Operation: Archangel

Chapter 6

Camp Wellington
Z-day + 2960
D-Day+26
11:30

Tigger marched into the HQ building and looked about as out of place as a pig among guinea pigs.

Unlike all the smart, clean, pressed, standard issue MTP uniforms that were being worn by the troops in the HQ building, Tigger was dressed in worn, dirty, mud-stained Japanese type three flektarn that was issued to all special forces and recon teams. This was partly because the powers-that-be wanted the units more likely to encounter survivors first to have Jap uniforms, to make it look like they were leading the reclamation operations. But it was also because the teams issued it may need to hide if the survivors they encountered were hostile.

He walked straight past the line of people waiting to be served by the sergeant (earning him a few disdainful glares) at the reception desk and said;

"Captain Fletcher to see Major Tom." He said to the desk clerk. The sergeant either didn't clock the captain's rank (partly because he wasn't wearing any indication of rank) or was having a very bad day because he looked at Tigger with a disdainful look and said.

"There is a line sir."

"Sarnt, what regiment is Major Tom with?" asked Tigger, not use to being told to go and wait by anyone, let alone a jumped up secretary.

"22 Regiment SAS…," said the Sergeant, and it suddenly dawned on him that he may have just told an SAS officer to go sit down and wait his turn. "I'll go tell him you're here Captain Fletcher." He added quickly.

"You do that." Said Tigger with a nod as the Sergeant headed towards the door to the offices with what Tigger supposed was dignified haste. Tigger glanced back at the line of soldiers waiting to be served. Funny how suddenly they found everything else around them fascinating, and not one of them was looking at the SAS operator in front of them.

The sergeant came back and held the door open for Tigger.

"The Major will see you now sir."

"Thank you Sarnt." Said Tigger with a smile as he passed him and headed for the Major's office. He found the door open slightly and knocked and waited a moment until the major called "Come," before entering.

"Ah, Antony." Greeted Major Tom. "Have a seat. Drink?"

"Please, sir." Replied Tigger. Major Tom got up and retrieved 2 glasses and a glass decanter from the shelf on the wall and poured about an inch of amber liquid into the bottom of each glass before handing one to Tigger. Tigger knew what was coming, he braced himself and took a sip of his drink. The Major smiled as Tigger choked on his drink.

"Glenfiddich, Single malt 18 years. Smooth as silk." Said Major Tom as he took a sip of his own drink.

"If you say so sir." Said Tigger. "Was always more of a Budweiser man myself."

"Yes well," said the Major, "they don't teach appreciation for the finer things at the Sandhurst country club, anymore do they?"

"No sir, these days they tend to focus more on the killing aspect of war." Said Tigger.

"Is that so? Well, you may have quite a bit to do with this next assignment I have for you." Said Major Tom. He produced a brown paper envelope from his desk and slid it across to Tigger. Tigger opened it and pulled out an aerial recon photo of a large walled compound.

"Close target recce of a newly discovered survivor colony." Said Major Tom. "Drone took that this morning. It's a small farm on the north side of Mount Fuji. Lot's of forest in the area so ghillie suits would be a good call."

"Hostile?" asked Tigger as he studied the topography from the photos.

"Possibly." Said Major Tom. He pulled another photo from the envelope, this one was zoomed in and enhanced. "What's got the head cases worried are these." Tigger took the photo and looked closely. Parked in the farm's central area, was a trio of dark green Humvees.

"We think they got them from the East Fuji Manoeuvre area." Said Major Tom. "If they've got them and they're operational… and even if they're not...Who knows what else they've gotten a hold of."

Tigger agreed. He'd seen first hand what a survivor group with military hardware could do. And unlike in the movies, the survivors who'd been using them had years by this point to get proficient with them, and could more than hurt anyone who came across them.

"You have 2 days to get your team prepped and deployed." Said Major Tom. "Study the maps, prep your team and get out there. Plan on being in the field for at least 3 maybe 4 days. Dismissed."

3 clicks west of Yokosuka Naval base
Z-day + 2960
D-Day+26
12:30

"How many did we lose?" asked Captain Griffin.

"4 dead, 7 wounded Sir." Replied Young. "2 Critical. They're back on the QM2.".

"Damn it."

