Operation Tears of the Cuban News Network #3

All,

It's now 0930 on 29 July 1990, and Captain Stelosavo's TF23 is on the run in Nigeria.  They jumped into the country three days ago to save a Cuban Reporter and Cameraman at risk due to a military coup that killed the president and is cleansing the countryside of his supporters.  The Cuban commandos quickly secured the Reporter and Cameraman, but when their extraction helicopter was shot down they found themselves attempting to escape on foot to the border with South Leon with a slew of local villagers.  Yesterday they heard gunfire and made a quick side-trip to end a government massacre of more innocent country-folk, but the local government commander was able to get a radio call out for reinforcements, which no doubt was received by the enemy units pursuing the Cubans and their 'package.'  The Cuban operators pushed the refugees relentlessly, marching them through the night in an attempt to outpace their pursuers, and though haggard ,the villagers were doing a good job of moving quickly and quiet to the border extraction point.

Everything was going well until about 0930, when Tracker, walking point, called the column to a halt...

Overview, north is up.  The Cuban/refugee column is on the road in the south (bottom center left), having just exited an abandoned village, moving east towards a bridge crossing a nearby river.  They are less than a kilometer from the border crossing, which is up the hill (you can't see from this photo, but everything to the right of the river is a pretty substantial slope uphill) and a bit further east.  For you guys that have seen the movie, I'm hoping this is looking pretty familiar.

Looking southwest to east at the Cuban/refugee column, which is moving east, hoping to cross the bridge (center top right) and get up that hill, then off the table to safety.

The point element (top right) nears the bridge...

On point we've got Tracker, Rocky, and Zuma...

Ryder is chilling with the Reporter and Cameraman.

Aarby, Marshall, and Rubble are off the trail, flanking to the north.

While Chase, Skye, and Everest bring up tail-end Charlie.  Suddenly, word gets passed back to halt and post security, Tracker's got something troublesome.  Tracker comes on the net and points everyone north...

They take a look: a big, open, grassy field, with dense treeline on the other side.  But something is definitely out there...

Ryder comes on: "skirmish left," and the team moves as one.  Tense moments pass...

Ehh???

"All callsigns, stand easy, just a goat."

The goat scurries through the formation, as the operators take a breath and begin to move back to the refugees...

"Contact!!!"  Out of the treeline, rockets sally forth, streaming in towards the Cuban/refugee column...

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

The refugees are struck, with numerous casualties...

The Reporter and the Cameraman are down, too!

Ryder calls out: "Near ambush front, go!"  And with that, the Cuban SOF team, already in skirmish line, goes cyclic and closes with the enemy.

On the Cuban left, Team 3 moves up (center left, from bottom center, with Team 2 at far right), firing as they go.  Skye misses, Chase drops a bad guy (in cover, no less, to left, with another bad guy team at top center, and one more off camera at top right), and Everest has another @#$%ing jam!!!  That's like the fifteenth malfunction he's had on this op!

The enemy team (bottom left) reacts: the team leader rallies his men and gets them to return fire.  Two miss, one empties his magazine and needs to reload, but one hits Chase (right) in the left forearm (the second time he's been hit in the left arm on this op!).

Team 2 moves up in the center (right, with Team 3 at bottom left), closing in on the enemy team at top center and squeezing off controlled bursts.  Rubble manages to pin one with his M-60 fire, but Aarby runs out of ammo and Marshall's fire is ineffective.

And then Team 1 moves up on the right, firing every time their left foot hits the ground.  Zuma misses, but Tracker pins one and Rocky kills the team leader (top right)!

Things are getting hot for the enemy's center team (bottom left, with the right-hand team at right, and the left-hand team off camera to left, and one of their soldiers runs for the hills (top right).

The rest of the enemy team opens fire on Team 2, but they don't manage to hit anyone.  This is it, it doesn't get any more real than this: both sides know exactly where the other side is, they're at point blank range, and now they'll just exchange blows until one can't anymore.

Ryder moves up between Team 1 and Team 2, firing at the enemy's right-hand team...

But he (top center) misses, and the enemy team stands firm and returns fire on him and Team 1 (top left, with Team 2 at top center right).  Two enemy soldiers miss, one's AK runs dry...

But one of them, firing full automatic, manages to hit Rocky (bottom left, with Tracker and Zuma to his right) in both legs, knocking him down and putting him out of the fight!!!

*See, this is what I was talking about in the last fight.  You check to see if it's a hit, then you check to see where he got hit and how severe it is.  This was bound to happen...

In the center, Ryder (far right) leads Team 2 forward, with he, Rubble, and Marshall firing as Aarby (purple bead) reloads.

Rubble and Marshall (top center) miss, but Ryder hits a bad guy in the arm and the weight of fire is enough to pin the entire enemy team.  The enemy's left-hand team (bottom left) then fires on Team 3 (far right, sorta hanging back, apparently): one man reloads, one runs out of ammo, and the other two miss.

