by Mark Rounds
Benning smiled and realized she probably was right. They began moving silently forward. Crawling on their bellies for the last fifteen meters, they finally reached the edge of the clearing. In the distance, they could see the lines of Krasni troopers forming. Hastings took a quick look and began to head back.
"Not so fast, Barb" said Benning. "Let's see what they are up to before we call it in."
After a few minutes, it became clear that most of the Krasni infantry had lined up on the south side of the hill and had begun to move forward.
"Ok," whispered Benning, "get back to Stack and report that two platoons of infantry supported by several vehicles are approaching the south side of the hill."
"I can count, Corporal," she said. Then she vanished into the underbrush before Benning could follow up with anything like a snappy comeback.
Hastings low crawled for twenty meters. Then, when she was sure that no one could see her, she got up and sprinted to where Stack and the halftrack were hidden. She almost missed it as Stack had spent the intervening time camouflaging the vehicle.
She jumped in the driver's seat and fired up the radio.
"Sar Major, this is Recon One, do you read?" said Hastings into the microphone.
"Go ahead One, Jefferson here," crackled the speaker.
"We have spotted at least two platoons of infantry supported by several vehicles approaching the south side of the hill. Other fire support weapons are concealed in the woods behind the advance."
"This is Colonel Ubner, well done. Get back to the OP and keep reporting."
#
" Commodore Hong, this is a twist," said Bernard suddenly taking interest in the battle.
"What is that?"
"It looks like the Krasni are trying to overload one sector of the battle area with troops to achieve some temporary local superiority."
"Can they do it?" queried a suddenly anxious Hong.
"For a short period of time they can," answered Bernard. "Then, if our side hasn't broken and run, and has the ability to react fast enough, the Krasni will be taken from the flank and decimated. It is a bold strategy. My guess is that the Krasni think they can overrun the hill top and beat the morale of our side before they can think to react."
"Will they succeed?" asked Commodore Hong with some concern.
"Time will tell,” said Bernard.
#
As soon as Taol heard Hastings report, he knew they had to act fast. The Kransi could overrun a portion of the hill if they concentrated their forces. Then it would mean fighting in close with Krasni troopers. He had no illusions as to whether or not the Legion’s troopers would stand up to it. They had done well so far, but everyone was afraid of having to fight the Krasni, hand to hand.
With the Krasni's great strength and experience, the Legion would be lucky to trade two for one to get them out of its own fortifications.
"Jeffy, switch to command net," said Taol.
"Jeffy here, Colonel."
"Benning's group just reported two supported platoons working up the south side of the hill face. Let's see what we can adjust to meet them."
"I'll shift my armored car to that side of the hill," replied Jeffy. "That will put two armored vehicles on that flank."
"I agree," said Taol. "I am also going to send Stoltz's Reaction team forward along with all the headquarters troops. I'll have them strip the MG-34's from the Headquarters group tracks and set those up for added fire power."
"Jeffy, the only thing I am worried about," said Taol haltingly, "is this smoke. We won't be able to see them until they are right in among us."
"Not to worry Colonel," reassured Jeffy, "we can't see them, but we sure can hear them if they are pressing up the hill with armor. Especially if we plant an LP or two down the hill a ways."
"No way, Jeffy," said Taol. "I am not going to order someone to go into that smoke and set up a listening post."
"No problem, sir," said Jeffy slyly. "Svoboda is already on the way. She has a clutch of grenades. When they start going off we are to pour on the covering fire. She assured me she will be out of the line of fire. All we have to do is fire in the general direction of the explosions."
"OK, get the word out Sergeant Major," said Taol grimly. "I want her to have all the fire support we can manage."
"Yes sir,” said Jeffy
"I still don't like it, Jeffy."
"That's why we sent her before you knew, the senior NCOs and I. She's good. If anyone can come back, she can."
"OK," said Taol resignedly. "But tell me how this is different from the recon I wanted to send down the hill. You almost bit my head off for not thinking about the troops. Now you send someone into a situation that is considerably more dangerous. Why?"
"There is one simple difference," said Jeffy. "I didn't ask her. It was her idea. She volunteered. Acts of heroism are not commanded, but they are freely given. An army whose troops will not make the offer, will not survive long. But I have got to admit sir, you must have really convinced her of your dream to get her to volunteer to do this deed. But then maybe I shouldn't be surprised, your dad could do the same."
#
Jarl and his little unit worked forward silently. They could tell, just by the sound, that the Krasni vehicles had stopped just behind the hill on which they were concealed. Jarl went first to peer cautiously over the lip of the hill. After a couple of seconds, he slid back down.
"You take a look," said Jarl. "Otherwise you're not going to believe it."
One by one, the rest of the patrol looked over the edge of the hill at the Krasni unit. After they were finished they sat in silence for a moment.
"I have never seen anything like it," said Dietz, finally breaking the spell.
"It is way bigger than anything we were briefed on," chimed in one of the other troopers. "What is it?"
"It’s called an M-26 Pershing tank," said Jarl worriedly. "This thing is trouble. The HEAT warhead on that panzer faust can't even scratch the frontal armor. To get a shot that has a chance of killing it, we're going to have to hit the rear of the vehicle or up on the turret flank."
