NationStates Jolt Archive

La Guerra
que no
Hombre Debe Saber

This RP is a mega-RP, much like the ones I have done in the past but vastly different. This RP takes place in the Yucatán State of Mexico, a territory of the Empire of Layarteb, more specifically, in the Province of Ynoga. This territory was taken through strife and came at a great cost of both Layartebian soldiers and Yucatán fighters but also civilians. An estimated 80,000 civilians died, whereas some 20,000 Yucatán soldiers and maybe 5,000 Layartebian soldiers died.

Since the defeat of General Montrazez in Operation Mayan Restoration (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=391616), the Mayan peoples were subdued, at least on the surface. Underneath, they plotted revenge, they plotted independence, and they plotted bloodshed. With the outbreak and cessation of World War I, the Yelmish conflicts, the Polish rebellion, and countless other insurrections world-wide, the Mayan fighters once again saw their opportunity to rise up against the Layartebians, only this time they were going to do it their way, not the way of a General, who saw military goals. They saw personal goals.

Before you read please do not pass any judgement that this will be a pathetic post. If you must have a reference, please go to to the list below and you will see the abilities of me to tell a story. I am a writer.
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Legend
All text in red type is top secret classified. It is unknown to the normal reader and even anyone else other than those present in the text. All are loyal to the government so please none of that, "We had spies" nonsense because I'm going to ignore it.

Italic text is text that is speech. It is italic to differentiate from normal text.

Italic underlined text is thought.

Orange text is a memory.

Small, green text is documents, communications, etc.

Bold, small, green text in quote form is used to mean something that isn't in the document.

Blue text is just a minor announcement.

Bold, blue text is a service announcement meant in OOC form

Bold, gray text is a translation.
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Notes

This will be updated on a regular basis. If you see a lapse then by all means, bump the topic. Pictures may be included with horrible images of death. The RP will be R-rated. I will not delve into the realm of sexual acts such as rape and the like because they are just unnecessary but there may be elusions to horrid acts. There will be profanity and there will be gore. I am warning you of all of this because I feel that if you do not like it then this is your chance to avoid reading it. There won't be any surprises. Also, one group will be cannibals so if you have something against that then do not read. If there is ever something that violates NS rules (and no nothing illegal will be had here) please inform me and I'll take care of it. If you are offended don't read! Simple as that.

Quasi-closed means this: The RP is not fully closed nor is it invite only. This means that if you wish to participate, send me a telegram with what you want to do and some background on what you will be doing and I will get back to you immediately. I want to keep this high-quality as it will be the best RP I have done, to date.

Now, as you have noticed, the title is in Spanish. It means "The War No Man Should Know." Now, with that in mind, the Yucatán is in Mexico and they will be speaking Spanish. I will place their speech in Spanish but translate it afterwards. I am not fluent in Spanish and I will be using an online translator, particularly this one (http://www.freetranslation.com/). I took it in High School but that was 4 years ago so my Spanish is rusty. If you wish to correct me, by all means, please do. Other people participating will be posting in their natural languages as well (possibly Norweigian and German) but will be translated.
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Other Role-Playing Stories

Ascensión (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=509447)
Down with the Sickness (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=432254)
Isla del Enfermo (Earth II) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=398102)
Ride the Lightning (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=448866)
Sehnsucht für das Glück (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=386920)
Tale of the Time: Ancient Secrets Found in Yucatán... (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=409829)
Tale of the Wicked: An Empire Within... (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=486764)
The Decayed (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=474683)
The Forsaken Island (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=442286)
The Kingdom of Forgotten Warriors (Earth II) (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380343)
The Knight of Dark Chaos (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=384906)
The Layartebian Chronicles (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=384916)
The Praetorian Project (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=450228)

Table of Contents

Part I: The Prelude

Chapter I: The World Afire (Page 1)
Chapter II: The Meeting of Sin


Part II: Rude Awakenings

Chapter III: Shots in the Night
Chapter IV: The Empire is awakened
Chapter V: Bloodlust
Chapter VI: La Tormenta Feroz
Chapter VII: The Downed Airmen
Chapter VIII: First Blood
Chapter IX: The Rude Awakening


Part III: Take Off the Gloves

Chapter X: Rumble From the Distance (Page 2)
Chapter XI: Unexpected Surprises
Chapter XII: Powder
Chapter XIII: Dissent


Part IV: The Conclusion

Chapter XIV: Closing In
Chapter XV: El Fin de Lnocencia

Characters


Anderson, Brigadier General David: CO of 4th Army Group, 6th Army, 2nd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade. He is the tactial commander on the ground for Operation Backyard Brawl and is in charge of the operation. His HQ is in Mérida.
Daniels, Lieutenant Colonel Mark: Head of Task Force 88.
Delaney, Colonel Jack: Head of Force Falcon Team One. He was a commando during the War for Independence and a close friend of the Emperor. When he is not on normal duty, his team is assigned to be the Emperor's bodyguards. His real name is not Jack Delaney. He "died" in a car accident shortly after the end of the War for Independence. His body was so badly burned that dental records had to be used to confirm he was "dead." His team has been in many areas of the world, doing covert actions, none of which have been made public.
El Ojo: Leader of Los Diablos. He has no name but goes by the vague reference, "The Eye." He is brutal and unrelenting. He is a cannibal and has forced his warriors to join him in eating the flesh of other humans.
Greer, Major David: CO of 1st Airborne Force, 3rd Corps, 1st Division, 3rd Brigade, 1st Regiment, 1st Battalion, 1st Company, based in Oxkutzcab.
Hector: Leader of Los Santos. He has no last name but is refered to by his title, Father.
Montrazez, Pablo: Eldest son of the late General Montrazez. He leads El Escogido.
Padillo, Marquez: Governor of the Yucatán State of the Provice of Ynoga.
The Emperor: Ruler of Layarteb and it's empire.
Xavier, Captain Michael: Operations leader of Task Force 88.

Organizations


El Escogido: This is the most expertly trained group of the Mayan revolutionaries. They believe that they are the handpicked successors to the fight against the Layartebians. They owe their allegiance to General Montrazez and fight on his cause. They are highly trained in quick attacks and are rarely seen when they attack. They are lead by Montrazez's son, Pablo.
Force Falcon: A top secret black operations unit. All of its members are "dead" and do not exist. They have no fingerprints, no identification, no existence. THE UNIT DOES NOT EXIST.
Layarteb News Agency: Main news channel in Layarteb. It is where the government alerts its citizens from.
Los Diablos: The fiercest of the three Mayan revolutionary groups. They are brutal with paramilitary training. They have a yearning desire to kill and destroy everyone and everything Layartebian and those who support them. They are, as rumors will say, cannibals.
Los Santos: Brutal revolutionaries who want independence. To them, the Yucatán is God-given land for them to set up a religious theorcracy to Jesus Christ. They are very highly trained and very good at blending in. Many of them appear as normal citizens, not as brutal fighters like Los Diablos.
Mayan Revolutionaries: These are the main fighters in the Yucatán who want to be free. The include three groups: Los Diablos, Los Santos, and El Escogido.
Task Force 88: An ad-hoc task force made up of Force Falcon Team Eight, CIA Paramilitary Operatives, Delta Force, and Recon Force. Based in Tecoh.
Zeta Facility: The most heavily guarded and top secret facility in all of Layarteb. Its existence is unknown and its location is unknown. It is guarded by elite members of Force Falcon and at the same time contains everything about Layarteb. It is the Force Falcon HQ.

The Map

Alright I found a fantastic map online. There is one catch, it was in 16 pieces so I had to put it together. Now, with that in mind, its dimensions are 3725 pixels by 2,868 pixels and its size is 3.34MB. This means that it is big, very big. But it is also VERY detailed. I have hosted it on my server and will keep it there. However, the picture below is a preview. If you click on the picture, it will expand and load the original image. If you are on 56K I suggest you just download it to your computer because at that is faster. My server is very fast. I downloaded the actual image, from my computer, using cable broadband, in 20 seconds, more or less. This map is in black and white but the real one is in color.

http://www.theforsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/La%20Guerra%20Que%20No%20Hombre%20Debe%20Saber/yucatan-preview.gif (http://www.theforsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/La%20Guerra%20Que%20No%20Hombre%20Debe%20Saber/yucatan.gif)

Chapter I: The World Afire

The temperature in Layarteb City was a balmy 98°F. The humidity was in excess of 90% and the heat index was a whopping 164°F. Things weren't comfortable. Air conditioners were running non-stop, hospitals were seeing a 7,000% rise in the cases of heat stroke, and paramedics were called out almost every 10 minutes to pronounce someone dead from exhaustion. Rain hadn't graced the region in 2 weeks and the threat of a water shortage was everyday brought to the attention of city and regional officials. They knew it was a dangerous situation but what could they do. Conservation programs had been put into effect on the first day of summer. Any more conservation and people would be adversely affected.

Inside the Emperor's office, the temperature was 65°F with very little humidity. It felt like the Arctic, compared to the outside. Things were quieting down for him. Fleet Week had ended, the war with Yelm was over, and his military was, at REDCON4, one step away from peacetime. The daily reports on the Empire were read, the threats were read, and the entirety of the world was currently a box of tinder, waiting for a spark. The spark for the Empire was about to come.

1,600 miles to the southwest, in the city of Mérida, Yucatán, the situation was just the same. It was hot, humid, and unbearable. The breeze from the Gulf of Mexico was enough to keep the coastal areas bearable but Mérida was inland enough so that the breeze never got there. Less than a hundred miles to the north was the Gulf and with it the bearable conditions they longed for.

In his own office, the Governor sat with his air conditioner on as well, keeping the office 68°F. His name was Marquez Padillo, Governor Padillo for short. He, like the Emperor, was reading over reports. However, his reports were of a much different nature. He was reading the findings in a murder investigation of three Christian missionaries in the southern part of the state, in a town called San Enríque. Three bodies had been found only a week earlier, each one half eaten, dead for at least a week. The police originally suspected animals, given the dense tropical forests of the area. Nonetheless, the investigation revealed much more. The missionaries were eaten while they were alive and not by animals, by men and women. ¡Qué es este trabajo de diablo! (What is this devil work!)

He was right, there were devils at work here, but not the ones you would expect. Since the dead of General Montrazez, the Mayan fighters had split into three different groups: Los Diablos, Los Santos, and El Escogido (The Devils, the Saints, and the Chosen). Of the three, the most violent and the sickest were Los Diablos. They were the most heavily trained, the most nationalistic, and the fiercest of the Mayan warriors. Los Santos were just as bad but they weren't as sick, definitely not as sick. They saw independence as a calling from God so that they might have a religious state to worship their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. El Escogido were different. They were sneaky, very sneaky. They fought well, were highly trained, but they were rarely seen at an attack. They were like ghosts, "las fantasmas (The ghosts)" being the standard line whenever they attacked.

Of the three groups, they were all united under one cause, albeit a loose unification, which was independence for the Yucatán. However, nobody could agree on what type of system would exist. Los Diablos wanted anarchy, Los Santos wanted theocracy, and El Escogido wanted a military dictatorship. If independence ever came it would be a civil war, each group fighting the others for control and for their system.

Governor Padillo knew this and knew that since the war had been over, each of the three groups was gaining power. However, to what extent he knew not. Only recently had they surfaced. Bombings in Ticul by Los Santos meant that they were active, powerful, and ready. The killings near San Enríque meant that Los Diablos were active, powerful, and ready. And lastly, the crime surge around Canakom meant El Escogido were active, powerful, and ready. The three cities and towns connected to form a triangle, El Triángulo de Diablo (The Devil's Triangle) as it would eventually be dubbed. At that moment in time the enemy was in that area, a small area, by comparison. Nonetheless, they wouldn't stay to just there for long.

Governor Padillo knew this too and felt it was his duty to have the Emperor concerned. The three groups combined possessed at least 20,000 fighters and enough small arms to hold Mérida under hostage, if necessary. "Necesito hablar con el Emperador por favor (I need to speak to the Emperor please" He said as he picked up the phone to page his secretary.

"¡Sí señor en seguida (Yes sir right away!)!" She said as she picked up the phone and dialed the number to the Emperor's switchboard. "Yes, I am calling on behalf of Governor Padillo of Yucatán, Ynoga. Yes I will hold." Her English was flawless, part of the job requirement and she transferred the call to Governor Padillo when the Emperor picked up, "Siga adelante (Go ahead)."

"Emperor, sir. I have information here I would like to have you read. It concerns revolutionaries."

"Revolutionaries? I thought we stomped out resistance."

"No sir. The problem is since the death of Montrazez, the revolutionaries have split into three groups. Each group is now their own army and the problem is, they have all become powerful."

"What does intelligence say?"

"Intelligence has zero information except leaders and cause. We know of a general area where they are operating but we cannot be sure they will stay there. Sir I know the way they fight and the way they believe. They will spread through the state like a brush fire."

"Very well. You may send all information to me and if necessary, I shall call a meeting with the cabinet. In any case, I would like to have you here, as soon as possible, to discuss this matter. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"All right, buenos dias (good day)."

"You too sir." The governor put down the phone and looked around at his office. An entire box of intelligence on the three groups and the situation was sitting not more than eight feet from him. He paged his secretary again, "Maria. Que mi avión se prepare y el coche. Voy a la Ciudad de Layarteb. La marca planea con mi familia para tenerlos entienden que soy ido. Ultimamente, la marca segura el gobernador de diputado sabe lo que pasa. (Maria. Have my plane ready and car. I am going to Layarteb City. Make plans with my family to have them understand I am gone. Lastly, make sure the deputy governor knows what is going on.)."

"Si." She picked up the phone and began making phone calls, first to the airport, then to the driver, then to his family, and then to the deputy governor, who demanded to speak to Governor Padillo immediately.

"¿Qué? (What?)"

"El gobernador, usted sabe es un tiempo peligroso de salir aquí. La estabilidad no es nuestro amigo. Sabemos más que el Emperador y nosotros saben más de la situación. Señor, si usted sale ahora usted saldrá cuando somos muy débiles. (Governor, you know it is an unsafe time to leave here. Stability is not our friend. We know more than the Emperor and we know more of the situation. Sir, if you leave now you will leave when we are most weak.)"

"Entiende pero sin su ayuda que nosotros nos seremos forzados a encarar este diablo, este enemigo sólo. Necesitamos al ejército. (I understand but without their help we will be forced to face this devil, this enemy alone. We need the army.)"

"Obedeceré pero volveré rápidamente. Su familia, mi familia, nuestras personas no son seguras sin su guía. (I will obey but hurry back. Your family, my family, our people are not safe without your guidance.)"

"Pueda a Dios está con usted. El mundo no es hoy ardiendo pero mañana. (May God be with you. The world is afire today but not tomorrow.)" With that the Governor hung up, prayed the Rosary and left for his car. "Suelta al aeropuerto. (Lets go to the airport.)"

"Sí señor." The driver sped off. The bodyguards of the Governor would meet him there. Two vehicles were in chase and one led the limo of the Governor, all carrying documents, reports, and pictures, 42 boxes in all. They had a lot of information on the groups, more than the Governor led on over the phone. He needed that meeting with the Emperor and the Cabinet and he sent them the most startling document of all, the force listing of the enemy, their demands, their plans, and maps. It was what originally scared him. It would definitely work on the Emperor, he wished and hoped.

Chapter II: The Meeting of Sin

The C-21B Learjet 80 touched down at Layarteb IAP smoothly, on runway 4R-22L. The C-21B had 8,400 feet to land with and would only need a mere 3,000 feet. Inside, Governor Padillo twitched, he was nervous, very nervous. The information he was carrying was a full intelligence brief on the situation, a situation that he knew full well would overcome the Layartebians unless they acted swiftly. The three groups alone had enough firepower and support to win the country and that meant Governor Padillo's head. In the city of Mérida, support for the Empire was 78%. In the countryside it capped out at 45%, dropped to 10%, and averaged 26%.

Governor Padillo was also nervous because he knew that if he didn't explain to the Emperor the situation and why he wasn't in control of it, he would be out of a job, and left to the devices of his own people. Many brandished him a traitor for his actions in working with the Layartebian government, especially El Escogido. There was reasoning behind this, long reasoning. Governor Padillo, prior to the Layartebian takeover, was General Montrazez's right hand man and fought alongside him during the Mayan struggle for independence against the Layartebians. However, Governor Padillo, half way through the fight, realized that it was futile and encouraged General Montrazez to surrender and work for the Layartebians. Montrazez refused and Governor Padillo deserted him. He would surface after the war, looking for the governorship. Since then, Montrazez's son, the leader of El Escogido had a bounty on his head, in the order of §1,500,000 or $2,743,050. It was a heafty reward and Padillo never went out in public without his bodyguards, members of the elite Force Victor, Layarteb's 4th Black Operations Unit. They served as body guards and generally were tough SOBs.

Force Victor is made up of mostly ex-Special Forces soldiers, all of whom have scored perfect on their shooting evaluations. They are highly trained with interrogation, hostage recovery, negotiation, and reconnaissance. Their job is to protect the officials of Layarteb at all costs and have, at their disposal, more weapons than most regular infantrymen know about. Depending on the individual in question, they could have as few as two and as many as twelve bodyguards at their immediate disposal, all of whom were willing to sacrifice their lives for the lives of those they have sworn to protect. Governor Padillo had six of them and they were flying with him, as well as a single aide.

When they landed he looked around the cabin. "Hemos llegado. Ahora llegue a ser la tarea que intimida de la venta de nuestro asunto. Si nosotros lo fallamos será las cabezas. (We have arrived. Now becomes the daunting task of selling our issue. If we fail it will be our heads.)" Nobody spoke, they were quiet, knowing full well what their task ahead was. A motorcade would meet the Governor at the hangar. The Learjet was far too small to attach to a terminal. Once the door was opened, the stairs would deploy, and those inside would shuffle out, to the awaiting motorcade, which consisted of two limousines and two escort cars, both Suburbans.

It was about ten minutes of taxiing before the Learjet came to a halt, sitting comfortably inside the hangar. The pilots turned off the aircraft and the co-pilot stepped up to the door to open it. Standing outside were two armed men, both members of Force Victor. "Sir, we're here to escort you to the Emperor's office. He would like to see you immediately."

"Understood." The Governor said as he stepped out behind a pair of Force Victor guards. "Hey Joe, make sure the boxes get offloaded."

"Yes sir." One of the Force Victor guards nodded and shuffled out last, opening the storage cabin as he did. He, the aide, and two men from the motorcade offloaded the boxes and put them into the vehicles. They were small but forty-two of them was a sizeable number. He would be taking back as many of them as he could, leaving the Emperor with what ones he needed, which he anticipated to be at least sixteen of them.

Twenty-five minutes after touchdown, the motorcade was moving, through the streets of Queens, west, towards the edge of Brooklyn, where the Emperor's office was located, Governor's Island. A small causeway connected Brooklyn to the island and was guarded on both ends by a sentry post, heavily armed. A small army garrison on the southern end of the island protected the island from invasion forces. The island was also protected by air defense systems, including M2016 LAADS units, Predator units, Layarteb 88 units, EADS units, Wizard launchers, and further equipment.

The ride, through traffic, was about forty-five minutes. Each minute that ticked away made Governor Padillo that much more nervous. He wasn't sure how the Emperor would take his request and he hoped that the Emperor would not expect him to solve the problem himself. He couldn't, not with the forces that were there. Nada nos puede salvar ahora. Qué se hace será hecho. Qué no se hace será deshecho. (Nothing can save us now. What is done will be done. What is not done will be undone.) The Governor thought to himself. Either way, he was not going to be greeting warmly when he returned.

"We're coming up to the causeway. Have your IDs ready." The driver of the limousine said as he turned down the main road that led to the causeway. Ahead, he could see the sentry post and the fortified gates. Two men were standing ready, their M52A1 Carbines ready. Another, sitting in the sentry booth had a M53A1 Shotgun, loaded with 00Buck, preparing to shoot into anyone who want to break through.

The four vehicles came to a halt and the two sentries went down the two sides of the vehicles, checking IDs. It took them five minutes but when they were done, the gate was opened and the vehicles headed across the causeway. At the other end, another gate would be opened and then they would park. That took another five minutes. Eighty minutes since touchdown and the Governor was more nervous than he could imagine. Now it was time. He exited the limo along with his entourage and entered the Emperor's office, a large structure on the island, more or less a castle. It dated back to the 1400s and served as the home to the leader of Layarteb since 1457. They had done serious modifications to it though, making it much safer and much more habitable.

"Good morning Governor. My name is Richard and I'll be escorting you to the Emperor's office. It's not far, just through the main corridors. How was your flight?" They began walking.

"It wasn't bad. There was a little turbulence over Kentucky but we came in fine."

"Good to hear sir. The restrooms are here and there are more by the office. A small kitchen is just down that hall."

"Thank you. How old is this place?"

"Six hundred years, maybe more. We can date it back to the 1400s but we can't seem to get the exact date."

"Quite impressive."

"Here we are. The waiting room is just in there. Have a good day sir." Richard showed them to the waiting room, which had no door but rather an archway. It was dimly lit and in the corner was a massive door, that looked like it could withstand an RPG. Next to it was a desk, the secretary's desk. Chairs, magazines, books, and other artifacts were displayed in the room. Two men stood at the archway and another two at the door, bodyguards, from Force Falcon. Two carried M53 Shotguns and the other two carried M47A1 Lightweight Assault Rifles. All four of them carried a M46A3 Desert Eagle, .50AE, and powerful. That wasn't all either. They carried knives, throwing weapons, grenades, stun weapons, and communications. They would stand there for eight hours, until relieved by four more. All twelve of them lived on the premises, along with another twelve more Force Falcon men. There were far more people who lived on the island and in the castle, it was big enough to hold over two hundred people, comfortably.

The Governor took his time walking into the room, examining the waiting room, which looked like it could hold eighty people by itself. As he entered, the secretary looked up, "The Emperor will be with you shortly. He is just finishing up a meeting with the Cabinet."

"Thank you." He paused, not knowing the girls' name.

"Lisa."

"Thank you Lisa." She smiled and returned to her work. The Emperor was aware of his arrival, there was no need for her to buzz him in. She was reading a book, some novel she picked up the week prior at the supermarket. "Talk about historical decoration," the Governor said to himself as he looked around at paintings dating back 400 years and swords dating back double that. The twenty minute wait was just piling on the anxiety and when the massive doors opened, the Emperor was standing there, a smile on his face.

"Governor Padillo. How was the flight?"

"Sir." He shook the Emperor's hand. "It was comfortable."

"I take it you have been made comfortable since you landed?"

"Very sir."

"Well then, shall we get to business. Your bodyguards may stay out here if they like or they may take their own leave, whichever you desire. Your aide should join you. What is his name?"

"My name is Benito."

"Good to meet you Benito." He shook the aides hand and invited them in. "Lisa. This is high priority."

"Understood sir."

"What time are you leaving?"

"Twenty-three hundred sir."

"Very well. We're having food catered to us. Feel free to have some."

"Thank you sir." She smiled and returned to her book as the doors shut behind the Emperor. Being the Emperor's secretary was the best job in the land. It paid very well, the benefits were outrageous, the protection was phenomenal, and as long as you worked and stayed clean you were fine. However, only females would get the job. Layarteb may have been a fairly equal society but it was not a pillar of complete, social equality.

"Gentlemen. This is Governor Padillo of the Yucatán state. Over there is the Minister of Defense, the Joint Chiefs, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Minister of Intelligence, the Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Foreign Affairs," and the Emperor introduced everyone around the table, all twenty-eight people. Then, he sat down at the head of it, the Governor and his aide sat down as well and the meeting began. "Governor Padillo comes to us with a grave problem. The situation, as you have all been aware, of the Yucatán since the fall of Montrazez has been fragile. We know that revolutionary groups have been growing in the countryside and now it seems that they are completely ready to fight. Is that so?"

"Yes sir. I have intelligence coming up as we speak. 42 boxes worth."

"Very good. It shall give us plenty to go over. Now if you would, please explain the situation."

"Yes sir." The Governor cleared his throat and took a sip of water. "The state is stable. For now. Popularity in the Empire in the city of Mérida is averaged at 78%. However, in the countryside that number is 26. It is to be expected. I know we have had problems with Kaliningrad in the past as well as in Venezuela."

"We have."

"There now seem to be three major revolutionary groups. The first is El Escogido, led by Pablo Montrazez, son of General Montrazez. They are highly trained, all former soldiers in the General's army. They were the ones that managed to survive the arrests afterwards. They seem to be based in and around Canakom. Their claim to the throne is a military dictatorship and they have the most popularity amongst the country people. They also have the most weaponry. For the most part it is small arms, purchased on the black market and whatever was left over after the war. We can confirm that they possess at least a dozen tanks and perhaps fifty other vehicles but have been unsuccessful in locating them.

"The second group is called Los Santos. They are led by a man named Hector. We know nothing about him except he was a former, Roman Catholic priest. Their claim to the throne is for a theocratic state, with allegiance to the Pope in Rome. Ticul is their base of operations. They are highly trained as well. Most of their fighters are a mix of foreign fighters and the local religious contingency. They are highly skilled in bombings, which is what most of their attacks are. They have no armor or fighting vehicles except trucks and other civilian-type vehicles. Their support comes from elder people, the more religious folks.

"The third group is called Los Diablos. They are led by a man who goes by the name El Ojo, or 'The Eye.' This group is operating in the area around San Enríque. Their claim to the throne is anarchy. They are as highly trained as Los Santos and possess around the same number and type of weaponry. They have little support except amongst the youth. They are highly disturbing and very ruthless. Their main thing is cannibalism though. Yes, I know." He noticed some of the ministers look squeamishly at him. "They are the reason I am here. They have been acting in murders and bombings as well. Three missionaries were killed not long ago, the report coming to me, revealing that they had been eating whilst still alive, and then, finally, murdered and set ablaze. They will kill every living thing and destroy anything that owes allegiance to the Empire.

"There is more. Pablo Montrazez has put a bounty on my head in the order of §1.5 million. They mean business. Whilst the three groups have little in common, they are temporarily united under the banner of anti-Layarteb. This is what I have feared for some time now. Their unification means power and corruption. You are fully aware that our leaders have some of the highest corruption rates than anyone else in the Empire, this is a byproduct of our heritage, unfortunately. Assassinations have already begun, with two judges who sentenced two revolutionary fighters to death only a month earlier. They can get anywhere they like and affect anyone they like. This is the problem. Until recently, they have had no unification factor. Now they do. They have enough weapons and men, between all three of them, to take and hold Mérida by themselves." The boxes began to arrive. "Inside these boxes I bring information on the groups, their leaders, some members, their base of operations, histories, briefs, analyses, projections, and the like. These boxes contain every piece of information we have on the revolutionary groups and unfortunately I doubt we have more than 65% of the needed intelligence.

"We can expect all three groups to expand their operations and spread out more, forcing our military to engage them and stretch supply lines. They are all trained in guerilla warfare and they are all funded from foreign terrorist groups, foreign criminals, and even an international organization that sponsors independence movements. It is based in the more liberal countries of the world and actively and publicly have announced that they are funding rebels in the Yucatán. Little is known about the organization other than that." He took another sip and another breath and looked around as the ministers and generals looked through the files. Photographs, maps, dossiers, documents, etc. were all being poured out of the boxes.

