Chapter 1
Chevchenko is one of the largest forests within the Kingdom of Kenjor's territory. Due to the size of the forest, the majority of it was untouched and offered a secure place to holdout from the Royalist forces and this is exactly what it was used for. A large portion of the forest was used by fugitives, rebels and just anyone who wished to keep out of the watchful eye of the local government. The only way of monitoring the forest was by foot patrols and this was section two-two's (of the second platoon within the thirty first Mechanized Battalion) objective of the day. The route they were given was considered one of the easiest orders given to a military unit. The section was split into two fire teams of six each. Fire team one is led by Leftenant Winters and fire team two is temporally led by Lance Corporal Asher while Sergeant Jenner is with the Leftenant. "Ugh... I hate this route… Nothing ever happens along here." Griped a private towards the end of a column of six-men all donning black and red stripped armour with a full helmet that covered their entire head. The majority of the soldiers were equipped with CR-42 assault rifles and one with a CX-49 Light Machine Gun.
"Just shut up, Private. All we've heard is your whinging since we left the FOB." A Lance Corporal at the front of the line called back. "If you keep this up there's only two ways it'll end. The Chedaki find us or I'll put a round through your head myself."
"The second option is more likely, sir, Chedaki never come this way. That's what makes this all so boring."
"Collins, just shut up will ya? The Corporal asked ya and now I'm telling ya." Yapped a private behind the original protester. Collins (The first private) muttered something under his breath, falls silent and the line continued.
"But seriously, sir…" as soon as Collins started talking the rest of the line creates an audible groan "… Why does command send some many sections along here, if there's no sign on the Chedaki around?"
"Well, Private, have you ever considered why the Insurgents aren't in the area? Maybe it's because command sends us the way because it stops the Insurgents from moving in? Do you think it could be that Private?" retorted the Lance Corporal.
"I guess but why do we have to do it?"
"I don't know Collins. Orders are orders, if you have an issue with it then take it up with Sergeant Jenner or the Leftenant."
"I think I'm alright, sir, I'm happy with the…" Collins' sentence was cut off as a tremendous crack is heard to the left of the section deep into the forest. The private behind Collins drops to the floor, his helmet shattered and blood pouring from the space where his face used to be.
"Everyone get down and spread out now!" The Lance Corporal ordered as he dove to the floor tucking himself behind a large tree "Keep your head down but look for where the shots are coming from! Don't move unless I tell you to!" The rest of the section dropped onto the floor, trying to find cover varying from trees to rocks to mounds of dirt. While the soldiers arrange themselves into effective firing positions a cacophony of gun fire generates from the depths of the forest. The Corporal turned on his radio and began talking into it "Fire team two to fire team one, we're sustaining heavy fire back here. How's it looking in your area, over?" the radio crackled as a response comes through.
"Fire team one to two, I can confirm it is not looking good. Just hold and return suppressive fire, I'm working on getting some air support, over."
"Fire team two to one, affirmative Leftenant, returning fire now. Make sure the support doesn't take too long, over and out." Once the conversation over the radio had ended, the Corporal pointed his rifle around the edge of the tree, firing blindly into the brush and relayed the orders to the rest of his fire team "Suppressive fire! Keep your heads down, support is on the way!" The sound of the CR-42 assault rifles is more than a match to the collection of small calibre rifles and pistols scavenged by the Chedaki. However, throughout the gunfire the odd thunderous crack is heard followed swiftly by the shattering and splintering of the nearby trees. The continuous thudding from the infantry section soon began to deafen out the Chedaki's fire as it became lighter and lighter until it gets to the point where only one firearm can be heard excluding the overwhelming fire from the Infantry. Further up the road the Sergeant's booming voice can be heard saying "Hold fire!" once the Corporal hears the Sergeant he repeats the order to his fire team. The forest falls silent as the gunfire died out. The Corporal looks from soldier to soldier "Mackings! Get up here!" he shouted into the general direction of the clustered fire team. After a couple of seconds, a Private jogged up to the Corporals position. "Everything alright, sir?" The Private asked after a couple of quick breaths.
"Everything's fine. I need you to keep the fire team in place while I go check with the Leftenant, alright?" explained the Corporal
"Yes, sir!" Mackings then replaces the Corporals position behind the tree and issued his first orders to the team "Three-sixty security, guys! Don't let the Chedaki sneak up on us now." Keeping his head low, the Corporal ran along the dilapidated road occasionally looking out into the forest on his left and right watching for any movement. As he moved closer to fire team one shouting could be heard. He rounded a corner to find a squirming body on the floor on the floor with an another soldier crouching next to him with the white shoulder pad and the markings of a combat medic technician. His red and white helmet was placed upside down next to him. "Hold still, I can't help if you keep moving." The medic said calmly and then shouted at another soldier "Private, over here, hold him down while I apply the bandage." The Corporal stopped at the scene "Rhett, where's the Leftenant and Jenner?"
