Contract Free Arulco: The Bitch Must Die!

Day 16: Drassen Mine


“What are we going to do about her now? She had a serious screw loose before, now she doesn’t have any screws in her head at all.”

“What if we tell her she needed to go back to the rebellion with Miguel?”

“She would probably kill Miguel.”

“Why?”

“Unrequited love maybe? I don’t know about you but Miguel and Carlos takes that whole Brother in Arms shtick entirely too literally.”

“And you have an issue with that?”

“Personally, no, but if she pined over the pretty boy compounded by her head not working properly could lead to disaster. I mean wouldn’t it be a crock in Meduna for the Queen-bitch to find out that the guy she couldn’t kill for the last fifteen years, who headed the rebellion against her was killed by unanswered love and a coo-coo fellow conspirator?”

“So then we keep her around us, so she can get us killed?”

Sara was sitting, listening to Terror and Kilroy talk about one of their own. The Battle for Drassen was over but it was costly; for one of their number, their luck had run out. Sara needed to get some sleep so she could go back to training the Drassen militia. Chitzena had been attacked three times already and there was no reason to think that Drassen wouldn’t suffer the same fate, so the better prepared the town’s militia was the longer the town could stand on its own two feet.

“I have a job for the two of you.” That statement was enough to stop the two mercenaries not so friendly banter. “I want you to take Gillie and see if you can find this Skyrider Gus has been busting my nuts over. That mechanic at the airport gave us a clue that he could be found in one of the swamp lands near by. So I want the three of you to go wading in the mush and find Gus’s pilot.”

Kilroy was as always, efficient in her job assignments. “We can do that.”

Terror couldn’t let her previous thoughts go, “but what about Ira? Dimitri’s death really fucked her up. Did you see how she went off on Gillie?”

“That is because she blames Gillie for his death. I will take care of Ira and Gillie will be traveling with you.” When Terror gave her a look of disbelief, Sara expanded on how. “I will be keeping her ass very busy. Between training the militia and healing Hamous, not to mention the wounds herself and I suffered, she will be going through some down time, probably close to five days if my estimates are right. I will be keeping Gillie away as well. Gus said that our replacement for Dimitri, a German by the name of Grunty will be here in the morning. Hopefully you will have found Skyrider by then and so the four of you will be taking a couple of trips to San Mona. If Ira hasn’t cooled down in that time frame then when we go into battle next, I am thinking Cambria, but more importantly the road through Cambria to get that ice cream truck utilized, then we will let Ira take the point and if her blood lust rises, at least we will be behind her and what ever fireworks she causes.”

“If Tony has his two pets out permission to whack him and let his pets run free?”

“Denied. We still need Tony and everything we have heard says that he is Klaus’s boy, you take out Tony, and you need to take out Klaus too. Right now we aren’t ready to do that.”

“So we are going to take out Klaus?”

“We were hired to take the Queen.”

“But…?”

“But I think it would be crazy to take down the Queen and have such a powerful influence waiting to usurp the situation to their advantage.”

“So we are taking out Klaus?”

“I am not sure yet. I think I might want to meet the man first.”

“Are you off your rocker or do just like to cure bad boys of their ills?”

“No, it is not that.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Honest Tara, bad boys and their leather jackets never did anything for me. I went for the geeks and their insecurities. That is what flips my switch.”

“Oh, you kinky girl.”

“This from the girl who likes to take a train?”

“So I like multiple lovers. At least they are all real men and not nerds with pocket protectors and limp dicks.”

“I have never been with a guy with a limp dick and if anything geeks are better lovers.”

“Bullshit. Something stinks around here.”

“No, no bullshit. Geeks are very reflective of their partners and they are not selfish like some of those pretty boy ‘real men’ you have described.”

“Terror, you are something else. First you go round and round with me about how whack-out Ira is and then when Sierra tells us she has everything in hand you switch to talking about sex.”

“Screw you Kara. I am a simple girl. My first priority is knowing my back is covered, we are in a lethal line of work, aren’t we ladies? My second priority is I need to know that my pussy cat is going to be stroked properly.”

“Enough. I am going to take a nap. Having a couple of bullet holes in one is rather deflating. Kilroy, there is some day light left so please take Gillie and get Tara out of here to look for Gus’s missing buddy.”

