Nightcrawler
Member
12, part two
Through the darkness, we silently made our way across the snow-covered pasture. The few cows that were around didn’t seem to mind our presence. What had earlier been a gentle breeze had turned into an icy north wind, but this too worked in our favor. The wind covered the sounds of our approach, and brought with it cloud cover. The night was dark and the sky was overcast.
The team was spread out into a wide ‘V’ formation, with myself on point. Corwin was behind me and well to my right. Jeff was opposite him on my left. Farther back and farther out on each side were Michel and Shen, and directly behind me, (though more than a few meters distant) was Ling. I was wearing a heavy pair of Russian night vision goggles that Ling had provided me with, as were Corwin and Jeff. To me, the night was lit up in a sea of green light, and I could see the farm house glaring through the trees, some three-quarters of a mile distant.
I paused momentarily, breathing heavier than I’d expected. I looked back at my friends, and they seemed to be experiencing the same thing. Damn we were out of shape! I smiled silently to myself, shook my head, and then continued onward. My thoughts were interrupted by radio chatter. It was just our three snipers and the machine gun team telling us that they were in place and standing by.
“Alpha One copies,” I heard Ling say, her voice distinctive over the radio.
“Bravo One copies,” Ibrahim said then. His team was on the other side of the farm, approaching from the opposite direction.
“Echo Team, this is Alpha One,” Ling said then, whispering over the radio, “Can you give us an update?”
“Roger,” the Echo Team sniper said. I was surprised to hear a woman’s voice, with a thick Russian accent. “There are many vehicles present. I see one small truck, probably security patrol, returning from the back fields. The yard around the house is well lit, but there is an outbuilding to the east. If you approach from behind that, you will have cover…” She then let fly a Russian expletive that I didn’t understand.
“Status?” Ibrahim said.
“There are two targets leaving the farm house. Target one is great huge fat man in a white suit, target two is a skinny woman in a tuxedo, carrying a poodle.”
“Woman?” Ibrahim said.
“Uh…negative,” the Echo sniper said. “I was wrong, is not woman, is man with poodle. Do I have permission to engage?”
“Do they have a captive with them?” Ling asked, tension obvious in her voice.
“Negative. Is just two men. They’re heading for a vehicle.”
“Hold fire, Echo Team,” Ling said. “We’re not close enough yet. Let them go.”
“Roger,” the Echo sniper said, disappointment obvious in her voice. “Is your lucky day you bastards.” We all smiled at that, and continued on.
“Alpha One, Alpha Six,” I said, a few minutes later. “There’s a drainage ditch or something perpendicular to us, about thirty meters ahead. The far bank is steep, looks like a dirt road crossing the property. We’ve got a vehicle approaching from the South. It’s a ways off, but it’s on the road. We should take cover in the ditch.”
“Agreed,” Ling said. “Everyone move as quickly as you can, get to that ditch and get down. Move!” With that, we all took off running. A few moments later I slid down into the ditch. The little bit of water at the bottom was frozen; the far bank was steep, and taller than the near one. The road was built up slightly higher than the property it crossed, probably in case of flooding. I looked up, peering over the surface of the road. My heart dropped into my stomach when I realized that the approaching truck was a hell of a lot closer than I’d thought. The night vision goggles had distorted my depth perception.
“Alpha Team! Danger close!” I hissed into my radio. “Everybody get down!” Corwin and Jeff had just made it into the ditch, a few meters away on either side of me, but the others went prone into the field and laid still.
My heart was racing as the vehicle, a Jeep, drew close. Its headlights blinded my night vision goggles, so I slid them up on my head and blinked. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears as the vehicle slowly passed us by, from left to right. Then it stopped. ****.
The Jeep was now a few meters to my right, on the road above me, between Corwin and I. Illuminated in its bright headlights was a large black and white dairy cow. The cow was standing in the road, blocking it, and didn’t seem terribly inclined to move. The Jeep honked its horn several times, but the cow ignored it and kept chewing its cud.
I heard doors slam as two men got out of the Jeep and approached the stubborn bovine. A swath of obscenities rolled through my mind.
“Matthew,” I said into my radio, as quietly as I possibly could, “I’m going to cut around the back of the jeep. On my signal, you take the guy closer to you. I’ll circle around and get the other guy. Copy?”
“Mm-hmm,” was Corwin’s only reply. The two men were practically on top of him, and he didn’t want to make any more noise than necessary. I closed my eyes for a moment. I felt my senses seem to sharpen, and my heart rate slowed. I calmly unsnapped my rifle sling, and silently laid my FAL down in a way that would prevent the muzzle from getting dirt in it. I then, ever so slowly, crawled up the bank of the ditch, feeling out each inch of dirt beneath me.
“MOO-OO-OO!” One of the frustrated men yelled at the cow. The cow replied with a moo if its own, and continued chewing.
“****ing cow!” the other man said. “I’m going to shoot the damned thing!”
