Soldier's Virtue

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Soldier's Virtue

Post by Xalsin »

Under other circumstances, the area would have been construed as peaceful, pleasant and damn near picturesque. Mountains on all sides, the gentle slopes of the Ammult Basin were filled with ripe grain heads waiting for the harvest time in a few weeks. The farmland extended out from the majestic, gleaming city of Lumar's Pride in the center, tappering off into the deciduous forests surrounding the agricultural behemoth of Lumar's Pride.

Even the weather could not have been more scenic, deep blue skies upholding a simmering silvery sun which was just starting to descend and scatter a prolific rainbow of colors across a thin grouping of clouds. It would have been the perfect inspiration for a painting if it had not been for one thing.

The 321st Division of the Vulgren Regulars was perched at the base of the mountains but the top of the Basin, poised like a bird of prey over the city. Her orders: secure Lumar's Pride by the end of the week without damaging the city's vital agricultural facilities. This was no easy task.

They had nearly a hundred and eighty kilometers of open field to cross first, then, in the city itself, the Tingherr 139th Mechanized Assault Battalion with support from the Third Tingerr Elite Infantry Regiment had had over four days to fortify the city.

Denied air support, mortar and artillery fire, mechanized assault craft, and even reinforcements for another five to eight days, Command was starting to wise up to the fact that not only would was it possible that the 321st wouldn't be able to take the city, but they were actually at risk of being attacked by the 139th before they even reached the city. While the 321st Division's own Mechanized Assault Craft could provide support all the way up to the city, it was debatable that they would be able to match the firepower of the Tingerr's superior craft. And all this wasn't even factoring the possibility of Tingerr reinforcements or air strikes, which were question marks that hung like threatening clouds.

The sun continued it descent as if unaware of the struggle beneath it. The air was silent and still, as if every animal was straining it's ears to hear the faint sounds of... music?


**********


Lance Corporal Dekk Obglesh sat on the hard packed earth, leaning up against a sandbag and facing out towards the city below. A small, portable dataplayer beside him spat out abrasive metal music as he dumped a trayful of bullets out onto a cloth, where he picked them up by the handful and started attaching to a belt feeder.

The music was the only thing that kept him going some nights. War was a gruelling, thing, which seldom knew comforts and entertainment. The music was one way of connecting him back with the "real" world, the world some thousand kilometers behind him he was fighting to protect.

Plus this band just rocks.. He thought to himself, flicking bullet after bullet onto the belt with practiced ease.

Dekk was a Numall, which meant he was native to this world along with a strain of humans which seemed to be everywhere in the galaxy. Actually, Numalls were pretty similiar to humans, though he would have been very drunk to actually admit it since his race was a source of playful pride to him.

The differences of Numalls and humans, apart from Numall's layer of thin fur, didn't go far past the face. Dekk's eyes were like cat's eyes with a vertical pupil bisecting it. Like cat's, also, they could see well in the dark. Add to the that the fact that Numalls have their ears perched on their heads like cats, it wasn't hard to see why many of the humans called them cats. Or "kitties", if they were looking to start a good natured brawl.

Dekk's lips pulled back to reveal many sharp teeth. He enjoyed cleaning an prepping his weapon, and so much the better when he had the luxuary of listening to music while doing so. The Platoon sargeant had okayed him on doing that this evening, since sitting on the hill side, their location was hardly concealled anyways. Though he had been warned, the orders to march could come at any time.

That would have been just fine with Dekk. He growled with anticipation of the hunt.

OOC:
Basically a closed thread... Get with Vague or myself for questions.
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Post by VagueDurin »

PFC Elexus Rei had his back to a decent sized rock as he watched the sun slowly begin its decent. In a gloved hand, he held a photograph... It was of his sweetheart back home. Home... that place so many many kilometers behind them. He could remember countless nights of laying atop a blanket with her, just watching the sun set, waiting for the stars to show themselves in the darkened sky. That was then, though, and this was now.

He glanced down at his right shoulder, where his nations flag was sown on to the camoflouged uniform he wore. He often looked down at the Vulgren flag, with is shooting star design in times of uncertainty. It helped remind the soldier of why he was here. And of who and what he was here to protect. Folding up the photo he slipped it back into his book of scriptures, and secured the book in his cargo pocket.

