Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises

by Velocity, Max

  In a position on the small road in the side valley a few hundred meters north of the I-64 waited Caleb and Sam in the technical. They waited under a thermal poncho beside the vehicle, which was hidden amongst some trees.

  Down by the I-64 itself the IED team set up an ambush utilizing an array of EFP devices in a daisy chain. Their positions overlooking the highway were camouflaged by the thermal ponchos. They had also dug shallow ‘shell scrapes’ for cover.

  Once the ambush was set, they all went into routine, waiting. They ate rations cold and drank water, moving covertly back to the rear of the positions to defecate in cat holes that they dug.

  Two days later, they heard the beat of helicopters approaching from the east, from the Shenandoah Valley. They were moving slowly, providing top cover for a convoy down on the road. There were two Apache attack helicopters, sniffing and searching along the route. The ambush team hunkered down under the thermal ponchos.

  The supply convoy passed under the position of the IED team and they initiated the ambush; the daisy chain was largely effective due to predictable spacing between vehicles and several convoy vehicles were left immobilized in the road. The convoy stopped and started to return fire from turret guns, attempting to gain fire superiority into likely positions of cover. The IED team did not move; they just hunkered down in place.

  As soon as the IEDs went off, Caleb was in the vehicle, Sam manning the 240 on the back. The two Apaches had swung around in response to the contact. As they came into view around the shoulder of the spur, Sam opened fire with the 240. The Apache pilot picked up the stream of tracer headed his way, notified the gunner, and started towards the technical.

  Sam screamed for Caleb to go and he took off north up the road like a rally driver, Sam still firing the 240. The Apache followed them, trying to acquire the target as the pickup flew round the bends and disappeared under the tree cover, emerging intermittently. The gunner was engaging with 30mm explosive cannon rounds but could not quite get them on target, the explosions of the rounds chasing the pickup along the road.

  Caleb’s mad drive drew the Apache north into the valley. The second Apache was flying a circuit at higher altitude, passing over the top of the ambush position each time round. The engaged Apache was flying slowly in pursuit of Caleb, sniffing and worrying its prey, trying to get the kill shot.

  A burst of 30mm cannon fire from the Apache chased the pickup up the road, finding the back of the truck and creeping into the truck bed. A round detonated in front of Sam, killing him instantly, and sending shrapnel through into the cab, narrowly missing Caleb. He went round a bend and brought the truck to a slewing stop, in the same motion opening the door and sprinting out into the creek, taking cover in the water under the bank.

  The Apache went into a hover, preparing to finish off the truck and then sniff out Caleb under the bank. At that moment, Jack gave the order and the kill group opened fire at the hovering Apache below them in the valley. It was a range of five hundred meters. Jack had the kill group split into two, with two 240s, two .50cals and one Barrett .50 designated for each chopper.

  The ammunition in the machine-gun belts was loaded as standard with one in five rounds being tracer. The idea in an air defense role was to create a cone of fire that the aircraft would fly into, using the tracers to see where your fire was going. In this case, the Apache was stationary and the gunners were able to walk their long bursts of fire onto it. They opened up with a massive weight of fire, 7.62 and .50cal rounds smashing into the hovering Apache.

  The Apache is a very well protected attack helicopter designed to withstand small arms fire, with critical areas protected up to either 12.7mm or 23mm rounds depending. It is also over engineered to have redundancy, for example the twin engines and larger parts than are necessary, such as the drive trains. However, nothing is invulnerable, and the machine is only as strong as the human component.

  As the Apache hovered there, the gunner in the front seat was engaging the pickup while the pilot in the rear seat flew the aircraft. He had never come under effective ground fire before. Suddenly, the airframe was rocked to the right by the impact of the striking rounds, many of them finding their way into the airframe. The Barrett gunner was hitting the cockpit canopy to the pilots left by his head with .50cal rounds, impacting the canopy but not penetrating.

  The pilot panicked, lost altitude and tried to bank away to the right, but the controls felt sluggish – some vulnerability had obviously been hit by the incoming rounds. He tried to bank away but lost control as the aircraft was driven towards the ground by the impacting machine-gun fire. The aircraft accelerated around in a wide turn towards the spur on the far side of the valley, engine screaming with the pilot’s effort to pull it up. Before the pilot could exert control and pull it out of the low turn, the helicopter smashed into the trees, crashing through them into the side of the spur.

  Reacting to the initial contact, the second Apache was above the kill group when they opened fire. It flew out over the valley and spun to acquire the target. Just then, the second part of the kill group opened fire, forcing the Apache to fly in a cone of machine-gun fire and tracer rounds.

  This pilot did not make the mistake of hovering, he kept moving while the gunner acquired the target, but they were both distracted by the volume of fire they were being subjected to. They were only five hundred yards away from the kill group, really too close for a killing machine that often operated up to seven kilometers away from the target.

