Sans ice caps which expand and contract depending on the seasons and after the first half of Kyron the Warlord (which is where I am up to in the writing – 58k words)

Taroniah at Work is with the editor – hopefully it will be out early June or sooner
Kyron the Warlord is 1/3 written – give or take – aiming for August but you know… Murphy
The Harrecan Problem (Federation 2) will follow including the return of an old friend – eta October/November but again – Murphy
Ostraya is not quite ready to go to the editor yet and it will be on a fit it in when you can basis so no timeline yet. After the editor it needs to go to Pam for final approval.
After changing the latest Taroniah to Taroniah at Work, the next one will be Taroniah at Sea… have next to nothing in it yet as most of what I had written got moved to Taroniah at Work .. sigh
Kyron the Conqueror will follow that.
After that I am tossing up – I have no good stories that work for Princess Gizel at the moment so you may get something else…..

“Sir.” The Captain was standing nearby and came over. “If I get down to those bushes on the right-hand side of the bridge, I should be able to throw a mental shield out over the main part of the bridge that may disrupt the mentalist’s control over the suicide bombers. It will become a battle of power between how far I can reach and how far their mentalist can reach.”

He paused and thought about what would happen in such a circumstance. It would depend upon the strength of the enemy mentalist to a large extent, he expected.

“Do we have someone that speaks Japanese?” At the Captain’s nod, he continued. “If you have someone that has a loud carrying voice, have your Japanese speaker coach them in how to yell out, “Throw the bombs in the river and run to our side.” It will completely disrupt their plan, hopefully.”

The Captain thought about it for a few moments. “I see. You’re hoping that your mental influence will break their control long enough for them to obey our instructions and wander to our side of the bridge where they will be out of range of the Japanese mentalists.”

“That’s the idea, sir. I have no idea of how many I’ll be able to affect, but if the Japanese keep forcing them across the bridge, more and more of them will come under my control or at least my shield that will free them from the Japanese mentalist’s control. Can I suggest we have a few snipers placed on the roofs to pick off those who choose to carry the bombs across the bridge anyway? There’s no guarantee that freeing them of the mental controls they are under will necessarily make them happy to follow our instructions.”

“No, I guess not. Particularly with Japanese, they tend to be a bit more fanatical than some.” The Captain commented, turned away, and began giving orders to his assembled underlings to get things happening.

Andrew turned back and resumed contemplating the bridge. After a minute or two, the Captain rejoined him.

“You know, it would pay to have some troops ready to organize the refugees into those open areas, the tennis courts over here to the left and the parkland there to the right behind those trees so the Japs across the river can’t see them. I think if we break them up into small groups, it will work well in case the odd bomber makes it through.”

The Captain nodded. “Good idea.”

The Nuzeeland officer took a few minutes to study the ground where Andrew had pointed and then called over a couple of Lieutenants and began issuing more orders.

“I’ll go downstairs and head for that scrub as soon as your man with a loud voice turns up.”

Fortunately, the Japanese were still busy organizing, and nothing happened over the next few minutes. A large Kiwi Sergeant turned up at the entrance of the building.

“You’ll be Harris, then?”

“Yeah, mate. You’re the one with a loud voice?”

“Parade ground voice is what they call it, bro. I hope this idea of yours works.”

“If you’ve got the Japanese words down right, it should work well. It’ll depend on how powerful the Jap mentalist is and how fanatical the Jap women and children are.”

slack again – sorry

“I’d invite you in, but I’m too tired even to consider it.”

Simpson snorted. “Any excuse. Bloody Ossies, weak as piss.”

“Am not!” He said, trying to defend himself, and then saw the grin on her face. “You wait, Simpson. You’ll get yours; don’t you worry about that.”

“Promises promises.” She said with an even wider grin before she pushed open the door of the room she had selected and then disappeared from his view. Andrew was so exhausted that all he did was take his boots off before collapsing on the bed. The next thing he knew, there was a knocking on the door. He decided it must be the morning already, as it appeared to be light outside.

“Come.” He yelled.

The door opened, and a Nuzeeland soldier entered.

“Captain’s compliments, sergeant, but he wonders if you could come and see what’s going on with the Japs.”

Andrew couldn’t help himself and sighed loudly. He sat up in bed and looked blearily at the soldier before shaking his head.

