Mission: INSURGENT AIRFIELD
Squad Members Inserted: Cav, Greg, Christian, Dan.
I could tell right away that something was wrong.
As soon as the blackhawk lifted into the sky, the AI started saying they couldn't board it again. It had been set as the waypoint. Then Dan noticed that the first objective was already marked as complete. I definitely did not select "resume" when hosting the mission- what was going on?
We armed up and headed for the ambush point. Christian and I took up our positions while Dan herded cats and Greg entered. We scanned the hill, but the usual patrol wasn't there. There also wasn't a sniper on the tower. Could it be that the first objective was indeed complete?
There was one way to find out. I stepped out on the road and spotted two Ivans up the road near Olsha. Had a crack at one but missed. They entered the bush to the south and tried to get behind us, but were easy prey for SPLAT.
I then moved up to my grenade launching point on what could have been an empty hill, while the others waited at the bottom. When I got there I noticed at least three- sneaky Ivan! The hill was indeed in enemy hands. I turned to let the guys know, and saw an assault wave of reds charging SPLAT from the airfield!
Being up on the hill, I had a great field of fire. I dropped prone, brought up my assault rifle and dropped four of them. However I was also very visible to them. The rest turned their attention to me, and bullets started hissing through the grass all around me. I rolled like crazy to the right, taking a hit as I did so, then shot three more as the assault was repulsed.
I bandaged my wound, then proceeded assaulting the hill. I knelt to launch the grenade and was shot as I fired it. The grenade went wide, and I went down. At this point one or two of the Ivans came down the hill at us but were taken down (by Christian I believe). Someone (Dan?) climbed the hill, pulled me out of the fire and revived me.
There seemed to be one guy left behind the tower. I launched a couple of grenades at him to no effect, he must have been protected by the rocks. I went around to where he was and came up the hill firing (rather than waiting until I could see him), but was shot. Once I was revived again, the guy was gone and we'd taken the hill. We may have shot each other at the same time.
Now we were out of immediate danger, we took stock. I was almost out of grenades and Greg (who had come in late) only had an assault rifle, so the two of us ran the 1km back to the LZ as Christian and Dan scoped the airfield. Greg took an assault rifle with grenade launcher, and I swapped mine for a heavy SAW MG and 1000 rounds of ammunition. On the way back we received the notification that the convoy could be on its way. We abandoned all hope of taking the airfield and started to plan for the convoy, but it didn't show after waiting for a while.
We climbed to the road overlooking the airfield, and sized it up (still keeping an eye out for the convoy). One of the AI started to lose his nerve and blast away at the airfield even though he was way out of range. Dan ordered him to hold fire, but after a few seconds he kept shooting again. This started to get their snipers attention, and I considered executing the AI for insubordination.
Greg and Christian moved to the rocks, Dan and I crept a little south to the eastern edge of the airfield. I believe Ivan's snipers were taken out about this time. I edged out of the trees hoping to do some good with the MG but was driven back by some close fire. I followed the road down to the south to make sure no vehicles approached. I saw an Ivan sprinting across the field to the south of the airfield, as was able to take him down at a fair range with a squirt of the MG as Dan joined me. Christian and I were then on 8 kills each. I suggested we get a Legolas-Gimli thing going. He said a tank still only counts as one :).
The south of the airfield looked like a great assault position, the hills meant you could get very close to the airfield while in cover. Dan moved the AI into position to assault from the east. I asked Greg to come down, because there was a big cluster of Ivans on the runway and assaulting from the south brought them within range of the grenade launcher. He launched grenades from total cover, and our sniper on the hill (Christian) could spot and range, and direct his fire. We didn't have any success with it this time, but I think it was a good idea and worth trying again.
Dan and I crept closer to the hangars, saw that they blocked all the Ivans from view, then ran up to them and flattened against the wall. We tried a couple of angles but couldn't get at the Ivans without being dangerously exposed. They were, however, not worried about us because Christian was still picking them off from the rocks. He easily beat me in the kill count.
Greg joined me and we went to the western hangar, while Dan took the eastern. I saw part of one guy sticking out of the hangar and drilled him with the MG, but we couldn't see out onto the runway because of a fence. There was a little building about 20m to the west and we ran for it, but as soon as we poked our heads out either side the ground was peppered with red lead. I ran back to help Dan.
