by Ricky Sides
“Tell the flight leader that I think the smoke may be from our own ordinance that the team used for the diversion but if the smoke thickens or noticeably increases to inform me,” the captain replied.
“Captain, the strike team leader has just informed me that all forty-five men have disembarked and will proceed to their entry points,” the communications specialist said.
The pilot reported, “Bay door closed, and we are ready to take off. Where do you wish us positioned to observe the next phase, sir?” asked the pilot.
“Let’s try position one of the three that we discussed. If we need to do so for any reason, we can change positions,” the captain stated.
***
The rooftop entry team was surprised to discover that the door to the entrance was not locked. The sergeant opened the door effortlessly and entered the rooftop door of the dormitory. He walked down the stairs from the entry room to the fourth floor of the structure. He saw two guards rushing up the stairwell in their direction and he threw a stun grenade down the stairs at them. Two of the other men did the same with their stun grenades. Smoke from those stun grenades drifted back up and out the open roof top door. That was all part of the plan to draw defense from the first floor level.
On the fourth floor, several doors began to open and the entry team aimed their weapons at the doors. Soon the cult members charged out of their rooms with pistols, knives, and in some cases dogs at their sides.
The entry team opened fire. They were under orders to target the people armed with firearms and the dogs first. The people armed with knives and daggers were a lesser threat. The twelve cultists who boiled out of those rooms were easily taken out. They hadn’t had the time to organize and the surprise raid had caught them off guard. The three dogs were also killed with ease. They didn’t get ten feet from the doors before they were cut down.
The sergeant gave the appropriate hand signal and half of the men began a systematic search of the rooms looking for prisoners. That took only a few moments to run inside, look under the beds and in the closets and then they checked the next room. In two minutes, they knew that the fourth floor had been cleared, and the sergeant ordered the men to get down the staircase to the next floor.
As the team started down the winding staircase shots were fired in their direction. The team stopped briefly, and hammered the staircase below with automatic weapons fire. Another man threw a smoke grenade down to a landing two floors down. The smoke from that grenade would help to conceal their approach, as it rose following the air currents toward the open rooftop door. Soon they arrived at the third floor. The cult members there had the time necessary to get organized and the first man to reach that floor discovered two dogs and at least a dozen people waiting to attack them.
The corporal dropped to the prone position shouting a warning as he opened fire, killing one of the charging dogs with his first shot. The cult shot back wounding the man in the arm. Another bullet was deflected by his helmet, and then fire support from several team members lanced into the concentrated enemy position. Some of the cultists tried to break and run at that point, but they were cut down, as still more members of the team made it to the third floor landing.
A medic treated the corporal’s wounded arm and asked if the man needed to be extracted, but the game corporal shook his head and said, “It’s not that bad a wound, Doc. I’ll stay with the team. They need me.”
A quick search of the rooms revealed no prisoners. The sergeant was gathering the men for the assault on the next floor when he heard gunfire erupting from the floors below. A group of several men had gathered on the second floor railing and they were trying to shoot peacekeepers moving to secure the first floor and the basement. The cult members were receiving orders from a tall thin man dressed in black with long platinum blond hair. The sergeant ordered his men to kill the apparent leader in an effort to prevent organization and cohesion as a fighting force among the enemy. Four shots hit the enemy leader and he fell over the railing to tumble down the steps to the next landing. The rest of the team poured automatic weapons fire into the assembled cultists at the staircase.
The entry team ejected spent or even partially spent magazines and replaced them with fresh ones as they prepared to charge down the stairs. Just as they were about to charge down the stairs, they saw four Dobermans round the corner and charge up the last flight of stairs separating them from the men who’d attacked the cult. The entry team fired en masse and three of the dogs collapsed on the staircase, but somehow the fourth dog got through. The dog clamped its jaws on a man’s leg, and it would have savaged the man’s limb, but another peacekeeper shot it in the side. He then kicked the animal away when it released its hold on its victim. Several more shots slammed into the dog.
The men made their way down the stairs to the second floor. The medic stayed with the man with the injured leg to treat the wound but it was superficial thanks to the quick intervention of his fellow peacekeeper. The team spread out and moved through the second floor seeking more cultists, and or prisoners. Inside one room, they found a young boy on the floor. He was deathly pale and his breathing was shallow. There was a wound on the side of the boy’s neck. Apparently, they had interrupted the cult member who had been feeding on the child. The sergeant sent for the medic. He held a clean rag against the bleeding wound until the medic arrived. The medic looked over the boy and bandaged his wound. Turning to the sergeant he said, “Sergeant, if we don’t get this boy to the ship soon, he’ll die. He needs the doctor and we’re talking minutes here. I think you should send him up to the roof with the wounded corporal. The doctor can treat both. I may be needed here.”
The sergeant nodded his understanding and told the radioman to contact the ship and then he yelled for the corporal. A moment later, the man appeared and paled when he saw the boy. “Corporal, get this boy to the roof and board the ship with him. You can manage with your wound?”
