Firestorm: Sudan

[♠Spade♠]

"What is there to say? Compass values efficiency and their profits above all else, EIDS is almost certainly an intelligence agency front company, EO are still giving mercenaries a bad name just like they have for the past few decades, and I'm half convinced the Russians are just here as an excuse to get drunk and blow stuff up. None of the mercenaries actually care about the people here." --Anonymous aid worker in Darfur.




After flying commercial into Cairo, you boarded a C130, trading flight attendants and reclining chairs for loadmasters and seats of canvas netting. You are pulled back to the present by a momentary feeling of weightlessness as the cargo plane seems to plummet from the sky for several long seconds. Then you are pressed into your "seats" as the craft levels out again. One of the loadmasters speaks into his headset before relaying the information to you. He is barely audible over the noise of the powerful turboprop engines echoing in the unpressurized cargo bay. "The pilot apologizes but he was trying to squeeze out some more speed!" the man yells. "There's a big sandstorm rolling in, and we want to be on the ground before it reaches the base!" The rest of teh flight and the landing are thankfully uneventful and you disembark onto a busy flightline. Everywhere you look, people are scrambling to get aircraft into hangers or covered under tarps. At the end of the runway, you can clearly see why.



A beat up Land Rover pulls up nearby and the driver waves at you to get in. After all of you do, he introduces himself as Taggarty, a Brit in the service of EIDS. He then floors it away from the flightline and towards the rest of the base. "Fresh blood, eh? Welcome to BFE. Since you probably have no bleeding idea what's going on, I'll fill you in. I tell you, it's bloody criminal that PMCs can send pilots over here without bloody telling them anything. In a nutshell, Sudan is heating up and unless something is done, it will boil over." He pauses just long enough to make a right hand turn about twenty miles faster than he should have. "A few months ago somebody overran a couple of military outposts in Chad, killed some soldiers and then bloody well burned a village to the ground. Normally, these rebels or freedom fighters or whathaveyou are bloody clambering over each other to claim responsibility. This time, nobody did, so Chad blames Sudan and is becoming actively involved in that mess in Darfur." He finally slowed the SUV to a reasonable speed as he pulled into a complex of office buildings. "To the east, Eritrea is losing what little control it had over the terrorist organizations within it's borders, so there's a few raids across the border in one direction or another. To the south it looked like things were going ot get messy with South Sudan again, but they've had the sense to try talking things out first. Other than that, there's the occasional incursion from Libya, though the locals tell me the frequency of occurrences fell off dramatically after the ousting of Qaddafi."

Taggarty finally parked the vehicle outside a building with signage indicating it belonged to Compass ISS. "One last bit of advice lads, watch your back around a Russki flight piloting F-111s calling themselves The Horsemen. Stay as far away from them as you can. That lot is trouble."

[RandomLunatic]

Ysmir stiffened as Taggerty mentioned the Libyan Civil War. This posting was a little uncomfortably close to home. Technically, he had not been a member of Qaddafi's government, but the transitional council did not seem too keen on making that distinction.

As the rover screeched to a halt, he summarized the entire ride, "So everybody hate each other and watch Russians. Thanks." Like that was news. Gathering his effects, he leaped out of the vehicle and ran for door, trying to beat the sand in.

[Erik Vale]

Alex smiles as he hops out.

"Thanks for the warning."

Unlike Ysmir, Alex walks to the door, uncaring about the aproaching sandstorm.

[Nibleswick]

Bill gives one quick laugh as he piles out of the truck. "See ya 'round Taggerty, thanks for the ride."

After he gets out he stands around for a moment stretching out after being cramped into various vehicles for so long. Lookin' at the storm comin he grins and says, "Sheoot that is Impressive."

"Well, let's go meet the boss man."

[Binks]

Robert remains silent during the ride over to the Compass building, deciding to leave the social niceties to the Flight Leader as he stares at the dust storm on the horizon.

Rushing inside with Ysmir he adds one comment at the door before entering. "Quite the stormy situation here lads, innit." he says, his tone making it clear he's not just talking about the approaching dust cloud.

[jaybird]

Han remains silent, only moving to adjust his sunglasses once in a while through the entire trip. As the squadron disembarks the land rover, his ears perk up at the mention of the seemingly infamous Russians. "There is little challenge in blowing up dirt farmers and militiamen. I have trained with Russians before. Just like their ex-comrades, these Horsemen will lose the moment they point their guns at my pride." Without further ado, he follows the rest of the squadron indoors, wincing slightly at the stinging wind.

[Clarkson]

Fred Wakes up. He nearly falls out of the car and runs inside just beating the sandstorm.

[RandomLunatic]

In reply to Robert's comment, Ysmir shrugged. "Not being paid to look pretty in parade." With a grin, he added, "Lucky for you."

[Clarkson]

Hey. You're going to regret that comment. Did I just mouth off torward my flight comander? Fred looks around in a panic and then trys to slide into his comerades.

[Binks]

Robert chuckles as the group enters the building. "Never without a good comeback are ye?" he says to Ysmir with a smile.

[♠Spade♠]

The interior of the building is marginally cooler than outside. You can hear the buildings air conditioners struggle to maintain the current temperature and every desk you can see has a small oscillating fan on it. Near the front doors you walk through is a large desk with a receptionist and beyond looks like nothing so much as a cube farm sans cubicles. The receptionist in this case appears to be a fit looking middle-aged man looking ill at ease in a suit. He seems hyper-alert and practically has SAS written all over him. Upon your entrance he picks up a phone and speaks into it briefly. Almost immediately, younger woman also wearing a suit walks out from a side door. Waiting for you to approach, she glances at all of you before nodding. "Please follow me." Turning on her heel, she walks back the way she came, not bothering to check if you are following her.

