Captain Long looked in the direction of the explosions and marveled at the sheer power and destructiveness of such a weapon. It never ceased to amaze him how such a small metal object could cause so much death and destruction. As the dust settled, they saw the bunker, largely still there, though it was clear it had suffered some serious damage. The northern part of the structure had a hole in it, and smoke was pouring out of two of the gun slits. Clearly the bomb had penetrated the structure and killed a lot of its inhabitants.
Lifting the radio receiver to his lips, Captain Long called out to the units on the front lines. “SITREP. Did all the bombs score hits?” he asked.
A minute went by and then, one by one, the various sections of their front line called in saying the bombs had found their marks. Each section reported a hit. Captain Long nodded in satisfaction at the news.
“Good job, Master Sergeant,” Long said as he jovially patted the Air Force TACP on the shoulder.
“Thank you, Sir,” Master Sergeant Hill responded. Then his face dropped. “Just so you’re aware, we lost one of the F-16s on that strike,” he explained.
Captain Long was surprised at the comment. Then he remembered seeing those two surface-to-air missiles fly up out of the tree cover. Long just nodded and returned a grim look as he acknowledged the sacrifice just made to help save his Marines.
Without taking too much more time, Captain Long turned to his radioman or RTO. “Corporal Perez, send the order for everyone to advance,” he directed.
The Marines, who moments ago had been hunkering down for the airstrike, moved forward at a crouch toward the enemy positions. Captain Long signaled for his RTO and senior NCO to follow him forward. He wanted to be as close to the action as possible to better direct the battalion’s resources. The Air Force TACP grabbed his own M4 and joined them as well, along with one of his junior airmen.
When the Marines got to within one hundred meters of the fortifications, they saw the bunkers were a lot more complex than they had previously thought.
The radio crackled. The scout they had sent out earlier was on the other end. “Sir, there’s at least one more layer of forts behind this one, potentially more. It’s hard for me to see that far through the dense undergrowth.”
Crack, crack, zip, zip, BOOM.
One of the Marines in the lead had stood up a little too high as he tried to climb over a fallen log. The poor young man was ripped apart by dozens of bullets from one of the machine-gun bunkers. Then several grenades arched through the air in their direction, and they started taking fire from what appeared to be a light-caliber field cannon.
Most of the Marines leading the charge hit the dirt as they ducked to get out of the way of the barrage of bullets being fired at them.
“Suppressive fire!” shouted one of the sergeants to the Marines nearby, and the second and third line of Marines quickly obliged, giving the first group of Marines a chance to find cover and start returning fire.
“Get us some artillery fire up here!” shouted another Marine. More of the Marines’ machine guns came online, adding to the roar of gunfire.
Thousands of hot metal projectiles flew back and forth between to the two groups of soldiers. The crisscrossing of red and green tracers added a futuristic laser affect to the battlefield as smoke drifted across the ground, further illuminating the tracers’ effects. Captain Long crouched down behind a large tree just as a string of rounds slapped the trunk, chipping parts of it away.
“Crap, that was close!” yelled Corporal Perez as he crawled up to Long.
“Get me some artillery fire on those positions!” Captain Long shouted. His voice was barely audible over the roar of gunfire happening all around them.
Another explosion blasted loudly not far from them, and one Marine was sent flying sideways from the blast, slamming in to a tree before falling limply to the ground. Master Sergeant Hill, the Air Force TACP, was already on the radio with his counterparts, trying to determine if they had any fast movers loitering above them that might be able to lend them some support.
Corporal Perez handed Captain Long the radio receiver, yelling, “I’ve got Ripper One-One on the other end!”
Long snatched the receiver from Perez, placing it to the side of his face as he depressed the talk button. “Ripper One-One, this is Echo Six. Fire mission. Target Zulu One, one round HE. Stand by for adjustments!” he shouted.
“Good copy, Echo Six. Stand by for fire mission,” came the reply from the fire direction center.
Normally he’d work through his fire support officer, but he knew the other company commanders would be calling him. Long was hoping to lighten the man’s load and handle his own company’s fire mission requests for the time being.
“Echo Six. Shot out,” the fire direction center operator announced. A couple of minutes later, the round came sailing in right through the tree cover and landed just behind the fortified enemy position, throwing up a geyser of dirt and underbrush.
“Ripper One-One. Adjust fire, drop twenty meters. Repeat last fire mission,” Captain Long ordered.
Just as Long finished speaking, an enemy explosion ripped through the Marine lines. The PLA was doing their best to keep the Marines from getting too close to their positions. Then the whistling sound of the friendly artillery round screamed in overhead, this time landing right on top of the enemy fortification. The structure shook, though it was clear the round had not penetrated the reinforced concrete.
“Ripper One-One. Good shot,” shouted Long. “Give me one smoke round and two rounds HE on that same spot, and stand by for adjustments.” Captain Long crossed his fingers and hoped this next set of rounds might get lucky. If nothing else, it should shake the enemy up and potentially be enough of a shock to them that the Marines might be able to bum-rush them.
Switching over to the company net, Captain Long shouted to his platoon commanders. “Listen up! When the next round of artillery hits the enemy bunker, I want everyone to charge the bunker as quickly as you can. We need to close the gap on them once we stun them.”
When the next rounds came crashing in, the explosions seemed to blast the fortified positions hard, throwing debris high into the air. Then the smoke round burst open, throwing smoke canisters all over the enemy positions, temporarily obscuring their view.
“Charge!” yelled Captain Long. He tossed the radio receiver back to his RTO as he jumped out from behind his covered position and ran forward toward the enemy lines as quickly as possible.
Long jumped over some fallen trees and fought not to get tangled up by the hanging vines and other undergrowth as he struggled to catch up to the rest of his Marines, who were now running toward the enemy as fast as they could.
Slowly at first, a couple of enemy machine guns resumed their melody of death as they blindly crisscrossed the battlefield in front of them. At least their once-dominant view of the area was now obscured by the infrared-resistant smokescreen the artillery unit had laid down for Captain Long’s men.
In a matter of minutes, several platoons’ worth of his Marines had made it to within twenty meters of the enemy positions. Unexpectedly, a light breeze suddenly blew through the jungle canopy, dispersing the smokescreen that had been protecting his men. As the smoke dissipated, the enemy machine-gun fire became a lot more accurate as the PLA homed in their aim. Then, the field cannon in the bunker resumed firing, blowing parts of tree trunks apart and sending shrapnel flying in all directions.