Monday, June 26th, 2017
The Sahara Desert
Northern Mali
20:09 GMT+2 (18:09 GMT June 26th)
Tango One Alpha
Psyche/Trojan/Wildcat/Intrepid/
La Terreaur/Termino/Rigour
With the Russian defensive forces whittled down, it was time to take the rear locomotive.
Psyche swiftly sorted out her team and while Intrepid and Wildcat covered the platform which led along the side of the rear locomotive from above, she swiftly climbed onto the roof of the cab with Rigour while the boys, Termino and Trojan followed along behind. La Terreaur remained on the platform below the nose to ensure that there would be no more surprises from the direction of the containers. Psyche did not hesitate as she and Rigour dropped down onto the narrow platform directly outside the cab beside the door which led inside. Rigour yanked open the door and she threw in a pair of flashbang grenades. Rigour slammed the door shut even as bullets flew in her direction, several of which struck the glass window set into the steel door. The armoured glass crazed over as the bullets struck but did not shatter. Then the grenades detonated and one of the side windows cracked but otherwise remained in place. The very moment of the rumbling bang galvanised the two girls to burst inside the crowded cab before anyone could regain their senses.
Inside the cab, there were five people – three Russian soldiers as well as a driver and engineer. All five were reeling with the violent flashes and loud bangs which had totally disoriented them all. The soldiers tried to resist but they struggled as their minds tried to focus again after the violent assault on their senses while their weapons were pointed in totally the wrong directions. Psyche was not about to give the soldiers time to recover and neither was she in the mood to take prisoners. She simply put a bullet into the head of each soldier while Rigour levelled her weapon at the civilian driver and engineer.
"Don't fucking move a fucking muscle, fucking cunts!" Rigour growled.
The two civilians raised their hands despite the small size of the girl who held an automatic weapon aimed at them both.
Quite a few kilometres away...
20:16 GMT+2 (18:16 GMT June 26th)
The Russian Forces
Colonel Dimitri Petrovich Priabin was still very unhappy.
He was down to two vehicles and he had tried repeatedly to disengage from the attacking trio of LSVs. He had ordered his helicopter to keep out of sight as it was his ace in the hole and his only way to escape should things go bad.
"What are you doing to do?" Jacques Maurand demanded.
The Frenchman was very unhappy and very worried about his potential for survival. He had seen the force of Russian soldiers as a force to be reckoned with, but then he had witnessed them being steadily whittled down so that just two vehicles remained. As far as he could see, there was very little opportunity for escape and even the train was under threat along with everything – almost everything – that he had been working on for the past few years. Then came a slight ray of hope.
"One of the missing Tigr's is rejoining us, sir!" a soldier advised the colonel.
"Perfect!" Priabin grinned as he saw the odds evening out.
The third Tigr immediately came under fire from the LSVs as it approached, so Priabin directed his gunner to provide covering fire for the vehicle.
Three hundred yards away...
20:22 GMT+2 (18:22 GMT June 26th)
Tango Two Alpha
Hit Girl/Stripe
It had not taken all that long to catch up with the LSVs and the surviving Russian vehicles.
To add some colour to Hit Girl's deception plan, Splinter and Obsidian were shooting at Hit Girl and Stripe, but one or the other appeared to be getting a little carried away.
"I said to make it look good, but not too good!" Hit Girl yelled out as several heavy bullets struck the side of the Tigr.
"Sorry!" Obsidian responded and the stream of bullets veered away from the Tigr.
Hit Girl pointed the front end of the Russian vehicle at the remaining pair of twin vehicles. It was a brazen act, but one which Hit Girl thought quite reasonable under the circumstances. As for Stripe, he was not as brazen as his American counterpart, but he could figure out a tactical situation, just as well as Hit Girl could – he had, after all, been trained in her image. He could also see the flaws and danger in their plan, but he also knew that they had very little choice if they wanted to stop the Russians from escaping with God only knew what they had aboard the train and in the command vehicle. Hit Girl grimaced as they closed on the vehicle which had to be carrying Priabin and probably the French goon who had run the facility up until that morning.
Would their ruse last long enough for her to give that Russian bastard a taste of his own medicine and some of her own medicine?
