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Warriors of Valour: Part 3
Posted By: Ghost sniper<taylorboys@vtown.com.au>
Date: 4 October 2003, 8:03 AM
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'Okay get off' the greasy man snarled at us in the hold shoving us outside to be greeted by a nice looking planet except for the makeshift bases that spotted the field the ship had landed on.
'This way' He snarled again leading the group of twenty men towards a large base. As we entered he lead us towards a large chamber where we lined up at attention. A man wearing a ragged officer's uniform came in looking each person up and down until he came to me.
'Name, son'
'Frederick Stiles, sir'
'Oh yeah, ever killed someone Fred.'
'Yes, sir' I said quietly not proud of it even though the sergeant deserved it.
'Who was it?'
'A marine Sergeant, sir'
'Holy shit, no wonder you're here. Okay first ten your to join Major Brosnick's unit the rest to join Major Matthews.' He quietly lowered his voice so only I could hear. 'Why did you kill him son?'
'He killed my father.'
'Your with Matthews, stay alive Fred I can see you have great potential.'
I followed ten of the new recruits mostly thieves and murderers towards one of the barracks where I got a bunk with a little Italian guy called Marco.
'Hey name's Marco what's yours?'
'Frederick, just call me Fred.'
'Okay, why are you here? I'm hear because I "accidentally" blew up a marines barracks.'
'I killed a marine and hijacked a ship.'
'Oohh, nice. Well you better get some rest we've got a new mission tomorrow. Oh, sleep facing away from fat Bob if you want to survive.' He said pointing to a fat recruit two bunks down just releasing a fart that was so loud it rattled the windows. I couldn't sleep while thinking of what could happen tomorrow but eventually fat Bob's chorus of farts drowned out my thoughts allowing sleep to come.
I awoke fully aware as Marco shook me.
'Come on man, Matthews waiting.'
We ran out the barracks and back into the main base where the briefing was held. Fortunately we where one of the first people there and I was able to see Matthews. He was middle-aged maybe 40 with a very crisp marine uniform; Marco said he had a dishonourable discharge from the service even though there was no evidence he had blown the mission.
'Okay ladies listen up' He boomed once a fair amount of troops came into the room 'today's operation is on a planet just 2 system away nice and easy, new base not yet completed holds some weapons we should capture, resistance is light so we're going to drop just past this forest proceed through to the bases gates and gain entry. Then Alpha and Bravo team enter the base while Charlie team wait outside. Once inside is clear Alpha team will escort Bravo team who will carry the weapons to the bases main square where a pelican will come in and pick us up. So lock 'n' load.'
'Sir, yes sir.' The squad sounded in unison and walked out into the armoury. There I loaded up on a simple MA4D a short rifle with a long range and very accurate, only capable of single and burst fire mode unlike its newer counterparts that had full automatic. Marco as I thought got some demolition charges instead of a pistol. I kept my father's M3B pistol but took extra MA4D ammo because I didn't want to use the pistol.
We boarded the pelican with Alpha team, luckily Marco and me didn't get separated and we were in Sergeant Matthews's team. That was when our luck changed as the Pelican begun to lift off an engine cut out shortly sending Marco falling out of the Pelican. I rushed to the side and heard a piercing crack. We re-landed and Matthews came up to Marco.
'Well you've broken your leg, not to bad enough for you not to walk on it.'
'I can still shoot though sir.'
'What's that got to mean?'
'I can stay in the pelican in case the extraction becomes a little hot.'
'Okay but you have got to stay off that leg.'
The rest of the journey was uneventful; people just sat their tweaking there guns for two hours. I couldn't talk to Marco he was opposite Matthew's at the back with fat Bob then me. The silence made the pilots voice even more unexpected.
'We are entering the atmosphere now guys.' Came the voice while the whole ship rocked 'okay approaching the LZ now go, go, go.' The door hissed open to reveal a meadow with a forest edge ahead. Matthews jumped down first with no shots being fired, he signalled to the rest of us to get out. Fat Bob jumped down but as soon as his foot touched the ground a bullet entered his neck. The blood splattered everywhere staining my breastplate.
'Tree line.' Marco shouted as he fired a burst into the trees making a marine fall from his treetop. He pushed me out to get a clearer shot. I landed on the ground Bob's blood making grass stick together. I crawled forward as bullets whizzed past my head, I looked back to see three more men get hit in the pelican, I looked forward as Matthews foot landed ahead of me.
'Fire your weapon Stiles.'
With that I got to my knees selecting single shot and firing into the trees. Every time I fired I could feel my courage and adrenaline rising, I saw a muzzle flash to the right so I turned and fired at the marine turning the bark behind him a deep hue. I continued crawling forward firing in the general direction of any muzzle fire. Unaware of Matthews beside me his shout startled me.
'Cover me!'
I rose with him firing a burst into to any possible hiding spot, Matthew threw his grenade into a bush to the right and once it blew up the squad ran forward. I ran into a bush and saw two marines one reloading. A single shot from my gun ejected one man's cerebrum from his head, I then reversed the gun bashing the butt across the other man's face. He staggered back unarmed into a tree; I could see the desperation in his eyes but didn't flinch as I shoved the gun as hard as I could into his neck.
'Regroup' Matthews called from further in.
We all joined up only five of the original squad of ten. We continued towards the base meeting with Charlie and Bravo team, they had come across no resistance so had full teams. We arrived at the forest edge on the side of base; the military had erected a wall that looked so thick.
