- Location
- United States
-
Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
Situation Foxtrot (SAO/Foxhole) [COMPLETE]
- Thread starter 7734
- Start date
- Crossover
Napoleon knew his stuff, but he wasnt short.
"Artillery conquers and infantry occupies." J.F.C. Fuller
"Artillery adds dignity, to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl" Friedrich the Great
Weathering Halls was their frontline. Which means there are good chances that the defences behind it are rather simple. So we might be able to punch through to Port of Rime. (Which would definetly cause Hooker to combust spontaniously.) More importantly this widens up the frontline which gives us room to maneuver and concentrate our force on smaller parts of the overall frontline. Unless the collies have their own tanks or good anti tank weapons they only question is how many bodies they can throw into our tanks threads to try to slow us down.
Last edited:
Spector29
It Only Gets Worse From Here
How feasible is it that we're going to start needing bodyguards? Not that I think Hooker will suffer a full on breakdown and try to have us ganked for our insolence (Although you never know with Death Games), but I'm thinking that Colonial Commandos might be thinking about infiltrating our lines to give our head a shiny new ventilation hole.
The only good news is that death is an inconvenience. As for the question, depends on who and/or what the goblins ARE here, and commanding them.
- Location
- US East Coast
Isn't that how quests work though?
The players vote for crazy ideas and the dice let them get away with it.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
The Colonials are currently standing by in the important part of the hex, waiting. Weathering Halls was a worthy sacrifice to get the Nevish Alliance Corps to put actually good units into the trap, and Port of Rime is only valuable once it techs industry. Foxcatcher is where the money is: until you hit that, the amount they care is low. The Colonials have gunboats too: this means they can fairly well clapback the town hall of Rime unless the Navy is on guard 24/7.
Sniper rifles are T6 tech, so that's the point where having someone to invoke Look Out, Sir! rules becomes mandatory. Having a hand to hand protection detail before then wouldn't be a bad idea, though.
Well when I did the check, you got the Atropos Janissaries as the responding force, so I hope y'all have learned some things since last time.
- Location
- UTC -6
Foxtrot Colonials are more dangerous in some ways than Foxhole game Colonials. My money is that Fort Yves is even more entrenched than Weathering Halls, since that protects the Seaport. And even a small blunder into a Typhoon/Daucus ambush will shred our pricey tanks/field cannons. We've gotten a good ways in, but there are many ways they can make us pay for it. With how much of a splash Orr has made we should expect some mean and desperate counter-assaults.
Wide frontlines do go both ways.
I'm actually hoping Hooker pulls the trigger and lands on a fort emptied out to push us, while the armored car units pinch an attack aimed at our border. You can't pull off epic HOI4 moments without backup, after all.
(Foxhole Colonials are noted for having brittle frontlines, Foxtrot Colonials are a bit quieter thus far for pushes, but did have deep fort lines at Allsight. And at Weathered Expanse.)
Well that went pretty alright, nothing disastrous has occurred and everything went to plan. Now I'm just waiting for the other foot to drop when the Colonials decide to pull something, let's hope this encourages our armoured cavalry to take advantage of this since Hooker probably won't considering he was asking for more ammunition and supplies last turn. Oh and maybe pure spite will hold him back from assisting, who knows?
Well let's hope our boy Sundowner rebuffed the sniper rifles after that 1.0 update (Soon™) cause if he didn't then it'll still be hot garbage.
WRT the gunboats bit: are you taking the coastal battery in Rime into that equation? Because I'm pretty sure those things put up a sizable No Fun Zone that would put a pretty severe crimp in any such shenanigans.
- Location
- UTC -6
Have to tech Fortifications at the town hall before we can build it back up.
And before you ask: No, leaving it intact means it remains a Colonial Coastal Gun.
So the gunboats can keep knocking down the TH for a long while. Fortifications is one of the last upgrades available.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Yes, that's three turns to get back online- and that's three turns continuous, so those Colonial gunboats better be gone and staying gone for quite a while. If they can clap the town hall and the safehouse, this means someone's got to bring CVs in from Weathering Halls, and that just means you're loosing days in spades for the cost of a few dozens of 120mm shells. Rime is very valuable, but it's a jewel on the end of a thin necklace: and as long as the Colonials hold Fortress Foxcatcher, they're going to be using it as a cat toy to jerk you around with.
Weathered Expanse "Raid": Initial Border Crossing
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
"We're doing it early."
Those were the words that dominated the discussion at your bunker base. You had the tools. You had the people. You had the supplies. All you needed was the decision- a decision you provided. Word spread like wildfire, even without your formal announcement to the base at dinner and shift changes. Then Asuna told the Commandos, and your attaches told the 64e, and from there the blaze went off like a gasoline slick in California.
Then came the waiting. Starting an operation required dozens, hundreds, millions of pieces working together. Building temporary quarters took a whole day up to your shock, but they were needed to get the 62e and 1/11 into at the jump-off point. Another day was spent building busses for transiting the infantry regiments, and drivers for the four hundred Dunnes pre-loaded with gasoline and supplies the operation was expected to need, and the sixy fuel tankers you needed to keep the fires lit so nobody's truck or bus froze over and died. Then there was getting the ambulances and stocking them, the discussion on your field headquarters, and ten thousand other things. There was even an hour-long discussion with Landry on how you'd lay out the shipping and unpackaging yard at the border base so it was properly sectioned out and any potential mortar bombardment would get contained by sandbag walls!
