Master of Warfare

Suceava

Exactly one hour later they appeared in the area she had selected, directly between the two towers that they would be using as their nests. By her count they had 10 hours before the attack arrived, but when she looked at the clock it had advanced to 30 minutes before the battle. They could hear the shots of powerful tank guns ringing in the distance, and explosions when one of them was destroyed as her men looked around surprised at what they were seeing.

The last of the tanks on their side had just been destroyed, and the enemy was advancing on their location. They would be here in exactly 30 minutes, as they were just two miles away from the town. Just as they feared all hope was lost as the infantry began following the 5 tanks, one last burst of artillery fire using anti tank rounds began falling, destroying all 5 tank leading the march against them.

"Men, we will not have reinforcements beyond what is here. I know you are accustomed to following orders, but you are far more aware of your own limitations than I am. Conserve your ammunition as much as possible, but use your best judgement when the best time to use it is.

"Mortar teams, anti personnel rounds should be your primary focus, as it seems we no longer have any armor to concern ourselves with. Sergeant Meyers, select one man to give a radio too, and get me comms in the command center of the local troops that we are reinforcing.

"Defense teams, we know the location theybare coming from, set your squads accordingly, and wait until they are as close as possible before you open fire. The Sniper teams will be taking as many as we can out from range, targeting the officers as much as we can. Good luck ladies and gentlemen, hopefully we will see eachother on the other side." Amy ordered them as the two teams split off to their objectives while single man ran to the command tent of the local battalion to follow his own orders.

The climb up the tower stairs was more difficult than she thought it would be, and as soon as she got set into position the enemy troops were well within the range of her rifle as the mortar teams let loose with their first salvo of rounds.

As she looked at the approaching army she found her first target in the far back, just coming into range of her rifle as she adjusted quickly as the mortar rounds hit. The explosions going off overhead began the panic of the front line troops, and the sudden loss of the Colonel pushing them forward and no longer issuong commands began the hesitation of the officers that she and the other sniper were now picking off as targets of opportunity when she heard the Corporal who was sent to the command tent over the radio.

"Report Corporal." she ordered without pausing in her sequence as she went through her first 30 round clip in under a minute.

"Colonel Pendergast says everyone but the sniper teams is ordered to report to the front. He says he is taking command of the unit. Over." Corporal Romero said nervously.

"We are not in his chain of command to have that authority, and we will not be sacrificing our strategic advantage here in the back. His lines are not secure, and the enemy troops are 900 yards away from his location. If he falls back to Suceava now, we can prevent a bloodbath with the artillery support. If he refuses you are ordered to fall back without him, and we will honor his sacrifice. Keep the line open so I can hear you tell him that and his reply. Over."

Corporal Romero did exactly as she asked and said almost word for word what she had told him and was surprised when the Colonel ordered him to hand over the radio.

"What do you mean you are not in my chain of command? I report directly to General Howard, commander of the western front." Colonel Pendergast demanded.

"I report to General Simmons of Central Command and was dispatched to secure Suceava from being overrun. As such you have no ability to issue orders to me, nor must I follow them. The enemy is 800 yards from your position, and we are 300 yards behind your front lines. Your troops are in the field of artillery fire, and any calls of support will see them perish along with the enemy." she said as she kept firing glad she could multitask as her radio was voice activated.

"Who is doing all that shooting?" Pendergast asked curious.

"I am. Now, you have about 3 minutes before the enemy troops reach your front lines, and I begin calling in artillery strikes." she said as she heard the mortars exploding in the distance from his end of the radio. "Fall back to Suceava and dig in the best you can. With any luck we will repel this attack, and we can argue about who was in the right later. Either way, I will be following my orders to ensure this town does not fall, and we halt the Russian advance here." she said terminating the connection as she reloaded yet again.

For what felt like 4 hours she lay in that same spot pulling the trigger as fast as she could line up her sights and squeeze the trigger. She was amazed to learn her spotter while carrying some ammo for his own gun, figured it would he more expedient to carry extra rounds for her sniper rifle, as he knew as soon as she was out of rounds for it they would be going to the ground to take on the enemy there.

They had just given up hope of taking out the commanders of this advance when the infantry troops at the front suddenly turned around 250 yards away from the new front line and began running the way they had come. Ot was when Colonel Pendergast had ordered his men to take aimed shots, and over a thousand men popped up and began shooting along with the sniper rifles and mortar teams that had been decimating their numbers all morning. They knew where the snipers were, and had expected resistance at the base of the towers as their men advanced. But Pendergast had set his lines just outside of the outer buildings of the village in the softer soil, right behind a stone fence that was over a foot thick. With it they would be able to hold them there for many more hours, and as the men ran away as fast as they could, tjen2 snipers and mortar teams kept firing into them as they lay waste to the entire Advance Army that Russia had been using.

Amy finally pulled the trigger and heard her rifle once again signal the clip was empty when her spotter looked at her and sighed. "All out, should we go and join the defense teams?" he asked making her laugh.

"Let's pack up before we go down. I don't want to have to climb back up here to retrieve our equipment." she replied as she stood up and stretched moving her stiff limbs now that the threat was over. She had been ignoring her system the entire time of the battle, and smiled as she realized game time moved nearly 3 times as fast in mission, as it did in the secure areas. What had been nearly 5 hours in here, was barely over an hour and a half, which meant she still had time to go to the launch event that would begin in half an hour.

Packing up didn't take long as Sergeant Williams had made sure as she emptied clips he put them in their proper places. She broke down her rifle and stored it in its case before he picked it up and the two men followed her down the stairs to a waiting Colonel Pendergast who was amazed at how effective she had been with her teams.

"Are you the one I have to thank?" he asked as she came out of the tower stairwell.

"For what?" she asked as he signaled to two other men who ran up the stairs carrying gear that looked much like what she was carrying.

"Pulling my head out of my ass, and telling me to clear back or get my ass shot up." he said as she smiled.

"I don't recall saying it quite like that sir, but yes. I am the Commanding Officer of your reinforcements." Amy said. "Lt. Snips, Experimental Deployment Team." she finished shaking his hand as he nodded.

"I was told you might be arriving, and that despite my rank I should listen to you. Heard you were responsible for over 3,000 kills in Vernheim." he said referring to their designation of the battle in no mans land.

"Yes sir, and with just my sniper rifle today I have added probably another 1400 to that total. My mortar teams and the artillery also claimed alot of men, as only about 300 retreated when your men popped up and opened fire. It was perfect timing too, as I just ran out of ammunition, and was about to head down here anyway." she answered as he smiled.

"I believe it, that rifle of yours barely stopped for nearly 5 hours of battle. My men appreciate every second of cover you gave them, as it allowed us to secure our position far more than I expected." Pendergast said as she realized all of her men had been stood down and were waiting for her to depart now.

"Colonel, it was my pleasure to help in any way I could. However my team is likely needed elsewhere already, as we both know that the fronts are very tricky things." she said as he nodded.

"Indeed Lieutenant, and I hope that all your future missions are as successful as this one was. It has been a long time since our most serious injury during a battle was a stubbed toe, but somehow with your help we managed it today. My report will clearly show that, and I will also be recommending you for medals and promotion." He said as her team deployed the portal that would take them back to London.

"Thank you sir, my report will do the same for you and your men, as your help couldn't have been more perfectly timed." she said saluting him before she stepped through.