They headed back upstairs to where Beach Head was watching Mainframe work.
“No sign of Overlord,” Hit&Run commented.
Hawk’s voice came over the radio.
“Beach Head, this is Hawk. What’s the situation?”
“About thirty hired guns, but no sign of Overlord, sir,” Beach Head answered.
“Perhaps our intel was off,” Hawk commented.
“Well, the quality of the intel’s about to improve,” Beach Head answered, looking around the front room, where diagrams, photos and other documents were pinned to moveable boards, the walls and scattered across the desks. “This place is a damn goldmine.”
“Roger that, Beach Head. Have your team collect everything you can for an operations playbook. Names, contacts, places, everything.”
“Already on it, sir,” Beach Head replied. “Mainframe’s on the computers already and Spearhead’s photographing everything.”
Hit&Run looked around to see the pointman was indeed taking photos of all the boards and the documents, careful to avoid touching it as much as he could.
“Good work, sarge,” Hawk said. “We’re ready with the extraction force as soon as you need us.”
Lowlight’s voice cut in over the radio. “Be advised, you have a large concentration of hostiles moving in from the southeast, they've just breached the perimeter! I'll try to thin 'em out before they get too close.”
Beach Head looked annoyed, so far as Recoil could judge his expression behind the balaclava he wore. “The Coil are going to do everything they can to stop us getting out of here with this intel. We need to give Mainframe time to crack those computers. Hit&Run, Recoil, cover the south-east. Repeater, cover the front door. Spearhead, you and me cover the west. Move!”
Sniper rifle fire and the odd burst of automatic gunfire punctuated the quiet of the area as Ambush and Lowlight fired on the advancing Coil troops.
Hit&Run and Recoil moved to the windows looking out on that side of the house. They could just about make out the Coil forces’ bright green uniforms among the trees.
“Hostiles closing in,” Hit&Run shouted. “Firing!”
He and Recoil began taking out whichever target they could see. Some of the Coil troopers began firing back, bullets slapping into the wooden house’s walls.
“I’ve got eyes on an RPG team moving in from the south-west!” Ambush warned them.
“Got it,” Repeater replied. “RPG team moving in from the south-west.”
The Ranger opened fire with his hip-mounted machine gun, bullets spraying out to cut them down.
The Coil troops were making faint progress, either being gunned down by the Joes inside the house, or sniped by the team on the ridgeline.
Spearhead and Beach Head were firing on the Coil troops coming from the west as well as Repeater. Behind them Mainframe had given up trying to access the computers and was busy unscrewing the case of one of the PCs instead.
Lowlight’s voice came over the radio circuit again, “I have eyes on additional hostile forces moving in on your position. They're approaching from the solar panels east of the house.”
“Roger that,” Recoil replied. “I’ll try to cut them off as they come through the trees!”
Automatic weapons fire clattered about the house as the Joes kept up their fire.
Hit&Run changed magazines in his M4 and then announced, “Last mag!”
“Everyone sound off your ammo state!” Beach Head hollered.
“Two mags left,” called out Spearhead.
“Two hundred rounds and falling,” Repeater said after checking his ammo belt.
“Three mags,” Recoil reported.
“I’m down to two, as well,” Beach Head said.
“I’ve still got five for my MP5,” Mainframe called out.
“Hit&Run, grab us some ammo from the armoury. The rest of you, try to conserve ammo. Repeater, I want you to swap the MG for Mainframe’s gun. We might need that baby for when we evac,” Beach Head ordered.
Hit&Run ran across the room, into the kitchen and headed down to the basement as Repeater moved back from the front door, lowered his light machine-gun to the floor before moving to grab Mainframe’s MP5 and his spare magazines.
In the basement, Hit&Run found a pair of black holdalls. He looked through the magazines, found several boxes of 5.56mm ammo in NATO standard mags and shoved them into one of the bags. A box of 9mm NATO STANAG magazines for sub-machine guns went into the second bag, along with a bandolier holding 40mm grenades suitable for Recoil’s M203. Hit&Run then found several landmines in two boxes and stuffed them in the bag as well.
Back in the main room, Hit&Run began sharing out the ammo, handing the 9mm ammo to Beach Head and Repeater; the bandolier of grenades to Recoil before splitting the 5.56mm ammo between Recoil, Spearhead and himself.
“I’m going out to mine the eastern approach, that’s where they’re concentrated,” Hit&Run told Beach Head. “Give me some cover, okay?”
“Roger that, mate,” Beach Head replied. Hit&Run hefted the bag and then headed for the kitchen’s door.
“This is Ambush, we’re starting to take return fire here. We’re displacing, you’re going to be without sniper support for at least ninety seconds.”
Hit&Run ran around the back of the house before moving to the east. He began carefully working his way along, planting Claymore mines and Bouncing Betties in a firing line behind trees and the odd fallen trunk, boulder or other obstacles. Gunfire crackled around him. He suddenly heard the sound of helicopters in the distance. Turning, he saw three Bell Twin Huey transports flying in.
“Enemy transport choppers coming from the south-west,” he reported over the radio.
“Hit&Run, use the rest of your claymores to cover the west side of the driveway and fall back to the house,” Beach Head ordered.
“Roger, I’m moving.”
As the light infantryman ran, he heard several of the mines exploding behind him as the Coil troops advanced.
Inside the house, Beach Head used the brief respite of reloading to turn to Mainframe. “How you getting on?” he asked.
Mainframe was busy unscrewing the fourth PC’s case. “I’ve pulled the hard-drives from the computers. It was taking me too long to try cracking their security. This way we can take the important part and do it at our leisure back at the PIT.”
