Contract Free Arulco: The Bitch Must Die!

Day One: Ira

Before Sara could even attempt to respond to the shocker just released by Scope, Miguel beat her to the punch.

“You” pointing at Scope, “are an obvious veteran warrior. The rest” said as he swept his non-bandaged arm from left to right, indicating the rest of the operators, “while talented, do not have your skills or experience. I would be willing to allow you to try what you suggest, but not them.”

“Besides Miguel, attacking the Drassen mine is what finally prompted the Queen to destroy Omerta.”

“Carlos is right. Carlos is always right. The town of Drassen is the hot spot of anti-queen sentiment outside of Omerta but Drassen also has one of the larger mines in all of Arulco. When we took the mine, the Queen sent the entire army to Drassen to take it back and when we retreated the army followed us to Omerta.”

Scope was nodding as Miguel and his second-in-command, Carlos talked. “Drassen is divided into three sections; the airport, the factory section and the mine section, correct? Did you take the mine section first or worked your way down?”

“The patrol’s around the mine section of Drassen is heavy, so we took out the airport force, working our way to the mine section.”

“Good and was this a lightning strike or did you consolidate your gains first.”

“We had wounded in each battle, so we waited a few days before moving on to the next section. Carlos pointed out that by waiting we would be able to thin out the forces around us because the Drassen commander constantly sent patrols to take back what we gained.”

“And the main army didn’t’ show up until after Drassen fell?”

“Correct.”

The female carrying the .38 snub nose that exited the shack with Fatima decided to speak at that time. Once Sara heard her voice she pegged her immediately as a New Yorker, “Maybe the army came because I blew out the Drassen commander’s brains. Just like I am going to do to that evil bitch.”

“That is enough Ira.”

“Miguel, I said that we were going to take the Drassen Airport, the reason why is because we are short of supplies and as soon as we take the airport, we can receive shipments. Taking the rest of Drassen was the follow up plan which I think is safe to say, needs to be changed.”

“So the airport would just be a strike? And then you will leave, because your ‘contract’ is up? You are confident that those you leave behind will be up to the task? What about their ‘contracts’? When do they expire?”

Sara didn’t know why she spoke up at that time, perhaps because she was being thrust into the lime light as the defacto leader of this crew of operators, a leader during her first mission with AIM. Something she would of thought AIM would never have allowed. “Our contracts don’t expire. I won’t lie to you. This is our first mission with AIM and because of that we are all in a probationary status with our contract tied to the mission, not individual salaries. After our first mission, then we are allowed to start charging a daily rate. We are all a bit green behind the ears, but as you have seen we do have skills.”

Miguel took the time to assess Sierra as she was speaking. Unlike most males, he didn’t like what he saw. Blond hair, entirely too long for Arulco’s oppressive heat, pulled back into a loose pony tail with multiple strands of hair hanging loose; her blue eyes sparkled in the early morning Arulcoan sun. She appeared, like the rest of the mercenaries very fit. Muscles, where visible was sinewy and taut; she showed no hint cleavage since her field jacket was buttoned to the neck, unlike the darker skinned woman who appeared behind Carlos. This told Miguel that Sierra was used to the heat and the other woman was not. She seemed competent, but not like Scope and Miguel seriously wondered if this was a job for an inexperienced woman.

As Miguel mulled over the situation, he wished that this ‘Scope’ would be staying, but she was a mercenary and he was sure that he or anyone else outside of the Kingpin in San Mona and the Queen in Meduna would not be able to afford her. Carlos again shown through with his reasoning why Miguel respected his counsel so much.

“Miguel, them going to Drassen could have an added bonus. We have many woman and children hiding up here from Omerta and we are running out of food and water. If the mercenaries could make contact with Father Walker and persuade him to send supplies while they are getting their shipments perhaps that will show the people just how capable these mercenaries are?”

“Carlos my friend you are right. If you mercenaries can contact Father Walker to get the provision that would go a long way in convincing the townspeople. The church is in the mine sector but the Father has a bit of a drinking problem and visits the bar in the central section a lot.”

“Excellent Miguel, you won’t be disappointed.”

