Chaos erupted all around them, what little respite they HAD was gone in an instant! The dead and dying lay all around them, both friendly and enemy. He quickly looked to the squad mates closest to him, "Hey grab one of my grenades! We need to keep them off us so we can get clear!" He pulled the pin on one of his grenades and quickly tossed it over his cover. He couldn't throw it at anything in particular because of the withering fire they were under, with any luck it would slow their advance enough to get them clear. "Hope this gives us an option to run!" He prepped himself to run as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
Ferdinand could only curse at how badly the situation turned in such a short amount of time. First they lost the gate house and now two of his squad members lay injured from enemy fire. If he wasn't careful he would die here hell even if he was he might die anyways and he could forget about that journal. He adjusted his mail coif and readied himself for the possibility of death as other squad members started to act on their instincts. Suppressing the advance was good idea and the smoke their marksman just threw would indeed help their retreat so he took his pistol and added to the squads fire. "Kommen Schweinehundeist alles das Verrotten Reich aufbringen können!" He screamed at the charging imperial troops knowing that everyone around him probably didn't understand a single word he just said. This was most assuredly going to be a long day for everyone, aside from those lucky enough to die within the first few seconds. (ooc adding to the supressing fire and staying put to avoid injury)
Advancing slowly with alternating swiftness as each flank supported the other despite the withering hail of lead and razor shards from the close ranged detonations, the steely shapes of Empire soldiers inched closer and closer with each passing second. While their advance was not as aggressive as it had been before, it was only a matter of moments before the first ranks would sweep over the damaged barricades and burning concourse to overwhelm them. Corpses, allied and enemy littered the area and the approach was slowly beginning to turn into a viscous muddy quagmire as blood and viscera pooled in ever increasing amounts down the lazy decline from the ramparts ascent towards the main fortress. While many of the other forces had already retreated towards the fortress, there was little hope for the rest of them stuck out here as the first grenadier vaulted over the sandbag in front of Ferdinand even as his rounds landed around. Sweeping underneath them as the soldier lost his footing both out of sheer unfortunate circumstances, he managed to evade the close ranged shots while simultaneously rolling right up to Ferdinand's feet. Raising a wicked trench axe, the grenadier barely missed Ferdinand with the swing being enough to cause both to again fall back into the ground as the weak footing from the streams of blood muddied the dust and sand of the coastal wall. Landing on top of each other, the two began to roll across the ground almost comically swinging punches and blows from their weapons in an attempt to gain an upper hand. Just as one seemed to get the upper hand, a stray bullet or body landed close by evening the odds for both once again... Watching the two out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth fired a shot into an advancing grenadier who was attempting to do the same to Ferdinand and as the bastard fell back from the impact, wounded but not dead, the smoke grenade finally detonated creating large puffs of chemical rich air. Almost as soon as the assault had washed over their ranks, the smokes eerie tendrils wrapped around them and engulfed the approach in thick, impenetrable waves of chemical smog like an oceans relentless advance against a beach. The Empires advance rapidly came to a halt as their forward lines became unsure of their position or even that of the enemies and seeing an opportunity, Sergeant Bakerson and Elizabeth grabbed Arminius and began dragging his unconscious form towards the relative safety of the fortress walls. Without turning back, Bakerson began to scream for any survivors to rally towards his voice even as stray rounds exited from the smoke in an attempt to pinpoint the source which were met with a volley of supporting fire as allied Principality soldiers on the main wall began to fire. Up ahead, a pair of massive twin-linked anti-aircraft guns swiveled slowly into position and with almost slow motion, the deadly barrels pointed towards them or at least appeared to. In the distance the gun crew rapidly calibrated and fine tuned the large heavy gun for the ground targets and after several seconds of fussing over the turning wheels to ensure they were locked on target, the 80mm heavy autocannon opened fire. Like a banshee, the massive guns rotary cannons began to chug dozens of high explosive rounds down on the approach over the heads of Squad Hammer-fell dangerously close and in many instances the rounds whizzed by with ear-drum breaking speed causing minor shell shock. Shapes within the smoke cloud began to appear as each detonation and round that spiraled through pulled the smoldering invisible currents with them revealing the Empires shattered advance. The first wave was absolutely decimated as several dozen of their comrades were hit. Those directly impacted simply ceased to exist as the rounds shredded them worst than wet paper in a hurricane and even the ones that were on the outskirt were pelted with a razor storm of shrapnel and concussive bursts which pulped organs and shredded flesh and armour from limbs. Looking back as the fortresses massive gate loomed ahead, Bakerson took stock of who was left and grimaced. While the squad was very much in a bad shape, everyone still appeared to be alive...somewhat...and even Ferdinand's bloodied form, uniform peppered with holes from shrapnel but somehow miraculously whole and seemingly intact could be seen in the rear sprinting for dear life to catch up. Yet somehow even as he passed through the heavy walls of the gatehouse, something nagged at the back of his gut...a deep resonating sound that seemed familiar but one that the Sergeant couldn't place on but which faintly grew stronger with each passing moment... @TuskatheDaemonKilla You suffer a wound from the brawl but manage to somehow escape. All players of the squad have an opening to "make like a tree and get the fuck out of here". Your new objective is to stabilize your two wounded members stat and take up firing positions on the curtain wall to repel the next wave of attackers. You are allowed to restock on ammunition and grenades or swap out your current weapon for one of the exact same type of weapon ie: common rifle for a common rifle or uncommon lmg for an uncommon lmg that is of Principality or CAS origin.
