Disclaimers: I do not own anything of Konami or MGS4, other than a few of the made up characters, and vehicles, and factions I've made up.
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Metal Gear: Engagement
Chapter 5
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Two days after victory in the Middle-East
Theatre: Western Europe
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"Get down to the creek bed we've got enemies pushing up!" a soldier shouted as a platoon of T.F.E soldiers rushed to the dried up creek bed, several being killed before they could reach it. The ones who made it immediately dropped down behind the creek bed providing the troops with cover.
"Enemy troops coming out of the woods sir!" a soldier shouted to the lieutenant.
"Suppressive fire, we've gotta keep them from flanking us!" the lieutenant ordered as a team started firing away with a machine gun into the woods while several mortar teams started setting up in the rear.
The radio operator then crawled towards him the radio in his hands. "Sir, HQ needs a location to drop off Eagle and Charlie Platoon."
"Tell them we're busy and that they're going to have to find their own landing site, I can't spare any more men." the lieutenant replied as the sounds of mortars filled the air.
The platoon of T.F.E soldiers was holding back an onslaught of PMC soldiers from taking a vital airbase in the region. The bases company was scattered being forced to spread too thin by PMC soldiers attacking from all sides and the air force mostly out of commission with most planes in for repairs from a previous encounter with PMC aircraft. Air support was extremely limited to only three A-10s that were relatively beat up. All armour was being sent towards the hill so the PMC could not set up an artillery base and shell the T.F.E back to the stone age.
A soldier dropped dead beside the lieutenant, a shot through the head via a sniper round.
"Launch grenades into the forest!" the lieutenant demanded as grenades launched from rifles were fired into the woods which sent nearby PMC troops flying through the air.
The lieutenant then looked to see additional PMC troops moving through the dense woods before he lost sight of them.
"Sergeant Pailis!" he called. "Take your squad to the right side end of the creek bed; we've got enemies coming around. Hold out till I give the order to fall back."
The sergeant nodded his head before calling to his squad to rush toward the right end of the creek bed, bullets whizzing past the squads heads.
"Any chance of the supplies and more men from base getting here, I don't think Eagle and Charlies are enough." the lieutenant asked as he
"Got word their transports have broken down, and their busy patching them up, won't be till another hour atleast."
"Another hour?!" the lieutenant stopped, knowing that complaining wasn't gonna change anything. "Well see if you can get an A-10 here to drop a cluster bomb or two so we can atleast stopped being overwhelmed."
"Right away!"
Shells then started to pound the earth forcing the T.F.E soldiers to keep their heads down while PMC soldiers took positions in the woods and began moving up.
"Sir we've got an enemy-" the soldier never finished as he was hit directly by a mortar shell sending his body into the air while dust and debris flew away from the impact zone.
The lieutenant took a few seconds to react as he wiped the bits of soil and dust off his goggles.
"Counter-battery! I want that enemy mortar taken out!" the lieutenant shouted as the mortar teams started lobbing shells back at the estimated enemy location.
"Where the fuck is back-up when you need it, if Eagle and Charlie Platoon doesn't get here soon we're going to get our asses kicked even more than they already are." he said to himself.
"Sir E.T.A of reinforcements is fifteen minutes, they've just touched down." the radio operator said.
"Good now let's hope we can last that long." the Lieutenant replied.
Another soldier dropped dead near the lieutenant.
"And someone find me that goddamn sniper!"
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Darren looked out of the Blackhawk, the sound of the blades rotating rapidly was overshawdowed by all the fighting down on the ground with the sounds of artillery, and gunfire was all everyone could here.
He looked at the squad, this time he made sure everyone had a role to fill, especially with Specter still in the field hospital back in the Middle-East. Emerson who was also looking out the helicopter was carrying a SAW machine gun as well as explosives for demelition work, while Victor was carrying sniper equipment as always, but instead of having two snipers Wiseley carried extra equipment such as spare magazines for the squad, flares and an M-16 with a scope. Kelvana, who was fast asleep, carried a P90 submachine gun, which she was quite fond of as well as a grenade launcher. Darren still carried the same equipment, but only this time he was carrying a light recoilless rifle for AT duty, everyone was wearing light green fatigues with dark green body armour which distinguished itself from Raven Sword body armour as well as an Eagle patch on their shoulders.