That took an embarrassingly long time, and more importantly meant you had to work with Asuna to rearrange the train to the border again. It was maddening. Four days in, and you hadn't so much as left the bunker base! No wonder Hooker hadn't been able to get over the border on his operation!
Day five, though, was when Zairman came by again- and this time, he'd used your busses to bring his entire regiment. Holy fuck, he had a big regiment. In parade formation, they took up forty trucks and sixteen tanks plus CVs and Cranes, and it was a little humbling as they bumbled into your parking lot. You still managed to keep it from hot-bunking mostly, though, your base having torn out every non-essential bit of infrastructure for bunks, bunks, and more bunks. Tymur himself had spent the night in your quarters with you for some last-minute planning and the peace and quiet, even if you did have to bully him into wearing another borrowed set of your pajamas.
It might have invited some cat-calls the next morning at breakfast, but you didn't care. Another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, without question. More importantly, there was something you didn't recognize in your parking lot.
"Please tell me you didn't get one of those King Gallant proto kits," you grumbled at breakfast, looking over a folder. "Those things are ass, and we need the Gravekeepers."
"No, I've got some Bonesaw protos coming in tomorrow," Tymur said, shaking his hands. "No, those are command tanks: King Spire Mod3. By wiggling the gun around, loosing some inventory space, and eating an accuracy debuff, they can fit in a proper radio operator."
"What's the catch?" you asked.
"Well, problem one, you're in a hull slot. Visibility is kind of ass unless you move up to the turret. Problem two, and more importantly, is if you need to bail out the only way out is the turret."
"Yeah, I'll stick with my Drummond for now," you deferred.
"Fair, but if you need it I brought a spare King Spire with your name on it."
"I'll keep that in mind. If need be, I can put Asuna in it: she's usually the more forward of us two anyway."
"Good. Having the commander disappear again would be, ah, problematic."
You laughed. "I'll try not to die this time. Stay safe, Tymur."
"You too, Melanie."
Smiling at him, you grabbed his hand for a minute. Stopping, he looked back at you, before you got up too. Stepping around the table, you went over to give that too-trim colonel of yours a hug, before stepping back and shooting him a smirk.
"Bet ya a tank we can get to Wethering Halls," you joked.
"Four cannons we start knocking on the gates to Rime," he shot back.
"Bet."
///
It was day 6 before you actually got the operation aimed at the border, the train forming up and ready to roll. Each regiment would be hitting four hours after the next, excepting the detachment of the 1/11 that would be covering your guns and the detachment of the 62e that would be covering the 64e's headquarters. The Intelligence Scans had been fired, and it looked as bad as you feared- and the Commandos had confirmed it.
"Remember everyone!" you called out on the radio. "If shit goes wrong, we leave and do corpse patrol later!"
"Battery 1, we copy that," Asuna's voice chirped out.
"Battery 2, afirm," Mihay said, with a dry and formal tone.
"Battery 3, afirm!" Calico said, twitchy as she mirrored Mihay.
"Infantry!" you snapped. "Advance!"
One by one, trucks rolled over the border, and disappeared. Soon enough, your Drummond followed them.
///
It was bright, several hours earlier in the day, when you rematerialized in Weathered Expanse. The wind was still howling, but the skirmish line of infantry from the 62e had moved up and you could feel them chattering to each other.
"Captain Eisenhorn, status?" you asked, as the lead truck of First Battery came through next to a Construction Vehicle to build the border base.
"Nothing found yet, but we're starting to see activity from the enemy bunker line. They're about three and a half kilometers away from our listening posts, and we're digging in-?"
Turning around, you blinked in shock- and you're sure Eisenhorn did too- as the Border Base suddenly started flying a Warden flag. "What?" you asked.
"Er, General?" the young man in the CV called out on the builder frequency. "It, uh, said 'base claimed' and it has an interactable inventory form."
"Well, what's in there?"
"Shirts, a bunch of Loughcasters, Mammons, and Harpas. Some B-mats and other stuff."
"I won't say no to free shit, now get to work on the berms! We've got supplies coming in an hour!"
"Yes'm!"
It was only then, that you realized- mostly from Silica's incredulous look from the driver's seat- that you'd said that all in Ukrainian. "I guess the language lessons are working," you joked, but it fell flat. The tensions were too high.
The hours dragged on, until your guns and several trucks of crated supplies came up on in. Asuna was chomping at the bit, and before you could gainsay her your first battery was flying forward to the listening posts of the infantry. Soon enough, you could here the crack-thump of the Wolfhounds in the distance, Asuna pushing the ranges wide open as hard as she could- it was probably still the better part of a kilometer to the enemy lines, but they'd been dug in triple deep. No matter where those shells were landing, they were hitting bunkers or trenches or whatever poor fucks had to fix it all.
Second battery soon followed the first, Mihay being perfectly willing to drive in closer to hit them with his sword. Chatter indicated he was pushing in even closer, hoovering through shells like it was going out of fashion from his initial base of fire at five hundred meters to the enemy lines. Now, anti-tank garrisons were starting to try and counterbattery him, but the range was extreme for them: they were loosing the dispersion fight, and most of the W-pattern bunkers didn't have enough anti-tank to stop the guns.
