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[Sundance]

GI Joe Headquarters,
PIT III, Utah
May, 1994

Skymate was lounging in a chair in the briefing room when the door opened and Hawk walked in followed by three other people. Skymate stood and saluted.

“At ease, Skymate.” Hawk waved to the other three. “This is Skymate, formerly of the Australian SAS regiment. He was due to join Action Force, but we managed to sign him for a temporary detachment to get our Air Commando team stood up.”

The two men and one woman nodded politely.

“Skymate, allow me to introduce Super Trooper,” Hawk went on, gesturing to a muscular dark hair man who looked like he should be playing front row for a Rugby team to the Australian.

“Super Trooper’s the product of a secret advanced commando training programme the Joes had running. We combined training from the SEALs, Delta and ISA to train a squad of commandos who were capable of operating independently on all kinds of clandestine and covert operations. Unfortunately, the course was so tough it had a 97% failure rate before the final week. Of the three final candidates, one died in a training flight with a Skystriker and the other failed. The captain here is the sole graduate.”

Skymate looked him over; he certainly seemed like he’d know how to handle himself in a fight.

Hawk turned his attention to the other two, as did Skymate. The man had close-cropped black hair, a scar up his right cheek and was leaner than Super Trooper, but looked like he worked out. The woman was equally trim, with a blonde mullet hairstyle.

“Meet Agent Natalie Poole of British Intelligence and her partner, code-name Action Man.”

Skymate frowned as he stared at them. “Hang about, I know you! You’re that bloke off the extreme sports documentary on ESPN! You won the Paris-Dakar Rally two years ago and I heard you won some martial arts contest in China too!”

Action Man nodded. “That’s right. I also skydive, snowboard, do biathlon and rock-climbing and scuba dive. I also ran the Marathon Des Sables.”

“And you’re a British Intelligence agent?” Skymate asked incredulously.

“Yes. Think about it; I’m airborne and frogman qualified, a crack shot, I can drive vehicles in off-road environments and can move about in many hostile environments and I’m trained in hand-to-hand combat.”

Skymate mulled that over. “Huh, good point.” He looked at Natalie. “Aren’t you his girlfriend and trainer or something?”

She nodded, “That’s my public role, sparring partner and frequent trainer and support team leader. I’m actually his partner on operations.”

Skymate looked at Hawk, “So what do you need little old me for?”

Hawk looked at Natalie. She pulled out a photograph.

“This is Wolfgang Greenholtz, an East German biochemist. He was working on a biological weapon for the East Germans to be used in the event of a Third World War against the West German government. Cutting edge stuff, design to infect specific people only,” Natalie explained.

“Okay, sounds nasty.” Skymate looked at the photo. Greenholtz was a grey haired, thin man with the look of a scientist who didn’t get out much.

“Here’s the scary bit,” Natalie went on. “When the Berlin Wall fell, he fled East Germany. MI6 had him on their radar as a person interest thanks to an agent in the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, so we tried to find him. We finally located him last month, in South-east Asia.”

Action Man pulled out another photo and handed it to Skymate. “Greenholtz has holed up in this fortress,” he explained. “Sitting on a plateau surrounded by triple-canopy tropical rainforest with around two hundred mercenaries protecting him.”

“The only open ground for miles is a hundred yard square devoid of any cover smack-dab in front of the main gate. The plateau cliff is impassable. We tried. Recon over-flights by a variety of small planes were tracked by a radar unit located in the east tower. A night time fly-by was tracked by a spotlight,” Natalie explained. “Visual recon confirms the presence of a ZPU anti-aircraft gun. A helicopter assault is out of the question without attack copter support. Which is impossible in the country he’s hiding out in, which we believe is tacitly supporting him.”

“Parachute insertion is also out,” Action Man took up the thread. “The only possible landing zone is the open ground in front of the fort. Which invites becoming a target for the mounted machine-guns on the walls. A ground assault would similarly be inadvisable unless undertaken by a main battle tank.”

“Why don’t you just toss a couple of cruise missiles at the place?” Skymate asked. “Your subs have got Tridents, right? Take off the nuclear warhead and frag the place.”

