"So much that most of my people are going to be killed. Actually they are mostly Aussies, so they're more your people than mine. None the less, most of them will be killed, and the rest will retreat."
I pushed my chair back from the table. "You want me to oversee defeat, slaughter?"
Rafe was taken aback. "The land attack is a diversion. Everyone who volunteered for this operation knew it was one way. They'll be retrieved for rebirth. They were dead when we gave them bodies and asked them to go on this most important mission. We'll give them another body. You don't have to believe me. Few would in your position. Just believe it's of Earth shattering importance that we put on a good show. You'll be taken back to our base for indoctrination when this is over. Then you'll know whether you want to throw in with us, or not. Lin Ti has the same chance. She's up top looking over the equipment now."
It was too much data for me, all at once. I just held my peace and let it assimilate. "Assuming you speak the truth what the hell do you need our help with?"
Molly answered, "We need the enemy to believe that, somehow, Lin and her organization are responsible for the attack. There will be no evidence otherwise. When someone's killed, or gravely wounded, they activate a device which incinerates them and their equipment. We could do that with the suits too, but Til and Talle are going to remain here for perimeter control. If they're not enough, plenty more of their kind will come down and help. You don't need to know this, but the real attack, the most important attack, will come from the sea, onto the ship. As to the prisoners, truck drivers, or whomever, they will be retrieved, one way or the other."
I began to see the complexities, and the desired results. "How could you have this planned? Lin and I didn't know ourselves we'd be here."
Rafe answered, "We operate outside of time. We knew months ago that you'd be here, you two were observed being here. We just dropped in when you came along. It's no more complicated than changing trains. You'll understand."
"I've no choice. I'll go along for the ride, been getting tired of the same old stuff anyway."
Rafe said, "Good." Molly seemed to relax. Why would she care? Maybe she was just the caring kind.
Merle came into the area with the bears. She jumped up on my lap while the bears grabbed chairs and sat as close to the table as possible.
Merle said, "Came to say goodbye big boy. Save some zip for me when we meet in the sky.'
I looked into her eyes and knew she was fighting the changes, the same as me. "I'll do that. Maybe they'll have a pool we can float around in."
Molly said, "We do. A great big one, in Central City. And lots of private ones scattered here and there."
Merle acknowledged with a nod, "Then it's a date, see you."
With that she jumped down and went off quickly with Til and Talle behind her.
I observed, "She's something special."
Rafe said, "More special than the eye can see. She'll be protected. We just need her to get the rest of her people out smoothly. A half hour before the attack they'll be gone. We'll build another village for them in a safe place."
Molly said, "Lin will be back shortly. Rest is advisable. It will be a long night."
With that Rafe and her left the table and worked their way through the troops stopping here and there to chat. No one seemed bothered that they would be dead within the next twenty four hours. Molly seemed small and young to be giving me advice. Maybe I should put aside my old observation parameters and try to fix on some fresh ones. Lin glided to the table with a snacks tray and sat.
"How's your artillery knowledge?"
"One year forward observer, six months fire control box, good with target differentiation, is it going to be complicated?"
"No. The rockets have feedback radar, or something like radar, that gives a feedback of surface and under surface conditions on each of them, as they approach contact. That way you can set for bursting point as you see fit. Also the data is fed back to the ground troops so they have 'over the horizon' Intel in real time. The enemy must have deep defenses because they figure to lose a lot of people."
"Yeah, Rafe said, or Molly. She must be more than his office assistant."
Lin agreed, "I'm sure she is, but I don't know that we can understand them yet."
"I was just thinking that. We have to start over in all our considerations. Shouldn't we get in the 'box' and start doing equipment familiarization?"
"It will only take a half hour. Feeding and aiming is all automatic. 'Air over' is a bit more detailed, but not much. We got time. They don't push off until 2200. They have some personal way to approach the mine fields quickly. They wouldn't show me. Guess there's some things we can't know yet."
I said, "In that case we'd better follow Molly's advice and kip out."
