The idea of launching an airborne assault on an island that had a known air defense blanket sounded sketchy at best to Sergeant Andrew Court, but at the very least their ride was accompanied by Wild Weasel, a flight of F-16CJs fitted with jammers and anti-radiation missiles. Not that Court was flying anything. He was a tank commander, and his vehicle was being carried by a C-130J Hercules, a propellor-driven transport aircraft.
"All Ironside callsigns, five mikes out." Court's platoon commander announced on the radio.
"Ironside 2, copy." Court replied from the commander's seat of his vehicle, an M21B1 Mattis. His gunner, Specialist Bradley Cooper, was flicking through switches and pressing buttons to verify his optics worked. Court stood up and closed the turret hatch as he felt the aircraft beneath him pitch down. They were on their final approach.
"Rangefinder good, thermals good, stabilizer active, gun ready. We're all green." Cooper reported to Court regarding the Mattis's weapons status.
"Red light, red light." The aircraft's loadmaster announced. Court and Cooper strapped in for the approach. Their driver did the same. Looking through the M21's commander independent sight, Court saw that the rear bay door of the Herc was open and a red light illuminated the cargo bay.
"Green light, green light!" The loadmaster shouted.
"Hold on." Court ordered, bracing himself for the impending fall by gripping a pair of handles either side of the commander's seat. Out of the blue the vehicle was yanked out of the cargo bay of the C-130 and cast out into the open air. The backdrop of an island awaited in front of them. The M21 lost almost all of its forward airspeed and started tilting forward, but the vehicle leveled out upon the deployment of parachutes attached to the platform the Mattis was bolted to. In line with Court and his Mattis were three identical vehicles, all slowly descending towards the island.
12 OCT 2010
Arkhalis Island
The M21B1 Mattis was a curious vehicle. Designed as a fire support platform to support airborne forces, the Mattis was a low profile vehicle featuring an autoloaded one-twenty millimetre main gun, a coaxial machinegun and a powerful engine for its size. It was fast, its gun was capable of punching through anything fielded by Yuktobania and it was the only tank destroyer in Osean service that could be deployed from a C-130. All of that came at a price of protection. The Mattis's armour could stop small arms fire and fourteen-five guns like the Kord or Dskha, but anything heavier like a BMP's autocannon would shred an M21 to pieces.
The deployment of a final drogue chute brought Ironside 2 to a bone-rattling landing. The bolts holding the Mattis to the pallet came off and the vehicle lurched forward under its own power.
"Gunner, index MPAT!" Court ordered once he had gotten himself unstrapped from the landing.
"MPAT indexed!" Cooper confirmed the order. The gun's autoloader went into action, loading a round into the breech.
"All Ironside callsigns, Ironside 1, form right echelon on me." The platoon commander, Ironside 1, instructed.
"Driver, echelon on the PL's right." Court relayed this instruction to his driver, Private First Class Jeremy Leonard. The Mattis's turbine howled as the vehicle started moving under its own power, lining up behind and to the right of Ironside 1. Two similar vehicles, Ironside 3 and Ironside 4, established the rear end of the formation. All of their guns were pointing at the row of decades old buildings ahead. The transports that brought them in were popping flares as they circled away from Arkhalis Island. Ironside Platoon was not on their own. Backing them up were two companies of infantry from the 82nd Airborne, being deployed by four additional C-130Js. Since the runway was cratered to shit, Ironside was providing cover for the two companies while they were dropped at the eastern most point of the island.
"All Ironside callsigns, Ironside 1, weapons free on enemy personnel." Ironside 1 informed the other three Ironside callsigns of their rules of engagement.
"Hey, infantry!" Right on time, Cooper spotted enemy infantry scooting around in the buildings. "Five hundred, in the right most hangar!"
"Gunner, coax." Court told Cooper to engage the infantry with their coaxial machinegun.
