Max Velocity - Patriot Dawn - The Resistance Rises

Jack felt that because he was not currently conducting any concentration of force type deliberate operations, he could spare the fire support platoon. For the time being, the only assets he had back at the original locations were the platoon at the Zulu Delta patrol base, two platoons up at Victor Foxtrot, and the supplements from the defecting soldiers. He kept the new location secret from the new draft, at least for now, to keep a firewall up between any potential treachery and the families.

Equipment and supply transfer operations went on for a week, moving vehicles from the various laager locations and the excess food and fuel supplies. Jack intended that once it was complete, and the fire support platoon was freed up to return to Victor Foxtrot, he would be left with a light force freed up from logistical stores and family members. Thus, Zulu would no longer be a factor and Victor Foxtrot could easily be abandoned if compromised. The bulk of stores would be at the new location, which they had named Yankee.

For the duration of the move operation, Jack had pulled all patrols from the valley, so he had all his forces either at Yankee, at Victor Foxtrot, or at the Zulu Delta patrol base. He had also sent a coded message on the network to Bill, letting him know that operation ‘Cold Hearth’ was underway.

2nd Platoon was currently occupying the patrol base Zulu Delta down by the now abandoned Zulu. They had remained in place to provide protection and a patrol screen to the recently completed take down operations that had been going on, with Zulu now finally stripped of all they could take. Jack was going to pull them out over the next couple of days and consolidate at Victor Foxtrot.

Jack and Jim were up at Victor Foxtrot with the tactical headquarters and 1st and 3rd Platoons. They were doing some maintenance training that was also designed to integrate the new draft of soldiers into their ranks.

The guys from Cobb’s 82nd Airborne platoon fitted in well, they were trained and experienced light infantry soldiers. In contrast, the convoy troops left a lot to be desired, and it was a steep learning curve for them. Some of them were moved out to supply roles and similar, to which their level of fitness and motivation suited them better. Only a few proved suitable for the teams, and they were integrated as battle casualty replacements where possible.

Cobb would have preferred to have kept his men together, but Jack agreed with Jim that this was not a good idea. Granted, the two groups had moved past the trust point by now, the turned Regime soldiers were too far into it to be forgiven by the Regime. However, it was partly to split them up for security reasons, but also to make sure they became integrated into the mindset and experience of the Company, rather than continue in a regular army mindset. Jack’s fighters were after all Resistance fighters who could operate in small teams or alternatively concentrate up to Company level, as they had trained and demonstrated so well.

What Jack agreed to do as a compromise with Cobb was to let him keep each of the individual squads of the 82nd soldiers together. The three squads would be bolted-on to the three infantry platoons. This would mean that they would not follow the exact same model that the fighters had been trained in, and would not be able to operate as IED teams, but they would add value as infantry squads as an asset to each platoon. They could also be used as an organic fire support asset for each platoon, utilizing their support weapons training.

Val was in 3rd Platoon, and Jack put Cobb and his squad in with her. The two of them had developed a bond since their joint adventure and it seemed like a good idea to keep them together. The second squad went to Caleb’s first platoon and the third one was allocated to 2nd Platoon but would wait up at Victor Foxtrot until they rotated out of Zulu Delta.

Duty at Zulu Delta was not exciting. It was good operational patrolling experience, and battle discipline had to be maintained. It was not a camping trip, despite whatever was happening up the valley in Zulu itself; it was a tactical operation.

The patrol base itself was defended by a routine of sentry duties, while squads or teams would push out one at a time to conduct patrolling and surveillance activity in the valley.

It could be interesting work. The woods were by no means empty, although it was not that frequent that they got hunters or survival groups this far into the hills. They got some though, but if they were out here they tended to be self-reliant hunter types.

Zulu, and now Zulu Delta, had always tried to be covert and avoid any attention from travelers or hunters passing through. It posed a dilemma. If a patrol came across anyone, they aimed to remain covert, observe, and report back to base.

Occasionally a hunting or survivor party had stumbled into Zulu before Zulu Delta was in place. It posed a problem, even now with the patrol base. What to do with them? So far there had not been any Regime foot patrols — the assumption was that aerial surveillance would be the method of choice — but there had been unaffiliated survivors.

It had never led to a firefight because the training of the patrols and sentry positions had so far led to the Resistance getting the drop on any approaching groups. On the rare occasions that they had encountered anyone and been compromised they had ended up detaining and questioning them. In those instances they had absorbed the survivors willingly into Zulu. It had seemed preferable to word getting out and the intercepted survivors had been happy to find food and shelter.

A day or so before 2nd Platoon were due to pull out back to Victor Foxtrot, a four man team was out on patrol two kilometers to the north of Zulu Delta. They were patrolling slowly northwards on the slope above the trail that led down to the south to Zulu. They were hand-railing the trail, some hundred meters upslope above it, occasionally stopping to observe the trail through the trees.

Mid-morning they moved into the cover of a slight depression in the slope, obscured by some undergrowth, and went into listening watch mode. They had moved just upslope of the small game trail they had actually been following.

They were in position for around fifteen minutes when a bird broke cover from the trees in noisy flight some hundred meters to the north. The team tensed and waited, observing.

A short while later some figures came into view on the game trail. They were moving slowly south, following the game trail in single file, apparently doing exactly what the team was doing but in reverse.

As they came closer, it was obvious that these were soldiers, but not line infantry. There were four of them and they appeared to be wearing some sort of highly effective non-standard camouflage clothing. They wore plate carrier chest rigs covered in magazine pouches, and they wore it easily in a professional manner that appeared to sit lightly on them. They had daypacks loaded with gear. Their helmets were without fabric covers and cut high, boom mikes extending forwards across their faces. They had Special Operations Forces written all over them.

As the team observed, the Regime team stopped and went to one knee. They made no sounds, accomplishing this with a quick hand signal. The point man was observing forwards, scanning the trees with an optic on his weapon. The rear man turned to kneel facing the rear. The center two faced outwards, opposite to each other.

The second man appeared to be the leader. He pulled what looked like a GPS out of a pouch and looked at it, then looked around him. Then he pulled some sort of monocular optic out of another pouch. He proceeded to look around, peering up the trail with one eye glued to the device. He then scanned slowly to the flanks, passing the optic towards and then over the position where the Resistance team lay.