"It would take hours to maneuver to the rear of that thing," said Dietz. "I can see at least three halftracks and a couple of jeeps out there."
"We don't have hours," said Jarl determinedly. "This game winds down in less than an hour and a half. If we are going to hit that thing, we have to do it soon. I say we take the shot we've got. We might get lucky."
"The tank is only about thirty degrees off angle to us," objected Dietz. "The target area on the side of the turret is only about a meter square. I would put us at over a hundred meters away from it. That's a mighty long shot for this stove pipe."
"Even if we don't toast it," said Jarl, "we'll get them busy looking for us. That should help our side out some anyway."
"OK boss," said Dietz doubtfully as he began to unlimber the panzer faust. "But tell me, what do we do after I take the shot?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well hit or miss, they're coming after us, Right?"
"Yeah, sure," said Jarl.
"Let's prepare a welcome for them."
"I like it," grinned Jarl. "Let's set up a little ambush for the hunters."
#
Svoboda lay prone behind a fallen tree. She had shed her MP-38 and most of her equipment, retaining only a knife and a musette bag full of fragmentation grenades. She had spent several minutes painting her face and hands to blend into the foliage. She placed fragments of grass and bushes strategically to further break up her outline. At two meters the Mark 1 eyeball could just pick her out, if you knew where to look. For all practical purposes, she was invisible.
Her mission was to locate the enemy forces and direct friendly fire. Looking for the enemy was useless because the smoke was so thick that she couldn't see more than five meters. She closed her eyes to concentrate on sounds of the approaching Krasni. She had heard them for the last five minutes as they worked their way up the hill. Now they
were getting close enough to matter.
The sounds of at least one approaching tank were obvious. She also thought she heard a couple of smaller vehicles moving with the unit. The Krasni infantry had excellent noise discipline, but things like shuffling feet over uneven ground and muffled coughs from the smoke let Svoboda know that the infantry was moving up on foot, abreast of the tank.
She opened her eyes for a moment and slowly raised her head. Looking slowly from side to side, she saw nothing. She closed her eyes and again moved her head from side to side, this time trying to gauge the direction of the sound. There, slightly to the west of her position and somewhat south, she heard the tank and most of the infantry sounds. The laboring of the tank engine made it clear that the vehicle was already working up the steep part of the hill.
She again opened her eyes and swinging her head side to side, caught a little motion in her peripheral vision.
"They are there, all right," she mused silently, indicating the general direction of the Krasni, "and close too."
She quietly removed two grenades from her musette bag and placed them in front of her. She waited until she was quite sure the Krasni had closed to within fifteen meters. Then she pulled the pins of the two grenades and threw them with great force in the appropriate direction. She had already taken cover before the first explosion. In her hiding place, Svoboda waited for the fire storm that she knew must come.
#
Colonel Sokolov had left his jeep near the bottom of the hill and was walking with his troops. He was not only moving up the hill at a standard infantry pace, he was also moving left and right down the entire skirmish line to make himself visible to all the troops. This meant he jogged most of the time, and often was at a dead run.
Even his tough Krasni constitution was being tested by this workout. It seemed to be paying off. Everywhere he was seen, the troopers morale improved, and, to the troopers, he seemed to be everywhere. When they were doing well he praised them lavishly. When they began to falter, he joked or cajoled them forward. It seemed that this plan just might work.
But, as the troopers got to the steepest part of the hill, just sixty or seventy meters from the top in the densest smoke, two grenades sailed out of the smoke and landed in their ranks. One of the grenades hit the Sherman Jumbo accompanying the advance. It bounced harmlessly off of the turret mantle and landed behind the tank which shielded the Krasni from the worst effects of the blast.
The second grenade fell a few meters short of the tank and landed near enough to slightly injure one of the infantry.
"Hit the dirt!" bellowed Sokolov, and not a second too soon for a fusillade of truly monstrous proportions sailed overhead. Most of it started out high, which saved those troopers who did not hear Sokolov's initial warning. After a couple of seconds, it began to get closer to the ground and the Krasni infantry. The cadet weapons could not be seen, but the high percentage of tracers they fired gave the attack a surreal image, as the rounds flashed through the smoke.
"Ustinov, Alexi, to me," shouted Sokolov. "The rest of you, return fire. Keep your bursts short. Conserve ammo."
As soon as Lieutenant Ustinov and his first sergeant low crawled to his position, Vicktor began an impromptu council of war.
"They must have listening posts down here in the smoke," began Sokolov without preamble. "Send a couple of two man patrols to the north and south. See what you can find. They're close, so don't let the patrols go out more than a hundred meters."
Ustinov nodded to Alexi Romanov, his first soldier, who looked him in the eye, winked, and left to get the patrols going. Ustinov knew that Alexi was personally going to lead one of them. The senior NCO was probably the best soldier on the hill to send out looking for trouble but sending him out meant Ustinov was truly on his own. There wasn't anyone else on the hill, with the exception of Sokolov, that had Alexi's experience and steadiness.
"Oh well," mused Ustinov silently, "I guess it's time to start earning my pay."
