In Blackest Night

Malaysian Aerospace Convention

Malaysia

November, 1995

Simon Masters stood in front of the large screens running the advertising video for his company, bored, but trying hard not to show it, as his prospective customers watched.

“ArmsTech Systems is proud to be the fifth largest supplier of military hardware to the United States Armed Forces,” the voice over began. “In addition to supplying night-vision gear and communications equipment to all American services, ArmsTech is also supplier of several vehicles to the US Special Operations unit known as GI Joe.”

After a rotating graphic of the company logo, the image changed to show footage of various Joe vehicles created by ArmsTech. First on the screen was the Wolverine.

“ArmsTech supplied GI Joe with the Wolverine multiple launch rocket system vehicle,” the voice over added as the footage showed the Wolverine launch several rockets and obliterate targets on a firing range.

“The Slugger mobile artillery vehicle,” the footage changed to show the Slugger firing a shell, before panning to show a target building being obliterated.

“The Armadillo mini-tank,” this time, the footage was clearly shot by an amateur and showed the Armadillo speeding through a fun fair, firing at a four-wheel ATV.

“The H.A.V.O.C. assault vehicle,” the footage was again of a firing range, with the HAVOC driving across sand, firing its main guns.

“The Mean Dog and Desert Fox assault vehicles,” more footage of a training exercise with the two vehicles firing their guns.

“As well as co-operating in the development of the Eliminator, Dominator and Marauder vehicles for the Battle Force 2000 group.” The footage showed the Battle Force 2000 vehicles moving across grassy terrain firing at targets.

“ArmsTech Systems are also proud to be one of the leading suppliers of vehicles for the multinational Action Force unit,” this time the first footage showed black-painted Wolverines with yellow trim ripple-firing rockets at several Cobra tanks on an African plain, destroying them. Next it showed green-and-black camouflage painted HAVOCs firing at Cobra Maggot artillery vehicles near an oil terminal. Then it showed similarly painted Armadillos speeding through what was clearly an East European town.

Next to Simon, the Malaysian defence minister leaned closer to him, “Impressive footage of the Action Force vehicles, Mr. Masters.”

Simon turned to him, “Yes, they were far more happy to supply declassified footage to us than the Americans. We had to buy the footage of the Armadillo from a gentleman in New Jersey at a premium price.”

The video continued. “Now, ArmsTech Systems are proud to announce their move into the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, semi-autonomous aircraft capable of operating with no onboard crew.”

The video accompanying the announcement showed animated footage of a sleek black aircraft flying at high speed before pulling into a high-G turn, diving toward the ground and firing two missiles at tanks.

“''The XQ-21 Blade is a turbojet powered drone capable of carrying up to 1000 pounds of weapons in two internal bays, carries a 20mm machine-gun in the nose and mounts a sophisticated sensor array, including a multi-mode pulse-Doppler radar, telescopic TV camera, forward-looking infra-red camera and a laser designator. Maximum speed is five hundred miles an hour, with a dive speed of six hundred. The Blade can execute high agility flight manoeuvres including pulling Gs that would kill a human pilot.”''

As the voice over spoke, the drone was shown executing sharp turns, climbs and dives, dropping bombs on a bunker, firing air-to-air missiles at a fighter jet and launching a missile into a radar dish.

“''Supporting in-flight refuelling, capable of being air-launched from the wing of a large transport and with a low radar cross-section, the Blade is a versatile platform for any country’s Air Force. The internal rotary launchers also allow the same Blade to engage air targets before striking ground vehicles or positions.”''

The drone was shown refuelling from another plane, before executing a steep dive, firing an air-to-air missile at a helicopter and then launching a missile at a tank.

“The XQ-21 Blade, coming soon from ArmsTech Systems.”

The video concluded with the company logo once more. Polite applause followed.

“I look forward to seeing the actual Blade drone in operation,” the defence minister said. “Rather than a fancy cartoon and a mock-up,” he indicated where a carbon-fibre life-size model stood behind them.

“The first four prototypes are already being assembled at the factory in Idaho, sir,” Simon replied. “We will be flying the first at the American Nellis test range early next year.”

The defence minister smiled politely, shook his hand and wandered off to another exhibit.

