendered unconscious, and fell to the ground in a heap. Fenris had a hard time killing an unarmed or helpless opponent, regardless of gender, but then again, morals didn't line your pockets.

Fenris motioned to Bravo, and whispered into his headset.

"4 or 5 men at least." Fenris looked at Bravo.

Bravo shook his head, he knew, as well as Fenris, that one of them would have to go in alone. Two shooters was one too many in that tight of a confine.

"Bravo. You will go in first. In tight quarters only one of us can go in at a time. It has to be fast and it has to be quiet. Do your worst, and protect the hostage." Bravo would go in first, it was the right decision. Pete dwarfed Fenris in size, and was better in close quarters combat than Fenris. He hated to put somone in his command in harms way when he could do it himself, but this was the right call for this situation.

"You got it Skipper. I'm your man." Bravo said, his tenor and tone made
Fenris feel better. Confidence was one thing that Bravo was never short of. Bravo peeked again around the corner, and went to the door, gun drawn. He then knocked on the door, and raised his Pistol to eye level. The second the door opened, Fenris saw Bravo pull the trigger on his pistol shooting, point blank, the guard who answered the door. The muffled chirp of the silenced pistol sounded incredibly loud to Fenris.

Bravo didn't hesitate and shouldered his way into the shack. Fenris heard the gun fire two more times in rapid succession, and then heard the sound of a struggle. Fenris rushed around the corner and bounded up the steps and through the door into the shack to see Bravo struggling with another man, nearly a foot taller than the hulking Bravo. Bravo slipped from the man's bear-hug, turned and with a vice-like grip on his opponent's jaw, he rammed the back of the terrorist's head into the wall of the shack, splintering the wood. Fenris had barely heard the knife leave its sheath, before he saw Bravo slip it beneath the man's jaw, and into his brain. He was dead before he hit the floor. He took note that Bravo did not retrieve his fighting knife... as Fenris remembered, he never did.

Fenris quickly closed the door, and looked around. A thin, man of Latin
heritage sat wide-eyed tied to a chair. He was wearing the torn remnants of a set of pajamas, and had his mouth taped shut. He looked like he had been beaten and tortured. He didn't know how much he had told, but Fenris doubted that the Terrorists had been interested or even aware of the NOC lists existence.

"Major Fernando Velasquez?" Fenris asked authoritatively.

The man nodded, and mumbled against the tape over his mouth.

"Stay quiet, we are here to get you out." He cut the man's bonds, and let
him stand. "I'm going top remove the tape from your mouth, but you have to stay quiet. Understand?"

The man nodded yes.

"Do as we say and we get to leave this camp alive. Jeopardize me, or my men, and you will be left behind? Understand that?"

The man nodded again, yes.

Fenris removed the tape from the man's mouth.

He followed Fenris' instructions, and spoke quietly in a thick Latin accent, "Thank goodness you are here! They were going to kill me."

"I doubt that," Fenris said motioning at the food, as he passed by the table on his way to the door, he cracked the door and looked for any signs of disturbance. "They were feeding you. You don't feed someone you are going to kill. Most likely you were going to be ransomed off to the highest bidder." Fenris said without the slightest hint of sympathy.

"Well, thank you for rescuing me." Major Velasquez said, regaining a bit of his confidence. "The republic will surely be thankful for my return."

"Most Assuredly" Bravo mumbled, rolling his eyes away from Velasquez.

Fenris pressed his headset to his ear. "Distraction team, take out the fuel truck now."

Seconds later an explosion rocked the camp as the fuel truck was struck by rocket propelled ordinance. Instantly the camp was awash in burning fuel and chaos.

"Let's Roll." Bravo said as he opened the door and the three ran out of the shack and into the jungle's darkness, serenaded by the sound of staccato gunfire and explosions. Fenris stopped and grabbed the back of the woman's shirt. "I said you would live," as he dragged her into the jungle behind him, and dropped her after about 50 feet behind some fallen logs. He then keys his headset.

"Bear... Satchel charges are set, light up the night."

Again within a few seconds the two satchel charges blew the two buildings to pieces, and send wood and bodies hurtling skyward.

"Fall back to Nav-point omega, full speed."

Fenris turned to Velasquez, who stood in shock as the camp was burned and blasted from the jungle floor. "If you are done watching the fireworks, it is time to go, Major."

"Yes...I'm done," he muttered and began to follow Bravo into the jungle
night.

Fenris smirked to himself and whispered under his breath. "Yes, you are done. You just don't know it yet."