Saturday, June 24th, 2017
Northern Mali
19:08 GMT+2 (17:08 GMT June 24th)
Sierra Alpha & Sierra Bravo
The onslaught was mainly from the air as two helicopters swept in and fired off unguided rockets which narrowly missed most of the fleeing vehicles.
Bravo Four with Jackal at the wheel was struck by a projectile on the right rear door, blasting apart the storage compartment and sending gallons of diesel splashing onto the sands below along with one full and one empty box of M2 Browning ammunition. The ammo boxes absorbed most of the blast, but the shock of the explosion had Wildcat and Psyche reeling in pain as the concussive wave passed over them. Above, in the turret, Trojan felt bits of shrapnel strike his helmet and the roof of the LSV as he glanced down briefly before he re-aimed his M2 and sent a torrent of death after one of the helicopters. At the same time, Foxtail, in the turret of Alpha Four sent a coinciding burst of 7.62-millimetre bullets pounding into the helicopter which promptly shuddered in the air before exploding, the fiery wreckage plunging to the desert below ahead of Alpha Two. La Coccinelle cringed as the fiery rain of fuel and bits of wreckage crashed down ahead of her. She jinked the wheel over to the right, dodging the closest items, the massive wheels easily crushing the burning fuel into the sand as the convoy pushed through into the darkness beyond.
As Hit Girl looked on from Bravo Three, she was horrified to find the Axis of Evil forces closing in and cutting Sierra Alpha off from assisting Sierra Bravo. Her own vehicle was taking a pounding and she knew that, inevitably, they would have to break off.
"We have no choice, Hit Girl," Jackal stated for the record over the comms.
"But we can't just abandon them!" Hit Girl responded acidly.
"We're almost back to the fort," Astute responded. "If we can shake them on the approach, we can barricade ourselves inside. That should give them pause as we can bring our heavy weapons to bear."
"But without our support...," Hit Girl countered.
"You need time to regroup and sort yourselves out," Astute persisted. "Then you can come for us."
"He's right, Hit Girl," Kick-Ass noted.
"Goddamn it!" Hit Girl exclaimed. "I . . . FUCK!"
"Good luck, Astute, we'll come after you in the morning," Kick-Ass said. "We've bitten off more than we can chew on, right now, so we need to back off and figure out a new strategic plan. You onboard, Hit Girl?"
"Yes, dammit!"
For Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, it was the hardest thing they had ever done; the hardest decision that they had ever made.
"Sierra Bravo: break off. Repeat, Sierra Bravo: break off," Kick-Ass ordered.
Nobody liked it, but it was the realism of the situation. Sierra Bravo turned to the west, away from Sierra Alpha. It was heart wrenching to abandon their colleagues in their time of need, but there was no choice. They were in a war, so losing a battle was acceptable, if it served the cause and ultimately won the war. Sierra Alpha had an abundance of skills to rely on, and Hit Girl knew that they could survive. However, at the forefront of her mind, as she drove into the foreboding darkness, was her son who she had just abandoned to his fate. She felt the hot tears on her cheeks as she thought of him and the others she was seemingly abandoning. In the other LSV, Psyche was enduring the same turmoil. Her brother was going to suffer; she knew that. Her own tears were flooding down her cheeks as she thought about her friends in the other strike team: Saoirse, Abigail, Tommy – all were being abandoned to their fate. The youngster knew that that was not true, but it was how she felt. Wildcat could feel her niece's torment but she could do nothing as they both sat strapped into their seats, heading for safety.
Kick-Ass knew how much the decision had hurt his wife, but it had been a mutual decision and while difficult to digest, and the hardest decision either of them had ever made, it had also been the correct decision.
19:08 GMT+2 (17:08 GMT June 24th)
Bravo Two: Leon & Songbird
Songbird had been scared out of her wits, expecting a bullet to cut through her body and kill her, only that did not happen.
Leon strode forwards from the direction of her perch, and she surveyed the results of her single bullet. The massive .338-calibre Lapua bullet had taken both men down, passing directly through both chests, shredding the internal organs and blasting them out the back of each body. The quite significant mess of blood, body parts, and internal organs was strewn across the sandstone.
"You messy bitch!" Songbird grinned.
"You're welcome, honey."
The pair stepped around the shattered corpses and they gathered their equipment before they drove off at speed into the darkness.
19:19 GMT+2 (17:19 GMT June 24th)
Sierra Bravo
Things were steadily going from bad to worse.