"Too true."
OPERATIONAL AREA - ALTERNATE REALITY AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 2010
LONG TOM LUDHOLM
CHAPTER NINETEEN
We returned to the pool area at 2000, having gotten seven hours of, for me, fitful sleep. I'd programmed my mind to remember what I knew of artillery. Bits and pieces of that data base were still filtering into my mind. I was amazed at how much I remembered and how well it was organized. It was almost beyond my usual capabilities. I didn't tell Lin that though, doesn't hurt to make a good impression.
Back at our table I asked her, "Shouldn't we go to our box now?"
"This is the box." Waving her hand around she continued, "This becomes a real time 3-D representation of the battlefield. You'll have two joy sticks. One is for focus. The other one controls the rate of fire. We have an unlimited supply of rockets. You can target a thousand rockets on one grid square of ten meters. Your launch rate is a thousand a minute. You can do spot focus, or blanket focus."
She looked around at the few people finishing meals. "As soon as these clear out I'll bring up the view and you can practice. The firing stick won't go hot until 2200. I'll be laying down on the couch next to you concentrating on an overhead 3-D of the area. I'm told the launchers utilize move and fire, so counter fire directed on them is of no consequence."
I said, "I hear you. Belief comes later. Let's get something to eat. I expect piss calls will be few and far between."
"Did anyone ever tell you you're too practical?"
The last soldier cleared out about 2030 as we finished eating. He waved. We waved back. There was nothing to say that would be meaningful, so why say anything?
Til and Talle came in shortly thereafter. Til said, "We're going to get our suits. Don't think twice about building security. If we, and our back-ups, can't handle that, we've set up a Nuke. In that case you'll wake up on Med Deck. No worry."
Neither Lin nor I had an answer. We waved as they strode out, lots of waving going on.
Lin put a case, two feet square and six inches deep on the table, opened it, and turned a knob setting to Simulate. She took out two joy stick pads, and sticks. "Have at it. I'll set up over there. Don't pay any attention to the sky. The systems interact, but don't bother about incoming. I'll take care of that."
I moved around the table, so I would be facing south. On the screen inside the case there were squares I could click on if I wanted a firing sequence to be repeated. Also squares to let me preprogram sites to be fired upon later. The right joystick had a thumb firing button and a trigger finger activator which controlled the rockets I wanted fired at one time in multiples of ten. I turned on the viewer and a section of country appeared before me. The left joy stick activated an indicator that I could move across the 3-D battlefield simulation in front of me. When I moved the indicator over the viewed landscape, a read out appeared on the screen which read out the azimuth from my location, the distance to target and the time to target. A slight shiver went through me when I considered how carefully I would have to direct the rockets to hit just ahead of my advancing troops.
I called over to Lin asking, "Does this system have a 'friendlies' recognition capability?"
"Yes. Molly said not to worry. The
guidance package built into the rockets maintains 'real-time' contact with everybody we don't want to hurt. If the line shifts unexpectedly forward, the rockets will impact forward too. She said to keep the fire close in, so let that be your guide."
"I hear you, thanks."
I called upon my training and started planning the salvos. There were land mines to consider: then jellied gasoline puddles in depressions, then avenues of reinforcement, pillbox placements, mortar pits, etc. By the time I was satisfied it was 2140. I left the table and walked through a 3-D hill to the Men's room. Lin was deep in concentration and didn't even notice me. I grabbed two bottles of water and a box of fig bars from the kitchen on my way back to my table. Lin had gone somewhere, probably following me.
At 2150 green friendly indicators started to appear on the display. Evidently there was communication between my case and the individual troops as nobody appeared into a planned impact zone. I switched the knob to Live Fire. Time to tie the kangaroo down.
At 2155 I noticed Lin was back on her chaise lounge when a voice out of nowhere said, "Party time, commence bombardment!"
