Author's Notes:
Just going to add the Coalition Order of Battle for these next chapters, for context.
US Order of Battle on Cam Lo:
(Under 1st Marine Division)
1st Marine Regiment :
1st Marine Battalion
· Angel Company (Understrength) (CO: Captain George Albert)
· Beta Company (Understrength)
1st Tank Battalion
· Bravo Company (Full Strength) (M48's and Sheridan Tanks)
Units of OC's
Angel 1 Platoon (Lieutenant Jack McKenzie) (Understrength)
· Angel 1-2 (Sergeant Dennis Lee)
· Angel 1-3 (Sergeant James Jordan)
Chapter 4: Attacked
Cam Lo
April 3, 1972
06:22 AM
"GOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!"
BGM: Up Around the Bend
Serika's eyes fluttered open at the loud noise.
Or music. Whatever.
Groggily, she rubs her eyes as she sat down. Looking around she realizes one thing.
They are still in Vietnam.
"And I thought it was just a dumb nightmare…"
Sighing she looks towards her fellow students, who were now also waking up.
"Rise and Shine girls!" A loud voice boomed outside of the door.
"You guys ought to get up now, I don't mean to break your morning but shit is going to get real ugly soon, so ready yourselves up!"
"5 minutes please," Serika responded as the other students stood up.
"Hmmm…are we still here? …We're still here…ughhh," Shiroko complained and pouted as she rose up.
"Yep, unfortunately…"
…
Jordan squinted his eyes over the distance from their entrenched positions.
A bunch of shitty ass sandbags, some trenches, camouflaged MG positions, and foxholes while the tanks are in hull-down positions, it was definitely a shitty fortification.
But what do you expect?
They only had a day to prepare for heaven's sake!
For the entire night, F-4 phantoms launched night attacks in front of them, disrupting the PAVN forces.
The smell of lingering napalm in the morning entered the noses of the men.
But it doesn't smell like victory.
"Nope, nothing yet," he said to Alex, who was still eating his morning rations.
"Mhmm…good," the man responded as he took a bite from his food.
A few meters to his left was Mike and David's decent foxhole, David is currently staring at the horizon, his silent and idle M60 in front of him atop the sandbags, ready to take on whatever PAVN soldier that would attempt to charge at them.
Suddenly, Jimmy arrived at their foxhole, jumping on it, he speaks.
"Mike woke the girls up," he reported.
"Good, can't have them sleeping in the middle of a battle," Jordan responded as Jimmy entered the 3 man foxhole.
Alex took out his binoculars after eating and began observing the horizon. The dense forests in front of them served as a nice place to hide, but in the middle of it were the flat road and plains.
Would be a problem if the Vietnamese brings a lot of armored vehicles.
But their more than a dozen M48 Pattons from Bravo Company sat ready for this occasion.
And they are prepared with M67s and M72s.
He puts down the binoculars.
"Command says we got to hold the town for, hmm, 2 days at most," Jimmy informed Jordan.
"How'd we hold for that long?" Alex pessimistically asked, "We're in an overextended position, with like 2 understrength infantry companies."
"We do have Bravo Company with us and their tanks, plus since yesterday we have air support prioritization, we could hold," Jimmy reasoned.
"Air support prioritization my ass, and we can't evacuate the 4 girls," he scoffed, "The entire front's now fubar, hear that? Their bombing everything."
He was right, over the distance, loud booms were heard, as B52s and F-4s sortied around the clock to blunt the PAVN probing attacks in the forests south of them.
"Eh whatever, we're also entrenched," Jimmy continued reasoning.
"I swear this is a suicide mission," Alex continued his incessant complaining, which managed to grate Jordan's nerves.
The man, while he may act that "America no.1" is a very, very irritating man, he keeps complaining about literally everything.
Though that's kind of expected from a drafted kid.
Except for the general experience of war which he internally hates, he actually thinks it's right that the US intervened in this battle even when they began pulling out.
But off course, what the man didn't expect was that his unit would be the one dragged to it.
Normally, he blames commies and the brass at the same time for everything, including the fact that he is in this shithole.
Thus leading to this situation.
"Alex, can you just shut up," Jordan coldly warned, as he picked up a binocular and stared at the distance.
"Roger, shutting up…"
Jordan just sighed in annoyance, before focusing on the horizon.
