Johnny sighed. “Not necessary.”
Mace said, “This Longdale Furnace we’re heading to… it’s essentially a long mountain pass. We’ll have firing angles down onto the roadway from either side.”
Jenny replied, “Our job here is just to slow them down. Any word on the relief troops?”
Mace pulled up a holo-map. “They are supposedly at Beckly and heading this way. At the moment it’s a race to see who reaches White Sulfur Springs first. Wallace and Tibbet are here with us. General Jarvis is setting the stage in Sulfur Springs.”
Jane shook her head. “Even with those relief troops we only have a combined force of twenty-five thousand. We’ll be going up against a force of two hundred thousand that are better armed. Who doesn’t see that as a major problem?”
Johnny replied, “We’ll have three times the artillery, more mortars, more snipers, grenades, you name it. They are bringing supplies. We should have enough tanks, Javelins, and TOW’s to finish those APC’s. We’ll have the superior fighting position, and we’re fighting on our own turf. I’d say we have a shot at this.”
Mace glanced over his shoulder looking back down the interstate. “This is a numbers game we’re playing. If we cut them down by half it will give Stanislaw reason to put together another large force. So far they haven’t been destroying infrastructure or crops. Like the general said, they keep that up and we have a fighting chance.”
Johnny said, “Hold on… new message… they downed that last Dedrus fighter craft over Norfolk… the skies are now clear.”
“Well, at least that’s one good bit of news today,” said Jane.
The battle just west of Longdale Furnace lasted just over an hour. The high ground and the previously dug-in positions served to slow the Dedrus forces for most of two hours. Another dozen Dedrus APC’s were destroyed along with seven thousand troops. It was far short of the thirty thousand they had hoped to annihilate before joining up with General Jarvis.
As the Human troops retreated, explosives strapped to the bridges over the Cowpasture River were detonated and the bridges collapsed. Again, only buying time for the defending force to move toward their destination. Each bridge crossing along the westward I-64 route was brought to the ground by the last of the retreating force. Countless trees had been cut and moved into the roadway between Clifton Forge and Callaghan.
The retreat march ran through the night and into the next morning, ending as former homes and business on the eastern edge of town came into view. As the interstate turned to head into the downtown area, a huge mound of dirt became visible. A five-meter concrete wall had been positioned across the road and back-filled with a fifteen meter mound of earth.
The approaching horde was to be steered back onto Highway 60 and through the myriad of golf course greens before coming to the defenses on the west end of town. A similar concrete-earth wall had been constructed there, cutting off the mountain pass between White Sulfur Springs and the town of Caldwell.
Mace entered the HQ tent sitting on property that had previously housed a nursery.
General Shane Jarvis was standing in front of a map. “The reinforcements are two hours out. Plans for deployments are being passed around and reviewed as they approach. They should be moving into position as soon as they arrive.”
Tibbet replied, “We may not have two hours.”
Jarvis scowled. “Then we make it. My bigger concern is a decision by them to not fight. They could just walk up and over any of those mountains and we’d have no way of stopping them. I’m sending in a brigade to ensure that force keeps moving this way. If you have any way to slow their progress I will consider it. We can fight here. This is our best opportunity to knock them down to size.
“Now I haven’t told anyone this, but we should be closer to thirty-five thousand strong when they arrive. We will have more artillery, mortars, snipers, and tanks than our plans call for. I’ve had a contingency deployment in place for three days now. When that force arrives, we will be giving the Dedrus a decent fight.”
Mace stepped forward. “General, I’d like to offer my team as a possible means to slow them down, sir.”
The general looked Mace up and down. “Who are you and how many men do you have?”
“Well sir, there are only four of us. I’m Mace Hardy, sir.”
Shane Jarvis looked at Tibbet. “This is the man that has continuously fouled up the king’s plans?”
Tibbet replied, “It is. And he’s a patriot. Has been instrumental in my and Wallace’s forces making it here. I will personally vouch for him.”
Wallace added, “That goes for me also, Shane. He’s 100 percent on our team.”
