Without a ride, and in a squad consisting of several infantry and the Cobra helo team, I find myself clearing Muttrah in rather sparse company. Leaving the suburban region of North City, I am followed by a silent Marksmen as I move towards the gas station, and the large road dividing West from North. As I near this road, I move a little more West into a more open area, with more cross streets, some I-shaped buildings that merely serve as physical barriers, and a few multi-story houses.
I spot a single friendly APC just sitting in the street, scoping out the taller, apartment style buildings sitting just across the large dividing road running directly East to West. I figure I'll follow this APC for some cover and protection as I work to the next flag capture area. As I approach I see an MEC G3 barrel sticking out of the window of the 2 story house next to the APC. This is one of those houses with a garage, indoor stairs to the second floor, and half-way wraparound windows. Attached to this building is a 3 story building with only a roof accessible by a ladder in a walled off courtyard between the two buildings. I move in to throw a grenade, but before I get near there is a whooshing noise, explosion, and the APC has been hit. Luckily, it was a light-AT round, and the APC remains operational.
As I equip my grenades, the APC turret swivels to its rear and pumps large caliber rounds through the first floor window. Screams are heard, and the shooting stops after a few nice bursts from the APC. I approach the window, and lob my first grenade into the room. But I made a mistake; the grenade went to the far corner, and with a wall dividing part of the room, including the part where I know there is an enemy soldier, the grenade merely scares what ever survivors remain from the APC burst. I decide to look before I throw my next grenade and see several enemy MEC. There's at least one wounded lying jut behind the divider to the right of the stairway. A few others are farther back near a door leadng to the courtyard. There is a great deal of smoke developing within. I can't remember if I threw smoke or they did, but soon nothing would be visible in the room.
I lob my first nade into the occupied area of the room, and my second through the open door to the courtyard. As I wait for my grenades to explode before entering the building, my squad mate, the silent Marksmen trailing me as I walked out of North City, runs into the room. My grenades explode with a loud *whoomp* and the Marksmen rounds the divider to shoot the survivors. Shots are fired as I enter the room, and for some reason, maybe its because he doesn't return to my side, or the sound of the shots, or the disappearance of his name on my screen, but I know instantly that he was killed. Surprised that there are survivors of my pre-entry grenade throwing, I quickly drop an ammo bag and reload more grenades.
With two more grenades equiped, and smoke fully filling the room, I peer around the corner of the divider with my Scoped-Rifleman's M16 set to burst. There just isn't enough room scoping, and i want to put out more lead faster than who ever I encounter. The wounded MEC from before is alive, making a terrible noise, but hanging on in the hopes of being treated by a medic. With my practiced no-scoping aim I put down a burst and he's finished with. I can barely see through the smoke, but I can tell through the back door that there are other survivors, what seems what have been an entire 6-man squad until I finished off the light-AT man, regrouping and recovering in the courtyard in the back of the building.
I return to the unsmoked, unoccupied portion of the the first floor, and peak through the other door opening to the garage. There is a window on the wall opposite the garage doors giving me a view of the also smoke-filled courtyard. An MEC soldier passes by the window and I know thats where the remainder of the squad is hiding. I put two grenades through the window and let them fall into the far corner and off of the wall of the adjacent three-story building. Two satisfying explosions and I approach the window to see the damage and decide on my next course of action. To my surprise, I don't see any bodies, and I can hear the sounds of several wounded soldiers. "My grenades just don't seem to be working today." I think, as I figured that in such closed confines, no one would live through what accounts as three grenades in the courtyard, and two in the occupied first floor room, and yet this squad continues to survive.
With no other option, and with the hope that the grenades and smoke will increase my chances for survival, I rush into the courtyard. I sweep to my right towards the door leading to the front of the building I entered, and spot three soldiers hiding along the window-side wall; one wounded soldier in the corner, a wounded soldier under the window, and a medic that must be keeping me as busy as much as I'm keeping him busy. The cornered soldier appears to turn towards me as he lies on the ground, but through blood-covered eyes he just can't get off effective shots. His bursts fly wide as I side step and pump a few bursts of my own into his body before he goes limp. I round on the medic and the soldier recieving treatment, and before either can respond I finish them off with the remainder of my magazine. Through the smoke, I can see flashes and hear bursts coming from the left-hand corner on the backside of the courtyard. I run through the door leading to the garage as I take cover and reload for my final attack to finish off my house clearing the squad. With a new magazine I re-enter the courtyard, sweep to my left, and gun down the final MEC survivor as he desperately reloads his rifle.
After I check the second floor, which I find luckily and in some ways unfortunately empty of enemy soldiers, I exit the house through the front door and back into the street I had traveled along before this lone assualt began. The APC is still outfront, waiting to see the outcome of this infantry battle, and scanning for any remaining enemies in the area. I glance over at the APC before it swings its turret back towards West City, having releazed the battle is over, and the USMC finished the victor of this fight, and it moves off. I reload my rifle, thumb it to single shot, check my map for teammates, friendly forces, and the general overview of fight for Muttrah. Switching to the stats, I see that my kill count has changed from my previous 3 to current 9 total kills. 6 new kills; a whole squad I realize, and think to myself "Now THAT is how a house clearing is done!"
**I hope you've enjoyed my dramatically recounted story of what was at most a 2 minute fight on the outskirts of North City. Feel free to leave any questions or comments, and I'd hope to see more written stories of this kind from other PR players, and maybe even have more tales to write of my own in the future. I would generally describe my PR gameplay as one with skilled use of cover, concealment, body movement, and smart and accurate timing of weapons fire. I enjoy using the Scoped-Rifleman and Medic kits, and have an unexplainable knack for survival, which is great as a medic because I can always revive my teammates to get them back into the fight (And protecting me as I save their asses!) and keep the squad going.