"Still nothing…"
Putting down the binoculars, he pulls out his gums, and began chewing, calming himself from the stress of everything that was happening.
"Angels, full-on conventional battle, the CIA, did I piss off god or something?"
Mike soon arrived at their positions.
"Sarge, girls are awake and are now taking breakfast," he reported.
"Good, so how are they holding up?"
"Shiroko and Serika seems miserable, while the other 2 seems irritated, eh I don't really know Sarge, something about not being able to connect to the 'net' in their smartphones, apparently pocket computers."
Jordan looked surprised, "They have that now?"
"Futuristic shit I know, hope we get one too in the future, damn their guns also looked sick…"
Alex laughed, "I can't believe a bunch of angel students is better equipped than us."
"To be fair, this is just the 1970s, who knows what we'll have in the 2000s, maybe we can have one too, I mean pocket computers, damn…" Jimmy said as he trailed off. The man loved electronics and technology.
"Well, hopefully we're still alive to see that…" Mike sighed, "Until then, we use what we have."
Mike then set off on his merry way, jumping into a foxhole with David. For now, they were left in silence aside from the distant explosions and gunfire.
Here it was quiet for a while.
Too quiet.
"All units, this is Angel Actual, movement reported in the right flank. Be alert." Albert's voice spoke on Jimmy's radio, which he reported to the rest.
"Head's up, reports says there's movements in the right flank, their preparing to attack it seems."
Jordan and Alex nodded and picked up their M16s.
"Mike and David, stay alert, possible attack!" Alex shouted to the other foxhole.
Around them, US Marines and other personnel rushed into their positions, while tank turrets began turning left and right, scanning the horizon for hostiles.
The Marines steeled themselves for the upcoming firefight, ready for whatever the PAVN had in store for them.
Mike stared in the distance with his binoculars and began seeing North Vietnamese foot soldiers moving in the forest.
He remembers what he told the girls back in the town.
"Once artillery sounds, take cover and hide, don't try to get out, there will be gunfire and artillery everywhere, we already prepared a position outside for you guys to hide in from the artillery, there's food, water, and a radio there, although it's outdated for you. Stay there and wait us out. If we don't come back, just join with the inevitable retreat, Captain Albert will understand you."
He sighed, looking back at it, Hifumi and Koharu seemed to be confused by it.
At least that was better than their reaction to the food.
"That one could have gone better," he mused as he remembered Hifumi's disgusted face.
That one was hilarious.
She looked like his little sister back home, at least outside of the unnatural eyes, making it even funnier for him.
On the other hand, Serika and Shiroko seemed to understand it. It was after all for their safety, who knows, bullets may not hurt them, but artillery?
He didn't want to find out.
As for the Marines and their comrades on the other hand.
The best they can do now is to hold out, for as long as they can.
And not die.
"Easier said than done."
"Hey Mike," David spoke up, "You seeing something?"
"Yeah man, ready yourself up."
"I'm always ready."
"Good," he puts down his binoculars and takes his canteen.
He takes a long sip to hydrate himself.
Then the artillery dropped.
Again and again, it pounded them with such dumb inaccuracy, not hitting anything significant.
Mike calmly closed his canteen as the artillery continued to drop around them.
For minutes the men waited out the inaccurate artillery bombardment, though it did manage to injure some with shrapnel, most of the Marines were left unscathed.
The same couldn't be said in the town, as multiple buildings were hit.
Jordan peeked a bit towards their backline and stared at the building the girls occupied.
It was completely unscathed.
"Thank god."
The hull down Patton tanks didn't even get scratched.
All in all, all they got was a slight morale hit.
Jordan, Mike, David, and Alex peeked a bit from their foxhole, as a radio report was given to Jimmy.
"No casualties to us aside from minor wounds…Sarge! reported movements in the Left and Right flanks!"
"Copy that…" Jordan responded as he stared in the distance towards the forest and the Route 9 road.
As he looked in the road, PT-76's appeared.
"Enemy light armor!" he shouted.
The M48 Pattons in the hull down position in front of them fired off their main guns, hitting the PT-76's in front.
More and more PT-76's charged in, but the Patton Tanks kept up their fire, destroying dozens of them in a few moments.
Then the infantry charged from behind the Armored Vehicles.
David stared at them coldly, waiting till they are in range, he gripped the trigger of the M60 tightly.
"Squad, zap 'em!" Jordan shouted from his foxhole as they reached their range.
