Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 4
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Previous Chapter: Reaper's First Drop: Chapter 3
The Furies hadn't come to a complete stop when I leapt from the back, Matt close behind. The invasion was coming and we were in deep trouble. I made a beeline for where I would find Harrison. I pushed the door open a little too forcefully.
"Ah DA-27, how did your mission go." Harrison said leaning back in his chair and looking at the new marks in my armor.
"Good sir, but we have important intel..."
"And the Korean Captain." He said interrupting.
"Secured but sir....."
"Your team."
"Fine."
"I have a meeting with some higher ups, go get some rest, I will talk to you about this tommorrow." He got up and moved to the door."Have a good night Number 27.
"I have a name sir." I said through clenched teeth.
"And a number." he said leaving the room. I left the building and found Matt waiting for me at the door.
"Frost and Dog took the prisoner to the holding area. How did it go with Harrison." He said falling in step with me.
"That man is going to get us all killed. He didn't even listen to me when I told him I had something important to tell him."
"Well at least he can't send us on a mission without permission so we won't be wasted on some stupid skirmish." He said walking through the doors to the Angel barracks.
"I'm sending a message to CSM. Boyland, he needs to know about this." I said plopping down in front of my computer and booting it up.
I woke up the next morning and went through the morning ritual of shower, dress, and mess. As I ducked out of the mess hall and saw that the base had been flooded with marines. I had heard a few planes coming in and figured they were in the base for refueling and had decided to stretch their legs. A private no older than 19 walked up to me and told me that Harrison wanted me in his office. I sighed and sent the rest of Echo team on to the Barracks while I headed to my meeting. I walked up to the door and found two Marines along with the usual two Grunts. The two Marines blocked my path.
"I need to go in, Harrison sent for me." I said, I needed an advil and the meeting hadn't even started yet.
"Harrison has been moved out and Admiral Ford has taken command of this installation, as well as all of Japan." The Marine said
As if to make that more obvious a man stepped out of the room. His gray hair was cut in a classic military style, his face tan and weathered, with lines around his square, cleffed chin and his sharp nose. Yet despite the intimidating first-glance demeanor, on closer inspection the creases around his eyes were more a result of smiles than frowns or stress. And his face was less old, and had more of a general-outdoorsy kind of look to it that bespoke leading by example. This theory was strengthened by a body that knew no fat and never had. Under the dark blue Navy-reg suit, his chest was rock-hard, with defined muscles that rippled as he moved. I correctly guessed his age somewhere North of 50.
"Hello, I'm Admiral Ford." He said extending his hand."I assume that your Lone Wolf."
I took his hand and shook it."Yes sir, that's me."
"CSM Boyland informed me of your report. It was unsettling at best, both the invasion force and Gen. Harrison's dealing with you. I have been sent to replace him. It's going to be a pleasure working so closely with you and your squad. Now as for this threat of invasion." He pulled a pipe out of his pocket and stuck it between his teeth."Get your team and meet me at launch pad 7 at 0900. I need you to lead a strike force into Korea. Hopefully it will get their attention off of us for awhile while we prepare. Get ready for a long term mission."
"Yes sir." I said snapping a salute and turning to find my squad. As soon as I got to the Barracks I found Matt at the door.
"Did you hear about Harrison." He said excitedly
"Yeah. Met the new higher up on base. I'll tell you later. Strap up we have one hour." I said grabbing my chest plate and lowering it down onto my shoulders beffore latching it up. The rest of the team followed suit. I grabbed a SMG, as many clips as I could hold, a silencer, and strapped a carbine to my back. I slammed a clip into the SMG and pulled the charging handle back. Strapped a few more grenades on for good measure.
"Never been to Korea. It'll be a blast."
We sped over the ocean at a pretty good clip. I sat in the hatch of a C170 with my team, five similar planes flew behind us with the newly promoted 1SG Evans from Mongolia, now the head of an international strike force. The plan was to drop into Korea and hit a NF outpost, and hold it until back up arrived.