Natalie shook her head. “Too risky. There’s a possibility biological agents could be released into the eco-system in that kind of attack.”

“So how do you plan to get in?” Skymate asked.

“That’s why we’ve come to you,” Action Man replied. “There are very few people who know how to use hang-gliders in military operations. You’re the best one we can find.”

Skymate smiled, “Thanks for buttering me up. I presume the idea is to hang-glide into the central courtyard of the fort? That’s certainly possible. Minimal radar profile in the gliders means you’d be barely visible to their radar. Do it at night, increases the risk, but also makes it harder to spot you visually. Especially with black gliders and gear. Silent, so you wouldn’t be heard coming.”

He fell silent as he mulled it over. “You want me to teach you?”

“Not exactly. We want you to lead the insertion and then back us three up in the assault.” Action Man considered his next comment. “I’ll be honest, we spoke to Space Force, they’ve got this jetpack squad they’ve been developing, but they think it’s impossible, but we’re counting on you to do this with the gliders.”

Skymate glanced at Super Trooper; he didn’t look convinced. He looked at Hawk who seemed completely uninterested.

“Okay, it’s going to take a few weeks to train you to fly the gliders, though. At least two just for the basics of launching, flying and landing.”

“The basics are all we need,” Natalie said.

“What’s the plan for extraction?” Skymate asked.

“We’ve got two options there,” Action Man replied. “Either extraction via helicopter once we’ve taken out the ZPU or we blow the wall out and abseil down the cliff.”

Skymate snorted. “Whilst hoping the mercs this guy’s got don’t cut the ropes? I’d suggest helicopter extraction. What are you using to launch?”

“A Hercules.”

“A Herc? Oh, well that makes it harder. See most hang-gliders have a wingspan of over fifteen feet. That’s going to be real hard to fit in a Hercules,” Skymate looked pensive.

“Are you saying it won’t be possible?” Natalie asked.

Skymate grunted, “Using the jet-packs might be easier. Although, I do know of some guys working on something else that might be useable.” He grunted, “Actually, I can think of a couple ideas. I know some guys working on jumpsuits with wings between the torso and arms and between the legs, which allow you to glide after jumping from an aircraft. I don’t think they’re workable at the moment. The other idea is called a wing-pack. It’s basically a backpack with three-foot wide wings attached. The guys I know have at least two working examples.”

“Would we be able to get use of them?” Natalie asked.

“Not bloody likely,” Skymate said. “Unless you want to go to the bother of retrieving them.” He shook his head, “No, our best bet is to see if we can create our own.”

“What will you need?” Hawk asked.

“Lightweight material for the wings, harnesses to attach them to the jumpsuits and standard HALO gear. We’ll have to parachute the last few feet.”

“I’ll get started on getting the gear together,” Hawk said, before leaving.

Two weeks later
Over Utah

The C-130 flew through the air in a lazy turn. Slipstream was flying with Wild Bill in the co-pilot’s seat for this final daytime exercise. The blue sky and sunshine made it an excellent day to go flying.

In the rear of the Hercules, the four commandos were standing ready to jump. Drop Zone from the Sky Patrol team was acting as the jumpmaster. The four team-members wore matte black jumpsuits, boots, helmets and gloves. Similarly coloured body-armour, shin, knee and elbow pads were worn over the jumpsuits. Strapped to their backs were the lightweight carbon-fibre composite wing-packs. They were seven feet wide, hanging from just below the neck to just below the buttocks. Attached to the wing-packs were the team’s low-altitude opening parachutes. The wing-packs were attached to the team’s webbing gear with quick-release catches to allow them to be removed easily.

Skymate was the only one of the four not carrying a Heckler & Koch MP5K submachine gun. Instead, he had a bow strapped to his chest, along with four arrows in a quiver attached to the bow. He also carried a black boomerang on his right hip and a Browning Hi-power pistol on his right thigh. The other three had their MP5Ks strapped to their chests. Whilst Action Man and Natalie both carried the Hi-power in holsters on their right hip, Super Trooper carried a Colt M1911 pistol instead.

Drop Zone suddenly turned his head toward the cockpit, his hand to the headset he wore, then he turned back to the commandos and raised a single finger, bellowing “One minute!”