“Good, good, I wish I could go with you but my wounds are not healed, however, I can spare Ira, she is not that good of a shot but learns fast and is a good healer. Her presence should be enough to convince Father Walker to help.”

“We will appreciate any help you can give us Miguel.” Looking around to the AIM mercenaries. “Get ready to move out in 10, we will not be taking the road to help avoid the patrols so it will take a bit longer to get there. We will come in from the north side and set up around the back of the hanger per the recon photo. I will take over watch with the PSG-1, Kilroy and Ira will watch my back side, Big Al and Sierra will cover the flanks while Gillie will flank down the side of the fence and Robber and Terror will move through the airport support buildings.” Turning to look at Ira, “get what stuff you need, but we shouldn’t be gone too long.”

“Right, I just need to get my medical bag and than we can be off.”

After Ira left, Miguel spoke quietly to Scope. “Things have not gone nicely for Ira since she has been in Arulco. She came to help the poor and ended up protesting the Queen who had her arrested and did bad things to her. She has a bit of a bloodlust for the Queen now.”

“I understand Miguel and though I will not be here much longer, I can promise you that I will not be very far away and if they,” nodding to the other AIM mercenaries, “need my help I will come, just as if they fail, I will come as well.”

“Thank you.”

“Ira will be in good hands, this is a fine crew.”

When Ira showed up, without fanfare the operators left. Everyone was quiet until they left Omerta proper.

“What is going on here Scope? Sierra in charge? Why not me”, this from Robber.

“Yeah, or why not me?” Terror added.

“Because that was the plan from the beginning; each of you has your own specialties. Big Al is good with heavy weapons; you Robber are excellent if auto weapons.” Looking directly at Terror who immediately understood; she was the Terror in the Night, not Terror in the Command.

Kilroy changed the subject. “Why bring Ira? No offense Ira, but you admitted you are not good with a weapon.”

“No offense taken. At range I can’t hit the broadside of the Queen’s fat ass, but up close, I can and will take life.”

“Have you used a rifle before Ira?” Kilroy countered.

“I was trained on one but they mostly used me as a medic, treating the wounded, but when our triage area was over run, I had no qualms about pulling out my .38. And when I can get a better weapon, I will take it but we lost so much material after Omerta. So I have been stuck with this .38 for a while now.”

As they continued their journey, Sierra lead the questions of Ira regarding the Queen’s men, material and locations around Drassen, most of what Ira answered was already know from the recon files all of the operators memorized. But there was some relief in seeing that their intelligence was mostly correct.

As they walked, Scope was quiet, constantly checking their location with her GPS system and scanning the horizon with her scope for the enemy. Kilroy did the same with the 7x Battlescope taken from the PSG-1; it had made sense to her after they landed in Omerta for her personal 10x sniper scope to be mounted on the PSG-1 to increase it’s effectiveness.

“The army is here,” Scope said quietly startling everyone out of their conversation with Ira who was hesitant to talk about anything but killing the Queen. To say Ira had a grudge against the Queen was an understatement.

“It looks like a standard patrol, maybe eight men. Gillie, flank to the north, Ira try to keep up with him and then find a place to fire from the north. Robber move up to that tree in the opening.” Robber knew that he was going to be the bait for the army to concentrate their fire on, grinning; he was up to the challenge. The Glock 18 didn’t have great range, but if one of them got close they would find out just how accurate he was with the Glock’s autofire.

“Big Al,” Scope continued, “move forward and get behind a clump of trees, you too Sierra. Kilroy and Terror flank through the woods to the south. Crap they’ve seen Robber; firing!” The PSG-1 barked at the same time as bullets from the army flew towards Robber who was running to a tree in the open 100 meters north of Scope. Gillie with Ira following had skirted farther back in their run to the trees in the north.

“OW!” Robber screamed as one bullet smacked him in his torso, the pain was large but the field jacket stopped the bullet from penetrating. Robber had lost his balance running when the bullet hit and turned his fall into a dive for the cover of the tree. As he hit the ground he rolled behind the tree and ended up in a prone position aiming towards the approaching army as they continued to fire at him while rushing.

The PSG-1 barked a second time and a second army man had his brains pilfered out the back of his skull.

“Cheeri-HO!” Scope screamed as she moved to the next target, she could see three more advancing towards Robber.

