Gateway What Lies BeyondChapter 58
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The capture of the two Cougars changed my plans completely. I still intended to use the ‘Heather’ to land a raiding party on the seaward side of Winslow’s base, but instead of me leading that raid, I sent Burton. He took his original team plus Dunbar. They also took along a pair of guards to watch Terry once he’d dropped them off beneath the cliffs that overlooked the sea. Their orders were the same as before; capture the two shelters and the occupants of them, strike down any of Winslow’s private bodyguards, and cause as much havoc and destruction as possible in an effort to distract Winslow long enough that our main force could enter through the main gate and ruin his day.
That was now going to be my job to do, with Kim backing me up by securing the lower base while I headed for the upper base in the two Cougars. Hopefully between Burton, Kim’s force, and my force, Winslow’s house of cards would come tumbling down without too many casualties on our side.
We’d moved from the ambush place to a small forested hill to the northeast of the small fishing village that stood at the foot of Winslow’s base. We’d used the two Cougars, the two Humvee gun trucks, and the stake truck to move all our gear and some of the food from the other fishing village to help keep us supplied. We’d even used the ATVs to move some of our people, but I had no intentions of using them once the bullets started flying.
We’d spent the night in the woods, sleeping rough as best we could and rose well before dawn. After a quick breakfast of dried meat and nuts, over which I briefed everybody on our plan of operations for the day, we geared up and moved out.
Our first target was the fishing village. Technically these people were loyal to Winslow. I doubted that, but I couldn’t really take the risk with them. I knew that the headman of the village and his cronies took bribes from Winslow in the form of slaves and a few trinkets like pots and pans to keep the rest of the population of the village in line. Since the village stood outside the front gates of the base it had to be secured before any shooting started. I didn’t want any local sympathizers running about behind our backs and causing trouble while we were in the thick of battle.
The good thing was that we had actually trained for this job back at the settlement. House clearing was one of the many scenarios that we’d come up with to drill our people on. We’d used the longhouses at our settlement, and all the outbuildings to add realism to the training as well as throwing in a few of our defending troops to give our fighting force a hard time during the training.
This fishing village was a bit larger than the fishing village where we’d captured the ‘Heather.’ I counted about forty dwellings, all of which were of stone and mortar construction similar to the ones in the other village. That put the population of the village some where near one hundred and twenty, if not more. However, I knew that there were dozens of slaves in the village, spread out amongst the various households and that number of slaves probably pushed the population of the village up to more than a hundred and fifty people. All those people had to be secured before anything else could happen. I handed that job over to Tonko and Durt.
Tonko took one side of the village and Durt took the other. They led mixed squads into the village just before dawn, while the villagers still slept. One team would enter a hut or hovel while the other would stand guard outside to ensure there weren’t any nasty surprises while the first team was busy. Each insertion team consisted of the leader, two men armed with crossbows, and a woman. They were to overpower the occupants of the dwelling and secure it. They would then gag every adult and older child in the hut so that they couldn’t raise the alarm, leaving them bound with their wrists tied behind their backs. When they left the hut, the other team would move into the next building and do the same. It took a bit of time, but no more than an hour and to everyone’s pleasant surprise it went off without a hitch. None of my people died, and only a few of the villagers got hurt, including the village headman and his son.
I made no distinction between villagers or slaves. I’d sort that out later once the base was secured and Winslow was dead. The only thing I did make an exception on was women with infants. That’s why a woman was included in each team entering the homes of the villagers. If a woman was found with a nursing infant she was packed off to the rear to be watched over by our non-combatants; either Lottie or Helen.
Burton had told me all about the gate into the base and from what he’d described I had to wonder what Winslow had been thinking about when he’d planned his escape through the Gateway to this Earth. Obviously he hadn’t thought things out very well. He certainly hadn’t thought out his security needs. From what Burton had told me about the gate, it was a simple, commercial, chain-linked gate that could be swung open manually to allow traffic on or off of the base. There was a gatehouse on the inside of the fence-line, where a solitary guard stood watch and who opened the gate when needed, but that was it besides a pair of remotely controlled cameras that monitored the approach from the village. There were no barriers to force vehicles to slow down or to channel movement towards the gate and there were no defensive devices whatsoever, except for two sandbagged firing positions just outside the gate on either side of it, although those positions weren’t manned unless such a move was necessary. In fact most high tech companies back on our Earth had better front gates and security. Maybe Winslow had simply thought that his security forces would shoot anyone attempting to enter the base uninvited. If he had thought that then the man should have started to rethink his security once his forces started to disappear without any explanation. From the look of things, he hadn’t.