The red light came on next to the lowered rear ramp. The commandos moved forward. Then the red light flicked off and the green light came on. The team walked off the ramp.

The commandos had dropped out of the plane over two miles from their target, a square marked out in the desert sands, which represented the compound. Their glide ratio meant that for every foot they descended, they travelled sixty-five feet horizontally.

Action Man glanced left and right. Natalie was on his left, Super Trooper to his right. Skymate had the lead.

The four of them powered through the sky at speeds of over a hundred miles an hour, slowly losing altitude as they glided silently across the desert.

Finally, they deployed their parachutes as they reached the point where they need to and drifted in to land inside the target.

The four commandos pulled off their oxygen masks and wing-packs.

“Looks like we’re nearly ready,” Super Trooper commented.

“Looks like.” Skymate nodded as he bundled up his parachute. “We’ll see how the night jumps go.”

Two days later
Somewhere in South-east Asia

The Hercules had penetrated hostile airspace two hours ago, flying high over the rainforest. They were now approaching the jump point.

The same crew were aboard the C-130 as the ramp whined down and the red light came on at one minute to jump.

The team moved forward toward the ramp.

After the night jumps, the team had made a few modifications to their gear. Super Trooper was now carrying four frag grenades in his web gear, whilst Action Man and Natalie both carried two frags and two flash-bangs. The latter pair had also made a minor change to both their wing-packs and their jumpsuits. Whilst Skymate and Super Trooper wore no markings on their clothing or gear, the two British agents wore a small circular patch on their upper arms; it displayed a logo they had painted on the upper right side of their wing-packs. The logo was a stylised A and M joined together, the A coloured orange, the M black, with the A on a black background and the M on grey.

Skymate rolled his eyes behind his goggles as he remembered how they’d insisted on adding the logo.

The green light came on and the thought went from Skymate’s mind as he walked forward and stepped off the ramp.

Blackness surrounded them; it was an overcast night, no moon or stars to make them visible as they flew across the sky.

The carbon fibre wing pack was radar transparent. Their own bodies would not reflect enough radar energy back to give a return that would show up.

Action Man’s heart pounded in his chest as he flew across the night sky, feeling more exhilarated than even a normal skydive did. This was like being a superhero and he loved it. Unheard by anyone else, he let out a scream of delight.

[Sundance]

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

Their altitude dropped as they sped across the rainforest, their target invisible.

As they finally began to get closer, the plateau and the fortress atop it loomed out of the night.

Skymate popped his chute, the others following suit.

They drifted down, silently crossing the fort’s walls, passing over the guards unseen.

The four commandos landed in the courtyard of the fortress, quickly dropping their wing-packs and pulling off their oxygen masks and unstrapping their weapons.

Skymate pulled out and arrow and quickly nocked it, took aim and let fly, hitting the sentry in one of the guard towers.  In seconds, he pulled out another, pivoted around and fired, dropping the next guard. The sentries in the four towers were dead before they knew what had hit them.

The commandos moved toward the ZPU in the centre of the courtyard, Skymate pulled out his boomerang and threw it, hitting one of the soldiers standing with his back to the commandos, as his partner turned, Skymate shot him with an arrow.

Super Trooper pulled a small C4 demolitions pack from his web gear, not large enough to completely destroy the anti-air gun, but big enough to render the controls unusable. As he set the charge, Natalie looked at Skymate who was picking up his boomerang and the arrow.

“I thought boomerangs came back,” she said.

Skymate gave her an exasperated look. “Not when they hit someone in the bloody head they don’t,” he replied.

“Charge set,” Super Trooper said. “Let’s move.”

The commandos charged across the courtyard to the nearest building, which had a number of radio antennae next to it.

Skymate opened the door and walked in, one soldier sat at the radios. He started to turn, but the Australian threw his boomerang, hitting him in the face. The soldier fell off his chair. Natalie set another demolitions charge on the radios.

“What’s that thing made of any way?” Action Man asked, looking interested.

“Wood,” Skymate replied. “Hurts to get hit by it, believe me. Hit someone right and you can knock the bugger right out.”