Then Calico went in like hell was on her heels, pushing in to three hundred meters with her gunners banging away like the devil himself was on their heels. For all her guts, though, it wasn't enough: one of her trucks got hit, and she ended up having to get a large number of her troopers to haul that unit's gun back until the AT garrisons stopped shooting. Hopefully, she'd learn from her troops' sore backs.
"Supply corps, prep a spare ammo truck, battery three lost a mover."
"Wilco, General."
It kept up like that, as the armored units started coming across the border. Company Anna rolled over in martial glory, its tanks prompting cheers- and for your artillery to start shifting west, focusing on nipping open the corner of the fortifications. Grabbing your radio, you tabbed over to the fire group's controls.
"Asuna, what's your status?" you asked, making some vague point-and-go gestures at Silica, who kindly pulled you off into a field. The sun was falling, and the snow was hiding the mud of the truck-drivers as the guns wheeled.
"We're trying to start wearing down that position, but its taking time," your artillery leader said, "and they've got repair elements. The tier two stuff is breaking, but that concrete is tough."
"Push in closer- if we lose the forties, we can move over to mortars."
"Wilco, pushing in to two-five-zero meters."
And that was that. Company Boris and Company Vasily were over the border soon enough, and the wheeling, thundering attacks kept pouring in. The sun went high, and then set, and when the 62e finished arriving you were getting tired of this horse-shit. With Asuna's battery standing down for a few hours for rest and food, you sat out under a freezing table with her and Kazoo.
"We need to break that damn fort some," you started. "Kazoo, can your infantry get machine guns in close enough to suppress those AT garrisons?"
"Maybe," he hedged. "I'll be at about two hundred meters- can your gunners make those hits?"
"No," Asuna groused. "But if we throw eight guns at the problem, it'll stop being a damn problem soon enough."
"Orr?"
You considered. "We try it in four hours. Make sure you pack extra ammo, and that your drivers are cautious."
"We've been saving the Moors Special Rations for this shit," Kazoo joked, pulling out the gray-wrapped blue tabs of trouble. "We'll be ready."
"Right, then we go when Asuna's battery is ready."
It took the better part of an hour, by which point you'd tapped a few unallocated 'spare hands' to run you a pair of mortars and a truck to load ammo with. You wanted this bunker illuminated, damn it, and you weren't putting up with any excuses.
"Silica, are they ready?" you asked, as your petite driver/RIO sat in the Drummond as you started freezing your tits off.
"Asuna and Lieutenant Caraveli are ready, yes!"
Clapping the mortar gunner on the shoulder, you shouted over the wind. "Thirty degrees, maximum muzzle velocity, bearing one-seven-five one flare round!"
"Thirty degrees, one-seven-five, max power, flare," the mortarman replied, loading her tube. "Firing!"
The dull -thump- of the mortar sounded out, as the flare shell soared away from you. It didn't end up illuminating the bunker you were aiming at- one that had taken a lot of heat earlier in the day- but it was still a bunker. One that was quickly slathered in 12.7mm fire, forcing the AI-for-an-AI garrisons into standby.
Then Asuna's gunners drove in. Three hundred meters… two fifty meters… two hundred meters- and they weren't stopping. One hundred fifty meters, still pressing closer.
Then the trucks about-faced at one hundred meters. Machine gun garrisons were already slowly pivoting their spotlights, the signal that they'd start firing any second now. It was a pregnant pause, as the guns unlimbered. Then, with a sound of rolling thunder, Asuna unleashed hell. Most Wolfhound crews averaged about eight rounds a minute: eight-ish seconds between shells.
As the blasts rolled over each other without a chance for you to figure out what the hell was going on, your eyes widened as you brought field glasses to your eyes. Those guns were- that was four, maybe three seconds between shots. How the hell was Asuna keeping the ammo coming that fast? Hell, how was she loading the guns that fast? The damn things had a two-second cycle time! Then, you saw the magic happen. The spotlights on the bunker went dark, then the flags went down. From there, a loud, massive crash sounded out: loud enough to deafen the gunners, the guns, and the pounding of the blood in your ears.
The first piece of concrete had fallen- and Asuna was pivoting targets.
"Move to one-eight-two bearing, same range!" you snapped. "Pop another flare!"
"One-two-eight more flare yes SIR!" the mortarman shouted, and another little ball of sunshine went screaming downrange. Once again, the target was illuminated, and then that blazing hailfire of guns hit. The concrete was cracking, soundly cracking, but it wasn't enough. One gun after another went silent, their crews signaling to hitch up and leave. As the last gun left, you blinked, clearing your ears out. Moving back to the staff car, you picked up the radio.
"Asuna, what was that?" you asked, curious.
"Mad minute fire drill," she replied, panting audibly over the radio. "Had to bring extra loaders on the limbers, but worth it."
"You what?"
"Extra loaders riding on the gun tails," she explained. You didn't need it explained, you knew what a limber was. "All volunteers. Needed them to hold shells off the trucks."
"Think you can do that again?" you asked.
"One more time? Sure. Two, no."
"Then do it one more time," you said, peering through your field glasses carefully, "because the next row is all machine gun garrisons."
"What."
"W-patterns," you clarified. "First row was balanced, but this row is… rifle garrison, MG garrison, rifle garrison. They've got AT on the back bunkers- and oh, now I see it."
"Orr, what is it!"
"They expected us to yolo the tanks in! They expected that, and then they built AT on the back side of some of the bunkers so we'd dive in and get wrecked!"
