The Battle for Konstallen: Erwartung

[Jiang Winters]

The Streets of Erwartung​

Having worked their way in from the far end of the Eisen Gap, an Allied strike force managed to attack the city of Erwartung with complete surprise. Republic Stealth Fighters and CARD Stealth Dropships launched a whirlwind assault that almost instantly crippled Erwartung's outdated sensor systems, which in turn disabled the city's entire advanced anti-aircraft weapons network. With no automated guns or missiles with which to shoot down the invaders, the panicking KSDF defensive forces quickly turned to the use of manual targeting systems.

While the sky is filled with tracers, few rounds find their marks - what few rounds do find a target end up obliterating a hapless civilian transport that wandered into the line of fire as it attempted to escape to safer ground.

On the ground, chaos reigned supreme. Panicking KSDF troops and riot police have taken to the streets, hastily erecting fortifications by piling rubble and vehicles in crude barricades around the city's police stations and military armories. The madness only intensified when the first Allied troops hit the grounds - a triple spearhead of CARD, Republic, and Jedi forces, the first rings of KSDF defenses were almost immediately obliterated by the sheer force and violence of the attack. Blown to bits by the blaster rifles of the Republic Troopers, torn asunder by the gatling guns wielded by CARD's mechs, and sliced into ribbons by the blades of the Order, station after station went dark.

Now the last vanguard of defense lays in Kanrim Plaza. A kilometer-wide square of offices and recruiting stations surrounding a large park, at the heart of which is a Flak Tower. The KSDF has rallied here - stiffly determined to hold back the invaders, they have used construction machinery to dig a crude trench and foxhole network around the Flak Tower in the scant minutes they had since the attack began. Now the home to no less than two full companies of riot police and KSDF Regulars, there is little doubt that Kanrim Plaza will be the site of a long, bitter, and bloody battle.

For the Allies, a victory here will silence one of the city's last remaining Flak Towers. With the tower ruined, they'll be able to march further inward and continue their conquest of Erwartung. If they fail, the KSDF will be able to rally more troops and mount a blistering counterattack that will almost undoubtedly drive the Allies back to their drop sites.

Terrain​

The Terrain is highly urbanized, with a very lightly wooded and heavily fortified park at the center of the Plaza. The Park measures roughly nine hundred by nine hundred meters, and is criss-crossed with deep and shallow trenches, haphazardly fabricated pillboxes, sheet metal coverings, and other random nick-nacks thrown onto the field as 'cover'.

Forces​

ALLIES:
2 PC's
20 Troops - 10 Republic Troopers, 10 CARD Marines

KSDF:
1 Commanding Office [NOTE: This NPC's death will 'break' the remaining NPC's and will cause most to flee or surrender.]
30 Regular Infantry
50 Riot Police

 

[TheLastLine]

Korwin Foreman stood amongst the bodies of the dead. He saw in their eyes the fear, hatred and confusion. There lay children, women and men, some armed and some just innocent civilians. All wars are civil, for all men are brothers and Korwin felt a wave of depression overwhelm him at the sight of the mutilated corpses.

His men were frightened of him, for he was an imposing figure. He had not spoken much, only directed when necessary and they had already witnessed his immense power adding to the tension. He had his hood drawn over his eyes, making him look unapproachable. Korwin knew the general feeling of the men and he enjoyed that reaction because it meant he would probably not have to talk to them. This negative approach worked wonders for him, for he was not use to such company, not that it mattered.. He wouldn't be called in to battle often, would he ? He let alittle curse escape his lips at a certain Jedi who persuaded him to go, he would hit him for this once he got off of this rock and saved the day... Again.

His men had set up position just in range, and they let loose into the entrance of the park. The large park was clearly fortified badly, but it was still prepared to an extent. The men were in cover behind a toppled truck, down the boulevard leading to the entrance. The mix of machine gun fire, mixed with small arms and sniper fire around either side of the truck clearly sent the defenders into a frenzy, they seemed to fire sparsely, hitting the back of the truck and most of the shots being far off of target.

Korwin knew that his allies were about to push from another sector, or atleast that is what he hoped. He needed to create a distraction for them, but what could he do ? But as he pondered he realized of all the possible things he could do, being a Jedi and all... So he started this expedition off small and with the force he pulled a hovercraft which lay ontop of one of the office blocks and threw it carelessly in the direction of the defenders.

Sitting down behind truck he put his hands over his face, one of the soldiers stop firing to see what was wrong and Korwin shouted at him to start shooting again, he had to concentrate.. He could do what he wanted quickly, but it would exhaust him.. It is better to be slow, and steady. That would win him the race...

