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McKinley  written by Makrel_uk


 

"Soviet troops inbound," echoed throughout our complex, the siren whined its familiar warning; we rushed out of the barracks and into the defensive pillboxes. I scanned the approach to our base; spotting the oncoming troops I muttered the words, "Oh shit." A sea of red troops flooded towards our position, I turned around and headed into the vehicle hanger, quickly scanning the room I spotted a free I.F.V. I ran towards it and jumped in, after ordering the driver to start the engine I told him our situation, and he agreed to follow my instructions. We hastily drove over to the front lines; we stopped and began positioning the huge machine gun mounted on the roof. I activated the hydraulic systems and began testing the guns movement; once I was satisfied I began to take aim.

The first wave of soviet forces were moving at high speed towards the base, they were soon identified as "Terror Drones" something our troops had quickly become familiar with these fearsome spider-like robots. I began shooting at them, round after round piercing their metal skins. Luckily they were destroyed before they reached us, but I knew this was only a sign of things to come, only days into the war and the American's were being beaten north by the more abundant Soviet forces. Deep down, I knew that McKinley was a lost cause. After all, it was only an outpost, no real tactical value. McKinley had been much stronger in the past, but after the Great War with Russia in the 50's it was deemed unnecessary and no longer required. 

---"McKinley, this is allied command, have dispatched air support, E.T.A five minutes, hold on, the cavalry is a comin"---

The way the battle was going, five minutes was too late, our troops were being pushed back by the continual surge of Soviet conscripts. We had to sit it out, and wait for our harriers to get here. Finally the thunder of the afterburners echoed throughout our heads as a small squadron of six harriers darted over our position, they began delivering their payload to the rear of the soviet attack, the troops were thrilled to see it, they began fighting more furiously and made every bullet count until,

---"Crap, they have flak, direct hit, I'm going down..."---
---"Eject for gods sake, EJECT!"---

But it was too late; we watched in terror as four of the harriers hit the ground in a ball of flames, the only consolation was they took out a few units on their way down, I grabbed my radio and contacted allied command,

---"We are being slaughtered, we need out, McKinley is lost, get the transports in then we can get the heck out of here"---

It was several minutes before the nighthawks touched down in the middle of the base; troops began boarding their only escape from certain death, our engineers began to booby trap the last of our structures and tanks, everyone was onboard except me, I dashed backwards firing my gun furiously, I had little effect the soviets were still charging, I leaped onto the transport just as it was taking off, troops began firing out of the windows, dropping grenades, anything to try and neutralize the flak threat, then, just as we thought we had escaped, a single missile lodged in the side of the hull....

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