Huzzah
SF FTL: Headspace
|- AR: Fer
|- Demo: Wolfenswan
|- Demo: ShowMeTheMonkey
Whenever I play any kind of special forces, ArmAx takes me aside for a little chat. It goes something like this:
ArmAx: Comrade, why are you doing this?
Fer: Because this is fantasy! FANTASY!
ArmAx: Comrade, we've discussed this many times before. You have never had a day of military training in your life. You couldn't be less special forces if you tried.
Fer: Remember the part about this being fantasy?
ArmAx: :sigh:
Fer: Just give me my high-speed/low-drag gun already.
ArmAx: You're only going to embarass yourself again, comrade, but here you are.
Fer: Thank you.
True to form, I lived only a short while. Comrade Headspace moved us on the high ground of the runway's northern end, our engineers lacing the road with satchels as we moved. To be fair, we managed to explode the T90s and murderise all but one of the surviving crew members (though I confess I couldn't see much through my bloom-filled NVGs and was not particularly good with my SAW). However, as we attempted to escape northwards into the suburbs, two BMP-2s and a T-55 came at us from that direction. I died, as we all did, cowering against a rock in a riverbed, feebly hoping that my high-speed/low-drag camo would save me.
Congratulations to the rest of the (regular) platoon for managing to take the objective with respectable losses and only one cooked-up IFV!
Oh Marine, I watched you burn!
++
Lead Stocks
MMG1: Toppometer
|- Assistant: Fer
Almost as soon as we had disembarked from the trucks we came under fire from enemies unseen. The rest of the platoon appeared to know where it was going, so we didn't panic. Instead, comrade Toppo and myself spent a very enjoyable 5 minutes moving by bounds through the woods. It was all "Bounding!" and "... set!" and felt very proficient. Unfortunately, horrible things were happening to the other side of the platoon, so we had to come back and join up with CO, comrade Wolfenswan.
We were probably no more than 50-100m into the woods, with open fields to our right and a road some distance ahead. I believe the bulk of the platoon was ahead, or roughly in line with us. There may even have been one fireteam out in the field, pinned down behind one of the low stone walls. Whatever the detailed picture, the rough impression over comms was that we were bogged down, and badly so. Then it got worse.
I must have been shot and patched up at least 3 times in the course of 5 minutes. Despite the order to fall back, many of us were guilty of attempting to heal the fallen or at least drag them - slowly - into some form of cover. Like a textbook example of why it's better to win the firefight before tending to the wounded, we became targets in an easy shooting gallery for the enemy.
Eventually, when Toppo was dead and my legs shot away, blood making my vision red, I saw the enemy. A handful of troops were advancing on us from the road, upright and moving quickly towards the undergrowth where I lay. I fired every round in my rifle (to no avail), until all I could hear was click-click-click-click-click.
++
Feruzablues
MMG1: Toppometer
|- Assistant: Fer
We landed in a hot LZ, but because of the way the mission had been configured I spent an agonizing few moments trapped in the bird, unable to dismount until my element leader, Toppo, issued an order with the command interface. Once out of the bird, Toppo and myself settled into the work of engaging targets with his M240, my job being to use my laser designator to spot and provide accurate ranges. The platoon as a whole probably cleared the valley in a few minutes, leaving us the odd straggler to engage. Then we were off, up the slope to our north-west, to join Alpha/Bravo and MAT1 on the ridge overlooking Feruzabad.
As I crawled over the crest of the ridge, the first thing I saw was a truck-mounted ZSU positioned at small army outpost south of the town, but on ground almost as elevated as ours. The barrels were pointing in our direction, but the gunner hadn't spotted us or the rest of Alpha/Bravo. Toppo immediately set up to fire on the truck and there then followed a reasonably long conversation between our squad leader (Alpha FTL, comrade Bodge) and the CO, (comrade Draakon). Comrade Draakon wanted us to identify targets in the town before opening up on the truck, and in any case wanted MAT1 to do the job of eliminating the AAA threat (which is remarkably effective against infantry and light armour).
It was a good call. With my rangefinder I helped spot ot confirmt the presence of a BRDM in the town's army base, a DShKM at the head of the road leading up to the mine, and a technical at the town's western exit. When we did open fire, it was still Toppo that killed the ZSU's gunner, but in a flash he moved to engage the DShKM and disable the technical. We stayed on the ridge longer than any other element, covering Alpha/Bravo's descent into the town and successfully engaging a handful of enemies that attempted to climb the slope.
When the town was taken, we moved down to assume a rearguard position at the head of the road up to the mine. A small number of enemies were moving on foot towards us from the south-west, running down a more westward slope of the ridge we had just occupied and crossing the flat valley floor amidst a hail of our bullets. Comrade Toppo made the most of his remaining ammunition and cut them all down, before scavenging an RPK and making for the mine itself.
The rest of the platoon was mopping-up by the time we got within any useful distance of the mine complex, though I did get to witness the luckiest man alive making his run down the hill above the mineshaft. Well, he was the luckiest man alive until he wasn't alive.
Then the mission was over and I called for a photo-op at the entrance to the mineshaft. I'm afraid someone popped smoke at that point (boo!), so I aborted my plans.
Note: Mid-way through the mission someone destroyed the (disabled and unmanned) BRDM with satchels. As a rule, in Folk sessions, please don't do that unless you've cleared it with the CO first.
++
Mail Man
Charlie: Fer
I rode with comrade Head in his personal Littlebird, and was glad when he set me down near comrade Tigershark's LZ, where comrade Draakon's Alpha fireteam was making a beeline for the little house that overlooks the crash site from the south-east. Enemies were down the slope, some near the house itself, so we poured fire onto them. My suppressed G36K was surprisingly handy at medium range, and soon it was safe to continue on to the downed C-130 itself.
Comrade Sulphur and others from Brave narrowly beat me to the wreck and initiated the data download process. For a little while I helped cover the southern approach, but quickly moved northwards up the valley in anticipation of an enemy technical that was moving in. The ill-fated vehicle was allowed to get quite close to the crash site before punishing fire from both sides of the little valley finished off the crew. Bravo recovered the still servicable 4x4 and I fell back to the C-130 again, pausing briefly to look at the flaming wreck of ShowMeTheMonkey's Huey, which had crashed and burned to our north.
When the data download was complete, comrade Tigershark brought his Huey in to land near the wreck and I climbed aboard with Alpha. Comrade Head's personal Littlebird took off the remaining members of Bravo, though I believe some brave souls drove out of the valley in the captured technical. After some Air Cav flying from comrade Tigershark, we made it home to the base.
++
I hope others enjoyed the session as much as I did, it was a pleasure to host and to play in.