The gate into the base stood at the end of the hard-packed track that ran through the fishing village. The track was wide enough that we could drive the Cougars through the village and towards the gate, but just. It was a tight squeeze. We had to take it slowly with ground guides leading the way until we cleared the village proper and we turned up the slope that led towards the gate. At that point, if we had wanted to, we could have just ploughed straight through the gate. However we didn’t. I was still hoping that we could at least take the lower part of the base by surprise. We actually pulled up to the gate and honked.
A man stepped out of the gatehouse a few minutes later. He was half dressed, wearing a t-shirt, a pair of combat pants, and a pair of loosely laced combat boots. His hair was dishevelled and he was stretching as he walked towards the gate to open it. He wasn’t even armed.
“Where the heck have you guys been?” the man shouted up to me as he opened the gate, swinging it wide so the Cougars could pull through. “The boss man has been pissed all night, cursing and swearing, and calling down here on the hour to find out if you guys had reported in. I’ve gotten almost no sleep because of you idiots. Doesn’t your radio work?”
I was up in the turret on top of the Cougar just smiling back at the guy as he rambled on. He didn’t really pay any attention to me or to the people in my vehicle. Once the gate was open, Monty who was driving the Cougar allowed the vehicle to roll forward until it was completely through the gate and the second Cougar was about to come through. At that point Monty put on the brakes.
“What the heck do you think you’re doing?” the man on the gate snapped when that happened. He was still holding the gate open with the expectation that we’d continue on and he’d be able to close it up again. “Keep on moving. You know we’re supposed to keep the gate closed all the time.”
That was about all the guy got to say. Tonko and two of his men were in the Cougar with me and the moment Monty had put on the brakes, Tonko and the two men had bailed out. Tonko had spun around and he’d raised his carbine towards the guard, bringing him up short when he saw the weapon pointed at him. A moment later the two men with Tonko had the guard bound and gagged, and stored away in the gatehouse. We left him trussed up on a cot with the naked River girl that had been spending the night with him. Regrettably we left her trussed up as well. When today was over, I’d apologize.
The lower base was where the majority of the support personnel and the base guards lived. Most of those barracks were containers like what Quantum had used at the two compounds that we’d already raided. Included in amongst the barracks were other containers that served a variety of purposes, such as tool shops, laundry and bath units, entertainment centres, and mess halls. Quantum had also erected several pre-fabricated structures in the lower base area, designed to serve as warehouses, workshops, and a maintenance garage.
There were people up and about as we rolled up the track to the lower base. Most were still only partially dressed, either on their way to the bath units or on their way back. A few were headed towards the mess hall and the field kitchen unit. Several people took note of our approach, but nobody sounded the alarm.
The first thing we did was to pull up in front of the base’s quartermasters stores. Winslow didn’t trust people with weapons. Gus, Carmen, and the others we’d captured had told us this prior to us heading off to confront Winslow, and Burton had confirmed it when he’d snuck onto the base to scout it out for us. It meant that most weapons were locked up in the quartermaster’s stores. I intended that they stay there, at least until I had control of the base.
To my pleasant surprise the Quartermasters was open. I hadn’t expected it based on what the others had told me, and what I’d seen of Winslow’s operation. The stores were actually inside a chain-linked enclosure that could only be accessed by going through a container that served as the stores office. The stores themselves were in a number of containers parked in the enclosure directly behind the office. One of the containers served as the base weapon lockup and another served to hold ammunition. The rest of the containers held general stores. The reason the stores were open was the fact that the office container was the Quartermaster’s sleeping quarters. I found him there still in bed with his two native concubines. Five minutes after entering the place the man was tied up and gagged as were his two bed companions and I was heading back out with a box of zip ties. I left Penny there to watch over the place and two of our men to act as her squad. As I left the place, Penny locked the gate behind me, locking everyone else out.
The funny thing was that no one took notice of us while we were parked outside the Quartermaster’s stores. I put it down to conditioning. It was what the crew of the two Cougars should have done on their return, so everyone simply assumed we were following procedure. I just thanked the spirits and God that people didn’t think.
The next stop was the mess hall. By now there were more people headed that way, than there were headed towards the showers. I had Monty pull up in front of the mess hall to let my people debark. Kim drove the other Cougar around to the back where the field kitchen container was situated. While Winslow had built a mess hall for his people to eat in, he hadn’t set it up with kitchen facilities. That was provided by a field kitchen container unit that had been built into the back wall of the mess hall. The cooks had a backdoor out of the unit that lead to their pantry container that was stationed behind the kitchen unit. Kim’s team was going to make certain that no one was able to get out the backdoor and run for help, when I walked into the mess hall and I took control of it. Hopefully the plan would work.
“Hello, boys and girls,” I shouted at the top of my lungs as I entered the mess hall with two of our troops. “My name is Jacob Ryerson and I’m here to kill Winslow and any man or woman who gets in my way and pisses me off. If you want to live then I’d suggest you all shut up and listen to me. Do you people understand?”
