The Wrath of Shakira
Page 18
Max gave the sniper team a few minutes to prepare for their shots; he then initiated the ten-second countdown,
Three muffled shots resulted in three simultaneous kills.
The four-man sniper team maintained position to take out any targets that became visible once the incursion began.
Teams three and four led the way covertly towards the fort main unguarded entrance.
‘ICIS’ Saltbox Hill
‘ICIS’ Saltbox Hill Biggin Hill Kent
Lat = 51 degrees, 19.7 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 1.2 minutes East
Strayker had been woken by Vince and was now in the operations room observing real time satellite coverage of the assault, the Prime Minister and the Everest group were also observing the assault from Number 10 Downing Street with GAIL providing the uplink between ICIS and Downing Street.
They had been able to listen into the ground communications and observed the bridge guards and wall sentries being taken out by the sniper team and was now watching the teams approaching the Fort entrance.
Assault on Muxima Fort
Assault on Muxima Fort Angola
Lat = 9 degrees, 33.0 minutes South
Long = 13 degrees, 55.0 minutes East
Teams three and four were now at the fort entrance, GAIL was now providing satellite Intel on the Fort via the Comm’s system.
All teams were now on Comm’s talk through, enabling all communications to be heard by each member of the teams.
GAIL’s voice came over the Comm’s, “all teams, I have eyeball on the Fort, beware there are two guards at three and nine o’clock as you enter the compound.”
Max was twenty yards back from the entrance with teams four, five, and six and Roy Smith; he spoke into the Comm’s, “team three have you a visual on the guards?”
A voice replied, “their just visible sir.”
“What’s the target acquisition like?”
“Both are about thirty-five yards either side from us sir and static.”
Max thought for a moment, the HK-5 suppressed version was not that accurate beyond twenty-five yards even on single shot, couple this with poor visibility and this could jeopardise the mission.
Max spoke; “team three; hold where you are, team two, I want two of you to rendezvous with three at the entrance and take the guards out, over.”
Two of the four-man sniper team moved forward, within a couple of minutes they were passing Max heading to the fort entrance.
GAIL had been monitoring the Fort and surrounding area, from the satellite feed, when she spotted an approaching vehicle, “Eagle three; you have an approaching vehicle one mile out, looks to have three occupants, over.”
“GAIL; what direction are they coming from?”
“The westerly road Eagle three,” responded GAIL.
This was the road that was not connected by the bridge on the east side.
“Sniper team how quickly can you take the two guards out?”
“Thirty seconds sir.”
Both snipers were in the prone position acquiring their respective targets, a one second time lapse was all that occurred between both snipers squeezing their triggers, both guards took the full head shots, neither aware that the other had also fallen.
The vehicle approaching was a short-wheeled based open-top landrover, on board were Shakira, Hussein and the driver.
Three hundred yards out Shakira ordered the driver to Stop and stood up.
Hussein spoke, “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t see the wall guards,” replied Shakira.
Hussein looked up to the sky, “the moon is covered by a passing cloud, give it a few minutes to clear.”
Shakira looked skyward, “pass me the glasses.”
Max had seen the vehicle stop short of the fort, “now why have you done that?”
His military mind worked fast to grasp the reason, he spoke into the Comm’s, “team three; get up on the ramparts and replace the wall sentries.”
The four-man team moved swiftly up the steps fanning out and resuming the position of the wall sentries that were lying dead on the ramparts, each man removed his helmet clipping it to his belt.
Shakira waited for the cloud to clear the moon, he raised the glasses scanning the fort, and he spotted the silhouettes of the four wall guards.
He scanned the Fort entrance all was quiet.
Hussein spoke, “anything.”
“Guards are in place; everything looks okay, replied Shakira.
Shakira sat back down and turned to the driver, “drive on.”
Max was now watching the vehicle approaching through his Binoculars, he clocked the front passenger, “all units the vehicle arriving has our prime target on board, let them in.
As team, three had mounted the ramparts the two snipers had dragged the two guards out of site and took up their positions also removing their helmets.
The landrover arrived in the compound parking up near the centre building.
Max had now moved up to the Fort entrance with Roy and the teams four, five and six, he watched the occupants of the landrover get out of the vehicle.
Shakira was stood by the landrover looking at the wall guards and the two in the compound, his sixth sense was kicking in; something was not right, he called to the one compound guard, “come here and report soldier.”
The OCS guard remained still.
Max realised the element of surprise was nearly lost, he spoke into the Comm’s, “all teams we are go, hit them hard and fast.”
Shakira’s sixth sense had given him a whole second in reaction time, as the compound guards levelled their weapons, he quickly ran and rolled into the middle buildings open door entrance, Hussein was hot on his heels, the driver had been much slower, and was taken out by the first salvo of suppressed fire.
Shakira and Hussein had drawn their handguns and began to return fire; their salvo’s being unsuppressed sounded like thunder in the quiet night.
