Black Dawn

Chapter 2

"Team one in position Captain"

"Alright guys, door to door, house to house, remember Mozambique drill, two to the body, one to the head, let them sleep for as long as they want"

"Roger"

Captain Mike motioned for his team to move up slowly, entering the first house. Thank god the door was well oiled, it did not squeak too much. Breathing a sigh of relief, he motioned for Corporal Ryan to cover the door while the other two members of his fire team swept into the two rooms to his left. Mike himself entered the doorway on his right, where two men were sleeping inside. Phut Phut Phut. That was all the noise the silenced USP made as they blew craters into the sleeping terrorists. More soft phuts could be heard from the adjoining rooms as the other terrorists in the house were also taken care of.

"Captain, we've cleared the first house, moving on two the second one"

"Roger that, we're cleared on this side as well, move on two the second target"

Captain Mike again motioned for his team to slowly exit. Their plan was going according to plan so far. But he knew that knew that Murphy would surely rear his ugly head, after all, no plan survived first contact. He just had to make sure that his contacts were dead before they knew he was there.

Swiftly and silently exiting the concrete building into the cold frigid mountain top air, Captain Mike, noticed that a putrid smell was spreading through the air, and the fact that the smell was a lot like rotting flesh surprised him.

"Christ Captain, what's that god awful smell?"

"Dunno Ryan, but it smells a lot like rotting flesh, stand it for a while, we'll finish our mission then look into it."

Pushing aside the putrid smell from his mind, Mike concentrated on the task at hand. Keying his throat mike, "Mitchell any movement from the other two houses?"

"Wait one; Yeah... There seems to be some sort of movement in the other three houses, seems as though they're all grabbing for their guns. Sorry Captain, it looks like we've lost the element of surprise"

This came as a complete shock to Mike. The team had done a by-the book stealth breech and neutralised the targets. Even the person sleeping in the next room would have had trouble hearing them. If they were still alive that was. It could only mean that there had been silent alarms around the perimeter which they had failed to check. Mike cursed his foolishness. These were not his garden variety terrorists who held down their triggers and hoped to hit something. These were battle hardened veterans of the afghan war and the gulf war. Together with latest commercial technology provided by Al Kassim these terrorists were not to be taken lightly.

"Teams you heard Mitchell, hunker down and prepare for contact from the other buildings. Take cover in the buildings we just cleared. Mitchell provide intel on enemy movements but do not engage. Jackson report to Karachi, we've encountered enemy hostiles and proceeding to engage."

Mike went along with Ryan and the other two of his men moving the dead bodies away from the metal beds, and propping them against the walls. They then proceeded to stack the metal frame beds next to windows and doors to act us additional cover and protection.

On the hilltop, Mitchell was in his element, silent and deadly, looking through his scope with a detached sentiment. "Boss, they're coming out now; 9 hostiles heading towards you from the main building, permission to fire"

"You got it Mitchell, thin out the herd for us will you?"

With a grim smile, Mitchell took a deep breath and sighted his first target, a turbaned middle aged man who was running along cover heading towards his team mates. Letting go of half his breath he held it there, aiming ahead of the man to cover bullet travel time.

Three pounds of pressure. That's all it took for Mitchell to send a .388 match grade round travelling twice the speed of sound rushing towards the man's head. His head burst like a ripe water melon, before the man could take two more steps. But Mitchell didn't see all of this, he was already roving his scope around, searching for his next target, just like the cold blooded smooth killing machine he had been trained to become.

Like a single drop before the torrent, Mitchell single kill shot opened up a barrage of gun fire from the team members in the houses. The uncoordinated terrorists ran into a wall of lead, as the men fired short aimed bursts at the terrorists. Three or four enemies dropped before the rest brought up their guns and started to return fire. The distinctive sharp whip crack of the AK was heard above the din caused by the M-16's firing in bursts, but Mitchell's gun delivered the final punch, silent death from above, killing the shooters before they could figure out that they were in his sights.

Silence filled the valley as the fire teams moved up and cleared the buildings.

"Jackson radio back to Karachi, valley is secure and targets have been shut down permanently"

Jackson immediately got on the radio and started talking with his compatriot on the other end.

"Captain, base affirms and congratulates. Requests that you sit tight and wait for extraction, chinooks will be here in twenty"

"Copy that, we'll continue hunting for intel for the CIA pukes back at base, and Jackson get down here with your camera"

"Copy that, on my way down"

"Sierra One here, I'll stay on as over watch"

"Copy, inform us of any hostiles in the area"