Redtail Fox
Posts : 171
Preserve Railway history
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 Posted 19/07/2008 09:46:16 PM | | Quote : Temporary Airfield X-ray
Dawn
By the time first light started to show over the horizon, the Airbase was starting to really take shape, the first aircraft had arrived and the Ammunition and fuel dumps were in place. Rows of UH-1D Gunships and transports sat alongside Mi-24D Hinds and Mi-26 Halo heavy transport helicopters. A Squadron of AV-8B Harrier IIs sat in ‘hangers’ that had been made by pushing the earth up into mounds and placing a roof on them, the resulting structures being large enough to do maintenance work on the jets.
The silence was shattered as two Hawker Hunter FGR.Mk9s came in for a landing, the first of the squadron to arrive, while a Grumman E-2C Hawkeye waited for it’d turn to take off and provide the base with AEW capability. Service personnel were already busy on the first damaged aircraft of the day; one of the three Cessna A-37 Dragonfly which had its nose gear had collapsed after it had stopped. The local farmers were only just starting to get up to start their work and those that had managed to sleep through the arrival of the Modern Forces walked out to find their strange machines and people on the other side of the fence. John Leeson, a farmer, stood silently by his farm outbuildings, not knowing if he should run away or not. He was used to seeing the Dragons under the King’s command flying around, but these flying machines he was seeing defied belief. He had heard of what had happened at Castle Malasam and wondered if these strangers would be enough to turn the horde back.
Meanwhile, in a tent turned HQ/ Briefing room, Lieutenant Colonel Vulpes and some other officers were presenting their plan to the King and his Knights. The table was littered with recon photos taken from a high flying recon plane, all showing castle Malasam still holding out against the horde, but they were surrounded by Orcs and were coming under regular attacks by Dragons. The plan was simple on paper, airlift troops, supplies and ammo to the besieged forces in Castle Malasam while ground attack aircraft preformed high speed attack runs on the massed forces. They would them be relieved by a decent sized force moving overland with what limited armour and mechanised infantry they could muster. The Dragons would be the biggest threat, both to the airlift and to the ground forces so the ground attack aircraft would double as air superiority machines, either shooting the dragons down or driving them from the area.
The King’s own Dragons would escort the helicopters to the castle, flaming anything that got close to them. The engineers had been working all night to fit two way communications to the Dragon’s armoured helmets to allow them to talk to each other and to the combat forces they were to support. The officer in charge of the attack would be Lieutenant Colonel Vulpin, who would accompany the troops into Castle Malasam and direct the operation from there. Air support would continue to be on call until the siege was broken and the troops withdrawn.
King Digram and his knights thought that these beings were crazy to attempt to launch an attack on the massed forces of the Horde, no matter how powerful they seemed. After a few moments he reluctantly committed only five dragons to the plan, stating that he needed the others for other concerns. The shortfall would have to be covered by other helicopters which would reduce the force available to cover the Castle and the village in the event of an attack. They meeting broke up about half an hour later after agreeing that two of King Digram’s knights were to accompany the airborne troops to the castle, mainly to show Lord Malasam that these beings were there to help, not that Malasam was in any condition to turn down help, no matter how strange they may be.
Take off was scheduled for 5.30am the following morning and the rest of the day was taken up with the preparation of aircraft and Troops for the plan. While this was going on Lieutenant Colonel Vulpin met with the lead Dragon of the King’s force, who had flown out to the airbase upon the request of the King himself. The great creature towered over Vulpin and the aircraft parked nearby, its wingspan, though smaller than that of the dragon which had attacked their world, was still greater than the C-130 parked nearby. The Dragon lowered its large head and looked at Vulpin,” I am K’afar, I was informed you wished to speak with me.”
“Yes, I wished to speak to you about the inclusion of five of your Dragons in our battle plan” Vulpin replied, before running him through the plan and then informing him of the king’s decision as to the number of dragons he was willing to spare for the plan. The large Dragon shook his head in disgust,” clearly you would need more dragons than that, but if the king only gave you five of us, I will make sure they are my bravest and fiercest warriors that are sent with you.”
“I thank you, from what we have seen they will be needed” Vulpin replied, looking at the large dragon,” we will win this.”
Temporary Airfield X-ray
5.30am
The thumping of rotor blades echoed across the plains as the soldiers climbed aboard the helicopters in the early morning light. The knights, Sir Golan, a Cougar, and Sir Golwar, a snow Leopard, looked out of place amongst the soldiers as they climbed into the lead helicopter. While they choppers were loading Aircraft were warming up for takeoff, while at the edge of the field the five Dragons waited in their modified armour. The last being aboard the chopper was Lt. Colonel Vulpin who had climbed up beside Sir Golan and leaned towards the pilots,” Lets go.”
