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FourtyTwo
First Contact is First Contact
Park took a few shots at the drones, putting his sniper skills to good use. He was able to take one down, but he viewed his job more to watch what the squad was doing, insuring they were engaging the drones than actually providing fire alongside his men. Maybe make corrections or point out additional targets to engage or observe. These are traditional roles for a combat leader at the squad and platoon level. But with the high-tech gadgetry the Grathik have provided their human warriors, the job was made simpler with a device that allowed the leadership to highlight priority targets in bright red or orange. This could help the individual soldier focus on which targets needed to be engaged first. As squad leader, Park could designate targets for each person and for each weapon system. It aided in communicating intent and acquiring results into a more streamlined method. Even with the benefit of this technology, Brian Park still found himself going from position to position reassuring the men that they were doing a fantastic job! This aspect of leadership was lost on the Grathik, a race of lumbering intellects who shared not one clue with the humans on how to fight a war. Brian Park wondered how much advice or suggestions their overlords took from Brigadier General Guy Strafford, the US Army Ranger from Virginia and his staff.
One of the soldiers in the squad, the sniper named Robson called out, "Salvesh, 11 o'clock, down below. 800M. Heavy weapon." Park quickly checked his maps and identified the location on the map box. He then assumed that one Salvesh would not be alone; that he had several others following him. He wanted to give an update to his Platoon Commander, but also wanted to do something about the problem before reporting it. “Hotel Sierra Tree, this is Riddler, over.” Sergeant Park intended to call in some indirect fire on the target Robson called out. Hotel Sierra Tree stood for HS3 or the Fire Direction Center (FDC) for 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery, employing 155mm High Explosive munitions. The FDC could then prioritize what level of Indirect Fire would be used to deal with the problem. The Forward Observer needed to provide the FDC with a description of the target in order to determine whether he should use 155mm artillery or 120mm mortar fire.
“Riddler, this is Hotel Sierra Tree, go ahead over.” The response was curt. To the point.
“Hotel Sierra Tree, Riddler, adjust fire grid, Victor Romeo two-fife-six-fower-zero-zero, over.” The FDC radio-telephone operator (RTO) repeated the call for fire. The grid coordinate was given as VR256400.
Once the FDC calculated the necessary data to communicate to the firing battery to be used for this mission, they would wait for the round to leave the barrel and then tell the Forward Observer (FO), “Shot, over.”
Park heard the call and quickly responded with, “Shot, out.”
The Fire Direction Computer referred to the chart on time of flight (TOF) and knew when the round would impact. At five seconds to impact, the FDC RTO called the FO, “Splash, over.”
Upon hearing the message from the FDC, he raised his binoculars to observe the impact. Five seconds after the message, a 155mm HE round landed within ten meters of the target British Corporal Jake Robson had eliminated only twenty seconds earlier. The corpse was tossed another fifty meters through the air. Sergeant Park called the FDC back immediately, “Oscar Tango Tree One Zero, fire for effect, infantry in built up area, over.”
The Fire Direction Center recorded the Observer-Target (OT) direction at 310 degrees. This let them know along what direction the Forward Observer was looking at the target. Technically, this was a Danger Close mission, but Brian had faith in the Grathik technology and his own skills as an FO, he would not miss. The impact of the base round confirmed those beliefs. The FDC also knew the FO would like all guns from the firing battery to contribute to the target; which Brian neglected to mention.
The FDC was not overly concerned and did not ask Sergeant Park, identified as Riddler to identify the target with a more detailed description. Essentially because this was their first fire mission and they had a vested interest in performing their job. Park waited for the incoming rounds. When the customary, splash over rang out, he watched in anticipation. “Incoming rounds!” Brian wanted the squad to know hell was incoming. The fact it was only 800 meters to their front would make it so they could feel the concussive blast and increased temperatures of the impacting rounds. Sort of like a burst from a hair dryer; warm air hitting them in the face like a slap.
