Corporal Dmitri Smedkof , Rifleman 2nd Squad ‘Switchblade’, 19th Mechanized Battallion
Corporal Smedkof finally got a chance to sit down and enjoy a hot meal this morning. It was his first one since his squad left Ft. Grissom 12 days ago. They were slogging it out in the Shenandoah Valley region, which is in the middle of the Eastern Seaboard of America. Pretty country actually. Not too hot and not too cold. It was a pretty mild autumn compared to things back at Ft. Rovaniemi where the squad had trained for the invasion. Yesterday, was the worst day of action so far. The squad performed a dangerous menouver called a “Deep Strike” on the Delta uplink inside the Shenandoah Valley National Park Missile Base.
As the MI-55 Locust deployment helicopter dropped down a few hundred feet over the drop zone, the troops could feel projectiles banging up against the shields. There was no way to know how much amunition was pouring onto their position, how long the helo could last and whether they would drop down into a pool of hot lead, blood and death. Smedkof was third to drop and could hear the shots firing and the small warheads bursting around him as soon as he started the decent. Luckily he couldn’t see the tracers and couldn’t know how close those bullets were wizzing by his head. It seemed like it only took a split second to fly down the cord and put his feet back on the ground.
After stepping away from the immediate drop zone, Smedkof ducked down behind a barrier inside the protective ring of the uplink. he could feel his heart pounding in his chest and found it hard to swallow with all the excitement. Bullets were wizzing above him and ricochetting off the Locust’s shields. It was his duty to protect the other men of my unit as they descended the ropes to the landing zone. Remembering this, he poked his head up over the barriers to take a look at the opposing forces. The glance only lasted a second or two, but he could see armored transports firing machine guns up at the helicopter as well as gunshots and ballistic grenades flying out of a building not too far away – maybe 100 meters. He hoisted his assault rifle above the concrete, took aim at one of the larger windows in the warehouse where the blasts were coming from – let loose three bursts of fire then ducked back down to take cover. Smedkof snuck a glance up and saw a trooper gliding down the ropes. He hit the ground hard and took two steps toward him before diving into Smedkof’s lap. It was Private Carl Romanelli. He looked scared out of his mind – sweat dripping all over him and onto Smedkof.
“Private, get up and get some fire on that building over there”, Smedkof yelled. The private gave him a quick nod and threw himself up against the barriers where he fired his assault rifle into the blown out windows of the warehouse. Smedkof took another quick look around to see if he could locate privates Zaklov or Tivol, one of the squad’s two snipers to make sure they were laying down as much fire power as the lightly armored squad could bring to bear. He saw Private Zaklov quickly crawling along the barrier to the far side. suddenly a blast from one of the grenade launchers the JSF Engineers were hurling at the uplink lit up inside the barrier just over Private Zaklov. One other riflemen, who had been next to the blast, blew apart spraying blood all over the concrete ground and even back onto Smedkof. He wiped a large blood splatter off of his helmet’s visor. The sleeve of his outer garment was pretty absorbant and the blood came off easier than he had expected. Now able to see again, he leaned back over the barrier and let loose three more volleys into the same big window then moved further down away from the ropes. Hopefully that would prove to be a little safer. Once he had moved a few meters down the line, he looked back over at Zaklov and saw him lean over the barrier and start to take aim at the warehosuse. The back of his uniform had been blown off revealing only his body armor underneath. Adding to the nightmarish scene was the smoke rising off of his back from his smoldering clothes. If it was bothering him at all, he couldn’t tell. Several loud reports from his monstrous OSV-120 Sniper Rifle sounded off before the Locust took off from the landing zone - deafening the squad. Smedkof needed to get a sense of the situation. He looked back at the Uplink entrance and could see the tech team heading in to hack into the systems. The squad had successfully penetrated the facility. Now, the job was just to hold it until they had finished.
Smedkof peaked back out over the barriers to take another few shots at the engineers but could barely make the building out over the smoke floating across the battlefield. The transports turned their guns from the departing transport helicopter back to the unit surrounding the uplink causing metal, concrete chips and lead to fly all over the uplink. Most of it was reflective impact – low level velocity and Smedkof’s body armor was able to stand up to multiple impacts. They still stung and a few ripped into some small unprotected areas around his shoulders and knees. The concrete had been chipping up and created a haze that made it difficult to breath or see. He flipped his helmet visor over to infrared view in order to make out the transports. They were moving closer and would soon be too close for the cover to remain effective. Smedkof was always an aggressive tactician. He decided to throw some of his “special arms” , non standard issue hand held incindiary devices he dropped in with, at them since they were within his range. He layed flat for a few more seconds gritting his teeth and waited for the latest volley of MG rounds to make its way to the other side of the uplink then stood up and threw both grenades at the transports. There were 3 of them moving around taking turns moving into position then moving away to keep themselves from taking any direct hits. After the second grenade left his hand, he went down flat on his belly and listened for the explosions. Surprisingly the sounds heard were Mini-Kornet-K anti-armor missiles coming from the bridge back to where the engineers had secured the Sierra Uplink. It seems they had moved up across the bridge and taken up positions just this side of the river. They were ripping those transports apart. Two of them blew apart before the last one was able to head into cover and send up an evac flare.
At this point, Smedkof felt rejuvinated. He finally felt his heart lift up and thought they stood a chance of making it out of this one. He stole a glance back towards where the original JSF engineers were firing at them from the warehouses and could see signal flares flying up from behind the building. There weren’t any muzzle flashes or tracers coming out of the building anymore. Making sure to keep low, he looked back at Zoltov to see him scanning the area behind with his sniper rifle. Confident the hostiles were no longer a threat, he put his rifle down beside him and started to take his canteen out of his side bag. That was when he heard Sgt. Statzi yelling “Smedkof!!”
Sgt. Statzi was not as young as the rest of his troops. He had served the motherland for 10 years before being put in charge of Switchblade, an advanced Spetznatz rifle squad, last spring. He was an infantryman through and through but he had the exta merit to make it to the front lines as the leader of this crack crew. Every member of the unit was proud to serve under him and he knew it. That was why the commanders knew they could count on this crew to deliver.
Smedkof made his way to the front of the uplink where he could see the remnants of the 4th squad littered around the doorway. The 4th squad is in charge of securing and defending the entranceway to the uplink. Two black char marks were apparant and any one day veteran could tell that two incindiery devices had detonated in this exact vicinity. His heads up system had let him know that for a brief period a few of the squads had lost shield strength. Two direct strikes on the entrance during that time was sure to eliminate the entire squad.
Statzi leaned over and grabbed Smedkof by the arm and yelled into his ear so that he could be heard over the chaotic sounds of batttle “I need you to take your squad back across the bridge - garrison one of those buildings there and wait for evac.”
“Allright sir. We’ll grab our wounded and head back.”
It seems taking Uplink Delta was too costly to re-engage his squad further in the fight. He grabbed what was left of his squad and high tailed it back. Evac came about 10 minutes later and they were back at the fire base in less than 20 minutes.
On the flight back to the firebase, Smedkof stayed with his two wounded troopers as the flight medics tended to their wounds. Private Romanelli had taken a few rounds to his chest and upper right shoulder. He was going to make it but would have to be shipped back to Grissom for a while to recouperate. More likely than not, he had earned himself a trip out of the Spetznatz and back to the motherland. Smedkof could only think that the private had earned it today.
All told Switchblade lost 1 full squad and lost 6 additional men, or about a third of the force from the remaining 3 squads. Two of the casualties were flown back to Grissom for medical treatment. Doc said he expected both men to make it but that their fighting days were over.
