Life as a New Hire Ch. 34

The Romanians had spread out to the north and south. They were leap-frogging their machineguns forward and it was clear he was facing over 200 men. The 22nds advance was relentless. Soon they'd be right on top of his trapped men. As a final ploy he dropped two smoke grenades around the endangered trio and every other grenade launcher dropped their payloads onto the aggressive Romanians.

The three men ran for it. Their enemy were nobody's fool and sprayed their retreat path with bullets. Only one made it to safety.

For the Romanian battalion's commander in his command IFV, this was its own kind of Hell. His boys were getting murdered out there. He hadn't really believed the sketchy intelligence analysis that described his expected foes as the finest trained mercenaries the world has ever seen. Now he was a believer. His opponents reacted like an organic unit. Their weapons were incredibly lethal and their discipline was chilling. Ajax's snipers picked off anyone who seemed to be in charge. One Captain fell, as did two lieutenants. One section lost all its non-commissioned officers.

Despite that, individual initiative kept the 'leaderless' men of the 22nd advancing. Their snipers came into play by targeting the opposing machineguns. One gunner went down, then the other. To get one man back, Ajax had lost five dead, or seriously wounded. Ajax ordered the remaining Eagles back to the castle. The rest of the Warband would have to make a fighting retreat.

He'd killed or wounded a third of the Romanians out there, yet they were still coming. Even as he pulled out, he got two more pieces of bad:

First - his scouts had reported hearing helicopters as they returned toward the castle; this latest enemy was somewhere behind him - to the east.

Second - two Mig-21's dropped out of the sky and raked his area with rockets and auto-cannon fire; eight more men gone.

Ajax may not have been the greatest military mind of all time, but wasn't a fool. He was being boxed in. Since it was highly unlikely the Hylonome Amazons had sacrificed themselves, this was an ad hoc plan to take him out. Instead of hunting down that male Amazon as he wanted, Ajax had let the Condottieri side-track him on this mission. Now, it was proving far too costly.

A whistle, a few traded hand signals and the Mycenaeans started sprinting back upslope toward the castle ruins. It wasn't a rout. His men maintained their élan and cohesion. Ajax was trading space for time and the Romanians wouldn't chase his men as fast as the Mycenaeans were moving because there was always the threat of ambush. Or, they wouldn't have if an An-30 Reconnaissance Aircraft hadn't been tracking his progress from high above.

Just coming on-line, it identified the heat signatures of the Greeks and let the soldiers of the 22nd know that their enemies were trying to put some distance between them. The battalion commander knew his men had been mangled, yet believed they were still more than willing carry the fight to the enemy. Right as the 'pursuit' order went out, the promised company from the 24th Mountain troops rolled up...with the 61st Brigade's 385th artillery battalion. 'Now things were really going to get hot for those bastards', he thought.

(The Seven Skulls - Cáel)

I was true to my nature. I sent off my plan, Operation Funhouse, to the Russians via their attaché (a hot looking, curvaceous blonde Major) and to the Khanate through the offices of the US and UK. Only after that was done, did I ask for my favor. I wasn't going to bargain with the fate of Temujin's people. I couldn't.

My only chip to play was that people in strange places thought well of me. I wasn't so naïve to believe that I got what I wanted because I'd forged emotional bonds that superseded personal ambitions or national loyalties. No, I was now on my own self-inflicted 'Ride of the Valkyries' because people in authority felt I could still be useful and they were willing to risk the lives a few hundred Romanian soldiers to pander to my eccentricities.

Our intelligence came from Google Maps, a woman's recollections from twenty-five years ago and the frighteningly precise memories of a battle-scarred 11 year old girl. For the 24th Mountain Troops battalion intelligence officer, it was a stunning introduction to Amazons. The girl was one year away from her Rite of Passage and she'd been raised to take in the terrain and the sounds of battle.

Several times, he tried to trick her, altering information she had provided minutes earlier, but the girl corrected him every time. Seventeen minutes and the man relayed to his battalion commander his belief that the girl's story was solid. The men and women of the 24th may not have known the specific of the valley we were going to, yet this was their backyard.

They knew the rocks, trees and bushes. They knew the ground was crinkled and what marsh soil looked like, without stepping into it. They could do this - attack a rogue mercenary band threatening their native land. They were going to do this and do it quick. Me and mine coming along was problematic. But Me being one of the first ones in...I had to play my trump card.

