Posted by Moore on May 08, 2003 at 07:05:23:
Phoenix and his men were trying to "liberate" the patrol boat. Deep in the spring night, a scuba diver slipped into the powerful Vistula River. The current was 3 km per hour and its width was well over a kilometer. The scuba diver, a powerful Marine named Croft, entered far downstream of his target. Half an hour later, a six man inflatable rubber raft followed into the water. Phoenix, Owl, Hawk, Eagle, Bull's Eye, and Jason manned the paddles. Rachgee had traded for all the aquatic special equipment in Chojnice over the previous week. The scuba diver got his bearings, proceeded closer to target, and quietly observed the patrol boat at its support base. While there seem to be some activity ashore, the boat itself was quiet. The base was heavily guarded. Trenches had been dug, sandbag protected guard towers erected, and all vegetation cleared from the area. Infrared lights probed the land around the base out to 2 km, searching for foes. A dozed buildings were armored with crude sheet metal walls and sandbags to protect them from shrapnel. This was an established base, not a hastily constructed defensive position. Croft turn to the inky darkness of the river, and withdrew a penlight from his swag bag. Cupping the penlight in his hand so deflected light would not be visible from the base, he gave the pre arranged signal of two short, then two long flashes. The men on the rubber raft moved in for the kill.
The raft silently guided to the stern of the patrol boat. Owl covered the approach, resting his SVD sniper rifle on the raft. Jason, who stubbornly refused a nickname, landed aboard the patrol boat, heaved by Eagle and Hawk. Jason removed his two 9 mm pistols with their attached sound suppressers from the plastic bag that had kept them dry. If anyone aboard the patrol boat heard him, the rest of the team would be sitting ducks. They would never get out of the range of even small arms fire from the base on a man powered raft. There was at least a company sized unit of Soviets with heavy weapons, although some of them were support and maintenance staff. Phoenix's plan was simple, yet obvious. Just scout, board, and steal. Phoenix and his men would use the patrol boat's own weapons to suppress the hostiles as they sped off with their prize.
The patrol boat's name was the "Wisla Krolowa" - the Vistula Queen. It was twenty meters long, beam of 5.5 meters, and it displaced 37500 kilograms. The gray paint was peeling from the superstructure. The bridge was on the starboard (or right) side amidships, so not to block weapon arcs and maximize the number of weapons that could be placed aboard. The main threat was a 40 mm cannon on the bow. Left and right of it on the bow were also a AGS-17 grenade launcher mounted on the starboard side, and a DShK heavy machine gun mounted on the port side. Amidships on the port side was a 20 mm machine gun; on the starboard side was the bridge. At the stern were another AGS-17 grenade launcher port side, and another DShK heavy machine gun mounted starboard Lastly there was a NATO 81 mm mortar on the stern between them. The boat had weapon lockers full of ammo near the weapons. It was lean, armed to the teeth, and in a river of sail, steam, or methanol powered ships, fast.
Jason has blonde spiky hair, lean wiry muscles, blue eyes that can be very cold when he is angry. Jason's "silenced" pistols and his skill with them, his Karate skills, and his killer instinct made him the perfect man to board a ship potentially full of hostiles and kill them all at point blank range without them raising an alarm. (This was a typical Phoenix mission: impossible odds, great plan, competent people, success, a huge reward. Phoenix's greatest skill is not his considerable combat rifleman ability, or even his tactical knowledge. It is his ability to get the right people at the right time to do the thing he needs them to do, so that everyone wins.)
Jason checked the bridge first, a pistol in each hand, but it was unoccupied. He briefly examined the ship's weaponry and ammunition supplies to make sure the exit plan was viable before they got in too deep. He nodded to the other men, and while they got on the patrol boat, he went below decks. Below decks was in total darkness. Jason grinned as he pulled his NVGs - Generation 3 night vision goggles - from another bag, activated them, and put them on.
