Chapter 18
Alpine Mountains
11:32 AM
Augustine watched the men moving around the mountain passes with his spyglass. With the sun high in the sky already, he had an excellent view despite the fact their uniforms blended with the greenery of the mountains quite effectively. The wind was cooler now, the air a little harder to breathe given the peak he was atop, but it mattered not. He had his duty and if needed, he could go back down, but he could not do so just yet.
He did not like what he saw.
The mountains had flat areas that were impossible for the enemy war machines to get to, hence why the blocked mountain passes had become such a valuable tactic.
But infantry was another factor altogether.
These men walked with their firearms out in the open as they marched ahead in a very loose formation. They carried no shields, they carried no steel armor, and they were so loosely formed that a volley of arrows could not hope to get them all in one wave. Truly this was an army that had fought other armies with deadly weapons like the ones they threw at him.
But how to halt them?
He eyed the other men around him. Mages, archers, stone throwers… all the range he could ask for. Octavius had the fliers, of course, but he had the good ground as opposed to these invaders.
And yet…
One of the Seljuk agents approached, hood covering feline ears as he whispered “Shall the men strike them now? Soon they’ll have to start climbing up slopes.”
Augustine frowned.
“No. Good wisdom would suggest otherwise but with that powerful artillery… no, the slopes are too open. But if we can ambush them as they get to the brush, and force them into close quarters…”
The Seljuk agent said, “I must warn you, their war machines are clearing the blocked path quicker today.”
“Yes. They don’t want us blocking their path anymore.” He said with a grin.
They were forcing the enemy to act for once.
“Alright, we will try them here. Tell the legates to have their whistling stones prepared and the spears sharpened. We must first kill those cursed dogs they have with them.”
***
Isaac snapped a photo of the mountain peaks behind them while Milo snapped one of the formation of Marines pushing ahead.
Or more specifically…
The wolf girl was now very aware of cameras, and as she moved ahead, she waved and gave a confident and toothy grin. Isaac tried to focus on the mortar teams farther back the trail, back in the areas they controlled. Then he glanced at his watch before returning his gaze to the peaks ahead.
Milo snapped another photo, the camera’s shutter clicking as he said “Think they’ll finally come out to play?”
“I dunno.”
“Ahhh…”
Isaac raised an eyebrow at Milo’s odd groan.
“I just don’t like it.”
“Since when is our job to like being bait?”
Milo’s expression changed slightly.
“That’s not fair, Hil. We’re not bait. She and the guys ahead are.”
Now Hilaire shrugged. His mind was elsewhere, in the end. The weather was nice, and despite the movements, things were quiet. Not quite the “calm before the storm” quiet he’d seen when they first pushed in from Dallas. Birds were still singing nearby.
Quietly, as he lifted his camera again, he wondered…
***
Luna smiled as the American dog sniffed ahead of the Marines. Really, the whole situation should have been more serious now that they’d pushed through some of the narrower passes, but she smiled. The breeze felt nice and one look at the firearms the men around her carried just added that much more to her sense of security even if there was only more danger ahead.
Of course…
Her wolf ears kept noting the occasional crumbling of rocks in the distance. The slight rustling in the nearby treeline or brush. She was certain some of it was the imperial infantry. It had to be. But they weren't doing anything just yet.
The Marine on “point” suddenly raised a hand and they all ducked down, a few standing a little closer to her for obvious reasons. She only held onto her wooden shield and wondered about her father.
Is he having an easier time of this?
Suddenly the noises echoed through the peaks. Distant shouts and eruptions like thunder as suddenly she knew the battle was starting.
No one around her moved.
Luna narrowed her eyes at the brush just at the bottom of the nearby peak, where rock and dirt met and another mountain began. The imperial highway was to their left, and went through the peaks which the Iberians had torn up, blocked, and done just about everything to ensure the Americans could not and would not break out through there.
