Daniel continues to fire at his target.
Dawn watches as the missiles seem to not be doing a lot to those two large targets. Take the legs, cripple them! She mumbles to herself as she continues her shots into the charging horde.
Dawn comms the corporal, Hey Corporal, we need to start thinking about a plan B on those giant, whatever-they-are. They'll plow right through the wall!
Daniel keeps the cross-hairs on the reptile this time, and it falters but continues flying forward.
R1 : 325
R2 : 1039
D1 : 0
D2 : 38
D3 : 20
D4 : 53
D5 : 0
D6 : 22
D7 : 24
D8 : 0
D9 : 58
DA : 0
DB : 43
DC : 6
Again Horatio cannot find a target through the dust, the other snipers appear to be having similar issues. Only one sniper fires.
"Angel 1, Fox 2."
"Angel 2, Fox 2."
And yet again, two hellfires go screaming over the wall, about 150 ft above the heads of the defenders. The creature on the right is hit in the chest, and the creature on the left this time is hit in the middle of it's armored head!
The left hand reptile loses it's balance, shaken by the hit, and tumbles to the ground, crashing like the sound of a dozen locomotives crashing to a halt!
The Anti-Aircraft guns buzz again!
Two more reptiles, 2 and 10, are cut apart. Two plummets, it's rider screaming. Ten begins dropping out of the air, it's rider trying to land safely.
Keeping the flyer in his sights Rainwater keeps firing, this time scoring a serious hit.
Daniel's reptile, already wounded badly, plummets out of the sky...
R1 : 325
R2 : 1770
D1 : 0
D2 : 64--
D3 : 20
D4 : 53--
D5 : 27
D6 : 22
D7 : 83--
D8 : 13
D9 : 58--
DA : 51--
DB : 43
DC : 6
Nadezhda is very convinced that those that fall where she was shooting was because of her actions. Maybe with the assistance of others, but mostly her.
Bullets clatter around her boots and she kicks them off, only to have them replaced moments later. "Lucky to have me, huh? I show them my bullets, da!"She yells as she fires into the approaching on the ground.
"Third time's the charm" Horatio mumbles as he tries to look through the dust again, looking for the highly sought after price.
"Angel 1, Fox 2."
"Angel 2, Fox 2."
With one of the creatures down, the two Apache overwatch choppers fire both their rounds at the still charging beast! Both hit squarely in the chest!
The Anti-Aircraft guns buzz again!
Several more flying reptiles go down, a couple plummet, while the rest struggle to land. Only 3 are still in the air. 3, 5, and 6.
Daniel targets one of the three remaining fliers, choosing a wounded one if he can tell its been hit.
He is on target, but delivers less of a critical hit with this volley.
Dawn continues to take shots at the advancing horde.
Laine! The one that's down, is its belly armored? Does it have balls?
Laine looks at the one that is down to see if he can answer Dawn "let me try and get a look, it's a bit hard with the dust everywhere."
If you can't get through the armor, try for where it hurts!
Dawn continues with shots into the crowd of natives. With their density most of her shots are hitting someone, even if she misses the one she aimed for.
'course next time they might learn to spread out a little more.
"Angel 1, Fox 2."
"Angel 2, Fox 2."
The two Apache overwatch choppers fire both their rounds at the still charging beast! Both hit squarely in the chest!
The Anti-Aircraft guns buzz again!
Two more flying reptiles go down, struggling to land. The last one breaks off it's attack, heavily wounded, and begins flying back toward the rear of the army!
Those gunners who switch over to the armored hulks see their anti-air rounds deflecting off the things armor and skin.
Still firing at the retreating flyer Daniel hopes for a lucky hit.
Laine continues to search for a good target to hit.
"Angel 1, Fox 2."
"Angel 2, Fox 2."
The two Apache overwatch choppers fire both their rounds at the still charging beast! Both hit squarely in the chest!
The right hand reptile, finally succumbing to the wounds that are gushing gallons of blood per minute, finally collapses with the sound of heaven falling! The beast slides along the ground and slams into the foremost wall, it's bulk setting off the mines in the mine field and destroying a large swath of it. A dozen soldiers fall off the wall backwards, and the anti-aircraft gun teeters and falls forward onto the beasts's head, the gunner screaming as he goes over with the gun!