Terror and Kilroy left the section of the St. Aloysius Catholic Church of Drassen where Sierra was trying to sleep. Father Walker said that the mercenaries were doing God’s work by taking down the Queen and he would not refuse them any aid. Since Drassen did not have a proper place for the liberators to rest and recuperate, he insisted they use his church. Sierra was about to reject the Father’s offer when Big Al spoke up; Big Al mother’s family had been converted to the Roman Catholic faith by the settlers from Portugal and Big Al was still practicing his mother’s faith, Sierra couldn’t deny the comfort he expressed he would get sleeping under the roof of the house of God.

Sara was raised Protestant but quit the faith while in college due in part to some of the courses she took. Her mother was furious when she told her and threatened legal action against the college. It took Sara many weeks to convince her mother that it wasn’t the courses or the teachers that changed her view on religion but that when she questioned her faith, she realized that her faith wasn’t strong enough. She still believed that something was there after life, she just did not know what and what the organized religion threw her way was not enough to shake that disbelief of their greater good because the bottom line was that the religions were ran by men; men that she did not trust. So for the last few years she had been a card carrying member of the Agnostic faith.

Religion wasn’t a topic really broached prior to Father Walker’s offer but as she started to train the locals in the militia, their need for a higher calling came through repeatedly so when Ira suggested Father Walker address the fledgling soldiers Sara readily said yes. But Sara had an ulterior motive as well. She felt that the closer Father Walker was to Ira, the better it would be for Ira and that hopefully the Father could pierce the façade Ira put up after Dimitri died in her arms. Her lust for the Queen’s blood had expanded exponentially, and she was feeding her bloodlust to the locals volunteering to join the militia. Forming an army was not what Gus wanted and Sierra agreed. Miguel and his rebellion army were easily squashed by the Queen’s army; small surgical strike forces, it was thought, gave them the best shot as winning this war.

When Sara had talked to Father Walker about Ira, faster than he offered the church as a place to rest, he offered to do everything in his ability to help the troubled young Jewish girl. Not without a ‘but’ though. After thinking about the situation, he warned that help for the dear girl could be years in the making. While Sara had the Father’s ear she asked that he did not rouse the local populace in some form of modern crusade and was relieved when the Father replied that he did not see that line of action as God’s Will.

Laying her head gingerly on her rucksack which also included the medical kit she carried, Sara tried to ignore her throbbing head as she thought about the events of the last two days.

Taking the Drassen Mine sector was easy enough even with leaving the militia they had just trained in northern and central Drassen behind; only Hamous was nicked in the fight and that damage wasn’t from a bullet but from flying shards of wood blasted off of the dental office Sierra’s squad had taken position on. Lying flat on their bellies near the edge of the roof’s edge gave her squad an unparalleled advantage over the defenders running on the ground below them.

Kilroy with her squad deployed near the tree across from the front of the dental office looking south, which offered them the largest killing field. Before Sierra’s squad was ready though, a soldier saw Big Al moving next to Kilroy and Kilroy took the immediate shot. The PSG-1 was loaded with 7.62mm NATO Cold Loaded Hollow Point ammo, missing the punch of a normal Hollow Point round; the noise of the bullet was severely impacted. Even so the shot fired by Kilroy sounded the alarm and Sierra’s squad rushed in to position. Ira stopped as soon as she got on top of the dental office because she had noticed a soldier skulking on the next roof over and firing twice, she killed him while his return fire hit low into the side of the dental office.

Methodically over the next two minutes, both squads stayed their ground and took out the soldiers in one’s and two’s. When no one else stuck their heads out to be blasted off by Kilroy or Hamous at range or Robber and Terror at short range, Sierra gave the A-Okay for Robber and Gillie to go hunting. Gillie swept south and west while Robber hopped on to the roof of the general store, east of the dental office. Two quick bursts later and Robber was chiming the all clear as he dropped the last two soldiers hiding by the communal restrooms. Sierra did not claim all clear until after the sector was swept clean.