Bravo One had manged to slip, partially, into a sand trap and was unable to obtain enough traction to escape. Bravo Three moved ahead to keep watch and to rendezvous with Bravo Two. While Kick-Ass attempted to manoeuvre the giant six-wheeled Mercedes truck, Jackal, Stripe and Nox were busy digging in sand matting in an effort to increase the truck's traction. However, it was not going well, and to top things off, they soon came under attack.
"Inbound!" Intrepid called from the turret of Bravo Three, three hundred yards away.
The rattle of the M2 Browning began again as Trojan opened fire on the inbound helicopter.
..._...
Hit Girl was listening in on the radio conversation, eager to get moving.
The helicopter attack had been very unwelcome, if not unexpected, and they dealt with it accordingly with a vicious defence. The tracer rounds caused streaks of green to lance into the night sky like lasers. The show of force caused the helicopter to think twice and it backed off, meaning that its rockets proved very inaccurate. However, inaccurate, they may have been, they were still dangerous and very unwelcome. Two struck close together, beside the Mercedes G63, blasting sand into the air while the concussion wave shoved the giant truck forward enough that the six-wheel-drive was able to finally find purchase and the four-tonne truck shot forwards out of the sand trap. The blast, however, did more, catching Jackal and Nox unawares and sending the pair rolling down a steep sand dune. Psyche and Rigour tried to go after the pair, but they were beaten back by machinegun fire from the marauding helicopter.
"Get out of here, all of you!" Jackal ordered over the comms. "We'll follow – Stripe, take Bravo Four, now move!"
Stripe followed orders and jumped into the driving seat of Bravo Four, yelling for Psyche to get in. Rigour ran over to the Mercedes and climbed aboard. Both vehicles moved off in the direction of Hit Girl and Bravo Three. It took a few moments for Hit Girl to understand the flurry of radio calls and put them into context. Then she felt anger building inside of her.
"Jackal, report!" she called over the comms.
"Hello, Hit Girl," Jackal's distinctive voice responded. "Me and Nox, well we fell down a sand dune."
"Fucking idiot!" Hit Girl responded. "We'll come back for you."
There was a pause – a long pause.
"Er, I would not recommend that – we have company, down here – just go; we'll be good. We're destroying our secrets now. Jackal and Nox, out!"
"Goddamn it!" Hit Girl exploded as she used all her willpower to keep heading out and away from Jackal and Nox.
The remaining members of Sierra Bravo headed out into the desert, far from any form of civilisation.
19:39 GMT+2 (17:39 GMT June 24th)
Sierra Alpha & Sierra Echo
Everyone in Sierra Alpha was struggling, as they threw everything they had at their enemy.
However, it was with mixed relief that they approached the abandoned fort. Sierra Echo had rejoined them after having bypassed the damaged section of their turbine, which limited the helicopter to just sixty per cent of its rated power, but at least they were airborne and therefore they could provide much-needed support to their beleaguered colleagues below. With only a single operating weapon, the support was more limited than before, but Obsidian angrily poured death down on the Axis of Evil fighters below her. The airborne distraction allowed Sierra Alpha to finally gain the safety of the fort. Naturally, they had left defences in place around the fort and these were armed as the final vehicle passed through. Thus, two HMMWVs bit the dust as they triggered a succession of Claymore mines entrenched along the main approach road to the fort. Very wisely, the attackers decided to withdraw, and they were watched as they moved off about eight kilometres to set up camp for the night.
With their duty done, and extremely low on fuel, Sierra Echo turned southwest and headed into the desert.
Ten kilometres to the
west of Desert Base
20:08 GMT+2 (18:08 GMT June 24th)
Sierra Bravo
To say that Mindy was unhappy, was a major understatement.
From the very moment they had laagered the vehicles in a protective wadi which allowed all their vehicles to be kept out of site in a space of about two acres. Bravo Two had rejoined them and Mathilda was directing Craig and Owen to deploy a string of Claymore mines and other security devices in two concentric rings around their position. Stephanie had tried to speak with her mother, but Mindy's angry glare had sent the young eleven-year-old scurrying for safety. Dave just left his wife to her anger while he and Stephanie ensured that they were secure. Once Sierra Echo arrived, Willow dropped the helicopter down inside the security perimeter close to a stack of barrels containing aviation fuel (which Dave had recovered from a dump three kilometres distant) and Charlotte treated Freya's wound, along with that of Ruth. Yvette and Electra went about dishing out rations to everyone, including two litres of water each. Ruth was very upset to learn of Eva's disappearance, but she knew that her friend could look after herself. Finally, Megan went up to Mindy. The glare was anything but friendly.
