IT Question for our TECH savy ferals out there

OK, I have at home here a Telstra modem, 2 wire. Its a combo jobby that has Four ports at the rear ( out port)  and is also wireless.

 

The current set up has the main line feed into it ( seperate port) and from there we have the Four ports feeding via patch cables to the following.

One goes to the Main PC here in the study, where the Modem sits, the other three patch into a wal plate of 5 x RJ45 sockets. Those goe to FIVE locations around the house. My issue is, I need more FEED out ports, not just wireless which is a result of having a few of my sons mates over playng MW2 last night, we ran out of bloody ports.

 

SO the Q is, Can I plug in a router or Patch Panel of some sort into one of the Feed out ports, that then split into say another four ports, giving me 4 plus the other three. If so, what sorta blooy set up do i get, I guess it requires power, but will it require anything else.

Latest POST to SMHDEATH STAR STUPID

Hey you muppets running this here gig whilst JB is in some gope god dam fkn meeting. Its took over two fkn hours this morning to have new posts put. I know this because one was mine. How about one of those tech headed muffin bellied, balding god dam puter effin wizzes in death star stupid get ya collective shit together and stop killing this bloody blog with slack arse ness. two hours is waaay waaay to fkn long and you gits know full well. People have reakk fkn had enough of this crap ya spastics.

SJS as an INTENSE Character.

I’m told that all book characters, espesh leading ones should have a side kick, in this case, I have created a 5ft 4 inch, Blonde hair, sexy figure in Aus Cam fatigues, thats Born in TEXA, rides horses, shoot prarie dogs for fun off horse back, holds a doctorate in Bio engineering ( bio warfare) from the US mil establishment.

Drinks beer and bourbon, prone to swearing like a trooper and is GOD faring as well. And the real kicker is she is not only a CAPTAIN, but JB’s Aide as well. I think I might get a new thread line to weave in, it also ties in well with another scene later on…It came to me in a flash of brilliance and fuck I think this could be seriously fkn funny

 

But I am wondering WHAT other traits she should have…just to balance out Colonel Birmingham of “he died with a Bagel in his hand”..fame

INTENSE: Borneo ops HQ. (10.09.09) some more + a new Character

I have decided to put the dates up of each piece..so everybody knows whats going on..maily me. This section is the continuation of the intellectual giants discussion and the Introduction of a new female character. Its a longer piece its about 2.5k in words

See what ya think.

Both the Captain Dr Obboy and Lt Colonel Abe Barth, grabbed a chair from the pile or stacked units at the edge of the sandbags, snapping their chairs into the fold out position they plonked themselves down, all the while listening to Colonel Birmingham elaborate on the growing developments. “ gentlemen, Its like you have already been briefed, the difference with what I am about to tell you and the facts as you have them to date is that the over all implications of what is taking palace here and specifically why, are somewhat more elaborate the first appears, certainly extensively more complicated than you might imagine”.

Now that both the Colonel and Captain were seated, Colonel Birmingham decided it was time for the deep part of the briefing. All present noted however, that within 30 yards of their current position, under the shady cammo netting of the q store, were no less than four fully armed SASR Troopers, all looking decidedly serious. Not being a wilting violet, the Major decided it was time to interject.

“ Colonel Birmingham, I take it the sudden appearance of these guards has something to do with what you are about to tell us?”.

The colonel took a quick peek around and looked back at major Lermontov, “ No Major they actually don’t have squat to do with this briefing, those four troopers are four of eight who happen to rotate on 12 hour shifts, they are the body guards for both the good Doctor here and Lt Colonel Barth if you really must know, that should give you an idea just how highly prized these two gentlemen are, and it’s not for their good looks as you can see”, the whole group had a good chuckle at the Colonels last quip at both the new comers, it lightened the mood considerably within the group.

“so as I was about to say, the situation here is vastly more complicated and both these gentlemen here will expand further on what’s taking place as we progress”, waving a hand at both, they merely nodded acceptance at Colonel Birmingham’s reference to them. “What’s shifted the whole game here is the Chinese; specifically you will be aware we now have Chinese Naval infantry, Marines on the island and in two distinct formats”.

“Group A, has  been in operation in both Kalimantan and Sarawak for the last 6 months, we have also identified cells in Brunei, Colonel Barth will expand on that shortly”.

“ As you can see gentlemen, we have this slightly modified container behind us and marked around it for a distance of 10 meters are those barriers. They are not there for shits and giggles I might add, nor just security of the unit, I’ll hand over to Captain Obboy here to amplify what that overgrown shipping container actually is, Doc, if you would please”.

“Certainly Colonel”, Captain Obboy, shifted just slightly in his seat, whilst obviously not uncomfortable with the company, the heat and humidity was certainly proving to be a minor issue, unscrewing the cap of a Evian water bottle the Doctor took a long pull of the clear cold water, screwed the cap back on the empty bottle and placed it on the table.

“ gentlemen, I am not Military as you all now know, so excuse me If I screw up reference to you or your rank, its not my intention”.

“ That overgrown shipping container over there that Colonel Birmingham so eloquently referred to it as, is a state of the art weapons system, so bear with me as I walk you through just what it is and how it works, I’ll try not to send you all to sleep, although, how anybody actually sleeps in this bug infested shit hole is quite beyond me to be honest”. The colonel noticed that some small smirks crept onto the collective faces at the Doctors last remark. “ Doc, this is gods country here, people pay big bucks for this sort of adventure”’ the colonel quipped.

“ Yeah well, you can excuse me Colonel Birmingham if I don’t quite share your unbridled enthusiasm for camping, at least not where the natives can eat you, the bugs want to eat and the tourists want to kill you, so!”. Pausing slightly having now had his minor grumble the Doc surged on with hiss explanation for the weapons system.

“ The Cell, or shipping container, as you can see is almost standard, what’s visible from external assessment id the slab sided panels at the top, a full 360 degrees of panels on the external perimeter of the container”. “ The panels are an adaptation of the Israeli aerial  Vehicle defense system. Specifically they are designed to intercept incoming projectiles before the impact the cell, its an offensive, defensive weapons system to increase the survivability of the asset”.

Looking around the group, the Doc could see that all seemed to be with him so far and not bored shitless or looking on with vacant expressions on the faces, satisfied, the doctor continued.

“ Now you will all be familiar with that system or I suspect have at least heard of it, what we have done is expand the lethality envelope, in fact we have increased it by a factor of four, hence the barriers”. “The Israeli version was designed to ensure that troops in close proximity were not killed by the vehicles defensive measures, given we planned and have installed these in hostile environments and not with troops as protection, that was not a factor, it allowed us to create a significantly larger bubble, and place more offensive projectiles on the cell”.

“This unit, which is typical of the system, could sustain an attack by over 100 hundred projectiles, it has a small millimeter wave radar in operation, ESM system operating and will also detect laser designation, not you average shipping container gentlemen”.

“ Any questions so far?” Looking around, the doctors only received a series of head shakes, stopping at Colonel Birmingham the Doctor waited.

“ All good so far doctor, please do go on”, the Colonel instructed.

“ Okay then, now within the cell, we have a bank of 12, extended range SM6 Surface to air missiles, what you cannot see on top from here are the individual blow off panels for each cell”.

“But that’s not all, the cell is hardened, in that I mean it will stop a 30mm round from penetrating if it gets passed the Echidna projectile defense system,..thats what we have named it anyway”.

