StarDestroyer.Net BBS

11:34 SFT
Forward Base Ponderous Turtle,
32 miles outside of Hakara City
Purat Province, State of Hakara


The furious midday sun beat down upon the camp like an unrelenting hammer. Men stuck to the shade and drank the cool water brought by tanker from the depot in the city.
The base was an orderly affair, neatly lined tents and trailers providing space for two battalions, a long row of temporary shelters kept the vehicles from the worst of the conditions. Sitting in the middle of the sparse scrub plain that stretched all the way back to the coast, it had an unparralled vista of the harsh mountains in the north and the boundless ocean to the south.

First sergeant Chun was unconcerned with the view, in fact he hated it. Especially those unforgiving peaks miles in the distance. Where the stubborn rebels had held out for so long, and kept him stuck in this stupid backwater of the Federation.
As he strode across the beaten patch of earth that served as a parade ground, the sergeant paused to look at the flags that hung limply over the base, unaffected by the light breeze that had managed to penetrate inland from the coast.
There were three, one was the ubiquitous flag of the Federation, the second a bright yellow with three stars and a crescent moon was the flag of Hakara. The third was the one that lifted his spirits, a simple green diamond upon a white field. The Jade Guard was here.

The commanding officer of the Jade Guard 12th Marine Brigade, 3rd Battalion was holding the pre-operation briefing under an awning next to the communications trailer on the far side of the ground. With him, his company commanders, and the two Hakaran* officers stood around the map table, running through final details of what was to be a simple search and patrol of several villages in the foothills.
The Sergeant stood at attention just outside the awning's shade in the blistering heat, waiting for the meeting to finish. one figure at the table stood out, to the unknowledgable his uniform would have been like any other that the marines wore, however the pattern was different. It marked the man out as different from his companions, and Chun suppressed a scowl. He did not know the man, though he wore a majors rank tabs on his collar. The uniform however was that of the Federated Naval infantry**, or as Marine Guardsmen disdainfully called their rivals, a Crab.

What this unknown major was doing here was a mystery, and First Segeant Chun Ce did not like mysteries. These thoughts were interrupted however as the Commander finished the briefing, nodding to his subordinates as they hurried off to their units, and giving the Crab major a rather guarded look.
The sergeant snapped off a crisp salute and stepped forwards under the awning, glad of the shade.

"Colonel Han, Sir!" The Colonel looked up fromt he detailed map and acknowleged his battalions senior NCO.

"Ah, First Sergeant. The operation is going ahead, are the men ready?" Segeant Chun had spent the last three hours making sure the preperations were running smoothly, sorting out the hundreds of small problems that did not warrant the attention of an officer.

"Yes sir, ready and waiting for your order."

"Very good sergeant," The colonel noticed Chun's gaze wander slightly to the Naval Infantry Major making his way up the steps into the comms trailer. "Nothing to worry about sergeant, just do your job. Jump off is at 1300."

The Sergeant doubted that there was nothing to worry about, crabs were trouble, and it wasn't as if rooting out the rebels in Hakara was a cakewalk either. Putting this quickly out of his mind he clawed back the military professionalism and saluted his CO.

"Yes sir!" Colonel Han nodded at this, giving a his sergeant a reassuring look, and made his own way off into the camp. The Sergeant turned back too look at the mountains, they seemed like great iron grey teeth stabbing to the sky, part of a pair of jaws that waited to close upon them.


13:10 SFT
Forward Base Ponderous Turtle,
32 miles outside of Hakara City
Purat Province, State of Hakara

The vicious heat had not abated, but the men had quickly assembled, onto the parade ground and waited through the speeches by their officers. The marines stood stock still in their full combat gear enduring it with the stoicism that any Guardsman could call upon from his training.
The Hakaran SDF battalion however stood slouched in several ragged columns, occasionaly whispering to themselves, and fidgeting with their equipment. They managed to pay a little more attention when a Hakaran officer stood forward to deliver a long winded speech in arabic to them. The language grated on Chun's ears, gods he hated this place.

With formalities done the troops filed towards their transports waiting which began starting the engines with a chorus of throaty roars. The Hakaran battalion was ostensibly a mechanized unit, Prince of Ul-whatever-or-something's own Rifles***. A name probably meant to evoke an aura of a proffesional elite unit. One look at the idiot grins the soldiers wore as they moved across the ground dispelled that illusion immediately. Their equipment wasn't that good either, each company had a few older model Howler IFVs, but many of the men still rode in canvas topped six wheeled trucks.
Not that the Marines were much better off, two companies were going on the patrol, and though 12th Marines were an aircavalry formation, out in the Hakaran brush there was not a helicopter to be seen. Instead the Guardsmen were riding in some battered Fox ACUVs **** donated from the Hakaran SDF motor pool. This was just beginning of the First Sergeant's worries. But if command said they were riding into hostile country in these peices of shit, ride they would.

