Sorry bout the long wait. Combat scenes unfortunately aren't my forte and school has kept me busy. Please tell me what you think.
Avril and Faldio were waiting on the northern side of the camp along with Squad 1 while Squad 7 got into position.
"Don't forget Lieutenant I'll lead my team around the western side and take down their comms tent. You won't be needed here," said Avril as she peeked over a sandbagged wall.
"Don't be silly, it's your first time on the field," replied Faldio who was loading his rifle next to her, "Besides the boys and girls on my team know what they're doing."
"As do I," She replied before wiping a gloved hand over her face and spitting on the ground in disgust.
"Uggh! SPF 50 and sand are disgusting, that's why I never hit the beach."
"That'll be the least of your worries when the fighting starts. You sure you'll be fine?"
"Yeah everything will go fine Lieutenant Landzaat. If you can stop fussing you'll do fine." She waved him off.
Faldio quickly went over to Musaad who was keeping his head low to avoid the wind. "Hey I need a favour from you."
"Sure." he sat up, and leaned towards Faldio to listen over the noise.
"Make sure the good Lieutenant doesn't get herself killed on her first outing."
"Of course sir," replied Musaad after glancing around to see that Avril wasn't within earshot.
Just then a chain of explosions went off to signal the beginning of the battle.
"Don't forget," said Faldio as they both stood up.
Alicia took point as her fireteam advanced east hugging the temple wall searching for the Imperial ammo dump. A pair of Imperial soldiers came stumbling towards them but they were facing the open desert. Without hesitation the Gallians opened fire, hitting them in the back. Alicia held her breath as she waited for the enemy to open fire but the ambient noise and poor visibility drowned out the commotion. She pointed to a stack of crates.
Edy, Herbert and Marina hung back, covering Alicia, Hannes and Knute as they dashed out to reach the crates. As they crossed the ten metres of open ground they were met with gunfire, none of the shots really came close fortunately. The trio on overwatch returned fire but they were just as blind as the enemy.
"Frag out!" shouted Knute as he primed a greande and tossed it over at the Imperials.
There was a loud thump after which Hannes stuck his head over and put down a suppressing volley in the direction of the enemy. At that moment Herbert, Marina and Edy slid over.
"We'd better keep moving we're only wasting ammo at this rate. Any of you see more cover?" asked Alicia.
"There's a ditch fifteen metres away I think, just to the right and next to the sandbags," Marina answered, of all of them she had the sharpest eyes.
"Alright I'm going over the top, Hannes, Knute follow me. The rest of you cover us," said Alicia, ramming a new magazine into her rifle. She took a breath and shouted, "Now!"
Edy stood up and started shooting while Marina removed her rifle scope and took aim, firing just above the muzzle flashes of the enemy. Alicia clambered over the crates and ran as quickly as she could. She saw the sandbag wall to her right and knew she was on the right track; all that was left to do was to find the trench.
Knute who was on Alicia's heels saw an enemy scout looming out of the sand. He could barely make out the silhouette as the soldier charged forward. The attacker had come too close and he could see the bayonet on the end of his rifle rushing forward. He skidded to a stop while turning, almost losing his balance and fired from the hip. The first three rounds missed but two struck the scout in the leg and thigh and the last caught him in the belly. At that moment a shot grazed his shoulder, already in his unbalanced stance he toppled sideways onto his gun.
"I got you!" Alicia shouted as she dived over. She took a moment to fire at the enemy before dragging Knute by his webbing over to the trench where Hannes was pulling out medkit.
"Where's he hit?" he asked.
"I'm fine it's just a scratch, nothing a few sutures won't fix but I think my rifle hurt me more," Knute replied, rubbing his ribs where the iron sights had painfully poked him. "
"Ok let's get the rest of them over." She keyed her mic. "You're cleared to move!"
The three of them stood up and started shooting, aiming for the muzzle flashes. A few seconds later Marina, Herbert and Edy came charging over and joined them in the trench.
"Are we any closer to their ammo tent?" asked Edy impatiently, "We're going too slowly here. We gotta beat Rosie's team."
