Hudson shakes his head as the specially-briefed forces trickled back into the barracks. Everyone looked so damn grim. Shortage of medical staff willing to leave their postings, they had said, Come fight dragons, well, they hadn't said it, but it had been implied. But hearing the stories—or at least the rumors—from guardsmen who claimed to be present at the actual invasion, he's starting to get a bit worried, wondering just how soon he'd have to break out the gauze.
Los Angeles, CA
Le Brea Tarpits
November 8th, 2017
10:00 AM PST
As the snipers assemble before the gateway, they find a pair of huge metal slabs with massive hydraulics attached, holding the gate sealed shut.
500 feet back from the gate has been set up a layered platform with sniper nests, giving them a straight shot down the tunnel, once the slabs are opened.
A Ltn addresses the snipers as they arrive. "Alright gents, the gate is going to open at 13 hundred hours, in 3 hours. By then, you'll all want to be on your positions on the nests and ready to go. Your mission is to kill as many of their scouts in the tunnel as you can, without killing all of them. But you also need to make sure they don't realize you're trying not to kill all of them. We want as many of the enemy as possible up on their fortifications as possible at 14 hundred hours when we launch the Tom Toms through the gate." He nods at a 3 bank of missile tubes on the back of a half-track. Each tube is twice the length of a man. "Laine! You will stay back after the initial sniper jobs and use a laser designator to give our first Tom Tom a precise shot on the earthen embankment on the other side of the Gate." He points to a laser designation unit already on the platform. "The rest of you will go back to your squad after clearing out the tunnel grunts. When you're down to one grunt, make sure your shots miss him while hitting close enough to keep him running his armored ass back to get everyone riled up. You'll fire by number." Laine is 1, and the other 7 snipers are 2 through 8. "Any questions?"
Laine is amazed by the sight that meets him as he nears the gate. "Understood sir. I'll do my upmost, but I have to confess trying to miss closely is not something I have trained much." he comment on the orders.
One of the other snipers laughs. "Just pick something close to them and hit that, it's not about missing the target, it's about hitting a small target close to a big lumbering pile of muscle."
Los Angeles, CA
Le Brea Tarpits
November 8th, 2017
12:59 PST
All the LAV-25's have lined up in the last hour, and are ready to enter the gateway as soon as they are told to start engines and move. A bypass lane is present in case any experience engine failure.
Squads are in their assigned vehicles, waiting to be told to go through.
The doors stop opening up, and a tunnel appears inside a stone arch. On the far end, about half a mile away, a small square of light shows the other end.
Within the tunnel, crouched figures are back-lit by the light, and the Ltn in charge begins to call off from the Sniper Nests. It is hard to tell how many figures are in the tunnel, but the closest is only 100 ft back from the door, a huge hulking presence in leather armor that is peering into the now bright light trying to see what is out there so it can report it.
"ONE!" A three second pause. "TWO!" A three second pause. "THREE!" The count continues to "EIGHT!"
He laughs back "I didn't say I couldn't do it, just that I'm more trained to get the kill before a hostage or friend dies."
IN the nest he finds a position that suits him, laying down relaxing his whole body. When the gate opens he aims carefully and ready to take out the first target he gets in his sight.
dot
The walking wall of muscle does a back flip as the .338 Lapua round punches a hole in its leather armor, the bony plate in its skin, and then into its internal organs. It lands on it's back in a pool of blood that has a blueish color, not that Laine can tell that in the dark.
More cracks sound, one after another, until the 8th person fires, and then the count starts over at 1 again. "ONE!"
Several others miss getting close without hitting, but the sixth and seventh snipers manage to put a bullet between the fleeing scout's legs and ricocheting off the inside of the gate tunnel next to it's head, making it seem very real and getting the creature to sprint harder.
"Alright! Nice job snipers..." The Ltn reports when Eight calls out that the last scout is out of the tunnel. "For the next 45 minutes, snipe anyone that enters the tunnel. We want to give them time to get all their forces into position..."
Los Angeles, CA
Le Brea Tarpits
November 8th, 2017
13:48 PST
Over the next 45 minutes, shots ring out occasionally as snipers fire at anything that sticks it's head out. Then at 15 till the hour, the Ltn. tells the Snipers to get to their vehicles, all except Laine.
