A Malevelon Creek Saga
Near our position, a few supply crates and a couple of almost depleted support weapons. We are deep inside the jungle with no patrols in sight for a long period of time.
We landed—three squads with a single mission: search and destroy. The Jammers of the enemy caused a miscalculation from the Super-Destroyer's Navigator side. We landed on a heavily defended enemy outpost. After a chaotic firefight that lasted for about 5 minutes, which felt like centuries, we dispersed in every direction.
Squad Alpha seemed pinned down in the distance and trying to move away as dropships were closing in, squad Beta moved across the tree line trying to provide suppressive fire. Our squad, squad Charlie was being chased by Clankers with a Factory Strider raining hell on our position, leaving us no other choice than retreating in the cover of the jungle.
Squad Alpha seemed pinned down in the distance and trying to move away as dropships were closing in, squad Beta moved across the tree line trying to provide suppressive fire. Our squad, squad Charlie was being chased by Clankers with a Factory Strider raining hell on our position, leaving us no other choice than retreating in the cover of the jungle.
As we retreat we keep shooting behind, while we see Eagles executing airstrikes in the distance, assuming the other two squads are getting out of this, the enemy swarms are thinning after hours of retreating, as we keep shooting.
We regroup at a relevantly safe spot, we are three Helldivers left, all Cadets, our Squad leader, Sergeant Kayvan didn't make it or is missing in action. We are taking care of our wounds and reloading our support weapons. I am the next in line to take the lead, the squad has a new Leader. The orders pass on to me; We have enough firepower to continue the mission.
The silence is eerie and we can only hear the sounds of the jungle while we carry on to coordinates of a known enemy intel objective, we can covertly obtain it without alerting the enemy. However on the way there we see a small camp, two sentries manning guns while one scanning the area along with an Uber-clanker, a Hulk, plus two Berserkers on sleep mode. The challenge here is to take them out silently, we cannot use stratagems in order to avoid unwanted attention.
After my signal one shoots the anti-tank on the hulk, while I throw a stun grenade towards the center of the camp. Success! Machinegun fire rains upon the enemy grouping, before the clankers have time to react, one trooper is raising their flaregun to call reinforcements! In the nick of time a headshot from Cadet Hus's marksman rifle stops the call-in. That was really close
Cadet Alexis, as he's reloading his AT-Recoilless: "Cadet Jon, we need to move fast, this might draw a patrol search party sooner or later". Me: "Yes, straight to the objective west of here - it's not far away".
And indeed the Escape Pod was lying among some bushes and trees. No enemy in sight, the upload is almost complete.
Not far away we detect an enemy outpost, one that possibly contains a crucial objective according to earlier mission briefing. Communication with our Super Destroyer is now possible, and we can hear squad Charlie from the radio being in intense firefight.
From the forest, heavy steps and binary chatter are becoming louder and louder, an enemy patrol!
"Get your stratagems ready, outpost first, patrol second!!"
Eagle strikes and orbital bombardment commence; however not well placed as we are not close to the outpost and the patrol calls in reinforcements while we try to suppress them with spray and pray volleys.
We get shot at from two directions, Hus deploys smoke grenades while I am running in panic for the launch codes, the orbital 120mm bombardment is still commencing, shells are exploding near me while a Tank spots me, its turret aiming at me... I get shell-shocked
Not sure where I am, or if it was a friendly shell or an Automaton cannon round...
Hus gets me up "LET'S GO, I got the codes!!!"
Last stratagem for Super Destroyer support so we can escape.. Gatling barrage.
As we run: "Squad Charlie, we got the codes, tell us your coordinates!!"
Chief Sergeant Kira: "Do NOT come to our position, we are being OVERRUN, stay in the jungle we are coming to you, we will regroup there and then...[Signal lost]"
We cannot go back to where we came from, so we let the rain of bullets take us where there is opening...To another direction within the jungle.
We regroup at a relevantly safe spot, we are three Helldivers left, all Cadets, our Squad leader, Sergeant Kayvan didn't make it or is missing in action. We are taking care of our wounds and reloading our support weapons. I am the next in line to take the lead, the squad has a new Leader. The orders pass on to me; We have enough firepower to continue the mission.
The silence is eerie and we can only hear the sounds of the jungle while we carry on to coordinates of a known enemy intel objective, we can covertly obtain it without alerting the enemy. However on the way there we see a small camp, two sentries manning guns while one scanning the area along with an Uber-clanker, a Hulk, plus two Berserkers on sleep mode. The challenge here is to take them out silently, we cannot use stratagems in order to avoid unwanted attention.
