Part 11 – Delayed Departure – Part 4
"He ok," Naruto asked.
Sasuke undid Shino's vest to see the bullet hadn't gone through, "You're good," he said as he helped Shino to his feet, "Kevlar saved your overgrown pale ass."
"Lucky me," Shino said as he zipped his vest back up.
"Let's keep moving," Sai said as he reloaded his MK 14, and swung around his MP7.
"Right behind you," Sasuke said as he followed Sai into the staircase.
As they made their way onto the second floor, the airport went in two directions.
"Clear left," Sai said.
"Clear right," Sasuke said, "Galahad, Gawain, take the left. Percival with me."
Sasuke and Naruto walked up to the offices down the right hallway, when they arrived, Sasuke motioned to the doors on the right.
The first door that Shino walked up to was soon destroyed as one of the goblins opened full-auto with an HK UMP.
As he went to reload, Shino peered through the hole the goblin made in the door, and damn-near tore him in half with a barrage of 7.62 bullets.
The fourth door that Sai opened nearly had his name on it as a single goblin opened fire with a compact, stockless Remington 870 MCS.
The shell missed Sai, and hit the wall next to him, allowing Sai to unload half his MP7 magazine into the green bugger's chest.
The first room that Naruto went to was empty, but the second had two goblins standing in there, opening fire with CAR-15s.
Naruto held his hand out to Sasuke who reached into his pack and tossed him a grenade.
"Frag out," Naruto exclaimed as he tossed the grenade through the door, and slammed it shut.
The goblins tried to take cover, but in a confined space like that, it was no use.
The metal shards inside the grenade are lethal enough as it is, but there is extra damage as the shockwave can break bone and rupture organs.
Naruto defiantly knew the explosion went off because the glass of the door exploded outwards, and he was sure if he so much as pushed on the door, it would have dropped clean off the hinges.
Sasuke threw open the last door and saw a single goblin holding an AK74SU. He pulled the trigger, only to realize he forgot to cock the rifle.
Sasuke simply leveled his MCX at him and emptied the magazine into his tiny body.
Sasuke looked over at Naruto who simply nodded, "Let's head back to Shino and Sai," he said as he dropped the magazine from his rifle, and reloaded.
As the two of them rejoined their two companions, "We've had our own contact," Sai said, "You?"
"Yep," Sasuke said.
"Control tower," Shino said.
"Let's go," Sasuke said.
As they moved up to the door, Sasuke tapped lightly on his helmet, and Shino smashed his foot into the door as Sasuke charged in first to see it led to a staircase.
The team made their way up the stairs to see the control room was empty. There had to be a few there to direct air traffic, so they had to be hiding.
Sasuke motioned the team to throw a grenade into the room.
"Grenade ready," Sai said as he pulled out a single grenade, and gripped the pin.
"On three," Sasuke said as he gripped the knob.
"One," Sai said.
"Two," Sasuke counted.
"Three," Sai exclaimed as Sasuke suddenly pushed the door open as wide as he could, allowing Sai to throw his grenade into the room, and ducked as Sasuke slammed the door shut so hard the handle might as well have come off.
There were several screams as the grenade exploded, and a large dent appeared in the door.
Shino smashed his foot into the door, and the team charged inside, seeing the grenade pretty much destroyed everyone in the room.
There was one still alive, his uniform identified him as Lieutenant-General Gikx Stubtoe: the base commander. He was barely alive, blood oozing from his missing right leg and left arm.
He coughed blood and looked up to see the team entered. Reaching into his side-arm holster, he pulled out his Sig-Sauer P938 that had a gold-plated slide and trigger and aimed at the team.
He didn't have time to fire as Sasuke pulled out his Five-Seven, and fired two rounds into his skull.
"That's it," Sasuke said as he turned to his team, "We did it!"
The team started laughing as they sat back against the consoles, "Command is going to love us for this one," Naruto said.
"Yep," Sasuke said as he reached around to his radio, "TOC, this is Knight 0-1. The castle is ours. Repeat, the castle is ours."
"Roger that Knight 0-1," Rock said, "See you in a bit."
Twelve hours later…
The invasion of the Kandra Republic was what some might consider a success: 7,500 deaths on the Kandra Republic's side. About 150 deaths on the side of the U.S. side.
The first planes that flew into the Kandra Republic flew straight into the airfield and were instantly greeted by Sasuke, Naruto, Shino, and Sai waiting on the side of the tarmac.
As the back gate of the plane that touched down opened, General Jiraiya was the first to step out of the back of the plane.
"General, sir," Sasuke said as the team stood at attention in front of him.
"Hello Knights," Jiraiya said as he ushered for them to stand at ease, "Any problems?"
"Nothing worth mentioning," Sasuke said.
"Good," Jiraiya said, "Now, let's get this base turned into a FOB for us."
Setting up a forward operating base, even using a military building is a challenge, you don't know what software the hostile soldiers were using, if their barracks were livable, or if they left any surprises for the coming forces.
As they were moving their things into the bunk, Jiraiya walked up to them.
"Hello there boys," he said.
"Sir," Sasuke said as the team shot into attention in front of him.
