The fly upriver took about a minute and a half. I was sitting on the edge of the chopper with my 48 primed and ready. Emelia was gilding beside us and Frank and Issac were beside me.
"Coming on the convoy now",Hudson said.
I looked out the side of the helicopter and saw a large,old looking fishing barge accompanied by several gunboats.
"The barge matches Dakarai's Intel!",Issac shouted,"Wyatt is probably on board!"
"We gotta get close!",I shouted over the chopper's engines,"bring us alongside Hudson!"
All at once,gunfire rang out from the barge. The bullets from it and the gunboats were bouncing off of the Seahwak's metal sides.
"Wyatt's gotta be on borad!",Issac shouted as we fired back.
"Get us in close Hudson!",I shouted over the gunfire.
Hudson began lowering in the chopper, as he did, I spotted a man with a TOW missile trained right at us. I trained my weapon at him, but did so all to late. The man let the missile go and not a second later it slammed into the tail end of our Seahawk, sending us into a tail spin.
"Shit!",Hudson shouted,"everybody jump!"
I slung my 48 over my shoulder and leaped from the chopper,rolling into the side of a shipping container as I did.
"JOHN!",Issac yelled,"look out!"
I flipped over to see a man with a machete charging me with it held high. I acted quickly. As he swung the blade,I grabbed his had and threw a punch into his face,the impact of which made him reel. I then pryed the blade from his hand and swung it at his neck. It landed with a cracking noise,telling me I'd snapped his spine. His body went limp. I shoved his body aside and stood,placing my back to the doors of the shipping container for cover from the hail of FAL fire coming from the ships bridge as Hudson,Issac and Frank climbed aboard. I quickly glanced out from cover and did a count of the hostiles on the bridge,I could see twelve guys armed mostly with the RPD light machine gun.
"I count twelve hostiles with RPDs!",I shouted over the gunfire,"use grenades if you've got them!"
I let my rifle fall to my side and pulled a grenade from my kit. I pulled the pin and let the safety click off before blindly throwing it from behind the shippingcontainer. I went off and all I could hear one of the men yelling.
"Kill their leader!"
Pipe bombs began landing right at my feet,seeing them laying there with such short,lit fuses was scary.
"Holy crap!",I squealed as I moved out of the way.
The pipe bombs went off and I nearly lost my weapon in the process. As I recovered,Hudson shouted.
"John,multiple contacts coming outta the engine room!"
"Put the bastards down!",I shouted in reply.
Four cracks left Hudson's FAL and four bodies hit the ground.
"Clear left!",Hudson called.
"Clear right!",I replied.
"Engine room is clear",Issac said walking from the engine room with a bag,"and look at what I found."
He set the bag on a crate and opened it up. Inside was Wyatt's rifle and uniform,everything was accounted for. I turned around and began staring daggers as the crate and for the first time,noticed the damn thing had putrid odor to it.
"Bet I know where those screws were keeping Wyatt",I snapped my fingers and pointed to the box,"open it Hudson."
Hudson walked up to the box and took the padlock in his hand. It was a brand new,Brinks hardened steel padlock and Hudson simply scoffed at it before crushing it like he was snapping a toothpick.
Issac leaned in,"glad were on his side."
I laughed,"yeah no shit."
"Help me get these doors open John",Hudson said.
I walked forward and began undoing the lock on the door and swung it open. As we did,a stench like none I had ever smelled before assailed me,causing me to gag and Hudson nearly to throw up.
"Good fucking lord!",Hudson said gagging,"the fuck is that!?"
I looked into the crate and was appalled at the sight. Dead bodies were piled as high as my waist and spilling out onto the barge. The bodies were so badly wasted I don't even think a DNA test could identify them.
"Bodies are so badly decomposed",Hudson said,tears in his eyes from the smell,"these men have been dead for weeks,months possibly."
"Wyatt?",I asked noticing my voice was shifting back to my south Texas accent,"ya in here brother?"
I glanced around before I noticed a man siting up against the wall of the shipping crate. He had Marine Ink on his arm and Raven ink right below it,custom combat pants and blond hair finally sent the message.
"Wyatt?",I asked running to him and giving him a shake.
Wyatt's hand suddenly shot up and grabbed my shoulder. Wyatt's eyes were bloodshot and his skin was cracked,he was covered in blood and just looked like he was ready to call it quits.
"Wyatt!",I shouted,"it's me,it's me Mason!"
Wyatt looked like he was going to cry.
