A Somerset Farm
and Unit One Collaboration
Attack
and Response
Chapter
1: Slaughter, The Beginning
By; Jamie Haze and GhostRyder15
Day One
It
was the Sixth of June; it was the dark of the moon and
a Kenworth hauling hogs . . . . . . . Oops sorry, too
much early 70's music. But it was the Sixth of
June, 03:10 in the morning to be exact and there was
a new moon. The AN/SPS 48 Surface Search Radar
that had been newly installed on the Eastern Fort at
the entrance channel to the 'Pincher's' wasn't operational
yet. The lone lookout that evening wasn't paying
attention to his duties and that's why he died.
The Cuban 'Armada Eśpecíal'
had silently climbed the cliff face on the eastern side
of the fort. His approach had taken over two hours
to make, but he was actually ahead of the schedule that
was planned for him by his 'Tenenti.' The
sentry on watch wore a pair of white shorts, a blue
T-Shirt with white piping on the collar and sleeves
and a white windbreaker made of very light material.
The Cuban watched the boy through the NVG's (Night Vision
Goggles) he wore, the boy, maybe fourteen or fifteen
seemed to be daydreaming, his right hand rubbing the
prominent bulge in his shorts. Like any teenager,
he thought more about his hard cock than he did about
watching the empty approaches to 'Dagger Cay.'
As the Cuban watched, the dark-haired teen unzipped
the fly of his shorts and pulled out his cock.
This caused the Cuban to almost break out laughing,
thinking of all the times he had done the same thing
when he was but a little older than this boy.
Thinking of all the times he could have been the prey
of someone just like himself caused him to sober.
He watched as the boy stroked his five inches of hard
teenage flesh, his hand moving at a furious pace, his
breathing becoming ragged, his climax rapidly approaching.
When the boy's first pulse of cum shot from the end
of his penis, the Cuban rushed up behind him and grabbed
him around the throat with his left arm, while his right
hand shoved six inches of tempered steel into the boys'
right kidney. After twisting the knife, the Cuban
pulled it out of the shocked boy and at the same time
his left arm moved from the boys’ throat and grasped
the boys' forehead with his left hand. While
the boy, who was already dead but hadn't realized it,
yet, struggled to scream, the Cuban cut his throat from
ear to ear. After two or three minutes, the fact
that his body was dead finally caught up with the boys'
brain and he went completely limp. The man gently
laid the boys body on the coral block floor of the Eastern
Castle tower, as an act of kindness the Cuban didn't
even realize he was doing, he pushed the dead boys'
dick back in his shorts and zipped him up. This
boy, this teenage enemy, deserved at least the chance
to be remembered by his friends and loved ones as the
first causality, not the boy who died while beating
off.
The Cuban went to the southern parapet, standing alongside
a large brass muzzle loading cannon he removed an infra-red
flashlight from his LBE harness. Pointing the
light in the direction he thought was correct, he started
pressing the on/off switch, after sending two separate
groups of flashes, he waited. Less than thirty
seconds after his last flash, he saw a single long flash
through his NVG's a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred
meters off the entrance to the sheltered bay of Dagger
Cay. Silently, the Cuban moved to the northern
parapet and unstrapped his HK-93 assault rifle, one
of the best and most accurate rifles the Cuban Military
owned. Not making the same mistake that
had killed the boy; the Cuban maintained a close scrutiny
of the channel below and what he was able to see of
the bay, while periodically sweeping the other approaches
to the lookout tower.
Twenty minutes later, he heard the soft burble of large
high performance marine engines as they made their way
through the channel that lead to the bay.
His part of the mission over, the Armada Eśpecíal
made his way to the base of the eastern cliff of the
island where a Zodiac power boat waited to take him
back to the ship. Half way back to the ship he
heard automatic gunfire and multiple explosions, secretly,
he was glad that he wasn't involved in the slaughter
of more innocents.
While the Cuban was moving to his retrieval point, the
two small Bell Jet Ranger helicopters that had been
provided to the Cuban Navy specifically for this mission
flew into the maelstroms of death and destruction occurring
on the island paradise.
As the four boats, gifts from the former Soviet Union,
entered the bay, they maintained their in line route
of advance. When the First building on their right
came into view, the 12.43 mm heavy machineguns opened
up as they headed towards the main landing. As
they passed down the starboard side of the Sea Song,
one of the boat crew from each of the boats fired an
84 mm Carl Gustav rocket launcher at the huge white
ship. Red and yellow flames blossomed along his
side as the rockets burst with the actinic fury of high
explosive. As quickly as the man could fire, his
loader would prep and load the next rocket. The
once pristine white side of the ship was already blackening
from the explosions and subsequent fires they caused.
As the first two boats passed the bow of the besieged
ship, the Sea Songs’ starboard 20 mm Gatling gun was
unmasked and opened up on them, sinking both.
The third boat was hit but managed to turn and head
for the pincers and move back to the ship (the SS John
I Leonard out of Panama) that had delivered them.
The last boat captain seeing the destruction of two
of his brethren and the crippling of the third, ordered
his rocketeer to silence
the high speed gun. As soon as he was reloaded,
the gunner took careful aim and launched his last rocket;
the explosion that occurred upon the missiles' impact
was a magnitude greater than any of the previous hits.
The great ship seemed to roll to port from the sympathetic
detonation of the Gatling gun's ready service ammunition
stores. The remaining boat did a 180 degree turn
and headed back the way it had come, its mission accomplished.
The first explosion from the rockets that were fired
at the Sea Song woke J.C. from a very erotic dream,
involving him, John Boy, Doug, Buck and the Twins.
Sitting up in bed he tried to understand what the thunder
like sounds and the red and yellow lightening coming
through his bedroom windows were all about. Suddenly,
as he watched, the armored 'Hurricane Shutters' started
closing, after the attack the previous year by a disgruntled
competitor of Anton Falconberg's, he had ordered the
regular shutters replaced with these new and heavier
ones. These 'New' shutters were the same thickness
and constructed of the same layered materials as the
armor from the front of America's premier Main Battle
Tank, the M1 Abrams. With these shutters and the
three foot reinforced concrete walls of the main house,
J.C. knew he was safe from the death, destruction and
terror happening outside. Reaching over to John
Boy, he shook him awake. John boy, not knowing
that there was a war going on, on the other side of
the shuttered windows reached over for JC's cock.
