Author's Note: Well its been a long while since I have put out anything. Just a day before I posted the last batch of chapters I had a motherboard failure on my old rig, I was able to get it working long enough to post that set of chapters before focusing on just what was going wrong. A few hours later there was a pop and sizzle and the magic blue smoke of the motherboard's machine spirit was unleashed. This event not only bricked the motherboard but the processor, memory, power supply, and most damningly the video card. My data was safe but it started a months long wait to find parts, buy parts, RMA defective parts, and get a video card of some kind that wasn't absolute junk.
Besides that I had the usual life issues: Preparing to change career fields, major death in the family, and the holidays of course.
To that end I would like to apologize to my followers and readers for the lack of updates. This batch of chapters were written in fits and spurts over these months so if there is anything at all wrong with them send me a message and I will get around to fixing it as soon as I can.
So lets start the third campaign...
Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 31: Operation Lineman
'Today we stop the last missile, but we need to also start moving on Jacob's territory.' He thought as he knelt in the shower letting the warm water chase away the last feelings of sleepiness.
The shower in the spare bedroom that Mary May gratefully let him and now Joey use was a luxury that he wouldn't give up easily, but it was too short before he became a 'Saint' by at least seven inches and now that he was topping out dead on eight feet it was ridiculously short.
'Joey has been muttering about it being too short for her but she is only just at my old height so its... bearable for the most part. Of course she isn't nearly as bulky as I am still.' He thought as the cold tile of the shower stall being pressed into his left arm reminded him that he was a lot broader built now.
Any future bathrooms in a home that he would be living in would need to be remodeled if at least to be comfortable and easier to use.
As he got dressed and armed for the day he looked back into the corner where 'Longinus' sat propped against the wall just as it had when he last grabbed it for the attack on Lorna's Truck Stop. The more he looked at the massive rifle the more he felt compelled to swap his trusty Barrett for the monster rifle.
"A well placed .50 will kill a Blissed up bear. A not so well placed 30mm slug... will still kill a Blissed up bear." He said to himself as he made the swap.
In a few more minutes he had swapped out his Barrett and its mags for Longinus and its massive drums. The weight of the rifle was notable but still nothing to what it felt like when he first built it and with his increased height the complete length of the rifle was less cumbersome.
Feeling that he had done the right thing he left the room in hopes of joining Joey for breakfast.
.
He had only just eaten the last bites of his scrambled eggs when his father followed by Minkler and Dmitri burst into the bar.
"Roger! Our time table just got a hell of a lot shorter!" He called out as he rushed over to the table that now had the map of the Whitetail Mountain region of the county laid out with the various painted miniatures representing units and people ready to go.
The door to the bar opened again and in came the entire Delta team with Foley at the head flanked by Ramirez and Martin.
"Well Major we finally solved the mystery of where you learned to drive. Your Father makes Andretti look pedestrian by comparison." Ramirez said happily in stark contrast to the feeling of concern everyone else was feeling.
"I've just got out of a meeting with Black Cardinal and Black Pope. By 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time the whole Godhead will be informed of the scale of nuclear threat as it stands then. So it's just after 9:00 AM here so we have less than eight hours from now to let Black Cardinal and Pope know that we have successfully slowed down or removed the nuclear threat." Marcus said breathlessly.
He looked at the map glancing between the central command bunker on Joseph's island near the abandoned and rotted out lumber mill and the location of the last missile silo built into the mountains that made up the northern boarder of the county.
"Ok so rush job. Is our wiretap option still our best chance or do we need to change that?" He asked as Joey piped in as well.
"Worse case scenario we don't disable the missile in time, what happens then?" She added.
Marcus didn't answer as he took a rolled up map from Minkler and laid it out beside the main map.
"Ok Joey I'll answer your question first. Long story short we go back to square one. No outside support of any kind, nothing that would spook the cult and it gets worse. Roger, you, me, Grace, the whole Grey Squad, even Pastor Jerome and Wendell Redler along with every other veteran have been recalled to service. The DHS has strongly advised the joint chiefs of staff that in order to ensure compliance with this order they go ahead and reactivate all military personnel within Hope County under 'DoD Instruction 1352.01 - Management of Regular and Reserve Retired Military Members' back to full active duty and then be given the legal order to 'stand by'. That means no offensive combat against the cult in hopes of avoiding pushing them to launch at least until our Anti-Ballistic Missiles can be moved in, that is where Dmitri comes into play." He said as he tilled his head to the Russian.
"This morning in addition to speaking with your Black Cardinal and Black Pope I spoke with the equivalent in the SVR." He said drawing a wide eyed looked of shock out of Roger.
"Wait... you mean Vadim Serov himself was in the same room as..." He trailed off as Dmitri just nodded and then continued. "Yes. This high level of cooperation between our nations foreign intelligence agencies hasn't happened since the Soviet-Afghan war and the actions of certain elements within your CIA when it became clear that a worse threat than the Soviets was being formed. It is on my report of my time in the cult and your actions that unofficially the Russian anti-missile systems covering the possible American missile approaches will be taken offline."
"Equalizing the risk to both nations. We pull our ABM's from I guess the Russian approaches to cover Hope County and thus they stand down. Do I have that right?" Casey chimed in as he came out of the kitchen.
"That is the agreement that is in play. Officially we are just doing system updates and if word of a nuclear threat from Joseph becomes known to the greater public than our systems will be brought back online to save face and the updates will be written off as bad timing. If it manages to stay under wraps than your government covers Hope County and ours stays offline until the situation is resolved. We are playing at the highest stakes now Roger." Dmitri finished.
"Ok then... Jesus Christ have mercy... thank you Dmitri for putting yourself on the line again for us." Roger said flashing his Russian counterpart a tired smile as he rub his forehead trying to fully accept what his counterpart had done.
He got a equally tired smile with a shoulder shrug. "I didn't do anything more than report on what happened. Your actions specifically towards me have gone far to show that we stand to gain more by working with your nation rather than just saber rattling like normal. That and if you can stop Joseph we won't have to find out where that missile is going to head to. To that end I, Major Dmitri Karpukhin have been ordered to assist you at any personal cost to myself in removing the missile threat and ensuring that Joseph Seed no longer will have the ability to have access to a weapon that can in anyway threaten the Russian Federation or the general world stability. My previous mission I should add has because of this incident has been completed. They didn't tell me details of course..."
"Yeah they don't normally tell me anything until after I no longer need to know as well." He chimed in with a grin.
"But it seems that if nothing else once we remove Joseph the relationship of our nations at least unofficially will be stronger than ever in the name of keeping the peace." The spy ended.
"Well that is some much needed good news, but time is short and I don't like counting my chickens before they hatch. When does the recall order go into effect?" He said turning back to his father.
"5:00 PM yesterday. However the actual order to stand by hasn't been given as they are waiting to hear what Jehovah decides later on today hence our narrow window. Now to the actual plan." The elder Rook said drawing everyone's attention to the maps.
"Now from county records the closest maintenance access for the control center is a manhole here at the Oberlin picnic area right behind Borodin's Marina and RV center. I think our best bet is a two pronged Blitzkrieg that encircles Joseph's island and will meet close to the manhole." He said first tapping on the north northwest corner of Whitetail Lake where Borodin's place was before as he spoke tracing with his fingers attack routes from Drubman Marina and from Gardenview Packing back to Borodin's.
He then picked up Joey's Saint Celestine miniature and placed it at Drumbman Marina. "Ok Joey you will have two targets to hit and hold first is Baron Lumber Mill followed by setting up a strong point here at Old Sun Outfiters just north of the bridge to Joseph's island." He said as he reached for more miniatures and placed them beside her.
"Now you'll be the spear point and to back you up you'll have Mack..." He said placing a painted Sly Marbo miniature beside her own. "And a group of the most experienced members of the Cougars." He said once more, now placing two more figures of Catachan Jungle fighters down.