Countless office blocks surrounded the park, some beautiful, some old. But they all had one thing in common, the glass windows.. They could be used and abused, and that was Korwins intention. After a moment he used the force to rip out all of the glass panels out of one side of an office block, he then used this to shower the defending troops positions. If this had any affect he would be surprised, but he knew it would damage their moral. He was only buying time, and he said quietly.

“I hope these CARD people know what they are doing, and that now is the right time to strike...”

 

[Jiang Winters]

They had been caught completely off guard.

Major Vadim growled as he watched his men dart through trenches and slipshod embankments. The fortifications sprawling around Flak Tower 07 were poor at best, and he knew it; he didn't have enough men to fill all the trenches and bunkers, and thus had resorted to deploying his forces as conservatively as he could. He'd broken up the forces available into eight squads - five were riot police. Capable and driven men, they fought not for Steiner but rather for the defense of their homeland against the foreign invaders. They were well armed and well trained, but were not prepared to fight a prolonged war.

The other three squads were the remnants of the 56th Mechanized Infantry - Vadim's men. Pulled together from the shattered remains of the 56th, they were thirty men out of a company that had once boasted no less than two hundred and fifty soldiers. They, like the riot police, were well equipped with the finest slugthrowers produced on Konstallen. Needless to say, their weapons and equipment didn't stack well against the reliable armor and weaponry carried by the determined Republic troopers, and it looked positively archaic contrasted to the semi-powered armor and heavy blasters wielded by CARD's Marines.

He'd deployed his men in three defensive 'rings', with two squads in reserve as a QRF, or Quick Reaction Force. The outermost ring was a 'cushion' ring, consisting of four of the five Riot Police squads. Each ten-man squad had broken up into 5-man fireteams, which had taken up firing positions in the trenches with just enough separation between each team to provide overlapping fields of fire, allowing them to cover each other. The inner ring had two of the Army squads, with each squad breaking into five-man fireteams. Each Army Fireteam took up position in one of the four earthen bunkers surrounding the Flak Tower, allowing them to cover the riot police on the outer edge of their perimeter. The final two squads hung back, ready to surge forward to reinforce their comrades wherever needed.

On the outer ring, the first Police Fireteam was engaged by Republic Troopers attacking from the park's northern entrance. The heavily armored Republic soldiers caught the Erwartung Police by surprise, but after a few moments of panic the fireteam began to push back, raining submachine gun and shotgun fire on the Republic soldiers. A hovercraft was lazily tossed in their direction by some invisible force, but the luxury vehicle - most Konstallen vehicles were wheeled or tracked - missed entirely. It slammed into the ground in front of the defenders and skidded through the dirt to them, sliding to a halt just in front of their position. They laughed and jeered at the Republic's failure, only to find themselves the victims of a glass shower!

Shouting and panicking as their uniforms were cut and their flesh lacerated by the thousands of shards of razor-sharp glass, the riot police bolted from cover and ran back towards the trenches. In a flash, they learned what a terrible mistake that had been. The Republic's soldiers, still targeting them, could not have had an easier time of it. The well-trained Republic Troopers firepower was brought to bear, and an irresistible storm of sapphire blaster bolts rippled out from the cover the green-armored troopers had taken firing positions behind.

The five riot police were cut down in the blink of an eye. They died quickly, save for one unfortunate soul, a Corporal. The young man screamed as a bolt tore through his leg, leaving behind a blackened channel scorched through the side of his thigh. He collapsed to the ground and dropped his submachine gun. The violence of his fall broke open the cauterized tissue in his leg and he began bleeding profusely. In a bid to stop the bleeding, he clamped both gloved hands over his wound and rolled onto his back, hissing curses under his breath and waiting to be dealt with, for better or for worse.

Their back-up fireteam saw the slaughter and, enraged by the death of their comrades, turned to engage the hostiles. They bolted from the trenches and made their way up to a row of parked vehicles just twenty meters up the road from the other team's position. They took up positions and opened fire, peppering the vehicles and buildings in front of them with poorly aimed small arms fire, at the same time giving away their own position with the staccato chatter of their automatic weapons and the brilliant orange flashes of fire and twisting gray smoke that erupted from the muzzle of their weapons with each shot. If the Republic defeated this team, they'd have already opened up a gap in the Flak Tower's defenses and would be free to push on to the next line of defense.

 

[Praetor]

Kiran yelled to his troops, "GO! GO! GO!"

They all jogged out of the transport in which they had arrived and formed up around Kiran to listen for orders. They were 21 men in all, including himself. 10 Republic Troopers, 10 Crytek Marines, and a jedi who were well equipped for the situation at hand.

"Our task is to secure the the urban streets of the city. We'll be facing numerous, but weak opposition. They are still armed though, so don't do anything stupid. Just do as you were trained and we shall have a victory by the end of the day. We're heading straight for their military HQ in Hoffnung Plaza, but we might run into some opposition on the way, so stay alert."

