Blood for the Baron!

London, July 24 1993

The phone started to ring in the aide to the Home Secretary's office, Mr. Swinton's elderly secretary answered on the fourth ring.
"Home Secretary's office how can i help you?" she almost sang.
"Mr. Swinton please" said the gruff voice at the otherr end, the secretary looked across the office to where the early thirties well groomed David Swinton sat reading that days edition of The Mail. As soon as his elderly secretary looked in his direction, Swinton knew it was him that had been requested, putting down his newspaper he walked across the room and accepted the phone from the secretary.
"David Swinton speaking" he acknowledged.
"This is Bob Chisolm, we've got a situation on the Firestar".
"What kind of situation?" Swinton asked.
"At 7.00 A.M. this morning terrorist boarded and took control of the rig, the've since contacted us with this message" Sir Robert played the recorded message over the phone while Swinton listened stunned.
After the message ended, Swinton just stood there contemplating what to do "Are you still there?" asked Chisolm.
"I will speak to the Home Secretary immediately and get back to you" Swinton said and put the phone down.

Cyprus, RAF Airbase

The C-130's ramp lowered towards the sweltering tarmac runway, as the ramp touched the surface, two RAF crewmen jumped down and lowered the extensions to the ramp allowing vehicles to be loaded and unloaded. Two men then walked down the ramp and on towards the main building, they were tough looking veterans wearing desert battle dress as rough as the're stubble of the're two week old beards. Now in the're early forties, both men had fought many battle and wore the scar's as trophies.
"When does the leave start boss?" asked the Corporal.
"As soon as your feet touch Cyprus, Jones" answered Major Rob Buckingham the commanding officer of A Squadron, 22 Regiment, SAS. Buckingham had during the 1980's led a NATO unit that was a detachment of 22 Regiment, entitled SAS Force, it had contained the best counter terrorist soldiers from all NATO armies. When the war against Red Shadow and Cobra terrorists had died down these men were sent back to their national units, Buckingham had returned to Stirling Lines and promoted to Major. Since then Buckingham had seen action in South America where he led an SAS team to hunt for Drug Barons, then came Operation Desert Storm, Buckingham had been second in-command of A Squadron as it swept through Southern Iraq. In these operations and the covert ones in Iraq since, Corporal Albert Jones had fought side by side with Buckingham. Jones had joined the SAS just before the Falklands campaign and Buckingham had took him along to SAS Force, now they were going on leave after months behind the lines in Iraq training local militia to fight Saddam Hussein's forces. Both men entered the main building only to be confronted by a senior army General.
Two hours later, Buckingham and Jones were aboard a Lockheed TriStar heading for RAF Northolt. On board the jet the two SAS men sat watching a video screen, on the screen were two men who were having a discussion between themselves. Then one of the men, who wore the rank and uniform of an Imperial Chief of Staff turned and spoke.
"Major, it seems your old adversary The Black Major has resurfaced. He's leading a terrorist unit thats currently hijacked the largest North Sea gas pproduction rig" said Field Marshall Sir Ian Robertson.
"Is this a Red Shadow operation sir?" asked Buckingham.
"We are not ruling it out at this stage" answered the Field Marshall, "you will recieve more intel when you arrive in the UK but from the looks of things NATO want you to reform your old Action Force unit to deal with the situation".
Then the other man spoke, he was dressed differently in a business suit "Major Buckingham is there any particular people you need to deal with the Black Major?".
"Yes sir i will be needing some of the old gang, Hannes Muller, Jean-Luc Bouvier, Peter Van Der Berg and Pete Sanderson should do" Buckingham told them.
"I have already contacted their respective commands" said the man dressed in the suit "Other than Peter Van Der Berg, the others are already en route".

Cont....

In the office the two men switched off the video phone, the one in the suit now relaxed and sat perched on the edge of the desk.
"Well what now?" asked the Field Marshall.
"Now we do what the Prime Minister said, hand this over to NATO's Action Force" said the man in the suit "oh and have the rest of the equiptment Buckingham needs moved down from Hereford".

RAF Northolt

As the TriStar taxied off the runway a French Airforce Puma helicopter touched down at the otherside of the airfield, its door slid open and three men jumped out. They headed over to the the two men who had just stepped off the TriStar, each man was as tough looking as the next one. When they met, the three started shaking hands with Buckingham and Jones.
"Peter, nice to see you made it" Buckingham said.
"It was a close call Major, I was just about to leave for Kosovo" said Peter Van Der Berg in his flemish accented english.
"Yeah, I was sunning myself on a Florida beach" said the American helicopter pilot Pete Sanderson.
"What have you been upto pal?" Jones asked Frenchman Jean-Luc Bouvier.
"Ive been training Kuwaiti special forces in Marseille Jonesy".
"Right you lot can catch up later" said Buckingham "we've got business guys".
They walked towards two waiting Range Rover, when they got closer they saw that a passenger in one was familiar. Sat in the first Range Rover was blond haired former GSG-9 trooper Hans-Jorge Muller, now an operator with the German KSK. Another round of handshakes followed, and then the loaded up Range Rovers roared off.

Later that night five black rubber suited frogmen approached one of the steel legs of the massive gas rig, as they swam under the surface, they surfaced at the steel leg as the gigantic swells thundered into the rigs leg. The first man hitched a rope to a rung that had been welded to the rigs leg, the rope was then passed to each member of the team. Using the rope to stay close enough each man began climbing the ladder rungs, when they reached the first platform level they uncovered they're dry wrapped MP5 sub-machine pistols. The first man moved along the landing stealthily, the further they got the better they felt and now they began to hear voices from up above them. Just as the first man reached the bottom of the stairway an explosion lit up the landing, followed by the screams of men wounded by an explosive device.
An hour later a video message was being viewed in an office in London, the screen showed the former Royal Marine SBS man John Shepherd now known as the Black Major.
"What is wrong with you people?" he asked "your attempt has proven utterly useless. You've just got one man killed and the other four are wounded, they're leader has something to say".
A man whose face was covered by a balaclava came onto the screen, from behind the Major removed the balaclava revealing a pain haunted face.
"Tell them your name" the Major ordered off screen.
"I'm Commander James Curran, seal team eight leader" the man said with a struggle.
The Major returned to the screen "this is your one and only warning, any other attempt at a rescue will also fail and next time we will execute the intruders and the remaining seals". The screen went black and the rooms lights went on, revealing the man in the suit and the five SAS Force men.
"Over to you Major Buckingham" the man said.

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