Contract Free Arulco: The Bitch Must Die!

Day One: Gus and the Sharp Six

The eight of them left central Drassen the way they came. At the airport, Scope had them set up a temporary camp. Her time was drawing near and she wanted to leave the inexperienced operators in the best of possible condition. Sheila Sterling hated being a mercenary but she accepted that as her reality. If not she would have never left the SAS and would be trading sniper shots with the IRA or who ever else the Queen’s Men told her to. She didn’t like the plan Gus Tarballs had set into motion, but like so many others, Gus had an axe to grind with the current Queen of Arulco.

When the Queen decided she needed to supplement her army with mercenaries, she contacted AIM about possible long term arrangements. As the senior man for AIM, Gus was sent to Arulco to reconnoiter the lay of the land and the political situation. What he saw he did not like. Working for Arulco was a laugh; this was the type of government AIM was hired to take down! Still Gus being Gus decided to put his patented moves on the Queen; every one knew that Gus couldn’t resist spreading his seed in every city he visited. But the Queen had other ideas.

When Gus followed the Queen up to her private chambers they were met with three men aiming automatics at Gus. Gus hadn’t mentioned any of his findings to the Queen so he was unsure what the men with guns meant. He soon found out. The next room to the Queen’s chamber had mirrors on every wall and a stockade in the middle. Gus was forced into the stockade and his clothes were cut off of him. When he saw the Queen next she had a grotesque dildo strapped to her waist and a cat o’nine tails whip in her hands. As she whipped Gus she screamed about how no man would every claim her again. No man would ever be above her. When she was done she tossed the whip aside and slammed her fake penis in Gus’s unprepared ass.

Prior to that incident Gus had always thought of him as a man’s man. When the Queen was done with his shredded and bleeding sphincter not even the multiple shots of Regen that he received could repair the damage done to it and Gus knew the smart thing was to buy stock in Kimberly-Clark, the manufacturer of Depends adult diapers. First he had to get out of Arulco. Escaping the room that he was held in while he was recovering was not an issue for the Legend of AIM. He made it to Drassen before the Queen’s army caught up with him; he should have been able to escape away in his chartered helicopter, but the pilot Skyrider was no where to be found.

The Army followed him into the mountains north of Drassen where a soldier with a grenade launcher got lucky and dropped a grenade on top of Gus. Gus’s own personal luck held out as the force of the blast blew him over the side of the ledge of the mountain.

Looking down the ledge the soldiers could see Gus not moving and one leg at angle that was not natural. They laughed as they left him there to die but what they did not know was the Gus had stolen a cache of Regen when he extricated himself from the palace in Meduna. It took two weeks of dragging while shooting himself up with Regen to reach the top of the mountain before he made it to something resembling civilization in Tracona. Two painful weeks where only the Regen kept him alive and his leg from needing to be amputated. In Tracona his friend Skyrider was patiently waiting as per their back up plan that was set in motion when the ‘copter pilot had been arrested by the Queen’s army.

Gus knew Skyrider from when he was a pilot for the CIA. Skyrider got Gus back to AIM and then flew back to Drassen with the orders to continue to acquire information for Gus on Arulco. With his report filed, AIM barred Queen Deidranna from ever doing business with them and sent their findings to other mercenary agencies, most of whom ignored AIM’s warning. While Gus’s leg kept him out of the field, Gus organized some lucrative contracts for AIM, because Gus had a need for that money. Using his contacts and informants Gus was able to find out that not only Enrique Chivaldori was alive but living in secret exile in Paris.

When Omerta was burned to the ground, Gus saw the time was near to act. After having made contact with Chivaldori who had been a wasting his life away with drink, Gus convinced him to sign off on Gus’s plan to free Arulco and more importantly, take down that Queen bitch. Gus had asked Sheila to do her part as a favor to him and when Sheila had offered to do the entire mission Gus balked because that wasn’t part of his plan. He had six individuals that he was bringing into AIM and he wanted them to shine on this mission because the Sharp Six as he called them was going to be the new First Family of AIM. Gus was going to be their guardian angel; even now Gus was located just 12 nautical miles off of the coast of Meduna in his yacht. When the time was right, he was going to join his ‘Sharp Six’ and take down the Queen personally.

“Scope.”

“Yes Sara?”

“Can I ask you a few questions?”

“Is everyone in the security building?”

“Yes, Big Al did a sweep of the airport, mainly found some ammo we can’t use. He is now repairing that Sa-58 Robber picked up. Ira is treating Kilroy and Terror but she says it will be two days before they are ready to travel; rest is the best thing for them right now. Ira thinks we could train some of the locals as militia, do you want me to start that?”

