Reveille was at 0630 on the morning of Saturday, 23rd August, 2003 - the day the war began. There was plenty of time for the troops to sort themselves out, breakfast at the Bassett's Pole public house (a mere 10m outside the site gates, but a 10 minute walk from the camp site) was not until 0730. The food was excellent, as was the service.
By 0900, the entire San Ka'ath army was assembled for the initial briefing from Maj. Ken Elston, Officer Commanding Fireball Squadron. Things kicked off with a bang as the Human forces performed a cunning drive-by shooting on our briefing, persued from the area by our own liason team. From then until lunchtime at 1230 hours, it was non-stop, all-out war!
The Fighting Hedgehogs were assigned one of the first missions of the day - the Human's Intelligence Officer was making his way from the Scud site to their main base with a small escort. Our mission: intercept and destroy. The troops made good time from the San Ka'ath base down towards the Scud Site, but were ambushed while attempting to cross the bridge as Human forces rushed to reinforce their positions in the Scud site and hold back our advance. Fighting was fierce and casualties high on both sides, include the entire Fighting Hedgehogs. However, all was not lost, as the target blundered into a land-mine during his retreat from our attack. The Humans held the Scud site, though. So that's San Ka'ath 1, Humans 1.
After a brief rest, the Hedgehogs were given another objective, this time even more difficult: Penetrate behind enemy lines and recover the body of a fallen agent carrying vital information. Led by a member of Team Spectre, the Hedgehogs headed around the right flank - via the beleagued San Ka'ath forces defending the Santuary, to collect a Sit-Rep - and skirted the Farmhouse and Egyptian Tomb to get to the Western Town where the agent had last been seen. Stealth was the order of business - it took well over an hour to cover the distance, at one point the Human forces defending the Farmhouse were no more than 10m away from our troops crawling through the undergrowth. On reaching the Western Town, however, secrecy went to the devil: Human forces held the town! A firefight was already in progress - it seemed a small force of San Ka'ath had managed to fight their way through the Human lines to reach the Western Town while we were busy sneaking past the flanks. The Hedgehogs naturally pitched into the fight with everything they had, leading to the second deaths of the C.O. and Q.M. However, the remainder of the team, having joined up with the friendly forces already in the town, managed to secure the agnet's body and the intelligence therein, and conducted a fast fighting withdrawl though enemy lines to return the information to the San Ka'ath main base. San Ka'ath 2, Humans 1.
After another rest, the final mission before lunch was outlined to the Alien forces - at 1230 hours a supply ship would arrive from the San Ka'ath fleet. The Huamns had already spotted the incoming craft and determined they could shoot it down using Scud missiles. It was, therefore, vital that we capture the Scud launch site and the Command Bunker before 1230 to protect the supply ship. A reinforced section was sent to take the Bunker while the remining forces prepared to assault the heavily defended Scud Site. The Fighting Hedgehogs, plus a few attachments, against headed around the right flank to attempt to surprise the enemy. However, this time it was not to be - by the time the Hedgehogs arrived in the fight, it was all over. The Humans had fought like demons, and held their ground. The supply ship lay in ruins, wreckage scattered for miles. San Ka'ath 2, Humans 3
After lunch, things went from bad to worse. The Supreme Commander, San Ka'ath Forces, split his army into two groups. One group, about 25 strong and containing the Fighting Hedgehogs, was to go on a recce patrol on the left of the main road. The other was to reinforce the Sanctuary, then push forwards. The objective was to capture parts of the Dimensional Portal which would be used to bring the full might of the San Ka'ath military to bear on the puny Humans. Unfortunately, the Humans knew about this portal, and had their own plans for it.
Due to a combination of shockingly bad communications, garbled orders and bad decision-making on the part of the patrol commanders, the recce group spent about 3 hours wandering around the left flank, without enemy contact except for a party of 5 hapless Frenchmen who were heading towards the Scud Site when they were resoundingly ambushed and slaughtered. Tempers frayed by the time our group got back to base. Meanwhile, our half-force could not stand against the entire Human army on the right flank, and we failed to secure a single piece of the Portal. We did manage to hold the Sanctuary, though. San Ka'ath 3, Humans 5.
With the Portal being in the hands of the enemy, both armies withdrew from contact and planned their next moves. The Intelligence Officer reported that a nuclear warhead tracking beacon had been detected in the swamp. If we could secure the warhead and extract it from the area in the Helicopter parked near the Western Town, we'd gain a major advantage. If the Humans could secure the warhead and extract it from the area in one of the trucks parked at the Scud Site, they'd have the advantage. In the centre of the swamp itself, a massive artillery bombardment took place. Our forces quickly secured the Scud Site and attempted to find a safe route through the swamp to the warhead - but there were no safe paths. The Humans, however, seemed to have safe routes on their side of the swamp and quickly secured the warhead and advanced through the danger area in line abreast, sweeping aside our defenders, despite the valient efforts of our medical support staff, and stealing a truck from under our noses. And so ended the first day's warfare. San Ka'ath 3, Humans 6.
Things got off to a brisk start on Sunday morning. We were losing, and we knew it. Everyone was keen to even things up a bit. The first mission of the day was to find one of our agents who had defected to the Humans, secure him in the Western Town until 1230, then hang him. The Western Town was the scene of bitter and vicious fighting throughout the morning: We held one half, the Humans held the other half, less than 50m away. We had the defector, they had the gallows. They were also attacking our main base, achieving little, but making it hard for us to reinforce our units in the Western Town. We held the Helicopter - the Humans wanted it for some reason. They held the Scud Site, which we wanted for some reason. By the end of it all, suceeded in executing the traitor, but failed all other objectives except for holding the Helicopter. San Ka'th 5, Humans 10.
This was it, the final battle. The margin of supremacy was narrow, but still in favour of the Humans, so they had the upper hand. The Dimensional Portal had been set up in the Farmhouse. The Humans had control of it, and were planning to send the nuclear warhead through to destroy our army before it could come through and over-run the Earth. The Portal would activate automatically at 1400 hours, the warhead would detonate shortly thereafter. We had only one chance. If we could secure the farmhouse and hold it until after the portal activated, we'd prevent the destruction of the San Ka'ath invasion force and ensure the subjugation of the Earth. If not, we were all dead, and the Earth would be safe. We had 1 hour to decide the fate of the planet.
The fighting was more than intense, it was epic. Amazing feats abounded on both sides. But, in the end we failed. The San Ka'ath army was destroyed, the Earth was safe.... Until next time....?
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