Death In The Holy Land: Pt. 3
Major Rashid listened in shock as an aide conveyed the situation to him. An unknown number of Israeli soldiers were attacking Border Post 11 with sniper fire and rifle launched grenades, at least one Lebanese soldier was dead already. Major Rashid's headquarters was barely two miles from the border post, if he put his soldiers in armored vehicles he could get them to the border post within five minutes. Still angered by the Israeli's audacious attack on his border post, he picked up an intercom microphone and began issuing orders, he needed to relieve the men at the border post quickly before the Israelis overran them. If that happened that would look very bad for Lebanon's military reputation.
Back on the hill, Kovak smiled grimly and surveyed the pinned down Lebanese units, it was time to call in back up, they needed to teach the Lebanese military a lesson that they would never forget. Kovak nudged Sergeant Levi, and pointed towards his handheld radio. Sergeant Levi nodded in understanding and put down his M16.
"Hello Captain, this is Vanguard Unit, calling for reinforcements before the Lebs send in more troops." A half mile away Captain Ben Gurion gave the order and the company began to move forwards.
Among them was a small fox, Corporal Abraham, bent under the weight of an Mk19 automatic grenade launcher. His teammate, Corporal Yassin, a silvery dog of undetermined breed chambered a round in his M16 and shifted the weight of five belts of 40mm grenades.
"I hear that the Vanguard unit is made up of Commandos." Said Corporal Abraham, just to break the silence. Yassin nodded and they jogged forwards, heading for the top of the hill, and Border Post 11.
Master Sergeant Ahmed was frightened. He could feel the glass in his face burning and every now and then an Israeli round buzzed over his head, making him duck back down again.
As he crouched down a sudden thought entered his head. The Israelis could be advancing down the hill at that very moment and he wouldn't even know it. He turned to his surviving men and beckoned for them to move towards the Border Post, there was an empty slit trench just a few yards away, and if they could dash across the fifteen feet of empty ground and gain the trench then they could begin to fire back at the Israelis, and Ahmed had a pretty good idea of where they were.
In the slit trench, just ten yards from Ahmed, Faheed gathered his mn and pointed up the trench to where an entrance to the guard shack was. Inside was an M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun, and a safe place from which they could fire at the Israelis.
"Come on, let's go." Said Faheed urgently, eager to get to shelter before another grenade came sailing towards him. The three furs scrambled towards the side entrance to the guard shack, Faheed allowed one of his men to enter, then stopped the other one. Giving him his AK74, Faheed posted the fur at the door of the guard shack to look for Israelis coming up the slit trench. The guard shack had a pretty good view of the surrounding landscape but the slit trench was it's one blind spot.
Hauling the M2 forwards towards its firing port, Faheed loaded a belt and racked back the bolt, the Israelis were going to be sorry they ever fired upon the border post.
Meanwhile two miles away, Major Rashid was supervising the loading of soldiers into armored vehicles, M113's that had probably been used in the American war in Vietnam. Each one could carry eleven soldiers, but Major Rashid was only loading ten into each one, the extra space was being used to carry mortars and extra boxes of ammunition. Major Rashid frowned as he boarded his own M113, he was going to give no quarter.
Ahead of them, the Major's armor detail, three T-90 tanks, pulled out of their lot and roared ahead of the twelve M113s. Major Rashid had paid out of his own pocket to make sure that the tanks had good, sloped armor to deflect anti tank rounds, and was satisfied that they would stop anything the Israelis cared to throw at him.
Two miles from the Major's rescue force, the first of the Israeli reinforcements had reached the top of the hill, and were beginning to descend along specially constructed pathways that were hidden from Lebanese eyes by carefully placed brush and fake boulders. The Israelis descended until they reached their rally point, about thirty yards to the left of Kovak and Sergeant Levi.
In the front line was Corporal Abraham and Corporal Yassin. Captain Ben Gurion, crouched in a fox hole, waved them forwards.
"Corporals, I want you to knock out any resistance in that guard shack, I'm sending a team down once you've done that." Corporal Yassin saluted, followed by Corporal Abraham a moment later.
"Yes sir." They said and began setting up the Mk19. The Mk19 was a beautiful piece of weaponry, it set up on a tripod and used a computer aiming system to pick its targets. But the thing Corporal Abraham liked the most about it was the airburst capability. If you locked onto a target with the Mk19 and flipped the fire indicator to AIRBURST then all you had to do was fire and once the grenade reached the target it would exploded in a hail of razor sharp metal shards.
Even thinking about it made Corporal Abraham smile, he had used the weapon in the 2006 Lebanon War, and loved the durability and sturdy design of the thing.
So he set it up quickly and waited as Corporal Yassin loaded a ten-grenade belt into the launcher. Flipping out the screen, Corporal Abraham focused on the main firing port that the guard shack had, inside he caught a quick flash of motion, there were enemies inside. Corporal Abraham locked onto the target, and flipped the indicator switch to AIRBURST. Then, smiling faintly, he slowly, smoothly squeezed the trigger, sending a single 40mm airburst grenade sailing towards the guard shack firing port in a long flat arc.
Faheed, caught something flicker past him, moving close enough to ruffle his fur, then there was a tremendous flash, and he knew no more.
The fur at the door of the guard shack went to his knees as the 40mm grenade blast made his ears ring and his fur stand straight up. Staggering up, he raced inside, Faheed was dead on the ground next to the toppled M2 Browning, his back shredded by shrapnel. In the back corner the other fur lay, blood trickling from his nose and ears. He wasn't dead but was close enough to be useless.