"Drop zones straight ahead better get ready!" the pilot called to the squad.
Darren nudged Kelvana with his elbow before she opened her eyes before immediately covering them with her arm them and groaned, it was extremely bright out. "Nice work waking me up in the middle of broad daylight. You trying to blind me?" she whined before her eyes finally adjusted to the brightness outside.
"Be ready people, form up where Vespes is as soon as we touchdown." he said as the chopper soon hit the ground and everyone immediately got out into an open field with several Apaches overhead to prevent enemies from ambushing the soldiers as they got out of their choppers. The choppers then went back to the staging area where they would pick up more troops and drop them off. The Apaches went elsewhere to assist an armour company which was facing heavy resistance from a PMC forces entrenched on a hill.
Eagle Platoon formed up around Vespes ready for orders as the Blackhawks took off.
"Alright people, we've got a Platoon T.F.E troops holding the enemy at a creek bed several clicks west of here, Charlie Platoon will move in to flanking positions here and here." Vespes pointed on a map. "After we rescue them we need to assist the armour company in taking a hill west of the creek bed, got it?"
"Sir, yes, Sir!" the soldiers replied as everyone started to move out into the woods, towards where the platoon pinned down at the creek bed was.
When the T.F.E soldiers reached the woods they started moving cautiously, making sure not to make too much noise so they wouldn't be detected.
Unfortunately several PMC soldiers who were also moving through the area spotted the T.F.E soldiers and opened fired with their weapons forcing everyone to find cover before returning fire.
Several more PMC troops started coming towards the T.F.E troops and quickly sat-up a machine gun nest near an old, fallen tree.
A T.F.E soldier was sent flying as PMC soldiers started lobbing grenades at them with their launchers.
"On me move out squad!" Dave said as he managed to get close enough to several PMC soldiers behind fallen logs and throw a grenade into their cover and after a second or two the grenade exploded killing the PMC soldiers in a hail of shrapnel.
Darren heard a scream behind as he turned to see a PMC soldier dead several metres away killed by Emerson who had managed to hear the soldier's footsteps. More PMC soldiers were appearing from both the rear and the front.
"Sir we've got enemies flanking from the rear!" Darren pointed out as Vespes then ordered one-third of the platoon to adjust fire on the enemies behind them.
Darren fired his rifle at a machine gun crew before falling back into cover. The machine gun crew then turned their attention on him with a hail of bullets pouring down on Eagle Squad's positions.
"Kelvana move, I'm going to throw a smoke out, you close in and take out the crew, we'll be right behind you." Darren said as he readied a smoke grenade then threw it.
When the cloud of smoke formed Kelvana took one deep breath before moving in on the crew, bullets were being fired everywhere, but luckily for her they weren't firing toward her, it was still pointed where Darren and the rest of the squad was.
She finally managed to get beside the MG crew and fired atleast several dozen rounds in less than a few seconds into the crew killing them before they even knew she was beside them.
Darren and the rest of the squad appeared near her with several other soldiers who were now using the former PMC position near a large dead tree as their own.
A soldier beside Darren fell backwards, a bullet in his head, before he could react another soldier dropped dead as well. Everyone immediately dropped to the ground in the underbrush to avoid getting shot.
"Snipers! We've got enemy snipers out there!" Darren called out as he saw more T.F.E soldiers being picked off.
Emerson managed to see a glint from behind the foliage of a tree before he quickly ducked back down.
"They're in the trees; I say again they're in the trees!" Emerson said through the radio.
Darren thought for a few seconds on what to do before he turned to Victor. "Victor stay low and try to kill the snipers while we distract them." Darren ordered as he and the rest of the squad got up and fired into the nearby trees.
