| |
COWBOY FINISHED HIDING his parachute just as he heard the North Korean troops approaching his position. He had landed a few hundred meters from the crash site on the side of a hill overlooking Kaesong. He counted at least a half dozen armed soldiers spread out and searching for him and Woody.
He had no idea where Woody had landed. His in-the-ear communicator/translator had failed during the ejection sequence. It was nothing but high-pitched squealing and static, so he tossed it and instead went to work assembling the CQB M4 rifle from his seat kit. It had a 10.5-inch barrel with integral suppressor and was chambered in .300BLK. He had four thirty-round magazines and a Sig P320RX chambered in 9MM with two extra 17-round magazines. It was unlikely that he would be able to fight his way out of the country against the North Korean Army, but he hoped it would at least buy him enough time to move to high ground and radio for help with the PRC-112G rescue radio from his seat survival kit.
Cowboy applied the green and black face paint from his seat kit and then started moving slowly. The soldiers were spread out in a V pattern, holding their AK-74 rifles up and ready. Cowboy had no intention of engaging them – he just wanted to find Woody and work on getting out of there.
He moved slowly through the brush. The thick canopy of trees overhead blocked the afternoon sun, helping to conceal his movement in the shade. He heard a radio squawk as the voices grew louder.
As Cowboy moved further up the hill, the radio chatter and voices moved farther away. He could hear them yelling, but it was becoming evident that they were moving away from his position. Cowboy worried that they were onto Woody’s trail, so he turned to parallel the patrol and followed the sound of their radios and voices.
He moved slowly through the trees, careful not to make any noise as he kept his rifle low and ready. He could see the soldiers in their dark green camouflage as they moved toward a small clearing at the base of the hill. They appeared to be moving with a purpose – no longer searching for signs of survivors.
Cowboy stopped as he saw the group of soldiers crowd around the base of a tree at the edge of the clearing. He pulled a small pair of digital binoculars from his survival vest and zoomed in. His stomach turned as he saw the one of the soldiers hold up dark green fabric. Woody’s parachute!
His suspicions were confirmed as one of the soldiers moved out of the way. They were standing over someone, and appeared to be removing gear as they handed it from one soldier to the next. It was definitely Woody.
They bound Woody’s hands and feet and then four men helped carry him out. Woody appeared to be unconscious – at least, that’s what Cowboy was hoping. There was no way to tell Woody’s condition, even using the advanced digital binoculars. All Cowboy could see was that Woody didn’t appear to be moving and his head flopped loosely as the men carried him out into the open area.
Cowboy considered his options. He counted eleven soldiers, but he was sure there were more at the crash site. He was confident he could take out the soldiers surrounding Woody, but he knew they would be able to radio for help before he could take them all out. And getting Woody to safety in this terrain with the North Korean Army bearing down on them would present a significant challenge.
He decided to move to higher ground to send a SITREP back to Coolio and Sierra. If Kruger and Spectre had made it out alive, they would be able to help extract them. If Kruger and Spectre were also down and in country, Coolio would help them link up and possibly figure out a way to rescue Woody. Either way, establishing communications was priority one.
Cowboy continued moving through the thick brush and headed back up the hill. He could see a small ridgeline in the distance and decided that would be the best place to establish communications. As he slowly crept up the hill, he heard a helicopter approaching his position and quickly found cover.
The helicopter zoomed overhead and then banked hard right before it disappeared from Cowboy’s view. Cowboy continued to the ridgeline where he could see the smoldering wreckage of their crashed fighter jet. The transport helicopter landed and men in white coats exited. Cowboy guessed that they were technicians sent by the North Korean government to extract as much of the secret technology from the aircraft as they could.
Cowboy found a safe place to hide and then pulled out the PRC-112G survival radio. He powered it on and sent an initial data burst with his location information as soon as it acquired the satellites. That would ensure Coolio and the team would at least have a general idea of where to look in the event he was interrupted while trying to establish communications.
When he was sure the data burst went through, Cowboy went to the free text feature of the radio and began typing a message.
EMP12 DOWN. 12A STATUS UNK/CAP. 12B MOB. ADV RV.
The message was shorthand to save time, but Cowboy knew Coolio would understand it. Empire 12 was down. Woody’s status as to whether he had died or had been injured was unknown but he had been captured. Cowboy was mobile and able to move to an extraction point and he ended the messaged asking Coolio to advise the plan for rendezvous.
Two minutes after Cowboy hit send, Coolio replied.
EMP11 SAFE. HAVE U ON SAT. NK SURROUNDING YOUR POS. SENDING COORD FOR YOU TO MOVE. GO NOW.
Cowboy pulled out the handheld GPS from his survival vest as he loaded the next message from Coolio containing the coordinates. He plugged the coordinates into the moving map GPS. It plotted to a point near the Ryesong River about ten kilometers from his position.
Cowboy acknowledged the message and then powered down the survival radio. He placed it in his vest and then picked up his rifle. He waited a moment as he listened for signs of nearby troops, and then started to move when he heard none.
He transitioned across the “military crest” of the hill, staying 2/3rds from the bottom as he moved west toward the river. Cowboy made slow and methodical movements, careful not to make too much noise as he kept an eye out for North Korean soldiers looking for him.
Moving down the hill, Cowboy suddenly froze. He saw three North Korean soldiers moving up the hill to his left. They didn’t appear to be headed toward his location, but they were moving in the right general direction. Cowboy decided to offset to the north and go back up the hill until he could be sure he was clear of them.
Carefully moving up the loose rocks and gravel on the side of the hill, a flash of black suddenly caught Cowboy’s attention to his right. As he turned, he saw a North Korean soldier moving up the hill toward him with his rifle raised.
Cowboy froze, hoping the soldier hadn’t seen him. The soldier fired a volley of rounds, sending rocks and dirt flying high and to Cowboy’s left. He returned fire, hitting the soldier twice in the chest and once in the throat with his suppressed rifle.
As Cowboy turned to move down the hill, another volley of rounds peppered the side of the hill. This time from the opposite side. The other soldiers he had avoided had apparently moved in and heard the shots fired.
Cowboy tried to move quickly down the hill to escape, but the loose terrain made it nearly impossible. Cowboy started sliding down the side of the hill just as he felt a round hit him below his survival vest.
He started to tumble as he lost his footing and slid down the hill. His GPS and radio flew out of his vest. His rifle stayed with him only because the single point sling somehow kept it secured. He was only along for the ride as he descended the remainder of the hill.
A tree broke his fall, knocking the wind out of him as he came to a sudden stop. Cowboy tried to right himself as he slowly rolled over to find his rifle. He was dazed and disoriented but determined to push through.
As he turned to his right, a half dozen North Korean soldiers came running toward him from all directions. They yelled at him in Korean as they kept his rifles trained on him. Within seconds they were on top of him, beating him as they relieved him of his weapons and gear.