Any other army of their technological level would have long since been trapped and likely be in the process of slowly starving in the mountains.
She winced.
The movement would not at all have registered had she not been staring directly at it. As though a shadow had shifted due to the change of light, or the water in a lake had suddenly changed currents. With the practice of a predator, she had her hand around the hilt of her blade, freezing in place as she waited.
The creature did not leap at her.
It shot her with a crossbow, which by now, she’d expected.
Shield up, she blocked it, then lobbed her blade in its direction.
A yelp was her reply.
“Contact!”
The words had just left the Marine’s mouth when the air was full of whistling stones. She focused on her quarry, however.
She leaped onto it as it tried to run, and sank her teeth into its arm as gunfire erupted around her.
Oh no! You are not escaping alive!
She released him, then focused her fangs on his other leg like the savage wolves of old. She expected the second one to pop up, but she did not care.
The Marine behind her took care of him immediately with a lone shot.
She had to release him when something hit her back. But by that point the damage was done.
“Seljuk!” she loudly declared with a cruel grin at the creature with feline ears.
Something exploded behind her.
The Marine behind her was quick to say “Down! Down!”
That she understood, and unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, she found herself now protecting her quarry’s life as arrows rained around the brush she was in.
Then fire began to envelop the pass.
***
Augustine watched with frustrated fascination.
The wolf girl had noticed the Seljuk agents. Unfortunate. She’d seemingly captured one. Very unfortunate. Worse, the action got the Americans to stop, and now the engagement was one of range.
That was bad enough, but all around him the mountains were alight with the sound of warfare, the new kind that was not of swords clashing but of projectiles flying every which way. Arrows, stones, and the fire the enemy’s weaponry breathed.
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He growled and summoned what strength he could.
“I will not let you through!”
He snapped a pair of rocks, creating a spark, and from that, a mighty flame stemmed to devour all he led it towards. The air was its guide, and while it could not stop or shield his men from the weaponry of the enemy he did find one thing very satisfying.
These men burned like all others.
Flames engulfed the enemy troops as they ducked or tried to evade. He forced himself to keep the fire going, as well as to direct the flames where the men ran. He would not allow them respite.
But he could feel the toll it was taking on him.
Not yet… not yet!
***
Cooper ran and ducked.
They had always known they could run into people like this. The Army had encountered them already on a few occasions, but to see it in person was a completely different matter. He ignored the pounding on his head as one of the damned “whistling stones” slammed into the top of his head, shattering on his helmet which absorbed the impact well enough. Others weren’t so lucky.
This really wasn’t Korea. At all.
The mountains were familiar, but when the Reds made their big push through the mountains he could at least expect to see muzzle flashes and know where to shoot back. This was a different form of hell, with the whistling of falling rocks mixed with the ever-present roar of the enemy’s flames causing such an attack on the senses that all he could estimate was a general direction for the enemy’s location and little else, especially given how this new threat made them have to pull back.
The fire itself appeared alive. It was like a snake, rushing through the air and into his men, setting them alight. Cotton uniforms, flak vests, wooden rifles, the grenades… His Marines weren’t badly trained, but for the first time since Korea Cooper felt like they were sitting ducks. A guy rolling on the ground was picked up by another Marine, only for the fire to briefly engulf them both, leaving two men, alive, on fire, screaming as they tried to put out the flames spreading across their uniform.
Overhead he heard the distinct whistling of outgoing mortars, and he hoped their gunners had a better picture than he did.
At the sound of the explosions, the response came in the form of arrows that slammed into the rocks nearby, followed by another wave of whistling stones. Mocking, as more importantly, the living flames continued their attack uninterrupted. Several guys were dragging the wounded back where they could as the flames continued to rush across the open area like an eraser across a board. He ducked as it rapidly approached him and as he felt the heat he braced himself.
It wasn’t napalm, more like the air itself was on fire for an instant, and then it was gone.
A few guys managed to jump behind him. Was he the only one unscathed?