“I take it you have already been told the basic of what it’s designed to do”, The doc looked across to RSM Mick Harris.

“ Yes Captain, Major Lermontov is aware, we were discussing just before your arrival”. The doctor nodded his head slightly, “ Fine then, I wont bore you with all those details then, suffice to say, when we match this baby to the JORN Over the Horizon Backscatter radar system, plus any other radar coverage such as Wedge tail or land based systems, we can loft a SAM at any designated target within the envelope. That cell also has anti intrusion explosive installed with, should it receive a direct hit, or somebody starts cutting in, it first sends out a burst transmission and then self destructs”.

“Now believe me, when this baby self destructs, I mean, this camp will be gone with it, very fucking little left in a 100 meter radius”.

The Doctor was staring at the RSM now, “ RSM, could I Bot one of those from you please”, indicating with his finger at the packet of smokes and lighter on the table.

“ Sure, no trouble”, the RSM grabbed the packet of smokes and lighter, tossing both at the Doctor or Captain of who ever the hell he was he thought.

“ Cheers”, fishing out a smoke and lighting up the Doctor continued on through the blue carcinogenic haze.

“ So that’s the basics of the SAM6 Missile system, fully portable, self protecting and we can deploy it anywhere via air, we mainly utilize choppers but are also looking at a large rock shaped design for employment into arid areas, most likely the middle east. It’s got fuel cells which derive their power via solar panels on the roof, so…any questions yet?”.

As the Colonel Birmingham suspected, it came from Major Lermontov, “ Yes Doctor, I do, just how many of these cells of Sam’s do we have in theatre and where?, I’m willing to bet also, its not the sole reason this gathering has been convened either, nor the tie into the SOSUS system, these cell’s are just part of the defensive measures employed to ensure the system short term survivability if I am not mistaken”.

The Doctor looked at the other new base arrival, “ Colonel Barth, I think we have now ventured into your realm, floors yours”, with that, the Doc leaned back in his chair and sucked back some more on his durrie.

Lt Colonel Barth was failing badly at hiding his displeasure at being in the mere vicinity of these smokers Colonel Birmingham could see, but if the Colonel was unwilling to speak up on the issue he would just have to suffer it out JB thought.

Taking his hat of his head to expose a shinny bald melon, Lt Colonel Bath wiped the sweat streaming down from his head and face, ‘certainly been in a good paddock, would have made a good butcher I reckon’, Lermontov though. Finished  with wiping away his perspiration the Intelligence Colonel went all serious. “ Gentlemen, everything I tell you from this point forward is classified, and I mean higher than you can ever imagine, not for distribution in any format or anyway what so ever to foreign nationals or domestic contacts unless duly authorized by myself or Colonel Birmingham, I wont bother with all the other bull shit that goes with that, just make sure you don’t fuck up and let this out”.

“ Now before I get asked Majo,r you will be given details on what you can and cannot brief your troops, we will get to that later on”.

Reaching down to his brief case sitting beside him, Colonel Barth opened up the side flap on the very expensive leather case and extracted two manila folders, placing both on the makeshift table after moving aside the temporary ashtray, he opened up the first folder to reveal two over head photo graphs of Borneo.

Placing his index finger on the central part of the overhead, the Major explained,” here gentlemen, just inside the Kalimantan Border is out current base”, tracing his finger down in a easterly direction to the edge of the map, “ and Here is the SOSUS intel station, both bases are Sam6 euiped, both currently have a small, 4 man security detachment as well, you will note the intel base is approximately half way between Tarakan and Tanjungredeb, on the point of that isolated mountain range”.

“Over here”, his hand ventured back up and across the map to the flatter southern section of Sarawak, “ is where we believe that the Spec ops chopper Bundy Zero Zero was shot down, that by Indonesian Hinds operating out of their base at Samarinda”.

Noting that everybody was fully dialed into what he was delivering Colonel Barth continued, “ Our Jump off base for re-supply to both here and other destination around the island is just over the border in Malay territory, they suspect we have other things going on, but really don’t care at this point, if things start to go south…well that could change rapidly”.

“To assist with keeping this as covert as possible we have been utilizing RAAF C130’s out of Darwin and Butterworth for re-supply”. “ Intelligence that we have gathered tells us, that the Indonesians and the Chinese are aware of the Malaysian base, which is a pity, what’s come to light more recently was we noticed the Chinese reaction to certain moves was a little to swift, it’s a good bet we have a leak inside our embassy over here, and we are working on that as we speak”.

“Recent signit info from the septics has been very enlightening, the Chinese are making a move on the Island in conjunction with Indonesia”, we’ve already seen PLAN advisers operating and training Kopassus SF units and now we are seeing indication of main force units receiving training and equipment as well”.

“ Gentlemen, this is not an isolated move on gathering up this island and its resources…….its much, much bigger than that. Two months ago one of our Collins class sub’s tracked a PLAN SSK, kilo class boat to the entrance of the Malacca strait where the boat stopped, dispatched a submersible and conducted what we think was assessment of the undersea cables”.

“ is anybody here aware just what communication cables happen to transit the Malacca straight, let along what transits it on top of the water”, casting a quick glance around, the intelligence colonel continued, “ well for a start, all land line based communication to south east Asia from the mid east, then to Japan and Korea and from there it all runs across the pacific. Cut or control those cables and apart from intelligence you would gather, the severing will have a global impact. Trade running on the surface is immense as well and we will all be fully aware just what sort of impact that would have”.

Abe Barth sat back in his chair to give the meetings members time to gather their thoughts and digest just what he had enlightened them with.

Whilst they were all pondering the latest intelligence info, Colonel Birmingham turned towards the operation tent where he had just heard his name called out by somebody, there!, coming towards him was his Aide. Looking up as well at the sound of the Bosses name being called out, all the assembled members thought the exact same thing,

‘Dam that’s a fine looking piece of kit’. Each of the assembled officers and the RSM were indeed looking at a striking beauty, the Aus Cam clothing did nothing to conceal the shapely figure, toned and the tied up blonde hair of Lt Colonels Birmingham’s Aide, Captain Jane Simpleton, know around these parts as Sweet Jane. Mind you all knew full well, she was quite capable of kicking you in the balls should the situation present itself and warrant it..

A Scare..just a little..At this point

Sitting here thisafternoon, when all of a sudden I had chest pain. I mean..depp in the cest, just off centre to right peck, burn a fucking hole through to your shoulder, radiate out to your fucking right arm and up the side og the back of you fucking neck PAIN. Try and stretch out and it got worse, breath deep and it got worse, went to the cook and she fucking well laughed and all but said cowboy the fuck up.

 

So we wandered around for a bit..sorta concerned, but not really, the it changed and jumped to about 6 outta fucking 10. AT THAT POINT, I fucking googled HEART ATTCAK SYMPTOMS and hoped on the Nat Heart foundation web sight..concerend..yeah..you might say that.

 

I figured also that two two egg and lettuce sangars I scoffed could be giving me the fuckload of heart burn…denial folks..thats what i was putting it down too anyways..no need for fkn panick stations just yet..this is after all FUCKING HAVOCK we are talking about.

