Chapter 76: Report From The Yucatan

Sunday late afternoon and night

The Sunday afternoon sitrep I got was simple, “Houston politician sacrificed as expected. Synched with timetable. All ops on track toward staging for midnight local.” There were drone videos (close-up and wide shot) of the Saturday night party at the Aztex pyramid in Mexico. All this was old news.

It was violent and mindless as expected. The crowd looked larger than I figured, but with our mortars it would not really matter. If they scattered the tank and riflemen could handle the naked crazies in the enclosed area, it would just take longer. The party area was large and after the ceremony the crowd spread out, but I noticed that for the faux-Aztec (sic) heart-wrenching part of the ceremony they all crowded pretty close to the pyramid, forming a target-rich environment. There would be a lot of kills from the first volley.

A note from Irene said she ordered one adjustment that had to be reported. The original plan was continuous fire with six mortars, that was what they had crews for - we needed to adjust aim after each round, which meant two soldiers working together. (One adjusted the aim, the other handled and “dropped” the shell to fire. Aim was adjusted based on real-time radar and communication. No sense killing a dead body a second time.)

But as insurance the M-113 brought two spare mortars which were set up. If any of the six firing units “went off” or hung fire (mortars are muzzleloaders) the crew would not waste time on a fix but simply move to a spare and keep the shooting in synch. They did not plan to use the spares, but based on the crowd density at the start 2 extra mortars for the first volley meant 33% more dead Aztexs. Irene seized an opportunity. For the first volley the two spares would also be fired, at pre-arranged target coordinates, by the M-113 crew, thereby getting the most fire on the very concentrated target area before the suicide troops/partiers scattered from the rain of fire and steel.

Like flame and steel from the sky was not enough.

Irene planned for efficiency. Inflicting more pain was a luxury in her business, and she would not risk a single one of her soldiers on such a luxury. If by chance somebody who knew something worthwhile survived afterward? Well, that was a different situation.

(The original Aztecs of Montezuma fame are said to have sacrificed thousands and thousands of their own in a continuous blood-spilling rite to sustain their universe. That was the ceremony that the Crystal Aztexs parodied.)

Real Time reports From The Yucatan

Eric Grey’s Hotel room and the Yucatan

Sunday evening I reread the previous Yucatan log entries sent by Irene via encoded emails. Then on Sunday night I stayed away from the social action, instead I kept up with some drone video plus real-time reports marking the progress. Irene had direct control and was running the operation from Tuska’s radar/video/combat information center. Here is the brief summary.

Sunday Night SitReps from the Yucatan

1. The hostile included Carlos, the current head of the Crystal Aztexs and Witch, the code name assigned to Tony’s estranged wife who was expected to be sacrificed first on Sunday night.

2. Friendly elements are:

Mortar (the M-113 APC, team leader, 2 crew members, 12 mortar troops, 8 mortars)