As soon as he entered Command Center, Major Alfred immediately came over to Colonel Meyer and reported, “All personnel had already received proper treatment and they are stable.”

“Good.” Colonel Meyer slightly nodded and then asked, “How long before Red Duck return into combat status?”

“12-18 hours, and tonight we will receive replacement for Captain Mc’Clintock and Lieutenant Tanaka, along with back-up flight crews for other Venoms and Viper.”

Colonel Meyer immediately took a deep breath full of relief. “Under TF Amethyst’s unusual circumstance, it’s fortunate that we operate Viper and not Apache.”

“Yeah.”

Viper was indeed not as sophisticated as Apache, but this was also the reason why it’s less complex and easier to maintain. Even still, it could provide up to 85% of Apache’s capability at far less cost.

Moreover, Viper and Venom had considerable design commonality. Both choppers shared common tailboom, engines, rotor system, drivetrain, avionics architecture, software, along with controls and displays for over 84% identical components. This commonality was one of the reasons why USMC’s Viper could maintain 92% mission-readiness rate, 24% higher than US Army’s Apache.

After sipping of his coffee Major Alfred asked, “Do we have an update?”

“Not much,” Colonel Meyer gloomily replied. “Rolling Panda’s crew had stopped the jamming ops a few minutes ago. Before returning to Woodpecker, they detect hundreds of opposing Riders are moving closer to nearby base at radius of 100 km from our position.”

“What is our current objective?”

Colonel Meyer took a deep breath before replying, “Defending Jack Sparrow at all cost, while waiting for new objective from Woodpecker.”

“I see.”

“MCG’s personnel have also to turn Rocky Field into runaway as soon as possible.”

“As long as we are under the threat of opposing Riders, MCG’s personnel can only do the heavy work at night. Under such condition, it will need two weeks of hard work to turn Rocky Field into a runaway.”

“As long as they give their best for the job, I have no complaint.”

“Understood,” Major Alfred firmly replied. “I will make sure they give the job their best.”

Silence then enveloped every corner of Command Center, until finally Lieutenant Reznik entered the room and approached Colonel Meyer. “Makai Guard HQ had just issued martial call to every Region under Kingdom of Makai’s authority.”

In an instant Colonel Meyer massage his forehead, “Now they will unleash whatever they have on us.”

“Does Donte have a clue about King Makai XXII’s location?” Major Alfred curiously asked.

“No, he doesn’t.” Lieutenant Reznik gloomily replied. “People in Makai Guard HQ will also move their Command Center to underground bunker.”

“Damn, we can no longer eavesdrop on their plan then.” After heaving a deep sigh Colonel Meyer said, “Give Major Petrov a green to launch disruption tactic. We have to divide their attention and resource, or we won’t be able to bear it.”

“Copy.” Wasting no time Major Alfred carried out the order.

One of TF Amethyst’s main doctrines was to employ element of surprise and massive fire power. However, currently Jack Sparrow had already lost their element of surprise. Meanwhile, their fire power was also far below from what they expected.

In short, Jack Sparrow’s future was bleak.

*****