Major Collins increased his speed to a hasty trot back toward their destination. The Salvesh were catching up to them. [i]’Must be nice having them long ass legs,’[/i] Tony thought to himself. He could hear the A10s working them over. Their distinctive brrrrrrrrrt! Sound firing up the pink jungles below. He wondered if the pilots had an IFF (Identification, Friendly or Foe) system that identified friendly soldiers on the ground, he thought the Grathik would have invented such a device and placed it on each of the soldiers in his platoon. More than likely, the pilot of this A10 was several kilometers away in some hardened bunker. The Grathik were in the market of preserving lives, resorting to Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) over manned aircraft.

Just as the A10 was pulling off the Area of Operations (AO), he could hear the 130mm mortars back at their Operating Base firing rounds. He looked for Mister Gunn, but could not identify him. [i]’Did Mr. Gunn get hit?’[/i] Tony Collins thought to himself. [i]’Where the hell is he?’[/i]

The platoon was beating feet back to the wood line. The arcing scream of High Explosive (HE) rounds could be heard overhead. They impacted about two hundred meters behind them. The resulting Whump! Crump! Whump! Sounds fell in and around the rear portion of the Salvesh formation. He could not see where the rounds landed, it was too far back; probably where their ambush was set up. That would make sense. He told Pieter Gunn to target their ambush site expecting the reinforcing Salvesh to pass through that location anyway.

Sniper fire from the right. It was forcing people to pick up the pace. A few people sprayed rounds in the general direction, but no one called out distances. They could be Salvesh grunts, untrained to fire at great distances, simply firing rounds into the mass of running humans.


Sergeant Brian Park’s squad reached their destination atop a slight rise and went to ground. They spread out scanning for targets. The Machine gun teams, the other two squads and the headquarters personnel were still moving past them. “First Squad! Scan for hostiles! Do not shoot at friendlies! Hold your fire unless you can positively identify an enemy!”

Brian spied down the Aimpoint sites of his HK 416. He painted a red dot on a Salvesh infantryman moving toward him and squeezed the trigger, twice. The first round hit the beast in the head while the second round went high. He took a second aim at the same beast and squeezed off another round and then reacquired for a third shot. The second two rounds struck home dropping the alien soldier to the ground.

Brian looked at the three fire teams in his squad. Everyone was now in the prone position behind whatever cover was available. The friendlies had all found a new home; a new place to shoot from. The volume of fire coming from the first squad was gaining intensity. 40mm HE grenades were wooshing overhead, exploding among the Salvesh infantry. The two General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs) were talking to each other. The one on the right fired a steady nine to twelve round burst and stopped, the left one responded with a nine to twelve round burst of its own and then stopped. Then the right one spoke, then the left. They continued their conversation convincing Salvesh to rethink their course of action and take a dirt nap instead.


Major Collins watched the battle unfold around him. Sergeant Hedberg’s squad fell in on the far left of the line. That was fine, given the volume of enemy pushing in on the platoon. He spied the mortar rounds landing, now about four hundred meters away. He called over the radio, “Dagger five four, this is Dagger one zero actual, over.”

The mortar Fire Direction Center heard the message from Major Collins and responded, “Dagger one zero, this is Dagger, five four, go ahead, over.”

“Five Four, this is one zero, Tango Oscar is three two hundred mils, over.”

“One zero, I copy, Tango Oscar is three two hundred mils, over.” 3200 mils is navigational direction used by Field Artillery and mortar units using a 6400 mil compass. 3200 mils equals due south. Major Collins was informing the mortar’s FDC that he was due south of where the rounds were landing. It aided the Fire Direction Computers in adjusting rounds onto the target.