He signaled for them to move out. They moved down several blocks staying alert, as they had yet to meet any opposition. The CARD marines were well armed with LMG's, submachine guns, assault rifles, and grenades. They also wore plate armor to help protect against most of what the enemy would throw at them. The republic troopers wore the common armor and and load outs provided by the military.

As they moved out to the plaza, Kiran marched next to the Jedi and said," I'm glad you're here to help. If you sense anything wrong going on, tell me so I can keep these men alive." Kiran led his men further down the street, remaining alert for the enmy.

 

[TheLastLine]

The Heavily armed Republicans molded to the situation, the two men with one heavy machine gun fired from the top of the truck, while using the gap between the drivers compartment and the cargo itself to aim, it was slow, but it was safe.

The two snipers were hidden in one of the apartment buildings, as he saw his brothers get into a possible sticky position he started to let the enemy have it, he fired with a deadly calm accuracy. The rest of the men were armed with normal rifles and they stood at the ready, waiting for the signal to move to the next safe area.

There was one man who wielded an anti tank rocket launcher, he only had a few rounds and he would choose at his digression who would feel his wrath. As the enemy charged in anger, Korwin groaned in a twist of despair and happiness, for his enemy were about to die.

Behind the vehicles they squatted, firing at his mens positions, he couldn't allow that. The fire had been drawn from the defencive positions to this new enclave of resistance, the men shot at the cars, the machine gunners wanted to turn their attention to this, but Korwin would not allow it, pressure had to remain on the enemy at the front aswell, he would have to act.

"Men." He said simply, loudly and clearly. "We, we are to advance, the two machine gunners are to stay and suppress the enemy as you get to the wall in front of the trench, from there we will attack the Flak Tower. But, but.. Wait for me to deal with them first, do, not, interfere." The men looked at him, nodded and then waited for him to do something, for although he had, they had not noticed.

Korwin spun his saber around in a circle, winked at his lieutenant, the man who doubted him the most and then backflipped onto the top of the truck. He easily deflected the shots which came near with a fast turn of the blade. He had a birds eyes view of his enemy, they looked up in horror as the Jedi lunged further then any normal person could do, into the middle of the position.

Korwin screamed as he landed as he decapitated one of the troopers, they had no idea what was going on and soon after a battle they all were dead, apart for one. He pulled out a knife and charged at Korwin, pumped up on the adrenaline, he lunged clumsily and Korwin quickly side stepped, he didn't want to kill him but perhaps he would have no c- The man made a critical error, Korwin once more easily moved out of the way but this time he caught the mans hands and wrapped one around the other and with a swift move of the blade and alittle cocky commentary of "You won't be needing these" he cut the mans arms off by the elbow, screaming he fainted of the pain.

Korwin looked to his men charging towards the wall, he hoped that the CARD troopers had really started their silent advance from the South, any distraction would be welcome.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Alas, poor Korwin had made a grave mistake!

Having so recklessly charged into the midst of the KSDF's first line of defenses, he had positioned himself directly in the line of sight of one of the defender's heavy earthen bunkers, tucked nearly three hundred meters deeper into the park atop a low hill. They were completely unable to stop the Jedi's initial slaughter of the Riot Police on the outer lines, but now that the last man had fallen, they were no longer so willing to sit idly by.

The fire team's sergeant thumped his Heavy Machine Gunner on the helmet. "Put some fire on that bastard! Jorva, use that DMR and keep those Rep Soldiers pinned! The rest of you, start taking shots at that Jedi! Let's see him fight all of us!"

The bunkers had all been lucky enough to be supplied with a small stash of heavy weapons. Some had single-shot grenade launchers, others had anti-tank weapons, and all had a heavy .75 caliber belt-fed machine gun, mounted on a tripod and fitted with a bulletproof shield that boasted a small bulletproof glass insert for targeting purposes. The gunner cycled a round into his weapon and leveled his sights at the Jedi - three hundred yards was close for such a mighty weapon, one capable of punching holes in half-inch steel at a thousand meters. He depressed the thumb triggers on the weapon and it unleashed its fury.

The HMG's heavy staccato report deafened the men in the bunker and shook up clouds of dust in front of the weapon. A brilliant muzzle flash erupted from the tip of the barrel and was followed by dozens more, as the high-rate-of-fire weapon began to send eight hundred rounds a minute screaming downrange at the Jedi. They were physical projectiles - every fifth round was an armor-defeating incendiary tracer, and even a standard round was capable of blowing limbs off and severing a man's torso. The rounds, traveling at thousands of feet per second, covered the distance between the gun emplacement and the Jedi in under a second.

