Contract Free Arulco: The Bitch Must Die!

Day 43 Meduna SAM

16:43 Meduna SAM

Time seemed to move incredibly slow as Sara watched the two sniper rounds hit Big Al as the oversized Angolan scrambled for cover behind a palm tree thinner than he. To her west, over the rapid gunfire exploding all around her, she could hear Maddog scream each time he was shot by a hidden sniper some where in the fenced in area of the Meduna SAM site.

10:32 Two Sectors North of Meduna

After Dynamo and Red showed up in Skyrider’s eggbeater, Sierra’s rested squad went to town playing with the new toys that they had bought. The Army had been nice and did not deem to attack them through the night and once all of the new equipment was vetted the liberators were going back on to the offensive.

The toys, five of the newer weapons offered in the 6.8mm SPC round, two of the SCAR’s from FN turned out to be a disappointment and the various weapon accessories like the Gripod and red dot scope that the versatile weapon could be equipped with didn’t help. Either Sheila or the rep from Bobby Ray screwed up.

Instead of five Steyr A3’s, they received a Bushmaster, a Beretta, a model that Sara had never seen before and two A3’s. None of the weapons were enough for Sara to want to give up her SR-25 with the ever reliable HK MP5SD5 tricked out for night ops as backup.

Robber was not pleased with the supply run because no where was there any of the 5.56mm NATO Match Grade ammo that he had so diligently pleaded with Sheila to order.

If Sheila was expecting all five of the 6.8mm’s to be utilized than Sara thought she was off of her rocker because she had only sent 14 clips of the 6.8mm ammo, four of which where the expected useless HP version.

The snafu didn’t end there; of the two SCAR’s, one Light and the other Heavy, replacement kits were also ordered to convert them to the 6.8mm ammo and two additional kits were present to replace the barrels, making them the DMR versions except that the Heavy was not capable of being switched to the SPC load and the two barrel kits only worked on the Heavy version.

Big Al had come up with the obvious compromise; the Heavy would utilize one of the two sniper barrels to make the SCAR-H a DMR model while the SCAR-L would be converted to the 6.8mm, leaving two extra kits as waste, fraud and abuse because he had no use of them.

When he was done converting the two weapons, those that were interested fired a few rounds to get a feel for the US Special Forces latest and greatest toys. Only MD was suitably impressed enough to forgo his Beowulf .50AE rifle as he took possession of the SCAR-H-DMR. Sara wanted to point out that was going against the whole thought process of switching to more urban friendly weapons but did not. She was not going to give up her SR-25, why should she make him give up his weapon of choice.

Red and Dynamo had been busy the last 24 hours, making two complete circuits from North of Meduna to Cambria to San Mona to Drassen and back to North of Meduna. They also made two additional trips back to San Mona, where Tony kept saying he had no funds to buy more of the equipment they were shipping, so they added more to the weapons already stored at the abandoned warehouse.

Sara was interested in the fact that Red had commented that when Tony had returned, his naked slaves were not to be seen. She was slightly curious about the dealings up in San Mona but didn’t have time at the moment and wasn’t sure if that was something that she wanted to broach before leaving this hellhole; better for someone else to deal with the mobster in San Mona.

Soon they were ready to move and Sara gave the order for them to mount up and move out. The trip to Meduna ended prematurely because the Army had sent a patrol to recon the sector immediately north of Meduna that the liberators had taken yesterday but absconded away to clear the Meduna SAM’s umbrella, allowing Skyrider to quickly re-supply them.

As per the norm, Ira and Maddog rushed to the point as everyone bailed out of the two vehicles. The enemy patrol retreated under Sierra’s Squad’s long guns, but only after four of their number fell to the long gun’s accurate fire.

Sara was not interested in suppressing her foes; she wanted them dead and prior to the offense beginning she had ordered that shots only be made if they had a clear shot. Her crew obeyed and only Ira, Maddog, Robber, Kilroy and her own weapons needed reloading with the smoke had cleared.

Wasting no time once Maddog, backed by Robber declared the road to Meduna clear the order was given to mobilize and soon the two vehicles were speeding south to their destiny.

