The Longest Night (Act 3 - Bear)

Bear begins to laugh as he slings his rifle after it clicks signalling its empty clip, grabbing his H&K, cocking it and looking to unleash some close in hell.

Bear steps up to the barricade, raising himself above it and aiming his CAw at the oncoming Russians and begins to pump shot after shot into the onrushing clump of russians. He continues to laugh loudly as his scatter shots smash into the soldiers.

The three Russians on the porch of the house suffer the horror of the shotgun at close range, gore splashing against the wooden walls of the old farm house as they fall, a couple dead instantly and a third down wounded. He raises his rifle and returns fire in a scattered burst. The bullets gaze your right leg causing more bleeding and beginning to throb with pain while a third also grazes your abdomen. Inside are yells as you can tell more soldiers are organizing, some firing from windows are the men outside.

Bear pumps shotgun rounds at any exposed Russian as he waits for the french to catch up to his position.

As soon as they get there, he looks to Francis. "Ya slowin' down bro', heh, got mah back this time? gonna push these f#$%&rs." he offers a quick grin and reaches for another grenade.

With a deep throatily laugh Francis nods, casting a quick glance to where his other men are engaged with the barely surviving Russian unit then back to Bear. "One objective down, two to go, let's clean house Mon Amie!"

The grenade pings inside and after a moment the walls vibrate with the blast. Men who had set up a PK on the window stop firing completely as well as any others who had set up inside the house - With a sharp intake of breath Bear leads the way into the carnage. Inside many men had been caught in the explosion, one man is ducking below a window and turns to exchange fire with the intruders while outside as a Legionnaire waits to enter he happily bayonets the remaining Russian on the porch. The exchange of fire is lethal at this range, mere four meters apart the shotgun splatters the remaining Russian who was part of the crew of the PK across the walls. Coming from the next room however a pair of soldiers bring their AK's forward onto Bear and Francis. In a brief exchange of fire between Francis and the pair of soldiers he drops one of the men cold while a extra bullet from the burst knocks into the second soldier, however it seems that this was indeed the last time the old French soldier would fight - His head erupts in a bright spray of blood as a single lucky burst bullet speeds into his forehead. Francis is dead as the soldier sprays from his fallen position.

Bear turns to the fallen body of his friend, looking down on him briefly, his jaw clenched tightly, the muscles ticcing in time with the buldging vein in his temple region. A short moment passes before Bear closes his eyes momentarily and takes a deep breath. He looks up once more, gripping his CAW tightly before yelling "Legionaires to me!!! Today the Russians pay!!!"
Without waiting for the men to catch up, he moves forward, brutally beginning to sweep the remaining rooms of their occupants.

As Bear gazes down the other two Legionaries move in, the one leading firing two quick shots into the chest of the living Russian who had fired at Francis, killing him. With efficiency the remaining two legionaries advance with Bear to the living room of the house, pushing through the door they come across a four soldiers who have flipped a couch and dinning table for cover. Gritting his teeth Bear fires into the table with the CAW twice, the shotgun blasting holes at this range right through into the two soldiers behind it. Bear walks forward in his own inner silence leveling his shotgun at the two men using the couch and blasts away, four more shells - leaving two shells into - them and causing their blood to flow freely from their fresh corpses over the wooden floor boards.

Feet rap on the stairs to the back of the living room as men move to come down them, at this stage the soldiers from the last room have caught up with Bear finally.

bear mutters to himself quietly ." 100 russian lives are due, though it barely covers the cost o' your life my friend. 96 to go .." he kicks one of the fallen russians solidly in the side, looking to the next door.

The three soldiers entering from upstairs are met with a burst of fire from Bear and the two soldiers shredding flesh, organs and blood all over the walls as two of them sink down to their deaths. The third manages to react in a set of fire over the group of three men, the bullets flying far from any target and digging holes into the floorboards.

Clicking empty on the shotgun Bear rushes the slightly wounded remaining soldier, the butt of his shotgun driving into the mans face with a satisfying crack of gore spray over Bear's own face.

