Courage under fire
The story of the famous Ferdelance Brigade of the Osean Army
"The price of freedom:
You're every drop of courage,
Ounce of pain, pint of blood,
Paid in advance"
Line in the sandThe battlefield developed a tense air around itself as the two forces just stood as still as stone, unflinching before each other. It was unmistakable, the smoking 105 mm barrels and distinctive turrets of the General Dynamics (Land Systems Division) M1 Abrams tank of the Osean Army. Lance looked on with an eyebrow well above the other.
Looking through his periscope he watched as someone in the tank in front of him stuck his head out of the turret, stared for a few moments in amazement, said something through the radio, and climbed out. He did the same.
The colonel walked towards the person in an Osean uniform, and when the lower ranking officer saw his position promptly saluted.
After the formalities Lance proceeded to hearing the officer, or what the officer was trying to say. He kept on stuttering, eating his words, obviously surprised and dumbfounded to meet the brigade commander from the opposite side of the Belkan-made gap. After a while he finally understood what he was talking about. He didn't realize that when he started moving forward that he kept moving, easterly, till he reached the other side of the salient and closed the gap in their lines.
Everybody else poked their heads out of their tanks, the noise of the shelling replaced by their cheers.
Lance chatted with the other officer till a gust of wind signaled the arrival of a helicopter. A UH-60 Black Hawk landed on a clearing and Lance approached when he saw someone waving to him.
"Come with me. I'm taking you to see General Talbot." Came the simple order.
He boarded the utility chopper and lifted off. They approached the field HQ of the Osean 3rd Army headed by General Talbot. The 3rd Army has been holding the Belkan advance near Osea's eastern borders. The base was made of sandbagged structures, foxholes, the works.
They landed near the main HQ building and the chopper officer led him inside.He entered a room only lit by the light coming from the door he entered and some blinking consoles. Suddenly the whole wall in front of him came alive in its true view screen purpose, and its glow silhouetted the form of the General.
"Good job on your first day." The General said, keeping the tone of amazement out of his voice and maintaining professionalism. "The Belkans gave us a hell of a beating. But they made a crucial mistake and so did we. They didn't see it. They didn't exploit the breach soon enough. And we made a mistake of underestimating our forces."
Before he can deny the credit for the compliment, the general continued.
"The Belkans now know that their opportunity has vanished. So we are now expecting them to throw all their forces at us".
As he was saying this the projector shifted from the GASA server-loading screen to the user interface, the ID Lance read as "Southsoldier" and the General entered his password, which took them to the strategic map setting. The global map showed Osea and its allies in blue, the Belka in red and neutrals in green. The angry red color of Belka's rage has already spilled from the northern valley down into Osea's borders. The southernmost tip of the advance is where Lance and General is standing right now.
"The Belkans have been sporadic lately. Their pushes are all over their place. They're not concentrating on a specific point. Intelligence says they are preparing for a large-scale offensive, but they don't know where."
"Estimates of enemy forces in our region are high. We have a pretty good feeling that they will be attacking us soon."
The map showed everything the General said with a bunch of arrows then it suddenly shifted to the 3D grid tactical map complete with blue and red symbols.
"Including you, we have 2 divisions and 2 brigades. The other brigade is Yuktobanian. Right in front of us is a Belkan panzer army of 8 divisions. Now you bought us 2 important things; time and space. You bluffed them to thinking we were counter attacking, which will give us till daybreak tomorrow at the most to prepare. And thanks to you're stunt you reestablished our lines. We now have a solid line to throw up against them."
"We can't actually crack their messages but we've been hearing increased traffic this past few hours. Surveillance has showed they are gearing up to move."
"Go now. We don't have much time. My staff will coordinate with you in the defense preparations. Tell your men to repair their vehicles, entrench themselves and most importantly to rest. We're stopping them dead in their tracks."Lance' briefing ended without him saying a word. The image of a sea of red dots against their island of blue specks was burned in his mind when he returned to his men.
They spend the rest of their night preparing for what was to come tomorrow.
The day's first light was no thing of beauty for the Allies today. Their front now consists of entrenched infantry, hulled-down tanks, and prepositioned artillery. It was quiet again, the silence building up the anticipation of both sides.
"This is HQ, please advice that radio silence has been initiated by the Belkans. Anticipate attack on all sectors."
Seconds later the attack came simply enough. All frontline commanders soon reported incoming vehicles.
