The Longest Night (Act 3 - Sanchez, Guns, Bear, Gunson)

As Bear and his rangers approach the forest line once more, he sights a small group of allied soldiers, a pair of paratroopers from the 16, a pair of 5th division Infantry - Pilks and Vance and a Guns. The 5th division boys and Guns look worse for wear their uniforms covered in blood, muck and filth and one of the paratroopers has suffered a gunshot wound at one stage. Although conscious Guns barely able to stand and even Sergeant Sanchez has suffered a nasty wound on his right arm, the blood trickling off it in a steady flow.

Private Dickens of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, the wounded paratrooper moves to greet Bear once the groups meet up. "Orders from the Captain, set up a few hundred meters into the forest with sentries up in a concealed position. Password is Charlie Oscar Oscar Papa - Challenge everyone moving into the location, I need to get back to the Captain but Raker here will stay with this team. Can the Captain count on you?" He motions to the other Paratrooper "Raker" who carries his L85 over his back and two steel brief cases in both his hands.

Bear nods painfully and looks around the group. "Did ya see many o' our men get out? I saw a lot o' bodies layin' round ... lot o' Russkies too though."

With a respectful nod to Bear, Dickens turns and leaves the group with a purposeful pace.

Bear watches Dickens leave and turns to Raker. " How many in your group soldier? How many did ya's drag out?"

Raker gives a slight shake of his head, "Sorry, I was separated from everyone else - I did manage to meet my orders!" He holds up one of the cases for a moment. "I was ordered to secure some heavy hitting items." He fidgets, obviously burdened down by the weight of his own rifle beside his backpack and the two cases.

Dickens returns soon after leaving, issuing and receiving challenges he brings with him Captain Gunson and two other paratroopers. At this stage the group is still close to the forest edge, which is now only disturbed by the rare gunfire and mostly fills the rainy night with the sounds of vehicles.

Gunson appears through the woods with a small band of the Air Assault Regiment.

'Hello men.. Well done on the pull out, hopefully we managed to keep our losses to a minimum. I saw one group drop, I think the marines suffered the loss.' Gunson looks at the floor, momentarily saddened by the loss of troops.

'Our priority at the moment is to gather up the straggling troops' looking around the small band of soldiers assembled with him and silently appraising their courage he turns to the soldier next to him

'Dickens, can you scout around and see if you can find the others? Lead them back here and be quick, I want to move out as soon as we can.' seeing Raker hovering about 'Raker, good to see you soldier. Get over here mate'

Raker approaches Gunson and moves to throw up a salute then, thinking better of it throws it back down mid-raise.

'Did you find me a rifle Raker?'

Raker drops to a knee and opens up the steel brief cases he had been carrying in each hands. Inside one is a disassembled large barreled rifle; "PTRS-41, a Russian classic, fires a 14.5mm round able to penetrate armored vehicles produced during World War II - Five box magazine, three included in case." He gives a slight grin then clicks the locks open on the second much smaller case. "German made HK-69, with five HE rounds. Got them from the silo before it came down around every ones ears which is where I met up with this lot," He waves to Guns and the two 5th division GI's. "Trying to take out a T-72."

As Raker was chatting Dickens has turned and left out to walk the treeline.

Sanhcez look's at Raker and say's

"give us a look at that rifle, if no-one has any objection's i'll take this, we have to remeber that this ain't taking out anything bigger than armoured car's 'n' APC's is most likely the only thing's its penertrating...great infantry killer though"

Sanchez walk's away with his new rifle to find a concelled position and to put the rifle together.

Gunson grins at Sanchez 'It's all yours mate. No reason for me to be using any type of sniper rifle. It could decently penetrate a tanks' armour at a fair distance with the right shot. Try to conserve ammo on it for now until we can establish a supply somehow.'

Gunson kneels down and starts to battle clean his weapons 'I suggest you soldiers may want to take turns and start battle cleaning weapons, you don't want them jamming in the field and someone get me a damn brew!'

as guns leans against a tree listening to raker talk he girns
"what do ya mean trying, me and the boys claimed two of those bastards today" he says as he nods apovingly towards pilks and vance before starting to clean his rifle

'Ha! Guns you old dog. How'd you manage to claim two of them? Here I was thinking me and my para lads had a mean feat of taking out two APCs and there you are taking down tanks!' Gunson moves over to where Guns is cleaning his rifle. 'Go on then, tell me how you managed it..'

Bear seats himself heavily near some packs, rifling through the gear until he finds some bandages. With some difficulty he begins the process of trying to replace his blood soaked bandages on his stomach. His Combat gear is red with blood and as the bandage is removed, fresh blood pours from his wounds and he quickly tries to apply a thick wad of padding. Through gritted teeth he growls. "Wheres tha' Doc? lookin' a bit like a chunk o' swiss cheese."

with a smirk guns looks towards gunson
"had a hell of a time gettin out of that shed to start with, lost a couple of marines just gettin to that house but then i met up with these guys" guns says nodding towards pilks and vance "picked up an RPG along the way and managed to nail one as it drove past the house, then we bugged out towards the silos, and ambushed another one there. knocked its tracks off and then the crazy russian f*cker brought the hole damn silo down on our heads, hes still under there somwhere" guns adds with a grin

Gunson shakes his head laughing. 'Guns you're a mad man!'

