by Freelancer » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:09 pm
Near Gaduridos-Baltusia Frontline - 20:00 18th January 2781
Four requisitioned passenger buses crammed full of Pontesian soldiers crawled along a narrow, deeply rutted track, an old logging road, slowly winding their way deep into the pitch-back forest. The sound of an artillery bombardment and airstrile can be hear from a distance away.
Up at the front, Captain Nick Solomon crouched beside the driver, holding on to the seat of the driver to keep his balance. He peered out throught the window, trying to get an idea where he and the crew of his tank were being sent. So far, this twenty-four-hour-long journey from North Bentara had been a quick deployment.
Several minute later, they pulled into a clearing and stopped.
More field security troops in blue armbands, with assault rifle held ready, swarmed around the buses, shouting, "All out! Everyone out! Move! Move!"
Solomon was the first one through the open doors, he dropped lightly onto the rock-hard, forzen earths of the clearing and then saluted the nearest officer - a captain like himself. His battalion tunbled out of the buses behind him.
"Your orders?" the other man snapped.
Wordlessly, Solomon dug the thick sheaf of papers out of the breast pocket of his field jacket.
The other captain flipped them open and studied them. "I see that you're part of the 12th Infantry Divisions" he commented. He handed the orders back and then studied a list on his clipboard. "Right, you and your company are posted to Task Force D, Barrack Tents Four through Eight. Off through the trees over there captain." The man said tiredly, nodding toward the forest beyond the clearing. "You'll be guided"
Solomon looked in that direction. His mouth fell open, he could see that they were standing on the outskirts of an enormous military encampment, one built right in among the trees. Huge panel of infrared and radar absorbent camouflage netting were strung overhead, and coils of barbed wires stretched as far as the eye could see, apparently circling the whole camp. The direction that face the Gaduridos-Baltusia Frontline are full of trenchs, bunkers, and mines with every small and big guns that the Task Force have pointing in that direction.
"What the devil is going on here?" he asked.
"We're assembling to make a counter attack in order to push the Bultusian scums back into their nation" the captain told him. He shrugged "And that is all you needs to know for now. Until then, you communicate only through your own chain-of-command. Clear?"
Solomon nodded.
"Good, and make sure your boys don't go wandering off. Anyone who crosses the perimeter without authorization may gets a bullet in the neck and a shallow grave. 50 KM in that direction is full of Baltusian soldiers and we're deploying landmind throughout the frontier so you willl get blown to shit. Understand?"
Solomon nodded again before walking to his part of the Cantonment, but not before he direct his unit to follow him.