At the main gate, an APC slams to a stop, and half a dozen men get out with Javelin launchers and line up behind the gate, aiming for the second creature as it begins to lumber toward the left hand wall!
The Anti-Aircraft guns buzz again! There are no reptiles left, the last one takes several hits and goes down! So they fire at the charging hulk!
Mortar fire begins to land amongst the leading edge of the charging mass, blowing dozens of creatures into hamburger with each explosion as they pass the line demarcating the mortar range.
Nadezhda's weapon fired several more rounds at the general mass of monsters, her feet carrying her away from the wall just before the large beast collided. But someone else bumped into her and she stumbled, rolled over herself, swearing. It wasn't long before she too was sliding off the wall with the force of the beast, her eyes wide and her gun in the air above her. Just before she would hit, she closed her eyes.
King goes rolling off the wall, after losing her balance, and takes damage, cracking a rib as she lands on a stone.
Dawn rolls back off the wall cursing all the way.
Dawn tumbles backwards, and takes damage as she not only hits a support stake, but then has another soldier land on top of her, snapping her forearm like a twig.
"Angel 1, Fox 2."
"Angel 2, Fox 2."
The two Apache overwatch choppers fire both their rounds at the last remaining beast! Both hit squarely in the chest!
"Jericho Squad, Fire Fire Fire!"
"Jericho 1, Fire!"
"Jericho 2, Fire!"
"Jericho 3, Fire!"
"Jericho 4, Fire!"
"Jericho 5, Fire!"
"Jericho 6, Fire!"
"Jericho 7, Fire!"
"Jericho 8, Fire!"
The left hand reptile, just beginning it's charge, is peppered by a combination of missile fire from the choppers and Javelin missiles from the Javelin squad! One of the Apache missiles nearly rips it's left front leg off, and the creature goes right back down again in a hail of missile fire and thermal blooms as the javelin explosions turn it into a miniature sun for a few seconds.
Mortar fire continues to land amongst the leading edge of the charging mass, blowing dozens of creatures into hamburger with each explosion as they pass the line demarcating the mortar range.
As the last of the massive creatures goes down, bits of the attacking army, falling in droves to small arms fire, mortar fire, and being crushed by their fellows in the charge as chaos begins to set in, begin to peel off the flanks.
"Attention, allow all enemies retreating to do so unmolested wherever possible."
Thousands of bodies are left on the field, as the combat ends an hour later. The closest any of them got was the wall and gate, but with an APC parked in the gateway, and HMG's mowing down anyone who charged into the V like wheat before a thresher, the battle was not so much of a battle and more of a slaughter.
Two hours later, the enemy army is crushed, and of the 10,000 or so that attacked, more than 8000 lay dead or dying on the field in front of the wall.
Wounded are picked up and brought in to the medical tents (although US forces are given priority within a given level of triage).
The next three weeks entail cleaning up after the battle and dealing with wounded. Prisoners are taken back through the gate as soon as feasible.
Daniel does his part and then some to help during the clean up detail. In small talk with friends he notes They took heave losses. I doubt they will try to hit us like that again. From this point on I suspect more small team actions and stealth on their part.
Nadezhda's headset crackles into her ear and the mortar fire shakes the earth. Closing her eyes tightly, she lifts a hand and touches her side, wincing. Clearing her throat, she opens an eye, "Da...they lucky I let escape." Her voice was heavily strained, "Someone, pick me up." A stretcher came by once the fighting stopped and Nadezhda was carried back inside the wall's defenses.
Once recovered enough to sit up, she checked the bandages on her side with a light touch, "First wound is falling off wall? Not best war story, but will do." For the most part of the three weeks, she laid in bed, torso wrapped up in bandages, dreaming of what to write in her journal.
Hudson spends most of the next few months in the medical tens, as is his actual job in the force.
Still. He volunteers for night shifts whenever possible, and this gives him some time alone, where he can get it, with prisoners. Because ENS Hudson has his notebooks, and a tape recorder app on his phone, and more than one college course in linguistics—and at some point, the military might need translators.
