Raid on Kahamba (7 page)

***

The
large
garage occupied one end of the research facility
,
with a floor of offices above it.  It had a high ceiling supported by concrete pillars
,
and a cement floor.  There w
ere
loading dock
s
at one end, with vehicle
s
parked
all the way to the large entrance to the outside.
  CAJUN commandos were heavily engaged in a firefight
near
the loading dock
s
.  They
had begun by
fighting against African forces
, but when
a
second
enemy force
appeared t
he Africans had been caught from two sides and wiped out.

Several grenades went
off almost simultaneously, spraying smoke and shrapnel all around.
Juri
’s heartbeat monitor suddenly flatlined on Mitch’s section
monitor.
“
Medic!
Juri
’s down!” 
He looked over and saw h
im
slumped be
hind
a pill
ar.  He raised his rifle again and killed one of the Russian
s
who had thrown a grenade. 
John, the team’s medic
,
arrived behind Mitch.
“I’
ll cover.
Go check
him
out. 
Leon, cover fire for John!”  Both men laid down long bursts of automatic fire, tempo
rarily suppressing the Russians, while John dashed over.  The medic dragged
Juri
behind a shipping container
and began working on him
.

Mitch’s team of five was down
to three fighters as John was trying to resuscitate
Juri
.  Leon had an arm wound, but was still in the fight, leaving him and
Cathy
as the main shooters. The Russian commandos outnumbered them two to one even after two of them had been taken out.  Worse yet, the
Russians
were beginning to flank them as their higher volume of fire was keeping them pinned. 
Cathy
fired a grenade from the launcher mounted under h
er
rifle
at a Russian
dashing between cover positions
.  The grenade exploded next to the
battlesuit
ed Russian
and sent him
flying through the air
.  Chips of cement bounced off Mitch’s helmet as Russian bullets gouged pits in the pillar next to him. 
He
threw a hand grenade at the flanking Russians, trying to stem their advance.
The blast kept the Russians under cover and bought them some more time.

“Willie,
we need backup
!”
Mitch shouted into his radio. “You need to hit them in the
rear
.”

The
Spetsnatz
-
elite Russian commandos
-
were
very good
,
thought Willie. 
He could see the dire tactical situation on his HUD.  “Hold on.  We’re almost there.”  They had to make this work the first time or the situation was going to become a drawn out firefight that would result in more casualties for his team.
 
Willie’
s sect
ion was just outside the garage at another entrance to the parking area.  To their far left w
ere
the loading dock
s
, ahead were some parked cars, and ahead and to their left were the Russians flank
ing
Mitch’s section.

Willie
used
the camera probe again
to determine the Russian positions.  “
Tomatsu, you’re with me.  We’ll go left.  Kristen, take your guys and go right.  Grenades then rifles.”
  He then looked at Angie.  “You p
rotect the artifact and the civilians.”  Angie
nodded.  She
readied her PDW and checked the hallway.

The section formed up at the door, readied grenades, then fanned out at a run.
  Kristen’s
rifle fired a grenade from its
undermounted grenade launcher that
hit an armoured Russian dead on, bursting
his
armour
open
.  Four more thrown grenades were already in the air when the Spetsnatz reacted to this new attack.  Explosions rocked the Russian positions, blowing another soldier back against a wall.  Five rifles began firing into the Russians from behind and from the side.  Two more soldiers dropped.  Over half the Spetsnatz were down and the others were falling back out of the garage
, shooting as they went
.

“Let
’
s go, Mitch!” Willie shouted out.  
His section
fired
as they advanced on the Russian positions. 
Leon and
Cathy
also advanced from the loading docks
and added to the volume of fire.
 
Smoke from explosions and gunfire filled the air. 
Mitch ran over to
Juri
and helped John carry h
im
.  John had managed to revive h
im
with a portable defibrillator and staunch the flow of blood with medical foam. 
He now
had a weak pulse, but that was the best they could do. 
They headed towards a medium
-sized
cargo truck where t
hey loaded h
im
into
the box. 
Mitch took the driver’s seat
of the truck
and started the engine
.

