There were advantages, thought Rhade as he lifted the visor of his helmet to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, to combat aboard a starship as opposed to infantry combat. The food was generally better, and until your compartment was holed you were in a climate controlled environment. The bunker he was currently sharing with three other umwa members was anything but climate controlled. On the other hand, in the infantry it was at least theoretically possible to walk back to safety. And the way things were going he just might end up walking, along with a large number of other members of the umwa and their families. His mind drifted for a moment recalling the past few days.
If there was a textbook of case studies of military operations going amiss he suspected that this would be the stellar example. Except that the term military operation implies some sort of plan. He had seen bar brawls that had more tactical organization than this battle was demonstrating.
The attacks on his home on the Oasis had both failed, but not for lack of planning on the part of the attackers. If luck was a rationed quantity Rhade suspected that he, his friends, and family had used up their lifetime ration. When he had put out his call for assistance Moretti and O'Keefe had been in the process of being relieved by another pair of deputies. Rather than rushing out to assist Rhade, O'Keefe had insisted that the men stay in place, suspecting that an attack on Rhade's family would be forthcoming. He was right, and when the attackers arrived instead of finding two helpless women and a child they found four armed and ready deputies. None of the attackers survived, but unfortunately O'Keefe died in the shootout as well.
The attack on the Oasis failed simply because the attackers grossly underestimated how dangerous Harper and Doyle really were, and that when Harper had taken over the bar he had modified the bar counter so it could be used as a defensive position in a firefight. Additionally when Rhade's call for assistance had come in Orlund and an off duty Cho Hee had been in the bar paying a late night social visit Cho Hee had left with the flying squad, but Orlund, who had taken up carrying a cut down rifle ever since Rhade's clash with Burma in the market, had stayed behind. The attackers fared marginally better than the ones who attacked Rhade's home. One of them managed to escape.
It didn't take long for the word to get out abut the attacks on Rhade and his family and friends. Then the word got out that several of the attackers had been identified as Tans, and things, as Harper would have said, ' went south in a hurry.'
Sweat cleared from his eyes, Rhade lowered his visor back into place, activated the visor's image magnification circuitry, and peered out through one of the bunker's firing slits, scanning the area for any sign of approaching Tans. There were sensors planted in the area that should give him advance warning of any approaching enemy, but over the years he had learned that sometimes the human eye picked up clues that sensors missed. The area was clear, but he expected the situation would be changing soon. The situation had been changing far too rapidly lately for his tastes.
By dawn a crowd had gathered at the Oasis mostly miners and mostly screaming for vengeance against the Tans. Rhade had tried to talk some sense into the miners telling them that they would be turning the town into a battlefield and that they needed to move their families out of the area and into the prepared refugee center on the other side of the Divide. To use another one of Harper's phrases 'He might as well have been spitting into the wind' The mob wanted blood and they were determined to get some. To Rhade's surprise and dismay Harper and Doyle didn't back him up. In fact, they practically cut him of at the knees when he made his appeal to the miners. He found out why as soon as the miners left.
The hard rock mines overlooking the divide were going to be the key to this struggle. If the umwa could take physical control of the mines they could not only prevent them from operating they could use the threat of sniping to discourage any work being done in the pit mine. If the company remained in control of the mines business would go on as usual. They would also be able to isolate south-side from the farms on the other side of the Divide.
The mines were defended by company police, but if the company felt north-side was threatened by a mob of angry miners it would most likely pull some of the guards from the mines, making them vulnerable to capture. It would also get rid of some hotheads that couldn't take orders. After hearing Harper's explanation Rhade was forced to admit that — one: commanding a fleet of spaceships did not automatically make you an expert in ground combat, and two: never to really get on Harper's bad side. He could be as ruthless as any Nietzschean
The attack on the mines in the hills led by Rhade, Doyle, and Rhade's deputies was surprisingly successful. The company had pulled nearly all the guards off the mines to defend north-side. Miraculously none of Rhade's troops were killed though several were wounded, some seriously. Not only did they capture the mines they captured a considerable supply of blasting explosives and a pair of universal load carriers. The load carriers carriers weren't the equivalent of Lancer exoskeletons, but they were considerably better than nothing at all.