JC gently removed his lover's hand and said; "John,
you have to wake up, something is wrong outside and
we must move down stairs quickly. John was awake
now, his eyes wide and his body shaking from fear of
the unknown. JC pulled his lover from their bed
and moved to the walk in closet, once inside the closet
he hit the hidden release to the arms locker door camouflaged
as the back wall. When it opened, he quickly pulled
two MP5 sub-machinegun's from the rack, and two LBE
harness's containing six 32 round 9 mm box magazines
with a Ka-Bar knife in its' scabbard taped to the left
strap. Grabbing another magazine, he slammed it
into the guns’ magazine well, chambered the first round
and put the safety on, he then passed the second MP5,
another LBE harness and magazine to John Boy.
After laying the gun and the LBE on the floor, he quickly
grabbed a set of 'Tiger Striped' camouflage trousers
and shirt for both of them, and then they quickly dressed.
He pulled out a pair of black Nike cross trainers for
him and a pair Adidas for John. and both of the boys
put them on, not even taking the time to pull on socks.
Once dressed, the boys got into the LBE harnesses and
stuck 9mm Glock's in
the waistband of their trousers after chambering a round.
Grabbing the MP5, he and John slipped out of his room
after making sure the hallway outside his door was deserted;
being young didn't mean they were stupid. The
boys moved quietly, staying alongside the inner wall
of the hallway, not taking any chance that whoever was
attacking the island didn't have ordnance capable of
penetrating the outside wall. Reaching the top
of the 'Grand Staircase' they crouched down and listened,
trying to hear if anyone was climbing the stairs.
When all they heard was moaning and a soft, encouraging
voice they stood up and moved to the top of the stairway.
Pointing the MP5 in front of him, safety off, and ready
to fire, JC reached the top while John covered his back.
Looking down, he saw Billie lying on his back, with
Dieter trying to stop the bleeding from the wounds in
Billie's right arm and shoulder. As he was about
to descend the stairs he heard movement behind him.
As he twirled around throwing himself to the floor,
he realized it was Will, one of Buck's fathers' executives
who was in charge of physical security for Trenton Enterprises.
John had already saw who it was and was lowering his gun when JC and Will
recognized the other at the same time and trained their
weapons away from each other. Like J.C. and John
Boy, Will was carrying an MP5 and had an LBE similarly
equipped. Unlike J.C. and John he was only wearing
boxers and a black T-Shirt with a picture of the rock
band Metallica on the front
and a pair of slip on casuals with no socks on his feet.
Moving alongside J.C., he gently pushed the boy behind
him and motioned that he and John were to stay back
as he moved to the top of the stairs. The lobby
was a shambles, it looked as if the heavy teak main
entry doors had been blasted off their hinges by a rocket
or RPG before the shutters dropped in place. Looking
down at Dieter and Billie he called out softly; "Dieter!
It's me, John and J.C., we're coming down."
Dieter jumped a little when he heard his name called
out, but relaxed when he recognized Will's voice.
Will signaled J.C. and John to follow him down the stairs
as he moved down to the lobby of the hotel, turned home. Once on the main floor J.C. and Will quickly
checked to insure the building was secure and they then
returned to the lobby. As far as Will could see,
Dieter had stopped the flow of blood from Billie's wounds
and his face was starting to cloud up; "Fuck, fuck,
fuck! Who the fuck are these guys and why the
fuck are they attacking us?"
Will shook his head; "Don't know Dieter, but we
need to get a call out for some help. I tried
my room phone and then my cell phone, both were dead.
We got anything else that we can use to call for help
with?'
Dieter nodded his head, then shivered and rose to his
feet; "We just upgraded 'Snoopy' to allow us to
use it as a secure communication device. I'll
call the 'Oak's' and get a hold of Bucks' dormitory
security station; they should be able to help."
Will, followed Dieter to the computer room and watched
while he brought the secure communication system on
line, while John and J.C. watched over the lobby and
Billie up. Dieter picked up the handset and listened
while the connection was made; "Good evening this
is Hans, how may I help you?"
Dieter said one word; "Wait."
Handing the phone to Will, he took the MP5 and moved
over to his husband Billie while Will started talking;
"Hans? This is Will, we have a 'Case Zulu'
here, Billie's down in the lobby, I don't know how many
are down outside the residence. Please lock the
'Dorm' down and get me Joe, we're secure for the moment,
but I don't know what we're up against. Standby,
I'm putting you on the speaker."
Will pressed the speaker button on the conventional
looking phone and then replaced the receiver; "Hans,
can you hear me?"
J.C. recognized Hans' German accent as he replied; "Yessir."
In the background, he could hear shouting and a high
pitched beeping sound; the beeping was the more or less
covert emergency alarm for the dorm. When the
residents and staff heard it, they knew something was
going down and that they needed to arm themselves and
get to their emergency response stations.
Hans returned to the phone; "Sir, the dorm is secure
and Buck is calling Trenton Manor now, Joe and Buck's
father are over there. They'll be locked down
tight in a matter of minutes, is there anything we can
do for you?"
Will let out a sigh of relief; "Thanks Hans, that's
one worry off my shoulders. Get hold of Bucky,
Joe, Bill Henderson and John Wilcott; bring them in
on a conference call if you would please?"
Will, J.C., John Boy and Dieter all heard Hans' response;
"Certainly Sir, right away."
Less than a minute later Bucky came on the phone; "What's
going on Will, are you gu
. . . . . . . "
A large explosion shook the building, causing dust to
fill the air. "What the fuck is going on
down there?" Yelled Bucky, accompanied by worried
questions from Bill and John in the background.
In a much calmer voice, Joe asked; "What's your
status Will, any casualties?"
