Chapter 02

Amarant

The Royal party arrives on the northern outskirts of Amarant at 9:15 a.m. The schools are on the city’s edge, just off the second major road from Berana. The surrounding hills are under broad-acre development for a housing estate. Being early they all look over the new primary school. At 9:35 a.m. King Herbert is talking to the parents and teachers while King Edward’s party is walking the two hundred and forty metres to the high school.

The parties are only fifty metres apart when the radios come alive with the emergency alert from Clay Comm which is followed by static. The security teams waiting in nearby vehicles immediately burst forth to spread out around their charges. Both of the kings yell for everyone to get inside the nearest buildings. The extra security waiting in empty warehouses a few streets away immediately heads toward the Royal entourage. A moment later large groups of troops crest the nearest hills and open fire on the Royal party. Everybody dives for cover. The Guards use their bodies to provide moving screens for as many of the children and civilians as they can. Many Guards are soon down, wounded, but those they protected are safe; sadly, it’s not all of them. Not everyone in the immediate area is able to get undercover or to safety. The wounded return fire at the enemy, dropping enemy soldiers with carefully aimed shots.

The retired Guards in the entourage drag wounded into cover and treat their wounds while some strip off the body armour and weapons of those badly wounded. Donning the armour they join the line to fight the attackers with the borrowed weapons. The majority of the people who’d come out to see the Royals are caught out in the open, and many are hit. King Edward and King Herbert are assisting with the defence while their wives are caring for the wounded and getting people to safety. When the extra Guards arrive C Company is ordered to cover the civilians and to get them out of the line of fire. Most of the hillside is covered with soldiers and all are firing at the Royal party. The defenders are in whatever cover they can find behind walls, seats, cars, rocks, rubbish cans, anything that can provide some sort of protection against the incoming fire. The fighting is very heavy and fierce because the defenders are determined to stop the attackers.

Five minutes into the battle three light armoured cars lead a group of several hundred attackers in a charge down the roadway. Realising they need to stop this assault and take out the vehicles King Edward orders B Company to follow him. Rising from the ground like vengeful demons they charge the enemy while screaming the Guards battle cry of, “For the people.” All of their weapons are on full-auto and they use sweep-fire at head height. Thus the bullets won’t be stopped by body armour and each round may take out a number of attackers. They’re expending ammo at a very fast rate as they think they’re very unlikely to need the ammunition soon. Sadly, they’re right.

They charge into a man-made hell of heavy machine-gun and light cannon fire from the armoured vehicles. The enemy troops are stunned and are dropping in droves of dead or wounded. The bulk of the attacking Guards provide screens for the demolition teams while they prepare and throw some satchel charges at the armoured vehicles. Setting them for delayed contact explosions they heave the charges at the vehicles with their full strength. Between them they’ve ten charges to deploy. The first falls short to explode amongst the attacking troops where it kills over thirty of them. The second sails over the first armoured car and lands near the second armoured car to slide into its tracks before exploding. It causes minor exterior damage to the vehicle while killing about twenty troops with shrapnel from the car. The force of the explosion causes the second armoured car to turn a little and knock the back of the front armoured car a bit sideways. Thus the third charge lands on the engine deck of the front armoured car instead of falling beside it. The charge explodes, shrapnel from the vehicle kills a dozen or so attackers. However, the charge blows down through the deck to damage the motor and cause the vehicle to stop, it also ruptures the fuel tank. The crew are stunned by the blast. The fourth charge sails over the front armoured car to hit the ground and slide under the second vehicle to explode right underneath it. The charge blasts up through the floor to kill all inside the vehicle as it destroys the engine and ruptures the fuel tank while its tracks become troop killing shrapnel. Fuel is pouring onto the road from both damaged and stopped vehicles.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh charges all sail over the front two vehicles to hit the road and slide into the side of the third armoured car together. The combined explosion blows the tracks off of the vehicle while they lift it a little into the air. The destroyed tracks become shrapnel that kills dozens of attackers. The eighth charge, a touch behind this group, hits the top of the second vehicle before bouncing toward the third car. This charge hits against the turret just where it meets the hull. When the charge explodes the turret is blasted off of the vehicle. The shock wave travels into the vehicle to kill the crew and rupture its fuel tank. The blast of this last charge ignites the fumes of the spilt fuel of the other vehicles, which starts a raging fire in and around the vehicles.

