“Get down!” Turner yelled. He pushed his friend Samuel forward, sending him spiraling into the conveyor belt’s control box. Turner quickly returned fire with his 45, sending the unlucky workers scrambling for cover within the cave.
During those first seconds, Turner saw Private Gonzales take the brunt of the opening blaze of gunfire, killing him instantly. Captain Saune was spared the same fate only because the captive guard to his left was struck in the leg and fell to the ground wincing in pain.
Saune’s instincts took over as he immediately leveled his AK-47 at the assailants. He then unleashed gunfire into the cave and sent the two guards diving for cover behind the storage bins. In that brief pause, Saune was able to scramble over to Turner and Samuel on the right side of the cave’s entrance.
“Now what, boss?” Samuel asked as he fired a few more deterrent rounds into the cave. “I’ll even settle for a Plan C at this point.”
“It’s time to take a little ride, Samuel,” Turner replied, hitting the power button on the conveyor control box. The rolling conveyor was brought to life as the reinforced rubber belt started noisily tracking downward.
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Samuel said incredulously as he watched Turner jump onto the belt. Lying prone on the conveyer belt as it started tracking toward the landing pad, Turner waved for the rest to follow. “Remind me never to go with you anywhere again!” Samuel yelled as he followed Turner’s lead and jumped with Saune onto the moving belt. Making their way on the rattling belt to the loading platform below, Turner saw one of the Yakuza soldiers cautiously exiting the cave high above just as he spotted them on the conveyor belt.
“Don’t let him kill the power switch,” Turner yelled. He let lose a barrage of bullets as the other two joined in, forcing the unfortunate guard to retreat back into the cave.
“That’s it for me as far as ammo,” Samuel yelled, throwing the empty pistol away.
“Me, too,” Turner said, looking down to see that they were only a few yards from the base platform.
“Let’s go,” he yelled, rising up and running the remainder of the distance down the belt and then jumping off at the base. He was quickly followed by the other two men. The trio ran wildly across the plateau toward the now open loading bay of the Sikorsky.
Because of the engine noise, Hiroshi and his co-pilot inside the craft were oblivious to the battle raging outside. The two decided to go back and find out why the loading crew had not yet arrived to unload the supplies.
Turner, Samuel, and Saune were running up the ramp as bullets from the guards above whizzed around them and hit the steel bulkhead. Reaching the safety of the interior of the craft, the three ran into Hiroshi and Kentaro as they leisurely strolled toward the rear.
Leveling his empty 45 at the flight crew, Turner yelled, “Both of you get off the helicopter now!”
“Don’t shoot,” Hiroshi said, throwing his hands up in surrender as he ran off the aircraft with his co-pilot in tow.
“It’s your show, Captain,” Turner said, pointing toward the flight deck. “We’ll cover the loading bay from here. Leave us your weapon, and hurry. We don't have much time.”
The burly captain tossed Turner the AK-47, then turned and ran for the flight deck. He quickly took the pilot’s seat, throttling up the big General Electric engines. In a few moments, the heavy lift chopper rose off the landing pad and threw a huge cloud of dust onto the plateau. Bullets ricocheted off the loading ramp as the chopper cleared the pad and started up towards the caldera’s rim and out of the line of fire.
Looking out of the yawning opening in the rear of the aircraft, Samuel yelled to Turner above the roar of the rotors and wind as the lumbering chopper rose higher above the complex.
“Do you see what I see?” he yelled, pointing down to the building below. Turner’s heart sank as he saw one of the black SUVs speeding out the main gate, pursuing the Jeep that only moments ago had whisked Maria, Yashiro, and his father to safety.
“Damn it!” He yelled, then turned and ran up to the cockpit followed by Samuel.
Seeing the two men, Saune signaled for Turner to put on the co-pilot’s ANR flight intercom headset so they could converse above the sound of the engine noise. Putting the headset on, he saw Saune pointing to the lever on the upper right of the flight console.
“Activate that ramp lever; it will close the loading bay,” Saune said.
“Got it,” Turner said as he flicked the lever into the stow position. After moving Hiroshi’s Switchback hunting bow out of his way, Samuel put on the spare ANR and sat in the crew seat behind them.
Turner spoke as the ramp began to close. “We’ve got more problems, Captain. We saw one of the Bishamon SUVs leaving the compound. They must be going after my father and Maria. We have to help them.”
“I’m on it,” Saune said, quickly banking the huge chopper to the right and bringing it down toward the access road.
The sudden turn saved them all from instant death as a shell from a RBR-64 mm hand-held rocket launcher exploded just behind the right engine cowling. The explosion shook the big aircraft violently. Captain Saune quickly shut down the starboard engine and fought to control the heavy lift chopper as it began to lose altitude, veering downward towards the barren mountainside below.
“What the hell was that?” Samuel yelled through the intercom as Saune finally managed to level out the helicopter a mere one hundred fifty feet from the ground.
“We’ve got company,” Turner said, pointing out of the right cockpit window at the small Robinson R-44 helicopter above and to the right of them.
“I’ve shut down the starboard engine,” Saune reported, pointing outside to the black plumes of smoke belching sickeningly out the cowling of the damaged engine.
“Can we out run them?” Turner asked, seeing the R-44 coming about for the final kill.
“Normally, yes, but with an engine down, no way. We’ve got to put down and extinguish the fire before the whole thing blows,” he responded as the billowing smoke trail became thicker.
“Put her down, Captain,” Turner said, grabbing the AK-47 and hitting the lower switch on the loading ramp. “I’ll try to keep them at bay while you tend to the fire.” Ripping off the headset, Turner scrambled to the rear of the helicopter as the access ramp lowered. Seconds later, the heavy lift touched down and Turner sprinted down the loading ramp. Surveying his surroundings as he ran, he saw a cluster of huge boulders to his left, which he decided to use as cover. This should draw them away from the Sikorsky, he thought as he ran head-long toward the boulders.
The Raven continued coming closer but, just as suddenly, stopped its descent. Hiroshi, who had been unceremoniously conscripted to chase the trio in the small R-44, nervously decided to halt his descent when he saw the armed man running towards the rocks.
“What are you doing, you idiot?” the Yakuza guard yelled to him from the seat behind him as he set down the rocket launcher and picked up his AK-47. “Go after him,” he yelled, glaring menacingly and pointing his weapon out the open door behind Hiroshi.
“But what about the Sikorsky?”
“The Sikorsky is crippled and is not going anywhere. Once we eliminate him,” he said, gesturing to Turner, “we’ll deal with the others. Now get this craft in position for a clear shot.”
Hiroshi cursed his luck, knowing that he should have been on his way back to the airport by now. However, he obediently swung the small craft to the right and continued its descent as the soldier took aim out the door.
Turner heard the report of gunfire from above him, and dove headlong into a small opening between a few boulders just as a spray of bullets hit the rocks above his head sending shards of rocks and dirt flying about. Taking a deep breath, he sprung up and unleashed a barrage from his weapon at the helicopter. Unfortunately, he managed only to splinter the landing strut underneath. As the chopper reacted defensively by rising upward, Turner anticipated the move. He aimed and squeezed the trigger, hearing only the clicking sound of an empty ammo clip.