South America
Argentina, Eastern Coast
Avon 16 Regiment, Bravo Company
3rd Platoon, 2nd Lieutenant Temple
They had been moving quickly for the last quarter of an hour, hurrying through the underbrush as fast as they could safely move, Alex had ordered a couple of scouts posted further out from the main unit but pulled them in as they began to reach the coast. They ducked into cover, finding their dingy's with only a small amount of difficulty, they'd just planted charges within them when Alex's radio sprang to life in his ear. "Bravo-two, this is Hotel-one, en-route ETA 3 minutes."
"Roger Hotel-one, holding just inside the tree-line, IR strobe activated." Alex reached into his webbing, withdrawing the strobe and flicking it on, reattaching it to his vest. He heard the rustling sounds as his team mates did the same.
"Bravo-two, this is Bravo-two-zero," he radioed to his unit, "Hotel-one ETA 3 minutes, prepare for exfil."
A chorus of affirmatives echoed in his ear and Alex checked their dingy's once more. It would be obvious who had performed the raid, especially as even now the Templar invasion force should have landed on the Falklands and be hard at work battling for control. But they didn't want to leave behind anything their enemies could use. The dingy's may not have been anything fancy, but they floated and therefore they could be used against them. They wouldn't allow that to happen and there was no way they had time or the ability to take them with them, therefore they would deny their enemy.
"Contact rear!" Came a cry, moments before a burst of fire, followed by a second and third cracked the silence and darkness. Alex brought up his rifle, turning to their rear and flicking up his NVG's, already the sky was beginning to brighten across the sea behind them. It would make it their exfiltration easier, the Battle Torn would be fighting into the rising sun, and it was becoming bright enough for them to make out individual details more easily. Alex sighted down his scope, taking aim on a muzzle flash, he exhaled, squeezed the trigger once, twice, and thrice. The firing stopped, he couldn't see whether he'd hit his target or it had simply taken cover, more than likely the latter, engaging at this distance in the thick jungle meant a solid kill was next to impossible. There was a lot of fire coming their way though, they'd obviously called in reinforcements.
"Bravo-two-one and Bravo-two-three extend lines and watch for flanking down the beach." He ordered over the radio, hearing the sudden sound of rotor blades, that wasn't right, if it was their own chopper it would've come across the sea, the sound would have increased gradually, the suddenness meant it had appeared from over the forest, an enemy chopper.
"Enemy Helo!" cried a voice to his right, confirming his suspicion a moment later.
"Take cover!" A second later their position was suddenly being laced by heavy calibre machine gun fire from above, kicking up dirt, sand and shattering foliage with its onslaught. Alex glanced up, it was hovering over the beach, jinking slowly side to side, blocking their path to open ground. "Bravo-two-zero to Baseplate, we've got an enemy chopper on station, anything you can do."
"Stand by Bravo-two-zero."
"Incoming get your heads down!" Someone shouted and Alex complied as the machine guns opened up again followed a moment later by a woosh and a dull crack as a rocket went off into the forest.
"Bravo-two-zero we have your position, we have the target on RADAR, get your heads down, missile away."
"Incoming!" Alex screamed down the radio, trying to make himself heard over the roaring of the chainguns. Suddenly the guns stopped and their was silence, then an almighty explosion and the helicopter was suddenly so much wreckage crashing to the sand, blazing fiercely. A trail of vapour led off out to sea where the cruise missile had come from and Alex knew that it would disappear under the waves some distance out. Coming in over the trail was a welcome sight, the unmistakable bulk of a Chinook.
"Ride's here," Alex informed, "Hotel-one, Bravo-two-zero, your marker is the crashed helo."
"Not a very happy sign but we'll take it, make it quick boys, looks like your jungle is swarming."
"Bravo-two we're moving out," he announced as calmly as possible down the comm, "get the lead out."
They moved, hurriedly, laying down fearsome amounts of cover fire, popping 203's and grenades into the forest. Alex noted that smoke had been deployed on either end of the LZ to give them cover from down the beach, he also noted that someone was being carried across the back of Corporal Eric. He couldn't tell who it was at the time, there was too much else to worry about, neither of them carried their bergen's anymore. In fact, a few of the platoon members had opted to ditch theirs. The Chinook touched down in the sand, about 80 meters from the waters edge, about 30 meters from the treeline. It probably would've been closer but helicopter wreckage was strewn across the upper limits of it, the horrendous sound of the rotor blades almost drowning out the loud cracks and bursts of the platoons weaponry, but not quite, its massive gatling cannons had opened up by then, hosing down the enemy positions, daring them to try and stick their heads up to take a shot.
Within moments of it touching down the platoon were swarming into the open tailgate. In less than a minute they were all inside and the heavy helicopter was pulling up, its engines straining to lift the weight, Alex sat at the back, near the door looking out over the ocean. He glanced to Park and nodded. "Roast 'em." There was a pause, punctuated only by the roar of the rotor blades, the ding of small arms fire off the armoured fuselage, and the screaming of the miniguns, then a number of whooshing explosions in quick succession as the C4 charges amongst the dingy's detonated, so close together they could have been mistaken for a single one. Much as he wanted to, Alex couldn't bring himself to hope some of the Battle Born had been caught in the explosions. The aircraft continued up, banked and began to head out to sea, giving Alex a clear view of the mainland they were leaving as the tailgate began to close. He stood, stooping slowly and began to head towards the cockpit, having to bustle his way past, exchanging nods and pats with his team mates. They were clearly relieved to be out of it but no one was celebrating, not yet. Several of them were wounded, though none looked serious, a graze here, a scratch there, Lambert sported a bloodsoaked bandage on his left shoulder which Marcus was even now patching up. He'd discover the full extent of the casualties later.