"How about we just wait here till the storm subsides?" Herbert suggested.
"Don't be ridiculous, we can't wait for the storm to die down, it won't take very long for the rest of them to corner us down here even if they can't see us," Alicia replied.
On the western side Alan, Rosie, Catherine, Noce and Hermes were pushed into the storm with Wendy, Homer and Nadine taking the rear.
"Contact left!" shouted Catherine.
Alan caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of an Imperial carrying a heavy machine gun over his shoulder. As he brought his SCAR up the sniper fired first cutting down the unprepared soldier.
"Good thing he wasn't carrying something else or you'd be dead now," she remarked, "I've got your back."
Alan shook his head and thanked her, she was right. He didn't even see him until Rosie had given the warning.
"I see the comms tent!" Hermes called, pointing to the outline of a tall antennae not too far way.
"Careful, Avril and her team is heading in this direction too," warned Alan, "Let's proceed carefully."
He said this more to himself. The Gallians on his fireteam moved themselves confidently, leapfrogging each other from cover to cover as they approached their destination. Strangely enough there weren't any sentries stationed outside. They stopped just outside the flapping entrance. Alan's IWS suite detected heartbeat and acoustic signals of four individuals inside the tent. Their locations were pinpointed on his HUD but the Gallians lacked C-C (Cross-Com) gear.
"Four guys inside, one is two metres right of the entrance, another in the middle and two close together in the far corner on the left," he said to Wendy and Rosie.
"You didn't need to tell us that but we'll deal with it sir," said Rosie almost condescendingly, "I recommend you stay out here and wait for us to clear it."
There wasn't any point arguing with that and Alan was fine with it. "Nadine, Homer, you guys wire that antenna to blow but use the command detonators."
As the engineers and Alan moved off to the antenna, Rosie and Wendy stood on either side of the tent entrance while Noce, Hermes and Catherine were on overwatch.
"Frag and clear," ordered Rosie, holding open the entrance flap.
"Frag out." Wendy tossed in a grenade.
There was a muffled explosion inside and Rosie immediately slid inside closely followed by Wendy. A moment later Noce heard shouts of "Clear!".
"Comms tent clear," he reported to Alan.
"I guess Alan's sixth-sense wasn't needed," remarked Wendy, nudging one of the corpses with her boot. "Nothing high explosives can't solve on its own."
Meanwhile Rosie was securing a dazed survivor from the explosion. "Wendy! Hurry up and smash their gear!"
"With pleasure." She casually pointed the underslung flamethrower on her Mags at the desk stacked with radios and other communications equipment and squeezed the trigger.
Outside Nadine and Homer finished prepping the explosives when gunfire erupted from behind, forcing them to scramble behind the antenna for cover. Alan dropped to a knee and returned fire into nothingness. He recognised the noise of an AK rifle. The C-C registered Russian IFF signals approaching and marked them as red diamonds on his HUD.
He aimed at the closest diamond, the person it denoted was invisible because of the sand but he fired anyway, aiming for the top half.
The diamond went white as the C-C registered a kill. In response the cluster of hostiles separated into two groups, one standing their ground and the other rapidly started moving to the left. A volley came Alan's way, forcing him to go prone.
"We need to get out of here!" he called to Noce. Get the engineers and tell Rosie and Wendy to go to the other side now!"
"Lieutenant," Welkin recognised the distinctive accent over his earpiece.
"Go ahead Kiwi," he answered.
"Welkin we've taken down the helos and some of the tanks. You're clear to proceed."
With that Welkin sent the Edelweiss charging down the hill. Although he didn't have a good view of the battlefield the newly installed thermal viewing device helped him locate the remaining Imperial tanks. The view was lit up in an eerie gray and white through the scope. Several flaming wreckages could be seen as he neared the temple. The green diamonds surrounding the small white human shaped outlines indicated friendlies while red diamonds indicated hostiles.
"We have you on visual Kiwi," said Isara who was also using a thermal sight to navigate through the storm. They passed the commando and the three lancers who were taking cover behind a wrecked Russian helicopter.
"Alright, that's enough sneaking around, follow the tank," said Largo.
