Chapter 22: Turning the Tide
Rick thumbed the button on the radio; he stuck it back into the dirty leather pouch on his belt. They were bunkered down inside of an office building in the lobby. He smiled.
"Good news?" asked one of his men.
"Yeah, just heard from V-," he coughed suddenly, realizing and covering his mistake, "Elijah. Sergei's on board, and his forces will be covering the southern flank."
Many of his soldiers gave grins, sighs of relief, and applause at the news, glad they wouldn't have to be facing all three-hundred something soldiers by themselves.
Rick laughed. "Yeah, looks like we might make it through the night after all. Sorry to disappoint you folks."
A light ripple of laughter went through the ranks. He kept the light banter going for a bit, trying to take the edge off. No one was saying just how dangerous or suicidal this mission was, but everyone knew. Even with Sergei's help, it still put the odds on them at least three-to-one against, and no one was really sure of how good Sergei's people were at fighting. They'd heard rumors that they were fearless and brutal when necessary but had no concrete experience to know for sure.
Rick didn't like the situation. The entire operation depended on some pretty big mistakes from the Citizens. Just like the last one, Rick thought.
He wasn't sure of how he was going to go about it. Baiting them could work, but whoever plays rabbit is going to get chewed to bits, he thought.
One of his men piped up, "How about we just kill their officers again, like last time?" He was referring to the ambush of days before, where well-placed shots had taken out the more-intelligent individuals who kept the others in line. As Elijah had told him, the reservist army was negligent, didn't have extensive training, and most of the enlisted men had never seen fire coming in their direction. When the officers fell, the enemy discipline had crumbed very quickly.
"Only if they're dumb enough to wear their tags in the open again," Rick responded. "But don't waste time looking for 'em if you've got fifty other guys to take care of."
Rick pulled out his little map. "Listen up!" he called out, and everyone gathered around as best they could. He pointed at the street just east of Heavenly Bodies. "We're going to come down this way. Squads one through seven will take up positions in these buildings on either side." He tapped both sides of the street. "Everyone else is going to form a loose rabble and attack the Citizens from behind." He slid his finger along towards the club, stopping at the intersection just before it. "Get their attention and start running back. Squad six," he said, referring to the heavy weapons team, "will donate their launcher in order to better provoke their awareness and response. If anyone not involved in the distraction's got any pineapples," he said, referring to the hand grenades, "offer 'em up to our bait."
Rick continued, "Be smart, don't stay exposed too long, and make sure they come after you." He stood up. "Let's move."
The room became a mess of activity for a moment as everyone grabbed their packs and weapons, a few passing equipment to others, and filed out into the street.
******
Captain Redgick received the latest report from his sub-officers. They had pushed the enemy soldiers all the way back into the club, which was now completely surrounded. The building was well-garrisoned, and almost every window from the bottom to two floors up had gunfire spewing out of it. Total casualties were comparatively light. Dozens of individuals and small groups of Miguel's people had surrendered, and they had been brought to a temporary holding area. All in all, it's going quite well, he thought.
Although he realized there wasn't much that could have been done to prevent it, he frowned at the thought of digging them out of the building. He considered calling in reinforcements to speed along the process but thought better of it. The High Inquisitor had been reluctant to give him as many soldiers as he did, which was surprising considering how much he stressed the importance of the mission. Granted, they had brought nearly the entire reserve army to keep the soldiers in the Acquisition Squads at their task. It wouldn't have been difficult to temporarily reassign a few hundred more, but all requests were flatly denied. Redgick sighed and shook his head. That's what you get when soldiers are controlled by politicians, aristocrats, and spooks, he thought to himself.
"Do not fail," the Inquisitor had told him. As much as he didn't intend to, he knew it wouldn't be him in the fire if this went poorly. Well, I won't be alone at least.
Failure seemed unlikely at this point, anyhow, as he walked outside the building once more. He gave a curt nod to his posted sentries as they saluted him. He enjoyed the authority, and this mission had given him a chance to prove his ability to command.
The enemy had dug in; that was fine. It would take a bit longer without any backup, but that was fine too. Victory was assured.
It's only a matter of time.
Uprising Page 39