Machine guns rumbled across the street, guns and cannons and jets and tanks firing across the city against the enemy advance, which had pushed deep into. Sam, Vic and Vicky were within one of the old Soviet medical in the city center of Belgrade, engaging enemy units advancing toward them on foot. Overhead, the Air Battle was still ongoing, undecided for either side, with missiles and guns both in use by the Air Forces present, while the aliens' own drones engaged up close with strange guns, what looked to be some form of mixed-in willy pete(White Phosphorus) Projectiles and even a few semi-active lock missiles.
Vic engaged an enemy ground unit that took cover amidst the rubble and ruined cars, firing back up at them. Beside them, Serb rifles and various NATO support elements engaged as well. Vicky beside him was reloading her PKM, murmuring several swears in Romanian as she slammed the belt into the feed tray, then pulled down the tray cover, hefting the LMG to her shoulder and firing.
A round from an enemy unit struck beside her window, sending concrete and brick shards into her face. She swore to herself and ducked back into cover, then said, "This is fucking nuts..." as she checked the weapon over to make sure it wasn't damaged. She wiped her face and saw a slim line of blood on her uniform's sleeve. Grabbing a mirror shard off the floor, she looked at herself and sighed, "I'm good! Just a cut on my cheek!" then dropped the shard and dropped onto her stomach, placing the bipod of the LMG down and engaging.
Sammy, sat in the rear with a radio, spoke over com, "BASEPLATE, this is sector 3-Charlie, executive officer, Lieutenant Lee speaking. We're facing heavy enemy resistance. Seems the bastards that landed on the Croatian Beachhead finally caught up. Status on possible reinforcements?" Before her eyes widened suddenly. She radioed, "Negative, negative, if we retreat, the western flank of Chinovijcha Kolonija falls and that gives the bastards a straight shot at MSR Tarawa and the Civvie evac sites across the inner city Danube channel! I understand, command, but we just need another company, at least! Or armor! Anything you can fucking spare!"
"It's no use!" Major Mila, who had bee wounded just recently and had an arm in a sling and the other holding onto her Zastava, called out to Sam. The two women jumped as one of the men in the windows took a round to the throat and collapsed, dead on the spot. Medics crawled up to him and one of them called his time of death in Serbian, while a Chinese marine rifleman ran up to the window to take his spot, firing from his QBZ-95. Mila continued, "Everything we have is engaged! I told you!"
"NATO should still have something in their fucking reserves!" The Lieutenant snapped back. She radioed again, "BASEPLATE, put me through to the commanders of NATO units in the AO! What...!? F..." She caught herself, then replied dispassionately, "Roger last, Command! Tell the Romanians that if they don't wanna fucking wind up the Front Line, they can send whatever they have! Three-Charlie out!" only to slam the mic down onto the radio set and yell out a loud, angry "FUCK! Looks like we're stuck with nothing until some Romanian unit is free!"
An explosion just overhead punctuated that swear, causing the building to shake and shudder to its formation. Vic ducked back into cover, calling out, "Fuckers brought some sort of quadrupedal armor! Damn thing just shot four ATGMs at us, tore through the top floor of the building!" while his sister continued firing. She yelped as a bullet took her helmet off her head and another hit her arm. Slinking back into cover, the girl looked at the damage on her helmet and let out a short, pained laugh.
Vic swore to himself and poked out again, firing at the enemy unit that had hit his sister. A Serb corporal dragged Vicky back into cover and a medic checked on her, then said, "She's fine!" all while the girl laughed. Sam patted her on the leg, then looked back at the troops still within the rubble of the building. The old office space was now a mounting layer of defenses, tables used for dressing the wounded of their intermixed units.
Diana crawled forward, checked on Vicky, patted her on the shoulder, then stood to her feet. A friend of Victor and Victoria's and a Sergeant for the Romanian Armed Forces, Diana Danila was also a girl from an orphanage who got a lucky lot by befriending Vic and Vicky. She crawled up to the window, stood up and shouldered her PM Model 63, a Romanian variation of the AK with the famed wooden foregrip that was nicknamed 'the dong' by AK enthusiasts.
She gripped the rifle by the mag as she fired a burst at an alien down below, managing to hit and stagger it while its buddies returned fire. She murmured to herself, "I swear to God, Vic, if you getting pussy's the reason the world's fucking ending right now, I'm going to kill you!" which got a nervous, but jovial laugh out of everyone around. She watched Vicky put her helmet back on and go to another window, engaging from there with her LMG.
Sammy marched up to the window, taking cover behind the brick wall next to Vic and stating, "We're gonna have to pull back!"
"We're running low on belts, so I'm not opposing that!" Vic shot back, then turned to shoot back at the aliens that were firing on them. Down below, a T72 of the Serbian Military fired an HE-FRAG round from amidst the rubble, striking one of the three quadrupedal hovering artillery pieces dead center. The explosion sent shrapnel and lifted a car about two inches off the ground, taking out maybe four aliens. The commander was mounted on the cupola 12,7 DShKM, firing away now as the autoloader did its work.
