The checkpoint erupted in noise and movement. The trucks, no-longer content with waiting their turn, made a break for it. The lead 18-wheeler smashing through the lowered bamboo barricade, even as it was being lifted by a soldier who had kept his wits about him. The rest of the collected convoy of civilian vehicles raced after that first truck, as tracers lit up the sky behind them.
Those guards with weapons to-hand began firing upward, in the vague direction of the hostile plane's approach, while a pair of Vietnamese regulars raced towards a cut-down stump of a tree, where an old DShK had been bolted, mounted to the wood.
They began adding their own fire at the jet as it made another low pass, firing another pair of missiles at the checkpoint's barracks.
The rockets flew through the top of the large canvas tent, before exploding inside, blowing the entire structure outwards as what was not incinerated simply fell, billowing out with no supports to hold it up.
The jet passed overhead with a demonic whine, a mere prick of black that was almost too fast to see as it disengaged. Heading West again, presumably to rearm. The checkpoint's commander, having been in his tent at the time, got on the horn with Da Nang's defenses, reporting the sudden attack.
The run proved to be a mere prelude, however, as dark forms began to quickly advance out of the brush.
Several squads of Abyssal Revenant infantry, sweeping out from the foliage, advanced seemingly fearlessly towards the encampment, firing what weapons they had as they came.
The T-34, still active on the ridge overlooking the base, traversed its turret as a gunner exposed himself to aim the pintle-mounted Utyos.
He opened fire in a wide sweep, the HMG's 12.7mm rounds scything through the advancing figures... to little effect. The bullets seeming to merely pass through the apparitions harmlessly to chew up the ground behind them. The gunner cursed violently, scurrying back inside and closing the hatch as the main gun fired, this time, scoring several kills, the 76.2 mm HE round detonating near the center of a charging squad.
The Revenants seemed to take the hint, spreading out more even as they continued advancing. Some, not having left the relative safety of the woods, laid down heavy suppressive fire with a mixture of Brownings, RPK's, and M60's.
The VPA troops took cover behind whatever they could find, flinging themselves behind dirt-filled Gabions as they returned fire.
The results were... mixed.
Most of the rounds from the more modern weapons were about as useful as a screen-door on a submarine, passing through the humanoid monsters harmlessly. Doing little to even suppress the enemy as they completely ignored incoming fire.
This cavalier attitude, however, made them susceptible to the few weapons that did affect them.
One VPA soldier, using a Coastguard M16 with a dangling Lôi Đình curse charm tied to the barrel, successfully sprayed down an enemy, as the thing tried to advance on his position. The revenant twirled to the ground, scrabbling at its chest, before seemingly deflating. He had enough rounds left for another short burst, and chewed up the legs of another enemy as it sprinted for the cover of another defender, unpinned stick-grenade held in its hands.
The zombified soldier, blue eyes burning fiercely, fell, using the momentum of its fall to toss the grenade as far it could.
It landed against the Gambion and exploded, the shockwave largely re-directed by the thickly packed earth, but still rattling the teeth of the pair of men behind it.
The owner of the M16 scrambled to reload, the gun's magazine now dry as the crippled revenant quickly began crawling forward on its hands and shredded knees. Another VPA man, mounting his own grenade on his AK-47's own cup-style launcher, quickly peeked out, before jerking his head back and holding the assault rifle around the corner, firing.
The frag went off basically in the crawling zombies' face, tearing up the ground around and little else as the other defender finally managed to slot in a new mag for his M16. He switched to semi-automatic before shakily lining up a shot, plugging the struggling enemy several times in the head, finally finishing it off just as it reached the base of the neighboring gabion.
The soldier giggled stressfully, more hyperventilation than anything, as he was pinned down by heavy return fire from the trees.
The gunners on the DShK, with the aircraft gone, opened fire into the trees to try and relieve the pressure. The gunfire did not slacken, but instead focused on their position, on relatively open ground, the two died almost immediately.
The T-34 fired its main cannon again, contributing heavily to the body count as it obliterated three more revenants with another HE round. The vehicle began advancing off of the overlooking ridge it had been parked on. The other tank a smoldering wreck behind it. The majority of enemy small-arms seemed to focus on it for a moment, before seeming to realize that its frontal armor couldn't be penetrated.
The tank stopped in the middle of the road at the entrance to the checkpoint, allowing the pinned infantry to take cover behind it. Slowly, it began to back up again, the VPN men using it as a way to cross the open ground to cover deeper within the base.
An RPG lanced out of the bushes, targeting the vehicle, but went off against the tip of the barrel, doing minimal damage other than blasting off a few inches of its rifled-barrel.