  Although the cockpit was protected against .50cal fire, it did not prevent the impact of the rounds into the laminated glass and the starburst effect as the massive weight of fire hit. This also had a psychological effect on the gunner, who was trying to engage and saturate the area where the kill group was with 2.75 inch rockets. The distraction saved the lives of Jack’s ambush team, as the rockets burst around them, scattering up the hillside, leaving them unharmed in the shallow scrapes.

  Facing the volume of fire from the kill group, both groups having now switched fire onto the second helicopter, the pilot decided discretion was the better form of valor and withdrew. He banked away, his aircraft surrounded by a hail of flying tracer, to limp back to base. The Apache had certainly shown its survivability, but not without damage.

  Jack knew that the crew of the downed helicopter were likely alive, given the designed crash survivability of the Apache. But he could not afford to hang around. An airborne reaction force was likely to be on the way and the ground convoy was probably going to be tasked to deploy into the valley to recover the crew and secure the crash site.

  There was no need for radio silence any more so he gave the order over the radio to withdraw. The IED team pulled back and Caleb headed out on foot to join them at the ORP, carrying Sam’s body over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Down in the valley Caleb had been closer to the crash and dearly wanted to go over there to finish them, but he also knew it was not practical.

  Jack’s group dismounted the guns from their tripods, policed up their gear, and commenced the hump out to the ORP, moving as fast as they could under the heavy load. Once all the various elements were back at the vehicles, they mounted up and moved north away from the objective area.

  Every so often, they would move the vehicles into cover, turn the engines off, and listen out for the sounds of helicopters. It was soon plain that they were not being pursued.

  They had lost one man, but they had taken down an Apache and damaged another such that it had withdrawn from the battlefield. That was a major coup in Jacks mind and the team was exultant as they drove along.

  Jack had a look at the video camera footage. It was good; the cameraman had captured all the action. The footage would be sent to Bill, who would distribute copies throughout the network, and also upload it to what remained of the internet.

  It was invaluable psychological operations footage.

  Jack also knew that the ambush was probably a one off, partially successful due to the unexpected n
ature of the attack. The Apaches were used to being unopposed, kings of the battlefield, invulnerable in the sky as they wreaked death and destruction on those below. They would adapt their TTPs to this current threat, no doubt.

  In the absence of any type of surface to air missiles, Jack was going to have to come up with another way to neutralize the Apache threat in the valley.

  Kill the beast in its lair, perhaps.

  Following the Apache ambush the Company continued IED operations on the valley. The patrol reports for these operations, as well as the reconnaissance patrols they put out, corroborated by input from Bill’s network, were telling them that there was an increase in Regime patrol activity in the valley and surrounding areas. Clearly the success of the IED campaign and the downing of the Apache had caught the attention of the powers that be in DC.

  Jack considered this interesting, and it perhaps heralded a slight change in the focus of their operations. As part of the reports, there were indications that a Regime battle group may be earmarked for deployment into the valley, to turn it into its own ‘AO’ or area of operations.

  When he had originally discussed strategy with Bill, the intent had been to begin small in the valley, training and getting up to speed, starting with the IED operations and concentrating force up company level when appropriate.

  Now, it may be the case that the Regime would come to them. If so, the idea would be to avoid discovery of their various bases while turning the valley into a crucible of death for the Regime forces. Jack felt that he would have to bleed them in the valley, while avoiding a two way attrition battle that would leave the Resistance reeling.

  From reports that Jack had seen, they were not the only Resistance outfit around, not even in the area. The difference was the investment they had put into training, equipment and personnel. In fact, as they had trained over the winter Jack had put specific criteria back to the network, to be passed to those vetting new recruits, specifying what he wanted. He wanted quality over quantity.

  The old argument over the twenty million hunters in America was interesting. Jack wanted trainable potential. He either wanted veterans with experience who were not too set in their ways or egocentric, or he wanted those with similar skillsets who were able to be trained how he needed them. So far it had worked out well. The wrong sort of veteran was worse than the right type of newbie.

  There was certainly a lot of Resistance activity in Virginia and further afield. Some of it was low level ‘enthusiastic amateurs’ of the hunter variety, other activity was better organized and prosecuted by former militia or veteran organizations.

  The success of his Company in the valley was a case of the tallest poppy syndrome as measured against the surrounding area. The problem was that his selection and training process would now likely lead to the age old ‘selection destruction cycle’. It was therefore paramount that they rose to the occasion and met this new Regime focus in an effective way.

  Chapter Nine

  It was late February when they got word from Bill. The Regime was sending an armored battle group into the valley. The specific intelligence suggested that this force was going to initially conduct ‘clearance and re-education’ operations on the town of Harrisonburg, which sat central to the valley.

  This translated to a clearance and reprisal operation to use Harrisonburg as an example ‘to encourage the others’. This operation had been brought on by the success of the Resistance in the Shenandoah Valley and the perceived need for the Regime to crack down on it.

  It appeared that due to the presence in Harrisonburg of a local militia unit, the Regime had put two and two together and made ten. The actual militia unit in question had formed as a local defense force to protect the town against marauders following the collapse. They still ran checkpoints and controlled access into the town. The Regime had conducted aerial surveillance and believed that this force was the one responsible for the IED attacks.

