| From: | Avenger <Avenger@*******.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | RS: Mateas - Part 1 - Stephanie |
| Date: | Thu, 8 Jan 1998 18:00:00 +0000 |
>>>>>[
Access Archive: Gates, Red Shift. RS-A/DG44-A7/3-T
Set Command: STOR
Authorisation: Red Shift, Gates ***/***/*****
+++++Helm cam: Stephanie
Night, in a cave. Stephanie's helmet camera sees sleeping forms, the
embers of a fire, a sentry at the mouth silhouetted against the dim
light. She lifts an alarmingly large pack onto her back with a slight
growl of effort, fastens the waistband and settles the burden more
comfortably: then she picks up the FN MAG-5, the ammunition belt wrapped
around the receiver to keep it from making noise, and moves out past the
sentry into the darkness.
Outside, the depression seems empty, though another sentinel softly
wishes her luck as she passes; then she's carefully picking a path
through the dense, triple-canopy jungle.
The footage is unedited, and though the distance is barely a mile
Stephanie takes nearly an hour to cover it: trading speed for stealth,
and making barely a whisper of noise as she moves.
Finally, she pauses: moving with even more care than before, she sets
the machinegun down beside the bole of a tree, then very gently lowers
her pack beside it. Her web gear follows, then her helmet: then, from
the sounds (as the camera stares into darkness) it seems the rest of her
clothing.
There is a moment of silence, before the slightest of rustles, and a
shadowy blur in the darkness, marks the passage of something - certainly
not some_one_ - towards the ridge.
Time passes, marked by a distant and weak cry of alarm that is suddenly
cut off.
Nearly half an hour goes by, before the sounds of Stephanie dressing -
much less carefully than she undressed. Once she has her helmet on
again, she keys the mike to report softly "Oscar Papa? Lone Wolf. Eight-
man OP on the ridge. All dead, moving to set up. Kilo and Juliet
positions clear."
"Roger that. Kilo and Juliet en route to your echo." Pharaoh responds,
as Stephanie hefts her pack and picks up George, moving again, with much
less care than previously, up the slope.
As the darkness begins to thin, you see the faint outline of a bunker,
poorly camouflaged, and two bodies clad in a ragtag mix of fatigues,
armed with AK-74s, lie nearby in an unnatural attitude of death. One
seems to have been mauled to death by a very large wild animal.
Stephanie hardly spares them a glance, as she heaves her pack, then
George, then herself, onto the bunker roof, looking down into the walled
compound that is Mateas' stronghold a few hundred metres away.
She sings quietly under her breath - something about "rocking the
Casbah" - as she brings out two cans of belted ammunition, two spare
barrels, a roll of tools, and a pair of gloves, arranging them carefully
to make herself comfortable: that done, Stephanie pulls a roll of
hessian and a folding entrenching tool from the rather deflated
rucksack, jumps back down to the ground and begins shovelling earth into
the sandbags: as each is filled, it goes up to the bunker roof.
She's just finishing when the first of Juliet's riflemen arrive, laden
with the bulky canisters of mortar rounds: dropping their loads off,
they move out to positions obviously planned in advance, to protect the
fire support party.
The mortar team are following, burdened by more ammunition, the mortar
tubes, and their baseplates: the trailing few, accompanied by Blaze, are
escorting two mules: one with crates of mortar bombs, the other with a
NSV heavy machine gun, cases of ammunition and a tripod.
The gunners set to work bedding their weapons in, unpacking and stacking
the bombs by the mortars. They're being careful to stand the red-banded,
yellow-painted white phosphorous bombs upright. Stephanie returns to her
position on the bunker roof, accepting another two cans of belted 7.62mm
ammunition.
Blaze leans against the bunker wall, the tall Elf's head on a level with
the short girl's. "Looks like a turkey shoot from here." She gestures
towards Mateas' compound with the muzzle of her rifle, the heavy weapon
almost as large as the young machine gunner nearby.
"Maybe." Stephanie regards it critically. "I still wish we had more air
and arty. That's a _good_ defensive layout, Vauban would have been
proud."
"Who?"
"Sebastian Vauban." Stephanie flips George's top cover open as she
speaks, gives the innards a spray of drylube. "A Frenchman, he was a
siege engineer in the 1700s who really knew his stuff. You could sort of
say he wrote the book on Fortifications And How To Break Them, because
actually he did, well, he designed lots of fortifications and advised
at lots of sieges and his way of doing it lasted for over a hundred
years, though it doesn't work any more because of artillery and armour
and air power. Which is a good thing, because his way of fighting's all
about digging, and I don't like digging trenches so I can sit in them
and get all dirty and cold and wet just in order to get out and fill
them in again, if I wanted to do that I'd be an infantryman or a combat
engineer."
