Rock and a Hard Place

Rock and a Hard Place is the tenth mission in the Singleplayer campaign of Battlefield 3

In the forests of Araz Valley
The player starts out in the back of a Growler ITV, next to a sleeping Matkovic. They are en route to link up with the rest of the Misfit units, who have started to move towards the villa of the Russian arms dealer Amir Kaffarov in northern Iran. However, as they move through the forest, they are ambushed by an unknown unit. After successfully fending off the first attackers, Blackburn and his squad learn that the Russians are also in the region - according to some of the Marines, their intent is to kill Kaffarov so as to cover up their assumed involvement with the PLR.

The combat towards the valley
As the Marines make their way to the highway, they link up with a convoy, the other Misfit units. A decision is made after some discussion regarding the possibility of sending Russia and America to war, and after Cole tells them that self-defense is not 'war,' the Misfit units move towards Kaffarov's villa, with the intent of continuing their set mission. Along the way, the Russian airborne soldiers put up staunch resistance, killing or incapacitating many of the Americans, and disabling or destroying many of the vehicles. By the time Blackburn, his squad, and Cole reach the end of Russian ground resistance, most of Misfit has been disabled.

Jet Run
Suddenly, while the remaining marines are debating what to do next, a Russian Su-25TM streaks overhead, strafing the Marines. After an initial confusion, it is revealed that the necessary anti-air weapons - the FIM-92 Stingers - were on the Growler ITVs that were at the head and rear of the convoy. They make a dash for the ITVs at the front of the convoy, realizing it was too far to go back to the ones at the rear of the Convoy, moving from cover to cover as the Su-25 makes passes at them. Finally, Blackburn obtains a Stinger and manages to bring down the Russian fighter. However, he learns that on the aircraft's last pass, Christian Matkovic and Steve Campo were both killed. When Montes sees Matkovic and Campo have died he says "You fuckin' dick Steve" displaying how upset he is with Campo for leading himself and Matkovic to their deaths by not standing up to Cpt. Cole. This leads Montes and Blackburn to separate themselves, and arrive at odds with Cole, who seems undeterred.

Trivia

 * If the difficulty is set to Easy, the player can easily kill the Russian enemies by a knife takedown. It is because the Russian enemies in this mission are weaker when compared to the PLR forces.
 * If the player does a knife takedown on a Russian paratrooper at the forest before meeting Cole, they will earn the What the hell *are* you? Achievement/Trophy on the console versions of the game, a reference to the 1987 movie Predator, where the main character poses the question to the titular alien creature.
 * Also, if the player takes out the Su-25 in one attempt (using one rocket and without getting killed), they earn the Butterfly Achievement/Trophy.
 * When the marines are walking down the road, if the player goes back and jumps while running into a moving tank, the player can get launched half a kilometre backwards.
 * The LAVs in the adjacent field are not out of bounds and constantly firing. However, their weapons are silent and leave only a small puff of smoke.
 * There is an easter egg joke on a supply bag in dark marker, saying: Vehicles left behind will be towed at owners expense.
 * The scene depicted where the squad avoids strafing runs from the Su-25TM is very similar to the scene in Zero Dark Thirty of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, where Bravo 2 must avoid fire from a mortar on a hill, while trying to press forward through Medellín to find Arkady Kirilenko.
 * If the SMAW has run out of ammunition and one of the tanks are still intact, the game script will automatically refill the player's total ammunition (much like an Ammo Crate), it is because the SMAW is the only weapon available in this mission capable of taking down a tank. Note that this ammunition refill trick only works when at least one tank is still alive, as the script will proceed to the original when the two tanks are destroyed.
 * The SMAW will also refill from the point of the appearance of the tanks when the player has already used the weapon before the script.
 * Note that this script only works if there are no Ammo Crates near the given area, when there is one, the player has to refill it manually instead.
 * Driverless_IFV.jpgusly enough, the Growler ITVs of the USMC forces are seen "driving" during the assault down the valley, but they are actually driverless. Both the driver and passenger seats in front will be vacant, yet the vehicles will still speed to the front in spite of only having a single gunner as an occupant.
 * There is a small map glitch on the bridge after the player takes down the Su-25. Before going to the corpses of Campo and Matkovic, going to the open edge of the damaged part of the bridge will reveal that it has no supports. From this point, it is possible to jump from the bridge into the river, but doing so causes death, or worse, a glitch that will freeze the mission.

Walkthrough
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