The light flashed and Echo stood up and checked their weapon's. After our pre-fight check we pulling our gear from the hatches around us and strapped ourselves in our ride. A specially outfitted HMMV Hellhound. It was designed for durability and outfitted for a special reason. Dropping out of planes. The light turned green and the back bay opened up. Only about 50 yards above the ground, the tree's flashed under us. The plane tipped upwards and the locks on the tires snapped open. Only second's before we left the plane did we see our target. A wide road winding through the jungle.
"This is the part that isn't fun." Daniel said as we left the plane.
The fall was pretty quick before we hit the ground. The cushins under us slowed the vehicle down, but we weren't so lucky. I pushed the button on the dashboard the locks on the landing platform clicked open. Matt pulled us off and waited for Evans to unload his crew. Five similar vehicles landed and we were off.
"We are about 20 clicks from this outpost. I want to stop about 10 clicks from it and unload." I said over the engine as Matt drove. He nodded the affirmative and I looked out the windshield.
"Not good." I said pulling myself up into the gunner's seat."Fed check point up ahead."
I pulled the charging handle back and aimed at said check point. There was a 2 small buildings, one was a square, about the size of a small house with a manned 50 cal on the roof, on the other side of the street from it was another building, this one a tower. I guessed 15 guards top, as well as the Scorpian that was just stopping ahead of us. Two other's sat parked on the other side of the gate.
"Fire." I shouted to the Reg's. All 6 gun's opened up suprising the men at the checkpoint. The man beside the Scorpian took a few rounds and fell to the concrete. I personally made sure the gunner on the building went down before he could do any damage. One of the guards made it to the building, while the rest that were outside dropped like rocks. Evan's accelerated his vehicle and rammed the Scorpian pushing it into the tower. The side of the transport melding with the steel support.
"Rouge you go in, I'll go over." I said pulling my up onto the top of the Hellhound. He smiled and pulled us to a stop right in front of the house. I used the momentum to throw myself at the building. I grabbed the roof and slammed into the side expelling the air from my lungs. I pulled myself up onto the roof, ignoring the twinge in my chest from the lack of oxygen.
Matt and Daniel dropped out of the Hellhound and formed outside the door. I signaled them and they nodded before kicking in the door and firing into the room. Matt pulled two smoke grenades and tossed them in. They pushed themselves into the wall to avoid the bullets coming from the inhabitants of the building. I walked over and found a hatch on the roof. I slammed my foot into the door and backed up to make sure no one was waiting for me. Nothing. Whoever was inside was more worried about the enemies out front than the hatch on the roof falling in. I jumped through the hole and found myself in a badly lit room. My FOF flashed showing 4 contacts. I opened fire and raked the men hiding behind the wall aiming at the front door. The first one went down spurting blood while the second caught a few rounds to the stomach. I looked right to find the last two Koreans aiming right for my head. Rouges bulky form appeared in the doorway and fired two shot's of three rounds each. Putting the men down.
"Saved your sorry butt." Rouge said."That's like what 7 to 3."
"No, it's 6 to 5. That time in Alabama doesn't count, and your forgetting the time you set the detonator wrong and only set 30 second's instead of 30 minutes." I said reloading and heading out the door.
"Oh yeah."
Outside I found the SpecOps team had pushed the wrecked Scorpian out of the way and were waiting for us. A young soldier, from Mexico I think, ran up holding a radio. It looked worse for the wear but I could hear a few garbled words everynow and then.
"I think they got a message off before we killed them all." Evan's said walking up next to me.
"Then what are we waiting for, mount up and lets get out of here." I said sliding into the Hellhound starting her up.
"Wolf, Fed Helegunship inbound." Frost said.
"Split up and head for the wood's." I said pulling off the road and driving in between some tree's before bringing it to a halt and watching the outpost. Five Fed ships pulled to a stop not far from us. They sat there for a minute, hovering overhead. Sudddenly the lead one fired a missile into the checkpoint, blowing the building to bit's. It did the same thing with the tower before they all started turning and firing randomly into the forrest. Whoever gave that order didn't want us getting far. I was pulled from my musing by an explosion not far from our location. I noticed one of the Heleships turning towards our hiding place.
