Canterra: Operation Cold Comfort - Frostbite - Infantry Assault: The can opener.

Posted on 05 Aug 2019 @ 12:19am by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Geneviève "Jenny" Lassonde (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Ensign Kojima "Paperboy" Tanahashi
Edited on on 10 Aug 2019 @ 8:54am

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: The Xore Strike Mine
Timeline: T+3 18:25 hours Zulu

[ON]

[The Zore Strike Mine]

The Marine Infantry had transported into their muster points out on the icy snow blown tundra surrounding the mine. Their assembly areas had been selected to provide topographical cover from the mine complex but once formed up they would have to advance across some three hundred meters of open ground until they reached the entrance buildings and the massive doors that opened into the mine’s underground space port.

They had the darkness and heavily falling snow to for added concealment but the assault would still be deadly if the Gorn put up a fight on the surface.

The first wave was ready to go within a few minutes of beaming in and the Infantry company began moving forward toward the mine. With the power down, darkness and falling snow visibility was down to less than ten meters, they used combat tricorders to find their way.

Moving quickly they crossed the open ground, coming to the concrete landing pad the Marines took up defensive position while their commander surveyed their objective with a night-vision monocular.

The Gorn had placed a large entrance bunker across the entrance, it was mounted with two disrupter turrets, both with double barreled weapons. As the commander, Captain Sonia Bjornsdotter, watched she saw the two turrets slowly tracking backwards and forwards, while the main power was down the two bunkers seemed to have their own supply.

Suddenly without warning one of the turrets opened up, firing bright green bursts of deadly plasma at the advancing platoons. The weapon tore into a squad moving towards the landing pad, several fell.

Moments later the second turret swung around and began pumping shots at anything that moved. The advance slowed as the marines were forced to take cover. Return fire was ineffective against the hardened bunker and turrets.

“Get those turrets lit up and have our air support to take them out! A-SAP!” Bjornsdotter ordered, hunkering down behind a large snowbank. Bjornsdotter was six feet tall, blonde, Icelandic and looked like a Shield Maiden from a Norse Saga, tough and driven she had a reputation for getting the job done. Her Comms Sergeant called in the fire mission.

=/\= 801 Flight this is Leopard Six, we have ground attack tasking for you! =/\=

=/\= "Copy Leopard Six, you just say where and when, we'll handle the rest." =/\=

=/\= Copy 801 Flight, disrupter turrets on the mine entrance bunkers. We are lighting them up =/\=

A couple of Marines crawled forward and sited on the two turrets with their designator devices. =/\= Targets are lit now; now; now! =/\=

=/\= Roger Leopard Six we have your beacons, I'm coming in from above =/\=

With that Paper let gravity do most of the work he was coming in towards the target from above, having the beacons this time he had a lock and didn't have to rely on free firing and risk hurting the Marines and it wasn't like this snowstorm was helping him. Reaching his mark he releases two torpedos aimed at the beacon as he pulled up and flew over the direction of the Marines if nothing his weapons didn't destroy the turrets he could at least pull off some fire from them hopefully and give Jenny a clean shot.

Jenny screamed in on her own vector, zeroing in in the beacon and letting off a third torpedo to make sure the job was good and done before breaking of her run and beginning to climb once more.

All weapons hit their designated targets, within seconds the two turrets were reduced to smoking wreckage. Although blackened and scarred the bunker itself remained intact. The Marines still needed a way in.

=/\= Nice shooting 801 Flight! We'll take it from here. =/\=

“Get the Can-Opener up here!” Bjornsdotter ordered. The Can-Opener was a heavy multi-barreled phaser, designed to punch holes in things. It was heavy and cumbersome, needed a crew of two and took forty-two seconds to charge up, but when it fired it could blast a hole through nine feet of solid rock.

Two burley Marines jogged up with the weapon on their shoulders, they set it down, adjusted the bipod legs, powered it up and one sighted it on the bunker doorway. There was a soft whine as it charged, then one of the team called out. “Powered and ready to fire!”

“Gentlemen, make me a hole!” Bjornsdotter ordered.

The Can-Opener fired, seven high-powered, wide beam, phaser blasts tore into the bunker door, vaporizing it along with a sizeable chunk of the surrounding wall..

“That will do” Bjornsdotter commented, the edges of the concrete still glowed and sizzled as snow felt on the molten surface. “Alright by the numbers, let’s get inside!” She ordered her troops forward.

The Marines, in their designated squads, swarmed across the landing pad and into the ruined bunker, turning on the lights on their weapons, the beams focusing on the breach. Phaser fire and grenades cleared the way ahead as they disappeared inside.

Bjornsdotter and her command team followed on. Inside of the bunker was a smoking ruin, there were several dead Gorn and small fires burned. Beyond the bunker was an open area, lit only with the glow of red emergency lighting. The Gorn had tried to make a stand here, several Marines were down and being tended to by Corpsmen, but the assault had pushed the defenders back into the complex, leaving only more of their dead behind. The noise of battle came rolling down the corridor ahead.

The other thing about the interior was the heat, it was maybe eighty or ninety degrees in the building but after the bitterly cold arctic night it felt even hotter. Bjornsdotter stripped off her heavy winter parka as she looked around.

“Clear that lot aside” Bjornsdotter pointed at the Gorn corpses “We’ll stage here for now” Her command staff hurried to make it happen.

