The Longest Night (Act 3 - Bear)

The wind howls outside as the rain continues to pour hard, before leaving the upstairs of the small shed fort Francis grabs your shoulder once more and asks you to wait a moment, he wishes to speak with you.

He nods to Francis before turning quickly to Sgt dyke.
"Ill be a moment Dyke, get Kodiak, Mustang and Ferret and get out there and help, i'll be with you momentarily.". With that he follows to where Francis is waiting.

Sergeant Francis, French Foreign Legionnaire veteran of the Afghanistan campaign and many others and a battle brother of you looks now into your eyes. Somehow he seems so much older then you remember. "Mon Amie, I remember when we fought in pools of our own blood under the sun against those Bouledogue Afghanistan men, pit to burning pit with nothing but bullets pain and suffering as our rewards. We did great things there We?"

With a touch of inner reflection for a moment, Bear stares unseeing at Francis, his focus kicking back in soon after.
"tha' we did mah friend, tha' we did ... lost a good load o' brothers in tha' damn sheethole of a desert too I might add. been through a lot you n' me. Seems we be back in tha' sinkhole again, though this time we be fightin' as the underdogs, outnumbered and goin' like a dog with a bone."

Francis bites down visibly on his lip hard enough to draw a line of blood then glares back at Bear; "For the last few years we French have sat and done nothing, good men have died burning in wrecks and ruins and whole families have been executed relentlessly. I feel sick in my stomach Mon Amie, and nothing I do ever makes me feel whole again," he turns with a nod out the window then looks back to Bear once more. "This old man asks you a favor so that he may walk with God for knowing he did the right thing. It is a soldiers right to make their own choices and I hope you will respect mine - I have decided that we will make a stand for once to try and make up for allowing the Russians free passage through our boarders into Africa and the lives they took there against you and your kin. But for this old man's decision to mean anything I need for you to respect me enough to go and survive this -" He motions a arm out the window to make his point. "Or else it will be for nothing, the will to fight must live on in you Mon Amie. And I intend to buy you the time you need to bring them Hell while I walk with God. Can you do this for me? Can you live?"

"God Will, we will see each other again I promise you Mon Amie, it is not -your- time quite yet however."

With a slight chuckle and a shake of the head, Bear follows Francis to the window, looking at the scene beyond.

"Old friend .. you earnt my respect the day you carried me for two days to that aid station, tha' lump of metal juttin' outta mah chest. trust .. well you earnt that the day we served together. But , don't throw yerself away needlessly, lets take this fight to 'em for sure, and come with me mah friend. But for sure ... I definately be keen to take tha' fight to them.. i owe 'em a new set of bullet holes." he looks back to Francis with a nod. "So what are ya' plannin?'

A warm smile makes Francis lips and he takes a deep breath. "Men will die here today, no matter the choices we make. What I need is to have a path cleared to the forest, the farmhouse has a platoon of their men inside, the silos are weapons storage for the Russians. Our only guns that can pierce the tanks armor are blind under these conditions so what I am going to do is order our regular French infantry to mount up in the VAB's, we should have two spare VAB's - Those I am going to send out and have them use their IR to line up targets for our guns, I desire for as many men as I can to survive this, which means I need two things done. One is for the Farmhouse to be cleared and it is a mere thirty meters from this shed - The other is for the guns to be manned and fired until the bitter end." He glances slightly south-west where men are moving inside the house, some standing by the door very cautiously. "Around forty to fifty men there must be taken out for our forces forced to walk to retreat, if I leave twelve of my Legionaries on the guns, I have a spare eight to take the fight out to that house and then onto the silo's where we will blow their supplies and bring them down onto the tracks - Care to join us?"

Bear allows a tight grin to play across his mouth, "40 or 50? Is that all bro? We coulda' taken that in tha' day an' not broke a sweat." He looks across at the allied forces forming up, realising that Francis' words are true; "Ya' know I got ya' back. An' its good to see u still got the mules kick in ya too bro."

Life is in full gear down inside the first story of the building, outside the southern windows the night flashes constantly with light from rifle muzzle fire as both sides less then meters apart and right outside the entrance exchange fire. Shouts and cries of pain issue out into the night over the pour of rain and inside the French soldiers rush to prepare their VAB APC's to depart while some of their soldiers man the two AT Guns and maneuver them to another window. Around the fortified windows of the shed men take cover both French and Allied alike, exchanging fire point blank with forces outside as bullets tear through the walls. Somewhere in the distance Major Wiedermann issues the orders to withdraw to the forest, it is clear however that their is enemy forces all over your current position.

Francis moves to a unit of men taking cover by the shed's large double entrance doors, nodding to them. "Not the most protected way to edge out, however we need the doors opened for the APC's and to give them a chance to withdraw... lives depend on us now!"

With hardly a pause, Bear vaults down the ladder and runs towards the doors to the shed, throwing his considerable strength into the opening, throwing orders at whichever men he passes to give him a hand. Pointing towards a group of several french Legionnaires and indicating some firing positions, he barks "Covering fire there, there and there. When we get this door open the bastards'll know we comin' out. now lets get this thing open when Francis calls for it! Get them ready to roll Francis, yell when ya want it open!"