Wyatt, only 29, was the team scout sniper. He stood at 6'2 with neon green eyes and long blond hair that came half way down his forehead. He was skinny, but damn can the man lay a hit, even without his prized rifle. Wyatt's SCAR-H, was FNH's response to Eugene Stoner's AR-10, though they were quite late in arriving with it. It was equipped with a long 24 inch barrel and a fixed stock with a custom pistol grip and a bipod that clung to the end of the gun. Like on Jackson's Remington, a long Variable zoom lens sat on top the rifle, enabling him to hit pinpoint at crazy distances well out of reach of Issac's M16, Hudson's FAL or even Jackson's Remington, but not my 48. I could go out to a distance of 1,200 yards if I had to, but my weapon being designed for large amounts of fire, rather than sniping, it's unlikely I could land kill shots. Like the rest of us, he holds Browning's B32R with a laser sight and long barrel in reserve.
"What did they do to you?",I asked helping him stand.
"Bad things John",Wyatt rasped,"but I think I'll be fine."
"Can you walk?",I asked.
"Barely",Wyatt replied,"but I'm good for combat,I want some payback for what they done to me."
Hudson walked back to us.
"You okay brother?",he asked.
"Yeah",Wyatt said,"I'll be fine."
"We got your gear",Hudson said,"come on,we got ya brother."
"Uh guys!",Issac called nervously,"hate to be the wet blanket here but we got a hind right on us!"
I looked out the front of the shipping container and noticed a Russian made MI24 Super Hind moving in. It opened up,shredding the back of the barge like a wet paper.
"What the hell are the Russian's doing here!",Hudson shouted.
"Trying to kill us!",I shouted in reply,"does it matter!"
"John",Wyatt said weakly,"I saw them moving a bunch of Tow missiles in that box."
Wyatt pointed to the box and Hudson smashed it open,revealing a large amount of TOW wire guided missiles.
"This arms crate is a gold mine!",Hudson shouted,"use the TGM to blow that fucking hind outta the sky!"
"Get Wyatt to cover!",I shouted as I grabbed it from the box.
I lifted it to my shoulder and drew the box over the hind before depressing the trigger and letting the rocket burst from the launcher and struck the hind in the tail rotor.
"Got him!",I shouted,"he's..."
The entire barge lurched,sending me to my back and bashing my head against the steel.
"Dammit",Hudson barked,"we ran a ground!"
The hind spun outta the sky and crashed into a bamboo hut as we lept from the barge and swam to shore. For Africa,the water was surprisingly clean and would have been pleasant to swim in if I wasn't in danger of being killed. As we made it to the beach,Hudson came to a crouch and began droning the water from his OSW.
"We probably just attracted the attention of every MPLA screw in the area",he barked,"we need to mo...wait,where the hell is Wyatt!?"
I quickly glanced around,fearing he had maybe been thrown into the water and drowned. Then I spotted him on his knees at the edge of the water washing the blood and dirt off his face.
"Huhhh",he huffed,"that's better."
"You ready to go brother?",I asked opening the dust cover of my 48 and the slide of my 32.
"Yeah",Wyatt replied,"I'm ready."
"Right then",I said shouldering my 48 and grabbing my 32.
"Go silent",I said screwing on the suppressor.
As a team one again we moved through the jungle before coming on a burned out Church.
"Hold",I said,"enemy in the area,take cover behind that log."
We ducked under the log and observed the enemy fighters,who turned out to be Cubans. This surprised me.
"What the hell are Cuban's doing here?",I whispered to Hudson.
"Hell if I know",he said.
The Cuban soldier was instructing a few kids on weapons tactics,and beating them around. At that moment,every fiber of my being yearned to put an end to his wretched existence,but doing so wold blow our cover.
"Keep quiet",I whispered,"no one move."
The Cuban was in the middle of screaming at the kids when a loud,earsplitting alarm bell began to ring.
"Guess they found our mess",Wyatt whispered.
"Looks that way",I replied,"everyone move into the grass on my mark,we head for the burned out hut."
I watched a few Cuban soldiers run past before I said.
"Mark,stay low and let's move."
We crouch walked through the grass and moved quietly into the burned out church before I gave the order to halt once again.
"More soldiers moving through the area",I whispered sliding into cover behind a burned pew,"on my mark,move for the reeds."
I watched the soldiers moving around,two of them ran right in front of my pew.
"Whatever you do",I told myself,"don't you fucking move."
The two soldiers said a few things to each other in Spanish before moving away.
"Mark",I said,"grass now."
We walked into the grass before taking cover behind a large rock.
The soldiers were right in front of us.
'They're right there",I whispered,"no one do anything stupid."
The mercs were scrambling around,dropping their weapons and ammo as they tried to mobilize. Hudson let off a hushed laugh as he took out his IPod and began recording the mercs.