Laine spends the free time to learn the ups and downs of this new strange world. He is outside of the walls as often as possible studying the fauna, he has drawn up multiply ideas for his new outfits to blend into the nature as best he can when the scouting mission begins.
Dawn finds herself lucky that it was her off hand laid up in a cast for several weeks. She spent the first two days waiting for more critical cases to clear through the surgeons. Which meant that she got to experience that wonderful feeling of her arm being broken again so it could be set properly.
After that she found that with one good hand she could, and was, expected to type reports. Lots of reports. Reports on munition expenditures, injuries, equipment repair and replacement requests, transfer requests (those were generally denied), and who knew how many other requests. Who knew a security clearance at her rank just meant paperwork.
In what little downtime she did have, she studied up on her SERE training figuring that if they spent much more time on the other side, it would likely come in handy.
Your squad, once things settle down in the beach-head area, is ordered to report to Command. Major Arzu snaps off a quick salute as you enter a conference room, and points to the rough map of the local area they've made up from recon flights. "At ease folks, take your seats. Our injuries among our armored scouts was heavy during the initial battle, and exacerbated during the assault by the enemy. Your squad, still being more or less in one piece, has been reassigned to Armored Scout duty."
He pushes a set of folders out. "You'll be leaving tomorrow to perform recon duty. You've been reassigned to an LAV-25, this time with the turret intact. Your existing vehicles will be turned over to the motor pool for reassignment immediately after this meeting, where they'll give you your assigned LAV. You are to spend the rest of the day preparing the LAV for extended scouting." He points to the map on the wall with a laser pointer, his other hand pushing a button on a remote. The map changes, proving the wall is actually a large screen display unit. "You will proceed local north, out of the gate, and continue on with four other LAV's to the local east, along the base of the mountains. You will be the fourth LAV in the group. Each LAV will, after going 50 miles, turn north again and scout until they reach 40% fuel usage. Thus, LAV 1 will go 50 miles east, LAV 2 100 miles, LAV 3 150, and LAV 4, your group, 200 miles. Our radios can broadcast up to 100 miles, but your LAV radio is only good for 50 miles, so you will be out of contact until we can place repeater stations."
He shows the proposed route on the map, which glows a lurid yellow. "You are to scout the territory. Your primary mission is to gather eyes-on intel. You are authorized to engage in small groups of the enemy, if you need to, but do not engage unless you need to. You are also authorized to make friendly contact with locals, if you can find any not wanting you dead. If you can, we'd like as much information as you can get on the local area. You are authorized to trade non-restricted items with them to gain information. No weapons beyond something they already have, like a knife. Food, cloth, and things like that are allowed. We have a small selection of items in the warehouse you can choose some from. You'll need to carry diesel in the LAV for refueling, as well as food. Additionally, you are to look for places to install repeater towers. Specs for what you need for such things are in the file folder."
He sits back. "Questions?"
Looking first to the others before he speaks finally Rainwater asks How long do we stay out sir? And if we see a large force do we abort to come back and report it?
"I look forward to get outside and see more of this world. How far out does out intel go before we start only exploring new stuff? Also do we know if the people of this world can tolerate our food? I'd rather not like to trade any of it with them, if it makes them sick or anything."
"Our choppers have covered everything within 50 miles. We've held off on much farther than that, and on drones, until we know more about the drag..." He breaks off, and grimaces. "We are officially not supposed to refer to the flying reptiles as anything other than 'flying reptiles' or 'indigenous reptiloid species'. I've been told very strongly that they are not fictional creatures from old fairy tales." He shrugs. "Kind of makes sense, if you think about it, if you start thinking of them as dragons, you're going to mix up reality with myth, and you may think the wrong thing about them at the wrong time and end up dead. After all, maybe they don't have gold burrows, or maybe they aren't sentient, or maybe they don't eat virgins, right?" He shrugs. "Anyway, the humans are fully human per DNA tests, so the humans you can trade with, and you should have no more danger on food than you do going to a foreign country. That is, it shouldn't poison you, but it might not taste good. Or it might taste exotic. There may be individual food allergies, just like back home. For the big armored types, they don't deal well with meat, they are almost strictly vegetarians, although they can eat things like eggs and milk and cheese without any issues, per the docs."
"You're authorized to stay out up to a week, or until you get low on gas, whichever comes first."
