Hush Little Baby

My thanks to those that gave me so much help with this story. The technical help, my two friends gave me was invaluable. The two people that pulled my words apart and put them in the right places, good work, it actually reads better than I wrote it. Thank you so much.

I understand that you the reader will be saying, it's about time. Guess what, I agree with you. Please enjoy your read.

Hello old friend...

*******

We were all on edge, things had gone well for us over the last few weeks. The signal to return too base came, and other than acknowledge it, I had to keep my people from thinking about home. To drop our guard now would get us all killed, we were still three days from our lines, two if we went in a straight line and that's the one thing we never did.

My navigator always zigzagged us to our destination.

Most of us spotted the column of smoke rising in the distance at the same time, the sound of a gun battle was traveling with the mid-afternoon breeze. We stopped and cut our engines, the gunfire got a little louder then.

Removing my face mask and using the chance, I drank from my water bottle. I have been dreaming about ice cold water for the last week. Now I was within three days of a cold glass of the stuff, someone is having a mini war directly on our route.

My binoculars were useless in this heat haze. "Conner."

"Sir?"

"Send up a drone; show me what's going on over there."

The rest of my team dismounted and set up a loose defensive position around the vehicles. While Conner pulled a drone from one of the storage compartments gave it a quick battery check and started her up. It hovered in front of his face for a moment before his thumbs went to work on the control panel.

I took another sip of water and went and stood behind Conner as he looked at the screen in front of him. Conner was in hog heaven when I brought drones with us on this trip, he even announced that since he was a pilot, then he should be the one to use them. I had to admit, he sure had a knack with them, so I left him in charge of all three and so far we still had three in our arsenal, because he cared for them as though they were his own.

We both seemed to groan at the same time, the screen zoomed in and the insignia of a downed air force helicopter came into focus. Conner zoomed out slightly and we watched as the battle raged around the wreckage. He zoomed further back, and we could see that the people from the helicopter were outnumbered by a good two to one. It was then the drone went all weird; it arched back and forth and then spun out of control, even though Conner frantically tried to correct every erratic movement it made.

We both watched as the big rock the camera was focused on smashed the drone to pieces. I looked at Conner and he looked really pissed.

"They have thrown an electronic field around that downed bird Sir; they don't want those troops to get a signal out. If they managed to get a distress call out while the bird was still in the air, then fine. Now it's on the ground, those folks are in the shit and their going to be picked off one by one."

Either way, if the insignia on that downed helicopter was anything to go by, our people needed help. I ordered my radio operator to break our own radio silence and request help or new orders. The first signal that came back was a denial that any helicopter was in our area. Conner rewound the memory of the drone's flight and my radio operator sent the helicopters number in return of an answer.

It was another ten minutes before my radio operator tore his headset off his head and looked at me. He then reached for his pad and pencil while flipping a switch on the side of the radio, to activate the inbuilt speaker on the radio. What followed was a series of numbers interspersed with two 'confirm my last' requests.

Andy Donaldson was the best radio guy I knew and even he hesitated in handing me the sheet of paper. "Its priority one, Sir. You're eyes only."

Those around me, moved further away. This wasn't their business, until I told them it was. I took ten minutes to un-code the signal; it then took another minute or so and some really deep breaths to stop my world from spinning out of control.

"Zulu 27. Transport on ghost route back to base. Sierra-Tango's Alpha on transport along with protection detail. Change of orders, rescue all and return to base with haste, out."

FUCK, FUCK, FUCK.

"CONNER."

"Sir?

"Get another drone up there; keep it out of range of that damn jammer. I want exact locations of all hostiles where possible."

He waited in case I wanted to add to my order. When I glared at him, he was off like a rabbit with its ass on fire.

I then looked at Andy and said. "Acknowledge and then shut down and go to listen only mode."

Andy was already nodding his head and placing his headphones back on. By now Turk was standing beside me. Turk was my Sergeant Major, he told me his full name once, only once. I just stared at him open mouthed; I was thinking how was I going learn that and not look stupid every time I got it wrong. He burst out laughing and told me that I could call him Turk or Sergeant Major. I bought him a beer later that day as a thank you.