"You need to eat," Megan stated, passing over Mindy's allocation of rations, and two one-litre bottles of water. "Sit down and rest."
Mindy looked like she was about to launch at Megan, but then she forced a smile and she sat down next to Dave.
"Thank you, Megan."
"We share your worries," Megan pointed out. "Don't try to shoulder everything; you have us useless wankers to shoulder some of the burden."
"For the record," Owen commented. "I'm not a useless wanker – I'm quite a good wanker."
"I can vouch for that," Yvette confirmed. "He's always 'at it'!"
There was general laughter and Mindy even found herself laughing. Owen was a clown, just like Joshua, Mindy thought with a chuckle.
Oh, Joshua, where are you?
Axis of Evil Facility
Northern Mali
20:08 GMT+2 (18:08 GMT June 24th)
Jackal and Nox
It had taken just forty seconds to pull out their comms gear from their webbing and pull the red plastic tab embedded into the back of the devices.
With a dark resignation, both threw the already smouldering devices onto the sand where they burst into high-intensity flames which rapidly melted the SD card and encryption electronics within the communications unit. Another thirty seconds and the smouldering blobs of plastic which had once been communications units were joined by equally smouldering packages containing encryption codes, a spare SD card, and certain other confidential items. By the time the Axis of Evil soldiers had surrounded them, everything of intelligence value was burnt and smouldering on the sand beside their weapons.
Joshua and Eva knelt down on the sand, their hands on their heads. There was no need to openly antagonise the enemy - at least not for the moment, Joshua reasoned. As far as he was concerned, if the men and women with guns were surrounding him and Eva, they were not chasing after the two strike teams. It was not the first time Eva had been captured, so she went along with Joshua's suggestion to behave – somewhat reluctantly, of course. However, the enemy were not so friendly, and both of them were very roughly searched before the enemy then secured their prisoners' hands with rigid plastic handcuffs and threw them into the back of a HMMWV. Not surprisingly, the pair were driven directly towards the massive facility adorned with many dazzling lights.
Before they could see much, black hoods were dropped over their eyes.
Desert Base
20:28 GMT+2 (18:28 GMT June 24th)
Sierra Alpha
They were all but staggering as they quite literally fell out of their vehicles.
The exhaustion and horror of what they had endured was plainly evident on every face. But they were all professionals, so they pushed on, knowing that they had to secure the fort and await an attack. Spare weapons were removed from the Toyota Landcruiser which they had left behind that very morning – oh, so long ago – and heavy weapons were mounted atop the crenelated walls along with caches of small arms and ammunition, including hand grenades and their three forty-millimetre grenade launchers. Their defensive armament was woefully inadequate for defence of the fort, but it was all they had, and it would have to do. Nobody slept in the barracks – everyone was posted around the fort's crenelated walls and several were put on watch. There were fifteen to man and defend a fort normally manned and defended by over a hundred men. Rations were dished out, as was water. Finally, those not on watch settled down to a restless sleep.
Patrick and Chloe took the first watch while Abby, Marinette, and Cassie slept. Amber was worried and she was found by Lucy, pacing up and down the former parade ground. Lucy pulled Amber off to one side, towards the former magazine and the pair sat down to talk. As they did so, Lucy recalled the clandestine meeting with Mindy aboard THE PHOENIX.
It seemed like an age ago, she thought.
A few days earlier...
14:12 GMT-6 (20:12 GMT June 6th)
The Phoenix
Lucy was lounging in her seat, in the forward seating area as the giant jetliner crossed the North Atlantic Ocean.
"May I have a word?" a voice asked, making Lucy jump.
"Fucking hell!" Lucy exploded. "I mean it; I am going to put a bell on you!"
Megan, who was passing by, burst out laughing as Mindy glowered at Lucy. Then Mindy's glower turned into an evil grin.
"You going to put the bell on a cute little kitty collar like Megan wears for sex?" Mindy asked conversationally.
Megan's mouth dropped open as her face turned a rather nice shade of vermilion. Then the girl vanished aft as fast as her feet could take her. Lucy laughed out loud at Megan's embarrassment before she grinned up at Mindy.
"You always know how to make an entrance, Mindy!"