His question only partially answered Daniel pushes for clarification. And if we find a large threat? Do we come back in and report it?
"Sounds good we are not in direct risk of poisoning the locals. If we are to survive here, theirs aid can be invalueable in case something happens to the gate."
Nadezhda had entered the room and saluted, taking a seat. Stretching her arms up, she takes a deep breath, "Dese LAV have machine gun?" The most important part of the car is its guns! Giving an affirmative nod, Nadezhda folds her arms behind her neck, "Ve vill see if zey are villing to trade. But if zey attack, zey vill face Nadezhda King."
"You are a scout, Rainwater. By definition, you are not to engage any large forces. That's why I specifically gave you permission to engage small forces if you felt it necessary."
He turns to Horatio. "Let us all hope nothing does. But yes, if we want to do more than slaughter unlearned barbarians like wheat before a thresher, we need to find someone who's willing to talk and not fight." He makes a pained face. The air is still heavy with the smell of death, even after the massed bodies were burned and buried by the small dozers.
"The LAV has a machine gun, as well as a 20 millimeter gun on the turret. It should make short work of those flying reptiles, but it won't do anything about those massive armored things that almost overran the wall."
"Agree sir. I pray nothing happens, but I also hope we can find someone willing to talk and learn about this place. I certain not all agree with who ever is in charge, and keeps sending hordes of warriors to be slaughtered at our hands. Someone somewhere most be starting to raise questions." He says looking deep in thought. "I hope we can find someone to talk peace with. I don't mind fighting to defend earth, but I would rather not be in a dragged on war for this world also."
Any chance of a trailer to haul more fuel? This would extend our range. A 50 mile spread between units means no mutual support and a lot of uncovered terrain between them. With the forces we've seen, two of our patrols could go past a full army and not notice.
Dawn looks at the rough map, the recon units didn't take pictures? Will we also be doing any surveying along the way? Do we have inertial compasses? This would help with turning this map into something more useful. She studies it and with two fingers extended as a compass, walks a rough outline of what their projected path would cover.
Well lets go see what trade goods we can load up on.
Rainwater, no more questions, stands at attention, waiting to be dismissed.
"You'll be carrying fuel with you, in jerry cans, King. The LAV has a 400 mile range, and you'll have enough fuel in the jerry cans to extend that another 200 miles, giving you 600 miles total." He responds to King. "You're not looking for enemy armies at the moment, we're trying to get topographical and lay of the land information and locations for those repeater towers, each of which will have a 50 mile radius, that's why we're sending you out in 50 mile bands. The second group will be heading out tomorrow, 25 miles off from your group, giving us overlap, we hope. If you see an army, report it, but mostly we want to know what the land is like, if there are any obvious settlements, roads, and so on. You're also looking for places to put up repeater towers, which we need to get the drones operating at long range. Remember, we don't have satellites to bounce signals off of for remote flights. You are the first recon unit we're sending out." He disables the very plain topographical map you've been looking at, and instead a full color 'google earth' type picture of the surrounding area shows up, showing where the coptor recon's flew, and they did take pictures, which have been mosaic'd together. "Once we have those repeater towers, we'll flesh this in with drone cameras. You do have inertial compasses in the LAVs. They aren't as good as GPS, but given we have no GPS here, they'll do."
Hudson has no questions to ask his superiors, but he is interested in making sure his ride will be stocked with medical and trade goods.
"What kind of places would be fitting to put up these repeater towers? On top of hills or something along that way?"
The major points to file. "There's two pages of details on what to look for, and what to avoid. Long and short of it is, a high stable place, with either a large flat dirt area, or a smaller solid stone outcropping. Not blocked by anything, or it's useless."
Once the meeting winds down, the group is allowed to head out to get their new LAV-25. They have unit 2587-3283-22. Apparently the previous crew had called her 'Double Duece', although the unit is allowed to rechristen her whatever they want, since it's completely unofficial. For the most part, command overlooks any small tasteful unofficial insignia tags. The previous squad put a small tag under the serial number, painting fake bullet damage into the insignia.
There's sufficient room in the interior for up to 3 cubic feet of cargo, after the fuel is loaded in. There's also room for the crews packs under the bench seats.