Will cleared his throat and spit out a honker made up
of spit and dust before replying; "Billie's down,
he was wounded in the arm and shoulder, I think he'll
be okay, Dieter was able to stop the bleeding.
He's the only one I have any direct knowledge about,
J.C. and I were upstairs sleeping when the attack started,
Dieter or Billie secured the house, but I'm really starting
to worry about the boys and the Islanders now."
"Joe broke in and said; "Wait one, we're calling
up a Snoopy visual of the Island, we'll be able to tell
you what's going on shortly."
"Okay." Joe said. "Here it comes,
turn on your monitor and you should have the overheads
too." Everyone went quiet as they studied
the real time satellite images being beamed to them
from the 'Snoopy' satellite in geo-synchronous orbit
(22,500 miles up). Someone on the mainland let
out a gasp; "Jesus Christ, it looks like D-Day
down there. They even have what looks like a God
damn ‘Liberty Ship’ sitting off the coast. What
in the name of all that's holy is going on down here?"
Joe said; "There's the cause of that last explosion,
looks like one of our guys were able to take out one
of their aircraft. From the looks of it, it appears
to be a Bell Jet Ranger." Just then there
were some smaller secondary explosions from the downed
helicopter, which lit up the area in front of the hotel.
The light from the explosions illuminated ten or so
men who had been approaching the hotel's front door.
The men went down when the secondary explosions occurred,
when the pyrotechnics stopped only six of them could
be seen getting up.
Joe broke in; "Will, you guys grab Billie and get
in the command bunker, don't open the door for anyone
after you close it. Close the console down and
move fast. Do it now . . . move."
Will hit the switch hidden beneath control panel that
locked the system out, the console became
unusable until re-activated from the 'Bunker.'
The Bunker had been the area where the Hotels' vault
was before the island had been attacked by a business
competitor of Anton Falconberg's the previous year.
After the attack, it was decided that the buildings
physical security needed to be seriously upgraded.
The two foot thick, high density, reinforced
concrete walls were supplemented with ten
inches of the same type of armor used for the 'Hurricane
Shutters.' The door to the secondary command post
was eighteen inches thick, made of laminated one inch
thick titanium front and back sheaths, with a sixteen
inch thick inner core of depleted uranium and ceramic
armor. It would literally take a small nuclear
device to breach the door once it was closed and locked
from the inside. The bunker was a self contained
shelter/command and control center, once the door was
closed, anyone inside could remain in place for up to
thirty days. The 'Bunker' had food and water for
fifty people and the supplied air system worked in conjunction
with CO2 scrubbers to keep the air breathable.
Will followed the two men and the boys through the door
and hit the 'Close' switch. Just as the door completed
the closure sequence, a huge explosion rocked the building.
As they entered the control room, they all heard Joe
yelling; "Will, Will, answer me God damn it, Will,
are you there?"
Dieter got to the communications console first; "We're
here Joe calm down, we got the bunker secured, give
me a second to get the monitor on down here."
Dieter said; "John, how about setting things up
while I check on Billie please? Will give me a
hand please?"
John just nodded as he moved to the console and started
setting up the 'Snoopy' overheads. Once the images
were being received, he zoomed in on the front door
of the house. As he watched, an explosion occurred
at the door to the bunker, about a quarter second later,
flame and smoke could be seen venting through a hole
in the shutters over the main entrance.
After he helped Dieter with Billie, Will went over to
John and talked into the systems' built in microphone;
"Looks like they're trying to dig us out."
A second explosion occurred, shaking the room, but causing
no apparent damage.
"I know you guys are up in Jersey, but have you
been able to get anyone to come and help us?" asked
Will.
Bucky answered for the people at Trenton Manor; "The
U.S. Coast Guard out of Miami Beach has been notified
of the attack and we've requested they send a cutter.
We emphasized that American Citizens are being attacked,
they're in the process of recalling the crews of two
of their Cutters , but the
soonest they can get there is four hours."
The speaker was mostly quiet with only voices discussing
alternatives. Bucky came back on the line; "Okay
guys, we contacted Billie's father and told him what's
going on, he's contacting his islands Maritime Self
Defense Force and their going to send all five of their
armed vessels to Dagger Cay"
Once again an explosion occurred, followed by three
more closely spaced explosions. The structure
shook, but the walls and door were not breached.
After the last explosion occurred, nothing further was
heard.
As Will moved to Dieter and Billie, J.C. watched the
monitor; "Madre de Dios." He screamed as he
turned and ran for the stairs leading to the bunker
door. Will knew that something had happened that
had caused the young Columbian to lose control.
Without thinking, Will and John Boy grabbed JC as he
tried for the door.
"Let me go, I can't let them kill them, they're
killing the boys, they're killing them, I've got to
stop them."
Dieter took a quick look at the screen; "Oh fuck,
those dirty fucking bastards." Getting
control of himself, he ran to the medical cabinet and
got a syringe and a vial of midazolam.
Filling the syringe with 3 cc's of the sedative, he
injected J.C. using one of the veins in his right elbow.
Thirty seconds later, the boy stopped struggling and
was asleep.
Gently laying the boy on the floor, John Boy spooned
up to his lover and held him tightly in his arms while
the two men went back to the console and watched as
the attackers, one at a time shoot each boy that they
had captured in the head. As the executioner went
down the line of boys and Islanders, shooting them after
appearing to talk to them, he suddenly crumpled to the
ground. Several other attackers fell,
the rest of the attackers grabbed the live captives
and used them as shields as they retreated to the ocean
beach where they had come ashore. As they went
to embark the boats they used for their landing, more
of the attackers fell to the beach or into the surf.
The Islanders and the Boys of Dagger Cay were resisting,
resisting Hell they were pushing the murdering mother
fuckers back into the sea. The attackers must
have called for help; the remaining attack boat arrived
about 500 meters off the beach and started suppressive
fire with their 12.43 mm heavy machine guns. While
the suppressive fire slowed down the fire from the good
guys, it didn't stop it. But the slackening of
incoming fire allowed the attackers to get their prisoners
into the boats and retreat towards the Mother Ship (No,
this is not E.T.).
