Chapter 9

I composed a message for Gen. Isrult's staff asking for any intel they had on the three gang leaders that were responsible for the activity on Ingelt. A couple of days later, I got a message that I was not authorized to receive that information! I'm afraid that I lost it when that message came in. Hasup calmed me down and forwarded the message to Gen. Isrult's personal attention with a cover note of explanation on why we wanted the information.

Of course, going out of channels like this was strictly against regulations, but we had an honest need for the information. A week later, I received a letter of apology from the general's Chief of Staff. He explained that most of the people on the staff had no idea who I was, or what I was doing on Ingelt. He asked that any more communication of this sort be directed to his attention. He also explained that there was very little intel from Bustol that they considered to have any degree of reliability. He promised to send me what they had, but warned me that I would be very disappointed when I saw it. Meanwhile, they did have a couple of projects in the works to rectify this lack of knowledge, but there was nothing of real value to give me at this time.

I sent back a note that I appreciated the apology and accepted it unconditionally. I meant it, but I sure didn't want a general mad at me, no matter what. OK, that line of inquiry would have to be put on hold until the people back at headquarters came up with something.

We planned our next attack to be pretty much like our last, since that had worked so well. The next camp I wanted to hit was noticeably larger than that last one, so it would probably be more work. However, I thought we had enough resources that we could take on the greater challenge.

Our Air Force was all pumped up and raring to go, so I thought that we would change things a little bit and hit from the air with a bit more punch than last time. We had 14 eagles, so I consulted with Ansa and we studied the aerial photos until we had them memorized, so did the pilots. We decided that the planes had been so effective the last time that we would go ahead and let them all participate in the attack this time. We split the planes into three flights of four planes and one flight of two planes. The three larger flights would try to do as much damage to the base a possible, and the smaller flight would concentrate on hitting the headquarters buildings.

For maximum surprise, all of the planes would hit at once, all sweeping from east to west, coming out of a rising sun. That way, they were least likely to interfere with each other. We would go with a single pass, followed up by Ansa, in her position as FAC, directing additional strikes where they were most needed. I did want the infantry to have more to do this time; I sure didn't want them to think that their total function was as a custodial or janitorial service.

This camp was too big to surround with our infantry, we could only cover about 75% of the camp's perimeter. Brelak suggested that we use the captured trucks with their heavy machine guns as mobile pillboxes. He proposed to place the trucks so that they would cover the escape route through that 25% of the perimeter that his ground troops could not cover. We thought that was worth trying, so the rest of the war council gave him a green light to try it out. Brelak was left to organize it himself with help from the rest of us as needed.

The truck cabs were sheathed in sheet steel, sort of like the "hill billy" armor used on humvees in Iraq. The sheet steel would stop anything short of a heavy machine gun bullet or an RPG. Brelak thought that this would be sufficient, since the trucks could run away if they got too much incoming fire.

The Bofors artillery were sent with the infantry to provide the heavy firepower they might need. We had not seen any yet, but the Bustols might come up with air power of their own, so the Bofors could act as AAA defense, but they would have to be lucky to hit anything.

Everybody understood his job on this mission, so we were ready to go without needing a lot of specialized training. We loaded into the trucks and spent two days in traveling the 180 klicks to reach our final camp. The next morning at first light, we moved out and were ready to begin our attack at 9:00 AM.

Ansa gave the signal for the air attack, and the four flights of Eagles came sweeping in with virtually no warning given to the defenders on the ground. The planes came in at 80 KPH (50 MPH) and blasted away at the camp. The one place they avoided was the motor pool, but, other than that, anything was fair game. The first sweep was so effective at starting fires that visibility dropped so low that the larger flights had worked themselves out of a job.

The smaller flight that was concentrating on the headquarters buildings didn't have such a smoke problem simply because their target was smaller. Therefore, they were able to make pass after pass at the headquarters until there was absolutely nothing left to shoot at. Their ammunition supply was so low by then that Ansa ordered them to land and rearm and refuel.

When they came back, they relieved another pair of planes that returned to base for more ammunition and fuel. Ansa worked that routine throughout the rest of the battle, so that every plane was brought back to full fighting capability before the battle was over.

Now was the time for the infantry to get in on the act. They began moving in, in kind of a pincer movement. The combination of the skill set of the ex-hunters, the body armor, and the AA-12s were just too much for the amateurish Bustols. Our people did not have an easy time, but they were able to move against the machine guns and obsolete rifles of the defenders with a steady pace. In the rare event that one of our people was wounded, he was snatched up by the Arklet medical people and worked on immediately. Anybody with a minor wound was treated immediately and sent back into action. A major wound got the wounded person pulled back to Prime Time Line and repaired completely before being time-traveled and sent back into action. The only Inglet soldiers not returned to duty before the fight was over were the three that were killed by the Bustols.

The ISDF pushed hard on the Bustols and they broke. Soon, they were on a dead run toward the "open escape route." As soon as they got close enough, the machine guns on the trucks cut loose with devastating fire. The ISDF never gave the Bustols a chance to surrender, so the whole camp was wiped out by the end of the fight. Brelak sent his troops back through the Bustol camp to make certain that they had killed every one of the invaders. By that evening, there was not a live Bustol left in the camp and we went through looking for stuff worth salvaging.

The enemy's rifles were gathered up and destroyed, since we had no use for them. Only three usable machine guns were found, but there was a lot of unused ammunition for them, so we took that. Everything else, except for the trucks and fuel, was burned or otherwise rendered useless to the enemy. Our people piled into the captured trucks and rode in triumph back to our camp.

The next morning, we broke camp and returned home to Karak. A great celebration was held when we got back, and a grand time was held by all. I figured that there would be a lot of pregnancies as a result of this battle and the following celebration, so we better be prepared for the population explosion coming up.

We now had more trucks than we really needed for simple transportation, so Hasup and I discussed converting them into gun platforms. We had six extra trucks, so we decided to add sheet steel armor to them all around and make APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) out of them. They would be all-wheel versions of the half-tracks that were so popular in WW2 and later. The trucks would be damned heavy with the added armor, but they should be able to carry one squad of fully armed troops.

So far, we have not really needed APCs, but they would be good for morale. Eventually, we would undoubtedly need them, so we might as well get on with the conversions. With everything else we wanted to do, we would need about three to four weeks to complete the conversions.