Many have extolled how combat was 23 plus hours of boredom followed by less than 10 minutes of a hell on wheels adrenaline rush. This was not the case as Sierra quickly tried to expand on the gains they just made. Ira was tasked with starting the militia training while Sara talked to the head miner, who like the Chitzena head miner, offered the mine proceeds to the liberation cause and then she went to soothe any ruffled feathers the town leaders may have. Those town leaders had none; watching the latest Drassen commander being gunned down while he was trying to rally the Queen’s troops gave a lasting enough impression, so she was able to help Ira with the training. Sierra had Robber join Dimitri in making sure everyone’s weapons were in tip top shape; if they had time they were supposed to check on everyone’s armor. She didn’t think they would have time and her belief proved to be prophetic. Except for Big Al, the rest of the mercs were to get a lay of the land figure out the best way to defend the town.

Big Al had a separate job that was going to take awhile. Gus had ordered six mines previously and with the two others found in Arulco, gave Big Al eight mines to play with. Sara did not like the idea of Big Al ‘playing’ with explosives, but knew that any advantage they had needed to be utilized against the incoming army reprisal. So Big Al was told to practice, practice, practice very carefully with the explosives. The last thing they needed was Big Al blowing his body all over the place. Robber didn’t think eight mines would be enough to matter because unless their placement was in a narrow space, there was only a random chance the mines would be stepped on. Sierra smiled at that comment. She hadn’t bothered to share with Robber or anyone else that Gus has called and he had placed an order with Bobby Ray’s for some more toys that was guaranteed to have an impact on the upcoming battle.

At ten o’clock the next morning Gus called and said the shipment had arrived with a bonus. John Kulba upon being dropped off at the Drassen Airport had mentioned a couple of ‘babies’ that could help in a firefight and that he would send them as a form of thanks. Those ‘babies’ were also waiting pick up at the Drassen Airport. Robber was not happy being an errand boy until they opened the crate and saw what Gus had ordered for them. Inside were MDX explosives with remote detonators plus a Zastava Sniper Rifle, sniper scope included. Robber was not impressed with the Automags that blowhard Kulba had sent and left them at the airport. Ten minutes later they were back in the Mine sector and Big Al went to work on prepping the explosives. The plan was to bury them and use them as remotely detonating mines, this part made Robber bob his head in agreement with a silly grin.

It was determined that the best place to make a stand against the impeding army advance was on top of the general store to the east of the dental office. The two front corners would grant the best killing view with the two back corners easily defendable. Not all things went smoothly though; a major argument broke out regarding the use of the militia in central Drassen, almost everyone was in agreement that they should be called in as reinforcements. With the 10 that Ira and Sierra had just finished training, that would give them a total of 40 militiamen to fight against the expected army horde. The only one who disagreed with calling the reinforcements in was Sierra.

Her reasoning not to call for the reinforcements was numerous. The militia in central Drassen literally had the mercenaries’ back, she wanted someone there incase they needed to fall back in retreat. Another reason was because she thought that the upcoming battle would be a meat grinder and tossing the militia to their death would not be good for morale of the militia troops, nor for any of those that could be thinking about joining the militia. Add in the thought that the militia would essentially be a human shield for the mercenaries did not sit well at all with Sara. Lastly, if the central militia was not depleted then they would not have to train another group of twenty militiamen. In the end, it was Sierra’s decision and she did not call them. Maybe she should have.

Up on the roof, Kilroy with Gillie was on the north east wall looking east while Big Al with his grenade launcher and demanded the best view on the east corner so he knew when to detonate the booby-traps he had laid. Robber and Hamous was on the south east wall looking south east with Sierra on the southern corner, looking south and the two alley ways she was responsible for. Terror, it had been decided should use the recently arrived Zastava sniper rifle, had the south west side all to her self. Dimitri was on the north west corner watching between the church and dental office which left Ira on the north east corner who was to switch from watching the back two corners and which was vital in case the call to retreat was made. By noon the army had arrived and surrounded the three sides of the Drassen mine sector. An estimate from Miguel’s runners was that there was close to two hundred men out there; roughly a third of the Queen’s army, not including the additional mercenary forces that supplement her army.

When the attack didn’t come right away, Robber asked if it wouldn’t be prudent to retreat now and then attack when the army was establishing control back in Drassen. No one commented back.