As they broke cover they were met with small arms fire.
"Welkin slow down, we need the Edelweiss as cover!" shouted the Kiwi over the radio.
"Roger that," Welkin replied. "Isara stop for a bit so they can get behind us."
"Ok but we can't stay very long, there's a pair of tanks coming right at us," she replied.
Jann watched as the tank halted before calling, "Let's go! Now!"
They broke into a sprint machine gun bullets hit the ground around them, throwing up small geysers of dust. As soon as they were safe behind the bulk of the tank they leaned up against the hull and tried to catch their breath. The noise of the Edelweiss turret turning and firing gave them all a nasty jolt.
"What the hell man!" asked Theold angrily, punching the side of the tank.
"We've got two heavies closing in from the north and infantry from the west," replied Welkin.
Largo leaned out the side and quickly ducked back as rounds pinged off the armour.
"We've got to move the Edelweiss now, you'll have to follow but we'll try to keep you from facing the enemy," said Welkin.
"Let's go before those tanks can shoot." He turned the turret to face the closest tank and fired. The 88 mm HEAT round exploded on the heavily armoured front but failed to penetrate. The impact was enough to throw the enemy gunner off as a moment later the enemy tank responded with a shot of its own. It barely missed the Edelweiss which was an easy target because it was moving slowly so the lancers and the Kiwi could catch up.
The second heavy tank fired but the round fell short. Welkin ignored it and focused on the closest one. Meanwhile the Kiwi was backpedalling, using the Edelweiss as cover and firing his rifle at the advancing infantry. Largo and the lancers rushed forward, trying to get a bead on the enemy tanks.
"Dammit!" complained Largo as he fired off a rushed, badly aimed shot against the second tank, only to see the round sail over the turret. "Boss, we need you to manoeuvrer the tank so we can get them from behind."
"Fat chance Largo, they're moving too and we're barely holding them off."
"Theold, you got any more shots left?" asked Jann, rummaging in his ammo pouches.
"This is my last one," answered Theold. He took aim and fired but the warhead deflected off the armour of his target.
"One of you guys get over here and use this!" shouted the Kiwi, pointing to the M6 Medium Anti-Armour Weapons System (MAAWS) on his back.
Largo passed his empty lance to Jann and rushed over to the Kiwi before prying the tubular recoilless rifle off his back. The Kiwi stopped moving and started firing on full automatic, suppressing the Imperial soldiers to make it easier for Largo.
"Aim towards the enemy and pull the trigger," he instructed.
"Who do you think I am?" asked Largo sarcastically as he stepped forward and braced himself on one knee.
"It's loaded with a tandem HEAT warhead so it should penetrate but watch out for the back-!"
Largo fired the MAAWS and a second later the turret on the distant tank exploded. The hot gasses vented out the other end of the weapon and engulfed the back of the Kiwi's head.
"Shit!" he screamed, his shemagh was ablaze. Largo dropped the weapon and tackled him to the ground before tearing the burning cloth off his head and tossing it away.
"Sorry about that but hey! You're okay. It didn't cook you too badly!" apologised Largo after patting down the rest of the flames on the unfortunate New Zealander.
"Next time not so close! Here's a flechette round, get it into the M6 and take out those guys," said the Kiwi, passing the round to the lancer.
Largo reached over, grabbed the MAAWS and did as he was instructed. Making sure there wasn't anything behind him, he took aim at the cluster of enemy soldiers. The warhead exploded in front of them and disgorged a swarm of small anti-personnel darts, scything down anyone who wasn't behind cover.
"Nice! I gotta get me one of these!" shouted Largo in glee.
Inside the Edelweiss Welkin took aim with his last Sabot round but he could focus more effectively now that one of the tanks was out of commission.
"Infantry threat has been neutralised, we don't need cover anymore," radioed Jann.
"Good but be careful out there," said Welkin, "Isara go to full speed."
"Finally," she replied gratefully, "I thought we were going to get boxed in for a moment then."
