Part 2: Mission 2: The First Victory
anilEhilated posted:
"Very good, I'm glad you decided to join us. Now for your task in the new structure of the Alliance.
We place the responsibity for a whole area in your hands. You'll have to organize logistics, intelligence, pick your officers: due to the very common communication breakdowns, the Alliance prefers power concentrated in the hands of self-reliant commanders.
Despite our inability to provide reinforcements there, the area under your control seems to be under considerably pressure than other sectors. The enemy units approaching from the East only operate in small, scattered groups: this gives us the much-needed opportunity to stop Otherside's advance. What we really need is time and you can provide us with that - don't fail us, Commander.
The next few days were a blur. I was appointed commander of the Slovakian branch of the World Alliance, given reams of documents about the strategic situation, and transferred to the east, in Ukraine.
The attack from the west had been contained for now, but despite low enemy presence, the understaffed Alliance forces in eastern Europe had been steadily losing ground for weeks. At the rate things were going, we had about a week until Ukraine fell and Slovakia came under attack from both sides. It was my job to make sure that didn't happen.
Our firepower, however, was lacking to say the least. HQ flatly told me that, outside of a handful of infantry and light vehicles, any requests I made for reinforcements would be automatically denied. Even getting a single mortar company, Polite Obliteration, involved enough insistent phone calls to put me out of their good graces for the time being.
Once we joined them, the Alliance gave us all of the intelligence they had on the enemy, which was distressingly little. Aside from official designations for enemies - Orcs for those ax-men, Wolves for those dog-beasts, and Magotars for those flying monkeys - there was almost nothing there that I didn't already know.
It seemed that if we wanted to learn anything about what we were up against, we'd have to find it out ourselves. I gave the lion's share of our limited resources to my intelligence agents and told them to start with the orcs. They were by far the most common enemy troops, and we had no shortage of combat reports and corpses to glean from.
With bureaucratic matters taken care of, we needed to make a counterattack before the Forces of Darkness pushed us out of Ukraine. I had a few different possible routes, but in the end, there were ammo and diesel stores just to the north that seemed like the obvious choice. If we ever ran out of bullets, we'd be well and truly fucked, and word was that these stores had enough to meet our needs while having extra to bolster other fronts. I just hoped our troops would be up to the crucial task before us.
Mission 2: The First Victory
Attending:
Anil E. Hilated, Esq. (Polite Obliteration, Mortar Infantry)
Sersan (Anoa, Rangers)
Habitually Red (Sane Max's Own, Light Infantry)
"Doctor" Snark (Mage Killers, Commandos)
William "Bill" Browning (The Bullies, Humvee)
Logan "Hardtack" Smith (War Dogs, Light Infantry)
Bill: So, um, this is how scouting works, right? I just kind of drive around 'til I see the enemy and then the rest of you guys fill them with holes?
Hardtack: I think so, yeah. Why are you asking us? You're the one who volunteered for humvee duty.
Bill: No, see, when I told the Commander "put me in the heaviest vehicle with the biggest gun you've got," I was expecting an M1A1, maybe a Challenger 2. Christ, I've gotten birthday presents with more punch than this.
Bill: Okay, got a visual on some pups. Someone with a real gun, come up and drop 'em.
Sersan: Bullets go farther than teeth! Looks like easy pickings!
Bill: Don't be so sure, Sersan, it looks l- wait, are those orcs? Riding wolves? The briefing didn't say they could do that!
Sersan: Yeah, and it looks like they're carrying some kind of giant-ass shuriken. Figures. It was only a matter of time before they figured out how much a range advantage helps.
"Doctor Snark:" Bet they can't throw as far as we can shoot, though.
Bill: Wait, where the hell are they going? They're running away!
Habitually Red: We'll just have to chase 'em down.
Anil E. Hilated: And here I'd just set up my mortar tube.
Bill: Hey. Um.
Bill: Anil? You can probably leave your mortar tube up.
Hardtack: Oh, shit.
Hardtack: Guys? I think we just walked into an ambush.
Anil E. Hilated: Excellent, they saved us the trouble of coming to them!
Bill: Okay, everyone! Hold position, hit whatever's closest! I'll cover you the best I can with this piece of shit.
