With the Iranians pushing south into the center of Stratis, NATO forces struggle to reform their lines and hold them back. At the center of it all is an old outpost north of Air Base Mike-28. A small detachment of Iranian troops are already taking up positions and patrolling around the outpost, but the scraps of a handful of battered NATO infantry platoons are reforming south to launch a spoiling attack.
With a rifle squad and a weapons squad, they attempt to not only halt the advance of OPFOR forces along the road, but to seize the old outpost and use it to ambush any follow on forces. Intel suggests that an air assault force is standing by as a QRF as the Iranians probe the lines.
I'm in charge of Alpha 1, a standard rifle team tasked with assaulting the outpost itself. The plan is to have Alpha squad infiltrate as close as possible to the outpost, have Delta squad set up in overwatch to the northwest of the objective, then sweep in with textbook suppression and assault.
The sun is setting over the island, casting everything in an orange-pink light for the first ten minutes, though by the time we move out to our objectives the darkness is closing in fast. The twilight puts us in an odd position--our NVGs will still blind us, but our eyes can't see as well in the fading light.
We move almost to our rally point without incident, quickly and quietly. It seems almost too good to be true, and it is. Delta squad breaks unexpectedly from its designated route, and Alpha 2 tacks on, costing us eyes and time. By the time Alpha lead and Alpha 2 rally with us, we've spotted and reported on almost twelve enemy troops along our axis of advance, with at least a fireteam on our projected rally point. If we hadn't stopped, we would've blundered right into them.
A few Iranian sentries start heading towards us, I station my automatic rifleman and my grenadier to watch their route of advance and I slide down into the gulley to potentially flank them on the footpath. The enemy sentry never materializes, and is actually never accounted for. I get random reports of enemies off in the distance on the ridgeline to our north, but they never materialize, either. Perhaps the night was playing tricks on the guys.
Before we can continue our infiltration, Delta reports choppers in the airspace above us. Things get tense. Alpha's in the bottom of the valley, moving towards a hostile force at night cut off from Delta. We decide to press the attack, as we hear Delta's machine guns ring out. I'm not sure who was discovered of the two squads, but Delta ambushes all three enemy helicopters in their landing zones, cutting down almost all of the enemy's QRF in moments. A few stragglers do manage to scramble away from the wreckage, and a few security teams from the outpost mass fire on them.
We lose contact with Delta, but press on. We gained a lot from their actions, it's time to capitalize. I charge my team in, sweeping through the old rally point, with Alpha standing on it. My team prepares to move up the hill to get into the outpost's main building--a two story office complex. Alpha 2 covers our left, still watching for those phantom figures in the north as we move carefully up the slope. I see enemy forces sprawled out on the ground, putting fires north. I order a volley of grenades--before a flurry of fire from our right flank cuts into us. Alpha 1 is enfiladed, only one of my men escaping from the fire. Alpha lead is lost firing back at the attackers, buying Alpha 2 enough time to dash into the outpost building. They make a desperate last stand in the offices, Iranian stragglers coming at them from the east and filling the second floor with rounds from their automatic rifles.
We lose eighteen men, but the enemy loses almost forty, plus three helicopters.The enemy cannot hold their objective, but neither can we. A stalemate, a bitter, if not pyrrhic victory. Screenshots to follow.
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