A/N:
Stuka87: DING DING DING Cookie for you kind sir!
UN Peacekeeper: Thanks for the review. I hope I reach your expectations.
navyfield90: Itami is probably going to be less lazy and less of an otaku, with some badass sprinkled in. I mean the guys were Ranger and Speshal Forces, but if he ain't lazy or an otaku, is he really Itami?
Guest: I'm trying to stick to history and real-life situations. The Philippines only sent 34 UN police officers from what I could find. They might come in later on, but as of right now, I don't think I will as it wouldn't make sense.
Now then, thanks for the reviews and onto the story.
Chapter 5: Exodus
UNMISS POC Unity, Bentiu Province, South Sudan
0745 Hours
Itami awoke to foreign shouts and mass movement outside the building. Knowing of the imminent attack, he snatched his Type 89 off its bipod and snapped them back into their place. He shook Kurata awake, who had a sentry shift during the night, and dashed to the door. Tomita was outside already checking his personal gear and Kurbayashi was stretching, pumping herself up for the fight.
" Wakey wakey, sleeping ugly," Kurbayashi teased, reaching for her toes.
Itami just sighed and exited the building. The exterior was chaotic with armed men and women rushed to the walls. UN police officers in uniform and riot gear led civilians to the military and UN vehicles, trying to ensure children and women boarded them first. The Sergeant Major waved from a Komatsu mount as Itami jogged over followed by the other 2 soldiers.
" Hey Old Man, what's going on?" Itami asked, climbing up the side of the LAV.
" Enemy cavalry is having a face-off with the main gate. I sent the other LAV over to help cover the gate." Kawahara replied, his disappointed eyes trained on Kurata as the soldier stumbled out of the barracks, his gear in disarray.
" Alright then, LOAD UP. We move to help the other team."
As they moved westwards, gunfire broke out at the gate. Kurata quickly smashed the accelerator as he continued to swerve to avoid the chaos of movement outside. Reaching the wire fence that separated the two forces, cohorts could be seen marching towards the gate. The Romans moved in formations of tortoise squares, wooden, steel-rimmed shields up in vain as modern projectiles cut through their bodies.
Indian infantry and vehicles held the main gate and west wall, firing through the fence and from raised sentry posts. The 7.62mm rounds from PKMs and 5.56 of the INSAS rifles tore through the men as they marched through their dead and dying. Now panicked by the tremendous loss of troops, the centurions waved the auxiliary forces forward. The giants and goblins rushed forward along the sides of the column, dashing past the armoured men, chittering in the excitement of the coming massacre. Civilian conscripts and chained beastmen prodded forward behind them, slow and reluctant. The riflemen switched their targets to the goblins as the BMP-2s and Komatsu's fired upon the giants, quickly gunning down the front ranks of monsters. Yet they pushed forward, through the withering barrage, reaching the gate and bashed down the thin gate. The 30mm autocannons finally put down the 11 feet tall humanoids, with the deceased enemy taking revenge by falling on top of the machine gun nest set up by the gate, crushing the Indian infantry who were pinning down the Romans.
With the suppressing gunfire gone and the gate destroyed, the legionnaires screamed a war cry and charged, climbing over the disfigured, bent remains of metal pipes and steel wire. The Indian forces pulled back to their vehicles before sounding the general alarm. The klaxon blared through the entire camp's PA system, informing the peacekeepers and fleeing refugees that the camp had fallen.
The remaining trucks, APCs, and IFVs loaded up as much as they could, refugees even climbing on top of roofs of BTRs, WZ-551B, and BMPs as peacekeepers pulled them on board.
And yet, with all the motorized vehicles filled to the brim, there was not enough room. Not enough room for all the civilians, soldiers, and UN personnel to get to safety. Nor was time on their side.
The Imperial Army began its campaign of terror, rape, murder, and looting, spreading from the West gate and into the barracks and camp. Any men caught were killed torturously slowly, peacekeepers caught on their own would be cut, limb by limb, privates then neck. Women, refugees, UN volunteers, and peacekeepers, were dragged out the gate to a fate none wished on their enemies. Children were caught in between both sides, the lucky ones were killed quickly.
