It was a big day for the Achkaerinese forces after days of surveillance and careful planning they were finally ready to execute what they hoped would be a major blow against the Hand of Emet. The tent that they'd been using as a command post was full to bursting with senior command personnel, pilots and troop leaders.
"Ladies and Gentlemen listen up this is Operation Magpie." Kakashi said "Over the last few days we have been conducting intelligence gathering operations against specific Hand of Emet targets, you have all the information in your briefing packets. Several players in that militia at varying levels of importance have started hiding amongst the Utman population, using them as human shields which is as you're all aware an Uppsalla Convention breach and a statement to that effect is being released within the day. The fact that the Hand of Emet are using human shields means that the A class targets are going to be tackled by ground troops. You will be inserted under cover of darkness, approach your targets and engage them."
"Targets dead or alive sir?" one of the troop commanders asked
"Preferably alive but that is down to your discretion." Kakashi said "Captain Culshaw."
"In addition to the A class targets we have also uncovered the location of what the intel says is one of the Hand of Emet's major arsenal caches." Sarah said "We've designated it as a B class target, we have seen no civilian presence around this target location, all observations have been trucks coming to it suggesting replenishment f militia groups, so this target is going to be engaged and destroyed by air assault."
"So get in, get your targets and get out." Kakashi said "Questions?" there were none
"Usual protocols remain in effect." Sarah said "Zero hour is in six hours. Good luck."
A little over six hours later with the helicopters lifting off, carrying the relevant ASF troops and being watched over by Achkaerinese jets, Kakashi and Sarah along with Dawn stood in the tent, for Kakashi and Dawn this was a feeling they didn't really like much, it was always much easier to be on the pitch than be in the dugout. One by one the reports came in over the radio frequency as each team reached their insertion points. Now they were joined by the actions JAG officer, carrying a phone set to speaker, this was
Kama Asa"That's everyone at threshold." Sarah said
"This is General Kakashi Fuji." Kakashi said "Sign off from Bronze."
"Lieutenant Kama Asa, JAG Officer Achkaerin Air Force and operational JAG Officer." Kama said "Sign off from Silver."
"Emperor Peter Azurewind." Peter's voice now entered the conversation from his study at the Marble Palace from the other end of the phone call "Sign off from Gold and may the Trinity watch over them all."
"All call signs this is General Fuji." Kakashi said "Execute Magpie."
In the skies above Lakhzovia the Achkaerinese Air Force was at work as part of their LISA operations, the designated shooter for the Hand of Emet weapons cache was a flight of
Dragonite type aircraft one flown by
Captain Sarah Ryder, the other by
Lieutenant Gary Keats known by the call signs
Nightwing and
Surfer respectively. They'd just flown their identifying pass of their target and confirmed that there was no presence in the area other than the Hand of Emet.
"Coming up on point bravo." Gary said "No SAM contact"
"Command this is
Nightwing" Sarah said "Commencing attack run."
"Copy that." Dawn answered, Sarah kicked in the accelerator taking her jet supersonic and charging towards the target, Gary doing likewise just behind her "Target lock...firing." she pressed the button and let loose a
Trinity missile before banking away
"That's a hit." Gary said as they peeled away
"Control this is
Nightwing" Sarah said "Target destroyed, heading for home."
On the ground the assault teams were also going to work, they'd been dropped off at distance and then proceeded on foot to their targets.
First Lieutenant Charlotte I'Joula leading leading Midnight Troop and
Captain David Winters leading Topaz Troop were surveying their target, a village, from where they'd taken cover - a nearby hill with plenty of long grass.
"That's a little more fortified than we thought." David said as the pair looked through their nightvision equipment.
"I'll say." Charlotte said "We can't really stealth up to that village without being seen. What do you want to do?"
"We've got hills on all sides, deploy to the high ground, cover the village with firing arcs you've got the snipers any of your troop gets a clear shot on our target take it." David said
"Ok." Charlotte said
It took just over an hour for the troops to position themselves to cover the area, a further hour of patience was rewarded when Charlotte saw their targer codenamed
Cyclops step out of a house and start wandering around, initially it seemed strange but soon made sense as the man took out a cigarette and lit it.
"I have eyes on." David said over the radio he was at the furthest forward point i.e. as close as they dared to get without being in plain view.