Max and the three teams were fanning out, but with very little cover they had to quickly assume prone positions, at this time all fire was being directed at the middle building, however the gunfire had woken the occupants of the compound, they were grapping their weapons and coming out of the other two buildings.
The OCS troops began training their fire on the other two buildings with several of Shakira’s men taking fatal wounds as they emerged.
The roused men inside the middle building had quickly joined Shakira, taking up positions at some of the windows pouring fire at the OCS troops.
Max’s men were being pinned down, reducing their effectiveness; he spoke into the Comm’s, “team three use grenades on the buildings.”
Several grenades were hurled at the three buildings from team three on the ramparts; the grenades exploded ripping large holes in the building walls, which were made from straw and mud.
Many of Shakira’s men were fatally wounded; the fire from the buildings began to die away.
Shakira quickly realised they would be overrun; he tapped Hussein on the back and motioned him to the back of the building, to a hidden door behind a curtain that opened out into the grounds behind the Fort.
Several more grenades finished off any further resistance from Shakira’s men, the few survivors were coming out of the buildings arms held high surrendering, the OSC troops moved quickly in, pushing them to the ground patting them down and restraining them.
Max had moved quickly to the prisoners scanning each one before moving into the middle building to do the same with the bodies’ within.
GAIL had now picked up two figures moving across the open land at the rear of the fort, “Eagle three, you have two figures on the open land to the rear of the Fort.”
Max and Roy had quickly scanned the dea
d bodies, with no sign of Shakira, when he received GAIL’s message.
He noticed a curtain swelling at the back of the building; he motioned Roy to follow him, as he pulled the curtain back he looked into the moonlit open ground beyond, to see two fleeing figures a hundred yards away.
“Let’s get them Roy.”
They began to overhaul the one that was limping figure, Max spoke, “the one with the limp must be Hussein, you take care of him Roy.”
“It’ll be a pleasure Max.”
Shakira had decided to look after number one, and had separated from Hussein, and was now running diagonally away to the left.
Max had changed direction after Shakira, and was momentarily distracted as the sound of gunfire came from over his right shoulder.
Roy had taken fire from Hussein, rolling to avoid the incoming rounds he came up into the prone position, levelling his MP-5SD at twenty yards and squeezed the trigger on the full auto setting; the twenty rounds depleted the magazine in under three seconds.
Hussein took twelve of the twenty rounds, knocking him of his feet; he was dead when he hit the ground.
Roy ran over, having drawn his handgun and aimed a shot at Hussein’s head, “no more bombing for you; you bastard,” Hussein’s lifeless body recoiled from the bullets impact.
Roy looked up to where he had last seen Max, no sign of him, it would appear he had entered the nearby tree line.
Roy spoke into his Comm’s unit, “Eagle three this is six come in.”
There was no reply; Roy repeated the call, “Eagle three this is six come in.”
Still no reply, “Eagle six to team three, rendezvous with me at rear of compound ASAP.”
One of team three replied, “Roger Eagle six; be with you in thirty seconds.”
Wooded Area West Of Fort Muxima
Wooded area west of Fort Muxima
Max v Shakira
Lat = 9 degrees, 34.0 minutes South
Long = 13 degrees, 54.0 minutes East
Max had been about twenty yards behind Shakira as he entered the wooded area and was now kneeling down just inside the tree line listening, the gunfire behind him had seized a few moments ago and it was now silent, Max had heard Roy’s call but had chosen to ignore it, so as not to give his position away.
The half-moon was affording reasonable vision in the thinly wooded area; he drew a grenade from his pouch and pulled the pin, and aimed the grenade at the direction he had last seen Shakira; the grenade exploded and was immediately followed by a burst of wildly aimed fire.
Max caught site of Shakira’s silhouetted figure, twenty yards ahead and to his right, Max resisted the temptation to fire, which would give away his position.
Instead, he moved quietly forward keeping Shakira on his right.
Shakira let loose another burst of gunfire that raked the position Max had just been in.
Twenty seconds later Max was now within ten yards of Shakira’s position directly ahead of him, but was unable to acquire a good shot due to the trees, just at that moment his peripheral vision caught site of a figure moving fast to his left, the figure collided with him like a freight train knocking him over, Max quickly came to his feet and Shakira was standing there unarmed.
Shakira’s last bust of fire had emptied his weapon and he was now unarmed, he had caught site of Max and rounded to his right coming in fast with a shoulder charge.
Max was now levelling his weapon at Shakira; Shakira looked at him recognising this man from their last encounter at his base in Zimbabwe.
He spoke, “have you the guts to do this man on man infidel?”
Max lowered his weapon, “now that’s an offer I can’t refuse, let’s finish this.”
Just then, Roy and team three arrived.
Max put the palm of his right hand up at them, “stand too, he is mine.”
Max handed his weapons to Roy, and removed his body armour and helmet.