After my signal one shoots the anti-tank on the hulk, while I throw a stun grenade towards the center of the camp. Success! Machinegun fire rains upon the enemy grouping, before the clankers have time to react, one trooper is raising their flaregun to call reinforcements! In the nick of time a headshot from Cadet Hus's marksman rifle stops the call-in. That was really close
Cadet Alexis, as he's reloading his AT-Recoilless: "Cadet Jon, we need to move fast, this might draw a patrol search party sooner or later". Me: "Yes, straight to the objective west of here - it's not far away".
And indeed the Escape Pod was lying among some bushes and trees. No enemy in sight, the upload is almost complete.
Not far away we detect an enemy outpost, one that possibly contains a crucial objective according to earlier mission briefing. Communication with our Super Destroyer is now possible, and we can hear squad Charlie from the radio being in intense firefight.
From the forest, heavy steps and binary chatter are becoming louder and louder, an enemy patrol!
"Get your stratagems ready, outpost first, patrol second!!"
Eagle strikes and orbital bombardment commence; however not well placed as we are not close to the outpost and the patrol calls in reinforcements while we try to suppress them with spray and pray volleys.
We get shot at from two directions, Hus deploys smoke grenades while I am running in panic for the launch codes, the orbital 120mm bombardment is still commencing, shells are exploding near me while a Tank spots me, its turret aiming at me... I get shell-shocked
Not sure where I am, or if it was a friendly shell or an Automaton cannon round...
Hus gets me up "LET'S GO, I got the codes!!!"
Last stratagem for Super Destroyer support so we can escape.. Gatling barrage.
As we run: "Squad Charlie, we got the codes, tell us your coordinates!!"
Chief Sergeant Kira: "Do NOT come to our position, we are being OVERRUN, stay in the jungle we are coming to you, we will regroup there and then...[Signal lost]"
We cannot go back to where we came from, so we let the rain of bullets take us where there is opening...To another direction within the jungle.
After hours of fighting and hit and run from our side, the enemy hordes lose us again, and so does the Super Destroyer, the mission completion is no longer feasible..
As the night falls, one can only hear distant guns and flashes lighting up the sky, other Super Destroyers are struggling in the distance. We do not know if we're going to make it, extraction is no longer possible and we do not have enough ammo to even switch this into a suicide mission. We can only hope for a miracle.
At some point we hear a Super Destroyer Commander from the radio, but not ours, a new voice: "All squads from Platoon 5 of the 1st Company, if you're copying head to extraction immediately"
Suddenly there is hope, we scramble for one last push. The tropical jungle is full of patrols, however we hear guns blazing in the distance and even Eagle strafing runs.
We flank a platoon of Bots from behind and with our last remaining ammo we pick our shots.
Two full squads of Helldivers waiting for us in the tree line!
"You came for the rescue?"
"Yes and no, we came to finish the mission"
We follow them fighting our way north, up on a hill we see a SEAF artillery battery, getting hammered by Automaton counter-batteries, it is squad Beta, still alive. We provide suppressing fire for them so they can retreat towards us, behind them a whole Automaton army in full force...
The rescue squads call in a Shield Generator Relay on our position for squad Charlie to retreat in while we cover them
One rocket volley barrage blows at the backs of squad Charlie scattering them, one Helldiver is dead, leaving only two left, as the other one bled to death during the night.
Chief Sergeant Kira and Space Cadet Kutcher run in the bubble winded and out of breath: "RUN"
Two Super Destroyers cannot keep up the fire support as the enemies are endless.
We are slowly pushed all the way to extraction for hours, while Helldivers are dying one by one..
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| Artist: James Ross |
I am calling extraction as fast as I can, friendly turrets and artillery are exchanging fire with Hulks, Factory striders and Trooper platoons, finally the first Pelican is here.
Leader of what ended up being the rescue party: "You go first, Platoon 5, you are here longer than us."
Pelican-1 lands while providing suppressing fire.
Some chaos occurs, Me: "Which squad goes first?"
Before Chief Sergeant Kira from Squad Beta replies a Berserker closes in and cuts her in half with a brutal chainsaw swing
The remainder one and only squadie of Beta is shocked, we all are.. I rush him in the Pelican "Go, go, go!!"
The rest of my squad also scrambled in... A clanker grenade explodes next to the door of the Pelican, I am the last one to almost jump inside, the blast blows my limb off... The Squad Leader of the "rescue platoon" carries my unconscious body inside the Pelican, that is my last memory of Malevelon Creek
I am now a steeled veteran.
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