May 25, 2045 - 23:29
South Central Coast, Vietnam - Location [Redacted]
Victor stormed into the room, followed by the rest of the squad. Other than the two dead bodies lying near the command console, there weren't any other hostiles in the room.
"Fire Team One and two, secure the hallway while I check the feed," Harry commanded. His squadmate orderly moved out of the room, leaving just Harry alone with the command console.
Harry then moved toward the console. In front of the console was a huge monitor showing live feeds from the various cameras in the facility. He took a brief look through all the feeds before operating the console, changing the feeds to find his objective.
Shuffling through the feeds, Harry saw multiple storage rooms filled to the brim with crates upon crates of contraband. With the information he had on this group, these crates are most likely drugs and weapons. 'Good find, but those are secondary objectives.' Harry took a mental note to have his team clear those rooms later.
After a little while, Harry was able to find his primary objective. On the monitor, Harry saw various feeds - which are labeled as "jail cell" - filled with people. Men, women, and even children. All were wearing rags that could barely qualify as clothing, leaving their malnourished bodies to be shown bare.
"Fuck…" That was all Harry could mutter.
He was filled with all the rage that a man could feel when shown such a horrendous sight. Even after experiencing the horror that was the Third World War and all the troubles afterward on the West Coast of the United States, he could never get used to the sight of people being treated like animals for sale.
He had heard of things like this happening a lot more after the resurgence of piracy around the world, but he thought the pirates would mainly deal with drugs and weapons, not other humans.
He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. 'Not now, Harry. Focus on the mission first, then rescue them after.'
He continued looking through the feed, seemingly found what he was looking for. The feed showed a girl alone in her cell; her clothes were different from those of other hostages he saw, disheveled but marginally better than the rest. It seemed like she was at least fed more than the others.
Harry noted down the particular cell, as well as pulling up a map of the facility and downloading it to his handheld device. Once he finished everything, he shut down the security system of the base and walked back out into the hallway.
"VIP located, cell 354, Section B," He relayed to the rest of his team. "Delta, cut the power. Bravo and Charlie, give those fuckers their surprise party!"
"Bravo, copy, about time you let us make our entrance."
"Charlie, copy, waiting for Delta for blackout."
"Delta, blackout in t-minus five seconds. Give 'em hell!"
Harry looked at his wristwatch as it ticked – Five, four, three, two, one.
Just as the countdown hit zero, all the lights in the facility went out, plunging the underground facility into darkness. Alpha squad immediately moved into formation and advanced toward their objective. All around them was silence, except for the sounds of their footsteps.
The eerie silence did not last long.
As Alpha squad was running, automatic gunshots could be heard from the opposite direction they were running from. There were even a few loud booms that echoed throughout the facility, accompanied by light shakes that could be felt by anyone in the building.
"See they're havin' fun with all them' explosives, 'ay?" Kat chuckled while still having her guns at the ready.
"I don't blame them really. Being stuck out at sea for a whole ass month guarding some cargo ships is both boring and also full of risk of running into one of them heavily armed pirate groups." Shoji replied.
"Yeah, they deserved some stress relief, and we just so happen to be assigned a mission to fight some inhumane bastards." It was Harry who voiced out this time. "I hope they put those bastards down quickly."
Alpha squad did not encounter any resistance on their way to their objective. Either the bandits were being uncautious, or they were even more lax than intel suggested. Harry did not know, but he was glad that they did not have to take unnecessary risks.
They arrived at a large rectangular hydraulic door with a letter "B" painted above the door. They once again stack on both sides of the door. Two of the squad members broke formation to go up to the hydraulic door. They both pulled out their thermite tape and taped a rectangular shape, large enough for two people to walk side by side. A magnetic breaching device was also placed in the middle of the hole before the thermite was set off.
The thermite lit up the corridor as it burned bright; the heat produced by the chemical reaction was more than adequate to melt through the steel door like a hot knife through butter. It was so bright that the squad was forced to turn off their NODs and look away.
As the thermite tape finished melting through, the magnetic breach was triggered, setting off a directional explosion and pushing the huge chunk of metal inward. A loud creak was heard as the metal made contact with the ground, shaking the area lightly.
With their NODs back down, the grenadiers of the squad pulled the pins to the flashbangs and threw them through the hole.
As soon as the flashbangs set off, the entrance hole was lit up with a shower of bullets.
"Đụ má… judging by the sound, I reckon they got HMG set up in the room." Victor cried out over the comms. "I don't think my shield could take much beating."
"Got it. Petrova, Yuan, put some concussions and smokes down range as soon as they reload." Harry commanded as he looked at the two grenadiers who set up the thermite earlier.
"Copy," replied Petrova and Yuan as they loaded a few smoke and concussion rounds into their M32 MGL.
As soon as the shower of bullets stopped, both Petrova and Yuan peeked around their corner and sent their loads toward the bandits. The MGLs made a few thumping noises, followed by a few loud bangs and the signature thuds of the smoke grenades setting off after impacts.
There were a few loud yells and screams from inside the room that Harry's headset was able to pick up.
