Action Force 2: Escalation

[The Baron]

Cool. That's what I thought.

[Sundance]

Action Force HQ
Three days later

Eagle, Skip and the Commander stood in front of the line of new members of Action Force. Behind them, leaning on an SAS Panther jeep, Sabre, Redline and Raider watched as the Commander inspected the group.

The twelve men were standing rigidly at attention. Two wore the black and grey camouflage of SAS Force, along with the green berets the unit wore on base. The other ten wore the green and black camouflage of Z-Force and their red berets.

The Commander walked over to Eagle and Skip and nodded. “Fine looking group. So, who’ve we got here?”

Eagle gestured to the two SAS troopers. “Swerve is our new jeep driver,” he began. “Formerly with 22 SAS back in Britain. A member of Mobility Troop, like Joyride was.”

He then indicated the Arabic-looking man next to him. “Scimitar is my second frogman. He’s from Lebanon’s Navy SEALs.”

“Lebanese Navy SEALs?” asked Skip, scoffing.

Scimitar took a step forward and saluted. Skip glanced at Eagle who was smiling. He returned the salute.

“Ye’ve got something to say, lad?” Skip asked.

“Sir, Lebanon’s Navy SEALs were trained by the American Navy SEALs and British Royal Marines. I’m as good as anyone else here, sir,” Scimitar answered confidently.

“I hope so, lad.” Skip turned his attention to the rest of the men as Scimitar stepped back into line.

“My lads here are; Jaguar, Argentine jungle warfare expert; Outlaw, British Royal Marine; Saint, American Ranger; Lone Star, American 36th Infantry; Tagger, Australian 1st Commando Regiment; Nimbus, Italian Folgore Brigade; Ronin, Japanese Spec Ops Group; Viper, Croatian Spec Ops Brigade; Jade Tiger, South Korean Marines and Berkut, Ukrainian 25th Airborne. All infantry. These nine guys bring me up to three four-man fire-teams, like Eagle’s three fire-teams.”

The Commander nodded as Jammer trotted toward them through the rows of parked vehicles on level 2.

“Very well, carry on, Colonel.”

Jammer stopped in front of the three officers and saluted. “Begging your pardon, sirs, but we need to see you down stairs.”

The Commander frowned as Eagle and Skip traded glances. “All three of us?” The Commander asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Lead on, then Sergeant.”

The Commander headed off as Skip turned to the three men leaning on the jeep. They immediately straightened up.

“Raider, Sabre, get these guys squared away with a bunk. Redline, see about getting their weapon cards issued.”

“Sir!” the three soldiers snapped in reply, saluting. Skip returned the salute and followed the Commander.

“Dismissed,” Eagle added before leaving.

As the officers left, the non-coms relaxed.

“So,” Sabre began. “How come you’re called Outlaw?”

The British soldier rolled his eyes. “One of my ancestors was mad on Robin Hood and changed his surname. My first name’s the same as another guy in Hood’s gang, so I got called ‘Outlaw’ at Lympstone.”

“Are you a bit of a criminal then?” Redline asked.

“Far from it, I was always a good kid.”

“What about you then, Saint?” Sabre asked. “Are you a goody-two-shoes?”

“Not really, sarge. I got the nickname in basic because my given names and my surname are three saints. My behaviour’s never been that saintly,” he replied in a Texan accent. “I got in a lot of fights as a kid. I smoked when I was thirteen, I got caught driving at fourteen and my parents caught me en flagrante delecto at fifteen with a cheerleader. I managed to straighten out when I joined up.”

Sabre snorted at the story. He looked to Tagger.

“I used to play footie… what you Poms call ‘Aussie Rules’. I was a defensive player, so I was a ‘tagger’,” the Australian said.

“I’m from Texas, like Saint, but I picked my code-name because I served in the 36th Infantry and they’re based in Texas. Only been with ‘em for five years before I volunteered for AF selection,” Lone Star explained.

Raider looked confused.

“Texas is known as the Lone Star state, Raider,” Sabre said before the Greek soldier could ask.

“Oh.”

Ronin explained he was named after the term for a masterless Samurai, Berkut’s name was Ukrainian for Golden Eagle, Viper took his name from the snake on his unit’s badge, Nimbus took his name from the Folgore regiment he’d served in, the 183rd, and Jade Tiger explained he’d simply chosen something that ‘sounded bad ass’.

The group headed toward an elevator to take them down to level four.

On the third level, Jammer and Wireless were showing the three senior officers files they’d decrypted from one of the laptops recovered in Nigeria.