Plumes of dust and showers of sparks erupted all around the Jedi's position as the gunner peppered him with fire, aiming to force him back. The riflemen to either side of him - two men in total - opened up with their assault rifles, firing aimed shots at the Jedi to help drive him back or kill him outright. The marksman, armed with an outdated .30 caliber anti-personnel rifle, turned his weapon on the Republic Troopers and opened fire, starting with the machine gunners. He'd take single shots and try to hit them in their chestplates - chances were solid that their advanced MCA-P armor, much like the Crytek Marine's Armored Suits, would stop his .30 cal rounds dead in their tracks, but the sheer force of each impact would bruise chests and break ribs.

The second bunker spotted what the first was doing and joined in. While they didn't have the luxury of owning a .75 caliber fixed machine gun, they did have a dual-mounted .30 caliber light machine gun fixture with a bulletproof shield, which they opened up with. While far less accurate, they began liberally spraying the Republic position with streams of tracers - they'd also spotted the CARD troops advancing up the streets alongside the Republic soldiers, and so the second bunker's riflemen engaged the CARD infantry, taking somewhat inaccurate potshots at them with their assault rifles in an attempt to harass, confuse, and frighten off the Marines.

Any effect that the bunker's fire had on the Marines' morale would quickly be eliminated, though, for the lumbering bipedal form of a Crytek Marine Corps BAU-10 'Studly' Assault Walker came stomping through the twisted rubble and burning vehicles clogging the streets behind Kiran's men. The light machine gun bunker spotted it and instantly began to pump rounds into the walker to no effect. The bullets bounced harmlessly off of the BAU's sturdy armor paneling and it continued to lumber forward until it reached a bus; the war machine 'crouched' beside it, seeking cover behind the heavy bus. It moved slowly, almost clumsily, as if it was having difficulty seeing - no doubt because the primary sensor cluster beside the chin gun was completely destroyed. There was nothing left of the spherical sensor cluster save for a smoldering hole in the machine's hull.

As bullets peppered the bus the mech was hiding behind, its pilot got on the radio and called out to the Republic and CARD troops in the plaza. "This is Dagger Two Zero, Callsign 'Thumper'. Repeat, this is Dagger Two Zero to all Hanhe-Kaedar and Republic forces in the Plaza; I'm with First Fast Company out of Borleias. I was cut off from the rest of my unit by a KSDF anti-tank squad. They got a few solid hits in with RPG's. My primary targeting sensors are offline. I'm combat ineffective on my own, but if you designate targets, I can provide fire support. I don't have the sensors I need to engage targets on my own, though - I can barely even see you guys on my IFF display, so you'll have to tell me what to shoot. You guys should have a targeting laser or something with you - use that to paint the targets you want stamped out. My chin gun can lock onto it, and if I can establish a lock with my fifty, then I can hit it with my primary weapons. All I ask is that you guys watch my back - I'm pretty vulnerable right now, so don't go sending me into an area that's not secured."

 

[Praetor]

Kiran saw the KSDF forces ahead and ordered his men to advance. As they neared the defenses, the enemy spotted them. "Get down!" Kiran ran for cover behind an overturned speeder. He peered through the windows to check out the situation. They were being fired upon by a bunker of riflemen. "Take out those bunkers," Kiran shouted.

Two pairs of men advanced between the debris while everyone else fired back at their opponents. Once the two teams got within accuracy range of the bunker, they loaded their AT guns and fired at the bunker. Kiran ordered his men to advance up to where the AT teams were while the enemy was hiding. HE jumped up from his hiding place and sprinted ahead, all the while firing short bursts at the KSDF troops.

 

[TheLastLine]

As he landed in the middle of the unfortunate enemy he sensed the situation, and what was to unfold. He sensed the intention, he knew what was coming, but he knew that jumping alone was not enough, he had to protect himself some other way.

Before the trigger was even pulled Korwin had lunged into the sky, in the blink of an eye. He had pulled all sorts of miscellaneous objects from cars to concrete blocks infront of where he was stood, in the vain hope of halting the hail of fire.

--

Blaster fire deafened Korwin's cursing as he climbed up the facade of the office block. His hands grasped onto the window ledges as he pulled himself upwards, rouge blaster shots were deflected with crude swings of his violet saber.

Thousands of ideas were rushing through his head, and only one seemed logical and yet illogical at the same time. He had no time to think it over, he couldn't climb himself to victory. He had to dive.

Pushing himself off the building he lets himself fall several feet before using the force to direct him across the road and ontop of one of the CARD walkers. He could sense the operators fear but as he used this machine as a stepping stone he left a suggestion in his mind, fire at the bunker.

The bunker, the bunker was where the main enemy threat lay and thats where the republic troops fired at. One of the Republic troops had been knocked out by a sniper round, they were amazed he was alive but this was shadowed by amazing shots of the Republican sniper who shot a bullet directly at the center of the enemy snipers head.

