On the south-western line the barrage lifted, shifting fire to the, as yet unaffected north-western positions. The infantry scrambled from their shelter bays and began to engage the armour with their few remaining anti-tank weapons at a range of 200m.
The Belarus commander decided to split his reserve force in two, to bolster the defence on the two sides threatened by the Russians and Ukrainians. Ideally he would have liked to have some reserve to play with, but it was now an all or nothing situation. He turned from the map and snapped his new orders to his staff officer. Outside the barn in the wet night, four shadowy figures sprinted away into the darkness. In the mud lay four bodies, dispatched by head shots from sound suppressed weapons, the eyes of all four were open and mirrored each other’s expressions of surprise as they gazed unseeing at the bleak wet setting they had ended their lives in.
Four shaped charges, one placed against each corner of the barn robbed the structure of its integrity. Shattered stone, propelled by the blasts at 200mph tore into soft tissue inside the structure a second before the walls and roof caved in.
Two batteries of 2S1 "Gvozdika" 122mm self-propelled howitzers and one battery of 2S3 "Akatsiya" 152mm guns were all that the Belarus retained for artillery support. The 122mm were engaged against the advancing MRRs whilst the 152mm battery received range and bearing to the enemy guns from a battlefield radar via the main CP. When the flow of information to the big guns suddenly halted, the battery commander used his initiative and shifted fire to the southwest.
The 9M111 Fagot is an infantry portable anti-tank weapon similar to the Milan and TOW systems, weighing 38kg with missile attached, it has a range of 2,500m and can penetrate 60mm of steel plate. The 2S3 Akatsiya’s armour was only 20mm in depth. The Big SPs were lowering their barrels to the new elevation when the hatches of the vehicle on the extreme left blew off, followed immediately afterwards by a catastrophic explosion that blew the big artillery piece apart. The remaining vehicle commanders ordered the drivers to move, believing that counter battery fire had at last found them.
The Spetznaz troopers operating the Fagot took only twenty-four seconds to detach the empty launcher and attach a fresh one, they worked from left to right, aiming through the thermal sight and keeping the crosshairs on the spot they wanted to hit. The anti-armour missiles followed the data fed to them through the filament of wire that trailed behind, linking them to the weapons sight. Wherever the crosshairs were laid, that is where the missiles struck.
Whilst the battery's guns were being taken out, two five-axle support vehicles with reloads stacked on their flatbeds, and the battery commanders BTR-80 command vehicle came under intense fire from two pairs of troopers armed with stubby OTs-14 Groza assault weapons. The troopers first fired 40mm grenades from the Groza’s underslung grenade launcher through the open rear doors of the BTR and in to the truck’s cabs, before flipping the fire selectors and emptying 5.56mm Teflon coated rounds into the survivors.
In less than four minutes the 152mm guns were wrecked and burning in the night as the troopers picked up their launcher and reloads, heading off toward the sound of the nearest 122mm batteries guns.
As soon as the barrage landing on their positions switched to the rear, Sgt Topl was out of the shelter bay and peering over the foxholes parapet, the lead AFVs were less than 200m away. To the left of the platoon position, a large shell crater occupied the spot where two riflemen had once been, creating a wide gap between themselves and their neighbouring Platoon on that side.
“Major… come on, we’re going forward!” he shouted into the shelter bay. Johar saw the sergeant’s legs disappear as the man left the trench, so he crawled out of the shelter bay and began to pull himself out also before stopping. The ammunition boxes were inside the bay, they would need them very soon so he stopped midway out of the foxhole, ducking back under the low roof to retrieve them.
Behind them in the T-72, the air stank of burnt propellant and the sweat of fear as the commander brought the turret around slightly to bear on a T-80 whose self-stabilised gun was pointing unerringly at them. He lowered the sights, aiming for the junction of turret and body when the T-80 fired, its depleted uranium round struck the Belarus tank squarely and the T-72’s own ammunition exploded.
Johar was dragging the ammunition boxes clear of the shelter when the round struck like a thunderclap. Instinct propelled him headfirst back into the shelter bay, where he curled into a protective ball.
The T-72s turret parted company with the rest of the fighting vehicle, punched upwards by the simultaneous detonation of the tank’s ready loads.
The weight of its gun barrel tipped it over the horizontal plane and the turret performed a semi somersault, slamming down on Johar’s foxhole, eighteen tons of steel sealing it like a tomb.
Sgt Topl was a third of the way to the late Rudik’s trench when the T-72 exploded. Crouching low he peered back at the tank and witnessed the turret slam down onto the foxhole he had just vacated, sinking about a foot into the soft earth. He opened his mouth to shout the major’s name but stopped, with a regretful shake of his head he looked back to the front, crawling the rest of the way to the left flank’s foxhole.
7.62mm rounds from the nearest tank stitched a line across the ground near him and he tumbled headfirst into the empty foxhole, landing amidst the remains of the soldier who had shared it with Rudik. His nose curled in distaste at the smell and the gore that smeared him as he pulled himself upright.
Russian infantry were jumping off the rear of the tanks, some were hit in mid-air by the defender's fire, their bodies losing co-ordination and tumbling to the ground like puppets without strings. Topl fired bursts into the infantry nearest to him; their return fire was heavy but not terribly accurate.
They huddled as close to the tank's armoured sides as they could, firing from the hip as they kept pace with it.
As Topl changed mags the enemy had moved close enough to throw grenades and one exploded on the parapet, shrapnel struck the side of his helmet, knocking him sideways back into the mud and gore. His head span and as he tried to climb to his knees, he could hear nothing but a roaring sound in his ears. Topl vomited and dug his fingers into the earthen walls of the foxhole, seeking some point of stability but the roaring sound increased. What light there was eclipsed by the Russian T-80 driving over the foxhole and stopping, Topl looked up and then screamed as the tank began to turn in place, collapsing the foxholes walls, filling his mouth with damp soil and stilling his voice forever.
General Shaw presented the plan that would involve US Green Berets, Britain’s Special Air Service Regiment’s Mountain Troop and their Royal Marines Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre, B2 Spirit Bombers and the Philippines Air Force facilities on Mindanao. Several thousand miles away in Russia, a covert team would already have been inserted by some of the same B2 bombers along with F-117A Nighthawks. At sea, eight SSN’s would be hunting for the PLAN ballistic missile submarine.
“What we are juggling with here sir, are limited resources and critical timing. The B2s giving tanker support to the Russian operation, Guillotine, have to be repositioned in the Philippines to tank the B2s that will be taking in the ground troops for Equaliser, that’s what we are calling the China op. Once the ground forces for Equaliser, have been inserted, the B2s have to reconfigure back to their bombing role.” He fixed the President with a look.
“I don’t like complex ops Mr President, the simpler they are, the less that can go wrong and this is about as complex as they come. It’s a three-piece op, at sea, in China and in Russia. If one falls down, they all fall down… I don’t like it but it is the only option open to us at the moment, sir.”