The morning was grey and bleak. Intermittent rain had kept visibility low but not horrible. Heidi was back in the passenger seat now. Kara’s energy seemed to have returned. Their conversations wandered all over the place as they drove. Sometimes it was music, other times, movies, almost always something lighthearted, almost.
“So, I’ve decided to give it a go with Doug when we get back.”
“Give it a go or something serious?” Kara responded.
“Serious if he will have me. He deserves serious.”
“And what about you? You deserve serious as well.” Kara looked over at Heidi.
“It’s been a long time since something serious for me. I’m not sure I know how, but I’m willing to try.”
Kara could hear the hesitancy and the conviction in Heidi’s voice.
“Both of you, it’s been a long time. Just be true, honest and yourselves. It will work.”
Heidi could hear it in Kara’s voice. She really believed what she was saying. She really thought her and Doug could work. She looked at the road sign they just passed and back at her map.
“Hey, take the turn off here. This is the overlook to the little valley Penguin is in. We should be able to raise them on the radio.”
Ten minutes later, they were at an overlook pull out perched on the side of a small valley. Down below was a small town and a bunch of small farms. The view was partially obscured by patches of rain moving through the valley.
“Cool. They should be at the far end of the valley past that rain squall.” Heidi pointed down the hill.
Kara pulled up their radio reference pages and flipped switches on one of the radios.
“Let’s get this show on the road. I could use a shower and a meal.” Kara said as she pulled up the radio mic.
“Sprout, Blade 23 Inbound, do you copy?”
Nothing.
“Sprout, Blade 23 Inbound, do you copy?”
Nothing. Kara checked the settings and adjusted a few.
“Sprout, Blade 23 Inbound, do you copy?”
Nothing
“Sprout, Blade 23 Inbound, do you copy?”
Finally they got a reply from a somewhat panicked sounding voice over the radio.
“Blade 23, this is Sprout! Thank God!”
Kara looked over at Heidi
“What the ****?”
Kara keyed the radio.
“Sprout, what’s up? What’s your situation?” Kara was looking at the radio as if trying to command more information through sheer force of will.
The voice came back all in a rush.
“The locals have us barricaded in and trying to take us out. Please tell me you can help!” The voice had it all; worry, urgency, and even a bit of fear and desperation.
Kara was sitting upright now. Heidi was checking her gear subconsciously, tightening belts and checking the position of her pistol. Kara responded.
“We should be able to do something. How many enemy and how are they armed?”
Heidi could hear the same all business tone in Kara now as she had last night when she set her into motion before the raiders arrived.
“Over 30 people I think. They hit us last night, took out the main antenna and some of the friendlies. We have wounded as well, including our medic who is down hard. Enemy is limited to small arms for weapons as far as we can tell.”
The voice on the radio was a little more in control now. The situation sounded bad. Heidi’s mind was going down a dozen different paths of what could we do.
Kara was trying to figure out what they could do as well. Her first thought was swoop in and speed away or something like that. First she had to know how many needed to escape.
“Copy. How many for Evac?”
“Huh?”
The reply from the radio caught her off guard. She exploded there in the Suburban to Heidi.
“What was so Mother****en hard about my question?”
Before Heidi could reply to her question, Kara was back on the radio, her tone hard and demanding.
“How many bodies need to evacuate from your perimeter. Focus!”
The voice paused a moment then replied.
“11 for Evac. 5 to 7 additional seats if you’re still bringing fuel, including two litter patients.”
Kara stared at the radio before she replied.
“Copy, Wait one.”
Kara looked at Heidi.
“There are too many to do a snatch and grab. And their medic is down. And it sounds like they only had one medic.”
Heidi could see it in her face. She knew the answer as well.
“Go in, hold the line, and call the cavalry? Because I can’t go back and tell Jesse we just walked away.” Heidi asked to confirm she was on board with the idea.
“Yeah, start figuring what we can do to get there while I make the call.” Kara said as she flipped switches on the radio.
Kara took a big deep breath and started talking again.
“ATC, this is Blade 23.”
“This is ATC, go Blade 23.” Garen’s voice came over the radio.
Kara breathed a sigh of relief since it was Garen on the radio. With either him or Bekka, she could shorthand better.
“ATC, Blade 23 in contact with Sprout. Mission Change, I say again, Mission Change. Blade 23 is terminating the planned refueling mission at this time and initiating CSAR protocol. How Copy?”
Kara could almost see everyone in the living room jumping to their feet, silent and focused on the speaker.
“Blade 23, ATC, Understand terminating refueling mission and initiating CSAR Protocol. What do you need from us, Blade 23?”
Kara and Heidi could hear the focus and concern in Garen’s voice. Kara wasn’t sure what they would need but when she replied, the words just came out.
“ATC, Sprout is Alamo. We need Seats for 11 counting ours and we need Athena, Thor and a Rampart box.”
“Copy. Wait one.”
