Request granted
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15 minutes after the bombs started falling, the base was in chaos. The air strikes had neutralized the nearby airbase and wrecked the perimeter fence, along with the entry bunker. Missiles from Roman jet fighters were still screaming in as the helicopters bearing Julius and the two commando squads approached.
As Julius watched their planned landing ground just outside the perimeter fence coming up fast, he was still running through the plans and the exercises he had run through with his troops. It seemed hed spent every waking hour since hed got his authorization practising, practising, then practising some more. He stood up as the choppers swept over the edge of the forest and headed for the ground, the doors opening as they did so.
As the choppers swooped down almost to the ground, Julius leapt out, the other commandos following. They hit the ground running and sprayed the area with bullets, firing RPGs into the nearby buildings. There was no apparent resistance, the air strikes having wrecked all defensive positions in the facility. Julius began to wonder if they might complete this mission without a single casualty.
This hope was dashed a few seconds later as a hail of American bullets spewed forth from a hole in the wall of one of the buildings. One of the men from the second squad was utterly shredded by the shooting, and seconds later more grenades hurtled back at the unknown shooter. The flash of the explosion revealed a broken body being hurled through the air, but the Roman could see behind it more enemy troops moving through. One of them pulled a grenade launcher of his own and let fly, forcing the Romans to scatter and wounding several of them. Then Julius heard two explosions high overhead and looked up, his mouth opening with horror as he saw the two choppers that had brought them in shot down by Stinger missiles.
He briefly contemplated aborting the mission but the decision was effectively made for him as he saw US SEALs running around the corners of nearby buildings. He knew that, scattered out in the open, his troops could not hope to win this fight, so they would have to use their backup plan.
Everyone, abort mission! Abort mission! he yelled into his radio, Leave the FAEs behind, set for contingency mode. Before the mission, the explosives had been modified to allow a contingency mode to be used on them, in case they had to pull out as they did now. Once set, the bombs would allow a 10-second window period to be placed, then any movement of them would trigger their detonation.
The commando team pulled out their explosives, hit the switches and then hurled them toward the Americans. They then began running by leapfrog, some running flat out, while others laid down suppressive fire while moving back more slowly. They then reversed the positions. In this manner they reached the edge of the trees and moved back through them, but they lost five more dead and six wounded. Moreover, they had now lost their means of evacuation and would have to call in more from Tyrus. They would take some time to arrive, and in the meantime they would have to survive a full-on search for them by every military resource the US had in the area. Julius set the FAEs to explode in 15 minutes by remote control and then he and his troops began their long slog to safety