Simon sighed and wished he could head for bed; his jet lag was catching him up.

That night

Simon cleaned his teeth before gratefully climbing into bed and was soon asleep. He didn’t hear the door of his room being picked. He didn’t hear the door open. He didn’t hear the man slowly creep in, take a syringe from his jacket and then inject him.

The man in the suit hauled Simon out of the bed; glad to see he was wearing pyjamas, before slinging Simon over his shoulder.

In the corridor outside the room, two more men in suits waited, carrying automatic pistols.

“How did it go, Massacre?” asked one of the men, quietly.

“Fine, now shut up and get down the stairs.” The man addressed as Massacre was one of Overlord’s newest recruits into The Coil. He was an assassin, recruited for his skills at quietly and covertly killing people. This was the first time he’d actually got so close to a target and then rendered them unconscious instead.

The two Coil troopers led the way down the stairs to a waiting van, they climbed in and headed off.

The next day

Location: Unknown

Simon woke up with a start. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. He suddenly sat bolt upright. He wasn’t in his hotel room. Instead, he was in a concrete walled room, lying on a wooden framed bed with only a mattress to lie on.

Simon climbed to his feet and moved to the metal door. Locked. No surprise, he thought to himself.

He hammered on the door with his fist. “Hey! Let me out!”

After a few minutes of hammering and shouting, he heard footsteps.

The door opened and Simon backed up. Two men entered the cell; both wore green, gold and black uniforms, a two-headed snake emblem on the bandolier across their left shoulder. A third man followed them in, crowding the small cell.

This man looked older, wearing a more elaborate uniform and a monocle in his right eye. Unlike the two guards, clearly guards with their sub-machine guns, the guy in the monocle wasn’t wearing a black balaclava. Instead, he had a gold coloured bandana across his mouth and nose like a bandit in a cowboy movie.

“Greetings, Doctor Masters. I am Overlord, leader of the Coil. I apologise for the means by which you came here, however I have urgent need of your services.”

Simon frowned at that. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yes. I have been forced to change some of my recent plans due to failures by my associates, so I want you to build me a drone,” Overlord replied.

Simon didn’t like the sound of that. “You want me to build you a Blade?”

Overlord shook his head. “Nothing so elaborate or sophisticated,” he answered. “Come with me.”

Overlord walked out the cell. One of the guards waved Simon after him with his gun. Simon reluctantly followed, the cold concrete floor felt rough on his bare feet.

Overlord led Simon outside the building they had been in and across to a large garage style building. As they walked across the grassy compound, Simon noticed they seemed to be in a rainforest or jungle.

Inside the garage, were two men in similar uniforms to the guards’, but with helmets on.

“These are two of my Mech-Snakes,” Overlord said, waving at them. Seeing Simon’s confused expression, Overlord stopped walking.

“The Coil is a group which has left Cobra and struck out on its own,” he explained. “You’ve heard of Cobra, I assume?”

Simon nodded, “Yeah, I remember hearing about the abduction of Doctor Burkhart, the creation of Cobra Island and the mess after the Joes were involved in the Cobra Island Civil War.”

Despite the mask, Simon could see Overlord was smiling. “Yes, well, as I said, my group has left Cobra behind. Whilst Cobra Commander names his forces ‘Vipers’, mine are ‘Snakes’. Instead of Techno-Vipers, these are Mech-Snakes, as in mechanics. They may lack your MIT and CalTech education, Doctor, but they are trained engineers and mechanics. They will assist you.”

Overlord led Simon to a series of workbenches and tables. A small turbine jet engine sat on one; another was decorated with components of several cameras, computer circuit boards and other parts.

“I want you to build a drone. It doesn’t need to be smart, agile and able to dogfight like the Blade. It has to be able to fly, to fire missiles and to be piloted remotely. There’s plenty of fibreglass around here,” Overlord gestured to sheets of the stuff propped against the wall. “To make your fuselage. I shall return in a week to inspect your progress. Fail and you will die.”

Simon looked at him incredulously. “You want me to build a drone in a week, in a garage with a BOX OF SCRAPS?”

Overlord winced at the shout. “No I expect you to build a drone in three weeks in this garage. I’ll simply be back in a week.”