'Anderson,' Matthews called before a man appeared out of the trees. 'Take three men and place a charge on the spot there it seems like a weak spot.' Anderson and his group started edging forward, they where halfway there before two machine guns in the towers opened fire and slaughtered them where they lay. People returned fire only to be met with an overwhelming hail of bullets.
'Fall Back!' Matthews shouted as two people next to me twisted around and fell with perforated chests. The entire group fell back further into the trees and we assembled around the team leaders waiting for the obvious counter attack.
'I suggest we get an extraction point for the M56-TC to come in and pick us up'
'Shut up Johnson' snarled Matthews 'we can't give up a catch this big.'
'But we've already lost ten men'
'Sirs,' I spoke up uneasily 'I have a plan that can take minimum causalities.'
'Will it work?'
'I don't know if it will work but all I need is a rocket launcher, no men.'
'Rockets don't penetrate the wall, we tried before we left.'
'Just let me try.'
'Done' Johnson said passing me a rocket launcher 'call us on the radio when you have broken the wall.'
I started to walk off and Matthews followed. 'Sir I said I don't need anyone else.'
'If your going to risk your life with this stunt I want to be there too, plus you haven't forgotten the guns.'
So we walked back to the forest edge where I silently dropped the rocket launcher as Matthews set up position lining his crosshairs on the nearest gun outpost. I eased a rocket out of the ammo pack. This rocket launcher was only single barrelled and needed a rocket to be slide into place in the tube before launch. I unscrewed the top and eased out the explosive and gave it to Matthews.
'Walk twenty feet in any direction and place this carefully on the ground. It will blow with even a slight touch.' He nodded and walked away returning just after I had fished out one of Marco's demo charges out of my bag.
'You son of a bitch' he exasperated.
I smiled as I set the timer to 30 seconds and jammed the explosive into the open rocket.
'Better get away.' I said levelling the launcher holding the rocket at the end.
'Why?'
'Because I don't know if it will explode on impact with the bottom of the rocket tube or get stuck.'
He walked off talking into his radio obviously asking the rest to slowly move up. I tilted the rocket launcher set off the timer and let the rocket slide down the tube, it didn't get stuck and it didn't explode but that was the easy part. I aimed for about ten seconds on the wall and fired. Automatically the guns started to fire, one gunner fell from his seat as Matthews fired, the other gunner soon after. The rocket wedged itself into the wall and after 10 seconds it blew up rocking the ground. The wall was burst open, once the smoke had cleared all teams moved in and secured the base.
'Charlie team hold, Bravo and Alpha with me' Matthews shouted bursting open the door to the only building. It went down into the ground, both teams where getting very close to the weapon storage before some marines opened fire from it. Matthews slowly leant round the corner greeted with a hail of bullets.
'Well that's sure to be the where the weapons are, Stiles, Micheals. We'll give you cover fire I want two grenade's in the door. I grabbed a frag grenade from my pocket and the man next to me did too. Matthews fired off a burst as me and Micheals stepped out and threw our grenade, well at least I did, Micheals got hit in the arm and dropped his armed grenade. I quickly gave it a good kick and pushed Micheals back around the corner before I dove back in to. Fragments came flying down the hallway before the squad ran down the hallway into the chamber guns at the ready. It was empty.
'What the...' I trailed off as my flashlight ran around the room with nothing except four dead marines.
'It's empty' Matthews spoke the understatement 'Charlie team you copy it's empty' Nothing 'Charlie team respond.' Nothing came through and the same though struck everyone, it was a trap.
'Let's haul ass' shouted one of the soldiers. The two teams bounded up the passageways to finally burst out into the base. All the Charlie team members lay dead on the dirt ground. An engine sounded to the right as a M12 LRV and 40 marines came out guns blaring. At least ten men fell in the first thirty seconds, we where being slaughtered, Matthews shouted into his radio to get an extraction. I couldn't see because the soldier next to me got hit in the head and the blood had covered my face. We where down to only 6 men before the M56-TC came with chin guns blaring. They came in low and two rockets came soaring through the air blasting two pelicans out of the air sending them crashing into the wall. As the pelican landed I could see Marco lying on the M56-TC's bay floor, thank god he's still alive. Three men where shot in the back as we retreated back to the M56-TC, now it was only Matthews, Johnson and I. The M56-TC took off Matthews and Marco firing into the advancing lines, I was hoisting Johnson into the bay as three bullets went clean through his back one landing in my arm. I tried desperately to hold him but the pain from my arm was getting to great. I think he saw my wound so he let go firing back at the marines. The M56-TC sped off and I could see Johnson firing become less frequent until it finally stop. I cradled my arm as the blood sloshed onto the floor.
'Here I'll fix that up.' Marco said taking my arm wrapping a bandage around it. I let my head fall to my chest until Matthews spoke up.
"Was it your first time out kid?" I nodded "I'm sorry, no one should see that there first time out.'
'What being slaughtered?' I said hoarsely.
'Yes, it's a price most pay for the bad choices they made. I heard your story, you didn't make bad choices and this life was forced on you. You deserved to survive, which you did. If it's any consolation you did good today so good in fact I believe you can be the commander of a new squad I'm getting initialised.'
'But it was my first time out.'
'That's right...you did so good first time out image what you can do with some training. Some people have the ability to lead some don't. You have it my friend I saw it today.'
'Thank you sir.' I said trying my best at a salute with the bad arm.
'Ahem' Miller cleared his throat.
'Don't worry Marco' Matthews said with a smile 'you've been one of the team members I selected for months I was just trying to find a worthy squad leader.' He finished looking at me.
'So what's this new squad called?' I asked.
"Warriors of Valour."
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