The thumping became a fast paced beat as they lifted off and headed towards their destination, the dragons joining them a few moments later. Vulpin removed his helmet and put a headset on, handing two more to Sir Golan and Sir Golwar, who followed his lead and were surprised as they heard his voice clearly over the headsets.
“This will be tense, we will need to get off the chopper almost as soon as it has landed, things will be confusing for a while but don’t worry, we’ll get through.”
Sir Golan and Sir Golwar were taken aback by this fox’s words, he could see, despite how they tried to conceal it, that they were nervous about the battle. They nodded to Vulpin and went back to watching the farmland whip by below until they felt the whole helicopter drop rapidly, levelling out just above tree top level, much to the relief of the two knights. The other transport choppers had done the same, while the gunships had taken a different course, allowing them to come in from all angles at once.
After about thirty minutes flying, the pilot’s voice came over their headsets,” E.T.A two minutes to LZ.”
Vulpin removed his headset and placed his helmet back on his head, the two knights doing the same. He cocked his rifle, as did the other troops with him,” let’s give them hell”
Castle Malasam
6.00am
A wolven guard stood looking out over the vast Horde encampment when he heard a dull thumping in the distance, and a steadily increasing roar in the sky. Suddenly a blur streaked across above the horde encampment with a roar like a extremely strong wind. The Wolf screamed as the encampment vanished into a large fireball which enveloped an ever increasing area.
Vulpin looked out of the chopper at the receding fireball as they approached the castle, flaring just before the courtyard. As the Chopper touched down and the troops poured out with the two knights with them, the chopper lifting off again, it’s door mounted .50 cals opening up as soon as they were clear of the walls. More choppers came in and offloaded their cargos inside the castle while Sir Golan and Sir Golwar convinced Lord Malasam that these beings were there to help. Meanwhile Vulpin and his radioman were up on the wall, contacting the fast movers.
Up above, hidden by the clouds, a flight of AV-8Bs waited for their confirmation to commit, Napalm tanks and various other ordinance on the pylons under the wings. The flight leader, an Ocelot named Trablini Balkath, watched her display readouts and then looked at the picture she had placed on a blank spot on the console, a Polaroid photo of her and her husband, a red fox, before her career started taking her away from home more often as trouble spots had flared up around the world. He was always there, waiting for her each and every time, knowing exactly what her job entailed, having been a combat pilot himself before his accident.
Her thoughts were brushed aside as Vulpin’s voice seemed to fill the air.
“Eagle one, this is Dog one, I need you to burn them out. Bring the rain!”
“ Dog one, this is Eagle One, copy that, Making our approach now. Eagle Flight, choose your targets for maximum damage.”
“Eagle two, roger”
“Eagle Three, Copy”
“Eagle Four, A’roger”
“Eagle five, Roger that”
Trablini rolled her AV-8B over and dived for the ground, pulling up as she cleared the cloud layer. The Harriers broke formation and targeted various areas. Eagle Two opened up on a large, medieval battering ram housed in a metal plated siege machine as it moved towards the castle’s main gate, dropping a napalm tank directly onto the rear of it and engulfing it in a massive fireball along with the Orcs around it.
Eagle Three and Four dropped their tanks on what they agreed looked like the leader’s HQ tent and Eagle five dropped his on the troop’s tents. Trablini saw what looked like a temporary blacksmith setup and released her tanks, the resulting fireball reducing the entire area around it to ash and charred lumps of burnt Orc flesh. As they climbed away and came around for another pass, they saw the Hunters come in low and strafe the remaining large concentrations of Orcs with their 30mm cannons and rocket fire. From what Trablini could see from her cockpit the Orcs were in disarray, having no way to retaliate against the aircraft that were ripping great swatches from their ranks.
“Dog One, Eagle One, targets serviced, we’ll be on call if you need us” Trablini said into the microphone,” Eagle one out.”
“Copy that Eagle One, good work” Vulpin replied, watching the disarray before him,” good work, Dog one out.”
Lord Malasam was suddenly beside him,” Sir Golan and Sir Golwar have explained as best they could, but if the King trusts you, I welcome your help.”
Vulpin pointed out another concentration of Orcs to his radio operator to call a strike in on and turned to Lord Malasam,” Sir, Lord Biesty is a common enemy of both your people and mine, we are only too happy to help to strike a blow against our enemy.”