"MOVE" Rouge yelled as I threw it into reverse. The Hellhound started backwards as quickly as it could. It almost wasn't fast enough. One of the missile's hit right in front of our transport, blowing debris, dirt, and flaming bits of plants all over the car. Another hit a tree behind us on the right and I watched as the trunk splintered and the tree began to fall, blocking our retreat I turned to avoid it and we went up on two wheel's, narowlly avoiding being pancaked. I looked back and found that my new trajectory would bring me to a rock . I hit the brakes. We slowed to the point where the sudden stop wasn't to violent and I threw it back into drive. I wrenched the wheel to the left and we started going off towards one of the area's they had already covered. We didn't get far as an explosion went off right next to us knocking the car off it's wheel's and onto it's left side.
We got out and took cover as the last few rockets hit and the heleships returned from wherever it came from. I climbed out of the ditch and walked over to our wrecked vehicle.
"It looks pretty banged up. Siren, Big Dog I want you two to get all the stuff out of the Hellhound. Anything to damaged leave, anything to heavy leave, anything we can come back for later and isn't completely usefull leave behind. Rouge and Frost, you two set up a perimiter, after that attack they probably didn't bother to send ground forces but I won't let the Angels get caught with our pants down. I'll try and get in touch with Evans." I said climbing up the hill nearby to get a good look around. Frost followed and set up shop behind a rock.
"Wolf pack, Report." I said over the comm. I sat there and repeated it a few times before I got an answer.
"This is Alpha Wolf. We are fine. Squad 1, 2, and 3 are here with me, 4 and 5 are regrouping with us. One dead. Only two of our vehicles are working." Evans voice came over the comm
"Regroup here with me, bring all the gear you can get in those vehicles. We can plan from there."
"Roger." He said before breaking the link.
I sighed and walked down the hill and sat down looking at a map, starting to plan out how we were going to do this.
"Load everything you can in the two hounds, we travel along beside. You all know what to do when we get there." I said.
I got a load of HOORAH from my squad and a few HOOAH from the OPS Team.
I sat no far from our objective. It was a small compound. It wasn't well guarded, seeing as it was pretty far from any towns. It would serve, however as the LZ for the invasion of the mainland. He looked at his men.
"Ok Squad 4 you and Squad 2 take the North-West side. Hold until I tell you to come in and come in guns blazing. Squad 3 and 5 you are going to attack the North end keep them focused on you. Evans you take squad 1 and hold position on the road to cut off any retreating enemies, you take the Hellhounds. We will take the West." I said
"But Lieutenant Campbell that is the only side with mines." Evans pointed out.
"That is why we will take it." I said pulling my helmet on and picking up my carbine.
"Trust me it's better this way. Wolf will go first, we will follow in his footsteps. We won't die, he is the luckiest son of a gun I have ever met." Matt said picking up his own gun.
"Never play poker with him. You will lose." Lindsay said
"What did you lose all your money." One of the privates from Canada asked.
"No, but she lost her clothes. Nice tattoo by the way" I said over the comm chuckling at the torrent of insults that was no doubt making the regs blush."Hey cut it out Linz. Chew me out later, it's time to lock and load. We start in fifteen minutes."
I sat next to Frost as she looked at the guards that needed taking out. Five cracks later she ran into an obstacle.
"I can't hit one of these two without alerting the other and they are to well placed to take them both out quickly enough." She said handing me the scope. I looked through it at the quagmire.
"I have an idea." I said taking out a piece of paper and writing some calculations down. I then waited for a second while the guard walked towards the spot I wanted him to be. It was a slow crawl compared to the time I waited.
Wraith watched as I aimed and fired, the bullet went through a bit of rope that was holding a scaffold pole, then it went through the back of the first man's head, his brains blowing all over the wall behind him. Suddenly the pole swung round, smashing the second man in the face. Rouge winced as blood, spittle and what looked like teeth flew from the man’s mouth. He lost his balance and fell, falling backwards on to a vehicles hood. I knew he must be dead; the back just didn’t bend more than ninety degrees backwards with out the person dying.
"Wow, that was amazing. Did you do that on purpose. What did you write down? There must have been a ton of calculations, advanced physics, variables." Rouge asked.