Some kilometres away...
20:27 GMT+2 (18:27 GMT June 26th)
Tango One Alpha
Psyche/Trojan/Wildcat/Intrepid/
La Terreaur/Termino/Rigour
Things had calmed down some and the civilian train crew were secured.
Psyche selected La Terreaur to remain in the cab of the rear locomotive as she was injured – the young French vigilante had reacted in a typically Predator-ish way to being sidelined, but she had eventually given in. Psyche and the remainder of Tango One Alpha reformed halfway down the locomotive and they made ready to move forward to assault the front locomotive. That would not be an easy task as there were still believed to be maybe six more Russian soldiers aboard the train, and there would be little to no cover as they moved forward.
Psyche led the assault – as was her job – and she was followed by Trojan and Wildcat while Intrepid and Termino raced up the four steel rungs which formed a vertical ladder up the side of the locomotive directly outside the door from the cab. Rigour hung back to ensure that there would be no surprises coming in from the rear or the side during the assault. The all had their submachine guns up and they watched out for any movement as they took careful steps into the unknown. Due to the layout of the locomotives, they would have to move to the rear of their locomotive before then crossing over to the far side and then advancing up that side to the cab. There were a dozen different places where the assault could go wrong and there were plenty of deadly kill zones in between them and the cab of the front locomotive.
Psyche gave up listing everything which could potentially go wrong, and she simply steeled herself for the assault. The two groups moved at the same pace so that nobody was left without cover. Psyche, Trojan, and Wildcat stopped beside the gigantic angled air intakes which were deafening as the gigantic diesel engine sucked in the enormous quantity of air required to feed its combustion. The reason for caution were the giant circular exhausts atop the locomotive each of which was filled with a six-bladed fan which spun at very high speed as it dragged superheated air and exhaust upwards, away from the engine and into the atmosphere. For Intrepid and Termino, just getting past the high-speed exhaust fans was to be just as life-threatening as facing off against half-a-dozen armed soldiers.
"Take your time," Termino cautioned his partner.
Intrepid was taking her time having no desire to be sliced and diced by the lethal blades and she successfully negotiated the tandem fans and then turned to ensure that Termino also made it past them safely.
"Intrepid and Termino are clear and ready to move!" Intrepid announced over the radio.
Psyche grinned.
"Let's move!" she ordered as she waved her hand.
Wildcat and Trojan covered Psyche as she reached the rear corner of their locomotive. Ahead, they could see a similar platform which ran along the left side of the front locomotive. The narrow platform was clear, but it would not allow them access to the cab at the far end of the locomotive. Therefore, they would have to make a dogleg across the rear of the locomotives to get to the platform on the far side of the front locomotive. While Intrepid and Termino provided covering fire from above, Psyche and Wildcat would cross over to the rear platform of the front locomotive and then move over to the opposite platform. Trojan would cover the two girls from the platform as they moved forwards. The rattle of machinegun fire welcomed Psyche as she leapt aboard the forward locomotive. The bullets went wide and then stopped as Termino sent a stream of bullets downwards at the opposite corner of the platform.
"Fire in the hole!" Intrepid announced over the comms as she and Termino lobbed a pair of flashbangs down onto the far platform.
Wildcat, Psyche, and Trojan all turned away and covered their eyes. Even so, they still caught sight of the blinding flash as the pair of grenades detonated. They heard the scream of pain from a Russian soldier and the thunderous racket of the twin explosions. Psyche and Wildcat rapidly moved to the platform and Wildcat went down on one knee with Psyche standing to the side and they both sent a short burst down the narrow platform, their subsonic bullets pinged off the steel sides of the locomotive with the intention of dissuading the Russian soldiers from any thoughts of advancing in their direction.
Psyche studied the situation and then she decided that as they had to cover about sixteen metres and stealth was not going to help them in any way, therefore, she decided to take a leaf out of Hit Girl's book and just be obnoxious.
Back in the desert...
20:35 GMT+2 (18:35 GMT June 26th)
Tango Two Alpha
Hit Girl/Stripe
Stripe was not best pleased.
"You want to do what?!"
"It's perfectly simple," Hit Girl responded. "You come alongside, and I jump across."