The attack was over, at least for now. Will spoke
to the people up north; "Christ, they must have
murdered thirty or more of our people,
I'm going out and see if I can help."
Bucky yelled at Will; "NO YOU'RE NOT!!!!
Stay there in the bunker; see if you can contact anyone
out side by radio or phone, BUT, DO NOT LEAVE THE BUNKER
FOR ANY REASON!!!" Bucky paused and Will
heard his old boss George
saying something. Bucky returned and said; "George
has twenty five special response team members that will
be en-route to Dagger Cay in four hours, they should
be on the ground with you in just under eight hours.
You and the others will stay in the bunker until I tell
you otherwise. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
Will took a deep breath and said; "Yessir, we'll
wait, we don't like it, but we'll wait."
At 12:17 local time, Eight hours and forty seven minutes
after the attackers fled Dagger Cay a Boeing 737 was
lined up on final for the Islands' airstrip. As
soon as the aircrafts wheels touched the concrete runway,
the planes two engines were reversed and the squeal
of the breaks could be heard all over the island.
The aircraft taxied over to the airstrips control/reception
building and its starboard engine shut down while the
port engine continued turning. A truck with a
stairway attached to the back drove up to the after
door which was already open. As soon as the stairs
were in place black clad armed and armored men ran down
the stairs and set up a perimeter around the aircraft.
Jaime Ortega Bouchard, one of the supervisors at the
power/desalinization plant walked to the after part
of the plane, he waited outside the perimeter for the
team's supervisor to de-plane.
The last three people off the plane were George,
Joe and a man with a painted red cross inside
a white circle on his Kevlar helmet, all three were
dressed the same as the security people. George
had taken it upon himself to supervise the men he sent
down, and Joe wanted to make sure his partner was really
okay. After talking with the island supervisor
and hearing that forty there men, women and children
had been found murdered, they went to the big house
(NO, it's not a prison). After they crawled through
the hole that the attackers had finally been able to
make in the main door security shutters, Joe went to
the Grand Staircase and pressed a hidden button behind
the balustrade at the bottom of the stairs. After
pressing it, a door in the side of the balustrade popped
open, Joe reached in and pulled out a telephone handset.
After punching in a four digit number he listened for
a few seconds before saying; "It's me Dieter, George
and I are in the lobby . . . . . The area is secure,
you guys can come out now." The guy with
the red cross on his helmet spoke for the first time;
"Hold off having them come out I want to check
the background levels here first."
Will told Dieter to hold off opening the door until
the doctor checked the area for radioactive contamination
from the depleted uranium armor. Setting the case
that he had carried to the house on the floor, he opened
it and pulled a GM (Geiger/Mueller) instrument body
equipped with an attached P-11 pancake probe from it.
After running the probe around depressions, holes and
cracks in the outer inch of the armored door and then
on the floor, the doctor took a 47 mm cloth disk and
smeared the floor and several places on the door.
After each smear, he held the sample paper close to
the detector, checking for removable contamination.
After completing his survey he said; "Okay, they
didn't use anything strong enough to cause the depleted
uranium to spall and go airborne. Go ahead and
tell them they can come out now."
Seconds later, the door started moving, twenty five
seconds later Will ran over to Joe and grabbed him in
a bear hug, after kissing him soundly on the lips he
said; "Damn am I glad to see you." The
doctor moved past Joe and Will and entered the Bunker
descending to the lower area where Billie and J.C. were
still unconscious and being watched over by Dieter and
John Boy .
Will turned to George and shook his hand; "Thanks
George, thanks for coming down. I'm going to find
out who did this and stuff a grenade up his ass after
I pull the pin. They shot them down in cold blood,
we were forced to watch them do it over the Snoopy link,
and we couldn't do a damn thing about it. J.C.
Lost it and was going to leave the bunker, Dieter and
I sedated him otherwise he would have opened the bunker
door and gone down shooting.
Will was clearly close to losing it himself, Joe put
his arms around him again and pulled him back into a
hug before saying; "Its okay, we're going to find
out who did this to us, and then we're going to get
them. Bucky, John and Bill all agree, whoever
did this is going to die, it's a done deal. I've
got some feelers out in the SpecOps community for men
who don't mind doing some wet work, I should be hearing
from them anytime now."
Will took a huge breath, shuddered and seemed to settle
down; "Thanks, but where ever they are, whoever
we get to help us, I'm going to be with them when we
go after them."
It took two days to find all the dead and wounded, in
the end the death count was up to seventy men, women
and children. Most of the men and boys were from
the Sea Song and the Maritime Academy, the four women
were from among the residents of the island workers,
seven of the men were also from the island. Considering
the damage done to the Sea Song, the death count onboard
the beautiful ship was only three and there were only
seven people injured. Everyone wanted a piece
of the action when it was time to go after the murderers.
Day Two
Fifteen
hours after arriving on the island, Joe received a telephone
call. After speaking with Will, Dieter, George
and Billie, who was back on his feet, Joe boarded the
737 at 04:00 and flew to Miami.
In Miami, he made several phone calls and started several
balls rolling, he hoped, that all the preparations would
come together at the same time. Four hours after
arriving in Miami, he boarded a United Airlines 747
'Redeye' to Spokane (pronounced 'Spo-Can')
Washington, via Salt Lake City. Ten and a half
hours after boarding his flight from Miami, Joe landed
at the Spokane International Airport at 17:45.
As he headed for the baggage claim area
he saw two very large men standing to the side
of the walkway, one had a hand printed sign with his
name on it.
Joe walked up to the man with the sign; "I'm Joe
Barnes , who sent you guys?"
The sign holder said; "Good afternoon sir, I'm
Jason Drew and my associate is Mark Hastings.
Mr. Bertinelli told us to
meet you and provide you with transportation and anything
else you need. We were also told to stick
to you like glue and make sure nothing got in your way."
Joe nodded, and pulled out his cell phone and hit 01
on the speed dial. After five seconds or so he
asked; "George, did you send a 'Jason Drew' and
a 'Mark Hastings' to meet me at the airport in Spokane?"
