Justan Katel
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Final Bastion, Vespa
BWUUUSSHHH-KRABOOM! *Debris flew up and fell down on the VFers holding the hardened bunker. The firefight had lasted for nearly an hour, with the Trojan Marines taking severe losses, fifty-seven men killed, twelve wounded, all downed by the Immortals. The remaining Trojans had taken cover and were fighting to hold onto their captured territory, preventing a Vespan counterattack. On the other side, the Vespans had suffered massive casualties. Only fifty or so of the original three-hundred were left, and two Immortals had died- one due to the remains of a building collapsing on him, and one was hit by a lucky shot through her eye visor. They didn't dare try and rush the Trojans, because the Marines would have killed the remaining VFers before falling back to take on the Immortals. Also, suppressive fire from the Kodan cut off their line of reinforcements. The Marines had tried quite a few tricks in their book, but the superior armor of the Immortals prevented them from capturing the bunker. The only thing that was directly accomplished were inflicted casualties. Meanwhile, the rest of the Trojan forces had pushed forward around the bunker. The Vespans had formed somewhat of a teardrop shape around the bunker, tapering to the East. The Trojans were running out of offensive options short of bombarding the bunker, destroying it. Phenix put a stop to this train of though by dispatching two rocket teams from the Center Offensive.* *Rockets began pouring past the Trojan Marines and into the Vespan position. Out of the five remaining Immortals, two were struck directly by rockets and dropped immediately. Another took a large amount of impact damage, damaging his armor, and was soon downed by Trojan rifle fire. In the same volley, seventeen of the FVers were blown apart, forcing all of them and the two Immortals, out of the destroyed buildings surrounding the bunker, and into it. They were followed closely by the Trojans, who seized the chance to cut of any line of supply, and now completely surrounded the bunker. Three Trojan thrusts on different sides of the bunker were repulsed, but each time the Vespans lost another portion of their defenders. Soon, only two soldiers and the Immortals were left, and they fortified themselves inside the structure. Rockets flew in threw the bunker's window slits, as the Marines closed in and deployed Pulse Grenades to flush the Vespans out. Within moments, all gunfire coming from the bunker ceased, and the Marines moved in. One Immortal had her helmet blasted off, along with the front and top of her head. The other suffered from wounds to his legs and torso, but was still alive. His weapon had been damaged and was incapable of fire, yet he kept it raised and continued to pull the trigger- Until the Marines emptied over fifty rounds into his helmet.* *Built into the back of the bunker was a solid door, magnetically sealed, with a console embedded into the wall next to it. Stockpiled around the bunker were food supplies and ammunition, crates and crates. If properly manned, the bunker could have held out for weeks. Sargeant Bullwalt, in command of the Marines, radioed Phenix.* General, bunker is secure. Requesting engineer teams to decode this door we found. Acknowledged Bullwalt. We'll ship over a team once we've reached our goal for the day. Roger that. I'll pull a fireteam of Soldiers in here, and have them stay frosty. *As Kuja expected, the center of the line reached the city's mid-way point first. A canal-like structure, fifty feet across and fifty feet deep, ran from North to South directly down the center of the city. It served as a quickway, a dedicated path from one end of the city to another in peace, and as a barrier to prevent expansion during an invasion. The quickway didn't completely sever the two sides of the city, as roughly twenty bridges spanned the gap, each with circular tunnels that allowed quickway traffic through. In the bombings of the city, all but six of the spans had been destroyed- Two to the North, three in the Center, and one in the South. Kuja's unit seized the span directly in the center, as Vespan Fighters were still setting explosives an an attempt to delay the Trojans further.