Jarvis gestured toward the tent door. “Go then. Do what you can. Just keep in mind we are only interested in slowing their progress.”
The general grabbed the hair on the sides of his head. “What am I saying, you are four people… do your best, Mr. Hardy. Whatever that may be.”
In an instant Mace Hardy disappeared from view. General Shane Jarvis squinted his eyes with a suspicious look before returning to his map.
Mace popped into view in front of the others. “We have a new mission. The Dedrus must be slowed. Our forces are still two hours out. We either buy the men here extra time or they will be sacrificed to hold this line.”
Jane nodded. “Let’s get to it then.”
A Blackhawk helicopter came into view, and landed in a field beside Mace and the others.
A crewman jumped out. “You Hardy?”
Mace nodded. “Yes.”
The crewman gestured. “Hop on. General Tibbet ordered you a ride. We’ll be dropping you in Callaghan. Should give you about ten minutes before the Dedrus get there.”
The Blackhawk flew low and fast, settling in the parking lot of a former elementary school. A minute later it disappeared behind the surrounding hilltops.
Mace said, “Let’s hustle. There’s a rail line just south of here. The bridge over it was collapsed during the retreat. We should be able to create chaos at that crossing.”
A fast sprint had the foursome in position as the first Dedrus units were coming into view. Six APC’s pulled to a stop and their crews exited. Trees were cleared from the banks leading down to, across the tracks, and up the other side. Mace, Jenny, Jane, and Geerok took the opportunity move in behind the workers and to destroy the vehicles before turning their wrath on the soldiers below. A flood of foot soldiers came forward.
The tracks saw hundreds die as their bodies were thrown in every direction. The Dedrus fighters, searching for whatever mayhem was causing their demise, suddenly turned and ran up the bank which they had come down from. Laser pulses flooded the area as Mace, Jenny, Jane and Fatso Geerok fled.
As they took cover in the woods, Mace said, “We fall back to the next collapsed bridge over Dunlap Creek. We can take up firing positions to the north and south, up and down the creek.”
Jenny shook her head as she tried to stand and instead went down on one knee. “Sorry, Hoss. I’m out.”
Jane said, “You’re hit!”
Jenny held up a hand. “It’s not critical. Burns like heck but I’ll live. I have to get it tended to though. I won’t have the concentration needed to fight.”
Mace knelt beside her. “One of us will take you back.”
Jenny shook her head. “Nope, you have work to do. I can manage.”
Jane winced. “On one leg?”
“We’re at war. You need to delay that column. Don’t worry about me. When I get a couple kilometers back I’ll comm Johnny to send help.”
Mace stood as he let out a long breath. “Here’s what’s happening: I’ll carry you to a safe location. Jane, you and Geerok take position at Dunlap. If they reach it before I get back, do your best to cause confusion and then fall back to the next bridge. I’ll meet you there.”
Jenny grabbed Mace on the arm. “You need to be here. I can manage.”
As she attempted to stand, again she fell back on on
e knee. Mace reached down, scooping her up into his arms. A head gesture had Jane and Geerok moving toward the former Dunlap Creek bridge. Mace ran alongside carrying Jenny.
Mace asked, “You gonna be able to move once I set you down? I’m not just leaving you in the roadway.”
“I’ll manage. Get me on even ground and I’ll hop on one leg if I have to. They trained us to be tough. This is my call. You get me up to that bend in the interstate and I only have one collapsed bridge to navigate. After that, it’s ten or more kilometers of flat road. I should hit the other troops they’re sending this way long before that stretch runs out. Somebody will be there to help. You just do what you can to slow those Dedrus down.”
Mace dropped Jenny several kilometers up the road, then turned and sprinted back toward the others. The delay at Dunlop Creek was short-lived. The column was beginning to spread out to either side of the interstate as it advanced. Jane caught Mace’s attention, yelling out as they retreated to the next bridge at Indian Draft Road.
“They plowed right through us… just kept moving.”
“We just keep doing what we can.”
Geerok offered a suggestion: “Perhaps we would do better by moving further back in the column. If we place ourselves in the middle and then fight going back through the column, those in front might turn back to assist.”
