2346 Hours; Zone Time, October 31, 2008
“Yeah,” Stone replied into his lip mike. “I hear you, skipper. We’ll be ready.”
He crouched beside the shrapnel riddled stairwell house. He and the security team had been engaged in a very diverting game of hand grenade baseball with the growing number of Indonesian soldiers on the floor below. Thanks to their holding the high ground, Stone and the Sea Demons were still decisively ahead on points.
Stone switched back to his tactical channel, speaking to his snipers and his
escape helo pilot. “Heads up, boys. We’re goin’ to be getting out of here pretty quick.”
He shifted position again returning to the roof edge. There was only one evac
flight left to go – but the last bird out was always the bitch of the litter.
Over Central Jakarta
2348 Hours; Zone Time, October 31, 2008
Through the thermographic sighting system, the line of rebel armored fighting vehicles glowed like a string of internally illuminated beads being drawn through the city’s streets. From his station orbiting at ten thousand feet, Arkady could note and bitterly appreciate the erratic path the task force was following towards the Embassy.
Whoever was commanding the column was deliberately keeping to the narrower residential streets, keeping his force shielded by apartment houses and private homes, daring the circling attack aircraft to fire on them at the price of innocent and uninvolved civilian lives.
Holding babies over their heads.
“If I could get you bastards alone for just five seconds,” Arkady muttered.
“Strike lead,” a voice spoke in his earphones. “This is Pigeye Lead. We have target in sight, and we have line of fire. Arming
now.”
“Strike Lead to Pigeye,” Arkady acknowledged. “Stink ’em up. Let ’em have it all, but watch your ass. This is going to be hot.”
The Pigeye flight swept into the vision field of his NiteBrite visor, the pair of non-lethally armed SPEED Cobras marked not only by the thermal trails of their exhaust plumes but by the glowing blue ID hacks generated by the Identification Friend or Foe system.
They were carrying unguided 2.75-inch rocket pods with Pigeye gas warheads. They had no option but to dive right down the throat of their target, walking their salvos down the length of the street and the armored column.
Tracer streams whipped back at them.
The string of airbursting rockets exploded down the length of the rebel column, smothering it under a blanket of swirling riot gas. But from out of the gas cloud another fire trail lanced upward.
“SAM! SAM!” Arkady yelled into his mike. “Break! Break! Break!”
The two non-lethal SPEED Cobras obeyed, snapping their wings vertical in minimum radius turns, left and right, trailing streams of anti-IR flares.
The warning had come too late. One of the banking helicopters caught the missile full in its belly.
Rotors flailing, the maimed helo staggered through the sky trailing a streamer of flame. Rolling inverted, it plunged through the roof of an apartment complex two streets over from the path of the rebel force. The walls of the building bulged outward, collapsing as a fireball of exploding jet propellant burst within it.
Non-lethal warfare, my ass!
“Strike Lead to Star Child. Pigeye Flight Lead is down. Do not, I repeat, do not
commit crisis flight. Nonsurvivable event. Gas is deployed. Assessing results.”
The chemical reactions taking place within the gas cloud that filled the street below blurred the thermal signatures into indistinction. Then the lead tank tore out of the cloud, still churning purposefully ahead, its teammates following.
“Shit!” Pink Pinkerton commented over the Talk Between Pilots. “We didn’t even slow them down!”
“I can see it, Pink. Star Child, this is Strike Lead. Pigeye ineffective. Totally
ineffective. They must have chemical warfare gear. Column ETA to Merdeka Square
now four minutes or less!”
Landing force Operations Center, USS Shenandoah
2349 Hours; Zone Time, October 31, 2008
“Air Boss! Status on the last lift flight?”
“SPEED Hawk Foxtrot is just touching down now, ma’am. We’re going to make it!”
“If nothing breaks. Crisis flight, this is the Lady. Move up to final phase check
line! Arkady, I want you to position on that armored column and stand by!”
The US Embassy Compound, Jakarta
2349 Hours; Zone Time, October 31, 2008
The Intelligence detail was gone, as were the members of the FAST platoon; only the single squad of the Embassy Marine garrison and one mildly terrified Naval Intelligence officer remained, hunkered against the inner facing of the perimeter wall.
Christine Rendino couldn’t draw enough air through the filters of her chem war hood to ease the strain in her lungs. She tore off her helmet and the gas mask and took a deep wheezing breath. Only a faint burning coolness around her eyes hinted at a lingering residue of teargas. The rotor blast of the incoming lift ship helped to disperse the last rags of the smoke screen.
The SPEED Hawk settled toward the helipad. While its undercarriage wheels were
still a man’s height off the tarmac, the Marine garrison commander yelled, “Let’s go! Load up!”
For a single hideous instant, Christine Rendino thought she was paralyzed, that somehow she couldn’t move and that she was about to be left behind. Then she lost all choice in the matter. Callused hands closed on the straps of her interceptor vest. Two brawny leathernecks flanked her, yanked her to her feet, hauled her across the pad to the helicopter and hurled her bodily through the SPEED Hawk’s gaping hatch. On her hands and knees, she scrambled across the helo’s deck, getting out of the way as the Marine squad piled in after her.
The landing gear bounced on the ground once; then the Air Commando Pilot had his throttles firewalled climbing back out of the compound. Kneeling on the deck, Christine could see the flagpole drifting past the open side hatch, the stars and stripes still flying and backlit by the burning city.
There had been some discussion about lowering the embassy flag – but Ambassador Goodyard had insisted that it remain flying, a reminder to whom it may concern that the United States intended to resume residence.
The SPEED Hawk nosed down, gathering speed as it swept across Merdeka Square. In another ten seconds it would be clear and away.