The troops found themselves unpinned as the fire was drawn to the leaping Jedi, who now found himself squatting behind a bus. The enemy's fire could not penetrate the engine of which he hid behind. Using the force Korwin slowly pushed the bus forward which in turn drew more fire, allowing his troops to return fire.

Marius, a small, pudgy soldier popped his head up over the truck and pulled out a Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher and with a small smile he fired the high explosive round into the bunker.
--

Korwin's troops were perplexed with their commander, he was a strange man who seemingly did nothing until he slaughtered a squad of police officers and then leapfrogged around the battle field, but now they were confused to a new extreme, he was sat in the fetal position, rocking slightly back and forth..

No he hadn't gone insane, but he was probing the battle field, there was a lynchpin somewhere, something which would allow him to win without spilling much blood. He could sense the fear, the anxiety and the confusion but there was a source, a leader, somewhere.

He thought he found it, had he ? He wasn't sure, but what he was sure about was that his time away from the battle was coming to an end, his troops needed him, and he was always one to oblige.

Korwin scoured the battlefield, trying to find out where this person could possibly be.

 

[Praetor]

Kiran looked up quickly and was shocked to see the jedi flying in the air amidst a flurry of miscellaneous objects. He quickly returned his focus back to his own men. Peeking from behind his cover, the Rodian observed the situation. Ordering a charge was definitely out of the question, but he needed to get some fire on those defenses. He heard a comm message from an unexpected ally, "This is Dagger Two Zero, callsign 'Thumper'..."

Kiran checked himself quickly and found his targeting laser. "Dagger Two Zero, this is Sergeant Chur. I need you to hit the enemy bunkers with everything you've got. I have a targeting laser on me and will point out their positions for you."

While waiting for a response, Kiran called out to his men,"Keep up the fire!" He ran from behind his cover and flew up to the next barrier. As he crouched down, he signalled for two of his men to come up to where he was. "Pull out your targeting lasers. We're going to designate targets for the BAU. The priority targets are the bunkers." With that, he peeked over the barrier and activated his targeting laser. "Dagger Two Zero, this is Sergeant Chur again, I have the bunkers targeted with lasers, fire at your discretion."

 

[Carud Aaray]

(OCC:Sorry this was very old when I was new))

 

[Jiang Winters]

[OOC: Hey Raxus, this is a CLOSED/INVITE thread. Sorry, but you can't post here.]

"RPG, RPG! Get that guy!"

Bunker number 1, the one armed with the .75 HMG, turned into a mess of panic. All weapons fire momentarily converged on the position where the rocket had been fired from, but it was too late. Even as whistling streams of tracers shredded the gunner's position and almost undoubtedly ate him alive - nothing short of a tank would withstand the massive outporing of armor-defeating rounds sent to rip apart his position - that devastating rocket came hurtling in, spitting fire and smoke out of its rear.

The bunker's window was a narrow slit. Rockets, which suffer from ballistic drop that is generally more pronounced than that of a rifle bullet and which are also heavily affected by wind, become less accurate as they travel farther and farther. Furthermore, a rocket launcher furnished only with iron sights, as was standard with virtually every disposable RPG launcher ever made, would have an incredibly difficult time actually striking the bunker's interior.

The RPG ploughed into the dirt in front of the bunker and detonated. A shockwave rocked the men inside and kicked up a mighty plume of dirt. Rubble and shrapnel hailed down in a ten-meter radius around the impact, while the bunker itself creaked and collapsed to one side. The men were barely able to get out of the way - the grenadier wasn't so lucky. A heavy timber collapsed onto his leg, crushing it and trapping the man. He howled in agony, but the KSDF troops couldn't help him. The gunner kept focused on his .75 and continued to pummel the Republic position with long, loose bursts befitting the man's lack of training and terrified state. One of the riflemen, infuriated by the grenadier's injury, snatched up his grenade launcher and fired off a smoke round; if his aim was true, it'd land directly in the midst of the Republic troopers and would engulf them in billowing black smoke, forcing them to abandon their position or hold their ground as the bunker slammed bullets into their location.

The hapless CARD riflemen, lead by a somewhat idealistic and overzealous sergeant, had absolutely no luck with their AT guns. There was no rubble to shield them from the fire of the bunker beyond the street, no debris, not even the feeblest ditch; the trench network lay beyond what little cover was available, and even then the slit trenches would offer almost no protection against the shriek of the twin .30 cal machine guns. Still, the squad of Crytek Marines were very well trained; despite being heavily suppressed and at the outermost limits of the range of their anti-tank rocket launchers, they were able to drop a handful of explosive rounds near enough the bunker to spook the men inside.

