M1T4

[Nick]

2179 AD 25th August
Location: CSC Sector, Crysalis, Camp Castaway

21.20 hours local time

Suddenly the north-eastern sentry gun opened fire. A short burst ripped through the air like a whiplash, followed by curses out in the darkness not even 100 meters away. That seemed to be the signal, moments later the first mortar rounds struck the camp. Mortar rounds were sneaky compared to artillery as they made no sound when travelling through the air. The noise from the explosions were sharp and metallic and the echoes from them rolled back and forth over the barren landscape. Shrapnel flew through the air, buzzing and whining like mosquitoes. The ground vibrated and the air was filled with black dust and the smell of burnt high explosives.

Suddenly as quick as it had started the sound of the last round rung out and for a few moments the silence fell over the marines like a thick damp cloth. The air was thick with fear and anticipation.

Then distantly, they could hear the engines of approaching vehicles and the metallic rattling and clattering of treads.

>

[AstroBoy]

Jones realised his folly at putting section 1 out on the small hill. He had forgotten about the mortars.

"Section 1, get back here if you can", Jones shouted to Simovic over the comms.



He turned to his other sergeant for aid.

"Any ideas Bennett", he asked.

[pants]

Having followed Ishizawa back to the central building Octavius took a spot at one of the prepared defensive positions, trying to keep out of the way of the busy medics, while looking around for the rest of his fellow squad members.

Seeing none close to him, and feeling slightly nervous over his first battle, he tried to initiate conversation with the marine nearest him.

"So this is not much like the training sessions is it?" he said speaking towards the closest marine.  He realised how lame the question was but his nerves were playing merry hell with his confidence and he needed to speak somebody, anybody.

[exowolf]

Feeling the tower vibrate he looks down to hear Conrad yelling at him,

"Come on man, get down from there. Get our asses to that damned hill, I don't like having my ass out here without cover."

Windrider quickly stows the binoculars and grips the edges of the ladder and does the textbook "slide down the ladder to the ground" move.  As his feet settle on the ground he pulls out his rifle and readies it up and looks at Conrad briefly, "Roger boss", and moves out towards the hill.  "First time for a real battle...vehicles moving...mortars flying...mmmm a great day to be alive and fighting on the battlefield" is all he can think about.

As he makes his way to the hill he is constantly looking around trying to get a read on what is going on around him...

>

>

[S. Collins]

Collins maintained his position together with Pvt Quinn within the ruins of the former main building. The wounded and marines uncapable to fight at the moment were brought inside and were taken care of. Sean just overheard the order for section 1 to rally and fortify the northern hill.
"Hey Quinn... the Sarge wants us to... what the fuck!?" The hammering impact and detonation of the first mortar shell quaked the ground and made quirling dust rain from the shattered concrete ceiling. Collins instinctively dropped to the ground on his back and squeezed up against the pile of rubble and boulder. He couldn't even finish his sentence.
(tag Pvt Quinn)
"Incoming mortar fire! Take cover!" he yelled as loud his vocal cords would let him, before they'd conk out. Penetrating the thundering clang of the following woofs was hardly possible, and made his shout sound dull and feebly.
(tag anyone close)
Collins stayed in his shelter and gasped for air, before responding to the other marines via short-range comm.
"Sarge! Private Collins here. Me and Private Quinn are in the main building standing the rear guard and taking care of the wounded. We cannot move out during the shelling anyhow. Waiting for orders, sir!" Collins screened his ear with one hand so he could hear a possible response, while he stemmed the M56 against his shoulder. Nervous by the pounding bombardment outside Sean just prayed for the main building to be sturdy enough to survive one or two direct hits without collapsing. His cover against shrapnel and the impact blast wave was very good... but you never knew when your luck turns on you till it's too late... so Sean shrank up behind the concrete leftovers of the destroyed east-wall waiting for the bombardment to fade away.
(tag Sgt Dugan or anyone else (due to comm)) (roll for cover)
And it actually did. The shelling ended as sudden as it has started and left a baleful silence raise. Collins peeped carefully over the skirt of the rubble to examine the situation outside. This was the moment when everything tended to turn out to the worst. The distal emiting noise of approximating vehicles underlined his worries... Sean hoped some of his comrades happened to have a SADAR with them.

(roll for perception and awareness)

[> Collins' current position <]

[Dirk Pitt]

Dirk weathered the morters fire from the top of the building. The explosions lit the sky as he kept his head down and waited, wondering if one had his name on it. Dirk laughed to himself, remembering what his father had told him. "You don't have to worry about the bullet with your name on it, you have to worry about the one with to whome it may concern"

Then as quickly as they had started, they were done. However the sounds of the morters were replaced by the sounds of engines of approaching vehicles and the metallic rattling and clattering of treads.

"Fourth squad, sound off and get ready for contact" Dirk whispered into his mic.

Then he looked through the scope of his sniper rifle. Cycleing through the optics he searched for movement or body heat.

[tpc]

"Pvt. Monks here", he yelled threw the echo of the mortar fire ,while running over to the Cpl. Smacking in another magazine he ran threw the pitch black darkness with only his shoulder lamp too help him see.

[Tyler Ishizawa]

Tyler had been at the building for only a short while before the mortars began to hit. As the shells rained down, he quickly ducked below the window, or what used to be a window, which he had taken up position behind, to avoid any shrapnel that could come flying through.

