Chapter 45: Action!

Michael, Eric and General Ngumo stood together in front of the air terminal, watching the first of the UN Relief Agency C-130 transport aircraft landing and taxiing to their warehouse and staging compound. The boxy outlines of a pair of Masi'shen Interdictor class assault shuttles hovered overhead. Michael's personal Dart pinnace stood nearby, ready to take the General back to African Union administrative headquarters on the Ethiopian Red Sea coast, where he was scheduled to address a special conference of AU member nations.

"Yes, the mission goes well. We are secure wherever we put men and supplies on the ground. No, our allies show no signs of aggression. They are here only to help, not to occupy," he would repeatedly reassure the doubting ministers and military representatives.

The airport served the capital of the western province and lay adjacent to the border with its neighboring nation. The region was a hotbed of corruption, terrorism, and held hundreds of displaced persons camps. Capitol towns of the northern and southern provinces lay 300 kilometers to the northeast and the southeast. The nation's capital city lay 1100 kilometers due east. An over-watch detachment of six Interdictors were stationed high over the capitol city and its military installations, keeping a close watch should His Excellency, "President Bluto" as Michael had dubbed the murderous dictator) decide to launch a strike of fighters or armed forces westward.

Eric and the General arbitrarily decided that their primary operations area would center on the western provincial capital, and would extend 500 kilometers outward in all directions. It was a huge area, mostly open desert and wadi-filled lands holding a thousand scattered villages and hundreds of refugee camps.

"Twenty of our Interdictors are launched on over-watch, and a first detachment of two hundred Llamas are fanning out on patrol. We're looking for bandits and possible raiders along the main routes, and we're spreading out to follow the trails and tracks where bandits might be camped or moving," Eric informed Michael.

"We've begun from here as our starting point, and we're doing our absolute best to make a clean sweep as we spread outward. We don't want to leave any bandits lurking behind us. It's bound to happen; some of them are using villages or even caves as cover, so we're dedicating some of our Llamas as roving patrols inside our expanding security circle. If they group up and mount an attack, we're pretty confident that we can intercept them. The Interdictor over-watch is great for that. Their surveillance systems are proving good at reporting clusters of three or more vehicles or mounted riders. A call to a Llama to intercept and check them out gets fast results," Eric said.

"Have we found any yet?" Michael asked.

"Oh, yes!" General Ngumo smiled. "We had barely gotten our first prisoner compound erected and one of your big flying boxes dropped outside the gate and unloaded a dozen unconscious men. When they regained their senses, we began interrogating them. I hear that another half-dozen loads have since arrived, with many more expected soon."

"Great news," Michael smiled at Eric. "Your Rangers are off to a great start!" he said.

"Not just our Rangers, Mike," Eric answered. "We're mixing our Llama patrols with UN Peacekeeping people. It was suggested that both sides would benefit from working more closely together. About a third of our patrol flights at the moment are carrying a Ranger pilot and a co-pilot/crew leader, and from two to four UN peacekeeping soldiers. They're not allowed to carry their firearms, of course, but we're lending each of them stun weapons for self-defense, just in case," he explained.

"So, how are they operating?" Mike asked.

"In a couple of different ways, so far," Eric said. "In some cases they land to deal with a stunned group of bandits. They disarm them and destroy their weapons. They administer first aid and water to any victims the bandits have with them, evaluate the overall situation, and call for an Interdictor to come in for pickup. Bandits are taken to a prison camp. Victims, if any, are brought to a UN relief site.

"Now, here is where it gets interesting, and the UN troops are worth their weight in gold. If there is a village nearby, our Llama team flies in and lands; the UN guys walk in and ask for the local leaders. Meanwhile, our Ranger crew lifts off and maintains a close overhead watch on the village and surroundings, just in case some bandits are lurking about.

"The villagers recognize the UN uniforms, the blue armbands and helmets. We're getting either a very positive or sometimes, a negative reaction. Both are really helpful. If its a warm response, we get a lot of intelligence about any bandit threats and locations in the area. It's even more amazing when we show them a handful of mug shots of the new prisoners. Half the time, a village leader will recognize the faces and he gets over his fear really quick, seeing how we're able to take those killers down. He's eager to open up and tell us everything they know about these guys. On the other hand, if they react negatively to our UN guys, we have a pretty good idea that maybe we've stumbled into a bandit-controlled village, or a hostage situation. We keep our cool and quietly leave. An Interdictor comes in, hovers invisibly overhead, and pretty soon we find a gang of bandits coming out into the open. The Interdictor and a handful of Llamas swoop in like chicken hawks. Mike, you wouldn't believe how effective this is!"

"How about setting up our fixed outposts, the observer checkpoints along the main roads and intersections? How's that going?" Michael asked.

"It's early hours, yet, but we have a ring of them just outside the city covering all the main approaches. These are primarily on the east and west sides, and on the highway going southeast to the southern province. As planned, these are very visible, right out in the open with UN Peacekeeping people in blue helmets screening the people and the vehicles moving through. The only difference with them is that they're wearing our improved body armor--not the desert suits, just the armor.

"We're keeping our Rangers back out of sight in the checkpoint shelters, covering the crossing area with stun defenses. Our guys are in their desert suits. We're noticing that the local people are responding most positively. Again, most of them seem to associate the blue UN helmets with safety and security, and we're getting excellent cooperation. We've even picked up some tip-offs about bandits operating in the city. We're rooting them out as we hear about them," Eric said.

"Okay, that's shaping up even better than we hoped. How about the big worry, their explosives or RPGs or sneak attacks?"

"So far, so good. Each checkpoint or outpost has their remote detection gear hidden along the roads at quarter-klick intervals for a full kilometer on the outbound side, and for half a kilometer on the city side. Anything containing more than a gram of explosives is detected and our guys intercept it. Nothing and nobody's been blown up, so far," Eric said.

"Sweet. Now, speaking of a body getting blown up, I'm not worried about any Interdictor problems, but how's our Llama force doing? Anything to report? Any casualties or damage?" Mike asked.