Sammy poked out and fired a burst as well, then looked up and screamed, "HOLY SHIT-!" as she grabbed Vic by the collar and pulled him down into cover with her. Two enemy drones flew just over the building, one of them firing its missile at the window. The explosion that followed almost deafened the crew. Sam whined, "Fucking Tinnitus... Not service related, my ass..."
She looked around as the smoke began to clear, noting the layers of dust and debris caking everyone. Three more Serb riflemen, a pair of Romanians from Vic's squad and even two of her own had died in the blast and the wall they were using as cover was gone. Sammy crawled toward Vicky as Diana and Vic regained their bearings, then checked the girl.
Vicky turned onto her back, face covered by the grey concrete dust, then coughed hoarsely, murmuring, "Să-i fut în cur de retardați mintali, I think half my lungs are concrete..."
"You've had worse," Sammy laughed, patting her on the chest and causing her to cough out a cloud of it. Sam then stood to her feed and slowly walked with a wobble back to the radio. She felt something warm trickling down her hip, but paid it no mind for now. Pulling up the radio, she heard it crackle to life, then listened in. With a quick smile and a face made white by plaster, the girl replied, "This is Three-Charlie, go ahead! Hah! Roger! Fucking roger that! We're just South-East of the University Hospital, in the old office building near the Oncology section! Roger! Three-Charlie out!" and she then called out to anyone who could hear, "Romanian infantry company, callsign VULTURE, is coming in three mikes! Prep the wounded for EVAC!"
"All units, this is Vampire Actual, we're repositioning to the ground floor!" Diana radioed. She picked up Vicky with the help of Vic and then motioned to Mila's men to help them move out. One of the Chinese soldiers that was still alive picked up the command radio Sam had spoken on so far and they all moved out to help prepare the wounded while a second, fresher unit took positions by the windows and the hole in the wall to keep the enemy suppressed.
Vic stopped mid helping a nurse pack a wounded man, watching as the distant suburbs of the city burned, billowing clouds of fire and black smoke darkening the west as the midday sun shined overhead. He bit his lower lip and said, "Sorry for your people," To the Serb nurse. The woman, a black-haired beauty with emerald eyes, nodded in thanks as she changed the bandage of a wounded Serb policeman. She and the Romanian then lifted the man off the desk they were using as a makeshift table and onto a stretcher.
Medical personnel took over as the groups quickly descended down the stairs to the platoons acting as rearguard. A pair of Serb rifles assisted in keeping them covered, with Mila telling them, "Rumunska jedinica nas evakuiše za minut!" before moving up to one of the doors, which had been barricaded with sandbags and made into an MG nest occupied by a .50 caliber MG that was still firing, its shield having taken hits.
She looked back to Sam as the girl joined her by the nest's 'window', looking outside to see units of Serbian infantry, Police and Counter-terrorism units engaged in a firefight with platoons across the street. In a distant park, which was ablaze, gunfire flashed still. Above, drones and jets continued a deadly dance while choppers flew low, attempting to provide both Close Air Support and evacuation options for those stuck on higher buildings.
The elements of the unit that could pushed forward to help provide cover, while Mila and Sammy went toward the open 'door'. A window that had been broken. It was flanked by two other sandbag nests that were taking fire, with the Serbs and other infantry returning fire. Sammy poked her rifle out and fired a burst as Vic rushed in and set up his MG next to one of the other Serbs with a PKM and another with a Zastava copy of an MG42.
The aliens pushed forward amidst the wreckage just as the T72 fired another fragmentation round. It hit and detonated, spraying the remains of one of the enemies around after a direct impact and washing several dozen others in shrapnel. They still advanced, however, unabated. One dragged their wounded behind cover and started tending to it, while the others advanced from cover to cover, leapfrogging, firing their arm-mounted cannons.
A Serb trooper that rushed toward the door with an RPG took three rounds to the chest and his blood sprayed across the wall behind him. He fell, dead, half his body poking out through the way out. Sammy swore to herself as she saw that, then quickly reloaded her empty gun and rammed the bolt home, poking out and firing toward one of the aliens. She put rounds into the left side of its chest. Several, in fact. Beside her, the other Serbs, Romanians and such focused fire, too.
"Romanian vehicles, approaching left!" Another Romanian, this one with a PSL, called loudly as he snapped off a shot from the DMR-esque rifle. An alien staggered, a hole was punched in its chest and it collapsed. A second took a round to the leg from a .50 caliber bullet from the MG mounted on an MRAP. A few transport trucks, a combination of KamaZes and US Army stuff, rolled in behind them as well.
About two platoons of Romanian motor infantry dismounted, rifles and MGs roaring as they advanced. The man in charge, a Major, stepped forward into the line and saluted Mila and Sammy, then said, "Major Mateescu, First Infantry Division! Your wounded need a ride?!"
