Battle of the Marias River

If there was one thing she loved about this place it was how close it was to her own home, rolling fields, some planted some simply wild. The roads were paved and maintained here so her ride was oh so much smoother, how such a people managed to keep so many miles under bitumen she'd never know… at least until she asked one of them.

She shifted slightly, her gaze moving toward the back of her spot atop the tank turret. Despite the overcast and the steady drizzle of rain she knew it was a full moon. Enough ambient light filtering down to give her purpose atop the annoyingly loud Gali vehicle a bit of an edge, of course here there were two bright spots rather than the singular one of her world. She could see in the dark mostly, while the countless semi-awake Gali soldiers could not, a blessing and somewhat of a curse from her creators. A gloved hand reached up and shifted the headset, pulling one free from her long lapine ears and grimacing as the sounds of the fossil engine roared behind her. She let it fall back in before three hard knocks came from below her, prompting her to shift over, her lithe form, decently hard to see from a black and dark green leather suit vanishing into a collection of supplies tied down to the top.

A moment later the source of the noise pushed open the hatch and emerged into the wet night, his soft cover soon followed by the dark mustard colored uniform the Gali armored troops favored. She could see him squint before his dark face finally fell on hers, annoyance clear.

“Do you just laze up here woman!” He yelled, mostly she figured to get the sound of his voice over that of the throaty roar behind them.

She merely grinned in response, it wouldn't take much to kill him, of course… then she'd endanger her sisters. Part of her however thought it'd almost be worth it to send the captain to his grave even if the troops in the convoy managed to get her.

“I watch, certainly can't listen, but I watch.” She said, bringing two fingers to her eyes before pointing off beyond them into the darkness. “There are structures up ahead, perhaps we should stop and check?”

She heard him curse in Gali before speaking something into the microphone on his chest. She knew he wanted the rabbits, the people who'd managed to slip his army's cordon and run in all directions. His people always wanted more Koles for their works, their farms, and their factories, and every able-body he brought back would surely line his pockets. Of course that was none of her business but the response she expected soon came.

“We don't have the time to check every little structure.” He said, though she could tell it hadn't been his decision, whether another chance to take everything within or wise tactics she didn't know. “We proceed.” He finally finished, dropping back down into the tank but leaving the hatch open.

She could only shake her head, she knew greed probably killed more in the last three days than simple foolish tactics. The Gali's where raiders if anything and the lands before them, gifted by the portal they'd found where just another place to run rampant. Sighing, she sat up, shifting slightly with the slightly as she pulled an oiled cloak from behind over her to keep the rain off. Her gaze had shifted off to the right, beyond at the far end of an open field something moved and glinted even in the low light. Squinting she was looking right at it when the outline of a vehicle…. one of THEIR vehicles finally distinguished itself. She opened her mouth to scream in alarm when something bright and white flashed from the opposite direction, she didn't hesitate, flinging herself off the dome shaped turret.

The near-human was still in the air when the first ATGM, anti-tank guided missile, dove down after travelling on its short arc from the upper most floor of the nearby farm house. Its souless eye nearly bringing itself directly down through the open hatch before detonating. The tank commander simply obliterated, his body shattering as the hypervelocity jet of liquid metal filled the space with plasma and metal fragmentation. Of the three remaining crew, only the driver still lived if only for a moment, a thunderous secondary explosion that followed less than a second later as the internal ammunition cooked off. A pillar of flame marked the site of the crew's immolation as the tank's domed turret went flying into the night sky, the entire column halting or swerving to avoid those that had. A moment later the lead armored vehicle met the same fate and men began screaming in the black night.

A solitary being lay in the grass some twenty meters from the remains of her 'steed', blinking as she sucked in air. The overpressure having smashed her far further than she'd been aiming to jump and sending the wind from her lungs.

“Fools.” She spat, she knew this would happen, watching as muzzle flashes started along with another salvo meesiles. Suddenly a realization hit her, her head frantic as she looked everywhere but came up short of her pack.. and her rifle. Letting out a long if hissed curse as the bite of several small shrapnel wounds bit into her she clutched her knife and darted off into the darkness toward the flank of the angry spitting building five hundred yards distant.