"What do you propose we do Governor?" The Emperor asked.

"Sir, I am requesting military assistance to begin and offensive against the rebels. I think we ought to arrest and interrogate, find their leaders, and destroy their chain of command. They operate much like a small army and have a clear rank and structure. We can be thankful of that. However, where we lose them is with funding. We need to cut off their main source of funding."

"Which is?"

"Drugs sir. All three groups sell vast amounts of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Unfortunately we cannot keep up with them. We raid a factory one day and two more are built the next. We need more men, more weapons, more intelligence, more surveillance."

"Alright. Suppose we send units and begin operations, how long do you suspect it will take to destroy all three groups?"

"Sir, it could take as long as six months. We just don't know. We need to encounter the problem of the fact that as we eradicate them we will give them more support, unfortunately."

"Yes I am aware of the effects that will most likely happen. If we begin these operations, how many forces are you requiring?"

"Well sir aircraft are fine, we have plenty of them. We need more soldiers, preferably about 5,000 more. In addition, we need Special Forces sir. We need groups that can infiltrate the enemy and effectively get in there or something of that nature sir. Helicopters could be used in more excess. The terrain is flat but it is tropical so heat, humidity, rain, and dense vegetation are factors. This makes it difficult to fight effectively. They can hide in the thicket and fire upon us without us even knowing where they are. These are tactics they are well versed for and experts at, definitely these fire and hide types. They will pop out, fire off a few rounds or a bomb or a rocket and then disappear."

The Emperor stayed silent, thinking as the men poured over the documents. There was a lot to read and they had to absorb it all, fully. They talked about the intelligence and the documents and the situation for the next six hours, going over plans, talking about situations. They had serious thinking to do. However, after the sixth hour, the Emperor looked around the table. "What is the prognosis?" They went around the table and each man gave their opinion. When it was all over, the Emperor looked around and smiled. "Well I believe that I have made my decision. We will begin this operation immediately. Governor, your concern is true and respectful. I do not wish to lose the state of Yucatán, nor the lives of those there. We will send two brigades, of just over 11,000 men total, associated cavalry, a battalion of airborne soldiers, and 300 special forces soldiers. Helicopters will be provided as well."

"Sir," the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs interrupted. "Sir, I think it is pertinent to send in additional forces."

The Emperor understood this to mean Black Ops. "Understood. What will we name this operation?"

"Sir, how about Operation Backyard Brawl?"

"Fine with me. Any objections?" Nobody voiced any and so it began. Over the next twenty-four hours, cavalry units were prepared and loaded into awaiting ships. Infantry units got ready as well. Special Forces and airborne units deployed immediately, via C-5 and C-17. In addition, four Force Falcon teams departed immediately, along with four Force Spectre teams. All eight Black Operations teams deployed via C-17, separately with a lot of supplies. Amongst the Black Operations units was Force Falcon Team One, with Colonel Delaney leading the charge.

Chapter III: Shots in the Night

"Los soldados de Layartebian han llegado. La guerra ha empezado ahora y tan hace el destino de todos nosotros y de ellos. El plan es como ensayamos. ¡Guerreros! Esto es el tiempo para la gloria y el honor. Sirva con el orgullo y la distinción. ¡Hágame orgulloso! (The Layartebian soldiers have arrived. The war has begun now and so will the fate of all of us and them. The plan is as we rehearsed. Warriors! This is the time for glory and honor. Serve with pride and distinction. Make me proud!)" Pablo Montrazez spoke aloud to his warriors, many of them. The scene was a clearing in the forest, large enough for 25,000 men. He had, at minimum, 42,000, mostly villagers of nearby towns and what soldiers he had. Women, children, men, elders, and the youth were there. he was using a loud speaker to talk to the many there. He knew satellites were watching and he knew there was the possibility of being seen but he also knew the response times. The nearest air strike was, at minimum, twenty-four minutes away and he had resistance along any flight paths in the way of man-portable missile launchers, anti-aircraft weaponry, and spotters. Montrazez was in possession of more than he let on, including at least two dozen anti-aircraft guns. The guns were old but powerful, especially in the order of 39 millimeter M1939 weapons, mobile, fast, deadly, and armed with 600 rounds. They had a vertical range of 6.7 kilometers and a horizontal range of 9.5 kilometers. Each of its two guns could sustain up to 80 rounds per minute, giving it up to 160 rounds per minute for maximum fire. He had four of them deployed along four flight paths, hidden under the thickets. All they had to do was uncover and fire off about a dozen rounds, hide again, and then be done. They weren't going to be using tracer bullets and Montrazez found a way to fit a flash suppressor to the barrels, keeping them from giving away their position.

He continued, "Usted sabe su deber. Usted sabe su destino. Los soldados del Imperio no sobrevivirán. Esto es nuestra tierra y nosotros somos el Escogido. Vaya y esté con la paz, puede a Dios le bendice y sus fortunas. (You know your duty. You know your destiny. The soldiers of the Empire will not survive. This is our land and we are the Chosen. Go and be with peace, may God bless you and your fortunes.)" The crowd cheered wildly and he continued on for another seven minutes until he dismissed everyone. The Layartebians never noticed.

El Ojo and Hector held similiar rallies the days before, when the first Layartebian jets landed, these being the C-17s and C-5s carrying Special Forces and Airborne soldiers. The eight Black Ops teams had their supplies flown in whilst they came in on civilian flights, staying completely unnoticed. Both of them got away with similar rallies, though not as many people, without being noticied. El Ojo pulled in 5,500 people and Hector had 13,000. The popularity of the three groups amongst the rural population was massive.

The campaign wasn't going to be simple. The Layartebians needed to smash and annihilate their support, their leadership, their arms, and their cause. This meant a long campaign, going from village to village, town to town, city to city, searching, stomping, killing, and arresting. This would be a lot of small raids and missions, nothing like they were used to. The operations in Kaliningrad were large, very large, in comparison to what was necessary in the Yucatán.

In light of this, the first offensive mission was to be in San Marcos, north-northwest of Peto. Peto was southeast of Mérida and pretty far at that, through a lot of unfriendly terrain, through a lot of unfriendly villages, and through a lot of unfriendly people. "Alright gentlemen," Brigadier General Anderson said while going over intelligence. He had arrived first as he was the operational commander for Backyard Brawl. He was no stranger to command and it had been his tactical command in a previous war that got him his promotion and position as command officer of the 4th Army Group, 6th Army, 2nd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade.

"We're going to conduct a mission into San Marcos. It is north-northwest of Peto. Intelligence tells us that revolutionary forces in the town number between twelve and thirty. However, the priority target is one Carlos Gomez, a high lieutenant in Los Diablos. We know he is protected by an immediate guard of six so any other insurgents in the village could be considered part of a smaller unit. Gomez, whilst he is only a lieutenant, is a logistical king for Los Diablos. His capture will mean serious problems to their ability to fight against our soldiers stationed all over the state. In addition, we know of an arms cache in the village, most likely in the vacinity of Gomez's house. Due to estimates and the current unavailablity of a full sized force, we are going to use one platoon of Airborne infantry. The nearest available units are based at Oxkutzcab. We have two platoons based with 24 AH-6J Littlebirds, 12 AH-64D Apache Longbows, 4 AH-94A Stalkers, 10 CH-53E Super Stallions, 11 OH-98A Knightowls, 12 UH-60L Black Hawks, and 24 UH-96A Panthers. We have a sizeable force there gentlemen. For this operation we will using three CH-53E Super Stallions for transport, two AH-64D Apache Longbows, and four AH-6J Littlebirds. All squads will fast rope into the village under the cover of Apaches and Littlebirds armed with rockets, guns, and Hellfire missiles.

"We can expect, maybe, four MANPADs, which will be taken care of by both soldiers and aircraft. For live-time reconnaissance over the village, we're going to have a EP-8A Excalibur available flying at 25,000 feet. It will be escorted by two F-15C Eagles. We expect mission time to take no more than 3 hours with 2 hours for travel there and back, and 1 hour for operations, including destruction of the arms cache, aprehension of Gomez, and elimination of all hostiles in the village. Are there any questions?" There were a few, mostly about what kind of enemy they were dealing with but nothing too serious. And so it began, the first mission. The mission was relayed down to the base commander, a major in the 1st Airborne Force, 3rd Corps, 1st Division, 3rd Brigade, 1st Regiment, 1st Battalion, 1st Company. Major David Greer was his name and he had just recieved his promotion as well. He was proud to be leading the charge, more or less, and selected his best platoon, 5th Platoon. The squads mounted up. They all carried M30A3 Carbines. The weapons weighed a mere 6 pounds and were 31 inches folded and 36 inches unfolded. It sported an 11.5 inch barrel. The standard load was 60 rounds, in two 30 round magazines taped together. They were good for up to 300 meters and had a muzzle velocity of 921 meters per second and a rate of fire of 950 rounds per minute. Airborne soldiers usually mounted M68 Aimpoint scopes on their rifles along with suppressors. In addition, they would add front-handles, lasers, or grenade launchers. In each squad there was at least one man with a shotgun attached to the front, for breeching. However, the M30A3 Carbine wasn't the only weapon carried. Each squad had 18 men, in 3 fireteams, each with 6 soldiers. At least one fireteam was for support. They carried heavy weaponry, usually two M35A1 Light Machine Guns, two M42A1 Squad Automatic Rifles, and then a sniper with either an M36 Sniper Rifle or a M41 Sniper Rifle, then a spotter with either an M30A3 Carbine or a M43A5 Sub Machine Gun. The other two teams were usually for operations. They would carry much of the same load each. There would be at least one man with a M42 Squad Automatic Rifle, one man with a M53 Shotgun, and the other four would carry M30A3 Carbines.

However, the superior firepower came from the helicopters. The Littlebirds each carried a pair of 7.62mm Miniguns, loaded with 1,500 rounds each and a pair of 7-round rocket pods. The Apaches carried 600 30mm rounds in their chaingun, 8 AGM-114K Hellfire IIs, 2 19-round rocket pods, and 4 FIM-186A Wizard missiles. The Super Stallions carried a pair of M50A1 Heavy Machine Guns mounted in the windows, each with 2,000 rounds. A ramp mounted M35A1 Light Machine Gun with 2,400 rounds was for rear cover.

The ground shook when the nine helicopters lifted off from Oxkutzcab with a total of 54 fighting men and 29 men inside the helicopters. In total that gave them 83 soldiers currently engaged in battle, against a force no larger than 30, or so they imagined. The flight from Oxkutzcab to the village was about 100 miles away, a flight time of around an hour. There was silence aboard the helicopters, each of the 54 fighting men inside the helicopters thinking about their mission more than anything else. However, as they passed over Kimbilá, the village of San Marcos came alive.

Carlos Gomez was sitting quietly in his living room, smoking a cigar, reading intelligence reports from two units he sent to observe Oxkutzcab. His wife and two children were in the house, but off in other rooms. He wanted complete peace and quiet to go over what he was reading and to look at the pictures taken of the army base. As he began to count the helicopters, his wife came into the room. "¡Carlos! ¡Mirada! ¡Aquí tome el teléfono! (Carlos! Look! Here take the phone!)" He took the phone, letting out his frustration that he was disturbed.

"¿Sí?"

"Carlos que el Layartebians vienen. Nueve helicópteros pasaron por encima de apenas Kimbilá que dirige su manera. Sea preparado. Hay 2 Apache, 4 Littlebird, y 3 Stallions. (Carlos the Layartebians are coming. Nine helicopters just passed over Kimbilá heading your way. Be prepared. There are 2 Apache, 4 Littlebird, and 3 Stallions.)" He hung up the phone and looked around the room. "¡Cuero! (Hide!)" He yelled to his wife, who ran to the other rooms to grab her kids. They ran to hide in a sublevel of the basement. As they did, Carlos looked around and picked up the phone and dialed a number. He was calling one of the men within the town. "Es Carlos. ¡Tenemos la venida de la compañía! (It's Carlos. We have company coming!)" As he did, men began running around the village, women and children began to hide, and teenagers picked up rifles. Even though there were only 26 revolutionary fighters, all part of Los Diablos, in the village, there were at least 62 armed men and teenagers. Most of them had assault rifles left over from the war, mostly AK-47s and CAR-15 Commandos. Some people had Uzis and others carried other automatic rifles and submachine guns.

At the same time, the nine helicopters banked from their course and turned to their approach. They were only 38 miles away now, coming in from 6,000 feet and 110 miles per hour. From their position they knew not what they were flying into and they knew not what they were starting. The superior firepower of the nine helicopters would help them to provide fire support but at the same time, it was not guaranteed to anything. Helicopters had to keep moving, to keep from getting shot down by missiles and rockets. In that, they would be flying no higher than 250 feet over the village, dangerously low.

After 21 more minutes, they were over the village, ready to go. The Littlebirds first flew over the village, low and fast, scouting out the scene a good 8 minutes before the Stallions came in. As the Littlebirds exited, the Apaches came in firing on designated targets. After two sweeps like that, the Stallions were cleared in. They came in low, no more than 70 feet off the ground, moving fast, then went into a quick hover, and dropped two ropes each, both extremely strong and long. The 70 foot, 1.5 inch thick ropes were perfect but dangerous. The fast-roping soldiers were not attached to the rope but they could go down it quickly. As long as there were 9 feet between the people, more and more people could fast rope. Each helicopter only carried 18 soldiers so 9 would go out each side and down each rope. It would take no more than 60 seconds for all 18 men, in each helicopter, to get to the ground. The fast-ropers would have to slow down just before landing, to avoid injury, as they were moving at a near 15mph down the rope.

"Espere hasta que ellos sean todo hacia abajo. Entonces abra el fuego. (Wait until they are all down. Then open fire.)" The order give was clear. Each of the 88 insurgents in the village kept their cool. They knew they were going up against a far superior enemy and that they were there to get Carlos but they also know that they had the advantage. This was their village. The helicopters dropped their ropes and departed, taking up an orbit position at 250 to 300 feet. They circled the village, as Littlebirds flew over at heights of 100 to 200 feet, maintaining a high speed. The Apaches were flying a bit higher, at 400 feet. Their sensors and the forward targetting from the Littlebirds allowed them to fire from further away and higher up, allowing them more safety.

"Alright men, let's get this done!" The leader of 1st Squad yelled as his men hit the ground. The squad split into its three fireteams. Their objective was to get to Carlos' house and arrest him. They had been dropped a mere 40 meters away from it and they knew which one it was. 2nd Squad was tasked with search and destroy, moving from house to house, finding insurgents and either capturing or killing them. 3rd Squad was tasked with locating the weapons cache and destroying it or seizing what they could use. All 54 men took to their task, moving throughout the small village. So far, none of them had taken any fire and they began to walk quickly towards their objectives, each one no more than 40 meters away, no closer than 32 meters. They kept their weapons shouldered, their radios on, and watched their surroundings.

"¡FUEGO! ¡RENUEVO! ¡MATE LOS BASTARDOS! (FIRE! SHOOT! KILL THE BASTARDS!)" The order echoed throughout the vilalge as men opened fire, flooding the street with 5.56 x 45mm and 7.62 x 39mm ammunition, moving fast, but not very accurate. The villagers were not amazing shots, nor were they conspicuous. The members of Los Diablos, on the other hand, were accurate but not as accurate as they wanted to be. Within the first 90 seconds of battle, 18 villagers were dead and only 2 Layartebians were wounded, both not seriously. They pushed onward, hiding for cover behind what they could, as they took fire from around corners, from rooftops, from second story windows, and from the streets. 1st Squad was taking the most fire, volumes upon volumes and they were fighting mostly against soldiers of Los Diablos. The bullets coming at them were far closer to them then those fired at 2nd or 3rd Squad.

"We're taking fire. Down the street. Northward. Give us a flyby over?" The squad leader screamed into the microphone, calling to a Littlebird over head.

"Inbound. Take cover!" The AH-6J Littlebird took a hard bank and came screaming down the street no higher than 80 feet, moving at 100 miles per hour, firing its Miniguns and rockets. It let off 4 rockets and at least 300 rounds. The bullets peppered two structures, killing a further 12 insurgents and the rockets slicked through a pair of vehicles with mounted weapons, killing 2 more people. That left, 56 insurgents, all firing at them.

After the Littlebird passed, 1st Squad advanced further up the street, towards Carlos' house. At the same time, a single Stallion came down the area, firing its fifty caliber machine guns at various targets along the street, killing another 4 insurgents.

Things were going decently for 2nd Squad. They had plenty of M84 Flashbang grenades and used them liberally as they moved through the various houses, breaking in the side or rear doors and flooding through. The 3 fire teams took one house at a time, moving swiftly through them, breaking any doors that were locked with their feet or with their weapons. Women and children huddled in corners, hiding from the soldiers and from the bullets. They were passed by as the soldiers moved, looking for weapons and for armed insurgents. 3rd Squad was doing the same, on the other side of the small village, seeking out weapons as well. Though they were looking for the cache, they were, effectively, looking for insurgents as well.

Within another 4 minutes, both squads killed 10 villagers armed with rifles and had 6 prisoners, bound with plastic zip-ties and moved to safe places. One fireteam from each squad would cover the prisoners as the other two advanced. Of the 36 still-fighting insurgents, 20 of them were from Los Diablos and the other 16 were villagers. All 6 prisoners were villagers as well. The insurgents of Los Diablos had been excellent so far, outperforming the basic expectations of them. 8 soldiers were injured now, 2 critically. Medics were tending to them, both from 3rd Squad, taken from a grenade blast inside of a house not far from the cache. The other 6 were spread out across the squads, 3 in 1st Squad, 2 in 2nd Squad, and 1 in 3rd Squad, all of them minor wounds, mostly gunshots to unprotected areas. All of them were fully able to continue their push.

1st Squad was only 6 meters away from Carlos' house when the first KIA was announced over the radio. It was a corporal in 1st Squad, by the name of Michael Dean. Dean was moving down the street, along with the rest of his squad, 6 meters away from Carlos' house, when a single bullet echoed through the air, twisting towards him at a velocity approaching 860 meters per second. He never had a chance. The bullet was fired from the 2nd story of a house across the street from Carlos' house, from a SVD sniper rifle, aimed with percision by one of Carlos' bodyguards. The bullet was aimed percisely at a point where Dean couldn't protect himself, his eye. With a snap, the bullet whizzed through the air and into his left eye. His head was thrown back, his arms turned to jello, and his body lifeless as it exited the rear of his skull, underneath his helmet. With a splurt of blood and a thumb, he hit the ground, dead.

"SNIPER!" One of the men yelled as he opened fire against the house. The 5.56 x 45mm bullets that hit the house found their mark, although sloppily. Three of them hit the sniper's shoulder and exited quickly. Another two hit his chest and four hit his head. The sniper, lifeless as well, fell out of the window, hitting the ground.

"1st Squad. We have a KIA. Corporal Michael Dean." The squad leader reported to the command bird overhead, one of the CH-53E Super Stallions, which carried two commanders. One of them was in charge of coordinating the helicopters with the other in charge of coordinating the soldiers on the ground.

"Roger that." The commander announced. "Command, this is Helo 11, we have a KIA, Corporal Michael Dean, 1st Squad."

"Roger that." The information was recorded at their base and sent to command in Mérida. Coporal Michael Dean, the first Layartebian fatality of the war. He wouldn't be the last either. Within 15 seconds of his death, one of the criticals died, a Sergeant Alan Watson. Injuries were beginning to add up, now with 16 soldiers injured, 4 of them unable to continue fighting. 2nd Squad was taking the hardest and slowest hits, being shot and engaged by many of Carlos' men. They were 10 minutes into the battle and they had yet to achieve any objectives, not unusual, as they were to get them by 25 minutes, at the maximum. It was 13 minutes when 1st Squad entered Carlos' house and began their search.

2nd Squad was coming up one of 4 more houses to search. 3rd Squad had 3 more, one of them definitely the cache. By this time, only 28 insurgents were alive and aside from the 6 they originally captured, there were another 6 more, two of them from Los Diablos. All 6 of the recent captures were injured, thus making them easier to take.

The battle lasted another 18 minutes but when it was over, they had 15 prisoners, 3 from Los Diablos. They had taken 5 fatalities, 17 injuries, and 2 men were missing, presumed captured but they still had to search the village and the outlying areas. Carlos had fled, his wife and children arrested for questioning. The arms cache was found and they took what they wanted, destroying what they didn't take with C4.

As the village scene calmed down and they began to look around for their 2 missing soldiers, there was a disturbing radio call. "This is Fireteam Charlie. We found our missing but they're dead. It's about 60 meters west of Carlos' house. Over."

"Roger that, we're inbound." The squad leader of 1st Squad said. They began moving towards the site, which was a disgusting sight. Two of the soldiers wound up puking their guts out, others turning away in horror. "Colombian necktie." The squad leader said as he looked around at his men. The two soldiers were lying on the ground, dead, their throats slit, and their tongues pulled through the holes. It was a gruesome sight, very gruesome. The reports for this one would be concerning, very concerning.

Chapter IV: The Empire is awakened…


Bergen, Autonomous Province of Norway
1.37 PM CET

The afternoon was the normal in Bergen, cloudy and rainy, with a temperature of roughly 14° Celsius (57.2° Fahrenheit). People were walking around the streets, going about their everyday business as usual when a black Saab that rolled down Lars Hilles gate (Lars Hilles Street) with Grieghallen on its left-hand side rolled down the windows on the right-hand side. The three people inside stuck out three weapons (two pistols and a SMG) and fired loose on a group of people standing at the old BKK building (BKK = large power corporation in Norway) before they speeded off. Seven people got hit by the bullets, and they fell while the Saab speeded down Lars Hilles gate, took a right turn on Christies gate and then right again at Kaigaten (Dock Street).

While the Saab rushed down the streets, several police cars from the Police Headquarters at Allehelgens gate (All Saints Street), only six blocks away rushed to the scene. Three ambulances from the Main Fire Station in Christies gate also responded with flashing sirens and lights. People were already crowding the scene of the crime, but they gave way for the paramedics and police officers who were responding to the call. The cops were, in addition to their normal service pistols, carrying MP5 submachine guns and bulletproof vests. It was probably no risk, but the police didn’t take chances. The paramedics preformed a quick triage, but there was little chance. Five of the people shot were already dead, and the surviving two were badly wounded. They were quickly stabilized as best the paramedics could and brought aboard the ambulances and driven off to Haukeland Universitetssykehus (Haukeland University Hospital), where the operating rooms were being prepared. The police in the crime scene were busy keeping people away from the dead bodies, waiting for the CSIs to arrive. They had to identify the dead people, three men of Hispanic background, a seventeen year old girl and a seventeen year old boy, obviously a couple by the way they were so close together.

As the CSIs came, they immediately got to work checking the area for evidence. Traffic had been stopped, and they found a long line of shell casings. 9 millimeter Parabellums. The worst surprise came when they started to identify the bodies though. The seventeen year old boy was Fredrik Moengen, the son of Governor Petter Moengen!


2.02 PM CET

Governor Moengen sat at his desk in his office at Bergenshus Fortress, overlooking Vågen. He had just been in a meeting with the elected council regarding the construction of a subway system in Bergen, something that had been on the drawing board for more than three years. The conclusion had been that they were going to draw up a time schedule and a budget proposition, and then Moengen would try to push it through with the Emperor. Now, however, everything took a sudden turn for the worse. Moengens secretary opened the door and allowed Chief of Police Erik Olsen and the head of the Bergen office for the Federal Police, Special Agent Robert Dorset to enter. Both men had a sad expression on their faces, but the more disturbing event was that a priest also came in.

”Petter, jeg tror det er best at du forblir sittende. Det har skjedd noe.” (Petter, I think that it’s best that you remain seated. There’s been an incident.)

“Hva? Hva har skjedd?” (What? What’s happened?)

”Det har vært en skyteepisode nede ved Grieghallen. Din sønn var involvert. Jeg… Jeg beklager å måtte informere deg at din sønn har blitt skutt til døde. Det…” (There’s been a gunshot incident down by Grieghallen. Your son was involved. I… I regret to have to inform you that your son has been shot dead. It…)

”Hva!? Fredrik… død? Hvordan…? Hvem…?” (What?! Fredrik… dead? How…? Who…?)

”Vi er ikke helt sikre enda, men vi jobber ut ifra teorien om at det var en narko-relatert forbrytelse. Three andre som døde var Layartebiske borgere. Fra Yucatan. De hadde store pengesummer og masse narkotika med seg. Det ser ut som at sønnen din var utilsiktet skade. Han og en jente ble også truffet. Vitner sier at en svart Saab kjørte vekk fra stedet i en helvetes fart. Det er egentlig alt vi kan si for øyeblikket. Du er nødt å identifisere din sønn. Han har blitt brakt til Gades Institutt.” (We’re not entirely sure yet, but we’re working on the theory that it was a drug-related crime. Three others that died were Layartebian citizens. From Yucatan. They were carrying large amounts of money and a lot of drugs on them. It appears that your son was collateral damage. He and a girl were also hit. Witnesses say that a black Saab was driving away from the area in a hell of a speed. That’s really all we can say at the moment. You have to identify your son, He’s been brought to Gades Institute (OOC: pathological institute))

Governor Moengen only nodded. He was completely stunned at the fact that he would never again be able to speak with his son. That his only child had been taken away from him by some goddamned junkies! He would have them located and punished! But first he had to explain to his wife what happened.


Imperial Palace, Cotlandstad
2.56 PM CET

The Emperor had just received word of the incident in Bergen through the assistant of the Governor, and he was also stunned. That it had come to this. And the worst part was that there were Layartebians involved. He had already ordered the Layartebian ambassador to come to the Palace post haste. After the meeting with the ambassador, he would also call the Layartebian Emperor. He knew of the troubles the Layartebians were experiencing in Yucatan through both recon satellites and sources on the ground, and the fact that three Layartebians from Yucatan, carrying drugs and large amounts of money. That was just too much of a coincidence.


Bergen, Autonomous Province of Norway
6.10 PM CET

The Police had received an anonymous tip that three suspicious people of Hispanic background were inside an apartment building in Loddefjord, five kilometers outside downtown Bergen. The police responded, and saw a black Saab stand parked outside the building closest to Vestkanten, a shopping mall in Loddefjord. The police quickly and quietly surrounded the apartment building and sealed it off while they waited for the Federal Police SWAT unit to arrive.

The SWAT team arrived quickly, and they were ready to enter almost the instant they arrived. The eight man team had already dressed themselves with the tactical gear needed, and their weapons, most of them had supressed MP5s, but one of them had a Benelli Nova shotgun loaded with beanbag ammunition. They also had Tasers, flashbangs and teargas ready.

http://www.theforsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Role-Playing/La%20Guerra%20Que%20No%20Hombre%20Debe%20Saber
The Federal Police SWAT team getting ready to enter.


The operation started at half past six in the evening, local time, with the SWAT team walking quickly up the stairs to the ninth floor where the suspect’s apartment was. The neighbors had been evacuated from the floor by the local police force quickly and quietly, so there were little chance of collateral damage. Listening devices revealed that there were three people inside, and that they spoke Spanish. None of the team members knew Spanish, but they knew English. That didn’t matter much though. The verbal part of the operation would be in Norwegian anyway.

