Bowman, 8th Gun Battery, 3-Battalion
Unlike the mechanized and armored artillery atypical of the Guards, or Home Army, the marines still utilized towed artillery. These cumbersome and antique weapons may have been deemed long obsolete in modern wafare but they still served a purpose to the Apparatus custodial forces garrisoning the planet still. It was a whole battalion, well over 300 guns, that was left with the half-regiment sized force guarding the island after a previous skirmish amongst the Shintenchi militaries and an unknown aggressor.
Now these guns aimed lazily towards the coast. Barrel plugs and breech stops were torn out of the weapons like the cork of a champagne bottle. Electric drives powered up to a shrill whine that dominated the rolling plateau reaching from sparsely wooded grasslands that was the gun battery's Primary Artillery Site. These weapons were massive fixtures or warfare, locked against the ground and dug down to the middle of their tires that sprouted from the stubby, almost insect-like 'legs' that allowed the towed gun some local mobility.
They were particularly out in the middle of nowhere, partly to maintain as little an impact on the local populace but to also make a quick, total invasion of the island all but impossible without bringing serious reinforcements. This was a double-edged sword, as in their position they were only able to recieve brief, rapid coordination from command.
Artillery would most certainly be needed in the upcoming skirmish. Firstly, though, the guns had nowhere to aim in particular: secondly, none of the marine gunners knew just what exactly their target was.
This is a typical curse of the artilleryman, who often fought the battle so far removed he wouldn't have a serious idea of who, or what, he killed with his long guns.
Several meters away from the first collection of guns, the Forward Station, a control post had been dug in and fortified into the slopping landslide that would serve as the artillery battery's fire control center. Parked outside and dug into small redoubts along with it were armored personnel and weapons carriers, holding ammunition and repair equipment along with spare barrels.
A Corporal took the binoculars away from his eyes, turning away from the sliding landscape to their front leading to what was known as 'the Littoral Zone'.
"We're at about ninteen-twenty klicks out, are we ranged for fire?" The Corporal laid himself against the lip of the fighting position, a quickly raised series of trenches and gun pits in a star-formation around the artillery. Three marine artillerymen crouched in the fighting position with their equipment, handheld targeting computers and digital clipboards equipped with extensive terrain mapping of the littoral area.
"We'll probably start firing soon, sounded like we were just waiting for a Fire Mission Clear from Actual." A Private marked calmly as he scrawled over a clipboard, tracing fire paths with a stylus and working out trajectories on an app.
"There doesn't seem to be any inclement weather developing so we could be firing just off raw data ... who's calling the fire missions in the field?" The Corporal replied, while sliding back down into the pit and taking the AR-682 assault rifle with him from the lip of the trench.
"Natives. They'll be getting backup from an Imperial taskforce but it looks like most of the leg-work will be done by them."
"Let's hope they appreciate how to effectively utilize artillery."
Back at the Forward Station a klaxon rushed through the position and suddenly the team of four gun operators sprang into action. Bursting from the dug out position beside the parked M22HAT-M artillery tower providing a small amount of shade with a camouflaged tarp reaching out from its side.
"Readying for fire mission, sortie the first round! 155-General, go, go!" A Sergeant bounced down into the trench leading to the first gun, an M-155 Odin-II howitzer, and stomped his way through the soft mud to the breech of the weapon. Joining the three other crew members for a total gun crew of four the Sergeant took his position at the armored bulwark molded to the side of the weapon's impressive mechanism. He planted himself at the spartan metal seat, one leg pressing at the servos controlling the angle of the gun.
Just on the other side of the loading breech a Corporal pulled back a lever. Metal and machine howled as they ran together and the breech was pried open and the inner mechanism of the howitzer waited for a fresh round to enter the breech.
"Deciding for first fire mission -- elevation A-4, directionals are R-2 and L-3.2." The team worked as a coordinated, living war machine. The breech of the weapon gaped open as it waited for sustenance, and a pointed 155mm general purpose high-explosive shell was planted on the round-ram. The autoloader mechanism whirred and the shell slid into the howitzer.
"Gun loaded, Sergeant!" A Private crawled away from the weapon, taking the Sergeant's place at the gun shield.
"Sending it."
The Sergeant bellowed as he stood at the lip of the fighting hole. The four-man crew now assumed a slight distance from the weapon, as the concussive blast of the 155mm shell launching on its trajectory was capable of seriously damaging any living thing caught in the fury. The men all crouched and plugged their ears as the Sergeant lifted a hand into the air, fingers clenhed on the wireless trigger of the gun. When he dropped his hand back he activated the clapper, and dust sprang up all around them as the howitzer fired.
The next two guns in the battery then fired simeltanouesly, a thunderous storm of weaponry and machine roared across the Volarian plains: the first of a three-minute long opening bombardment from two coordinated batteries began.