Blaze nods: she's evidently used to Stephanie's conversational delivery
of information. "So it's well laid out?" Her sentence punctuated by the
solid clack of a magazine going home, followed by the click-click,
click-clack of a heavy bolt.
"It's very... traditional." Stephanie flips the top cover back down.
"And not looked after at all. Some of those bunkers look abandoned, and
others aren't camouflaged properly, this one's a disgrace for instance,
you could see it easily, and the troops are sloppy and careless and
noisy, and their weapons are _disgusting_ I think someone smart set up
the defences and then Mateas took it over, and doesn't know what to do
with what he's got."
"So you're not too worried?"
"If I didn't think we could do it I would have said something."
Stephanie glances back to the mortar team, who give her a thumbs-up:
Blaze nods; Hassul holds up two fingers as he searches for somewhere
solid to brace the tripod for his NSV, the soft leaf mould defeating his
efforts: his loader already opening the bulky boxes of 12.7mm
ammunition. The small mercenary lies flat, pulling the MAG-5 tight into
her shoulder, as lights begin to glow inside the compound and the first
few people emerge to start the day's routine.
"Okay." Hassul says, sooner than expected. "I got it, I'm set."
"Oscar 1, this is Lone Wolf. You have overwatch." Stephanie, voice calm
settles herself into a comfortable position.
Two clicks in return, then a long pause. Blaze, tall enough to stand by
the bunker, settles against it to use as a firing rest. Shoulder strap
of her Feinwerkbau wrapped tightly around one arm. Hassul cranks the
first round into the HMG's breech. Stephanie merely watches the
compound, poised and motionless.
"Pharaoh all units. Switch to Bravo now. Switch to Bravo now." Stephanie
rolls sideways and Blaze clicks the selector on her radio for her,
before doing the same for her own: after a moment, Pharaoh continues
"Element leaders, report."
"Oscar Two, in position and ready." Emma's cool voice.
"Oscar Three, we _ready_." Shado.
Stephanie keys her mike. "Juliet, Kilo, ready."
"Whiskey, orbiting Zulu muster, ready and waiting." Nemesis.
A slight pause.
"Pharaoh to all units. Go, go, GO!"
The four metallic shhhHHH-THUNKs behind Stephanie mark the first mortar
rounds being fired: she counts under her breath, and at "six big fat
bogeys" she opens fire, a five-round burst: once the tracer in the burst
kicks dust, and presumably her aim registered, Stephanie begins firing
two-second bursts, twenty or so rounds each, as the first mortar bombs
explode. The muzzle blast of Blaze's cannon jars the camera, and
Hassul's fat green tracers reach out with leisurely slowness, kicking
dust and chunks of concrete.
Mortar shells impact near the perimeter of the southern section. The
low clear voice of Handel can be heard reading off degree and elevation
changes, the next salvo launches into the air. Concentrated fire from
Hassul, in sustained bursts litters the ridge top with heavy brass. The
machine gun turning all but the heaviest buildings into peppered rubble.
A sudden explosion of thunder and two aircraft scream over the compound,
flares stretching from hot exhausts as both planes kick in afterburners
and claw for altitude. While the two planes dogfight above, the fire
team on the ridge continue to rain lead down on the defenders.
Mortar explosions walk backwards and forwards across the compound,
busily churning the previously ordered area into a cratered confusion of
death and destruction. The single reports of Blaze's monstrous sniper
rifle still occur with frightening frequency as the elven girl calmly
kills as many people as she can bring her sights on.
Already, bodies litter the courtyard, walls and building stoops.
Weapons fire flares in the south east corner, faint and hollow in the
distance - more like toy cap guns than the heavy weapons employed.
"Kilo, hard target painted." Emmas voice clear over the chaos of the
weapons fire. "Kilo. Shot, out." A metallic thung from Kilo's position,
and smoke shrouds the position, another following rapidly. A heavy
crack, flare and cloud of smoke and dust erupts from a position near
Handel a bunker explodes in a cloud of broken rock, dust and conrete.
Followed by a machine gun nest and another, the recoiless and mortar
team taking their toll of the hardened targets, the laser paint from
Oscar 2 guiding the fire teams. Mortar shells falling with unerring
accuracy. Handel sweating lightly, mouth moving in a continuous chatter,
giving co-ordinates, directing the deadly fire, glasses glued to his
face hands steady, a small cable linking his glasses to a GPS system
grid marked, a small glowing picture of the compound just visible.