They'd be moving out soon. There was a dull buzz already moving through the encampment. Everyone knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time before the Master Sergeant barked the orders at them. To Elexus, that meant only one thing. It was time to prepare himself, mind body and equipment. Closing his eyes slowly, he took slow, deep breaths. Calming the turmoil that this war had spawned in his insides.

He was already geared up. SOP for the unit required all soldiers to remain in battle dress uniforms with full rattle, just in case. Body armor, load bearing vest, and helmet were all secured. His rifle sat next to him, propped up on the rock. Reaching over, he shot-gunned the lead slinger, examining the finer points of the inside, to ensure everything was in its proper working order. Once he was satisfied, he checked, and rechecked his ammunition.

By this time, someone approached him, and he gazed up at the newcomer, hazel eyes squinting to see in the coming darkness. "PFC Rei?" the figure asked.

"Yeah." he replied, standing up slowly.

"Your shift for perimeter gaurd." the figure spoke again, before saluting.

Elexus returned the salute, before hoisting up his rifle and starting off towards the perimeter to assume his duties for the next hour. It wasn't too long before he came upon a fairly familiar face. He slowed his gate down as he approached the sitting form of the numall, who appeared to be securing ammunition.

"Hows the veiw?" he asked his fellow soldier.
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Post by Xalsin »

Dekk looked up at the perimeter guard has he took his post, giving the man a tight, feral grin. Numalls do feral well.

"All's quiet, PFC." The Lance Corporal replied after glancing at the man's rank and name tape. "They've got all their lights off, like we're gonna air raid them. Shav, like they have anything to worry about with the rules of engagement being what they are."

Attaching the last of bullets to the feed belt, he quickly coiled it up, placed it inside of a cartridge before grabbing up his Squad Automatic Weapon. Applying a liberal amount of CLP to the barrel he began scrubbing away at it with an old toothbrush.

For a moment, the air was silent, apart from the scrubbing of the brush, as the dataplayer switched to a new track. Dekk stopped scrubbing, an odd noise greeting his eyes. He slapped the dataplayer off. A high pitched whining growing increasingly louder.

A silvery streak from the sky flew low over there position, probably no more then two hundred meters up in the air. A scout craft, flying at close to supersonic speeds.

By the time the mobile anti-aircraft sounded their alarms and unleashed a torrent of flakk cannon fire, the craft had already horseshoed around and was streaking back to safety.

"Damn things.." LC Obglesh muttered, putting his SAW back together. "Well, if Command is going to have us move, they'd better do so soon..."
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Post by VagueDurin »

Rei watched the streak dissapear into the ever-darkening night. He considered the LC's words for a few moments, before squatting atop a sandbag near him and glancing backwards towards the rest of the encampment.

"Activities been picking up back there... If i had a guess, soons going to be just that, soon." he spoke. "And as far as i'm concerned its about time. I can't stand just sitting here any longer."
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Post by Xalsin »

"Yeah." Dekk snapped the lower reciever of the SAW back into place, reattached the barrel and began doing his function test, riding the bolt back and forth. "Every minute we wait is another minute that their reinforcements crawl closer, as far as I concerned. And another sandbag they get to put down."

The words were scarcely out of his mouth when a siren gave a short three blip call. The muster call.

"Well, well. Looks like we might get some action before we get old after all. I'll tell the Master sarge you're down here, in case he forgot." Dekk scooped up his dataplayer and the rest of his gear as he got to his feet. Tucking all the excess gear into the pouches of his MOLLE pack, he hefted his SAW and headed towards a green illumination beacon where everyone who wasn't actively engaged in some duty were mustering.

Quickly he located his platoon in the chaos, 2155, and fell in behind the third squad leader and his fire team leader.

"What's the word?" He spoke to his fireteam leader, a human Corporal human named Manuel Choppa. Choppa looked back at him with a anticipatory gleam in his eye.

"This is it."

The two exchanged grins, which CPL Choppa broke off as he looked behind Obglesh at the Lance Corporal that stood there.

"There's Lance Corporal Psidon... Where's PFC Rei?"

"Perimeter watch." Obglesh responded, a little surprised to realize that the man he had been talking to had been in his fire team and he hadn't even realized it.

They counted off, and after everyone had been accounted for, some second lieutinent spoke to the Platoon. Dekk didn't listen much, other then just the important parts of what the platoon would be doing: skirimishing off of the western flank of the main group of the 321st as it advanced on the city. Tasks were assigned to individuals and, a short while later, the encampment turned into a madhouse of a military unit getting ready for a march that many of them would probably not live through.