 

So swanning up to the cook she suggested apart from some more concrete and to perhaps harden the fuck up, I take some mylanta. YEAH GREAT FUCKING IDEA..we aint got any. So of she wanders and about 1 minute laters rolls back with a bottle spanky new..well I’ll be fucked ithought..well..anyways. SO a dose of that and 15 minutes later, things habve not improved, actuall I had in that time drove down to the railway station to pick up the youngest bloke and things got worse..much fucking worse.

 

But the tiem i got back in the front door the first thing I said was…MICHELLE!..and got no answer, I then sent the young fella to the neighbours to check if the bosswas there and not long after they both arrived back.

 

Into the car and ZOOM to the doctors.

 

So, chest pain..man dont they get you in fucking fast with THAT PHRASE. ECG wires hooked up to me out the wazooo and they think all is good, blood pressure ok, pulse rate ok, take some blood and send it of, we will know what the fuck is going on tonight. Doc thinks it might also be a deep muscle strain..well fuck me..its gotta be deep, thing is i would like to know which fucking muscle..cos the whole fucking right siode is fucked.

 

Now here is where it gets interesting..a few years back I got cleaned up by a MACK FUCKING TRUCK whilst sitting still at a set of lights..about 80 he hit me and they had to cut me out of the BRAND FUCKING NEW…3 months old VS dunny door. The short versuion is it fucked myshoulder and its really never been right since. Its been sore lately from the odd burst of bowling like fucking len pascoe in the nest and thats not good.

 

But a mate tonight asked a question..YOU BEEN COUGHING LATELY?..um…yeah, big deep motherfuckers that kill me…

 

He mentioned I could have done it with that and the fact that yesterday arvo I belted a heap of big fucking posts into the ground with the sledge hammer..could be a contributing factor as well. Either way..I rather a muscle strain that a fucking heart issue and we gotta wait till the test come back later this evening. But fuck me..It can kinda put the breeze up ya backside for a bit…thats for fucking sure..like all blokes I guess, it was in the back of the mind, but there was no way in fucking hell I was even going suggest a heart issue.

 

Moral… DON’T BE A DUMB FUCK..zap to the DOC and they will check it out.

INTENSE: MORE, Borneo Ops HQ. JB, Lerm,Abe,Doc & Mick

I’m feeling rather good, its been a productive day today on all fronts, but more so writing. this feels good this scene, I think it flows , possibly one of the better ones..lets see what you think anyways. About to write the next lot of this scene as well. I’m actually looking forward to having Four players IN the scene. It will either work or I will fk it up royally.

 

 

Forward Op Base. Borneo HQ

 

Major Lermontov and the SASR RSM Mick Harris were seated under the cammo netting, covering the entrance to the Q store for the forward operating base. The soldier now striding up to them could see from the distance they were deep in an animated discussion, ‘ well, looks like our young commander is being filled in I guess’ Lt Colonel Birmingham thought to himself. Strolling up to the sandbags entrance, Lt Colonel Birmingham could see that neither Major Lermontov, or his currently highly animated RSM, Mick Harris had noticed his arrival.

 

“Gentlemen”, with that small announcement, both me immediately stopped their discourse and stood bolt upright, “ As you were, no Mickey mouse around here”, waving his arm, both the Major and RSM relaxed significantly. “ Take a seat, I take it  RSM that you have been enlightening our good Major here on what we have planned for him and no doubt….why!”. Pulling up a chair at the small ammo crate constructed table, the Colonel sat down, “ Please, take a seat lads”.

Looking straight at the RSM as he sat down Lt Colonel Birmingham nodded at the RSM “ Continue please RSM”.

 

“Sir, as I was just explaining to the Major here, developments on the island have taken on a decided turn for the worse”. Nodding only, the Colonel indicated for Mick to continue.

 

“ We were just starting to clarify the exact nature of why we were, or I should say..now are on this little island, the Major here has seen through the cover story, although it is in part true”, fixing his glare on the Major Mick wanted to ensure that Lerm was understanding he had not feed him a complete load of shit. “ So I guess I’ll hand the briefing over to you Colonel”. With that, Mick sat back in the metal army folding chair, fishing through his pants pockets one at a time until he found his smokes.

 

Colonel Birmingham had not been promoted through the ranks based on a couple of short stories and some published books, it was his penchant for the dangerous assignments and majoring in International relations, plus the application consummate skill of that hard gained knowledge, that had ensured his promotion. The key component, which had allowed him entry into the SASR aside from surviving the entrance course was his leadership ability, once again it was on display now in this small setting as he worked the two other players. “ Major, the RSM here has told you, for the most part the truth, that’s based solely on what he was instructed he could and could not do, by my orders”. Major Lermontov merely nodded. “ Major, what you have not yet been told, is that the SOSUS grid, is fully operational and given the sensitive nature of the equipment on shore we also installed both here”, Colonel Birmingham turn slightly and pointed at a cammo netted olive drab green shipping containing, sitting all by itself in a small clearing, but 100m away, “ and two additional units of those containers at each site……plus a few other locations which at this point in time I am not allowed to tell you where they are”, the Colonel just raised his eyebrows at the last statement. “ So I guess the next question is wht are they?, well, they are a fully self contained SAM6 missile system, capable of being launched and guided to within 10 kilometers of the target, at which point the onboard radar activates. Fully remote, self sustained and under Satellite control”.

 

The Colonel leaned back in his chair and looked across at the RSM, who had almost finished his smoke, leaning forward again, the Colonel extended his right arm towards the RSM, knowing fully well what the Colonel was looking for RSM Mick Harris, fished his packet of smokes and Zippo from his thigh pocket and slapped them into the Colonels extended hand. “ Cheers RSM”. Colonel Birmingham could see the gears working flat out in the Majors head as he light up, taking in a big lungful of cigarette smoke, the Colonel exhaled, “ So Major, your thoughts”.

Major Lermontov, had only just recently given up smoking, the sight of both the RSM and Colonel puffing away, was being a minor distraction, he felt sure those little nicotine receptors were at this very moment jumping up and down inside his head at the sight of this pair choofing merrily away. “ Colonel, that’s all well a good, I understand the need for security, but the fact remains, we have violated the sovereign territory of another country, placed units in harms way to defend those illegal assets and now about to deploy a whole company to extract those units as they are in the shit so to speak”. Leaning forward towards his two discussion partners as he now thought of them, the Major pressed on, he figured it was a fairly frank and reasonably open discussion. “ Just one thing puzzles me….Why are the Chinese involved?, what there gain here, it’s a LP, sure it allows us to track any boats in transit and yeah, its based on land, but its not THEIR! Land, that’s what I don’t yet understand”.  Colonel Birmingham could clearly see that Major Lermontov was at a slight loss as to exactly why, to be brutally honest, the Major didn’t yet have all the facts, ‘ time to put the boy out of his misery’ Birmingham thought.

 

Standing upright, the Colonels rapid movements shocked his two fellow officers, Colonel Birmingham, proceeded to quickly tap the top of his head whilst looking back over towards a group of diggers and officers standing at the exit to the command tent. He’d just signaled ‘ ON ME’, to somebody over there.

 

Intrigued and still a little exasperated, the Major decided to once again to push on,

“ Colonel, I take it, there are some very black pieces to this puzzle that  I’m not yet aware of, hell!, some I guess I will never be aware, what I would like to know before deploying my troops is the whole threat we face…..not just some off it  Sir”.

The Major hoped he had delivered the statement clearly, but not crossed over towards insubordination, god knows he new full well that either the RSM or the Colonel would tear him a new one..and he figured it would be ugly either way.

