Savage Bay (10 page)

“Transferring to your station now,” Touchdown said.

Three flat-screen monitors made a half-circle on Quiz’s computer station. On the center display, the command screen for the Rail Lift System came online.

Quiz studied the interface, then began typing commands into his keyboard. Caine watched, peering over his shoulder.

On the video feed from Tank’s helmet cam, one of the cargo containers suspended from the Rail Lift System lurched forward and then began to slowly move down the track along the ceiling of the cargo bay.

TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

“
Titan Six, cover!” yelled Tank. “Firing one!”  He squeezed the trigger and his M320 grenade launcher fired a single explosive grenade. It arced in a nearly perfect trajectory, coming down behind the Dragon defensive positions.

The grenade detonated in a tremendous explosion. One of the Dragons was killed instantly. Two others, both of whom appeared to be wounded from the blast, fled their positions in a confused scramble, running in a chaotic retreat toward another row of machinery behind them.

The remaining three Dragons returned fire, shooting bursts of automatic weapons fire wildly across the cargo bay.

OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

Using his computer terminal to remotely access the Rail Lift System in the cargo bay, Quiz maneuvered a large cargo container suspended from the overhead track toward the Dragons’ positions.

The Dragons were pinned down behind their makeshift fortifications by the murderous suppressing fire from Hawkeye and Gator’s assault rifles. But then Quiz saw one of the Dragons fling a small object over the barricade toward Hawkeye and Shooter’s positions. It fell far short, but hit the cargo bay floor, bounced, and then rolled across the concrete in their direction.   

Tank’s warning echoed in Quiz’s headset: “Firing one!” The displays in the Ops Center flashed with light as Tank’s grenade exploded behind the commandos.

“Cover!” yelled Quiz into his headset mic. “Hawkeye, Shooter — enemy grenade near your position!”

Hawkeye and Shooter instantly dropped prone to the floor, instinctively covering their heads with their arms.

TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

On top of the cargo container, Pyro squinted through the site of his assault rifle down toward the Dragons. Pyro had removed the rifle’s integrated bipod, and rested the aluminum and thermoset plastic weapon on the edge of the cargo container.    

The Dragons were crouched low behind cover. Hundreds of rounds from Hakweye and Gator’s covering fire continued to slam against the metal containers that the Dragons were using as rudimentary fortifications. The cacophony of sound was like hundreds of hammers beating against a tin roof.

Pyro saw a small flash from Tank’s grenade launcher as it fired. He watched the grenade arc through the air toward the enemy position. The augmented-reality display, or AR, projected on the visor of Pryo’s tactical helmet identified the moving grenade and highlighted it with a blinking red circle. The AR display identified the grenade, adding the information in small semi-transparent words layered over the real-time image:  M1060 thermobaric grenade.

Then Pyro’s AR display highlighted a second object thrown from behind the Dragon barricade. It tracked the second object with flashing red brackets as it flew through the air toward Hawkeye and Shooter.

“What the -- ”

Pyro’s AR display identified the new object: a fragmentation grenade, Type 82-2S.

The grenade hit the ground twenty meters short, but bounced and rolled across the floor.

Tank’s grenade detonated behind the Chinese line with a deafening explosion. Pyro saw one Dragon fall to the ground. Two others began to retreat from the blast area, scrambling across the floor in panic.

In Pyro’s ear, Quiz’s shrill voice called a warning: “Cover! Hawkeye, Shooter — enemy grenade near your position!”

He watched Hawkeye and Shooter drop to the floor, pulling their knees to their chests and throwing their arms over their heads.

The Chinese grenade detonated in a blast of steel fragments. The explosion shredded everything within the grenade’s fifteen meter blast radius. Thirty meters from the epicenter of the detonation, Hawkeye and Shooter avoided most of the impact. Several steel fragments lodged themselves into the body armor on Hawkeye’s right leg. Shooter was unscathed.

Pyro turned back toward the Dragons, sighting again through the scope on his assault rifle. Three Dragons had held their positions despite Tank’s grenade blast and were now returning fire, shooting wildly toward the rest of the Titan Six team.

Pyro took careful aim, then squeezed the trigger three times, firing a trio of high-explosive rounds down on the enemy.

OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

On the Unit Display in the Ops Center, Caine and the rest of the group watched Pyro fire down on the Dragons from his position on top of a cargo container. The three rounds hit their targets almost simultaneously.

