| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 24d, part four |
Author:
TxJAG_b
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 14:27:23 05/06/08 Tue
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service" on 09:04:26 05/08/07 Tue
…For Meritorious Service, Chapter 24d part three
A/N: I'm using the question marks as they did in JAG to indicate roughly what time it is. SPOTREP is military slang for Spotter's Report and CASREP means Casualty Report - email me if you want to know more. This is the last part of 24 - onto Chapter 25 and the eventual finale.... :) Thanks to my triple betas for their work and support.
1200 Local??
Outskirts of Amariya
Sergeant Williams bucked and bounced over the uneven ground as he moved at high speed toward the outskirts of the village.
“Any sign of it, Master Guns?!” yelled Mac toward the back of the pickup.
“There’s a cloud of dust in back of us, ma’am! Rudy barked back at her. “I’d expect that’d be them!!”
“Faster Sergeant!” Mac urged the driver.
“I’ve got it to the floor now, ma’am!”
Hill 521
Near Amariya, Iraq
“Spotrep!” Calapango hissed as he kept his binoculars trained on the village.
Lieutenant Ebbits moved closer “Send it!” he hissed back
“The Colonel and Master Guns are leaving the village at top speed!”
“I see why,” Ebbits said grimly as he saw the ugly snout of a tan BMD appear in the swirling smoke behind them.
Col. Livingston’s Position
Near Amariya, Iraq
“Spotrep! Called out Gonzalez, “From Corporal Calapango, ma’am! He’s got a Dodge pickup moving at high speed out of the town…it’s being followed…by the BMD, ma’am!”
Darcy’s grin looked positively satanic. “Tell Firefly Three to lock his missile on that target – he won’t get a second chance!”
Aboard Firefly Three
Near Amariya
Lieutenant Wayne Towers was making sure his CO and the weapons officer in Firefly Four were okay when his radio crackled.
“Firefly three, this is Owl Six; target bravo mike delta is visible!”
“This is three, engaging target.” Lieutenant Tower pulled his Cobra up just high enough so that he could see the outskirts of Amariya. There in the swirling smoke, he saw the squat shape of the BMD personnel carrier.
“I have laser lock on the target…”
“Firing Hellfire!”
*~*
Bullets from the BMD’s machine guns zipped all around the pickup truck as Sergeant Williams ran a zig-zag pattern to throw the BMD off balance.
As he zagged, a fountain of earth erupted where there truck would have been.
The Master Gunnery Sergeant had their .50 caliber machinegun chattering away, spent shell casings raining down into the bed of the truck. Kayce tried her best to steady her rifle so that she could get off a shot.
Suddenly the whoosh of a rocket-propelled missile interrupted their firefight.
Everyone in the truck, except Williams, instinctively ducked.
A split second later, the desert in back of them erupted in a gush of flame. Mac could feel the heat from the explosion.
The burning wreckage that was once the BMD, shuddered to a stop. Extra ammunition stowed on board the carrier began cooking off, sending stray rounds in every direction.
“Keep your damn heads down!” Barked the Master Guns. “Stray rounds will kill you just as dead as aimed ones!” “Williams! Keep this thing to the floor ‘til we’re past the farm!!”
“Aye, aye, Master Guns!”
Insurgent’s Safe House
Near Amariya, Iraq
Masoud al Heikal heard the thunderous detonation from his safe house. He had been warned by his cell leader, Samir al Sahood, that Darcy Livingston did not tolerate insults and that Salim had signed his death warrant when he called her an infidel and weak-minded.
Still, Salim was his cousin and this cold-blooded murder would have to be avenged – even if it meant his own death at the hands of this woman. (In a lot of ways) he thought dourly (this woman was like a Succubi or Qareen -- the demons or Jinniya) – evil genies of the fairy tales he had heard as a child.
They would often seduce men into misfortune and or death, he had been told. The thought made him involuntarily shudder. He hoped he wasn’t sending more of his men to pointless deaths.
“Ghosin,”
Masoud’s junior officer broke away from the group he had been conversing with and joined the Fedayeen leader. “Take a mounted patrol into the valley.” He instructed the younger man. “I suspect the Americans may be trying to infiltrate our positions.”
Ghosin, barely out of his teens, was eager to show his commander that he could handle the task that had been assigned to him.
“Yes sir,” he said a little too excitedly.
