Chapter 52 - Combat Begins
Parsons was technically in command of a SEAL Platoon, two officers and 14 enlisted men. His platoon was further broken down to two 8 man squads, RED and BLUE, BLUE squad being commanded by his second in command Lieutenant Junior Grade (JG) Scott, who's call sign was BLUE 1, Parsons of course being RED 1. When the plane landed they had went immediately to a staging building, while Lieutenant Colonel Wolowitz and his men where lead to a hanger, away from them. This was highly unusual for a team going into a target to be separated like this, so close to the jumping off time. There was just too much intrigue going on for Parsons, with this Army Lieutenant Colonel, and he had a bad feeling about it all, as he looked at his men, the men whose lives he was responsible for.
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Once outside the door, Howard stepped immediately into the truck, standing outside the doorway, which was running and quickly started off, as soon as Howard was sitting. This suit was smaller in bulk than the first suit so sitting wasn't a problem for Howard as it was for Leonard in the original suit. He rode quietly to the Helicopters, and after getting there, he waited inside the truck for the SEAL Platoon to arrive. He didn't wait long, it was only a couple minutes later when two more trucks drove up and the SEALs got out with their equipment.
Parsons got out of the truck immediately noticing that the Army Lieutenant Colonel wasn't there and he thought maybe his superiors had come to their senses and changed their minds about him coming. "FUCK!" Parsons almost ran into the man who had stopped right in front of him and was looking at something behind him.
"Move it Petty Officer Smith." Parsons said with a little aggravation
Smith didn't move, he just pointed, "You got to see this Sir."
Parsons turned around and stood just as surprised as Smith as he watched it walk towards him. "What the hell is that."
The new suit was more streamline than the first suit because it was made by professionals just for this type of use. With the ceramic plates on it, it looked like a cross between a knight and a storm trooper now, and it was still almost 7 feet tall, but now it had a camouflage coating covering it, if it looked scary before it now looked positively deadly. As Howard approached all the SEALs slowly stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Howard walked directly to Parsons and handed him a headset that was plugged by a wire into the suit he was wearing.
Parsons just nodded and put the headset on. "Lieutenant Parsons." Parsons just nodded, "This is why I thought it was better I showed you than tried to explain."
In a million years Parsons would never had expected this, he wasn't sure what to make of it. 'Sir….I mean Tin Man, what are you?"
"It's called MASS, Mobile Armored Soldier System, RED 1. I'm sort of bullet proof, so they want me to lead you in." Howard explained.
Parsons just stared at it, "We've never trained with you Sir. I don't know how to use you." Parsons confessed.
"Yes, of course. But I'm yours to use as you see fit." Howard was actually relieved he wasn't going to make any decisions in this situation, he didn't have a clue how to act in.
"Do you have weapons….or need them?" Parsons asked, he needed to know more, this was crazy but somehow he was now thinking maybe this thing could help, especially if it was really bulletproof.
"I have a laser and a high intensity light source. They gave you all goggles, right?"
Parsons nodded, now knowing why the goggles were so important. "A real laser, like Star Wars!" Parsons was still in disbelief at what was standing in front of him.
Howard chuckled, he wished it was like Star Wars. "No just a laser, I have only 10 shots, so I have to make them worth while and if I use the high intensity light, that's a shot."
Parsons nodded, "Sir are you ready to board?"
"Yes, Red 1, where you want me to sit?"
"Follow me…..Tin Man." Parsons then went to his designated helicopter, Howard following.
The SEALs all still just stood there watching it move to and into the helicopter, until their Chief Petty Officer, woke them from their trance. "Okay, SEALs are you going to stay here or going to joint us!" The men started moving again.
"Red 1, could you plug me into the helicopter intercom?" Parsons yelled to the crew chief who got a cord to plug into the suit. "Can you hear me." Howard asked and noticed the crew chief nod with eyes that were still wide as he looked at him.
"I weigh about half a ton, to be exact, 962 pounds." Howard told him the crew chief who now immediately looked a weight board.
The crew chief turned to Parsons. "Sir you can only put four men in here, the rest will have to go to the other helicopter."
Parsons got his men moved around quickly, then the helicopters lifted off, they were special helicopters that were very quiet and had special shapes and coatings to reduce their RADAR signature. They weren't in the air more than 10 minutes before they crossed the border heading into the country at about 120 knots, to a location about a 100 miles from the border, where the faculty was located. Parsons talked with Howard for another 30 minutes until he couldn't think of anything else extremely important to ask, he still had a million questions, but they would have to wait. "Okay sir, you need to get yourself mentally ready, it is only 30 more minutes till we are on the ground. After that just listen to me."