The short hallway leads to a room holding a half dozen desks and a magnetic whiteboard. As you enter, the woman says "Please wait here. Someone will meet with you shortly." before she leaves again.

[Binks]

Robert grabs a seat at one of the decks, sitting at military attention out of force of habit from having been in many rooms like this one during his service time. "Well...this is fun. Rather suspicious looking bloke out front, I'd say either current or former spec-ops." he says, trying to make conversation to pass the time while the group waits.

[Clarkson]

Fred sits down and then looks around. What is all this stuff?

[Nibleswick]

This must be the briefin' room, or so I espect. Oh, an' I'm sure that fine gentleman out front wouldn't hurt a fly." says William with a twinkle in his eye and a slight grin.

He meanders around the room a little looking at things till he finds a comfy bit of wall he can lean against while he waits.

[RandomLunatic]

"Bet he hurt local riff-raff," Ysmir said, kneeling next to one of the desks and using an unpainted metal part as an impromptu mirror to adjust his collar andm ake himself look more presentable.

[♠Spade♠]

A few minutes pass by and you can hear the wind scream beyond the walls of the building. Finally, a heavyset man who appears to fit the career bureaucrat stereotype to a tee. Dabbing at the sweat on his balding head he pants a little, as though having rushed there. "I'm Dietrich Grubber, Compass' liaison with the governments of Egypt and Sudan. Your control officer should be along shortly, but has been delayed. In the meantime I will try to answer any questions you may have?"

[Binks]

"Nice to meet you Dietrich. Name's Robert Mcgregory." Robert says, trying to be polite to the man as it never hurts to make a good impression with the 'crats.

"What's keeping the officer? Doesn't seem like there would be much to do in a storm like this..."

[Clarkson]

I can't wait!

[Nibleswick]

Heh, I know how feel. So the real question I have is when do we see our birds?

[jaybird]

"It is good to meet you, Dietrich," Han nods, eyeing him over and attempting to tell if there's anything else to the man. "I would like to know something. On our way over here, we were informed of a seemingly notorious Russian squadron. Might I ask who they are working for, both in terms of their employers and the nation concerned?"

[♠Spade♠]

Dietrich frowns as he answers Roberts question. "I don't know, probably avoiding the necessary paperwork inherent to his job." You get the impression that he doesn't like the tardy officer. Responding to Bill's question, he says "That's not really my purview, but you will likely have to wait until after the storm blows through. As for the Horsemen," he continues, looking at Han, "they work for Орёл. All mercenaries at this base are in the employ of the Sudanese government, if only by proxy."

At that moment another man enters the room. He's a little on the short side and maybe carrying some extra weight, with gray hair and a lined face. He and Dietrich stare daggers at one another for a brief moment before the newcomer addresses you. "Gentleman, my name is Lars Ulrich and I will be your control officer for the duration of your stay here, so long as you remain in our employment. Usually there will be a selection of sorties for you to choose from, while occasionally you will be given a mission you will be required to fly. Your first assignment will be one such mission."

He passes out some maps before continuing. "This is Koulbous, in the Darfur region and just inside the Sudanese border. These two compounds are believed to belong to an anti-government rebel organization called the Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM. Your task is to destroy those two compounds, after which friendly ground forces will move in to mop up. Enemy air defenses are expected too be light, probably nothing more than MANPADS, but hostile aircraft could be in the vicinity."

[Binks]

"Right then. Ground sortie with possible man-portable SAMs and light if any air defense. Sounds...almost a bit too easy actually. Do they have anything in the way of a radar net? Will they see us coming?" Robert asks, still trying to be polite and courteous to his employers but clearly unprepared for the low difficulty the task appears to have.

"And what are these buildings to the West? Is that a town of some sorts? Just curious what we need to worry about once we get there."

[♠Spade♠]

"We aren't aware of any radar equipment there, no." Lars gestures to the western buildings, "That would be the town of Koulbous, itself. It's proximity to the border makes it extremely likely to see an incursion from the Chad Air Force during your mission."

[Clarkson]

So watch for Chad, Blow up the primary target, blow up the secondary target. Don't blow up anything else. Then get back here. That about right?

[♠Spade♠]

Lars nods. "In a nutshell, though we would like you to at least remain on station until friendly ground forces make it to the target sites."

[RandomLunatic]

Ysmir studied the map for a moment, then asked, "What planes do Chad have? How far away? And any friendly aircraft in area?"

[♠Spade♠]

"Chad's combat capable air force is mostly rotary craft although did acquire a half dozen SU-25s from Ukraine. They are relying on mercenaries for most offensive tasks. As to their location, we are unsure at this time." Pausing fora moment to think, Lars continues "There are no friendly aircraft scheduled to be in the area."

[RandomLunatic]

Ysmir nodded, then continued. "How weather? And how much we being paid?"

[jaybird]

Han raises an eyebrow. "Then we are cleared to, ah, clear the skies? Ground attack aircraft should not prove too great of a challenge. The concern is what could be hidden in that town." He runs his hand in a circle around the eastern portion of the town. "I am aware that you would prefer no civilian casualties. What is the policy on fire from within the town itself?"

[Nibleswick]

I would say thet if we we come at the targets directly from the North or South we should be able to avoid thet issue entirely.