by Brent Reilly
CHAPTER 47
Red’s growing super-quad force and Jack’s ten thousand Africans left to destroy Mongol units along the northern African coastline because Billy saw an opportunity to take the entire Mediterranean from the Mongols. The Africans would eventually station themselves in Egypt to block Mongols from entering or leaving the continent, thus denying African wealth to the Empire.
To minimize cold-related illness, Billy alternated his two battalions weekly. On their week off the mountaintop, the battalion would deliver food, supplies, and bombs. Rotating companies attacked the enemy every three hours. Most of Jebe’s quads could only fly a few hundred kilometers before resting. Which is why Billy located his closest base five hundred kilometers away on Mont Blanc.
General Jebe re-organized his quads so that those who could fly farthest or highest flew together, but those units suffered the first and largest casualties. The rest of the Mongols were more targets than threats. The more Billy killed, the more quads that Jebe demanded from the High Command.
Jebe, naturally, attacked Team Red on Mont Blanc, but they had to rest halfway there. Billy kept companies in hidden bunkers to ambush units when they rested. Jebe eventually took those bunkers, but Billy had planted explosives to blow them up when the Mongols slept inside.
Jebe now had to establish less protected camps close to Mont Blanc. Ger huts were portable, but not bomb or fire proof. Billy didn't mind because it meant fighting on the highest possible point in Western Europe. The Mongols looked almost comical, dropping out of the sky when the intensity of fighting required more oxygen than they received. In contrast, the Americans sang nursery rhymes to slow their breathing when going into battle.
Every time Billy’s battalions switched, they interviewed the Red Baron and pooled those videos to distribute to news agencies. The extreme cold deepened Billy’s voice and made it raspier. Ironically, Billy had to impersonate Jim impersonating William, who periodically released threatening videos. Soon all of Europe waited impatiently for the weekly updates, which pitted the Red Baron against the Empire’s best general. Everyone understood that all of Europe was at stake. Rumor even had it that the Great Khan himself was their most dedicated viewer.
Jebe initially had to house eighty thousand troops while Billy only needed bunkers for a thousand, with a few hidden alternate camps farther away for when Jebe destroyed the main camp. Billy had a thousand marathoners to supply his camp, while Jebe needed thirty thousand for his dwindling armada. When he needed supplies, Billy sent his off-mountain battalion to ambush the Mongol logistical camp, forcing Jebe to move it ever farther away and assign more warriors to guard it. The Americans thought it funny that Jebe brought them free supplies and gave them opportunities to kill air mules.
Billy knew the Khan could not afford to let this narrative continue. He lost Spain and could lose Africa and western Europe. Hell, news reports suggested that the Free Europe air forces now fielded more foreign quads than the Mongols. Meaning, they were winning the so-called Battle of the Mercenaries.
All thanks to the Red Baron’s victories. But his death could reverse this. Already, rumors grew that the Great Khan was raising an unstoppable force to end the Red Baron, once and for all.
In his weekly interviews, the Baron progressively grew crazier, emphasizing the cold misery of living in a frozen hole and defiantly defending his latest defeats. He acted suicidal, paranoid, and delusional, claiming his quads would fight to the last man, despite the horrific losses. He complained bitterly of American Jack and the super-quads abandoning him, of sell-outs and mass desertions. He ranted and raved and cursed his former comrades.
He clearly had a death wish. Everyone knew the Red Baron was gonna die, and everyone wanted to see it. The lucky bastard who recorded the Baron’s last fight could sell it for a fortune.