DoD War Report: Texas

Day 2,057, 20:24 • Published in USA USA • by USA Department of Defense
The following story is a firsthand account written by DoD war correspondent Ludo of the battle to retake Texas.

TEXAS, July 8, 2013 - Black rain coated the windshield as we made our way across the Texas countryside. A few days before the battle the Serbs had torched the oil wells crisscrossing Texas. It seemed designed to sour our Independence Day celebrations. Honestly it pissed us off more than anything.

Unburnt oil rained down, turning the ground to a foul soup and slowing our advance. It was early afternoon on July 6th. The plan had originally called for the 4th Division to insert by air during the night, the burning Texas oil fields changed that. An elaborate plan of attack by land, air and sea was thrown out mere hours before the attack, the conditions too dangerous.



Instead, we would hit by land and sea. A new administration in place, President Proteus instructed Tyler Buublar, Secretary of Media, to transmit a portion of the new plans across unsecured lines. With any luck the Serbs would turn to the Gulf, believing the attack to be coming from there. While the men and women of the 1st and 2nd Division kept them occupied on the coast, the crack squads of the 3rd and 4th would spring their trap. At depots across eastern Texas, from Harlingen on up to Beaumont, they mounted their stashed vehicles and under the cover of night begun to advance across occupied Texas toward the Serb positions along the coast. Desperate and running out of options, our leadership hoped the enemy would be so confident of their impending victory that they would be lax in their duties.



That's how I found myself riding in an open humvee through the oil and smoke. Our maps put us just a few miles out from the Serb positions. Silence came over us as we listened to first SecWar Deificus and then Proteus himself give their final words of hope and encouragement. Others have surely recorded what was said, I was too busy praying that my vest and helmet would be sufficient protection.

Suddenly we were through the smoke and the battle lay before us. I would later learn that the Serbs had mined the fields behind their positions, tipping them off to our advance on their rear. Though we lost many in the initial approach, the quick work of our brave soldiers gave us a number of clean routes towards the coast.

In the early hours of the engagement, time flew by and stood still. Hours passed in minutes and seconds seemed like days. A blow by blow account is sadly impossible, my mind only able to retain a few distinct and vivid memories.

Initially we overwhelmed the Serb defenders. Pressed from both sides, they were unable to hold our forces back as we closed in around them, threatening to cut them off in several places. Through binoculars i witnessed a mixed squad of SHIELD and Air Force warriors wade ashore. Faced with withering fire, AF soldier PanchoVilla and SHIELD member Melissa Rose pressed on, wielding their weaponry with deadly accuracy as they cut a swath through the Serbian defenders.

Not content to sit this one out, the president's Chief of Staff Josh Frost led a unit of SHIELD and Easy Company soldiers into battle, issuing orders from atop one of the few tanks the resistance was able to procure. When a Serb rocket disabled his ride, Frost did not hesitate, grabbing a grenade launcher and reigning destruction down upon the enemy. Nearby, EZC soldier BritSeelowe and SHIELD member Molly Emma fought back to back, cut off from their units by a Serbian counterattack. Rifles exhausted, they switched to their sidearms. Making each shot count, they made the enemy pay. With a final click, Emma and Brit threw their guns aside, pulled their knives and charged the nearest Serbs. Fighting as if possessed, they managed to get their hands on some Serbian guns and fight their way back to their units.

Across the battlefield, men and women of America and her allied nations fought bravely. USAF or USMC, SHIELD or Flight Training, each of them united in their resolve to fight and, if needed, die for their country.



Roughly 12 hours in and the Battle for Texas seemed to be tipping in the favor of the US forces. Achieving a seeming breakthrough, resistance fighters rushed the Serbian positions, overcome with the zeal of impending victory.

A deafening explosion signaled what should have been clear from the beginning, not all was as it seemed. The whole thing had been a ruse, a planned trap by the Serbian leaders. Luring our forces in, they triggered row upon row of mines and explosives hidden in the ground. Consumed in flame and smoke, disoriented and bleeding, the Serbs had effective cut a giant swath through the US forces. Striking quickly, fresh Serbian forces that had been held in reserve within the buildings came rushing out, driving a wedge into the resistance forces.

D1 and D2 took the brunt of the damage. Trapped between the Serbs and the sea, there was little they could do. A few brave souls, remembering that the best defense is sometimes a good offense, took the fight to the Serbs, counterattacking in the face of withering fire. Flight Training recruit snaend, barely a week in the service, gathered a handful of trooped and laid down a devastating fire, covering his fellow soldiers as they regrouped. Air Force member badez was similarly brave, personally leading a charge to dislodge the Serbs from a strategic location.

Shaking off the devastation, the US forces regrouped and stood firm in the face of the Serbian attack. Word had come down that if they could hold their ground til sundown, reinforcements would be coming. Just a few hours more and the battle would be won.

The battle was decided in those final hours. It was a hairs difference between victory and defeat. Across the bloody field there were countless tales of bravery and heroics, of soldiers doing their duty without question.

Cut off, broken into a number of small groups, the US forces were being advanced on from all sides. Still they did not waver. Men and women from across America stood side by side with allies from Albania, France, China. Politics was forgotten, petty differences were swept aside, all that mattered was the fight and the men and women next to you.

Still the Serbs came and still we fought. Canteens long since emptied, going on no food or sleep, we persisted, trading our blood for precious time. Just when it seemed we could give no more, word came over the radio to mark our positions.

Using smoke, IR, glow sticks, whatever we could find, we marked our positions, all the while firing, always firing.

I'm not sure the Serbians knew what hit them in those final moments. One minute they were firing, advancing, winning. The next they were simply gone, replaced by fire and smoke, enveloped by death from above.

Reinforcements had arrived. A mix of private militia and US military, working together they carpeted the Serb positions with enough firepower to wipe out a small country.



After that it was just a matter of time. Sweeping the area and mopping up the remaining Serbs. I walked the battlefield then, seeing the shock set in on many soldiers as the adrenaline wore off.

We had done it. After weeks of loss and retreat, ceding state after state to our enemy, we had struck a clear blow. No longer would be retreat. No longer would we back down. Working together as a people, with our allies at our back, we were ready to bring the fight to Serbia and all the others. America is on the rise again.