Eden's Hammer (16 page)

CHAPTER 16

March 26, noon

A
drian stood before the assembled
men. He looked them over, noting they appeared eager to get on with the fight, as they should be. They were facing not only a threat to their lives, but to their families, their homes and their hard won crops; and they had been training hard. Good training made men eager to fight, to test what they had learned, and themselves. This was a hard looking bunch, reminding him of what the early American militias must have looked like. Each man dressed according to his own taste, weapons of all kinds and makes, mostly they were bearded and skinny from the daily work of surviving by their own hands for years. They were fiercely independent individuals that had come together to face a common threat. These men were the new salt of the American nation, its new backbone. These men, these pioneers, he now believed would fight fiercely and well.

Adrian raised his voice to be heard all the way to the back. “Men, this will be the last time I’ll be able to gather you together in a bunch and shout. From here on, orders will come to you by chain of command, quietly and while we are trying to stay invisible to the enemy. So I’ll take this occasion to make a short speech.

“Patton said, ‘
No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.’ Remember that as we face a vicious enemy willing to die to take our village, to rape our women and our children, and then kill them. That is their goal, their desire, their driving need. They will do this if it kills them, and it’s our job to kill them. They have us outnumbered, but we have them outclassed. We
will
kill them before they can get here! We will do it by attacking them in the field, and attacking with a fierceness they have never encountered in their lives, or dreamed of in their worst nightmares. Your job is to kill them, not to get killed yourself.

“We will take losses, that’s a fact. If we stick to discipline and training, we will minimize our losses to the maximum extent possible. But even under the best of circumstances, some of you will die on this campaign. I will not come back alive if we lose. You need to have a clear picture of this in your minds. We are going to fight to the last stand, to the last bullet, to the last man. I don’t believe it will come to that, but each of you has to be prepared for it in your own heart. This is your last chance; if you aren’t willing to die for your family and friends, then you need to stay behind. If you’re not willing to lay down your life, you could do us more harm than good, and I would rather not have you with us. If you can’t make that commitment, simply stay behind when we march, or fall back at any time along the way before the shooting starts.

“I also want every man to know this: if you die, after we win, your family will be taken care of. We will see to it that they have everything they need. They will not be abandoned after your sacrifice; they will want for nothing.

“We attack day after tomorrow at dawn. The ambush team has already left to begin killing, harassing, and slowing them down for us.”

The men looked back at Adrian with a solemnity that spoke of their determination. Adrian didn’t believe a single man would stay behind or return before the fighting started, but he had to make it clear they could.

The men remained silent. Many looking down, some were looking around at the other men, wondering who wouldn’t come back. All of them were wondering if they would be coming back. Most of the men were looking at Adrian. There were no jokes about speeches or bear cubs this time.

Adrian waited a long moment and then shouted, “Let’s move out!”

March 27, early morning

Perry, Matthew, Roman, and Tim were the guerilla team and were already in position to watch the raiders. They were older and slower on foot than the main body, but they were also intelligent, experienced, and more than willing. The four men had been watching one of the raider groups since the sun had come up. Perry was, by unstated consent, leading the team. These four men had known each other for decades and knew each other well. They had many common bonds, not the least of which was they were all military veterans. Each had different strengths and talents, and each was primarily a lone wolf. They let Perry lead because of his unusual ability to out think any of the other three on just about any topic. A tough act with these men.

Perry said, “Okay, they’ll be crossing the meadow in about half an hour. Tim, you set up here with your fifty-cal and take out the lead man. Matt, you move to that small grove of trees to be closer. Roman, you take position behind that pile of boulders. I’ll be in that draw just over there; we’ll have them in a neat crossfire. I’ll take the number two man as soon as Tim shoots, and Matt will take the number three guy, and Roman the fourth man. Tim, you take the shot when they are halfway across the meadow. That will put them in our range.

“That’s all we are here to do for now—one shot each, two at the most. Tim, you’ll cover us with one more shots if needed. Take out whoever you can and make them hunker for a few minutes. We leave immediately and spread out, meeting up as soon as we can at the old windmill. From there, we go into watch mode, figure out our next ambush spot. Any questions?”

Tim asked, “Why not take a few more? We’ve got the room for it, and there’ll be several exposed.”

Perry replied, “Because that’s not the mission. The mission is to hit fast and run fast, you old codger, and you can’t run fast.”

“So you’re saying if I could run faster, we could kill more?”

“No, not really. I was just poking at you for a reaction. Fact is that staying too long at an ambush is a tactical error. Adrian explained it some, and he’s right. Our mission is to slow them down, make them timid about moving forward. Killing some of them is the means to that end. Killing more than four or five does not slow them down any more than killing six or seven would. We could sit here and kill eight or even ten, but then they have a much better chance of getting one or more of us because we stayed too long. On the other hand, by killing four or five and getting away, we can do it again and again. In the long run, we’ll kill more of them by not getting too greedy. Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered, you know. We want to be pigs, not hogs. The more often we can hit them in different places, the more timid they’ll all become, and that definitely enhances our mission. One or two hits will make them timid. Ten or fifteen hits spread all over the place will make them downright scared to move. Our job is to hit them and survive, and hit them and survive, over and over and over.”

“Yeah, I know, it’s just like you said: I get greedy. Okay, I’ll do it your way,” Tim said with a wink.

Roman jumped in, “Are you sure it’s hogs that get slaughtered? I always thought it was the other way around. I’m not much in favor of being called a pig.”

Perry, realizing he’d been subtly poked back by Tim and knowing that Roman liked to make irrelevant statements in a crisis just to see the reactions, his sense of humor being somewhat strange, smiled ruefully and said, “All right, then, let’s go.”

