Hailstorm on Hill 425: Part Three

One by one or in pairs, they stumbled through the next wall of bushes and worn down rock walls expecting to see the same thing ahead, only to find the misty fog rolling out before them like the parting of a show curtain. And as those swirling curtains swept back, they saw concertina wire, earthen berms and sandbags piled up, some wooden structures starting to be raised up in the morning sun. They knew the enemy had some outposts here, but Martin was the only one who had any idea on what to expect. There were a few trenchlines coming together in the piled up dirt, zigzagging ever so slightly, and he could just see the dugout for a vehicle to the rear of it.

Luckily, that dugout was empty. In fact the trenchline itself was empty, or seemed that way. But they saw bobbing helmets and radio antennae shuffling to and fro on the edges of the position. It was oriented almost like a triangle with the broadest side facing them. Martin hoped the intel boys got it right and the position was undermanned.

Hailstorm on Hill 425 Part Two

The next morning the choppers were up, coming down in a haze of swirling fog. A few scouts had crept out earlier and marked the LZ beforehand with IR strobes, but even then guiding the birds down into the confined space was difficult. Things did go off without a hitch, for the most part. They always expect Yanks to come in helicopters.

They tumbled out, Martin took his guys and duck walked up to something solid as the other two squads organized. They would have trouble seeing anything that was there in the mist looking for them. But on the other hand if they used their estimates and movement plans as they should, they might just be able to sneak through and not have to get into a brawl. On the other hand their CDF allies north of their assault route might not be able to see anything to take out in support.

Hailstorm on Hill 425: Part One

The room was dim, the canvas did little to deafen the roar outside as trucks and aircraft, men and women, generators and radios filled the air in the bustling base. The engineers had their hands full outside trying to bolster defensive works and pull out nonessential materiel. Inside, though, the four or five men sitting in the tent complemented the feeling of chaos outside with their unshaven faces and grimy skin.

It had been a week, with the Russians striking out over the border and seizing their objectives after long grinding fights for every objective. The Chernarussians at the Vybor Airbase were throwing another company of mechanized infantry in today, their BVP-2s squeaking and clanking up the highway past Camp Cyrano. The Russians held most of the north in the region now, but the Americans and CDF were surprised to find them unable to bring much to bear. Perhaps continued Russian commitments elsewhere and the usual poor conscription rates had finally paid off.

The force Sergeant Martin had fought for the last three days looked Russian, now and then it even fought like it was Russian. But there weren't as many Russians in this Russian battlegroup as they'd expected. Intel suggested it was maybe a regiment with attached support, which actually gave the Americans and their CDF comrades a numerical superiority. Mind you, that doesn't help much when you're trying to defend everything all at once everywhere at all times.

Shattered Aegis Flavor

I know you, dear reader, were expecting my wholly needless explanation of how US Army Bradley Platoons and Tank Platoons work, but my judgement got the better of me. At some point a guy has to admit it's been done countless times before by more talented and knowledgeable people and to tell yourself that you can sell a book on Project Rainbow just won't work. The same can be said when fellows like the guys at Armchair General do a much better job at this kind of thing, including things I've made into scenarios for Arma 3.

And since my computer is still down, I'll continue with my project here, because I believe the world of Arma needs more thrilling filling, if you know what I mean (No, not like that you perv). I couldn't ever really get into the single player of the games, which really sucked since it's really the only stuff that can get you into their mindset. I know the majority of it is pseudo special forces stuff and the like, later some guerrilla stuff. Maybe they finally get conventional, but I don't know. Either way Arma's not the story-driven kind of game I want when it comes down to it. But at the same time I find Arma 3's near-future incredibly hard to get into. As part of a regular writing thing I decided to try to plump up the background flavor as much as I could. I played the first mission of the single player for about ten minutes and got to a checkpoint and died shortly after, only to have the save be corrupt and crash my game. I never wanted to boot it back up, however. The rambling background dialogue meandering in a mix of aimless exposition that fills up so much of games these days just wasn't what I wanted to get slowly flown into again.

So I wrote this, straight from the White House War Room or conference room or whatever you want to decide they have in the future.

Shattered Aegis Part One: The Greenbacks, Well, the Rest of Them

So I left out 1st Regiment's Charlie Company last post. This is mostly because I have little to no references that help for this. You see Arma's a stubborn game with concepts of cargo being uniform in the future across all factions and units. Say you've got an IFV or an APC or a helicopter, well nine times out of ten they'll have three crew and eight cargo spots. Threes and eights, guys. Now that's all fine and good, if you're in the Armaverse (Let that not be a thing), but if you're trying to tie equipment to real life, you're going to have a doubly hard time here. The AAF get two armored vehicles, one tank, an Anti-Aircraft carrier and a few choppers.

The AAF get two vics for this-the Mora and Gorgon. The Gorgon's based off the Pandur APC the Poles are using, but I can't find anything on their organization. The Mora's a variation on the Warrior IFV the English have. Mind you there are differences here. Now we've got this crazy mix of absurd things going on with the AAF only a true deviant could consider. But now here's the kicker, I'm that deviant.

Shattered Aegis Part One: The Greenbacks

So I was mulling over scenarios, listening to audiobooks and reading about young men being sent to shoot other young men. Mainly I'm listening to Last Stand at Khe Sanh, which is a great story that a lot of people know. But it wasn't until around the time President Johnson was considering deploying tactical nukes that people started comparing the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu to Khe Sanh. I was thinking about the differences.

1. High Ground
The Marines held all the outlying high ground around Khe Sanh airbase, and even captured enemy positions along the high ground at a number of points in the seige. The French allowed the Vietnamese to capture the ridges and heights around their positions, then allowed the Vietnamese to bring howitzers up onto the ridges and direct fire onto their positions.
2. Resupply
Marines stubbornly refused to allow themselves to go without supply. Logistics flights continued on the airstrip amid RPGs and mortars at Khe Sanh, and soldiers ran out to pull wounded onto flights and to pull supplies off the tarmac. The French resigned themselves to go without supply, their fliers would dump drops frantically, some of them landing in enemy lines, and their troops refused to risk grabbing crates and boxes of supplies under fire.

There's probably more, but those two are in my head. That being said, it'd be interesting to run a seige scenario of Altis International. Perhaps with the Altis Armed Forces 1st Division in defense as either the 7th Cavalry (US Army) or the 24th Regiment (CSAT) attacks it. We could pick either side to play. But I found some lovely ORBATs from the base game itself that made me get thinking more.

Chernarussian Campaign: The Coast

For three months, the Chernarussian Movement of the Red Star (Chedaki or ChDKZ) had marauded through the province of South Zagoria. When the USMC pushed them out of the region across the Russian border, it was assumed that they were a fractured and broken organization. Three years later, they filtered back through the porous border and began inciting revolution again. With bolstered columns of militiamen gathering from around the region, they struck out and occupied key locations, assassinated local functionaries, sabotaged communications systems, and eventually outright stormed banks and military barracks around the province.
Chernarussian units broke and fled to their families as they were given the choice of leaving their posts or having to fight their countrymen. Sustained seiges of outposts and bases lasted weeks as the rebels attempted to gain control of the facilities. Lopotev promptly closed the ports and began fortifying the region’s border to shut it off. He appealed to the Russian government for financial backing and signed a trade agreement with the Federation, which rapidly acknowledged the sovereignty of the new government. The Chernarussian government requested assistance from NATO again, asking for a contingent to bolster their wobbling forces. The CDF would rally in the coming days, but would be distracted with hunting NAPA partisans and solidifying control of the internal provinces against Chedaki infiltration. The Chedaki had already faced the United States, and they used what they had learned.