Islamic States of America (Soldier Up Book 2)

by Unknown

  Even though the Chicago A-Team had reported the Whiting and other refineries clear Alpha Company wasn’t going to take any chances Captain Wellington sent a platoon to each side to observed for a bit before moving in. After two hours they saw nothing going in or out and no movement inside. He ordered 1st and 3rd platoons to enter the facility, carefully, through the main gate. 4th platoon would remain in reserve and over-watch. Captain Wellington also had two sniper teams with him who he placed in a couple of buildings to over-watch the two platoons entering. 2nd Platoon was ordered to cover their rear although they hadn’t seen anyone or anything for that matter no point in taking in chances.

  1st platoon was the first one to enter the facility it was big, in fact it was considered the 6th largest in the nation. First Lieutenant Tadong Li was the Platoon Leader; SFC Chance Wayne was the Platoon Sergeant. Both men had worked together for the last couple of years and were veterans of Afghanistan they trusted each other and more to the point the men in the platoon trusted them to lead them. Their job right now was to clear the operations buildings as they did that 4th platoon would clear the grounds, Second Lieutenant James (Jimmy) Falcon was the Platoon Leader; SFC Alvin Baker was the Platoon Sergeant. Lieutenant Falcon was a newly commissioned butter bar and had no combat experience he was a product of the new OCS at Camp Parks. SFC Baker was having a difficult time with the Lieutenant a good Officer learned from his NCO’s especially one’s like his Platoon Sergeant and Squad Leaders who were combat veterans. Lieutenant Falcon decided that he was the lone tactical expert on everything and saw the NCO’s as beneath him. Secretly his men in the platoon wanted to frag him as soon as possible all of them knew though if they tried it they would have to deal with SFC Baker who they were afraid of.

  The refinery was so large that it spread through parts of Hammond and East Chicago proper SFC Baker knew there was no way a couple of platoons would be able to cover the entire facility and give it an all clear. He told Lieutenant Falcon how he felt and they were being set up for failure the Lieutenant told him to mind his own business they had their orders, SFC Baker was understanding more and more why the men wanted to frag him.

  As 1st platoon entered the building complex Lieutenant Falcon broke up the platoon sending each respective squad into a different area to clear it. SFC Baker was against this idea, “Sir what’s going to happen if one of the squads needs help?”

  “Don’t worry about it Sergeant I got it covered.” said Lieutenant Falcon.

  “Sir how do you have it covered? If one of those squads becomes pinned down there won’t be anyone there to cover their asses. Send 1st and 2nd squad together and 3rd and 4th squads together.”

  “Sergeant! This is my platoon do you hear me?” yelled Lieutenant Falcon.

  SFC Baker stared down the Lieutenant, “Yes Sir I get it.”

  With that the squads dispersed into the sprawling refinery the Lieutenant believed the intelligence that they had received from the A-Team even though it was a week and a half old. One thing SFC Baker had learned in his various combat tours overseas was to not take the intelligence to seriously as events on the ground any place were always fluid and could change in a heartbeat. A good Officer would have listened to his Platoon Sergeant not gone off halfcocked thinking he knew everything.

  1st platoon was clearing the building one room at a time they were also looking for HR to find out where the engineers lived. Once they were settled they would try to send out teams to attempt to locate them they knew it had been a year so the chances of them being home were slim to none, yet it couldn’t hurt to check. It was slow going through the buildings and endless rooms after rooms. The event had hit in the middle of the night on a weekend it looked like on one had even come in to the offices after the event happened. Unlike many buildings and offices they had been through in the Bay Area most had been looted to varying degrees this was odd to them nothing had been disturbed.

  Over the radio net Corporal Chaparral who was one of snipers said, “I got a couple of people inside the facility going into one of the outlying buildings about .5 clicks of Sergeant Guevara’s squad. It’s a man and woman they are loading up a Ford F-150. I don’t see them carrying any weapons.”

  “Roger that.” said Sergeant Guevara. “Moving to engage.”

  Sergeant Guevara maneuvered his squad carefully towards the two people Corporal Chaparral called out to them. As they moved the Corporal gave them updates as to what they were doing. He also made the observation that they must have come into the refinery prior to them entering or they accessed another gate they didn’t know about.

