God's Dogs Book 2
43

All warfare is based on deception.

Sun Tzu

The Cass took the bait. The scouts reported two companies were headed to each militia encampment. These camps were about eight miles apart; the first one, eight miles from the main camp. They were disguised as staging areas with ammunition containers, food, and other supplies. Troop strength was one company, but trucks hurried along the makeshift road between camps to give the appearance of troop and supply movement to the north coastal plain.

The strategic opportunity this presented the Cass was to destroy Penglai logistics, defeat in detail a third of the militia, and trap the rest in a pincer movement on the northern plain. As such, the Cass sent two short companies to each supply camp and sent the rest to the northern plain. Each of their companies was about a hundred troops, as were the Penglai companies.

With the scouts’ alert, the ambushing platoons hid once again and waited. The Cass soldiers were in a hurry and followed their scouts with minimal separation. The two short companies that passed beneath Quinn’s position showed no effort at stealth and were soon through the woods. When they reached the bottom of the mountain, which was half a mile from the camp, Quinn ordered his troops to uncover and form their battle line. He sent the returning scouts out to ascertain the Cass line of battle.

Wylie’s team was at the camp, and he worked through the officers to prepare the troops to receive the Cass charge. The plan was to use the empty containers – there never was any ammunition or other supplies in them – for cover until they were flanked. Then, using the shield wall, they would retreat to the ocean. Once there, they would don SCUBA gear and swim away.

When the Cass hit the flat plain, they were only a half mile away – an easy distance for the twenty snipers under Coyote control. They opened up, and Cass troopers began to fall. That spurred the Cass to a full-on charge to close the distance so their superior numbers could prevail.

At five hundred yards, the rest of the militia opened up, and the snipers fell back to prepare the first line in the shield wall.

The shields were five feet tall and mounted a modified version of the dimensional shield Tulku Raina and her team developed years ago. The problem with the dimensional shield was it banished anything that touched it to a different dimension. The static shield, the recent innovation, merely stopped anything that touched it, and it was directional.

The shield held a convex curve over its three-foot width and powered by a battery housed within the handles to hold the shield.

Once the Cass reached two hundred yards, half the militia retreated to join the shield wall, which was now exiting the camp. On Wylie’s signal, the rest of the militia ran for cover behind the shield wall.

Wylie alerted Quinn, “We’re clear of the camp, Quinn. Your turn.”

Wylie checked the alignment of the wall, which was a double row facing the Cass. One shooter was behind each shield carrier, and that trooper in addition to maintaining fire on the enemy also guided the shield-bearer backwards or to any maneuver called for.

The first maneuver was to break right at an oblique to address the Cass trying to flank the line. A quarter of the line swung back on a forty-five degree angle while retaining contact with the straight line.

In training, this was the most difficult maneuver they practiced, as it was tricky to preserve the line’s integrity. Wylie hurried over to make sure there were no gaps and smiled when the troops pulled it off without a hitch.

A shout went up in the Cass formation, and Wylie’s grin widened. Quinn’s force had hit the Cass rear.

Cass projectile fire, which had been steady, lessened, and that made it easier to fall back to the ocean in an orderly manner.

Quinn was massing his fire as the Cass bunched up to enter the camp. River surged ahead to leap on top of the containers. Once there, she proceeded to pick off Cass leaders. Then she targeted any who tried to use the camp structure for cover.

Wylie’s force reached the ocean and formed a three-sided phalanx. He surveyed the remaining Cass force and decided they wouldn’t need to retreat into the ocean.

Staff Sergeant Anya Sobrero called out to him, “Are we going swimming, Wylie?”

“I don’t think so,” he answered as he continued to survey the battle. “They are about finished.”

Sobrero’s Aztec face showed grim determination as she paused to take a look. Then she said, “If Quinn shoves them together, we can advance and be the anvil.”

Wylie nodded. “Quinn, sweep from right and left to bunch them up. We’ll advance as your blocking force.”

“I thought you were going swimming.”

“Too much bother.”

