Kanoe' fires her verniers and attitude jets to arrest her forward momentum to come to a short skidding halt of her forward moment...
<< "Whao!! Good catch Commander! >>
Halting Kraken-04, tunes her sensor array to detect the metallic hard returns in her immediate path... highlighting the anomalies in her H.U.D.... and routing the telelmetry to the other Kraken Units.
...well at least as best she can, not being the very technical savy.
Moving ahead, Roldy start wondering about the ennemy defense.
This is too easy, don't they have any defense in place
Then he notice it. A minefield!
++Minefield... ahead++
Coming to a full stop, he then try to see how far and wide the minefield is.
They can't have mined all around the city, can they?
Kanoe' growls fighting with the sensor array...
<< "Grrr.. stupid machine.. hey can some one tune their sensors to the hard metallic returns on the ground and map us a path through the mine field on our H.U.D.s...?" >>
++"Already on it Kraken-4"++
"Or we could just plow a trough through with a few bursts of gunfire. That has the added benefit of scaring the locals. Also faster, so they have less time to get anti-MS weapons ready. Finally, we could leap over it with jets if it's shallow enough, or a combination."
++"If you can find them Kraken-2 be my guest to shoot them and scare the locals. Either way we have to clear a path through it to make a supply chain later."++
A woman's voice comes through the secure channel of Kraken 1 Kraken 1, this is SGM. (Sergeant mayor) Riliah. I'll have the Magella give artillery support and clear a path for you."
The two tanks commence to fire as they create a trail of darkened earth and crack the floor, with four large explosions that could have rendered zaku and pilots dead or at least lost their lower half and be inoperable.
The tank commanders continue to fire but now it's for effect as they shoot into the town outskirts causing some light damage to houses, and accidentally destroying two in the process.
"Path is clear Kraken 1, shall we send the infantry to clear the buildings from IED and hiding EFF troops?"
++ "Kraken-04 Sir, we might want to conserve ammo in our Zaku when we can, especially when there are other means to handle a situation. Actually finding all the emplaced mines could be useful to us ... as in recover them and use them to our advantage, Sir!" ++
++"Thanks for the assist SGM. Yes send the infantry let's get the jump on them before they get to organized."++
You can see the tiny figures move into the vehicles and head for the town, stopping at a prudent distance to avoid fire power, but an rpg is shot at one of the Magella tanks, the crew are able to maneuver and instead of taking damage to the hull they lose some of their tracks.
The other Magella tank returns fire and blows the building to bits, sending at least pieces of a corpse up high in the sky.
SGM was taking the path of least resistance. as you see them torching the place to oblivion in retaliation with incendiary grenades. The majority of Houses have or are entirely made of wood.
Cannon fire roars as they begin to shoot any two story building out of existence, but they are not targeting the main building in the town center.
Kanoe' sprints forward in ... hitting her thrusters to jump high for an active scan of the city seeking out the hard returns of fortified structures, metal vehicles or artillery emplacements ready. She is trying to draw fire ready to dodge her shield arm high and taking advantage of the maximum cover it provides. Landing in the cleared zone of mines.
++ "Kraken-04, moving in~ neutralizing fleeing vehicles." ++
slings its 90mm 'Carbine' Machine Cannon and moving forward toward the city edge whips out its Heat Hawk crouching to give its thrusters the right angle as it moves after the fleeing vehicles... boosting again a thruster assisted charging leap to bring the Zaku down~ all 56 tons of Mobile Suit on top of one of the fleeing vehicles crushing it utterly... and slashing left and right at any remaining vehicles within reach of the searing Heat Hawk...!
Still crouching Kanoe' keeps the Zaku's arm shield ready to defend against any incoming RPG return fire.. but she is mostly relying on the terror factor of the Zaku's vicious attack...
"This is getting out of control." Welkin opens his com to first the tank crew and afterwards to the SGM. ++"Magella tanks, stop blasting every single building! Let the civilians get chance to escape, it'll add confusion in the feddies once they get to another town and they have to tend to them. Only return fire towards buildings where you meet resistance."++
++"SGM get the infantry to stop burning every house down! we have to abide but some rules of warfare. The refugee has to escape so they can put extra work on the feddies in other towns."++
He gets on the com to the rest of the Krakens, to give his order to them. +"Krakens aim to capture the main building, return fire whenever needed. Take care of the civilians."+
"That is the problem, there are feddies shooting at my soldiers within the civilians, you probably wouldn't feel a shot in your Zaku Sir!" Riliah cuts of the comm as the Magella tanks stop their fire and the infantry falls back. You notice how some dirt is kicked up as they take fire while they withdraw. Feddie soldier here are not wearing regular uniforms but are mixed in with civilians taking shots from houses.
