June 17, 2286 UNPC Universal Calendar
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The clanger of rounds ricocheting off of A9's armor cascaded through the jungle as his suppressed Kriss V308 returns fire with it's still "loud" but not "deafening" tak-tak two round burst. A far cry from the thermonuclear bomb volume output of his V-06.
The rain proved his motion sensors useless, but enhanced his thermal imaging, as the rain cooled the underbrush, silhouetting the much hotter enemy in front of or behind it.
"Damn I hate Panama" A9 muttered under his breath, the dutiful microphones in his helmet picking up his speech and automatically broadcasting them over the comms channel.
"Heard that" C7 says in response, just before crashing through the underbrush towards his left.
This deployment wasn't all too different from any other the duo had seen before, just another 'go here-do this" directive. This time some coke kingpin thought it'd be a stellar idea to acost a UNPC supported encampment's supply truck and try to ransom the driver for funding. That was when the two augments came into play.
Among them was a laundry list worth of medals, having over 500 deployments across the globe each. A9's count was nearing 750, but that's the advantage of being at it even before his partner was born.
"I kind of feel bad for these guys, they're going up against us with nothing but the shirt on their back" A9 says while dispatching another soldier with a two round burst, then switching out a "spent" mag with only a few rounds left, dropping it in the dump pouch that hung off his right side to just barely touch his hamstring, and slamming another 30 rounder into the flared carbon fiber magwell.
"I'm inclined to agree," C7 responded. "They're out here with nothing but an AKM pattern rifle and maybe a spare mag" she said.
They soon had no one left to fight after a while, even the radios on the bodies went silent.
"I'd wager they're all at their compound waiting for us" A9 says to C7, who was 5 or so feet to his left, rifle at the ready. Her Barrett XM109 AMR (anti-materiel rifle) bobbing up and down slightly as she moved, scanning the forest.
A9 had always preferred the Gepard AMR of hungarian design as opposed to the American Barrett rifles, it was colloquially called the "Lynx" even though its name translates to "cheetah" in English.
Its smaller bullpup design and its ability to collapse down meant it was more apt to lug around, but the punch that the 25mmx59mm grenade rounds packed dwarfed that of the Lynx's .50 BMG.
They found themselves upon the compound, right where they thought it was. Built in a small clearing of trees, a few hills around it, and guarded by no less than 3 dozen hostiles in and around the complex of buildings, they were watching the jungle, even though they were blind to what was lurking within.
"They know we're out here, but they don't know where" A9 said.
"I say we wait them out for a bit, let it get dark" C7 said turning to A9, them both in a crouching position next to each other.
"I'm gonna go pirch in that tall tree on that hill up there" C7 says pointing to the tallest tree on a rolling hill at 3 o' clock.
"Sounds good" A9 replies "get at er' big girl" he says with a chuckle.
She was off in an instant, moving at a blistering speed, her footfalls masked by the rain and thunder. After reaching the tree, and climinging it, A9 watched all the while using the zoom of his helmet mounted optics, C7 occasionally disappearing and popping back into view as all but her FOF (Friend Or Foe) tag was obscured by the foliage while she climbed.
"All done" she said over comms, pirched against the trunk of the tree, her rifle shouldered. "Alright I'm going in" A9 says while moving towards a guard that was relieving himself on a bush just outside their established perimeter.
"You're mine" A9 said under his breath as he drew his Ka-Bar D2 extreme that he had affixed on his right thigh guard while easing up to just behind the guard on his right.
Clapping his left hand over his mouth, and sliding the blade into the back of his neck, finding the brain's stem and wrenching the knife in a half clockwise turn.
Holding the man for a moment while he went limp, watching for movement as the back of his white shirt soaked up the red seeping out of his neck before dropping him suddenly to let him rest where he fell.
A9 moved to the wall of one of the outer buildings, pausing for a moment to let the duo of guards pass, ensuring not to be silhouetted by the moonlight. A9 saw the two "through" the wall as they walked behind it. C7's point of view assisting him by automatically overlaying what she saw to his own vision.
"I'll start dropping one or two every time there's thunder to cover my report" she says to A9. He just looks up to her pirch, knowing she can see him, and nods.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A9 silently dispatched more guards as he made his way through the compound, searching every building he came across and making sure to neutralize every sleeping combatant he could find.
He eventually found the building he was looking for, and crept up along its left side. The front of the building was facing C7's pirch,and there were two guards smoking under an awning, sheltered from the rain, the red cherries of their cigarettes floating in the darkness.
The awning that wrapped around the entirety of the building was the perfect width to cover A9 from the moonlight. To anyone looking that direction, it'd be like he wasn't even there.
He paused just before he reached the guard.
"I've got him" C7 says over comms "now we wait"
They didn't have to wait long until a clap of thunder came, and the guard just behind the wall out of A9's field of vision had his torso turned into a fine pink mist by a "WHUMP" of the SLAP (Saboted Light Armor Penetrator) round from C7's AMR struck him center mass. The other guard didn't have time to react to his friend being atomized in front of him before A9 darted out and put a hand over the man's mouth, stabbing the man in the middle of his back, angling the blade inwards, and finding the heart. He dragged the limp man around the corner and came back around to the front of the building.
