Reich Marshal of the Belkan Reich

RM Vol 4: War – Chapter 18: Case Yellow (Day 4 – Shock and Awe)

Beaumont, Ustio.

What used to be a formal Darscen city had been seized and subsumed by Ustio for years. The city was remade into the Ustians' vision, with Darscen's traditional architecture scrubbed and replaced by the Ustians' taste of Art Noveau. Even the derelict Château de Beaumont was rebuilt to symbolize Ustian superiority. To this day, the castle of Beaumont stands and has even been updated to contemporary standards. When the Months of Demons first occurred, the need to build a wall was pressing yet a task unable to be finished in a short time frame. Château de Beaumont was the city's protector until the walls were constructed. Thanks to its natural height advantage, the castle was a perfect firebase, hosting numerous artillery and AA guns. It's still a deadly deterrent to this day for any contemporary armies, akin to another land-bound battleship in the Loyalists' arsenal of heavy static defenses. By this point, however, one must wonder when will the Ustians stop building castles and fortresses. Clearly, their static defensive strategies haven't even worked once in this war. Château de Beaumont too will soon find itself crashing and burning the same as Bellevue and Montherme. On this very night, Beaumont is under siege, and the city's castle will be welcoming its last huzzah.

"Ok, people!" A female voice says over the radio net. "This is AWACS Thunderhead, welcoming you all over to the AO~! Now don't let this angelic voice of mine distract you from the prize. In-flight briefing as follows."

"Intel gathered by ONI Loyalist Lieutenant Colonel Altmeyer is hunkering down inside Château de Beaumont. As the one holding up the Ninth Army with duct tape and a dream, his elimination is our top priority. The whole city is surrounded, so Altmeyer has little to no opportunity to run. He's a cornered rat so he will fight back with all he has. This means the entire Château de Beaumont is his playground and he has at least a Battalion worth of fully-equipped soldiers. 155 mm, 194 mm, AA guns of all varieties, you name it, he has it in that castle. His elimination, death or alive, is our top priority."

AWACS Thunderhead stops to let the details sink in before continuing. "Speed is critical. Lucky for you flyboys and gals and your passengers on the back, Witch and Wild Weasel units have taken out most of the air defenses. However, Altmeyer's ground forces still pose a serious threat."

Thunderhead adds. "As part of the leading elements, A Company will lead a VTOL-borne assault directly on Château de Beaumont. Following right behind you is the 442nd Division which will secure the rest of the city and act as your support. They have slipped past outlier Loyalist elements and are raring to go. CAS will be provided Singer flight with their gunships. Civilians are either evacuated or are hunkering down by the Adventurers' Guild, marked by a no-shoot yellow box and a big ol' lighthouse."

"Look like we're rolling in with everything we got." A Storm Trooper says while standing in the troop compartment of an Osprey. "We get Altmeyer, we end cohesive Loyalist resistance in and around Beaumont. Lock and load, Troopers." The Storm Troopers rack the bolts of their weapons.

"Happy hunting~!" Thunderhead says before the radio line goes dark. She will only interject when needed.

While the Storm Troopers are gearing up and going over their game plans, the pilot of their Osprey receives a different comms request.

"Viking, this is Singer. We'll take out the big target and mop up any troublemakers with your GMG." The lead pilot of a Guns-a-go-go Osprey says in a confident tone.

"Copy that, Singer." The leader of the Viking element of Ospreys replies before returning to the door gunners. "We're in formation and are approaching the objective. 30 seconds."

"Copy that." The Crew Chief responds before patting the shoulder of the Private manning the starboard Grenade Machine Gun. "Get ready."

The Private nods as the pair check the munition feeds of their guns before charging new rounds into them. Since the aircraft is flying low, the door gunners are treated with a nice fiesta of Pumas riding at full speed, their tracks kicking up clouds of mud and dirt. Meanwhile, flying parallel albeit at relatively different altitudes are other Ospreys, both gunship and transport variants alike. All of them are loaded to bear, much like the Pumas they're flying over.

"Gun's hot!" The Private shouts while resting his hand on the GMG.

"Roger. Gun's hot all around." The Crew Chief reports to the pilot in the cockpit.

"Good copy. Gun's hot all around." The pilot repeats before turning over to his co-pilot. "Keep an eye out for anything directly ahead of us, I don't want any of us to get sniped flying this low and fast."

"Gotcha, scanning the horizon now." The co-pilot replies, looking around to search for targets with the Osprey's gimballed 30 mm chaingun.

"All callsigns, this is Thunderhead." The AWACS interjects. "We're seeing enemy armored roadblock ahead of you."

"Singer to Thunderhead. Yeah, we're seeing it, making it a no-factor now."