11:23 Meduna’s First Line of Defense

The information that Gus had acquired and Sheila was forwarding was that this was the first sector that the Queen’s tanks could be found at. Gus had spent money for an aerial reconnaissance with pictures taken. The pictures were crap, grainy and had next to no resolution, Sheila thought Gus used a guy who had a camera set up in his personal Gulf III jet and took the pictures from just under fifty thousand feet up. Still, it was quite obvious where the tanks were located; two of them, per Gus’s intel the same two tanks that the Queen had used to bust up Omerta. After her parts for the tanks dried up, she parked them like she did the rest of her armored force.

The first tank was stationed right by the road in the middle of the sector while the second tank was off in the woods on the west, protecting that flank.

Sara’s plan was simple. The fortifications of the defensive line made it obvious where the enemy would be. Once they debarked from their vehicles, the two squads would move only slightly forward while Big Al started his mortar barrage.

First was the two rounds of Mustard Gas that Big Al had brought into Arulco forty three days earlier. The first round drifted and Terror looking through her Leopold scope said it looked like it hit where the middle tank was. After that Big Al did not miss again. The second Mustard Gas round hit the first sandbag pillbox. The next two high explosive rounds took out the middle tank.

Sara ordered Maddog and Igor forward to that first defense. At least one soldier was alive and had donned a gas mask because sniper fire rang out hitting a crouched Maddog in the head. Kilroy had no joy and Sara ordered Big Al to drop two rounds of 60mm explosives on the defense followed by four rounds from Igor’s grenade launcher. When Maddog rushed the defense there was no on left alive.

There was one soldier racing towards the defensive structure but a long burst from Maddog’s Minimi ended his race.

Maddog went aggressive but he didn’t blindly rush towards the middle of the defenses and instead flanked to the southeast. He found one more soldier alive before he got to the tree line that hid the second tank. Igor was rushing towards Maddog when Maddog stood and fired the M72A4 LAW. The corresponding explosion was muffled which told Igor that the tank was not destroyed and he threw himself to the ground, fearing a retaliatory strike from the tank.

None came, their limited vision inside the buttoned up tank prevented them from being seen through the trees.

After a quick crawl, Igor made sure the turret was facing away from him before he stood and fired his RPG-7. That explosion was loud and proud and ended the Army’s occupation of that sector.

13:47 The Arena

On the outskirts of the city was the Queen’s pride and joy, the Arena. A recently erected modern facility that was a throwback from ancient Rome, where those that displeased their Queen was fed to the lions. The name of this sport was blood letting as those sent to the Arena knew that they would not be getting a fair chance at survival and that the citizens of Meduna and Balime would come simply to see their blood explode from their bodies as the Bloodcats tore them asunder.

If Sara’s fellow brother’s and sister’s in arms were anxious about entering Meduna proper, only Ira gave some hint as she couldn’t stop fidgeting with her PDW, a Steyr Para that she had been carrying for most of the last month. It was still loaded with the AET ammo and she never bothered counting the ammo she carried until now. Sara was sure by the look on her face that Ira quickly come to the realization that the two clips of AET that she had been carrying was not going to be enough.

It was when everyone was waiting for Hamous and Gillie to return from reconnoitering the area surrounding the Arena that Ira spoke of her irritation.

“I had been to see the games at the Arena once, when I first arrived here in Arulco, the Arena had been operational for a while but it was only for the privileged from Meduna and Balime, friends and acquaintances of the Queen. Rumors of course surrounded what went on in the Arena but the Queen was successful in keeping that secret. She is real good about keeping State secrets apparently.”

Ira quit talking while she counted again the half clip in her spare AET magazine. When she got to the last bullet, seventeen, she scowled, reloaded the magazine and looked up to finish her tale.

“Then one day an announcement was made; the Queen had ordered that all children be brought to the Arena for a ‘Spectacle of a Lifetime’. I didn’t want to go and I definitely did not want to take the few children under my care but I was ordered to go. The rebellion was taking hits by the Army and did not need or want my actions to bring them more notice.”

Ira closed her eyes as she remembered the children under her care, “The kids were ecstatic to go, there was no water parks or amusement parks for them to spend their free childhood time on here in Arulco; only squalor, hard work and death. I couldn’t say no to the children, even though I knew I should have. When we arrived by bus, this was before the fuel shortage, it was a carnival atmosphere, clowns, jugglers and tumblers. The kids ate it up.” Ira mouth squirmed at her word usage.

