Operation: Pointed Spear

A wish granted

Alik's pov
     I bolted upright at the distinctive sound of Mike's AR33 as I scrambled out of bed pulling on my combat gear and grabbing my gun, Monika was doing the same as I rushed out the door and saw Lera and Jack keeping the family in a huddle. I looked at Lera and yelled over the sound of gun fire "When I start shooting, get them to the safe haven!" She nodded as I lifted my MCX and started returning fire at the shapes of masks as they bounded from tree to tree trying to work their way into the building. When Monika appeared next to me she asked "where am I needed!?" I swapped magazines before yelling back "go to the safe haven, protect your family. Thatcher and I will hold them here!" She looked conflicted before nodding as I yelled over to Thatcher "Exciting mornin' eh lad?" He laughed before yelling back "we gotta hold these wankers as long as we can" I nodded and called "That we can do!" As I fired into a mask as he moved to another tree, I listened to comms as Finka called in the fact we were being attacked.
     Six replied "I'm mobilizing a relief team, hold out for half an hour" I cursed to myself as I fired into another mask, Thatcher yelled "on the right!" I shifted my aim and fired on the masks trying to flank us "They're done, mate" as I returned to firing at the main force. We traded fire picking off mask after mask until a helicopter hovered behind the house and Rodion's team slid down the rope before flanking us and firing into the masks who quickly decided to turn and run. I radioed "all personnel, be advised the masks are retreating. Moving to pursue" as I vaulted the railing and started towards the woods firing at the retreating silhouettes of the masks. The forest was dim and hard to see clearly in due to the overcast sky and thick forest. I heard IQ on comms "stay safe all of you, let us know when we can come out of the haven" I waited on the edge of the forest until Rodion and his team plus Thatcher were next to me, I looked at Thatcher "Mate, what's the call?" He replied "pair up, one pair of three. We got 15 meters between each pair. Flush em out and gun em down"
I nodded as Wendigo and Kilo walked over to Thatcher and I "let's get going then" we started into the woods, kilo was practically dragging Wendigo through the woods while Thatcher and I pulled security for him. Suddenly a Mask burst out from behind a tree trying to make a run for it as Wendigo ordered "Kilo, hunt" and she took off. I watched remembering working with dogs as kilo impacted the mask and dropped him to the ground as she ripped her head from side to side gripping the mask's arm as we jogged forward and I cuffed the mask. While Wendigo grabbed Kilo's harness and pulled her back, I looked at him and spoke "Mate, I think I'm in love" he chuckled while replying "don't let Finka hear you, she'll be very upset that you're hitting on me" I waved him off as I looked at the mask while Thatcher asked "where's the rest of your mates?" Kilo kept barking as she tried lunging for the mask causing him to flinch as I spoke "answer the question lad, or the dog gets a new chew toy" the mask whimpered as Wendigo allowed kilo to get a little closer.
He muttered terrified "the mountain, they're camped in the caves on the south side of the mountain" thatcher spoke "You're lying" as Wendigo let kilo inch closer and the mask yelled "no, no the caves in the mountain! I swear to you!" Thatcher and Wendigo stood walking away as Thatcher spoke "Sergeant, do your business" as I lifted my glock and the mask tried to worm away clearly terrified at the thought of dying as I squeezed the trigger watching his head jolt at the force of the round tearing its way through. I holstered my pistol and retrieved my hand cuffs before I walked over to the two and Thatcher radioed "all pursuit personnel, proceed to the caves on the south side of the mountain face. We're clearing them out" I listened as Ying replied "Blackout and I are on the moving" followed closely by Rodion "Wilco" as Wendigo clipped the leash onto kilo's harness before I looked up through the dark forest and saw the peak of the mountain. I sighed and shifted my rifle in my hands before I jogged catching up to the other two operators.