A short flight of stairs from the bridge had led down to a landing amidships. Off of the landing was a hatch to stern, two doors to port, a hatch toward the bow; a steel cabinet and a door to starboard. Jason went through the hatch to stern first. The room was lit, and as Jason removed his NVG's, the mechanic who had been doing maintenance on the engines headed over to investigate the noise of the hatch opening. Jason rushed his first shots, firing both 9 mm pistols at the same time. The shot from the left pistol missed wide to the side, and the round from the right grazed the mechanic's left nipple, then passed through the triceps of his left arm. Jason heard the "Bing" of a ricochet, and wondered if the fuel tanks were armored. The mechanic, a man in greasy overalls and canvas sneakers, stepped back in shock. Jason steadied his aim. Jason fired both weapons again at the same time.. The sound suppressers made loud thumps as death sped on its way. Jason's left shot hit the mechanic in the left eye; the right shot hit a centimeter below the mechanic's right eye. It was hard to tell exactly where the rounds impacted as the man's head resembled pulp as he jerked back ten centimeters, then fell over prone. Jason checked the rest of the engine room. He noted no hostiles were present, the mechanic seemed to have finished with the engines, and the fuel tanks were undamaged and full.
Jason moved back to the landing area. As he readied his NVGs, the noticed a light that wasn't there before under the first door to port. He walked over and opened the door with his left hand. A very sleeping looking sailor was taking a crap on the head. The sailor muttered something, but Jason fired before the sailor looked up. Both projectiles burned into the sailors abdomen, helping him finish his bowel movement, but causing severe internal damage. The sailor slumped over, mouth agape. Jason shut the door.
Jason put on the NVGs, and opened the next door to port. This area was the mess and galley. Both were dark, unoccupied, and fully stocked. He returned to the landing. He couldn't open the large steel cabinet on the starboard side. He didn't think his rounds would penetrate it, so he left it alone. He went to the last door on the starboard side. Jason tried to open it with his left hand, but it was latched from the inside. Jason destroyed the obstacle with a well placed 9 mm round. Although it barely penetrated the aluminum door, it sent the latch flying with a ping. Jason rushed in, moving sharply to the right once he cleared the door frame. He brushed into a Soviet officer's uniform hung on a hook, but his attention was on the bed. An older man was being ridden by a slender, well endowed, dark haired woman. She was pumping, and writhing, and had her head back in a silent scream. Jason fired at the man's center torso - the kill area. Jason's left shot hit the girl's left foot; the right penetrated her left thigh to the bone as she arched forward into the line of fire with her wild bucking. Jason fired both weapons again as the girl realized she was in pain. Jason's left round hit the older man's chest in the center and probably killed him. Jason's right round enter the Captain's (?) shocked, open mouth and exited messily through his left ear. The girl rolled her head somewhat toward the door as she dropped faced to face with her lover at the same time the rounds were hitting him. She gasped at the ruin of the older man's face, his brains wet and warm on her check and in her hair. Jason adjusted his aim. He hit her with both rounds in the small of her back. She grunted, gave a sexy moan, rolled her eyes, then panted. Jason fired two more rounds in the center of her back and she was still. Jason reloaded his 9 mm pistols with his extra rounds from his thigh pouch.
Jason went back to the landing. The last hatch led to the bow. He opened the hatch quietly and stepped in. Inside was the crew's quarters. There was a triple bunk bed to the left, a triple bunk bed to the right, and a triple bunk bed straight ahead of Jason. One bunk on the triple bunk bed to the right was empty, the rest were filled with sleeping men. Jason had a lot of killing to do quickly, or the men would overbear him. He fired first at the two men on the right bunk bed to get some fighting room. His first two rounds struck the sleeping man in the center of the chest, causing internal hemorrhaging and massive bleeding. (14 rounds left) He raise his weapons, and fired at the man sleeping in the middle bunk. Both rounds caused incisions in the sailor's chest, and death came quickly. (13 rounds remaining) Jason put his back to the right bunk bed, and changed targets to fire at the men in the bow most bunk bed. The men were stirring.
