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Post by Lucius Alar on Apr 9, 2010 21:30:49 GMT
A Losing Battle 1-1-1
10 Bullets
That's all Lucius was given for his rifle, much less for his only sidearm, the EAF .45. This obvious lack of supplies, just this one instance, gave a perfect example of the poor condition the AU Forces were in. Everywhere he looked, Lucius could see fighting men, soldiers, who were sorely under-equipped. He remembered departing the camp early that morning. He had seen men still sleeping in their tents, without blankets, shoes, and some without any food.
Lucius felt privileged in his position as a sniper, though he too felt some of the effects of this lack of supplies. He had pity for the regular infantry who went straight into battle, but Lucius knew that they did not consider themselves in the same way.
Today, as per Lucius's "assignment briefing," he was a very deadly bush on a small ridge overlooking an APM camp within one of the many valleys in the Northern Territories. His self-made ghillie suit gave him the perfect advantage with stealth, but after remaining in a statuesque position for over five hours, he felt a little stiff.
Over his COMM-3 Headset, another old outdated model of military technology, he heard the static of the signal from Raven-2, an enormous stealth plane in the sky. The entire attack soon to be carried out on the unsuspecting APM base would be organized from the massive flying HQ.
Raven-2: Rifle-3-7 (Lucius' Operative Name), attack begins in t-minus 120 seconds. Your first target is the guard in the watch tower approximately 225 yards and 30 degrees from your position, over.
Lucius: Copy that Raven-2, this is Rifle-3-7, orders received.
Lucius was already calculating wind speed and direction. He knew that APM snipers, especially those in the watch towers, had to be taken down with the first shot. These deadly snipers almost never warranted an attacker a first chance, let alone a second. Missing was simply not an option.
The attack plan was for the various marksman teams to provide sniper support for the regular infantry who had already stealthily surrounded the base. Lucius made the final adjustment to his scope. He hoped and prayed that this first shot would be spot on. He heard his headset start up again.
Raven-2: All Rifle Teams commence attack.
Lucius exhaled slightly and pulled the trigger.
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Post by Lucius Alar on Apr 13, 2010 0:30:03 GMT
A Losing Battle 1-1-2
The hammer inside of the bolt of Lucius' rifle swung upward and then forward. The metal pin then struck the primer on the casing of one of the five .308 rounds that Lucius had in his AUC-SR1. In that instant the gunpowder within the bullet's shell ignited sending the bullet exploding down the barrel. The precision rifling within the barrel kept the bullet cutting through the air at an accurate and lightning quick speed. The watchtower guard had no chance. The super-sonic round used in the AU sniper rifles traveled much faster than the speed of sound. As the bullet exited the APM sniper's throat, he fell to the ground. The sound of Lucius' shot was not heard until the soldier's body had collided with the floor of the watchtower.
Lucius racked the bolt of his rifle, ejecting the spent bullet and loading a fresh round. He crouched behind the ridge that he had, only moments before, been prone on. Now the expert sniper could hear the sound of gunfire echoing across every facet of the sloping valley. He slowly raised his head just above the ridge to get a better look at the chaos ensuing below him.
He noticed that the battle was proceeding relatively well for the AU direct action forces (who were performing close assault maneuvers in the APM base). With his rifle scope, Lucius was able to see details of the intense action. Everywhere he looked, tracers from friendly and enemy fire blazed across the valley. He saw that a fuel reserve within the APM headquarters had been shot and as a result, blown up. Lucius was certain that the deed had been performed by one of the other snipers encircling the valley, and he scolded himself jokingly for not having thought of that idea himself. He also observed a small group of AU soldiers preparing to breach a small barracks within the camp, but just as they had begun their task, an APM soldier rounded one of the corners of the building. Thankfully, the enemy soldier received a quick shot to the head by an AU sniper before he could even fire a shot.
As Lucius began to continue with his scan of the battle’s events, a stray large-caliber bullet, embedding itself directly into a mound of dirt next to him, sent a shower of earth and rocks spraying everywhere. Lucius quickly ducked back behind the ridge, just as several more rounds collided into the ridge. It was a close call but also a reminder to Lucius of the reality of the situation at hand. “Now would be a good time to reposition,” thought Lucius.
He moved further down the slope on his side of the ridge and quickly ran to a small tree surrounded by undergrowth next to him. He crawled up to the edge of the ridge again and unfolded his bipod. Looking down his scope, he sighted in on three APM soldiers taking cover behind some sandbags and supply crates. He estimated the distance of the shot to be around the same as his first, about 250 yards. Lucius rifle was already sighted in for this distance, so, thankfully, he was able to make the most of the opportunity.
