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Bruce stood next to the hood of his Humvee alongside Captain Whalen, the CO of Delta Company, and Capt. Conrad Zrucky, the CO of Charlie Company. The platoon from Bravo that had escorted Colonel Harris to Kane had been ordered to stand down a mile further up the road. With their un-armored Humvees, Bruce would only risk them in the event of an emergency. On the hood of the Humvee was a large drawing of the prison Bruce’s orderly had sketched from the Scout Sniper’s original smaller notebook drawing. He was finalizing their plan of assault, taking into consideration the new information he had received from Lieutenant Aguilar and the Rangers.
“I know in our discussions last night we had planned to ram our way through the fencing with an MRAP, but I’m having second thoughts on that strategy,” Bruce began. “This morning, after speaking with some of the townspeople from Warren who had been to the prison previously, Major Samuelsson discovered that the interior fencing of the yards was actually twelve foot chain link with concertina wire above.” In truth, he had gained the information from Lieutenant Aguilar, but his men didn’t ask questions, so he continued. “I feel we need to start with our plan B and use some C4 first to blow that fence.”
Captain Zrucky raised his hand to interrupt Bruce, who nodded for him to continue. “Sir, I spoke with our ordinance team leader this morning and he is unsure how effective that plan would be. He doesn’t have any shape charges available and the amount of C4 needed to blow the fence is a crap shoot at best. If it’s not enough, it could bend the wire but leave it still largely intact. If he uses enough to guarantee success, he’s afraid the civilians will be too close and could take some serious shrapnel. Also, that size explosion would likely put many of the women in shock, causing temporary deafness and disorientation. It may prevent them from evacuating the yard in a quick manner.”
Bruce rolled his eyes back in his head, wondering why this hadn’t been brought up that morning, but Captain Zrucky continued. “I think I have a solution. From the notes you read us, it sounds like there is a gravel perimeter road between the interior and exterior fences. You also mentioned that the main gate stood open during the daytime hours as their patrols came and went. What if we were to drive an MRAP or two right through the front gate and down the access road, followed one minute later by another MRAP escorting the two buses and literally drive right up to the hole in the fence. This would prevent us from having to get through two layers of fencing as well as prevent the escort team from walking the women all the way around to the front of the prison and the awaiting buses. That would be less time out in the open for our men and the hostages. However, it would also require some extra cover fire at the main gate for our safe passage on our return.”
Bruce thought about it for a moment and had to admit to himself that twice in one day, subordinates had come up with better plans than he had. He swallowed his pride and nodded to himself while looking over the map once more. “Where’s Sergeant Garza?” Bruce asked, looking for the man who had drawn the original maps. Sergeant Garza and his spotter were the only two men who had seen the prison up close and he wanted to confirm that there would be room for the buses to navigate the gravel perimeter road between the fences.
“Sir, he is in position overlooking the rear of the prison.” Captain Whalen answered.
“Do we have communication with all five Sniper Teams? Are they in place?” Bruce asked impatiently.
“They are in place, Colonel,” Shifty answered, “...and we do have communication lines open, but we are currently operating under radio silence except in the case of an emergency. I must advise you, Sir, that the radios we have access to out here are on an unsecured channel. In other words, if the rebels have a radio, they’ll be able to hear what we’re saying.”
“I know what unsecured means!” Bruce snapped irritably at Shifty. Colonel Harris sighed. So much for getting Sergeant Garza’s opinion on the matter, he thought. He turned back to Captain Zrucky. “Captain, you said the buses could roll directly up to the hole in the fence. I thought we just discussed your theory on not using the C4. How do you intend to put a hole in the fence?”
Captain Zrucky just smiled and hollered back over his shoulder, “Corporal Losee! Bring that thing up here!” A moment later, a young corporal came wandering up, carrying the largest yellow hand saw Bruce had ever seen. It took two hands to carry and instead of a large round blade with teeth, the contraption had what looked like a large grinding wheel. With a groan and the veins sticking out of the young man’s neck, he set it down in front of the captain. “Sir, Cpl. Simon Losee here was a forward thinker and grabbed this from the town’s Fire Department on our way out of town. He used to be a volunteer fire fighter back in the day. He says they used it to rescue people out of crushed cars and the like. He insists that it should go through the fence like butter.”
“Have you used one of these before, Corporal?” Colonel Harris asked the young man directly.
“I have, Sir,” the young man said while at attention, without making eye contact.
“Have you started it yet? Are you sure it’s even in running condition?”
“Yes, Sir.... It took a bit to get it running, but one of the mechanics helped us.” The young corporal glanced over at Captain Zrucky, not sure if he’d said too much.
