#fragger

Incredible. The garbage is disposing itself now.

    “NO.”

For our next submission, we have an entry by a Dirty Bomber who wishes to remain anonymous for the time being. Please prepare your eyes for another installment of DBFics, “Operation Kira.”

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“God, I hate Mondays. You have just got in the mood for the weekend and BANG, back to work you go. At least, it’s a work I like, but GOD DAMNIT, the weekend is still the weekend!”

Those were the thoughts of Fragger, light machine gunner and grenadier working under the Central Disaster Authority as a mercenary soldier, on his way to a briefing in a cold London’s monday morning.

“I wonder, are the other guys already there? The briefing begins when everyone’s in anyway. Or like Skyhammer would say: 'Party doesn’t start ‘till I walk in!' Funny guy, that Skyhammer, we go along nicely. I should teach him some proper door breaching, when we are out of here.”

As he imagined, the rest of the team was already outside of the room, small talking. He nodded his head to greet everyone, and the group entered the briefing room. As usual it was empty, aside from a desk with a screen and a webcam. The moment all the people sat down, the lights turned off, and a recorded message played on the screen.

-Good day, mercenaries. Today’s mission is important not only for the CDA, but for the entire world as well, so no failure will be tolerated.

The CDA logo disappeared and was replaced by the picture and the information about a blue-haired woman.

-In the past we successfully recovered the controller of an orbital laser stored in an abandoned military Underground carriage, too bad the woman who got it had the brilliant idea to steal it and start to work under The Jackal, her name is Kira, some of you have worked with her.

On the screen the picture of a dockyard appeared, and the voice continued.

-Our intelligence tells that at 1000 they are going to guard a ship as it unloads containers with content unknown. This is the right moment to go in and reclaim that controller. The content of the load doesn’t not bother us, it might be full of rubbish as far as we are concerned, but it’s of major importance to have that controller back! A chopper will extract you in the usual place at 0900, good luck.

In the outfitting room, the conversation about the mission went on.

-Kira, huh? You worked with her, right?- asked Fragger to Skyhammer.

-Yes, a good teammate, but nothing special until she got that laser thing. But believe me, she knows her stuff, microelectronics and shite like that.

-And she’s good looking too.

-Don’t tell me you want her to teach you about transistors while she whips your arse and says you’ve been a naughty soldier!

Fragger laughed.

-Quite the opposite.. If you know what I mean!

-You really are a naughty soldier then!

The voice of Fletcher, Nigerian mercenary and self-proclaimed field officer broke the banter:

-Team, come over here, let’s see a strategy.

The group joined around a table, with a military map representing what seemed to be a pier of London’s industrial port.

-The area is full of containers, we can take advantage of them to surrond and make a surprise attack, under the crossfire they won’t last long. We just must deploy a bit more distant than usual, and it will be a cakewalk.

Arty, the other fire support soldier inquired:

-They surely expect us, the defenses will be to the top.

-The defenses were to the top also when I blew up that oil refinery in Qatar, but strangely I’m still here. We will split as soon as we enter the container area, and then we will position in these places: - he then started pointing various locations on the map.

-As you can see, they will be completely surrounded. Now let’s move, time is money.

On the helicopter, Fragger pulled out of his pocket a flask and sipped a bit of it.

-Is that whiskey?- Asked Skyhammer -First off, you give me a sip of it too, then don’t drink too much of it, or you will think we are The Jackal’s guys!

-No alcohol on the job!- Arty stood up and tried to grab the flask, but wasn’t quick enough and Fragger put it back in the coat.

-HAH, you guys! First off, I need whiskey to wake up in the morning, and always remember I was the best drunk sharpshooter of my fireteam back when I was in the army!

-What do you mean?

-Drunk sharpshooting? You drink a full flask of whiskey, then you do a full magazine in the three hundreds meters range. If you hit the target with at least half of the shots, you made it! Actually, one of my fellow soldiers landed almost all the bullets, too bad they were on the targets in the adjacent lanes. We must do it someday too!

Fletcher interrupted:

-Cut the chatter, we have arrived. Let’s split, we will attack at 10 and 15, synchronize on my mark. Mark. Now let’s go.

The group quickly entered the container area, and soon they were split.

“This container maze is huge. Can’t see past a few meters, what tells me someone is going to jump behind the corner and pin me down? Just keep your cool, Skyham, last time you lost your mind you almost airstriked the entire team. Just reach the position and open fire when the watch beeps, regular everyday buisness.”