A battery of six 155mm howitzers can deliver a swath of killing hot steel that is two hundred fifty meters long by fifty meters wide. Each gun would deliver five rounds and then cease fire. Today, the FDC employed two batteries for effect. Instead of thirty rounds impacting in the 250x50 meters swatch, it was sixty rounds creating a wall of shooting flames, smoke and flying debris. If there were other Salvesh warriors behind the first, no one will ever know. If the humans killed more than one Salvesh, again, no one knew. Maybe it was a waste of resources or maybe the human artillery eliminated the majority of a platoon of Salvesh infantry.
“Riddler, this is Hotel Sierra Tree, Bravo Delta Alpha, over.” The fire direction center was asking for a Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) to record how effective their cannon fire was for this mission.
Brian knew they were going to ask and had to tell them something. He had only seen one Salvesh soldier and his own soldier, Corporal Robson had killed the...what word could he use...thing? “Hotel Sierra Tree, this is Riddler, Bravo Delta Alpha as follows, seven enemy Tangos Kilo India Alpha and ten Whiskey India Alpha, over.”
The FDC repeated what Sergeant Park lied into the radio. He knew it didn’t matter how many he told the FDC. Why not let them think they did a good job? “That’s a good copy, Riddler, out.”
Brian exchanged looks with Jacob Robson as if to say, ‘what’d you want me to say?’ When they were able to advance, he wanted to take a look. But he had more work to do.
“Butterfield, this is Riddler, over.”
“Riddler, this is Butterfield, go ahead, over.”
“Butterfield, this is Riddler, engaged enemy Tangos at Victor Romeo two-fife-six-fower-zero-zero. Engaged same with India Foxtrot, over.”
“Roger that, Riddler. Butterfield, out.” Lieutenant Butterfield would then pass this contact up the chain of command to his Company Commander, Captain Otto and then the CO would pass the information on to the Battalion Commander, LTC Cox. His radio traffic was monitored by the Battalion Task Force’s Tactical Operations Center (TOC) and recorded in a diary there. The Battalion Intelligence Officer (S2) would then make a notation on the intelligence map displaying the first identified location for Salvesh units in the Brigade’s Area of Operations (AO).
Once the contact was reported, Brian moved to the south side of the building, raised his glasses and could see the point team of TF Cox slowly plodding along. They were now just over a mile and a half away. ‘Boy they don’t want to get here too damn quickly, do they?’ Brian thought to himself.
Feldwebel Vogel leaned in to Frans Madsen, “das meine freunde,” he looked back at Sergeant Park with a smile, “is standard American overkill.” During training, Vogel and Madsen realized their families had vacationed in Gilleleje, Denmark at a beach resort, Gilleleje Badehotel. They shared a common language; both spoke German and Danish as well as English. Neither the German nor the Dane were annoyed by the use of artillery to engage one dead Salvesh or hte potential platoon following it. In fact, they were utterly ecstatic to witness the use of force, such that it was.
Within seconds of the words being uttered, an explosion ripped through the sky above the facility, followed immediately by the staccato of gunfire. Several members of the squad looked south in the direction of the advancing human formations. Their elation immediately quelled.
Lieutenant Jürgen Fischer of Cologne, Germany became one of the first human soldiers to be killed in action. A Rocket fired from a Salvesh ambush ripped through the lead hover-craft fashioned as an armored personnel carrier. All up and down the advance line of troops, The Salvesh staged squad and platoon sized ambush engaging the humans in close combat. Each battalion task force in the brigade started reporting casualties in to the Brigade TOC. radio chatter was just as loud as the cannon fire and machine guns ripping up Talra Station.
But the drones were still pushing in and needed to be dealt with. “Focus on the drones!” Park yelled to his squad. “Do not let them pass us! Forget about this!” He yelled pointing at the lead elements of TF 3-1. "Take down those drones!"