You could swear you heard the air screaming as Asuna yelled at the lunacy of that. "Well then," she finally said into the radio, all prim and proper, "I guess our tankers know?"
"Our tankers know not to twitch until I say so," you explained. "I should call them, though, and see if they have anything to put up into this."
"Just wait until we're all back at base…" Asuna groaned.
It was near 0400 in the morning when Asuna, Zairman, and all the artillery and armor commanders got together. You, Asuna, and the artillery teams looked dead to the world, while the armor sections were still reasonably fresh.
"So we've learned that whatever architect they had here was an idiot," you said, slogging away at a precious thermos of coffee that had come in with a logistics vehicle. God, you'd kill for a field kitchen right now. "And their second line is built around rearward AT garrisons to fire en enfilade on whatever tries crawling around them."
"So in other words, as long as we don't try and get behind them, they'll shatter," one of the armor commanders said, rubbing his hands together.
"If the front guns don't get you first," Asuna snapped. "I'm still worried."
"Listen, one more run tonight, then we'll move into daylight and back to the long-range engagement."
"We literally can't sustain this, Orr!" Asuna finally snapped. "We have between four hundred and five hundred people as combat arms here, trying to run out of a kitchen meant for twenty! If we can't push out of the Decay and Rapid Decay zones and base up, people will start starving!"
"And if this doesn't work, I'll stand down the 1/11e and put them back at the railhead, and we'll wait for the backhand blow and deal with it then," you replied, tired. "One more thunder run, and you and yours will stand down for rest and food."
"Rest, yes, you mean sleeping in the back of a truck by a campfire," Asuna bitched.
"If you're making her sleep, you need it too," Zairman said, putting a hand on your shoulder. "I've got at least four more hours of naps under my belt than you, so let's get this thunder run done and I'll take over until you get six nice hours of sack time."
You wanted to snap and argue, but damn it, he was right. "Fine, but make sure Kazoo is briefed in."
"Of course."
The next 'thunder run' went entirely according to plan- and thus, you and Silica were bundled off into your staff car, to sleep under a large horizon blue wool blanket.
///
The next morning dawned cold, hungry, and early as a tank rolled past your parking spot. Wiping the sleep from your eyes and the crick from your neck, you went back to the Border Base that was serving as your command post- and blinked in shock as you saw six Outposts next to it on the other side of the road. Ducking in, you looked at Kazoo, who waved with a sleepy grin.
"So y'all are," he said, stopping to yawn, "bloodthirsty gits."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. None of you checked, and turns out? Border bases give immunity to decay in a 1km radius outside standard supply use."
You gaped like a fish. "Uh. Oh. Hm. That's important."
"No shit!" Kazoo said, laughing. "People are packed in like sardines, but we're not paying too badly for it. Your girl, Calico, has been putting in work though, using my boys as shell-handlers for long-range bombardment. It's keeping the goblins on their toes, and most of them aren't going to be stupid around the guns at least."
"Good," you said, smiling. "Because it'll be thunder run o'clock soon."
"I'd agree with you," Kazoo said mildly, "but we already got Vasily Company around the edge. They didn't anchor things right- and they got into a good spot and just played stationary artillery. If you put your Wolfhounds there, it'll probably let them start going nuts."
"I'll talk to them, then," you said as you grabbed a bowl of grits and elk jerky. The corn meal softened it to be mostly edible-ish, and the piping hot coffee you washed it down with didn't hurt. Grabbing another bowl to take to Silica, you just yawned.
Finding the sleepy girl in your Drummond, the little thing just moved herself over to the passenger seat while you took the driver's seat, trundling out to check the camp and the lines. Cranes and sandbagged reloading and logistics bays had gone up en masse, walls and gates protecting areas from any artillery pointed at you. The vehicle yards were piled high with snow where fires didn't burn in alcoves, and you could feel the place stirring to life as more and more of your artillerymen tromped to their pieces.
"This is General Orr," you called into the radio on the command net. "What's our status?"
"General Orr, this is Captain Uhlman. We've secured a small point where their anti-tank can't hit. Can you come out and survey the site? We think you can get your guns here."
"Wilco, be out in thirty- still getting briefs."
"This is Colonel Kazoo to Orr, I've got things handled and a decent desk setup here. Major MacLaine is holding the line, and has started pushing up into the husk line- Uhlman's been doing good work. Most of my guys are down on rotation right now, but I can hold on for another hour or so."
"Thank you, Kazoo. How's supplies look?"
"Food's a little ass, but that's because we're running three-to-one Bsupp to Gsupp consumption to get the freebies that came with the border base used up. Morale is fine, and wonder of wonders- we get a telegraph here."
Silica, now halfway through her coffee, bolted upright. "Orr please you gotta let me-"
You were already turning the car around. "Yeah I know."
"-thank you thank you thank you!"
"Roger that, gonna swing by then and drop off Sergeant Silica as a comms handler. We're currently telegraming King and then it's going to the 9e or the 142e who bring it to the railhead, right?"
"Thereabouts."
"Hah!" Silica laughed. "I can use the radio repeater in The Pike so we don't have to have them do that!"
"HQ, comms sergeant says she can do it better," you joked, elbowing Silica so she'd be quiet. "I'll take her word for it, she was in a comms regiment."
"Hah! We need her, then."
