"Charlie in the jungle"
Sergeant Clark, Squad 71M
Clark's JLTV was trudging on through whatever open bits of jungle there was. The M1A3 in front. It had an engineer kit equipped, after stopping by some Strykers to acquire it, and it was using it to the fullest extent, clearing the pathway for the JLTVs to have a smoother ride on the way to the town.
Clark didn't like having to be a bit slow, but he was forced to anyways, less their vehicle get stuck and leave them vulnerable. The village was less than 200 meters away, so it was a little frustrating. But he digresses, it's either wait patiently or get dick stomped immediately after getting stuck on something.
Soon the M1A3 pulled to the side, "Should be clear to go" the TC reported, a clear shot to the village now present. At that, the JLTV began to pick up speed, "Finally," Lesly commented, fixing herself up, "Time for some action."
Soon, the JLTV excited the clearing, the MBT pulling away to find somewhere to perch up on. Clark and his unit began to go into he village. The locals seemed to already be in some sort of panic by the sound of everything, the sound of explosions in the east and the pounding of gunfire. The sight of people running around, some with crocodile heads, some with tails, and several others with features indiscernible at the moment.
This village seemed to be a mix of 4 tribes, judging by the distinctions in some culture. Not too terribly large, but enough for it to be noticeable. There was a large market place, a sort of stage/amphitheater area, large tribal homes.
The vehicles stopped somewhere near the edge of the village, still covered in foliage, and some of the civilians came out with weapons, and at the same time, there was some civilians urging them to not fight them. "Damn, looks like the PLA got everybody riled up," a Marine commented, looking outside, "Should we just stay in the vic?"
"No, no," Clark comments, "Let's not do that. Lieutenant Lesly," the Liberi looked at him, "Come, lets go, we need to speak with these people." He opens his door and steps out, Lesly joining him. The marine noticed that the people seemed to be looking at their vehicles with... something... some sort of glint in their eyes?
At the boots landing on the ground, some of these people aimed their spear like weapons at them. Clark held his hand up, "Hey, hey, do you guys speak this language? We need to talk." At the sound of 'Victorian', somebody stepped up. And Clark was glad for it, because he needed a local to communicate with.
He looked over her hooded appearance, and tried to make out what he can with an Earthling dictionary. Staff seemed to be sleek and black in nature, there was a ring at the top with a much smaller one inside. There was some sort of object, perhaps a gem, with what looks like a white fabric going around it. Her clothing was almost entirely of a black color scheme.
Greyish hair, some sort of grey-amber(?) eyes, and... dear god he cannot ignore the fact that this person has a giant reptilian tail. "Uhm, hello..." she begins, looking at him, "Yes, we can." she held up her staff and stared him down. "Are you... like those people in the West?"
Clark immediately knew what she was talking about and shook his head, "No, no, do not fear us, we are nothing like them." he began, staying confident and firm, stepping up, and even leaving his M5 at the JLTV. Going up to her, he patted his chest, "I'm Sergeant Clark, of the United States, we are here to help."
He had a spear aimed at his neck soon after he said that, and he didn't even flinch. He side eyed the person who did that, "How do we know that?" It was a large, Archosaurian soldier who looked down at him. The JLTV was about to turn its .50, but Clark subtly ordered him not to fire.
The other infantry dismounted. Clark looked at him, "Well there pal, if we were here to harm you, we wouldn't be standing here, having this conversation right now."
The hooded little caster stepped up, "If you are introducing yourself then... I am Tomimi, the current Chieftain of Gavial's will." The name immediately sparked recognition from the Marine, but he didn't show it. She points her staff at him, "and I hear because the tribes of Acahualla would like to know if you are coming to assist in fighting off the Invaders of the West."
At the title for the PRC, the Americans couldn't help but laugh, leaving their Columbian Counterparts confused.
Well ain't that a twist of Irony, Beijing? their sergeant humorously acknowledged.
