Mandy and I are headed planet side on one of the Helios's three shuttle, and as usual Mandy is a bit nervous about flying. The shuttle is bouncing and bucking like a wild horse as we enter the atmosphere of Mars. I take her hand and squeeze it to reassure her that it's going to be fine; she turns to me and the worry is clearly expressed on her face. "Hey. Everything will be good." She physically relaxes. "How did you become a pilot again?" I ask in that certain way that just needles her the right way.
Mandy laughs hearing the sarcasm in my question. "You're such an ASS sometimes, you know that!" I laugh seeing the tension leave her completely and watching my Mandy come back. "We don't know anything about this Basha character, who can say what he's capable of doing." She has a solid point. There is no argument from me.
"Well, that's why we have fifteen Marines accompanying us on this drop. Just in case it comes down to that." Basha and I agreed to meet in a neutral location, a Com station just outside the main complex, so neither would have the complete advantage against the other. He seems reasonable, but I suppose we'll find out when we get there. Fanatics come in all shapes and sizes, and even though this Basha seems to be well educated I'm not taking any chances. Especially with Mandy here with me. The shuttle is shaking less and smoothing out, which means we are in Mars's atmosphere.
The com in our helmets chimes, [Five mikes till touch down.] Says the pilot, as we begin to turn to the port. The four Marines that are on board with us heat up their plas rifles, which let off an audible hum and then go silent. I'm sure that the rest Marines following in shuttle two are doing the same thing. I pull out my own plas pistol, looking at it for a moment remembering the last time I held a fire arm in my hands. It was the the first time I killed a man... Africa was tough. I heat up my pistol making sure to keep the safety on, and slip it back into my holster. I look over to Mandy and she's doing the same thing; she nods that she is ready. [Two mikes.] The pilots says.
I look at the four Marines that are with us, and three are so young, it makes me feel guilty to be putting them in this situation. I know that they will do as they've been trained. Then I look at the fourth one; he's Gunnery Sergeant Hal Wilcox. He's as tough as they come. A Grizzled, hardened combat veteran that seen much action. I thank God he's with us today; He looks at me and nods. I return it, as a sign of respect for this man, who has been in at least five different campaigns. I tap my helmet next to my ear he nods responding by switching channels. "What do you think gunny? Are we walking into a trap?" I ask already knowing what his answer will be.
"Sir, we are sticking our heads into a vipers nest." The gunny's answer is exactly what I thought it would be.
I let out a short breath and I glance over to Mandy, who seems to be waiting on me to say something. I turn back to gunny Wilcox. "So, you feel we're wasting our time and energy on this mission?" I pose the question. "You don't think we can save anyone here?" I ask hoping for a more positive out look.
He looks at Mandy then back at me, with the corners of his mouth turned down. "Sir, I think that they're as good as dead no matter what happens here today. That's my gut feeling; any way; we will do what we have to to keep you and the Major safe, Sir."
"Well, " I say. "Let's hope your gut feeling ain't right." Thinking back on it there was some info on Basha, not a lot, but we know that he is from Afghanistan originally. That's not a lot to go by, though at least it something.
[Thirty seconds.] the pilots chimes in again and the Marines unlatch their harnesses, and Mandy and I do the same. Once we touch down we need to deploy fast, so the shuttle can get airborne and out of the range of enemy snipers. The shuttles won't be to far. Maybe a klick from our location, so if there's any trouble they can respond quickly. [Five seconds; four, three, two, one.] The rear ramp drops open and the Marines fan out in front of us, and Mandy and I move out quickly pistols drawn. We get down on our knee I'm facing right near the gunny and Mandy went left. The shuttle lifts off and flies due east; I watch as the other shuttle passes over heading in the same direction. We are roughly in a wedge formation, the gunny looks back and signals for us to move out. We head to to a small structure that's was the agreed upon location, as we move I keep my eye on the hill to our left. Someone could be hidden there among the rocks lying in wait. We maintain the wedge formation, which offers the best overlapping field of fire in open terrain. I don't trust Basha or his people.
The building is a one story com site just like the ones on Earth, not very big at all, but it does have a small conference room on the north side. That is where we are to meet Basha and his people, but I have a weird feeling like the gunny, that we are being set up. We link up with the other eleven Marines at the entrance to com building, where the gunny gives his Men instruction and he deploys them; he sends four to the roof and the rest are spread out in tactical semi circle. The gunny stands to one side of the door the three Marines behind him, then myself followed by Mandy.