"Are you fucking nuts?" Then Stripe remembered who he was talking to. "Forget I asked . . . they always taught us that you were wacko. Maybe they were right!"
Hit Girl laughed as she took her foot off the accelerator for a moment to switch seats with Stripe.
"Now, let's see how you drive – can't be any worse than others of your kind!"
"Funny – I've seen your driving; fucking women drivers!"
Stripe ignored the dangerous growl as Hit Girl climbed into the rear load area of the Tigr 4x4. Above her, there was a circular hatch from which a gunner could operate the machinegun. However, she would be using the hatch to leave the vehicle and board the command Tigr which was, even then, just fifteen yards away to the left. Hit Girl checked her offensive equipment which consisted of a Glock 17 pistol and a vicious fighting knife.
"You ready?" Stripe called back.
"Bring us in," Hit Girl responded.
Stripe altered course to the left, just enough for them to close on the other vehicle where the roof-gunner was busy defending against Splinter in Tango Two Charlie. Hit Girl scrambled out of the rooftop opening in their Tigr and then just as the gap narrowed to just two yards, she leapt into the air and she came down onto the roof of the command vehicle which held her target, just a few inches beneath her feet. However, there was work to be done. Before the gunner could react to the immediate threat of Hit Girl, the Russian soldier was set upon by Hit Girl and her blade cut his throat from ear to ear. The man tried to scream but instead he simply sank down through his hatch and inside the vehicle, blood spilling out of the all-but-severed neck.
Stripe kept his vehicle alongside as he watched Hit Girl vanish through the hatch, diving after the dying Russian soldier.
In the mountains...
20:37 GMT+2 (18:37 GMT June 26th)
Tango One Alpha
Psyche/Trojan/Wildcat/Intrepid/
La Terreaur/Termino/Rigour
After she switched magazines and took a deep breath, Psyche stepped forward, her MP5K to her right shoulder, spitting fire.
Dutifully following along behind, Wildcat fired over her younger colleague's left shoulder. The pair advanced steadily forward at a little faster than normal walking pace. Behind them, Trojan remained six feet behind, his weapon aimed just to the right of Psyche. Above them all, Intrepid and Termino stepped across the two-foot gap which separated the two locomotives and they moved parallel to Wildcat and Psyche.
Two heads appeared near the cab and both disintegrated as bullets from Wildcat and Psyche blew them apart. The two girls ignored the bullets coming in their direction as they picked up the pace, striding forward, eating up the distance, ignoring the danger. It was reckless, but to Psyche and Wildcat, it was simply their job – even if what they were doing was downright nuts. The train was still moving along at around twenty kilometres per hour and the movements made every step a dangerous one, but Psyche had a point to prove when she was leading a team, and she would not fail in her task. Wildcat watched out for her niece as they advanced. That was her job and she knew that her niece, while highly skilled, had a point to prove. Proving that point could get them all killed, but Wildcat trusted Psyche explicitly – even as she knew that she was almost as nuts as the younger girl. As they reached the midpoint, a burst of gunfire from Intrepid took down a Russian soldier atop the locomotive. The soldier toppled off the side of the locomotive, and as he fell, his flailing arms caught Psyche on the side of the head.
Wildcat was surprised to see the soldier fall past them, but she was stunned to see Psyche knocked to the side . . . and then over the rail.
..._...
Wildcat dropped her weapon, where it dangled from its strap, as she dove for Psyche.
Trojan saw what happened and he raced forward just as Wildcat reached the point where Psyche had gone over. In his mind, he could not avoid the images of Psyche being torn to pieces by the steel wheels below. But then, as he peered over the railing, a few yards back from Wildcat, he saw an image dangling barely a foot above the racing concrete sleepers which held the steel rails on which the locomotives and themselves rode. It was with immense relief that he recognised the inverted form of Psyche as she dangled from the railing.
Wildcat had reached the railing and she looked down at a foot lodged in the railing. The foot was attached to a long leg which terminated at the thigh of Psyche who hung rather precariously with her helmeted head just inches from the track bed which raced along beneath.
"You enjoying the view, down there, sport?" Wildcat radioed.
