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:
Rumble in the Jungle
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08-03-2012, 12:52 PM
LowTech
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Canada
Posts: 1,018
01 0330A Apr 20XX
Zap and Tunnel Rat finished wrapping trees with det cord.
“Fire in the hole!”
Several dozen trees fell in rapid succession, criss-crossing the trails. Trip Wire started lacing the lead edges with mines and booby traps. Zap grabbed several rolls of cattle wire and headed to the flanks to start laying low wire entanglements.
Lt Falcon was laying out the defensive position, when Rock n Roll approached him.
“Why aren’t we using the tripods? I can site these MGs to provide better coverage than just interspersing them along the frontage, or putting them at the cardinal points of a patrol base.”
Falcon frowned.
“You can?”
“Yes. Haven’t you ever prepared an MG overlay?”
Falcon took a deep breath.
“No. Show me.”
“Well, here’s how it works, and I’ll give you the manual to read up on after this scrap is over. Instead of putting the guns forward, put them on the backside of that little feature there. They’ll be in a defilade position, but can be used against helicopters, and we can put them on a series of firing lines to put massed indirect fire on the enemy.”
“Huh. Thanks. I was only in an infantry battalion very briefly, and we kept our crew served weapons mounted on HMMVWs.”
Rock n Roll sighed.
“That’s typical these days, and lazy. I, on the other hand, had a crusty old top who cut his teeth on the Browning M1917.”
In the near distance, Ripcord turned to Hit & Run
“The Lt was probably reading up on Valley Forge when they covered sustained fire at Benning.”
“Well it’s all about the revolution, man! No one ever won one from a prepared defence.”
Lt Falcon returned to laying out firing positions, and Rock n Roll trotted over to Ripcord and Tunnel Rat. He grabbed them both by the collars and pulled them close to his face.
“It stops now. Got it?”
Tunnel Rat started to protest, and Rock n Roll squeezed tighter. He and Ripcord both nodded.
“Good. Now get the tripods and twenty cans of 4B1T* per gun and run them over to that knoll. Remove all the tracer from three boxes.” He dropped them and turned away, heading towards Steeler, who was examining run up positions for the jeeps. Tollbooth and Cross Country had the loader and bulldozer preparing fighting holes and vehicle positions.
01 0530A Apr 20XX
Topside smiled. The radios were blanketed with static. They were being jammed. He adjusted sensors to get a bearing on the source of the jamming, and then he picked up the field phone.
Rampart stared into the sky through massive nautical binoculars.
“Looks like four MiG 21s at five thousand feet, and four Harriers coming in low.”
“The Harriers are the targets,” said Back Blast.
Rampart and Big Ben nodded, readying their missiles. They waited for what felt like an eternity, and then had tones in their ears.
“Fire!”
Three missiles raced towards the Harriers, evidently catching the pilots by surprise. The planes broke formation, launching flares and chaff and manoeuvring violently. Two of the pilots jettisoned their bomb loads in order to lighten the planes, and the bombs detonated harmlessly in the jungle. Backblast had already acquired another target and launched a fourth missile, while the other two were loading new tubes and cooling units. Two Harriers were trailing smoke, and all dispersed while the MiGs circled back to continue to provide top cover. Suddenly the MiGs themselves started manoeuvring erratically, as Slipstream, Skystriker and Dogfight launched air-to-air missiles of their own.
Rock n Roll could see the aerial explosions of the jets fight, but his focus was down river. He saw the specks before he heard the whine of the small engines and the beating of the rotors. He turned to Tunnel Rat and Crazy Legs and signalled for them to get ready. The flight of mini helicopters got closer, and at 800 metres they opened fire, using the belts without tracer. The first indication the pilots had of incoming fire was when four helicopters exploded. The remainder scrambled for altitude, flying into the gun sights of two Vamps. Machine gun fire caught the mini-choppers in the flanks, downing another two and damaging several more. The mini-choppers turned and retreated down river.
01 0615A Apr 20XX
Two light tanks, flanked by two sections of infantry, moved to the edge of the creek. They examined the near bank, waited for two more tanks to move up and adopt fire positions, and started to cross. Zap, Fast Draw, Footloose and Salvo squeezed the triggers on their Carl Gustav recoilless rifles, and the four tanks exploded. Wet Suit, Torpedo, Gung Ho and Muskrat engaged the infantry with a mix of light machine gun and 40mm grenade fire, covering the withdrawal of the anti-tank teams on ATVs. Two more light tanks pushed to the creek and starting lacing the now-unoccupied anti-tank positions with 20mm cannon fire, while an infantry platoon starting pouring speculative fire up and down the banks. Torpedo pulled his team back. They piled into the HMMVW and withdrew to firing positions covering the abatis. Minutes after they left heavy artillery fell along the creek.
