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Chapter Four;
It's All Quiet

In comparison to the wild fire Buffer and his crew were facing, at 4pm that afternoon the base at Cairns was surprisingly quiet. There was no speaking, no wild rumours or anecdotes that usually shot across the room from the gossipy young sailors, as everyone realised the severity of what was happening in Libertile. Amongst them, one of the more senior members of the base crew, Josh 'ET' Holliday was silently terrified. He'd almost expected to hear Mike Flynn's voice on the phone when the report of trouble had come into base, but then his old CO had done something no one had been expecting, he told Marshall to go and get stuffed. This had left ET both pleased and sweating. Evidently Mike had had enough of Marshall's new attitude of denying Mike everything he wanted to, but at the same time he knew Mike wouldn't defy the rules unless something was very wrong. He hadn't heard the start of the conversation, but had heard Marshall refer to a female member of the crew. That left two options; the X and Bomber. Unless something had gone very wrong and Nikki was in trouble. And that was why, in the hours since Mike's call, ET had been silently sweating as he worked. Anyone on the Hammersley being in trouble was scary enough, but if he lost Nikki…

"ET." A voice said and he looked up into the face of a seaman by the name of Hart. A tall, thin blonde girl, Jenny Hart was one of the more popular girls in the establishment. But she spurned the men's advances as she was all work. And now she was holding out a sheet of paper to him. She frowned at him too. "Are you alright ET?"

ET sighed then gathered himself. "Uh, yeah, I'll be fine." He gave her a smile. She narrowed her eyes at him but then left. He glanced down at the piece of paper before him and realised it was a set of co-ordinates he was meant to send to HMAS Waterhen, the Sydney base for the active ships of the Sydney-based fleet. Amongst this fleet, the warships of the ANZAC class and the HMAS Kanimbla, the Australian Navy's aircraft carrier. All of them were built not for defence but attack.

154'7 ºE, 14'9 ºS

And the co-ordinates he was sending were for Libertile.

ET swallowed hard with realisation. His task was to send people, people who wouldn't allow the Hammersley there, to war. And then he knew he had to contact the Hammersley as soon as possible.

An arrow thudded into the tree by Buffer's ear as he and the others fled back to the beach. Despite being up on numbers, the Navy men knew they had to leave the village far behind them before they could even consider turning on their men. In that village too many men were at risk. They didn't need another civilian, like that old man, to go down. Now, almost 2 kilometres out of the village, Buffer pressed his finger to his radio.

"Safe distance. Men, engage." Around him the others turned quickly, almost like a pirouette, and stared face on to the men. The islanders never saw it coming. In a barrage of gunfire they fell, only able to get off one arrow. It fell, harmlessly, at Dutchy's feet. He glanced down at it slowly. Then, their guns still held high in case any more men emerged, they strode towards the bodies. Kicking the crossbow away from the bullet-riddled body of the first man, Buffer stared down at him. Despite the 10+ bullets in him, the man was alive. Holding his gun over the man's face, Buffer spoke slowly. "Why are you here?"

The man struggled in French, his words escaping him in gasps. But Buffer knew he didn't understand, and Buffer didn't understand him. It was useless. He frowned at the dying man. "You're under arrest." He said. But it was a waste of time. A few seconds later his eyes closed and his body slumped. He was dead. Nearby the other insurgent was being looked over by Swain. He was in a better condition than the first guy, but not much. Having collected a bullet in the lung area, the man was gasping for breath and coughing up blood at the same time. He didn't look like he had long and Swain shook his head slowly. They wouldn't, and couldn't, get anything out of this man. Buffer, taking Archie aside, spoke to the still shaken young man.

"Caesar?" He asked.

Archie shook his head. "They came out of nowhere. We tried to radio you but nothing, the radios were down in there." Buffer had noticed that too. The minute they'd got out of the thick scrub the radios were fine, but deep in there, near the village and farms, they just emitted white noise when you attempted to use them. Something deep inside this place was interfering with their closed circuit radio systems. Archie continued. "They just grabbed him, shot him in the knee then carried him off. I couldn't do anything. There were about 8 of them. I just ran." He looked down, ashamed.

Buffer smacked him on the shoulder. "You did alright Archie, we didn't need to lose you too." He turned away from the seaman and looked back at Swain. With one last check of the islander's pulse, he confirmed the man dead. Standing up and passing Dutchy, who was watching the bodies with distaste on his face, he joined Buffer.

"Caesar was carried off by their lot." Buffer explained, motioning to the dead insurgents. "But by all accounts he's still alive." Swain nodded. "You know about these guys, what will they do with him?"

Swain shrugged. "They've already proven they know the value of hostages, but then they have Bomber so they might not need Caesar. Unless Bomber's escaped and they have orders to get another hostage."

"Or Bomber's dead." Buffer added sullenly. Swain looked at the ground. Clearly he didn't need to think about that. Buffer looked up and motioned to the others. "Come on, back to the beach. Take the crossbows Dutchy." Buffer called out to them. He lifted his radio. "Papa 82, this is Bravo 82. We're coming back. We have a lot to tell you."

On the bridge of the Hammersley the CO had his radio to his lips, chatting back to Buffer. From the bridge he could see his men emerge from the bushes and down onto the beach where Rhino and the RHIB sat waiting for them. This time he knew who had gone. Leading Seaman Julian 'Caesar' Royal. The man had only joined the Hammersley five months previous. Now he'd been captured, maybe killed. The CO frowned and blamed himself. That was one of the reasons his men liked him so much. He worried about their safety. And right now he was nervously scanning the bush behind his men for any sign of movement. But there were none. He breathed a sigh of relief as they got back into the RHIB and started back to the boat. Once they were far enough away the CO put down the binoculars and looked back at the X who was still sitting in the Captain's chair. He was about to speak when suddenly the phone went off and RO picked it up quickly. The CO watched his face as he answered, the usually emotionless radio operator's face contorting to confusion as he spoke. He then held the phone towards the CO.

"Sir, it's ET." The CO frowned and Nav's head snapped up at the name. RO continued. "He says he needs to talk to you, urgently."

The CO took the phone. "ET?" He said, surprised to hear his old clearance diver's voice.

ET was quickly to the point. "Sir, you need to get the hell out of there quickly. The warships are coming and when they get there, well, it isn't going to be pretty."