Deployed as Alpha Squad Leader
"Seize the checkpoint," I was told. And seize the checkpoint I did.
This task was easier said than done - protected by an IFV and a tucked-away HMG Strider, the checkpoint was a tough nut to crack, with little cover on the approach. Thankfully, the enemy had not garrisoned a commanding (if exposed) hilltop not 200 meters off. Coverless, but a superb offensive fighting position. It was planned that Alphas 2 and 3 would hold the perch, raining fire into the compound below while Alpha 1 used the lee of that same hill to close within 100m of the compound and commit a close assault.
It didn't quite work to plan, but we kicked off anyways - Bravo was too exposed as it was. An 8-man patrol had wandered up our flank not 30m away from Alpha 2, and their hands were full for the entire engagement blasting away at these contacts, far too close for comfort. Alphas 1 and 3, meanwhile, blew up the IFV guarding the outpost, but weren't able to get an angle on the HMG Strider before it sent a .50 caliber bullet through my noggin. To the FTLs' collective credit, the outpost was seized exactly as planned, though the convoy's enthusiastic (and explosive) reaction to this change of ownership kicked off Bravo's ambush earlier than they had expected.
The Rundown
Deployed as FIA A1 Autorifleman
This mission was very unfortunate. There I sat in the backseat, scanning my SAW around the horizon. We passed through a nice, built-up town and I abruptly had a seizure. The entire world went still as my eyes struggled to comprehend all these things whizzing past me at great velocity (I think my ophthalmologist calls them "buildings" and "textures" and "upgrade your damn PC all you want, you'll never run ArmA at full settings and you damn well know it!").
When I came to from my reverie, I was injured, lounging in the back of a crashed pick-up truck. I scrambled over the side, banging my ribs in the process while bullets whizzed by my ear. To my left, my FTL was sprawled on the ground, guts on the wrong side of his abdominal wall. My feet tripped over the corpse of my battle-buddy the AAR where he lay in the dirt with his head at an odd angle. I dove to the ground and desperately crawled under a nearby bush. "Hey, are you alive?" I heard Gekke Pop whisper into my radio. "Yeah," I responded. I turned back around to see an AAF fireteam swarming over the wreckage of the truck, woefully unaware of our continued existence. My Mk. 200 spoke for me, and mowed down their hapless FTL Jayjoe, but his comrades in oppression applied a 5.56mm jackboot to my head.
It was from the afterlife that I witnessed what my FIA Brothers fondly call "Altis Skeetshooting."
Edna
Deployed as Glorious Comrade CO
The Party provided me with a two squad platoon, and a third squad in reserve, complete with supporting IFVs. Turns out, the third squad spent the entire mission picking their nose as Alpha and Bravo essentially waltzed into both Edessa and the Church in a well-orchestrated, perfectly executed symphony of combined arms. The entire platoon climbed and cleared the central hill with the help of a two Marshall bronnegruppa. Bravo cleared the fields below them while Alpha assaulted the first of two secondary hills, then they flipped roles, with Alpha supporting Bravo's bound into the next rock-strewn hillock. All the while, two well-managed IFVs performed a deadly dance in the northern hills, dodging rockets left and right as they traded long-range gunfire and kept a lot of heat off of the squishies. In return, the squishies developed an endearing habit of obliterating any rocketeer in sight with extreme prejudice.
After a few minutes softening up Edessa and drowning enemy contacts in a hail of lead, Alpha charged Edessa under smoke cover, Bravo infiltrated into the reeds from which they performed a frontal assault of a thoroughly bullet-riddled church, and the IFVs came crashing down into the church from the hillsides to the north, both dinged up, but very much operational. Objectives: Complete. Losses: A few dudes from Alpha and a ton of magazines of 6.5mm. Reinforcements required: Zero.
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?
~ Ferrard
