Fallen World: The Complete Trilogy

by Tom Jones

  Arcades faced another issue: his gloves were too large for him to press the buttons. Arcades gave a nervous chuckle as he hoped that Paul was not growing impatient. He unstrapped the right glove, and he took it off with his left hand while he still held the radio with the same hand. He finally was now able to correctly type in the frequency. Once he finished, the fox placed the radio back in the pouch, and he closed the radio pouch to ensure that he did not lose the radio. He also patted down the rest of his gear to make sure that nothing was lost during the initial drop. The fox was glad he didn’t take much equipment with him during the drop, as it was easier to keep track of all of his stuff. Arcades placed his glove back on his hand, and he tightened the velcro strap to ensure that the glove would not fall off his hand.

  Paul then held his radio button again, “Can you hear this now?” Arcades could indeed hear the transmission with his speaker mic. Paul could also hear the transmission due to the fact that the output speaker was not designed to be next to somebody’s ear. The human nodded, “Excellent. Looks like we’re ready now.” Arcades smiled and he said, “I hope I didn’t waste too much time.” Paul shook his head, “Nah, you didn’t.” When Arcades turned back around to see Bocchino, the cat was in the process of switching back over to the frequency that his squad was currently using. The fox asked, “Are there any vehicles that you can see?” Bocchino spoke as he continued to look through the binoculars, “Yeah. I can see two vehicles from here. Both of them have armor plating all over them. They’re tan, and... I don’t even know what those are supposed to be. Why don’t you take a look at them, Kurt? You might know what they are,” Bocchino offered the binoculars to Arcades. The fox gently grasped the binoculars, and Bocchino moved out of the way so that the fox would be able to see the vehicles.

  Arcades focused on one of the vehicles. He recognized what it was supposed to be, “I’ve seen those before. They’re based off of the Humvee. They feature no armament of their own. Somebody has to stand on the custom-made bed of that thing in order to fire their gun. However, there is no spot to mount a weapon with a bipod. I’m surprised the Islamic State still uses those. It’s interesting really, I saw a video from 2015, and they had those in Iraq when they tried to run an offensive against Kurdistan.” Bocchino asked, “What type of weapons are they packing in those? Can you see with those binoculars?” The fox tried to get a better view of the closer vehicle. He could spot three humans wearing khaki combat fatigues and green combat gear. One of them wielded an MG3, one had an AKM, and the last man had a M16A2. Arcades reported his sightings, “I see three of them. One has a .308 German MG, another has an AKM variant. That last guy has an AR-15 type rifle. It looks like an M16A2 or even an M16A4. I dunno from here.”

  “Be careful, Abu Abdullah!” Abu Ridhwan advised his fellow militiamen as he was peeking out of the vehicle with the M16A2. Abu Abdullah was not sure if there was an NSS member inside of the nearest building. He took a few shots to be safe. Abu Hajaar saw that Abu Abdullah was firing at the building, so he began firing at the building as well. After Abu Abdullah spent an entire magazine firing at the building, he dropped the empty magazine in the vehicle, and Abu Hajaar stopped firing. Abu Ridhwan turned around, and he viewed the building that Arcades and his squad were standing in. However, Abu Ridhwan did not notice the squad looking directly at them. He turned back around to see if Abu Abdullah had finished reloading his rifle.

  Abu Abdullah was still digging through the disorganized pile in the vehicle’s bed while he looked for a magazine with rounds in it. He picked up a few empty magazines, and he even managed to find the magazine that he had just used. He tossed the magazines next to where Abu Hajaar was standing in order to get them out of his way. Abu Hajaar commented, “You’re the one who complains when you get hit by casings, but you throw those magazines my way?” Abu Abdullah looked straight at Abu Hajaar, “Your casings are hot! They burn me! That’s why I complain to you about it.” Abu Ridhwan was afraid the two men would start fighting, “Abu Abdullah! Where is your magazine? Find your magazine!” Abu Abdullah was slightly startled by Abu Ridhwan, but he went back to digging through the pile.

  After some more rummaging, Abu Abdullah finally found the magazine that he was looking for. He placed it in the lower receiver of his M16A2, and he pressed the bolt release button. However, the bolt did not return to battery, so he pushed on the forward assist. The bolt finally closed in the breech. Abu Ridhwan bent down into the cabin again, “Khattab, take us closer. I think the infidels are trying to get to the airfield.” Khattab started the vehicle’s engine, and he accelerated the M1114. Abu Hajaar, Abu Abdullah, and Abu Ridhwan were looking all around, and they were scanning the war-torn buildings for hostile combatants. They drove out of the view of Arcades.