"Yes, I do," Mindy grinned back. "Now, I have something highly confidential to discuss with you. Aft, if we can."
Lucy frowned as she saw Mindy's expression turn deadly serious.
"It concerns Amber Dawson," Mindy began as the pair were sealed up in the tail cone.
Desert Base
23:00 GMT+2 (21:00 GMT June 24th)
Sierra Alpha
Cassie was appalled by what was happening.
Everyone was in a bad way, fear and exhaustion etched on the sleeping faces. Almost without exception, the Predators amongst them slept with a weapon clasped to their bodies. No one was more than a foot from a weapon, just in case of a surprise attack. Sleep was critical – for without it, they stood no chance of fighting off the expected heavy force. Cassie was in no illusion that they were in for some nasty shit, most probably at dawn. There were already injuries.
"You, okay, Dakota?" Cassie asked as she found the young girl curled up on the wooden battlement.
"Hi, Cassie," the fifteen-year-old responded as she sat up, clutching a G36 assault rifle.
"How's the wound?"
"Very sore," Dakota admitted. "But I can live with it."
"Okay, get some sleep, honey."
Cassie continued on her rounds, checking in on everyone. She found Abigail and Jamie together, fast asleep in a corner of the southwest corner, both hugging assault rifles. Looking down at the pair, Cassie thought back to her own three children, two of whom were safe while the third was twenty feet or more above her in the watchtower, standing in harm's way, watching out for the enemy. It was not the first time since the current Vengeance escapade had begun that she had worried about ever seeing her family together again. She missed her husband, but she missed her two girls more than anything, and they were over thirteen-hundred kilometres away, to the southwest.
Would she ever see them again?
Thirteen-hundred nautical kilometres
to the southwest of Desert Base
Modibo Keita International Airport
23:45 GMT+2 (21:45 GMT June 24th)
THE PHOENIX
The mood aboard was sombre.
The eighteen passengers and eight crew all knew what was going on in the deserts of northern Mali. None more than those with relatives and friends who were now standing in harm's way. Danny, Anne-Marie, Becky, Iain, Annabelle, Kaitlin, and Naomi were all miserable. They sat together for mutual support under the watchful eyes of Andrew, Rachel, and Jennifer. The normal steely resolve had melted away to tears and worry, but together, Rachel and Jennifer had brought the young children back to their steely resolve as there was still plenty of work to be done – emotions could wait. Marty and Hailee were busy in the command centre combing through the massive amount of information gleaned from the reconnaissance and the attack on the strike teams.
They were both burning the proverbial midnight oil, and they would do so for as long as it was required, and for as long as their friends were in danger.
Ten kilometres to the
west of Desert Base
23:48 GMT+2 (21:48 GMT June 24th)
Sierra Bravo
They were just as shattered as the other strike team.
Only, they had no safe haven, so they had no choice but to sleep beneath their vehicles, using the residual heat from their engines and exhausts to keep them warm as the temperature continued to fall. Stephanie, fretting about Jamie and Abigail, huddled into Mindy beneath the Mercedes truck engine, neither of them wanting to sleep, but eventually, they each drifted off into a fitful sleep pending the dawn. Dave remained on watch for most of the night, guarding his family and friends. Willow had spent a good two hours with Freya and Mathilda diagnosing and fixing some of the damaged systems on the Bell helicopter with the remote assistance of Marty.
Finally, the seventeen-year-old pilot had collapsed into a heap on the floor of her helicopter cabin, totally exhausted, and she fell asleep almost instantly.
Exceedingly early, the following morning...
Sunday, June 25th
Desert Base
05:31 GMT+2 (03:31 GMT June 25th)
Sierra Alpha
They came at dawn.
They also died at dawn as two concealed Claymore mines were tripped a hundred yards out, to the south and to the west. The darkness was lit up by two blinding white flashes and the night was torn apart by the pair of devastating explosions mixed in with the screaming of human beings as they were ripped limb from limb. The defences of the fort had been ready since 05:00, but nobody showed themselves as five men were turned into fresh mincemeat. However, there were some choice, but decidedly crude, comments concerning the recently deceased.
"Fucking hamburger for breakfast!" Fury snickered as she sat below the crenelated wall next to a forty-millimetre grenade launcher.
"Those ball bearings from the Claymores will play havoc with your teeth," Arbiter responded. "We'd have to pick 'em out before eating the bastards."
