Chapter 37
Fischer and his squad were at the resupply area just south of the road junction, near the two bridges they were to defend. He had met with the commanders of the remnant forces at the courthouse earlier. The 32nd LRD had suffered heavy causalities, with a majority of the causalities being suffered by Colonel McGregor’s 17th Infantry Regiment. The forces holding Leesville and Sherman had wisely retreated back into town after their comms went down; they had suffered very little losses and would make up the bulwark of the defense in town.
Nobody had heard from General Williams since the comms were lost. Colonel Purcell - after the death of Colonel McGregor - was now in temporary command of the remnant forces surrounding Grantsburg.
The plan now was for the non-attached elements of the 2055th Reserve Battalion to evacuate the remaining civilians to a temporary refugee holding center being assembled on the other side of the river. The Mortar Brigade was already in the process of moving and setting up on the north side as well, but it would be sometime before they would be ready to fire at full-strength.
Fischer and the rest of the 2nd Battalion would have to keep the road to the bridges open long enough for everyone to get across; they themselves would be the last to leave. Fischer knew that if reinforcements hadn’t arrived by then; they would blow the bridges as a last resort.
Fischer glanced over to his left at Rhodes. He had that look in his eyes that he only got when he was ready to blow something up.
I should just be glad he hasn’t blown them up yet, Fischer smirked.
Fischer saw Akiyama across from Rhodes. She was quickly digging through a random assortment of ammo boxes stacked on the ground. He threw some laser rifle magazines into his pack and walked over to her.
“Have you found any fifty-cal rounds?” Fischer asked as he stood next to Akiyama.
She stopped digging and looked at Fischer.
“I’ve found about sixty rounds, but only forty of them look to be anywhere near fireable condition; the rest are too heavily corroded, probably as a result of improper storage,” Akiyama said as she held up one of the corroded rounds for Fischer to see.
It was covered in a whitish-green crust and the brass casing was heavily discolored.
Fischer picked it up to get a closer look at it. “Use them if you have no other option,” he said as he put it back in her hand. “Do you want me to assign you another spotter?”
Akiyama shook her head immediately without looking around. “No, I’ll be fine. I’ll set up in that church on the other side of the river. Its bell tower should provide me with an excellent field of fire to cover everyone with,” she said as she pointed over to the yellow-brick church.
The church bell tower wasn’t very high, but it was taller than the handful of other buildings on the north side of the river. The factories were probably a safer bet for her, but they were too far away.
“Okay, as soon as we retreat across the river, I want you out of that tower. We’ll all rendezvous behind the church afterwards,” Fischer said.
Akiyama saluted, threw the rounds in her pack, and headed out. Jones watched her, and then slunk his head as she ran by without acknowledging him.
Harlan and Rhodes came up to Fischer, a little after Akiyama left.
“Fischer, while we have a minute, we should probably go over the plan one more time,” Harlan said as she broke out her PCC with the map of the area already queued up. She then held it out so Rhodes and Fischer could see it.
“Just a second,” Fischer said, and then looked around for Brookes; he spotted her talking with Hartford on the opposite side of the street. “Hey, Brookes, come over here!”
Brookes ran over. She looked to be wondering why he called her over.
“Sir?” Brookes asked.
“Brookes, we’re going over the plan and I want you here,” Fischer said.
“Yes, sir,” Brookes said, her eyes seemed to light up a little.
Fischer took the light pen from Harlan and drew on the map.
“Okay, Rhodes, the Master Blasters are going to be covering the east side of the road junction here. This viaduct over the old railroad tracks should be an excellent spot for your AR launchers, giving your unit effective fields of fire to the east, south, and west,” Fischer said as he showed Rhodes on the map.
“Once again you read my mind, Fish. I was scouting that out the day we arrived,” Rhodes said with a grin.
“Heh… yeah. Okay, Harlan, the Red Hats will cover the south. These series of buildings here and here should provide sufficient cover; they also open straight out to the main road, which should assist in a quick escape when the time comes. Once the last Regs fallback, your squad will follow close behind them, covering their withdrawal,” Fischer said.