At three PM the Queen joined everyone in the Arena and the carnival atmosphere continued as many of the children who grew up in fear of the Bloodcats were astounded to see so many penned up. A zoo is something else Arulco doesn’t have. The penned area that held the Bloodcats gave no clue as to what was to come next because the Queen had her animal retainers clean the open area and its connected cages, there was a bone here and there but that was it. No blood. I had learned quickly that Bloodcats got their name because of their love of blood, the damnable beasts would wallow in it if they ever found enough blood to do so.”

Anger and venom flared in Ira’s eyes and mouth, “Then when the clowns and jugglers were taken away and the crowd of children got antsy about watching caged cats pad back in forth, the Queen stood and addressed everyone present. She spoke slowly but her speech did not last long. She had brought the children of Arulco to the Arena to teach them a lesson she had said, a lesson in life. She was speaking slowly, like she was confident that the four and five year olds in the audience understood her. They may not have understood her words but they definitely understood what came next.

“Opposite from the Queen’s private ground floor box was two metal doors that opened and four naked prisoners were brought out in shackles. I recognized two of them; their daughter was one of my students. They were part of the Rebellion and went missing two weeks earlier. Miguel would not say anything about them. Not whether they were killed or on a mission. I feared that they were captured and sent to Tixa. And yet there they were. The Queen was screaming by this time, accusing them of trying to defy her Royal will, her Royal personage. She screamed how they needed to be punished and punished they were. The guards removed their shackles and then backed into the metal doors, one of the three men rushed the door to get out of the pen but the metal door had jagged edge and serrated his hand, wrist and lower portion of his forearm from him as they closed.

“I looked back at the Queen, dreading what was going to happen next and she had sat down, smugly raising her wine glass to toast the prisoners. The Bloodcats wasted no time once the switch was thrown to open the cages and rushed towards the four condemned souls. The one they reached first was the man whose arm had been stolen by the metal door; they smelled his blood and three of them attacked at once.

“One of the men seemed to be able to fight the cats off, as each time one would move near to him he would lash out with a fist and the cat would bound away. The husband tried feeble to protect his wife as he held her with one arm and his other arm outstretched to fend off of the cats. The biggest cat out there rushed him and the husband soon found his arm being crushed in the large jowls of the cat.

“All around me the children were screaming and panicking but the guards who were almost invisible during the more joyous festivities, violently made their presence known to any who wanted to t run away. Running away was not an option. Their Queen had decreed a public execution and they would have to sit and watch it. Anais, that was the girl who parents were in the Arena, she had rushed the tall fence that marked the perimeter of the penned area and was reaching through it desperately, screaming for her parents.

“She did not turn away when the large cat jerked its large head and her father went flying like a rag doll and her mother was left alone. No other cat bothered the largest cat, who after dragging Anais’s father twenty feet, plopped down with no grace at all and proceed to feast on the still living man.

“The man who was trying to fight off the cats succeeded to do so until two cats worked together. The first cat jumped the man, who was nimble enough to escape the mauling the first cat had intended but not the bite from the second cat to the back of his left calf. Soon he joined the first man as two other cats joined them and he was ripped apart and eaten. He died much quicker than Anais’s father.

“Then it was only Anais’s mother. She buried her head in the sand with her arms covering her head as she kneeled. The three remaining cats cautiously moved towards her. Each took their turn sniffing her. She did not move but I thought I could hear her whimpering, maybe I just imagined I could because there was still plenty of screaming going on. They sniffed her hair, they sniffed her armpits, but they each took turns taking multiple sniffs of her bared crotch area. Maybe she had pissed herself. I don’t know. I kidded myself into thinking that maybe the Bloodcats wouldn’t want to kill her, I don’t know; take her as a pet or something.

“They didn’t. Soon, two Bloodcats started to growl at each other about whose turn it was to sniff her crotch and when the smaller of the two would not back down, the larger one raised a mighty paw and struck. Anais mother screamed as the claws shredded her left flank and soon she too was being ripped apart as the three Bloodcats stuck together, fighting for their fair share of the food.”