“Next stop, the armoury,” Super Trooper said.

They moved out of the radio room, crossing the courtyard unseen by the guards roaming the parapets above.

The armoury was locked and unguarded. Here Super Trooper set a C4 charge with a tripwire on the doorway, so that anyone opening the door would get a rude surprise.

Finally, the commandos moved toward the largest building in the fortress, a four-storey block at the rear of the courtyard.

No sentries were on the door. The door opened at Skymate’s twist of the door handle.

“Which way?” he whispered as he looked around. There was a staircase leading up to the next floor on the left, whilst a doorway and steps led down off to the right.

“Basement,” Action Man said. “He’s likely to be in the lab and that’s likely to be down there.”

“At this time of night?” asked Skymate, glancing at his wristwatch. It was nearing midnight, local time.

“Sure, he’s an obsessive scientist, bound to work late.”

The quartet headed down the stairs, finding themselves in a small reception area in the basement.

A security guard was dozing at the desk. Action Man pulled out his combat knife moved over and quickly and silently killed the guard.

Skymate slung his bow across his back and drew his sidearm. The other three had their submachine guns up and ready.

The door to the lab was sealed by a cipher-lock. A 10-digit keypad sat beneath the knob that opened the door.

Natalie and Action Man exchanged looks as Skymate nervously watched the stairs, his pistol aimed squarely at the doorway.

After a few seconds, Action Man punched a four digit number into the pad. There as a click and he twisted the knob, opening the door.

“How did you know the code?” whispered Super Trooper.

“I didn’t, I guessed it, based on the date of birth of Greenholtz’s wife. 7-2-44. February 7th, 1944,” Action Man replied.

The commandos moved into the laboratory. The place was crowded with scientific equipment, much of it beyond the soldiers’ ability to understand.

Greenholtz was coming around a desk with a piece of equipment on it as Super Trooper rounded a large refrigerator.

Greenholtz froze at the sight of the commando with his MP5K raised and aimed at him.

“Oh, no, you’re from those clowns in the green outfits aren’t you?” Greenholtz asked as Skymate and Natalie split up and moved to flank him.

“What clowns in green outfits?” Super Trooper asked, keeping the gun trained on the scientist.

“The group who split off from Cobra, the Coil or whatever they’re called. I turned Cobra down two years ago, I’m certainly not interested in working for some idiot who ran off and formed his own group from them,” Greenholtz replied.

“Don’t know who they are, mate,” Skymate said as he approached Greenholtz from the left.

The scientist flinched at his voice, turning to see him.

“Natalie, you got him covered?” asked Super Trooper as Action Man moved up next to him.

“He’s covered,” she replied from the right side. Again he flinched and turned toward her.

Super Trooper lowered his gun and took a C4 charge from his webbing gear.

“Right, where shall I start?” he asked.

Unable to help himself, Greenholtz flinched and his eyes darted to a large fridge with a clear door on the front and numerous shelves with a variety of containers inside.

“That looks like the place,” the American said, moving to the fridge.

“Who are you people?!” the scientist demanded.

“Take a guess,” Action Man answered. Greenholtz looked from him to Skymate and then to Super Trooper who had placed a C4 charge in the fridge and was now looking at a table with racks of test tubes, centrifuges and other equipment on it.

“You and the woman are British,” Greenholtz observed. “The one with pistol is obviously Australian with that accent and your friend with the bombs is American. That must mean Action Force. They may have thwarted the Red Shadows but my employer will not be so easy to defeat.”

“Maybe, but we’re not from AF,” Action Man answered. “I’m with British Intelligence, as is Natalie. The other two are Joes.”

“Joes?” Greenholtz frowned. “Oh, the American group who have been chasing Cobra all these years?” He snorted. “You still won’t stop my employer.”

“Who is your employer, any way?” Natalie asked. “I find it hard to believe the Socialist Republic here are behind your work.”

“No, you are correct, mein fraulein. My hosts are not my employers, despite their allowing my presence and building this place. The lab equipment and the mercenaries have been provided by others. My hosts only supplied the weapons for the soldiers.” Greenholtz turned his attention back to Action Man. “By the way, how is Templeton Storm?”

