“Look at that, Sergeant Childers,” one of the soldiers near him said, pointing to the sky.
A single F-16 flew in low over the trees and in a spectacular display of bravery, headed right for the Russian tanks with his afterburner lit. It released a pair of cluster munitions as it flew over them, only to explode into a million pieces seconds later. A missile that seemed to have come out of nowhere must have hit it.
“Ugh, I was hoping that guy was going to make it,” Sergeant Childers said, speaking to no one in particular.
“Hey, here comes two more fighters — I think those are Germans,” Specialist Cross said excitedly.
The two German Eurofighters tried to provide their countrymen with some close air support, both releasing a pair of 500 lbs. bombs. However, as the two aircraft peeled off to the right and began to gain altitude, a pair of MiGs came out of nowhere and blotted them both from the sky.
Childers churned through conflicting thoughts. “It’s so unbelievably frustrating to see our air support being shot down like this,” he groaned. “Then again, it’s encouraging to know that the Air Force is still doing their best to support us despite the incredible danger the pilots are placing themselves in.”
As the air battle continued and the remaining allied units passed through their ambush back to the new NATO lines, they began to hear the creaking and cracking of metal tracks. It was the unmistakable sound of tanks and other armored vehicles advancing towards them.
One of their scouts radioed in to Lieutenant Taylor and Sergeant Childers, “Nemesis two-two, this is Nemesis two-four. We have a column of T-90s approaching the village now. Count 12 enemy tanks. We also count 18 BTRs and at least half a dozen BMPs. Standby for contact, out.”
“Crap. They are bringing in T-90s now instead of T-80s. I’m not sure the artillery shells are going to penetrate their armor…” thought Taylor.
With the scouts at the edge of the town reporting the enemy tanks, it was only a matter of minutes now until they saw the lead vehicles entering their kill zone.
Lieutenant Taylor looked through the window of the building that his squad was in to see if he could spot Sergeant Childers and his crew. They were fairly well-hidden, but he thought he could still see them. He looked slightly to his right, not wanting to give away his position as he glanced outside the window. The Russian tanks were well within the kill zone; it looked like Childers was waiting for some of the BMPs and BTRs to also get within the box.
“A little closer… now I have you guys,” Sergeant Childers said to himself as he detonated the daisy-chained artillery rounds.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. The cars and storm drains the IEDs had been placed in erupted in a sudden orange ball of flames as thousands of chunks of scalding hot metal were thrown into the lead Russian infantry fighting vehicles and the tanks caught in the ambush. The force of the explosion was so great that several of the armored vehicles were thrown over on their sides.
“Now, Cross,” Childers said over the platoon net.
Specialist Cross was on the roof of the building next to them. He quickly popped up above the lip of the flat room, and aimed his AT4 at the first tank he saw, a T-90. Cross depressed the fire button, igniting the rocket motor. In a split second, the rocket shot out of the tube and slammed into the left rear side of the tank, causing a small explosion. The tank jerked to a stop and the engine area burst into flame.
As Specialist Cross was firing his rocket, a second soldier also popped up and fired off his AT4 as well. Like Cross’s rocket, his rocket flew right for the T-90 he had aimed at, only this time, the tank’s anti-rocket defense system activated, deflecting the rocket just as it was about to hit the tank. It flew into the dirt and exploded harmlessly.
While this was happening, the Russian soldiers who had been riding inside the infantry fighting vehicles and troop carriers disgorged from their vehicles and began to fan out and move towards the American positions. The Russians started to pour heavy machine gun fire towards the roofs of the nearby buildings, trying to kill any soldiers that might be hiding up there with additional anti-tank weapons.
“Now!” Sergeant Childers yelled over the radio.
The rest of the platoon opened fire on the Russian soldiers, causing most of them to drop to the ground for cover. The M240 gunners began to rake the Russian positions, crisscrossing the highway with heavy machinegun fire, killing dozens of enemy soldiers before they even knew what happened.
Lieutenant Taylor saw the building one of his M240 crews was set up in suddenly explode as a tank fired an HE round right into it. In a split second, he watched in horror as the upper torso of Private First Class Torino got ejected from the building, still holding onto the ammunition belt he had been feeding into the machine gun.
“Dear God, he’s still alive,” Taylor thought to himself as he briefly saw Torino try to crawl to cover, only to get hit by a bullet in the head.
As more explosions began to rock the buildings they were hiding in, a massive wave of Russian soldiers began to bum rush their positions, just as the Americans would have done in a similar ambush.
“Where the hell are those claymores, Sergeant Childers?!” the lieutenant shouted inside his own head. Taylor dropped his 30-round magazine and slapped another one in place, hitting the bolt release. He took aim at the enemy soldiers no more than 50 yards away.
BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM! The entire front half of the wave of enemy soldiers just disappeared into a bright red mist of blood, torn uniforms and body parts as the ten claymore mines detonated, throwing thousands of steel ball bearings into the charging enemy.
“Everyone, get out of here now!” Childers screamed over the radio, hoping to be heard above the cacophony of small arms fire, explosions, and the screaming of soldiers on both sides.
“These blasted Russians and their doctrine, if they are not predictable,” Childers dismayed as he saw several T-90s run over half a dozen screaming wounded soldiers in an attempt to try and push their way through the ambush. Several BMPs and BTRs were quickly trying to follow the tanks through the village to get out of the kill zone as well.
“Blow it, Sergeant Childers! What are you waiting for?!” yelled Lieutenant Taylor over the platoon net. Childers looked down at the cell phone and hit send on the text message. In a fraction of a second, the additional IEDs went off, disabling one of the two T-90s and destroying two other infantry fighting vehicles. He then grabbed his M4 and ran out the back of the building, down the alleyway, heading straight for the wooded area, not far from the ambush point.
Childers caught up to some of his soldiers, who were panting hard as they were lugging the M240 and extra ammo. As they ran, he heard the whistling sound of incoming artillery rounds and yelled, “Hit the ground!”
Luke and the soldiers near him collectively dove forward and landed hard, skidding briefly on the ground before rolling to a stop. The earth beneath them then shook violently as artillery rounds began to strike nearby, throwing enormous amounts of dirt and debris from the surrounding buildings into the area. Craning his neck back to look at the village they had just left, he saw several additional artillery rounds plaster the remaining buildings, leveling everything.
“Come on guys, we need to get the heck out of here,” Childers said as he helped to lift several of his soldiers to their feet and they began to run to their next rally point.
“That attack ought to slow them up a bit while they deal with their wounded,” Luke thought to himself.