Operation Black Dawn, 1995
Mission 25 - Now's the Day, and Now's the Hour!
October 1995/December 1096
Midway of Operation Chernobog Shield
"Raise the scarlet standard high, Beneath its folds we'll live and die!
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we'll keep the red flag flying here!"
- Anthem of the United Socialist Republic of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, "The Red Flag"
Sergeant Jack Cooper [Allied Nations - 3rd Jumpjet Regiment, Jumpteam 'Camelot', British Republican Air Force] - Skies of Chernobog - Dated December, 1096
"Remember, lads!" My shout echoed through the radio as I dove down into the fray, grinning madly as a crossbow bolt seemed to graze my cheek, the blood oozing out and falling into the wind as I continued my diving down. "Now's the Day and Now's the Hour!"
"Now's the Day and Now's the Hour!" Was the response that I got from his radio, before I immediately began opening fire on the Reunion crossbowman watchtower, the bullets riddling the tower causing the Reunion soldiers to stumble back and fall. "Keep at it, lads!" The voice of Kay, also known as Lance Corporal Thomas Washington, responded. "Now's the Day and Now's the Hour!"
I smiled. We were proper Republicans! Keep the red flag raised, and wave it proudly!
"Now's the Day and Now's the Hour!"
I laughed maniacally as the watchtower seemed to collapse on one leg and immediately fall, only to swerve right and growl, teeth-baring as an Arts bolt nearly missed me. Immediately I tracked the source—and landed on a watchtower that seemed to be collapsing too. I didn't even bother to do anything other than aim the machine gun at the falling leg and unleash a hail of bullets into it, causing it to fall and tip over.
I watched with surprise, however, as the tower collapsed and he immediately fell out of it... But still stood. Wait. Something crossed my mind. How the hell did these guys manage to withstand falls but crumble like goddamn wet paper when assault rifles are fired? How the hell does that work? Scoffing, I instead dove down, angling my aim to grab the arsehole-
And imagine my surprise when I managed to snag him by the hood via the hook that was normally in reserve for hanging, and lifted him with it, the jetpack carrying him to places where he wasn't supposed to be. To prevent him from trying anything, I immediately flew back, aiming for a building that was still standing- And grinning as I had time to perform this. Dazed and confused, the Arts caster—that was what the intel from the captured prisoners had called them—seemed to flail and thrash, with nothing to aim at as he spun around and around.
But all of that ended as I lifted myself while flying backward, resulting in him slamming into the building just below me at speeds of up to 45 km/h. The disgusting squelch of the man being eviscerated by a slam that fast made me wince. Perhaps I had been too harsh on the guy. But that didn't matter much to me as I flew forward once again, before going backward as fast as I could and then immediately slamming into the wall again. Blood seemed to splash onto my uniform. So, confused, I landed on the rooftop of the building to assess the damage of him.
When I unsnagged him from the hook, the Caster seemed to have his face pummelled into itself like a fine pancake. Eyeballs squished and split, with blood and viscera pouring out of his ears. Shit. I think I saw brain matter. Eugh. Oh, man. I shouldn't have done that. I coughed and retched in disgust before turning the jetpack back on and aiming up, the flight joystick almost rattling from how fast I wanted to get out of there, and my hand on the other joystick that controlled the machine gun.
After I found myself in the air, I sighed and took a deep breath, almost relieved as the sound of my squadmates continuing to have fun blasting the Reunion camp away continued to bear. But it was just a shame we had no firepower other than 5.56mm machine guns. At least give us an autocannon or something. Not just a peashooter. This thing was going to be outdated soon, and he knew it. How long until they adapt to us?
I knew that Commander Jean still had a long way before he could get the field upgrade to integrate a grenade launcher into us Jumpjet troopers. Oh, how horrible it was to be a Jumpjet trooper and not have the grenade launchers. Christ. It would still be more convenient. But perhaps he could find a way to get it installed.
That's what I hoped.
