The other half of the first battalion had diverged off the same road and headed west through a town called Beach Forrest and then had turned north, but that thrust had been stopped short of a town called Gellibrand. Hiro Tachibana, who was commanding the force, reported the natives dug in on a ridge in a strong defensive position with mentalist support yet again. They even had artillery support, and he hadn’t even contemplated an assault on their position but had simply dug in while waiting for further orders or reinforcements.

Rokuro had been surging west with his battalion, trying to catch the reported enemy troops arriving by sea before they could be fully deployed, but apparently, not only were they deployed, but they were advancing, and they had a very strong mentalist at their head because Rokuro was dead and his leading force had been shattered and was retreating on his main body at a place called Lavers Hill. His battalion was completely disorganized, strung out along the road as well as on several side roads, and he had no faith in the man’s second-in-command, Mitsuo Fuchida. Fuchida had never struck him as a particularly steady individual, and going on the feverish demands for support arriving at Toshiro’s headquarters, he was almost in a panic already.

Toshiro had stayed at the town of Apollo Bay with the third battalion, into which all the companies that had suffered heavy casualties had been transferred while the fresh companies that had been in the third battalion were transferred to the front line units in the first and second battalions. He had already dispatched Uesugi Kenshin to take over the second battalion from the whining Fuchida with instructions to hold the town of Laver’s Hill while Toshiro got the third battalion on the road to support him. Looking at the map, Toshiro was getting the distinct impression that they had reached the high tide mark of their invasion as the Natives continued to field ever-increasing numbers of troops and now mentalists of their own in significant numbers. On the other hand, his people were reaching the end of their possible reserves unless one of the other Japanese worlds came to their aid. Going on the reports about the failed attack on Home, this was unlikely, to say the least.

He sighed, then had one last look at the map before he began organizing to get the third battalion heading west. At least they had a few days’ rest to recuperate. He had barely traveled two kilometers from the town when General Yamashita called him in a panic. The Natives had launched a surprise attack to the east of the town called Colac, which was next on the list of places General Yamashita had intended to take, and had caught the Japanese forces by surprise and were already at a town called Birregura and they were threatening to drive to the coast behind Yashiro and cut him off. He ordered Toshiro to withdraw back to Lorne and drive northwards from there to disrupt the enemy advance and drive them back beyond Birregurra.

Toshiro quickly ordered his column to stop and pulled out the map, which he studied for some time before giving orders. He called the panicking Fuchida and told him to get his entire battalion on the road back to Apollo Bay and that Kenshin should be there shortly to take over command from him, which didn’t go over so well. He then called Tachibana and got him to start retreating with his troops while leaving Akiro in place for the moment until the others were past where the road his troops were deployed on joined the coast road so that the rest of the brigade could retreat safely.