When the Devil Dances

“We do not,” Orostan said. “We’ll deal with it later. For now we are well behind the timetable for us to have taken our positions. Have the ships that are left spread out to take their objectives. Keep maneuvering, but raise up to where they can increase speed; the SheVa appears to have retreated.”

“Our reports indicate that one of the human underground cities is just ahead,” the intelligence officer said. “It was an objective for Aresseen’s oolt’pos.”

“Detail another to take and hold the entrances,” Orostan said looking at the size of his reduced force again in anger. “The ground forces can detail one unit in three into it. There is much booty and, of course, thresh in one of those; we’ll need the materials to continue the drive. The other two forces should turn up Highway 28 and Highway 441 as planned.”

“Understood,” the S-2 said. “The city will be rich pickings.”

“I don’t know,” Cholosta’an said. “At this rate, I have to wonder if it will be worth it.”

CHAPTER 29 Newry Cantonment, PA, United States, Sol III 1843 EDT Saturday September 26, 2009 ad

“Sir, I’m looking at this directive and obviously missing something,” Captain Slight said. “There’s no timetable for the relieving force.”

The battalion staff and company commanders had gathered in the briefing room to see if there was some way to make the mission less of a nightmare. Instead, they were finding more and more things not to like about it.

“That’s because there’s not one yet,” Mike said with a grim smile. He leaned forward, steepling his fingers and grinned. “You’ve taken a look at the terrain, right?”

“Yep,” Duncan said. “A troop of Boy Scouts with a .22 should be able to bottle them up in there.”

“Normally I’d agree,” O’Neal replied. “But in this case, the Posleen are fighting smart. The point is that they will be at a really severe handicap; there’s not much room for them to maneuver in there and lots of places for dug-in forces and engineers to make their life miserable. But, by the same token, it’s the kind of terrain that will eat up assaulting forces.”

“So… what?” Captain Holder. “They’re just going to let us die on the vine?”

“They’ll push forces forward until they come into contact,” Mike said. “Then they’ll hunker down and start killing Posleen. If they kill all or most of them that are in the pocket, they’ll push forward. Until they do that…”

“We’re just going to be left to die on the vine,” Captain Slight said. “That sucks, sir.”

“Why do you think I lost my temper?” O’Neal said with another grim smile. “The British Airborne in Arnhem kept fighting for nine days when told they only had to hold out for three until relieved; and the relieving forces never did reach Arnhem.”

“The Germans did not, by and large, eat their captives, sir,” Captain Holder pointed out.

“I don’t know of a single instance,” Mike agreed. “On the other hand, this is the mission. Hold until relieved. I, personally, plan on stacking the deck as much in our favor as possible.” He pushed his AID forward and nodded at it.

“We are going to need all the shuttles we can get our hands on and all the ammunition, power packs and generators available. But the real problem is going to be that we won’t have any anti-lander support. Shelly, how many AM Lances are there that can be transported here within the next, say, six hours?”

“Four,” the AID reported. “They are scattered around Minneapolis for the support of Northern Plains Front. One of the shuttles that is lifting from Chicago could pick them up and bring them down. To get here in six hours would require ignoring some safety regulations, but it could be done.”

“So ordered,” Mike said. “What do we have in the way of shuttles, power packs and generators?”

“There are twenty-two Banshee Two shuttles,” Shelly said. “Sixteen will be here within three hours. If we wait for the AM Lances, there will be ample time for all twenty-two to arrive.”

“Duncan, start working on a load list,” Mike said. “You know what to do: Ensure that stuff is scattered across all the shuttles. Start preparing the load for each. That way when they get here we can just load them. Assume that we will lose shuttles on the way in and that we’ll be unloading them under fire.”

“I thought that we were going to get area denial support,” Captain Holder said.

“We are,” Mike answered. “Or we’re not going. That doesn’t mean we won’t be under fire both on the way in and after landing. It just means we won’t be wiped out immediately.”

“Anyway, Duncan, the AIDs can do most of it, but I want you to ensure that scrap of ‘intuition,’ ” he added with a grin.

“Gotcha,” the captain said with an abstracted expression. “We’ve only got a total of five generators and power packs, though. And if the power packs get hit…”

“Biiiig boom,” Stewart interjected.

“ ‘There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom, where was the earth-shattering kaboom?’ ” Gunny Pappas said with a chuckle.