Pulling back up at the border base, you unceremoniously pointed to the low, concrete structure. Hopping out, Silica got moving, while you waited as another one of your people came out to be a general set of hands. Klasse, one of the people Mihay had been training up, came out to the Drummond with more coffee, sliding in wordlessly.
"Sergeant Klasse," you said, welcoming her in. "Good morning."
"Good morning, Colonel Orr," she said, buckling in after handing you a mug of the black. "Going to the lines?"
"Yep."
"Mind if I drive?"
"Alright?" you said, questioning as you got out to swap seats. "Any reason why?"
"Well, for one, you need to be focused on reading this," she said, handing you over a patent leather Asuna Folder of data. "Supply info, compiled by Asuna's staff, and backed up by the girls in the 9e. Pretty important stuff."
As Klasse started driving, you started digging through the summary. Shell use, a little higher than expected. Shirt use, lower. 7.92 ammo, much lower- turns out they did, in fact, have two thousand cases of it in the back. Mortar use, even with projections. 12.7mm ammo, through the fucking roof, and Theresa had started panhandling for it.
"So what's the second reason?" you asked, as you left the Decay zone and the husks of trenches and tier two bunkers started dotting the landscape.
"The second reason?"
"You know, 'the first reason is so you can read this,' implies there's a second reason," you said idly.
"Oh, yeah, that!" Klasse said, smiling as she detoured around what looked like an unexploded anti-tank mine. "Mihay told me to be your driver so you wouldn't die again."
"That son of a bitch," you grumbled.
"Yep."
It was mostly silent, until you got up to where the Vasily Company was sitting. A few trenches and tier 1 bunkers speckled the area, the company's storm tanks being worked over with hammers and stacks of B-mats as Captain Uhlman stood on top, smoking a cigarette. Getting out of the car, you moved up to him carefully.
"Captain," you said evenly. "I'm here."
"Ah, General, excellent!" Uhlman shouted. "Come up here, look!"
Making your way up, you pulled out your binos, before peering over the sandbag parapet of the bunker. "Walk me through it, Captain," you said, trying your Ukranian on for size. "Slowly, please."
"So the attache's- something you didn't catch- true," he muttered, before switching back to English. "I would enjoy working on your professional development, but as it stands I speak English well enough to work in it."
"Alright," you said, trying not to frown.
"It's not a criticism!" he laughed, making a small smile. "It's a credit to your work. Shows a lot of dedication. But we cannot afford the General missing something from a silly mistake- and you've probably found a lot of those!"
You winced, remembering the day you missed practice and had to put up with terrible puns getting told to you and then explained until you were in the proper amount of mental pain. "Point."
"Either way, working time," Uhlman said. "From the east, tracking southward. We're out of range of the few AT guns there, mostly because Lieutenant Calico has been bludgeoning them to death. She's been working about a hundred, hundred and fifty meters to the rear of us, and we're target designating with a mortar. It works well."
"Good working together," you said, eyes panning over the damaged concrete lines, until you got to about the third line of unshattered defenses. "I see they went back to sensible design, on this layer."
"Yes, anti-tank and machine gun garrisons. Fortunately, we are protected by the angle of the mountain here," Uhlman said, "and we can get mortar fire over the edge of the slope. Barely."
"You mentioned putting a battery here," you said, rubbing your hands together. "Are you thinking mortars?"
"I'm thinking mortars and forties- we start having serious issues past a hundred and sixty meters. Your Wolfhounds will do the job better. A few mortars will let you get the third line positions behind the mountain, and then we'll see what we see."
"This position seems safe enough, and I have been itching to get a mortar battery out," you muttered. "Can I borrow some of your infantry to serve as ammobearers so we can keep trucks moving?"
"If they volunteer, they volunteer," Uhlman stoically mumbled, "but I don't trust enough of my people to know enough English or French to be of much use."
"Fair enough, I'll call the guns up. Hopefully, we'll pull this off."
It took, well, literal hours. You'd gotten started at eight in the morning, been on the line since eight-thirty, and it was dead noon when the gunners managed to produce more breakthroughs. Even Landry had time commanding a battery now, and if it wasn't for the fact you knew Silica was filling every minute she wasn't delivering an official message gossiping, she'd probably have snuck off to put her rank to good use. You'd spent more than a little time hogging your radio to keep track of everything, but when the breach opened up you gulped.
"That's a bunker core," you muttered, looking at the textbook turtle. "That's a bunker core."
"Yes…" Klasse said, peering over at you. "It is."
"Klasse, if we blow that, it'll knock down massive chunks of this damn fort!" you said, grinning and grabbing your radio. "Come in, Battery Two!"
"Battery two, we read you," Mercator, one of your sergeants, muttered. "What is it, chief?'
"See that big-ass odd duck with the Colonial rag on it the size of a truck?"
"Aye."
"Every gun needs to get on that. Rapid fire, right fucking now. If we break that, then a massive chunk of this fort goes down."
"Wait, shit, really?"
"Yes."
"Right, fuck, getting on that!" Mercator yelled. "I gotta run, and uh, please send more shells! We got lots of helpers!"
Rolling your eyes, you clacked over to the supply net, and started calling up shells. The guns outside were running surprisingly slow- until you figured out what Mercator was doing. Those were ranging shots- he wanted every gun individually zeroed. It might take a few minutes, but it would conserve ammo until the trucks got here: and when they did fifteen minutes later, it was back up to that snarling, howling twenty-rounds-a-minute fire tempo.