My mind was snapped out of his musing by the frantic shouting of the Repair APC that was dropped in. "Shit! Camelot, come in!" I cursed. That was the sound of Zulu 1 Actual. The commander of the repair APC. He didn't sound too happy. I turned on my earpiece and muttered something similar to 'I'm here' which immediately got Zulu 1 Actual to sigh in relief. "Thank Christ you're here, Sergeant-"
"Spit it out, Zulu," I asked in frustration. "What's the hold-up?"
"Palamedes! Thank Christ you're here! We've got enemy mortars- Shit! One of them just blew up near me! We've got mortars harassing our forces over here! I can't repair without risking a T-Kill!" The sound of engine noises and the wheezing of Zulu 1 Actual was all it took to convince me. Gotta take out those mortars A-SAP. I nodded and then immediately started to shift to the left. Immediately, I turned on my radio.
"Charlemagne, I'm requesting a visual identification of the mortar team near grid square 089204, near Bravo 1 and the other units," I continued as sporadic gunfire seemed to continue on and on- I looked to my right and began to wince at the scene. I saw the Osorio and Abrams retreating, the SIDAM APCs continuing to open fire at the infantry hordes. The Repair APC continued to be hounded as it attempted to patch holes. "And I need them ASAP. Just use a goddamn IR laser or something." I said as I turned off the HUD in the integrated tactical goggles.
Being in the Jumpjet Regiment meant you had access to very great equipment. Such as these integrated tactical goggles, courtesy of Apple-IBM. The current objective was on the left of the user interface: "ELIMINATE REUNION BASE IN THE PARK." Which seemed to be a pretty damn easy job to me. It was controlled through a knob on the right side which cycled between the map and objective directives, the vision mode—which allowed us Jumpjets to switch between night-vision and thermal vision—and a BLUFOR tracker.
Letting go of my machine gun joystick for a second, I adjusted the knob so that it displayed BLUFOR elements while waiting for Charlemagne's response. The moment the BLUFOR tracker came on, I saw that the soldiers of the 1st Arkansas Airborne and the Brazilian Parachute Infantry Brigade engaging in prolonged firefights with Reunion, the five Humvees and three SIDAMs pouring anti-infantry support while the two medium tanks provided cover and the repair APC was trying not to get killed.
"This is Charlemagne," The sniper team perched up top had responded. "Wait one, Palamedes. We're trying to pinpoint the mortar position. Wait one."
"Then you better give me results A-SAP, or else we're going to lose three more men to mortar fire," I grunted. "Palamedes out." I said as I switched radio frequencies and swerved right. "Squad. Regroup at the Water Tower at this grid square," I say as I adjust the knob on the goggles with my right hand, managing to pinpoint a nearby location to use as the RV point. "Be there or we lose a repair APC."
"Copy, Palamedes," came Kay's voice, better known as LCpl. Thomas Washington. "Heading there right now. Wait one." He said, as I saw him off in the distance jetpacking his way over to the water tower. "Oi. Bedivere. You get to the water tower or not?"
The irritated voice of Bedivere replied. "Yeah, yeah. Just have to deal with these assholes trying to shoot me down with crossbows." She seemed to always think of charging in first—bloody hell.
"Don't take too long," I warned as I soon switched to addressing the last member of Jumpteam Camelot. "Erec. Status report?" I asked, before getting an aggressive sigh and groan in response.
"I just got my fuckin' balls nearly ripped off by some arsehole's Arts magic shit," He explained as I turned to my left and saw him jet-packing in alongside Bedivere. "But I've got Bedi here. She's managed to kill the arseholes who fired crossbows on her-" He said, before chuckling and interrupting himself. "-And also managed to kill the twats who almost fried my balls."
"Well, ain't that some good fuckin' news," I sighed as the rest of Jumpteam Camelot then proceeded to land on the radio tower, almost looking relieved to have been away from crossbow fire. Splitting up into individual crowd-control jumpjets may seem fun, but it's not. Either way, we're all back together- That's all that matters. "Well, now that we're all together- You can drop the codenames. We're all revolutionary officers of the People of Britain, after all," I emphasized, thumping my right hand over my chest. "Remember the red flag we raise on high."
