T42 Pt. 22 | "The siege of Klirsey II"

Tales of the 42nd: The siege of Klirsey

+++ALBIAN II, ALBIAN SYSTEM+++

+++TRENCH SECTOR BRAVO, SECTION 3, SUBSECTION A+++

+++733.000.M41 / 2324, 23 SEP 41000+++

Cecilia looks down the trench line at the traitor forces swarming against the Caledonian troops that were slowly being pushed back. Her hands squeezing the handles of her weapons slightly while she feels sweat trickling down the inside of her gas mask.

She watches her soldiers fighting for their lives and many of them falling to the floor of the trench not to get back up. She takes a deep breath, trying to calm her raging emotions of fear, anger and sorrow before she steps forward with her weapons at the ready.

The first traitor lunges at her with his bayonet, Cecilia side steps the bayonet lunging

at her stomach before she brings her power axe down onto the lasgun, batting it down into the ground causing the traitor to sprawl forward. At the same time, she leaves them to one of the troops behind her as she moves forward to deal with the next enemy. She brings her power axe up and into the next soldiers gut, the energy field around the edge cutting through their armour with almost no resistance. She pulls the axe backwards with a spray of blood filling the air, adding to the metallic smell in the air along with the burning and ionized smell already present. Time seems to slow down for a moment for the Major as she takes a breath looking for the next opponent through her mud and blood freckled goggles of her gas mask and the misting gas and smoke in the trench. When she faintly hears a clang and splash in front of her that draws her gaze to the grenade slowly rolling towards her. She freezes for a moment as her eyes watching the grenade before she is suddenly pushed against the trenches wall with a shout.

"Look out, Sir!" Her aide Gracia shouts while she dives past Cecilia and onto the grenade.

Cecilia takes cover against the side of the trench, like the rest of her command team before the thud of the grenade going off, cuts through the battle. She looks over at Gracia's body, her red blood pooling and mixing with the muddy and already bloody water along the floor. Cecilia steadies her breathing and tries to shake the ringing out of her ears before she pushes off the trench wall, bringing her bolt pistol up as she fires a burst of rounds into the next group of traitors starting to charge them.

1st Sergeant Halwood taps the major on the shoulder before she about shouts to be heard over the sounds of the battle, "Major! Platoons are reporting being overrun! We need to pull back!"

Cecilia looks at Halwood for a moment before she nods, "Give the order! Hastings!"

Halwood nods before she jumps onto the command net and starts giving orders for the company to fall back to the next line of defences, while Eryn Hastings, the vox-operator, moves over to Cecilia.

Cecilia looks at Hastings with a slight nod, "Broken Arrow."

Hastings nods as she lifts her handset to start transmitting while they all fall back to the next line of trenches, "42 Romeo, this is Falcon Romeo. Broken Arrow, I say again, Broken Arrow...Broken Arrow confirmed."

+++KLIRSEY AIRSECTOR 4+++

+++ALTITUDE - 7400 METRES+++

+++733.000.M41 / 2330, 23 SEP 41000+++

"Gladius, go for Crusader," Laura transmits over the vox while she glances out her cockpit and over the port wing of the Avenger at the part of her flight.

"Crusader, we have a broken arrow in ground sector bravo-3, you will be receiving targeting call now," AWACS Gladius transmits.

Laura glances down her screens quickly before she responds, "Gladius, Crusader copies, data received. Crusader is Oscar Mike."

"Solid copy, Crusader, happy hunting. Gladius, out." With that transmission to them done the AWACS moves on to continue coordinating the over air assets in the AO.

"All Crusader elements, new orders. We have a broken arrow situation, I am punching targeting data to flight leaders, stay with your flight. Let's go kill some traitors." Laura grins as she throws her flight stick to port and starts moving onto the approach vector, the other three flights of her squadron forming up behind her with the other five squadrons of the wing not far behind.

+++TRENCH SECTOR BRAVO, SECTION 3, SUBSECTION B+++

+++733.000.M41 / 2337, 23 SEP 41000+++

Cecilia ducks down behind the trench wall when solid shots impact with the top it of it, throwing dirt up and over the trench adding a fresh coat of it to the already mud-covered troops. She winces slightly when she moves due to the pain from the glancing lasgun shot that she took while pulling back, but luckily her carapace armour managed to take the hit.

"Roger that!" Hastings glances over at the Major as they let go of the vox handset, "Major! Stirkecraft are on the way!"

Cecilia nods to Hastings before she quickly pops up above the parapet and opens fires a burst of rounds at the charging heretic forces before she ducks back down.

"Roger that. Major, we have craft stacked up every 2000 metres from 3000 to 11000!" Hastings shouts to the Major while she pulls out her tac-map to coordinate the airstrike, "Advancing north on our position, at tac-point Falcon-2-Bravo. Reference green flare for friendly."

