He proposed using the still-fresh Natori battalion to hook around the northern flank of the locals and either force them to retreat in a hasty and disorganized manner or get cut off and trapped in the western half of the town. It took two days for a reply to come back, which only said that they were looking at his plan. Then, two days later, a mentalist turned up whom he’d never met, so he was presumably one of the Natori people. One of the Tachibana family, Hiro, was in his fifties by the look of it, but if he’d had a good response to Rejuv, he could be a good deal older. He strode into Toshiro’s headquarters as if he owned it, which didn’t endear him to Toshiro, but he was quite respectful in his manner. After introductions, he got down to the reason for his appearance.

“I’ve got a force of ten tracked APCs with troops to add to your force. The general likes your idea and wants you to get the operation underway tomorrow.”

Toshiro was a little surprised but didn’t object to getting things underway. He introduced Tachibana to Gentaro, and the three of them sat down to work out the operational details for the following day’s attack. Because Tachibana’s troops were completely fresh, it was decided they would take the lead in the offensive, supported by all the operational armored vehicles, with Gentaro’s battalion following behind to back them up. The plan was to swing north around the large mine site that was out of use and follow the forestry trails to attack the Ostrayan positions in the flank and rear. Tachibana suggested they round up local cars to provide extra mobility for Gentaro’s troops, but Toshiro reduced that down to just four-wheel-drive vehicles and informed Gentaro would assign all the four-wheel-drive vehicles he had to Gentaro, but it wouldn’t be enough for even a quarter of his troops. Nothing else would get through the forestry trails. Tachibana shrugged and accepted their assessment of the local situation.

The attack kicked off just on first light with a team of mentalists, including Gentaro and Tachibana, ranging ahead of the lead troops knocking out the sentries and scouts. It worked so well that Toshiro didn’t think the locals realized what was happening until they were nearly surrounded. The main attack came slicing down past where the ruined communications tower was, slamming into the back of the defenders with little or no warning as far as Toshiro could tell from his position on the far side of the river.

A chaotic action ensued in the houses as the defenders tried to hold up the Japanese attack, but they hadn’t received enough reinforcements to compensate for the losses they’d taken as a result of their own attack a few days previously. Their depleted units had great trouble stopping the armored vehicles pushing into their positions, especially the ones that had mentalists aboard shielding the front of them, and gradually their whole position collapsed. Toshiro personally led an attack by his veteran first battalion across the sands at the mouth of the river where the Ostrayans had been decimated in their attack.