Twilight
2000
By
The Dawn’s Early Light Campaign
Game
Turn two
By midnight the survivors had stopped
trickling into Rally Point Omega. One tank, one armored personnel carrier, may
two dozen HMMWV’s and trucks. Personnel wise no one had an accurate count, but
no more than a 70-80 troops at best. Command Sergeant Major Blackwood stood up
as Leftenant Colonel McClaren, the U.K. Armor officer, approached and they
talked briefly. The CSM shook his head sadly and sat back down as the Brit went
over to Major Owens. A few minutes
later Commanders Call was announced with all officers and senior nco’s to
report in five minutes.
A Foreign Legion Sergeant standing next to a
VBL M11 French Scout Car, with a vintage wine bottle in hand, jokingly calls
out in what sounds like long unused English. My friends the Legion is
recruiting, all this and a paycheck to...Two Combat Engineers finish tossing
rucksacks and duffel bags into his vehicle, one replies, “John Paul your full
of it.” Both then proceed to start
setting up demo charges around equipment stockpiles in the Rally Point.
Ensign Wilkins was dog tired from his
patrol. Only one Marine from the 2nd Marine Rgt Second Division had made the
rendezvous and he had died several minutes after Wilkins found him. He had a
map case and a packet of papers in some archaic language Wilkins couldn’t read.
Heading back hadn’t been easy as Ivan seemed to be everywhere. The closest call
had been that Spetsnatz Patrol that had nearly got him. He headed to Rally
Point Omega and some hoped for rest. He approached the perimeter carefully.
Earlier he had secured his horse, a fine mount, a few hundred yards away. As he
got past the concertina wire and the few claymoores that were spread out he
worked even more slowly and carefully past the sandbagged M-60 LMG. Then he
heard a low voice say “Bang! Squid your dead.” Corporal Grey shook his
head and said you might sneak by those Army Boys but the Corps is little more
paranoid tonite.
Sergeant Snowden thought, “What a Goat
Screw” one minute we’re eating chow, and before you know it Russian Armor is
rolling through the Assembly Area. His squad had given a good account of
themselves but be it luck, combat experience, maybe a little of both he was the
last man standing in what had turned into a nasty rearguard action. He made his
way to the Rally Point was challenged and passed through. He grabbed a beer,
American not German but at least it was cold, from the CSM who seemed to feel
this was the ultimate FUBAR. As he finished his beer an ambulance came
careening into the compound with an hysterical nurse driving. As it screeched
to a halt a medic approached and backed off when she drew a pistol. Sergeant
Snowden was able to calm her down and get the weapon ( OOC/as a nurse with
psych experience his write up was very good). The medic found one dead medic,
one seriously wounded medic, Spec 4 Brown, whom he was able to stabilize and
four litter cases all dead. Someone had made a seriouss effort to save them but
the wounds were to severe. A couple of the casualties were wearing Desantniki
uniforms but without the usual Elite Guards tabs.
Captain O’Grady was talking with Leftenant
Colonel McClaren (UK), Major Owens (BDE S-1), a Green Beret Captain, CSM
Blackwood, Lieutenant Hallowell and several other officers and the few
remaining senior nco’s. ”Gentlemen excuse my lack of protocol, but we don’t
have the time,” he paused and then continued...”We hardly have the resources
for a knock down drag out fight, Fifth Division took down a lot of Ivans today but
look at the cost.” Everyone nodded, they were all to tired to do much more.
“What I propose is every leader take a small contingent and a handful of gear,
relating to his specialty, escape and evade. McClaren started walking back to
his Abrams and said, “I’ll hold this Rally Point as long as I can to give you
chaps a head start.” Major Owens looked around at the group, most of whom
silently nodded in agreement “makes sense to me, leave when your ready, the
perimeter security will need some darkness to bug out as well but they’ll stay
until about an hour before sunrise.”
Corporal Carmine had made to the Rally
Point and took stock of the situation.
Not having a lot if faith in officers to begin with the current situation did
very little to change that opinion. The CSM was chugging beers, the Paper
Pushing Major didn’t seem to have a clue, the Limey Colonel with the Tommy Gun
really looked out of place, and the Green Beanie and his two flunkies were
wiring the whole place to go up with a bang. Captain O’Grady’s idea which he
had overheard seemed to make sense so he stayed out of the way but nearby.
