He instructed Saburo Gentaro, the commander of the third battalion, to get the battalion back to Lorne as quickly as possible and then push up the road to Deans Marsh, link up with the force that was already holding that position, and dig in and not allow the natives to break through and cut the rest of the brigade off. Meanwhile, Toshiro would stay at Apollo Bay and coordinate the retreat of the other two battalions. It was all turning into a disaster! Tachibana was the first to get back to the coast road, and he had him deploy his troops at the road junction until the first battalion reached them. At the same time, he ordered Akiro to begin falling back down the road from Forrest. Fortunately, the enemy dug in around that town showed no signs of following up immediately. Indeed the only people that seemed to be aggressively advancing with the ones coming from the west. They were advancing rapidly in a highly mobile column led by the damn mentalist who had killed Rokuro.

An hour later, the first of Uesugi’s troops began arriving at Apollo Bay, and rather than clog up the road to the east, he had them deploy and begin new defensive positions as more and more of them straggled into the town. He had Akiro keep his troops moving when he reached the coast road with instructions to support Gentaro as well as hold the road leading inland from Lorne until the rest of them had made it back to that town.

Once the last of Akiro’s troops were clear of Skene’s Creek, he had Tachibana start pulling his troops out to follow as the last of the first battalion’s troops had finally retreated to Apollo Bay. He held them there for an hour to let the second battalion get well up the road before joining the retreat. The first battalion’s troops were extremely twitchy. He’d never seen Japanese troops quite so nervous-looking and made sure that he showed a confident front in front of everybody.

The drive back to Lorne was marred by mechanical failures amongst the vehicles, particularly the civilian ones they had pressed into service, and he finished up having to order trucks forward from the third battalion to pick up troops that had lost all their transport as the ragged column made its way eastward. They were barely a kilometer from Lorne when the troops at the rear of the column reported enemy vehicles were in sight, pursuing them. He had his driver pull his ATV off the road and let the rest of the column pass before getting going again at the rear of the column.

He had Akiro deploy his troops on the top of the hill to the west of the town, including two of the remaining artillery pieces, and they were ready to open fire as soon as the pursuing natives came into view. Toshiro had stopped at a spot where he could still get a view of where the road came around the point to the west and waited for the first enemy vehicle to appear. The column of enemy troops came around the point in the artillery open fire almost immediately. The first shell hit on the side of the hill above the road and slightly in front of the column doing no damage other than to shout the road with debris. The second shell appeared to hit the first vehicle in the column, but even before the smoke cleared, the vehicle appeared out of the smoke and continued driving along the road. Damn!

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.

So0rry about no Ostraya this week – I came to a bit where there were changes being made – finished now so I will post on Monday as normal.

Kyron is out
https://www.amazon.com/Kyron-Magician-Ithria-Book-8-ebook/dp/B0CTXV17VK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SITO8ZLDLXKX&keywords=kyron+the+magician&qid=1707163414&s=digital-text&sprefix=kyron+the+magicia%2Cdigital-text%2C400&sr=1-1

The next book is The Princess & the Spy
I’m running behind with it due to the eye operations – I concentrated on getting the edits to Kyron done
Princess is up to 85k words so only 3 weeks or so until he writing is done. I will begin editing it early to speed things up.

Taroniah at Sea is next, then the next Kyron and then Federation 2 where a well know person is found.

The eye operations worked great – $3500 each so they should have.

Peter
–

“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.”

Merry Xmas everyone!!!!

“Holy shit!” the girl said, staring at the piece of metal that thumped down onto the ground at their feet.

“Yeah. This one’s a good deal stronger than the one we took out. Hold on.”

He closed his eyes and felt for the Japs. With the mentalist on their right down, the fire from the Nuzeelanders in the bush behind them had forced the surviving Japs to retreat to the wooded scrub they had advanced out of originally. The strong mentalist had brought up the rear, shielding as many as he could. The other mentalist was definitely dead. Good!

“You got that mentalist. Good job.” He said the sniper.

“What about the other one? I haven’t seen someone carve metal like that.”

“He’s powerful, certainly. But we should be able to take him the same way. Just give me a minute to collect more power.”

He set about drawing power from the sun. The other enemy mentalist was very strong, and he would need every bit of power he could muster. The other two studied him even as a few bullets pinged off the overturned APC.

“You’re glowing!” The girl said.

“What?” Asked the Captain.

“Can’t you see it, sir? He’s literally glowing with power.”

