[GZG] RE: [GZG Fiction] Liberating San Juan

Liberating San Juan

New Guardian Times, Outskirts of San Juan, September 13th, 2196.

Of the three prongs of the invasion of the Tokalau Isthmus, the Convoy leaving
for the San Juan landing was probably the largest assembly of marines, ground
troops, hopper forces, airman and wet navy personnel in the theatre. The
Eurasians and local Martian commanders in charge of this force hoped it would
be a "back breaker"; clinching the beginning of the end for the alien
invaders. Most of the Convoy left from Asiones, but about 20% also came down
from the tiny port of Skala. Unlike the other two invasion forces, where intel
had gone in ahead of the invasion and then been extracted to act as guides for
the main force, amphibious
gm-commandoes with full submarine and low temperature tolerance were
sent ahead to find the best beaches to land on. They found a good access
beach, wide, flat and protected from waves, approximately three kilometres
northwest of the city.

The landing was set for September 5th 2196. The morning of the invasion was
quiet. The convoy was spotted by Krav grav tanks on patrol off the coast in
the Pyrrhae Sea, but the VR fighters covering the fleet, as well as the Navy
gunfire, eventually took care of that threat.

I had been assigned a berth on the Kalinin with the 4th Division's second
regiment, rifles and mortars.We landed on the main beach. The topography was
good, but as with most coastal strips in this part of the sector there was not
much cover. Surprisingly given the skirmish with the Kravs tanks earlier and
the fact we were hardly the first ashore, we managed to get going quickly as
we met no resistance.

It had all gone so smoothly that it made you jumpy. There was this unshakeable
feeling of insecurity and the looming dread of something being unnervingly,
dreadfully wrong. It simply could not have gone that easily. The horrific
slaughter expected on the beaches had not eventuated and that was unsettling.

By midday, only hours after the landing had begun, the lead units had taken
has much as had been hoped for after a full week or two of fighting. The plain
was so saturated with Eurasian troops it looked more like a staging area than
hostile territory that had only come under dedicated attack that morning. It
was all so wonderful, but so unexpected and to some degree illogical. Where
was the resistance? Why were the Krav hanging back? What did they have in
store? We have no illusion that is it, that it's all over. Far from it. If
anything with each passing hour the dread grows as we wait to see what will be
thrown against us.

As we move out onto the plain the scenery looks quite drab. There aren't many
trees above a few feet tall, though that is fairly typical of any open ground
on Mars. There are no fields only open dry and dusty naked earth. The few
buildings this far from town are pale gray storage sheds or old mining
openings. The later a danger as from a distance they are fairly
indistinguishable from their surrounds. Most importantly for our troops, as
expected, water is extremely scarce.

There are a few good sized hills, which can be seen along the far horizon near
San Juan itself. It appears that the bombardment by our navy and VR air
support has set what little grass grows up there alight. A steady plume of
smoke dusting the sky and making the skyline even rosier and more hazy than
normal. The odd burst of flame can be seen and it will probably present quite
a spectacle by night.

Our first objective was to drive forward as hard and quickly as possible and
to secure the open plain west of San Juan's main road south, as this was the
site of the main airfield and the approach to the spaceport. This meant
clearing a mine site, filled with open cut ditches, which each had to be
inspected for Krav troopers, snipers and traps. This took all the day and much
of the night, but we eventually made it to, and across, the body of the plain,
securing the airfield. Unfortunately, we were forced to blow the supports on
the bridge over the ravine to the spaceport, to prevent Kravs reinforcing the
force there from San Juan itself. We then paused to wait for further orders
regarding the next move against the spaceport. In contrast to the forces of
many other nations the Eurasian commanders were given little leeway to show
any initiative so attacks often progressed more slowly then I have observed
elsewhere.

When the Shao Xiao (Major) returned from then field HQ just after dawn he
brought back orders for us to secure the spaceport. The initial resistance was
so small that we made remarkable time, moving fast. In retrospect we moved too
fast, as when we did come upon the enemy it was so quick we ended up
immediately in melee. A brutal event at any time it
is particularly so against this enemy. The casualties to key personnel -
observers, officers and NCO's - were quite stiff. Even the mortar crews
were involved in the hand-to-hand, being too close to do the infantry
any good in any other way.

Having fought their way back out of this position things went better as we got
into a fire fight, the mortars finally coming into play. In the end it was the
mortars who won the day. The observers called in fire on
multiple sites around the space-ports main building and hangars
simultaneously, catching many of the Kravs before they could move to safer
ground. Then came five hours of heavy fighting, losing key personnel all the
while, as the Eurasian troops rooted out the last of the Krav troops at the
site. Ultimately a third of the concourse was levelled to finish off the Kravs
resistance.