Of course, this was met with swift and violent retaliation; as their sniper had been shot dead by the Republic, the KSDF forces were keen on getting revenge. The riflemen, firing from the barest of slits in the dirt to avoid being sniped themselves, rained a storm of remarkably accurate fire on the CARD troops. So much as one exposed head and suddenly all the riflemen were firing on it; exposed for too long and that man was guaranteed to die. The twin .30 cal kept up its barrage, wailing and spewing forth a stream of armor-defeating rounds at the CARD troops. No infantry armor would withstand such a devastating round, especially not 1,900 of them delivered in a single minute!

Their guns continued to stab at the Marines' position - they even took a few shots at Chur as he began to designate their position! At that distance they couldn't tell what he was up to, at least, not until they saw a heavy bipedal war machine lumber out in front of the CARD position.

The riflemen momentarily froze up and ceased to fire. One man swore under his breath, another started praying.

A second later, all hell broke loose.

"This is Dagger Two Zero. Fire Mission acknowledged, targeted and firing. Heads down, gentlemen."

The deafening groan of the 'Studly's' 20MM gatling gun shook the earth around the machine. Dust sprayed off the gun and geysers of fire erupted from the barrels, as the mighty weapon spat high-explosive death at the bunker at a rate of three thousand rounds a minute. Plumes of dirt and explosive red puffs of light and black smoke kicked up around the bunker. The entire area was alight with explosions and, in a matter of seconds, it was obscured by thick smoke and dust.

The BAU's pilot 'turned out' - that is, he opened the hatch on the top of the machine and poked his head through. He still needed the targeting laser for accuracy, but he was able to see the effects of the barrage. He was unsatisfied. He buckled back down and laid the 105 on the bunker.

"This is Dagger Two Zero. Loading HEAT. Target locked, aaaand... Shot!"

Describing the mighty blast that issued forth from the recoilless rifle would, under the circumstances, be impossible. A mushroom cloud erupted from the barrel and a similar blast tore from the back of the gun, kicking up a whirlwind of debris behind the machine. A monstrous 105MM wide shell went hurtling straight at the bunker and, inside of a second, struck it. The earth shook and a pillar of dirt and smoke replaced the bunker in a single, violent moment. Bits of the bunker's wood superstructure and gory chunks of the men in it were all strewn about. In the end, all that was left was a burning and smoking crater where the gun position had once been.

The first bunker was down, but with it brought a new problem. One of the two QRF teams from the inner ring of defenses had been deployed and were now rapidly approaching the bunker, hauling with them a 57MM field gun mounted on its own motorized carriage. A semi-automatic weapon with its own armored turret, it could be fired effectively by a single man and would pose a grave threat, both to the Republic and to the CARD troopers... But most of all to the mech. Blind as it was, it would be unable to see the 57 'mike mike' once it was set up behind the bunkers, and so it would stumble right in to the gun, at which point it'd be cut to ribbons by the armor-piercing solid shot and high-explosive shells the light gun was capable of firing.

 

[TheLastLine]

The sky was alight with munitions sailing through the clouds, a mix of red, orange and blue lights made a pretty and yet deadly combination. Korwin watched on, feeling rather helpless. After seeing CARD troops marching at a bunker which was over 200 meters away he didn't know what to expect, he felt disgusted with himself, but he found himself laying the seeds of suggestion into his allies brains, the suggestion of that if anything happened to their commander they should follow him, but maybe that was logic.

The time for making a risk had come, he was not to be stupid and charge directly at the enemy, but he was to move slowly, well not necessarily cautiously but to preform a Peperpot Maneuver, where half the squad would advanced, covered by the other half and the same would happen until they made contact.

The Urban surroundings made this a wise decision as the Soldiers slowly seeped from behind the Truck and started to move from cover to cover. The cover was lighter, but progress had to be made. Ultimately the price was in blood, for when the Republican troops entered the 50 meter range Private Sondar was fatally wounded when a bullet penetrated his skull, vaporizing his most vital of organs, the purple/red slush splashing savagely onto his compatriots and onto the pavement. Disgusting.

This was a huge defeat moral wise as they saw one of the brightest, happiest and most optimistic privates laying unrecognizable on his back, his smile, still wide even in death.

But Korwin felt relief, for they had reached the Dragons teeth, 50 meters away from the main defensive line, this was great cover and this is from where they would be victorious.

--

The Republican sniper, known as Shadow had been aiming again, this time, at the operators of the 57mm field gun or atleast what he thought were the operators. He hadn't seen this variant of the field gun but he knew that it would destroy the armored support, and as the forces which he was meant to support advanced up the right flank he refused to cover them, focusing on this potentially more deadly threat.

This lack of enemy supression might of been responsible for the death of Songar, but Korwin was not to bring this up, as he also agreed that this target was much more fisable.

Taking a deep breathe in, Shadow steadied his aim and looked at the target again.