"You'll also have one of the Mini-Revelators for the roll in. With that force you will breach and clear the lumber mill and Resistance forces will be coming in hot, right behind you to fortify and hold along with taking care of any wounded prisoners. Once they show up I want you to pull out and make for Old Sun Outfitters. From what we can see from Drubman Marina and Nick's guys limited aerial recon we think it has a token guard of maybe three to five men manning a pair of machine guns of some sort alongside the road." He finished placing a Imperial Guard Taurox backed by a handful of Imperial Guard miniatures down.
"Colonel, if I may make a suggestion. We can't fight but we can be the go between your forces and the Oracle satellite and call out anything we see." Foley suggested.
Roger was quick to like the idea but it would be pushing the limits of their orders to not engage the cult outside of defending the NEST team. "Foley that's a good idea but the big brass might see that disobeying your orders not to fight the cult." He pointed out.
The grim faced man shrugged a little. "Maybe but it would and I plan on justifying it as a chance to see the combat capability of our potential enemy. So if I happen to call out that there appears to be seven men and a machine gun nest near your people then you guys can engage and confirm that is what I saw."
"Like it says in the 'Code for the Special Forces Operator', 'I am aware that the mission of my team must be accomplished against all odds.' so here we are betting against our own leadership punishing us." Ramirez added seriously.
"Thanks guys. So if Joey and Mack are taking the eastern flank I take it I am heading up the western flank?" Roger asked grateful for having his old team here instead of maybe another one that wouldn't quite be so willing to risk their careers for him or his home.
Marcus nodded before moving a Primarch Roboute Guilliman to the packing plant. "Correct. I will be taking your truck to haul myself and the Grey's and will be right behind you. Obviously you'll be tasked with hitting Calgett, Elk Jaw, and Borodin's and holding the latter however we have far less information on what we could be running into due to the influence of Joseph's Island. What little we do know comes from what we can observe from Dutch's Island. Calgett is lightly defended and is used as mostly a refueling station for their lake patrols. Elk Jaw is where they are deployed from and is likely fully fortified, and Borodin's is we think a maintenance station but its just too far for us to get a solid visual on its garrison."
"Who is with me? Please don't send Merle with me." He asked half seriously.
His father laughed for a quick second. "No, I'm not inhumane like that. You'll be going with Dmitri and Grace. Behind you will be another occupation force of Resistance fighters. Same story as Joey, you breech and clear then move on while the fighters setup shop and hold. We will be with them bringing up the rear and if you guys get into trouble then we can rush in but our main objective is to hit the maintenance access once you have taken Borodin's place." He then placed the appropriate miniatures representing everyone else. A pair of Death Korps and Vostryan Commissars, Temptus Scions, a number of Imperial Guardsmen, and making for a new addition a black clad female Vindicare Assassin.
"Nice choice for Grace. So we have plan to get to the main objective, what about the actual wire tapping?" He asked.
Casey answered for his father. "Black Cardinal already had his people pulling everything including a full up to date wiring diagram for everything running through these lines. We know what to look for and already have the equipment ready, we just need to get there."
With that said the meeting adjourned as everyone started to leave for their starting position. Roger stood outside the bar as the Delta team piled into the back of a few trucks one of which Joey would be driving back to the school and then on back to Drubman Marina.
In short order he heard his name be called. "Roger." He heard Joey call out as she stepped out of the bar now fully dressed for going back to the fighting. The moment he turned to face her he was enveloped in a hug that he instantly returned.
"Remember the marina, no fancy stuff." She chastised him lightly.
He chuckled at the reminder. "Yes just go in, do my Rambo thing, kill everything that moves, and move on. Just make sure you watch out for the wild life." He shot back earning him a coy smile.
"I had your mom give me a full load worth of your hot slug loads." His girlfriend replied.
His eyebrows rose noticeably. "I thought those where 'too hot' for your tastes."
Joey giggled a little. "Maybe but I have... grown a bit and the recoil shouldn't be as bad. Besides I feel safe knowing that they will put down a Bliss bear with a head shot for sure."
She rose on her toes and planted a deep but sadly brief kiss that he gladly returned. "Stay safe."
"You too." Came the automatic reply.
She hadn't even gotten out of sight when Dmitri and Grace pulled up in another pickup. "Sorry Roger looks like you are manning the gun" Grace said from the passenger seat.
"You say that as if I don't like to shoot things!" He joked as jumped in the back of the truck.
.
It was about 10:30 AM when the three fighters roared down the dirt driveway to the Calgett boathouse and marina. It was a small facility with only berthing space for a half dozen smaller boats or up to three floatplanes. Only three structures made up the marina: a red wooden boathouse, a tiny cinder block office, and a small green painted garage for whatever repairs couldn't be done dockside or within the boathouse.
As they came racing down the driveway Roger smiled as he saw a pair of cult boats taking on fuel from a few fuel drums they had placed on the dock between them. The crews of the boats were lounging around waiting for the four dock workers to finish pumping fuel via hand cranked pumps, it was no doubt slow laborious work and easy to get distracted which was fine by the three fighters.
Dmitri hadn't even stopped the truck when he opened up with the single .50 cal machine gun right on to the fuel drums. Even if this truck wasn't loaded with his father's usual Mk.211 Raufoss rounds the barrels of fuel sparked off quickly enough to send shrapnel into the two docked boats shredding their hulls and their crews.
"You two dismount and clear the buildings, I'll stay on the gun!" He called out as Grace and Dmitri raced out each taking a separate building.
The campaign against Jacob Seed had begun.
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Many miles away a pair chemists drug a starved and limp looking deputy into a freezing meat locker under the watch of a senior member of the Chosen.
"You are meat. So its appropriate that you be kept with the meat." The Chosen said his voice old and coarse.
As the chemists dumped the deputy in a heap in the middle of meat locker surrounded by dry curing cuts of various game meats, one of them turned to the Chosen.
"Sir... is this wise? This man is hardly a prime specimen for testing this particular Bliss blend especially in the insane amounts we gave him. Intravenously even! Now we are throwing him in a freezer?" The man asked as the deputy on the floor started shaking uncontrollably from they figured the sudden cold.
"We haven't made much if any progress besides creating the 'Hardened' and thus the time has come to start throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Besides this... man if you could call him that wouldn't survive any of the trials anyway so at least this way we can make him useful." He said before leading the group out of the room.
Before he shut the door though he turned back to the shaking deputy who now seemed to be gasping for breath in addition to his continued convulsions.
"Perhaps you will surprise us by actually becoming stronger than what you are now." He said before closing the door and turning off the lights inside.
.
Joey and Mack rode in the back of the Mini-Revelator as one of the Cougars drove toward Baron Lumber Mill.
Manning the other guns were more of Mack's fellow Cougars along with another dozen or so sitting on the floor of .50 cal ammo cans. They would need every one of them as the lumber mill was a large facility with plenty of ground to cover.
The mill was made up of a total of five buildings and a decent size lumber and log yard all pressed up into the base of Mount Haskell.
"Demoness this is Eagle Lead. Be advised that the cultists at the lumber mill must have spotted you coming. We see about a dozen figures moving rapidly toward the outer perimeter and getting on top of some of the structures." Foley called in from the school.
"Copy that Eagle Lead keep us posted on any possible outside reinforcements coming from the north or from Joseph's island." Joey replied as she could now see a distant figure with a telltale red top that was moving around the edge of a loading silo for wood clips. The silo was the tallest structure at the mill so it made sense that he likely spotted them coming shortly after they left Drubman Marina.
'Well we did agree that stealth was going to be less of an option against Jacob's forces. Now its time to see if we were right.' She thought grimly as she swiveled the front pair of .50 cal guns up to let the likely sniper know that they too knew that he was there.