The team stood outside, ready to breech the door when the door opened and they stood face to face with one of the residents of the apartment. He looked at the four men that stood ready outside the door for a split second before he tried to slam the door in their face while crying out something in Spanish. The SWAT team also responded quickly, rushing in the door with their Tasers and Benelli Nova raised and ready. The one at the door got a beanbag in his chest and fell down with extreme pains while the team came into the living room to find two suspects with pistols raised. One of the suspects got off one shot from his Glock 17, which hit the body armor of one of the SWAT members. The gunshot was immediately retaliated with two Tasers fired at the two suspects. The one who fired the weapon was also hit by a beanbag, thus incapacitating the suspects. Then they were handcuffed and read the rights, although none of the men were able to hear or understand the words.

After the men had been arrested, the police found money stashed in the apartment, as well as two Glock 17s, a Beretta 92F, an Ingram Mac-10 submachine gun and hundreds of rounds in the caliber 9 mm. There were also papers that identified the men as Layartebian citizens from Yucatan.

”Litt av en fangst. Send våpnene til kriminalteknisk analyse. Jeg vil ha resultatene fra de ballistiske testene på skrivebordet mitt i morgen tidlig.” (Quite a catch. Send the weapons to forensic analysis. I want the results from the ballistic tests on my desk first thing in the morning.) the agent in charge of this investigation said. The case had been turned over to the Federal Police on direct orders from the Emperor after it became clear that the son of the Governor had been killed, and the men they had arrested now could face a death penalty if they had been the shooters. Six murders (one of the wounded had died on the operating table) equaled six death penalties. The trouble was that Layarteb might protest against executing three of their citizens.


Imperial Palace, Cotlandstad
6.15 AM CET, the next day

The Emperor sat in his office and read the preliminary report on the operation the evening before. In interrogations, one of the men had cracked and said that they were members of a group in Yucatan called ‘Los Diablos’, and that they had killed the people the other day because they were sympathizers with the Layartebians. The others weren’t primary targets, but they weren’t sorry that they had died because they were citizens of a nation that supported Layarteb. This information had not been forced out of the man physically, but through carefully conceived psychological tactics that weren’t illegal. Hell, the man’s lawyer had been present in the interrogation too! Twenty minutes later, the following announcement went out to the world, and especially Yucatan.

Yesterday, a cowardly attack was committed against the Empire of Cotland by a group known as ‘Los Diablos’, an attack that cost six human lives. Among those killed was Fredrik Moengen, son of the Governor in Norway. The information regarding the group responsible for this misdeed has been confirmed by three members of the group which was apprehended alive in an operation carried out by the police in Bergen, Norway in conjunction with the Federal Police. This group, which is based in the Layartebian province of Yucatan, has chosen the wrong Empire to mess with. Therefore, and effective immediately in Imperial Decree 72, ‘Los Diablos’ and all similar groups in Yucatan are to be considered terrorist organizations, and dealt with accordingly. The Empire will not sit idly by and watch the terrorists take away the peace and freedom of our people. I am therefore sending troops to Yucatan to assist the Layartebians defeat these terrorist organizations in all their forms, where ever they may be found. Rest assured. The people of Cotland will not be intimidated or scared by these acts of cowardice. We will get our revenge.

Office of the Emperor
Empire of Cotland


Posted with owners permission

Chapter V: Bloodlust

The Emperor's castle was dark and gloomy, as usual. Torches burned in the hallways to light the castle and everything was, as usual, calm. As he was in his office, looking over the latest figures of the drought in Layarteb, for it had not rained significantly in more than eight weeks, he received a phone call.

"Sir," his secretary buzzed in, "Brigadier General David Anderson is on the phone sir. He says it is urgent."

"Very well, patch him through."

"Line two sir."

"Thank you." The phone line blinked red. "Brigadier General. How are you today sir?"

"Thank you sir. I have some bad news and I regret to have to inform you of it in such a way."

"Speak freely General."

"Well sir our first operational mission was a failure. Our goal was to apprehend a key individual in Los Diablos. Well sir, unfortunately, we did not capture him. We did capture several insurgents and their supporters. We did lose some soldiers sir. I regret that two of them died in a most horrific way. They were given Colombian Neckties sir."

"What!" He was furious. "Monsters!"

"Sir that isn't the half of it."

"Go on."

"The village of Pipaa, south-southeast of Izamal, was loyal to us. We have not heard from them in at least three days so we sent a reconnaissance squad to establish communications. A strong storm rolled through here around the same time we lost communications so we figured that they were knocked out by the storm. Upon entrance to the village, the reconnaissance squad reported that the village was at least half way burned to the ground. The few structures that stood were disasters. Bodies were everywhere. Limbs were everywhere. Colombian Neckties sir. Lots of them. Beheadings, disemboweling. Sir they just went to down. Sixteen people were eaten sir, half of their flesh missing. The pictures are already sent to the Joint Chiefs sir but this is ghastly. I can't even imagine what this looked like to the squad. I am told six of the men puked right there sir."

"Any messages left?"

"Yes sir. And I quote, 'Enemies of the Yucatán. You are invaders on holy ground. Your actions will not be excused nor forgiven. Let this village speak as a warning that we will kill and destroy every soldier, helicopter, tank, and gun you send against us. We are Los Diablos and your flesh is our fuel, your blood our drink, and your death our sacrifice.' Sir, this is unlike anything else we have faced."

"I understand. Very well. I will take this into account. Los Diablos have stretched far as well. The Cottish Emperor has informed me that a drug-deal gone bad has claimed the life of a governor's son and present were both Los Diablos and foreign drug lords. This is far beyond anything we could have encompassed but we will not retreat. Maintain your orders. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Thank you for the information. We will speak again after I meet with the Cabinet."

"Yes sir. Good day."

"As you." The Emperor hung up the phone and buzzed his secretary. "When is the Cabinet meeting scheduled for?"

"2100 sir."

"Thank you." The Emperor looked around, Six hours. This bloodlust has gone too far! At the same time, he was looking over the Cottish announcement. A fools errand. He once again buzzed his secretary. "Get Emperor Thomas of Cotland on the phone."

"Yes sir, one moment." She fumbled with some numbers and began dialing, looking for the Cottish Emperor's secretary. "Go ahead, line one."

"Thank you." He waited a second for it to connect. "Emperor Thomas, this is the Emperor. How are you this evening?"

"Not so well, I'm afraid. A lot of stuff's been happening here today."

"Yes I heard and saw the announcement. This leads me to the nature of my phone call."

"I see. I'm listening."

"I must ask that you withdraw your international and public announcement. I understand the nature and severity of my request but the means justify the ends, I assure you."

"May I ask which means and ends those are, my friend? I cannot simply take them away. The son of a good friend of mine was killed yesterday afternoon by terrorists."

"The problem with an international announcement is that it brings international attention. This is an internal affair. Whilst I am aware you have now been affected but it, it remains a domestic problem. Therein I wish for you to withdraw the international and public request, on these grounds. Then, covertly and secretly, airlift or send your best special forces groups to Merída to assist with annihilation. Operations there are, for the large majority, very covert and secret. If word got out as to the nature of many of these operations, every human rights group in the globe will be clamoring for a seat at the table, trying to stick their nose where it doesn't belong. This will, undoubtedly, allow meddling governments of the world to get involved and create a much more problematic situation."

"Well, I can certainly see your point. If I agree to withdraw the statement and send in certain... groups, how will they be supported? How will they be transported from location to location? As I'm sure you understand, I don't wish to send Cottish soldiers into peril without knowing that they have the best support available. Will Layarteb take responsibility for the supply and transport of the groups, or may we send in adequate support elements as well if I agree to your wishes?"

"Yes supply will be done through our groups that are already there. Transportation will be in either armored convoys or helicopters already deployed to the area. In some instances, fixed-wing aircraft will be providing transportation. If you wish to send in additional support groups you are more then welcome. It is advisable, since the terrain is jungle-like, that your units deploy with Layartebian units, this way there won't be any problems of lost units, miscommunication, etc. Groups can be deployed either with our special forces or covert secret groups."

"I understand. And how quickly would you allow our groups to deploy?"

"Immediately."

"I see." Emperor Thomas paused and took a deep breath. "I'll draft a statement which clearly says that the Empire of Cotland does not meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign allied nations, but still maintains its war on terrorism, where ever it may lurk. Unofficially, I'm deploying five teams from a covert secret group code named Tiger. There will be a total of fifty combatants. I trust that this will remain a complete secret?"

"Your deployment will have no record."

"Excellent, for the men we are sending does not officially exist. Except them on the ground in Mérida in fifteen hours. My friend, I'm taking a huge gamble here. Some foreign nations may take the withdrawal of the statement the wrong way and try to attack Cotland. I'll also have to talk to governor Moengen and his family, or what's left of it, about this. Can you assure me that we will get the bastards responsible for this?"

"If we do not get the bastards responsible it will affect more than just the Yucatán. If we do not, the future of the Empire will erode."

"In the interest of both our Empires, we cannot allow for that to happen. But I would like to, if possible, for the person responsible for ordering the murders in Bergen to be extradited to Cotland for trial."

"Unfortunately, at this present time, our abilities to cypher this out are less than satisfactory. If your police force could conduct an investigation, based on your tragic event, it would help us greatly. We shall send you intelligence information on Los Diablos."

"They will. I give you my word that they will. I'll make it the top priority for the Federal Police. Please relay the information to the Federal Police office in Bergen. They are responsible for this investigation. Hopefully, we'll get usable information soon."

"Very well. It is my hope that the Yucatán ceases to be a problem but I cannot promise this. It is up to fate."

"And our soldiers."

"It is not them who I distrust."

"No, but our soldiers will, God willing, be able to stomp out the terrorists quickly and harshly."

"Yes they will. With proper tactics, funding, and support our soldiers will rid this peninsula of the devils that occupy it."

"True. I am setting aside five billion Coins in support of this campaign. Our troops are well trained and equipped as well."

"This is most gracious. I assure you that your support will not be left to the wind."

"Thank you. Now, I'll have to call governor Moengen and tell him the news. I hope to see you in Cotlandstad some time soon Emperor. I just wish it be under more positive circumstances. Such as the execution of the people responsible for the murders."

"Executions are a wonderful event. Thank you and we shall talk again."

"Yes. Some other time, old friend. Goodbye." Emperor Thomas hung up the phone and so did the Emperor. He looked around his office. It was just as dark and gloomy as the rest of the castle.

This will be my undoing. He thought to himself as he looked at his wrist watch. The meeting was approaching and so was the hour of decision.

Telephone Call Approved by Cotland (Roleplayed on AIM)

XXXXXXXXXX

The air outside Tizimín was crisp. It was fresh. Tizimín was the location of a Layartebian army base. It was small. Based there was 4th Army Group, 2nd Army, 3rd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade, 1st Regiment, 1st Battalion and their associated cavalry units. In addition, . The base was defended by a pair of M2016A1 LAADS units and a pair of SLAMRAAM units. Wizard MANPAD launchers at the base provided point defense as well. That put 864 soldiers at the base, all equipped with plenty of weapons and cavalry units. Main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored trucks were all there.

With only two ways into the base and only two ways out, it was easy to seal off the base, unfortunately, for the enemy, it was easy to seal off the base as well. Anti-personnel mines had been placed throughout the corridors and anti-tank mines were placed in certain spots as well. Obviously, the drivers knew where the mines were but, at the same time, who knew if the enemy put any down. The base was guarded by sixteen guard towers, each manned by an expert marksman and a sniper. Search lights illuminated the ground for up to 200 meters and nothing would get in without being found. Not far from the base, about 7 kilometers, was an airfield, small enough for a few light bombers but nothing massive. Manned by the Imperial Layartebian Air Force, the base was guarded just as heavily. Then, there was the city. Structures, alleys, roads, and civilians filled Tizimín. Both the airfield and the army base were just outside of the city limits, not interfering with the daily lives of the civilians, at least fifty of which worked at either the army base or the small airfield.

The first sign that something was wrong came at 2234, when six, well-placed, perfectly aimed, sniper rounds pierced three of the search lights, shattering them, and three guards, killing all three of them. Each shot was fired within a second from each other, meaning that there were, at minimum, six snipers out there. Twenty minutes later, short-range radars picked up two low-altitude, fast moving targets, definitely helicopters. Initial identification put them as ancient UH-1 Iroquois Huey helicopters, definitely the work of El Escogido. The base was under attack. Mortar fire came within a minute of the identification of the helicopters, each round landing inside the base walls or just outside of it. The mortar fire was literally coming from every direction. Machine gun and sniper fire increased against guards manning the walls and the towers, two of whom died immediately. The enemy was far away, more than 400 meters and out of range of night vision.

Then, the helicopters came within range. The two M2016A1 LAADS units were positioned towards their direction, each one armed with a GAU-12/U Equalizer 25MM Gatling-gun with 3,072 rounds, a single M31A1 HMG with 420 rounds, 8 MIM-170B Predator missiles, and 24 Wizard missiles. Using its infra-red sensor, each M2016A1 locked onto an incoming helicopter and waited. The MIM-170B was guided by imaging infra-red and had a range from 160 meters to 25.75 kilometers. Powerful weapons, they were much more effective close-in.

"Helicopter bearing 0-2-0. Range 4 kilometers. Locked on and ready to fire." One of the men inside the LAADS said as he watched the scope for the Predator. Of the 4 crewmen, one drove, one operated the Predator and Wizards, one operated the Equalizer, and the other was a commander who could operate the HMG if necessary. "Sir, we've got a lock, ready to fire."

"Wait until range is 2,000 meters. Fire off one." The commander said and repeated the order to the other LAADS. Then, as the still of the night was broken by the sound of gunfire, the two, silent, quiet, and peaceful M2016A1 units unleashed unholy hell. Each fired off a single Predator missiles towards the incoming helicopters. "Birds away!" The commander yelled as the two missiles lifted off, accelerating to 3 times the speed of sound in a very short distance. The helicopters were 400 feet in the air, well above the 50 foot minimum ceiling for the Predator and each missile, because it was guided by infra-red, left no warning for the helicopter pilots. The rocket engine of the Predator left no smoke and was fueled by gel-fuel, the basic fuel of all indigenously produced missiles of the ILM. "Time to target is 3 seconds. 2 seconds. 1 second. Impact!" The two missiles were moving at close to a kilometer a second by the time they were at full speed. The helicopters never stood a chance as the missiles each exploded in front of the helicopters. They were each equipped with a 26.5 pound, blast-fragmentation warhead and they filled the cockpits of each helicopter with enough 10mm tungsten BBs that it almost split the helicopters in two. The first helicopter exploded mid-air, the tungsten shots penetrating the fuel lines and the engines, sparking as they did. The second suffered damage to its control surfaces and the rotor. The tungsten shots killed both pilots and all but two of the men in the cabin. The helicopter went into a steep dive and slammed into the ground at almost 200 miles per hour, killing the other two men inside. "We've got two confirmed kills. Helicopters are down." The M2016A1s turned their infra-red tracking systems to the ground now and were surprised to see what they saw. "From the east, we've got multiple groups of hostiles, about 500 meters out, moving closer. We pick up some engine heat, most likely from armored personnel carriers and the like."

"Roger that Echo 1. Good work."

The base became alive as reports of hostiles all around them flooded the control. They were being attacked by some 200 enemy soldiers who were coming in with a pair of armored personnel carriers and six infantry fighting vehicles. The firepower alone was much more than the Layartebian soldiers were expecting. Mortar fire doubled by now, coming from ranges between 600 and 900 meters, much too far away to detect. That was when Recon Force began their mission. Two teams, each with six people, armed with C4 explosives, high explosive grenades, and tons of ammunition, departed the base from the west, the direction the mortars were coming from, with the intention to destroy them. More mortars rained down on the base as three tanks and a pair of IFVs departed all heading to annihilate the enemy. Using their night vision, the vehicle drivers and the infantry alongside them began to identify the enemy soldiers, who were well dug in, surrounding the base.

As men were preparing to mount up their vehicles inside the base, tensions were running high. The vehicles were all protected under shelters, able to withstand 81mm mortar fire and though they knew not what was coming at them, they did know that it was underneath 81mm but probably not by much. Gunfire erupted from the wall outwards to the fields around the army base. It was a scene right out of a movie, tanks and armored personnel carriers being manned, bullets flying overhead, mortars landing all around, and soldiers taking hits along the wall.

"Enemy forces. 300 meters. Approaching. We've got claymores and mines at 50 meters. If we have to detonate it means we're down to our last defenses." The base commander said to his tacticians. "Get out the tanks and APCs. Have them take these bastards out and get some air support over here! I don't care what it is as long as it drops bombs and fires rockets!"

"Yes sir." The aide picked up the phone to the airfield. "Tizimín Army Base. We're under attack by numerous hostiles from all directions. Request immediate air support to assist with soft targets! Over!"

"Roger that. We'll scramble the fighters."

"ETA?"

"Four minutes."

"Roger that. Out!" The aide turned to the commander. "Sir. Four minutes."

"Four minutes? We'll be dead in four minutes. Damn fly boys! What are they sending?"

"Didn't say."

"What'd you specify?"

"Soft targets."

"A-10s and Talons maybe." He looked around. The command room was tense. Everyone was doing something and nobody was paying attention to the commander except his immediate staff. "Goddamn it! Establish contact with the air base. Let them know we have armor out there!"

"Yes sir!" The aide picked up the phone again and informed them of the presence of friendly vehicles in the battlefield. The airfield operator did not seem concerned. As he hung up the phone, a pair of A-13 Vipers took off from runway 1W. They were both loaded heavy with 1,600 rounds for their GAU-8/B Avenger cannons, 2 AIM-9X Sidewinders internally, and 4 AGM-65G Mavericks internally. Externally, they carried 4 19-round rocket pods, 4 AGM-183A Zombie missiles, and 4 GBU-35 JDAMs for air to ground armament and for air to air, 4 AIM-9X Sidewinders. As they sat on the tarmac, one on the left lane, one on the right, the latter being about 50 feet behind the former, the sky above them flashed. Lightning on the horizon was far away, the sound from the thunder never reaching them. They estimated it to be about 20 miles away, at minimum.

"Whiskey 1. You are cleared for take-off. Runway 1W."

"Roger that Tower. We're go for take-off." Whiskey 1, the flight leader, pushed his throttle to maximum and the two, non-after burning, stealth engines, whined up to full power. A faint rumble from them was about the only sound one could hear. Immediately, 42,600 pounds of thrust was pushing the 72,000 pound aircraft down the runway, accelerating past 100 mph to take-off speed at 160 mph. Then, at 160 mph, the pilots eased back to a 10° climb, the wheels leaving the runway almost immediately. They kept the engines at full throttle and retracted their flaps and landing gear, the plane accelerating faster. The weapons load made it unstealthy but they weren't fighting an advanced military with surface-to-air missiles and fighters.

"Whiskey 1. Clear to use own navigate. Good luck!"

"Roger that Tower. Thanks. Whiskey 2 come to heading 1-6-0, angles 3, speed 500."

"2." The second aircraft followed as they accelerated faster and faster, leveling off at 3,000 feet, course 160, and moving up to 500 mph, which didn't take long, certainly faster than it would have taken them to get to the target. Once at 500 mph, they throttled back. They were a minute out now and would conduct an initial pass over the target area, contacting the base, and requesting orders. They flew with their infrared sensors on, logging targets in the computer as they approached and passed. They picked up the friendly vehicles and tanks easily and identified them as such, friendly.

"Whiskey flight on station Tizimín base. Direct us to FAC. Over."

"Whiskey flight this is base command. Good to have you. Enemy soft targets from all directions. Request immediate air support. Enemy forces no less than 225 meters from walls and no more than 600 meters. Friendly forces are only vehicles and 2 special forces teams on mortar hunt and destroy. Over."

"Roger that. We'll conduct strikes to the west, no friendlies. Over."

"Good hunting. Out." The base commander smiled and looked around. Everyone was just a little bit happier that aircraft were on station.

As the aircraft buzzed overhead at 500 mph, soldiers at the walls began to finally see their opposition as they came within range of night vision. Lightning flashes in the distance would not help them either. It would obscure their night vision and would, if caught in a direct line of sight, temporarily blind the individual with the goggles as it would be very bright. The tanks and APCs were now identifying targets as well. An estimated 2,000 enemy soldiers were surrounding the base, all of them armed to the teeth with ammunition and resolve. They were going to take the base or die trying. There was no surrender or capture option for them.

Of the 27 vehicles deployed: 9 were Dingo APVs with M31A1 HMGs, 3 with Dingo APVs with M49A1 GMGs, 7 were M2006A1 Emperor MBTs, 4 were M2A4 Bradley IFVs, and 4 were M2012A1 Marauder APCs. The vehicles unleashed unholy hell upon the enemy, pouring cannon and machine gun fire into the waves of enemy forces approaching the base. The M2006A1s were firing 120MM M1028A1 shells. These shells contained 1,150 10mm tungsten shots, making it a massive shotgun shell with a lethality radius of 700 meters. Enemy soldiers were just being mutilated. Aside from the shotgun shells, they also were carrying and firing HEAT and SABOT rounds. Since each one carried 100 rounds, they had at least 40 HEAT, 25 SABOT, and 35 shotgun for this mission. The chainguns of the M2A4s were ripping their victims to shreds as well.

As the gore continued to be spilled from the turrets, machine guns, co-axials, and cannons, death began to rain from above. The two A-13As began their runs to the west. They overflew the area twice already and knew where the targets were. Using their night vision goggles and infrared sensors, they began to fire off their rockets into large clusters of individuals, coming down from 6,000 feet and ending their run around 800 feet, to give them time to pull up, which was usually done before they got to 400 feet. Then they would come in again. They would make runs until their ammunition was depleted, using their cannons as they fired off the rockets. Large explosions to the west meant they were hitting their targets and screams were just audible over the explosions.

Snipers on the wall were now finding it much easier to pick off their targets since they were within range. Soldiers manning machine guns on the wall were also finding it easier. Still, the most effective soldiers were the ones firing off the 40 millimeter grenades, each one expertly placed to do maximum damage. A single round was averaging the death of 8 to 10 enemy soldiers.

As the battle raged on, the two Special Forces teams were some 500 meters away, having snuck past enemy lines. They were looking through the darkness of the night, through their night vision goggles, for the mortars that were still firing. Sound was what they were going by as the mortars did make a swoosh sound when they were first fired. Them screaming down on their targets would be heard afterwards.

They moved quickly through the vegetation, their weapons shouldered, their mouths shut, and their ears opened. They were looking for two mortar teams, each one not too far from the other and with that, they would split up. One was roughly 700 meters away, the other about 900 meters away. Judging by the timing and the sounding done at the base, these relative ranges had a play factor of about 25 meters.

Then, one of the teams heard their target. "Team One. We've got a pit in range. 190 meters ahead. Team Two. Split off."

"Roger that. Two splitting." The teams split and the eight men from Team One moved slowly towards the mortar pit, which had four mortars. They would use their M67 Fragmentation Grenades first, cooking them off so that they would explode either in the air or once they hit the ground. This would mean that they would have to be close but not too close as the M67 could be lethal within 15 meters. Within 5 meters was a surefire death. They would close to within 30 meters, being able to throw the grenades 40 to 50 meters. Since they were Special Forces they were deadly accurate with them. After they tossed the grenades they would open fire from their concealed and hidden locations, basically being prone, on the ground. Then, they would drop a C4 charge, run, and blow up the pit, with the mortars.

The grenades went out at 30 meters. Two of them exploded just above the pit and the other three landed first and then exploded. The pit was wide, definitely dug in nicely, with lots of sandbags. They could see some 18 men manning it, but none stood after the grenades hit. This made the Special Forces soldiers very cautious. With that, they waited. One fired a 40 millimeter grenade to the pit, just to see if anything had moved but nothing did. Hand signals went out and four of the men stood and approached the pit, low and slow, their weapons drawn and ready. Upon inspection they found three people alive, though barely. Shots to the head finished that problem.

At the same time, the other eight men came across the other pit and did the same. Unfortunately, for them, the pit was aware and one of the grenades was a dud. They only got 13 of the 18 men and the 5 that remained were not injured. They opened fire to all directions, keeping low to avoid being picked off. Bullets flew over the Special Forces soldiers' heads and they kept down, waiting for a shot. It was tough to put a 40 millimeter grenade into the pit because of the way it was set up but they tried, not getting anything. As the firing continued, four of them began crawling around, to flank the soldiers whilst the other four kept them suppressed, firing off a shot here or there, keeping the enemy down. They tossed over their M84 Flashbang Grenades to confuse the enemy and keep them on their toes though it had no effect. As the four men crawled around to get a better shot, the enemy soldiers opened fire once again, not aiming for anything, just spraying. It took the four men a minute or two but when they got around to a flanking position it was well worth it. They tossed an M84 Flashbang Grenade into the pit, blinding all five men, and then opened fire. They were aiming for shoulders, arms, and legs, meaning to take these five alive. As they were expert shots, they achieved their goals, rushing in to restrain the pain-stricken victims with plastic zip-ties. Then, they placed the C4 and moved away. As they did, the other pit exploded, echoing through the jungle. Their pit exploded when they were 50 meters away, with 5 prisoners in tow, each one hurt in one way or another but fully aware now that they were in trouble.

The battle around the base continued as the Special Forces began their return. Of the 2,000 enemy soldiers, roughly 600 remained, strong and powerful. Tanks and IFVs had done wonders removing the enemy from their lines, slaughtering them left and right. One tank, rather than waste a shell, chose to just drive over the line, crushing at least two dozen men underneath its tracks. The insurgents were equipped with anti-tank weapons, mostly RPG-7s and LAWs, but they were very ineffective against the Bradleys and Emperors, which were leading the charge. A Dingo had taken a hit to its side but was still functional, even though the man operating the HMG turret was badly wounded. One of the Emperor's had taken 16 hits already and was still barely scratched, the advanced armor of the tank allowing it to withstand 3 times more hits than a fully armored M1A2 Abrams.

The two A-13A Vipers came swooping down again, using up their last bits of ammunition. They had slaughtered the entire western face inside of ten minutes and crippled both the south and the east. They were mopping up along the south when they ran low. Their Zombie missiles had been used effectively, each holding a 250 pound thermite warhead.

After 42 minutes, the fight was over and the base was saved. The Layartebians lost a Dingo and 49 men. An additional 200 were wounded, though not severely. Of the enemy soldiers, a total of 48 were captured, the rest either dead or having retreated. Estimates put at least 1,900 corpses on the battlefield when the morning sun arose. Standing in the middle of the field, the base commander sighed. "You know," he said to one of the soldiers standing next to him, "the enemy that we face is thirsty. They are thirsty for victory and eager. This is not a victory for us here. This is a defeat. The fact that these insurgents came within a kilometer of our base means that our early warning is horrible. Mortar fire landed for minutes without cessation. We need more defenses here, helicopters. This will be the pattern and if we do not act to overpower and demolish our enemy then we will suffer 49 here, 29 there, 18 here, 24 there. By the time we are done we will have thousands upon thousands. The enemy has a bloodlust and lust cannot be easily stopped."

Comments, questions, criticism?

