"The Corp asked me to double check that you had a medical kit and all the right stuff. Show it to me," Corporal Janet Watson said to Zyv.
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A couple Raiders, shorter than Sawyer's Hostile, approached. "You are Aubrey Sawyer?" one of them, male, asked Sawyer.
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The input from the others in his team wasn't asked for, but it wasn't completely unwelcome either to Henry. To some they would've been speaking out of turn and lacked discipline - but their contributions were worth mulling over. Henry and Lisa did have mortars between them that could punch a hole in a Ravager - but could risk bringing down an even bigger assault. Sawyer's heavy armament meant that he could take on a Ravager embedded in one of the squads. Claire's Kegbuster wasn't to be sneezed at either.
However, the problem with all of these heavier armaments was mobility - the one advantage that could be had over a Ravager. If nothing else, Henry was sitting on top of a team of walking, talking and trustworthy ordnance bunkers. Henry trusted them to know their abilities and armaments, and they trusted Henry to lead the way and fight alongside them. However, this same mutual trust didn't seem to be present between Henry and a couple of the men before him.
"Your men are stating the obvious, Corporal," Sergeant Hardman observed, "And are they usually so eager to interrupt their squad leaders?"
The other 4th Fleet squad leaders, the ones who had been around when Lisa had made her outburst in front of Chief Santiago and Admiral Valken, held their tongues. They wanted to see how the newest member of the Squad Leader's Club responded. The ones who had not, like Motoyama and Toby, knew better than to interrupt this proceeding. It was a test, designed to see how much control the NCO had over his subordinates. A lack of control was just as dangerous as enemy fire. Nepleslian Marines may be gung-ho to the extreme but they weren't usually idiots.
Before Henry answered that question, he looked behind him and held up a palm to indicate for them to stop before pointing them away. "Simmons, Aubrey, Winters, stand down and fall in. Enthusiasm appreciated, but not needed right now. Save it for shore leave." He then turned back around to the squad leaders assembled. "They still treat me as a fellow marine before they do an non-commissioned officer - but that is not our current concern." He leaned in to take a closer look at the map made in the dirt, kneeling down and examining the relative positions of everything and re-sketching them in an overlay of the known map upon his HUD.
He ruminated briefly upon what was there. A ridge line, a depot further down away from it, and two ravagers that stuck out like sore thumbnails. Two pronged assault was feasible but risked drawing greater fire from one of the Ravagers while a three-pronger was also possible as the expense of being harder to manage. His thought process meant that his pointer finger was hovering over the dirt - appearing indecisive until he opened his mouth.
"We'll split onto Squads Une, Deux and Troix." Henry noted as he made three dimples along the ridge. "Une will move ahead towards one Ravager and attempt to draw them closer towards the ridge line, where Deux, armed with the heavier ordnance can properly barrage the Ravager with the aid of the Gunships - without risking damage to the facility and drawing the attention of the horde." He drew a line from Squad Une and drew it towards the first Ravager, then double backed, and drew an arrow from Squad Deux at the projected path of the Ravager to indicate fire.
"Squad Troix then disengages from Deux and joins Une to attack the remaining Ravager. Once Squad Deux is finished with the first Ravager, they swap weapons and go for the facility under the cover of the Gunships." And that was Henry's honest opinion of how they should proceed with taking the facility - but it wasn't the law, it was just a theory at this point and open to more. "Any further input from you, gentlemen?" His tone was sincere in asking for further recommendations from the others.
"If all our squads were as diverse as yours, it would be sound. As it is however... It doesn't take advantage of our assets. I've reviewed Sergeant Hardman's Hammers, their capabilities and combat history," Corporal Holmes started to say.
"Find anything interesting?" the ID-SOL asked.
The ex-mercenary ignored the ID-SOL's remark in a calculated attempt to remain on task. "They are a pure assault group. While Sergeant Hardman may think the decisive force of his squad is diminished with the recent addition of Corporal Suzuki's team, they are actually our most potent shock troops."
Holmes pointed to the other Hammers, 2 Aggressors and 3 Raiders, arguing and pointing fingers at each other. They weren't armed with AOPs, AMPs or anything else one normally expected to find on a fire support unit. The Aggressors touted the large Kegbuster launchers while the Raiders all carried AS4GS. "While your Marine plans to use the Kegbuster as a support weapon, Morris, Sergeant Hardman's team use them up close. This makes them an ideal assault unit."
"The moment we attack is when any assault has the greatest chance of doing damage. If we can get the Hammers and Avengers in, amongst the NMX armor and troops, right after the initial bombing run, we can then play to our advantages. Unit One can do exactly as you outline. It should be composed of the Lancers and my own Irregulars. Unit Two will be the Minutemen and Dragoons. These two groups will be responsible for distracting the Ravagers long enough for Hardman and Motoyama to get in amongst them and cause chaos."
Holmes paused but was interrupted by Sergeant Hardman, who finished the plan so that Holmes would shut up and they could attack sometime today.
"We're not stopping. We blast in one end, we blast out the other, turn around and do it again. There is no stopping for a melee, no loss of momentum. Morris, Holmes, once Motoyama and I finish our first run, you two need to dive in and keep up the confusion. The tanks and gunships will be the real fire support.
"We cannot outgun a Ravager but we can get under their guns and use their own forces to minimise our own casualties. Good idea, Morris, just lacking in the details. Remember, do not stop. Plow through them from end to end, turn around and smash through them again. When we stop, we lose the initiative. Speed is the key to this assault. Ten minutes to get into position. I read the current local time as 0250. Everyone synchronize on that. It'll be getting dark by the time we launch our assault. Six hour day and everything."
Hardman looked around for the acknowledgments.
"Understood, Sergeant." Henry replied curtly with a nod and a smile. It seemed as though they had a plan. He turned to the tanks that he'd be riding alongside and hoped that Toby had gotten wind of the planning. "Corporal Toby, what say you?"
Henry couldn't see the smile on the tanker's face but his jovial attitude came right across in the positive response. "Pleasure to work with you guys. Might be quieter than listening to Hardman's boys and girls bickering all the time," Toby laughed over the radio from his K4. The five K4 tanks from the Dragoons dropped their ramps for the Marines.
"Whenever your squad is ready, buddy!"
It was now Henry's job to relay what'd been set in stone by the tacticians assembled to his individual squad, just as the others were.
"Minutemen, listen up!" He opened on his command line to them. "We have ten - no, nine minutes-" It was now 0251 hours by Hardman's watch. "-to get into position to take this facility. The Lancers and Minutemen will be the second ones in after the Hammers and Avengers do a run of the facility. Our main job is to take down the Ravager that's left in their wake, and to take pressure off of the Third Marines." By destroying their reinforcements as they were. "We're going to be collaborating with the Dragoons, and we cannot stay still. I repeat - we cannot. Stay. Still."
"Now pile in!" Henry ordered as he directed towards Toby's K4 tanks. He was the first to move towards the tanks. "Once we're in position, we dismount, and fly alongside the tanks. Are my orders clear, Minutemen? Can I get a Hooah?" This time he did the traditional marine battlecry a little closer to its roots.
