AN1
Who Dares Wins
Chapter Six: A Soldier's Redemption
Ten days later
Sunday, 21 October, 2007
Manchester
United Kingdom
07:00 hours
A convoy of vehicles carrying Red and Blue Teams of Mobility troop, G Squadron, SAS entered onto a street in Manchester. This particular street was about to play host to a raid onto a block of apartments housed inside a six-storey apartment complex. This morning's raid had all came about in the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attacks in London that both of the teams had confronted head-on ten days ago. The SAS had received intelligence by the Security Service, otherwise known as MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5). The Security Service was the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, and it was part of the U.K.'s intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6, GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), and Defence Intelligence (DI). The responsibility of counter-terrorism and espionage within the U.K. was the responsibility of MI5. And as such, MI5 had been working overtime since the attack six days ago to intelligence gather and to piece together if there was still any of the terrorist cell remaining which quickly led them to the location of today's raid. MI5 believed that this specific apartment complex was the primary bomb-making location that the terrorists had used to build the explosive vests that they used to attack London six days ago. MI5 had quickly passed on the information and liaised with the SAS, and Mobility troop was subsequently ordered to raid the location to capture or kill those accountable for the attack on London.
"Rules of Engagement?" Bryce asked into the communications channel, and Chuck glanced briefly to the left of him to look at Bryce who was seated in the front passenger seat dressed in full assault gear like the rest of the team, before Chuck averted his glance away from his teammate, and he continued on driving one of the teams red Range Rovers up the street to the target location. Chuck's vehicle had the lead, and there were three more vehicles following on behind, each with four highly trained and deadly special forces soldiers inside.
"Box 500 (MI5) would like live captures if possible. But not at the risk and safety of the team or civilians inside of the apartment block. You are clear to engage any potential hostile found with a weapon or explosives," Captain Wallace stated into the communications channel.
"Have Box 500 or anyone else been able to ascertain which apartment or apartments we're supposed to hit since we departed Hereford?" Staff Sergeant MacDonald inquired.
"Negative. It is deemed too risky to set up surveillance. The apartment complex is an extremely high-value target, and we wanted the location secured and raided for information the moment we learnt of its existence," Captain Wallace replied.
"Affirmative," Staff Sergeant MacDonald said.
"Red and Blue teams, in position," Chuck declared as he pulled the lead vehicle to a stop and he glanced at his mirrors as the rest of the special forces convoy pulled to a halt.
"Affirmative. You have a green light to execute. Good hunting," Captain Wallace said.
With the green light to commence the operation given, Chuck departed from out of the lead vehicle, and he was quickly followed by the other fifteen soldiers of Mobility troop. With the contingent of elite special forces soldiers now departed from their cars, they rapidly closed the twenty meters in formation until reaching the entrance of the six-storey apartment complex. The apartment complex contained four apartments on each floor. The plan of the operation that had been agreed upon back at Hereford was an early morning raid and a silent entry by lock picking their way into the premises. Once they had entered inside, Red and Blue would split into four teams of four where they would simultaneously silently breach and secure all four rooms on the ground floor in search of their target, which was the base of the terrorists. A small team of four would remain posted on the ground floor to secure the entrance to the apartment complex and the elevator, which was located in the middle of the facility opposite the stairway.
Once the ground floor was secured, and all of the civilians that they may encounter were silently evacuated, the remaining twelve operators would then use the stairwell to advance on up to the upper echelons in search of their objective. Even if Mobility troop found their objective on the ground floor, command and MI5 had already ordered that all twenty-four apartments in the complex be secured and cleared.
Chuck and the rest of Mobility troop were now in position outside of the apartment block. They immediately grouped up outside the block of apartments, and Chuck watched on as Bryce, who had been designated point-man due to his expertise shown during selection in breaching, quickly got to work on picking the lock to the door of the main entrance. Chuck continued to observe as his teammate made short work of the lock and in less than a minute, the door clicked open, and the sixteen man team silently entered into the apartment complex, and they split off into their subsections.
