| From: | ANGLISS BRIAN EDWARD <angliss@****.Colorado.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Diversion Team, Maxim raid part 9 |
| Date: | Mon, 11 Mar 1996 09:02:30 -0700 (MST) |
>>>>>[The Duke asked me to post this for him, since he is unable to do it
for a while due to his wounds. I am pleased to tell those of you who were
separated from him in the heat of combat that he is recovering from several
unfortunate wounds and that he is sorry that you became separated. Because
of his wounds, he contacted some associates of mine in Phenom Penh and they
contacted me. I got him here to Manus Island with fellow my fellow Shroud
where he is recovering well.
Now for The Duke's account of what happened.
+++++ Begin Dictation +++++
As my friend Hermit has already done, I'm sure, I want to say I'm sorry to
my fellow teammates. My wounds were severe and I was unable to stay with
you. I am afraid that you counted me as lost in the final battle we waged
for our survival, but I am glad to say that I live, albeit in a highly
wounded state that could very easily require several weeks to months of
recovery time.
I'm very sorry.
However, for the rest of you, this is my account of what happened to those
of us whom were to provide the distractions that would allow the rest of the
teams entrance and exit from the target facility.
We all arrived over a span of about 24 hours and connected in our safehouse
where the entire group met and planned the final changes to the assault. As
you all well know, the assault did not go particularly well and nearly became
a fiasco, but the teams succeeded nonetheless, but at great cost. But I
digress. Based on our final reconnaissance, we made our final changes and
introduced ourselves to each other and to our fire support as well as made
ourselves familiar with our hardware.
Mr. Jackson had, with the help of Mr. Lynch, acquired eight Grad-P missile
launchers with many salvos of missiles for ammunition, including white
phosphorous, thermite, high explosive, chaff, and VX simulant. The WP,
thermite, and HE rockets were to be fired to create the initial confusion
that would provide the openings for our teams to penetrate the facility.
The chaff would hopefully divert incoming missiles as well as confuse the
radar and communications systems of Maxim. The simulant was part of a well
orchestrated distraction that was to provide the means for our teams to
escape again after destroying the nuclear devices and the storage bunker
they were contained within. In addition to the Grad-P launchers, we were
also provided with several large vehicles from which Mr. Ripley was to
control the operations of all the distractions, plus the support drones he
would pilot. We also were given three ancient howitzers, but which we were
ensured would work properly. Mr. Ripley was also given 10 various drones,
including several rotodrones which he did not feel confident to pilot, but
which he eventually did pilot, and relatively well at that. Finally, we
were all given the necessary electronics to communicate with each other.
Because of the shear number of individuals who were involved in our aspect
of the operation, we were second behind the HALO team to leave for our
positions, and that only because the HALO jumpers had to travel to their
staging point several hundred kilometers away. We left in several groups,
including the howitzers, two groups of three Grad-Ps, and the control group
with two Grad-Ps. I was assigned to help Mr. Tigger, our resident artillery
savant, with his group and then to connect with the control group after the
initial distraction was launched and aid Mr. Ripley and Mr. Redfeather with
preparing the drones for launch. Mr. Shadow was with one of the Grad-P
units, unfortunately.
We very slowly and deliberately moved out disguised units into place over
several hours, even during daylight. We had been careful to disguise the
howitzers, and the Grad-Ps were disguised when we received them from Mr.
Lynch's contacts. But we also hoped that the vehicles cooling with the
atmosphere would keep Maxim's satellites and drones from targeting the
various weapons too quickly. However, we were careful to use only the
howitzer unit and one of the Grad-P units, Mr. Shadow's to be precise, for
the initial distraction lest Maxim target them immediately. All the units,
including the control unit, had several local individuals who Mr. Jackson
hired because they had grudges against Maxim. Their presence made our team
the largest out of all of them in shear manpower. Each Grad-P unit was
manned by 12 people, the howitzers by 8, and the control/Grad-P unit by 12
as well. 44 people is a large, unwieldy number, but necessary for spotters,
sighting, transport, reloading, and all the additional duties the distraction
team had. I'm quite certain that a team of true military professionals would
require far fewer, but for ourselves, 44 was just enough.