At Hastings reference target message, Halwood quickly pulls one out of her tactical rigging and pops off the cap and lobs it to land just in front of their trench.

+++KLIRSEY KILL BOX 2-ALPHA+++

+++ALTITUDE - 3000 METRES+++

+++733.000.M41 / 2339, 23 SEP 41000+++

"All callsigns, targeting info being synced with you now," AWACS Gladius says while the info is sent via the vox-signal to the strike wings.

"Gladius, this is Crusader. Info received, beginning attack run." Laura says before she activates her helmet-mounted sight and display inside her visor, "All Crusader, you are receiving targeting info now. You are weapons-free, flight leads pick your targets, Red flight leading. Over."

"Blue leader copies," Lieutenant Sophia Hart says.

"Green leader copies," Lieutenant Danai Bareli says.

"Yellow leader copies," Lieutenant Lexie Jackson says.

With all the flight leaders checking in Laura banks left onto her attack vector to bring the flight into position, "Red Flight, prepare Hellfury missiles, approaching the target."

The first flight of the four Avenger Strike Fighters quickly dive towards the front of the trenches, relying on their instruments and night vision to try and see through the murky night. Soon the explosions and lasrounds became visible, giving the pilots visual confirmation for their targets. The heretic force from above was clearly made up of mainly infantry in the vanguard with armoured units coming up from the rear.

Laura looks at the centre of the leading group of infantry atop the front trench line while she acquires a target lock with her HMSD for her Hellfury missiles. At the same time, she squeezes off a quick burst with her Avenger Bolt Cannon, its anti-armour rounds cutting through the exposed infantry like paper. The moment she has a positive target lock tone, she fires one of her two Hellfury's before she takes evasive action to survey the target, the rest of her flight doing the same.

The four Hellfury missiles race towards the heretics on the ground, some who had tried to take cover in the trench. The missiles detonate above the heads of the heretics in an airburst release of their incendiary sub-munitions which spread themselves over a wide area as they explode and ignite. Their payload of Promethium coating the trench in raging fires that floods along the front trench, engulfing those that tried to hide in it, and even those that were spared the flames only just, quickly find the fire greedily sucking in the oxygen nearby.

+++TRENCH SECTOR BRAVO, SECTION 3, SUBSECTION B+++

+++733.000.M41 / 2342, 23 SEP 41000+++

At the sound of the Avenger cannons, followed by the explosions and roar of the flames, a cheer rises up from the Caledonian soldiers. With the heretic forces being hit by the air support and slowly getting cut off by the fire, the Caledonians can start to regain control of the firefight.

Cecilia lets out a sigh while she sinks down onto the firestep, wiping some of the grim from her gasmask goggles before she looks up at her company chief, "Halwood, I want the butchers' bill asap. Hastings, get our status sent up the line to battalion and tell them that we are going to need a full resupply."

Halwood nods before she steps away slightly to start requesting updates from the platoon command teams, while Hastings waits for a moment of clear radio traffic.

With her orders being carried out, Cecilia pulls out her surveyor to scan for any presence of chemical weapons. The scan takes a moment, but once it does come back, it comes back clear prompting to her to slowly unfasten her helmet and remove it before she pulls her mask up and over her head, taking a breath of non-filtered air with a small sigh. She proceeds to hook the gas mask onto her tac-rig before she wipes the sweat that always builds up under mask from her face. Using the back of her sleeve, moving the sweat and replacing it with some of the grime that is on her uniform. Cecilia slowly stands up, supporting herself with the wall of the trench, looking up and down the trench at her troops while the final sounds of gunfire still supplement the cries of pain and those for a medic. With slightly shaky hands, she holsters her bolt pistol and power axe before she starts to walk down the trench towards the next communication trench to take her back to her command dugout. She steps around or over the injured, dying and dead, her boots splashing slightly through the mud, water and blood that came up and over the toecap of her boots.

+++NORTH OF BRODERBOUR+++

+++22 XAILIV HQ+++

+++734.000.M41 / 0507, 24 SEP 41000+++

Leana looks up from the map and dataslates in front of her when a mug of recaf is placed in front of her. She nods to Captain Aloy while she takes the mug and a swig from it, "Thanks, Captain."

"Not a problem, Colonel," Alex says, "I have the latest reports for you and marching orders from the BCT."

Leana looks over at the dataslate that Alex hands her, looking at their new orders, almost whispering them to herself, "The assault begins at nightfall..." The Colonel rubs the bridge of her nose slowly before she looks up at the command team that was looking at her, "Dispatch the orders, the 22nd assault at 2200 hour."

With those words, the battalions command team jumps into action with vox-operators radioing the companies, while plans start to get drawn up by the planning staff. Soon the rest of the battalion has come to life, going through all the final preparation stages needed to prepare for a full urban assault. The sound of their preparations is soon joined by the sound of Basilisks firing full volleys to soften and break up and defences the heretics might have.