Rise of the Reds Update #48: Engines of Terror news

What's this? Another update? Well, who would have thought!

South Sudan, 2041

"My forces are mobilising as we speak. Hang in there, Yevgeny", Wolfgang added as General Orlov was about to hurry out of the command tent to rally the troops, an AKS-74U in his hand. "We're making a direct push through the Central African border region and into your territory. That's about 300 kilometres. We will stop at nothing and with any luck, you can expect us by nightfall. Godspeed!" Meanwhile, the situation in Orlov's encampment was understandably heated: The base's main entry checkpoint had been cracked open by a rapid-fire Grad barrage from beyond the surrounding hills while the soldiers laid in waiting behind mounds of dirt and sandbags that acted as rudimentary gunposts. Everyone had rushed to their defensive positions as quickly as possible; while making haste to the base's outer perimeter, Orlov even happened upon one particularly unfortunate soldier who showed up with only his boxer shorts, untied boots and a rifle. When he finally reached his destination, he was greeted by Spetsnaz leader Kosygin: "Comrade General, you see this thing over there?", he asked and handed him the binoculars while pointing at an object some few hundred metres outside. The General promptly identified one odd-looking tracked vehicle with a large dozer blade as it was ploughing through the dirt while occasionally dropping a metal barrel from its back. "Chyort!" exclaimed Orlov. "This looks like some sort of mining vehicle. They are surrounding us with a cordon of IEDs to cut off our escape routes. Get me a Kornet on this thing!" The nearby anti-tank missile team obliged. Moments later, the suspicious vehicle went up in a spectacular explosion whose shockwave could still be felt at the base as a sudden gust of wind in the face. Kosygin pointed out the obvious: "That thing must have been packing several tons of HE!" Orlov grumbled. "Indeed...and them putting that much on a single vehicle means that they must have explosives galore, Leytenant".

Suddenly, shells and bullets struck the defences, catching several Russian soldiers off guard. Kosygin reacted quickly, pulling General Orlov to the ground and guiding him to cover while peeking past the sandbags with his binoculars. "Sir! I'm looking at a large number of infantry and armoured vehicles! Frickin' Marauders! They must have set up a tunnel network near the base before they locked us down!" Everyone at the line, including General Orlov, opened up on the attackers. The sound of their machine guns and rifles was broken up by the ear-popping report of the auto-cannons on the BMDs as every salvo cut a clearing through the ever-renewing lines of insurgents while the ATGM teams quickly ran out of missiles due to the sheer number of enemy vehicles. Then came another barrage of tank shells; this one was noticeably more accurate, smashing violently into gun posts and guard towers. One vehicle completely overshot its target and scored an effective hit on one of the base's coal generators. "Comrade General!" Kosygin shouted through the carnage. "There's just too many of them. My men and I will stay here and hold them back. Sasha, get the General to safety!" Orlov grudgingly accepted and went with the soldier. "I will not forget this, Sergey. I promise". Moments later, a series of shells landed next to Kosygin and his remaining Spetsnaz, releasing a deadly chemical cloud around their obstructed position. The Abakans went quiet and Kosygin's zealous battle cries gave way to a revolting cough as his inner organs rapidly congested with bloody phlegm. Soon, the feared Spetsnaz soldiers collapsed to the ground and perished, their bodies twitching grotesquely from belated out-of-control nerve reactions. The attackers promptly gained their second wind and didn't even spare a few bullets to put them out of their misery, continuing their relentless advance into the base.

General Yusuuf of the GLA's hardline terrorist wing retrospectively analysed the scorched earth tactics that were employed against the European infrastructure and came up with a way to improve the efficiency of future operations. The result of this endeavour was the Demo Track. In essence a GLA-designed pioneer vehicle, it has all the necessary equipment to assemble and, more importantly, quickly deploy Demo Traps while on the move. In addition, an armed Demo Track can also use its explosive payload to act as a makeshift Bomb Truck when needed.

Nowadays, the Marauder is the closest thing to an 'in-house' tank design the GLA has ever gotten and multiple generations of tank crews have customised the decades-old vehicles to the point where they no longer match any known factory-model. Despite their age, these tanks still provide the GLA with some much needed firepower for armoured engagement and their technology, while rudimentary, can still be easily upgraded in the field with only a few spare salvage parts.