RM Vol 4: War – Chapter 50: Case Yellow (Day 13 – They’re obsoleted)

    When thinking about an amphibious invasion, one imagines a bitter and grueling march to advance past the hostile beachhead. It''s there that heroes and slaughterers both rise to the occasion, all vying for the control of a tourist attraction.@@@@

    Normally, the attacking side will have to pay the price in blood, especially in an era where nearly all battles are fought in visual range. Investing in time, money, and lives, the attacker relies on sheer firepower and number to win the day. Then there''s the defending team, a party that has all the defensive advantage that the scenario has to offer: the high ground, emplacements, familiarity with the terrains... This combination, in theory, will bolster the quality of the defensive unit by at least a factor of three. Barring no extra variables, a defender can kill three attackers before being made a no-factor. Mano-el-mano, the attacking side is expected to have the corpses of their soldiers buried beneath the red sand or floating on the murky, foamy waves. To achieve victory, the attacker must either exhaust the enemy through sheer attrition, which is a painful way to go about an amphibious invasion, or level the playing field. The latter, in particular, can be achieved by means of planning or bringing up force multipliers. Both requirements are easily fulfilled by the Belkan military in their first-ever attempt at shore invasion. It''s something that the Allied forces in Dunkirk learned about the hard way.

    After the Belkan Marine Corps established a buffer zone to deploy the rest of their force, Army Group B under General Belladonna moved into heavy pressure Dunkirk''s front. The maneuver of the wolfkin General forces Lord Gort to dedicate most of his remaining units to stem the iron tide, leaving Admiral Addison and his paled-face survivors to fend for themselves. Now relocated beyond the scorching buffer zone that the Belkan Marines created, Addison and the remnants of his makeshift force can only watch in utter helplessness as the Belkans seize and fortify their beachhead into a nigh impenetrable fortress by the sea.

    Ospreys fly in and out of the beach, dropping fortification walls and construction materials for the Marine Pioneers to use. Using the abandoned or seized Erusean trenches and fighting positions as a basis, the Pioneers erected new defensive lines to protect the Marines'' force deployment. Bullet-resistant walls are set up for the Marines to take cover behind and engage the enemy through the built-in firing ports. Large steel bastions are also deployed in the key avenues leading into Dunkirk''s proper. The bastions are tall and tailored especially for Belkan AFVs to hide behind, thus only exposing their turrets against hostile return fire. The semi-hull down allows the Marines'' Pumas to provide withering hail of covering fire while the rest of the invasion force is funneled onto the beach until they reach critical mass.

    Other than sporadic small-arms fire, Addison''s unit can do little else. Their attempt at setting up 2-pounder guns and mortar tubes are either met with a magical blitz from above or a Belkan high-explosive ordinance being delivered with pinpoint accuracy. In an effort to slow down the inevitable, Addison orders his men to maintain an aerial lookout for Belkan flyers, the Witches. Yet the naked eye and Lee-Enfields can only do so much in this abysmal Fog of War. What''s left of the machine gun unit is indispensable in their lackluster effort to suppress the Belkan beachhead, so Addison can''t order them to light up the sky in anti-air action. As a result, intercepting their aerial harassers has proven itself to be nigh impossible, especially when they''re flying with fully armored suits and are somehow still able to turn themselves invisible on top of whatever voodoo they can conjure...

    First, the Belkan Marines send a detachment to secure the stranded Erusean destroyer on the beach. Though it looks to be abandoned like other Erusean positions, the beached warship still retains some of its weapons, making it a hazard to further military operations. To clear that vessel out, the Marines call in a pair of Skyraiders to rake the deck of the destroyers with multiple autocannon strafes. While not enough to cause any major damage, the attack runs are good to ensure the suppression or elimination of any hidden enemy garrison aboard the destroyer. Afterward, Belkan Marines start boarding the stranded warship using rappelling lines. They then clear and disable the weapon systems of the destroyer, just in case.

    Setting out simultaneously with the boarding party are multiple Marine mechanized spearheads. Their targets? To locate and dismantle enemy command centers. Due to the Ravens and the Sea Witches severing the Allied forces'' chain of command, the defenders at Dunkirk have fractured into smaller, yet dense pockets of resistance. The Marines will be a crucial instrument in the pacification of Dunkirk as they can hit the weakly defended rear of these straggler groups. To aid in their effort, low-flying Ospreys patrol over the Marines'' spearheads. Using a combination of door guns, autocannons, rockets, and missiles, the Ospreys prevent unsavory elements from wandering too close to the Marines or destroying any well-hidden ambush site. Coming across anything too well-protected and the Marines feeling lazy, which they don''t, a few Ospreys are also carrying thermobaric missiles. Call one of them down and the Marines can kick back and see how an apartment block collapses. With so much firepower on the go, the Marines progress at a blistering pace. This speed is further bolstered by their merging with two Raven teams prowling the battlefield. Thanks to the supersoldier teams, breaching buildings has never been made easier. In no time, one of the Marines'' spearheads has reached danger close to Addison''s command post.

    Feeling the increasingly loud wartime commotions above, Addison ultimately sighs. "This is it, lads. I think we''ve bought enough time for Gort as is... Past my words, those who don''t want to fight anymore are to pass on their munitions to those who will. It''s time to wave the white flag over this sector and make our way to the humanitarian corridor. We already did more than what our Kingdom could ever ask of us..."

    "This bloody war... No, this butcher fest, shouldn''t have happened when the aftermath of the last one is still fresh in the memory."