Chapter 2B

"Here they come," Lon said, looking at the cloud of dust that was approaching from the eastern horizon. A complete armored battalion was impossible to move from one place to another undetected. It was not the sort of thing that just slipped by while you weren't looking.

"Fuckin aye," said Jackson, who was all the way over on the next hill, maybe a half kilometer away, but who was connected via the UHF radio link. "Right down the old poop shoot."

Lon and those with him were sequestered among a group of fairly large boulders near the crest of the hill. The ancient lava rocks were nice and solid and had been in place here for perhaps that last billion years or so. They would make good cover for the coming fight, especially since the 20mm cannons on the tanks and APCs would be loaded with training rounds. These rounds would hit hard enough to knock a man clean off his feet if impact occurred, but they would not penetrate or cause damage to the biosuits themselves. The rule was that once a man was hit in a vital area such as the chest or head, he was deemed to be dead. His suit, the computer controlling it having been placed in training mode, would then cut off all communications with the other team members unless an emergency override code was given (the utilization of which would automatically cause a cease-fire to be called in the simulated battle) and would render his weapons unable to be fired. Thus the "killed" team member could no longer be of assistance in the battle but could tag along with them as they moved in order to avoid being left behind. The same principal applied to the OPFOR equipment. If a man was hit, his suit computer would take him out of the action. If a tank were hit with the low yield training laser charges, that tank would be shut down and not allowed to participate further in the battle. If an APC took a lethal hit on the sides or top while troops were on board, all of the troops would have their communications links and weapons shut down. If the anti-air vehicles were hit, they too were rendered incapable of firing any further. All of these computer enhancements, be they to the biosuits, the weapons, or the vehicles themselves, were Martian adaptations available only on MPG equipment and designed specifically to make training missions more realistic. The regular WestHem forces, by contrast, exercised mostly in computer simulations to save money and wear and tear on their equipment.

Lon set his M-24 down for a moment and adjusted the magnification of his combat goggles. Instantly, with the help of infrared enhancement, he was able to pick out the individual tanks of the column even though they were still nearly twenty kilometers distant. "Looks like an armored cavalry column of battalion strength," he reported to his men. They had not been privy to what the strength of the OPFOR was going to be. "They have fifty plus APCs, we're talking five hundred troops if they're fully loaded. I also have three... no four SAL-50 anti-air vehicles in the front, middle, and rear of the column."

"I'm reading the same," said Jefferson from his perch. "Moving at about forty KPH."

"That gives us an ETA to contact of about thirty minutes," Lon said. "I'm gonna get hold of the Mosquitoes." He flipped another switch on his computer panel and dialed into the encoded laser frequency. "Striker flight one," he said, keying the radio link. "This is Shadow team six. Are you there?" In order to avoid giving themselves away by leaking radio emissions, his words were converted to digital pulses, which were shot upward 18,000 kilometers by a laser beam to a communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The suit computer used GPS data to keep a constant fix on the satellite's location in the sky. If Lon had been in a position where the laser was blocked by an obstacle, an indicator in his goggles would have lit up, telling him this.

The delay from talking to reception was about three seconds. "Shadow six, this is striker one," came the voice of Brian Haggerty, one of the many pilots they worked in tandem with on a regular basis. "Go ahead. I'm tracking your current position."

"Copy that you're tracking us," Lon said. In addition to providing secure communications, the laser system also carried placement data, allowing support units to have an accurate fix on friendlies. "We have a visual on an armored column of battalion strength moving eastward through the cut. We count thirty plus ETT-12s, fifty plus APCs, and four SAL-50s. The SAL-50s are at the ends and middle of the column. They're moving west at approximately forty klicks. Estimated time to our position, thirty minutes. I repeat, three zero minutes."

"Copy thirty minutes," Haggerty said. "Get back with us five minutes to strike time with an update and we'll wake them up for you."

"Will do," Lon said. "Shadow six out."

They watched mostly in silence as the column drew closer and closer. The dust cloud that it raised expanded and continued to blow off to the south, carried by the prevailing seasonal winds. Though the sound of the advance did not reach them — sound did not travel very far or very well through the Martian air — the vibration and the rumbling of the ground did. The movement of nearly ninety armored vehicles was enough to shake loose small rocks. It was as they began to come into view without magnification assist that Lon began to notice something different about their formation. It took him a few minutes to pin down exactly what it was. Usually the APCs traveled in a protective ring of tank platoons, all the better to cover the soldiers within. Now the tanks were mostly forward and to the rear, with only a few token pieces covering the flanks.

