Post by Zuk on Jan 29, 2006 15:04:10 GMT -5
The day was cold and windless. The snow on the ground, barely an inch high, crunched underneath our boots threatening to give away our position to any patrolling opposition that happened to be in the area. As a result what remained of our squad and I were constantly alert for any movement or noise other than the natural sounds of the world around us. Strangely though, the waist high grass of the field seemed abnormally quiet and I got the feeling my lieutenant thought the same for only a moment after the thought crossed my mind he gestured that we were changing direction and heading for the nearby tree line. Drastically increasing the time it would take to get to the extraction point, however, it would provide much more cover if we were to become entangled in a firefight.
With Lieutenant McPherson in the lead I, Private Bombard, followed, with Sergeant Sharpe silently trailing up the rear, and what remained of our squad began its advance to relative safety. Lieutenant McPherson brought his FA-MAS’s scope closer to his face, visibly getting anxious as we came closer to the moderately dense forest. I turned to see Sergeant Sharpe extending the metal stock of his SPAS-12 and bringing the rifle up to line up the sights on anything that may show itself. I suddenly discovered my heart was racing and I’d automatically brought my FA-MAS to bear. The three of us spread into a loose skirmish line and advanced through the tree line. . . . and nothing happened. There was a moment as we all relaxed then returned to our original column as we made our way north down a small trail in the forest.
We had marched for nearly a half hour before Lieutenant McPherson stopped the column with a quick raise of his hand, immediately per our training we moved to the left and right sides of the trail and immersed ourselves in the foliage. There we sat for almost five minutes until the Lieutenant was satisfied there was nothing there, not that I complained, the rest was much appreciated. When we finally got the clear from Lieutenant McPherson he silently motioned to move into the trees heading west. After a small amount of marching we suddenly emerged from the forest into another slightly overgrown trail that was heading north east. After another signal we began to make our way along it becoming more alert as we progressed.
Suddenly we noticed a small group of burnt out buildings in a small clearing along the trail. Lieutenant McPherson dropped to one knee and brought his rifle to bear, turning to me he whispered: “Sergeant Sharpe, Private Bombard, advance by leapfrog, covering rotation. Clear the outlying building and the three of us will converge on the main structure.”
A quick nod from Sergeant Sharpe and I was all the lieutenant required from us before we began, within moments we’d discovered the first small burnt out shed was devoid of any opposition Lieutenant McPherson was already in position on the opposite side of the larger building Sergeant Sharpe and I moved to the front, and seemingly only, entrance. After kicking down the already half destroyed doorway we advanced inside, the roof section of half the building had collapsed leaving only one large room with four large glassless windows. Immediately I noticed that these windows were on each of the three walls that lead outside the building, making holding the building in a fight almost totally pointless. Sergeant Sharpe and I met up with Lieutenant McPherson outside the front entrance; the Lieutenant declared we would take a ten minute rest here before moving on.
I dropped my heavy pack near the entrance and decided to check the load on my FA-MAS as Sergeant Sharpe leaned his SPAS-12 against a tree and went to take a leak. Lieutenant McPherson, never seeming to need rest, stood watch while all of this took place. Mere seconds had passed when I heard a word come from the Lieutenant’s mouth that I’d dreaded hearing all day: “Contact.” He moved to the stone corner of the building’s front and dropped to a kneeling position.
That one simple word caused me to place a fresh clip into my FA-MAS and leap up to cover the lieutenant, I heard Sergeant Sharpe whisper a curse, something about pissing on his hands, as he did up his pants and scooped his SPAS-12 up. Slowly, I made my way into the building and placed the barrel of my rifle through one of the large windows and waited for the order to fire. Then I saw them, 4 to 5 soldiers advancing with various assortments of rifles, from bolt action to automatic. They were holding position just outside of my effective range causing me to become infuriated. Then, from out of nowhere a rifle barrel came up pointing skyward from underneath the window! Shouting a curse I threw myself backward onto the hard floor of the building firing off a quick burst in the hopes of frightening off the attacker more than actually killing them. I then leaped to my feet and sprinted out of the deathtrap of a structure, shots hitting the floor behind me as I ran.
