CHAPTER 49

Katie waved at the smoke that was in her face and then faked a cough before she snarled at Less Horton and asked him, “you’re not out of those things yet?”

The commander of A Company laughed as he took another puff of his cigarette and then replied, “I’ll have you know Captain Mack, they got a whole warehouse of these things down in Way Out. In fact our guest brought in a few cases with his drop.”

“Oh brother,” Katie rolled her eyes and then moaned, “like that’s militarily essential supplies.”

Evan Capps was not a smoker either but, he and Less were like two pees in a pod. That could be the only reason that Katie could ever figure on why Evan played the enabler and this time was no different, “I think that’s why they’re getting through. You know? They’re not militarily essential.”

Katie snapped at the guy, “would you shut up Evan. You’re not his baby sitter.” Then Katie noticed the reaction of Jeremy Kholer, the First Lieutenant that was currently running Delta. He didn’t seem to like the smoke either so Katie asked him, “you going to sit around and get poisoned without protest?”

All that Kholer had to say was, “I’m not getting in the middle this.”

Finally, Major Conner showed up at the little space, behind the TOC, where they were holding their informal meetings. It had gone from cold to hot so quick that it left everyone’s head spinning and nobody wanted to spend very much time inside their sandbag Hilton’s. Since the Orc’s had not dropped any ordinance on them, recently, everybody was even sleeping outside the bunkers now. Of course, as Katie reflected, the down side to that was Less Horton smoking through the entire briefing. She hoped Phil would shut the guy down.

Instead, Conner introduced his guest, which everybody already knew, “you all know Mister Losmun, he brought us some important…” Phil stopped when he sniffed the burning tobacco and Katie became smug. Then Phil pointed to Less and said, “give me one those Captain.”

Horton came off the smoke but did so with protest, “you know there are some rules that rank does not apply. I think bumming smokes is in that category.”

“Not today,” Phil replied as he even produced a match that had obviously come from a packet of MRE’s.

Less was not the only one protesting as Katie said, “Major!”

Phil laid out a map in the dirt and told Katie, “listen to what Mister Losmun has to say, then if you still feel like it, you’re free to have a bitch fest.”

Curwin Losmun pointed down at the map, “my scouts reported back about ten hours ago.” That was enough to raise the hairs on Katie’s neck. When the Olyan-Notae had pulled out their advisors, Losmun had wasted no time in offering his assistance. As the Rangers had quickly come to find out, guides were crucial in a place that was lacking things like GPS, drones, and even descent maps. The instructors at the ITTC knew it was going to be a problem, as Katie remembered, they had just underestimated how much of a problem. The ten hour lag in recon to actionable intelligence was one of those things the army‘s brain children had completely over looked.

Losmun continued, “the Orc’s are not only moving, they’re concentrating.”

Even Capps asked the obvious question, “what have you guys done about this in the past? What about the IAF? Can’t they pound them from air?”

Curwin replied, “they’ve never done this before, not since I can remember.”

Phil added, “and forget about the IAF. We can’t depend on the elves for anything right now.”

Capps was almost furious, “they have bases out here too. They’re just going to cut those guys to the wind?”

Curwin said, “somebody set a bomb off in Cheau-Gan. It didn’t kill anybody but that didn’t really matter, it wasn’t the point. They blew up an empty building that belonged to the Ganueu-Rhys. Somebody was sending a message.”

It was at times like this that Phil elected to sound like he knew what he was talking about. He would just not bother to explain that Curwin had filled him in on the whole deal only minutes ago, “those guys are like the biggest unaligned faction of elves.”

Katie knew she should be concerned but, she simply did not know why and could not even maker herself feel that way. She asked in a very logical kind of fashion, “do they know who did it? I mean the elves are kind of sensitive about their capital. The emperor will get to the bottom of it, right?”

