Gao, Mali
"Trois....deux...un....PARTEZ!"
The troops immediately storm out of the APC's as soon as the order was given. One by one, they observe the surroundings around them, looking for any potential rebel in the area. The only ones in the area they spotted were Malian soldiers, taking cover and attending casualties from what appeared to be a long firefight. Once all of the soldiers in the APC's were out, the Captain looked for the commander of the Malian troops and asked him of the situation.
Two months prior, the Boko Haram terrorist group, with the support of international Islamic extremists groups, have managed to grow their numbers and equipment and had waged total war on numerous African nations such as Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, and, more recently, Mali and had successfully toppled the Malian and Sudanese governments in order to establish a Caliphate in Africa and pick up where the Islamic State had failed. Official numbers are unknown, but were rumored to be around 76,000 to 265,000 strong, some of them hailing from defecting soldiers, others from Islamic organizations from across the world.
Fearing that the group would spread further into other parts of Africa, then towards Egypt, and possibly, the entire globe as ISIS stated before, the Federation had decided to send troops into Africa to crush the extremist organization, given a vote of 36-4 on the Federal Council. A force of 85,000 troops were to be sent to Egypt to set up their base of operations there. Then they would be sent further into the affected African countries, providing both Military and Humanitarian support to the governments there.
The Captain soon finds the commander of the troops, Lt. Mbwange, and asks him of the situation.
Cpt. Allard: "Captain Allard, Esgonian Federation Ground Forces. Could you tell us what's happening here? Where are the rebels located in?"
Lt. Mbwange: "Lieutenant Mbwange, Malian Army. The rebels have taken over the Algos Market, my soldiers have told me that they have around 60 fighters in the area. Some of them are rumored to be hiding inside the buildings adjacent to the market with sniper rifles and RPG's. We have tried to get our way through the Market with an Armored car, but it has been immobilized by one of the RPG's. We have not much ammo left and we have lost over 10 soldiers."
Cpt. Allard: "Good, we'll figure out a way to flush out those rebels."
Then a couple of Malian soldiers stood out in the open, seeing that the firing had stopped. One of them tries to push forward to a treeline so he could see the market better when suddenly...
*BANG!*
The soldier falls down, with bits of his skull splattered on the ground.
"SNIPER!"
As another soldier is hit in the leg. Sniper fire then erupted from a nearby three-story building. They soon realized that the rebels were actually closer to them than they had initially thought.
Cpt. Allard: "Return fire! Don't give them a second to breathe!"
The soldiers return fire, with the SAW's giving suppressing fire to the snipers. The men then hatched a plan to flush out the rebels off the area.
Lt. Campo: "Alright, it seems that the damn rebels are closer to us than we thought. We're going to flank them from behind so we can recapture some of the buildings taken. Maurice, take some men to that building across the street and flank them from the side, we'll give you covering fire from out here. Alain, your men will flank right, and proceed to this alley to get to this building where there's a nice vantage point overlooking the market; your sniper teams are going to need it. Meanwhile the rest of you stay here and give them covering fire until both teams get in position. Any more questions?"
....
"None? Okay then. I guess we're all on the same boat. Now get moving!"
The soldiers shout "HOOAH" as Maurice's team heads across the street protected by covering fire while Alain's team takes the alley. Meanwhile, 2 Apaches take off from a local Malian airfield to provide air support.
Maurice takes point as his team heads across the street, taking care not to be spotted by other snipers, carefully, they make their to the building, keeping themselves on the side and avoiding standing in the open ground as much as possible. As soon as they step in the entrance, they could hear shouts and commands being given, along with the occasional gunfire. He then signals his men: (Paul, get 2 men. and clear the second floor, Rohan, 3rd. I'll take the ground floor.) The others nod and proceed to head inside slowly.
Paul and Rohan get up the stairs quickly while Maurice takes the ground floor. His team makes a full sweep on the largest room of the building and found a surprising amount of weapons such as AK's, IED's and tank shells. And further up the room, they hear a man shouting at what it seems to be a handheld radio. One of his men then sneaks up closer to the rebel, takes his radio and knocks him out. Maurice then handcuffs the knocked-out rebel and orders one of the men to take his unconscious body outside as he radios in to contact the Captain about his find.
Meanwhile Rohan and Paul's teams were now on their respective floors, they prepare flashbangs but suddenly...One of the rebels, a boy, aged around 14 to 15, spots Paul and his team preparing to enter, and readies his SLR at the soldiers while he shouts to the other rebels. In a split second, Roman's teammate, Michael, pulls Roman down, points his FAMAS at the child soldier, and unleashes a hail of bullets onto him while his third teammate pushes up and opens fire on every armed combatant in the room.
At the same time, Paul and his men had thrown the flashbang just as the rebels had heard of the commotion upstairs, they take cover as the flashbang stuns them and the charges at them
"ALLEZ! ALLEZ!" Shouts Margerie as the team advances and clears the entire second floor without casualties nor any problems whatsoever, however when the entire building was rebel-free, they realized that some of the rebels were children, and that the rebel that Maurice caught was their officer.
"Disgusting..." Rohan thought as he informs Maurice, who was already outside, that the entire building was clear. Seeing that these rebels have a large amount of munitions and an appalling use of children as soldiers, they realized that they have a long and tiring battle ahead of them.