Earlier that morning, Captain Griffin's company was advancing on foot towards an objective approximately 5 kilometres west of the Yokosuka Naval base. While crossing a bridge over the river Tamar river, they came under heavy machine gun, sniper and RPG fire. The marines had taken cover where they could, behind some wrecked cars, only to find that they either had trapped zeds in them, or with IED's planted. Bad weather had grounded any air support, forcing the lightly equipped marines to retreat. They'd established a forward HQ in an office block about 500 meters from the river. The upper floors were still within line of sight of the bridge but out of range of their RPG's and heavy weapons. The marines were using the time to tend to any injuries, restock their mags, down some scoff and get ready for another go of it while the officers called for reinforcements.

"Any chance of gunship support?" asked Griffin.

"No sir." Said Young. "Bad weather's still grounding everything."

"Could we ford the river?"

"Possible, but I wouldn't," said Young. "It's moving fast and they'll have it covered."

"Says the man who swam Tokonosu river at night." Grinned Griffin.

"Yeah, and I nearly caught hypothermia doing it boss." Replied Young with a smirk. "Besides, I also wasn't being shot at when I did it."

"True." Said Griffin. He paused for a moment. "How are those people you saved?"

"Last I heard from Yamato he and the other survivors were settling in after being cleared from the hospital." Said Young. "There was a bit of bother about civvies carrying swords around with them, but it got ironed out. They're focusing on rehab and putting some weight back on for now before looking to find a place for themselves long term."

"Well, I doubt they'll be idle for long." Said Griffin. "I doubt command will let a bunch of sword totting battle-hardened samurai sit around for long."

"True that." Said Young. "Now if you'll excuse me, sir, I'm gonna grab some scoff while there still is any. Can I get you anything?"

"No, thank you, cadet." Said Griffin. "Enjoy your scoff. Dismissed."

Young gave a smart not in place of a salute and left Griffin in the office alone. Griffin was surprised at how much Young had changed since he'd gotten his swords and saved those people from his old school. He was a new man and a new marine. He was no longer the timid, quiet apprentice. Now, he was a sword carrying, zombie killing, tough as nails royal marine. The men had gained a sudden new respect for him and a few had even come to fear him after they'd seen him slice his way through that herd of undead with that shit ass grin on his face.

"Still," mused Griffin. "The best officers are sometimes feared, as well as respected."

With nothing else to do, Griffin picked up his L85 and started breaking it down for fieldstripping and cleaning. It was a ritual he'd had drilled into him at basic while at Sandhurst; after a firefight, when the men are safe and tended to, the first thing you do is strip and clean your weapon… then your teeth. He carefully cleared and broke down the rifle, setting each component down in order and carefully scrubbed and oiled each component. Griffin got a sense of calmness whenever he was cleaning his weapon. A sense of calmness, just man and machine, flesh and metal, shooter and gun. It was a feeling that had kept him sane through the worst of the reclamation ops he'd been part of; The reclaiming of London, The siege of Dublin, the battle of Cyprus… goddamn Cyprus… But wherever he'd been, his rifle had never jammed, and never failed him. He and it had an understanding; "You take care of me, I'll take care of you."

It was that simple.

With his rifle, suitably free of carbon and cleaned of grime from the day's fighting, he reassembled it and performed the functions test. He smiled when he felt the smoothness of the action and heard the satisfying click as the safety sears engaged. He set it down as OC Young ran back into the room.

"Sir." He said, "Reinforcements are here."

"Excellent." Said Griffin as he came to his feet. "With a couple of warriors backing us up, we should…"

"They didn't send Warriors sir." Interrupted Chris with a slight grin on his face. Griffin looked as if he were somewhere between annoyance and confusion.

"Then what did they send us?" He asked.

"Me and mine Captain." Said a voice. A lieutenant stepped into the room. He was shortish, about 5'5, had a head of ginger hair and a pair of half-rim glasses over his blue eyes with a light dusting of freckles over his pale skin. He looked as if he had barely turned twenty. He wore a pair of MTP fatigues that had grease stains on them with a lightly equipped battle belt over his waist and a stockless pump action combat shotgun hanging off his right shoulder.

"Lieutenant Roberts." He said introducing himself with a salute. "Ajax squadron, Royal Tank Regiment."

"RTR?" said Griffin. When he'd asked for armoured reinforcements, he'd expected a company of warriors, not a platoon of Challenger main battle tanks. "Well I wasn't expecting you, but I won't turn you away. You been briefed on the situation?"

