Guns for Hire - Script Thirty Nine

Magellan Star, Hadiboh Bay 3.45am - 30/07/2016

Whilst Alex attempted to release the plasteel cuffs securing Crippen to the meeting room chair Vrasten & T-Bird continued to quiz the ships master about the make up of White eyes Burcad Badeed & the whereabouts of ships captive crew, as Alex snapped yet another pick, T-Bird asked Crippen if he new where the hostages had departed the ship, blinking, Crippen paused for a minute as he considered recent events,

"Five, no maybe six days ago off the coast of Somalia, unsurprisingly the ships log isn't up to date but we held over for twelve hours or so, I assume that's when they went ashore, they were kept remote from myself & my crew but we pick up the occasional snippet from the guards"

Whilst the captain continued to advise on the Burcad Badeeds compliment T-Bird finished dismantling the chair on which Crippen had been cuffed, whilst he wasn't free of the cuffs the trailing armrests didn't get in the way to much.

Crippen confirmed that there was always two members of his crew secured on the bridge, the remaining five lodged on the Engine Deck, he, Crippen, had just been dragged down from the Bridge leaving Able Seaman Skalton on secured watch.

Listening to Vrasten & Alex mull over the range of the helicopter, T-Bird reminded them that whilst he was happy he could fly the crate it might not them very far if it hadn't been refueled since recently returning.

Vrasten, anxious to sow further confusion amongst the Somali's kept chipping in to the chatter on the VHF with spurious instructions, whilst doing so a report was made from one of the searching parties that the the corpses of the slain guards in the bow house, for a moment the airwaves were silent until one voice asked,

"If Erasto & Nadi are dead who in the eyes of Mohammed lit the landing lights then ?"

Magellan Star, Hadiboh Bay 3.51am - 30/07/2016

Knowing that they had to move soon T-Bird & Vrasten had a brief clash over whether to leave Crippen where he was or take him with them, resolved, Vrasten checked the clip in his ST2 & dropped it in Crippen's lap,

"Know how to use one of these ?"

Magellan Star, Hadiboh Bay 3.53am - 30/07/2016

Heading back the way they'd come Vrasten checked the way was clear before descending the central stairs to the bar & lounge, pausing at the bulkhead door to the external rear gantry Vrasten checked as best he could that the gantry was all clear before pushing the door open, stepping out he turned port wise & headed for the stairs that Crippen said would lead up one level & then up to the bridge, unfortunately the two Burcad Badeed already on the gantry behind him weren't quite as startled by Vrasten's appearance as Vrasten was to here the click of the Kalishnikov's bolt sliding forward.

Knowing he'd fucked up big time Vrasten spun around bringing the Ingram up to the ready position hoping his readiness' would outpace whoever was behind him, coming about Vrasten grinned as he squeezed the MAC 14's trigger.

He stopped grinning when the MAC jammed.

Swearing for all he was worth Vrasten dropped the Ingram & through himself towards the two grinning Somali's drawing his monokatana as he did so but not before the guards Kalashnikov's spat in his direction.

Stood in the doorway T-Bird tried to figure out what the fuck Vrasten was trying to do.

Unsure whether he was dead or not Vrasten raised the blade to strike, as he did so he managed to strike the hand rail to his right, as his double handed strike came around he realised the katana was no longer in his grip, stumbling, he collapsed at the guards feet, before either he or they could react T-Bird emptied a full clip of forty 10mm slugs from his H&K MP-2013 into the torso of both guards.

Pushing the bullet riddled bodies out of the Vrasten scrabbled around in their spilt guts until he found the dropped blade, looking down he could see several rips in his flak jacket exposing the kevlar plates within, standing, Vrasten realised he'd be dead without it.

Unjamming the MAC Vrasten followed T-Bird & the captain around to the port staircase with Alex taking up the rear, from the aft deck & gantry below several Burcad Badeed were taking pot shots, fortunately they gantry, despite it being an open grate gave them good cover as their antagonists could get a clean line of fire.

T-Bird, frustrated, instinctively ducked as another volley of shots rattled of the supporting steel work above his head, snatching a frag grenade from hip T-Bird thumbed out the pin, leaned out over the hand rail & dropped the M81 grenade over the side, it bounced on the gantry below & dropped through the railings to drop out of sight, seconds later its six ounce mix of RDX & TNT exploded throwing nine ounces of steel fragments out in a fifteen meter kill zone, briefly screams followed the explosion.

At the foot of the ships ladder leading up to the Bridge T-Bird made ready to lead in whilst Vrasten & Alex busied themselves returning fire on those below, before T-Bird could start up the ladder Crippen grunted & collapsed as a spent ricochet buried itself in the meat of his right thigh, hastily T-Bird & Vrasten staunched the flow of blood & administered a shot of morphine to kill the pain. With Crippen effectively incapacitated Vrasten pocketed his pistol from Crippen's pocket, leaving Vrasten to finish tidying up, T-Bird mounted the ladder. Peering over the top T-Bird raised his head sufficient to allow the thermographic heat sensor in his right eye to come into play. Through the open door T-Bird could see three images on the bridge, one appeared to be seated, the other two stood part concealed arms raised as if holding a weapon.