She steered the tank aggressively forward, surprising the enemy tank crew whose shot went wide as the Edelweiss closed in. They came within fifty metres but before the tank could fire Welkin took aim at the flank and fired, scoring a mobility kill.
Just then Alicia radioed in. "Welkin, we need you ASAP, we're at the ammo tent with Faldio and some of Squad 1. The storm has died down but the Imperials have taken cover in the temple entrance across from us and we're pinned down. It's only a matter of time before they hit something explosive over here."
"Affirmative, we're on our way," he answered. "Largo, Kiwi, Jann, Theold we're moving on to the temple."
The ammunition tent was a hundred metres away from the steps leading up to the temple entrance. Here the remaining Imperials had retreated and hunkered down behind the pillars. Alicia and Faldio's fireteams were had taken cover behind whatever cover they could find but the Imperials had the higher ground.
Faldio peered down the sight of his rifle and picked off a scout who had unwisely exposed himself too long. A bullet barely missed him, reminding him to get his head down too.
"Damn Imperials, using a monument to save their own sorry hides," he cursed.
He called up Welkin. "What's your ETA," he asked.
"Ten minutes, we've run into a minefield, the Largo and the Kiwi are guiding us through but it's slow going," he heard the reply over his earpiece.
"You better haul arse, we're running low on ammo and Alan and Avril are late.
Next to him Ramsey Clement was patching up a very pissed off Nils Daerden who had a bullet pass through his left hand.
"No need to bother the medic with this," he said, trying not to wince as he flexed his fingers.
"You're lucky it was a ricochet, you could have lost it," said Ramsey, "And if we had to find it, it'd be like searching for a needle in a haystack." She nodded at the numerous corpses of Imperials around them.
Meanwhile Alicia was concerned with their dwindling ammunition.
"I found one, make it count!" shouted Knute as he threw a Randgrizer rifle grenade to her.
"Thanks!" She caught it and loaded it into the launcher on the end of her rifle and fired it towards an Imperial crew-served heavy machine gun. The 40mm grenades the Americans used only armed when it has undergone a certain number of high speed revolutions after being fired. This is a safety feature to ensure the grenade cannot harm the shooter. The Randgrizer grenade is launched at a lower velocity but had a time delayed fuse so it could bounce off obstacles. It sailed through the air and hit its target in a brilliant blue explosion.
"Herbert, hurry up!" complained Edy as she tore a used magazine from her submachine gun.
"Yeah, yeah I'm digging deep," said Herbert as he rummaged in his backpack and produced a rifle magazine.
"I can't use that! Didn't you sort out your stuff before coming here?" asked the shocktrooper.
"Umm… no I just crammed all the stuff inside," Herbert replied after mulling over her question.
"Forget the lucky dip, I'm going inside to see what we can get!" she said, looking over at the ammo tent which was separated from the Gallians by twenty five metres of uncovered ground.
"Are you crazy? You're going to get torn up if you run across," said Hannes.
"If we don't-." She was cut off by the unmistakable noise of a bugle. With a roar, a wave of Imperials suddenly came charging down the steps towards the Gallians.
Faldio looked up in shock as the enemy soldiers moved aggressively from cover to cover, closing in and firing their weapons as they ran. He remembered speaking to a few EW1 veterans and felt the same fear they felt when they described the human wave attacks the Imperials sometimes launched.
"Hold them off!" he shouted to the others, "I'm calling in a fire mission!"
"Conserve you ammo too!" Alicia took aim and shot a shocktrooper in the chest armour, the soldier stumbled and continued. This time she drew a bead on his head but before she could pull the trigger the man's head snapped back in a cloud of pink mist.
"Fine shot Marina," she complimented sniper on her right.
"We're outta grenades," reported Knute, with a serious expression, "Shall we affix bayonets sergeant?"
Alicia closed her eyes and nodded. She hated intimacy of hand-to-hand combat.
"Bayonets!" she called.
"We should have gone when we had the chance!" Edy screeched at Hannes. That was when she realised he was gone.
"Hey! What the heck are you doing?"