“See, most of the files we’ve decrypted from the hard drives and other media have been schematics for Hyena parts and for the Hyena as a whole,” Jammer explained. “Boffin’s studying them down in the labs to see if he can find a weakness we can more readily exploit.”

“This,” Wireless cut in. “However, is financial data. It’s partly to do with a company we suspect is a front for Ironblood.”

“Why do you think that?” Eagle asked.

“Partly because the company’s called ‘Arno Dolobin Inc.’, which is a partial anagram of Baron Ironblood,” Jammer answered. “The company was set up five years ago and operates out of an office in Geneva. We’ll need more to go on, of course.”

“Of course,” The Commander agreed. “Get Quarrel in here.”

Moments later, the blonde Swiss woman arrived in the ops room. “Sir.”

“Ah, Quarrel. We need you to travel to Geneva. We’ve got intel here that implicates a company in Ironblood’s network. I understand Vixen’s not returned?” The Commander inquired.

“No, she’s still in Washington working with the FBI and her old Defence Intelligence Agency friends on locating that Red Shadow cell,” Quarrel replied.

“What about Deep Cover?”

“In Nigeria undercover trying to find a way into the Red Shadows out there.”

“Right, well, take Jammer here with you. Find out what you can and report back.”

“Me? Why am I going, sir?” Jammer asked, startled.

“Technical know-how, Sergeant. It may be necessary for Quarrel to hack into some computers. She’ll need your help.”

Jammer didn’t look happy, but followed the svelte woman out the door.

“Come on, let’s go and see what Boffin can provide us with,” Quarrel said.

Geneva, Switzerland
Two days later

The woman who strode into the offices of Arno Dolobin Inc didn’t look anything like Quarrel. The Swiss intelligence officer had added extensions to her hair, which was now dyed brown and wore it in a severe bun. Contact lenses gave her brown eyes instead of blue, whilst spectacles also disguised her face. She wore a conservatively cut skirt and jacket with a plain white blouse. A briefcase under her arm and a Bluetooth earpiece in her right ear completed the image of a no-nonsense businesswoman.

Heda Pulver had been born in Interlaken in central Switzerland, however her first twelve years had been spent in Washington DC, where her diplomat father had been assigned as a member of the Swiss Embassy. She’d spent the next five years living with her father in Tokyo, where she took up martial arts and proved quite deadly at them. When her father took an assignment to Beijing, shortly after she left high school, Heda returned to Switzerland and went to university. Then the Strategic Intelligence Service had come calling.

Switzerland’s premiere intelligence agency had naturally found the daughter of a diplomat with martial arts skills and who spoke Japanese as well as English like a native an invaluable asset. The fact that Heda had a Washington accent when she spoke English was even more prized.

So, as she approached the reception desk, Quarrel found it somewhat ironic that she’d returned home only to be a spy once more.

“Good morning,” she greeted the receptionist in German. “My name is Hilda Rosen, I’m from Swiss Re, I have an appointment with Herr Klein.”

The receptionist tapped at a computer keyboard. “Oh, yes. Herr Klein’s office is on the fifth floor. You can go on up.”

Quarrel smiled as she thanked the woman and headed for the lift.

In a van two hundred metres down the road, Jammer watched the view from Quarrel’s spectacles as she entered the lift and hit the button.

“She’s on her way up,” he said. Next to him, Boffin was studying a three-dimensional floor plan of the Arno Dolobin Inc building.

“Hm,” the scientist replied, looking across at the screen. Boffin had insisted on coming along to make sure the surveillance gear all worked.

The arms of Quarrel’s glasses hid small cameras, which were relaying their images back to the van via the Bluetooth earpiece she wore. The camera view was then merged into a single view on the screen. Quarrel’s earrings hid high-end omni-directional microphones, whilst the mobile she carried inside her jacket was actually broadcasting a low-frequency inaudible sonar pulse every five seconds, imaging the building and providing a detailed floor plan. Boffin had insisted on trialing the device on the mission in case there were any secret rooms or floors in the building.

Swiss Re had proved very cooperative, the insurance company had provided a legitimate reason for ‘Hilda Rosen’ to visit the company and a background briefing for her, to ensure she seemed genuine.

Whilst Quarrel was in her meeting and doing a credible job of appearing to be an insurance company worker, Jammer was attempting to remotely hack into the company’s computers via their wireless network.

“Dammit,” he muttered after half an hour. “Can’t get past their firewalls. I even tried sending in a couple of worm programmes, but they got squished by their anti-virus software.”