Clark soon nods, picking his words carefully, "Correct, that is why we are here in fact, with allied forces and are actively engaging them to prevent them from causing anymore people harm." She points off to the noises in the south, which sounds appropriately like loud artillery fire. "Them?" she questioned, and he nodded.
Lesly stepped up, her Columbian Emblem on her arm shining a little, "We are also here." Tomimi looked at her.
"Columbians too... I see.." she looks at the soldier and orders him to step down, "Put the spear down". He sputtered, as if in a bit of disbelief, before she subtly glared at him. At the glare, he had no choice but to set his weapon down. She did have the thicces- Ahem - largest tail in the group right now.
She looks at Clark, "What may be your plan? They seem to have loud thunder, what do you have?" It sounded like a challenge for firepower, and they gladly had the mechanical advantage here.
Clark sets his arm down, and makes a gesture, confusing the natives. But when they started to hear a deep, guttural rumbling from the distance, some got back into a defensive stance.
Soon, the 120mm gun of the M1A3 poked out, and with it came the armored beast that it was attached to. The vehicle's turbine engine roared, causing some to cover their ears as the tracks began to slowly come to a halt. Clark chuckles, as some of the natives were now affixed on the vehicle.
"We got an Abrams."
Tomimi coughed, staring at the thing, before regathering focus. her fellow people weren't so much, going up to the vehicle. She looked at the thing with some sort of appreciation. "Okay, okay." Lesly stepped up, holding her crossbow.
She had Clark's rifle in her other hand, "Hey!" Clark turned around and had his hand out. Giving the weapon a good toss, the M5 flew from Lesly's hand. The handguard of the gun landed comfortable in his left hand, and he grips the handle with his other hand.
Clark looks out west, "Alright then, let's show the PLA what we are made of." Tomimi nodded as some other soldiers joined up near her, holding spears and javelin like weapons. The Abrams pulled up to a part of the village's outer side again...
The JLTV came on up. Clark opened the door, "Well, let's go, can't keep the IDF waiting."
The aforementioned Special Forces unit was engaging the PLA somewhere on the edge of the jungle that was near the village. The sound of Tavor rifles and some M72 LAWs were heard as the unit cut down a few PLA that was trying to sneak on through.
A ZSL-10 was giving the Israelis quite some trouble. Its heavy machine gun shredding at the forest while some infantry around them had Flamethrowers out and ready to go. These little flamethrower rifles began to burn away at the forest, and was making it a danger to try and get close to the APC.
Clark and Lesly's JLTVs parked somewhere near the edge. An IDF LAT soldier running up to them, panting. As the 2 leaders stepped out of their vehicle, the LAT crabbed Clark and shook him, "What took you all so long?!
The marine grabbed her arms, "Stop shaking me damnit!" the LAT stopped and scowled at him, "Procter Etana, listen, just get yourself a brand new M919 and get back into the action." She was about to oblige, heading around back the vehicle.
She stopped and near yelped, "Who are they?!" Clark goes over and chuckles, as more Americans and Columbians dismounted.
"Them's just some folk we picked up from the Village," Lesly commented, pointing at them, Tomimi stepping out, her large tail coming along. "They want to have a piece of the people that is currently ravaging their home."
Etana shrugs, "As long as they are with us.." she takes the M919 and starts running back to her unit, to assist in taking out that APC. There seemed to be quite a bit of PLA here, roughly around 5 squads of infantry if the UAVs that were trying to stay up were correct.
Tomimi began to direct orders to some leader-like forces, while also preparing an Arts attack seeing the explosions and fire in the distance. She looks over at Tiacuah soldiers and gestures, "Push up, go through the trees."
"Yes Chieftan!" some yelled, climbing up some trees. An American marine watched that happen and he whistled, "Man... I would hate to be the poor bastard that gets jumped like that." He picks up his sniper rifle and start moving forward.
Clark and Lesly were near each other, and they had their M5 and M1090 Crossbow - respectively - aimed at some PLA forces. Feeling the electronic motor have an arrow ready to fire, Lesly fired, sending the projectile at a marksman that had their head exposed. Swiftly, the arrow penetrated and went on through, instantly killing him.
