Dawn stands next to the open door of the hummer, letting it provide a little cover while she scans her sector for enemies, and watches as the skies clear.
Where to sir?
"Maybe we should look for survivors, both ours to be treated and the enemy to hopefully have someone who can share some infomations about this place?" Laine says picking up his sniper and slinging it over his back "This is strange lands indeed, can't wait to meet the local wildlife."
Following their planned operations, Dawn motions to another squad member, Let's go check those barricades there. We need to see about reversing the pointy end to protect the portal.
Since this is a quick recon, Dawn leaves the heavier gear in the hummer until after she has a chance to figure out what needs to be worked on.
We're definitely going to need some anti-air. One Centurion C-RAM could cover the entire valley. We'll be lucky to get mothballed world war 2 flak guns.
"Right, then. Makeshift medical team—anybody want to help me carry supplies and stretchers?"
"Ok, buddy up and sweep the intimidate area. Lets get those wounded to the back and keep on those heavy weapons. No telling what might show up!"
Daniel takes a last look at the nearest ridge through the M2's sights and reluctantly abandons the gun. He moves to stand by Hudson, weapon on his shoulder and says I'll assist.
Hudson, it seems, takes quite readily to field medicine.
Laine finds a spot with a good vantages and takes a look around the immediate area.
Daniel checks the ground around them for signs of enemy passing but sees little that he can make any sense from.
Hudson (with help from Rainwater) begins administering first aid. The men have bad burns, and the burns have a faint whiff of rotting fish. Hudson recognizes it as Phosphine Gas. There's also a mixture of burn types, that is, not only did the skin burn, but it also seems to have been damaged by chemical burns, most likely Phosphoric Acid, as if the soldiers were misted by Phosphoric Acid. The paint on the vehicles is also bubbled and in some places melted as if chemically treated.
Horatio notices four or five dragons in the distance, specs to the eye, and faint winged figures through the scope. It looks like they're just circling, probably watching the invaders.
Svennson examines the remains of the stone barricade, and finds them odd. There are no seams at all. There are cracks where it was damaged, but no seams, the wall seems to be one large section of stone going down into the ground about 10 feet, and then moving over, with sharpened sticks sticking up with metal tips. Then the other side of the pit is the same smooth seamless stone going up to a lip.
The inside of the 10 foot wall has stairs built into it, leading up to a ledge to stand on (the ledge is slippery with blood right now). There are also piled up bodies, mostly ripped apart, next to the wall. All of them are the big heavily armored aliens.
"Seems we have gotten a few watchers, I can spot four possible five dragons in the distance along with some small flying objects. They seem to be circling just watching something or maybe us." He says as he returns to the group to help with whatever he can.
I''d feel better if we has someone on a big gun just watching those flyers. Daniel recommends. Then he adds in a different tone, one filled with wonder. Dragons! Are the like the stories where they are intelligent and proud? Or are they more animals?
Nadezhda, meanwhile, was watching the fliers. She had the infectious smirk, rehearsing what she would say when they had downtime, albeit quietly. She was ready, dreaming of taking more down. She would rip them from the sky! A few words reach her and she puts a few fingers to her comm set, "No need to shake in boots, I have eye on flying trophies. Is too bad they stay away, could fill room with mounted heads back home."
Hudson spent most of his time bandaging burns, prepping casualties for (hopefully) evacuation back to a hospital site on the other end of the tunnel, since the facilities here would be limited.
He did ask idly, however, if anyone had found a dragon corpse, since the right scales or organs from one of those things might be valuable to the locals, if the fantasy tropes held.
Dawn spent a lot of time scratching her head while trying to find a seam. Hey corporal, these fortifications look weird. I need to place a couple of small demo charges to see what's up. I'm hoping the charges will create some shock-waves that will identify the seams.
Laine turns to Dawn "Should we not try and see if we can dig out a sample before we start blowing it up? We don't know how it reacts or if it has explosive components in it's mineralcomposing."
"Agreed Horatio. No sense in wasting demo charges on it. Almost looks like poured cement or something...get samples and ready a package to go back through the tunnel."
The group gathers up samples of the wall, and picks through the enemy bodies, but doesn't find anything unusual (other than lots of splattered and burned internal organs). Hudson continues administering field medicine, easing pain, giving out morphine, stopping chemical burns.
Over the next 40 minutes, the rest of the Battalion exits the tunnel, slower toward the back half as the radio transmissions from jeep to jeep finally make their way back through the tunnel to alert Command that the enemy has fled.
Once that happens, the Engineers send through a couple of trucks with supplies and they rig up a ramp against the gate exit, letting everything else come and go.
Civilian ambulances are sent through for critically injured people, who are rounded up and brought to the gate. The ambulances go through in cycles, coming and going. Within an hour, all the wounded are evac'd to civilian hospitals around Los Angeles.