“Assuming comms don’t come back, I’ll make sure to send runners to let both of you know when we’ve started pulling back,” Harlan said.
“Good. The Dark Horses and I will cover the western approach. There is this wide-open area leading in, so the robots will more than likely come through that way to flank the town in an attempt to cut us off. Notice how it narrows to this choke-point here, just before the western bridge approach? That should slow them down long enough to buy us some more time. After the Red Hats cross, I want the Master Blasters to move out behind them. The Dark Horses and I will then be the last ones to cross, and then we’ll go from there,” Fischer said as he handed the light pen back to Harlan.
“Umm… you mean blow the bridges, after everyone is across, right?” Rhodes said, raising his right eyebrow.
“As a last resort,” Fischer said to the dismay of Rhodes. “All right, we all know our assignments? Good, let’s get this done.”
Everyone turned to leave, including Brookes.
“Hold on, Brookes, I want to talk with you for a moment, in private,” Fischer said as he motioned for her to follow him.
Brookes came back and followed Fischer over to a street corner away from everyone.
“I wanted to apologize for earlier, Brookes. I need to start including you more in our planning and discussions,” Fischer said, but Brookes seemed unsatisfied.
“Sir, if I may speak freely? That’s not the real issue I have -- though I do welcome being included more,” Brookes said as Fischer nodded. “My issue was with your reaction to me helping Lander and Ellerby.”
“Hmm… I see. I’m not going to change my mind on that, Brookes. In this war, soldiers are going to die. You can’t save all of them. We must do what we can,” Fischer said, but Brookes still didn’t look satisfied. “Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to assign Riley and Porter under your direct command. There’s a sandbag bunker on the right side of the northern portal on the western bridge; the detonator for the demo charges is located there. I want the three of you to guard it, and provide us with as much cover-fire as you can from there.”
Brookes looked over to Riley and Porter and then to the bunker on the other side of the river.
“Are you punishing me, sir? I think I can be more effective helping you on the front,” Brookes said as she held up her recently acquired laser rifle.
“No, far from it, Brookes, this is an important assignment that I’m entrusting you with. If we get over-run and are unable to make it across, then someone needs to be able to quickly blow the bridges in an emergency, understand?” Fischer said as Brookes gave a sort of reluctant nod. “Besides, I can’t trust Rhodes to watch over the detonator, and then we’d all have to swim across the river.”
“Captain Fischer, sir, I won’t let you down!” Brookes saluted and then ran over to Riley and Porter; the two then followed her as she headed off.
“All right, everyone, gather up what you can. We’re moving out in five!” Fischer ordered as he walked back to the resupply area.
*****
“We’re all in position, Cap,” Martin said as he ran over to Fischer.
“Good. Hold the left side, Martin, and I’ll hold the right,” Fischer said
as he looked up and down the thick line of sandbags that had been placed across the east-west River Road.
Martin saluted and then ran over to the small sandbag bunker with Kazir on the south side of the street. To the left of them, Sanchez was in a two story, red-brick building; it looked like it used to be a bakery at one point. Sanchez had set up AR launchers, one in each of the six windows that faced the road. In the middle, Hartford and Cross were in a small, well-protected bunker built out of sandbags, scrap metal, and an abandoned blue minivan that looked like it was sixty years-old. Fischer was in the larger bunker with Jones.
Enemy artillery strikes in the downtown area were steadily heading northward, getting ever closer to the Red Hats’ position. School buses filled with civilian refugees were being moved across the eastern bridge, and the mortar brigade’s trucks were crossing the western bridge. The long line of trucks and buses were moving too slowly, and Fischer was getting concerned.
“Damn it, if we don’t get those vehicles out of here the mortar fire will tear them to shreds. We’ll have burning vehicles choking up the road,” Fischer said mostly to himself.
