Lightning Count….again
Athens
In the pre dawn darkness nobody noticed a slight ripple in the black water, even if they had been looking it is unlikely they would ever have spotted the tiny disturbance. From amid the small ripples a tiny black tube emerged, rotating back and forth as if surveying the beaches outside the city. Those locations had been selected for the landings due to be taking place in a couple of hours and they had been well defended with bunkers, obstacles and mines but after the orbital barrage were manned by scratched together units and hasty defences. After waiting out the tidal wave on high ground the SEALS had quickly slipped back into the ocean to survey the area the landing would hit first, all in all it looked promising. The black tube retracted, lowered by the US navy SEAL diver who had been using it. With deft hand signals he ushered his team forward and made for the beach.
Within a few minutes the SEAL team had moved quickly up the beach and into cover of a small outcropping. They dropped their scuba gear and hid it behind a clump of gorse bushes, then proceeded further inland. As they moved simply and silently upwards their leader heard a slight noise, he raised his hand and the group froze instantly, weapons trained ahead.
"Bulldog." A voice whispered from the darkness in plain English.
"Chesty." The SEAL leader replied with the correct counter. He moved forward again and met a second small unit hidden beside a road leading to Athens.
"Commander Nilson, US Navy SEALS." He introduced himself. "Up from beach Blue Alpha."
"Captain Carlisle," an English man replied. "SBS, we arrived on Red Alpha, totally open to attack."
"Ours too." Nilson replied. "The Ion cannon did its job."
"There's still some localised flooding in low lying areas, hopefully enough to mess up enemy logistics and slow their counter attack." Carlisle reported. "We were just heading to the city, want to come along?"
"Sure." Nilson said. "Its our next objective, and we'd like the company."
The two units split up, each one advancing on opposite sides of the main road far enough in the countryside to avoid the infrequent jeep patrols driving along the streets. The lead to the city itself was utterly quiet, with most of the civilians long gone from this bitter warzone. Wreckage of tanks and helicopters spotted the landscape rising like twisted beasts as the sky grew lighter with the approaching dawn, and before them both teams saw the edge of Athens itself.
"Blue to Red." Nilson said simply. "Location achieved."
A click on the radio headpiece signalled the SBS unit was also ready, their mission was strictly reconnaissance, marking targets for the approaching GDI army and the orbital network, a squadron of 302's was waiting for Nilsons orders if he found anything worth bombing. Gazing through his night vision goggles he might have found just the thing.
"Blue team to Philly command, come in."
after a brief pause the message was returned.
"Philadelphia station responding, go ahead Blue team."
"Target located, artillery bunker at grid 365 by 731."
"Aligning satellite now." The voice said. After a minute or two it spoke again. "Blue team, sat pictures show a large rock formation above the target, its unlikely our bombs will penetrate, and we don't want to try an Ion cannon blast so close to the city."
"I strongly recommend action is taken." Nilson said firmly. "the landing is just a few minutes away."
"Affirmitive, we've passed data on to GDI ground forces, an assault company will deal with it. Continue to observe enemy positions."
The message ended leaving Nilson far from happy.
"Commander, sir we can't leave those guns alone." His second, Lieutenant Dash spoke. "They can hit the landing beaches from there."
"I agree, but I don't know if we have the firepower to take them out."
"Between us and the Brits, we got a chance." Dash said. "I say nail 'em."
Nilson nodded, sitting back didn't match his code, he wasn't prepared to sit back while his comrades were killed by un-hittable guns. His job was to ensure the safety of the landings, and that's what he would do.
"Okay, tell Captain Carlisle, we don't need to destroy them just keep them busy while the invasion lands." Nilson rattled off quickly. "Get the C4 ready, we'll try and disable the guns then pull back using the landings as cover. Questions?"
There were none, just seven sets of determined eyes in the darkness.
They moved without sound, not a word or a breath audible in the lifting darkness. Nilson brought the SEAL team to what appeared to be the door to the NOD complex hewn from the rock itself, within its stronghold was a battery of guns unlike any he had seen before and with coverage of the approaches to the city, a location soon to be filled with the new GDI war machines coming in on assault. Nilson signalled Lieutenant Dash with a short chopping motion of his hand, and a moment later the man disappeared from sight.