The storms of the rainy season had finally cleared out and the drier weather would make it easier to for the SDF troopers and Guardsmen to begin the tedious task of rooting out the newest crop of rebels that plauged Hakara.

While a backwater, Hakara was strategically important, offshore lay several rich oil beds currently being pumped out by large platforms. This high quality sweet crude was deemed a valuble asset enough for the State to send in the Jade Guard to put down the rebels, instead of letting the local self defence force stumble around trying to find it's own arse.
Hakara had always been somewhat of a problem, the people were fiercely tribal and were it not for the Federation allowing them to kep their monarchy and other customs, they would probably be in total war against them. Even so there were alwasy a group of disgruntled rebels, ususally from a rival tribe to the incumbant King, who opposed the governement's submission to a foreign power and resolved to excise the infidel cancer through blood and the strength of faith. Or some shit like that.
Chun didn't really care about the rebel's motivation. What annoyed him was their dogged persistance. The current resistance had started four years ago, and every year the SDF and Guard had mounted patrols into the foothills to try and dislodge them from the mountain fastness. Sometimes it was sucessful, mostly though the rebels picked at them in stinging ambushes, and then melted back into the warren of valleys and patchwork of farming villages.

The First Sergeant climbed into his Fox, a vehicle in line right behind the CO's own. Already inside was Corporal Yao and his fireteam from Alpha Company, the Guardsmen sat bored, while one of their number manned the vehicle's MG turret. Yao himself was in the front seat looking out. Noticing Chun he half turned in his seat to look at thim.

"Well isn't this a fucking shambles." The Sergeant agreed with that sentiment, outside the Hakaran troopers still hadn't mounted up, and several of their NCOs had realised this might be detrimental to their standing, and were now yelling at them to get a move on. "These fools arn't soldiers, or I'm a mother goat."

"Yeah." Chun's short and distracted statement drew a quizical look from the section leader. And he leaned forward, speaking in a lower voice.

"Hey, whats eating you up Sarge?" Chun was about to brush off the question, when Yao's gaze looked past him and an odd expression appeared on his face. "What the fuck is that?"
The Sergeant twisted in his seat and looked out of the window beside him, the Naval Infantry officer was walking past, with a slight air of arrogance. He got into the CO's vehicle, displacing a bewildered looking orderly, and shut the door.

Chun didn't know what to think. The Crab was coming with them, on the op? Something was up, he could feel it. He turned back to Chun.

"Saw him at the briefing earlier, the Colonel said not to worry." Yao didn't seem placated by this.

"Fuck that sarge, those Crab bastards are trouble." Chun tried to come up with something to say to make Yao drop it, but he couldn't, he agreed with the man too much.

"I know corporal, I know." Yao gave a short grim laugh and sat back into his seat. Outside the Hakarans had finally managed to get loaded up and the front of the column was moving out onto the highway heading north towards the mountains.

As the lightweight Fox bounced along the poorly maintained road, First Sergeant Chun couldn't shake the feeling that something was badly wrong.


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* The Kingdom of Hakara is a constituent state of the Socialist Federation, though one given considerable leeway in light of it's resources and social structure.

** Whilst the Jade Guard maintains the bulk of the Federation's active service ground force, including amphibious units. The Federated Navy has recently formed it's own such force, there is a fierce rivalry between the two branches and the nickname of 'Crabs' is one of the nicer ones the two throw at each other.

*** Hakaran SDF units are often named in honour of members of the extensive royal family.

**** The Fox ACUV is a light truck similar in form and function to a Humvee
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Well this is not exactly SF, but a story I've been toying with over the past day or so, doing it mostly to improve style and flow of my work. Comments and suggestions will be welcomed.

To be totally honest I don't really know whats going to happena fter a certain point, but hey it'll be an adventure.

For those of you who like nice piccies, there is also some sweet candy here:
Fox ACUV
Howler IFV

16:22 SFT
78 miles north of Hakara City
Purat Province, State of Hakara

Dust thrown up by the wheels discoloured the afternoon sky, the road was now little more than a wide dirt track, however the bureaucrats in Hakara City still thought it worthy of the officious name 'Route 14'.
The plain had been left behind a long time ago and they now travelled through a steep sided valley with a dry riverbed at it's base.

