The War for Profit Series Omnibus

by Gideon Fleisher

  Chapter Eight

  Galen stood in front of the presentation screen of the dome of the TOC and looked at his staff and the senior commanders seated before him. “All right, ladies and gentlemen we’ve been here two weeks. You tell me what’s going on. We’ll start in the front, your right to your left and then back across the next tow rows.”

  Galen reached to his side and moved the fold-up chair in front of him and stepped in front of it and sat down. The first to speak was the mechanized infantry battalion commander. His combat coverall sleeves were rolled up past his elbows and his big, hairy forearms crossed his chest. He stood and said, “We’ve established security around the Brigade TOC and extended the perimeter to enclose the ALOC area as well, to reduce the workload on the logistics people. I have my gun battery ready for counter fire if the Mosh try to shoot at us, but we’re well protected from their flat trajectory by that hill beside us. But if necessary, our guns can back up, return fire and pull forward without any significant risk to themselves, so all of you, please, don’t hesitate to call for fire. We have some mortars too, if you need them attached. I’m getting tired of those mortar maggots hanging around in my perimeter with nothing to do.”

  Galen said, “Thank you, Eugene. Next?”

  Eugene sat. The next commander stood. “The light tank battalion is in position and ready to fight. I have a company of light tanks positioned at each of the likely enemy egress points, ready to hit retreating Mosh armor in the flank as well as cut off their retreat. That is, if there is anything left of it. We have also established rapport with the final Tuha checkpoints nearest the indig FLOT. We put a tank in defilade, camouflaged in a supporting position, and we’ve established landline comms between each of those three checkpoints and the supporting tank, so that we can use our sensors to give the checkpoints a five minute warning of an approaching vehicle, allowing the indig checkpoint crews—”

  Galen stood and cut him off. “I get it, we know what you mean. Next?”

  Major Polar stood. “Support battalion appreciates all the help we’re getting. We are running triple trains, all the way from the space port to here, where we have to transload from the trucks to tactical vehicles to provide deliveries all along the Front Line of Troops to support the indigs. So far so good, but I’d like to get this little war over with so my people can catch up on their sleep.” Subdued laughter came from the group as Major Polar took her seat.

  The Brigade surgeon stood and faced the group. “My biggest headache has been the Tuha soldiers brought to my hospital. I don’t mind providing care for my fellow man, but some of these men need care I can’t provide, particularly the psychological cases. They aren’t getting worse, but they are driving me crazy. So I agree with Major Polar; at the first available opportunity, get this war over with.” A murmured laugh from the group. The surgeon sat.

  Major Sevin stood. “As many of you are already aware, my tiger teams have endeared themselves to the Tuha infantry, who have willingly and enthusiastically welcomed our leadership. Beyond all other reasons was also the fact there was not one soldier above the rank of Sergeant anywhere along that line. And we’re talking about seven thousand soldiers comprising eighty one line companies. In the Tuha army at least, rank does indeed have its privileges. But with our expert leadership and support, those are some pretty good units on the line now.” Sevin sat.

  Captain Grey stood. She was short, blonde hair in a high pony tail, green-eyed, pink-faced, slight of build and youthful in appearance. When she first enlisted in the Brigade three years before, Galen had to settle a dispute about her nickname. Her fellow troops wanted to call her ‘Bait’ because she looked very much like a youthful actress featured on a reality show where law enforcement sought to entrap child sex predators. She’d enlisted in the Brigade right after graduating from the Hobart military academy with a degree in journalism. She took a commission after she served as an infantry troop for a year. A happily married mother of a healthy baby girl, she was now the Brigade’s twenty six year old Public Affairs Officer. But still, she looked like a twelve year old.