“Second Platoon has reached the Mine Control room. Encountering heavy resistance from one of their Phalanx units” Her comms Sargeant reported.
“Get the Can-Opener up there. We’re not being held up, I don’t want them to have time to start killing colonists!”

The Sergeant nodded, the weapon was designed to make breaches in obstacles, it would tear even one of the heavily-armored Gorn units to shreds with just one shot and he made the call. Two minutes later the weapon team jogged past.

“Get it done, I want Mine Control secured five minutes ago” Bjornsdotter urged them as they passed.

“First Platoon reporting they have taken Spaceport Control” Her Sergeant announced “And Third has the elevators locked down. Second wave shuttles report two minutes out”

Bjornsdotter nodded “I want them in here as soon as they land. Once we have Mine Control and we get the power back we’ll send the second wave down to start clearing the levels. Do we have comms with the Raider Special Ops Team at the power station yet?”

“No ma’am. But Charlie Company First Platoon has met up with their Command Element and they are entering the Power Station complex to find them” The Sergeant replied.

“Tell them to hustle, I don’t want the Gorn getting their claws back on that power switch” Bjornsdotter instructed.

A few moments later there was a rumble through the floor, Bjornsdotter knew what had caused it. She waited for confirmation the Can Opener had done it’s work. “Second Platoon reporting they have the Mine Control room!’

“Very good. As soon as the second wave arrives, we are relocating there” Bjornsdotter said. She waited until the incoming Platoon Commander arrived and gave him his orders.

“Get to the elevators, as soon as power is restored start clearing the levels. The Gorn down there will know we have taken this complex, priority is to protect the colonists from any retaliation. The Gorn get one chance to surrender, if not, take them out. Once we finish up here, then I will send you reinforcements. Questions?”

There were none, the Lieutenant doubled his Marines down the tunnel, eager to get into the fight.

[Mine Control Room

The Mine Control room was one level up, when they arrived Bjornsdotter found the corridor outside littered with the remains of what had once been a Gorn Phalanx unit. The Can Opener had made short work of it. In fact the discharge had taken out the end of the corridor, several Marines were clustered around the ragged hole, firing their weapons. She recognized one of her Scout Sniper Teams.

Bjornsdotter approached. “Corporal Watson, what we got?”

“Cap’t” The Corporal greeted her “That’s the spaceport down there” Nodding his head towards the hole. “Got a few lizards trying to fire up one of those ore lifters. Jenson is keeping their heads down until we can get down and clear it”

Bjornsdotter peered in cautiously, the hole opened up on to the underground space port, maybe twenty feet above was the underside of the massive doors that closed it off from the arctic wilderness. About five stories below it opened out to a huge landing pad, most of the pad was just a mass of darkness, except for the illumination from a fire on one side. She could just make out several of the large orbital bulk ore lifters and two of the Gorn Raider craft parked there, one of the Gorn craft was ablaze, the source of the fire light.

There was movement near one of the lifters, Jenson leaned in and fired her Sniper’s Phaser rifle, a Gorn figure sprawled on the pad. A couple of Disrupter shots came back and the Marines all leaned back out of the way.

“Keep them pinned down and away from the ships.” Bjornsdotter said “They can’t get the doors open but I don’t want them trying to fly one of those lifters around in there.”

She turned to her Sergeant “Tell First Platoon to find a way down there, clear the Gorn off that pad and secure those craft”

While he did that, she went into the Control Room. Like the rest of the building it was lit only with red emergency lights. Most of the control panels were dark too, although a couple seemed to be powered. There did not seem to be too much damage, thankfully they should be able to get the place operational again quickly.

The rest of Third Platoon were clearing up and had a group of Gorn prisoners over against one wall. There were six of them, several had injuries, they looked angry and hostile, except for one shorter one, wearing a fancy coat, who was loitering at the back and appeared to be trying to keep out of sight.

On another wall three Marine injured were being treated but beside them there were four Marine bodies covered with a poncho. Bjornsdotter scowled, she detested losing people, it was such a tragic waste of life but in close quarter’s battle against the Gorn it was inevitable.

“Good job Lieutenant on taking the place, but who did we lose?” She asked the Platoon leader, listening and picturing the faces as she was told the names. “And this bunch” She jutted her chin towards the Gorn prisoners.

“Three of them are Phalanx;” He explained “Two are technicians as best I can gather but the short fat one, I think he’s the commander, the Talon”

“Really?” Bjornsdotter “I thought they were all Alpha Types… That one doesn’t fit the usual profile.”

“We found him in the back office, trying to hide” The Lieutenant went on with a grin “He claims he’s just a clerk but that’s not a clerk’s coat and the rest were very differential to him when we dragged him out here. The three Phalanx were getting ready to go again, hissing and snapping, but he said something to them and they quietened down right away. I’m sure he’s the Talon”

“Could be” Bjornsdotter agreed, even if he did not look the part the short, Gorn obviously had some kind of status. “Get the rest out of here, take them up by the entrance where it’s colder, that will slow them down. I’ll talk with him.”

The prisoner’s were separated and escorted out of the Control Room. Bjornsdotter had the short one brought to her. It looked nervous and wary.

“What is your name?” She asked into a translation device provided by her Sergeant which gave off a series of unintelligible Gornish. “And rank?”

The Gorn shrugged pretending not to understand the question.

To Be Continued...