It was near lunchtime when a couple weak sounds came over the radio. At first, it was really hard to hear it over the downpour currently underway.
“Sprout, Blade 23 Inbound, do you copy?”
The female voice on the radio was a surprise. When they lost their antenna, there weren’t sure how well, or even if, they could reestablish contact again with the people her Grandfather sent to help them using the makeshift antenna parts they could get to.
Without contact, they didn’t know if help was even still coming. Worse, they couldn’t warn them about how things had gone to hell here. Then again, they could have run into their own problem, stopped at the county line, or a hundred other possibilities. This didn’t stop Andrea from trying a little of everything and having the radios set up for monitoring constantly. Paige was the nearest when a voice came over the speaker.
“Blade 23, this is Sprout! Thank God!”
“Sprout, what’s up? What’s your situation?” There was some definite concern in the female’s voice now.
“The locals have us barricaded in and trying to take us out. Please tell me you can help.” Paige’s voice had it all; worry, urgency, and even a bit of fear and desperation.
“We should be able to do something. How many enemy and how are they armed?” The voice was all business now.
“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.” Paige tried for the same matter of fact tone and bearing.
“Copy, How many for Evac?”
“Huh?” The question caught her off guard. First, they were talking about being able to help and now evac? Why the shift in……Her thought train was derailed by the radio again.
“How many bodies need to evacuate from your perimeter. Focus!” The woman’s voice was harsh, sharp and commanding now.
“11 for Evac.” Paige paused to confirm the count in her head. “5 to 7 additional seats if you’re still bringing fuel, including two litter patients.” Paige added. She didn’t want to leave the vehicles, not with everything they had in them. She would rather burn them than leave them for the jackals attacking the farm.
“Copy, Wait one.”
Now they were so close, Andera and Karl’s radio lash-up could also pick up their conversation on the alternate frequency they were given. From what Paige was hearing, she figured they were transmitting back to wherever they were from based on what they said.
“ATC, this is Blade 23.”
“This is ATC, go Blade 23.” A strong male voice, not her grandfather’s, came over the radio.
“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?”
“Blade 23, ATC, Understand terminating refueling mission and initiating CSAR Protocol. What do you need from us, Blade 23?”
“ATC, Sprout is Alamo. We need Seats for 11 counting ours and we need Athena, Thor and a Rampart box.”
The male voice was much more serious when it came back on the line. “Copy. Wait one.” A few minutes later, he returned. “Blade 23, Crusader flight, Viking 6 and Scarlet 38 are outbound to your location. Keep us in the loop for anything else you need.”
“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.”
Paige heard them come back up on the first frequency they were talking to her on.
“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!” The woman’s voice was full of hope and passion, all rushed and insistent. Then the radio fell silent.
Andrea had come into the room and was listening to all of this now.
“Paige, who the hell is your grandfather sending? A full-fledged ****ing TRAP team?”
Paige was at a loss as well. With the tone and nature of the radio communication, it sounded like some of the exercises she had been around with the Marine Expeditionary Units. Andrea was talking about a TRAP team. A TRAP team, or Tactical Recovery of Aircraft Personnel, is a team of service members assigned to be a reaction force for every flight or air mission. The team’s mission is to fly in to remove isolated personnel from bad tactical situations and bring them back to safety. Well, that was basically what they were doing, wasn’t it? The next question was where the hell did her grandfather get one of those?
About thirty minutes later, the next voice on the radio stole every bit of warmth from the room and filled it with some other dread emotion. Through the sound of wind blast over the radio they could hear it was a different female’s voice; cold and brutal, like the heartless fist of an angry god.
“Sprout, Keep your heads down. One minute out. Danger close, 290 true. Archangel, Inbound HOT!”
Here Ends Part Three