"Yep I was trying to kill them both with one shot." I said handing him the paper. He looked at them expecting a crapload of numbers and math. What he found was a rough scetch of two stick figures, a rope, and a pole. There was another figure holding a gun.
"The luck of the devil" Rouge grumbled
"Go" I whispered. Then I waited a minute for the sounds of fire to start. I sprinted across the minefield, while my team followed. We made it to the enbankment and took cover. I waited till Evans gave me the go ahead.
"I have made it." He yelled
"Any men down." I asked
"One hurt and in a safe place."
"Ok then"
I signaled my team and pulled my self up over the wall and levled my silenced SMG. I caught the first man I saw in the head, and the second in the chest with a three round burst. Their teamates tried to make a run for cover but I put one of them down with two shots. One in the head one in the spine. The other one made it behind the cover. I sprinted to the corner he had disappeared and found him trying to crawl away with a bullet hole in his thigh and another in his ankle and lower back, a thin lind of blood trailing behind him. I put two rounds into the back of his head. I felt Rouge sidle up beside me and signaled him to go left around the building up ahead. Siren and Big Dog went split off to the right and I signaled for the last Marine team to go. Frost had long since disappeared into the shadow's.
Rouge and I walked around a corner to find a Russian tank, it's turret turning to face us. We had very little time, we made a break for the tank. As we reached the tank Rouge went into a backslide right between the treads, armor scraping the bottom. I grabbed ahold of the gun and flipped myself up onto it, carefully running across the thin barrel, my boots almost to wide to find purchase. One falty step and I might be caught under the treads. I made it to the turret and dropped a grenade in the open hatch, using my momentum to slide off the back of the turret and jumping to the ground and rolling to disperse my inertia. I stood up and turned to the tank. I shot one of the wounded operaters as he tried to crawl out of the hatch and walked up to the back of the tank. I grabbed Rouge's leg and hauled him out from under the vehicle. He rose to his feet and we turned and ran away as I pushed the detonator on the bomb Rouge had slipped into the undercarraige of the tank. Fire blossomed out of the engine and the turret was blown clear from the main body. We slipped around the corner and crouched behind some crates.
"Wow I'm glad that worked better than the time in Somolia." Rouge said.
"Yeah I didn't fall from the gun and you didn't drop into a backslide to late and bounce off the glasis plate." I said sliding a new clip into my SMG and looking around the crate we were hidden behind. I fired off a three round burst into a guard and another impacted into the low wall his buddy was using as cover. I was forced to duck back as a few bullets pinged off the crates close to my head.
I looked around for some better cover and found a wall of sandbags not far to my right. I signaled Rouge to split up and we both broke cover running for seperate positions. He slid behind a cement wall while I dove into my choosen position. I stood up and fired three more bursts at the enemy behind the wall. I heard a scream of pain and searched for a new target. I found one about to make a break for cover. I tracked him and squeezed the trigger firing a burst into his back. He dropped like a rock and skided a few feet before trying to push himself up. He got about a foot before my second burst caught him in the side. I turned and found the man from before was back up and firing at Rouge. I unloaded the rest of my clip and looked for another threat as I reloaded, the man obviously wasn't getting up again. A few more minutes and a lull in the battle took place as I looked for someone to shoot at. It didn't take long as a bullet skipped off the cement close by. I jerked back and waited a few more seconds before sticking my head to see where the shot was coming from. I saw him on the roof of the building across the street.
"Rouge." He turned his head towards me and tapped his temple to signal that he was ready. I held my hand in a fist out in front of my chest and tapped it with my other hand and jerking them apart. Then I pointed my first two fingers at the ledge. He nodded and pulled a frag and pulled the pin. I stepped out and fired at the sniper before ducking back. The sniper fired a second to late and the round scraped the edge of my exposed armor, missing my arm by a few centimeters. Seconds later the grenade that landed not far behind him, unnoticed in the midst of my assault, blew up. I saw a flash and watched as the sniper was propelled from the ledge and landed in the middle of the street. His left leg was completely gone and his right leg from mid-thigh down was laying next to him. His screams of pain were barely audible as he writhed on the ground in pain. I turned and took down a few more targets before ducking down to check on the rest of the attack.
