“All right, you two cover me,” Dag said. “Time to find out if anyone’s home.”
“Lieutenant, you should let me go first,” Markov said.
“Next time,” Dag said as he darted out from behind cover and raced forward toward the fortress.
The canyon opened up wide as he approached Stonewater and the rocky ground turned to dirt and mud as he got closer to the river. No bullets followed him as he raced from boulder to boulder until he was within easy view of the fortress’s front gate. There were no boot prints in the mud outside the main gate, and nothing had been done to shore up the missing doors to the fortress’s lone entrance. Dag was fairly certain Stonewater was unoccupied. He whistled once and waved his arm, signaling for the company to advance, before he entered the Stonewater courtyard.
The entranceway that ran from the gate to the main citadel had at one time been lined with columns, but most had fallen or broken in half over time. On the two front corners of the rectangular fortress walls had been two watchtowers, but one had collapsed and was leaning against the canyon wall. The other still looked serviceable though.
“Bet there aren’t any ghosts here,” Pendelton murmured as he joined Dag in looking at their new post.
Dag looked at him incredulously.
“How many battles have been fought here over the years? How many people have died exactly where we’re standing?” he asked. “Gives me the creeps.”
Dag nodded toward the standing watchtower and said, “You’ve got the best eyes of anyone here. I want you to keep a look out.”
“Go up the creepy abandoned tower by myself,” Pendelton said. “That probably won’t end up in my murder.”
He did not comment any further though and he made his way through an empty doorway which Dag presumed led to a spiral stairwell that would take Pendelton to the top of the tower. The rest of the company made their way through the gates as Dag wandered through the ruins, taking account of their situation. There were numerous outbuildings that were long since destroyed or fallen to rubble, and a few more twisting root trees towering over fallen statues. The citadel itself was colossal and even with a part of the tower destroyed, it would make for a decent defensive position if properly fortified. The walls of Stonewater ran all the way into the canyon on the east side and there was a small cavern through which flowed the River Rampage. The water twisted tortuously through the grounds, passing underneath the citadel. There had once been bridges and foot paths that forded the water way, but all but one was destroyed.
“Nice place,” Logan said as the former constable joined Dag.
“Once upon a time, maybe,” he replied as he stared at the canyon walls encircling them on all three sides. “Right now, it feels more like a death trap. There’s no way out of this place if a force is able to cut us off from the canyon we arrived by. Come on, let’s get a look at the approach.”
Dag led Logan to a stairwell which ran alongside the forward wall and climbed up to the parapet, avoiding steps that were missing large chunks of stone as he made his way up. The fortress’s walls were higher that the canyon’s, so he had a good view of the approach to the fortress. The arroyo before him was bisected by the River Rampage and was relatively narrow until the rock walls fell away and opened up to the Greengarden grasslands. A half dozen slot canyons broke off from the arroyo on either side of the river, including the one the Miravallians had emerged from, but Kryski had been right. The canyon walls divided the Rock Maze from Greengarden completely except for the one entrance before them- whoever held Stonewater held the Rock Maze.
The area in front of the Rock Maze’s entrance were rolling hills, covered in tall grass and wildflowers, extending all the way out to the Godly River and far to the south as well. Dag’s main concern was to the north, however. There, the grasslands were quickly replaced by rocky hills, more canyons, and expansive forests all the way up to Highskye. As the Dominion forces would almost certainly be coming from the north, the woods and hills would provide them with excellent cover until they were almost on top of Stonewater.
“Logan, I want you to take Kayleigh and five of the Craven Bluffs scouts and do a recon of the surrounding area,” he said. “Focus primarily on the woods to the north.”
“Yes, sir,” Logan said.
“Sergeant Kryski,” Dag called down. “Start having the men find a way to seal that main entrance.”
Kryski looked up from where he was refilling his canteen in the river and called back an affirmative. As the militia began grabbing odd bits of wood and chopping down trees to make a serviceable door to Stonewater’s only gate, Dag was once again filled with the sense that they were trapping themselves far more so than they would hinder the enemy. Every victory that they had claimed had been the result of thinking like a militia and like guerrilla fighters. Establishing a base of operations and trying to hold a stationary position were what fully outfitted regular army units did, not irregulars who were severely outnumbered.
“Deep thoughts?” Aria asked from behind him, startling Dag slightly.
“I didn’t hear you sneak up on me,” he said as he turned around to face her.
“The scouting unit has left,” she replied. “Figured you’d want to know.”
“Thanks,” he said before turning back to the arroyo before him.
“What’s wrong, Dag?” she asked as she stepped up next to him and surveyed the area herself.
“This just doesn’t feel right,” he replied, tapping his knuckles anxiously against the wall in front of him as he did so. “I feel boxed-in here, trapped into a single possibility if the enemy comes.”
“Well,” she responded. “Start thinking of another possibility.”
He looked at her crosswise. “What?” he demanded.
