A/N- This chapter is the first in a series of short but action-orientated chapters following on from Chapter 9a. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 9b- Town Diversion

Ivan's group got past several checkpoints and had reached the edge of the town's main square. A build up of men and material had been occurring in the time since they had last been there. There were now entire squads of enemy soldiers patrolling the town and occasionally a column of vehicles, escorted by tanks and armoured cars would make their way through the square.

Realising that they had to be incredibly stealthy until the right moment, Ivan and his group split up into smaller squads of four and either slipped past the guards or tranquillised the ones that couldn't be avoided. The guards they captured were placed in a building that had few objects inside, the only things being a table, a couple of chairs and several lockers. Ivan and his group stole some equipment that had been left lying around and proceeded to use it all against their former owners.

Ivan's group reached the truck they were looking for and got to work planting explosives on it. One of the squads within the group split off from the rest and went to a nearby building and found a ladder which they used to climb to the top of it. Satisfied that enough explosives had been placed on the truck, Ivan ordered the group to capture more of the nearby guards and move them out of the way before taking cover.

"Are we all set?" Ivan asked. His soldiers all nodded back. Ivan nodded, "Let's light it up" and he detonated the explosives.

A small convoy of trucks just passing through the town and past the truck was caught up in the explosion. A truck, which was directly next to the explosion, exploded itself, the explosion detonating the explosives on the moving truck. It also seriously damaged other trucks, destroying wheels and axles and engines.

The uncaptured guards in the town suddenly found themselves alert. They immediately moved to where the explosion was heard and, as soon as they reached the scene, they came under fire from Ivan and his men. Unable to dislodge Ivan and his men from their positions of cover after an hour, the town's garrison called up for reinforcements.

Thirty or forty minutes later, a mechanised column with several half tracks and trucks in addition to tanks and armoured cars entered the heart of the town and immediately moved to suppress Ivan's group. Ivan and his group held their ground, either cutting down or knocking out any guards that moved in the open. Gradually, Ivan and his group began to overwhelm the town's garrison and the column sent to help them. The crews of the vehicles were mostly taken out by stun grenades although a few stray bullets killed some of the vehicle crews.

Eventually, the guards and the few remaining reinforcements retreated to their nearby command post and began to wait for the first reinforcements from the bridge to arrive. Ivan, having planned the encounter since he was informed of their mission and given all the latest intel, gave the order to steal all the nearby operational transport and leave the town with their prisoners and any equipment that they could get their hands on. They gathered everything that could be moved and were soon able to get going.

An urgent call from Roy came through on the radio, "Whenever you're ready Ivan, you can leave the town. They have dispatched reinforcements from the bridge and they will be there within hours. Try and avoid the main routes and try to go northeast when possible."Ivan nodded to himself and immediately signalled to his men to get going. Getting on onboard one of the trucks, Ivan directed his small convoy through enemy lines. Along the way, they ambushed isolated patrols, gaining extra manpower and equipment to build up their resistance and to take down Gene's army.

The reinforcements from the bridge arrived way too late. They arrived in the town to glares of disappointment from the surviving guards of the garrison. The harried guards left to go and rest after the heavy fighting that had taken place several hours earlier and gave the job of cleaning up the town to the reinforcements from the bridge.

Ivan and his group reached the perimeter of the base, satisfied that they had accomplished their objectives. They were, however, unaware of developments that had occurred at the base or elsewhere.

A/N- Again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review.