Gunfire erupted in the Marine line as PAVN soldiers charged at them in a flat open terrain.
Mike fired in their general direction, as there was so much of them.
The M48's opened up their machine guns, mowing down the PAVN forces.
David couldn't count how much he was killing as he kept firing burst after burst at the enemy, his shots and the Marine gunfire beginning to pin down the enemy.
They were well spread out around the town, with the Tank support and the flat area in front of them, it was a perfect spot to defend now that they fortified it.
Even slightly luckier they had the slight advantage on high ground.
The PAVN troops had nowhere to hide in their charge, as their troops were pinned or mowed down by the Marine fire.
The PT-76's began taking heavy losses, including the infantry.
10 minutes in, and they began breaking and retreating.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Jimmy exclaimed, as gunfire from the American line stopped.
"First wave stopped…" Mike muttered as he ducked down in his foxhole, before breathing a sigh of relief.
He looked towards David, who was breathing deeply as he stared towards the battlefield.
"Hey David, you good?"
"Yeah," his friend replied as he wiped a bead of sweat on his forehead.
Mike simply nodded.
Jordan on the other hand stared at the horizon with his binoculars, as the PAVN retreated en-masse, leaving a mass of dead and multiple wrecks of armored vehicles.
"What the hell were they thinking? Charging in like that? …Must have thought the artillery nailed us…fools."
The PAVN fought very conventionally he noted, unlike the very sneaky VC, and that was good, as that is where America excelled at.
Jimmy then spoke, "Sarge, airstrike incoming."
He grinned while staring at the distance.
"Good, time to show them who's boss in conventional warfare."
"Affirm," he responded.
Moments later, heavy bombs dropped in the forest and road in front of them, the napalm burning away at the PAVN as expected from the very generous carpet bombing of the B52s.
The smell of burning napalm reaches their noses.
"Smells like victory."
…
The loud booms outside ended, as Hifumi stared at the clock inside of the underground shelter the 4 of them took.
"So…what exactly is our plan here?" Hifumi asked as Serika continued pacing back and forth in front of them.
"I-I don't know, normally Sensei knows…" she responded in distress.
"Hmm…the sounds outside ended," Koharu said, "Maybe we can go out now?"
"No, Mike said don't go out unless they come here," Hifumi responded, still uneasy due to the loud booms outside.
"They're out there…fighting for us, it's the least we can do to follow them for our safety…" Shiroko added.
"This doesn't make any sense, t-they shouldn't be fighting like that at all!" Hifumi bawled, "Before Mike closed the windows last night, I saw these soldiers who had no legs or arms…I-I!"
"Calm down girls," a voice interrupted them, the door in their underground shelter opening up.
There, Mike stood in his full combat gear they were used with, but his uniform looked dirty.
Yet his cheerful and reassuring smile is there.
"Sorry, I look filthy…anyways are you guys just fine?"
"Shouldn't we be the ones asking that? You look awful…" Koharu said.
"Well, you do have a point…"
"What happened?" Serika asked coldly.
"Small firefight, everything is under control," Mike responded.
"That was an awful lot of gunfire and explosions for a 'small firefight'" Serika stared at him distrustfully.
"Can't really blame her, I am so bad at hiding shit, man damage control is hard, why did Jordan even use me for this?"
Mike sighed, "Fine, NVA attack, though we drove them back, the line held, it's all under control."
"For now…"
Serika frowned, "Was anyone in the squad hurt?"
Even if she doesn't fully trust their squad, they did help them, the least they can do is have Koharu heal them if things get bad.
"Whoah you guys care for us now? That's new!"
Serika's face turned red, "W-what are you trying to-"
Mike cut her off, "Relax, relax, I'm just messing with you," he grinned, "but yeah no guys in my squad are hurt, we're fine."
Serika frowned and turned away in a pissed-off manner, sending a chill in the Marine's spine.
"Daily reminder – don't mess with angels, possible threat of injuries, death or dismemberment," he mentally noted.
"You shouldn't tease her," Shiroko warned.
"Yeah, yeah, just trying to lighten the mood…though I may have hilariously failed in that one," he responded while keeping his cheerful façade, "damn this shit is hard, possibly harder than shooting commies."
"You said you drove them off…" Hifumi spoke up, "D-did you guys-"
Welp, there she goes. He knows where this conversation is going to go down to.