“Better not,” the first man said. “You heard the boss. No shots unless necessary.” As I crept around the back of the jeep, illuminated in the red glow of the tail lights, I noticed that each man was wearing green fatigue pants, a black fleece, and had a stubby G36K assault rifle slung across his back. Neither had his weapon ready, and both men were facing away from me. I made my way around the jeep, and up the driver’s side, stopping by the vehicle’s side-view mirror. I was as close as I was going to get. I reached to the right shoulder of my harness and unsnapped the long SRK fighting knife there. I flipped the knife in my hand, holding it point-down, and whispered into my radio.
“Now.” Corwin didn’t hesitate. A dark shape appeared behind the man to my right, who was closest to the ditch. A thin strand of wire briefly flashed in the glow of the headlights, then snapped around the man’s neck. He gurgled, reached for his throat, and then disappeared as Corwin dragged him down into the ditch.
The man to my left saw this at the last instant, but it was too late for him as well. His concentration was on the darkness as he frantically tried to bring his weapon around. He didn’t see me approach from his five o’ clock position.
My right hand, clad in a leather glove, reached around, covered his mouth, and pulled his head back. My left hand brought the knife around, and before the man could really struggle, plunged it downward into this throat. He dropped his rifle, tried to scream and began to thrash, but his screams came out only as bloody gurgles, and I wasn’t letting go. I pushed the knife deeper into him, and his thrashing caused me to lose my footing. We felt to the road together, with him landing on top of me. He continued to thrash and squirm; I pulled the knife out and jammed it into him again, then again, then a third time. Finally, he went limp, and I pushed him off of me.
Standing up, I realized that I had blood all over the front of my armor and on my sleeves. Cursing to myself, I wiped my blade off on the dead man’s jacket and re-sheathed it.
Stepping over to the Jeep, I turned off the headlights and cut the engine. Looking around for anything useful, I grabbed the guards’ radio, figuring it’d help us keep track of what they were doing.
“Clear,” I whispered into my microphone as I slid back down into the ditch to retrieve my rifle. We formed back up and were once again on our way.
“Nicely done, Mr. Valentine,” I heard an unfamiliar voice say over the radio. I realized a moment later that it was Shen, and that that was the first time I’d heard him speak. “It seems that wherever you walk, death follows.” I grinned in the darkness.
“Everybody’s good at something.” Sometimes it bothers me that killing is the only thing I seem to excel at.
“Quiet now,” Ling said, all business. “We’re almost there.”
Through the darkness, we silently made our way across the snow-covered pasture. The few cows that were around didn’t seem to mind our presence. What had earlier been a gentle breeze had turned into an icy north wind, but this too worked in our favor. The wind covered the sounds of our approach, and brought with it cloud cover. The night was dark and the sky was overcast.
The team was spread out into a wide ‘V’ formation, with myself on point. Corwin was behind me and well to my right. Jeff was opposite him on my left. Farther back and farther out on each side were Michel and Shen, and directly behind me, (though more than a few meters distant) was Ling. I was wearing a heavy pair of Russian night vision goggles that Ling had provided me with, as were Corwin and Jeff. To me, the night was lit up in a sea of green light, and I could see the farm house glaring through the trees, some three-quarters of a mile distant.
I paused momentarily, breathing heavier than I’d expected. I looked back at my friends, and they seemed to be experiencing the same thing. Damn we were out of shape! I smiled silently to myself, shook my head, and then continued onward. My thoughts were interrupted by radio chatter. It was just our three snipers and the machine gun team telling us that they were in place and standing by.
“Alpha One copies,” I heard Ling say, her voice distinctive over the radio.
“Bravo One copies,” Ibrahim said then. His team was on the other side of the farm, approaching from the opposite direction.
“Echo Team, this is Alpha One,” Ling said then, whispering over the radio, “Can you give us an update?”
“Roger,” the Echo Team sniper said. I was surprised to hear a woman’s voice, with a thick Russian accent. “There are many vehicles present. I see one small truck, probably security patrol, returning from the back fields. The yard around the house is well lit, but there is an outbuilding to the east. If you approach from behind that, you will have cover…” She then let fly a Russian expletive that I didn’t understand.
“Status?” Ibrahim said.
“There are two targets leaving the farm house. Target one is great huge fat man in a white suit, target two is a skinny woman in a tuxedo, carrying a poodle.”
“Woman?” Ibrahim said.
“Uh…negative,” the Echo sniper said. “I was wrong, is not woman, is man with poodle. Do I have permission to engage?”
“Do they have a captive with them?” Ling asked, tension obvious in her voice.
“Negative. Is just two men. They’re heading for a vehicle.”
“Hold fire, Echo Team,” Ling said. “We’re not close enough yet. Let them go.”
“Roger,” the Echo sniper said, disappointment obvious in her voice. “Is your lucky day you bastards.” We all smiled at that, and continued on.
