Begin Part IV

 Gamma squad went on from Mexico, to Columbia, Estonia, Yugoslavia, Libya,
Cameroon, Congo, Syria, Azerbaijan, and then on to Russia with only
Cambodia, and Australia afterwards. By the time they hit Russia the squad
was sick to death of this hack duty and couldn't wait to really do
something. It had been most of two months following the brass, around the
world hopping from country to country, but never staying long enough to see
anything. They just landed in the country, strolled off the aircraft, saw a
few military bases, maybe a headquarters, stay one night or two in a hotel
for talks and then they were off again.
 Morale was at just about rock bottom too, because the squad was usually
stuck in the hotels since nine times out of ten the city was a high tension
zone, be it from rebels or gangs or even politicians in revolt. It got so
bad that the squad had taken to binge drinking and then doing 'bombing' runs
from the mid-level hotel windows. 'Bombing' runs are when you take a shot
and then drop the glass out a window, the trick is to drop it right next to
someone without hitting them. Points are given for shock and how well the
scream is heard from the window, deductions can occur but all points are
forfeited when passerby and hit and/or knocked unconscious.
 The brass tried to get Gamma squad to quit by talking to Lieutenant
Commander Hobbes but gave up when they found out that he was the one usually
judging because he got drunk the slowest. After that they just shuttled the
squad from place to place and tried to keep the messes under wraps. What
really didn't help was when Tedronai and Vouroit were walking the streets of
Valjevo, Yugoslavia, and witnessed a mugging in progress. Vouroit had gone
to help the victim, while Tedronai had run down the mugger within a block
and dropped him with a flying tackle. At a loss to solve the problem, the
brass had ended that segment of the tour and moved on to Libya.
 After that things had gone quietly until the squad landed at the Moscow
Airport and exited the plane to the waiting armored personnel carriers.
Gamma was used to special transport, and was rather partial to it especially
after the fiasco in Mexico City, but this was well beyond the expected. The
officer to greet them a Major Tasha Pheodora Sechenov, said it was good to
meet other warriors but they had picked a bad time to visit. She explained
that in the last few weeks the hard line communists had become vociferous
again after losing badly in the last election to the quasi-capitalist
younger politicians just now reforming after the fall of the most recent
communist regime. For those unaware she also explained the return to
communism for Russia had not come easily but some had had wishes fulfilled
for that return, and it had lasted nearly fifty years but had existed quite
prosperously under ingenious rules and would have done fine except for
treason from within had brought its downfall.
 The squad all nodded in the understanding of how politicians were an
evil, a necessary one to some, but an evil none the less. Political hacks
were a real soldiers worst nightmare and this stupid tour was proof positive
of that adage. Somebody had jokingly put forward the idea of going
mercenary and maybe making a profit off of dealing with them. The squad all
laughed, and this put them in smiles until they got to the hotel where they
were staying for the night since they had gotten into the city late. For
once it was possibly a first rate hotel and Hobbes couldn't help but ask
Sechenov who had really paid for the rooms. Sechenov just smiled and
mumbled something about actually keeping the squad happy for a few minutes.
 So the squad settled in for the night and the next day loaded into normal
looking cars with specials doors and the whole set-up for a tour of the city
of Moscow, followed by lunch, and then a stop at Red Square to watch the
marches for Border Guards day. Muscovites all new the day as the day when
the city's guardians got drunk, but the Americans remembered it as the day
one of theirs had landed an ultra-light right in this very square and nearly
gotten away with it.
 All the squads on the pavement below the stand where they watched moved
in perfect formation and worked extremely well together. So well in fact
that even the Exo-pilots were impressed and let their neighbors know it.
After the festivities ended, Gamma got back into the cars and headed for the
home of the Military planning department, which had its own building. One
or two of the pilots couldn't help but notice that they were no other
buildings within fifty meters, the cement walls were two feet thick and the
guards carried either automatics weapons or non-lethal weapons like sandbag
guns.
 Gamma squad walked into the building after passing through, first a metal
detector, then a fence and finally a second weapons detector. By the time
they got inside the group was thoroughly impressed by the security of the
compound and how orderly the chain of command worked if something did not
fit within the prescribed areas. The interior of the ministry was well
furnished with carpets and tastefully done with classic portrayals of 
Russians in combat and glorious moments in its history.
 The sixth and top floor was a half floor reserved for meetings and formal
dinners, and the other half was a garden and balcony for employee's and
guests to enjoy at their leisure. Once the brass made sure the squad was
given food and drink to keep them busy and started their meeting with the
Russians officers. At first only Major Sechenov stayed in the room but then
they were joined by Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov and Major Gennandy
Iosifovich Bonderenko. Both of the men carried with them a ready supply
much to the squads enjoyment and so this led to a good deal of telling of
some tall tales and bad jokes that only soldiers can tell to other soldiers.
 Colonel Filitov had just suggested that perhaps they go out to the
gardens to view the city when rolls of thunder could be heard coming from
out across the plains. The Colonel was unworried but both of the Majors got
nervous at the possibly nasty turn of the weather. Things were progressing
rather nicely, the squad was content to drink and talk to their counterparts
and the brass were still all in the same room together.
 It was obvious things were about to go wrong, it was much too nice of a
day. Especially to Lieutenant Commander Hobbes.