Moving just in front of the door and sliding a fiber optic probe into the room, allowing him a view inside. He saw that there were no hostiles in the immediate vicinity of the door. There was one man just 10 or so feet to the right, but he would not prove an issue. And there was another near the middle of the room writing at a desk. There was bound to be at least one more that A9 couldn't see. But he'd have to find them as he entered.
So he breached the room, putting his right boot into the door just below the handle plate, and putting two 9mm rounds into both the man at the table's head, and the one sitting off to the right of the door. A9 directed his attention to the back of the room where a enemy combatant stood behind another man slightly taller who wore a black hood and presumably had his wrists bound behind his back.
"All I need is a clap of thunder and this motherfucker is toast" A9 thought to himself as the combatant shouts something at A9 in a language that he couldn't understand, his pistol pointed at the prisoner, then at A9, and his own pointed right back at the combatant. Just then a flash of light came through the holes in the thatch roof, and soon after a thunder clap. The "WHUMP-CRACK" of a 25mm HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) grenade followed by a SLAP round striking the enemy somewhere in his upper right shoulder.
A9 put his pistol in his drop-leg holster upon his right thigh, sat the man down on the floor, and unhooded the captive. Took out his earplugs, and removed his blindfold, before finally taking off the blue bandana with a knot in it that served as a gag.
"Who the hell are you? - err, I mean- thanks" the captive said as A9 unsheathed his Ka-Bar and cut the rope binding his hands together.
"Are you good to move?" A9 asked as he sliced his foot bindings.
The man just nodded. "Let's go then" A9 said while yet another clap of thunder resounded through the jungle, knowing that C7 had just taken out another hostile somewhere in the vicinity.
A9 looked "through" the walls of the building, saw that no one was outside waiting for him, and made his way out, the formerly captive driver following closely on his heels.
They made their way out of the complex, and to the outskirts of the clearing, having to stop only twice to let A9 dispatch a guard or two.
"There's only two left" C7 said over comms. "I've got the one, you take the other," she added.
"Got it" A9 replied, eyeing the hostile maybe 100 yards away in a cobbled together guard tower made of thatch, vines, and odd twigs.
A9 raised his rifle and fired a pinpoint accurate suppressed two round burst, both rounds hitting the man center mass and watching him fall out of the tower and onto the ground.
An unsuppressed report rang out over the compound, and half a heartbeat later a WHUMP, with no thunder clap to mask the sound.
on my way down," she said..
"Echo 418, ready for exfil, package in tow" A9 said into the comms as he looked at the driver.
"What's your name again?" A9 asked before taking off his helmet and drinking two long gulps from his drinking tube.
"Jason" the driver replied. A9 then offered the long rubber tube to him, he accepted it, and took two long swigs as well. The automatically refilling water bladder contained within his armor using both his waste and what was absorbed through the LSS from the gaps in the armor to refill it after filtering.
"I've always heard about you guys," Jason said to A9. "Hearing is one thing, seeing is quite another," he adds. Just then, C7 came over to the two.
"yeah yeah, living legends and whatnot, we can talk all about it on the ride back, the helo will be here in less than 15 minutes, we need to get moving" she says.
A9 then abruptly picked up the driver, "I'm not going at your pace big boy" he says while fireman carrying the man, starting a brisk jogging pace to the landing site.
The black hawk helicopter landed near the riverbank, and A9 hoisted the driver inside, before hopping up himself and lending a hand to C7 as well.
"I've never been carried by another man" the driver says as he buckles his seatbelt. The duo of augments choosing the two middle seats under the engines.
"And now you have" A9 replies "go on, ask the questions" he says to the driver after a few seconds of him just staring at the two, C7 bucking her seatbelt next to him. And so started a conversation that lasted the entire two and a half hour ride back to base.
They then landed, escorted the driver to the infirmary to make sure he's medically sound, then went down to the mess hall to eat something before embarking on the multi-hour adventure of filling out AAR's. (After Action Reports)
Having at least each other for company made the mountain of paperwork bearable, but it was still a rung below "tedium" on the suffering chart. They plopped down each of their stacks on the stainless steel table, then walked over to a shower head and rinsed off in their armor before sitting abreast to dry and do paperwork in the stainless steel chairs.
He sat using the Pelikan M1000 she'd gifted him. She used a Pelikan 200 that was formerly his, and his grandfather's before him. The smaller pen was more suited to her hand than his.
He leaned back in his chair, twisting the cap onto his pen and setting it atop the stack of papers. Electing to finish the other half sometime in the near future, as the two usually did.
He placed his left arm around C7, his palm against her left ribcage.
"You're too cute, you know that?" C7 said, smiling at him as she capped her own pen and sat it atop her unfinished stack.
"I try" He said, returning her smile.
"Let's get this armor off and maybe I'll give you a show" She said.
"Your smile is enough of a show for me" He said, broadening his smile at the way her ears reddened.
"You're too damn good at that" She said, chuckling.
"At what?" He asked.
Making me feel loved