Large numbers of attackers are caught in the resulting inferno of the spreading fuel fed flames. They die an agonising death. The last two charges are thrown into the attacking troops to kill dozens more.

Realising they can’t make it back to their own lines the remaining Swords of B Company continue their charge into the enemy lines to kill hundreds of the attackers. In only three minutes of hectic fighting B Company is destroyed with every member of it down, dead or wounded, while some of the wounded are still firing at the enemy. However, they got close enough to destroy the vehicles with the thrown explosives, and the enemy attack isn’t stopped - it’s destroyed. A costly but successful engagement. In his colourful court dress King Edward is very visible among the dead. His sword in one hand and a machine pistol in the other, both are still pointing at the enemy.

The whole enemy force is stunned by the charge. A major near the top of the hill watches the short fight. Just over two hundred men attack and destroy seven hundred and fifty men with three armoured cars. In shock he turns to a sergeant near him while saying, “We’re screwed, there’s no way we can beat troops of that calibre and still be able to capture this city, no way.” Shaking his head he goes back to doing the best he can in what he already sees as a losing battle - he’s not the only attacker to feel that way.

A small group of attackers have set up heavy weapons on a low hill nearer to the high school. They’re firing away from the defenders at the frightened students cowering in the high-school grounds. Some are firing anti-personnel rockets at the children in the primary school. They’re killing unarmed school children!

Desperate to stop this slaughter of innocent children King Herbert leads the remains of their initial security detail of sixty-three Guards against the hill. While screaming their battle cry of, “For the people,” forty-four Guards charge across the face of the main enemy force and straight up the hill. Like B Company before them they don’t expect to be coming back. They direct full-auto sweeping fire at the enemy on the hill, killing many of them. While the main enemy force shoots at them when they cross the front the remaining enemy on the hill scramble to realign all of their heavy weapons against this threat. They fail to do so in time. The Guards sweep over the hilltop killing all before them and also destroying the heavy weapons of mortars and heavy machine-guns. They can’t take them back and they can’t allow them to fall back into enemy hands. A number of shoulder mounted rocket launchers are amongst the captured weapons and they’re quickly emptied into the main enemy ranks to inflict heavy casualties. The enemy mounts a heavy counter attack. The fourteen remaining Guards stay with their King to pour a heavy fire into the enemy force until their position is overrun and they’re killed. Forty-four Guards dead, all of the enemy heavy weapons destroyed, and over five hundred casualties inflicted in another few minutes of intense fighting. Yet the enemy troops still pour over the hills like a swarm of locusts, they seem endless while they flow over the hill in large numbers.

Seeing the attack on the high school Queen Lara moves the armed members of her entourage to a strong wall nearer the high school. She’s soon joined by half of C Company while the other half is holding the line at the primary school. She has with her The Sound of Battle, an ancient Royal sword she brought to show to students at the schools. Now she draws the sword, swings it around her head, and sticks it in the ground, saying, “Here I stand, here I stay. The Amir stand and fight today.” Thus declaring the Stand Decree and saying there’ll be no falling back from this line, here they stay, whatever happens. Taking up a rifle she fires at the attackers while she mourns the death of her father and her husband. Whatever happens here today the enemy will pay in blood, lots of blood. She sets out to make a lot of collections herself by accurately killing the attackers.

The enemy commander directs a heavy attack at the line protecting the high school. Four companies launch themselves down the hill directly at the defenders. Firing at full-auto the defenders spray the attackers with bullets while firing at the head height of the attackers. They figure they don’t have enough ammunition for a long battle so they intend to do as much damage to the enemy force as they can while they’re still alive and have ammunition. The result is many of the attackers become headless bodies.

