Battalion 1: Book 2: Chapter 23_Battalion 1

Rhodes should have reported to the Bao command dome, but he already had a pretty good idea about how that would go.

He headed for the Kuestrian Ridge instead. Hundreds of soldiers held the line at the ridgetop. The position gave them a sizable advantage. They could shoot down at the aliens from above.

The platoons held the aliens down on the lower slopes. The Emal couldn’t climb high enough to shoot behind the ridge.

Rhodes spotted a commotion behind the line. A swirl of bodies moved parallel to the ridgetop heading east.

He landed near it and spotted Colonel Jenner talking to Lieutenants Turley, Upshaw, and Captain Vernick.

Jenner noticed the battalion first. He broke away from the men surrounding him and hustled over to Rhodes. “Thank God you’re here, Corban! We really need you and your people on this campaign.”

“What campaign is that?” Rhodes asked. “We don’t even know where we’re assigned for this battle.”

“I’m assigning you!” Colonel Jenner snapped. “I’m assigning you right here with the 249th. We need you the most.”

Rhodes glanced behind Jenner. The three officers and a few dozen other soldiers stood there listening. “What do you want us to do?”

“Our orders are to swarm over this ridge, assault the enemy down below, and drive them farther backward away from the cities.”

“What’s the point of that?” Lauer interjected. “You’re holding them here just fine. If you cross the ridge, you’ll lose the high ground.”

Jenner made a face. “I promise you this isn’t my idea.” He turned back to Rhodes. “Can you help us out? We need something to tip the battle in our favor. If we cross that ridge and the aliens mow down too many of our guys, the Emal could drive us back here and we wouldn’t have the firepower to hold them off a second time.”

“This is stupid,” Lauer muttered under his breath.

Rhodes chose to ignore the remark. “The only way we can tip the battle in your favor is by overcoming the enemy’s laser rifles.”

“How do we do that?” Coulter asked.

“We use the shields we used during the hostage evacuation. There are only nine of us. We won’t be able to defend the whole ridge by ourselves. We’ll have to punch through the Emal line and set up another battle behind the line. That’s the only way to make them turn back.”

“That could work,” Rhinehart remarked. “We’ve done it that way before.”

“As soon as the aliens turn to confront us, the platoons can fire on them from behind or the sides,” Rhodes went on.

Fuentes startled everyone by speaking up for the first time. He’d kept so silent all this time. Rhodes had started to forget he was even there.

“What about targeting the base ships?” Fuentes asked. “We could fire our Vipers along the ground, clear out any Emal along the way, and detonate our Vipers under the base ships. That will stop the aliens from sending out fresh waves to replace their people.”

Rhodes raised his eyebrows at him. “Good thinking. You can be in charge of that.”

Fuentes spun around. “Sir?”

“It’s a good idea. You’re the best of us at blowing up base ships. The rest of the battalion will carry out my plan to draw the Emal line away from assaulting the ridge. The platoons will swarm over and pin the aliens down. That will give you a perfect opening to run for the base ships.”

Fuentes blinked at him. “I didn’t mean…..I didn’t mean me, Sir.”

“Why not you? You want to blow up base ships and kill a million Emal? Now’s your chance.”

Fuentes gulped once and then his eyes hardened again when he scanned the Emal side of the battle.

Rhodes checked The Grid again and rotated the layout in front of all his subordinates and their SAMs inside the interface.

“The aerial bombardment is weakening the Emal position the most here.” He pointed at a spot west of their position. “We’ll punch through there. We’ll form an arrow pattern like this with our shields connected. The platoons can come in behind and between us like this….” He adjusted his grid lines to show everyone what he meant. “Once we get inside the horde, the shields will give the platoons cover to set up inside the swarm.”

Colonel Jenner and the other officers stared at him in blank disbelief. “What are you talking about, Corban?” Colonel Jenner asked.

Rhodes snapped out of it and pointed down the ridge. “My people and I will set up a protective formation over there….You might see some strange things, but don’t worry about that. We’ll block the Emal lasers and give you a clear path to get inside the swarm. That will turn the enemy away from the ridge. Then the surrounding platoons can lay into them from either side—over there and over there.”

