The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 24: Shadow Dragons

He looked back at the screen with its green dots now moving quickly towards the perimeter.

"The Viseith is the Council's spy agency, and their agents are spies. Although they prefer to be called 'intelligence operatives'. There are three sub-groups that have specific tasks. Those are the Viseith Obsidian Collective, which focuses on domestic intelligence gathering, the Cobalt Group, which gathers intra-species intelligence that the military makes use of, and the Jade Project, which gathers Industrial information."

Lash pursed his lips as he folded his arms.

"Always in the background, they operate, not possessing a tactical group to carry out precision wet work, or black ops like similar agencies amongst the humans."

The big vampire smiled tightly.

"But, then again, that's what we're here for," he said.

That was when he noticed the time on the chrono built into the monitor. A quick scan over the tactical display yielded no green dots in sight.

"NHA to all Nighthawks. You are cleared to re-engage. I repeat, go operational and re-engage!"

"Two re-engaging," Fordricht reported.

"One re-engaging," Ballan indicated a heartbeat later, followed by Truk: "Three re-engaging. Time to target: four minutes, twenty two seconds."

"Narcist, give me satellite top down," Lash directed as all three gunships began to move on the tactical display once more.

The holographic image quickly morphed into a real time image from a dedicated satellite in geostationary orbit two hundred klicks straight up.

"Infrared filter," he said and the image shifted. "Thermal check. Do I have humans in the compound?"

There was a pause as Narcist ran a quick thermal comparison analysis.

"Negative. No humans are present," she reported.

"Any hits on LiDAR for unexplained motion, Truk?"

"Affirmative," the veteran replied after a check of his own instruments. "All clustered inside the walls."

"FR Actual, NHA."

"NHA, FR Actual, go."

"Field of operation is now in Mirage protocol, acknowledge."

"Acknowledging Mirage, going to motion sensors on the package," Naryan tersely replied.

"Be advised: Hand agents have been observed using sundog rounds," Lash indicated. "Watch your radiologicals."

"Roger rad sigs," Naryan said.

"Jack-in-the-box in three, two, one," Fordricht counted down. "We're over the walls. Deploying Recon assets now!"

Moving almost silently over the castle's northern wall in full stealth mode, Two immediately turned sideways to bring her gatling guns to bear as, with the whisper of nylon against tensioners, the first Force Recon squad dropped out of her belly. They were just hitting the ground and hitting their line releases when One came over the wall. She too twisted sideways before deploying the second Force Recon squad from her undercarriage.

Recon One took several steps into the courtyard before they began to open fire, their motion detectors telling them the courtyard teamed with stealth cloaked enemies. And almost immediately bodies were dropping onto the ground, their cloaks twisted askew by their death throes.

"NHA, FR Actual. We have positive contact," Naryan reported as cloaks were tossed aside to let the defenders return fire. "We are taking fire."

"Copy. Recon Two, move to cover. Give me my LZ, Force Recon," Lash said even as Truk opened up on the wall emplacements with the gimbaled gatling guns.

"Copy, NHA," Naryan grimly replied. "Tanner, swing right. Galloway, that way. Dagger formation; don't give them more than one target to shoot at!"

The Nighthawk abruptly shifted as a percussive wave washed over her.

"Power station is history," Truk announced out loud. "Ground penetrating radar is showing activity in the boltholes."

"Swing us around and target the exit points to lock 'em in," Lash instructed, knowing full well Truk had an intimate knowledge of where those exit points were, being Van Tallert's former guard captain. And it didn't take long before the gunship was shivering again with another percussive wave in testament to Truk firing another sledgehammer into the ground.

They had four more plugged before:

"NHA, LZ has been established," Naryan reported. "We're still taking fire from a number of buildings, however. Moving fire teams in to clear them out."

"Copy that. Strike Teams, move in and drop. I want a Van Tallert in our hands in less than thirty minutes."

"Copy that, Wolf," Ballan reported as the top down view from the satellite showed the gunships moving back over the wall to let the Strike Teams drop to the ground. The powerful vehicles then held position to give both the Strike Teams cover while they moved into the castle's main building. And backup for the Force Recon teams still working to fully secure the courtyard.

Even positioned in a superior fashion, it was several minutes before:

"We have established battlefield dominance," Naryan reported, her voice both determined and satisfied as she spoke. "Out buildings have been cleared. Holding the LZ with Recon One. Recon Two is proceeding into the main building to provide backup for Strike One and Two."

"Copy. Good hunting."