The sun rose early in the morning, and already the temperature was reaching a critical level it would seem. The glaring rays seemed to slowly start to cook all that fell in way of its gaze. Many voices could be heard muttering about seemingly enduring the heat and accepting it as a part of their daily lives. The camp was of average size and most of it was made of portable tents that served as a makeshift barracks for the soldiers stationed within its confines. The days had been quiet as of late, and not much trouble had been seen on the horizon but the soldiers new in the back of their minds they weren't on home turf. They couldn't be complacent about their surroundings and let training slip. Even if they did it always seemed there was some NCO around ready to instill discipline back into the unit.
Everything moved for the most part like a well oiled machine, and more then a few of the lower enlisted were wondering what they were doing in the area of operations. Nothing had been concretely said, but rumors were floating about various in their speculation and absurdity. For the most part the soldiers moved about as they were told and ordered, most figured when they were ready to be told their mission they would find out and not a moment before.
A young soldier barely a day over twenty stepped into the mess hall, his eyes searching for the man he was looking for. He'd been tasked as a runner, and had a message to deliver. He had tried all other places and it seemed the man he was looking for was in the chow hall, or had been as of ten minutes ago. Find the person he was looking for he set his path to him and stopped about a foot behind him and announced him self. "Staff Sergeant Tosh? Your presence is request in the command tent."
Tosh was happy to be here. It made him the exception to the normal soldier. He was happy to be able to do his damn job for the first time in nearly a year, and his senor scout time was running out. If he had not deployed before he was promoted he would start the steps to riding a desk the rest of his career. When the young man called his name he turned to see him. "Relax... what do they need? I am kind of Bessie preeping for a patrol." Tosh was so tired of talking to officers.
The young soldier shifted on his feet uneasily, he didn't really know why the Staff Sgt was summoned just that he was. "I uhhh wasn't told SSgt, I was just ordered to find you and relay a message on to you. If it helps it was Major Meyers that sent out the order." The young man was obviously nervous he knew who SSgt Tosh was and while fair, he was a sort of stickler for rules and regulations. He cared deeply for those under his direct command and didn't particularly want to upset the main either.
Tosh smiled seeing how nervous the boy was. "Don't worry. I'm not going to upset the old man and get you in the fatal funnel by not going." Tosh smacked the kid on the shoulder as he passed. "You should get back to your post, and do your job." Tosh said with a smirk as he walked passed, moving toward the command tent. As he left the motor pool he yelled over his shoulder "Sergeant Mac watch my squad while I'm out. Make sure they don't fuck up the timing and spacing on the .50 cal's."
The large black man replying "Too damn Easy Battle. Don't let the old man keep you to long talking about his time in the civil war." The motor pool, one of a hand full of actual buildings on the FOB, burst into laughter as Tosh left and moved for the command tent wondering what this was about. He had already talked to him about this opp, and there was little else to cover. However a refresher would be nice. Or the updated intelligence on whether or not there really was Taliban in the AO.
Major Meyers sat at his desk, if you could call it that he quickly had become accustomed to deployment life. Sure he missed his bed and family back home, but he loved deployment, the logistics, the strategy, the planning and the lack of ass kissing back home. He looked over the intel report scattered across his rickety desk in the command hut. He was frustrated, it was damn needle in a haystack hunt. They had been deployed to this area for nearly a month and half and all they where doing were patrols here or patrols there. Nothing of any solid intelligence had been gathered. But if nothing else the Major was a patient man, he knew that you couldn't rush these things and if you did the targets would just burrow deeper under ground. Worse off, he had rumors of hit and runs on convoys to the north nothing serious yet, but enough to have the brass back home worried with their panties in a twist. Intel suggested there was a base in the area or in the mountains but damned if he could find it. He also knew he had to pass the word out covertly that something big was going down, he had heard flitterings of a op in planning. No concrete details, but it was always worth putting those out on patrol at least the senior staff on alert to pay attention to their locals and targets. Not worth setting up a FF incident if it could be avoided.
Tosh knocked on the door "Sergeant Tosh request permission to enter?" He was hopping the Major had something for him that would help him on the operation today. He hoped the Major was not objecting his choice of using hummers and MRAP's instead of Bradly's.