Chuck, Bryce, Dan and Sarah were now outside the door of Apartment 1A which was on the immediate left of the main entrance to the apartment block. Bryce immediately began to pick the lock of the apartment as he had done so on the main entrance. He completed this task much quicker as the lock was not as advanced as the one present on the main entrance. With the lock of the door clicking open, Bryce took the lead, and Chuck was quickly inside after him followed by Dan and Sarah. With the small team now inside of the apartment, they quickly swept it, and it was empty of yankees or x-rays. The apartment was habitable, but nobody was present inside of it, nor did anything look suspicious inside of the apartment.
"Yep, no bomb factory here," Sarah stated, and Chuck nodded in agreement, with Bryce and Dan following suit.
"Team Alpha, Apartment 1A secured. No sign of primary objective and no yankees present," Chuck said on comms.
"Affirmative," Captain Wallace said.
The other three teams quickly came on the air.
"Team Bravo, Apartment 1B secured. No sign of primary objective and two yankees startled but calmed and ordered to evacuate quietly," Staff Sergeant MacDonald stated in a whisper.
"Affirmative," Captain Wallace said.
"Team Charlie, Apartment 1C secured. No sign of primary objective and one yankee secured and ordered to evacuate," Blue Team leader Staff Sergeant Williams stated.
"Affirmative," Captain Wallace said.
"Team Delta, Apartment 1D secured. No sign of primary objective and two yankees secured," Blue Team member Joe Lewis said.
"Affirmative. Ground floor secured. Continue with advance," Captain Wallace ordered.
Chuck, Bryce, Sarah and Dan all began to exit Apartment 1A, and they entered into the hallway of the ground floor. They paused in wait for Team Bravo and Team Charlie to link up with them before advancing to the upper-echelons when they noted activity in the elevator to the left of them. They immediately trained their sights onto the elevator, and Chuck reported the development into the team's communication channel.
"Standby. Elevator in use," he declared, and by now both Bravo and Charlie teams had joined Chuck's team, and the three small teams waited for a few seconds until the elevator dinged wide open.
Now in Chuck's sight inside of the elevator was a middle eastern young adult male. The male in question immediately turned nervous with his gaze locking onto the crack SAS soldiers all pointing their guns at him.
"Hello there," Chuck heard his teammate Bryce say jokingly to the male in question.
"ABDUL! POLICE! ABDUL! POL..." the middle eastern man suddenly began to scream in panic, but he was immediately interrupted as Chuck watched on as his teammate Bryce sharply connected the butt of his rifle onto the man's head which sent the male unconscious, and he landed onto the floor of the elevator with a loud thud.
"The bastard was giving me a headache," Bryce joked, and he turned to look at his troop once more. The entire troop either began to laugh mutedly, or to nod their heads approvingly at Bryce's actions.
"Too right, mate. Good job," Jamie Hughes said in approval.
"Thanks," Bryce replied, accompanied with a nod aimed at his team.
"Are we compromised?" John Murray suddenly asked.
Chuck and the rest of his troop instantly started to mull over their teammate's question.
"I'm not sure. We'd better advance on quickly just to be safe," Staff Sergeant MacDonald stated, and the entire troop all nodded as they immediately began to advance on up the large stairwell to the first floor of the apartment complex.
"Command, one potential hostile disabled who emerged from the elevator," Cole stated into comms.
"Affirmative," Captain Wallace responded...
-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-
Chuck and the rest of his twelve-man team entered the first floor, and they were in the process of clearing it much the same as the ground floor only they were now in groups of three. Chuck, Bryce and Dan were breaching into Apartment 2A, and once more, Chuck watched on as his teammate made short work of the lock, and they were inside the apartment in an instant. On entering inside after his teammate, Bryce went right, and Chuck went left. They quickly began to secure the apartment, and Chuck started to creep silently into a bedroom. Once inside the room, his gaze connected onto a sleeping Caucasian adult female, and he immediately proceeded to walk over to the bed, and he moved to place his hand over the woman's mouth to startle her awake. He instantly achieved his desired effect, and he observed as a strong look of fear formed on the woman's face.
