Intro Chapter 01 . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 09 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27
This attack would be dicier than the base to the south. This base was bigger, it was not being pressed by a big ground assault, and there had been two battles in the area already. There would be no element of surprise. Our only advantage in this attack will be pure bounce.
Rufus got us a general layout of the base. Most of it is hardened: bunkers, underground cabling, silos. Fortunately for us, the antennas that were a key component of the space defense system are above ground. The system designers weren't fools. The antennas are designed to be replaced quickly and easily should something rain death from above, but that replacement will take time -- a few hours at best. When we get those antennas, it will be a "mission accomplished" for us.
"There are six: four in an antenna field, and two in the base proper." Rufus told us, "You need to destroy four, any four."
"I have a thought: how are those antenna monitored? What will tell the users that there's a problem?" I say.
"There is a monitoring system." says Rufus.
"Find out details, if you can. If your military is like any other military, the monitoring system was well-designed in the beginning, and the first part to get scrimped upon when budget cuts came. It may be quite vulnerable as well, and taking that down will add to confusion."
"I'll have someone get right on it."
<<<<>>>>
We helicopter to the scene once more, and get dropped off on the backside of a forested hill five kilometers from the base.
"There's a lot of air cover over the base right now. We can't get any closer safely." says Rufus.
"When will the raid begin?" I ask.
"Call back. We will commence twenty minutes from your call in. You need to be quick: our people will fly up as if they are going to damage, but the base's response should be big enough to 'scare them off'. If so, they will get scared off. They're only there to distract, and the threat should do that."
We take twenty minutes to visual the base carefully. As we are doing so, Rufus tells us, "Here's the information on the monitoring system."
"Good, there's key wiring closet exposed and next to the radar field. That's our first target, ladies and gents."
Two kilometers from where we will breach the perimeter, we stop and call for "the parade" to begin.
The provincials are good to their word, and the federals are sharp in their response. Eighteen minutes later, we see signs that the scramble has begun. We make our move....
Normally a base such as this would be dealt with using Death From Above. If a base commander chooses to be a hero, the capital ships above would simply drop things on the base until the commander saw reason. Anything dropped from orbit hits the surface with meteoric speed, and it's the speed that does all the damage. There's nothing fancy about it, which means there are no good counter measures.
But, since we are lacking space superiority for this engagement, we are once again, as Al puts it, "adding new pages to the merc manual."
The spot we chose to go over the perimeter was at the boundary between the radar field and some base buildings. The whole base was on level terrain, so there were no hills or gullies to take advantage of, and this was the closest point to the monitoring system wiring closet that we wanted to take out first.
We bounced in low, three meters tops, with camo running. There were klaxons sounding on the base, and hopefully there was some modest confusion as the base went to general quarters to fend off our friends in the air.
There was enough confusion. We hopped the perimeter fence with no sign that anyone had seen us. I headed for the wiring closet while Chin, Al and Gunther headed out on the radar field.
If we were doing this for the media, we'd bring our flashiest explosives, and work over the support struts so that the media could get pictures of explosions and big antennas tumbling down. Instead, we are using acid and going for gear trains. When the gear trains develop play, the antennas get inaccurate, and that makes them non-operational -- it looks to the operators like super fast aging. I'm going for the monitoring box, so that the repair people will have to do some research to find out what we've buggered up.
I find the box. It's unguarded, but exposed to view from many directions -- I keep my camo running. I open the box and I spray the inside with an acid-based foam, it takes only a few seconds to apply as versus a minute, or three, to install explosives. The foam will gum up the works for any repair people, and eat at wire and insulator both for many hours causing random outages. Now it's time for me to get my antenna....
I hear a sharp "whump" from the radar field.
"Mines." says Chin over the comm channel.
"You OK?" I say.
"OK, but the world is now looking." she says.
I decide to take out one of the base antennas instead.
"I'm going for Antenna Five. Take out Six, if you're done with yours." I say.
"On my way." she replies.
"Gunther to Five when you finish. Al to Six." I say.
"Acknowledged." they both reply.
I bounce. As I head into the building complex area there are now shouts, running boots and sirens filling the air around me. The word is spreading that there are ground intruders. I use Doppler to watch for motion around me, and bounce through quiet areas.
