Battle Group Castle
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own zero Castle. Rating: K Time: In an AU future and see below.
Author's note: This is a sequel to Vengeance and to Tercio Corazon Negro.
One hundred and twenty kilometers from the scout ship, engineers had carved out a rough airstrip on a large island that had once held a farm. Most of the damaged farm house was still standing. A dozen helicopters sat on the strip, being worked on by mechanics. Two platoons of infantry slept, played cards, talked or just stared at the horizon.
An empty 155 mm artillery shell casing was used as a gong to alert the troops. As soon as the gong was struck, pilots, platoon leaders and platoon sergeants, as well as the squad leaders and the chief of the single 60mm mortar team they had, ran for the battered farm house for a briefing.
Lieutenant Raza, who commanded the little base, looked over his command. The officers and NCOs of the two infantry platoons were from the Tercio, the enlisted men were locals. The pilots of the helicopters were from Battle Group Castle and the door gunners were local. The helicopter mechanics were almost all mercenaries.
"Red One Nine, one of BG Castle's scout ships, ran across some pirates and gave them a few rounds. They chased the group back to the old Steadman farm."
No one knew exactly what had happened to the Steadmans, but no one expected a happy ending.
"Red One Nine says the farm is pretty heavily fortified, with trenches and bunkers. They estimate maybe seventy or eighty pirates are holed up there."
"Why the hell don't they run?" Someone asked.
"We think they don't know we have airmobile troops now. They probably figure they'll keep the one scout ship away and then break up into small groups and run for it once it's dark. There aren't any ground troops within two days of them, so if it wasn't for us, it'd be a good idea."
"Since we've run down such a large group of pirates, we'll use both platoons, and the paratroopers will be coming along as well."
"Useless twats." Someone muttered,
Although incorrect, it was an article of faith among the heliborne troops who lived for weeks at a time on spartan bases in the middle of nowhere, that paratroopers, stationed at the Harmony City aerospace port, lived a life of ease and luxury and only showed up once combat was nearly over.
Raza tapped the map on the table in front of hm. "We've checked out Steadman farm before, so the LZ will be the nice flat space by the stream. Red One Nine is low on fuel, so they'll only have about fifteen minutes in the air once we arrive before they have to head back. They'll keep an eye on the farmhouse and Scouts One and Two will provide cover for our insertion." He looked at the scout helicopter pilots. "All of the gunships are still down south, so you're all we have for airborne firepower. Once Red One Nine leaves, your job will be to keep an eye on the farm. Any problems?"
The pilots shook their heads. They had done this before.
Raza went on. "Lift One will be my C&C bird and Lift Two will be our medevac bird. The rest of the lift ships will carry Number Three Platoon, since it's their turn." He looked at the Three Platoon leader. "Miguel, you'll have the mortar team with you. As soon as the infantry is on the ground, they'll come back for Tomas's platoon. That lift will also carry spare ammo, medical supplies and water. Given the number of pirates and the fact that they're well dug in, we'll set up a tight perimeter and wait for the airborne boys to drop by before we assault them. Any questions?"
There were none and the group headed for the helicopters.
The air assault went of reasonably well and the first platoon to land spread out to cover the entrenched farmhouse.
Corporal Carrillo, in charge of the 60mm mortar team, set up his weapon and then crawled up to the top of a small hill where he could observe the fall of his shells. He gave the range and deflection of the target to his team and ordered one round fired.
"Damn! We hit it right on the roof." He yelled. "Give it two more."
Two more mortar shells hit the roof. Carrillo swore. "Fuck. The roof is covered in thick slate tiles. We're not penetrating the roof."
"You want to try dropping some right on top of the next and try to punch through the roof that way?" The loader asked.
Carrillo shook his head. "The wind is blowing too hard. It'd take us a month to manage to drop enough shells on the same part of the roof to bust through. I wish we had some laser guided shells."
"That'd be nice. We could use a regiment of aerospace fighters, too." The loader muttered.
Camarillo cursed again, then got on his radio. "Command, this is Mortar One. We're not penetrating the roof. Maybe the airborne boys will bring something. I'd suggest we get smoke and flares for the 60. Smoke will keep them from seeing us when we do attack and if it's at night, we don't have night vision goggles for even half our people. Over."
"Mortar One, this is Command. Good idea. I'll pass it along. Out."
Meanwhile, back at Harmony City the airborne unit was waiting for something to happen. Half of the small company was ready to go on fifteen minutes' notice, the rest on an hour's notice.
Most dozed in the sun, but a few repeatedly cleaned their weapons. Several watched mechanics working on the fourth aircraft, a near ruin that was very slowly being put back in flying condition. There was a pool as to how long that would take. Those who had said years rather than months were happy with their choices.