“El-tee, what’d we do? They’re killing us!”
Overhead, more mortar shots went out, and he heard the rapid crackle of an M60 lighting up the ridge opposite them.
“Well, they’re behind that ridge! Not much cover…” he cursed under his breath, “Pull back a bit to the ridge, try to keep their heads down with covering fire! Move, damn it!”
“And the wounded?”
Cooper cursed under his breath as he kept his head low. Leaving guys behind was not on his list, but the plan of running out of cover and facing a rushing wall of flame to try and pick up the wounded was not entirely viable even with covering fire. Some of the guys on the ground weren’t moving. But the flames still rolled over them again, prompting screams.
Then suddenly they stopped.
***
Augustine gasped and stopped his flames, trying to regain his composure. His mages did the same, exhaustion biting at each of their nerves as they peeked over the hill to see their handiwork.
The enemy infantry had halted.
Hiding behind cover as their men from further back had fired their magic onto the ridge, but it was, to his delight, entirely ineffective. The enemy weapons were going over their heads and striking either the ridge ahead of them too low to cause them harm, or the ridges behind them, completely missing them. Archers loosed their arrows, and whistling stones followed hastily behind as they continued to attack the segment of the invading men in green clothing.
Good terrain, and good men… that was all it really took.
“Good job, gentlemen. Good job. Hold fast, in case these barbarians wish for another… attack?”
Augustine froze up as he saw it.
***
Hilaire had seen a few movies where flaming weapons devastated modern armies. The JSDF’s useless attempts at stopping a giant, radioactive, heat-spewing lizard, the US Marine’s engagements against floating Martian war machines whose shields rendered all weapons useless and whose heat rays burnt men to a crisp.
But the cloud of what could only be described as living fire chasing and burning Marines left him slack-jawed.
Like most of the guys around them, Milo crouched down and lifted some binoculars up to look at the mountain’s peaks.
“Can’t see any of ‘em up on the ridge. Jesus…”
“Can’t we get some tanks up here? The slope shouldn’t be that bad now!”
“I don’t know! It- Get down!”
They both ducked further down behind their small ridge as the massive wall of flames suddenly charged right at their position. The fire didn’t swarm over it or touch them, almost bouncing away from it and going back onto the field like a loose bull. Mortar fire responded to it, flying overhead and slamming into the mountain peaks again, booming echoes emanating around the peaks as arrows and whistling stones flew at them in persistent defiance.
By now the Marines had found what cover they could, but with the brush going up the mountain and the ridges shielding the Iberians…
What the hell are we going to do?!
His response came in the form of a roaring engine.
Isaac whirled around.
The M48 Patton had been designed with the Korean War fresh in memory, and with a doctrine of combining the power of a heavy tank with the mobility of lighter ones. Its V12 engine struggled, but in blocking the paths, the Iberians had accidentally given the Americans the material needed to allow them an edge on the mountainous terrain for once.
The tank commander was out of the turret, yelling inside as for a brief second, it almost looked like the tank would roll over, but it landed on the ground with a satisfying crunch as stones and brush were trampled under its treads. A second one followed as Isaac snapped a quick photo.
Then they unleashed hell.
The pair of Patton tanks pushed ahead with their fifty-caliber machine guns roaring, peppering the opposite ridge in lead. They stopped ahead of Marines in cover, those able to were quick to stand behind them as arrows and whistling stones slammed uselessly against their steel hulls. A few more bursts from the machine guns, and then the thunderous explosion of their 90-millimeter main guns rang through the mountains to the cheers of the men behind them.
***
Augustine ducked as the frightful beasts unleashed their fury.
Enemy bullets whizzed overhead, some glowing a hateful red, but most were unseen. He growled as the ground behind him suddenly erupted into stone and smoke that shot out in all directions due to the larger weaponry on those metal monstrosities.
“Archers! Pull back! Leave those beasts to us!” he shouted.
