Convoy escort
Castle's back hurt where it was jammed up against some radio equipment in the small scout helicopter. Below him he could see the tail end of a long convoy roaring down a dusty road in the plains to the west of Duke Erwin's capital.
His earphones crackled with the voice of the pilot, a grizzled veteran sergeant-pilot.
"We'll go over the convoy slowly so you can see what you'll be dealing with when the Air Cav gets its turn at this." The sergeant-pilot was from the aviation battalion and not the Air Cavalry troop.
"This is easy, escorting a convoy out here on the steppe. You'll be doing your bit in the forests, and you won't be able to see the convoy most of the time."
Castle wondered about his use of the word "steppe" instead of plains or prairies, and he had noticed the man had a slight accent. He had been introduced to Castle as Sergeant-Pilot O'Rourke, but there were a lot of people who'd been run out of their homes by the Han Worlds. Many decided to become "mercenaries" for the United Kingdoms. They often took a nomme de guerre to protect family and friends left behind from retribution. He decided not to ask any questions.
"We have an all arms company down there." The pilot said. "A platoon of tanks, two platoons of armored infantry, some self-propelled mortars, a few engineers, intel types handling drones and the usual support types. This trip we have two platoons of Duke Erwin's boys. So far, they've done okay, but nothing bad has really happened yet."
"Drone reports movement in the stand of trees three clicks ahead, almost due north." That was the co-pilot/gunner/radio operator/sensor operator and general go-for.
"Maybe we'll see some action, Lieutenant. Could be three or four people there from the drone feed. Could be spotters for artillery. The bandits have some missiles, so they say."
The chopper shot off at its fastest speed towards the small stand of trees.
"We'll go over them as fast as possible and if we see anything, the gunships'll shoot 'em up. If you can turn your head around, Lieutenant, you should be able to see the red team."
Castle turned but couldn't pick out the red team, old slang for gunships.
They shot over the trees, and he did see something scattering down there as they shot past.
"Shit. No people. It's just the up-yours birds." Said the pilot. "Call it in, and we'll go back so Lieutenant Castle can see the birds."
They slowed down and caught up with the birds. There were two large ones and three smaller ones.
"A family." Said the pilot. "Adults are a good two meters tall and weigh maybe a hundred kilos."
"Why are they called up-yours birds?" Castle asked.
"That's the sound they make. Sounds just like someone saying up yours. Oh, they love our garbage so they hang around firebases and camps. About three months ago some tanker on night watch got fed up with the noise and fired a main round from the tank and screamed "Up yours, too." That one shot started the whole battalion firing at nothing. That tanker has been burning shit since then."
They went back to the convoy and Castle spent the rest of the ride learning as much as he could.
Three days later it was the cav's turn. The Squadron had three air troops and one armored cavalry troop. The armored troop would escort the convoy and Captain Norden's air cav troop would fly top cover. Castle's platoon was the rapid reaction force.
The convoy left just after dawn and headed through the forest. The sergeant pilot had been right. Most of the time Castle couldn't see more than a few vehicles of the convoy below and sometimes he could see nothing at all.
After five hours, they were at their first stop. They settled into Firebase Liverpool and watched as supplies were unloaded from the trucks. The air crews checked their birds, and the ground troops checked their vehicles. Castle's men checked their weapons.
Castle dived for cover as he heard the screech of incoming rounds. He heard radar directed guns firing at the incoming rounds, then one explosion.
"We got 'em." Said a sergeant from an armored infantry unit at the firebase. "They do this shit all the time and about one in every gazillion times, they get lucky."
"What the hell was that?" Castle asked. "How did they get an artillery piece or a mortar close enough to hit us without being seen?"
He was interrupted by the sharp crack of outgoing tank fire. Standing, he could see the tanks were firing anti-personnel rounds into the forest. The rounds were stripping away leaves and smaller branches. They were cutting a trail through the trees.
"Come on up here, sir, and take a look. We're going to get feed from the drones."
Castle pulled himself up onto the infantry combat vehicle. The sergeant held out a pad.
"See, sir? There's the feed from drone and…There. There's your shooter.
All Castle could see were what looked like the remains of some grey tubes.
"Those are mortar tubes made out of a ceramic matrix. That shit is hard to pick up with our sensors. The bandits sneak them in, dig them in so they'll drop their rounds on us, then load them with shells also made from a ceramic matrix. The tubes fire electrically from a long wire. The bandit gunners who shot at us were miles away and they're sure as shit further away now. But, our air search radar picked up the incoming rounds and directed our guns to shoot 'em down. One exploded and the rest were shot to bits."
"The locals don't have the capability to make anything like that, do they?"
The sergeant grinned.
"Straight from the Han Worlds to our doorstep, sir."
Castle headed back to his platoon.
The next two stops were uneventful and the convoy commander decided to stop at the third firebase. Castle hoped he could relax. This firebase had a battalion headquarters, an artillery battery, two companies as well as various odds and ends of units. Castle got his men fed and bedded down for the night. In spite of his platoon not being on the perimeter, he ordered sentries posted.
Early the next morning, they were off again.
The first hour was quiet. Then all hell broke loose.
"Radios and electronics are being jammed. We're in the shit for sure." The pilot of Castle's chopper screamed over the radio.
Castle looked down and couldn't see a damned thing. The trees were so big and so close together than the convoy was entirely hidden. What he could see, however, were explosions. He couldn't tell if they were from outgoing fire from the convoy, or incoming from the bandit's ambush.
Suddenly, his radio sprang to life.