I thumbed the top button of the right 'stick and seven thousand 150 MM 20 foot long rockets went flying out of their tubes, impact time, four minutes. I thought back to my training time at Ft. Bragg. It was going to be a jolly Independence Day fireworks. I scanned over the battlefield, pushing the view right up to the ocean, which I'd refrained from doing before to not alarm anyone. There was no indication of counter fire. I hadn't anticipated any. No one is that good.
My battlefield, all thirty represented kilometers of it, started showing short lived sparks at 2159. Then I moved the indicator on my screen to preprogram and depressed the button again. Sparks appeared all over the fifteen kilometers from our lines to one KM short of the ocean. According to Merle the prisoners were underground, at most a half K from the waters edge.
Our troops advanced on the target, maintaining, and diminishing their half moon configuration. My rockets landed just before they got there every step of the way. The preprogrammed ones kept spewing air-ward and then, earth-ward.
Red circles appeared from who knows where to oppose our green stars. My sparks kept interfering with the red circles. I quickly roamed over the battlefield searching for red circles. Ten rocket salvos rained on any I found. There was no elapsed time. It was just a searching, and a firing world, which I went into. I noticed that my sparks weren't so intense, counter fire. I went from ten rockets per salvo to thirty per salvo, result, many more sparks. Observable was that red circles were appearing and going forward to meet our troops, none ever went seaward. Abstractly I searched my mind for troops I'd met and found few which would have advanced through the hell I was raining down on them. Not to speak of firepower that melted steel drums.
Despite all efforts I noticed that there were fewer green stars. I went to fifty rockets per salvo. I noticed that a thrust was taking place toward the port. I increased the salvo level to one hundred per, every minute, trusting Lin's relayed directions that the rockets would be diverted at the last moment. The concentrated advance had continuous sparks around it. It stopped and I calculated that an entry point had been found. From that point on there was little I could do, but continue to rain rockets down on any available enemy target.
I stole a glance at the elapsed time display, two hours and twenty seven minutes. My stomach fell out of me at the thrusting worry of running out of rockets. I didn't dare to look at the launched count. They had said, "Unlimited." With their lives on the line I could do nothing but believe them. Wait. The thrust was pulling back to the main line. Once back, the whole line started to retreat. I didn't have time to count but I guessed we were about half strength. The red circles started to pop up behind the retreating line. I 'rained' on them as fast as they popped up. There were few remaining to hinder the retreat when I was finished.
An eternity later there were no more red circles and our troops had retreated behind the initial point of engagement. After that they started to disappear one by one until none remained. The elapsed time clock read, three hours and forty seven minutes. I tried to let go of the joy sticks. My hands were not obeying me. Lin appeared from my right and slowly peeled my fingers back one by one. She held a water bottle to my mouth and I could swallow. That relaxed me enough to stand up. The chair fell backward behind me. I didn't care. Lin moved up against me and put her hands behind me rubbing my back. Time seemed not to have intruded upon us yet.
Rafe's voice, out of the air, said, "Take what you need and drive North in your truck, Tom, Lin. You'll be picked up. Don't be surprised how."
I took a few faltering steps to begin with and then said, "I got my balance. Let's do what's ordered. I'm thinking we're due for a big counter strike. We'll let my preprogrammed program run and get the hell out of here. All I want is in this bag here, and this case."
I put the joy sticks back in their recesses and shut the case. With it in hand I picked up my duffle, while seeing that she had her duffle and cases by her feet.
She said, "I figured we would cut and run. Last one up the stairs is a rubber ducky."
I shifted my load to one hand, grabbed my water bottles, and stuffed them in a jacket pocket along with the fig bars. I still was hot on her heels when we surfaced in the bay which held my tractor.
Sprinting toward my tractor, which now had a refer trailer behind it, I saw what had to be a quad fifty mounted in the cupola. "The machine gun?"
"I see it, no idea."
The tractor door opened before we got to it. We didn't come to a halt until we were inside. Dropping our loads we confronted the tall slim stranger sitting in the cupola chair.
"I'm Jim Williams. The motor is already warmed up. The load is secured, as you can see in the new rear view monitor."