"Err... Jenner's..." Rhett wiped his brow with his forearm "Just follow the road… Hold still…" The Private on the floor began moving again but stopped when told otherwise "Up the road then turn left… into the opening in the trees."
"Cheers, Rhett. Good luck with the Private." Rhett let out the slither of laughter, muttered something under his breath and then started pushing with both his hands onto what seems to be a relatively large hole in the soldier's chest. The Corporal then turned away from the group of three and continued his way down the road until he saw the clearing on his right. He then quickly stepped between the two trees which then leads into a wide open circular area. Around the edge of the clearing was the members of fire team one each facing in a different direction into the woods. In the centre of the semi-circle was Leftenant Winters and Sergeant Jenner, the Leftenant looking out into the woods with a pair of binoculars and Sergeant Jenner looking over the fire team. During Jenner's look around he spotted the Corporal walking towards him. "Ah, Lance Corporal Asher." He looked behind Asher "Where's the rest of your team?" questioned Sergeant Jenner
"I've left Private Mackings in charge of the team while I come find you lot." Answered Asher.
"Alright, What'd you need?"
"I came up to see what the situation was while it was quiet. I'll need to head back to my team before they start slacking off."
"From what I can see the Chedaki are concentrated east of us." Leftenant Winters explained while still having the binoculars firmly locked to his face. "They've gone silent which means they're either planning an attack or waiting for our next move." He lowered the optics then turned to face Jenner and Asher. "They don't seem to be moving out of the area, we still pick up on the odd movement in the brushes. I think the Insurgents are either trying to increase their presence in the area or they've got themselves stuck with no way of getting away from us. At the moment we can't be sure." The Leftenant then reached behind his back, uncliped a folded tablet computer and placed it unfolded between the three men. The three knelt around the tablet as it turned on, displaying a map of their current location. "So we're here." Winters tapped on the map which then placed a marker on fire team one's current location. "From what we've seen the Chedaki are in this general area." He then drew a red line east of the original marker. "Then fire team two is here right?" Asher nodded in agreement to the position Winters was pointing at and a second marker was placed there. "Command has a pair of DAK-3's on standby for us to use. I needed to wait until we have a definite location for the DAK's to be used. As we're in bloody Chevchenko, the RKAF want an exact grid reference before they even take-off. That's why they weren't in the firefight."
"Can't they just take out the whole area?" Queried Jenner
"DAKs are CAS aircraft. They have a limited payload which means they only go for targets not areas. They're very picky and are quite clear about not wasting their time. Now, we're in a good position to cover fire team two's advance up to the Chedaki position. So that's what we'll do. Asher, you'll return to your fire team with Jenner and Jenner you're going to take temporary command of fire team two. Okay?" The two agreed with a nod. "What's fire team two's numbers like at the moment?"
"Private Clay took a hit to the head, it sounded like a large calibre sniper rifle, he didn't make it." Asher replied solemnly "Besides that, the rest of the team are fine."
"One of my fire team took a hit to the chest and is being treated and another has gone with Rhett to help out. So we're three men down including the private helping Rhett. Here's what we'll do, I'll radio for the DAK's to do their job. This should mess the Chedaki up organisation and morale wise. Once the DAK's have finished their run, fire team two will begin to advance towards the enemy positions." As he says this he draws a line indicating the route the team should take. "While this is happening fire team one will provide over watch for fire team two. Once you're in the Insurgent's area, you are free to engage. If we've underestimated the Chedaki radio me and I'll move fire team one up to the opposite side and we'll engage from there." During the Leftenant's explanation he filled the map with lines and markers meaning various different things. Winters then moved back slightly from the tablet and looked at the other two. He then pointed at Asher. "You said you heard a high calibre weapon right? Probably a sniper?"
Asher nodded "That's right, sir, it cut through Clay's helmet like it was nothing."
"I thought I heard some high powered equipment coming from their side. That sniper is a primary target; he needs to be taken out of action before they set him up in some ambush. The rest of the Insurgent's equipment shouldn't be anything too scary, most I'd worry about is some scavenged CR-42s. Now, if there's no questions you two can regroup with fire team two and I'll radio in for the DAKs."
Jenner and Asher both stood up. "No questions here, sir." Jenner stated.