He knew something was up, more so when I pulled my map out of its protective cover and placed it on my vehicle, and he followed me to the hood of my vehicle.

"Orders from Area Command. We have to extract those trapped in that ambush and run like hell back to our lines."

He always seemed to take things like this in his stride; he even confirmed my opinion when he said. "Just another day at the office then?"

"Oh, I've saved the best until last Sergeant Major; Colonel Knowles is in the middle of that firefight."

That pulled him up short and he looked at me and smiled. "What are the odds of Charlie being in the protection detail?"

He heard me let out a sigh.

"Better than even, I would guess, Sergeant Major. Way better than even."

*******

We both bounced ideas around. I did know one thing for certain; I needed Jamie out of here and as soon as possible, it also looked like he was half expecting my call as well.

"Jamie, get your rifle ready, go and see Conner and find a good spot for you to back us up, take Marlon and Harris with you as support. I know it's a long shot, but if you see that jammer, put a hole in it. Other than that, keep them away from their own vehicles, because we're going to need them."

I gave Jamie as big a head start as I could, before pulling the rest of the team together and briefing them. We simply couldn't wait until dusk, or even later. Time was our enemy and daylight was its buddy now. I sent two of my vehicles around the back, two teams, one either side, and what was left to bust right through the middle.

When I told Conner that he was to attach a message to the third drone, and drop it onto the downed helicopter, the man was almost in tears at losing two of his toys.

Every time I looked at my watch, it continued to tick away what little time I had to get this operation up and running. When writing the note, I thought it best to keep it as simple as possible.

'Alpha, we're popping in for a visit at 1615, please keep from shooting any of my men. Ghost.'

Conner placed the note into a protective case and taped it to the last drone. I watched as Conner changed channel and the drone's camera became active.

"The only way I have a chance of delivering this is to simply drop it directly from above and at speed. Once the jammer catches it, the propellers will lock in place and, in theory, drop in a straight line."

We watched until the Jammer came into effect and I said a silent prayer that it dropped at the feet of friendlies.

I sent three of my men to take control of any and all vehicles that the bad guys had placed out of sight. Jamie had radioed in their location minutes ago. Conner swung his last drone over the grid reference given to him and did a swift run by, then confirmed the coordinates where they had hidden them, as well as the location of the two men guarding them.

Now, the hard part. I had to wait until everyone was in position. A difficult thing to do when we could all hear the battle still going on over the ridge. Conner kept me up to date of what was happening via his one remaining drone. Made worse by the fact that, from Conner's calculations, when we went in, the drone would be out of battery life and that would now make us blind.

At 1615 the engine of my vehicle roared into life and tore across the hardened sand and into battle, the two teams came in from the rear of the downed bird and joined in the fray. Jamie was keeping himself busy from his vantage point as two of the local trouble makers dropped twenty yards away. Which was fortunate, since one of them had a grenade launcher in his hands at the time.

I almost let out a cry of relief when one of my people found that damn Jammer and shut it down.

"Zulu 27, this is Zulu 14. Transport secure."

That one call opened the floodgates and the rest of my people radioed in with updates and their progress towards the downed helicopter. The bad guys weren't up for fighting on two fronts and retreated towards their own transport. Turk moved his vehicle to bring his heavy machine gun into action and strengthened the three I had sent to grab their vehicles. When you added Jamie and his sniper rifle into the mix, the bad guys were losing men at a significant rate.

As the dust started to settle peace slowly came to our part of the world. It still meant we had to be careful, we were Ghost squadron. Dressed as we were to look like the natives and could well be shot by mistake by friendlies. As I dismounted from my vehicle, Colonel Knowles came out from the wrecked helicopter. He got to within thirty feet of me when I was hit full on by a wildcat that wrapped herself around me and just wouldn't let go.

That action alone deflated what could well have been a tense situation.

"Sergeant Mendez, when you have finished sucking the face off of your husband, could you spare him for a moment."