The first round caught the closest Dragon soldier in the side of the head, impacting against his helmet. The collision ignited the incendiary material in the tip of the shell, triggering the detonation of it’s high-explosive charge. The resulting explosion nearly vaporized the upper body of the Dragon.

Pyro’s second round slammed into a stack of wooden crates behind the enemy line. It detonated upon impact in a cloud of fire and debris. The flaming pile of crates toppled, crashing down on the Dragons behind their crude fortifications.

Pyro’s third round struck the concrete floor less than a meter behind a Dragon crouched behind a pile of steel beams. The zirconium powder incendiary charge in the shell ignited in a brilliant flash, instantly killing the Dragon that had lobbed the grenade at Hawkeye and Shooter.

A secondary blast rocked the cargo bay as the commando’s remaining grenades hanging from his belt detonated from the heat of the first explosion.

The third Dragon turned and stumbled away from the deadly scene, dragging his shredded left leg behind him.

Quiz continued to direct the hanging cargo container down the rail system track as he watched the carnage unfold in the cargo bay. As Pyro’s third round exploded, he brought the cargo container into position above the retreating Chinese forces.

“Bombs away.”

With three keystrokes, Quiz remotely released the clamps attaching the cargo container to the chains and harness that held it aloft. The 24,000 kilogram steel container plummeted toward the cargo bay floor thirty meters below.

. . .

Hawkeye lifted his head off the floor and looked down the cargo bay toward the enemy forces. Steel shards poked out of the body armor encircling his right leg. Hawkeye involuntarily shut his eyes as Pryo’s high explosive rounds detonated in three individual fireballs.

He listened to the screams of the Dragons killed and wounded by Pyro’s deadly assault. Then Quiz’s voice sounded in his ear:  “Bombs away.”

. . .

Pyro watched in grim satisfaction as his rounds hit their targets, decimating the Chinese forces. The first Chinese soldier was obliterated from his vision in the first explosion.

The second impact toppled the stack of wooden crates in a fiery blast. Large boxes fell crashing to the floor. Burning chunks of wood and debris rained down behind the Chinese line.

The third round missed its mark by less than a meter, but was close enough to instantly kill the Chinese commando as the high-explosive round detonated. An unexpected secondary explosion boomed across the cargo bay as the soldier’s extra grenades exploded.

Pyro watched in awe as a massive cargo container fell from the overhead rail system. Directly beneath it were two of the retreating Chinese commandos. The steel container hit the concrete floor with a massive bang that shook the cargo bay. It crushed the two soldiers like they were made of paper, smashing into oblivion beneath its massive weight.

The third fleeing commando, dragging his butchered leg as he stumbled down the cargo bay, narrowly missed being crushed by the cargo container as it slammed into the concrete. It blocked his escape, and he turned to run back in the opposite direction.

The Chinese solider had lost his helmet sometime during the melee, and Pyro could see the hatred and terror in his eyes.

TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

Pyro cheered as the cargo container slammed to the floor. The last remaining commando was framed in Gator’s vision against the red steel cargo container behind him.

Pyro pulled the trigger of his assault rifle, cleanly placing a round in the man’s forehead. The commando dropped like a sack of wet newspaper.

“Hostiles eliminated,” said Pyro.

TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

“About thirty meters in front of you should be a second security door,” said Touchdown. “Beyond that door, the tunnel continues through the mountain. To reach the cargo bay entrance, you’ll go through that door and continue down the tunnel another quarter-kilometer.”

“Understood,” said Hawkeye.  “Titan Six, I want a breach formation on that door.”

The five members of Titan Six spread out around the second entrance. Shooter lay prone on the ground ten meters from the entrance with her sniper rifle aimed at the door. Tank, Hawkeye, Gator, and Pyro flanked the opening, their backs pressed against the vertical stone wall, two on each side of the doorway.

“Ops, can you raise that door about twenty centimeters?” asked Hawkeye.

“Can do,” said Touchdown, typing commands into his keyboard.

The hydraulic steel door groaned, then slowly slid upwards exactly twenty centimeters. Through the scope on her sniper rifle, Shooter could peer through the opening at the bottom of the door and into the room beyond. She saw two pairs of combat boots.

“Two hostiles,” said Shooter. “Three meters inside the doorway.”

Tank pulled the pin on a concussion grenade. He bent down and tossed it through the opening. A hail of gunfire erupted from inside. A spray of automatic weapons fire peppered the ground harmlessly just beyond the opening.

A loud
whump
accompanied a flash of light as the concussion grenade detonated. Shooter saw two bodies drop to the ground through her scope.