“I guess she’ll just have to go in tonight then, after-hours,” Boffin replied.

“Guess so.”

That night

Quarrel crept along the sewer pipe. She’d disposed of the snorkel she’d worn in the river, but was still wearing the nose-clip to ensure she didn’t choke on the foul smell. Finally reaching the correct place, she opened a grate and climbed through into a room dominated by a large cistern.

Quarrel pulled off the nose-clip and her muck-encrusted boots and tossed them into the over-flow pipe she’d climbed along. She pulled a pair of sneakers out of her small backpack and quickly put them on before dashing across the room to the door. The door was unlocked and she entered the basement.

The intelligence officer darted to the stairs and raced up them two at a time. Pausing at the top, she activated the mic attached to the earpiece she wore on her right ear.

“I’m in,” she whispered. She then activated the camera she wore on an earpiece on her left ear.

Jammer clicked the radio open and closed without speaking to acknowledge her report.

The intelligence officer was clad in a form-fitting black jumpsuit and had a KA-BAR combat knife strapped to her right thigh and carried a recurve crossbow. Easing the door to the basement open, thankfully someone had forgotten to lock it, and peered out.

There was no sign of any guards, so Quarrel slipped through it and ran across the lobby and took the main stairs two at a time.

Reaching the fifth floor, she crept along the corridor to Herr Klein’s office. The head off accounting had been very helpful that morning, but she’d been sure he was concealing something.

Inside his office, Quarrel smirked to herself as she saw the desktop PC was in sleep mode, not shut down. She quickly ‘woke’ the computer and pulled out a pen-drive Jammer had given her.

“Go into Windows Explorer and search for encrypted files. Copy them over first,” Jammer instructed her.

Quarrel didn’t bother answering. Both he and Boffin could see what she was doing thanks to the camera she wore.

After several minutes, she found a file, unencrypted, named ‘equipment list’.

“Holy cow,” she muttered as she scanned down the list. Chinese small arms. Russian T-55 tanks and MiG-21 fighters. French Mirage IIIs, Puma and MiL-8 helicopters. The company had been buying enough weaponry to equip an army.

“Don’t move.”

Quarrel span around at the voice to see a red-haired woman in a jump suit like hers aiming a suppressed SIG Sauer pistol at her.

“Who are you?” Quarrel asked.

“I was about to ask you that,” the woman answered. “I’m Red Fox.”

“Red Fox?” Quarrel asked. “Red Shadows captured in Algeria identified a woman using that alias as Ironblood’s undercover operative.”

The woman shrugged, “That’s me.”

Quarrel frowned. “What are doing skulking around here at this time of night?” she asked as she slowly grabbed a paperweight off the desk.

“Trying to get intel to pass to British Intelligence,” Red Fox said. “I’m actually a double-agent.”

“Somehow, I don’t believe you,” Quarrel answered. She hurled the paperweight at the woman and snatched the pen drive from the PC as the paperweight bounced off the doorframe as Red Fox ducked.

The other woman’s pistol fired with a quiet ‘thwip’ noise as Quarrel unslung her crossbow. The Swiss woman ducked as the bullet hit the wall behind her.

She fired a crossbow bolt back before charging Red Fox.

The pair crashed through the open office door into the main room.

They rolled over, Quarrel losing her grip on her crossbow as Red Fox dropped her pistol.

As they scrambled to their feet, Quarrel raised her hands in a defence stance.

“I wouldn’t try it,” Quarrel warned her. “I spent five years learning martial arts in Japan.”

Red Fox reached behind her back and pulled out a second pistol.

“Big deal, Love. I’ve got another gun.”

Quarrel dove; shoulder rolled and grabbed her crossbow as Red Fox fired.

The bullets flashed past Quarrel as she hit the floor, leapt upwards and dashed toward the stairs in a half-crouch.

The Swiss woman charged down the stairs, not looking back and once she reached the ground floor, simply ran straight toward the front doors. She raised her crossbow and fired. The glass shattered and a burglar alarm began bleeping as she leapt through the door’s frame and ran toward the black van where Jammer and Boffin sat.

Leaping in the back doors, Quarrel snapped, “Drive!”

Jammer was already in the front seat and gunned the engine and pulled out, racing south.

Action Force HQ
Two days later

The entire Action Force team was assembled on level 1, in the hangars. A display screen set up on a temporary stage showed a satellite image of a factory in a countryside area. The Commander and Major Flagg stood next to the screen on the stage.

