Game 01 - Just Another Scud Hunt

02:00 hours, dead of night (full moon), no wind, dry conditions.

Deep in the southern Kivski forest, Quartermaster Bagdanovich and two of his men parade around a Ukrovian farmhouse, explaining to the farmers Mr & Mrs Gilesovski about the requirement to setup missiles on their land. The farmers fiercely complain about this intrusion of man and machines but it falls upon the seemingly deaf and cauliflowered ears of Big Boris, who then stumbles into the master bedroom with an inviting bottle of Russian fire water in one one hand and his trusty silenced Dragunov rifle in the other.

Meanwile, right on the outer perimter of the missile base defences, UX Special Operatives, surround the Eastern Ukorivan Socialists. A UX Sniper Team "Zeus" creeps into position at the south end of the main road whilst the UX main attack force splinters efficiently into its pre-ararragned fire support & maneuver teams, at the north end of the main road.

The young yet brilliant Major Skudovski of the Special Missile Division, has now been identified by the UX Special Operatives. He can be seen (by various eyes) what looks like designating some kind of attack co-ordinates and preparing launch code protocols with his two missile officers.

Bodyguards Bodieovski and Doyleov, each keep one protective eye on their "clients" and one eye on their precious, classic car, which is parked too close to the mechanics and their paintwork scratching spanners, for their liking...

UX "silenced" teams move cautiously towards the Socialist's accomodation tents and the north missile with their fire support teams overwatching the north end of the main road, taking aim at the patrolling dog team slowly approaching them.

The Eastern Socialsts hurridly prepare both missiles, with four squads guarding their four sourrounding foxholes, wishing they had night vision after being told to probably expect contact. Z Shift - missile engineers sleep in their tents blissfully unaware of the silent death that is slowly enveloping them.

In the stillness of the night, the senses of the defenders are severely challenged, not just by the dozens of surrounding pine trees and bushes of this central Ukrovian forest, but also by the dark blanket of night covering them. Senses that is of the human element of the defences.... however, the senses of the canine element of the base have are slightly more alert...

Luckily for the defenders this dog patrol was in the right place at the right time; (placed right outside the top accomodation tent at the start of the game). The focussed German Shepherd curiously leads its increasinlgy attentive handler towards the objects of its curiousity, objects that are squeezing their triggers on their US made weapons more and more firmly as the patrol gets closer and closer. However, the dog patrol fails to spot any immediate threat - but they still advance closer to the waiting UX supporting fireteams.

UX silent kill teams now move past the acommodation tents, their night vision/infra red showing the northerly most tent (randomly picked by the Socialist Player) is found to contain five "Sleep Shift" mechanics, all, seemingly in the land of Nodovski! A UX operative places an explosive silently just outside the occupied tent, then moves back to his team, who then move to cover the second "silent" fireteam, who are now lining up their sights on the north west foxhole - they all fire in unison.

All four foxhole inhabitants, drop after not even hearing the phut phut of the silenced 5.56mn bullets that sent them to their graves, less than 15 metres away. The UX teams continue to silently advance into position behind the north missile launcher.

The dog patrol has now moved futher north up the main road, but these inexperienced toops still cannot make out any threat to their perimeter. However, with one more curious predatory glance, backed up with a confirmation sniff of the night air, a four legged guard, probably the most efficient socialist in the area, lets out an ascertive and earsplitting bark and drags its handler directly towards the waiting UX fire support team, who immediately recognise the threat and have no other option than to reply with deafening firepower and eliminate the dog but the entire patrol in one short but accurate series of bursts. The camp alarm is raised by the Socialists and guards and workers alike take cover, but they still can't identify any enemy targets in the darkness.

Shortly after, Socialist reinforcements that were patrolling the area turn up at the eastern perimter, with two land rovers blazing down the road, a BMP-1 moving to the southern missile, and a BRDM armoured car bringing up the rear. A squad of Socialist troops moves to the north east quadrant and advances towards the northern missile, and unknowingly towards several hidden UX special operatives who amidst the mayhem, calmly sit and wait, seeing every move their targets make...

