Into concertina. Hadn't intended it for that use, but it worked.
"Barriers that are not covered by direct fire are of no use except annoying an enemy." Don't know where I heard that, AOC maybe, but it's true. If you put out barriers, wire, mines, tank-traps, and don't have fire on them all they do is slow the enemy down, slightly, and annoy him. You might kill a few but most get through unscathed.
Unless they're panicked and stuck in concertina. In which case, as soon as they get unstuck, they start running again. Into mines.
And then they had to get past the fence. Which most couldn't. And thus tried to run to the openings. And if they hadn't seen their buddies getting blown up, they ran into mines. Those that had mostly hunkered by the fence and wept.
Let's go for round three. I hit my last charger and started to watch umpteen billion dollars of Uncle Sam's gear go up in flames.
Most of it was pretty unspectacular. A tank getting hit, when it's fully loaded, is an awesome sight. A pillar of flame from its exploding ammunition, turret flying off, etc.
The ones hit by the Javelins had just burst into flame and cooked the crews. Not too spectacular. I was disappointed.
The mortar carriers were okay. They tore apart. Trucks went up like bombs, as should be.
Strykers, even, were quite spectacular. One round on the engine, two in the crew compartment. They really tore into ribbons.
Fucking Bradleys?
Same load out. Turret came off of a couple. Burning like shit, don't get me wrong. All sorts of plastic and stuff. But not the earthshaking kaboom I'd hoped for.
The damned Abrams with five God-damned artillery rounds and C-4 and tank rounds in them?
Puffs of smoke. I couldn't even tell for sure if they were damaged. Pissed me off.
Oh, the guys caught in this?
Man, we'd put all sorts of explosives in there. And when shit blows up, it throws stuff around. Think various sized pieces of metal, wood and plastic going through the air at a very fast rate. Not pleasant to be around. Then there were the fuel trucks.
Now, they were empty, mind you. But I'd sort of forgotten there were going to be fumes. And fumes, generally, blow up better than liquids.
Okay, they were spectacular.
I was running out of eyes at this point, there had been various effects on my video surveillance system, so I got on the radios.
"Samad?"
"Are things going to stop blowing up, sahib?"
"Yeah, pretty much done. Hey, you guys did most of the work. Good job, by the way."
"Then may Buddha forgive us, sahib."
"Still some guys crawling around in the ruins last time I'd looked. Keep an eye out."
"Your whiskey is safe, sahib."
(Oh, where'd the booze come from? This was a big ass LOG base before we packed it with all the shit from Iran. Yes, Rule One, no drinking, pornography or such was in effect. But when big civilian brass visit they don't want to hear about no fucking Rule One. One of the things I'd found in the inventory was the storage for booze for the Distinguished Persons. And, trust me, brother, it was the good shit.
(Okay, logistics sidenote. I didn't know that there was booze out there in a CONEX. But after Samad turned up those Brit uniforms, I decided to see what weird crap was stored here. Figuring that "weird" meant small amounts, I sorted the full computer inventory of the original LOG base for smallest number of items. Also where I found the swagger stick, which I still have. As well as a bunch of really odd things. I don't know what dip-shit left behind several pounds of gold in thin sheets but it was packed on the evac vehicles along with a stash of random currency also left behind. Really, you wouldn't believe some of the shit I turned up. The "less than twenty items" went to fucking pages and pages. Most of it "case, one each." I kept expecting to find the Arc of the Convenant.
(I said I didn't like being a logistics puke, never said I wasn't good at it. End sidenote.)
(Wife's Edit: Is that where that silver tea service came from?)
(Shhhh! And the answer is sort of complicated . . . )
Where was I? Radios. Oh, yeah.
Wasn't really radio. I just swiveled around in my chair.
"Fillup, I think the rest of the party is yours. I'm going to go hang out with Samad."
"Roger," Captain Butterfill replied, heroically or some shit. "Thanks for leaving something for us to do."
So the Strykers rolled out the gates and turned north, up the outside of the base. There were now some of the bad guys up on the berm. Some of them shot at the Strykers. They didn't get more than one shot.
Two platoons unassed by the breaks in the berm. Where the footprints crossed the gaps it was clear the mines were gone. They got up on the berm and started working the remains of the gear park.
The third platoon, which was short because it had supplied the guards on the gates and in bunkers, continued a sweep around the base. Any enemy they spotted they engaged with "direct fire."
A few of the guys had made it through the gear park, what was left of it, and into the open area in front of Fort Lonesome. I got to the main control bunker as firing started up from the lines.
"Samad. What are you doing letting people get this close to my whiskey?"
"They will not get your whiskey, sahib."
"Or my women."
"Or your women."
And they didn't. There was some long-range fire that might have been an issue if a. the Nepos hadn't been in bunkers and b. the RIFs could shoot worth a shit. Since a. equalled value "yes" and b. equalled value "no" it was a nuisance not a threat. And the Nepos had gotten to be some really good shots. I wouldn't trust them on a patrol, not yet, but firing from their bunkers they were racking up some kills.
But there were still guys in the gear park and they were going to have to be combed out. With a bunch of unexploded ordnance in their midst.
It wasn't, by the way, getting dark. I looked at my watch when I got to Samad's bunker and it was 1430, two thirty PM.
The whole "battle" had taken thirty minutes. Round Four was done.
So what to do next?
Wait for dark.
Fillup arrayed snipers up on the berms, including what was left of the ammo berms. Sometimes they took fire from rats hiding in the remaining gear. We couldn't actually level the place and there was plenty of cover.
Then we waited. And had a drink of water and some cold MREs. I ordered Fillup and Samad to rotate guys for downtime; it was going to be a long night.
When it got dark we went to Round Five.
It was tedious and it was dangerous but that describes a lot of shit that soldiers do.
As soon as it got dark, it started without any help. The RIFs, thinking they could escape under cover of darkness, started trying to slip up the berm and away.
Sniper rifles come with thermal imagery scopes.
Our enemy did not have thermal imagery equipment. It was a moonless night and just about as black as pitch with all our lights shut down.
To them, we were invisible.
They glowed in the fucking dark under thermal imagery.
I moved over to the berm to watch. The whole group was arrayed on the west and north sides of the berm. Samad had the south exit from the base covered.
The guys had been firing at the RIFs hiding in the garbage during the afternoon. The RIFs knew they were on the west and north side. They'd figured out, from the firing in that direction, that the south was blocked. They went east.