Those in the converted dump truck watched as she fired a pair of short bursts from the heavy machine guns, and cheered loudly as they all saw a tracer round clearly take the sniper's leg off and sent him falling off of the top of the silo.
They turned on to the dirt drive way to the mill and soon the roar of the truck engine was completely lost in the roar of the mounted machine guns and the cascading clinking of spent brass and belt links. The truck came to a stop in the middle of the yard and became their strong point as Jacob's men tried to poke out from various doorways or windows only to find that the experienced Cougars knew full well the penetration power of their heavy machine guns.
Joey ducked under the lip of the truck body and grabbed one of the waiting Cougars having him take her place as she looked at Mack.
"Ok you take your group and search the sawmill and work your way to the warehouse, my group will clear the offices and tool shop before coming back to hold the outer perimeter." She rattled off calmly.
Mack gave a nod and turned to his group of men before making his way to the back of the converted dump truck.
"Deputy it looks like what peggies are here have pulled back. If you're going to go you should follow Mack right now." The man on the front .50 cals called out as the other gunners stopped firing as they lost track of any available targets.
Joey nodded. This was the part that she honestly wasn't enthusiastic about, having to go and dig the peggies out especially if what Roger had said about these guys being closer to being actual soldiers held up.
She lept out of the dump truck shotgun in hand with her pack of Cougars behind her and made for the building marked 'Mill Office' that sat in front of them. A quick glance to her right saw Mack and his team tossing a flashbang in before storming the entrance to the sawmill.
Watching the young football player turn resistance fighter spurred her to take out one of her own flashbangs and sending it ahead of her the moment she stacked up against the doorway. The brief moment that her hand was in the doorway was met with the clatter of at least three AK's and something much heavier sounding like a PKM judging by the sound.
The flashbang did its job as the sounds of men screaming in shock could be heard and she charged in with her 12 gauge giving the blinded and deafened men one last thing to scream about.
.
Foley and Martin watched Deputy Hudson's progress over Ramirez's shoulder as the later man worked the laptop and subsequently the Oracle spysat in orbit above them. In truth it was far better state of affairs than what he originally had expected. Instead of having to talk to the normal satellite controllers back in Langley and working through them to aim the satellite's view Black Cardinal had handed them full control in nothing short of a 'Take it for a spin and bring it back with a full tank of gas.' kind of moment.
"Got to admit sir I don't know who to be more impressed with Deputy Hudson leading a bunch of high schoolers to clear such a large facility or the fact that the kids themselves know at least roughly how to clear a building." Martin commented.
Ramirez chuckled. "Years of increasingly realistic video games and weeks of fighting a real cult is one way of training yourself I guess. Still I have to agree, hell its nice to see a local populous that is this motivated to fight back instead of just trying to adapt to it or keeling over completely."
"Welcome to rural America Ramirez, they don't fuck around nearly as much as folks on the coasts think. Now comments aside lets take a quick peek at the surrounding area." Foley ordered.
The view on the computer pulled back massively from nearly being able to read the text on Hudson's pauldron to showing the entire northern half of the county. Ramirez flipped through some of the view modes going from purely visual to infrared and its various sub filters before he started zooming in once more on some rapidly moving groups of dots.
"Sir... I think someone got a call off." He said as he zoomed back out and toward another cult holding. The gathered operators could see cultists pouring out of buildings and into whatever vehicles they could. In their wake they left only animals and a few men two or three at most to watch over things while the rest of the garrison drove off.
"What about the silo?" Foley inquired.
Another flurry of keystrokes later told them that the silo was still thankfully buttoned up but the massive blast doors leading inside to the bunker portion were opening and from them a pair of armored vehicles rolled out from the bunker.
"Shit." Foley commented as he got on his radio. "To all forces this is Eagle Lead. We are showing massive troop movements from the north of the objective area."
"Captain! It looks like the forces at Elk Jaw and Borodin's are pulling out for the lumber mill as well! Land and sea!" Ramirez added.
"Black Reaper are you close to Elk Jaw yet?" He inquired.
It was a moment before Roger could answer and be heard over the wind noise of being on the back of pickup. "Negative! We are only just reaching the bridge between objectives. I can see a large number of boats leaving Elk Jaw and it looks like Borodin's as well!"
Joey was listening to the back and forth as she put down the last peggie in the tool shop when he popped up from behind one of the large machine lathes. "Clear!" She sounded off and listened to the chorus of repeated 'Clear!' call outs from the other fighters as they finished checking their rooms and corners.
They had most of their resistance in the office with nearly a dozen cultists holding the upper floors, but some quick thinking from the one of the Cougars that had come armed with a old MG42 that he must have gotten from either Marcus or pulled from Rachel's cache. He figured that his gun had enough penetration to punch through the floor above but the peggies with their AR's would have a harder time reliably punching back through the thick wooden floorboards.
A long barrel burning burst of fire while Joey distracted them with some blind fire up the stairwell resulted in a gory and normally unsettling shower of blood dripping from the dozens upon dozens of bullet holes from the ceiling of the lower floor.
"Mack, we got massive reinforcements coming towards us how are you fairing?" She called over her own radio.
"Sawmill is clear but we have problems. I got about a 100 plus prisoners in the warehouse. Hudson some of these folks look well on the way to getting a role in a Holocaust reenactment. We are trying to figure out how to open the cages now but I think the trio of peggies we killed in here were sabotaging the controls and none have a override key that we can find." The football player replied.
'Shit! Now we absolutely have to hold out until the Resistance gets here.' She thought as she started making a plan.
"Ok we need to move the Mini-Revelator so its under the silo. Its in the middle of the yard and if we park it right we will have a few .50's pointing at every gap between these buildings. If you see anything peggie like holler. Mack you need to leave the prisoners in the warehouse, they will be slightly safer there for now. You then need to cover the dirt road and the railroad track approaches so my team can cover the drive way approach as best as we can." She said as a mental map of the various dirt roads that covered Mt. Haskell played out in her head. In short order her fighters began to split up and take positions on the upper floors of the offices and tool shop where ever a place could be found.
A few moved to the roofs of their respective buildings and prepared to duke it out against the coming cultists.
If the peggies wanted a up front battle then they were about to get it.
.
Roger swapped in a fresh drum on his HCAR as he walked out of the Elk Jaw Lodge's lobby. Besides a pack of wolves that were left behind and two Blissed bears left in cages in the parking lot turn storage area, the log cabin themed lodge was completely and hurriedly abandoned. Food was that in the middle of cooking was hastily taken off of still warm cook tops and piles of empty rifle magazines with boxes of loose ammo still covered one of the coffee tables in the lobby.
He growled inwardly as he got back to the truck and manned his machine gun. This wasn't what he expected at all from Jacob's forces in terms of tactics. It was one thing to have quick reaction units especially on the lake front outposts to respond to any further pushes by the Resistance but this...
'Jacob isn't in control of these guys at the moment. They are scared to the point that they have placed all their hopes on killing me or Joey by throwing sheer numbers at us. Individually they may be better trained fighters than the peggies under Faith and John but en mass they are still cultists, they are still mentally weak enough to let their dogma driven fears of Joey and I override any tactical considerations.' He thought as Dmitri and Grace returned to the truck.
"I can't believe they actually abandoned a outpost like this!" The Russian said as he raced down the lodge's drive way and back on to the main road, tires squealing throughout the turn. To their left they could already see the convoy of Resistance trucks full of defenders and at the tail of it the looming black beast that was his truck transporting his father and the other Grey's.