Soldiers bring in ballistic walls and set them half-way between the two edges of the Gate, and going back 50 feet. On the left hand side, they set up a small missile, about the size of a sidewinder.
A forward observer comes out and kneels down, at the back edge of the partition, and sets up a laser designator. For nearly two minutes nothing happens, then the missile fires, speeding down the tunnel.
The missile exits the gate on the other side, travels a little over 100 ft, and impacts on the stone redoubts raised up by the enemy to guard exit from the Gate. The missile shatters on impact, doing only cosmetic damage. A ragged cheer in an alien language echoes down the gate. The soldiers come out and remove the partitions and the missile launch frame.
Then the half-track backs up into position, with the 3 tubes.
Los Angeles, CA
Le Brea Tarpits
November 8th, 2017
13:59:47 PST
The middle tube top opens, and the TOM TOM (Tomahawk Tactical Overland Missile) sensors get their first look at the real world. It takes 1.03 seconds for the internal computer to lock onto the radioactive spike impaled on the earthen redoubts by the sidewinder guided missile. The spike gives it a precise location to aim for, and it's internal range finder calculates the range and fuel required to hit the target.
The TOM TOM was developed in a crash development, a Tomahawk missile modified for straight line fire over flat terrain. At 3.47 seconds after it gains confirmed lock, the Missile Tech gets approval to fire, and depresses the fire button.
The TOM TOM launches down the tunnel, it's wings extending out from 6 inches to two foot as it dives down the exact center of the tunnel, it's modified configuration allowing it to gain flight speed on launch, and the extended wings providing extra lift to keep it from scraping the ground after launch.
The missile exits the Gate on the other side less than a tenth of a second later, never coming close to it's maximum speed of 550 mph. Even before it exits the tunnel, compressed gas in it's structure forces it's JP-10 fuel out under high pressure, forming a fuel air mixture around it as it's warhead strikes the stone redoubt.
The stone redoubt, the 10 foot deep and wide spiked trench in front of the redoubt, and every enemy soldier within 50 feet of the explosion vanish in a ball of fire.
Every enemy soldier within 200 feet is sent flying as a mixture of stone, dirt, equipment, and internal organs. All the siege engines within range are rendered into shrapnel.
Every enemy soldier within 500 feet is mown down by the shrapnel that used to be their fellow soldiers, defenses, equipment, and siege engines.
The thermal bloom from the air/fuel explosion of the rocket's remaining fuel sends a crack of thunder through the valley, and blinds the watching archers who were just mown down by the shrapnel.
The enemy camp, 1500 feet back, is blown flat as the shockwave of the twin explosions blow the tents and temporary shelters flat, knocking the commanders of the defense army flat, and either killing or maiming most of their animals.
One minute after the first missile fires, the second TOM TOM fires, this one using inertial guidance on a pre-programmed flight. It too exits the tunnel less than a tenth of a second after it launches. It shoots straight up after exiting, raising rapidly in the air. At 1000 ft, it breaks apart, dropping a 500 submunitions that shoot out over the area where the archers are recovering from the last blast.
Grenade sized explosions ripple over the wounded and dead, churning the ground and the remains of the archers.
Sixty seconds after the second TOM TOM fired, the third TOM TOM launches, and the half-track immediately pulls back, leaving the gateway open.
Less than two seconds later, the third TOM TOM breaks apart over the enemy camp, releasing 500 submunitions that spray out over the camp, turning it into a churned charnal ground.
Los Angeles, CA
Le Brea Tarpits
November 8th, 2017
14:05 PST
"GO GO GO!" A soldier waves the first LAV-25, looking odd with it's turret removed, which roars forward, into the Gate. The first LAV is fitted with a ram plate that leaves a trail of sparks as it scrapes the ground, clearing the dead bodies from the tunnel ahead of it.