"I am Magyarorszag es Erdely Hercege," I proclaimed. "I have returned to my people in their hour of need. Besides, I'm the only one who can kill their leader."

"You can kill Ajax?" Riki snorted in disbelief. "Ajax from the Trojan Wars? That Ajax?"

"Don't sweat it," I put my arm around her shoulder. "I got this covered. Get me close and I can make him dead."

"You've lost your mind," Rachel muttered.

"I love you to," I grinned. To the Captain of the first company to rappel next to the ruins, "I'm your Prince. Let's do this."

"Do you have any combat experience?" he shook his head.

"There are a whole bunch of dead Chinese who think so," I assured him.

"Let him go," Sakuniyas stated regally. "He is the Scion of Alal. He is invincible in battle." Hey, I liked that. Someone believed in me.

"Do you believe that?" Pamela asked Saku.

"Of course not, but if he's about to die, he should be allowed to feel good about himself," she told Pamela. Shit, I wish I hadn't heard that part.

"Oh, in that case, I agree. Let him go," Pamela added her preference to the final decision. The real weight in that Captain's final call was the small, well-armed group of supporters who seemed rather insistent that I get a chance at Valhalla.

He took it well. The officer even announced to the entire battalion that their feudal overlord was leading them into the fight. My codename was 'Prince'. I hope I didn't turn out like the singer, I had no aspirations for being Machiavelli's 'hero', but being remember as someone like Prince Harry wouldn't be so bad.

What I did know was this was my choice of actions and I couldn't send others into the madness I had inspired. I didn't blame myself for the deaths. Those were inevitable if Ajax was going to die. I didn't blame myself for Ajax - that was the Weave of Fate being a bastardly bitch. No, I had to kill Ajax because I was an idiot, and I loved my companions, and if it wasn't me making the attempt and possibly dying, it would be one of them. Not on my watch.

Our IAR 330 Puma Helicopter lifted off into the sky. Our two companion birds, another troop carrier and an assault variant of the Puma, followed suit and soon we linked up with the rest of the company that was going to rappel into the clearing next to the ruins. Could I rappel? Sure, I lied. Hey, I'd made it to the top of the rope in gym class at the end of my senior year. That had to count for something.

I was even lucky to have the lynchpin of my master plan sitting next to me. One in sixteen - what were the odds?

[Romanian] "You, what's your name?" I asked the soldier barely older than me.

[Romanian] "Master Corporal Menner," he grinned. Maybe he sensed my insanity.

[Romanian] "Székely?" I asked. He nodded. [Hungarian] "Do you believe I am your Prince?"

[Hungarian] "Either that, or you are crazy," he kept grinning. I leaned over and after some helmet shuffling, I whispered my request in his ear. I didn't demand that he agree, only that if he didn't, he wouldn't turn me in. Our eyes met.

[Hungarian] "Why?" he was now filled with disbelief. I had passed beyond the realm of comedian to the land where all crazy ideas go off to die.

[Hungarian] "It is the only way. Trust me, I don't love this plan either, but it is the only way I can think of to keep as many of you alive as possible," I explained. "He's a monster."

[Hungarian] "How will this help?" he was still confused, even if he was being swept away with my intensity.

[Hungarian] "I don't have time to explain. All I can tell you is that I'm not crazy and I don't want to die, but this is the only thing I can think of to keep my people alive," I remained firm and confident in my beliefs.

[Hungarian] "I will have to think about it," he conceded. At least he wasn't insisting I be forcibly committed to a mental institution. I did annoy one of the two crewmen in the back with the rest of us combatants when I stood up and looked out the side window. I glimpsed it - her, flowing through the forest beneath us. After I sat back down, the Captain flagged me.

I had forgotten to cut on my communications rig on.

[Romanian] "First Force (the two companies of the 22nd) has encountered the enemy before they could exit into the flatlands," he paused, somewhat shocked. "They are taking heavy casualties. It is just like you warned us. These foes are exceedingly lethal."

[Romanian] "Don't worry about it," I overflowed with charisma. "Just follow me and we'll be fine."

[Romanian] "But, I thought you said you didn't know anything about the compound?" the Captain looked at me funny.

"I don't. I'm relying on luck," I pumped my eyebrows. The Captain knew enough English to groan.

