Tyranny of Steel
chapter-1076

Since the battle of the Marshall Islands, the Imperial Japanese Navy had completely lost the ability to ferry troops and supplies to the island of Borneo. What with the German fleets patrolling the South China Sea, and eliminating any Japanese vessels which dare to enter the region.

Meanwhile, the German wolf packs continued to harass Japanese shipping, and transport as far north as the Sea of Japan. Causing a massive headache to the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army alike.

As a result, the only means of support the Japanese were able to give their troops on Borneo was via the Air. With their air bases stationed in the northern and southern Philippines, the Osaka Armory could pump out aircraft and hop them across the islands until they reached Borneo.

However, due to the losses they had suffered in the past month, Japan had been forced to conscript pilots, and give them a crash course style of training before sending them off to fight in the skies over Borneo and Korea. Naturally, this only increased the casualty rate among Japanese pilots, which attributed them the grim nickname of 'coffin jockeys'.

As a result, the Germans were facing continuous waves of Japanese Aircraft, and while each Luftwaffe pilot had gained their fair share of kills before being shot down, the overwhelming number of wooden aircraft, with poorly trained pilots was beginning to take its toll on the Luftwaffe who would have to ferry more planes from the fatherland to the Pacific in order to make up for their losses. A process which took months.

Thus, the Sturmkommandos had been called in for a special mission. At the moment Colonel Andreas Ritter von Jaeger sat onboard a plane, which flew above the skies of the Manila during the hour of twilight. There was a stoic expression on the man's face as he gazed upon the vampir night vision device which he had tucked away in his rucksack for the sake of the drop.

He and a about a dozen other special forces operatives were about to jump from a high altitude, and into the Japanese Air base stationed in the Northern Philippines. Their objective was simple: sabotage the facility, so that the Japanese could no longer hop their planes from Japan to Borneo.

After all, the Air Base outside Manila was critical to refuel the Japanese fighter planes before they could send them down to the South. Without this Air Base, the Japanese Military would lack the means to contest the skies above Borneo, which were mostly already in the hands of the Germans aside from a few battles for supremacy which occurred once a week.

Without saying a word throughout the entire journey, Andreas sat there, waiting for the green light to illuminate the cabin, which, once it did, he was the first to jump. Having made more HALO jumps than he could accurately remember, Andreas effortlessly fell from the sky with the grace of an angel, before opening his chute at the last possible second. A mere 80 feet above the ground.

The cloudy night sky, which blocked out even the moon, had provided the perfect cover for the German soldiers, who quietly descended from the sky like a group of ravens, before hitting the dirt, where they covertly disposed of their parachutes, while attaching their night vision optics to their assault rifles.

The German commandos were equipped with short barrelled STG-32s, which fired special subsonic 8x33mm kurz ammunition, along with suppressors threaded to their muzzles. These weapons also made use of under folding stock, along with a specialty front sight gas block combo.

The barrels of these rifles were also ported in a way that reduced muzzle velocity, as such, even a standard supersonic load would end up being subsonic after being fired from the rifle. Thus, when combined with a suppressor and subsonic ammunition, the sound signature of these rifles was dreadfully quiet.

The Sturmkommandos did not bother to regroup after landing on the airfield. They each had their own objectives on this clandestine operation. Thus, they each set off in a different direction. Andreas' job was to find a way to disrupt the runway so that no planes could take off or lands.

Hiss job was actually the most simple of them all. After running through the night, and towards the center of the airfield, he pulled a small device out of his rucksack and tossed it into the dirt. He then threw a small camouflaged webbing over the device to conceal it from the naked eye.

This device was a radar beacon that would interact with the V-1 cruise missiles that were stationed onboard a nearby destroyer. Once locked onto the beacon and fired, a total of three cruise missiles would launch from the destroyer and pulverize the airstrip.

As for the rest of the men in his unit, they were attaching thermite bombs to the planes that were currently located on the air base. Ideally, they would not have to eliminate a single enemy soldier. However, in Andreas's experience, these kinds of missions never really went as planned.

After ensuring that the beacon was giving out a strong signal, Andreas spoke through his radio as he patched himself through to the nearby destroyer.

"This is Hunter, the raven is roosting, I repeat, the raven is roosting!"

Static existed on the other end of the line for several moments before another voice spoke up.

"Roger that Hunter, we are receiving your signal. We will fire when you give us the signal."

With his end of the operation finished, Andreas stealthily made his way back to the rendezvous point. As he did so, he thought he heard the low thuds of a suppressed weapon firing off nearby. Thus he decided to investigate, and when he found the hanger where the noise originated, he saw that there were three dead Japanese soldiers, along with another Sturmkommando, standing above their bodies. Andreas approached the soldier, and slapped him on the back of the helmet, before scolding him for the mess he made.

"You couldn't have taken the fuckers out any other way? I know these guns are suppressed, and designed to be as quiet as possible, but you can still be heard fifty yards away with ease. What the hell were you thinking?"

The soldier was slightly offended, but made no gesture of it. Instead, he ignored his superior officer's complaints before attaching the thermite bomb to the bottom of the Ki-106's wooden fuselage. After doing so, he sighed before finally speaking to Andreas.

"That should be all of them. Let's withdraw..."

Rather than continue his scolding, Andreas silently nodded, before making his way to the rendezvous point where the rest of his soldier lie in wait. After confirming they all had no difficulty with their tasks, Andreas called in the strike.

"This is Hunter. The crows have taken flight. I repeat, the crows have taken flight."

Again, static remained on the other line for a few seconds before a response was given.

"Roger that Hunter, standby for evac."

Shortly after hearing this, the sound of the radio was muffled as an overwhelming roar thundered across the sky. The three V-1 Cruise missiles buzzed through the air before landing on the airfield and detonating on the spot. Thoroughly demolishing the air strip in its entirety.

Once the Airstrip was consumed in a devastating explosion, the various Sturmkommandos hit their detonators, which caused what little aircraft that still remained standing to be consumed in hellish flames.

After watching the complete and total destruction of the Airbase, Andreas gave the order to move out to the evacuation point, where the group was picked up by a Fa 266 Hornisse helicopter which had deployed from the deck of the destroyer.

By the time the Japanese realized that their critical airbase had been destroyed, the culprits were already long gone. However, the actions of Andreas and his team on this night had undoubtedly made the Japanese defense of Borneo that much more difficult.