One thing that worried Sierra as well as the rest of the mercenaries was the M-60 Patton tanks that the Queen’s army fielded. If tanks did show up in Drassen then they would have to retreat immediately, outside of Big Al’s mines, they had nothing that could harm the thick skin of a Patton and Big Al did not set up his traps on the roads but rather the locations where it was expected the army would stage their attacks from because they were anti-personnel mines and not guaranteed to work on the thin steel underarmor of the M-60. Gus said that Bobby Ray’s stock was light on anti-tank weaponry, which is why he hadn’t ordered anything but if tanks were to show up, after they high tailed it out of the Drassen mine sector, he would be on the horn with Bobby Ray himself to scrounge up something to help. So far none of Miguel’s runners made any mention of the tanks leaving Meduna, which was where they were stationed. If proper anti-tank weapons could not be acquired then a sortie into the base that housed the personnel that drove the tanks might be in order.

The militia, spread out mostly around the public restroom with a couple standing guard at the mine shaft entrance, was the first to see the army as they entered the sector. The three militiamen who were ranging ahead of the rest of her force were killed immediately, effectively blinding Sierra’s knowledge of where and how many the enemies were.

“Tango. I see three in the area of booby number 2.” No one was surprised that Kilroy with her sniper scope was the first of them to see the soldiers. “Do I take the shot?”

Sierra thought of the implications. They were blind where Big Al planted four of his five bombs, but from what the militiamen relayed prior to their screams of warning turning into screams of death indicated that there was soldiers around Big Al’s toys. This may be only the first wave, so the bombs could be useful later, but how were they going to know if their scouts were already dead. More importantly, there were no civilians in those areas. “Hold your fire. Big Al, ignite circuits one, two and three. Save four because Hamous should have an idea if they mass up on the other side of the restroom.”

“Fire in the hole, one. Fire in the hole, two. Fire in the hole, three.” In succession, four explosions range out from the far side of town; no screams could be heard over the explosions but Big Al was able to see that at least one bomb succeeded in targeting the invading army. “Boo-YAH, did you see the fucker fly? He must have been standing on one of the bombs when it went off. Hell, yeah baby. That is sexy.”

“I can confirm three bodies flying from booby number 2, none appear to be dead.”

“Roger that Kilroy, take your shots. Everyone is clear to fire at any and all opportunities!” Multiple ‘rogers and confirms’ we heard along with a few safeties being clicked off before the bark of the PSG-1 reverberated on the roof of the general store.

“Tango down. Acquiring. Firing. Tango down. For thirty seconds the PSG-1 was the only weapon firing, then the chaos of battle arrived as Dimitri, Big Al, Gillie, Hamous and Terror joined in vocally denouncing the view of the enemy before firing. Only Big Al missed, which would have surprised no one because his weapon skills were only marginally better than Sierra’s. Many of the soldiers died with out knowing where death rained from; those few that saw the tell-tale signs, fired back woefully inaccurately but that fire brought notice upon them from above as they were quickly targeted for silencing.

Terror felt like she was shooting ducks in a pond as the soldiers coming from the mine section rushed forward up the street towards the general store but cover was sparse and so it appeared that they were trying to overwhelm her accurate fire like the Russians overwhelmed the Germans at Stalingrad; if a soldier with a rifle or SMG or shotgun dropped then the soldier behind him would pick up that weapon if they had only a pistol, which far too many of them did. Just one more way that showed how poorly the Queen armed her unwilling army. The fact that too many of them did not have helmets was obvious by the amount of heads that had the back of them being blown open from Kilroy’s and Terror’s accurate sniper fire with Cold Hollow Point 7.62mm NATO ammo.

“THEY’RE HERE!” Screamed Ira who started pumping bullet after bullet to the northern side of the dental office. Dimitri had dropped three soldiers through the gap between the church and the dental office so two of the soldiers decided to flank around the dental building with Ira giving better than she took, but her screams of pain impelled Dimitri to come to her aid.

“WOAH! I almost felt that,” was like a chapter of War and Peace coming from Gillie who was receiving fire from two flankers between buildings to the north east. Although Kilroy and Terror had already seen the black clad uniforms of the Queen’s elite soldiers interspersed with the regular army, the one who had flanked to the north east and was aiming a Taurus 444 from less than 150 meters away was not the sight he wanted to see and Gillie jerked out two snap fires, the first missed but the second struck the elite in the shoulder throwing off his aim and he missed.