“Captain Mack,” Curwin replied, “in US Army terminology, the emperor is what you might call a, um, limp dick. If his two biggest bullies, the Noveus-Faeyu and the Olyan-Notae decide to go at each other’s throats then he’s powerless. Right now, Montceaus Odaylya who runs the Notae, and Quintescau Ceascu who runs the Faeyu, are pointing fingers at each other, so, that’s exactly what’s about to happen.”

Holman finished off his cigarette and went for another as he asked, “who do you think did it?”

Curwin laughed, “I think it doesn’t matter. I know Quintescau and Montceaus, dealt with them both for years. In technical terminology, they’re both ass holes and either one of them is fully capable of this.”

Phil interrupted with, “the doesn’t matter part is what’s important here. Our concern isn’t down there, it’s up here. If the Orc’s are massing then they’re going to attack. We’re an obvious target. Both Colonel Pong and I are of the opinion that we need to be proactive. The simple fact is, we don’t know if we can adequately defend this place so attack is our best option.”

Evan Capps asked, “how are we going to do that without air support? If the IAF is neutralized then….?”

Curwin had that answer, “just the elves Captain. I’m working on cutting a deal with the, what do you call them?”

“The Little Dragons,” Phil said. “They’re the bulk of the chopper pilots and we still have the Night Stalkers down at Seau-Neaut. We can’t move the entire battalion but, it’s enough to move raiding elements where we need. We’re going to try and break up these war parties, keep them too busy to attack.”

Curwin added, “and we’re going to help. If a lot of these frontier outposts fall, then the Orcs could be planning on hitting something that matters, like say, Uea-Au for example. I can’t let that happen.”

“Much appreciated,” Phil said.

Curwin was both sarcastic and dead serious when he replied, “are you kidding Major? It’s my pleasure.”

Phil went right on, “Captain Mack, your company has had the best luck so far and…” At that point Kholer raised his hand and Phil knew why but, let the boy ask anyway. Phil figured it was best to get it out in the open and out of the way.

“Excuse me Major,” Kholer said to the group, “It’s Delta’s turn in the rotation and we haven’t been off base security since we first got out here.”

“I know,” Phil told the boy, “it’s nothing personal Lieutenant. Your company has taken critical losses and…”

“Excuse me sir,” Kholer butted in again and seemed determined to do so, “maybe at first but, Bravo and Alpha have lost more people than we have, now.” When that did not go over too well Kholer said, “I got morale problems out the ass, sir. The best thing in the world is to get my people off the line and do something.”

Phil nodded and replied to the boy, “duly noted Lieutenant. That’s an insightful and relevant observation and it shows me that you’re doing a hell of a job replacing Captain Caldwell. Request denied, anything else?”

That made Kholer pout like a little kid but Phil didn’t have time for that right now, “Katie, you’re up.”

The low sounding booms stopped the meeting in it’s tracks and everyone grabbed for their helmets and jumped to the very bottom of the dug out. There was no overhead cover but, they all knew that there was no time to find descent shelter. No one got back up until the number of explosions, that shook the very ground they were hugging, equaled the number of distant and initial booms.

When Phil got out of the hole he quickly surveyed the damage and he was thankfully relieved. The columns of smoke were too the south and now he actually knew what direction was in. He also saw that strikes appeared to be outside of his perimeter. He actually smiled, “I’ll be damned, they missed.”

Curwin joined him and was not so happy about it, “they didn’t miss Major. That wasn’t the Orcs, the explosions were too small.”

That told Phil enough. The booming sounds came from the southwest. Phil rapidly formed a mental list in his mind and only one culprit came up, “the Olyan-Notae have a battery of one-oh-fives close by.”

Curwin huffed, “that would be my guess.”

Evan Epps had heard most of the conversation as he pulled himself out of the meeting hole. He was outraged but, remained calm enough under the circumstances as he said, “if those are our friends then I can’t wait to meet the enemy. Did they miss us deliberately?”

Curwin was obviously angry, “probably.”

“Looks like they just fired the metaphorical shot across our bough,” Phil stated.

Less Holman joined them and grumbled, “that doesn’t look all too metaphorical to me Major.”