Col. Livingston’s Position
Near Amariya, Iraq
“Bravo Zulu, Firefly Three,” Gonzalez, Darcy’s Radiotelephone Operator (RTO), said as he watched the pyrotechnic show from the remains of the BMD continue.
Darcy smiled. That little overt lesson should teach Masoud to keep his people in line. Now all she had to do was hope that he would try to avenge Salim’s death. She didn’t like dirtying her hands with the actual act of killing someone unless she had no other choice. No, it was much easier and cleaner to have it done by proxy….
Insurgent Patrol
Near Amariya
Ghosin signaled from his beat up orange and white Toyota pick up to the vehicles in his convoy. Behind him was a dusty green Isuzu 4 x 6 truck mounting a four barreled 23 mm gun; a tan Toyota pick-up mounting a Plyma AGS-17 grenade launcher, a gray Dodge with front end damage carrying a ZPU anti-aircraft gun, a dusty blue Nissan pickup with a squad of men sitting in its cargo area, and two tan URAL 375 trucks with crude anti-aircraft machine gun mounts welded to the cabs of the vehicles.
Ghosin’s ‘troops’ consisted of a mix of black clad Saddam Fedayeen and a squad of grim looking al-Qaeda soldiers from al-Sahood’s cell, leavened with a number of Arab ‘volunteers’ from across the Middle East. They were heavily armed, but morale was low.
The once vaunted members of al-Sahood’s troops were a gaunt shadow of what they once were. They had been hard pressed and on the run since the collapse of Saddam’s Army. It sometimes seemed as if the Americans and their allies were everywhere.
These Mujahideen had enjoyed a brief respite in Amariya, but even here, not all the townspeople greeted them with open arms. Some even blamed them for their troubles rather than welcoming them as saviors!
Ghosin figured that any day, his rag-tag unit would have to pull back to the old Iraqi Battalion Defensive Position (IBDP) north of Mirbullah.
He didn’t know what Samir and Masoud had planned next, but his training told him they would try to disrupt the Americans’ rear areas as much as possible. Logic dictated they would use the IBDP as their new base of operations.
Ghosin remembered being told it had been built by Saddam’s Republican Guard during the disastrous 1990 invasion of Iraq’s lost province, Kuwait. They began working on it after US forces were predicted to cross the Saudi Arabian border and move toward al Nasiriyah.
What the Americans and those stupid UN inspectors never found was that the IBDP held a secret; two underground bunkers – each large enough to hold a massive 8 x 8 Russian built SCUD missile launcher. He wondered if Samir had secured the Iraqi SCUD launchers as he had promised?
Oh, if had, what a surprise that would be for the unsuspecting American infidels!
*~*
Sergeant Williams only slowed briefly as they crossed the wadi behind the farm. The sandy soil at the bottom of the dry gully was darker than that usually found. That indicated water in the soil, but luckily it wasn’t damp enough to bog down the truck.
Mac watched intently as the Sergeant skillfully maneuvered down one side of the wadi, across its sandy floor and up the other side. In a few moments they were making top speed again.
Insurgent Motorized Patrol
Ghosin’s patrol saw the venerable Dodge truck carefully maneuver into the wadi and then out the other side. According to Masoud, if he followed this vehicle, it would lead them straight to the American positions. This, he was told, would be the weakest point of their defensive line and Samir had assured them that they would never expect a motorized assault from this direction.
Ghosin signaled the blue Nissan with the light machinegun crew. They would flank the unsuspecting Americans and knock them out while they gave pursuit. This would leave the door open for his mounted patrol to charge through the breach.
Col. Livingston’s Position
Near Amariya, Iraq
Sergeant Cienfuentes spotted the tale-tell dust cloud coming around the base of the hill. “One motorized tango.” He reported as he watched the orange and white Toyota approach.
CO Livingston’s response was cold and terse. “Engage and eliminate tango.”
Cienfuentes sighted on the advancing truck. His silenced .50 caliber kicked once and the passenger side of the front windshield starred. The truck swerved to the left, the driver probably unnerved by the sudden death of his passenger. He now exposed the truck’s side to the Marine sniper.
His rifle kicked a second time, causing the left side passenger door window to splinter into a thousand spider web cracks and then shatter. The Toyota swerved violently back to the right, obviously driverless. As it exposed its left side, Cienfuentes fired a third and final time. This bullet tore through the unprotected side of the truck and into the stored munitions in its bed.
The explosion was more of a cough than anything else more dramatic. Smoke boiled out of the cargo area as bodies tumbled out of either side. A tongue of flame licked at the hood which was now ajar.