Mike sighed and went towards her, "Please, how about…let's just avoid that for now…"
He doesn't have an idea how many NVA/PAVN troops he gunned down, for years of fighting, there was really one thing he always hated talking about.
Kills.
While back in the days he would report it if he can count it, he never tried to remember it.
Much less now.
Dehumanizing the enemy never truly worked for him, ever since he found a picture of the wife and daughter of a VC he killed years ago.
He gripped his rifle tightly, calming himself down, he smiles again and turns to the rest.
"Let's not dwell on depressing topics guys, cheer up, just stay here, keep safe, we'll get you guys out of here soon."
They simply nodded. To Mike, it was a fruitless promise.
"'We'll get you out of here', yeah bullshit. At this rate we'd be dead by the end of the month…and they're going to deal with all this shit alone."
Is keeping a pointless lie really worth it to reassure them?
"I just hope it won't reach that point…fuck this shit man."
But perhaps, they could get them out of here, who knows really.
Turning around, he walks out of the room.
"I'll be back later to check you guys out…I heard Sergeant Lee and his squad is out there resting, if you need help just go to him," Serika turned to him, and just nodded.
Closing the door, he sighs.
"I hate this…"
...
"Fuckin shit…" Dennis muttered as he stared at his men doing whatever Marines do in their free time.
Some doing their work, some just playing, a sign of a declining discipline, and he can't do jack shit about it as they're not on combat and his men already went through tough shit losing almost half of their squad.
And disrupting their pastime was a bad idea, getting fragged by demoralized men because of it is not exactly a nice prospect for him.
For now, they were stationed by Captain Albert here to guard the girls, and keep the other 'curious' Marines from taking a peek.
Since yesterday, they have been rotating with Angel 1-3 on the frontlines and here, this morning, it's their turn.
But that wasn't his problem, no, it was the pitiful state of his squad. It was almost as bad as Angel 1-3.
"Scratch that, this is just as worse as 1-3."
He looked over his men, there's just 6 of them left.
Him, Rodriguez, Francis, Brooke, Nguyen, and Riggs.
"What a shitshow…"
1st Platoon was now practically cut in half, their defense of Camp Carroll was too rushed, and they paid dearly for it.
But now they're dug in, outside of being overextended, giving the possibility of a flanking attack (though they heavily fortified the flanks of the town) they are otherwise prepared.
Except for reinforcements, which their understrength units may not get any time soon.
He watched his men as they checked their supplies.
"Sarge, we're good!" Paul Rodriguez, his radio operator reported.
He nodded, good. As of now their main concern is supplies. Just behind them, the ARVN has been fighting tooth and nail against PAVN soldiers trying to cross the Cam Lo river for probing/diversionary attacks.
Down south the ARVN is holding the dense forest in between Pedro Base and Cam Lo.
At Pedro Base itself, the rest of the US Marines were redeployed to hold it, if Pedro Base falls, the entire Dong Ha front will collapse, so they went there.
But all this resulted in a clogged supply line, not to mention the mass of wounded from their earlier retreat, it's clear that supplies would run dry quickly if they aren't careful.
Not to mention supply convoys moving in Route 9 are getting hammered by artillery, while helicopters are having a hard time operating as the PAVN actually bought AA.
Walking towards them, he sits in the middle of the table as Riggs and Francis played poker.
"You good Sarge?" Riggs asked as he raised his eyebrows.
"Nah, off course not…"
"Yeah me too man, those guys are having too much fun out there shooting commies, and we're here stuck guarding 'angels'"
Francis then piped in, "You are so bloodthirsty."
"Those reds killed my bro's man, I want to get back at em. Plus we're at war, got to be bloodthirsty out here," he narrows his eyes on Francis, "or you'll go insane. And you just lost you salty prick."
Francis groaned as he gave up his cash, "Dammit, I'm going to run dry at this rate."
"Cope harder boy…get good."
Nguyen and Brooke soon joined them after doing their tasks, sitting at the table, they watched the 2 play and go at it.
"Damn Francis, you keep on losing, you should just give up mate," Brook suggested moments later.
"Nah bruh, I need to get back my cash, no surrender here no not to this prick."
"Well whatever, hey Aaron, want to play some chess, Jordan left it out there?" Nguyen asked Brooke.
"Yeah sure, why not? Got nothing else to do." The two then moved away from the table to go play somewhere else.
