The Advisor
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I've been advised I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Shortly after Battle Group Castle.
Word spread to the Tarkai outside, who took full credit for the successful birth due to their chanted prayers, and soon everyone knew that the Castles had a son.
"Do you have a name for him all picked out?" Lanie asked.
"We thought about Richard Edgar Castle, Junior, for a while, but decided to name him after our two fathers. Jackson James Castle is the little guy's name."
Kate was wheeled on her bed to a private room with Jackson. Rick and the Tarkai followed right behind.
"Colonel, Captain?" Saava said softly. "We have something for your son."
"A supply of diapers?" Rick said, grinning.
"No, sir. We carved a bracelet for him, so he'll know the faces of all the Tarkai gods when he grows up. Between your god and our gods, he'll be safe." Saava handed over the bracelet, which all of the Tarkai in Castle's command had somewhere, even if they didn't wear it. Some were valuable antiques. "We also had the armorer make a fine knife for him." In most Tarkai societies it was a matter of pride for a male to carry the traditional Tarkai knife, a double-edged affair with a foot long blade. Saava handed it over to Rick. "You will keep it until he's old enough, then his Tarkai uncles and brothers will teach him the ways of the Tarkai."
"On behalf of Jackson James Castle, I thank you. And I and Mrs. Castle thank you as well."
"And now that everyone has kept Mrs. Castle and her son up for far too long, you may all now leave and let the two of them rest." Lanie said.
"I'll be back tomorrow, Babe." Rick said as he left.
"Uh huh." Kate said sleepily.
Rick had expected Kate to want to get back to being Captain Beckett, Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander as soon as possible. However, Kate was more than willing to stay with Little JJ, as she had started calling him.
Castle went back to the war room.
"I think they're finally starting to move south." Admiral Paredes told him. "Our bombing campaign is doing some good. They're moving in very small groups, mostly only a platoon at a time, and staying well spread out. They have their supplies carried either by porters or by draft animals. The RAF is getting ready to attack them, but as spread out as they are, we'll be lucky if a single bomb kills more than a couple of them."
Even so, the RAF kept bombing and the enemy kept moving slowly south.
Castle went back to General Izem's headquarters to set up the defense.
Castle stood in front of a large, electronic map. Facing him were the staffs off all of the allies, including two people from Samland. They had no military, but they did have some excellent hospitals that might be useful.
"General Izem, Admiral Paredes and I have a plan for the defense of Berberia, and Samland, of course. Most of you have some idea of what it involves, but I want to make sure everyone is on the same page."
Castle tapped the map and the Berberia border area was shown.
"Berberia's northern border is too long for us to entrench in its entirety, even if we used all of our forces and left no reserves. Since General Izem has been able to raise and equip two more battalions, we'll place all eleven battalions in battalion sized strong points along the border. Each will have some artillery and heavy mortars."
He tapped the map and eleven areas in green showed.
"As you can see, each of the battalion strong points can be covered by artillery from other strongpoints. The areas between the strongpoints will also be covered by patrols, drones and manned aircraft."
"Behind the strongpoints will be Colonel Esposito's regiment. If anyone gets past the strongpoints, he'll attack them. His unit is airmobile as you know, but they also have excellent artillery. In addition, we have formed a small main battle tank company from tanks sent to Berberia and manned with Berbers and excess personnel from the other units."
"Lastly, we have two armored brigades. Brigade Group Castle will be placed in the east, near the coast. Their seaward flank will be covered by the Saint George Navy. They'll have two commando companies ready for raids on shore."
"In the far west will be Kampfgruppe von Tarlenheim. Our hope is that we'll be able to attack with our armor to the north and then turn inwards, catching our enemies in a double envelopment, surrounding and destroying them."
"Any questions?"
There were questions concerning the positioning of the Berber battalions, questions about logistics, intelligence, how the air campaign was going and much more. But no one questioned the basic plan.
As small columns of enemy troops moved slowly southward, it became apparent that while the JCL troops and those from Free Cornwall and Quebec Libre were, to some extent or another, dedicated, perhaps even fanatical, the troops from Free Land were not used to obeying orders and not at all happy about it.
"Colonel, we have some more radio traffic between Free Land and that group that's holed up in the woods just south of the Pei Ho River."
"Still the same thing?" Castle asked.
"They've been complaining night and day to their associations back home about the war. And they've been asking for more of everything. More food, more weapons, more ammo, more people, more draft animals, more of everything. I think they're setting up an excuse for quitting by saying that their associations wouldn't give them what they needed to fight."
"How many are there?"
"One hundred and twenty-seven people and forty-six draft animals. No heavy weapons that we can see. We're not sure what supplies they have since they claim to be short of everything."
"Do you suppose the little trick Colonel Gibson suggested would work?" Castle asked.
"One way to find out, sir."
A division of four Rooks took off that morning headed for the woods where the Free Land group was holed up. Rooks were dedicated ground attack craft. They were not as fast, nor as maneuverable as the Firefly fighter bombers, but they carried considerably more weapons. However, the Rook lead carried something besides weapons. As the three other Rooks orbited high above the Free Landers, the Rook lead dropped two containers of leaflets on the woods. The containers contained a written message from Major General Castle.