“I see them. I see naughty men.” Hamous repeated. Robber could only nod his head as he fired at the same men. Hamous’s G3A3 had superior range to the FAMAS but Robber was still making his shots count, hitting many he thought he had no right hitting. Numerous times the Cold Hollow Point 5.56mm NATO ammo was fatal to the unarmored soldiers while Hamous’s bullets, firing the 7.62mm AP NATO ammo would punch right through his targets and unless he hit a vital area, it would take one or two more follow up shots to drop his tango. When those few who were able to get close enough to the general store, Robber would switch the FAMAS over to burst mode and fire accurately and very effectively.

“SON OF A BITCH!” Screamed Sierra. A soldier had been leap-frogging from one building to the next and was able to sneak into the building cattycorner to Sierra, who didn’t see the soldier because she had been firing at the soldiers who had been trying to flank through the gap that Big Al had mined, once they saw the blue flags on the ground they stopped in their tracks and was an easy target for Sierra. The man that she did not see let her know he was there with a nasty SPAS-15 shotgun aiming and hitting her. Robber responded immediately and twisted to help cover her area.

Not all of the soldiers from the east were rushing up the road towards Terror, quite a few sought alternate routes such as behind the mine office to the church or behind the row of houses on the south west. Five soldiers came out of from behind those houses at the same time and Sierra knew she was in trouble because Robber had to switch back to help Hamous. The fifth bomb was in the ground, waiting, but never more than one soldier at a time was near it so Hamous did not ask for it to be detonated. Robber agreed with this call because they could not know if there were any hidden civilians hiding out on the other side of the public restroom. The last of the 10 militia were killed at this time by overzealous soldiers since all three of them had been lying on the ground between the front of the general store and the public restroom but prior to them falling the soldiers would seek cover wherever they could find it, which included the homes of the Drassen residents. Some residents stayed cowering in the corner of their homes while hell broke out in their neighborhood but some foolishly decided to find a safer place and this action put them in harm’s way. Kilroy cursed multiple times as she would see movement but when she had acquired the target and was a hair second off of pulling the trigger of the PSG-1 she would recognize that it was a civilian and hold off on firing while breathing a sigh of relief.

The Battle of Drassen was a fluid affair. Whoever was leading the army was not satisfied with just overrunning the mercenaries position by massive amounts of bodies, he was trying to out maneuver their static defenses by finding their weak spot. Prior to the battle starting, Sierra would have thought that Ira covering the north east flank would have been their weak spot because the houses on that side provided plenty of cover until they were right in front of the back corner of the general store. The back side of the general store did prove to be a major weakness, but it was Sierra’s position at the south west corner that the army commander was trying to force. Much to Sierra displeasure as she was constantly rocked by enemy fire; most missing, but all to many did hit, though none as hard as the shotgun slug from the SPAS-15. The slug while not penetrating her Kevlar armor broke three ribs and made it hard for Sierra to catch her breath.

“I am out.” Terror calmly said before she realized her supply error. Since they had arrived, Terror had been fielding one of the Mini-14’s Gus had ordered that first day. So for the last two weeks she had been carrying around 5.56mm ammo on her body. This morning she passed the Mini-14 to Ira, who didn’t want it, she liked the fit and lift of the M-1 Carbine but reluctantly accepted the rifle with the longer effective range, which was almost twice as much as the M-1 Carbine’s 200 meters. “FUCK!” Terror screamed when she realized the ammo pouches she had full were still full of 5.56mm NATO ammo and not the 7.62mm NATO ammo that the Zastava sniper rifle took. “I don’t have any ammo for this baby!”

Through the echoing sound of the gunfire, Gillie heard her. The rush from his side had died down and he had fired his weapon the least, he also was carrying the bulk of the 7.62mm ammo, so he looked at Kilroy who had yet to take her eye off of her 10x Sniper Scope; “I have ammo, I am going to switch to that side.” The PSG-1 barked and Kilroy gave her acknowledgement. “I have this side covered.”