. . . . . 'Okay, thanks a lot . . . . Yeah
. . . . . . Okay, I'll talk to you later, thanks."
Turning back to Jason Drew he said; "Okay, I need
to get to someplace called Denton City, its south of
here near where the Yakima River flows in to the Columbia
River. What's the easiest way to get there?"
"If we drive, about three, maybe four hours or
so, if you want fast, we'll hire a helicopter, whatever
you want." Jason replied.
"I need fast, let's go see the helicopter people."
Joe said.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, 19:15 hours local
time, the helicopter carrying Joe and his two 'Personal
Assistants' (read; Big Guys carrying Big Guns) were
circling a small aviation facility at the bottom of
a small mountain that was listed as 'Battle Mountain,'
listed as being 1,024 meters in height on the Jepp charts.
Will listened over the helicopters intercom system as
the Co-Pilot called the facility's control tower; "Ahh
Bateman International, this is Hillman Air, Sierra Hotel
Seven Niner Niner One requesting landing instructions, over."
The Co-Pilot had just broadcast his request for landing
instructions for the third time when he heard; "Niner
One, you are cleared to land on the 'Atech,' after landing, please remain inside your aircraft
and shut down your engines. The wind is from 30
at 17 and the barometer is at 29.23, local time is 19:15
hours, Over."
"Ahh roger your last, we are descending from angels
four to the 'Atech,' Niner One out." The Sykorski S76 Executive
helicopter descended towards the large black 'H' painted
in the center of a larger white circle. Within
minutes of receiving permission to land, the sleek helicopter
landed at the exact center of the 'Circle H' and the
flight crew shut the engines down. After
the vibration, jet whine and noise from the rotors,
it seemed like it was unnaturally quiet in the helicopter's
cabin.
The pilot turned to Joe and said; "Mr. Barnes,
this looks like your ground transportation coming now."
The three men in the cabin all tried to look out the
side windows and there was a minor battle for prominence
of position. Joe and Mark Hastings won the initial
scramble. What they saw were two HUMVEE's painted
in the typical U.S. Military desert camouflage pattern
that they had all seen before. Joe spotted the
mounting point for an automatic weapon on the roofs
of both vehicles; both of them had the 'padded' look
of the armored HUMVEE's the Army and Marine Corps were
using in Iraq. As they approached the aircraft,
the first vehicle split off and moved to the west of
the helicopter and stopped about seventy five feet from
the helicopter, the front of the vehicle facing them,
while the second one stopped just short of the
rotors on the east side. The four doors of the
western HUMVEE opened and four men got out and stood
behind the open doors of the vehicle, Joe thought they
were probably armed with M16's. His two 'PA's'
started grabbing for hardware under their coats; "Calm
down guys, keep your piece's holstered, they're just
being cautious."
The doors of the other vehicle opened, the man who got
out on the front passenger side, opened the rear door
and held out his hand to the person getting out of the
back seat while the driver watched the helicopter.
The driver waited on the far side, obviously looking
for any kind of hostile action from the helicopter.
Once again Joe spoke; "Everyone remain calm, they're
just being very, very cautious, so let's all just stay
loose. Jason, Mark, you guys sit tight while I
talk to these guys, everything will be just fine."
Jason was about to argue when Joe said; "The tall
redheaded guy with the big nose is a friend of mine,
just relax and stay put. I'll talk, they'll listen
and then we'll all go have a drink."
Joe had Mark open the sliding cabin door and climbed
down and walked over to the three men. Holding
his hand out to be shook by the tall redhead, he had
it batted away and was grabbed in a bear hug; "Joseph
Gregory Barnes, what in the fuck are you doing here.
God, what's it been, three years? Four years?
Jesus guy, I just thought of you a couple of days
ago, where you been hiding, you still working for the
'Company?" Turning to the two men standing
alongside him and then the driver he said ; "James,
Gunny, Keener, this guy pulled my ass out of a very
deep hole, a hole I might add that someone, actually
several someone's, were trying to fill while I was still
at the bottom."
Before Joe could say anything Matt said; "Listen
Joe, how about sending your helicopter back to where
it came from. We got about forty five Marines
and a SEAL Boat Crew we're expecting to visit us soon."
Joe looked a little confused but said; "Ahh, no
problem, but I've got two Personal Assistants with me,
I hope you don't mind if they come along, they were
kind of stuck on me by my boss."
"That's okay." said Matt. "But
we need to expedite the chopper's lift off."
While Joe went back to the helicopter and told his two
'PA's' to climb out and then told the pilot to head
back to Spokane and that he would call them if they
were needed.
As Joe was briefing the flight crew, his two 'PA's'
walked over to the three men and introduced themselves
to the two men who weren't doing anything. The
tall redhead was on a portable radio talking to someone.
The Driver got behind the wheel of the eastern HUMVEE
and backed it up another fifty feet from the helicopter.
As Joe, his two 'PA's" and the three men walked
over to the HUMVEE, the helicopter's jet turbines started
to spool up, by the time they reached the vehicle, its'
rotors had started turning. Two minutes later,
the helicopter was airborne and heading back the way
they had come. As they watched the helicopter
flying north, by northeast, a Ford F250 Crewcab pickup
drove up to the waiting group. The passenger door
opened and a small redheaded kid got out of the pickup.
Walking up to Matt and his Brother, he saluted; "Sir,
we sent the FRT (Fast Reaction Team) back to the house,
Jacky and I'll drive these gentlemen back in the Ford."
Matt smiled down at the boy and nodded; "Jap, I
want you to take good care Mr. Barnes and his associates,
I owe him a big one."
Jap smiled at Matt and nodded. Turning to Joe
he said; "Gentlemen, please come with me and we'll
have you back to the house in no time."
As Jap saluted and had his salute returned by the men
in Matt's entourage, Joe smiled at the military bearing
displayed by the boy who couldn't be over thirteen years
old. When the boy headed to the truck, Joe and
his bodyguards followed, Joe turned to them and said
one word; "Relax."
Jap opened the rear cab door and after the men were
seated, he closed the door and got into the front.