Hannes had made a dash towards the ammo tent, firing his submachine gun from the hip. After diving through the front flap he started to get up but fell back almost immediately as bullets whizzed through the tent wall. He crawled on his belly over to a box and upended it, spilling its contents on the ground. While he sorted through the ammo pile he didn't notice two shadowy figures on the other side of the canvas. Nor did he notice a knife blade sawing through the canvas. A long burst of gunfire made Hannes jump out of his skin. Rolling over onto his back he drew his pistol only to point it at Melville Young.
"They almost caught you with your pants down now didn't they," said Melville.
"You damn near scared the daylights out of me," said Hannes, "You here for the ammo too?"
"Yep. That's why I'm using this." The scout hefted the ZM MP submachine gun he was holding.
"Thanks for the help, now let's this stuff loaded."
Outside Faldio just got off the line with the firebases. "Time on target forty seconds!" he shouted.
The Imperials were halfway to the Gallian positions. Marina took a mere second to acquire each target and eliminate them. Soldier after soldier bit the dust as her bullets made contact with their heads, throats or hearts. She brought her crosshairs upon her next target, squarely over his head. She pulled the trigger but to her surprise she heard the dreaded 'dead man's click'. Feeling her bandolier for ammo and finding none she joined the rest of the Gallians and drew her pistol.
"Time on target ten seconds! Danger Close!" warned Faldio.
The Gallians ducked and covered their ears.
Back at Firebase 23-Golf Vyse was rudely awoken by the crash of the howitzers in the 'Artillery Cave'. Groggily brushing a few chips of limestone off his face he stumbled into the next cave where Montley was stirring, underneath a ceiling of stalactites. Salinas had dragged the aichmophobe there in his sleeping bag after he had fallen asleep.
"What's happening?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Sounds like the big guns, let's go check it out," answered Vyse.
At that moment Montley looked up and screamed in terror at the sight of the pointed limestone hanging above him.
Inside the tent Hannes and Melville received the radio warning.
"Under the table now!" shouted Hannes.
They slid under the closest one and braced themselves.
"Why are we taking cover in an ammo dump?"
There was a muffled roar outside, followed by another, followed by another and another. After the third explosion the tent canvas was violently flung away. It would have been funny to see both of them hiding under a table outside in clear view. What wasn't so funny was that both of them found themselves facing a dozen Imperial soldiers running and firing wildly at them.
Melville grabbed the table legs and pushed it over for cover. There was a deafening crash and then the firing stopped. Both of them looked up to see the remaining Imperials turning tail and fleeing back up the steps. The ground in front of the Gallians was scattered with the corpses of the Imperials who were caught in the open by the artillery strike.
Thankfully the sandstorm had died down, making it considerably easier for Alan and his team to see and engage the pursuing Russians. Unfortunately it also worked for the Russians.
"Bounding!" called Alan as he turned, ran and rolled over a sandbagged wall as his fireteam covered him.
Rosie and Wendy fired short controlled bursts to keep the Russians suppressed while Nadine and Homer distributed the ammo.
"Ok Hermes on three get behind that jeep!" ordered Alan. To the rest of the Gallians he said, "Same plan as before but only shoot at what you can hit."
The pale faced scout was nursing a shattered forearm and the only thing keeping him from going into shock and falling unconscious was thanks to a hefty dose of ragnaid.
"Three…Two….One… Now!"
Hermes stumbled out and ran as quickly as he could. Alan aimed and fired a burst at a Russian rifleman, the bullets tore into the collar where his body armour was weakest. At that moment he realised he'd shot off his last three rounds in his magazine. Immediately he switched to the Gallian-A rifle he borrowed from Hermes. Remembering Noce's comments about its capabilities he took aim through the iron sights and fired twice, making sure to give a second before pulling the trigger again. A spestnaz commando doubled over from the two bullets to his chest armour. Alan zeroed in on his head and fired, finishing him off.
"Neat and terminal," complimented Rosie, "Not half bad but you gotta be faster than that."
She fired a long burst, forcing the Russians back to cover.
"What the hell are they using?" asked Noce in frustration as a bullet whizzed pass his head. "Those guns shoot faster than Mags or ZM MPs and they have the range of a rifle."