Angie had Shani and her son crouch down next to the artifact case.  The sound of bullets
ricocheting
off the cement wall
of
the garage transmitted through
to the other side as dull thuds and crac
ks. 
They were in a short hallway that went straight out into the garage at one end and ended at a T
junction
at the other end. 
On either side of the hallway were storerooms that had back walls against the garage. 
Angie stood
at the T
junction
and
nervously scanned
both ends of the
connecting
corridor
through her shouldered PDW’
s red dot sight.  There were multiple doorways off this hall and s
he could have sworn she had heard faint footsteps.  Her night
vision wasn’
t showing anything though.  Suddenly, she s
aw a head
peek
from a doorway on her right
and she fired a burst at it.  “Hostiles behind us,”
she
called out
on the radio
.

The head
darted
back and the bullets left pock marks in the doorway.  Another soldier
peered
out further back and fired a burst of bullets at her.  They went wide, but forced her back under cover.  She popped
back
out
right away
and fired a
two long bursts at each position. The first soldier ducked back, but a round hit the second soldier even as he fired again.
With a cry of pain the second soldier stumbled backwards.   Angie
caught
him with a full burst
as she fired again
.  This time the soldier went down
, the armour piercing rounds punching through his
body
armour
. 

There was a s
tabbing,
searing pain in her left shoulder.  The loud crack
s
of a
couple of magnum pistol shots echoed down the hallway from behind her. Angie cried out, saw stars from the excruciating pain, but managed to spin back behind cover.  A magnum bullet had managed to penetrate her armour from behind.  She gasped for air, fighting the shock
her body wanted to give in to
.
Her left arm felt numb and she weakly held her PDW with her right hand only.

Colonel Kybera
had a smile of success on his face. 
He had clearly shot and badly wounded the enemy soldier. 
His plan
to use
his bodyguards to distract the foreign soldier
had worked
.  One of the fools had managed to get himself killed
, though.
  He
still
couldn’
t believe that a handful of foreign soldiers had managed to decimate his soldiers and destroy all
of
his equipment, but he had called for reinforcements.  They had stolen the artifact and were now trying to get away.  The artifact must
be more
valuable
than he could imagine
,
and he
vowed he
would get it back.

“Advance!” Kybera
order
ed.  He ran toward Angie
and fired another shot in her direction to keep her head down.  Angie shifted back down her hallway, grimacing in pain and fired a wild burst to cover herself. 

“Get down!” she called to Shani.  She let her PDW hang from its sling and pulled a grenade out with her good hand. 
She
felt lightheaded but concentr
ated on pulling the pin out. 
Her left hand didn’t seem to want to obey her
and she had to try several times. 
Succeeding, she counted to two  and rolled the grenade around the corner towards the Colonel.

Kybera’s eyes went wide when he saw the grenade appear.  He twisted backwards to dive down to the floor, but still caught most of the explosion's force.  The blast shredded Kybera and blew the other soldier down.  While most of the grenade’s energy had gone down the long part of the
corridor
,
some of the blast caught Angie.  She
was
pushed against the wall, but her armour
absorbed
it. 

Angie staggered back to Shani through the smoky hallway.  She felt really weak.  Her raider suit had been monitoring her vitals and flashed a warning on her HUD along with the message
"Administer combat medication?"
   Angie activated the medical system.  Painkillers and stimulants entered her
bloodstream
through built-in injectors.  Her mind cleared and the pain dulled.  “We need to move,” she gasped.  “Help me with the crate.”  Angie tried to lift the crate, but stumbled instead. 

“You need help,”
Shani said, as she steadied Angie. 
Her son had come through the violent events
well
and
also
came forward to help
. 
Tomatsu
came back in from the garage with another commando.  “Angie’s been shot,” Shani told him. 

“We’re getting out of here,” Tomatsu replied.  “Take her out to the
second
truck.”  He made sure
the enemy soldiers were down
then grabbed the artifact crate with the other soldier.

Tomatsu helped lift Angie into the box of
the
second cargo truck.  He loaded the artifact next
to her
and helped
Shani and Kwasi climb in.  Kristen returned with the other commando and took the driver’s seat of the truck.

Willie
and the remaining commandos began to fall back
,
firing covering bursts behind them.
He threw another grenade through the door that the Russians had retreated through as he boarded the
back of the
truck that the artifact was on.

“
Joshua. We’re ready to go.”
 
Willie could tell from his own visor tactical display that the HARM units had arr
ived at the research facility.
 

“In position,” Joshua replied.
“I’ll take care of the Russians.
Penny will escort you.”
  His HARM advanc
ed past the garage entrance with its
automatic cannon
ready.