The plan had been simple, it always was, to move along the route 14 corridor sweeping the settlements along it as they went. In practice however this was more difficult. First of all 'route 14' was at this stage more of a collection of roads travelling in roughly the same direction, with villages dotted along two main axes. The column had split up to cover them both. It was risky of course, but the only way to get the job done.

Sergeant Chun adjusted the position of the weapon strapped across his chest. The rifle was different to what the Guardsmen around him toted, a Bantoi P-34 SMG, whilst technically not standard issue for infantry, his position as battalion sergeant allowed him some lattitude. The P-34s compact size and high caliber rounds made it a prized item among many troops, even though it was only usually fielded by aircrew and special operations units.
Chun had traded a whole case of rice beer to get this one, and though it used the same ammunition as his sidearm it was difficult to get the quartermaster to issue him enough to fill it's fifty round magazines. Still, he thought it was worth it.

So far they had swept and cleared four villages, three little more than a couple of farmhouses clustered around a communal well. The last one though had been quite large, boasting a marketplace to which local farmers came for miles to buy and sell produce.
They had rolled up along the road, and been met with what looked like a ghost town. Of course the population had seen their dust cloud coming a while ago and had long retreated into boarded up houses and dark back alleys. This was militia country and running from the omnious clouds on the horizon was not just common sense but a vital survival tactic.

The column had pulled in slowly, setting up roadblocks around the settlement, with the bulk of the vehicles sitting in the market square. The senior Hakaran officer, a Major probably, had jumped down from his IFV and started yelling isntructions to the hidden inhabitants through a megaphone. The predictable be response occured, silence.
So the fireteams had gone about their business, systematically going from house to house first knocking and asking for entrance, and when no reply ensued breaking down the door and vigerously searching the rooms within for anything that might pertain to rebel activities.

The troops carying out this work did so cautiously, it was not unkown for militia to boobytrap empty buildings with tripwire grenades and landmines. Each rooftop could hold a sniper, and every dark alleyway a squad of rebels waiting to storm out, guns blazing. Even the Hakaran soldiers had quitened down, and become much more focused on their duties, they had no illusions about the mercy of the rebels for their own countrymen.
Sergeant Chun had ranged across though the streets whilst the search was made, trouble shooting and defusing incidents with angry villagers. Towards the end the locals had got wise, and when the Guardsmen knocked the door was sullenly answered. In return the troops tried not to trash the place so much. Give and take.

Chun had been as on edge as the rest of the men, twice a scrambling from a side alley had him quickly swinging round to point his weapon in the direction of the noise, only to see a small child scampering away or a mangy dog rooting through trash.
He had been glad to get out of there, back on the road, even though the likelyhood of attack was pretty much the same. The thought of being trapped in those twisted backstreets whilst screaming natives ran at him turned his blood cold.

The next village was a couple of miles ahead, and already the people would be scrambling inside to get away from the approaching cloud that heralded the column's arrival. they would pull up, and the routine would begin again. The militiamen were probably hiding up on those distant ridges and hills, laughing themselves to death. Chun tensed his hand in anger at the thought. He had trained to fight real enemies not ghosts, this tedious work was for the SDF, putting the Jade Guard to it was an insult.
His mind drifted to the Crab major, he had been in the last village too, the Sergeant had seen him stalking around with two Guardsmen. Once while jogging to stop arguement where a local farmer was gesticulating wildly at a group of nervous soldiers whose Fox had accidently backed into his cart, Chun had seen the Major in a street questioning a bewildered looking native man instensley in Arabic. He hadn't stayed long, but the Crab officer had given him a hard look.

A roar of noise jarred the First Sergeant out of his thoughts. The edge returned suddenly and he strained to look out of the armoured window. A streak of white smoke hung in the air, marking where a rocket had struck the lead vehicle. Corporal Yao was already getting the driver to pull off the road when a tremendous explosion rocked the column and sent one of the tan painted Howler IFVs, several trucks in front, flipping back over itself as it disintigrated. It's mine resistant hull no match against the explosive power of the two heavy artillery shells that had been buried under the road.
Chun cursed, gunfire was already begining to leap out from the column scouring the hills, like an angered bear trying to bite back at the nimble dogs that baited it. It did little good, a burst of heavy machinegun fire raked the Fox and the driver swerved, crashing into a rock. The fireteam bailed out and Chun pulled on the gunner to get him to follow. He was dead, the thin armour on his turret had been no match for the heavy round that had punched through it and taken his head. Chun remembered his name had been Qiao.
The rest of the Guardsmen had begun returning fire in the direction of the burst, taking cover behind the Fox. They quickly dived away again when a rebel holding a rocket popped up from behind a rock and fired. The explosion threw Chun away and he looked up a the clear sky marred by a pall of back smoke, dazed.