"Something about some dick'eds with RPG's and HMG's covering an IED covered bridge?" replied Roberts.

"That about sums it up." Said Griffin. He and Young spent the next few minutes talking over the situation with Roberts who listened intently.

"What's your strength lieutenant?" asked Griffin.

"4 Refit Chally 2 L6's and a Trojan mine clearer." Said Roberts. "I left the bridge layer and recovery vehicles little ways back, but they can be here in 15 mikes if we need'em. If it's all the same to you cap, I'd like my tanks to go first and clear a path with our dozer blades and keep the bastards pinned down with the coax's, but if it gets too heavy, am I ok to put a few HE rounds into those buildings?"

"By all means go first and put all the HE you want into them." Said Griffin. "If it weren't for the bad weather I'd have already called in the Apache's and levelled them anyways. How soon can you be ready to go? And how long can you stay with us?"

"We can be ready to go now if you want." Said Roberts. "As for staying with you," he paused and shrugged. "We were just sitting with our dicks in our hands back at base. We can stay with you as long as you need us."

"Alright then." Said Griffin. "Give my boys 10 mikes to get packed and ready then let's do this."

"Cool." Said Roberts. He saluted and turned to leave. "Fear naught marine."

"Per Mare, Per Terram, tanker." Shot Young back, as he and Griffin headed off to ready their marines.

"Roberts exited the command building and walked down the street back from the bridge. Parked down the road, so they were out of sight of the hostile buildings, were the 4 Challenger 2 L6 Main Battle tanks of AJAX squadron.

The Challenger 2 L6 was a half-breed upgrade of the original Challenger 2 main battle tank. Before the fall, after years of fighting insurgents in Afghanistan, Britain's Challenger fleet was getting old, and in dire need of an upgrade. When the fall came, they proved their worth once again against the undead, as they could not be stopped by the undead and could push through to objectives deep in infected held territory. However, the obsolescent issues did not go away, but the Challenger's, having proved their worth, got a new lease of life.

After the reclamation of Britain, and an operation in Germany to help liberate the port of Hamburg, the British recovered a healthy number of Leopard 2A6 and A7 main battle tanks of the German army. The brits asked if they could have them and the Germans were only too grateful to hand them over as thanks for securing their city, especially as they did not have the expertise to use them. With the tanks gratefully received, the British engineers went to work on combining the two tanks to upgrade the Challenger.

The new Challenger 2 L6 (L6 being a nod to the Leopard 2A6's that had been cannibalised for parts) was one mean mother of a tank. Externally it looked little different from a standard challenger 2, apart from an extended turret ammunition rack at the rear of the turret. The upgrades, however, were extensive on the inside. For starters, the turret interior had been totally redesigned to accommodate better gun handling for the new gun. The Challenger 2's rifled 120mm L30A1 CHARM 3 gun, had been replaced by the Leopard 2A6's Rheinmetall smoothbore 120mm L/55 gun. The main reason for this was simple, ammo. The Challenger 2's old L30 gun, while marginally more accurate than the Leopards, used single piece ammunition and was crucially used all over the world, meaning that if the Challenger were to be deployed overseas, it could more than likely use ammunition scavenged form the country of operations, rather than having to rely on the lengthy supply lines to use the standard 2-piece ammo of the old L30 gun.

Aside from the new gun and turret, the Challenger 2 L6 also featured improved electronics, a remote weapons station on the turret, improved targeting system for the gunner and commander, a bulldozer blade on the front which was ideal for clearing debris or infected, deep water wading capability, improved night and thermal sensors, a new pleather of ammunition and finally, and arguably most importantly for a British crew, an improved boiling vessel for making brews in the field.

In terms of armour, the challenger retained its legendary toughness. Each tank in AJAX squadron was covered 2nd generation CHOBHAM (or Dorchester) armour. Although the tanks caged armour had been removed, crews had learnt the hard way that infected could grab on and climb aboard more easily with it on than off.

Roberts walked towards his tank, the lead tank in the formation, named Rosehip for one of Roberts' favourite anime characters. He clambered up the tank, to where his gunner and loader were relaxing on top of the turret.

"What's the word boss?" asked Will, Roberts' long-standing loader.

"Mount up." Said Roberts. He waved to his other tank crews and shouted: "Mount up!"