Jones looked up to see what Fischer was talking about, but didn’t really seem to care, and ducked quickly back down with no comment. The artillery strikes were getting closer, but seemed to be tapering off somewhat. Fischer heard the foghorn noise, and then an explosion downtown. They must be getting into town now, Fischer thought.
“Everyone get ready! We’re going to be having hostile contacts soon!” Fischer yelled out from his bunker.
Fischer could hear more laser fire and explosions coming from the downtown area. He was only imagining what was going on there; it sounded hectic and intense. He looked back and saw the last of the civilian buses making it across the bridge. The mortar brigade looked to be setting up as fast as they could, a few of the mortars were already firing into town, but without adequate spotting he wondered how effective their fire was. They need to save their rounds, until the bots get into visual range, he thought.
“Captain, you’re receiving … an e-mail? It’s coming in on a secure channel. It’s from Major Rayne, sir!” Jones said as he looked up from his PCC in astonishment.
“An e-mail? Have the comms come back? What does it say?” Fischer asked as he knelt down by Jones.
“It’s -- heavily corrupted, sir, give me a second. I believe it says -- reinforcements are inbound, hold the line, and … I think they’re going to try and jam the HRUO signals - Rayne,” Jones said as he showed Fischer the e-mail.
Fischer looked at the e-mail; he wondered how Jones was able to read it at all, it looked like a jumble of random ASCII characters to him.
“Are you sure that this is what it says, Jones?” Fischer asked as he handed the tablet back to him.
“I’m ninety-five-percent positive, sir,” Jones said as he put the PCC on standby, and then put it away.
“We’ll have to assume the five-percent, until they arrive, okay?” Fischer said as he handed Jones his laser rifle.
Fischer turned when he heard a loud report from the church bell tower across the river. He knew that the robots were close now, though he couldn’t see them yet.
Another shot rang out and a headless Mark Two fell out onto the road as it was quickly followed by others as they rounded the corner. The road past three-hundred meters was now suddenly clogged with the machines.
The force looked to be composed just mainly of Mark Ones, with a few Twos mixed among them; it was a far-cry from the perfectly organized forces of yesterday.
“Open fire!” Fischer yelled as the Dark Horses opened up on the robot mass with an intense volley of laser fire.
The robots in the front ranks started to fall by the wayside, but the bots were coming up faster than they could be destroyed.
A Mark Two turned on its missile targeting laser and had it aimed for Fischer’s bunker. The red laser dot drifted around the back of the bunker and then stopped on his forehead. He froze for a second, but then almost immediately the Two’s head exploded into a flurry of sparks, closely followed by the sound of Akiyama’s shot. Fischer let out a sigh of relief and went back to firing.
The robots were closing in on two-hundred meters when Kazir started to open up with concentrated bursts from his Vulcan laser cannon. His weapon was tearing huge holes in the robot ranks the closer they got to the Dark Horses.
Fischer looked back and to his left. There was the sound of intense fighting coming from the south. Multiple foghorn noises blasted followed immediately by just as many explosions. The Red Hats didn’t look to be engaged at the moment, but there were now Regs retreating down the main road and fleeing across the bridges.
“No, it’s too soon!” Fischer yelled, but the soldiers kept running.
The Master Blasters were firing at the few robots that appeared on the eastern flank every now and then; they looked to be handling them easily. It looked to him as though he guessed right, and the main flanking attack was coming from the west, straight at the Dark Horses.
Fischer heard the sound of incoming mortar rounds as they exploded within the robot mass. It looked to be fire from a mortar battery. They began walking their fire to the east, destroying large numbers of robots getting caught-up in the bottle neck.
“We have mortars, but where is our air support?” Fischer said to himself as he looked up; there still weren’t any Phaetons in the sky that he could see.
Fischer heard a loud foghorn blast nearby to his left, and then suddenly one of the brick buildings - four buildings down the street - was engulfed by a fireball. It then crumbled onto the crowded street below in a billow of dust and smoke. He could hear it; he could make out its eyes as the Four slowly shuffled out of the dusty cloud.