Kanoe entry to the town is marked by distinctive flashes of gun fire and two rpg shots, one coming from what looks like the town's hospital and the town hall building. Kanoe's excellent skill make the shoots look like they were made by amateurs, but in all truth those skilled enough can tell one shot was aimed to kill the pilot or at least stun her, and the other one towards one of her legs that would have stopped her in her tracks making her a sitting duck.
++Copy that boss-man, Kraken-3 moving out.+++
Edel pushes the Zaku forward, careful to avoid stepping on uneven and shattered ground. She approaches the town with her shield raised.
When she's within reasonable range she flips on the Zaku loud-speaker system:
+++Attention Naranbulag defenders: our forces are observing a temporary cease-fire to allow all civilians and non-combatants to evacuate this area. Any remaining defenders are advised to cease all resistance immediately. Consider the lives of yourselves and those around you. Non-compliance will not be tolerated and an armed response will be met with return fire.+++
Assuming she gets through the broadcast without getting shot, Edel hunkers down and watches the buildings for any sign of a response. If there is continued fire she'll immediately return the favor with the 90mm.
If someone targets Edel
++"I understand that Riliah, but think on how it looks with us burning and destroying everything. Even if they are hiding in the buildings, it's going to be used as propaganda showing us as monsters destroying everything on our way. It'll increase thier own recruitment. Storm the buildings if you have to, but leave them standing so they have less to rally earth around."++ Welkin responds to the sergeant and prepares to enter combat himself.
Kanoe' does not slow down Kraken-04 skipping away from the crushed and wreaked vehicles she makes for the hospital...
Annoyed a how she seems unable to make heads or tales of her sensor readouts she instead turns up the Image enhancement and relies on her Mark I eyeball ... looking for IED's or even emplaced Anti-MS mines on the street heading for the hospital...
She sprinting form building cover to street corner using the building terrain as additional cover... evading and jinking the entire way Arm shield raise high for maximum cover...
Once close she will switch to her external loudspeakers... still menacing with her Heat Hawk form the side the RPG shot came from...
>> Attention EFF combatants within the Hospital.. use of civilian structures for military bunkers is strictly forbidden in the Geneva Conventions. Disarm and exit the building or be subject to attack! <<
Any weapons I use here is overkill.
Seeing his squad mate enter the village, roldy start moving foward.
I don't even see any clear military targets. Is there only infantry to fight here?
Moving up, he tries to get in position to cover the tanks. Hearing Kraken-03 proposal, he waits to see if they would comply before taking any agressive action.
Edel voice brings up a man with a white flag from the main building waving it hard. Before you have any time to answer he stops waving the flag and slowly slumps to the floor while looking in disbelief as his chest begins to bleed. A sniper shot. Then the Town Hall building explodes. Whatever civilians were left in the building come out crying and screaming, while cursing the Zeon soldiers.
"What just happened?" Riliah voices over open comm. Zeon soldiers were not ready for that, as SGM starts looking to see if anyone made that shot or if anything. Knowing they weren't close enough to shoot the rpg with clear line of sight much less throw enough grenades to make that explosion.
+++Desperation, it seems. Sergeant Riliah have your men cover the remaining civilians as they evacuate and prepare to accept any wounded. Make sure they're searched, we don't need anyone else making martyrs of themselves. If you have any demo specialists have them on standby as well - if they're willing to throw away that many lives then they won't do it just once.+++
+++Kraken-3 to Kraken-1. Sir, the Zakus could be useful for digging survivors out of that rubble but we won't be able to secure the area in the meantime. What do you want to do?+++
Edel notices Kanoe moving towards the hospital and switches to squad channel +++Dammit rook, stay clear of that building. If it blows it's going to take you with it.+++
They are killing their own civilians and are going to blame us for it
Slaming his fist down on his controls, Roldy can barely control his anger.
The whole thing was a P.R. trap and there was no way for us to prevent it.
++Need... orders...++
Kanoe' is aghast...
Her loudspeaker is still open when she triggers her Comm open...
>> ++ "Did you Just see that, Commander, ?!? The EFF 'Feddies' just shot their own town Mayor when he was under a flag of surrender and then blew up their own City Admin building too! This is not just a war for Colonial Independence but freedom for even the Earthnoids~ like me, from the EFF Evil Tyrannical rule! THEY have NO HONOR AT ALL!!!" ++ <<
Welkin is a bit troubled by how the feddies acted on thier own going for a surrender after some thought he opens his com to the Krakens. ++"Focus on securing the area, lay supressive fire when needed. We can dig for survivors after we are safe from feddies taking shots at us. No use to risk our Zakus on digging before we are safe for potshots!"++
++"SGM Riliah do as Ensign Faustus said it was what I was thinking you could do now also. Shoot any who attack you!"++
+++Roger+++ Edel motions for Roldy to join her. Once he's there she begins moving slowly through the area, sweeping for evidence of enemy combatants and additional traps.