The Major looked up from his musing at his desk and moved most of the files to the side, he kept two of the smaller files out so that he could reference the details contained within should he need it. "Enter!" The major bellowed as he continued to review the pertinent information before him. He knew the Staff SGT was due on patrol in about a hour and hated to amend orders at the last minute but he felt the SSgt had a need to know this information. Plus, if he were to find this camp he also knew with the selection he made he might have a hard pressed time to take it.
Tosh entered the room standing six inches from the desk at attention and Saluted the officer. "Sargent Tosh Reporting as ordered, sir!" he sounded off loud and clear weighting for the major to return the salute or tell him to relax.
The Major looked up and nodded his head and said "At ease Sergeant. Pull up to the table and I'll fill you in." He continued moving a few more files around before finding one he was looking for. "First off, is this." He said passing over a slightly thicker folder that looked suspiciously like a personnel file. "New transfer in at end of the week, to fill for Cpl. Stewarts untimely passing. Not sure about him though, seems a little rough around the edges and problems with authority. Figure you'd like the challenge." He said chuckling in the way that said I know you like bringing that stick and using it for discipline. "Make him fit if you can, if you can't report it to LT. Matthews and we'll get him on KP duty."
"That isn't why I called you here though, there are reports coming in from the north of raiders hitting caravans and supply convoys." The Major continued as he brought out a map and started pointing out landmarks. "Everything west and south of this line here we control. OR have assets in place, intel believes they are up in the mountains to the east here." The major pointed to a string of mountains about fifteen miles in length that went deep another twenty miles. "I know it's a lot of terrain, and its rugged but we need to know where they are coming from. We can't allow anymore convoys to be hit, that said I want you to take your squad and take your route and also patrol north another ten miles then back track east along the mountain and see if you get any biters. IF contact is made engage but do not follow we don't want to show our hand just yet. Radio your coordinates in to base." The major finished, as he looked over to Tosh. "Before I forget one final thing, their are whispers out that there is a op in the area, so check your damn targets before engaging. Challenge phrase is 'Those who walk the valley.' Safe word is 'Shieldsworn'"
Tosh smiled as he pulled up the chair listening. "Too easy, Major." Tosh took the File looking it over and smiling haply. "whats the kid's MO? Just an authority problem? Hell I was a Drill, and Before that I had a nasty reputation for crushing souls. I can break his ass down like his old line sergeants should have." He posed waiting for a response while reading the ERB file.
The Major looked up and smirked he knew he had chosen right "Think its Motorpool Mechanic, definitely has the tech score. Just something about his attitude its there in his ERB, probably just think he is hot shit and hasn't been grounded as he should have been. Kid has a lot of potential but doesn't like to admit he's wrong and how to ask for help. Need him to be a team player you know how it is. But that isn't important right now, read up on that after we get this patrol done with."
"I'm tracking major."
Tosh Saluted the man after popping to attention, and then about faced. He started making his way back to the motor pool and was glad the plan had not changed.
As Gabriel left the tent, about 75 miles west of his position, was a cargo plain flying at a high altitude. Most would probably not see it except for the slight white trail as the plain soared through the sky. Inside
Jack and his team where quietly going over mission parameters, insertion and extraction routes as well as their gear that they would be bringing with them. All the men were in desert fatigues and had a breathing mask hanging loosely by them. There was also a somewhat large container inside that carried all their gear that would be dropped with them.
Jack looked up to a few of the tech's hanging about the planes belly when he heard one bang on the bulkhead to get his attention and motioned with hand signals they were approaching their drop zone. Nodding his head he shouted "Eyes up! Check your gear and your masks!!" as he went about checking his own gear and making sure everything was properly secured. Waiting a few more tense minutes, a amber light came on towards the rear of the plane, signifying they were almost over head. Jack and the rest of his team stood up and made final preparations and secured their masks and helmets, then checked their teammates. Seconds later the ramp to the back of the plane slowly started to open and a alert could be heard ringing through out the belly. "Masks up!" Jack shouted as he secured his mask and took a few tests breaths to make sure everything was in order, then walked up to the cargo box and slowly pushed it near the edge.