They didn’t. It didn’t matter that I was standing there holding a carbine pointed in the general direction of the communal eating area, and I was flanked by two men similarly armed and doing the same thing. There is always someone who is just too stupid to want to keep on living. Today that guy was a big, white skinhead dressed in a ‘White and Proud of It’ t-shirt, combat pants, boots, and wearing a big Bowie knife on his belt.
“Who the fuck are you?” the guy spat out angrily as he pushed his seat back, tipping it over, and he got to his feet. Like I said he was stupid. As he stood up he pulled his big fucking knife.
I shot him. I brought my carbine up and I put one round between his beady eyes. The round must have hit something hard inside his head because it didn’t come out the other side. It did however shut him up permanently. The guy dropped to the ground and everyone else started screaming. It was at this point one of the cooks in the back decided to leave. He went for the open door at the back of the kitchen unit and that was as far as he got. He didn’t end up dead, but he did get a weapon butt in his face that sent him flying backwards and onto the floor.
“Everyone shut up,” I bellowed over the cries of horror and the clattering of chairs as people leapt to their feet, “and everyone stay where they are. If you move, I will kill you.”
My words shut people up and my weapon thrust towards the panicking group simply reinforced the fact that I meant business.
The big problem with taking the mess hall was the fact there were people still coming into it, even while my people were securing prisoners. We got lucky that the one shot fired in the hall hadn’t really been noticed by the people wandering about outside the building. That gave us a few minutes of uninterrupted time to at least clear the kitchen unit of the people working there, and to post sentries on the door leading into the mess hall so that anyone coming in didn’t get a chance to go out again. It worked for a while, but regrettably only for a while.
I’d covered the eating area of the mess hall while Kim and her team pushed through the back and they started zip tying everyone they came to. I’d ordered everyone in the building on their knees with their hands on their heads, and they’d done it. While Kim and her team zip tied people, my two buddies watched the door. Whenever a person walked in, they found the barrel of a carbine shoved in their face and then they were yanked aside and they were put on the floor until someone could zip tie their wrists. It worked until a group of people came through the door. The first person was grabbed, the two people with him, turned and ran. Unfortunately they didn’t get far. The second man on the door stepped out of it and then he shot the two fleeing men dead. After that, all hell broke loose.
“Are you okay finishing up here?” I asked Kim, my voice filling with anxiousness.
“Go and do what you need to do,” Kim snapped back at me as she stood at the far end of the mess hall covering her people. “If anyone gives me problems, I’ll shoot them all.”
I didn’t need to ask twice. I shouted to the two men with me and then I led them out the door, heading back to the Cougar that was parked just outside the door. As I stepped outside, I paused on the top step to cover my two companions as they headed towards the armoured truck.
The first thing I saw as I stepped outside were people milling about as if they were wondering what the hell was happening. Most were dressed in a mix of civilian and military attire, but none of them were armed. When they spotted me, armed with my carbine, most of them ran away, headed in the direction of their barracks. I let those people go. The handful that headed towards the quartermaster’s stores I cut down. There were six of them, five men and a woman. None reached the locked gate of the stores. Once the last person was dropped, I swapped out magazines, chambered a round, put my weapon on safe. I then hurried to the armoured truck, passing my weapon in as I did. Once inside, I crawled up and into the turret, taking up over-watch with the automatic grenade launcher as Monty put the Cougar into gear.
We rolled forward heading up the slope and through the barracks area. As we pulled away from the mess hall the two gun trucks fell in behind us to give us support.
People ran. I ignored most of them. If they stayed out of our way, we’d leave them alone. Unfortunately, not everyone was smart enough to do that. Somebody must have hopped into a Humvee that had been parked in the motor pool or maintenance shed. They wheeled out in front of the Cougar and then spun about and started off towards the track that led to the upper base. I simply put a grenade into the vehicle. I ended up using two rounds of HE and the result was a burning wreck lying on its roof with a very dead driver. Monty just rolled on by it as we continued on towards our destination.
The mortar bomb took me by surprise. No one had mentioned mortars to me. It dropped short and to the right of the track. Obviously whoever had set up the mortar hadn’t zeroed it in on the track itself. Either that or whoever was using it didn’t know what they were doing. Still the bomb did go off with a very big bang and it kicked up a lot of dirt and smoke. In fact it came down so unexpectedly that it almost caused my men to piss themselves. I just frowned and told Monty to floor it. At that order, the Cougar sped up just as another mortar bomb came down on the other side of us. This one was a hell of a lot closer.