  “They just drove away. It looks like they’re trying to move up to the airstrip,” the fox said as he handed the binoculars back to Bocchino. The fox then said, “Looks like we better get going. It’ll take us a little while to make our way there.” The cat looked down at Arcades’ sandy feet and said, “You’re the only one not wearing shoes. I hope you’re ready to get all the way there barefoot.” Arcades raised his eyebrows, “I guess we’re gonna find out, ain’t that right, Bobby?” The cat chuckled, “Heh.. We sure are.” Arcades announced, “Alright, let’s get started.” He walked out of the room, and he turned to go down the stairs. The other seven members of his squad followed after him. As the fox moved down the stairs he said, “Make sure we stick together. We don’t want to get separated in this mess now.”

  As the squad exited the building, they could see clouds of smoke forming from where the airport was. Arcades removed a compass from his pocket, and he looked at the direction of the airfield. Before pocketing the compass he said, “We need to head north. That’s also where all that smoke is coming from, so stay alert.” Noticing the brightness of the Syrian outdoors, Arcades removed the strap on his M2 frames, and he placed them back over his eyes. He placed the strap in the pocket that held the compass.

  He looked around to his other squadmates before asking, “Are you all good to go?” They collectively nodded to acknowledge the fox. Arcades nodded with them after the squad all finished for themselves, “Great. Let’s go.” He began walking again, and the rest of the squad followed him again. As he was walking, he checked his HK433. He enabled the EOTech sight, and he pulled back the charging handle halfway to see if there was a round chambered. When he found out that his chamber was empty, he made sure the weapon was set to safe before pulling the charging handle to its furthest position. He locked back the bolt, and he tested the bolt release again. The rifle gave off a satisfying click sound as the bolt returned to battery. Since the charging handle was non-reciprocating, it did not move with the bolt as it travelled back into battery. This would allow for the fox to grip the rifle without fear of the charging handle hitting his hand.

  As the squad moved deeper into the city, they stuck by the walls in order to provide them with the best cover in case of an ambush. However, the squad knew that the walls wouldn’t provide much cover against weapons that fired rifle cartridges rather than intermediate cartridges. They looked all around for hostiles, and they listened for the distant gunfire that was slowly growing louder. As Arcades turned one corner, he looked up to see the remains of an Mi-24 Hind that was laying on the top of a partially collapsed building. The Hind was scorched from fire damage, and the flat dark earth base coat was now appearing as black to the fox. Arcades squinted as he looked up at the Hind while trying to piece together who the Hind probably belonged to. He spoke, “Hey, Bobby. Did you tell me that CDI lost their air support?” Bocchino remembered the previous night, “I think so.” Arcades pointed at the remains of the helicopter, “I think that’s their air support.”

  “Contact! Left side! Hostiles sixty meters out!” Tom yelled as he spotted a squad of NSS soldiers running down the tarmac. Johnny Began firing with his AK-12 as did the rest of his fireteam. The NSS soldiers reacted to the fire, and a
few began to fire back while others ran to the little cover that there was. One NSS soldier loaded a 40mm grenade into the underbarrel launcher that was attached to his AUG. He tilted the rifle upwards in a way that he would be able to arc the grenade in order to hit the CDI operatives. He fired the grenade, and he saw where it landed before it detonated. The blast knocked Tom to the ground. “Agh! I’m hit!” Tom yelled as he caught shrapnel in his left arm and right leg. However, he was still somewhat able to fire back at the NSS soldiers. Tom remained on his prone position, and he fired at the NSS soldier who was crouched down reloading his 40mm grenade launcher. The NSS soldier collapsed, and Tom found out that he was now out of ammo. Tom yelled an order to his comrades, “Cover me! Reloading!”

