Nivka was right. She hated being right.
The next supply drop came in on time, and took the kid away. The supply drop came with mods for their gear, ammo, and little else. There were only a few NVG mods to go around, so they were distributed to the leadership of the 2 squads, same with ammo, and dug in for a long night.
It started an hour after dark. Nivka was sitting down taking a smoke and warm water, which helped with the cold weather, when a call came up from 6th squad. She quickly drank the rest of her water, and tossed the smoke, before drawing her shotgun.
No shots had been exchanged yet, so she carefully took a peak out into the darkened streets. The lighting was sporadic, having been damaged, and now lit only specific parts of the street.
As she watched, she saw something flicker in the light, ever so slightly. She paled slightly, and raised her shotgun. It was far away, 50 meters or so, but-
She shot a singular shot at roughly where she guessed it would be. In her night vision, she saw the glow of a blue energy shield, and a visible ripple.
"INVIS-"
That was all she got out before a pink needle flew over her head, followed by several more after she ducked, right where her head had been.
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"CONTACT, CONTACT! OPEN FIRE!" She bellowed over coms to both squads plus tank. The sound of gunfire started before she even finished, and she switched to platoon coms while preparing to take a shot.
"THIS IS SARGENT NIVKA, 5TH SQUAD! 5TH AND 6TH HAVE BEEN ENGAGED BY CLOAKED HOSTILES! REPEAT, WE HAVE BEEN ENGAGED BY-" She paused for a moment to take a shot at where some blue plasma was emerging. She shot again, then ducked. "INVISIBLE FORCES! HOW COPY PLATOON?"
"Afirm, report received. Status?"
Checking her HUD, she could see that everyone was still alive. Any more then that would take in depth looking which she didn't have time for.
"ALL ACCOUNTED FOR! WE ARE HO-" BOOM! The tank, who had hitherto been firing its coaxial decided to put its finger on the scale via a 90mm HE shell. The resultant shock wave making her squad duck.
"SITUATION STABILIZING. REPORT IN 5."
"Affirm. Platoon out."
She peeked out to see some shapes staggering around in the dust, so she emerged and fired 3 shots towards them before going to cover and reloading. The sound of their LMG started up again, and the next time she peeked, she saw one shape get filled with tracers before falling.
"FIRE A NADE INTO THAT SHIT!" She backed over squad coms, and an under barrel grenade launcher belched it's payload into the soup.
She turned to platoon coms and reported in again. "Situation stabilized. Beginning clean up." She said.
She switched coms and spoke now to the tank while getting ready for clean up. "Be prepared to walk the tank up, clean up time."
"Affirm. Ready and waiting."
She then commented Gerith to give orders. "Prep for clean up, your heading with the tank. Take 3, n' keep an eye out."
"Got it sarge. Moving now."
She and the rest of the squad got on the perimeter as the tank started slowly moving. The fireteam walked behind it, occasionally peeking then ducking back. In the meantime, she switched to Platoon for what felt like the 50th time today.
"5th squad reporting. Situation stable and cleared. No casualty's to be reported. Orders?"
"Same as before, hold position until civilians get out. Should be tomorrow at the earliest. Out."
She wanted to sigh, but held back. Evacuation should have happened days ago, and now they were stuck here.
The tank stopped well away from the corpses, and panned its turret to shine light across the area. Any intact bodys got some rounds placed in them, and when it was done, they pulled back faster.
No one was hurt overly much, but one trooper had his head wrung a bit, and the medic was checking him. All in all, they surely could have done worse, and she hoped it wouldn't get worse tomorrow.
