RM Vol 3: For a World without Boundary – Chapter 28: NOBLE uses Landslide… It was super effective


    "Alright team, forms up." Noble 1, Carter, said while motioning for the rest of his team to gather around a visual representation of the mission, created by using sticks, rocks, and sand. They could have used a holographic spell or an illusion one but the team isn''t too keen on being detected by a Crusader, no matter how unlikely the chances are.


    "Here," Carter pointed at what corrted to the entrance leading further into a small, cramped valley that leads to higher elevation and is nked by two mountain tops. "AWACS said the Sardegnian convoy is close. They will approach the passage in 60 mikes, give or take a few. Noble 2, I want you to be in the air and concealed in ten. Despite the information obtained being deemed trustworthy by our bird in the sky, it''s better to have another set of eyes that have a direct line of sight to the ground."


    Kat, being the one addressed by Carter, nods. "That is easy enough. I will inform you if anything appears outside of our expectations."


    Carter returns the nod before saying. "The Spanish Coalition is pushing their counterattack harder than before, especially when the recent Fur Spaniard convoy supplied them with more than enough arms and medical stuff. This means that Sardegna is feeling the heat even more now when their Crusaders are sitting on the sideline. That said, with RMS Bismarck and RMS Prinz Eugen wiping the floor with the Erusean Royal Navy, the naval blockade on Sardegna has been loosened. As such, the Papacy has managed to use their blockade runners and reinforce their army in Spain, bringing about our mission for the day."


    Carter then says as the rest of them look at him. "Sardegna is going to conduct an ambitious nking maneuver by dedicating arge, mixed force of mechanized and motorized. Whoever is in charge of the Sardegnian army right now got a good head on their shoulders, having noticed a weakness in the Coalition''s formation. As of now, the battle-hardened Inquisitors and Shadow Company are sitting on the frontline, taking on the brunt of Sardegna resistance. Guarding the formers'' sides are volunteer divisions from overseas that are tasked with handling the weaker outcrops of Sardgenian troops. Most of these volunteer divisions are new to battle, safe to say a weakness Sardegna can exploit. If the Sardegnian nking force catches these divisions by surprise, thetter will be wiped and Sardegna will have a straight shot at threatening the supply line of the bulk of the Coalition''s army. Even worse, the counterattack force of the Coalition may even be surrounded, cut off from friendly territory."


    Emile smirks. "Let me guess, that''s a no-no from Command?"


    Carter levels a stare at the skull-faced Emile for being interrupted. "What else? ONI sees this move as a threat to the Operation''s integrity, with us and Blue Team tasked with eliminating that threat. The passage below us is the alleyway for Sardegna to rush a knife straight into those volunteer divisions on the other side. And that''s not ounting for the fact that the high grounds advantage by the end of the passage will allow Sardegnian artillery to rain Hell on the frontline. We need to stop them here, and now, preferably denying the passage for future use altogether. After discussions with Overlord and Blue Leader, thetter is decided on and will be conducted by both teams on the ground."


    Jorge, who is kneeling by the side with his HMG resting nearby, asks. "Asset denial. But what if the Coalition can use the passage in the future? Though it''s still in Sardegnian-controlled territory, once the Coalition pushes here, they can use it to head deep into the heart of the Papal''s holdout in Spain."


    Hearing that it''s not Carter but Kat that exins. "Probably too much trouble for little returns. Given time, the Coalition will reach the edge of Eastern Spain at a steady pace. If they use this passage here with a dedicated force, what to say that Sardegna doesn''t wise up and copse it on top of them as we will."


    "What she said." Carter added. "We will station here, on the Eastern end of this passage while Blue Team will take the other end. Now, I want you all to take these." Carter then reaches behind him, pulling over a bag containing explosive charges and detonation devices. "Courtesy of thest supply drop, nt these where you think can cause arge enoughndslide."


    Jun, peering into the pack, whistles. "This is more than enough to have them buried deeper than six feet." He then grabs a few charges and a detonator for his own, prompting the others to do the same.


    After the team members armed up, Carter says. "Blue Team will be doing much of the same thing as us. Given that they''re on the other side, we will wait for their go, meaning we will only detonate after they do. Overlord wants as many Sardegnian war materials inside the passage as possible, so we can''t get jumpy."


    "Let''s say we trap box them in, what''s next?" Emile asked, not too surprising given his aggressive nature.


    Carter responds calmly. "Kat will be up in the sky to call out target. Jun and Jorge will take the high ground, pouring on the survivors. Emile, you and I will go down and take care of them up close and personal. I reckon you won''t find any issue in that order?"


    On his part, Emile just pumps his shotgun. But everyone present knows that behind the skull visor is a bloodthirsty.