Waiting in tense suspense, Jack was eying the amber light and counting in his head. A few seconds later it went from amber to green and Jack pushed the cargo out the plane then walked to the edge of the ramp with his team then walked off and started to free fall.
Tosh moved forward through the small FOB, and mad his way back to the motor pool. As he came around the side of the building all the Trucks and Tracks were ready to go, and the Privets and section leaders making last second radio checks. He moved over to his own truck and hopped into the passenger seat. His driver a young Privet Gomez sat checking the gages, and preforming PMCS then looked over at tosh "Change in Planes Sargent?"
Tosh though for a moment and shook his head. "we have a new guy coming he is riding in our truck. that brings us up to four. Other wise... same shit we briefed already." A sergeant working on the trucks .50cal yelled down. "A new guy? NOW!?" Sargent Larson didn't like changing things that much last second. hell no one did.
"Great him with open arms that's an order... And stay focused." Tosh looked at his map and starting getting a feel for the rout again.
Jack lived for this, he knew in the back of his mind he was a bit of a adrenaline junkie but who could blame him? He loved fast cars, and anything that had a sense of danger to it. Give him a mountain face he'd have fun climbing it, give him a cliff with water below he'd jump off it. He lived for this sort of thing, and lived for the moments like this. Before he got out of control he got back into his game mode mindset and check his altimeter and motioned to the rest of his squad to slow it up a little bit. He moved his arms and legs out a little farther to increase his drag as he spotted their package just ahead of them. It wouldn't be long now before it pop'd its chute and they would do the same.
Waiting for another few moments Jack was jerked in the air as his parachute opened and his hands grabbed on to the controls to sort of navigate where he wanted to land. Slowing his decent and maneuvering to some underbrush he made a soft landing and ran a few feet as his boots touched down and was able to make a smooth quiet landing. Quickly grabbing the cords and his chute he stuff it all together so it wouldn't fly away and man-handled it back into the bag. Looking around he saw all his other teammates already on ground doing the same thing.
Jogging over to their crate he cracked it open and began outfitting himself with all the gear he had brought then grabbed a small radio and slipped the earbud in and the throat mic on. "Check, Eagle Eyes this is Foehammer do you copy." He said in a quiet voice when he keyed his radio and waited for a response. Not hearing one he tried again, "I repeat Eagle Eyes this is Foehammer over."
"Yo Sarge we going or what?" A younger sergeant called out from another truck after all the preps and radio checks where finished and were just waiting on Gabriel to give the final word. "We are locked and stocked. Everything checks out." The man followed on with before disappearing back inside his truck and strapping himself in.
While the motor pool was a hub of busy activity, about fifty miles to the east Jack and his team were waiting on word to find out what the status of their mission was. "I repeat Eagle Eyes this is Foehammer do you copy?"
Jack tried again as his team deftly gathered around and did weapons checks and made sure everything was cocked and ready to rock before putting them on safe. All eyes of his team where scanning the surrounding area for hostiles and any signs of movement.
Suddenly a crackling noise was heard then "Ro..ger Fo.eha..mmer we hear you. What's your status over?" then cut out.
"All boots are on the ground, we are proceeding to primary target for package recovery." Jack responded before using hand signals to tell his team to move out and who had point. Dispercing as a well oiled machine the group slowly made there way north-east as they recalled from their mission briefing. They stopped every so often to double check their co-ordinates and heading.
As they cleared a ridge Jack held up his hands, and his team all stopped and crouched low. Down beneath them about two miles out was camp, it wasn't heavily fortified but there where at least four guard towers and a constant supply of trucks moving here and there as well as troops moving about. Going prone and taking out a pair of binoculars he scanned the area to get a lay of the land, he called out slowly "Smoke and Hammer, you guys up here I want you on sniper support we are going to need to take out that east tower before we get too close." Continuing to scan he found a entrance way on the east wall where it seemed it was just a gas storage area so chances where there weren't going to be that many combatants patrolling there.
The two men Jack called out nodded and shifted one pulling out a sniper rifle with a scope and the other pulling out a targeting scope and both men got into position and waited for firing orders. As they where doing this Jack and the rest of his team slowly started to make his way down to the camp checking the position of the sentry in the guard tower every now and then.
"Ready to role."