  As the Sergeant approached the two people he screamed, “US ARMY! US ARMY!”

  The man and woman froze as they saw the dozen heavily armed men moving towards them with weapons raised and pointed directly at them.

  “On the ground!” Sergeant Guevara yelled at them.

  The man and woman slowly complied until they were sprawled on ground. Sergeant Guevara sent Specialist Bower and PFC Outhouse to search the two and Specialist Roy to search the truck while the rest of the squad sat in over-watch to their front and rear.

  “They’re clean.” said Specialist Bower.

  “I’ve got a shotgun and two 9mm pistols loaded here in the truck’s cab.” said Specialist Roy.

  The Specialist grabbed the weapons and brought them to Sergeant Guevara who cleared them and set them on the ground. “You two stand up, who are you?” said Sergeant Guevara.

  “The man answered, “I’m Aron and this is Shana.”

  “Well Aron and Shana what brings you to the refinery?” asked the Sergeant.

  “We’re collecting supplies for our commune.” said Shana.

  “So you’re looting which is illegal.” said the Sergeant.

  “We aren’t looting.” said Shana. “There are no more laws!”

  Sergeant Guevara ordered his RTO to get on the radio and get the Lieutenant over here and to let him know they’ve caught some looters.

  “Well, I’m sorry to tell you our orders are to shoot looters on sight.” said the Sergeant.

  “Wait, what? No, no, no…look man no one is using this stuff and we really need it.” said Aron.

  Sergeant Guevara looked at both of them, “What you are taking belongs to the BP Corporation which has for the time being been nationalized by the US government. You’re stealing from the US government.”

  Shana with a look of contempt, “There is no more US government you’re just a bunch of thugs masquerading as the Army.”

  At that time the Lieutenant and SFC Baker came rolling up in an old Chevy C-10 pickup truck where they got that Sergeant Guevara had no idea. Both men got out of the vehicles and approached Sergeant Guevara. SFC Baker signaled to the young Sergeant to come over to them. “Give us a quick summary.” said SFC Baker.

  Sergeant Guevara spent the next few minute’s bringing the Lieutenant and SFC up-to-date on the situation. “I’ll take it from here.” said Lieutenant Napster. The men in the squad groaned when they heard this. Sergeant Guevara said in a low voice to SFC Baker, “This isn’t going to turn out well.”

  SFC Baker looked and Sergeant Guevara, “Yeah.”

  The Lieutenant approached the couple and nodded, “Ms. Hooker and Mr. Moron.” the Lieutenant said.

  The couples mouths dropped open, Shana responded, “Who do you think you are! You can’t talk to me like that!”

  “I’m Lieutenant Falcon, from what I understand Ms. Hooker you propositioned the Sergeant here and his men.”

  “I…I… what? I did no such thing! How dare you!” she said. “Aren’t you an Officer in the Army you can’t talk to me like that!”

  “Didn’t you just say that we weren’t the Army? And that’s there no more government?” said the Lieutenant.

  “Well yes I did, so what?”

  The Lieutenant was thinking that this woman was dense. “Mr. Moron do you have anything to add to this intriguing conversation?”

  “Nope.” said Aron.
He suspected the Lieutenant was baiting them and trying to get a rise out of them, which was working.

  “Unload the truck.” ordered the Lieutenant.

  “We will not!” said Shana. “We got it fair and square.”

  “I’ll give you thirty seconds to unload it or I’m going to place you under arrest.”

  Aron thought for a moment and moved to the back of the truck and started to unload it. “What you are doing? Shana asked Aron.

  “I’m unloading the truck.” he replied. “Look Shana, there are a lot more of them then there are us. They have automatic weapons, body armor, pistols and god knows what else. They could have killed us or raped you by now if that’s what they really wanted.”

  “Well….well…this stuff is ours.” she said.

  “No Shana it’s not. It belongs to the BP Corporation like they said and yeah the government can nationalize pretty much anything they want.” said Aron.

  “That doesn’t make it right!” she answered.