“Five Four, this is one zero, drop two hundred, fire for effect, danger close, over,” Major Collins yelled into the radio emphasizing the danger close aspect of the request for fire. This was to let the FDC know friendly infantry was closer than 600 meters to where the rounds were landing. There was a risk of friendlies being hit by incoming mortar rounds, but the enemy was very close and it was imperative to drop High Explosive rounds on the enemy right in front of them. More than likely the mortar rounds would not hit friendles, but the enemy were soon about to kill his platoon and wipe them off this Sauna moon. Firing a danger close mission was better than just using small arms fire to engage the enemy.

“One zero, this is five four, drop two hundred, fire for effect, danger close out.” The FDC received the message and were preparing to launch more rounds.

Major Collins looked down the sites of his rifle engaging a few targets while waiting for the FDC to call back. He actually heard the rounds leaving the barrels four kilometers away. Then the call came over the radio, “Dagger one zero, this is dagger, five four, shot, over.”

“Shot, out.”

He watched the area in front him picking up an occasional target. The flight time for the rounds was roughly forty seconds. Five seconds before they were expected to impact, the FDC called him, “Splash, over.”

"Splash, out." Major Collins called to let the FDC know he was paying attention.

The mortar rounds began falling among the advancing Salvesh infantry. Crump! Crump! Crump! Fwump! Fwump! Fwump! The concussive blast from each explosion, only two hundred meters in front of the human rifle platoon could be felt with each blast. It was like a warm slap in the face or someone turning on and off a hot hair dryer, blowing heat into their faces. But at least none of the fragments were ripping human flesh. It was however shredding several of the enemy infantrymen.

Tony watched the effects of the fire then called the FDC, “Dagger five four, this is Dagger one zero, Bravo Delta Alpha, eight enemy casualties, fire mission again, over.”

“Dagger one zero, this is five four, roger on the Bravo Delta Alpha, eight casualties, fire mission again, out.” Bravo Delta Alpha or BDA stood for Battle Damage Assessment. It helped the FDC to know how well their work was helping. Fire mission again simply meant the mortars should fire the same mission a second time.

Tony Collins turned to the company command frequency to update the company commander, “Dagger zero six this is dagger one zero, over.”

“Dagger one zero, this is zero six, go ahead over.”

“zero six, one zero, SITREP, ambushed enemy platoon at grid 768903, fifteen, one five Kilo India Alphas upon enemy, three friendly Whiskey India Alphas and two friendly Kilo India Alphas, break.” Whiskey India Alpha represents WIA or Wounded In Action and Kilo India Alpha represents KIA or Killed in Action.

“We have displaced four hundred meters to the south, enemy has a counter attacking force moving towards us at this time, roughly eight zero infantry, engaged enemy with Uniform Charlie Alpha Victors and mortar fire with limited success. Continue to engage with small arms, over.”

The Company Commander received Tony’s message, “one zero, this is zero six, that’s a good copy. I’m calling for a platoon of Sierra Alpha two Samsons to extract you. Continue to fight, but move to 751912 when I get confirmation from Samson, over.” The company commander was requesting a platoon of rotary wing aircraft to pick up the platoon at a predesignated pick up zone roughly thirteen meters south of their current location. 

Major Collins returned to the mortar platoon’s frequency, “Dagger five four, this is dagger one zero, Bravo Delta Alpha, an additional ten enemy Kilo India Alphas. End of mission, over.”

“One zero, this is five four, good copy, end of mission, out.”

The platoon would be on their own with the survivors of the hell their indirect fire platforms just put them through, the human A10s and mortar fire just wreaked upon the Salvesh Infantry. Tony assumed roughly fifty of the enemy were still pushing towards their location, maybe more if his estimate of their strength was inaccurate. “Gunn! Pieter Gunn! Where the hell are you?!” Major Collins yelled looking for his Target Acquisition Specialist or Forward Observer. [@Trivval]

"First platoon!" Major Collins yelled over the din of the battle, the loud staccato of machine guns. "We have a platoon of Samsons inbound to pick us up. But we will need to move thirteen hundred meters to the PZ south of here. Keep the fire going and we will get out of this in one piece!"