orders from the president and the American ambassador to Ecuador to report to Major Sebastian Krell, and a Colonel Jack Collins.”
“And you have found who you are looking for,” Sebastian said, turning toward Jack. “I believe this is one of yours.”
Collins stepped forward and held out his hand. Instead of taking the outstretched hand, the gunnery sergeant saluted the colonel.
“We’re being a little informal here, Gunny. Relax.”
The gunnery sergeant lowered the offered salute and shook Jack’s hand instead. Then he shook Everett’s and Sebastian’s hands as they were introduced.
“I take it you’re the help we’re supposed to get?” Carl asked.
“Well, from the U.S. side, yes sir, at least for the moment. However, we did come across a few more fellas out in the woods two miles north of your camp.” Pierce turned and ducked his head through the doorway. Three men stepped forward, all dressed in dark green battle fatigues and all made up just as the Marine was. Their faces were dark with greasepaint and all three looked just as fierce. “Colonel Collins, this is Captain Whitlesey Mark- Patton, of Her Majesty’s Special Air Service, currently on detached service to Ecuador for embassy security evaluation.”
The British captain raised his hand in a salute and this time Jack returned it.
“Welcome, Captain. A fortunate coincidence that you’re right in the country where we need you.”
“Well, sir, I’m afraid we’re not here in force, as I only have five men with me from my unit, and three Australian army, and two New Zealanders, for a grand total of eleven men. I have been ordered to follow your instructions, and have been given the all-clear to engage forces that have been termed detrimental to Her Majesty’s government.”
“Thank you. We’ll try and put you to good use,” Jack said as he turned and faced Everett. He took a deep breath. Then he turned to the other two men who entered the small trailer. They both saluted Collins as they came to attention.
“Okay, gentlemen, that’s enough. I think we’ll just start out a little less formal.” Jack again held out his hand to the first of the two men. “I’m Colonel Jack Collins and this is Captain Carl Everett, U.S. Navy, and Sebastian Krell, German army.”
“Sergeant Tashiro Jiimzo, Japanese Self-Defense Forces, stationed as military attache to Quito. I have four other men with me, sir.”
“Sergeant Huynh Nguyen, Vietnam People’s Army, reporting on behalf of my government to you. I have ten men accompanying me. We were on duty at our embassy, training security personnel, when the request from your president came through channels.”
As the men shook hands, Jack smiled. He had to hand it to the president; he was pulling in some serious favors from friends in other countries.
“Sergeant, Captain-welcome to our little band of invaders. Since this may be all the reinforcements for a while, we’d better get down to planning. It won’t be easy. We’re outnumbered two hundred to one, with the odds against us growing larger by the minute.”
The small Vietnamese sergeant tilted his head when Jack mentioned the numbers. Then he smiled. “The odds are not unheard of, Colonel. It all depends upon the plan.”
Jack returned the smile and gestured for the men to have a seat at the map table. He knew the sergeant was schooled on long odds and short hope. That was how he was raised. Right now Jack needed men such as this if what he was planning was going to have a chance of working.
“Gentlemen, our plan is to scare the hell out of an army that’s not used to fighting crazy people. So, if I may ask, how much equipment were you able to take out of your embassies?”
The British SAS officer spoke first. “We have ten full-sized G3 assault rifles, 2 G3SG1 sniper rifles, and five G3 KA4 short barrels with collapsible stock, and also five thousand rounds of ammunition.”
“All we have is five M-16 automatic weapons with a thousand rounds,” Jiimzo said, looking embarrassed.
“The same with us, the New Zealanders and the Australians,” Nguyen said. “We have only what we could sneak out of the embassy without being observed by the Ecuadorians.”
“Oh, yes, I forgot to mention-ten claymore mines were found in the embassy armory. We liberated them from the politicos,” Captain Mark-Patton said with a smile.
Jack looked at the men in front of him. “I’m looking at thirty-six of the best soldiers in the world. Captain Everett, Major Krell, and myself are humbled, to be sure.”
“There, there, Colonel. I believe you are selling yourself quite short,” Mark-Patton said as he laid his assault weapon on the map-covered table. “I believe you were in on the rescue of that downed Intruder pilot in Iraq in ’92 and certain other exploits, including the training of my very own commanding officer on behind-the-lines infiltration. So let’s, as you say, be informal here. Yourself, Major Krell, and Captain Everett have more experience than any ten men in this room.” The captain reached over and took a field pack. He tossed it toward Everett, who caught it in midair. “Those are BDUs, green and brown. I suspect you would rather go into battle wearing something other than work shirts and Levi’s.”
Collins looked at Everett and shrugged.
“Okay, gentlemen-again, welcome. Shall we get down to business?”
The twelve-man capsule, dubbed Falcon 1, was attached nose to nose with the Altair lander. The crew module was roomy enough to move around in, but for real exercise the crew had to crawl through to the far more spacious three-decked lunar module.
During their downtime on the voyage, the entire crew, with the exception of the command module pilot, worked on breaking down the large M-39 rocket-assisted projectile weapons designed by DARPA, as well as the short-barreled M-4 carbine, the little sister of the venerable M-16 that each man would carry on any excursion on the lunar surface. There were also four Stinger missile systems and five LAWs armor-piercing rockets that Sarah and Ryan had to learn about. Each of the excursion personnel would also carry a Glock nine-millimeter pistol in a nylon holster.
After six hours of weapons training in breakdown and cleaning, Sarah gave the crew a quick but detailed course on the mineral. Water and air of any kind were forbidden within a dozen yards of the mineral if any was found. Information on the alien weaponry was sparse at best, with only a few grainy pictures of the items they were looking for. Most were rifle-shaped weapons, but Sarah reminded the men present that there could be larger, heavier weaponry that wasn’t discovered by the Beatles.
After the meeting broke up, the crew went about eating and exercising. Ryan went forward to speak to the command module pilot and learn about the systems. Sarah had been proud of Jason as he tried to cram everything he could learn in the two-day voyage of Dark Star 3. This was a shortened venue for all the training they had to undergo, since it used to take four days to get to the Moon in the old Apollo days, but thanks to the added engine power of the new solid rocket booster engines on the command module, the trip had been cut in half.
Sarah approached Colonel Kendal as he floated onto the exercise bike.
“Any word on the Chinese?”
Kendal started pedaling and looked around to see who was in earshot. Then he placed two small earpieces in his ears and paused over the play button for his iPod.
“The time frame will be right around the time Altair lands. We won’t know until we’re either ambushed or welcomed as an ally. Maybe we can get some chatter from the French, since they land five hours before us, but I don’t anticipate getting that lucky.”
“The Russians?” Sarah asked, leaning into Kendal.
“Our old friends are a full day and half behind us. They won’t get there until the shooting has stopped. Besides, I understand they’re having problems onboard their lunar lander Peter the Great.” The colonel tapped the video monitor next to the lander control station. There was a picture of a large craft that looked similar to their own Altair lander, only more base looking. Below the picture were the Russian words,
– Peter the Great Lunar Lander.