"Status Echo." I said. Firing a few rounds right over a young NF soldiers head to keep him down behind cover.
"This is Siren. We are making our way to the middle of the compound." She said over the comm.
"Good, Marines Update."
"4 and 2 are down two men with one more wounded. They are holding though." SGT. Smith from squad 4 said.
"3 and 5 are holding our side and the NF are firing at us. We are at full strength. We can hold this all night." SFC. Jackson reported. I put two rounds into the last enemies chest.
"Evans here, we are waiting for them to make a run for it."
"Good continue on." I searched the street for anymore enemies. Rouge walked up to the sniper, who was now glassy eyed and fading out of conciousness from bloodloss. He put a bullet into the man's head and we both started reloading. I saw a man rise from behind the sandbags behind Rouge. I started to run towards the sand bags as he raised his gun. Using the sandbags as a spring board I leaped at the man. He hurridly fired at me. I felt two bullets glance off my left side and another off my hip. The next two shots were straight on however, one dug into my armor while the other stuck in my thigh. I pulled my combat knife in my right hand and drove it into the junction of his neck and shoulder. He fell holding the knife and gurgling. I stomped on his chest cracking a few ribs before picking up his gun and finishing him. I pulled pulled my knife from his neck and wiped it off before sheathing it.
"Thanks." Rouge said tossing me my gun that I had dropped to pull my knife. I sat down and looked at my injured leg.
"Now we are even again." I said taking the canteen he handed me and washing some of the blood away and binding my leg. I tested it and picked up my gun. I walked over to where Rouge was looking for any other survivors.
"Any more?" I asked reloading.
"No we did pretty good." He replied bumping fist's with me. I went to pat his shoulder but was cut off as a bullet whipped through the foot of space between us. I jerked back and dropped down. Coming down the street behind us was two Half-tracks, from behind them we could see a swarm of infantry, using every possible piece as cover to shoot at us from behind. We both looked at each other and fired a burst down the street before turning and running to the next batch of cover. Ocasionally we would hit someone that got to far from cover, but most of shots were just to keep their heads down.
This was a pattern that repeated itself as we made our way down the street. Running down the street, ducking from cover to cover, and then turning to fire back before doing it again. They would have over run us surely if they hadn't been to afraid to leave the cover of the APC's. We hit a fork in the road and turned to find Siren and Dog in cover firing down the connecting street. We ducked into their bunker and fired down our street. I saw Frost was jammed up under a APC picking off enemeis as they popped their heads up.
"Nice of you to join us." Siren said leaning against the wall next to me and checking a clip before slamming it into place.
"Yeah I thought so too." I said turning and shooting a guy that stuck his head up behind the APC's left side.
"Why aren't the APC's firing." Rouge asked picking a .50 cal from the ground and remounting it on the sand bags. He opened fire and sparks could be seen around the APC as the bullets skipped off it's armor.
"I don't think they have ammo. Probably just jumped in and came to take us out without checking to see if they were ready." Dog said putting his two cents worth.
"Lets hope they run out of gas to then." Rouge replied as I fed him another belt.
"Whatever it is we have to get out of here. I am going to leave a present for them then we are pulling back. This street should lead to the edge of base right near 4 and 2. We link up with them and pull back for another assault." I said placing the bombs under two of the dead NF that had been holding this bunker earlier. The last three I tossed under a couple of parked Scorpians nearby. Rouge had been looking over my shoulder as I set the timers.
"Wait did you just set 3 minutes." He said as we readied our guns.
"Yep now its 2 1/4 minutes." I said peaking over the sand bags and crouching at the edge of our cover.
"We can't get that far and fire at the enemy."
"Yeah that's why we don't. We sprint. GO" I stood and sprinted towards down the street. My team followed.
1m 40s
Bullets pinged off the ground and whistled through the air around us. A couple skipped off our armor and once I saw Dog stumble before catching himself and continueing on.
