Full Metal History

Eerste van die Eerste

"How far out?", questioned Fuller. Four men stood at the back of the MRAP, in a square. In the middle was a mud diagram. It accurately represented a layout of the land in which the next stage of the mission would take place. It featured a large feature to the West, heavy dense jungle covering the North down to the South east, four rivers and two creeks. In between where two rivers intercepted was a clearing. Roughly two kilometres squared.
Stepping out from the back if the MRAP, was Scott. "Gents, codename Masarattii was last spotted here...", Scott began, as he pointed to the mud diagram. A small hill with a re-entrant sat towards the south west. "kim is operating eagle eye and is keeping tail. Situation is, Maserattii, appears to be heading to a village here in the clearing. We suspect from a quick Ariel recce, he is gonna recruit their army to his cause...". Scott, placed down the photos Kim took with the drone. Several high definition photos showed the layout of the small farming village, it was very spacious and contained a lot of open ground with very minimal cover. 50 small huts comprised most of the buildings. However in the middle was a larger building, sort of a villa, one that would contain someone with a large presence. "Boss anything to add?", Scott, said handing the floor over to his superior. "Yamada, my men will take this on, however assemble a force of one hundred men. We will assault at night under NVG. Weapons strict, we are to get eyes on the villa three hours prior to our infil, Scott, Fernandez and Svertis, will take overwatch. We'll move in two teams of three, my team will take the eastern approach into the villa, you'll head round back and sweep through the garden, hopefully we can bag Masaratti and whoever is there, convince him to join our cause, any final questions?".
"Why night? You wont be able to see anything?", yamada said puzzled. "Also same with my men".
Svertis, walks from the side of the armoured truck, smiling, patting his grenade launcher, sitting comfortably under his rifles barrel. "I got you covered, General. And believe me, we can see just fine".
"Anymore questions.." Fuller asked giving a moments pause, "...no good, we leave in twenty, we'll be hoofing it there, no need to draw attention, Svertis, fernandez, you two will take the MRAP, best you are in position before we get there. The six of us leave on twenty, General you leave forty minutes after, lets go.".

The six men walked through the marsh lands. This time lighter than they were. Their packs, strapped to the roof of the truck. Still, it didnt make the sticky mud of the Marshes any easier. Oleg and kim who were up front, kept a close eye on eachother as to not wonder off alone and continuously looking back to Fuller. The careful placement of boots, made sure any un-necessary noise was reduced. They were making great time. Fuller, was constantly being impressed by the men he commanded. Despite having such a long two days, with constant marching and engagements, they still proved their resilience and pushed on. Eager to have giving them a break they only had three kilometres to go of their ten kilometre patrol. With just over an hour gone since they left, Fuller, made his mind up to continue onwards. Even though he was feeling sore and tired, he wanted the cover of the MRAP's fifty, when his men rested. The humidty, drenched the men in their own sweat, the sticky air made breathing hard. If things couldnt get worst, black as night storm clouds rolled in fast. Making day almost look like night. In seconds, the earth rumbled with a loud thunderous clap and bright light, followed shortly by torrential rain, obscuring vision to mere metres. The roar of thunder, lightning and rain, made it difficult to talk as Fuller, yelled for the patrol to close up the gap. The mud became softer and harder to wade through. This forced all the men to slow down as to save energy but mainly due to being told to by the terrain.

