by Adam Yoshida
As soon as she regained her bearings, Miller began to manoeuvre to attempt to obtain a solid lock on the F-15 that had fired upon her. Even if she couldn't be certain of the identity of every other plane in the air, she was pretty sure that she could be sure of the disposition of that particular squadron. Levelling off her fighter, Miller caught sight of the Eagle that had fired upon her.
"Fox Three," she announced as she released an AMRAAM of her own in the direction of the incoming F-15.
1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, Near Flagler, CO
Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Harrington had commanded the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment for all of three months when the Great Mutiny occurred. At Fort Bliss, unlike in a lot of the rest of the Army, there had been no great disorders. As soon as the first fighting at Washington had been reported, Major General Bernie Ward, the Divisional commander, had announced that the 1st Armored Division would resolve their dispute in the "most American of all possible ways": they would vote.
Eighty-two percent of the men and women of the 1st Armored Division had voted to join up with the Congressional Government. Of those who had voted against doing so, ultimately several hundred elected to stay on and fight anyways. As a result, the division (after it was supplemented by volunteers) had made its way to Colorado at almost full strength.
Apache helicopters and Reaper drones belonging to the Loyalist forces had managed to inflict some real damage to the 1st Battalion. Their Hellfire missiles had reached down from the sky and destroyed two Abrams tanks while placing another out of action. However, the helicopters had paid dearly for the damage that they had managed to inflict as the nearby wreckage of an AH-64D smashed by a pair of Stinger missiles could attest. It said something, Harrington thought, that they had not stopped to try and render assistance to the crew of the downed Apache. For all he knew men he had served alongside were burning to death just a few hundred feet away and he was ignoring it.
It was shortly after noon when Alpha Company made contact with the leading elements of the German formation that was spearheading the advance of the First Army. With a voice calmer than he felt, Harrington gave the order for the battalion to engage and the leading American company moved to the crest of a hill.
The American tanks caught the Germans by surprise, firing ripples of M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank rounds at the leading Leopard 2s of the First Panzer Division. The first wave of American rounds landed against the armor of the Germans with devastating effect. The Leopard 2 was a fast tank and well-built, but few things in the world are capable of standing up to twenty-five pounds worth of armor-piecing explosives fired at a high velocity. Three of the German tanks were disabled and a third simply blew apart, scattering a mix of metal and human remains across the Coloradan ground.
From his command vehicle, Harrington watched as Alpha Company backed up beyond the crest of the hill. The Germans, momentarily confused, halted as someone attempted to figure out the next best step. Further air support was called in to attempt to dislodge Alpha Company from its position as the next German platoon attempted to race down the I-70, hoping to move faster than the American forces could react.
Bravo Company was positioned along the Interstate itself, specifically to stop such an attempted movement. The Germans had a better idea of the position of the second company and attempted to engage them with Anti-Tank Guided Missiles at long range. The missiles soared across the landscape and, for the most part, harmlessly impacted features of the terrain. The rest of the forward portion of the 1st Panzer Division was forced to call a halt when the Americans would not yield control of the road, hanging back and waiting for the called-for air support to arrive.
Apaches, Reapers, and a mix of F-16s and Eurofighter Typhoons were on standby to deliver close air support for First Army. However, by the time that the commander of the German division was able to get his support, the USAF fighters who had acted as a shield for the fighter-bombers reclaimed from the Boneyard had had more than enough time to re-fuel and re-arm. As the rebel F-15s and F-16s raced across the sky, the helicopter contingent of the Loyalist assault had to be hastily called off and the majority of the fixed-wing aircraft involved were forced to ditch their bomb loads and instead to attempt to engage in air-to-air combat.
"Alright," radioed Harrington as he gazed at the missile contrails criss-crossing the sky, "Charlie Company is good to go."
The three platoons of M1A3 tanks that made up the 1st Battalion's third company immediately sprung forward from their own concealed positions located several hundred feet forward of the position where Bravo Company held the I-70 from and opened fire on the retreating German tanks, scoring several hits from oblique angles that resulted in severe damage to the Leopards.
First Army Headquarters, Near Bethune, CO
"The Germans are stalled at Flagler," reported Colonel Johal, First Army's G-3.
"I can read a fucking map," said General Walker.
"From what we can see," noted the Army's G-2, "pretty much the whole of the 1st Armored Division is stationed along the I-70. They're trading shots with First Panzer, but it's going to take a lot more than a single German division to dislodge them."
"I thought," said Walker, turning to the senior Air Force officer in the headquarters, "that you said that their air capabilities were minimal."
"Those were the assessments that we received from the CIA," replied the Brigadier General, "though we noted that they were subject to change."
Walker moved over to the interactive maps that showed the location of every formation in the First Army, as well as the best information that they had as to the locations of the rebel forces, supposedly organized as the Sixth Army.
"1AD is their heaviest formation," said Walker, "and it looks to me like they're pretty much wholly arrayed along the I-70."
