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1800 Costa Rican Jungle, 051001
Tiny was anything but, Ghost thought. How is it that I end up with all the freaks? With a Japanese Ninja Demon hunter named Taki and a diminutive Chinese Triad member sneak-and-peeker named Neko, they were a weird lot. Neko didn't carry technology if he could avoid it, and never did on the job. Taki loved Taco Bell and only ate their rice, as well as being able to kill people with salad bowls or anything else he could pick up and throw. Hart and me were the only normal ones, Ghost thought. Oh, Greerson was pretty normal except for the fact that he hated combat at closer than one hundred yards. And now Tiny.
He stood over nine feet tall and weighed over six hundred pounds (9'-8" and 660# exactly.) Perhaps stronger than Atlas, he looked like Andre the Giant. He had no cover and could only move around during the night. During the day he only moved where he wouldn't be seen too much. Riding Garbage trucks, delivery vans, and construction equipment were his only possible covers; and they were thin at best. But for being able to tear people limb from limb, flip cars with one hand, and crush bowling balls between his pecks, he was almost too gentle at times. As the teams Sec Op he would like to see Tiny take more initiative and care less about alternatives, but there was no arguing with him. For while he was big, mean looking, and unquestionably physically powerful; he was recruited from a private Christian school in Malcolm Georgia. He was studying Philosophy there, something that still amazed Ghost.
Tiny was as gentle as the breeze, and even though he had a deep voice and spoke slow he was more intelligent than the Dean of Harvard was. Now he was carrying a slowed-down XM-200 Gattling carbine, and over two thousand rounds of ammunition. He was so good with that weapon he could snipe at people at the weapons maximum range, dropping bullets down on top of them. He could wield it like a scalpel to destroy hard targets and sustain fire until his barrel was red hot.
Of course he carried the requisite two-handed sword and sledge for getting in close and mixing it up, but for the most part the big combat op loved machine guns. Plus he had a strange affinity for snapping necks. If he got his hands on you, you're as good as dead. Snap, crackle, pop.
"Do you think he will come out, Ghost?" Tiny asked in a deep slow tone.
"I think I saw Mr. Murphy leave White Hall with us, so no." Tiny's laugh rumbled deeply in a low bass. Tiny was asking about the Pack of Velociraptors that they had cornered in these caves. If they didn't come out; the team would have to go in. Not a thought that Ghost relished.
Every six months, it seemed like, a team would have to come here to clean up this Dinosaur mess or that. No matter how many they killed it seemed these big Terrible Lizards always came back. Killing six hundred-pound warm blood carnivores wasn't what made the job hard.
It was the damn paleontologists. Ever since Mr. C wrote a book about there being live dinosaurs, wild new age paleontologists were coming down in the hopes of finding them. Unfortunately all too many had. Then they died. Either by Mop squads that were on permanent station here in Central America or at the claws and talons of the Dinosaurs they had come to discover.
Now Hart's team was here to clean up a pack of ravenous Velociraptors and she was mad. Crawling on her belly, making her way up next to Ghost she said in a deep husky voice, "Did somebody call an exterminator?" The evil, cold-hearted gleam in her eye told it all. She had her signature Kusari wrapped around her waist and an auto-shotgun on her back. Ghost knew she was going to say that, in fact he had known the instant she decided to crawl over to his position. He even knew what a foul mood she was in because they weren't hunting the bugs.
Over the radio, Greerson said, "They won't even see it coming." Oh, the joys of implant communicators, thought Ghost.
"Why don't we all calm down and focus on getting this done," he said over his communicator. Everyone got silent, then Hart continued, "OK, Neko and Taki move in to scout the cave, we're right behind you. Buttons, you stay in your perch and keep us informed on their movement." Buttons was the team's tech op and he had set up a dozen seismic detectors that would be listening for the thump-thump of six hundred-pound dinosaurs running or even walking. "Roger that blond mama," he said with total disregard for her ability to do him great bodily harm. She just reached over and patted Ghost, "Don't grimace, he doesn't mean it."
Down at the base of the hill the two black clad figure moved ever so slowly towards the entrance to the cave. Inch by inch, second by second. Their pace was measured in feet per minute, slow feet per minute. Taki and Neko were shadows of men able to blend into any background. Creeping up on their target they only had one thought, We are not here, you can't see what isn't here. When they made it up to the cave entrance they knew they'd been successful. Each wore all cotton clothing which was scentless, black face paint, kevlar turtlenecks and elbow length gloves for knife fighting, and a prototype arachnoweave body glove suit. They also each wore an eight foot long belt. It went over one shoulder and down the back where it wrapped around the waist and then came back up to tie over the should it started at. It formed a large figure-8 like a bandoleer/belt combo. It carried nearly two hundred knives. All carbon fiber so they were light. Why so many knives you ask?? Because like the Combat Department Founder, Dalton Rogers said, "If you're not going to use guns, you'd better carry knives. A fuckin' lot of knives."