By sunset, all the units were in place and had spread camouflage netting
over their positions. Mr. Tigger and I sighted in the howitzers carefully,
with me acting as spotter for the initial volleys of shells. I'd only done
that a couple of time previously, and I learned much from Mr. Tigger in the
process. The shells were all targeted on the airfield section of the
facility, as much to limit casualties as to destroy Maxim's ability to
launch and recover some of their more exotic aircraft. When we were finished
and we'd worked out the additional settings for the shells following the
initial volley, we sat back, applied generous portions of bug repellant, and
waited.
When the time came, we loaded three rounds, one in each howitzer, and had
three more rounds ready. We hoped to get at least three our four shots off
before we had to run, but we were unsure how long we would have before
Maxim's responses came back and destroyed out position. Mr. Lynch suggested
that we would likely have only a minute, and that is what we based our
estimates off of. I stood back and waited, and was surprised at the report
the howitzers made when we fired them, and all three jumped when they were
fired. Mr. Tigger showed, for the following minute, just how expert he is
in his element of artillery. Not only did was each howitzer expertly
realigned, but he was able to get a second volley of shells off before the
first had even struck the facility. Unfortunately, Maxim was also able to
get return shells off before the first hit the ground, but not by much. Mr.
Tigger and everyone else scrambled to get one more volley off, and then we
all scattered to avoid the incoming shells. And they came in fast and
furious. Two hit almost at the same instant, followed by more. They were
a mixture of HE and HE submunitions that scattered over a huge area. Mr.
Tigger and I were lucky to escape with our live, but the others were not so
lucky. None of them reached the control unit, and I could see that the areas
where they had run to were totally laid to waste from shells. Mr. Tigger
said that he heard the shell descents of at least 12 shells. Extreme
overkill, but Maxim is not a corporation to be subtle or restrained in their
use of force.
We connected with the control unit and immediately started working on the
final arming and flight preparations for the drones that Mr. Ripley was going
to be using to help the teams inside escape. He had several rotodrones and
RPVs, and a short temporary airfield in the clearing we were next to provided
the means to launch the RPVs. They were loaded with machine guns, cannons,
missiles, and rockets. Neither Mr. Jackson nor Mr. Lynch were able to
acquire vehicle lasers, but they would have been an unnecessary waste anyway.
Mr. Shadow radioed over a secure line to tell us that his Grad-P unit was
totally destroyed by missile artillery from the facility, and that he thought
that some of the locals with him escaped the destruction as well, but he'd
not been in contact with them. I could tell that Mr. Shadow was distressed
at not being able to save those people with him, but what can a single man
do against artillery when it's fired from kilometers away?
Mr. Ripley was unable to respond because we dared not open our communications
lines until we were ready to move. Maxim's response times were everything
that Mr. Lynch suspected and more, almost as if they had prepared for actions
like this repeatedly, or perhaps even fought them before. The tension from
this point built up until one of the HALO jumpers radioed us to ask us for
the distractions starting in 30 seconds. Mr. Ripley immediately fired up
the engines on his drones, broke radio silence to call the other Grad-P unit
with the VX simulant missiles, and then he launched his drones. I took over
the ATV we were controlling our end of the operation from and Mr. Tigger,
when the timing was right, fired the Grad-Ps, reloaded once, and fired them
again before we all vacated the area. I was driving, Mr. Redfeather was
working the communications and a couple of the weapons on the ATV, Mr. Ripley
was controlling the drones, and Mr. Tigger was running shotgun. I'm afraid
that his job was already finished when we started to move, abandoning the
Grad-Ps to destruction. Mr. Jackson, I'm sorry to say that all your
significant investment was destroyed almost as soon as we vacated the area.
Behind us, Maxim's artillery and missiles reduced our staging area to burned
and cratered earth where it was once fertile jungle.