Andrew smiled. “The captain can’t see, but you can, which means you have basic mentalist talent yourself. You’ve never had any formal training?

She shook her head. “No. I went through a period where I could feel this pressure on me mentally that was worse the more people there were around, and then I sort of imagined this mental wall around my head, and it went away, eventually.”

“Right. Well, you need training. In the meantime, we have other matters to take care of. You ready?” he asked, and the girl nodded. “Same as last time.”

He moved down to the other end of the wreck and felt her moving alongside him. He stopped, checked she was ready, and then stepped out from behind the cover to his right. The girl stepped out behind him, and he focused on the mentalist. He cast Control, then Fear, and finally, Fireball. She shot a split second later, and there came the fingernail on a blackboard screech of a powerful mentalist dying. A hail of shots was bouncing off his shield, but with no mentalist to protect them, the rest of the Japs were toast. He moved forward, his shield tinted so it was obvious to the girl, and he used the needle punch to slaughter most of the Japanese troops before they could retreat out of his range, and the girl got the rest.

“The column can advance again, Captain.” He informed the Nuzeeland officer who had followed them, also using Andrew’s shield for cover.

The man nodded and then glanced at the girl. “You ride with the mentalist from now on, Simpson.”

“Sir.” She replied.

The Captain quickly had a couple of squads double time across the bridge and spread out into the woods on the far side of the gully to check on the Japs while a group of troops gathered around the APC and tipped back upright. They then pushed far enough off the road to let their vehicles get past. His driver brought the LAV back down to the main road, and he climbed back aboard with the girl hopping in the rear seat.

He pointed towards the bush where the enemy was and held up both his hands with his fingers splayed, then the left hand with the fingers still fully splayed, and put on his right hand, he held up only three fingers. The man nodded and then disappeared back into the bush, presumably passing that information on while the other soldier crouched in view of Andrew. He moved to the end of the APC and stuck his head around the corner, studying the position. The enemy troops were hidden in the bush, and it was going to be costly to winkle out. Unless he made the decision to earn his pay properly.

He heard the sound of running feet followed by shots and then the clangs of bullets ricocheting off the APC, and two of the Nuzeelanders joined him, hiding behind the wrecked APC. One was definitely the fellow he’d signaled to earlier who had Captain’s tabs on his collar. The other was a female carrying a rifle that was nearly as long as she was tall. Andrew did a doubletake and then realized belatedly that it was a sniper’s rifle. He scratched his head, trying to devise a way to use the girl and her sniper rifle to their advantage. He could tell where the enemy were because he could sense their glow magically, as even the ordinary soldiers had a small glow. The trouble was she couldn’t. Hmmm.

Then he felt another vehicle coming up behind the enemy position. This one had four people in it. However, two of them had to be mentalists as they felt very strong even at a distance. He could sense when the vehicle stopped, and they disembarked somewhere out of sight. All the enemy sort of congregated together in a huddle while they discussed tactics, and then the huddle broke up just like in a football game. The Japs lined up and began to advance. The Nuzeelanders behind them opened fire but with little effect.

“They’re shielded.” He yelled. Then he reached out mentally and felt a strong mentalist to the left front, a much stronger one to the right front, and what felt like an untrained but strong mentalist right next to him. The girl! He’d worry about that later. The girl at least had a natural mental shield, which was why he hadn’t noticed she was a mentalist earlier. He turned to the girl.

“There are two enemy mentalists. A strong one and a weak one. The weak one is on the left. Get behind me and shoot over my shoulder. I am going to distract him with energy and mental spells. He’ll almost certainly drop his physical shield to protect against me. As soon as you see my fireball, shoot him.”

The girl nodded and then pointed at her ear. “Shooting right beside your ear will almost certainly deafen you.”

“I have protection.” She stared at him for a moment and then shrugged as if to say it was his funeral. She hefted her rifle, checked the safety, and nodded. He turned and felt her move right behind him. Then he stepped to the left, which meant they moved out of the cover provided by the vehicle. He knew which man out there was the mentalist and hit him with the Mental Control spell, which slithered off his mental shield, then the much more showy fireball spell, Crack! The rifle fired, and his sound-muffling spell did its job. The rifle sounded like it was a hundred meters away, not a few centimeters! The mentalist went down. He shoved the girl sideways, and the slash from the other mentalist impacted the front edge of the overturned vehicle, cutting off a large chunk of metal.