The three APM troops were exchanging fire with an AU soldier who had been separated from his squad. The poor soul was trapped within one of APM’s extra (but thankfully empty) barracks. Slowly, Lucius dropped the crosshairs of his rifle down on one of the APM soldiers. Just as the enemy soldier looked up over the sandbags, Lucius fired hitting the man directly in the head. Now, the other two APM soldiers felt like the hunted. At 250 to 300 yards away, death was raining down upon them, and there wasn’t a thing that they could do about it. Lucius shot down another of the enemy soldiers as he tried to make a run for it, shooting the man in the back. Finally, the last of the three APM soldiers stood and began firing wildly in the direction of the ridge, but he only managed to shoot for about three seconds before Lucius had defeated him as well.
Lucius then moved his scope onto the AU soldier who had been pinned down in the empty barracks. Lucius saw the man smile and give him the “A-O.K.” sign with his hand just as the barracks was consumed with flames. A fuel tank next to the building had received a few stray bullets, and it had exploded. Lucius flinched at the sight, after the explosion had ended; all that was left were the charred remains of the previously existing barracks.
Lucius spotted another APM soldier in a tower, whom he perceived to be a sniper. Recognizing an immediate threat to his being, Lucius quickly fired a round at the tower but missed the sniper as his bullet sent sparks flying off of the metal on the tower. He backed down the ridge, ejected his clip, and loaded in a fresh one. After operating the bolt on his rifle to deliver a new bullet into the barrel, he slowly moved back up to the rim of the ridge and muttered, “Last five….better make them count.”
The sniper was so far away, that the enemy appeared only as a small dot in his scope, about the size of a small pebble. Lucius estimated that the distance was around 400 yards, and he had no business even attempting to get close to a target that far away. However, Lucius knew that, given enough time, the APM sniper and his much more powerful rifle would begin to slowly pick off the other AU snipers, Lucius had to do something. So, he set his bipod on a small boulder, and sighted his rifle in (another estimation). He held his breath and fired…a miss. He made a few more adjustments to his scope and took another shot…another bullet, wasted. After yet another miss, Lucius was perfectly sighted in with his target, now any misses would be because of his aim.
With only two shots left he lined up another shot, he took his time. As he began to exhale slowly and squeeze the trigger, the APM sniper turned quickly acquired Lucius in his sights and fired. Lucius started as the enemy sniper’s bullet hit just a few inches from his head, and he accidentally fired. Lucius groaned, “Only one shot.” He sighed, “I don’t want to die on this ridge.” Ducking behind the ridge, Lucius removed his last bullet from the barrel and kissed it. “Don’t miss!” He said.
Loading the bullet back into the rifle and closing the bolt, he threw himself up over the ridge. Within a split second he had acquired his target, but the APM sniper had also done the same. The enemy fired, but Lucius did not move. The bullet impacted Lucius’ rifle’s bipod and ricocheted into a tree next to him, but his aim was affected little. Lucius let out his breath some and squeezed the trigger. BAM! The loud report of the rifle echoed across the now hotly contested valley. A spray of red mist behind the enemy sniper’s head indicated a fatal hit.
Lucius took cover behind the ridge, slung his rifle over his back, and crouched in the dirt. Now, his job was done, until “evac” arrived. The battle was nearly over, so Lucius turned on his headset (that he had turned off after receiving his orders to kill the APM watchtower guard) and listened to radio chatter. He could hear celebrations all over the radio. However, one voice came through much clearer than the others.
Raven-2: “Good job! Excellent work, soldiers, I think we can call this one a vic---Wait…”
Lucius heard one of the voices of a Raven-2 operator in the background. The man was mumbling something…but Lucius, as much as he strained, couldn’t make it out. Raven-2 came back online with a frantic voice.
Raven-2: “All troops retreat from the valley! I repeat, leave the valley now! We have no other choice, le….”
Static overcame the operator’s voice, and Lucius looked to the sky to see if he could find Raven-2. What he found was a raging ball of flame plummeting toward the ground, it was Raven-2. Over his headset, Lucius heard shocked voices and yelling, but one soldier’s voice cut through all others as he shouted the most cryptic words any AU soldier could ever hear:
Soldier: “Dreadnoughts!!”
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Post by Lucius Alar on Apr 17, 2010 18:14:17 GMT
A Losing Battle 1-1-3
Large metallic aircraft bearing the APM crest quickly descended upon the smoking and desolate valley. For AU, the battle was over, and (opposed to what Raven-2 had stated) they had not won. APM must have highly valued this base of operations for rarely did they send their most advanced fighting machines, the “Dreadnoughts” into battle.