Simon glared at Overlord as he turned and walked away.

“As I said, Doctor, fail me and you die,” Overlord said over his shoulder.

GI Joe Headquarters

PIT III, Utah

Two days later

Hawk watched the team walk into the briefing room, having managed to arrive before them for once.

Leading the team in was Captain Falcon, the Green Beret looked at ease; his promotion seemed to sit well on him.

Following him was Spearhead, the point man seemed to be still proud at his qualification as a Green Beret during the GI Joe team’s deactivation.

Hit&Run followed Spearhead. The light infantryman looked like he was wondering what the mission held.

Muskrat came next. No doubt the swamp fighter was wondering what his role would be, perhaps forgetting his background before the Joes in jungle warfare.

Lowlight, the team’s sniper and night spotter was next, looking more like his usual self after shaving off his ill-advised beard and reverting back to his natural blonde hair. Hawk tried to remember the bet that the sniper had lost that led to him dying his hair, but his memory failed him.

Repeater followed Lowlight, the older man maintaining a stern expression.

Last of the team that would be on the ground was Tunnel Rat, the light machine-gunner probably didn’t realise it was his EOD training they’d need this time.

Finally, Freestyle entered and shut the door behind her. The Hispanic fighter pilot stood out from the rest of the team, not only as the only woman, but also because of her green flight suit. Freestyle was one of the newest members of the Joe team, having only joined in recent weeks.

“Good morning,” Hawk said as they took seats. He activated the computer linked to the briefing room’s large wall-mounted screen. The first photo appeared. It showed Simon Masters.

“This is Doctor Simon Masters, a graduate of CalTech and MIT, who is the CEO and lead designer for ArmsTech Systems, one of the five biggest military suppliers for the US military and creators of several of our vehicles,” Hawk began. “Masters was attending an air show in Malaysia when he was kidnapped three days ago. Masters’ personal assistant raised the alarm when he didn’t answer his door at their hotel. Local police checked security camera footage and found this,” Next to appear on the screen was a photo of Massacre carrying Masters in the hallway.

“Examination of more security footage revealed the doctor was kidnapped from his room and put aboard a van.” Stills from other security cameras showed the two gunmen with Massacre walking down the service stairs and leaving the hotel by a rear exit.

“The van was later identified at an airport outside the capital. Records checks showed a small plane departed fifteen minutes after the van was caught on camera at the gate,” Hawk went on. “Malaysian air traffic control records show the plane departed local air space, heading north-east toward Than Dat.”

A map of Southeast Asia appeared next, showing Malaysia, Than Dat and its neighbouring countries, Vietnam and Cambodia. The plane’s route was marked with a simple red line.

“Malaysian diplomats contacted the Than Dat government and they checked their air traffic control records. The plane disappeared off radar somewhere in the jungle. Indications were it landed. A Than Dat special ops team was sent in to try to find out what had happened to Masters. They had a fire-fight with Coil forces and were forced to withdraw.”

The map was replaced by one showing Than Dat itself, a point marked in red on the map.

“Recon over-flights in the area by Than Dat Air Force planes located what is believed to be the Coil camp. The State department requested we be allowed to handle the assault on the camp, which Than Dat’s government agreed to. The camp is believed to be a left over from a Cobra force which caused them some trouble two years ago and was defeated by Action Force elements,” Hawk went on.

The map was replaced by overhead photos of the camp, which flipped on to and off the screen in quick succession, showing the camp from various angles.

“Than Dat is willing to allow us carte blanche to destroy the camp and rescue Masters as we see fit. The ground assault element will be inserted by local helicopters five miles from the camp; move over ground to the target and then stage a covert infiltration of the area. The priority is solely the rescue of Masters. Get in, grab him, and get out. Once the team are clear of the site, Freestyle will use the new Night Boomer jet to obliterate the camp,” Hawk explained.

The photos of the camp disappeared from the screen to show a photo of the modified Skystriker now known as the Night Boomer. Freestyle grinned at the sight of the jet, sitting in its hangar, looking sleek, sexy and mean under the bright lights.