Somewhere to the northern side of the Fort its walls are shredded by high caliber MG fire, men falling under its wake. With a grunt Francis yells out "We can't wait any longer! Get those VAB's moving!" He turns dropping his gun to its belt hanging off his shoulder and grips the shed door with both hands beginning to carry out one of the huge double doors with the aid of French and Allied soldiers the left side moves, however the right side struggles as a young American GI takes a bullet and collapses. Struggling with effort the left door continues to inch open while the right seems caught in place bullet fire raining in on the almost vulnerable men as soldiers on the window positions preceed to empty entire clips out into the night and reload. "Bear, Get that door open!"

Bear sets himself and struggles with the door, throwing all he has at it, finally managing to get it open displaying the chaotic scene beyond. Several bullets crash into the door mere feet from where he is dragging the door open.

"get em movin' Francis! It's open!" He drops to his knee, unshouldering his M16 and jamming a fresh clip in place and aims outward.

As bullets zing through the open door Francis puts his back against cover for a moment to address those nearest to him; "Tres bien let's clear a path for the APC's, everyone through the door, take out anything that can put a hole in our transports! Give us a minute then move the vehicles!" With that he locks his FAMAS's magazine in then shifts and leads the way out into the pouring rain. As one, the Legionaries move.

Bear moves forward at a half crouch, as fluid and confident as the Legionnaires, looking for any available targets. His finger is light on the trigger, his gaze intense..

Outside the situation is worse then could of been imagined, men lay dead and dying over the ground, some kneeling exchanging fire between themselves. Targets directly against the wall to your right aim shots into the shed with assault rifles while others further back seem to be targeting you and the legionaires. Some allied soldiers are already in the heat of it, causing a hole in their defenses so they were not simply waiting for the door to be opened, fourty meters ahead of you leading directly south in you see three targets of high opportunity, a man with a RPG and another with a RPK, supported by five men with AK's they seem to be moving into position to cover the shed door.

Bear raises his rifle to his shoulder once more , sighting it towards the RPK unit. "Francis, we got company!" . With that he fires off 2 bursts at the unit, slowly continuing the advance.

Taking careful steps through the rain your rifle sparks to life bullets hissing through the air at the enemy unit, barely missing the mark. The Legionaries supporting your advance also issue several shots into the small Russian unit, one of the bullets catching a soldier with an AK in the shoulder and causing him to fall down into the muck.

Bear continues to pump 2 more bursts of A16 fire towards the Russian units he heads towards an area of wreckage that could offer some cover for a firing point.

"Keep pouring fire into that unit! If we don't drop 'em, we're dead!"

The roar from your own rifle echoes with that of the men with you firing off shots from their L85's as they advance now within fifteen meters of the Russian unit, almost close enough to throw rocks. Bullets thud into them taking another man with a AK down into the muck. The Russians fire off returning fire, the bullets peppering past the Legion men and Bear into the shed behind them, the RPK however manages to score a brutal hit upon one of the soldiers, causing him to stagger down. From the muck the wounded soldier from the last burst moves to bring his rifle to bare from the ground.

Bear grabs a grenade from his webbing, popping the pin and tossing it in the midst of the Russian unit, dropping to his knee to get a fix on the situation, gradually bringing his rifle to bear once more. "Grenade out!!"

The grenade flings as if in slow motion then impacts directly onto the soldier carrying the RPG's head with a thunk against his helmet moments before it explodes. A bright orange flash propells shrapnel and blast all over the nearby troops, easily knocking every one of them to the ground covered in exposed bleeding. Some still crawl or cry out in agony attempting to regain their footing but the men near the center including the man with the RPG and RPK are down for good.

The blast sends shrapnel back as well, a bit catching into Bear's leg grazing him and a few pieces into the other Legionaries but the effect overall devastating on the enemy soldiers. The rain continues to pour, men armed with an assortment of weaponry further back engaged in their own struggles spare a glance towards the explosion of the grenade before continuing their conflict. The advance continues towards the Farmhouse were a new squad seems to be leaving by the door, twenty meters away.

Bear offers a wry grin to Francis as he stands, looking once more forwards at the Russians moving from the building. "Likeold times 'ey bro? Lets push on - we got em on the backfoot. Someone finish off those wounded Russkies! Don't leave 'em behind to shoot us in tha' back!"
He raises his rifle once more firing off quick shots as he advances towards the building.

The shots sail through the air as Francis moves with you firing as well and two other soldiers. The rest turn their attention to continue directly south and engage the remaining wounded Russian soldiers. Three shots tear from the barrel, the first two tearing holes into the side of the house while the third knocks a soldier back against the house as it grazes across his ribs.

Continuing the hail of fire Bear yells "Keep at it! Drop th Russian dogs!"

Your bullets continue to dig into the walls of the house, three at a time as you advance ten meters, then another ten you reach the veranda alone your advancing fire stepping up the stairs with two more bullets missing the men, now mere meter from them over the wooden veranda.