"Jacob's not in control right now. I think at some level his lieutenants have lost their nerve and are doing what feels best. Overwhelm the first threat they see with as much firepower as possible which isn't the worst idea but when the difference between 'overwhelm' and 'march every man and woman into the breech' has been lost... well it becomes a big gamble. If they overtake Joey's position then they can since they are in the area whip back here and possibly retake the outposts we are hitting with said overwhelming force." He shouted over the road noise.
"So how is our mission changing?" Grace asked.
"We have to place the wiretap and hopefully disable the missile. That is absolute. Once we have done that then we can reinforce Joey's position and catch Jacob's forces between our own. At least that's the plan I'm currently leaning towards." Roger said while Grace muttered something only heard by Dmitri in the cab of the truck.
"Plans have to survive contact with the enemy first."
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Back in the St. Isidore gym Foley wished more than ever that he was out in the field instead of watching events play out from orbit. They had grabbed one of the local fighters to identify local landmarks and share at least what was known about them as far as the war goes.
'The Ranger station and this FANG place have cleared out or very well nearly cleared out their garrisons. Only a few much smaller looking holdings are not responding and the decommissioned radar station is simply too far away to send anyone by ground.' He thought as Ramirez panned back over the silo and nearly shouted in shock.
"Captain I got eyes on what appears to be two enemy armored units!" The Sergeant said as he zoomed in on two boxy looking vehicles leaving the silo bunker. He added. "Ok we got for sure what looks like a Shilka and I think some sort of APC with a cannon probably a BMP-3 maybe eve can't tell from the satellite."
Foley cursed under his breath. So far by everything that they had been told by the Colonel and Major was that even when the cult had armored vehicles they were improvised and at most armed with heavy machine guns, perhaps even a mortar by what was found in John Seed's bunker.
But this... this was something far more dangerous for a infantry heavy force that didn't have heavy weapons like RPG's widely deployed.
"Demoness, this Eagle Lead you have additional hostile forces coming by truck from the Ranger station and animal sanctuary however you also have a what we believe to be a Shilka anti-air vehicle and a APC that is probably a BMP-3." Foley rattled off.
Joey rolled her eyes as she heard the Captain tell her what was coming. She knew at least what a BMP was but not enough to know just how screwed she was and anything that was labeled as a 'anti-air vehicle' was either loaded with missiles or more likely if the cult was driving it here rapid fire cannons.
"So what sort of weapons do those things have?" She asked.
"The BMP the cult is using has a 100mm autoloader cannon and the Shilka as four 23mm autocannons. In short you need to get to cover and stay out of their fire!" The Captain said just as the first wave of cultists from the other outposts came down the driveway.
Jacob's forces were driving four large flatbed trucks each with a pair of steel wire animal cages chained and strapped to the beds as his men hung off the cages or rode on top with more riding on the steps of the cab. There were so many that it looked like something one would see in some third world country, regardless the sight bothered her to no end.
Most of these guys were Chosen and even then everything they had seen thus far as suggested that given Jacob's role in the cult and the suggested composition of his forces, they should have known better than to just ride in fully exposed like they were. Even Rachel's forces had enough common sense to send in gun trucks first to try and soften up any defenders back when they still were trying to retake outposts and probe the resistances defenses.
'Well no sense interrupting them while they are making a mistake.' She thought as she swapped for her Beowulf and propped it on one of the office windows just in time to see the front .50 cals on the Mini-Revelator open up on the cult trucks as they came into view.
Even as the fighters on the roofs and in the buildings added their own fire the dozens upon dozens of men jumped off of the trucks and had they not been forced to find the closest cover possible usually behind pallets of lumber or logging machinery they would have washed over their positions.
'If they get those armored vehicles here they will be able to do just that. Then there are any of the boats of fighters that Foley mentioned.' She thought as another group of overloaded cult pickup trucks pulled in now largely unopposed and off loaded something that would make their day far more interesting in the worse way possible.
.
Sheriff Whitehorse willed the pickup truck he was sitting in to go faster but all ready he and the other men in the bed had nearly been ejected twice by the odd pothole in the road before the driver slowed down and with it the rest of the convoy behind them.
This was by far the largest force fielded by the Resistance and now it was his job to relieve Hudson's besieged team at the lumber mill. He could already see Roger muttering about the peggies being too focused on Hudson and wishing he could be in the thick of it instead.
They had nearly reached the drive way to the lumber mill when from the lake a wave of cultists rushing up from the beach below them some two or three hundred feet away had just reached the road they were on. They had been hidden by the terrain that lead up to the nearby railroad bridge so they were just as surprised to see the Resistance trucks with more than a few stopping like deer caught in headlights.
"Floor it! Run as many down as possible then stop so we can shoot down into the rest them! The rest of you open fire when you have a shot! Remember we hold the high ground!" He barked the order over the radio as the rest of the convoy started firing as they crossed in front of the on rush of cultists.
He watched as men and wolves tried to dash up the steep hill toward them like some strange reversal of the Normandy landings. Those who tried to stop and raise a rifle high enough to have a chance of hitting the Resistance fighters shooting down at them without hitting their own men only made themselves priority targets for the riflemen as the machine guns on the back of the gun trucks cut down the cultists that focused more on getting up the hill or the few that often rolled down the hill back to their boats in hopes of getting away.
It was an absolute slaughter, but it would make sure Joey and her people didn't have even more to deal with than they already had right now.
.
A few miles a way Roger caught sight of Borodin's Marina and RV. It was in contrast to the rustic themed Elk Lodge or the dilapidated hodge podge design and layout of Drubman Marina a practically layout set of stout poured concrete rectangular buildings that wouldn't look out of place at a naval base.
A massive central boathouse that could house a dozen or more of the largest boats on the lake as flanked with eight 'lanes' of boat ramps on either side of the boathouse that led up to the main lot from the waters edge. The main lot had to the west the RV repair shop and opposite of it on the east side of the main lot was the boat repair shop. Dominating over all of this was the two story main office and customer service building, again a massive brutalist styled concrete block like the other buildings.
Off to the northwest of all of this near the main road was however in stark contrast to the grey concrete of the marina was a fine two story stone and wood home separated from the marina by a simple white picket fence.
It described the old Russian sailor perfectly, no frills and absolute dedication to his work but his home time was comfortable and approachable.
Any more thoughts on the owner were quickly cast a side as it would seem that a fair number of cultists had now been left behind to hold this outpost.
"Brother Adam! Go to the boathouse and release the Hardened!" An older Chosen belted out as he and six other fighters dashed toward whatever cover they could find being in most cases either crates of outboard motors or the odd pop up camper trailer.
.
The moment their truck came into view the cultists poured fire into the engine bay of their truck quickly killing the old Chevy small block and limiting their options from that point on.
Dmitri at least managed to coast the truck until it violently slammed into a rolling dumpster close to the entrance to the property, giving them a measure of cover. Roger had been slammed across the roof of the truck and into the dumpster and the smell alone was enough to send him into a rage.
"You guys make your way to the offices and look for survivors, these fuckers are mine!" He roared as he recovered and brought his HCAR to bear on the Chosen.
He popped up from inside the dumpster complete with rotting banana peels draping over the brim of his Stetson and started firing and looking for another place to fight from. The best place he could see was a pallet of lead ballast blocks ten or twelve yards from the dumpster which he made for the moment the cultists stopped to reload.
The peggies for their end of the fight hadn't fully realized who they were fighting as after all up to now the Whitetail Militia had only tried a single hit and run strike that had been stopped dead in its tracks by the brave faithful fighters.
The sight of Roger jumping out of the dumpster as he poured short bursts of rifle fire however broke the wills of the weaker cultists sending four running for the boathouse and its promises of bunker like protection against 'The Collapse' even as the Chosen left in charge berated them to return to their positions.