It took less then an hour to pull the roots out of the encampment after which the cargo vehicles formed up in the center as a convoy while the rest of the units fanned out into a protective/aggressive advantancement posture.

"Go get PFC Rei." CPL Choppa found Obglesh in the grinding mix of people and issued his order without delay.

"Roger." Obglesh muttered under his breath, slinging his rucksack over his back and powerwalking briskly towards where he had left Rei.

"Come on, Rei. We're pulling up stakes, and we're with us."
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Post by VagueDurin »

"Rodge." Rei replied, trotting his way back into the encampment. Pausing long enough near what was left of the sick call tent to grab his aid bag, he tossed it over his shoulders, securing the straps so that they were comfortable, before following the Lance Corperal to wherever it was they were supposed to be located.

The rest of the platoon was just forming up for the move when the pair arrived, and Rei approached the corperal. "PFC Rei reporting as directed Corperal. Green Green and ready to rock."

"Thats what I like to here, now fall your ass in with the rest of the squad so we can make sure we get a front row seat to this shit."

"Rodge." he replied, nodding once towards the LC before falling into his assigned position and double checking his rifle one last time.
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Post by Xalsin »

"Platoon, step it!" The order came over the hubris of the choas slowly resolving itself into some semblence of order.

"One shot, one kill, ready to die, but never will! 2155!" The platoon chanted their motto as a group, followed by a collective warcry as the platoon broke from its parade formation, Squads one and two moving to the center while Squads three and four took the front and rear respectively of the western flank.
Dekk took satisfaction in, while the other Platoons all had their own mottos of varying cleverness, 2155 was undisputably the loudest.

Presently, the convoy began moving, the platoons pacing it on each side. Most of the Mechanized Assualt Craft rode out front, a combination of walkers and tanks bristling with anti-personnel gatling guns and 76 MM anti-tank cannons.

The pace was slow, but far from relaxing. Even the abnormal silence that fell over the group was no indication of peacefullness. Every soldier there knew that they were in for a bloody fight.

It was only about two hours later when they were called to halt again, much to everyone's annoyance. The reason, though, was only to drop off the non-combatants outside of the CZ. Medical personnel for the field hospital, administrative types, and everyone who's primary function was not active combat was left behind.

The plans were redrawn. A direct frontal assault from the MAC units with support from some of the infantry, while the rest of the infantry looped around, striking from the flank. Platoon 2155 would still with the frontal assault, where the fighting would be fiercest. That suited LCPL Obglesh just fine.

A half an hour later, they were moving again, everything tenser this time. They had "officially" entered the Combat Zone, whatever that meant...

An hour later, Dekk found out.

While the Vulgren had been denied the oppertunity of using mortars and artillery, their opponents were under no such restriction. They all heard the distant, dull pop, and immediately recognized the sound of artillery fire.

"Incoming! Everyone down." Someone yelled, though it was really an unnecessary invitation. The entire Platoon was flat on the ground before the words have even been finished.

A hollow whistling sound was followed by an explosion, kicking dirt high into the air. The mortar shot had hit far wide of the advancing body. In the dark, they would probably have difficulties getting very precise, especially if they didn't have any spotters out for the artillery.

"Everyone double time it! We've got a lot of ground to cover!" It sounded like the Platoon Sargeant talking, but Obglesh would have listened even if it wasn't. It was still a good twenty kilometers before they would be in range for small arms fire, and the longer they were out here, the more likely they were to have a shell dropped on them.

The armors up ahead kicked into high gear, leaving the infantry trudging along behind as they speed towards the soon to be established firing line.
Dekk gave a sidelong glance towards his Fireteam, panting under the way of the heavy SAW as more artillery shells began dropping down.
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Post by VagueDurin »

Half rolling, Elexus scrambled up to his feet, taking only a frantic second to adjust the aidbag on his back before he followed his firetime forward. That was it, with one move, one solidly agressive play, the Battle for Lumars Pride had just begun.

The Artillery continued to rain down on the division as they scrambled as orderly as possible towards their objective. Dirt and foilage kicked up right and left as the shells fell hard upon the ground. Taking slow, calming breaths, the PFC made sure he kept up a steady pace with the rest of his squad.