It charges out of the opening into a fiery wasteland of churned earth and bodies. The LAV drops two feet as the entry to the gate was blown away as well. The second LAV follows, and then the third, each 30 seconds apart. The LAV's pull up to where the archers were, and then begin drawing left and right, forming a half circle, a defensive line. As each parks, it's doors open and it's crew scramble out, firing at anything behind the LAV that moves, or looks like it might move eventually.
After the 30 LAVs are through, the HUMVEE's are waved on, and 3rd Company, 1st Platoon, Squad 4 is waved through in their two vehicles. "GO GO GO!"
Dawn had shouted Shotgun and jumped in the passenger seat of the second hummer as they prepared for the assault. She'd already checked her kit and the others in the back of the hummer, making sure they were properly stowed and ready to move.
She knows once she gets through she'll be looking for green and red first off.
Drive:
Drive:
Drive:
"Hang on...here we go!"
The lead HMMWV hits the Gate opening at 45MPH, and powers forward, lights lighting up a black square tunnel 8.43 feet wide, just a bit wider than the vehicle. PFC Tones has to duck his head to avoid having it taken off as he rides the weapon cupola.
The hummer vaults into open air on the other side, the lip at the end of the tunnel going down two feet sharply. The humvee bounces and careens over stones and dirt, but Corporal Robertson keeps it under control and drives up the other side of the pit created by the first missile.
Tones blinks and notices a flame thrower hitting soldiers to the right, and tracks his gun that way, and realizes the flame thrower is a black winged creature with a rider, 50 ft up, breathing fire on the soldiers!
There are a dozen black or red creatures flying around, blasting flame at those on the ground! Two or three of the creatures are downed already, but the rest are attacking hard.
"Dragons!" Hudson shouts out. "Oh man, dragons!"
Nadezhda had returned from the secretive meeting with a smile and a far-away look. She had packed her personal belongs and shoved them into her bag, made her bed, and promptly went to bed, dreaming of her glorious dreams.
She wasted no time readying for the next day, her outfit crisp and recently ironed underneath her armor. Her gun was at the ready, to be slung over her shoulder. She fastened the strap tightly and mounted the second humvee's machine gun. Looking it over, "This is a big gun. Let me see." It wasn't long before she was holding herself back on her heels, swiveling the gun about and hunkering herself down when they entered the portal.
Upon the declaration of dragons, she lifted her head and swore to herself, in Russian. Throwing her weight to the left, she points the mounted gun towards the dragons and starts to feel that familiar vibrations and the shells fly.
Dawn grabs the radio and contacts Cpl Robertson Sir, can you send it up the chain, some flak guns would be really helpful! Dawn pulls her M4 up and starts looking for a dragon in her area of responsibility.
Robertson agrees with Svenssen's suggestion.
"Your right, some AA would be helpful. Call it in!"
Nadezhda's hands shook with the weapons recoil, the gun firing up and heating her hands with its motions. She half stood with her mouth open and her eyes stuck on the unknown beast, and she dreamed of being the first to take one down. Oh, how she would brag about it. Shells flew past her and rolled onto the grass below, and she was watching for the beasts to bleed. She felt it in her gut that she had connected her shots.
Two of the rounds slam into the black creature!
DRAK 1 : 23
DRAK 2 :
DRAK 3 :
DRAK 4 :
DRAK 5 :
DRAK 6 :
DRAK 7 :
DRAK 8 :
DRAK 9 :
DRAK A :
DRAK B :
DRAK C :
The black dragon jerks in air as it finishes breathing flame, and turns it's head toward the second jeep, as does the rider!
Nadezhda instinctively pounds on the hood of the humvee, "The beast sees me! Do not stop the truck, we will lure it away and in return, I will be victorious!" She turned back to face the dragon and rolled up her sleeves, "Come beast! Fall to Nadezhda King!" Bang bang bang! The more she fired, the more the shells flew around her, gracing their brief presence and bathing in the glorious glow of Nadezhda's presence. It felt so good to be in this moment.
All Out Attack, there -is- no retreat.
All the Damage.
Hudson just keeps his mouth shut and his eyes wide for a few seconds, stunned at the actual dragons and uneager to draw their attention by firing at anything.
As the big humvee comes out of the tunnel, Daniel loses control after the bounce down from the tunnel, and the jeep veers off course to the left.
