The Assault (27 page)

He watched the rotorcraft sink to the ground in front of them. The transmitter on the tank’s desk continued to flash, identifying them. The pilot of the medivac craft had said a second craft would be coming for them. He had just neglected to say that that craft would be a gunship.

Chisnall turned the knob gently and rolled the big tank forward, pulling it to a halt just in front of the rotorcraft.

“We are Oscar Mike,” he said, jumping down into the well. “We are Oscar freaking Mike.”

As they ran across the open desert to the waiting rotorcraft, Chisnall glanced back at the burning hulk of the second tank.

Behind it, in the sand of the desert, he could see two crawling figures. Yozi and Alizza. He flicked a salute at them as he ran up onto the gunship. They’d never see it. But it felt like the right thing to do.

Exhausted, Chisnall collapsed into a seat in the small, circular bay in the interior of the gunship. Price sat next to him, supporting her broken wrist on her knee. She barely seemed to notice it. Her head was down, staring at the floor.

There were no other seats, so Wilton and Monster propped
themselves up against the curved wall of the bay. Wilton closed his eyes, but Monster stared at Chisnall, grinning.

“The Monster thinks that was better than a really good fart, my dudes.”

Wilton groaned. Chisnall laughed. Price was silent.

He thought about Hunter, resting forever in the sands of the desert.

He thought about Brogan. His now ex-girlfriend. Had she ever had feelings for him? Or was that all just part of her plan? Probably he would never know. And for Brogan, Chisnall knew, the relief at surviving would be tempered by the knowledge of what would be waiting for her back in the Free Territories.

As the rotorcraft took off, Chisnall looked back at Uluru and the triangular path of destruction centered on the monorail entrance. Flames were still belching from the air shaft, and a cloud of gray dust hung around the top of the rock. It slowly disappeared behind them, first a lump of rock, then a pebble, then a dot on the landscape. Then it was gone, swallowed by the vastness of the Australian desert.

THERE ARE VARYING ACCOUNTS OF MANY OF THE EVENTS on the Uluru mission. But the key facts are not in question, only some of the finer details.

For example, some historians have claimed that Lieutenant Ryan Chisnall did not fall into the watercourse down the side of Uluru, but rather jumped into it willingly, knowing that it would end up in the rock pool at Mutitjulu. The most reliable account of this particular event, however, comes from Captain Trianne Price, ACOG, Recon Team Angel (Ret.). She states that, in her opinion, Chisnall simply slipped, and that if it was a planned move, he would have said something to the others first.

Price was awarded the Victoria Cross (by the New Zealand government) and the Bzadian War Medal (by the New Earth Council) for her courage in laying the explosives on the monorail track in the face of the approaching car.

There are also varying stories about the role of Specialist Janos Panyoczki (Monster). Historian Hayden Glanville, in his study of the Uluru mission, came to the conclusion that Monster was there to keep an eye on Chisnall. Not even the team commander was above suspicion. Panyoczki, still on active duty, is now a general in the Hungarian Free Army. He has never consented to any interviews about his service during the Bzadian War, so it is unlikely that these questions will ever be answered.

At his parents’ request, the grave of Specialist Stephen Huntington was located after the end of the war, although no remains were found.

Specialist Blake Wilton continued to serve with both the Angel and Demon Recon teams, before he grew too tall for undercover missions and transferred to the Canadian Land Force Command. He served with honor and distinction, earning the Medal of Military Valour and two Sacrifice Medals before losing his life heroically in the Battle of Bering Strait during the Second Great Ice War.

Staff Sergeant Holly Brogan received a pardon from the New Earth Council after agreeing to assist in locating other Uluru children who had already infiltrated human society. She passed on extensive inside knowledge of the Bzadian military, which helped bring about a turning point in the war. She is now considered a national hero of Australia.

Lieutenant Ryan Chisnall returned to alien-occupied territory with other members of Recon Team Angel less
than six months later, as part of Operation Magnum. They got out. He did not. An emergency signal was picked up by satellite, but an extraction team found no trace of Chisnall. Official reports list him as missing, presumed killed, in action.

His luck, it seems, had finally run out.

Everything about the Allied Combined Operations Group (ACOG) was a mishmash of different human cultures: tactics, weapons, languages, vehicles, and especially terminology. The success of many missions depended on troops from diverse nations being able to understand all communications instantly and thoroughly. The establishment of a Standardized Military Terminology and Phonetic Alphabet (SMTPA) was a key factor in assisting this communication, combining existing terminology from many of the countries involved in ACOG. For ease of understanding, here is a short glossary of some of the SMTPA terms, phonetic shortcuts, and equipment used in this book.

There is no equivalent in English for the buzzing sound that is a common feature of most Bzadian languages. As per convention, this sound is represented, where required, with the letter z.

The ranking system and unit structure of the Bzadian Army are markedly different from those of most Earth forces. Many ranks have no equivalent in human terms, and the organization of units is different. For simplicity and ease of understanding, the closest human rank has been used when referring to Bzadian Army ranks, and Bzadian unit names have been expressed in human terms.

The following people won the grand prize in my school competitions and have all had a character named after them in this book:

Anyone who has ever published a book will tell you about the debt they owe to the books they read in their formative years. For me, it was the adventure thrillers of Alistair MacLean. Recon Team Angel is in many ways a tribute to books like
Where Eagles Dare
and
The Guns of Navarone
.

I stand on the shoulders of giants.

A native New Zealander,
BRIAN FALKNER
now lives on the other side of the Tasman Sea, in Australia. To research the settings for
The Assault
, he camped in the Australian Outback, sleeping under the stars and visiting Uluru. Find him online at
brianfalkner.com
.