"I have the shot." Charlotte said looking through the scope of her
sniper rifle "Guess it's true what they say smoking does kill you."
"Ok listen up, we've got the target and four sentries, we need to take all the sentries before we have a massacre on our hands." David said "Can you do that?"
"Midnight confirm independent targets and standby." Charlotte said, one by one members of her troop confirmed they had firing solutions on the sentries.
"Clear." David said
"Engage." Charlotte said, she pulled the trigger and downed
Cyclops with a bullet planted right between the eyes, other shots rang out in quick succession taking the sentries and then David's troop moved in
"
Cyclops kill confirmed." David said over the radio as his troop did a sweep of the village making sure that there were no more Hand of Emet present "Area secured, regroup for extraction."
A few miles to the west a different firefight was underway again featuring two ASF Troops this time Cobalt Troop and Panther Troop, this wasn't as clean a fight as they'd wanted, it had started well as they'd managed to infiltrate the village undetected, they'd done most of their damage early on but then things had started to go a little bit skewy, a dog wandering out from a building had barked at them, this had woken a couple of residents and then all hell had broken loose. The CO of Cobalt Troop
Colonel Gary Campbell wasn't in the best of moods considering all this as he fought defensively in the centre of the village where they barely were able to exert their strategic control of the firefight from, Panther Troop led by
Major Craig Roberts were holding the flank which was essentially a creek bed and small stream.
"I have eyes on
Frost Giant" Craig said identifying their target "He's making a run for it."
"Say again" Gary said
"Target is getting into a military truck, I repeat target is making an escape attempt." Craig said
"Is he alone?" Gary asked
"Confirmed." Craig said
"Take him out." Gary said
"Copy that." Craig said he threw a grenade at the enemy position, the explosion bought them a few precious seconds "Rathbone take the truck out." Trooper Rathbone, under covering fire from the rest of the team lined up the
ARC-ML70 and fired, the truck didn't have much of a chance and was soon in flames, the fight was over shortly thereafter.
"Target eliminated." Gary said over the radio "
Frost Giant is eliminated."
The big prize for the operation in terms of Hand of Emet personnel was codenamed
Eagle, because he was believed to be a mid ranker with knowledge of the higher up workings of the militia, his capture had the potential to yield information allowing for more decisive strikes against the militia. The one wrinkle was that even the best intelligence hadn't been able to pinpoint an exact location for him but they did know the general area he was in, a valley that had three villages in it, by the sounds of it he was paranoid about his security, Achkaerinese Intelligence had had a hard time putting a face to the name but eventually persistence had paid off and now here they were.
Major Sapyiat Kaltev had Vermillion Troop surveilling one of the three villages while
Captain Akiza Taylor had Cerulean Troop on another village.
"Negative." Sapyiat said over the radio
"Likewise." Akiza said "So if he's not here then he's either on the road or in the other village."
"Or gone to ground in the area." Sapyiat said "Stay off road and move towards village number three."
"Copy that." Akiza said
The two troops moved slowly towards what they thought the likely location, however Sapyiat suddenly halted her troops movement.
"I have
Eagle and entourage at crossroads." she said over the radio referring to a point where the roads to all three villages intersected "I'm to the north you come from the west and we'll take him."
"Copy that." Akiza said, then a couple of minutes later "In position."
"Smoke grenades first." Sapyiat said, two such grenades were thrown which attracted attention but also caused confusion, then as two of the militiamen charged out of the smoke they were met with gunfire from the carefully positioned Achkaerinese soldiers. The firefight was going to be loud but the result wasn't in any real doubt the tactical position favoured the Achkaerinese, as the fight wound towards its conclusion Akiza took her chance, with covering fire being provided she got in cover close to where
Eagle was firing from, then as their target reloaded she seized the opportunity, with a swift approach she got close enough to tazer
Eagle, then she took cover with him contained for the remainder of the fight.
"
Eagle is caged." Sapyiat radioed when it was over "Extraction is requested."
At Command Kakashi was pacing around but the news was about to be delivered.
"We've hit all ten of our Class A targets six of them are dead, four are in custody as prisoners of war." Sarah said "The B class target was destroyed so that's a pretty solid success rate with one to go."