Efforts to arm the missiles immediately cease and mechanics move to arm themeselves from their Quartermaster at the farmhouse, or their Major at the command vehicle. Skudovski and his offices turn north to face the unmistakable shriek and smoke trail of an inbound rocket, heading directly towards them - the missile hits the grill of the command vehicle, just a few yards from where they are stood...  but fails to explode.

UX "silenced" teams decimate fleeing mechanics at the northern missile position and also then move in closer to the missile to lay GPS co-ordinates for the incoming UX drone airstrike. Launch papers and prep instructions are discovered and the missile is quickly identified as some kind of US manufactured launchable thermobaric device very similar to a "MOAB" type bomb used by US forces in Afghanistan, but launch capable. What exactly these missiles are doing here, deep in Ukrovian territory, is not immediately known, but what is know is that it will cause diplomatic blast waves far, far exceeding the blast radius of the devices themselves, if news gets out. Have they been stolen, or somehow been supplied to the Socialists - surely not?

Perhaps the shadowy four man team advancing unseen (to all but UX operatives) towards the southern missile would know more, however, these foreign visitors are currently more concerned with the large bull eyeing them up in the field just west of the southern missile, and more urgently, the attentions of the young farmboy Ivan Woolyovski filing them on his smartphone. Ivan after hearing the gunfire in the distance, moved to protect his livelihood, relocating his fathers herd of cows into a barn at the edge of the perimeter, no doubt against the wishes of the large bulling NCO who has been taking potshots at them 300 yards away from the farmhouses bedroom window.

The socialists are now in a frenzy, with their invisible enemy chipping away at their numbers from all angles.
More mechanics go down in a hail of silent death, and another rocket shrieks towards the command vehicle, this time exploding violently and flipping it onto its roof, and this time causing casualties. The Major, a missile officer and several troops are blown to the ground. Various socialists move towards the chaos at the command vehicle, with several attempting to pick up weapons, all are in panic in the burning hell, deep in the forests, South of the Ukrovian capital of Kivski.

The engine of the south missile transporter bursts into life; one of the drivers is earning his peanuts. Its accociated missile officer jumps into the passenger seat, slams the door, and shouts PUNCH IT (in a hybrid Ukrovian/Russian accent).

During the chaos, the ever dependable Zeus, a veteran sniper, who has never missed a shot in his life, spots this vehicle preparing to leave the encampment. He pulls his beloved rifle Ginger into his shoulder and lines up his glowing night sight on the truck's cab and waits for the perfect shot which will come in a few seconds when the vehicle joins the main road.

Bodyguards Bodieovski and Doyleov sprint through the explosions and whirring bullets towards their classic car, with Doyloev leaping over the bonnet. They immediately fire up the 2.8Litre V6 engine, and instead of leaving the battle, reverse right up to the door of the northern missile. Doyleov unfortunately is cut down by retreating UX forces just before entering the missile transporter, but he is grabbed and pulled back into the car heroically by his partner in crime prevention Bodieovski - who then wheelspins them both off, screeching down the road behind the now exiting southern missile transporter.

After hearing the thunderous advances of the elite Socialist Guards 1st Division's heavy armour, in the not so distant distance, UX troops begin to fall back, slowly and expertly, taking out Socialist stragglers on the way, and detonating the explosives laid by the occupied tent. UX forces now prepare to exfiltrate their primary mission, which so far has gone precisely to plan. The only UX shot that now remains, is the vital, yet simple 100 yard sniper shot from Vasily Nathanov's high powered rifle. Nathanov's attention, momentarily is diverted by a staggering, half naked quartermaster seemingly thumbing a lift with a vodka bottle grasping hand. The transporter doesn't stop and clips Boris, possibly taking more damage than the veteran trooper, and the huge vehicle continues its way down the Main road directly towards the waiting Nathanov, who now has the driver firmly in his sights....

A sharp crack is heard to the south and the escaping transporter's driver immediately slumps down behind the wheel, with a new 7.62mm sized hole between both eyes. The transporter almost uncrontrollably comes off the road, but is steadied by its passenger, the missile officer X13. It continues onwards, almost clear of the mayhem in the forest.