*********

"Are the men ready?", Yamada questioned his second in command. A burly warrior, who'd seen his fair share of combat, as seen by the large scar parading across the left side of his face. His armour was battle tested and littered with sword markings, where his enemy so futile in their actions to kill him. "Yes, general!", Commander Honda, replies. "One hundred men all accounted for, we are ready to move". Yamada, placed a hand on the overly keen warrior. Yamada and Honda, grew up as kids in the same village. But when Yamada was ten and Honda, eight, the village qas raided by disgraced samurais known as Ronin. Their village was burnt, women and young girls raped and captured to be sex slaves. The men, those who fought or of adult age were slaughtered. The younger boys, who didnt fight or get away, were taking to fill their ranks and forced to fight.
Yamada, watched his mother and sister get raped right infront of him. Instead of turning away, he stood on the hill watching down in horror, vowing to kill those men violenty. He studied every detail of them and imprinted it on his brain. Next to him was Honda. Staring frozen at the carnage unfolding. Suddenly, a voice yelled from a hut to their left. Yamada turned and to his shock, four men smiled and grinned as they walked over to the two young boys. Yamada, for the first time felt absolute fear and froze in place. His heart pounded against his chest and he was certain everyone could hear it.
As the men grew closer his feet and hands trembled, but, it suddenly two arrows hurled their way by, one struck the third man the second failing to find a home. As the stricken man fell to the ground he let out a roar of pain and collapsed. The other three looked in horror as hundreds of Samurais ran down the hill bellowing their war cries. The last thing, young yamada and Honda saw, was hope. Hope, dressed in gold trimmed black armour with a full face helmet, in which it resembled that of a spirit. Hope, hope did have a name.
"Tenshin, has asked for you to lead the men. I couldnt agree more with what he wants". Honda, took the appraisal of his General and Shogun. Only giving a nod, he placed his helmet on. "If the shogunate demands it, i will honour it", was the simple reply given by Honda.
The company of men, departed the battered camp and headed North east to the staging ground, pre determined by, Corporal Fuller. Honda, is still reluctant to trust the mysterious men. But, he owed them his life for coming to the rescue of the camp. Part of his disconcern, was the weapons and equipment they carried, along with their armour. The weapons made a large noise and killed from a distance far outreaching their bows and arrows. Lugging around huge packs that contained all their other strange equipment. The armour they wore only covered a portion of their torso and nothing covered their knees or arms except for two pads. Their face shield only covered the top of their head and a thin layer of cloth was wrapped over their face and some sort of black eye protection. None of it seem practical for their style of fighting he was used to. They were left extremely vulnerable to attacks. All these things, led Honda to be weary of them and to keep them at swords length.
The company of men, were moving at a slower pace than that of the six elite warriors. Although, Honda was happy he thought they were making great time and would catch up in no time. As they kept marching, bodies littered the jungle ground. All with small holes peppering their body. "A heavy fight happened here, atleast a hundred dead...", the man next to Honda said, he paused for a moment waiting for his commander to reply. Knowing he wasn't he continues. "No sign of any of those men here. They should have been annihilated".
Honda, looked to his right and saw one of the dead with holes in his chest and burns to his thighs. But, what struck him the most, the dead warrior was missing both his feet and part of his face. "They are far more advanced than us. They fight without honour", Honda, said sternly. "If they fight without honour how can we trust them. They blew half our camp up a few days ago!", the warrior said again slowly raising his voice in anger over the situation. It didnt take Honda, long to reply, but, he wasnt quite sure himself if he believed in what he was saying. "Lets not forget, we took one of them prisoner, you hit him over the head. Zuikaku, friend, would you rather fight a mad man or fight alongside a mad man?". The simple question made Zuikaku, pause and just give a nod. "Besides..", Honda, continued. "They rescued the shogunates daughter, saved our camp from total destruction and will prevent our enemy from getting stronger. They are helping us. I feel their quest here is far more and need our help more than we need theres". Honda, pondered back a few days when Yamada told him of the deal strcicken by Shogun tenshin and the man, they called Corporal. Four of their men were captured and need help rescuing them.

**********
Fuller, halted the patrol and everyone took a knee. Checking against his nav, he was happy they were in the correct spot. Pointing to Kim and Rommel, the three slowly raised up and pushed up ahead of the group. Scott, called everyone in tighter and facing back the way they came. The temperature quickly started to drop and the sun hasn't even completely set yet. Keeping a careful ear out to their surroundings, the three men listened intently. Looking for any rustling or signs of footsteps approaching. Thankfully the only noise herd was that of birds singing and wind blowing among the trees. "Squad on me", fuller whispered emerging from the trees behind. Scott, turned around and got up tapping, Kim on the shoulder and walked over to fuller and past him. Kim, in turn did the same, tapping Petit on the shoulder and moving backwards. Once petit, was at Fuller, he tapped him on the shoulder and continued. Once in position, the men were on top of a large hill, overlooking the village. Svertis and Fernandez, were on the mountain two kilometres North of them overseeing the whole terrain below. Knowing the two were up there with the fifty calibre behemoth, gave some relief to Fuller. "Intel on the village boss?", questioned Scott.
"Eerste van die eerste...", replied Fuller. "First of the first. The very first samurais were trained here. It's said the army or Better, the group here are so elite, they've mastered the art of stealth and killing". The statement rang concerns through Scott. We may be the tip of the spear, but if we can't see them.... no. They're training cant compasre to ours. Scott was starting to feel a bit uneased at the situation. "So really they're fucking ninjas, then?", Petit, questioned moving over to the hillside. Staring down into a vast undulating field, housing fifty farming huts and in the centre a large villa that was a testament to the craftsmanship of the time. Surrounded on all four sides by four metre high concrete walls. Four towers stood five metres above on all corners of the wall. From the angle of the hill onto the villa, it looked like a large sparring arena was located in the centre, completed by lotus flowers and Bansai trees. To any visitor and truly to the eight men, it was an amazing spectacle and truly beautiful. "Basically, so nighttime is why we are attacking. We'll be ghosts to them", Fuller said checking over his gear in preparation for the nights raid. "ROE, sir?", Scott asked eagerly.
"Strict, stealth kills only if necessary. Noise discipline Strict, be weary of shadows", stated Fuller, pulling out a long piece of tubing from his day pack  and screwed it onto the front of his weapon. The tubing, was designed to reduce the noise of a shot. However not completely silent, it reduced it to a light bang, similar to that of a car door banging shut. At close distance, it still resonates off the walls. The only thing going for Fuller, was that the enemy didnt know and couldn't distinguish the sound and overlooked it. Hopefully they assume someone dropped something by mistake, Fuller, thought to himself. There was no way to tell how, if the moment arose, how they, the enemy would respond to it. Whilst thinking to himself intently about every possible outcome, Fuller, like the others put the final smaller cylindrical tube onto his sig Sauer P226, pistol. On it was a small laser that fit snuggly under barrel of the pistol. The laser on his weapons are essential for operating under NAH. Only visible to the warriors green eyes, he can acquire targets and point them out, all without them noticing. This would prove fatal to a far less superior enemy who didnt habe the same technology.