Rapidly changing barrels, the first raising small trails of steam from
the morning dew on the bunker roof, Stephanie shifts her aim, and opens
fire on the compound again, keeping her tracer away from the south east
and south west corners, walking her fire from the gates to the centre
of the compound, the barracks the main building and back again. Hassuls
heavy fire chewing into the barracks - supporting Emma's efforts to keep
the majority of the troops pinned. Sentry guns mounted on the walls
near the gates drop their muzzles, ceasing their fire, small shapes near
the ruined main building drop to the ground. What few lights were on,
die following a dull explosion near Oscar 3's position, heavy fighting
coming from this position. "Oscar 3, objective dead. We kill now."
Shado, even over the mike, her voice is pure acid. Small black objects
start to exit from a concrete bunker. Drones. One explodes, a lurid
blue lightning bolt roasting the small object, another streaks for the
ridge, minigun flickering, kicking up a dust trail, the rigger finding
the range. A tongue of flame and smoke from Juliet's position and the
drone explodes in a fireball. Stephanie mutters under her breath "Told
him we'd need some rockets."
"Oscar 3, Juliet, under heavy fire. Help nice." "Roger Oscar 3"
Stephanie replies, again moves her position slightly, spotting defenders
concentrating their fire on a series of pipes, and low buildings.
Handel shifts slightly, reading off new co-ordinates, the mortars open
up again, dropping HE with deadly effect. The remaining drones drop out
of the sky, almost on cue. Stephanie opens up, a steady series of
controlled bursts her fire scattering and killing the opposing soldiers.
"All teams, Oscar 2 has cleared the security centre. Gates, the
computer's waiting for you. Bring Ricardo and Amy, they can watch the
door while you work." Emma, still cool, musical voice clear over the
heavy fire crackling behind her mike.
"Oscar 1. GO!. GO!. GO!." Infantry flood from the tree line. Several
loud cracks. The two towers on either side of the gate erupt, concrete,
stone and other materials showering into the rubble and crater strewn
courtyard, the decapitated shells collapsing, crushing troops cowering
around the foundations. Oscar 1's LAWs have spoken an irresistable
song, and the fortifications followed by their defenders answered the
dirge by dying.
An intense rolling explosion and sheet of flame blasts into and through
the courtyard, shattered wood and stone creating a hail of shrapnel,
shredding those unfortunate enough to be caught in it's blast, tossing
bodies like straw. The scream of a tortured engine breaks over the
explosion as Nemesis hauls the Huey back, flaring hard to stop the
onrushing machine, smoke spinning in whirwinds under the thrashing
rotors - grabbing altitude, the rebel flag, insolently replaced on the
nose bright against the dark camouflage. He dips the nose of the
chopper engaging the miniguns sweeping the courtyard clean of life.
Clouds of dust, body parts, shattered wood and stone twist and spin into
the air from the wall of bullets laid down by the flaming cannons. The
chopper nods and weaves, searching for targets.
As the soldiers enter the compound the guns on the ridge fall silent,
bloopers flaming, spitting grenades into the rubble, blasting shrapnel
into scattered defenders and corpses. Smoke drifts through the air,
obscuring parts of the installation below, scattered fires burn
furiously. A few disoriented defenders stagger through the bedlam,
bullets from the ground fire teams ripping into them. Nemesis suddenly
opens fire on the casa, his rockets and miniguns decimating the
beautiful building.
"Blaze gently places her rifle on top of it's cover next to the bunker,
a large number of brass casings scattered around her feet and the bunker
top, over a dozen magazines emptied, she looks at Stephanie, "I'm done,
wanna go play with the wildlife?" She smiles at Stephanie, liberating
an SMG from somewhere, cocking the weapon she hoists it and starts
towards the compound - heading for Oscar 3's position.
Stephanie removes the last barrel from George, lays it down on the
bunker roof (it hisses where it touches the moss) and flips the top
cover open.
Leaving the MAG-5 to cool, she jumps off the bunker roof: unslinging the
Ingram 20T from her side, checking the magazine and unfolding the stock
as she follows Blaze.
Moving up to flank her, the two women settle into a natural rhythm of
mutual cover as they advance towards the compound. Stephanie is singing
under her breath "we're so pretty, oh so pretty, we're Va-Cant!"
+++++End vid
+++++Terminate Access
]<<<<<
-- Gates <15:43:21/01-08-59>
