Time/Date Error (Damned of the 2/19th-Book Six) - Done

One of the Four Horsemen

Island-638
Restricted Naval Area
Navigation Hazard Area
North Atlantic
22 March, 1987

0650 Hours

I watched the sun through the window of the Chinook, holding onto the strap hanging from the ceiling. Around me was a mixed team from SOG, some SEAL, a smattering of Rangers, some guys out of First Special Forces, a set of Marine Recon, some Air Force Commandos, and four guys from Air Force SOAR.

I was surrounded by goddamn snake eaters.

They looked less than thrilled with the thin plastic disposable J-Suits they were wearing, but they were a damn sight better off than I was in my heavy armored version. I had a dual tank system of my back that easily weighed fifty pounds. Oxygen mixture for me, thermite enhanced fuel for the flamethrower that the ejector was riding on my hip.

My headset, some hot shit new design out of DARPA that was only just reaching the SOG dwonks, crackled.

"Landing site visible," The pilot said.

"Circle the town," I snapped. I'd argued this repeatedly on the destroyer but the Naval captain onboard was worried about fuel usage.

He still thought they were going to get the helicopter back.

I wasn't sure he'd get any of us back.

"My orders were to..." he started.

"I'm overriding your orders, Commander," I snapped, "I'm in charge of this mission at this point, which means you do what I say, and I'm ordering you to circle the surface settlement."

"You don't..." They protested again.

The SOG Team Leader broke in, "Sergeant Stillwater is in charge of this mission the second we moved within a mile of the island, Commander. Follow his orders."

Holy shit, a snake eater paying attention to the expert. That was a first.

"Until further notice this is a Class-Bravo biological incident," I told him, trying to make my voice gentle. "Have Redwall-Two hold position before they drop the pallet and head back, I don't want him dropping that pallet before I clear an area, much less landing. And open the rear door."

"Understood," The pilot said. I could hear his displeasure in his voice as I used the straps to move to the back of the Chinook. The door started winding down into deployment mode as I headed back. The wind picked up and the rotor noise was loud enough to be heard through the suit clearly.

I leaned out as we banked over the settlement and let the lizard do his work.

Fifty four buildings; forty eight of them domestics, three point five people per for 168 people, of which 72 would be children; two docks both heavily damaged by fire and explosives; burnt out clinic; burnt out school, high school from the design; elementary school, undamaged and apparently barricaded; law enforcement building with helipad, explosive damage and fire; air-strip, cratering charges used to make the field unusable; artillery piece with empty standard pallets and artillery shell pallets, two round design, meaning it was an 8" artillery piece; two M-270 Multiple Launch Rocket System vehicles with twenty-six stacks of four depleted rocket pods; some cratering of the surrounding fields; three bulldozers near the beaches, steel anti-amphibious landing crosses on beach and in water, no rust; sixty vehicles, all destroyed, including three school buses and two ambulances; dead sheep and cattle; pools of dead birds, domestic and wild; burnt areas that I knew where pyres; scattered human corpses, 33 of them, two of them near the artillery piece.

They'd done their duty.

"I've seen enough, tell Redwall-Two to hover near the pallets near the artillery piece," I said, moving back from the door. "Hover next to it."