Cassandra’s Gift
Chapter 23
“We’ve got company,” Natalie said, entering my office. “Radar has picked up a ship heading this way. We might have intruders on the island already—Jessica is missing, she hasn’t been seen since breakfast.”
“Get everyone armed and have Julie and Melissa take a squad to search for Jessica. Bring the spare generators online and power up your toy, you may get a chance to use it today.” Natalie smiled at the prospect and rushed off.
Everyone on the island got their combat gear on. This consisted of body armour, a harness with a pistol, knife and ammunition pouches and a Heckler & Koch MP7 automatic weapon. The MP7 had a night sight fitted and was loaded with armour piercing rounds.
We’d all trained with the weapons and each of us had put several thousand rounds through them.
Melissa and Julie took eight others with them. They were armed the same as the rest of us, but were dressed in camouflage gear. They worked their way down the island following a trail that ran along the coast. From the trail they had a view of the beach and were on the look out for a boat.
After about an hour, they rounded a corner and could see a fire in the distance and a boat pulled up onto the sand. They carefully approached and saw five men sitting around it, each armed with an AK47. Jessica lay tied up on the sand, bleeding in several places.
They spread out and squirmed towards the beach, the crashing waves and cracking fire covering any noise they made as they got to the edge of the forest about 20 yards away from the men. The low sun was at the girls back, making them nearly impossible to see.
Julie was in command and, when everyone was in position, yelled “You on the beach, step away from your weapons and put your hands on your head.”
The men jumped up and started to reach for their guns. Julie fired a three round burst at one of them, hitting him in the chest and killing him instantly. The other men froze and slowly straightened with their hands up in the air.
“Hands on your heads,” Julie said again. This time they did as they were told. “Now, kneel down in the ground,” she ordered. When they were all kneeling, she stepped forward indicating that four of the other girls should join them.
One of the men laughter at the sight of the five women in front of him. “They’re just girls,” he said, lowered his hands and started to get to his feet. Julie fired another burst at him and he dropped to the sand, dead. The three remaining men kept still, barely daring to breath.
While four of them stood guard, Melissa slung her weapon over her should and zip tied each man’s hands behind him and his ankles together. She did them up much tighter than necessary. When the men were secure, she cut Jessica loose, helped her to her feet and walked her over to the remaining five girls in the forest. One of the girls had trained as a field medic and she examined Jessica quickly. Melissa returned a few minutes later and spoke to Julie. “She’s been beaten and raped. There are knife cuts and cigarette burns on her,” she said.
Julie started daggers at the men. “You have one chance to save your lives. Tell me what you’re planning or I’ll slaughter you right now.” The men had no doubt as to how serious she was.
The men were part of a group of raiders that preyed on ships and isolated settlements. Increased military patrols had forced them out of their old haunts and they’d just moved into this area. They were planning on attacking us at dawn; these men were supposed to have made their way up to our settlement by then to attack from the rear while another two boats of five men would be launched from their ship to attack from the front. They weren’t expecting any real resistance, assuming we’d only had a hunting rifle or two.
Julie and Melissa had a brief, quiet talk together to discuss the situation. Julie had the rest of the squad take Jessica back to the settlement in the men’s boat while she and Melissa remained behind. Melissa pulled out her knife and smiled as she approached the three remaining men; Julie watched on dispassionately.
It was a couple of hours before dawn when Julie and Melissa got home. Natalie gave her two friends a hug and a kiss in greeting, having been kept up to date, and agreeing, with what the two of them had done to the men that attacked Jessica.
The doctor had treated Jessica; fortunately her wounds were superficial. I’d removed any signs of trauma from her mind and she was no longer upset by what happened. Given a chance though, she’d happily kill a few of the raiders.
Natalie and I had discussed the situation and we’d decided to dispose of the attackers completely and not give them a chance to prey on other people. Shortly before dawn, we watched the ship move to within half a mile of our harbour entrance. Just as we’d been told, two small boats launched and sped towards us. We’d set up two .50 calibre machine guns in anticipation, Julie was on one and Jessica was one the other one; she’d get her chance at revenge. As the boats entered the harbour, the girls opened fire, cutting the men to shreds and blasting numerous holes in the boats.
Next to the harbour, the doors to our hidden bunker opened. Inside was Natalie’s toy: a Phalanx close-in weapon system. The Phalanx was already powered up and ready, and she had it in manual control, her hand wrapped around a joystick and her eyes on the monitor showing the weapon’s viewpoint.
She twisted the joystick until the crosshairs were on the boat’s bridge and pulled the trigger. Armour piercing and high explosive rounds tore through the wooden superstructure. Within seconds, she’s destroyed everything above the deck and she started on the hull. She strafed it back and forwards, working her way from the deck to the water line, reducing the boat to splinters.
She fired a few short bursts at the larger floating pieces and sat back, smiling joyously.
The prevailing currents carried the debris away from the island. We’d retrieved all the dead, including the body parts that Melissa had left behind, and burnt them in a fire hot enough to destroy all of the remains.
We were very satisfied with how things had gone. Our defence plans had worked out and everyone was confident with the weapons. Natalie was ecstatic that she’d finally got to try her toy for real.