Part Twelve

Major Lee was a good commander; he knew how to yield gracefully to a situation. He put Vic in the group which was assigned the task of liberating the hostages. Unfortunately, as the group she was with made their cautious way towards the barracks, Vic made the mistake of getting in a hurry to rescue Michelle and moved ahead of the troops.

Brown and Wilniewczyc were not allowed firearms by their mercenary "hosts" but Brown didn't care. Besides, Vic was in her armor, which he recognized from a couple of demonstrations she had given. Guns wouldn't do anything to her through that. However, Brown did have a couple of fighting knives and additionally he was an expert at unarmed combat. He was going to teach this "guest instructor" how real soldiers fought. All he had to do was stick a blade in a soft spot between the hard parts of her armor.

He moved to a high spot in Vic's path and waited. Then leapt.

Vic's sense of perception gave her warning of the attack, and her reflexes - honed through intensive training - helped her avoid it. She spun away from the attack, to face the man lunging at her. Brown may have missed his initial attack, but he pressed on, with a fighting knife in each hand.

Vic, however, had a tonfa in each hand. Working one long and one short, she swung the right one, held long, at Brown. Who dodged.

Vic should have been furious at this added complication, this added delay, and on one level she was. However, at the onset of the unexpected attack she had instantly moved into the state of the mushin no shin, the mind of no mind. Without her conscious thoughts getting in the way, Vic was free to act purely on a deeper level, reflexively, without letting her anger and frustration distract her. Brown found himself disarmed by a pair of tonfa strikes, and then targeted by a double strike to his gut. However, Brown was, indeed, a veteran of combat, and of many bar fights. He grabbed the tonfa and diverted the strikes outward. Brown intended to either yank the weapons from Vic or use them as levers against her if she held on.

Vic instead released her weapons, throwing Brown off balance as he pulled. She grabbed his head with both hands and stepped back, pulling him forward. She quickly lifted her right knee, intending to plant it in his face. However, he went with the head-pulling motion, into a left shoulder roll, diving past and clear of Vic. Ironically following Vic's own teachings. Right leg still in the air, she spun around on the ball of her left foot, shifting her right leg to deliver a front snap kick. Orson, however, stayed on the ground, swinging his legs around to sweep Vic's left leg out from under her. She in turn dropped, and rolled backwards, popping to her feet just in time to meet Brown's rush.

Vic curled and lunged, ramming Brown in the gut with her left shoulder as he charged. In spite of having her feet set he actually scooted her back a bit. However, he definitely got a shoulder shoved deep in his solar plexus. Vic decisively ended the fight by grabbing him behind the knees and yanking back and up in a circular motion, sending Brown in an involuntary backflip for which he was completely unprepared. He slammed hard into the pavement, not out but unable to continue, at least for the moment. Vic put him in a choke, but kept the pressure easy. She wouldn't tighten it unless he struggled. As it turned out, he didn't.

Not only was her attacker down, but now others from the group Vic was supposed to be with had arrived. Brown realized his chance had passed.

"All right, all right," Brown gasped. "I yield."

Vic released Brown and stepped back. She watched him carefully as others in her team quickly moved in. Orson Brown was promptly flex-cuffed, patted down and relieved of his remaining weapons. He was then dragged to his feet and escorted to the rear of the UN forces.

"Okay, let's hope this didn't alert the mercs that we're here," said Captain Antonia Tallarico, quietly. "Move out."

* * *

They now heard gunfire and explosions to their north. The exchanges of gunfire had two distinct sounds.

"Are those our forces?" said one of the T.O.W.E.R. troops.

"Doubt it," said Tallarico, scowling as they stopped to listen. "Sounds too far away."

"Two different groups, well to our north," said Vic, who had both keener hearing and gadgets in her helmet to help determine this. "One shooting 5.56; the other 7.62×39."

"We're almost to the barracks," said the squad radio man. Since they were still maintaining radio silence he was currently keeping track of their progress on a map. Suddenly, there was a crackle over their radios, followed by a familiar voice.

"Watch yourselves; there's at least two armed groups besides our people," said the Major, over their radios. Vic guessed that the time for radio silence was over. "Base says drones show the mercenaries are in a gun fight with someone on their northern perimeter. Which is helping us."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll wipe each other out," said someone else.

"Doubtful," said Major Lee. "However, we need to take advantage of this distraction. Everyone get to the barracks buildings now, and rescue the hostages!"

That was definitely an order Vic could agree with. However, as they hurried towards the servant quarters they came under attack. This due to a group of mercenaries who came running around a corner towards the team, as they approached a retaining wall through the heavy grass now growing on what had once been a large lawn. The mercenaries seemed to be as surprised as the UN troops at this encounter. Both groups reacted by opening fire.

Vic took a few hits to her armor but none penetrated. She wasn't carrying firearms, but the UN troops with her were. Both sides took at least one hit each, then broke while firing to withdraw to cover. The mercenaries pulled back behind the retaining wall; the UN troops dove into a concrete-lined drainage ditch.