"A sensible enough disposition," observed the G-3, "they must have known that the First Panzer was our heaviest formation and that they'd have to stop it cold to prevent it from making a breakthrough. They're probably hoping that we try and force our way down the I-70. First Armored Division will fall back, but only after inflicting murderous losses upon our own forces."
"Well," said Walker, "then we're just going to have to find another damned way. How fast can we re-position forces to the south?"
"The 42nd Division is moving along State Route 50."
"That's where the Canadian division is positioned?"
"Yes, General."
Walker tapped his fingers against the table.
"Our weakest formation against theirs. But ours is bigger. Tell them to go."
200th Infantry Division Headquarters, 36 Miles East of Pueblo, CO
Major General William Jackson calmly sipped a cup of coffee as, all around him, the Merkava Main Battle Tanks and M113 APCs of the 200th Infantry Division roared to life. The joint American-Western Republic formation had been reluctantly accepted for service and arrived in Colorado, where it was assigned to the Sixth Army, just four weeks before the offensive by the Loyalist army had begun out of the east.
With the I-70 blocked by the First Armored Division, the main body of the First Army had begun to shift southwards, with the primary advance being undertaken by the 42nd Infantry Division, which had pretty good equipment drawn from National Guard stocks. The seeming objective of the First Army, after having been blocked in its initial advance against Colorado Springs, was now seemingly to cut the city off by moving to both its south and north. The First Infantry Division, made up primarily of new-entry volunteers, was moving to the north with the support of the French 1st Mechanized Brigade.
"You know," said Jackson as he reviewed the latest reports from the front, "the 42nd Division was designated as the "Rainbow" Division in the Great War because it was made up of National Guard elements from many different states. Given the recruitment campaign those fuckers are running for this war, I think that it probably deserves that designation for different reasons."
"The problem that we have, Gene
ral," pointed out Colonel Evan Dunford, Jackson's Chief of Staff, "is that they're still a full-strength formation with air support, whatever we think of their recruiting practices. Nothing like what we faced at Thunder Bay."
"Oh, I know," said Jackson, "besides, even those people can fight. Think about the Sacred Band of Thebes."
"General," said Dunford, trying to focus the attention of his commander, "they're less than ten miles away."
"I know that," said Jackson, checking his watch, "let them get a little bit closer."
42nd Infantry Division (AUS), Forty-Five Miles East of Pueblo, CO
Private Sarah Watkins felt the coarseness of the earth beneath her as the Stryker vehicle in which she was riding moved along the patch of battle-damaged highway.
"Fuck!" she cursed as the vehicle rocked violently, leaving her feeling slightly ill. With each bump she found herself just a little bit sicker and a little less certain of the decision that she had made a few months earlier.
A little late for second thoughts now, Sarah, she thought to herself as she gripped her M16A2 rifle close to her chest. Even in the progressive Bryan Administration, she knew, there had been some people who had second thoughts about putting women into the infantry. She, of course, had been entirely for it at the time.
She shook her head sadly. She was supposed to be a teacher. Right now she ought to have been in her classroom with her children, putting up decorations and singing songs – not hauling a rifle across frozen Colorado. But she watched the news. She posted comments. She knew how much what was going on now meant to the future of the country and to her own personal future. She had read and heard how the people who led the rebellion wanted to strip away the rights of women and minorities. She knew that they were greedy people who were in life only for themselves. She knew all of this because it was what they had taught her in school, what they said on television, and what – between all of the stuff about the most recent celebrity marriages – they said on all of the web sites that she visited. That this characterization was at odds with the reality of pretty much every supporter of the rebels who she had met in real life was an uncomfortable reality that required a small act of doublethink to reconcile, something that Watkins, as a good progressive, was more than comfortable with.
1st Battalion, Fourth BCT, 200th Infantry Division, Thirty-Nine Miles East of Pueblo, CO
The so-called "Congressional Provisional Battalion" had gone through a lot of changes since the days when it had fought inside and outside of the U.S. Capitol. During the long move across the country, few people had known exactly what to do with the unit which, of course, had no formal place in the armed forces. Additionally, many members of the unit had essential duties with the government that prevented them from becoming full-time members of the military. Given this, the initial inclination of many had been to simply dissolve the unit and to allow its members to find their way into the military service by such means as they could find.
However, the supporters of that approach had underestimated the degree to which the stand of the volunteer soldiers of the CPB had made them heroes to the supporters of the rebellion. Even if the members of Congress and their staffers who had fought in Washington had other work to do, there had been hundreds of ordinary citizens who had taken up arms alongside them. Many of these were veterans with a higher-than-average skill level. Given this – and the CPB's Praetorian International pedigree – it had been decided that the best possible approach would be for the unit to be combined with the similarly Praetorian-organized 200th Infantry Division. Although the Army had insisted on assigning a number of regular officers to the unit, Jacob Henry had been awarded a direct commission as a Lieutenant Colonel and command of the newly christened 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 200th Infantry Division.
