Ia Ia Darkon
So, you’re probably wondering why I’m talking to you dressed as a Mariachi, while the rest of the squad are hiding out, at a US base, from US forces.
It started with a simple mission from the Colonel. Go help a bunch of the Special Ops lads defend a cache of their equipment. Apparently we got called in because they wanted to keep it low key and not make it obvious there was anything unusual there. We all piled into a truck with a bunch of spare ammo and set off to go give them a hand, meeting our first hostile resistance on the outskirts of the village of A Rieng, where the cache was, and by the time we got through that we were the only defenders standing. There was a wriggly tin fence round most of it, and so those of the squad with spades started digging trenches to add to the fortifications while we assessed the situation and checked in with the Colonel.
The cache compound backed onto a wooded hillside, and so we started taking sporadic attacks from those flanks. Blue took the brunt of them, with Yellow (which for some reason /I’m/ currently commanding) took the road and village side. It was when a force pressed us along the road that we first started to realise that something wasn’t right. We’d not been anywhere near water, but Brownbread started to feel unwell. While I can’t be sure, the events that followed lead me to believe that this was most likely because our new Staff Sergeant, Hariman, started looking in the crates within the cache. I don’t know what was in the main building, but the side hut had barrels labelled VX, so I can take a guess that it wasn’t food and medical supplies.
The attacks continued though, mostly from the hills but also a heavy push from along the road away from where we’d come from. Turns out wriggly tin isn’t great for stopping gun fire, definitely not as good as trees, and several of them shot me over a depressingly short period of time. It took until I got the radio out to try and call in air support before they finally took me down though, which is kinda the story of my war.
Someone used the radio while I was out, as it wasn’t set back properly, but in the grand scheme of things that’s not important. While I was out of it, Staff bled out, meaning I’m now effectively the LT’s second in command, which becomes relevant shortly in this horror story. We did get medical supplies parachuted in though, including a crate of Adenosine injections, and while I’ve got no idea what that’s for, I did swipe one just in case. It was at this point we found out that the Staff Sgt had been opening the crates in the cache, so broadly that makes this entire mess his fault I presume.
We had a bit of a lull so those with spades broke them out again while the medics went round checking on everyone. Not that the lull lasted long, they never do, and we were once again under attack from the hills. I think it was at this point that we saw a US helicopter circling as well, not a gun ship though, and then I started to feel off as well, and I definitely hadn’t been near a water source, so I guess I’d just got too close to Brownbread or something.
A heavy assault came in from the north, which did a load of damage to the truck we drove in on, meaning we were now effectively foot mobile only, but still with orders to stay and hold the compound. I’m not really sure what the helicopter was doing at this point, as I remember seeing it a few times, but it didn’t seem to be firing on the attackers. We repulsed it though, and pulled back to the wriggly tin line to patch ourselves up and deal with the stragglers. We tried to call a med-evac in, but the request was denied because we were apparently under something called ‘Special Measures’. I can’t claim to know exactly what that meant, but broadly we were up shit creek and Staff took all the paddles with him into whatever afterlife he found.
Figuring we were stuck there for a while we started building a more complex set of defensive tranches and mounts, but then the helo decided it wanted to take a more active role and dropped in a squad we couldn’t identify. By this point, Tripwire, and possibly several of the others were talking openly about us now being effectively non-people due to what we’d seen and / or been exposed to. Once the squad reached the village they turned out to be in some form of bio-hazard suits, complete with gas masks and no unit insignia, which inspired us all with confidence.
Then they started shooting us. I assume we shot back, but I was bleeding on the ground at the time, and when I woke up they were all dead. Guess their hazmat suits weren’t bulletproof. Words like ‘cover up’ were being bandied about fairly freely by that point, and another push of Chelt came over the hills towards us, taking out our medic, which really wasn’t helpful. Something unidentified but heavy started exploding inside the compound and I decided that discretion was the other side of valour and hid behind our truck on the far side of the road.
Looking back to the compound there was now a large cloud of yellow gas where one of the buildings had stood, and as we had just made up our minds to get far away, the Colonel came on the radio. He was being cryptic, and I didn’t really hear what he said, so I had to experiment a bit to find what channel he wanted to talk to me on. I got there eventually, and he impressed upon me that we needed to go. Sharpish. He didn’t need to tell us twice and we legged it, finding and then taking a trip of civilian vehicles as a B52 appeared at low altitude.
He told us we needed to clear half a kilometre distance and that he wasn’t supposed to be talking to us, right as the B52 passed across my line of sight again. I took the driver’s seat of a vehicle and as soon as everyone was loaded we set off towards Co So. Now, the Colonel did tell me it was to the north west, but with trying to drive, and check a map, and work a radio it got quite hard to keep track. I think the LT was also down at this point, so I had squad command, radio co-ordination, and driving to do. I might have got a little bit stressed and yelled at one of the newer privates, right before the entire sky turned into one bright light, and then the world went a yellow hue. In case you were wondering, that’s the point I prayed to you.
We kept driving. By luck more than anything else we were heading in the right direction, but by that point even if we hadn’t been, we weren’t turning back. There was a brief pause to check the map and then we were off again, although with hindsight we should have changed drivers as well, as the Colonel started trying to give me fairly complex instructions that I could only yell at the people in my vehicle and hope they had the mental capacity to remember it as they frantically tried to save the lives of the injured in the back. He’d set us up a resupply though, and between us we managed to remember enough to get us there. So, thanks if that was you helping out.