Little is known about the inner-workings of these craft, only that for any enemies, they mean certain death. These machines were as large as the old 747’s of earth’s years, but much more deadly. Not only were these aircraft fast, but they had the ability to slowly hover over an area and wreak havoc. APM’s Dreadnoughts were armed to the teeth with large caliber machine guns at nearly every window in the craft, bomb bays for dropping chemical and explosive weapons, NF-750 flamethrowers (large mounted flamethrower, about the size of an artillery gun), and to top it all off, these machines had two of APM’s latest tech in artillery guns mounted in the center of the craft. From a stabilized hover stance, the Dreadnought could fire both of these guns, pack up, and then be 50 miles away in roughly 5 to 10 minutes. Each craft took about 150 soldiers to fully man and was quite literally a moving “sky fortress” of sorts.
In all, this spelt brutal defeat for the AU troops in the valley. Lucius watched from the ridge for as long as he could. The Dreadnoughts came down upon the valley swiftly and began reclaiming it. Some AU soldiers tried to fight the enormous aircraft with rockets and various other explosive devices, but the thick titanium plate armor (with uranium absorption plates) proved nearly impenetrable. Most of the AU forces retreated. Lucius observed the Dreadnoughts spewing flames upon the APM base. The napalm fueled flamethrowers literally boiled troops alive. Once the napalm liquid was on a soldier, they could burn for hours if not days. Lucius was able to count about five Dreadnoughts in all, and every single one was executing a classic extermination maneuver with deadly skill. Every angle of the crafts was emanating .50 cal machine gun fire, and Lucius took cover behind the ridge just as he saw the APM chemical bombs being dropped in the valley.
Lucius had to turn off his headset; the screams of anguish coming from every channel of the network were overwhelming. As he gradually scaled his way down the ridge to start retreating back to base, he heard the loud whirring sound of one of the Dreadnought engines overhead. He quickly dove into a nearby bush which he blended into perfectly with his ghillie suit. Every fiber of his being wanted him to run, but he knew that it was nearly impossible to run from a Dreadnought.
As fortune would have it, the Dreadnought hovered about 12 stories directly above Lucius. As he watched, the gigantic airship lowered its stabilization thrusters preparing to send an artillery barrage on the AU base. As much as he wanted to, Lucius could not do anything about it. In a few minutes, the guns were deployed. Lucius looked to the sky as the first guns shot….and he lost consciousness.
Hours later, he awoke. The first thing that came to his mind was the smell…the awful smell of ashes. No doubt the smell was from the valley that had been destroyed by the APM Dreadnoughts. But, now, he crawled out of the bush that he had taken cover in. Lucius was still a little dizzy, and he stumbled as he tried to stand. The back blast from the artillery cannons on the Dreadnoughts….that’s what it was. The blast force was funneled down an exhaust shaft out of the bottom of the craft. Lucius had been directly under it! Despite, the current circumstances, Lucius did notice that his emergency beacon had been activated, probably when he fell to the ground.
Regardless of any rescue plans, he had to walk back to the base. Lucius could not stay in the valley that was now being patrolled by APM search parties. He was stifled by the heinous smell of ashes and debris that lay around him, and he was quite surprised that he himself had not been consumed in any sort of fire. But now the forest lay silent as he trudged through it.
Near, the end of the day, Lucius was eventually picked up by a small rescue squad. The group was quite surprised to see that he wasn’t somehow mortally wounded. Upon arriving back at the base he was relieved to see that most of it was still intact. The Dreadnoughts had not been able to get an accurate distance, and their coordinates were off. He hopped out of the transport and looked around, the base was nearly empty. He saw a few of the rescue technicians sitting in a Rogue (a heavy-duty off-roading vehicle much like a beefed-up jeep). He jogged over to them.
Lucius: “What happened?? Where is everyone??”
Rescue Driver: “Didn’t you hear?”
Lucius: “No, why...is something wrong?
Rescue Driver: “Yea there’s somethin’ wrong; I am sorrow to tell you that for now at least, you are everyone.”
Lucius stumbled back from the jeep and sat on the ground. Could this really have been possible? Could so many of the troops, even the distanced snipers, died that he was the only one left? His questions were answered later that night, as he saw transport after transport come in empty. Though a few of the transports had survivors, there were only about 150 soldiers, including the wounded, who made it out alive. That was a stark contrast from the original 5,000 ground troops employed in the operation. The only thing left for Lucius to do was sleep. He heard the plan was for the base to be evacuated in the morning and for everyone to head back to the AU headquarters in New Chicago where they would be receiving supplies from some smugglers.
The next morning Lucius boarded the transport and headed to the AU headquarters. With an air of defeat, the AU transports arrived and prepared for much needed supplies and rest.
TAGGING BRANDON
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