Firestorm - 28. FS Chapter 28

“Harding to all personnel, this is now a dedicated channel between Command and sniper, stay off this link until further notice, Harding out” the Lt Colonel said, and I chuckled at hearing that order. “Sniper to Owens, please return to my location asap, Sniper out” I said, as I wanted Mike here to look after Angela and Tom, while I went hunting. Twenty minutes later, I heard a noise to the east, and I saw Mike with his arms in the air, then I heard another noise south of him, and I quickly swung my rifle around, just as I heard a high-powered rifle shot go off.

“Sniper to Mike, are you ok?” I asked quickly in the comm’s, “Yes he missed me by about a foot to the left and a few inches too high” Mike replied, as I searched to find the shooter, as soon as I had him in my sights I pulled the trigger, and the shooter fell to the ground. “Sniper to Command, third intruder is down, WO Owen was not hit, attention all squad leaders, the intruders have high- powered rifles, stay alert, sniper out” I said.

Mike soon arrived, and he quickly said hello to Angela and Tom, before joining me up top, “Not as good as your rifle, but it will have to do” Mike said to me, “Go and retrieve that intruders rifle and ammo, it looks like it’s a top quality one” I said to Mike, and he quietly slipped down and made his way to the dead intruder, returning a few minutes later with the rifle and two extra clips of ammo.

“24 rounds, plus what is in the current clip” Mike said as he lay down beside me, and he looked through the scope, “Wow, this is impressive” Mike whispered, “you don’t know if it is set for accuracy, so for now let me do the long range, you get the ones that get to close to0 you” I suggested, and Mike nodded his head in understanding. “Always allow for distance and wind direction” I added as a reminder.

I slid down the rock and leaned in under the lean too, “Mike is staying here with you, he has two rifles, do you know how to handle a hand gun?” I said to Angela, who surprisingly said yes, “I was a member of a gun club, when I was with Dean, he wanted me to be able to protect myself from any of his enemies” Angela replied, and I passed her my pistol holster, “Only as a last resort, let Mike do all of the work, and don’t stick your head out of here, they have powerful guns with very good scopes, but not as good as mine” I said with a big smile.

“Please be careful” Angela said to me, and she gave me a kiss on the lips, “I will, just look after yourself and Tom, we have reinforcements dropping in from 25 thousand feet at dusk” I said to Angela, and she gave me another kiss, before she let me leave. Quietly, I slipped out from behind the boulders, stopped and did a scan of the area through the scopes, before heading over to the body.

My stomach started to churn over, when I saw that I had put a hole right through his upper chest, quickly I looked around the man, he had lots of tattoos, common with biker gangs, and I saw only just spotted the small uhf walkie talkie, partly hidden under his body. I retrieved the radio, and put it close to my ear, and adjusted the volume just a little. “Gazza, Dan, Macca, where are you guys, report in, have you got the bitch yet?” I heard over the radio, it was a deep gravelly voice, and it sounded very mean.

“Col, Joe, Steve and Trev, go to the south-east area of the property, that is where the gun shots came from, remember, these guys are Army, so they have lots of target practice, so keep moving and they won’t get you”, the voice said, and I chucked when I heard this. I turned down the volume to zero, and attached the radio to my belt, before I started heading west-south-west, going nice and slow, and keeping very low to the ground.

It was nearly 45 minutes later that I spotted another intruder, he too had a high-powered rifle, which he had sitting on his shoulder, he was doing a good job of stalking, but I knew I was better. Taking the walkie talkie off my belt, I turned the volume up a little and heard nothing, so I turned it up a lot more, and left it under a small bush, then quietly headed to my right, always keeping the intruder in my vision.

By the time he had passed the walkie talkie, I was a good 300 metres away, and continuing to extend that distance, when I heard the walkie talkie, I lay down on the ground and soon had the intruder in my sights, as he came back looking for the sound of the walkie talkie. I saw that the shooter was left handed, so instead of a kill, I decided to disarm him instead, and the bullet went right through his hand, damaging the handle of the rifle, and when he dropped it, the gun fired, ricocheting a rock, just ten metres away from my location, as the intruder was holding his hand and groaning in pain.

Suddenly two more men appeared, and then a third, “There is a shooter around here somewhere, get the bastard” the man I had shot in the hand said, with his deep gravelly voice. I decided to lay low for a while, I was a good two kilometres away from Mike, so I knew they were reasonably safe, and I let them look around, having no luck finding me, even when one of them was just five metres from me at one point.