Two Hunters blew overhead, causing Lord Malasam to duck slightly, looking up as they unleashed a salvo of rockets on another group of Orcs. As they pulled up a massive Dragon dove out of the clouds, its massive claws tearing one of the hunters in half just behind the wings, it’s pilot incinerated in the resulting explosion. The second Hunter hugged the ground and cracked the throttle wide open, racing away with the Dragon in hot pursuit, rapidly disappearing over the horizon. The radio was suddenly alive with the pilot’s near voice, starting to get more and more worried as he got further away.
“Hawk One to anyone, I have a bogie on my tail, I can’t shake him”
Vulpin and Lord Malasam listened to the conversation between the pilot and other aircraft in the immediate vicinity. The chatter was confusing to the Lord but Vulpin and his Radioman were following the overlapping chatter with ease.
The Hunter’s pilot was starting to sound very afraid,” Someone get this thing off my tail.”
Suddenly a new voice broke through the confused shouts.
“Hawk One, Eagle One, Coming in on its Six O’clock high, preparing to engage”
Trablini’s voice became loud,” Hawk One, Eject! Eject! Eject!”
“ARRRRHRHHHGGGGGGGGGG....................” the pilot screamed as the dragon’s jaws slammed closed over the plane and crushing the cockpit in one fluid movement before dropping the remains of the airframe to the ground and climbing for cloud cover again. Trablini was about to climb to give chase before Vulpin’s voice filled her headset,” Eagle One, disengage, disengage, Target is beyond your aircraft’s capabilities. Vectoring Tomcats to intercept.”
“Eagle One copy, resuming ground attack duties”
High above the clouds three Ex-USN F-14D Tomcats watched the dragon on their radar and moved to intercept, on their weapons pylons were mounted Radar guided missiles. The Dragon was heading straight and level away from them, seemingly unaware of the existence of the jets. The RIO of the lead Tomcat pressed a few buttons on his console,” This is Knight One, I’ve got tone.”
“Knight Two, I’ve got tone.”
“Knight Three, I’ve got tone.”
“Knight One, Fox two.”
“Knight Three, Fox two.”
“Knight Two, Fox Two.”
The Missiles streaked away, honing in on the Dragon at incredible speed. The Dragon looked over it’s shoulder and dived away at the last moment, rolling onto it’s back and swatting all but one of those missiles from the sky, the last detonating on its hide, causing it to drop towards the ground, disappearing into a low cloud. The RIO on the lead plane suddenly swore,” that thing just vanished off my scope.”
“mine too”
“I’ve lost it”
“how does something that big vanish at 2,000ft?”
All six aircrew scanned the skies for any sign of their target but it had vanished completely.
“Dog One, Knight One, Target has vanished from both radar and visual range.”
Vulpin grabbed the radio handset,” Knight One, Dog One, Say again.”
The pilot’s voice came back over the radio,” Dog One, Knight One, Target has disappeared.”
“Copy that Knight One, Stay on station and await further orders, Dog One out.”
He handed the handpiece back to the radioman and turned to look out over the battlefield where the Orcs had gone to ground, providing no more targets worth wasting ordinance on.
The castle seemed to have an air of hope about it, as opposed to the defeatism there had been when they arrived. Everyone who had survived the initial and subsequent attacks had been on the walls, even if they had to be carried there, to watch as the Orc Forces were destroyed.
Vulpin turned as another chopper, a Mi-26 ‘Halo’, touched down and started disgorging it’s cargo of troops into the courtyard. They deployed on the walls, setting up light machine guns with overlapping fields of fire, and stockpiling grenades and ammo at each of the guns. A young wolf ran up to Vulpin,” Colonel Vulpin, Major Harkins, 132nd airborne.”
“Good, I want you to reinforce the west wall” Vulpin said, showing Harkins a rough map he had sketched when he first arrived,” here is where you can get the best fields of fire.”
Harkins nodded and looked close at the ‘map’,” I’ll have my men move there now Colonel.”
He hurried away as the ‘Halo’ was finished being unloaded and lifted off, allowing the next chopper to come in to begin the unloading procedure again.
By 5PM the Castle was starting to look more formidable. The Orcs had tried twice during the day to mount an attack only to be battered into non-existence by well coordinated airstrikes. Since there was a storm moving in, causing air support to be less effective or non-available, they would be on their own for the night. Over one hundred tons of medical supplies and ammunition had been delivered during the day and with all the forces inside the castle, it would be a hard nut to crack for the Orcs. The Corps of Engineers had installed motion detectors and tripwires around the base of all the walls and all the troops were issued with night vision gear. The Command centre, hospital and supply dumps were all situated in the dungeons of the castle where they would stand the best chance of survival in an attack.