“Falcon will command the squad; Muskrat and Spearhead will work in conjunction to assure the team’s safe passage through the jungle. Lowlight will provide sniper support during the assault on the camp. Repeater will provide heavy fire support if your cover is blown. Tunnel Rat’s job will be to ensure the hostage is safe to remove, without any explosives being triggered. Hit&Run, you’re supporting anyone else who needs it.” Hawk tried not to smirk at the light infantryman’s slightly disgusted looking expression.

“You insert at night, move covertly under cover of darkness utilising image intensifier goggles and suppressed weapons to neutralise Coil forces as needed. You exfil in darkness to an exfil point designated by the local helo pilots and then Freestyle frags the site. Your unit call sign for this operation is ‘Night Force’, radio code is Night Six for Falcon, the rest of you can fight out who gets the other numbers.” Hawk paused to check his notes. “You have ten hours to come up with your exact assault plan, whilst you fly to Than Dat via Hawai’i and Guam. Good luck, gentlemen.”

Republic of Than Dat

Southeast Asia

22:30 hours local time

The Than Dat Air Force Super Puma helicopter dropped off the Night Force team at the jungle airstrip where the Coil plane had landed. The seven commandos waited for the helicopter to move off before heading out into the jungle.

Spearhead was on point, his suppressed M4SWF at the ready. Muskrat followed close behind him, his own M4SWF in one hand, his machete in the other. Trailing slightly behind Muskrat came Tunnel Rat carrying a suppressed M240 light machine-gun. Falcon and Hit&Run were behind Tunnel Rat, with their own M4SWF carbines. Repeater and Lowlight brought up the rear. Repeater carried an M240, whilst Lowlight carried a suppressed M24 sniper rifle with a night-vision scope attached.

All of the commandos were dressed in flat black fatigues, boots, gloves and helmets. Camouflage face-paint was smeared on their chins and cheeks around the ArmsTech image-intensifying goggles they wore.

The team moved quietly, but quickly, through the tropical rainforest of Than Dat.

After an hour and a half, Falcon called the team to a halt, before checking a small hand-drawn chart he carried.

“We’re about halfway to the camp,” he whispered to the other Joes. “Everyone have a drink and rest up for five. We’ll move out again soon.”

The team took the opportunity to sit down and have a drink from two shared canteens before moving on.

After another hour’s trek through the rainforest, they were nearing the compound. Spearhead signalled the team to halt and drop to the ground.

Falcon moved carefully up to the point man.

“What’s up?” he whispered near Spearhead’s ear.

“There’s a trail ahead,” Spearhead whispered back. “And I hear talking.”

Falcon turned and signalled to Lowlight to move up. After a whispered explanation, the sniper silently moved forward, then around a tree.

Lowlight flipped up his NVGs then raised his rifle to look through the telescopic night-scope. He could just see the source of the voices. He moved back to the rest of the Night Force team.

“Four Coil troopers with automatic rifles, frag grenades and an Alsatian,” Lowlight reported to Falcon. “Standing in the trail having a smoke and talking.”

Falcon swore under his breath. “Spearhead, Hit&Run, you’re the best marksmen we’ve got on the team other than Lowlight. Move up with him and take them down. Lowlight, make sure you take the dog.”

The three Joes nodded and carefully moved out.

The trio moved into a position Lowlight found for them with a clear shot at the Coil gunmen.

Lowlight lay down, setting up his rifle on its bipod, whilst Spearhead and Hit&Run crouched behind him. Luckily for the team, the Coil troopers were bunched up, making it easier to hit them.

“On three,” Lowlight whispered. “One… two… three.”

He fired a single shot, dropping the dog. At the same time, Hit&Run fired two shots in quick succession, hitting one Coil Trooper and then a second as the first fell. Spearhead fired at the same instant, a near-silent fwip-fwip-fwip marked his three round burst dropping one Coil trooper before a second marked the other falling.

“Targets down. Nice work, gentlemen,” Lowlight said.

The trio moved back to the rest of the squad.

They moved out, now following the trail toward the Coil compound.

The trail through the rainforest made the team’s progress much easier, allowing them to approach the camp faster.

It was nearly one AM, local time, when the dark shape of the camp’s watchtowers loomed out of the night over them.

The team came to a halt, around a hundred metres shy of the tree line. The camp sat in a square mile of open ground, with a chain link fence surrounding the buildings. Four towers were positioned at north, south, east and west. The southern tower was shorter than the others as it doubled as the gatepost.