“I don’t like this, three guys are missing, the bastard shooter has shot a hole in my hand and wrecked my rifle, and it is getting late, if we don’t find the bitch soon, we will have to try something different, like get that guy Benning’s rich Aunt, I’m sure we could make her squeal” the man with the gravelly voice said, and my stomach went into knots when I heard this, so I took aim at one of the other shooters, and squeezed the trigger.

It was a direct hit into the shoulder, putting his shoulder permanently out of action, also making him drop his rifle, “Man that is close, he is here somewhere, spread out and find the bastard” the deep gravelly voiced intruder said, just at that moment, another shot was fired from a distance, and I saw it hit a tree, just above one of the intruder’s heads. “A second shooter, let’s get out of here, this is getting to out of hand” the men with the injured shoulder said as he began to retreat.

“Get back here you coward, let’s find the bastard and finish him off” I heard the deep voice man say, who was obviously the boss of the group. I began to slowly and quietly move further away, and I heard another shot fired from the north, obviously it was Mike trying to distract the intruders, so I could get further away. I had made the error of shooting the man in the shoulder, from a close distance, and I had put myself in harm’s way.

I didn’t have my pistol with me, so I couldn’t defend myself at close range, if I was found, I needed to get out of danger, that was my priority now. As I managed to extend the distance away from them, I heard the leader call on the radio for the rest of the men to come to this location, as this is where the shooters are, which they presumed meant that Angela was close by.

I knew now, that if I stayed in the area, I was in grave danger, so I hightailed out of there, heading west, quickly and quietly as I could. Concentrating on that as my priority, I had missed what was being said on the sat comm’s, but I didn’t want to say anything, to give away my location, so I ignored it and kept moving. What I had missed was that Mike had called Amos, directing him to get to the Bird’s nest as fast as possible and get another rifle and ammo, and from the nest, try to warn off the intruders, with near misses.

I was in such a rush to get away, I was nearly spotted by another man rushing eastwards towards his mates, I stopped and froze in action, not wanting to attract any attention, until I was out of his line of vision, and as soon as I was, I dropped to the ground, and realising that I was breathing too loudly, I forced myself to control my breathing, as I was I hear the sound of footsteps running, and taking a careful look, I saw one other intruder, running eastwards.

I hit the sat comm’s, realising that I needed help urgently. “Snipper to Mike, I have put myself in a bad position, I need help” I said urgently in a whisper”, “Copy that sniper, that is what those two wild shots were for, Amos is on his way to the nest to get another rifle, I have instructed him to take some wild shots, to give you some more space” Mike replied”, “Understood, I am away to the west from the group of three, one has a hole in the hand, the other in the shoulder, but two have just passed me heading in that direction, not sure how many more will pass me” I replied, “Settle in a hole, we will take the heat off you for a while” I heard Amos respond.

Finding a medium size rock and some shrubs, I created a hide, and watched the men gathered now almost 500 metres away, and they were doing a more thorough search of the area. When I heard a shot from a different direction, from a higher altitude, I knew that it was Amos. He had missed, but only just, then I took a shot, feeling that I was far enough away now, and I hit the boot of one of the new arrivals, sending him hopping around on one foot, and I heard chuckling coming from the comm’s.

“Snipper to Command, please excuse the chuckling, WO Owens and Corporal Gregson and I are playing a little game of cat and mouse, from three different directions and altitudes, with the now 7 intruders that we have in our sights” I said, “Command to Snipper, message understood, hopefully they will runaway” we heard the Brigadier say in reply, Mike sent off a shot, this time hitting the handle of a rifle, forcing the holder to let go, in shock of it happening, Amos sent off another shot, this time close to the leader, and I sent of a shot also close to the leader.

“Let’s get out of here, we will come back, with some special equipment when it is dark” the leader decided, and they all began to head in a south west direction towards the main access road, just north of the main gate. “Sniper to Mike and Amos, they are pulling out, I heard them say they will return after dark with special equipment” I announced, “Copy that, I agree with that, from what I can see they are bugging out” Amos replied.

“Sniper to CO” I called on the sat comm’s, “Go ahead sniper” the CO replied, “Sir, if I remember correctly, about a kilometre north west of the north compound there is a public gravel road, that goes directly to the main highway” I said, “Amos to Mitchell, according to this map, it is called Perry Road, it is 200 metres from the boundary, and it is an 8 kilometre straight line to the highway” Amos added.

