Chapter 5: Operators
POV: Captain of Special Forces rescue team
10 minutes before hostage's emergency signal.
'The hostage should have already reached the extraction point by now, but it seems like he's late since Charlie hasn't confirmed his recovery.' I thought to myself trying to figure out what position my team will be in if we are needed.
"Be advised the hostage has not made it to the extraction point on time, we will most likely be going into the city to get him ourselves so once the doors open jump immediately." I said through the radio to all of my squad members making sure everyone was on the same page. Although the older guys in my squad already know this, we still have some young newbies on our team, so I wanted to make sure they were getting out of their comfort zone. We have been standing in the same position for quite a while, so it isn't weird for them to feel that.
"Captain, do we have any intel on where the hostage will most likely be even if he doesn't send up the emergency signal?" Questioned the sensor of my team who was sadly one of the newbies on his first combat tour. "No, we do not have any intel on where he could be in the city, but we will only be extracting him if he sends up the emergency signal, if he doesn't do that then we don't go in." I said to him through the radio to which he simply nodded his head to.
Honestly speaking if the hostage does send up the emergency signal in the city, we will be having quite a rough time getting him out. Charlie who is the commander of this gunship told me that the entire city is filled with smoke and dust making it impossible to see unless you were a sensor. This usually wouldn't bother me, but our sensor on this tour is a complete rookie who's only had a couple of missions under his belt and those weren't nearly as hard as this one.
Sensors are the eyes and ears of a squad; they specialize in reconnaissance, making us able to get in and out of areas in not only at a much faster rate but also a safer one. Each sensor is given the nickname "Path Finder" for their ability to pinpoint safe paths within a chaotic environment. They are also able to spot enemies at incredible distances depending on their skill making the group more efficient at finding and killing the other force. Having a good sensor on any combat squad is a must, yet the one we have is simply not up to par with other ones I've worked with in the past.
I tapped Ryan on the shoulder who was the second in command under me, he's been with me for over 50 years and can basically read my thoughts by just looking me. Speaking of the devil he simply looked over at my face and gave me a thumbs up which basically meant he's going to focus on protecting our sensor since that's what I was thinking. I nodded my head to him and looked back in front of me to see the giant door which I might be jumping out of.
'I've saved lives in the most horrific places on this damn planet, yet here I am worried about failing this mission in a dumpster fire of a city just because I don't have a good sensor. Just how much have I come to rely on them over the years?' I thought to myself because this really was the first time in a while where I thought we might not be able to save someone. The last time I thought this was when a whole dragon was on our ass, yet we were still able to save our comrades.
This merely spoke to levels of how important it was to have a good sensor on your squad, without them situations that were deemed impossible will stay that way making them simple suicide missions. If you were blessed enough to have a good one you can make a mission that was deemed impossible into a difficult one giving you a ray of hope.
While coming to this conclusion on why I felt this way all the lights turned red and a loud beeping noise was swept into our ears. The massive door to the cargo space opened up and without missing a beat we all started to jump out of the plane.
My eyes immediately started scanning the entire city for the emergency signal and in the southern part of the city I saw a massively sized dark smoke cloud. I knew the hostage was directly under that cloud and in a bad state since that signals kickback is like a battering ram smashing you into the ground.
Without even telling them to, both jumpmasters used their mana to encircle us with the wind making us nosedive right into where the smoke is. We were descending like bullets and when were about 2,000 feet above the ground we yanked our parachutes which shot back our bodies. The worst part is that if you're a male the good old family jewels get smashed by the force. Luckily, we all have large amounts of Ki so we are able to do this type of parachuting without major injuries besides your nuts being in your stomach.
Now that we are slowly descending, the tenth fighter jet is 10 seconds out from doing its gun run. I believe Charlie should have informed them to attack right by our sector giving us a little time to find the hostage before the enemy swarm us.