"Now's the Day and Now's the Hour, Sergeant." The other three members of Jumpteam Camelot replied as they also thumped their chests with their right hand, the proud flag of the United Socialist Republic of Great Britain and Northern Island proudly displayed on their shoulders and their jumpjets. Nodding in satisfaction at the devotion of Jumpteam Camelot, I then turned the radio back on.
"Charlemagne- Any updates on those mortar teams? We can't scour them without getting hit with a hail of bows and arrows, damnit." I said. Just then, a deep sigh—seemingly of relief—was the response I got. Unamused, I shook my head and sighed. "I assume that means you got the mortars located for me, then?" I smirked. Yeah, it was likely that.
"Palamedes, we've obtained the location. Sending the detail to command right now," Charlemagne's sniper said. "Switch the goggles to your map. I've told Command to input the grid square that contained the mortars," He said. I nodded and I turned the knob on my goggles to the map, smirking as I saw the red arrows that pointed at the grid squares containing the hidden mortars harassing the repair APC. "Good luck."
"Thank you, Charlemagne," I smiled before I turned to the rest of Jumpteam Camelot. "Jumpteam! Turn your tac-goggle knob to the map!" He said as everyone switched to it. "Take out the mortars designated manually by command at those grid squares!" Everyone nodded and gave an affirmative, before sprinting off the water tower and activating the jetpacks, boosting them. I smiled. I then followed suit, sprinting with all of my might, giving a leap of absolute faith-
Then, I activated the engine on the jetpack as it boosted me up. I angled myself forward, then turned around to give a thumbs-up to roughly where Sniper Team Charlemagne was. Hopefully, they got it- Otherwise, I'd have to walk up to them and smack them myself.
"Remember, lads!" I shouted as I moved my right hand away from the machine gun joystick, thumping my chest.
"Now's the Day and Now's the Hour!"
Operator Kroos [Rhodes Island - Reserve Team A1, Operational Reserve, Rhodes Island] - Outskirts of Aurora Park - Dated December, 1096
"See anything interesting in the carnage?" Fang opened up as Kroos continued to keep her eyes on the carnage that occurred in the nearby Aurora Park, now a Reunion encampment. And now, just being decimated. Kroos simply nodded as she observed one of their jetpack infantry—the fact that they managed to get non-disposable jetpacks amazed her—destroy the Reunion sentry towers in such a rapid pace. It was little wonder why many of Rhodes Island had to be briefed on the United Nations A-SAP.
"Well," Kroos mentioned as she lowered her binoculars, Reserve Team A1 simply standing in the midst of a higher-up floor of a ruined apartment building while gunfire continued to ring out. "I did manage to catch a glimpse of the United Nations' jetpack soldiers. I think I saw one of them wearing a different hat than the rest."
"And the other members of the United Nations currently fighting over in the ground?" Beagle opened up. "It's just so scary how they can so easily just bomb Reunion like that." Yeah. Kroos sighed and shook her head, eyes closed as she fought back a grimace. The United Nations found a camp that had managed to evade recon so easily, and just decided to wipe it off the face of Terra.
Goodness, if she didn't know that these were the United Nations. She'd have immediately thought of contacting them. Damn the potential consequences of such an action.
"Yeah, and to think they're fighting those scary guys in gray." Hibiscus sighed as she continued to watch the carnage, Lava glaring at her as she scooted away, Hibiscus too entranced by the carnage to really care. Kroos always found it nothing short of miraculous that she managed to survive an attack by that rival group of the United Nations. "It's just easy to forget that we don't know who they are or where they came from."
"I still stand by my theory that they're just an arm of Columbia to use in bullying around, First they test it against someone that nobody will miss—that being Reunion," Lava said as she successfully managed to scoot just about 10 meters away from Hibiscus. "And for all I know, their next phase is being deployed in Bolívar to fight in their civil war."
Kroos turned around, binoculars still kept to herself as she turned to face Lava. "And what, is this... Butterhood? Brotherhoot? Bro-"
"Brotherhood."
"Yeah- Is this Brotherhood of, uh, Not- Is it s'posed to be some sort of, uh, fake opposition? Op-for, I think it was called..."
