Lon and his men were part of the second group through the door. They spit up into two elements, half moving to the left, half to the right. Lon and the four men with him concentrated their fire on a group of three MPs that were hiding behind an electric forklift and sniping at the men emerging from the tunnel. Lon sent three of his men further right to flank them as he and private Matza on the SAW provided covering fire. The flanking maneuver worked admirably and soon the three MPs were gunned efficiently down with a combination of grenades and automatic weapons fire. From that point on the tunnel exit was clear and Lon's squad moved off to the right flank to help silence the rest of the opposition. The remaining MPs that they encountered began to throw down their weapons and surrender. Each of them were handcuffed with the plastic ties and put down on the ground.
In all, it took less than ten minutes before the loading platform was secure and a beachhead of sorts was established. Medics were brought forward to care for the wounded Martians and, when the time was found, the wounded MPs as well. Major Shaw, who had been lingering in the rear of the column during the firefight, came forward and surveyed the first section of the Triad Naval Base to come under MPG occupation.
"Good job," he told the men. "Now let's push onward. You know your objectives so let's go secure them before they have a chance to gear up to a real defensive posture."
They spit into two elements and headed for the two large corridors at the far end of the platform, corridors that led further into the bowels of the base. The doors guarding them had slammed shut and locked in response to the red zebra condition. Teams went to work putting primacord on them.
Before they had a chance to blow the doors however, Shaw got a vital update on the other elements of the battle. The north freight tunnel, which alpha company was assigned to, had been breached and its entrance station captured with only three killed and four wounded. At Shaw's direction they too began preparing to move further into the base towards their own objective: the docking complexes and the ships that were at anchor there.
But Charlie and Delta companies, in charge of breaching the main gate in the center, had a different story to tell.
"We're pinned down in the tunnel," Captain Evers, the commander in charge of this force told Shaw over the radio net. In the background he could hear the chatter of weapons fire and the hollow booms of explosions. "We won't be able to break out without taking heavy casualties. And every minute we wait, more MPs show up."
"How bad are casualties so far?" Shaw asked him.
"Twelve wounded, six dead."
"Hang tight for a few," Shaw ordered. "I'm gonna send you some help. Wait for my order and then initiate the breakout."
"Copy," Evers replied.
Though the situation Evers found himself in was bad, it was not something that had been unanticipated. "Armand!" Shaw barked into the air, not bothering to use the radio since the object of his yell was standing less then ten meters away.
"Sir?" responded Armand, the commander of Bravo company, as he trotted over.
"Break loose a squad with a hundred meters of primacord and one SAW. We need to flank the MPs on the main entrance before Charlie and Delta can break out. Have them go weapons free by the quickest route and stand by. I'm gonna send a squad from Alpha over to hit the north flank too. Who would be squad leader you're sending?"
Armand thought for a moment. "I'll send the third squad from second platoon," he said. "Sergeant Fargo."
"Good," Shaw said, nodding in approval. He knew Lon personally and was impressed with him. "Get them moving. Fargo will probably be the senior NCO so he'll be in charge of this makeshift platoon under the direct orders of Captain Evers."
"Yes sir," Armand replied.
"Send the rest of your company to their objective but leave another squad here with two SAWs for beachhead security. If this base isn't secured in the next hour, it's never going to be."
"Yes sir," Armand said, switching his radio frequency.
Lon and his squad were called over and given their new orders. He absorbed the information quickly and then consulted his map of the base to find out the best means of getting to the main pedestrian platform. It took him only a minute or so of study to lock in on a course of action. "Let's go people," he told his men. "The sooner we get there, the less Earthlings we'll have to fight."
They made their way across the loading platform to the north side of it, where a small access corridor — its door sealed shut of course — led along the perimeter of the base. Horishito, one of the two men carrying the large coils of primacord, placed a length of it on this door and then set a detonator in it.
"Third squad, breaching side door now," he announced over the command net. There were quite possibly MPs waiting on the other side of the door and his men pointed their weapons in preparation. Part of the security squad that had already been in position trained theirs too.
"Go ahead, Hoary," Lon told him once everyone was in position.
Horishito blew the door, sending it crashing to the floor. No fire came through hole that had been made and his men advanced slowly and carefully to the sides. They took quick glances through the hole finding no MPs but about ten civilian personnel already lying peacefully on the floor, their hands behind their heads, begging the men that they assumed to be heartless terrorists not to shoot them. Lon and the others dashed into the room and secured it, ordering the civilians through the hole and into the main loading area where they joined those already taken prisoner. They then began to move towards the main tunnel entrance nearly a kilometer away.
Admiral Rosewood had moved to the command post in the main TNB control room. This room was a much larger version of the main control room for Triad since it also was responsible for controlling docking, power, gravitation, and traffic control of the naval vessels in port. Sixty-four controllers worked at computer terminals and monitored security camera displays. They watched in disbelief at the events unfolding around them. Rosewood understood.
He now had a better idea of what he was up against and, as such, he feared for his safety and the security of his base now. Thanks to digital camera images that had been taken before the cameras had been shot out, he knew that he had enemy troops in company strength fanning out from two directions, from two different tunnels into vital parts of the base. The blast doors were presenting no problems for them; they were simply blasting them open with primacord. A third company — at least he assumed it was a company — he had yet to get an image of it — was still pinned down in the main tunnel by the MPs. That wouldn't last long he feared. He could see squad strength concentrations moving in on the main gate through other tunnels, obviously to reinforce and flank. He had no MPs to spare to try and stop them, he couldn't even offer more than token resistance to the companies that were moving deeper into the base by the minute. One of them was heading, as he'd initially suspected, directly toward the space docks where access to the 43 docked ships could be had. The TIRT team as well as about twenty regular MPs, were in position there but, even with the heavy weapons, they would not be able to stand up to a company for very long. His attempt to get the crews to their ships to scramble them had been inspired but useless. It had taken too long and their access was now cut off by the advancing MPG.