Action Man and Natalie both frowned.

“You are the ones who destroyed his storm generators are you not?” Greenholtz asked.

“You work for his backer as well, do you?” Action Man asked. “Good, you can catch up when we throw your ass in jail.”

Keeping his eyes on Greenholtz, Action Man spoke to Natalie, “Find any documents, computer discs and tapes you can, grab it all. We need to see what he’s been up to and if it leads any where.”

Natalie lowered her MP5K and nodded. She moved off as Action Man and Skymate kept their guns on Greenholtz.

Somewhere above them, alarms began to sound. Greenholtz looked up at the noise. The commandos didn’t.

“They must have found the dead sentries,” Skymate commented.

“Oi, Trooper! Are the charges on the Zed-Pee-You and the radios on the same detonators as these?” Action Man called out.

“No,” Super Trooper replied. “Natalie has the detonator for those.”

“Nat, love, blow ‘em!”

There was an audible click before two explosions sounded in the distance. A third followed shortly after.

“They must have found the tripwire,” Super Trooper commented calmly as he finished setting the last of his charges next to an expensive electron microscope.

“Skymate, check the door,” Action Man ordered.

The Australian hurried off.

“You won’t get out of here, you know,” Greenholtz said. “My employer hired the best mercenaries around. Former VDV Spetsnaz.”

Action Man grinned. “I eat VDV for breakfast and right now, I’m hungry.”

Natalie reappeared, a bag slung across her shoulder.

Automatic gunfire sounded outside the lab causing Greenholtz to flinch. There were several pistol shots in return.

“I grabbed every piece of paperwork I could find that had notes on it,” Natalie said. “Plus a load of floppy discs, CD-ROMs and a bunch of tapes he’d recorded stuff on.”

“Good.” Action Man was still fixed on Greenholtz. “Hey, Trooper, time to go, you ready?”

Super Trooper reappeared next to Greenholtz. “Ready to rock, man.”

Before the scientist could react, Super Trooper grabbed his right arm and forced it up behind his back, snapping handcuffs onto his wrist. He then grabbed the German’s left arm and followed suit. Greenholtz groaned loudly, clearly in pain as his arms were cuffed behind him.

“Skymate, how we doing?” Action Man called as he finally lowered his weapon as Super Trooper grabbed Greenholtz’s collar.

“About eight mercs out here,” Skymate hollered back. “There were ten. They’ve got AKs and a bad attitude.”

Action Man steered Greenholtz forward, Super Trooper close behind them.

“Natalie, call in the chopper, would you?” Action Man said as he led Greenholtz to the lab door.

She nodded, even though her partner couldn’t see her and pulled out her radio.

At the door to the lab, Action Man halted. Skymate was leaning against the left side of the doorframe.

“Attention!” Action Man shouted in Russian. “We have Greenholtz, do not fire unless you wish to kill him!”

There was a hushed conversation Action Man couldn’t hear. He shoved Greenholtz forward, out the door. Following close behind, Action Man kept his gun at Greenholtz’s neck, as he looked around. The mercenaries had their guns aimed at him and the others as they followed the scientist out of the lab.

The commandos and their prisoner made their way up the stairs to the buildings lobby, where more mercenaries were standing, weapons aimed at the commandos.

“ETA on the chopper?” Action Man asked Natalie as they crossed the lobby.

“Five minutes.”

“Gonna be a long five minutes,” Super Trooper commented.

The mercenaries kept their guns trained on the commandos as they moved out the door into the courtyard, Greenholtz still leading the way.

“Trooper, on my signal, blow the charges,” Action Man ordered.

“What signal?” Super Trooper asked.

“You’ll know.”

Action Man led Greenholtz across the courtyard to where a Russian UAZ jeep sat. Natalie pulled the rear door open, allowing Action Man to shove Greenholtz in before Skymate climbed in the other side. Super Trooper looked around the courtyard as Action Man took the driver’s seat.

One hundred and fifty mercenaries surrounded the jeep. The ZPU anti-aircraft gun was still smoking from the demolitions charge. The armoury and radio room were both on fire.

“Nice place you got here,” Super Trooper said before sliding into the jeep’s last seat.

