“They are probing our lines,” Brigadier General Volkov said, to no one in particular. He had returned to the platform when the battle started.
“Perhaps we should charge their position. Those body shields they are using make an effective mobile barricade. An interesting tactic,” Brigadier General Zyagin observed.
“Yes and if we charge it we will be decimated by their fire once we are in the open. We don’t have an effective mobile barricade and we have no tanks, only air support.” General Volkov pointed out. “It would be best if you let me take over command.
“You aren’t even committing your brigade. Our brigades are taking all the casualties,” Brigadier General Golov pointed out.
While this discussion was in progress, the primary centurion of the sixth cohort opened a channel to the command post of the legion. “Legatus, we are under heavy fire and will need to storm the barricade if we are to break through the enemy lines. We have found out all we can from the probing. There is a weakness in their lines. If we make a concerted attack with tanks and air against the buildings separating the streets that are barricaded, the rubble will force them to retreat and allow us to climb over.”
The Legatus turned to Slone and spoke into the open channel. “That is a risky plan but I can see its merits. We will have to enter the rubble as soon as the buildings come down, to prevent the enemy from using the rubble as more protection.” The Legatus then turned to the communications tech. “Order the full legion forward and order all tanks and air units to bombard the three buildings in front of the sixth cohort. Order all centurions to take their cohorts over the rubble and barricades as soon as the buildings come down.”
A few minutes later all cohorts reported ready and the command ship rose straight up to clear the way for the five cohorts behind them on the road. Again the Legatus turned to the communications tech, “Begin the cadence, double time.” Immediately the drum sound started, faster this time then it had been in space. This caused the cohorts to start jogging towards the entrance of the city and as they arrived, the sixth cohort moved aside, the others fell in with the first and second cohorts taking the center, and the others dispersed to the sides in a line two cohorts deep. This resulted in a formation of ten squares, five forward and five behind in reserve.
“Send a tight beam message into the city to Decurio Slone and tell her plan C is in effect,” the Legatus ordered.
The Petrovian forces picked up the transmission to the city, but this was mixed with all of the other transmissions from the Romani and they could not break their encryption. Alaya received the transmission and told Ian of its contents. Plan C was one of the mission specific plans for the Resistance, depending on how the Petrovians were planning to defend the city. The Plan called for the resistance to harass the enemy from behind and pick off officers when possible. Plan C was also the contingency plan if the resistance was successful in taking out the Command and Control. Since that was a success, they were ready to implement the plan. All resistance fighters wore a red armband to identify them to the Romani troops as friends. Alaya and some of the resistance fighters went with the best Balin snipers as well as marine snipers that had been landed behind enemy lines. They went up to the rooftops of the highest buildings standing between the Petrov lines and the administrative center of the city. From here, they could pick off Petrov forces. With them were also units carrying surface to air shoulder launchers to protect the roofs from Petrovian hovercraft. The remaining resistance fighters took positions in the buildings behind the enemy lines, ready to attack retreating units from cover. The dreadnoughts had also sent several marine contingents to help the resistance, along with large supplies of weapons and ammo. As all forces took their positions, the battle for control of the planet was about to begin. Over the entire city, the cadence could be heard but slower than it had been before. The cadence rate was used to give battlefield signals to the Romani legions. This made certain there was never a break in communication and gave the cohorts autonomy of action without losing control of their men, who always knew, what was expected from the speed of the cadence. The Romani had also learned that the drumbeat gave unity to their troops but caused psychological anguish in the enemy who did not know what it meant and could not shut it off. It sounded over the entire city and surrounding areas from speakers on drones high in the air.
When all was in place and, as the skirmishing continued, the Legatus turned to the communications tech, “set the cadence to battle speed.”
Slone noted that immediately the cadence increased to a constant beat faster than double time. Slone realized what an ingenious way of communication this was, when, without another word from the commander-in-chief, the hover tanks and crafts moved and began bombarding the designated buildings. Between missiles and cannons, the buildings succumbed quickly and collapsed. During this, it was all the Petrovians could do to protect themselves from falling debris and the firing from the barricades stopped. As soon as buildings crumbled, the legion sprang into action and moved quickly to both barricades and the rubble from the buildings. As the Petrovians tried to move into the rubble, the hover tanks kept up a constant fire with their Gatling guns as did the hovercraft with their turrets. The Petrovian air wing came on from the city and engaged the Romani gunships. The battle was now a general melee, taking place on the ground and in the air above. In all, there were 30 Romani tanks and 30 Romani gunships in the battle with the remaining tanks and gunships deployed around the command ship to protect the Legatus and the command ship.