He could hear the distinct sound of Dmitri's ASKU being fired as they entered the marina office as he focused on making sure that the few men left at least kept their attention on him as he half jogged to the pallet of ballast. The Chosen and two men with him were behind a motor crate that offered some protection from rifle fire but as the range closed they found in a most agonizing way that was no longer the case.
There was no time to recollect himself when a peggie that had run into the boathouse was now running out of the entrance unarmed and covered in someone's blood with what had to be the latest variant on the Bliss enhanced monsters being fielded by the cult chasing him a fair distance before it slew him as well.
It was a Archangel that was maybe a bit bigger than the ones Rachel had created but what made this one different was the patchwork suit of thick steel or cast iron plates held on with a mix of re-purposed ratchet straps and bits of rope. The monster now also wore a matching metal mask that even had a hinged lower jaw allowing the monster to still use its teeth against anything it could grab with its free hand, the other hand was encumbered by a brutal armored gauntlet.
The gauntlet was a fearsome creation that showed it designed by someone with at least some knowledge in armor making in stark contrast to the crudeness of the rest of the armor. It was a hemispherical dome over the hand and down the wrist that was held by a piece of rebar welded inside allowing the user to grip it like a Indian Katar.
To that end the designer had welded on a single large curved jagged spike about a foot and a half long... and this one was already covered in fresh gore.
"Great. More fucking science experiments!" He roared as he brought his rifle up to bear. In turn the monster charged managing to scream out a blood curdling "MEAT!" as he slashed wildly in the air as he charged.
Roger only had half a drum left but between the armor plates that were harder and thicker than he had thought possible and the added durability granted by the Bliss his rifle locked open on a empty mag and the uparmored Archangel only five feet away still at a full charge. He dropped the rifle with a clatter on the ground and counter tackled before he could find out how much of his armor could be pierced by the wicked looking hand spike.
The move had managed to shock the monster, suddenly finding itself flying through the air as it was tossed away with ease. Within the depths of its broken mind it knew that only The Father and his Heralds could with the help of their almighty God accomplish such a feat but this man was neither. The Bliss held visions of a greater servant of God, a servant with the sheer strength of God's Archangels and the mind of his Prophet or Heralds. A Saint. But this Saint was fighting The Father and those that fight The Father only have one option.
"SAINT! SAINT FALSE! SAINT DIE!" The creature roared as it scrambled up to its feet to charge again.
"Yeah yeah I have better things to do right now." Roger muttered as he drew his knife.
'Lots of armor and a big spike. But lots of gaps to slip a blade in of course this thing doesn't die quick from just a simple stab wound to the heart.' He thought as he eyed the exposed neck of the creature.
'Dodge spike, get behind, and stab the neck upwards into the cortex. Should have just aimed for the neck in the first place.' He continued as the monster reached him. With practiced movements he side stepped the spiked left haymaker as he reached out with his off hand to use his grip on the Archangel's armor to swing himself and his knife with extra force as he rammed the Ka-Bar to the guard through the neck and base of the skull.
Like a puppet with its strings cut the Archangel fell to the concrete with a loud clang, its limbs twitching as they reacted to suddenly having no orders from the brain. With the monster dead he looked up to the office as Dmitri and Grace came out with Borodin and the other prisoners in tow. Coming down the driveway was his truck indicating his father and his men were now on the scene.
He was about to grab his dropped HCAR when he heard a all too familiar scream from the doorway leading back to the main boathouse. There in the doorway stood three more uparmored Archangels screeching as they tried to decide what to do, their hand spikes and bodies were covered in gore likely from the peggies that ran inside.
He slung off Longinus and popped out the bipod as he fell to the ground. The movement made the monsters freeze which suited him just fine as he lined up all three of them and let loose a ten foot spear of fire and concussion that blasted clean even the smallest of particles from the surrounding concrete. For all of the noise and fire the end effect of the impact at a scant 20 or 30 yards was just as impressive as the nearly one pound slug tore through the armored creatures and proceeded to paint everything within a few feet of their rear arc with a fine red mist as the Archangels torsos were ripped apart from the hydrostatic shock alone.
Borodin Marina was now in the hands of the Resistance.
Shortly thereafter Marcus and company arrived with the father racing toward his son as he loaded a fresh drum into his massive rifle before bending down to retrieve his .30 cal. He was about to ask if he ok but his attention was drawn to the dead Archangel with the extra body armor.
"Roger is this what I think it is?" He asked removing the back plate and hefting it. It was a inch thick AR500 target plate by his reckoning. Very protective but also incredibly heavy.
Roger looked down at the body for a moment before shrugging. "'Ardboys." he said with a cockney accent drawing a laugh from Marcus.
"Damn greenskins. Well anyway we will get to work on that wiretap, but you better check in with Borodin in the mean time. As soon as we are done here I'll send at least you to go back Joey up. She's holding out against Chosen and enemy armor right now."
"Wait! Fucking armor! Dad they..." He started to say before his father cut him off.
"Roger the sooner we finish that tap the sooner we can relieve them. She's keeping the peggies focused on her instead of coming here." The old commando said. The rest of his statement not needing to voiced.
The overriding objective was disabling Jacob's missile. That would be made a lot harder if Jacob's forces were focused here at the marina instead of the lumber mill, but as much sense that made it grated hard against his nerves as the veteran solider and the man in him fought each other. He had to force himself to trust in Joey and put the mission first... no matter how bad of a taste it left in his mouth.
"Well... fucking hell... just be quick Dad. I trust Joey's skills but anti-armor is a bit of a stretch." He said before walking towards Dmitri and Grace.
"Roger are we staying here or moving on to aid Joey's forces?" The Russian asked as he approached.
"We're staying put until we finish the wiretap. Dmitri if you and Grace could clear out the boathouse interior I will handle setting up a perimeter when the rest of the fighters get here. I don't want anything slowing down the wiretap." Roger ordered and with a quiet nod from both of his friends set off at a easy jog toward the massive concrete structure behind him.
"Roger! It's been awhile." Mr. Borodin said once the other two fighters had turned and left. The old sailor had gotten a fair bit paler from when he last did work for him and now sported a full and thick beard and mustache that was as grey a stormy sky. But behind that was a wide and warm smile and under better circumstances he would be asking Roger to join him for a friendly drink to catch up on his life's adventures.
"Hey Mr. Borodin sorry it took us so long to get here..." He started to say as the older man held up a hand to stop him.
"Trust me I know full well what you have gone through. The cult had us working to fix their boats and trucks and we managed to snag a TV so we could keep up with what was going on at least when we weren't having to listen to the junk the cult was broadcasting. Also please you are a grown man now, you call me Vasily."
"Anyone hurt?" He asked automatically as he looked to the people slowly starting to exit the office.
Vasily shook his head. "No, no humans at least. Jacob's men ate my wife's chickens and most of my rabbits, though they managed to get some form of comeuppance in the end when they had a drum of their drug burst open near the rabbit pens. Whatever that drug did to Marko he certainly made the peggies regret it."
The sound of the Resistance rolling up meant that Roger had to cut their conversation short. In a few minutes he had men and trucks moving to setup at the main approaches to the marina and commandeered another truck to replace the one the peggies had shot to pieces.
He picked up Grace and Dmitri and drove across the street where the Grey's had wrenched off the massive cast iron manhole cover and already three of their number had gone done into the dark space to begin their work.
Marcus and some of his remaining men took up positions behind Roger's truck or went prone in a nearby ditch as they watched the surrounding mountain side for further peggie patrols.
"Just a few minutes Roger that's all we should need to figure out if we can do anything at all." His father called out when he noted their truck pulling up.
'Dad for once I really hope you're right.' He thought as he too began to scan the area with the trucks .50 cal.
In the distance where the lumber mill was a massive fireball rose into the sky and his heart tightened and fought mightily against the decades of training.
It almost won.
.