"Hmph. It's most likely that, yes, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Lethanien invention- To keep the populace shepherded with the threat of terrorism. A kind of... better Reunion. It'd be very easy to convert the populace to your tyranny if you just gave them an existential threat and multiplied it to prove a point."
"Well-" Hibiscus chuckled. "Looks like we've taken a turn for the political already. The Doctor must be amused at us for this. Though they're currently dealing with Reunion, so..." She mused. "I did hear that it was cold over there. I wonder if it really was as bitterly cold as they say?"
"Well, wherever they are," Fang muttered, Kroos turning to face her. "I hope that they're alright."
"Likewise," Kroos muttered as she turned her eyes back on the carnage. "Oh- Look. I think that they're beginning to run the Reunionites out of Aurora Park-" She said as the rest of Reserve Team A1 moved their heads to face the bloodshed right in front of their eyes. "Huh. They're finally doing it-" Kroos' eyes widened a little as she watched a big machine in tan color smash through a line of trees, turning its 'head' around—likely a turret—and firing what seemed to be a big cannon on a Reunion position as other infantry swarmed to support it.
"Yikes," Kroos muttered. "I heard from the report about the vehicles the, uh, United Nations uses-" She watched as a jetpack soldier dodged a casted arts beam and grabbed the caster, before slamming them against a nearby building- The brutality of such a thing snapped her out of her binoculars, causing her to stop getting out of it. She just blinked as the memory seemed to burn into her mind. The red spilling on the jetpack soldier's uniform—something that she couldn't see closely, thankfully—seemed to be the star of the show.
A sigh and a shaken head was all that came out of her, as the rest of Reserve Team A1 seemed to recoil instead. "Did that jetpack soldier just-" Hibiscus interjected. Lava bit her lips and groaned. Her sister was being a little whiney about it... But truth be told Lava felt the same about his death too.
"Yeesh," Beagle said, cringing and almost grinding her teeth. "Do they really have that in their battle plans? Or is it just..."
"Something done in the heat of the moment for fun?"
"...We'll go with that, yeah," Beagle cringed as she replied to Kroos' question. "Like. It just doesn't make me think they deliberately enforce that in their plans. Maybe it's just how, uh, these jetpack soldiers individually deal with Reunion-"
"Hey, uh," Kroos commented as she turned her eye to a slow, heavy noise approaching the area- "Anyone else hear that? Some, uh, heavy noise?" She didn't know the proper words to describe it. But she just knew it was... very... She didn't know how to say it. But it felt like it was cutting through the air. Her question directed the rest of Reserve Team A1 to look with her too.
They were greeted with surprise as what seemed to be three more airships approached the area. They made the same noise they heard earlier when they were scouting out the ruins of Chernobog before the carnage they witnessed had happened. The rear of these airships opened- And through the binoculars Kroos was surprised when she saw what appeared to be more soldiers—or perhaps, Operators—jumping out of the rear of the airship.
The airships next to them, however, dropped what seemed to be vehicles. One dropped what seemed to be a metal box with a crane on top. And another one, more to the foreground just beside the jumping soldiers, had been another metal box. This time, the crane seemed to be replaced with a machine gun. Her eyes darted to the soldiers and she watched in amazement as a round canvas deployed from their backs, slowing down their descent.
These must have been their version of Reunion's disposable jetpack soldiers, then. As she zoomed in, the rest of Reserve Team A1 seemed to boom with conversation. "Do you think they're reinforcing this area to ensure that Reunion's fully driven out?" Beagle asked, eyes still locked to the carnage and murder. Hibiscus could only sigh as she hoped that they had brought medics along with them. Lava and Fang, though, just kept a stony expression as they continued to watch the violence.
Kroos put down her binoculars and looked back at the rest of Reserve Team A1, a sigh on her face as she tried to keep her eyes distanced from the violence. She would be ideally delighted to hear that the United Nations was present, but with them sweeping up Reunion first she couldn't really do much. And it all fell upon Fang anyway, who looked at the carnage stone-faced. Kroos' head turned to the right. "Fang?" She asked.
"Mhm?" Fang's head turned to her left, an eyebrow now raised as she kept her spear nearby. Something told Kroos that she was a bit divided on something, but she couldn't exactly tell what. "What is it, Kroos?"