A Major in a jeep comes up, his driver a PFC. His eyes glance to the unit's shoulder patches, and he nods. "You, your squad seems intact, and you were the first through on the HumVees. I have reports you took down one of the winged reptiles." He nods at the corpse a few hundred feet away. "We have a truck coming, get the body wrapped up and ready for transport, make sure you cover it with a canvas first. Then report in. We've lost a lot of the First Company due to injury and fire, and we're going to need to re-distribute. I'd rather keep squads together, especially a squad that managed to survive and take down one of those reptiles." The Major's nametag reads 'Thomas'.
Nadezhda watched the Major step out of the jeep and immediately stomp her foot into the humvee she stood on and saluted, standing at attention, "Da, sir! I felled beast as soon as I opened fire. Will do again if beasts come closer, sir!" Gloat gloat gloat.
The man blinks at the accent, then shrugs. "Ah, well then, good work Private."
Dawn looked at Laine, looked at where the rockets blew up part of the wall, looked back at Laine, looked back at where the rockets blew up part of the wall, looked back at Laine...
I'm thinking a seismic charge would be okay. Besides, I like blowing s!~! up.
"I know you like that Dawn. Just wanted to make sure we didn't destroy to much if we miss calculated how the rock acts to our explosives."
Dawn grins and shrugs, then stands to attention when the major arrives.
She tries, really hard, to not roll her eyes at the improper salute by King one of these days she's gonna get called to the carpet for that crap.
Once their corporal acknowledges the major's instructions, she heads for a supply truck, getting canvas corporal!
Nadezhda swiveled the gun about, afterwards, watching the sky. But eventually she left it to hop down and assist with the wrapping of the beast, "Might as well! My gift back home should be wrapped and tied with bow, haha! But would have liked more gifts to send back; they fall like flies before me." She joined in with the bustle and hustle, either waiting for further orders after they helped the beast into the truck or returning to her post on the humvee.
"Alright lets get this dragonthing packed, sealed, and delivered back to earth. Hope we can learn some valuable infomations from it." Laine says as he helps Dawn getting canvas to pack it in. "Might need a crane to lift the danm thing."
The crew begins maneuvering the reptile corpse, getting it into position. As they do, Hudson smells something and pushes King out the way as a flame erupts from the corpse's mouth, smelling of rotting fish. The stones hiss and sizzle in the flames as acid mist douses it.
Eventually the flame dies down, and the squad is able to take the saddle off the reptile, along with it's dead rider, a young girl who can't be much older than 16 or so. Attached to the saddle is a bag full of stones.
Robertson checks the rocks, and then very carefully ties the leather bag back together, and marks it as 'HAZARDOUS' with some tape from the humvee's field kit. The bag contains Phosphite, an ore with a high concentration of Phosphorus. Soon a flat-bed tow-truck shows up and the reptile's body is strapped in and pulled up onto the flat bed before being covered by canvas and being strapped down. The saddle, rider, and sack of stones is loaded into a separate vehicle.
"Wow those things are dangerous even in deah." Laine says at the outburst of flames, turning to the rider, and more somber says "A shame such a young girl has to die riding one of these things. They shouldn't be fighters in a war at that age."
The next month is spent securing the area. Small bulldozers go to work flattening the area around the gate, while the demo people blow up the stone barricades to get the ground free to be bulldozed. The stone is solid with no seams, and seems to have been poured somehow without structure or seams. The left over bits are put into the big cloth sacks that are then used to make defensive positions on the other side of the ridge, locking off the entire valley from the northern plains. To the north, beyond the ridge line, the mountains drop off sharply into small hills, and from hills to flat grassland.
Additional weapons emplacements are put in at the ridge line, artillery units, chain gun emplacements, sniper nests, even M167 VADS are set up on the ridge line next to the rockets. Then the rockets are pulled down and additional M167 VADS are put in their place.
As the Squad takes their turns on the battlements that are being rapidly built up, they find out why. The reptiles are cold blooded, and have an absolutely horrible radar cross-section, meaning that none of the modern weapons can lock onto them easily. So the best defense is heavy anti-aircraft guns direct fired.
The engineers quickly build up fire resistant buildings and complexes, putting in barracks, HQ buildings, and a commo tower that has over a half-mile of high grade fiber optics connecting it to Los Angeles. More fiber is run from the commo building to the ridgeline where a massive radio tower is erected. The tower doesn't pick up any signals other than the ones the military is making.
By the time 60 days have passed, the forward base is nearly fully expanded out, with showers, a PX, a motor pool, and they are beginning to work on the aircraft hangers and a landing strip for fighters. Two Apache's have been reconstructed for air cover.
