Part 2 Chapter 7
Ela's vision whited out. She felt as if she were floating in slow motion. Her skin burned like someone had set her on fire.
Her feeling of floating was abruptly ended by the impact of the ground beneath her. The whiteness in her eyes cleared as she found herself lying on her back. Black smoke poured into the air. Bits of rock and hot shrapnel rained down pelting her body. The tinnitus in her ears made her nauseous. Everything around her appeared to be moving in slow motion. The air smelt of burning flesh and death. She rolled over onto her stomach grimacing in pain. She watched crowds of people running and screaming in all directions. She could hear a baby crying from somewhere.
Bodies laid motionless all around her.
The Marine who had tried to approach the child with the ball laid a few meters away from her screaming for help as a pool of blood began to form around him. A Marine medic ran over to him and began to treat his injuries. The other Marines screamed at everyone to clear the area. They swept their guns wildly back and forth at the fleeing civilians.
The ringing in Ela's ears began to subside but the voices and screams all around her sounded muffled as if she were underwater.
The child! Her conscience screamed at her.
She looked to where she had last seen the child playing.
The only evidence that remained of the boy was a pair of charred children's sneakers smoldering in the dirt.
The sight made Ela vomit.
Ela wiped her mouth and noticed her ear piece dangling from her coat. She fumbled with it in her trembling hands and placed it in her ear. Her radio at switched to channel 2. Her ear piece lit up with voices of panicking Marines trying desperately to figure out what was going on.
"WE HAVE A MAN DOWN I REPEAT WE HAVE A MAN DOWN!"
"WE NEED A QRF DOWN HERE IMMIDIATELY!"
"WHAT HAPPENED?"
"THAT BOY WITH THE BALL BLEW HIMSELF UP!"
She pressed a button switching her radio back to their squad's secure radio frequency.
"Ela?" She heard Dominic's underwater voice through the radio.
She pressed the button on her mic to speak but couldn't muster any words.
"Ela, can you hear me?" Bandit asked with desperation in his voice.
Silence.
"Guardian 2 do you have a visual on Ela?"
"Negative. I have zero visibility. Smoke and dust is too thick." She heard Thatcher's underwater voice say.
"Copy that. Thatcher and Thermite cover me. I'm going after Ela."
Ela looked up to the scattering crowd moving in slow motion around her.
Her heart fluttered as she watched all the shop vendors slowly and casually put on white hockey masks and drew an arsenal of weaponry.
"CONTACTS 12 O'CLOCK 25 METERS!" A Marine called out.
All the Marines reacted to the call out in slow motion.
A round whizzed over Ela's head which snapped her vision and hearing back to normal as adrenaline began to course through her veins.
This was the moment her team had been preparing for.
Ela watched as a man with a PKM light machine gun unloaded on the medic helping the wounded Marine.
His rounds cut the Marine down turning his body to gory swiss cheese.
The squad of Marines began to retaliate as an all-out firefight erupted in the market between the two factions with Ela stuck completely exposed in their crossfire. She continued to lay on the ground as bullets screamed over her left and right side. Civilians who hadn't vacated the area yet were cut down by the overwhelming amount of suppressive fire.
Ela needed to find cover.
She glanced her eyes up at a vendor stand 15 meters in front of her. She looked to her left at the man on the PKM. His first belt of ammunition was almost depleted. She'd run when he reloaded. Ela looked to her right. The squad of Marines had regrouped, and a few others had joined the battle.
"RELOADING!" The PKM machine gunner called out in Arabic.
Ela jumped to her feet and ran in a dead sprint for the vendor stand. Her sudden movement took the Marines by surprise.
They must have thought she was a corpse.
The White Masks tried to shoot Ela down, but they missed wildly. She was too quick and too small of a target to hit. Ela dove head first over the counter landing in a heap inside the stand. She ripped off her robe exposing her battle dress. She pulled her shemagh down around her neck exposing her long brown pony tailed hair. Bullets began to rip the stand she was using as cover to splinters.
Clearly the stand wouldn't hold up for very long.
Thermite keyed up on their frequency.
"Bandit this is Guardian 2. I have eyes on Ela. South East side of the market in one of the vendor stands about 50 meters West from you. She's right in the middle of the enemy's kill zone. Permission to provide cover fire from above."