Phil got back in his take charge mode and told the assembling Captains, “doesn’t matter. We can’t respond because we don’t have any artillery. What we can do is see to our men, see to the line. Get our shit wired straight and start issuing some pay back.”

Now Katie finished dusting off her uniform and said, “you mean with the Olyan-Notae?”

As Phil saw it, that was a definite, “hell no. I am officially choosing to ignore that and will log it as a friendly fire incident.” That did not go over to well so Phil told them point blank, “all the elves are trying to do is piss us off. The Orcs are coming to bury us. Katie, get your strike team on the ready line. The Blackhawks should be here in about an hour or so. Curwin’s ready to brief you on your first target.”

It was not an hour when the choppers came in and landed on the tree stump, it was closer to three. Again, the lack of the radio communications was making life difficult and things moved much slower than anyone had anticipated. Everybody knew that it took time to get a message down to the airfield and they would have to wait for that to happen. What they never really counted on was that it took more than just receiving the message to get things moving. Usually the Nightstalkers had their own plans, already in action, to fill down time. Those plans varied and, quite often, that meant changing everything at the drop of a hat. Sometimes, those changes took longer than others, depending on what they were doing. Hurry up and wait took on an entirely different, and far more ominous, meaning in this place.

Katie and her second platoon were ready though. She was just waiting for the crew chiefs to dismount and waive them in to the three birds that were sitting on the natural made pad. That did not happen though. She saw Cliff Briley get out of his bird and run to her under the moving blades. He yelled to her over the engines, “wait one Captain. I need to go to the TOC. Is Colonel Pong there?”

Katie thought about it and yelled back, “I don’t think so. I think he’s walking the perimeter. Major Conner is though.” Then Katie added, “mind if I tag along?”

Briley didn’t so Katie was standing next to him in the TOC when he reported in to Phil. Briley handed off the leather bound, and key locked, brief case of the type they used to send orders in, ages ago. Cliff also noted, “you’re not going to like it, sir.”

Phil quickly scanned the documents from inside and then he scowled, “how the hell did this happen?”

Briley just shrugged, “my CO did instruct me to tell you, that we can still support operations from RAF Merlin. We have the range.”

Phil slapped the paper down on the table and then told Katie about what he had just read, “the elves have declared a work stoppage at Seau-Neaut.”

Katie was confused, “we’ve got our own people there right now.”

Cliff explained, “yeah but it doesn’t do us a whole lot of good if we can’t get our hands on the avgas which has been theirs since day one. That’s not counting a dozen other things we need.”

Katie was confused, “that stuff is supposed to be non critical.”

Cliff nodded and replied, “they all were, individually. You put all that stuff together and it ain’t so non critical. Fortunately, the RAF is in a more giving mood right now. Brigadier Chesterfield has offered us his full support.”

That alone sounded like desperation to Phil. So far, Chesterfield had been about as cooperative as a herd of cats. It made Phil wonder if the RAF was in as precarious a situation as the Rangers. How could they be? They weren’t on the front lines. Phil decided to state for the record, “when you get back, you let your CO know that this isn’t acceptable Chief. Your birds might have the range but, Merlin is on the other side of the damn country. It takes long enough to get you guys up here from Seau-Neaut. I am, of course, taking it that your CO determined that moving the aviation assets here was impossible?”

“Yes sir,” Cliff replied, “we don’t have the infrastructure up here to adequately support our operations. It would take weeks to set that up, maybe even months given the fact that we don’t have half the stuff we need, even down at Seau-Neaut.”

Phil knew exactly what that meant. It was going to half their striking power and, not to mention, reduce the amount of close air support they could get from the little bird gun ships. It meant that Curwin’s negotiations, with the dragons, was ever more crucial now. It was even a big if, that those negotiations would succeed. Phil grunted, “I really don’t see how this situation can get any worse.” The close in banging sounds made Phil slap his forehead, “why the hell did I say that.”