"Look at how the APCs are formed up," he said when it finally came home to him. "That's not a standard marching formation."

"No," Jefferson said. "It sure ain't. Why do you think they're doing that?"

"That crafty little fuck Chin is up to something," Lon said. "He's trying to screw us out of our beer tonight."

"What's he planning?" asked Gavin. "Why would he leave the APCs bare like that? It doesn't make sense."

"It does if he wants them free for a charge," Jefferson opined. "You think he's trying to spring a little trap on us, sarge?"

"I think that may very well be his intention," Lon said, his eyes tracking over the column. He thought for a few moments as he watched them, his mind whirring in overdrive. His troops respectfully remained silent, allowing him to think. "Maybe," he said at last, "we have become a little too predictable. Maybe we should change things just a bit on this attack."

"Change things?" Jefferson asked. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that Chin left his APCs unprotected on the flanks and maybe we can take a little advantage of that. Jefferson, get on the secure link to our Hummingbird and tell them to lift off and get ready for extraction."

"Right, sarge," he said.

"Everyone else, listen up. This is the new plan." He began to talk. Everyone liked what he said.

Brian listened to the update from the special forces team observing the column. Fargo, the squad leader, wanted to go with a change in normal operations, something that was not particularly discouraged in the MPG. It sounded like a fairly good plan so he raised no objections to it, something that would have been his right had there been some question of the safety of the aircraft.

"That sounds doable, shadow six," he answered back once the details were heard. "We're on the way now. ETA to strike is five minutes. We'll let you know when we're thirty seconds out."

"We'll be waiting," Lon's voice assured him after the normal delay. "Shadow six standing by."

Brian switched his frequency switch back to the channel that allowed him to communicate with the plane on his wing. "Did you copy all of that, John?" he asked.

"I copied," John Valenzuela, the pilot of the plane, told him. "Sounds like fun, going in without much opposition for once."

"Well, don't get too happy about it," Brian warned. "They still have a shitload of handheld anti-air lasers down there. They're harder to track on but it only takes one."

"Happy?" John asked with a laugh. "Who the hell could be happy around here? Let's do it. I'm right on your ass."

"Where you belong," Brian said, applying throttle and banking sharply to the right.

Moving almost as one object, the two Mosquitoes dove down towards the ground and leveled off at less than twenty meters about it. They accelerated to optimum low-level penetration speed and headed for the hills that guarded the valley. Using a map window on his heads up display to navigate with, Brian shot between hills and dove through gullies, cutting back and forth, up and down, but always moving towards the target area.

"Charge up the laser," Brian told Colton. "Targets will be the APCs, as always."

"Charging," Colton said, looking at his panel. "And I confirm we're in training mode. Low yield shots only."

"Three minutes to target area," Brian said, cutting hard to the right to avoid a particularly large hill. "I'm gonna come up from the west, right over the top of the team on the ground and then head back in over the hills beyond them."

"Sounds like a plan," John answered.

They flew on, heading into the larger hills now, forcing them to maneuver more violently. They bounced about, cut back and forth and the red hills flashed around them on both sides, nothing but blurs. The wings bent and flexed, dipping up and down with the turns. The engine thrummed, gulping fuel and oxygen as it was accelerated and decelerated. Brian kept them in the valleys as much as he could, denying the OPFOR infrared sensors even the barest glimpse of them. It was what Mosquito pilots were best at.

"Thirty seconds," Brian announced over the laser net when they got close. "Do your stuff, shadow six."

"Gavin, Horishito," Lon said when he heard this. "Strike is thirty seconds out. Do it!"

"Copy," both said in unison. From their own perches atop their hill, in the safety of the boulders, they aimed their charged AT-50 tubes down on the column below. Both had already been assigned their targets — two of the anti-air vehicles — and, with the assistance of the magnification setting on their goggles, they sighted in and put their crosshairs directly on the sides, where the engines were.

Less than a second apart they pushed the discharge buttons sending the laser energy out at the speed of light. They scored two direct hits and just like that the advancing column had lost half of its anti-air capabilities.

"Sir," came the excited voice of sergeant Bracken, the second-in-command of the anti-air division. "Two laser flashes from the hills. We've lost two of the SALs! The lieutenant was in one of them."

"What the fuck?" Chin said, panning madly to see what was happening. Other reports began to come in on the frequency now, all of them reporting laser flashes on the hillside. What the hell was this? Had the special forces teams changed the way they operated?