"Search for a crater." I said as quickly as I could though the radio since as soon as our feet hit the ground, we need to immediately start the search and only our sensor could find him. With the jet being close by I was hoping my words were heard by him so that we didn't have to waste precious seconds.
"BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT" "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT"
"TRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT" TRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT"
The gun run was done right on top of us, so the amazing sounds produced by that machinery were fully heard. Confidence and morale were rising beyond belief as we knew our brothers in the sky's had our backs and would be lessening our burden.
Our feet finally hit the ground and we immediately removed the parachute equipment from our bodies. After that we all went into a defensive position having our sensor in the middle of us, weapon's raised searching for anything that posed a single threat. Assault rifles were in each of our hands while also having close combat weapons strapped to our backs. My weapon of choice were two short daggers as they were what I was most proficient in.
My eyes were scanning whatever was near me, but I couldn't see a damn thing. I decided to enhance my hearing and sense of smell since people would have a strong smell of odor.
Seconds were passing by each feeling like an eternity since any sensor I've worked with would have already found the hostage. We knew we were close by but did not want to look around blindly when we have someone who can search it from a safe position.
"FOUND HIM, HE IS 200 YARDS DIRECTLY WHERE MY HEAD IS LOOKING!" My sensor screamed out loud which not only hurt everyone's ears because our radios are connected but is the worst mistake to make when we in an urban environment when an enemy could be extremely close in proximity.
'HOW THE FUCK DID THIS IDIOT PASS SELECTION? HE'S GONNA GET US KILLED ALONG WITH OUR HOSTAGE, GOD DAMN IT IM GONNA SLAUGHER THOSE IDOTIC INSTRUCTORS WHO PASSED THIS MORON!!' I screamed in my head because my confidence turned into pure anger with this dumbass giving away our position if anyone heard him.
We saw where his head was pointing and started to sprint there immediately. Weapons were swaying left to right while waiting for our sensor to tell us if any enemies are by us. Luckily, he hadn't said anything, so we ended up at the crater with no problems.
Only 30 seconds have gone by since our landing, it was still slow compared to my standards, but at least we made it to the hostage's position. I signaled my medic to follow me into the crater while the rest of my squad defended the outside of it.
We both jumped inside the crater which was about 40 feet deep and landed on its edges. The crater was about 20 feet wide and in the dead center of it a small looking boy with dark brown hair who had tattered cloths drenched in blood was spotted. My medic and I immediately appeared next to him while the medic got on one knee and check his vital signs, then immediately cut the boy's shirt off to take care of the wounds.
"He is alive sir but badly wounded as you can see, I'm able to deal with most the injuries but the more severe ones require surgery. If we don't get him into a hospital by today, he will die." Said my medic with a heavy tone since we only had five hours to get him to a hospital. He was already wrapping small wounds and sealing major cuts with his medical skills as he was speaking.
The boy must have felt this and opened his eyes which were a very light grey as if he was a ghost. He turned his head and looked dead into my eyes which shook my entire core because his face was littered with horrific scars.
I went down on one knee while maintaining eye contact and said "Don't worry Azrail we are here to save you from this place. Stay with us now and do not try to sleep." I said with a deep tone that carried my confidence of doing this job for 50 years.
"Sir he can't hear you; his ear drums are ruptured and his vision is most likely blurred." My medic told me as he continued working at a fast pace showing his skill and experience in the medical field.
"Be advised hostage is found and secured, requesting level five air support for assistance." I said through my radio which I connected to the leader of this operation. Level five air support would mean all fighter jets would be doing gun runs at the same time and the AC-130 would be switching to weapons mode and joining the fight.
"Confirmed, level five air support is a go." Was said by a young man over the radio, although they call him "The Legacy" his voice is quite normal strangely enough.
As I heard his words, I connected my radio to Charles. "Level five air support is a go, kill everything that has a heat signature that comes remotely close to us." I said to him, my voice laced with nothing but pure killing intent.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