Katie put her helmet back on and let her weapon slide down off her shoulder as she looked to the bunker door, “those were claymores going off. That’s the perimeter!” Nearly everyone in the TOC followed Katie right out the door and, very quickly, they saw an entire series of trip flares, floating gently down, in the western sky. That was quickly followed by more claymores being detonated. The anti personnel, directional mines, acted a lot like big shotguns and the Rangers had them strung in mass around their perimeter. Now, it was obvious, something very large was setting off entire chains of them at once.

When Katie realized just how many had gone off, at one time, her heart felt like it was in her throat. That had to be a massive army, moving on the western side of the perimeter, and they obviously did not care how many casualties they took doing it. Then came the rumble of small arms. It sounded to Katie like every position on the west side began firing at once. She knew how far out the trip flares and claymores were from the fighting positions. This force was moving very fast. That was when Katie looked around and noticed that Phil and half of the staff were gone. She ran back in the TOC and found them, with Phil on the phone yelling over the fire. She had never seen the guy this red faced before.

Phil was screaming, “a what? Say again?!” He then slammed down the phone and said, “we lost the connections Breathed! Get me another OP over there!” Then Phil looked down at his body armor, helmet, and equipment that had all been neatly placed in a corner. He sighed and said, “damn, I’m going to have to put all that shit back on.”

That was all the answer Katie needed. She didn’t waste time with small talk. She ran out of the bunker and barely even noticed that the spectators had now dispersed. That was good news. The only guy left was Curwin Losmun and the look on his face told Katie that her own worries were not displaced. Still, the guy was not only concerned. He looked, almost, as if he were still studying the situation, trying to make up his mind about something. It was not a luxury Katie had. She ran for the Bravo company CP and whatever choices she would make, she’d do it there, like she was supposed to.

Katie was so busy thinking about what she had to do, while physically running, that she slammed into someone like a train wreck. When she began picking herself up off the ground she recognized their West Point guy, Washburn, who was acting as the Task Force S-4. He was obviously trying to get back to the place that Katie was running from and, hence, their collision. Katie actually had to put a hand out to help pull the guy back to his feet.a He was not too happy about it. He was more scared than angry though and he demanded, “what the hell is going on?”

There was no time for this, Katie left him standing there as she took back off at a sprint. She had not made it far when the shooting erupted all around her. That included her own CP where everyone there had run outside the bunker and opened up with their full arsenal. There seemed to be shooting from every direction and bullets started flying over her head, ripping up the dirt around her. Katie jumped to the dirt, with no other cover available, and prayed for the best. Only then did she realize something, where were the staff cannons? The sounds of those big bladed sticks, that the Orcs loved so much, was noticeably abscent. She had not heard the first one discharge and they were hard as hell to miss!

Who was shooting at her? Katie rolled over on her back and began looking around. She saw Washburn just standing there, right where she left him, his weapon by his side, and he was just looking off towards the west. Katie got to a knee and then she saw it. How could she not? The thing was big as a house, looked like some kind of armored, spine covered, giant turtle of a dinosaur. It ran right at Washburn and he did nothing. The thing seemed to jump from it’s back legs to it’s front legs and it howled while swinging the giant horns on it’s head.

Katie screamed out at her fellow Captain who did not move an inch. The thing was going to trample him! She heard his screams and they were more of terror but, he still didn’t move! Gunfire was sparking off that things armor and nothing seemed to stop it. Then, when it got face to face with Washburn, it just turned and went for a nearby bunker where a hail of gunfire had just started up. The fire didn’t last long as the animal dove on the bunker, then got up, and began swinging it’s tail that looked like three wrecking balls welded together by flesh. The bunker was gone in seconds!

When it was safe enough, Katie got up and ran for Washburn. He was in a complete trance when she got there so Katie grabbed him by the arm and began pulling him towards her still in tact CP. He offered very little resistance but, was still dead weight. Katie got them there just in time to notice the choppers taking off in a big hurry. She also heard a great deal of mayhem coming from that direction. When she shoved Washburn to the ground she saw her First Sergeant, “Snake! Get on the phones and call over to the landing pad. We have a platoon over there!”

