“The Japs are on that hill.”

He no sooner spoke than a fusillade of shots rang out, causing the APC commander to drop down into his hatch until he realized none were getting through Andrew’s shield.

“That’s fucking handy!” He said as he cautiously stuck his head back up.

The turret could be controlled while he had his head out of the hatch, as Andrew discovered when it began to unleash heavy fire on the Japanese positions. Andrew was watching and saw a Japanese soldier step from behind a tree with an RPG on his shoulder. He pointed, and Reynolds fired quicker than he imagined she could. The shot missed, but it hit the tree right next to his head, causing the Japanese soldier to flinch. By the time he got his RPG up again, she took him out with a clean hit to his head. A couple more APCs rolled up on either side and joined in the demolition of the Japanese position, and Andrew could sense the diminishing number of survivors retreating back over the hill.

“You can cease fire now.” He told the commander of the vehicle. “They retreated behind the hill.”

“You can tell?”

“Yeah. I can sense them mentally. Hmmm. They’re huddling into a small area, and now they’re heading off at a far clip – Must be in a truck.”

“Righto.”

The APC lurched into motion once more, and they passed the position the Japanese had occupied, which had very nice views of the ocean off to the right.

Chapter 14

Things are crook

Toshiro Ozawa studied the map, trying to work out a way to get out of the mess they were in. The most recent northern offensive designed to break through the native lines and split their army in two had been stopped practically before it had even gotten started. Instead of breaking through the Native lines at the town of Backus Marsh, their forces had been stopped dead, and they’d had several mentalists killed in the process. What was worse, the natives had apparently fielded at least one mentalist as good or better than their own, unlike the weak ones they had faced earlier in the invasion. Apart from the mentalists that had been killed, the losses, although heavy, had not been crippling. Yes, it had been the best troops used in the attack, and losing a fair number of them was a bad blow, but the biggest problem was that the attack had failed. While his own forces had been rushing forward, the reverse up north hadn’t been quite so critical, but like the army in the north, his troops had come to a crashing halt. He had sent half his first battalion under Akiro Sato up a narrow road to a town called Forrest, whose name suited the location. His advance had stopped just short of the town where the enemy had been found entrenched in a strong defensive position and supported by a mentalist, if not as strong as Akiro, strong enough to make it difficult to assault the position successfully.

The enemy had dug in up there, giving them a good field of fire back up the main road. He couldn’t take his shielded troops off the road and keep the shield up because the trees would get in the way, so as they neared the point where the road turned sharply left around the shoulder the flat area was sitting on and launched several fireballs through the trees at the enemy positions. Only one of them made it to the enemy troops, but the effectiveness of that one fireball that did get through was enough to cause the Japanese troops to retreat back down the road yet again.

He continued his slow advance as the road twisted to the right around the shoulder the Japanese troops had been set up on and then along a straight stretch of road before it curved around to the left once more. He only moved very slowly to allow the troops in the bush on the left to keep up. He couldn’t see the troops that were on the right now because they were on the other side of the shoulder, but he could hear the occasional gunshot as they advanced. He reached out with his senses, and he could feel the Japanese retreating willy-nilly down the road well ahead of them now, just leaving the odd sniper behind as they retired.

The road continued to run below the ridgeline, so he couldn’t see what was happening on the right, but the Japanese troops continued to retire as far as he could tell. The road curved back up on top of the ridge and continued to wind its way east, curving first left and right. Behind him, he could hear the sound of the Nuzeelander’s vehicles being driven forward as they continued to walk along the road. And it was beginning to wonder why there was no serious opposition when the Captain came up to him.

“We just got a report that the Japanese are attacking up the road to Forest. Do you know where that is?”

Andrew tried to visualize the map. Oh yeah, that was the road that ran down to the coast. He nodded to the Captain.

“Right. We should get mounted up and pursue the Japs in front of us back onto their main body. I can ride in the lead vehicle and shield. Enough to survive small arms, at any rate.”

“Righto. We need to put some pressure on ASAP!”

“Okay, sir.”

They brought up one of their wheeled APCs, and he jumped on the top, sitting on the flat area in front of the small turret. Simpson took up a position in the commander’s hatch with her big sniper rifle, and with everyone settled, they started down the road at a much higher speed than they had been managing on foot. This time he kept his senses looking ahead, so he felt the Japs before they reached them. He held up a hand, and Simpson, who had a comms link with the driver, had him bring the vehicle to a stop. He climbed back behind the turret, and Reynolds joined him there, allowing the commander to stick his head out of the hatch. Andrew pointed at the hill to their front.

The Captain looked down the road for a few moments and then nodded. In seconds, he was giving orders for troops to begin dismounting. As they formed up, he began spreading them out into the bush on either side of the road, although the troops on the right stayed within the bush without moving into the open ground out that way that Andrew had only just spotted. The lead battalion’s Colonel came trotting up and spoke with the Captain, and then he looked over at Andrew with an expression that looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he refrained. Simpson, the sniper, stayed glued to him as the squad assigned to his advance assembled in his vicinity.