“If you don’t like the game, change it,” Aria responded with a sly smile. “Make it more to your advantage.”
“How do I do that?” he demanded.
Taking his hand in hers, she said, “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
16
The Dominion engineers and laborers had been working hard to get the bridges across the New River repaired and they were making progress, Alex observed. Another two had been made safe for the tanks to cross, and they only needed to repair two more before the tanks could get within gun range, another four for them to make an assault on the Miravallian defense.
With the hill sloping to their advantage, the Miravallian mortar and captured tanks had better range, and Tangrit had suggested to Captain Beaurigar and Alex that they begin shelling the approaching force. The captain had shot down the idea almost immediately. The Dommies were still at the outside of Tangrit’s range, and they could not afford to be wasting ammunition on anything but sure targets. If they ran out of ammo for their larger weapons, the Dominion tanks would roll right over them.
As such, they had been forced to turn back to the Commodore, whose bomb boats were taking longer to construct than he had promised. With a feeling of growing annoyance burgeoning within him, Alex walked through the woods to where the Commodore and his construction crew were busy working on the boats.
“Ah, lieutenant,” the Commodore observed haughtily from where he stood near the banks of the river, his hands on his hips as he supervised the laborers. “Are you here to lend a hand?”
“I’m here to find out when the boats will be ready,” Alex replied gruffly.
“The bateaux are ready now,” Banner, Tangrit’s nephew, called from where he stood hip deep in the river, applying reeds to the side of the boat to help camouflage it.
“But they need ballasts and sails still,” the Commodore protested.
Banner looked at him sharply. “The river runs that way,” he said, pointing down into the ravine.
“Unless you’re planning on sailing the explosives down into the Dominion columns yourself, I think we can skip the sails,” Alex opined sarcastically.
Annoyance evident in his expression, the Commodore nonetheless replied, �
�As you wish, lieutenant.”
“The trick is going to be timing the charges correctly so that they’re in the Dominion lines when they blow,” Banner’s brother Balfry said. “It will take a hell of a lot of luck for one of these to detonate under a bridge.”
“And we can’t throw one down the river, see where it is when it blows, and then make adjustments,” Banner added. “Once the Dommies know there are bombs in the boats, the game is up.”
“Set your timers in a staggered series of thirty second intervals, starting with ten minutes,” the Commodore said immediately. “Launch all the bateaux simultaneously and they should all detonate in fair proximity to the enemy with a better chance of damaging one of the bridges they have already repaired.”
Alex looked to the mariner inquisitively.
The Commodore stared back at him. “Calculating current speeds is one of my many skills, lieutenant,” he announced.
“Do as the commodore says,” Alex ordered. “How much explosive did you put into each boat?”
Balfry smiled and replied, “Enough to wake up a few Dommies.”
Alex waited and watched as the brothers set the timers on the bombs and shoved the bateaux out into the water. In a matter of moments, the boats were coursing their way around the bends of the New River and headed down into the ravine. Alex led them all out of the woods and joined Captain Beaurigar who was observing the Dominion machinations from the center of the defensive formation.
“Bombs away, sir,” Alex reported as he joined the captain.
“Let’s hope they don’t hit any snares too close to our position,” the captain said as he trained his binoculars on the river and spied the rapids conveying the boats quickly down the river.
As the minutes ticked away, the camouflaged bateaux drifted past the forward positions of the Dominion infantry without being noticed. Banner tapped a wristwatch for a moment and then looked to Alex, flashing a manic grin as he did so. The first explosion ripped through the Dominion forward lines a few seconds later. Thinking that the Miravallians were launching a forward attack on them, the surviving Dommies raced forward and took cover under their hastily assembled fortifications or into foxholes. Right around the point where they should have been wondering why there were no Miravallian militiamen charging down the hill at them and why there had been no report from the mortar shell that was launched at them, the second bomb went off near the water’s edge. Fortifications were destroyed and infantrymen were blown apart. Fires burned where the aurastone diesel used in the incendiary devices had splashed and smoke was quickly filling the ravine.
At least some of the Dommies must have realized what was happening because a few men jumped into the river to try to get to one of the bateau after it passed under the first repaired bridge. It blew just on the other side of the bridge, taking the Dommies and part of a tank with it.
Alex winced slightly as he saw the third bomb go off. “A few seconds earlier and the bridge would have blown,” he muttered.
“Give it time,” the Commodore replied calmly.
The fourth and fifth bombs went off, causing minimal damage to one of the Dominion tanks and sending more Dommies running for cover. The final bateau passed under the second bridge and Alex cursed as he watched through the binoculars because it was going to blow a few moments too late. The boat suddenly stopped though as if it had become snagged on something, perhaps an out-jutting rock. The pause was brief, but long enough, as the bomb detonated and sent the bridge and the tank sitting atop it flying into the air.
“Got one,” Alex shouted triumphantly.
