The column rounded a rocky terrace and closed the remaining few miles of distance, stopping just at the foot of a massive elongated sand dune which was downright impassable for any wheeled vehicle. Jon came over the intercom in an annoyed tone of voice. “All armor stop! We’re moving in on foot from here… Valor, find a way around this shit and meet us in town. Fast as fucking possible.”
Valor laughed to himself then activated his microphone. “Consider it done.”
The drone of the engines drastically lowered as the vehicles came to an abrupt halt. The rear gates of the ARV-40s descended into the coarse yet soft red powdery sand, as the platoon rushed out, leaving large boot imprints with their every step. Jon and Bag were the last to exit and visually ensured the entire platoon was disembarked before they gave the go-ahead to the vehicles to depart. The armor column spun up its wheels and created a small dust storm in their wake.
Cholius glanced up into the sky as the dust passed. The sun was now almost at its zenith, and the temperature had drastically improved to a warm 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Funny that the US still blatantly refuses to adopt the international system of metric and Celsius. They had the perfect opportunity to join the rest of humanity with it after the fall of Earth, when the school infrastructure was being rebuilt. Of course they wouldn’t. It was just stubbornness at this point…
James and the Officers straightened their posture and nodded respectfully to the two Colonels as they briskly walked over. Bag clearly noticed the gesture, and while he appreciated it, it always felt a little strange having people tense up around him, especially with having been an enlisted man himself. Bag flashed them all a friendly grin, then turned to James. “Hey, James, is it cool if I roll with your squad today?”
James quietly roared in excitement. “Bag, that is exactly what I wanted to hear! We are going to put the hurt on some bad guys today! FIRST SQUAD ON THREE! One, two, three!” All of first squad voiced out together. “FIRST SQUAD!” Maybe just a little louder than was safe…
Matt grunted a laugh and began to clap slowly, clearly not impressed. “That’s cute James. Are you all practicing for cheer squad?” The members of Second Squad all began to laugh quietly at their leader’s remark.
James flashed Matt a not so amused look. This was always a point of conflict for the two of them. Both of them had very different styles of leadership, and both of them thought the other’s was a waste of time. So far neither one could prove otherwise, but they kept the argument going anyways. “Haha, hate all you want. You’ll be jealous once you see us in action! Pride pays off, Matt.”
Matt sniggered and shook his head. His tone now subtly condescending. “Trust me, it’s not going to be jealousy…”
Jon let out a deliberately loud groan to interrupt them, and spoke out in a calm but clearly annoyed manner. “Are yall done yet? Can we get back to our jobs now? Maybe?” Then walked over toward Second Squad and Sergeant Major Cholius. “Cholius, I’m going with your team.”
Cholius nodded with perfect professional composure. “Welcome aboard.” Jon’s additional experience on the team would be a strong benefit, especially since it had just been Cholius watching over three extremely unproven ‘green’ trainees. All of whom were now about to enter a possible combat situation… It was a recipe for disaster, but with the situation at hand they didn’t have any choice in the matter.
“Alright, all squad leaders on me!” Bag commanded softly, then turned and began to climb the largest of the dunes with the rest of the Officers and NCOs. Bag dug his hands and feet into the cold, soft sand and crawled the last few yards up to the steep crest, careful to keep his silhouette concealed as much as possible. The Squad Leaders crept up on their stomachs next to him and right away initiated scanning of the town with their combat goggles. Everyone knew the drill, no further words were necessary.
The city of Camp Iron was large by frontier standards, and bolstered not only a paved main street that ran for a dozen or so blocks, but a great deal of winding side roads and alleys that stretched for a good two or three miles in either direction. From their vantage point on the dune they were only about 500 yards from the city edge, but to get there they had to run down the dunes and straight across open field. They’d be totally exposed the entire way. However, some of the black smoke was cutting directly in front of them, so it would mask their approach at least on the way down.
Though they had no other practical choices, since Camp Iron was situated between the dunes on its Western side and the jagged volcanic roots of the Ferris Mountains to the East. The city was essentially smack in the center of a valley, and all the routes in were across open land.
