“I have troopers that can help. I placed my best anti-armor personnel at the north end of the line. Thought Jack might need them.”
“If the tank can’t be stopped by our guys, they surely will be needed, but that’s Hawkwood’s problem. My concern is Keen Steel’s mortars. I have some troopers going after the mortar tracks.”
“That’d help. We’ve taken some casualties from them already. I can send some of mine, but they don’t know the turf like your soldiers do.”
“I have enough with me to get the job done.” Noting that a steady patter of mortar rounds fell to the west of the road to deny approach from that direction, Holden thought, The sooner done the better.
An out of breath trooper closed on the pair and slowed from a long run.
“Commander, Sergeant Maxwell sent me,” the soldier said panting. “We were moving to provide a blocking force to cover the south as ordered and we came on a group of opfor troopers near a cluster of APCs. There was an officer talking on a field phone and Max wanted to get in close to see more. We got within seventy or eighty meters before we were spotted. The troopers near the officer didn’t seem too happy with us and engaged. During the fight the officer and the field phone got tagged.”
“You’re sure?” Newcomen asked.
“Grenade hit, sir. Sergeant Maxwell was sure the officer was directing fire. When shells started pounding us we knew he was right. We had to pull back. He sent me to see if he ought to go looking for the comlink and maybe the mortars.”
“No radio, just a field phone, correct?” Holden asked.
“That’s right, Sarge. Can’t see’em running com cable all this way. I’d wager a phone linked to beamed coms?”
“That would be my guess,” Newcomen said.
Holden nodded in agreement. “I’m sending troopers south to find the mortars with two com specialists among them.”
The Savon soldier shook his head. “With no shot-caller, it might be a waste of time now.”
As the mortar rounds continued to fall, it was Holden’s turn to shake his head. “Seems to me the mortar crews still have this whole area plotted already.”
“Registered fire. Well then, maybe it’s not a waste,” the trooper said with a grimace at the sky. “Be nice to be rid of the things.”
“Agreed,” Newcomen said. “Tell Max to stay put and cover the southern end of our line.”
. . .
Running in a crouch, Senior Sergeant Ray Winger led a trooper from Savon Light Infantry Company behind the barricade.
“Jack,” he bellowed when he saw Commander Hawkwood. Gesturing at the trooper with him he continued. “Things have changed.”
“We have company,” Hawkwood said with a smile. “Timely.”
“This is Sergeant Sherzer, Savon Company,” Winger said. “He brought friends.”
“I’m happy you could join us,” Hawkwood replied.
“Looks like quite a junkyard you’ve created out there, sir,” the sergeant said with a cant of his head.
“There are a lot more vehicles that need to be added to the junk category.”
“We can help with that, commander. I’ve got most of our recoilless tubes with my platoon. Tell me what to target.”
“The heavy tank immobilized out there is a priority. It’s surrounded by dead vehicles that are soaking up a lot of our fire and it has our sole remaining rapid attack track pinned down.”
Sergeant Sherzer nodded. “We’ll see what we can do. I’d like to get an angle from behind but that would mean us firing toward the western end of the barricade.”
“Run a field phone,” Winger said. “Give us a heads-up when you’re ready. Our guys know how to duck.”
“Sounds like a plan. Any word about the armor Keen Steel pushed north?”
“None,” Hawkwood said. “We have hunter-killers out. Until we know what the situation is, we need to be watchful. Opfor mortars are pounding the woods to the west preventing an infantry push from that side. It looks like they are shifting some of that east now that your unit is here. Pinning down our opponents here is our priority. The tank and mortars we’ll deal with after.”
. . .
Nasty-96 rolled slowly north to avoid kicking up a dust cloud that might give their presence away. Now empty of hunter-killer troopers, Fell and Briggs had the vehicle to themselves.
Playing a hunch, the two Red Light sergeants were positioning their charges, Muldoon placing his hunter-killers on or near a grassy hillock while Fell and his track sought favorable land to cover the north.
“Nasty Niner-Six, this is HK-One,” said Muldoon’s voice over the headset. “Com check.”