Casting a glance over to the front of the Operation Tent, Major Lermontov could see that two figures had broken away from the knot of troops still milling around the entrance, ‘interesting’ thought Michael, the two that were heading their way, were not both military, one bloke, although in Aus Cams, was clearly not military, certainly not army given the scruffy red beard adoring his face.

 

Shuffling in his seat back to face the Major, the Colonel spoke, “ Major, these two gentlemen now coming over to join us, will in due course, explain the intricacies of this operation and just exactly what we are playing with, the level of intelligence and equipment information you are about to become privy to far exceeds that which you have ever been exposed to before, it also goes without saying that if you utter one fucking word of this without my permission to anybody, I will ensure that you never see sunlight without a barbwire fenced view ….are we clear on this?”.

‘Fuck me’ thought Michael, the Colonel had just switched gears and jumped straight to 6^th, no fucking around what so ever, “ Clear Sir, crystal clear”.

 

“ Good then”, Colonel Birmingham then turned to great his new guests, as he then he set about introducing everybody.

“ Gentlemen, If I may, these two gentlemen are Lt Colonel Abe Bath Div Intelligence, well Div Intelligence will do, we all know he has a blacker background than that, and this is Dr David Obboy gents he has been assigned the rank of Captain for this mission”,  Waving his hand Colonel Birmingham indicated to the two new arrivals to take a seat, “ gentlemen, have a pew where you can find one”.

INTENSE: New Contact ..Bundy Zero Zero

THE CLEARING New Contact ..Bundy Zero Zero

 

Cat struggled to help Rhino up off the ground, “ For fuck sakes ya big heap, Gimmea some help will ya”, Cat felt Rhinos body stiffen slightly as the big 130 kg pilot pushed out with his legs, “ that’s better”, still struggling to help maintain the big fella’s balance Cat wrapped an arm around his waist as he pulled Rhinos left arm over his shoulder.

 

“ Mate, we’re getting you into a weight loss program when we get back….fucking hell”, cat continued to struggle with the sheer bulk of rhino, Seeing that he was not going to be able to grab some weapons and hold Rhino up at the same time, Cat opted to try and prop the big bloke up. “ You still with me Rhino?”,.. cat asked trying to keep the big fella from going into shock, he was rewarded with a mere grunt , a couple of seconds passed and rhino followed it up , “Yeah” was all Rhino he weekly managed. Cat gave him another squeeze and heave at the same time, sensing another outburst from rhino Cat decided to get in first, “ stop ya sooking will ya” as Cat tried to re position himself again… “awww Jesus this fucking  hurts, how about being a little more fucking careful ”, Rhino was really struggling Cat thought.

 

Cat spun rhino around so he was pointing at the closest tree, “ I’m gunna prop ya against the tree whilst I grab some gear from these guys here”,  Cat continued to try and manipulate Rhinos sheer bulk, “can ya stand against the tree?”.

It didn’t matter whether Rhino could stand or not..cat thought, he had to leave him for a minute whilst he scavenged what weapons and ammo he could, he just didn’t relish the task of having to get Rhino up of the ground a second time around.

“ Cat”.., Rhino’s call was weak, Cat could see he was in a great deal of pain and trying to hide it, “ Yeah mate, what’s up”.

 

“I’ll be fine, just get me to the fucking tree will ya, before you kill me”.

“ Sure, ………you sure ya not gunna pass out or fall over,  co’s I’ll fucking leave ya if ya hit the ground ya big git”. Rhino had a small chuckle and immediately winced with pain, “If ya make me laugh again, I’ll fucking kill ya myself, then fall over, come on..hurry up”. Cat and Rhino shuffled across the 10 yards to the base of the teak tree, slowly shimmying his way around Rhino’s girth, Cat laid the big fella back against the tree as gently as he possibly could. Had cat been an engineer, he would have known that his mass, being significantly less than Rhino’s was going to result in the Big chopper pilot dragging him towards both him and the tree as Rhino stopped with a thump against it’s trunk. “ AAAWWWW FUCK ME!”, Rhino sucked in a large lung full of air and roughly expelled it, “ For fuck sakes…try and do it slowly next time”.

 

‘oops’ Cat thought, “ well that didn’t go according to plan I guess, so shut the fuck up and be quiet for a minute…ya gunna be okay, I’ll grab some gear”, Cat slowly backed away from Rhino, Arms extended as if he would grab the big fella should he start to fall to the side. “ Yeah I’m fine, fuck off and get the gear..be quick though”.

 

“Copy that Boss”. Cat spun around and turned on the red filtered flash light he had extracted from a pouch, quickly scanning the ground he found what he was looking for, ‘Bingo’, There laying in front of him was the Chinese Marine. Reaching down and grabbing his weapon, cat roughly searched the dead infantryman, extracting spare magazines and his water bottle as well, “ Just gunna have a quick peek about Rhino, wont be long”, with that, Cat turned off the flash light and disappeared into the darkness.

 

Rhino might have been half out of it, but he heard the sound, like an oooof as an object was struck, somewhere out in the darkness….’fuck what was that’, Rhino suspected something bad had happened, all his instincts were screaming at him, but he had no alternative but to remain where he was for the moment. Reaching down to extract his pistol sharp spasms of pain shot through his body, stifling any moans he continued with his good arm to reach around to his holster, he felt……nothing, the holster was empty, ‘oh Shit!’, he dropped it in his head long tackle of the Chinese marine and hadn’t had a chance, given his state to retrieve it.

‘Shit, think Rhino me boy,’, Rhino’s headlong dash through his options was cut short, for

‘ there’ just in his vision he could make out man sized objects looming at him.

‘ shit.. ‘more Chinese marines, that’s it I guess’, Rhino felt sure that Cat had been killed now, it was mere moments before it was his turn, surely the Marines would not let him live.

 

Rhino was trying to focus on the approaching troops, but everything was starting to go dark, yet he continued to strain to stand up, ‘Focus,…keep looking at the fuckers’, Rhino didn’t know it, but his blood loss was starting to impair his vision, slowly, ever so slowly Rhino’s body sank to the ground as his vision completely grayed out from blood loss.

 

Rhino’s last vision was of what seemed like an Asian face, slowly reaching down to him as the others seemed to just stare at him, dark shadowy figures….’fuck you all’ Rhino thought. ‘ We gave… it… a… good…. shot’, then……..darkness.

Intense: The Team takes a hit!

The hill action continues:

 

Alan noticed YD’s minimi go silent  and looked on as the final tracer rounds seemed to zap off into oblivion, the next call he made was purely on instinct,

“ 1 section, this is 2, gun line silenced by Sierra 1, assaulting forward to gun line out!”, with that I stood fully erect , looking left to right I could see the rest of the section members all looking at me, tensed awaiting the go order.

“ Bedak, leave Flinthart, we’ll come back or have 1 section collect him, All members of 2  section will  assault forward to the gun line….NOW! MOVE”.

With that, the three physically capable team members launched out of their respective positions, no rifle or machine gun fire was being laid down with this advance, just a headlong dash  down the slope and into the thinning smoke screen, all the while I fully expected some additional contact at any moment.

Leaping over the log in front I snapped the bolt forward having just loaded a fresh mag, and contacted Murph over the net,

“ 1 this is 2, we’ve left Flinthart at left end of line, he’s  alive, collect him  on your way through Murph”,

I was panting from the exertion, the call was really more a strained grunting series of messages as we all but ran down the slope……..into the gun smoke…possibly into Hell!.