"What's our butcher's bill?" Kakashi asked
"Five dead eight wounded." Sarah said "It's gone well."
"So far the night's not over yet." Kakashi said
What Kakashi meant was that potentially the most important aspect of the operation, a highly secretive one to boot, was still in progress, it wasn't a strike against a man or even a group, this was a strike against something else - data. Ever since the Trinitron incident had been traced to Lakhzovia there had been a frantic amount of activity going on across the various branches of Achkaerinese Intelligence to try and pinpoint the precise location of the server in Lakhzovia that had been behind it, the identification of the LDC as the responsible party had been taken on board but considering the potential stakes there had been nothing taken for granted, eventually the search had yielded results and target profiling had coughed up a location, a small LDC office building a few miles outside of Veritz, then it had just been a case of getting operatives into Lakhzovia. The Achkaerinese team for this job comprised four Justicars, there were good reasons for this firstly that this was a secretive operation and turning up with a bunch of people in uniform was pretty much letting the cat out of the bag, the second reason was that this was involving a specialist aspect. Three of the team were sat in their car watching the building while the fourth
Anthony Vilani was busy knocking out the power substation that supplied the area, it wasn't the first time he'd done this sort of thing either. The wind, even with the balaclava he was wearing was chilly, he glanced in the direction of the building and smiled the power was out.
"We're clear." Anthony said when he rejoined the rest of the team
"All right we've got time now."
Robyn Mears the team leader said "The buildings back up power will kick in in three minutes, as far as anyone knows this is just a power cut. So keep your gloves on and let's go to work."
The team approached the building, there was one security guard roaming the perimeter, Robyn slipped in behind him and with a tissue and some chloraform knocked him out meanwhile
Joe Ochre was taking a sledgehammer to the door, once the glass was shattered Joe opened the door, let them all in including Robyn who was dragging the guard, and then closed the door again.
"That's one minute." Joe said as Robyn bound and gagged the knocked out guard "Ashley." he was referring to
Ashley Selvaria who was off down the corridor and into the security control room, once inside she went to work with the system.
"Alarm's off" Ashley said over her com about a minute later
"That was quicker than usual." Robyn said
"Yeah well it's a familiar circuit." Ashley said "Toggling the camera master switch to off now, we should be in the clear."
"Anthony watch the exit, Joe sweep the building, Ashley with me we're going for the data." Robyn said
"Three minutes." Joe said as the backup power came on but Ashley had bought them what they needed.
Robyn and Ashley made their way into the computer archive or probably better worded the server room.
"Control are you receiving?" Ashley asked
"Copy that." it was the voice of another Justicar this time all the way back at their base of operations
Emma Hastings"We're in the server room." Ashley said
"Copy that." Emma said "Ashley first thing you need to do is find out which server in there the data we're after is on."
"So if I look in the root directory or index files?" Ashley asked
"Yes." Emma said
"It's a biometric pad." Ashley said
"I'm on it." Robyn said "Joe how are you doing?"
"Building is clear." Joe said
"Start clearing the computers out, I'll be up to help you as soon as I've got Ashley into the system." Robyn said, she made her way down the corridor to a staff room, where she grabbed a dirty glass and lifted a print. Now she just had to hope that whoever the print belonged to had clearance to access the system. She returned to the server room and applied it to the pad in front of Ashley.
"We're in." Ashley said
"Good." Emma said
"I'm on my way to help Joe." Robyn said
"Ashley?" Emma asked
"Searching the directory." Ashley said, it helped that they knew something of what they were looking for "Server three."
"How big is the server?" Emma asked
"It's a tower with plenty of hard drives in it by the looks of it." Ashley said "Can't tell them apart."
"Leave the tower but take the drives." Emma said
"Copy." Ashley said, she started doing so
"Robyn how are you doing?" Emma asked
"We're almost done another two minutes." Robyn answered “then we’ve just got to douse the place.”
"Good." Ashley said "Emma it's done."
"Copy that let's hope that's the end of the nightmare." Emma said "We'll sift through the data once you get back here."
"Got that." Ashley said
A few minutes later it was over, the guard was unconscious out front, the door left smashed in and open, the place what was left of it after the devastating fire originating in the server room, would appear to have been the victim of a robbery covered up with arson. A further six hours later and the four agents were flying out of the country.
