To Enter Hell and Get Back!, the story of a man, a career, and a war Options

[Svea Rike]

It was a sunny day, that very special day in 2019. "70th years", he thought to himself. "70th years indeed". The young and enthusiastic Xing Chen hopped down from his bunk bed in the small but convenient Barracks in the Beijing fort. Today was going to be a good day, as it was the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Chen zipped into his uniform, grabbed his standard-issue bolt-action rifle and proceeded to go out on the large courtyard in the fort. His platoon had already gathered, and the commanding officer stood atop a Type-171 'Dragon' tank. Chen and the rest of his platoon formed together, as they were going to do the final rehearsal before the real thing. Chen's platoon was going to perform combat maneuvers, military marches and salute-fires for the audience after the parade had finished. Beyond the urban buildings he could hear the boots marching, the engines steaming and the people cheering. The finely tuned parade music was like an angel's voice to Chen's ears.

Suddenly, Chen and the rest of the platoon turned their heads towards the parade grounds as they heard what could be an explosion. Seconds later, another explosion. The people now screamed, as they heard gunfire as well. The radio suddenly crackled: "GLA ambush, all units; return fire!" The GLA? That little troublemaker gang in the Middle East? How could they even dare to attack the People's Republic on a day like this, and in the center of the heart for that matter? It was preposterous. The commanding officer ordered the platoon to make ready as they moved in and destroyed the attackers. Chen had just taken a step forward when the sky was lit with the most eye-tearing light. Chen was deafened by the sound that seemed to be the devil himself laughing. Milliseconds later, Chen was pushed to the ground by an immense shockwave, and a burning heat hit his body. Chen crouched together, held his ears and closed his eyes tightly. What was this?

The heat then disappeared, and Chen dared to open his eyes. He was stunned by the image he saw in front of him; a mushroom cloud rising above the charred remains of the Forbidden City. The GLA... Chen boiled with fury, hate and anger, as he now had one and only enemy he would be hunting for the rest of his life. The commander officer got his senses back, and ordered the platoon to move forward and "destroy everything non-Chinese". The commander shrunk back and cowered into his Dragon tank, which soon began to roll forward. Suddenly, the two bunkers protecting the fort were destroyed by car bombers. They then encountered a pair of modified jeeps with machineguns on the flatbed, spewing bullets at the Red Guards. The Dragon tanks immolated the trucks with their napalm-spewing flamethrower turrets. Chen moved to the front of the platoon, as he wanted to get to kill supporters of the GLA first hand.

The platoon got to a bridge, where the commanding officer's Dragon tank got blown up by a turret on an underground entrance of some sort. The platoon was reinforced with six Type-59 'Battlemaster' tanks that had survived the nuclear blast, which soon ripped the tunnel network apart and secured the bridge. Chen moved at the front of the platoon, and across the river, he could see a GLA squad moving forward, reinforced with tanks. Chen's radio crackled: "Tiger Wing inbound, stand back!" Chen smiled and looked behind him where he saw the famed Tiger Wing squadron, who were supposed to perform an air show after the parade, drop their napalm-loaded missiles on the terrorist motorcade. The skeletons of the terrorist's bodies and vehicles burned and crumpled together in a pile as Chen laughed at the scene.

The platoon moved forward, spearheaded by the Battlemasters with Chen right behind them. The Battlemasters fired upon the GLA defenders on the top of the hill, however, a nest full of anti-tank armed soldiers aimed at them. Chen ran forward, jumped into the nest and cut the terrorist's bodies open with his rifle-mounted bayonet. He then aimed and took a shot at some more terrorists until the platoon got to the nuclear bunker where the GLA had stolen the nuke from. Chen fired his rifle on the bunker, as it had been cursed by the touch of the Global Liberation Army, and the remaining platoon did the same. Soon the bunker was destroyed and the rest of Beijing was safe from nuclear threat, but the war was far from over. Chen had no idea what awaited him, but he's damn sure he'll be ready for anything.

[MARS]

This all seems quite appropriate from an in-universe perspective. I like how you added in references to the scripted events of the actual mission too.

That aside, I've recently had an idea how we could actually explain the odd 'Chinese 'Red Guards' with revolution era uniforms and old rifles' mystery and it might work quite well within the ROTR setting. Stay tuned.

[flyingpancake]

Good read i enjoyed it , Didn't the Chinese used semi automatic rifles instead of bolt action though?

[Svea Rike]

Good read i enjoyed it , Didn't the Chinese used semi automatic rifles instead of bolt action though?

Not in Generals

EDIT: Wups, I thought you said full auto, silly me. But yeah, maybe they are semi-auto instead of bolt. @MARS, let me guess, budget cuts from the nuclear disaster in 2014?

This post has been edited by swedishplayer-97: 15 May 2013, 19:27

[MARS]

I won't give out my exact idea at this time, but it's going to be more interesting/less mundane than just budget cuts. We've used those as a handwave for the lack of USA sci-fi weapons and one of the reasons for the incompetence of the EU militaries during the GLA attack. We're not going to overstretch them as a plot device. As for the weapons, our official statement is that the Red Guards use a Chinese variant of the Soviet SKS semi-auto rifle, also known as the Type-56. Note that these don't strictly have to be the same rifles they produced decades ago though.