"Yes, the wildly spinning wheels inches from my fucking skull look really fucking good!" Psyche growled in response. "Now pull me the hell up, Wildcat!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Wildcat grinned as she reached down and grabbed Psyche's belt.
Wildcat had some considerable upper body strength, but Psyche had put on a growth spurt which made her a little heavier than Wildcat could handle. However, Trojan swiftly reached down and helped to pull their illustrious leader to safety while Intrepid and Termino provided covering fire from above.
"You okay?" Wildcat asked as Psyche regained the platform and figuratively dusted herself off.
"What are you two dumbasses standing around for?" Psyche demanded as she checked and readied her MP5K.
Wildcat grinned up at Trojan as they formed up behind Psyche and they continued their advance on the locomotive's control cabin.
Back in the desert...
20:39 GMT+2 (18:39 GMT June 26th)
Tango Two Alpha
Hit Girl/Stripe
The consternation within the Tigr was palpable as their colleague sagged down amongst them, blood spewing in all directions.
Unfortunately for them, their attention had been down at their dying colleague, rather than up above at the now undefended hatchway which led directly into their mobile citadel. Unfortunately for them, their worst nightmare was making use of that undefended hatchway. Hit Girl had entered the hatchway head and arms first, her hands full of titanium throwing knives. Before anyone even noticed her there, more blood was spilt to join the pooling mess on the steel floor of the armoured vehicle. The coppery smell of fresh blood pervaded Hit Girl's nostrils and it was like downing ten cans of Red Bull – she was energised as she dropped inside the vehicle and she laid eyes on Jacques Maurand as well as that bastard, Priabin.
The Frenchman, Maurand, was obviously scared witless, Hit Girl noted, however, the Russian colonel appeared nonplussed about her violent appearance. Not so the four living soldiers, one of whom was wounded, as they stared at their three dead colleagues. However, a barked order from Priabin roused them from their shock and they all advanced on Hit Girl, despite the tight confines of the vehicle with the bench-style seating running along each side, the full length of the passenger compartment. The four soldiers, one colonel, one Frenchman, and one vigilante, all struggled to fight in the tight confines. But Hit Girl was not fazed – she had her blades and the Russian's had their assault rifles which were totally unsuited for fighting inside a moving armoured vehicle. Which was precisely why Hit Girl had opted for short blades which were the perfect close quarters weapon.
A dozen yards away, in a twin Tigr, Stripe grinned as he saw the rear hatch on the command Tigr burst open and he watched as two soldiers jumped for their lives.
Back in the mountains...
20:47 GMT+2 (18:47 GMT June 26th)
Tango One Alpha & Tango One Bravo
Psyche/Trojan/Wildcat/Intrepid/
La Terreaur/Termino/Rigour & Kick-Ass/Rage
Psyche was in no mood for small talk and rather than seek surrender from the remaining soldiers, she coldly gunned them down as they moved in her direction in a vain attempt to prevent her from reaching the cab.
However, she held her fire when faced with the driver and engineer, both of whom offered zero resistance as she and Wildcat burst into the control cab of the front locomotive.
"Stop the fucking train!" Psyche ordered, her Heckler & Koch MP5K just inches from the driver's skull.
With every movement watched by the two girls, the driver brought his massive train to a stop three kilometres further up the track. There, leaning against his six-wheeled monster, stood Kick-Ass. As the train squealed to a halt, he stepped over to the side of the locomotive with Rage beside him.
"Took your fucking time!" Rage growled. "Stop in the bloody buffet car, did you?"
Kick-Ass counted each and every member of the team and he was grateful to see that everyone was accounted for and still standing.
Psyche simply gave Rage the bird as she ordered the driver to reverse his massive load back down the track towards the open desert.
"Psyche has caught her train," Kick-Ass radioed to everybody listening in.
"Hit Girl is getting a little ratty and it appears that the enemy don't like sharing a vehicle with her," Stripe responded dryly.
"Don't blame them!" Kick-Ass chuckled.
"Crap!" Stripe then exclaimed loudly. "Hit Girl just got thrown out – she is not going to take that one lying down!"
