War of The Gods

April 23rd
Traat River, Kingdom of North Zebrica

The earth quaked as guns fired, sending massive 150mm shells out into the air. The roar of gunfire echoed over the plains of the Zebrican nation. The shells landed on their targets, tall earthwork fortresses and floating gun batteries were their destinations. The earthworks did not crumble, the batteries stayed afloat, and all their targets seemed to shrug off the explosive shells with impunity. The shells were merely a prelude to the actual attack.

On the ground, trudging through the tall grass and thick mud between the artillery and flooded river were the men of the 8th Siege Battalion, at their head was Lieutenant Colonel Beauregard "Beau" Green. The man was middle-aged, his round face marked with age lines and wrinkles. He led his men with his rifle slung over his shoulder. The men he led carried with them the equipment needed for this siege: ladders, explosives, and grappling guns.

All their gear was piled into rigid boats and heavy backpacks, the journey was hard, before them was nothing but mosquitos and mud that smelled of excrement.

"Hell is nothin' compared to here," Green muttered to himself, adjusting his helmet. An explosion roared from nearby, causing his men to drop down. "All men up!" He commanded, "It was one of ours!" As he said this more shells exploded nearby. "We must be near the river... Forward!" He motioned for his men to follow him. The men at his command, numbering about three hundred, were all experienced.

His men had seen action in the Russian War, some in the Arab Conflict preceding it. He had seen action as far back as the Oil Wars, a hot humid hell was nothing new to him. Though in Venezuela the mud did not suck against his boots as he walked. They continued their walk, the mud giving way to water as they got closer to the river. Finally, the tall grass gave way to the wide and flooded Traat River, he ordered his men to halt.

More than a dozen batteries floated the river, ships with slanted sides sporting lines of guns that looked more like the monitors of old. Among them were two beasts, one that the soldiers had named Pancake and Flatcar. They were massive flat-topped monitors spotting only a conning tower and monstrous dual eleven-inch guns on the top deck. Green pulled a pair of high-powered binoculars from a pouch at his side.

He peered through them, watching the tall solid earthworks as men marched about atop their fortresses.

"They ain't scared," Sergeant Major John McGraw said, McGraw was a black man, shorter and stockier than Green with a mustache. Mcgraw pulled out a pair of matching binoculars.

"They're the elites," Green responded as McGraw put the binoculars to his eyes. McGraw spotted the soldiers, fine and clean uniforms with berets and bolt action rifles. Water-cooled machine guns sat atop the walls on mounts.

"They'll be tough alright," McGraw said "But that's why we're here," Green grunted.

"But that boat," The two peered at the long gun battery sitting between the walls and them along the more than between them. "That's gonna be a bitch to deal with... The artillery ain't doin' shit," A shell roared overhead like a sonic freight train, hitting the water with a hellish splash. Three more came roaring in, two striking the battery, yielding no results. "Lieutenant Briggs!" Green called.

"Coming, sir!" A young Lieutenant wearing a field phone on his back called back as he trudged toward the two men. He handed Green the phone. Green called in a strike, this one would use the fearsome HGR-10 Johnny Reb heavy rocket.

"Alright, J, We got a rocket comin' in," Green told McGraw. Moments later, a roaring whistle broke the air. "All men down!" He commanded. The whole battalion dropped into the mud as the whistle ended with a roaring explosion. A wave of heat and sound boomed over the soldiers, leaving the air filled with the sound of falling debris. Mixed with the crackling of fire and screams of dying crewmen.

Green and McGraw stood up to see the once firm and unyielding gun battery reduced to a smoldering mass of broken steel. Artillery shells blew up with the heat as the fires penetrated the ammo stores. The beast sunk in a few short minutes, taking its arsenal of 75mm guns with it. Bodies floated in the river, soldiers ran along the walls in a frenzy.

