Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Co-op War Diary 6

06 Oct 2009 at 16:22:34 by

Dear diary,

I knew why I'd been brought in. From the bickering, sniping and lacklustre leadership within the fire squad, it was clear that some definition and purpose was needed.  My impressions of the squad?  Not that it's important, but I learned Jedburgh was a coward and used Tim as a human shield, Andy had insatiable bloodlust and used Tim as a moving target, and Tim was grumpy and moody as if the whole war was his fault.

Tim had proven his skills by tearing through the enemy quickly and efficiently, with the rockets from his SMAW lighting up the hillside through my binoculars, but we had to find a vehicle and get moving. Any hopes of finding a vehicle, however, were dashed as we ravaged the PLA checkpoint in search of a ride, so we were left exposed with an enemy chopper circling our location every few minutes.

But that was neither here nor there. We had to get to the crash site and, if they were still alive, get the pilots out. Which would be easier if we knew exactly where the crash site was.

While we regrouped, a message came through informing us of a SAM site just north of our position. We were to clear it. Tim had also managed to secure some artillery cover fire and seemed pretty impressed with his negotiating skills. Whether we needed it or not was a different matter, but nonetheless, the extra firepower couldn't hurt and it did boost morale.

As we ran up the hill, Andy decided to peel off again, leaving Tim, Jedburgh and myself flanking. Or was it Andy that was flanking? Even now I'm not sure, but either way none of us wanted to run up the hill with that homicidal maniac. He'd already stabbed me asking how I liked the taste of his "metal tongue" and would later, for reasons only known to himself, toast Tim by shooting a fuel barrel two feet in front of him. 

As it turned out, the flanking maneuver went extremely smoothly and we cleared the site with no help from the useless Echo squad. A couple of choice shots from Andy provided some exceptional suppressing fire, pinning the PLA down and allowing us to sneak up from the side and take far more accurate shots - and all this before the enemy chopper had returned.

With PLA weapons at our disposal, and enemy ammunition in abundance, we were ready to move up and search for our smoking Apache - but we were nearly a kilometre away, we still had no vehicle, and the chopper was still overhead. We had to move fast. We opted to sprint across the tall grass in a straight line - not the best idea when there are eyes on you from above, but somehow, by hitting the deck every time the chopper was overhead, we managed to get through, and within minutes we were at the top of a hill overlooking a village a kilometre or so away. I heard Andy move away again, mumbling to himself, while Tim, being the self-proclaimed hero of the day, had taken out his binoculars and was scoping the area. I'd already loaded my SMAW and I'd seen an enemy vehicle on the road about half a kilometre away approaching our position. Tim barely had time to relay his findings before the vehicle had gone up in a ball of fire.

"What the hell just happened?" he asked to find a smoking SMAW on the ground, my hands moving quickly all over it in a bid to reload as quickly as possible.

"I took it out," I said, frustrated I couldn't physically do anymore speed up the reloading process.

"All I saw was a cloud of blood and fire."

"I know."

In the meantime, Andy had spotted a fire team flanking us from the left about 300 metres away. We moved down the hill to engage. It was a quick affair; one kill to Tim, one to Andy and one for me, but with Jedburgh cowering behind Tim, one had gotten away and was retreating back towards the village. No doubt he'd raise the alarm, but we were hoping Echo had got to location and were already clearing the village. We had to get to our downed chopper and check the site. If the pilots were dead then our whole mission was pointless.

Shielded by the trees the chopper wasn't visible from the top of the hill, but as we emerged through the treeline in which the PLA had hoped to ambush us, we could see it. It was our Apache alright, but there wasn't a soul in sight. Armed with the clunky weapons of the PLA we had no choice but to pillage the bodies of the enemy for ammo, regroup and make our way into the village to help Echo. There was no way we could drop an artillery on the village now - we'd kill the PLA, but also the pilots. We would have to move fast, but not before Andy made me taste his "metal tongue" again and taunted Tim with a couple of rounds from his pistol in preparation for his inevitable demise.

Other War Diary Entries

Diary 1 | Diary 2 | Diary 3 | Diary 4 | Diary 5

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