As they were driving away, the second thing Joe noticed
was the barrels of the rifles the two boys were equipped
with. The first thing was the driver of the vehicle;
he looked to be about eighteen or nineteen, with black
hair and tanned face and from what he could see, seemed
to be very well built. Just to break the tension,
Joe asked; "M108's?"
The boy called Jap turned in his seat, gave Joe a dazzling
smile and said; "No sir, they're 107's, we used
to use the single shot models, the 99's, then we were
re-equipped by SEAL 7 out of the Bremerton Ship Yard
on the coast.
Mark Hastings's was curious now; "What kind of
a rifle is that and what do you use it for?"
Jacky spoke before Jap could reply; "Jap, remember
Jasper last year, this guy is just asking so be nice."
Jap smiled at the driver before replying; "It'
a .50 caliber rifle, it's used for long distance shooting."
Mark looked puzzled; "What, 200, 300 yards, we
saw you come out of the arroyo back there, that had
to be six or seven hundred yards."
Jap smiled at Mark again; "Actually sir we were
out at 1343 meters from the helicopter, then a little
closer when you walked back to the HUMVEE."
Jap thought for a second; "At least that's what
our range finders said."
Mark looked at his partner before saying; "Well
at least we were out of range." He then got
a confused look on his face as Joe, Jacky and Jap started
laughing, Jacky took his foot off the gas and slowed
the truck down because he was afraid he'd loose control
from laughing so hard.
Jap stopped laughing, but couldn't keep a straight face
as he said; "If you say so sir."
Mark got a perplexed expression on his face and said;
"What? What'd I say?"
Joe finally got himself under control as they rounded
the corner of the building and Jacky parked the pickup
in the lot. He decided not to say anything about
Marks 'Out of range comment,' but he really hoped he'd
get a chance to see how well the young man and the boy
could shoot. He did ask; "Who's the 'Alpha'
and who's the 'Bravo' of your teams?"
Jacky pointed to Jap, Jap held his hand out and wobbled
it, signifying that the title for being the 'Alpha'
was up for grabs. Jacky smiled at the boy and
pointed at him again.
Joe just nodded and followed them into the house as
the HUMVEE's were being parked. As they entered
the kitchen of the building, Joe was surprised to see
a Marine three star General wearing MarCams sitting
at the table with a Navy Lieutenant Commander and an
Army Bull Colonel.
To his surprise, the General spoke to the redhead; "What
have we got here Jap, infiltrators?"
Jap and Jacky stood to attention, the butts of
their rifles on the floor holding them next to their
right sides by the barrels as Jap answered; "No
sir, friend's of Matt's, they were the one's on the
S76 that landed at the field."
The general stood and stuck his had out to Joe who was
the first one into the kitchen behind Jap; "Good
evening, I'm Phil Stanton, this is Paul Ketchum, U.S.
Navy and Kevin Dalton, U.S. Army. You men must
be from out of town?"
Joe nodded and said; "Good afternoon sir, I'm Joe
Barnes and these are my Personal Assistants; Jason Drew
and Mark Hastings." He hesitated for a second
or two before continuing; "I just flew in from
Miami, I have to discuss some urgent personal matters
with Matt and his brother."
The General was about to say something when the 1MC
blared out; "All GhostRyder Stations, this is GhostRyder
Control, six unknown inbounds approaching GhostRyder
Base bearing 225 degrees true."
Jap and Jacky turned around and said; "By your
leave sir!" As they ran towards the front
door, their rifles at port arms. Just as they
got to the door, they were met by four boys of various
sizes and ages, each of the boys were armed with what
were probably AR10's or 15's. As Joe watched,
two of the boys handed Jap and Jacky Miles Gear harnesses
and what appeared to be a Ghilley blanket, then all
six of them headed out the door.
The General smiled at their retreating backs, the Colonel
and the Lieutenant Commander both got up and headed
out of the kitchen and down the hallway in the opposite
direction from the one the boys had taken. Turning
to the three confused looking newcomers, he asked; "Coffee,
a beer or maybe something stronger.
Joe shrugged his shoulders: "I don't know what's
going on, but a beer would go down real nice about now."
His two 'PA's' asked for coffee, once they all had something
to drink they sat down at table.
The General looked at Joe as the obvious leader of the
three and said; "Sorry about the confusion, but
you walked into a joint Navy/Marine Corps exercise involving
forty five Marines and an eight man Navy SEAL Boat Crew.
I'd appreciate it if you three would put these arm bands
on." The General handed them three red cloth
armbands that he had taken out of a briefcase that was
on the kitchen countertop. "Oh yes, one more
thing." This time he looked at Mark and Jason.
"Please hand me your firearms, all of them."
Both Mark and Jason were about to protest, actually,
they were going to tell the General to go fuck himself
when Joe said; "Jason, Mark, do as he asks, do
it now."
Jason and Mark looked at each other and grumbled as
they un-holstered their Sig-Sauer P226's and set them in the middle of the table,
then they reached down and pulled an S&W .38 Special
five shot hammerless revolver from their ankle holsters
and added them to the two automatics on the table.
Joe looked at them and asked; "Is that it, nothing
else?"
Looking sheepish the two 'PA's" stood and reached
under their jackets and each pulled out another P226
from its holster in the small of their backs and set
them on the table also.
The General dumped the magazines and pulled the slide
back, locking them in the open position on all four
of the automatics, ejecting the chambered rounds.
He then swung out the cylinders of the two wheel guns
and dumped the rounds from them. Two at a time,
he placed the firearms on the countertop behind his
briefcase, out of view from any casual observer, the
magazines and loose rounds for the revolvers and the
four automatics, he left
in the middle of the table.
Looking at the three men he said; "Sometime within
the next thirty minutes, a group of armed men may make
its way to this point, their weapons will be equipped
with Miles gear and they'll be shooting blanks.
I don't want anyone to get excited and possibly pop
off some live rounds."
