Uesugi’s troops were kept to a standstill for most of the afternoon while Toshiro’s troops, well, Kato’s now, forged ahead. Unlike the built-up area they had taken a few days before, the town of Drysdale fell with hardly a shot being fired. A few old folks were dealt with, but the momentum barely slowed as they continued to forge along the road that ran parallel to the southern shore of the bay. Early the next morning, the lead troops reached the shore at Portarlington and swung to the east along the shore. The resistance was minimal, and the whole Battalion was instructed to swing south and west.

Uesegi’s troops started making progress again, and by late that day, his battalion had reached the edge of the built-up area called Ocean Grove. The First Battalion had no trouble taking the town of Queenscliff by the end of that day, and these began pushing west to link up with the Second Battalion. They gradually squeezed the natives back into a smaller and smaller area until, finally, they retreated across the bridge at Barwon Heads, blowing the bridge behind them.

Toshiro ordered an assault across the waterway the next morning, but the losses were heavy, and he gave it away as a bad investment and sent reports to headquarters while the two armies sat looked at each other across the waterway. The enemy didn’t even bother with much in the way of harassing artillery fire, presumably to save ammunition. Apparently, the natives were no more well off as far as artillery shells were concerned than Toshiro’s troops were. Still, it had been a successful advance, the best they had managed so far since the invasion started. On the other hand, it was obvious the locals had planned their withdrawal well ahead of time. They left next to nothing behind and blew up anything they couldn’t take with them. That included every fuel supply point, much to Toshiro’s annoyance.

Chapter 8

To the front

Andrew found himself crammed aboard the train that took them south. The comment from a grizzled Sergeant in the seat across the aisle from Andrew’s spot was that they were packed in like sardines. Andrew wondered where that saying had originated, but he had to agree with the sentiment. Besides all the new recruits that had just finished training, there were numbers of men and women returning from leave, plus men who had been transferred from garrisons further north. Talking to a couple of men from Harvee Bay, it appeared the government was running down the coastal garrisons and leaving the older, not as fit men to hold the forts, so to speak, and transferring the younger healthy men to combat units in the south. They were apparently still keeping a strong garrison in the far north to face the Indos, but they felt no need to have similarly strong garrisons along the east coast in the face of the transdimensional invasion. Ostraya’s relations with the islanders to the east and northeast were good.