Then Stone realized it was a mass of aircraft approaching in a formation, countermeasures making them indistinct objects. He keyed comms again and sent the image. The message came back, “Take Cover.”
Stone sat in his sandbag shelter and continued to watch the approaching aircraft. Soon he had the resolution to see that they were not bombers but cargo planes. Air defense units near the skyline fired, sent up missiles and laser beams. Some aircraft were hit but not nearly as many as one would think, against all that ground fire. They turned west and Stone saw strings of objects fall from the planes, Mosh warriors equipped with jet packs. Thousands of little points of white light, the thrusters of the jet packs, lit the sky to the north. The planes hurried away to the west, their speed increased, eager to leave once they had dropped their cargo of Mosh warriors.
Stone left his bunker and looked around. Little jet pack trails were visible all around to the north, more to the south and southwest but farther away, and to the west more planes came and dropped more Mosh warriors. Air defense units, flak guns included, fired at the descending Mosh. There were plenty of hits but there was an overwhelming number of Mosh. Stone shouldered his rifle and took aim, pressed for data: target out of range. The closest, more than eight kilometers out. He sent that data up to the SOG. No response, then stand by. Then, continue your mission.
He looked to the north and saw a gap in the band of descending Mosh warriors. Ground fire had been more effective there, those flak guns able to sweep their sector clear. But it wasn’t much, a sliver compared to the rest. Other than that, it was still fairly quiet around Lance Corporal Stone’s guard post. It was near the beginning of autumn, getting a little chilly, so he sat in his sandbag bunker and waited for his shift to end.
Nearly an hour later the loud booms of aerospacecraft entering the atmosphere made Stone step out of his bunker and look toward the north. Ground fire erupted for a few minutes then stopped in an instant. He saw the bright fiery glow of a large group of drop boats burning in from space, diving to get low to the ground. Two dozen Interceptors met them at the moment they leveled off. The Interceptors followed the drop boats and took out what looked like at least a hundred of them. Disabled, some crash-landed. Others blew apart. However, the majority landed safely.
Moments later, Mosh fighter aircraft came in from the west and tried to engage the Interceptors. The Interceptors left the area, none of them lost. Stone noticed that they no longer fired their rail guns and guessed they were out of ammo. Their laser still worked, but the Mosh aircraft were swarming the Interceptors with their greater numbers. The Interceptors sped away, off to the east. The Mosh aircraft that pursued the Interceptors fell prey to anti-aircraft fire from the ground. The remainder chose to retreat to the west.
Stone noticed that Mosh drop boats lifted back into the air and blasted back up into space, tracking to the west. Not as many as before. He swung around with his weapon at the ready as the door opened behind him. It was Private First Class Hastings, there to relieve him. 0400 hours. Stone went inside, sat on his bunk and waited for stand-to. He looked at his powered armor battle suit, checked the charge. It was full. Probably have to put it on pretty soon. Should be a pretty good briefing today, he thought.
***
The task force was headquartered in the Town Hall building and Galen slept in the mayor’s office. The jail in the basement provided decent hygiene and chow facilities, and the bunk space was more than adequate for the HQ Team detachment. Tad knocked on his door. Galen sat up on the couch and said, “What?”
“We have action. Brief in an hour.”
Galen stood and stretched, sat back down, reached for his boots. “How bad?”
Tad said, “No immediate threat to us. But it’s big.”
“You need a decision from me right now?”
“Nope.”
“Good.” Galen slid his boots on, fastened the straps. “I’ll see you at the brief.”
Tad left. Galen heard footsteps in the hallway, lots of footsteps. He visited the office’s private powder room, shaved, did some pushups and sit-ups, sat at the desk and ate a field ration, dressed in full combat gear, checked himself in the mirror, checked the time. He left the office and went down the stairs and entered the old courtroom. Tad was seated in the judges’ chair and stood when Galen entered and said, “All rise!”
Galen said, “Take your seats.” He walked up the middle aisle past the collection of about fifty key leaders seated in the courtroom. He made his way to the front and sat at the lawyer table to the right, with Spike and Koa to his left.