--

The situation on the ground however was much more serious then Korwin had foreseen, yes he and his men were in good cover, behind the large Dragon's teeth but his men did not want to risk their own lives to fire at the ever closer target, Korwin had to do something, something which would give them the encouragement to fight on as they had done.

They looked around the dragons teeth at the men who fired at them and Korwin had a great idea. Leaping onto his stone, he said loudly to his men in a dark, rasped voice "Watch."

The fire hailed in on Korwin as he made himself a target, he deflected all the blaster rounds with ease before jumping to the next set of Dragons teeth and screaming, as loud and as angrily as he could, he turned around to face his men, still deflecting the blaster shots.

"Today we fight for, Victory !" He emphasized the word victory, infact the veins on his neck started to show, his pupils became dilated and his smile became sinister. It was all a show, the adrenaline pumped through his veins but the anger did not, the hatred which was seemingly on show, did not. It was all an act, but it worked, the men watched on, bemused, shocked and perhaps horrored but their attention was drawn off of their seemingly suicidal commander as he deflected blaster bolts and drawn onto the screams of the enemy.

They saw the debris of the bunker all being thrown in the direction of the enemy's forward positions, half a tonne pieces of shrapnel. Korwin jumped off of the Dragons tooth and waited to see what resistance would be like after that roll of the dice.

 

[Praetor]

Still peaking over the top of his cover, Kiran watched in awe for a few seconds as the bunker blew up into several pieces and the KSDF troops were either killed or retreated. So far, this mission was going somewhat well. He had noticed that his actions had been a bit reckless. He was going to focus on finding better cover for the troops under his command. First, he needed to take care of the the BAU. He clicked his comm unit and said," Dagger Two Zero, this is Sergeant Chur again. Good work with the bunker. But now I think you should find some cover for the time being until we call for your help again. Just don't stray too far".

Kiran stood up and signaled for his troops to follow him. They jogged across the field keeping on full alert. There were no enemies in sight but they all knew they were very nearby. A burst of shots rang out from behind the rubble of the bunker. Kiran dived downwards and whipped out his T35 LAR. He aimed down his sight and shot small bursts with careful precision. His men also returned fire with a few grenades, a barrage of grenade pulses, and plenty of laser fire. The five KSDF troops fell within a couple of minutes. Kiran reloaded quickly and then rose up into a crouching position. He could sense that there were more of them not far beyond the bunker. As they continued forward, Kiran felt a great anticipation, for he did not know what to expect on the other side.

Kiran hopped into a trench in front of the demolished bunker along with his men. Here is where he decided to quickly formulate his next plan. First, he needed to take care of the the BAU. He clicked his comm unit and said," Dagger Two Zero, this is Sergeant Chur again. Good work with the bunker. But now I think you should find some cover for the time being until we call for your help again. Just don't stray too far".

While waiting for the BAU operator to respond, he addressed his men. "Ok, so we took out this bunker. Now we have to deal with a more formidable line of defense on the other side of the bunker. They will probably have artillery of some sort and more machine gun nests. Plus, their positions will be harder to penetrate, so you will need to use your weapons wisely. Take out the most imminent threats first, then eliminate the rest in whatever fashion is necessary". Kiran checked his ammo and then rose up out of the trench with the rest of the troops. Hopefully they had not spent enough time in that ditch for the enemy to make a move...

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Saber One Actual to Saber One Zero and Saber One One, move to Saber Two Zero's position. Hostile forces have overrun Saber Two Zero's position. Repeat; Saber One Zero and Saber One One, hostile forces have overrun Saber Two Zero's previous position. Hook around and attack penetrating forces from the rear. Saber Two Zero, hold position. Hammer One One, entrench behind Saber Two Zero and prepare to engage hostile armor. Thunder One Zero, Thunder Two Zero, take your heavy machine guns and find overwatch positions. Saber One Actual out."

The order's came down loud and clear over the radio. The forward fire teams on the two flanks closest to the Republic and CARD assault broke away from their positions and moved up, circling around on the streets, using cover to mask their movements. Once they'd reached the rear of the enemy positions, they'd hook back in and strike from the rear. Two of the heavy machine gun teams followed with them, one .75 caliber scoped heavy gun following along on either side of the park. It'd take them a couple minutes to hook around and get set up in the buildings flanking the park, but once they were entrenched there'd be no stopping them. The scoped .75 caliber guns had a range of over a thousand and five hundred meters; well outside the range of the sniper rifles carried by Republic and CARD forces. They'd force the attackers to stop and divert to engage, and the worst of it was the Republic and CARD troops couldn't see the guns moving, and would have no idea what was coming until streams of .75 caliber rounds were peppering their positions.