"Nicee, I'm dying of boredom," Nguyen giddily followed him.
Dennis rolled his eye at his squad, just as Paul arrived.
"They're just playing?" he asked as he took a sit to spectate the 2 go to a heated battle with their poker cards.
"Well, boys lost a lot yesterday, can't blame em."
"Long as their alert, it's fine, good for morale," Paul said.
"Agreed."
"Take that loser boy, gimme the cash!" Riggs greedily grabbed the money from Francis, who just blankly stared at his defeat.
Sighing the man stood up and left, "Call me if something interesting happens…I'll just cry myself to sleep…"
Dennis observed Francis walk out in a defeated manner, as Riggs celebrated his daily victory.
"Perhaps it's not that good for morale."
…
Mike continued scanning the horizon with his binoculars, keeping a close eye on the enemies.
The forest in front of them was now half burned, and there were craters everywhere.
"Perfect for them to take cover on…"
Scanning to his right, he notes a few squads of PAVN soldiers running around with their heads ducked.
"Their planning to attack…" he notes. David who was relaxing raises his eyebrow.
"Probably gonna try probing us," David muttered as he stood up and looked through his binoculars as well.
"Jeez man, how'd they survive that carpet bombing?" He asked in bewilderment.
"Reinforcements," Mike responded.
Gunfire erupted on their left flank, south of the town.
"HEADS UP! THEY'RE ASSAULTING OUR SOUTHERN FLANKS! KEEP ALERT!" He heard Alex shouting from the right side of their fox hole.
"AFFIRM!" he shouted back.
David scrambled towards his machinegun, while Mike continued scanning the battlefield with his binoculars.
Suddenly artillery dropped again.
David immediately ducked down, holding his helmet before taking some cotton to cover his ears.
Mike meanwhile was unaffected, he watched the artillery fire again and again around the American line, not hitting anything significant.
One dropped in front of an M48 position on the other side of route 9, but it didn't affect it.
More artillery rained in Cam Lo as the PAVN tried hitting the scattered foxholes and trenches, and tanks, but as minutes passed, Mike concluded that whoever was manning the artillery needed to go home.
"These morons can probably hit running refugees better," he noted as another artillery shell slammed 200 meters in front of them, and then another one slammed Cam Lo.
"Thank god no civilians are out there…" he relaxed, until he remembered the girls.
Looking back at it, he sighs in relief as the area where they are hiding seems to be unaffected.
Then he looked back towards the frontline as hundreds of PAVN soldiers charged in a scattered formation.
"CONTACT! FRONT!" Alex shouted, as David jumped and went to his machine gun.
Mike dropped his binoculars and equipped his M16, aiming it over their general direction.
Flicking over to single shot to conserve ammo, he took a deep breath.
Artillery continued to rain on their positions as the PAVN charged.
Focusing himself, he waits till the enemy crosses their range.
Even the tanks held off their main cannons, preferring to use the MGs when they are in range.
Moments passed, until they crossed it.
He pulled the trigger as David beside him began unloading bursts after burst on the charging reds as artillery continued to rain on them.
M48s opened fire, and their MG's spewing hot FMJ burst at the NVA ranks.
"Holy shit Sarge, never seen a target-rich environment like this yet!" Alex shouted on the other side, as he fired his M16s.
"Is that artillery going to stop?" Jimmy asked as he too joined in the firefight.
"Nah probably not until they reach us," Jordan responded as another artillery hits a hundred meters away from them.
The gunfire continued, on the southern flank, the PAVN completely broke and retreated.
David continued expending ammunition, as the artillery fire around them lightened up.
As the gunfire south of them stopped, the PAVN began to turn tail and run.
"They're fucking retreating!" David shouted over his bursts as Mike fired off his M16 as well.
Suddenly, an artillery shell nails a foxhole 200 meters to their left, their screams weren't heard.
But Mike knew that was awful.
"They're finally nailing us," he thought worriedly as the gunfire in the Marine line lightened up.
Suddenly, explosions slammed into the retreating PAVN troops hundreds of meters away from them.
"Finally, artillery support..." David mutters over a shallow breath.
Mike simply took out his canteen and hydrated himself, the hot weather was uncomfortable.
And with the heat of the battle, he felt as if he was dying.
After that, he closes his canteen and sighs.
"This is going to be a long day."