"As you were," Jiraiya said as he ushered the team to get back to work.
"What's the word, boss," Sasuke asked as he placed the mattress on the bed frame the military provided for him.
"Besides the bird," Jiraiya asked, "Command is very pleased with what you've done here."
"That's good," Sasuke said as he fastened his sheets to the mattress.
"But you know the saying," Jiraiya said, "You do something well, and they expect you to do it again."
"They're sending us out again," Sasuke asked as he looked back at his CO.
"Not yet," Jiraiya said as he leaned against the side of the shipping container the army had turned into a small house.
It came complete with all the latest in Army house fashion: four beds for the team (thankfully not made of 2x4s and wood), Wi-Fi, metal floors that'd be freezing cold at night, a door, and a window.
"Not yet," Naruto asked as he placed his pillow onto the bed.
"Right now most of our forces are engaged in minimal fighting on the front lines with the Kandra Republic Army," Jiraiya said, "It seems neither side is willing to make another move, just yet."
"Then we help set up base," Sasuke asked.
"Nope," Jiraiya said.
"Then what are we going to be doing," Sasuke asked.
"Helping our teams plan a move," Jiraiya said as he held out an intelligence file which Naruto walked up to him to see pictures of a train that had been outfitted with artillery cannons and machine guns, "CIA acquired these not two hours after you set off on your operation. KMR 4999, a GE Evolution ES40DC. Runs along the line between Masene and Silulu."
"Almost half the entire country," Sasuke said as he flipped through the pictures, "Not to mention that line runs right through Koras."
"Therein lies the problem," Jiraiya said, "Not only can this beast transverse the entire vertical length of the country, but she can also defend wherever she's at."
Sasuke handed the picture to Sai who examined the weapons they had on board, "155mm howitzers, 23mm anti-aircraft guns, and .30 caliber belt-fed machineguns," he said, "They've been building this bastard for a while now."
"That's what we thought as well," Jiraiya said, "It makes us wonder what else they could be hiding. But we don't have time to worry about that now because we're worried about what would happen if they unleash this on our forces."
"Let me guess," Sasuke said, "Destroying this thing is priority one before continuing."
"To this day I'm still surprised you're not in the Fortune Teller Division," Jiraiya said, "Next thing I hope you'll say is that money will fall from the sky," the team chuckled before Jiraiya continued, "Command wants to see a carefully drawn-up plan for putting this fucking train out of commission for good."
"We're going to need some backup," Sasuke said.
"You have it," Jiraiya said, "Captain Hyūga and Major Guy want a crack at this thing too. The Major has seniority so he has command."
"I have no problem with that," Sasuke said before he pointed to Rock, "He mentored this bastard so we should be able to work together. One question," he held up the picture of the train, "Where is this death machine?"
That evening, the team was gathered in one of the conference rooms that they had cleared earlier with Neji and Guy.
The train was being taken care of in a rail yard the Kandra Republic had converted into a military outpost.
The men at intelligence had set up a 3d model of the rail yard the train was docked at: three tracks that ran directly through the center of the station, barbed wire gates and walls, and possible roaming patrols.
"Lookout towers, anti-aircraft guns, and machine guns," Guy said.
"Oh my," Sasuke said.
"Oh my is right," Neji said, "They've got almost every area covered."
"Only one car through the gates at a time, which requires correct I.D., and I'm sure none of us can sneak through there in a car fit for a goblin," Guy said.
"Can't HALO in because of the searchlights and the anti-aircraft guns," Neji said.
"What about over the wall here," Sasuke asked as he pointed at the east wall, "We can make a helicopter insertion a few miles out, take a few blankets, and law them over the wire."
"Not a terrible idea," Neji said.
"The only question is how do we get out," Guy said.
"We could set a few charges along the outer wall," Neji said, "Blast a hole big enough for us to run out of."
"No, too obvious," Guy said, "They discover the charge, we get caught. And those walls are a foot and a half of concrete and rebar, it'd take too long to set up those charges."
"Then why don't we go with the obvious," Sasuke asked as he pointed at the train, "We're going to blow it up anyway, so why not use it as our escape strategy? We can use the emplacements on the train to defend ourselves if we run into trouble, and if we get far enough away we can make sure they can never use it again."
"I think we can attempt that," Guy said, "Nice thinking there Uchiha."
"The only question is if any of us know how to pilot a train," Neji said.
"I bet Rock could help us with that one," Sasuke said, "The stuff he digs up is like downloading information in the Matrix."
"Then I guess we need to decide on what positions to take up," Guy said.
Back at the bunks…
Shino knew it was past three in the morning back in Chicago, but right about now, he wanted to send a message to his family.
As dialed the phone, he knew no one was going to answer, but when it went to voicemail, he heard the voice he wanted to hear for a while, his daughter.
"Hello, you've reached the Aburame Household," the recorded message said, "We are unable to answer your call, but if you leave your name and number, we'll call you right back. Thank you."
"Hey you two," Shino said, "I know that it's a little late, but I wanted to tell you two that we're doing just fine, and that I miss you two already. Right about now, I know you'll both be off to school and work, but I wanted to leave you a small message. I love you, and I'll see you again when we get home."
How's that…