"Brew was getting cold anyway." Muttered Roberts' gunner Meg, throwing her lukewarm brew over the side of the tank and onto an unfortunate marine nearby before dropping into the turret.

Roberts dropped in after her, taking the commander's station but leaving the hatch open. He stowed his shotgun on its rack close to hand and slipped on his headset and switched the radio to the A set so he could talk to the Squadron.

"AJAX Squadron radio check." He said into the radio.

"Hellfire up."

"Doris the vampire slayer up."

"Excalibur up."

"Alright lads and ladies, listen up." Said Roberts, "Our orders are to push forwards and clear a path along the bridge so the marines can advance behind us and storm those buildings full of grad one A-holes over there. We're cleared on coax but only fire main guns if I do, have an HE up the spout just in case. We've got IED's in the cars so go carefully. Sadly it's 'don't fire until fire upon', and these A-holes have RPG's, fifty cals, snipers, maybe ATGM's. Keep buttoned up and heads down. Order of march; Rosehip, Excalibur, Doris, Hellfire. Copy?"

"Hellfire copy."

"Doris the zombie slayer copy."

"Excalibur copy."

"Alright, let's make these fuckers regret the day they decided to screw with our navy cousins. Prepare to move. Rosehip out."

Roberts switched the radio to the tank intercom. "Right you all hear that?"

His answer was will shoving a large HE round into the breach of the Challenger's gun.

"HE up boss." Said Will with a smile before turning to the turret wall to tend to another crucial task.

"Main gun, Coax and RWS are up and online." Said Meg with her face pressed to her gunner's sight. There was an annoying silence from the driver's compartment.

"Hugh, you up?" Asked Roberts. More silence, he adjusted his headset and, sure enough, he could hear the sound of soft snoring coming from the driver's position. Apparently, Meg and Will heard it too and knowing full well what came next removed their headsets. Roberts' did marginally enjoy this.

"DETAIL!DETAIL-SHUN!" He shouted into the intercom as loud as he could. And sure enough from the driver's compartment, the dull thud and moan of Hugh's head hitting the driver's periscope.

"Nice of you to join us Hugh." Said Roberts', "Fire her up when you're ready."

"Sir…" moaned Hugh as he recovered from his wake-up call. He punched a button on his control panel and the challenger's 1,200 horsepower deasil engine roared into life. Behind them, the other tanks of AJAX squadron turned their engines over with thunderous roars. Roberts' switched over to the B set and contacted Captain Griffin.

"Zero Alpha, Zero Alpha, this is Ajax lead." He said, "Me and mine are ready on you. Over."

"Understood Ajax lead." Replied Griffin. "My marines are ready to move. We're gonna let you go first and stay close behind you and use your tanks as cover."

"Understood." Said Roberts. "Recommend your boys don't get too close and keep their ear defence on, don't want to deafen them if we fire the main guns."

"Understood. We're ready when you are. Out."

"Crew, report status!" ordered Roberts as he switched to the intercom and his crew shouted back.

"Operator! Ready!"

"Gunner! Ready!"

"Driver! Ready!"

"Ahead slow driver. Advance!"

Hugh disengaged the tank's break and pressed the throttle. The 72-tonne tank's engine roared and Rosehip started moving forward at walking pace. Behind it, the other tanks followed, with marine's using the tanks as cover. Inside his cupola, Roberts watched through his vision blocks as the bridge came closer, and made an inward prayer to god that their armour would hold and that the bridge could withstand the weight of 4 Challengers rolling and firing across it.

Almost as soon as the tanks emerged from the cover of the buildings and onto the bridge, the hostiles opened fire. The windows flickered like fireflies as the gunners peppered the tanks with automatic weapons fire. Roberts' didn't even flinch when the rounds started to clang and ping of his armour, Rosehip was armoured all over with nigh-impenetrable Dorchester armour, RPG's would barely scratch the paint, let alone MG rounds. It was only if they had ATGM's that Roberts would begin to worry.

"Gunner, target. 2 O'clock, 2nd floor, range 200, 3rd window from the right. Give'em the coax."

"Boss." Said Meg. She traversed the turret slightly with a whine of electric motors and elevated the main gun, before depressing the trigger of the L94A1 chain gun that was coaxially mounted to the main gun. The coax spat streams of 7.62mm rounds towards the buildings, each 5th round being a tracer giving a near constant stream of yellow tracer to allow Meg to adjust her aim. The gunner in the window was torn apart by the streams of gunfire before collapsing to the ground. One target down, dozen's more to go.

