Firestorm: Red Thunder

With the Soviet forces driving toward Frankfurt, American reservists were finally able to rendezvous with pre-staged equipment and mount a counter-offensive, attempting to show the seemingly relentless advance of the Red Army.

As they were occupying a small farm in a sparsely populated rural area southeast of Ortenburg and setting up defensive positions, elements of the 55th Brigade Combat Team made contact with lead elements of the invading force, and immediately opened fire.

2nd platoon quickly eliminated the Soviet Anti Aircraft tanks, clearing the way for US Cobras to hunt enemy armored vehicles largely unhindered except by sporadic and ineffective anti-aircraft fire. The rest of the US armored forces quickly took up positions of cover/concealment and opened fire on the Tankovy Companies. Combined with pop-up TOW strikes from the Cobras, the enemy numbers were quickly reduced by 1/3 in the opening salvo.

Soviet Air Support attempted to flank the US forces, coming at them from behind, and eliminated much of the Mechanized Infantry's transport capacity but inflicted few casualties on the troops themselves. The disoriented Tank forces fired wildly at the US positions but were almost entirely ineffective, with any targets actually hit easily shrugging off the effects of the attack. The Motor Rifle Company attached to the tank forces advanced rapidly on the farmstead, hoping to mount an assault before the US forces could become entrenched in the walled fields.

With the Soviet forces concentrating almost entirely on taking the farm away from the US forces occupying it, The 2nd tank platoon rapidly redeployed to the crest of a small hill and fired at the remnants of a Tank Company approaching from a wooded area destroying one of the tanks and damaging another. The Cobras, now free to maneuver, swept in behind the advancing Motor Rifles and strafing them with machine gun fire, wrecking one of the BMP-2's and damaging a second while shrugging off the few hits fired at them in defense. US Infantry moved into position behind the walls of the fields and set up dragon missile teams to fire at the approaching armor, while the rest of the tanks fired again at the enemy T-72 company they had reduced by half in their first volley, destroying all remaining elements. Meanwhile, the M163 VADS platoon spun their weapons up to full firing speed and annihilated the Hinds, blowing them out of the sky.

The increasingly ineffective Soviet units managed to shrug off any damage they had taken and continued their relentless advance. A few more shots from the remaining armor damaged two of the US Abrams tanks, and the BMP-2s chose to eliminate the VADS platoon to protect their Infantry from their defensive fire as the Infantry disembarked and prepared for their assault on the farm.

Seeing the large numbers of Soviet troops coming for his position, the American Infantry Lieutenant called for an airstike on the Soviet Motor Rifle Battalion, and got it in the form of a devastating salvo from the Cobras' M159 Rocket Launchers, destroying or disabling all of the remaining BMP-2s, killing 1/3 of the infantry and pinning down the rest in a hail of explosive rain. The 2nd Tank Platoon continued to prove themselves by destroying the last elements of the Tankovy Companies. The US Infantry opened fire on the shell-shocked Soviet foot troops, killing enough of them that the only option left to the Soviet Forces was a hasty retreat.