Chapter VI: La Tormenta Feroz

Following the battle at Tizimín, military officials were wary. Tizimín was a major battle and the Layartebians had won. They had defeated the Mayans in other battles as well, inside towns, inside cities, and inside the forests. They were winning, on paper. However, with each Mayan they killed, they recruited another dozen. They needed to destroy the command structure of the three groups and they needed to do it effectively and quickly but the whereabouts of the leaders was a mystery. Any village could be hiding them, any city, any town. They garnered fierce, local support. Nearly everyday, military leaders of the Joint Chiefs and the Emperor were holding meetings to discuss the latest events in the Yucatán and everyday a new set of attacks, whmether hit and run, bombings, snipers, or what not, were discussed. The situation was out of control and spiraling into devestation with each bullet that was fired.

The situation had grown so bad that the Imperial Layartebian Navy now had a battlegroup off the coast of the Yucatán, about fifteen nautical miles north of Faro, on the northern coast, east of Progreso, which was north of Mérida. The battlegroup was from the 4th Fleet. The 10th Enterprise Battlegroup consisted of 4 AEGIS Class destroyers, 2 Dnalkrad Class air-defense destroyers, 2 Earthquake Class guided-missile battleships, 1 Emory Land Class submarine tender, 1 Enterprise Class heavy assault carrier, 2 Henry Kaiser Class oilers, 2 Hurricane Class missile assault ships, 4 miscellaneous ships, 4 Oliver Hazard Perry Class guided missile frigates, 1 Seawolf Flight III Class attack submarine, 4 Supply Class logistics ships, 4 Ticonderoga Class cruisers, 4 Twin Towers Flight IIA Class guided missile frigates, 2 Unforgiven Class cruisers, 4 Verrazano Class anti-submarine destroyers, and 1 Wilson Class RO/RO.

Embarked onboard the Enterprise was a total of 8 A-5D Vigilantes, 4 C-2B grayhounds, 4 E-2D Hawkeyes, 4 EA-5F Vigilantes, 4 EA-18A Growlers, 12 F-14E Super Tomcats, 14 F-18C Hornets, 14 F-18E Super Hornets, 10 F-19B Ghostriders, 10 F-22N Raptors, 10 F-24B Knightowls, 16 F-26B Typhoons, 2 HH-60H Sea Hawks, 4 RA-5E Vigilantes, 8 S-3B Vikings, and 4 SH-60R Sea Hawks. On board the other ships a total of 8 CH-53E Super Stallions, 16 F-29A Vultures, 8 HH-60H Sea Hawks, 36 SH-60R Sea Hawks, 4 SH-97A Serpents, and 3 SH-97B Serpents, were all embarked, the fighters on board the Hurricane ships. The fleet, because of its vast embarkment, could carry out a vast number of missions, ranging from anti-submarine warfare, to transport, to attack, to intelligence gathering, to troop deployment.

The only troops deployed were forty-eight SEALS onboard the Seawolf Flight III and they would only be used if necessary. They would, probably, because of the situation, not deploy by boat as they usually did but rather deploy by helicopter. The mission profile for that type of insertion required the SEALS to travel to the aircraft carrier via raft and then deploy on helicopters. A single CH-53E Super Stallion or four SH-60R Sea Hawks could accomodate them. However, the probable insertion force would consist of two CH-53E Super Stallions escorted by two SH-60R Sea Hawks, which would provide gunnery support.

At current, the carrier battlegroup, sitting off the coast, was quiet. Aircraft weren't airborne except for the standard patrol, which consisted of a single E-2D Hawkeye sitting about forty nautical miles away from the carrier, at an altitude of 22,000 feet, two F-14E Super Tomcat escorts, and a flight of three F-22N Raptors for protection duty.

It wasn't until 1300 that day that the fleet recieved a mission tasking order. It came straight from command in Layarteb City, asking for a low-level reconnaissance flight over the village of Yaxché, northeast of Pisté. Cloud cover obscured satellites and high altitude U-2S Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft. One platoon had been sent to the village six days earlier and had not been heard from since. Since that day, severe cloud cover had obscured the village. Reports of fires and armored units were unfounded but it warranted a reconnaissance flight and what better than a naval RA-5E Vigilante.

The RA-5E was a new aircraft. It was an improved and an advanced Vigilante, which was last seen in service in 1979. The length of the fuselage was 79.50 feet, its wings spanned 53.00 feet, and its height was 19.40 feet. Weighing 35,000 pounds empty, the Vigilante carried 18,000 pounds of fuel, and the bomber versions could carry up to 24,000 pounds of weapons. Maximum take off of the aircraft was 80,000 pounds, enough to take off of the Nimitz Class carrier. The Enterprise Class could support aircraft as heavy as 128,000 pounds. Powered by two General Electric F110-132 afterburning turbofans, each engine put out 32,500 pounds of thrust in full afterburner. The aircraft could move at 810 miles per hour at sea level and 1,650 miles per hour at altitude. Maximum ceiling was 70,000 feet and initial climb rate was 20,000 feet per second. She had a 1,200 nautical mile range. The bomber variant was loaded with a BK27 Mauser cannon with 450 rounds of 27 millimeter. Armament was carried on four external pylons, each capable of holding 4,000 pounds and an internal bay, capable of holding 6,000 pounds. The two outer pylons carried a pair of wing-on-wing pylons, each capable of holding 400 pounds. These held air to air ordinance, which could include up to 4 AIM-9 Sidewinders or 4 AIM-120 AMRAAMs. The bomber variant usually would carry heavy ordinance on the external pylons and bomb bay but the reconnaissance and electronic warfare variants usually carried fuel tanks or AARGM missiles externally and loaded the internal bay with photography cameras or jamming units. All were crewed by two pilots, one to fly, the other to either bomb or operate the cameras or electronic warfare suite.

Within 10 minutes of the order, a single RA-5E Vigilante was sitting on the deck, both canopy's open, loaded onto the catapult, its engines on idle. She was loaded with a full internal fuel load and a pair of 600 gallon external fuel tanks, giving it another 7,920 pounds of fuel, which would give it significantly more range. She carried no weapons, not even air to air missiles. The aircraft sat there, the distinctive whine of the engines deafening the deck. The aircraft was locked onto catapult four, the rightmost catapult. Inside the hull of the ship, the catapult generator built power. Each of the four catapults on the aircraft carrier were not the traditional steam catapults on the Nimitz but rather electro-magnetic catapults based on linear induction motors, which allowed the Enterprise to launch heavier aircraft. Each catapult generator held a charge capable of launching up to 48 128,000 pound aircraft before it was required to be recharged. Charging was done through the nuclear reactors, which provided the necessary eletrical output to charge the generators.

Inside the machinery room all that could be heard was a deafening hum that grew from a dull sound to a much more higher pitched sound as the generator went to full charge. Finally, 100% was reached, and the status inside the control booth on the deck showed that catapult 4 was fully charged. The catapult operator signalled to the catapult launcher, standing on the deck, to the left of the aircraft. He wore a yellow shirt and everything was done with hand-signals. First came the signal for the canopy to be closed and both the pilot and co-pilot dropped their canopy's and locked them. Then came the signal for full throttle and the pilot pushed the left, throttle control to maximum. The engines grew much louder, rumbling as the nozzle opened to reveal the afterburner flames. The catapult operator pushed the arm button inside the booth and a green light lit on the fire button, meaning that the catapult was ready to go. After the pilot signalled that he was ready, the catapult launcher gave the signal for launch, and the operator pressed the button. Instantly, the RA-5E was thrown forward, as the catapult hummed as loud as the engines. The aircraft was shot from 0 to 160 miles per hour in seconds, launching the aircraft off the deck. The force of the acceleration threw the pilots back in their chairs. As the aircraft left the deck, the pilot pulled back on the control stick, putting the aircraft into a 10° climb, the engines still at afterburner, burning some 58,500 pounds of fuel per hour. The pilot climbed the aircraft to 24,000 feet and reduced the throttle to 80%, allowing the aircraft to level off its airspeed at 450 miles per hour. He turned to the appropriate heading and turned on the autopilot. They were still far away from the target.

"Voodoo 11. We are airborne. See you in a few hours." The pilot said as he left the carrier and began his climb.

"Roger that Voodoo 11. Good hunting."

The copilot smirked and yawned. "You know that launch gets better every time."

"If only my stomach didn't end up in my throat."

"I love a full charge."

"Me too. We're still a while away so get comfortable. Autopilot is on."

"You have to love reconnaissance over friendly territory. What fun is there when nothing shoots back at us?"

"I'm not looking to be shot at so just keep that to yourself."

"Oh come on. We're fighting a bunch of villagers with pitchforks here. I am sure our EW can jam those radar waves from the pitchfork launchers that they have down there."

"I heard they had helicopters at Tizimín."

"Helicopters. They're weak, who doesn't have a helicopter nowadays."

"They probably have surface-to-air too. You know they had a lot of stuff left over from the Mayan war."

"Like what? What would they be firing? A Stinger?"

"A Stinger I'm not afraid of. You know our forces lost a pair of Predator ADUs during that fight."

"We lost a lot of units."

"I mean lost as in never found."

"You think they stole them?"

"It's possible."

"Well we won't have any problems evading a command or IIR guided Predator, that's what our jamming systems are for."

"We'll see. Now get some rest. We're feet dry." The pilot ceased the conversation. The idea of surface-to-air missiles, regardless of their electronic warfare package, made him uneasy. Nothing was completely perfect and a missile could still track then through the jamming. The Predator missiles were known for that. They were built to attack in high-jamming environments, particularly battlefields. Their main targets were helicopters and attack aircraft hitting tanks and soldiers on the front-line. The IIR version of the Predator was not exported but the two units that went missing were carrying a total of 10 command guided versions and 6 IIR guided versions. The two units were presumed to have been ambushed and destroyed in the forest, although the wreckage was never found.

The ingress flight was quiet and smooth. The aircraft maintained 450 miles per hour to the coast and then increased to 550 miles per hour. About thirty miles from the target, the RA-5E initiated an inverted dive, coming down to a mere 2,000 feet. It increased speed to just under Mach 1. The temperature, being 90°F at that altitude, the speed of sound was around 785 miles per hour. The RA-5E was now moving at 760 miles per hour. The aircraft streaked across the sky, towards the target, its digital cameras ready to take the pictures necessary. The first pass would take about 1,000 pictures, all within milliseconds of each other. The timing was computed automatically by the computer. The second pass would take another 1,000 pictures but be at an altitude 1,000 feet lower.

"Alright, we're at ten nautical miles, ETA to target site is just under one minute. You ready?"

"Computer is on and already taking initial shots of the village. We have about sixty already. As we get closer it will speed up and take more."

"Roger that. I'll keep her steady. Here we come." The RA-5E came within visual range of the village. There was a haze over it, from fires that must have been extinguished days ago but still smoldered. The pilot overflew the village and kept on course for another five nautical miles before he initiated his turn. It would be a wide turn and he would come in from a vastly different angle this time. The third pass would come through the way they came, just backwards. A fourth pass would go through the way they were about to go, just backwards. In essence, they were making a plus sign over the village with their passes. The RA-5E came up on its second pass and overflew again, taking more pictures. The pilot turned again and came in for the third pass. That was when his RWR lit up. "Holy SHIT! We've got something down there! Bearing 0-6-9, a radar emission, from a Predator! Activate the electronic warfare systems."

"Aye. EW is on and jamming. Infrared jammers are on as well. I say we expedite out of here."

"Voodoo 11, reporting an RWR contact. We're being tracked by something down there with a Predator signature. Bearing 0-6-9 of our current position, 6 nautical miles north of the village. Over."

"Voodoo 11, roger that. Climb to angels 18 for evasion and return to base."

"We still have two runs left."

"Return to base. Log position of target over."

"Aye. Returning to base. Aborting third run." It was too difficult for him to abort the third run at that speed and altitude so he maintained his course and his speed, overflying the village a third time. He made sure that plenty of pictures were taken so that he could maintain a high mission rating. After passing 4 nautical miles past the village he pushed the throttles to maximum, dropped his two external tanks, and went into a steep, 30° climb, turning northward, towards the carrier.

On the deck of the carrier a pair of F-14E Super Tomcats were preparing to launch behind an EA-5F Vigilante. The Vigilante was armed with two AGM-88F AARGM Block I missiles and two external fuel tanks. The two F-14E Tomcats were armed with two GBU-35 JDAM bombs and a pair of AGM-88F AARGM Block I missiles. All three aircraft would ingress to the target at medium altitude and supersonic speed. As the pilot logged the position of the Predator his RWR chirp became a solid warning tone. "Voodoo 11. We have a missile launch. Inbound on us." Immediately, inside the CIC onboard the Enterprise, sailors marked the position of the fighter and began barking orders. The three aircraft launched off the deck within 135 seconds of each other, the EA-5F taking the lead. They would ingress to the area at 900 miles per hour. The Super Tomcats carried two 300 gallon external fuel tanks to allow them to get increased range whilst the EA-5F had two 600 gallon fuel tanks. All aircraft flew at maximum engine power without their afterburners engaged.

The pilot of the EA-5F watched as a single missile tracked towards him. Then there was a second. "Voodoo 11 we have another missile launch. Jamming." The pilot looked behind him, to try to see the missile streaks. "Andy you see them? Get some chaff out!"

"On it!" He had his center MFD set to the electronic warfare systems and pushed a pair of buttons. On his right panel was the chaff and flare dispensor system. It was a mere two buttons with a small digital display above them, indicating the number of chaff bundles or flares he had left. He had them on default programming, which would drop three of each upon a button press. They had 300 chaff bundles and 240 flares but after three button presses, 9 bundles of chaff were in the air, dropping beneath the aircraft. The RWR stopped its solid tone and the missiles lost lock, a combination of the chaff and the heavy jamming, or so they thought...The pilot was nearing 18,000 feet when the missiles lost lock and thus he leveled off at 18,000 feet. That was when the whole aircraft violently jolted upwards and then upside down. The plane had been hit. "Voodoo 11. Mayday. Mayday. We've been hit. Going down. Ejecting." The pilot looked back and pulled the ejection handles on his chair. Immediately, the canopy blew off. The co-pilot did the same, his canopy exploding off as well. Almost instantly, the rocket motor on the bottom of the chair engaged and shot the chair straight up, out of the cockpit of the damaged aircraft, which they saw was on fire at the rear, its left side blown completely apart. They were high up, requiring oxygen still. The seat descended with them as they used the oxygen from them. They were both conscious. At 13,500 feet, the seat dropped away, falling downwards, the pilot attached to the parachute. Since they no longer needed oxygen, they did not require the seat tanks. At 6,000 feet they pulled back and yanked the rip chord, the chute deploying within three seconds. If they were unconscious, an emergency CO2 cartridge would have fired the main chute at 4,500 feet. Now it was up to the pilots to guide themselves to the ground, the aircraft having crashed onto the ground about twenty-five nautical miles away. The seats, hitting the ground first, immediately sent out radio signals, alerting the carrier to the position. Once the position was fixed, the beacons were remotely deactivated. The signals could be easily intercepted and once a position was fixed there was no need for them to send out the signal anymore.

The pilots landed relatively close to each other, the co-pilot getting caught in a tree on the way down, further injuring himself. Their ejection had been at a speed of 502 miles per hour, which was painful enough. "Andy, where are you?" The pilot said into his two-way radio upon landing. "Andy you okay? Over."

"Yeah I hear ya. I'm in a tree. I saw you go down about two, three hundred meters away. I don't know where you are though or where the hell I am."

"Can you cut yourself down?"

"I think. I'll try." The co-pilot pulled his bootknife and held onto the branch as he cut himself loose of the parachute. Then, he carefully climbed down as far as he could go before jumping from an eight foot branch. "I'm out. I'm fine. A little bruised but I'll live."

"Roger that. Come to me since you saw where I went. We have to find the seats."

"Roger that. On my way." The pilot began compressing his parachute. The goal was to hide it for the time being, as they were behind enemy lines, in a way. The co-pilot, on the other hand, walked towards him, his M33A2 Pistol drawn, moving swiftly. The pilot had another M33A2 Pistol and that was all the firepower that they had. What they had to do was get to the ejection chairs since they held the hard-drives for the reconnaissance mission. On each seat was a single hard-drive, mixed in with two decoys. The hard-drive was severely encrypted and would take a special program to decrypt so it could not fall into enemy hands. The hard-drive would have surely survived the heavy and hard impact because it was build out of the same material as the black boxes in civilian aircraft were made out of.

Inside the Predator ADU, the three man crew sat quietly. They had shut down the radar and their offensive systems, making them silent again, electronically. They moved the vehicle into dense vegetation and killed the engine, the same place that they had hidden previously. They exited the vehicle and covered it with camoflauge and then scurried off to an underground cave that they entered. Inside was a commander, their commander. "Las modificaciones de la guía que hemos hecho han trabajado perfectamente. El Layartebians fue engañado por la transmisión del radar de falsificación pero nuestra guía visual los derrotó. ¡La idea brillante señor! (The guidance modifications we have done have worked perfectly. The Layartebians were fooled by the fake radar transmission but our visual guidance defeated them. Brilliant idea sir!)"

"El Layartebians estará viniendo a obtener sus pilotos ahora. Debemos aprehend ellos. El avión chocó aquí, (The Layartebians will be coming to get their pilots now. We must aprehend them. The aircraft crashed here,)" he pointed to a spot on the map. "Debemos ir y deber buscar el naufragio. Debemos obtener las fotografías que ellos tomaron. (We must go and search the wreckage. We must get the photographs that they took.)" The soldiers left and at the same time a dozen, heavily armed men of El Escogido departed from another cave some six miles from the crash site, with the intention of investigating the wreckage. The whereabouts of the pilots, on the other hand, were unknown, but they did intercept the beacon signal from the ejection seats. That was where they were going, each seat sitting a mile from each other. They knew not of the hard-drives but they did know one thing, ejection seats meant pilots.

Chapter VII: The Downed Airmen

The parachute was unrecoverable from the tree. It sat too high in the air to retrieve and would have to stay there. The enemy knew they had been shot down so there was no hiding it. Stumbling across a parachute would require good luck or a very good visual spotting of them. Either way, there was no use hiding the last parachute. Both the pilot and co-pilot were lucky. Aside from minor bruises, they were fine. They were in pain, more or less, but nothing serious. Both of them carried a small GPS unit on themselves, for just this purpose. It had a battery life of 1,000 hours and was only to be used when shot down. This was the first time either of them used their device. They could, through the touch screens of the GPS, reactivate their ejections chairs for a millisecond, long enough to get a fix, deactivate them, and proceed. They had already done this and were walking towards them, to find the chairs and their hard-drives.

At the same time, sixteen soldiers were converging on the downed A-5. It was a wreck, pieces lying everywhere, fires burning where jet fuel ignited. Manolo, the leader of them, had already radioed in what he had found. "El avión está ardiendo y destruido. No hay nada aquí recuperar. Tendremos que esperar los fuegos para bajar antes podemos encontrar las cámaras de reconocimiento. (The plane is on fire and wrecked. There is nothing here to recover. We will have to wait for the fires to subside before we can find the reconnaissance cameras)." They would wait for hours, for the jet fuel to burn itself out, for the aircraft to become touchable, for the parts to become molten.

The closest seat was four miles away and the next was an additional mile and a half away. They had fallen from 13,500 feet, carried by the wind, to their positions, crashing down through trees, branches, and everything else in the way. The hard-drives surely survived the impact but whether or not they were going to be found by them or by the enemy was a different story.

In silence, the two pilots hustled through the foilage towards the ejection seats, consulting their GPS units every minute or so to maintain the right course. They ran with their pistols out, twelve rounds ready and another sixty on their belts in five clips. Their goal was, if they encountered a small force of enemies, was to hide. Their risking capture was far beyond protocol. The information that pilots had, especially reconnaissance pilots, was very valuable to the enemy and interrogation was not an option. Each pilot was handed a poison pill when they graduated from flight school. They had one order for it. The pill was a slow option. If they were captured, they were required to take the pill. The pill would take a full 48 hours to dissolve. After that it would take less than sixty seconds to kill them. If they were rescued before the 48 hours were up, the rescue pilots would immediately inject them with the antedote, which would cause the capsul to become encased in a liquid and passed through the stool within 3 hours. The encasement would prevent the capsul from eroding because the capsul was no longer exposes to the acid of the stomach. It was an ingenious option and still gave the pilots a hope for rescue. It also helped them cope with the idea of death. They would stay silent, knowing full well that whether or not they talked, they were dead in 48 hours and that if they talked and they were rescued, they would be killed most horrifically. They would almost always choose the option of not talking. Several pilots had talked and been rescued, only to be tortured afterwards for their crime.

They had contacted the Enterprise upon landing on the ground and clued them into what had happened. Whatever it was, they were down, behind enemy lines, okay, and on their way to the chairs. The extraction point was set at the further chair and a pair of SH-60R Sea Hawks escorted by Army AH-94A Stalkers would be there to do the rescuing. All four aircraft would be there at the time of the extraction, which was scheduled to be only a few hours away. The pilots had to, under any circumstance, get to the chairs, secure the hard-drives, and get out without being captured. Little did they know that another sixteen, heavily-armed insurgents were looking for them.

The insurgents knew where the chairs were and they knew that the pilots would use the beacons on them to signal the rescue mission, that was a given. When they did, they would be waiting for them, with the Predator unit ready to fire at the rescue helicopters. Aside from them, they would have a large group of soldiers, company sized, waiting for the rescue choppers as well. They would be armed with small arms, rocket launchers, MANPADs, and anything else they could use to bring down the rescue aircraft. They knew the Layartebians would send escorts, which ones they knew not.

The AH-94A Stalkers, sitting comfortably on the ground at their base, were already loaded, fueled, and ready. They carried 800 rounds for their internal cannon and four FIM-186A Wizard missiles for their air to air bay. In their other two bays they carried 4 AGM-177A Brimstone anti-tank missiles and another 4 AGM-177B Brimstone general purpose missiles. Externally, on the two stub wings, they carried 2 19-round rocket pods and 2 AGM-122A Sidearm anti-radiation missiles for air to ground and four FIM-186A Wizard missiles for more air to air. The two SH-60R Sea Hawks would only be carrying two M134 Miniguns each, with 6,000 rounds between the two guns, per aircraft. When it was time for the Sea Hawks to take off, they did. The Stalkers would take off when necessary as well. It was all about timing.

The pilot and co-pilot reached the first seat on time and they had five minutes to get the hard-drive out. Once they began tampering with it, they would have five minutes before the self-defense systems kicked in. More or less, if they did not remove the propper hard-drive within five minutes, the seat would explode. If they removed the wrong hard-drive, the seat would explode. This was all done for pure self-defense measures. The hard-drives were only numbered, one through three on the pilot's seat and four through six on the co-pilot's. They knew, because it was their aircraft, which numbers to go after. For the pilot's seat it was 3 and for the co-pilot's seat it would be 5. In flight school, they were required to be able to remove the propper hard-drive within three minutes and thirty seconds. The all-time record had been set at one minute and forty-eight seconds, previously smashing the two minute barrier. Both of these pilots, now under pressure and time, were likely to do it far quicker than they had during flight school.

Immediately, they went to work, using the screwdriver adapter on their Swiss Army Knives to pull off the screws for the hard-drive case. They worked quickly but quietly, keeping their attention on the forest around them, just in case they heard footsteps or anything else that might tell them that they were not alone. Nonetheless, as they pulled apart the casing and disconnected the clamps holding the hard-drive, they heard nothing. Finally, two minutes and eight seconds later, the first hard-drive was out and in their possession. The pilot picked up the radio as he began walking towards the carrier. "Voodoo 11. We have package one. On our way to package two."

"Aye Voodoo 11. Confirm." They got no more than two hundred meters away from the seat before it exploded. The carrier had remotely detonated the seat after confirmation that the hard-drive had been removed. Now they were off, towards the second ejection seat, and the whole insurgency knew they were. The explosion was all but quiet and shattered the silence of the jungle, where the only previous sound was the sound of animals.

"Vaya al segundo sitio del asiento de eyección. Los pilotos van allí. Párelos antes el rescate llega. (Go to the second ejection seat site. The pilots are going there. Stop them before the rescue arrives)." The order went out to any insurgent within a five mile radius, drawing in the previous thirty-two that were already out there, the company sized group awaiting the rescue choppers, but also about four dozen people scattered around. All-in-all, some 230 insurgents were making their way to the second ejection seat. Inbound were the four helicopters, flying at a speed of 140 miles per hour. The Stalkers, once the whole group was 10 miles out, would quickly accelerate to 220 miles per hour and make a sweep past the target area, guns blazing and rockets firing, if necessary. They would use their MMW radar to find any vehicles and if so, engage them with their missiles.

Unfortunately,for the two pilots, things weren't going so well. They were forced to take cover about eight hundred meters away from the ejection seat, seeing the multitude of people gathered and hiding, waiting for the birds. "Voodoo 11. Over." The pilot whispered.

"Go ahead Voodoo 11. Over."

"Multiple hostiles at extraction point. Size of force is at least company sized. No vehicles spotted yet but we don't doubt whatever shot us down is here. Over."

"Aye, can you get to the chair. Over."

"Negative. They have it surrounded. Chair is obscured from extraction point by foilage. No way to retrieve. Over."

"Aye. Are they attempting to retrieve hard-drives? Over."

"Negative. Over."

"Sit tight. Out." The EA-5F Vigilante and its F-14E Super Tomcat escorts had already been through the area multiple times but found nothing. The Predator unit they had was definitely hidden and hidden well. They had already left the area and were on their way back to the carrier when the call went in to them. "Whiskey 21, Lobo 11. Situational change. Pilots ready for extraction but zone is hot. Report status, over."

"Whiskey 21. 2 AARGM. 17,000 pounds."

"Lobo 11. 2 AARGM. 2 JDAM. 2 Winder. 2 AMRAAM. 14,000 pounds."

"Lobo 12. 2 AARGM. 2 JDAM. 2 Winder. 2 AMRAAM. 14,000 pounds."

"Whiskey 21, Lobo 11. Return to steerpoint 8. Aerial refueling will be available for return flight. Alternate airstrip remains the same. Contact Voodoo 11 at steerpoint 9."

"Aye."

"Aye." The aircraft turned around and began heading back to steerpoint 8, which was about a mile away from the actual ejection seat. They were coming in at 24,000 feet and 600 miles per hour and were, at this point, about 80 miles away, about eight minutes out. The helicopters were more than 15 minutes away, allowing the aircraft to reach the point first. The EA-5F would jam and search for the Predator whilst the two F-14Es would use their 1,000 pound JDAM bombs to drop on enemy concentrations. They would have, between steerpoint 9 and 8, about 4 minutes to enter the coordinates into their bombs.

At forty miles out, they did. "Voodoo 11. This is Lobo 11. We're inbound hot to your position. Coordinate ground-strike. Over."

"Lobo 11. Good to hear you. What's the ordinance load? Over."

"Four, thousand pounders. Over."