Ira went back to counting her limited AET ammo. No one said anything. Nothing was needed to be said. The Bitch must die. That was their mission and all were committed to it.

The assault on the Arena and its defenders was started when Igor fired his RPG-7 into the northwest corner of the Arena. As it was feared, the RPG was not strong enough to blast through the wall, but it did its intended job, it gave notice to the defenders that they were under attack. The defenders did their job and filed out the front doors, the only outside doors that Gillie was able to find, straight in to the sights of Sierra Squad. With Robber and Maddog on the front firing round after round from their LMG, backed by Igor and Grunty’s launched grenades and everyone else’s long rifle fire, the defenders were quickly mowed down.

The defenders were also the trainers of the Bloodcats and no one was surprised when the Bloodcats were released from their pens they ran straight towards the mercenaries. Sara was fine with that because she had told Robber and Maddog that the Bloodcats where their priority. The LMG’s were not loaded with Glaser or HollowPoint ammo but 5.56mm NATO Match grade ammo. What a Glaser would of accomplished with two rounds, the Match grade took five to seven rounds, but since they were fired from the LMG’s, more than enough rounds were rapidly fired at the Bloodcats.

When the last three soldiers were routed from their hiding spots inside the Arena Maddog had expended over one hundred and sixty rounds and Robber had fired one hundred and thirty. That Sara found more costly than the butcher’s bill; Gillie was nicked by a sniper round and Maddog was again, squarely nailed in the noggin by that same sniper and did not die; he did seem to go through a lot of helmets though.

The early success led to a surge of confidence by all. They didn’t want to wait. Sheila had confirmed that Bobby Ray had shipped four hundred and twenty rounds of Match grade ammo for Robber and Maddog’s ravenous LMG’s but Robber thought that he had enough to last the next battle which was the Meduna SAM site and if they took that facility than Skyrider would be able to fly their supplies directly to them.

Sara did not bother to ask Maddog if the crazy little man wanted to recuperate before moving on because she knew she had an equal chance of Maddog answering her question as she did Maddog talking about eating bugs or regaling her with his sexual prominence with dead little girls. Sara feared that the latter option was brought up with Maddog was feeling the need.

For all of Maddog’s faults, if Kilroy or Sierra told him to attack or to move out so they could attack or repair, he responded with equal relish. Quite the good little soldier Maddog surprisingly turned out to be and Sara was glad that he didn’t join up with the Queen’s Army because so far the ornery little man simply refused to die.


16:41 Meduna SAM

“Big Al, no matter what, take out those two tanks! Ignore everything else and fire away!”

They had debarked on the eastern outskirts of the Meduna SAM site and fast marching, not quite running, but definitely not walking, they two squads split up. Kilroy took her squad to the lightly sparsed palm trees to the north and Sierra took her squad up the gut, ordering them to go prone in front of the flowerbeds and fountains that the Queen or someone on her staff had ordered planted to take away from the otherwise austere and military looking facility.

Numerous ‘Tango!’ and ‘Enemy’ were screamed out as the two forces took up their position.

The plan was simple, Sierra’s Squad would hold the defenders at bay and Big Al would neutralize the two tanks just inside the main gate while Kilroy’s squad would flank to the north and assault the corner of the fence surrounding the SAM site. Grunty and Igor would use their grenade launchers to blow through the concertina wire so Gillie and Maddog could rush the main building with Kilroy and Terror giving sniper support. Once Gillie and Maddog were at the main building, they were to climb onto and use that height to attack the sandbag bunkers that lined both sides of the SAM site.

That plan did not survive contact with the enemy.

Big Al did his job and lobbed four 60mm rounds at the two permanently parked main battle tanks, ending their threat while he himself was under sniper fire. Sara was not expecting the mad rush that flowed out the main gate and past the two statues of a female raising a sword as soldier after soldier rushed her position. She felt a dry itch of dread slide down the back of her spine when she counted the sixth soldier in a row wielding a HK 21E. These guys were not messing around.

Ira and Hamous were able to position themselves to have the best line of fire through the palm trees that was interspersed with the flowerbeds and water fountain and they quickly became over inundated with the number of targets for them to shoot. Unfortunately, these targets were shooting back!