The one constant that annoyed everyone to
to no end was the Command Sergeant Major’s little wiener dog running all over
place and barking up a storm for the past couple of hours. The dachshund seemed
to have enough energy to drop that damn rabbit on the old tv commercials and
acted like the whole Rally Point was his personal fire hydrant. Suddenly the
little mutt stopped, perked his ears, and every hair on his neck stood up. That
got the CSM’s attention, dropping his beer, grabbing his gear and M21 Sniper
Rifle he was on his feet in a flash as shouted INCOMING!!! A
barrage of mortar rounds and rifle grenades hit the perimeter as a starshell
burst overhead turning night into day. Claymores suddenly started going off in
ones and two’s and the chatter of an M-60 was heard as the perimeter opened
fired on the attackers. Sergeant Jendrzejewski had just finished a quick
inventory of the munitions trailor behind the M-113 as the Rifle Grenade landed
in front of the shell shocked nurse, the wounded medic and their nearby HMMWV
Ambulance. In a flash he pushed her out of the way and leaped on it. In another
day and age they would have given him a medal; Postuminously. A second
barrage of mortar shells landed amongst the vehicles. An RPG exploded
against the Abram’s front armor just
seconds after the crew had climbed back aboard. The driver never had a chance.
The gunner disappeared down his hatch and the Brit Colonel manned the Turret
LMG. One luck/unlucky shell impacted on
the trailer behind the sole remaining APC in the compound; which went up like a
Fourth of July Fireworks Display. The fireball caught the track with the rear
ramp down, cutting down two Signals Sergeants who had been checking on
available commo gear; soon the vehicle was a roaring bonfire The resulting
blast was contained in part by the revetment but the Hummer Ambulance was
knocked on its side.
Another
round hit the cache of Jerry Cans a work detail was digging up. Yet another
massive explosion ripped through Rally Point Omega. Shrapnel from exploding
cans shreaded the Major’s back and he collapsed. The Rally Point was starting
to look like a seen out of Dante’s Inferno as most of the support
personnel began to panic.
Command Sergeant Major Blackwood glanced
around quickly. “Sergeant (SFC) Owens
you used to be with the Cav, take anybody who can ride and get out of here
now.”
Suddenly
the turret on the Abrams spun around 90 degrees and the main gun let out a fire
streaked blast. Seconds later a Russian T-80 coming up the main approach to the
Rally Point exploded with a resounding bang.
Corporal Carmine had seen the track go up
with bang and thought oh well there go those heaters I scrounged and my radio.
Even the battery he had stashed, all gone in an instant. The CSM had taken
charge and as soon as he sent a bunch of horsemen galloping off turned to
Carmine. “Corporal get that Five Ton with the still out here before it goes up
with everything else. Carmine climbed in, propping his M-60 out the window, and
cranked it up, some troop he didn’t recognize jumped on the truck with a couple
of belts of fifty cal ammo and loaded the other gun on the jury rigged mount.
“You drive I’ll give us some cover.”
Captain O’Grady, knew when to delegate, and
saw the CSM was coordinating things as well as could be expected. The CSM
having just got the Five Ton with the still rolling saw there wasn’t much else
to be done. The perimeter fire was getting silent as the few remaining
defenders died in place or decided it was time to go. The M1 Abrams had never
moved and its gun had fire only once, the Brit fired his last belt of
machinegun ammo as he told his gunner
to high tail it out of here.
“Sir might I respectfully suggest you take
the Major’s Hummer, as he won’t be needing it any more. Grab anyone who left
and unass the A.O. (area of
operations).” Having said that
Command Sergeant Major Blackwood wistled for his dog and disappeared
into the night.
Captain
O’Grady saw the intact
sandbagged revetment the CSM had indicated with a Fire Support Hummer and a
Water Buffalo Tank Trailer. As he climbed in the driver seat he noticed an
attractive young women in BDU’s but with no rank or shoulder patches , just a
name tape Caswell, with hands over her ears, shaking, in the gunnner’s seat.
As the various troops made their way out of
the Rally Point the sky darkened as clouds covered the moon and a light rain
began to fall, slowly extinguishing the dying fires of the brief but intense
battle.
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Turn
Three is due Midnight EST on October 20th.
The
attack started 0030 hours it is now 0100, write up your next turn to cover the
next four hours. Remember your turn stops when you interact with a character
you don’t control or an action you take would require a game master decision or
die roll. Don’t concentrate on finishing the battle, its over, if you stay and
fight you die. For the most part you’ll be exiting the Rally Point a few
minutes ahead of the Warsaw Pact Units. Everyone’s best estimate is you were hit by a
couple of hundred veteran infantry backed by 3 or 4 T-80 MBT’s, a dozen BMP’s,
with some 82mm and 120mm firing support.