By now, the blistering heat of the Mediterranean was something that Sergeant Black was well acquainted with. But it was days like this that made him prefer the incessant rain back in England. Most days it was a dry heat, but it was days like today where it was humid as all hell that he hated the most.
“Echo this is Bishop, I’m missing a SITREP here, over.” His radio buzzed.
Lieutenant Shaw rolled his eyes. “We’re en route to Argerios, ETA about two mikes, over.” He replied.
“Well make it one, I wanna know what’s going on there, Bishop out.”
“Christ, General Randolph’s had a stick up his ass ever since the Zeloria Papers were leaked,” Black said, drumming his fingers on the dash of the car.
Corporal Kelly scoffed from the back seat. “I know right? The yanks have been itching to go to war with Zeloria for years, and now it looks like they just might,” he said.
“Let’s just hope they don’t,” Sergeant Hughes chimed in. “Because if they do, then they’ll end up roping us in too.”
“Heads up lads, we’re here,” Shaw cut in. “Everyone out, and stay alert,” he ordered.
Black nodded, grabbing his SA80 rifle and hopping out of the car.
“Bishop this is Echo, we’re at the capital, heading over to the courthouse now, over,” Shaw said.
“Solid copy Echo, be careful things could get out of hand very quickly, make sure it doesn’t, out.”
“This had better be good,” Hughes muttered under his breath.
As they walked through the city to the courthouse, the streets were empty. Cars were all sitting in driveways and garages, and the lights in all the houses were off. The wind had started to pick up a bit, carrying an abandoned newspaper across the sidewalk. The sound of some sort of commotion became more and more prominent the closer they got. They turned the corner to the courthouse and stopped dead in their tracks. The steps to the courthouse were flooded by protesters.
“Jesus Christ,” Shaw said. “Bishop this Echo, message, over.”
“Go ahead Echo, over,” Bishop replied.
“This is a mess, it looks like the whole city’s here. We’re looking at a time bomb waiting to go off and the PAF only sent three men. Requesting additional support, over.”
There was a brief pause before Bishop finally responded. “Roger that Echo; Charlie and Delta are en-route. Just do your best to keep the place from going apeshit.”
“Roger that Bishop, Echo out.” Shaw turned to the rest of the squad. “Alright, let’s move.”
They pushed their way through the crowd of protesters up the stairs of the courthouse.
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Shaw walked up to the man who looked like the commanding officer. “What the hell’s going on here?” He asked.
“Civilians started showing up in droves, now it’s a full-blown protest,” He told them.
“Protest? This is a god damn riot!” Black cut in.
“And you’ve been some help haven’t you?” He retorted. “We ask for support and you send four men.”
Shaw stepped between the two. “We have more on the way, for now, let’s just do what we can to break up this riot,” He said, trying to put the two at ease.
Black turned to the crowd and started trying to disperse them. “Everyone, step back,” He told one group.
Before long, a news van pulled up and a camera crew set up, observing the riot. Soon, people started throwing rocks at the seven soldiers. The crowd shouldered and pushed them around, and Black ended up within arms reach of Shaw.
“This isn’t working!” He said, raising his voice over the yelling of the crowd. “When are Charlie and Delta getting here?”
“Not sure, I haven’t gotten a word from Bishop, I’ll try to ask,” Shaw answered. “For now, let’s all group up back at the doors.”
“Bishop this is Echo, things are getting out of hand here, we need Charlie and Delta here ASAP, over,” Shaw said.
“They’re moving as fast as they can Echo, out,” Bishop replied.
“Oh sure, when it’s Americans then they can take their sweet-ass time,” Black grumbled.
Shaw turned to him like he was about to reply, but he was cut off by a boom that shook the ground. The blast came from the back right corner of the courthouse, where Echo quickly went to investigate. The civilians started running off in all directions, screaming as if their lives depended on it.
“Echo to Bishop, an IED just went off at the courthouse, we’re moving in to investigate, over,” Shaw said.
“Affirmative Echo, sweep the area, make sure there aren’t any more explosives, and report in with any further intel, out,” Bishop replied.
They made a sweep of the area that the explosion went off in. There was no structural damage, no one else was there, the blast did nothing. They were about to report in when gunshots rang out from the doors to the courthouse.
“It was a god damn diversion!” Hughes exclaimed.
They sprinted back to the entrance as fast as they could, and when they got there they saw the three PAF men lying dead in their blood on the steps, and two men loading Eros into the news van in the parking lot, handcuffs still on. Echo instinctively raised their rifles.
“Hands up, you’re under arrest!” Shaw shouted at them.
They slammed the van doors shut and sped off, the screeching of their tires echoing through the streets.
“Echo to Bishop, the IED was a diversion, a pair of men got away with Eros, over,” Shaw said, bracing himself for some sort of lecture.
“Goddammit Echo.” Bishop stopped himself from scolding them any further. “Charlie and Delta are entering the AO now, they’ll keep things under control there, but for now, just RTB so we can take stock of the situation, Golf is on their way to pick you up, over.”
“Solid copy Bishop, we’ll be waiting, out,”
Nobody said a word as the Blackhawk gently touched down in front of them, they just climbed in.
“Alright boys, you all strapped in?” Sergeant Corrik asked from the pilot seat.
Shaw gave him a thumbs up and they lifted off of the ground.
“Shit’s kicking off back at base,” Corrik said. “Colonel Manalakos is blaming us for letting Eros escape, and some of the PAF soldiers are even claiming we staged it.”
“Jesus,” Black exclaimed. “General Randolph’s gonna be pissed at us.”
“Yeah? Well, I’d like to see ‘Bishop’ get off his high and mighty ass and pick up a rifle one of these days,” Kelly said, looking out the window of the chopper.
“He may have to,” Shaw pointed out. “The PAF have been pissy ever since we got here, looks like they’re just trying to find reasons to hate us. Things could get real ugly real fast.”