Cam Lo Town
12:30 PM
Over the morning multiple PAVN probing attacks occurred after the 2 failed attacks, but they were naturally cut down.
USAF airstrikes and Heavy Artillery continued to pound the PAVN positions over the morning, destroying multiple NVA Companies.
Still, the understrength Marine forces are in an increasingly precarious position, while PAVN offensives have temporarily stopped in the front, the NVA is keeping a high tempo of attack near Cam Lo.
They are determined to gain one of the obstacles to Dong Ha, but the Marines are proving to be stubborn.
Across the frontline, US Airpower began blunting the PAVN attacks, but in the deep forests, its effects were becoming increasingly ineffective.
Still, the line holds.
…
Jordan sighed as she listened to Serika grumble about the food they were given, which is honestly what all they had now.
"Is this even edible? How do we know it's not poison?" the distrustful cat angel said.
"Well I mean I'm eating it and Sarge is eating it thus it's not poison," Alex gave his daily universal genius as he took a spoon of the food, before his face contorted to disgust.
"Sarge, what the hell is this?"
"Logistics got fucked so deal with it," he responded in an annoyed tone.
"Welcome to Nam' dipshit, where everything sucks shit," Mike said as he took a spoon and internally regretted it.
"Is this expired shit?" Jimmy asked.
"I uhh…?" Jordan muttered and cut himself off as everyone around the table looked horrified.
"I-I think I just lost my appetite," Serika grumbled as she excused herself.
"Me too," Koharu followed, leaving them with Shiroko and Hifumi, who's still trying their best to eat the shit.
"Civvies," Alex grumbled as he continued force-feeding himself.
"It's not expired!" Jordan exclaimed.
"Well it is, by 3 days, but surely that's just fine…"
"Did we run out of food?" Mike asked incredulously.
"Logistics only transported weapons and ammo yesterday, they are still about to send food, so we used the shit here…" Jordan responded.
"Man…we really got hit hard with our pants down…" Mike muttered as he stared at the food.
"It's literally the symbol of our miserable state…"
Minutes later after force-feeding, the group finished eating, leaving Mike sitting inside of the compound they are based in, though it overlooked the Route 9 entrance to the town.
Outside of the town, gunfire and artillery continued dropping.
He began cleaning his rifle a bit, for minutes, it was all he did, distracting himself from the sounds of battle outside.
Suddenly someone sat beside him, with blonde hair, and yellow eyes.
"Hifumi," he sighed, wondering what the girl wants.
"So uhh…can I ask you a question?" she speaks up.
"Sure, spill," he responded as he ended cleaning his M16.
"So…I heard you guys were fighting out there with guns, and you guys are not students…t-then that means-"
"We kill people," Mike cut her off.
"...I-it's, IT'S WRONG!"
"Sorry girl, that's just what a war is, world isn't sunshine and rainbows," he sighed as he looked at the sky, he then mutters in a low voice, "and I never wanted to be here."
Apparently, she heard it, "So why are you here?"
Mike was taken aback, "I didn't say that out loud did I?"
He looked back at the girl, who was now patiently waiting for an answer.
"Best for you not to know," she simply pouted in response.
"Why do you guys keep hiding everything from us!?"
"Because you're not old enough for it…"
"You can't be much older than me!"
"Oh yeah? What's your age kid?" he asked.
"16!"
"Aw crap, yep they're definitely kids, they absolutely shouldn't be here, wait did I just ask a girl her age?" He mentally slapped himself for his blunder.
"Well I'm 20, and you're not," Mike reasoned after gaining sufficient information.
"Pffft…" she breathed in, "What you guys are doing is still wrong."
"Didn't deny it."
"Then why are you guys doing it?"
"Reasons too confusing for you to understand."
"Are you trying to call me dumb?"
"Well naïve, probably," Mike sighed in annoyance.
"No, off course not…listen, can we just drop this subject? Please…"
"But why?" she asked in an annoyed matter. Why can't he just be honest and answer them?
"Because I don't want to talk about it," Mike responded, as he thought about what he did in Vietnam and why.
What they went through.
What they're going through.
"I just want to bury it for fucks sake, I get that they want information to survive, but do they really need to know the philosophical stuff of this war? I can understand questions about what and where or how but the why? I can't even answer it myself!"
She simply stayed silent, before uttering a word.
"Ok."
Good.