He began to smile at her, reassuringly, and he moved to put his second hand up to his own face, and he placed his index finger on his lips in a shushing manner.
"You have nothing to worry about, ma'am. We're British Army, and we're here on a raid concerning the attack on London. Please don't make any loud noise or you will alert the bad guys that we are here to capture," Chuck stated, soothingly, and he watched as the young woman nodded compliantly, and only on her doing so did he feel safe enough to remove his hand from her mouth.
"What should I do?" she asked him in fear.
"We need you to evacuate the premises. We are pretty sure there are explosives in this block somewhere, and you're in extreme danger. You need to leave in a quiet and orderly manner exactly as you are dressed right now, ok?" he asked.
She nodded in compliance.
"Thank you," he said as he smiled at her, and Bryce joined him in the bedroom.
"The apartment is clear. There are no yankees in the other rooms and no primary objective," Bryce informed Chuck whilst making sure not to state the name of his teammate because of operational security.
Chuck nodded at his teammate.
"Apartment 2A clear. One yankee secured and no sign of primary objective," Chuck said quietly into comms.
"Affirmative," Captain Wallace responded.
The other three teams quickly came on the air, and they reported in their statuses.
O-x-O-x-O-x-O
The first floor was now fully secure, and Mobility troop had still not discovered the bomb-making factory.
Chuck and the rest of his large team had linked up once more, and they were advancing on up to the second floor. Bryce was in the lead when suddenly, Chuck's glance connected onto a young middle eastern man who was quickly descending the stairs, and he almost ran smack-bang into Bryce when he froze in place. Chuck watched on as the middle eastern man's gaze connected onto Chuck and his entire team on the stairway, and he watched as the man immediately turned back around and he began to dash back up the stairs in a scramble and he started screaming, "POLICE! POLICE!"
Chuck observed as his teammate Bryce immediately gave chase, quickly followed by himself and the rest of his team as the elite special forces team began to ascend the stairwell in pursuit of the hostile at a rapid pace.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU BASTARD!" Chuck heard his teammate scream as Chuck attempted to keep up with his teammate, but the hostile and his teammate were too fast for him as the twelve-man team, and the hostile, quickly passed the entrance to the second floor.
"Bryce, wait!" Chuck called out as he and the rest of the team continued to chase after the hostile being chased by their teammate as they now passed the entrance to the third floor.
"We need to catch the fucker before he blows the whole fucking building up!" Bryce shouted back, and the chase down continued as the team, and the hostile, passed the entrance to the fourth floor, and they were now heading at speed up to the fifth and final floor.
Chuck no longer had his teammate or the hostile in his line of sight.
"Bryce, for fuck sake, mate!" Chuck called out as he attempted to keep up with and provide cover for his teammate when he heard the door slam open up above him, and he continued to listen to the screams of the hostile and Chuck continued to chase until he was now at the top of the fifth floor and there were no more stairs remaining.
He quickly entered onto the floor as he catched a final glimpse of his teammate entering into an apartment followed by the rest of the team following on right behind him. Chuck dashed along the corridor of the fifth floor, and he trained his rifle to where he had just seen his teammate enter into the apartment, and as he did so, he could see a hostile in his line of view carrying a large knife. The hostile was about to lunge undoubtedly in the direction of his teammate so Chuck aimed his rifle, and he discharged a rapid burst from his L119A1 CQB 10 inch Carbine onto the terrorist lunging at his teammate with a massive knife. Almost immediately after, Chuck heard the discharging of a Sig Sauer P226 pistol from his teammate at the same target. His teammate probably would have connected the shot before the terrorist had reached him, but Chuck was taking no chances as he didn't have his teammate in view, so he didn't know his teammate was armed.