"Copy that, I'm moving. You're free to engage all hostiles." Bandit said as he stayed low and weaved through the masses of people trying to get away from the firefight.
Ela keyed up on her coms.
"Ela to all units can you hear me?"
"Ela this is Bandit I hear you. What's your status?" She could hear him huffing and puffing as he ran.
"I'm okay. Stuck under heavy fire. I'm engaging both factions." Ela said as she unclipped her Scorpion Evo from her vest.
She loaded a fresh magazine and cocked her weapon.
She took aim at the man with the PKM machine gun who was taking aim at the cover she was behind. She let off a small burst from her SMG nailing the man in the head showering his teammates next to him in blood. The Masks began to fire at Ela's position. More and more White Masks began to push into the market forcing the Marines to withdraw. Ela noticed some of the White Masks firing at her randomly crumpling to the ground with gaping chest wounds. Another Mask's head exploded despite him being hidden behind cover. She noticed a small flash from the roof of the abandoned apartment building on the north side of the market. The flash of light was from sunlight reflecting off glass.
Wow. The old guys are better shots than I thought. Ela thought smiling at her teammates handy work. She wasn't sure if it was Thatcher or Thermite doing most of the shooting.
"CONTACT 1 O'CLOCK HIGH! BROWN APARTMENT BUILDING ROOF TOP!" A Marine called out to his teammates. Some of the Marines began to take pot shots at Thatcher and Thermite's look out point mistaking them as terrorists.
"Pierdolić. (Fuck.)" She said to herself watching and contemplating how to help her teammates.
She began to hear the sound of an engine and tires on gravel from the Marine's side of the battlefield. A US Stryker rumbled its way through the entrance of the market and began to hammer Thatcher and Thermite's position with its 105mm cannon.
"BLOODY YANKEES!" Thatcher yelled as the two operators ran away from the edge of the roof.
'You got any EMP grenades?" Thermite asked staying way from the roof's edge.
'Yeah!"
'Throw one at that Stryker."
Thatcher unclipped an EMP grenade, primed the charge and heaved it as far as he could across the market. The grenade landed in proximity of the Stryker and exploded with a thunderous boom. The Stryker abrutply seized fire. The Marine infantry, however, continued to hammer away at their position.
"Proszę, wybacz mi, bóg. (Please God forgive me.)" Ela said as she unclipped one of her Gerzmot mines.
She threw the mine at the Marines aimed at Thatcher and Thermite. The mine exploded sounding like a clap of lightning. The Marines in proximity of the mine dropped to the floor holding their ears screaming in pain. Ela tried to take aim at the incapacitated Marines but the White Masks on her opposite side began to fire forcing her back into cover. Ela heard footsteps rushing toward her. She pulled out her pistol and was about to start shooting when a man hurtled over her cover knocking Ela over. The man wore a black and yellow leather jacket, ripped jeans, black sneakers, and a GSG 9 helmet with a badasclava over his face.
The look was all to familiar.
"Were you about to shoot me?" Banidt asked loading a fresh magazine into his MP7.
'I didn't know if you were a bad guy or not. Sorry." Ela said wiping away the dirt caked to her face.
"Save the apologies for later. Let's get you out of here."
Valkyrie watched the firefight unfold through her cameras. She monitored both factions as the chaos unfolded on her laptop screen. She gave call outs of targets presenting themselves to her teammates.
"I'll be back in a jiffy!" Vanguard yelled to her as he ran out the door with his gear half dangling off him.
She desperately wanted to join Vanguard in helping her friends, but she had to stay back and monitor the US military's actions. She was their only eyes and ears monitoring their radio traffic and movements.
The Marines on the ground screamed for air support but a bird couldn't get up in the air in time due to "weather." All could be mustered for the poor bastards was the Stryker but Thatcher's EMP grenade had shut it down for good. Valkyrie watched as the White Masks continued to push the Marines back. She swiveled to where Ela and Bandit were hiding in a vendor's stand together. They too would be overrun by the Masks if they didn't move. Then things took an even darker turn for her team. US military chatter began to liven up.
"Overlord, this is Viper 6-1 checking in. Flight of 2-1 ZULU Cobras time from station 30 mikes holding angels 2 Southwest of area Prussia. Armed with: 8 Hellfires, 4 TOWs, 1800 rounds between us. Requesting to divert from flight path to area Prussia to assist Goliath under contact, break."