Gillie nodded before swiftly moving across the side of the roof, for all of Terror’s bravado about being a killing machine, Gillie knew that Kilroy was the real killer here; calm, cool and ultra efficient. With their similar skill sets, someone could think that Gillie and Terror would make a great team, but Terror’s bluster annoyed Gillie, so much that his response to her was he wanted to take her over his lap and spank her in a not so nice way. But the fact that Terror may possibly enjoy that type of attention made the short mercenary anxious. Half way across the roof Gillie was able to assess the situation on that side of the roof and he did not like what he saw. “Robber, go south.”

Sierra was in obvious pain, was moving lethargically but still lethally as he saw her trade shots with a black clad Queen’s man, Sierra body rippled under the impact of multiple bullets hitting her while the black clad soldier dropped his weapon before falling to his knees and then onto his face as Sierra’s single bullet had entered his forehead just below the lip of his Kevlar helmet; blood did not spray out the back of his skull so Gillie imagined that the 5.56mm bullet rotated on impact and turned the mans brains to goo as it bounced around in his skull without exiting. Unfortunately, two more replaced the fallen soldier, including an elite.

Dimitri had rotated to help cover Sierra’s area as well and he did not see the elite step out from the side of the church and fire a long burst from an AK-47. His aim and control was accurate as the bullets stitched along the length of Dimitri’s body, causing Dimitri to expel a squeal like noise before laying his head down.

“DIMITRI” Ira screamed as she pumped round after round at the assailant, all missing.

Looking back towards the bullets that were flying at him simply as a by-product of his moving behind Sierra, Gillie was happy to hear a double burst of fire from Robber’s FAMAS. The elite took the first three rounds with a murmur, the second three rounds made his chest explode in a crimson spray of blood, bones and armor fibers.

“Here.” Gillie dropped two 20 rounds clips of Cold Loaded Hollow Point 7.62mm ammo. There were not the proper clip size for the Zastava, but that wasn’t Gillie’s problem. Throwing himself on his belly, he quickly aimed and fired, his FR Ordnance MC51 jerked loudly but his aim was true and the match grade ammo flew straight, striking Dimitri’s assailant in the left cheek, shattering the bone and sending the bone shards terminally into the man’s brain cavity. “NOO! He was MINE!” Ira screamed. She stood to move to Dimitri when two soldiers stepped out from the back of the dental office, firing. “Shit, I’m hit.” She exclaimed, dropping back down to the roof. Gillie fired on the closer of the two firing at Ira, a puff of blood burst out of Ira’s backside as he fired. The bullet stopped the man in his tracks and he looked at who had just shot him. Gillie fired again and turned back in Sierra’s direction before the man had finished crumpling to the ground. He was trusting Ira to finish off the last one and if she failed, he was confident that her screams of pain would be enough for him to switch back that way.

“Ahhhh, I’m hit.” Screamed Hamous; two soldiers had run from the back side of the public restroom, into the open door of the restroom while Hamous was firing elsewhere. If Robber had not been called to help with Sierra’s flank, they would have been eaten alive by his FAMAS, so Hamous was paying in blood and pain for his squad’s deficiencies. Big Al adjusted his aim to assist Hamous since the few times someone ventured into his line of sight, Kilroy was able to quickly dispatch them. Twice she double tapped with the PSG-1 and twice two soldiers were put down by the bullets striking their chest. The two soldiers were faster than Big Al, even though he was waiting on them; both exited and fired at Hamous before Big Al could get a shot off. The soldier in back was even able to move back inside the restroom before Big Al could draw a bead on the man. The second soldier was not so fast as Big Al’s quickly snapped shot struck him in the fleshy part of his thigh and he dropped to one knee.

If Big Al was thinking he would of pulled out his grenade launcher and dropped an explosive grenade in front of the door, but in all of the excitement, it wasn’t until after the shooting stopped that he remember the grenade launcher strapped to his back. Instead he fired his FR Ordnance killing the stricken soldier while the second soldier again, stepped out of the restroom, hitting Hamous a third time before stepping back in cover.

Sierra had quit firing. Her head rested on the butt stock of the Mini-14 as her eyes clouded over. Around her Robber, Terror and Gillie fired round after round, accurately and deadly, many times Terror would severely wound a soldier and move on to the next one with scant seconds passing before Gillie or Robber finished them off. None of the mercenaries were wasting a single shot, even Robber didn’t fire a burst if he didn’t like the chances of hitting. Because each shot was made to count the amount of ammo expended was surprisingly little. After the battle, it was discovered that Terror had reloaded the most which wasn’t surprising since her sniper rifle only held 10 rounds and she had to reload twice. Sierra, Big Al, Gillie and Ira did not have to reload at all and the rest only had to reload once. They had expended over 270 rounds defending Drassen.