On the morning of the 62nd day in the other world, spotters raise the alarm. A military force is spotted approaching from the north...
The Squad has been on watch for 2 hours when the raid sirens begin to scream. They are on the eastern end of the defensive wall. In front of them is 250 ft of mined no-mans land littered with concertina wire. Only a 50ft S shaped lane up the center that's clearly marked is un-mined.
The enemy is spread out, and is a mixture of foot soldiers and cavalry, with a hundred or so air units.
They are currently about a mile and a half out.
That does not look like a peace delegation. Daniel observes. This is for real. We should be shooting. Why are we not shooting?
Dawn stands behind one of the barricades, several triggers arrayed in front of her for direct fire anti-personnel weapons emplaced in front of their section.
She peers through a spotting scope. I dearly hope they aren't waiting until we can see the whites of their eyes. She glances back at the artillery and mortars, they're already well within range of the 60's (mortars). We should let these peeps know they can't even get close enough to be a threat.
"Well I don't know about you Red, but I can easily see the white form here." Laine says smiling at Dawn "But I see you point, I should probably get up in one of the sniper nests."
Nadezhda had went up to the downed beast's head, her gloved hand patting the beast's cheek with the back of her knuckles, "Not tough now, just dead." She was about to say how easy it was to take down such a beast when Hudson went up and shoved her, to which she stumbled and landed on her butt, "You push me!" Then she saw the flames erupt from the beast's mouth and she got back up, slapping Hudson on the back in a good-natured way, "Now you are hero! You save beast slayer!" She laughs, before dusting off her backside.
In the month to come, she busily writes of her encounter with the flying, fire breathing monsters, and how that she was the first to take one down. She spent most of these hours under a hanging lamp, writing in her journal, in Russian. She goes on to detail the surroundings and the natives they've encountered so far, then signs it with Glory and Love.
When the sirens started blaring, one day, Nadezhda leaned over the defensive wall, then gathered up her rifle and marched, with haste, to the eastern side, "They come again! Fair-weather friends..hope it rains, again and again. Ah, fair-weather friends!" She jogged and spoke in a sing-song fashion. If there was a spare mounted machine gun, she'd man it as quickly as possible, having to admire the artillery seargants' guns from afar. She was busily picking targets, dreaming of how she would tell of this tale, while she spoke over her comm-system, "I have position. Waiting for order."
"Heavy Weapons Specialists to the walls, on your assigned stations." Orders begin to crackle over the command network. "Snipers to sniper nests. Artillary crews to positions. All other troops to the walls, ready firing positions."
Over the sniper network comes additional orders. "Snipers, if the enemy attacks, prioritize targets with fancy armor, the more metal they are wearing, and the fancier it is, the higher the priority. Enemy commanders wear more ornate armor."
On the battlements, those on the emplacements and those designated as Heavy Weapons specialists get over their network. "Anti-Aircraft emplacements prioritize any flying reptile targets as primary. After that, massed enemy units are secondary. Squad Gunners, primary targets are massed enemy forces, prioritized by proximity. Secondary targets are flying reptiles."
In the background, the distinctive 'whup whup' of the Apache's can be heard as they take to the air, chin guns ready to fire at need.
Daniel sits at his gun station getting used to the sights and making sure everything is in order. He eyes the sky with a combination of nervousness and hope. This world will be a safer place for our boys with fewer of them dragons in it. he thinks as he shifts his aim from one far away target to another.
Dawn stands, and leans against the wall. She pulls a pack of gum from her pocket, shakes a stick out and offers it to the soldiers on each side of her, before unwrapping one for herself.
So, how close do you think they need to get before the brass figures out they ain't sending a peace delegation? This ain't the sandbox. We should pound this army to mist. Let them send a delegation next time when they're down a few thousand soldiers.
Hell, a couple of xm1060 rounds from our 40's would do wonders on that force.
If they continue to approach, at one mile she'll get back on the spotter scope and start scanning for green armor.
Unlike the last force, the majority of these soldiers are humans. There appears to be at least 6 different flags, and 6 different formations. One of the formations is made up of the huge hulking aliens. The other 5 are all humans. The foot soldiers are all in leather armor with weapons. There's also at least a company's worth of cavalry, old fashioned cavalry, with plate armor and lances. A couple of dozen of the winged reptiles as well. Dawn also notices two gigantic reptiles, slightly off to one side of the main army, both wearing what looks like about a battleship's worth of steel on their body. Each one is about 2 stories tall at the shoulder, and a good 60 ft long.
Holy s+**! Dawn tabs her unit comm, Corporal, you see those big guys? We don't know how fast or long they can run. But they're bigger than this wall. We got any portable tows?
"Understood, the mroe fancy the better to kill." Laine quickly settles into his sniper nest adjusting a lying position, and begins scouting around the ranks.
