Thursday, October 9, 2014

2012: Operation Phantom Destruction Shahkhar


Mission File

Those who served:

Richard
Caverick
Dan
Christian


FIRST PART: 22/2/2012

We found ourselves driving through the dark for a sneaky night insertion in two HMMVs whose drivers had thoughtfully turned the lights on! We took the wheel, killed the lights and RVed near an oil refinery with some private military contractors (PMCs) who were supposed to help us but did jack diddly squat.

The insurgents found us pretty quickly. Dan took to the roof of a house and directed fire, Richard had a very handy sniper rifle with a night vision scope. Once we took out a small force and the crew of a pickup with a 50 cal, we commandeered it and zoomed over the desert to recon the objectives. Three of them were in a large military base guarded by at least 3 T-72 tanks! That made us go for the other objectives first :)

We blundered into a patrolling armoured car. We'd already taken out its gunner, so Rich hammered its wheels with the 50 cal and it ground to a halt. The driver jumped out and started running around with his AK. The 50 cal was very unwieldy and Rich was having a hard time hitting him, so I chased him in the pickup. He sprinted along a high fence running the length of the oil compound, but I got ahead of him, spun around and slammed him against the wall. To everyone's total shock that section of the wall toppled over- and on the other side was the warlord's son and 10 of his personal guard! Rich got the drop on them with the 50 cal, Christian arrived to support and in moments we'd wiped them out:



We then entered the compound and a very tense cat-and-mouse clearing operation began. No less than four times I shot a mooj that was drawing a bead on a squadmate:



We were all hit at various times. At one point Rich and Dan had been shot, Christian and I were wounded and couldn't walk. I had to roll all the way across the compound to revive Dan, then got caught in another firefight where I couldn't see them and got two guys by aiming at muzzle flash.

When that was all over none of us could walk, and none of us were a medic! Fortunately we could still drive and operate the vehicles, so we took out one of their pickups:



Then cleared a nearby village that had an ammo cache and loaded up. You can see Rich reviving Dan on the roof:




Around that point someone dropped out and came back in as a medic, so we could stand up again! We satcheled the last of the objectives at the refinery:



And took the fight to the military base. It was a long drawn out battle, but when I located the crate with the launchers the tide turned. I got two of the tanks and Dan got a third:



We then hit the base. To give you an idea of the confusion of battle:




Christian had to drop out around this point. I crept around so I could see in the gate, saw the Warlord standing amid his retinue and dropped him with a shot. I cleaned up most of his guard before they forced me to relocate. Dan had to leave around then. Richard had been hit so I went to help, but after taking out another 5 or so guys they hit me too.



Because we felt we were so close after so long (it was now after midnight) we cheated a little- Rich quit and reconnected, then revived me. We fought hard and it looked like we'd cleared the base, so I went in and RPGed their command center (one of the objectives), but that triggered another wave of troops and they got me (I saved the game).


SECOND PART: 6/3/2012

I was shot in the save game, so I lay there for ANOTHER 20 or 30 minutes staring at the sky. Everyone else was shot by a vehicle we missed (Rich took it out and revived everyone), then mopped up the remaining resistance and revived me.
We then tried to blow up the objectives with rockets (with limited success) before Rich located the other SUV which had satchel charges. We then ran for a Chinook and WON THE MISSION!




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