To give him credit, Chin reacted quickly to the situation. "All tank units," he said into the tactical channel. "Open up on the hillside where the flashes came from. Put some fire on those fuckers! Van Pelt!"

"Here, boss," Van Pelt said instantly.

"Move your people in! I want every soldier you have converging on that hill group!"

"Copy," he said.

"Displace," Jefferson yelled the moment the lasers were fired. "Get the fuck out of here before the return fire comes in."

Gavin and Horishito did not have to be told twice. They rolled backwards, down the hill, and then crawled to the right, dragging their laser tubes with them. Jefferson, holding his M-24, brought up the rear. Before they could even get ten feet away training rounds, both large and small caliber, began slamming into the rocks around them, hitting with thuds loud enough to be heard even through the thin air and the insulating biosuit helmet. Tiny bits of soft plastic shrapnel sprayed over them. Other rounds whizzed overhead, an experience that was more sensed than felt or seen.

As soon as they reached their new positions both men ejected the spent charging batteries from their lasers, letting them fall to the ground. The charges were plastic, fifteen centimeters square by four centimeters thick, and colored yellow, indicating they were for training only. They grabbed fresh ones from their packs and slammed them into the slots, pushing the charge button as soon as they were in place.

Fire belched from the main guns of the tanks as well as the smaller, commanders' weapons. Hundreds of rounds per second were launched towards the spot where the two laser flashes had come in the hope that the offenders would be hit by one of them. Meanwhile the APCs, on order from Van Pelt, had all turned and were rushing at top speed at the hills, the soldiers inside of them anxious to get in the fight and put a hurt on the special forces teams that had tormented them for so long. They knew that if they could get to those hills in time they could catch the teams before they retreated to the safety of their Hummingbird.

"Keep up the covering fire on that hill," Chin ordered. "Spread it out a little. Plaster that whole fucking area!"

Before the tanks could begin to spread their volume around a little bit however, the Mosquitoes joined the battle.

"Coming into firing range," Brian announced to both his gunner and his wingman. "Let's pop some APCs!"

He pulled up over the last hill, flying almost directly over the top of Lon and his men. With a quick bank to the right he was now paralleling the valley, streaking along the side of it at more than seven hundred kilometers per hour. In the back seat Colton was looking out the canopy, his goggles placing an X on wherever the laser cannon would hit if fired at the moment. As he turned his head, so did the X, as he looked up or down, so did it. On the belly of the aircraft, the twin cannon complex moved back and forth with his motions as well, swiveling on its turret. The targets came suddenly into view, an entire line of tiny APCs rolling across the ground below. He moved his head and put the X on one of them, simultaneously pushing the firing button in his hand. The laser flashed and instantly was hitting the target, telling its computer to shut it down and to declare the twelve men inside of it dead. Another turn of the head and the X was on another APC. Another push of the button and another vehicle and everyone in it were out of the battle. Behind them John and his gunner did the same.

And then it was time to get out. Brian cut sharply back to the right while the lasers went into automatic recharge mode for another run. Before the remaining anti-air vehicles of the column even realized that an attack was underway, the Mosquitoes were back in the safety of the hills and out of range. It was a picture perfect Mosquito run.

"Charged," yelled Horishito from his new firing position. A second later this declaration was echoed by Gavin.

"Good," said Jefferson, who was peering out at the column below from between the rocks. He watched the advancing APCs and the flashing of the tank guns. Rounds were now starting to hit around them as the tanks spread out their fire. "Now take out those other two SALs," he ordered. "Gavin, you get the left one. Horishito, you take the right. Let's clear the air for the Mosquitoes before those bastards overrun us."

Without bothering to acknowledge their orders they aimed their weapons downward, each of them seeking the distinctive box shape of the surface to air laser vehicles. Horishito found his first. He moved his weapon until the firing recticle rested on its side and then he gently squeezed the trigger. There was no kick from the laser as it discharged, nor was there any sound or any light visible in anything other than the infrared spectrum. But down on the target there was a bright flash as the laser energy expended itself against the steel side of the vehicle.

"That's a kill," Horishito announced, rolling out of his position and preparing to crawl to the next.

Gavin fired a few seconds later, just as the tanks switched their concentration on the new firing hole. His shot was also a kill, which he gleefully announced.

"Strike one," Lon announced over the secure net. "The SALs are all down. I repeat, the SALs are all down. We have APCs closing our position. We could use a little help over here."