* *Several Trojan Trooper and Marine squads of the 501st slid down the side of the quickway, firing at VFers underneath the span before they could complete the placement of the explosives. Suprised, and not expecting the Trojans to perform such a daring move, most fled and were gunned down fleeing, while the handful that remained and fought back met the same fate. Imitating the Trojans, the Vespans attempted to slide men down their side of the embankment, but accurate fire from the Trojan bank took them out before they sould reach the bottom. Meanwhile, on top of the span, all of the VFers had retreated to their side, or were gunned down. Heavy MG fire opened up from several spots on the fortified Vespan side, but the Trojans were able to utilize the abandoned concrete and metal barriers on their side as cover. Accurate Trooper fire, concentrated on the MG turrets, downed the gunners, and systematically downed any additional VFers that attempted to replace their comrades. After losing about five or six soldiers per turret, the MG's went silent. Instead of surging across the span, Kuja had his men bunker down, and continue to exchange fire with the VFers. Kuja remained at the span, while Phenix directed squads reaching the span laterally, in an attempt to capture and secure the remaining spans across before the Vespans could sabotague them. It would also give the Trojans the ability to encircle the VFers in areas that weren't captured yet.* *In the South, the Trojan forces were not lagging to far behind the Center thrust. In fact, despite their issues with the bunker, the house-to-house combat slowly became easier, as Vespan forces attempted to retreat to the quickway. There was only one span remaining in the South, so the Vespans funneled backwards as the Trojans advanced. To ensure that they captured the span intact, Phenix ordered a dozen squads to form a breakthrough, to punch through the rolling retreat and make a mad dash to the span. Meanwhile, roughly 250 Soldiers and 50 Troopers were racing as fast as they could alongside the quickway, accompanied by two Pumbas. Debris and harrassing fire from the other bank kept slowing them down, but both forces were able to converge upon nearly 800 Vespans attempting to cross the span at once. The resulting chaos from the ensuing firefight left more than 75% of the Vespans dead, with only fifty Trojan casualties. Both Pumbas were heavily damaged, but fire from their cannons mowed down a considerable amount of Vespans before they were silenced. The same defensive barriers that the VFers had laid down to prevent Trojan advances across the span made movement difficult, and a number of Vespans lept off the side of the span, rather than be mowed down with gunfire. Those that remained had made it across alive, and now fired upon the Trojans. Due to small number of Trojans defending the span, the Kodan greeted the VFers on the other side with some 50mm cannon fire to soften them up. With covering fire, the Trojans then manned the MG's and fortifications designed to hold them away from the bridge, and used the Vespan's own weaponry against them, as the VFers attempted to charge the Trojans in an effort to gain control of the span and secure their retreat. Their efforts were in vain, as the remaining Trojan forces quickly marched and advanced towards the quickway, causing those VFers caught in their advance to all-out flee. Like fish in a barrel, the Vespans caught in the pincer movement were easily cut down. Once the bulk of the Trojans had advanced to the span, they billowed out, until all of the quickway from the Center to the very end was virtually lined with Trojan troops.* *Even with the Center and Southern Sections quickway sides and crosssings secured, the Northern Section remained rebellious. Heavy fire from the Immortals slowed Trojan advances, as three companies of Soldiers and a company of Troopers attempted to move their way up the quickway. Two Immortals pinned them down, and despite rocket fire from squads in the three companies, they could not down the Immortals, who continued to pin down the 175 Trojans until supporting fire from the Kodan could dislodge them. Meanwhile, the 1339th and 2048th continued to struggle to advance. The entrenched Immortals allowed the VFers to retreat across the quickway spans. Several hours later, well into the darkness of night, exhasted Trojans reached and secured all the quickway passages.* *By this time, the skies had become completely darkened and filled by clouds nearly a mile thick in some places. A light rain began to pour down on Kuja and his men, as the Trojans attempted to garner some rest in between arriving resupply trucks and fending off small arms attacks by Vespans on the opposite side of the quickway. In the rear lines, the Overlords had repositioned themselves as the rains began, preparing for artillery fire on the next day. Meanwhile, hundreds of trucks and transports crossed the terrian and bombarded city to provide food, ammunition and medical supplies to those at the Front.* |
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