The army draws up and stops 1500 ft away from the wall, with a corridor between the two double columns that line up. Up the middle area, about 150 ft wide, two huge reptiles wearing a few thousand pounds of steel come rumbling. Even on the wall, the ponderous steps can be felt if you put your hands on the dirt filled sacks.
"Command to Angel Flight, primary targets are Reptile 1 and Reptile 2, you are go for Hellfire."
"Angel 1 to Command, confirm targeting, Angel 1 target Reptile 1."
"Angel 2 to Command, confirm targeting, Angel 2 target Reptile 2."
"Command to Anti Aircraft Gunners, ready for air assault, repeat ready for air assult, wait for permission to fire."
Up and down the wall, the AckAck gunners call of they are ready.
In the distance, behind the reptiles, a fifth column of heavily armored large aliens get ready.
Then a horn sounds, and the two reptiles begin lumbering forward, remarkably fast for such huge creatures. The ground begins to vibrate under the defenders as 20 tons of flesh and steel begin galloping at the wall. Flying reptiles, over two dozen, begin to sweep forward with the charging behemoths.
"Command to All, Triggers Free, repeat, Triggers Free!"
"Angel 1, Fox 2."
"Angel 2, Fox 2."
Two hellfires go screaming over the wall, about 150 ft above the heads of the defenders. One just misses the reptile on the left, going past it and then detonating in mid-air as it's miss circuits self destruct the missile.
The second missile however slams into the creature's chest.
The missile detonates against a massive steel plate, and then there's a secondary explosion as the primary charge detonates immediately behind the precursor breaching charge. The massive creature stumbles, then shakes it's head and screams like a steamwhistle that hurts the ears of everyone. It's companion echoes it's scream.
The Anti-Aircraft guns begin to buzz loudly as they wake up!
About a third of the people on the wall begin firing at the reptiles, not doing much more than giving them an extra layer of lead armor as the bullets splatter on their skin and armor. The other 2/3rds maintain discipline and fire into the massed troops on the other side. The lead two rows go down as they begin to charge behind the reptiles.
Most of the snipers begin trying to snipe the eyes on the reptiles, and waste their shots. A few maintain discipline and begin searching for people with fancy armor, but the dust that begins to rise up makes it hard to locate any.
R1 : 0
R2 : 502
D1 : 0
D2 : 38
D3 : 0
D4 : 33
D5 : 0
D6 : 0
D7 : 13
D8 : 0
D9 : 30
DA : 0
DB : 43
DC : 0
Nadezhda lowers her rifle as she walks along the walls, watching the army approach. She holds her rifle close to her, walking with general disdain in her step. Nearing a group of other soldiers manning the walls, she plants her boot along the edge and gives a nod of her head, "We see who takes out most, da?" She shoulders her rifle and let's bullets fly like poetry in motion!
Horatio will take his time carefully search for a highranking-looking member of the enemy host and aim at him.
King unloads onto the front line of the charging enemies. She's not sure if she takes anyone down, but people begin to fall as the entire wall opens up with bursts of fire from assault rifles.
Horatio keeps looking for a target, but the dust and sounds of weaponry fire are distracting him, and he can't find one. Some of his fellow snipers are more lucky, and a few sniper rounds reach down range.
Hudson hides in a safe place under the walls, waiting for a medical order and trying to keep up with just how far out the flying dragons are.
EDIT: I guess it'll wait until after this battle, when there's clearly a surplus, but I kinda want to start stockpiling spare weapons/armor from the enemies if the government doesn't immediately ship it all out for research.
Hudson hides in a safe place under the walls, waiting for a medical order and trying to keep up with just how far out the flying dragons are.
EDIT: I guess it'll wait until after this battle, when there's clearly a surplus, but I kinda want to start stockpiling spare weapons/armor from the enemies if the government doesn't immediately ship it all out for research.
Dawn keeps her M4 on single shot and shoots a little high. With this many enemy combatants she knows she's likely to be hitting something.
She isn't interested in wasting all her ammo, her job is to blow the anti-personnel mines if they don't stop at 500 feet.
"Angel 1, Fox 2."
"Angel 2, Fox 2."
Again, two hellfires go screaming over the wall, about 150 ft above the heads of the defenders. The creature on the left is hit in the chest, and the creature on the right is hit in the middle of it's armored head!
The Anti-Aircraft guns continue to buzz!
The 4th and 9th flying reptiles suddenly falter, then plummet toward the ground! Their riders desperately trying to bring them in as they falter!
R1 : 325
R2 : 1039
D1 : 0
D2 : 38
D3 : 0
D4 : 33
D5 : 0
D6 : 0
D7 : 13
D8 : 0
D9 : 30
DA : 0
DB : 43
DC : 0
Once again Laine tries to find one of the primary targets.