by W. R. Benton
It wasn't long until the radio said, “Cobra two, this is Cobra Three. We have 3 KIA and two WIA. The enemy has seven KIA. We are returning to base with our dead. Do you copy?”
“Uh, copy three. You have 3 KIA. Great job, Three, we see your flames. Return to base.”
“Copy, we are returning now.”
“Roger that. Cobra Two, over and out.”
An hour later, as they sat in the mission debriefing, John said, “Both teams did an excellent job of taking out the power plants, but our losses were high, I think. It will be months before the facilities will be operational again. Well done, gentlemen and ladies.”
“So, do we get a couple of days off now, or do we hit a new place tonight?”
“We are to hit one place and we will do so, unless the facility is highly guarded. Sergeant Gomez, I want you and Captain Braun to change into civilian clothes and check the next power station to see what the Russians have done since our attacks. You will both use motorcycles and move in close on foot, after obviously parking the bikes. Count the guards and do a target evaluation, like we normally do before we strike.”
Gomez nodded and Braun said, “Yes sir, and when do we leave?”
“How about right now? If you two will come to the map, I'll show you where we intend to hit next. The rest of you are dismissed for the time being, but be back here at 1700 so we can do a mission plan.”
Ten minutes after the briefing and looking the map over, the two partisans were changed into civilian clothing, jeans and tees, and mounted on two dirt bikes. They were handy for observation and spying on the enemy, or even as get away vehicles after a sniper had done their dirty work. They were fast enough, could be ridden in the woods, and very little stopped or slowed them down. This day they'd drive close to the plant, park in the woods, and sneak up on the place to look it over. If all went well, they'd be home in two hours. If things turned rough, they might never be home again. As partisans, both accepted the risk.
Thirty minutes later they rode by the power plant and spotted no one outside, but that meant little. They continued to the next section road and turned left. In a matter of a few short minutes they were back on the gravel road that ran beside the plant. They rode about a half a mile from the building and then parked the bikes in the brush. Pulling their weapons, they slipped the safety off and moved toward the power plant.
They both circled the plant and moved in close to the fence surrounding three buildings. Two guards left a building and moved to a deuce and a half truck where they climbed in the back, along with four men from inside the plant itself.
Writing on a thigh mounted pad of paper, Gomez said, “Shift change. But we know 6 are there at least.”
“We'll watch for another hour, then report back.”
Over the next hour nothing new was seen after the truck left, until two new guards walked out into the sunlight. They moved around and finally, they sat on a porch of one building and looked to be making small talk. One smoked, as the other pulled out a paperback book, so Braun tapped Gomez on the shoulder and they melted back into the trees.
Once at the bikes, Braun said, “Looks like a normal setup for me except they've doubled the guards. From the looks of things, they're bored and will be easily taken out. I do worry about the two buildings beside the power plant, because they could have men inside.”
Gomez thought a minute and then said, “We could blow those structures up at the same time we blow the door to the plant.”
“We'll bring it up to the Colonel, but he may want to handle them differently; who knows? We'll report just what we saw and then if he asks we'll tell him our concerns.”
“Okay, let's ride.”
Once back with the partisans they reported what they'd seen to John and he wondered what the three outer building were, and both could see they concerned him.
“They could hold more troops, but we only saw civilians guarding the outside. No one entered either building while we were there. Both buildings can be blown at the same time, right after you blow the main door to the plant. But, there were no machine-gun nests or tanks indicating they took the security seriously.”
“Good, the attack will go on as planned and with just ten of us on the team. I want both of you along and we'll hit them at 0100, when everyone will be sleepy. Go rest and grab more ammo if you feel you need it.”
At 2400 hours the ten men and women loaded on a deuce and a half for the short ride to the power plant. They were armed for bear, with two RPGs to take out the plant if they could not gain access. They were determined, but three of them wondered about the two other buildings. No one spoke of them, but they would be taken out quickly.
A half mile from the plant, they unloaded the truck and fell in behind the Colonel.
They found the power plant still guarded by what looked like two civilians. John had Lee and Carrier cut the fence and then they moved in behind the two buildings that Braun prayed were empty, and set two C-4 bricks against the back walls. The detonator was held by the Colonel. Msgt. Dias took a .22 pistol with a homemade silencer made back at camp that gave the gun a very low, poot sound when fired. The small caliber weapon would kill, if shot correctly.
She then moved around behind the guards, who were still sitting on the porch, and she fired once, seeing the small bullet strike the smoker in the back of the head. He simply slumped over and that caused the other man to stand. Aiming once more, she placed her second bullet almost between the man's eyes. The bullet struck him hard, but did not kill him. Instead the bullet ricocheted from his skull and zinged off into the woods. He remained standing and, while he looked confused, she put four more shots into his body. Finally, he gave a horrible scream and then fell to his knees.
