The War for Profit Series Omnibus (95 page)

Two weeks and three days later, Galen strode into the conference room. The assembled commanders and staff section heads stood at attention. Galen looked around the room at them and said, “Take your seats.” They sat. Galen then moved to his chair at the head of the table and took his seat and said, “Congratulations, Ladies and Gentlemen and Marines. Recovery is complete. Now for a brief of the overall strategic situation. S-2, the floor is yours.”

Major Koa stood and cued the display. “About a week ago, the Mosh managed to take and hold Cherry Fork and pushed on from there and established a defense beyond the city. It was a nasty fight. The Mandarins lost forty eight divisions but the Mosh lost fifty nine. With that accomplished, the Mosh then began offensive operations farther to the south. It was a mad dash across the Western Province, against little or no resistance.

“The Mandarin commander in charge of defense of the capitol city of the western province decided that it was such a beautiful city that he didn’t want it destroyed. He pulled out and declared it an open city. The Mosh rushed right in and captured it intact, space port, space shield, space guns and all. That made the hole in the Mandarin space defenses that much bigger.

“Cherry Fork is already serving as a logistical center for the Mosh and they are massing forces there. We’re also seeing aircraft operating out of there. Fixed-wing, atmospheric flight only, ground-attack aircraft. Fighter-bombers. They patrol the skies over the western province. Although they are no match for our Interceptors, their greater numbers give them a decisive capability against ground forces. We’ve seen them primarily used as air support for Mosh ground units.

“The Mosh have moved right up to the border of the central and northern provinces. In the process, they managed to pinch off forty three Mandarin divisions and they took them prisoner. This war won’t last as long as previous estimates had suggested. In light of that—”

Galen cut him off. “Thank you Major Koa. S-3, your turn.”

Koa sat, Tad stood. He cleared his throat and said, “Our next move is to the north to occupy an evacuated town. Its population was sixty five thousand, so there will be plenty of room for us. We all know that billeting here has been awkward, troops doubled up and Marines sleeping in tents or on gym floors or whatever. We’ve decided to re-locate to better accommodations.”

Tad changed the display. “Here’s a map. It’s the city of
Chong-gok op, on the east bank of the Gang-nam River. Ostensibly, our mission is to hold the bridge. But really, it’s a chance for us to spread out and rest up and prepare for later combat action. It places us facing the left flank of the Mosh armies and when they advance we’ll be positioned for a counter attack. In the north, the two Mosh armies are commanded by two Mosh Chiefs who are brothers, sons of the Mosh High Chief. They lost nearly a third of their strength taking Cherry Fork, so we expect them to lick their wounds for a while.

“In the south and the center, there are three Mosh armies commanded by three Clan Chiefs who are cousins to the first two, nephews of the Mosh High Chief. They’ve had it pretty easy but now face a strong defensive line along the western border of the central province. It’s a river and a series of fortified towns. I don’t expect the Mosh to try to crack it, but they could and then make a stab at
Mandarin City itself. Their next-best alternative would be a move to capture the industrial valley around Chong-gok op. That’s what we’ll prepare for. We’ll see.”

Galen said, “Thank you.”

Tad sat.

Galen said, “S-4?”

Major Polar stood. “Logistics will head up the transition to our new location. We will be accompanied by the Light infantry battalion, to ensure security is established. We’ll gain access to all the buildings and lodgings we need to occupy through a master code. After that, doors will remain unlocked. So, vigilance is key. Don’t skimp on security. Once we have the areas divided up and assigned, the Task Force can move in and set up shop. First out will be the Marines, generally established along the river front with a fantastic view of the water.

“Following that, the heaviest armor will move first, followed by successively lighter units. The last ground unit to leave here will be the Cavalry squadron. The final part of the move will be the Interceptors. There is a civilian spaceport set aside for our use, exclusively. It doesn’t have hardened bunkers but it does have a medium space shield and an air defense network adequate to protect our air operations, to include the helos.

“As we withdraw from here, each unit will emplace mock equipment so that it appears to the Mosh we are still here. Distribution of the inflatable dummy tanks and vehicles, along with a few transmitting devices, will coincide with the displacement of each unit. And that’s about it.”

