“Not a problem, we’re ready for that,” Senior Chief Petty Officer Nick Conti, Viking Two-Six, replied.
“Okay, once we get the hostages free, I’ll call in the choppers — they’ll be landing in the courtyard — we’ll load everyone up and get out of there. Now, unlike the nukes here, where they only had a reinforced squad, I’d count on at least a company at the mosque. Viking Actual should be starting the attack in just a few minutes but since he’s split his force in half, they’ll be seriously outnumbered — maybe by as much as ten to one. We have three advance teams and they are on site — two are Sayaret Matkal and the other’s Delta — so watch out for them. We move out as soon as Odin-Seven takes off. It looks like just a couple minutes.”
“Hey Monty,” Viking Five-Six radioed to his counterpart of Viking Three ‘Monty’ Montoya, “we’ve got a couple intersections here. There’s one before the round-about and then about a hundred yards south of the round-about there’s another one that looks like a major street ‘T’s’ off and heads east towards the mosque. Let’s keep your team here at the first intersection and then I’ll take my team down to the second one.”
“Okay, let me know if you need any help down there,” Monty replied as he saw the Viking Five team proceed through the round-about.
“Hey, Chief, we got company,” the JTAC assigned to Viking Five said to his team leader. He was really a Senior Chief Petty Officer but had kept the ‘Chief’ moniker. “My guess is that we’ve got at least a company headed this way, maybe more.”
“Yeah, I see ‘em. Time to get to work. We’re supposed to have plenty of air support, right? Let’s call ‘em in.”
“Already on it. Mustang Zero-Six, Comanche,” the JTAC radioed to his Forward Air Controller-Airborne (FAC-A). “Immediate fire mission. We’re on Highway 6 at the first intersection south of the Clock Tower Round-about and we’ve got a couple hundred bandits headed our way. We could sure use a thirty mike-mike gun run on these guys.”
“Roger that, Comanche. I see them. Keep your heads down. Strafing run commencing in fifteen seconds.” And fifteen seconds later, an A-10 with the 45th Fighter Squadron unleashed its 30 millimeter Gatling gun on the ISIS column approaching Viking Five.
“Nice work, Mustang, but need to keep it coming. Looks like they’ve got some armor mixed in there as well that didn’t receive so much as a scratch.”
“I see that, Comanche. I’ve got the entire squadron stacked up ready to go. Please confirm your position so I can relay that on.” And with that, Mustang Zero-Six put up a continuous stream of fire on the approaching ISIS force. However, this was ISIS’s capital, after all, and every one of the advancing force knew the city, from the buildings to the tunnels underneath the streets. With the effectiveness of the air support, the ISIS troops simply retreated into these.
“Mustang Zero-Six, nice work!” Comanche radioed. “I don’t see any one moving in the street south of us. Awesome job!”
“Happy to help, Comanche. I’ve got a few pilots Winchester on ammo,” indicating the pilots had exhausted their ammo load, “so they’re RTB, but most of us are still here and we’ve got a couple Apache squadrons from the 101st as well so we’re still here if you need us.”
“Roger that, Mustang.”
“Chief, how we looking?” Comanche asked his team lead.
“Looking good, Comanche. Nice job with the air support… oh, SHIT! Where’d they come from?!?” the chief bellowed out as he saw two groups of ISIS fighters charging at them from the alleyways behind them on both sides of Highway 6—and way too close for air support.
The SEALs of Viking Five quickly repositioned themselves but not before an RPG found their LAV, setting off an explosion that lit up the street revealing about fifty ISIS troops converging on their position — and the ISIS force was rapidly growing.
“Mustang, how we looking to our south?” Comanche radioed his airborne Forward Air Controller-Airborne (FAC-A).
“All clear to the south, Comanche. I’m not sure where those bandits are coming from.”
“Roger that, Mustang. Any chance you can get some Apaches in here for some air support? It’d be real tricky and all of it danger close.”
“I’ll see what I can do Comanche,” Mustang replied.
“Monty,” Viking Five-Six called to his counter-part for Viking Three, “we’ve got a large ISIS force between us and it looks to be growing. Mustang reports everything to our south looks clear but we’ve been cut off. We’ve lost our LAV and are attempting to fight our way through to you guys.”
“On the way, Chief,” Monty replied as he joined a squad of his SEALs on the support mission. “We’ve got a force of these guys coming down Faysal Street as well but so far the Apaches have really held them off.”
At this point, the action on the one hundred yard section of Highway 6 devolved into an outright melee with no hope of air support: The five SEALs of Viking Three were headed south to relieve their fellow SEALs of Viking Five and quickly tore into the rear of the ISIS force converging on them. The ever growing ISIS force didn’t fully realize their situation: They outnumbered the SEALs by more than six to one but in the confusion and darkness, failed to appreciate their advantage. The SEALs, on the other hand, had the greater situational awareness and established what amounted to a classic, though mobile, L-formation ambush with the twelve SEALs of Viking Five strung out on the long axis and the five SEALs of Viking Three on the short axis. Though much of the fighting came to knife-fighting range, the SEALs simply mauled the disorganized ISIS force. In the midst of this melee, Comanche and the Chief, who secured the far end of the formation for Viking Five, found themselves cut off from the rest of their team.
“Where’s Comanche and the Chief?” Monty asked the SEALs of Viking Five once they managed to link up.
“I don’t know. They were behind us watching our six when we got separated,” one of the SEALs replied.