"Okay." Howard leaned back in the seat and tried to get himself mentally ready, but he couldn't help thinking about Bernadette. He closed his eyes and pictured her in his mind, his minds eyes saw her in a hospital bed with a little bundle in her arms, smiling at the tiny baby she held. It was the most beautiful picture he had ever seen, and it made him sigh, he had no idea what was going to happen to him, the thought of how he lied to Bernadette making him feel guilty again.
Parsons sat back too, thinking about his wife and little girl, this was harder for them than him, he knew he might not come back and was prepared for it, but he knew they worried he wouldn't come back every time he left, it was much harder on them. The other men in the helicopter all sat quietly each in their own thoughts, or talking softly to each other, everyone preparing themselves for what was to come.
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Turner was in a special command post in the Pentagon, with several higher ranking officers and the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), watching a plot of the progress from the helicopters. "How long till they touch down?" The man asking wearing four stars on his shoulder because he was Chief of the Joint Chiefs.
The major quickly responding, "25 minutes, Sir", as everyone noticed the Four Star General look at the SECDEF who just nodded.
Turner spent the next few minutes trying to keep busy by looking at paper messages, he wished he had his tablet with him, but those electronics were not allowed in there, so he read the pieces of paper. He stopped and stared at the one from Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter, Leonard wanted to know if Turner knew where his friend Howard was and it made Turner feel guilty as he looked back up to see the helicopters' progress. He actually wished he had Leonard here with him or even in the suit, Leonard had fought and killed before, but then again, Leonard had really done enough, more than enough, his young wife deserved to have him safe with her. Looking at the helicopters on the screen again, he realized that Howard really paid enough too and his pregnant wife deserved to have him safe with her too, but even though it wasn't fair, someone always had to go in harms way, today it was Howard and the SEALs.
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Everything happened fast, the helicopters coming down and everyone getting out quickly, Howard finding himself kneeling on the ground next to Parsons, watching the helicopters pull off and disappearing into the night. He waited with Parsons while Parsons' men secured the area, listening to the radio now as each man checked in. They hardly said a thing, only very short messages as they did their jobs, sometimes only one word or a mike click to respond. It was almost supernatural to Howard, Parsons' men moved quickly and quietly around, and since it was dark, Howard watched the whole thing through the infrared system built into his helmet which registered heat.
"Lets move." Parsons told Howard and he got up to follow the man, he knew they were almost a mile away from the site, so now they would have to walk.
It took about an hour to move that mile and Howard was really tired when he finally got to stop. He had never moved so much in the suit and he knew if he hadn't been working out for the last couple of months he would have never made it. He waited below a ridge as the SEALs deployed and Parsons moved to the top of the ridge to look around. Howard sat and rested while he did an internal systems check on the suit, even after traveling a mile he still had 90 percent power in the suit so he was doing good, plus everything was still green, so at least things were going well so far. Howard had been briefed on the plan, so he knew what was going to happen next, there were two anti-aircraft guns close by, a danger to the helicopters coming close and four towers and four walking guards, the SEALs were going to neutralize all that threat.
Parsons had one squad on this side of the facility and the other had moved around to the other side to set up. Each squad had a sniper team that now set up, they had silenced high powered rifles, and each took aim at one of the guard towers. There were also two guards at the front gate and two patrol guards walking around the perimeter fence, the SEAL team waited till the patrol guards walked around to the back of the faculty fence, where they were farthest away from the gate guards before they struck.
It was Parsons who sent everything in motion when he got the indication that the guards were walking around the back fence and with one work 'GO' everything started. Almost immediately the sniper, on each side, rifles coughed, then they both sighted in the second tower and their rifles coughed again, the tower guards were now down. The two guards walking the back gate where then hit with 9 MM rounds from silenced MP5SD submachine guns dropping them both. The gun crews were taken out quickly by Parsons men again with the silenced machine guns, while the guards at the front gate fell to the same fate. Suddenly pure silence now filled the night, it was the sound of death. However, it only lasted a few seconds thought, as suddenly a loud Klaxon sounded, and a revolving red light flashed on the door to the faculty, the soldiers inside knew they were there.
Howard heard Parsons yell 'MOVE' over the radio then saw Parsons wave at him to follow, so Howard went up the small ridge and followed the SEAL Commander. With the suit he barely heard the Klaxon, but he saw the revolving light and the SEALs moving quickly, it was obvious something was not going right. For the first time since everything started Howard was feeling scared.