Chapter 11: Contact (Four Years Ago)
Jacky got his gear together for the assignment he was given by command. He and his squad were together at the Boeing that was supposed to take them to the destination. It would be a parachute drop on an island on the Philippines. Jacky along with the rest of his squad felt ready and eager to go into combat. He practiced with his M4 and was a natural shot; the command said he should've been assigned as sniper not just for his accuracy, but above average cunning and stealth skills. The squad was readying their gear when Capt. Ramirez came to them.
"All right gentlemen, you know the drill and know what you trained for. We've already been in those islands for a couple of months with no contact from those militia groups. The spooks back home finally got right and now, we got the go ahead to take out some of the group. SOUND GOOD?!" Ramirez asked.
"HUA!" The squad yelled. They boarded the plane and took the seats near the bay doors. Valero, Blakes, Depen, Henderson and everyone else were ready. Blakes decided to talk.
"Hey Jacky, you think we get action this time?" Blakes asked cleaning his M4.
"God I hope so, these past months have been dead and nothing but patrols here and there." Jacky said.
"Well I damn well better some this time, I mean Jesus. All those drops and nothing. What are the spooks doing?" Blakes said.
"Ah, you know bureaucrats, think they know everything, then when their wrong they say next window please. Bitches, that's what they are." Jacky mentioned.
"Haha I hear that bro!" Blakes said while high fiving Jacky.
"Alright you two, knock it off." Henderson said. The flight lasted for two hours before making it to the drop zone. They arrived over the area of supposed conflict with the militia and Filipino armed services. They got their parachutes ready as they stood up.
"STAND UP!" Ramirez said. They stood.
"CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT!" They checked to make sure everything was hooked to the uniform. The bay doors opened to 10,000 feet in the air. Jacky, Blakes, Henderson, Kowalski, Daspen, and Jinkens stood ready for action. The sound of both velocity and wind hit their faces hard. They were squinting their eyes and waited to jump into the night sky.
"WAIT FOR THE GREEN LIGHT!" They understood.
"SOUND OFF!" Ramirez demands.
"GREEN ONE GOOD!" Daspen said.
"GREEN TWO OK!" Blakes said.
"GREEN THREE OK!" Valero said.
"GREEN FOUR OK!" Kowalski said.
"GREEN FIVE OK!" Jinkens said.
"GREEN SIX OK!" Henderson said. All were ready to go, and ready to start the killing. The green light lit, and waited for the jump order.
"ALL RIGHT MEN! WHO ARE WE?!" Ramirez yelled.
"GREEN BERETS!" All yelled in unison.
"DAMN RIGHT! NOW MOVE! GO! GO! GO!" All jumped out to the air. Jacky felt the air and wind in his face. About ten seconds in the air, they let loose their parachutes and came in for the landing. Blakes and Jacky were together, but the rest were separated. This was usual for the parachute drops. Blakes and Jacky linked up since they were only ten yards away. Blakes got on the radio and called the rest of the squad.
"Alpha-9 this is Delta 2 what's your position over?" Blakes said. No response.
"Alpha-9 do you read? Over." Blakes said again. A few seconds past then a response.
"Delta-2 this Alpha-9, we are 20 clicks from the target destination south, head 18 clicks to the target area and wait for the rest to link up. Don't engage unless engaged upon. Confirm." Henderson said.
"Roger that, trail blazing to the target, over and out." Blakes said. They got the gear ready for the move.
"Alrighty Jacky, we know the drill so let's get moving." Blakes said.
"Yes sir. By the way you're buying the next round." Jacky said while running.
"Yea, right like that's happening." Blakes said while on the move. The jungle was dense, the sound of the nocturnal animals were in the air tonight. The two crossed through the small rivers and marshes before finding the trail after five miles. Jacky and Blakes looked around to find out where they were. Jacky pulled out his map to look for the trail.
"Blakes, we got a problem, there is no trail on this map." Jacky said. Blakes took the map and looked at it with confusion. Where was the trail? Did the spooks get it wrong? Were we even on the right island? These thoughts went into both their minds. This was the right island. The coordinates were correct.