  She said, “I’ve put together something you can all enjoy, something I call the ‘Awareness Channel.’ I’ll have access to all the battle reports and my team will dig through and edit and put together daily shows and continuous commentary about the events of the day. There will be very little live reporting, and most of the stories will be delayed a few minutes to an hour, but it will provide a greater awareness among all units of what is happening across the battlefield. And of course the channel will be encrypted secure and classified as ‘official use only’ so you can’t record it. My team will put together a version of this news suitable for public release when we get back to Mandarin, and you can show that to your friends. We’ll be on channel twenty four, and thank you for watching.” Captain Grey sat.

  Major Koa stood. He motioned for Galen to move to the side and turned on the presentation screen. It displayed a map of the battle area with a tactical overlay. The seated commanders looked at it and some confused grunts and groans came from them. Koa said, “What you see here is what the Tuha brass sees. All their commanders, from battalion on up, get this picture right here because that’s what they want to see. It is none of their business to know we’re taking good care of the soldiers they just throw away.”

  Koa changed the picture. “This is what’s really going on. You can see that the Tuha infantry has been moved at various points along the line to take better advantage of more defensible terrain. Also you see the Cav battalion and the recon troop attached to them prepared to make a push along the left flank into Mosh territory. Amongst them are six Hercules heavy tanks and two self-propelled plasma cannons mounted on modified Hercules tank chassis. The remainder of the heavy tank battalion is deployed farther back, prepared to meet a Mosh breach of the lines head on if they try to make a run to the spaceport. Which seems stupid at first, but makes sense if you realize their attempts to retreat back into their own territory will be blocked by our medium tank company, which is equipped with 55 brand new Stallion medium tanks.” Koa shook his head. “I’m tired, I need to sit down.” Koa sat.

  The medium tank battalion commander stood. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have three tank companies deployed separately.” He pointed at the display. “Here, here and here. After the Mosh do their initial breakthroughs, I’ll meet them head-on so that they will be unable to complete their little thunder runs through our rear areas. They will then do one of two things. They will either retreat the same way they came in, or they will choose to make a run toward the space port. Either way, it will be the last thing they ever do.” He sat down.

  Galen stood. “It ain’t no secret, the Mosh will attack us some time during the next three days. If they don’t, you can all have next Friday off. Any questions for me?” Silence. Galen said, “Success.”

  The group stood. “Success.”

  Tad buttonholed Galen before he could make his escape from the TOC. “Boss, you didn’t let me brief the overall battle plan.”

  A couple of the field commanders had left already, and the rest stood in groups of three or four and discussed details and shared opinions. Galen told Tad, “I’ve seen it, it’s a work of art, but these commanders have enough on their minds right now; their heads would explode if we tried to stuff in more information. In other words, your briefing would blow their minds.”

  Tad smiled. “All right, you win this time.”

  Galen said, “Don’t forget, since me and Spike are out playing cowboy on this one, operational control passes to you.”

  Tad nodded and shook Galen’s right hand. “Good luck.”

  Galen made haste for the exit. He wanted to get back to his tank. Being almost twenty two klicks away from it made him nervous. He climbed into the S-2 skimmer and waited for Koa, who came out right away and got in.

  Koa tapped his driver on her the shoulder. “Back to Jasmine Six, she misses her commander.”

  The driver looked ove
r her shoulder at Galen. “I can see why.”

  The skimmer left the Brigade HQ perimeter and turned left on the gravel road. They passed the final Tuha checkpoint and the guard gave a big smile and an enthusiastic wave, which Galen returned. Closer to the line the road became little more than vehicle tracks and scratch marks on large flat stones. At several places it was obvious the rocks were blasted away by tank main guns to make way. The laser gunner of the skimmer kept his weapon to the right, watching the ridges of the bare stone hills and low mountains on that side for potential targets. He kept glancing down at the tactical display mounted to the dash board to the left of the vehicle commander, noting the symbols for friendly units. Occasionally there were friendly units visible, crouched in fighting positions. Some clutched the few short-range anti-armor missiles and laser rifles the Brigade was able to provide them. One soldier stood on the right side of the road wearing a clean new uniform the Brigade had provided, along with new boots, a composite lightweight helmet, a combat vest and a rapid-fire 10mm submachine gun. The Tuha troop waved with a huge smile on his face. Galen gave a proper hand salute, and the soldier gave and held a salute as the skimmer passed by.