The city was constructed of mostly single story, rounded synthetic multipurpose cubes; joined together to form apartments, stores, and greenhouses as was typical of the frontier. There was a three story police and fire station in the center of town, and looked like it had been through hell and back. All of the windows were blown out, and there was obvious battle scaring across the rest of it.
Most of the roads leading into and out of town were blocked by barricades, many with burning tires which would explain the black smoke. A variety of cars and work vehicles were abandoned all throughout the city; some were on fire and burning. There were absolutely no people to be seen, alive or dead…which was rather worry some for a normally bustling trade and mining town of some six-hundred people.
Cholius nudged Matt, then motioned with a nod toward a point of interest. “Look on the far right, above that long blue building two streets up.”
Matt focused the lens then counted the streets over until he found the building Cholius described...then immediately spotted the concern. In an alley directly to its right were three figures kneeling, faces against the wall. Another figure wearing a combination of make shift metal armor and camouflage, paced about holding an assault rifle, occasionally turning and yelling at the apparent hostages. He was obviously a raider type…typical cocky posture and a Mohawk to try and make himself look tough… but he was alone, and raiders are NEVER alone… They’re fearful little creatures without a pack of friends to back them up. Matt zoomed his goggles out. “Slavers maybe?”
Cholius concurred with a nod. “It would explain why there’s no one here. They must have quiet the force to be able to hit a city this large… I want you to be careful on this one Matt, we can get in over our heads in a matter of seconds.” Matt took in a deep breath and nodded, just as Cholius motioned over to the Officers next to him. “Hey Bag, come check this out.”
Bag crouch walked over and dropped down into the sand a few seconds later. “Hey, what do you guys see?”
Cholius repeated his zoom instructions to Bag, who zoomed into the alley in question. Cholius continued in a stronger tone of voice. “Obvious hostage situation but…this feels odd. I suggest we travel directly in at full speed to minimize the time we’re exposed. It’s a risk but we will be wide-open regardless...”
Matt nodded in response but his thoughts quickly changed direction. A change in the wind sent the black clouds of burning plastic and rubber straight toward the team, and made his head and lungs ache. He quickly pulled his armor’s built in respirator up over his face, and likewise noticed the other soldiers did the same. Breathing in toxic fumes was no doubt a definite way to get some strange and life threatening form of cancer, which the military was sure as hell not gonna front the bill for the treatment either. For the price of a personalized cancer cure, you could buy your own battleship. Frankly, a soldier in the field wasn’t worth that much to them.
“Quietly of course, yes…” Bag replied to Cholius, then quickly checked the current GPS mapping on his wrist coms, and keyed his radio. “Hey Valor, you there?”
“Yo, what’s up boss?” Valor responded in his usual cheerful manner.
“I need you to pull up a map of the city… Ok, do you see that dirt road two blocks to the east of the main road?”
There was a momentary silence as Valor looked over the map. “
Yeah I do. Need me to head there?”
“Yeah, but only if we give you the signal or if things go sour. We’ll regroup with the hostages near the city center.”
Valor laughed in excitement. “Oh yeah, I can do that! We’re still making our way around this damn sand dune though…so it’s gonna be a minute before we’re in position, ya know?”
“Not a problem, man.” Bag disconnected from the conversation and scrolled across the map with his index finger; zooming in on what looked like the alley the slaver was in. “Hey Jon, I need your opinion.”
Jon crouch-walked over, then reached across and added a waypoint to Bag’s map for the buildings on the south and north ends of the main paved roads. “Second Squad should go around here, First goes opposite on the South side. I already talked to James about it.”
Bag nodded. “Good, we had roughly the same idea.” Then turned to Cholius, to see if he were opposed. Cholius looked down at the map and nodded. “Solid…”
James crawled in closer and also nodded in agreement. “Bag, I want to split the squad up and take my guys down these two alleys that run along the length of the city. It should bring us up exactly next to the alley with the hostages. Reagan, I want your team to run this one.”