Chuck quickly entered into the apartment, and he scanned his view around the apartment for any further threat to him and to his teammates. During his scan of the apartment, he instantly connected his gaze onto his teammate grappling with a second X-ray who was the same one from the stairway, and he rushed over to aid his teammate.
Lining up his rifle, he connected a devastating blow from the butt of the rifle onto the spine of the hostile which caused the terrorist's grip to loosen on Bryce, and the terrorist slumped backwards to land on the floor of the apartment.
"Contact!" Cole yelled into comms, who entered into the apartment along with many other of their teammates, and they all began to assess the situation inside of the apartment.
"Sit rep!" Captain Wallace demanded with an urgent tone. Captain Wallace was back in the operations room in Hereford, and each special forces soldier was wearing body cams, so he would have access to the footage, but there was usually a short delay in the footage transmitting back to the base, so the Captain likely hadn't seen the engagement just yet.
On getting his breath back from the intense chase down, Bryce said, "One hostile KIA. He lunged at me with a knife. We have secured a second hostile. The second hostile was attempting to rush to explosive vests found in the apartment to probably detonate and destroy the evidence, but I fought the fucker off."
Taking in his teammate's words, Chuck immediately glanced around the apartment, and it was an absolute goldmine of intelligence gathering. There were explosives and chemicals everywhere, not to mention numerous other items of interest.
"Affirmative. Good job," Captain Wallace said, approvingly.
"Holy fuck! It's a gold mine!" Cole stated with excitement as he began to glance and survey around the apartment.
Chuck started to shake his head at Bryce, accompanied by a wide grin. "Fucking hell, Bryce!" he exclaimed with an approving laugh, as Chuck started to pant furiously from that extremely intense chase down along with the rest of their team following suit just like him…
-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-
09:00 hours
The apartment complex in Manchester was now completely secure. The SAS with the help of Armed Greater Manchester Police had evacuated the premises. Command and control back at Hereford had liaised with Greater Manchester Police because twenty-four apartments was a large number to fully secure with no further silent approach for a team of sixteen. The complex did contain a bomb-making factory inside of the apartment that Bryce had chased the terrorist into. That terrorist, along with the one from the elevator, had now been secured, and they would be taken to a police station where MI5 would be questioning them extensively. Inside of Apartment 6D was sophisticated bomb-making materials, two laptops, many mobile phone devices and a large portion of physical intelligence paperwork. The entire apartment was a treasure trove of intelligence. Bryce may have single-handedly given the intelligence services a goldmine because that terrorist that Bryce had chased down would have undoubtedly blown the apartment sky high if Bryce hadn't had given chase. Bryce had certainly made up for what happened in London six days ago in Chuck's opinion. In addition to Apartment 6D, there was also numerous items of interest in Apartment 6C, which was adjacent to 6D and the SAS had immediately cleared it just earlier by kicking in the door along with every other door once their silent approach had come to a dramatic conclusion.
The intelligence-gathering operation was now about to begin as numerous MI5 employees started to arrive as also had a unit of the Royal Logistic Corps. The Royal Logistic Corps was the organization that made safe bombs and explosives among numerous other things of interest in the United Kingdom.
There was now also a police cordon in place around the block of flats. A large crowd was beginning to gather out in the street. Because of the crowd gathering, the SAS had just been ordered by command to return to base due to OPSEC (operational security) purposes as the secrecy of their identities was vital to the safety of their operations.
"That fucker was quick. I couldn't keep up," Chuck stated incredulously to his team that were standing together at their vehicles. He watched as his entire team either nodded or laughed in agreement.
"Yeah, he was. But I got the bastard," Bryce declared as he began to glance at his team.
"You did, mate," John Murray said with pride.
"Yeah, seriously. Good job, Trooper," Staff Sergeant MacDonald said with praise to his team-member.
"There's so much information in that apartment that could lead us down numerous avenues. Seriously Bryce, good job. If you hadn't have apprehended him, then he probably would have detonated one of the prepared explosive vests," Chuck said, and he proceeded to nod with approval towards his teammate.
