TF 5…
‘Missile levelling off now. Missile coming down.’
TF 4…
Shit. As we closed on it, I saw a cool ridge running through the middle of the target, front and top – two buildings, joined together.
TF3…
To do the most damage, I needed to hit each section individually.
TF2…
I adjusted the crosshairs to the right side of the building.
TF1…
As I centred them on the apex of the walls the missile struck, smack on the laser beam. A flash, followed by a billowing cloud of dust as the roof lifted. The dust cleared to reveal a huge chunk missing from two-thirds up the front of the building. The right-hand and back walls had collapsed, bringing down the roof. The left-hand side of the building still stood firm.
‘Good hit, mate.’
‘Take us back out for another run-in.’
‘I’ve got the second sentry hiding behind a tree near the remains of the northern accommodation block,’ the Boss reported. ‘I need to get in close.’
‘We’re clear,’ Carl called.
‘Engaging with cannon.’
I swung the TADS across in time to see the earth and a low wall erupt beside the base of a bare tree fifty metres south-west of the mosque. As Carl banked us back in to the target I saw the lone heat source drop to the ground from behind the trunk. Trigger was in his element. My adrenalin was pumping like a piston engine too.
Carl pushed Billy north to give us a clear shot. I put a second Hellfire into the cooler stripe where the roof met the interconnecting wall. Two minutes and twenty-one seconds after the first Hellfire impacted, the building was in ruins, but I caught a glimpse on the left of my screen of a small guardhouse still standing twenty metres to its north-east. We were just 1,000 metres off now; could I get it on the same run?
‘Hold it steady, Carl. Going for one more.’
‘No, Ed. There’s not time left for–’
‘Firing Hellfire!’ The third missile streaked off the rail to my right, between two skeletal trees. It never had time to climb, or even to count me down; it just slammed straight into the middle of the six-foot by six-foot building, reducing it to rubble.
The Boss came on again, cool as a cucumber.
‘Ugly Five Zero has got a leaker, running east. Stand by…’
‘Engaging with cannon.’
I couldn’t see anyone in my half of the target area, so I swung my TADS sharp left to catch his second burst cut straight through the guy’s path. He was hurled forward, a metre off the ground, then hard down on one side. The 30-mm round that hit him had failed to explode, but it hadn’t done him any favours. It had powered straight through his back and out of his chest, leaving a hole the size of Trigger’s clenched fist.
Only the mosque was left without a scratch. They were strictly off the target list. It was where Trigger’s leaker had appeared from. And if there was one, there would be more. We needed to nail them before they reached their DShKs and Stingers, and our fuel clocks were ticking.
‘Okay Carl, bring us in close. Complete sanitisation now.’
Carl threw us into an anticlockwise orbit as I scanned the southern half of the site. Nothing.
‘Ugly Five Zero, Knight Rider Five Six. Intelligence from higher has identified a further enemy compound at the following grid. Ready to copy.’
Intelligence from higher?
‘Ugly Five Zero has identified a building in the northern sector.’ The Boss hadn’t finished with his half of the target yet. ‘Pass grid to Five One. Five One acknowledge.’
I was only too pleased to copy.
‘Break… Break… Engaging with Hellfire.’ The Boss was doing an increasingly bad job of disguising his excitement.
I copied down Knight Rider’s grid, punched it into the keypad and slaved my TADS thermal camera to it with a push of a button. It was a small, chisel-shaped compound surrounded by fields, 200 metres directly east of the Taliban base. Whoever wanted us to have a look at it wasn’t part of the stack. We’d be able to talk to the Nimrod, and the B1 had a radar. ‘Higher’ was either connected to the Predator feed, or had picked up a SigInt hit from the place – or both.
High and to the east, I zoomed into the chisel-shaped compound as three men ran through its main entrance and ducked into the first of the five single-storey buildings inside it.
‘Runners to the north, closing in fast on the compound.’ Keeping a broad sweeping arc – out of Billy’s and Trigger’s way – Carl had spotted two more sprinting down a path to the south. We hadn’t seen them leave the complex, which made them a fresh target; I needed permission to engage.
‘Knight Rider, Ugly Five One. Two men heading south towards the second compound; confirm clear to engage?’
I flicked the weapons switch forward, tracked him with the crosshairs and began lasing to update the gun’s range to target.
‘Knight Rider Five Six, you are clear hot–’
‘Firing with thirty Mike Mike.’
I gave the path a burst as the first runner reached the nearest building, throwing up mud and dust. The second runner was still 100 metres short. He’d stopped to see his mate get through and knew he wouldn’t be so lucky.
I centred on him and squeezed off a twenty-round burst. I saw the heat of the rounds arc down and knew they were going to miss him too. Bollocks. He stumbled as the ground erupted behind him then legged it into the field.
I aimed off, slightly to the left of him, as he picked up speed and angled back towards the compound. The cannon thundered beneath my feet and the heat pulses shot towards him, close enough this time to catch him with a few fragments of red hot metal. He stumbled back towards the path and rolled down the bank of a tiny irrigation ditch. It may have looked like good place to hide, but he was glowing from his exertions. I moved the crosshairs onto him, adjusted them a little further this time to compensate for the inaccuracy of the gun, and gave him another burst of twenty. His running days were over.
‘Knight Rider, Ugly Five One. I have got at least four individuals complete in the buildings within the second compound.’
‘Copied. You are cleared to destroy all the buildings in that compound. Intelligence from higher says they’re Taliban commanders.’
‘Higher’ was clearly exceptionally well informed. The first three runners had turned right and the one I’d missed had gone left. That meant Taliban in at least two different buildings now.
‘Carl, set us up for a missile run from the north. I’m giving them two Hellfires at once on the first run.’
It could work if I was quick. Really quick. Carl told Billy that we would hit the first three buildings and break back north-east after each engagement. Billy would run in straight after us from the west to take out the remaining two and the one attached to the compound on the southern edge, breaking south-west.
I focused the laser beam on the right-hand building and let Hellfire Number 4 go at 4,000 metres. It shot from under the left wing, climbed, levelled and dived. Still holding my laser trigger, I launched Number 5, so I had both missiles locked onto the beam. The instant I saw Number 4’s white flash, I slewed my crosshairs ten metres east, onto the apex of the building immediately left of the entrance. Hellfire Number 5 screeched into it four seconds after the crosshairs had gone stationary.
We’d come so far in we were now ‘Danger Close’.
‘Ugly Five One resetting and…’
Carl threw the aircraft onto its left side and powered up violently; the G sucked my arse deep into the seat.
‘…clear.’
‘Ugly Five Zero running in from the west with Hellfire.’
I craned my neck to keep my eyes on the compound. There were still three buildings untouched. If these guys really were senior Taliban commanders, they’d have a SAM close by. We couldn’t give the bastards a single second to pull it out.