The 1st Battalion was a mechanized infantry unit, armed with old M113 APCs pulled from a depot somewhere. Its men had gone through official "re-introduction" training during the intervening months, and armed with standardized weapons. They generally worked well with the rest of the 200th Division, sharing a common heritage as ideologically-motivated volunteer soldiers.
"Soldiers," said Colonel Henry as he walked among the men and women of 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, "the enemy is coming along that road any minute now. They're stalled to the north along the I-70 and they think that that this is the soft underbelly of our position. Well, let them think that.
"I know that this isn't your first experience of combat for most of you. You know what to do and I trust that you will all do your duty.
"I just want to add one more thing. They think they're taking the easy route. We'll show them how wrong they are. When they come, I want you to charge them and overrun them."
The Colonel began to walk away and then he suddenly stopped and turned around, a wicked grin on his face.
"One more thing: when you attack, I want you to yell like furies."
The Situation Room, The White House, Washington, DC
"Mr. President," said General Hall, making a deliberate effort to keep his voice calm and steady, "I think that we need to reconsider our orders to General Walker and the First Army."
"Why?" asked Bryan incredulously.
"This is an issue of operational tempo, Mr. President," said Hall. "Modern military operations – at least among regular combat units – move very fast and they use up a lot of fuel and munitions. We simply are not set up to sustain the flow of munitions and other critical supplies all the way forward into Colorado for the time being. Most the major arms caches in that region were either destroyed or fell into the hands of the rebels. With the addition of the 1st Armored Division to the mix and with the rebel air force proving to be much more powerful that we had expected, we risk the destruction of the force that we have deployed in detail if we are forced to conduct a disorderly withdrawal."
"General Walker thinks that we can break their lines to the south, near Pueblo. That will force the 1st Armored Division to engage in a mobile battle, which will make it far more vulnerable, and that we can then envelop the rebel position in Colorado Springs," pointed out Secretary Ransom.
"I am well aware of that, Mr. Secretary," said Hall, "but I must add that there are advantages and disadvantages to being the commander on the ground. General Walker is looking for his best chance to win the battle in which he is engaged. I am looking at the entire strategic picture that exists. This is the major force-in-being that exists within the territory of the United States at the moment. If it is wholly destroyed, there will be very little to prevent a rebel conquest of the whole of the country."
"General," said the President, "I tire of your pessimism. The attack will go forward."
First Army Headquarters, Near Bethune, CO
"We've managed to move the 10th Mountain Division into position behind the 42nd. We are attempting to move the French First Mechanized Brigade in that direction as well, but the re-routing of forces has produced some major traffic jams," reported the Army G-3.
"That's two divisions – perhaps three – against the one?" said General Walker.
"Yes, for the time being," said Colonel Johal, "but they could reposition several of their units."
"Not without taking away the reserves that exist to support the 1AD. Or those units trying to stop the 1st Infantry Division in the north. If they do, we'll shift our efforts to those fronts."
1st Battalion, Fourth BCT, 200th Infantry Division, Thirty-Nine Miles East of Pueblo, CO
"Here they come," said the Platoon Sergeant as he watched the approach of the 42nd Division's APCs through his field glasses.
"Hold off until we have a clear shot," ordered Second Lieutenant Christopher Sorensen, the commanding officer of the Second Platoon. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the booms of the artillery fire of both sides. Fortunately none of that fire had targeted his platoon so far.
The men and women of the platoon sat in silence, sweating and tightening their grips on their weapons, as the long line of APCs m
ade their way down the highway. The vehicles moved forward methodically, with gunners scanning for signs of the enemy at every possible step of the way.
Sorensen and the other soldiers waited until the range between them and the approaching APCs had closed to a little under two thousand meters. Once that threshold was crossed, Sorensen nodded and the Second Platoon opened fire upon the M113s with their FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missiles.
The missiles flew downrange in seconds and exploded against the weakly armored vehicles. One of the vehicles was merely disabled, but the other three were victims of spectacular secondary explosions which utterly destroyed the vehicles. Instantly, the survivors sped up in the direction of the platoon and opened fire with their own heavy machine guns. The rear vehicles of the column dropped their rear doors and began to unload their own infantry.
Snipers assigned to the platoon opened fire upon the foot-bound infantry, sending bullets deep into human flesh and leaving bodies strewn across the ground. The machine gun fire from the surviving APCs began to take a toll on the Second Platoon as the man next to Sorensen was struck by a bullet in the throat and dropped to the ground desperately grasping for air.
A second wave of anti-tank missiles streaked towards the APCs and hit their targets, disabling two more of the vehicles. However, firing the second round of missiles exposed the gunners themselves to long-distance rifle fire. One of the two missile teams that managed to reload was killed outright while the other was forced to dive for cover.
Sorensen and his men were forced to seek better cover as mortar rounds began to impact near their position, called in from some nearby battery. At the same time, a rebel battery was called upon to use its own mortars in support of the Second Platoon, but the requirement for counter-battery fire meant that – at least for the time being – the platoon was on its own in its engagement with the enemy unit directly in front of it.