"Maybe this was one of the roads forgotten or just recently built. It's a dirt road, so may by it didn't show, secret path maybe for supplies." Jacky said. Blakes agreed. Then a thought came to Jacky.
"Think we should follow it?" Jacky asked. Blakes disagreed and stuck to the jungle. The one most important rule of the training was never follow trails unless it was necessary. In this case, it didn't sound like a good idea if it leads straight to the camp and into the eyes of the enemy. Stealth was the main priority of the mission. Almost two hours of running through the jungle and they finally got to the camp. It was make shift huts with small patrols of men with AK-47s, some weren't even eighteen yet, Jacky could tell by their faces. Jacky was scouting with the use of his binoculars. He could see twenty men, such a small force for a main camp.
"I got twenty skinnies in visual." Jacky said. Blakes thought this was weird, there were supposed to be more. Where were the rest?
"Was there any mention of a future attack somewhere?" Blakes asked.
"Not that I was aware of." Jacky said. Blakes decided to get on the radio.
"Alpha-9 this is Delta-2, what's your position, over?" Blakes said. Response came too.
"This is alpha-9, we are still on trek. E.T.A will be-" suddenly, there was gunfire being heard on the other side of the radio.
"RED FROST! RED FROST! ENEMY FIRE ENEMY FIRE!" Henderson yelled on the radio. Blakes and Jacky heard the distant gunfire, by the sound it was about five miles away. They were close. Blakes decided to get in contact with command.
"Command this is fourth squad, Ramirez and the rest have been compromised and are under heavy fire, orders sir!" Blakes said. Jacky became discouraged, how did they know we were coming? How did they find us?
"Fourth, what is your location?" Command asked.
"We are right in front of the camp. There are only twenty skinnies guarding the place." Blakes said.
"Your objective is to get the charges set and blow that camp sky high." Command said.
"But sir, our men are outnumbered and outgunned." Blakes mentioned. They wanted to go and help, but orders came first.
"We got Filipino forces coming to reinforce them in half an hour. Get the job done. Over and out!" Command said.
"Yes sir. Over and out." Blakes said with anger in his mind. Jacky once again scouted and saw the buildings they needed to destroy. The radio station, the armory, the barracks, and the command central building. All were easy due to the material they were built out of. Jacky gave the plan. They would take out the guards one by one, and set the charges as quietly as possible and get to a safe distance. They got the silencers on their guns and moved out. Jacky got the armory and command station, while Blakes got the radio station and barracks. Jacky saw two men guarding the front of the entrance of the command station smoking and speaking to one another about the villages they attacked. Jacky stuck to the darkness and went through the back window. He saw one man looking over the maps while drinking a cup of tea with a metal mug. He crept up, grabbed him and broke his neck to not leave a blood trail. The man didn't make a sound. He set the charges in the main rooms and moved on to the armory. When he got there, no guards, he found it strange at first, then moved on to it. He got inside and it was dark, he found a light, and looked around. AKs, mortar rounds, grenades, a couple of flamethrowers, pistols, all enough to start a war in the Philippines and would last the militia years. He looked around for a place to set the charges, then something caught his eye, a bunch of canisters with strange marks on them. He tried to read the letters on the barrels but they were in Russian. Why were their Russian products here? Black Market maybe? He decided to wait for Blakes to get done. When Blakes did get done, he went into the armory to check on Jacky.
"Jacky what the hell?! Are the charges set?" Blakes asked.
"Blakes over here!" Jacky whispered. Blakes followed the voice. He found Jacky standing next to the place where the strange weapons were. He saw them and questioned what they were.
"Jacky what are these?" Blakes asked.
"Ask as if I had a goddamn glue." Both looked at them and realized what they were.
"Holy shit! These are chemical weapons!" Blakes said.
"How did these skinnies get these, better yet this much?" Jacky asked.
"Doesn't matter, they're not going to use them, set the charges and let's get out of here. Just as they were setting the last charges they heard the alarm go off, they have been compromised. They set it up and decided to get out, just as they were heading to the door, a guard saw them and opened fired. They got back inside and took cover.
"Well Jacky, you wanted action, here it is." Blakes said. This was going to be a long night.
Hey guys I don't know code all that well so bear with it please. Thank you.