Big Al had hunkered down behind two thick trees, he could see two of the tangos firing at Robber as they advanced but unlike the poorly trained Arulcoan soldiers, he did not waste his bullets on a miniscule chance to hit. Sierra stopped behind a clump of trees forward and to the south of Big Al. “Enemy! I see two flanking south. Coming your way Kilroy.”

“Roger that, moving farther south. On me Terror.” Terror clicked acknowledgment.

The PSG-1 barked a third time, “Enemy down” Scope said as she shot a soldier who had either decided that being behind some trees was the better location or was going to join up with his squad mate flanking to the south. She hoped that Robber could hold out a bit longer; Gillie was making good time flanking to the north. Scope assumed Ira hunkered down behind a tree since she didn’t see her.

Kilroy was running haphazardly trying to out flank the flanking soldiers and didn’t know she was in trouble until a bullet exploded in her chest throwing her to the ground.

“AMBUSH!” Terror screamed behind the falling Kilroy before she too was slammed by army bullets.

Sierra looked south through the woods and what she saw scared her. Terror and Kilroy were on the ground surrounded by a light patrol that had been waiting in ambush. “Scope, help to your south! It is an ambush. Scope responded immediately, twisting from looking east to looking south and taking aim, fired reflexively. Not a head shot, but the hollow point bullet knocked the soldier to the ground still.

Robber had add enough and wasted a complete clip on the soldier closet too him. He knew the man was outside of the effective range of the Glock 18, which was only 110 meters but he didn’t care, he was tired of being the human pin cushion, even though only that first lucky shot from even longer distance actually hit him. He showed just how good he was with automatics because of the 15 rounds from the Glock, six hit the soldier killing him before his body hit the ground. “BOO-YAH, take that you bastard!” Not a very French saying, Robber knew but he had lived half of his young adult life in a boarding school in upstate New York and had taken in much of the Northern American culture.

A second soldier was running to a tree to the north east of Robber, which the soldier assumed would get him a better shot. But the soldier did not see Ira lying behind a bush north of his targeted tree. Ira with her medical bag strapped to her side was no where near as quiet as Gillie or Terror but with all of the bullets flying, she didn’t need to be; ten seconds after she started running towards the soldier she stopped less than fifty meters behind the lying soldier who had just taken position to aim at Robber.

Robber saw Ira and concentrated on the other soldier he could still see. The second clip he fired missed the soldier but suppressed him enough to drop for cover. Robber was able to load in his third clip and take aim again when the suppressed soldier decided to retreat but as soon as he stood up to begin running away Robber emptied his third fifteen round clip of 9mm ammo; dropping the soldier dead.

Big Al seeing Kilroy and Terror in trouble stood to run towards them. “NO!” Sara yelled since he was just a clump of trees behind her. “Move forward, cut off those flanking soldiers, I will go.”

Big Al was a bit of a sexist pig by Western standards, growing up in Angola, it was the man’s place for war, the man’s place to protect the women and children and the man’s place to rape the women of his enemies. This view was tempered by the last four years at a Massachusetts boarding school. He still had this strong urge to rescue the females but he knew enough to not let that desire do something wrong on the battlefield; adding to this view was that most females that wanted to play soldier did so because they did not want to play ‘female’. Big Al did as ordered and moved forward two clumps of trees where he saw the two flanking from south from the open field. Taking aim he fired and missed, but the two stopped their flank to get cover and return fire.

Sara moved south and almost wished that she didn’t, there wasn’t four enemy soldiers lying in ambush; there were six. Two behind Kilroy and Terror in the open, two south of them hiding behind trees and two to the east or forward of their position, again hiding behind trees. Sara screamed as she was struck twice while she was lying down. One grazed her left shoulder and the other her left hamstring. She fired, back, hitting one of the two. More fire came from her left, looking she saw that one of the two Big Al was trading shots moved ran forward to get a clear shot at her prone form. She had to choose, the two men in front of her or the one in the open. She returned back to firing at the two in front of her, striking that same man again. The man to her left open fired but missed; Big Al did not, dropping him with two rounds.