Meanwhile, one of the QRF teams - Saber Two Zero - set up in a deep trench in front of the PAK 57MM field gun. The trench was 'stepped', in that it had one 'step' to stand on to fight the enemy from, and another to step back into to stay completely in cover while moving. They set up a pair of .30 cal light machine guns overlooking the position of the bunkers, which were roughly 200 meters in front of their position - 200 meters of wide terrain, mostly devoid of trenches, that the enemy would have to cross to reach the flak tower. Here, the KSDF had a massive advantage. Their light machine guns and their PAK gun would have clean lines of fire on incoming forces, and the Republic and CARD troops couldn't hook around without running into other machine gun bunkers. They had one avenue of attack - straight into the guns.

Tracers zipped crazily across the destroyed bunkers in front of them, striking random objects and hitting those who were already dead - the Republic and CARD forces were shooting at phantoms. In destroying the two bunkers, they had already killed all forces at that line; there were no fire teams to hit, nor any field guns in that area that were in their line of sight. The sight greatly amused the Konstallen forces - what few of their number held blasters were now dead. The rest of the force was armed with slugthrowers, and they'd heard rumors of a Jedi in the mix. "Let's see him stop ALL our bullets!" the men jeered, as they waited for the enemy to show themselves.

Meanwhile, the PAK and its crew drove into a shallow dugout some thirty meters behind the first QRF. They piled sandbags around the base of the turret and across the top of the body to help disperse the damage from any attempts at destroying it with an AT rocket, while at the same time pulling camouflage netting over the gun itself. In a matter of a minute it was covered and entrenched, and the gunner had sighted the weapon in between the two bunkers; the moment enemy forces appeared, he'd give them what-for!

Meanwhile, the BAU had responded, but not as Kiran had wanted. "That's a big negative, Sergeant. I've got my optics working again. Patched some things, got all my systems rerouted to use my chin gun's optics. I'm standing by to advance past the destroyed bunkers. Give me just a sec, I'm gonna take a peek here..."

The machine stepped up to the bunker and 'Tip-Toed' - it extended its legs to their full length and stood on the tips of its feet, giving it a commanding field of view of the battle field in front of it. The pilot let out a low whistle. "Dagger Two Zero to all allied forces in the Plaza, you boys have a 200 meter jog between you and that flak tower. I can't see anything down in there, 'cept... Wait a second... Uh-oh."

A mighty thump shattered the air on the other side of the bunkers as the PAK fired on the BAU. The 57MM gun barked and roared, recoiling over and over again as the gunner spat one solid AP round after another at the armored titan that appeared. A cloud of dust kicked up in front of the little field gun, while the AP shot whistled clean over the heads of Kiran and his men. Of the three rounds fired, the first was a direct hit; it struck the BAU's recoilless rifle's mount, blasting the rifle clean off. The second struck the machine's upper section and punched through the outermost armor, but came to a dead halt before it could do serious damage. The last grazed the top of the machine and went hurtling off into a distant building, where it blew out part of the structure's brick facade.

The BAU, panicking, hurriedly backpedaled and crouched down. "I'm hit! I'm okay, but I'm hit. Lost my 105. I'm still combat capable, but I ain't moving up until you take out that gun. I dunno what it was, but it has a mean refire rate and it tore my armor up pretty bad. Didn't see it, either. All I know is that it's somewhere in front of us." The machine then switched comms frequencies, hailing the Republic troops. "Hey, Republic guys! If you can hear me, this is Dagger Two Zero, with the Hanhe-Kaedar PMC. There's some kind of field gun beyond these bunkers, at least one hundred fifty meters away, probably around two hundred meters away. Unknown forces accompanying it. Advance with extreme caution; that thing's semi-auto and that gunner scored a direct hit with two outta three shots, and the third shot was a near hit. I strongly suggest you send a scout up to try to spot it, but don't get caught; it'll rip you up pretty bad."

 

[Praetor]

Kiran flinched as he heard the BAU suffer the impact of the artillery shell. "Alright, stay low until you can be of use again." Kiran needed to find out what was on the other side of this bunker. He approached his second in command, corporal Ylek, and said, "Hey! Choose one man to sneak around this mound of rubble to scout the enemy position and the size of their forces. Then have him report back to me with the details." The soldier replied back, "Yes sir."

There was a sense of panic blooming in the sergeant as he stood there studying the situation. He quickly quelled it with a couple of deep breaths. He remembered that they could still use an air strike against their numerous foes. They also had better weapons and armor. But even these bunkers had been a little bit of a challenge to pass through. The further they penetrated these defenses, the more deadly it would be... three minutes later the scout returned with a worried look on his face. "Report," Kiran said. "There's some sort of artillery gun 30 meters away from this bunker. There are a little over ten troops accompanying it. After that it's just a long, open stretch to the next line of defense."

Kiran sighed. Nothing was ever easy on the battlefield...