Sam Hobbes gets a move on, hauling the M60 the last bit to the grounded heli. He and
Eric get on at the same time, while the four marines shoot at the charging VC from the crest, before they join up in the heli. Now, when there´s only one helicopter left grounded, they see fate smile their way.
In the careening heli, the pilot
stabilizes the bird but can´t land as the VC are too close. Two of the marines signed to that heli back into one of the smaller sheds while firing at the approaching Vietnamese soldiers. The two marines who scattered to the right, now face the two VC who shot the helicopter.
Up above, the third helicopter turns to the forest north west of the square, and cover the hills in fire.
*********
When the helicopter ascends, the view below isn´t petty.
By the shed, the VC soldiers
shoot first at the scrambling marines. The left marine is hit in the eye and goes down screaming, covering his face with both hands. While doing so, he is hit in the right shoulder. The other marine return fire and hits the closest of the VC in the right upper arm, making him drop his M16.
In the havoc, both VC and the marine duck respective attack as they close in on each other. The blinded marine searches the ground for his M16 and wipes blood from his face. Finding it he shoots.
The wounded VC is aiming while sitting one one knee, after getting his dropped M16 up again.
As this stand off happens, the remaining combatants reach each other and the VC tries a kick at the marine, who uses the butt of his M16 to take the attacker down.
From the helicopter the observers see the
shooters miss. The VC throws his malfunctioning weapon and charges the wounded marine. The other two combatants meet and the VC aims a kick but is brutally knocked down by the butt of an M16.
The winning marine gets the M16 trained at the defenseless VC and shoots.
Pumped with adrenaline, he misses. The one-eyed marine, however,
shoots him down. Using their bayonets, the two brothers in arms finish the job.
The four charging VC are stopped by the cover fire from the marines entering the helicopter. Two are shot dead, while the others drop to the ground.
This give the two marines in the shed an opportunity to shoot.
Another one is killed and the last raises his hands and screams something in Vietanmese. "DAU HANG".
*****************
From the perspective of the helicopter,
Eric,
Sam, and
Tobias see dark spots in the woods moving in on the village from all sides.
The pilot radios the other helicopters.
"Mission over. Return to base. Over."
The wounded pilot of the second heli responds.
"Negative. Can´t leave my men. I´m going down."
Seeing the dots come even closer, Sam tries to find a target, but has a hard time finding one in the moving helicopter. He fires anyway. More for his conscience than anything else.
The wounded pilot puts down the heli just as the first black dot enters the square. The surviving marines shoot in all directions while trying to get to the heli.
Helicopter three spews lead over the square, but it´s stopped as the entire helicopter becomes a ball of fire.
Berkowiz saw no sign of any missile, it just exploded. Down on the square,
Sarge shoots from the heli and is repaid by being gunned down by the approaching black army.
********************
The lone helicopter fly high back to the base. Spirits low.
*******************
Up above the clouds, a satellite catches the action and a voice is relayed to another location.
"Ngọn đồi được bảo vệ.Chúng tôi bắt đầu."
[translated: The hill is protected. We commence.]
