— 16 —
The northwest road made the most sense, Bull finally decided. Going that way he had the chance to switch northward or westward if he ran into difficulties. The abundance of cities and fairly open spaces made it easy terrain to negotiate rapidly. Going that way would also avoid the potential pitfalls of the mountains on the northerly route and the forests of the westerly route.
His officers approached his tank expectantly. Bull glanced at Corporal Ennis, who gave him a knowing look and smiled.
"How much did you bet?" Bull asked his young corporal.
"I've got fifty credits riding on your taking the central route, sir," Corporal Ennis replied easily.
"I hope you made the overlays as well as you placed that bet," Bull told him.
"Yes indeed!" Ennis answered, displaying the carefully rolled clear overlays clenched in his right hand. "I'll bet you didn't think I'd've thought of it, sir."
"How much?" Bull asked.
"Hmm." Ennis frowned, stroking his chin. "Maybe you did think I'd do it."
"Maybe," Bull agreed. The lieutenants were now upon them. "Let's hope you did a good job."
"Yes sir." Ennis sobered. With a wave of his hand at the overlays he added, "These have got lives riding on them."
"Maybe ours," Bull agreed. Then he turned to face the officers below him. He scanned their faces, trying to divine their feelings. Dyer looked confident, almost cocky. Peyton was quiet and attentive. Bravo India's platoon leader was fidgety and obviously eager to impress and afraid to fail. To the massed officers he said, "Well, gentlemen, it appears that my corporal has taken on the abilities of a mind reader. I've promised him that I won't trade him to Intelligence just yet.
"We're going to be heading out of here by the central northwest route. I believe it'll be faster and allow us a greater chance to switch directions if we have to. Use the overlays Corporal Ennis is handing out—hand them out now, Ennis—they'll provide us with a degree of security."
Bull managed to intercept a copy. "I see he's learned how to label phaselines. That might prove useful. One thing I must stress, gentlemen, is that we cannot afford to retreat out of any conflict. We have to clear the road for the softskinned vehicles Sergeant Major Ogren is leading. If they don't get through, this exercise is pointless."
He paused to let that message sink in. Then he looked at the overlays again. Slammers did not normally use phaselines, relying on instant computer displays to show the locations of all known enemy and friendly troops. Phaselines had been used extensively in the twentieth century by commanders not so equipped to keep track of the progress of their sub-elements. Without the satellites to spot for them, the Slammers were reduced to such primitive techniques. Each phaseline was drawn across a particular landmark, normally a town, and was used to let Bull know where his sub-elements were located.
"Our route takes us to a tee junction, left to the town of Plains and straight on to the city of Heatherlake. Those are phaselines Yellow, Aqua, and Green respectively. From there we'll either go west to Tooey, phaseline Amber, or continue north and finally west to the town of Regarra, phaseline Gold. The wreckage, phaseline Iridium, isn't too far away from that town. Are there any questions?"
"Yes sir," Lieutenant Peyton replied. "What's the order of march and what sort of formation are we using?"
Bull hadn't answered that question for himself yet. Obviously, now was the time to find the answer. While he could change the formation later, the need for speed would always conflict with the need for a good combat formation which conformed to the demands of the terrain. He outlined in his mind the formations he thought best suited: a tank shield with the skimmers close in behind his two platoons of panzers to keep them safe from small-arms fire, or a tank forward recon with the infantry poised to mop up any trouble.
If Lieutenant Bromley chooses to use the tank shield formation, turn to section 19.
If he chooses to send the tanks forward in recon, turn to section 20.