Lance was in his tank looking as a Marder APC closed in his sights. Taking fire control from his gunner he and his command let loose a volley of shells that decimated the first wave of light vehicles. One Marder took on out of his tanks with its MILAN anti-tank missiles. It reduced its enemy in a metal scrapping explosion before meeting the same fate by the hands of one of Lance's M1s.
The Marder APCs and SDKFZ. "Puma" armored vehicles that comprised the probing force pushed on through the curtain of fire coming from the defenders, heedless of their losses just to inflict a negligible amount of casualties against their foe. Negligible, Lance thought. It was worse than saying acceptable. In war these terms were used all too often. But to him each statistic loss was a human life, and these Belkans are throwing theirs away but for what? A long-standing grudge against Osea that nobody knows anymore how it begun.
A report from the field commanders snagged Lance's drifting consciousness back into the battle.
"This is the 12th Osean mechanized division. We are receiving heavy artillery fire on-"
"--we are under heavy fire from surface to surface missiles. Repeat, this is the Mountain Home infantry division--"
"We have multiple bogeys on radar, vector zero-five-six. Belkan planes are on the air. Scrambling fighters," the silky voice of the tactical coordinator suddenly reported.
Above him 12 F-16s screamed towards the horizon, trailing white thin smoke behind them as they went hunting the enemy only they could see.
The TacCor spoke again. "Possible attack on our flanks. Heads up people." There was something to this that Lance couldn't put his finger on. Normally in a flanking maneuver artillery fire would fall on the defense' center, pinning them down and allowing the attackers to hit their sides. But the field commanders that reported were on the flanks.
"Sir enemy forces ahead!" Dan shouted over the intercom. Lance looked through the thermal viewer and saw the glowing-white hulks of those vehicles that were already destroyed, and a new set of cooler figures moving towards him.
"This is the 4th armored brigade. We have approaching Leos, request permission to engage." He used the slang term of the Belkan Leopard class MBTs as he reported to command.
"This is HQ, engage at your own discretion. Happy hunting."
'Roger that!"
"Fire at will!" With that order the advancing Belkan armor went up in flames as Lance' brigade opened up with their 105 mm cannons.
The surviving vehicles stopped and started to trade fire. Then more vehicles joined the fight. It was starting to get harder as the smoke and mangled hulks obscured the battlefield.
"This is the Yuktobanian 31st tank brigade! We are under heavy attack! Request fire support fire on these coordinates." As the Yuke commander stated the numbers it dawned on Lance what the Belkans are trying to do. They were both on the center, and seeing the Belkan's determined attack he realized that they trying to cut the line right in half. Lance also gave his set of numbers and waited.
Like lightning from the heavens the missiles from the Osean MLRS artillery brigade rained down on the Belkan tanks and blasted them into smithereens. Looking from his tank Lance watched as blazing dots flew in the air and crash right in front of him. He watched on, but after a wave he saw another set, one that was coming from another direction.
It passed, and another followed. Suddenly voices from the intercom confirmed what he saw.
"This is the MLRS artillery brigade! We're under fire! We--" an explosion cut off whoever was talking. It was then replaced by the voice of the TacCor.
"Communications with our artillery brigade has been cut off. They have been attacked by counter-battery fire from a Belkan surface-to-surface missile platoon. The Belkans are—wait! 4th armored brigade please--" the rest of the comment was lost to Lance as high explosive and armor piercing missiles exploded all around them. 105 and 120mm shells quickly followed it from a fresh set of Belkan Leopard 1s and 2s advancing right in front of them.
Half of his command was burning now. In front of him the Belkans continued pressing forward. The intercom came alive again, but instead of the female voice earlier it was replaced by General Talbot's, confirming the gravity of the situation.
"All commanders report!"
"This is the Yuktobanian 31st tank brigade! We are under heavy attack!"
This is the 12th Osean mechanized division. We are receiving heavy artillery fire--"
"This is the Mountain Home infantry division, we have sustained heavy casualties--"
"This is the 4th armored brigade! We are getting overrun!" Lance said.
After a tense few seconds the General made his desicion
"All forces retreat! Regroup to rally point Bravo. I repeat, to all forces retreat!"
"Fine by me!" Lance exulted. "4th armored brigade we are pulling back to this coordinates."
All over the line the allied forces disengaged contact and started to withdraw in good order. The enemy attack was simply too powerful.
"HQ to all frontline commanders. Please advice on current situation. Attack choppers heading your way."
"You've got to be kidding me!" Lance shouted