Pre:
I logged on TS and joined the server that we were using to continue the campaign I was told had been going on for weeks. This was just one mission part of many that had completed and upcoming ones.
I myself was part of Romeo, the nickname for recruit’s squad. Due to exam season and all, we were a bit low on numbers on this particular mission so we joined up with mechanised 1, the players who used land vehicles as transport. We jumped in an EFI and began the journey. It didn’t take long to get from the abandoned mosque where had staged from to get to the outskirts of the city we were supposed to be passing through.
It was a desert, a wasteland. I wondered how people survived here, squinting at the sandstone buildings in the distance. I glanced back at the dirt road we were driving on as I wondered what we were fighting over.
The Intel we had received from NATO suggested the town was mostly clear apart from a few rouge fighters, nothing to worry about though. How wrong we were...
BOOM.
The vehicle I was in shook and ‘EVAC EVAC EVAC’ was being shouted over the radio. So I jumped out and rang to the nearest tree. As I laid on the ground and got my binoculars out to spot them a bullet whizzed past my head, urging me to speed up the killing or I would risk speeding up my expiry date. I found the perpetrators, a small machine gun squad lay on a half destroyed building looking down upon my squad and after a quick range and wind check, I adjusted my scope for 2.6 Up and 0.2 Left, then, I began firing.
I shot off a bullet and watched as the bullet impacted the enemy shooter in the chest and his head slowly slouched on to the roof, shot off another to take down his friend lying about a foot to the left of him. A final shot took down the ammo bearer trying to escape the fate of his fallen comrades.
We didn’t have much of a break because 10 seconds later mortars whizzed down from above about 200 feet from our position. Our squad leader barked out an order “060, 300meters in the window, weapons green”. I looked once more down the scope of the cheytac and found my target. An enemy mortar crew located in a roofless building directly where my squad leader told me they were. I adjusted my sights again and shot off two consecutive bullets, I didn’t see them fall to the ground because they were hiding behind the wall, the only confirmation I got was the absence of mortar shells.
We continued to crawl up the hill to give Overwatch to the advancing ground troops in the city when the man next to me was hit by a sniper ‘Hit the deck’ our SL ordered. As we all fell to the floor. The man next to me drifted out of consciousness. I again got the callout of the enemy sniper from my squad leader. “The big tower in the center the only one in the city, on the roof, distance is 560m”. I once again found him within my sights and I did a few calculations on my ballistics calculator and adjusted my sights once more. “Weapons Green” and I fired 3 shots, the first one hit the wall guarding his legs, the second hit him in the calf before the third hit him in the T area, bang in the chest. I watched mercilessly as he fell over the balcony to the ground. “Tango down” I called.
We got orders over the radio to jump in the armour on the road and continue the journey into the city. We got to a T intersection as the vehicle in front with our SL in was shot by what we believed to be an IED. Once again how wrong we were.
10 seconds later the same fate hit our tank, in the form of another rocket propelled grenade. This time we had heavier armour and I was able to escape the tank alive. Just.
I drifted in and out of consciousness as I saw people around me injured and dying around me. “MEDIC” I screamed over the radio and 2 seconds later, I saw him approaching us. Two of us had already lost too much blood and had too many injuries for him to save, they bled out before he was able to give them an IV. Not deterred he moved on to me, I knew I was badly hurt I had velocity wounds from the exploding tank shrapnel and avulsions amongst others. He applied bandage after bandage, IV after IV until I was stable enough to be moved to the medvac. The medic I only later learned of his name, took the survivors out of chaos and barked orders to cover the wounded and lay down fire for the medvac to get into town. One by one he treated us enough to be treated and stiched up by the armoured medvac that had just arrived.
I awoke fixed and ready to fight again, I looked at the surrounding buildings and sought out on about 15 meters from my position to use as a good overwatch location. I called another recruit to come with me and act as a spotter for me, find targets and range them. We ascended the two flights of stairs that lay between us and the top floor and setup a firing position. Then, I saw it. Flat on the crossroads that lay before me was an enemy tank aiming its turret at the medvac. I instinctively snatched up the RPG that lay on a dead enemy I had killed earlier and aimed it at the tank. Knowing that I could not take it out in one rocket I aimed for its gun to neutralise its offensive power. “Clear Blackblast” I shouted and fired at the turret. I watched as the fireworks from the exploding metal on the turret scattered in all directions putting on a deadly light show for anyone within 500m. I hit the deck and silently prayed none hit me.