"On the way back," Brian's voice replied. "We're coming in from the north and egressing to the west this time."

Chin watched helplessly as his tactical display showed all four of his anti-air assets a lethal red color. He no longer had the ability to fight off the Mosquitoes without dismounting some of his infantry troops. "Those bastards," he whispered to himself, shaking his head. He could not help however, feeling a sincere measure of respect for them.

He keyed up his radio link. "Van Pelt," he said, shouting over the sound of the guns on his command tank. "They've knocked out our SALs. Get some dismounts out with anti-air lasers as quick as you can. Those Mosquitoes will be coming back! They'll chew us up if we don't have something to swat them away with."

"Copy, boss," Van Pelt answered, his voice resigned. Chin understood. A perfect plan to catch the special forces team with their pants down had just gone to shit. By changing tactics they had forced him to take his soldiers out of their APCs and put them on the ground where they were most vulnerable.

The Mosquitoes shot back over the battlefield, rising up from behind the hills and making an almost leisurely run. Lon, watching them as they passed, saw their lasers flash in the infrared and just like that four more of the APCs were dead. They banked off to the left and disappeared, spinning around to make another run.

"We've got troops dismounting," Jefferson announced from his position with the laser team. "Four o'clock."

Lon looked down and saw that eight of the APCs had stopped. Their guns were now blazing to provide cover for the biosuited infantry troops taking up position behind them. Many of the troops had laser tubes in their hands. They began to pan through the sky, searching for the Mosquitoes. "Horishito, Gavin," he said, "keep blasting those APCs as quick as you can get your weapons charged. Displace between shots. Go for the lead ones first."

"Copy," Horishito and Gavin answered in unison.

"The rest of you," Lon said, "start putting fire on those troops."

Following his own orders, Lon aimed his M-24 through a gap in the rocks and put his recticle on a group covering behind one of the APCs. His weapon was set for three round bursts. He pushed the firing button smoothly and the rifle fired with short, high pitched pops, the casings ejecting to the right and behind him, falling with exaggerated slowness in the weak gravity and clattering on the rocks. Though the bullets were being launched from the weapon at extremely high velocity, the recoil was negligible thanks to the design of the rifle's action. The rounds could be seen in the infrared spectrum as rapid streaks of red moving downrange. He moved the recticle slightly and fired again. Dust began to rise from the area where the bullets were impacting and several of the troops were hit in the chest and head. From around him came the pops and crackles of other weapons, including the 5mm squad automatic weapon being fired by Matza. Lon was gratified to see that the newest member of his squad was operating the bipod mounted SAW very well. He was using short, controlled bursts and aiming at the greatest concentrations of troops.

"Strike one," Lon said into the laser link as he fired. "This is shadow six. Be advised, dismounts are out with hand held SALs. We're engaging them with small arms fire."

"Copy, shadow six," Haggarty's voice replied. "Keep 'em occupied if you can. We're coming up for another pass in about ten seconds."

"Van Pelt," Chin yelled over the continued thumping of the tank guns, "get some fire on those small arms positions. They're killing the anti-air crews!"

"Just gave the order, boss," Van Pelt replied. "Sections five through eight are shifting fire. I'll have the empty APCs keep plastering the AT-50 positions."

"How long until we can get some dismounts on those hills?"

"Another thirty seconds or so," Van Pelt told him. "The first units are coming into position now."

Even as he said this an infrared flash appeared from the hill and another APC died. Two seconds later, before fire could even be shifted to the new position, another flash took out another one.

"Goddamn they're good with those things," Chin said with frustrated admiration. He already knew that he had lost the battle. The simple ten man squad of special forces soldiers and their air cover had already "killed" fifteen of his vehicles and more than a hundred men. All he could hope to do now was catch them before they escaped; something that was doubtful at best.

"Mosquitoes! Six o'clock low!" someone screamed over the net.

Chin looked behind him and saw the distinctive thin shapes of the anti-tank craft screaming out of the hills and heading directly for them. He could see the cannon turrets on the bottom spinning back and forth, seeking new targets. The dismounted soldiers, most of whom were cowering behind the meager cover of their APCs, began panning their hand-held lasers back and forth, trying to get a fix on one of the aircraft. One of the men stood to free up his range of motion and was promptly hit in the head by automatic weapons fire, the rounds spraying misty vapor off of his helmet and instantly shutting him down. He kicked the dirt in frustration and then sat down to wait out the battle.