  “No, it doesn’t.” said the Lieutenant. “Our job here is to secure this complex for everyone in the region not just a select few. There will be a lot of follow on forces we are just the tip of the spear.”

  Shana thought for a moment and looked from Soldier to Soldier; over the radio net they heard Corporal, “We’ve got a dozen vehicles moving down the road on the outside of the complex heading your way. A sedan in the lead the rest are trucks with people loaded in the back, I estimate maybe a total of 100 people in the convoy.”

  SFC Baker replied, “Any weapons?”

  “Roger, all small arms from what I can see. Looks like AR-15’s, hunting rifles and shotguns is about all I can see.”

  Lieutenant Falcon asked Aron and Shana, “Who are they?”

  “They are our commune’s quick reaction force.” said Aron.

  Lieutenant Falcon contacted Caption Wellington who had been monitoring the net and ask for instructions. He informed the Captain that it was a quick reaction force from a local commune he said he would consider them hostile.

  “Who are you talking too?” asked Shana.

  The Lieutenant raised his hand to shut her up, “You don’t think we are the only ones here do you?” the Lieutenant finally said after he was done bringing the Captain up to speed.

  “What do you mean?” asked Aron.

  Captain Wellington responded to the Lieutenant telling him to continue to take care of business and 4th platoon would take care of the convoy. Lieutenant Falcon responded with affirmative and continued his discussion with the couple.

  “We are one platoon from a Company sized element. The rest of the Company is dispersed over the area and another platoon will deal with your friends.” said the Lieutenant.

  “But you told the person on the other end to consider them hostile.” said Shana.

  “Ms. Hooker you have been nothing but hostile to myself and men. Your friends approaching the complex are armed and you said yourself they are a quick reaction force. Which means they are a combat unit.”

  “I am NOT Ms. Hooker, I’m Shana! Are you just going to kill them all then?” she asked.

  “Depends on what their intentions are.” said Lieutenant Falcon. “They will be stopped and questioned. If they threaten, fire at or possibly even look at the Soldiers like they’re going to cause a problem, yeah there’s a good chance they might be killed.”

  “Ok..Ok…look I’m helping unload the truck right now.” Shana moved to the back of the truck to help Aron. Aron was starting to look nervous, “What are you doing?” he asked her.

  Shana looked at him, “Get ready.”

  Aron shook his head no and started to back away. Shana now at the back end of the truck lifted a box out of it and dropped it. She knelt down to pick it up disappearing from sight for a moment then she quickly stood up with a hand gun fired two shots at Lieutenant Falcon. A single shot rang out hitting Shana in head she dropped dead to the ground. Aron looked around he saw that none of the Soldiers fired it then occurred to him that there must be a sniper covering the Soldiers.

  Quickly SFC Baker with weapon up charged Aron then using the rifle stock butted him in the head with it knocking him to the ground where he lost consciousness. Outside of the main gate they could hear the SAWs kicking off, with the M-4’s followed by several grenades. 4th Platoon had quickly pushed several cars into the middle of the road and created a road block. Then posted five men at the road block with the others in over-watch positions, both SAW’s were positioned to fire on the convoy in the event things went south.

  4th Platoons Platoon Leader was Second Lieutenant Boris Epstein, the Platoon Sergeant was SSG Elmer Stacion. Lieutenant Epstein unlike his counterpart Lieutenant Falcon was a sponge and more than willing to learn everything he could from his NCO’s and Soldiers. He realized that coming out of OCS there was still a world out there that he really knew nothing, he was a blank slate. SSG Stacion was prior service; he was an Iraq war veteran and then got out when his hitch was up. He survived the event and heard about a recruitment drive at a place called Camp Parks at the time he was living near Reno Nevada. He decided what the hell there was nothing going on here and decided to walk to Camp Parks which was roughly 228 miles. It took him a month and a half to walk it but he made it the entire way.

  He was welcomed at Camp Parks; he had a copy of his DD-214 and was reinstated at his previous rank. He had to go through four weeks of re-orientation then was assigned as a Platoon Sergeant to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment.