"Do you remember the briefing we went over before we were deployed to Chernobog? The one about the United Nations?" Kroos asked as Fang nodded.
"Yes, I do," She said as she turned back to the battle in front of her. Poorly equipped melee Reunion soldiers against soldiers that had enough firepower to make Blacksteel blush and sue for copyright infringement. It wasn't really a battle. It was more of a massacre. But that was why they had to get to the United Nations first, lest they turn that firepower against them. Something that nobody would desire at all. "But I'm not sure if we should be really attempting contact so soon."
"I mean, I understand," Lava interjected, a groan from her as Hibiscus just continued to stare with widened eyes. "I'd not want to contact them just while they're slaughtering Reunion over there. Hell, anyone with a brain wouldn't dare to think of crossing with them while they're cleaning up Reunion. I don't really feel sorry for Reunion, but I don't want to get shot."
"So I suppose we wait until the end of the battle? That your solution?" Beagle said.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Hibiscus said, shaking her head and closing her eyes. "Angering them brings terrible things. I haven't been in the Chernobog case, but I've been to Lungmen- You remember that Nod and this, uh, United Nations are fighting."
"Yeah. Wasn't that bit of info straight from the horse's mouth? That one Nod prisoner we kept in the base?"
"Mhm. Heard that he's the one who contributed the most intel on our Brotherhood dossier. Not enough, but just enough to know that they're apparently opposed to the United Nations. Instructor Dobermann's interrogation was thorough."
"Well, right then," Fang said as she watched the soldiers land and discard their... Bags. Yeah. Bags. The soldiers then seemed to procure their rifles from another bag with them, and then proceeded to open fire. Kroos' eyes tracked the direction they were shooting at, and she was surprised to see Reunion scattering from the area. From her spot, she could see the remnants trying to move out of the park and getting gunned down instead. Fang did the same and soon came to regret this decision. "...I stand by my initial assessment."
"But that being said, they're probably finishing up with the carnage," Kroos said as she looked at Fang. "I think that in a few minutes, we'll be able to contact them."
"Let's just hope that they don't light us up, though," Hibiscus noted. "Was that how the term was used? I just picked it up from one of the other operators..." She said as she unwrapped a ration and took a bite into it. It was a healthy one. Which to Kroos, tasted like shit. But if Hibiscus liked it, then she supposed that she was entitled to her taste. Even if it sucked.
"Hm, I wonder- Do the United Nations eat healthy?" Hibiscus suddenly pined as she munched on her healthy ration. "I mean- Comparative to the armies of, say, Ursus or the like- It seems impossible for them to maintain such a large number of firearm-wielding soldiers unless they put them on strict health control to maximize the gain from the bullets fired by arts."
"Or they could've developed a drug to keep the soldiers' Oripathy at bay, if only temporarily. But I'm not quite sure if they're supposed to produce it at such a scale to which they can have all of this- I mean, come on. Infantry from the sky?" Lava asked, before she turned to Beagle. "Yo. Beag. You sure that anyone'd be able to produce sufficiently advanced Oripathy suppressants to keep their gun-troops healthy?"
"I... I'm not quite sure of that," Beagle stated the obvious, much to Kroos' amusement. It was like saying 'water is a liquid' to a kid. They were supposed to know this, working for Rhodes Island after all. Of course they were supposed to know this. "It's... I don't know how to say it. It's almost as if they've discovered another way of keeping such a large amount of soldiers capable of using firearms."
"Which makes sense if we're going by Lava's theory of them being a distracting cover for Columbian operations," Fang interjected. "After all, Blacksteel would be too obvious. Everyone by know knows how close Blacksteel is to Columbia's government and its contracts. So I'm thinking they probably found a way so secret that nobody else is going to get the knowledge. Not even Blacksteel."
"I mean, I suppose I get that?" Kroos said, raising an eyebrow. "Government secrets are government secrets, after all. It would be, ah, not very desirable for anyone other than the Union government to have access to this secret, uh, method. It could potentially alter our very way of life so effortlessly. Think about what'd happen if a Perro could just use a firearm like a Sankta..." She idly noted. To which everyone got the shivers.