“No, like I said, we aren’t staying and those we leave behind would just get ate up by the army, that wouldn’t make the locals happy, us abandoning them like that. But that isn’t what you wanted to talk about.”

“No, I wanted to talk about you leaving me in charge. That was never the plan.”

“Yes, it was. That is why you were picked for this mission, besides, if I stayed, I would not be the leader. I am a sniper not a leader. Just as Kilroy is a sniper. She is not as good as me, but when I leave, I will be leaving her the PSG-1 and she will do fine with it.”

“But what am I supposed to do when you leave? Where are we supposed to go?”

“There is a criminal element in San Mona, they are not friends but they have a gun dealer. Continue to sell weapons to the rebellion but also sell some weapons to him, he will give you a much better price and you can use that to buy ammo from him and if you really get stuck use it to hire more mercs from AIM. Bull would be ideal, Grizzly too. If you loose Ira, hire MD; Barry if you lose Big Al.”

“So we are going to take down the Queen and her army with just the six of us?”

“No, there will be more locals who will be willing to help. Also keep an eye out for a guy in a stolen ice cream truck, he was hired in Paris to come over here but because he doesn’t know why.”

“Stolen ice cream truck? What crock is this?”

“Don’t ask. He is dependable, in a fire fight that is.”

“Okay after San Mona, what next?”

“Continue on to Chitzena.”

“More raiding?”

“No, take it over. That will be the first village you liberate here. It won’t be a big flare in the Queen’s face as Drassen would be. Train the militia there. Did anyone here talk about a helicopter pilot?”

“Wha??? Yes, I talked to the air craft mechanic, said something about a helicopter pilot out in the swamps. How did you know about him?”

“So what are you going to do about the pilot?”

“I hadn’t thought about it. Thought it was some local legend or something.”

“Sara, you are smarter than that. Look, I only have a few hours left. I want you and Ira to join me behind that security building.”

“Aren’t I a little too old for a spanking?”

“Funny girl. No, the two of you have terrible marksman skills; I want to work on that until I have to leave on the morning flight out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Everyone except for Kilroy and Terror, who were still sleeping, saw Scope off for her very early flight to Mexico City. Scope was obviously nervous as she was leaving those she did not want to leave.

“I am serious; if you guys get into trouble screw AIM’s guidelines about all merc’s needing to be paid a fair share. Call and I will be back.”

“Why leave at all?”

“Because Robber, I have to.”

“Got another mission lined up or a hot date?”

“Behave Robert. All of you listen to Sierra. Trust her. She didn’t know it but she was hand picked to lead you guys. She has the skills, just as you have your own skills; trust each other.”

Scope paused to look at each person present to make sure they understood her; she dreaded the thought of Robber or Terror throwing a hissy fit because they thought they could do a better job than Sierra.

“Sierra, one last thing; here is your link to civilization. Use it well.” And she handed Sara the satellite phone she had used on occasion. “Speed dial 1 gets you Gus. If he is not there leave a message and he will get back. You need supplies or any other form of assistance, let him know.”

Sara accepted the phone with a nod and watched as Sheila ‘Scope’ Sterling screamed ‘Tally-HO!” and then boarded her flight out of Arulco. Sara was sure she wasn’t the only one who wished they weren’t on the plane with her. The plane hadn’t even passed from sight when the phone in her hand buzzed, turning she saw everyone was walking back to the security building, probably to get some more sleep since it was still dark out.

“Hello?”

“WOODY! Let’s talk.”

Gus had set up another shipment from Bobby Rays, this time some NATO 7.62 ammo and a used FR1 Ordnance MC1 assault rifle. The ammo would include one clip of glaser, 5 clips of cold, and one of match grade. Sara hadn’t hung up the phone when word had made it to Drassen that the army had taken over Omerta again.

“Okay Woody, that is your first destination, kick them son of a bitches out of Omerta. Keeping Omerta free of the army will go a long way with the locals.”

“Roger that.” Hearing a noise in the distance behind her Sara turned and saw at least one army soldier maneuvering to attack the airport facilities. “Got to go. THE ARMY IS HERE!”

Moving according to preset instructions, Gillie and Big Al slipped into the darkness east of the security building. Sara, Robber, and Kilroy was to get behind the sand bags on the roof of the security building while Terror slipped into the darkness between the building and the fence isolating the airport. Ira was to stay inside the building to act as a field medic. The army moved faster than a still sluggish moving Terror and a barrage of 9mm bullets struck the front of the security building and Terror who was able to drag herself into the darkness. When Terror screamed for help, Ira went to rush to aid her but the army’s fusillade drove her back inside the security building.

