Using combat sign language, I told the others what I was doing and where we were heading, I also explained to them the mission and it’s objective. Free the SEALS, free the women, capture the computer data, kill or detain as many of the guards as possible. (Kidnapping a member of the federal service being a capital offense.)
In combat nothing goes right for long. I made a mistake and one of the others paid for it. Just as we were getting ready to round a corner I glanced back to do a quick evaluation of the weapon/ammo situation and took one step too many. My combat-trained reflexes dropped me to the floor but the SEALS directly behind me took a round directly in the temple. That shot should have been mine. The perp only lived long enough to realize he was going to die. The last thing he saw was before he died was my knife-hand crashing into the bridge of his nose.
A pity really, she had been a good shot. Tradition required me to take her nametag and her unit patch for return to the memorial hall. Tradition also requires me to take her body if I could, but if I stopped that long, we would all die. Her name was Campbell and the unit patch identified her as a member of Campbell’s Killers, one of the proudest and most bloody units in the service.
I of course knew who she was from my mission brief, but to actually have had the honor of fighting next to Team Commander, Captain Colleen Campbell, made my eyes water with tears. A true commander, she evaluated right off that I was running this show and she had not even attempted to usurp me. She knew that I was the one with the latest intel and was best suited to run the show.
My mistake cost the service one of it’s finest.
After a five-second break to get her patches, I started out again. This time I wouldn’t make any stupid mistakes.
Stacking at the corner, I broke cover and dodged back just in time to avoid the shots that would have been head level if I hadn’t been crouched down when I broke cover.
Thinking these guys wanted to play, I threw them a present. Two and a half seconds later the screams told me that grenades are good for something after all. Then again so were the bullets in the head that each one received as we came down the hall.
These guys did me one favor though, one of them loaned me his cell phone so I could check on the backup. Two ships down. 28 SEALS dead or wounded. Not good.
We had to get out on our own. It wouldn’t be the first time. I figured that if I lived, it wouldn’t be the last.
That’s when thing got tough. We had to get a ship and secure it. We also had to get the women from the pleasure garden to the ship and out alive. Luckily I was able to remember where the ships were in relationship to where we were. Up this hall, turn right at the second intersection, 200 meters down that passageway, turn left and we were there. Oh yeah, get through the 12 bad guys around this corner and whatever else we met along the way.
This time they were ready for us and had installed barricades to keep us from getting through. I was getting ready to rush the barricade when someone tapped me on the shoulder. Looking back, one of the other SEALS, a Chief Petty Officer, signaled she would take the barricade. I also saw the women from the pleasure garden bringing up our rear. The Chief locked a fresh magazine in her weapon and signed she was ready. I popped smoke and launched it down the hall just ahead of her. For the next minute firing was so intense that I couldn’t distinguish between individual shots. An explosion so loud it could only have been the Thermite jelly each SEALS has hidden as part of his/her uniform followed the firing. (Actual location of hiding place classified: MOST SECRET! CODE WORD, WRITTEN NEED TO KNOW FROM UNIT COMMANDER REQUIRED!)
Something was placed in my hand. Looking down I saw that it was the name and unit patch from the Chief. Her name was ‘Legendre’ and she had died the only way one of us should die…Saving her Teammates.
The barricade was not only broken, it was gone. The bad guys guarding it were all dead or wounded/passed out. The wounded didn’t suffer long. Face it taking prisoners is sort of low priority at this point. The Airlock pass card one of them didn’t need anymore was sure to come in handy.
A quick sit-rep revealed we had weapons for almost everyone and so many grenades that most of the women were carrying at least two. (I had five). The women looked in shock but willing and some actually looked eager. I noticed one girl was missing an ear and had a bloody string of ears hanging from her belt. I guess some of the dead bad guys had been a little rough with her before her escape. I could see in her eyes that she wouldn’t be a prisoner EVER again. She would die first.
Ten minutes later I was walking point about 20 meters from the Airlock when a door I was getting ready to pass opened without warning. Without thinking I dropped to the floor and kicked the legs out from under the person at the door. Before he could react my knife was already cutting his throat.
The noise seemed to attract attention…the bad kind. I could hear running feet from both directions and I had 20 meters to go. We ran.
Not fast enough though. Those women were out of shape and they were already exhausted from the adrenaline rush of escaping and the various firefights to this point. Two couldn’t keep up and one of the remaining SEALS with us was bring up rear guard. I was running point and the woman with hard eyes was my backup. I had just reached the door when the shooting started.
Snatching open the door, I rushed in and checked to see if it was clear. The three bad guys in the room died before my first empty shell casing hit the ground.
Turning back to the door I shoved my way out and started laying down cover fire for the rest of the women. I almost had to laugh. The SEALS running rear guard was carrying one woman over her shoulder and was dragging another by the hair. Both were screaming bloody murder and trying to get loose. I found out later that they had tried to stop and surrender. Dumb move.
Just as she reached the door the bad guys coming from the other direction came around the corner and had a clear shot at my back. We lost our third SEALS then, she had just moved to cover my back when the shot aimed for me ripped through her heart and severed her spinal cord. She lived long enough to kill the one who had killed her.
Her nametag read ‘Rivera’ and she was a Senior First Class Petty Officer. She took a bullet meant for me, and she managed to kill the shooter. She truly was hard-corps.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE" was shouted in my ear just as two anti-personnel grenades flew down the hall.