“Are you sure about this?” Lieutenant Upshaw asked. “You really think we can penetrate inside their swarm?”

“I’m certain of it. You just have to stay behind us and take cover behind our shield. You’ll be able to shoot the enemy from behind it—as well as you can shoot them from up here if not better.”

“What about the way they drove us back during the hostage liftoff?” Rhinehart asked. “Those shields won’t hold forever.”

“We don’t need them to hold forever. As soon as Rudy starts taking out base ships, the horde will turn back and abandon this ridge exactly the way they did during the hostage retrieval.”

“I sure hope you’re right,” Turley murmured. “It sounds risky as hell.”

“Anything other than staying on this ridge is risky,” Oakes pointed out. “Going down on the same planet with the Emal is risky. You want to turn them back? This is the only way we’re gonna do it. We sure as hell won’t turn them back by assaulting them head-on.”

“No, you’re right about that.” Jenner squinted toward the ridgetop. “All right, Corban. I’ll leave this one to you.”

Rhodes waved at Vernick and Upshaw. “Get the 249th and the 217th over there to that hilltop. Pull the 278th to the west and the 235th to the east.” He raised his voice. “Get into position! Get ready to make the assault!”

He strode up to the ridgetop just as the 249th and the 217th showed up to meet him. A bunch of soldiers he knew grinned at him.

“It’s great you guys made it out again,” Stillwell told Rhodes.

“It might not be so great once we get down into those valleys,” Rhodes replied. “It’s gonna get hectic.”

“Doesn’t it always?” another soldier asked.

Rhodes located Fuentes in the crush of bodies. “You ready for this?”

Fuentes narrowed his eyes and clamped his lips together. He growled, “Yes, Sir,” and glared at the ridgetop in front of him.

No one in the battalion could see over it to the Emal position—not yet. The battalion wouldn’t see the enemy until they got over that ridge and started running down the other side.

Rhodes went through the battalion assigning everyone to their positions. With Fuentes on a mission of his own, that left eight battalion members left over—four to each side.

Rhodes and Rhinehart took the point of the arrow with Oakes and Lauer behind them. Thackery and Coulter followed with Dietz and Henshaw in the rear.

“Spread out as far as you can go without losing contact with the shields in front of you,” Rhodes ordered. “If you feel the lasers starting to overpower your shields, consolidate your positions closer to the center. Protect the platoons in the center. It would be better if we covered a smaller footprint as long as we penetrate as deep as we can inside the swarm.”

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His subordinates nodded. “Yes, Sir,” Coulter replied.

“No problem,” Henshaw added.

Rhodes made one last survey of The Grid. Colonel Jenner’s personal transport Duster was already on its way back to the command dome, now that he’d delivered orders to the platoons.

“I’m connecting you to the Legion transmission dispatch, Captain,” Fisher told Rhodes. “You’ll receive the order to launch the assault at the same time Captain Vernick gets it.”

“Thank you,” Rhodes replied and left it at that. He already knew what he needed to do. He just needed to know when.

The signal came down the instant Colonel Jenner’s Duster touched the ground at the command dome.

Captain Vernick yelled, “MOVE OUT!!” to his platoon and everyone charged up the slope toward the ridgetop.

The platoons would have left Battalion 1 behind. Rhodes signaled his people through the interface, fired his boosters, and soared ahead.

He modified his grid lines on the wing and flattened himself into the same spreading shield the battalion used in the hostage scenario.

He expanded as far as he dared and formed the lefthand side of the arrow’s point. He joined up with Rhinehart on the other side and the rest of the battalion linked up behind them.

They plunged over the ridgetop, down the other side, and onward to the Emal position.

The Emal opened fire and lasers hammered the field as soon as the arrow broke through the ranks.

Rhodes would have liked to hunker into a ball, but he couldn’t do that in this shape.

The 249th smashed in behind him. The soldiers’ bodies braced him the way he braced Coulter in the training session. The soldiers braced Rhodes so much better, now that there were so many more of them.

Rhodes couldn’t adjust his position even if he wanted to. Emal gunfire would have knocked him off his feet, but he only fell against the soldiers.

More laser shots drove the soldiers into him from Rhinehart’s side. The Emal’s own counterassault gave the battalion all the protection they needed. Nothing could break that field.