The beating sound of helicopter blades could be heard in the distance, and they were quickly approaching the troops.
"Colonel sir, transmission on the radio," said one of Colonel Arnquist's staff privates.
"This is Colonel Arnquist. To whom am I speaking?"
The transmission was filled with static, and hardly a single word could be made out. But eventually, the Colonel received a clearer transmission, though still full of static.
"*static* ...owski, *static - several seconds* ...apped in the *static* ...anley hall, in the b *static* ...ment. 11 of us. *static* ...n't get ou *static* ." Silence.
"Private, clean up this transmission if you can."
"Yes sir."
The transmission came through a little clearer this time.
"My name is *static* Wierzbowski. There are several of us trapped in lower floors of Stanley *static*, in the basement. 11 of us. We can't get out." At the end of the transmission he could hear a loud thumping, as if against metal, and howling over the radio speakers.
Transmission - "Oh Jesus, the door is bending..." Thump. The man on the other end had dropped the mic.
Colonel Arnquist - "Son, pick up that mic... Shit."
"Major Carpello, order our troops to stop."
"Yes sir."
"What and where is Stanley Hall."
"Stanley hall is a residential hall, on the east side of the campus," Carpello replied.
"Major, there is a change of plans. There are 11 people trapped in Stanley Hall somewhere in the basement."
--- 3 hours later.
Colonel Arnquist was not a great man in a moral sense. He had planned several covert operations to root out members of the Drug Cartel in Colombia, and had done so with a success for each plan.
On the down side, the plans left a lot of people dead - always enemy, never friendly. Rebels had eventually ambushed the compound that he was training Colombian National Guard soldiers in with mortars, leaving him with a shrapnel wound in his knee.
He could still perform his duties, but the injury prevented him from planning his duties in the field. Until now.
Arnquist had the complete schematics of Stanley Hall laid out before him. Several minutes after he received the initial radio transmission, he had ordered a dozen snipers to watch the Hall for movement of enemy units.
The Hall was on the east side of the campus, and farther to the east was a large hill, from which there were 3 snipers watching and recording the movements of the wolves. He ordered another dozen soldiers out of the lines, and he was planning on using them to rescue the trapped hostages.
Media helicopters were ordered out of the air, but reporters were allowed on the ground. The reason for this being that there were too many military helicopters in the air already.
The plan - the dozen snipers would remain in position. The other 12 soldiers were still armed with their tranquilizer rifles and hand guns. 4 of the 12 would enter the building from the front, and into the lobby.
Once the lobby was secured, the other 8 marines would split into groups of two, and enter the employee only areas of the building, and into the basement.
The basement was very large, and had stairs coming out into each of the 4 corners (the basement was rectangular).
The 2 man teams would conduct a room to room search and find the hostages.
Getting them out would be difficult. Once the hostages were located, the 8 soldiers would have to move fast, but carefully to get them out.
--- 2 hours later - the plan had been initiated.
And shit had not gone so well...