Operation Silver Strike - Day 3
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:04 am
One of the worst days in recent memory...
I assembled everyone early in the morning, the break of dawn. "Daylight is a precious commodity right now. So we are moving out now. We are going to find those natives and find out what they were hiding yesterday evening. Be on guard still, they could also mount a daytime attack on us. Let's move out."
I had shifted our mission to getting the natives to tell us everything they knew, because one of the things they knew was the fate of our comrades. I was in a foul mood following their games. I wish I had been there when Natasha and Lyosha were asking them questions. Then after the attack on our position, well, these guys had their chance to play nice.
We headed out into the jungle and it did not take us long to find some of the locals gathering vines and leaves. "Lyosh, you and Roma are on sniper duty. Natasha stay behind me. Everyone else, fan out and approach with care. These guys are considered hostile." Lyosha and Roma moved into a covered position as we went down the side of the hill towards the locals. As we approached our psionic detectors buzzed. They were probably putting up mind blocks or something like that. But they did not run from us. I grabbed one of them by the hair and told Natasha to tell the others we would kill anyone of them that moved. I dragged the guy back behind our line and pushed him to the ground. I picked him because he was close, and he registered as evil.
"Tell him to tell me where the bodies are. I know that he knows. If he says anything but 'I will take you to the bodies', then I will chop his fucking head off," I said to Natasha. "Tell him that. Make sure he understands."
They were taking too long in my opinion.
"Natasha, he has five seconds left to live if does not agree to take us to the bodies."
She started talking, he interrupted, she raised her voice, and then the message settled on him and was expressed with big wide open eyes. He said something quickly, gasping.
"Ok," she said.
"Just him," I said.
They had a brief exchange of words. "He wants his father to come, too," she said to me.
"Fine," I said. "Lyosh, Roma, fall in behind us but keep some distance."
"Yes, sir," they replied.
"Tell them not to follow us. I will know if they do," I said to Natasha.
We marched through the jungle, quickly at first. "What do you think, are we going in circles?" I asked over the radio.
"Not from this point of view," Lyosha responded.
Still, it was taking far too long for my comfort. "How much longer?"
"They say at least two hours," Natasha responded.
I shook my head. I suspected the worst, I felt like we were walking into a trap, but we needed to find the bodies. I was not going to leave that god foresaken island without them, or die trying.
We started up the side of one of the larger mountains on the island.
The younger one said something.
"At the top," Natasha translated.
As we started up the side our detectors went off and we were all looking around. "Halt," I ordered. "Lyosh, your detector buzzing?"
"Negative."
"A place of magic?" Natasha suggested.
"Can you see anything higher up?" I asked.
"Negative," Lyosha responded.
I checked our intel from the fly-overs our drones made in preparation. They had detected nothing out of the oridinary. The sun was getting low in the sky. "Well, if we are on top of this thing come night fall, at least we will be on the high ground. Let's move," I said.
We pressed on to the top of the mountain. The detectors were indicating magic all around, still. My eyes flashed from side to side as the younger one said something as he yanked his head over his left shoulder. "This way, five minutes," Natasha translated.
"Lyosh, sitrep?"
"All clear," he replied.
"It is getting dark. Fall in."
"On the way."
"Alright, we are waiting for Lyosha and Roma. We do not move until they catch up," I said to the others. Natasha translated.
Once we were all together, we moved. We came upon what the locals were calling "The Place of Death". And the sun was disappearing behind the horizon.
I clicked on my flashlight as the older one pointed down into a sort of hole. There our comrades lay, broken and mangled.
The old man spke slowly and Natasha's face grew ever more nervous as she translated how they were killed. His last words were, "this is the place of death. The place of your death!" His body fell to the ground as my silver edged blade slashed deep through his neck, nearly severing his head entirely as my blade found the bone of his spine. As for the other he began to transform into a were-panther. Pretty much everyone opened fire on him, killing him instantly.
"My team will get the bodies. The rest of you, organise a perimeter defense. We are going to be camping right here tonight," I said. I saw Natasha walking over and I intercepted her. "I want you to work on the perimeter."