  Lieutenant Epstein accompanied first squad down at the road block as the convoy got closer he ordered to Soldiers into the street to halt the vehicles. The two Soldiers stood on the middle of the road with their arms up and hands open signaling for them to stop. The lead vehicle a four door sedan slowed down for a few moments and then the driver hit the gas charging as fast as the car would take it challenging the road block and was going to crash it.

  Lieutenant Epstein quickly ordered the men out of the road and he open fired on the sedan with the rest of the Soldiers at the road block. The car was peppered with rounds from the Soldiers firing their M-4’s and the car careened off the road. The trucks didn’t slow down pushing the car off the road barreling past it. Several of the men and women in the back of the trucks open fired on the Soldiers at the road block wounding two of them. Lieutenant Epstein ordered the SAW’s to open fire on the trucks which surprised the occupants and cut down most of them. The SAW gunners hit all eleven trucks killing the drivers first. The other platoon members now joined in firing on the vehicles. Gun fire stopped coming from the back of the trucks and the SSG Stacion ordered cease fire.

  All of the vehicles where stopped many if not most of the occupants were dead, SSG Stacion ordered the Soldiers to search for survivors but to be careful some might be playing possum, he said he wanted one to search the body and the other to stand over the with weapon ready to fire.

  They started to pull bodies from the back of the trucks as they did one woman popped up with a weapon pointed at a Corporal the Private behind him fired quickly into the woman killing her instantly. It was a good lesson for the young Soldiers and exactly what SSG Stacion said was going to happen. With the first incident the other Soldiers were far more careful with the pulling out the bodies and checking them. They found a dozen still alive and they were handcuffed with zip ties and made to sit off to the side of the road as a group.

  SSG Stacion ordered Specialist Rosco and Werner to escort the prisoners back to where Caption Wellington was and to stay with them. If any of the prisoners show any sign of resistance kill them they didn’t have time for that crap, if they tried to escape kill them they didn’t have the time for that crap either. SSG Stacion made sure to say this in front of the prisoners so there was no doubt what would happen if they tried anything.

  As they were marching the prisoners back to the Captain 4th platoon retreated back to their previous positions. Lieutenant Epstein contacted the sniper over-watch to
find out if anything else was coming down the road, they replied negative at this time.

  1st and 3rd platoons continued to search their respective areas Lieutenant Falcon died within fifteen minutes of his would. Shana got off a lucky shot hitting the Lieutenant in the neck and him in an artery. The medic could do little to help him and he bled out Sergeant Guevara’s squad stood around the body staring down at the Lieutenant. Sure they all talked a lot of shit about wanting to frag him it was just talk though they never would have done it and would have done their best to protect him. Sergeant Guevara ordered his men to snap out of it and get back to their positions, SFC Baker backed up his squad leader and told them if they didn’t get moving he’d put a boot up there ass.

  SFC Baker pulled out a poncho from his rucksack and covered up the Lieutenant he had a couple of men drag Aron out to the rest of the prisoners outside of the facility. Things were not going to go well for Aron he was directly linked to killing the Lieutenant if he survived that day it would be a miracle thought SFC Baker.

  The two Soldiers that were wounded in the gunfight at the road block would be ok, they were only flesh wounds for the most part and returned to duty. The prisoners once with the Captain were interrogated one at a time by the XO and First Sergeant. The First Sergeant used to belong to the 75th Ranger Regiment and had fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan he was familiar with torture technique’s that could be used to get information, good or bad he didn’t care they had tried to kill his men for nothing more than trying to stop them at a road block.

  Chapter Forty

  The St. Louis A-Team jumped into a suburb called Soulard which was one of the oldest communities in St. Louis. It was primary residential and the North American headquarters of Anheuser-Busch some people in Command wondered if this was the true reason the A-Team picked this area. All kidding aside they felt that it was the safest area to infiltrate they found a few parks that they could land in and then decided on the largest one in the area. It tended to be a bit of an upscale neighborhood with lots of restaurants and bars the center of the entertainment industry for St, Louis. That being case they didn’t expect there to be any problems with the insertion and there wasn’t. When they hit the ground they didn’t find see anyone and after searching the area for a few hours they didn’t find a soul still in the area.