But the bombardment ended, and all went quiet, followed not long after by what sounded to Tyler like armored vehicles on the move.

Ah shit the bastards have got tanks....

Tyler then whispered into his comm, "This is private Ishizawa with 3rd squad, sounds like we got incoming enemy armor, do we have any anti tank weapons?"

"Pvt. Monks here", he yelled threw the echo of the mortar fire ,while running over to the Cpl. Smacking in another magazine he ran threw the pitch black darkness with only his shoulder lamp too help him see.

Tyler turned his head when he saw a bright flash, seeing that one of the Marines from Squad 4 had turned on his lamp. "Turn that lamp off! It'll give away your position, use your helmet's infrared instead!", he hissed at the Marine.



Tyler then went up to the wall, and peeked out the window, lowering his infra red sight as he did, scanning the area for any body heat, while he gripped his pulse rifle, ready to fire at the first revolutionary guard soldier he saw.

[tpc]

"oh fudge, sorry for the language",the private whispered while turning off the light.

[Quinn]

When the first mortar exploded on the base, Quinn's instinct from boot camp and the previous campaign left him on the deck practically chewing the dirt. Luckily where he was, the three APCs took most of the shrapnel. He stayed down while the ground rocked and rolled beneath him. Standing up to get to any wounded right now would only get his ass killed, and that wouldn't help anyone.

Once it finished, Quinn didn't move but instead tried to listen. After a few seconds, his ears stopped ringing and the mixed low rumble of engines and clanking of treads reached them. Swearing, he barked "Armor incoming!"

Scrabbling to his feet, he checked inside the APCs for any anti-armor weapons while shouting to the gunners within "Enemy armor approaching the base!"

[pants]

Having got no response from the marines surrounding him Octavius turned his attention out, into the surrounding darkness.  Over his comm unit he could hear Tyler Ishizawa asking if there was any anti-tank weapons.

"Private Mongo here.  I believe that we did bring anti-tank weapons down from the ship but I'm not sure where they were stored." replied Octavius through his comm unit.

[Jocke]

Conrad was laying on his back, to give the manouvering arm of his M-56 the biggest allowance of motion possible. He was slowly inching his way towards the crest of the mound, head first. The few mortar rounds that had landed in and around the compound didn't bother him too much- incoming fire would either hit or miss you- there was no in between, and he was too old in the game for "whatif's".

When he was satisfied with his position, he swiveled the monocular lense down over his right eye, and used the smartgun to scan his surroundings without exposing himself.

"You guys start crawling up here, but don't pop your heads up over the edge. If I see something, I'll let you know." he hissed to the men in squad number one.

[Dugan]

Simovic had been co-ordinating the fortification of the small hill when the mortar barrage bagan he'd thrown himself behind a hastily constucted sandbag wall and luckily been unscathed by the attack. When the barrage had ended he directed the men to crawl to the bottom of the hill so they'd be less of a target.

Jones realised his folly at putting section 1 out on the small hill. He had forgotten about the mortars.

"Section 1, get back here if you can", Jones shouted to Simovic over the comms.



He turned to his other sergeant for aid.

"Any ideas Bennett", he asked.

"Ok roger that Jones"


"Setion 1 fallback to the command post"



While Simovic led the retreat an idea crossed his mind "Jones you could always put our and the expedition forces APC's to good use. It now looks like we have no long range comms with the dropships so we can use some of the APC's as artillery instead and place them in cover towards the back of the base or even in the ravine. Then get the guys with sniper rifles and binoculars to relay targets to them".



[O.O.C sorry about the absense have been on holiday. Nick has the Platoon got any heavy weapons, also are the three apc's on the map ours or the bases?].

[S. Collins]

"Section 1 fallback to the command post!"

Sergeant Dugan's voice murmurred through the gear internal radio commanding section 1 to fall back where Collins and Quinn already were. Eventhough the advancing enemy was still distant, military tactical procedures decreed Collins to get into position and provide covering fire if necessary. Sean fawned up on the rubble and deployed the M56 stretched out on its pneumatic arm on the brink of one bigger piece of debris. The flipdown display over his right eye illuminated Sean's face with a wan green light. Sean faced the three APC's and waited for his comrades to fall back.
Sean always had a sharp mind upon military strategy and behaviour in a combat situation. He hoped that Jones or Dugan conceived the possibility that they might get surrounded and shot to shreds by heavy weapons. Air support was on route... setting up a smoke signal for all safety wouldn't be a bad idea since the long range communications were scrambled.

"Sergeant Dugan, Private Collins here... I'll cover your withdrawal from the east side of the main building. Should we prepare a smoke-signal for incoming air-support, sir?"

(tag Sgt. Dugan)

---

> Collins' current position <

[Nick]

OOC: The three APCs are the command posts. Ony two of them are armed, and they are armed solely with anti-personell weapons.

You have no access to heavy weapons bar what You brought. That means pulse rifles, pistols, 4x smartguns and 2x sniper rifles. No rocket launchers. The Marine expeditionary force have one APC armed with two anti-tank missiles. That APC is however immobilized more or less as it is lacking a tire.

Also, You don't have to make perception roll calls. They are rolled automatically by me if need be. Otherwise I will have to reply to everyone making a roll call writing "You hear nothing" and I don't have time for that.

//N