  Golf 2 and Golf 3 began to fire back at the NSS in order to force them into cover. Tom knocked the magazine out of his AK-74M with his right hand before grabbing another magazine from his pouch. His arm was shaking as he seated the magazine into the weapon before pulling the charging handle. Since his left arm was hurting too badly, he had to use his right hand to reload the weapon. Tom then held the rifle with his right hand after flipping it back over to the right side up. He held the trigger down, but he could not keep the rifle stable this time since some of the adrenaline had subsided. The several spent rounds ricocheted off of the ground, and the other NSS soldiers returned fire with their AUGS. One NSS soldier was carrying an MG 74 before going prone and deploying the bipod. Tom yelled as he saw the MG beginning to fire on his position, “They’ve got an MG! We can’t stay here!”

  Since Tom was wounded, Johnny came over to carry him off of the tarmac while Golf 2 and Golf 3 were laying down covering fire. As Tom was being picked up by Johnny, he saw three vehicles crashing through the gates. He recognized them as being the Islamic State’s M1114s, “SHIT! DAESH IS HERE! QUICKLY! GET TO FUCKING COVER!” The NSS turned to their right, and they now saw the Daesh vehicles. They began firing at the trucks, and Daesh returned fire with their own weaponry. Meanwhile, the CDI fireteam was running to a nearby hangar. Golf 2 and Golf 3 quit firing their weapons as they made their way down the tarmac. Several shots landed behind them, but they did not turn to fight whoever was shooting at them. Luckily, the hangar was already halfway open. Johnny ran inside of the hangar while still carrying Tom, and he laid him down against the wall. Golf 2 and Golf 3 made their way inside as well, but they stayed clear of the doors. They did not want to take fire from Daesh or the NSS.

  “Abu Hajaar! Shoot the infidels on your left! We can get those guys running later!” Abu Ridhwan commanded as he was firing at the NSS soldiers. Abu Hajaar turned his MG3 to the side, and he held down the trigger as he fired at the NSS. Most of the NSS soldiers returned fire, but their weapons were not effective against the improvised armor plating. One NSS soldier used his 40mm launcher, and he fired at one of the M1114s. The vehicle was struck on it’s left side, and the blast left a sizable dent in the armor. The NSS began to spread apart more, and they still were firing at the ad hoc armored vehicles. Abu Hajaar was crouching while obstructed by the plating as he was blindly shooting his MG3 at the NSS. However, some of his shots hit the M1114 that was next to them. Abu Abdullah noticed, “Abu Hajaar! Watch where you’re firing! You’re hitting our brothers!” Abu Hajaar panicked, and he rolled backwards. He fell on his back, and he went to stand up again. Once he got to his feet, he continued to fire at the NSS.

  “We can’t be the last ones left!” Johnny said in disbelief. Golf 2 was currently in the process of patching up Tom, and Golf 3 was trying to close the hangar doors. Johnny was trying all of the other fireteams’ frequencies that he was given before the mission. He tested another one, “To any remaining CDI unit, this is Golf 4. Requesting a status report. Over.” There was no answer. Tom looked up at Johnny, “We’re the last ones left. Everyone else is dead, and reinforcements may or may not be coming later tonight.” Johnny shook his head, “We won’t be able to survive another damn day out here! Look what happened yesterday.” Tom’s AK-74M was propped up against the wall next to him, and he accidentally knocked it over. He replied, “I know this looks really shitty, but ain’t that what you signed up for? What was your other job like?” Johnny did not want to remember anything about Fox Security, “Well, it damn sure was pretty fucking shitty. I’ll give it that.” Tom chuckled, “Hah, heh… You know our odds of making it out here alive are virtually fuck all.” Johnny could not accept the gravity of the situation, “Dammit! Don’t tell me the odds.” Tom only replied with, “This is war, son. People die. You should know that.”

  “Khattab! Take us closer to that hangar!” Abu Ridhwan ordered the driver after most of the NSS soldiers had been defeated. Khattab accelerated, and he pulled away from the other two Daesh vehicles. The other two vehicles remained stationary, but soon one burst into flames. Abu Abdullah heard the explosion, and his vehicle was shaken by it. He looked around to see what happened. He could see an NSS soldier holding an AT4 launcher. Abu Abdullah elbowed Abu Hajaar and he yelled, “Abu Hajaar! Shoot that guy with the launcher!” Abu Hajaar wasted no time holding the trigger down. Rounds impacted around the NSS soldier carrying the disposable launcher, and he stood up to try and run to cover. As he was fleeing, he was struck several times by Abu Hajaar’s MG3. More NSS soldiers opened fire at the M1114, but Khattab continued his current course as their AUGs could still not penetrate the vehicle’s DIY armor. The only other standing M1114 turned directly to face the NSS forces. The gunner of that vehicle stood up and opened fire with a PKM.