Clark's M5 let out its silent, suppressed barks of 6.8mm, impacted some branches and finding their home in some riflemen running about. IDF soldiers came up and they began to oen fire, peaking around trees.
Some unlucky PLA soldiers had their adrenaline spike up, as Tiacuah warriors fell down from the tree tops, and landed on them. Spears quickly swung around from the warrior to cut down additional PLA. A rifle shot out, injuring a warrior, but it only served to make them more angry as they outright just jammed the spear into the person that was holding the rifle. More Tiacuah began to make a jump on them.
Tomimi was sending her green bolts at some PLA. Seeing some of them miss, she sighs, before decisively charging up an explosive arts attack and sending it, "Eat this, Western Invader!" that much larger bolt went flying, and what followed was a beautiful green explosion that chewed up a lot of PLA and some of the foliage.
Seeing that, she covered her mouth, and remarked, "Whoops, too much."
The 'Ester' MBT began to slowly push on through, the affectionately nicknamed Abrams moving through the much more open bits of the forest while opening fire on a group of PLA with a nice Advanced Multi-Purpose round.
The round flew a bit of a distance, before detonating in a mode that sent a storm of Tungsten fragments out, effectively cutting down several PLA personnel.
The tank commander also joined in the firing, controlling his CROWs weapon. This time, its 20mm autocannon turret was outfitted with a quad Javelin launcher, and another .50 Cal for CSAMM.
The 'Ester' crew, driving this slightly modified Abrams, began to fire on heat signatures that the AI was positive were the enemy soldiers.
The M1A3 was facing off towards the south, while some Tiacuah soldiers moved alongside it. Upon seeing a PLA soldier, those soldiers immediately lashed out, charged the person. The Abrams crew watched, through their little sights, as the soldier was stabbed and put down quickly.
However, their attention was taken back when suddenly, an impact rocked the tank, the back right of the turret being the section that got hit with an APFSDS round. It would have been fine, if it where not for the fact that there was suddenly the sound of what WAS sparking and a big fire starting up.
In normal circumstances, this tank would have been dead. But this time, unlike the time in Lungmen, the Blowout ammo rack was able to be useful here. The force and explosion of the ammo going off being sent upwards, and since the blast doors were not damaged, the inside was comfortably protected from all the damage.
The gunner grumbled, swinging the turret to the right. His screen alerted that there was still an APFSDS round loaded in, and that the reserve ammo stowage still had plenty of AMP in them. Furious, he starts turning the gun off to the northern direction, switching thermals on as well as the computer targeting system, "Where's the son of a bitch that hit us?!"
Clark's voice rang out to the tank commander, just as the gunner got a bearing on the source of the problem, "There's that little shit!" His gun depressed to see the hull of the offending ZTZ-99D. That tank was still reloading. This Abrams had a round ready. "On the way!"
The sound of the gun firing filled the air, as the APFSDS round hit the ammo rack of the Chinese tank. A remarkable explosion followed, as the tank's turret went flying upward, before being caught in some of the foliage.
"Nailed that bitch," the operator in the turret began to grab some shells from the reserve storage of the tank and began to set them down in a basket.
Manually, the operator loaded the AMP round into the tank, and screamed, "Up!"
Clark heard the explosion of the ZTZ in the distance, "Enemy Heavy armor is KIA!" he gestured forward, looking at the APCs, "I want some guys with NLAWs over here RIGHT now to punish those little shits!" 2 Crossbows fired at some PLA soldiers and incapacitated them. At the mention of NLAWs, 3 Light-Anti Tank soldiers came up, with the aforementioned weapon.
One soldier stepped near him, "Clear back!" Lesly got away from the thing and kept her crossbow steady, its motor allowing her to fire in a near semi-auto pattern. "Away!" the soldier screams, depressing the trigger and sending the missile on a straight shot above the APC's turret.
The warhead detonated, sending its munition down into the APC and finding itself hitting a fuel tank. Setting flames to the inside of the APC and making the personnel and operators bail out. But they were swiftly picked off and put out of their misery at the sound of some sniper rifles.