"Motherfucking B-A-S-T-A-R-D-S! I am gonna cut their fucking balls off and feed them to the fucking fishes and then ram those cunt-shit fishes up their shit-stabbing asses! I'm gonna fucking make them fucking wish they had never fucking taken a fucking breath on this goddamn cunt-fucking earth! F-U-C-K! Stripe, you loathsome wanker, get your fucking butt over here . . . right the fuck NOW!"
"She's not happy, is she?" Rage pointed out.
"She sounds real pissed," Kick-Ass agreed with a chuckle.
With a deafening roar of power, the massive locomotives began to push the dozens of container-laden intermodal freight wagons back down the winding track. Atop the locomotives, Intrepid and Termino were on patrol keeping watch for trouble from their vantage point almost five metres above the track bed. Kick-Ass and Rage boarded their truck and they setoff after the train, keeping it in sight.
As they drove back towards the desert, several kilometres away, their minds drifted to the other teams in the desert.
Back in the desert...
21:03 GMT+2 (19:03 GMT June 26th)
Tango Two Bravo
Shadow/Piranha
Shadow couldn't resist smiling as she listened to Hit Girl rant on with ever more creative ways for the Russians to die.
Piranha also thought it was great fun to listen to, but she did not dare respond for fear of her life. As she looked around from the vantage point of the gun turret, she could see a lot of flames from burning vehicles which punctuated the darkness. They had assisted in the final destruction of the Tigr which was protecting the command Tigr before they had witnessed Hit Girl being forcefully ejected from that same command Tigr. The vehicle had raced off but as Shadow had moved to pursue, the final Mi-24 Hind gunship had appeared, gunfire streaking out of the darkness as dark green tracers. Rockets had followed and Shadow had reluctantly turned away from the command Tigr and the Russian colonel.
"Weapons Tight: Starstreak!" Hit Girl ordered over the radio, preventing any launching of the hypersonic missile in the direction of the gunship. "Shadow, go for the Pathfinders."
Shadow dutifully turned south, into the desert darkness, quickly leaving the battle behind.
21:06 GMT+2 (19:06 GMT June 26th)
Tango Two Alpha
Hit Girl/Stripe
Hit Girl was incensed.
She had not been able to do more than reach for the Russian colonel before a soldier had lunged at her and they had both fallen out of the open rear hatch of the wildly bucking vehicle. The landing on the sand had been violent, but survivable. As for the Russian who had fallen with her – he did not survive. Correction, he survived the landing on the sand without injury, just not the wrath of Hit Girl as she sought vengeance. His death had been violent and very painful, but dead he had become.
Hit Girl's anger had only risen as she had seen the helicopter gunship appear and go after Shadow and Piranha. They could have taken out the helicopter with one of their remaining Starstreak missiles, but Hit Girl had had to order weapon's tight as their reinforcements were due to pass overhead at that very moment and it would not do to accidentally shoot down an RAF C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft loaded with forty paratroopers! Instead, Hit Girl was forced to watch as the giant helicopter landed almost a kilometre away and she saw four shapes move from the Tigr into the rear cabin of the helicopter. It was simply soul destroying to watch through a set of night vision binoculars. But then she grinned as she saw the Russian colonel stagger and fall as he climbed aboard the helicopter. The bastard fell into the safety of the armoured cabin.
Hit Girl was certain she had seen him spin around as if something had crashed into him.
Two kilometres away...
21:12 GMT+2 (19:12 GMT June 26th)
Tango Three
Leon/Songbird
Something had indeed crashed into the Russian colonel.
That something had been a .338-calibre Lapua Magnum bullet taking the man in the torso at around a thousand metres-per-second.
"Bastard!" Leon breathed as she racked another round into her Accuracy International L115A4 bolt-action sniper rifle.
"Nice shooting!" Songbird commented as she searched for an additional target.
"I think I only nicked the bastard, but I hope he dies from his wounds."
"You 'nicked him' with a .338 bullet – that could take an arm off or leave a massive exit hole."
"A girl can dream."
Songbird went back to her spotter's scope and searched for a new target, even as the massive armoured helicopter took off and turned onto a westerly heading towards Mauritania.
Thirty-three thousand feet above the desert...
21:21 GMT+2 (19:21 GMT June 26th)
A Royal Airforce C-130J Hercules
The eight members of the Pathfinder Platoon were drawn from the British Army's 16 Air Assault Brigade.