Robertson, able to maintain control, barely misses him.
Laine rushes down to get to his teams Humvee, once aboard he puts the sniper away and draws his Colt M4A1 "No use to try and aim the sniper while driving through this thing." "Hey. Keep the car steady."
Laine also sees the dragon, since everyone is pointing at it.
Grabbing the whee tight Daniel focuses on the task literally in his hands and drives for all he is worth.
Someone should warn a guy when the road just drops 2 feet. he complains. And did I mention I am a better gunner than driver?
PFC Morton tries to get through to HQ to call in the dragons, but can't get through due to the tunnel being full of metal that kills her signal.
PFC Rainwater manages to regain control of the Hummer, barely avoiding a stone the size of an elephant. The side of the hummer scrapes the stone at 35 mph, snapping the rear view mirror off like a plastic toy, and leaving a long metal scrape down the side of the vehicle.
PFC Svennson continues to aim at the dragon as Robertson spins the second hummer in a sharp turn to starboard, switching places with the lead humvee, slotting into it's place, and leaving it to take the second slot.
Laine takes aim with his Colt readeing to fire at the dragon
Studying the terrain ahead, Corporal Robertson attempts to keep the vehicle as steady as possible to help aid those firing at the "dragons".
Nadezhda crits the dragon for round 2, her action is complete.
As the black reptile turns to fly over the humvee, King yells out and unloads another burst of rounds into it, one of which goes through an eye and blows the reptiles brains out the other eye as the bullet ricochets around inside it's skull. The reptile immediately slams into the ground, killing it's rider under it's bulk.
As several other reptiles fall from the sky, the survivors take wing, flying in evasive patterns and begin to fly away.
The two humvee's find their way to their assigned post, and park. Other humvee's begin coming out of the tunnel, some make it without issue, others nearly crash. One does flip and roll, causing delays getting out of the tunnel.
Once the reptiles are flying away however, combat comes to a near halt. There's just nobody left who wants to fight, the few survivors, perhaps a few hundred of the thousands that were here before, are all fleeing toward the ridge to the 'north'.
"That was some rough driving Rainwater, at least the car landed on all 4 wheels. Should we take a look for a good defensive location for now?"
Pros and cons. The car provides some armor but might draw fire. The car is parked where were were told to park it and I'd prefer not to just sit so lets move. We have to leave the 50 up there. I certainly can't carry it and its our big fire power. Maybe someone should man it?
I might be able to carry and operate it if you have my back. - said Timm, getting out of his battle trance.
You already have a big gun, big guy. The one up here is even bigger. It stays with the wheels. Daniel pulls out a small leather bag from its place on a silver necklace tucked next to his dog tags and seems to consider it for a long second. He then looks up. Ready?
"Alright troops, lets get out and secure our perimeter. Svenssen! Were you able to make contact to HQ for anti-air support?"
Nadezhda laughs, mocking the dragon's plight, "Zat vill show you beast! Arrrrghh! I best! Arrrrghh!" She grit her teeth and pumped her arms to her sides, baring her teeth again. She held up her arms wide open and pounded her chest, holding her arms up again, "You don't vant any of zis!"Settling down and "Quickly, let us rrround up the vounded, as I kan clearrrly kover us. Otherrrs vill set up defenses and ve need all manpover available."
"Maybe I should find a nice high spot to scout around through my scope?"
Negatory, corproal. Intel didn't think about getting repeaters in the tunnel.
Dawn grabs a magazine from the ammon can sitting at her feat and switches out the magazine in her M4 for a new full mag.
Hudson looks around for a triage tent or medical officer he might be able to report to in assisting with any injuries.
Hudson realizes it is WAY too early for tents or medical officers to be on the scene. However, there are wounded men nearby, who were hit with fire earlier. Several are screaming in pain, others aren't moving, and others are watching the skies with fearful eyes while trying to ignore burns.
With PFC Tones pulling out his M249 Daniel decides the group is better off with someone on the M2. Applying the parking break he leaves the driver's seat and climbs up to the gun. He spends a moment checking the weapon and its belt before confirming Ready here.