"I have a sudden desire to club a baby seal," Rachel stared at me intently. Who, me?

[Romanian] "Let me and my men take the point," the Captain insisted.

[Romanian] "Captain, either I'm diving headfirst out of our ride, or you are letting me rappel down in the first wave - either way, my boots are the first on the ground," I demanded.

[Romanian] "No," the Captain shook his head. "You are a civilian."

[Romanian] "Captain," I leaned forward. "Everyone else is fighting and dying because I made a judgment call. You can't ask me to hold back now."

That shone through. Over his battalion frequency, he could hear the confusion and chaos chiseling away at his brethren in the 22nd. He could tell by my countenance that I both knew the enemy he was going to fight and that I wasn't ruled by guilt, or a death wish. I wanted to go first because I thought I could make the difference between someone else's life and death.

[Romanian] "Who are the other three with you?" he stated. Four could rappel down at a time.

[Romanian] "Rachel, Chaz and Master Corporal Menner here," I indicated. Rachel didn't freak, the Colour Sergeant looked my way and gave his acknowledgement, as did Menner.

[Romanian] "I'll go down with you, Captain," Pamela spoke up.

Of my group, Delilah, Wiesława and Virginia had stayed behind to guard Odette, Riki, the Lovasz sisters and the Loma family. Two troopers of the 24th joined them to provide extra security if needed. Vincent had pulled seniority to be the sole American going. With Chaz and Delilah, there hadn't been a real discussion about it. Chaz was the professional ground-pounder.

Selena had volunteered to go even though this wasn't really her fight. She claimed the right of revenge for Ajax's attempt to kill the Vizsla, but I thought it was something else - some desire to step forward and make the point that the Black Hand were invested in this global struggle. There had been no doubt that Rachel & her team plus Sakuniyas and Pamela would be joining me.

In my estimation, we were over the target area way too fast. I hadn't thought of a good reason to talk myself out of this harebrained scheme of mine. The side doors of the Puma opened. Rachel would be going down on my side.

"Look and see what Rachel does and do the same thing," Pamela yelled to me over the roar of the engines.

"And don't lock your knees or you'll sprain your ankles," she added. It was just another day of 'on the job' training at Havenstone Commercial Investments, I rationalized. I was scared, which was also a good indicator that I was still marginally sane. Rachel made her movements slow and steady.

I went down a second later, barely remembering to avoid rope burn through my gloves and not bust my feet when I hit bottom. Rachel crouched. She was waiting for follow up troops before advancing. Me - I ran straight toward the ruins. Why? It was Alal once more. From the relayed chatter from the 22nd and whatever spy plane the Romanians had above, I 'knew' that Ajax hadn't made it back to the fortifications yet.

If we hurried, we could beat him there. Then we would be ambushing his ass for a change. It almost worked. Whatever Chaz and Menner thought of my actions, they kept it to themselves. I didn't have to be a psychic to realize Rachel wasn't a fan. I leapt over the first Amazon corpse. The second one I passed was sitting with her back to the tree, hands tied around the trunk and had been tortured before she died.

I believed that was when the momentum shifted. This was barbarism and the three following me knew it. Menner relayed our findings to his Captain even as the first helicopter was pulling away. My mind was picking up the details and processing somewhere in the back of my mind so as not to distracting me from the task of staying alive.

A pile of bodies lumped too close together - they had been executed. A small girl - three, or four - with a close-contact wound to the temple. The smell of burnt flesh - more torture. Whatever Code of Military Conduct the Mycenaeans had, it wasn't the rules we, their opponents, fought by today. We were outraged and help was coming.

We were running in from the northeast. Three meter from what had once been a doorway, I broke free of the underbrush and saw the closest Greek and the row of vehicles behind him. He was to my east, maybe ten meters away. I wasn't stopping. The terrain had funneled us down so that we weren't coming directly from the helicopter's noise.

That must have been the reason he wasn't staring at us when we appeared. I didn't stop. Chaz and Menner were right behind me. Rachel only slowed enough to fire her P-90 at full-auto at the man as she ran. She killed him. The three of us ran across the open-aired, ruined room until we found the doorway to the other side of the building. From there, we had a good view of Ajax's remaining Eagles and the eight remaining men with them.

"I'm going for higher ground," Chaz growled before he took off.