While the lucky ones got to rest, using the ports cooling tanks for shower
water, a number of poor souls formed patrols and guarded against pockets of
Kravs we'd missed in the attack or new alien units that had come out from San
Juan. This went on for days, with every patrol coming back with somebody dead
or wounded, or with of word of a missing friend elsewhere down the line. In
one case an entire patrol failed to return and another patrol had to go out
and try to find them. It was an unhappy ending, the second patrol coming back
three men down themselves and with bad news regarding the fate of the missing
patrol.

By this time the losses had become quite serious and the unit was down to a
skeleton compliment. There was a good deal of dread that command would not
appreciate the severity of the situation and would give the unit some
impossible task. After we'd been settled into the remains of the spaceport for
four days orders came through to board the trucks that were coming and head
back toward the body of the city of San Juan. While the western attacks had
been rapid and we had successfully taken the
agri-district, airfield and spaceport the rest of the attack had stalled
badly. Bogging down on the city limits it had made no progress since the day
after the invasion began. There was a lot of protest from the regiment's
officers, as they knew how short and tired the unit was. The discontent was
quieted when the trucks finally rolled up, as the officers accompanying it
explained that the 27th Brigade had been slaughtered by the Kravs, leaving a
yawning gap that had to be filled, units being drawn from all points around
San Juan. The attack was tottering and it was vital that the effort go in now.

Two entire regiments were needed immediately, with more to follow. Rolling up
we took up positions in hasty trenches dug along the foundations of the cities
outermost dome wall. Companies from the 7th and 23rd regiments were already
there and we formed up to their left. Before we were even in place the Kravs
opened up with brutal ferocity. Mortars, gauss fire, grenades. A nightmare of
high pitch screaming shells and the pounding of torn Earth. All I could do was
keep my head down and help them dig in, excavating fox holes and rifle pits
out of the clinging mud forming out of the regolith and slushy rain that had
begun falling before breakfast. These nightmare conditions continued without
relief for three days, the mud making it impossible to bring fresh troops up
even if any existed.

One of the San ji shi guan (sergeants) pulled me aside and told me to
stow the hvid-camcorder and throw my energy into making sure nobody
drowned in the mud. At first I thought he was mad, until I saw the first
exhausted man slump face first in the mud and then struggle to free himself. I
pulled 35 men from the mud over the next 48 hours, watching for them becoming
as exhausting as pulling them out of the sucking mud. The fine red mud got
into and stuck to everything. Clinging to your kit, gloves, skin, goggles,
clogging the snout breathers. It got so bad you had to periodically take a
deep breath slip the snout off blow hard through the main gill exhausts,
splattering everyone in you vicinity, and then jam it back on before sucking
in great gulps of breath. Even such short times in the thin Martian atmosphere
made most people light headed and nauseous, making the whole situation worse
as they slipped into the mud and ended up all smothered and clogged again.

The ammo situation was dire as well. We were burning through it fast, but the
new supplies had to be carried up by hand; another exhausting
and seemingly never-ending job.

The Kravs were dug in deep in the buildings on the other side of the dome
wall. Some were firing through peepholes and others (snipers) from vantage
points high on the dome pylons. This made them hard to see let alone hit.
Unfortunately, with the two sides so close together it was
exceedingly hard to call for fire from the wet-navy ships or artillery,
which were still sitting on the airfield, as the fire had to fall so close to
our trenches. When they did fire it was as dangerous for us as the Kra'Vak.
The only time we were safely amongst the fire was when some Howitzer's rolled
in behind the tank and fired straight across over our heads. When I woke to
that site I about jumped out of my skin, which caused much hilarity amongst
the gunman crewing the closest piece. They informed me that they'd only been
at it for three hours already. I must have been tired!

The regiment was told it would be relieved soon, but the reserves ran into an
ambush and only four of the 173 strong compliment were fight capable
afterwards. At this point, I was informed that command had
decided they could no longer support a non-combatant with the unit. I
had made friends there and actually felt an awful tug at the prospect of
leaving. The men also had concerns about the implications of the decision, but
there was nothing to be done and I was moved back away from San Juan and
informed I could spend the next week with the hospital, but after that would
have to move onto the Navy or out of the Eurasian controlled theatre
altogether. When I protested I was given a line about them not being able to
guarantee my safety. Seems that not all fronts were going as well as hoped and
that the liberation of San Juan was in doubt.