“Agreed, sergeant. I’ll tell the pilot to firewall it.”
The race was on, though only one side knew of the contest, and the prize.
“Nightwatch, what are you doing here?” Chaos asked as their ride showed up just past the rubble caused by the bombing from Bengal Six. “Thought you’d be with the rest of the team heading up to the air strip.”
“Yeah, well, I figured that you might appreciate a controller in your group since we’re separated from everyone else at this point. You know, just in case something unexpected happens.”
“Right, ‘cause something unexpected never happens,” Arielle added sarcastically. “Glad to see you, Nightwatch.”
“You, too, Arielle.”
“Any sign of trouble on the way down here?” Chaos asked.
“Nothing when I left but this place is just swarming with bad guys. At least it’s dark out so if we can get past the intersection at the Odessa hotel we should be fine. We’ve got two major streets running parallel to this one just a few blocks over so we could have an ISIS force on top of us up there before we know it.”
“Chaos, this is Ghostrider. Looks like you’ve got a welcoming party a few blocks ahead of you up at the Odessa Hotel. We’re going to try and break up that party for you before you get there. Keep your heads down.”
“Roger that, Ghostrider. Also, there’s two streets running parallel just to the west of us — we need those completely cut so no one can get through.”
“Gotcha Chaos. Ready for some fireworks?”
“Fire at will, Ghostrider.”
Seconds later, the intersection a couple hundred yards ahead of them erupted from multiple blasts from Ghostrider’s 105mm canon.
“Nice work, Ghostrider,” Chaos said. “Looks like our immediate problem’s out of the way. Thanks for the assist.”
“Not a problem, Chaos. That’s what were here for. Be advised, Bengal’s dropping the JDAMs as requested. These should take care of the alternate routes you mentioned. Okay, you’ve got two major intersections left to get by and both of them are starting to draw a crowd. It seems like you’ve stirred up a bit of a hornets nest down there.”
Even though it was dark, every ISIS fighter in the neighborhood could hear the truck coming. By the time they reached the Odessa Hotel intersection, every tire had been flattened by ISIS fire. With the truck now running on the rims, sparks shot out from every rim leaving a trail of sparks that not only lit up the night but also set fire to some of the debris scattered along the street.
“Ghostrider, go ahead and do what you can to close every street leading towards Highway 6. If it takes Bengal’s complete inventory to close every street and road that intersects with it, do it.”
“Roger that, Chaos.”
“Viking Actual, Chaos. How’re we looking up there?”
“Chaos, right now it’s relatively quiet. We can hear all of the firing coming from your direction but we haven’t seen much ourselves. I don’t expect it to stay that way for long, based on the volume of fire coming from your direction. Conti just showed up with his team. We’re simply waiting on your group right now.”
“We’re on the way. Just reached the Odessa Hotel so we’re only about a mile out. Go ahead and get team three out of here along with all but one of the Hercs. That’ll leave just Conti’s team two and the team with us. Ghostrider just told us that we might have a little excitement reaching you guys but we should be able to fight our way out of it — if not, we shouldn’t need more than the extra team with Ghostrider providing the top cover for us.”
“Roger that, releasing all but one of the Odin flights,” Commander Edberg replied. “See you in a few.”
“Nightwatch, how we looking?” Chaos asked his controller.
“I think we can fight our way through the first intersection but Ghostrider’s advising the second one’s looking a bit dicey. That intersection’s still more than half a mile from the airstrip so I don’t want an airstrike there if we can help it. I’ve had some Apaches clearing the way for us but it’s a mess up there. I don’t want to block or crater the street as we’d be on foot the rest of the way.”
“Colonel, Madam Secretary, we need you to stay down,” Arielle told both women. “It might get a little hot here in a second.”
“Bullsh — umph!” Colonel Marshall began when an ISIS round hit the chest plate of her body armor. “Ah, that hurt. As I was about to say, I’m a lieutenant colonel. Give me a damned weapon to shoot back!”
“Here ya go, Colonel,” Arielle said as she handed an M-4 to her, along with several spare magazines. Marshall immediately checked the existing magazine and charged the weapon. She had clearly used one before. “All set?” Arielle asked the colonel as she tightened her ponytail.
“All set, Arielle. Let’s do this!”
“Ma’am, I need you to curl up as best you can on the floor underneath me,” Stonewall told Secretary Johnson. “This shouldn’t last long, but it’s going to be intense.”
“Okay, ready when you are.”
“Nightwatch, any Apaches left for CAS?” Chaos asked.
“That’s a negative. They’re all Winchester. We’ve used every one of them. We’ve got the Bengal flight, a few Hogs and Ghostrider. We still have plenty of firepower available.”
“Okay, I want two strafing runs from the Hogs with their cannons sweeping each side of the street ahead of us. We’ll follow just as soon as the second run is completed.”
“Calling it in,” Nightwatch replied.
“Viking we’re approaching the first intersection. We’ve got a couple Hogs making a strafing run and we’ll be right behind them.”
“Roger that, let me know if you’ll need any help.”
No sooner had Viking replied to Chaos than the sound of an enormous zipper once again erupted directly overhead of the American team. Not five seconds later, a second stream of tracers erupted from the second Warthog just a few hundred feet above them. The first couple floors of every building on each side of the street had been completely decimated. Absolutely no one could survive the onslaught of the thirty millimeter cannon fire. However, in the dark, no one could tell that several buildings along the route had five and six stories.
“Okay, let’s go!” Chaos ordered the driver.
“Viking, we just passed the first intersection. Sixty seconds out.”
“Roger that. I’ll start loading up!”
“Okay, here’s the second inter — AH! SHIT!!!” Stonewall howled out as an ISIS team suddenly sprayed the truck down with a barrage of automatic weapons fire from the fifth and sixth floors of the apartment building directly above them. Most took rounds in the body armor including Arielle, Marshall, Falcon, and Nightwatch. The front of the truck received the greatest concentration of fire, killing the driver and, since Stonewall had positioned himself directly behind the driver, he got hit as well. The truck quickly veered off the street and came to an abrupt stop after striking the front of an apartment complex.
Arielle heard Stonewall’s cry first; the sudden stop quickly threw her on top of Secretary Johnson. “Moose, get us out of here,” she ordered. Moose immediately jumped out of the back of the truck and pushed the driver out of the way to get the truck back on the street.
“Ghostrider, Arielle. Chaos is down. We need an immediate strafing run on the building directly above us. Take out the upper floors, both sides of the street. Danger Close, my initials are D Y—Delta Yankee—HOSE IT DOWN!!!” she ordered as she quickly tended to Stonewall. She already had his pant leg completely torn open at the knee revealing a lower leg that had just been shredded. The bullet, coming down from the sixth floor of the apartment above them, struck the back of the knee, hit and broke the large calf bone, traveled down the calf and exited at the ankle, breaking the ankle as it exited.