Rampage Out Of Style

Although the enemy had opened fire from an AP Zenite, Cooper Black rolled aside after diving sideways. The bullets missed his head by a notch.

"Why, you damnable son of a —" he dived to the left as a AA flak cannon dared to obliterate him. "Shiddamn! I hate this war by the minute! Hey, over here, you Russian scum! Eat shit and DIE!"

He savagely shot at the Russian soldiers with the M416. The assault rifle came handy with a grenade launcher attachment. He loaded a grenade and inched towards the danger.

"Hah!" Cooper roared as he launched the grenade 15 feet high, which drifted through the air in a wide arc, before initiating explosion at one of the AA flak cannons. "Ha, ha! Serves you right, betrayers of the peace!"

The flak turret burst outwards in a spray of metal scraps, blood, and flames. But a howitzer homed right at the top of the first wall, downhill.

"Ho shit!" Cooper dived onto the padding to get missed from a heavy blast. The blast was so powerful that some parts of the first wall cracked and collapsed.

Cooper tried loading another grenade into his gun but he was taking damage from an LMG. He leaned against the second wall with his back, hoping that the SU-25s didn't spot him yet.

Just then, an RPG hit the second wall, 3 metres to the left of where Black was standing. When he turned in the direction of the RPG's source, he saw Dan Walker giving him a thumbs up.

He didn't need assistance. What he needed was a way to get onto the second wall safely. But even if he did, the turrets would surely kill him.

He loaded the grenade into his M416.

If there was a way to get at the enemy, it would be via stealth or a distraction. He launched the AP grenade upwards, hoping it would land at the base of one of the howitzers.

BOOM!

"Aaaah!" a Russian soldier (possibly mounting the cannon) flipped over the edge of the second wall and landed at the outer side of the first wall with a crack! His spine had been twisted at awkward angles and his neck was hugging his back.

Meanwhile, the 3 Russians on the Growler steered their stolen vehicle around the southeastern corner, and halted near an albino bush.

"Kiril, prone over to that rock over there. Sikorsky, hide behind that bush and wait for my signal."

Dan Walker noticed the LAV parked to his left, about 100 metres away. Li'l Jacob spied on the Russian soldiers using binoculars. Carl Jason set up a M60E4 LMG and loaded it up with a 100 bullet chain.

"Kiril, get the one on the left. Sikorsky, get some flanking fire on the one on the right. I'm going in for the middle one," Mir spoke with the others, in Russian. "Okay? Ready? 3… 2… 1… GO!"

Mir dived forwards to land in front of Li'l Jacob. Kiril threw a knife at Carl Jason's hand, dropping the LMG from his hands. As for Sikorsky, he used his AEK-971 to damage Dan Walker's helmet.

Sgt. Dan Walker was thrown back by a heavy blast from Kiril's Saiga 12K. Sikorsky smacked Carl Jason with the butte of his SCAR-H. CJ was down, DW was down. Only LJ remained.

He tried to punch Mir in the forehead but the opponent was too fast. Mir inserted a knife into LJ's lungs and brought it out, red and bloody.

"Oh, sh… aa-aaaah…" Li'l Jacob groaned as he clutched his heart and sank to the ground. He tried to fight back but couldn't move a single centimetre. The world turned blue, and then a whitish blur. Li'l Jacob dropped to the ground and lay still.

No movement, no sound.

"Well, that wasn't so difficult!" Mir dusted his hands. 'The main problem would be that guy over there. The one who's trying to climb up the second wall."

"Let him do what he wants," Kiril contrasted. "He'll never get through the other side of the wall. Too many of our soldiers. Not to mention the turrets! He'll never make it out alive!"

"Still, there's a chance," Sikorsky rummaged through the US marines' packs for anything useful. "That guy is no ordinary human. He's dared to climb up the walls. He's destroyed the mountain fortress. Let's set up a sniper position and shoot that piece of shit to a pile of bloody flesh!"

It was clear that the guy they were referring to was none other than Cooper Black, the post-American cowboy.

***

From the northern side of the Zhigansk fortress, a large army of T-72 tanks were advancing. Inside one of them, Reximus Pill operated the 0.72 mm coaxial LMG turret.

Through the trees and the scrubby undergrowth, the tanks' caterpillar tracks sent wispy clouds of powdery snow billowing after them.

"This is the military division of Mission Base Control; we're advancing on the enemy. Over," the General's voice wafted from the radio.

"Yeah, this is Jerry Stone. We're bound for the target, 300 metres ahead. Over," the driver sent his voice to the MBC as an answer.

