Chapter 2: Capture

“Sven! Hvat er at?” {"Sven! What is that?"}, asked Haldir Lothfrom.

Sven turned to look at what Haldir was pointing at. Haldir was pointing at the sky to their right. Several miles away was some sort of flying creature, but it didn’t look like any bird he had ever seen. It had no wings, for one thing, and it moved and twisted strangely. He was on the verge of saying he didn’t know when another man said, “Dreki!” {"Dragon!"}

Could the rich lord have dragons to guard this land? Sven didn’t know but he warned his men to take extra care. They continued along the road, but more warily, and they kept an eye on the flying creature as it moved away. Something seemed very strange about this land.

Captain Kowalski’s phone rang. It was 1SG Baker, and he said, “Captain, you’re needed in Signals.”

“On the way.” From Kowalski’s office to the radio room took eight seconds. Inside, Kowalski found Baker and a British signals sergeant chatting. “What’s up?”

The Brit answered, “It’s Watchdog Two, Captain. They reported they found what they think is a boat, but didn’t want to approach without calling it in. They estimate they are about a kilometer away.”

Kowalski’s eyebrows lifted, and he looked at Baker. Baker shrugged, clueless. Kowalski turned back to the signals sergeant. “Hold on that. First tell the platoon leaders that they might have uninvited visitors. Does he see anybody?”

The signals sergeant held up a finger in delay and first passed down the word to the platoon leaders that somebody had landed on Cudlow B. Then he got through to Watchdog Two, the helicopter. He looked back at Kowalski. “Not yet. You want them to move in?”

“Very slowly and very carefully.”

The copilot of Watchdog Two looked at the pilot and said, “They want us to move a little closer and see if anybody is around.”

“They say who they think might have come by for a visit?” asked Thompson.

Hyde shook his head and replied, “No. Sounds like they are as curious as we are. They did say to be careful, though.”

“Well, there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old and bold pilots, and I want to become a very old pilot. Keep your finger on the flare button and weapons.”

“Too bad we don’t have a flare dispenser; or flares; or weapons.”

“It’s that negative attitude which keeps you from becoming a command pilot,” said Thompson.

Hyde just snorted at that. He had almost as many hours as his friend, and frequently flew as command pilot himself.

Thompson made a few microscopic movements on the controls and the helicopter slowly dropped down and approached the wreck of the Frijhof. “Jimmy, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that looks like the pictures of a Viking longship I saw in a history book once.”

Hyde nodded and said, “It’s sure no cabin cruiser, that’s for sure. I don’t think it’s going anywhere. Call it in?”

“Affirmative.”

“Captain, I have Watchdog Two again. They are reporting the ship looks like a Viking longship,” said the Signals sergeant.

“What in the world?” Kowalski muttered. “Can you put him on speaker?”

The signals sergeant didn’t answer directly, but flipped a switch and said, “Watchdog Two, I have you on speaker here with Captain Kowalski of the American Rangers. Will you repeat your report, please?”

“Roger that. We have what looks to be a wooden ship, long and thin, maybe fifteen to twenty meters long. It looks damaged, too. It’s on the beach.” He gave GPS coordinates and the sergeant pulled that up on a computer overlay of Cudlow B. It was on the northeast side of the island. “Wait ... Hold one ... What was that?”

Kowalski, Baker, and the sergeant looked at each other with concern. Kowalski was about to ask what was happening when Watchdog Two came on again. “Command, there are people down there. They look like they are trying to hide, but not being too successful at it. I also see what looks like a fire on the beach.”

“A fire?”

“Roger, a fire. It looks like a campfire, though not burning at the moment. You want us any closer? Not real thrilled with the idea, mate.”

“Negative, Watchdog Two. Back off for now,” said Kowalski.

“How are you on fuel?” asked Baker.

“One hour until Bingo.”

Kowalski nodded to Baker, and said, “See if you can find anybody else. Do not approach but let us know.”

“Roger that.”

The connection broke and the two Rangers looked at each other. “What the hell is going on?” asked the sergeant.

“I don’t know, but I think I need to talk to the colonel.”

“Colonel, there’s an urgent request to come to Signals,” reported Command Sergeant Major Glendale Pearson. The sergeant was the senior noncom in the battalion. He was to Lieutenant Colonel Fowler what Drake Baker was to Captain Kowalski. The colonel stood up from his desk.

“We’ve heard from Captain Kowalski, I take it.”

“Yes, sir, and they have intruders. He’s not sure what, but he’s asking for a gunship!”

Fowler stopped in his track. “A gunship?”

“Yes, sir. There’s a large wooden boat wrecked on the island with an unknown number of people at the boat, and two groups of people on the perimeter road going in opposite directions from the boat.”

“Huh!”

The two men walked quickly to the communications office, where the colonel was put on the phone to Captain Kowalski. “This is Ranger Six. Who is this??”

“Colonel, this is Bravo Six.”

“Joe, what’s going on?”

“Not completely clear, Colonel. When we got word of a possible intrusion, I pulled my men off their assignments and had the Brits send a helicopter to look around. They found multiple groups of intruders and what they thought was a Viking longship.”

“A Viking longship?” Fowler asked incredulously.

“That’s what we said, too, sir. The helo was an unarmed transport bird and wasn’t feeling too brave. I had them RTB to refuel. Maybe they have something at the base there they can prep with a machine gun or something.”

“No vehicles seen?” asked Fowler.

“No, sir. They might have MANPADS though.” A MANPAD was a MAN-Portable Air-Defense system, a small shoulder-fired anti-aircraft rocket like the American Stinger or the British Starstreak.