Habitually Red: You say it's a piece of shit, but I really wish I was in an armored vehicle right about now.
Anil E. Hilated: Alright, you primitive screwheads, listen up! This is my boomstick!
Anil E. Hilated: No, the stick doesn't go boom. It makes you go boom.
"Doctor" Snark: Target down! Someone get the last one!
Habitually Red: I'm trying, but the goddamn things won't drop!
"Doctor" Snark: Shit shit shit! Help!
"Doctor" Snark: Oh God, the teeth! The teeth!
Bill: Riders, coming in from the north!
Sersan: We'll deal with them later, we've gotta kill these wolves before they turn Snark into Kibble!
"Doctor" Snark: Thanks, guys. While you're doing that, I'm gonna scoop up my intestines.
Anil E. Hilated: We've got more than enough guns to deal with the wolves. I'm gonna blow up those riders!
Bill: I'm with you there, Anil. Bastards got one of my vics with a shuriken and now it's leaking something.
Sersan: Just dropped the last wolf.
Bill: And I just dropped the last rider.
Habitually Red: Bill, you didn't get all the wolves! They're not like horses, they don't need riders to try to kill us!
Bill: Trust me, the wolves that are still alive aren't for lack of effort on my part.
Anil E. Hilated: BOOM! Just lit up a whole unit of Riders.
Bill: Damn. Hey Anil, wanna trade your mortars for my Humvees?
Anil E. Hilated: Nah, I'm good.
Anil E. Hilated: Oh shit, I didn't realize just how fast those things- OH GOD MY FACE!
Bill: Actually, y'know, I take that back. Sitting in an armored vehicle just started looking a lot better.
Hardtack: Hang in there, Anil! We've got enough guns here to give those wolves their body weight in lead!
"Doctor" Snark: Got the orcs! Looks like that's the last of them. Anil, you still in one piece?
Anil E. Hilated: Mostly. Two of my men aren't, though. Whatever's in this base better be worth having lost ten percent of my blowing shit up capacity.
Bill: More trogs in the base. Looks like they've dug in pretty tightly. Sit tight and get ready, guys, I'm gonna draw them out.
Bill: Make that a lot more trogs! Get ready, everyone!
"Doctor" Snark: Surprise! We can set up barricades too!
Digging in had made all the difference here. Quite a few orcs got close enough to batter at the barricades, but none of them actually managed to break through and hit anyone. We managed to hold off the attack without any losses.
Bill: Alright, guess we'd better deal with these magotars before they can cause us any trouble.
Sersan: I think they already have. Did you notice how some were flying overhead shortly before we were attacked?
Habitually Red: I get what you're saying. This isn't gonna be the last time we find out something after it's too late, is it?
Hardtack: Probably not. We're dealing with magical bullshit here, half the things we learn about will probably come from them killing some of us.
Bill: How the hell can these hairy lumps outrun my Humvees?
Bill: God damnit, I can't even get sights on them long enough to fire!
Habitually Red: Wait, Bill, I've got an idea! Let's corral them! They can't avoid all of us without leaving the area!
Bill: Hey, I think they're panicking! They keep flying back and forth over me! All I have to do is just keep shooting them as they pass overhead!
Habitually Red: Hope you don't mind me speeding things along. Damn, they fall like bricks when you hit them!
Bill: Not gonna complain about anything that means I have to spend less time driving back and forth, chasing flying monkeys. Anyway, I'm gonna check out the base now.
Sersan: We did it!
"Doctor" Snark: Well done, team! Say, has anyone seen Bill?
Anil E. Hilated: Oh, yeah. He's staring longingly at a pile of tank shells, mumbling something like "some day."
Hardtack: Wow. How'd you find him so fast?
Anil E. Hilated: Because I was doing the same thing with the pile of artillery shells next to it.
The mission was a success, and all in all, we couldn't have asked for a much better start to the campaign. Not only did our own supply lines shorten considerably, but the frontline forces were very appreciative when we gave them the stuff we couldn't use. Our quick capture of a high-priority objective, in a territory where the Alliance had been suffering a steady string of defeats, made a name for our division just days after it had formed. I had a feeling that Command would be more receptive to my requests for more troops in the future.