Righting the M2, the fur stared out at the hill and caught something moving, he stared at the movement and felt hot rage flow through his veins as it became clear that it was a squad of Israeli soldiers. He aimed, and fired, unleashing a stream of hot death at the approaching Israelis.
Private Teo was the third soldier in line and he felt shock roll through him as he heard the unmistakable sound of a machine gun firing from the Lebanese border post. Bullets whipped through the squad of soldiers, one fell backwards as the rest rolled away and got up, running. Further up the hill, Corporal Abraham locked onto the target again while Captain Ben Gurion cursed himself. It had been damn sloppy of him sending men down the hill before he had taken a closer look at the guard shack. Corporal Abraham fired again, there was dull crack as the grenade went off, and the gunfire abruptly ceased.
Forty yards below Corporal Abraham Private Teo looked into the slit trench through his scope and motioned that it was all clear. The anti tank wall looked deserted although it was bullet pocked...
Why would we be firing at it if it were deserted? Thought Teo, then he felt ice water flow through his veins as he saw a Lebanese soldier rise up, his face covered in blood, his hands gripping a Beretta pistol.
Ahmed pointed the pistol at the nearest Israeli soldier, the soldier moved to shoot him but he was too slow, the round caught the fur in the stomach and he stumbled backwards, but he wasn't going down and Ahmed realized with a nasty shock that he had merely shot the Israeli in his body armor. Then M16 bullets sliced into him and he went down, blood spattering his dropped Dragunov, and the frightened faces of his watching men, who quickly rolled across the open ground, firing wild shots at the Israelis with their pistols and disappeared into the slit trench.
Private Teo, winded from the pistol round that had hit him in the upper stomach, ran towards the anti tank wall that the Lebanese soldier had been hiding behind and unloaded a fewthree round bursts at the retreating Lebanese soldiers. But the slit trench's walls were high and he only caught a few glimpses of the Lebanese as they retreated up the trench, towards the guard shack. Private Teo glanced back at the other soldiers, one was bandaging a graze wound on his calf from a Lebanese pistol bullet, but the others seemed fine.
"Come on, we need to capture the guard shack." Said the sergeant, and Teo took a grenade from his web belt. It was an American M26, battle tested and effective, especially in enclosed areas like trenches. Private Teo crawled a few feet closer to the trench and hurled the grenade towards the guard shack. It bounced off of the wall of the trench and disappeared from view. Private Teo smiled and prepared to charge down the trench. The Lebanese were outgunned and outnumbered, this would be an easy victory.
The three surviving snipers ran down the trench and were about to enter the guard house when an American grenade landed besides them. One of the soldiers picked it up and tossed it down the trench, where it went off with a loud bang and a sprinkle of shrapnel that knocked one soldier down with shrapnel peppering his legs. The others dragged him inside, careful not to show themselves to the Israelis undoubtedly watching the firing port.
Corpses littered the interior of the guard shack and the two unwounded snipers hurriedly looted the bodies for more effective weapons than their Berettas, they had left their Dragunov's behind but had been trained with assault rifles as well. If it came to a fight, they could hold their own against the Israelis any day.
One mile away, Major Rashid heard faint gunshots and knew that he was close to the fight, calling to the tanks to slow down, he unloaded two of the M113s, the tanks needed infantry support after all. And as more gunfire rang out and an explosion sounded, Major Rashid swore bitterly at the Israelis, they had humiliated Lebanon in the past, but this time they would pay.
"The squad I sent out has driven the surviving Lebanese into the guard shack, blow them up." Said Captain Ben Gurion, watching the guard shack through binoculars. The squad was waiting outside of the trench, next to the anti tank wall, waiting for the Mk19 team to blast the Lebanese out.
"Yes sir." Said Corporal Abraham, he aimed, locked, and quickly fired, eager to capture the Lebanese border post and end this whole thing.
The holed up sharpshooters thought that they had done a good job convincing the watching Israelis that they hadn't entered the guard shack, but Captain Ben Gurion had spotted them while they were raiding the dead for weapons, and now they were about to pay the price.
The 40mm grenade flew through the firing port with grace equal to the previous two, but to Corporal Abraham's surprise it didn't detonate until it hit the back wall. Corporal Abraham had forgotten to flip the AIRBURST setting on.
Inside of the guard shack, the wounded sniper was killed instantly, but the two survivors received no more than minor wounds.
The squad, hearing the explosion of the 40mm grenade, rushed along the side of the trench, hurling grenades through the firing port and perforating the door with three round bursts from their M16s.
The grenades, to the squad's great surprise were hurled back out, and the three round bursts did little more than punch holes in the door and floor in front of the Lebanese.
Private Teo blew out the hinges of the door with his M16, and hurled a flash bang grenade inside. It went off with a deafening boom and a blinding flash, and before the Lebanese could react the Israelis had burst inside, one of the snipers raised an AK74 and was promptly cut down, while the other quickly surrendered, his eyes streaming from the near blinding flash they had been subjected to.
The inside of the guard shack was wrecked, corpses lay littered throughout the room, amid the wreckage from the shattered M2 machine gun, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Private Teo smiled, and was about to start a cheer when they heard the familiar roaring of tank engines. But this time they were not their own.
Major Rashid's reinforcements had arrived, the battle was long from over.