Jason hit the man in the lowest bunk in the chest with both rounds. The rounds caused a lung injury; the right lung collapsed and the sailor couldn't breathe. The sailor tried to cover the wound with his hands, but his action didn't make his injury go away, and he died. (12 rounds remaining in each pistol) The man in the middle bunk started sitting up, so one of Jason's shots hit the sailor in the right shoulder and the other caused a laceration to the sailor's throat. Blood sprayed. The sailor rolled bonelessly back down. (11 rounds left) The sailor on the top of the center bunk bed was a large man with a barrel chest and thick thighs. Jason's 9 mm projectiles hit him in the chest and broke several of his ribs, but did not kill him quickly. The large sailor looked at his wounds and moaned, but shock kept him from taking offensive action. Jason didn't have time to finish him; the other men were becoming fully awake. (Only 10 shots left.)
The man in the lowest bunk on the port side on the Wisla Krolowa swung his legs on the deck, but that was as far as he got as Jason fired. The sailor screamed loudly as the rounds tore into his chest; they hit and severed his spine. The result: paralysis from the waist down. The sailor could only look up helpless as Jason continued firing. ( 9 rounds) The dark room was thick with the smoke of Jason's weapons, the smell of fear, and the thumps of the sound suppressers. The muzzle flashes acted like a strobe light, each flash revealing another dead or dying man.
The sailor in the middle bunk jumped down, but that put his head where his chest used to be. Both rounds punctured his head. One tore into his jaw and sent shards of teeth bouncing on the deck. The other did the real damage. The 9 mm slug hit the sailor in the nose straight on, and exited out the back of his head, making a gory mess of the bedding behind him. ( 8 rounds remaining). The last man put out his empty hands, palms toward Jason, begging in a language Jason didn't speak. Jason steadied him aim, and fired both pistols. The sailor's head whipped back as the rounds killed him, then rolled forward. (7 rounds left)
Jason finished off the barrel chested sailor with rounds to the head, and then finished the paralyzed sailor, who was half in and half out of his bunk, with shots to the chest, ignoring their begging. He still had 5 rounds in each of the pistols: Jason always tries to count his rounds in a fire fight.
"Below deckz iz clear, Phoenix" Jason said. He made the s sounds like z. "S" sounds travel the furthest, and Jason, ever the professional, wanted to make the least amount of noise as possible.
Phoenix was in the bridge. He nodded to Jason, who took up a position next to him. The other men manned the weapons.
Hawk and Eagle crewed the DShK heavy machine guns, Owl and Bull's Eye manned the AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers. Croft put his shoulder to the 20 mm machine gun. Phoenix had spent his time familiarizing himself with the controls, which were in Russian or Polish. It didn't really matter, he couldn't read a word in either language. When the all the men had given the thumbs up they were ready and the boat had been cast off, Phoenix pressed what he hoped was the switch for the engine start up. The engines roared to life, shattering the dark silence. Phoenix turned the boat quickly toward the river and sped off. The crew laid down a good amount of suppressive fire. The Soviet's return fire was mostly ineffective. Tracer rounds searched for the Wisla Krolowa, but found mostly empty river. Fuel storage tanks exploded on shore as grenades rained down on them. Everyone on board had the rare luxury of using the weapons on full automatic, and they did their best to hose the area down.
An AT-4 anti tank weapon is a man - portable missile launcher. It is fired from an integral tripod. The obsolete weapon is wire guided and the operator must continue to aim at the target for the entire flight of the missile. Its powerful HEAT warhead was designed to kill heavily armored main battle tanks. The crew of the AT-4 at the patrol boat base had received orders not to let the Wisla Krolowa fall into enemy hands, even if it meant destroying her. An illumination round from a Soviet 120 mm mortar spread light in a 1500 meter radius over the river. The Wisla Krolowa was on the southern edge of the light, 1250 meters from the base. Phoenix and his men saw the bright back blast as the AT-4 launched. The missile sought them, racing at 200 meters a second.
Owl and Bull's Eye still argue over which one of them fired the grenade that cause the missile to spire upward in an expanding circle, harmlessly missing the patrol boat. It could just as easily been any of the men though, because they put every round they had in the AT-4's area in an effort to disrupt the aim of the operator.
The Wisla Krolowa glided out of the light of the illumination round, and back into the darkness.