Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (37 page)

A-Scope worked very
similar to Twitter’s Periscope or Meerkat. As soon as Rahmati
logged on and pushed the record button, comments started flying
across the screen. “My brothers and sisters, in a few short
minutes, I believe that the Immortals will fight a great battle.
Daesh thinks that they can attack us at our home base. Maybe they
tracked
us
down by
carefully
parsing our social media interactions.
Who knows?
Getting my
message out to
you is more important than operational security. We will handle
Daesh.
Perhaps they are listening right
now.

“
Know this:
T
here’s one thing that I believe
with all my heart.
God is gracious and
merciful. His purposes will
be
accomplished
. If I am to die a martyr
tonight, so be it,
inshallah
. If I am to live; then I will
live in victory,
inshallah.

“
War is not something I
want. We should be building—not destroying. At this hour, moms and
dads should be in peaceful homes, slumbering under the same roof as
their children. They should
be
exhausted
from
laboring at well-paying, intellectually stimulating jobs.
They should wake up to tables overflowing with hearty breakfasts
and laughter.

“
Their children should be
resting their supple minds, preparing for another day of exciting
school lessons; lessons that
train
them not just to exist, but to
thrive and prosper in our new globally
interconnected
economy. The Middle
East should be a leader in this global economy, not a follower. We
should not be a mere supplier of natural resources. Our
universities should be paving the way
in researching
new discoveries in
quantum physics, medicine, and other sciences.

“
But, this can only happen
when war
ceases. This can only
happen when
we join the ranks of developed
nations. We must defeat this enemy who looks back—back to the
seventh century—and not forward. Brothers and sisters, join me. The
crescent moon is rising. The future is now.” Rahmati ended the
A-Scope session. He’d also recorded a portion of his dialogue to
his Snapchat Story and posted a picture to Twitter and
Instagram.

He tuned the radio to
the
specific
frequency used for command and control. The
chatter
was
confusing, but Rahmati surmised that the forward operating base at
Tal Azan was under attack. The Tal Azan FOB was 12 miles south of
Aleppo. If the reports were
correct
, this would be the first attack
on a Syrian FOB in over two years.

Rahmati reached over his shoulder and
grabbed his tomahawk. He quickly scooted under the comms desk. The
next sound that Rahmati heard was the living room’s glass window
shatter. The Commander covered his ears, shut his eyes, and opened
his mouth. He prayed that a stun grenade was coming next, instead
of a fragmentation grenade.

A second later, Rahmati
heard the sound of two metal canisters roll on the floor. Then, the
front door exploded off its hinges, followed closely by the boom of
the two flash-bang grenades. The Commander’s evasive
action,
and the
thick oak sides of the comms desk kept the stun grenades from
incapacitating Rahmati for more than a few seconds.

A team of four men
silently
crept
into the living room. Rahmati was surprised that the
attackers didn’t cut the power. The lights and comms equipment were
still operational. The assault team wore black ski masks, with
turquoise-blue bandanas tied around their foreheads.

This was
a special operations unit of the Caliphate.
In
Arabic,
they were called, ‘Inghemasiyoun,’ which roughly translated
to, ‘those who immerse themselves,’ or the
Immersives
. The
Immersives
wore
bullet-proof vests, thick belts, and carried AKs.

Rahmati
choose
his house
wisely, at least if anyone ever decided to come through the front
door. The
residence’s
stairwell looked directly down on the
entry way
.
Peering around the corner of the stairs, Hadi Hadari
crouched
low. Another
Immortal went high. They opened fire. The first
two
Immersives
were quickly taken down with
shots to the heart.
The other
two
Immersives
retreated outside.

The Immortal, standing
above Hadi, threw a fragmentation grenade. It flew through the
front door and landed on the porch. After the blast, Rahmati heard
screaming. He also recognized the
sound of
a firefight outside.
The other Immortals must be
counter-attacking,
he thought.

Hadi and three Immortals rushed down
the stairs, calling for Rahmati.

“
I
'm all right
. Let’s get
them
.
Watch
their
belts.” As Rahmati and his team moved to support the other
Immortals in battle, another living room window smashed. A flash of
bright
blue
landed near his feet yelling, “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for ‘God
is the greatest.’

The dazed Immersive lay on
the ground, bleeding from cuts caused by jumping through the
window. He reached for the detonation switch on his suicide belt.
When depressed; steel ball bearings,
sharp
screws, nails, and dynamite would
immediately permeate the room.

Rahmati’s tomahawk quickly
severed the Immersive’s hand, before he could activate the
detonator. The next blow of the battle-ax hacked the
writhing
Immersive’s neck. His head was now halfway separated from his
body. A third blow severed the Immersive’s other hand. Hadi then
put two bullets through the Immersive’s temple.

“
That ought to do it,”
said Rahmati. Hadi laughed. Outside, the Immortals had killed
seven
Immersives,
and pinned three behind an American Humvee the
Caliphate stole from Iraqi forces when they conquered
Mosul.

“
Give me your gun,”
Rahmati said to Hadi.

Rahmati grabbed the
matte-black AK-74 and
lay
prone. Using the night-vision equipped scope, he
aimed the sight underneath the car. He briefly caught a glimpse of
what he sought. Rahmati held his
breath
and squeezed the
trigger.

