The Zairian River

[Viral]

This river is one of the arger ones located on Nu Earth. It runs directly through Black Marsh and ends at the Nomad Mountains. There are no natural ways to cross it, so the humans have contructed 3 very large bridges to cross the 300+ foot span of toxic water. The northern bridge is the only defended one by the humans. It has a small outpost and lookout tower on either side of the bridge. The water quality is unknown and makes the skin burn and sting when touched. The other two bridges have virtually no resistance and can be used until captured and fortified by another race.

[Fallen Company]

the faint whiring of roter blades could be heard for a moment before a pair of twin blades hovered up above the trees and fired a withering hail of rockets at the watch tower causing it to collapse. 3 bullforgs then tore through the forested area and began gunning down the dazed defenders.Two of the bullfrogs then charged across the bridge while the third went straight through the river and deployed the embarked squads, their machine guns still chattering away.the defenders surpressed by the blanket of bullets laid down by the 'frogs and the twinblades were unable to fend off the soviet infantry and either fled,surrendered or met the sharp end of a bayonet.as fast as the attack had begun it subsided.The staff sergeant in charge of the opperation contacted his Superiors over the secure radio network.
"The northen bridge is ours,send in the engies"he said into the handset. The attack on the northen bridge was not a stand alone mission, the other two bridges had been captured by the soviets granting them full control over the zairian river.
(The soviets MIGHT be willing to let other factions use the bridges.It depends largely upon which faction.)

[Viral]

Rogue Comet forces sat among the swampy trees as their mortar tanks readied their weapons to blast the bridge on the westernmost part of the river. The all terrain jeeps moved forward a little bit, both to avoid slipping into a mud hole and to prepare for the quick invasion and infiltration of the defensive area that the soviets had set up.

The mortar tanks launched their payloads, letting out hisses of steam as they recoiled from the blast, then fired another. The mortars were aimed at the target bridge and were to blast that with three volleys before firing at the heads of the other bridges, to stop as much troops as possible. As soon as the third volley resonated through the trees, the jeeps took off out into the open and made a quick assault onto the soviet position. Corporal Stones, a lean mercenary who enjoyed going fast, hit the soviet fortification with his jeep and had his chain gunner fire at any incoming vehicles or troops. He steered his jeep off of the fortification then proceeded as planned and rove right into the center of the soviet area and continued to cuase disarray among the troops positioned there.

[Fallen Company]

A red bereted officer managed to toss a molotov cocktail on the jeep as it sped through the ranks, before getting a hold on a radio op as he ran towards cover.
"Where's the armoured division?" He bawled down the handset "Tanks? Where are the bloody tanks?"
"En route, engage the enemy forces untill support arrives." the response came. In a typical display of soviet logistical competence (or more accurately the lack of it) The junior officer had just been ordered to engage armoured vehicles with light infantry and a hand full of flak troopers. Even so orders were orders
"Regroup." he yelled down his own intercomm "Close and engage." in response some of conscripts managed to regain their nerve and make their way towards the general direction of their assailants, most hoever continued to try and escape the bombardment.The officer moved his machinegun into his left hand , took out his side arm and shot the nearest fleeing conscript. Some how the sound of the field execution managed to be heard above the wail of mortar shells and the death cries of conscripts.
"For the Premier !" The officer bellowed, in reponse the mass of soviet conscripts Charged at the enemies position incoherently roaring their defiance, blindly firing their assault rifles.
The Rouge comment forces responded by gunning down the red horde from their vehicles, out of the masses of rounds being fired a few hit home, dropping a fair few footslogging mercs and the occasional exposed vehicle crew man here or there, a Flak cannon sent a projectile flying which gutted a single jeep
The armoured support began to arrive in the form of Bullfrog mounted conscripts who attempted to cross the river to avoid being blown apart on the bridge,however the Rouge commet commander had managed to either predict or notice this move and had the mortar tanks fire on the flotillia of bull frogs,blowing many of them out of the water.

General Krukov watched the massacre unfold via the video feed with an idiotic grin plastered across his face, he couldn't care less about the loss of his foot soldiers; was going to get a chance to use his new toy.
"Send them in lieutenant , let's see if their reputation is derserved."

[Viral]

The jeeps were getting shot at left and right. Cpl. Stones turned his wheels as a mass of soldiers appeared into his vision. Another jeep exploded to his left as the jeep lost it's footing in the swampy mud and slid into a fortification. The majority of the chaingun toting jeeps were either in no working order or were crashed into things or flipped over. The main goal of the jeep team was accomplished though. The ground infantry moved through the grime and muck and started firing at whatever they seen.

The mortar crews reloaded their ammunition and started to bombard the area on the opposite side of the bridge that was in the process of being assaulted. The three mortar tanks shifted and found that the heavy, six legged vehicles were trapped in the mud. "This is mortar crew Orion, requesting jeep extraction to move our tanks out of the mud. We're stuck." The CO in the command area monitered the battle with casual interest. "Negative, you have a job and we're not wasting resources for you to move." The mortar crews aknowledged and continued to bombard the bridge.

