Back on the ground, Lieutenant Allen’s platoon was fighting its way to the Chinese positions while trying to stay close with the tanks. They had taken out dozens of Chinese anti-tank missile teams as they got closer to the Chinese lines. As their vehicles approached the enemy ranks, the Chinese soldiers began to retreat and scatter. The Wolverines cut the enemy soldiers down as they tried to run. As the Reds retreated, the MBTs and Wolverines quickly moved in behind them to both secure the Chinese positions and to chase down the retreating soldiers.
Captain Shiller received a message from Battalion that his Company was to stop, dismount and secure the Chinese defensive position for the follow-on forces. Shiller contacted his officers. “Lieutenant Allen, the Company is stopping here. We just received orders to secure the area,” he said over the HUD.
“Roger that Sir. Stopping now, and securing the area. Any other orders, Sir?”
“Negative, and good luck Lieutenant.”
Turning to look at the guys in the vehicle with him, Allen quickly found SFC Jenkins, his platoon sergeant. “Jenkins, new orders. We are stopping here with the platoon. The Captain wants us to secure the trench and bunker complex that we just drove over for the follow-on forces,” Lieutenant Allen announced. He was not too thrilled with having to leave the safety of the Wolverine, despite the protection the Raptor suit offered.
SFC Jenkins just nodded and began to bark at the privates around him to exit the vehicle and begin to set up a perimeter. Lieutenant Allen radioed his other squads and made sure they knew the new orders and began to secure the enemy positions. The vehicles would continue to stay in the area; half of them would switch over to anti-aircraft mode, while the others continued to stay in ground mode to protect the infantry.
The vehicles stopped just past the bunker and trench lines, which were still smoldering from the recent assault. Dead Chinese soldiers, equipment and charred vehicles could be seen strewn in every direction; these were the remnants of a fierce and deadly battle. Aircraft, drones and hundreds of helicopters could be heard flying overhead, engaged in their own aerial dance of death.
As Allen exited the Wolverine, he could see a battalion’s worth of tanks moving across the trench line his unit had just cleared. In an instant, two Chinese soldiers emerged from one of the smoldering bunkers and fired an anti-tank rocket at one of the tanks, disabling it. “Sergeant Jenkins, get some soldiers to that bunker immediately!” Allen yelled. “Have the troops start to clear the rest of them out. We can’t lose anymore tanks!”
Five additional Chinese soldiers popped up from the ruins of a smoldering bunker and began to engage the soldiers near Lieutenant Allen as they dove for cover and began to return fire. Allen quickly raised his own rifle and fired a couple of well-placed shots, taking one of the Chinese soldiers out while his compatriots ducked back into the bunker. In an instant, a dozen of his soldiers in their new Raptor suits moved rapidly to secure the bunkers and trench lines. Within seconds, one of the machine guns in the partially destroyed bunker began to open fire on his men causing them to dive behind cover again. Fortunately, the gunner in the Wolverine nearby was paying attention, and she turned the turret towards the bunker. She fired a single round from the anti-armor railgun, obliterating the bunker. The other soldiers quickly moved forward and threw a couple of grenades in for good measure.
Slowly, the platoon cleared the rest of the bunkers with grenades. Several enemy soldiers surrendered, but they were few and far between. Most soldiers either retreated or fought to the death rather than be captured.
As the battle continued to rage on around them, the sounds of the tanks and artillery fire continued to move further and further away from their position. It sounded like the 4th of July fireworks display from back home, only these weren’t fireworks. Bombs, rockets and mortars were exploding, killing and maiming people by the thousands an hour. Two hours after they secured the area, they spotted a large column of friendly light infantry moving towards their position. Within a few minutes, an officer identified himself to Allen’s men and asked who was in charge. He was quickly directed to Lieutenant Allen’s position.
The Major began to walk quickly toward Lieutenant Allen and the Wolverine he was standing next to with his platoon sergeant. “Lieutenant Allen I presume?” he inquired.
“Yes Sir. Are you my relief, Sir?” asked Allen in a hopeful tone. He wanted to get his men back into the main fight with their Raptor suits.
“That I am; I’m the battalion commander of the 3/5 light infantry,” the Major responded. Curiosity took hold and he asked, “So are these the new Raptor suits we’ve been hearing about? How do you like them?”
Realizing that his small platoon was the only ones wearing the Raptor suits, Paul suddenly felt out of place among the hundreds of regular infantry moving towards them in their standard body armor.
“They are actually pretty great. Several of my men were shot while securing the area but the suit protected them. We took no injuries at all, which was amazing,” Allen said feeling good about the accomplishment of his platoon.
“That is remarkable. Not sure when my battalion is going to get them, but I hope soon. So-back to business. Is there anything we should know about before your platoon leaves the area?” asked the Major, trying to get a better picture of what was going on.
“We captured a few prisoners; I have them over there near that blown-out bunker. They really put up a fight in those bunkers, so we had to level quite a few of them. Right now, our battalion is still moving with the tanks. They are about five miles in that direction. I’d work on getting this position ready to defend against another Chinese assault, in case we have to fall back. I don’t expect that to happen, but my vehicles have been engaging a lot of air targets lately, so I’d be prepared for anything.” Allen did his best to give a good run-down of the situation and what to possibly expect.
Nodding as he made a couple of notes, the Major spoke on his mic to several of his officers, giving them instructions to relieve Allen’s men and take possession of the prisoners. He also ordered his men to begin clearing the trenches of the dead bodies and to start to prepare a new defensive line. “Thank you Lieutenant for the information and your assessment. My men and I appreciate it. We’ll have this place ready to meet the Chinese if they try and come back around,” he said confidently. Then he turned around and began to walk towards the rest of his men, barking orders.
“Sergeant, get the platoon back into the vehicles; it’s time for us to go catch up to the rest of our comrades,” Allen said.
In the air, the F41s were having a huge impact as they continued to clear the skies of enemy drones and manned fighters. The F38B fighter bombers and Razorbacks continued to hammer the Chinese armor units, despite taking some heavy losses from Chinese surface to air missile (SAM) sites. In spite of the valiant effort by the Air Force, the ground war did not go nearly as well.
There were several moments where it looked like the Americans were going to break through and drive the Chinese back to the beaches; then additional reinforcements would show up and plug the holes in their lines. The fighting between the infantry and the armed forces was incredibly intense, with thousands of soldiers on both sides dying each hour as the fighting raged on.
The tank battle between the American and Chinese armored forces continued for nearly two days before the Americans were forced to withdraw when the Chinese reinforcements started a massive counterattack. The Americans had dealt a serious blow to the Chinese (who up to this point had thought that they would be able to drive the Americans out of Alaska by the end of summer), but in the end, they were just outnumbered by the sheer volume of tanks and drones the Chinese were able to throw at them. It did not take long before the Chinese were able to push the Americans back to the Susitna defensive line, right where the Americans had initially begun their summer offensive.