Reagan passed him a thumbs up. “Yeah we got it, James.”
Matt and Cholius crawled closer and took a look at the map as James continued. “Cholius, I want to do the same thing at these two alleys to the north. We’ll be in a damn good position to hit the rest of the town if there are more hostages or whatever. It’ll also put us right next to where Valor should be. SHOULD be…”
Cholius smiled at the reiteration. “Yes but if anything unexpected happens, which is a high possibility, then we all need to be prepared to double time it out of there. The closest point of exit is toward the-”
A single gunshot sounded and echoed across the dunes. All the squad leaders went silent and turned their zoomed goggles back toward the alley. One hostage was curled over in a pool of blood and the hostile was hovering over another with his rifle held at ready.
Bag grunted in frustration. “Damnit! Ok, time to move! Radio silence as much as possible. Everyone understand the plan?”
The Squad leaders all acknowledged, except Jon who simply yawned as if he were bored. “Yeah Bag, got it.”
Bag sighed and shook his head at Jon with mild frustration, who just laughed in returned. “I’m just kidding Bag! Haha, but seriously let’s go.”
James turned and motioned the rest of the platoon up the hill. “Everyone up here!” Both Squads ran up to the crest of the sand dune, then dropped down prone next to their squad leaders. Three distinct clicks came over the radio from each team as the group did a coms check. Cholius acknowledged with three clicks. “Let’s go!”
The platoon jumped to their feet and began to quickly and carefully jog down the unstable sandy slope, though luckily the dunes leveled out about 30 yards down and turned to firm dirt and rock. No sooner did they reach the bottom; the squads split off toward their respective sections and held their weapons at the ready as they closed the final few yards to the city.
One-Bravo in particular slowed to a walk, and stacked up next to a large, rancid smelling dumpster next to their target street. Reagan turned and did a quick head count as his team filed in; there’s Sarah…Stevens…and there’s Harrison. All here.
Static filled the airwaves, and nearly overwhelmed the sound of the two clicks signaling the platoons advance. Reagan didn’t think more of it, clicked his radio twice, and leaned out into the small, one-way street with his weapon held tight. “Do it like this morning, everyone. Call out any movement. Watch each other’s backs.”
The team straightaway fell in behind Reagan, silently scanning windows, doorways, and alleys as they proceeded forward. The street was relatively empty and looked untouched by raiding, with the exception of a large pool of blood against a similarly bloody, and bullet damaged wall. The team stopped for a moment as Sarah crouched down to investigate the gruesome sight. It was obvious someone had been executed here, and their body dragged away after, but the blood trail ended there as if the body had been loaded onto a truck...
Reagan tapped her on the shoulder and nodded toward the center of the city. “Current objective first.”
The sound of unfamiliar male voices echoed down the road a short ways in front of them. Reagan froze in place and motioned downward, prompting the whole team to dive behind cover, and Regan himself into a pile of rancid garbage. Two heavily armed figures, holding rusted and patchwork machine guns, and dressed in the same kind of make shift armor as the raider they had spotted earlier, strolled out of a connecting alley and began to walk toward the main road. The men had their backs to the team and were completely oblivious to One-Bravo’s presence all together. Lucky so far…but that could change at any moment. Who knows how many raiders were still wandering about?
Reagan watched carefully as the two figures strolled up to the perpendicular road, and turned their way down the right side of it and out of sight. He waited as their voices faded into a distant whisper, then quickly and quietly brushed the foul trash particles from his armor and rushed up to the corner to peek out.
The two figures crossed the street and walked into a small ruined blue building about four buildings to the north, and so far they seemed to be the only hostiles walking around. Reagan did a second scan of either side of the street, then backed up into the shadows of an alley and quietly radioed into the other teams. “All teams be advised, additional hostiles spotted around the city center.”
There was a momentary burst of static on the radio, followed by total silence. Reagan keyed his radio again. “All Teams, Bravo One, does anyone read me?” Hmm, well Bag did say radio silence...
