by Mark Rounds
"Dad, I meant every word," said Taol with all the sincerity he could muster. "This life is not for me or for the cadets out there training. If I can make it happen, I will."
"I had hoped that would be the answer. You have really made me proud tonight son."
They shared another twenty minutes, enjoying the whiskey and talking about nothing important. The wonderful thing was the fact that they could talk for over twenty minutes and not fight. After mom died, all they had been capable of was terse comments and commands. Casual conversation was out of the question. All too soon, the conversation was over.
"Well son,” said Bernard, “I know you have a big day tomorrow. Get some sleep, we'll talk more after this is over."
"We will, Dad, good night." said Taol and Bernard shook hands and parted. Taol started to wander around the training area, but Jeffy wouldn't have any of that and hustled him off to bed. Taol idly wondered who set Jeffy’s sleep net.
Taol got undressed and hit the sack. Once there, he checked the setting on the sleep net and switched it on with a thirty second delay. He had hardly gotten comfortable when the current kicked in.
Chapter IX
One blink and it was day. The Condor Legion had two hours before the game began. Chow was pancakes, fruit, and syrup. It was good but only one carefully measured serving for everyone.
"I don't have a big speech written,” said Taol quietly after all the troops had gathered. “It would do little good. You are ready for combat now. Your performance in training was superb. You were able to effectively blend our years as Survey Cadets with new weapons and goals.
“Don't forget that this is not just a little game for money and a little notoriety. We are going to the stars. It probably won't happen after just one battle, but we are going. That gives us the edge! There is more to this battle than just a vainglorious attempt to space out our boredom. This is our one chance. Remember that, and we can win.
“Sergeant Mason is passing out stim packets to each of you. These packets contain five stim tabs each. If you find yourselves tired or a little off top form, take one. It will bolster your nerve.
“We will have a readiness inspection in twenty minutes. Good luck to all of you."
As soon Taol finished, Sergeant Tierney hopped up and grabbed a half dozen troopers and raced off to the vehicle park. Other unit commanders began rounding up their troopers to take care of any last-minute details.
Jeffy and Taol ambled off to collect their gear and head for the command section. When they got there, Harm had everyone sorted out and in their vehicles.
"Well, this is it, Sar Major," said Taol.
"Any second thoughts, Colonel?" replied Jeffy.
"Only a couple thousand. Not enough to change anything. Good luck!" said Taol as he shook his hand.
"Good luck, Colonel," said Jeffy as he wheeled over to his armored car.
Taol busied himself with checking his harness and setting the radios. Then he rechecked his pistol and MP-38 for the fifth time.
Twenty minutes finally clicked off and the officers began the readiness inspection. This meant that they walked up and down the line of vehicles and complimented everyone on how mean and ready they looked. Since everything was loaded last night, there was really little to do. The inspection was more a ploy to bolster spirits and kill the last minutes before battle than to actually catch any errors.
After the inspection, Taol had everyone park their vehicles beside the blast door in the order they would have to be in when they moved out. Jeffy had them set up twenty meters from the door, in case the road wasn't right where the Commission's maps said it would be.
Taol got back to his track and called all the unit leaders. Every radio worked to perfection, all the vehicles were running, and everyone was loaded with twenty minutes to spare.
Time started to get heavy. Each minute seemed to last forever. Taol turned to Harm and said, "This will bust anybody's morale. Could we play some music or something?"
Harm grinned and said, "I thought you'd never ask."
He reached over and entered a couple of commands into his computer. Over all the vehicle radios, the opening bars of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" played loudly.
"It worked once. Why not try it again?" said Harm as he laughed.
His humor was contagious and soon most of the command element was sharing the joke.
Five minutes before show time, The Refs flew over in their grav sleds. Over the loud speakers you could hear the same traditional, recorded message.
"COMBAT COMMENCES IN FIVE MINUTES! PREPARE YOUR WEAPONS!
