Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [27]
“Skipper, we’re getting heat from both sides now,” Harris reported, his voice calm despite the deteriorating situation. “A lotta cross fire.”
Damn, Jackson cursed silently and then forced his voice to remain as calm as the chief’s when he replied. “Copy. Pull your men out of the entryway, into the passage behind us. See if you can hold them from there,” the lieutenant ordered.
And pray that the second squad has a little more luck than we did. He thought the words but once again kept them to himself.
Six: Saga of the Second Squad
Lieutenant (j.g.) Sanders led his men on a fast flanking maneuver, running in the long strides the men had perfected for the low-G environment. They stayed below the horizon of the ridge crest from which they first had observed the pirate base, but the young officer was pleased to see that the elevation curved in the direction in which they needed to go. When, after more than a kilometer of travel, he signaled a halt and again climbed to the top for a look, he saw why: The ridge was actually the rim of a crater, and the target installation was situated in the center of the circular depression. As a result, their distance to the objective was about the same as it had been when they first had spotted the base: about one klick.
He checked his watch and saw that they had about one more minute before the skipper and the first squad moved out. He waved his men up to the crest, where they all took up concealed observing positions in time to see the backblast of LaRue’s rail gun signal the start of the attack.
As ordered, Sanders waited another four minutes to move out, all the while studying the triple-domed pirate base. He could discern nothing that looked like an air lock or any other point of access on the side of the east dome that previously had been out of view. With a shrug, he gestured to Sanchez and Marannis, the scouts, that they should prepare breaching charges.
At the appointed second, the eight SEALS of the second squad hopped over the ridge and sprinted toward the objective. In the airless silence there was nothing to indicate the progress of their comrades’ attack, but that was only to be expected. The men raced forward, carrying their heavy loads in long, springing steps, slowing only as they approached the wall of the dome.
Moving quickly and surely, the two scouts affixed their charges, allowing several seconds’ delay to their Teammates to clear the blast zone; there was no alcove such as the air lock that shielded the first squad from the nearby explosions. The blasts went off in sequence, and Sanders looked up to see the gush of steamy air that indicated the dome’s wall had been breached.
By then Jackson had broken radio silence, and the men of the second squad were able to follow to some extent the progress of their Teammates as the LT ordered them through the air lock and deployed them within the entryway. They heard the order to go in behind a volley of grenades and followed the calm, professional voices of their fellow SEALS discussing matters of life and death as they searched through the first rooms of the pirate base. Uncertain if the enemy was tracking with radio direction finders, Sanders held up a finger, admonishing his men to stay off the air for the time being.
The hurricane-like decompression lasted for nearly half a minute, but as soon as the stream of air eased to the force of a strong wind, Sanders gestured for his two scouts to lead the way inside. The junior lieutenant and Schroeder came next, G15s at the ready, and the four men of the second fire team followed immediately—three with their carbines at the ready and Rocky Rodale following with a missile readied in his M76 Wasp launcher.
Immediately the men spread out, the four shooter pairs moving through the large, dark chamber. It was clear that this auxiliary dome was some sort of storage chamber: They encountered