It wasn't really known how the Avatar had gotten so far out of the containment zone but the Yu Jing forces had tracked it to a village in South Eastern Morocco. The fight had been fierce and there were more than a few Zanshi dead in the streets of the town. It was a Gualang sniper rifle that inflicted the fatal wound on the alien machine.
The Chinese state forces converged on the colossus they had been battling all afternoon and had brought to ground when there were explosions over head.
North American aircraft were streaking through the area engaging the few Yu Jing aircraft that were there supporting the operation.
The Yu Jing forces had just had time to look up at the battle raging above them when among the sounds in the air several shots range out on the ground and an explosion painted the side of a truck in the main square of the town with the brains of one of the Keisotsu Butai.
He collapsed in a heap as another round struck the lieutenant in the chest, bruising him but not wounding him badly. He retreated to cover.
Instantly the Hac Tao, Daofei and Gualang blended into their surroundings while the Zhanshi and the remaining Keisotsu Butai moved to cover.
The Ariadna forces were on the move. There was a large compound that overlooked the center of town and a force of them including a Moblot and three Kazaks made a move to get around it and flank the Yu Jing forces before enemy reinforcements could arrive.
The sniper who had brought down the Yu Jing soldiers along with another Kazak and a tank hunter continued to move north to try to get to the other side of the compound while a third force under the lieutenant followed up with the intention of either reinforcing either of the other two groups or making a rush up the center if the enemy forces got drawn away from the main street leading towards the square.
They needed to get their hands on that Avatar. Any piece of it would make a prize sample for their scientists to study.
The battle in the air continued with the technological superiority of the Yu Jing forces more than making up for their small numbers. Still the LZ was hot and it was contested airspace. With the two Arrigato now moving towards the combat zone, the lieutenant felt that combat jump troops should only be deployed if the drop was absolutely safe.
From the data they were getting from satellite it didn't look like the Ariadna force was much to contend with anyway.
He ordered the Gualong sniper to get into the compound he was taking cover behind and get to the roof.
The Hac Tao moved into the door way of that compound and covered the way down the street. His form was barely visible at all to the lieutenant as his TO camouflage left only a shimmering outline of where he was.
The Daofei raced past the compound to take up a position behind some freight boxes in the alley way between the compound and the general shop facing south.
The sniper made his way to the roof he was well camouflaged but he had been observed by the commander of the Ariadna forces. A quick order sent the team moving around the Southern flank of the compound back and they moved up along the wall of the compound and burst in at the door firing up at the Gualong. The red streak that flew up from his shoulder from the Moblot's bullet would have looked picturesque against the bright blue Moroccan sky if the sky hadn't been obscured by the battle going on overhead.
The team of four had left one member inside. Following the enemies movements on his HUD the Daofei was moving into the building of the compound as the Ariadna team burst in. His machine gun smashed through one of the windows, one of the few in town not already shattered from the previous fight that morning and opened up on the Ariadna troops in the courtyard.
Bullets stitched the Moblot, his armor absorbed most of the rounds but one careened off of his helmet and he went down. Whether he was just unconscious or if the bullet had done more damage was not apparent, he was just still.
All three of the Ariadna troops had returned fire to little effect, the wall and the armor of the Daofei had prevented him sustaining any injury and he mowed down the Kazak with the missile launcher next. In sheer desperation the last Kazak managed a shot that went right through the window and spun the Daofei around with the violence of its impact. The Daofei was sent to the ground, his armor damaged. The suit immediately started injections of pain killers and the soldier gathered his weapon.
He started firing out the window again, ignoring a shot from the Kazak that glanced off of his forearm.
The barking of the heavy machine gun drowned out both the scream of the Kazak and the sound the air taking a more direct route out of her lungs made as the bullets passed through them.
Finally the air was clear enough and having lost two soldiers already the Yu Jing Lt. called in his Tiger drop troops. They were to take the place of Daofei guarding the courtyard of the compound while his two power armor troops with thermo optic camouflage were going to go on the offensive.
Their landing was less than coordinated and only two of them were able to drop in.
They landed behind the compound to the south east.
That had distracted the pilots and now the Ariadna ships came back with a vengeance. They cleared the area and a paracommando dropped in. He unintentionally had dropped right into the middle of the town square. A shot rang out from the Keisutso butai behind him drawing the attention of the other Yu Jing troops in the area. The Hac Tao barely spared him a glance as he kept up his duel with Tank hunter at the end of the main street leading from the west.
The paracommando recovered his footing with a dextrous roll and came up against a truck, he determined to sell his life as dearly as possible and opened fire on a Zhanshi while the Keisutso Butai behind him added to the truck a coating of paracommando blood to cover up the brains already splattered on there.
The Zhanshi was thrown against the wall of the building he was standing next to and both men hit the ground at exactly the same time, the paracommando sliding down the side of the truck bleeding heavily from his severed vena cava.
The Daofei now made his way through the building, trading places with the Hac Tao whose combi rifle could not be expected to continue the duel with the AP HMG armed Tankhunter.
The two exchanged fire down the alley way until the superior ballistic skill of the Daofei battered the tankhunter to the ground.
Only a second after he had released the trigger the Daofei's head was shattered by a shot from a sniper rifle.
In the heated exchange of fire he had failed to hear two shots ring out that had killed a Zhanshi across the square that was guarding the northern most route to the square.
The sniper had moved up and now enfiladed the daofei. While the armor of the latter kept his head in one piece, that piece was irretrievably broken. The daofei fell into the building and the Yu Jing lt. now ordered the arriagato up at full speed to eliminate this threat.
The sped around the building to the north east of the compound and with revving engines opened fire on the sniper in the open. The Kazak behind him opened fire on them as they came out of cover and the sniper braced himself and fired too.
The fire of the Kazak had disrupted the aim of both arriagato and the sniper's shot had knocked one of them from his bike as he had cleared the house. The Kazak kept up the fire and knocked the other one from his bike. The two bikers lay in the open, their bikes crashing into the wall of the building in front of them.
The Lt was stunned, he had lost nearly half of his force in the last ten seconds. The Zhanshi in the building that the sniper and the Kazak had crept up the side now moved out the door in facing the plaza and used it as cover to shoot at the sniper if he should peer around the wall again.
The Lt. stood at the edge of the compound his rifle aimed at where the sniper might come out as well.
The Hac Tao laid down in the door way of the building, his combi rifle similarly aimed.
The Kazak backed up and moved around to the rear door of the building on the west side of the compound and went in. The startled expression on the face of the Zhanshi turned to one of pain as three bullets entered his body starting at the knee, then the hip and finally the left bicept. He had barely had time to turn around when the Kazak came out of the building and into the compound, the door of which he was using as cover.
The Lt. watched in horror as the man fell into the square, his blood spurting from the three wounds into the dust and sand on top of the cobblestones.
Another shot rang out that stopped the motion of one of the arriagato who was moving for cover.
This determined the Lt on his course of action and he ordered a retreat.
If the Ariadna forces wanted this Avatar so badly they could have it.
harvests scenario ideas from The Third World War.