It was worst for Kilroy’s squad as two snipers penned them behind the thin palm trees well short of their attacking point. Sara did not know it but Maddog was the first of their member to be hit by sniper fire as a .306 fired from a Walther WA 2000 blew off of his Kevlar helmet when the round was deflected by the helmet into his chinstrap causing his head to jerk and his helmet to fly.

Sara did see the flashes from the two snipers though she did not see the actual snipers. That was enough for her and she ordered Big Al to fire his last two 60mm rounds, the first was on target and landed behind the first bunker. Sara saw a body fly immediately after impact.

The last round was not on target. That sniper was hidden nicely on top of the control building and Big Al’s round fell short, blowing out the southeast corner of the wall but leaving the sniper above unscathed. Part of the reason why his round fell short was because he had been hit; a scratch really, by a sniper from the front gate, but that was enough to put fear in Big Al to try to expedite his orders. Throwing his mortar down, he briefly thought about trying to hit the sniper with the RPO-A that he had picked up at the Arena but instead pulled the strap that held the Colt SMG from his harness. The Colt had an ACOG Combo scoped and was loaded with 9x19mm of Match grade ammo. He had two spare clips and was sure, if in doubt, spray and pray.

Sara was joining Kilroy in targeting the sniper on top of the control building but their views were not ideal. Sara fired seven shots to Kilroy’s five before the sniper took the hint to move but she did not choose correctly and when she stood up Kilroy had the perfect shot to put a 7.62mm NATO bullet between her eyes.

Still, the sniper did her job, when Sara looked back towards the main gate and the two gaudy statues that she assumed was of the Queen in front she counted eleven soldiers, most of them were part of the All Blacks. All were armed with either LMG’s, assault rifles or sniper rifles. Ira and Hamous and to a lesser extent due to his limited vision, MD had been busy because it was clear that some had already been wounded just as it was clear that the palm trees were deflecting way too many shots. Robber was the least effective since he was firing long burst after long burst with his HK 23E, but they were near the end of its effective range and most bullets were missing.

Sara saw one soldier, a non-All Black split from the main group and run towards Kilroy. It took her a second to deduce what was wrong with him, “MORTAR! Everyone target that soldier on the road that broke away from the main group!”

Only three had a clear line of shot, but Sara did not know that as she fired her first round that hit him squarely in the chest. From the way his shoulder jerked Sara was positive that the round from her SR-25 did not penetrate and instead was merely deflected by the ceramic plate she was certain that any soldier of the Queen who had the least bit of common sense would be wearing. MD’s shot was only marginally better since one of the palm trees deflected a little so the soldier’s arm was only grazed. Hamous shot was on the money as well, but again it appeared to Sara that his armor with stood the shot from Hamous’s M-21 Tactical.

Sara screamed at Kilroy even though everyone heard her through their comms, “INCOMING!” as she watched with a sickening feeling as the soldier dropped the mortar to the ground and eyeballing where he was either told or thought Kilroy’s squad was, dropped his 60mm mortar round and with a ‘phooohh’ it exploded up into the sky. Sara fired her second shot which she was sure penetrated his armor; she was deadly sure when MD’s second round struck and the mortarman crumpled to the ground.

Quickly scanning towards Kilroy, Sara saw the mortar round turn the palm tree that Maddog had been hunkering behind into splinters. She was sure that Maddog was mortally wounded and Grunty who was blown five feet from the tree he had been hiding behind wasn’t much better. Kilroy was affected as well but the tree she was behind blocked most of the blast and she was soon able to shake off the linger effects of the explosion and return to firing.



Sara jerked back to her squad. Most weapons have their own distinctive sound. The AK-47 is notorious for that. So are some of the more powerful and exotic weapons, like the Barrett Anti-Material Weapon. That was a noise everyone feared to hear because one shot was enough to blow a man in two.

The Lapua Magnum was another round that was equally distinctive and feared. Sara had never fired a weapon that was fitted for the .338 Lapua, but she had seen one fired and she swore she would never forget that sound after she saw what that round was capable of.