Tosh called over the radio to his squad, then called the control and command. "Dog one, This is Specter wolf. clearing the wire with four humvies and nineteen personal, through ECP two." Tosh releaced the radio to hear the confirmation as they rolled out of the motor pool and out onto the road to ECP two. Then out of the wire moving up to road speeds.
A voice crackled over the radio "Roger Specter Wolf good hunting. Dog One out." The radio went dead after that traffic and would stay that way till something needed to be said on either end.
Jack and the remainder of his team had made it to within fifty feet of the guard tower and took cover behind a large boulder that would hide them from view. Waiting a moment to make sure nothing was heard out of the ordinary he pressed a finger to his throat mike and called. "Smoke, we are in position you have green light on the sentry on the eastern watchtower."
Nothing was heard back but Jack knew Smoke had heard, and was just setting himself in the zone as it where. They all waited with baited breath, before a small crack could be heard and loud thump as a body hit the ground on top of the tower. Then a voice came over the radio "Clear no hostiles in sight launch raven." Then cut off again, as Jack stuck his head out and peered just over his cover to see if he could spot anyone else. Seeing his path clear and held up his hand motioned towards the fence, one of his team nodded and skirted around the rock quickly and slide on his knees about a few inches from the fence then started to cut the wire link fence.
After the fence was cut Jack and his team all quietly piled through and stacked up, this is where it was going to get tricky and they had to take it nice and slow. Moving up Jack nodded his head to the gas tank, and one of his unit mounted a small charge to the underside.
Tosh and His Team raced down the road at fifty miles an hour for the mouton pass they were supposed to secure. He changed the Radio over to Troop talk, and turned on his little hand held radio he bought at the PX scanning for activity from anyone in the area that used the cheep radios like the enemy. It was going to be about an hour before he got into position and was hopping no one would find them a target on the way.
He scanned his map hopping to find a back rout for the hundredth time. However no such rout was showing up. He put it into his wrist gantlet DAGGER GPS and noting came up again. It was open road the hole way, at least the advantage to starting this early was the roads were free.
As they reached the mouth of the canyon road Tosh was nervous. It was a kill zone for over three hundred meters. He spoke into his team comm. "Guard up report and activity... We have to go through." Then he looked to his driver. "Punch this bitch privet. It is three hundred meters of kill zone I don't want to be here any longer than we have to." He the loaded his M203 on his M249, and looked out the window scanning for a target.
It was going well at one hundred metter, and still the same at one hundred and fifty, then the radio exploded. "RPG, Six o'clock Engaging." The sound of a .50cal filled the cannon, and then at less then seventy netters ahead an explosion erupted and caved the road in. Tosh called out over the Radio. "Roads closed! Wolf one through three fire up on the canyon walls, wolf four fire to the six were backing out of this bitch and taking rout two."
Jack and his team had made it to the camp and were slowly clearing it tent by tent and room by room. Thankfully it seemed most where up at the mess hall so they were able to sneak by the few sentries still out and about. Those they couldn't where taken down with stealth from either knife or hand combat moves. His rifle was tense against his body as he knew they where in open territory and knew they had very little cover for a prolonged fire fight. Catching what appeared to be a containment building/Jail they moved in that direction before all hell broke loose.
As Jack and his team where sweeping the area a target was exiting the building they where on their way too. Jack saw him first and didn't hesitate, he brought his Scar-L up and took aim firing a quick burst and dropping the target. The only problem was, three more targets exited the building and opened fire. His team all dove for cover and returned fire, this wasn't going to be good if they didn't take these guys out fast they were going to be swarmed with trigger happy insurgents.
Jack took a chance and glanced back luck may have been on their side as those in the mess hall didn't seem to hear anything and his team took out the three taking cover in the door way.
Quickly moving inside each man took a door and entered the room four other resounding yells of "Clear!" put Jack slightly at ease before he headed to the cell door that obviously lead deeper into the building. He paused for a second when his radio came to life. "Cap, I just heard something off in the distance that sounded distinctly like .50 cal and a whistle like RPG noise something is out there you best get a move on."