Vulpin stood on the tower and looked out into the fading light, imagining where and when the attack would come. On the horizon the storm clouds were gathering, the smell of rain was in the air and sheet lightning flashed in the distance. Lord Malasam stood beside him as they gazed out at the still battlefield littered with debris and bodies.
“They’ll be coming, have your men double their watches; I’ll have my mine do the same” Vulpin said as the sun finally slipped below the distant mountains.
“It will be done Colonel Vulpin”
Castle Malasam
10:00PM
The rain fell heavily, obscuring the night vision of the lookouts on the walls. The attack that had been expected had not yet arrived but no one was letting their guard down. With all the rain it was impossible to hear anything approach the perimeter. Down in the Command centre, a perimeter alarm started beeping and flashing on a computer screen. The tech looked at the flashing spot on the screen and called over the officer in charge on the CIC,” Sir, Perimeter breech, sector 23.”
“Contact the unit in sector 23, inform them of the perimeter breech.”
“Sector 23, Perimeter breech, outer wire” the radio crackled
“Copy that, sector 23 on alert” Lieutenant Valmet, a Cougar, replied into the headset. She turned to the two closest soldiers on the wall,” pass the word, the outer wire is breeched, pick your targets carefully.”
The murmur passed along the line and the line, the magazines were checked and the grenades were passed around. A parachute flare illuminated the area, catching a large party of Orcs in the open.
“Pour it to ‘em!”
Automatic fire poured from the walls and the first line of Orcs were put down hard, the others hiding behind the bodies of the dead while their archers let fly a salvo of arrows at the soldiers on the wall. One Soldier went down as the arrow buried itself into his chest, narrowly missing the heart.
The same was happening all around the castle, the horde had regrouped and had come down hard on the defenders, trying to get into the castle before they lost the opportunity to overpower them. Rounds went out, Orcs went down, arrows came in and the cycle would repeat again. With the storm restricting the use of airpower, the Orcs could mass in relative safety within sight of the castle but out of the reach of effective retaliation.
Down in the dungeon CIC, Colonel Vulpin listened to the frenzied radio reports and looked at the chart table, upon which an aerial recon photo had been blown up for use as a map. Markers were being moved around to show the last reported positions of the Orcs beyond the walls.
The highest tower, the centre of the castle, was being used as an observation post and was manned by an artillery spotter, his crew, and a team of snipers, the latter causing hell for the distant forces.
Despite their obsolete L42 rifles, they were dropping large numbers of Orcs from further than the attackers could see.
One of the snipers lowered his rifle for a moment, blinking before taking another look through the scope,” awwwwwww hell.”
“What?” another sniper asked as he worked the bolt on his rifle,” what do you see?”
“A large, lizard like thing, it’s heading for the main gate” the first replied as he began to put round after round into the beast’s scaly head, having no effect.
“A what?” Vulpin asked, almost spilling his coffee as he whirled around to race the screen.
“Just as I said sir, a massive lizard, easily as big as a tank and heading for the main gate” the sniper voice crackled over the radio,” our rifles have no effect on it.”
“Copy that” Vulpin said, turning to his radio operator,” contact the main gate and tell them they got company.”
“Will do”
Machine guns were set up inside the castle courtyard with terrified locals looking on, the fallen stone from the walls made great cover for the soldiers who calmly took up their positions along the line as the great wooden gate started to shudder under the force of the impacts the beast was putting on the other side. A shower of splinters and the cracking of wood filled the air as the gate disintegrated under the force of the impact. The beast lumbered into a hailstorm of lead, massive red patches being torn in its hide as it struggled forwards towards the line. It collapsed with a moan after moving out of the line o fire behind a shattered building, dying where it fell. A terrible yelling filled their ears as the Orcs charged through the hole and into the courtyard. The machine guns and the rifles spoke and Orcs died but the rolling wave was still heading for the defensive line at great speed, causing the knights on the line to run for safety, the locals taking in the determined looks on the defender’s faces as they continued to pour fire in on the rolling wave of Orcs. Just before they were overrun, two .50 cal machine guns opened up on the assault, assisting the defensive line in shredding more of the attack. Bodies were falling so close that they were hitting the ground directly in front of the soldiers on the line, some close enough to knock stones from their cover. They knew help was coming, question was, would it arrive in time? |
--Last edited by Redtail Fox on 2008-07-19 21:46:45 --
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