Murph came up on the net as another series of long bursts came from his section, still trying to delay the assaulting Indonesian force on their flank,

“ 2, Copy your last Alan, pulling back in 60 seconds, be advised the assault force is still well over 50% strength”, Murphs message was back grounded with his sections gunfire and Murphs own barking M16 as well.

 

Alan was relieved, so far 1 section had not taken any casualties, the longer they stayed though, the greater the odds somebody would get hit….training or not the odds were still well and truly against them if they remained in contact with such a large force.

 

2 section as they started the slight climb back up out of the small gully towards the  still silent Indonesian gun line, started to see through the rapidly clearing smoke, the damage their return fire and the outgoing fire the Indonesians had inflicted on the surrounding landscape. Whole trees now stood 2 feet tall, rounds having shredded them off, jagged splinters protruding from the tops of the small stumps, testament to the sheer brutality of the rounds successive impacts and the sustained volumes of fire that had been directed at Section 2..

 

I could see the extreme left of the now silent gun positions and watched as  YD entered the first pit or shallow depression, stopping just long enough to check what turned out to be two Indonesian soldiers, YD quickly gave me the thumbs up, signaling all clear before  proceeding on another few yards and going to ground in defense. Not being as quick as the rest of the team members I arrived nearly halfway between the third and fourth guns, sufficiently awestruck that I unconsciously came to a complete halt as I stared at the dead Indonesian troopers scattered around the right hand gun, spent link rounds  were intermingled with empty brass 7.62 shell casings….there were 5 of them, Plus Havock and Joll’s.

 

Years of military service now carefully surveyed the scene before him as Alan looked across to where YD was on his left and Bedak who had now cleared position number two and three then shifting right some 20 yards to the position of the five dead troopers he now stood in front of. Alan on auto pilot checked each successive trooper to ensure they were dead, and then ran over to Havock and Joll’s at the edge of the small clearing

.

Stopping beside H, I slowly knelt down onto one knee, and placing a hand on H’s shoulder, “ Bedak, YD, on me and form a perimeter, move!, 1 Murph this is two, we have a man down, I say again, man down and one wounded, right end of Indonesian gun line out”.

Two short Rodgers filtered back to me from Bedak and YD as they charged towards mine and H’s position, now fully aware thanks to the call that one of our team members was down and one wounded……….It meant also meant that one had been killed.

I could see that H was in shock as he cradled Joll’s upper body in his lap, his face was streaked from sweat and exertion, but the tears were clearly evident, as was the exposed blood soaked torso of his closest friend, field dressings stuffed into his shirt hung out, as H now cradled his lifeless body in a gentle rocking motion.

“H you look hit, we need to check it out fast, you have to put Joll’s down mate” I spoke quietly, giving H a slight squeeze on the shoulder at the same time. Slowly Havock looked up at me, eyes rimmed red and blood shot, the horror and sense of loss clearly evident on his young handsome face, stammering somewhat, Havock  finally spoke.

“ Hee he got to this last position ahead of me, I got clipped In the arm by one of these guys, but he got four of the fuckers……then the gunner got him”, H looked back down at Joll’s , his facial features calm, as if he was having a simple sleep, slowly with extraordinarily gentleness, I watched as  H placed his closets friends, body gently on the ground.

Looking up, I could see that the Indonesian gunner was slumped across the tripod legs of his mag 58 with half his skull missing, there just  beside him on the ground was Havocks machete covered in hair and brain tissue….he’d ran out of ammo fighting through the position at some point.

 

Alan was still absorbing the loss of Joll’s and Havocks final attack on the last trooper with his machete, when Bedak came up on the net. “ In position Al, we have two KIA at gun one, 6 more at gun number two and 4 at number three Al…all confirmed dead”.

‘Jesus.’ Alan thought, plus the 5 at the fourth gun position….Sierra one had taken out 17 TNI regulars between the two of them….’I wouldn’t trade one of mine for a thousand of these fuckers’ Alan quietly thought to himself.

 

More gun fire sounds rattled back to my ears , the volume had increased as Section 1 attempted to break contact, a succession of grenade explosions rattled around the gully to Alan’s position, dragging him back to matters at hand.

“YD, check the guns here, lets, see what’s serviceable and  what ammo is about, make it fast, BEDAK.. keep over watch to their rear”

Alan looked down at Havock and the body of Joll’s, knowing full well what he needed to do, the question was ‘ How will H take it”, Alan thought?. They already had one wounded member which they were going to have to walk out with to the RV point, carrying a dead comrade was simply out of the question at this point in time.

Slowly standing back up and looking down at the two diggers at his feet, Alan extracted his water bottle and took a quick swig before speaking, as he closed the canteen pouch cover over the bottle. “ H”, Havock raised his head and looked up at the Section commander, his eyes were full of anger Alan thought, ‘ This might go badly’…..’ , “H, we need to scavenge what we can an be ready to move out as soon as 1 section breaks contact with those Indonesian troopers on the other side of the hill, we can’t take Joll’s with us”. Having delivered the truth and what he suspected was precisely what Havock didn’t want to hear, Alan braced himself for a verbal onslaught……but none came. Sensing an opening Alan pushed on “ H, you’ve got a GPS, I want you to lock in the position, I’ll have Bedak do the same and we will get the grid ref through to HQ ASAP, we have to come back and pickup  Joll’s later, for now though, I want him concealed”, Pointing his arm out Alan indicated where he thought the dead trooper should be temporarily laid to rest, “ Over there beside that tree, its good cover, you have a hotchie on you, use that to wrap up his body….but make it fast, we ain’t got much time”. More bursts and gun fire was coming in from the hill, Alan figured any minute now that Murphs team would start puling back.

Reaching down Alan grabbed one side of Joll’s body “ come on H get fucking cracking”, Alan’s comment had the desired effect, it seemed to shake Havock loose from the funk he had descended into, “ Rodger that boss”, Havock stood upright and seemed to reanimate himself again, “ I’ve got him Al “, with that Havock grabbed Joll’s and with some help from Alan slung him over his left shoulder in a fireman’s carry the headed off into the bush….towards  some cover  and a temporary resting place for his mate.

 

‘ well that went better than I thought it would’, “ Right, Bedak, YD status?”, time to get back to business now Alan thought, they had mere minutes before more trouble could descent upon them. and the last thing he wanted was it coming in from their rear., ‘ we’re to exposed here’, Alan grumbled to no one in particular.

“ All clear  Al, I’ve picked up some link for the mini as well” YD replied, “ Copy that YD, Simon what’s your  status over”. Alan surveyed the surrounding ground, the ambient light levels  was starting to grow, it wouldn’t be much longer and night vis gear would not be required at all.

2 Sections commander started surveying the surrounds, Alan had the map for this area, at least for the RV area, it was already fully committed to memory, just that he was now trying to figure out which way would be best, given the route the Indonesian patrol had come from and the proximity of the attacking force that 2 Section was now engaged with…they really had little alternative. North east it would be, “let’s hope we don’t catch any stragglers from that assault force’ Alan thought. The North easterly route would almost take them over terrain that the Attacking TNI troopers had covered to hit the hills flank, once out of this area Alan planned to continue hooking right some further 600 odd meters, ‘should be a straight shot to the RV point where the chopper had gone down I reckon from there’.