Lashing automatic fire pours from the top of the stairs as Bear pushes into view finishing off the Russian soldier, with a metallic ping his Kevlar helmet sends one astray, another digs again into his already wounded leg adding a bright flash of pain into the back of his mind and the last two grazing his ribs and abdomen. Pulling himself back around the stairs he begins reloading his shotgun magazine, growling in fury he notices the heavy bleed out of his right leg pouring down into the floor boards. The two Legion soldiers advance on the stairs emptying a burst each up them, one bullet catching a soldier through his own stomach as he pulls back around the top of the stairs.

With a almost feral snarl Bear steps back onto the stairs ignoring the shooting pain from his leg and the ringing from his ears caused by the near miss on his head and unleashes with his fresh magazine shotgun two shells up towards the men using the top of the stairs as cover. One of the shells bursts catches the soldier on the left hand side of the stairs ending his life in a bloody mess as he drags down the stairs with a meaty combination of thuds, the wounded soldier on the right unloads a burst down the stairs however missing the troops at the bottom terribly and taking a round from the French Legionaries return bursts for his effort ending his life as well.

Growling Bear's boots thump on the stairs as he without pauses continues his relentless advance to the upstairs room.

The Legionaries push to the top of the stairs first, and are greeted by a hail of full automatic fire causing both soldiers to dance like string puppets before falling against the right hand wall at the top of the stairs and lifelessly staining the wall as they slide down it there FAMAS rifles making a clatter on the stairs. Somewhere outside huge caliber weapons echo into the night and the northern side of the house is filled with light as the shed is torn apart in a series of bright orange HE blasts.

Bear pauses just below the last three steps out of sight of the room above, snarling like a caged alligator.

Bear swears loundly as the two French Legionaires fall lifelessly to the ground. with a grimace he grabs another grenade from his combat webbing and stalks towards the stairs, popping the pin and tossing it in the direction of the russian fire upstairs. As soon as the blast erupts, Bear bounds up the stairs and looks for fresh targets.

Bullets greet Bear as he steps over the last steps on the stairs, only scattered AK fire compared to the concentrated hail of bullets that tore apart the Legionaries before swish through the air. Another bullet thuds into his right leg causing him to stagger and almost loose his footing and another to his stomach leaking blood grievously. As the four remaining soldiers upstairs prepare to push their advantage Bear lifts his CAW and lets the two soldiers behind the over-turned dresser across the room take the fury of five shotgun shells. The shells splattering the men and tearing apart the light wood cover, the men sheltering behind bed return fire once more a burst each with another hot painful bullet tearing through Bear's stomach, feeling more like Swiss cheese he pushes through the pain and manages to retain his footing once more with a feral roar of defiance.

Bear empties the remaining five cartridges into the men behind the bed causing mattress fabric, feathers and blood to fill the air all over the room. With the last two men who were using cover dead Bear notices the use of his grenade earlier had taken two men who were using the bedrooms hallway entrance as cover, one was armed with a shattered RPK. To his right a open door reveals a tiny upstairs bathroom. The house is for the moment cleared. His right leg and stomach continue to pump blood, as the pain burns through his entire body flaring at the edge of all of his senses.

Bear pauses in his rampage, looking around at the carnage he has created, the pain of his wounds finally making themselves known. he draws his personal meical kit from his webbing and begins to apply it to his leg wounds which appear to be the worst wounds he has suffered in the engagement.

The blood soaks through the bandages almost immediately as applied, it seems almost futile from your attempts however despite the frustration from the almost useless medical kit you hear footsteps from below tapping the bottom of the stairs. Outside high caliber MG fire is now common place as well as the occasional blast which is unmistakable as tanks firing or grenades being used.

Cautiously the boots step on the stairs, echoing hollow in the near empty house seeming apart from the hell of gunfire and explosions outside. Eventually the barrel of a M16A2 comes to view followed quickly by a green circular helmet and the grinning expression of Private Miller. "Hey Sarge! It's Bear!" Two more rangers enter from the stairs moving to Bear, Private Gallows and Sergeant Dyke and come to sit beside him, the men look worse for wear obviously taking hits themselves, one reaches for his medical pack noticing Bear's used up medical kit and after asking if he could, Private Miller applies a medical kit to Bear's leg then borrows Dyke's and Gallow's kits too, using one up uselessly on the abdomen wound spoiling its treatment, however by the time he finishes he's managed to successfully use all the kits to stop the flow of blood from Bear's abdomen and right leg.