Roberts' eyes widened slightly as he saw someone on the roof of the right building raise something onto his shoulder and point it at them.

"Contact right! RPG!" He shouted.

Before Meg could bring the coax to bare, the hostile fired. The Panzerfaust 3, launched its tandem charge warhead, designed specifically to penetrate explosive reactive armour. The shaped charged warhead, crossed the distance in a moment on a trail of rocket vapour with a WHOOSH, and impacted the front Rosehip's turret, just to the left of the main gun.

Rosehip shook under the impact and a clang! resonated through the tank. The man who'd launched the rocket smiled at his success, but When the smoke and dust of impact cleared, the only damage was an ugly black scorch mark on turret's paint, and his smile vanished, as the tank's gun rotated towards him, and cut him in half with a return burst from the coax.

The other tanks were faring just as well, advancing undamaged through the hail of hostile fire with only damage to their paint jobs. One Challenger, Excalibur, rolled over a rusted car on the bridge, crushing it with its left track and bulk, before inadvertently setting of the IED concealed inside and stopped. For a moment, the defender's thought they'd disabled the tank, but Excalibur started moving forward again and pulled itself free of the car's wreckage. As the tank's got closer, more RPG's started being fired at the tanks as the defenders got more desperate to stop them.

"Alright, these dumb bastards aren't taking the hint." Said Roberts as Rosehip shuddered after a third RPG hit shook the tank. "Target, 10 O'clock, 3rd floor. Fire main gun."

"Brace." Replied Meg. She traversed the turret around to target and punched the fire button. Rosehip shook, and the fighting compartment filled with the thick cinnamon like smell of cordite as the main gun fired and the breech deposited the spent shell casing on the floor of the turret basket with a clang! The 120mm High explosive round shot out the end of the barrel and closed the distance to target in no time, flying through an open window before exploding inside. The entire floor exploded and smoke, dust and fire shot out of every window on that floor. For a moment, the gunfire stopped, giving Will time aplenty to load the next round and Meg time to bring the turret around to another target. Roberts switched the radio to the PA, another upgrade the challenger had received.

"This is the British army! Here on behalf of the Japanese government and United Nations! Lay down your weapons and surrender, or we will bring down those buildings with you inside them!"

There was nothing for a full minute from the far side, before someone appeared out of a third-floor window, waving a dirty white sheet.

Next to Roberts' head, a light on the radio set started to flash green on the B-set. He switched it over, it was captain Griffin.

"Roberts, my marines and I are going to move in and secure those buildings. Be ready to give fire support should we need it. Over."

"Rog' Captain. Out." Replied Roberts before hanging up and switching back to the intercom. "Be ready to give fire support, Coax and RWS only. And Will? Get a brew on. We could be here a while."

After an hour of securing prisoners, weapons and tending to the wounded and dead, Griffin headed out towards where the Challenger's had parked themselves in defensive positions. He found Robert's crouched over his commander's hatch listening to his headset. He saw Griffin coming and quickly finished his conversation before dropping his headset back into the tank and jumping down to meet the Marine Captian.

"Fuckin rear echelon mother…" he muttered as Griffin approached.

"Problem?" asked Griffin.

"Aye." Said Roberts. "Just finished getting an earful of command. Apparently, the Jap government is real fucked off about me firing high-ex at, quote; 'lightly armed civvies'. I've been ordered back to base with the platoon, to be put back in reserve while I personally get a massive bollocking for my actions."

"Well," said Griffin. "If you need someone to vouch for you, just give me a shout. Without your tanks, I think that this would have turned into a long drawn out siege with a much higher casualty count."

"Appreciate that sir." Nodded Roberts. He and Griffin shook hands before Roberts mounted back up and departed with his platoon.


Well, here we are, chapter 6.

for the readers who have also seen the girls und panzer movie, yes Rosehip is a reference to the Crusader commander from St. Gloriana. Sue me! Actually please don't... I'm a student, so I have no money anyways.

To put it into perspective on how long this has taken to write, I started this about a week before I posted Chapter 5. Blame uni assignments. I was going to make it even longer, but I thought you'd appreciate something sooner rather than later.

I'll get started on chapter 7 tomorrow.

As ever, please do review/favourite and follow. PM me if you have any burning questions.

jango