Begin Part V

 Meanwhile, Ratislav and the 13th had entered the bank next store to the
compound and they were working their way up to the roof. The Bank's
employees had noticed the fierce fighting next door, but had been ordered to
continue working. Working pretty much ceased on the sight of fourteen men
with automatic weapons who looked like a SWAT team came into the building
and took the elevator to the top floor. At this point the bank manager
could see this situation could only get worse, closed the bank and sent
everyone home except for the closing staff and the security personnel.
 The 13th walked the stair to the roof and then set up on the side of the
building out of sight from the pirates sitting atop the ministry building.
Ratislav used mirrors and video cameras to look at how the roof was set and
where heat sources could be located in the building. He figured there was
something like thirty pirates judging by the motions and twenty some
hostages kept into two rooms, one on the second floor and one on the sixth.
Zimmerman and Pickering both got their rifles ready and waited for
instructions from Ratislav while he put the final touches on his plan to
retake the building.
 There was a storm coming in off the plains, it was going to shake this
town like an earthquake and it was everything Ratislav needed. Not only
would the storm make it harder to make out the troopers moving through it,
but it also cooled the air and then heat signatures became more pronounced.
The only problem would be the wind gusts rushing between the buildings
might throw things off. Ratislav looked at his watch and saw it was 16:35,
he would have to wait at least until dark. Of course that didn't include
all the time he would have to spend waiting for the go code.
 Since they were all waiting he decided to call the squad together and
explain how things were going to have to happen. Pickering and Zimmerman
would take out the four men on the roof and then watch the compound yard to
make sure no one made a break for it. Once the roof guards were down the
rest of the squad would jump to the ministry and hold there. If things went
well then they could be done to the conference room where the first group of
hostages being held before anyone even noticed something was wrong.
 McNihil stood next to Ratislav with his gun hung over his shoulder and
watched the video feed of the ministry roof. "How are we going to do this,
sir? I mean sure Zimmerman and Pickering can make the shot, but this jump
is gonna suck. And then we have what all of a minute to get those damn jump
jets off and get ready to move."
 "Relax, I got a plan," Ratislav smiled and pointed to parts of the roof.
"Zimmerman will go to that building on the far side of the compound to get
the other two guards. He and Pick take their shots, we move between those
stacks for minimum visibility and take the jump. Hopefully the wind won't
pickup anymore, and when we land we have at least two minutes before any of
the terrorists downstairs realize something is wrong on the roof."
 "Shit, sir, what if this little fiasco doesn't quite work. What happens
if they don't get the guys on the roof or we have less than two minutes?"
 "McNihil, give me a break. I'm just making this up as I go along. You
want to know a secret?" Ratislav paused and McNihil nodded. "Back in the
real world, when I'm not doing silly shit like jumping from building to
building, and driving armored cars through Moscow, this is not something I
do regularly. Outside of shit like this, I'm not even a commanding officer,
I'm the executive officer for a group of e-frame pilots on a frigate.
Somebody way up the chain of command either really likes me or seriously
wants me to go home in a very small bag."
 "I would bet on the bag, sir." McNihil smirked and watched as O'Muirdagh
grunted something and turned back to the video screen. "Did you say
something, sir?"
 "I said, smart ass officers who talk too much have a tendency to end up
dead or on their commanding officer's shit list. Go get the squad ready,
it'll be dark soon and then we'll move."

 Storm Dasha hit Moscow central at 6:27 local time, winds gusted at up to
90 kilometers per hour, and the less well drained areas of the city were
flooding within half an hour. General Dostoyevsky watched the sky with
annoyance from inside his command center. With the storm as bad as it was,
there was no way any of the local forces could function up to par. He had
no choice but to call those bloody Americans on the roof and tell them they
were cleared for entry.
 "Colonel, get me a direct line to the Thirteenth squadron on the roof. I
have decided they are the only group capable of handling the situation."
The Colonel looked up from the desk where he was working in shock.
 "Sir? Are you sure about that, sir. I mean we have no idea just who
they are, or even if this 'thirteenth' has the training too deal with the
situation." The General looked at the Colonel and the looked out the window
into the storm. This must be the finale to my military career, a hostage
situation with no demands, no ransom, and no idea who the terrorists are.
Dostoyevsky turned his head to look up to the roof of the bank, and the only
hope those twenty hostages have are fourteen 'people' armed in a way he had
never seen before who had dropped into Moscow spaceport this afternoon.
 He looked back around when the Colonel tapped him on the shoulder and
handed him the phone and connected it through to the commander of the 13th.
"Commander, this is General Dostoyevsky at local command. I hereby give you
the go, I repeat, go code for insertion into the ministry compound."
 O'Muirdagh's voices came through the line with crystal clarity but there
still seemed to be something missing. "I understand, General. We will be
moving within five minutes. Please inform your forces to hold their fire
until such time they are sure we are within the building."
 "I understand, I'll do that now. Good luck, Lieutenant."
 "Thank you, sir. I'll meet you down there when this is all over." There
was a click and the line went dead, Dostoyevsky put down the phone and gave
the order to the Colonel.