“Hopefully that will slow their advance some,” Beaurigar said. “Commodore, start making more of those boats, but send the first few down empty and send each one down as soon as it is ready. I’d like to keep them guessing for as long as possible.”
“We’re running low on toluene glycerol,” Balfry said. “And we can’t keep using aura diesel if we want the tanks and the trucks to be able to roll.”
“Send what decoys you can make down now,” Beaurigar ordered. “Wait until nightfall to send however many you can rig with explosives. Pull a few men off the defensive line if you need more help with construction.”
“Yes, sir,” the Commodore said excitedly, saluting the captain as he turned to leave.
“Commodore,” Alex called after him, and when the merchant mariner turned around, Alex added, “Well done.”
17
Raphael Logan found being in the lowland forest entirely disquieting. They had entered it only an hour before, and he had felt lost ever since doing so. The woods and hills around Harren Falls were like a second home to him. When he had not been on duty as a town constable, he was just as likely to be found hunting or hiking in the woods as he was to be at his home. This forest was entirely different, however. The trails and trees were unfamiliar; the songs of the birds were not any he had ever heard before; even the game was different as he spotted at least a half dozen tracks that he had never seen in the Crest before.
The forest itself was thicker and older, the tree canopy so dense that there was little sunlight making its way in. With no breeze and so many trees bunched so closely together, there was a claustrophobic cloying feel to the area that he did not care for in the slightest. That said nothing of the fact that they probably could have marched within a hundred feet of a full Dominion legion and not seen them. Like the men from Craven Bluffs, Raphael was relying on his ears more than his eyes, but the bevy of strange sounds occurring in the woods made him more jumpy.
Kayleigh could tell that he was nervous, and Raphael could tell that his disposition was making her nervous as well. He tried to smile at her, but it came across as forced. He tried to think of something reassuring to say, but Kayleigh suddenly dove to the ground, following suit with the rest of recon team. Logan joined them quickly and snuck forward across the ground to where Jarred Szerbiak had fallen into a prone position behind a tree, his rifle out and scanning for targets.
“Heard something,” he whispered to Logan as he continued to track through the thick trees. “Sounded like machetes in the trees.”
Logan readied his own rifle and flipped open the scope. After a moment of searching, he spied a series of rock formations and men in black and grey uniforms moving through them. He whispered, “Got them. At your two o’clock.”
Szerbiak tracked for a moment and the whispered a harsh oath. “There has to be hundreds of them,” he muttered as he locked a round into his rifle.
“We get back to Stonewater,” Logan hissed. “We have to let Dagger know.”
Szerbiak looked like he wanted to argue and Logan understood the dilemma that was raging in the young man’s mind. Craven Bluffs was the first town the Dominion would hit if they got forces through the Rock Maze.
“We’re not going to turn back several hundred Dommies with the seven of us,” Logan insisted. “Not here.”
Szerbiak nodded solemnly and drew himself up into a kneeling position. “We-”
The sharp crack of a rifle shot interrupted him and Szerbiak’s head snapped forward as his blood splattered across a tree. His corpse had not even finished falling to the moss-covered ground before a second shot winged one of the other Craven Bluffs militiamen. He cried out as he grabbed at his knee, dropping his weapon and falling behind a tree as he did so. The others had all taken cover as a third shot whistled through the air, but did not hit any of them.
“Does anyone see him?” Logan managed just as Kayleigh fired her rifle.
“Got him,” she said.
“Sniper teams work in pairs,” the constable cautioned everyone.
Kayleigh fired again and Logan looked at her incredulously. “We’re clear,” was all she said.
Logan did not have time to wonder when the pig-tailed redhead had been replaced with a sniper possessed of more sangfroid than most soldiers. A quick check of the scope on his rifle told him the main column of Dominion infantrymen were moving toward them and quickly.
“No,” the man said.
“Come on, Niles,” one of the others intoned. “We have to get you out of here.”
“None of you will get out of here if you let me slow you down,” Niles spat as he pulled up his machine gun and racked a round into the chamber. “Get moving now. Just leave me some grenades and I’ll try to buy you some time.”
Logan saw that the other men wanted to argue, but he said, “Leave your grenades with Niles here and let’s get moving.”
The Craven Bluffs militiamen handed over their explosives and even passed over all the ammunition and grenades that Szerbiak had been carrying. “Thanks,” Niles said through gritted teeth. “Now get the hell out of here so I can start shooting.”
Thirty seconds after they started running through the woods headed back to the south, the rattling of machine gun fire began and was almost immediately answered by reports further to the north. This was followed by several explosions and then more machine gun fire. Niles managed to make the battle last for several minutes, until he was either shot dead or ran out of ammunition. There was two minutes of silence as they continued to run through the heavy tangle of limbs and undergrowth followed by a series of loud explosions.
“They found his body,” one of the militiamen said through his panting as they paused for a moment. “He must have set a dead man’s trap for them.”
Guerrilla (The Invasion of Miraval Book 2) Page 10