"Fucking Predators!" Shadow muttered as she overheard the crude banter. "Stand ready!"
Up in the watchtower, seventy feet above the fort, Nemesis and Splinter looked out into the no man's land of booby traps which surrounded the fort. Both knew that they could not fight off the enemy forever, but they were determined to make the enemy pay, in blood, for every foot of sand they captured and every part of the fort they overran. If all went well, the other strike team would be able to turn the tide, but that could be a while away they knew.
"You ready?" Nemesis asked the boy.
"Of course," Splinter grinned as he cocked the M4A1 carbine which he held in his hands. "Those fucking cocksuckers are going down!" he added as he peered through the night scope attached to the top of the rifle.
"How far?"
"They should be reaching the inner array in about twenty metres, then we get to have some fun."
The inner array was a nasty array of detcord, grenades, and Claymore mines providing the inner layer of defences, about thirty metres out from the main walls, and just outside of the smaller, collapsed outer walls. It was the last opportunity to cause some more death and destruction before the enemy reached the main walls of the fort. Until that inner array was breached, no one was going to expend a single round of ammunition of which they did not have all that many rounds to spare – every round had to count. After the outer array had killed those five men, the approaching forces had slowed their approach and they were awaiting the dawn.
Any surprise was long gone, so caution was safer for the Axis of Evil attackers.
Axis of Evil Facility
Northern Mali
Joshua & Eva
The past eight hours had been hell on earth for the pair of them.
The first either had seen of their surroundings had been when they had been hauled into a concrete-walled cell and dumped onto a concrete floor. They had been stripped of their boots, their socks, their jackets, and all of their equipment, before barefoot and wearing just their shirts and trousers, they were then dragged down a corridor before both were subjected to a concentrated beating with boots and fists. Joshua found himself thrown into a cell. He looked around, seeing just bare concrete walls, then he found Eva landing on the floor beside him. Eva screamed as she landed, wincing with the pain, and rolled into Joshua. The steel cell door was slammed shut and they were left on their own beneath the harsh glare of an embedded light fitting in the concrete ceiling. That the facility had prison cells was slightly worrying and somewhat disturbing.
"I'm okay. I'm okay," Eva said as she sat up, rubbing her right thigh.
"I think we upset somebody," Joshua commented dryly.
"They were Russians," Eva stated.
"I noticed," Joshua replied darkly. "Their tender touch and warm welcome were most memorable."
Eva grinned; her face bruised on the left side. "What do we do?" she asked.
"Well, we aren't going anywhere, so, I am going to get some rest."
Eva was stunned to see Joshua simply lie back on the floor, put his arms behind his head and then close his eyes.
Axis of Evil Facility
05:45 GMT+2 (03:45 GMT June 25th)
Joshua & Eva
Eva was shaken from her sleep by the sound of the cell door being unlocked and pulled open.
The girl looked up to see a Russian soldier glaring down at her. Before she could do anything, a large hand reached down, grasped her shirt, and yanked her to her feet. Out the corner of her eye, she could see Joshua jumping to his feet and moving towards her. He was intercepted by another Russian soldier and both were led out of their cells and down several concrete corridors before they were pushed into an elevator. Strangely, one of the soldiers simply leaned in and punched the '8' button before he stepped back and allowed the elevator doors to close.
"Are we being set free?" Eva asked hopefully.
"I don't think so," Joshua commented. "I think they are playing with us. Stay close and keep control of your temper."
"What makes you think I can't control my temper!" Eva bristled then she grinned. "Oh."
"Fucking Predators!" Joshua chuckled.
The elevator stopped on the eighth floor which Joshua knew to be the top floor. As the doors opened, the pair were surprised to find themselves looking out upon a smart, corner office with panoramic views over the main facility. Eva felt strangely out of place, barefoot as she was in desert fatigue trousers and a sand-coloured shirt.
"Welcome to Deadlight!" a voice announced, and a man stepped into view.
The man wore a tropical white suit with a loose white shirt open at the collar and a pair of sand-coloured desert boots. He was tall, about six feet in height, and trim for his age of about fifty years.
"Deadlight?" Joshua enquired. "Who are you?"
"I am Jacques Maurand and I am the administrator of this facility. Please..."