Spike leaned over and said, “You’re a little early.”
Tad sat and fidgeted. A few more key leaders trickled in, took seats. Tad looked around and did a quick head-count and stood. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice.” The group chuckled. Tad continued, “What we have is the initial phase of a much larger operation. At this time, I’ll turn things over to S-2.”
Tad stepped aside and moved to the recorder’s desk and activated the display controller. The screen behind the judges’ chair was white paint sprayed on the wall and a projector was bolted to the ceiling near the back of the room to provide images. Koa stood and moved to sit in the judges’ chair. Tad put an image of the operational map on the screen and dimmed the lights.
Koa said, “The Mosh have dropped eight divisions of light infantry all up and down the Gang-nam valley, positioned to capture five towns.” He stood and used a laser pointer to indicate the towns. Markers for Mosh units showed up on the map. “They are getting organized and I expect them to commence offensive operations some time today. Their initial contacts have been with Mandarin units defending the outskirts of the various towns, probing and reconnoitering for the most part.”
The image added markers for Mandarin units. “Although they took more than an estimated twenty percent casualties during their jump into the area, I project that they still have adequate combat strength to achieve specific objectives and hold them for as long as a week to ten days. And those objectives are most likely five bridges over the Gang-nam River.”
The image zoomed out to show twice as much area. Major Koa pointed at a collection of Mosh units about seventy kilometers off to the west. “That is six divisions of Mosh armor with a full compliment of supporting units. One of the wrecked Mosh drop boats landed inside Mandarin territory and they extracted a copy of their overall battle plan. Although it lacks specific detail, we do know that their plan is to seize five bridges with their airborne units and then bring their armor across. One of those bridges is in our operational area.”
Koa looked around the room, stepped back. Tad took his place and said, “The Mosh units in the field now are lightly armed for the most part, few of their heavy support equipment made it to the ground, at least not in any significant numbers. They are perfectly suited for urban combat, however, so their shortage of heavier weapons doesn’t degrade their capabilities for this operation. Also, the Mosh do have air superiority, gained by greater numbers of what would otherwise be obsolete aircraft.
“What they have done is they have set up bases for atmospheric-only craft, suitable as ground attack fighter-bombers. Their max speed seems to be just under mach 3. Their aerospace bombers are also ground-based now, able to carry larger bomb loads because their ionic propulsion engines have been removed and they no longer have to carry enough organic fuel for their atmospheric thrusters to re-enter space. All their aircraft are easy pickings for our Interceptors, but their greater numbers leave them with the capability to pretty much attack any targets they want, if they are willing to accept the moderate losses.
“On the ground, there have been no new weapons systems identified. The Mandarin units defending here in the Gang-nam Valley have been ordered to not retreat without express permission directly from their High Command. This order went out right after that General who was supposed to defend the capitol of the Western Province decided instead to vacate the city to prev
ent its destruction. The High Command gave him a quick show trial and the Supreme Commander hanged him live, in public.
“We are under no such restrictions, as our charter has us acting in the best interest of the Mandarin legislature, which has been disbanded for the most part. The Chancellor is still active but has little power beyond providing strategic guidance for us. His directive has been for us to inflict maximum casualties upon the Mosh over time while preserving our own strength. That gives us a great deal of latitude. Basically, we do whatever we want as long as it bothers the Mosh.
“Which leads directly into how we plan to defend our sector. Initially we will move forward into the fight and directly support Mandarin units. Inflict heavy losses upon the Mosh and then withdraw. There will be no need to leave our troops to cover the withdrawal, the Mandarin soldiers have already been ordered to die in place. Initially this will be done exclusively by the Marines. The first reason is because they are better equipped for urban warfare. The second reason is because I don’t think the Mosh know we have tanks here. We’ll keep that fact from them until it suits our purposes to use our armor.” Tad looked around. “Sir?”