The track up the rise upon which Winslow had built his base wound back and forth following the terrain with the contour of the land. That was a plus and a minus as I saw it. The plus was that whoever was on the mortar up on the top of the rise had to keep adjusting his aim as the armoured truck roared along the track and then suddenly changed directions. The bad news was that the longer it took me to climb that blasted hill, the more likely the person on the mortar would get lucky or someone might come along who knew what they were doing and they’d drop a bomb into my lap. Even worse they might drop one on one of the gun trucks that were still following me. There wasn’t anything to be done about it but to press on and to place my faith in lady luck and Burton. My hope was that he or one of the men with him would spot the mortar and deal with it.
It would be nice if they eliminated the mortar and its crew before somebody got lucky. In fact it would be very nice if they did, considering what else I had to face once I got to the top of the hill.
The upper base was better protected than the lower base. It was one of the reasons that Burton hadn’t tried to get into that part of the base. Instead of simple chain-link fencing stretched across the upper slope like the fence that enclosed the lower level, this area had the metal walls similar to those used with the compounds, except these ones had metal spikes across the top of each section of wall, as well as spikes driven in the soil to keep anyone from trying to dig under them. To make matters worse, the fences were wired. Burton had seen animals getting zapped by accident as they sniffed about the base of the barriers. One zap and the critter ended up dead. The wire was kept charged with solar arrays mounted just behind the wall, raised up on pylons above the tops of the fence to catch the morning sun.
The gate was also a problem. Unlike the lower gate this one had barricades, gun positions, and people manning it. The gate slid open electronically and remote cameras monitored everyone coming or going through the gate. When Burton had scouted the area, he’d noted half a dozen men on the gate at any one time, all heavily armed.
The machine gun fire caught my attention and pulled me out of my woolgathering. I quickly noted that we were coming around the last bend in the track and that we were now headed straight for the gate. The machine gun fire was coming from the defensive berm to the right of the gate. The burst ripped up the terrain close to our vehicle and then stitched a line across the side of the Cougar. At that I got pissed off and I swivelled my turret about to take aim and fire. Even as I did, a second line of fire from the opposite defensive berm splattered against the front end of the armoured truck.
I cursed and swore under my breath as bullets ricocheted off my gun shield. I then fired, sending a pair of grenades down range. I missed. The jolting of the Cougar as it came about to line up on the gate and the fact that I’d basically flinched at the last minute sent both grenades wide. They missed the defensive berm and the machine gun spraying the Cougar, but they did hit the wall to the left of the gate. It didn’t knock the wall down, but the HE round definitely did some damage. I didn’t get much of an opportunity to find out what kind of damage had been done. Another long stream of machine gun fire rattled off the Cougar as we continued forward and I found myself quickly taking aim once again and firing.
My next grenade hit bang on. It tore up the berm and the gunner firing over it, and it destroyed the machine gun he was using. I kept on firing, sweeping from the one berm to the other, putting four more grenades down range as I did. One hit the gate doing more damage to it and the steel wall, and two hit the second berm, and the gunner stationed there.
“Keep going,” I shouted down at Monty as I swivelled my turret back towards the gate and I took another shot, putting a grenade into the centre of it.
My next two rounds did the trick. The gate wasn’t down completely, but it certainly wasn’t barred any longer. With no one firing at us anymore, Monty pushed the truck forward at a fair clip, considering the grade of the track, and a moment later we crashed through the gate and onto the upper base. As we did, another mortar bomb came down just in front of the truck.
Instinctively Monty swerved off the track and onto the rough. As he did, I swung the turret about and I swept the terrain with the grenade launcher. Small arms fire pelted the side of the truck as I quickly searched for the mortar that was still pissing me off.
I didn’t spot it right away. I did spot a squad of men in black jumpsuits and body armour who looked a lot like your typical television SWAT group. They were armed and laying down fire from the roof top of what looked like an apartment building. There were three of them and they were quickly finding their range. Bullets bounded off my gun shield once again as I brought the grenade launcher to bear.
I fired two rounds dropping them onto the roof of the building. Just like in the movies the explosions sent the gunmen flying, with two of them being literally blown off the building. Those two were probably dead before they hit the ground, but if they weren’t I’m sure the impact of hitting the ground from three stories up finished the job.
The truck bounced and came about just as another mortar bomb came down within feet of us on the driver’s side. The heavy vehicle rocked in the explosion, but it continued on towards the building that made up the bulk of Winslow’s upper base. As the truck hit the track and turned up slope again, a rocket flew past the nose of our truck to explode somewhere behind us.
I didn’t have time to look about and see if any of our people were hurt. The rocket had come from up the track and I immediately swung the grenade launcher to bear. As I did, I spotted a man standing beside a parked ATV bringing a launcher up to his shoulder, readying to fire the weapon. I cut loose with a couple more grenades.
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