Kara was almost in tears when she heard the tone of voice in Garen’s reply. It took her all the way back to the bad old days.
While they were waiting, Kara and Heidi started powwowing.
“This thing isn’t fast and can’t turn or dodge with all this fuel on board, so what are our options?” Kara started.
“Well, if they are just civilians and haven’t seen much , we can kind of sneak up closer with the rain and shock and awe them at the last minute to pop through their perimeter, get close to the house and bolt in.” was Heidi’s first suggestion.
“Sounds good. How much ammo did you bring for your big toy?”
“Enough for shock and awe, not enough for a real sustained firefight. It burns through ammo at a horrible speed.” Heidi answered.
“OK, and I figure you in the rear sunroof for that and I can add some distraction and worry as well. I have about ten of those twelve gauge bird bombs for the shotgun. They won’t hurt shit but they will go about a hundred to two hundred feet and blow up like an airburst.”
“That can help, they might think they are getting shelled or something.” Heidi was smiling a grim smile now.
“Alright, let’s get all of this ready and as much ammo and gear we can easily bolt into the house with ready.”
The radio crackled again with Garen back on the line.
“Blade 23, Crusader flight, Viking 6 and Scarlet 38 are outbound to your location. Keep us in the loop for anything else you need.”
Kara took another big breath and settled herself again before keying the radio.
“Copy ATC, Glad to hear it! We may have to Son Tay and go all Rourke’s Drift to keep things viable. Transferring over to CSAR protocol at this time.”
Kara looked over at Heidi.
“Don’t forget, we are moving over to the odd numbered channels on the radio for everything now.” Kara flipped a switch and keyed the mic again.
“Sprout, do what you can to button up and stay alive. Get people and things ready to move fast if you can. Don’t you ****ing quit on us! Help is on its way!”
Heidi looked at Kara who was blankly staring at the silent radio for a moment.
“Son Tay? Rourke’s Drift?” Heidi asked
“Garen will understand. For the Son Tay POW camp raid, to get the raiders in quick as a group, they deliberately crashed a helicopter into the compound. Rourke’s Drift? About 200 British troops held off about ten to twenty thousand Zulu warriors in a siege. That battle had the most Victoria Crosses awarded of any battle in history. Garen will understand. Basically I told him we are smashing our way into the perimeter and holding out for the reinforcements.”
“Well I guess that makes sense.” Heidi replied, a little muted as she started to think on the ramifications.
“Here’s the other part,” Kara said “This is defending a fixed base. That means once we get in, this will be your baby to run. I have no experience or training for this type of work and it sounds like they have wounded to worry about and no medic as well. When we hit the ground, you are in charge, just tell me what you need if I’m not swamped playing lifeguard.”
“Great!” Heidi said, the sarcasm dripping from her tone.
“Don’t forget, Heidi, we have backup coming. I’ve ridden with Allyson when she is on a rescue mission, they will be here in four or five hours. You’ve ridden with Bekka, and she will have to work really hard to keep up with Allyson. When you are planning your defense, start thinking about after we stabilize things, where and what we can do with three very good snipers from six hundred or more yards out.”
Kara could see Heidi doing all the calculations in her head.
“Remember. First shock and awe to get in, then we stabilize, then hold until our reinforcements arrive.” Kara reiterated.
The next twenty minutes were a chaotic jumble of gear and ammo and bags and positioning.
Heidi tied a loop of webbing to the cargo rails in the roof and draped them across and into the open rear sunroof to help her brace herself while she was standing up. She clipped several cans of belted ammo together where she could grab them when they got to the house. She knew she would use one or two cans up just getting to the house. A thirteen hundred round cyclic rate will do that.
Kara was getting both her med bag and Heidi’s junior med bag ready for her to grab. She was also going to grab her own bail out bag too, quite a load. Hopefully they would find a close point to park and not have to run far or fast.
The stubby semiauto shotgun was in her lap. She sorted the special twelve gauge rounds she brought. She had just enough for one full load of six. She could make it look good for a few moments as they breached the line. Kara looked up at Heidi in the sunroof and the machine gun in front of her. Heidi’s face looked different to her now. It was set in a grim determination.
“Are we set?” Kara asked Heidi.
“Yeah, let’s go.” She replied.
The closer they got, and the darker it got, the slower they went. It felt like forever but in reality, it was only about a half an hour later, in the middle of a downpour, they were close enough to orient themselves on their final objective. They picked their line, the approach, Heidi’s targets and where Kara was going to play baby morterman and drop the high explosive noisemakers.
“Well, are we ready?” Kara asked finally.
“Yeah, I think so.” Heidi charged her gun.
“We will get through this, my sister. You make the radio call, I’ll start rolling.”
Kara’s focus was fully on her route and target as she heard Heidi on the radio.
“Sprout, Keep your heads down. One minute out. Danger close, 290 true. Archangel, Inbound HOT!”