"COMBAT COMMENCES IN FIVE MINUTES! PREPARE YOUR WEAPONS!
Taol had Harm cut the music. Over the radio, on the general frequency, he told everyone to do a final weapons check. In two minutes, the command staff got the word that everyone's weapons were operational. Taol then gave the command to "Lock and Load".
For the next minute, the air was filled with the sound of magazines fitting into receivers and rounds being jacked in to chambers. Belts were fed into the machine guns and rounds were loaded into the larger weapons.
Then they waited and watched the blast doors. It is amazing how two minutes means nothing when one is watching holo or doing something pleasant, but when someone is watching the second hand slowly move around the watch, time seems to almost stop.
Suddenly, the motors that powered the doors began to whine, but the blast door right in front of their eyes didn't move! There was a lot of animated chatter on the radios. Jeffy's voice cut through the fog of noise.
"Look over to the right," he shouted
Almost in unison, the entire Condor Legion did and saw what had been assumed to be the wall of the space station, almost three meters in the air and slowly moving up.
"That Son of a Bitch Monty! He must have bribed the Gaming Commission reps to mislead us about our orientation," roared Jeffy.
With that, the spell was broken. Everyone started a mad rush for the new door to the right. All the planning for setting up the troops went down the drain. Worse, if something didn't happen real soon, there was going to be a pile up of massive proportions at the entrance to the habitat.
"All units, HALT!" Taol said forcefully into the radio.
The light infantry couldn't hear since they had no radios. Taol hoped that they would be the only ones to keep going. The rest of the Legion’s troopers would halt.
Not everyone heard, but enough did. The light infantry raced past waving and shaking their fists. Mixed in with their unit, was an armored car and a couple of infantry tracks. They were soon left behind to form their own little task group.
"Alright, crank 'em up," shouted Jeffy over the radio.
There was no formation any more, but there were no smashed vehicles either. They were just going to arrive at the hill all scrambled up and hope for the best.
“So much for the plan,” thought Taol wryly.
#
At an expensive private booth at the El Alamein, sat a business man in a plain suit. Before him sat a bottle of very expensive Scotch whiskey with exactly one shot poured, the glass was untouched. Anyone not following the grudge match on the screen would have noticed that this was Bernard Ubner, or Warlord Horrocks, as he was known in the trade.
Another man, smaller than the first, with an Asiatic caste to his face, walked up to the booth.
"May I join you, Your Excellency?" he asked.
Bernard just about turned him down when he recognized the man standing in front of him.
"By all means,” said Bernard. “Have a seat. Commodore Hong isn't it? I remember you from the day my son was sworn in at the Academy."
"It’s 'Retired' Commodore Hong now, but thank you," said Commodore Hong as he, only now, took the other seat.
"What brings you here, Commodore?" asked Bernard.
"The same thing that caused you to rent a private booth in the middle of a business day to watch a Class C grudge match. I know Taol is your son, but they
are all my sons and daughters in a way."
"I see. May I pour you a drink?"
"On the condition that I buy the next bottle,” said Commodore Hong, “should one be needed?"
"That depends on the outcome of the game," said Bernard.
"Agreed, Your Excellency."
#
Jarl was in the lead as the light infantry crested the first big hill. There, lying all the way across the road was a large fallen maple tree. It was almost a meter in circumference and over twenty meters tall. Jarl was barely able to stop soon enough to avoid hitting the tree. Jarl swore as the rest of the light infantry braked to a halt behind him.
"Damn it! This will ruin our chances to beat the Krasni to the objective," shouted Jarl.
Sergeant Haloran spoke up. "Jarl, I think we can get a cycle around the stump end of the tree if we take it slow."
"Good eye,” said Jarl, “We still have to leave a passible road behind us though. I'll take most of the unit with me, past the tree, to take the hill."
