MESSAGE LENGTH EDIT [MILITARY CENSOR]
I miss you, and I hope that we can meet up again. It was a shame we couldn’t spend longer together.
Big kisses + hugs, Soph
Well, at least he knew she was safe and that everything was okay, despite the army deciding her email was too long. He briefly considered writing back to her, but after trying to think of what he could tell her and coming up with nothing, she slipped from his mind again.
The rest of the emails were from friends, all wishing him well and looking forward to seeing him again. Looking around the dim, orange-lit cave, he could see that everyone’s spirits were lifted, hearing from home. It made why they were fighting so much more real. It also reminded them of their reasons to survive and not die out there in the desert.
The next day their orders were received. Their next mission was much bigger than the last. This mission was classified as ‘extremely dangerous’, and would involve enemy contact. Higgins called the men into the mine for the briefing. It was immediately clear that this operation would be different, as both Higgins and Taylor were far more on edge. This set the tone of the briefing from the outset. All the men listened intently as Higgins spoke.
‘The target is a Chinese outpost south of our position,’ said Higgins, pointing to the mapscreen. ‘This outpost houses around three platoons and support personnel. They conduct regular patrols of the transportation lines, both road and rail. Tomorrow night there will be a coordinated attack by our forces on a fuel depot to the north of us being used by the Chinese iron ore trains. Our role is to link up with Bravo squad, here,’ he pointed to a spot on the mapscreen, ‘and hit the garrison before the attack on the depot. This way, the Chinese response to the fuel depot attack will be minimised. If we fail, the Chinese will be able to react to the attack on the depot and probably wipe out our guys up in the north.’
The men looked up at Higgins, each of them visibly shifting with the new weight of responsibility.
‘There can be no mistakes on this mission. I don’t want to live with the fact that our failure directly caused other men’s deaths. But that’s exactly what will happen if we fuck this up.’ Higgins let this linger for a moment before continuing.
‘Tomorrow, at 1600 hours, we will get on our bikes and travel to the target. We will deploy two clicks east of the target, link with Bravo, and together engage the target. The attack will be full-frontal — the element of surprise on this mission is critical to our success.
‘So, gentlemen, I think it is safe to assume that we will be getting our hands dirty tomorrow. The stakes are high and, if we are to pull this off, we need to be on our game,’ said Higgins, wrapping up the briefing. ‘Questions, anyone?’
‘Sarge, even if we’re successful, this operation could take a while to fully secure the area. We could be riding back to our base when the satellite is doing its evening sweep. Isn’t there a risk that we’ll compromise our position?’ asked Finn.
‘Good point, Hunt,’ responded Taylor. ‘I will remain here at base camp and monitor all Chinese surveillance. If it’s looking too hot, you’ll be camping out under a thermal tent until it’s safe to come back in.’ Silence filled the mine. ‘All right. We’ll be doing incursion drills this afternoon and assigning roles and responsibilities,’ said Higgins.
‘Dismissed,’ said Taylor.
The men stood and shuffled their way out of the mine into the sunlight.
‘Fuck me! No pressure, huh?’ said Carver.
Finn, squinting in the bright sun, replied, ‘Mate, I guess this is what it’s all about.’
‘S’pose so… ’ said Carver, trailing off as he walked away.
The next day final preparations were made, gear checked and rechecked, the plan discussed and talked through in the finest detail. Everyone had to know all the details in case a man went down and someone else had to step in and do his job. Lieutenant Taylor had been in communication with Bravo squad to ensure they were all clear on the rendezvous point.
At 1550, the men assembled with their motorbikes. They were to travel in formation. Finn, Carver and Jessop, as the least experienced, had to sit in the middle at the back. If they encountered a Chinese patrol, having the most experienced men at the sides meant they could react quicker to a situation.
The ride down the narrow canyon was slow and they again had to carefully negotiate around all the larger rocks and boulders.
Once out of the canyon, things became slightly better. They had enough space to get their speed up. After two-and-a-half hours of exhausting travel along the plain, Higgins, who had been monitoring a GPS the whole time, spoke into his comms unit, ordering the men to stop.
Higgins got off his bike. ‘Stay on your bikes, men,’ he said to the others. Checking his GPS again, Higgins dialled in a frequency on his wrist-mounted communications unit. This was the rendezvous point, but there was no sign of Bravo squad. Higgins spoke while pressing a button on the small microphone attached to his neck that picked up the sound of his voice.
The sun was low now. They needed to dock with Bravo and get moving to the target. There was still another hour of riding, possibly two depending on the conditions.
‘Bravo, this is Alpha, do you read?’ Higgins said again into the comms unit.
‘Alpha, this is Bravo, we read you. Coming up to the rendezvous point in 15 minutes,’ came the reply.
Higgins breathed a sigh of relief — at least they weren’t far off.
The desert was silent but for the slight sounds of the men shifting their weight on their bikes. Higgins imagined it would have been a nice time to be in the desert, if there wasn’t a war on.
‘All right, men. Dismount, stretch the legs, take a piss, but stay close to the vehicles,’ barked Higgins.
Fifteen minutes later Bravo team rolled up on their motorbikes. They discussed the plan as a group. It was pretty simple, in theory. But of course nothing is that simple in the mayhem of battle. They would travel separately to the target, taking divergent routes. Once at the target zone they would employ a pincer movement that would have Alpha team attack from the west and Bravo from the south. This way they would minimise the possibility of being hit by friendly fire. It would also confuse the Chinese troops and split their defence.
There were two key elements to the plan. The first and most important element was surprise, and the second one was speed. Once they engaged the target they had to move quickly and with maximum aggression. If one team was pinned down by return fire, there was little chance of the other being able to breach the fence and take control of the compound. Both teams had to make it into the compound for them to have a chance of achieving their objective.
With the final arrangements discussed, they mounted up and rode off into the still, quiet desert.
They rode now using night-vision goggles, so that they could keep their headlights off. It was slow going, not because of the night-vision goggles — they projected an almost perfect full-colour image of the landscape ahead — but the harsh terrain made it impossible to travel any faster. Higgins regularly checked the GPS map, ticking off the distance to the target, directing the men every 50 metres to keep them on course.
After two hours of rough and uncomfortable riding, they were close. Higgins addressed them over the comms unit. ‘All right, boys. Fifteen minutes. Remember your training, remember your job. When we stop, stay on your bikes until I tell you to dismount. No noise. I want absolute silence. The moment we stop, check your weapons quietly. I don’t want to hear anything metallic alerting the Chinese of the shitstorm we’re about to fuck them with.’