Raven

Battle For Lucapa

Taken during one of their first incursions into Angolan territory, the mining town of Lucapa has been held by DRC forces since the beginning of the African Civil War. Lacking the recourses to properly fight back, Angola's military had been unable to retake the town from the DRC.

13 Hours after DRC Assault

Monday, June 17th, 1991

John "Twitch" Mason

Joint Operation: O40S/USPDR

Task Force Raven/Task Force Talon

1:48AM

I needed to give Charlie a fuckin' raise. The ability of that woman to coordinate international deployment of close to a hundred men, four tanks and a gunship at the drop of the hat and have them here two hours earlier than she promised boggled my mind, even after eleven years with my company. What had ended up waking me was the fact that Sealegs had started buzzing the area. I had jumped off my sleeping pad, grabbed my Kalash off the bed and checked the window, only to see two dirt brown colored aircraft with my company's flag on the back flying low, dropping off the tanks first, followed by the swarm of infantry. I hit my radio.

"Hey Sealegs! Y'all weren't due for another four hours!"

"Well, they had coffee and donuts waiting." Sealegs answered, "Besides, anything for Frank."

"Happy to hear you say so sister! Where's Dropkick?"

Yes, damn near all of my pilots and air crews were women. No, I didn't do it on purpose, just kind of happened that way.

"They left about 20 minutes after I did. Shouldn't be far behind."

I began to get my equipment together, "Once you've dropped everything off, establish a holding pattern you're comfortable with, once we're done here, I'll need you ladies to land your planes at the Lucapa airport. We're all riding home with you."

"Copy that sir. We just got refueled so we've got plenty left, will advise when pattern established."

"Rog."

I grabbed my equipment and left the hotel room, heading out to the courtyard and through town to meet with my men at the landing site. Hudson had met them there and had marked the area with four flares, one on each corner. My paratroopers were policing their chutes and equipment while the tanker crews were preparing their Abrams for combat. Taro and the other dragons were there waiting, Taro was inspecting one of our tanks closely, seeming intrigued by it. This particular tank had "Sugar Weasel" with the symbol for the female gender in purple marker across the side skirt, along with a bunch of not safe for work stickers of women that adorned the turret. My tankers sure did have quite the sense of humor

"Helluva thing ain't it?" I asked.

"What?" Taro asked, "I mean besides the fact that you've got a bunch of kids as tankers?"

I chuckled, "Yeah...I probably need to address that."

"No I just uh...never got the chance to see these tanks this close up."

"Hell of a piece of engineering." I agreed, "This is actually one of the first ones we ordered, think we're going to be sending the crew to Iraq when we're done here."

"Where they were talking about sending us when we're done here." Taro nodded, "Think we'll be working together?"

"I certainly hope so. If they ask me what Draco squad I want, gonna be you guys for sure. Can't think of anyone else I'd rather fight with."

Taro smiled, "Happy to hear ya' say so John."

I shrugged, "My Dad always taught me to take care of my own Taro. If you need something knocked over, or just need someone to talk to, I'm there for ya, that doesn't just go for you, goes for everyone in Talon. Just ask Blitz, he knows how to get hold of me."