Major Gibson, who commanded the aerospace base, quickly answered his phone, wrote down what he was told, and hit the alarm to let everyone know a mission was on. Captain Kerr, the company commander, his company officers, pilots and aircrew, and staff arrived on the double.
"We have a company level drop laid on, chaps." Gibson said cheerfully. "The airmobile boys have tracked down a large group of pirates dug in at an old farmhouse. They need some help."
"Of course, they do." Someone muttered. The airborne troops universally believed that while they had to rush from one side of half a continent to the other to destroy groups of pirates, the airmobile troops did no more than locate they enemy and wait for help.
Gibson briefed them on their mission. As he did so, the various leaders used their radios to tell their subordinates what was up. Because of this, it was only forty-seven minutes from the time that Gibson rang the alarm until the three aircraft were wheels up with a total of eighty-seven paratroopers aboard.
The aircraft had not been built for the comfort of passengers as they were expected to haul freight. Consequently, they were noisy and drafty.
As they neared the drop zone, the jumpmaster slapped the man nearest the door on the helmet. "Stand up!" He yelled, so he could be heard over the noise. Seeing one man get up, the rest rose to their feet.
"Hook up!" The jumpmaster yelled. Most could not hear him, but the paratroopers had done this many times before and knew what to do. They hooked their static lines to a rail over their heads. That way, the static line, hooked to their parachute, would open the chute when they fell from the aircraft.
"Check your equipment."
Most men were doing so already.
"Check the man in front of you." One of the loadmasters checked the last paratrooper in line.
The jumpmaster held up five fingers. "Five minutes." As he did so the light behind him came on red.
As they approached the DZ, the jumpmaster looked out the open door. A smoke grenade had been thrown in the middle of the DZ. The smoke rose straight up. No wind.
The light turned green and the jumpmaster yelled, "Go. Go. Go." Soon eighty-seven parachutes were floating towards the ground.
Then the aircraft turned to make another pass over the DZ. This time they dropped heavy weapons, including two 75mm recoilless rifles and one 81mm mortar. Also dropped was ammunition, food, water, medical supplies and radio batteries.
Captain Kerr found Lieutenant Raza at his command post, which consisted of Raza and two radiomen and set up his own similar command post beside him.
"Anything interesting happen, Lieutenant?"
Raza shrugged. "Three of them tried to crawl out using an old irrigation ditch. They got about fifty meters. The rest are still inside."
Kerr checked the fortified farm through his binoculars. "They saw us land, so they know they're in trouble. Think they'll try to run?"
"We'll soon find out. I saw two recoilless rifles land and a mortar. You can set up your mortar next to mine and I have a place for the recoilless rifles. Not quite a kilometer away, you can shoot up the place with little worry of return fire."
"Let's do it."
The weapons were set up and the two mortars began a barrage of shells that were aimed just outside of the walls of the farmhouse and the bunkers. That way, they hoped to keep the pirates away from the firing slits.
When both recoilless rifles had been manhandled into position, the first one fired. The shell hit just under a firing slit in the farmhouse and blew a hole in the wall.
"Keep at it." Yelled Kerr. "Try to put one through the hole and into the building. "
In half an hour the farmhouse and the bunkers had been so badly shot up that Kerr decided to directly assault the fortified farm. First, he had one recoilless rifle moved to within two hundred yards of the most heavily damaged bunker. Three rounds blew a huge hole in one side. An assault team moved in and threw a fifteen-pound satchel charge directly into the bunker. After the explosion, the team rushed the bunker, throwing in both fragmentary grenades and white phosphorus. The team leader radioed that the bunker was clear.
Assault teams, each supported by a recoilless rifle team worked around the perimeter of the fortified farm, destroying each bunker in turn.
More fire was directed into the farmhouse until nearly half the front wall was gone. The infantry assaulted the house and found no one left alive. Or so they thought.
"Hey! There's some kind of a trap door here." A rifleman called out.
Sergeant Moreno growled. "Open it up and toss a grenade in, asshole."
As he opened the door, someone called out from below. "Don't shoot. I can help you. Let us come up."
"Us?" Moreno called down. "How many are you?"
"Three."
"Okay, come up very slowly and when you three are up, we'll toss a couple of grenades down there, so you better not be fucking with us."
A man walked up with his hands in the air. He was dragged away and searched. He had no weapon on him, but he did have empty ammo pouches. The other two people were two naked girls, perhaps in their mid-teens. They had been beaten and doubtlessly raped by the pirates. They now were hugging each other and crying.
The man spoke. "Two girls. You're soldiers. You can use two pretties like them. What do you say? You get them and I disappear. You'll never see me again."
Sergeant Moreno looked at Captain Kerr. The captain nodded. Moreno shot the pirate in the chest, and once he was on the ground, once more in the head.
TBC