If a silent alarm had been tripped, their mission would, by now, be fully understood. The team only needed five minutes to get to their rally point with another few for the birds to land and take all of them to safety. They could easily hold that position for a few minutes against what troop strength was thought to be in the area with the weaponry they had on hand. A little air cover would help greatly.
This should all be over soon and he and the rest of the team should quickly be on their way home.
Sirens continued to come to life all over the place. They all appeared to be converging on their location. No matter how fast they moved the sirens were getting closer. To Frank, it was like they seemed to know the team’s movement, not just where they were, but where they were going, AND the path they were taking to get their destination.
The damn sirens seemed to know their exact spot at all times, how could that be possible?
Two more police cars turned a corner and were quickly dispatched. One was brought to a halt with rifle fire and the other with a grenade launcher fired by different team members.
Damn, Frank thought as he shouted into his radio over the noise, “Chief, he must have a tracker on him!”
Warrant Officer Choi quickly searched the man. He found an ankle bracelet and destroyed it. “Keep moving! I think I fixed the problem!” Peter shouted.
Half a block up, a helicopter was approaching the landing zone while two others circled. The first bird may actually beat them to the ground at the extraction point. The Captain quickly thanked whatever Supreme Being may be listening for Special Operations Pilots being slightly insane. Those guys would land hard and fast if the situation called for it, and be gone again as fast as they had landed. The repair crews never liked the dents, dings and worn out landing gear, but the combat troops loved those same dents and dings as well as the pilots who put themselves in the line of fire to pull their butts out of a hot zone.
From the top of one of an apartment buildings a rocket propelled grenade streaked up towards one of the choppers. An alert pilot quickly and easily evaded this unguided weapon and caused a near miss. Luckily it had been a long-range shot giving him some time to react. One of the other birds returned fire on the location of the RPG shooter with his nose mounted chain gun. He destroyed the launcher and whatever team was up there operating it instantly. The weapons carried by those choppers fired around a thousand rounds a minute. No small arms team could take that kind of punishment and stay functional.
The team rapidly approached the field as all the flashing lights and sirens descended on the last known position where the tracking device had been smashed. Some of the drivers of the incoming cars had already changed their focus onto the massive helicopter landing just a few blocks away.
A small suburban neighborhood could hide a small number of troops moving between buildings, but giant military helicopters, traveling in groups, drew all kinds of attention. Even if their lights were off.
At a run the team arrived at the soccer field. The first helicopter had already landed, “Go! Get him on board. Get the fuck out!” Frank shouted and turned toward the incoming cars.
Only half of his team and their “cargo” would fit on the first chopper. That bird had to depart before the second could land. There just wasn’t enough space for both choppers to land on the field as the same time.
The team members still on the ground changed their focus to the three police cars and one military style truck coming their way. The real threat wasn’t the police cars, those guys would just be armed with handguns.
The real problem was the six-wheeled four-ton truck complete with heavy machine gun, and light armor that was bearing down on their position. The truck looked like it was thrown together in someone’s garage and not on an assembly line. The appearance was irrelevant. It was a threat. They didn’t have anything on the ground that could penetrate that armor with a single shot. He and the remaining men on the ground opened fire anyway aiming for the armored windows. Any armor could be penetrated if you hit it enough times, and armored windows were usually the easiest to get through. The damn things weren’t giving away despite the accuracy of the multiple hits.
Suddenly, from above them, a large WHOOSH could be heard as a missile streaked down from one of the circling helicopters. Instantly the truck, machine gun, and crew all burst into a fireball. As it exploded one of the police cars and a surrounding vacant building caught fire. The other police cars decided it would be better option for them if they kept their distance. Frank thanked that Supreme Being again.
The second chopper landed. All the remaining operators boarded with the Captain being the last man off the ground. Once they gained enough altitude Frank finally saw that the Air Force, with their fighter aircraft that he had been told would be there to cover their exit were certainly in the fight.
The evidence of this was a giant fireball in the air and a whoop of excitement from their chopper pilot as an enemy aircraft met its end. Apparently the Iranian Air Force decided to jump into the act. Seeing that airplane explode, and knowing it wasn’t theirs was all that he needed to see to breathe an extra sigh of relief and know his probability of getting home without a scratch was increasing with each second.
Frank keyed his radio, “Olive, this is Oil. The Pizza is in hand, cooked, and the entire delivery team is on our way with all ingredients fully intact.”
He settled in for the ride back to friendly territory, which would be followed by a jet that would take them back to the United States.
Frank finally allowed himself to think of her again. He told himself he would have to find an excuse to see her as soon as he was back in the States. He wanted to spend time with her, and not just on the phone.
He absentmindedly wondered if he had an email from her waiting for him when he got back to the land of Internet access.
AP NEWS FLASH: Bombing damage assessment reports coming from Iran have continued to trickle in. The United States is continuing to hit strategic targets in that country in an attempt to prevent future attacks inside the U.S. homeland and hopefully stop the invasion of our ally, Israel. The former President claims these attacks are the result of a conspiracy between our President and the Defense Industry. This stands in stark contrast to his previous complaints of President Press’s lack of action bordering on the criminal. The popularity polling of the former President continues to fall. The same polls show that the current President currently has a 53 % job approval rating, which is on the rise.
AP ECONOMIC NEWS FLASH: Food riots occurred in Los Angeles, California today at grocery stores all over the city. Food prices have risen so high so fast that many families have been unable to pay their grocery bills. Rising prices, coupled with even higher unemployment, are leaving many families struggling to afford food. Many rioters felt they were left with no choice. The President has asked Congress to pass an emergency measure in the form of legislation to offer subsidies for the next 180 days to all American citizens earning less than $250,000 per year with a sliding scale for aid based on income. Congress agreed to rapid action although wants that upper limit on income to be reduced. After the announcement of these emergency measures, the stock markets leveled off and stopped losing ground, but finished the day down almost 4 % from the previous session. Investors have found no safe haven from the current multi-week, market-wide rapid decline.