"Aye!" Mila nodded, smirking, "We got about a hundred wounded, including Police and counter-terrorism units that survived the initial bombing runs!"
"Right this way!" He motioned, with his medical staff moving in to help haul the wounded. Sammy looked to him and he told her, "We're evaccing past the Danube, blowing the land bridges and heading back to Romania! The Chinovijcha Kolonija is lost and every single unit there, Serb, Russian or NATO, is pulling back! We have enough space to fit anyone who can walk on board our trucks, but we gotta move fucking fast! Air Cover'll thin out and our window will close!"
"I and my unit will stand! This is our city!" Mila replied, "Take the Lieutenant and your soldiers out of here!"
"You'll be overrun! We can make a stand back in Romania!" The man shot back. Mila shook her head.
"This is my city, Major! I will hold it with my last fucking breath!" She replied, pointing at herself, them she pointed out back the way the Romanians came and told them, "Get the wounded and survivors back to NATO territory! We'll cover your rear while you evacuate! Slava Terra!" before patting him on the shoulder and chopping her hand forward. Her men opened fire with every weapon in their arsenal, while Sam looked to the Romanian Major.
"Alright! Pack it in!" He jabbed a thumb back. The Chinese lieutenant sighed, nodded and motioned for her men and Vic's platoon to follow. The group filed out under the cover fire of their comrades from the Serbian Army just as a missile arched in and destroyed the tank that was covering them, its turret flung high into the sky by the detonation of its carousel.
"C'mon! Move! Move!" Sam yelled at her men as they all climbed aboard the Romanian transports, bullets zipping past them. Some soldiers stopped to fire their weapons, provide cover as well. Mila gave the Romanians and Chinese a salute as they boarded the transports, with Vic, Vicky and Sammy entering the back of a truck with the rest of the Romanians and the wounded.
Before long, the convoy swiveled about and began its travel out of the country. The sounds of gunfire grew distant, the wailing and droning of jet fighters overhead subsiding with the fighting. As the groups crossed the bridge over the Danube, Sam listened in on the radio as reports from Serbian troops and other rearguard units that decided to fight to protect the evacuation fell ever-silent, one by one.
She sighed and swore to herself, leaning back against the wooden bench and looking at the wounded that were being tended to by RoAF Medics. She nudged Vic's elbow with her own and took her helmet off, revealing the only part of her hair that hadn't been covered by plaster and concrete dust, then told him, "Shit's already fucked... Do you think... Do you think we'll be able to hold Romania?"
"... Best bet would be the Mountains," He sighed, rubbing his face, "Them and Bucharest..." before pausing and asking, "Hey, caporal."
"Da?" One of the Romanians up ahead, a young man with an injury to his left arm, raised a brow.
"What's the status in Constanța? We holding?"
"Barely..." The man replied, "US Marine Corps is doing numbers on the fuckers, but they've sieged multiple cities and hit the MK base. Most of the Black Sea coast is in the shit. Turks can barely support us, the Georgians are dealing with their own crap, Ukraine's fighting around Mariupol and Odessa and the Crimea was completely seized by these alien bastards. Last message we got from Sevastopol was 'Still fighting. God bless the Motherland', before the radio went silent some days ago..."
"Damn," Both Vic and Vicky said at the same time, classically twin-like of'em. The Romanian corporal nodded, only for them to pause as another group of vehicles rolled in behind them. Hungarian markings greeted the units, with the pair watching with muted awe as one of the vics had a certain man as gunner. Paul, to his credit, also noticed them immediately and smirked, waving.
Vic crawled up to the back of the truck and called out, "You lucky sons of bitches! How are you holding up!?"
"Like shit!" Paul replied with a grin, "But we're there! Glad to see you, Vicky and Sammy are okay, man!"
"Gonna take the will of God to put us down, bro!" Vicky laughed, with Sam crawling up to the front to join them as well. Paula poked her head up from behind the truck's cabin and smiled, too, leaning against the top. Both her and her brother were seemingly as battered as Vic and Vicky and their unit, not to mention Sammy and the others. Paula snorted, then smiled as she looked at her brother's reaction.
"Why do you all look like you put on clown makeup?!" Paul asked jovially.
"You're whiter than the nearest Serb village!" Paula added upon the joke.
Vic waved it off and said, "Shitheads nearly dropped a building on us! We'll tell you more when we get to FOB!" only to receive a thumbs up from both Nemeth twins. The Romanians and Chinese woman sat themselves back down, watching as more NATO Jets flew out overhead, probably to reinforce the distractions fighting in Belgrade. Some hours later, the transports had made it past the fairly heavily-fortified Romanian Danube crossings, where entire regiments of tanks, artillery and troops were waiting to greet the enemy, arrayed for battle and entrenched, SPAA ready to fill the sky with missiles and rounds and even ECM and ECCM gear standing in the rear, antennae spinning.
The survivors dismounted, walked to the chow and shower halls... And now had to wait.
Wait for shit to get worse...