Dyke glances over the bedroom from the hallway then looks back to Bear; "Looks like you been busy. It's bad out there, Russians rolled in a couple of T-72's and are handing it to any soldiers they catch in the open, allied and French slaughter wholesale." He glances out the northern window through the hallway door into the bedroom. "They put two or three HE shells into the shed, everyone in there is gone."

He sighs and shakes his head. "We ended up helping whoever we could, whenever we could but it made us fall behind, now we're in here cause we figured they wouldn't shell this joint since they think their men are inside it." He pauses a moment then grins and taps Bear's helmet over a bullet groove. "Look at that, this one nearly took your head off!"

Bear nods to the men in appreciation of their efforts. "Didn't happen to see any livin' Legionaaire down there by any chance? We need a few more men to get this last task done it seems.."

Dyke looks thoughtful a moment, then back to Bear with a slight nod. "There was some hanging around some wounded Russians out in front of the house - They were hosed with MG fire think it took them up. But if you ask me, I reckon that Phillips is out there somewhere still with some of the men from the shed, doubt they all twelve were needed for that suicide stand." Dyke grimaces a little and adds, "They are cutting off the forest line with BTR's and troops deployed from them, reckon we got a tough choice ahead of us. Try the BTR's and infantry or be cleaned up by the tanks which seem to be moving slowly south too."

Dyke motions to the other two rangers, "We lost Peters on the advance to that damn PK in the window downstairs, good thing it went down when it did."

Bear nods towards the men. "there is a third option as well. Our original target was to get here and clear this building , then move on an blow tha' silo's. The frenchies had some 'splosives wid em, go see if you can find any of 'em on the bodies. it might give us that other option, a chance to turn the attention from us to get into the woods, and maybe some more of our men."

With a nod Dyke motions to the bodies of the two Legionaries against the stairs and begins to search them with Gallows. Outside the house rumbles as one of the T-72's drives past the farmhouses northern windows, close enough to spit on it downstairs. Dyke gives a quick shake of his head, "Not these two, Gallows go check the one down below."

After a moments pause Dyke waves for the remaining people's attention and relays a signal from the stairs where Gallows is, "Three contacts, second room."

Bear struggles quietly to his feet, an obvious grimace of pain on his face, signalling back "friend or foe?" and motions for them all to be as quiet as they can.

The signal comes back up the line, "Hostile, MG."

Outside there is suddenly a large explosion followed by the sound of tearing metal from the tank directly outside the house. Its followed up after by another explosion - And then the sound of heavy caliber MG fire.

Bear sends the message back along the line ; "Take them out. Silently. Quickly".

He motions for the men to form up and move into position, laying his rifles down against a wall and drawing his silenced pistol painfully. He joins the group stealthily awaiting the call to move.

With a nod the Rangers mount bayonets and lead into the unaware Russian soldiers. In the short exchange one Russian soldier managed to fire, one burst. The bullets tearing a hole in Miller's shoulder. The in the short, but brutal exchange the men might of missed the sound of shattering concrete crumbling down heavily and the impact of the ground shaking as if the world had just come down around them as the silo's topple over outside.

Cleaning their bayonets Dyke looks to Bear, and takes a deep breath. "That might give us enough cover to make it, hard to tell though with so many damn vehicles about. Only one way to find out though hey?"

Bear nods to Dyke as he moves to help Miller patch his wounded shoulder.
"Damn hope so, nothin more we can do here by the looks. Lets strip what gear and ammo we can from the bodies in here and make a beeline for the woods ." ; he looks over the small group " and we need to avoid a fight if we can, we all need patchin. grab all the ammo and gear we can, any weapons heavier than we are carying, maybe those FAMAS might be better than them damn AK's u begga's 'ave got. if it looks good, grab it."

With that he moves his attention back to Miller.