From the Private's point of view, one of the Guns-a-go-go Osprey launches two JAGMs. The missiles soon flew out of view. Even before the Private hear the missiles' explosion, Singer's elements already use their 30 mm guns to pulverize the roadblock ahead of them. By the time the transport Ospreys fly over the supposed roadblock with armor vehicles, all they can see are charred husks of some vehicles and retreating Loyalists. These enemy soldiers aren't running blindly, however. In the darkness illuminated by sporadic searchlights and burning wrecks, they are rushing back to the Ninth's garrison manning Beaumont's city walls. It doesn't take long for the Pumas trailing behind the Osprey to open fire on the city's defenses: gun trucks, static emplacements, anything that moves.

"Cleared to engage all of those." The pilot's words are punctuated by one of Singer's gunships launching a missile that blasts open the city's gate.

The Pumas take advantage of the opening and increase their pressure on the Ninth Army while multiple Ospreys fly overhead, strafing and dishing out the pain on the Loyalists above the walls. The Crew Chief and the Private, using their GMGs, sling round after round, killing or sending unfortunate soldiers tumbling down two dozen meters in height. After scraping the upper portion of the walls, the Ospreys fly into the city, their 30 mm guns are used to suppress Château de Beaumont's casemate artillery on their approach.

Suddenly, some bullets zip through the air, prompting the pilot to say.

"We got infantries on the rooftops."

"Eyes on, engaging." The Crew Chief replies as both he and the Private hold down the trigger of their GMGs.

The distinctive metallic thumping sound of their weapons echoes sonorously across the entire aircraft. A perk of using night vision is that the Private can clearly see the blue-cladded figures holding up their weapons at him. From up here, these Loyalists prove to be easy picking. The Private targets a group of Loyalists on a group top that's struggling to set up the tripod of their crew-served machine gun, sending both the gun and the crew flying in pieces. After that he aims for the windows on one of the buildings below his aircraft, firing out a short burst that sends grenades directly into the garrisoned structure. Explosions happen, and the entire complex is promptly turned inhabitable.

A burst of gunfire surprises the Private, the bullets seem to bounce off the plating of their Osprey. However, it warrants an immediate evasive maneuver from the pilot. The Osprey leans to the left, climbing up a bit higher than the rest of the flights.

"We got trucks and infantries by the square. 3 o'clock, low!"

"I'm on it!" The Private shouts back before aligning his GMG at the enemies.

The Loyalists have commandeered the square to be one of their staging grounds. The place is lined with tents, trucks, and hostiles running all over and deadly. If that square isn't a giant 'Bonk me' target, then the Private doesn't know what is.

 THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK

With how packed the square is, the Private doesn't even need to aim properly. He swipes his GMG diagonally and laterally, blowing shit up and taking names. Checkpoint? Gone. Watchtower? Gone. Gun truck with Blackjack and hookers? Gone, unfortunately. However, he does remember to steer clear of the medical tents and buildings with a giant red cross banner over them. The same can also be said for Singer elements whose rockets and missiles always go for targets in the open and nowhere near something that is a non-hostile. War is already a dirty business. They don't need to make it any more messier than it already is.

By the time Viking and Singer are done with the square, nothing is left recognizable.

"One staging area wiped."

"Roger, moving on to Château de Beaumont now."

The pilot turns around, shouting. "Twenty seconds!"

The Lieutenant of the Storm Troopers gives the signal to his subordinates to stand ready. "Troopers! Stand by for fast-roping!"

As Viking flight flies over the vista that is Château de Beaumont in a clockwise manner, the door gunners on the starboard sides of the transport Osprey unleash enough 40 mm grenades to deafen the entire castle. Singer elements, using hails of rockets and missiles, eliminate key threats like the castle's towers and internal machine gun nests, paving the way for Viking elements to move in. The casemate artillery guns of the castle, which are only good against slow-moving targets in the day, are unable to properly engage the Pumas of the 100th Battalion, much less the Ospreys. Singer elements then fire missiles into the top of the castle's buildings, creating entry points for the Storm Troopers.

With the immediate threats pacified, Viking elements spread out with four aircraft hovering at the cardinal directions of Château de Beaumont, with two Ospreys taking position above the main building. The Crew Chief abandons his GMG for a moment, moving to open the side doors rear ramp of the Osprey. He then deploys the onboard Fast Rope Insertion Extraction System, FRIES for short, which is basically a set of heavy-duty, retractable bars, ropes, and weights.

As the weighted ropes are kicked down the ramp by the Crew Chief, the Storm Trooper Lieutenant shouts. "All right, Troopers! Give me your war faces!"

"Courage and Honor!"

The Troopers bang their chest plates. They then chuck flashbangs and smoke down the hole before fast-roping down the height of 18 meters using their hands and legs. The first to touch down crouch and vacate the drop zone for the Troopers that follow them. If need be, these men and women use lethal force to cleanse the area of hostiles, no matter if they're incapacitated or not. They're Storm Troopers, and they have little to no mercy in high-risk operations like this one.

The hunt for Altmeyer has begun, and the poor sod doesn't even realize that he has kill teams coming for his head.