[Svea Rike]

Chen held on to the handrails in the wagon. The train was heading in at full speed. How the GLA managed to attack and capture of the Hong Kong convention center baffles the high command in China, although many agree that the terrorist already had their soldiers inside the convention center before the Chinese declared war. Chen was part of reinforcement's team sent in by the Anvil to assist the Chinese forces in Hong Kong since most of their army had been destroyed while crossing the Tsing Ma-bridge. The radio crackled: "We are lucky to be alive, they will regret this." Chen grew even more tiresome of the GLA now, having blown up an iconic landmark. Have they no honor, or decency for that matter? Chen loved architecture, and he'll make sure the GLA will pay for that bridge with their blood.

Suddenly, the train approached the station. It was going way too fast to stop and unload the troops, so Chen and his squad had to jump. "Get off the tracks!" the squad leading Red Guard yelled. Chen jumped and landed on the concrete with a thud, did a somersault and stood up. The squad exited the station and was greeted by a Chinese officer. "We need you to take care of a supposed chemical production facility further into the city." the officer said. "This Dragon tank will assist you." Chen wondered what that strange looking factory they saw from the wagon was. Behind the officer, a construction crew was constructing a fortification for defense of the forward operating base. Further back he could see a ferry. He wondered if that could be of any use.

Nonetheless, the squad move out and Chen was in the front as usual. He loved to be in charge; maybe he would lead an army of his own in the future? Wild fantasies for Chen, but he knew he was just a plain old Red Guard among thousands of others. Why would they promote him? The Dragon tank in the front was suddenly hit by an RPG, but the tough armor could withstand it. The RPG came from a building to the left, Chen pointed out, and the Dragon tank responded with torching the building and burning anyone inside. Sane civilians would've left the island hours ago, so no unnecessary casualties. Further down the road, what looked like a tractor rolled out onto the street, positioning itself face to face with the Dragon tank. Chen and most of the squad laughed, a puny tractor? Is that all the GLA can afford? But then, the tractor opened a valve and sprayed some sort of green liquid at the Dragon tank. Some of it splattered on a Red Guard in the squad, and he screamed out in pain. There was no medic nearby and the Red Guard fell to the ground, covering his face in pain. The Dragon tank destroyed the tractor with the new 'black napalm' while the wounded Red Guard was brought back to the base for medical attention. Toxins; did the GLA have those? Chen now started to fear them just a little, considering he has no chemical suit.

The Dragon tank and the squad entered the facility, and there were an Arabic-looking structure in the yard. The Dragon tank destroyed it with flames while Chen moved across the street to take a look at the convention center. The entire thing was like a fortress, sandbags blocking the entrances, barbed wire on the windows and it seemed as if cars exited the parking structures in rows, speeding towards the base. Suddenly, Chen turned around to an explosion, and saw the pharmaceutical factory in the yard was collapsing, spewing out toxins all over the place. He saw his fellow Guards getting drenched in blue, hazardous liquids. Chen backed away, and the Dragon tank seemed to corrode extremely fast in the sea of anthrax. What sick stuff does the GLA do with toxins? Chen was left alone with only one option; go back to base for new orders.

Back at the FOB, an officer instructed Chen to join a squad boarding the ferry. Just what Chen had expected them to do. Chen boarded the ferry, placing himself in the front amongst some other soldiers. The ferry swayed back and forth on the waves, and Chen now realized he didn't enjoy them. He almost felt seasick. Luckily, the ferry came to a halt, and the tanks rolled out onto the small peninsula where the convention center was located. Then, all hell broke loose. Tanks fired, soldiers were shouting and Chen was taking aim and killing terrorists. A car speeded towards a Battlemaster tank and blew up, taking the tank with it. Car bombers; nasty freaks. Even though bullets were whizzing by every second, Chen and some other Red Guards and Tank Hunters managed to make it to an entrance into the center. They breached the door and opened fire on the occupiers. Soon enough, a Tank Hunter accidentally hit a support beam, and the entire structure started to shake. The structural integrity has been lost; the entire thing could collapse at any moment. The tanks outside didn't know that, and as soon as one of them missed a technical speeding by, it hit the wall of the center. Chen barely made it out alive before the structure crumpled into a pile of rubble.

Chen couldn't believe it, two famous landmarks had been destroyed, one by them even, and downtown Hong Kong was intoxicated for at least ten years. Chen's hatred for the GLA grew, he was going to ensure no more structures of value would be destroyed; he was very, very wrong.

[Svea Rike]

Chen was awoken by a large explosion. He heard sirens, screams and gunfire. As quickly as ever, he grabbed his rifle, stepped into his combat boots and rushed out of the small barracks in the camp. Outside, he saw the GLA had surprise attacked their camp, and most Chinese are retreating. Chen wanted to stay and fight, but one of his Red Guard companions forced him into a Troop Crawler that was hastily leaving. Chen didn't even make it to his seat before he tumbled to the ground because of the rapid start of the Crawler. "What are we doing?" Chen asked. "We must stay and fight!" His partners explained that the GLA had in secret constructed a forward operations base near the village beyond the Three Gorges Dam. Chen usually wasn't surprised to hear about bases being constructed in secrecy, but right next to the Three Gorges Dam? How does the GLA do it? Over the radio, Chen and his companions could hear a woman: "All forces retreat to the dam, I have a plan." That sounded like one of those female hacker-soldiers, Black Lemon, or whatever they were called.

