"Sergeant Stragoff, sir."
"Stragoff, I want you to make a complete sweep of our landing area. There should be two unarmed people there to meet us. They'll show you a blue light. If they show any other color, spray the whole area and get the hell out of there. If they show blue, tell me about it, but I still want a complete survey."
"Aye aye, sir."
"And just who is meeting us?" Deane asked.
"Don't know their names," I said. "Falkenberg said he'd try to set up a welcoming committee of local resistance types. If we're satisfied with them, we help 'em arm some of their neighbors. That's why we brought those extra rifles."
The radio came to life again. "Two persons with a blue light, sir. Nothing else on radar or IR."
"Good. Okay, now make a wider sweep. I don't want to find out there's an artillery battery registered on our landing area."
"Sir."
"Sergeant Major," I said.
"Sir."
"You can take the hovercraft in to occupy the landing area. Treat the welcoming committee politely, but keep an eye on them. When the area's secure, we'll all go ashore."
"Sir." I-
I looked up at the stars. There was no moon. About five hours to dawn. With any luck we'd be deployed and ready for combat by first light. "Okay, you're in charge," I said. "Hartz, you stay with him."
"If the lieutenant orders it."
"Damn it, I did order it. Belay that. All right, come with me."
We went to the deck level. The river was less than a meter below us. It wasn't a river to swim in; there are aquatic snakes on Arrarat, and their poison will finish off anything that has protein in it. It acts as a catalyst to coagulate cell bodies. I had no real desire to be a hard-rubber lump.
We had one canoe on board. I'd already found troopers who knew something about handling them. We had a dozen men familiar with the screwy watercraft, which didn't surprise me. The story is that you can find any skill in a Line marine regiment, and it seems to be true. In my own company I had two master masons, an artist, a couple of electronic techs (possibly engineers but they weren't saying), at least one disbarred lawyer, a drunken psychiatrist, and a chap the men claimed was a defrocked preacher.
Corporal Anuraro showed me how to get into the canoe without swamping it. We don't have those things in Arizona. As they paddled me ashore I thought about how silly the situation was. I was being paddled in a canoe, a device invented at least ten thousand years ago. I was carrying a pair of light-amplifying field glasses based on a principle not discovered until after I was born. Behind me was a steamboat that might have been moving up the Missouri River at the time of Custer's Last Stand, and I got to this planet in a starship.
The current was swift, and I was glad to have experienced men at the paddles. The water flowed smoothly alongside. Sometimes an unseen creature made riffles in it. Over on the shore the hovercraft had already landed, and someone was signalling us with a light. When we got to the bank I was glad to be on dry land.
"Where are our visitors, Roszak?" I asked.
"Over here, sir."
Two men, both ranchers or farmers. One was oriental. They looked to be about 50 years old. As agreed, they weren't armed.
"I'm Lieutenant Slater," I said.
"I am Wan Loo. This is Harry Seeton."
"I've heard of you. Kathryn says you helped her, once-"
"Yes. To escape from a cage," Wan Loo said.
"You're supposed to prove something," I said.
Wan Loo smiled softly. "You have a scar on your left arm. It is shaped like a scimitar. When you were a boy you had a favorite horse named Candybar."
"You've seen Kathryn. Where is she?"
"South of Allansport. She is trying to raise a force of ranchers to reinforce Captain Falkenberg. We were sent here to assist you."
"We've done pretty well," Harry Seeton added. "A lot of ranchers will fight if you can furnish weapons. But there's something else."
"Yes?"
"Please do not think we are not grateful," Wan Loo said. "But you must understand. We have fought for years, and we cannot fight any longer. We have an uneasy peace in this valley. It is the peace of submission, and we do not care for it, but we will not throw it away simply to help you. If you have not come to stay, please take your soldiers, rescue your governor, and go away without involving us."
"That's blunt enough," I said.
"We have to be blunt," Harry Sceton said. "Wan Loo isn't talking for us. We're outlaws anyway. We're with you no matter what happens. But we can't go ask our friends to join if you people don't mean it when you say you'll stay and protect them."
"It is an old story," Wan Loo added. "You cannot blame the farmers. They would rather have you than the association, but if you are here only for a little while, and the association is here forever, what can they do? My ancestors were faced with the same problem on Earth. They chose to support the West, and when the Americans, who had little stake in the war, withdrew their forces, my great grandfather gave up land his family had held for 1000 years to go with them. He had no choice. Do you think he would have chosen the American side if he had known that would happen?"
"The CoDominium has extended protection to this valley," I said.
"Governments have no honor," Wan Loo argued. "Many people have none either, but at least it is possible for a man to have honor. It is not possible for a government. Do you pledge that you will not abandon our friends if we arouse them for you?"
"Yes."
"Then we have your word. Kathryn says you are an honorable man. If you will help us with transportation and radio, by noon tomorrow I believe we will have 500 people to assist you."
"And God help 'em if we lose," Seeton said. "God help 'em."
"We won't lose."
"A battle is not a war." Wan Loo said. "And wars are not won by weapons, but by the will to win them. We will go now."