Jack nodded his head and replied "Roger, almost at the package." Opening the cell doors as quietly as possible he was met with the sight of six cells each occupied with three people each. Looking in he noticed most where beat-up but nothing serious or life threatening. The noise quickly caught all the captives attention and Jack bought his fingers to his lips for silence as he quickly went about unlocking each cell. Coming to the last cell he saw a petite woman who from photos to be Dr. Chambers and who he knew more personally from a life time ago as little Miri.
"Dr. Chambers?" He called out softly as he slowly moved inside her cell.
As
Tosh and his men roled clear of the ambush in the canyon he pointed out the trail going up higher into the hills. "There now!" He ordered the driver the called into the comms. "Wolf two, three, and four. On me up the mountain." The .50Cal's rang out as they went and then Tosh saw that six technical's were following his Troop. He though quickly. "Take em for a ride." tosh ordered.
The gun fight ensued up the moutin as the trail got thin his driver taking turns at nearly forty miles an hour. tosh opened his window and aimed his M249 out the door waiting for a shot as the bend in the curve cam up he shot back on the second to last technical and landed a frag grande in the bead of the truck sending it to a halt the vehicular behind it crashing into it and sending hostiles flying in all directions. "Got EM!" his gunner called as Tosh Reloaded his M203, and the truck came to a halt. "there is an insurgent check point?" Tosh got on the radio. "Its a bunker keep the fifty firing on it from trucks one and two, Three and four engage the trucks. Every one else dismount and keep the heat hot in your respected sector." He then changed stations over to the TLK, "This is SW01, I need air support Danger close. I repeat we are surrounded." Tosh got out and began suppressing the sand bag road block then fired his M203 into the bunker. still holding the radio.
The radio crackled to life and was static filled due to them being on either side of a mountain. "sa..y ag.i.. I.. r.peat s.ay a..g.in. D.an.. C.os..."
Jack slowly made his way to the prone woman, he knew who she was before even the briefing. Seeing her now some years after the fact made his heart clench, she beaten with bruises on her cheeks and one eye slightly swollen. Her clothes where in tatters but still enough to provide her with a good deal of modesty. He had to make sure she was alright though, calling out again "Dr. Moira Chambers? Are you alright??" He waited with baited breath for a response of any kind.
Hearing her name she shivered, she just wanted this nightmare to be over. What did she ever do to deserve this she ruefully thought to herself. More then once she thought she was out of her mind. More specifically it seemed as someone was softly calling her name and she thought for just a moment it was all a dream. Cracking her eyes open she quickly realized it wasn't, her left eye wouldn't open all the way and what she did see was slightly blurred. All she saw was a large man, in desert fatigues with a weapon standing a few feet from her, but something seemed similar about him. Something comforting as if she knew who he was. But that was impossible she was in the middle of no where, she'd been captured by terrorists.
Jack seeing the doctor move quickly moved to her side and laid a hand on her gently to keep her restrained. "Dr. Chambers, we are here to get you out of here but we need to ask you a few questions first." He said as he quickly assessed her injuries and noted nothing life threatening turning to his team he shifted his head out the door to make sure no one was coming. His team quickly piled out and took up positions around the entry way to the building.
Turning his head back to the doctor he asked her "Are you Dr. Moira Claire Chambers, of 154 Ballero Drive?" Seeing the woman nod her head, he asked one final challenge question as it where. "What was your Mother's Maiden name?"
"McIntyre" came a rasped response as
Moira tried to gather her thoughts, this voice I know this voice she thought to herself as she tried to clear her head but to no avail. Slowly she realized she was being lifted off her bed and helped to her feet by the man.
Jack took his arm around Moira and helped her up then used his free hand to press his mic. "Eagle Eyes this is Foehammer package is secured. Proceeding to extract." He said as he helped Moira hobble to the door before nodding to the squad medic to take over and he took point at the entryway.
Jack was scanning his surroundings before something caught his eye at the other end of the camp, he had wondered why this position wasn't as fortified as before. Why there was only a handful of guards here. Thinking on his feet he made a motion for his Medic and two others to take the Doctor and her team to meat up with Smoke and Hammer as he took off down the right hand side of the building and keeping to cover he wanted to check something that he thought he saw. 'Hmm.. deep tire tracks, large, either a duece and half or a transport platform.' He thought to himself as he came upon what he saw as deep and wide tire indentations.
