Catching Phoenix: Renegades MC Story

Prologue

The air suddenly became suffocating as the hairs on the back of my neck twitched. Something wasn't right but I just couldn't figure out why my internal gut alarm was blaring. Scanning the village through my scope I could spot my men in position but again my intuition was telling me to get everyone the hell out of there.

Maybe it was the eerie silence that hovered throughout the buildings or the lack of movement from within them. Our mission was to sit back and observe the terrorists, not to engage. Intel was much more valuable than killing off the scum that wanted to take us down.

The Intel that would shed some light on the soldier that was betraying not only their fellow brothers but their country as well by selling confidential military information. Information that up until now was responsible for several lives of good men. Men who met their death by the ultimate betrayal, by one of their own.

In the last eight months, this was the first bit of Intel that we received that had a chance of leading us to the bastard and our orders were clear. Get in, spot the mole and get out. Never to engage. As much as I wanted to but a bullet through the bastards eyes, him spending his remaining years locked up, living with his disloyalty eating away at him settled well with me.

But as day began to fade away, I had a bad feeling at what was hiding in the night. After ten years of proudly serving my country, my survivor instinct kept me alive many times, I never overlooked it and tonight it was hard to ignore the ominous feeling that was seeping around me.

"Cooper, what's your status."

"In position Major. All quiet."

Santos, Maguire, Stanford and Council all came back with the same reply. All was silent in a village swarming with insurgents, not a soul to be found. Where the hell was everyone? A village should have people right? So where the fuck was everyone hiding?

"Keep your ears and eyes open. Something's off."

My men have been under my command long enough that they stopped questioning my "feelings". That is after those said feelings saved all of our asses several times.

"Major, movement at two o'clock." Santos voice echoed in my ear.

Turning my rifle, my scope focused on...

"What the fuck are the SEALS doing here?" I replied back not expecting any answers. The Colonel never mentioned the frogmen were showing up and why would they. This was a recon mission, there was no reason for the SEALS to be involved.

As I watched shadows move from building to alleyway, the SEALs eventually took position near my men.

"Major, its SEAL team 11. Richards says that this was a last minute recon job, he is not sure why they are here or for what. Andersen never gave them the details."

Shit. What the fuck was going on? Sure it wasn't uncommon for us to be working with the SEALs, but I was never left in the dark about it. This wasn't good on many levels and this situation screamed of a trap. Now that night was fully upon us, and no lights shined throughout the village, I could no longer jeopardize my men.

"Evacuate. Meet at the rendezvous spot and let's get the hell out of..."

It took me a split second to confirm that my command was too late. Things went from uncertain to FUBAR in the span to two breaths. Building after building exploded, concrete raining down, littering the streets with debris as all hell broke loose.

Shouting out commands, silence hummed over the airwaves as I tried to focus on what was going on down below me. Utter mass chaos.

Dammit where the hell were my men and why was no one answering? The smoke from the explosions made spotting them impossible and I could barely see a damn thing. Turning my frequency to another channel I radioed base.