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.