Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises (32 page)

On the one hand, it was obvious what was going on and they did not want to compromise locations or intentions by using radio communications. On the other hand, it would have been nice to have more of a situation report to react to.

              Jack mobilized the two platoons and the Company elements that he had up at Victor Foxtrot. He prepared the two platoons to move rapidly to reinforce the platoon at Zulu Delta. The vehicles that he had remaining at the training base were ordered by road to the south, to the ERV that had been designated. It was to be the same one used on the trek out by the families in Zulu.

             
He had his communications and medical elements with the Company, including Megan. The ambulance vans were sent to the ERV. All their heavy packs were also sent with the vehicles.

             
This left the two platoons, Company tactical HQ and a small logistic/medical element on foot and dressed in light order, just their tactical vests and daypacks. They had as much ammunition as they could carry, plus water, some basic medical supplies and some high energy foods.

             
This was a compromise situation, so the training base was rapidly sanitized of anything useful to the Regime Intel people. As part of the contingency planning for this type of situation, Jack had created ERVs; emergency rendezvous. There were not too many, to reduce complications, but the idea was that if the force had to break up, they could head for the ERVs to reform.

In this case, there was the ERV to which the vehicles had been sent and another one where the vehicles had dropped those going to the new base at Yankee. Jack had kept the location of Yankee itself known only to a few. If the close ERV was compromised, then teams could move to the far ERV. The only problem was that it was thirty five miles
further away as the crow flies over hilly ground.

Jack organized the order of march
with 1
st
Platoon leading, followed by Company tactical HQ, then 3
rd
Platoon and the logistics tail. Jim was bringing up the rear and Jack made a snap decision to put the three 82
nd
airborne squads with him as a reserve force, with Cobb as the platoon leader. He felt he had not had enough time to fully bolt them onto the platoons as fourth squads at such a critical time.

They had over five mil
es to go to get to Zulu Delta. First, it was a short climb to the ridge, and then it was five miles of undulating ground contouring north up the valley, trending downwards to Zulu and then Zulu Delta.

             
Jack told Caleb to hustle, and the Resistance Company set of at a fast patrol pace towards the ridge.

Zulu Delta was situated a little over one hundred meters above the trail and on a relatively flat piece of ground on the valley side, suitable for the defensive triangular patrol base position with the ground sloping up to the ridge to the east.

             
The foxholes were very well concealed, and behind them the fighters had constructed low hooches of branches and ponchos. These were designed to be living shelters so that they did not have to live permanently in the actual foxholes. The idea was that they provided thermal and camouflage concealment, but that in a stand-to situation the fighters would move into the foxholes. The hooches were above ground and although well camouflaged were more visible than the foxholes.

It was summertime and the leaves were out in full on the trees, creating a full canopy. Viewed from the air it was certainly true that the impression of tree coverage was always sparser than that from the ground. Aerial views always emphasized gaps in the canopy. However, it was also true that t
he foliage, although not providing perfect concealment, did interfere with the observation capabilities of the Regime surveillance assets.

Both the Reaper and the AC-130 were using FLIR thermal imaging devices
. In the areas where the crew and operators had gained most of their experience before the collapse, such as the Middle East, tree coverage was often not an issue. Open deserts worked very well for aerial assets. The forested slopes of the George Washington Forest and surrounding areas were a different matter.

People could certainly be picked up under the tree canopy, but tracking them was harder. It was a friction that degraded the effectiveness of the Regime aerial assets and thus reduced the quality of fire support available.

2
nd
Platoon was stood-to in their triangular harbor position. They had endured the initial bombardment from the AC-130 and knew that they were concealed from the FLIR by the several feet of earth that comprised the overhead cover on their foxholes. The fire from the AC-130 had been directed at their general area and it added to their impression that the position had not been fully revealed to the enemy.

1
st
Squad was on the side of the triangle that faced north up the valley. 2
nd
Squad faced west and overlooked the trail just over one hundred meters away and slightly below them. 3
rd
Squad was reduced to one team after the killing of Billy’s team, and faced to the rear, oriented in a south easterly direction. Platoon headquarters was in two foxholes in the center.

The AC-130 came back over and made a couple of gun runs from its racetrack circuit, firing into likely areas and trying to get a response and positive target identification. Despite the fact that they were clearly compromised and should bug out, the platoon leader did not want to move while the AC-130 was overhead; it would be suicide if they were picked up mo
ving through the tress. Possibly there would be some good cover back at the abandoned bunkers at Zulu, but getting there would be a problem.

2
nd
Squad was observing to the west and they identified the point platoon of the hunter-killer company moving across their front. They were moving in their skirmish line formation through the trees between the trail and Zulu Delta. It appeared that they were hand railing the trail. Their frontage was around one hundred meters, their right flank anchored on the trail, and the left flank protection elements were going to pass very close in front of 2
nd
Squad’s foxholes.

The skirmish line was in enfilade to the 2
nd
Squad’s foxholes, with the flank protection teams trailing back from the outside edges of the line, platoon headquarters central to the formation. A tactical bound behind that first platoon followed the Company tactical HQ, perhaps a little too close with an impatient company commander, and the rest of the formation was lost in the trees to the north.