"I needed to show you guys that I still have some value to the team," Bryce said as he continued to glance around the fifteen other soldiers.
"Well, you certainly showed that mate. We might just get the whole cell and maybe some game-changing intel on other cells through your quick actions firstly in disabling the fucker in the lift that was screaming, and then the second you grappled with," Blue Team Leader Staff Sergeant Williams stated…
A short while later
Red and Blue Teams were heading in transit back to their base in Hereford after a successful operation. Chuck was driving the lead vehicle, with Bryce in the front seat, and John Murray and Jamie Hughes in the back.
"This is BBC Radio One, and we have a belter of a tune to bring to you this morning to start your day. Here is Modjo with – Lady (Hear Me Tonight). Enjoy."
"Oh, oh! Here we go!" Chuck stated with excitement, and he proceeded to turn up the volume of the radio in the SUV full-blast.
"Oh shit, what a tune!" John Murray exclaimed in approval.
Chuck sang the first line of the song.
John Murray quickly joined in and sang the second.
Their actions caused Jamie Hughes to join in the singalong with the third.
Chuck continued the singalong until Jamie took over, then John Murray finished.
Bryce laughed at their actions. "Um, guys, everyone in this car is singing," he informed the team on their communications channel, which caused strong laughter to erupt among the whole team of sixteen.
"Oh, here we go, a drive-back would never be a drive-back without Chuck blasting out the tunes!" Cole stated endearingly to his best friend into the communication channel, which caused Chuck to smile and the team to laugh strongly once more.
"You know it, Cole," Chuck said joyfully to his best friend.
"At least tell me it's a good song this time and not Bob the Builder, like the last time you did it," Cole said to his best friend, which caused the channel to erupt with yet more laughter as the SAS soldiers fondly began to recall the last time that Chuck did it.
"Lady (Hear Me Tonight)," Chuck replied.
"Oh shit! What a tune! What station?" Big Dan asked from another one of the SAS vehicles.
"BBC Radio One," Chuck said as he continued jamming to a monster of a tune with Jamie Hughes and John Murray.
"Does he always do this?" Sarah asked as she came on the air.
"Yeah," Staff Sergeant MacDonald said, warmly.
"I'm glad I'm not in the same car as him," she retorted, which caused yet more laughter from the operators.
"For that, I'm leaving the channel on!" Chuck quipped back as he did precisely that as Chuck, John, Jamie, Big Dan and numerous others, including Bryce, continued singing until the song finished playing.
O-x-O-x-O-x-O
11:00 hours
Mobility troop were seated in the situation room on their base, and Captain Wallace was debriefing the full troop of sixteen.
"Box 500 is extremely pleased with the intelligence recovered in the two apartments. It's a treasure trove of information. I hear that we have you to thank for that, Trooper Larkin," Captain Wallace stated, and he nodded approvingly at his soldier.
"I was just doing my part, sir. I want to catch every single one of the fuckers responsible for what they did to our country. I didn't do it for praise. I did it to help my country. If the fucker detonated one of those prepared vests, then we wouldn't have got that information and the whole block of flats could have gone up killing numerous civilians, and most of my team along with him and I wasn't going to allow that to happen," Bryce stated with conviction.
"Good man," Captain Wallace said, and he pointed at Bryce with approval.
While Chuck and the rest of his troop began to glance at Bryce with a new look of respect…
A short while later
Mobility troop entered the cafeteria together in cheerful moods. Queuing to be served together, they engaged in light conversation with each other as they waited to be served, before they collected their plates, and they moved to sit together on one of the three large benches inside the facility.
Chuck was sitting next to Sarah, and Bryce was seated opposite him.
"Sarah, I'm disappointed that you didn't call me in the three days that we had off," he said to her.
Sarah raised her gaze up away from her dinner plate, and a cute smile began to form as she began to glance at him. "I didn't think you were serious."