1m
I pulled my gun up and fired into a Russian as he stepped out onto the street. A his body jerked as he was pushed back into the doorframe he had just come from. I saw Rouge fire to my left and heard the crack of Daniels carbine. Siren was gaining and soon had taken point just ahead of me and Rouge. Frost ran behind us and in the back Dog took up the rear.
40s
Someone stepped out of an alcove and shoot Siren in the lower left leg. Her leg was unsteady in mid-step and her leg crumpled collapsed under her when it hit ground. She collapsed and landed on her knee before pitching forward and skidding a few feet before rolling onto her other side. Rouge and I fell into a back slide and stopped next to her. The bomb went off and Frost was thrown forward knocking into me and pushing me over Siren. Dog had jumped just before the explosion, using the force of the explosion to fly over us, dispersed his momentum by rolling into a crouch and taking out the grunt that shot Siren. I picked myself up from the tangled pile and kicked Rouge in the head while trying to get out from under Frost and keep from putting weight on Siren. We scrambled up and grabbed our gear. Dog covered us from the few soldiers that were shooting at us after the bombs went off. The chaos allowed us to get back up and make a run for it. Dog took rear again and Frost took Siren's position. Rouge and I looped Siren's arms around our shoulders and between the two of us dragged her. A few more NF soldiers had shown up and we staggered towards the saftey of our line. We turned the corner and saw a flash as one of our Marines leaned out a window to fire at someone behind a truck.
"Marines this is Lone Wolf we are falling back to your position." I said over the comm
"Roger that Wolf. Covering fire."
We covered the last 50 yards to where we saw Marines laying a line of fire to keep any NF nearby down. Frost reached cover first and leaped over the sandbags before turning and covering us. I slipped out from under Siren and sprinted the last 20 feet to jump the wall and turn to help Rouge. He had somehow gotten up to a sort of sprint shuffle. When he reached the wall he half-tossed half-shoved Siren towards me before diving over himself. I caught her and was thrown off balance. I fell backwards pulling her into my body to keep from hurting her worse. Rouge turned and fired his SMG one handed at the NF. Dog had stopped at the same point I had seperated from Rouge and Siren and he was down on one knee covering us. I saw a shot glance off his hip and another off his chestplate. A shot shattered his right pauldron and spun him around to face us. He stumbled the a few steps and caught a burst in the back. Rouge caught him as he fell and hauled him over the wall, before vaulting it himself. I leaned Siren against the wall and tapped the Marine Sergeant on the shoulder.
"Fall back, their are to many of them." I yelled over the din of battle.
He nodded and signaled his troops. They began to fall back systematically turning at certain positions to cover their comrades. Frost pulled Dog to his feet and they ran for the edge of the commpound, and then the forrest. I picked up Siren and followed suite. I reached the edge of the forest and laid her down against a tree signaling two Marines to protect her. I turned to see the last of the Marines vacate the buildings they had taken Rouge covered them. He looked up looked back to see if everyone had made it. Suddenly his head jerked and his faceplate shattered. I grabbed his shoulder while a Marine grabbed the other side and between the two of us we dragged him up and dragged him to cover. I leaned over him but he pushed me off of him.
"Get off of me man. I'm fine." He took off his helmet and looked at it. The faceplate had a circular hole in it and spider web like cracks climbed across it. Inside the helmet I could see a hole in the inside and a big chunk was missing from the side. The bullet had obviously passed at an angle through the faceplate right past Rouge's face and out the side. I looked at him and saw a few scratches from shattered glass on his face, most of them were small except for a good sixed one on his chin.
"That was freaky." He said looking at the hole."It passed right by my right ear."
"Looks like that glance backwards saved you." I said. He smiled kind of sickly and knocked the rest of the glass out with his elbow. He then cleared it of glass and jammed it back on his head.
I picked Siren back up and started back to the fall back point. The Angels could be hurt, and now the Federation knew it. Rouge sensed what I was thinking and voiced it to the group.
"They know that they had beat us. They think we are running away like animals with our tail between our legs, to hide and lick our wounds." I looked at him and saw the grinning, a similar grin spread across my face.
"Let them think that." I said."Because we won't hide like animals. We will come back like the avenging Angels of Death we are, and this time, we don't fall back."