"This is MBC; you're currently on AP. Switch to AT for attacking the turrets and switch to HE to breach through the walls. Beware of secondaries. Watch out for AT troopers and howitzers. Over."

"J. Stone; target is 200 metres away. We're initiating siege barrage formation. Over and out."

When they were just 150 metres away from the fortress, the tanks were out in the clearing without any snow-covered pines to cover them from the cannons.

It was amazing! All the tanks began firing shells at the wall repeatedly. Most of them had switched to HE but some remained in AP mode to neutralize the Russians mounting the AA flak.

Within 5 minutes, all the flak turrets and howitzers had been smashed to pieces. And a huge section of the wall had collapsed and cracked outwards. The padding of snow spilled out onto the ground, forming a slope to get above the first wall.

"Rex, hit those Russians with the guns!" Stone drove their tank uphill.

"Which one? AP, AT, HE or LMG?"

"AP! C'mon, mount the turret and leave none alive!"

Reximus descended from the LMG hatch, loaded a 120mm shell into the cannon, and gave J. Stone a thumbs up.

Taash-iou! The shell lodged itself between eight Russian soldiers, blowing them all away.

Rex loaded another shell. Jerry shot.

The AP shell hit twelve Russian unworthies and killed them all.

Another shell was loaded. Jerry shot.

This time, it hit a (empty) MG nest, spreading the sand bags all over the first wall.

"Okay, Rexy, now switch to HE!"

"Got it!" Rex Pill clicked a lever, unlocked some gears, rotated the cannon and locked the gears again. Then he loaded a much heavier and stronger shell into the cannon. "Ready for action!"

BASH! The shell cracked the second wall.

"Once more, man. Let's do that once more."

"Alright!" Rex loaded a second HE shell.

JS aimed and fired.

BASH-DASH, DASH! Three other HE shells collided at the reinforced concrete. The wall broke apart, just like the first one. But instead of a padding slope, rocket artillery awaited them.

A ferocious-looking Russian General by the name of Dave Dam grinned at the American tanks, before waving his hand forwards. As he did so, the Russians attacked.

Some MIG-29s appeared soaring in the skies.

"Ambush!" Rex warned Jerry. "Turn back! Turn back! I'm going for the Stingers. You reverse this tank back to ground level. I'll handle the MIGs, you drive! Let's head out towards the 'Azak' landing site. C'mon! Move it! Let's go, go!"

The tanks at their immediate front burst and exploded like mini A-bombs while RP's T-72 drove out of the way and turned to the east.

"MBC here; team Duo Hiker! Halt! Stop! What are you doing? Turn back to the combat area now! Or I'll —"

"You'll what, huh? This is a situational emergency. Go to hell!"

"But… crrrt… srrrt… hrrtt…."

J. Stone yanked the radio out of its circuit. "Say, Reximus, would you do the honors?"

He handed the broken piece of equipment to him.

"Absolutely!" he threw it outside, through the LMG hatch.

Far out in the skies above, Henry Hudson scoured the fortress, monitoring each and every movement of any 'irregular' military units. He circled the F-117 stealth aircraft around like a hawk. He flipped it over and zoomed downwards into the compound within the second walls.

"The things I do for America!" he opened the canopy and let the $15 million plane do its sacrificial stunt. The aircraft crashed into the rocket artillery, along with the General and more than half of his troops.

H. Hudson hovered in the cool air for about 15 seconds before starting to hurtle down towards the Earth, at speeds of more than 100 m/s.

The altitude sensor was functioning. He read the display.

[1700 m]

He enjoyed the fresh wind. The way the air particles tugged at his clothes made him feel aroused.

[1600 m]

He was descending towards the 'Azak' landing site.

[1500 m]

But then he spotted the Russian MIG-29s. They had spotted him first.

[1400 m]

One of the grey jets raced up towards him.

[1300 m]

It released two missiles, headed for hitting his body.

[1200 m]

He missed the first missile, but the other missile hit his feet. This resulted in a turning effect. So now he was rotating vertically, around the pivot (his head).

[1000 m]

The dizziness overtook him.

[800 m]

He couldn't breathe, nor could he see.

[600 m]

The altitude sensor was beeping. His hands fumbled at the clip that opened the parachute.

[400 m]

He pulled on it but its handle tore off. He must've exerted too much pressure. He tried it on the string.

[200 m]

When he pulled on it, he discovered that he didn't bring any parachute.

"Aaaaaaah—"

SPLAT!