“Tango eliminated,” Cienfuentes reported.
Darcy focused her binoculars on the four remaining trucks headed toward Ebbits’ position.
*~*
“Colonel! We’ve got company!!” barked Master Guns Wilbane.
“Hard right, Williams!” Mac snapped. “Get us off this road! NOW!!”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” the driver said as he skillfully pulled off the blacktop and onto the lower shoulder. One miscalculation at this speed and they’d all be dead.
Rudy Wilbane turned the .50 caliber machine gun toward the advancing truck; a blue Nisaan pickup. Kayce quickly propped her large bore sniper rifle on sandbags in the bed of their truck. They let the Fedayeen vehicle get a little closer before the Master Gunnery Sergeant gave Kayce a slight nod. Kayce sighted her rifle, aiming for the driver’s center of mass.
As her silenced rifle bucked, the Master Guns fired a short burst with the machinegun.
The pickup truck driver’s side windshield split into a spider web pattern then shattered. The Nissan picked up speed then veered sharply to the right, leaping off the road to the surprise of the rest of the occupants.
The truck flew down the embankment, tossing out bodies in every direction. It came to a rest at the bottom of the hill, nose down in a gully. Smoke and dust enveloped the wreck. There were no signs of movement from the Nissan.
Mac quickly scanned the debris. The longer they hung around the more likely their other pursuers would catch them. “Go, go, go!” she said hurriedly to Williams.
He nodded dumbly, silenced by the ruthless efficiency that Wilbane and Danvers had exercised to get rid of their ‘tail’. He stomped on the accelerator and quickly picked up speed again.
Hill 521
Near Amariya, Iraq
Lieutenant Ebbits watched as the other Toyota pickup thundered toward their rally point. He hoped that the driver didn’t see the planted Claymore mines until it too late.
He nodded to Szymas, O’Grady, and Calapango, who were huddled in prone positions, their M202 four barrel rocket 66 millimeter launcher primed and sighted on the speeding truck.
The tan Toyota snagged the first tripwire and…nothing….
The Claymores were duds! Ebbits swore under his breath as he motioned to the rocket team to go ahead and open fire before it was too late….
As the four 66mm napalm filled rockets plowed into the truck, the second set of Claymores erupted with a string of bangs.
Between the incendiary rockets and the hundreds of tiny steel balls that sailed toward the insurgent’s vehicle – no one inside the truck stood a chance.
The pickup erupted with a fiery roar, incinerating the driver and his passenger. Because of the ensuing fireworks, no one saw the grenade launcher crew successfully bail out.
*~*
As they got closer and saw the angry dark cloud boil into the sky, Mac hoped they could flank whoever was attacking the rally point. She knew the Lieutenant could probably handle whatever he was facing, but a little unequal firepower wouldn’t hurt the situation.
As they rose over the crest of the ridge at an angle, Mac saw undoubtedly what the rest of the team saw; the burning Fedayeen pickup truck and two men firing at a crumpled Marine. Before she could say anything, the rattle of their truck’s machinegun filled her head. Both insurgent soldiers fell onto the ground, dropping their weapons.
Sergeant Williams slammed on the brakes bringing the Dodge truck to a skidding halt just on the other side of the burning Toyota technical. The Master Guns and Kayce bolted out of the bed of the truck as Mac wrenched open her door.
Wilbane shook his head in disbelief. “Ah, Dammit, No!”
Everything seemed to slow down as Mac ran toward Szymas, O’Grady, and Calapango who had already ripped open Ebbit’s shirt and flak vest. The light Colonel, without looking, grabbed at her hand radio.
“Owl Five! Casrep!!” She barked
“Owl Five, Go.”
“One wounded! Evac now!!”
“Negative Five; tangos all around you. Disengage and evac at rally point foxtrot….”
Mac looked at Wilbane. The Master Guns shook his head. Ebbits wouldn’t last that long.
“Negative Six; Evac’ing ASAP to Nest!”
The pause was only momentary, but it seemed like hours.
“Understood Five; Out.”
Mac, Szymas, Calapango, and Kayce formed a make-shift stretcher team and quickly placed the heavily bleeding Lieutenant in the bed of Corporal Williams’ truck. As they did, Mac climbed aboard and joined Szymas as he tried to halt the blood welling up from numerous holes in the Lieutenant’s body.
The Master Guns and Kayce climbed aboard Corporal Burges’ truck and both pickups took off at top speed off the hilltop, headed for FOB Metz.