I emerged outside to find Sergeant Sharpe and Lieutenant McPherson in a large firefight. Shots were coming from the right side of the entrance where the lieutenant was stationed, and from inside the building as well now. The Lieutenant called for us to fall back when suddenly from the caved in roof of the building shots began to come, some kind of sniper had managed to scale the roof in the confusion and was trying to lay down fire. We were effectively surrounded with our only safety being a tree line behind us that was a 40 yard jog distant with a sniper was perched just waiting for such an event.
I then realized what I had to do. I immediately took a quick count of enemies, one on the roof, three to four on the opposite side of the building shooting through the windows and past the wall on the side. All of that left one from my original estimate unaccounted for, however, I had all the information I required. I moved over to Sergeant Sharpe and without a word handed him my FA-MAS, taking up his shotgun I simply said: “Wish me luck.”
I simply broke out into a full on run down the side of the house and around a large pine tree that stood at the back corner, the enemy was obviously taken completely off guard by the blatantly suicidal maneuver, their slow reaction to the unexpected allowed me to get off two killing shots before anyone reacted and then the third before he could bring his rifle to bear. Watching the three round bursts from the SPAS-12 land squarely on my opponent’s chests was quite satisfying. Surviving the encounter was even more satisfying, quickly I returned to my squad discovering that there were two unaccounted for soldiers and they had taken the long way around the building and were flanking Lieutenant McPherson and Sergeant Sharpe. As I arrived I saw Sergeant Sharpe lying dead at the Lieutenant’s feet, taking another shot from the SPAS-12 for cover I slung it back over my shoulder and scooped up my FA-MAS from his lifeless hands. As we began to make our way around and back to the original trail I noticed movement from INSIDE the house, too late I saw that the sniper had climbed through a hole in the collapsed roof and crawled on his belly through the fallen rafters and emerged into the main room of the house as I brought my FA-MAS to bear I saw his finger pull back on the trigger and the round fly forth and impact me square in the stomach before I could get my barrel over.
I hit the ground hard, I could hear the lieutenant’s voice over the gunfire cursing, with my last strength I loaded in a fresh hi-cap magazine and tossed him my FA-MAS. I watched as the Lieutenant duel wielded the FA-MAS rifles, taking out the sniper inside with mine and using the last of his ammo from his FA-MAS taking down one of the two opponents coming from the far end of the long building. He let his FA-MAS fall and brought mine to bear and planted a shot on semi-auto right into the last opponents forehead as rounds missed him by the slightest margin.
Despite the loss of my life we had won the day. . . . barely.
With Lieutenant McPherson in the lead I, Private Bombard, followed, with Sergeant Sharpe silently trailing up the rear, and what remained of our squad began its advance to relative safety. Lieutenant McPherson brought his FA-MAS’s scope closer to his face, visibly getting anxious as we came closer to the moderately dense forest. I turned to see Sergeant Sharpe extending the metal stock of his SPAS-12 and bringing the rifle up to line up the sights on anything that may show itself. I suddenly discovered my heart was racing and I’d automatically brought my FA-MAS to bear. The three of us spread into a loose skirmish line and advanced through the tree line. . . . and nothing happened. There was a moment as we all relaxed then returned to our original column as we made our way north down a small trail in the forest.
We had marched for nearly a half hour before Lieutenant McPherson stopped the column with a quick raise of his hand, immediately per our training we moved to the left and right sides of the trail and immersed ourselves in the foliage. There we sat for almost five minutes until the Lieutenant was satisfied there was nothing there, not that I complained, the rest was much appreciated. When we finally got the clear from Lieutenant McPherson he silently motioned to move into the trees heading west. After a small amount of marching we suddenly emerged from the forest into another slightly overgrown trail that was heading north east. After another signal we began to make our way along it becoming more alert as we progressed.
Suddenly we noticed a small group of burnt out buildings in a small clearing along the trail. Lieutenant McPherson dropped to one knee and brought his rifle to bear, turning to me he whispered: “Sergeant Sharpe, Private Bombard, advance by leapfrog, covering rotation. Clear the outlying building and the three of us will converge on the main structure.”