"Saber Six this is White Knight Actual. Take your platoon to map reference Two Quebec Foxtrot Juliet Two Two Five Seven. There's room for an LZ there. Bandits are already starting to break contact. See if you can intercept. Over."
"White Knight Actual, this is Saber Six Actual. Copy that."
Castle was interrupted by the pilot.
"I know where the LZ is. We're halfway there."
"White Knight Actual, this is Saber Six Actual. Pilot knows the way. We're almost there. Over."
"Kick ass, Rick. Out."
They rolled into the clearing and began exiting the choppers. As usual everyone was yelling "Go! Go! Go!" as loudly as they could.
It wasn't until he heard the zip of a bullet passing close to him that Castle realized they were under fire.
"On the other side of the clearing!" Someone yelled, and he could see men in camo running.
His platoon opened fire, the assault rifles snapping, then the deeper bark of the battle rifles, and the rattle of machine gun fire. A few of the enemy fell but most just went deeper into the forest.
"Cross the clearing and get into the trees." Castle yelled. He headed for the far side of the clearing with his men running after him. First, they found abandoned equipment and weapons, including a guided missile launcher, then the enemy dead and those too badly wounded to flee and even a few prisoners.
Then there was a sharp crack and a cry of pain.
"What was that?" Castle yelled.
"Mine, sir." Sergeant Saava said, coming back to Castle. "It looks like they've laid mines across their escape route. They know the way through we don't."
"Okay, we'll stop here. Was someone wounded?"
"Lance Corporal Finzt, Sir. Lost a foot. He'll be out for a six damned-months while they grow him a new one."
"Any other wounded?"
"Two. Rifleman Minkis took a round through the fleshy part of the thigh. He'll be fine. Idiot First Class Dwart grabbed a machine gun by its hot barrel and burned his hand. Regrettably he'll survive."
Castle managed not to laugh.
"Okay, I'll call in medevac choppers and the lift birds to get us and our prisoners out of here. Make sure we get all the weapons, especially the missile launcher. I think the Han may be upping their game. We haven't seen that model here before."
The convoy had lost two trucks destroyed and five dead and three wounded. The armored cav troop had some minor damage to their vehicles and no casualties.
They made it to their next firebase, which was the last one and stayed over night.
Captain Norden came over to talk to Rick that night.
"You and your platoon did a good job today, Rick. And, your two wounded are being treated as we speak. The missile launcher is one we haven't seen before, at least not here. Ordnance and Intelligence are salivating at the chance to look at it."
"What do we do now, sir?" Castle asked.
"We go back the way we came. We have nothing to drop off, but there are a couple of lightly wounded at the firebases that we'll pick up and some damaged material that has to be repaired. Since we won't have to spend any time unloading supplies, we'll be back the day after tomorrow, with any luck."
They didn't have any luck.
They hadn't been on the road for more than an hour when Castle was told that the convoy had stopped.
"Saber Six this is Steel Hammer Six Actual. The engineers have found a mine on the road ahead of us. Orbit our position until they check it out. Over."
"Steel Hammer Six Actual this is Saber Six Actual. Copy that. We orbit until you're clear. Out."
"How long do you think we'll be stalled, sir?" The pilot asked. "We'll be running short of fuel sooner or later and have to leave."
"Could be a while. The Han like to leave a couple of nice easy to spot mines out for the engineers to find. Then they'll add mines with almost no metal that are damned near impossible to spot until you're right on top of them. Sometimes not even then."
Ten minutes later, Castle got another call.
"Saber Six this is White Knight Six Actual. We want you to land your platoon in a clearing just off the road about a half a mile down the road. Have your Tarkai move towards us, using their senses to spot any mines. In the meantime, the choppers are going to the next firebase to refuel. Over."
"White Knight Six Actual this is Saber Six Actual. Copy that we go down the road to a clearing a half mile away, dismount and find mines. Out."
The LZ was only big enough for one chopper at a time to land, which meant only one squad could land at one time. If there was an ambush, the first squad down would be in deep trouble. But, there was no ambush.
The platoon made it way to the road and the Tarkai examined it with all of their senses. Finally, Sergeant Saava turned to Rick.
"There are no mines on this part of the road and probably not further along."
Rick called that in. In the meantime, a two man mine detecting team was working its way down the road from the convoy. The team moved very slowly. Rick didn't blame them.
Without any warning, one of the engineers toppled over, and the other threw himself to the ground.
"Sniper!" The engineer screamed.
Castle's platoon began firing at where they thought the sniper might be. So did the vehicles in the convoy.
"They've cut away all the bushes about knee high." Yelled the engineer. "You can track…" He was hit and rolled over.
"We'll go across the road." Castle yelled. "Check and see where that tunnel they cut goes."
Castle led them across the road and from there got a good idea of the direction to the sniper's hide. They had gone over a thousand yards when they found the hide. It was empty.
"Can we track him?" Caste yelled.
"A cub could track them." Sergeant Saava said. "It's a two man team."
They followed the scent of the snipers for another mile and then came to an abrupt stop.
"Shit." Castle said. "Corporal Tarn, the radio mic."
He grabbed the mic from Tarn's hand.
"White Knight Six this is Saber Six Actual. We tracked the snipers to a river. I can see at least two dozen boats moving along the river. Given the head start they had, they're probably out of sight, even for my Tarkai. Over."
"Saber Six Actual this is White Knight Actual. Come back home, Rick. We'll get them later. Out."
The rest of the trip was uneventful. But they had lost one engineer dead and one badly wounded. And they knew that had a very good sniper team out there someplace.
TBC