Col. Livingston’s Position
Near Amariya, Iraq
Gonzalez watched as the pickup trucks of Owl Four and Five tore down the hillside and headed straight for them. The situation must be dire for that light Colonel to directly disobey the Colonel. He hoped it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
Darcy moved over to Cienfuentes. “Keep the tangos off their backs,” she said with a surprising amount of sympathy in her voice. It was the first time the sniper had ever heard that much emotion coming from her.
“A- Aye ma’am” he stuttered, unnerved by her sudden show of humanity.
*~*
Lieutenant Towers heard the exchange and made an executive decision.
“Hang onto your helmet, Rich,” he told his weapons officer, “we’re giving Owl Five close air support!”
Rich grinned. He liked it when his pilot and friend did things like this. “Roger that, Wayne. Weapons are free and ready to engage.”
“Make every shot count; start with that AA technical they have; after I pop up on them, we won’t get another crack at them….”
“Got’em lined up…smile for the pretty birdy, you slugs!”
As Firefly Three rose above the slight rise it has been sitting behind it let go with a long rippling burst from its under the chin Gatling gun and also loosed a pair of rockets towards the targets.
A line of thirty millimeter shells walked across the top of the 4 x 6 truck as one rocket slammed into its cab and tore the 23 millimeter AA gun from its mount. The detonation of the second rocket was lost in the roar of the explosion which ripped the luckless truck and its crew to pieces. The cannon shells from the Cobra also ripped up the two former Iraqi Army trucks which had been following the Isuzu. The URALs shuddered to a halt wreathed in smoke.
No one in any of the three wrecks moved.
*~*
Mac felt as if all of Ebbits’ blood was leaking onto her as Szymas frantically worked on him.
“Stay with me sir!” He ordered “We’re almost there!!”
Carlson Ebbits seemed to nod at first, and then began shaking his head. Mac couldn’t tell if it was him or the violent rocking of the truck that was causing him to shake his head.
As she leaned closer to find out, she heard him rasp out, “Damn…witch…finally got me….”
The light Colonel thought the Lieutenant might be hallucinating. “Lieutenant? Who got you?”
Despite the pain of his wounds, surprise flitted through Carlson’s features. “Y- you…know damn well…who…. The Bayou…witch…Livingston…she told me…to watch my back….”
“Easy Lieutenant,” Mac said swiftly, trying to cover what Carlson Ebbits was revealing. Either he was making a deathbed confession or trying to expose her. “It’s going to be…all right…you’re going to be fine,”
Ebbits gave her a short sarcastic laugh that made his face twist in agony. “Hi’m out-ta…th’ way now…jus’ …like th’ Colonel wanted….” He seemed to gain strength for a moment as he looked into her eyes. “Now you can take over.”
Mac looked up and saw Szymas looking at her with cold hatred. The look shocked her and she quickly looked back down at the dying man.
“I-I didn’t want this,” she stammered, momentarily panicked at that thought and what it could mean for her if someone thought she had wanted Ebbits dead.
Ebbits managed to roll his eyes in disgust at her comment. “Does-…doesn’t matter…if you did…or didn’t; Darcy wanted you here…and me outta…th’ way….”
Now Mac was fearful about what might happen next. “Relax, Lieutenant,” she said quietly “Don’t talk.”
That seemed to renew a spark in the Lieutenant. “I’ll be dead before we get to FOB Metz…Colonel…I’ll talk all I *damn well* want.”
Mac was about to say something in response when Szymas gently grabbed her hand. She at first thought it was due to rocking of the truck as it bounded its way toward Company A’s lines. But as he tightened his grip Mac knew that wasn’t the case. She looked at Szymas.
He shook his head at her. “Don’t ma’am…the Colonel’s won this round….”
The light Colonel couldn’t believe what she was hearing. There were some people in this unit who did know something was seriously wrong with their commanding officer. Mac looked into the Lance Corporal’s eyes.
“I’m on your side,” she said simply, hoping the words would convey what she truly meant.
“Don’t ‘bs’ us ma’am,” Szymas scoffed, “let the Lieutenant die with some dignity,”
“I’m on *your side* Lance Corporal,” she repeated, a little more urgently this time.
Szymas stopped tending to the Lieutenant. Ebbits looked up at her, puzzled.
Both trucks skidded to a halt just inside Company A’s perimeter. Clouds of dust enveloped both vehicles. The Master Guns must’ve gotten them cleared past the Checkpoint. Now was Mac’s chance during this momentary confusion.