Quinn’s force expanded and began herding the Cass toward Wylie, who advanced. In an hour, all the Cass were down.

There were militia casualties but no fatalities. Wounds were treated. The Cass were secured in the empty containers. The support staff dealt with all that. The militia, though, hustled north after reloading and wolfing down a quick lunch. The troops dumped their SCUBA gear but strapped the powered down shields to their packs.

Jolene’s team was south of them, and they fought a similar battle, in that the troops in the camp hadn’t gone swimming either. That group caught up with Wylie and Quinn as they jogged north.

Wylie jogged with the three team leads and told them, “The colonel is holding his own at the northern AO. He’s getting reinforcements now from Gautama. He wants us to cross the spine and hit the Cass flank, not the rear.”

Quinn sent the six scouts out to find the easiest and most secure route, while the captains and lieutenants worked out their battle order for the flanking maneuver.

Moss jogged up to the group and announced, “This is too easy. Something is off about it.”

There was a lengthy pause after that pronouncement. Then Wylie said, “If they have a surprise for us, it’s at their base camp.”

“I’ll go,” Quinn offered.

“Take C-Sharp with you,” Gautama said. “You may need another sniper.”

“Okay,” Quinn said and turned to head back up the mountain. “I’ll let you know.”

The five of them increased their armor-enhanced speed and powered through the trees to the ridge. There was scant vegetation at the top, just a broken spine of weathering rock and gravel. They could see the camp in the distance, but not much else.

They hurried up the spine until they found an opening in the trees where they could angle down the slope to the Cass camp.

River and C-Sharp were on point, and they switched their armor to stealth. Each found s sniper position on top of the camp buildings. They positioned themselves so they covered most of the area between them. As they set up, the other three began clearing the buildings.

There were five large buildings. The trio of Coyotes began with the building nearest the trees. Before they finished with this first building, the alarm went up.

“People are running to reinforce the center building,” River reported. Then she snapped off a shot to down one at the door of that building.

Other Cass returned fire to cover for others trying to get inside. C-Sharp dropped two of them. River moved locations and dropped two more.

“Coming in from the north,” Quinn alerted them.

“It’s clear,” River replied.

Moss kicked in the door. Pax dove through to the left. Quinn went right. Moss came in a moment later.

The A.I.s mapped the building and located the enemy as best they could and projected it to their HUDs. When Moss entered, he fired on those locations.

As he fired, Pax and Quinn moved deeper into the building. It was mostly open space with offices along the south wall, work benches in the center, and cargo containers strewn about in front of rollup doors.

[I detect radioactive material,] Shiva told Quinn.

“They’re going to nuke the island,” Quinn said out loud.

“Where’s the honor in that?” Moss replied with a chuckle.

“Grenades,” Quinn ordered. “Real ones.”

The rifles they chose for this operation sported a top barrel for projectiles, and a bottom barrel for grenades. The ones they had been using were a flash-bang variety, which was in keeping with the goal of no fatalities.

Now they loaded lethal grenades in the cluster-bomb variety and began pumping them towards the radiation source.

The fight was over in a brutal few minutes, and the trio approached the work bench.

The bomb appeared incomplete, but nuclear weapons weren’t something they were trained in. They knew the basics – how one was detonated, and what they looked like.

“That looks like an anti-matter trigger,” Pax said pointing to a small, shielded case with wires connected. “And that’s the case for a two-stage thermonuclear device.”

“Yeah,” Moss grumped, “but how did they get it here? It’s not allowed by the rules.”

“They broke it up,” Quinn answered, “and brought it in pieces. The radioactive stuff should have been discovered, though.”

“So they had help,” Moss said.

“Yeah. Let’s secure this and call Singh.”

“Guys?” River queried. “You’re not broadcasting. It’s quiet out here. What’s up with you?”

Then Becky, who was networking with the other A.I.s, brought her up to speed.

“Well, shit,” River said as she stood.

“My sentiments exactly,” Moss replied. “Come on down. We’ve got a mess in here.”

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