"Haloran, set up a couple of daisy chains to blow the middle section out of that tree. Don't touch it off until we are over the brow of the hill. Send your rider back up the hill in your cycle to stop the rest of the force until you blow the tree. Got it?"
"You bet!" said Haloran with enthusiasm.
"Then let's move!" said Jarl gesturing back towards the hill. He led the rest of the light infantry around the stump. After Jarl blazed the trail it wasn't hard to get a motorcycle around the end. In seconds, he and his troops were back on the road, heading toward the hill at full speed.
The first thing Taol knew about this was when Haloran's rider, Corporal Benning, flagged down the column.
"What's the hold up, trooper?" yelled Jeffy from the hatch of his armored car, as the column came to a halt.
"There's a tree down in the road ahead," said Benning who was gasping for air. Just then, they all heard the distinctive sound of a couple daisy chains going off.
"Correction, Sar Major, there WAS a tree in the road,” said Benning with a smile. “Haloran just took it out."
"Time's a wasting, trooper. Hop on, and I'll give you a lift," said Jeffy as he slammed down the hatch.
Benning had just grabbed the fender when Jeffy roared off. He had a wild ride but managed to hang on until Jeffy’s armored car got to where the tree used to be. There, Benning rolled off Jeffy's vehicle as the Sergeant Major slowed down an infinitesimal amount.
Haloran had been busy since the blast. You could see that a three meter section of the tree was missing. She had somehow managed to pull the biggest parts of the tree to the side of the road making it passable.
Haloran was waiting a little past the spot and collected Benning before he stopped rolling. Soon, Haloran and Benning caught up with, and passed Jeffy's armored car.
#
"What is the hold up?" bellowed an angry Monty into the radio.
“Warlord, There is a tree down in the road," said Sokolov.
"Damn it, there was only supposed to be a downed tree for the other team," said a furious Monty. "Get a Hellcat or something up there and blast a hole big enough to get through."
"It seems the Refs have played a little joke on you, Warlord," said Victor with a chuckle. "Maybe the bribes need to be bigger, if you want them to stay bribed."
"That is not at all humorous!" said Montgomery hotly.
The discussion was interrupted by the blast of a high explosive round. Several more explosions followed.
"The road is clear, Warlord," said the commander of the point unit.
"Then move!" ordered Monty abruptly. "Don't let that group of cadets get consolidated on the objective!"
As they passed the site of the downed tree Monty noticed that there were saw marks at its base. Those marks were left visible as a warning that the Refs could not be bribed so cheaply. Monty was angry about the wasted money, but he was incensed by the fact that he had been made to look the fool in front of Vicktor.
The relationship between Monty and Vicktor depended on the Krasni thinking that he was indispensable. This hinged not only on his dealings with the other gaming companies and the Commission but on his superior tactical skills. Damage to that image could be very dangerous.
#
Jarl was the first to arrive on the hilltop. In the distance, he heard the Krasni big guns firing. He wondered what was going on, but he didn't have time to wonder long. As the rest of his command straggled in, he set them to work building fortifications.
The first series of fox holes had just been dug when an American M-18 Hellcat broke through the brush a half kilometer away at the base of the hill.
"Rats!" said Jarl. Then silently he mused, "there is no way we can finish digging in without some sort of diversion, and this little diversion will have to be considerably different from the attack on the armor column in practice yesterday."
"Haloran,” shouted Jarl after a moment’s thought, “prepare to receive enemy armor. Dietz, gather up a panzer faust and your rider. We need to distract their attention."
Without looking to see if Dietz had heard, Jarl tossed a couple of smoke grenades down the hill. As soon as the grenades had released their smoke, Jarl and Dietz, together with their riders, took off through the smoke.
#
Igor Donyev sat in the open turret of his Hellcat tank destroyer. He was proud of his vehicle and its crew. Two weeks ago, he and twenty other itinerant Krasni mercenaries, were recruited by Vicktor Sokolov's Kiev Guards. In that two weeks he had trained his crew hard.
