OPERATION BLINDING MOTHER - AFTER ACTION REPORT (28 MAY 2016 @ 0332)

OPERATION BLINDING MOTHER - AFTER ACTION REPORT

PREPARED BY: CPL JADE COLMAN


SITUATION

o Enemy Forces:
 - 12x EXALT Forces, armed with conventional weapons and rockets

o Friendly Forces
 - CPL Jade Colman (United Kingdom)
 - CPL Lorena Kline (United States)
 - CPL Lieselotte Faber (Germany)
 - CPL Ana Lucia Mardones
o Covert Operative
 - PFC Anant Dhalon


MISSION

o Strike Team deploys to Nigeria, 28 MAY 2016 @ 0332 hrs, IOT extract Covert Operative Dhalon.

EXECUTION NARRATIVE

The mission alert came in at 0153, and we were wheels up by 0209, and boots on ground in Nigeria by 0332. We made contact with CO Dhalon, who informed us that he'd been compromised while trying to recover data. He was currently holed up in a small storage room, and he knew EXALT was closing on his location. 

Mustang cut left, in the direction his intel said he'd likely be coming. As soon as she reached the , she spotted three enemies who immediately moved to cover. We immediately moved to cover and CPL Kline took a shot, killing one of them. Dhalon called out that he was moving, and that he could disrupt the enemies comms. Shortly after, we saw the EXALT pull back behind cover, fiddling with their weapons.

I took this opportunity and designated the furthest target with my LMG, which allowed Maschine to put him down. We heard small arms fire from above, and saw PFC Dhalon, hightailing it toward a strange, spinning node. Mardones, seeing that he'd be exposed to the remaining hostile, charged forward, skid in beside the semi truck and took him down with a blast from her shotgun. Dhalon made it to the node, and immediately started fiddling with it. Kline advanced, eyes on where Dhalon had come from, and used her laser rifle to put down one of his pursuers, causing the other to stop and duck behind cover.

Just then, three more EXALT operatives came in on our right flank, and I had to scramble to new cover. Kline, distracted momentarily by this new threat, was exposed long enough to take a burst from the left, right in the middle of her strike plate. She confirmed that she was still combat capable as she moved to better cover. That was when Dhalon shouted that we had other flankers coming in from the left. 

Mustang dodged around the rock, and took down one of the new flankers on the left, and Faber managed to take out one of the enemy on the right with a well-placed headshot. Dhalon finished what he was doing, and the EXALT seemed to pull back again; Whatever he did bought us some breathing room. He said he had the data, and I told him to get to the Skyranger, and we'd provide cover.

We started to collapse in toward the LZ, but then Mardones called out that there was another flanker. I gave her the go ahead to neutralize him, which she did, with extreme prejudice. We held position, with Faber managing to wound one of the enemy. When they attempted to advance, Kline took a shot and killed the first mover, which encouraged the others to be more cautious. Their caution was insufficient, as I finished off the one that Maschine wounded. Kline, out of charge on her laser rifle, moved forward and tossed an AP grenade, wounding the remaining EXALT, allows Mardones to charge up and kill him from a flanked position. 

Faber called contact from the top of the train yard. I designated the closer of the two,  and Faber took him down, while Kline and Mardones advanced under cover. Kline, getting into range, tossed an HE frag and blew the last hostile out of cover, which gave me a clean shot to put him down.

When no further resistance was immediately forthcoming, I ordered a withdrawal to the Skyranger.


LESSONS LEARNED

o Sustain:
 - Coordinate fires to clear threats
 - Explosives shape the battlefield to our advantage

o Improve:
 - In hostile territory, there is no "front"
 - If you can shoot the enemy, the enemy can shoot you