Dan and Christian, meanwhile, took out the entire force on the runway. SPLAT had them in a crossfire, and they didn't know which way to look even when Christian ran out of ammo. Christian started running back to the LZ for more as Greg moved in on the western hangar and was shot by a red lurking under the wing of a Flanker. I went around the back of the eastern hangar and up the east side of the western. I couldn't get to Greg or I'd be shot too, but I figured if Greg had been cut down coming from the west then I had a chance approaching from the east.
I didn't have frags or smoke, but I had more than 900 rounds. The only plan I could think of was to start firing before I moved. I pressed the trigger and stepped out, a hail of bullets preceding me.
Ivan was still facing Greg. That was good. I had assumed Ivan would be standing up. That was bad. He spun toward me as I walked the fire downward, and cut him down. Phew!
There could have been more Ivans in the hangar, so I ran around the back and was able to drag Greg to safety and revive him:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/729103669/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
We readied our weapons, leaped in and found our unguarded objective. We'd taken the hangar!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/1673059343/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
However Dan had not been so fortunate. He also had been hit, and Ivan still lurked in the other hangar. Greg pumped a couple of grenades in but the map still showed Ivan in there. I suggested we treat it like a flashbang. I moved to the hangar door, nodded to Greg, he shot in a grenade, and in the smoke and confusion I jumped in firing. There was no need though, Greg's grenade had got him and taken the airfield!
Dan was revived and ran off to heal and organise the AI. I went over and claimed my baby:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/985969430/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
First I thought it wasn't armed or that it couldn't fly, but it had a heavy PK-4 MG each side. Greg took a door gun, and we lifted off from SPLAT's airfield:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/1257548187/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
We'd secured the airfield and I floated over the scene in our new bird. Life was good. I started to do a recon and find the convoy, but Dan had a good idea. Our mission was to blow up the flankers, so why not do so with the Hip's guns?
We flew back to the airfield, I steadied her a few feet above the grass and Greg hammered the planes with fire:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/672773010/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
It looked awesome, but the Flankers didn't blow. Christian got to work with satchels while Greg and I did a recon.
We discovered the convoy on main street, Krasnostav:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/1110486840/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
The sky suddenly filled with fire. I went evasive, juking and turning while tilting forward and punching the throttle to get us out of there. The chopper took hits as Greg poured 7.62mm back at them. I honestly expected us to fall out of the sky and explode then and there, it was a miracle we made it out.
I swung us out wide, and flew back out over the radio tower. Just then Dan and Christian blew the first flanker. You can see the smoke ahead of us as we flew back:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/1539100275/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
We needed more satchels, and most of the AI ran out of ammo during the airfield assault. Dan ordered everyone into the chopper, and I nervously took off with the whole squad aboard. On the way back we spotted a couple of troops in Olsha. I gently eased the Hip down to the LZ, and we all stocked up on weapons and ammo:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/348890142/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
The LZ reminded one of the AI of home, and he developed post-traumatic stress. No matter what we did he wouldn't get in the chopper, so we had to leave him. I flew us back to the airfield, and Dan blew up the second flanker:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/1105120498/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
However the "destroy the aircraft" objective was still not complete. When the time came, we'd have to put down my beautiful bird.
We then spotted a car to the north. Greg and I took off to investigate. I tried to keep her a little lower and faster this time, to minimise our time in Ivan's crosshairs.
I didn't even see the car, but 50 cal started punching into our bird. I saw at least one hit the engine. I tried to pull out of there, and a row of trees loomed ahead. I nosed up and hit throttle to gain sudden altitude, but the battered old girl didn't respond (the engine lost power). We hit the trees and flamed to the ground.
Objective complete.
We lay there for a while before Dan, Christian and the AI could reach us:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/1409379348/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
I took a photo of our poor bird's final resting place:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/splat_squadron/photos/album/1745231782/pic/47836583/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
It was now getting pretty late. Someone had the idea to see if I could save the game. I could, and did.
Because we were so close to the town, we thought we'd have a go at the convoy. I found a place to approach the town with good cover, saw a truck and squirted it just as they opened up on me. I took cover but I'd kicked a hornet's nest. I saw at least 20 Ivans on the map swarming everywhere, and we were wiped out in moments.
So next time, assuming that the resume works, we need to pull back and play a long game with snipers to try and whittle them down.
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