 What followed was pieced together from the accounts of eye-witnesses,
tapes from security cameras, and from pure speculation using the data
available. Two pirate shuttle took off from an unknown airstrip somewhere
east of the city and entered Moscow airspace at 16:41 local time. Traveling
at top speed the two shuttles were inside the Ministry radar envelope within
five minutes. Once inside the envelope alarms were activated but the watch
commander had been told not to bother the officers unless a dire emergency.
His mistake to wait and see just what the pair of shuttles would do after
all attempts to make contact had failed.
 Henceforth the shuttles, to be called alpha and bravo were on a collision
course for the ministry compound. Shuttle alpha landed in what some call a
controlled skid and others would call the worst landing in the history of
manned flight. Bravo came to a better stop over the top of the compound and
came down directly into the gardens where gamma stood watching. The doors
on both shuttles dropped and men poured out of the vehicles with guns
blazing cutting a swath through the compounds guards.
 Seconds later a quarter of the pirates were gone but so was an
overwhelming majority of the guards were dead or dying and the remainder had
surrendered. These terrorists knew there jobs and sappers quickly collapsed
the pre-planned escape tunnels and cut off the elevator that went down to
the deep government tunnels. Once all forms of escape were cut off, the men
pulled back into the central ministry building and started with the jobs of
solidifying their position and rounding up everyone in the building.
 Gamma squad ended up with Filitov, Bonderenko, Sechenov and others in the
state room they had been in earlier. They were kept separate from the brass
who were kept in some comfort but were forced to stay in the room where they
had been negotiating. Hobbes knew things were bad but kept his cool like a
good commander because he knew that waiting was his only option. What
finally caught him off guard was when Colonel Filitov leaned over to speak
to him.
 Filitov whispered:
 "Commander, where is your man, Lieutenant O'Muirdagh? I understand that
his a quite person to meet, what with his history and all. I had rather
hoped to meet him, especially after reading the file that state security has
on him. Did you know that it is suspected he had killed pirates in space
while onboard the Normandy?"
 Hobbes tried to keep a very straight and not look at Filitov and nodded.
"Yes, sir. I think I had heard something about that. Unfortunately he was
called away on another mission of a very classified nature and we are unsure
of his return."
 "Classification is always such a problem. And I had so truly hoped to
learn just what had happened during your Operation TRIPHAMMER last year. It
might have been quite a fiasco if he hadn't managed to get the squad into
position using that tank they way he did. Our intelligence services still
have no idea where he found that model, it hasn't been made in a factory for
nearly thirty years. We had been nearly sure that model had been destroyed
when we sold it to every hack nation with a budget and a war to fight."
 "Well, I myself still am not sure I want to know where he got that tank
from either. Of course the mere fact that he knew how to drive it is
something beyond my comprehension . . . ."
 Hobbes was just about to complete his thought when a pirate came up an
threatened him to be silent or pay the price. And out of the blue Hobbes
was struck by the thought to wonder where O'Muirdagh was right now. That
lucky shit was probably off sitting on a beach drinking margaritas and
earning twenty percent. Since he didn't have much else to do he decided to
run down his opinion just what sort of terrorists he was dealing with.
 They seemed pretty well coordinated for a bunch of party crashers, well
armed and the plan seemed to flow with the situation. The guns were pretty
much automatics or semi-automatics, with the occasional blaster and
occasionally something random. The shuttles were a nice touch, and it left
a definite escape route and a pair of rather nice decoys. Odd about it was
that there hadn't been any demands though, just a lot of screaming and
yelling and pointing. Aside from that of course, a tangible chain of
command could be observed by watching who moved where and when.
 Hobbes looked around to make sure none of his squad was about to do
anything stupid, but nobody seemed about to move. Elan was looking itchy
but that was probably because his whole chivalry gene was going into
overdrive. Everybody else was pretty much doing what he was doing, just
checking out the competition and waiting for the right moment.