It took ten minutes of that to break the bunker core, but by god: when it broke, it tore a swath out of the enemy defenses, on all lines. Uhlman didn't even bother getting on the radio, just banging on the side of your staff car.
"Orr! We need to fucking go!" he yelled. "Their last line only has AT pillboxes, we can roll that shit over in ten minutes! It's just Y-patterns!"
It took exactly one half second to decide what to say. "Do it," you snapped. "I'll radio Zairman, godspeed."
You didn't make out the rest of the hollering, but you did see the blue exhaust plumes of the company's tanks light off, as well as hear the tapering off of the guns as the helping hands all went out to the trucks so they could go deep. Meanwhile, it was back to the command net.
"HQ, come in," you snapped. "HQ, come in."
"This is Headquarters, aye," Silica said, yawning. "What did you blow up?"
"We cracked a bunker core, and it brought down a massive chunk of the line."
"Yeah, I'm just gonna call in fucking everyone," Silica decided, swearing before letting out a loud yawn. "You're probably gonna want to get back here too."
"We're on the way," Klasse said, starting the car and getting you rolling.
///
"Alright people," you snapped, hitting the table in the border base. "We've got our opening. Zairman, sorry about jumping over you, but I sent Company Vasily in to recon in force and see what they could open up."
"Not a problem, this time," Zairman said, taking a second to pull his hair back from where it flopped over his shoulder to where it could fall down his back. "I already issued orders that if you managed to make a hole, they were to conduct a limited exploitation of it."
"Glad we're working together, then," you said, looking over the map table as Silica and some kid from the 62e were manning the radios and frantically writing everything out. "Kazoo, what's our depth of penetration look like?"
"Company Vasily reports three lost trucks, but all their tanks and most everything else has gotten past Fort Amanda," Kazoo said. "I've got my boys mounted up, ready to go if you want to punch."
"I have Third Company manning the defenses, but otherwise I'm in the same boat," MacLaine said, grinning. "Let's fucking go!"
"Slow down, now," you grumbled at the lot. "We're not going to go balls deep on the bitch before we figure out if that's a bad bush trimming, or if she's hiding herpes. Someone's got to stick behind and cover the border base."
Crickets.
"I will pull names out of a hat if I need to," you snapped. Finally, MacLaine sighed, pushing his hair up.
"I guess I can leave Third Company on base defense. It'll be rough without their extra machine guns, but we can deal."
"Very good. I'm also going to leave a gun battery back here to back them up: probably Battery Two," you added. "They can work down the rest of the forts and open us more room to push through. Zairman, can you put a company on widening the hole?"
"Company Boris and Battery Gold will have the honor," Zairman said, smirking. "I'll ride with the headquarters section, and Major Sabreur will go in with Company Anna."
"Then the 11e and Battery One, the the 62e and Battery Three," you decided, to nods from both. "I'll ride with Zairman."
"Absolutely not-"
"Out of the question!"
"I refuse-!"
Slapping the table hard enough to spill coffee, you glared at them all. "And why shouldn't I be with a forward element?"
"We need your staff to keep a handle on respawns, and more importantly, on supplies," Zairman said, staring deadass at you. "I know each one of my tanks needs a truck of shells every hour- your guns need that every half hour. We can only carry so many trucks with us, so you'll need to handle respawns, rotations, and duty shifts."
"Unfortunately, he's right," MacLaine said. "We need you or someone from the Logistics arm here, and they won't move up until we've got more ground secured- at the very least, until we've safed out that fort."
"Sorry, Orr," Kazoo grinned at you. "You're outvoted."
"This is the most crass, base mutiny I have ever seen," you growled.
"We'll make it up to you later, Napoleon," MacLaine joked, right until you started staring at him hard enough to make his ushanka start smoking.
"Base. Mutiny."
"Love you too, General," Zairman said, flipping you a salute that would be better served with a middle finger. "Let's roll here, people, I want to get a forward bunker base up by tonight before Orr decides we're riding into the Port of Rime, shiny and chrome."
"Hah hah, get going." you said, shooing them away. "It's late, I'm going to rack out for a bit. Kazoo, you have the command since you're last to leave."
"Yes ma'am."
Going to one of the bunks, you pulled off your hat and boots, before climbing in under the thick wool blanket. Rolling over petulantly, you sighed into the pillow. You wanted to be at the front end, or at least not stuck in a bunker base kilometers behind the action. And if you were going to be stuck here, you wanted someone warm to share the bed with. And if you were going to be stuck in bed alone, you at least wanted your fuzzy pjs and that little Phyrgian cap in red with a fluffy ball at the end of it.
Morning came… eventually… with Klasse shaking you awake with a cup of coffee, some toast with lingonberry jam, and a frantic look. "General, you need to get to the radio desk."
"I dun wanna," you groused.
"Zairman's kicked over Weathering Halls."
"What."
"I tell no lies, Zairman managed to get Asuna into position where they could knock down the Weathering Halls Town Center and now they are screaming for a full press. They need shells, fuel, b-mats, and CVs."
Rolling out of bed and into your boots, you zombied your way over to the radio desk, slapping it over to the right frequency. "Zairman," you grumbled into it, taking a deep pull on the coffee. "What the fuck. Over."
