“Incoming! Chaff fired!” Laredo flew the UH-60M over the Panga boat, releasing fiery chaff into the sky as the F-5 fired missiles.
The chaff worked, but the exploding missiles in the chaff rained deadly debris downward, nearly obliterating the Panga boat.
“Fire!” Nick held onto the XM307 for dear life while firing round after round into the sky of the oncoming F-5 fighter. Johnny did the same with the XM25.
The F-5 couldn’t avoid the flak and airburst 25mm grenades. It blew in spectacular fashion. Nick, Gus, and Johnny cheered from their sinking Panga boat but the celebration was short lived.
“Uh oh,” Nick said comically as the blazing F-5 fighter streaked directly at them. “Abandon ship, maties. Captain Blood! We’re in the water.”
The Unholy Trio dived deep for all the good it would do them if the jet crashed atop their boat. It didn’t. The F-5 hit the water fifty yards in front of the sinking Panga boat and cartwheeled in flaming fashion until bursting apart at the seams, scattering debris for hundreds of yards. Nick, Gus, and Johnny swam to the drifting Panga boat with only small debris cuts and wounds.
Laredo flew the UH-60M over them, lowering a ladder as the Stealth stirred the waves. Gus climbed upward first with Johnny behind him. Nick retrieved his M107 sniper rifle and the XM25 from the Panga boat.
“Will you for God’s sake get your Muerto ass up here,” Gus yelled down at him.
Nick strapped his M107 over his shoulder while hanging onto the swinging ladder with the patience bred of being a psychopathic killer. The weight and bulk from the two weapons slowed Nick’s climb. When he reached the open hatch, hands reach down to propel him upwards. Instead, he shoved the weapons one after the other to his frustrated cohorts.
“I’ll be back.” Nick descended.
“We can buy a new XM307 you moron,” Lynn called out to him with a giggle.
Nick grinned but kept on to his objective, grunting under the effort of securing the nearly eighty pound load to his frame. The climb upwards this time took all of his reserves to reach the hatch where his friends pulled him in. Clint and Lynn dragged him inside against the far bulkhead while Casey secured the ladder and shut the hatch. Nick waved at Laredo.
“You’re the best, Laredo!”
“If not for you cowboys, I’d be in Davey Jones locker. Let’s go home, kids. That was one exciting adventure I’d rather not repeat. God knows we’re lucky they didn’t scramble more than one F-5.”
“We have everyone, Denny,” Clint said. “We’re on our way back.”
“I know I’m a day late and a dollar short, but when you see the fighter escort arrive, they’re ours,” Denny replied. “If it helps, they would have shot the shit out of the jet that killed you.”
“Wow… what a comfort,” Lynn said. “Okay, Muerto… thank you, but what the hell was that all about… dragging replaceable weapons aboard a combat helicopter?”
“We brought down a jet fighter with them, Lynn. What can I say, I’m superstitious.”
“Good point,” Lynn replied.
“I have to admit it, Dead Boy. Those were some well-done combat adlibs,” Clint said. “That water’s a bit chilly, huh guys?”
“Tha…that’s an understatement,” Gus managed with only a slight shivering stutter. “I hope to hell I can find something dry on the Tempest.”
“Since we don’t know what the hell Mexico will do about getting their F-5 splashed by us, I think we better crew the Tempest to Monster Island without delay,” Casey said. “Should we dump all the drugs and keep the weapons, or turn it all over.”
“At the rate the idiots in charge of our government are importing the Trojan Horse Muslim refugees into California, we’ll need to confiscate the weapons on board so we can outfit a good militia when warfare breaks out,” Nick stated.
“Damn… Muerto going all militia survival on us,” Lynn replied. “I’m in. Maybe we should start training a militia. We have a lot of veterans who’ve seen combat. Between the Marines and Delta guys we have, a trained militia would not only be feasible but a damn good idea. From now on I vote we confiscate all weapons when we find these Muslim terrorist enclaves instead of turning them in.”
“It’s definitely something to think about,” Casey said. “I used to think a militia was farfetched until the stupidity in government lately. Think about it. Importing a horde of possible terrorists while taking away our Second Amendment right to bear arms so the common citizen can’t even protect themselves. Soon, we’ll have Muslim refugee hordes rioting through our cities like they do in Europe.”
“No,” Johnny stated. “We will stop them, my friends. If not, we will all be dead with all our ammo expended. I like the militia idea.”