“Both hostiles down,” said Tank. “I assume we don’t have a video feed.”

“We have a few, but they’re not showing anything at all,” said Touchdown. “There aren’t a lot of cameras because the heavy security was concentrated at the entrances. If you’re inside the Savage Bay complex, the system assumes you’re supposed to be there. By the way, someone has closed the South Portal wall. Whether that measure is to keep people in or out is anybody’s guess. I suspect we’ll find out soon enough.”

Shooter moved to join the rest of the team flanking the doorway.

“Okay,” said Tank. “Open it up.”

The hydraulic steel door rumbled again and lifted up into the rock above, revealing an opening twenty meters across and almost nearly as high. There was no movement and no sound from inside.

“Pyro, you’re up,” said Hawkeye.

Pyro dropped down to his knees, then darted his head out from behind the wall for a quick view inside, and quickly pulled back behind cover. A burst of machine gun fire struck the wall where Pyro’s head had been just a moment ago.

“Hel-lo,” sang Pyro.

“I’ll take him,” said Shooter.

She chambered a round with the bolt action of her sniper rifle and tucked the stock tight against her cheek.

“Ready?” asked Pyro.

“Go.”

Pyro took his helmet off and stuck it out beyond the edge of the opening to draw fire. As he jerked it back behind the wall, the machine gunner inside fired again.

OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

As Shooter was preparing to take her shot at the commando hiding inside the tunnel, Caine watched the action on the display wall in the Ops Center.

“Watch this,” she said, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. She pointed to the computer-generated indicators displaying Shooter’s vital signs.

Shooter prepared herself mentally to take the shot. As she slowed her breathing and narrowed her focus, her heart rate and blood pressure dropped significantly.

“Remarkable,” said Quiz.

Then Shooter leaned from behind cover on the opposite side of the entrance, fixed the commando inside the tunnel in her sights, and fired twice in rapid succession.

“Nice shot,” said Hawkeye.

He led the Titan Six team through security the door into the main tunnel beyond.

OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

A live camera feed flickered into being on the wall of the Ops Center.

“Mrs. Caine, look at this,” said Touchdown.

A live video feed on the display wall showed a female Chinese commando staring directly into the camera. She wore a form-fitting suit — one that would allow for great speed and agility — but it shimmered and seemed to change colors as the monitor flickered. LED displays and small indicator lights were visible on slim, contoured plates on her chest and shoulders.

Her face revealed a stark, savage beauty. The irises of her eyes were a pale yellow color, rendering them almost invisible against her white orbs.

She stared into the camera, the slightest of smiles revealed by thin lips. She said nothing.

“What the hell -- ” said Quiz. “She looks like some kind of futuristic, high-tech ghost.”

“Touchdown, get a screen capture,” said Caine. “Quiz, run it through the facial recognition protocol.”

“I’m on it,” said Quiz. “But it may take a while to run through all the databases.”

It didn’t.

Within a minute, the computer found a match.

“Saturo Aiko,” said Quiz. “Commander of the Beijing Recon and Strike Force.”

“Touchdown, what can you tell me?” asked Caine.

“The Beijing Recon and Strike Force is an elite special forces unit of the Chinese Army,” Touchdown said. “Their chief unit for covert ops is . . . ”  He paused and looked at another screen of data. “Yep, things are beginning to add up. Their special ops team is the Dragons of the Night.”

“The Chinese army?” asked Cruz.

Touchdown elaborated. “The Dragons are a highly skilled, elite commando unit. They’re the Chinese equivalent of the U.S. Green Berets or Navy Seals, but much more autonomous. The Dragons are trained to perform airborne and commando assault operations on airfields, command and control sites, and fortified installations.”

“But why is she just standing there in front of the camera?” asked Caine.

“My guess?” said Touchdown. “She wants us to know who they are. To create fear and show us what we’re up against.”   

“Listen to this,” said Quiz. “Aiko and the Dragons were brought in by the Chinese government to fight the Uighur insurgents in Western China several years ago. Aiko was brutal. The Dragons slaughtered anyone who was suspected of providing aid to the rebels. They tortured hundreds of people to obtain intelligence on the location of the insurgents’ camp. When the Dragons finally tracked them down in the mountains along the border with Pakistan, it was a slaughter. They killed everyone. Whole families. Woman. Children. Everyone.”

“Jesus,” said Cruz.

Caine hurled her coffee cup against the wall, shattering it into hundreds of shards.

“Hawkeye,” Caine said over the COM system. “We need to talk. I have something I need to tell you.”