I asked Wendigo "so how old is Kilo?" He replied "She's going on 7" I asked a different question "how'd you get her? I thought the yanks only use German shepherds and Belgian malinois" he replied "I already had her when I joined the military, I just asked for the chance to prove that she could listen to commands and do the job just as well as the average dog" I nodded slowly before Thatcher spoke "let's tighten this up, there still may be masks out in the forest" we fell silent as we slowly made our way through the woods. I shifted my eyes from tree to tree before we reached the bottom of the mountain. I sighed as I looked up the path before Thatcher spoke "sit, we'll wait for the rest of the team here." Wendigo nodded and spoke "I fully believe we could clear these caves just the 3 of us but, let's not try it" as he dropped down to a sitting position with kilo laying across him as I crouched and looked around until Thatcher spoke "Achilles, sit down. Take a load off, we've got a bit of time before the other teams get here, relax"
I sighed and sat down leaning back against a rock as my rifle got switched to safety as I let it lay loosely across my legs as I leaned my head back and looked up at the late afternoon sky, the sun was just starting to set and the temperature was dropping pretty quickly. I spoke "think we'll get snow tonight?" To which Thatcher replied "Yeah, looks like we're supposed to" I asked again "where are we moving the family now? The masks tracked us to here" thatcher replied "the secondary safe house, Sweden" I nodded and fell silent as Wendigo asked "So how did you get Monika to talk to you? She's always been really quick to dismiss conversations" I answered "we grew up in similar situations, I guess you could say it's a bond between the situation" he nodded and spoke "it's good to see, she's needed someone for a long time" I watched the tree line as we waited patiently for the rest of the operators until they arrived and Thatcher explained the plan "we're going to push up to the caves and then clear them out, the masks are apparently using them to stay undetected"
       I stood and started up the trail before I reached the top, I crouched and started into the darkness moving slowly into the tight cave tunnel, it was barely big enough for a person to fit, I couldn't see as I slowly felt my way through the tunnel until I smelt cheap cologne causing me to slowly lift my pistol, the only weapon small enough to be of effective use in the tight space before the Mask lunged forward we collided and struggled for dominance before my hand stretched out and felt the handle of a hammer, I lifted it and started to smash the mask's face with the pry claw on the back of it as his body jolted with each hit until it stilled and I started moving deeper into the cave again, keeping the hammer just in case. I kept going into the oppressive darkness where I couldn't see my hand two centimeters infront of my face. 10 minutes later, I heard the movement of rocks to my left, I grabbed my hammer and slowly moved around the corner until something hit my glock sending it flying down the cave as I swung my hammer feeling the resistance as it hit the perpetrator.
     I heard the sound of air getting exhaled as I continued to swing my hammer in the darkness just happy to keep finding purchase until I heard what sounded like a mask breaking as I continued to hit the target with the hammer hearing the bone shatter and feeling blood and brain matter splatter me as I breathed heavily pushing myself off the mask as I kept going, I needed to clear this tunnel out or Monika would never be safe. I pushed deeper until a Mask dropped on me crashing to the ground as I felt the knife slice through my half mask and into my cheek as I spun throwing the mask off me as I cracked him with the hammer and he cut my arm with the blade of his knife. I tackled him into the wall of the tunnel as I felt the hot pain of his blade slipping into my thigh as I started wailing on the mask as his legs kicked around as he tried getting me off him before I spun my hammer and put the claw through his cheek I yanked it out before I swung it from my right sending the claw into his temple.
     I fell to my right after I fell off the mask and breathed trying to slow my heart rate, it beat at a million miles a second and I felt like it'd explode at any second. Once I got my heart rate to a level I accepted I kept going until 5 meters later I came in contact with a wall of rock, I breathed out "tunnel secure" as I keyed my radio "thatcher, thatcher do you read?" I only got static in return as I slowly walked my way back out of the tunnel. I felt my way through the tunnels before I tripped over one of the masks I had bludgeoned to death, I hissed at the pain in my leg before I pushed myself up and continued my way back to the mouth of the cave. When I reached the opening and saw daylight I saw the rest of the team standing around until Frost spotted me "oh my god, are you okay?" The team looked at her confused until they noticed me and thatcher came running over "Lad, what the fuck happened in there?" I lifted my hammer and spoke "I beat them to death"
       Blackout walked forward and gripped the hammer as he took it from me, speaking for the first time since I'd met him "well done" I nodded as Wendigo and Rodion put my arms around their necks while Thatcher radioed "Finka, were returning to the house. Get your medical supplies ready" I heard her in the comms "what happened? Who got hit?" Thatcher looked at me "Achilles, looks like he got stabbed and cut a couple times" IQ came over comms sounding scared "is he okay?" Ying spoke "yes, he's mostly okay." I gritted my teeth as I stared forward, the realization that I'd just killed 3 masks by beating them to death with a hammer had set in. Thatcher asked "lad, you broken?" I looked over and replied "no, no mate. Just coming to terms with it, it's a hell of a way to let off steam" Ying asked "are you suggesting we beat masks to death?" I shook my head no "wouldn't recommend, I'm gonna remember that forever. It'll haunt me forever" Frost asked "is it that bad?" I replied "I felt those men die, I felt each hit take away their fight, I felt their body give way under my rage, I felt everything happening."
     Thatcher spoke "Mate, you did what you did to protect IQ and her family. If you didn't do that they could've died" I nodded and stayed silent as Rodion suggested "When we get back to base, why don't you talk to Six?" I replied "I'm not going back" Wendigo looked at me like I'm insane "the fuck do you mean?" I replied "my job isn't done here, I'm staying" Thatcher spoke "lad, we're all going back to base. We're rearming and refitting before we move to the next safehouse" I looked back before staring at the ground until I heard Frost sounding excited "There it is! I see the house!" Rodion and Wendigo picked up the pace as Ying radioed "we're outside, you can come out of the safe haven" I saw IQ and Finka come busting out of the safe haven as IQ covered her mouth when she saw me. Lera ordered "Bring him to the table. Help me get him naked, I have to check for bleeds" the team worked quickly pulling off my clothes leaving me in my underwear Lera started working.