Terror was not happy, the ambush was good, but it could have been better, Kilroy had finally been able to get some cover from the two south of them but when Terror had moved south to engage, the two in the south west had lit her up. Not as bad as Kilroy, but bad. She fired a snap shot at the uninjured soldier to the south west man which missed, screaming, she took better aim and nailed him in the gut. Both soldiers returned fire twice, each hitting her once, thankfully in the field jacket, they hurt, they hurt a lot but they didn’t feel like they did much more damage and that hurt fueled her. Scope on their com spoke in her ear. “Switch.”

Scope’s second shot to the man again hit armor and again the hollow point 7.62mm round did minimal damage. The target she had been shooting at was lying prone but only thirty meters from Terror, while the soldier Terror was shooting was over fifty meters away. The fact that Terror was behind a large bush and a tree helped but she was still taking a beating and those two needed to be taken out quickly.

Terror quickly followed Scope’s verbal lead and fired twice, aiming both times at the soldier prone in front of her, both hit and with the soldier moaning and rolling over after dropping his pistol. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the soldier she had previously been trading shots with go flying in the air with what looked to her in the quick glimpse she had, half of his skull missing. The hollow point bullet must have struck below the steel helmet the soldier had worn.

Big Al saw the man rush Sierra and rushed his shots, missing. But when the man missed, Big Al screamed and fired again. Fire from the man still hiding behind the trees took Big Al’s attention off of Sierra.

Sara knew she was lucky that the soldier had missed her but she tried to put that out of her mind as see continued to pound the two in front of her. She thought she dropped one of them, she knew she hit him and hadn’t seen him stick his head out from behind the tree, the second soldier was a tougher nut to crack; he was behind a thicker tree and didn’t give Sara much of a target to shoot. The bark of the PSG-1 resonated behind her as the tree to the left of her was smacked by a large bullet.

“Bullocks. Missed. Moving to a better location.”

Big Al was still trading shots, both missing each other but destroying a fair amount of the local vegetation. Big Al thought he saw movement behind the soldier when the soldier let loose a blood curdling scream and nothing more was heard from him. “What the fuck” Big Al boomed aloud.

The PSG-1 barked and the soldier pinning Sierra down died. Sara, thankful for the reprieve turned to assist Terror and Kilroy, her original goal when she had decided to run south. But Kilroy had just dispatched the last of the two who had ambushed her. “Fucking bastards,” the tall brunette Swede screamed in a tone and pitch that would make a Baltimore Longshoreman proud.

“Is that it folks? Speak up, any more tangos?” Scope called over the comms.

Ira glowered with red eyes as she took aim and fired two shots, both hit their mark and the soldier moved no more. Then while the battle still ragged to the south of her, she saw Robber run south east to help; she walked slowly up to the dead soldier and kicked him. The kick made sure he was dead while flipping him over on to his back. He was dead and Ira stared at him. Was he one of them? One of the many who had used and abused her at that Queen’s behest?

Ira grew up a card carrying New York City extreme liberal bleeding heart. She had friends and family members who had previously traveled to developing nations who were under the stroke of tyranny and when she had read about Arulco she knew the place to make her mark. She quit her job as a high school teacher in Brooklyn and traveled to Arulco 18 months ago. When she landed in Drassen, she knew she was in the right place. Hooking up immediately with Father Walker, she had started a school for the local kids out the back of the church. When she met Miguel her second month in Arulco, she was so smitten that she would have done anything for the man. Miguel told her of plight of the Arulcan people and the rebellion. When he asked her to join she didn’t hesitate. At night he would ask her to go with walks with him which she gladly accepted. They talked and talked; mostly about the people’s desire for self rule and sometimes they would talk about what they would do after the war was over. When they would get far enough from Drassen, Miguel would show Ira how to use a pistol but also conveyed to her the need for a medic and asked her if she would do that. For him, she would learn what she could about being a field medic. She took to medicine quicker than she did firearms.