“
Boom! A massive explosion
took out all three of the Immersives hiding behind the car.
A severed
head
rolled to the front of the car.

“
Gentlemen, that’s why
Immortals don’t wear suicide belts.” Rahmati looked to his right
and
smiled,
as he saw one of the media team’s TV camera rolling. “That’s
going to be quite a video. Alright Immortals, gather round. Is
anybody hurt?” Nobody was.

“
Good. Allah was on our
side tonight. It’s not over yet.
In fact,
our evening has just begun.”
Rahmati surveyed his team. Most of the Immortals were in full
battle gear.
This impressed
the Commander, given how little warning they’d
been given by the alarm.

“
Before we got hit, I
heard over the radio that Tal Azan was under
siege
. We need to get there
in a hurry. I can’t imagine that Daesh is going to want to occupy
that base for very long in the face of Russian air power, but who
knows? If they do
take over
Tal Azan, they can dominate all of
southern
Aleppo.
We have to stop them.

“
I need everyone in full,
night battle gear.
This
isn’t
going to be as easy as Dabiq. Like
most spec op missions, we’re probably outnumbered. That’s no
matter.
This is
why we’re Immortals. Concentrated relative
strength can overcome absolute
strength,
every time. But only
if
we’re
disciplined
.

“
All of you can see that
we’re on the third night out from a full moon. So there’s a lot of
ambient light. Make sure your face doesn’t shine. Paint it out.
Reverse your Immortal’s bandana, so the white doesn’t show.
Anything white is going to reflect like a spotlight. I want
everyone to examine his teammate and conceal anything that will
flash.
At least
God has provided some rolling cloud
cover.

“
We leave in 15 minutes.
Let’s take two quads. I want the rest of you in fast-attack
vehicles. Most likely, the enemy will be in HiLuxes, mounted with
.50-cals.” A round from a .50-caliber machine gun could explode a
person like a grape. American .50-cals could split human beings in
two, from a mile away.

“
Our attack vehicles
already have their standard loadout provisioned. As you guys
dress
out,
I’m going to radio headquarters and see if we might get some
air support.” Russian air support in Syria was extensive. They were
using Syria to test out their newest and most advanced weapons.
Russian air bases housed Mi24 Helicopter Gunships; also known as
Hinds, Sukhoi (SU)
30s
, and the new SU 50 stealth
fighters. The Russians were also experimenting with a new stealth
attack helicopter.

Rahmati liked the Russian
fast-attack vehicles. They
were
speedier and more
maneuverable than the
Caliphate’s pickups and SUVs. They looked less like Rahmati’s dune
buggy, and more like a four seat, covered ATV. There were two
bucket seats in the front. In the backseat, on a raised platform,
was the gunner’s seat and a turret mounted .50-cal. The machine gun
had a
360-degree
arc of fire.

*

The Immortals pulled off
the road 45 minutes later. Rahmati studied the Tal Azan FOB in the
distance. It was the highest point
around.
Thick billows of black smoke,
illuminated by the moonlight, rose from the FOB.

Rahmati exited his ATV
and
walked
to the Immersive Media Team. Their fast-attack vehicle housed
a TV camera in place of the .50-cal. He ordered a drone operator to
launch a quadcopter and make sure it wasn’t spotted. In less than
10 minutes, the drone was hovering over the FOB. Rahmati looked at
the real-time video feed and s
witched between
night and thermal
vision.

“
Bokun,”
he said,
under
his breath. Bokun was Farsi for the f-word.

The Syrians, Russians, and Iranians
had been building and maintaining FOBs since late 2015. Some were
more elaborate than others. They improved reaction times for
military maneuvers, allowing troops to be closer to the action,
without having to go all the way back to the main base.

The Tal Azan FOB had
10-foot
walls
and strategically placed observation towers. The FOB was
designed to protect all of
southern
Aleppo. It had room for up to
250 troops. Dug into the hillside, just outside the base,
were a number of
defensive positions. These
positions
contained
Armata
T-14 Tanks and 2S35
Koalitsiyas. The Koalitsiyas were self-propelled Howitzer guns,
built on the Armata platform.

That platform was
Russia’s
next-generation,
self-propelled artillery configuration.
It allowed
for
the use of interchangeable parts.
This drastically
lowered operating
costs. The T-14’s assigned to Tal Azan were completely unmanned and
remotely controlled. Inside the walls of the base was an artillery
battery of four, 2A65
Msta
-B towed Howitzers and a 9A52-4
Tornado multiple rocket launcher.

Rahmati surveyed each of
the Russian heavy armaments. Everything except the towed
Howitzers
were
in flames. The Immortals grouped
around Rahmati
to listen as he
described the drone footage.

“
The Russians are
going to be so pissed.
I don’t know how
they did it. Daesh blew up the tanks and the tracked Howitzers.”
Tracked vehicles, like tanks and bulldozers, used thick treads
instead of wheels.

“
It looks like they’ve
killed all the Syrian forces. I see about 125 men lying face
down.
Three Immersives are walking
around, checking to
make sure everyone is
dead. The rest of Daesh looks like their loading their pickups with
ammunition and provisions. They’re trying to jerry-rig a way to tow
the Howitzers. It
looks
like they’re
trying
to shoot a publicity video, too.
I’m sure Daesh is going to take all that booty back to Raqqa. It’s
a little over 100 miles from here.”