"On the way!" Cooper said before pulling the trigger. The M240 mounted next to the main gun put rounds down range. The other Mattis' followed Cooper's tracers and opened up with their own coaxials, spraying down the hangar with 7.62. Court engaged the vehicle's CITV and scanned for targets. He found a machinegun emplacement on top of what used to be the air traffic control tower.
"Gunner, cease fire." Court ordered, directing Cooper onto the next target. "Infantry, MPAT and coax, seven hundred. Traverse left."
The turret spun around to the left. There was an indicator on the gunner's screen to see what the commander was looking at and vice versa.
"Steady. On!" Court made sure that Cooper was on target.
"Identified!" Cooper saw what Court wanted him to shoot at.
"Fire!" Court ordered.
"On the way!" Cooper pressed the trigger, sending a one-twenty mike high explosive round into the control room of the ATC. Smoke started billowing out of the ATC as Cooper began to hose down the tower with the coax. Court saw what appeared to be a burning body fall from the tower. To their left, the autoloader mechanism was working its magic and slamming another round into the chamber.
"Gunner, cease fire!" Court instructed. The coax went silent. If anybody had been in that tower, they sure as hell were running like hell now. Court had been about to slew the CITV back towards the bulk of the airfield's facilities when he noticed a vehicle moving onto the runway. It was a Tigr MRAP with what appeared to be an ATGM launcher on the gunner's hatch.
"Gunner, MPAT, PC, eight hundred! Traverse left!" Court tasked Cooper to destroy the vehicle before it got an anti-tank missile off. The turret swiveled. "On!"
"Identified!" Cooper saw the target.
"Fire!" Court gave the final fire command.
"On the way!" Cooper pressed the trigger once more, sending a round careening down the runway and right into the engine bay of the armoured car. The Tigr went up in a massive ball of flame. It came back down to earth in at least a dozen chunks of steel.
"Target. Cease fire!" Court ended the engagement. The immediate ATGM threat had been taken care of.
"Ironside Actual, 0-1 Actual, we're on the deck and ready to move." One of the infantry company commanders was on the radio to Ironside 1.
"0-1 Actual, Ironside Actual, acknowledged, we're moving forward now." Ironside 1 switched from the company radio to their internal circuit radio. "All Ironside callsigns, Ironside 1, move up to the airport facilities and provide suppression. Maintain formation, ten metre spacing, five KPH."
"You hear that, Leonard?" Court asked his driver.
"Yup." Leonard replied over the intercom from his position in the front of the hull.
"Move out."
"Rah."
Ironside Platoon started rolling while their coaxials rained hell on the buildings they were approaching. Following behind at a steady pace were two hundred paratroopers, parachutes discarded and weapons in hand. They were the primary assault force. Ironside was merely there as mobile fire support. Coaxial barrels radiating smoke by the time they had made it to the hangars, once they had made entry the brunt of the fight was up to the infantry. Court and the crew of Ironside 4 turned around and acted as the infantry's rear guard, while Ironside 1 and 3 detached to go patrol up the runway. Court got to watch on the BLUEFORCE display as dozens of callsigns slowly rolled up through Arkhalis Island's decrepit aviation facilities.
Two hundred troops was more than enough to route out a garrison of maybe a hundred drained and depleted VDV personnel. An hour after the assault had begun, the Yukes that had either surrendered or were wounded were brought out to the hangars and rounded up. Ironside 2 watched over the Yuktobanian prisoners of war with their main gun pointed at them. Two hours after that, the island had been cleared proper and all remaining resistance had been properly quelled.
After a brief visit via tiltrotors and helicopters to fly out the wounded personnel from both sides, Arkhalis Island fell silent. For Court, Cooper and Leonard over the next couple of hours, the only noise they heard was the low-pitch whine of the M21's auxiliary power unit. Their first combat drop in the war and it had gone as smooth as butter. In an ideal world, their next drop would have been over mainland Yuktobania, but time would tell if the hopes of enacting decade old doctrines would hold true.