“Alpha One, Alpha Six,” I said, a few minutes later. “There’s a drainage ditch or something perpendicular to us, about thirty meters ahead. The far bank is steep, looks like a dirt road crossing the property. We’ve got a vehicle approaching from the South. It’s a ways off, but it’s on the road. We should take cover in the ditch.”
“Agreed,” Ling said. “Everyone move as quickly as you can, get to that ditch and get down. Move!” With that, we all took off running. A few moments later I slid down into the ditch. The little bit of water at the bottom was frozen; the far bank was steep, and taller than the near one. The road was built up slightly higher than the property it crossed, probably in case of flooding. I looked up, peering over the surface of the road. My heart dropped into my stomach when I realized that the approaching truck was a hell of a lot closer than I’d thought. The night vision goggles had distorted my depth perception.
“Alpha Team! Danger close!” I hissed into my radio. “Everybody get down!” Corwin and Jeff had just made it into the ditch, a few meters away on either side of me, but the others went prone into the field and laid still.
My heart was racing as the vehicle, a Jeep, drew close. Its headlights blinded my night vision goggles, so I slid them up on my head and blinked. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears as the vehicle slowly passed us by, from left to right. Then it stopped. ****.
The Jeep was now a few meters to my right, on the road above me, between Corwin and I. Illuminated in its bright headlights was a large black and white dairy cow. The cow was standing in the road, blocking it, and didn’t seem terribly inclined to move. The Jeep honked its horn several times, but the cow ignored it and kept chewing its cud.
I heard doors slam as two men got out of the Jeep and approached the stubborn bovine. A swath of obscenities rolled through my mind.
“Matthew,” I said into my radio, as quietly as I possibly could, “I’m going to cut around the back of the jeep. On my signal, you take the guy closer to you. I’ll circle around and get the other guy. Copy?”
“Mm-hmm,” was Corwin’s only reply. The two men were practically on top of him, and he didn’t want to make any more noise than necessary. I closed my eyes for a moment. I felt my senses seem to sharpen, and my heart rate slowed. I calmly unsnapped my rifle sling, and silently laid my FAL down in a way that would prevent the muzzle from getting dirt in it. I then, ever so slowly, crawled up the bank of the ditch, feeling out each inch of dirt beneath me.
“MOO-OO-OO!” One of the frustrated men yelled at the cow. The cow replied with a moo if its own, and continued chewing.
“****ing cow!” the other man said. “I’m going to shoot the damned thing!”
“Better not,” the first man said. “You heard the boss. No shots unless necessary.” As I crept around the back of the jeep, illuminated in the red glow of the tail lights, I noticed that each man was wearing green fatigue pants, a black fleece, and had a stubby G36K assault rifle slung across his back. Neither had his weapon ready, and both men were facing away from me. I made my way around the jeep, and up the driver’s side, stopping by the vehicle’s side-view mirror. I was as close as I was going to get. I reached to the right shoulder of my harness and unsnapped the long SRK fighting knife there. I flipped the knife in my hand, holding it point-down, and whispered into my radio.
“Now.” Corwin didn’t hesitate. A dark shape appeared behind the man to my right, who was closest to the ditch. A thin strand of wire briefly flashed in the glow of the headlights, then snapped around the man’s neck. He gurgled, reached for his throat, and then disappeared as Corwin dragged him down into the ditch.
The man to my left saw this at the last instant, but it was too late for him as well. His concentration was on the darkness as he frantically tried to bring his weapon around. He didn’t see me approach from his five o’ clock position.
My right hand, clad in a leather glove, reached around, covered his mouth, and pulled his head back. My left hand brought the knife around, and before the man could really struggle, plunged it downward into this throat. He dropped his rifle, tried to scream and began to thrash, but his screams came out only as bloody gurgles, and I wasn’t letting go. I pushed the knife deeper into him, and his thrashing caused me to lose my footing. We felt to the road together, with him landing on top of me. He continued to thrash and squirm; I pulled the knife out and jammed it into him again, then again, then a third time. Finally, he went limp, and I pushed him off of me.
Standing up, I realized that I had blood all over the front of my armor and on my sleeves. Cursing to myself, I wiped my blade off on the dead man’s jacket and re-sheathed it.
Stepping over to the Jeep, I turned off the headlights and cut the engine. Looking around for anything useful, I grabbed the guards’ radio, figuring it’d help us keep track of what they were doing.
“Clear,” I whispered into my microphone as I slid back down into the ditch to retrieve my rifle. We formed back up and were once again on our way.
“Nicely done, Mr. Valentine,” I heard an unfamiliar voice say over the radio. I realized a moment later that it was Shen, and that that was the first time I’d heard him speak. “It seems that wherever you walk, death follows.” I grinned in the darkness.
“Everybody’s good at something.” Sometimes it bothers me that killing is the only thing I seem to excel at.
“Quiet now,” Ling said, all business. “We’re almost there.”
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) how far in the future i.e. what type of weaponry will the protaganist be using? (Besides you working in a .44Mag revolver somehow 
)