Knowing the party was over, Mary fired a burst from her Bison, which stitched the man down the middle and he fell to his back, dying. The door to the building on the left flew open and out ran three Russian soldiers, but they were cut down just outside the door. Russians were heard screaming with more attempting to climb over the bodies. John detonated the C-4 right as four Russians ran into the courtyard of the plant. In a matter of seconds the soldiers were dead and a thermite grenade was placed against the locked plant door. It hissed as it began melting the steel lock.
Then the other building went up in flames, throwing books, papers, and desks high into the air. No one ran from that building. Both buildings were burning now and anyone inside either structure was dead. The lock on the door of the power plant fell off and when the door was opened, an automatic rifle hit two partisans and knocked them to the ground. Gomez tossed a grenade down the hall, where it exploded with a loud boom. Two partisans entered and they began to clear the building. When they tried to enter the control room, heavy weapons fire stopped them. Gomez tossed in a white phosphorus grenade and then slammed the door shut. With the explosion, there came a series of horrible screams as the metal struck people and the pain of the burning became real. Gomez kicked the door in and entered shooting. One man went down instantly, his shirt on fire, and a second was struck in the head. He did manage to fire twice as he fell to the floor, the top of his skull missing. Gomez took the last two bullets in the chest and collapsed on the floor screaming.
Then, Gomez was pulled to the hallway and relative safety. Braun entered, along with Carrier and Smith, and they moved up and down the room, killing those who resisted. Finally, Braun called out, “All clear. Now, set the charges for five minutes, move!”
The charges were placed next to the computers and consoles, and the explosives were armed. Everyone ran from the building. Moving to the gate, they sent two men back to bring the truck forward so they could load on the road beside the place. John raised his arm to see how much more time was needed when the place went up in a big explosion that turned off the lights instantly, but back up generators flipped the light back on. The fire ball was twice the size of the other two power plants, but the damage was complete, as debris and computer parts fell all around.
Watching the huge flames rolling skyward, John yelled, “Everyone to the truck. Bring any injured or dead. Now! Let's move, people! I suspect air cover in a few minutes. Once someone on this grid notifies the Russians the power is out, they'll come looking. I don't want to be here!”
The governors on the truck engines had all been removed and the truck they had was soon doing 60 MPH as the driver drove without his lights on, and depended on his NVGs.
They were soon back home, but as they unloaded, John knew any strikes after this would not be as easy as this night. They'd hit the Russians hard and a good quarter of the state was without power, but he wondered if the remainder of the power plants wouldn't be suicide to attack. He gave the idea a few hours of thought and then contacted Headquarters at dawn with his idea.
“Cobra, we see the merit of waiting a month and while we'd like to do that, there is a reason we want to kill all of the power, over.”
“Can I ask that reason, since my people will be the ones to die in the next few attempts?”
“Uh, wait one.”
“What'd they say?” Joy asked.
“Nothing yet. He's talking to the General.”
“Cobra two, Copperhead.”
“Go.”
“Copperhead actual said you do not have a need to know. He will provide you with a little additional instructions in a classified message he'll send you in the hour. Confirm you copy, over.”
“Copy, Copperhead. Cobra Two, out.”
“Well, there is a reason, but I'm not to know what it is, or so the General said.”
“Looks like if the danger is to us, we'd be told something.” Joy said.
“You would think so, but maybe not. He's sending me a message within the hour so in the meantime, let's visit Gomez and see how he's feeling. I was by his room in the tent earlier and he was out of it and on morphine. I spoke to the doctor who said he'd survive easily and the bullet was more to his shoulder than chest.”
“Good, he's a brave man. He kicked the door open, stormed in and killed at least three of them. Then a female Russian soldier shot him as he killed her. At first we thought it was a man, because of her short hair. She took two bullets, one to the chest, right between her boobs, and one to the head. No one could have saved her even if she'd been in a hospital, because she was dead in seconds.”
“Gomez is a good troop and he needs promoted. He's demonstrated some great leadership traits this last year, and I think he should be at least a Staff Sergeant and a squad leader.”
They walked to the hospital only to be turned away, because Gomez was sleeping. They went back to John's tent, where they opened two Green Frogs.
They were sitting on his bed eating when Private Green knocked and entered. He said, “Decoded message from the General, sir.”
John opened the envelope and pulled out a message that read, ‘Top Secret, not to be disclosed to non military personnel at any time.’
“I knew it would be classified, but Top Secret?”
He then read aloud, “Your timing in cutting the power to the state of Missouri is crucial to our planned mass attack on all Russian bases at the end of this month. I will tell you no more, but figured you needed to know that much. Without power, they will not have much working in their command post. We have mortars to use on their generators. Enough said.”
“Well, damn it, I should have known he had a serious reason, but I never dreamed we'd be hitting the Russians so soon after we overran the base.”
“Sir, must I remind you that this conversation never took place? If you hand the message to me, I'll lock it in the safe with the rest of our classified.”
John handed the message to Green and said, “Here, this is good news, especially with Bo Turner coming to visit us. It looks to me like the end of the war may be closer than I thought.”
Taking the classified, Green said, “Huh? You lost me, sir. I for sure didn't read that in the message you just read.”