  “Those are the last two armored trucks,” Hans advised. Fritz was still lying prone with the MG 74 in an improvised position of cover. He steadied the MG, and he was trying to focus on the gunner of the M1114 that was facing the rest of the NSS. Hans asked, “Do you have any remaining explosives on you?” Fritz dug through his equipment, and he pulled out some improvised plastic explosives. Hans was surprised, “Woah! Where did you get that from?” Fritz replied, “I took this off of a dead sandnigger. One of the ones we killed on the way in had a bunch of them. I took one, and I’m interested to see if it works.” Hans studied the improvised explosive device, “So, how do you detonate it?” Fritz pulled out an accompanying wireless detonator. Hans looked at the detonator, and then he eyed the truck that was still shooting at the remaining NSS forces. Hans asked, “Are we going to have backup?”

  Fritz looked back downrange, “That’s why we need to take this airfield. Those guys up there are all we have left. Those two trucks seem to be all the sandniggers have left too. I think all of CDI has been eliminated.” Hans looked at the vehicle that stood fifty meters away, “How are we going to get over there to plant the explosives? There is nothing to take cover behind there. It’s an open runway.” Fritz considered his options while he watched Abu Ridhwan’s M1114 drive closer to the hangar. He made a suggestion, “Let those guys distract them, and we flank around once that other truck passes.” Hans nodded, “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Khattab! Stop the truck here!” Abu Ridhwan ordered the driver. Khattab stopped the vehicle, and he turned around to question Abu Ridhwan. He spoke with alarm in his voice, “Abu Ridhwan! Those infidels are still shooting at us!” Abu Ridhwan tried to tell Khattab the reason for the stop over all of the gunfire, “There are people in the hangar! We can’t go in there yet! We should use rocket launchers to break the walls first.” Abu Ridhwan turned to face Abu Abdullah while he and Abu Hajaar were fighting the NSS. Abu Ridhwan said, “Abu Abdullah, where is your rocket launcher? We need a rocket for firing at people.” Abu Abdullah remembered what happened to it, “We lost it. Remember?” Their voices were drowned out by Abu Hajaar laying down more fire with his MG3, “God is great,” Abu Hajaar announced aloud as he fired. He did not know if he was hitting anybody, but he was still trying to shoot the remaining NSS soldiers.

  Abu Ridhwan thought about what else they could do. After a moment of thinking, he was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, “If we detonate our vehicle in the hangar, we are sure to
get into paradise.” Abu Abdullah’s eyes widened, “Abu Ridhwan… Is it time?” Abu Ridhwan nodded, “Yes. It is time we take out the rest of the infidels for God.” Abu Abdullah looked back to see the other M1114 still engaged in combat with the NSS, “Our brothers are then going to take the airport?” Abu Ridhwan nodded, “Yes. They will be able to take the airport if we eliminate the last of CDI’s soldiers in there.” Abu Abdullah nodded, “Alright. It’s time.”

  Even though Tom had been patched up, he was still hurting due to the shrapnel that was still stuck inside him. Tom shook his head, “I’m not gonna make it out of here alive.” Johnny replied, “Isn’t there supposed to be reinforcements coming for us?” Tom removed the goggles from his helmet, and he tossed them away on the ground. He said, “They were never coming here. They’re going to regroup at the nearest FOB. There were never reinforcements coming in to rescue us.” Johnny unbuckled his helmet, and he threw it to the ground. Tom chuckled while still in pain, “Heh. I can’t blame ya, son. I’ve done all I could. You can’t do shit to make this any better.” Golf 2 stood near the hangar doors. He said, “We should just open the doors now and get this over with. Kill as many as we can before we get killed ourselves.” Golf 3 nodded, “Yeah, I agree. There ain’t shit we can do to finish the mission now. Better than doing nothing.” The two CDI operatives began to open the doors. Johnny shook his head in protest, “No, no! What the fuck are you doing?” Tom gave a half smile in response, “Son, it’s time for us to die now.” Johnny began backing up, “You shits are fucking crazy! I’m not going to lie down and let those cocksuckers motherfucking kill me!” He grabbed his helmet off of the ground, and he put it on his head. However, he did not buckle the helmet’s strap.