Chapter 3

I was leading the lads on a TAB, Tactical Advance to Battle, which is basically a long march with a lot of kit. It builds stamina and it is something we do on the ground in enemy territory all the time. We tend not to parachute in near the enemy as that gives the game away. The para’s love a TAB and so do the SAS.

We tend to take all our gear with us, a huge Bergan as well as our weapons.

I heard the SAT phone ring. I used my comms unit to stop the march and told the guys to find cover.

Once the lads were hunkered down, I got to cover and answered the phone.

“Rosie?” the voice said, “it’s me, Jona!”

It was Major Jones; he was one of the senior ops team. I had been on two tours of duty with him. He was a good officer and a great tactician.

“Major Jones, how can I help you?” I asked.

“We have some serious problems, and we need your help, Rosie!” he said.

“We are out in the bush in Africa on exercise at the moment Major!” I replied.

“Right, you need to get back and start to break camp and the gear onto the ATVS,” he said.

“IS everything okay Major?” I asked. There was an urgency in his voice.

“No Rosie. The Shabarain government has asked for our help, the Titashians have started to gather forces on the border not far from where you are!” The major said.

Fuck I thought to myself, The Titashians had a much bigger army than the Shabarain’s. I had done some reading up on the area when I was prepping for this trip. There had been a major beef going back years and years between Shabar and Titash but there had been no violence for at least ten years. It was typical that when I was there it would all kick off!

“Major we might need an airdrop, we only brought enough ammo for the exercise!” I replied. We had a few hundred rounds left but it is always better to have too much ammo than not enough.

Our only hope when it came to slowing the Titashians down was to hit them with superior firepower. If they were battle-hardened troops being hit with a barrage of firepower would not worry them, but conscripts were a different kettle of fish.

“We can get that sorted, get back to your camp and call me back please Rosie!” he said and cut the call.

I stowed the SAT phone and used the comms unit to get the lads back on the trail. I did not tell them why I said we just needed to get back to base. I then called Spike on another channel and filled him in. He said they would start to break down the camp.

By the time we got back three hours later, a lot of the bigger kit had been taken apart and stowed on the trailers. Spike had done a great job so far.

I got the lads to start to clear up their kit, take down their bivvies etc.

Me and Spike went for a walk, and we called the Major.

“Right lads, HMG has ordered us to help the Shabarain Military. The Titashian army has crossed the border and is making its way toward Nanish,” he told us.

Nanish was the capital city of Shabar, it was three hundred miles from the border. If they took Nanish they had complete control over the country. The rest of the country was nothing more than little villages and townships. All the utilities and stuff were based in Nanish. If you control the electricity, the water, and airports you control the country.

“So how can we help?” I asked, I knew we would not be able to stop the Titashian army.

There were only eight of us and there must be thousands of them. I knew they still implemented a sort of national service. All men had to do three years of army training before they got to twenty years old. I was not sure what sort of firepower they had, or if they had any air support.

“You need to slow the Titashians down until the Shabarain army can get their act into gear,” The major said. Fuck I thought to myself, we had seen the Shabarain army, and they were a rag-tag bunch, to say the least.

“Okay Major we will do what we can, “I said.

“Good man, right this airdrop?” he said, “What do you need?”

“We need to police up what we have and call you back major!” I said and Spike nodded his agreement.

“Okay ASAP lads please, I will send the SAT photos and coordinates to your email address!” Major Jones said.

He hung up and we ran into the camp. I gathered the lads in and gave them all the info we had. A huge force of Titashians were invading and we had to slow them down. We all knew that we would never be able to stop them, but we could give the Shabarain army half a chance by slowing them down. We would be a speed bump in many ways...

Some of the lads looked worried, it would be the first real warzone they had been in.

We worked out what ammo and kit we needed. Ammo, Weapons, fuel, Rations...

Then I sent them back to cleaning up the camp.

Spike and I looked at the photos and the coordinates.

Then we got the maps out and worked on a plan. There was only one road that led toward Nanish, they would be using that. The photos showed armoured cars and troop carriers but most of the men were on foot. There were no battle tanks. We did see a troop carrier with an old artillery piece being towed behind it.

We used the map to work out a good place for an ambush. The road travelled between two low mountains. It would be the best place to hit them. But we needed to slow them down first. If we could slow them down the rest of the lads could get dug in and get ready for the fight. At the time I wondered why we did not use our air power to slow them down, but I knew the head shed would have a good reason.