"Orr? Thank fuck you're finally up," Zairman said, sounding dead tired. "We, uh. We went above and beyond."
"Status first, Tymur," you said, glaring at the bread. "Where are you, how many dead people do I have to get to you, how much ammo do you need."
"I am, uh, just east of the Weathering Halls. Ten kilometers south of the border, seven and a half past the east edge of the throat. We, uh. We went berserk. The first battalion, eleventh infantry- uh, near-total loss. We have almost all the dog tags going back, though, so it'll regenerate. Shistdesyat druhyy- er, sixty-second, eighty-five percent casualties, no longer combat effective. All dog tags and corpses retrieved, en route to you. Battery Black is destroyed. Totally. Ran into enemy mortar section, mutual annihilation of counterbattery fires. Bodies and fifty percent equipment salvaged, they were dry on ammo anyway. Your batteries. Battery One, down to two guns. Anti-tank rifles are feature of tier three garrison house, we didn't know until we did. Battery Three, down one gun and seventy percent of troops, all corpses recovered. Smoke grenadier squads; hid in rubble and used green ash grenades. Very effective. My unit, is not good. Down four tanks across all companies, thirty percent strength, all bodies recovered. We are dry on 40mm shells, dry on mortar shells, and falling back. Infantry supplies are mostly fine."
"Christ," you whispered. At the minor cost of a shitload of shirts, Zairman had, somehow, completed most of your mission objectives. Alone. Keying the microphone, you pulled yourself back together. "That's good work. Return to base for resupply, I'll send as many people as I can outbound to make sure you all get home."
"Good," Zairman muttered. "Lost fifth tank. Drove into bunker husk, will need tow. Ordering crew to lock, and setting guard over."
"Get home safe," you added in Ukrainian. "I'm calling the supply people."
"Thank you, General…"
With that, the line shut off with a click. Turning to Klasse, you stared. "How many people do we have here?"
"Most everyone who's back is rested, revived, and withdrawn new arms. Most of them who got bored were helping Battery Two do demolitions work, they've got most of the fortifications reduced, and the right side of the road cleared out decently. The husks make it slower than hell to navigate, but we've got people out there putting down signs."
"Good. Now the question is, does anyone know where a commo sergeant is so we can call the railroad people?"
"I'm not asleep!" a yell came up from the other radio desk, where Silica was most definitely sleeping. "What do you need, Orr?"
"Call up the railhead, tell them to start sending busses for revived troops," you said, gesturing for another cup of coffee. "Also, we are gonna need like… six shitloads more 40mm, yes many B-mats, a couple more tanks, and mammons for days."
A brief flurry of clicks, klacks, and beep-boop later, and Silica looked at you. "How many more tanks?"
"Eh, start with six."
"Six tanks, got it."
A moment later, Silica blinked, tapped a few words out, and looked at you. "Fuel tanks, right?"
"Yeah, gonna need those too," you muttered as you ate more of your bread.
"So you want more of the panzer tanks."
"Yes."
"Hooo boy."
More clicking and clacking. "Theresa hates you. Also the press is banging on the doors of the railhead in The King, and she wants to know what the name of this new brigade making such massive claims is."
"Names?"
"Yes, Orr, a name."
"Uh, shit," you grumbled. "Can't damn well say its mine, people talk about me enough."
"Quite," Klasse said, bringing over a small sandwich and more blessed coffee.
"Tell Theresa to stall for now, I'll come up with something by the time we build Weathering Halls." you said quickly, reaching for the promised virtual caffeine.
"That's about an hour out, and there's going to be a broadband, everyone-in-the-game announcement when you do it," Klasse reminded you, withholding the coffee. "Answer."
"Fuuuuuck," you muttered, going facedown into the desk. "I don' wanna."
"General…" Klasse said dangerously.
"Fine, fuck, just give me my fucking coffee, I hate being on operation," you growled. "Stupid fucking… this was supposed to go wrong like twenty minutes in."
"You expected this to fail?" Kazoo said as he walked in. You just glared at him.
"Weren't you out with the regiment?" you snapped.
"Ate a mortar shell," he said, shrugging. "So. Brigade names."
"Go sit on a shell and spin," you growled. "I'll come up with a name, alright?"
"Fine, but once I get a gun and some food, I'm leading the CV in."
You strongly resisted the urge to throw a mug of coffee at the smug asshole as he walked out with a Blakerow, as you leaned back and started to think.
Fuck. You hated thinking before three- no, you were on an operation, in the rear, where the only thing you could hear were trucks, better make this five- cups of coffee. Urg. While you were at it, you better make plans for moving your command post: now that you were out of the Rapid Decay Zone by all accounts, it would probably be a good idea to get closer to the front lines so you didn't accidentally turn into fucking Hooker. Horrible fate, that.
///
Votes
Normally there would be a "what next" vote but considering the massive, titanic, comical overrun, you get some smaller votes while I move the timeline on things aaaaaal the way up.
[] [Brigade Name]: Go with something plain and simple that nobody will get confused by: White Horse Brigade
[] [Brigade Name]: You might not want to name it after yourself, but you can always make it an allusion: Golden Ghost Brigade
[] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[] [Brigade Name]: Write-in
[] [New HQ]: Base out of Weathering Halls directly: it'll be comfier than a fresh bunker base.
[] [New HQ]: Base out of a bunker west of Weathering Halls, in position to maximize the power you can ram through Reavent's Path and Fort Yves that stands between you and Rime.