"Aye. Sending GPS coordinates now. Out." The pilot and co-pilot each picked two spots where they figured their bombs would be most useful. The four bombs would fall at the same time, hitting relatively at the same time, blasting the living daylights out of anyone who was in their radius. Once the coordinates were sent to the aircraft, they were recieved, automatically programmed into the bombs, and the fun began. At 40 miles, the EA-5F went active on its jammers and searched out the Predator, an AARGM missile waiting for it. The two F-14Es were ready to drop and did so at a range of 15 miles, their bombs falling towards their targets without much warning. Then, they hit, within a span of 8 seconds, landing with devestating accuracy, smashing their four targets into oblivion and with them, about 60 enemy soldiers, give or take. "Good hit Lobo 11. Targets vaporized. There's a Predator down here somewhere. Over."

"Searching now. Out." The EA-5F was searching but not coming up with anything. The Predator had its radar off and the two Super Tomcats were having just as much trouble trying to search it out with radar due to the dense foilage that was surely surrounding the vehicle. Now the enemy knew that the pilots were there and they knew that the enemy was overhead. It wasn't long now. The pilots kept hidden, remaining covered in foilage and staying silent. Their radios were on low as well, trying to hide from the enemy was the best possible thing they could do, especially when some of them came within arms reach of their position.

After the bombs hit, the remaining soldiers began searching for the pilots, kicking away at shrubbery, coming the ground, using dogs. The helicopters were about 7 minutes out. If worst came to worst, they could get away with only one hard-drive, the second was, more or less, a back-up, of sorts. The files usually were stored on both of them but occassionally, there were pictures written to one and not the other. If worst came to worst, it would only be a few pictures at that.

At five minutes out, the ground began to rumble and shake. They knew that either the Predator was on the move or the enemy had brought in serious firepower. The second guess was the better of them. A pair of old, T-72 battle tanks, came piercing through the forest, each one crewed by some expert tank driver from the Mayan War. Behind them were a pair of small anti-aircraft guns, towed behind the tank, each one at least 14.5 millimeter in caliber. "Voodoo 11. We have two tanks and two anti-aircraft guns down here. Over."

"Rescue force, callsign Lilly 61 and Rose 71 are 5 minutes out. Out." The four helicopters kept two sets of callsigns, one for the Stalkers and one for the Sea Hawks. The two pilots kept hidden and kept out of sight, watching the ejection seat and their surroundings. Finally, they knew that they were going to be safe when bot htanks exploded, obviously from anti-tank missiles launched from the Stalkers, which had to be in the area. They were very quiet and their missiles had a pretty long range so they could be anywhere for miles but they had to be close. As the two tanks exploded, the soldiers began to scurry about, manning the two anti-aircraft guns. That was when the two helicopters passed overhead, possibly trying to identify the guns, which opened up immediately. The helicopters were moving at least 180 mph, the guns never having time to compensate and get a lead. They wouldn't either as the helicopters turned about, they fired off another pair of missiles, blowing both guns up.

Then the slaughter began. Sitting about 400 feet up, the two Stalkers passed over again and again and again, firing their cannons and their rockets, driving each projectile into something to cause maximum damage and destruction. When it was over, the number of enemy soldiers on the ground was greatly reduced but they were still fighting, shooting off rockets and small arms at the helicopters. The two Seahawks came in next, unleashing their M134 Miniguns, firing hundreds of shells down into the trees at anything that moved. The pilots took this as their cue and began to dash for the ejection seat. "Rose 71, we're going for the seat. Cover us!" The pilot radioed as he began to move towards the seat, which wasn't far away at all.

They didn't get far before they had to take cover, the bullets from overhead and the bullets from the ground making a near impassible wall about ten meters in front of them. Then, they would move again, gaining only a few meters before taking cover again. They didn't get far this time as a grenade landed not far from them, shattering their ear drums and wounding the co-pilot in his leg, reducing his ability to walk. He would have to stay put while the pilot went for the chair. He wouldn't be unarmed though for as he holstered his M33 Pistol, the pilot handed him a CAR-15 Commando, taken from a dead soldier, along with about nine magazines of ammunition. The pilot was carrying an FNC with about four magazines, also taken from a corpse.

The run to the chair felt like hours to the pilot though it wasn't more than four minutes of running, ducking, shooting, and the like. Finally, once he reached the chair he opened up on a pair of goons hiding for cover, taking both of them out. "Rose 71 this is Voodoo 11. I'm at the chair. Co-pilot is injured. Provide cover."

"Roger that Voodoo 11. Get the stuff and we'll come down, we haven't got all day you know. Out." The two Seahawks overhead unleashed unholy hell on the enemy forces, putting 7.62 x 51mm bullets into anything with a pulse. As the pilot jumbled with the seat, taking the occassional second out to pop off a few rounds at a running soldier, the co-pilot was holding his own. He still had six full magazines and one in the rifle with about seven rounds remaining. He got off the seven and reloaded. Within a quarter of a second after he reloaded, he was shooting again, firing off 5.56 x 45mm rounds. He wouldn't get many off. Another grenade landed near him, unfortunately, this one far too close. The fragments ripped through his neck, cutting his juggular artery. He would be dead within minutes, long before the pilot got back with the hard-drive.

"Lilly 71. Come down, we're ready. Co-pilot is dead. Need assistance."

"Roger that. On our way. Pop smoke." The pilot threw a smoke grenade into the middle of the clearing and the single SH-60 came down, firing away. The other remained at 100 feet, firing down. The two Stalkers kept their runs as well. Once the SH-60 was hovering about 10 feet above the ground, the pilot appeared from the clearing, the co-pilot on his shoulder, the FNC in his left hand, firing at anything that moved. He was down to his last magazine and he needed all the help he could get. The two gunners on the Seahawk fired as well. Two snipers aboard the helicopter got out, one with an M41A1 Sniper Rifle, the other with an M30A1 Assault Rifle. They unleashed fury upon many soldiers as well, protecting the pilot as he moved towards the bird, all twenty-eight meters, each step slower than the previous. He made it to the bird alright, tired and weary, but when he arrived, the helicopter was off the ground, firing away again. About two dozen enemy soldiers survived, most of them injured in some way, shape, or form.

Chapter VIII: First Blood

The five Tiger teams had arrived in Mérida safely and undetected, issued appropriate Layartebian-issue uniforms and equipment, shown to their respective Layartebian guides and sent off on missions. Some of them were going on recon missions while the rest were going on search-and-destroy missions. For Tiger 1, the mission would be to head for the village of Pipaa, due west of the town of Tibalón. It was a small village, home to only about 40 people and accessible only via a small unpaved road, but there was Intel about a Lieutenant of the Los Diablos living there with his family, making it worth the trouble for the Cots. The Cottish soldiers were under a very simple order: Locate and kill the man and his family, and kill anyone standing in the way!

After a lengthy drive from Mérida to the start of the dirt road near the town of Libre Union in a Layartebian convoy of M2008A1 Dingo APVs and M2010A1 Bushmaster IMVs, the ten men of Tiger 1 and their Layartebian “guides”, in this case two Field Officers from the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA for short got out and assembled. The commander of Tiger 1, Lieutenant Colonel Lars Devold turned to the men and started issuing orders. Each of the men had been briefed on the way and knew the mission objectives and how they were going to execute it in and out, and were now just itching to put their weapons to use and revenge the terrorist attack on Bergen that had cost the lives of five citizens, including two children. The terrorists were going to pay, big time!

”OK menn. Dere vet hvordan vi skal gjøre dette, og dere vet operasjonens formål. De siste satellittfotoene viser at fi er posisjonert i posisjoner som dekker veien. Det er derfor vi kommer til å angripe fra jungelen, rett i ryggen på dem. Det er ganske sikkert at de har lagt ut miner, så vær obs på det. Noen spørsmål?” (OK men. You know how we’re going to do this, and you know the purpose of this operation. Our latest satellite Intel shows that the enemies are positioned so that they cover the road. That’s why we’re attacking them from the jungle, straight into their backs. It’s a pretty sure guess that they’ve placed mines, so be alert. Any questions?)

There were none. The operation would be very simple. They entered the jungle two kilometers from the village, walked in a half circle around it and deployed so that they would take the enemy completely by surprise. For this purpose, Devold arranged his men into tree fireteams. A, B and C.

A and B consisted of three Cottish operatives and one Layartebian CIA operative each, while fireteam C consisted of the remaining four men, who were armed with the heavy weaponry. One of the men had a G36C rifle and a 51 mm mortar with 20 rounds, one had a M25A2 snipers rifle and the other two had M35A1 light machine guns. The two other teams were primarily armed with G36Cs or M8A3s fitted with either a 40 mm grenade launcher or a 12 gauge shotgun mounted underneath the barrel, while some carried heavier firepower. One of the men had a M-98 Apostle rifle, which fired the heavy-duty NATO 7.62 x 51 mm round. All of the men had sidearms, mostly Desert Eagles that fired the .50 A.E. round, while some had modified M1911s fitted with silencers, laser sights, extended magazines and .45ACP rounds.

After the final equipment checks, the men placed Claymores and anti-vehicle mines in the road, preventing anyone from escaping, before moved out into the jungle. They were moving in a tactical column, meaning that they walked on a line, with twenty meters between each man. That way, no one man could be caught in the same burst, but still be able to assist the man in front of or behind him. The walk through the jungle took a few hours, but they didn’t run into anyone there. As they were on the south side of the village, only about a kilometer from the nearest building, the men deployed. Fireteam A, commanded by Lt Col Devold would attack from the west, while fireteam B, commanded by Cpt Eriksen would attack from the east. Both the teams would deploy in such a fashion that they prevented any enemies from escaping down the road. Fireteam C would provide cover for the men to the south with sniper and MGs. The first one to fire would be the sniper with the M25A2.

The sniper climbed into a tree and saw the objective. The road leading to the village was covered by a heavy machinegun nest which housed what seemed to be a M2HB “Ma Deuce” heavy machine gun, which fired the 12.7 x 99 mm round. Further on, the sniper saw roughly twenty enemies around the compound, as well as quite a few M151 jeeps. A few of those would be very handy for the exfiltration. The target’s location was obvious. It had to be where the ten insurgents kept watch, armed with CAR-15 Commandos and AK-47s. Looking on a little bit more, the sniper saw a thing that caused concern. A operational M2004A1 Predator Air Defense Unit. The CIA guys had talked about how a few of those caused a lot of grief for the planes and helicopters, and now the Tiger team had found one. Fortunately, they had means to take it out. They could opt for C4 explosives, or they could use one of the M72A5 LAWs that they had brought along. The sniper called up Devold on the radio.

”Tiger Blue Three to Tiger Red One. Enemy Predator ADU sighted at objective. Repeat, enemy ADU located at objective. Roughly two zero meters east from MG nest. Over.” the man called up. The team operated over the radio in English, a language familiar to all the members, for several different reasons. One was that they would have to call up Layartebian units at some point, and then it would be best if they understood everything the Cots said over the radio. Two was that Layartebian officers would be listening to the radio communications, and they didn’t want their allies to have to get a translator there. Too many people already knew that there were Cottish soldiers involved.

”Tiger Blue Three, Tiger Red One. Copy that. Good job. Out. Tiger Green One, this is Tiger Red One. Did you copy last transmission, over?”

“Tiger Red One, Tiger Blue One. Copy that.”

“Good. Take it out at earliest convenience. Out.”

The Predator ADU would be taken out by a rifleman armed with a G36C assault rifle, a M1911A3 and a M72A5 LAW anti tank rocket. The man was now creeping towards the edge of the jungle along with the rest of his fireteam while A did the same. C was already in position and ready to lay down a deadly covering fire for the two teams with their heavy arsenal.

The first shot fired by the Cottish soldiers was fired from a M25A2 snipers rifle from a range of 360 meters, straight into the skull of an insurgent who was standing on the roof of a two-story wooden building. The NATO 7.62 x 51 mm round pierced his skull and blew his brains out, leaving him dead before he could detect that he had been hit.

Less than a second after, a 66 mm rocket flew out from the edge of the jungle and slammed straight into the armor of the M2004A1 Predator ADU, which it pierced and detonated inside, killing the entire crew in the initial explosion. The explosion detonated the missiles and ammunition inside and caused a larger fireball, killing a dozen insurgents in the process. The insurgents grasped that something was going on, and started shooting in every direction like crazy. The fire was returned from the west, south and east with deadly accuracy, after which a few mortar rounds landed in the middle of the village.

The two fireteams now rushed the area, firing in three-shot bursts, killing even more insurgents. The M35A1s and M25A2 kept shooting down whichever enemies they saw, which were quite a bit.

As Devold and his three subordinates reached the target building, a two-story stone building, they tossed in a M84 flashbang grenade before they entered the building, killing anyone in sight. Four insurgents trying to defend the building there went down with two rounds in the chest and one in the head. The building was a bit cramped for the rifles, so most of them drew their sidearms. In Devolds case, it was a modified M1911 with a laser and a silencer. For the two other Cots, it was a Desert Eagle with a supressor, and in the case of the CIA guy, it was a M33A5 pistol that fired the .357SIG round, also fitted with a silencer. The four men splitted up into two pairs, while fireteam B provided cover outside.

Fireteam C also moved on the village and joined up with the rest of the team while maintaining its rate and intensity of fire. Enemies fell in scores, but they also managed to score a hit on the Cots. The sniper got hit in the thigh by a 5.56 x 45 mm round from an enemy with a CAR-15. The enemy was killed by the sniper and his Desert Eagle, but his mobility was impaired. The bullet had lodged itself in the bone. Two men from Fireteam B, one Cottish and the other Layartebian, rushed to his location, firing their G36C/M52A1 on any enemy they saw. Finally they reached him and dragged him to safety while the rest of the two fireteams provided cover. That was when it dawned on them. There were no enemies left alive outside!

Up in the floors, fireteam A had shot three insurgents and four civilians that tried to stop them, and now they were outside the final door. The men could hear sobbing inside, but they thought no more of it. The Emperor had said that this was the enemy, and that made it legal to kill them. They had their orders.

“På tre. En, to, tre!” (On three. One, two, three!) Devold said before he kicked in the door. Inside, they found a thirty year old woman, two boys of roughly twelve and fifteen, and a man that was about thirty-five. The man was holding the twelve-year old in front of him.

“You wouldn’t shoot a child, would you?” he shouted to the soldiers, thinking they were Layartebians. ”You Layartebian dogs! Los Diablos will avenge me! You will die!”

He didn’t have time to say anything else, because Devold unloaded his clip into the child. Seven .45ACP rounds pierced through the body of the child and exited into the body of the man. The result was the one that the Cots wanted. Both the bodies fell, and the other two screamed in horror. Devold looked at them and nodded slightly, upon which the three others in the fireteam raised their respective pistols and unloaded them into the two targets. Needless to say, they died quickly.

After five minutes, the four men came walking out, one of them carrying a bloody satchel. Eriksen looked at Devold with a asking look, which Devold answered with a nod. The mission had been accomplished, and all that was left now was to leave the area. They left in three M151 jeeps that stood there and radioed in the Layartebian command with the codeword “Omega”. After twenty minutes, two Layartebian B-52Hs came and bombed the village back to the Stone Age with Mk-84 dumb bombs and BLU-126 incendiary bombs while the Cots had disabled the mines and left towards the nearest Layartebian army base. The head of the Lieutenant would be sent to Los Diablos along with a note that the attack on Layartebian assets and their allies had been a very bad idea!

Chapter IX: The Rude Awakening

The air around Chemax, in the far southeastern corner of the Yucatán was salty. The humidity and blazing temperatures mixed together to make everything uncomfortable, even if it was night time. The small town had about eight hundred residents but it was nothing near anything modern. Most of the people lived in aged structures that dated back eighty years, many of which fell to ruins since the Mayan War. The town was a stronghold for insurgent activity. Los Diablos had about one hundred armed fighters there along with a massive cache of weapons. Until now, they had stayed well under the radar. Unfortunately for them, one of the villagers was easily coaxed by money and he had informed on the insurgents, especially when a mysterious package was delivered one morning. That package was the nuclear weapon smuggled out of the Galapagos Islands and though it had only been in the village for a few days before it was moved out, it left plenty of traces. Radioactivity still graced the four room apartment and a shipping manifest was left in the open.

Well overhead, flying at 32,000 feet, a single C-17A Globemaster III bore through the chilly air. Inside the cargo hold were sixteen men from Force Falcon, two teams, armed to the teeth. They were carrying assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles, machine guns, pistols, knives, explosives, grenades, and anything else they could fit on their body. Each wore a parachute and they carried night vision equipment. They were going to be HALO dropping into the city, coming in about two miles away, in a small clearing that they all had to guide into. All sixteen of them were trained, the most highly trained fighters in the entire Empire. Their not completing a mission was something that just did not happen, even one as dangerous as this.

Aside from their weaponry and parachute, each of them carried an ALICE pack, weighing between 80 and 100 pounds. They were loaded heavy with weaponry and they had enough supplies to last them two weeks in the field, even though they were only to be there for seven actual days. "90 seconds!" The jumpmaster screamed from the door to the men inside. They were all ready and all they did was stand up and do their checks. Everyone checked in that they were 100% and the light turned yellow. "30 seconds!" The C-17 sped on, everyone wearing an oxygen mask due to the altitude. The air was very cold up there and very thin. "Good luck men! GO GO GO!" He screamed as the light turned green. The men all jumped out of the aircraft, wearing black. They would free fall for a while, guiding themselves towards their target, some 24 miles away from where they jumped from the aircraft. Each of them had an altimeter on their left hand and, on their right, a small GPS readout which could only be seen through night vision goggles, which they all were wearing and had on. They would follow it towards the target drop site, falling for quite a bit of time before they woud pull their parachutes, which would be at an altitude of 2,500 feet.

The insertion was fully successful and upon landing, all sixteen men immediately went to work, gathering their parachutes and scuttling into the forest. As they did, they scuttled off towards another clearing about a half mile away, where they put all of their equipment into a sturdy bag. Oxygen tanks and anything else they just would not need anymore went into the bag and when they were ready, they radioed to an inbound aircraft. "Falcon One. This is Crow Fourteen. We're inbound. Position in six minutes. Prepare balloon."

"Roger that. Falcon One ready." They pulled a rip chord on the bag and it immediately inflated a large balloon and pulled the bag off the ground, into the air. Seconds later, the trees shook and overhead flew a small aircraft. Seconds later it, the balloon, and the bag were gone and Force Falcon was in and ready. The sun would be rising in three hours and they had that much time to get into position. Team One, led by Colonel Delaney would move to a small hill overlooking the 2km² town. The hill was perfectly located as they could overlook the target building, the place where the nuclear bomb had been brought to. The other team,
Team Four, would be taking up a position on the other side of the city, watching the suspected arms cache. The mission called for a two day reconnaissance and then a strike on the third day, seizing the arms, killing all insurgents, and recovering any data. Intelligence had not confirmed the presence of the nuclear weapon but did cite that an extremely important and vital package had been delivered under great secrecy.


Loadouts

Team One

Primary: M30A3 Carbine (4), M45A1 Special Purpose Sniper Rifle (1), M42A1 Squad Automatic Rifle (2), M53A1 Shotgun (1)
Secondary: M30A3 Carbine (1), M43A7 Submachine Gun (3)
Sidearm: M33A5 Pistol (6), M33A6 Pistol (2)
Knife: Ka-Bar (2), SEAL Knife 2000 S37 (6)
Grenade: M8 White Smoke Grenade (8), M14 Incendiary (6), M18 Colored Smoke (2), M67 Fragmentation (17), M84 Flashbang (9)
Explosives: C4 (16 pounds), Door Breeching Charge (10)
Other: Communications, Lockpicks, Night Vision Goggles


Team Four

Primary: M30A3 Carbine (3), M40A1 Sniper Rifle (2), M42A1 Squad Automatic Rifle (2), M53A1 Shotgun (1)
Secondary: M52A1 Carbine (1), M43A7 Submachine Gun (2)
Sidearm: M33A5 Pistol (6), M33A6 Pistol (2)
Knife: Ka-Bar (2), SEAL Knife 2000 S37 (6)
Grenade: M8 White Smoke Grenade (8), M14 Incendiary (6), M18 Colored Smoke (2), M67 Fragmentation (17), M84 Flashbang (9)
Explosives: C4 (16 pounds), Door Breeching Charge (10)
Other: Communications, Lockpicks, Night Vision Goggles



By dawn, both teams were set up and ready. Colonel Delaney was armed with his M45A1 SPSR and, on his back, an M30A3 Carbine. He sat in full camoflauge like the rest of his men, overlooking the structure, staring down through his scope. His scope was an advanced design, a battery powered device that provided both night vision and 20x zoom, a far advance from the Unertl 10x scope, which was standard for any sniper weapon. He currently only had it zoomed in about 6x, watching around the area, taking notes of patrols, positions, etc. The other fifteen men across both teams were doing the same, taking notes, doing reconnaissance.

Forty-eight hours was a long time and they took copious notes, rehearsed the attack plan, and reported in daily. Then, on the third day, they were ready to strike. At 2100, the sun was down and it was dark. Their suppressors were fitted tightly and they were all ready to go. In two days, they had a full layout of the town and a full plan. Team One and Team Four would both take a full strike against the arms cache and the stronghold at the same time, using sniper rifles as protection. Col. Delaney, when the time came, handed his sniper rifle to another individual in his team and brought forward his M30A3 Carbine. Of the eight men, two would maintain sniper positions and the other six would split into two teams. One of the three men teams would climb up to the top of the building and assault downward, Col. Delaney being in this group, whilst the other three would go in through the front door.

At the arms cache, two men would provide sniper cover while the other four assaulted the cache head on, there being only one way in and out of that structure, which was a small warehouse at the edge of the city, heavily defended by a pair of machine gun nests and three snipers. As Col. Delaney climbed to the top of the structure, he noticed, in the distance, the presence of a tank. It was, from first glance, a T-80 type tank. This only made him move faster. However, upon reaching the roof, he immediately picked up his microphone. "Hold attack. We've got a tank!" The tank was static and appeared to be unmanned but at the first sounds of gunfire, it would certainly become alive and manned. Col. Delaney looked to his two men and nodded. "Guys plant a pair of C4 charges on that thing." They nodded.

"Yes sir!" They slid down the ladder, moving quite fast, sliding down the rails. Once they were on the ground, they took off running. The tank was about two hundred meters away, a thirty second sprint. They couldn't sprint, they had to keep low and away from sight. Col. Delaney kept low, lying on the roof top, his rifle drawn, looking through his M68 Aimpoint scope, watching the tank. He had a suppressor fitted to the barrel of his rifle and he had his grenlade launcher fitted. If he had to, he would drop someone but he intended not to until it was necessary. The C4 charges were operated by a radio detonator and Col. Delaney gave them the frequency. "Alright we'll use channel one for the tank. Team One, Blue, you are in charge of that."

"Yes sir." The sniper said as he changed the frequency on his detonator and handed it to his spotter. He watched as his two team members arrived at the tank and placed the two charges, on the rear panel, where the engine was, where the armor was the weakest. The other charge went just underneath the turret. Nobody was in the tank and so they were lucky, with that. After placing the charges, both of the men bolted back towards the target structure. They climbed the ladder again and met with Col. Delaney. "Operation is go. Tank charged. Let's move men!" Col. Delaney stood to a crouch and moved over to a small hatch and opened it, allowing the three of them to enter. They entered into a crawl space above the seventh floor of the ancient, aged, apartment structure. The beams were rotten, many of them seeing unfit to hold a fly. They had to be very careful.

Quickly but with caution, the three of them got to the hatch and opened it, dropping a ladder down and a bout a pound and a half of dust. As they descended, they noticed the lack of people on this floor but found out why, quite fast. The place was infested with rats and cockroaches, the floor practically moving. Disgusting! Col. Delaney thought to himself and easily so did the rest of his team. They moved towards the stairwell, checking the rooms quickly. As they descended they noticed the strong smell of RAID. Apparently, the people that lived in the apartment kept the RAID poison fresh, trying to keep the bugs above them. The lack of lights on that floor was definitely what made the roachs so happy to be up there. The sixth floor and the stairwell were bright, too bright for them to use their night vision goggles and they were forced to take them off.

All of them moved through the sixth floor very quickly and very quietly. Col. Delaney had put his rifle on his back and was moving with his M33A5 Pistol. It was fitted with a silencer, allowing him to kill with complete silence. He was devestatingly accurate with it and it carried .357SIG rounds, fourteen of them, each one able to kill someone in a single shot. He was well trained to kill with the first shot but he usually fired two, one around the base of the neck and the other in the head, whether it were the eye, forehead, or the middle.

The rest of his men did the same, keeping their pistols drawn as well. The hallways and rooms were just too tight to be using a rifle, even a Carbine. Using the pistol was a lot easier. One of them had a submachine gun but did not have it drawn at the moment. The sixth floor was very quiet, most of the people were in their apartments, getting ready for sleep. Col. Delaney noticed only one room in the apartments that had the presence of insurgents and that room was at the other end of the hall. They would approach the door, use their lockpick set to jimmy the lock, and then storm in, quick, shooting as they did. It would only take them a few seconds, less than eight, to get into the door, much less in this situation and it was true, they were in in five seconds. Col. Delaney put his lockpick set back away and pulled out his pistol again. The one man with the submachine gun pulled it out and they stormed. There was a sniper post in a far room and they were in the entrance foyer. As they entered, the three of them split up and moved throughout the apartment on thier own. It was dark, meant to keep any prying eyes from seeing inside, which made it that much easier for them. They kept their night vision goggles on and saw everything in the entire room, in green. Each of them moved fast through the apartment and shot and killed eight insurgents, one of them having a sniper rifle.

At the bottom of the building, the three men were on the second floor already, having shot and killed fourteen people in the process, each one in complete silence. They moved throughout the apartments, killed, leaving, and locking up behind them. Col. Delaney and his team did the same thing, locking up behind them. They moved now to the fifth floor as the other team moved to the third. On the fifth floor there were two apartments to hit, each one in the middle, one across from the other. They would hit them separately, storming three at a time through each one. On the third floor, the team had a single apartment to check and stormed through it. When they both converged on the fourth floor, they had, between the six of them, killed forty-six people, thirty-nine were shot and the rest were either knifed or strangled to death. Thus far they had not made a single peep and were walking into the fourth floor with full magazines.

Across the city, at the arms cache, the six men were about to go into the main room. The lobby was loaded with fighters, most smoking marijuana but some paying attention to what was going on. They thought it best to throw in a pair of M84 Flashbang grenades, which lit up the entire room in a bright white flash and let out a deafening bang that alerted the tank crew, who were walking in the street towards the cache. The gunfire that echoed throughout the arms cache was of two types. The guns of Team Four were all suppressed and their gunshots sounded like an aluminum garbage can being hit with a stick. The gunfire of the insurgents was loud, either CAR-15 fire or AK-47 fire. From the fourth floor of the main target structure, the gunfire could be heard and it brought insurgents out of their apartments. All six men of Team One had, at the sound of the gunfire, pulled forward their main rifles and began to unload on the insurgents running out of the six apartments that they had to hit.

The two gun battles were over in less than a minute. The fourth floor was empty of life with sixty-eight bodies lying around. Grenade bursts and gunfire took all of them. In the arms cache, the fight too another minute longer but when it was over, Team Four had stormed through and killed forty-nine people. The snipers had, between the two small teams, killed eight soldiers, including the tank crew. Shortly after they were killed, civilians began running around, many with shotguns, machete's, and other household weapons. They were put down as well and the tank destroyed because it was a major liability.