Jacob was far from happy when he angrily marched into the command center he had set up in the front lobby of the old St. Francis Veteran's hospital. He had been spending the morning conducting acceptance drills on the latest batch of Chosen made up of survivors from John and Faith's regions, the drills were held at the Grand View Hotel in the western part of his territory. There the radio reception in that area was spotty at times which meant while he was out of contact his lieutenants had been left to their own devices.
The Resistance had chosen to march north and had attacked the Baron Lumber Mill, the main holding facility for his local recruitment efforts. But what should have happened was a coordinated land and air response with an eye towards making sure that their holdings were still secure as the weakened Whitetail Militia along with other independent pockets of resistance could still take advantage of a outpost being left understrength.
That had been the plan until someone mentioned that 'The Demoness' Deputy Joey Hudson was leading the attack at the mill and it seemed everyone from the top-down lost their collective shit. He had now most of his outposts in the area completely drained of manpower with dozens of smaller posts abandoned outright.
His men had been so shaken... so weak that they even abandoned the Landsdowne airfield meaning when the pilots arrived to take to their planes they found everything still locked up and the only people with the keys driving headlong into the enemies teeth, so of course the pilots decide to follow them instead of returning to the bunker.
Jacob slammed his hands down on the map table as he looked at his forces current positions, his mood souring more with every passing second.
'They even took our only two heavy vehicles, of course the men who actually know how to fully operate those vehicles were with me up at the fucking lodge!' He thought angrily.
He turned to one of the ranking Chosen lieutenants that had been leading this fiasco as he stood stock still at attention as his herald arrived.
"Have you tried calling our people back?" He barked.
The other man was on the very edge of pissing himself as he answered. "Of course not sir! It... I... its the Demoness! The Father and you yourself have ordered for her and 'The Collapse' to be killed and we know that they are dangerous fighters. Our only hope is overwhelming numbers..."
"NOT AT THE COST OF EVERYTHING ELSE!" Jacob roared.
He unlike the vast majority of men under him held no illusions that they were rapidly loosing this war and that short of a miracle of God that Joseph kept hoping for their only real hope of holding out and outlasting the Resistance was carefully using their man power and maximizing their use of the terrain.
All of that hopeful planning was ripped away in a hour or two. Even if he could magically recall everyone right now they likely have taken some losses. Losses that he couldn't hope to replace anytime soon if at all.
"Do we at least know what kind of forces we are dealing with besides a single deputy with a shotgun?" He continued on now getting a hold of his anger. There would be time for punishments later.
The man withered and stammered and those others who had joined them at the map table tried to avoid making eye contact.
"Do... ANY OF YOU!? Have an ANSWER!?" He yelled to not just those at the map table anyone in the lobby at that moment.
All around him from the furthest workbench and door guards to the handful of bystanders looking down on the scene from the second floor only gave hopeless silent looks if they didn't outright turn from his gaze as he swept over them.
"W-w-we think she has a small force. Maybe only five people. Our last report from the mill mentioned she was driving one of Herald Faith's up gunned dump trucks. After that communication has been... spotty. No one is really reporting anything back to us as I believe they are all heavily engaged." The lieutenant finally managed.
Jacob held his tongue these men here were so whipped that they were next to useless at the moment.
'Sending so many people against maybe five in a armored truck... damn you Joseph. Damn you and your dogma. Damn you for making my job of protecting us now impossible.' He thought and instantly regretted even thinking those thoughts. But he would deal with those doubts later when he had time.
"I'm going out there and recalling our forces myself if any of them are still alive. If you can get anyone on the radio to respond tell them to get back to their original posts and then I want accurate causality and supply reports on my desk before dinner. Until then tell everyone else to bunker down, hold their ground, and don't leave their posts for any reason that isn't approved by me. Do I make my self clear?" Jacob ordered trying once more to be firm instead of just yelling orders.
He heard a mixed chorus of 'Yes sir.' with an added bunch of wordless nods. To think a few weeks ago these were hardened men most of them combat veterans from around the world, now they were little more than child soldiers on their first combat mission.
He left the lobby in disgust.
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She was finally at the end of her rope she thought as her ears rang and she could feel a steady rain of smoldering wood chips pelt against her back and her hat.
Despite their best efforts to hold off the cult they had been slowly pushed back to the sawmill and warehouse. She had Mack move the Mini-Revelator towards the warehouse in hopes of keeping the prisoners safe from the sheer amount of return fire the cultists were throwing at them.
Matters were made worse when among the Blissed Bears unleashed by the cult backing up their infantry push, they also had a pair of armored Archangels. At least they both were polite enough to stay within the firing arcs of the Mini-Revelator's heavy machine guns.
She got up and propped herself up against the pile of lumber that had served as her latest bit of cover. Looking over the yard through the haze of wood smoke she could see a few peggies staggering from the silo explosion.
That damned tank or APC or whatever had gotten a single shot off with its cannon and hit the silo. She didn't know how many of the Cougars were hurt or dead but there had to be some if the number of dead peggies were any indication. The yard was filled with dozens upon dozens of bodies and a half a dozen dead Bliss bears stood out even in haze, killing those had ran her dry of her slugs and she was almost out of buckshot.
Her Beowulf had another two belts plus whatever was left in the current belt then it would be down to her sidearm and knife. She could see the APC pull up but it seemed that it was having problems if the two peggies on top of the turret arguing were any sign and the anti-air tank had now pulled up but it too seemed to only be able to move its guns randomly instead of firing anything for the moment.
'Could it be that they don't know how to use the tanks?' She hoped as another wave of Chosen started hopping from cover to cover even using the dead bears when possible.
She brought her rifle up and let the peggies know for sure that they hadn't won yet.
.
Mack finished dragging one of his guys inside the warehouse. Three of his guys were hurt badly but not quite dead. Mostly broken limbs and shrapnel but nothing that in his limited medical knowledge he deemed was truly life threatening if they could get treatment in the coming hours. But it meant that he didn't have many guys left in fighting condition, Joey was out there still fighting he knew that much at least but against the peggie tanks they didn't have anything they could use.
Jose came through the warehouse door way hauling another one of his friends.
"Mack! Hank here got knocked out by a flying hunk of wood. He's breathing though. I had to stash Zed and Ted in the sawmill, they are both bleeding a lot from the wood chips and I got Kathy and Angel trying to stop the bleeding right now. We really need to take care of those tanks." He said as he propped up Hank with the rest of their injured.
Mack sighed. They didn't have any armor piercing weapons and he wasn't stupid enough to think that a any of the grenades he had could do much against armor. They needed to fight the crew.
"Jose... I got a dumb idea to deal with at least one of those tanks but I need your help." He asked.
Jose shrugged. "Well better than sitting here waiting for the peggies to come knocking."
Mack nodded and waved for his friend to join him as they went off to find Joey.
They didn't need to go far she and two more of the Cougars were held up outside the warehouse trading fire with the figures dashing about in the haze before them as the intermittent roar of one of the Mini-Revelators .50 cals rejoined the defense.
"Joey! I got a plan to flank one of the tanks through the lumber yard with Jose. Can you hold here long enough for me to try?" He asked making a point to not give her room to deny his plan.
She nodded. "Get going then! I'm almost out of ammo but I think they are close to the brink too. They have slowed for a moment, probably waiting for the smoke to clear a bit but you still probably got a two or three dozen out there maybe more. Oh and Mack? Jose?"
"Yes ma'am?" Jose chimed in.
"Try not to die please." She said with a small smile as she turned back to tap off a few shots at another cultist.
With the two teenagers now running off through the lumber and log yard at the back of the mill Joey sank back behind her cover and grabbed her radio.