“HK-One, Niner-Six. A fair bit of jamming noise but readable. Still no link to the company,” Fell replied.
“Roger. Same, same. We are in position. I can hear the tank east of us but have no eyes-on.”
“We’re looking, Muldoon. There’s an old overgrown berm a couple hundred meters north of you. We’ll be north of it in case the tank crew doesn’t cooperate with our plans.”
“I have a team to the north and another south of the hump, HK-Two and Three respectively. My team is west and we’ll move when the tank shows. All we need is Keen Steel to go along with the plan. I hope you guessed it right, Ron.”
“Guess? I carefully considered the parameters and—”
“A guess by any other name…. Let’s kill a tank, out.”
“Eyes open, Briggsy,” Fell said over the intercom.
Hearing the almost jovial tone of voice, Briggs knew the track chief’s mood was because of the terrain, ‘track country’ as the man called it.
Rolling to the north, they hoped to spot the tank and relay its location to Muldoon and his hunter-killers. With three teams placed where they could support one another, they could only hope Sergeant Fell’s carefully considered guess as to where the tank would approach their ambush was correct.
“What do we do once we spot the tank?” Briggs asked.
“After we notify the HKs, we draw their fire and let the AT grunts get an angle on them,” Fell replied.
“We just let them shoot at us?” Briggs said uncomfortably.
“We’ll shoot back.”
“What damage can an eleven millimeter chopper do to a tank?”
“I said we draw fire, but since you suggested it, we’ll see if we can do a little damage.”
“I asked a question, Sarge. You’re the one that said we’d shoot back.”
“My mistake, but you inquired about damage, yeah? I like the way you think. If you’re as good with that chopper as you seem, maybe you use all that sight distance above bore and trajectory bullshit you were talking about and ding sensors and vision blocks. If nothing else the thunk-thunk-thunk of machine gun rounds pounding on their turret ought to attract their attention. It won’t stop that tank, but it’ll make the tankers’ lives a little tougher.”
Briggs snarled. “And make the hunter-killers lives a bit easier. Tell me where the sensors and blocks are and I’ll see what I can do.”
Fell laughed. “That’s what I want to hear. For starters, on the left side and directly above the heavy’s main gun is a sensor suite and sighting system. That’s worth hitting. Up—”
“Hang on, Sarge. That’d mean the turret’s facing us.”
“Risk and reward. You’ll see a turret-like object sticking up on top of the turret. That’s a bolter cluster and target acquisition array. It knocks down incoming missiles like ours does but it also detects where they originated using motion sensors. That’s worth hitting too.”
“Hmm, I’ll give it a try,” he said. Glaring upward he thought, And I volunteered for this.
. . .
Jacks and Myles watched the video feeds as a Keen Steel heavy walker plodded through the marsh. Screened by a sizable gathering of trees, their view allowed only glimpses of the monster. Squatted and looking through spaces between tree trunks, the pair felt sure Lunatic Red was undetectable.
With se
veral Carmag Light Infantry hunter-killer teams positioned in the area, it was up to the Red Light walker to initiate the ambush and draw fire.
The four-legged machine stopped, the armored cab at the front of the hull sweeping back and forth twice.
“Sensor scans?” Myles asked.
“For what good it might do, yeah,” Jacks replied. “Mostly optical, trying to catch Carmag troopers moving.”
As he spoke, the pair aboard Lunatic Red caught movement on their side of the trees. Stepping from the soggy ground and into the water, a trooper waded toward the Red Light walker. A minute later the field phone buzzed.
“Send it,” Jacks said as he lifted the handset.
“My team leader sent me to relay some info. No sign of the other walker, but Keen Steel infantry is coming from the south. They’re half a klick out from our southernmost positions, but they’re coming.”
“What kind of numbers?”
“No way to tell. More than just a recon I’d say or else they would have said so.”
“Got it. Those guys down there will need to move soon, right?”
“Probably. They didn’t say so, but it was a relayed message. We are off beamed coms with that monster so near.”