The man waved Joshua and Eva to a comfortable couch as if they were visiting business associates. Barefoot, the pair stepped out of the elevator onto cool wood flooring. They padded across the wood flooring to the couch and they both sat down, feeling even more out of place. Joshua knew that the soft touch was being used to try and weed out information from them both – just like before. The man, Maurand, sat down in a chair across from Joshua and Eva. He took a sip from a glass of cold water before speaking again with a marked trace of a French accent.
"Deadlight is the name of this facility. You and your teams have discovered what has, hitherto, been a secret facility, here in the Malian desert. My men are out there now, hunting down your teams. Unfortunately, no one can be allowed to survive. We knew that you were coming – that giant Boeing in Bamako was a bit of a giveaway – but we have been ready to fight off any attempts to infiltrate this facility from some time. However, that plane and its crew and passengers will be allowed to depart. Killing you all out here in the desert is invisible but destroying a passenger airliner would have consequences which we are not ready to endure at this time. Your timing is not great, but it suits our needs. Very soon, this facility will no longer be active. We are in the process of shutting it down, and should you have appeared next week, then you would have found precisely nothing here."
So, they were going to die. Joshua and Eva exchanged a resigned, bored expression; it was not the first time that either of them had been threatened with death, and neither were phased by the threat. However, the openness was interesting, as was the fact the man obviously had good intelligence. The reference to THE PHOENIX was worrying, not to mention the threat to destroy completely the strike teams.
"What is your point, Mr Maurand?" Eva asked.
"My point? My point is that I hold all the cards – you have nothing. However, we do need information, which the two of you will provide to enable us to mop up your friends. Even now, we are attacking the abandoned fort, south of here. It will not be long before we take it and capture your people. They will be made to talk before they are put to death."
"What now, then?" Joshua asked resignedly.
"Now, you two will be taken to a part of the facility where we no one will be able to hear you scream," Maurand responded.
"A bit melodramatic, don't you think?" Eva commented.
"Maybe," Maurand conceded as he stood up. "Au revoir. We will not meet again."
The elevator doors opened and the same two soldiers from earlier stepped out.
Axis of Evil
Deadlight Facility
06:15 GMT+2 (04:15 GMT June 25th)
Joshua & Eva
It was beginning again.
Joshua grimaced as pain shot through his body. Every question had begun with a reminder of what might happen should he provide a wrong answer. Two men were working him over while a man and a woman were busy with Eva. Joshua could hear the girl's screams a short distance away. In part, that was good; dead people did not scream - generally. The questions were very benign – at first.
"Who are you?"
"What is your organisation?"
"What are you doing in Mali?"
"What do you know about this facility?"
"What do you know of Deadlight?
"What do you know of Capital?"
Joshua's mind began to drift in and out of focus as he endured the punches and the questions. They started to become confusing – 'Capital'? What was 'Capital'? Joshua was hanging from a hook, embedded into the ceiling, by his wrists. His shirt was gone. Blood ran down his face and dripped onto his chest which was issuing its own amount of blood. His bare feet barely touched the floor, but enough to support most of his weight on the balls of his feet to relieve his wrists. Looking across the room, he could see Eva hanging just like he was. Her long hair was in disarray and hanging partially across her bruised face. Her shirt was gone to reveal a black sports bra. Her stomach was bruised and bloody, and the girl was sobbing through the pain.
The only things keeping her together were her resolve to protect her friends and her resolve to not pass out before Joshua – she had never been beaten by a boy . . . ever!
Desert Base
06:40 GMT+2 (04:40 GMT June 25th)
Sierra Alpha
The attack had been underway for about fifty minutes.
The scene outside of the old sandstone walls was carnage. The early morning light had revealed a dozen mutilated and presumably dead bodies, not to mention an overturned and shattered HMMWV. The $119 M18A1 Claymore mines were proving incredibly good value and had decimated the initial assault team to such an extent that they had had to retire to join up with the main assault force. That had gained the defending strike team about ten minutes of peace, but then the shit really did hit the fan as a pair of helicopter gunships came at them.
In the northeast corner of the fort, atop the former magazine, behind a pile of sandbags, Arbiter stood with Foxtail. Resting on Foxtail's right shoulder, the 1.52-metre 2.76-inch diameter tube held a FIM-92J Stinger surface-to-air missile. Foxtail was familiar with the weapon, and she trained it in the direction of the left-hand helicopter approaching from the southeast. The pilot of the helicopter saw her and turned to hide his hot engine exhausts. However, he unwittingly exposed the fiery heat to Nemesis who stood atop the prison cell, previously hidden by the seventy-foot watch tower. Coincidentally, the righthand helicopter was just manoeuvring to mask his engines from Nemesis. But before both pilots could realise their errors, Nemesis and Foxtail flipped down the safety leavers and squeezed their triggers. With a bang, then a flash and a trail of smoke, the deadly aircraft killing missile shot out of the launch tube and dove upon the hapless helicopters, blasting both machines out of the air. Swiftly, Arbiter assisted Foxtail in transferring the launch equipment to a new missile tube. Across the fort, Resolute was doing the same for Nemesis.