C4 was planted at the arms cache and whatever wasn't taken was about to be blown up, along with the four adjacent structures. In the apartment building, Team One had shot and killed a dozen civilians with weapons trying to get onto the fourth floor and were in the possession of documents with very damning evidence. Los Diablos had, in their possession, a nuclear device, albeit an unworking one. They were, in the process, of acquiring the necessary parts, which was, more or less, the detonation trigger, which, from the look of the documents, was going to be a timer-type device. Perhaps they were going to make one. Unfortunately though, the bomb wasn't there, it had been transported out.

The Emperor would be briefed that night, as Force Falcon was evacuated from the city, half of it ablaze from the arms cache. The structures were so poorly maintained that the fire spread from building to building. Fire suppression systems and a fire department just did not exist for the town. They were evacuated out in four UH-96A Panther helicopters, escorted by a pair of AH-94A Stalkers and two F-16C Falcons. The Emperor had the Minister of the Interior waiting for him when he got the phone call from the Joint Chiefs about the presence of the bomb. The situation was dire and he would, without a doubt, have to inform the Cottish Emperor, Thomas I. They were involved in this as well and that bomb could be going anywhere. It was a rude awakening to the conflict. The insurgents were serious and they meant business. Unfortunately, for the Layartebians and the Cottish, they were in possession of a mighty device that, without question, could render anything they threw at them useless. If that device were to go off in the capital, Layarteb City, it would kill more than the entire population of the Yucatán.

Chapter X: Rumble From the Distance

It had been a week since the discovery had been made. The Layartebians were no closer then they were then to finding the device or even finding another clue. It had simply up and disappeared. The town of San Luís had been under close observation for the past three days. A small reconnaissance team of six soldiers had been air dropped about three miles near the village by helicopter and had set up their position overlooking the village from a few trees in the near jungle. The reconnaissance team had little to report. Insurgents were using the village as a supply depot, more or less. They observed, over the course of three days, about two hundred insurgents come and go, in trucks, a single infantry fighting vehicle, and other assorted vehicles. They observed a lot of firepower as well but did not see any heavy weaponry, mostly just a ton of small arms. Nonetheless, on the third day, they observed a single helicopter, an old Huey manned by four men, two pilots and two side gunners. They had M60D Machine Guns set in the doors, both armed with at least six hundred to nine hundred rounds per gun.

The helicopter came in from the west, hovered, and set down near the far end of the village, landing quietly and smoothly. The reconnaissance team made copious notes about all troop movements and dedicated a long entry to the Huey sighting. The Huey was a major problem and it would delay any actions for at least a day. Wherever it came from was an even bigger problem. The helicopter wasn't on the ground more than three hours before it was back in the air again, heading to the south. The helicopter had been refueled, rearmed, and resupplied, carrying seven crates inside of its cabin, loaded with ammunition, food, and possibly drugs.

As the helicopter vacated the area, the reconnaissance team leader immediately radioed in. "Charlie 55. Charlie 55. Ready for transmission."

"Charlie 55. This is Thunderheart. Go transmission."

"Report movement as usual. Single Huey helicopter. M60D armed. 600 to 900 rounds per. Four men. Came from west left to south. Ground time three hours. Over."

"Roger that. Execute go at 1700. Force underway."

"Roger that. Charlie 55 out." The team leader, a first lieutenant, jumped down from the tree and called his men to assemble. "Gentlemen, this is the time for us now. We've done well but we have six hours before the cavalry gets here. The force coming is enough to wipe out this town. Until then we're going to rest. Take up hidden spots in the AO here and lets get some shut eye. We need it before the battle."

"Yes sir." They vanished into the shubbery, hiding underneath brushes, shubbery, and anything else. They were members of the 3rd Special Forces Unit, Recon Force. Since the start of the war, the Imperial Layartebian Military had deployed an additional twenty-four thousand soldiers, including another nine hundred and fifty Special Forces and Black Forces. The massive amount of forces assembled was dangerous. The situation was quickly escalating and the whole mess would be, eventually, far out of hand.

As the six men slept, a force of some sixty-two vehicles and armored units was assembled about thirty miles away. The force consisted of: eight M2A4 Bradley IFVs, six M3A4 Bradley CFVs, two M6A1 Bradley Linebackers, ten M2006A2 Emperor MBTs, twelve M2008A1 Dingo APVs, twelve M2010A1 Bushmaster IMVs, and twelve M2015A1 Cobra APCs. All together, they were bringing with them, 368 soldiers for fighting. All together they had 534 men between crew and dismounts. Most of the men would be carrying M30 Assault Rifles but they had a mix of machine guns, squad automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets, grenade launchers, and heavy weaponry to choose from, enough to unleash unholy hell on the enemy. The use of the two Bradley Linebackers served two fold. They were able to shoot down enemy aircraft and helicopter effectively and they mounted a very powerful chaingun for anti-tank, anti-vehicle, anti-anything use.

The six men, between them, had only M52 Carbines, a single M42 SAW, and an M44 Sniper Rifle. They were well armed for six men and could, between them, take a good amount of the enemy soldiers out but they did not stand that much of a chance against over two hundred if they did not have support. The odds were simply way too against them.

A half hour before the force was set to arrive, the six men awoke from their shallow slumber. They quickly met up and discussed the plan. They would attack when the convoy attacked. Two men would stay behind and work as snipers from afar, one with an M52 Carbine and the other with the M44 Sniper Rifle. They would be perched up in a tree, firing at the village from no less than six hundred meters away. The other four men would be crawling through the shrubbery towards the village and finally storm it once the convoy arrived. Three of them had M52s and the other had the SAW.

The convoy in the distance rumbled on with resolve. The sixty-two vehicles shook the ground as they travelled on at thirty miles per hour. All guns were loaded and all missile banks ready. Inside the ten tanks, they carried a standard loadout of thirty M829A6 APFSDS-T shells, thirty M830A6 HEAT shells, twenty M1028A2 Canister shells, and twenty MGM-187A Firefly missiles. Each of their M50A1 HMGs were loaded with two hundred and fifty rounds each. Two of them were static and faced forward, popping out of the hull in front of the turret. The third was on top of the turret and fired automatically from inside. In addition, there was a coaxal M35A1 loaded with two hundred rounds and another M35A1 on the top of the turret that could be fired from inside or outside, also loaded with two hundred rounds. On the outside, right rear of the turret there was a single Wizard launcher with four missiles ready and another twelve stowed. They also carried, in an external compartment, two Wizard launchers with ten missiles. On the outside, left rear of the turret, there was a Firefly launcher, loaded with four MGM-187C Firefly missiles and another four stowed. Lastly, on each skid, the M2006A2 mounted two double round LOSAT launchers, four rounds at the ready for firing. Inside the tank, there was a small arms locker. They carried three M43A5 SMGs, three M33A2 Pistols, and ammunition. If necessary, the turret mounted M35A1 could be taken off and used. The tank had a crew of three.

On the M2A4 Bradley IFV, they carried a single M242E 30MM Bushmaster II Chain Gun with 300 rounds ready and 600 rounds stowed, as their main weapon. As secondary weapons, they carried a M31A1 15.5MM HMG with 140 rounds ready and 420 rounds stowed and a M35A1 7.62MM LMG 200 rounds ready and 2,000 rounds stowed. On the rear of the turret, they had a Firefly launcher for MGM-187C missiles with 2 rounds ready and 6 rounds stowed and inside they carried a Wizard MANPAD launcher with 4 missiles. They carried a crew of three and seven dismounts.

On the M3A4 Bradley CFV, they carried a single M242E 30MM Bushmaster II Chain Gun with 300 rounds ready and 1,200 rounds stowed, as their main weapon. As secondary weapons, they carried a M31A1 15.5MM HMG with 140 rounds ready and 560 rounds stowed and a M35A1 7.62MM LMG 200 rounds ready and 4,000 rounds stowed. On the rear of the turret, they had a Firefly launcher for MGM-187C missiles with 2 rounds ready and 10 rounds stowed and inside they carried two Wizard MANPAD launchers with 10 missiles. They carried a crew of three and two dismounts.

On the M6A1 Bradley Linebacker, they carried a single M242E 30MM Bushmaster II Chain Gun with 300 rounds ready and 300 rounds stowed, as their main weapon. As secondary weapons, they carried a M35A1 7.62MM LMG 200 rounds ready and 3,400 rounds stowed. On the rear of the turret, they had a Wizard launcher with four missiles ready and eight missiles stowed. They carried a crew of five.

On the M2008A1 Dingo APVs, they carried either a M31A1 15.5MM HMG with 140 rounds ready and 280 rounds stowed, a M49A1 40MM Grenade Launcher with 48 rounds ready and 240 rounds in 5 48-round belts, or a M50A1 12.7MM HMG with 250 rounds ready and 750 rounds stowed. They were operated by a crew of two and carried with them six dismounts.

On the M2010A1 Bushmaster IMVs, they carried either a M31A1 15.5MM HMG with 140 rounds ready and 280 rounds stowed, a M49A1 40MM Grenade Launcher with 48 rounds ready and 240 rounds in 5 48-round belts, or a M50A1 12.7MM HMG with 250 rounds ready and 750 rounds stowed. In addition, they carried a Wizard MANPAD launcher with four rounds. They were operated by a crew of two and carried with them seven dismounts.

Lastly, on the M2015A1 Cobra APCs, their main weapon was a M31A1 15.5MM HMG with 140 rounds ready and 280 rounds stowed and a M50A1 12.7MM HMG with 250 rounds ready and 750 rounds stowed as their secondary. They had a crew of three and carried eleven dismounts.

The armored force was massive, in comparison to the task at hand. They were powerful enough to completely devestate the entire town. Overkill was necessity in this battlefield, especially in the light of so many surprises that the Mayans could throw at them. All of the vehicles were protected by classified and strong armor. On the bottom of each vehicle, a mine protection plate was mounted. The plate was meant to take a direct blast from an anti-vehicle mine and still keep both the crew and the vehicle in tact. Testing showed that the mine protection plate worked amazingly well for the first hit but had a 42% failure rate after the second mine blast. A third mine blast brought 100% failure rate. The Dingos and Bushmasters would likely not survive a second hit. The Emperor and Cobra would most likely take the third and then be destroyed. The Bradleys would probably be in the middle. The insurgents were known for littering both the road and the roadsides with mines, particularly the nasty M15 Anti-Tank Mines. Engineering teams, since the conflict had begun, had already removed and disarmed eight hundred mines, at least 47% of them being M15 ATMs. The rest were combinations of M19s, M21s, and various anti-personnel mines.

With the six men in position and the armored force inbound, it was only a waiting game. Intelligence reports put at least two hundred soldiers inside the village, the presence of a chopper somewhere else, light vehicles and the possibility of a few light armored vehicles, and reinforcements of an unknown strength and response time. In light of this, aside from just the armored vehicles, the military was sending in a light helicopter force, consisting of a pair of AH-94A Stalkers and four UH-96A Panthers. One of the Panthers would be used to extract the Recon Force team. The Panthers were each armed with a pair of 12.7MM Machine Gun Pods with 400 rounds each and a pair of M35A1 Light Machine Guns mounted on the doors with 1,000 rounds each. On their wing stubs they carried a pair of 19-round rocket pods, the Machine Gun Pods, and four FIM-186A Wizard missiles. The AH-94A Stalkers each carried a single M243A Twin-Barreled 30MM automatic cannon with 600 rounds, eight FIM-186A Wizard missiles, eight AGM-177A Brimstone missiles, two AGM-122A Sidearms, and a pair of 19-round rocket pods. The helicopters would come in at the same time as the vehicles, making this a double threat attack, with weaponry coming from the air and the ground, more to defend and more to watch out for, a popular Layartebian tactic.

When the vehicles were about eight minutes out, the village became silent. Birds, animals, and insects suddenly went into a frenzy, flying and running away from the village. Villagers knew what this meant, something dangerous was coming, something very dangerous. Dogs, cats, birds, and other assorted pets suddenly went bezerk if they were caged and all tried to break free, some attacking thier owners in the process, just trying to get as far away as possible. About thirty seconds later, an M151 Jeep approached at high speed, beeping its horn. "¡El Layartebians viene! ¡Tanques y vehículos blindados! ¡Ellos vienen! ¡Pida ayuda! (The Layartebians are coming! Tanks and armored vehicles! They are coming! Call for help!)." The men shouted and suddenly the village came alive. The six men of Recon Force watching the village were now angry.

"Assault Force Echo. Charlie 55. Surprise blown. Villagers aware. Report ETA."

"Charlie 55. Assault Force Echo. ETA is six minutes. Is position comprimised?"

"Negative. Out." The six men were all edgy now. They wanted to begin shooting, to stop any high value targets from escaping but they knew that if they opened fire, the element of surprise would be even more overblown and they would have to fight against the entire village, by themselves, for a few minutes, leaving them in a very dangerous situation. Their presence was still unknown, though they imagined the villagers knew a reconnaissance team was present, they learned that through experience. They could attack the village along with the rest of the Layartebians and add an added element of surprise, leaving the village with a triple threat. That was the idea and that was what they were going to do.

At four minutes out, the entire ground in the village began to shake. The distance thundered with the sound of the approaching armor. The echoes in the village of the armor completely drowned out the screaming and the panic. Civilians who were unable to fight, mostly women and young children, scattered, running to shelters built by the insurgents to protect them. These shelters were also the locations of arms caches, supply storage, and commanders. Those who could fight, any male over the age of twelve, was taking up defensive positions. Roads into the village were mined, those mines active now. The armored force knew this and they had no plans on going through the roads but rather through the pathways that surrounded the village and led into the village, the pathways that the insurgents traversed. They had all been detailed by the Recon Force team.

Finally, when the armor arrived, the situation was something that was highly expected. The villagers were hidden, many of them hiding in the various structures with the desire to draw the tanks down clogged and narrow streets to shoot them. Mines had not been placed throughout the village, there just wasn't enough time, so once they were in, they were safe. Three M2006A2 Emperor MBTs were the first to break into the village, the Bradleys and Cobras a little further behind them and off to the side. The Dingos and Bushmasters approached as well, through from further back, having the least armor. There were few rules of engagement.

As the helicopters buzzed the village, the tanks, fighting vehicles, and personnel carriers moved in and began to search through the village, the mission was search & destroy. At the first look, the village was deserted but that was obviously a fake. Bradleys, Emperors, and Cobras were all equipped with heat imaging and that would play an important role. The first shots to be fired in this battle would be from an Emperor targetting through thermal sights. The tank was rolling down the main street at about ten miles per hour, circling around the turret, looking for targets. Thermal sights revealed the presence of many heat signatures, all being reported. Radio chatter went something like this, "They're all hiding. Everywhere. Prepare for ambush." The M2006A2 moving down this street was not about to be ambushed and they sighted about a dozen heat signatures straight ahead, about two hundred yards away. They had a HEAT round loaded and the commander of the tank trained the gun on the window dead ahead and fired. The 135MM shell left the barrel moving at 5,350 feet per second. The target was 600 feet away. The shell entered the window with the utmost precision and hit a wall inside, turning the entire room and floor of the small apartment building into rubble, showering the ground with debris, bodies, and flames. "Direct hit!" The tank broadcast on the radio. Suddenly, the village opened up and small arms fire, RPG rockets, and grenades went off.

The vehicles all opened fire as well, putting their tank rounds, their chain gun rounds, and their heavy machine gun rounds into anything and everything within view. Houses, buildings, market squares, etc. all turned to dust as the armored force went to town. The radio became almost incomprehensible with shouting. Vehicle commanders were shouting orders, shouting targets, and shouting the situation. At the same time, the helicopters came back around for another sweep, shooting their guns and rockets at targets, especially insurgents now on the roofs, trying to shoot off RPG rockets at the tanks. Blood and body parts flew everywhere.

Recon Force moved in as well. The four men descended down the slope and began to fire immediately, shooting at anything and everything that moved. Soldiers inside the Bradleys, Dingos, Cobras, and Bushmasters poured out, assaulting the village on foot, taking structure after structure, firing at anything and everything that moved.

The battle only lasted twenty-eight minutes and when it concluded, it was nothing short of a massacre. Two hundred insurgents lie dead or dying. Seven hundred and twelve civilians lie dead or dying. Eighty-four people were captured. One hundred and eighty-five people, civilians, were injured. Eleven people were unharmed, physically. Of the soldiers, six were dead, fourteen were injured, and two were missing. The massacre had left the village in rubble, the tallest thing in the entire village being the best built structure in the entire village, the town hospital. It was burning, smoke billowing out of each and every window. By the next day, the fire would consume the building, causing it to collapse.

The battle was a defining moment in the war. It took the destruction home to the insurgents and the civilians. It made them think twice about their cause. It made them think twice about whether or not they were safer pushing against the Layartebians. The Mayan War had seen devestation and destruction but nothing as brutal as this. More would come and each and every time insurgents attacked a Layartebian tank, soldier, or base, a village would be systematically eradicated. Kaliningrad had taught the Layartebians one thing when it came to internal insurgencies of this nature. The gloves came off!

Chapter XI: Unexpected surprises

Tiger team 2 were currently lying on a hilltop overlooking a valley crammed with rebel SAM and AAA sites. The men could make out seven M163A2 PIVADS anti-aircraft artillery, five MIM-23 I-HAWK surface-to-air missile launchers, three MIM-72 Chapparal surface-to-air missile launchers, a few M60A2 Patton tanks and about nine hundred rebel soldiers scattered around the valley. This was a guaranteed rebel stronghold, yet unknown to the Cots or Layartebians.

The Major in command of the team looked down at the rebels manning one of the I-HAWKs. A typical rebel, with a dirty white t-shirt, blue jeans and a AK-47. Damned filth. Come here and kill our kids and expect to get away with it. Just then, he heard a sound coming from the north-east. It sounded suspiciously much like a jet engine…

“Få opp radioen hit på rappen for faen!” (Get the radio up here on the double, damned it!)

The radio operator came up and gave the Major the radio immediately while scanning for the frequency of the Layartebian aircrafts. One of the CIA guys attached to the unit helped. Finally, they got it done.

“Layartebian aircraft, Layartebian aircraft, this is Tiger Blue six, do you copy, over?!”

"Blue Six this is Epsilon-Five. Copy over.”

“Epsilon five, Blue six. Disengage and leave the area immediately, I repeat, leave the area immediately! Over.”

"Blue Six. Epsilon Five. Report reason over?"

“Five, six. There’s about seven Alpha Alpha Alpha and ten Sierra Alpha Mike staring at you right now, and they can all kill you! Leave the area immediately if you wanna live! Over.”

The Major was getting aggrivated now. Why wouldn’t they just leave the area and be sure that they would remain alive? Surely they didn’t have a suicide wish?

"Blue Six. Epsilon Five. Advise location we have ordinance to engage."

“Negative, negative, that would be suicide! We’re sitting almost on top of the enemy, I repeat, we’re on top of the enemy! What planes are you anyway? Over” the Major called into the radio. It would not look good on his record if he had a dead Layartebian pilot on his watch. Then the radio crackled again, bringing the reply.

"Blue Six. Epsilon Five. We're coming in hot with three Typhoon fighters. Ordinance is for air to ground support. We have the ordinance. Over."

Typhoons. Great. Crazy suicidal Layartebian hot-shot navy pilots. Just then, the rebels started manning their posts, and the people on the M163s started manouvering their guns towards the north-east.

“Five, the enemy has you cornered, just waiting for you to engage. I repeat, the enemy has gone to battle stations. If you insist on engaging, we could take out the gunners we can see and guide your weapons, but it’ll be hell for you. We have a visual on at least seven Mike one-six-three triple alpha, five india-hawk SAM and three Chapparal SAMs, aiming towards the north-east. Advise status, over.”

If the insane Layartebians were going to engage, they might as well know what they were facing.

"Six. We have unguided cluster and iron bombs, air to air radar and heat, unguided rockets, and six guided anti-tank missiles each. Flight of three. Full gun load. Angels 20. Speed is 650. Ready to engage."

Damn….

“Copy that. Give us a chance to get into a better firing position and a bit out of harms way. We’re approximately five hundred meters from the closest triple alpha, and we’d really like to be collected out when the attack is over, because there’s a shitload of hostiles down there. Almost one thousand of them, including some tanks. It looks like a regional commmand center. Anyway, we’re ready to engage in three minutes. ETA? Over.”

The Major looked at the CIA guy, who took the hint and got the men ready to move a few hundred meters away from the enemy. They didn’t want to get hit by any stray bombs or bomblets.

"Six. Copy that." The pilot immediately changed frequencies and sent a call to the carrier. "Gamma Base. This is Epsilon Five. Blue Six reports massive staging area of hostiles. Tanks, anti-aircraft, SAMs, and more. Advise back-up over."

"Epsilon Five. Gamma Base. We're vectoring a flight of Vigilante's to your position. ETA six minutes. Four A-5D escorted by one EA-5F. Out."

The message from the carrier wasn’t heard by the Tiger team, but they were moving quickly, but silently to the secondary position, where they took up positions. The MGs that the team had was placed in positions where they could easily defend against the enemy when they came, and the snipers took up positions up in the trees where they could see the enemy AAAs and SAMs clearly. The two CIA guys and three Cots took three GPS coordinators and aimed down at the enemy locations. Hopefully the Layartebians would be able to see it, and get a good fix on the enemy. Once he was satisfied that they were in a good position, he called up the three Typhoons again

“Epsilon five, this is Tiger Blue six. We are in position and we have a fix on the enemy. Coordinates are as follows. Six-three-niner-niner-two-seven point eight. Advise ETA, over.”

"Six. We're ETA at four minutes. More support available in six minutes. We're inbound for attack. Brimstones armed."

“Copy that, we’re ready to rock and roll. Engaging enemy in three minutes fourty-five, over.”

The snipers heard it and took up their aim. The gunners of the M163s would be the first targets, and the two lead gunners were quickly in the crosshairs.

"Tiger Six. Roger that. Out."

The clock ticked down slowly, but finally it was showtime! At twenty seconds out, the team prepared themselves. Five seconds later, two shots were fired, and not even a second after that, two 7.62 x 51mm rounds slammed into the skulls of two rebels, right into the left eye of both of them, killing them instantly. A second later, two more rounds of the same caliber slammed into two more skulls, albeit not as nicely as before. Then the fun part really started.

The three Typhoons locked onto their targets using their Pirate IRST devices. Each one carried six Brimstone missiles giving them a total of eighteen, guided missiles, each one capable of knocking out a tank. The biggest threat came from the M163 units, of which there were seven targetted. One aircraft would be responsible for taking them out, which was Epsilon 51, the leader. Epsilon 52 would have to take out the seventh and go after the three Chapparral units. In addition, Epsilon 52 was going after two Patton tanks. The last aircraft, Epsilon 53, would be going after more tanks, using its missiles against them. They would roll in from 20,000 feet and 700 mph and fire off their missiles at ranges between 7 nautical miles and 15 nautical miles. The missiles had a range of some 19.5 nautical miles.

That would be their first wave, which would involve them overflying the target area, dropping flares, with their IR jammers on and their radar jammers as well. Then, they would come back again and use their unguided bombs. The cluster bombs would be used against soft targets while the Mark 83 unguided iron bombs would be used against the I-HAWK units, having six of them in the group. Rockets were there for back up.

Incoming were four A-5D Vigilantes armed with two fuel tanks on the very inner pylon, four 1,000 pound GBU-45 Paveway V bombs, two AGM-65G Maverick missiles, and, lastly, two BLU-125 incendiary bombs. Air to air defense was held by four AIM-9X Sidewinders. They carried 450 rounds in their BK27 Mauser cannon. The EA-5F Vigilante carried two 600 gallon fuel tanks, four AGM-88F AARGM Block I missiles, and four AIM-9X Sidewinders.

The attack was awsome. The first sweep was a complete success, with the enemy taken by surprise. They knew something was coming, but not the devestating firepower that was shown. The second sweep wasn’t so surprising though, and a lot of small-arms fire was unleashed on the planes. A single 15.5 x 115mm machine gun fired on one of the Typhoons and gave it a real beating before the rebel that was manning it was taken out by one of the snipers.

Just then, while the air raid was in progress, one of the rebels spotted Tiger and got a few of his buddies to follow. With blazing AK-47s/M-16s/FAMAS’, they were charging the Cottish position. Stupid idea, the Major thought as he and two others gunned down the rebels with their G36Cs. However, the gunned down rebels weren’t the only ones to detect the Black Ops team, and soon more than a hundred rebels were charging. Fortunately for the Cots, they held the high ground and had defensive positions ready. The two Layartebian-made M35A1 light machine guns mowed down the enemy, the snipers were busy taking out rebels that were trying to engage the planes, and the six others were busy helping the machine gunners mow down the enemy. Bullets were flying over the Cots and CIA guys, but not enough. The enemy were kept at bay.

Just then, two F-16E Block 60 Falcons made their apperance over the skies, and two V-24 Bulldogs came over the area. These air vehicles were unique, and carried a massive array of weaponry as well as room for up to 24 troops or 8 stretchers. Fortunately there were only twelve people in the team, CIA guys included. The weaponry included dual M50A2 heavy MGs, two side-mounted M134 Miniguns and a lot of other various air-to-ground and air-to-air weapons. Right now they had Hydra rocket pods mounted. The Major picked up the radio again.

“This is Tiger Blue six to inbound Bulldog. Do you copy, over?”

"Tiger Six. Mack Two. Copy. Report position. We're strafing first. Take six per aircraft. Over."

“Copy that. Popping smoke, popping red smoke. Over.”

The two Bulldogs moved over the area, strafing the rebels with loads of ammo and rockets, killing scores of them. Then they moved into the area where one of the Cots popped a cannister of red smoke and marked the position of the Cottish soldiers. No sooner had he done that than the Bulldogs moved down into the area, first one down to take on six men while the other one covered, then vice versa. The Major emptied his clip onto the inbound rebels, then he shouted to his men.

“Alle sammen, inn i Bulldogene! Seks i hver! Fort som faen!” (Everyone, into the Bulldogs! Six into each! Move it!)

The men did as ordered, and filed into the Bulldogs, which fired at the inbound rebels. They died as flies with the hundreds of rounds flying into their bodies. With everyone safely inside, the Bulldog took off and moved out of the hostile territory, guns blazing. The unexpected mission had been accomplished without friendly casualties. Another success for Tiger and the Imperial Layartebian Navy!


Use of Layartebian units approved by Layarteb (Roleplayed over AIM)

Chapter XII: Powder

The town of Kuxeb, in the east of the state, was nothing more than a quiet place that morning. The air was hot and the sky was dense. Reconnaissance had been watching the town non-stop for the past six weeks, rotating teams every four days. The reconnaissance was being done by a wierd meld of units called Task Force 88. Task Force 88 consisted of paramilitary soldiers from the CIA, Special Forces from Recon Force and Delta, and Force Falcon Team Eight. The Task Force was led by a lieutenant colonel from Delta, a man who definitely had one too many kills under his belt. LTC. Daniels was his name and he ruled his unit as he would a castle. Everything moved by clockwork and thus far they had enjoyed a 100% success rate with all their missions, which mostly included capturing high-value personnel (HVPs), reconnaissance, and blowing up convoys. While he led from their base in Tecoh, southeast of Mérida, a man by the name of Michael Xavier, a captain in the paramilitary unit of the CIA, led all the operations.