Ryder leads Team 2 forward: "Frag out!!!"

*I tried, but just couldn't find photos of the point in the film where the guys tossed frags into the enemy position, and I don't know how to do screen captures from video...

Three frags (blue beads) land in the enemy position.

The good guys get their own WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

And it's devastating: three men go down and the last one in the center runs off!

While Rubble turns his M-60 on the government's left-hand team, hitting one solder in the chest and putting him out of the fight, and hitting their leader in the left leg.

Ryder and the rest of the team dashes right (you can see the debris from the right-hand grenade explosion at bottom left) and close assaults the right-hand enemy team.

Aarby hits a dude in the chest, dropping him, while Ryder hits one in the head, ending his day, while Marshall pins a guy.  The bad guys on the right are under serious pressure: the white bead means they are pinned (leader is out), the yellow bead means a guy is wounded, the purple bead means a guy is out of ammo, the black bead means a guy is stunned (I say 'pinned'), and the red beads are morale checks that must be made.

*That was incredible: what just happened was Team 2 and Ryder had the same activation dice, and then their card came out, the Elite card came out, and then their other card came out, so they got three straight actions!  That's gotta happen about once every millennium.

On the left, Team 3 gets Chase's arm wound taken care of and gets back in the fight.

Chase (bottom left) hangs back for a moment, while Everest and Skye assault through: Chase pins a guy, Everest reloads on the move (I let Elite troops do that), and Skye hits the wounded team leader again, knocking him out of the fight.

*And then their card comes out again, back to back!  This fight is a lot easier than it could have been because I've been lucky as hell!

Team 3 assaults through, but it's not great.  Chase comes up (bottom left), but he runs out of ammo, as does Everest (center), though Skye manages to pop a guy in the head.

On the right, Ryder and Team 2 (top left) look on as one bad guy is pinned (center left) while his two buddies high-tail it out of there (bottom right)…

Ryder goes in to finish off the last bad guy on the right (center right)…

No sweat.

He then falls back (bottom center, from top right) to get back in control of the fight.

While Skye is doing the same thing on the left.

Skye calls out: "Clear left!"  Ryder responds: "Clear right, everyone rally back at the column!"

The Cuban operators begin falling back south from the treeline…

Stopping for Rocky, whom Tracker and Zuma were patching up.  Ryder: "How is he?"

Rocky: "Don't talk like I'm dead, Capt'n I'm still here."  "Well, how are ya?"  "I'm not dead, though I'm not quite as mobile as I used to be.  Okay, that's a bit of an understatement; I can't walk, so please don't leave me here."

Ryder: "You're such a whiny bitch."

Ryder scoops his buddy up.

And they all move back to the column...

Ryder carries Rocky onto the road...

Where he unceremoniously dumps Rocky!  "Dammit, I forgot to check on the hot reporter!!!  Hey, reporter lady, are you okay?"  

"Yes, thank you Captain, I am alright.  You are amazing, you are a hero of the scope and caliber never-before seen."  Ryder: "Indeed, Ma'am, but don't think I don't appreciate you noticing."

Ryder: "Anyway, we need to get moving, let's go, get across the river, up the hill, to the border crossing, we just gotta make it to the border crossing!  Me and my boys will cover you, so hurry up!"

Ryder: "And you, that's enough, time to cowboy the @#$% up!!!"  The Reporter: "Eh?  What are you talking about, I love you!"  "I know, I just always wanted to say that."

*Man, I've really gone too far, haven't I?

The "Package" and the refugees move across the bridge.

Up the hill.

And off the map, for our purposes having made it to the border crossing safely, but in game terms, the Cuban SOF still needs to cover their withdrawal as the government soldiers could quickly run them down if unopposed.

If you weren't looking, Ryder also had the refugees carry Rocky with them.

While Ryder has his men strung out on line, oriented to the northwest (top left), looking to let the bad guys get close, let rip with a ferocious volley to hurt'em and shock'em, then break contact to the west, cross the river, get up the hill, and cross the border to safety.

At far left is Team 3, consisting of Rubble, Skye, and Chase.  In the center is Team 2, with Ryder, Everest, and Aarby.  And at right is Team 1, with Zuma, Marshall, and Tracker.  And while they've been falling back, taking care of their wounded, getting the refugees out of there, and re-setting their defense, oriented to the northwest...

The bad guy commander was watching, and maneuvering his men into position...

"Fire!!!"  Again the enemy initiated contact with a salvo of three RPGs, and again the Cubans were surprised.  While they were busy with other things, the enemy infiltrated behind them!

The rockets slam into the earth, jarring the SOF operators out of their complacency!  And from there, all hell broke loose!

V/R,
Jack