"You do not have to hide me from the bodies, Kolya," she responded.
"This is not medical school," I said.
She stepped around me and I caught her by the arm. "Release me," she said through her teeth. She was on fire. So I let her go. She has become consumed by the brother-in-arms and leave-no-one-behind mindset.
It was too dark to work effectively. It was pitch black and we were trying to match feet to legs and legs to torso and so forth. It was impossible with our limited lighting resources.
"We will finish this job on sun up," I said.
"We might be able to get MA [Mortuary Affairs] up here. They can get these guys back together a lot faster than we can," Roma suggested.
"You are correct, but I am not leaving this hill without them," I replied.
Night came, and came with a vengeance. We had a pretty good defense set up, but we were not in our base, which means we did not have a better defense set up, and we had no opportunity to rearm or reload beyond the firepower that we brought with us.
Rather than coming in waves, the werepanthers came all at once. They ripped through our lines, overrunning our position with ease. We were split into small groups, sometimes individually isolated from each other. That, like the Finns in the Winter War, was their plan. It was deep night and there was shouting, growling, screaming, shooting, and all manner of fighting going on around me, but there were little details through the fog of war.
All of us, except Natasha were fighters. I tried to keep my eye on her, but she has a tendency to slip out of my sight during firefights. It has happened during her rescue, the fight in the cave, and it happened during that fight with the werepanthers.
The battle was very fluid. At times I would find myself fighting next to someone, get separated, and an hour later next to each other again. We shifted to get position on the monsters and avoid crossfires and hurting each other. It was a beautiful dance of warriors shifting, moving, and fighting.
After hours of fighting one could finally begin to sense victory. The number of werepanthers had been greatly reduced during the night, and only a few stranglers were hanging on early in the morning before the sun started to rise. We gravitated to one another and in a final push destroyed the remaining monsters, many of us by this point completely out of ammunition and down to knives, swords, and maces.
Bloody, tired, and high on adrenaline we set about destroying the werepanthers - chop off head, burn, repeat. While that was going on, I had my team assemble the bodies as best we could and prepare them for transport back to the beach, where a MA team could easily get them.
I assembled everyone early in the morning, the break of dawn. "Daylight is a precious commodity right now. So we are moving out now. We are going to find those natives and find out what they were hiding yesterday evening. Be on guard still, they could also mount a daytime attack on us. Let's move out."
I had shifted our mission to getting the natives to tell us everything they knew, because one of the things they knew was the fate of our comrades. I was in a foul mood following their games. I wish I had been there when Natasha and Lyosha were asking them questions. Then after the attack on our position, well, these guys had their chance to play nice.
We headed out into the jungle and it did not take us long to find some of the locals gathering vines and leaves. "Lyosh, you and Roma are on sniper duty. Natasha stay behind me. Everyone else, fan out and approach with care. These guys are considered hostile." Lyosha and Roma moved into a covered position as we went down the side of the hill towards the locals. As we approached our psionic detectors buzzed. They were probably putting up mind blocks or something like that. But they did not run from us. I grabbed one of them by the hair and told Natasha to tell the others we would kill anyone of them that moved. I dragged the guy back behind our line and pushed him to the ground. I picked him because he was close, and he registered as evil.
"Tell him to tell me where the bodies are. I know that he knows. If he says anything but 'I will take you to the bodies', then I will chop his fucking head off," I said to Natasha. "Tell him that. Make sure he understands."
They were taking too long in my opinion.
"Natasha, he has five seconds left to live if does not agree to take us to the bodies."
She started talking, he interrupted, she raised her voice, and then the message settled on him and was expressed with big wide open eyes. He said something quickly, gasping.
"Ok," she said.
"Just him," I said.
They had a brief exchange of words. "He wants his father to come, too," she said to me.
"Fine," I said. "Lyosh, Roma, fall in behind us but keep some distance."
"Yes, sir," they replied.
"Tell them not to follow us. I will know if they do," I said to Natasha.
We marched through the jungle, quickly at first. "What do you think, are we going in circles?" I asked over the radio.
"Not from this point of view," Lyosha responded.
Still, it was taking far too long for my comfort. "How much longer?"