When the soldier stepped out of the restroom the fourth time, it was one time too many, Big Al was ready and shot him in his shoulder and making him drop his weapon. Turning to look up, the soldier saw death fire from above before his world went black. After Ira had fired six shots at her assailant, the soldier retreated back behind the dental office and after waiting precious seconds, when the soldier did not come back Ira moved to save Dimitri, ignoring her own bleeding wounds. Dimitri had saved Ira from the clutches of the army and now it was her turn to save him.

The Zastava and PSG-1 were the last weapons to fire before a painfully quiet din of silence pervaded Drassen. Gillie noticed that Kilroy and Terror continued to scan for enemy activity while Sierra was conscious just not coherent and Hamous was moaning that he was bleeding. After another minute of the loud stillness, everyone’s ears still ringing from the loud blare of their weapons, Gillie looked at Kilroy and Terror pointing out that Hamous and Sierra needed assistance. Big Al was great with a repair kit or a lock-pick but was the first to admit he didn’t know anything about bandages, so Gillie had him be on over watch; and Robber and Gillie went to look for any soldiers holed up somewhere in the town.

Robber transferred to the public rest room’s roof to search while Gillie went between the church and dental office passing Ira frantically trying to save the unconscious Dimitri. He looked briefly in the windows of each building before moving towards the mining office.

Hamous’s injuries looked worst than they were, his skull had been grazed twice, which would give him two new scars to impress the ladies with, but it was the two that hit almost in same spot on his right shoulder, through the trapezoidal muscles that did the most damage. Kilroy thought he was lucky that he was shot there by two 9mm rounds vice the thinner 5.56mm NATO round that liked to tumble, causing massive tissue damage as it did so. The good news is that his bones were not hit so his should have a full recovery.

Sierra injuries were more deceptive. She wasn’t bleeding as much as Hamous was but when Terror stripped off Sierra’s shredded Kevlar helmet and vest and shirt she saw massive contusions all over her upper body, especially on her right rib cage. Terror was perplexed for a minute because of the massive bruising and not so many bullet lacerations but she thought she figured it out. Ricochets; a lot of bullets were thrown Sierra’s way, mostly of the 9mm variety and the ones that apparently hit the lip of the roof’s edge would either bounce away or flip over the top of the lip to spin into the nearby Sierra, one bullet had even struck her right cheek just below the eye; a fraction of an inch higher and the bullet would of gone in her eye and not bounce off her cheek bone. The cheek was red from the friction of the bullet with a bruise forming under the redness; Tara was sure the eye would be swollen shut shortly.

Ira was bleeding from three bullets. The first went through her quadriceps on her left leg, which missed the femur. The second bullet penetrated her armor on the left side of her abdomen; the armor stopped most of the bullet, but it did lacerate her skin as it imbedded in her side muscles. The third wound was similar to the shoulder wounds Hamous suffered from with her right trapezoidal muscles being penetrated by the soldiers bullet except the bullet skimmed her back, exiting away from her only after it struck her right shoulder blade. Ira ignored everything while she was concentrating as Dimitri.

The 7.62mm WP bullets did a number on Dimitri. Dimitri was facing perpendicular from the shooter and the shooter was able to rake a long burst hitting from Dimitri’s calf muscle to his head. The Kevlar helmet that Dimitri was wearing stopped the bullet completely but the rest of Dimitri’s body was not so lucky. The back of his left calf was completely slashed as the bullet tore through the muscle and tissue unimpeded. The same with his right buttock, the so called Million Dollar wound. The two bullets that struck him in the chest was also absorbed by his armor, though she was sure they were quite painful.

No the wound that Ira was in a frenzy over was the one that hit his right thigh and carried through to his left thigh where it sliced his anterior tibial artery in two. She simply could not get the leg to stop bleeding and there was a very real chance that Dimitri could bleed to death. Her frustration resounded in her screams for help.