Kilroy loved the PSG-1 and she could see how Scope made all of those headshots look easy. She had fired three times and dropped the three that were stupid enough move through the lights that illuminated the front entrance to the airport. Cursing, she didn’t see anymore targets but Gillie did. He was taking aim with his silenced Glock 18 when a bullet slammed into his side. Turning from the three he had been concentrating on, Gillie saw a female soldier standing in the dim and he imagine smoke was wafting from the barrel of the pistol she had just shot him with. Training took over and he fired twice, hitting the female soldier once in the abdomen.

Terror was not happy. Her thigh was throbbing as it bled freely; the bullet had passed through the outer tissue and smacked against the wall of the security building. Ira was pinned so she started treating her own wound. Hurrying to complete her task, she was the Terror of the Night; she was the one who should have been shooting those bastards! She heard Sierra say ‘tango down’ over their shared comms and grimaced. Sierra was a terrible shot, barely better than Ira and here she was capping the bad guys and not her!

Big Al heard the shot to his left and Gillie’s exclamation of pain but he couldn’t see anything that way. He could see the soldier in front of him, but he was there to support Gillie and Gillie hadn’t told him a thing yet. In the seconds he paused trying to figure out his course of action, the burp from above told him he dawdled too much as Robber took the soldier out. Big Al heard two more shots from his left and then a loud female moan. Was Terror over there he wondered.

The PSG-1 barked again as three more soldiers rushed through the main entrance lights, the second one got close enough where a long burst from Robber’s Sa-58 cut him down.
Big Al saw one more soldier rush the front of the building from their side before suddenly dropping, dead apparently. The PSG-1 barked again, but Big Al heard the bullet ricochet off the guard shack.

Terror jumped up, not caring how bad of a job she did bandaging herself, she saw the last soldier hiding behind the guard shack. No way was Kilroy going to tag this one, but Terror could! At 100 meters she stopped to take aim; squeezing off her shot, she smile as the bullet connected with his Kevlar vest. She thought it was funny because after the man was shot from his left, he turned and looked to his right for an invisible assailant. Grinning she put two more rounds, this time into his back to terminally let him know where death was coming from.

Ten minutes later the flight from Miami arrived, onboard the first of two shipments from Bobby Ray’s. After an uneventful day and night, the second shipment arrived as well. Two hours later, Terror and Kilroy were pronounced healed and Big Al had repaired the damaged assault rifle so they set out for Omerta.

Which was exactly what the army was hoping for as again they were ambushed by a patrol, this time on the road to Omerta. Deploying on both side of the road, the PSG-1 dictated the rules of combat with the soldiers in the distance, but those soldiers were the bait for the two squads that had snuck up to the south of the operators. Gillie and Terror were quietly moving south to flank the main body when Gillie paused with the feeling that they weren’t alone. The three bullets hitting him in the Kevlar vest that he had appropriated in Drassen confirmed their presence. Terror dropped prone to give support while he ran backwards for cover and a fourth bullet put him on his ass. The spare 7x Battlescope were given to Sierra and the Mini-14 she was using and the Big Al who was carrying the squat but heavy FR1 Ordnance; Terror had the other Mini-14 sans a scope. With their range advantage the fight ended quickly; the only other injury of the mostly one sided fight was when Robber moved far forward to get in range of his SMG and a previously unseen soldier to his south opened up on him.

Soon they were able to reach Omerta and remove the light patrol that had taken up residence, again only Robber received any scapes as he rushed around a building he ran into a soldier running towards him. Both fired before jumping behind cover but both was hit before cover was reached. Robber took the initiative and unloaded a long burst into the soldier before he could fire again. As Sierra was about to send Ira to Miguel to see if the Father Walker had come through with the food supplies, Dimitri showed up. Ira was genuinely pleased to see him though Dimitri did not seemed too pleased when Ira told him that not only had she killed a soldier in combat but also Doreen the hated factory manager in Drassen. Dimitri told Sierra that Miguel had received supplies from Father Walker and that Dimitri was to join with the mercenaries. Something nagged Sara about Dimitri’s presence but she was glad he was there; maybe he could be a calming influence on Ira’s bloodlust.

Sara decided that they would rest the night before moving on to San Mona in the morning. Rebel intelligence said that there was normally a manned road block at the junction where the road from San Mona joined the road to Cambria south of Omerta. Sara wondered how many more battles until she would became numb to the whole combat experience.