Scanning the enemy which was down to nine, Sara had her breath choked out of her when she saw not one, but TWO of the soldiers wielding a weapon that fired the .338.
Whoever those two on the All Blacks were, they had some serious connections as one was wielding the A1 AWM and the second was sniping with a DSR-1. Only the elite of the elite had access to those weapons and they were facing off against them. Looking to her right she saw that Big Al had been hit and was crawling to get behind a palm tree.



A large gush of blood exploded out of Big Al’s back as she screamed, “SNIPER! Get the one with the DSR-1!” She assumed that most of the mercs from AIM knew what a DSR-1 and was fairly certain that Hamous and Ira did not but in her aroused state that did not stop her from yelling her warning as such.

Sara aimed but knew her shot would not clear the trees so she looked back at Big Al, “MOVE! MOVE DAMNIT! GET UP GET OUT! GET…”



The A1 AWM sounded from the other side of the eastern statue. Sara was certain that time stopped and she could see the large bullet as it floated in the air scant mere meters from where Big Al laid. She was screaming she knew she was, though since time was stopped, nothing coherent was heard and she found she couldn’t jump up to drag Big Al to safety. Though from those weapons, she didn’t know where.



Time sped up and Big Al convulsed once and moved no more.

“NOOOO!” Sierra screamed as he jumped up and moved forward to see the sniper with the DSR-1. Kilroy and Scope would have been proud at how quickly she reacquired her target and fired. He must not have been wearing a ceramic plate because his chest jerked and he fell to the ground with a hand over his chest. When he dropped down, he came into view of Robber who fired a long burst of twenty seven rounds. The nineth, seventh, twentieth, twenty fourth and twenty seventh rounds hit him, most did minimal damage to the man, but shredded his armor so that when the twenty seventh round struck it was a killing blow.

The All Black with the A1 AWM had previously been injured and one shot to his torso from Hamous finished him off.

Sara fired like a church girl possessed by a demon; most were deflected by the palm trees but many had found their mark and as soon as the soldiers realized that their number has been cut down to four, they decided to pull back. Sara let them. Ira, Robber and Hamous did not. Only two made it to the gate.

When Kilroy was certain that she no longer had any targets of opportunity, she pulled the palm tree splinters out of her face, neck and hands and moved to check on Maddog. Grunty had already bandaged himself and was moving to blow a hole in the fence. Gillie was still playing ‘tag’ with two soldiers behind the sandbag barricades. Igor and Terror had moved back towards Sierra’s squad to support them before attacking the fence from the eastern corner.

“GUh! Is this muy intestines? Gurr…They are so long!”

Kara briefly felt the urge to vomit on Maddog and leave him to fend for himself before she smacked his hand, “Bad. Don’t touch” and she stuff his intestines back inside his stomach cavity. Like she was but more so, his body was riddled with large splinters from the destroyed palm tree. After putting a temporary patch on his stomach, she proceeded to pull all of the splinters from the sad man.

“Hey, you are kind of cute when you stick you tongue out like that. Ohh…don’t feel so…”

Kara’s face was flushed with embarrassment as she confirmed that Maddog had just passed out, she hated that when she was concentrating on something she had a tick about her and her tongue would stick slightly out and curled towards the upper lip.

When she thought that she had most of the splinter she went back to his stomach wound. She knew that MD, in one of the three medical bags that he carried in his backpack had a pair of inflatable pants that supported the lower abdomen when it has been eviscerated like Maddog’s had. She reapplied another patch, this one heavy with anti-biotics and coagulants before she gave him a shot of Regen. She went to join the rest of her squad in their assault when she saw the body of Big Al, not moving. Sara was just standing over him, ignoring the firefight that was happening behind her.

Kara looked down as the drugged Maddog and wished that it was Big Al with her and Maddog over there by Sara. Looking back towards her squad, she saw that they had the assault well in hand. The SAM site was theirs; they just had to finish the few remaining stragglers of that fact.

Robber and Ira chased down the two that that had missed and Robber running outside the fence, took out two more soldiers who had turned to fire at Igor and Terror, who had made it inside the fence and was on top of the control building, with the AS VAL since he had ran out of 5.56mm ammo.

Soon the all clear rang out, but standing over Big Al, no one felt like cheering.