“I’m going to put up a shield that is tinted slightly red. You should be able to see it clearly enough. I will make a hole, not much bigger than the barrel of your guns, for each of you to shoot through. Please don’t stand directly behind the hole because I can assure you the cyborgs will be able to put shots through those holes quite accurately.”

This brought a few smiles from the men and women assigned to him. He threw up the shield, and a dozen soldiers fanned out on either side of him, several of them reaching out to touch the shield gingerly and then spotting the holes he had created for each soldier to shoot through. He glanced behind to make sure Simpson was behind him, and she smiled at him, which he found quite enchanting. He returned his attention to his front and began to walk forward.

The bush at the edge of the road thinned, and he could make out a cleared area beside the road to his right that could be used as a viewing spot because, beyond the cleared area, he was surprised to see the sea. There was a sudden clatter of assault rifles firing, and he could feel the impacts of shells against his shield. The troops sheltering behind his shield fired back, and he was pleased to note they took care not to line up directly on the holes he had opened in the shield as they did so. The fact that his people were shielded and the enemy troops weren’t gradually told as he continued to slowly move forward, and fairly soon, he could feel the enemy troops falling back on either side of the road.

The Nuzeeland troops in the bush on the left were pushing forward as well, while those on the right were being more circumspect given the more open ground on that side of the road. Around the curve, a track leading to a farmhouse of some description branched to the right off the main road.  It went up and over a ridge while the main road continued on and then turned to the left below the ridge. The enemy fire was starting to slacken as his troops took a toll on those of the enemy that tried to stand and fight. His steady advance continued for maybe two or three hundred meters before the road curved around a flattish area that was some way above the road level.

Someone raised the issue that I changed the way Gods are created in Taroniah at Large. This has been bothering me but I can;t find the original post so I thought I’d enlarge on the issue here.
The original version of how gods were created (I think it is only addressed in Taroniah at School but it may be mentioned in other books – memory is not what it used to be.)
Anyway – the earlier information I am fairly sure is what is thought to be the case by the people of Taroniah’s time whereas the information in At Large comes direct form a god and is therefore what really happens.

Kyron the magician should be out the 1st week of February hopefully – depending on how my 2 eye operations go

The Pricness and the Spy with be the next book after Kyron the Magician

Back from holidays …..

“You got more ammo for that thing?” He asked as they got moving across the bridge.

“Some. There’s more in a truck at the back of the column. There is one of us snipers in each Company.”

He had the driver pull up once they crossed the bridge, and he got out and went over to examine the body of the strong mentalist. The fellow had dark hair and a handsome, chiseled face, even in death. His eyes were open, and he was otherwise unmarked, apart from the hole in the middle of his forehead that was leaking a little blood. The mentalist was dressed in a dark grey shirt, black trousers, tall black boots, and an elaborate black coat with a high collar. Even in death, the man looked arrogant.

Andrew shook his head and climbed back aboard the LAV and then looked ahead mentally, but there were no more Japs anywhere close. He surmised that it couldn’t be far from here to their main body and had the driver take it cautiously over the next few kilometers. The winding, narrow road served to encourage the driver’s circumspect approach for the next kilometer or so.

They had just passed the welcome to the Colac-Otway Shire sign when Andrew felt a mentalist ahead and signaled the driver to pull over. The LAV pulled over to the left-hand side of the road, while the vehicle behind pulled over to the right, and the rest pulled up behind. There seemed to be enemy troops on both sides of the road ahead, although most were on the right-hand side. The Captain dismounted and came over.

“What have you got, Harris?”

“I’ve got Japs on both sides of the road. The ones on the left just feel like ordinary troops, but the ones on the right have some mentalist capabilities mixed in, although I can’t feel a real mentalist being present.” He shrugged. “They’re just around the bend. In fact, I would say they’re just beyond that road sign. Either they haven’t detected us yet, or they’re trying to surprise us.”

The Captain looked down the road. “Stopping like this would tend to indicate we’re not going to be surprised easily.”

“You would think so, wouldn’t you, Captain? I have to say that they’re positioned like they’re in an ambush situation, and they don’t appear to be moving around much, which would tend to back that up.”

“Right. What do you suggest?”

Andrew scratched his head. “We can’t be that far from their main body, sir. I wouldn’t want to be fighting a lot of Japs strung out along the road like this. I suggest you deploy your troops on each side of the road, with most on the right, and then I will lead a squad down the road to attract their attention. Without a mentalist present on their side, I should be able to shield a whole squad easily. I can assure you that that’ll concentrate their attention, so it should mean that the flank attacks can go in without too much resistance.”