CPT. Xavier was currently in the field, with some members of his assault force. They were watching the city again, in boredom, all sixteen of them. He had, at present, four men from Delta Force, three from Recon Force, five from CIA paramilitary, including himself, and the other four were from Force Falcon. They were well armed as well. Between the sixteen of them they had a single M38A2 Special Application Rifle, two M42A1 SAWs, six M30A3 Carbines, two M35A1 LMGs, two M45A1 Special Purpose rifles, two M52A1 Carbines, and one M53A1 Shotgun. The grenades, pistols, knives, explosives, and other equipment they had was another few paragraphs worth. They were able to stay out there for a long time, operating with full efficiency.

However, CPT. Xavier held one item that nobody else did. It was a silver canister, maybe the size of a thermos. It was heavy, sealed off from the outside world in its own vacuum. Rubber rings on the cap kept the contents and the outside air from mixing. The contents of the canister had to remain completely isolated, especially because of what it was, C.A.F. virus.

The town of Kuxeb held no fewer than 800 people, all of whom drank from a single well located on the southern edge of the town, a mere two hundred meters from Task Force 88's reconnaissance perch. This was done on purpose. As the day went on, individuals came to the water well at regularly scheduled intervals. For eight minutes every one hundred and seventy-two, nobody was within earshot or eyesite of the water well.

Those eight minutes were about six minutes away. CPT. Xavier was ready as well as one of the men from Force Falcon. They both had their M52A1 Carbines loaded and ready. They watched, through binoculars, as dozens upon dozens of people visited the well throughout the course of the day and night. Now, they were about to visit the water well.

C.A.F. virus was an engineered, biological weapon, the perfect weapon at that. The virus could be delivered by aerosol or through powder mixed with water. These were the most effective ways. The virus lay dormant until it entered the bloodstream, where proteins would activate it. It has an incubation period of 6 - 12 hours.

Initial symptoms are a high grade fever over 104°F (40°C), violent vomiting, diarrhea. These symptoms begin once the virus becomes activated. At approximately 4 - 6 hours after activation (A+240 - A+300) much worse symptoms appear. By now the virus has completely spread throughout the entire body and attacks every internal organ, vein, artery, etc. It takes approximately 18 - 20 hours for this process to be complete, at which case the host dies. Kidney and liver failures result immediately and the organs become mucus, liquefied by the virus. The brain and heart are last to go and usually the person dies from internal bleeding and excessive shock before this stage occurs at approximately 16 - 18 hours after activation. At that time, the brain and heart become attacked and the host experiences hallucinations as well as searing chest pain, which feels like a heart attack.

However, the virus cannot live without its host and within 2 - 6 hours after the host dies, so does the virus. It can be transmitted by any animal as none have a defense against the virus. Vaccines are developed and do work but are kept top secret as well as the virus. In testing, pain factors were so severe that subjects often went unconscious or endured seizures and other rapid bodily movements such as twitching.

Contamination will cease after 72 - 96 hours, after which the virus will die, regardless of if it has a host or not. Lethal dose is 100 spores, roughly one hundred times stronger than Anthrax. Generally, infection is meant to appear as food poisoning though it rapidly develops into more.

The container that CPT. Xavier held had twenty ounces of the powder, more than a few million spores. That would be enough to obliterate the entire village, the goal of this little operation.

"Go, go, go!" CPT. Xavier yelled as he looked at his watch. They were in thick, jungle brush and bolted out, their weapons unshouldered, running towards the well. They had been innoculated against the deadly virus but they were, in any way, instructed to put on a mask when they were releasing the weapon. The mask was engineered to stop spores 100 times smaller than C.A.F., which worked well for them. Their masks were to be burned once they were through with the dispersal. Dispersal required them to get to the well, open the container, and drop in a small plastic bag, which would distintegrate as it descended, releasing the spores throughout the well. By the time the bag reached the bottom of the well, it would have released all of its spores, which would all blend in with the water. They reached the well fast. "Seven minutes. Let's get this done." CPT. Xavier pulled out the canister and slowly opened it. The plastic bag inside was intact and as he pulled it out, he adjusted his mask.

They dropped the bag into the well and shut the canister. Then, they bolted back for the perch. They were going to bury the masks for now and come back for them in the night, burn them, and vanish. A hole had already been dug about sixty-two meters from the perch and as they approached it, they dropped in their masks, and, using their hands, covered the hole. What have I done? CPT. Xavier thought to himself as he returned to the perch. "It's done." They had three minutes to spare.

Chapter XIII: Dissent

"¡Yo no lo haré!" (I am not going to do it!) The words echoed throughout the small living room in Lepán. The house was pretty lavish for the area. The town was directly on a railroad and had not developed much. Even still, the town had grown mildly. The house was two stories, ugly as hell from the outside and, from the inside, it was ornate. It had small rooms that were decorated lavishly. The house was owned by a militiaman, an officer for Los Diablos. Since the eradication of several towns by the Layartebian military, he had become disillusioned with the whole cause. He didn't want this to continue and he knew one thing, if the Empire was pushed out, infighting would grip and surround the country.

"¡Es una orden del jefe!" (It's an order from the boss!)

"¡No! ¡Yo me planto! ¡Esto tiene que parar!" (No! I'm putting my foot down! This has to stop!)

"¡El oirá acerca de esto!" (He will hear about this!) The man stood up with a look of digust on his face and turned around. The man who owned the house wasn't pleased by this. If the boss heard about his dissent then he would surely be shot and killed. He had to act fast. He stood as well.

"¡Permita que mí muestrele fuera!" (Let me show you out!) The man stood and walked towards the door, taking a step behind the man. As he approached it, he tapped the man on the back and gave him a square fist across his face. The man was stunned. "¡Para el jefe!" (For the boss!) He said as he gave another square kick to the man. The house owner smiled and drew a pistol. He looked down at the bleeding messenger and shot him three times, twice square in the head. The deed was done. "Al infierno para su causa." (To hell for your cause.)

The man holstered his sidearm and looked around. Suddenly, the stairs pounded and a woman, young, only three quarters of the way dressed, barrelled down the stairs. "¡Cañonazos! ¿Qué pasa?" (Gunshots! What is going on?)

"Nada Maria. Vuelva a dormir." (Nothing Maria. Go back to sleep.)

"¡Carlito! ¡No! ¡Qué le hizo hace!" (Carlos! No! What did you do!)

"Vuelva a dormir. ¡Usted no sabe nada acerca de esto!" (Go back to sleep. You don't know anything about this!)

"¿Era él de Los Diablos no?" (He was from Los Diablos no?)

"Sí." (Yes.)

"¿Qué quiso él?" (What did he want?)

"Mí hacer una cosa muy mala. Para la causa." (Me to do a very bad thing. For the cause.)

"¿Y?" (And?)

"¿El está muerto no es él? Ahora suba las escaleras. Llame Marco. Necesito ayuda." (He's dead isn't he? Now go upstairs. Call Marco. I need help.)

"¡Carlito!"

"¡Ahora!" (Now!) She darted back up the stairs and ran to the phone. Picking it up, she dialed Marco's phone number. He was her brother and a confidant. He would help with the disposal of the body. The sun was down already and they had about nine hours until it would come back up, which would give them plenty of time. As Carlito looked down and saw the blood pooling, the house began to shake. He was only about six hundred meters from the train tracks and though they came through quietly, they still shook the city, especially his house. A large freight train rolled through, two locomotives and forty cars, carrying food, drinking water, and ration supplies. Aside from just the train staff there was a single car filled with soldiers, twenty-four of them, all SOFs. They were heading south, towards Ticul. Six kilometers north of the city was a possible rebel stronghold and arms cache. They would deboard about a kilometer away and attack the stronghold and detonate the arms cache, catching another train heading north. Carlito had no idea he came within six hundred meters of twenty-four heavily armed, highly trained soldiers.

The train passed through and within the next fifteen minutes, there was a knock at his door. It was Marco and he didn't look happy. "¿Qué demonios hizo usted?" (What the hell did you do?)

"El quiso que mí hiciera las cosas horribles. Dije no.. El dijo que él diría al jefe. Así que yo lo disparé." (He wanted me to do horrible things. I said no. He said he would tell the boss. So I shot him.)

"Tenemos que deshacernos del cuerpo." (We have to get rid of the body.)

"Podemos dejar lo caer detrás de los vestigios." (We can drop him behind the tracks.)

"¿Dónde?" (Where?)

"Por la casa vieja de poste." (By the old post house.)

"¿Seremos vistos nosotros por los trenes?" (Will we be seen by the trains?)

"Yo no sé." (I don't know.)

"Multa. Apuramos mejor." (Fine. We better hurry.)

"Tengo palas en el cuarto interior. La sangre. Tendré Maria limpia eso. Hay una bolsa debajo del, no en el armario." (I have shovels in the back room. The blood. I'll have Maria clean that. There's a bag underneath the, no in the closet.)

"Obtendré las palas." (I'll get the shovels.)

"Bueno. ¡Maria! ¡Maria! ¡Venga aquí!" (Okay. Maria! Maria! Come here!)

"¿Qué Carlito?" (What Carlito?) She yelled from the upstairs bedroom. Finally dressed, she moved towards the stairs and peered down, afraid to come down. "¿Qué Carlito?" (What Carlito?)

"Bájese aquí." (Come down here.)

"¿Qué?" (What?)

"Obtenga algunos harapos. Limpie la sangre. Enterraremos el cuerpo." (Get some rags. Clean the blood. We're going to bury the body.)

"Bueno." (Okay.) She departed and went to the closet as Carlito took out a bag from the other closet, a large bag, large enough for a body. It was vinyl and it would keep the blood in and allow them to carry it much easier than if they were just lugging the body around. Marco returned with the shovels, kissed his sister on the cheek, and helped Carlito load the body into the bag, both of them grunting and cursing as they did.

The two of them soon departed from the house, Marco carrying the shovels and Carlito carrying the body, slung over his shoulder. They walekd towards the railroad tracks, cautiously, looking up and down the two sets of tracks. The last thing they wanted was to see a train coming, especially one of those "los soldados entrenas" or "soldier trains" as they called them. If one of them saw the two of them lugging a body, they were definitely going to be fighting with a couple of soldiers, armed heavily. They were probably going to lose, they knew that.

"¿Esto es el lugar? ¿Aquí? ¡Mire este barro!" (This is the spot? Here? Look at this mud!) Marco said.

"Sí aquí. Deme la pala. Cavemos." (Yes here. Give me the shovel. Let's dig.) For two hours, they dug a deep hole, about eight feet down. Covered in mud by the end of it, they threw in the body and filled the hole back up. They snuck back towards the house and washed off. Lucky for them no trains came by and nobody saw them. A few hours later, sipping coffee, Marco asked him who it was that they buried. "El hijo de jefe." (The boss's son.) He replied with a sense of forboding mischief.

Chapter XIV: Closing In

El Ojo had eluded Layartebian forces for the better part of four months. The conflict raging in the Yucatán was almost over. Layartebian forces had effectively annihilated some 85% of the resistance, including the upper tier leadership of all three waring groups except for one, Los Diablos. In the course of the conflict, they had been reduced to their leader, El Ojo and roughly six hundred fighters, mostly seasoned veterans who were highly capable, the most capable of them all. Norwegian forces assisted in the conflict and had, single-handedly, taken down the entire Los Santos group by themselves. Together, both countries systematically removed El Escogido from existence and now they were working on the last group, Los Diablos, the most horrific and brutal of all three groups and the cause of the conflict. The few remaining individuals in Los Diablos that were left had already seen villages burned and destroyed.

Thus far, the number of casualties of the conflict were estimated to be roughly 150,000 on the Mayan side, including civilians, compared to about 400 Layartebians. Of the 400 Layartebians that had been killed, at least half of them were by Los Diablos and at least half of those had been executed in horrific ways, including Colombian neckties, decpaitations, mutaliation, and so on and so fourth. Largely responsible for the removal of high value targets was Task Force 88 and its elite, seasoned warriors. Task Force 88 had, thus far, done the majority of the work against the leadership of all groups. Since they had been created, Force Falcon Team One returned back to Layarteb City, which was some two months prior.

Now, Task Force 88 was closing in on the location of El Ojo and his upper echelon command staff, in the small, rural, well-secluded, well-hidden, and well-defended town of Xlapak, far south, near the southern border, in an area where there were no outposts. The town was not serviced by any major roads or railways and it was secluded by trees everywhere. Most of the province was covered in a tropical evergreen forest with the other part being dominated by a tropical deciduous forest and a thorn forest, both more in the north of the province.

They were currently coming down from Sotuta, where they were engaged in a small firefight with enemy forces, which saw the death of twenty-two insurgents and the capture of another eleven, most of them wounded. Now, the group, in force, was moving southward by foot, calling in air support when necessary, which usually was in the form of a helicopter assault force. They were lucky, helicopters were now based in a small force in Peto. They had four UH-95A Huey II helicopters, four UH-96A Panther helicopters, eight UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters, and six AH-94A Stalker helicopters based there. This would enable them to bring a lot of firepower onto a target in a short amount of time, as well as obtain a quick extraction, if necessary.

Traveling southward, they would have to pass through Canakom first, which was another rebel stronghold. Unfortunately, for the rebels, there was no where to go. Layartebian units had the entire section surrounded and border guards were beginning to mass at the south, to prevent any escape. A Norwegian unit was also in the area, moving to Expedz, where a large contingent of disaffected rebel fighters were. They had, supposedly, two armored units and four fighting vehicles there, as well as a pair of helicopters. The Cottish would be responsible for taking care of that town and securing it and its two hundred rebels. In Canakom, they estimated about one hundred and eighty rebels with no fewer than three hundred inside Xlapak, with El Ojo.

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Only 2 chapters left

.:. Bump .:.

Only 2 chapters left

Coming soon, yes they are. Familiarize yourself with it so far because you guys are in for a BIG surprise.

Chapter XV: El Fin de Lnocencia

Xlapak was on the horizon, just four miles away. The Cottish had slaughtered through Expedz, completely abolishing the notion of resistance there. The Norwegian units exacted revenge, the revenge they felt they deserved, that they earned. Few were left alive and those that were would rather have been dead. Xlapak would be much like that, if not worse. Those that survived weren't going to be alive anymore, in a tradition sense. Inside, they would be far from alive, dead beyond recognition and imagination.

Xlapak was a small town, 118 kilometers away from Merida. One Mayan structure still survived to this day, called "The Palace." This was where El Ojo was, this was where all the evil of the Yucatán was centered. Appropriately, El Ojo would use this place as his home and around him, three hundred, well-trained, well-indoctrinated, and loyal fighters, armed to the teeth. They had two helicopters, six armored fighting vehicles, one tank, and sixteen trucks at their disposal. For arms, they had CAR-15 Carbines, AK-47 Assault Rifles, RPG-7 rockets, heavy machine guns, light machine guns, and MANPAD missiles for shooting down enemy helicopters, enemy for them being "Layartebian."

Task Force 88 was closing in force, in full force. They numbered eighty between all of them and they were armed heavily, wearing body armor, and prepared for a long battle. They would descend on the town in the midst of the setting sun and fight throughout the night. At their immediate disposal would be four MV-24B Bulldog aircraft, two AH-94A Stalkers, fourteen AH-6J Littlebirds, and six UH-96A Panthers. A ground convoy of six M2015A1 Cobra APCs, four M2A4 Bradley IFVs, six M2008A1 Dingo APVs, six M2010A1 Bushmaster IMVs, eight M2023A5 Stryker MEVs and four M2006A2 Emperor MBTs was about five miles behind them.

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The MV-24B Bulldog aircraft each carried a lot of weaponry. They both carried a pair of M50A2 HMGs armed with 1,000 rounds. There were two door-mounted M134 Miniguns with 3,000 rounds each. On their outer two wing pylons they carried four AIM-204A Escape missiles. On their next two wing pylons they carried six AGM-177A Brimstone missiles. The next two pylons held two 7-round CRV7 rocket pods. That covered the outer six. The middle two carried a pair of 19-round CRV7 rocket pods. The inner four pylons carried two one thousand pound JDAM II bombs and two AGM-65G Maverick missiles. The combined firepower of the four MV-24Bs could eradicate the entire town by themselves.

The AH-94A Stalkers each carried a full load of weaponry as well. Their 30MM guns held 600 rounds out of 1,200. Their four internal bays held 4 FIM-186A Wizard missiles and 8 AGM-177A Brimstone missiles. On their stub-wings they carried four 19-round CRV7 pods and four FIM-186A Wizard missiles.

The AH-6J Littlebirds were loaded with two M134 Miniguns with 1,500 rounds each and a pair of 7-round CRV7 rocket pods.

The UH-96A Panthers carried 2 HMP-400 gun pods with 400 rounds per pod, 2 19-round CRV7 rocket pods, and 4 FIM-186A Wizard missiles. They had two door-mounted M35A1 LMGs with 1,000 rounds each.

The MV-24Bs would be used to extract the 80 men of Task Force 88 when the mission was over. The UH-96A Panthers and the extra space in the MV-24Bs would be used to transport prisoners. They had room for a total of 156 people and they would only need 80 spots, giving them 76 extra seats. El Ojo would definitely have one of them.

In the ground convoy, they brought with them 178 dismounts. The amount of weaponry they were bringing was definitely enough but they wanted to be careful, very careful. This was not going to be an easy mission, they were going to take casualties, and they wanted to be sure that they were going to get out safely. That was what the Strykers were for. They could carry out 6 patients in each of them, giving them a total of forty-eight possible casualties, living, that they could evacuate. If they had any more, they would have to either leave on helicopters or in the other vehicles. If they needed more room for prisoner evacuation they could call in additional Huey II and Panther helicopters.

Of the six M2008A1 Dingo APVs, two were equipped with Firefly launchers and 16 MGM-187C Firefly missiles, two had an M31A1 HMG with 420 rounds, and the other two had M49A1 Grenade Machine Guns with 288 rounds. Three of the six Bushmaster IMVs carried an M31A1 HMG with 420 rounds and the other three carried M50A1 HMGs with 1,000 rounds. The other vehicles all carried a standard loadout.

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As the 80 men of Task Force 88 moved towards the town, on foot, they split up into four groups of twenty men. They were organized very efficiently and they were well armed with machine gunners, grennadiers, riflemen, radiomen, demolition experts, snipers, and commanders in each group. They all had four different avenues of attack, from the north, south, east, and west. "The Palace" was located in the center of the village, which was no more than 4 square miles in size. The convoy would approach if necessary, which was probably going to be five or ten minutes after the assault began, once the bad guys knew they were in deep trouble.

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Sitting inside "The Palace" in the lowest level, El Ojo sat with his three advisors. "Los Layartebians. Ellos cierran en nosotros. Yo lo puedo sentirme. Ellos han atacado cada punto nosotros hemos tenido y nuestro soy sólo un asunto de tiempo. Hombres. Debemos estar listos. Debemos ser capaces. Nosotros no debemos permitir su hace y su poder nos agobia. Ellos agobiaron a nuestros compatriotas. Ellos no nos agobiarán." (The Layartebians. They are closing on us. I can feel it. They have attacked every point we have held and ours is only a matter of time. Men. We must be ready. We must be able. We must not let their will and their power overwhelm us. They overwhelmed our compatriots. They will not overwhelm us.)

"¡Pero El Ojo! ¿Qué es supusimos hacer? Ellos tienen los tanques. Ellos tienen helicópteros. Ellos tienen a soldados de élite. Mire lo que sucedió en Kuxeb. Nadie es dejado. Ellos utilizaron armas biológicas. Ellos lo harán aquí. Necesitamos apoyo internacional." (But El Ojo! What are we supposed to do? They have tanks. They have helicopters. They have elite soldiers. Look what happened at Kuxeb. Nobody is left. They used biological weapons. They will do it here. We need international support.) The man speaking was his closest advisor. He also had murdered his son. This was Carlito and he wasn't thrilled anymore about the fight. He wanted to give up, he didn't want his entire land pillaged, burned, and annihilated because of their resistance.

"¡Usted los teme! ¡Usted es débil! ¡Nosotros nunca le debemos haber permitido aquí dentro!" (You fear them! You are weak! We should have never let you in here!) The man speaking was named Raul and he didn't believe the same things as Carlito. He wanted the fight to continue, he wanted the Layartebians to pay. He and El Ojo felt the same. He was also El Ojo's other son and he was wary about what happened to his brother. People talk.

"Adolfo. ¿Qué usted se siente debemos hacer nosotros?" (Adolfo. What do you feel we ought to do?) Adolfo was the fourth. He was a cunning man and he fought with General Montrazez. Usually his will prevailed out of Carlito and Raul but this time he had no suggestions, no alternatives, no ideas.

"Yo no sé." (I don't know.)

"Desde que cuando hace no usted sabe. ¡Qué es esta basura! Tengo que escuchar esto. Ellos son fuera allí. ¡Ellos vienen! Nosotros nos sentamos aquí con nuestros dedos en nuestros asnos. ¡Permítanos goddamnit de pelea!" (Since when don't you know. What is this garbage! I have to listen to this. They are out there. They are coming! We're sitting here with our fingers in our asses. Let's fight goddamnit!)

"¡Cállese Raul!" (Shut up Raul!)

"Pero padre..." (But father...)

"No.. Su hace es descuidado. Nosotros los debemos luchar pero con el tacto y el cuidado. No estas tonterías de Rambo." (No. Your will is careless. We should fight them but with tact and care. Not this Rambo nonsense.)

"Sí padre." (Yes father.) Raul hung his head in shame. Carlito quelled a smile and Adolfo just kept staring into the deep black oblivion of the ceiling above. He was high. In light of the deaths of his men, his confidants, and his family, Adolfo had turned into a drug addict. The PCP that they exported to get money was being funneled in forty different directions, his being one of them.

"Adolfo. ¿Qué está equivocado con usted?" (Adolfo. What is wrong with you?)

"Nada. Apenas mirar las alturas. Necesitamos defenderse." (Nothing. Just watching the heights. We need to fight back.)

Raul shot out of his seat into the air, his rifle raised. "Suficiente de esto. ¡GUERRA!" (Enough of this. WAR!) Raul was high too but not from PCP, from cocaine. Most of Los Diablos were drug addicts, after all they were around it most of all. They sold it, they processed it, they made it, they funneled it.

"¡Raul se sienta ahora!" (Raul sit down now!)

"Pero padre..." (But father...) Just then, "The Palace" rocked. There was an explosion, in the distance, but close enough that it sent shockwaves through the village. The first shots of the battle of Xlapak had been thrown and they had been thrown by someone.

"Ellos están aquí." (They are here.) Everyone in "The Palace" came alive and rushed to their stations. Some operated the radio, some ran upstairs to see, some protected the advisory staff, others prepared for war.

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On the outskirts of the village, to the north, about nine hundred meters away from "The Palace," the first contact had been made. Members of the north group of Task Force 88 (NG-TF88) spotted an armored fighting vehicle, an aged but useful vehicle. It wouldn't stand up against the modern armor of the ILA but it would tear infantrymen to shreads. It was an M113A2 APC with a mounted M2HB Fifty-Caliber machine gun, loaded with at least 2,000 rounds. NG-TF88 was equipped with some twenty-eight M34A1 SLATDW shoulder-launched anti-tank rockets. With an effective range of 450 meters against a stationary target and 350 meters against a moving one, the 78MM rocket of the SLATDW had a maximum velocity of 762 meters per second and could penetrate through 800MM of RHA. The M113A2 APC had, at most, 380MM of Rolled 5083/5086 H32 aluminum armor. It was like warm butter for the SLATDW. NG-TF88 took cover as one of the men, CPT. Xavier, crouched with the M34A1 on his shoulder. He snapped out the 7.5 pound tube from 24.80" to 34.67" and sighted the vehicle. The rocket had a 10 meter minimum range and they were about sixty-five meters away from the APC, which was manned, on, and ready for battle. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" He whispered as he gave the three count. Everyone got out of the way of the backblast and he pushed the small, red, plastic button on the top of the pop-out launcher. The rocket ignited immediately and it ejected outwards, towards the tank, accelerating to 762 meters per second. The crew had little chance. The bright, green flame of the rocket trailed behind it as it slammed into the APC. It left a faint traint of smoke and whistled through the air, screaming as it gathered speed. When it hit, it immediately penetrated using a HEAT munition and detonated inside the hull of the APC, buckling the hull and igniting amunition and fuel inside the tank. It exploded a half second later and went a shockwave throughout the village. The first shots had definitely been fired.

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"¡El Ojo! Ellos están aquí. Perdimos un M113 en el al norte de la aldea." (El Ojo! They are here. We lost an M113 on the north of the village.) A radioman said, speaking away from the microphone. They had lost one of six armored fighting vehicles and that was bad, especially since the others were now solid targets.

"¿Dónde está el tanque?" (Where is the tank?)

"Secreto." (Under cover.)

"Bueno. Manténgalo allí para ahora. Ellos no deben saber donde es. ¿Dónde está el tanque enemigo?" (Good. Keep it there for now. They must not know where it is. Where is the enemy tank?)

"¿El tanque? La infantería señor. Cohete de hombro-despidió." (Tank? Infantry sir. Shoulder-fired rocket.)

"Ellos son valientes pero solos. Muy bien. ¡Permítanos la pelea!" (They are brave but alone. Very well. Let's fight!) "The Palace" erupted with cheers. Three hundred men were poised and ready to engage the Layartebians. Some of them had night-vision, most of them didn't. They had the advantage though, this was their terrain, no one else's. They knew this village inside and out, pathways, alleyways, windows, doors, and corners. Beating them on their home turf wasn't going to be easy.

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Task Force 88 diverted one sniper and his scout from each attacking group to take up a concealed position outside of the village to fight, reducing the number of attackers in each group to eighteen. Each group had two snipers and two spotters, thus giving them snipers and spotters with the attacking group. Of the four sniper groups that moved away, two carried the M38A2 SAR, one had the M45A1 SPR, and the other carried the M44A1 Sniper Rifle. Those inside the village had two M41A1 Sniper Rifles, one M40A1 Sniper Rifle, and one M44A1 Sniper Rifle. The soldiers were all armed with shotguns, carbines, assault rifles, light machine guns, and grenade launchers. They weren't going to be caught off guard.

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NG-TF88 moved into the village immediately. The surrounding structures of the village were all manned. One of the buildings had a light machine gun setup, an RPK with a 75 round drum. Another building had a sniper with an M1903A4 Sprinfield, a very powerful but loud rifle. The rest had riflemen, RPG carriers, and grenadiers. The eighteen men of NG-TF88 saw this immediately and all took cover as tracer bullets from the RPK slammed into the ground around where CPT. Xavier fired the SLATDW only thirty seconds earlier. The resistance was strong and they weren't even in the village, yet...

