"Whole bunch of vehicles between us and the action, this side of the intersection on 248st, then dispersing smoke at the intersection. Quite a bit of cover - trees and hedges for the most part - that we can work our way up through," said Mac in reply.

"Roger that," Andy said, "hold position and I'll overbound you."

Andy crawled back to the far edge of the top floor and then dropped on to the lower roof. He returned to the Iltis and said, "Mac and I are working our way up the road. Hold here until we call for you."

He rounded the building and headed for a decent position about fifty meters north of Mac's tree.

Mac was in a tree north of Andy on 248 St. To get to a position north of him, Andy had a few options. He could drive the Iltis over to the corner, dismount, climb over the fence and go through the yard, climbing the fence again. Or stay in the Iltis and go through the wood plank fence and drive through the yard, or else just drive up 248 St itself.

Meanwhile, Tyler and Koldan took shelter in the culvert as the group of attacking vehicles roared north up 248 St. Mac could see them go down in the wooded dip where the culvert (unknown to him) sheltered Koldan and Tyler. Then the vehicles continued past, heading north towards the intersection of 248 and 56.

Andy left the Iltis where it was and continued on foot. He intended to run over to the corner, dismount, climb over the fence and go through the yard, climbing the fence again.

It would take time, but driving into a firefight blind didn't seem the best option. Hopefully at some point they'd get eyes on the situation and if not, they were in a position to intercept or observe any enemy retreat.

Mac continued to observe from up his tree.

Sprinting over fences and across the overgrown yard, Andy passed by Mac, who was observing up the tree. He arrived at the plank fence at the far edge of the yard, looking north up 248 St. About 125m away was a small convoy of vehicles, including a V-100 armoured car, then a technical (armoured pickup truck) with a .50 cal followed by a jeep mounting an M60 GPMG. The latter two vehicles each had 4-5 dismounts crammed in the back. It looked like they were pushing north towards the intersection and Hotel detachment, V-100 in the lead.

There were several bangs and explosions, obviously there was quite a firefight up ahead! Someone fired a cannister round south down 248st, and the massive swarm of buckshot caused everyone in the column to duck but they kept going, hell bent for leather.

Oops, Andy thought, shit load of enemy troops heading toward Taras.

He keyed his radio and said, "Bishop Six to Iltis, drive south of the school, cross the road and make your way north to us as safely as you can. Execute."

As he waited for Mac to join him he reported to Taras, "Knight, this is Bishop Six. I have eyes on three vehicles heading toward you. I have one V-100 armoured car and two technicals. One has a fifty calibre and one an M60. They are being engaged by canister but the shells aren't having much effect. Technicals are carrying approximately ten dismounts. Will try to disable technical armament."

Andy
Talking a lot.

Mac scrambled down from his tree and moved up beside McRae.

In reply to Christopher Little Hawk MacDonald (msg # 63):

The small convoy halted in the depression midway between them and the intersection with 56 Ave. They could clearly see all the vehicles where they were stopped in the ditch, and the dismounts were bailing out of the vehicles.

"This is Bishop one, confirm that Tango, the tank is disabled!  Can we evac Hotel and regroup?"

Once he had finished communicating with his comrades, Andy found the solidest firing position he could and used his scope to home in on the .50 calibre machinegun. The big gun could chew through even the Cougar's armour given luck or enough time so if he could take the gun out he could buy his side a little more time.

He focussed intently on his task and aimed at the receiver block of the big weapon.

Andy
Parker Hale
As many ticks looking and aiming as are left to locate and zoom in on .50 cal receiver block.

Mac will maintain overwatch.

Andy aimed carefully at the receiver block of the fifty calibre. Once he felt that he had the best shot at immobilising the weapon, he took it.

Andy
Spending ticks to aim u to best shot he can with enough left for one shot

The enemy force must have spotted the Cougar lying in ambush, which was why they were deploying their dismounts to flank through the woods to the right. Smoke blossomed in the road in front of the convoy, between it and the Cougar to the north. Fortunately, they were not aware of the threat to their rear.

It was difficult to get a clear shot off at the receiver block of the Ma-Deuce, as the technical mounting this was in the middle of the convoy and the gunner was in the way. Finally, he had a clear shot.

Mac set up the sniper scope beside him and lased the target. "Target, range 105 metres, bearing 357 degrees, wind west 2 knots. Target, target, target, target..."

With a calm squeeze of the trigger Andy did what he'd done over a hundred times before. The bullet left the rifle and due to the short range and almost lack of wind was on target immediately. The steel jacketed round struck a burst of sparks from the metal receiver. It was difficult to tell how much damage was caused, as they would typically use a .50 anti-material rifle like the McMillan Tactical ("Tac-Fifty") or the American M82 Barrett, like the one they left in the zodiac.

The results on the surrounding men was dramatic. Most of the men hit the deck (including the technical gunner), looking for the source of the shot, or else scattered for the surrounding woods. The shot was successful, normal sniper procedure would be to immediately displace before re-engaging. The M60 gunner on the back of the Jeep began swinging his weapon around to face the rear.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:40, Tue 07 Jan 2014.

"On target.." said Mac, whose eye was still glued to the spotter scope.

"Displace," Andy said calmly. He knew that taking an anti-materiel shot with a normal rifle was risky but hopefully he might have done some damage and the secondary target of having the enemy divide their attention had worked as well as if he'd killed someone.

He kept low and crawled along the fence until he could look for a decent new place to fire from.

Andy
Change stance: kneeling to prone
Crawling away for a new position

Mac picked up the scope and followed.

As they were firing north down a road lined with trees, hedges and fences, from the northeast corner of a fence line, there was no real opportunity for lateral movement directly to another shooting position.

They could crawl right, following the fence, then flank to the right through the houses and backyards to get closer.

If they wanted to risk it they could go left and try to dash across the road. The LOS was broken by a few vehicles abandoned between the 2-man detachment and the militiamen but this was risky.

Crawling straight north along the overgrown ditch running on the east side of the road was possible but it was shallow and they would be vulnerable.

Finally, they could return back the way they came to the Iltis and try to find another route.

As it was, the M60 opened up on the fence where they'd taken their shot, chewing up the weathered boards. Crawling right towards the backyard and away from the line of fire seemed to be the wisest option.

Andy kept his head and arse down and started to crawl right toward the back yard.

Mac followed, also careful to keep as low a profile as he could.

Before they crawled out of sight, one thing they noticed was Tyler's cherry-red '70 Dodge Challenger abandoned in the road near where the reinforcements were pinned down and laying a smoke screen.

As they made it to the back yard area (this being a rural area, it was a very large fence-enclosed yard) they heard the M60 continuing to fire, then a pair of loud "pop!" sounds, followed by a cessation of firing and general sounds of mayhem, all coming from where the reinforcements were located.

"Knight, this is Castle! We just hit a large force coming north on 248... we are trying to exfil east along the creek south of 56 Ave! Need immediate assistance!"

Indeed, it sounded like there was a lot of shooting in the wooded creekbed just north of their position.

In reply to Tyler Gabriel Hope (msg # 77):

The sound of gunfire down in the wooded stream to the north of their position intensified.

Andy looked over at Mac as they crawled, "Let's get back to the Iltis, I think barrelling in from behind with a vehicle might shake these guys up."

He kept crawling toward the road before deciding which was the safest route across the main road and back to the truck.

"OK," said Mac, following. "Who's driving?"