Queen Lara has a young girl with her, a seventeen year old student there to greet her on behalf of the students in the area. Queen Lara had shown her how to load new magazines, cock the rifle, and to put the safety on. The girl sits behind the wall reloading weapons while Queen Lara kneels at the wall spraying the enemy with bullets. Part way through the assault Queen Lara slumps over the wall. When the rifle goes quiet the girl looks up. Queen Lara is missing the top of her head. Screaming and crying the girl sits up to fire at the enemy with the rifle in her hands, killing all she can. Running out she changes magazines and she continues the fight. Not all of the heroes today are trained soldiers.

The enemy commander is shocked because the detachment is destroyed with all of them killed before they reach grenade throwing distance of the defenders. Many defenders now lie dead or dying, but his troops should have done much more damage. He orders another and larger assault against the high-school defenders.

The Road to Amarant

US Ambassador Hedley is scheduled to be in Amarant in the afternoon for a joint ceremony. He’s going there early to witness the school ceremony and to talk to King Herbert about some disturbing information he found out this morning. He’s brought along two platoons of the Embassy’s US Marines because they’ll be putting on a display at the afternoon ceremony. Nearing Amarant the Captain in charge of the Marine force stops the column. She can hear gunfire up ahead. With the vehicle engines off all of the people in the small convoy can hear the gunfire.

While getting out of his car Ambassador Hedley says, “Captain Walters, please tell me you’ve ignored my orders and came fully armed with a heavy load of ammunition.” The Captain smiles while she nods yes. He says, “Get your people ready for combat, and please continue to ignore such silly politically based orders from Washington in the future.”

The Marines are quick to ready for combat, and they soon find out radio communications are useless. Too much interference, so someone must be jamming all frequencies and are very close by. Realising scouts are next to useless in this situation Captain Walters readies the vehicles to fight their way through what lies ahead. When she says he should turn his car around and withdraw the Ambassador sends the car back with his wife and children. Facing the Captain he says, “You may need me to point out which lot to shoot at.” She slowly nods, and he continues, “Show them our colours.” US flags are tied to each vehicle’s radio antenna. At least people will know who they are. The Marine Pennant brought along for use at the ceremonial parade is raised above the main troop transport.

The US contingent races up the road, and it surprises a small group of soldiers watching them from the ridge. They didn’t expect the Marines to get involved at all, let alone so fast. After a very brief exchange of bullets two of the soldiers are taken prisoner while three are dead, and a few more are running down the hill.

While looking about the US contingent is shocked. After topping the hill the road swings left to run down the hill at an angle, through a valley, turning right at the far end, and into Amarant. The valley has forty or fifty semi-trailers parked in it and it’s packed with troops. The troops are moving about in the valley while they form up to attack. The hill between the valley and Amarant is covered with troops shooting at the city. A small group of Guards and civilians are firing back. A large group of attacking troops are charging along a gully toward the high school with a very thin line of defenders.

Ambassador Hedley points at the group charging down the gully six hundred metres in front of them as he says, “Kill those scum.” Captain Walters orders her troops to open fire. They fire upon the enemy while they move just off the ridge to a small hollow beside the road, because this makes a better defensive position.

While her troops settle into better fire positions Captain Walters thinks, There’s thousands of them, we’re dead. All the while she’s issuing orders to direct heavy fire from her troops, and their four light machine-guns, into the force in front of them. The enemy are falling in droves and the attack is falling back due to the heavy cross fire as most of the troops in the gully are dead or dying. She’d seen the dead children in the school yard and she’s very glad she’s killing the child killers.

Looking at his watch Ambassador Hedley thinks, Ten after ten a.m., twenty minutes too early for the ceremony and possibly too late to be of much good. Using a spare pair of binoculars he scans the battlefield. Swearing when he sees what looks to be the bodies of King Edward, King Herbert, and Queen Lara. Looking up he notices the smaller bodies near the school. Focusing on them he starts to cry. He says, “Captain, please look at the bodies near the school. Tell me those aren’t children.”