 Ratislav put down the handset and looked at the squad all standing in a
circle around him except for Pickering who was on the building on the other
side of the compound. "Gentlemen, we have been given the go code for entry.
We move in according to the plan once the rooftop sentries are gone.
After that, we go pair by pair downstairs until every pirate is under
control. If at any time a pirate moves to threaten a hostage, you are
cleared to use lethal force. Zimmerman and Pickering will stay on the
rooftops to make sure no one makes a run for it."
 He paused and looked around at each man, in his dark gray armor, assault
rifle held at the ready, waiting for the final command. "Here are the final
rules of the game. You will remember this moment for the rest of your lives
because it will be the one that will make you famous. After you walk out of
the building you will never be able to talk about this for fifty years. If
you talk about this any time before then without the signature of at least
an admiral you will disappear. Tomorrow you will never have met anyone by
the name of Ratislav O'Muirdagh, and if you see each other you can say you
met on a training mission, but I was never, ever here."
 "Are you serious, sir?" Koffler asked, "I mean that seems kind of
drastic."
 "Koffler, it's the rules of the game, you want to survive you have got to
know when the rules are to followed. Alright gentleman, good luck and try
not to get killed." 
 O'Muirdagh was about to leave when all of the other members of the
thirteenth saluted him in perfect form. Ratislav smirked and returned the
salute and then nodded. The men dropped their salutes and turned to run to
the far side of the building. By the time he got to the far side they were
lined up on the edge of the building waiting with their jump jets ready for
the signal.
 "Dragon two-one, Dragon two-two do you copy?" Ratislav said over the
intercom using his night vision goggles to look for Pickering on the far
building.
 "Dragon six, this is Dragon two-two, I copy."
 "Six, this is two-one, I copy over."
 "Two-one, two-two, you are clear to open the roof. Gentleman fire when
ready, report if you see anything unusual."
 Ratislav got the double affirmative from the snipers and watched for the
shots. Only the night vision gear just barely gave him the ability to see
the double muzzle flash from Pickering's gun. Checking the roof he could
see that the four targets were gone and no one else had appeared in the
intervening time. He turned to make sure his squad had their jets ready and
started to give out orders.
 "First pair, make the jump." And with that McNihil and Stecker lit up
their jets and flew across the distance to the ministry building. Ratislav
was rather pleasantly surprised that they made it and kept the pairs going
across until it was only Koffler and himself. "Well, Koffler, lets get a
move on."
 Ratislav and Koffler lit up simultaneously and made a long graceful arc
over to the ministry building and landed with a thump on the rooftop. He
waited for the rush of adrenaline from flying to go away before getting the
squad back into order. By the time he was ready and had taken his jets off
the squad was ready to begin the assault.
 "Alright now, assault pairs on the move. First pair, you take the
stairwell, second pair you follow them up. Third pair you got the balcony,
Two-one and two-two will provide cover. Fourth and fifth you get to come up
from the bottom, rappel it down and move it as fast as you can so we all hit
at one time. I'm going in after the first and second. Lock and load, move
in, in two minutes."
 Simultaneously, every member of the thirteenth cocked their rifles and
paired off to move out. In seconds, the first and second pair, and
O'Muirdagh was by the stairwell. After a minute the fourth and fifth pairs
were both on the ground hiding in the bushes out side the front door, and
the third pair was using the chairs on the balcony for cover.
With perfect timing, when O'Muirdagh's watch hit two minutes all of the
teams moved out of hiding and the raid began. First team broke the door to
the stairwell down from the rooftop, third team shattered windows leading to
the balcony, and fifth team broke the front door in with a combination of
gunfire and explosives. Pirates throughout of the building were shocked out
of a near silent reverie when the bullets began flying.

 Hobbes might have thought nothing of the popping sounds coming from
outside and probably below the building, and might not have even noticed the
slight thud from above of the door collapsing. However when a pirate blew
through the door to the conference room head first and slid to a stop on the
ground he stopped wondering what was going on. He was pretty sure how
things were heading when he saw the tracer lines outside the door and heard
the echo's of gunfire from both above and below.
 Taking charge like the sensible officer that he was, he grabbed the rifle
the pirate had carried and took up a position just inside the doorway.
Hobbes then got Gamma squad to tip the tables over and form a barrier that
would keep the other people out of the path of bullets. He knew that there
were flaws to his quick plan, like in case a fire started, getting over the
cover would be a problem but that was for later.
 "Commander Hobbes, who do you think is doing all that shooting?" Asked
Colonel Filitov, "I do not think it likely that they were surprised by the
local authorities."
 "What makes you say that?" Hobbes asked confused. "It surely isn't Fleet
people out there shooting, we don't have the kind of weaponry necessary.
And none of the training schools can handle the sort of things you need to
teach a special operations squad."
 The two men ducked as a bullet winged off of the door jamb, and they
checked the hall to see how the battle was progressing before they
continued. From the opening into the hall they could see what looked like
two men with automatic weapons at one end of the hall firing controlled
bursts. At the far end six or seven pirates were firing random bursts along
with two or three men that appeared to be wounded or maybe dead.
 "They are not from my army. We have no one who is outfitted like these
men and I know for a fact that no one is trained like these men. Especially
curious is that no alarm was raised by these men entering the building until
the firing began."
 Hobbes nodded in understanding. "So these guys took care of the sentries
before they moved in, which shows a definite pre-arranged plan."
 "Yes, but . . ." Filitov objected, "If someone knew about this pirate
raid ahead of time, why was no one warned. It seems absurd to me that
anyone in your command or mine would allow this sort of thing to even begin,
not speaking of letting it progress to the point where a special operations
team is needed."
 "This clearly goes deeper than just a terrorist raid, there must be some
reason for the pirates to be here, and then for the spec ops team to be
here."
 Hobbes and Filitov both frowned at the thought, but got no further when a
series of explosions rocked the building. Flashes could be outside the
window but it was hard to tell where they originated from in the glare of
the spotlights on the ground.

End Part V