CHAPTER 12
It is a basic military maxim that no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy, but by noon it looked as if this operation would be an exception. Falkenberg's combat team-two platoons of B company, brought to the site by Skyhook-struck at the passes just before dawn and in three hours of sharp fighting had taken them over. He brought up two companies of militia to dig in and hold them.
Meanwhile, the ranchers in the south were armed and turned out on commando to block any southward retreat. I had only scattered reports from that sector, but all seemed under control. Kathryn had raised a force of nearly 500, which should have been enough to hold the southern defensive line.
Then it was my turn. Two hours after dawn I had a skirmish line stretching eight kilometers into the valley. My left flank was anchored on the river. There'd be no problem there. The right flank was a different story.
"It bothers me," I told Falkenberg when I reported by radio. "My right flank is hanging in thin air. The only thing protecting us is Wan Loo's ranchers, and there's no more than 300 of them. If that many." Wan Loo hadn't been as successful as Kathryn. Of course he'd had a lot less time.
"And just what do you expect to hit you in the flank?" Falkenberg asked.
"I don't know. I just don't like it when we have to depend on other people-and on the enemy doing what we want it to do."
"Neither do I, but do you have an alternative to suggest?"
"No, sir."
"Then carry out your orders, Mr. Slater. Advance on Allansport."
"Aye aye, sir."
It wasn't an easy battle line to control. I had units strung all across the valley, with the major strength on the left wing that advanced along the river. The terrain was open: gently rolling hills with lines of hedges and eucalyptus trees planted as windbreaks. The fields were recently harvested, and swine had been turned loose in the wheat stubble. The land was muddy, but spread as we were we didn't churn it up much.
The farmhouses were scattered at wide intervals. These had been huge farm holdings. The smallest were over a kilometer square, and
some were much larger. A lot of the land was unworked. The houses were stone and earth, partly underground, built like miniature fortresses. In some, explosives had blown out sections of wall.
Harry Seeton was with me in my ground-effects caravan. When we came to a farmhouse he'd try to persuade the owner and his children and relatives to join us. If they agreed, he'd send them off to join the growing number on our right flank.
"Something bothers me," I told Seeton. "Sure, you have big families and everybody works, but how did you cultivate all this land? That last place was at least 500 hectares."
"Rainfall here's tricky," Seeton said. "Half the time we've got swamp and the other half we have drought. The only fertilizer is manure. We've got to leave a lot of the land fallow, or planted in legumes to be plowed under."
"It still seems like a lot of work for just one family."
"Well, we had hired help. Convicts, mostly. Ungrateful bastards joined the association gangs first chance they got. Tell me something, Lieutenant."
"Yes?"
"Are your men afraid they'll starve to death? I never saw anything like it, the way they pick up anything they can find." He pointed to one B Company trooper just ahead of us. He wasn't a large man to begin with, and his pockets were stuffed with at least three chickens, several ears of corn, and a bottle he'd liberated somewhere. There were bulges in his pack that couldn't have come from regulation equipment, and he'd even strapped firewood on top of it so that we couldn't see his helmet from behind him.
"They're like a plague of locusts," Seeton said.
"Not much I can do about it," I shrugged. "I can't be everywhere, and the Line marines figure anything that's not actually penned up and watched is fair game. They'll eat well for a few days-it beats monkey and greasy rice." I didn't add that if he thought things were bad now, with the troops on the way to a battle, he'd really be horrified after the troops had been in the field a few weeks.
There were shots from ahead. "It's started. How many of these farm areas are still inhabited by your people?"
"Not many, this close to Allansport. The town itself is almost all association people. Or goddam collaborators, which is the same thing. I expect that's why they haven't blasted it down. They outnumber your governor's escort by quite a lot-"
"Yeah." That bothered me. Why hadn't the association forces simply walked in and taken Governor Swale? As Seeton said, Swale had only a couple of companies of militia with him, yet the siege had been a stalemate. As if they hadn't really wanted to capture him.
Of course they had problems no matter what they did. If they killed the governor, Colonel Harrington would be in control. I had to assume the Protective Association had friends in Harmony, possibly even inside the palace. Certainly there were plenty of leaks. They'd know that Harrington was a tougher nut than Swale.
The resistance was stronger as we approached Allansport. The association forces were far better armed than we'd expected them to be. They had mortars and light artillery, and plenty of ammunition for both.
We had two close calls with the helicopters. I'd sent them forward as gunships to support the advancing infantry. We found out the association had target-seeking missiles, and the only reason they didn't get the choppers was that their gunners were too eager. They fired while the helicopters still had time to maneuver. I pulled the choppers back to Headquarters. I could use them for reconnaissance, but I wasn't going to risk them in combat.
We silenced their artillery batteries one by one. They had plenty of guns, but their electronics were ineffective. Their counterbattery fire was pathetic. We'd have a couple of exchanges, our radars would backtrack their guns, and that would be the end of it.
"Where the hell did they get all that stuff?" I asked Seeton.
"They've always had a lot of equipment. Since the first time they came out of the hills they've been pretty well armed. Lately it's become a lot worse. One reason we gave up."
"It had to come from off-planet," I said. "How?"
"I don't know. Ask your governor."
