Vor After Action Report: 5.14.08

"The Sky is Falling"

Condition roll: #68 Unknown Adversaries

Confederate Forces report for battle agaonst Neo-Soviet Forces--5.014.08

Merc (Confederates) Versus One-Eyed Jack (Neo-Soviet)

Turn One:

OEJ won the first initiative roll setting what he hoped to be an early precedent. OEJ fired with his Ursa Battlesuit at the Ares attempting to open the game with devastating consequences for Merc. Merc responded in kind with a solid devastating shot from the Ares Harbinger Railgun, piercing the Ursa's reactor core causing it to detonate, removing it from  the battle in one foul swoop. Both sides moved into postion for the next round.--Unkown Adversaries roll--no effect.

Turn Two:

Merc won initiative and quickly moved into cover positions to open up on the Neo's. The Elite Confederate squad focused fire on an advancing Vanguard squad who valiantly stood their ground without a single casualty. Their return fire, however, cost the elites both their Bulldog, and Rottweiler support units. The Cyclops unit attempted to take out the Ares but failed to land a single shot as the standard infantry squad ripped apart the Neo Chem Grunts, reducing them to a single man. Fire was returned across the board with the Neo's netting four Confederate kills on the Standard infantry squad.

--Roll for Unknown Adversaries--Alien ship explodes from combat littering the field with burning wreckage--no casualties taken.

Turn Three:  THe battle raged as Merc's forces again took the initiative!  The Confedrate Elites tore through an advancing Rad Troop squad dealing out 70% casualties without a single loss. The standard squad took out a few Rad troops in the other squad as the singular remaining Chem grunt fell back.--Unknown Adversaries roll--No casualties.

Turn Four:  OEJ won initiative and quickly advanced his remaining Rad Troops and Vanguard unit towards the Elite Confederates as the Ghost of the "Great Bear" entered the battlefield.  He exchanged fire with the Confederate commander wounding him once in the exchange. The Vanguard and Rad Troops manage two more wounds on the Elites costing their Sergeant his life.  The Ares attempted to eliminate the Rad troops...failing miserably!

--Unknown Adversaries roll-- An alien ship explodes raining down burning wreckage. Falling wreckage lands on a Neo rad troop squad twice inflicting more than 50% casualties including their officer.

Turn Five: Fianl Turn: In the final turn of the game, the largely decimated Neo-Soviet force mounted one last offensive, losing their entire Vanguard squad to the Confederate Elites and 2 of their 3 Cyclops to the Ares and Standard infantry squad. The Neo's netted no return casualties.

--OEJ generously offered a cease fire at this point largely due to the early hour in the morning we had played until. 

Final battle casualties:Neo-Soviets--22 dead including Ursa, Confederates--7 dead

The Aftermath

 

     Commander Markus Green sat on an ammo crate on the hill overlooking the recent battlefield. His upper body armor was heaped in a pile to his right while a medic treated his minor chest and shoulder wound suffered when the apparition of a dead Neo-Soviet appeared in the middle of the battle.  He shook his head as if to clear the memory before surrendering to the fact that he would never understand life in the Maelstrom...anything was possible.

     He winced as the medic pulled a finger sized piece of shrapnel from his armor out of his upper left shoulder.

     "Sorry, Sir." the young woman blurted apologetically as she pressed a bandage on the wound to slow the blood flow.

     He watched the cratered field below as his troopers hauled the oozing irradiated husks of the enemy soldiers to a long deep ditch near the center of the largest crater.  A Fenris main battle tank with a dozer blade on the front hovered in the distance awaiting the order to push the mound of dirt over the top of the mass grave.

     "Hell, they'll shoot their own to force an action, you know? Such a waste." he said looking over at the nervous medic, VanSenus was her name, he thought. "They don't care about them when their alive.  Why shoud they give a damn about them dead?" he sneered looking back down below.

     "Sir?" VanSenus asked confused.

     "Nevermind, Corporal. It was a rhetorical question." he said through shortened breath as she tightened the bandage around his chest.

     "Good as new, sir." she said closing her field kit. "I'd stay off of your feet for a few days, let the healing begin, keep from tearing out any stitches."

     "Thank you, Corporal. I've had much worse, I'm sure I'll manage.  Dismissed." he stated flatly. Why am I being short with her?

     She managed a quick salute which he returned as she hurried off to the other wounded. The pain in his chest and arm twinged and tightened as he stood up still wearing his leg armor.  With his bare upper body and the bulky legs, he looked more like a mythical minotaur than a man.

     "Such a waste." he whispered as a cool breeze kicked up carrying the fetid scent of the pile of corpse's below. He choked back a cough and watched the Ares below drag a dead Cyclops mutant to the grave, its massive bulk too much for a man to move, even in power armor. That Ares pilot deserves an accomodation after that crack shot on the Ursa. he thought to himself.  That blast of radioactive fire burned a flashing light over his retinas for hours, even through the filters on the armors visor. It definitely turned the tide early, but he still lost seven brave troopers. Sergeant Hicks would be especially hard to deal with. The loss of any soldier was difficult, but a veteran elite like him with so much ability would be felt long after he was buried.  The intangible of his leadership was gone for good, and no addition of a warm body could fill that part of the ranks.

     A few construction vehicles finally pulled into the site to remove some of the fallen debris from the overhead battle between two alien warships that appeared out of nowhere...another curse of the Maelstrom...pure unbridled random chaos. Maybe the wreckage would net some nice technolgical advancement if it could be reverse engineered. More work lights suddenly kicked on the crater pocked ground below, the light from the Maw long since vanished from the night sky.

     Commander Green took a deep breath, released a sad sigh and hefted his upper body armor over his right shoulder before turning to head over to the transport waiting to take him back to HQ for debriefing. No point looking back. Tomorrow it will all just be a memory.