Forty minutes later, the raider in the lead seemed to briefly levitate in the middle of the meadow. Perry knew it wasn’t the hard hit from the fifty-caliber bullet; it was the man’s final reflex action of his life, the bullet must have torn his spine out sending one massive spasm signal to the muscles. As the raider crumbled to the ground a spray of blood covered the man behind him and simultaneously, the sound of the fifty-caliber sniper rifle boomed in the distance. Perry had his bead drawn on the second man already, as Matt had on the third man and Roman on the fourth. Within a half-second of the lead man dropping, Perry, Matt, and Roman fired simultaneously. Three more men dropped—less dramatically, but just as dead.

Perry took off. He had taken only a few steps when he heard the roar of the fifty-caliber again and knew another raider was down. He did not turn to look or slow down. All four men took diverging paths, and quickly melted into the woods. Their rendezvous had been chosen carefully. It was easy to find, southwest of the raider’s line so that if they tried the circling maneuver, they would be outside the circle. It was far enough away to be out of the raiders’ immediate reach, but close enough for them to get to without exhausting themselves.

Tim arrived first and set up immediately to provide cover fire if need be. Within half an hour, Perry came in. Tim spotted him from a distance, losing sight of him most of the time as Perry used the terrain for cover. Ten minutes later, Matt came in and five minutes after that Roman joined them.

Perry said, “Five down, and they’ll be considerably slower moving forward. Now, let’s look at the map and pick our next attack. We have time for more ambushes before Adrian hits them, then our job changes to flank support. I’m thinking we can do more damage if we split up and hit them individually.”

Matt said, “I like that idea. We can spread out and operate on our own. Pop up here and there, hit fast, and then drift off and do it again. I like it. When do we start?”

Tim said, “First thing tomorrow.”

Roman chimed in, “Good, I’m getting tired of taking care of you guys.”

Perry laughed. “I guess we are in accord, then. Okay, let’s get together every night and compare notes. I’ll take the north end of their line. Tim, you and Roman take each side of center, and Matt the south end. Choose your spots as they present themselves to you. With luck, we may be able to each hit them two or three times tomorrow. That should keep them sticking in tight cover and moving slow. I still think it best if we each go for one or two kills max in these solo ambushes. Tim might take up to three if he has enough range on them. We can meet up tomorrow evening at the little waterfall on Mill’s Creek.” Perry showed them the spot on the map; he had been fishing there before.

By dawn the next morning, Matt had gotten into position. He easily found the raider’s camp by their campfires. The raiders still seemed bent on being obvious. As the light increased, he saw two scouts moving towards him. They were walking along an old fence line, staying in the cover of the brush and trees that had grown up next to it.

Matt thought about how that would work out when he started shooting. These two men could come around behind him if he waited much longer.
On the other hand
, he thought,
why not take them out? That would be twice as effective because I would also be putting their eyes out.
With that, Matt eased back from his chosen ambush spot, and using terrain and tree cover, moved into a spot up the fence line, took cover, and waited.

He had noted that the two scouts stayed side by side as they walked and this gave him another idea. He’d been carrying one of his modified shotguns strapped over his back. Why not wait until they are close then take them both? With that in mind, he placed his M4 on the ground next to him and took the shotgun off the sling. He lay back down and waited.

Forty-five minutes later, he could hear them coming. The fools were occasionally talking to each other and not whispering. They were bitching about being singled out for scout duty; neither appreciated being away from the main group. Within a couple of minutes, he could see them coming towards him, they were still walking only a couple of feet apart. They were moving slowly and looking around with focused attention. Since the shotgun only had two shots before reloading Matt decided that when he fired the second shot, he would drop down and grab the M4 and pop back up shooting again, if need be.

When the two men were twenty yards away, Matt popped up, shotgun at his shoulder. He came up with the shotgun already aimed at the man on the right and he fired, moving his finger to the rear trigger as he swung left, and when he was centered on the man’s chest, he fired again. Both men were virtually blown apart in just over a second. He reloaded, shouldered the shotgun on its strap and picked up his M4. Then he walked up to the two bodies. The amount of carnage the .779 saboted slugs had wreaked upon the two men was extreme. Both men were hit center mass. The entry wounds were the size of the slug, but the exit wounds were almost as big around as a pie plate. The massive slug had penetrated and then mushroomed, just as designed. Matt looked around and then moved back up the fence line quickly. He had plenty of time for two more assaults on the raiders. In the distance, he heard the booming voice of Tim’s fifty-caliber. Then two more booms two seconds apart.
Tim doesn’t miss
—
he nailed three more in a bit over three seconds. Damn glad he’s on our side.

Tim lay down beside his rifle. He had dug the bipod’s legs slightly into the ground so there would be no wobble after the first shot. The scope made the men look as though they were only a few feet away. The way it gathered in light made the early dawn seem to be high noon. “Range just over nine-hundred yards, no wind, simple shot.” He had set the cross hairs for a dead on aim point for the distance. “Best bet is to wait until two or three of them are lined up, take the closest one, then move the sight up a hair and take the second one. Might get a third if he doesn’t drop behind cover too quickly.”

Matt waited what seemed like hours for three men to move into a line with each other. He heard distant twin booms, almost simultaneous shots.
Damn, I bet Matt is playing with his shotgun, nothing else sounds like that meat eater.
Matt smiled while watching through his scope, the distant gunfire had made the raiders visibly nervous. Two minutes later he had his three men lined up. As soon as he did he fired the first shot and recovered his sight profile after the resulting movement from the recoil. He then moved the sights up a hair onto the second man and squeezed the trigger. As soon as he recovered the sight picture again the third man had moved forward directly into the aim spot and Tim fired a third time.