• Light Vehicles
• 3x Bushmaster 6×6 ATGM Vehicles
• 10x Sidewinder 4×4 Armored Trucks
• 2x Rhino Trucks, one configured for fuel one for cargo.
• 1x Gale 6×6 Mortar Truck
  
  
• Armored Vehicles
• 2x Puma 8×8 Armored Personnel Carriers
• 1x Tiger 8×8 Infantry Fighting Vehicles
• 1x Powell Tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicle
• 2x Jackson Light Support Tanks

• Light Armored Combat Team
• 2x MADFV-011 'Jackson' Light Support Tank
  • 3x Crew Each
• 1x Powell Tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicle
  • 3x Crew
  • 6x Infantry Fireteam Element
    
    
• Mechanized Infantry Group
• 1x Tiger 8×8 Infantry Fighting Vehicle
  • 3x Crew
  • 9x Infantry Squad
• 2x Puma 8×8 Armored Personnel Carriers
  • 2x Crew
  • 9x Infantry Squad
    
    
• Motorized Anti-tank Group
• 3x Bushmaster 6×6 ATGM Vehicles
  • 2x Crew
• 3x Sidewinder 4×4 Armored Trucks
  • 2x Crew
  • 2x ATGM Team
• 3x Sidewinder 4×4 Armored Trucks
  • 2x Crew
    
    
• Motorized Mortar Section
• 1x Gale 6×6 Mortar Truck
  • 2x Crew
• 1x Sidewinder 4×4 Armored Truck
  • 2x Crew
    
    
• Command and Supply Section
• 3x Sidewinder 4×4 Armored Trucks
  • 4x Crew
• 2x Rhino Trucks, one configured for fuel one for cargo.
  • 2x Crew

• The story begins with a semi-bored Dumauri riding atop a tank, sunset was an hour ago and now darkness is setting in with a light wind and a drizzle she knows will soon turn into a downpour. She is part of a company's worth of her kind pressed into service to act as scouts and night fighters. Her ilk's low light vision being one of the few things that evens out the hours of darkness versus those the Gali seek to enslave and conquer. For her part, she has little loyalty to them, the only thing keeping her ilk from fading into the forests is being trapped on this side… and the hostages they have back home. Suddenly she hears something, something shes heard many a time in the last few days as they've fought… what did they call themselves? Colonists? Suddenly the tank in the lead bursts into flames, its turret launching into the sky. Already her eyes traced the path to a collection of buildings (a farmhouse?) four hundred paces away over planted fields.
  
  Theres another flash of light and shes moving almost before she realizes it, propelling herself to the far side of the doomed vehicle. By the time she rises from a culvert on the far side the tank and the commander of the element are burning. She can see some of the wheeled carriers diving off into the field, some stopped, their infantry piling out as more rockets, they had to be rockets, lance out and pluck more armored vehicles. She manages a sigh before checking the chamber on her bolt action rifle and slipping off toward right side flank, rounds zip off to her side…. she remembers they can see in the dark too as she dives into another ditch.

• Inside the prefab two story farm block an ATGM team and a pair of rifleman continue to lay on the fire, they've all been awake for nearly two days. Floating on stims and the simple fact that they're the only element left to slow whats laid out before them.
  
  Five hundred yards opposite their position an armored 4×4 unmasks itself from a copse of trees, its extended rear structure shifts and a quadruple missile launcher deploys itself. For the two occupants inside this will be an act of vengeance after watching the column in their sites capture or machinegun a group of evacuees the previous night. Methodically the gunner selects two wheeled fighting vehicles at least a platoon's worth of troops are using for cover. With the pull of a trigger he volleys two heavy ATGMs at both. Each pair has one missile set to direct attack with the other set to airburst just over the concentration of troops, the munitions employ fragmentation sleeves. A few seconds later four detonations trigger a pair of monstrous secondaries as rifle ammunition and explosives within the pair of AFVs go off. A stream of tracers from the armored truck's 8mm RWS only adds to the charnal house around the two burning vehicles.

• One of the 8×8 IFOR transports halts, a light on its turret swinging with its motion as the crew within lay it's heavy machine gun on the offending structure. One of the riflemen is illuminated and then promptly blown apart by a single long burst. The two ATGM gunners and the surviving rifleman drop as the hostile vehicle begins to lay into their position with long bursts. All three scramble toward the back of the building and the stairs that will lead to their parked Sidewinder 4×4. A stray round obliterates one of the ATGM carrier's legs, forcing the other two to stop and carry their wounded friend.
  
  Outside a pair of tracked armored vehicles have left the road, their own guns, smooth bore cannon, begin to systematically destroy all structures before them. Their own spotlights are on as well, illuminating the area for the two squads of troops that are now filtering up around them. Three find landmines, bounding types that fling themselves into the air and orient on the largest number of thermal blobs within their sights before detonating.
  
  Opposite this costly assault most of the vehicles within the column have started laying into the stand of trees that had hidden the ATGM vehicle, even as it's operators make good their escape, the gunner still firing over the vehicles back. A single lucky cannon round strikes the rear of the vehicle, the resulting double explosion killing both driver and gunner in a spectacular secondary detonation.