20 Kilos turned into 15, 15 to 10 and 10 to 5. By now the Mechanized units had arrived at the objective and opened up on the opposition, downloading what troops they carried with them. And in one final battlecry, the Infantry units trailing their comrades re-doubled their efforts as they rushed towards the objective to support the soldiers already struggling there...
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Post by Xalsin »

"Commence fire! Commence fire!" The order came in the form of a shout and a hip level horizontal hand wave for those who couldn't hear. The platoons needed no further invitation, but immediately began firing at every available target.

Lcpl Obglesh sought temporary cover behind one of the tanks, which was laying down a suppressive coverfire from a pair .50 caliber machine guns that fired with such force that even if the bullet barely missed the traget, the air wave that followed it was often enough to rip a person apart.

He knew that the tank would not make adequate cover for long. Apart from the danger of accidently being crushed by it, the tank would soon be drawing anti-vehicle fire, which the Numall didn't want to be caught in.

There was, however, no other cover. The defenders had done a good job of leaving a clear field of fire all the way up to the out skirts of the city. There was little choice but to hit the dirt and start the long, probably suicidal, crawl to the city. Of course, as the SAW gunner, he would probably remain behind to provide cover fire..

The thought was barely in his head when the third squad leader gestured him to get down/take cover, while signalling the rest of the group forward.

There were six or seven SAW gunners in the area, Dekk noticed as he dropped to the ground, unfolded the bipod on his weapon and flicked the safety off. A malicious smile taking his face for only a moment. The contest was on. The smile soon faded however as he saw his platoon belly crawling across the combat zone towards the entrenched enemy firing line. They would be vulnerable there. The armors would help them too, but they would concentrating on the bigger targets, leaving the infantry to fight the infantry. His platoon was counting on him.

Sighting down the cross hairs, he drew in a deep breath... And began firing as he saw a head poke up over the sandbag wall.
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Post by VagueDurin »

Combat manuals, Drill Instructors, Photos from home, his Book of scriptures... None of those mattered anymore. Not now. All that mattered was his training, his instincs, and the nearly 8 pounds of leadslinging machinery slung across his arm. His face in the dirt like everyone elses, PFC Rei cralled inch by inch, foot by foot forward. Never loosing ground to the feet in front of him, ever mindful of the bullets flying both directions over his head. Platoons and squads broke off respectively as cover and concealment became available.

The corperal gave Rei's squad the signal, the next stop was theirs... It was about damn time, they might as well stand up and shake hands with the enemey, they had gotten nearly that close. A few more feet and they were there. Combat rolls to the left and right found the squad tucked into awings and doorways of some buildings, behind dumpsters, whatever they could find.

A Dumpster was where Rei found himself. Tucked in behind the Large metal basin, he checked his weapon one last time before nodding to the soldier on the other side of the bin, and the pair leaned out simultaneously from both sides, spraying fire at the ever present, and growing, enemy forces in front of them. As someone took notice and returned fire in their direction, they pulled back into cover, still catching their breath from the run and crawl...
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Post by Xalsin »

Adrenaline has a strange way of playing tricks on the mind. It seemed like an eternity that Dekk was staring over the heads of his fellow fireteam members, unleashing a torrant of bullets at everything that even thought about threatening the three men who were in the Lance Corporal's immediate area of responsibility. The sound was a terrible din that those who've never been through combat will never understand. Each weapon was thunderous, and there were hundreds of rifles firing, not to mention the near deafening sound of the armors, pounding shell after shell into entrenched positions.

Yet, it was all over in an instant, and his fireteam had made it to the first set of buildings: their first foothold into the city.

A lone machine gunner, operating what was probably a .50 cal from a nest in a building opened up on his fireteam, causing them to recoil to avoid the hail. Obglesh gritted his teeth, moving from the prone to the kneeling position. The gunner was too high to hit from the prone.

Just as he started firing towards the gunner, several others sighted in on the same target, including one of the heavy armors. There was a deafening roar of a cannon. A shell struck the base of the building, exploding out the supporting corner and causing the whole building to collapse in on itself.

Crude, but effective. The machine gun fire stopped.

For a brief moment, the area around Obglesh was quiet, as the armors and cover gunners ran out of targets. It was time to move and catch up with his fireteam.

