Time was counting down; the militia was persistent in not giving up. Haliday gave them one last warning. “You have five minutes left. Last chance to get out now for anyone wanting to leave to get out now. Come on out with your hands empty, no questions asked and we will take care of you and get you to safety.” He waited the five minutes and switched the channel to his own. “Game on folks. Good luck. Godspeed. Fire when you have a target.”
Haliday had made sure they didn’t have a sniper on the roof of the admin building. This would have been the first man to go. They learned their lesson the hard way by taking hits on that position. He searched the property with his spotting scope and had everyone else looking as well. They had to make sure they didn’t have one hidden. Haliday was convinced no one in the compound had higher ground.
Haliday loaded an armor piercing round into the Barrett he had liberated and fired on his first target. This was the lock on the door of the building that held prisoners. He saw that they had another lock and hasp on the door and he fired on that one too. He waited patiently, but no one came out. They would check this building out as soon as they could. There was some return fire from the militia, but nothing to worry about. They couldn’t reach his position.
From over on the north end of the compound came 30 shots from four different men. These were all concentrated on the militia’s prized deuce, or actually its tires. They flattened as many as they could, rendering the up-armored pig useless. All they had to rely on now was the regular complement of vehicles that they had.
The militia took aim and returned fire. They fired almost 200 rounds toward the men in a matter of seconds. As far as firepower was concerned, they had the advantage over the townspeople. They didn’t have the amount of concealment, however, so many of the rounds were wasted with only an occasional hit.
Haliday took aim at target number three. He hated to do it, but he had to. He zeroed in on the front tire of their fuel truck and flattened it. He shifted his aim slightly and flattened the other front tire. Both the fuel truck and deuce were now out of commission. He started to hear some sporadic gunfire from all sides of the airport.
As he searched out some more targets he gave the order to start the tires on fire. They had some small balloons of gas placed in them and the guys tossed some road flares into them. The thick black smoke started to fill the air in those areas as the tires burned. Nobody was sure how long they would burn but anything helped at this point.
One of the guys throwing the flares took a round to the shoulder. This was only the first of many casualties to come. The men around him fired into the compound and allowed him the chance to get to safety so he could be treated. They had one man and a woman nurse dedicated to picking up the injured with a four wheeler. They’d be busy today.
Haliday scanned the south end of the compound. The stacks of bricks they were able to get in place were still there. The front loader was still sitting where it had stalled out. Haliday called Rob. “Rob, get some people over to the west breach and see if you can get that front loader started. Get some people into those brick emplacements.” Rob told him that the front loader stalled out.
Roger asked him what happened. Rob told him it had overheated. “Well, try it anyway. If it didn’t seize it may start. You can use it to at least get some guys into those positions.” Rob made the arrangements and got everyone in place. He gave a command and the whole south end started popping as five guys ran to the loader. The militia positions were quiet as they held their heads down.
The group made it to the loader and sure enough it started. The guys just jumped on and the guy driving it went straight to the brick emplacements where he dropped off two guys at each one. He turned around and headed back toward the west breach and almost made it before the engine seized up. The radiator had taken hits the last time and it had stalled out, but this time it was dead for sure with the seized engine. The driver jumped down and used it as cover.
Haliday moved to another position so he could fire past the emplacements without worrying about the guys being in a crossfire. He told the men with the hunting rifles to try and take shots at the militia positions. They needed to take out 3 of the 5 positions that could cover the south end if they expected to get the building entry teams in there and continue to take some of the compound.
Haliday moved over toward the west breach area himself now and took a look. He looked over at Rob. “Grab your binoculars and look at that position on the west corner of that building. We need to take out that one and the ones on each side of it. Tell them that’s what the plan is.” Rob sent a couple of runners out to the town’s snipers and word spread. He used some hand signals and eventually got the point across to the guys behind the bricks and front loader.
Over toward the north side of the compound, Mark and Brad got the men ready. They used some probing fire to see where the militia’s strong points were. Mark told Brad to go launch some cans at the admin building. These had been pulled out of the hunting shop and were merely cans of gel fuel. They had close to a hundred of them. They partially unscrewed the lids and launched them all toward the admin building. Almost half had hit the building and quite a few landed on the roof. The tops popped off and the gel ran every where.
One of the townspeople tried to launch a flare onto the roof, but couldn’t get the distance he needed with the giant sling shot. After a couple of failed attempts, he resorted to attempting to use some fireworks, but couldn’t get the angle. He risked moving in closer and was met with a few rounds into his chest. Mark had told them to abandon the attempt if it didn’t work with the flares, but the guy must have insisted. They had to leave him lay where he was.
Haliday was concentrating on the center militia position. He saw the muzzle of the rifle above the sand bags. He took aim and fired a shot. It was off, but close enough to let the guy know he was being watched. He saw the muzzle shift. Haliday gave it one more shot and fired into the sand bags, but still had no luck. Haliday moved backwards and into the trees where he looked around.
There was a man up in a tree stand with his rifle pointed toward the compound. Roger asked him, “Hey, you can’t see these guys at all?”
The man said, “Not enough to get a good center mass shot.” Roger asked him what he could see. The guy told him that once in a while he could see the top half of a head.
“Take the damn shot,” Roger told him. “Forget that center mass bullshit.”
The man steadied his rifle and kept aim at the militia position. Haliday was crouched down low and looked at his watch. After almost five minutes, he was about to climb the tree himself when he heard the shot. He looked up and jumped to the side just in time as the man threw up. The guy had taken a perfect shot from ear to ear, cutting a channel through the militia member’s head.
Haliday yelled up to him, “It’s them or you. Get the hell out if you can’t hang or get ready to do it again.”
The man said he’d be ok. Roger asked him if there was anyone else in the position there and the guy told him no, it looked like just one guy.
“What about the ones to the left and right?” Roger asked.
“Looks like two in each.”
“Ok, keep your rifle on them, take the kill shots. You’re doing good.” he told the man.
Roger moved back toward the west breach area. Chuck was still there. “What do you think, Roger?”
“Chuck, I think we need to get our asses in there as soon as possible. The center position has been taken out, and we need to get the ones on the sides of it. Let’s try and work on the one to the right first.”