Most of the defenders had already fallen back to face Tachibana’s attack, so his troops had no trouble brushing the remaining defenders aside and advancing into the town as well. It quickly devolved into a route during which probably only a third of the Ostrayan troops managed to escape along the ocean road. Yamashita had sent his troops in the four-wheel-drives to that further south on the fire trails anticipating cutting the Oastrayans off, but it took the troops longer to get back to the ocean road than they had anticipated. They arrived at the junction just as the first Ostrayan troops did and were held up short of the main road as an ever-increasing number of native soldiers joined the defense line to allow their brethren coming along behind to escape along the road.

The locals took up defensive positions on the far side of a creek at the next town, but they didn’t have time to dig in properly before the now combined Japanese troops arrived. Tachibana did the same trick by putting mentalists in the armored infantry vehicles and simply charged across the mudflats and assaulted the defender’s positions with the mentalists shielding the vehicles as they approached. The short, sharp action lasted for about an hour, leaving the few survivors to flee further west along the ocean road.

Chapter 13

Responding to the Japs

Rumors of the breakthrough down on the coast road spread rapidly through the Ostrayan army once word had reached headquarters in the usual manner that rumors spread through armies faster than the speed of light. Troops were pulled out of their positions near Winchelsea and rushed south. Two companies of infantry with artillery support were sent to Deans Marsh with instructions to push forward down that road and bottle the Japs up on the coast. More troops were sent to Forest with similar instructions for the road leading down to the coast from there. A company of infantry and some artillery that were at Warnumbool raced along the coast in a convoy of cabin cruisers and reached Apollo Bay before the Japanese did where they dug in. The hope was that they would hold until the Nuzeeland troops arrived, who were due any time soon.

Andrew had not been called upon in the two weeks since the battle of Backus Marsh, as it was now being called. Captain Greaves was back on her feet, and Paul Nguyen had turned up to reinforce their mentalist stocks. When news of the breakthrough arrived, there was considerable concern shown by all concerned. Captain Greaves pulled Andrew and Paul aside the day after the news of the breakthrough had been released officially and informed them that David Williams and Tony Contos had also been assigned to this front but had since been forwarded to the troops in the south. Contos was assigned to the force holding the Deans Marsh Road, and Williams was headed for Forest. The Captain gave a subtle signal to Andrew to stay behind when Paul left the room.