The eight men stood at the rear of the transport aircraft as the ramp motored open to reveal the chilly darkness. Each man viewed unfolding events through helmet-mounted night vision equipment lending a green hue to the surroundings. Due to the altitude, each man was breathing oxygen from a small cylinder mounted on his webbing via a facemask fitted beneath a set of goggles. A large bergen was affixed to each man's parachute harness at the front and would be deployed to hang on a length of webbing twenty feet beneath the parachutist as he plummeted to earth beneath his parachute. At a signal from the crew chief, all eight dived out of the aircraft, one after the other and they plunged at terminal velocity towards the ground, thirty-three thousand feet beneath them.
They fell to earth through the darkness for exactly 157 seconds before they triggered their parachutes at an altitude of three-thousand-feet. Every man deployed his equipment to dangle twenty feet beneath him and then grasped hold of the straps which would allow each parachute to be guided to the desert beneath them and hopefully to land exactly where they had intended.
The commander of the platoon, a young second lieutenant was very happy to see a shape materialising below him, bright as day on his night vision equipment, exactly where it was supposed to be, and after a full minute under the parachute, his boots touched down in the Malian desert.
Not all that far away in the Malian Desert...
21:28 GMT+2 (19:28 GMT June 26th)
Tango Two Bravo
Shadow/Piranha
Just a few minutes before, the pair had marked out a fifty-yard right-angled cross with a dozen infra-red military marker lights, before they had then parked up with lights doused two hundred yards clear of the landing zone.
The first they knew of the platoon landing was when they lost sight of a few of the marker lights as dark objects passed in front of them. Then the marker lights vanished entirely as someone shut them off. Shadow grimaced as she stepped out of the LSV and she began her very dangerous approach to the landing zone with Piranha covering her every move from behind the LSV-mounted heavy machine gun. Shadow could not make out any movements ahead of her through her enhanced night vision equipment. The men who had just landed had simply melted into the desert sands. She approached with her Colt M4A1 assault carbine to her right shoulder, searching for trouble – however, trouble soon found her.
Without any warning, Shadow suddenly found herself airborne for a moment before she crashed down onto the sand and her weapon was smacked to the side. She felt the cold steel of a knife blade against her neck and then she heard a voice hissing in her ear.
"Give me a number before I slits your throat..."
Shadow was thoroughly unnerved by her rough and violent treatment, but she swiftly stammered out the code response.
"Forty – forty-two! Forty-two!"
"Thank you," the voice hissed, and Shadow found herself released and pulled to her feet. "I respond with Ninety-nine."
"Welcome to Mali," Shadow responded as she swiftly gathered her wits. "Is your team secure?"
"Eight accounted for," another voice replied. "The main force is ten minutes out – sergeant, get the markers down."
With that six men of the platoon ran off to collect the marker equipment which had been dropped out a second after they had dived out of the back of the Hercules transport aircraft. The marker equipment would allow them to properly mark the drop zone for the main force to safely land in the darkness.
"Piranha – get over here!" Shadow radioed.
A minute later, the LSV appeared.
"Let's get to work, shall we?" the second lieutenant directed.
With the assistance of the LSV, the larger drop zone was rapidly laid out, ready for the main force of forty British paratroopers from 3 PARA to descend from their Royal Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft.
Monday, June 27th
Forty kilometres west of the Deadlight Facility
00:35 GMT+2 (22:35 GMT June 26th)
Three hours had passed since the battle had ended and the relief force of British paratroopers had landed.
The train was at a standstill on a flat plain where anything approaching could be seen coming from miles away. The forty-eight British soldiers (eight of the Pathfinder Platoon and forty of 3 PARA) had secured the area with heavy weapons and a section was busy searching the dozens of containers for anything dangerous. As for the combined forces of Fusion, Vengeance, and Honneur, they had stood down and were generally gathered around the three surviving LSVs and Kick-Ass' six-wheeled monster. Two hundred yards away, several pyres marked the dead Russian Tigr vehicles which demonstrated to the paratroopers that a hard battle had been fought. With the soldiers patrolling and searching, it was time for everyone to regroup, reequip, rehydrate, and prepare for their next task of the night – the taking of the Deadlight Facility.