  Soon the trip was over and Galen jumped out of the skimmer and said, “I really like what Sevin and Polar did for those grunts.”

  Koa said, “Yes. This whole line looks a lot better.”

  Koa’s skimmer turned and headed back to the Brigade HQ. Galen climbed up on his tank and sank down in the seat of the cupola. He checked the status screen and dug through all the information. Everything was set. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the Mosh attack.

  Chapter Nine

  Galen had just taken his last bite of lunch when a troop from the Guns section walked by and said, “Three is calling you, sir.”

  Galen swallowed hard and put on his commo helmet and heard, “Jasmine six, this is Jasmine Three. Over.”

  “Six here.”

  “We have contact. You near a display?”

  “Getting there.” Galen climbed up on his tank and sat down in his cupola seat.

  “We have three full armored brigades with infantry on board moving to breach at three points.”

  Galen switched his status screen to battle map display. On there, it looked bad but he knew it wasn’t as bad as it looked. “Gotcha, three. Thanks for the heads-up.”

  “I do what I can. Three out.”

  Galen knew the Mosh tables of organization and equipment made them look stronger on the battle map than they really were. A Mosh armored brigade had two tanks as the HQ Company, and a singe tank as the battalion HQ Company, and a Mosh tank company HQ was a single tank, and that company had three platoons made up of three tanks each. So, a Mosh armored brigade was only sixty five tanks, the numerical equivalent of what most military leaders would recognize as a battalion. On those approaching Mosh tanks were infantry, a squad riding on each tank. But again, Mosh infantry squads were only seven solders.

  Galen watched the battle map. The Mosh attacking the center stopped and used their tank’s main guns to bombard the area ahead of them, the faces of the hills in front of them, the gap between the hills where they intended to pass through, and the ridge lines to their front. Galen saw that the indig infantry on the line were in positions where the Mosh couldn’t hit them with tank fire, hunkered behind the hills on each side, and a company behind the line deployed parallel to the road but back a half a klick. He also noticed that three klicks to the right, a Jasmine light tank company had passed forward of the indig line and turned left, to come in behind the Mosh brigade.

  The Mosh moved forward, their third tank battalion in the gap when the lead unit turned right. The indig infantry attacked the Mosh tank battalion in the gap, but the Mosh lead element and its first and second tank battalions continued with their right turn. The indig infantry deployed along the road moved forward and attacked the second Mosh tank company from behind as it turned. Then a company of seventeen of the Jasmine Brigade’s Stallion medium tanks met the lead elements of the Mosh head-on. The Mosh leader and the first tank battalion stopped to slug it out and were set upon by another indig infantry company. The second Mosh tank battalion turned about and then attempted to make it back into the gap. The Jasmine light tank company was now in position to close off the gap, hugging the side of the hill to limit the number of Mosh tanks that could shoot back at any one time.

  Indirect fire landed in the gap, a battery six fired from the four-gun 240mm battery located at the Jasmine Panzer Brigade TOC location. Then mortar fire from the 107mm mobile mortars of the mechanized battalion. The Mosh units in the gap, minus their infantry and half their tanks, moved to join their first battalion. But that fight was nearly over. The indig infantry pulled back and Jasmine Brigade indirect fire landed on the remaining Mosh. Galen watched as enemy unit markers turned amber, the red, then black, and finally disappeared. He looked at the other two points where the Mosh had breached the lines and the story was pretty much the same. Then he zoomed out to see deeper into Mosh territory. The guns in the TOC perimeter were already engaged in an artillery duel with Mosh artillery. Although outnumbered, the Panzer Brigade guns were mobile while the Mosh guns were towed artillery in fixed positions. The Panzer Brigade guns acquired a target, moved to avoid the masking of the hill in front of them, unloaded six rounds each at their opponents and pulled forward, snug up against the hill to avoid getting shot back at. Then they’d acquire the next target’s location and drop six more rounds on each of them. Although the counter-battery fight was only taking out about half the intended targets with each volley, it was effective at drawing all the Mosh artillery fire away from the Jasmine and indig units on the line. By the time the Mosh had given up on trying to hit the Jasmine Brigade’s artillery, the attacking Mosh armor had been rendered combat ineffective and the indig and Jasmine Brigade units were already snug up against various hills along the line, below the firing arc of Mosh artillery.