Mac looked down at the Lieutenant. “You believe me, don’t you Lieutenant?”
Carlson Ebbits seemed to be searching her eyes. “I – I do, Colonel,” he said finally.
Casmir Szymas went back to trying to stop Ebbits’ bleeding. “You’re undercover, ma’am?” he whispered.
“I am,” Mac said as quietly as she could.
Ebbits gave the light Colonel an intense look. “Get…that witch, Colonel…. Make her pay….”
Righteous anger at what had happened flared within Mac. “I will, Lieutenant, I promise,” she said firmly.
Those simple words seemed to make both Szymas and Ebbits relax a little. Someone was on their side.
As the Lance Corporal moved over to tend another bad wound, the Lieutenant’s head slumped a little lower in Mac’s lap. She reached down and tried to pull him back up.
“Stay with us Lieutenant,” she said in her officer’s voice. Calapango, O’ Grady, Williams, Kayce, Burges and Wilbane soon joined them.
Kayce and the Master Guns tore at the tailgate latch until they saw Mac cradling Carlson Ebbits’ head on the bloody floor of that pickup bed. Frantic calls for ‘Corpsman’ could be heard being relayed throughout the perimeter.
Carlson Ebbits just smiled at her.
“If you don’t mind me saying so, ma’am, you’re…very…..pretty……..”
Mac felt a lump growing in her throat. “Thank you,” the words barely got past the hoarseness in her voice.
Szymas turned to the team and shook his head.
A soft sigh escaped from Carlson Ebbits and then…nothing.
Szymas bowed his head.
The Corpsman, a Petty Officer 1st class, climbed aboard the truck. Pushing past Mac and Szymas he felt for the Lieutenant’s pulse.
“Lieutenant? Lieutenant Ebbits? Can you hear me, sir?” Mac heard the Corpsman say, but she knew it was too late.
As if in a dream, Mac rose and walked away from Ebbits’ body and the Corpsman. Szymas got up and took her shaky hand and helped her down off the truck bed. Kayce and Szymas lead her over to nearby rock and sat her down. Ebbits’ blood covered Mac’s lap. Kayce looked at her sympathetically then joined Szymas as he and the Corpsman put Ebbit’s body on the ground.
The Corpsman looked up at Master Gunnery Sergeant Wilbane and shook his head.
Szymas and Kayce unzipped a black vinyl bag and carefully lowered Carlson Ebbits into it.
Mac hardly noticed as Darcy’s team made their way over.
“Colonel,”
Mac looked up at Darcy, and then slowly got to her feet.
“Lieutenant Ebbits was a good man….” Darcy said gently, as if talking to a child.
Mac chose to ignore Darcy’s platitude for the moment. She didn’t want to give herself away and right now the light Colonel was so angry she was afraid of what she might blurt out. Silence made it appear she was shell-shocked.
“Yes…he was….” Mac said slowly and deliberately, her stare matching the Force Recon CO’s.
Darcy’s gaze seemed to falter. “You should go wash that off,” she said to her quietly as if embarrassed by Mac’s appearance.
“Sure…then I’ll go get wasted, if you don’t mind,” Mac said slipping back into her character. It served to mask her real anger.
“Just be ready to be debriefed later this afternoon, Colonel,” Darcy called after her.
Mac kept walking.
1240 Local??
Hill over-looking Mirbullah
Sandwiched between a burned out BMP personnel carrier and a TR-77 tank, three men feverishly worked on setting up their tripod mechanism. Once it was steadied, the third man pulled out a pair of binoculars and scanned the valley below them. From here he could see all of Camp Chesty Puller.
His compatriots struggled to get the metal tube locked into place on the tripod.
“Hurry, we do not have much time!” He hissed to the men.
Their only response was more grunting as they man-handled the tube and secured it. Then they pulled a long cylindrical rocket from a canvas bag and carefully inserted it into the cylinder.
Once the rocket was secured in the tube, the leader used his binoculars again and relayed coordinates to the second man who began to tilt it, while the third one connected a series of wires on the cylinder.
In a few tense moments, their work was done. The man with the binoculars gave a nod to the other two men.
With a resounding whoosh, the rocket roared out of the tube and began its arc down toward Camp Chesty Puller.
As the rocket began its terminal arc, the trio raised their fists.
“Kerim Allah! Allah Akbar!!”
---TBC…
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 