“Your current deployment?”

Kowalski told Fowler the locations of his current forces. He had First and Second Platoons on the western side of the island, still several kilometers away from the intruders on their side of the island, and most of Third and Weapons Platoons on the east side of the island in a similar formation. There was enough roll and undulation in the terrain that neither group was in sight of the intruders. He had two squads of Rangers from Third Platoon with him and planned to move out as a reserve as needed.

“Okay, Joe, let me make a call or two. I don’t think you need Apaches, but maybe the Brits have something.”

“Yes, sir. Just trying to keep you informed. Something about this sounds really hinky.”

“Roger that. Ranger Six out.”

“Bravo Six out.”

The connection broke down and Fowler looked at his master sergeant. “A Viking longship?”

“Yes, sir. That’s what he said. Colonel, Captain Kowalski is right. This sounds hinky. Not to speak out of turn, but the Captain isn’t one to get nervous or scared. He’s a good man.”

Fowler nodded. “No Master Sergeant, he’s not somebody who gets rattled. If he thinks something strange is going on, then something strange is probably going on. Well, let’s see how we can help.” He turned back to the signals sergeant and asked, “Any idea where Major Boothright is?” Alistair Boothright was the senior British officer in the Cudlow Islands, and the person who would need to authorize arming one of the British transport helicopters.

Before the sergeant could answer a British captain answered, “If he’s lucky, he’s home in Wales. He medicalled out the other day.”

“Really? What happened?” asked Fowler.

“Cudlow A happened. He stepped off the tarmac into a soft spot and tripped in the bog. He broke an ankle, and they flew him home for a medical furlough. Major Smythe is running things until he’s back. I just saw him in his office.”

“Thank you.” He left the communications office and headed towards the British offices. It being a slow day, like most days on Cudlow, they were ushered into Major Smythe’s office quickly.

“Colonel Fowler, pleased to meet you. I was hoping to come by and meet you today, but things got busy. You heard about Major Boothright?”

“Yes, thank you, Major. I just heard about Major Boothright a few minutes ago. Nothing serious, I hope.”

Major Smythe shook his head and smiled. “No, he wasn’t that lucky. A few weeks from now he’ll have to come back here. Maybe I can break my ankle by then. How can I help you?”

“I have a company of Rangers over on B at the moment, and the Royal Air Force informed us this morning that they had a contact yesterday that might have been a boat approaching the island. My captain over there sent out one of your transport helicopters this morning and they found a bunch of people wandering around, but the pilot didn’t want to get too close. My guy wants to know if you have anything over here we can put some weapons on in case we need a backup.”

Major Smythe stared for a moment. “You’re serious?”

“Yes, Major, I am.”

“Huh.” He thought for a second and then answered, “I don’t know. I doubt we’d have anything more than a few machine guns. We don’t normally worry about enemy armor in the bogs around here. Let’s go find out.” He stood and led the way out of the headquarters building and towards the helicopter detachment, which was set up in its own building nearby. Four helicopters were on the tarmac outside, though one of them looked like it was partially disassembled.

Smythe led them into an office, where a young captain popped up from behind his desk and snapped to attention. “At ease, Captain.” The captain relaxed a touch but stayed standing. “Let me ask you. Any chance you can arm one of your birds?”

“Arm, sir?” The captain’s eyes popped out at that.

“Weapons, Captain. We have anything here we can do that with?”

“Uh, not really. We’re not set up for that. Certainly, no missiles. We might have flares, but they’re buried. We can always order something shipped in, but it will take a few days.”

“We need this now, Captain,” responded Fowler. “We have intruders on Cudlow B, and we want to prepare a welcome, if needed.”

“Intruders?” The young officer looked stumped for a second, but then straightened up and gave a firm nod. “They’re just transport birds, but they have standard door mounts. Give me half an hour and I’ll have two with machine guns rigged, and a third a half hour after that. The fourth one is tits up until we get a new engine. I’ll fly lead.”

Fowler smiled at the captain. “That’s the answer I was hoping for, Captain...”

“Jones, sir, Malcolm Jones.”

“Captain Jones. Thank you. We’ll be back here in thirty minutes. We’ll be going along with you. With any luck this will all be much ado about nothing, and later you can tell everybody at the club how you helped the silly colonials.”

Both British officers grinned at that, and Major Smythe answered, “We do that anyway, Colonel.” He turned back to Jones and gave his blessing on the plan. Captain Jones began scrambling to get his helicopters armed and fueled. Fowler and Pearson headed towards their quarters to gear up as well. Along the way Sergeant Major Pearson found the Commanding Officer of the Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company and requested a squad of heavily armed and armored Rangers ready to move out immediately. Captain Wilson gave him a curious look but only for a moment. If Pearson was asking, then Fowler was asking, and if Fowler was asking, then the only response desired was how many and how soon. He pointed to a lieutenant and a sergeant first class and told them to get it done. Pearson thanked him and went off to his quarters.

Thirty-five minutes later, Raven One and Raven Two lifted off from the tarmac on Cudlow A. The HHC captain and lieutenant had both volunteered to go along, but Fowler had turned them down. “We’ll have more chiefs than Indians. I think Pearson and I can handle a squad of Rangers.”

“Roger that, sir,” they both answered. Then they saluted and watched as the Rangers boarded the newly armed Wildcats. The HHC captain then told his lieutenant, “I’m going over to Signals and listening in.”

“Keep me informed, sir. Let me know what we need to do.”

Raven One and Raven Two were nearing Cudlow B when Captain Kowalski contacted Colonel Fowler. “Ranger Six, this is Bravo Six, how do you read me?”