The tank, as if flinching, jerked backward, almost sending a few men behind it tumbling as it returned fire. Blowing a great hole in the shrubbery where the rocket had come from. It didn't fire again.
Intermittent as the effectiveness of their firearms were, the Vietnamese troops did manage to hold against the sudden rush, downing several of the apparitions that tried to advance on their cover.
When the last of the suicidally aggressive abyssal troops in the open fell, the suppressive fire simply...
Stopped.
The VPA kept firing into the woods for several seconds, hoping to score another few hits, before the commander ordered a halt. He followed up with a withdrawal order that the guards quickly followed.
No one wanted to be here when the heavy artillery struck. A common tactic by now for Abyssal forces when their monsters encountered resistance worth a damn. They would fall back to the main defensive lines.
Besides, with the civilian vehicles away towards the city and the enemy pushing up against their perimeter, their purpose had been fulfilled.
No one else would be coming, not this way.
Somewhere off the coast of Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam:
Kitty Hawk sighed, the tall woman watching as her F-4 approached. Things had gone more-or-less as planned. The Vietnamese at the insertion point were far more worried about the... things Caleuche had summoned than spot-checking every civilian transport that they had allowed to escape their onslaught.
The airstrike had probably helped rush things along.
Now that they were through and on their way, they could begin their main assault in earnest, but the bait had to be placed, the trap, set.
She idly received her plane, the fighter coming in to land at her significantly emptier flight deck as she turned to look at the cloud of Cat-fighter-squadrons above her. "I have brought you this far, link up with the squadrons launching from the southern airstrips," the Carrier said, pointing off to the northeast, "Return to your Carriers, they will take over your flight missions once you reach them" She filtered out the acknowledgments, having the broken Wo-sister's fairies on her deck had been... irritating. And she was glad to see them returning to their proper motherships.
Having so many planes, scrabbling to land on her with nowhere else to go... She knew what it felt like to be Hancock, or Midway, back when soldiers had to push empty Huey's off of their decks. Filled to capacity and beyon-
She shook her head, now was not the time.
She raised Galveston, who was off somewhere, in-among all the chaos of the main force. "This is Kitty Hawk, do you read? Over."
"I read. It time?" Came the short response. Kitty couldn't blame the Cruiser-Hime, being surrounded by those walking... memories, would be hard on anyone.
"Yes, the Vietnamese failed to detect them. I've just sent Wo-01 and 02's planes to join them off the coast. Combined all of our land-based planes and all of our remaining sea-bound vessels, the two will be impossible to ignore. Over."
Turner, watching the planes fly off with a hand to her bridge, looked over, expressionless. "Wo-02 is dead, she's the one that exploded," She turned back, "this is why I give my fleet names, you remember them easier," she finished.
Right, it was 03 and 01 that were still alive, for now anyway. While Jersey and Galveston seemed to think otherwise, Kitty Hawk had her own reservations on whether or not the two disabled Wo-class would survive the massive targets that had been painted on their backs for this coming battle. Regardless of the fact they had over seventy DD's as well as what Chi-class Cruisers they had remaining supporting them.
Their only saving grace against the Kanmusu fleet when they arrived would be the cover ĐẢO LÝ SƠN Island would provide. Hopefully, with the land-based planes supporting them, the two would be able to at least occupy the IJN carriers, as well as whatever that Super-Carrier they had coming was.
Regardless, the battle would take place far from her, just the way she liked it. And if it failed? Well, Galveston was in charge of the Cruiser's main push alongside Caleuche's abominations. With any luck, the Kanmusu would fall for the diversionary force, and leave themselves open to a counter-attack.
But if not, well, she was far enough away this time to simply cut her losses. It had been good while it had lasted, but Jersey's growing insanity, as well as that white witch...
Kitty looked down at Maddox, who, ever alert, was sweeping the horizon, her Radar keeping an eye out for any errant aircraft or Scud missiles the Vietnamese may throw at them. Next to her, Turner merely gazed at the horizon emptily, the Gleaves-class simply holding her side, over where the internal explosion that had sunk her had been.
The girl was a wonderful escort, but phantom pains occasionally wracked the Destroyer, luckily something that did not bother Kitty personally.
Being scrapped was a long and painful death, and not a sensation she would want to relive. The last time it had taken over twelve months to finally lose consciousness.
Regardless, tangent aside, she had these two to think about. She used to be able to trust having them around Jersey. The woman had been angry, driven, but at least willing to listen to reason, cognizant. Now...
Kitty Hawk winced almost imperceptively.
She would stay for this battle, the supplies gained from looting Da Nang would let her small fleet refuel and rearm, and once that was done, she would link up with what ships Turner and Maddox were attached to, go on a long patrol, and simply not come back.
Perhaps one of the warring fleets in the Banda Arc needed a Carrier?