“They should have had that planned before they even hit the creek,” muttered Torpedo. “These Cobras are pretty mixed quality.”
As they reached the abatis, Torpedo caught Hawk’s eye.
“They’re coming. Four tanks destroyed.”
Hawk nodded. The anti tank gunners were adopting positions along the abatis. Torpedo took his troops to their secondary position under Claymore.
01 0700A Apr 20XX
The lead infantry section came into view, hugging the sides of the trail in ack ack formation, likely with additional sections on the flanks in the trees. When they hit the open fire line, Hardball dropped six 40mm grenades along their line of march, and Scarlett and Low Light squeezed the triggers of their XM2010 and Tac-300 respectively. Hawk eyed the feeds of the unattended ground sensors laid along likely rally points, and saw two being occupied by depth troops. He picked up his field phone and contacted Rock n Roll.
Rock n Roll put down the field phone and turned to his firing line.
“Target three.” He quickly checked they all had the right bearing and elevation. “Fire!” The three machine guns each fired fifty rounds, and Hit n Run dropped five bombs down the 60mm mortar. A light tank pushed forward spitting 20mm cannon fire. Fast Draw fired off an 84mm round, then ducked for cover as fire from several machine guns converged on the location of his back blast. Low Light and Scarlett followed the streams of tracer back to their origins and started sniping the gunners.
01 0740A Apr 20XX
A mine detonated in the distance, and Bazooka adjusted the elevation on the Vamp’s twin machine guns and fired off a long burst. Several minutes later a light tank crept around a corner, and Bazooka fired a Milan missile. Heavy Metal fired a burst of 40mm grenades from the APC, followed by a burst of heavy machine gun fire, in order to suppress the infantry trying to engage the Vamp. Bazooka pulled back into the trees and scooted through the covered route he’d prepared earlier, moving to an alternate position. The sounds of infantry getting hung up on a low wire entanglement signalled Stalker to detonate four claymores covering that obstacle. A PAC-RAT laced the other side of the trail with 7.62mm fire while Bazooka dismounted a Carl Gustav, lined up a second light tank trying to push the burning lead tank off the trail, and fired.
01 0815A Apr 20XX
Lady Jaye plotted positions in the command post when Topside turned to her.
“We’re getting intermittent breaks in the jamming. I think it’s an arty-delivered device that got banged up in flight. Recondo is reporting heavy helos moving back to his location to pick up a second wave.
“Do you have comms with Short Fuze?”
“Yes.”
“Put a fire mission on that clearing.”
01 0817A Apr 20XX
“Fire!”
Two 120mm mortar bombs flew towards the Cobra clearing. Just over a minute later they heard a weak radio signal with a correction. The adjusted the bearing and elevation slightly and fired off four more rounds.
“Switch to secondary aiming point!”
The crews rapidly applied a new fire mission point, and then each tube fired a white phosphorus round into a pre-designated point in the jungle. The crews swiftly dug out the base plates and hitched the mortars to the Vamps, and the small group moved to a secondary base plate position.
“Hopefully the smoke from those WP** rounds confuses Cobra, making them think that’s our firing position and keeps their air force shooting up empty jungle.”
01 0837A Apr 20XX
Uncoordinated heavy artillery had been falling around Hawk’s main position for several minutes as Cobra infantry tried to find a way to outflank the defensive position. Ripcord and and Hardball had been pulled back with shrapnel wounds in the arms and legs. Fire slackened, and a Cobra soldier stood up, holding a mega-phone. He called through it in heavily accented English.
“Surrender now, and we will let you live. Keep fighting, and we will sell the survivors into slavery.”
Hawk grunted and turned to Rock n Roll.
“You see a flag of truce there?”
“Nope.”
Hawk raised an M14 to his shoulder and fired. The spokesman’s head snapped backwards and he crumpled to the ground. Hawk swore and adjusted his sights.
“I was aiming for his chest.”
He scanned the battlefield to his front and picked up a field phone.
“Claymore – we’re holding the line, but they’re trying to turn my left flank. Come forward and reinforce my left.”