    Carter disbands the team, letting them move out to set the explosives. He hangs back for a moment, kicking away the impromptu sand table before heading out behind them.


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    It''s a chilly September evening when the newly formed Sardegnian army corp starts traversing the passage in their ambitious nking maneuver. The way ahead is a bit of a narrow one, and an uneven one at that. Fortunately for the Sardegnian force, their Generals allot them with arge mechanized force, a majority of which are L3 tankettes. Despite theirckluster performance in tank-on-tankbat, these tankettes can traverse mountainous terrain without any issue at all, even going as far as pulling stuck supply trucks or containers out of a pothole. Truly the little tankette that could.


    Further behind the formation of men and tankettes climbing the terrain is a line of towed artillery and older light tank models. Thetter consists of Fiat 3000 variants, the L5/21 and L5/30. The former is armed with twin 6.5mm machine guns while thetter is armed with a 37/40 gun. It''s this particr group of heavy equipment that stalls the Sardegnians as they aren''t made to travel such a difficultndscape. But at least the Sardegnians don''t have to worry about Spanish scouts, not this deep in their territory at least. Their own perimeter patrols also report nothing out of the ordinary, putting the suspicion of the officers to rest.


    They will wish they hadn''t done that.


    As high-profile targets, these officers are sitting in the middle of the formation, protected by the more crack shooters of the corps as the rest of the troops move along. Knowing that it''s almost time for supper, these officers start ordering around to bring them their dinners, setting up shop on a t rocky outcrop. Overlooking their soldiers like overlords, with foods presented hot on their tables, these officers are just about to dine with smiles on their faces when thend shakes. A few of them curse, looking ahead of the convoy as a majorndslide descends on their vanguards. The tons of mud, dirt, and rocks roll through the infantrymen and tankettes effortlessly, crushing them while kicking up a major dust cloud, obfuscating the vision in their entire passage. The firstndslide is still in progress when the second one and a third one happen. Only this time, these ur in the middle and rear of the Sardegnian formation. Seeing thendslides bearing down at them from all sides, the Sardegnians panic.


    To escape the rumbling earth, everyone starts ditching everything they have on their person just to run away. Some tankers try to turn around and flee in their metal caskets, while others opt to abandon their trapped vehicles and run. Infantrymen, on the other hand, throw their guns, their backpacks, and even their helmets in desperation. Officers, gone are the high-and-mighty attitude, scampers over the food tables, their chairs fall over haphazardly as they push each other away to save their skin. Overall, it''s a chaotic sight. But try as they all are, they can''t just outrun tons of debris.


    Some are sttered on the ground by stray falling rocks while others are rolled under, consumed by thendslide with their screams drowned by the trembling atmosphere. Soon, the majority of the corps are buried deep, never to see the light of day again. Thenes the dust cloud, it''s thick enough to be seen from kilometers away and casts arge shadow over the entire passage. Once the tremors stop fully, there''s only silence at first. But such a silence doesn''tst long before weak cries for help can be heard. Even though the damage dealt has been unimaginable for an army, there exist lucky survivors, battered and broken as they may be. There''s also the fact those that who were buried don''t present the entirety of the Sardegnian corps. Some of their rearguards and logisticponents were lucky enough to be stationed outside the passageway. Moving on from their dumbstruck, these elements scramble to perform search and rescue in the now almost impassable terrain. Their progress will be heavily hampered when all they can bring out is pure manpower and without being able to utilize heavy equipment. That is if something else doesn''t get to them first.


    As it''s already evening, the dust cloud offers little to no visibility even with fog lights. Because of that, the soldiers that are trying to pull the casualties to safety never see theming, the humanoid demons in the shape of armored men. Faster than their eyes can see, swifter than their ears can register, the visages of metallic humanoids dash down the rubbles of the mountainsides. Their guns, if the Sardegnians can even call it that, spat out projectiles with only suppressed sounds while one, in particr, boomed like the Doomsday bell. Yet before their Sardegnian brains cane to an understanding, they''re already falling down on the ground, dead with their vitals struck.


    Carter, favoring his G1SD, pulls his trigger sessively, sending precise 8mm bullets into the heads of Sardegnians armed with heavy weapons. Jumping over a bloodied rock, Carternds on a half-buried L5/30, using it as a tform to engage the enemy running for cover.