"Cap you there? This is hammer we are picking up friendly traffic about two clicks from our position seems they are pinned down by combatants and are requesting air support. Think they might be in the valley we passed on the way up if they are they are FUBAR'd their radios probably don't work for shit!" Jack's comms expert and spotter called out as he was clearing the rest of the area past the holding cells.
"Call it in Hammer, get them something we should be en route momentarily to your position." Jack called back as he came up upon a low barricade and took cover.
"Roger that Cap." Hammer replied before setting about his task and trying to contact the way ward squad. "This is Foehammer, broadcasting on all friendly frequencies, do you copy Specter Wolf?"
The fire fight had hit a loll. the .50 cal's had shredded the light armor of the trucks, and the men still at the post were ducking from the four .50 cal's still pounding there position in sequence to keep there heads down, and save some ammo. tosh and a few others had just finished placing Ternakits on the three wounded soldiers. None dead on there side, and they fought off a bad situation leveling the field.
It was then his radio buzzed to life. "This is Foehammer, broadcasting on all friendly frequencies, do you copy Specter Wolf?" Tosh rushed over to answer. "Foehammer. This is Specter Wolf. Read you, Change to Freq 13352, Chanel 2, out." He paused for a moment as he changed over to the free channel to avoid clouding up the air way.
"Slow down the suppression! We need to save ammo, only shoot when its needed." Tosh pointed out to his gunners in then Hummers. Then returned to the radio.
Hammer fliped a switch and then turned a nob before keying his mic again "Check, Specter what's the situation? And your Location??" Hammer said as he glanced up and saw the remainder of his team with the package making their way over to Smoke's and his position. Seeing that they were down two team members he asked the next highest rank "Corporal where is the Captain?"
The corporal glanced over his shoulder then replied "He went off to the right from the detention center I think he saw something and wanted investigate, judging by the treads and what we saw before leaving something was heavy moving in the area."
Hammer sighed before nodding and pressing a hand to his throat and keying a two way between him and Jack. "Ghost, this is Hammer do you copy?" Before looking around he made a decision and motioned to a parked duece and half. "Alright mount up we're outta here we've got a extraction to hit." As he gathered everyone up and made their way over to the truck and helped the civilians in to the vehicle. Glancing down at the map of the land he saw a back route that winded down the mountain and would let them avoid whatever road blocks they might hit.
As Hammer was loading up the team and the package,
Jack was slowly working his way further into the make shift base. He had just came to a cave entrance about twenty feet wide and about thirty feet high. Inside he found something that made his blood go cold and muttered "Oh fuck."
Gab regrouped his men after the fight. He had only had a few men take rounds mostly clean through shots, and they were good to finish up the mission. He heard the call over the radio, and answered. "Hammer this is ghost. We are clear of contact. Charley Mike." Gab moved around to the hummers and got in his after a green two was given. they were amber on ammo. An over half the .50 cal barrels were cooling down, but they were alive. He knew his ordered where not to engage, but now that contact was made and his only other path out was blocked. He ordered his men to drive on and shoot anything that was flagging them.
Jack stood slightly dumb founded for a moment before shaking his head and keying the mic back to base. "Eagle Eyes this is Foe Hammer copy?" He waited a moment before moving into the cave opening and checking the corners for hiding combatants before declaring the room was clear. And lowered his weapon to start searching through the room.
"Foe Hammer, Eagle Eyes send traffic." came the reply a few minutes later.
"Eagle Eyes, appear to have found a lab of some sort. And not the good kind, whatever was going on here was borderline torture. A lot of high tech equipment as well, near as I can tell they were using human blood for something, possibly biological WMD." Jack was searching through the files and couldn't make heads or tails of it. But certain things he could understand the doctor who was in charge was borderline insane if his notes where any type of accurate. "Apparently they had a Dr. Iswalf, and was working on something but from his notes it's a muttering of a mad scientist then anything I can make heads or tails of." Just as he was giving his report he heard something come crashing to the ground just a few feet from him and training kicked in before dropping to the floor and grabbing his rifle and looking for a threat.
A soft grumbling could be heard about twenty feet from
Jack's position whom ever it was didn't know that Jack was there or didn't really care. From what he could hear it was a woman muttering and strained his hearing more to find out what the hell was going on.