With a voice of frozen helium she replies, “I wish I could, Sir. You need to speak with the prisoners, Sir!”

Noticing her tone he asks, “Why should I?”

She says, still in a very cold voice, “Because I know one of them, Sir. He’s a Marine Sergeant on long term loan to the CIA, and he’s usually involved in black operations.”

Turning to her his face is expressionless, “There’s no declared war here. They’re not wearing the uniform of their country or acting under the lawful orders of their country’s government or officers. The Geneva Convention has no application. They’re involved in an action that’s resulted in the death of members of the Berant Royal Family. Under Berant law the sentence for that is death by torture. At the moment we’ve no facilities or spare troops to keep prisoners. Especially ones who’ll only be sentenced to death later.” He has a terrible expression on his face when he snarls, “Shoot the bastards!”

For a moment she’s stunned, because this isn’t his normal behaviour or attitude. Normally he’s so friendly and nice, a great big softy. Smiling she says, “With great pleasure, Sir.” Turning, she walks to where the prisoners are, pulls out her pistol, and shoots them, one round each between the eyes.

Ambassador Hedley watches this with a smile. Calling after her he says, “Captain, I don’t like scum who murder children. I know it may be asking too much, but I’d really appreciate it if you can kill the lot of them.”

Smiling back at him she replies, “We don’t like them, either, Sir. And we definitely intend to do our best at carrying out that order.” They have a full understanding of each other, these people, whoever they are, will get no quarter from either of them.

She goes back to directing her troops’ fire into the enemy in a manner that most hinders operations against the defenders. The enemy has a height advantage on the city’s defenders, and her troops have a height and position advantage on the attackers. Captain Walters is making the most she can of both these advantages she has.

Highcliff

It’s 9:30 a.m. and all is well, everything is ready for a nice easy day with no official activities at the Royal Palace. Some tourists have arrived to look at the Palace, and some citizens have arrived to lodge papers for later consideration by the King. It all changes when the alert crashes over the communications system a few minutes later. Staff at the security centres hit the emergency buttons. Bomb resistant security shutters slam down over doors and windows. Security guards take up combat positions in reinforced fire-points. Three tour coaches have just pulled up in the car park. They disgorge armed troops who charge at the entrance, firing while they run toward the building. The defenders turn heavy fire on them from the weapons pits. The attackers reach the doors, only to find them closed and shuttered with bomb proof shutters. The attackers are trapped with nowhere to go and nothing to hide behind.

The defenders pour heavy fire into them. Instead of being caught unaware and vulnerable they’re protected and ready. The attackers are cut to shreds, and they’re very quickly eliminated by the heavy cross fire the defenders pour into them.

At the nearby 1st Claymore Barracks the troops respond to the alert by scrambling for body armour and weapons while the security barriers close off the entrances. Suddenly they’re under very heavy fire from attackers on the hillside opposite the base. Some Guards are hit, seventeen are wounded with eight killed. They’re crossing the parade ground when the firing starts. The Guards return fire and inflict casualties on the enemy. With the security barriers in place the enemy can’t get at the Guards, but the enemy has the better position shooting down into the Guards base. They enter into a heavy exchange of gunfire. Firing from prepared defensive positions the Guards aren’t as vulnerable as the attackers are. The attackers have to force the pace and move across open ground with little or no cover to attack the base’s defences. Although the attackers have higher numbers plus a slight height advantage the base’s defences were built with all of that in mind and those advantages are nullified by the well planned defensive positions. The Guards are doing a lot more damage to their attackers than they’re taking from them, a lot more.

The defenders pour heavy machine-gun and mortar fire into the advancing enemy. The enemy have to cross wide open ground to near the base and they can’t take the base without doing so. Four separate attacks are launched, none get far down the hill toward the base before the defenders cut them all down. The bulk of the attackers stay on the ridge line shooting down at the base from protected positions at or behind the ridge. The situation is a stalemate because neither side can force the pace at the moment. The battle rages on for quite some time while both sides settle into the combat and start thinking of ways to change the situation around in their favour.