His attention was brought back to the problem at hand by Colonel Sokolov's next comment.
"Well lieutenant," said Sokolov, "what next? Do you think we can take the hill from here?"
"The cadets have us pinned down," said Lieutenant Ustinov. "It is only a matter of time before we start taking some serious casualties. Sir, if we don't get those listening posts, we don't have a chance of winning."
"Blunt, but well said," said Sokolov agreeing. "I am telling you this in case I am injured in this action. If our patrols do not find at least one listening post in five minutes, we will have to retreat. If we have to begin a second attack, gather up all our forces, even the heavy tank, and rush the hill top with everything you've got under the cover of smoke.
“The important thing to remember is that this is not a patriotic battle. Do not destroy our troopers in a futile attempt to take the top of the hill. We can survive a tactical setback like this, our coffers are not empty by any means. It is important to retain a core of Krasni troopers to keep this mercenary company going. If in doubt, err to the side of caution. Is that clear lieutenant?"
"Perfectly, sir."
#
The explosion from Svoboda's position came faster than Taol had expected. But he was pleased that the troops had not been caught off guard, like their commander. The initial burst of fire was tremendous. Every trooper in the front line must have melted down a full clip. Taol heard considerable machine gun fire punctuated by short bursts of twenty millimeter fire from the armored cars. He had just begun to relax when the 75mm cut loose and he had to check carefully to see if he needed new uniform trousers.
A little return fire began to spatter harmlessly around the Legion’s positions. Mainly, it was machine gun and large caliber stuff, probably from a tank or tank destroyer. The Legion’s fire slowed to a steady roar.
All of the sudden, Taol’s hands itched to take a weapon and join in the fire fight. It was a foolish wish, he realized, for one more submachine gun would add little fire power and the Legion would be out of control. Someone had to remain alert for any shifts in tactics the enemy might make. These thoughts didn't help much though. He still wanted to get out there and do some hitting.
Chapter XVII
Svoboda listened as the incoming fire ebbed to a sustainable roar. She began to hear the sounds around her. One of the sounds was suspiciously similar to a large man low crawling through the underbrush. To have heard the whisper of brush against the uniform of a low crawling trooper, she knew the enemy trooper had to be very close. Seconds later, she began to smell the sickly sweet aroma of sweaty, scared human beings.
Suddenly, only a couple of meters away, she saw a Krasni trooper creeping out of the smoke. She was about pounce when she spotted another trooper, a meter behind the first. The trooper in the rear seemed to be struggling and was by far the noisier of the two. Svoboda forced herself to remain stock still. At the same time, inside her mind, she willed herself to be invisible.
The first trooper crawled to within a meter of her and then turned down hill. He came so close that she could make out his features. He seemed to be robust, even for a Krasni, and at least thirty-five years old.
The second trooper was much younger and noisier. As the older trooper disappeared into the smoke, the younger one stopped in an attempt to discern the direction that the senior trooper had gone. Svoboda seized this moment of indecision to strike.
She quietly drew her knife. Then, when the younger trooper turned to follow the trail left by his senior, she pounced onto his back. It the same motion, she grasped the top of his helmet and tilted it back with all her strength, exposing the trooper's bare neck. With the speed of a cobra, she drew her knife across the trachea of the young trooper, effectively silencing him. She then rolled back into her hiding place to watch him bleed his life onto the ground. She knew this to be an eminently survivable death. With any luck, this one would wake up with a nasty scar to impress his friends with and an unanswered question on his mind.
In a few seconds, the senior soldier came crawling back up the hill. He stopped well short of the younger trooper’s body. After a split second’s indecision, he began to rapidly scuttle back down the hill. Svoboda flipped a grenade in his direction and soon both were lost in the smoke. An instant later, she heard the blast of the grenade.
It had become decidedly unhealthy around this part of the hill. If that trooper lived through his episode with the grenade, he would come back with many friends. So she began to silently inch her way back up the hill toward the cadet positions.
#
First Sergeant Alexi Romanov was particularly vexed by the young trooper he had been saddled with. The young sergeant was motivated and tough, but he was by far the noisiest trooper in the recon section. Alexi knew the junior NCO had the talent to be quite good, but now was not the time for on the job training.
Alexi heard a muffled sound behind him. It was not very loud at all, considering the fire fight going on around them. It was just loud enough to give away their location to anybody within five meters. When he turned back to chastise his charge with a silent glare, he saw nothing.
"If that boy has become lost," mused Alexi, "I'll shoot him myself."
Never the less, he turned back up hill, the way he had come. He had crawled back a few meters, when, in the haze, he saw the shape of the trooper’s body. There was no mistaking his Krasni physique, but something was wrong. From the unnatural angle of the trooper’s head, he could tell that this one was dead. It was equally obvious that whoever had done this was close at hand and quite skilled in the art of silent killing. Finding his opponent in the smoke was out of the question. Alexi decided that his most prudent course of action was to get out of sight and try again. He began moving back down the hill as fast as he could manage without making too much noise.
He felt a thump on the back of his helmet. Alexi looked around in surprise and saw the blurred shape of a grenade rolling past. The vision of the long handled German grenade was the last thing he ever saw.