Galen said, “Thank you.”

Major Polar sat.

Galen said, “S-1?”

Lieutenant Colonel Johnston stood and smoothed the front of her combat coveralls. “Replacement Battalion is below seventy percent and we project shortage in critical combat skills amongst our infantry units. Specifically, if trends continue, we’ll run out of troopers and privates. There are some recruitable indigenous persons, but it’s not certain if they can be successfully—”

Galen raised his hand and said, “Let me do this.”

Johnston gave a crooked, tight-lipped smile and sat.

Galen stood. “Here’s the deal. Everyone in this room is expendable. Something happens to me, we have a whole ‘nother Colonel right here.” He pointed at Colonel Baek. “Every time a leader goes down, there is a troop or Marine willing, ready and able to step up and fill that slot.”

Galen looked around the room, saw nods. Then he said, “But what about the bottom ranks? When leaders above them step up, some of them step up as well. Before too long, we’re all chiefs and no troops. Two things are going to happen while we’re screwing off in Chong-gok. We are going to reorganize. Cav, your Echo troop will be disbanded and the troops dispersed to fill vacancies across the Brigade. Marines, each of your three rifle brigades will lose its Kilo detachment, once again, to fill vacancies. Some leaders who have stepped up, will step right back down and serve under a new commander.”

Galen looked around. No blank stares, no challenging looks. Good.

“Now,” Galen pointed at the Flight commander, “I’m going to piss you off. I already know your feelings about this but I had to make a decision based on the best interest of the task force as a whole. I’m telling you this here and now so that your peers can understand and appreciate the sacrifice you are making on their behalf.”

The Flight Leader took a deep breath and held it, balled his left fist and tapped it on the table once, breathed out slowly. “Yessir.”

Galen said, “We will take on some indig volunteers and they will be assigned to the ground crews of our Interceptor and Helo units. After a reasonable amount of time, where the Indig volunteers are trained to perform ground crew duties, half of the regular flight crew troops will be transferred to the replacement battalion and trained to fill various duty positions across the brigade.”

Silence. Galen said, “Enough of this talk. This evening, all Field Grade officers are mandatorily invited to join me at my lake house at 1800 hours for a cookout to bid farewell to the lovely Jasmine Panzer Brigade Compound. It is my intention for us all to eat too much, drink too much and then pass out on the lawn. Dismissed.”

Lance Corporal Stone stood on the flat roof of the home his squad had occupied and scanned the horizon beyond the river to the west. Chong-gok op was a storybook little town nestled on the East Bank of the Gang-nam River. It overlooked a wide suspension bridge with three levels for traffic. There were rail lines on the lowest level, heavy transport vehicle lanes above that and on top was an open, flat surface suited for pedestrian, bicycle and light vehicle traffic. It led into an industrial town on the other side, low-rent housing tenements and mega-sized shopping areas, with factories and their high stacks and collectors visible in the distance during clear days.

But it was halfway through Lance Corporal Stone’s guard shift, the midnight to 0400 shift. Dark all around, with only an occasional muffled sound. The civilians were all gone from this town. Some still lived and worked across the river. The factories were still operating but had taken measures to blank out their detectible energy transmissions. Under the watchful eye of the Mandarin regular army units on the other side of the river, that town stayed dark at night, and quiet.

At first it had been hard for Stone to stay alert for his entire shift but after nearly two months he’d gotten used to it and now stayed up no problem. He looked to the north and saw a tiny blink in the sky, a glint. Sunlight touching something in space, perhaps. He lifted his binos and peered at the piece of sky where the glint had come from, saw shadow blanking the stars that should have been there. He keyed comms and reported the vector to the Sergeant of the Guard. Stone watched, zoomed in on the anomaly. It shimmered now, a great blob, wide and oval-shaped, tiny gaps in its surface allowing starlight to shine through as though it were a sieve.

Then Stone realized it was a mass of aircraft approaching in a formation, countermeasures making them indistinct objects. He keyed comms again and sent the image. The message came back, “Take Cover.”