“Yes, Sergeant, I won’t let you down,” the corporal replied.
“Just be careful. The Doc here says minutes are important so don’t stop for anything unless you absolutely have no choice,” the sergeant ordered.
The corporal slung his rifle and picked up the boy. He turned and walked briskly from the room with the child cradled in his arms. Three minutes later the corporal handed the child to the men on the roof waiting to assist. He stumbled up the ramp as he boarded the ship. One of the men handed the profusely sweating corporal a bottle of water. He’d run up the steps carrying the seventy pound child along with all of his combat gear and was winded.
The captain arrived while he was catching his breath. “Good job, Corporal. Have the doctor see to your wound as soon as he can spare the time.” The captain gestured to a man standing nearby and said, “Help the corporal out of his gear and stow it please, then see to it he gets to the infirmary.”
“Yes, Captain,” replied the private.
***
The first floor entry team was finding it very difficult to accomplish their mission. The resistance had been much heavier than anticipated. The first floor was swarming with cult members who seemed more intent upon escaping the dormitory than fighting off the peacekeepers on the upper floors. As a result of this, the peacekeepers found the critical locations that they needed to occupy were already occupied by the cult members.
The strike force leader ordered his second in command to prepare to take the strike force team through the suspect door to the basement while he led a diversionary attack against a section of cultists. Moments later, the sergeant led fifteen men on the diversionary attack. They shifted positions firing on the run as they did so until they ducked behind a wall out of the line of fire. A moment later, the sergeant threw a smoke grenade into the cult position and the cult members there were temporarily blinded.
The strike force team used that diversion to scramble to the door and shoot the lock. The minute the door opened two dogs leapt out toward the man who’d opened the door. He was knocked off his fee
t by the force of the impact but strike team members killed the dogs.
The team hastened down the stairs and soon emerged into the basement proper. Three more dogs charged them as the emerged into the dark basement. The flashlights of the team illuminated two of the running figures and they were shot. They didn’t see the approach of the third dog. That animal savaged the back of one man’s leg. He screamed in pain as he went down and other men clubbed the dog away with the butts of their rifles. One of the men jammed his rifle barrel against the dog’s side and pulled the trigger several times.
Their medic attended the wounded man while another peacekeeper stood guard. The rest of the men fanned out and approached the only room in the basement. That room was in the southwest corner of the basement. They found the door closed and locked. One of the men picked that lock. They couldn’t risk shooting it for fear of hitting a child captive.
Inside the room they found nine children of varying ages. The men surveyed the children and found them to be alive but terrified.
They led the children to the staircase that led back to the first floor but the gunfire up above was hammering incessantly. The corporal shook his head and said, “We can’t risk taking the children out through all that fire.” He walked back out into the middle of the room and looked around. When his eyes fell on the window near the ceiling in the south wall he smiled.
The dormitory was situated on a grade. Though most of the basement was below ground level, the south side had a portion of the wall above ground. The architects had incorporated a small window, which would admit some natural light into the basement. That window opening was too small for the men but the children could get through. The corporal radioed the ship with his plan. He requested that the ship land and some men come to the window to escort the children aboard. His team would then fight their way back to the others.
The strike force men gathered around and grabbed a heavy table that in the past had been used to sort and fold laundry. They carried the table to the appropriate position beneath the window, and shoved it firmly against the wall. Climbing up onto the table the corporal knocked the window out with the butt of his rifle and then he carefully knocked out the jagged edged glass fragments. “Find me something to lay over this windowsill guys!” he ordered.
One of the men found an old beach towel in one of the washers. He brought that over and handed it to the corporal who said, “That should do nicely.” He folded the towel and laid it down on the windowsill to protect the children from the glass shards.
The pilot landed the ship close to the window and lowered the cargo bay door. The captain and every other able-bodied man not on duty in the control room rushed out with their weapons. The wounded corporal was among them. One of the drones guarded the bay door, as did one of the fighters. They ran to the window. The corporal inside said, “Be ready to pull them out, but mind the glass in the windowsill top and bottom.”
The captain ordered two men to stand ready to pull the children out with one working each side of the hole. He added his own caution about the glass shards. Seconds later the first child was handed through. The wounded corporal took that child and immediately ran for the ship. When the last child was extracted from the broken window, the captain said, “Tell your team I said congratulations on a job well done.” Five minutes later the last of the children were safe and the ship was lifting back into growing darkness.
The corporal passed along the congratulations of the captain, and added his own to the team. Still a relatively young team, this was the first major rescue mission that they had participated in and they were justifiably happy with their performance. “Now let’s get back into the fight,” the corporal said.
Walking toward the staircase the corporal saw the medic supporting the wounded man and asked, “Is he going to be able to make it up the stairs?”
