Chapter 7 - Behind the Fog
The dark waters churned as the hostile interceptor closed within four hundred yards.
Suddenly, the night erupted in blinding flashes of yellow flame. The heavy machine gun on the enemy bow opened fire, sending a string of heavy caliber rounds tearing through the superstructure of the *Caelum Explorer*. Steel plates shredded like paper; glass exploded from the upper bridge windows, showering the deck in sharp fragments.
“GET DOWN!” I yelled, shoving Dr. Thorne into the reinforced alcove of the mess hall doorway.
The rounds chewed across the bulkhead inches above our heads.
“Valkyrie, take out that gunner!” I commanded over the headset.
“Working on it,” Elena’s steady voice returned. “High seas, target pitching six feet on the swells... wait for the crest...”
A single beat of silence passed.
*CRACK.*
Her heavy sniper rifle fired from high atop the radar mast. Across the water, the hostile gunner flew backward off the bow of the interceptor, his weapon falling silent as his body disappeared into the churning ocean wake.
“Gunner down!” Elena reported. “Hostiles deploying RPGs from the stern deck!”
“Not on my watch,” Jax roared. He leaned over the starboard railing, raising an M320 grenade launcher, and fired a high-explosive 40mm round into the interceptor’s forward hull.
The grenade exploded on impact, blowing a gaping hole in the fiberglass and setting the fuel lines on the small craft ablaze. The boat veered wildly to the left, engine screaming in agony as it began taking on heavy water.
Three surviving foreign operatives attempted to return fire with assault rifles, but Task Force Manticore was already executing a synchronized suppressive sweep.
Doc and I laid down controlled bursts of armor-piercing rounds, raking the deck of the sinking interceptor. The hostile fire died out in less than ten seconds. The boat lurched sickeningly to its side, hissed as seawater consumed the burning engines, and slid beneath the waves into the dark abyss.
The Pacific fell silent once more.
Only the sound of the wind, the creak of the dead ship’s hull, and our steady breathing remained.
“All stations, report,” I said, lowering my rifle.
“Bridge clear,” Doc replied.
“Engine room secure,” Jax said, wiping sweat and gunpowder residue from his forehead.
“Overwatch clear,” Elena whispered from above. “No further contacts on radar. The horizon is empty.”
At that moment, the low, earth-shaking rumble of multiple twin-rotor engines vibrated through the fog.
Three massive MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters, accompanied by two armed Super Cobra gunships from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, broke through the cloud cover. Bright searchlights cut through the gloom, illuminating the deck of the *Caelum Explorer* in brilliant white light.
The regular military had finally arrived to secure the perimeter.
Fleet Admiral Vance’s personal transport touched down on the ship's aft helipad with a blast of warm air. The ramp dropped, and Vance stepped down onto the wet deck, flanked by twenty heavily armed Marine commandos and federal marshals.
Vance walked across the shell-casing-littered deck, taking in the scene: the defeated mercenaries zip-tied to the railings, the smoking remnants of the battle, and Dr. Thorne standing safely beside the glowing quantum transceiver.
He stopped in front of me, his eyes taking in the blood smeared across my uniform and the quiet, immovable resolve in my posture.
“Status, Captain Hayes?” Vance asked formally.
I snapped a crisp salute. “The asset is secure, Admiral. All hostile forces have been neutralized or taken into custody. The scientist is unharmed.”
Vance returned the salute with a precision that silenced every Marine on the deck.
May you like
“Outstanding work, Ghost,” the four-star admiral said. “Now, let’s go back to Coronado. There’s an unfinished matter waiting for us in the brig.”
***