 For Ratislav and the 13th squad the right moment was right now and they
were running through the ship to load up onto the shuttle. Ratislav was
first to the door and counted heads to make sure everyone made it fully
loaded and prepared. The 13th jumped aboard the ship in quick succession,
Sergeant Koffler, Corporal Howard, Troopers Zimmerman, Pickering, Reeves,
Stevens, Garfield, Stecker, Feller, Do, Banning, and Rickabee, and
Lieutenant McNihil brought up the rear. Ratislav was about to punch to the
button to shut the door when he noticed Captain Diniro standing at the edge
of the hangar. He paused, gave her a quick wink and a snappy salute, and
punched the door shut. Just as the door shut he saw her laugh and turn to
go back to the command level.
 In minutes the shuttle door was closed and locked, and it was beginning
to lift off. First it was locked into over heard clamps and the slid slowly
to one side of the hangar bay. Then a pair of doors in the floor of the
hangar slid open. The pilot, 1st lieutenant Jose Chung started the count
and three and counted down, at zero he punched a button on his console and
all the overhead clamps released the shuttle.
 Grunts hate shuttle insertions, Exo-pilots hate them even more because
someone else was flying the shuttle. Try to imagine having your
intestines, stomach, and liver, all inserted into your neck at very high
speeds. Of course this also means hitting the shuttle is damn near
impossible when it is moving at close to Mach two or three. People like to
say that they have eyes in the back on their heads, grunts need a pair of
pliers to get their eyes anywhere but the back of their heads after a
shuttle insertion
 Gradually the shuttle did stop rattling enough for the squad to do a
quick weapons check. Thanks to the careful positioning of the ship the
shuttle was over the Moscow area in ten minutes of the terrorists landing at
the ministry compound. From the pirate shuttles hitting the ground to the
13th hitting the tarmac at Moscow spaceport was only twenty seven minutes.
Since they already had been cleared through diplomatic channels it was a
snap to get things moving from there. Ratislav got on the comm. and had the
co-pilot drop the cargo elevator which lowered the APC to ground level.
Sergeant Koffler drove the APC while Ratislav tried to get into contact with
anyone who had a grasp of the situation but nothing seemed to be working.
 Well that wasn't entirely true, Ratislav thought, traffic didn't seem to
be a problem when people saw an armored car with some serious artillery on
the roof coming up behind them fast. They should have put a siren on this
thing, that would give people a little more warning for the same effect. So
far the situation as he understood it was this, there were a group of
terrorists holding a military building, not making demands, waiting for
something or other. Finally, Ratislav made contact with the local armed
forces commander, General Fadeyushka Ivanovich Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky was
a well known tactician who had long held distinction among commanders around
the world for his engagements in the Caucasus in 2095, and later in the
street fighting in Novosibirsk in 2102.
 Dostoyevsky explained the situation as it happened with the shuttles, the
teams and the obviously well coordinated plan. Ratislav asked some of the
transparent questions, but then showed Dostoyevsky how much he knew by
asking some very pointed questions that made him wonder. He wondered just
where this 1st Lieutenant had learned his job because he definitely knew
what he was doing. He asked about the surrounding area, buildings, small
structures, but then he focused on the building next door which was the same
height. Dostoyevsky didn't understand the line of questioning but let it go
and cleared the fast moving armored car through the necessary check points.

 By the time the local authorities had moved into position and closed off
the area surrounding the ministry compound, the pirates had finished their
preparations as well. Four men stood guard atop the building each on a
different side with a long range sniper rifle and rocket launchers waiting
hidden on two sides. Groups of men wandered around the first floor and
individuals moved throughout the rest to make sure no one was hiding. One
pirate specializing in computers had moved into the security booth on the
second floor and was keeping a watch on the motion sensors in the yard and
the cameras spread through the building.
 Dostoyevsky had tried earlier to insert men into the building but had
discovered that the pirates had already destroyed the underground entrances
to the compound. Engineers had closed to look at the damage and explained
it would take days to even make any of those passages usable again. He
stormed around his on-site command room for several minutes but then fell
silent and sat down to come up with a new plan.

End Part IV