“He’ll make it if I have to carry him. We are strike force. We don’t leave our wounded behind.”
“Damn right!” the men shouted in unison. Before the wounded private knew what was happening, two of the bigger strike force team members had interlocked their hands and scooped him up. He found himself being carried up the stairs backwards as fast as the men could go.
The strike team boiled out through the door with the lead men charging the nearest element of cultists. They were firing at them as they ran. The two men carrying the wounded man bolted back toward the front door. Several peacekeepers saw them evacuating a wounded man and fired suppression fire at the enemy to keep them from targeting the three defenseless peacekeepers. They got the man outside and well away from the dormitory. The Alabama was coming in for a landing, and a drone hovered protectively near so the two peacekeepers left the wounded man and ran back to join the battle. One of the men stopped and shouted for the other man’s attention. He said, “Hey I’ve got an idea. Remember that window behind the main group of cult members?” Looking at each other, they smiled and ran around the dormitory until they approached the window they needed. It was too high. They needed something to stand on if they were to see inside.
In the growing darkness, the two men saw one of their drones come around the corner and fly toward them. “The captain is asking what you two are doing,” the drone operator said. The men quickly explained the situation and the drone operator said, “Well let me take a look. Ah yes I see what you mean,” he said when his drone was level with the window. A moment later, his laser flashed numerous times slightly changing trajectory with each shot. “Thanks for the tip guys. Next time you men radio for an assist when you see a window behind the enemy. The captain says good work, now rejoin your unit.”
The men saluted and sprinted back toward the front of the dormitory. Inside, the battle was winding down. Only one pocket of heavy resistance remained. As the two strike force members rushed through the front door, they saw three peacekeepers throw stun grenades at that pocket of resistance. A moment later, the three grenades exploded and a wave of peacekeepers charged the position led by the strike force leader and the rest of their unit. They joined in that charge. Within two minutes, that battle was over and the mop up commenced.
The peacekeepers searched the entire building looking for hidden cult members or prisoners who may have been concealed. They found no one. They took every piece of film, every camera and every computer in the structure. They also took every written piece of documentation. The council would want all of the information that they could get.
The captain ordered the ship flown to the orphanage where the children were released to the people who operated that facility. The wounded child was in grave condition but he would recover thanks to the peacekeepers. The doctor recommended that the staff of the orphanage get the boy to the local hospital. The Alabama left to fly to the assistance of the Constitution if they needed the help.
Captain Braden Murphy had contacted the Peacekeeper and learned that they had defeated the enemy in their underground borough, but that Clarissa had managed to escape. Their strike team was currently retrieving all available information from that cult base of operations in the hopes that something recovered might yield information concerning where Clarissa might go if she were on the run, and she was definitely on the run now. Somehow, the peacekeepers doubted that she would go to either of the other two bases that were also under attack. The council believed the woman to be too dangerous to accept her escape and not do everything in their power to locate her. Clarissa must be found if the threat to Birmingham was going to be stamped out on a permanent basis.
Chapter 15
The Constitution arrived at the hospital site late in the afternoon. Bill adopted an approach similar to the Alabama captain in that he was opting to deploy a team to the top floor. However, an inspection of the site after their arrival gave him an idea. He had his drones launched. Two approached the bay windows on the second floor. With short pulses of their lasers, they targeted the frames around the hardened glass and rammed them at thirty miles per hour. Just as his engineer predicted, the
drones were able to punch through the weakened glass. Those two drones flew to the access door of the central room where it was believed that the children would be located. They guarded that position, killing three dogs that wandered into view snarling.
They had effectively isolated the cult from the room in which they suspected the prisoners would be held before the first peacekeeper had even entered the building. Bill thought that Pol would like that concept.
Bill sent his best drone marksman inside the facility next. That man was to shoot out the structural support between two sections of the bay windows. This would permit the cargo bay door to access that open section of the wall formerly occupied by the window and its steel support structure. When that had been completed, the drone was to push that piece of steel through the opening and other drones would assist by removing the rest of the glass from the area needed to access the room. Bill thought this plan better because the peacekeepers wouldn’t have to assault the first floor first, thus giving the cult time to get to the prisoners if they so desired.
The plan worked well although the resilient glass proved stubborn and the entry party would have to be mindful of jagged shards of glass. One hundred men exited on the second floor and moved in both directions around the central room seeking the enemy. Several times, they encountered a dog or a cultist appearing from one of the other rooms ringing the central room. Each time this happened the peacekeepers battled the enemy and men entered the rooms that the cult had vacated to search for more enemy or prisoners.
Sergeant Carter had his men take up positions at the two staircases Pete had advised were critical. Almost immediately, they came under attack as cult members tried to reach the floor from both the first and third floors. His men responded with stun grenades on the lower floor and withering auto weapons fire directed at the enemies above. They were reluctant to toss grenades toward the upper floor because of the possibility of them rolling back down the stairs.