In a fit of warrior rage, the Mongolian force made one furious bayonet charge, gutting many legionnaires and momentarily halting the advance to allow them to load their BTRs. The Koreans were loading as many civilians as they could grab into their open-top K-511 trucks. The UN vehicles then crashed through the west fence line, dashing for the safety of the wilderness, leaving the remaining refugees trapped in the metal wire that had kept them safe from their own government. A thin wire fence that protected them from African bullets, but now hindered them as steel blades fell upon them. The departing vehicles could only look back to see death and destruction as screams and laughter could be heard.
But safety did not come that easily. The ground forces of the enemy may not be able to catch up to the power of the internal combustion engines, but wyverns definitely could.
The Roman air assets dived at the refugees huddled on the metal boxes. The heavy guns of the BMPs and WZ-551Bs could not fire at the flying targets with the panicked people cowering on their roofs. Even the Canadian TAPVs and Mongolian BTRs could not fire their machine guns at the wyverns as they had also loaded children on their roofs. That meant only the smaller vehicles like the Chinese Warriors and Japanese Komatsu could shoot at the enemy. The 12.7mm rounds flashed into the air as license made M2s and DHsK copies opened up, lacing the air with lead. The backs of the Korean trucks lit up as the ROK infantry tried to combat the beast with K2 rifles.
Seeing the enemies close in, Itami threw his door open and shifted his sitting position. Looking up and to the rear, he began firing his Type 89 in hopes of disrupt the enemy attack.
" FIRE, FIRE, FIRE," He screamed out, unloading his ammunition in the general direction of the riders, " scare the cowards off."
Tomita and Kurbayashi joined in as well, letting loose bursts of unguided death into the air. The Chinese and Canadians saw this and also threw their armoured scout car doors open and shot their C7 and QBZ 95 rifles into the sky, in a desperate attempt to save lives.
Itami's focus was broken as he caught movement on top of the Mongolian BTR-60s. The four hatches lifted up, pushing refugees out of the way, as peacekeepers poked out, wielding SVD marksman rifles, PKM general-purpose machine guns, and AKM rifles. It was the first time UN forces fired at enemies from inside a group of civilians.
With such fierce resistance and only a squadron of wyverns giving chase, the centurions blew a horn, signaling the riders to fall back and hunt stragglers instead. The tense situation soon calmed as more ground was gained by the retreating vehicles.
Itami positioned his rifle back between his feet and shut the door, dispersing the breath he had not noticed he was holding.
Tomita broke the silence, " that got interesting fast."
" Yeah, very very exciting. Do you think they will attack again?" Kurbayashi had a rather massive smile on her face as she blurted her words out, eager for more combat.
" Hopefully not again," Itami said as he reached for the radio handset.
" This is Recce 3-Actual, All UN callsigns. Call out casualties." He was hoping the riders didn't get too many civilians.
He was quickly disappointed.
" This is CAF 5- Actual. Both TAPVs lost 2 civilians."
" PLA 6-1, total of 6 lost, 1 soldier."
" ROK 2-1 here, we lost the passengers of 2 trucks, casualty numbers unknown. The wyverns landed on them.
" IDN 6 reporting, we lost 3 civilians to the spears."
"MUN 3-2, 2 down, 1 peacekeeper."
The rest of the 250 kilometres, 8 and a half hour trip past in silence, the men and women contemplating over their ordeal of having an ancient force attack a modern army and overwhelming them.
It was a bit past 5 pm when they neared the outskirts of the Malakal airport after fording the White Nile river, just over 4 kilometres away from their destination. They could see the barbed wire fence line that marked the boundary of POC Malakal.
Black smoke wafted up in between them and the camp. 2 burning wrecks laid 700 metres west of the fence. The charred, twisted remains of a Mi-17 and Mi-26, the white paint blackened by flames and yet, the large letters "UN" easily discernible from the fuselage. The fuselage was pockmarked with palm-sized holes and the rotors were snapped, the rotor heads swinging with the wind. Corpses could be seen, with limbs and bodies poking out here and there through the displaced metal spars and aluminum panels. Some bodies and limbs were too small to be adults. They were the same helicopters that left Rubkona the night before. They were the same helicopters that were the last flight out. They were the same helicopters that had evacuated Risa.