Not because of the differing races, no. Instead, it was the fear of violent revolution being done as easy as apple pie with the ubiquity of firearms being able to turn the tide of any revolution. If Rhodes Island was at the forefront of a revolution like that... Goodness knows what would happen to it or its operators.
So for the time being, they were just thankful that the United Nations—or, perhaps to Lava, Columbia—had not dared to destabilize things as they are by propagating this secret knowledge. Come on. If anyone could just get their hands on a gun and start blasting...
Then, Kroos thought, she might finally meet her end at the hands of a thug. Maybe. There was a high chance of it being a maybe not case, but the weight of it still hung over her like a sword. It could swing either way.
But as she thought of it, she saw that the gunfighting had ceased as the United Nations advance seemed to halt. What seemed to be a dreadful silence had replaced the bloodshed that only occurred just a moment prior. Glancing at the rest of everyone, Kroos seemed to be anxiously waiting for anyone to say anything.
All she was met with was the sound of the wind howling and the machinery just off in the distance as Reunion had either been fully driven out or totally annihilated. Fang's despondent face just looked down. Not even bothering to do anything about Hibiscus, who attempted to shake her. Fang just kept her position, an unmoving sentry watching the aftermath in the distance. And Beagle seemed to join her.
Kroos seemed to glance at the rest. "Think we should try to contact them?"
Silence seemed to meet her as even Fang and Beagle started to look down. Seemingly thinking about it. Whatever they could say in the AAR would just be repeating what RI already knows. The United Nations has special vehicles and access to firearms that nobody else seems to have. Everyone knows it at this point. The problem was reaching out to them. RI always expressed an interest in doing so, and, well, even instructed Kroos' team. Op Reserve A1 to contact them whenever the opportunity popped up.
It was simple, really.
Though the answer took a while, but eventually, Fang looked at her and nodded. "Yeah. You brought the flares, yes?"
"The ones we were forbidden from using unless absolutely necessary, yes?" Fang nodded as Kroos reached into her pockets. Better now than never, she supposed. "Now's the day and now's the hour..." She muttered to herself, reciting an old Victorian poem. Or something that was along those lines. It all blended into one, not that she necessarily cared about it.
The flare popped open, and the red glow and smoke met the cold air. Kroos flailed it around, trying to get the attention of the soldiers of the United Nations. As she did so and kept her eyes on the UN forces at front, Lava stood up while Hibiscus seemed to walk behind Beagle, expecting her to shield her from anything. Beagle just hunkered down, shield keeping her safe.
The motion of waving the flare around seemed to suppress the dread in Kroos however, even as she saw the jetpack soldiers start moving her direction. Two of them, in fact. The rest of them seemed to be staying behind, flying in the air just close. She sighed. It was just another day for them, she supposed. She set the flare down as the two jetpack soldiers landed in front of Op Reserve A1. One of them stepped forward—bearing a red beret.
"Who and what is this for? Who's in charge here?" He said, staring down the team as he seemed to be fiddling with his goggles for something, not that Kroos really knew what it was. The man in the red beret then looked at her, then to the flare dropped next to her, and shook his head, a sigh escaping his lips. "Alright, kid. You better tell me what you called us here for, if you're droppin' a flare like that." His accent was oddly Victorian.
Perhaps there was more credence to it being more than just a Columbian front organization. Though she did hesitate at saying anything more as she looked at the soldiers. There was just... something off about them. She couldn't tell what they were. And thus, she grimaced as she looked oncemore at the two soldiers, impatiently waiting for her response.
Regardless, Kroos sighed as she turned to look the soldier dead in the eyes—which were concealed by the goggles—and spoke.
"We at Rhodes Island wish to formally invite the leadership of the United Nations to an impromptu conference at the Rhodes Island landship."
Such was life in Rhodes Island.
Author's Notes:
life. getting into other fanfics. burnout from real life. family issues. all of these tried to hit me painfully so this got slowed. on the bright side, i got to enjoy the new R6S event which will be fun when I eventually get off my ass and finish the Reunion arc. In about 10 chapters or smth. idk.
See y'all once again. Have a great day.
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