"Good job! Victor, take the lead again," he said, gesturing with his fingers. "Braun, McDonald, I want you to alternate your fire and suppress the enemy's position. Move!"
With orders given, Victor picked up his heavy shield and led the squad through the entrance. As soon as the squad entered through the entrance, they could see that the room was a panopticon-style room, with a two-story guard tower in the middle to watch over all the other cells.
Specialist Braun brought up her M249 and let loose, sending a hailstorm of 5.56x45mm rounds into the guard tower in the middle of the room. A few other riflemen in the squad also provided some occasional shots for more suppression effects.
None of the pirates could poke their heads above the cover to use the Chinese W85 HMG, rendering it useless. That did not mean the bandits wouldn't fight back, as some of them began blindfiring over the cover with just their arms exposed.
As they moved closer to the tower, Braun estimated that her 200-round box was about run dry.
"McDonald, mine's about to run dry!" Braun cried out.
"Copy that! I'll cover you," A heavy and rough voice replied.
As soon as Braun's machine gun ran dry, McDonald's machine gun roared alive and continued suppressing the bandits.
As the squad advanced near the tower, Harry turned to Private Yuan, "Yuan, put some HE into that tower! Be accurate, we don't want civilian casualties!"
"Yes, sir!" shouted Yuan.
He aimed his underbarrel grenade launcher just above the roof where the bandits were, and squeezed the trigger.
Thump.
The grenade flew out from the barrel toward the enemy location. The ensuing explosion sent out a small shockwave rippling through the area, sending smoke and dust everywhere.
Harry observed the guard tower. His instinct and experience told him to make sure that everything in that tower is dead. He turned over to his team again.
"Yuan, Petrova, both of you put another one into that tower, then Fire Team Two will move up the tower to secure the area.
Yuan and Petrova nodded, both aimed their grenade launchers at the tower, and pulled the triggers.
Thump.
Thump.
Two more explosions shook through the facility.
Followed by the explosion were cries of fear and panic, and the lack of gunfire finally let the team hear the hostages. They were all deathly frightened from the firefight. Personally, Harry would let them out as soon as possible, but protocol dictated that they must clear the area of hostels before they could rescue the hostages.
"Good effect on target! Move up and clear it," he said while pointing at the guard tower.
Fire Team Two advanced up the tower and checked the room where the bandits were stationed. Other than a very mangled W85 MG, some dead bandits and their AK-47s, and a control panel that somehow miraculously survived three grenades' blast, the room was clear.
"Room's clear, LT. Seems like the control board for all these jail cells survived, too." Shoji's voice rang over the headsets.
"Good, see if you can open the door for cell 354, then group back up down here."
Harry then turned around and addressed his team, "We leave the other hostages in there for now. Our mission is to get the VIP, and she's further in. We'll leave the people here for now."
As soon as Shoji and his fire team linked back up with Harry's, the squad proceeded to the hallway on the opposite side of their initial entrance.
The new hallway was filled with more secure jail cells, likely solitary cells if Harry's deduction is correct. The doors to these cells only have a small viewing window and a small cutout hole for delivering food at the bottom of the door.
Every member of the team could see through each of these viewing windows. All of them with the same sight: each room with a few men, women, or children, all crammed into a confined area, all with signs of malnutrition and abuse.
"くそ... fucking monsters…" Shoji mumbled.
"Think Bravo and Charlie are real lucky to be putting down those monsters." Kat tried to lighten up the mood with her quip.
"Focus now. We're approaching the VIP." Harry commanded.
Eventually, Harry spotted a cell with the numbers 354 in bold painted on the door. He then turned on his flashlight on his gun, flipped the safety switch, and put his NODs up. He opened the doorknob gently and slowly, pushing the door open before pointing his gun into the room at the figure in the room.
"Miss Emilia Emerson? Are you okay?" he swiftly said.
"Yes… I'm fine… Are you here to rescue me?" A hoarse and sore voice replied, low and barely audible.
The flashlight illuminated her figure. She was a small and young girl, barely sixteen years old. Her body was slim with a hint of malnutrition, as evidenced by her slender hand covering her eyes and her sunken cheeks.
"Yes, Miss, your family sent us to get you back safely," his tone now softer and reassuring. "You're safe now."
Harry turned around and looked at a member of Fire Team One.
"Chong, it's your turn! Do a quick medical check on her," He then looked at Victor. "Victor, you stay with Chong and guard them."
"Copy that, sir!" Both of them replied before Chong slung his rifle over his shoulder and walked into the room.
"The rest of us will sweep the area and clean out any strays before we extract the V...."
Harry did not get to finish his command, as everyone could hear screaming from further down the hallway. For whatever reason, Harry's instinct was boiling up again, not because he was expecting a fight, but something else that he could not explain.
Harry quickly flipped the safety off and brought his rifle to ready. Without any command, the rest of the team - except for Victor and Chong - readied their weapons and got into formation.
Whatever was up ahead, Harry hoped that his instinct was wrong.
With a flashlight illuminating the dark hallway, Alpha squad advanced to investigate the disturbance.