“Mark,” Action Man said.

Super Trooper hit the detonator, destroying most of the underground lab.

Predictably, several of the mercenaries turned at the explosions.

Equally predictably, some didn’t. Action Man already had the engine running and he took off the brake and sped out of the compound.

The jeep raced toward the gate and then skidded to a halt.

The gates were metal.

They were also locked.

Action Man cursed. The mercenaries opened fire. The jeep was hit by several rounds, but Natalie and Super Trooper began to return fire from their windows.

“Now what, genius?” Natalie asked as she fired off another burst.

“This!” Action Man answered, pulling his two frag grenades from his web gear, before pulling the pins and hurling them out the driver’s window at the gates.

Both grenades detonated as they hit the gates, right next to the metal lock.

“Keep firing!” Action Man hollered as he gunned the engine and smashed the jeep into the gates, shoving them apart with the UAZ.

The UAZ roared out of the fortress as bullets pinged off the gates and some struck the jeep.

Skymate had kept his cool through the momentary crisis with his gun still jammed in Greenholtz’s side.

Action Man’s radio crackled.

“Alpha Team, this is Tomahawk 2-2, approaching LZ. Pop flares and advise temperature of LZ.”

“2-2 this is Alpha, LZ is hot, repeat, LZ is hot. Request strafing run across the front of the fortress gates, east-west axis. Will pop flares once we’re clear of firing line. We’re mobile in a UAZ away from the fort,” Action Man answered.

“Solid copy, Alpha, stand by.”

The heavy thunder of the twin rotors beat the air as the heavy-lift helicopter flew over the jeep, before its 20mm rotary machine gun roared, spraying rounds across the front of the fortress. The Tomahawk’s gun roared a second time, as it flew parallel to the walls, hosing the mercenaries too stupid to run for cover.

Action Man brought the jeep to a halt at the edge of the clearing. The Tomahawk looped around as he pulled a flare from his webbing and lit it, holding it in his right hand.

The Tomahawk touched down next to the UAZ.

Skymate and Super Trooper hurried over to the helicopter as Natalie dragged Greenholtz from the jeep.

Action Man and Natalie manhandled Greenholtz into the helicopter and Major Altitude, who was flying as co-pilot, saw Natalie’s signal and spoke to Lift-Ticket.

“Clear to take-off.”

“Roger, lifting.”

The twin-rotor helicopter lifted off and turned to head back across the fortress on its way back to the border.

“Hey, you guys carrying any bombs?” Super Trooper asked on the interphone, after grabbing a headset.

“Yes, standard load,” Major Altitude replied.

“Do us a favour and drop them on that fortress, eh?” Action Man cut in as he put a headset on as well.

“Roger that,” Lift-Ticket replied. “It’ll help us get across the border if we’re not hauling that weight.”

Major Altitude hit the ‘pickle’ switch that released the bombs as the Tomahawk crossed over the fortress. The bombs struck the main building as well as the ZPU and the still-burning radio room, destroying them.

The Tomahawk flew on.

PIT III, Utah
The next day

Action Man and Natalie shook hands with Hawk.

“Thanks for the help, General,” Action Man said. “You’ve got a couple of good guys there.”

Hawk nodded. “Thanks for the intel you shared about The Coil, we’ve developed some of our own after a recent operation. We’ll share it with British Intelligence and Action Force once we’ve collated it. Thanks for the information on Greenholtz and his employer as well.”

“No problem,” Natalie replied.

In another part of the PIT, Super Trooper was trying not to laugh s Skymate was being harangued by Cloudburst.

“I seriously can’t believe you went on an op and left me out!” Cloudburst complained.

“I’m sorry,” Skymate replied.

“I mean, come on! We spent all this time training with the hang-gliders, we finally get a mission to use them and I get left behind!”

“Mate, seriously, I didn’t get a lot of choice in it. They picked me to help them out and I spent my time worrying about it working. It’s not really my fault you were on leave until we were getting ready to deploy.”

Cloudburst sulked in silence.

“God, you’re like a little kid,” Skymate commented. “Next time, YOU go and I’ll stay here.”

Super Trooper finally cracked up.