“This factory,” The Commander explained. “Is where Baron Ironblood is manufacturing his Roboskulls. It’s located in northwest China. We’ve spoken to the Chinese MOD and they’ve agreed to us staging a raid on the factory. This will be a combined force assault. Z-Force and SAS will take point on the attack. Space Force and the Triad fighter will provide air cover in the event of any Roboskulls managing to launch. Q-Force will be providing support, mainly as gunners on the Bobcat helicopters.”

Most of the naval personnel exchanged glances at that news.

“The majority of Z-Force and SAS Force will be involved in the attack and in blockading the factory, so we will need everyone we can get,” The Commander continued.

“The Z-Force tanks will act as a blockade on the roads north and south of the factory, along with Z-Force’s jeeps. I will be commanding the CP seven miles from the factory, which will also include Loki, Quarrel, Short Wave, The Doc, Jammer, Wireless, Tourniquet, Vaquero, Fixer and Skip. The Wolverines and sniper teams will provide over-watch.”

The Commander paused to pick out Prowl and Tracker in the crowd before continuing.

“On arrival in China, Prowl and Tracker will move out first and provide recon on the site before we launch the attack. The three fire-teams from Z-Force and SAS will assault the factory by helicopter. Blades and Chopper will provide close-air support and escort the Bobcats, whilst the other helo pilots fly the six Bobcats. SAS Force’s Panthers will provide back up from the north. Sandstorm, North Star, Sparrowhawk, Playback, Stakeout, Double-Tap, Beaver, Barracuda will act as gunners. Scimitar will drive a fifth Panther with Eagle and Hound.”

Skip looked rather disgruntled at the news his opposite number would see action and he would be stuck at the command post.

“Scout, Blast Wave, Triage, Lock’n’load and Breaker will provide support to the Z-Force fire teams. Kickback, Jaguar and Kickstart will also assist on rapid-fire bikes. The rest of Z-Force will be manning jeeps. Except for Vixen and Rig-Tone who will provide support for Major Flagg here at the Bunker,” the Commander concluded, using the popular nickname for AF HQ.

After the unit was dismissed, the top two levels became hives of activity as the troops prepared for the deployment; collecting weapons and ammo; loading the vehicles on to elevators and lifting them to the surface; prepping the Wraiths and the Triad and readying the helicopters for transport. The helicopters and vehicles were loaded aboard a number of transport planes and then the air armada took off, heading east.

Wulumuqi, China
Two days later

The journey across most of Asia took over a day to complete, including a break in Kazakhstan for the aircrews. The Chinese government allowed Action Force to take over the airfield at Wulumuqi, where they began refuelling the Wraiths, off-loading the vehicles and getting the helicopters ready for operations.

Prowl and Tracker headed out first; riding on two SAS Battle bikes. They would close in to within a mile of the factory, proceed on foot and begin surveilling the factory from a half-mile away. The four snipers left next, also on Battle bikes. They would move to within half a mile and position themselves to provide cover if needed.

Most of the ground force left next. The SAS Panthers led the way, whilst the tanks and Z-Force jeeps formed the centre of the convoy. Trailing behind the Commander’s APC was the Z-Force bike squad.

After another three hours of travel, the blockades were set up and the Wolverines in position. The command post was set up. The air element left the base next. The battle would soon begin.

[mark]

Excellent once again sundance! Perhaps the fixers working on the dart, lance and shaft could explain why bits of them are easily broken off! Ive been looking on ebay for ages for complete ones! Also is the Kraken a modern intelligent version, as he now talks?

[Sundance]

Kraken is a human being with a code-name and a green fish-scale drysuit and a scary-looking helmet. no deep-frozen fishmen involved.

[The Kraken Wakes]

oh dear...

[mark]

By the way Sundance, when you disintergrated the street in gloucester it wasnt your work place by any chance was it? I would have done the same!

[Sundance]

no. it was supposed to be an empty office block originally, then i made it an insurance office, close to the bus station in order to make sure of casualties. if it'd been my workplace, it would've been Martin's newsagents in Stroud...

[mark]

Sundance, how is the next installment coming on? And when do you think you will post it? Thank's

[Sundance]

i'm doing okay. i should post more within the next two weeks, as i have a week off work next week.

AF are currently heavily engaged at a Roboskull factory in China...

[mark]

i'm doing okay. i should post more within the next two weeks, as i have a week off work next week.

AF are currently heavily engaged at a Roboskull factory in China...

Sounds like its going to be noisy! Good idea with the roboskull factory by the way, it sounds like an excellent place for a rumble.