Stone sat in his sandbag shelter and continued to watch the approaching aircraft. Soon he had the resolution to see that they were not bombers but cargo planes. Air defense units near the skyline fired, sent up missiles and laser beams. Some aircraft were hit but not nearly as many as one would think, against all that ground fire. They turned west and Stone saw strings of objects fall from the planes, Mosh warriors equipped with jet packs. Thousands of little points of white light, the thrusters of the jet packs, lit the sky to the north. The planes hurried away to the west, their speed increased, eager to leave once they had dropped their cargo of Mosh warriors.

Stone left his bunker and looked around. Little jet pack trails were visible all around to the north, more to the south and southwest but farther away, and to the west more planes came and dropped more Mosh warriors. Air defense units, flak guns included, fired at the descending Mosh. There were plenty of hits but there was an overwhelming number of Mosh. Stone shouldered his rifle and took aim, pressed for data: target out of range. The closest, more than eight kilometers out. He sent that data up to the SOG. No response, then stand by. Then, continue your mission.

He looked to the north and saw a gap in the band of descending Mosh warriors. Ground fire had been more effective there, those flak guns able to sweep their sector clear. But it wasn’t much, a sliver compared to the rest. Other than that, it was still fairly quiet around Lance Corporal Stone’s guard post. It was near the beginning of autumn, getting a little chilly, so he sat in his sandbag bunker and waited for his shift to end.

Nearly an hour later the loud booms of aerospacecraft entering the atmosphere made Stone step out of his bunker and look toward the north. Ground fire erupted for a few minutes then stopped in an instant. He saw the bright fiery glow of a large group of drop boats burning in from space, diving to get low to the ground. Two dozen Interceptors met them at the moment they leveled off. The Interceptors followed the drop boats and took out what looked like at least a hundred of them. Disabled, some crash-landed. Others blew apart. However, the majority landed safely.

Moments later, Mosh fighter aircraft came in from the west and tried to engage the Interceptors. The Interceptors left the area, none of them lost. Stone noticed that they no longer fired their rail guns and guessed they were out of ammo. Their laser still worked, but the Mosh aircraft were swarming the Interceptors with their greater numbers. The Interceptors sped away, off to the east. The Mosh aircraft that pursued the Interceptors fell prey to anti-aircraft fire from the ground. The remainder chose to retreat to the west.

Stone noticed that Mosh drop boats lifted back into the air and blasted back up into space, tracking to the west. Not as many as before. He swung around with his weapon at the ready as the door opened behind him. It was Private First Class Hastings, there to relieve him. 0400 hours. Stone went inside, sat on his bunk and waited for stand-to. He looked at his powered armor battle suit, checked the charge. It was full. Probably have to put it on pretty soon. Should be a pretty good briefing today, he thought.

***

The task force was headquartered in the Town Hall building and Galen slept in the mayor’s office. The jail in the basement provided decent hygiene and chow facilities, and the bunk space was more than adequate for the HQ Team detachment. Tad knocked on his door. Galen sat up on the couch and said, “What?”

“We have action. Brief in an hour.”

Galen stood and stretched, sat back down, reached for his boots. “How bad?”

Tad said, “No immediate threat to us. But it’s big.”

“You need a decision from me right now?”

“Nope.”

“Good.” Galen slid his boots on, fastened the straps. “I’ll see you at the brief.”

Tad left. Galen heard footsteps in the hallway, lots of footsteps. He visited the office’s private powder room, shaved, did some pushups and sit-ups, sat at the desk and ate a field ration, dressed in full combat gear, checked himself in the mirror, checked the time. He left the office and went down the stairs and entered the old courtroom. Tad was seated in the judges’ chair and stood when Galen entered and said, “All rise!”

Galen said, “Take your seats.” He walked up the middle aisle past the collection of about fifty key leaders seated in the courtroom. He made his way to the front and sat at the lawyer table to the right, with Spike and Koa to his left.

Spike leaned over and said, “You’re a little early.”

Tad sat and fidgeted. A few more key leaders trickled in, took seats. Tad looked around and did a quick head-count and stood. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice.” The group chuckled. Tad continued, “What we have is the initial phase of a much larger operation. At this time, I’ll turn things over to S-2.”