Nilson kept his eyes on the door, a sentry stood looking out towards the main road into the city clearly expecting the fighting to start any moment, which of course it would. The sentry completely failed to notice the black shadow of Lieutenant Dash engulfing him with silent precision and leaving the body out of sight. The rest of the team came down from their vantage point and gathered quietly around the door.
"Looks solid." Dash said. "I don't see us picking the lock."
"The assault will be here any minute," Nilson said. "We can't mess around, blow it."
A specialist took a small slab of C4 and placed it at the hinges of the door, then retreated to cover with the rest of his team. The explosion was quieter than expected, but the massive clank as the door hit the ground must have alerted the entire facility.
"Go fast, stay loose and don't waste your ammo." Nilson said. "We hit the guns and leave, and watch out for the Brits."
He clicked his M8 carbines safety to off, then headed for the door. Using a small periscope he peered around the corner, noticing movement further down the corridor, an ambush being set up. With a few hand signals he had two of his team take handgrenades and prime them, they hurled the grenades into the corridor, bouncing them off the wall so they rolled exactly where the enemy was. The two explosions echoed in the corridor and filled it with smoke, Nilson ran around the corner charging headlong down the corridor and not giving the enemy time to recover. He slid to a halt at the end of the corridor, carbine scanning the passageway beyond, beside him were four broken bodies the grenades had killed.
"Clear." He called. "Move by pairs, fast."
The navy men swept forward, proceeding quickly and quietly deeper into the facility. A door opened ahead and a NOD soldier stepped out to investigate the explosion, he rapidly collapsed as the SEALS fired on the move and kept going, pausing briefly to look at the room he had exited.
"Keep moving, take the left tunnel." Nilson ordered and sprinted off, his men close beside. The base was just beginning to realise that something was wrong, that the expected attack wasn't coming from the sea but from within. Another group of NOD troops blundered into the path of the SEALS, and were likewise gunned down. Finally the alarms began to sound as someone heard the gunfire.
"Keep going!" Nilson said, with secrecy no longer needed it was speed which counted.
He turned a corner and found himself face to face with a sentry stood beside another thick steel door, this time much wider than the exterior one they came through. With a sarp kick he doubled the NOD guard over and brought the stock of his carbine down on the enemy soldiers neck before turning to his specialist and gesturing for him to rig the door with more C4. with a few rapid movements the door was primed and once again the team took cover.
This time the door exploded inwards with shaking force, the heavy metal screeching across the stone floor and falling backwards on top of a few unlucky NOD troopers. The SEALS raced in, blasting automatic fire into the large cavern which contained the three NOD guns, as Nilson had guessed.
The clatter of spent rounds rang in the cavern, the bursts of fire tremendously loud in the confined environment. The NOD troops were responding but dazed by the exploding door and sudden attack they weren't serious opposition for the crack US troops, and were quickly removed.
"Dash, get these guns rigged." Nilson shouted. "Manny, cover the door!"
The team ran to secure the area, setting up on either side of the ruined door while Dash and the demolision expert rigged the NOD heavy guns.
"I guess they're laser based weapons." Dash said. "More compact then I expected, but the gauges say they've got some serious poential."
"All they are now is Potential scrap." Nilson said. "Hurry it up, let the tech boys sift the wreckage later and find out what they are."
One of the team opened fire, dropping a NOD soldier who ran around the corner.
"I think they found us." He said.
More NOD soldiers arrived and began firing, the bullets hitting stone and metal as the SEALS returned fire with far better accuracy, dropping two more hostiles.
"There's our primary escape route sealed." Manny said.
"So we find an alternate." Nilson replied, "And if not we make sure those terrorist scumbags do not get their hands on these weapons, everyone clear on that?"
A chorus of affirmative grunts answered him.
"Good, now shoot anything that moves and let me worry about getting us out." So lets get it on."