"You two should head off then." After Winters finished he turned his radio on and began to speak into it "Section two-two to Foxhound squadron, we need a bombing run on the grid reference eight-four-four-two-three-two, how copy?" As the response came through Winters' radio, Jenner and Asher stepped between the trees and onto the road. They both began walking down the passing Rhett still tirelessly working on the wounded Private who continued to shout in pain. "That sounds bad CMT, is he going to make it?" The Sergeant inquired.
"Oh no, this one's probably gonna die." The even more panicked look from the Private to Rhett then revealed the real answer "I'm joking. He'll be fine, the bullet hasn't even gone all the way in. He's just lost a lot of blood, which is now on me. Annoyingly." Jenner let out a short laugh "That's good to hear. Winters will probably pop out soon and tell you where you're needed."
Rhett nodded and the three men gave silent goodbyes. The two NCOs departed from the Privates treatment walking along the cracked road. "What are the Chedaki doing in this part of the forest? They never come this way." Asher asked. Jenner shrugged "I doubt they just stumbled into this part. The attack seemed pretty organised. They have to be moving into this region or their establishing a fire base or something along those lines."
"Yeah, I could believe that but we'll easily clear them out."
"No doubt about that Corporal. Just don't get too cocky and keep your head down, they still have that sniper and for all we know he could be watching us now. Just waiting to pull the trigger and take us both out with one shot." Jenner's comment made Asher look around into the surrounding wilderness slightly worried. The Sergeant didn't notice Asher's change in attitude and continued to talk. "Let's just hope they haven't already prepared an ambush around their original position. If they have, they'd have the advantage and I could guess a couple of the Privates would die."
"You're not a very positive man are you, Jenner?"
"Well Corporal, I've spent fourteen years of my life fighting the Chedaki Insurgency. After that amount of time you lose your positive attitude. Everyone thinks that the Chedaki are just random farmers that found a gun and decided to take a pot shot at their local patrol, they're not wrong but what people don't know is the lengths these fighters will go to get a chance at killing one of us. I've seen previous members of this section have their faces ripped beyond recognition by a Chedaki's bare hands. That's just one of the many things I've seen during my service in the Royal army." In the distance light gunfire drifted into the area. Asher looked towards the direction of the gun fire. "It's too far for us to worry about." Jenner assured Asher. The gunfire continued for a while and then is silenced by the rapid buzzing from a CX-49. "They're a magnificent weapon don't you think?"
"The '49?" Asher inquired.
"Yeah… The CX-49 is a great addition to our arsenal. The Chedaki look for trouble and we deliver with the '49. Almost all of the small firefights I've seen have been stopped by the buzzing of a CX-49." The two walked in silence which was again broken my Jenner "We're nearing fire team two. Should we radio in before we…" Jenner was cut off prematurely by a shout in front of them "Contact to the north!"
"Friendly!" Asher yelled back "It's me and Sergeant Jenner!"
"Oh, sorry sir! False alarm!" A private stepped out from the shrubbery into the road.
"Private Corwin." The Sergeant said plainly "Identify your target before you react next time. Reduces the chance of friendly fire."
"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!" The private clasped his right hand in the shape of a fist against the left side of his chest in the form of the Kenjorian salute. "Mackings is where you left him, sir, he hasn't moved an inch."
Asher smirked under his helmet "Good. Gather up the rest of the fire team and meet us by Mackings' position." Corwin's fist was placed against his chest again then ran back into the shrubbery in search for the rest of the team. "The latest recruits always manage to make me laugh." Jenner chuckled to himself.
"I'm sure you were a recruit once, Jenner."
"Yeah but I wasn't anything like these new recruits." Jenner continued walking with Asher following behind. Asher then took the lead, heading towards Mackings position. As Corwin had correctly informed the two, Mackings was locked firmly in the same position Asher had left him. "Have you not moved from here?" Asher asked him
"No, sir, we've been locked down by that sniper. I've stayed behind the tree so he couldn't hit us." Mackings blurted out.
"I haven't heard anything since I left. Anyway, just help Corwin round up the team. We're making a move as soon as the DAKs come in." Mackings stumbled to his feet and practically punched his fist into his chest followed by a quick "Yes, sir." Then he too ran into the brush. Jenner then crouched in place behind the tree facing out towards the Chedaki with Asher crouching behind him looking the opposite direction. Asher took out his tablet computer and began revising the Leftenant's strategy. While the NCOs waited the rest of fire team two slowly trickled in around them, taking up various positions. Just as Corwin and Mackings returned from their expedition, a rumbling can be heard in the distance, bouncing of the thickest trees in the forest making the noise seem louder. "DAKs are on their approach. Get ready boys! We move on my mark." Jenner yelled over the thunderous sound and the team shifted to face the direction of the Chedaki checking their equipment as they do so. Asher checks his radio realising it's been turned off he then turns it on and it crackles to life.