Many of the messages were caught in the trees, but enough dropped for the assembled Free Landers to start to read them.
Citizens of Free Land,
You have been the subject of bombing for months now. However, soon you will be facing a well-armed division of Berber troops and a division sized armored unit complete with many tanks and artillery pieces. You have no defenses against our weapons.
And why do you risk your lives? For freedom? For the right to live as you choose? No. Neither Saint George nor Berberia have ever suggested they'd want to change Free Land. You fight because some of your associations steal from Saint George. Saint George has resisted this and that's the only reason you are now facing death.
Citizens of Free Land, choose life. We will not attack any group heading north away from the war. But we will attack and destroy any group that attacks us. We know you number 127 people and 46 draft animals. We could destroy you now, but would rather you to live and eventually be our friends. We have a small demonstration of our power for you to show that we are serious about our ability to destroy you.
Major General Richard Castle
Commanding, Combined Forces Command, Edo Colony
Having given the Free Landers time to read and consider the leaflets, the four Rooks dropped their bombs on the far side of the woods where the Free Landers were sheltering. No one was killed, but a third of the woods were reduced to kindling.
That night, 107 Free Landers began moving north, leaving twenty people behind and eleven draft animals.
"Twenty of them aren't moving, sir. Should we bomb them?"
Castle thought for a moment.
"No, they could be sick or injured. We'll change the leaflet so that anyone who heads north or stays in place won't be bombed. Some of them may be afraid of running into fanatics from JCL."
The small columns of enemy troops moved slowly southward, loosing troops every day to bombs, missiles and cannon fire. But they kept coming. Eventually, they arrived at the Berbers' dug in positions. Many died attacking the well-entrenched Berbers. Others were smart enough or lucky enough, to go around the Berbers. They were shelled by artillery, attacked from the air by Rooks, Fireflies, and attack helicopters. A few small groups survived that and headed for the Berbers' rear areas.
Sergeant Thada did not like his new job. He was a Tarkai whose excellent senses made him an excellent scout. But he had learned to be an armored crewman when Battle Group Castle had been on Big Rock. Colonel Castle had wanted his Tarkai troops to be ready for anything, so he had learned to be an armored crewman. Now, he was commanding a tank platoon for Major General Castle. He did so because he was a soldier and because he was a soldier for the man who'd liberated Tarkai. If this was what General Castle wanted from Sergeant Thada, then it's what Thada would do.
Although his tank had excellent external sensors, Thada rode with his head sticking out of the turret. He knew he could see, hear and smell better than any sensor any human had ever made. Luckily, his crew were all Tarkai so when he had to button up inside the tank their odor was not overwhelming. The machine odor of the tank itself was bad enough.
The other two tanks in the platoon were manned by Berbers with a Tarkai as tank commander. Thada thought they were pretty good infantry troops, but they were sub-par tankers. Following the tanks were two fully tracked armored personnel carriers, carrying a nine-man squad apiece and armed only with a heavy machine gun. Thada had looked it over before they set out. It was a 13mm gun that looked too complex to Thada and more than a bit worn. His infantry were all Berbers.
Something to his right caught Thada's attention. He screamed into his mic.
"Track Two, you're headed right for a pond. Turn right unless you want to get mired up to your middle."
Track Two turned and Thada screamed again.
"Turn right! Right! You're headed right for Tank Three! All vehicles halt. Halt now, dammit!"
Thada spent a full minute screaming obscenities in Tarkai before he calmed down.
"We're going into combat, oh ye of one pubic hair. Combat! I know you've fought on foot and done well, but you're tankers and armored infantry now. Remember your training. We are going to attack a force of about three hundred JCLs who managed to slip by the battalion strong points. They have no conventional anti-armor weapons. The only way they can hurt us is by swarming over our vehicles and blowing themselves and us up. So, we go in a wedge formation. My tank, Tank One in the center, Tank Two slightly behind me and to the right and Tank Three in the same position to my left. Behind the tanks and covering the gaps are my two infantry squads, Track One and Track Two. Pay attention, stay in formation and shoot at anything that's on the ground and we'll all live to be old males."
"Now, advance!"
Whether it was because of his talk, or because they had gotten onto a fairly flat plain, everyone remained in position.
Corporal Brot, the gunner, called up to Sergeant Thada.
"I've got heat signatures ahead, Sergeant. The enemy is hiding in the tall grass ahead of us, hoping we'll get nice and close so that they can swarm over us. I don't see any other heat signatures and I contacted a drone from intelligence section. It has nothing else near us. It looks like all three hundred of them are straight ahead."
Thada keyed his mic.
"All vehicles halt."
He ducked down inside the tank's turret and transferred the visual from Corporal Brot's sight to his battle sight.
"There they are all right."
"Tank One to platoon. The enemy is about twelve hundred yards ahead of us. Look through your sights and find their heat signatures. We'll engage them with the tank's main guns and heavy machine gun. Tracks, use your heavy machine guns only. We're too far for your infantry's weapons to be effective."
"Open fire!"
TBC