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"I think we've got a welcoming committee, Mitchell."
"I see them on the external," the SheVa commander replied. "We'll hold up until we find out what they want."
"Captain," Ryan said. "Major William Ryan, Corps of Engineers. And you are?"
"Captain Paul Anderson," the officer replied. "I'm in charge of the crossing, sir, and I'm afraid the perso
He had the crossed flags of a Signal Officer which, strangely enough, made him a line officer. In a situation such as this he could give orders to even a colonel of, say, the medical corps. However, engineers were line officers as well.
"I'll give you the guys hanging on the outside," the major said with a faint, cold smile. "But I'm taking my guys over to make sure the bridge is properly prepared to blow."
"Ah, that would be good, sir," the captain said with a relieved smile. "I . . . didn't mean to come on so strong, but I've been holding down this crossing for the last eighteen hours and trying to keep the groups crossing organized; it hasn't been fun."
"Been there, done that," the major smiled back. "How, exactly, were you going to classify the SheVa?"
"I'm going to treat it like the proverbial eight hundred pound gorilla, sir," the captain said. "Sergeant Rice," he continued, gesturing at the staff sergeant who was with him. "Get the rest of them across the bridge and sorted out."
"Yes, sir," the sergeant said, waving the platoon after him.
"We've got ammo trucks parked north of town," the captain said. "Widely dispersed. We also had two groups of SheVa reload trucks, accompanied by some MetalStorm reloads, come in. I sent them up the road to Sylva; there just wasn't anywhere around here to put them."
"Those would be Major Mitchell and Captain Chan's," Ryan said, touching his communicator. "Mitch, good news. The reload group is just up the road, over."
"Good," the SheVa commander replied. "With only eight shots, you get nervous when you're down to four. Now, how do we get there without killing anyone? There's only about three routes and it looks like there are people on all of them."
"How does the SheVa get there?" Ryan asked.
"That's going to be tough, sir," Anderson admitted. "We're reconstituting units on both flanks of the town. The probably means ru
"There won't be a town if we do that," Ryan pointed out. "Or any roads."
"We're ru
"Gotcha," Ryan said, conveying the message to Mitchell. "And could you have my boys unload at the same time?"
* * *
"Roger," Mitchell replied. "Could I keep Kittekut, though?"
"I suppose," Ryan replied, nonplussed.
"I've installed her in the commander's chair. Which means I've finally got a commo person."
"Feel free," the major said. "I'm going to go check out the bridge."
"Are you going to be reboarding, Major?" Mitchell asked.
"I doubt it," the engineer replied. "I've got other things to do. I might call you back to knock down a bridge depending on how much demo I have."
"Well, we'll be seeing you," Mitchell said as the SheVa whined back to life. "Keep the dismount commo; I somehow think we'll be seeing you again."
"Good luck."
"Thanks, you too."
* * *
Ryan turned back to the captain and shook his head as the SheVa slowly trundled off to the east. "We met up in the mountains; they took that thing over one of the smaller gaps."
"That?" the captain asked waving them towards the bridge. "How?"
"Not very well on the way down," Ryan replied with a smile. "They got it stuck as shit. Of course, that was while they were taking out two landers at point blank range. It's a long story."
"I can believe it. How did they get out?"
"You see those things all the way up top?" Ryan gri
"Yeah, they looked like MetalStorm turrets, but I never heard of those on a SheVa."
"They're not attached; they're just chained down," Ryan said with another, wider, grin. "We got it unstuck by driving it over the chassis."
"Holy shit," Anderson said in turn. "That was one expensive goddamn fix! I assume the chassis didn't survive."
"Nope, busted 'em bigger than shit," Ryan replied, stopping and looking off the bridge at the water below. He was suddenly struck by an intense sense of déjà vu, but he couldn't place where it was from.
"So how did you get stuck with this shit detail?" Ryan said with a smile, gesturing at the bridge as they reached the far side. "Not to be nasty. But playing rearguard on a bridge is right up there with antimatter injector cleaner."
"Oh, it's a shit detail, I agree," the captain said, shaking his head. "The answer is General Keeton."
"Eastern Commander?" the major asked. "How in the hell did that happen?"
"I was laying in cable when the word came that the Posleen had taken the Gap," the captain replied. "I took a look at the map and figured out where the chokepoint would be for most of the corps. I headed over here to try to . . . I du
"Go to your head?" Ryan asked.
"More like hit me with a douse of cold water," the captain said. He gestured to one side where a group of privates and sergeants were clustered around a mass of tactical radios. "I suddenly realized I was Horatius. And I had to coordinate about a division's worth of perso
"Hah!" Ryan laughed. "That was me in Occoquan, except the coordination part. Don't let that go to your head, either. It won't be the last time, hopefully."
He stopped and looked around. The town was run-down—it was apparent that the economic downturn of the war had hit it hard—but it still was fairly antique looking and, the term that came to mind was "quaint." Most of the houses seemed to date to the early twentieth century or the late nineteenth. Many of them needed a coat of paint, but obviously before the war the place had been a rather prosperous tourist center. That was when it hit him.
"Damn," Ryan said, shaking his head. "It looks just like Occoquan."
And it did. The town was very similar to the site of his first battle. It was clustered around the river on a major highway and had the exact same look. He would bet a month's pay that before the war the town had been packed with antique shops and little cafes.
Now though, it looked as if it had been mostly abandoned before the arrival of the retreating corps. Hopefully it would get fully cleared out before the SheVa drove over it.
"About Bun-Bun," Ryan commented to the captain.
"I've got a platoon making sure the town is cleared," Anderson replied. "And they'll pass on to Sylva and do the same."
"You know who Bun-Bun is?" the major said with a quizzical smile.