Mr. Ripley was able to connect his drone visual feeds to various cameras in
the ATV, and Mr. Tigger kept us informed as to his progress in assisting the
escape of the internal teams. By the time his drones arrived, the HALO and
Nightglider teams were on their way out, with the help of the magical team
as planned. Mr. Tigger remarked that the entire western perimeter was alight
with fire, explosions, and gunfire. I was far too busy driving to look
myself. It would have ended our aid to the IFV team, who were still inside
and whom Mr. Ripley was assisting with his drones, had I hit a tree or
allowed the ATV to roll down an embankment. Mr. Tigger and Mr. Redfeather
were most concerned when Mr. Ripley jerked a few times when his drones were
abruptly destroyed, from the effect of feedback. However, he continued to
operate them well and he was instrumental in keeping Maxim's troops from
killing or capturing the IFV team members who used the Stallion to escape,
and although his aid was less obvious to the others, he nonetheless helped
them by keeping some of Maxim's troops and drones, as well as the occasional
spirit, occupied.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ripley's drones were totally destroyed, and the feedback
from the last several caught him so off-guard that he was knocked unconscious
as we were approaching the rendezvous point. Unfortunately, we were to have
several additional difficulties upon our arrival, the most severe of which
was our being attacked by a platoon of soldiers dressed in the armor of a
local warlord. Maxim has many of the locals in their employ because they
provide an initial buffer between the facility and the hostile warlords who
would try and destroy the facility, or take it for their own. We ran into
one of the former, and Mr. Redfeather informed us that they had already
called Maxim for reinforcement as he was beginning to fire on the guerrillas
around us. I am not a rigger, I am a physical adept, yet I was driving this
huge, unwieldy vehicle. Mr. Tigger, between firing through the gunports in
the rear of the ATV, slapped a stimpatch on Mr. Ripley. While I generally
do not approve of their use, had Mr. Ripley not been woken, we would have
been caught in the ambush when Maxim's Massif-4 arrived. Mr. Ripley was
wide awake within seconds, and immediately assessed the situation and asked
me to step aside. I did so gladly, and the ATV took on a whole different
light with a true rigger behind the controls. I took my place with Mr.
Tigger and the locals that were with us in firing from the back, and Mr.
Redfeather kept up the fire with the machinegun. Unfortunately, it was about
this time that there was a couple of thunks on the roof of the back, followed
by explosions which blasted large enough holes in the roof for more grenades
to fall in if the attackers were so inclined to throw them. They did so, but
we were lucky to have Mr. Tigger there to quickly throw it out again prior
to it's detonation. But in the process, Mr. Tigger took a burst from an SMG
in the arm he threw the grenade out with. It injured that arm badly, but
repairably.
Mr. Redfeather noticed that there was a troop with an RPG, and brought this
to our attention with a shout. But before we could do anything about it, Mr.
Shadow fell upon the individual and removed his head with a sword. We were
quite glad to see his arrival, as it meant a little confusion among our
attackers, which we gladly exploited. Mr. Ripley saw this momentary
confusion as the break he needed, and he drove us out of the ambush, pausing
only long enough for us to grab Mr. Shadow and pull him inside the vehicle.
In the process, however, I was shot in my stomach and chest and fell out of
the ATV in the process. Mr. Ripley was not aware of this until after a
grenade detonated very near me, and the appearance of a Maxim Massif-4
certainly complicated his return. I was told that he did return, however,
only to find that my body was gone.
I was barely able to get out of the site myself before the Massif-4 pounded
it and the surrounding areas with gunfire and rockets. Due to my wounds, I
was forced to rely on every bit of survival and physical training I had ever
learned, and even then I was only barely alive when Hermit's associates
located me and brought me here.
I was told that the raid was a success, but at great cost. To all who
participated, congratulations on the success, and my condolences to all of
you who are injured, or are caring for the injured, and who lost friends in
the process.
+++++ End Dictation +++++
Good day.]<<<<<
-- Hermit <09:01:59/03-11-57>