Gunson notices Bear trying to change his bandage and moves over to give him a hand. 'Sh*t Bear, you know you're supposed to dodge the bullets right?' Making a quick assessment of the wound he decides his next course of action.

'Guns, Sanchez and Briggins you're with me. Need to find the doc as soon as possible, we can't hold out for Dickens to return and Bears' wound isn't going to get better without him. We'll head back to the forest edge, see if we can spot him alive or...' Gunson holds a moment meeting their eyes '..Or otherwise. Lets move out.'

hearing gunsons orders guns climbs to his feet slowly, grunting loudly with pain when he puts any weight on his right leg, blood still seeping from under his bandages.
"i think i would be more harm than good sir, me leg's pritty much had it, havent been game to see how its still hanging on there"

Bear offers a half-hearted grin to the captain as he ties off a fresh bandage over his leg wound. "Aye Cap, found it a tad 'ard to dodge all o' them.... they were thick n' fast in that farmhouse ... I guarantee there be more 'oles in the Russkies that wanted to use it to pepper you chaps in the open.. " He catches Gunson's eye and holds his attention a moment. "We lost a shitload of men in there Cap. I'd say we need to grab any frenchies we find too ... Their commander, Francis ... 'e didn't dodge quite as well. Any survivors would sure be in it for the fight now .." He starts to struggle to his feet ." Give us a hand to get up 'ey ? We need tah get hoofin' it. Anyone heard any sounds o fire?"

The night is now owned by the sound of rain, almost peaceful and the background hum of vehicles in the not-to-distant north. The calm is shattered however with the efficient sound of a HE blast into a nearby section of woodlands, the engulfing orange flame roaring in defiance for a moment before dying off into the black again. Moments after to the right, the sound of a heavy caliber MG begins to whip and dig into the trees, just out of sight in the dense woodland.

looking around as he hears the HE blast, and then the MG fire into the woods guns grabs his rifle and looks towards Gunson "looks like we have worn out our welcome here too, we need start to move further into the forest otherwise a lucky shot could wipe us all out"

Dickens returns, leading in a handful of men. There heads down as further MG fire tears through unseen in the forest - Kawalski and Sergeant Valance followed by Private Carter and Timons from the 5th Division , Privates Galen, Smith and Evermont from the 50th Division.

'I hear you loud and clear Guns. I think we better move out.

Gunson looks around the gatherd men.

'Galen get over to Bear, help him up and make sure he doesn't fall. He's your wing man. Smith you're with Guns same detail. It's about time you got back on board Kawalski' Gunson moves over to Kawalski and places a hand on his shoulder 'Its good to have you back. I thought we may have lost you.'

Gunson moves back to the centre of the group

'Okay men, it's time we we're on the move again. We need to push further into the forest, make it hard as hell for them to get anywhere near us. The men who aren't with us now can be considered lost. We will send out small search forays for them later. Lets go people!'

looking towards smith as he walks over guns nods slowly, "pilks, vance front and center. i trust you boys in a scrap, so im gunna count on you two. stick with the doc, and keep his ass covered" looking around for a moment his eyes fall on sanchez "hey rookie, your on rear guard with dickens, apparently this scrub gets thick, so leapfrog back past eachother to keep in contact with the group" guns grunts as he moves the last few meters and meets up with smith.
"parras i want those flanks covered, raingers your in the lead. and all you f*ckers stay in contact, lets not lose anyone through being sloppy. we are too late in the game for that amature hour sh*t"
looking towards kawalski, gun motions towards bear "stick with him, hes gut shot, i just scaped me knee in comparison"

as everyone moves to get organised guns looks towars gunson and nods respectfully "glad you made it sir" before looking out to the rest of the group "get it together ladies, 1 click fast march, and keep each other coved." guns yells in a loud tone "LETS MOVE"

Kawalski slumps down and winces as Gunson slaps him on the shoulder. "Yeah I'm still here besides getting peppered with a grenade. I'll need some time to put all the men back together. I still need to have to look over the little boy, pretty sure he got hit with the grenade too" Nods to Guns "I was going to look over him. I can see his wounds from here. Still need to look over you though."

Bear winks at Galen as he approaches. "Cheers for the 'and bud, adrenaline is wearin' off an' im startin tah realise how many 'oles I managed to cop. Lucky tha' Doc made it tho' ".

As he stands, he looks around at the gathered group. " I tell ya, not too many of seems to 'ave made it. 'Ope there's more to be found. Anyone sight the major? Duke? Rochester?"

as Sanchez is given his order's he turn's to Gun's and say's

"sir with all due respect i'm a sniper my job does'nt include bringing up the back with a sniper rifle to hold off the possiable chance of a russian party following when we have no idea to how many russian's are on our asses and i for one aint gunna hang back to find out, i'm sorry sir but i dont take order's from you"

Sanhcez picks up his gear and heads out to scout ahead and look for possiable ambush site's