Chapter 9

We couldn't be sure if the convoy leader had been able to radio in that they were under attack before he was destroyed by an RPG. It really didn't make much difference one way or the other, but I was curious. From the looks of the way the trucks burned, it seemed like they were filled with food and not cannon shells. Actually, this was better as far as breaking the siege was concerned.

No shells meant that nobody inside the town would die from shellfire, but they would eventually run out of supplies and have to surrender anyway. On the other hand, no food for the attackers would mean that they would have to leave, and that would allow the people inside Amsterbad to return to a normal life. Of course, they would need help for awhile, but the GC had a plan for that. Our job was to break the siege, it would be up to somebody else to take care of the rest.

We returned to making random attacks on individuals in the besieging army and marking time until the next convoy. That came up in two days. This convoy was pretty much like the last one, but there were more armored cars and even three trucks loaded with infantry. I don't know what they were expecting, but we hit them in a different place than previously.

This time, First squad attacked the first armored car in line to stop the convoy. Second squad hit the last armored car in line to seal off the road and prevent escape. Third squad attacked the three trucks loaded with infantry. Some idiot had grouped them together so that it was easy to hit all three trucks at the same time. Several fragmentation RPGs in each truck all at the same time made short work of the poor grunts who were not even expecting an attack. A few shots were fired from the convoy by individual soldiers, but none caused us any problems.

First and Third squads eliminated their initial targets with RPGs and then began to destroy trucks the same way. This time there were 53 trucks, counting the three loaded with soldiers, and 15 armored cars. I wondered how long it was going to take before the brass on the other side realized that they had no chance to get passed us with this kind of convoy organization. This, too, was a food convoy with no ordnance aboard. By this time, the food situation must be getting serious for the besieging army.

This time we did have one wounded man. A grunt had not kept her ass down low enough when a light machine gun was rattling off in her direction, so she received a painful, deep scratch in her left buttock. She received a lot of teasing about her wound until she got tired of it and threatened to cut off the tits or balls of the next person to mention her unfortunate wound. Thanks to the phenomenal healing powers of our cyborg bodies, her wound was completely gone by the next morning.

Two days later, another food convoy was sent through along that same road. This time, a real effort was made to protect it. There were the same 50 trucks and 11 armored cars, but there were also six heavy tanks as flankers with infantry along to protect the tanks. This precipitated a significant battle. We had to take care of the tanks and flanking infantry before we could get to the trucks, or we wanted to give that impression.

There were three tanks on each side of the convoy, and each tank had eight infantrymen associated with it. This was just the right number of tanks to be a convenient target for us and our three squads. Each of our squads was assigned a tank to take out. Damned if there wasn't a betting pool on the order that the tanks would be knocked out. The attack was delayed by only about two minutes while the pool was set up, so I really couldn't complain too much. In any case, we had to wait for the tanks to come into the most favorable position before I gave the order to fire.

At my order, the RPGs were launched, and I was not able to tell which tank was destroyed first. The infantry was in the same boat, so only the AI was able to sort out the winners after the battle was over. We then attacked the convoy and destroyed it before the tanks on the opposite side of the column were able to get in on the battle. However, they were taken out, too, but without the benefit of a betting pool. Oh, well, we couldn't have everything.

Later on, back at camp, there was a lot of bragging by the winners in the tank destruction pool. As long as there were no actual fights, I didn't complain. The squad leaders did an excellent job of keeping a lid on that. I made a point of mentioning their skill in that phase of leadership when I submitted my report.

This last convoy destruction must have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Some unexpected activity was noted in the besiegers' camp during the night, and they started abandoning their position at the first sign of daylight. They definitely were leaving, so I asked headquarters what we should do. The answer was to leave them alone as long as they left without causing any more trouble. That was not easy, since there is nothing much more boring than watching a defeated army march by, hour after hour.

Once the besiegers had left, Anfon and I escorted some diplomats from GC over the wall to discuss feeding the populace. When that meeting was finished, my group was transported back to base for a thorough debriefing. This took about six hours, but I was finally released to return to the apartment to meet with Anfon.

She showed up at the same time as I did, so we went in together. A quick trip through the cleanser, and we were off to bed to celebrate the completion of a successful mission. We did our usual 69ing and fucking and had a glorious time. Now, this is my idea of the way married life should be!

We had only five days of R&R this time because they needed us back on Ocgur, the planet where we had been trying to stop the civil war. This time, we were actually going into battle. We were expected to see some urban combat, so I asked for an Uzi style machine pistol in .45 caliber to replace the Glock-style weapon that we had been using. I figured that the automatic fire would be worth the added slight cumbersomeness of the Uzi.

The brass thought I was asking for too much, but they did come through for me. Fortunately, the changes were miniscule to the weapon, so the replicated versions were ready for us by the time we were ready to leave. It only took 10 minutes for our AIs to learn how to use the new weapon, so we were in business by the time we were returned to Ocgur.

This time, it was a city similar to Amsterbad that was the cause of the problem. They had blocked all highway and rail traffic near the city, and it was our job to explain to them the error of their ways. The locals had revolvers and bolt-action rifles to use against us, so I was sure that our modified Uzis would do everything we needed.

Our objective was to capture the ruling council of the town and to take over the city hall. Intelligence was sure that this would be all that was needed to conquer the town, but I knew how much good Intelligence had done for us in the past. Neither Anfon nor I were all that confident in the word from Intelligence, but the brass were convinced, so we didn't have much choice.

We were transported to a large park that the satellites showed was empty late at night. At least, the satellites were correct, so we had plenty of time to get organized. Anfon took Third squad to be the point as we moved through town. Second squad was to be the reserve, and I moved with First squad as the rear guard.

As I had feared and expected, things started to go wrong right off the bat. We had 10 blocks to go from the park to city hall, and we were spotted before we ever left the park. A cop on his normal nightly patrol had stepped into the park public toilet to relieve his bowel, so we did not know that he was there. He spotted us and radioed in a suspicious gang headed out of the park down toward the city hall. He reported his estimate that there were 30 of us, and we all appeared to be armed. That man was good, and we never spotted him until too late. He probably would have gotten away with his life if he had not tried to follow us and slow us down by shooting. One of my grunts returned his fire and that ended the poor man's career as a living being.