Intruding into his personal thoughts, his partner said, “Punisher, you think those Chinese paratroopers are going to attack our base?” He spat a stream of tobacco juice over the edge of the building they were lying prone on.
Punisher’s spotter, Petty Officer First Class Leeroy Miley, call sign “Leeroy Jenkins,” had the personality of a paranoid schizophrenic who would either charge into a situation without warning or hold back, depending on what mood he was in at that moment.
“You can bet your paycheck they’re going to attack us. It’s a matter of when, not if,” Punisher told his country hillbilly of a partner. The two of them had worked together for close to three years. Conway loved Leeroy like a brother, but sometimes he was too brash to be a spotter. His true passion was being a breacher, the guy who blows the door of the building open and charges right in. That was why he had been given the call sign “Leeroy Jenkins,” after the infamous World of Warcraft MMO gamer who would relentlessly charge forward into battle without taking the time to know the enemy and make sure he didn’t just run to his glorious death.
“From everything I’ve heard, those Chinese paratroopers are vicious fighters,” said Punisher. “They’ve led the invasion of every country China’s invaded since the beginning of this war. If they attack, you can bet it’ll be in force, and it’ll be a real battle. I mean, look around us, there’s what — maybe four companies’ worth of Marines and an artillery battery and some helicopters here? We’ve been surrounded by close to 4,000 enemy paratroopers, maybe more.”
Leeroy’s face settled into a worried look as his paranoia took over. “You think we might not make it out of this one?” he asked.
Just as Punisher was about to respond, the enemy rocket attack began. All around them, rockets were hitting buildings, the runway, the hangars, and everything possible except the building they were sitting on top of. They could hear the whizzing of shrapnel flying through the air as the base around them was being blown apart. Men dove for cover. Others screamed out for a corpsman, begging for someone to help them.
“Scan the perimeter! They might rush us any moment,” Conway urged his spotter.
What Leeroy saw as he searched beyond their own lines was horrifying. “Tanks! Holy crap, that’s a lot of tanks!” he shouted. Twelve T-99 main battle tanks, covered in reactive armor, brush and tree branches, charged toward their lines at full speed. Immediately behind the tanks was a line of armored personnel carriers and other armored vehicles, ready to push through whatever hole in the American lines the tanks managed to punch through.
While the two of them watched the charging tanks, several antitank missiles streaked toward them from further behind the Marine lines, blowing several of the tanks apart with their shape charges. Seconds after the first four tanks were hit, another three more were blown up by the second wave of antitank missiles. However, before the Marines could get a third set of missiles off, the tanks charged right through their positions and continued to race forward, right toward the airfield.
“I knew I should have brought the Barrett with me!” Conway chided himself. He realized the SR-25 had no real antimateriel stopping power like the heavier-caliber .50 of the Barrett.
“Forget the tanks. Find me targets we can take out!” Punisher yelled. It was difficult for his spotter to hear him over the roar of diesel engines, explosions, and the rattle of machine-gun fire.
Leeroy began searching for targets for them to engage to their front. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something moving on the opposite side of the runway. As the smoke from the earlier rocket attack cleared, he saw dozens of enemy soldiers charging toward the battery of 105mm Howitzers. The gunners were desperately trying to lower their barrels to be flush with the ground, while anyone with a rifle was doing their best to shoot at the attackers.
“Turn around and stop those soldiers from overrunning our artillery battery!” Leeroy yelled.
Conway turned to look behind him and saw what his spotter had found. “Crap! They’re going to overrun our artillery support!” he thought in horror.
Instantly, he jumped up with his rifle and ran toward the other end of the building, flopping hard on the ground. He brought his rifle to bear and quickly identified targets. Letting his breath out slowly, he squeezed the trigger and watched as the head of a Chinese soldier exploded in a bright red mist. His body fell to the ground, tumbling from his recent forward momentum.
He aimed for another soldier next to him and squeezed the trigger again, with the same result. In a matter of sixty seconds, he had shot sixteen enemy soldiers before they could overrun the gun battery. As more Chinese soldiers dove for cover, they continued to fire on the Marines manning the Howitzers, hitting many of them as they tried to hold their positions.
Conway swapped out his magazine, slapping a fresh one in place, and went back to systematically wiping out the attacking force that had nearly overrun their only artillery support.
“Switch back to the front of the building!” yelled his spotter. “Two armored personnel carriers just stopped less than a hundred meters in front of our building and are unloading their troops!”
If he didn’t have a spotter with him, chances were Punisher would never see the guy that would ultimately kill him because he would be so focused on taking out the man on the other end of his sniper scope. Rolling over to his side and then quickly jumping back to his feet, Conway ran in a low crouched position to the opposite end of the roof and again got down and sighted in the next group of enemy soldiers.
Nearly a dozen enemy soldiers exited one of the armored personnel carriers, or APCs, and ran for cover, firing at the Marines near them. Seconds later, the armored vehicle they had just exited blew up from an antitank rocket. The other APC managed to get nearly half of their soldiers out before it also exploded from a direct hit by an antitank rocket.
Conway sighted in the first enemy soldier. The man appeared to be an officer, since he was yelling and then pointing at several Marines not far from them. Punisher gently squeezed the trigger, feeling the rifle kick slightly as the officer clutched at his chest, then collapsed next to the dead body of another one of his soldiers, who had just died from a bullet fired by another American nearby.
It was a complete melee breaking out in front of Conway. Several waves of Chinese soldiers bum-rushed the Marine positions and began fighting in hand-to-hand combat in the foxholes. Conway did his best to snipe at as many of the enemy soldiers as he could, trying to give the defenders as much covering fire as possible.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked Conway’s building. Part of the roof they had been shooting from collapsed, and they fell into the building. Hitting the floor below them hard, Punisher and Leeroy spotted the tank that must have imploded this half of the building. Around them were several bodies of the men who had been manning many of the radios, keeping the base connected with the outside world. Their radios were largely destroyed by the explosion.
Before anyone had a chance to process what had just happened, bullets whipped past them, some of them hitting the building materials. One of them ripped through Leeroy’s right hand, his shooting hand.
“I’m hit!” he yelled as he quickly switched firing hands and took aim at the enemy soldiers that were charging forward.
Punisher leveled his rifle at the first enemy soldier he saw and pulled the trigger, only to be met with a click.
“Ugh, I didn’t change the magazine out!” he realized, still dazed from the fall. In seconds, he dropped the empty one and slapped another one in its place. He suddenly realized that his spotter had been shot in the hand and was bleeding profusely.