“I’d like to let that heavy walker get closer to us so we have a shot from behind,” Jackson said, “but it’s in range of four or five of your HK teams right now. We’ll draw fire. Remember, that thing’s weak on the underside and up its ass.”
“We know. How long until you move?”
“Call it five minutes unless that beast starts north again. If it does, we go then.”
“Got it. Good luck, Red Light,” the trooper said before shoving the handset back into the box.
“We’ll need to be creative,” Jacks said as he watched the Carmag trooper plow through the water as fast as he could. “Load grape to start.”
“Grapeshot?” Myles asked as he opened the breech and reached for the round inside.
“Yeah. It won’t do a damned thing to the walker’s armor, but it can knock out vid points, and bolters. It sure as hell will get their attention. A couple of grapes coupled with some HE rounds out of the thirty mike-mike might keep them focused on us. If you can, watch the vids to see what Carmag is doing.”
“Got it,” Myles said. After loading a grapeshot round, he drew another and placed in the rack above the 90mm.
A minute later, Jacks growled. “She’s moving. I’ll give it a bit before we kick this off. I’ll take us just clear of the trees and open fire.”
“On the bolter and ready to load.”
“Brownie would call what we’re doing ‘fighting above our weight.’ He’d be right. We’ll need to dance and keep the missteps to a minimum.”
“So you’re saying it’s business as usual.”
Jacks laughed. “That’s it. We do it right and the fortunes of battle favor us, we’ll be—”
“Heroes of the big and damned sort. You keep saying that.”
“Talk the talk, walk the walk,” Jackson said as he turned his head side to side. “Work time.”
Myles turned the bolter to view their opponent. Through the tree cover he could see the opposing force vehicle moving north. He had seen images of the big walker before in vid presented photographs and technical representations the intel troopers had provided, but looking at it through the bolter sights was different. Far from being the largest walker to ever take the field of battle, their opponent was still intimidating. From a curved underside extended four hefty jointed legs, the hull above shaped like a tortoiseshell. The sloped surfaces provided the benefit of deflection much like Lunatic Red’s axe blade shape did.
Atop the forward section of the hull was another dome, the main turret housing an energy cannon as well as a hefty gun firing conventional projectiles. Yet another dome-shaped turret sat at the rear of the hull and housed an auto-cannon.
At the front of the hull was the articulated and armored crew compartment generally referred to as a cab. Not common on walkers, many within the armored walker ranks felt such an arrangement was a trend for the better while others—like Jackson—viewed it as a deathtrap. Trend or not, the cab possessed a pair of heavy machine gun turrets that added to the vehicle’s firepower.
Negotiating the marsh smoothly, the enemy walker gave Myles the impression of a turtle atop elephant legs, graceful and deadly, yes, but alien.
Myles felt the subtle signs of Lunatic Red as she moved. Breathing deeply, he did his best to calm himself.
As Lunatic sidestepped clear of the trees, the Keen Steel walker’s crew compartment angled toward them, the turret following in rotation. Knowing Jacks was sighting the 90mm, Myles fired the bolter at the nearest machine gun.
Lunatic Red shuddered as the 90mm barked. Releasing the bolter control, Myles reached for the racked grapeshot round, the pounding report of the 30mm registering as background noise while he reloaded.
“Up!” he called as the breech slammed closed.
While Jacks sidestepped before firing, Myles opened the hatch to the magazine in anticipation of Jackson’s next call.
The 90mm roared, the breech slamming to the rear and locking open.
“Loader, H—” Jackson managed before a jarring near miss staggered Lunatic Red.
Confident Jacks and the walker’s on board systems would right them, Myles retrieved a high explosive round from the magazine anticipating the sergeant’s choice.
“Loader, HE,” came Jackson’s stressed call.
No sooner had he said it, the breech slammed closed.
“HE, up!”
Jacks fired and sidestepped left to take cover behind the trees.
“What was that?” Myles asked.