"Roger... we need help. They got heavy armor and we have next to nothing to stop it. Mack has a idea but if it doesn't work we are out of ideas. We have probably taken more than a few wounded as well and I am at least almost dry on ammo." She called out. She was exhausted and more than a bit frustrated but a small part of her was ashamed at having to ask for help for her part of the operation. Another part much smaller but still there was afraid of the steel beasts that she had no weapon against.
.
Marcus had heard the call and could more than sympathize with the younger woman as he had on too many occasions found himself fighting the odd T-55 or T-72 tank in his travels with little more than a pistol to his name. In the close quarters they were fighting in the man on foot had a chance at getting on to the tank and at least not being shot by the tanks cannon or a commanders machine gun. After that once on top of the turret you had a chance to kill the crew which was the only truly dangerous part of any vehicle.
But he was trained to think of that sort of solution in the heat of the moment. Joey for all of her skills had nothing to help her fight hostile armor.
"Ok making the connection." His man that currently was placing the final small alligator clip on a stripped bare wire pulled out from a bundle that was as big around as Roger's thigh.
'The moment that we find out if this was worth everything or not I'm sending Roger out. I can't afford to lose Joey both as a fighter and for the morale of the Resistance.' He thought before a second voice in his head chimed in.
'To say nothing of Roger's morale.' The voice said to which he had no rebuttal.
"Sir! We are in! Jesus Christ on a bike they have everything just... fucking open!" His technician exclaimed.
He shot back gruffly. "Forgive me for not caring as much as I should right now but can we lock down the missile or not?"
The other man taped away at the laptop furiously for a moment. "Ok I have setup everything to be password locked. Do you have a..." he started to ask before Marcus gave him the password he had thought up on the trip up here.
"Satanas est ligatus. Satan has been bound."
A few more key taps and the deed was done. "Ok password is in, connection between the system and the on board computers are... broken. Now the power for the connecting arms has been deactivated... the missile is as disconnected as we can get from here." The man said to Marcus's relief as he moved to tell Roger the good news.
.
The Sheriff had heard Joey's call for aid and was in the process of getting his forces heading towards the mill when the anti-air tank pulled away from the mill and took a nearby position overlooking the road leading to the mill. Once stopped it started firing short bursts of autocannon fire toward the mass of gun trucks.
He didn't even get a chance to call out a warning before a burst blew up three trucks and shredded several fighters as suddenly they found themselves not just on the defensive but retreating to the closest ditch or dip the drivers could find. Those whose vehicles had merely been disabled dismounted and found what ever rock, stump, or natural depression in hopes of avoiding the rapid fire wrath of the armored vehicle before them.
A few brave men tried to shoot the front of the tank with some of the .50 cal guns but they couldn't get enough rounds off before they were being targeted by the tank.
He grunted as his truck came to a rough stop behind a convenient boulder. "Joey, we are pinned down by the tank with the big machine guns! We can't advance until its dealt with or they run out of ammo."
He could hear the sound of the cannons firing over the radio before the sound naturally reached him as Joey tried to respond. "Copy, we are working on getting at least one of them disabled... SHIT!"
The sound of the tank gun firing and subsequent explosion amongst the forest outside of the mill indicated that the other vehicle had figured out how to use its primary weapon again.
"I'll get back to you! We are trying to draw the tank fire away from the hostages now!" Came the out of breath reply from his subordinate.
.
Mack and Jose had managed to use the shock of the BMP's cannon firing seemingly randomly into the tree beyond the mill as a chance to complete their flanking of the cultist lines through the lumber and log yard.
"Which one man?" Jose asked as they quietly jogged toward the two parked vehicles. From where they were they could see the Sheriff's pinned down forces to the south and to the south east Joey and the remaining available Cougars were shifting their positions to both draw the tanks fire away from the warehouse and the Mini-Revelator and to close the distance with the cultists frontline as the last of the haze from the silo explosion was being blown away.
'The tank has the bigger gun but it can only point in one direction and its not firing all that fast... Christ forgive me.' Mack thought grimly as he started making for the anti-air tank that sat slightly behind the BMP.
"We go for the AA tank, see if you can't kill the driver while I climb up and deal with the gunner. If we can get the Sheriff up here it will make for dealing with the other tank easier." He ordered as they reached the unguarded tank.
Mack instantly understood why none of the Chosen had stuck around to guard either vehicles when the AA tank let off just a short burst of fire as he climbing on the side of the hull. The cannons were deafening to the point it felt like his very soul was being shaken apart from the concussion and he could feel the slight sting of a minor burn when one of the huge shell casings each slightly bigger than his hand bounced off the hull and into his right cheek.
As Mack climbed Jose drew his own 1911 and crept along side the tank hoping that the lone large hatch in the front was in fact the drivers hatch and that it wasn't locked. If it was his only back up plan was to shoot the periscope or whatever the driver could look out of and make him open the hatch to see anything, downside was it left him in front of a tank and at the risk of getting run over.
He grabbed the large handle to the hatch and jerked up surprising himself with how easily it pulled open, in fact it might have been a stretch to say who was more surprised, the teenager or the red masked Chosen sitting in the drivers seat.
The four cannons fired and with the his ears still ringing from being practically next to the muzzles Jose double tapped the driver in the chest and head. He grabbed the mans body as it slumped forward and used his momentum to haul the body out and clumsily climbed inside the drivers position.
On top of the tank Mack had also taken advantage of the noise and pulled open the left most roof hatch and dove head first inside with his sidearm raised. The turret was suppose to hold three men but only a single man sat at the middle gunners position his head pressed up against a padded optical sight and otherwise unaware of anything.
The man didn't have time to even flinch when he suddenly felt Mack's gun against his head followed immediately by the accompanying 230 grain slug.
With the gunner dead he contorted himself inside the turret while also trying to shove the dead gunners body over so he could take control of the cannons himself.
"Hudson! We have the AA tank!" He called out as he quickly grasped the same controls as the gunner had been holding on to before swiveling far faster than he thought possible over the last of the cultists still trading fire with the other Cougars from behind some pallets of wood nearby.
A simple click of the trigger on the joystick was all that it took to send a long burst of cannon fire into the peggies shredding bodies and churning the earth up where the cannon rounds missed.
"GET SOME MOTHERFUCKERS!" He would later recall yelling as he fired the cannons for the first time.
"Mack this is Eagle Lead." Foley chimed in. "We see three more cult trucks closing in on your pos... WATCH OUT THE BMP IS TARGETING YOU!"
The warning came right before a somewhat dampened explosion was heard and felt as the turret shook and the groan of metal drowned out everything else for moment.
"Mack? Jose? Do you guys copy?" He could barely hear Joey over his radio over the ringing in his ears.
'How the hell do I have any hearing left?' He pondered randomly as he started to piece himself back together. "Hudson, I copy. We will distract the tank... somehow. Jose you still with me?"
"Ugh... Si... yes... I-I am still here got rattled pretty badly though." His friend replied.
"Then find a way to get this thing moving. I'll try to figure out how to get an angle on that tank." His hands moved over the controls again hoping that the turret would still turn and that at least one of his guns were still working. He knew enough about Russian tanks to know that the BMP wasn't a tank but a APC thus not heavily armored but video game logic wasn't making him anymore comfortable aiming to test that logic in the real world.
"Everything is in fucking Russian!" His friend turned driver complained.
Mack chuckled before quipping back "Then I guess you are going to have to become trilingual in record time. Eagle Lead where are those trucks?"
"Five mikes or less from the north. I am seeing what I think is Roger's pickup truck closing on your position from the main road to the west. He might be three to five mikes from your position. Sheriff how is your situation?" Foley inquired.
"We are moving but slowly. That damn quad cannon caused a lot of hell and I got a fair number of dead vehicles to say nothing of casualties." Came the Sheriff's answer.
Mack's mind pieced together the positions of everyone and knew that he and Jose were the only ones in place to deal with the tank before more reinforcements came for them. The tanks engine roared and the whole vehicle jerked backwards violently.