That soldier backed off and began to use his M5, while retreating to a different position. Looking at the 2 remaining vehicles, being Type 08 IFVs, he ordered 2 more NLAWs to get on them. "Double time it, you 2!" he yelled, looking at the 2 LAT soldiers, "Come on!"
The battlefield was still raging, but more Tiacuah soldiers began to fall and ambush PLA forces from the trees, and Tomimi was sending slightly more powerful bolts at PLA soldiers, killing them the second that contact was made.
Next to Clark was another soldier, NLAW ready. "On the way!" she yells, sending the round down range. It was followed by Etana, with her M919, firing off, the 2 rounds slamming into the Type 08. The M919 munition causing a large fiery explosion on the side, while the NLAW went above the turret and fired downward, the munition turning the crew into paste.
"Nice-!" Lesly let out, before excitedly pointing over, "Hey! That one's getting away!"
Sure enough, the last IFV was running away, leaving infantry behind who were being attacked by the Tiacuah warriors that were using the jungle to their ever increasing advantage.
The IFV got into a clearing, slowly picking up speed with its turret faced around to the battlefield. But they didn't get fair, and the Americans, and some Columbians even, laughed when it ran into some unexpected reinforcements.
Literally ramming into an M1A2C owned by the Columbians. Clark began to laugh, "Oh those unlucky bastards!" Lesly covered her mouth, amusement creeping in, and watched as 3 more M1A2Cs and 2 M1A3s came around it and pretty much boxed it in, while 6 LAV-25s and 4 Columbian M2C Bradleys came around with infantry dismounting.
Tomimi looked at all of the vehicles. By now, the battlefield was pretty much secured as more reinforcements began to come on in. Some Filipino and Vietnamese, under the ASEAN flag, came up from the south and began to wave at Clark, making a sort of sharp, Shhht! at him.
Clark chuckles, "There's more of our friends..."
Lesly waved. Allied forces began to cheer seeing that most of the red clouds marking Chinese formations, have been pretty much secured by friendly forces. Clark looked back at Tomimi and her people, and couldn't help but laugh more in amusement.
The Marines, Rangers, IDF, and the warriors began to intermingle and converse, as things cooled down. Cooled down significantly to the point where most of the battle was far away. And some of the APCs and IFVs began to warm up some MREs, seeing that it was the late afternoon and most of the forces were probably hungry.
An exchange of warrior to warrior began. The Tiacuah soldiers looking at the armored machines, while the Type 08 was getting cleared out, with marines arresting everybody inside, at gun point of course.
The Chieftan of the local forces looked at Clark and Lesly, who had their weapons on safe and began to speak. "Where did you all come from?" she asked, looking at Clark, "Your tech... its something that we never have seen before," she even gestures to Lesly, "Not even what we heard from others speaking about the Columbians."
The marine smiles, as Lesly began to open a little package of candy, "Well, we'll tell you-" he began, before being interrupted by something.
Sound of jet engines above made everybody stop and interrupted all conversations, as well as the excessive sound of flares popping, some explosions in the air, and some sort of roar, Tomimi looking upwards in outright curiosity. Lesly looked at Clark and she was deeply concerned at the sound, "The hell's that?"
Clark chuckled, as the sound passed over them. "Don't worry about it." he turned to Tomimi, "So, what do you want to know?"
Somewhere, near a crudely made MSR that was feeding the PLA in this sector, 2 A-10s flew. They were given authorization to deploy this weapon, considering the target area was pretty much deserted of local Civilian life.
With a metal clang, several bombs began to fly from the north to the south. The 2 Warthogs wordlessly pulled away, going to fly back at a dirt airbase somewhere in the northeast.
And soon, the PLA's movement into this sector was pretty much halted, as several bombs of Napalm began to destroy and disrupt the supply route into the sector that was just active.
Angry, the PLA at their own base, soon wondered if they should blow the whistle on what is going on here.