Yao appeared suddenly in his vision and pulled him back up, thrusting his fallen weapon into his hands. The grin on the corporal's face verged on the manic.
"That was a close one Sarge, eh?" Sergeant Chun nodded and scrambled across to were the rest of the fireteam was covering in a ditch.
"Bastards ambushed us!" No one disagreed with this statement. "They're on both sides, we'll have to take the ridges and drive them back." They began trading fire with any rebels that stuck their head out of cover. The rest of the column had got a similar idea, and the surviving IFVs were now hammering the ridge line with their 40mm cannons.
The SDF troops had leapt off their covered trucks, and after being organised by officer were now rapidly advancing up the slopes to wrest them from the enemy. This was short lived however as the SDF Section nearest Chun came under fire from the heavy machinegun again. The soldiers flung themselves to the ground, taking cover behind whatever they could find, to escape the punishing flurry of bullets.
The gun was off to the right of them, firing occasionaly in bursts and keeping the Hakarans suppressed. The Sergeant glanced over to where the CO had been. The colonel was safe, directing the counterattack from behind the armoured bulk of an IFV. Relieved Chun turned back to the fireteam and Yao, shouting over the noise of battle.
"We've got to take out that gun!" Yao nodded grimly, motioning for the rest of them to advance in pairs. The Guardsmen leapt out of the ditch and sprinted up the slope, one pair would pause and lay fire on the attackers while the other two advanced.

Breathing hard the Sergeant crested the hill and fired a burst from his SMG into one of the rebels covering the rear of the gun. The Guardsman with him, the team medic named Lun, snapped off a shot into the second. Both of the men hit the ground, warcries strangled in their throats.
Chun turned to see the gunner's assistant leaping up, pointing a pistol at him, screaming an oath of vengeance. The sergeant began to bring his weapon to bear, but it was too late. The pistol was leveled at his head. A blur to the left and Corporal Yao planted his combat knife into the man's chest. Yao flashed the Sergeant a grin and fired a burst from his carbine into the gunner. The gun was silenced.
"Thats another one you owe me Sarge." Yao's smile was insincere. He directed his fireteam to take up positions on their newly captured piece of real estate, and look over the ridge to see the SDF troopers still cowering in the scree. "Stupid twats, they're gonna get us killed."

"Contact!" The cry came from Lun, the medic covering the reverse slope of the ridge. As if to emphasize the point the squad automatic gun began firing long bursts. Chun scrambled over the rocky ridgetop and peered down. At the base of the hill over two dozen militiamen, probably a reserve force for the ambush, were charging up the slope.
Outnumbered the fireteam began pouring a weight of fire upon the rebels, hoping to stall them in time for reinforcements to reach the position. Chun fired off a stream of bullets, catching a rebel in the shoulder and flinging him to the ground. A thump to his right made him turn, and he saw Yao setting down the heavy Doomani made machinegun, sighting down it's barrel the corporal gave a feral yell and emptied it's belts down the slope.
Still the militia came, maybe half of them had been wounded and fallen, but the momentum of their charge had not ebbed. One of the Guardsmen faltered in firing back, turning a questioning glance at the sergeant. Chun shook his head.
"Keep firing, they'll break." They had to break, there were ten rebels left now but they were close, too close. A burst of fire ripped past Chun and smacked into the team grenadier, the man crumpled and fell.
This was it Chun fired fully automatic into the enemy as they leapt out of cover for a final push. Three were cut down and the rest seemed poised to roll into the Guardsmen, then they stopped as if unsure. A fusilade of fire sounded behind the Sergeant and he looked round to see the SDF platoon finally making it up the ridge, lead by a young lietuenant, pouring fire into the remaining militia.

The rebels had broken, some tried to flee other covered and tried to stand. They were all cut down. The SDF troops were now spread across the ridge, keeping lookout for another attack. Whilst below in the valley the wounded were treated and a quick roll call made.
Sergeant Chun looked over at Yao, whow as resting his arm on the breech of the captured machine gun. Chun threw a glance at the SDF troops.
"Not so useless after all corporal?" Yao made a face and scowled.
"Bah! Sarge, we could have taken those bastards. No problem" Chun smiled, he sympathised with the corporal. Losing two of his men had been hard.
"Yeah, we could of." Chun looked back into the valley and saw the crab officer stalking about, checking some militia corpses. Exhaling slightly, Chun sat back against a rock. He was too tired, and couldn't bring himself to care anymore.