“Never mind, I was more or less thinking out loud. Gather all the troop leaders and have them in the meeting tent in an hour. We need to go over some things before our next power station attack, but nothing Top Secret. I just need to motivate them a little.”
Near midnight John and his men bunched up near a power plant and for some reason John had a real bad feeling about the mission but wrote it off as just mission jitters. It was not unusual for him to feel like he did on most assignments, only this was stronger than most. Two men cut through the fence, entered and moved to silence the guards. The two partisans were Bill Love and David Sidwell, both experienced long time partisans. They were good at their jobs, but had to be to have survived eight years of almost constant contact with the Russians.
As Love moved toward the guard near the plant building door, David moved for the man reading a magazine. When both were about four feet from their targets, there were two shots and both men fell. David began screaming in pain, but Bill dropped, instantly dead. A bullet had burned a hole through his chest, striking his heart.
“Now, everyone, charge the place!” John screamed.
Seconds later, a machine-gun opened up. The rat-tat-rat-tat sound of the gun indicated the gunner had plenty of targets. Men and women fell as the gun fired. Dias toss a grenade and the gun when up in a flash of fire and screams.
“Brown, come with me!” She yelled and when the man joined her, they moved to the machine-gun and found it in good shape, with the Russian crew dead. The two of them dusted off the gun, loaded it with bullets and began firing at the Russians. Her night vision goggles assisted her in spotting her enemies.
Brown screamed as he fell, his left arm missing and Lee soon joined him, having take a bullet in the groin which was so painful he passed out, never knowing his penis and balls were gone. Blood soaked both men.
Hanish, seeing the two wounded screamed to be heard over the firefight, “Medic!”
Toms ran to the two downed men, placed a tourniquet on Brown and applied a dressing between the legs of Lee. Both were given shots of morphine and then the medic moved forward with the fight.
“Copperhead, this is Cobra Two, over.”
“Go, Cobra.”
“Any Chinese aircraft in my area? Over.”
“Negative. All have been buttoned up for the night.”
“Artillery available?”
“Wait one.”
Joy screamed, “Must have been a company size force in the plant compound. They were waiting for us.”
John nodded, but didn't speak, he was waiting on Copperhead's reply.
“Cobra, Copperhead and I do have two 105 artillery guns for your use. The call sign for them is Gun Fighter, over.”
John quickly gave his map location and said, “I need two rounds as soon as possible (ASAP) on my location.” Then blowing his whistle, he recalled his troops to the fence line.
Soon the cracking, whistling sound of a big artillery shell was heard. It exploded just inside the compound and on the west side.
“Excellent, shooting Gun Fighter, move your rounds up 50 meters and give me six rounds of White Phosphorus (WP).”
“Copy, get your heads down. WP is nasty.” the gunner replied. “On the way!”
The first shell hit the center of the compound and exploded in a beautiful white explosion that reminded John, for some reason, of a peacock tail. He knew the shells were deadly and while they looked pretty, those struck would be in horrible pain, as the shrapnel would burn as long as it was exposed to air. The only way to keep it from burning was to cut off the air supply and mud worked well, but it was too dry for mud to be around. John had been taught to pee in the dirt and make his own mud, but right now, any Russians in the compound were doomed, or so it looked.
When the shells stopped falling, an eerie silence followed, except for screams of Russian wounded. John blew his whistle twice and the partisans moved toward the power plants control room. Like the other power plants, the structure was made of reinforced concrete, so it sustained
little serious damage during the bombardment from the 105 mm guns. A few surviving Russians took pot shots at the resistance members, but after a few Russians were killed the shots stopped.
A thermite grenade was attached to the lock and door handle and the pin pulled. The grenade sputtered and spit as it burned through the steel lock. When the grenade quit, Corporal Tomkins kicked the door open and tossed two grenades down the long hall. The explosions were loud, and screams were heard a few seconds later. A small group of three entered, shooting at anything that moved. Once in the control room, they encountered rough resistance, so John sent a man with a flamethrower inside.
At the control room door, Brown kicked the door in and the flamethrower spurted a long strand of burning jelly at any movement. The interior was now a room of flames. Horrible screams were heard as the men inside the room burned to death. Prings threw two grenades inside and with the explosion, the screams stopped.
Brown set the explosives at the control room door, with the timer to go up in five minutes. The small group ran out of the building and yelled, “Five minutes.”
“Cobra, this is Copperhead.”
“Go, Copperhead.”
“Radar indicates four aircraft which they believe are attack helicopters, moving in your direction. We suggest you get out of there now.”
“How much time do I have, Copperhead? Over.”
“At the most, fifteen minutes. Your orders are to leave now, copy?”
“Copy. We'll leave in about three minutes. Need to see the control room go up first, over.”
“Roger, your choice. Over and out.”
“Joy!” John yelled.
“Yo!”
“Take everyone but me and Carrier and leave now. Move back toward base, but be aware we have company that flies due here in about 12 minutes. They think the threat is attack helicopters so watch your ass.”