"This is some You Tube gold right here",he said.
It was quite funny watching them scrambling around and I silently began scolding myself for leaving my Ipod back at base. The mercs soon moved away and the others holstered their IPod's.
"Move out of the grass",I whispered,"keep quiet."
We moved from the grass and into a rocky out cropping that was free of enemy activity,for now anyway. It was located just outside of a village and I could see from here that they had a radio tower.
"John",Hudson said,"they have a radio tower."
"I see that Hudson",I replied,"Emelia,how high up are you?"
No answer.
"Emelia",I called,"it's John do you copy?".
"I read you John",she finally said,"my com's are screwy,what you need?"
"Gimme an overview of the village with the radio tower."
"Copy",she said.
There was a slight pause.
"I don't see much of anything expect a few Cuban looking guys having beers,proceed with caution,because I can smell a lot more than I see."
"Rodger",I called,"John out."
I turned to Hudson and the others,"be ready to run,cause I have a feeling I'm about to seriously piss off a nest of hornets."
"I'll take care of Wyatt",Hudson said,"stay safe John."
I nodded and began creeping up the path towards the village. As I went,dug shallow holes in the ground. I then pulled the pins off my last three grenades and placed them in the holes just so that the safety's didn't fly off,but the slightest nudge would. I then crept up the pathway and into a large grassy field. Scanning around,I sported two guards with beers in hand and one other one who was playing a Game Boy,Pokemon from the looks of it. Right ahead of me was a house with an open window,inside I could see a man on a radio. I crept up towards the house and entered,my B32 drawn. I scanned around the room and when I found it clear,walked up to the radio man.
"They are just pawns",the man said,"do not concern yourself with local politics."
I placed the barrel of my pistol to the back of his head,I saw him start to jump,but he stopped himself.
"You are a dead man unless you do exactly as I say,exactly how I say it,tune your radio to..."
The man produced a knife and shoved it into the radio,it sparked,before smoking and giving out. The man stood,a good six feet. I placed my other hand on my pistol,ready to cut loose if he so much as breathed.
"You will not kill me American si? You are too much of a coward."
The door opened and the Cuban who was abusing those kids walked in humming a tune. I quickly seized the radio operator by his neck and shoved my handgun into his head.
"Move and this fucker gets it",I said in my southern accent,which I had a tendency to use when things went south.
The radio man said something in Spanish and I shoved my handgun so hard into his head I heard his skull crack.
"Shut the fuck up!",I shouted,"I will make a paint out of his brain! Lay down your weapons right now!"
The radio man said something else before producing a live frag grenade.
"You son of a bitch!",I shouted.
He let the grenade go before filliping around and producing another knife. I grabbed his wrist,halting his swing and pistol whipping him before placing a burst from my Browning right in his forehead. I jumped out of the back window as the house exploded with the frag. I quickly stuffed my 32 into it's holster and grabbed my 48 and began running down the hill,leaping over my grenade traps.
"Did you secure EVAC?",Hudson asked as I ran down the hill.
"Negative",I returned,"were on our own,run for the beach!"
"Fuck John",Issac yelped,"sounds like the entire village is on our asses!"
"Can it and fucking run!",I shouted in reply.
We ran down the slot canyon before sliding down a hill and nearly making the beach before we slid into cover behind some rocks.
"We gonna have to make our stand here!",I shouted.
"John what's going on down there!",Emelia asked,"my radar is going nuts with red blips!"
"Were'compromised!",I shouted,"how much ammo you have left!"
"Enough for you to get to the beach!",she replied,"I'll hold em down,you guys get out!"
There was a whistle,followed by a chainsaw like noise as
Emelia dived the Cubans,shredding them with her Dillon Areo. We ran for the beach,stopping dead in our tracks when we got there. In the sky,was a Russian hind.
"Shit",Hudson said getting red in the face,"fucking Russian's,huh,no way out."
Hudson walked towards the hovering hind,making a motion with his arms as if he was asking them,"why?"
Much to our surprise,the hind opened up on the Cubans,tearing them up and finishing what Emelia had started.
"Ha ha!",Dakarai laughed,"my American friends,you thought I would forget about you yes? Ha ha,you were wrong!"
The Hind landed and Wyatt climbed in,followed by Issac and Frank.
'Well John",Hudson said putting on his pilot style sunglasses as we climbed in,"we got him."
We lifted off,on our way home. Not ten seconds later,the hind lurched and went into a tail spin.
"We just took a rocket to the ass end!",Hudson shouted.
"Were going down!",I yelped,"brace for imp..."
I was cut short by a rocket exploding in the cabin. Everything went black.