 

“ 2 this is one”, it was Murph on the radio, “ Breaking contact now, no casualties, heading back over the hill to the trail in the gully Al”.  ‘right’ Alan thought, Murphs team were on the move..and they would be sprinting as well..” YD, watch your left flank down the trail, Section one will be coming in from there, ETA 5 minutes max I suspect, stay loose people”.

INTENSE: More of THE HILL. ( Tues ) & Mud Maps + 600 word extention as well

I have included some of me SANDBOX maps to assist..just in case people are having troublefollowing.

Section 1 & 2. deployment under Fire

Murph was hunkered down in a shallow depression, quickly he extracted his topo map from its plastic camo cover and crouched over the map, just a very faint glow of red emitted from the dark bundle as Murph had turned on the red filtered flash light to check the surrounding features.

“ Nat, try raise Sierra one on the radio, tell’em our position and find out where they are”, Murph continued back with checking the map whilst Natalia went about trying to raise Sierra one .

Farther down the feature, Section two was still copping hell from the Indonesian suppressive fire. Alan heard Snowman come up on the net,

“ Murph its Snow, what do you want me to do with these approaching enemy?”, Slightly exasperated, Murph looked up slightly, spasmodic rounds were cascading over the hill, the odd tracer round having ignited wafting passed followed by the passing buzz if close enough, it made Murph keep his head down. ‘Fuck, this suppressive fire’, Murph thought, it was keeping them not only pinned, but not allowing them freedom of action, ‘ we need to take back the advantage’ Murph whispered to nobody in particular.

 

“ Barnes!”, Murph had inadvertently screamed into the mike, he hoped he didn’t sound rattled, ‘that s the last thing we need’. “Barnes, pull out from your position and set up to the right of Snowman, when that assault group gets to 40 meters I want you Natalia and Snow to open up with everything you have, pop smoke and then form back up on me, 10 or 15 seconds of fire, then outta there clear?”.

Murph thought he had the basis of a plan. ‘If we could delay the assault force long enough, we might, just might be able to assault the front left flank of the gun line’. Not exactly the smartest thing to do, but the last thing those gunners would be expecting Murph hoped. “ Rodger that boss”, Barnes was up and sprinting across the hill, still below the hill 615’s crest, his movement was free of any danger.

“ 2 Section, be warned, we are going to open up on the Indonesian assault group on your right flank, then pull back to your left flank and assault forward to the left edge of that gun line, I want you guys to remain in place and put down all the fire you can when I give the word, copy that all Al”, Alan was changing a mag out, as Murph came up on the net, explaining their plan, “ Rodger that Murph”.

Ramming home the new magazine, Alan to a quick peek left and right, then started to crawl forward to his new position he had selected at the end of the log, ‘ right ya fuckers time for some return fire’. “ Murph, its Natalia, I cant raise Sierra one on the radio and they must be just outta range of the Personal com sets, I’ll keep trying”. “ Copy That Nat, let me know soonest as you have them, Snow, how close are those assault troops now”. ‘Fuck this is getting tight’ thought Murph, placing his M16 across hiss lap he extracted his drink bottle and took a long pull, cold water flowing down his throat, amongst all the dust from the fire felt good, “ mmm’, Placing the canteen back, he rolled over .

 “ Murph, the assault groups at least 20, they seem to be forming up, can’t be much longer before they start their attack”. Grunting with the low crawl effort, Murph toggled his com set “ Copy Snow, stand by, as soon as they start moving , open up and call it out”. Murph proceeded to crawl, to the pinnacle of hill 615, rounds were starting to get closer, the nearer he got to the top of the hill. “ Fuck me, they’ve got some fire power down there’, “Alan, status of Section 2”. Alan had found a gap in the 150 year old teak trees trunk and placed his Minimi in the left side of the gap, as Murph called he was extracting his SR25 sniper rifle from his back,

“ 2 Section report”.

“ I got a box and 100 rounds left Al, after that I’m down to throwing rocks and the 9mm”, YD let another short burst go which Al heard over the mike, “Copy that YD, stay loose, conserve ammo” ‘ Fuck this I getting thin now’ Alan thought, “ well not much we can do… “Oh shit”, the light bulb went off in Alan’s head. “ Simon, how’s Flinthart going, I want you to see if he has a mini pouch and ammo on him, then scarper over to YD”. ‘Jesus, I should have thought of that sooner’, Alan was shaking his head, mistakes like he had just made could be the difference between life and death…”rookie mistake, fuck me’.

Alan pulled the stock of the Sniper rifle in close and switched on the night scope exhaling slightly as he started panning , ‘ok ya fuckers, gimme a look at ya’.

Suddenly Alan noticed a bright series of flashes, followed by more muzzle flashes and then the sound of the explosions he realized were in his visions wafted over him…’grenades….what the fucking hell’.  He was about to call Murph when Snowy came up on the net.

“ Contact right flank, 20 plus TNI engaging” and Snowy let loose a long burst of 50 odd rounds. Natalia,  and Barnes opened up as well, rounds stitching trails through the jungle as they sped towards the assaulting TNI infantry.  Alan could here the gun of Snowman’s open up , followed immediately by Natalie’s steyr, Barnes was carrying his Silenced MP5, which he had no doubt was dealing out death to the approaching infantry as well. Mixed in with the rifle and machine gun fire were the distinct explosions of the 40mm grenade launcher “ fuck Nats chugging them out” he exclaimed to nobody in particular.

Another series of explosions and a slackening of the incoming machine gun fire drew Alan’s attention back to his front, “ What the fucks going on”, Toggling his mike Alan called over the net,” Section 2, anybody see whats going on to our front”.

Simon came up on the radio, “ Negative Alan, got nothing here, just seeing flashes intermittently”, “ Negative here also Al, gunfire from the left has ceased, I’m switching to the right side for suppressive fire”. Alan paused, something just wasn’t right, surely the TNI gun line was not pulling out, or had somebody screwed up with some explosives. He expected the whole line to remain in place, perhaps even attempt a flanking assault themselves, thereby finishing off the envelopment of the position from both sides, “ classic pincer movement from a base of fire’, but that’s not right”, Alan still had his doubts.

“OH SHIT!, 2 SECTION CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!, Friendly’s  to our front, ID Your Targets”. Alan had screamed the orders as loud as he could, ‘Jesus fucking wept, I’ll bet my arse its Sierra one’.

Safeing the Sniper rifle Alan shimmied back away from his firing position and slung the weapon over his shoulder, picking up the minimi, he re chambered another round and flicked off the safety, taking a quick peek over the weapon and satisfied all was in order, he laid back down in his position and scanned the surrounding Jungle, rifle fire and other machine gun bursts were still taking place intermittently across their front, THE FIGHT WAS ON!.

Alan was horrified, from his left YD let another burst go across the front into the Indonesian gun line, “ CEASE FIRE! YD,  its Sierra one I think in the Indonesian gun line”, just then Al’s head set came to life again.

“ Check fire Check fire for fuck sakes, its Sierra one, stop fucking shooting ya muppets, we’ve cleaned out the gun line, I need fucking help over here”. 

 

INTENSE. The HILL Continued.Burger One One, Contact front.

