Jerri heard the yelling and the
crash. She put the call on her speaker
then grabbed an intercom handset. “All
Intel personnel report to stations! Captain
XO to the Intel Shop! QRF prepare for
deployment!” Yes, the Renegade was a
pirate crew and most of them were not quite sober at any given time, but they
still operated in a pretty efficient manner, to include maintaining a Quick
Reaction Force for contingencies. Jerri
was one of the few that had the authority to call for their deployment. Since she didn’t do it often, everyone would
know that this was serious.
She put down the intercom just as
the sound of a gunshot cracked over the speaker. Oh man, not good she thought, then her brain
went to work. The words were muffled but
the line was open, so the phone probably fell to the floor and under a seat. More
sounds of shots being fired, which was probably Redleg and his family trying to
fend off the attackers, whoever they are. Jerri had fired with Redleg several times, but
she had also been on the range with Talia and the girls. She knew they had the ability to beat off an
attack, assuming they didn’t run out of ammo.
The outer door to the S2 shop
opened, and multiple people came running in.
She recognized various voices from her team, and the voice of their
fearless leader. “In here!” yelled Jerri,
and some feet moved in her direction.
Captain XO, Puck, who was the Airship’s pilot, and Platoon Sergeant Kim of
the Bold Air Hussars piled into the room.
“Talk to me Jerri,” said XO.
“I got a phone call from Redleg,”
she said and indicated the open speakerphone line, the sound of more shouts,
shots and crashes sounding over it. “He
was asking about any threat info in the area, he thought he and his family were
being followed. Right before I called
you there was some yelling and a crash sound, then the first gunshots. It sounds like they’ve been ambushed in Wick
but I don’t know where. I do know they
were at their Church for services and thought they were followed from there.”
“Ok”, said the Captain XO. Then he turned towards SFC Kim. “Dan, who’s QRF today?”
SFC Kim replied immediately. “3rd Squad of the Bold Air Hussars. Viking already has them moving to the flight
line for boarding.”
“Excellent. Go brief them up as they load, more info will
follow as we have it. No one messes with
family members, make sure they understand that.
I don’t know who these guys are but they made a huge mistake today and I
don’t want any of them getting away.”
Dan left and XO turned to
Puck. “Puck, how soon can you get your
toy in the air?”
Puck smiled. “My crew chief is pre-flighting, we will be
up and headed to Wick in 5.”
“Ok, head to Wick and look for car
accidents. If we get better info we will let you know.”
“Will
do boss.” And with that Puck was out the door.
Captain
XO turned back towards Jerri, and they both realized that they couldn’t hear
any more shots being fired. They stared
at each other for a couple of seconds with a knowing look between them, then
the XO said “Let me know if you get any more information. I’m getting the Renegade spun up as well in
case this is some kind of prelude to an attack on the base.”
“Got
it” Jerri replied. “I’m already working on getting their location and I’ll get
my people to look into the threat info.”
Suddenly Redleg’s voice came over
the speaker. “We’re on the A99, south
side of town.”
“Redleg, XO. SITREP.”
“It was a multiple vehicle ambush
with a number of attackers. They grabbed
my daughters and took off in a black Mercedes van, the license plate starts
with Charlie, Papa, One, Eight.” Jerri
caught the attention of one of her analysts and handed them a post-in with the
partial plate. He ran off to get the
required info. She turned back to the
phone as Andrew continued talking. “They
tried to grab my wife but she’s with me now and unharmed. We’ve got several bad guys down as well as
some abandoned vehicles. We could really
use some back up and an intel team to, plus a legal mate or two so they can
deal with the local authorities if they ever show up. These guys were high on something, it took
headshots to put them down, and I would swear some of them are still twitching
too.”
“Roger, QRF is already in motion,
you should see them soon” replied the XO.
“Any idea who they were?”
There was a pause, then Andrew replied,
“My first guess is Gilead.”
Captain XO swore. He hated those
guys. The way they treated women and warped
history to justify their way of life turned his stomach. Plus, he knew about the history Redleg and
his family had with them. If Gilead was
behind the abductions, this entire episode was going to get complicated and messy. With that thought, the XO decided he didn’t
care how messy it got. While he and the
majority of the crew didn’t agree with, or even understand, the McCalls choice
of religious observance, crew are family, and his number one rule is that
everyone puts family first.
“Understood. I’ll have Deuce pull
up as much info as her section can get and then we can discuss further when you
get here.” Then he continued “I’ve
already got the Renegade spinning up for deployment. I’ll make sure my batman grabs your “Go” bag
and, we’ll make sure Talia has stuff too.”
“Wait, what?” said Andrew, “Since
when did you get a batman?”
“Airship Captain’s prerogative,” he
replied, “and I really don’t think this is the time for that particular
question.”
“It’s never the right time for most
questions where this crew is concerned, so I ask them when I think of them”
said Andrew.
“Whatever” replied XO. “Just link up with the QRF, scrub any intel
you can get, and then meet us back here.
We need to get aloft so we can get your girls back.”
“Roger, see you soon.” Answered
Andrew, and the call disconnected.
The Captain XO turned towards Jerri,
but she started talking first. “Redleg mentioned Gilead earlier, before the
ambush hit them. What is going on? Why is a seriously whack religious cult from
the US targeting him and his family? I
mean all jokes about their religion aside, how is he involved with the Gilead
cult?”
He sighed before answering. “You joined us right before we made the speed
run from Maryland to Wick, right?” Jerri
nodded yes, so he continued. “Redleg and
his family were already onboard, but he wasn’t official crew yet.”
Jerri squinted as if she was
looking back on those events two years ago.
“Ok, I can vaguely remember that he was on board and working with the Tesla
crews, but he wasn’t in charge, in fact there wasn’t a whole lot of
organization with the gunnery crews back then.
I think I ran into the rest of the family, but they weren’t too
talkative back then. I’d say they were
really skittish.”
“The issue with the Tesla crews is
probably because they were a bit too drunk.
After we got to Wick, I found I needed to tighten a few things up, but I
digress. The point is we picked up
Andrew and his family prior to recruiting you.
And by ‘picked up’ that’s pretty literal, which is partly why the rest
of family seemed skittish.”
“Ok, now I’m really intrigued” said
Jerri.
“Save it for later, he needs to be
here to tell the story. For now, find me
some targets so we can go get those girls back”.
“Yes
Sir.” Said Jerri. Then she went to work.
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