- OOC:
- Mustang
Heavy Weapons Specialty
Level 1: Cover Tactics
Story 1: Fire Support Tactics
“See, this is where you failed.” the Lieutenant tapped the screen. He paused the playback and looked at the squad of Stormtroopers seated in the training room.
Loran was sitting in the center of the briefing. He looked around at his fellow squad mates reactions. They, including himself, were all green recruits. Training was progressing slowly and Loran felt as if he would never get through it. One of the other privates seemed to not care much about the op. Other members in his squad were beginning to feel as if he were deliberately failing them.
“The moment you left your position on the bluff, you were all dead.”
“But nobody was killed sir.” Loran replied
“That is true Private First Class Aramis. But you failed to grasp the intent of the exercise. Covering fire. Nobody remained behind to cover the squads advance. So” said the Lieutenant.
“So in other words we used no suppressing fire?” asked Loran.
“Exactly right private. So let’s go over it again.” and the Lieutenant played the recording over again.
Loran watched as the recording played back. He took notes. Remembered what went wrong and filed the information away for the next op.
A few hours later the ramp dropped on the Chariot sled and Loran ran out and immediately found cover. They had been dropped in a very large field with assorted bombed out buildings scattered around.
The sergeant signaled him, “Two up. To the house, leap frog”. Loran acknowledge with a nod of his head.
Loran eyed the house warily. He burst from his cover at a flat run, with one of his squad mates right on his heels. They reached the house and immediately took up defensive positions. Loran signaled the sergeant to send two others.
They arrived in short order.
“Let’s clear this house before we signal the others. I don’t wanna blunder into anything with the whole squad exposed.
“Right” agreed one of the troopers.
Loran signaled the sergeant to hold up. He responded with a query signal. Loran flashed a house clearing signal.
He signaled two troops to take up positions on either side of the door.
“Breach and clear on my signal” he whispered.
The troopers nodded. Loran then pantomimed throwing flashbang grenades in through the two lower windows.
The other trooper nodded and pulled out a flashbang.
Loran counted down three on his fingers and tossed his grenade through the window. The other trooper followed suit. The grenades went off and he signaled the other two troopers to breach. They broke open the door and stormed in, with Loran and the other trooper following.
“Clear, clear” he heard. “All clear” he said
“I don’t like this” a trooper said to him.
“Me either. Go signal sarge to send the rest.” The trooper turned and went to the door and signaled.
Very shortly the rest of the team was assembled in the house.
“Looks like you guys are having all the fun without us” commented a trooper.
“Eh, there was no one here so it wasn’t that fun” he replied.
The sergeant spoke up, “Lets send out a scout team and see if we can flush some of them out.” He replied.
“I’ll go” volunteered one of the troopers.
“All right, Mustang you go too. Let’s see where these buggers are.”
“Sir”
“Cover them from the back windows”
“Yes sir” responded some of the troopers.
Loran and the trooper crept around back of the house. He spotted a bunker in the distance with a lot of debris and craters in between. “Hey isn’t that our objective?” asked the trooper.
“I think so. Let’s go see who’s home”
They crept from cover to cover and got about 20 meters out when all of a sudden multiple blasters opened up on them.
“S***, hit the dirt!” Loran shouted.
They lunged for cover but his squad mate was caught in the open. A flashbang had exploded near them and he fell over clutching his hands on either side of his helmet.
“Emperors black bones” he exclaimed.
He dragged his friend back behind cover. Just then his squad opened up with their blasters and the air was filled with blaster bolts sizzling past.
Loran pulled off his mate’s helmet.
“Talk to me.” He waved his hands in front of the mans face.
“I’m good. Just gimme a minute to get my hearing back”
Loran gave him his helmet back. The man shook his head and put his helmet back on.
“Good to go” he said.
“Mustang.” someone shouted.
Loran turned and saw four troopers from his squad coming towards them.
“Yeah” he shouted.
“Sarge wants us to try a flanking maneuver around the left side. Around that blown out building there. The other guys stayed behind to give us some cover fire from the house” the trooper pointed.
“Right. Let’s set it up guys. Spread out to the right and open up.”
He waited till they were stretched on the right. Now the attackers had fire coming from the right and center.
“You three’ll run up the left and try to flank them when I give the signal” he pointed at some troopers.
“Gotcha” said a female trooper.
He pantomimed throwing grenades to the squad. All at once the six of them threw a grenade each.
They went off and explosions reverberated through the field. The attackers fire dropped off for a few seconds. Loran heard a metallic squeal. He signaled the troopers to go.
“Bounding” one yelled.
“Cover them boys. Give those droids something to remember!” he yelled.
Loran took aim with his EE-3 over the duracrete block he was behind. One droid popped out from behind its place of concealment and Loran took it’s head off.
Just then three more grenades exploded in the attackers line and more blasters opened up on them. The blaster fire from the droids ceased and Loran seized the opportunity.
“Full attack men! Take that position.” He yelled.
The four troopers on the line jumped out of their cover and ran towards the attackers. Loran was almost to the line when he saw a few droids taking aim at his attacking line. He pulled out his last grenade, ripped out the pin and hurled it as hard as he could. The grenade exploded with a terrific bang in the middle of the droids and they flew into pieces.
He reached the line and spotted a droid taking aim at him. Loran fired his blaster and the droid fell over. Just then two of the flanking troopers ran into view.
“What happened to Aris?” he asked.
“She took a hit in the shoulder. She’s down but ok.” a trooper replied.
“Fine. Go help the others secure the line. I’ll clean up here.”
“I’m on it”
Ten minutes later it was all over.
They sat in a trench on the attackers line, all eleven of them, arguing over the best course to take in capturing the bunker, when the Lieutenant from the briefing arrived
“Stand down troopers. You’ve just accomplished your mission” he said.
They all stood up and cheered. The Lieutenant held up his hands.
“Steady now men. You no longer need to take the bunker as all the droids are dead. Well done I might add. Get your gear together and return to base. Debriefing in one hour.” He said and then walked away.
They all walked back to the Chariot, congratulating each other on a mission well done.