“Good thinking,” Beach Head said.
The three Hueys hovered a good ten feet off the ground, their side doors opening before some ropes were thrown out.
“A case of cold ones to whoever can hit four of them before they reach the ground,” Beach Head said.
As the Coil troopers began fast-roping out of the helicopters, the Joes opened fire.
Hit&Run crashed in through the kitchen doorway, startling Mainframe.
“Hey, you’ve got the bag still,” Mainframe said. “Good. Grab the hard-drives and put them inside. I’m nearly done here.”
Hit&Run grabbed the indicated parts and stuffed them into the hold all.
“Hawk, this is Beach Head, we’re ready for evac. We’ve got hostiles around us, we’re going to have to fight our way out.”
“Roger that, we’re lifting off now, will advise.”
Mainframe took his MP5 back off Repeater who heft his light machine-gun once more. Explosions shook the house as the Coil troops reached the second minefield.
“Lowlight, this is Beach Head, we’re getting ready for evac here, what’s your situation?”
“We’re ready to evac. We’ll make our own way out and call in for pick up from another LZ. We’re not going to be able to get to you easily from here.”
“Copy, be careful,” Beach Head replied.
The Ranger turned to the rest of the team, “Extraction point is the field down the hill to the west. The Coil troops are between it and us. Don’t get pinned down, keep running and only fire at what you have to.”
The rest of the team nodded.
“Let’s do this,” Beach Head said.
Hit&Run led the way out the door, Spearhead close behind him. The pair had point since Hit&Run knew where the mines were.
The team sprinted across the house’s garden, scrambled over the fence and into the western field. Coil troops appeared from around some stables. Repeater slowed enough to fire his machine gun in a pair of short bursts to send them diving for cover. Recoil fired a grenade in that direction to put them off as well.
The team kept running.
A small force of Coil troops intercepted them at the top of the hill; Repeater gunned three of them down, before the others shot the rest.
Suddenly a mortar shell exploded behind them. Beach Head staggered, nearly falling over, but managed to stay upright.
Two more mortar rounds dropped off to their right. Another landed closer to the left. Spearhead was knocked off his feet, but scrambled back up.
“They're bracketing our position with mortars, keep moving but watch your back! Go! Go! Get to the LZ! Keep moving!” Beach Head shouted.
The team barrelled down the hill as two more shells exploded near them.
The Joes ran on, into the field where the evacuation helicopter was due to arrive.
“This is Hawk, we’re two minutes out, what’s your status?”
“We’re taking mortar fire and need air support!” Recoil shouted as another shell landed near by.
This time the shell landed close enough to lift Mainframe off his feet and slam him back down hard.
Beach Head hefted the Marine to his feet. “I've got you, Mianframe, hang on! Wild Bill, I've popped red smoke in the treeline! Standby to engage on my mark!”
“Roger that. I have a visual on the red smoke. Standing by,” the pilot replied as his Locust sped toward the field.
Beach Head fire a burst back toward the pursuing Coil troops, before guiding Mainframe onward. The Marine was starting to come around.
“Wild Bill, you’re cleared hot!” Beach Head shouted once he was sure that he and Mainframe were far enough from the smoke.
“Roger that, cleared hot. Guns, guns, guns.”
The tiny single-seat helicopter roared over their heads before cutting loose with the side-mounted twin guns. Trees exploded as the shells ripped through the Coil troopers.
Ahead of them, the familiar and welcome sight of a Tomahawk greeted them as it pivoted overhead before dropping toward the ground.
Hawk stepped down the rear ramp as Recoil, Hit&Run and Spearhead ran toward it.
The three infantryman passed Hawk without comment. Repeater crouched near the helicopter’s tail, his machine gun ready as Wild Bill danced the Locust across the sky, firing his guns at the Coil troops. Beach Head helped Mainframe to the rear ramp.
“Is he alright?” Hawk asked as they reached the ramp.
“I’m not sure,” Beach Head answered. “He got thrown about by a mortar explosion.”
Hawk waved to where Stretcher was sitting further forward. “Get him checked out by the medic.”
Hawk turned toward Repeater, “Move your ass, Ranger, or you’re getting left behind!”
Repeater sprang up, span smoothly on one foot and ran up the ramp.
Hawk keyed his intercom headset. “We’re clear, Lift-Ticket, get us out of here!”
The Tomahawk lifted up and dipped its nose as the veteran pilot flew away.
Hawk closed the ramp and moved forward.
“Where are Ambush and Lowlight?” he asked.
“We need to pick them up,” Recoil answered, wiping sweat from his face with his sleeve. “They opted to evac a different way, rather than trying to link up with us.”
Hawk headed for the cockpit.
“Lowlight, this is Hawk,” he radioed. “What’s your location?”
“Ambush and I are on the western shore of the lake. We managed to avoid the Coil troops, but we could use a ride out of here.”
“Roger, stand by and we’ll find you.”
Hawk looked back at Mainframe and Stretcher as Lift Ticket brought the Tomahawk around.
“How is he?” Hawk asked.
“Slightly concussed, shaken up with some cuts and bruises, but he’ll be fine in about a week.” Stretcher didn’t look up from where he was putting a dressing on a gash on Mainframe’s arm.
“Good, we’ll pick up our snipers and then head back to the airfield to refuel.”
Beach Head took Spearhead’s camera from the point man and the holdall from Hit&Run.
“We got the hard drives from their computers and photos of their plans. Hope it was worth it,” Beach Head said.
“If we stop even one Coil attack, it’s worth it,” Hawk replied. “Good work everyone.”
Recoil didn’t hear him; he’d already nodded off to sleep.