"They say at least two hours," Natasha responded.
I shook my head. I suspected the worst, I felt like we were walking into a trap, but we needed to find the bodies. I was not going to leave that god foresaken island without them, or die trying.
We started up the side of one of the larger mountains on the island.
The younger one said something.
"At the top," Natasha translated.
As we started up the side our detectors went off and we were all looking around. "Halt," I ordered. "Lyosh, your detector buzzing?"
"Negative."
"A place of magic?" Natasha suggested.
"Can you see anything higher up?" I asked.
"Negative," Lyosha responded.
I checked our intel from the fly-overs our drones made in preparation. They had detected nothing out of the oridinary. The sun was getting low in the sky. "Well, if we are on top of this thing come night fall, at least we will be on the high ground. Let's move," I said.
We pressed on to the top of the mountain. The detectors were indicating magic all around, still. My eyes flashed from side to side as the younger one said something as he yanked his head over his left shoulder. "This way, five minutes," Natasha translated.
"Lyosh, sitrep?"
"All clear," he replied.
"It is getting dark. Fall in."
"On the way."
"Alright, we are waiting for Lyosha and Roma. We do not move until they catch up," I said to the others. Natasha translated.
Once we were all together, we moved. We came upon what the locals were calling "The Place of Death". And the sun was disappearing behind the horizon.
I clicked on my flashlight as the older one pointed down into a sort of hole. There our comrades lay, broken and mangled.
The old man spke slowly and Natasha's face grew ever more nervous as she translated how they were killed. His last words were, "this is the place of death. The place of your death!" His body fell to the ground as my silver edged blade slashed deep through his neck, nearly severing his head entirely as my blade found the bone of his spine. As for the other he began to transform into a were-panther. Pretty much everyone opened fire on him, killing him instantly.
"My team will get the bodies. The rest of you, organise a perimeter defense. We are going to be camping right here tonight," I said. I saw Natasha walking over and I intercepted her. "I want you to work on the perimeter."
"You do not have to hide me from the bodies, Kolya," she responded.
"This is not medical school," I said.
She stepped around me and I caught her by the arm. "Release me," she said through her teeth. She was on fire. So I let her go. She has become consumed by the brother-in-arms and leave-no-one-behind mindset.
It was too dark to work effectively. It was pitch black and we were trying to match feet to legs and legs to torso and so forth. It was impossible with our limited lighting resources.
"We will finish this job on sun up," I said.
"We might be able to get MA [Mortuary Affairs] up here. They can get these guys back together a lot faster than we can," Roma suggested.
"You are correct, but I am not leaving this hill without them," I replied.
Night came, and came with a vengeance. We had a pretty good defense set up, but we were not in our base, which means we did not have a better defense set up, and we had no opportunity to rearm or reload beyond the firepower that we brought with us.
Rather than coming in waves, the werepanthers came all at once. They ripped through our lines, overrunning our position with ease. We were split into small groups, sometimes individually isolated from each other. That, like the Finns in the Winter War, was their plan. It was deep night and there was shouting, growling, screaming, shooting, and all manner of fighting going on around me, but there were little details through the fog of war.
All of us, except Natasha were fighters. I tried to keep my eye on her, but she has a tendency to slip out of my sight during firefights. It has happened during her rescue, the fight in the cave, and it happened during that fight with the werepanthers.
The battle was very fluid. At times I would find myself fighting next to someone, get separated, and an hour later next to each other again. We shifted to get position on the monsters and avoid crossfires and hurting each other. It was a beautiful dance of warriors shifting, moving, and fighting.
After hours of fighting one could finally begin to sense victory. The number of werepanthers had been greatly reduced during the night, and only a few stranglers were hanging on early in the morning before the sun started to rise. We gravitated to one another and in a final push destroyed the remaining monsters, many of us by this point completely out of ammunition and down to knives, swords, and maces.
Bloody, tired, and high on adrenaline we set about destroying the werepanthers - chop off head, burn, repeat. While that was going on, I had my team assemble the bodies as best we could and prepare them for transport back to the beach, where a MA team could easily get them.