    Emile, favoring a personal approach. Rush like a mad bull with his shotgun wielded in two hands. The bulk of the Raven body-checked an unfortunate Sardegnian, snapping the young man''s spine in half. Emile then turns to the side, firing his 8-gauge shotgun at a group of four enemy infantries. Due to the size of the Raven-issued shotgun, the pellets it fires are much bigger and more numerous than the standard-issued Belkan S-12G shotgun. As such, it only excites Emile more when one buckshot from his trusty primary decimates the four souls. With a sharpugh, Emile pumps his weapon, unloading another shot onto the back of a few Sardegnians. The man then unsheaths his kukri, stabbing the head of a foolish soldier who charges his side. Emile doesn''t even bother a look at the fool, now with his arms limply hanging down.


    Kat, on her part, flies interception. Any enemy retreating from the AO will be for her to deal with. Her PSG1-SD snipes them from above at afortable distance of 600 meters above ground. With the onset of promising death, they should be lucky that Kat is the one to kill them swiftly with a bullet to the head. That way, they can avoid staring their death in the face. In a way, Kat''s execution is a cut more elegant than the others by a mile.


    Jun though, isn''t as subtle as Kat, though he could be if he chose to do so. His choice of sniper rifle is obviously bigger than Kat''s marksman version of the G1 rifle. Jun has picked the SG-14.5 as his rifle of choice, in fact, it''s an anti-materiel sniper rifle in one hefty package. And while it''s a bolt-action, thus can only engage a target at a slower pace than Kat''s rifle, Jun picks targets that are sticking in a cluster to deal coterals due to his payload bullet''s fragmentation effects. Trumping over Emile''s shotgun reports, Jun''s rifle fires like the ticks of a well-oiled clock, with each tick leaving behind severed torsos and strewn body parts.


    But perhaps the one to have the biggest fun of them all is none other than Jorge. The man with the hulking body bigger than a bear holds his Etika HMG with two hands, aiming her down onto a swath of panicking Sardegnians. With the press of a trigger, the rhythmic thumping of his HMG can be heard across the entire passage. The 14.5mm bullets tear holes in the dust clouds before impacting and detonating in the midst of the enemy, delivering chaos, death, and destruction to the soldiers of the Lord. With both Jorge and Jun using the same ammo, it doesn''t take long for the two men to bond over their usage of express death delivery. Jorge points Etika to the right, the cowering troops explode alongside their covers. Jorge aims Etika to the left, and the enemy that is firing aimlessly at the shadows of his teammates is destroyed with impunity. Finally, when his entire 200-round belt is expended, Jorge stops to survey the situation on the ground.


    Given that the enemy is caught by surprise in a no-visibility situation, the Sardegnians die without even as muchying a scratch on the shielding of their Raven armors. After many revisions by Einstein, some kinks on their armor were worked out, and now, their enemy won''t be able to sneak a lucky shot under the shielding. The best they can do is toy it thick on a Raven and hope for the best, a notion that any sane Raven won''t allow to happen... Unless it''s Emile, the mad may allow it for the fun of it, knowing that the man ran the Shoothouse and pped a big-ass bomb away with his kukri. Such a record is still unbeatable to this day and will remain so for a long time. The Marshal considers that as a point-proven and a one-off thing unless proper care is given for one to try and beat the Shoothouse the way Emile did.


    Jorge surveys Emile''s location, seeing him chuck a nade down the hatch of thest pocket of resistance that somehowmandeered a tank. The skeletal visor is then seen jumping off the vehicle, dusting his hands off like nobody''s business before the tank explodes in a cluster of me and burning metals. Jorge almost lets out a snicker when he remembers Emile on a gurney,ughing the blood out of his body while being carried away on a gurney. Oh, the madman of the team is tough work, but it''s their tough work alright. Whenpared to Blue Team, Noble Team is the more colorful one, in fact, they''re the most unique of the entire Raven batch as every single one of them can be a troublemaker on their own. If not for the Marshal mysteriously intervening, Noble Team would have changed their roster many times. But the Marshal seems to see something in this bunch of misfits and allows them the time to bond with each other. The end result is a gratifying one, with thempeting with the more Blue Team in being the best Ravens out there. Granted, it''s not that big of a leaderboard but it''s something.


    Jorge is then pulled out of his calm mulling when Jun says over the radio. "Hey, boss, it seems that Blue Team is just about done on their end. But Kat, are you seeing what I''m seeing?"


    "If you''re talking about that distortion on your HUD, yeah. You''re not the only one." Kat replied. It takes Jorge only a second to check for the distortion they''re talking about before seeing it too.


    "This is Jorge, I also got it on my end."


    Their team leader interjects. "Kat, SITREP."


    "Noble Leader, it seems that we have gotten ourselves an unexpected guest. One that we may know."


    Jun smirks. "And here I thought today has been too easy."


    Carter replies, hearing Jun''sment. "Wouldn''t be a Noble mission if it''s easy. Report to ONI, Overlord may want to hear this."