"Another psycho for them it look like. I swear you kill/destroy one base and three more pop up. This has to be the worst though, genetic modifications to accelerate mutations and permutations for new alpha subjects." A woman muttered to herself as she looked through the computer station and then connected a remote device. "Wiping local copy, transferring data for analysis and decoding for possible weapon tactics against us." She continued to speak as if there was someone listening on the other end.
Wondering what the hell was going on Jack peaked his head up from cover and looked for the voice. Standing approximately twenty or so feet from him further back in the lab was a woman of average height, with hair pulled up in a loose ponytail to keep it from getting in her way. Everything else about her was strange she wore a dark brown jumpsuit that was quite form fitting but allowed for some room to move easily. Other than that she didn't appear to carry a weapon of any sort. Raising his rifle but not aiming at her he cleared his throat and said "Freeze!"
The woman spun around quickly and raised her arms a wave of force exiting from her palms of her hand that caused debris to come rushing at Jack. Relying on his training more then anything he jumped to the side and let everything go crashing over his head. What he didn't see at the time was a faint dark blue hue cover his body as he moved.
Jack didn't have time to think before his training kicked in and he rose up and took aim squeezing off a three, three round burst at who ever she was. He didn't have time to dick around a potentially hostile target.
A fraction of a second before the bullets would have made impact they stopped dead in their tracks hovering slightly in the air for a moment before falling harmlessly to the ground. The woman cocked her head to the side as if contemplating something and spoke. "Acknowledged, abnormal alpha waves detected. Possibly sentient found, standing down."
Jack watched her, and was confused something was amiss here and he wanted to know what the hell was going on. "Who are you? Who do you work for!?" He shouted out before being surprised that the woman lowered her arms slightly and smiled at him.
"The name is Amyra and who I work for doesn't really matter at the moment. What does matter is that this lab is on a self destruct sequence with about five minutes left to go. I accidentally set off some sort of fail safe while trying to recover whatever data I could. We need to evacuate as soon as possible." As if to punctuate
Amyra's point a loud klaxon alarm started to ring through out the room and amber strobe lights started to flash in a steady interval.
Jack muttered 'Shit...' before looking up to Amyra and saying "Well we are about a a few hundred yards from the entrance I came through so I suggest we book it." He said looking around, and pivoting around as he saw Amyra nod and took off as fast as he possible he could. Slinging his rifle over his back to get better traction he pressed his hand to his throat. "Hammer, this Ghost you better Evac now! Some fail safe initated unclear blast radius." He said quickly before looking ahead and pushing himself harder.
Amyra was studying Jack as they ran, he was in impressive physical condition that much was obvious. But that blue haze that's what she was intrigued in, curious she pressed her hand to the side of her temple where a band of thin metal wrapped around her head and a slight haze fell over her left eye. The only untoward sign of anything happening was her green eyes going slightly a lighter shade. 'Interesting..
..' she muttered to her self as she saw the haze clearer now it was slowly flickering just off his body like a flame starving for air. But caught her attention was that it completely surrounded him and gave off a odd energy reading when attempting to analyze it. 'Curious' she muttered to herself before focusing on running as fast as she could.
Hammer hearing the traffic sent by Ghost paled before jumping into the truck. Everyone having already been loaded up and started the engine throwing into drive and getting the lumbering vehicle moving.
As Tosh approached the main gate of the compound he looked over his maps, and noticed this place was unmarked. It must have been a well kept secret among the locals, He saw a large truck start up and what was defiantly not hostile forces loading into it. he called up over the raido. "Fohammer, this is ghost I am in your AO. coming down the road, Copy?" he then tapped his gunners leg. "You ready duke? If anyone not wearing an american flag tries to stop us light em up."
Hammer was grinding the gears slightly on the old truck trying to get it up to speed when he heard the call. He pressed his mic and said "Solid copy, but I'd turn around now! Traffic came through some sort of base fail safe of self detonation tripped approx five minutes and counting!" He said as he continued to push the truck up to speed and was slowly rolling towards the convoy.