Taking a few seconds to gather his thoughts, the General
continued speaking; "James and Matt Bateman have
put together the best para-military group I have ever
seen. In the last two years, elements of the Marine
Corps, the Army and the Navy have attacked this place
seventeen times. Out of the seventeen times the
Unit has lost one engagement and had a second one called
a draw. That's where both the aggressors, which
happened to be two A-Teams and two Boat Crews, and the
Unit One defenders were reduced to zero effective combatants."
"James' and Matt's team, have become one of our
military's best training aides ever." The
General chuckled as he continued; "The only reason
the Air Force aren't using them, is they haven't found
out about them yet. So if and when the aggressor
forces make it this far, please stay seated, close your
eyes and stick your fingers in your ears, if it becomes
necessary to move from this room, please follow my instructions."
Joe stared at the General for a second or two before
asking; "Are Matt's troops really that good?"
The General smiled; "If I were young again, just
a 'shave tale,' and I had platoon like Unit One, I'd
be in hog heaven. I personally would go against
any group, two, or even three times their number and
be certain of destroying them in place. You met
Jap earlier, he's the Unit's Alpha Sniper, the boy with
him, who happens to be his boyfriend, is the Bravo Sniper."
Thinking back to one of the exercises he smiled; "I
had several of my people who wanted to draft those two
kids into the Corps. Unfortunately, Jap's only
thirteen, and his partner is only fifteen so there was
no way they were going to be able to get them.
When the General mentioned the fact that Jap and Jacky
were boyfriends, Joe's two 'PA's' got a funny look on
their faces. Neither one of them said anything,
but you could almost see and hear the gears grinding
in their head's.
Five minutes after the General had asked for the 'PA's'
guns, two boys in MarCam with slung M16's ran in to
the room, seeing the three strangers they halted and
stood to attention looking at the General, the one on
the right said; "Sir! Mr. Bateman's respects."
The one on the left said; "Sir, we need you and
your guests to move to the NCA (Non-Combatant Area)."
The one on the right said; "Right now!"
The boys, no the identical twins had caused Joe, Mark
and Jason to twist their heads back and forth like the
spectators of a tennis match. The general being
used to this tactic was unfazed by them and stood up;
"Carry on." Was all he said to the twins,
he turned to the three men sitting at the table and
said; "This area is about to get noisy, please
follow me."
Joe immediately got to his feet and gestured for Mark
and Jason to follow, the General moved through the door
that led to a large game room/lounge. When all
four of them were in the room, the General pulled a
sliding door closed behind them. "Have a
seat." He told them. The General moved to
the doorway leading into the hall and slid the triple
wide door shut and returned to the three men.
After sitting down he said; "This whole thing should
be over shor . . . . . .
. "
Before he could finish his sentence, there were two
large explosions in the hallway outside in the passageway
which caused the sliding doors to shake and shudder.
Before the sounds of the explosions were over, the sounds
of several rapid firing rifles were heard along with
a short burst from a smaller caliber weapon, then
lots more rifle fire. After about twenty seconds,
all firing ceased, the only sounds to be heard were
the shrill beeping noises that came from the hallway.
The General smiled; "As I was saying, this should
be over shortly."
The two 'PA's' sat nervously while glancing furtively
at both doors, while the General and Joe chatted quietly.
Ten minutes after the gunfire ceased, the 1MC blared
again, a very young sounding voice said; "Secure
from drill, secure from drill, safe all weapons,
clear all actions and unload all firearms. Restore
all casualties restore all gear. Now secure from drill,
the after action de-brief will be held in the Cavern
in one hour, all participants are to attend."
Within thirty seconds of the announcement, the shrill
beeping stopped and was replaced with the excited chatter
of several men and boys.
The General slid open both the hallway and kitchen
doors, he turned to Mark and Jason and said; "You
may get your guns, but please don't load them, I assure
you that no one will trouble you while you're in this
house."
Joe nodded his head and the two men acting as his 'PA's'
went into the kitchen and retrieved their firearms,
magazines and loose ammunition.
While the two 'PA's' were re-holstering their firearms,
Matt entered the lounge, grinned at Joe, but spoke to
the General; "Damn Phil, your guys are getting
better, they almost made it to the 'Arms Room."
Phil Stanton returned Matt's smile; "Almost?"
Matt feeling good about the exercise said; "Almost.
One Marine and one SEAL made it all the way to the third
deck before Bobby's reserve force took them out.
It looks like it's seventeen for the good guys; Us.
One for the bad guys, that would be you and one draw."
Matt laughed; "Not bad for a bunch of teenagers,
hunh?"
Joe just stared at Matt, he was about to ask what exactly
was going on when Matt beat him to it; "Listen,
you guys must be hungry, let's all go down to the UDF
(Unit Dining Facility) and grab a quick bite and I'll
fill you in on the Unit?"
Joe nodded and signaled the 'PA's' to follow them as
Matt led them in to the hallway and then down a stairway.
They seemed to be heading deep into the bowels of the
earth, finally after descending four long flights of
stairs they bottomed out at a door with a sign on it
that said; "Cavern Level, Non-Combatant Area!!
All firearms to be unloaded, actions open and on safe
before entering."
Matt opened the door and Joe, Mark and Jason followed
him into the large open room, Joe could see why it was
called the 'Cavern Level.' Matt walked over to
a double wide door that had a big sign over it reading
"U.D.F." and opened it, gesturing his three
guests through it. Joe was struck by the number
of people in the room, there must have been well over
a hundred boys and men seated at the tables throughout
the room, with more entering it from the serving line
with trays loaded with food. Matt walked over
and got in line, grabbed a tray, silverware and a plate
then started moving down the line seemingly spooning
food on his plate at random. Joe and his two men
quickly followed suite, when everyone had what they
wanted, the four men found a table that only had two
people sitting at it, the redhead and his 'boyfriend'
who had driven them to the house.
When they arrived at the table, Matt asked the boy's
if they minded if they joined them. "Preesssse."
The older boy said through a mouthful of food, pointing
to the empty chairs at the table. The men sat
down and started getting around the food they had loaded
their plates with.
Matt, after swallowing his first bite of food, turned
to the kid everyone seemed to call Jap and asked; "So,
how'd you guys do today, what's your body count up to
now?"
