“Hey, Ferro,” Jackson called to his senior medic up ahead. “Dani took two rounds on either side of the chest and I think she’s got a collapsed lung. I think….”
“Chaos, I’m a little busy here. You know what to do — you’ve done it before; just let me know if any blood comes out once you stab her.”
“Okay, will do.”
“Jericho Six; Chaos.” Jackson called to Captain Sanchez as he quickly rummaged through the limo's first aid kit. Being a presidential limo, the first aid “kit” rivaled that of a small clinic. “How’d we make out? Is everybody on board and ready to roll?”
“All present and accounted for, Chaos. Let’s get out of here.”
“Hawkeye, we’re on our way out. We’re all in the presidential motorcade limos — there should be five vehicles. Take out anyone following us. We’ll meet you at the junction of the Shahid Hemmat Expressway and the Emam Ali Highway; we’ll be waiting for you. Don’t take too long.”
“Roger that; see you in a couple minutes.”
“We need to get that vest off of you,” Stonewall said to Dani as he began to remove her vest. “I think you’ve got a collapsed lung in addition to a couple broken ribs. This is going to hurt but I need to insert a needle into your chest to get that lung re-inflated.”
“Jericho Six; Chaos. What’s are status?” Jackson called out as he continued working with Dani.
“Chaos, looks like all four of you got hit. Rossi took a round to the gut just below his vest. Ferro’s working on him now. Ben took three rounds to the shoulder — his vest stopped two of them. I think we’ve got the bleeding under control but he’s hurt bad. How’d you two make out?”
“Arielle took two to the vest, one to the thigh, though it doesn’t look too bad. I think she also has a collapsed lung from the two hits she took,” Jackson replied as he finished cutting away Dani’s shirt.
“You know,” Dani remarked, grimacing in obvious pain, “this isn’t exactly how I planned on you getting my top off.”
This brought a wry smile from Stonewall. “Don’t worry, I left your Under Armour on. Okay, you ready for this?” He asked her as he felt around looking for the gap between her second and third ribs.
“Ready when you are,” came her reply.
“Ah!!!! Oh, that hurt!” Dani cried out, as Jackson inserted the needle from the large syringe. As he pulled back on the syringe it quickly filled with air and a small amount of fluid.
“Archangel, Chaos; we’re on our way out and will be meeting up with Hawkeye in a couple minutes. You can tell the boys in blue to ‘cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war’; just don’t cut our escape route!”
“Roger that, Chaos,” Archangel replied. And with that, Admiral Fischer gave the order for a full squadron of B-1’s and half a dozen B-2’s orbiting Tehran to commence their operations. Virtually every remaining IRGC member, and every governmental official and office who in anyway supported the radical theocracy came under the awesome destructive firepower of either a Lancer or a Spirit.
“Archangel, are we going to have a doc on that Hercy-bird? We have three Whiskey India Alpha, two severe.”
“That’s a negative, Chaos. Get to the Bat Cave and we’ll have medics standing by when you land.”
“Roger that.”
“Jonah, looks like we have couple tails on our friends,” Sgt. Luna said to his compatriot. “I’ll take the first car; you can take the second one.”
“Will do,” replied Jonah.
With that, Sergeant Luna took a bead on the first car that began to chase after his team. The perch that Ben had picked out for them provided them a perfect over-watch for any vehicle exiting the complex: every single vehicle exiting the complex had to drive straight towards them for the last couple hundred yards before it left the parking lot. As the first vehicle rounded the corner for the last two hundred yards, Luna centered the reticle of his high-powered scope right on the driver. When the vehicle was roughly fifty yards from the exit, Luna pulled the trigger. The .338 Lapua round leapt from the rifle with an enormous report. The driver of the vehicle heard the loud report, and instinctively knew there was trouble, but never had the opportunity to do anything about it: the .338 slug entered the driver’s body just above center mass where the breast bone ends and the neck begins, virtually decapitating the driver. The vehicle, now driverless, careened out of control crashing into the guard shack and coming to rest there, blocking the entrance lane into the complex.
Jonah took the second vehicle and timed his shot about the same as did Luna, with very similar results. Jonah’s shot actually came just a few seconds after Luna’s with the result that the second vehicle crashed into the back end of the first vehicle. The parking lot exit wasn’t completely blocked but anyone trying to get out of the lot would now have a serious obstacle to overcome.
“Nice shooting, Luna,” exclaimed Jonah.
“Not so bad yourself,” replied Luna. “Let’s get out of here while we still can.”
“Roger that. Zivah, we’re on our way down.”
“Ready to rock n’ roll whenever you get down here,” Zivah exclaimed.
“Jericho Zero-Three, if you haven’t already, let’s get that CAS going.” Jackson said to the senior Special Forces communications sergeant, referring to the close air support they were supposed to have. “We’re supposed to have virtually everything in the arsenal at our disposal.”
“Roger that, Chaos. Eagle Control advises that we have a complete squadron of Warthogs at our immediate disposal. We also have Vipers and Super Hornets standing by but the Warthogs are immediately available. We might get lucky and get some Apache Longbows; they’re on their way but had to refuel and re-orient their payload at the Bat Cave.”
“Jericho Zero-Three, Eagle Control knows our escape route?” Jackson replied, referring to an orbiting E-2D Hawkeye from the George Washington. Jericho Zero-Three and Zero-Eight, the two Special Forces communications sergeants for the team, would be the JTAC’s — Joint Terminal Attack Controller — for the little convoy while Eagle Control in the orbiting Hawkeye would control the air assets available to the Jericho team.
“That’s affirmative, Chaos. Eagle Control has our planned route and has been advised that we are in the supreme leader’s motorcade.”
“Okay; let’s make sure they are aware of the one trailer we have with our Hawkeye team.”
“Already done, sir. As soon as they show up we can head out. The Hawgs are standing by.”
“Hawkeye, Chaos. What’s your position?”
“We have you in sight, sir; be there in a few seconds.”
“Roger that. Jericho Zero-Three, let the airedales know we are on the move. Let’s move out.”
“Eagle Control, Jericho Zero-Three. Who do we have for the Hawgs?”
“Jericho Zero-Three, their call sign is Sun Devil. Sun Devil Zero-Six is their lead and they are on this frequency.”
“Jericho Zero-Three, what is your position?” asked Sun Devil Zero-Six.
“Sun Devil Zero-Six, we are at the intersection of Shahid Hemmat Expressway and Emam Ali Parkway in a five vehicle presidential motorcade, all black limos.”
“Roger that, Zero-Three; I have you in sight. I have a Humvee-type vehicle heading your way at a high rate of speed on the Shahid Hemmat Expressway.”
“Zero-Six, that could be our sniper team.”
“Roger that; have them flash their head lights Zero-Three.”
“Hawkeye, Jericho Zero-Three; flash your headlights.”
“I see them. Okay Zero-Three, we have your route to the Bat Cave; we’ll escort you along the way. I'll be your FAC(A);”—Forward Air Controller (Airborne)—“my whole squadron’s here with you Jericho Zero-Three. We’ll get you home.”