And so for moments they both just sat there, looking at the road from the balcony, as the staccato of gunfire and artillery filled their ears.
It was sporadic, but it was there.
Suddenly a bunch of Medevac trucks passed through the road.
Immediately Mike sprang into action, blocking Hifumi's eyes, gaining a loud squeak from the teen.
"W-what the!" she exclaimed.
"Shhh…uhh can you please ignore the sounds?"
"W-what?" then the cries of agony filled their ears.
"AGHHHH, my ARMS! IT HURTS!"
"I can't see anything, what is happening!"
The trucks passed in moments, with their cries being heard by both.
Mike watched the vehicle carrying the wounded.
"Gunshot and artillery victims…"
Looking back at Hifumi, he realized his hands still covered her eyes, and gently he removed them.
She was simply sat frozen.
"W-what was that…why did you-"
"Best for you not to see it yet…" Mike picked up his M16, and left her in a heavy mood.
"They don't belong here."
Cam Lo Defensive Line
05:44 PM
Dennis puts down his binoculars as they watched the PAVN retreat from them.
Besides him, Riggs stopped firing his gun, before turning to him and grinning.
"Did ya see that Sarge? Pussies ran away!"
True, the PAVN once again tried a full-scale assault on them, but they were successfully driven away by American Superior Firepower.
Looking at his watch, he sighs.
"Don't get too overconfident, we still have to hold for another day, and we're already expending so much ammunition."
Paul then spoke beside them, "Airstrike incoming!"
Pulling out the binoculars, he puts them on his eyes.
3 F-4 Phantoms screeched towards the retreating PAVN infantry, before massive amounts of napalm were dropped.
"Wohooo! USAF forever! …I should have joined the fucking airforce…better pay and more epic…" Francis cheered on their foxhole, before he sulked down when he realized he was just a grunt.
"We can't have everything we like," a voice spoke beside him, there Brooke stood and looked over the sandbags in their foxhole, his binoculars aimed at the fire show, "just like the cash you lost."
Nguyen laughed beside him, causing Francis's eyes to twitch.
"I swear I will defeat Riggs one day, mark my words!"
"Yeah sure, whatever," Brooke removed the binoculars from his eyes, before sitting down with Nguyen, and began playing chess with their makeshift chessboard.
Francis rolled his eyes, and grabbed the binoculars, before peeking up and looking at the burning area.
"Man is it so beautiful, take that fucking commies!"
He puts down the binoculars moments later, before putting on a radio to listen to some music.
Turning it on, he hears the perfect words from the broadcaster.
"The next song will be Fortunate Son – for the American boys still stuck out there!"
The song played on, while the other 2 began singing along with it as they played chess.
"Man, what fortunate sons we are…" Brookes spoke as he moved his king.
Francis nodded, "True, true."
"Got redeployed when we are supposed to be out of here…and then we meet actual angels…but we're still in the same hell," Brooks spoke as he watched Nguyen move his pieces.
A few turns later.
Checkmate.
In moments, his king had no more escape from death.
And he lost.
"Just like us…"
The night went down with sporadic gunfire, as both sides took potshots and probing attacks on each other.
But this is just the first day of the attack.
They won't be leaving hell anytime soon.
Author's Notes:
And the first day of the Battle of Cam Lo passes with light losses for the Marines.
Now you may be wondering "Rapid Intervention, wtf is the students doing nothing but sitting prettilly in their hidden and protected compound that is somehow not nailed by artillery?" Well first of all, simple, I want to introduce the idea of war and killing to the other 2 in a more, slower and subtler way, so they don't get overwhelmed. Second, this is an important operation, and the other Marine units would be confused at having 4 angel like being with them, and they would start asking too much questions.
The students are just civvies, and I doubt anyone in the military would like a bunch of teenage civvies in a foxhole during a battle, no matter how good they are at fighting, especially now that the situation is still mostly under control.
But off course, as you may know, they are in an overextended position, that is with all intents and purposes, practically cut off from supplies (hence the "difficulties") which is why their only really here to delay the enemy.
This also means that things can get a very "nasty" turn as I plan, as they lose supplies, "things" may happen. "Things" that may "result" in the students being forced to join. I think you can see where we are going with this?
Also, I introduced and developed the OC's a bit, the earlier combat fueled scenes didn't really show much of their characters, but now that their in a temporary calm, we can have a bit of it.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed this one, Rapid Intervention out.