Shots came from around and even over the high retaining wall between the overgrown lawn and the higher ground where the barracks building was located. More of the troops with Vic were hit; some fell. Vic, protected by her armor, helped to drag the fallen into the ditch, while some of the UN troops provided covering fire. The ditch offered some protection, but only if they stayed very low. A quick look around showed that about half those troops unharmed were tending the wounded, while the rest took cautious defensive positions and kept the attackers pinned down. Unfortunately, the people with Vic were also pinned down, and from what she could hear over her helmet radio help would be a while arriving. She decided to become proactive.

Vic moved carefully to the fallen soldier nearest her. A quick look confirmed that he was actually dead. Vic felt a surge of shocked grief, but there wasn't time for that. She removed a smoke grenade from the soldier's harness. She carefully pulled the pin, holding the spoon firmly as she took a couple of practice swings. Then she tossed the projectile in a high arc. It went over the top of the retaining wall and dropped cleanly on the other side. Very shortly after that, white smoke billowed out from behind the wall. Vic could hear coughing and swearing, the latter in at least three languages.

"I don't need to see you to know where you are," she called out, loudly, her helmet amplifying her words. The troops with her, realizing what she was doing, held their fire. "The next one will be a frag grenade. So, drop your weapons and come out with your hands on your heads!"

There was more swearing and coughing, and blind automatic fire. The onshore breeze from the nearby shore quickly cleared the smoke, and there was no movement on the part of the mercenaries to comply with Vic's order. True to her word, Vic tossed a fragmentation grenade to the same spot. Without pulling the pin. While it was still in the air she took off at full speed for the wall.

Vic heard shouts of alarm and sounds of people running, from the other side of the wall. Some of the mercenaries came around the end of the wall which Vic was approaching. The martial artist made quick work of them. However, as she was flex-cuffing the intruders, she heard someone pull the pin on the grenade she had thrown, and then heard the spoon come off. Vic quickly straightened and switched her two tonfa for a hanbo. As the grenade came over the wall towards her, Vic swung her short staff like a one-handed baseball bat. There was the sound and feel of a solid impact, and the grenade went flying back over the wall.

There were more panicked sounds, including desperate swearing and scrambling. The grenade went off. Vic charged up the short, steep slope into the cloud of smoke and dust the explosion had caused and took advantage of the confusion resulting from the blast. Fortunately, few of the bandits had been seriously injured by the fragmentation grenade, due to diving for cover or simply running away. However, some were seriously hurt and a few were dead. All those remaining behind the wall were stunned, with many bleeding. Vic soon dealt with them, as well.

Several of the UN troops Vic was with charged around the wall to join her. They were expecting a firefight. What they got was cleanup. Which they found a welcome change. They quickly corralled the captives, hauling them bodily back to the ditch, and covered the fatalities. The worst of the mercenaries' wounds were treated by the T.O.W.E.R. corpsmen, while the rest of the active troops advanced on the barracks. They were moving slowly, though, hoping that the promised reinforcements would catch up with them.

Vic and a few others were chasing those of the attackers who had fled. Fortunately, none appeared to be heading towards the building where the hostages were being held. Neither were they headed towards the overseers quarters. Instead, they ran east, towards the ocean.

"They're heading for the docks," said Sergeant Stefan Wyszyński, one of those with Vic. He was updating the leader of the raid using his radio.

"They don't know that the UN cordon has already blocked several ships from coming in," said Major Lee, over the radio. "As well as a submarine! They'll be cornered. So, contain for now."

* * *

Meanwhile, the leader of the mercenaries was not oblivious to the attacks, even if he didn't know all the details. Since his small group were being attacked by two forces from two directions he couldn't spare anyone to herd the large, unruly group of hostages. He called in two of his best men.

"Go to the barracks. Select five or six who are sick but mobile. Kill the rest. Go!"

They went.

* * *

Michelle knew the two men were there for not good reasons. The time, the situation (those inside had heard the fighting) their mannerisms, all spoke volumes.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Select four or five who can walk on their own," said one of the mercenaries.

Michelle knew better than to ask why. She started to turn away, as if to comply. Instead, she continued the motion, accelerating into a back spin kick to the knee of the one of her left, then delivered a front snap kick to the groin of the second. She didn't stop there, of course, but continued striking until certain both were incapable of action.

While Michelle caught her breath, several of the other active prisoners quickly moved in and stripped the men to their underwear, then tied them to empty bunks with bedclothes. More bedclothes were used to gag them. Several of the hostages wanted to make a run for it, but a senior officer - one of the poisoned, but nearly recovered - made them instead arm themselves with the weapons taken from the mercenaries and guard the double doors the men had entered by. Which were the only ways in or out.

"You've all heard the shooting in the distance," said Captain Piri. "We barricade ourselves in here and wait for rescue. The mercenaries have a lot more than us to worry about or they'd have sent more than two troops. By the time they realize we've turned the tables, our rescuers should be here."