“Right, that is our exit plan, I will organise buses for the cadets, to take them to Irwin Barracks for the night, I will also get some MP’s to collect Mitchell’s aunt, and then come up here to collect Angela and Tom” the CO announced, “Ok, meanwhile, Mike, Troy, Amos and Marc and I will regather at Bird’s nest and wait for the arrival of the support, sir you better evacuate the Caretaker and his wife from the rear as well, so they are safe” I suggested, “Good thinking, right let’s get all the cadets moving to the exit point within an hour” the CO said.

“Mike and Amos, any sign of any intruders still hanging around?” I asked, and I received a no from both of them, “Amos keep watch while we get the cadets moving north and west to the exit point” I added, before I started to move quickly back towards where Mike, Angela and Tom were located. As soon as he saw me, Tom wrapped his arms around me, “Uncle Mitch, I was scared of those bad men, and the loud noises” Tom said with tears appearing on his cheeks.

“It is over for now buddy, the bad men have been scared away, because Amos, Mike and I made those loud noises to scare them away” I replied, as I hugged him tight, and I handed Mitch my sniper rifle, which he unloaded, and left open, before doing the same to his rifle, and grabbing the pistol off Angela. Half an hour later we arrived back at the bird’s nest, and while Angela arranged for Tom to have a shower and change into some fresh clothes, Mike and I headed upstairs.

“Right it is 1610 hours, dusk is in two hours, I will stay here, can you two guys take the truck, go and get a jeep, and start ferrying cadets to the exit point, get the south groups first, as squad alpha are practically there already, and I tapped the comm’s, “Alpha squad, stay where you are near the dam, as you are near the exit point, Beta squad, start heading west, you will be picked up by transport shortly.

Delta squad, do the same, move west, till you are picked up, and Charlie squad, move west till you reach the main access road, then head north, till you are collected, all CUO’s are to turn in their paintball rifles, and join the other cadets and unit commanders for evacuation, all cadet kit bags will be collected and taken to you tomorrow. Hamish that includes you too mate, make sure you hand in the comm’s piece to one of the corporal’s before leaving, Benning out” I announced.

In just 45 minutes, we had all the cadets and their cadet unit commanders, with one exception, as he was being detained by the MP’s, were gathered at the exit point. When a jeep returned to the command post, I had Angela and Tom already packed, and they reluctantly left, after I told them they were safer at Irwin Barracks, where they will be looked after. When they arrived at the exit point and saw my aunty Jean there, they happily greeted her, and they climbed into the vehicle and were driven away from the facility at good speed.

Glad that we now had a more controlled situation, with less people to worry about, as the cadets, unit commanders, MP’s, and caretakers were loaded into the school buses and driven away, leaving just the CO, WO Mike Owens, the three corporals and myself. Returning to the now very empty main compound, I suggested that we load up all of the cadet’s luggage into the back of the truck, and park it out of harm’s way, then pull down the tents, stow them temporarily in a messy pile in the inside parade all, to be packed up properly at another time.

As it was nearing dusk, we had just completed packing up the luggage into the truck, and the tents into the parade hall, when the comm’s went active, “Eagle calling Cub, are you receiving” and I smiled when I heard the familiar voice. “Receiving you eagle, nice to hear you can drop in to assist” I replied with a smile, “Always happy to oblige, please confirm drop point as - 31°18'24.6"S 116°18'32.7"E, is that correct” I was asked, “That is affirmative, watch out for the scaffolding, cub out” I replied, and I started to laugh, and the others just frowned and shook their heads”.

“Bad cub” Mike said wagging his finger at me, and we all burst out laughing, even the CO did too, as we made our way to the top of Tobruk Hill, as we climbed out I noticed that the CO and Mike had both brought their kit bags with them, and I smiled, “Lt Colonel Sir, that tent with the wood roof over it is yours, once the Corporals have moved to the other three tents, this one is yours Warrant officer” I said to the two officers.

I smelt something cooking, and spotted the large cast iron pot with the lid on, and I smiled. “We are lucky, Angela managed to throw together some food for us, but we may need to make more to accommodate another twenty more men” I said, as I retrieved a half bag of onions and half a bag of spuds, before pulling out a bag of carrots out of the esky. Once the Corporal’s had relocated their gear, they got to work helping me to peel the vegetables. “Sir, would you mind going upstairs and turning on a small light, so the guys don’t get caught up in the scaffolding” I said to the CO.

“Too late, two of them are already stuck” a voice from the darkness said, which made us all jump, I smiled when I recognised the voice. “Hey Eagle, how was the flight?” I asked, “Nothing special Cub, just the usual 25 k foot drop” was the reply, as the SAS Corporal shook my hand. “Food, I smell food” came another voice, “Now that will be bear, he is always hungry” I said.