01 0905A Apr 20XX
Barbeque fired two quick rounds at the fleeting figure to his front. The PAC-RAT covering the flank had been destroyed, and they had detonated almost all of the command mines they’d emplaced, but enemy fire was starting to slacken. Off to his left he heard the Cross Country put the APC in gear, with Heavy Metal hammering 14.5mm into enemy pockets. Then he heard Stalker’s yell.
“Advance!”
01 0915A Apr 20XX
A blast came from the tree line, and an incoming anti-tank round arced through the air, exploding on the fencing the air crew had erected around the grounded aircraft. Bob and Lola had almost finished with the engines, but they dropped their tools, leapt behind sandbag walls, pulled M60s to their shoulders, and started firing into the trees. Big Ben laid down his MANPAD, grabbed an FN MAG and added to the volume of fire. He turned to the two mechanics and grineed.
“Nice shooting!”
“Once a grunt, always a grunt,” replied Bob, firing off another burst. "We've been doing our own Phoenix Raven work security since start up."
Skymate started aimed through his Steyr AUG, and Back Stop pulled out a sniper rifle. He scanned the tree line, made out the movement of a rocket launcher being reloaded, and squeezed. A good chunk of tree splintered, and the figure jerked backwards. He pumped the next round into the chamber and fired at more movement. Lift Ticket and Windmill grabbed Rampart.
“Come with us to cover the other side of the field in case this is a diversion.”
Skymate swore.
“They’re just beyond my effective range. Looks like they’re pulling back.”
Big Ben, Skymate, Back Stop and Back Blast started quickly moving towards the tree line while Bob and Lola continued to provide suppressing fire. They passed one dead Cobra soldier, wearing a camouflage uniform, a buoyancy control device, a dive mask around his neck, and with fins attached to his belt. Big Ben noted the dive computer on a wrist, dive watch attached to the BCD*** and the FN P90, satchel charge, and unfired Panzerfaust 3 round lying on the ground. Back Stop held up a hand and pointed to the ground.
“M86 PDM.”**** He waved them around the device, then paused at a second one. He squatted, staring at the ground.
“There’s a grenade on a trip wire there, and a couple of blood tracks. Two guys are being helped along.”
“I think they did a poor estimate and brought short-range weapons only,” said Big Ben. “Normally not a problem in the trees. Bit of a problem when you show up at the wrong end of an airfield.”
They continued their advance carefully, speeding up as they heard the sound of motors at the water. By the time they got to the river’s edge, ten strangely shaped two-man boats were racing up river. Back Stop raised his rifle and fired. One of the boats shuddered and starting smoking. The two divers rolled off and started swimming, and clung to the sides of other boats, and the disabled boat started drifting back towards them with the current before sinking.
“Man, are you firing explosive rounds?” asked Back Blast.
“.338 Lapua. It’s a Timberwolf rifle.”
Skymate chuckled.
“I always thought you were a poseur with that rifle, but you really are a sniper.”
“Nope. LAV driver and gunner, mountain ops, advanced recce, para, arctic ops advisor, but never a sniper. But I grew up hunting when I wasn’t playing hockey. My uncle, Ogie Oglethorpe, after he was banned from every hockey league in North America, set up a hunting and guiding business in Northern Quebec. Moose, deer, the odd bear, geese, pheasant, great fishing. I spent a lot of time up there with him.”
Big Ben grunted.
“I’ll have to see if I can get you an AWM to try.”
01 0940A Apr 20XX
Gung Ho fired three high explosive rounds into the trees. Figures bolted from the cover, right into the line of Muskrat’s light machine gun. Wet Suit manned the HMMVW’s .50 cal, shredding potential enemy cover. Torpedo fired at a snap target, then shouted to Claymore.
“I think WE can turn THEM. We should push forward to that next feature.” He pointed to a low crest through the trees.
Claymore gave him an ‘ok’ signal and waved his hand forward.
Stalker changed magazines and shouted to the men on his flanks to keep moving, when he realized that what he was pushing back had just been an advance guard. At least a full reinforced company was moving towards him. He started to yell to everyone to go firm when something that felt like a sledgehammer struck him in the chest. He was staring up at the sky, fighting for breath, trying to figure out where he was. Flash fired a burst when he saw Stalker fall.
“Man down!”
Recoil rushed over under the cover of the Vamp’s machine guns, when a round punched through his lead leg. He crumpled.
Blowtorch fired an MRO, and the fireball provided momentary cover for Barbeque and Sneak Peak to drag the downed troops to cover.
“Get ‘em in the APC.”