"I intend to. That stuff had to come through the spaceport. Somebody's getting rich selling guns to the Protective Association."
We moved up to the outer fringes of Allansport. The town was spread across low hills next to the river. It had a protective wall, brick and adobe like the houses. Deane's artillery tore huge gaps in the wall and the troops moved into the streets beyond. The fighting was fierce. Seeton was right about the sentiments of the townspeople. They fought from house to house, and the marines had to move cautiously, with plenty of artillery support. We were flattening the town as we moved into it.
Governor Swale and two companies of Harmony militia were dug in on the bluff overlooking the river, very nearly in the center of the semi-circular town. They held the river front almost to the steel bridge that crossed the Allan. I'd hoped to reach the governor by dark, but the fighting in the town was too severe. At dusk I called to report that I wouldn't reach him for another day.
"However, we're within artillery range of your position," I told him. "We can give you fire support if there's any serious attempt to take your position by storm."
"Yes. You've done well," he told me.
That was a surprise. I'd expected him to read me off for not getting there sooner. Live and learn, I told myself. "I'm bringing the right flank around in an envelopment," I told Swale. "By morning we'll have every one of them penned in Allansport, and we can deal with them at our leisure."
"Excellent," Swale said. "My militia officers tell me the association forces have very little strength in the southern part of the town. You may be able to take many of the streets during the night."
We halted at dark. I sent Ardwain forward with orders to take A company around the edges of the town and occupy sections at the southern end. Then I had supper with the troops. As Seeton had noticed, they'd provisioned themselves pretty well. No monkey and rice tonight! We had roast chicken and fresh corn.
After dark I went back to my map table. I'd parked the caravan next to a stone farmhouse two klicks from the outskirts of Allansport. Headquarters platoon set up the CP, and there were a million details to attend to. Supply, field hospitals, plans to evacuate wounded by helicopter, shuffling ammunition around to make sure each unit had enough of the right kind; the computers could handle a lot of it, but there were decisions to be made and no one to make them but me. Finally I had time to set our positions into the map table computer and make new plans. By feeding the computer the proper inputs it would show the units on the map, fight battles and display the probable outcomes, move units around under fire and subtract out casualties…
It reminded me of the afternoon's battles. There'd been fighting going on, but I'd seen almost none of it. Just more lines on the map table and later the bloody survivors brought back to the field hospital. Tri-V war, none of it real. The observation satellite had made a pass over the Allan Valley just before dark, and the new pictures were relayed from Garrison. They weren't very clear. There'd been low clouds, enough to cut down the resolution and leave big gaps in my data about the association forces.
"Number one chopper's coming in, sir," Sergeant Jaski reported. He was a headquarters platoon communications expert, an elderly wizened chap who ran the electronics section with smiles and affection until something went wrong. Then he could be as rough as any NCO in the Fleet.
Number one was Falkenberg's. I wasn't surprised when the captain came in a few minutes later. He'd said he might join the main body if things were quiet up at the pass. I got up from the map table to give him the command seat. It didn't fit me too well anyway; I was glad to have someone else take charge.
"Just going over the satellite pix," I told him.
"One reason I came by. Things are going well. When that happens I wonder what I've overlooked." He keyed the map table to give him the current positions of our troops. "Ardwain having any problem with the envelopment?" he asked.
"No, sir."
He grunted and
played with the console keys. Then he stared at the satellite pictures. "Mr. Slater, why haven't the association troops taken the river bank areas behind the governor?"
"I don't know, sir."
"And why didn't His Excellency withdraw by water? He could certainly have got out, himself and a few men."
"Didn't want to abandon the militia, sir?"
"Possibly."
I looked at the time. Two hours after dark. The troops were well dug in along the perimeter except for Ardwain's mobile force moving toward the southern edge of the town.
Falkenberg went through the day's reports and looked up, frowning. "Mr. Slater, why do I have the impression that there's something phoney about this whole situation?"
"In what way, sir?"
"It's been too easy. We've been told the Association is a tough outfit, but so far the only opposition has been some infantry screens that withdrew before you made real contact, and the first actual hard fighting was when you reached the town."
"There were the artillery duels, sir."
"Yes. All won by a few exchanges of fire. Doesn't that seem strange?"
"No, sir." I had good reason to know that Deane's lads could do some great shooting. After the support they gave me at the roadblock below Beersheeba I was ready to believe they could do anything. "I hadn't thought about it, sir, but now that you ask-well, it was easy. A couple of exchanges and their guns are quiet."
Falkenberg was nodding. "Knocked out, or merely taken out of action? Looking at this map I'd say you aren't ready for the second alternative."
"I-"
"You've done well, Lieutenant. It's my nasty, suspicious mind. I don't like surprises. Furthermore, why hasn't the governor asked to be evacuated by water? Why is he sitting there in Allansport?"
"Sir-"
He wouldn't let me finish. "I presume you've reported your positions and plans to the governor?"
"Certainly, sir."
"And we took the pass with very little effort. Next to no casualties. Yet the association is certainly aware that we hold it-why haven't their town forces done something? Run, storm the bluffs and take the governor for a hostage, something?" He straightened in decision. "Sergeant Major!"
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