Pancho
Deployed as Alpha 2 FTL
Oh look, I'm 2nd FTL in a squad on this mission again. Oh look, we're clearing the exact same building where I got shot in the first 2 minutes of our last run of this mission. Oh look, I'm... alive? Huh.
Under
Bodge's constant, steady leadership, Alpha carved a wide swath across the corridor we were to clear, starting in the West and chewing our way to the Northeast building by building. With the occasional potshot from AI 500+ meters away, the various fire teams managed to overcome enough of their hesitancy to move under fire, and we eventually reached the halfway point... to find the latecoming Charlie crowding us in.
Like boisterous reservists, Charlie charged through us screaming warcries and waving tomahawks and machetes around like hooligans-- at least, that's what I like to think, though in truth they just ended up piling into our sector due to the way the urban area converged.
Alpha 2 cleared its way into town, working house-by-house and losing our beloved AR to EI at the far end of a long street turned into a shooting gallery. Some minutes later, I looked up to realize that I was at the edge of the city, and that we had completely cleaned house! Panochori was ours! A brief photo-op was held with a local news reporter, and then we unleashed our pent up aggression and utterly wrecked town square with our victory fire!
Edna
Deployed as Alpha 2 FTL
What? This again? The Alpha dream-team... didn't reunite, because my old fireteam members weren't able to seize their spots quick enough
But the power trio of
Bodge /
Bones /
Carson was still going strong, and we duct-taped
Cam into place as Alpha's balancing 3rd FTL that we could
throw headfirst into the beaten zone to take bullets meant for us fete and worship and adore.
Alpha achieved the crest of the hill without exposing ourselves to the enemy. Bravo to our left... didn't, as announced by the rat-tat-tat of machine-gun fire and the echo of grenades as they blew their loads in Bravo's midst. After the entire platoon laid down a withering field of fire on anything and everything in sight (how very American of us), Bravo seized the rocky ridge and Alpha passed north of them to seize the hill beyond them.
After trading long-range potshots with the AI (and the AI generally coming out on top, with
Bodge, our glorious leader falling to HMG fire), all of Alpha piled down into a nearby ravine that would take us straight into the middle of enemy-occupied Edessa. I emerged from the muddy muck to see all of Alpha surging out of the reeds -
Aqarius was cut down by machine gun fire as he charged out of the gully, and I took a very painful bullet to the spleen that forced me to take cover. A doggedly persistent CSAT machine gunner held off me and the Bravo Medic (???) until Alpha 2's survivors could come up on their flank and fill them with lead.
Among the dead from the assault:
Bones from Alpha 1. Meaning I was now ASL.
Detaching A1 and A3 to clear some nearby suspected machine gun positions, A2 followed me back through Edessa, checking to see if any CSAT souls had survived our assault. As we looked back towards the center of town, there were those f***ing reservists from the last mission, whooping and hollering and shooting in the air like they'd won the whole thing for us.
And then victory was declared and apparently they were right
Holy Stones
Deployed as Azoz-For (Bandana-for) Alpha 3 FTL
Ah the glorious rivalry of Aziz and Azoz - nothing shall keep it apart, not the blazing Takistani sun, not the coldest Thirsk winter, not an interlude of some three decades since last they met on the field of battle... not even the fact that neither appear in ArmA 3!
Azoz's brave militia charged southwards across the bridge into the street-lamped landscape of Central Kavala. Our rifles blazing, A3 looped around The Shrine as we attempted to work into Aziz's rear and take his forces by surprise.
It seems, however, that
Mamuto's fire team on Aziz's militia had the same idea. I whispered for my AT rifleman to follow me, looked behind me, and lo-and-behold, there were two figures in very
fetching ugly boonie hats. I distracted
Mamuto by filling his thoughts with hot lead, but his mate took offense to that, we swung our guns towards one another, and we opened fire at the same time. My shots grazed his shin, but his turned my brain-pan into more of a brain-colander
In the end, the Aziz-For fireteam occupying the shrine traded fire with the Azoz-For fireteam occupying a nearby apartment block, pinned in the shrine while no one from Azoz-For moved to unseat them. As a result, Zeus shone his divine favor upon Aziz, and the boonie-hatted cultists received the favor of the gods that they certainly did not deserve - no one with that appalling a fashion sense should receive the favor of the gods
Down Mr President! (after-party)
Deployed as President Tigershark's loyal bodyguard
Ah
Tigershark... your brave leadership would have done Altis so much good if only our coup had worked. And all the natives are getting worked up about it, even setting aside their differences in some misguided attempt to kill us all.
We came to in the midst of a compound under assault, with Delta's hastily improvised minefield working with increasingly concerning rapidity. The FIA bastards were ruthless, charging straight into minefields trying to trigger as many as they could so that their comrades behind them could get through. Delta's numbers dwindled as
Tiger and I huddled in a corner, shooting the occasional mean glare (and a few 9mm bullets) out towards the swarms of FIA outside the front gate. We abandoned one building as the courtyard began to crawl with FIA and the sounds of Alpha's steady advance towards us slackened in the distance.
"That means they're close, right?" we asked. "There's one guy left in Alpha" was the answer.
So off we went, we five survivors of Delta, to rescue the rescuers. Err... rescuer, singular. Joyfully reunited outside the front gates, the six of us traipsed off towards the Northwest. Three of us fled back away from the minefield in a panic. The two of us watched the last survivor of Alpha perish from pistol fire.
And then it was just me and
Tiger.
And obviously me and
Tiger is all we need. The One True Bromance raged through the city, striking dead all FIA we came across, and then we saw the bridge. And the guards. And the appalling lack of cover. We charged. They shot. I died. My only comfort as my lifeblood wept out through my hands was that
Tiger still lived.
Until the AGL-to-the-face incident within sight of the boats. What sadistic f***er made this mission... Oh, right.
~ Ferrard