Then two months after Ira arrived, the kids quit coming to school. The Queen had opened up one of the decrepit factories in central Drassen and the children from war torn Arulco was being forced to work there. When Ira learned that the children were chained at night and couldn’t go home that was too much for her. She went to the factory and got an even worst shock. Doreen Harrows who Ira had roomed with at Hofstra University their senior year was the factory manager. Ira and Doreen’s relationship was rocky at best; Doreen a WASP from Queens who looked down on the Jewish girl from Brooklyn but Ira tried to make the best of it, including succumbing to Doreen’s lesbian advances one night after a drunken frat party. Ira didn’t mind it, it was just one of many adventures she was having in her college life. Doreen wanted more from Ira and constantly hounded her. Soon enough they graduated, Ira to being a school teacher in the inner city and Doreen to make her fame as a fashion designer.

When Ira made her decision to travel to Arulco, Doreen’s email address, they spoke infrequently after college by email, was one of the many that Ira group mailed her travel plans to showing that she was going to make a positive difference in the world. When Ira confronted Doreen, Doreen convinced her to join her in her office so she could explain what she was doing there in Arulco. Ira in shock of seeing her college roommate agreed.

Doreen had explained that after she received Ira’s email, she did an internet search on Arulco and found out about the Queen Diedrianna. Noticing the poor fashion sense Diedrianna showed in her pictures, Doreen sent the Queen a large bouquet of flowers as a form of introduction and then followed it with an email. The Queen actually answered Doreen’s email and soon they were conversing regularly.

Two weeks earlier Diedrianna offered Doreen the job of Royal Fashion Designer of Arulco and Doreen flew down to Arulco the next day. Diedrianna had wined and dined Doreen for three days and Doreen really liked where their relationship was going, especially in the bedroom. But then Diedrianna told her that the Royal Fashion Designer job was on hold, there just wasn’t enough money in the treasury and Doreen said that she wasn’t ready to go back to New York, where she was sure everyone would assume that she had failed to make the cut as a fashion designer, so Doreen begged to be able to stay in Arulco. Diedrianna smiled and said that she had just started a capital venture in Drassen but needed a manager. If the venture was successful then possibility of a Royal Fashion Designer job would still be viable.

Doreen begged for the job and Ira could just imagine her begging on her knees with her tongue up the Queen’s stinky East Euro-trash twat. Ira tried to argue with Doreen the issue of using forced child labor but Doreen would say that was out of her hands. Just as Ira realized her college roommate was a lost cause Doreen sounded the alarm and aimed a SMG at Ira’s face. The next words Doreen said burned themselves into Ira’s memory: “I need this job; I need this opportunity and I don’t care about making these little rats do the work! I can start my fashion empire right here!”

Quickly enough the army patrol stationed in the factory district showed up and relieved Ira of her sidearm but Doreen would not let them take Ira away just yet. After calling Meduna and talking to the Queen, Doreen told Ira that the Queen had a real treat for the bleeding heart liberal, but Doreen was going to get her crack at her first. Doreen had two of the guards hold Ira down while she took off her own pants and then sitting at her chair, bade the guards drag Ira to her. Ira of course tried to fight and resist what she was being forced to do, but once a third guard grabbed her ears and grinded her face into Doreen’s sticky and sweaty bare crotch Ira knew she was helpless. Just as she was going to bite the offensive genitalia Ira felt a searing sensation on her back side.

Doreen was screaming at her to lick and eat her while the guard holding her ears continued to grind her face and another guardsman’s belt continued to strike her back side. When Doreen was finally sated, she stood over Ira with her snatch dripping sweat and juice laughing at the stuck up Jewish bitch from Brooklyn. Ira could just lay limp on the cold concrete, sobbing. She felt the guards pulling her arms and she was lead outside where a waiting military truck had disengaged another patrol of soldiers. Before they put Ira into the back of the truck she was stripped to make sure she held no other contraband like the .38 revolver that was taken from her earlier.

Doreen continued to laugh at “poor Ira” while the inhabitants of Drassen looked on. Soon enough she was put in the back of the truck but she started screaming once she realized how they were going to do that. The truck had a bench on each side of the truck bed and a bench right behind the cab. A bar was added, splitting both side benches in the middle and there was two silver handcuffs hanging from straps one on each back corner of cab. Ira screamed “NO” over and over again but that did not save her from being bent over the bar on her knees while her hands was stretched to each corner and cuffed. The truck hadn’t even started moving before the first invader was pounding at her dry labia. The truck did not speed on its journey and Ira passed out before the truck made it to Alma.