RAMBO-ING AROUND, part 2
"To be fair," yelled Louis as bullets whizzed past the cadets and explosives exploded around them. "WE CAN REALLY USE A RAMBO NOW!"
Sean flipped up his night vision which is now rendered useless by the EMP. He loaded his illumination flare, firing it into the air to light up the area, allowing him to see where the shots are being fired from, firing back.
More shells landed around the convoy, "taking out" the rear vehicles, rendering them stuck. The surviving cadets all hid down behind the reverse slope, shielding themselves from the gunfire.
"ISN'T THIS TOO MUCH?" roared Erika. "This kind of ambush is designed to KILL people in war!"
She loaded a rifle grenade into the grenade launcher attachment on her SG-552, returning fire.
"Getting pinned down here isn't going to make the cut!" yelled Karl. "We need to break contact and retreat back to base!" he said, recounting the instructions given to them on the ride.
Karl's brain kicked into overdrive, coming up with a plan to break all them out.
"LISTEN UP!" he yelled. "I need you all to spread out and form a defensive perimeter, use the vehicles as cover! Pop up illumination flares!"
'Why the hell should we listen to you?" yelled a cadet.
Karl did not say an extra word, drawing his HK USP pistol, pulling the slide, and shoving it up in the head of the cadet, behaving more like a gangster than a soldier, shocking everyone, including the instructors observing. Even the members of the "group of 9", who had been with Karl the whole time, are appalled.
Nanami frowned, turning to Franz. "Sir, I don't think this is allowed? Pointing a live weapon deliberately at another cadet not as "hostiles" already warrants a disqualification."
Franz pondered, judging the situation. After a while, he decided on his ruling. "In combat commanders have the right to use force to quell opposition. Even though his leadership role is self-imposed, that rule still stands given the nature of the exercise."
"Let's observe first, if Number 23 does not do more things that are out of order, then we just give him a verbal warning and 100 push ups," said Franz.
Back to the ground, with Karl's threats, the other cadets agreed to listen to him, spreading out and launching illumination flares, firing back at the hostile positions, which were soon revealed to be sentry robots firing on them with training munitions.
The cadets managed to somewhat even out the odds, allowing the cadets to have a fighting chance by using their terrain.
"Albert, Vera!" yelled Karl. "Find a vantage point, take out their heavy weapons!"
The 2 moved. A volley of bullets landed around Vera, almost hitting her had she not rolled out of the way in time
Albert quickly aimed his AXMC sniper rifle, looking down the night vision optic in front of his scope, picking up a sentry robot firing at them with a machine gun, disabling it in a shot, allowing Vera to move.
He cycled the bolt, ejecting the spent casing, running after Vera.
The 2 dashed onto a dune, hiding behind rocks after checking for scorpions. Vera switched her monocular to night vision mode, scanning the area, especially focusing on the origin points of rockets and heavy machine gun fire, guiding Albert to take them out. Other sniper pairs followed their lead, forming a fire net of precision shooting targeting hostile heavy assets. The sentry robots are not stupid however, employing smoke dispensers to shield themselves, and also directing their arsenal on the snipers after detecting their muzzle flares, prompting the snipers to change positions and avoid being bombarded if they stay in one place for too long. The machine gunners covered their movement, as well as that of other cadets, forming the most important source of suppressive fire when the heavy weapons on the turrets are unusable.
Eddie's Ultimax 100 jammed in the heavy firing. Erika covered him while he tried to resolve the issue.
"SEAN, CHECK WHAT EQUIPMENT WE CAN USE! CLARA, RESTART POWER TO THE TURRET!" continued Karl.
Sean and Clara dashed back to the armoured vehicle, sliding down to avoid bullet and explosives landing around them. Clara yanked open the system compartment, checking the damage to see if it is salvageable.
"Damn it," she cursed, looking at the circuits fried by the EMP. It fried the circuits caused by a voltage surge that exceeded the ratings of the chips and components of the turret, repairing is not the right course of action to take to remedy this situation, but rather REPLACING, something the cadets obviously cannot do at this time and place.