Flipping the bipod of his rifle up, he stood and ran hunched over across the field. It was strewn with bodies, many of his comrades. Already medical personnel were on the scene, giving CPR and transporting those who were able to be transported.

Everything in Obglesh wanted to stop and help. Never leave a man behind. It was the code of conduct that he had carried with him since day one, but he forced himself to keep going. There was little he could do to help and his fire team still needed him.

Making it over to where his fireteam was assembled, he threw his back against the wall, panting hard.

"What's the situation?" He asked between breaths.
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Post by VagueDurin »

Elexus glanced up at him from his kneeling position. His hands not moving from the now fast growing blood soaked bandages he was applying pressure to. The soldier under them was concious, but quiet. He knew that the medic would do everything he could, and he knew screaming about it wouldn't help. He was a soldier, and that was that.

"Fortification of this area's commencing, we're awaiting further orders from command upon the completion of a sit-rep." he spoke, one blood covered hand reaching into his opened aid bag with a practiced ease, finding a bacta dressing and applying it to the wound. It wasn't bad, as far as things got. Small arms fire to the right thigh. Somehow, thank the force the round missed the femoral arterry and exited clean out the rear. With bacta dressings on either side, Elexus began to tightly wrap the wound with a pressure dressing to slow blood flow and keep the bacta healing solution against the wound to do its job.

"You're gonna be alright pal." he spoke to the downed soldier before looking back up towards the lcpl.
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Post by Xalsin »

Lcpl Obglesh dropped to one knee, scanning the area with his a practiced eye. There was a cluster of broken buildings around, which 2155 had begun to possess. Several of the other platoons had pushed in deeper and were still encountering resistance, as was evidenced by the sounds they heard. It was his first view of Lumar's Pride, which wasn't surprising, as it was across the Tingherr boundry. Or had been. It was under occupation now.

The Lance Corporal glanced over at the corporal of his fire team. Choppa was a short distance away, a portable comm unit mashed against his face. He was practically shouting into the thing, but Obglesh couldn't even hear him over the noise of war.

"Copy that." Choppa's voice carried over a lull in the gunfire as he disconnected the comm and gave it back to comm man. He waved wildly, getting his fire team's attention.

"Listen up. Our objective is sector 12, which extends about three blocks in and three blocks south from here. We're going from building to building, search and destroy. Any one hurt?"

"Yea, Corporal, I got a sliver." Obglesh complained loudly, holding up his finger, which had a small bloody spot on it. His comment earned him a glare which told him what he already knew: Choppa had no sense of humor in serious situations.

"Everyone move out, we're sticking with the platoon." Choppa shouted, then gestured forward. "Move it!"

Obglesh didn't bother to comply, but threw himself on the ground, getting into a cover position as the fire team got ready to search the first building.
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Post by VagueDurin »

Rei had already secured his gear back in his aid back and slung it over his shoulders. One last cursory check of his state and weapon, and he was ready. The order came and they were off. It was only a short sprint to the first door, and with all the proper hand signals thrown, the teem stacked along the wall next to the door. Psidon kicked the door open, and Choppa rushed inside, followed by Psidon.

"Clear!"
"Clear!"

Rei was last in the room, with Choppa and Psidon gaurding he moved for the staircase, and thats when the bullets started flying...
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Post by Xalsin »

All at once, everything seemed to be exploding. Everyone started screaming and gunshots seemed to burst from every direction. Obglesh threw himself to the ground with a snarl as a barrage of shots came tearing into the building from outside. A fortified building two blocks down was shooting at everything that got in range, including them. Obglesh was just glad they were indoors.

A window exploded nearby into a shower of razor sharp pieces of glass, one of those shards impacting into the upper arm of his right side, but there was too much adrenaline in his system to even take notice of the pain. He situated himself in one of the other windows instead, and returned fire.

The rounds from the SAW were near deafening within the confined area, but Obglesh didn't let up until a full five seconds (which seemed an eternity) ha passed.

He ducked behind the wall, letting the barrel of his gun cool while shaking his head. "We're pinned in. I'm not going to be able to hit them at this range, and they'll hash us if we step outside or peek our faces out."
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Re: Soldier's Virtue

Post by VagueDurin »

"I don't think this is what command had in mind" Rei shouted as he started back down the stairs. "Upstairs is clear but I wouldn't go up there unless you want some more holes in ya." He continued to holler over the din of battle. "Is there a back door out of this place, Choppa?"
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