In the thick of it Part II

Posted on Wed Oct 13, 2021 @ 4:18am by Sergeant George Bernard

Mission: Phone Home
Location: Beta site

Running from cover to cover, George was eager to join the battle. It wasn't a death wish. Quite the contrary. He was doing it to help his friends. Having lost his whole team already, George wasn't eager to repeat the experience. Along the way. he found a down comrade. Picking up the soldier weapon, he slung it around his back. It wasn't as heavy as his own M240 but added to the 10.1 kg monster he was already carrying. It was now close to 18kg. That wasn't even counting at least that in ammunition he was carrying. Still...he wanted more. It would never be enough. What he wanted was an armored division with close air support.

Rounding a corner, he found a fallen senior NCO and his m4/m203 grenade launcher. Not belt fed but there was a bandolier of grenades. Not a full one but 3 H.E. and 2 dual purpose grenades. He scooped that up as well. He was at his traveling weight limit and then some. If he wasn't careful, he would be an easy fat target. The sounds of combat were getting loud enough that George had his head on a swivel.
Climbing a small rise, George could see the situation. The Jaffa, greater in number had driving off the base personnel. While SG teams were smattered with hardened combat veterans, not all had that initial level of experience. Six Jaffa were a couple hundred meters in front of him. The remaining handful of soldiers were trapped beyond that to his Northeast.

He placed the M249 and M240 down and set up both in the general direction. There was no time to waste. Laying out the 5 grenades to his front. He loaded a dual-purpose round, with an HE in left hand for quick reload. Taking careful aim, he left the DP go, and quickly followed up as he shoved the next grenade into now empty chamber, the dp casing clattering to the ground.

The DP grenade hit dead center mass of the enemy group, killing three instantly. The HE grenade overshot the group slightly exploding between the Jaffa and surviving troops. The only thing hurt was Jaffa pride when two of the remaining troops fell over. The Jaffa now split. Two attacking him and the remaining two going after the other group.

George went prone in the small depression he set up in. Sadly, it wasn’t near as deep as he wanted. Tossing the M4/M203 combo to the side, George checked the condition of his 7.62 MG. Adjusting the gas regulator was frowned upon by leadership, but so was dying. George adjusted it to its highest setting. Instead of the normal 650 rounds a minute, it could do 1000 round per minute.
Dirt rained down from the staff weapons near misses. The were walking fire around him trying to figure out his range. He popped his head up for a second then back down. Fire started to come closer. He rolled to his right several yards, painfully absorbing the weight and jabs from the heavy belt fed weapon. Slamming the stock of the gun into his shoulder, he flung the bipod legs on the top of the depression. The open bolt machine gun fired. Quickly adjusting his fire, the Jaffa learned the hard way that charging a machine gun was really a bad idea. Especially when the 50 round metal box was emptied in less than 3 second.

Up and moving, George dropped himself behind the smaller caliber M249 SAW. It used the same rounds as the M16/M4 making it ideal for closer ranges and non-stationary troops. As he left off a burst, an explosion rocked where George saw the other Stargate personnel had found at least some cover. Not waiting, the M249 fired in several controlled bursts, the final two remaining Jaffa went down.

The area became eerily quiet. Checking the belt on the SAW, he left the other weapons in place and started to walk in the direction where the fire came from. “This is Sergeant George Bernard from SG19!” George said projecting his voice. No answer. When he got there, no one survived. A dropped grenade had killed the last person in that group. The other had staff weapon burn marks.

First things first. Try and secure the gate and report back to Earth. He started walking back, retrieving his own weapon and the rifle/grenade launcher combo along the way.