Nathan Jones - Determination

And, more importantly, what all those things had celebrated. Still celebrated. What they were fighting for, beyond just their lives. That reminder and the chance to celebrate something raised all their spirits, which was always important.

The next day the blockheads got out of their trucks and began prowling the valley below, making their way closer and closer to the foothills. Trev wasn’t sure if this new behavior was part of some larger plan, or if it was a response to them flying the flags yesterday. A show of force in the face of their defiance?

Either way, when he called it in Davis wasn’t surprised by the news. “They’re scouring the land below the foothills all up and down these mountains,” he replied. “They seem to have abandoned going for the roads, and we turned back their attempt to break through in a large scale attack. Command seems to think they’ll try for a creeping advance, pushing their way forward cautiously on all sides. They’ll either press us until they tire us out and run us out of ammunition, or they’ll push us back until we expose a weakness they can exploit.”

Trev didn’t like the sound of that. An outright attack they could beat back and be done with. Constant pressure day in and day out would wear out his squad and run them ragged. “Do you have new orders for us?”

There was a long pause. “No, keep doing what you’re doing. Avoid engaging them unless they attack or provide an opportunity too good to pass up. We’ll see what they do over the next few days before we decide to change anything.”

“All right. Any news from the fighting in other areas? It’s always nice to hear about a victory.”

Davis snorted. “Precious few of those these days. There is some good news, though. The Chinese soldiers fighting General Erickson along the Wasatch Front to the north are showing signs of radiation sickness. Visible signs, so it must be pretty bad for them.”

Trev supposed that made sense, since they were so close to the fallout zone around Hill Air Force Base. “Are our people in the area getting exposed?”

“A bit. The mountains seem to be redirecting the prevailing winds away from the General’s positions, but his soldiers are starting to show minor symptoms. There’s talk of pulling farther up into the Wasatch Range and letting the blockheads fry, but that would open our northwest front.”

The sergeant had been sounding impatient, and he abruptly changed topics. “Listen, Smith, it’s been nice chatting but I’ve got a lot to do. Best of luck out there, and call in if you need anything.”

Trev glanced at his team, who’d paused to rest while he reported in. “We’re backing up to the westernmost foothills.”

“We’re letting them have the foothills without a fight?” Rick protested. “We’ve done a lot of work here.”

“I didn’t say we wouldn’t fight.” Trev scooted up enough to glance over the hill they were sitting on. It was one of the taller ones, and from it he could see the blockheads moving in the valley below. They were nowhere near the foothills. Yet. “Let’s see how close they want to come. If they see us patrolling farther down they might decide to stop, and once they stop their next move will be finding a way to hit us. I’d rather they saunter into an ambush and we be the ones to hit them.”

That, or pulling back would buy them the few days Davis wanted before deciding what to do next. Trev didn’t like being reactive, since it meant the enemy got to control the fight. So he’d spend the time making his own plans just in case.

Motioning, he led the way down the hill and back towards their camp.

Lewis had quieted down his attacks over the last six days.

Part of it was that he didn’t want to provoke another retaliation against the Aspen Hill townspeople. They were better hidden now, even the remaining truck, although aside from the helicopter strike the blockheads hadn’t tried to hit them that night. The enemy had saved attacking in force for the region farther south.

That aside, the main reason he’d quieted his attacks was because the enemy kept changing things up to discourage him trying anything major. He doubted he’d get off any really damaging missile or truck-mounted M2 attacks, at least without exposing his people to greater risks than he was prepared to take at the moment. Not to mention that they only had so much .50 BMG ammo and their missiles were almost gone.

Instead, after a lot of discussion with the town’s defenders and his growing group of volunteers, he’d settled on sporadic sniper attacks. There were plenty of targets below, even careful as the enemy had become. It was a lot easier to sneak up close enough to take a few shots, then either go to ground or flee to safety before the blockheads could respond.

Since it was something they could do in small groups, or even with just one person, they managed seven attacks in the first three days since the helicopter strike. Of those only five had confirmed kills, only one with multiple enemies dead. It was a long term strategy, one meant to slowly grind the enemy down and destroy their morale while exposing his people to as little risk as possible.

And Lewis wasn’t taking any chances. He carefully planned even those minor attacks before the team went out, and had another team cover them just in case. They spent agonizing hours at night sneaking to their planned positions, and always struck from a different spot and did their best to avoid establishing any predictable patterns. And the defender patrols and sentries on duty watched the valley below like hawks so the enemy couldn’t surprise them.

Although the blockheads certainly tried. On the fourth day his dad radioed in to warn that small teams of enemy soldiers were doing their best to sneak up into the foothills and lower slopes to set up their own hidden sniper posts. It was obvious they wanted to punish any future attacks, and it was a threat Lewis took seriously.

He tried sniping one of the new posts, bringing Jane, Tam, and Carl along a concealed path they’d used before. But as careful as they were the enemy proved more dangerous than expected, and they found themselves under fire the moment they popped up to begin searching for targets. There was no choice but to flee back to safety, Lewis sporting a wicked graze on his hip from a near miss to remind him of the incident.

After that he reluctantly decided to call off the sniping attacks for a while. Instead he had his volunteers sneak down to protected positions, where they could cover the area in case the blockhead snipers tried to sneak even closer. Those positions were well out of range and sight of the enemy teams below, but well situated to cover the ground between.

The blockheads seemed content with just stopping Lewis’s sniper attacks, so for the next three days it was a bit of a standoff. That gave the Aspen Hill refugees a bit of breathing room to properly celebrate the 4 thof July, and from the sounds of things it was something to remember. Lewis wished he could’ve been there to enjoy it too, but he wasn’t about to let his guard down.

Instead he spent the time going over plans to have his people circle far around, maybe help Colonel Grimes’s soldiers to the north or Davis’s volunteers to the south by hitting at the blockheads in those areas.

It would mean traveling a lot farther for each attack, but the enemies there might not be expecting it and wouldn’t be quite as prepared to defend against it. It might also take pressure off the Aspen Hill area and encourage the enemy to divert some of the troops there to other locations.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who had the idea of circling far around. As he discovered just after midnight of the seventh day since the helicopter attack.