“This whole plan could go FUBAR if that thing doesn’t start when you need it to,” Bruce observed to Captain Zrucky with a side glance to Shifty. “Alright, Corporal. Here’s the scenario: You just rolled up on the perimeter fence and your MRAP comes to a halt. You jump out and have to get that thing started with bullets whizzing over your head. How fast can you do it?”
The corporal looked over at his CO, unsure what to do. “Corporal, the colonel gave you an order!” Captain Zrucky yelled at the man, startling him into action. “Get that thing started!” he yelled at the private as he circled around the bent over soldier like a drill instructor. The young man worked quickly, adjusting the choke just right and giving three or four hard pulls to the small gas engine. It turned over with a loud roar, before starting to sputter. “C’mon, Losee! There are real bullets flying, man! Our men are getting shot at!” Captain Zrucky continued his yelling while walking in circles around the corporal. Corporal Losee quickly made some adjustment to the choke and strained picking up the device to his waist where he gave it a couple pulls of the trigger, sending the cutting wheel spinning.
“Can you pick it up above your head?” Bruce yelled loudly to the young man. The young man complied and lifted it high over his head. Unfortunately, Colonel Harris could tell the young man was about to have a stroke holding the thing above his head. His face quickly grew red and the veins in his neck protruded out of his skin. “Okay, okay.... Set it down!” he yelled to the young man.
The corporal struggled while lowering the heavy saw to his waist and unceremoniously half-dropped it to the ground with a “Sorry!” before turning the noisy thing off. He stood back up and straightened his ACU’s before going back to attention.
“Corporal, how much do you weigh?” Bruce asked him with narrowed eyelids.
“165 pounds..., Sir!” the corporal said proudly.
“That was impressive,” Bruce stroked the young man’s ego. “That thing probably weighs a third of you.” The young man let out a small grin at the colonel’s praise while remaining at attention. “The only problem is that we are going to be in an extreme hurry when we get out there. Captain Zrucky, have the corporal find the two biggest lumberjacks in your company and have him train them on how to use this thing.” Bruce could tell the young man seemed a bit dejected at the news. “I want the corporal here in charge of getting the thing started out there and then helping covering the men using it.” Colonel Harris reached out and gave a small squeeze to the soldier’s shoulder. “Nothing personal, Son. I’m glad you had the wits to bring this along as it may just save our bacon.”
“Yessir! You're welcome, Sir,” the corporal acknowledged.
“Alright, Losee. You’re dismissed,” Captain Zrucky told the corporal. “Go find two of our strongest men to assist you and train them up like the colonel instructed.” The corporal gave Bruce a perfunctory salute before turning and jogging away. “Losee!” Captain Zrucky yelled after the man. Pointing down at the saw, he asked, “Are you forgetting something?” Bruce watched in humor as the embarrassed young man hustled back and strained to pick up the saw once more and haul it away. Captain Zrucky rolled his eyes at the corporal as he left and just shook his head to Colonel Harris.
“It’s alright, Captain. The boy’s just nervous,” Bruce chuckled. “Okay, so that establishes Plan A. For Plan B, have the same two men go at the fence with the pair of bolt cutters we brought. If that is taking too long, we’ll go to plan C. For plan C, I want your bomb tech to ride in the same vehicle and be prepared to blast a hole in the fence if things go south with the saw. Have him develop and start with a smaller size charge to the best of his knowledge and have a larger backup charge just in case. Zrucky, I want you in that lead vehicle calling the shots. We need to make sure you have communication with Captain Whalen and the lead bus. My only fear in this plan is that the buses may not be able to navigate the turns if the fences are too close together and we don’t have a way to communicate with Sergeant Garza ahead of time to confirm. So Shifty, I want you to take an MRAP ahead of Captain Zrucky’s MRAP and quickly travel the entire loop around the prison. If for any reason, you don’t think the buses can navigate the perimeter road, you are in charge of giving the buses a go or no-go, understood?” Captain Whalen nodded his head in an affirmative. “If it’s a no-go, then Captain Zrucky, you’ll need to march the hostages out by foot to the buses at the front gate, okay?”
“Yes, Sir,” Captain Zrucky answered.
“Alright, I’m going to lead the main assault on the front of the prison. I’ll have four MRAPs approach the front gate first. Two MRAPs with fifty caliber machine guns and two MRAPs with MK-14 grenade launchers which will immediately target that machine gun nest by the front gate. Once it’s destroyed, I’ll give you two the go ahead to proceed. Any questions?” Bruce asked, looking at them both. Both shook their heads in the negative so Bruce continued. “Alright, then. Brief your men; wheels up in thirty minutes.”