Victor laid his sights onto a glint in one of the trees and fired. A body then fell through the foliage before falling onto the ground with a loud crunch sound as it hit the ground.
He laid his sights onto another sniper who, from Victor's perspective, looked like he was out in the open. He took aim on the sniper's torso and fired. The sniper was knocked off his perch by the force of the bullet and fell onto the forest floor.
Several more snipers fell to Victor before one finally laid his sights on him, took aim and fired.
The sniper round cracked through Victor's scope just barely stopping at one of the remaining lenses in the scope. Victor took cover as several more sniper bullets were fired with another bullet smashing through his rifle creating a large hole in the body of his weapon. Victor immediately slung his rifle over his shoulder so he could later take it in for repairs and brought out his SMG.
"Damn it! We've got atleast one more sniper out there!" Victor called out to Darren as another T.F.E soldiers was sniped; casualties were quickly mounting on the T.F.E side with already fifteen-percent of the platoon already dead or heavily wounded.
The sound of a light machine gun firing filled the air and it wasn't just from a single soldier. Several PMC soldiers seemed to appear out of nowhere right in front of Darren's squad.
"Damn it they must have been hiding in spider-holes!" Wiseley stated as he took cover behind a large tree. "This is really nothing like the training!"
"If we get back alive I'm gonna demand that they train the next bunch of recruits better then we were, and make sure they go over unorthadox tactics and warfare." Emerson replied to Wiseley's comment as he fired another burst from his machine gun striking a PMC soldier in the chest.
"These guys are alot more trained and have alot more tactics then the regular PMC grunt. Not to mention we're ambushed and are in the killzone, which is why they're kicking us around." Victor said as he fired a short burst. "The soldiers in the Middle-East were much less prepared then these men."
Victor was right. The PMC soldiers here had much better accuracy and although their combat armour was lighter they were making extensive use of camouflage and they knew the terrain very well making it hard to hit them.
"Kelvana, grenade launcher hit those machine gunners ahead!" Darren ordered as he fired a burst from his rifle before getting back into cover.
Kelvana readied the grenade launcher quickly sprang out of cover and fired a single round before getting out of the line of fire.
"We're fucked if we stay in this much longer." Emerson told Darren as both of them looked back to see the soldiers covering their flank were quickly being killed off.
He looked to see some of the newer recruits trying to run back to the landing zone, only to be gunned down by PMC soldiers. Darren turned his head around and grabbed a grenade from his belt and hastily threw the grenade. It managed to wound a machine gunner before the rest ducked back down into spider holes.
Darren finally made up his mind on what they were going to do. They were going to run. He knew they could not win here with their depleting numbers, the enemies adapt to the forest and the fact they were in a kill zone, with the PMC having almost surrounding with heavy weapons left only one choice.
"We're getting out of here people! Pop smoke we're running, better to risk it to chance and maybe survive then stay here and die!" Darren called to all T.F.E soldiers through the radio.
Vespes' voice then came on the line. "Roger that, everyone pop smoke, and scatter try to stay with your squad leaders, try to radio for evac when you're out of combat!" Vespes instructed as more T.F.E soldiers started throwing smoke to either block the enemies view or cover their path.
The T.F.E soldiers ran in different directions in groups with their squads. Darren saw Vespes helping a wounded man and carrying him in a different direction, probably with the man's sqaud. It looked like he was going to be squad leader again.
"Keep running!" Wiseley pushed Darren as he started to run as fast as he could. "Next time don't stand there when we're running!"
"Sorry," Darren replied. "I'll assure you won't get anyone killed." he finished as he jumped over a root protruding out of the ground.
Darren thought back to all the soldiers who lost their lives as they ran, he hoped more people made it out alive then they lost. He couldn't stand knowing a person one day before the next day they were dead, but all he could do was try to stay alive, and hope for the best as he ran, his squad beside him.
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"What do you mean they were ambushed and are scattering?!" the lieutenant screamed through the radio. "I've got enemies all around us and our reinforcements get scattered in an ambush! If we don't get support soon we're as good as dead!"