The squad leader repo
rted the situation to the platoon leader on the dug in landline field telephone. Owen Westbrook passed the order back: engage.

2
nd
Squad occupied four foxholes, each one dug in, concealed and protected with overhead cover. Each foxhole was ten to fifteen meters apart and the end foxholes contained the squad SAW gunners.

As the
Regime point platoon line moved up central to 2
nd
Squad’s foxholes, the squad leader opened fire, joined instantly by the rest of the squad. They generated enfilade fire that scythed along the line of the enemy skirmish formation.

The closest enemy, including the flank protection team, stood little chance. The
Resistance fire poured into them at close range. Several of them were hit in the initial onslaught. The closest enemy that survived the initial fire took cover as best they could, pinned down.

The saving grace for the enemy was the close country and the large number of trees that provided both cover and concealment.

In response to the sudden noise and violence of the contact, the rounds whipping through the forest and impacting into trees, the Regime platoon went to ground.

Those
not pinned down or lying dead or injured close to the Resistance foxholes located the source of the fire and began to return it, passing along the general location of the Resistance fighters. They had the general location, but the concealed bunkers were hard to spot and it was going to be hard for the Regime troops to fully locate and suppress the dug in fighters. Many rounds were wasted firing through the low hooches, thinking the Resistance fighters were in them.

After the initial fusillade the
Resistance fighters began to conserve ammunition, watching and shooting, waiting for an enemy to reveal themselves. The enemy platoon had started to reposition itself, trying to get on line to orient its fire upslope, and they accomplished this by a mix of short dashes by individual soldiers or more safely by crawling up behind the trees. The shouts of squad and team leaders resonated in the trees along with the crackle of disjointed return fire.

The
Regime platoon leader was assessing the situation, He realized that he was not in a position to assault the Resistance positions and relayed this in his contact report to the company tactical HQ. Captain Brookings told him to stay firm and establish a fire support position. He was preparing to assault with his second platoon left flanking, or from the north.

The
Regime point platoon had started to consolidate into a rough line around fifty meters from 2
nd
Squad’s positions, but it seemed an insurmountable distance through the trees. Rounds continued to crack back and forth between the two forces, with the Regime point platoon hunkering down in as best cover as they could find due to the accuracy of the incoming rounds from the Resistance fighters. They started to take more casualties, at a steady rate.

As the remainder of Jack’s Company crested the ridge they heard the outbreak of gunfire, the furious staccato hammering of the firefight. Jack passed the word up the line: “Double time!” They had five miles to go on a steadily downwards trending incline, broken by slight uphill’s as the trail passed through draws and over small spurs.

             
The Company was in light fighting order, which really wasn’t light at all. They had their tactical vests, based either on body armor or plate carriers festooned with magazine pouches. They were not carrying their rucks, but their daypacks were loaded with ammunition, water, medical supplies and some rations. They carried around seventy pounds each, varying on each individual’s load and weapon system.

             
They were strung out along the trail in single file, a company snake. As the order to double time was received, none of the fighters had any doubt as to the urgency. They started to shuffle run down the trail. On the flats and the downhill’s they shuffled and jogged, on the uphill they leaned into it and drove themselves up the slope.

             
Those that started to drop back were passed. There were not many of them, some simply due to previous wounds sustained. Megan was at the rear with a small medical team for anyone that needed medical help, along with Jim who was kicking butts as required. The key was to get the majority of the Company’s combat power down the trail to rapidly reinforce 2
nd
Platoon. The others could catch up as they arrived.

As the Reaper drone circuited the area looking for targets, it picked up the activity  at Victor Foxtrot. The Company was at that time cresting the ridge to head down to Zulu Delta, but a handful of the logistics guys were trying to rapidly load the last vehicles and bug out. The feed was relayed to the controlling RTOC video screens at the fusion center. Watching the video screens, Director Woods felt a surge of excitement and gave the order to engage.

             
As the last three vehicles took off down the driveway they were hit by AGM-114 Hellfire missiles fired from the Reaper, destroying the vehicles in flaming explosions. Shortly after, the two 500lb GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) carried by the Reaper were dropped, impacting into the farmhouse and barn and disintegrating them in massive explosions.

             
The blast freed the eight incarcerated defectors who had been locked in an outbuilding. The door was blown off and they came staggering out into the open. The Reaper picked them up and fired another two hellfire missiles, killing them instantly, the bloom of the explosion filling the operators TV screen.

Video games.

              The damage was surveyed on the video at the RTOC, the Reaper circling overhead. Two and two were put together and at the advice of the senior Ranger liaison in the RTOC Director Woods ordered a second hunter killer company from the assigned Ranger Battalion to be dispatched in Chinooks to clear and secure the terrorist base.

             
Meanwhile, a third company was loaded onto Chinooks and sent to the LZ in the valley where the original hunter-killer company had landed, in order to reinforce the troops in contact.

At Zulu Delta the firefight still raged between the 2
nd
Squad and the enemy point platoon, consolidated in a linear position fifty meters downslope, sheltering behind trees.

The nature of the fight in the woods, close and personal, meant that indirect fire, or aerial barrage, was not an option. To hit Zulu Delta with such fires, the hunter-killer
company would have to break contact and withdraw to a suitable distance, not easy under such circumstances.