Hey Mom
Today the Colonel told us we were going to be ‘Operators’, so naturally, as an RTO, I got a little excited, but it turns out that’s not what he meant. Turns out there’s two types of operator, one of which I am, and one of which I very much am not. We achieved the mission goals and got everyone out though, so I guess I can’t have been too bad. I probably shouldn’t say exactly where we were, other than we were behind enemy lines working with some people we don’t normally see.
First off we struck out from our temporary base to go search a trip of warehouses for a specific item our irregular colleagues needed to help with the longer term war situation. We were given different guns for this, but I apparently can’t hit anything with them either, so it didn’t make much difference to me. Fortunately we didn’t have to use them much, and spent more time ducking behind embankments and round walls, than actually engaging the North Chelt forces.
We did have to shoot a couple of guards at the first warehouse, and we didn’t get lucky enough to have found the right one first, so we set off along the docks to number two. Dodging a few more hostile patrols we made it there safely, and thankfully construction standards were poor enough that we could see inside without even opening the door. I say fortunately, because it was full of sea mines, which is definitely not what we were sent to retrieve!
We then borrowed a sampan to get across the river to the third warehouse, where we once again met armed resistance. Fortunately there are marines in the squad who can effectively deal with that, and as the LT and I did a search inside we found the Milk Tray we’d been sent for. Getting back was a little hairy, as a patrol was coming up towards us, and then as we got back into the sampan a North Chelt patrol boat came up behind us. Thankfully we kept our cool and it sailed past us without incident. We got as close to our base as we could in that sampan, but eventually had to abandon it as the waters got too shallow for it to pass.
From there things went badly. We found a minefield in our path and had to turn towards an armoured vehicle and enemy patrol. Then the ruckus that caused meant they sent a helicopter after us and we had to run. Taking the long route round towards safety we came across another patrol boat, and got hit by heavy weapons from multiple sides at once. We did manage to pull back to safety though, eventually, and then spent a while lying very flat and very still near the top of a hill until things cooled down again. It took a while, but we did finally manage to sneak back through the patrols and slip safely into our base to deliver the package.
We paused for long enough to grab a few more rations and ammo and then set off again for our next mission. This time we were heading back to near where we’d had to abandon the sampan, but the minefield and the heightened patrols made the route more difficult than we’d’ve liked. There was a lot of running while crouched, which isn’t that great on the knees I must admit, but it’s definitely better than getting shot.
Dodging a few patrols, and fording the river to avoid patrols overlooking the bridges we crawled up behind some rocks until we could get a decent overview of the target buildings. Good job we did, and good job Tubular and the LT have good eyes, because they saw several armed groups loitering in the area. In order to not alert them all we snuck back round the rocks to get close to those by the bridge and took them out first. Quietly. Well, quietly for us. There might have been a molotov thrown, and a marine set on fire, but it worked, and their friends didn’t notice.
After a quick swim to put the flames out (don’t let Dad worry, I was right next to the water so it barely even scorched my uniform), we crept back round the rocks and did the same to the next group. I can’t lie, I didn’t even see those ones before the rest of the squad had already killed them, leaving us free to grab what we’d come for. Well, the helicopter did make things more complicated as it dropped off a load of elite commandos, so we didn’t have time to beat a slow and careful retreat.
Navigating in the dark is hard, but it was slightly easier as we could mostly just retrace our steps, all-be-it by a bit of a roundabout way, and I did at one point end up flat on my face beside a railway like, bleeding into the grass, trying desperately not to groan in pain as a patrol came within a few metres. Thankfully they neither saw nor heard me, and I got patched up again shortly after. Then it was a quick run north to create a distraction to get the commandos off our tail before sneaking back into the base camp for a well deserved rest.
Love to all
Morse