The lieutenant then turned his head to the mortar teams who had stopped firing. "Why aren't these tubes firing private?!" he asked in a rage with his eyes bloodshot. The lieutenant was screaming at the crew at the top of his lungs.
"We can't they've been shot up to hell, sir!" the soldier protested in his defence as the lieutenant looked to see the tubes riddled with bullet holes.
"Well bring up those mortar shells we can at least use them like grenades." the lieutenant grabbed one of the shells and slammed the bottom off the shell onto the rocky ground of the creek bed and threw it into the woods taking out PMC soldiers hiding behind the trees.
Several soldiers imitated what he had done and began throwing mortar shells at the enemy.
"Reminds me of movie Saving Private Ryan." a soldier commented as he threw a shell at an approaching PMC soldier blowing the soldier into pieces. "That's for Jeff you murdering bastards!" he yelled as the soldier grabbed another shell.
The sound of an approaching plane screamed through the air as an A-10 passed overhead dropping a set of cluster bombs onto PMC soldiers before hightailing back to base for rearmament.
"Fredric what's our current strength at!" the lieutenant shouted as he fired a burst into the woods.
"We're down in manpower by fifty-percent, and ammunition is down by twenty-five percent and dropping!" the soldier exclaimed before turning back to face the enemy.
The sound of treads rolling through the woods approached with the distinct sound of vegetation being crushed under the treads. A vehicle then appeared smashing down several small trees and crushing them with its treads.
"ECM tank, we've got an ECM tank!" a soldier screamed as a tank shell landed near the creek bed spraying the air with debris, and filling the air with a deafening sound.
"Break out the AT weapons!" the lieutenant ordered as a soldier quickly took a recoilless out of its case and aimed it at the vehicle and fired before ducking back down.
The shell bounced of the sloped frontal armour of the tank. The tank then fired another shell this time landing behind the T.F.E troop's position.
"Take it out take it out!" the lieutenant demanded as another shell hit the vehicle this time at the turret and punching a large hole in-between where the gun met the turret.
"I've think we've got it sir!" the recoilless operator stated as the tank started to back away. "Tank's main gun is out of commission!"
The radio operator handed the lieutenant the radio. "Artillery strike is waiting your orders they're just waiting on for the green light."
"Finally some fucking good news!" the lieutenant quickly pulled out his map of the area. "I need artillery at zero, five, three, two, niner, try to keep fire as far from the creek bed as you can."
"Roger coordinated zero, five, three, two, niner. Battery is ranging to target." the operator confirmed as the lieutenant heard the artillery being fired through the radio.
Several seconds after the order the sound of artillery started to fill the air with shells dropping into the woods and almost infront of the T.F.E held creek bed.
The sounds of enemy soldiers screaming filled the air as the lieutenant looked to see a small ground of PMC soldiers caught in the blast. "Ya take that you sons of bitches!" he screamed as more shells rained into the area creating craters in not far from the creek bed.
Sergeant Pailis voice came out of the radio with the sounds of gunfire in the background. "Sir requesting permission to fall back, Henry, Josh, and Cynthia are dead! I don't know how much longer the remaining three of us can hold."
"Roger pull back to the main group!" the lieutenant replied as he checked his ammo finding he only had one spare clip.
"Sir it seems like they've fallen back." a soldier said, the air was silent aside from chatter from several soldiers.
The lieutenant finally started to calm down rubbing his forehead before looking back up. "Don't be too sure." he then said as a squad went to cover the retreating squad coming from the right.
The radio came alive again this time. "This is Charlie Platoon we're heading down to your position. We've stirred up the hornet's nest; we've got PMC soldiers coming from behind us, they shifted their attention from you to us. There's no way we can fight back without regrouping, there's too few of us!"
"Roger that Charlie Platoon, but what happened to you guys flanking the enemy?! HQ told us that's what you're supposed to be doing."
There was a pause in the radio before a reply. "They were waiting for us, and there are a shitload of more soldiers then expected we're outgunned here five-to-one ratio atleast. The same thing that happened to Eagle Platoon has just happened to us."