  Galen leaned back and relaxed his tense back. Although he had been more than twelve klicks away from any action, and Tad had been in control the whole time, still, his teeth hurt where he had been gritting them all through the battle. The past forty minutes had seemed like ten hours. He called Tad, “Hey three, can I move my task force out now?”

  Tad said, “Negative, six. I’m getting more Mosh activity. Wait and see what develops, then I’ll see about cutting you loose.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Check center front, deep in Mosh territory, about sixty five klicks in.”

  Galen looked. The Mosh were rallying their reserves. Not really reserves but their new units. Assembled, it would be a force the same composition and size of the one the Mosh had just lost. Three Mosh armored brigades with three Mosh infantry brigades riding on the outside of the tanks. A force the size of two divisions, one infantry and one armored. One big difference, though; the second group was not as well trained. Two months before, the Mosh had brought in new soldiers to field the new equipment built at the Grinder factories. They had trained up to unit level tactics and were set to relieve the Mosh units already on the line. The units on the line were supposed to mount one drive-through ‘thunder-run’ style attack against the Tuha infantry line before moving back to their own space port, then deploy off this planet.

  But the Jasmine Panzer Brigade had just screwed up that rotation. Galen had expected the Mosh reserve force to take up a defensive posture near their military industrial complex, but it was obvious they intended to attack. Galen knew Tad made the right call, holding back Galen’s maneuver until the Mosh were fully committed to whatever it was they were going to do next. If Galen moved now, the Mosh could detect and intercept him.

  So Galen switched his main screen to the Awareness Channel. Captain Grey was seated at a desk in the TOC, giving commentary.

  “The Mosh attack was thoroughly unsuccessful this afternoon. I’m glad I’m not the Mosh commander right now.”

  A Master Sergeant fr
om her public affairs team sat next to her. “Ma’am, if I were the Mosh commander right now I’d go choke myself on a rope. Our first field correspondent report on today’s action is now available.”

  The scene changed to a Public Affairs Corporal in full field gear. “Here we are at the breach that occurred on our right flank this afternoon with Troop Justice, a tiger team member leading a platoon of Tuha infantry out here on the line.”

  Justice said, “The Mosh stopped about a klick short of this hill behind me, got on line side by side and began firing. Not sure what they were shooting at, we were on this side of the hill, but they sure made a lot of noise. Then they got back in column and moved into the gap between this hill and the next. Since the shooing had stopped, I led my platoon up to the crest of the hill to see what else was going on.”

  “So, what did you see?”

  “Some wheeled vehicles, trucks, trailing the tanks. I relayed that information to Sergeant Anderson, he’s the CO for this company, and he told us to come on down and join him. When we got there, most of the tanks had gone on by but a company halted in the gap. The plan was to hit the last tanks first, to obstruct the gap to prevent enemy retreat, but we hit trucks along with them. Wasn’t sure if truck wreckage would present enough obstruction to stop tanks from retreating, but we hit enough tanks so it didn’t matter anyway. That took all of thirty seconds, to take out that company of tanks. Their dismounts came at us but by then they just didn’t have the numbers. They went down pretty quick.”

  A sound of several rifles fired in a single volley came from the side. Justice looked to his side and stormed off and said, “What the hell are you doing?”

  A squad of Tuha infantry stood in a line, rifles at the ready. Three meters in front of them lay the body of a Mosh soldier, riddled with bullet holes.