Igor had been in a couple of battles before, so he had been tapped as a non-com. Because of this experience, he trained his crew much harder than was required by his Krasni employers. He had a strong desire to see the end of this battle.
Riding on the outside of his vehicle was a fire team of six Krasni infantry. They, too, were recent recruits. They all knew that as the point unit, they were expendable. But they also knew that surviving the engagement would enhance their chances of regular employment in this field. The one hundred credit bonus didn't hurt either.
As Igor left the cover of the forest, he could see enemy troopers on the hill above digging in. He could hear periodic explosions, even above the engine of his tank destroyer. He assumed it was some form of engineering demolitions. This was precisely the thing he and his troopers had been sent ahead to stop.
"Nikolai, get up that hill. Don't give them a chance to dig in," yelled Igor to his driver. Even though the preferred language of the Krasni was Russian, Igor and his crew spoke English, the universal language of the games.
The Hellcat surged ahead. The acceleration was impressive, especially for an armored vehicle. On the flat, a good driver could get the Hellcat going over a hundred kilometers per hour. Even headed up this hill, they were still managing sixty-five. Suddenly, smoke blossomed in front of the vehicle.
Nikolai brought the Hellcat to a jerky stop. With only two weeks of training, he still wasn't very good.
"Colonel Sokolov, the cadets on the hill have popped smoke and obscured observation of the objective," said Igor in Russian into the radio. "Request instructions."
"Take the objective," said Monty’s voice in English after a moment's hesitation, the radio speakers made the voice tinny and comical. "Use their smoke to your advantage."
"Affirmative," answered Igor.
"Keep moving Nikolai," shouted Igor over the roar of the engine. “Open fire as soon as you can see anything through the smoke.”
Finally, he spoke to the fire team leader of the infantry riding on the outside of his vehicle.
"As soon as you see anything, jump," said Igor. "I can't promise much effective cover fire until I can acquire some targets."
The team leader looked scared but nodded and prepared his troops.
Just as they entered the smoke, they heard the high pitched sound of motorcycle engines. Before they had a chance to react, two motorcycles with sidecars roared by the front of the Hellcat. The infant
ry cut loose with some small arms fire, but the cycles were already gone.
"Warlord," said Igor into the microphone. "Enemy infantry has passed behind us, headed your way on motorcycles. There seemed to be just two machines. Should we pursue?"
"Take the objective you craven bastard and quit stalling!" said Monty in reply. "We can deal with a few lightly armed cadets."
"Yes, Warlord," said Igor. There was a grim tone to his voice. With all the firing the tank riders had done at the motorcycles, they didn't even have the benefit of surprise. There was nothing to do but to get on with it. Stalling now would end any chance they had of getting regular employment.
"Nikolai, get rolling."
#
The Condor Legion’s light infantry could still hear the motorcycles when Haloran and the rest of the light infantry troopers heard an explosion of small arms fire. Several of the troopers started to reach for weapons to return fire.
"Hold your fire, you might hit Jarl," shouted Haloran.
Obediently, the troopers lowered their weapons.
"There is armor on the other side of the smoke," she said as she listened to the sound of the big diesel engine. "Get the panzer fausts out and get under cover. It's about to get interesting."
Haloran had a little plan of her own. The road was very clearly defined as it went over the hill. She took three daisy chains and placed them on the trees closest to the road. She set the charges so the trees would fall across that same road. She then quickly called out instructions to the rest of the light infantry.
"I want everyone to keep their heads down until you hear the daisy chains go off. I am wiring them all to one detonator, so you won't have to count too high. Now get under cover."
Haloran kept only enough of her head visible to see the road crossing. The smoke was just beginning to clear when the Hellcat popped over the lip of the hill. Haloran ducked down and twisted the detonator.
Silently, she prayed that she had got the charges wired correctly. Her prayer was answered by the distinctive sound of the daisy chains going off.