"Jesus five-to-one ratio." the lieutenant turned to his remaining men. "Alright people break's is over back to the war, we've got more enemy soldiers, do not fire till I give the order. We can atleast die fighting."
Everyone nodded their heads as they got ready aiming their rifles at the woods ahead.
Several soldiers came into view, T.F.E soldier, performing a tactical withdrawal with soldiers who were farthest back from the woods firing at the enemy while the soldiers who got behind the soldiers covering them then covered the forward group as they pulled back.
"Enemy in sight take aim and watch your fire, we can't afford any more loses. Short burst and keep an eye on your ammo." the lieutenant told his soldiers as he took aim. T.F.E soldiers were atleast one-hundred metres away from the creek bed with PMC forces not far behind.
"Wait for it..." he said as more PMC soldiers came into view with most of the retreating T.F.E forces almost at the creek bed.
"Now open fire!" the lieutenant ordered as the remaining members fired as precisely as the lieutenant had previous instructed
PMC soldiers at the front immediately went for cover in the craters created by the artillery strike, other in the back stayed hidden in the woods firing back at the T.F.E soldiers while a sniper started to climb up a tree, to take up sniping position.
"No you don't!" the lieutenant muttered as he fired a burst at the sniper causing the sniper to fall out of the tree before he had even made it half way up.
A T.F.E soldier almost made to the creek bed, but a bullet then struck him in the head causing his dead body to roll forward into the creek bed. Others were luckier managing to get into the creek bed with minor injuries.
"Sir, their pushing up the right flank!" someone called to the lieutenant.
He turned to see it was Pailis and the remainder of his squad. The lieutenant turned to soldiers of Charlie Platoon. "I want you troops to cover our right flank we'll cover the main front."
"Right, we're on it!" the lieutenant of Charlie Platoon acknowledged as he signalled his squad to follow him towards the positions Sergeant Pailis had to give up.
"Well atleast we've got some reinforcements." a sergeant said to the lieutenant.
"Ya, but not enough, PMC soldiers are much more numerous than us, and are trained and recruited much faster. We need our armoured vehicles and aircraft to support us to win this battle, artillery just isn't effective." the lieutenant was proven right as PMC soldiers were closer than ever before due to the craters from the artillery. "I just hope we're not forgotten."
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Darren kept running with the rest of the squad. He did not know how long they've been running for, but he didn't care anything was better than being back in that hell hole.
Their just happened squad was paired up with Dave's squad which was rather a predictable thing to happen since their squad often worked in tandem with each other, although Darren wasn't quite pleased to have a few of Dave's squad members around since they were rather reckless and undisciplined, that even for a seasoned squad leader like Dave had trouble keeping them in line. He was surprised they've lived through combat back in the forest and the Middle-East
Kelvana, who was farthest ahead, called for everyone to stop. She was standing on the out skirts of the woods on top of a cliff overlooking a small village.
"Emer, tell the airbase to pick us up at that village down below." Darren said as everyone began making their way down on a wide dirt path that led to the village ,exhausted by battle, as they slowly moved towards the village.
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Outskirts of Hill 351
Commander Grave watched the battle unfold from his command vehicle, images from all over the battle being transmitted to a large screen in front of him. T.F.E artillery was pounding the hill overlooking the entire region with a hail of shells. Abram and Armadillos led the advance against the entrenched PMC position surrounding the hill with PMC aircraft endlessly strafing armour position with cannon fire and rockets, which in turn caused T.F.E forces to fill the skies with flak and anti-air missiles.
His command vehicle was located at the staging area, a open field and a relative clear line of sight unlike other parts of this area which were completely covered by trees.
T.F.E forces have already broken through one line of defence, but for every inch they crossed another PMC assault fighter would come down and strafe the armour column with Avengers launching AA missiles which often veered off course due to chaff and flares, while M248 self propelled AA guns would fill the skies with flak from twin 40mm Bofors. The cycle continued to repeat itself over and over again.