The attack on the mines was the only thing that went according to plan. While Rhade was leading the attack on the hilltop positions someone put out the call for the families of the umwa members to begin evacuating south-side and make for the refuges on the other side of the Divide. With Rhade and his deputies occupied in the hills there was no one to direct traffic so the evacuation was less organized than a tolket mating frenzy. If it hadn't been for the fact that Aventine had sent some of his combat veterans to reinforce Rhade's men when he heard about the fighting, the evacuees would probably still be struggling through the Divide.
The man on Rhade's left began to shift around in a nervous fashion bringing Rhade back to the here and now. "Nervous Pettis?" he asked. "You'll be OK. You did just fine in the hills."
"I was frightened there too."
Rhade nodded his head understandingly. "So was I. So was every other man and woman in that battle. Fear is a survival instinct. It helps keep you alive when someone is trying to kill you. But right now what I suggest you do is stop worrying if you're going to survive this fight and start worrying if you'll survive your welcome when you get back to your wife."
The worried look on Pettis' face was replaced by a grin. "But at least then I'll die smiling."
Rhade slapped Pettis on the shoulder satisfied that the boy had his fear under control, then went back to studying the sensor displays. There was all too good a chance the boy wouldn't survive the upcoming engagement. There was an all too good chance most of the men under his present command wouldn't.
Rhade switched his attention from the displays back to the bunker's view slits. It wasn't Pettis' job to worry about the battle, it was his. And he had a great deal to be worried about.
Rhade wasn't happy with Avineri's battle strategy, though to be fair he had to admit that under the circumstances it was the least bad option. Burma had spent his entire career with the company police. He had no real military experience whatsoever. He would also be under pressure by the company to end the strike quickly. Averni's plan was to take advantage of Burma's inexperience and make the umwa position look much weaker than it really was. He wanted to entice Burma into striking with fewer men and material than he really needed for the attack. The hope was that if Burma could be soundly defeated the company would decide it was cheaper to yield to the umwa's demands than to engage in what could turn out to be a small war. The big question mark was what did Burma have in the way of men and material. The company police were a known factor, but the Maru had been sighted at the company airstrip offloading men and crates. It was unlikely the men were company execs and that the crates contained luxury goods. If the newcomers had an experienced leader and Burma listened to said leader the umwa could be in for a very bad time.
The plan required two defensive lines, a weak forward line and a much stronger rear position. The forward line was tasked to first resist Burma's advance, then to appear to break under the pressure of the attack and feign a rout, luring Burma's forces into the stronger defensive line. Harper said the plan reminded him of how hunters on old Earth once hunted tigers hunted for tigers. They would stake out a goat and when the tiger came to eat the goat they would shoot the tiger. He said the hunters generally bagged the tigers, but they went through large numbers of goats in the process.
The plan would also require someone with a cool head to command the front line to ensure the feigned rout didn't become a real one. Rhade had volunteered to be that cool head.
. There was one bright spot in the picture. Apparently Andromeda had decided to take up a new hobby – gun running. A trio of drop pods had landed behind umwa lines One was filled with medical supplies and body armour, the other two with small arms and ammunition. It wasn't enough to equip every umwa member with top of the line equipment, but it would help, and would be better than anything the company would possess.
An icon in the heads up display in Rhade's visor abruptly lit up. Andromeda had included some remote sensors in with her other supplies. At the moment they were indicating that a large number of hostile troops supported by vehicles were advancing through the pass. An attack on the mines had been beaten off the day before yesterday and there had been a smaller attack earlier that day on Rhade's position which had been beaten off with relative ease. Rhade hadn't taken much pleasure in the small victory. He might not have been an expert in infantry combat, but a reconnaissance probe was a reconnaissance probe whether it was conducted with scout ships or infantry on foot. This was a major effort. Burma was making his move . It was time to see if Averni had read the situation correctly.