Operation: smoking trap

The rescue operation pt.2

Noah's pov
I groaned as the concussion of the impacts ceased vibrating through my body and my vision doubled, I squeezed my eyes tightly before blinking away the double vision. I heard the faint sound of yelling and gun fire over my ringing ears as Frost rolled me over and started checking for any wounds as the ringing in my ears started to subside enough where I could hear. I coughed out "anyone injured?" She replied "one of the seals has had his foot amputated above the ankle and Thermite has a nasty gash across his thigh. The medics are trying to get everyone wounded in the chinook." I coughed as Maverick spoke "I'm getting the A10s to do runs on our north and eastern flanks while we get our wounded into the chinook" I crouched before speaking to Frost "get 3 people and start moving our wounded I'll move with you and cover" she replied "on it" as I stood and started firing at the tree line the muzzle flashes picked up and I suppressed the entire tree line. I radioed "Maestro I need you on the northern flank, we're moving wounded" I saw him jogging over before we crouched and fired at any muzzle flashes as I heard multiple sets of footsteps behind me as well as the groans of the wounded.
I saw the shell impacts before I heard the distinctive brrrrt and heard the A10s engine streak over head, I heard Maverick "good effect on target, I need a second run on those targets. If possible drop Jdams 250 yards into the tree line from our position, how copy?" I didn't hear the reply of the pilots but the second gun run confirmed the reply. I heard the SEAL screaming in pain as the medics must've put a tourniquet on, one of the worst pains I can remember experiencing in training. I heard Harry on our comms "You'll have to hold over til morning" I looked down at my ammo belt before asking "any chance of air support during the night?" He replied "I'll try to get assets to pull rotation during the night but I make no promises" I sighed and asked "are we getting any reinforcements?" Harry replied after a second "A green beret ODA from 5th group is en route but they will be landing a klick out" I looked around as the forest got pitch black. I looked around before asking "Hey Mav, do we have any NVGs?" He replied "no, we weren't expecting to be out here all night" I sighed before asking "think we should have half the team get some sleep? We're gonna have to pull shifts throughout the night"
He nodded and replied "how many do we have up and fighting?" I answered after thinking "I think 9, no 10, 4 of our team, 2 SEALs, one pilot and 3 of Bucks are up" he replied "and the others are in the chinook wounded, dead or giving treatment" I nodded confirming his assessment before he patted my shoulder "the choice is yours, pick who get to get some rest. The teams have been doing good" I nodded before speaking "you're one of them, take that pilot over by the side of the cockpit. He said he can't feel his legs, the doc might be able to assess that" he nodded and I saw his shadowy form walk over to the pilot. I smirked before walking over and patted Mako and Maestros shoulder "you two get some rest, there's room in the chinook." I mentally marked 1 more before I walked over to Mute, I crouched next to him "how you holding up?" He looked at me with feral eyes "I'm doing great" I replied "go take a break" he replied "nah I think I'm good for a while longer" I spoke more forcefully "Mute, go take a break" he sighed before replying "Aye"
       I heard Spartan, the last of the SEALs speak "he's a good kid, hungry" I nodded and replied "a little too hungry, he wants to prove himself bad. Think it has to do with his age" I heard Frost to my left "so are we getting rebacked?" I nodded before asking "didn't you hear Harry on comms?" She chuckled before speaking "yeah, I just wanted to get a conversation going" I looked through the darkness and spoke "it's gonna be a long night" Spartan said "hey, I'm glad you guys came. We weren't sure we'd be surviving this" Buck replied "We always come to get our friends, even if it means we come into this shit show" Spartan chuckled as Blackbeard continued "besides, Alaska likes fighting" I shifted my 249 in my grip "your damn right I do, let's tighten this up. We gotta hold til 02:00" we all sat silently waiting for any movement. Before I knew it my group of 5 was being relieved and we climbed into the chinook. I turned on my red light that was mounted to my left shoulder strap seeing the pile of dead and the forms of our wounded. I looked over and asked "how many did we lose?" The flight medic replied "3 on contact, the pilot when the rounds started going through. Then Clash took one through the side, hit her heart and she dropped dead"
      I sighed before speaking "you did good keeping our wounded stable" she replied with a small smile as I saw her hands covered in blood. I pulled my canteen off my waist and handed it to her, "here, clean your hands" she took it and washed her hands off mumbling "thanks" as I sat down and turned off my light before Frost sat next to me. I looked over as she pulled out an MRE "think the masks leave us alone tomorrow?" I sighed longingly "I hope so but I doubt it. They're gonna hit us hard the moment those SF guys get here" she chuckled before leaning against me "almost had me scared for a minute today" I asked "the mortars?" She nodded into my shoulder "they got really close, I thought they hit you." I replied slowly "I was sure they did" she chuckled before speaking teasingly "we really need to talk about you almost getting blown up" I laughed before speaking "we can do it when we get back to base"
     I woke up the next morning to gunfire, the sun hadn't quite come up yet but I heard Maverick yelling orders to the SF guys. I grabbed my 249 and ran out dropping to the ground below as a rocket went flying past me hitting the tree line behind the helicopter I raised my SAW and fired a long suppressing burst at the tree line. I heard Maverick "Alaska get on the radio and see what assets we have in the area!" I yelled back "Check!" As I pulled off my prc-120 and started the process of working through finding all the assets in the area. I yelled back to Maverick 4 minutes later "I got a flight of 2 F-15s with 12 bombs each!" He yelled "call it in! We need the extra fire power" I started the process of walking the F-15s to our area before heard the WSO "Mark friendly positions" I pulled a green smoke grenade from my vest and tossing it on the far side of the chinook and radioed "Friendlies marked with green smoke" the wso replied "Friendly forces acquired. Dropping ordinance danger close to the north, eta 2 mikes, how copy?"