The only members not down on the desert plain were Leon and Songbird who remained in their sniper perch watching out for danger. They had been joined by a two-man 3 PARA sniper team who had set themselves up just a few yards away from them.
It wasn't until almost 2AM that something was found in the twenty-third container searched, proving that the time, effort, and personal risk had been worth every painful sandy step.
Some hours later...
The Deadlight Facility
05:50 GMT+2 (03:50 GMT June 27th)
The combined forces of Fusion, Vengeance & Honneur
The train and its lethal cargo had been left in the very capable hands of the British paratroopers who would provide protection until the search could be completed and the more lethal aspects removed to a safe place.
As they approached the facility in the three LSVs, the remaining Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 and the Mercedes G63 AMG 6x6, a feeling of intense foreboding passed through several of those who stared at the imposing concrete and glass facility which incongruously rose out of the desert sands. Slightly unnerving was the fact that the giant steel doors for the concrete roadway were partially open. Carefully, Dave drove his truck down the concrete roadway, only stopping when they were forty yards from the gaping entrance. Beside Dave, Mindy was worried as she scanned the area – she expected booby traps and other similarly unhealthy devices, but Joshua had assured them that the roadway was safe. Spread out, with fifty yards between each vehicle, the rest of the five-vehicle convoy waited behind the Mercedes truck.
"All clear," Joshua radioed, and he waved from the entrance to the facility.
Dave moved forwards slowly while Mindy waved a hand, out of the window, to signal the rest of the convoy. Behind them, standing in the load bed, Tommy and Stephanie stood watch with Colt M4A1 assault carbines, their eyes searching for trouble. But as they passed through the towering gates, they both grinned down at Joshua – a friendly face that they had not seen in quite a while. Beside Joshua stood Eva and Natalie – all three armed with various assault rifles.
Mindy allowed Chloe to get the first hug from Joshua. The girl positively bounded out of her LSV and she ran into her boyfriend's arms, hugging him tightly and ignoring the tears which flowed down her face. Eva received her own welcome from her friends as they all demanded to know what she had been doing.
Once the meet and greet was over, the first task was to assist with loading two large trucks with the intelligence information gathered by Joshua, Eva, and Jason's team.
The Deadlight Facility
08:10 GMT+2 (06:10 GMT June 27th)
Sub-level Two
Joshua grinned fiendishly as Mindy arrived.
"What have you got, Josh?" the veteran vigilante asked a little grumpily – she was very tired and keen to close off the operation.
"We've gained access to what we think is a secure lab," Joshua explained. "Here..."
Mindy followed Joshua through a badly damaged steel door which showed the signs of acetylene burns. Then she found herself in a large white-painted space equipped with several white-topped workbenches. Nicky and Jason were sifting through a filing cabinet. Then Mindy turned as she heard a shout from a doorway off to her right. Mindy and Joshua headed into that room where they found an ashen-faced Abby with Patrick.
"What is it?" Mindy asked.
"Trouble," Patrick grimaced as he indicated an aluminium cylinder enclosed at both ends with a helispherical dome.
The device was two feet in length and lay on a workbench, wedged in place by two lengths of timber. A wiring harness led from the side of the device into a bulky suitcase which contained computer equipment and a computer monitor. Mindy did not need to be a bomb expert to understand what the device was as she recognised certain features such as a 'variable yield' setting, and a 'time delay' setting. Her mind struggled to put two and two together as it realised the enormity of what lay before them.
"Can we disarm it?" Joshua asked Patrick.
"Not a chance," the man replied with a shake of his head as he pointed to a switch labelled 'anti-tamper' which was set to 'ON'. "We need the key – cylindrical and looks typical for a Russian tactical nuclear trigger. This was rigged to destroy the facility."
"How far away do we need to be?" Mindy asked.
"Twenty – thirty kilometres as a minimum," Jason advised from the doorway.
"The timer says we have a little under two hours – can we make it?" Mindy persisted.
"If we leave now – then yes," Jason replied.
"Mount up – let's take our haul and go," Mindy directed.