Mace shook his head. “We can’t put ourselves in that situation. Out front we can always punch and run. We get in the middle and if any of us get caught we compromise the others and these suits.”
Johnny came over the comm. “The force following you has set themselves up about four kilometers back. They’ll be positioned on top of a set of dirt embankments. If they have to fall back, it will be up and into the mountain woods. I’m sending the coordinates.”
The fight at Indian Draft Road was also brief.
As Mace, Jane, and Geerok moved back along the interstate, Johnny broadcast a comm. “They just picked up Jenny and are sending her back. They have another assault being readied at a place called Jerry’s Run. Then the Virginia–West Virginia border. After that they’ll be here. The general says the reinforcements are still over an hour away.”
A stand was made at the dirt banks. The mammoth Dedrus column was only slowed for minutes. The Human fighters scattered up into the woods as hundreds of Dedrus regulars followed in pursuit. Small fires, kicked up from laser blasts, dotted the hillsides.
The next fight at Jerry’s Run went off with even less effect. The column continued to push forward. Then the final fight at the state border proved equally as fruitless. Mace, Jane, and Geerok hustled back to the main defenses at White Sulfur Springs. Mace opened a comm to Johnny at the general’s HQ. Johnny patched the comm through to the generals.
Mace said, “We only bought us a few minutes.”
Tibbet replied, “You did what you could. We’ll have to hold here on our own for fifteen minutes. You can join any of our lines, move back here, or if you want to position yourselves down the road at Thacker Draft, you could possibly disrupt their final advance on us while staying out of our line of fire.”
Mace nodded. “We’ll do that. And when you say hold for fifteen minutes, are you saying fifteen from now or fifteen from when the Dedrus reach us?”
Tibbet scowled. “The latter. We’re on our own for that period of the fight. We have to stop that column. They take our pre-dug positions here and there’s nothing left for us to do but run.”
Mace exited the forward defenses. “Come on, we’re going back to about three kilometers south of town. We’ll just have to do as much damage as we can.”
Twenty minutes later the Dedrus APC’s moved past their position. The thunder gloves were used against the first of the marching troops that followed. A retreat was made when random laser pulses began to blanket the hillside around them, setting the trees ablaze. A sprint down onto the interstate had the trio moving north past the advancing APC’s.
They reached the defenses at the southern end of White Sulfur Springs before the first shots were fired. As Mace and the others took position in the first available trench, the Dedrus APC’s came into view.
A nearby captain held up his hand. “Don’t waste ammunition on those carriers. Target individuals. And make those shots count. Right up under the chin is optimal. If you don’t have the shot, your secondary target is a foot. That knocks them down, and right now we are all about slowing their progress.”
Seconds later, a barrage of artillery rounds fell on the APC’s. Fifteen were destroyed as the others raced forward. A string of IED’s laid by the roadside brought the remaining number of APC’s down to a dozen. Those vehicles came to a stop in front of the concrete wall and emptied, their troops scrambling to the sides of the road only seconds before a second artillery barrage destroyed the empty vehicles.
The Dedrus troops following switched from a slow jog to a sprint as the Human positions in the hills became apparent. Additional IED’s and other boobytraps were set off, taking out hundreds of the initial groups of Dedrus fighters. Five minutes of fighting saw the frontline positions quickly overrun. Mace and the others retreated, hustling around the built-up wall, through the town of White Sulfur Springs, past the famed Greenbriar Hotel, and onto the golf courses that had once offered sport to the guests and dignitaries.
Ten minutes later, Mace walked into the general’s HQ. “They’re right behind us. How far back are the reinforcements?”
Tibbet replied, “Twenty minutes. They’ve almost reached Alta.”
Mace said, “Twenty? The Dedrus will be all over us in ten. You have anywhere our weapons might be effective?”
Tibbet pointed at a wall map. “This ridge beside the tracks. We have all our sniper force up on that hillside. If you can offer them any protection it would be a help.”
Rumbles could be heard in the distance.