Roldy moves up to Edel and start sweaping the area. Trying to think like the enemy, he carefully look at every single place he would place bombs, traps or ambush if he was in their place.
Not sure if they are desperate or crafty... maybe a mix of both.
The Zaku wasn't really ment to walk in narrow alleyways between small houses, so Roldy tries to minimize the collateral damage without compromising Edel's and his safety.
Kanoe' backs away from the Hospital keeping Kraken-04 arm shield high to absorb any impact from any detonation.
Kraken-04 Thruster jumps back away from the structure... and stows its Heat Hawk. Sprinting to the central avenue... Kanoe' pulls up her 90mm 'Carbine' Machine Cannon and moves to the position behind Kraken-01 using some buildings for cover... covering Kraken-01's rear, again shield high for maximum coverage~ not quite back-to-Back.. but close enough...
++ ", I'm covering your 'Six', ~ standing by Commander." ++
Again as she moves Kanoe' relies on visuals to spot any IED's or potential anti-MS mines...
++"Roger that Kreken-4. Let's search the area, stand ready to return fire as required."++ Welkin prepares his machine cannon and moves into the town to search for enemy combatants.
Riliah makes her troops take in the survivors, even if they are blaming them for what happened.
"This is SGT. Klawen, Sir!" a brief radio pause "SGM Riliah believes that there are to many male survivors we might be infiltrated instead, Sir! Your orders?"
Roldy take two seconds to think about Sgt. Klawen comment.
Too many males survivers? As if only males survivers could be infiltraters.
He then signaled Edel to hold up a minute and keep watch as he opens a private line with Welkin.
++Keep none... send all... to next... town over... with minimal... supplies...++
Then, he signal to Edel and resume the inspection of the village for more traps.
Welkin thinks for a moment on what the SGT and Roldy has said. ++"SGT start sending them to the nearest next town, let SGM sort through who she sends away."++
++"Edel, Roldy how does the search go? Are we safe to begin digging around?"++
Edel frowns as Katzuya uses her name over comms during an OP. She really didn't want the want to sacrifice the anonymity that the Zaku offered, but she brushed that aside before responding. +++Nothing so far Kraken-1, we'll keep looking. If I had to guess I'd say they're not going to try and take down the Zakus so they'll probably turn their attention to the evacuation. If they're making a move then it'll be against the civilians before their shipped out.+++
SGM Rialah kept all men and send women and children and the few elderly away.
"Sir, we must begin to fix some areas to use as a staging point and to run our supplies. Not to mention clearing every building from traps and the rest of the surrounding area from mines." This is going to take some days of effort, but the start of taking Mongolia has began.
++"SGm agree, lets set up a patroleduty to keep us safe while we secure the town. Do you have any demonitionsexpert with you or do you have to call in those? Let the tanks face towards the way we have to move next, they can deter any small infantry unit from trying anything."++.
Welkin then opens the comm to the other MS only. +"Krakens let's begin clearing the ruble. We need a clear path through this town to setup our supply chain for further expansion, aswell as we have to dig out survivors or corpses for burial outside the town to keep sickness at a minimum. If you perfer not to dig around the ruins, you are free to help the infantry with patroling or clearing the buildings, look for one or multiply big enough to house our suits for recharging."+
SGM salutes Kraken 1 as a small group of four soldiers step up and go to one of the vehicles "I only have a small detachment Sir! This is going to take a while. Are you sure it isn't safer to just get survivors and level the place instead..." Riliah is trying to make things more efficient "There are no more people living here, other than the corpses and if any hidden EFF's soldiers, but I do believe many of our refugees we held back are feddie f&*~s that were trying to flee or prevent us from sending our troops with the first wave of prisoners"
A vehicle drives in and begins to unload earthnoid families in chains, many of them cry towards the town as the few nomads nearby that have been captured begin to come in making a separate camp than those from Narabulag.
.
There was no more resistance inside the town, but many of the places the feddies used as weapon platforms to shoot at the Zeon forces were a small school, and civilian housing. The corpses in those buildings were pieces and in some cases all they could do was fill a bag with parts and tag it as a body, because there was nothing left of the poor wretch that took the direct hit.
The true horror came from the bunker under the town hall building as you came closer you see a splatter of blood like your zaku would have squished an elephant under it's foot, but in truth you new better, as some of the soldiers cannot stomach the sight of it SGM Riliah stands firm and unmoved "Earthnoids did this in my colony, this is how I found my father when I was merely 12. They put them in a box and then they killed him with chemicals." Riliah shows no surprise to the scene as she barks orders and the reluctant soldiers begin to clean up.
Kanoe' is sickened to the point of nausea... but Kracken-04 moves forward to assist in the recovering bodies from the ruins and RECORDING EVERYTHING! The world must know of the Criminal War-Crimes committed by the EFF!
