[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.

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