A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Somewhere in Southern Kundrati Mainland

"Sergeant," a man whispered as he slid into a prepared ambush position.

"Yes Sir," the Sergeant whispered back to a man whose voice her knew even at the whisper level.  It was his platoon commander, Captain Styles.

"Have squads one and two report here.  I want to shift the zones of fire to that elbow right up there, you see?"  The captain pointed ahead into some brush and just beyond there a barely discernable clearing.

"Aye sir," the Sergeant reported and snapped at a Corporal, to whom he repeated the order.

"Sir," the Sergeant.  "Do we know about the size of the element coming up?"

"No the pickets aren't back.  We were expecting them an hour ago, but its possible that they had to go into shelter protocol, so we're doing this at the hip."  The Sergeant understood the Captain's change of plan.  This was an ambush, but if the enemy was bigger than expected, giving the unit just those few more minutes to escape would mean the difference between a firefight that they couldn't win, and escape.  The the Captain was putting his first two squads further up the road in a somewhat more exposed spot, giving them the trade off of time and visibility.  

Squad runners returned.  "Sup, Sergeant" the runner from squad two whispered in a hushed tone.  

"Corporal, I want you to move your squad about 450 meters north along the road and set up there.  See..." the Captain pulled out a hastily drawn topomap of the area.  "set up on this hill here, and then when the battle starts, after you take out your targets, I want you and your men to hightail it down that hill, cross this creek here and double back to the rendezvous point.  Got it?"

"Aye Sir," the runner said and then after checking to see if the coast is clear, jumped out of the makeshift CP and headed back to his squad.

"You there Lance Corporal," the Captain said.  "Are you from Squad 1?"

"Yes sir," said the Lance Corporal.

"Get back to your squad and tell them I want them set up along just here, see this treeline here," he pointed at the map.  "Your squad is gonna be the one who lights the fash up.  Take the SAW and shoot at the first big thing you see, group of men, jeep, tank, whatever.  You're kicking the fireworks off, Got me?  Also, I want you to send up one mortar, and one mortar only, and then tear your gear down and come along this angle, staying in the trees, back to the rendezvous point.  Do you understand?"

"Aye sir.  I'll pass it to the Corporal."

"Good man.  Now go.  We only have a few minutes."

"Aye Sir."  The Lance Corporal got up and went off quietly running into the brush, staying very low.

The Sergeant didn't need to ask about Squad three:  Their job was simple.  Once the battle started, they were to hit the claymores and then raise up, take one shot at any living thing they see, then vaporize.  When the gunfire started, the Sergeant would then fall back to the rendezvous point, and wait for the rest of his platoon to show up.  His militia was disciplined and would follow their commands to the letter.  It would only take them about 12 minutes from this position to doubletime back to the rendezvous point, do a quick head and ammo count and then head off into the country side.  The point of the ambush was to stop the column.  

If the units did their job, the tanks that the vanguard were guiding would not make it to their destination any time soon, but would be stuck in the forest about a quarter mile away, and the advancing troops would be stopped while they took up defensive positions for an attack that would never come.  By the time the tanks got going again, the Militia would be miles away.  The ambush would only kill a hand full of people if it was lucky, but killing wasn't the main goal.  The goal was destabilization and demoralization:  The inability to face an enemy directly wears heavily on an advancing army, and targets their will to fight.  

"If the Vanguard keeps getting shot at and loses one or two people, randomly, through well aimed single shots, or if a vehicle blows up and those same vanguards have to walk everywhere they used to be able to ride, that will take a toll on their moral," thought the Sergeant.  Oldest trick in the book...  Keep poking at their eyes, and eventually people will be too fearful to serve as eyes anymore, and then the enemy would be blind.  And falling morale spreads like a STD in a KL barracks.  Its a contagious disease.

"It won't happen today, or probably tomorrow, but when morale shatters, it will happen all at once and then people will wonder why they couldn't stop it..." he thought.  And every shot is another crack.

"You're doing great Sergeant," said the Captain.

"Sir?"

"Oh it just looked like you were thinking of the mysteries of the universe."

"Just thinking about tactics, Sir."

15 minutes passed and the first vibrations through the ground could be felt.  At first it was just a sensation.  But it soon turned into a feeling.  From the vibrations, it was a large group.  The captain handed the Sergeant a tin lid from a chewing tobacco cannister.  The Sergeant instinctively knew what to do.  He flashed three ticks in the direction of both squads, who each returned similar flashes off their own mirror finish tobacco lids.  The rumbles got more intense, and soon a low rumbling was heard down the road.

"All are in place Sir," the Sergeant reported.

"Very well," said the captain, who remained motionless, staring through binoculars at the road.  

"Here here," said the captain.  he handed the binoculars to the Sergeant.  "See there?  They're moving right there..."  Sure enough the Sergeant saw it...  Right down the road, as if they were on a sunny summer stroll and weren't at all concerned.

"Hold... hold..." the Captain whispered.  The first troops came into sight, on ready, but not on alert.  the first groups of four scouts moved swiftly down the road to the left.  then a small APC came into view, with a platoon of fascists flanking it.

"Now!  Now" the captain Whispered.  The Sergeant flashed the signal and a single shot was heard, followed by multiple shots.  The Legion forces on foot realized they were being ambushed and hit the dirt to try to get off the road.  On one side, however, they were inadvertently crawling TOWARD 3rd Squad, who held on until the Legion's APC was right in front of the claymores.  Squad 3 fired the charges, and like a wall of ball bearings and shrapnel blew right into the APC but hit the crawling Kundrati Legionaires at point blank range, doing far more damage to the troops, than to the APC.  Just then a mortar landed and hit the APC squarely, causing an explosion that delinked the treads.

As the fire from the Kundrati side intensified following KL troops throwing themselves into Cover and firing toward the general direction of the tree line, the Sergeant said, "Alright Sir, time to go..."  They crawled out of the fighting position, and joined Squad 3 as they rushed through the brush that was taller than a man's head toward the rendezvous point.  From the Militia's perspective, the battle was only a few minutes long.  But the reaction would give the units enough time to escape and meet up later.