Secondary Target

Previously…..

"Marine Command……" Truman replied. "……Charlie one assuming battlefield command."

Now ……

Whisky Group - Heading for Tango Two

The two Warthog scouts were making good progress towards their target, Tango-Two. They had encountered one problem with reaching the last known location of the Jem'Hadar search team, which has an area of soft, loose sand. Had the small scout vehicles travelled over the sand, they would have most likely have got stuck.

This had meant making a detour around the sand, which had added about five minutes to their journey. All the time they had been travelling, they had also been monitoring the other two groups. Sierra group was heading for the Jem'Hadar base and consisted of two Scorpion battle tanks. These two tanks were being backed up by a fleet of shuttles, carrying the majority of the Marines and some Jem'Hadar volunteers from Goran'Agar's group.

"We're approaching the last location of Tango Two Lieutenant." The Warthog driver announced.

"Whisky-Delta to Whisky-Gamma." Gibs stated over the inter-com. "We're here. Stop and we'll co-ordinate the search."

[Confirmed.] Gibs heard Private Jax say over the comm.

The two scouts came to a halt and both Jax and Gibs left their vehicles and walked away from them. Gibs pulled out a tricorder and started to scan the surface of the planet ahead of them. They had stopped on the edge of a small sand dune, which looked down over a vast area of desert sand.

"The strongest tachyon emissions are coming from due south east." Gibs remarked.

"That would make sense." Jax replied. "From what Goran'Agar stated, Tango-Three is in that direction, about five kilometres."

"We do have one advantage." Gibs remarked. "They're on foot."

"But look ahead of us…." Jax stated. "……it's open space for most of it, if we use the Warthogs they'll surely see the dust."

Gibs adjusted his tricorder and scanned the way ahead once more.

"I'm picking up Jem'Hadar lifesigns just over two kilometres ahead." He reported. "They're moving very slowly, we may…."

Gibs looked around at Jax, but he wasn't there. He turned to see where his fellow Marine was and saw him heading back to him with a pair of Electro-binoculars. Jax took the binoculars out of their protective case and handed them to Gibs.

"Yes, We've got a group of six Jem'Hadar." Gibs said. "They appear to be dragging a sled of some sort."

Gibs scanned around the area ahead of them, then put the binoculars down and handed them back to Jax.

"There's nothing else for it, we're going to have to cross this desert at foot speed." Gibs announced. "We'll spread out into a line, fifty metres apart and walk towards them, rifles drawn. As soon as we're in firing range, we'll attack."

"What about the 'Hogs' ?" Jax enquired.

"Jackson can drive the lead Warthog and we can set the other to automatic." Gibs replied. "We'll hold them back about a hundred metres, hopefully they won't kick up as much dust travelling at a marching pace."

Gibs and Jax headed back to their vehicles and started to unload their weapons. The two weapons operators and the driver of the second Warthog all picked up their gear and followed Gibs and Jax. Private Jackson stayed in the drivers' seat of the first Warthog and linked the second's into his own systems.

"Whisky group to Charlie Command." Gibs announced over the inter-comm system. "Proceeding on foot towards Tango Two, ETA to engagement, ten minutes."

[Acknowledged Whisky group.] The reply came from Lieutenant Colonel Phanan in the lead shuttle. [You have clearance to proceed.]

Ten minutes later, the small group of Marines was within sight of their quarry. Gibs pointed to a rocky outcrop about ten metres ahead of their position and he and Jax headed for the higher ground. The other Marines held back and waited for the Warthogs to catch up.

Jax pulled out his sniper rifle and looked at the group of Jem'Hadar through the sights. They were about a kilometre ahead of them, still walking slowly. Gibs was also observing the group with the binoculars.

"Do you think you can hit them from this distance ?" Gibs asked.

"Not a problem." Jax replied.

"We'll continue in towards them." Gibs stated. "Once we're with firing range, take out the sled, we'll do the rest."

Gibs headed back down to the rest of the Marines, leaving Jax alone on the rock setting up to fire. He knew that the shot was possible, but at the distance we was being forced to fire from, it was going to be tricky. He watched as the rest of the group headed off towards the Jem'Hadar.

Ten minutes later, he got the signal from Gibs that they were ready to charge. Taking aim, he targeted the sled and fired off two rounds. It took about a second for the first round to hit the sled, closely followed by the second.

The sled exploded as the two rounds of hard ammo hit it. The Jem'Hadar all turned around in shock and looked at the sled, now just a burning pile of scrap metal. They started to reach for their weapons, but before they could fire off a shot, they found themselves under heavy attack from the advancing Marines.

The four Marines were firing their phaser rifles and running towards the Jem'Hadar group at the same time, making them very hard targets to hit. Although they were running in sand, they were still able to run in a zig-zag attack pattern, further reducing their chances of being hit.

Two of the Jem'Hadar fell to the sandy floor as they here hit square on by phaser fire. The remaining Jem'Hadar continued to fire, but a third Jem'Hadar fell. The remaining three Jem'Hadar did the only thing they could, fall back.

But their retreat was halted by heavy phaser blasts from behind them as the Warthog's main cannons fired. Jackson had been able to take a circular route around the Jem'Hadar and cut them off. Realising that they had no other choice, the Jem'Hadar dropped their weapons and surrendered.

Five minutes later, the six Jem'Hadar were all safely secured and the Marines had six prisoners to watch over. Jax had arrived a few minutes after the attack to join his fellow Marines and once the Jem'Hadar were secure had headed off with Jackson and Gibs in one of the Warthogs. They returned about ten minutes later and rejoined the group. They had found what they had been searching for, another ten minutes and the Jem'Hadar would have done the same.

"Whisky group to Marine Command." Gibs announced over his comm. "Tango two is secure, we have six prisoners awaiting transfer. Located secondary objective, three kilometres due east of our current location and moving to secure."

[Marine Command to Whisky group.] A female voice announced. [Well done. Proceed to secondary objective.]

"Confirmed." Gibs replied. "Any news on Sierra and Charlie ?"

[Negative.] The voice, which Gibs now recognised as that of Lieutenant Commander J'Ross stated. [Charlie went radio silent five minutes ago.]

"Understood. Whiskey out." Gibs closed. "OK let's get moving, we've got a long walk ahead of us."

The six Jem'Hadar were pulled to their feet and marched behind one of the Warthogs, with it's main cannon pointed at them. The second Warthog brought up the rear, whilst the four Marines walked either side of the prisoners, with their rifles ready to fire.

Fifteen minutes later, they reached their destination, a cliff-face rising out of the desert. From a distance, the cliff looked huge, but once you got closer, it was easy to see that infact it was only about two hundred metres high. The most important thing was the small, dark hole in the base, about two metres high.

They had found the entrance to what Goran'Agar had described and the tricorder had confirmed it. The tachyon emissions that were coming out of the tunnel entrance were too high to be from any natural source. The scans also revealed that the tunnel went down beyond the range of the sensors of the tricorder.