Galen stood and took Tad’s place at the front of the room. “Here’s my guidance. Kill. Kill Mosh. We all know that Mandarin is in no position to win this war. We are here to reduce the number of Mosh warriors. Reduce their numbers so that their occupation after their victory will be less oppressive for the Mandarin people. Also, if we weaken them enough it will be that much easier for the Capellan Confederation to liberate this planet in the future. So again, my guidance to you is to kill Mosh. Inflict casualties and survive to inflict more. Mobile defense, tactical withdrawal. Any questions?” Galen looked around the room. No questions. “Dismissed.”
Chapter Fifteen
Late that afternoon Lance Corporal Stone rode in the back of a Capellan Marine assault boat. It carried him and his platoon to the north, set down in a park in the city and lowered its assault ramp. Last thing he heard before he disconnected was the boat’s pilot saying, “If you need more juice or more ammo let me know.”
Then the platoon debarked and Stone jogged away with his squad. They made their way to the north, away from the park, moving close to the walls of the tall buildings. They ran past factories and ware houses and they kept jogging until they reach flat-roofed apartment buildings. Eight to ten stories high, they enclosed courtyards. Up ahead were barricades where Mandarin soldiers stood watching the street. The squad leader signaled and the fire teams broke off. Stone led his lance mates—Hastings and Hitchcock—to the right and into the ground floor of an apartment building.
At the base of the stairs Stone said, “Hitchcock, wait around back and I’ll drop rope down to you. Hastings, take the FFE and satchel and go about three hundred meters ahead. I’ll signal from up top.”
“Hoorah.” They slipped away. Stone climbed the stairs and was grateful for the boost the powered armor gave his strength. The charge was still at ninety four per cent when he reached the roof. He looked over the low back wall down to the street and saw Hitchcock waiting, signaled to him. Hitchcock signaled back. Stone took the coil of rope off his shoulder and secured one end to an HVAC evaporator and tossed the other end down. Hitchcock took it, pulled it taught and yanked on it a couple of times and lifted himself to hang his whole body weight from the rope. It held.
Hitchcock then took the end of the rope and walked away far enough to hold the rope at an eight hundred mil angle to the ground and then secured its end to the grill of a storm drain in the curb of the alley. He then tested the rope again by hanging his full weight on it, jumped up to grab with both hands and dangled a meter off the ground and bounced a couple of times to be sure. He gave a thumb up to Stone and then went to climb the stairs and join him on the roof.
Hastings looked three hundred meters back at the roof top and saw Stone and Hitchcock there. Stone waved him to the left and then forward until Hastings stood up against the brick wall of a corner shop. Hastings set down the satchel of explosives and the Flame Field Expedient jug. The twenty liter plastic jug was half filled with alcohol and vegetable oil, with sugar and flour added as well. Hastings made sure the lid was tight and gave it a good, hard shaking to mix the contents and set it down. He then duck-taped a thin metal plate to its side and set it right up against the brick wall. He then looked up at the rooftop and Stone gave him a thumb-up gesture.
Hastings picked up the satchel and carried it fifty meters closer to Stone and then Stone gestured him to come about ten meters closer and to the right. Hastings used his crowbar to pry up a square of sidewalk and then dug down with his hands, set the satchel in the hole, glanced back at Stone. Then he chipped a corner off the sidewalk square and set it back on top of the satchel, looked up. Stone was sighting through his 20mm sniper rifle scope, gave a thumb-up.
Hastings then flipped the square away, opened the satchel and removed the safety bale. Then he carefully lowered the sidewalk square back on top of the satchel, then removed the excess dirt and debris and tossed it down a storm drain grate. Then he pulled a branch off a nearby evergreen tree and used that as a makeshift broom to get rid of the rest of the dirt, and then dropped the branch down the drain too. Stone signaled for Hastings to join him on the roof. The sun had set and it was starting to get dark.
Hastings climbed the stairs and then sat on the roof with Hitchcock and Stone. A wall a meter and a half high went all around the edge of the roof. Bits of rebar poked out of its concrete surface in places, showing that it would offer protection from enemy small arms fires. Stone said, “You hear that?”
Hastings cocked his head as far as his helmet would allow. “Maybe.”
Hitchcock said, “Gunfire, about two klicks away.” He reached for his handheld sensor.