Shakira was around five inches shorter than Max, but built like a bulldog, thick set and in good physical shape.
Shakira made the first move, he moved forward fast squatted down and made a single leg sweep at Max’s legs, Max instinctively jumped avoiding the leg sweep.
Shakira moved quickly back to a standing position, Max moved in reaching with his right arm over and behind Shakira’s head, pulling viciously down to the ground causing Shakira to roll over.
For Roy and the team three, this was probably a once in a lifetime experience, watching two men fighting unarmed hand-to-hand combat to the death.
Shakira was back on his feet, both men moved in and exchanged palm and heel strikes at each other, the viciousness quickly caused bruising to their arms that they used to block the incoming blows; Shakira was a worthy opponent for Max.
Max went for a punch to Shakira’s chest, Shakira sidestepped to his left and seized Max’s extended right wrist at the same time pulling Max forward; he extended his right leg causing Max to topple over and roll out of the fall.
Shakira followed up quickly grabbing Max from behind, Max rotated his body to the right unbalancing Shakira, and both men fell to the ground moving quickly back onto their feet.
They were now both breathing heavily from their exertions.
Shakira came immediately at Max with a right hand head strike; Max deflected the blow with his lower left arm at the same time pushing it outwards, he stepped inside of Shakira with a mighty punch to Shakira’s exposed face.
Shakira dropped to his knees; Max moved quickly to the back of Shakira’s knelt body, he grabbed Shakira’s head with both hands and with a violent twisting movement the cartilage and bone made a cracking sound as Shakira’s neck broke.
Shakira’s lifeless body fell head forward into the earth.
Max looked down at his opponent’s lifeless form, and then over at Roy and team three, the endorphin rush that had kicked in at the onset of the clash was now quickly subsiding.
Roy and team three moved forward looking down at Shakira’s body, Roy spoke, “okay men I think we have seen enough, this piece of shit can rot here, we have a plane to catch, move it.”
Max had never killed another human being in hand-to-hand combat; he was feeling nothing, which he thought, was odd.
Roy brought him out of his thoughts, handing him his weapons and equipment, “are you okay Max?”
“You know what Roy; all that training they give you really comes down to this, two unarmed men fighting to the death.”
“My money was always on you Max,” he put his arm around Max’s shoulder, “come on lets go home.”
When they arrived back at the fort, five of Shakira’s men were bound and kneeling on the ground.
“Did we take any casualties Roy?”
“No sir; all present and correct.”
“That’s good Roy; put the prisoners in one of the buildings keep them bound, someone will find them in the morning.”
Ten minutes later Max and the teams were crossing the bridge on their way back to the R.V.
Extraction Zone Near Muxima Fort
Extraction zone near Muxima fort
Lat = 9 degrees, 30.8 minutes South
Long = 14 degrees, 1.6 minutes East
The Hercules Ascot 530 had approached the extraction zone on schedule, the pilot circled the area scanning the open veldt below, he then put the aircraft into the approach the landing gear was down and the powerful landing lights were on.
The terrain was looking good as he descended to one hundred feet; the touchdown came with a violent jolt quickly followed by a smooth rolling motion from the under carriage, the Hercules quickly slowed down.
The pilot turned the aircraft around ready for take-off, the four engines were shut down, and the flight crew had opened the rear-loading bay.
Fifteen minute
s later the OSC team arrived, once on board the cargo door was closed and the Hercules took of heading three hundred and fifty point five degrees north.
‘ICIS’ Saltbox Hill
‘ICIS’ Saltbox Hill Biggin Hill Kent
Lat = 51 degrees, 19.7 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 1.2 minutes East
Downing Street London
Lat = 51 degrees, 30.2 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 7.7 minutes West
Strayker and the members of Everest had followed the successful assault on Muxima fort and the deaths of Hussein and Shakira.
Strayker spoke on the open Comms at ICIS to the Everest members in Number 10 Downing Street, “Madam Prime minister; I think we can rest assured that the current atrocities will no longer continue, as a result of this direct action the terrorist threat from Shakira and his people is no longer present.”
The Prime minister spoke, “Major I think I can speak for all those here; your team has done this country a great service ridding not only this country but the world of this man.”
“Thank you Ma’am,”
“I would like to meet with Colonel Storm and his teams Major.”
“I will have that arranged Ma’am.”
“Major I intend to give a press conference; can you arrange for your press officer to prepare a statement and deliver it to me?”
“I’ll speak to Miss Nelson Ma’am.”
“Thank you Major Strayker.”
RAF Lyneham
RAF Lyneham home of 47 squadron
Lat = 51 degrees, 30.6 minutes North
Long = 1 degrees, 59.4 minutes West
Wednesday 6th July 1988
The C130 was on the final approach to RAF Lyneham. “Ascot 530 to control tower permission to land over?”
“Tower to Atlas 530; you are cleared to land on runway 24.”