Captain Zrucky and Captain Whalen gave a quick salute and rushed off, leaving Bruce alone to look over the map once more. In all, only nine MRAPs and two buses would engage the prison, allowing them to move in and out quickly. The rest of Charlie and Delta Companies would hang back a short distance and only be called in if things went badly. “This better work,” Bruce muttered to himself. He glanced down at his watch and realized that it was well past noon; General Oates was surely wondering why he hadn’t called in yet. With a sigh, Bruce walked around to the passenger side of the Humvee and grabbed the Sat phone off his seat and walked a ways back into the tree line to get away from the noise of his men preparing for battle.
Before dialing the general, Bruce considered once more what to say about the Rangers and the letter they left. He wasn’t sure if he should tell the general he opened the letter or not, since it had been addressed to Lieutenant Jenkins.
With a huff, Bruce punched in the numbers to reach the general’s orderly only to get Gen. Oates picking up the other end of the line directly. “Colonel Harris? What the hell took you so long? I’ve got two planes just sitting on the tarmac waiting on you!”
“I apologize, Sir, my scouts just returned this moment. It took them a bit longer because when they reached the farmhouse, there wasn’t anyone there. They took some time to study it before approaching and found warm embers in the wood stove and the place recently deserted. However, they did find some old MRE wrappers and a few other things that led them to believe it was indeed soldiers that had occupied the place. On top of that, they found an envelope stapled to the front door addressed to Lieutenant Jenkins. I haven’t opened it yet, but I’d be happy to read it to you if you’d like....” Bruce held his breath, waiting for the general’s response.
“Colonel Harris, you are not to open that letter under any circumstance,” General Oates ordered strongly. “That is not part of your mission...which is to get the power restored in Warren. Jenkins’ replacement will arrive tomorrow at 1800 hours on the small airstrip just outside Warren. You will give him that letter, along with any other information you may have, and make your men available to him. Are we understood?”
“We are, General.... What about air support to take out that prison? I need to get resupplied ASAP and the engineers are waiting on parts from Washington to continue work on the grid,” Bruce changed the subject.
“I’m going to have a C130 Spector take off in the next ten minutes to come up there and level that prison. You should be free to use the Bradford airport by tomorrow.”
Colonel Harris almost started hyperventilating. With great effort he forced himself to act calm. “Thank you, Sir. I’ll send some men this evening to survey the damage and make sure the prison is destroyed.”
“Don’t worry about that, Colonel. That prison will cease to exist within the next hour, but send your men if you like.... Just make sure you have a combat controller on duty tomorrow evening at 1800 hours for Capt. Dillon Zedaker’s arrival. He will be replacing Lieutenant Jenkins.”
“I copy that, Sir,” Bruce answered quickly, trying to get off the phone.
“Alright then, Colonel Harris. From this point on use your normal chain of command. If you need anything further, contact General Duncan,” General Oates instructed him.
“Will do, sir,” Bruce replied.
“Good-bye, Colonel,” said the general in a way that made the hairs on Bruce’s neck stand up. Once again, he didn’t even get a chance to respond as the line went dead. By rescuing the hostages, he was going against a direct order from General Oates. He just hoped the general never found out.
Bruce’s heart started pounding again as he sprinted out of the woods back toward the Humvee where Captain Whalen stood in front of his Humvee’s bumper, briefing about fifty men who would be in the lead MRAPs.
“Captain Whalen!” Bruce hollered out as he approached, taking the captain off guard. “Get over here! You too, Captain Zrucky!” Both men looked confused at Bruce’s tone but quickly hurried over to the colonel and out of earshot of the men. “Change of plan. I just spoke to HQ; we need to move in now! As we speak, General Oates is scrambling a Spector Gunship to destroy that prison. You have two minutes to finish your briefing, and five minutes before wheels up. Understood?” Both men looked at each other, speechless at the new revelation. “I’m not kidding!” Colonel Harris yelled before lowering his voice as some of the other soldiers nearby turned towards them curiously. “If we are going to save those hostages, and keep our own asses from being blown to smithereens, we need to move out right now...! So hurry up!”
“Yessir!” they said in unison as they both hurried back to their men and the briefing.
Bruce rushed back to the Humvee he arrived in and quickly grabbed his gear. He threw his plate carrier over his head and buckled it in place as he made his way around the truck to listen in. He could tell Shifty was rapidly going over the information and was actually standing on the hood of the Humvee now. “This better work!” Bruce muttered to himself once more.