[Fallen Company]

Three figures slid silently along the boggy ground,creeping their way closer to the mortar tanks as the carnage unfolded. Varl broke from cover first, performed a froward roll and latched the demolition charge onto rear of the mortar tank's hull, at the same time Shiv had slid out and did the same, Praeturn then crept slightly more ineptly out of cover and carefully eased the charge onto the rear of the remaining tank, all three then silently retreated back into the safety of Gale's position in the forested area. Preaturn flipped the cover off of the detonator and slammed the button with his fist with delight.The three mortar tanks exploded as one drawing the attention of both sides briefly
"Ah, that's the stuff." Praeturn said, satisfied with the destruction he had caused.

Meanwhile the savage fighting continued, the Conscripts did their best to toss Molotov's into the jeeps or pick of the gunners with their assault rifles as they rattled chain gun rounds into them.
The Bullfrogs which had made it across the river now brought their turret mounts to bare against the more lightly armoured Rouge Comet vehicles, trying to line up the nimble little jeeps in their sights without butchering their comrades.At least one of the jeeps was finally taken down by the high caliber rounds being pumped into it.

[Viral]

(Those high caliber rounds probably did a lot worse than blow up that jeep. They're lightly armored all terrain jeeps that rely on manueverability to survive.)

The tanks exploded into a hail of shrapnel and shells of what the tanks used to resemble. The mercenaries didn't see it, but they did hear it as the mortar rounds went off. Their morale lowered a bit as the mortar rounds ceased to pummel the opposition on the far end of the bridge.

The mercenaries now looked at their backs every now and then, expecting to see a dozen armored vehicles come blazing in to blast all of them to peices just like they did to the tanks. Cpl. Stones climbed out of his jeep as an arching line of machine gun fire tore into the passenger side and infilitrated the cab. He fell into the muck and pulled his handgun out, ready to shoot any soldier that crossed his vision.

[Fallen Company]

( I'm just trying to be fair about this, I did just blow up your mortars.)

Krukov chuckled with delight at the video feed, he liked having units under his command that were tactically flexible
"I make that 3 minutes" he said into his intercom. "Have them transported directly to the orbital uplink I have another task for them."
"Very good sir." the junior officer on the other end of the intercomm responded.

The battle had boiled down to the groups of infantry bunkered down behind cover taking shots at each other at every oppertunity while the vehicles tried to train their weapons on their counter parts, thus far resulting in a stale mate; the bullfrog's bulky turret mounts we designed for taking down air craft and slow moving infantry, as such the poor horizontal turning speed of the turret made it difficult to line up the erraticly moving jeeps, on the other hand the anti infantry weaponry of the Rouge comet jeeps was struggling to penetrate the armoured hulls of the soviet transports.
"Let's move." the officer ordered hefting his Guntherg up from it's stand and climing out of the crater followed by the rag tag band of conscripts he had in his charge. A pistol round hit his flank dropping him before he even knew his assailant was there,the conscripts panicked and ran back to the crater they had escaped from previously.

[Viral]

The mercenaries looked back and forth at the line of soldiers firing back at them. A failed assault caught there eye as an apparent leader was hit, resulting in the falling back of all the troops. Stone fired at the commanding officer who was about to lead a charge. Out of the five rounds he fired, only the last one hit. He grinned and ducked behind his wreckage of his jeep. "This is Cpl. Stones, we're stuck and they'll eventually outgun us. Requesting that all available troops lay down covering fire and leapfrog from positions to take the rest of this bridge. Are there any rockets left?" Getting no answer he shook his head. "Well damnit, get something to stop those damned beasts." The rest of the NCOs among the mercenaries spread the word at the new approach and the mercenaries started hurling grenades and insults and started to move forward, all the while firing their weapons at anything that didn't have a Rogue Comet emblem on it. The remaining three jeeps slid through the mud and drove right past the mercenaries straight at the line of soviet soldiers.

[Fallen Company]

The soviet conscripts began firing on full auto at the approaching mercs, with no one to tell them to use semi automatic they happily blazed away with their assault rifles hitting very little, most of them however remembered what little training they had had and fixed their bayonets before continuing to fire blindly at their enemies, this was about to get bloody.
The Bullfrog crews on the other hand safely tucked away with in their transports were greatful of more predictable targets and began to make their presence felt upon the rouge comet jeeps, even as they did so the rouge comet mercs entered the series of craters that the soviets were using as a makeshift trench, brutal hand to hand combat ensued as the conscripts lunged and jabbed away with their bayonets and the mercs retaliated with the assortment of melee weapons they carried.
Yemerev regained consciousness, sat upright and lifted his welding mask into the raised position before scurrying out of the way as the body of a conscript fell to the ground, he sat there watching the chaotic scene unfold in front of him trying to remember how he had got there, the last thing he remebered was working within the outpost. he stood upright and the welding mask fell down over his face just as a merc slashed at him with a combat knife, causing it to scrape harmlessly off of the heavy metal mask, he kicked the man in the groin in response causing him to fall to the ground."That was lucky." he said innocently as he bent down and picked up the weapon of a fallen conscript, he inspected the rifle and accidently thumbed the trigger with his bulky welding gauntlets, shooting a merc in the face before he could bring his rifle stock down on Yemerev's head."That WAS lucky." he said with more sincerity.