"All men split up! Four to a boat! Spread out wide!" Green commanded, and his men followed suit, shouting the command over the whole column and getting the men to split up. Boats split were split up among four men and grouped in two with one carrying a ladder and the other crates of plastic explosives and charges. Green and McGraw were with three others in a boat carrying only them and Lieutenant Briggs. "Lieutenant Briggs, sound the attack," said Green, standing on the prow of the boat.

"Aye sir," Lieutenant Briggs gave the order and the boats pushed off, exiting from the tall grass on the shallow water and into the deeper parts of the river. Green slung the rifle off his shoulder and held it by the grip in one hand. As soon as the boats got into the water the walls were lit up by machine guns and rifle fire. Green readied his rifle, as did McGraw. They fired at the wall in semi-automatic, taking aim at every individual man on the wall.

"Keep rowing men!" He commanded over the torrent of gunfire. "We need to reach the base of the wall!" The battalion rowed hard, and boats and men were struck, sinking in the cold river. McGraw fell over, dropping his rifle into the river. "You good?!"

"It's just a graze, I'll be fine" He got himself back up, grabbing the Bridgewood P98 10mm pistol hanging at his hip. Blood was dripping down his arm. Finally, their boat reached the base of the wall, others following suit.

"Get those charges planted!" Green commanded the nearby boat duos. Soldiers took out their picks and augers and got to work making holes for their charges. Bullets whizzed by, and Green and the others on board retaliated. Boats were still crossing the churning waters of the river, fighting a current stirred up by the commotion. What few men who had already made it started on their job of boring holes into the base of the wall.

They took their hefty electric hammer drills and pickaxes and got to work under the storm of led shot raining down on them. While some drilled and picked away at the walls, others took out their heavy grappling rifles, firing them up the walls and latching them at the top. Green joined in, picking up the grappling gun in his boat and aiming the beast at the wall. His hook landed over the wall and was pulled tight over the edge.

Green hooked a lanyard to the harness on his plate carrier and hooked it to the cable. He placed his boots against the wall and started to climb, gripping the cable with his gloved hands. McGraw followed suit, clipping his lanyard to the cable, a monstrous explosion messed up Green and McGraw's footing. One of the charges had been detonated, sending a cloud of earthen dust out over the river. Yet the wall was unphased, and more charges went off, preventing the two men from properly scaling the wall.

To make matters worse, those charges did nothing to break down the wall.

"Damnit, we gotta keep climbing! All men up the wall!" Green commanded. Green and McGraw regained their footing and continued up the wall, the others in the boat following suit. They topped the wall, finding it still crawling with soldiers, Green took out two before they could retaliate. "Get a rifle!" He ordered McGraw, who was still using his pistol. McGraw holstered the pistol and picked up a bolt action rifle from a dead soldier.

The squad moved east along the wall, encountering resistance the whole way, they stopped at what looked to be some sort of encampment along the wall. It was complete with homemade tents and cots, they stopped there. A squad of soldiers joined them there, a full two-boat crew.

"Lieutenant Colonel Green," Their captain called. "The charges ain't doin' shit, sir, what the hell do we do?!"

"We take the Goddamned wall!"

"Hey, Beau!" McGraw called, turning Green's attention away from the captain. McGraw was peering through his binoculars. "We got reinforcements marchin' east," Green pulled out his binoculars, spotting a column of olive-dressed Zebrican regulars marching along the wall.

"Son of a bitch... Briggs!"

"Sir?!"

"Get me that phone, we need close support," Green grabbed the phone. "Send a Goddamned chopper!" He called through the phone. "We're on the wall, east of Site 311 and there's a column of infantry on approach to our position!" More troops joined Green and the others coming from the west.

"What's the status, Lieutenant Colonel?" their squad commander asked.

"We've got a chopper inbound for support! ETA five minutes!" A few more charges went off in the distance. The column got close to them, opening fire in an old-style volley. Green and his men returned fire in burst mode, cutting down scores of them, who still held resistance. Then the machine guns opened up, and several mag-fed machine guns fired into the makeshift encampment the men were holding out.

