Chapter 3

The return to Camp Lovecraft on Sauna was a time for rejoicing. The Slayers had suffered less than 10% killed and wounded, so this had to be considered a successful foray. There was a great clamor for more recruits to be allowed to join the Slayers, so Roberta made arrangements to increase the TO to four regiments.

John made it clear that they would not undertake another job until they had time for some training in coordinated movement. There was no problem with their individual and small unit operations, but they had to learn how to cooperate with the tanks and gunships.

It was also obvious that they needed more mortars. John wanted to get them up to eight mortars per regiment, all of the same caliber, between 100- and 200-mm. Recruitment would be difficult until they could get more exposure to the value of mortars among the general population. There was still some reluctance to join crew-served weapons—there was not as much chance for individual bravado and recognition. Tanks and gunships were a different story, everybody could see the value of direct-fire weapons, but indirect-fire weapons were just not macho enough, yet. John and Jim had to resort to personal persuasion to fill the ranks of the mortar crews.

While the training of the new troops was going on, a crash effort was put into learning to manufacture and use the X-Ray laser they had gotten from the Excers. Manufacture was not much of a problem, once the robots were built or adapted to the job, lasers could be produced in any size needed. The real challenge was in adapting the lasers to being powered by the fusion motors commonly used on Sauna. The lasers needed very high current at moderate voltage, so the obvious solution was to operate several fusion bottles in parallel. This turned out to work well, soon the X-Ray lasers were ready to go.

The question, now, was how to use them. They adapted them to "heavy tanks" because of the bulk of the weapons, though the "heavy" referred more to size than to weight. The lasers were equipped with a "dead-man" switch to destroy them if they ever fell into enemy hands in order to comply with the conditions set by the Excers. The Excers had been consulted and had agreed that this was sufficient to comply with their requirements.

The X-Ray laser mounted tanks were adapted with heavy armor on the top as well as the sides to make them effective AA weapons. It was thought that they would draw gunships like flies to sugar, so they might as well be used as fatal bait. Each tank was equipped with one heavy and two light lasers, forcing the tank crew to five members: a driver, three gunners, and the commander. There was no trouble in recruiting for this crew, everybody wanted to play with the new toy, and they had 64 to play with!

Training for the new tank was cheap, the tank commander and driver trained on the real thing, while the gunners trained on simulators. The actual lasers were computer-controlled, so the gunners used monitors to aim; therefore, aiming on the simulator was exactly the same as aiming the laser. The training with multiple targets was really stressful, but the gunners got to be very competent and were expected to do well in actual combat.

The staff and Jane thought that it was time for another contract, but this one would have to be a fight-for-cash contract; Sauna just couldn't afford another freebie. They found a possibility in a very rich, but very decadent society that had to have help to wipe their own nose! These people, who were human, were being attacked by another human society on the same planet, but a different continent. The second society was a militaristic monarchy that had a king who simply wanted to rule the whole planet, to hell with what anybody else wanted.

The Decadents couldn't find anyone else who would fight for them, so they agreed to Jim's demands for cash in advance with only a minimum of argument. Jane had figured how much they would need to collect to pay for this rescue, plus the one on Excer, plus a reasonable profit. The Decadents provided transportation to their planet, Harmony, for the four regiments with all their supplies.

The environment on Harmony was so close to that of Earth, that one would have been hard pressed to find a difference. The Slayers' landing on Harmony was in keeping with the planet's name: the weather was great and the Decadents turned out to welcome their saviors with a big party. They were lucky that the Militarists didn't decide to use this as an opportunity to attack, because there would have been hell-to-pay if they had. Confusion reigned supreme until Jim put his foot down and ordered the Slayers to establish a base camp.

Camp Lovecraft-Harmony was located in a large public park with beautiful shade trees and a manicured lawn. Both were disturbed by the Slayers' occupation, but there was no help for it. The tents were laid out and the motor pool established while there was still daylight, and the Slayers tried to settle in. Unfortunately, they were constantly bothered by Harmonite tourists who just wanted to see what a military base looked like. Finally, John blew his top and fenced in the area. Armed guards were stationed around the perimeter and ordered to keep out the tourists. This worked, but it did create some hard feelings.

The Militarists had established a beachhead on the opposite side of the continent and were pushing their way inland very nearly unopposed. The only thing limiting their advance was their own lousy logistics. They kept running out of food and ammunition; they didn't seem to know how to maintain an adequate supply line. The Decadents had adopted a scorched-earth policy which was their only effective defense. Apparently, the Militarists had planned on living off the land, instead of providing their own food. The necessity for hauling in food had cut into their ability to haul in ammunition and this is what had kept them from overrunning the Decadents.

John had planned a holding force to stop the main enemy advance while attacking their flanks with the other part of his forces. John only had a little more than 2000 troops to work with, so he had to be cautious how he employed them. He sent 500 to be the blocking force and 750 to each flank; this didn't sound like much of a force to oppose an army, but it was enough. The Militarists were big on uniforms and discipline, but mediocre on fighting. John wasn't worried about a 10- to 15-to-1 troop ratio, his troops were that much superior.

Elements of the 2nd regiment were allowed to lead the fight this time and the Devil Dogs didn't miss the opportunity to taunt the other regiments. The 4th regiment was really pissed, they were split into two parts and each part was assigned to back up the 1st and 3rd regiment as they attacked the flanks of the Militarists.

The Devil Dogs made first contact and slaughtered the opposing forces. Most of the work was done by the heavy tanks with their X-Ray lasers. The invaders had not bothered with air cover; they knew that they didn't need it against the Decadents, so the tanks were free to concentrate on ground targets. The tanks had been divided into 24 for the Devil Dogs and 20 for each of the flanking regiments.

It quickly became apparent that the enemy had no way to stop the heavy tanks, so they were lined up 24 abreast and spaced about 1 mile apart. The range of their lasers was many miles, but terrain factors made the half-mile radius a practical working number for the killing field. The IFF kept the tanks from shooting each other, so the gunners were free to fire at anything that they liked (there was no worry about conserving ammunition).

The grunts came along behind in their troop carriers to act as infantry cover for the tanks, but they had little to do. The tanks were very effective in destroying all opposition, so that the grunts actually began to get bored and many slept in their seats.

John realized his mistake in under estimating the ability of the tanks to pulverize the enemy. When informed of the situation, Jim contacted Jane to begin construction of more of the heavy tanks and to start training the crews. He wanted to have the Slayers fight with as many of these special tanks as he could get.

Meanwhile, the tanks on each flank were ordered to fall into line with the advancing Devil Dogs' tanks and copy their tactics. Troops were sent out to the flanks to mop up any invaders who were missed by the tanks. The 64 tanks were easily able to occupy a 64-mile front, which exceeded the width of the invading army. Everything was going along in fine form until the line of tanks came to a river with banks too steep for them to negotiate. The advance was halted while a strategy was worked out.

The river was very wide and not very deep at this season, it resembled the Rio Grand on Earth, except for its uniformly high and steep banks. If the tanks could safely reach the river, they could cross it without strain. The problem for the tanks was getting down to the river and back up the other side.