A sudden buzzing broke Skyhammer’s thought flow. He flattened on a container and peeked over the corner. An automatic turret was standing on the way, ready to lock on at the first detected movement. Skyhammer quickly hid the head, and whispered on the radio:

-Guys, there’s an automatic turret blocking my path, can’t go on.

In that moment a loud hooter announced the cargo ship had arrived.

-Carpe Diem! - Mumbled the mercenary as he jumped out of the corner and shot a bullet.

Skyhammer’s assault rifle was covered by the hooter, and the bullet safely landed on the turret’s motion sensor.

-No more turret issues, and I’m sure none of the enemy heard me shooting, going on as usual.

In the meantime, Arty was ready on the roof of the docking area’s building, and was reporting in to the rest of the team.

-I have a view on them. I see the mission objective, that Texan engineer, a woman with a grenade launcher, and what seems to be a man wearing a poncho, he just walked out of sight. The crane is unloading some containers. I see some proximity mines on the ground, be careful when navigating the area. Over.

Now, it was all a matter of waiting. Every CDA operative was waiting for the beep to begin the attack, each one picking a target easy to dispatch from their position. But they didn’t consider that The Jackal was not an unprepared man.

In a nearby building, a woman was spying on the situation and updating The Jackal’s men minute by minute.

-They are taking position behind the containers, one of them entered the docking area, I guess he will spy on you, just pretend nothing is happening. Bush, your turret was hit. Can you hear me? Goddamn hooter. I don’t know when they will attack, just wait for it and be prepared.

Five and more minutes passed, every man on the field was as nervous as ever. Then, the silence was broken by a beep.

“Party starts here!” thought Skyhammer as he jumped in the open and aimed the gun for the perfect shot. But he wasn’t quick enough, Bushwhacker readily moved behind cover.

A similar situation was happening to the other mercenaries. Not a single shot landed on the enemy, and they all fell back to safe positions

-Shit!- yelled Fletcher over the radio -They spotted us! Who is the imbecille that blew the cover?

-I don’t care, let’s get that shit back and fly back home!- replied Fragger, while throwing a grenade as a signal for the enemy Rhino to back off.

The explosion’s impact pushed Rhino to the ground, that was quickly knocked out by Fragger.

Bushwhacker was chewing his cigar, trying to figure out Skyhammer’s next move. “The first thing”, he thought, “Is to fall back, let him come to me, and I might find someone else too.”

Skyhammer, a dozen of meters away, was pondering the same.

“If I were that ugly face, what would I do? Of course, falling back and find some ugly faces to ask help to! Time for a little chase!”.

Fletcher, blocked behind a container under the crossfire of Phoenix and Proxy took the sticky bombs out of the belt, and looked at them. Were three enough to do the trick? He had gone through worse, and dying is not as bad as it sounds. In that exact moment, a machine gun burst announced the arrival of Fragger. The enemies backed off, and a container to container firefight ensued.

Kira was hidden near the control panel of the shipyard crane, in case someone wanted to do funny stuff with it, and saw Bushwhacker sprinting towards her. She shot a few bursts towards the figure that was seemingly chasing him, and Bushwhacker made a final dash behind cover.

-Thank goodness I found you, Kira. We need to flush out that son of a bitch from behind the cover, think your laser can do it?

-I can try, just give me a few seconds.

That laser had always done wonders, nothing had a chance against it, and its power was just a few seconds away. All you had to do was to acquire the coordinates of the user and point the designator, wait and..

-Damnit! It doesn’t work!

-What the hell do you mean doesn’t work!

-It can’t find the signal, they must have satellite jammers around here.

-”Around here” is a big place, don’t you say?

-Yes! The docking area! The Guardian Angel said someone entered the docking area, they must have placed the jammer on the roof.

-Makes sense. But we can’t leave the crane controls on their own.

-Nader, are you free?- Asked Kira in the radio -We need to check the docking area, they must have placed a satellite jammer up there.

-Ya, I will wait for you there.

-See you, Bush.

Kira shot a few more burst to dissuade Skyhammer from leaving the cover and sprinted away.

“Satellite jammers? This is new, I didn’t even know something like that existed. Not like my grenade launcher would be damaged in any way. Kira sounded worried, must be something serious.”

Nader took cover near the docking area, and was soon joined by Kira.

-What are we exactly dealing with?

-A satellite jammer, when it recognizes nearby satellite communications it sends signals that completely scramble the communication; its making my laser useless. There should be someone up there, too.

-Let me handle this.