Stone said, “Don’t turn that on! No gadgets until we make contact. You know that.”
Hitchcock shrugged. “I figure they could detect out armor anyway.”
Hastings said, “It’s triple-shielded and the armor blocks most of the signal anyway.”
Stone said, “Orders. We obey orders. You are Marines, right?”
“Hoorah.” Hitchcock put the sensor back in its nook on the left thigh of his powered body armor.
More gunfire, closer, and then some explosions to the far left and far right front. Stone placed his hands palm down on the edge of the wall and slowly rose to look down at the street. Nothing yet. Some Mandarin soldiers ran from right to left, right through the kill zone, disappeared behind the next building. Tracer fire and laser bolts blinked in the distance, much of it from Mosh weapons. Then a block ahead, Mandarin and Mosh units exchanged fire. A tall building a kilometer to the front collapsed and flames rose from another. Some more explosions. The building shook under the three Marines.
Stone said, “Get ready.”
They peeked over the wall. Hitchcock readied his rocket launcher and knelt back down. Hastings laid out three fragmentation grenades and then checked the load on his assault rifle. Stone opened the bolt of his 20mm sniper rifle and pushed four armor piercing rounds into the magazine, then put an incendiary round on top of that and closed the bolt, released the safety.
He peeked at the street again and saw a Mosh team move forward to cover the intersection, saw them setting up a crew-served machine gun. More Mosh came and emplaced knee mortars.
Stone laid his rifle on the wall and turned on the night scope. He sighted in on the plastic jug Hastings had emplaced earlier, fired. The incendiary round hit the metal plate and ignited the contents of the jug. It burst and burned to provide back-lighting for the kill zone. The Mosh stood out as dark silhouettes.
Stone then sighted in on the satchel and shot it. It erupted in an explosion that flattened all the Mosh in the intersection. Four still moved. Stoned carefully sighted in and shot each of them in turn. Then he dropped down and reloaded his rifle with Armor Piercing. Hitchcock had his sensor out and turned on. It showed the approach of more Mosh, a platoon,
supported by a light vehicle.
Hastings took a quick look over the wall. “A light self-propelled gun.”
Hitchcock smiled, watched his sensor. Then he stood and fired his rocket and hit the vehicle center of mass, dropped back down. The vehicle’s explosion rocked the area. The sensor showed a squad still active, the remnants of a Mosh platoon. Tracers zipped over the roof. Some rounds hit the wall. Then a pause.
Stone nodded at Hastings. Hastings stood and fired his assault rifle on full auto. A Mosh bullet bounced off his body armor. Stone laid his rifle on the wall and shot four more Mosh. They were quick to take cover. Stone and Hasting dropped back down. Hastings picked up his grenades and clipped them back on his armor.
Stone said, “Bug out!”
They high-crawled to the back of the roof. Stone hooked his rifle over the rope and crossed his ankles over the rope and slid down to the street and then lay in the prone to provide security. Hitchcock followed, collapsed his rocket launcher and shouldered his assault rifle. Hastings came down last and cut the rope. The three moved back a block and rallied with the rest of their squad to set a larger ambush that covered a parking lot.
After an hour of waiting with no action, the squad leader received orders to extract. They moved back to the park and got back on their assault boat and left the area. The platoon leader said, “Congratulations, the Mosh advance has stopped for the night and the Mandarins are reorganizing their defense.”
Stone plugged his armor into the boat’s power and saw that his charge was all the way down to fifteen percent. All things considered, it was a good day’s work.
Chapter Sixteen
Two hours before sunrise, the helos skimmed along the left side of a road that led north from Chong-gok, five klicks to its east. The road was a hardball two lane, an old road not used much; a super highway was built heading north out of the heart of the city two decades before. The lead helo moved fifty meters to the left and hovered and a squad of light infantry speed-roped to the ground and took cover. The helo turned and headed back to its base. The helos moved along and emplaced a squad every hundred meters, set down a whole company, picked up another company and returned, made three trips to emplace the entire light infantry battalion.
The War for Profit Series Omnibus Page 93