"Viper 6-1 this is Overlord. If you have enough fuel to provide air cover and make it back to base, then you have my permission to assist. How copy?"
"Copy that. We have plenty of fuel sir we'll make this brief. ETA to area Prussia 3 mikes."
"Goliath from Overlord, you have Viper 6-1, two Cobra gunships armed for bear coming out of the Southeast, maintaining angels 2. Patching them to you now."
"Copy that Overlord. Preparing 6 lines." A radio operator said. The firefight could be heard in the background whenever he spoke.
Valkyrie felt a pit in her stomach. 2 Cobra gunships inbound with a shit ton of ordnance ready to annihilate anything they saw on their thermals in the market place.
She had to warn her friends.
"Valkyrie to all units operating on the battleground. 2 Cobra gunships are armed set to strafe the entire market place. You have to evacuate the area."
"This is Vanguard. I'm almost at the market place. We can't leave without capturing at least one of the Masks."
"You do not have time Vanguard. The Cobras will begin their strafe at any moment."
As if on cue, one of the cobra pilots keyed up on comms.
"Goliath, I have your squad in my sights. I see multiple hostiles on thermals north of your position as well as two snipers in a brown apartment building across from your position. Am I clear to engage?"
"Viper 6-1 you are clear to engage."
The Marine radio operator began to give Viper 6-1 lines of engagement.
Ela and Bandit heard the beating of chopper blades. The White Masks screamed fearfully in Arabic pointing at the Cobras and began to run.
Valkyrie was right.
They were out of time.
"RUUUUUUUUN!" Bandit screamed pushing Ela out of the shopping stand.
The two operators sprinted out into the open as the ground around them began to explode from the two Cobra's explosive chain gun rounds. Any Mask in front of the two Cobras was evaporated into a red chunky mist. They ran for an alley way 30 meters from their position. They could see Vanguard from the alley way waving at them to hurry up. The White Masks ran for their lives as the gunships strafed over the market. The US Marines fired at the two operators as they darted across the battlefield. Their rounds buzzed passed them as they fled.
Thermite watched the Cobra gunships approach their building from their look out point. Each Cobra fired a rocket at their building.
"MOVE IT OLD MAN OUR POSITION IS TOAST!" Thermite yelled as he grabbed Thatcher and practically threw him down the stairs. The Cobra rockets impacted the front face of the building.
The explosions from the rockets made the building shudder.
"SHE'S GOING TO COLLAPSE!" Thatcher yelled.
The two operators jumped from a window down toward a building rooftop 2 stories below them. Their abandoned apartment building crumbled behind them.
Ela and Bandit made it to the alley way with Vanguard.
They tore off down the alley back toward their base.
Bandit assumed the mission was a failure until he heard screaming from behind him.
A White Mask laid 15 meters shy of the alleyway the operators had used to escape the market. He held his thigh as blood oozed out between his fingers. Bandit turned around and ran back out into the market.
"BANDIT GET BACK HERE BEFORE YOU GET YOURSELF KILLED!" Vanguard screamed at him.
Marines fired at Bandit as he darted out into the market, grabbed the wounded White Mask by the back of his jacket, and dragged him into the alleyway. Ela peaked around the wall of the alley and covered him as he ran back to them. One of the Marines firing at Bandit got clipped by Ela's covering fire and crumpled to the ground.
You idiot. You just broke an international truce between allies. Ela's conscience rang in the back of her head.
Bandit dragged the man into the alley and then hoisted him on his shoulders. They made a break for it out of the market place leaving the sounds of the massacre taking place behind them.
"ALL UNITS THIS IS VANGUARD, PACKAGE SECURE WE'RE RTB ALL UNITS EVACUATE THE MARKET PLACE!" Vanguard yelled as they ran.
"This is Guardian 2 copy that we are RTB. Just give us a few minutes." Thermite's voice said.
"Thermite are you okay?" Valkyrie asked through their comms.
"Yeah… peachy… like I said just give us a couple of minutes."
"Copy."
The Cobra gunships hovered just above the buildings surrounding the market. They began to unleash the last of their ordinance leveling the entire market. Ela, Bandit, and Vanguard continued to sprint home while carrying the wounded White Masked man. They tried their best to tune out the screams all around them.