Snake put down the phone and his eyes were big as he told his Captain, “we just got an order from the TOC. They said hold fire, immediately.”

Katie exploded, “are they fucking crazy!”

Snake nodded and said, “they were very specific, Captain.”

Katie growled and probably said a few unflattering words as well. She ran back outside and, sure enough, the small arms fire was dying away. It only seemed to make it easier to hear the rampaging beast which was definitely getting closer. She made sure that her weapon was set to three round burst and figured, “to hell with battalion and their endangered species bullshit.”

Then she saw the thing again. It was stomping the ground on the other side of the TOC and, the shocking part was that several soldiers appeared to be leading it? Katie carefully edged closer to the action and got a better look. Curwin Losmun was easy to make out since he was wearing civilian clothing. He was leading a group of rangers that were pouring cans of fuel on the ground and then tossing flares on the spills. Every time they did, the beast would jump on the fire and stomp it out. Were they really doing what Kaite suspected? That was confirmed when, in less than twenty minutes, the giant beast was back outside the firebase where it eventually wandered off on it’s own.

Curwin Losmun was no spring chicken and, as Katie saw him walking back in what was left of the western side of the line, he looked pretty tired. He sat down on the ground, out in the middle of nowhere, and almost collapsed from exhaustion. Katie ran to him and knelt beside him, “Mister Losmun? You going to live?”

He was breathing heavy but pretty confident when he said, “I will now, for a little while anyway.”

They both stayed there, in silence, as the mayhem from the attack consumed everyone around them. Katie finally had to ask, “what just happened?”

“An Anguanac,” Curwin told her as he looked back over his shoulder, towards the big gap in their defenses. He then told Kate, “somebody herded the damn thing in here.”

Katie’s jaw dropped, “you mean that was an attack?”

“Yes,” and Losmun did not sound too happy about it either. “Everybody out here knows that trick. The good news is, it’s a very rare circumstance when you can get one in the right place and stampede him on your enemy. You basically do it the same way we just got him out.”

“What the hell was all that?” Katie was still confused and afraid.

The answer that Losmun gave her did little to relieve her tension, “Anguanac’s are like natural firemen. They see a flame and their instinct is to run and stomp it out. That’s how you get them in. That’s how you get them out. Shooting at it only makes it think there’s more fire to stomp on.”

Stomping was exactly what that thing had done too. Katie did not exactly have the best vantage point from here but she saw smoke, fire, and bunkers that were scooped out like they had been ice cream in a bucket. The firebase was wrecked and, from the looks of it, half their perimeter had just been smashed wide. That was why Katie’s heart sunk when she asked the local, “you said there was bad news? How much worse can it be?”

Losmun began trying to get to his feet and Katie helped him up. After he dusted off he said, “like I said, everybody out here knows this trick. Whoever did this knew you guys didn’t.”

“Whoever?” Katie was confused again, “it was the Orc’s, right? I mean who else would?” The only response was a sour look from Losmun and Katie’s jaw dropped again, “the elves? Why would they….”

“I don’t know if they did or not,” Curwin told her with an edge of anger in his voice, “I just know if I was sitting at one their firebases, hoping to god the Orc’s don’t hit me, then offering them up some humans wouldn’t be such a bad idea.” Curwin finished his dusting and walked off saying, “now excuse me Captain. We have a lot of work to do.”

Less Horton came running up no sooner than Curwin left. He was still shaken and had that dazed look on his face just like Washburn. At least he could talk, “glad to see you’re ok Katie.” He pointed to the perimeter, “that was my line. I think I just lost half my company.” He coughed and then said, “colonel Pong was over there when that thing came. We can’t find him. Have you…. You haven’t like seen him have you?”

Katie didn’t respond. She just reached over to Horton’s vest, grabbed his smokes, and lit one up.