move.”
“You think it’ll be enough.”
“Sure, why not? We fought the first war on their terms in their time. This time we do it on ours.”
The night passed slowly with little sleep for any of them. Everyone knew the time was nigh. Some hoped for a delay, but most wanted it to begin now. The fact they had to go to the enemy was certain. It was time to get it over and done with. When the sun rose, the camp was eerily quiet. There was no time left for training. They were the best prepared they could be.
At 2000 hours the megaphone sounded. The Battalion had been sitting in the warmth of the evening outside their billets, coffee and tea their only comfort.
'All personnel to begin boarding and prepare for take off.'
Taylor looked down at his watch.
'The ships must already be at the coast by now.'
'Then let's hope that armour gets ashore.'
They had poured over intelligence gathered from the enemy positions for weeks and months, and now it was time to finally act.
'Let's move!'
The order was carried on down the line, as the base was becoming a sudden hive of activity. He strode for Eddie’s copter, knowing the pilot was always waiting to be his personal pilot. It brought him a sense of security to have Eddie at the controls. They had been shot down and gone through hell together more than a few times, but they always survived.
As he climbed aboard, he looked down at his Mappad to study the area one last time. The allied landings would be taking place along the coast of Tunisia from Gabes to Tripoli, but their job was to go beyond in the largest airborne operation in history.
Chapter 11
He'd poured over photos and maps to the extent he felt he was intimately familiar with the land.
'Two minutes!' said Rains.
Anti-aircraft pulses burst in the sky before them and were increasing at a rapid rate. The massive aerial offensive was hopefully enough to hold back their air power. For the Battalion and all the others in the sky, they could only wait and hope. He couldn't see anything from his seat, but neither did he want to. Their time finally came.
'Thirty seconds!'
'Line up!' ordered Taylor.
They were all glad to be getting out of the copter. They'd rather face the enemy themselves than wait to be blown out of the sky. Their job was to secure the land north of Gabes, a narrow patch corridor between the salt lake Chott el Jerid and the sea. It was the opposite end of the offensive to where the ruins of the K'til lay, but he knew it was vitally important until they had secured a beachhead.
He counted down on his watch as they all stood and approached the door.
'Good luck to you all,' he said through comms.
Several nodded in agreement. Jones was first at the door. Taylor was halfway down the line with Jafar at his back. The green light at the door lit up, and Jones leapt without hesitation. The rest of the platoon followed him. As Taylor reached the door, he realised how dark the area was. There was no lighting on the ground. The moon provided minimal amounts. Only the enemy pulses and explosions provided streaks and bursts around them.
He stopped at the door for only a second and jumped. The copters had been flying at just over two hundred metres from the dusty surface, so it was a quick descent. His boosters lit up the space beneath him as they dropped. It quickly become apparent they were landing right on top of a complex system of enemy trenches which had not shown up in any of their intelligence reports and satellite imagery. He could only assume they covered it by day, but there was no time to worry about that now.
Pulses raced up at them from the enemy positions below, and far more fire was sent down from the airborne as they descended. Inter-Allied, and Italian forces from 3rd and 4th Mechanized Infantry formed their 5th Brigade. It was the first time the Italians had seen combat, but Taylor was confident they would hold their own.
He was approaching a Mech at high speed, despite his boosters slowing him rapidly. The creature was firing up at several of his comrades. He opened fire with his rifle and got off three shots before landing on top of the alien. His weight smashed it off its feet. He quickly got up and could see his shots had killed it before he’d even landed.
A quick assessment of his surroundings found he stood inside thick concrete-like trenches. They were three metres wide by two deep, tall enough so that he could not see out over the top. He jumped up onto the body of the Mech to get some view all around. As he did so, he caught a glimpse of an enemy Mech advancing around a bend in the trench, but before he could respond, gunfire ripped into the soldier. He looked up. Jafar was above the trench and firing in.
Gunfire sounded all around; more of theirs than the enemy. Jafar jumped down in the trench to his side.
'Why the hell didn't we know about these positions?' Taylor asked.
Jafar seemed as baffled as him. Several of Jones' platoon joined him.
'All right, let's sweep and clear.'
He lifted up his rifle and continued on down the line. The first thing they encountered were three Mechs firing over the trench line at the incoming friendlies. They fired several bursts, moving in on the aliens, killing them before they could respond.
'At least it looks like we did actually catch them by surprise. Thanks to you, no doubt,' he said to Jafar. He’d been instrumental in their counter-intelligence operations leading up to the invasion.
They continued north along the line of defences and found little resistance until they reached the farthest point of the trenches looking out north. Taylor reached for a flare from his webbing and fired it up into the sky. They saw open barren land for as far as the light extended.
The gunfire in their location was already calming down, but they could hear the battle raging a few kilometres away at the coastline. Jones finally found the Colonel and had a look of utter shock about him.
'Surely it can't be this easy?'
'No, it can't, and it won't be. We could have attacked anywhere, so they would have had to spread thin to defend the borders and coastline. Now they know we're here, they'll come for us with everything they've got.'
'How long do you think we have?' asked Jones.
'Not long at all. This is where they'll hit us. Get our anti-tank guns deployed along this line, and find out how the beach operations are going.'
Jafar stood silently, looking out into the pitch-black wasteland to the north.
'Maybe we did hit them with overwhelming numbers. They must be weakened from the fight in the east. '
'Yes, they are, but not finished, Charlie.'
'No, never underestimate a wounded animal.'
They waited in the trenches for an hour before Jones received solid information.
'Most of the beaches have been taken, supply lines are being established, and the armour should be with us within a few hours.'
'Then let's hope that's soon enough.'
As he said it, they heard the sound they feared the most, heavy tracks from an armoured column advancing from the north.
'They better be quick!' yelled Taylor, lifting his binoculars and switching to night vision. Across the open flat
