The Gauntlet Crucible Ch. 7

*3:59 PM  About two hundred miles south of the Dead Zone*

Three of the Mi-26s landed onto a large clearing.  The massive doors opened and all three hundred men pour out.  About a mile south was a large column of military transport trucks driving towards them.  Holt walked to the first truck with Smoke and James as it pulled up.  

"Get in! The Russians are expecting supply trucks.  Instead of ammo, you'll be the ones transported.  Remember, do not engage until all trucks are inside.  Each truck will represent your squad so ten men per truck! Let's go!" instructed Cohen over the radio.  

Holt, along with James and Smoke, piled into the back of the lead truck with seven other men.  Others followed suit in the remaining twenty-nine.

"So who gets to be squad leader?" asked one of them while cocking his rifle.  The others shifted in their seats.

"I will." answered Smoke.  The men nodded and looked back.  The tail-gate was closed and the back was then covered in a tarp to conceal them.  

"Do we get a squad name?" Holt asked, looking at Smoke.

"Yeah, I've always had an affinity to dragons. Smoking Dragon it is." chuckled Smoke.

"That's stupid.  It's too long." commented James.  

"Smoking Dragon it is." Smoke repeated, ignoring him.  The others, except James, chuckled.  

They could feel the truck start to move.  Despite having their faces covered, Holt could tell that the men were both excited and a bit nervous to get moving.

--

*Two and a half hours later.  Three miles away from the Dead Zone.*

Holt had shook some of the other merc, who had fallen asleep.  

"We're here." he said.  The others nodded and held their weapons at the ready.  

"Remember follow my lead, and keep communication only with adjacent squads." instructed Smoke.

"Wait, I thought it was radio silence?" asked a merc.

"Only with the Green Sky, Cohen didn't say we couldn't tactically use it with the others." answered Smoke.  All of the men were quiet as they felt the truck stop.  Holt could hear footsteps in the dirt apporach the driver.

He could hear someone speaking in Russian.  He assumed it was a guard as he was asking for authorization.  He could then hear the driver respond in Russian and also hear the rustling of papers.  

"Da...Da..." muttered the guard.

"What the hell are they saying?" asked James.

"He was asking for papers, everything seems to be in order."  responded Holt, listenting to the guard and the driver.  

The guard and the driver continued to converse.  

"Now he is asking if they had been followed by any civilians.  The driver responded no.  Looks we're in the clear." As if to verify Holt, the truck then started to drive into the compound.

"I didn't know you understood Russian." Smoke stated, surprised.  Holt merely nodded his head.

"I have a knack for languages." was Holt's only reply.  

After clearing the gate, the thirty trucks then pulled deep into the massive compound, eventually lining up in perfect order.  

"This is it.  Wait for my go." ordered Smoke.  They then could hear more footsteps as two guards came behind the truck and lifted the tarp open.  Smoke quickly responded by aiming his silenced pistol and killing both of them, before the guards could alert the base.  Smoke was the first one to jump out with Holt right behind him.  James was the fifth to jump out.  

"Too easy." muttered one of the mercs.  

"We're not done yet, so don't get cocky." said another.  Holt watched as the more men emptied from the trucks.  From the looks of it, they were in a very secluded section as there were only the two guards that Smoke had killed.  However, there were watch towers that shined spotlights over the entire sector.  

"We have to hurry!" urged Smoke.  His men then filed on him. Unfortunately, one of the watch towers then shone their spotlight on one of the squads in the back and Holt could hear the guards in the tower shouting in surprise.  Eventually, an alarm was triggered and the entire base became alerted.

"So much for being subtle.  EVERYONE!!! SPREAD OUT WITH YOUR SQUADS AND FIND DIFFERENT WAYS IN!  SPREAD THEIR FORCES OUT THIN!!!" yelled Smoke over the alarm.  The other squads then began to disperse into different sectors of the base.  Smoke lead his squad into the doors of the armory.  Almost immediately, he could hear distant gunfire between the Russians and the other mercenaries.

Inside the armory, was a contingent of seven guards.  They opened fire with their AK-274s and took cover behind empty barrels.  Smoke's squad took cover as well, but three of them were caught in the open and were killed.  

"Damn it..." Holt growled.  He lifted his head and opened fire.  He managed to nail two of the guards and they returned fire.  The remaining mercenaries opened up as well.  After five minutes of a firefight, the guards were dead and blood was pooling out.  The squad moved along and into a giant corridor.  The base was alive as guards were rushing out of every corner and they did their best to fend guards off when ever they were attacked.  Everything seemed to be going fine until a group of four soldiers wearing competely different uniforms and black helmets came out of a doorway and attacked the mercenaries.  They managed to kill two more before they were gunned down.  

"Oh my god..." Holt said, upon inspection of the corpses.  On the left arm of each soldier, was an American flag.  

"What?! US troops, here?!" exclaimed James.  

"Not only that, they're Delta Force." said Holt when he saw the symbol of Delta Force, which was a triangle with a sword pointed up, on the uniform.  

"Fuck! We need to hurry! We need to find the storage room! Let's go!" urged one of the remaining mercs.  They rushed down the large corridors and eventually found a security room.

"There!" Smoke pointed at a blood red container on one of the moniters.  It was covered in a black drape, with only red bottom visible.  It looked liked it was in a room with other science equipment.  Right next to the monitor was a giant mape of the base.  Holt studied it carefully and found a way to reach the main storage for scientific research.  

"Alright, I'm on point!" said Holt and led them away.

"Do you even know where you're going?" asked Smoke, skeptical.

"Yeah, now shut your mouth and...SHIT!!!"  A guard with an RPG-23 came out and took aim.  Holt quickly gunned him down, but the guard manage to fire the rocket and it hit the ceiling.  It caused rubble to come down and seperated Holt from the others.  

"NO!" Holt looked back at the rubble, but he couldn't go that way.  After shaking off his dismay, he decided to continue on.  He encountered practically no resistance as the guards were too busy with the other mercs, but occasionaly he could see Delta Force rush in other directions without noticing him at all.  

After fifteen long minutes, he finally found the main science complex.  It was abandoned and there were many machines with glowing lights as well as a papers and beakers on the table.  To the left, there was a vehicle storage section with boxes and trucks and a large garage door.  

"Good.  I found a way out, but now for the package..." Holt searched the area.  Eventually, he found the covered cage and opened the garage door. While the massive doors rolled to the side, he walked up to it.  

"Pay day.  Let's see what you are." muttered Holt.  He raised his gloved hand and pulled the tarp off.  To his utter shock, there was a white dragon that scowled at him.