In these cases, I use alleys. Some mercs favor roofs, but I prefer bouncing off walls, and letting alley fences get in the way of those who may notice me. I think roofs are too exposed, and you really can't get up to full speed bouncing when you use long ballistic arcs as you do in jumping roof-to-roof.
Antenna Five is three blocks away. I'm there in a minute. Two people may have seen me, which isn't bad. I pop the cover on the gear train section and spray in foam. Once again, it's quick and in thirty seconds I have the cover back on. I take another fifteen seconds to spot weld the cover shut, and I bounce back into an alley.
"Done here, ready for home." I say.
"I have a parade following." says Al.
"Take them to Never Never Land. Chin, any luck?" I say. (Never Never Land means lead them off slowly on a wild goose chase, then double back fast.)
"Finished with mine in the field, but I have a lot of spectators, too."
"Bounce out. Lead them away. We are about done. Gunther?"
"I'm beside you, Commander." and as he says that, he is.
"Gunther and I will get number six. You two lead play wounded bird for one minute, then lose them and hightail to the breech point."
"Got it."
Gunther and I bounce the two blocks to Antenna Six. We bounce over a machine gun nest, and a light vehicle with a machine gun mounted on top. Neither group sees us. I foam Six and Gunther keeps a watch.
"Done." I announce.
We head for the breech. We will all go over the same place at the same time. It's safer that way. Two blocks away from the breech I hear a sound I don't want to hear: the "chirrup" of tracking radar. This can mean trouble. Tracking radar may mean an anti-aircraft gun, and that can hurt us.
"Tracking radar. It's near you, Chin."
"I have it localized." she responds, "I'll be to it in fifteen seconds."
"Circle until it's down, then everyone hit the breech thirty seconds later." I announce.
It happens, but it's not fun -- circle bouncing, that is. We don't stop at times like these. If we stop we are sitting ducks. So we just bounce randomly while we wait. I bounce by a big building. I'm about to bounce in one of the windows when I notice some Doppler inside. It's occupied.
"Done." announces Chin. The chirrup is gone.
"Everybody out of the pool."
There's a farewell group waiting for us at the breech, someone must have noticed our entry. Even without the radar, there's a lot of hot lead in the air. I take two hits, but no damage.
Half a click from the fence I look back. "Whoowee! They are madder than wet hornets!" I say, "And there's a posse on our tail. I see three choppers flying our direction. "
"There's more than that." says Rufus. There are three jets overhead, too. I can't get you out with that much coverage."
"Are those more of your assault jets?" I ask.
"No. These are regular air-to-air jets. The kind that eat choppers for breakfast and lunch."
"The kind that attack with missiles?"
"...Oh yeah."
"OK, then lets deal with the choppers, and we are good to go. There's a forest up ahead. Lets meet them there."
A kilometer from the base is the start of a wooded knoll. The trees there are ten to twenty meters tall, and barely thick enough to provide visual cover from someone looking for us from a chopper. The four of us hightail for the woods, and watch how our pursuers handle the situation.
"My Goodness!" says Al, "They have no idea what power armor can do. Do they?" The choppers are coming in low, about five meters over the tree tops, and using search lights. They are using proper procedure for finding fugitives escaping on foot.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to show them, won't we? Chin, you get number one, Al, number two, and Gunther number three. I'll be the rabbit on this one. We'll use the high point on the hill."
"Got it." I hear from the others.
As rabbit, I get to lead the choppers by the high point. The others will then do their thing.
The others move to the high point on the hill. I run, not bounce, through the edge of the forest until I'm nailed by a search light. Then I broken run up the slope by the hill top. Sure enough, the three choppers line up on me, and sail fat, dumb and happy by the hilltop. As they do, each acquires a new "friend" as Chin, Al and Gunther bounce up a tall tree and latch on to a chopper. As Gunther jumps on his, each rips open the top of their chopper, pulls up a mess of cables and hoses from the interior, and starts them wrapping around the rotor. Then they jump off.
The results are impressively destructive as the strong rotor wraps up the strong cables and hoses. The choppers sort of implode before the rotors seize up completely, and the choppers drop like rocks.
That problem solved, we hightail for Rufus's chopper, and depart.
Intro Chapter 01 . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 09 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27