Tibbet sighed. “They’ve reached the old golf course area. We have enough rounds to lightly blanket that space for another five or six minutes. You’ll need to hustle if you want to make it to the snipers before they do.”
A dozen staffers began to disassemble the equipment in the HQ as the generals began their move to the next fallback. It would be a short move to Lewisburg, where a new HQ was being put together. The space at Organ Cave would not be used.
Mace, Jane, and Fatso Geerok sprinted toward the sniper position, reaching it only moments before the first of the Dedrus. The enemy soldiers fell in position for most of a minute, hundreds dying before a thousand laser pulses impacted the hillsides where the snipers were dug in. Trees split, fell, and burned all around as the snipers continued to fire. There would be no retreat from their positions. White Sulfur Springs would be a fight to the death.
During those few minutes, two hundred twelve of the two hundred forty-eight man sniper force gave their lives in defense of Earth. It was a sacrifice that would be repeated over and over for the ten minutes that followed as the Dedrus column reached the built-up earth wall. Mortar rounds fell, hand grenades were tossed, and mayhem ensued. None of it was enough to stop the onslaught of Dedrus soldiers.
Hundreds of Dedrus marched through a dammed-up Howard Creek. A powerful electric shock was administered, knocking down close to a thousand. Most rose again to continue the fight.
Laser fire bombarded the trench-lined, man-made hill that blocked the valley. Rows of trenches, dug into the surrounding hillsides, offered firing positions down onto the Dedrus as they filled the small valley. Bodies in dark gray battlesuits soon littered the valley floor. But thousands more took their place.
Mace, Jane, and Geerok moved back and forth along the burning hillside, continuing to rain down death on the invaders as the Dedrus troops began to climb. Fires burned, explosions and weapons fire echoed, but the Dedrus kept coming. The first and second trench rows were quickly overrun. Suddenly, four Apache gunships appeared, spraying the hillsides with their M230 chain-guns, the powerful 30mm rounds penetrating the battlesuits of the attackers. The co
unter-assault was short lived however, as Dedrus lasers ripped into their hulls. Three of the four ships retreated; the fourth dropped to the valley floor, consumed in laser fire.
Johnny came over the comm. “Reinforcements are here! And there are a lot of them! Abrams will be in firing positions in less than a minute. If you’re down in that valley, you will want to be leaving now!”
Hundreds of howitzer rounds fell onto the valley floor, obliterating the forward troops. Snipers, mortars, and hand grenades soon pushed the Dedrus fighters from the trenches as they back-filled with Human reinforcements. For a handful of minutes, the Dedrus column had been stopped and was being pushed back. The Humans were getting the upper hand. The defense had held and the new troops and weapons were proving to be more than a match for the invaders.
Without warning, fireballs fell from the sky. In the distance, a hundred new Dedrus transports settled on the valley floor. Thousands of troops poured out, totaling more than half a million strong.
Mace took in a deep breath. “This is lost. Mr. Crawford must have failed.”
Jane shook her head. “That is nothing but bad news down there.”
Geerok said, “One battle does not necessarily end a war.”
Mace frowned. “In this case it just might.”
After falling back to the golf course area to regroup, the forward Dedrus fighters moved from the valley floor up into the surrounding hills. Fifteen minutes later, the head of the column stretched out more than two kilometers.
Fatso Geerok stood beside Mace. “Indeed. This is a grim development.”
The Dedrus force again pushed forward. Trenches were overrun as the cover advantage they offered from below was lost to the attacking troops coming in from above. Three hours after the fight for White Sulfur Springs had begun, the Human defense force began to retreat. Nearly two thousand Humans perished in the minutes that followed as they stayed to fight, giving their fellow soldiers time to flee.
In the short but fierce battle that ensued, two thirds of the Human force was annihilated. Seventeen thousand men and women gave their all in a last effort to stop the invading horde. The Dedrus had paid a price, losing twenty-one thousand of their own, but their numbers were now far superior. Close to seven hundred thousand invading soldiers had left no option but full retreat.
HADRON Emergent Page 26