Charlotte Mendez went a cute shade of pink against her Hispanic features. She slid down my body and took a step back, the sound of laughter from the troops now surrounding us made her take another step back.

She looked at Colonel Knowles and said. "He's all yours, Sir."

Charlie then looked at me and winked. "I like the beard, you smell like a horse though."

"Wanna share a shower when we get back?"

Charlotte went an even cuter shade of pink right then. Those within hearing distance made themselves look real busy while doing their best to hide their smiles.

I followed Colonel Knowles towards the edge of the wrecked helicopter and sat next to him.

"I'm grateful that you got us out of this mess, Mike. I know its cost you and your people by outing yourselves to save us."

We both knew he was right, but command had its reasons. "At first Area Command refused to acknowledge the downed helicopter was even ours. When we sent over the number on the bird's side as our reply, all hell broke loose."

Colonel Knowles looked around us both to see if anyone was within hearing distance, and then leaned in towards me, I instinctively did the same.

"I was on my way back to Forward Base after a meeting with Command when my helicopter went down. The reason I was there was to be briefed on an upcoming operation and my regiments participation in it."

We both knew he couldn't say anymore, and I wouldn't have been comfortable if he had. My wife was going to be taking part in what Command had planned and even though we had both signed on the line, that wouldn't stop me from worrying about her, just as she does me.

The running figure stopped us from saying anything else, Andy nodded towards Colonel Knowles but looked directly at me, "Sir, Area Command have had a change of mind and want coordinates for collection of the people from the downed bird. Also, Turk has a man up high and the dust clouds are getting bigger, he says they're coming back and bringing friends with them this time."

Knowles stood up and yelled. "Sergeant MENDEZ."

I turned to Andy and said. "Radio over to Turk, tell him to bring over what he thinks is the best of the bunch of enemy vehicles and torch the rest, his also to make sure that Jamie and his backup are on that vehicle. Get Howard on the radio and pull him back from his location to here. Get the coordinates Command want and tell Howard he's running protection for the vehicles taking them to the rescue helicopter. We will run interference and give him time to get these people unloaded and back home."

Charlotte was standing listening to me bark out orders, her face was as impassive as always, her eyes gave her away though.

When Colonel Knowles spotted her, he barked out his own orders. When he was done I stopped to give her a quick kiss as we passed each other and headed back to my vehicle. Not regulation we knew, thank goodness that Knowles knew of our history, and besides, we were married.

With the wounded loaded first and the rest now on, Howard led the way and I climbed down from my vehicle to torch the helicopter. Those of us left at the crash site watched the survivors leave, with Howard and his vehicle in close proximity.

*******

Time to stall the hunters...

I sent two of my vehicles as far out on either side of us as I dared and had them hide in the heat haze, Conner had managed to rescue the surviving drone, had the batteries changed in super quick time and it was once again in the air.

We knew we were outnumbered, just as we knew that we also had to give the bad guys a bloody nose before leading them away from the direction the three vehicles took. They needed that precious thing we call time. Time to get to the safest place a helicopter could land. Time to load up the dead, the wounded and the rest of the survivors, also, time to get the hell out of Dodge.

Sometimes you only see the big target, when you do that, you almost always forget the little guy.

The rest of my vehicles fanned out and drove towards the enemy. My vehicles came at them in a half arc, Turk tore through the middle of the convoy from his side and Jake raced along from the back, racking heavy machine gun fire along the whole back end of the convoy as we met in the middle. In my opinion, if you could have counted the casualties you had just inflicted on the enemy, then you're not driving away fast enough.

We angled our escape route so that it looked identical to the one the survivors had taken, but five degrees' difference in the same direction does mean the longer they chased us, the further away the survivors were and already in the process of boarding the helicopter back to base. We made sure they kept us in sight until it got dark when Howard caught up with us, they never found us after that.

*******

Awkward situation...