As a horn signaling the men to fall back rang even over the distant enemy witchcraft, his mages nodded at him as the monsters fired at them again and again. They had tried this before, on the very first day of the invasion by these Americans, but that had been against a flurry of these iron monsters.
There were only two there.
His mages held their breaths, and he snapped the two stones together, a spark meeting him and igniting the air. The flame was guided over the sky as he peaked over to see its effects.
The wall of fire slammed directly onto the monsters and remained there. Unlike the men who could run or duck or take cover, these monsters were exposed, unable to run away without falling over the edge and onto the main highway, and even if they did, they were too slow he saw.
The beasts remained in place, taking the punishment. He was certain eventually-
Fire from one suddenly resulted in the ground right in front of him erupting to pieces and a piece of the ridge falling off and onto the brush below. He moved back, startled as the second one fired again, the smoke suddenly disrupting their magic that transformed the air, and the fires died out immediately. Standing there stood the pair of them. Mocking him and his men as the smoke dissipated after the echoes of their eruptions.
Neither beast appeared damaged.
The men behind them began to shoot back even more as others further back could just faintly be heard cheering. He cursed them and whatever gods blessed their weaponry, while hoping against hope that their weaponry was proving more effective along the larger battle around the mountain roads. It was all he could do.
A new sound caught him.
He glanced up once and froze.
Several metal birds flew overhead, their wings remained unnaturally straight, almost like a cross. Their rigid frames seemed to defy the natural order of fliers in the world. No bird that flew appeared that stiff, nor did it create such a dreadful sound as they did.
His words came automatically, but no less painfully.
"Fall back! Fall back!"
***
Cooper let out the breath he’d been holding in and rubbed the back of his neck, then checked his M14 for any malfunctions after unloading on the mountain. The tanks firing had suddenly caused the forces there to pull back.
The tank commander popped out.
“That do it?”
“Aye, sir. How are your tanks?”
The commander eyed his vehicle and said “Nothing serious. Radio antenna’s gone.”
“I’ll bring my guy over.”
Cooper eyed the ridge behind them.
“Take it that means they’re not quite done clearing out the debris?”
“Forget that, we ain’t letting our Marines die to some backwater paganistic butchers who eat babies.”
Glancing behind the man, Cooper’s eyebrow lifted.
“Speaking of…”
Luna walked out of the brush, her clothes partly burnt, her pale skin around her calves now the color of ash as she walked, but she had the widest grin he’d ever seen on a girl.
The shaky, struggling, feline-eared man, held between her and another Marine, seemed to be the cause of it.
Skies above Alpine Mountain Range
12:00 PM
She wasn’t originally meant to tag along.
But as the battle in the mountains loomed, the Army had insisted she be brought in alongside the Navy’s Skyraiders. Only two had been gathered in time for the big push, and both were in the air now. Silently, cruising at two-hundred knots, her design truly was perfect for the situation at hand despite her limitations.
Her pilot eyed the Skyraiders in the distance with some jealousy.
She carried no weapons. Not at the moment, at least. Her cargo was far more dangerous.
Strip mapping, infrared observation, and a high-speed reconnaissance camera, almost a thousand pounds in observation equipment, and that was before the pilots hopped onto its large, admittedly, dragonfly-esque cockpit which allowed them more observation than other aircraft.
And she was watching.
The Grumman OV-1 “Mohawk” turned lazily in the air. In the distance, heavy artillery pounded the peaks. Smoke from detonations of the blocked highways, American troops pushing through, and even the flight of Douglas A1 Skyraiders were not her interest.
Silently, the observer onboard made several notes. While the human observer did his work, the onboard side-looking airborne radar did it in greater detail. Radar technology had improved by 1961 to the point it could penetrate through foliage, and in the mountainous terrain they flew over, the SLAR had its job almost cut out for it as even where there was thick foliage, it was capable of mapping underneath it.
Soon, there would be no place to hide for the imperial army.