Durgama Takeover

*PRR = Personal Role Radio
*QRF= Quick Reaction Force
*LOCSTAT= Location Status

Mission Brief: 16 July 2172, 1600h
Reconnaissance Patrol around Xiandao Neosteelworks

4-1 lead by Lieutenant Anya Clarke will conduct a reconnaissance patrol around Xiandao Neosteelworks no later than 2200h today. Gather as much information as you can about the current situation on the ground and report back to higher with any findings pertinent to the mission at hand. Confirm the rumors of Combined Army aggressions in the area if you are able to do so.
Debrief to follow.

Mission Debrief: 16 July 2172, 2200h
Debrief interview with Lt. Anya Clarke

Debrief Begins:

The wind whistled through the trees, rustling the branches as the crunch of the snow under squad 4-1’s boots echoed quietly through the cool mountain air. The murmur of the squad only as loud as a hushed conversation as they get powdered snow blown into them from the hill to their right. Anya led the patrol from the front, her thick winter coat protecting her from the mountain winds that played havoc with her red hair. She stuck her gloved hand out to her right and drew a circle in the air, signaling to the squad behind her that this was the rendezvous point should things go awry. Anya turned to look over her shoulder to confirm that the squad had seen the signal and raised her finger to her mouth to tell everyone to be quiet as they approached the AO. Anya turned forward to observe her arcs to her front as the patrol advanced and was immediately greeted by the flying camera drone of the War Correspondent assigned to her squad, floating in front of her face. She reached up to her chest and pressed on her PRR switch.

“You better get that thing put away before we get to the release point,” Anya said, frustrated, “or I swear I’ll shoot it down myself.” There was a second of silence on the mic before the drone whizzed away towards the rear of the patrol.

“Sorry.” A sheepish tone replied over the radio, as the warcor quickly packed away the camera drone into his side bag.

“4-1 STARLIGHT this is 4-1, send LOCSTAT, over.” said Anya into her radio. A few seconds pass by before a crackle breaks the silence, and the voice of the field medic comes through the net.

“4-1 this is STARLIGHT, holding position at the intersection near the entry gate to the facility, grid 1562 4585, over.”

“4-1 Roger, be ready to assist in case this patrol goes south, over.”

“STARLIGHT roger, out.”

Anya then goes back to her PRR, and presses the toggle “alright listen up, we’re approaching the facility. Get your weapons readied and move to observe the facility.” Anya sent the thumbs up down the line, and waited for the signal to return to her from the back. She pulled out her binoculars from their pouch on her frag vest and looked down the line as the thumbs up approached the front of the patrol again. “Ok, Alpha on me. Bravo, Charlie, take the rear. Move your teams into it, I’m going to survey from this ridge.” Anya starts making her way through the thick snow and gathering of trees towards the top of the ridgeline, her fireteam partner, Matthew, following her tracks up the hill. As she nears the top of the ridge, she slowly starts to lower herself down into the snow to reduce her silhouette against the whiteness of her backdrop. She slowly pulls her binos towards her face, brushing the snow off of them before peering through the lenses at the facility.

“What the fuck?” Anya exclaimed, confused, “Am I crazy or is there nobody here?” She continued to look around the facility through her binoculars, scanning the apparently abandoned buildings and shipping crates. Save for a few lights and basic automated systems, the facility seemed as if it were deserted at least a few days before they got there. “Here,” said Anya, passing her binoculars to Matthew, “see if you can see anything I’m missing.”

After scanning the facility for thirty seconds or so, Matthew hands back the binoculars and says, “Well, the facility seems abandoned to me, but that doesn’t prove you’re not crazy” and begins inching his way backwards off of the ridge, and down towards the rest of the squad.

“Yeah yeah, very funny.” says Anya, pushing herself off the crest of the hill. “Still doesn’t explain why nobody is here.” She stashes the binoculars back into their pouch and reaches up to her radio toggle. “4-1 STARLIGHT this is 4-1, be advised, facility appears abandoned, we are moving in to confirm. Recommend you move to rendezvous with us, over.”

“STARLIGHT roger, moving now.” The radio clicks as the transmission is cut, and the sound of a motorcycle can be heard approaching from down the road to the east.

As Anya reaches the remainder of her squad, she motions for them to fall in on her, and begins briefing them. “All right, situation update. The facility appears abandoned, our mission is to collect intel on what’s been happening here so we are going to move in and see what we can find. Order of march no change. Questions?” Anya points at her 2IC with her hand, slowly moving around the group until reaching the last person. “Ok, move now.” With that, the squad begins moving one by one with five meter spacing towards the facility gates. The soft snow underfoot changing to hard asphalt as they exit the concealment of the brush. As they arrive at the entrance to the facility, the patrol medic comes riding up to the gate on her bike.

“Expecting any trouble?” she says, unpacking her shotgun from her saddle bag.

“Don’t know for sure, but I always feel a little safer with a medic nearby” says Anya, motioning for her patrol to occupy the compound inside the gate. “Besides, wouldn’t want you to miss out on all the fun, Eva.”

“Aww, you do care.” She smiled, and rode her bike through the checkpoint and into the compound.

As Anya moved into the compound, the warcor rushed past her into the open, loudly saying “This will make such a good photo for my article!” as he bends down to take a photo of something behind the corner of a building.

“Hey, wait! Don’t rush out into the op-” Anya’s command was cut short by the sound of a high caliber round fired through the air. Blood splattered onto the concrete in front of her as the warcor’s body fell limp onto the ground. Anya stood there in shock, as her squad started moving into combat positions.

“CONTACT!” a voice shouted from somewhere in the distance.

