Scandavian States
02-10-2004, 05:12
The scene was much like one might find in any normal subdivision or suburb. There appeared to be a series of six houses going down a single lane and then a circle drive with a single house to mark the dead end. The houses looked like people might live in them, they were well kept and some even had one or more cars in the driveways. About the only out-of-place thing about it all was that there wasn’t any real human activity.
This, however, was solved in no time flat. Three figures ran along a series of houses that were parallel to the drive that was now the unfortunate target of a platoon of Imperial Marines. When each of the humanoid figures -it wasn’t possible to necessarily identify them as human in their SIBA- found plots of ground that gave them the proper line-of-sight they plopped down on their bellies, deployed the bipods on their rifles, and just… observed through their respective scopes.
Not more than five seconds later six more humanoids came along, this time running along the sidewalk across from the circle drive. They stopped when they came to an SUV and a sedan parked nearly bumper-to-bumper, two teams of two on either end of the cars and one team in between the car, slung their carbines, popped open cases that contained a disassemble rocket launcher, quickly and expertly assembled the components, and much like their sniper brethren waited.
Finally came the meat of the platoon, 12 riflemen and three squad gunners divided into three squads. They didn’t bother entering houses that showed no activity, it was largely a wasted effort because they knew that eventually they would be ambushed and it was senseless to present themselves as boobytrap fodder in houses that presented no active threat. Instead they slowly, and with surprising quietness given the huge size of the MkIV SIBA, advanced down the circle drive. It was stupid, really, how the “enemy” started it off, and the end house presented no real exit point even if they managed to pin the platoon down. Furthermore, the simulated enemy didn’t even wait for an engagement of less than twenty-five feet; they opened fire almost before the squads advanced halfway up the drive. The underpowered rounds from the old-style, non-caseless automatic rifles started pinging off ground and SIBA alike just milliseconds before the dull, flat crack of the opening volley of fire echoed down the street. The rifle squads answered back by going prone and then returning fire, the high-pitched whine/crack of the caseless rifles signaling that the soldiers weren’t going to bend over and take it. The missile teams fired into the top floor of the multi-storied house, however instead of an explosion the moment the rockets impacted they filled the two front-facing rooms with a fine mist and not five seconds passed before a massive explosion literally blasted the face of the top story from the house. This enabled one of the squads to advance using a car as cover, whereupon the squad’s grenadier put all three rounds from the 25mm grenade launcher’s clip through two windows and a door. The effect was much the same as the rocket but smaller in scale, this time only a door and two windows plus their supporting frames met their end.
Another two minutes and all of the automated opponents met their end. The First Lieutenant commanding the platoon radioed battalion HQ and notified them of the successful firefight. Just as the squad responsible for bringing the engagement to an end strode out of the house three large hovertanks screamed past, which to the platoon signaled the official start of the Suburban Warfare Center’s extremely intense training cycle for the 205th Cavalry Division. It also heralded the first use of man-portable thermobaric weapons by any branch of the Imperial Armed Forces in a simulated combat environment.
[Yeah, this is a training exercise, at $10 Billion per division per year for the Imperial Marines I figure I can afford the most realistic possible training for my ground forces. I decided to show of my new thermobaric weapons and have a reference as to just what extreme I take the training of my ground forces. In case there's any doubt, on an average (remember there's a huge training cost deficit between infantry and cooks) individual level each person in the Imperial Marines gets more than $1 Million. That's more money than any RL special forces unit gets.]
This, however, was solved in no time flat. Three figures ran along a series of houses that were parallel to the drive that was now the unfortunate target of a platoon of Imperial Marines. When each of the humanoid figures -it wasn’t possible to necessarily identify them as human in their SIBA- found plots of ground that gave them the proper line-of-sight they plopped down on their bellies, deployed the bipods on their rifles, and just… observed through their respective scopes.
Not more than five seconds later six more humanoids came along, this time running along the sidewalk across from the circle drive. They stopped when they came to an SUV and a sedan parked nearly bumper-to-bumper, two teams of two on either end of the cars and one team in between the car, slung their carbines, popped open cases that contained a disassemble rocket launcher, quickly and expertly assembled the components, and much like their sniper brethren waited.
Finally came the meat of the platoon, 12 riflemen and three squad gunners divided into three squads. They didn’t bother entering houses that showed no activity, it was largely a wasted effort because they knew that eventually they would be ambushed and it was senseless to present themselves as boobytrap fodder in houses that presented no active threat. Instead they slowly, and with surprising quietness given the huge size of the MkIV SIBA, advanced down the circle drive. It was stupid, really, how the “enemy” started it off, and the end house presented no real exit point even if they managed to pin the platoon down. Furthermore, the simulated enemy didn’t even wait for an engagement of less than twenty-five feet; they opened fire almost before the squads advanced halfway up the drive. The underpowered rounds from the old-style, non-caseless automatic rifles started pinging off ground and SIBA alike just milliseconds before the dull, flat crack of the opening volley of fire echoed down the street. The rifle squads answered back by going prone and then returning fire, the high-pitched whine/crack of the caseless rifles signaling that the soldiers weren’t going to bend over and take it. The missile teams fired into the top floor of the multi-storied house, however instead of an explosion the moment the rockets impacted they filled the two front-facing rooms with a fine mist and not five seconds passed before a massive explosion literally blasted the face of the top story from the house. This enabled one of the squads to advance using a car as cover, whereupon the squad’s grenadier put all three rounds from the 25mm grenade launcher’s clip through two windows and a door. The effect was much the same as the rocket but smaller in scale, this time only a door and two windows plus their supporting frames met their end.
Another two minutes and all of the automated opponents met their end. The First Lieutenant commanding the platoon radioed battalion HQ and notified them of the successful firefight. Just as the squad responsible for bringing the engagement to an end strode out of the house three large hovertanks screamed past, which to the platoon signaled the official start of the Suburban Warfare Center’s extremely intense training cycle for the 205th Cavalry Division. It also heralded the first use of man-portable thermobaric weapons by any branch of the Imperial Armed Forces in a simulated combat environment.
[Yeah, this is a training exercise, at $10 Billion per division per year for the Imperial Marines I figure I can afford the most realistic possible training for my ground forces. I decided to show of my new thermobaric weapons and have a reference as to just what extreme I take the training of my ground forces. In case there's any doubt, on an average (remember there's a huge training cost deficit between infantry and cooks) individual level each person in the Imperial Marines gets more than $1 Million. That's more money than any RL special forces unit gets.]