The diminutive redhead frowned, swallowed his food and
said; "I only got nine, Jacky dropped thirteen
that puts him one up on me."
Jacky smiled and said; "Bout fucking time too,
he's been ahead of me for the last four evolutions.
Actually, I got lucky today, Jap was on line three and
they took out GhostRyder Two Five and that gave the
troops coming down that line cover that they normally
wouldn't have had. The ones coming down seven
were dead meat, they had
to move across 600 meters of open ground, absolutely
no cover, that's where I got my numbers at."
Matt chuckled and asked the two boys about their numbers
again. Jap swallowed the mouthful of food and
answered; "Today's nine put me up 133, Jacky's
now at 134. I'm gonna talk to Justin and Phil
Martin about coming out of their hide's so early, Justin
got taken out in the first five minutes of contact.
Phil lasted another five minutes, UNTIL THAT ASSHOLE
SEAL GOT HIM FROM BEHIND!!" Jap yelled at
one of the men sitting at the table across from him.
The SEAL shot Jap the bird; "Fuck you red, your
buddy got me just after I took out the LAV from the
rear."
"Yeah, and three more of us while he was at it."
Said one of the other men at the table; "By the
way, where the fuck were you shooting from, even after
we went 'ineffective' we couldn't spot you?"
Jacky smiled at the Sailor; "425 Meters north east
of you guys, there's a rise there and we set up our
hide just below the military crest of it. Jap
was on the south side, but you guys were masked from
him being on the south side of that little gully, otherwise
he woulda took you out first."
Matt laughed at both groups and said; "Calm down
now guys, we'll go over this at the de-brief, finish
your food Jap, Jacky, you'll get your chance to talk
about it later."
Everyone calmed down and finished there meal, Joe looked
at Matt and said; "I need to get with you and James,
I got a problem I was going to ask you to help me with,
but now I don't think it'll work."
As Matt was about to ask about the problem, the 1MC
stared to blare again; "All evolution participants
please assemble in the Cavern, that is, all evolution
participants please assemble in the Cavern."
Matt stood up and looked at Joe; "You guys can
attend the de-brief or head back up stairs and wait
in the lounge, your choice but I have to be present
for the de-briefing."
Joe nodded and said; "I think I'll attend the de-brief,
I'd like to see what went on during the exercise."
Matt said; "Fine, but I won't even try to make
a guesstament on how long it will last. Any time
you want to bailout, go ahead and I'll catch up with
you after it's over."
Joe and his 'PA's' followed Matt into the Cavern and
found seats towards the back of the large room and sat
through the entire two and a half hour de-briefing.
Joe was really impressed by the way the after action
critique was held. He was even more impressed
by the thirty minute Q&A session at the end.
Close to fifty percent of the questions came from the
Unit One members, and every single one of the questions
were clear, concise, and pertinent. Joe was extremely
impressed by what he had seen of the Unit,
unfortunately he couldn't see how they could help him
and the people of Dagger Cay. After the meeting
was over, Matt and his brother James, who was in a wheelchair
being pushed by a tall good-looking blonde teenager
walked over to him.
Joe stood up and said; "Wow, these kids of yours
are out-fucking-standing. Where'd you find them
from?"
Matt smiled at him; "Actually they found us, oh
we put a few posters around town and set up a web site,
but most of them came to us. You'd be surprised
at how many kids are tired of the groups like the Boy
Scouts and the different church groups, most of which
are very homophobic. We just gave them a new group
they could join, a group that would let them be their
own selves."
Joe nodded his head, not really understanding what the
Unit was all about, but that it worked and worked well.
He looked at both Matt and James and asked; "Can
we go somewhere private and talk, what I have to say
is not for public consumption.?"
James took the lead; "No problem, you guys head
upstairs while my 'Nana' here takes me up on the elevator,
we'll meet you in the first floor conference room."
Joe nodded his head and followed Matt to the stairway,
as they started to climb the stairs Joe asked; "Is
James okay, when I first met him I could see he was
having problems with his left side, did he have a stroke
or something?"
Matt paused in his climb, then continued up the stairs;
"No, he was in an automobile accident a year ago
this May. He lost his left leg above the knee
and his left arm above the elbow. He was in a
coma for over two and a half months and got his new
'leg' last fall; he didn't get his arm until the end
of October. Actually he's still classified as
being in the 'recovery phase' by his physical therapists,
or as he calls them his 'Physical Terrorists."
All four men laughed at the last statement as they entered
the first floor hallway and moved to the conference
room. Matt picked up the phone from a side table
and punched in three numbers and said; "Will Gunnery
Sergeant MacCarver, Staff Sergeants Webb and Babcock
and Gunny Mcnaughten please come to the conference room
on the first deck."
James saw Joe's negative reaction to Matt's announcement
over the 1MC and said; "The Gunny, MacCarver, Webb
and Babcock are our staff, I won't do anything without
them, especially the type of thing I think you want
our help with."
While they were waiting for the Marines to arrive, the
telephone rang, Jesse picked it up and said; "Bateman
Brothers, how may I help you?" As Jesse was
listening to the what the caller was saying he turned
and looked at Joe. Jesse said; "Sir,
if you can hold for a minute, I'll see if he's available?"
Placing his hand over the mouthpiece he turned to Joe
and said in a soft voice; "Mr. Barnes, there's
a Mr. Trenton on the line who would like to speak to
you, are you available?"
Joe chuckled; "For him, I'm available 24/7, he's
the guy who sent me out here. Is that phone a
speaker phone?"
Jess nodded and spoke to Bucky Trenton; "Sir, Mr.
Barnes requested that the speaker phone be turned on,
yes sir thank you." Jesse hit the speaker
button and hung up the handset, a gravely sounding voice
was heard by everyone in the room; "Joe, you okay."
Joe smiled; "Yessir, ‘Oakwood,’ ('Oakwood' was
their code word for 'everything's okay') we're just
waiting on a few more people to show up.
The tension in Bucky Trenton's voice disappeared; "Good,
I just wanted to check in with you to make sure things
were going okay. If you don't mind, my sta