“They fired an HE round trying to take out our legs. Damned near made it pay. Let me run diagnostics. I think we’re fine, but I want to be sure before we rejoin the fight. Load a spiker. I’m circling around to the other end of the tree stand. Maybe we can put one up its ass.”
“I didn’t catch much on the vids, Jacks.”
“No? I wonder why.”
As Jackson started them south, Myles closed the breech. The muffled sound of heavy machine gun fire made its way into Lunatic’s crew compartment.
“Spiker is up,” Myles said.
“No reported damage and she feels all right. Be ready. Most likely we’ll need spikers or lance rounds.”
“Got it.”
Rounding the southern end of the trees, the two in Lunatic Red came upon a scene they would remember for some time. Sparks flicked skyward as a recoilless round glanced off the heavy walker’s sloping hull armor and stuck the main turret, disintegrating into a cloud of fragments. Anti-tank rockets left white trails as they streaked toward their target from several directions while brilliant dots of tracers flashed across open air peppering the vehicle.
The weapons aboard the walker returned fire in four different directions, machine gun and auto-cannon fire chewing the timber where Carmag troopers fought, the main turret spouting destruction from both of its weapons.
Incredibly, despite the apparent mismatch, the hunter-killers hurled more recoilless rounds and shoulder-fired missiles in return.
With the right rear corner of the heavy walker pointing at them, Jacks fired the Ninety.
“Loader, lance and keep them coming.”
Myles locked the magazine hatch open and drew a grey color-coded round. A second later he called, “Lance, up!” as the breech slammed closed. A glance at the vid feeds revealed the Keen Steel walker was aware of their presence, the rotation of both hull turrets toward Lunatic Red proof of that.
The 90mm barked and as the 30mm chugged its five beats per second, Myles had the big gun ready for action.
“Up!”
Auto-cannon rounds ringing on the armor drew a snarl from Myles as he drew another lance round and readied for the next shot.
Jackson sent another 90mm round on its way, a moment later the breech slammed closed with another, “Up!”
from Myles, but Jackson didn’t fire.
“Myles, look at the vid.”
Straightening and shifting his attention from gun to vid screen, Rivers caught the sight of the four-legged behemoth toppling sideways into a stand of trees, dense black smoke flowing from an upper hull pockmarked with hits. Snapping hefty branches and taking whole trees with it, the walker struck the muddy ground. A moment later, its magazine exploded hurling water, mud, wood, and pieces of walker into the air.
No one celebrated the victory. As the woods and downed walker burned, Carmag troopers pointed south prompting Jackson to face Lunatic in that direction.
“Keen Steel is pushing Carmag north,” he said. “Let’s see if we can pin them down and give Carmag some breathing space. Load a ball round and keep’em coming, though I’ll mostly be hitting them with thirty mike-mike HE.”
“Got it,” Myles replied. “How far out are they?”
“About a klick.”
“I’ll be on the bolter and ready to reload.”
. . .
Corporal Matt Hicks stopped and knelt near a large tree, his team following suit. Having spent arduous hours making their way north, they were near the end of the journey.
The sounds of battle had filled their ears since the engagement commenced. Holding their position for quite some time until the fight had shifted north, they knew no Keen Steel force was coming their way. With that in mind, the four started their trip north.
Their sneak back to the company was a frustrating one. While seeing opposing force units more than once, Hicks chose not to engage given that his element numbered only four and there was no support should they bite off more than they could chew. Perturbed at not contributing to the day’s efforts, they hoped rejoining their company mates might allow them an opportunity to have a say in a victory, but until they learned what the situation was, hope was all they had.
Finding Savon Light Infantry troopers engaging Keen Steel was encouraging and they soon learned Top Sergeant Holden was nearby.
Moving north the four did their best to ignore random small arms fire and mortar shells and soon found Holden speaking with Sergeant Dayan. As the sergeant headed off, the top sergeant waved them to his position.
Holden smiled when he saw Sam and Vincent still in good health. “My comrades from the hiring hall. No missing parts. Looks like you’re doing pretty well for yourselves.”
Free Company- Red Zone Page 33