[] [New HQ]: Base out of a bunker southeast of Weathering Halls, in a position central to the long, narrow Main Line of Resistance you'll have to guard against a Colonial Counterattack from Shattered Advance.
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup d'Or
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup bleus
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of Weathering Halls directly: it'll be comfier than a fresh bunker base.
This went too well for something to not go horribly wrong so let's keep our command post away from the frontlines for now.
] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup d'Or-[X] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup bleus
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of Weathering Halls directly: it'll be comfier than a fresh bunker base.
This went too well for something to not go horribly wrong so let's keep our command post away from the frontlines for now.
Last edited:
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
A brigade is several companies or something like that, so the name for the total group of forces participating in this attack?
What nationality are the two infantry groups, not Zairman but the infantry, helping us out with this?
What nationality are the two infantry groups, not Zairman but the infantry, helping us out with this?
Last edited:
FC Error
Missileer
- Location
- Aware of where I am not
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Write-in: Fólkvangr Brigade of Guards
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of a bunker southeast of Weathering Halls, in a position central to the long, narrow Main Line of Resistance you'll have to guard against a Colonial Counterattack from Shattered Advance.
Norse mythology is fairly widely-known and thus makes a good choice for pulling names out of hats. As to the base; it'll slightly cut back our options to beat up Rime for its lunch money, but I'd rather not eat a counteroffensive into an exposed flank if I've any say at all in the matter.
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Write-in: Fólkvangr Brigade of Guards
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of a bunker southeast of Weathering Halls, in a position central to the long, narrow Main Line of Resistance you'll have to guard against a Colonial Counterattack from Shattered Advance.
Norse mythology is fairly widely-known and thus makes a good choice for pulling names out of hats. As to the base; it'll slightly cut back our options to beat up Rime for its lunch money, but I'd rather not eat a counteroffensive into an exposed flank if I've any say at all in the matter.
Decim
On again, off again lurker.
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
Battalions are the name of a unit comprised of companies. Brigades are units comprised of Regiments. Though, really, calling the 9 units involved here a 'brigade' is a bit of a misnomer. Its closer to a Division in terms of strategic importance and organization. But eh, Brigade works.
On that note, we pushed in something like 400 combat troops and probably around 200-250 soldiers in supporting arms. We just rammed 6-7% of the entire war effort into one border fort and town, and if supplies can be found, there's very good odds we exploit the shit out of this.
The 11th are French, I think, don't recall the other.
But I'm good with this, because Freya doesn't get enough attention, and having attention on the southern line if we can get Tepes to make a push will be good.
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Write-in: Fólkvangr Brigade of Guards
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of a bunker southeast of Weathering Halls, in a position central to the long, narrow Main Line of Resistance you'll have to guard against a Colonial Counterattack from Shattered Advance.
But I'm good with this, because Freya doesn't get enough attention, and having attention on the southern line if we can get Tepes to make a push will be good.
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Write-in: Fólkvangr Brigade of Guards
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of a bunker southeast of Weathering Halls, in a position central to the long, narrow Main Line of Resistance you'll have to guard against a Colonial Counterattack from Shattered Advance.
FC Error
Missileer
- Location
- Aware of where I am not
Zairman's lot (62nd infantry) are Ukrainian.
- Location
- UTC -6
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup d'Or
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup bleus
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of Weathering Halls directly: it'll be comfier than a fresh bunker base.
Town Halls have better comm equipment than bunkers, and I half expect to get shoved back to the town edges a few times. Attacks can come at us from two ways and the south front is a wide one. Until militia and or house seekers start bulking up the lines we should plan to swat attacks away as they come. Which, I believe, is best conducted from the Town Hall.
Things can change, of course, and change fast if Hooker's forces start laying into the Colonials. Fingers crossed.
] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup d'Or-[X] [Brigade Name]: Brigade des loup bleus
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of Weathering Halls directly: it'll be comfier than a fresh bunker base.
Town Halls have better comm equipment than bunkers, and I half expect to get shoved back to the town edges a few times. Attacks can come at us from two ways and the south front is a wide one. Until militia and or house seekers start bulking up the lines we should plan to swat attacks away as they come. Which, I believe, is best conducted from the Town Hall.
Things can change, of course, and change fast if Hooker's forces start laying into the Colonials. Fingers crossed.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We can just be the Valkyries like Zairman called us earlier.
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[X] [Brigade Name]: High Valkyries
Wasn't sure about an adjective, High sounds alright.
Don't know about basing.
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[X] [Brigade Name]: High Valkyries
Wasn't sure about an adjective, High sounds alright.
Don't know about basing.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm not gonna accept we can't be called Valkyries because we're a mixed unit. No one gives 40K shit for calling space marines Astartes.
- Location
- United States
[X] [Brigade Name]: Ehhh, it only has to be adjective-noun, how hard can that be?
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Write-in: Fólkvangr Heavy Brigade
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of Weathering Halls directly: it'll be comfier than a fresh bunker base.
-[X] [Brigade Name]: Write-in: Fólkvangr Heavy Brigade
[X] [New HQ]: Base out of Weathering Halls directly: it'll be comfier than a fresh bunker base.
Last edited:
I don't think that being a mixed unit would block off a Valkyrie name. On the other hand being the "Blue Wolf Brigade" sounds pretty nice to me as well.