"Rachel, go back and secure the corner we came in by," I shouted. She grimaced but obeyed. Menner had his own ideas. He fired off his first rocket-propelled grenade from his AG-7 at the farthest Eagle he could clearly see, blowing it to smithereens. I added the fire from my own P-90, wounding another Greek.

As my mental patterns processed the battle, I noticed Pamela, Saku, the Captain and Rachel appear. Apparently a trooper of the 24th had taken over Rachel's position. He was providing cover fire so that the remaining eight members of this landing group could enter the ruins at less risk. The Captain was doing what Captains do - issuing orders to the rest of his upcoming company.

Pamela must have been in touch with Chaz, because she was jumping and climbing along the path the Brit had taken. Rachel tapped me at the door. I backed up and she took over my firing position. That was part of her job. Mine was to strike once the iron was hot. The Chaos of Battle took hold. Initially we had faced 9 of Ajax's men. Rachel killed one and I had wounded another.

Two had swung around to the north of our position and engaged the helicopter at the clearing. An anti-tank rocket will kill a helicopter too. Somehow, the fatally injured pilot set his bird down before he died. That had been the third transport, not the second. The second had already deposited its 16 and those soldiers were moving toward the sound of the guns. The 16 aboard the third bird engaged the sole Greek they could see.

One of the Romanian assault Pumas, guided by the Captain, began tearing up the Eagle's lager. Halfway through the process, a second Panzerfaust 3 blew it out of the sky in an impressive fireball of exploding fuel and ordinance. The smoke trail form the warrior's shot hadn't dissipated before one of our snipers took him out.

The Captain made his decision fluidly. The first squad would hold the ruins. The second team would swing south of the ruins, seizing the high ground and block any Greek retreat in that direction. Somewhere back in the woods south of us, two more companies of the 22nd were advancing through the rough terrain on horseback. Yes, fucking horseback!

Behind us, to the east, were two more companies of the 24th advancing on horseback as well. The final company of the 24th was deployed due north, also on horseback and moving in fast. The trap wasn't airtight yet, but it soon would be. Ajax had to figure which way held the greatest likelihood of egress and quickly.

The mortars of the 385th were starting to rain down hate on his men. Logic, terrain and timing dictated a breakout to the southeast. The land dipped slightly just west of the ruins. Ajax and his men could move along that natural channel to spring up on the highest parts of the ruins nearly undetected.

Once he fought through the troops there, he could slip over the ridge south of and behind the castle and let darkness be his ally. He would regroup near one of the local tourist hotels and vacation spots. From there, he could grab some cars and race off deeper into the mountains and his final evasion. That was his plan. That would have been Alal's plan as well.

With utter certainty, I relayed all of that information to the Captain. Menner and I had to move. Rachel, Charlotte and Saku would follow. Mona and a medic of the 24th were working triage and Tiger Lily stayed close by her. The third group, minus the three personnel killed at the Landing Zone, were advancing west toward the position the Captain wanted them to hold.

[Romanian] "We are going for Ajax," I shouted to the Captain just before Menner and I made our play. We had to retrace our steps to the door where we had entered the ruins, then run along the east side until we joined up with the second group of 15 plus Vincent. Those men and women were in their own world of hurt. Twelve Mycenaeans, the vanguard of Ajax's escape attempt, appeared on the far side of the ridge that Romanians were trying to secure.

A bloodbath ensued. Assault weapons, pistols, knives, feet and fists all came into play. Ajax's men were better by a few degrees. We arrived at the pivotal moment. Charlotte, Rachel and especially Saku kicked the balance back in our favor. Hard, nasty hand-to-hand blood-letting was her specialty and only Ajax could have overcome her.

Menner and I didn't stay to participate in the carnage. We had our mission. We bolted around the fighting, crested the ridge and looked down the ravine at the rearguard coming up. A bullet careened off my back ceramic plate - no light ballistic vest this time out. Menner took a bullet to the right thigh - a through and through. He was bleeding only 'somewhat', so his artery and vein remained intact.

I yanked him along with me until we reached the top of the draw. I could see it all. The final act of 'Ajax the Unconquered and his Mycenaean warriors'. To the west, two machine gunners and two infantrymen lay down suppressive fire against the still invisible (to me) men of the combined 22nd/24th 'First Force'. Those Romanians could hear the firefight ahead of them and knew the jaws of their trap were closing. They refused to let go of the rear guard this close to victory.