“Four!” Fischer yelled.
A missile fired from behind streaked toward the behemoth, but the Four’s point defense laser took it out, causing the missile to explode prematurely a few meters from impact.
“Get that laser, Akiyama!” Fischer yelled as though he had radio contact with her. A shot rang out from the tower and struck the head just above the PPDL, ricocheting off and shattering a second story window in the building to the Four’s immediate right.
The terrible noise sounded from the Mark Four; it aimed and fired at Hartford and Cross’ bunker. The blast sent the minivan in front of their bunker flying off, end over end. What was left of the minivan landed on the main road; nearly crushing a couple of fleeing soldiers.
“Hart - Cross!” Fischer yelled out.
The Four turned its laser cannons to Fischer’s bunker and let out the foghorn noise again.
“Oh shit!” Fischer yelled as he grabbed Jones and dove out the back of the bunker.
Fischer felt a blast of hot air and a sharp gust of wind as he lay flat on the ground. He looked up and saw the roof of the bunker was gone, but the bunker itself still looked mostly intact.
Fischer looked over at Jones who looked to be trying to make himself as small as possible as he scrambled and hid behind a sandbag wall.
Fischer picked up his rifle lying in front of him, crouched over to the rear bunker wall, and then leaned around the left rear corner. He took aim and tried to shoot the PPDL. His shots missed; the target was too small. He then lined up for another shot and fired; the PPDL exploded into sparks.
“Now!” Fischer yelled up to Sanchez; Sanchez fired without hesitation, scoring a direct hit on the right side of the Four’s head.
The blast knocked the Four’s head clear-off. It flailed its arms, turned to its left, slid down the river embankment, and splashed into the cold, murky water below.
Fischer could hear cheers from behind as he ran over to the remains of the center bunker. He began to frantically toss away sandbags as he tried to find Hartford and Cross. He could hear coughing the closer he got, and then he removed the last one, creating a hole to the smoke-filled cavity inside.
“Are you two okay?” Fischer asked as he helped Cross out of the hole.
“Geez… Cap, you should know it’s going to take more than a Mark Four to kill me,” Hartford boasted and coughed as Fischer helped her out.
“Yeah, the robots are going to need a Mark Five if they ever want any hope of killing you,” Fischer chuckled. “Okay, Hartford, I need you to help out Sanchez with the AR launchers. We’re going to have more of the Fours heading this way. Cross, you’re with me.”
Fischer went back to what was left of the right bunker and saw Jones had already went back inside; he looked shaken as Fischer hurried back to what was left of the firing slit, and then started shooting as Cross knelt next Jones to see if he was okay.
Fischer could hear yells from behind him and to his left. He looked back. A Reg unit was fleeing now; it looked to be battalion-sized, judging by the numbers. This must be the main retreat, Fischer thought.
“I don’t think we have much time left,” Fischer said to Cross and Jones as he spotted The Red Hats beginning to leave their buildings.
Chapter 38
“Blow the bridges!” a panicking Riley screamed as he grabbed a hold of and pulled on Brookes’ right arm.
“No, pull yourself together, man!” Brookes shouted as she pushed Riley off of her and down onto the floor of the bunker.
“Shit… shit! We’re going to die! I already did my time; I shouldn’t be here!” Riley screamed as he lay on the bunker floor.
“Shut-up and fire, damn it!” Brookes snapped back.
There were large numbers of troops escaping across the bridges. Grantsburg was awash in a sea of flame and smoke. Brookes could see the robots pouring down the main road in large numbers toward the bridges; they were close to overrunning the Dark Horses and the Master Blasters on the right and the left respectively.
Brookes picked up Riley and put him up to the firing slit.
“Keep firing, Riley!” Brookes ordered.
The three in the bunker were shooting at the robots coming down the main road. A missile from a Mark Two flew towards them and impacted right in front of their bunker, sending dirt and debris in through the firing slit.
Robot Wars: Thrown Into the Fray Page 25