National Security Breach

ATLANTIC OCEAN 110 NAUTICAL MILES OFF THE NIGERIAN COAST The attacking units of MEND squads split into three. While the two attack boats of the Abaribe squad took the eastern flank, the Ogbolobiri squad took the western flank of the Bonga facility. Each squad consisted of two attack boats with eight battle hardened militants. The duty of both the Ogbolobiri and Abaribe squads was purely diversionary. Their function was mainly to cause a sense of panic within the facility by providing suppressive fire. The machine they carried to have this job done was the M60 machine gun. The M60 is an air cooled and gas operated machine gun. It chambers the 7.62 x 51mm NATO cartridge and feeds from a disintegrating belt of metallic MIZ links. In MEND circles the M60 was a favorite weapon of choice because it is considered effective up to 1,200 meters when firing at an area target and mounted on a tripod. A very skilled and respected gunner for MEND was one who is capable of suppressive fire on area targets out to 1500 meters. . The weight of the gun and amount of ammunition it consumes when fired make it difficult for a single soldier to carry and operate The gunner carries the weapon and depending on his strength and stamina anywhere from 200 to 1000 rounds of ammunition. A typical gunner like Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Commando’ would be toting between six and seven hundred rounds. The assistant gunner carries a spare barrel and extra ammunition reloads, and spots for the gunner. Each attack boat carried two M60’s service by a crew of two, the rest carried AK47’s. After killing the engines of the boat, they allowed the swells of the ocean to move them towards the FSPO. From their various crafts, they could see the lights of the facility, guiding them as surely and unerringly as the light house in Alexandria might have done in an era gone by. The facility consisted of the main vessel and two huge barges, one in front and another behind that helped to move it about if ever there was the need. They also served as cabins for the crew. There was a helipad aboard each vessel. The first one named ‘EDDA FJORD’ was painted red below the plimsol line and yellow above it. The same went for the barge behind named ‘Safe Caledonian’ The main vessel was painted a glistening white in the bridge and senior officer cabin, red below, and black down into the ocean. There were huge cranes on the deck and massive oil drilling apparatus crisscrossed the entire aft section of the vessel, an enormous space. The attack boat of the GCOND’s squad was not as heavily armed as the others. Aside the standard issues of AK 47’s carbines and hand held grenade launchers that were in the boats their attack was primarily underwater. They had four teams of experts scuba divers who were to proceed at top speed under water in a solar powered under water personnel propeller. Each of the four teams (a team consisting of two militants) carried between them over eighty kilogram of c4 plastic explosives. As they moved silently towards the vessel they knew according to Derek and Victors blue prints, that there were under water motion sensors that would alert the facility of an underwater approach. Hence there was need for the diversion. The attack was to be timed with precision to perfection. As the black clad scuba divers slipped into the cold waters of the Atlantic, from the attack boats, the others aboard hefted the personnel propeller over the side to the scuba divers. Both the scuba divers and the propellers bubbled lightly for a few seconds then went below the surface. Two scuba divers were to use one propeller. They each had about ten kilogram of C4 plastiques strapped to their belly. As soon as they put on the propellers, one of the men left behind radioed the other two squads and they proceeded on the attack. On the Bonga FSPO, all was calm, the soldiers on duty strolled aboard the vessel with a keen eye on the mist, but at about 3:15am they were not at their sharpest edge. One of them head a sound in the still of the night, and peered into the misty night. There was nothing, he put his hand into the small side bag that was a part of his uniform and took out a pack of Benson and Hedges with a lighter. He selected one stick and put it into his mouth; he then cupped his hand to protect the fickle flame of the lighter from the gusty wind of the Atlantic. As soon as he inhaled the first trickle of smoke down his lungs, he froze, just like the over forty soldiers that kept watch on the facility the throaty sound of the boat engines was unmistakable. In the control room of the FSPO, a technician was watching his screen. He cleaned his eyes with the back of both hands; he was definitely asleep for him to have missed these speed boats until they were this close to the FSPO. The facility was designed by ABB Corporation and built to specification by Samsung heavy industries in Korea. Its radar system was top notch. These vessels should have been spotted at least forty nautical miles out. Someone’s head would roll. The technician knew whose; in his rush to sound the first alarm of alert, he mistakenly sounded the often rehearsed one for evacuation. The result was total bedlam. At that very moment, just as the alarm for evacuation was sounding, the heavy M60 riffles erupted in a symphony that only the likes of Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin would have found any sense of harmony in. even the soldiers who ordinarily were sure could repel an attack of huge proportions were surprised at the alarm to evacuate. Was there something wrong within the facility? They asked themselves against the continuous pinging of the huge M60 bullets all over the FSPO. Did help matters they all ducked. Inside the facility workers who were hitherto sound asleep all jumped up and ran helter skelter to the evacuation point where smaller vessels would rush them to shore. Then they noticed the flying bullets and they crouched down pinned. In the control room, everyone had run out. No one noticed the approach of the personnel propellers. The underwater sensors screamed in virtually all the consoles in the huge computerized room but no one was there. Under the water the invasion teams of the GCOND led squad set to work. They placed huge caches of plastic explosives primed with nitrate, to triple the force of the explosion. They were able to locate some of the weakest points in the drilling facility. The GCOND himself placed a huge explosive on one of the major underwater Christmas tree and the pylon that supplied power from the huge power plant to the centre of operation. When all was set they made the thumbs up sign and began to evacuate. Atop the ocean, the gunners kept up with the suppressive fire and the soldiers only just managed to let out an occasional staccato in reply. Soon they were all wondering what the aim of the attack was, because if the militants attempted to board, they would rather give up their lives in combat than allow such a scenario. To make matters more puzzling, after an hour of almost continuous firing the militants began to withdraw from their position. Those who were brave enough to raise their head to watch the departing party of gunners could see the molten red color of the tips of the M60’s as the monsters receded with their handlers into the misty morning of the Atlantic. When the explosion finally occurred, many thought it was probably why the evacuation alarm had been pealed. They were so terrified as to have completely forgotten that that sound had come over an hour ago. Bedlam once again hit the ever peaceful, hitherto unassailable and impregnable Bonga FSPO fortress.