The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 3

Aoloa slipped the helmet down over his head. This time it's for real, soldier. They were on an insertion craft that would drop them a quarter mile from the target at low altitude. The pod wasn't being used for this mission. Glancing over at the berserkers, he smiled. They were suited up in massive armor only their frames could handle. The pack was fidgeting like crazy, while the colony was waking up.

"Insertion in 3 minutes," came over the comms. With that, everyone got ready to jump out of the plane. Thirty-two highly trained men and women who would give their lives for each other prepared to annihilated anything they found.

Thinking back to their briefing, it was simple enough. North Korea had violated the terms of the peace accord with South Korea. They were harboring and arming Muslim terrorists. It would give them plausible deniability when the time came. Hawaiian satellites had picked up the training camps and confirmed several key leaders. Their mission was to kill everyone inside the compound, then torch it. Not necessarily in that order.

Looking around at the team, everyone was a faceless black suit. The berserkers were obviously heavily armored, but the truth was they were all invulnerable to conventional small arms fire. Carbon fiber plates were woven into a carbon monoweave that was almost unbreakable while remaining very light.

"Insert, NOW!" came over the comms, and the berserkers stepped out of the plane, followed immediately by the entire pack. The colony dropped in a staggered pattern while the cast dropped last. It was stomach-wrenching to fall two hundred feet without a parachute. His HUD highlighted branches along the way that he used to slow his fall until he crashed to the ground with a tight roll that resulted in no damage.

Taking control of the colony, he issued the order, "Colony, spread out and prepare to place thumpers." While they moved to cover the perimeter, he scanned through their vitals, then the rest of the squad's. Pika, a mutt, and a pulled muscle from landing wrong, but was moving well. "Plant thumpers now!"

He followed his own order, and saw the confirmation that all thumpers were placed. They waited a few minutes for the imaging to come in. With a slight nod to himself, he advanced to the walls and waited. Kanoa would be giving the next command.

On cue, he heard the command. The berserkers barreled forward, smashing through the flimsy defensive structures. At the same time, the colony sniped the sniper towers, freeing the cast, who had been gliding in low circles around the perimeter, to swoop in and firebomb the entrances to the sleeping quarters.

There was a lot of screaming that made it through the helmets, but that was a minor nuisance, filtered into highlighted targets on their HUDs. With the colony on the walls sniping, the berserkers rampaging with flamethrowers, the pack setting thermite bombs, and the cast in the air providing additional targeting data, it was a slaughter. It took only ten minutes for them to perform their mission and clear out. Getting onto the pickup choppers took only slightly longer.

---

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Aoloa looked over at Kekoa, who was currently shaking her butt and waving her hands in the air in giddy excitement.

"I know! Did you see the way those bombs tore up the walls? AWESOME!" squealed another bitch-mutt, Kalea.

By contrast, the berserkers were somber, and the colony was, if anything, annoyed with the antics of the slobbering puppies. "I've had enough of your festivities. I'm going back to my room," Aoloa finally said. With that, he took his plate of food to their common room and settled in to eat in peace. Most of the rest of the colony filtered in not long after, finding places to rest or eat as they saw fit.

Just as he'd finished his meal, a heavy knock on the door got his attention. Can't be the mutts... too polite and too heavy. With a slight sigh, he stood and opened the door to Kawikani's massive frame. Then nearly ten foot tall berserker had arms the size of Aoloa's torso. "Can I help you?"

"They are annoying, but you shouldn't damp their fun. It is there way," he said, somberly.

"I know, but our way is to be quiet, just as your way is to... what do you do, anyway?"

"Recover. We lose a little of our sanity every time we go into battle. It takes time to recover that. You are not on the edge of attacking anything after we go into combat. You can tolerate their antics if we can."

Aoloa took a deep breath. "They also don't make a point of annoying you at every turn. The only time they don't annoy me is on missions. All other times, they make nuisances of themselves."

"They are trying to draw you out of your shell and get you to play with them."

He raised an eyebrow at the giant. "They don't do that to you."

"The last time I played with them I put three of the pack in traction. They are suitably wary of my strength, now."

Aoloa found himself trying to hold in a smirk. "I wish I'd seen that."

Kawikani smiled, slightly. "I'm sure you would have appreciated it. Alas, I believe the security footage has long since been deleted. I'm surprised you're able to get along with the cast as well as you do, actually."

"I saw what they did to the pack, once. I don't want to be bit by their razor sharp nails or teeth. I've seen them eat. They eat bones, flesh, everything."

"Good point. I am wary of them, myself, despite their diminutive size."

"I'll try to tolerate the mutts better, but it won't be easy."

"I'll consider it a personal favor," Kawikani stated, before he turned towards his own common room.

Aoloa closed the door with a sigh. Great, now I have to be nice to them. Why can't they just go away? Except they are useful in a fight.

It was as he turned back into the room that he was tackled from the side and pinned to the ground. Without thinking, he drove an elbow into the belly of his attacker, Hanale. Aoloa followed up his strike with another elbow, getting Hanale off him so he could get to his feet. Hanale struggled to his feet as well, gasping. Aoloa threw a couple punches, forcing the slightly larger boy to retreat.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Hanale gave a lopsided grin, "Just seeing if you still have it, man."

Aoloa charged, a knee strike followed by two quick jabs forcing Hanale into full retreat. A final swipe drew blood, which Aoloa calmly licked off his nails as Hanale retreated to sulk, while pretending it was no big deal to lose, yet again.

"Anyone else want to have to deal with the mutts instead of me?" Nobody took up the challenge, so Aoloa relaxed slightly and crashed next to one of the other boys, not bothering to register who it was. Some days, it's barely worth it to be on top of the colony.