January, 6, 2016 A.T.B.
Vince looked at the man who was his new commander. Henry Roderick was a legend in the Britanian military. The man had won the key Siege of Rio de Janeiro during the 2007 Indian Uprising, as well as orchestrating the largest landing in history, over 3,000,000 troops and some 2,000 Knightmares storming the beaches, and landing by paradrop throughout the North African Deseret. But it had been for little. A significant portion of those original forces had been relocated to area 11 and the E.U. Border for security, and he was stripped of all but the Roderick Battalion, so called because it was the only unit which he had direct command of. His infantry force was reduced to about Three Quarters of a Million, and he had maybe 100 Knightmares. Which is why his force had been stalled by the relatively weak El Alamein line. His naval support was being fended off by enemy subs, and his air support by enemy SAMs. The only options left to him were to move in from the south, impossible for Knightmares due to the sand dunes, or right up the gut, a heavily fortified and mined area. He was, to put it shortly, stuck.
"Alright captain Regas." He finally said, breaking the tense silence, "I didn't want you, but I do have a use for you."
Vince was both shot down and perked up by this.
"I'm sending you in. Battalion Wing 4 is your command, the worst pilots I have." The general continued, "mind you, even my bad pilots are good."
Vince decide to say something, "sir, do I have the freedom to plan my attack?"
"You do Captain, you may attack from any direction you can, you also may take the 75th Air Fighter/Bomber Wing for air support."
"Thank you sir, permission to leave sir?" Vince asked.
"Granted, get moving."
Vince left the large command building in the base that Roderick had set up in Al Dabaa. It's costal location was an issue, but it was a risk the General was willing to take.
After a few minutes search Vince found the small compound of the 4th Wing. It was well kept, relatively new, and the hangars showed excellent conditioned Knightmares. These men might be the worst, but their barracks and equipment showed a respect and understanding of the importance of these.
Most of the men were out on patrols, and he waited for them to come back in.
The squads trickled in one after another. Securing their main action Knightmares beside the backup ones Vince had observed earlier. Each squad had either an NCO or junior officer in command. Squad 1, comprised of the only ace other than Vince himself, as well as some of the better pilots, was commanded by Warrant Officer Hopkins, a commoner who was proven to be an ace pilot. Squad 2 was commanded by a 2nd Lieutenant, Squad 3 was commanded by a Sargent, and Squad 4 by a corporal.
A fifth unit, designated Wing 4 Support Group 1 or W4SG1 for short, consisted of primarily infantry made mobile by APCs and tanks and operated under his command, but it's own commander was 1st lieutenant Washington. Washington, who could trace his heritage back to George Washington, was an honorary britannian from area 1. The fact that was a number seemed to make no difference to the knightmare pilots, nor to washington's men, who also appeared to by numbers, 1s by the look of it.
"Squad and unit commanders, the planning room. We need to discuss our next mission assignments." Vince said, waving his hand in dismissal of the others.
The gathered around a reasonably sized table, with a map stretched out on it. It showed the locations of the Brittanian permanent emplacements as well as those of the MEF. Vince pointed to a point with two SAM emplacements as well as a hangar and runway, not to mention the numerous storehouse and other buildings.
"That is the enemy base." Vince stated. "Our objective is to take it."
The commanders looked at him aghast. Taking the impervious fortress?
"Knightmares are equipped with tracking and guidance systems, the chief use for these is to fire weapons against enemy forces. However, I have determined that a Knightmare Rifle should be able to put up enough flak in order to shoot down enemy SAMS."
The officers and squad commanders were beginning to catch his drift, Washington figured it out first.
"Then the Knightmares will provide cover for the Air Units, while they destroy key enemy positions, in theory a good plan, but do we have enough Knightmares to cover against the incoming fire?"
Vince mulled over this for a moment, Washington was obviously an intelligent man and capable leader.
"Actually, the Knightmares will be acting in the air. Knightmare transports allow the knightmare some mobility, and therefore, we can use them the keep our Knightmares in the air and destroying enemy anti-air missiles, while destroying them, the W4SG1 will paradrop in behind enemy lines, and support the Wing in the assault." Vince explained.
This seemed to satisfy Washington, and the others nodded.
Then Vince started talking specifics, flight paths, altitudes, armaments, etc. the commander of the air wing they were to cover joined them, and received an explanation of the plan, he thought it crazy, but most ignored his complaints. Vince had done a good job of explaining it to them.
When finally they broke for the night, Vince was satisfied with the plan the had drawn up. He was preparing to brief the general on the matter when Washington approached him.
"Sir, with all due respect, I may approve of the plan, but it will require very precise timing and coordination. I'm not sure if you are able to do such a thing."
Vince looked at the man, "the plan will work, we just need to make sure none of those SAMs gets through."
"Very well sir." Washington said, saluted, turned and walked away. Vince continued along towards the General Command block, where, even though it was well past the moon's zenith, General Roderick still stood, watching the IFF boards and coordinating troop movements. Vince saluted when he looked over at him.
"What do you have for me Captain?" Roderick said.
"A mission brief for our next mission sir, the one you personally assigned us." Vince replied.
"Alright, hand it over." Roderick replied. Vince handed the thin stack of papers containing the plans for each unit of his forces through the operation. The general flipped through it, and then signed off on it.
"You plan is approved Captain. You have permission to proceed at the specified time." He said.
"Yes sir, thank you sir." Vince said, saluted, and walked out, he gave calls out to his commanders to brief their units at 0530 and to have them ready for the beginning of the operation at 0640 the operation would commence at 0700.
January 7, 2016 a.t.b. 0400
3 hours before his the plan he masterminded was set to commence, Vince sat in the mess hall that Wing 3 shared with them. He was drinking coffee he had made himself. The cooking staff hadn't yet arrived to start cooking for the 0500 breakfast. He was great full for the silence it offered him.
The door opened, and the Wing 3 captain entered. "Thought I might find you here, Regas." She said.
"Hmmmm?" Vince queried.
"I know you've been cleared for a dawn attack. I thought I should tell you, expect heavy resistance. The enemy is heavily entrenched and believed to have several Knightmares, possible Glasgows."
"I factored that in, even if enemy air power is significant, our fighters should be able to win out. The main problem is those damned SAMs. If we can't get our bombers through the flak to destroy the emplacements, we'll be forced to retreat and abort the op. the entire operation will be dependent upon W4SG1 pushing through after that, landing, and supplying us with reinforcements in terms of infantry before the enemy KMF's can react."
The captain looked at him, "so basically, if the AA isn't gone by the time Washington s flying over, you're screwed."
"Basically." Vince agreed.
"We'll, good luck with that." She said before leaving. It was going to be a long day, Vince thought to himself.
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AN: Thank you for reading, it can be hard to write, especially from only one POV. Please leave a review, especially iw old like serious reviews with constructive criticism. That will help me make the story more enjoyable.
also, don't expect the updates to always be this fast, as I already had this one written well before I published chapter one.