Edel also does her best to help the effort digging through town hall.
Welkin has left his suit to check out the govermental building and speaks with Riliah as they go down with some soldiers. "I think SGM that we don't need to add to the propaganda the feddies use ourself for the moment. But I can see your logic and with take it into consinderation, we can't stay here to long but could let the refugee set up camp here if needed as we move towards Songino and...." He is lost for words as they enter the bunker. "This is horrible how can they do something like this, do they have no honor or moral."
He leaves the bunker and pick ups his com unit to call his squad. ++"Krakens we have to consider leveling this town completely the feddies have used chemical weapons on their own, leaving only a puddle of blood and flesh. We might be in danger for meeting the same fate while clearing the town. I'd like your counsel before I might the decision."++
"Record everything, including all our tactical communications from the landing forward. Non stop recording, no editing. Document the soldiers we killed in civilian clothing. The populace will not believe us, but, as we capture their senior command, we will have sufficient proof of war crimes to execute them after a fair trial." Zzed seems non-plussed by the dead goo.
"Leveling the town plays into their propoganda. Place signs warning refugee's that there are Federation chemical warfare bombs. We also need to find out how they knew we were coming here. This takes time to set up, so they somehow knew this was one of our first targets. We need to change our plans, pick one of the towns that wasn't on our list, and take it for an HQ instead. We have a mole."
Kanoe' emphatically agrees with Zzed, "Yes! I think that is the Best way to handle our murderous and I'm moral enemy. We must show everyone their crimes... and not sink to their level! Document EVERYTHING!"
Then the full implications of what Zzed has implied hits her and her eyes go wide and she lowers her voice, "...Really! You think we have a spy! They would had to be in Lt. Dahvana's base - camp cause we didn't know where we were going to strike until we landed yesterday. This place looks like the EFF have been setting this up for some time!"
Welkin opens his comm unit to the Krakens and SGm Riliah. "SGM can you have some troops set up some signs that this area is a potential chemical trapzone. Let's not feed their propoganda machine anymore the needed. Record everything we have done and send it back to the LT for the moment.
We can't deny that they somehow knew we where going here first, so keep communication between the six of us and the LT as little as needed. I suggest a 'minor' change of plans." Welkin calls up an image of the map and plots a new rute to send to the rest to follow his idea. "To not show our hand to soon, I think we have to split up keep some troops and tanks maybe a MS to follow the main path while the rest of us starts hitting towns off the intended rute we were provided. We should find a town suitable to set up a base camp and have our supply chain run through there. I suggest Turuun it might be a good spot to run attacks on both Songino and Tes. We should be able to time it so we attack Songino from three sides at once if the second assault team doesn't encounter to much resistance." He said his idea for the futher conquest of Mongolia.
"I suggest scouting Turuun" said Riliah "We have the clothing of the locals, so we can pose as EFF's soldiers that fled this place"
"Of course let's scout ahead first. Pick some of your best scouts and spies Sergent."
Once the clean up is done, Roldy parks his mobile suit and gets out. Walking over to where the SGM is, he tries to keep his yesy on roof top and dark corner of where a sniper could be hiding. Once near her, he stop and patiently waits for her to be done with the soldiers around her and motion to her that he wants a word.
"What's the... final count... on prisonner?"
He can see the disconfort in her eyes while he talks to her. He knows that any direct interaction with people would make them react that to him, he tries to make it at short has posssible.
"Where keeping... How many... guards? Interrogation?"
Hoping that his questions were clear enough to get the answer he wanted, Roldy look past her as he is waiting for his answer. This way he can avoid looking in her eyes and seeing that look that people give him, something between disgust and pity.
When the town is significantly pacified... Kanoe' will leave her Zaku II and see if she can squirrel up a A/V Cam-Recorder. she will go to the female and child refugees and bring food, water, and render first aid. she will interview some of them asking for their truthful account of what happened here... Both from the EFF forces and the Zeon Archduchy invasion force. She records all the grizzly horror of what took place here with no holding back! If she cannot find a A/V cam-Recorder.. she will simply use her own personal cell-phone to record their accounts.
She is not interrogating ANYONE...just looking for the truthful opinions but kind and critical of what happened here. She is not foolish.. she is Armed both with a sidearm and with her melee weapons... and she STAYS where the Zeon Infantry are keeping guard.. but she does not try or even intend to use their presence to coerce any specific answers out o f the refugees.
BUT ALSO... Kanoe' is staying near the women and children refugees.. to make sure none are mistreated or molested... by any angry Zeon Soldiers. She is being wary of infiltrators and thuggish Zeon forces alike!
When her interviews are done she will remain helping with relief aid until ordered to some other task. She will, of course, keep a copy of her interviews but give a memory stick to the Zeon Military Intelligence to use... but not mention her copy of the footage.