We patched everyone up, and I filled the Lt in on what he’d missed while bleeding profusely in the back of the tuk-tuk. I got another cryptic call from the Colonel, which took longer than I’m proud of to work out, and we were off again. Still heading generally north west but on foot this time, as apparently there were now US patrols out and about trying to track us down. I’ve got to say that I don’t like it when it’s the Chelt hunting us through the jungle, but I properly hate it when it’s our own side. We trusted in yourself, and the Colonel, and set off though. Initially northwards to keep under cover, with the plan to cut west as we got to Co So, where there’d be an IDAP truck waiting to take us clear.
We did move the vehicles into the cover as well before we set off, which was a good plan, as a helicopter arrived in our vicinity as we were doing so. It buzzed around a few times so we stayed hidden until it lost interest, then set off across country. Everything was still very yellow, which I tried not to think about too much, as we headed up the eastern side of a large area of paddy fields. It was there we took our first contact. Chelts on the western side, but Boomstick cleared them with his grenade launcher and we kept moving. Or mostly cleared them, some dickhead with an RPG was still up and made things difficult for us for a bit.
Then another helicopter appeared, might have been the same one as before, I don’t know. I suspect the explosions had attracted its attention, but there wasn’t much we could do about that. It then started to land, which distracted the Chelt, and we took the opportunity with them both distracted to go west towards Co So. The Lt had initially cleared the squad to fire on the helicopter if fired upon, so I’m really very glad we didn’t have to. So was most of the squad as I’m not sure I’ve heard that many requests for clarification of an order in a long while. There were a few Chelt hiding in the reeds in the middle of the paddy fields, but myself and Tripwire cleared them out without too much difficulty.
There was then contact from behind, which my squad suppressed, and looking back at a plume of black smoke I believe the helicopter went down. Some people on it definitely survived though, as at least one member of Blue reported being shot at by Americans. You can imagine what that did to morale. There was also the sound of a jet overheard briefly, but I never got eyes on. Fortunately, we managed to break contact and got to Co So where we found the promised vehicle.
Fortunately, the IDAP gentleman had been pre-warned that we’d be arriving, so we didn’t need to steal it. With further instructions from the Colonel to continue north west to a fishing village 500m beyond a place called Co La. There, one of Mr Kent’s friends called Dodgy Eric had boats for us. Fortunately, the main issue we had at this point was that some of the squad heard me say fishing village /north/ of Co La, and others just heard Co La, so there was a bit of confusion as to where precisely to stop the vehicles, and then a small patrol of Chelt decided to ambush us from the side of the road. We were close enough to the village that we just jumped out, broke the contact, and ran to the boats.
Eric gave us directions to a creek where he had a supply cache of his own, so we set off in the boats. This went fine until one boat rammed the other and we ended up in the water. A liferaft deployed as one sank, but we couldn’t tow it. All but two of us could get into the remaining boat so myself and the LT got ready for an overland yomp, but we managed to find a small motor boat hidden in the reeds, so we stole that. It was significantly slower, so the rest of the squad immediately left us behind to fend for ourselves, but fortunately we didn’t see any other river traffic and got safely to the intended creek. I can only assume such divine intervention was you, so thanks again, we owe you big time.
I got in contact with Sunray again, and we found out that some of Eric’s creditors were about to raid the base. They came by boat, down the narrow creek, so our grenadier and machine gunner made short work of them while I muddled my way through the tree cover to try and find somewhere to shoot them from with my much smaller gun. It was three boats in total I believe, and bar a few scrapes and scratches we came out of it okay, and then Sunray was on the radio again. He must have been working his socks off back at base. Assuming Colonels wear socks. He’d been dodging all sorts of people /and/ organising our various little escapes.
Anyway, he said to head east over land to the village of Cu Kty, avoiding a Chelt Cong patrol known to be in the area, and a squad of ‘cleaners’ heading up from the south to intercept us. Now, I know you’ve seen us in action before, so I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you that we failed to avoid either of those, but we did win each contact, so the end result was broadly the same, just we had to kill a squad of people who a few hours earlier had been on our side.
Arriving at the village we had to clear out a small element of Chelt Cong, but our new transport was undamaged. This time we were taking the bus of a touring Mariachi band. I think you can see now how this all ties in with how we find ourselves now. We dumped our gear into the bus, and stole the band’s performance costumes, but we kept our guns on us for the drive to the nearby base. Once we’d made it up the hill and into the perimeter, /most/ of us hid those, but a few kept them, which led to an awkward conversation or two with the guards, but somehow we bluffed it out, and all we need to do now is work out just how we’re going to do the performance that the base is expecting in the morning.
Somewhere along the way I lost the adenosine, probably when I was punted off the boat into the water, but I’m feeling much better now thankfully. Still, if I see any more about the base I’ll swipe some and get Bungalow to do his worst with it, just in case.
I think that’s you all caught up now, if there was anything you hadn’t seen along the way that is. I know you’ve done a lot for us today, but I worry we might need to call on you tomorrow as well, until the Colonel can clear things up for us. I should probably go to bed though, before someone wonders why I’m just talking to myself for so long.
Ia Ia Darkon.