Rhee saw one explosion after another erupt along the left side. The FLASH launchers kept up their volley of rockets, while disciplined rifle fire came from Little’s troops. The Kim defenses fell into total panic and began spraying machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades inaccurately back in the general direction of their assailants. The colonel motioned, and his men took off at a run across a short opening and down the hillside. They scurried down loose rock and gravel and finally down into the ravine that Cho had mentioned. The location was perfect.
While Master Sergeant Oh and two corporals began setting up the DGPS transmitter, Rhee positioned his men to defend against any potential attack. He then took his binoculars and looked down into the small trough behind the elevated grove of trees. There he saw the doors of the armored bunkers were open, and four missile TELs positioned at their launch pads some hundred meters away from the cave entrances. Three of the missiles had been raised into a vertical position and were being fueled. He watched as the fourth was raised to the vertical. They were bigger than any mobile missile he’d seen before.
“Ghost One Alpha, this is Ghost Two. We are in position and ready to take ranges, over,” squawked his headset. Major Maeng’s team was set up and ready to use their laser rangefinder to take the measurements.
“Ghost Two, stand by,” Rhee instructed.
“Standing by. Ghost Two, out.”
It took Oh just a few more minutes to finish setting up and check the calibration; after one last inspection, he signaled Rhee he was ready. The colonel waved for him to take the ranges.
“Stay here,” Oh told Cho. The master sergeant then crawled on his belly to a small cluster of rocks several meters away. Peeking over the top, he raised the laser rangefinder and started measuring the distance to the bunker doors and launch pads. Within moments of Oh triggering the rangefinder, machine gun fire began peppering their location. The master sergeant was hit in the shoulder and thrown to the ground — out in the open. Without thinking, Cho dove across and pushed Oh out of the line of fire. The man had been hit twice and was badly wounded.
“Didn’t I tell you not to do anything heroic!” Oh gasped in pain.
Cho didn’t reply but grabbed his first aid kit and tore open the master sergeant’s uniform near the wound sites. Oh pushed back and grunted angrily, “Take the damn ranges, you moron!”
Feeling frantically around the ground, Cho found the cable and pulled the laser gun toward him. Rhee signaled him to hurry as the commandos began returning fire. Crawling to the rock, he raised the laser and, exposing as little of himself as possible, began shooting the ranges. A bullet ricocheted off a boulder to his right, stinging his face with small shards of rock. It took all of twenty seconds to get the ranges. Once Rhee gave Cho thumbs-up, the former spy threw down the laser gun and crawled back to Oh.
“There, are you happy now, Master Sergeant?” exclaimed Cho. Oh didn’t respond. Fear seized Cho as he hunted for a pulse on Oh’s neck — there wasn’t one. Oh was dead.
Rhee had little time to see what was going on with his master sergeant. Once the shooting had started, he ordered Ghost Two to take ranges and transmit. He also alerted Maeng to expect return fire; the Kim faction apparently had laser-warning sensors.
One of the corporals flashed Rhee an OK sign. They had the data and were ready to transmit. Rhee pushed his finger skyward and yelled, “Transmit!”
“Puma lead, this is Dog Pound. DPIs received, data being transferred by Dolly. Commence attack by flight, over.”
“Roger, Dog Pound,” said Tony as he quickly looked at the center flat-panel display. The data link, brevity code Dolly, had uploaded the sixteen-digit UTM coordinates for his four GBU-38B bombs into his computer. He took a brief moment to scan each designated point of impact to make sure they were close to each other. He had no desire to drop a bomb on the friendlies hiding nearby. “Dog Pound, DPI coordinates confirmed. Commencing attack run.”
Tony then took a deep breath and called out to the other flight leaders. “Commence attack by flight. Puma will go in first, then Lynx, Leopard, with Jaguar bringing up the rear. Let’s not keep the snake-eaters waiting.”
As he listened to their acknowledgments, Tony pointed his F-16 to the northeast and punched it to full military power. He looked to his left and right and saw the shadowy outlines of the other three jets in his flight. Keying his mike he radioed his wingman, “You go first, Wookie. You’ve got the two big boys.”
The flights of Hellcat strike quickly formed a line and, guided by their heads-up displays, flew to the release point. One by one, the onboard computer automatically released their bombs. Tony pulled his ship up and to the left as soon as he felt the bombs fall off the racks. Again looking over his shoulder, he tried to watch the other flights during their runs, but it was too dark. All he could do was listen in as each flight lead announced ordnance release, and when they were clear. Once Jaguar flight was done, Tony radioed the E-8C JSTARS.
“Dog Pound, bombs away.”
Before the JSTARS aircraft could respond, the E-3C air battle manager broke on line. “All flights, this is Lighthouse. I have six bogeys, bearing zero three zero, range fifteen miles, speed four hundred, angels seven. Negative IFF.”
Kevin flinched as an RPG hit the rock face to his left, the shock wave travelling through the solid wall. The defenders had apparently calmed down a little, as their fire was becoming more accurate. So far, they hadn’t ventured from their protective cover, but that would only be a matter of time — and there were a lot more of them than his band of commandos. They needed help.
“Nightstalker one, this is Ghost One Bravo, request immediate close air support. Target is illuminated with incendiaries,” shouted Kevin. What he heard in reply was disheartening.
“Negative on CAS request, Ghost One Bravo,” said the helo pilot. His voice betrayed his disappointment. “Airspace is closed due to inbound strike. I suggest you duck and cover.”
Oh great, thought Kevin.
Two more commandos were hit as the Kim forces pushed toward their position. The holdouts were attempting a rush, but it was poorly coordinated, and Rhee’s men beat them back. He’d heard the decline for close air support over the radio; the air strike was on its way. All they had to do was hold their ground for just a little longer.
Cho hugged the small boulder closely as the bullets whizzed by. He managed a few shots with his assault rifle, but had no idea if he hit anything worthwhile. But when an RPG round fell short, he knew he had to get back behind better cover.
Just as he was about to make a run for it, the attackers made another charge. The accurate fire from the commandos dropped many of those rushing their position, but there were simply too many, and a number of attackers managed to get over the rocks. The fighting devolved into a hand-to-hand skirmish. Again the commandos had the qualitative advantage, but the Kim faction had numbers.
Cho watched as Rhee took down three with his pistol and then crush the windpipe of a fourth with a forceful knife-hand strike. But it was the fifth soldier that caught the colonel on his blind side, delivering a sharp blow with the rifle butt. Stunned, Rhee was thrown to the ground. The soldier paused to take careful aim, but before he could shoot, Cho ran across and slammed into him, driving the man headfirst into the rock. Dazed, the soldier shook his head, pulled his combat knife, and rushed toward Cho.
He lunged to his right, the quick move causing the soldier’s main thrust to miss, but he swept the blade downward and caught Cho’s left leg squarely in the calf. The pain was incredible and he let out a scream of agony. Cho hit the ground hard. He struggled to get back up, but with his right leg under his body, and his left useless, he couldn’t move quickly. The soldier approached with a wicked smile; Cho looked frantically for a weapon of any kind. None were within reach. All he could think of was how cruel this war had been to Kary. Just as the soldier raised the knife, a sharp crack from Rhee’s pistol put an end to his lethal intentions.