"NO USE!" she reported back. The instructor had deliberately removed the shielding for the turret, causing the cadets' most important source of heavy firepower to be rendered useless. And all of the instructors (except maintenance officers like Xu Qing), are happy with the outcome.
Sean meanwhile found a suicide drone in the storage compartment, fortunately its shielding is not removed. He also found claymores and a mechanical time-delayed detonator.
A plan crept to his mind.
He handed the drone to Clara, while rushing out to find Erika, pulling her with Eddie covering them, to the "disabled" vehicles at the rear of the convoy.
He handed her the claymore, asking her to blow them up so that the cadets can retreat back.
She immediately got down to work to plant the charges. Sean notified the other cadets of his plan, asking them to retreat to the armoured vehicles, and get ready to leave. Karl then ordered the snipers and machine gunners to continue their suppressive fire.
Ariel pulled out an unguided anti-tank recoilless gun from a vehicle, aiming it.
"I need flares!" she yelled. Louis immediately popped one.
Seizing the illuminated night, she took aim and fired, causing a massive explosion on the opposite end, opening a gap.
The other cadets who managed to find recoilless guns did the same, firing anti-armour, high-explosive and smoke rounds, covering the cadets who immediately fell back to the convoy. Those cadets and the snipers then covered them to retreat back to the convoy.
Clara launched her suicide drone into the air, along with others that are launched by cadets that managed to find one. The drones immediately dived at the sentry robots, remote controlled by their operators.
Clara adjusted hers to charge straight at the ammunition stockpile, then pressing the detonation button on the remote, causing a chain reaction of explosions that "took out" a huge portion of sentry robots.
Just then, a loud "boom" came from the rear. Erika had blown open a path.
"LET'S GO!" yelled Karl, emptying his last rifle magazine in covering fire, then dashing towards the armoured vehicles.
He stepped into the driver's seat, starting the engine. To his dismay, the autopilot is also disabled, meaning he has to navigate.
Once his vehicle is filled, he stepped on the accelerator, changing gears the moment he can, driving at top speed. The armoured vehicles drove off, with cadets firing from the firing ports on the side facing the sentry robots.
Sean, Erika and Eddie are the last group not on the armoured vehicles. The last armoured vehicle slowed down. Louis and Ariel opened the top hatch, urging them to come up.
Erika dashed over, climbing up, helped by Louis and Ariel into the vehicle. Sean and Eddie then followed suit.
With the hatch closing over his head after Eddie entered and the sound of gunfire is gradually thrown behind them. Sean threw down his helmet in liberation, feeling lucky that the most vicious fight he had up to now is over, and he made it out.
The rest of the cadets shared his mood.
He rubbed his ankle, cut and sore from all of the running and sliding. Seeing this, Clara sliced open the desert gourd she picked, taking some of its juices onto a piece of bandage, then bandaging the area. The anti-inflammatory properties of the plant helping Sean to ease his sores.
"Thanks," he said.
Clara smiled back at him. Sean is glad that their relationship is improving, and Clara is no longer antagonistic towards him, for he had proved his competence to her.
(Command room)
"Aww man," observed Maia. "Did not eliminate the number we wanted. Only 30 gone, we still have 146."
"Even Rambo wouldn't have performed better," remarked Reza. "They are indeed full of surprises."
"You owe me a drink," sneered Herbert at Maia. "Underestimating them is to your detriment."
"Xu Qing is going to beat our asses again," joked Xiao Tian.
Franz is however, poker-faced.
"They have beaten the desert, impressive, but let's see if they can do the same for the Alps about a week from now."
The tired cadets, especially Karl who had to do another 100 push-ups, almost immediately flopped onto bed upon being debriefed by Reza and Nanami. They have no idea that after almost besting fire, ice is on its way to challenge them, and not just any ice, but ice 4,809m above them in the coldest areas of Austria.
And not to mention the ultimate endgame for them, something not even Sean will be expecting.