Team Omega Read Online Free PDF Page B

climb—“while Team Beta launches a covering assault against the main entrance.  Ideally, we should catch the terrorists between two fires; if not, Team Beta will liberate the hostages and pull them out while Team Alpha goes up.  I don’t have to remind you all, I hope, to be damn careful with the hostages.  In a building that big, it would be easy for someone to be slipped into the hostages as a ringer.”
     
    Jackson nodded, sweat trickling down the back of his neck.  Hostage rescue missions were always dangerous, all the more so when terrorists could be hiding among the hostages, ready to murder them if they looked to be losing.  The briefing material on the Green Warriors had reminded him, as if he hadn't already known, that they were fanatical defenders of the planet.  Each murdered human only made it easier for Mother Nature to breathe.  They’d just have to cuff the hostages until they could all be positively identified.  It wasn't going to be pleasant.
     
    And if I screw up , he thought grimly, I may be sent back home .
     
    “New Guy, you’re Team Alpha, with me,” the Sergeant said.  Jackson had expected Lane to lead the assault in person, but Team Beta would be going right into the teeth of enemy fire, the most dangerous part of the mission.  Once the terrorists realised that they’d been cut off from the hostages, they’d come boiling downstairs like angry wasps intent on stinging the intruders to death.  “Move out!”
     
    ***
    Jackson had seen Shooting Houses before, back during his original MOUT training, but the Shooting House belonging to Team Omega was something else.  Combined with holographic projectors buried within the stonework, it presented a near-perfect rendition of a building held by a hostile force.  It was chillingly realistic.
     
    The Sergeant led them towards their jumping-off position, eyes sweeping for any sign of enemy scouts who might alert the main body.  Some superhumans could turn invisible, after all.  The rear of the building loomed up in the distance, with a single superhuman standing guard.  It didn't look as though he could fly.
     
    His earpiece buzzed.  “Ten seconds,” Lane’s voice said.  Jackson braced himself, focusing on the matter at hand.  It was his first real exercise with Team One and he was determined not to fuck up.  “And go !”
     
    The snipers fired as one, the superhuman standing guard tumbling to the ground with a massive hole in his throat.  Even if he was tough enough to survive that, he wouldn't be in a position to interfere after cracking his head on the concrete.  Jackson followed von Shrakenberg to the rear of the building and started to scramble up, while the snipers picked off any terrorists stupid enough to show their faces.  The entire building shook as Beta Team detonated the breaching charge in the lobby, blowing a handful of terrorists into the next world, just before the Sergeant tossed a grenade through a third-floor window and followed it into the building.  Two terrorists had been caught by the blast and wounded too badly to offer resistance; the third was midway through lifting his rifle when a single shot from von Shrakenberg took him in the head and sent him crashing to the floor. 
     
    Jackson took point as the remaining two operatives followed them in, heading to the stairwells where the terrorists should appear if they weren't distracted by Beta Team.  They got to the third floor and came immediately under fire; two masked men appeared, both spraying bullets at the soldiers.  Jackson gunned them down without hesitation.  The other two operatives threw grenades down the stairwell to panic the remaining terrorists as Jackson’s HUD updated; Beta Force was in the house and clearing its way to the basement.
     
    “Alpha Team, go up,” Lane’s voice ordered.  “Beta Team can handle these bastards.”
     
    Sergeant von Shrakenberg took the lead as Alpha Team ran up the stairs, checking each floor