“Lowlight, you’re up,” Falcon said. “Take out the guards in the towers. Everyone else, wait for Lowlight’s ‘go’. We’re silent from here on out.”

Lowlight nodded and moved off through the trees toward the camp. At the edge of the trees, he dropped into a crawl, pulling himself forward on his elbows toward a fallen tree. Lowlight switched off his goggles and flipped them up, out of the way. He opened his rifle’s bipod and leaned it on the tree. He adjusted the rifle’s image-intensifier scope, focusing on the guard in the eastern tower.

Lowlight aimed slightly above the guard’s head, to allow for bullet drop, then gently squeezed the trigger. A sound barely louder than a mouse squeak and the guard dropped. Lowlight quickly moved his aim to the guard in the gatepost. He adjusted his scope again and then fired. Two targets down. The western guard followed. Three shots, three kills.

The northern guard was the hardest target. He was the furthest away, leaning against one of the posts holding the top of the tower. Lowlight had to adjust his aim twice before firing. The guard fell.

Lowlight keyed his radio. “Towers are down. You’re clear,” he whispered.

The rest of the team sprinted up the trail, across the open ground to the gate. Tunnel Rat quickly scrambled over the guard post’s desk, and out into the compound before carefully opening the gate to allow the rest of the team in.

Falcon gave the team a hand-signal to move out and they split up. Repeater and Spearhead ran across the compound toward what the team had deduced was a prison block of some kind. Tunnel Rat and Hit&Run headed for what they thought might be the armoury, whilst Falcon and Muskrat headed for the building with a satellite dish and radio antennae on top.

Repeater and Spearhead reached the prison. Repeater moved to cover the door as Spearhead gently turned the handle. The door opened. Spearhead tossed in a flash-bang before shutting the door. The stun grenade detonated, its effects muted by the closed door.

Spearhead threw the door open and darted in, a single guard was sitting behind the reception area’s desk, whimpering and clutching his ears. Spearhead shot him.

Repeater followed him in; gun at the ready as Spearhead flipped his goggles up and quickly searched the desk for the keys. The point man moved to the barred door that led into the rest of the building. A quick check revealed all the cells to be empty.

“No prisoner here,” Spearhead commented.

Repeater lowered his gun slightly. “Now what?” he asked. “We were sure he’d be here.”

“RV with the others at the garage building as planned,” Spearhead said.

During the flight over to Than Dat, the team had decided to split up during the assault, secure the prisoner, secure the armoury and raid the command building for intelligence before moving to secure what they’d decided was some kind of garage, given the large vehicle-sized doors.

They headed out the door; Spearhead replacing his goggles as he did.

Falcon and Muskrat arrived at the command post. Muskrat carefully opened the door and they moved in. A short corridor led to a small reception area, where a Coil trooper was dozing in his seat at a desk. Falcon shot him.

There were two further doors leading off the room. The two Joes moved to the left door. Falcon opened the door and Muskrat charged in, M4 up and ready.

Inside, three Coil communications specialists were sitting at a table, playing cards. Before they could react, Muskrat shot the one in the middle, pivoted left and shot a second, before Falcon shot the third as he came in.

Muskrat took his backpack off and along with Falcon, began rooting through the codebooks scattered around the radio sets and shoving them into his pack. After a few moments, they moved back to the reception room.

This time, Muskrat threw the door open and Falcon charged in. Two Coil troopers looked up as the Green Beret raced in, Falcon fired, dropping both in quick succession.

This time, the captain removed his backpack and he began grabbing computer discs, CD-ROMs, paperwork and audiotapes that were in the room.

The pair headed back outside, where Muskrat took an infrared beacon from his web-gear and quickly climbed up on to the roof of the building, using the convenient maintenance ladder, and paced the lit beacon in the middle of the roof. As he turned, he could just make out Hit&Run doing the same at the armoury building.

The team reassembled at the garage.

“Where’s the prisoner?” Falcon asked when he saw Spearhead and Repeater were not escorting Masters.

Spearhead shrugged, “Dunno. Not in the cells.”

Falcon cursed under his breath. “Tunnel Rat, shut down the generator for this building and we’ll get on with securing it.”