Emile had hit the deck when the AA guns had opened fire onto Empire Soldiers, one of the shells whizzing near him turning a grenadier who'd alnost made it through the chemical haze to a red mist . Emile quickly ran over and grabbd Mikael @GoreWrencha " hang in there mon ami , ive got you" Emile pulled Mikael up and start carrying the badly wounded man back to the fortress "come on doc , stay with me ".As Emile arrived at the fortress he started searching for an apothercary "APOTHERCARY ! WE NEED AN APOTHERCARY OVER HERE !" He layed Mikael along side the other wounded before running off to the armoury . " hmm so many guns so many Empire dogs but i can only carry a few guns..." Emile left behind his old rifle for a hickins ME1869 and traded his ammo box of 7.7x56mm ammo for a box of 7.62x63mm ammo. He then went back to attempting to find someone to heal the squads wounded
The opening he had waited for finally presented itself as the guns were brought to bear danger close on the enemy. The sound and volume of fire was deafening. John sprinted into the gate as the others dragged in the wounded. There was not much he could do to help them with out slowing the evac process. Once inside he immediately began looking for an apothecary. "MEDIC WE NEED A MEDIC OVER HERE!" He shouted as he made his way through the crowded courtyard of the fortress. It was nearly impossible to see the apothecaries as the other Soldiers ran to prepare the defenses. As he ran through the area on his search he managed to pick up replacement ammo and grenades, as well as extra ammo because he was unsure when they would receive a resupply.
After the smoke grenade finally built enough smoke in the area and Bakerson's voice shouting over the din of fire, Eva stood up and ran for the fortress gates. When the anti aircraft guns opened up on the Imperial advance behind her, she ducked her head on reflex as the rounds whizzed rather too close for comfort before shredding apart infantry. "Setting up the big gun!" she shouted out after getting through the gates and people already doing their best to aide Mikael and find an apothecary. She unshouldered her AT rifle while heading up the stairs to the crenelations to take position. It might not be the most favorable spot to her, but it should give her a good field of fire if anything serious rolls up to meet them soon.
The engine grease, mud and blood covered body of Mikael lays unconscious among other bodies in similar condition, almost impossible to identify them from each other or make clear are they even alive anymore for matter of fact. Blood pools under the nigh-corpses and mixes with each others, slowly draining whatever direction is lower than the floor the wounded are left bleeding. First flies have already discovered the feast and buzz around, landing on the exposed tissue and open wounds. In the chaos most soldiers have dragged their fallen comrades and left them on their own, hoping that someone would take care of them while they return pushing back the invaders. With how common this mind set is, the few staying behind are over run with work many fold and simply cannot attend every ones wounds. Mikael, an anonymous body in sea of injured, keeps silently bleeding out, shock from alchemic backlash shutting him down.
Ferdinand practically dragged himself through the gates of the fortress, his uniform and armor dotted with holes from shrapnel and blood seeping through turning an already dirty uniform into a nearly unrecognizable mess. He barely made it out of that fight with some imperial soldoer, the bruises on his face and neck made it obvious enough that it was a brutal fight. If he had stayed in that fight for a few more seconds he would have been obliterated. That thought unnerved him even as a veteran he still feared death plenty as any sane person would and the added fact that it would have been friendly fire didn't help. As the gates closed and his vision was clearing he could see where his squad had ended up and ran over to them but noticed he couldn't understand a single thing they were saying. He could hear them fine but the words rung in an out of volume and mixed and mashed with other sounds making his head hurt. He could assume that was the result of being so close to the explosions and the lack of blood coming from his ears convinced him he wasn't deaf or at least not yet. He then noticed the two severely injured squad mates laying on the ground and knew that they needed to get a medic over here immediately. He opened his mouth and began to call out for a medic or apothecary to come to their position. While he couldn't hear the words he was saying he hoped that his brain could still comprehend the right sounds to make.
With the squad falling back from that attack, and two of them needing some medical right about now, Elizabeth bolted as fast as she could manage for the gates with Arminius in her arms as she didn't want to stick around on the wrong side of the walls for whoever was left to come at them next and have to protect while the gun went danger close and tore up the Empire soldiers hot on the squad's heels. Once she was inside the walls of the fortress and in a rather crowed courtyard, the Noble felt that a spot of resupplying was in order given the vagaries of if they'd have another time to take more supplies for their weapons. Still, there was the more important matter of the two comrades who were lying on death's doorstep so Shaw then took a moment to try spotting and calling over an Apothecary for the two more critically wounded before she left Arminius besides Mikael so that they were at least in the same place for the (hopeful) apothecary to find and tend to them. Having done that, Sernaos then got busy with nabbing more supplies, swiping two grenades from a opened crate of the little buggers for a rainy day, even if having an American Federation pistol meant that there wasn't any bullets lying around for it at all. Despite being slightly disappointed at the lack of spare ammo, she then headed up the stairs to man the walls for the (likely) next wave. Hopefully, this time everyone would be ready to beat back the Empire scum and hand them a drubbing rather than being caught with their metaphorical underwear down in a training exercise.
One of the last to sprint out the smoke, he immediately went to the armory and gathered himself two Mk3AN VI High Yield HE Grenades and refilled his ammo. Even snagging a couple extra magazines in case for his rifle. He followed Eva up to the top to find a similar spot to snipe the incoming imperials. He kept an eye out for any medics up here but he figured they would all be in the ward where their injured should be heading to. Once he found a good spot he stabilized himself and made sure he had cover as he started seeking targets.