Orders flew across the battlefield and all eighteen men were prone, hiding on the ground, their rifles raised, looking for a clear shot on their targets, which wasn't difficult. One hundred meters behind them, deployed, was a sniper with an M38A2 SAR. He had the machine gunner spotted and centered the sights right on his chest. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" His spotter said, looking through binoculars with night-vision and thermal imaging. The bullet left the muzzle of the rifle at a tremendous force. It made contact with the machine gunner and blew his torso clean in half. He unlocked the bolt and released the spent cartridge, and relocked the bolt, loading another round. He carried ten rounds in the rifle and another ninety on his body. He had plenty of bullets and plenty of time to get the rest of them. He turned his sights to the man with the RPG-7, who was trying to sight in the soldiers. They both fired at nearly the same time. The bullet caught the RPG'er square in the torso and blew out a section of his chest large enough for a truck to drive through. The rocket was pushed off course and crashed down abot sixteen meters away from the target, saving the two soldiers firing at soldiers in the windows. The sniper unlocked the bolt and reloaded another round. He was ready again. He could see half-way across the village. It had been planned well. The buildings got taller as the center grew closer. "The Palace" was not the highest structure of the village and therefore, at a disadvantage. If one held the rooftops of the buildings around it, they could hold "The Palace." However, for fighters inside the village, it meant that they could fire over the heads of their comrades and not hit them at all.

Unfortunately for them, it made the job of the snipers very easy. They could pick out targets from anywhere and bore into them with 7.62MM, 8.60MM, or 12.7MM bullets and end their lives without a second breath.

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The southern assault group (SG-TF88) moved inward with less resistance. Their sniper took out an enemy sniper from a window with a the M45A1 SPR and a single shot. It was a bloody, gooey headshot that awoken half of the southern side of the village. The sniper squeezed off a round from his SVD as he fell to the ground, alerting everyone on the southern side that the Layartebians were coming from that way as well. Unfortunately, for them, SG-TF88 was already inside the village, moving house to house, shooting everyone with a rifle or anyone who was a percieved threat.

They ingressed quietly into the first structure and pounced hard. Half of them stormed in, shotguns used to break off the locks. The next structure was taken simulatenously by the other half. Inside the first, they found two men with AK-101 Assault Rifles but they were no match. A pair of shotgun rounds blasted both of them onto the ground in a bloody mess. In the second structure, they found women, mostly, huddling together, praying. They would be left alone but the house would still be searched.

SG-TF88 moved quickly through the two houses, the only resistance coming from the two individuals in the first house. Then, it was back onto the street, and into a fury of bullets. The southern edge of the town had awoken and fired, guns blazing. The eighteen men were, effectively, pinned. It was time for the support and it was only four and a half minutes into the fight.

"Convoy Charlie. SG-TF88 come in, over?"

"Go ahead. Convoy Charlie."

"Recieving heavy fire from southern edge of the city. We're pinned. Request assistance, over."

"Roger that. We're inbound. Out." With that, two M2015A1 Cobra APCs and an M2A4 Bradley IFV moved southern, their weapons constantly scanning for targets as they moved around the village. The M2A4 was equipped with a very powerful cannon and the two APCs each had heavy machine guns with hard-hitting shells. The APCs and IFV moved quickly, at forty miles per hour, burning through the thick grass of the massive clearing to make their way southward. It took them no time and when they did, their hatches were shut and they opened fire. The two APCs put an instant twenty-round spray, each, on four structures, turning their walls into swiss cheese. The M2A4 opened fire on two structures, putting four of its 30MM bullets into the two of them, blasting them to nothing. "Area secure." They radioed out as the eighteen men appeared from the structures.

"Roger that. Good watching out. We're on our way." The eighteen men moved inward and continued their assault as explosions to the east of them shook the ground they traversed.

[************************************]

The eastern assault group met instant resistance. They were facing a pair of armored fighting vehicles and they were not in a position to duck out with their SLATDWs and fire. EG-TF88 was pinned from the getgo. A sniper had spotted them before the M113A2 blew up on the northern edge and fired. Unfortuantely, the gunshot was muffled by the sound of the exploding APC. The shot was true and caught one of the EG-TF88 soldiers in the arm, knocking him down. He was lucky the sniper was a bad shot, three inches the other way and it would have slammed into his chest. Nonetheless, he went down, feigning death as the other soldier rushed over to him. In that instant, the eastern sniper unloaded a round from his M38A2 and split the sniper's neck open.

Now that the sniper was down and their position advertised, the armored fighting vehicles moved over. The soldiers were forced to take cover inside two buildings on the corner of the village, both of them loaded with resistance. They would have to use their M58 Stun Grenades just to get into the house and they would tag seventeen enemies before they got past the first rooms. Then, they searched the house and took cover, tagging another eight insurgents. The armored fighting vehicles were both BTR-80 APCs with 14.5MM machine guns that tore through the houses. The APCs opened fire immediately, the eighteen men huddled into two areas, keeping low as bullets tore through the house above them and passed through the other side. They were lucky the house was so poorely constructed that it allowed the bullets to go right through. If any were to start ricocheting, it would mean casualties.

"Airborne Assault Force November. EG-TF88."

"Roger that EG-TF88. Go ahead. Over."

"We're under heavy fire, southern edge of the city, two APCs, BTR-80 type. Request fire support. Over."

"Roger that. We're inbound hot."

"Expedite!" A few miles out, the two AH-94A Stalkers moved inbound at a high rate of speed, locking onto the tanks with their AGM-177A missiles. At four miles out, they fired, sending the missiles screaming towards the tanks, guided by their millimetric-wave radar. The missiles were meant for anti-tank duties and pierced through the top of the vehicles like nothing, exploding inside, blowing up both vehicles, only making the bad guys shoot harder and faster. The eighteen men were still pinned and they needed more help, without any help they weren't going to get out of the structures. There were at least sixty bad guys all aiming down at the homes, firing with their full might and fury. Some soldiers tried to flank them and come around but the men had set up Claymores at the door entrances and tripwires. Two loud bangs shook the houses as the Claymores went off, sending their 700, steel, ball-bearings in a 60° arch, out of the front door. The two Claymores, together, took out about seventeen guys.

More fire support came in the form of a pair of AH-6J Littlebirds. The men were pinned and the Littlebirds knew what structures they were in, an IR strobe told them that, so it was easy pickings. Both of them came screaming in, using their night vision to spot resistance fighters in three structures. One of the Littlebirds came right in on the first one and put four rockets and about two hundred rounds into the building, turning twenty guys into mincemeat. The other two structures had eighteen men between them and the second Littlebird took out them both on one run, using the same amount of munitions as the other, more or less.

[************************************]

The western edge was quiet, too quiet. The eighteen men moved in, their sniper with his M44A1 not getting any visuals on anybody. The eighteen men moved in cautiously and quietly, entering the first structures to find them empty. They were either on an unmanned flank or walking into an ambush. They were hopping for the former but they all expected the latter. As they moved into the fifth and sixth structures, they came across people but none of them were armed and they cowered when the soldiers walked through. Outside of the sixth was a truck with a mounted, recoiless rifle, unmanned. There was only one thing to do. The soldiers tossed in an M61 Incendiary Grenade and blasted the truck to nothing.

When they reached the nineth structure, they finally ran into resistance. They blew the lock off with a single shot from their shotgun and came across a meeting, obviously startled by the gunshots. Without a word, the men all looked at each other and the firing began. The two soldiers at the door moved to the side, fast, and tossed in an M57 Fragmentation Grenade, blasting the room and killing four of the nine people inside. Two were wounded by they would be shot as the soldiers entered the room, following the detonation of an M58 Stun Grenade. As they moved throughout the structure they caught two more of the bad guys and shot them in the chest. The last guy was caught running out of the door and shot in the back with a single 12 gauge slug.

[************************************]

A grand total of twelve and a half minutes had gone by. Task Force 88 was, at most, sixty-two meters into the city and, at least, ten meters. Eighty-eight insurgents were dead, one man from Task Force 88 was wounded, in his arm, but the bullet passed through and the wound was tied off. Snipers on the outskirts of the city would work to pick off targets throughout the night and the battle, especially ones foolish enough to walk on the roofs or pop out of windows. Everyone had plenty of bullets and plenty of body armor. "The Palace" wasn't far away and almost a third of the resistance in the village had already been killed, including one truck and three armored vehicles. There were still three more armored vehicles, one tank, two helicopters, and fifteen trucks.

[************************************]

"El Ojo. Ellos están en la aldea. Los informes de soldados en el norte, al sur, al este, y al oeste señor. Hemos bajado a tipos." (El Ojo. They are in the village. Reports of soldiers on the north, south, east, and west sir. We've got guys down.)

"¿Cuántos?" (How many?)

"Quizá sesenta." (Maybe sixty.)

"Multa." (Fine.) He turned to his three advisors and sighed. "Ellos están aquí. Ellos están en la ciudad. No hay escape para nosotros." (They are here. They are in the city. There is no escape for us.)

"Lucharé, antes que me siento aquí y muero a esconder." (I am going to fight, rather than sit here and die in hiding.) Adolfo stood up, his assault rifle in his hands, an FN FAL 50.63 Paratrooper rifle, loaded with 20 rounds of 7.62 x 51MM bullets. He had another eighty on his belt.

"Sí. Pueda la Gracia de los Dios va con usted." (Yes. May the Grace of the Gods go with you.)

"No hay Dios." (There is no God.) Adolfo quickly responded to Carlito and he was gone, out the door, never to be seen alive again. He would head north, stoned, unaware of the gravity of the situation because of his "high."

"Padre. ¿Qué debo hacer yo?" (Father. What should I do?)

"Escape. Cuero. Sobreviva para puede no." (Escape. Hide. Survive for I may not.)

"Pero el padre. ¡Tal es la manera de cobardes!" (But father. Such is the cowards way!)

"¡Hágalo! Carlito. ¡Vaya con él! Sobreviva. ¡Ustedes dos!" (Do it! Carlito. Go with him! Survive. Both of you!)

"¡Multa!" (Fine!) Carlito stood and saluted while Raul and El Ojo embraced. They both departed quickly as well. But, for the both of them, fate would be different. Once they were outside "The Palace," Raul turned to Carlito and stuck out his pistol. "Usted mató a mi hermano. Y yo le he matado." (You killed my brother. And I have killed you.) A look of disbelief and shock converged on Carlito's face as a bullet ripped through his stomach and a second through his heart. He was dead instantly and Raul rushed back in. "Padre. ¡Francotiradores!" (Father. Snipers!)

"¿Dónde está Carlito?" (Where is Carlito?) Raul just shook his head. "¡Entonces lucharemos juntos!" (Then we shall fight together!)

"¡La muerte a los perros!" (Death to the dogs!)

"Ordene el tanque fuera. ¡Destruya sus flancos!" (Order the tank out. Destroy their flanks!) El Ojo screamed the order and the radiomen went to work. The tank was a modified TAM with a 105MM maingun, enough to cause anyone a ton of problems, especially infantrymen. Now matter how outdated a tank was, it was still a tank.

[************************************]

The armored column had already begun its assault. Everything but the MEVs, one M2A4, and one M2006A2 were now in the village, moving down the alleyways and streets, firing at anything that moved, using their thermal imaging to spot enemies hiding in buildings and radioing in their locations. The crew of one of the M2006A2 tanks would get much more than they bargained for when they entered the village.

The tank was loaded heavy, with 80 135MM rounds and 20 MGM-187A Fireflies for its main gun. Its co-axial M50A1 HMG was loaded with 1,000 rounds. The two skid mounted, pop-up M50A1 HMGs were each loaded with 1,500 rounds and currently in the down position. The turret mounted M35A1 LMGs were each loaded with 400 rounds with another 10,400 sitting inside the tank. The two LOSAT launchers were loaded with four missiles. The Firefly launcher was loaded with 4 rounds ready and another four MGM-187C missiles inside the tank. The Wizard launcher was stowed but loaded with 4 rounds and they had another twelve stowed. The two MANPAD launchers stowed on the skid were each ready with two rounds ready and eight rounds stowed. 24 smoke grenades stood ready to launch.

Of the 80 rounds, 20 of them were canister shots. The remaining 60 were split SABOT and HEAT, evenly. As they moved down the street, they had a HEAT round loaded. Thermal imaging put seven soldiers in front of them, hiding. Then, suddenly, someone appeared at the window and fired off a rocket. It was an RPG-7 and it streaked through the air, towards the tank, impacting the frontal arc. It barely scratched the paint. The tank responded by firing the loaded HEAT shell into the window, blowing up the entire structure and the seven insurgents inside of it.

As they prepared to load another shot, the commander called for a canister, which was loaded with 1,100 10mm tungsten balls, meant to cover an area of 700 meters and kill advancing soldiers. It was perfect timing that he loaded this. As the tank moved backwards down the street, several individuals began running across the street in front of them, from one building to the other, obviously trailing detonator wire or something. The commander ordered the tank to fire. The canister shot opened up five meters in front of the tank, turning into a shotgun shell, filling the entire street with these 10mm tungsten balls, each one of them moving very fast. The blast mutilated all sixteen of the insurgents in the street.

Now he ordered another HEAT shell. They fired into another bulding, shattering the frame and causing the house to implode on itself. Thermal imaging revealed six individuals inside, not a good threat to be had in the middle of a city, with RPG-7s flying everywhere. As they moved down the next street, the co-axial M50A2 taking out two people crossing the street, thermal imaging picked up something unusual. "Sir. Thermal has a tank."

"A tank!" He shouted in disbelief. "Load SABOT."

"Roger that." The loader immediately discarded the HEAT in the breech and reached for a SABOT. The tank came around the corner and locked bearings on the Emperor and fired. The 105MM shell slammed into the side hull of the tank and gave it a good rock. The M2006A2 immediately lurched backwards, down a street, as the gunner loaded up the SABOT. They had the tank on thermal imaging and it refused to move, waiting for the tank to come back so that it could fire again. "We're hit!"

"Sensors?"

"All okay. We're fine. Computer says we sustained minor hull damage."

"Where's that SABOT?"

"Working on it. Something is jammed!" The loader was fiddling with a loader arm that was not working properly. The shells were heavy and he had little time to waste. "Come on damnit!" The tank was on the move, investigating the situation.

"We're dead here sir. They're moving to us."

"SABOT?"

"SABOT UP!" Just as he screamed that, the TAM came around the corner, its turret loaded and ready. Both tanks fired at the same time. The 105MM glazed off the hull of the Emperor and impacted the building next to it, causing it to dissipate into rubble. However, the SABOT shell from the Emperor was a true shot. It impacted just underneath the turret, its DU dart penetrating right through the tank at a phenomenal velocity. The turret was blown clear off and the tank erupted in flames.

"That's a kill!" They screamed for joy as bullets rained down on the top of the turret. The bad guys were shooting again. Immediately, they went back to action, loading a canister shot. The southern edge of the city was alive and well.

[************************************]

The four groups converged inward, moving meter by meter, house by house, structure by structure, street by street. Armored vehicles unleashed unholy fury against the bad guys. Four trucks were taken out by 30MM shells of an M2A4 and another BTR-80 APC was tagged by a HEAT shell from a tank on the western side. Two more trucks were taken out by SLATDWs on the eastern edge and by the time all the groups were at least two hundred meters into the city, at least 150 insurgents were dead, most of them on the eastern edge. "The Palace" was getting closer and closer.

Overhead, the helicopters made small strafing runs, supporting the men of Task Force 88 as they moved inward. Behind them, the dismounts from the convoy were securing the area, counting bodies, killing the wounded, interrogating the captured, and tending to the matters at hand. Three more men of Task Force 88 were wounded, all by a grenade blast on the eastern edge. One man was dead. The dismounts from the convoys were fairing well though, taking no casualties really.

Then, suddenly, in the air, something was wrong. Both Stalkers broke off and proceeded south, towards an airborne contact roughly eight miles out, possibly a helicopter. They had to investigate to make sure. Radio hails were made by the helicopter did not respond. As the Stalkers closed, they locked on with their FIM-186A missiles and prepared for a dogfight. The Stalkers both converged at 200 miles per hour against a helicopter moving only 120. The 320 mph closure speed was a lot and as the Huey came into visual range, it opened fire. Miniguns on the side shot towards the two Stalkers as well as a pair of 2.75" rockets.

"Break High!" The lead Stalker pilot said. Both helicopters went straight up, one doing a loop, the other curving down, to get a rear shot on the Huey. As they did, the gunners of both helicopters went to work, arming the Wizards and preparing to fire. All they needed was to be at the rear of the helicopter to fire, giving them the best possible firing aspect. The missiles were IIR guided but there was no sure-fire way they could tell if the Huey's had IR jammers and if they did, it would confuse the IIR.

The Stalkers outmanuevered the Huey in seconds, it was all too easy. As the one in the loop came down to distract the Huey, the other moved in to its rear and fired. The FIM-186A missile streaked away from the Stalker and curved right into the side of the Huey, impacting the engine nacelle. The Huey burst into flames and fell towards the ground, its crew being very dead. Now they had enemy helicopters to deal with, definitely not a fun night.

By 1938, thirty minutes into the actual battle, from the moment the first shots rang out, the insurgency was losing their grip on the village.

[************************************]

"El Ojo. Perdimos el tanque. Perdimos cuatro vehículos blindados. Perdimos siete camiones. Perdimos un helicóptero. Tenemos acerca de uno cien y los cincuenta muertos." (El Ojo. We lost the tank. We lost four armored vehicles. We lost seven trucks. We lost one helicopter. We have about one hundred and fifty dead.)

"¡Maldiga! ¡Siga luchando!" (Damn! Continue fighting!)

"¿Señor? ¡Perdemos!" (Sir? We're losing!)

"¡Entonces moriremos perder! ¡Ahora luche!" (Then we shall die losing! Now fight!)

"Sí." (Yes.)

"Raul. No permita que estos tontos le capturen. Escape mientras usted puede. Utilice el túnel de espalda." (Raul. Do not let these fools capture you. Escape while you can. Use the back tunnel.)

"Sí padre." (Yes father.) Suddenly the area around them shook as a well placed rocket from an AH-6J destroyed another truck. The enemy was closing in and they were about to be in very deep trouble.

[************************************]

Outside, a fully loaded AH-6J Littlebird was circling above. It had just destroyed a truck with a pair of 2.75" CRV7 rockets and now was looking for another target. Unfortuntely, for it, it was being targetted itself. A soldier on the ground was aiming upwards with a man-portable FIM-92C Stinger missile and had the helicopter locked. As it passed overhead, he fired. The missile tore right into the engine nacelle of the Littlebird and caused it to yaw violently, before exploding only 20 feet above the ground, killing the crew and one soldier who was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

The soldiers cheered wildly as they saw the Littlebird explode but they didn't see what was behind them. WG-TF88 had broken through and were only eighteen meters behind them. They opened fire without hesitation and put forty rounds into sixteen men. "WG-TF88. We have visual on 'The Palace.' Requesting orders, over?"

"Hold fast. Need full assault. Cap all men exiting 'The Palace.'"

"Roger that. Out." JOC was dishing out tons of orders to tons of people, the western group being the most successful at the moment. Though they only killed 31 insurgents, they reached "The Palace" already. The northern group wasn't far behind either. They had only killed 19 soldiers but they had come across something bigger. Inside two of the houses were arms, lots of arms. As they converged on the last house before "The Palace," the ground shook as a Littlebird flew low overhead, guns blazing, rockets firing. The Littlebird destroyed two more trucks, both loaded with insurgents trying to get to the eastern edge, where most of the fighting was. The twenty-four reinforcements would never make it.

On the southern sector of the town, the fighting had been quelled. The soldiers there already killed 60 insurgents. They were moving into four more houses and checking them, killing a few here and there. By the time they had a visual on "The Palace" they had 71 kills.

The eastern sector was facing heavy resistance. They had killed 70 insurgents already and by the time they got a visual on the Palace, they were up to 100.

Now all four groups had a visual on "The Palace." There were an estimated 65 insurgents remaining and there were not 72 men of Task Force 88 staring down at "The Palace." In the buildings surrounding "The Palace," 20 men of TF88 took up positions. Each group now had 13 soldiers to ingress and attack "The Palace." 52 would not be needed and another 12 men took up positions around "The Palace," on the outside. 40 men would attack, 10 from each group. "The Palace" had two entrances and they would have to secure them first. There was no doubt that the insurgents had placed tripwires and mines, boobytraps and grenades, throughout "The Palace" so, they had to be careful.

[************************************]

"Ellos están aquí. Los informes de todas frentes han roto. ¡Los soldados están aquí!" (They are here. Reports of all fronts have broken. The soldiers are here!)

"Llame en el convoy. Dígalos abrir el fuego inmediatamente." (Call in the convoy. Tell them to open fire immediately.) The convoy consisted of the last remaining vehicles in existence of the insurgency: two M113A2 APCs, seven trucks, and one helicopter. The vehicles would be coming from a hiding position outside of the city, about five miles out, and would be coming in at full speed, guns blazing, with the only reinforcements they had. Each M113A2 held 13 men, the Huey had 10 men, and the trucks had 10 men each, giving a total reinforcement size of 106 soldiers. The Huey was loaded with a pair of 7-round 2.75" rocket pods and door guns. The M113A2s had a single 50-caliber HMG.

[************************************]

"We've got more targets. Incomming from the west. Looks like a convoy. 3 and a half miles out."

"Roger that Stalker lead. Investigate."

"Understood. Over." The AH-94As broke off again and proceeded westward, towards the convoy, while the enemy Huey hugged the terrain, low, and moved around the flank, to over the village. The AH-94As picked up the 9 vehicles and locked onto them with their Brimstone missiles, front cannon, and their rockets. "We've got hostiles. Looks like 9 vehicles, including 2 APCs. Firing."

"Roger that Stalker lead. Engage. Weapons free." The two Stalkers now took their duty to the next level. They had, between them, four AGM-177 missiles and a handful of rockets. The real firepower came with their cannons, which, between the two of them, they had 180 rounds. This was plenty. The Stalkers locked onto the APCs and the two middle trucks with their AGM-177s and fired. The missiles streaked towards the targets and obliterated them. Now the other 5 scattered, making things that much more annoying. The AH-94s locked on with their rockets and took out 2 more trucks before they depleted their stores. Now they just had their 180 bullets left, 80 in one and 100 in the other. With 3 more trucks on the loose, they hunted. The Stalkers locked on and set a 15 round burst for the trucks. Each truck took 15 rounds to the cab, engine block, and rear bay. The explosions lit up the night sky and the AH-94s had little ammunition left, not enough to take on any more threats.

"We've got 9 vehicles destroyed. Report status over?"

"Stalker Lead. Reports of hostile Huey moving north."

"Roger that. We're almost empty."

"Do what you can." The Stalkers broke and went to active on their MMW radar and their FLIR. They were looking for the Huey though it was tough with the FLIR. The burning fires in the village and the clutter made the FLIR and the MMW not very effective. They would have to hunt. "Stalker Lead. Infantry reports enemy Huey north, two miles out from the city. Armed with rockets and guns."

"Roger that. On the way." The Stalkers banked and turned to attack. They had plenty of FIM-186A missile still and all it would take would be one. However, they were down on rounds. One had 65, the other had 70. They came around, side by side, around the village, looking for the Huey. Their radar and FLIR were showing an intermittant contact flying low, fast, circling away from them. "Two. Reverse and come around. He's evading us."

"Roger that. Two." The second helicopter banked away and took out another lead on the target, coming the opposite way from the lead Stalker. This was what they did, stalk, hunt, and kill their prey. As the second Stalker came around, the Huey immediately reversed its turn, only to come face to face with another Stalker. It immediately took evasive action and went low, fast, away from the helicopters, which were now in hot pursuit, locking on with their Wizard missiles. It was only a matter of time and each one of them fired a single missile at the Huey, blasting it out of the sky. All 106 reinforcements were now charred-broiled.

[************************************]

"Alright. Hold fast at 'The Palace.' Enemy has boobytrapped the entrances. Use dead bodies to lead the way, watch out for tripwires."

"Roger that." CPT. Xavier hoisted a dead body from the ground and lifted it up. He was looking down the stairs to the first level of "The Palace."

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CPT. Xavier stared down the stairs and could see that there were men down there. He picked up the body and threw it down the stairs. Taking cover against the wall, he heard four grenades and one Claymore go off. The body had cleared the way. "Flash them!" Two men nodded and threw down a pair of M58s. It would stun the men on the first level, which was a single room, large, but full of radio equipment. Fifteen of them wound up being shot by the 20 men of TF88 as they entered the level. The other twenty men were going down another entrance, into some sort of tunnel.

The twenty men in the tunnel were crowded and clogged. Boobytraps here would get a good number of them but they imagined this to be a secret tunnel that they had come across, by accident. They crossed into the tunnel and towards the end, which was the lowest level of "The Palace." The tunnel was long and as they were moving inward, Raul was moving outward with two men. Raul was not a known target and so he would be shot on sight. El Ojo, on the other hand, was to be captured alive, no question about it, and CPT. Xavier wanted to ensure that he was.

As they moved into the second level, which was a large arms cache, a barracks area, a mess hall, and another communications room, they found that the level of committment to the cause was more and more. People would be shot dead and it would appear as if they were still trying to shoot back. M58s were required before going into any room because of the level of soldiers. There would be eight here, seven here, thirteen here, and so on. In all, the second floor claimed the lives of one member of TF88, two others were wounded, but it cost the insurgents 28 men. At the same time, the third level, the lowest level, was being inundated with chaos.

Inside the tunnel, the men of TF88 put bullets in Raul and his two aides. The third and lowest level had 19 soldiers, including El Ojo, all of them screaming in Spanish. "Hold fast." CPT. Xavier said to his men. "Boobytraps. Tripwires." He looked and then turned to grab a body. He and two others flung three bodies down the steps, setting off some twenty-four explosions, all minor, but dangerous nonetheless.

[************************************]

"¡La hora es ahora!" (The hour is now!) El Ojo screamed as the explosions went off, followed by four M58s. The shooting came next. El Ojo was ducked against the side, his ears ringing, his eyes blinded by the flashes. He managed to close his eyes for the first two but the third got him. The deafening sounds though got him on the first time. The shooting lasted thirty-five seconds and all eighteen men, except El Ojo were dead. When he stopped writhing, he opened his eyes to seven gun barrels and CPT. Xavier looking down at him.

"El Ojo." CPT. Xavier said with a smirk.

"I speak English. You can call me Raul."

"Fine. Raul. You are under arrest for the crime of revolution, insurgency, murder..."

"I understand. You and your Empire are nothing more than fascist, baby-killers." He recieved a smack from the butt of a rifle. "What respect do you have for the living or the dead?"

"You eat people. You brought this upon yourself. Come on. Let's get out of here. Get what documents you can." They hoisted Raul Sr. to his feet and used plastic zip-ties to secure him. He was walked outside and kept under heavy guard. The dismounts mopped up the town as TF88 mopped up "The Palace." In all, the Layartebians lost twelve men and had a further twenty-four wounded. They lost a single AH-6J Littlebird. However, they killed 309 enemy insurgents, captured El Ojo, and effectively ended the war. When the mop up was done, weapons confiscated, the MV-24Bs landed. They had only one prisoner, El Ojo. As he was loaded onto the MV-24B along with the men from TF88 and the bodies of the dead and wounded men of TF88, he smirked.

"You do realize that this is El Fin de Lnocencia." (The End of Innocence.)

Este RP es completo. Gracias para leer.

Denne RP er komplett. Takker De for lesende.

This RP is complete. Thank you for reading.