The short journey was brought to an abrupt stop as the caravan of Chinese forces had stopped on top of the hill. Chen was the first to exit the Crawler. Down the valley he could see the GLA forces ransacking the base and looting whatever valuable item they could find. They were presumebly prepairing for a second assault. Then, the woman Chen heard on the radio stepped forward to brief the Red Guards on her plan. She was dressed in black leather with a PLA-service shirt underneath the jacket, usually given to civilian military personnel or soldiers not really part of the regular army. She also carried a briefcase with some sort of antenna sticking out. Was that a radio transmitter? A bit too large to be one. Chen's thoughts were interrupted as he heard one thing: "We'll blow the dam, flooding the valley." Chen's eyes widened. 'Blow the dam?' That had got to be the worst plan Chen had ever heard. If he was in command, he'd send the soldiers down to fight the rebels first hand.

But Chen's cries of complaint were silent, as the woman ordered the tanks to open fire on the marvelous construction. In almost no time, the concrete cracked and the water started pouring through. Chen didn't want to look, but he could hear it. The massive wave roared down the valley. The GLA soldiers stood silent, shocked and confused, what on Earth was going on? It was like the flood had happened a second time. The wave crushed the remaining Chinese buildings and swallowed the GLA whole. The strong stone bridge was thrown on its side by the immense force of the water. Chen turned around when he heard the water calm down, but he could hear the sound of a waterfall. He saw a huge hole in the middle of the dam, and water was running through. Chen filled with anger, two famous Chinese landmarks had been destroyed by China! The Black Locust agent quickly ordered a base to be constructed, because on the other side of the shrinking river there were GLA forces massing.

Chen helped construct a supply center. He knew nearly nothing of constructing a building, he only liked looking at them. But soon, the supply center was built with a little help by a second dozer they found further down the road. That Black Loafy agent had captured an oil derrick and oil refinery using her briefcase. Chen had no idea how that worked, but he didn't care. Within a few hours, an FOB had been constructed and vehicles had started assembly. The river was soon shallow enough to cross. Chen had tried to pull a few shots on the GLA across the river, but it was too far. He could only see his bullets hitting the water just a couple of meters short of the shoreline. The Black Lobotomy agent had now briefed them on their plan of taking down the enemy's base, and Chen liked it: just attack, attack and attack. Luckily Chen would receive air support, but he just hoped he would get to kill some terrorists.

Soon the river was shallow enough to cross. The Chines and GLA tanks rolled into the water, meeting in the middle. A big battle ensued in the river. It took some time before the infantry could move through because the waterlevel was just a bit too high. But Chen couldn't wait. He rushed into the water and swam to one of the Chinese tanks. He jumped on top of it, and then on to a GLA tank. The tank was very old, so the hatch was easy to open. He lobbed a few grenades down, jumped off and watched as the tank exploded from the inside. The waterlevel was now low enough for infantry to pass, so the Red Guards moved through. The GLA also moved in, but they were quickly destroyed by MiGs. Looks liked they were necessary after all.

In a few minutes the Chinese had move into the town. It was littered with GLA rebels. Every building had to be searched before they could move forward. Chen witnessed as a Battlemaster was blown into two pieces by a couple of RPG shots. Chen cleared every building he got to, one by one, the terrorists were brought out on the streets were they were immolated by Dragon tanks. Chen and the battalion were only a couple of hundred meters from the GLA base. He could see MiGs continously flying in and out, dropping napalm-tipped missiles into their base. "Wouldn't it be better to load them with shrapnel rounds and load bombs with napalm instead?" Chen wondered. But anyway, the battalion had now reached the GLA's base. They had a toxin production facility hear, just like they had in Hong Kong. He could not let the toxin destroy the surrounding farmland, but he saw rebels moving into the structure carrying explosives. Without a doubt, he sprinted to the entrance, knocking it down. Inside, the GLA were prepairing a bomb! Chen quickly killed the rebels, but the bomb had already been armed. Was he forced to disable it? Wait a minute, that Black Leech agent might be able to! She must know how. Chen called the agent, and soon she was inside with the bomb. With almost no difficulties, she disabled the detonation device with her briefcase. How does she do it?

Outside, the battle had been won and the base exterminated. But Chen couldn't get over the feeling that they hadn't won, since the number one energy provider in China had been destoyed. Maybe they would have to focus more on nuclear power, he had heard of a large nuclear reactor being constructed in central China. The Black Lorry agent approached Chen. "Private Chen?" she asked. "Yes, ma'am?" Chen replied. "I witnessed your actions today, and we would like to acquire your services in a daring mission around the Yangtze River. Are you up for it?" "If it involves destroying more of the GLA, count me in!"