The shorter man nodded and moved to where a small, dedicated generator was hooked up to the building. Seconds later, Muskrat opened the small side door and the team moved into the darkened building.

Simon had nodded off at the workbench again, he realised as the lights and air-conditioning suddenly shut off. Startled awake, he looked around in the darkness.

The two Mech-Snakes were asleep on their camp beds. He could hear the snores. Simon frowned, but before he could do anything about getting up, he suddenly realised someone else, in fact several people were in the garage. The side door was open and several men had come in.

There were several fwip-fwip-fwip noises from the direction of the camp beds. Suddenly, a flashlight snapped on, blinding him.

“It’s him,” said a voice with a strong Louisiana accent. The flashlight snapped off.

“Who are you?” Simon asked.

“GI Joe Night Force,” another voice answered. This voice had a Carolinas’ accent. “We’re here to rescue you, Doctor.”

Suddenly, someone flicked on a pair of small lights, so that Simon could now see the six men in front of him, all carrying American weapons, he noticed, and wearing ArmsTech’s Mark III Night-vision goggles. One of the men pulled down a small flap on his body armour vest to reveal a two-tone green Stars and Stripes.

“I know who GI Joe are,” Simon said, “But who are Night Force?”

“The team sent to rescue you,” replied the commando with the Carolina accent who’d shown him the flag. “What did they have you doing in here?” he went on.

“They wanted me to build them a drone that they could use,” Simon said. “The leader, a guy calling himself ‘Overlord’, wanted me to build it in three weeks. He’s due back in a couple of days to see how I’m doing.”

The commando leader nodded, looking interested at that. “We’ll be long gone by then.” He turned to a shorter man, “Tunnel Rat, plant another IR beacon on the roof. I want Freestyle to make sure she hits this building.”

The other soldier nodded and headed outside.

“Everyone else, let’s move out. Doctor, no talking. We’re covert.”

Simon nodded.

The commandos moved outside, making sure to keep Simon in the middle of the group. In the darkness outside Simon could barely see. Suddenly one of the Joes grabbed his arm and put Simon’s hand on the commando’s shoulder.

“Hold on to my shoulder, DO NOT let go,” the commando whispered. This one spoke with more of a Mid-west accent.

The team moved off, heading toward the gates, Simon desperately holding on to the commando’s shoulder.

Outside the gates, Muskrat took point, with Repeater following. Falcon, Hit&Run and Spearhead shepherding Simon were in the middle, with Tunnel Rat bringing up the rear after he’d planted another IR beacon on the barracks building.

The team paused to meet Lowlight before heading off down the trail. Falcon keyed his radio on as they jogged along.

“Night Boomer, this is Night Six, how copy?”

''“Six, this is Boomer. I read you five-by-five, over.”''

“Boomer, you’re cleared hot on target. IR beacons are marking priority targets as briefed. Commence attack run in two minutes… Mark.”

“Boomer copies all, Six.”

Twenty-five miles away, Freestyle pushed her fighter’s throttle up to ninety percent power from the seventy percent it had been on. Her low speed circular orbit had been in danger of sending her to sleep; she’d been so bored, even flying this hot bird.

The XP-14/G Night Boomer was a heavily modified version of the Skystriker. The Night Boomer had removed the radar intercept officer’s seat in the back, replacing the avionics and other systems with a computerised ‘back seater’, as well as adding a cooling system for the engines in order to reduce the infra-red signature. Radar absorbent material coated the edges of the wings, rudders and nose of the jet, reducing its cross-section considerably. The cockpit canopy had also been coated with a radar absorbing coating to minimise the chances of enemy aircraft getting a return off the pilot’s helmet. Similarly, grills covered the air intakes to minimise the chance of radar reflecting off the turbine blades inside. The Night Boomer’s radar had been upgraded with a multi-mode set that enabled it to carry out ground-attack missions more effectively. A special pod under the nose incorporated both an image-intensifying night-vision camera and a forward-looking infrared camera. The black painted jet was now stealthier and more deadly than the stock Skystriker.

Freestyle broke out of her patrol orbit, activated her targeting systems and ordered her computer online.