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POC Malakal main gate, Malakal Province, South Sudan
2315 hours, the night before
Lieutenant General Aadesh Singh watched from the main gate's sentry post as the 3 brightly lit helicopters approached for a landing. He knew of a deteriorating security situation at the largest refugee camp in the country but didn't believe in the rumors of an ancient magical army. He was put in charge of the UN military assets in South Sudan by the UN council, not because he would be easily fooled by some hallucinating soldier, but because he was extremely tough on keeping the different countries' forces in line.
He continued watching as the helicopters flew over the airport to the west. The helicopters were modified with special lights to shine on the UN markings at night, to ensure no one fired upon them and for them to be easily seen.
{What a load of shit! I bet it was the Chinese trying to make fun of me by getting me to report up the chain with that bullshit story.} He thought as the thumping sounds of the helis grew in volume. { They probably orchestrated this whole thing.}
Suddenly the lights flashed over his head, followed by thundering bangs of automatic fire. The general quickly snapped his head to the north to see tracers light up the darkness from a pickup parked across the White Nile. The cacophony of 14.5mm shells continued from the ZU-2 mounted technical, as the armour piercing incendiary rounds sparked upon entering the Mi-26. To the horror of the men and women inside the camp, the pilot pitched the aircraft up violently, in hopes of avoiding the incoming fire. But by pitching the aircraft up, it slowed in forwarding speed, allowing the gunners to easily realign and fire. This burst entered the cockpit, instantly blowing holes through the pilot and co-pilot and dooming the helicopter. The craft continued to pitch up until the tail boom hit the dirt and snapped, releasing the out of control helicopter to flip onto its back and collapsing on itself. Upon hitting the ground, the engines began to burn, leaving the occupants to burn alive in their metal coffin.
But the anti-air artillery battery didn't stop there. 2 Mi-17s were still in the air, brightly lit by their bright lights, targets any anti-air operator would have wet dreams about.
Aadesh jumped into action when the Mi-26 snapped in half. He quickly ordered a German Tiger Attack Helicopter to dust off and take out the offending battery. Pilots were scrambled from the mess tent and boarded their own rotorcraft. They only took 3 minutes to take off.
Yet they were 3 minutes too late to save the Mi-17. Once again, the 14.5mm rounds flew and sparked as they entered the cockpit of the ill-fated Russian helicopter. The pilot, in his panic to avoid any enemy gunfire, had turned the bulbous cockpit to face the incoming projectiles. He was instantly killed when a round struck his chest, blowing out his internal organs into the cabin. The co-pilot followed next, with a round striking her shoulder and another, her abdomen. Rounds continued to enter the helicopter, tearing the rest of the occupants to shreds.
The Mi-17 just pitched forward and dug a trench into the ground, a hollow shell of its former self. The last Mi-17, seeing the fate of the other aircraft, quickly lowered altitude. A veteran of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the pilot dipped the Mi-17 to roof level and shut off the helicopter's lights. He was able to achieve a hard landing in the field south of the POC site. The helicopter's landing gear would need an overhaul and a rigorous inspection would be needed for such an intense landing for the aircraft, but the lives on board were safe.
The German co-pilot/gunner who had seen the aftermath of the triple-A fire made the decisive decision to ensure the gun was silenced. He proceeded to dump both his Hydra 70 rocket pods on the Toyota pickup truck. 38 70mm rockets, each with 1 kg of high explosives, directly impacted the civilian vehicle, completely destroying the gun and any war criminals near it.
The Lieutenant-General looked on at the burning wreaks filled to the brim with life just minutes ago, now snuffed out as the blaze lit up the dark night.
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A bit longer of a chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it. I posted quite a bit earlier as I was excited to write this chapter. Once again, thanks for reading, please write a review as it helps my writing, and I hope you will continue with me on this shot-in-the-dark journey.