Even before the shattered helicopters crashed to the sand below, two more helicopters were inbound, much more cautiously. Both flying machines fired rockets at extreme range, showering Foxtail in sandstone and smashing apart a two-foot section of the north-eastern wall above the magazine. The two helicopters were pursued after their attack by a Stinger missile each, neither of which struck, but shrapnel from one missile caused damage to one helicopter which smoked as it made for safety. All the time, incoming bullets from machineguns pounded into the walls from all four directions. The main defensive weaponry was arranged to cover the double wooden gate set into the southern wall of the fort. Outgoing rounds were sent out in short, accurate bursts to prevent a rapid drain on the ammunition supply. Those defending the fort were highly skilled and they made sure that the vast majority of bullets struck their mark.
On the other side of the coin, the attackers were also highly skilled.
07:48 GMT+2 (05:48 GMT June 25th)
Sierra Bravo
The attack on the fort was two hours old and as far as Hit Girl could tell, it was not going too well for either side.
But Sierra Alpha could not take attrition, and they had limited ammunition which gave the edge to the Axis of Evil and their very well-equipped troops who appeared to be very well-trained mercenaries. From a high point, to the north, Hit Girl was gathering intelligence on the enemy positions so that she could counterattack and support those inside the fort, only it looked hopeless. The fort was surrounded, completely. There was no way to break through with the forces available. They could chip away at the enemy, but that is all they could do and Hit Girl hoped that the attrition rate would get too much and the attackers would withdraw far enough away to allow a rapid evacuation of the fort and an escape across the desert. A plan for a counterattack was agreed with those inside the fort and those aboard THE PHOENIX. But before anything could be executed, a problem hove over the horizon.
"Hit Girl," Termino reported from atop Bravo One. "I have two motherfuckers coming from the east . . . correction, make that four big metal APCs!"
"Fuck!" Hit Girl exclaimed loudly. "Details!"
"I think they're BTR-70s," Termino clarified.
They were equipped for taking out thinly armoured vehicles, but not armoured vehicles – that would require some more careful planning. As Hit Girl found the incoming armoured vehicles in her binoculars, she swore violently and colourfully as, over the next hour, she watched them divide into two pairs and swiftly outmanoeuvre them and cut them off from the fort. The four Soviet-built BTR-70 APCs were nasty bastards and they proceeded to engage Sierra Bravo with their heavy machine guns mounted in armoured turrets along with a smaller medium machine gun. Hit Girl dived to the ground, avoiding the initial incoming sighting burst which struck the ridge a dozen feet from where she had been standing. They had been outwitted and there was no way that they could prevent the fall of the fort without heavy losses, let alone escape over miles of desert.
"Hit Girl, I have the latest report from the fort."
It was Rigour.
"Spit it out," Hit Girl ordered acidly.
"They report that they have wounded but nothing serious. The southern wall is failing and will collapse in part very soon. Their ammunition is getting extremely low," the girl reported wretchedly.
As Hit Girl climbed aboard her LSV, she felt horrible inside. She had no choice, the counterattack had to be cancelled to preserve the strike team as a force in being. The enemy had provided them with a 'golden bridge'. It was part of the teachings of Sun Tzu. He suggested that providing your enemy a way to avoid combat was preferential to fighting an enemy who could cause you too high a loss. That was why the APCs had not attacked directly. The Axis of Evil soldiers could take on Sierra Bravo and the fort, but at great loss. They had also guessed, correctly, that Hit Girl would want to avoid heavy losses to Sierra Bravo.
"Okay," Hit Girl said to Intrepid who sat beside her in the vehicle. "They've won this battle, but we will return and win the next one, and then the whole fucking war!"
"Fuck!" Wildcat exclaimed and Hit Girl turned her head in time to see the seventy-foot watchtower crumble into the fort below.
Hit Girl was speechless as the cloud of dust erupted over the fort and she watched the APCs and the ground forces close in.