There were no arguments – every vehicle was loaded and ready to depart – and had been for a while. People ran from wherever they had been plundering the facility back towards the vehicles. There had been no arguments – just the mention of a 'nuke' had been enough to galvanise everyone into action and they all moved as quickly as they could. Joshua and Jason were coordinating the evacuation while Abby was checking everyone off a computerised list on a tablet.
Then, at dead on 09:00 the Deadlight Facility went into lockdown.
The Deadlight Facility
09:00 GMT+2 (07:00 GMT June 27th)
Time to detonation: 1 hour 39 minutes
Mindy and Chloe had been the very last to leave the facility's central eight-storey building – or so they had thought.
Literally seconds after they had passed through the exit atrium, a steel and armoured glass security door had descended, sealing off the building from external access.
"Abby, we got everyone?" Mindy demanded.
"You and Chloe are the last to check in . . . oh shit!" Abby responded.
"What?" Chloe asked.
"Joshua is still outstanding."
"No," Chloe said, her voice trembling. "No way."
Chloe and Mindy turned back, and they saw Joshua running towards them . . . from the other side of the security door - their hearts sank. Nobody spoke for a full minute as they realised that fate had dealt them a fatal blow.
"What the fuck are you doing in there?" Chloe demanded as she struggled to keep it together.
"I had to check on something which might have helped," he replied.
"Find another way out, Josh," Mindy ordered.
"There is no way out – everywhere is locked down," Joshua replied, dejection obvious in his voice.
"No, you fucking have to!" Chloe blurted out. "You'll die!"
Joshua knew what was coming and he knew that he had to make his friends leave – if only to save their lives, if not his own.
"Stay safe, Chloe. Look after Becky."
"NO!" Chloe screamed as she slammed the palms of her hands against the armoured glass which made up the doors. "NO! NO! NO!"
"I love you."
Chloe held up her right hand and she pressed the palm against the glass. Joshua did the same on his side and they aligned their hands, despite the six inches of space in between.
"NOOOO!" Chloe wailed as her emotions overtook her and her body was wracked by sobs as she pounded the glass with her left fist.
"Mindy, take her away, and get to a safe distance," Joshua directed.
"Oh Josh," Mindy replied as tears flooded down her own cheeks.
Mindy pulled Chloe away from the door just as the Mercedes truck skidded to a halt a few yards from them. Dave and everyone else had heard the exchange over the radios and he had high-tailed it over to the central building. He had considered ramming the security door but there were significant well-sited anti-tank obstacles which prevented just such an attack. Dave jumped out and he physically seized Chloe in a bearhug from behind and he shoved the distraught woman into the backseat of the truck where Stephanie and Jamie grabbed hold of her. Mindy turned back to the building in time to see Joshua vanish from sight as he ran off.
"Let's go," Mindy said as she climbed in beside her husband.
Dave stomped on the accelerator and headed out of the doomed facility – and away from their friend.
..._...
Inside the building, Joshua had suddenly remembered something which he had seen some time earlier.
He had bolted away from the security door the very moment he had seen Chloe removed to safety. He had two things to do, and a little over an hour to accomplish both things. The young man raced down corridor after corridor before he then descended a set of stairs, taking the steps six at a time as he leapt ever downward.
He quickly found what he was in search of and he went to work.
Forty-two kilometres northwest
of The Deadlight Facility
10:38 GMT+2 (08:38 GMT June 27th)
Time to detonation: 1 minute
They were hull down from the facility which was out of sight and well over the horizon.
Every vehicle was shut down and every radio, computer, and electronic device shut off with battery packs removed. The mood was sombre to say the very least and Chloe simply stood beside Dave and Mindy as they sheltered behind the laagered vehicles. When it came, the flash was brighter than anything any of them had ever encountered.
The blooming fireball erupted outwards and upwards, before it formed one of the very few objects on the planet which could put the fear of God into just about any man or woman who saw it. The mushroom-cloud grew and grew, racing many thousands of feet into the clear azure-blue desert sky. Nobody moved. Nobody was capable of movement as they all stood transfixed by mankind's most horrific, most incredible, and most destructive technological advance. Everybody was simply stunned by the demonstration of the ultimate power.
Chloe knew that Joshua had died instantly, vaporised; his body turned to atoms in an instant.
End of PART VI