The War for Profit Series Omnibus (80 page)

Chief Pescador looked at the bunker blueprints and the schematics of the pop-up coastal defense laser cannons of Bristol and calculated the effectiveness of his guns against them. He sighed and keyed his comms. “Jasmine Three, this is Redleg Six.”

Tad answered, “Roger. What’s up?”

Pescador said, “I estimate thirty minutes per gun. That’s eight minutes of firing, and then we’ll have to come down off the hill for ammo resupply and get back up. Eight guns…four hours if everything goes just right.”

“That’s in-line with my estimates. But we have to knock those out before the Navy can get close.”

“I gotcha. The hour is almost up.”

“Yes it is,” said Tad. “As soon as time expires, you can commence firing.”

Pescador said, “Any movement of civilians out of the city?”

“No. Maybe after you wreck their coastal defenses we’ll give them another chance to evacuate.”

“Sure.” Pescador took a deep breath. “There isn’t much risk for civilians in my current fire plan. Just the coastal laser cannons. Should be all right.”

Tad said, “Time’s almost up.”

Pescador said, “Firing will commence shortly. Impact will be on the minute.”

“Roger. I’ll leave you to it then, Chief. On the minute. Jasmine three out.”

Pescador switched to internal comms. “Back up, driver.”

The
Ajax backed up to the edge of the flat area. Pescador checked his status screen and saw that the other Ajax tanks were backed up as well. He brought the fire plan screen to the front of the display and tapped ‘execute’ and watched the barrel rise and listened as the autoloader pushed a penetrator round into the chamber.

***

Galen stood next to Tad in the extension of the S-3 track and watched the main status screen. The first rounds of the Ajax tanks lobbed in high, hit their intended target. After a couple of minutes the coastal defense gun erupted, the energy stored in its capacitors released in a blue ball of electric discharge that burst into a single lightning bolt that shot out sideways to strike a tall building across the street behind it. The building caught fire.

Inside the city, a set of horizontal blast doors slid open. A single space laser popped up and fired into the sky. Galen said, “What was the point of that?”

Tad said, “They shot down a Northern Republic satellite. Do you want to adjust fire to take it out?”

Galen thought for a moment. “No. Their power is cut off. That gun likely shot from its reserve power and won’t be able to fire again. Best to ignore it.”

Tad nodded. The Ajax tanks came down from their firing pads and started reloading ammo at the base of the hill. Tad pointed at the battle map. “Seven more coastal defense guns to take out.”

“Six,” said Galen. “The Navy has an unmanned ship they want to send within range so the defenders can shoot it, so the Bastards can feel like they did something. It’s supposed to make them feel better about surrendering.”

Tad said, “Sure. After it fires, that gun will be out of power and useless.”

“Right.”

They watched. A Northern Republic destroyer made its way closer to Bristol. The defenders fired one laser bolt, missed. Then they fired their six remaining guns, hit the ship and it exploded, flames fifty meters high. Its remaining bulk rolled onto its side and it sank in less than half a minute. Tad said, “Well I didn’t expect that. All their coastal defense guns are now useless.”

Another space defense gun popped up, a plasma cannon. It fired into space and destroyed a
Northern Republic geostationary satellite. Galen said, “Now that’s just annoying.”

Tad said, “Really. The space guns in
Hillsboro and Batista City can also range those targets, so firing these guns makes no sense.”

“They should have tried to shunt power over to their coastal guns.” Galen pulled up a folding chair and sat. “We’re fighting idiots.”

Tad sat. “They should surrender. There’s nothing they can do here to affect the outcome of this war.”

“They’re buying time.”

Tad said, “That’s a bad idea too. Their politics are unstable. The longer it takes us to get to their capitol, the less popular their President will be.”

Galen said, “Regardless, we need to get in there. I want to minimize civilian casualties.”

The main part of the Northern Republic fleet closed on Bristol and lobbed projectiles at a slow but steady rate, targeted on the remaining space guns. Bristol’s artillery and mortars fired back and gave away their positions. The Navy swatted the incoming projectiles from the air with defensive lasers. Pescador had the bulk of the Brigade’s mortars and howitzers assigned to counter fire and they managed to knock out Bristol’s artillery in short order. The space guns in Bristol were well protected but the constant bombardment from the Navy made it unwise to roll back their blast doors.

Galen stood and went into the track and grabbed a hand mike and told the Sergeant, “I need to call the Navy commander.”

The Sergeant pressed a couple of buttons, “Yessir.”

Galen said, “Admiral Scott, this is Colonel Raper.”

After a long pause he heard, “Galen, how have you been?”

“Better than expected. In light of recent events, I’d like to begin my ground attack today.”

“How much time do you need to get started?”

Galen looked toward Tad, “How long, Tad?”

“Forty five…no, make that ninety minutes.”

Galen keyed the hand mike. “Admiral, ninety minutes should be enough.”

“Very well. I’ll cease bombardment in ninety minutes. Time hack.”

The Sergeant set a countdown on his display panel to count down from ninety minutes.

Galen said, “Send it.”

“Mark in ten….five, four, three, two, one, mark, five nine, five eight, five seven. How copy?”

Galen looked at the countdown and said, “Five five, five four, five three. Over.”

The Admiral said, “Good copy. Best of luck.”

“Thank you, sir. Jasmine Six out.”

Galen hung the hand mike on the side of the communicator and stepped back into the extension. Tad said, “The Legion is moving into position to take the lead and I’ve tasked the Stallion tank battalion to provide close fire support.”

Galen nodded. “Plan B?”

“I’ve got the helos moving in to co-locate with the light infantry battalion, ready to drop them in if we need reinforcement. I’ll have our Interceptors behind the Navy, circling just below the firing arc of
Bristol’s space guns. I can bring them in to provide enough additional firepower to break contact if we need to retreat.”