      I relied "sounds right, I copy all. Danger close north of our position 150 yards" I yelled to the teams "Be advised 24 bombs will be hitting 150 yards north of us in 2 mikes" we continued fighting until I heard the streaking of the f15's engines before the forest ahead of us was decimated by 6000lbs of bombs. I watched in amazement as the vibrant forest became a pile of splinters. I heard myself yell "Get some! Oorah!" Before Maverick spoke next to me "I'm gonna take half the SF guys and Mute to go find the dead SEALs" I replied "I'll hold the fort down" he smirked and they started working their way out of the perimeter. I crouch and radioed "Harry, do we have an LZ to exfil?" He replied "once you have all the casualties there's a field big enough to fit the two chinooks, 2 klicks to your south east." I radioed in reply "check, see you when we get back" before I looked at Frost "Well 24 bombs really has a way of opening up the forest doesn't it?" She chuckled before asking "how're we moving all these losses" I replied "we have the drag bags so the dead will get dragged out. The wounded can use someone for an anchor and walk out"
       She nodded and after 2 hours Maverick and his group returned carrying the two dead SEALs, I ordered "Start getting the dead out of the chinook! We're leaving in 10" I stood next to Maverick and explained the situation and how far away the LZ was. Once all the dead were in the drag bags and the wounded were ready to move. I watched as our large force started moving past me before I pulled rear guard and followed. The masks seemed to have evaporated with the impacts of the bombs but I couldn't get the feeling of being watched out of my system. Once we reached the large open field we amassed our casualties and I called for extract. I spoke on the net "All forces be advised eta on extraction force is 1 hour. I repeat extraction force is 1 hour out" just then the snap of a high velocity round passing close past me caused me to yell "Contact!" And return fire in the general direction the round came from, the rest of the able bodied operators joined me in the defense.
I noticed the masks had been keeping to thick concealment making it impossible to know exactly where they were, I pointed to the thickest part of the forest and yelled "I think they're there!" The team shifted their fire to the area as another area started picking up with the amount of fire were taking. I heard Maverick "Grenade out!" As he threw his m67 at the thickest part of the forest. I yelled "Smoking!" As I pulled some of my smoke grenades and threw them into the forest. A minute later I set them off watching the forest become a plume of smoke forcing the masks to step into the open if they wanted to continue to engage us. A few of the brash masks pushed through the smoke into our waiting muzzles, they realized their mistake as the rounds found their mark and the masks dropped dead. I checked my watch and radioed "10 mikes to extract" as the smoke started dissipating and the masks main force returned to their engagement of our position. I sighed but continued suppressing the area before I had to reload I heard Maverick "Alaska, they're over there!" I yelled back "by the tree at a 45 degree angle?!"
He nodded as I finished reloading my saw and started firing on the masks Maverick had spotted, the team continued passing information as the gunfire stopped. We all waited anxiously as the wind seemed to be the only thing moving until a round snapped past me causing me to yell "what the fuck?!" As I leaned around my tree and fired another long burst. The gunfire picked up again as the chinook crew chief was heard in my headset from my prc, I yelled "Alright, extract is here in 30 seconds. The apache escorts are gonna light up this tree line when we pull back" I turned and watched the chinooks touch down and the ramp drop as I radioed "get the casualties on the chinooks!" I watched the team start pulling our dead and wounded to the chinook while all of us who would be gunners stood and backed away shooting. I noticed the Apaches doing wide circles before Frost radioed "All casualties are on board" I heard Buck "lift off, we'll be on the second bird" as we turned and started running for the chinook 100 yards away. The Apaches rolled in and started tearing apart the tree line and masks as we ran up the ramp, I turned and crouched firing my 249 at the masks as Maverick ran to the cockpit and gave the pilots a signal causing the bird to lift off as we all breathed a sigh of relief to have gotten out alive.