With the confrontation and rescue of Colonel Knowles and his people, not to mention my wife. We had depleted our already low stocks of everything, fuel, ammunition and of course water. Reaching our base was impossible now without an aerial drop of supplies; not something we wanted to do, since it would leave us stationary and vulnerable while we were loading, so it left us no choice but to head for Forward Base. We still zigzagged our way there and with dawn's sunlight creeping over the mountains in the distance, two days later, we arrived.

We were parked just over the horizon of Colonel Knowles's Forward Base camp. Andy had already radioed the base asking for permission to enter. Dressed as we were, we always had to give the friendlies a heads up. Five minutes later we were approaching base, another habit for us was always to angle our heavy machine guns down towards the ground. At the two-hundred-yard mark, we slowed to ten miles an hour.

The guards at the gate opened them and pointed to an open area, we circled the vehicles and waited for Colonel Knowles. We knew we were making people nervous and didn't want to make things worse. Turk heard Knowles first among the crowd that had gathered.

"Stand down all of you, I'm going to be inspecting weapons shortly and if I find one with a safety off, then that person had better be ready to be cleaning latrines for the rest of our time here.

A few hands among the gathering crowed, went a little frantic after that announcement.

Colonel Knowles's imposing figure stood about five feet in front of those that had gathered at the parking area designated for Special Forces vehicles and said. "These are Special Forces. Leave them alone and they will do the same. Confront any of them and I will be saying prayers over your grave, ending with the words, I told you so."

He scanned the crowd, knowing the grapevine will spread what he was saying. "They are here because they need supplies, they need them because they got me and my team out of a bad situation and back here. Cross any of them and not only will you have me to answer too, but I'm sure that Sergeant Mendez will be keen to have a quiet word with you as well. Do I make myself clear?"

Silence reigned as everyone in the growing crowed were still looking with clear uncertainty. towards us.

"I SAID DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

As one the whole crowed stood to attention and with one voice came. "Sir, yes Sir."

Turk leaned closer to me and whispered, "How are you gunna top that entrance."

I whispered back. "I'm not, the man's a fucking legend."

The rank and file slowly parted just then and my wife appeared in front of the crowed. "Request permission to visit my husband Sir."

He did his best, but we all see him smile. With a nod he walked away from the now diminishing crowed and walked back to the command tent. Charlotte pushed her personal weapon to one side and ran the few yards between us. I thought it best to catch her this time, her legs were already set to wrap around me.

We managed a kiss, amid wolf whistles and cat calls from my people.

She was still in my arms when she turned to look at my people, and said. "Seriously you guys, I had just four days boning him on our honeymoon before you lot dragged him back out here. Cut a girl some slack will yuh."

It was me that turned a shade of pink this time. I pulled her through the space between our vehicles and my people joined me. I was just about to start on introduction when we heard a voice behind us.

"Are you okay Sergeant?"

Two people from her unit were holding their personal weapons in a manner that within seconds could be deemed as threatening. However, Turks inner radar had also come to the fore once again when he spotted them follow Charlotte through the gap in the vehicle's, along with the whole of Ghost squadron. He was standing behind both of them, not making a sound, just watching and waiting.

"Private Cooper and Boscombe, why are you not at lunch, its chow time guys."

Cooper gripped his weapon just a little tighter, before saying. "We see him drag you in here with his friends Sergeant, we were concerned."

Her smile just kept getting bigger. "Well that's real nice of you guys, but you needn't have worried, this is..."

My hand tightened around the top part of her arm, she sensed it.

"I'll tell you what, since your so worried about me, I'll walk back into camp with you."

I think both Cooper and Boscombe thought they could walk on water right about then. Turk knew that Charlotte had just diffused the situation, and with a silent step back, he disappeared from the gap between the vehicles. They never even knew he had been there.

The plan was to stay the night, but seeing the hostile looks from those on base, despite Colonel Knowles warning, we knew this place could explode with us sitting in the middle of it, if we weren't real careful. By mid-afternoon a vehicle with the regiments MP's emblem, pulled to within ten feet of our circle of vehicle and they just sat there, watching us. Paranoia has always been a friend of ours and kept us out of many a disintegrating situation.