Controlled Chaos
As Captain Thornton sat strapped into the seat of the Razorback that would fly him into the port city of Rudong, he just wanted to make it out of this situation alive. He had fought in Mexico, the Middle East, California and now China. He just hoped his luck would not run out on this mission. As he sat there with his helmet on, he could see the men around him looking anxious; some had a blank look, others were ready for a fight. As he sat there looking out the door at the water moving quickly below them, he couldn’t feel that the air was chilling or smell the saltwater below; his exoskeleton combat suit was a fully-enclosed system.
What he was certain of was that they were flying very fast. He could tell by the looks on the door gunner’s face and from the pilot when he first got on that they were nervous. Thornton’s company, along with the rest of his battalion, was going to be flown in from the troop ships offshore and be deposited right in the center of Rudong County, which controlled dozens of smaller docks and ports that were going to be critical to secure if the invasion was going to work. Hundreds of Pershing battle tanks were waiting to be offloaded at those docks, along with thousands of Wolverine infantry fighting vehicles.
His Razorback was flying low and swiftly. He had ridden in the Razorbacks dozens of times, but was not sure he had ever ridden in one that was flying this hastily. In the distance, he saw waves of Razorbacks. Just behind them, and a little higher in altitude, he saw dozens of additional gunships. The sky was full of helicopters. After nearly fifteen minutes in the air, he could start to see land off in the horizon. It was the pre-twilight hours of the morning, so the land still looked dark and ominous, but he could see shards of light starting to penetrate the night. He knew they were getting close, and things were about to get crazy. He had no idea if he was going to live another five minutes, five hours, or five days. What he did know is life was never going to be the same for everyone on board this helicopter.
Joe did not have to wait long for the silence to be broken. Within a minute of first seeing land, enemy tracer fire began to rise from the ground headed straight for them. The dimly lit green lights grew in size and intensity as they approached his helicopter. Explosions began to shake their craft as they few through the air, Thornton’s heart began to race and his chest tighten up. He knew there was nothing he could do, but that did not relieve the anxiety he was feeling. Their pilot began to deftly evade the enemy fire, moving their Razorback seconds before a missile would have hit them. Joe thought to himself, “This pilot is good.”
As their craft flew over land, the volume of enemy fire began to pick up even more. Joe did not think that it was possible, but the number of enemy tracers flying all around them was so thick that he could not believe he had not already been ripped apart by them. He felt his craft shake multiple times as they began to take some hits. Then an explosion nearby threw the Razorback to one side and then the other; their pilot tried desperately to duck and dodge while also going with the flow.
Joe saw the door gunner, who was sitting about ten feet from him, begin to use his gun. He began shooting at unknown targets at the ground. Joe wished he could shoot at something, anything. He hated being helpless like this, strapped to a seat hoping and praying that he was not killed by some unseen hand before he was able to get on the ground.
They were approaching what he thought was the center of town. The pilot banked hard to one side and let loose a volley of anti-personnel rockets. Seconds later, they jerked to the other side and fired several anti-tank missiles at an unseen target. There was a loud explosion and their Razorback lurched swiftly towards the opposite side. Smoke, began to fill the cabin, alarms began to blare, and he heard several of his men let loose a number of swear words; some shouted out a few prayers. As their craft began to slide out of control, Paul thought for a minute, “Is this it? Am I about to die?”
Then their Razorback slammed into the side of a building and bounced off of it. They thudded hard and crashed into a parking lot next to several mid-sized office buildings. Once the Razorback stopped moving, Joe realized that they were still alive. He could still see smoke, and felt some heat, which meant the Razorback was on fire, but at least for the moment, they were alive. He immediately yelled to everyone in the craft, “Grab your gear and get out!”
In seconds, ten of the men in his squad were off the Razorback and moving to the side of one of the office buildings for cover. Two of his soldiers had been killed in the crash and one of the door gunners had also been killed. The two pilots survived, though they both had some injuries and broken bones. Three of his soldiers ran back to help the wounded and retrieve the dead bodies of his soldiers that died. Thornton began to issue orders, “I want you six to set up a perimeter around our current position.”
“Yes Sir,” they responded.
He turned to his communications sergeant and continued, “We need to let the rest of the company know our location. I want to get a situation report from all of my platoon leaders ASAP.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Thornton loaded a map and found the GPS plot of their location. He saw that they were only a few hundred meters away from their original landing zone. He also discovered one of the Razorbacks carrying his soldiers had been completely destroyed, with no survivors. Two more had been shot down and had casualties but those Marines were on the ground and moving to their objectives. The other two platoons had landed successfully and were moving to secure their targets. Seeing that he was not far from his original objective and looking at his surroundings, Joe opted to move his headquarters to the first floor of the office building they were now using as cover. He ordered second platoon to move to his position and sent his remaining squad members into the office building to secure it and set up spotter positions on the roof. Once the other platoon arrived, they would be relieved.
He needed to get his base of operations established; his objective was to secure a perimeter so they could begin to bring in more soldiers and get some light armored vehicles and mobile anti-aircraft vehicles set up. He had 45 minutes to secure his area before the next wave of reinforcements would begin to arrive, and two hours before eight Wolverine infantry fighting vehicles would be airlifted in.
As he surveyed the area around him, he realized the office buildings were located on the edge of a densely populated residential area. His position was also relatively close to several anti-aircraft heavy guns, which were still shooting away at the Razorbacks and gunships moving around the area. He called the platoon leader for third platoon, gave them the location of the enemy gun position, and directed them to take it out. It appeared to be in the center of several large apartment buildings. It was likely placed there to discourage the Air Force from dropping a bomb on it, killing a bunch of civilians. It was a smart play on the PLA’s part, but his grunts would take it out.
While two soldiers from his headquarters squad began to set up the communications antennas and run the cables back into the reception area of the office building, a dozen PLA soldiers appeared about fifty yards from his position at the corner of the intersection nearby. They immediately began to shoot at him and the soldiers pulling sentry duty.
One of Thornton’s men fired his M203 grenade launcher in their direction, while another soldier moved behind a small brick wall and began to fire controlled bursts from his M5. Joe took cover behind a parked vehicle in the parking lot and took aim at one of the Chinese soldiers. He saw the fighter move to the corner of a building and begin to fire at his men. As he took aim at the soldier, he sighted in on his head and fired a single shot. The man’s head jerked back, and he collapsed where he was standing. Joe immediately began to move on to the next soldier, repeating the process several times. The PLA seemed to be so focused on shooting at the other soldiers behind the building that they had taken over that they did not seem to notice him off to the side, behind a parked car.