The gunny enters the pass code that Basha gave us and the door opens. It's built like and airlock since the inside is pressurized, so the gunny moves in first then the Marines, then we follow. We squeeze in and I close the door, as last man in. In thirty seconds the light turns green and the gunny opens the inside door, and one the young Marines steps in followed by the gunny and the other two Marines. I count three and move with Mandy in tow; Marines have already secured the small rooms, as well as the hallway that ends in a tee. We quickly catch up to them; the gunny looks back at us and nods, I nod back giving him the all good. He sends two Marines south to the com center, while the rest of us move north to the conference room clearing other small rooms as we go.
We still have not removed our EVA suits, since we don't know for sure if it will be as Basha said. 'We will meet here safely.' Safely. I guess we'll soon find out. We approach the door marked conference room silently, the gunny turns to me and the unspoken ARE YOU READY is the look on his face. I grip my pistol tighter; I inhale deeply and let it out slowly steadying myself. I nod to go; the gunny opens the door quickly and in an instant we preform a dynamic entry weapons up and dominate the room! The only problem is no one is here!
I turn to Mandy and she is facing out the door I pull her to one side of it. "Mandy, don't frame the door you'll make an easy target." I tell her; Mandy has never been trained in DA (direct action) tactics. I took the training on DA tactics back at the academy, before it was required for pilots. Mandy didn't. "Gunny, tell your men to be on high alert, this could be a trap." He nods and starts to issue orders. What the hell is going on; I look at my watch and we are right on time. The room has no window on the west or east sides, and a small one on the north, high about six feet up. I step to one side of the window and cautiously peer through it, when I notice movement to our left on the crest of the hill on the north. "Gunny! Movement on the north, on the hill!"
The gunny peeks out of the window to confirm, then he gets on the horn. "Movement on the hill north of our position; repeat on the hill north!" He peeks again. "I want eyes on those zips!"
"What do you think gunny?" I ask since he is the ground combat expert on this mission. So I will defer to his knowledge.
The coms in our helmets chirp. [Gunny, we got movement to the south west.] We wait and listen expectantly. [I got ten combat age males heading our way and they are armed, repeat I see weapons.] Well it looks like the jig is up, and we need pound out of here fast!
"Gunny," He turns to me. "Call in our rides." He starts contacting the shuttles; I move over to Mandy and I tap my helmet by my ear, so she switches channels.
"What's our next move now?" She asks me.
"First we're getting out of Dodge, then we'll try to reestablish communications with Basha." I look back at the gunny and he's giving me the thumbs up, which means our rides are coming. I tap my helmet and I switch back to the squad channel, and the chatter is unmistakable, the Marines are taking fire! "Gunny!" I call out. "What's the sit rep?"
"Marines are taking fire!" He says. "They're asking what the orders are, Sir!" I can hear the distrust the gunny has towards me; I'm sure he's worked with some terrible officers in his time. But, I've seen combat on the ground and it's not pretty; bad leaders are everywhere!
"Well, tell 'em to shoot back!" The Gunny is nodding and smiling fiercely!
"Return Fire! Repeat return fire!" He orders. I remember when I got shot down; all that training I received kicked in; the enemy was in hot pursuit and wanted me bad! I thank God for all those weeks of E&E (escape and evasion) that got drilled into me, because it surely saved my life at that time. I also remember a small hooch that I stepped into, and the enemy Soldier that I surprised. He wasn't expecting me at all; he was with his woman, and I remember vividly when he saw me, the look on his face. He reached for his weapon and I squeezed the trigger on my sub machine gun. My body reacted automatically, without thought, just for self preservations sake. I didn't want to die. When I was done is when I realized that I emptied the whole clip. Both he and his woman where dead. That was the first time I killed anyone, in such a close and personal way. I stared at the whole scene for a while. Then I left and kept moving, for my life, in order to survive I did what I had to. I can do it again to protect those close to me.
"Ant?" I hear the concern in Mandy's voice. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm good to go." I look out through the door and see the other two Marines waiting; I turn to the gunny. "We need to get moving."