The air war quickly moved away from the ground combat. Gunships need room to maneuver. As the Petrovian gunships left their troops behind, they withdrew their protection against the hover tanks. This was the plan for the air war, but it was costly. Several of the Romani ships went down as did a number of Petrovian hovercraft. Meanwhile, at the barricades, things were getting hot. The Romani rushed both the barricades and the collapsed buildings to make sure they controlled the area. The first and second cohorts hit the Petrovian center and fierce fighting ensued. The primary centurion led the first cohort against the street barricade while the second cohort went onto the rubble of the adjacent building. Though the Petrov infantry outnumbered the Romani legion, the tight quarters of the street fighting cancelled out that advantage. As long as the fight stayed in the streets and the rubble, the Romani had the advantage of superior tactics and training. This is what the Legatus had counted on. They were also the only military using the body shield and that was a big advantage when the fighting was this close. As the Romani progressed into the city and approached the barricades and rubble, they changed their formation into a longer line six deep to allow rotation in the front to keep fresh troops facing the enemy. The front line of Romani was now in contact with the Petrovians at the barricades. The first line used their guns to good effect and kept their shield wall intact, but the Romani fighting in the building rubble could not keep a straight line and took more casualties. Slone was watching the fighting from the drone feeds to the command ship, when he caught a glimpse of Decanus Marshal and his squad in the front lines on the barricades. He was using his pistol and shield to good effect and encouraging his squad to keep their shields tight. He must have run out of ammunition just then and suddenly his sword came out and he began attacking the enemy in front of him and Slone saw a Petrov trooper drop from the rapid sword attack. The centurion then blew his whistle and the front line opened and moved back as the next line move forward. The front line then move to the sixth row, rested and rearmed. There were support personnel at the back of the formation with water, some food and ammunition for the troops coming off the front line. All of the support people moved forward with the legion.
Unfortunately, for the Petrovian forces, the corporation militaries were not as well organized or supported. Most corporations skimp on their forces and, as long as they all do the same, no one is dominant. There is better use for profits than outfitting a military you only plan to use against pirates and other c
orporations over mining bases. That Petrov Corp was willing to invade and conquer another corporation was, in itself, an anomaly. Things were changing in corporate space, but no one knew it yet. The Petrovians were running low on ammunition and they had to go back to well behind their lines to replenish. This meant that about 15% of Petrov troops were out of the action at any given time running errands that non-combatants should have done. This was a flaw in all corporate militaries. They never expected battles to last very long. Even with an advantage of 4000 troops on the line and a reserve of another 5000 which General Volkov obstinately refused to throw into the fight, lest a woman should give them orders, actual combat strength was slightly in favor of the Romani. His conservatism was about to catch up with him, and not in a good way.
As the three generals were watching the battle from a distance, a runner came up to them from the front. With command and control gone, communications were spotty and every drone they sent up was taken down by a Romani sniper stationed behind the lines. The runner arrived at the generals, and snapped to attention and saluted. Volkov asked for his report.
“The enemy is pushing our center hard and it is close to breaking. Our ammunition is almost depleted and they are constantly resupplied from behind. I am to beg you to send in the reserve brigade or all will be lost.”
Volkov exploded and struck the runner across the face. “Impossible. We outnumber them and have the home advantage. If we are losing it is due to the incompetence of the line officers.”
“You pompous fool,” Zyagin said. “You are the reason we are losing by keeping your brigade back.”
“Nonsense, woman, you have more troops than they do and you are entrenched. Your forces do not need my brigade to win. You are incompetent, that is the problem.”
This was the last straw for the equally proud female general and before anyone could react, she pulled her pistol and shot Volkov in the center of his chest. As the general dropped dead at her feet, she calmly holstered her weapon. She then turned to the runner and said, “Go over to General Volkov’s brigade and tell them the general is dead and they are now under my orders and are to join the line and defend the barricades.”
The runner left and General Alisa Golov looked at the dead general at their feet and then over to her fellow general. The women looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter. “The surprised look on his face was worth it. Bet his macho self never expected that.”
“Bet he didn’t. Now let’s win this battle,” General Zyagin stated.
The generals watched as the reserve brigade marched to the front lines, which were about a kilometer ahead of them. General Golov was intently looking through her field glasses when she heard a whizzing in the air and a dull thud. She looked to her right just as General Zyagin sagged to the right, a large opening in the top of her head. She turned to the techs beside her and yelled, “Sniper,” and hit the deck. She ordered a hovercraft to check all of the roofs of the buildings behind them. It now dawned on her that she was the only command general. Her techs quickly put up armor shielding behind her platform. She saw the hovercraft fire on the roof of a building, but then a missile came up from another building and hit the hovercraft, forcing it to retreat and land for repairs. General Golov said to her adjutant, “They landed troops in our rear with snipers.” She then turned to her communications tech and ordered, “Call the Volkov brigade back and order them to attack all enemy forces in our rear.”
“Yes, General,” the tech responded and sent the recall order.
General Golov turned to her adjutant, “I wish they would shut off that confounded drumbeat. It is driving me crazy and makes it hard to think.”
“Yes, general. It is coming from those drones over the entrance buildings. We could try to shoot them down.”
“Forget it; we’re low on ammo as it is.”