Reagan peeked back around the corner; he could see the target alley slightly off to his right hand side, and the street and rooftops appeared to be clear. The rest of the team walked up behind him as he pointed toward the direction the hostiles had gone, and then made the two finger ‘keep an eye out’ gesture. He did one last look down either side of the road, then sprinted across the street to the other side.
The rest of the team had just passed the center of the street when a single gunshot rang out in front of them. It sounded like it came from their objective alley…that was not good. The team had dove to the ground defensively, until Reagan jumped back up and sprinted the last few feet to the side of the target building.
Reagan edged up to the corner of the alley beyond and did a quick peek; two of the hostages were lying face down in blood about 10 yards away, blind folded and hands tied behind their backs. The last living hostage was quietly weeping, and from the sound of it was a younger female. A single hostile was standing over the two dead hostages, and taunting the last one with foul gutter speak. The alley stretched for about 30 yards to the next road and had a single large nook in the center surrounded by dumpsters; which was its only visible blind spot.
The hostile laughed as he placed the barrel of his assault rifle against the last living hostage’s head. Oh hell no! Reagan dashed around the corner and whistled loudly; the hostile looked up toward the noise in confusion and caught a single round through the head, dropping him instantly. Reagan began to pie around the corner of the nook, right when another enemy rushed out from it with a sub-machine gun in hand. Reagan fired two rounds without hesitation, hitting the hostile near the heart. The hostile clutched at his chest in agonizing pain, and held the trigger down on his sub-machine gun, spraying bullets into the air just narrowly above the team. Reagan fired an additional round into the man’s head, ending his life for sure this time.
Sarah sprinted up to the petrified hostage and pulled her into the nook, just as a disconcerting number of angry voices began to yell about the city. The raiders had quite the force here it seemed… Reagan’s experience took over immediately and he shouted out commands. “Sarah! Harrison! I need you to watch the way we came in! Stevens take care of the girl!”
>
The team rushed into defensive positions behind trash cans, boxes, and any sort of cover available. Stevens moved over to the still bound and blind folded woman, and began to free her from her restraints and comfort her as much as he could, though his tone of voice was just as anxious. Reagan keyed his radio, and likewise took cover behind a metal dumpster. His tone a little more excited than it should have been for radio speak. “All teams, this is One Bravo. We have the hostage, but sounds like we just stirred up the hornets’ nest! We need extraction on the double!”
There was a long an uncomfortable silence from the radio. He tried again. “All teams, this is One Bravo, do you read me over?” The unbroken silence continued, prompting Reagan to curse under his breath. “Everyone get ready and dig in! Conserve ammunition!”
Gun fire began to sound sporadically around the city, right when several hostiles rushed around the back area of the alley, spraying bullets in the team’s direction. Reagan opened fire, double tapping the targets in the chest and neck, and being careful to stay well within cover as bullets whizzed all around him.
Sarah and Harrison dove into the nook to escape the automatic fire from behind, which left the front wide open. Sarah went prone and crawled back into a firing position just as a single target rushed in from the front. Sarah dropped the target with a three round burst, as Harrison hugged the ground for dear life. Terror gleaming in his eyes, and stress hanging heavily on his words. “THIS IS INSANE!”
Three more raiders rushed in through the front; Sarah fired rapidly in single shot and dropped them before they could aim their guns. “JUST SHUT UP AND FIRE YOUR WEAPON!”
Chapter 8 – Don’t Tread on Me, or my tank!
Valor heard the gunfire inside of the city almost as soon as they had pulled onto the main road, and had his team raise the engine RPMs just above the safe level to gain a few miles per hour faster. The city was only about 500 yards away now and they were closing that distance fast, but a lot could happen to the team between then and now. Tracers were darting around from every direction, the radio chatter had ceased completely, and the friend or foe indicators on their fire control systems suddenly turned off. Valor checked his computer in frustration. “The fuck is going on? Hey Alighten, all the radar shit just turned off!”
Krieger Platoon Page 10