“Sniper!” Anya shouted, “Get out of the open, get good cover and return fire on any ground units you see.” Anya racks her rifle, and brings her hand up to her radio toggle. “4 this is 4-1, contact wait out.” She moves to her PRR toggle and presses “Eva, move up to that building, see if you can figure out who this is or why they’re here.”

“Roger, moving now” crackles over the squad net, and Eva revs her bike as fast as she can towards the building in front of her, a large crate blocking one of the doors. A loud shot rings out again towards Eva as she rides towards the crate. “Anya, looks like supply crates here, and those shots are coming from an Atalanta on a roof near the back of the compound.” Eva begins hurriedly trying to open the crate to see what valuables are inside that have ALEPH here in force. As the crate locks click open, Eva pulls out a smaller sealed box from the crate and puts it into her side bag, dismounts her motorcycle and hides herself in the building.

“Rosie, Dok, move up on that gantryway and get some cover, hold the high ground against any ALEPH advances toward our position.” said Anya, scribbling down a contact report as fast as she could in the heat of the moment, her hands shaking with adrenaline.

“Roger.” Said the two voices in unison, as footsteps started their way up the metal stairs beside Anya. Another shot echoes through the air, and a pained scream is heard from the top of the gantry.

“Doks hit, looks pretty bad.” says Rosie, ducking behind a habitation module.

“I have a shot on the sniper, taking it.” says one of the spetsnaz, as a loud burst rings out from his HMG, a loud metallic clanging noise heard in the distance. “Negative damage on target.”

“Oh shit, it sees me” shrieks the designated first-aid grunt and as a shot rings out, she falls down behind cover clutching her plate carrier. “It glanced off the plate, I’m good I’m good.”

As Anya prepares to send her contact report to command, she hears loud mechanical footsteps in the distance. Her brain scrambling as fast as it could to figure out what could be making that noise. “Marut! They have a Marut!” Anya shouted into her PRR, “Get cover, Matthew, take that thing out!”

“You got it, chief.” He replies, shouldering his autocannon and waiting for it to come around the corner. “This should shake him up a little.”

“4 this is 4-1, Contact: grid 1583 5087, ALEPH squad with TAG engaging us in the compound at Xiandao, we are engaging but have taken casualties, requesting QRF assistance, over.” As soon as she cuts her transmission, the autocannon next to her fires into the Marut.

“Shit, glanced off the armor.” said Matthew, dialing in his sights, “Readying second round.” The Marut swings his gun over to the spetsnaz who was firing at the sniper, and starts spooling up his gun. The spetsnaz quickly rolls along the wall out of the line of fire as the Marut opens up towards him, sending bits of concrete and metal flying through the air in the alley between the buildings.

The chaos of combat and sound of heavy gunfire were suddenly drowned out by the voice of Alexi, Anya’s 2IC, coming over the net, “4-1, 4-1A, we have Yadus moving up on our right flank.”

“Roger that,” returned Anya, “Wait until you have them dead to rights before opening up on them.”

“Alpha.”

“4-1 this is 4, request for QRF has been granted, however it’s not much. We have two Airborne Rangers headed towards your A-O as we speak. Should be arriving any minute now. 4 out.”

“We have to kill that TAG, it’s going to take us all out if we don’t.” Anya said into her mic, “Get that autocannon firing.”

“You got it, Anya.” Said Matthew, and steps out from cover to take the shot at the Marut. As soon as he steps into the open, a round from the TAG catches him in the chest, and he falls onto the concrete coughing and choking.

“Matthew!” cried Anya, her voice wavering. “QRF, this is 4-1, what’s your ETA on our location?”

“4-1, this is Havoc 1-1 and Havoc 1-2, we’re on station now.” Said a familiar voice over the radio. “We’ve moved into the building in front of your gunner on the right flank, taking out a Yadu team now.” As soon as the radio transmission cuts, the sound of two SMGs opening up into the Yadus.

“Rosie, how you doing up there?” Said Anya, trying to get a battle damage assessment.

“Taking fire from the Marut, trying to neutralize when I can.” replied Rosie, as she moves from cover to fire her rocket launcher at the Marut. As soon as she takes aim, a burst from the TAG’s HMG walks up Rosie’s body, knocking her off the gantry and down in front of Anya.

“All unit’s 4-1, this is 4-1, we’re taking too heavy casualties, we need to fall back to the RV and regroup with the company at our FOB.” Anya commanded into her PRR mic, “everyone fall back to the gate.” and started advancing towards the gate from which they came in.

“Ma’am, myself and the first-aid grunt here are pinned down in the alleys near this Marut,” said one of the recruits, “we’ll try to hold him back while you get out.”

“Roger that,” replied Anya, “It’s been an honor.” and rushed towards the gate. When she exited the checkpoint gate, she B-lined it towards the ridge that they had set up the RV location on earlier. The sounds of gunfire had fallen silent, as the sounds of the last few members of her squad retreated from the facility. “All units, sound off.” Anya’s hands were trembling as she looked down at her weapon, which remained entirely unused during the entirety of the firefight, and fell to her knees, hands palm up on her knees.

“Hey, you did everything you were supposed to,” said a familiar female voice as Anya felt a hand on her shoulder, “sometimes things just don’t go according to plan.”

Anya turned to see who this voice belonged to, and was greeted by the face of a girl that she went through basic training with, Ruby Jacks. “I haven’t seen you in so long, of course you’d be the QRF force to be on this nightmare of a mission,” said Anya, “the biggest failure of my career so far.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” said Ruby, “Kali and I both volunteered to be the QRF for you on this mission. Now let’s get Eva out of here and back to base, she’s hurt but stable and we have a bit of a way to go.”

Mission Debrief End.