"Found reverse!" He could hear Jose call out. Outside the the BMP surged forward as it turned hard to bring its frontal armor toward them. He clicked the trigger even as the tank bucked as they came to a stop sending streams of autocannon fire over the front of the opposing tank.
He could only watch the barrel of the cult tank swing around trying to get a bead on them even as his own driver's actions were throwing off his fine aim. He sent another burst of fire hoping to at least hit a periscope or a crew member or just something, at the very least he could say that the other vehicle wasn't being driven much better than their own.
Jose on his own judgment sent them racing forward now and it proved to be the wiser course of action as the longer barrel of the BMP was shoved aside by the body of the Shilka when the two vehicles slammed together. He had raised his gun barrels out of the way in time to prevent damage but unless the BMP suddenly started flying he couldn't hit anything but sky.
"Jose! Keep grinding up against this guy, as long as he can't swing that barrel we are safe...er." He called out only to hear the next best thing to God himself in reply.
"Mack give me a moment and I'll deal with the BMP." Roger said breathing hard by the sounds of it.
.
Roger had jumped off earlier and approached the mill on foot going over a decent rise in the terrain as Dmitri and Grace continued on the main road to meet up with the remains of the Sheriff's forces and help them get to the mill.
With Longinus in hand he ran hard to the top of the little hill that sat west of the mill and could see fully just how rough of a time Joey had in holding back against it seems the bulk of Jacob's forces.
Dozens of cult gun trucks, and a handful of big flatbed trucks sat, the lot of them riddled with bullet wholes and blown tires. Adding to the gory scene the front yard of the mill was covered in layers of dead cultists and their animals. It was nothing short of a killing field not unlike the area around the jail after Rachel's last push.
He went prone and focused on the two roaring and grinding vehicles as the BMP switched from trying to out muscle the slightly bulkier AA tank to backing away to no effect as whoever Mack had driving was quick to maintain contact.
The range was next to nothing, barely a 100 yards if that much and against the mostly aluminum hull armor of the BMP's already thin sides the 30 millimeter slug hardly even noticed it as it sailed through and struck the ammo carousel that if the crew knew how to use would feed the autoloader. The resulting ammo rack explosion gutted the APC and sent the entire turret racing skyward ahead of a black and red fireball that once again prove to anyone in the area that the cult had failed to carry the day and hold the line.
"Black Reaper this is Eagle Lead we have lost track of the three cult pickups from the north. I can't say for sure but they might have dismounted and are approaching on foot." Foley said as Roger cast a wary gaze to the woods north of the mill that covered the entire western face of Mt. Haskell.
He reached back and grabbed a fresh drum for Longinus before swapping it for the current one, it wasn't really needed but old habits learned the hard way in Delta had shown him the wisdom of starting off with a full magazine and having that plus one round in the chamber sometimes was the difference between surviving a sudden firefight and running dry before the other guy did.
"I copy Eagle Lead, keep watching and if you even think you see anything call it in. Has Grey Reaper reported in mission status?" He replied as he started cautiously down the hill toward the mill. To his right he could hear the distant sound of the Sheriff's convoy finally sorting themselves out to the point that they could move again.
"We copy mission complete and sent word to Black Cardinal." Came the Captain's reply.
He tried to keep his focus instead of wondering just how many Resistance members had just died at the roaring cannons of the Shilka. It wasn't easy and if he was being honest with himself in the privacy of his own mind it was getting harder with the end of the war looming so close to stay focused on the here and now.
'Have to keep focused...' He thought as he looked north once more looking for any obvious movement or potential places to setup behind.
He grabbed his radio as he looked at the still idling Shilka. The radar assembly had been blown off the back of the turret at some point and it would be a toss up if the turret could turn its full range given the wreckage. "Mack if you can turn your guns north to the treeline. You see something, anything at all you shoot first and don't ask questions. Watch for snipers especially if you can. I know the visibility in those gun sights isn't very wide or sharp."
Mack replied sounding rather upbeat now that the odds were more in their favor. "I copy."
'I can't help but feel a bit like the main character in "All quiet on the western front.". The war is close to ending and all it takes is a single round to end you first.' He thought as he closed on the front yard of the mill where Joey had tiredly stepped out from behind one of the wrecked peggie trucks and started making her way towards him.
.
Jacob signaled for his men to get on their bellies as they silently crawled through the brush and pine needles. The silence that had followed the explosion had as he expected meant that there was nothing to salvage here but he wouldn't come back empty handed. There were questions to answer like if one or both of the cults heavy vehicles were destroyed or the state of the mill in general if it was even worth trying to retake in the first place.
Normally he would have sent a hunting team to bring him this info, but right now his faith and trust in his men overall was severely depleted so now the Alpha would have to do the dirty work.
'No matter.' He thought as he closed on a long line of clustered boulders that provided a perfect hardened position to look down at the majority of the mill and it's front yard. With a subtle wave he told his men to hold back just outside of the treeline as he moved forward.
An novice would just peek their head over top of the rocks to see over them and an experienced man would generally peek around the sides of the rock so as to avoid skylining themselves as humans generally watched the tops of obstacles more than the sides. A master however brought with him tools with which to avoid all of those problems.
He dug out of his front jacket pocket a woman's powder case. He normally used it to keep a 'last ditch' supply of tinder on him but for right now the small round mirror built into the lid let him see everything he needed as he laid safe and comfortable with his back against the rock.
The Shilka had taken a bad hit on rear mounted radar dish and the front end probably had some clear dents from being rammed into the still burning BMP. 'So they now have a means of taking down air threats in addition to any missiles they might have recovered from John's bunker. Still doubtful that will last for long. Only Faith and I had room to spare for 23 mill ammo.'
He turned the mirror carefully away from the watching Skilka to Deputy Rook as he walked only glancing in the direction he was walking but otherwise watching the mountain mostly.
'What in God's good name is he holding?' He nearly muttered to himself as he took note of the massive rifle like shape he was carrying before he turned the mirror a bit more and spotted Deputy Hudson.
'Damn you John. Deputy Pratt is practically hopeless... little more than meat and a cheap cut at that. Hudson would have been more useful, of course she would be much harder to break but she even before the Reaping was far stronger than the bulk of these locals.' He thought sourly as he made his decision on what to do.
The best way to restore any semblance of spine to his men would be to remove the threat they are most afraid of. That said he would have preferred that they just get over their fear and be stronger but in a reality where Joseph's dogma... his faith rained this was the best he could hope for.
He carefully sat up from the rock, careful to keep his head behind it as he picked up his beloved heavy rifle.
The tan colored bullpup bolt action rifle chambered in .50 BMG had been one of the first purchases he had made after his brothers had pulled him from that homeless shelter back in Georgia. Under his brother Joseph he had become a new man with a new purpose and with it he got a new weapon to carry out his purpose.
He took a kneeling stance and dialed back the magnification on the fine Leopold 6.5-20x scope. It was a only a 390... 400 yard shot by his judgment from his boulder to where Hudson was, a fair bit shorter than what he usually shot at by any measure.
Rifle and scope ready he brought up the rifle to his shoulder in one movement flicking off the safety as he did with his trigger finger before lightly touching the trigger proper. The scope brought the armored woman practically within arms length and he laid the crosshairs just under the massive black pauldron she wore which frankly looked ridiculous in his personal opinion.
A small rock suddenly decided to jab itself in his knee making him shift and scoot forward just enough to dislodge it and prevent it from upsetting his aim.
In his mind the massive round would easily tear through her right arm and either sail into her likely unarmored sides of her body armor or go right through her armpit and shred her heart and lungs thus at least getting something of worth out of this entire shitshow.
'Time to cull the herd.' He thought as he squeezed the trigger.