Neither of them liked guns. They also had a whip-out baton and garrote. This made them wholly different from Greerson. Greerson was a short stump of a man who lived and would most likely die by the gun. As the worlds premiere long-range marksman he had no choice but to love guns. Reloading, wild-cating, gunsmithing, and ballistics were all his stock-in-trade; and he was a master of them all. He was now a hundred yards away, up in a tree overlooking the entrance to the tunnel. Scanning back and forth he was making sure nothing snuck up on his two-team mates down below. Then he saw it: the purple glow of the retina on a Velociraptor's eyes. It was unmistakable in the Ultra-violet spectrum. His spotlight made it stand out like crude oil on snow. He instinctively dropped the cross hairs between the glowing dots. Instantly took into account the wind, range, and brush. Then he squeezed the trigger. And again, and again, and again, and again. The eyes were perhaps twenty yards from the left flank of Taki who was the left man. No time for the radio now. All five rounds impacted the cranium of the Raptor. The .308 slugs from his magnum loads crushed it in and burst it like a melon. It slumped to the ground and the suppressed rifle only made a slight snapping noise as the bullets passed the sound barrier. "Raptor down, off Taki's Green three. Over."
Taki's head snapped around and saw the Raptor crash to the ground with the sound of breaking branches and crushed foliage. "Roger," Taki said over the radio. Then from inside the cave came what they least wanted to hear. Thundering footsteps. Hundreds of them, echoing down the cavern mouth like a tidal wave. "I've got Raptor sign. Deep in the cave, over, Lots of them, too many to tell," said Buttons from his tree perch. Taki and Neko only had to look at each other once. "Extracting," they said over the radio as they stood and beat the hastiest retreat that their legs could manage. Unfortunately it was seventy-five yards to Ghost and Hart. The Raptors were going much faster than that. There was no way they would make it. About half way they became aware of the intense rifle fire hitting right behind them.
Raptors liked to make leap attacks. As they would catch up to Taki or Neko they would leap into the air to land on their prey. Greerson though had other ideas for his teammates. He was riddling the lead of the Raptor pack with 5mm flechette ammunition, which was tearing them apart. Bodies where sprawled all over the jungle floor as blood flowed into the ground and coated the leaves in the dark.
Tiny had sprung up and ran at the two figures in black. In one hand the Katana for Taki and the Vibro-sword for Neko and in the other his Gattling carbine. As he ran he poured fire into the Raptor pack. Combining his fire with Greerson's they quickly beat the herd back from Neko and Taki. As Ghost and Hart Began leap-froging up to them the Raptors refused to fade back. As Tiny stopped firing to hand off the weapons to Taki and Neko they came out of the cave with a new fervor. Nearly six a second were pouring out towards the team over the bodies of their comrades. Immediately Greerson opened fire with his heavy chaingun. They burst apart vividly. Ghost dropped to a knee and poured out 5.56mm slugs from his Gattling carbine. In the five seconds it took him to empty the weapon he'd killed over thirty. The Raptors writhed around on the ground in pain and anguish as their pack members clawed and ran over them. Tiny slung the Gattling and drew his two handed sword and stepped towards them. Ghost yelled, "No TINY!!!" as he frantically reloaded. Hart just smiled as she dropped her Gattling shotgun and drew a Vibro-Katana and joined him with a smile on her face. Taki and Neko took up positions on each of their flanks to prevent them from getting surrounded. Tiny's two-handed sword came down and caught one in flight, showering him in gore as he cleft it in twain.
The three that leapt up at him must have been sure they were going to get him. But he parried one with his blade, delivered a snap kick to one's chest and caught the third around the neck. Four of Greerson's bullets kept more from swamping him as he broke its neck. As he stood he saw the last of the five Greerson tagged go down with a masterful shot to the head. He swung the huge blade of his sword parallel to the ground, cutting two in half and burying it in the body of a third. More gunfire from Ghost cut down the ones that were trying to run around them. Hart screamed in anguish and pain as one got her, but an explosion told him she wasn't done yet. A fist full of flash grenades blinded some long enough for Taki to slice open their guts. While Neko was happy enough to just cut them in half with his Vibro sword.
Tiny delivered up cut and then slash, again and again as he waded forwards, always keeping himself at the head of the spear-point that the raptors were impaling themselves on. He must be on number thirty or forty that he had personally dispatched, but they just kept on coming. With a yell and a scream Tiny heard Taki go down. He turned around and lopped the left half of the Raptor that was on top of Taki. Taki was spewing entrails and writhing around in his own guts. Tiny felt a Raptor hit him in the back but he shrugged it off; grabbing it by the neck and throwing it beyond Taki. Neko spun around yelling, "Fuck me, Fuck me!!!" as three Raptors piled onto him. Tiny dropped his sword and delivered each a powerful blow to the head. The brass knuckles splintered their skulls. Then he stood over Neko's body and drew his six-foot steel staff. Whipping it around his head holding onto the end the velocity at the end tore Raptors into ittsy bittsy bits.
Ghost was reloading as hart stood in front of him chopping down Raptor after Raptor. They both knew the team would have to make a break for it. He looked over at Tiny as the giant shifted grips on the staff, into a stick-fighting grip. Hart knew he could now wield the staff with incredible skill and speed. Tiny began to break apart Raptors faster than they could get close to him. So he got close to them. He was climbing over their broken bodies as he approached the cave entrance. Greerson's and Ghost's bullets tore apart any that got around him or threatened to overwhelm him.
And they tried to overwhelm him. For dinosaurs Raptors were very intelligent and they noticed quickly that he was the most dangerous foe in the jungle. Maybe they even knew that Tiny had killed a T-Rex single handedly. But in the end none of it mattered.
Merely thirty seconds later the jungle was quiet again. The last shot fired by Greerson to silence the last wiggling Raptor. Tiny walked through their caves unimpeded, placing charges. Ghost had moved Taki and Neko safely away and was ministering to their wounds like any good Sec Op. Hart just stood there and shared the emotion with Ghost that she was glad this mission was over; she wanted to kill more Bugs.
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