Right, so its taken me a bit to get back to the HILL scene of Burger one one, Murph and his band of Merry SASR Troopers but we finally have. Below is a SHORT recap on the last scene an then the new scene. You will notice that Flintahrt has been replaced with snowman ( AW ) in the repeated scene. Thats becuse I noticed I had screwed up and put Dirk in the wrong section..me BAD. So the recap is 800 words long with just Flinthart nd Snaowman being switched over.

RECAP:

As Snowman, slowly crouched down, he started to consciously try and slow his breathing, the quick descent down the hill, had yielded no additional targets, that didn’t stop his body from winding itself up into a tight coil, adrenalin coursing through his blood stream, pupils dilated behind his NVG’s, as they had almost marched, that’s the pace they were at he thought, down the hill through the assaulting Indonesian patrol. “Offensive defence” he thought, “nothing like fucking with the other sides plans”, as a smile crept across his face, Barnes and Nat had already dispatched additional troopers, but on his end of the line, all had been clear.

 

What now slowed Snowman up was a slight thickening of the terrain to his immediate front, he scanned from left to right, farther left, he could make out Murph and ever so faintly Natalia, but Barnes was simply too far away for the NVG’s to make him out. Cradling his minimi as quietly as he could, Snowy  slowly lifted up the NVG’s.  Just as he had suspected, the light was increasing, ever so slightly. He pulled back the sleeve of his shirt and rolled forward his combat gloves to expose the luminescent dial of his watch, 0615 hours, that explained it he thought to himself.

 

Snowy rose upright, ” Well me boy, lets see what’s  on he other side of this little thicket shall we”,  stepping off with slow  fluid movements, almost wraith like Snowman slowly picked his way forward, disappearing into the dense lower canopy. This section was a series of small mounds, over a millennia during which trees, mosses, bracken an various plant species had established them sleeves, the terrain was not only slippery and thick, but undulating, almost like a gold field diggings, he thought to himself, just cover in god dam leech infested, mosquito swarming, trip you up shit.

 

Still scanning the terrain, but now without his NVG’s Snowman’s and the rest of the teams head sets came to life, it was Murph, ” Section one, when you hit the rail, move right down the path and rally on me “. Murph had already hit he trail Snowy thought and no further contact was a good sign. Snowman climbed up the last small rise, pushing gently aside the ferns and stepped onto the trail very edge, crouching down and then scanning immediately left he could see Natalia and Barnes, swiftly moving towards him, Signalling them with a thumbs up Nat reciprocated turning right he started heading for Murph, guessing he was around the bend in the track, some 30 odd yards down.

 

” Hmm, nice toosh” Natalia whispered over the coms net, Snowman grinned, as he extended his arm up and placed his fist on to of his head, his middle finger extended, ” Now don’t be like that”, Natalia whispered in her huskiest voice, ” least I didn’t say anything about not being able to see that second head, or the stump”. Nat had now closed the distance to Snowman, down to roughly 20 feet, sufficient for the close terrain, but not to close, that in an ambush they would both be a one burst target. Snowman Froze, slowly, ever so slowly he started crouching whilst he moved to the right side of the trail. Well he thought, “on the map, it was denoted as a little used trail, in all reality, it was more an animal run, one of many paths well worn by the various inhabitants of the jungle, their own little version of a freeway, sept devoid of fucking tolls, I guess”.

 

Snowys actions had a ripple effect; Natalia immediately did the same as Snowy only heading to the left of the trail, whilst Barnes as tail end Charlie went right, turning at the same time to cover their vulnerable rear.

 

Snowman slowly turned back, facing Nat, he raised his finger to his lips, and then gave her the thumps. Natalia nodded and then stared in shock disbelief as he signalled her again, two fingers pointing down, doing a walking motion, followed by pointing these digits at his eyes. Okay she thought, he’s going for a look at something, but Murph should be around here somewhere, very close at least. If Snowy had spotted any TNI he would have signalled that he had seen the enemy, this however was most unusual, what followed, completely blew her away. Snowy then signalled her to remain in place, she was about to ask why, when she remembered he had signalled her to be quiet. ” hope to fuck ya know what you’re doing” she thought.

 

Snowman slowly brought his NVG’s to back down an flipped them on, the target was no more than about 25 yards in front of him and as far as he could tell, alone and oblivious to his presence, he, it appeared to be talking into a hand held radio of some sort, but he figured this was a close as he could get without being detected. Turning of his NVG’s, Snowy raised the saw and peered through the night scope, stunned, he lowered it back own almost immediately. ” fuck me, Murph?, what the fucks going on ” he thought. Raising the minimi again he tried to focus back in on what Murph was doing, suddenly he could make out the device, it was a hand held Sat phone and whilst talking to someone, Murph was also scanning the jungle, occasionally looking back up the trail towards Snowman.

 

Snowman was dumbfounded, this was so far outside of normal operational parameters it was not funny and more the point, ” Who the fuck is he talking too”, he thought.

 CONTACT FRONT:

The Hill: Burger one one, contact front

 

The nights darkness  Alan could see, was now ever so slightly giving way to the approaching dawn, visibility for the camouflaged members of Burger two was on the improve, although this negated their night vision advantage, Alan felt sure they would be hit shortly. 2 section commanded by Sgt Alan Weaving was still tense, the assault by Murphs team down into the valley on their right flank had ended with Murphs ‘all clear’ call and ‘rally on me’ to that sections members. Mercifully Alan thought they had taken no casualties in the assault.

 

‘Right, better check on the troops’, slowly rolling onto his side Alan adjusted himself and gave the family jewels a reset, “fucking jungle rot I bet’ he said to no one in particular, the itching had come back with a vengeance over the last 12 hours. Toggling his throat mike Alan called the other members of Burger 2.

 

“2 section Burgers,  status check”, slowly  rolling back prone Alan looked out into the surrounding jungle, silently hoping the Indonesians or who ever else it was who’s scouts they had killed , held off any assault a little longer, ‘ At least till 1 section is back in palace on the fucking hill’ he muttered..

 

2 section was spread across the southern slop of the hill almost in line abreast with Alan on the far right flank. From Alan’s position moving Left he had placed Dirk Flinthart and his minimi on the left of a small knoll, from Dirk, the next member was Simon Bedak with his suppressed MP5 and on the end of the Line was YD, John Christ or YD which saved a lot of shit, he had their second gun, another minimi MG as well.

 

Alan figured this distribution was probably the best given the terrain. Slowly the three other team members chimed in, just a series of ‘Rodger, clear here Al”  replies came filtering back to Alan’s ears over his head set.

 

Al, was starting to wish Murphs team were already back on the ridge line behind them, until section 1 was in place, 2 section had zero arse end coverage, it was not  making Alan all warm and fuzzy, worse still, he thought they should already have vacated this hill  and be in concealment at another location. ‘This could get ugly..real fast me boy ‘ he thought.

 

2 sections world was shattered at approximately 0615 hours, machine guns opened across their whole front in the weak pre dawn light. “ Contact front……… 5 guns, 150 out, pinned down”, Simon screamed over his throat mike amidst all the falling debris and ear shattering gunfire.

 

Alan was hunkered down behind 150 years worth of teak, which was a blessing, the suppressive or offensive fire coming into 2 sections area was a sheer blizzard of rounds, Bark, ferns, dirt, moss and any item impacted by the big 7.62 millimetre rounds was being obliterated and tossed into the air.

