Shot Throught the Heart

thirty-six

Getting a second full night of undisturbed sleep felt like a miracle. But when I woke up the next morning fully awake and ready to go, all I wanted to do was finish this mission. I was tired of constantly being in a state of fight or flight and was just ready to pull back to a safer position. Being this close to the steel plant and this many Russian troops left zero room for error. The team had to constantly be on guard of everything we did.

The team started to set up patrols around our new alamo and we started to make notes of everyone's movements around. It took a good week for me to feel comfortable enough with the new lay of the land before we switched focus on the plant. The plant itself sits on four square miles of terrain which include warehouses and mazes of train tracks all surrounded by a river, with only one entryway over a bridge that is constantly guarded by a guard unit of Russian troops. We have been given maps of the plant and a few partial maps of the underground bunkers and shelters that have been being used by civilians and Ukrainian soldiers who were cornered into them from when the Russians attacked and have held the plant since.

We have to clear the plant in pieces as it is to large to take care of all on our own. I had half of the team switch over to night patrols to start to obverse the plant and all of movement going on there. Lucky for us, there are a few other buildings close to the plant that haven't been completely destroyed yet so we have been using them for cover to stake out the movement of soldiers in the plant. I took shifts on both teams, wanting to be in the loop of everything they have been seeing while out in the streets. I had this going on for another week before I pulled Rob, Monica, and Morgan into a meeting to go over different ways of searching the plant.

I wanted to hear all of there opinions on everything because this is a huge mission to attempt ourselves. After our council together, I took over our bedroom to speak with Major Collins alone. Our updates so far have been brief because I didn't want to run the risk of something getting picked up on Russian chatter. We have also been having problems getting the calls connected with the rolling power outages that keep happening. The Russian military has been attacking Ukrainian infrastructure and power outages have just become a normal thing now. Some times it's out for a few minutes, but other times it has stretched for hours and days.

After giving Major Collins the long update I've been needing too, she said she could send Alpha and Bravo team over to our location for additional support as the NATO and Ukrainian troops that were supposed to be here already, are only now being freed up from Odesa. The additional troops that were supposed to come in to support us have stayed in Odesa and the outlying areas as they have also been hit the hardest with missile strikes. Since our team is already here to try and help any civilians in the area, Major Collins couldn't stress the issue of us needing support of the NATO troops when Odesa doesn't have any kind of military force to help them.

But along with the update on the army moving out from Odesa, Major Collins let me know that the Ukrainian troops have taken over Alpha and Bravo's post in Chornobyl and they have been holding them firm. Alpha and Bravo can be here in two days once I give the go ahead. I told her I would think about it and give her an answer later that night, needing to think everything over.

Instead of having only my team cut in half to make two, I could have another two. Four or possibly five teams of special operators if we stretch out our teams a bit more, going up against an unknown amount of Russian troops that have tank and artillery support, I like those odds better then just my own team. I called Rob, Monica and Morgan back into the room and gave them the update Major Collins gave me and about the help she offered in sending Alpha and Bravo teams to us. All three of them were all for having the support in addition to our team.

I gave Major Collins a call back and let her know I wanted their support in this part of the mission. She told me that they could be here in two days with the help of our map that we have still been keeping up to date with missile and damaged roads. I asked that she have both teams keep track on there way down so if we need another route out of Mariupol, we would have it.