Jack was internally counting in his head and wasn't sure they were going to make it. He knew when he signed up for this life style, and knew it wasn't guaranteed to make it to your twenty with this job. Still he had some hope in his body. Glancing towards the woman Amyra "We are going to need to find some blast shelter/cover. I don't think we will get far enough away." He said as he started to push his body faster and harder. He pressed his hand to his mic mid stride "Eagle Eyes, Foe-hammer Situation critical imminent blast inbound. Possible WMD detonation advise immediate containment protocols."
Half way across the world, the news was breaking in a highly classified situation room. Words were being muttered at a frenzied pace as technicians scurried about their tasks on their computers. The general consensus of it all was this was getting out of hand fast. And this could turn into a nightmare if the worse was to happen, especially given they technically weren't supposed to be even there in the first place. Officers and enlisted alike were running numbers to figure blast radius effect, fallout, and all other critical data. Before another burst of traffic from Foe-hammer cut through the room.
Jack was running the same situation in his head and knew what had to be done. "Eagle Eyes, need to seal this cavern. Have strike raptor deliver payload to these co-ordinates." Jack said as he held up his hand and pressed a button around his wrist "Confirm receipt of GPS Locator activation." Jack added with a grim resolve, his body tensing slightly before a calm washed over his mind and he accepted his course knowing in his heart that this was the only real way to go.
A midst the flurry and chaos of the chatter, a set of GPS co-ordinates popped up on screen and flashed in red. All seemed to pause as the words permeated through the room, and the realization of what was being asked slowly began to sink in to the many people in the room. A woman stepped up and pressed a mic at her desk and responded "Foe-hammer, Eagle Eyes confirm receipt of GPS locator activation. But you can't ask us to do this to you! There is no way you'd survive the blast radius!" Towards the end her voice began to crack barely noticeably but those around her could see the tears somewhat pooling in her eyes and all could sympathize with her they all knew it was a danger anytime a team went in to the field but they all pushed those thoughts to the back of their mind and focused on their jobs to make sure it never occurred.
As Jack continued to push his body harder his eyes where scanning his immediate surroundings hoping for anything that could give them some sort of cover. Something that could survive the impact of the payload that should be in bound in roughly two minutes. "Eagle-Eyes, you knew this was a eventuality given the nature of the mission and the reason my group was called. We were given mission parameters and the fallout from this would be way outside that. I knew exactly what I was signing up for when you asked and when I first enlisted here. This is why we are here. To make the call." Jack stated with firm resolve as he accepted that this was going to be the end.
Silence reigned as Jack's words crackled through the speakers, everyone knew in this line of work the survival rate wasn't the greatest. But no one truly thought about it, as it made most worry needlessly and end up making more mistakes then not. The woman gritted her teeth and angrily wiped at her eyes pushing the tears away. He was right of course, he always had been she knew deep down. But that didn't make this any easier, pushing aside her own thoughts and feelings she grimly said "Confirm Foe-Hammer Strike Raptor in bound ETA three minutes." Before looking at the screen and saying a silent prayer. "Foe-Hammer you find a hole the biggest fucking hole you can and you get to cover! I expect to see you on the flip." She said before collapsing down into her chair behind her and laying her head down on the desk taking a deep breath at what she had just done.
Jack turned to Amyra and thought grimly to himself 'This is how it goes? This is the end?' Opening his mouth he tried to say anything but really what was there to say?
Amyra turned her head slightly at Jack's slightly lost look before nodding to him and saying "It's alright Captain, I understand." She did, she knew there was a good chance given everything that it could go pear shaped at a moments notice and knew better then most that there was a threat lurking in the dark that needed to be taken care of. "We tried our best and that is good enough for me." She said again as she kept up pace and found a ditch about three feet deep. "Suggest using this as cover it's the best we can find."
Jack nodded his head and turned to the side and saw it did drop down about six feet a few yards away. "Agreed, lets get down in their and keep moving along this see if it deepens any more or can find something for adequate cover." He said as he paused not for a moment to jump into the trench then headed in a parallel direction to the base before deciding about a hundred yards this was the best they where going to get to as he could already hear the distant rumble of the jet aircraft approaching. "Right this is gonna be as good as it gets I think!" He said before dropping prone and covering his head with his arms and praying that just maybe he could make it that luck would hold out.
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