M248 were developed as a self-propelled AA gun that would was the successor to the failed M247 Sergeant York which was cancelled due to development problems. The turret mounted which carried the radar systems, and tracking systems mounted ontop with 40mm Bofors as its main armament. The turret was placed on the chassis of an Abram tank with downgraded armour similar to the German Gepard Flak panzer.
Another PMC assault fighter came down and launched several missiles a group of Armadillos and Abrams. Several tanks were immediately destroyed with others being damaged in various places.
Several M248s fired their Bofors at the fighter which was now pulling up. Several rounds hit the fighter's fuselage and sent the rest of the fighter into a fireball crashing back down to Earth, the pilot ejecting at the last second before his plane was engulfed in flames.
"Sir we've lost two Abrams and three Armadillos, while three Abrams and an Armadillo are out of action all reporting damage to the treads and turret." one of Grave's officer reported.
"Pull them back from the front line ASAP and order a Avenger to cover them from those aircraft." Grave replied.
"Roger that."
Grave looked to see several PMC fighter get shot out of the sky before they managed to deliver their payload. He expected the battle to end in just several hours, that's if the PMC aren't reinforced. Although his forces were advancing slower than he expected the forces on the hill to be severely depleted due to artillery, the only real threat so far was from the air. The PMC seemed to have an endless supply of aircraft, but then again their aircraft were rarely ever used and were never shot down till now.
The radar suddenly started flickering before he it was back to normal. Grave just expected it to be something with the system; it had been acting up lately.
"Sir the armour's columns colonel is requesting permission to speak with you." one his officers said.
"Put him on." he replied still staring at the screen.
There was some static through the speakers before it was clear the sounds of a vehicle's engine hummed in the background. "Sir requesting permission to cease barrage from the artillery, we're nearing the hill now. We're preparing to engage the fortified positions."
"Affirmative colonel." Grave turned to one of his staff. "Tell the artillery to cease barraging."
"Yes sir." a man replied as he got on the line with the artillery.
"Any news to report?" Grave asked as he picked up his mug and sipped some of his coffee before setting the mug back down.
"Seems like the PMC are attacking us less and less with their aircraft, must be because we shot down a substantial number of those bastards and the rest are afraid of us." the colonel laughed. "The hill is as good as ours." the colonel was extremely confident that hill would be taken in just an hour or so.
"Don't get too cocky colonel; I've already lost a good field officer several days ago due to the same attitude. Keep me posted on any activity." Grave instructed as he ended communication.
"All seems to be going accordingly we-" Grave's eyes widen as he looked on a map of the battlefield. Several dozen battle walkers approached towards his armoured column from the right and left. "Where did those things come from?" Grave demanded.
"I don't know sir they've most of been hiding or somehow dropped in." the officer looked at his screen to see several containers on the ground with several large V.T. taking off as the walkers exited.
The radar showed the V.T.O.L, why weren't they on the radar before, this boggled Grave's mind. The Radar then started to flicker again before going back to normal and the V.T. disappeared.
"Goddamn it," Grave cursed. "Those V.T. are capable of making themselves from our radar until they hit the ground and drop their payload off." Grave turned to reach for the radio and ordered his communication officer to get the colonel on the line.
"Yes, sir what is it?" the colonel asked completely unaware of the situation.
"You've got walkers coming toward your right and left flank. Pull back from the area to the staging area. There's no way you can take them all on without additional support, and you're too close to the enemy for artillery to fire upon them." Grave warned hoping they could pull back before the walkers were in range.
"Yes sir I'm ordering the column to pull back. Do we have any air support atleast?" the colonel replied as Grave heard him shout to all elements in the column to pull back.
"That's a negative, it will be atleast another day till we have more planes to spare, the remaining A-10s have ceased flight operations due to enemy air superiority."
"Roger that commander. Over and out." the radio was then shut off.
Grave then turned the radio off. "Let's hope we can get as many people and vehicles back in one piece." he said as he continued to stare back towards his screen being cautious of any anomalies that happen on his screen.