T-Bird's assumption that the seated figure was the one of the Magellan's crew was correct, it was, as Crippen had said below, Alistar Skalton, three years under the command of Captain Crippen on the MS Magellan Star, unfortunately the two Somali's were armed as surmised by T-Bird & having been alerted on the radio of the position of the protagonists position were expecting T-Bird.

Before T-Bird could do anything both Somali's fired at the figure peering into the Bridge.

Magellan Star, Hadiboh Bay 3.56am - 30/07/2016

Crouching over Crippen, Vrasten glanced up just as T-Bird dropped of the ships ladder & landed in a heap on the gantry next to him, clutching his right hand to his chest T-Bird moaned that he couldn't feel his fingers, glancing down Vrasten expected the worst however there was little blood, whilst T-Bird's hand was a mass of bruises & swollen flesh the injected nannies had continued to knit the top layers of his skin with high strength polymers to form the equivalent of a natural body armour.

Leaving T-Bird nursing his numbed fingers Vrasten went up the ships ladder, stopping just below the threshold of the door he flipped a sleep grenade into the Bridge, from inside came the sounds of retching followed by the thud of bodies dropping to the floor, clipping a lightweight respirator over his nose & mouth Vrasten through himself up the last few treads & into the Bridge, one of the Somalis was still conscious, albeit barely, taking no chances Vrasten shot them both in the back of the head.

Moving back to the door Vrasten assisted T-Bird & Alex in dragging the drugged & wounded Crippen up the steps & into the Bridge.

Looking around the bridge it was clear that they couldn't defend it against a determined attack, with windows spanning the full perimeter of the Bridge they'd be sitting targets so not waiting for further company T-Bird slipped down the internal staircase to head ultimately for the Engine Room, the others followed for the minute leaving Skalton where he was.

At the foot of the stairs T-Bird stopped & raised a hand to halt the descent of those behind, listening he was sure he could hear whispered conversation, taking no chances T-Bird put his hand on the door handle & quickly opened & closed it just enough to flick a frag grenade through the gap before gripping the handle to prevent anybody opening it. On the other side of the door panic broke out as several Burcad Badeed hurtled themselves through doors to try & avoid the grenades blast. The explosion rocked the steel door, for a second it crossed T-Bird's mind that maybe the door wouldn't hold, fortunately it did however on the stair side the door looked like it had a serious case of mumps.

Pushing the twisted door open the half landing they seen earlier from the other side looked like an abattoir on a bad day, the walls were coated in splattered blood & bone, it wasn't pretty.

Realising where they were, back on the half landing central to the level on which they'd liberated Crippen, Vrasten & T-Bird quickly searched the remaining rooms not investigated earlier whilst Alex watched over Crippen & covered the stairs back up to the Bridge.

Quickly Vrasten & T-Bird established that the Command deck was clear for the moment, a third body, it's back shredded from the fragstick's explosion lay half in/half out of the of the now unlocked door to the external gantry. Apart from the meeting room seen earlier the deck comprised the Captain & First officers quarters, the Comm's Room & the Chart Room.

Heading back to the landing they heard heavy fire, fearing the worst they ran back to the half landing to find Alex turning the stairway to the Bridge into a smoking ruin, several bodies decimated bodies lying at her feet.

Grabbing Crippen Vrasten shouted to Alex to follow as T-Bird hurtled down the next flight to the Engine Deck, Vrasten, holding Crippen upright followed, Alex at the rear ready to obliterate anybody who came after them.

Magellan Star, Hadiboh Bay 4.01am - 30/07/2016

Reaching Level 1 - Crew Day Deck, the first they'd entered from the external Weather Deck, not stopping to look around they continued down the previously undescended staircase to the Magellan's Engine Room,

Halfway down the stair's the door at the bottom was flung open, the radio they'd heard earlier was till playing, only now it couldn't be heard, stood in the open doorway was a Somali holding a Wu-Bejing 381 HMG, it wasn't the most accurate or biggest caliber of heavy machine gun, in fact it had quite a reputation for being copied by many on the black market as it was such a simple piece of weaponry & occasionally killing those using it. Today however it didn't need to be accurate as it's target was only thirteen yards away & in a corridor three feet wide by eight feet high, it was like shooting fish in a barrel, unfortunately T-Bird was the fish in the barrel.

Before T-Bird could react the Somali opened fire hitting T-Bird with eighteen hot rounds, behind him Vrasten caught a further twelve slugs.

As the smoke cleared T-Bird thanked all that was good in the world that he'd shelled out for Skinweave, even so his light weight kelvar combat armour was shredded & blood leaked from multitude of minor wounds where even the Kevlar & Skinweave had been penetrated, behind him Vrasten, whilst without Skinweave, was thankful for the full combat armour he was wearing, similarly however he was as bruised & battered as T-Bird.

At the bottom of the stairs the twenty two year old Asad Awaale Hassan was surprised that the ugly one at the front wasn't dead, shrugging he made ready to fire again.

Leaning forward Vrasten leveled his smart linked Colt AMT 2000 over T-Bird's left shoulder & fired.

As Asad began to tighten his left hand forefinger on the time worn trigger of the WB381 his body spasamed & was thrown backwards & across the floor of the Engine Control Room coming to a stop only when the bow thrust control panel got in the way. Just above his right eye was the already bruising entry hole of a single 12mm hollow point one hundred & ninety six grain lead slug, the back of his head as such was no longer the back of his head, what remained was was slowly running down the control panel fascia.

Back to Guns for Hire