I glanced sideways at it. Til and Talle had a lot of cousins sitting facing outward on a back to back bench the length of the trailer. The first two waved. Stupidly I waved back.
Jim continued, "I suggest we get out of here. The enemy is halfway through putting a chopper together. The land mines have been cleared. Blowing the bay door now."
With that he reached in a pocket and squeezed something. The bay doors blew far away into the night. I absently calculated that a quarter of the explosives used would have been enough as I seated myself and buckled the most often unused 'H' harness. I saw Lin doing the same. After that she opened her case, navigation? What the hell for? I knew where north was. I knew all the roads. Whatever, new toys. By then I was storming through the perimeter gate and turning right onto the access road.
I saw that I had grown a few new controls like 'shield wall strength' and 'A/G lift %'. Lin had an array of controls in front of her, an expanse where I usually threw my jacket. Who the hell knew? In frustration I took the left turn onto the backwoods four lane too fast and didn't even tilt two degrees. I know because I had a 'tilt-o-meter' in front of me. Another new toy. Someone had sure been busy. We were zooming along at 200 KM, the limit for undivided roads. An occasional four wheeler zipped by us like we were standing still. Let them zip. Gendarmerie had to make a living too.
With tenseness in his voice Jim said, "They have the chopper airborne. Time to blow your digs, sorry Lin."
In the cabin mirror I saw him reach into another pocket and squeeze.
"We thought it best to not blow the reactor. Cause too much notice when the cloud showed up on the Geiger monitors."
"How thoughtful," Lin said. "Remind me to never let you scratch yourself in my presence."
Jim laughed so hard he practically couldn't contain himself. It drew a smile from me too. I glanced back into the trailer. The first two figures were clapping hands. God almighty, I'd crossed over for sure.
Somewhere in the cupola area a beeping started.
"Oh shit." Jim said. "It's picked us up. Must have a rewind on local traffic patterns. Let's hope we can ward them off with the 'fifties'. You'd like them Tom. I personally think up the ammo loads fo
r them. I got a real special load for this possibility, a proximity exploder with compressed Napalm."
I opened my mouth to tell him how crazy he was. I shut it when I realized I was driving the platform he was firing from. The chopper must be nearing because I started getting a message on the official emergency channel.
"Heave to refer hauler, pull over and stop with blinkers on."
Bullshit, I shut the headlights off and drew down my infra red goggles. This boy had run before. I put the air horns on repeat blasts, six at 150 decibels each. The dead would get out of the way. At 300KM I asked, "Is he still sticking with us?"
"Yes. It's a ramjet booster. He's tucked his wings."
"That's good for 500 KM. We can't outrun him on this road. You ready?"
"As I'll ever be. Til, Talle, pass the word."
I said, "Braking."
I didn't try to slow down nicely. I just applied the entire, 'stop' we had. With the lights wholly out there was no warning. Jim's four barrels started to chug away. I could hear the empties clattering on the tractor roof, a steady stream. Overly heated barrels crossed my mind, but Jim didn't come over as a fellow who'd leave anything uncovered. We stopped and sat in the middle of the four lanes horns blaring. The cupola turned from the rear direction, to straight overhead, to firing forward. Evidently the enemy didn't have protection on the exhausts because he became a fireball at eleven o'clock, 400 meters out. When the fireball hit the ground another explosion took place, munitions, I'd bet.
Jim said, with relief in his voice, "Thankfully the Napalm got through the shields. Get going. They're about a quarter ways through another chopper. They learn quickly. Pickup is just another 50 'clicks'."
Fifteen minutes later I noticed something overhead shutting out the stars.
Alarm in my voice I started to speak. "Jim, there's---"
"I know. Be cool. We'll be lifting off shortly. Be ready to cut your motor."
I just thought of opening my mouth this time. See, I could learn too, 'good curve Tom' my instructors always said. Well maybe one or two.
Greener Green II: The Balls Brigade Page 24