217 Ambrosia Cartel: Part 24

B-1 Bombers started taking off from the runway of the HSDC Panama base. The sky was dark and those bomber flew to the night sky. Patrick watched that bomber made a low approach above of his head and opened the bomb bay. It didn't take long until those bombers reached enough altitude to start bombing those tribals.

Patrick kept shooting his machine gun at those tribals. Meanwhile, radio chatter on his headset indicate that the commander of that base had authorized the heavy bombing. One by one, heavy 1000 kilograms bomb was dropped from the sky. The bomb hit the ground and made a very huge explosion.

"DUCK!" The sergeant shouted as he took cover behind of the sand bags. The explosion was so big that the shockwave could be felt until the position where Patrick was shooting. The bombers were carrying the combination of thermobaric bomb and fragmentation aka cluster bomb. Those bombs were optimized against any unarmored things such as people and building.

One of the cluster bomb sprayed a mist of gasoline and blew that gasoline up and released a massive amount of energy. From afar, it looked like a mini-nuke that was being dropped from those bombers. "Baseplate, this is Charlie Papa, DANGER CLOSE, I SAY AGAIN, DANGER CLOSE!"

"Copy that Charlie Papa, the bomber will stop bombing until your group retreated. Baseplate out." Patrick crawled to the stairs and was followed by the other machine gunners. "EVERYONE, RETREAT!" the sergeant shouted and the soldiers started moving from that place. Patrick was obviously one of the people that led the evacuation from that building whose glasses were broken from the effect of the thermobaric bomb.

Patrick climbed down the stairs as the forest in front of him was burning due to the effect of the thermobaric bombs that could burn anything on its path. Patrick ran away from that building while shooting backwards to cover the snipers who were also retreating from that building. Multiple women were running from the second floor of that building while holding their anti-materiel rifle. Lynn was the one who left behind since she had to be the human shield for the other snipers.

"Commander McGrath, faster!" Patrick shouted as he kept shooting the LWMMG while standing up.

"Yes," Lynn looked backward and shot at one of the tribals that attempted to climb the wall of the base. It seemed that those tribals never stopped coming at the base no matter how many they had shot. It made Patrick wonder on the origin of those people. They simply had an endless number.

"Charlie Papa to Baseplate. We're in the clear. Permission to continue bombing is granted."

"Copy that Charlie Papa. Permission has been given to the bomber. Baseplate out."

Lynn ran closer to Patrick who was sitting at those tribals that were being burned alive. "Patrick, look, those tribals are running away."

"It doesn't matter. Those people are still shooting at us and they are still hostile. Continue engaging!" Patrick shouted.

The whole squad that fell under Patrick and Lynn's command kept shooting at those retreating tribals. The HSDC might have made the biggest human rights valuation in the whole latin America as of now since burning tribals alive wasn't a very good deed.

"Baseplate, this is Charlie Papa. How many targets remaining?" Patrick asked.

"Baseplate to Charlie Papa. Your sector is clear, enemies are retreating. However, we will still send the Apaches to go after them. This will put a very strong message not to attack HSDC ever again," the commander of the base said.

"Copy that Baseplate, Charlie Papa out."

Patrick put the LWMMG on his back as the bullets were stop raining from the back of his body. The sector which he was protecting, Bravo Lima, was cleared from hostile. Lynn and Patrick took a deep breath. "Another day, another attack. Isn't that right? Commanders?" the sergeant said. 

"Yes, that's true Sergeant," Patrick said.

"You got that right, Sergeant," Lynn said.

"Sergeant, your team is dismissed from my order. Have fun," Patrick said.

"Sir yes sir." The sergeant saluted and both of the commanders saluted back at him. The other soldiers who were under that sergeant also saluted back at him. Patrick and Lynn walked away from the building, into the command center.

However, jets and helicopters were still flying above of their heads and the armored vehicles started rolling down those forest which has burned to ashes. Patrick wanted a quick report from the base commander. He wanted to know about those people that were attacking the base. He knew that those people were tribals, but Patrick worried that a bigger force was behind them. Those tribals were equipped with a modern weaponry, not ancient weaponry such as bow and arrows.

Patrick immediately suspected that Ambrosia cartel was behind all of this again. Patrick didn't have any doubt about that. Ambrosia was the one who was responsible for all of this. Ambrosia was the only organization that could donate that massive amount of firepower, but Patrick needed to find out why.

He needed to find out whether he needed to track down the leader of those tribals or not. He needed to be responsible for his actions of doing human rights violation. Patrick didn't want to be seen as the bad guys here since he was only doing that shooting against the tribals in self-defense.

Patrick and Lynn walked together. They were holding hands. Those couple was very famous among the HSDC. Even to the point that some of the personnel in the base had speculated that they would marry soon. However, Patrick and Lynn would only marry once they reached the age of 25. It was the same case with Aveline and Shaddam. Needless to say, some of the commanders were falling in love with another commander. However, Clara was the only one who was still speculated among the other personnel.

"Lynn, do you have any idea on who Clara will take as a boyfriend?" Patrick asked.

"Well, to be honest, no. All of us have been in relationship with each other. You with me, Aveline and Shaddam, Nathan and Laura, etc. You know that Clara doesn't have anyone and she isn't interested in you either. So, no harem for you, Patrick," Lynn said.

"Are you jealous? Lynn. What if I choose her later over you?" Patrick said.

"Well, you just have to prepare for another battle among contractor. Remember that you lost an eye, a leg, and a hand while fighthing a new contractor such as Clara. Now, fighting me is a different case," Lynn said.

Of course, the first time Patrick actually fought Lynn was the newspaper club accident. A person that could survive claymore and hand grenade such as Lynn would be very hard to be fought. However, the chance for it to happen was very close to neigh. "C'mon, I won't abandon you."

"That's why I choose you," Lynn said.

Some of the jets had landed on the runway of that Panama base again. It looked like that the attacking forces had fully retreated. Truck were also carrying the bodies of the tribals to a truck that was deployed to the burning jungle.

They would be taken to the coroner for further analysis. The commanders would pay some tribute for those tribes. They would most likely to kidnap them to offer them a better future with HSDC. They also knew more about Panama, so they would be a great asset as a soldier. However, he wanted to know more on the source of those weaponry.

"M4, M16, FAL, I saw all of them. How the heck did those tribals source that kind of weaponry?" Lynn asked.

"Americans? Or Ambrosia. Either way, we will find out. If the case is the former, we will ask your father about that. Your father should know better about that since he is the head of SAD." Patrick crossed the street.

They arrived at the weapon storage where they found their weapon. Patrick and Lynn put the ballistic vest, helmet, and weaponry back in those emergency weapon cabinet. Patrick flipped the sign to show that those weapon had been used.

Patrick spawned his car and both of them entered the car. This time, Lynn would be the one that drive the car. Patrick entered the passenger seat of the car and Lynn entered the driver seat of the car. Considering the luxuriness of the car, it was kinda weird seeing two people in tactical outfit inside of that luxury car.

"Patrick, where we should go?" Lynn asked.

"Command center. Let's get the temporary reports from the command center." The car drove away from that emergency storage.