The reserve brigade returned and moved into the streets towards the administrative area. Unfortunately, they did this in poor order since they had received conflicting commands. They reached the barricades in the administrative area piecemeal. Alaya, Ian, Tavia and the resistance were waiting. Ian coordinated the effort and Alaya was recognized as second in command. Tavia was too young for command, yet her innate leadership abilities caused people to obey her when she spoke. She was given a small unit for harassment of any retreating troops or stragglers. One of Alaya’s snipers took down the general, but was wounded in the ensuing attack by the hovercraft before they could take it down. She still had several snipers stationed on the roofs of some of the higher buildings and they now went to work. The Pets were sending an entire brigade against a few hundred resistance fighters and marines. Alaya reported the situation to central command and Lorenzo sent a detachment of marines from the Longinus to help. If they could keep a full brigade engaged against the resistance, they would take pressure off the front. They took the bait. They must think the Romani landed troops in their rear. Without their command and control, they were blind to landings that could not be seen visually. That means they did their job and pulled a large body of troops off the Romani. Of course, the downside was they had to fight 5000 troops with a few hundred civilian fighters and marines. Hit and run was the order of the day.
Alaya was in charge of the snipers and specialists, such as demolition. They spent most of the time since the battle started setting up explosive surprises for the Petrovians. Her snipers had scored a fantastic coup by taking out one of the generals. Even though it was a surprise, that one general took out another. Alaya thought these Petrovians were a bunch of hot heads. As she watched from her perch on one of the roofs, the brigade dispersed into five regiments and went up the streets. Alaya and her units let them pass. When the last of the regiments passed, Alaya gave a signal and the demolition crews triggered explosions in the tunnels that ran parallel to the center of the streets. As the street surface collapsed under the troops, they began to fire wildly in all directions, the usual reaction of poorly trained soldiers to an unseen enemy. The resistance began firing from every window overlooking the streets as the Petrovians attempted to climb out of the rubble. Some were smart enough to get into the tunnels below the street, but ran into resistance groups stationed there for that purpose.
Both Alaya and Ian knew they didn’t stand a chance against a full brigade, but if they could keep them off the front lines long enough for the Romani to make a breakthrough, they will have done their duty. The resistance threw grenades into and kept firing at the Petrov forces in the collapsed streets, but the enemy was slowly starting to extricate themselves from the rubble. They charged into the buildings housing the resistance. It would now be a room-to-room fight. Alaya could already hear gunfire in the building across from them and see muzzle flashes through the windows. Now there was gunfire on the lower floors of her building. She told her troops to follow and they headed to the stairwell. All elevators were shut down so the Petrovians could only move up the stairs. That should remove their numerical advantage. When Alaya and her group reached the stairwell of the roof, they could hear the resistance giving ground and moving upwards. The civilians were brave and fought for their own planet, but they had homemade body armor. The Romani supplied good weapons and plenty of ammo, but they had not expected to face an entire brigade. They put up a stiff resistance, but everyone knew how this would end. The enemy was moving rapidly up the stairs with the resistance backing up the stairs ahead of them. At each landing, that floor’s resistance group left the windows and fought on the landing. One group tried to wait until the Petrovians were past them and then attacked the rear, but that hope was in vain; they ended up trapped between two enemy forces on the stairs, and were annihilated. Alaya had a sniper with her and she set him to picking off the enemy every time he could see a head on the stairs below. He managed to take out five before they became aware of the danger and hugged the wall away from the central well of the staircase. As they got close, the sniper rifle was useless and it was discarded in favor of the automatic weapons. The retr
eating resistance was now at the landing below the roof. Alaya sent a tight beam message requesting evacuation and several gunships were dispatched to take the surviving resistance off the roofs and bring them further towards the administrative sections of the city. Alaya and her group waited for the survivors to reach the roof then signaled them through as she took up positions with her troops on the roof landing. The first few Petrovians to reach the roof were taken down and the rest hung back a moment. Alaya had her pistol in the left hand and her short sword in the right, ready for close quarter combat. She had her long auburn hair tucked into the Romani helmet she wore and only her insignias identified her to any Romani she would encounter. She was armored from head to foot with the light, tactical suit the Romani Special Forces wore. This would allow her to take a few hits before its protection deteriorated. Something caught her eye as it came over the railing from below.
Alaya shouted, “Grenade” and she headed out of the stairwell along with her group when it went off. Two of her group were killed and shrapnel hit the rest. Alaya’s armor took most of the blast, but a small piece of shrapnel hit an armor joint at the back of the left knee and penetrated. Fortunately, it did not hit the large artery or vein behind the joint, but it did hit the tendon of the left calf muscle and this slowed her down and dropped her to her knees. She recovered quickly and hobbled over to where the rest of the resistance was taking cover behind the air-conditioning units. The Petrovians who burst out of the roof entrance were met by heavy fire from the resistance and they retreated into the stairway and fired out of the door. The air conditioners were heavy industrial units that the shots could not penetrate and Alaya’s group was safe as long as they stayed behind them and conserved their ammunition. The fight on the roof reached a stalemate when Alaya heard the whine of a hovercraft coming from behind.
Nova Romae (The Adventures of Christopher Slone Book 2) Page 19