"I guess you've never heard of an assault rifle?" said Alan.
Just then he heard a cry and turned to see Hermes hitting the ground. Before he could say anything Nadine broke cover and ran over to the prone scout.
"What are you doing? Nadine? Cover them!" shouted Alan as he pulled out a smoke grenade and lobbed it at the Russians.
Noce pulled out a frag and tossed it into the billowing smoke. Alan noticed how reluctantly Rosie was shooting as soon as he gave the order.
"Damn I had one of them in my sights," said Catherine as soon as the smoke had enveloped the enemy. "Alan please warn us before you toss a smoker next time."
"Yeah I won't forget," he apologised and looked over at Hermes.
Nadine had dragged him over behind the jeep and was attempting to bring him out of unconsciousness.
"That was quite stupid but brave, those Russians don't mess around and they'll kill you in an eye blink given the chance," said Alan, running over and checking Hermes' pulse.
"If only…" muttered Rosie.
"How is he," Alan asked.
"I'm fine, I'm just tired, that's all," answered Hermes, opening his eyes and groaning. Nadine and Alan exchanged worried glances; the scout wasn't doing a good job at keeping the pain out of his face.
"Alright we'll carry you the rest of the way," said Nadine, "Isn't that right Alan?"
"Uhh… yeah," he answered as he shouldered his rifle and helped the engineer hoist Hermes up between them.
"Team! Cover us!" Alan called to Noce, Wendy, Catherine and Rosie.
"Wait they're disengaging!" shouted Wendy.
She was right, the firing had stopped and the voices of the Russians were fading away.
"Ok let's move now and regroup with the rest at the rally point and where's Avril?" asked Alan.
High in the sky a venerable US made RQ-1 Predator drone monitored the battle around the temple. Straddling its fuselage was a pair of AGM-211 missiles. The 'Mini-Mavericks' as they were commonly known were replacements for the original line of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles designated for UAVs. Despite being superseded in every possible way by its younger cousins, the Predator was still a formidable and stealthy weapon. A secure datalink streamed instantaneous data from the drone's sensors miles away to Ft Amtriain.
The headquarters of Gallian Military Intelligence could be reached at the basement level of the main Ft Amtriain building. Hidden within layers of hardened concrete and patrolled around the clock with security teams from the Intelligence Support Division. G-ISD personnel were the muscle of the organisation, oriented towards wetwork and black operations on the domestic and international scene. They were answerable only to Director General Zoltan Devsky, an entirely separate chain of command. The majority of the GMI consisted of researchers, analysts, scientists, investigators and many others who worked just as long as their paramilitary counterparts, sifting through data from anonymous tip-offs, informants and Field Operations officers popularly known as agents or spies.
In a featureless white walled room a sweating UAV operator piloted the Predator with a joystick over the battlefield. He sat at a desk with a laptop, the live feed came from the drone's camera and a radar display kept track of the combatants on the ground. The operator was still in training with the of the few drawn from hundreds of potential candidates to pilot Gallia's first UAV fleet. Behind him General Devsky watched the unfolding battle intently.
"Seems we're w-winning sir," stuttered the nervous operator, hoping for an early dismissal.
To his surprise the general scowled, only for a moment before he started pacing and asked, "Are there any more forces in the area?"
The operator checked the display and replied, "Yes sir, looks like a few tanks and…" He trailed off, staring in amazement at the radar.
Annoyed, Devsky marched over and stared at the screen.
As expected, the Batomys makes its debut.
At that moment Devsky's newly acquired PDA beeped in his pocket, alerting him to another staff meeting.
"Do not intervene and let me know when something interesting occurs." He pointed to the phone on right side desk which was programmed to the Director General's office voice machine.
"Uhh yes sir."
Devksy shook his head in disgust. The air conditioning was efficient and quiet so there was only one reason why the operator had visible sweat stains on his uniform.
"Have a drink," the general lifted up a bottle of water and placed it on the man's left.
Before the man could stammer his thanks Devsky had slammed the door shut. Unsurprisingly the operator felt his scalp prickle as he heard the click of a lock before turning his attention back to the screen.