With heavy machine gun fire ripping over their heads, they unceremoniously heaved the casualties into the back of the carrier, where Barbeque started performing immediate aid.
Blowtorch fired another flame rocket, and then un-slung his rifle and started firing bursts on automatic.
“Fall back!” He shouted. The thin line began to collapse under the weight of the Cobra advance.
Across the river, Hawk noted the change in tenor of the fight, and then saw Cobra troops emerging from the trees and moving across the marshy bank, pursuing Stalker’s force. He signalled to Rock n Roll, who had his machine guns shift fire to catch that force in the flank. Fast Draw caught sight of a light tank, and fired a Milan across the river at it. The Cobra counter-attack faltered as soldiers scrambled for cover from this new threat. A ripple of explosions first to Hawk’s front caused him to duck, and then he saw a Hind sweep over the river, pouring 80mm rockets into the Cobra troops. A Texan drawl broke the air.
“Nice of y’all to leave me a couple of targets. Let me know if anyone else needs perforating today!”
01 1020A Apr 20XX
Dial Tone whispered into his radio.
“Sitrep – enemy helicopters are NOT, I say again NOT, landing in this clearing. They are continuing east. This site appears to be deserted. We are conducting a clearance sweep, over.”
“Lady Jaye acknowledged, out.”
Hawk took a long drink from his canteen, poured some water on his face, and wiped the grime and cam paint with a bandanna. With the end of the jamming, he radioed all elements, pushing forward to a new defensive along the creek where the first shots had been fired.
03 1400A Apr 20XX
“I’m please to tell you that Stalker and Recoil will make it, though they’re on bed rest for a week and light duties for at least two weeks following that,” said Doc. “The other half dozen walking wounded, all from artillery, will be fine in another day or two. On a different note, Lifeline and I also ran some tests on the stool samples Recondo so thoughtfully brought back for us, and on a few of the bodies recovered from the battlefield. In short, they all show signs of childhood malnutrition, are currently on a diet of rice, legumes, vegetables, tuna and yogurt, and have been abusing performance enhancing drugs and supplements. The dietary exception is that frogman commando and the reconnaissance patrol Leatherneck and Sneak Peak stabbed to death. They were eating a lot of meat. Oh, and the ‘toilet paper,’ you recovered?” He looked over at Recondo. “That was pages from an Esperanto translation of a science fiction book. The Wasp, by Eric Russell.”
Hawk made an annotation on his notes. Flash stepped forward.
“Wet Suit and Torpedo recovered a kind of boat from the river. It had a few markings on it. One was “Hydro-Sled.” Several other parts had markings that Mainframe has been tracing. A couple point us to a small company called M.A.R.S. Industries. Alpine is working on linking them to our riddle inside a puzzle. Analysis of weapons recovered from the battlefield is consistent with previous findings. Probably not much further to be gained there. Lt Falcon led a patrol to recover the arty-borne jammer. I’ve been examining that with all the comms guys. It’s completely unfamiliar to us. We need more time to figure it out. The site Recondo patrolled was simply a forward staging base. Supplies not withdrawn by air were torched. No further intel from that location.”
Lady Jaye took over.
“Recondo’s patrol overheard a conversation referencing a Colonel Sharrif in Sudan. I’ve been doing analysis on this. I believe he heads a faction based in South Sudan though not affiliated with that government, and which has been involved in several attacks across the Sahel. We’re trying to recreate flight traffic associated with Cobra to South Sudan to figure out the base location.”
Hawk rubbed his chin.
“I need to talk with the Jugglers. We need to keep pushing east to reacquire contact with Cobra. Don’t get too confident from this battle. The enemy we faced was inferior to that we’ve patrolled against in the past weeks. There was no sign of Major Bludd or his mercenaries. The attacks were uncoordinated, they did inadequate reconnaissance, and they made poor use of artillery or air. I think we were facing a green force that was getting some live experience. Future fights will be tougher. We also need to explore this Sharrif link. We currently don’t have adequate resources. Thanks for the briefs. I’ll get back to you at 2100 tonight.” He rose and left the tent, deep in thought.
_______
* 4B1T - Four Ball One Trace - typical arrangement of linked/belt ammunition
** WP - White Phosphorous - smoke ammunition
*** BCD - Buoyancy Control Device
**** PDM - Pursuit Denial Munition
***************************
This ends the first chapter of this tale. Future installments will start being posted in a few weeks. Any constructive criticism in the interim is appreciated so I can work on tightening up the story.
Last edited by LowTech; 10-07-2012 at
04:39 PM
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