A quick nod from Sergeant Sharpe and I was all the lieutenant required from us before we began, within moments we’d discovered the first small burnt out shed was devoid of any opposition Lieutenant McPherson was already in position on the opposite side of the larger building Sergeant Sharpe and I moved to the front, and seemingly only, entrance. After kicking down the already half destroyed doorway we advanced inside, the roof section of half the building had collapsed leaving only one large room with four large glassless windows. Immediately I noticed that these windows were on each of the three walls that lead outside the building, making holding the building in a fight almost totally pointless. Sergeant Sharpe and I met up with Lieutenant McPherson outside the front entrance; the Lieutenant declared we would take a ten minute rest here before moving on.
I dropped my heavy pack near the entrance and decided to check the load on my FA-MAS as Sergeant Sharpe leaned his SPAS-12 against a tree and went to take a leak. Lieutenant McPherson, never seeming to need rest, stood watch while all of this took place. Mere seconds had passed when I heard a word come from the Lieutenant’s mouth that I’d dreaded hearing all day: “Contact.” He moved to the stone corner of the building’s front and dropped to a kneeling position.
That one simple word caused me to place a fresh clip into my FA-MAS and leap up to cover the lieutenant, I heard Sergeant Sharpe whisper a curse, something about pissing on his hands, as he did up his pants and scooped his SPAS-12 up. Slowly, I made my way into the building and placed the barrel of my rifle through one of the large windows and waited for the order to fire. Then I saw them, 4 to 5 soldiers advancing with various assortments of rifles, from bolt action to automatic. They were holding position just outside of my effective range causing me to become infuriated. Then, from out of nowhere a rifle barrel came up pointing skyward from underneath the window! Shouting a curse I threw myself backward onto the hard floor of the building firing off a quick burst in the hopes of frightening off the attacker more than actually killing them. I then leaped to my feet and sprinted out of the deathtrap of a structure, shots hitting the floor behind me as I ran.
I emerged outside to find Sergeant Sharpe and Lieutenant McPherson in a large firefight. Shots were coming from the right side of the entrance where the lieutenant was stationed, and from inside the building as well now. The Lieutenant called for us to fall back when suddenly from the caved in roof of the building shots began to come, some kind of sniper had managed to scale the roof in the confusion and was trying to lay down fire. We were effectively surrounded with our only safety being a tree line behind us that was a 40 yard jog distant with a sniper was perched just waiting for such an event.
I then realized what I had to do. I immediately took a quick count of enemies, one on the roof, three to four on the opposite side of the building shooting through the windows and past the wall on the side. All of that left one from my original estimate unaccounted for, however, I had all the information I required. I moved over to Sergeant Sharpe and without a word handed him my FA-MAS, taking up his shotgun I simply said: “Wish me luck.”
I simply broke out into a full on run down the side of the house and around a large pine tree that stood at the back corner, the enemy was obviously taken completely off guard by the blatantly suicidal maneuver, their slow reaction to the unexpected allowed me to get off two killing shots before anyone reacted and then the third before he could bring his rifle to bear. Watching the three round bursts from the SPAS-12 land squarely on my opponent’s chests was quite satisfying. Surviving the encounter was even more satisfying, quickly I returned to my squad discovering that there were two unaccounted for soldiers and they had taken the long way around the building and were flanking Lieutenant McPherson and Sergeant Sharpe. As I arrived I saw Sergeant Sharpe lying dead at the Lieutenant’s feet, taking another shot from the SPAS-12 for cover I slung it back over my shoulder and scooped up my FA-MAS from his lifeless hands. As we began to make our way around and back to the original trail I noticed movement from INSIDE the house, too late I saw that the sniper had climbed through a hole in the collapsed roof and crawled on his belly through the fallen rafters and emerged into the main room of the house as I brought my FA-MAS to bear I saw his finger pull back on the trigger and the round fly forth and impact me square in the stomach before I could get my barrel over.
I hit the ground hard, I could hear the lieutenant’s voice over the gunfire cursing, with my last strength I loaded in a fresh hi-cap magazine and tossed him my FA-MAS. I watched as the Lieutenant duel wielded the FA-MAS rifles, taking out the sniper inside with mine and using the last of his ammo from his FA-MAS taking down one of the two opponents coming from the far end of the long building. He let his FA-MAS fall and brought mine to bear and planted a shot on semi-auto right into the last opponents forehead as rounds missed him by the slightest margin.
Despite the loss of my life we had won the day. . . . barely.