Chuck immediately quirked his eyebrows at her chosen words. "What, really?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
Chuck shook his head in disapproval. "I'm offended now, Sarah, that you could think so little of me," he said, playfully.
He watched as she gave him another smile. "Oh dear, what can I do to make up for it?" she teased in a playful tone of her own.
"You can come out with us again tonight," he said with a wide grin.
"Deal," she said, returning his warm smile.
"And you're buying a round," Chuck added in, holding his warm gaze.
"Ok, now you're pushing it!" she laughed back with her continued smile...
A short while later
It was late afternoon, and Red Team were preparing to clock off duty for the day. They were presently inside their barracks changing back into their civilian clothes. Mobility troop and Mountain troop were no longer on immediate standby to move, and they had instead switched roles with Air and Boat troops who had been put on immediate standby instead. However, because of the attack six days ago, Colonel Wood had cancelled all training exercises until they were sure that there would be no further attacks on the U.K.
Once Chuck had finished changing into his civvies, which was a tailored navy blue shirt and jeans, he departed his on-base accommodation, and he decided to check in on Sarah to see if she was ready. Arriving outside Room Four, he knocked on the door.
"Come in," she called out, and on receiving the cue, he entered into his teammate's quarters.
"Are you ready?" he asked as he glanced at his teammate, and he took in her appearance. She was wearing a grey coloured cardigan with a belt, and a black shirt and pants and her long blonde hair was flowing freely.
She is so beautiful.
"Yeah," she said as she met his gaze, and she smiled at him.
"Sarah, you look great," he declared with a loving smile.
She held her smile toward him. "Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself," she declared.
"Thanks," he replied as the teammates continued to gaze at each other for an extended moment before they departed out of her quarters together and they joined up one by one with Cole, Chris, Dan, Jamie and John.
"Let's check in on Bryce," Chuck said, and his team all nodded as they proceeded to walk along the hallway together towards Room Eight, which had the name Bryce Larkin under it.
With the team now outside Bryce's quarters, Chuck knocked on the door, but he didn't give anyone a chance to answer as he immediately entered inside with the rest of his team following suit behind him.
"We're heading out for a piss up. Fancy tagging along?" Chuck asked his new teammate.
Chuck watched as Bryce glanced at Chuck, and then at everyone standing behind him.
"Does that mean I'm back on the team?" Bryce asked as he glanced at Chuck and then his six other teammates standing behind Chuck.
"Yeah. Welcome back," Staff Sergeant Chris MacDonald said.
Bryce smiled and he moved to stand up.
The entire team started to walk deeper into Bryce's quarters from where they were squashed together at his doorway, and they all moved to shake Bryce's hand one by one.
"Just don't do anything else to fuck up Bryce, or they'll throw you out," Chuck warned his teammate.
Bryce nodded, as he glanced at Chuck, and at the rest of their team. "I know. I won't. The CO told me I get one and only one warning. Another mistake and I'm RTU'd. I've worked my whole life to get to where I am today," Bryce stated.
"We all have, Bryce," Sarah replied.
The whole team nodded in agreement with Sarah's remarks.
"I know. And I'm sorry for what happened on the bridge six days ago. I could have got you killed," Bryce said, glancing at his team.
"Forget about that now. It's history. Seriously, good job in Manchester this morning," Chuck declared warmly.
"Cheers. That fucker was fast," Bryce laughed out, which caused the entire team to burst into laughter from where they were all gathered in Bryce's quarters together.
"You were too. We couldn't keep up with you, you bastard," Chuck laughed out.
"I could have kept up, but I was being blocked and couldn't get past Big Dan," Sarah chimed in causing the team of eight to laugh once more.
"Are you calling me fat? Cheeky bitch," Big Dan retorted endearingly, which resulted in strong laughter from the team of eight as they all turned joyful, and they put their arms around each other as they headed to the pub to get drunk together…
End of Chapter
AN2 Please review :) Thank you, and I will see you all again soon!