Eternity RPC Board
07-10-2018, 03:39 PM
Svetlana dared to pop the commander's hatch on 21, peering out over the rock cropping that hid them into the Miljoeni advance. Her bulky vocex headset felt glued to her head, tiring her neck with the weight of responsibility.
Dispatch had not routed her to Lawact, instead escalating up their own chain of command while she relayed details of the advance to them. She knew her words would take well over an hour to reach the military district so that planes and artillery could start mounting a counterattack. For now, Miljoeni tanks streamed unopposed down the dusty asphalt roads of the border sector towards the Mandate's second largest city.
In the meantime, the surviving border stations were scrambling their armor. The Miljoeni blitz had been extremely fast and narrow, breaching less than ten miles of border, and it seemed that their air support was minimal. Local commanders hoped their laser focus on Lawact could be exploited to strike the force with Coyotes at the flanks and rear, forcing it to slow and engage and giving NTC and Ranger aircraft to scramble.
In time, the enemy force slowed to a trickle of logistics vehicles, personnel carriers, and rearguard fighting vehicles. Svetlana reported this and the line went silent. She heard a few seconds of talking and rustling in the background. The dispatcher told her to get ready to move and that VOX use authorization had been rescinded. Then he hung up. This struck Svetlana as an ill omen.
Before she could think too long on this, the telex receiver chattered with a fresh message from dispatch. She tore her eyes away from the now-empty border sector, and three seconds later ordered 21 to button up and Vasily to get it moving. She reread the message another two times to be sure:
"DISP TO 21 - RENDEZ WITH 3/7 MECH AT 4080, MOVE SE, DESTROY ENEMY REARGUARD AROUND 3880."
As they turned onto the road, she could already see 3/7's Coyotes moving up to engage the rearguard vehicles that had just passed 21. They sunk cannon shells into cargo trucks and personnel carriers, firing fast and wild to draw attention. Their actual impact was questionable, but the counterattack certainly seemed ferocious.
Coyotes were built for force recon and carrying personnel: their armor and guns were no match for modern tanks. Svetlana knew, like the other mechanized commanders, that this attack was purely diversionary. Their purpose was to try and get the main advance to slow and react to their assault to buy Lawact time, not to roll up the rearguard. How effective they were would be measured by how long they could trade fire before being inevitably destroyed.
"Gunner up," she said, pushing the thought aside.
"Gunner up, ponyal!"
"Gunner, load HE! Sight target to your zero-one-five."
The gunner confirmed, and trained on the nearest Miljoeni vehicle. It bounced on its suspension as it roared across the brush, having turned off the road to respond to the hail of cannon fire.
Here we go, thought Svetlana.
"Fire!"
FU Remaining: 7 of 7
Gambit response: 1 FU
Gambit attempt:
1d6 rolled for a total of: 5 (5)
Dispatch had not routed her to Lawact, instead escalating up their own chain of command while she relayed details of the advance to them. She knew her words would take well over an hour to reach the military district so that planes and artillery could start mounting a counterattack. For now, Miljoeni tanks streamed unopposed down the dusty asphalt roads of the border sector towards the Mandate's second largest city.
In the meantime, the surviving border stations were scrambling their armor. The Miljoeni blitz had been extremely fast and narrow, breaching less than ten miles of border, and it seemed that their air support was minimal. Local commanders hoped their laser focus on Lawact could be exploited to strike the force with Coyotes at the flanks and rear, forcing it to slow and engage and giving NTC and Ranger aircraft to scramble.
In time, the enemy force slowed to a trickle of logistics vehicles, personnel carriers, and rearguard fighting vehicles. Svetlana reported this and the line went silent. She heard a few seconds of talking and rustling in the background. The dispatcher told her to get ready to move and that VOX use authorization had been rescinded. Then he hung up. This struck Svetlana as an ill omen.
Before she could think too long on this, the telex receiver chattered with a fresh message from dispatch. She tore her eyes away from the now-empty border sector, and three seconds later ordered 21 to button up and Vasily to get it moving. She reread the message another two times to be sure:
"DISP TO 21 - RENDEZ WITH 3/7 MECH AT 4080, MOVE SE, DESTROY ENEMY REARGUARD AROUND 3880."
As they turned onto the road, she could already see 3/7's Coyotes moving up to engage the rearguard vehicles that had just passed 21. They sunk cannon shells into cargo trucks and personnel carriers, firing fast and wild to draw attention. Their actual impact was questionable, but the counterattack certainly seemed ferocious.
Coyotes were built for force recon and carrying personnel: their armor and guns were no match for modern tanks. Svetlana knew, like the other mechanized commanders, that this attack was purely diversionary. Their purpose was to try and get the main advance to slow and react to their assault to buy Lawact time, not to roll up the rearguard. How effective they were would be measured by how long they could trade fire before being inevitably destroyed.
"Gunner up," she said, pushing the thought aside.
"Gunner up, ponyal!"
"Gunner, load HE! Sight target to your zero-one-five."
The gunner confirmed, and trained on the nearest Miljoeni vehicle. It bounced on its suspension as it roared across the brush, having turned off the road to respond to the hail of cannon fire.
Here we go, thought Svetlana.
"Fire!"
FU Remaining: 7 of 7
Gambit response: 1 FU
Gambit attempt:
1d6 rolled for a total of: 5 (5)