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«What?» the general asked incredulously.
«I just got off the horn with him.»
«Get him back.» The general fumed as contact was made with the subordinate commander.
«General Bernard?» he asked on speaker phone.
«Yes, General?»
«I believe the G-3 told you to pull your battalions back. I would like to know why you have refused.»
«I believe that I can put enough pressure on the Posleen to pull some of them off of Fredericksburg, possibly give the Two-Twenty-Ninth some time to organize a breakout.»
General Simosin considered General Bernard the epitome of the one officer you could do nothing with: active/stupid. A consummate politician, General Bernard had expended sweat and blood to become the Virginia Adjutant General—the senior military commander in the Virginia National Guard—in the days before the Posleen threat. With the rejuvenation of so many senior officers, such as Simosin, advancement had effectively stopped. General Bernard naturally blamed the rejuvenation program for his inability to advance to Lieutenant General.
In fact, the general had been strongly considered for relief for cause. He was chronically insubordinate, jumped the chain of command at every opportunity, was tactically unsound and refused to subordinate his units to either Tenth or Twelfth Corps. Instead he insisted that they remained distributed in pe
Now he held true to every negative in his history and it was about to get his troops slaughtered. Unfortunately, General Simosin knew that if he put pressure on him the idiot would just jump to the First Army commander and get the order countermanded. It was worse than the damn Confederates! Well, too bad.
«General, you are ordered to round up your units and pull them across the Potomac. We ca
«Dammit, General, do you realize that that will throw away Alexandria, the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery? Not to mention thousands of American citizens in Fredericksburg!»
«And Washington National Airport and Fort Belvoir. I can read a map. And I'm in that area at the moment, I might add. I am fully aware of those facts as is the Continental Army commander. He is evacuating the area even as we speak.»
«We can stop them! This isn't Barwhon or Diess; common people are standing up to them everywhere and wearing them away. We can stop them at any point on the map! Just give me one brigade of the Forty-First Division, and we can stop them before Quantico.»
«Since I just ordered you to retreat, I could scarcely authorize a forlorn hope with someone else's troops. General, pull your battalions back and do it now. Failure to do so will constitute violation of a direct order in combat. That is my final word.»
Simosin squeezed the tabletop, trying to keep the tension from coming through in his voice. Now, if the First Army commander would only have the sense to see reality. Even if he did not, CONARC was one hundred percent behind pulling across the Potomac.
«If that is your final word, General, very well.»
«Then you will pull your troops back? Let me be clear, both General Keeton and I agree that contact should be held until all necessary measures have been emplaced. Do not contact the Posleen without direct and clear orders to do so by either myself or General Keeton. Is that clear?»
«Yes. I will contact you when that withdrawal has been effected.»
«Very well, start them back immediately. Out here.» He turned back to the assembled staff that had listened to the call.
«And in the real world . . . how is the evacuation going?» General Simosin asked, taking a deep breath and turning to the Federal Emergency Management Agency representative.
«Fairly well, all things considered,» the FEMA rep replied. «We've opened up the HOV lanes into Washington and we're routing the refugees through and out of town. It's moving slow, but we should have most of northern Virginia evacuated by morning. It would help if we could open up a few of the lanes the military isn't using.
«I know they are designated for defense use, but they're being underutilized by your military forces. We could maintain one lane and an emergency lane for the military forces and it would more than handle what is moving currently.»
He turned to the G-3. «Are we going to have a big increase?»
«No, the convoys are pulling out of Belvoir and Quantico in a steady stream. We pla
«Issue orders to disable any civilian vehicle in a military lane with all appropriate force. Have the order broadcast and displayed on those overhead signs, then turn over unutilized lanes to FEMA. Anything else?»
«No, we're cutting all the corners we can,» replied the FEMA rep. «But when the Posleen start coming close, into contact, things could get out of hand.»
«Do you need troops?»
«We could use a few. MPs by preference.»
«G-3?»
«Three-Twenty-Fifth MP Battalion at your service, Madame.»
«Thank you,» the FEMA rep said. «That should cover it.»
«Get those civilians out of harm's way; we'll try to slow the centaur bastards down.» General Simosin wiped his face and looked at the map projection.
«Now as to that. I don't want to have even cavalry in contact; the Posleen move too fast and hit too hard. We will follow the Reticulan Defense Plan to the letter and pull fully across the Potomac. I have so informed First Army and CONARC. So, to slow them down, what do we do for engineers?» The corps engineering brigade was at Fort Leonard Wood going through a large-scale engineering exercise. The timing of the exercise was exquisite. Exquisitely lousy.
«The engineering companies of the Forty-First and Ninety-Fifth Divisions probably should accompany them, since they'll have to dig in,» said the G-3.
«So, what do we use?» the commander asked again.
«Sir,» said one of the operations officers. «I called Fort Belvoir and, since they've reactivated the Fifty-Two Echo program there, they have plenty of combat engineering instructors and trainees. And there are the officers going through basic and advanced courses . . .»
« 'And to the strains of Dixie, the cadets marched off the field to war,' « Simosin quoted. «Well, that's a start. Where do we deploy them?»
«The first real terrain obstacle the Posleen will encounter is at the Occoquan Estuary . . .» said the corps intelligence officer.
* * *
Second Lieutenant William P. Ryan—being a not quite graduate of the Basic Combat Engineers Officers' course—did not know much about combat engineering. And he knew even less about combat in general. But he was willing to learn, even if this kind of makee-learnee was not particularly survivable. One look at the pitiable stream of refugees headed north on Interstate 95 was enough to make him determined to do his best.
Most of his classmates were rigging the I-95 and U.S. 1 bridges over the Occoquan River under the expert tutelage of their instructors. The senior instructor had decided that Ryan was a good-enough prospect that he was sent to destroy a bridge all on his own, and his «platoon» was rigging the 123 bridge under the guidance of an experienced instructor-sergeant. The platoon was a group of trainees from the enlisted combat engineers course along with their drill instructors and junior technical instructors. The interesting challenge in concrete cutting posed by the bridge he had left up to the much more experienced NCO instructors.