Nader fired some grenades on the roof, and Arty backed off before they could detonate. He then blindly fired some shots from behind his new cover, hoping to hit something.

-What I told you? -said Nader, reloading the grenade launcher -Now it’s only a matter of hitting the soft spot. Let’s try again.

Meanwhile Arty was thinking how to sort out the situation. He was too exposed, and with grenades he couldn’t stand a chance. Suddently, an idea. It was risky, but it was the only one.

Near the entrance, Nader was ready to hit again.

-Now look at this, a textbook shot!

When the grenades detonated, a broken helmet landed near Kira’s feet.

-See, textbook shot! I think you can handle it on your own, now.

-Yes, go and help Bushwhacker. I’ll contact you in case of need.

-Ya, take care.

Kira entered the containers’docking area, and headed for the stairs to the roof. The building was silent, and she could hear the firefights taking place outside. The stairs were in a dangerous spot, someone could be hidden behind the corner. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to let Nader go back. It was all or nothing. Kira started walking cautiosly, describing a wide corner so that she could spot the enemy before the enemy could do the opposite. Suddently, a loud clang' Kira turned to the direction of the sound was coming from and found herself with a gun barrel planted in the back.

-Listen very carefully, I have a family and I think so do you. We are here for the laser controller, nothing more. Give it to me and I won’t hurt you.

Since Kira didn’t move, he took out a knife and threateningly approached it to the woman’s throat.

-I tell it again. Give me the laser controller, or I slit your throat.

There was no way out. Kira took out the laser controller and gave it to the man.

-Thank you.

And it was darkness.

Arty carefully laid the unconcious Kira on the ground, picked the pistol he threw to distract her, and communicated over the radio:

-I got the controller, meet you at the extraction point.

“Allright!” thought Skyhammer, “It’s show time!”

-Airstrike incoming!- he yelled from the top of his lungs while throwing the marker and quickly retiring.

In the meantime Fletcher used his sticky bombs as a decoy for him and Fragger to fall back, and soon al the CDA mercenaries left  the containers area.

-Arty, where is your helmet?- asked Fragger once the CDA men boarded the extraction helicopter.

-I gave it to a man that was minding his business.

-Ok, ok, no need to get angry. How did you get it anyway?

-Asking politely.

-You really aren’t a chatty person, aren’t ya?

-Time is money. Less talk, more action.

When Kira gained consciousness Phoenix, the Spanish medic, was bent over her.

-Are you ok?

-I have a terrible headache, I can’t think from the pain..

-Let me check. Yes, you have a big bump on the back of the head. You must have been knocked out by the butt of a gun. ¿Lo es? Aside from that are you ok?

-They stole my laser controller, just it.

-Ok, the rest of the team is ok. Rhino got some grenade shrapnels up his face, he will be fresh in a few days, Bushwhacker got his shoulder dislocated when being pushed away by an explosion, I took care of it on the spot, and my nanoparticles do wonders. Let’s go back and report in.

Over to the CDA base, Fletcher carefully put the orbital laser controller inside a briefcase, before handing it to a armored truck’s crew.

-There we go, safe and sound. We will send the report tomorrow at midday.

-Is the connection ready, Proxy?

-Ready in 10.

On the screen the dim-lit face of The Jackal appeared. Little was known about him, many discordant voices stated the most insane things about him. Some stated he was either a US scientist living in Brazil or an eccentric billionaire trying to profit from the Dirty Bomb aftermath. Some voices even theorized he was the man behind the Dirty Bomb itself, but it wasn’t Phoenix’s concerns, he was there for the money.

-Glad to see you are still alive, Phoenix. You are worth my money. Go ahead and report.

-Mission accomplished, the containers were successfully unloaded. We got attacked by soldiers probably sent by the CDA. No casualties, three wounded.

It was useless to thank The Jackal, informalities of this kind only angered him.

-Satisfactory. James was right about the CDA moves then. Other statements?

-Apparently the CDA men were to the docks not for the containers, but for Kira’s orbital laser controller. They successfully stole it, its destination is unknown.

-Let me talk to her.

Kira was nervous, and for obvious reasons. Among all the theories, The Jackal was well known for his mercilessness with people that weren’t up to the standards he expected. She sat in front of the screen, dead inside and expecting the worst.

-Kira, Kira.. Messed up big time, didn’t you? That orbital laser was worth a lot of money.

-Go straight to the point, Jackal. Am I just fired or executed on the spot?

The usually serious face of The Jackal was crossed by a snarky, almost cruel smile.