Three men fell right then, even with the heavy resistance from Green and his men they still seemed to get the upper hand. They kept their fight going, slinging steel shot at them with roars that completely filled the air. Not a sound could be heard besides the roar of rifle and machine gun fire. Yet Green and his men stood strong until the thump of a twin-bladed chopper filled the air. The thin body of a new and experimental Falcon attack helicopter made its debut on the field.

The gunner aimed the 22mm three-barreled cannon at the column of Zebricans gathered on the wall and let hell loose. They fell into heaps of blood and body matter, staining the brown earthen walkway a crimson red. The chopper roared past them and looped back around. Green took the phone from Briggs.

"Stay here Dixie 1, we're gonna need ya!" He told the chopper's crew over the phone. "Alright men, let's move up!" Green commanded. His men moved further up the wall, stepping, trying their best to avoid the mess left by the chopper. They kept along the wall, it was barren and deadly silent. There were no men on the walls beside him and his squad. Green stopped and held his hand up. "I don't like this..." He mumbled dreadfully.

He spotted a set of grappling hooks hanging on the wall and went over to them, peering over to the water below. "Christ..." Floating in the water were several boats, all of them filled with corpses and floating freely in the river among the bodies of their comrades and Zebricans killed by the explosion. "It's a Goddamn massacre... We need to turn-" He was cut short as bullets whizzed by him. Climbing up the stairs onto the walls were more Zebrican troops.

"Shit!" He aimed his rifle, pulling the trigger on an empty mag "Fuck!" He went to change the magazine but was cut short when a searing hot sharp pain erupted in his shoulder. He dropped his rifle and felt the warmth of his blood as it dripped down his arm. He had been shot, he could not move his arm, and he stumbled back, falling on his back. McGraw rushed to his side, grabbing the gauze from Green's plate carrier pouch. The soldiers moved forward, forming a perimeter around Green

"You good Beau?!" McGraw asked frantically as he packed the wound.

"The bastards shot me..." Green groaned out almost jokingly.

"We're gonna get you the hell outta here! Briggs!" Briggs came over with the phone, knowing just what McGraw wanted. McGraw took the phone "We need a Jolly Green out here ASAP! LC Green is down!" McGraw handed the phone back to Briggs with a worried look on his face. "The chopper ain't comin'!" He shouted "There's... Too many wounded!"

"Get goin' then..." Green grunted. "Get down the wall and start walkin' back," McGraw heard this and contemplated for a moment. Bullets whizzed by, the men were at his command with ammo running low and an incapacitated Lieutenant Colonel.

"Briggs! Phone!" Briggs handed him the phone "Dixie 1... Light it up down east and cover our retreat!" The chopper roared over to them, firing upon the gathered Zebrican soldiers as McGraw and his remaining men attempted to scale down the wall into one of the corpse-filled boats. With an injured Green and around five other men they slowly dropped into the already heavily loaded boat. The chopper circled overhead as they rowed across the gargantuan river, fighting the current and scattered debris in their way.

They reached the northern shore of the river, being forced to tass the corpses in the boat overboard to make a makeshift stretcher for Green. They trudged north, tired and sweaty, moving without a sense of proper direction until they finally reached the end of the swampy mud field and stepped on solid ground. They walked in the blistering heat of the sun, their feet blistered and their spirits wore down until the sound of a chopper filled the air.

A lighter chopper, one similar to the eagles with a long slender body and wheels in place of skids was on approach. McGraw wearily tossed a blue smoke grenade, sending a cloud of blue smoke up into the sky to mark their location. The forest green and gold cross-marked chopper made its landing before the ragged and weary men. It was like a guardian angel coming to rescue them, the men collapsed from exhaustion as soon as the doors to the chopper opened.

They were loaded into the chopper and hauled away.