“Righto. I’m going to have a quick shower first, Japs or no Japs.”

“Don’t care, bro. I’m just the messenger.” The soldier replied and exited the room.

Andrew kept the shower brief and headed back to where he thought the command post most likely was. In the event, they had moved it upstairs from where it had been the previous day because the view was better.

“Ah. Harris. What you make of that.” The Captain said, pointing out the window.

Andrew looked out the window, which gave him a view across the river. There were people filling the streets everywhere we looked. Women and children mostly. They were all standing in big clumps, and then he noticed individuals walking amongst them, handing things out. He brought up his telescopic vision spell and looked at one of the individuals. They were carrying a sack draped over their shoulder, handing out globular items to the women and children. Oh fuck! They all had Japanese features, so the crowd must be all the women and children attached to the male servants whom they’d been using as soldiers. Possibly even the widows and children of those who had been killed in action. Who knew what criteria they’d use with the way the True Men carried on?

“They chip all the women, don’t they?”

“That’s the report your people sent us. All the women and the boys born to servants who otherwise aren’t selected to become Real men.”

“Yeah. There handing out grenades. They are going to send all those women and children across the bridge and force our men to kill them all; otherwise, they’ll become thousands of suicide bombers.”

“Fuck.” The Captain said.

Andrew stood watching the crowds for some time, trying to think of some way of dealing with the issue that didn’t involve massacring thousands of women and children. He’d sort of felt the control spell that the Japanese mentalists used to control their cyborgs a few times, but only the edge of it. He had no idea of what form it actually took. Then he looked at the bank that supported the bridge approach road on this side and at the bushes on the right-hand side of that bank, which ran all the way up to where the concrete abutment of the bridge proper was.

Sorry guys – public holiday yesterday and was doing family stuff and plain forgot.

They came shopping center, but once they had reached it, some of the troops who ducked inside reported that the inside had been completely trashed. Some of the shops had even been burnt out. And still no civilians. After waiting for the troops to check out the shopping center, they continued their slow advance up the road, but almost immediately, they came under mortar fire from Japanese troops across the river. Andrew thought about marching up the road across the bridge in the face of the Japanese fire, but he was getting tired mentally and was still a bit shakey from the earlier blast, so he decided to wait and let the Nuzeelanders earn their keep for a change.

They proceeded to set up artillery on a road that ran diagonally across the street they had been advancing down. Andrew stopped a bit back from where it reached a parkland area before retreating to the shopping center. They set observers up to the top of the shopping center roof to direct the artillery fire, and it wasn’t that long before they started dropping shells on the Japanese positions, forcing the Japanese to relocate their mortars. At the same time, Nuzeeland troops began filtering forward into the parkland and into the housing area close to the river to the west of the road Andrew had been marching down. Andrew found a comfortable spot to sit at the front of the shopping center and just rested for some time.

Chapter 16

Suicide bombers

Finally, he decided he’d better get active again and stood up, but he hadn’t even taken a step before he heard a voice behind him.

“Sit back down again. You’ve done enough for the moment.”

He turned and found the Nuzeeland Captain from back on the road frowning at him. He went to salute and remembered they were in a combat zone, and stopped himself.

“It’s not going to be easy getting across that river regardless, so sit down and rest and let the artillery salts soften them up. You’ve done more than enough anyway. Oh, and I received notice that you are to be promoted to Sergeant. Congratulations.”

“Thank you, sir.” He hesitated and then pointed across the road. “If you’re not going to need me in the near future, sir, perhaps I can go and catch a bit of rest over there.”

The Captain looked to where he was pointing at the motel that was across the road and nodded.

“The Japs have probably stripped anything valuable out of it as they have everywhere else, but hopefully, the mattresses will still be there. Good idea, Sergeant. Take Simpson with you. Both of you get some shut-eye. We’re either going to attempt across the river tonight once it’s dark or first thing in the morning, so I want you fresh for then.”

Andrew nodded and replied. “Sir.”

Simpson nodded at the same time, and the Captain nodded back. They turned around and headed across the road to where the motel was. Strangely, although the office and the rooms had been stripped of electronic and electrical goods, most motel rooms still had comfortable beds. The keys to the rooms were still in the doors where the Japanese looters had left them, so there was no problem accessing the rooms. Andrew grabbed the first one he passed, put his hand on the doorknob, and pushed the door open.