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Darren looked at the village they were entering. It appeared to be abandoned, atleast several years ago. A few buildings falling into disrepair, while the fields they saw near the village was filled with all kinds of unwanted plants and vegetation.
Emerson then came up beside Darren. "Air base cannot spare any choppers to pick us up. We'll have to stay in this village for a few hours." Emerson said.
"Well then," Darren replied as he turned to Dave. "What are we going to do you're the one who has had the most experience and since you're above me in the chain of command that makes you in charge."
"Check the buildings and I want atleast four people on patrol around the village at all times." Dave told everyone before he then turned to two of his soldiers. "I don't want any stealing or laziness, now go and check the buildings or face disciplinary action!"
The two soldiers immediately started to check the buildings with the rest of Dave's squad, fearing the sergeant would scold them again and be forced to face disciplinary action like last time when they returned back to base in the Middle-East.
"So any volunteer for patrolling the area?" Darren asked, everyone was silent aside from Emerson who just gave a simple nod. "Alright then, since only one person if volunteering I'm going to have to pick. Wiseley, Victor you're up with me and Emerson. Kelvana you help Dave and his squad check this village out."
Emerson and Wiseley paired up and decided to patrol around the area they came through while Darren and Victor moved to cover the back of the village. Kelvana stood there for awhile before she moved to one of the buildings and began searching it.
She looked in a small two storey house. The table and chairs were flipped over and were covered in dust and cobwebs. The room seemed clear as she started to move upstairs. She walked down the hallway seeing two bedrooms that seemed to be for children before see reached the end of the hallway. She came across a room with the door closed. She attempted to open the door only the find it was locked. The door seemed to be ready to fall off its hinges, so she kicked at it until the door fell open.
She entered the room to see it was a bedroom. It was rather simple only having a bed and a drawer. She moved towards the drawer and opened it to find a portrait. It was a picture of a family of four, a father a mother, and two children, a boy and a girl. They seemed relatively happy when the photo was taken the children with wide smiles on their faces and the sun gleaming in the background. She couldn't help, but smile. It reminded her of her family before her mother died.
She remembered when her second oldest almost committed suicide, because she was so attached to mom. Although it wasn't funny, Kelvana gave a small laugh as she remembered having to almost always follow her sister to make sure she wouldn't try to commit suicide again and when they joined in as FROGs for the Outer Heaven she had to watch out for her sister even more.
She finally put the portrait away after a few more moments remembering about her regular life. The building seemed clear so she decided to go down stairs.
The sound of people running down the village streets got louder and louder. Kelvana looked to see it was Darren and Victor running down the streets.
"We've got an enemy convoy moving through here seek cover!" Darren shouted as they quickly entered the building Kelvana was in.
The rumbling of vehicles moving across the path down the village grew louder and louder.
Kelvana peeked out the window to see several APCs roll past their position, before she took her head away.
"Are they just passing through here?" Kelvana whispered as she looked at Darren.
"Probably not they have no use of this village since it isn't anywhere near the front, and there's nothing of value here, or strategic interest." he whispered back.
Everyone was silent and still for several minutes. When they thought all vehicles had past finally did Kelvana look back out.
"All clear." a soldier said softly as he exited the building he was in across the street from them.
"Victor can you go fetch Emerson and Wiseley to see if they're okay?" Darren asked as Victor went out and moved toward the part of the village the other two were in.
"So did you have fun searching the buildings?" Darren said to Kelvana as he exited the building.
She was silent and stared at him before turning her gaze elsewhere.
"Guess that means a no." he said as he turned to Dave who was assembled with his squad.
"So we gonna stay here? If another PMC convoy comes through here we won't stand a chance if they realize we're here." Darren stated as he looked to see Victor, Wiseley and Emerson approaching.
"It's all we've got. Besides better defensive positions here and we don't have to be in the open." Dave turned his back to the squad before speaking again. "Get some rest, Conrad, Gorley you two are on guard duty with Kelvana and Darren. Everyone else get some rest and check your gear, it's gonna be awhile before evac gets here."