Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Co-op War Diary 7 Feature

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Co-op War Diary 7

07 Oct 2009 at 16:55:59 by Andy Alderson

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The rescue mission continues with Tim, Tamer, Andy and [sigh] Jedburgh searching a PLA-occupied village for the downed chopper pilots.

Dear diary,

I wasn’t sure about the new guy. OK, he did a good job taking out the truck of reinforcements just outside the village but I saved his newbie ass when we were flanked by that enemy patrol. I’d taken on the role of the medic after magnanimously giving up the com to Tim - I’m in this for the team, see, not the glory - and Tamer (what the fuck kind of name is that?) made sure I was kept busy.

Having taken two bullets in the chest, the sound of his gurgling was killing my combat buzz, so I crawled over to his location and proceeded to heal him. Or at least I tried to as, despite informing him that I was there to help, Tamer insisted on crawling away every time I got close enough to jab him with my needle. And, no, that is not a euphemism. When I eventually managed to mend his owee, our new recruit climbed straight to his feet only to get hit in the arm. This guy was going to be a liability. And we already had Jedburgh.

After patching him up a second time I rose to one knee behind a tree and scanned the area with my binoculars. The village was directly to our East and we knew our guys were pinned down there somewhere. I spotted a four man patrol heading into the village through the checkpoint on the perimeter and pointed them out to an increasingly disinterested Tim. His heart clearly wasn’t in this rescue mission – I think, having seen the ending to Saving Private Ryan, he realised that rescue missions don’t always end too well for the squad leader. However, to his credit, he agreed to move in towards the village checkpoint (after some grumbling) and instructed Jedburgh to lay down some suppressive fire on the enemy patrol. They immediately hit the floor and I managed to cap one with my scoped M4 before the rest of the squad concentrated fire on the patrol. We had them pinned down from our elevated position and, realising this, one of their patrol popped a smoke grenade. When the smoke eventually cleared it became obvious that they had implemented a tactical retreat, leaving their downed man behind.

We kept low and moved towards the checkpoint, very aware that an enemy ambush was waiting just inside the village. Tamer and Tim flanked left, leaving Jedburgh and myself (thanks for that, Tim) to head straight up the middle in a move I’m sure Tim had christened Operation Expendable Diversion. As we passed the checkpoint barriers, Jedburgh and I stacked up on the corner of a building which immediately came under heavy fire from a PLA support gunner. We were prone and pinned down when the newbie started to earn his money. Tim and Tamer’s flanking mission had taken them around the side of the village and, once they had a view of the support gunner, the latter took him out with extreme prejudice.

“Yeah, bitch!” he exclaimed with more than a hint of sexual aggression.

Jedburgh and I were now able to move in and we quickly engaged the remainder of the PLA patrol. Unfortunately, by the time we had finished them off I was down to my last two M4 rounds and switched to pistol as I moved in to search the dead enemy for ammo. What? I’m thrifty, OK. My bad luck continued as it soon became obvious I wasn’t going to find what I wanted on the recently-departed and then something Jedburgh said told me things were about to get worse.

“Enemy Transport Helo, 400m.”

The chopper swooped over our heads and moved in to land in the centre of the village. Unsurprisingly, Tim ordered Team Bullet Magnet to deal with the chopper and, despite the fact that I was sporting only a pistol and an extreme dislike for my squadmate, we charged it. I switched to grenades and, obviously due to some unpredictable weather, missed by quite some way. I hit the deck as I fumbled for my pistol while Jedburgh, moron that he is, continued towards certain death. It was then that a rocket from Tamer’s SMAW flew over my head, incinerating the helicopter and its passengers. And Jedburgh.

“Hey Tim, I’m starting to like this guy – he just exploded Jedburgh!”

We found our downed chopper crew hiding in one of the buildings and, just after we set co-ordinates for the evac point, news came in over comms that the PLA was sending in reinforcements. We hot footed it out to the west and as we got halfway up the hill towards the extraction point we ran into a little bit of resistance. In the form of a patrol and an APC. This was not good. Hitting the deck I managed to wound an enemy with my pistol while Tim, with uncharacteristic accuracy, took out most of the patrol.

“Tamer, how many rockets you got left?”

“Just the one.”

“Well, now might be a good time to fucking use it!”

After reloading the SMAW for what seemed like an age, Tamer took out the APC and the resulting explosion sent the remaining PLA patrol members scarpering for safety. At which point Tim, ever the humanitarian, shot them in the back.

We reached the evac helicopter and I escorted the rescued pilots on board while Tamer drew his knife and plunged it into the back of Tim’s neck while laughing maniacally.

I think he’s going to fit in.