“Arm weapons stations 3, 4, 5 and 6,” Freestyle ordered, referring to the four pylons under the fuselage.

‘Weapons armed’ flashed up on her main screen.

“Set FLIR camera to screen two. Set night-vision camera on screen three.”

‘Set’ flashed up next on the main screen.

Freestyle glanced at the monitors. The forward-looking infrared camera was picking up all four IR beacons perfectly, even from eighteen miles away and twenty thousand feet above the ground.

Freestyle grinned behind her oxygen mask. This mission was a cakewalk, hardly calling for her flying skills, but she still loved to fly.

Using a tracker-ball control on the top of the fighter’s control stick, Freestyle moved a targeting box over the first beacon, before hitting a small switch on the side under her thumb.

“Lock target one.”

‘Target lock’ flashed up.

Freestyle quickly set the box on to each beacon, locking the targets into the attack computer. Fifteen miles from her targets, she swept the Night Boomer’s wings back, lowered the nose and watched the airspeed increase.

At twelve miles from the camp, she launched the first AGM-65F Maverick. The other four followed in quick succession, the Night Boomer getting lighter and faster as the heavy missiles fell away.

The AGM-65F was a rocket-powered precision-guided air-to-surface missile with imaging infrared guidance and a 300lb penetrating shaped-charge warhead.

In layman’s terms, it meant the missiles screamed through the night sky at 620 knots, crashed through the roof of each target building, before detonating their warheads several feet inside the building, blowing the buildings apart. The armoury exploded in a particularly spectacular fireball as ammunition and grenades inside were cooked off. The command post was obliterated, the garage’s roof collapsed as the half-built drone was destroyed and the barracks building was turned into a raging inferno.

Freestyle pulled the Night Boomer into a steep climb, executed a celebratory aileron roll and then levelled off at 30,000 feet and headed back to the Than Dat Air Force base she’d launched from.

On the ground, the Night Force team saw the fireballs above the jungle as they waited at the airstrip for evacuation.

The Super Puma helicopter was flying low across the rainforest canopy as Simon hugged Captain Falcon.

“Thank you, sir, for saving me and destroying that drone.”

Falcon looked embarrassed by the hug, but simply said, “You’re welcome.”

The helicopter touched down and the team scrambled aboard. The helicopter lifted off, circled around and sped back toward the south.

Location: Unknown

Morning

Overlord was in his private dining room at The Coil’s headquarters, eating a full English breakfast when there was a knock at the door. Looking up from his bacon, Overlord called, “Come.”

The door opened, admitting Onslaught, his second in command. A former member of Cobra, Onslaught wore a green version of the Crimson Guard’s uniform, a large Coil insignia decorating the chest. Like Overlord, he had a gold bandana across his mouth.

“What is it, Onslaught?” Overlord asked, knowing it had to be important.

“The camp in Than Dat failed to check in.” Onslaught’s concern was visible despite the bandana.

Overlord took a bite of his Black Pudding. “You’ve tried contacting them?” he asked.

Onslaught looked slightly offended. “Of course, sir. The Commo-Snakes have tried three times to contact them in the last ninety minutes since they missed check in at oh nine hundred Zulu.”

Zulu was the military term for Greenwich Mean Time, a common way to coordinate operations across time zones.

Overlord considered the news. “Where’s Massacre?” he asked as he took a bite of his fried egg.

“He checked in, his flight out of Malaysia was delayed and he’s still there,” Onslaught replied.

“Have him return to Than Dat and see if he can find out what happened.” Overlord paused to use a piece of fried bread to mop up some egg yolk. “Although I suspect I know why the camp hasn’t checked in.”

Onslaught waited patiently as Overlord chewed and swallowed.

“I suspect the GI Joe team has rescued Doctor Masters and destroyed the camp,” Overlord went on. “Cancel the plans for Operation: Raven Strike. We will not be enacting it.”

Onslaught made a mental note as Overlord took a sip of his tea.

“We must begin setting plans for new operations,” Overlord continued. “This is not as bad a setback as losing out on the nuclear and chemical weapons. Cancelling Operation: Volcano was a bigger disappointment.”

Onslaught nodded, “Sir.”

“Dismissed,” Overlord said, before going back to his breakfast.

The Coil will return…