 

 Struggling to hear Simons call of the enemy contact and numbers Alan had to roar into his throat mike,  “ Murph, 1 section is taking suppressive fire from our front, 5 guns plus, 150 out, pinned and unable to return effective fire,…….. no causalities at this point”. Rolling right as he released his throat mike Alan grabbed two fragmentation  grenades from his front pouches, extracting the pins in succession his tossed them over the log  screaming , “ Grenades out” immediately  tucking his body back down, hugging the earth for the blast effects he new were about to assault him.

 

 

The two frag grenades detonated with a massive blast, mere seconds apart, the incoming rounds did not stop, the blast had been short of its target, it was more for any sneakers creeping up and to provide some cover of sorts visually. Popping up Alan loosened of several rounds, to his left, farther along their line, over the din of the battle Alan could here both Dirks and Yd’s minimi’s barking out rounds as they sought to wrest control of the assault away from the attackers. 

 

“ Shit”, Alans bolt had locked open, the mag was empty, he reached in and extracted another mag, removing the empty magazine, then rammed home the fresh one and snapped the bolt forward… “Gimmea a look at ya”, scanning the area for muzzle flashes another burst from a MG opened up. Alan lined up the spot where the muzzle flashes had been and depressed the trigger, two three round burst and then rolled right, just as a stream of tracer torn up the dead tree to his front.

 

“ Section 2, this is one status over”, Alan called Murph, whilst crawling towards his new position at the end of the log. Murph came up on the net, panting somewhat Alan could tell, “ 2, this is one, almost at the top of the hill, give us 2 minutes then break contact back towards us Al”.

 

Al stuck his briefly up for a quick peek, his team was still alive, all the guys were firing and then shifting position slightly so as to not present a stationery target, but their luck couldn’t hold for ever. The volume of fire had not slacked he could see, withdrawing back up hill, with this many rounds simply wasn’t as option.

 

Between popping up and firing a short burst and crawling Alan was trying to work out what in the hell they were going to do, then YD came up on the net, “ Al, I got movement on the flank, looks like an assault team trying to form up and flank me, there’re pinned for moment, but I’ve only got two boxes left for the mini”. Alan grimaced, “ Rodger that YD, stay put and try conserve your ammo”,

 

“ Murph, were in deep shit here, no way we can back out from our positions without taking significant casualties over”. Just then Alan noticed that Dirk was shifting firing positions, the big fella had grabbed his minimi in his right paw and was getting up from his prone position  when he was hit, Alan watched in horror as the round or rounds spun Dirk clockwise and backwards, the minimi discharging in his had until he flopped backwards on  the ground screaming.

 

Before he consciously knew it, Alan was up and sprinting for Dirks position “ 1 this is two, I have a man down, GUN Down, its Flinthart”. Alan was concerned ….not just because one of his troopers was hit, the loss of a gun at this stage of the fight could have dire consequences. Sliding to a halt and rolling Alan could see Dirk writhing on the ground as he fought to extract a shell dressing from the webbing harness. Grabbing Dirks Minimi Alan let loose a long burst, then ducked down again, “ Bedak, get up here and tend to Dirk whist I keep the gun in action”, popping back up Alan didn’t wait for Simons reply, they needed to keep fire being returned onto the enemy gun line.

“ Rodger that Al, on my way”, Simons suppressed MP5 was of little use at present, ducking and weaving amongst the bullets, some tracer rounds, Simon, crawled, jumped and gyrated his way across the bullet strewn jungle floor to Alan and Dirks firing position.

 

“2 Section, if ya got smoke pop it now out front”, it was the only move Alan could think of, which may ease the rate of incoming fire onto their positions. Grabbing a WP grenade from his webbing pouch, Alan pulled the pin and tossed the phosphorous grenade as far as he could, several seconds later he heard a muffled whump as the charge detonated and the deadly white Phos spread itself out over the jungle floor, he was disappointed there was no screams.

 

Taking a quick peep across his line he could see yellow and red smoke starting to spread across 2 sections front, ‘ OK’ he thought, “ lets see how that effects them”.

Turning around Alan had heard Simon crawl into their little position, “ How’s he look”,

 

Simon rolled Dirk onto his back, before passing out, he had managed to put in place  a dressing on the entry wound in his shoulder. Looking up at Alan, Simon continued plucking a dressing from his own webbing, “ Its bad Al, I can feel the exit wound in the back, its gone through, but the holes bigger than it outta be, I thinks its hit the shoulder blade, we fucking need to de arse here fast”, Rolling Dirk back onto his stomach, Simon torn open the dressing and stuffed it onto the exit wound, blood was coming out, but not fast enough to suggest a major artery had been severed.

 

“ He’ll live Al, but not if we don’t get him some serious medical attention soon”, half laying so as to not unnecessarily expose himself to the fire still coming in, Simon started bandaging Dirks shoulder up, hoping the dressings would stay in place.

 

Without looking back Alan continued firing short bursts, “ Rodger that Simon, get ready to move, we’ll shift left I think, covers better that way, I suppress and you move, stand by”.

 

“ Fuck this is turning to shit real fast’ Alan thought, “ Ok get ready Simon, GO!”, with that Alan popped back up and let loose several long bursts from the minimi, stitching his return fire in long sweeps back and forth in line with the incoming fire. Several rounds Alan noticed, buzzed passed his head, their passing marked by the angry wasp like snarl  of the round, instant death, or worse still, maimed for life Alan thought.

 

Ceasing the suppressive fire Alan crouched back down and looked left, he could see Simon had also gone to ground in a small depression some 50 yards away, almost back at his own original fire position. ‘Thank fuck for that’ thought Alan, ‘last thing I need now is another casualty’.

 

Alan was wondering what the hell was taking One section so god dam fucking going when Murph came up on the radio, “ 2 this is 1, where’re in place, rear is secure Al, Guns on the outer flank, your right side, you want suppressive fire from Snowman you  Call it?”.

 

‘Alan thought about that, the additional gun opening up, further up the hill just might give the Assault force out front pause, and allow them to break contact’. “ 2 section status check”, Alan wanted to keep close tabs on the guys, it also let them know he was also still in the fight, but their welfare was his primary concern.

 

The fire from the Indonesian gun line was slackening somewhat, just enough Alan could detect it, lord knows the volume of fire they had been receiving would have consumed vast amounts of ammo, it occurred to Al then, ‘Isn’t no normal fucking patrol we’ve bumped into’, with that conclusion reached he contacted Murph again. “ 1 this is 2, this isn’t no normal patrol we have out front, ….Fuck!” Alan ducked as an RPG round detonated some 20 yards to his front showering him with debris, “ its got to be far far larger, they must have an assault force forming up Murph”.

 

Just then the balance of the team called in again, all was going well….except for their ammo situation, YD was down to five round bursts just to try and conserve ammo, but nobody else had been hit …..yet!. Then the situation just got a whole lot more complicated for Sgt Murphy and his two sections of SASR troopers.

 

“ Murph”, it was Snowman on the radio, “ I’ve got thermal images, at least 20 enemy  troops coming at me , they look like the assault force, spread over 50 meters or so, ETA 5 minutes or less”.

 

“ Burger One One, this is Sierra 1,  I say again, Burger one one, this is Sierra one are you receiving me over”. That radio cal was heard by all of Section one and two members including Murph, although it was great that Sierra one was still alive, or Murph it just presented another distraction from what was rapidly a turning to shit situation.