Suddenly my spotter called out “Enemy fireteam, bearing 130, distance 200m”. I swivelled around and took aim. Almost forgetting to readjust the sights I started my breath hold before realising my mistake, correcting the sights and restarting the breath hold. After 2 seconds I took the shot, aiming primarily for the AT knowing the enemies small 5.62mm wouldn’t penetrate the thick armor on our vehicles. I continued firing round onto their squad that seemed to continue growning in size. I called “reloading” and my spotter put down fire from his NATA issued 7.62mm carbine rifle. I retook up my position before remembering I had a grenade. “Frag out” I shouted and launched the explosive at the enemy counting down the fuse in my head. I reached zero and I saw the dirt kick up from around the advancing enemy squad. Waiting for it to clear I held my scope on them and to my delight it had hit right on target. I only needed to fire one more off to finish an injured rifleman before I rotated myself 90degrees to see the medic that had saved us all not 30 minutes ago pushing up onto a building we believed the enemies to be hiding in. I watched the road and roof for him as he cleared it. Before any soldiers worst nightmare was called over the radio. “Vehicles full, everyone on foot sit tight and hold the village”. I knew instantly what this meant. We had 2 riflemen, a medic and a sniper to watch the village where 2 tanks had been destroyed. It was a daunting thought, but I compartmentalised it as I moved over to the large tower I had killed the sniper from the hill earlier in the mission. And began watching the city.
About 15 minutes later to advance on foot, over 2 clicks of open field, through 2 fortified compounds and carrying 42kg of supplies and weaponry each. “On me I called” as I ran out in to the open. I threw a smoke grenade towards the compound to our east and called for a smoke for the one next to it. I watch as a red and green striped cylinder flew over my head onto the ground about 500m from me and began emitting tick red smoke. With the cover from the enemy being two coloured clouds of smoke, we kept our eyes on it as we advanced up through the field. About one click in we jumped into a ditch to regain breath, make contact with IC, and reload.
Once contact had been established we gave the location of our position, and began moving towards the rest of the squad again. We arrived at them as they began to take fire and setup a defensive perimeter around the wounded. We were located in two separate guard towers. Behind us was an advancing enemy force many times stronger than us, and infront of us was another 2km of open ground, perfect for the advancing enemy forces to use against us.
Moving backward would mean certain death, as would staying where we were.
Our only option was to move forward. Encore the duck shooting…
We got about 500m without any injuries before someone got shot in the leg and the medic had to stop to carry him, with everyone else fleeing for their life. I threw down a smoke to the other side of the road where the medic was and I stayed on the other side giving covering fire until the medic was in better cover under the canopy of a few shrubs and saplings. As the smokes started to fade I dropped my last smoke and ran for my life. Swinging my sniper from side to side as I ran to give myself more forward momentum I zigzag’d across the field and saplings as bullets fell into the dirt inches from where I had been before. I knew it would only be a few moments until they hit me and I just carried on running not looking back.
Somehow I managed to make it to the compound, I had been shot in the leg twice and the chest 3 times. I had left a trail of blood across the entire field and I collapsed infront of the medic who gave me a single shot of morphine as he applied tourniquets and quikclots. As I fell in and out of consciousness he dragged me through a hole in the wall into a building to offer more protection and cover whilst he treated me. Through the haze that was my semi-conscious state I watched as he bandaged me and put cannulas in my wrists attaching saline and blood to them. Before I felt the sudden burst of Epinephrine rushing around my body, launching me back into consciousness. I looked around and saw the medic turn to me and say “Get up were moving”. I dragged myself up and readied myself for another marathon with a sick twist, I felt like I was in the movie “Running Man”. We dashed about 100m to the building opposite us where there was me, the medic and my squad leader. As we sat in silence enjoying the last few moments of life. A tank shell hit the medic leaving me almost dead and the squad leader unconscious. Unable to help him due to my own injuries and lack of experience. I just sat and waited to be shot by the advancing armies.
That was my experience on my first mission as a TAW.net member. It was amazing and the chaos that ensued the initial rouge RPG made the entire mission thrilling and exciting.
Wow.
You should write a book man :D
It is written like you experienced that yourself :D
Good to see that you had a good first impression here, lets hope your membership will last long :)
Greetings
Maybe after enough missions and a few interviews etc. I could possibly write a book type of thing about the whole campaign.
Wow, rly nice. Keep it up! :D
FOrtes: Wow. You should write a book man :D It is written like you experienced that yourself :D Good to see that you had a good first impression here, lets hope your membership will last long :) Greetings
But he did experience it himself :^)
Great story though!
A very well written story! A very nice read for sure! Keep up the good work! :D
That's a good read mate.
What we do in TAW inspires the writer in quite a few of us....
Wow! Most impressive -- "...indeed you are powerful, as the emperor has foreseen!"
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