“DIMITRI IS DYING! I can’t stop the bleeding. We need to get him to the hospital in Cambria. Please help me!”

Kilroy had done what she could for Hamous just using a first aid kit, he needed to spend time under a doctors care or at least sleep for three days with some really good drugs. At Ira’s frantic cries, she went to join the hysterical Jewish girl from New York. After quickly assessing Dimitri’s condition she made her decision, they were going to have to cut Dimitri open, right then and there. Ira was in obvious shock but retrieved hers and Kilroy’s medical bag from the middle of the roof where they were laid for just this type of emergency. Swiftly they cut off Dimitri’s pants and boxers to have a clear access to the wound. Ira was prepping the scalpels, forceps and clamps while Kilroy was pulling more gaze bandages out when she saw movement to her lower left.

There was a soldier there, blood running down her chest from a shoulder injury. Blood from her wound was smeared across her face, from the quick look Kilroy got, she thought from wiping away tears. Her face showed no hint of crying at that moment because it was full of anger. Anger and frustration from watching her comrades be cut down by the God-less mercenaries. Anger from them scrambling to heal their wounded while her comrades were dead or dying all around them. Anger at the handful of them wiping out an entire company, four platoons of the Arulcan Army.

Screaming she fired her Bizon SMG, intent on empting its entire load out. Kilroy moved while Ira screamed, “NO”. Ira was tackled by Kilroy as the bullets hit. Terror pulled out her silenced Colt 9mm SMG and joined Big Al in fast crawling towards the back of the roof while watching the 9mm WP bullets hit the edge of the roof repeatedly before finally the recoil was too much and the bullets started flying high above their heads until weapon clicked empty. As one they bounced to their knees to end this threat when they saw the soldier lying on the ground with a shocked look on her face. Scanning their surroundings, Terror saw Gillie fast moving from the road to the side of the general store, FR Ordnance at the ready.

When he got to the dead female soldier, he kicked the now empty Bizon out of her lifeless hands before moving on, this time to thoroughly check each building he had simply glanced at the first time around. Kilroy got off of Ira and went to go back to saving Dimitri when she saw the additional bullet wounds on the left side of his arm, side and head.

“NOOOOO!!!!”

The blood and brain matter rushing out the side of Dimitri’s head said all there was to know about whether Dimitri was alive or not; Ira’s blood curdling screams not withstanding. Kilroy sat back on her haunches and shook her head, even with the blood rushing out of his body she admired Dimitri. He was a fine specimen of a man she thought. Glancing lower on his body, she quickly jerked away, trying to be respectful but failing as she acknowledged the prodigious piece of man hood he had been blessed with. Kilroy had paid her respects to the fallen brother in arms and was ready to move on. Ira was not. Kilroy tried to ignore the hysterics of the woman next to her but when she pulled out a hypodermic needle out of her medical kit while screaming, “I will save you!”, Kilroy knew she had gone off the deep end.

What happened next was difficult for Kilroy who had a very European flare about her and to many of her American friends, she did not seem to sweat the inconveniences that life brought. With Big Al’s help they were able to hold back Ira from trying to ‘save’ Dimitri. Ira’s arguments as she struggled was disjointed and illogical. But the one occurrence that Kilroy hoped she would eventually forget was when Big Al went lax in his holding of Ira and she slipped out of his grasp only to grab Dimitri’s lifeless manhood screaming, “Look how big he was! He is dead and I will never know how big it got!” Ira ignored their pleas to calm down and when Ira said that she was going to save that part of him, keep it for the rest of her life, Terror, Big Al and Kilroy had to physically remove Ira off of Dimitri before she could succeed in reaching the scalpel that she had discarded earlier. With the girls help, Big Al was able to lower Ira from the roof to Robber and Gillie, but once she was down her cries of distraught changed to anger.

“YOU! YOU KILLED HIM!” She scratched Gillie’s face as she attacked him, after the second blow of her nails landed on the opposite side of his face, Gillie put Ira down, hard, to the ground.

“She came from the dental office. You walked right past her and she killed Dimitri. I could of saved him! I have some Regen, it would have worked. It would have!” Gillie stood there passively, rifle slung on his shoulder as she stopped screaming at him and progressed to cry into the ground. Robber policed the area making sure that there were no weapons readily available for Ira to reach.