Tad stepped aside and moved to the recorder’s desk and activated the display controller. The screen behind the judges’ chair was white paint sprayed on the wall and a projector was bolted to the ceiling near the back of the room to provide images. Koa stood and moved to sit in the judges’ chair. Tad put an image of the operational map on the screen and dimmed the lights.

Koa said, “The Mosh have dropped eight divisions of light infantry all up and down the Gang-nam valley, positioned to capture five towns.” He stood and used a laser pointer to indicate the towns. Markers for Mosh units showed up on the map. “They are getting organized and I expect them to commence offensive operations some time today. Their initial contacts have been with Mandarin units defending the outskirts of the various towns, probing and reconnoitering for the most part.”

The image added markers for Mandarin units. “Although they took more than an estimated twenty percent casualties during their jump into the area, I project that they still have adequate combat strength to achieve specific objectives and hold them for as long as a week to ten days. And those objectives are most likely five bridges over the Gang-nam River.”

The image zoomed out to show twice as much area. Major Koa pointed at a collection of Mosh units about seventy kilometers off to the west. “That is six divisions of Mosh armor with a full compliment of supporting units. One of the wrecked Mosh drop boats landed inside Mandarin territory and they extracted a copy of their overall battle plan. Although it lacks specific detail, we do know that their plan is to seize five bridges with their airborne units and then bring their armor across. One of those bridges is in our operational area.”

Koa looked around the room, stepped back. Tad took his place and said, “The Mosh units in the field now are lightly armed for the most part, few of their heavy support equipment made it to the ground, at least not in any significant numbers. They are perfectly suited for urban combat, however, so their shortage of heavier weapons doesn’t degrade their capabilities for this operation. Also, the Mosh do have air superiority, gained by greater numbers of what would otherwise be obsolete aircraft.

“What they have done is they have set up bases for atmospheric-only craft, suitable as ground attack fighter-bombers. Their max speed seems to be just under mach 3. Their aerospace bombers are also ground-based now, able to carry larger bomb loads because their ionic propulsion engines have been removed and they no longer have to carry enough organic fuel for their atmospheric thrusters to re-enter space. All their aircraft are easy pickings for our Interceptors, but their greater numbers leave them with the capability to pretty much attack any targets they want, if they are willing to accept the moderate losses.

“On the ground, there have been no new weapons systems identified. The Mandarin units defending here in the Gang-nam Valley have been ordered to not retreat without express permission directly from their High Command. This order went out right after that General who was supposed to defend the capitol of the
Western Province decided instead to vacate the city to prevent its destruction. The High Command gave him a quick show trial and the Supreme Commander hanged him live, in public.

“We are under no such restrictions, as our charter has us acting in the best interest of the Mandarin legislature, which has been disbanded for the most part. The Chancellor is still active but has little power beyond providing strategic guidance for us. His directive has been for us to inflict maximum casualties upon the Mosh over time while preserving our own strength. That gives us a great deal of latitude. Basically, we do whatever we want as long as it bothers the Mosh.

“Which leads directly into how we plan to defend our sector. Initially we will move forward into the fight and directly support Mandarin units. Inflict heavy losses upon the Mosh and then withdraw. There will be no need to leave our troops to cover the withdrawal, the Mandarin soldiers have already been ordered to die in place. Initially this will be done exclusively by the Marines. The first reason is because they are better equipped for urban warfare. The second reason is because I don’t think the Mosh know we have tanks here. We’ll keep that fact from them until it suits our purposes to use our armor.” Tad looked around. “Sir?”

Galen stood and took Tad’s place at the front of the room. “Here’s my guidance. Kill. Kill Mosh. We all know that Mandarin is in no position to win this war. We are here to reduce the number of Mosh warriors. Reduce their numbers so that their occupation after their victory will be less oppressive for the Mandarin people. Also, if we weaken them enough it will be that much easier for the Capellan Confederation to liberate this planet in the future. So again, my guidance to you is to kill Mosh. Inflict casualties and survive to inflict more. Mobile defense, tactical withdrawal. Any questions?” Galen looked around the room. No questions. “Dismissed.”