As Reagan had said, a week after the Poke's Pride battle command post issued the preliminary order of attack, the 4th Brigade of the 33rd Ground Assault Division, where Augustus served, finally set out in early July.
Augustus was only a corporal, not important enough to know any more details about the battle. Even Platoon Leader Reagan had been told that he could see only the parts of the June 23, 2488 Preliminary Order of Attack that concerned his own unit.
In short: Arcturus Mengsk's 2nd and 4th Brigades of the 33rd Ground Assault Division would depart Poke's Pride's lower city seven days later, at 1:00 a.m. on July 1.
They would cross the Paddick River at the Yesha Town ford, twenty miles downstream from Poke's Pride, then circle around to the Vellino area, a town east of Poke's Pride under Kel-Morian control, and launch their attack at 1:00 a.m. the following day, July 2. The 7th and 8th Avenger Wings of Alpha Squadron and the 1st Bomber Wing would provide fire support for the attacking forces.
In the early hours of July 1, Augustus and his squad were already suited up in Power Armor and ready to move. With too few vehicles available, the 4th Brigade and its sister brigade had to make a forced march on foot to the Yesha Town ford.
Wearing CMC Power Armor, Augustus's squad ran in a column of four behind Reagan, the 3rd Platoon leader, along a dusty dirt road. The 4th Squad of 2nd Platoon was ahead of them, and 2nd Squad of 3rd Platoon behind. The squads were about forty yards apart. Their powered boots struck the ground with a dull, drumlike thud, like metal giants pounding across the earth.
Whether Augustus looked ahead or behind, helmets bobbing up and down and shoulders marked with wolf-head insignias stretched as far as the eye could see. A silver-gray tide advanced tirelessly across Turaxis's deep-green landscape at an average speed of five miles per hour.
Augustus couldn't help thinking that if a Ground Assault Division of twenty to thirty thousand soldiers were all equipped with Power Armor, the military expense would be beyond anything he could imagine.
It also helped explain why, even with the Terran Confederacy's vast resources and hundreds of billions of people across countless planets sharing the burden of a single war, its people still felt so deeply overtaxed.
As Augustus and the others ran, heavy trailers loaded with Arclite Siege Tanks and Goliath Combat Robots, along with self-propelled artillery, rumbled past them. Whenever a trailer packed with tanks and walking mechs went by, the tank crews and mech pilots waved to the soldiers.
Meanwhile, a wing of about forty-five Avengers constantly escorted the marching army from the sky.
As he marched with the troops, Augustus kept wondering what the rest of the preliminary order of attack said. The deployment of the 2nd and 4th Brigades made it clear that High Command wasn't limiting itself to a frontal assault across the Paddick River. Instead, it had chosen to attack the flank of Poke's Pride, which was under Kel-Morian control.
But those two brigades could hardly be the only forces making the flanking maneuver. A deployment on that scale would be impossible for the Kel-Morians to miss. If High Command meant for these troops to launch a surprise attack, it probably wouldn't work.
Unless the Kel-Morians were all blind and deaf.
Just then, a thunderous roar sounded overhead. Some soldiers stopped to stare at the sky, drawing furious shouts from the officers.
The squad's comm channel erupted with awestruck curses. Above them, a spindle-shaped orbital station was falling.
As the enormous station entered the atmosphere, it blazed with brilliant light. From where Augustus and the others stood, it looked like a huge fireball plummeting from the sky. With an earth-shaking crash, it slammed into the distant forest.
The battle in Turaxis's synchronous orbit seemed to have reached its conclusion.
By the time the 4th Brigade's vanguard and its 2nd Battalion had reached Yesha Town and crossed the Paddick River by ferry, the Kel-Morian Scout arrived too late. When Augustus's squad stepped off a converted civilian steamboat onto the river's north bank, the Confederacy's Avengers had already driven the Scout away.
The river at the Yesha Town ford was narrower than the stretch running through downtown Poke's Pride. Across the river lay undeveloped land, where the mugwort grew taller than Augustus's knees, even with his Power Armor on.
The waterlogged mugwort along the riverbank was slippery. Augustus had to extend the hooked cleats on his powered boots and drive them into the mud to keep from slipping and tumbling into the river.
Before the 5th Battalion, one unlucky soldier from the 3rd Battalion had fallen at the riverbank and flipped into the Paddick River. A dozen local fishermen were now searching for him in their boats.
Worse, he'd been made a laughingstock. Whenever a unit passed through the ford, the sergeant major stationed there used his mishap as an example to remind the next troops to be careful.
After crossing the Paddick River, the 4th Brigade's battalions continued north. The vegetation on the north bank was thicker and denser than on the south, and the Marines sometimes had to push through jungle that reached a man's height. Fortunately, in their Power Armor, they were all towering giants, so they could keep track of the people ahead of them.
The sun had only just risen. Scattered gunshots rang out in the distance, and Augustus guessed the vanguard had run into Kel-Morian scouts.
Augustus hadn't seen a single Kel-Morian himself. He kept an eye on the sky and the ground, watching for mines and sudden air raids. So far, though, everything had gone smoothly.
It wasn't until two that afternoon that the 5th Battalion, including Augustus, emerged from the forest. Beyond it lay rolling open ground, with the faint silhouettes of buildings visible in the distance.
To the northeast of the forest, at Augustus's two o'clock, several high ground positions were linked by trenches. Near them stood a small village, where a dozen wooden houses were burning fiercely.
As soon as Augustus stepped out of the forest, the vanguard ahead engaged a Kel-Morian force. An artillery position lay at ten o'clock, and shells whistled over Augustus and the others.
One landed not far to Augustus's right. A fountain of mud, roots, and shrapnel erupted from the earth. Clods of dirt rained down across a hundred-yard area, leaving behind a crater roughly twenty to twenty-six feet wide and ten feet deep.
The shock wave nearly knocked Augustus off his feet despite his Power Armor. Shrapnel ricocheted into his chest and shoulder plates, leaving dents a finger deep.
The squads near the impact scattered at once and hit the ground. Augustus jumped straight into the crater the shell had left.
"What's our mission?" Augustus asked over the squad-and-platoon comm channel.
"Our target is the Z-103 high ground at two o'clock!" Reagan shouted over the comm channel.
"Get moving! Open fire!"
Thanks to A Dream of a Thousand Years, One Man's Loneliness, Bookworm 01, XMD01, Good-for-Nothing, and the Unspun Cocoon for the monthly passes. Thanks to commandllche for the tip, and thanks for the recommendation tickets, investments, and support.
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