“Good.” Galen sat, looked around. “You have any chow in here?”

Tad left for a minute, returned with two field rations, handed one to Galen. They ripped them open and watched the status screen as they ate.

***

Munifex Stovall saw the message on his visor, “March order.”

He shook his battle buddy’s shoulder to wake him, got no response. Stood, kicked his shoulder. He sat up. Stovall said, “March order.”

His battle buddy unloaded the machine gun and closed the lid of the ammo can, unlocked the pintle of the tripod, folded up the tripod and hung it on his back, slung the machine gun over his shoulder, squatted part way and picked up the ammo cans with his left hand. At the same time, Stovall deactivated the mines by the road and put them in a bandolier across his chest. He then took down the barbed wire and pulled it to the side of the road.

The battle car came and picked them up and moved back up the road, formed up with the rest of the Century and moved toward the front line of troops, past the Mechanized infantry battalion’s line and halted. The Legion soldiers dismounted and took cover behind large rocks not more than a hundred meters from the city’s wall. Stovall’s squad knelt around its squad leader and they took off their helmets.

He stood and said, “Soon the Navy bombardment will lift and shift and we’ll go forward and execute a movement to contact. We’ll move out single file and close on a gap in the city wall. First and third squad will be on either side of the gap and fourth squad will be right behind us, waiting on our call to bring them forward to relive us once we get inside and establish a secure position. And so far that’s it.”

He looked around. No confused looks on any faces. It was a simple, straightforward mission. The explosions inside the city stopped. He put his helmet back on and stepped toward the walled city and broke into a full sprint. The squad followed.

The gap in the wall was much wider than a gap; it was a breach fifty meters wide. The Ajax tanks had blasted most of it to dust and debris in their efforts to clear their lane of fire to finally destroy Bristol’s main power coupling. And they did, and they also destroyed a reinforced bunker just inside the wall. Deep gashes in the ground led into craters ten meters deep. Stovall’s squad leader dashed forward of the craters and took cover behind the low wall that was all that remained of the bunker. All that remained of its foundation, a broken wall not more than a meter high in places. The squad was stacking up behind its leader. Stovall was last, his designated place in line. He’d not reached the wall yet. His visor went haywire, its screen showing a spread of digital scramble. He flipped it up so that he could see.

A spray of anti-aircraft fire came from a ground-mobile flak gun concealed somewhere to the right. Its rounds came in low at first, skipped off the ground. Then a little higher. The squad leader and the rest of the squad were ripped to pieces. Stovall dodged right and rolled down into a crater. Racket filled his comms. Jamming and scrambling by the enemy. He removed his helmet, shut off the comms, put the helmet back on with the visor up. He looked back. Best thing to do was run back and report to the platoon leader; he needed to know what happened here, and soon.

Stovall heard voices, enemy soldiers. They were close.

“What the fuck are these, fucking robots?”

The second one said, “No. They bleed. See? Some kind of powered body armor.”

Stovall heard rustling and scraping, pops and cracks. The enemy was messing with the fallen Legion soldiers.

“Huh. They don’t carry any money on them. I like their guns though.”

“Check this out!” The second enemy soldier fired a burst of rocket ball ammo from a Legion rifle into the air.

Stovall took the bandolier of mines off his chest and hooked it around his foot. He then low-crawled up the side of the crater toward the enemy soldiers. He stopped just sort of the edge and listened. About five or six voices, all commenting on the Legion equipment they were salvaging. Stovall set the mines to three second delay, motion detect, and tossed the whole bandolier of four mines toward the voices.

He heard, “What the Fu—”

BOOM

More flack gun fire swept the area. Stovall raised his head to peek at the action. Nothing but a thick cloud of dust. His ears were ringing, useless for now. He rolled back down the crater and crawled up the right side. He peeked and saw a thin stream of white smoke coming from a window not more than a hundred meters away. Likely, the position of the flak gun. He raised his rifle, engaged the grenade launcher and lobbed a thirty millimeter round right into the window. He slid back down to the bottom of the crater, faced the gash that led from it back to the breach in the wall, took a few deep breaths and ran like hell.

He kept running until he reached the rock where the charge began. Fourth squad was there along with the platoon leader and the heavy weapons section. The platoon leader stood with his left hand up chest high, palm forward. “Halt.”

Stovall stopped in front of him and removed his helmet.

The platoon leader looked at him and said, “I see no fear in your eyes. Why did you run?”

“Sir,” Stovall said, “My entire squad has been killed.”

“Report.”

“The enemy had a flak gun concealed on the right and tore into the squad from the flank. Had the enemy held fire a moment longer, I too would be dead.”

The platoon leader asked, “Why did you not call me?”

“Jammed, scrambled. My visor went haywire and I couldn’t see. I dropped and rolled into the crater. It happened right before they opened fire.”

The squad leader took Stovall’s helmet and handed it to another soldier. That soldier connected a communicator and said, “Sir, we have the frequencies. We can adjust and shield our comms but we need the Centurion’s approval.”

“Get permission.” The platoon leader then said to Stovall, “What happened after that?”

Stovall said, “I tossed four mines at enemy soldiers who were pilfering the bodies of my fallen squad and then I launched a grenade into a window about a hundred meters to the right, where I suspected the flak gun was hidden. Then I knew I had to report back to you in person.”

The platoon leader handed Stovall’s helmet back to him. “Can you drive?”

Stovall had a couple of hours of battle car driver’s training in the simulator, as part of his basic training. “Yes sir, but not very well.”

The platoon leader said, “Good enough. You did well, Munifex Stovall. You can be proud. Get in your car and await further orders.”