  Bills message stated that he expected the attack to happen within two weeks, possibly as soon as a week. He had already notified the network in Harrisonburg and urged the remaining population to evacuate. The mission that he gave to Jack was to conduct urban delay and attrition operations within the town in order to inflict maximum possible casualties on the Regime battle group.

  Jack launched into his battle procedure which varied a little from what he had learned ‘doctrinally’ while serving. He had a general idea of what he intended to do, so he called in his various ‘heads of sheds’, the chain of command, and gave them the verbal ‘warning order’ concerning the Intel he had received and the mission. He told them that they would be required to move rapidly to Harrisonburg to concentrate force as a fighting company.

  His intent was to attrite the Regime battle group as it conducted its move into the town. But he did not intend to get dug in to a casualty intensive defense of the town. There would be no Alamo. His concept was for a mobile defense, falling back from the outer edges of the town in the face of the advancing Regime forces, hitting them at every opportunity but remaining light on their feet to minimize Resistance casualties.

  Once he had outlined his concept he threw it open to the floor and effectively chaired a brainstorming session in order to extract the best ideas from the team leadership. They sat for several hours, thinking through the plan, and at the end of it they had a good workable concept that crucially had buy in from everyone. They had all had their say, and they all had all contributed their input. Some ideas had been put to the side, others adopted, but all could see the pros and cons and the ‘why’.

  Jack dismissed the leadership to start passing out the warning order to initiate movement. He sat with Jim and refined the plan, both of them looking at the operational concept and the practical logistics. Once they were done, they passed out the time of the orders group.

  Jim headed out to see to the ammo, vehicles and logistics of the operation. Andrew was visiting and Jack had him help construct a scale model of the town of Harrisonburg in the briefing area. They showed a general representation of the town, with the main roads and key features represented and labeled.

  Later that night, Jack gave his verbal orders. He had arranged a seating plan around the briefing area for the whole Company, with the fighters sat clustered in their various elements, as organized for the coming task. This was a case of the Company coming together to concentrate force for a company sized operation.

  Caleb’s platoon was designated as 1st Platoon. Jack had designated the other two infantry platoons as the 2nd and 3rd Platoons, with the mortar and machine-gun squads designated to the fire support platoon.

  Jack gave verbal orders. It was important that the Company in its entirety sat to hear them. It ensured that they were all on the same page and fully understood the mission. It was a chance for Jack to apply his leadership and inspire them with the plan. It was also an opportunity for questions and clarification.

  Jack followed the standard process. He covered the situation, going over what he knew of Intel on the enemy and also friendly forces. He outlined the task organization of the Company for this mission, which corroborated with the seating plan.

  Next was the mission, which was the task they would complete along with a unifying purpose, which allowed the exercise of mission command – if the situation changed, the fighters knew the ‘why’ of the mission, and could therefore adapt in the absence of specific orders.

  Next was the concept of the operation, including his intent and scheme of maneuver. Jack had the Company organized into three maneuver platoons that would conduct the delaying operation, falling back through the town, as well as the fire support element. The mortar squads would deploy in the three dump trucks to provide a mobile base of indirect fire, while the machine-gun squads would man the technicals, primarily in an air defense role.

  There were small groups designated for ancillary tasks; for instance there was a ‘smoke team’ responsible for the burning of the drum and tire fires, and also select buildin
gs, in order to mask the battlefield with thermal smoke.

  The broad concept was to fight back to the north west from the I-81, towards the old quarter of the town, before dispersing and exfiltrating back into the hills and forests to the west. The I-81 ran through the center of the valley from the north east to south west. It ran through Harrisonburg, cutting off a small portion to the south east, which part Jack was not concerned with.

  It was approximately three kilometers from the 1-81 to the center of the town. Closest to the interstate it was mainly residential housing with small shopping areas, before the main commercial district in the center of town, characterized by taller and more solidly built buildings. Out beyond the town center to the north west were a series of industrial complexes, including several very tall granary buildings.

  Jack had made an assumption that to move the battle group through the valley to Harrisonburg, the Regime would likely use the I-81, and would therefore likely plan to begin their clearance from a position along it. It was important that the defense remained flexible, maintaining OPs to give early warning and allow the defensive forces and ambushes to react to the direction of enemy approach.

  Each platoon would therefore operate independently but under Jacks coordination, providing its own OPs and recon teams, organizing into squads to provide a mobile area defense to fall back through the allocated sectors via a series of phase lines.

  The mortars would be operating in their mobile fire bases from multiple positions to the north west of the town, guided by the mortar fire controllers (MFCs) allocated to high points, likely concealed on top of the granaries to give them over-watch of the battlefield.

  The air defense technicals would be similarly organized, but further forward and coordinated by fire controllers. The idea was that the technicals would remain concealed and dispersed as much as possible, moving out from cover when there was a target to engage.