Natahnov's heartbeat is almost audible amongst the retreating UX voice communication systems, as the Spec Ops troops have now almost left their primary objective and silently vanish into the night. Not before Socialist T-90 tanks break through the trees just north of the farmhouse and unleash their deadly 125mm guns towards them. Now aided by armour, and more importantly night vision things are now evening up for the Socialist side.

A tank round brings down the lead squad of a UX silent team, but they somehow still manage to drag themselves off deeper into the forst and leave the hot zone, in a northerly direction. Other UX elements leave North West to meet up at their designated point and to continue their secondary mission. The UX forces exit with one last command from UX Major Mickovski, "take the shot Nathanov, then meet at point 1".

Natanov lines up his rifle on the engine block of the now en-route missile transporter, a simple shot that will disable the vehicle quickly, one that he has executed several times before. He steadies himself, squeezes the trigger slowly.... and takes out the driver side head lamp - quickly cursing none-Ukrovian ammunition, he then snaps off quick, desperate disabling shots as the vehicle passes, another shot to the engine, a tyre taken out, but the sturdy truck swerves by belching smoke. Nathanov quickly requests a team of four UX to move south and aid him in stalking this crippled vehicle, to locate and call in GPS co-ords on what will surely be a stationary vehicle just a few hundred yards down the road.

Nathanov remains in cover as Bodieovski and Doyleov also drive by. A very angry Boris limps past his position, but Nathanov, not wishing to give his position away holds fire. This disgruntled sniper and his spotter then move off in persuit with the small UX fireteam, moving out of the expected blast zone of what will be one hell of an explosion to follow in just a few hours time, now that the GPS co-ordinates have been successfuly relayed for the guided bombs to be released from the Predator drone, that is already on its way...

Meanwhile, the covert US "special" forces Delta team, that was sent to clean up the mess of one of their experimental MOABs turning up in Eastern Europe have been having their own problems, stumbling into a farmboy who put up a suprisingly good fight, then alerting the guards, and then coming under fire from Ukrovian armour. Although they failed to call in an air strike to clear the missiles, they are now safely 100 yards away, hidden amongst trees, and will try again in several hours time when things have cooled down...

Deeper into the forest, northwards, UX forces, not wanting to leave any injured operatives behind, brave a slowed exfiltration from the missile site, and head towards their pre-arranged pickup. Predator UCAV co-ordinates and Hellfire ETA are relayed to Major Mickovski, who is now concerned for his troops' safety as UCAV flight times are a forwarded ahead of schedule, and he is still just within the blast radius that a presumed US MOAB would cause.

Several hours later...
The escaping transporter made it a few hundred yards further than expected, but Nathanov, his spotter Capserov and four UX operatives, now surround the vehicle, awaiting further orders....

Major Mickovski drags his wounded men over into the best cover he can quickly put his entire team in, then he himself glances over to the south and takes cover himself, hearing an apology whispered into his ear  "Make like a mole, Mick, ETA in 30 secs, Good luck".

100 yards from the burning missile site, the US Delta team tuck into their MREs. Sarge Bob whispers to Mac, can your hear a UAV, goddamit have these Eastern boys got Preds?"

Major Skudovski, somehow arises from his wounds near to his upended missile command vehicle, with a smile on his face, yelling out at the moon - "HA! You failed to take my babies, I have one left, and she will be ready soon, you western scum!" but then....

Hellfire guided missiles and massive thermobaric bombs don't mix very well - and so, engulfing Skudovski, his few surviving troops, and all life within 1km, the conventional mushrooming of 20,000lbs of massive US ordnance quickly ends the minor skirmish at the forest missile base, but begins a major Ukrovian civil war.

END

Game = Drawn
1 missile destroyed, 1 missile escaped
Game 02 has 1 "special" MOAB asset
Game 03 UX troops receive special bonus

Apologies for the quality of the images from my camera phone. Must remember to bring my proper camera next time...

Dave