TEOTWAWKI: Beacon's Story (21 page)

Their teenaged children, the children of privilege, had lots of experience playing with the latest top of the line civilian weaponry but hadn't been through eight weeks of basic training or a further eight more weeks of advanced infantry training like Darkin's men had. Although their youthful sense of invincibility and lust for adventure might lure them towards the warpath, their parents knew better than to expect bloodless combat.

Doc couldn't just issue orders and expect them to be followed. Even with the support of the Board of Directors he'd need the wholehearted support of virtually all of the shareholders to go to war.

Doc asked Beacon if he'd mind speaking to the assembled shareholders at the Castle Keep later that evening.

The Castle Keep at the center of the spider web of roads and trails enclosed by the walls and fortified villas was indeed a fortress Beacon saw as they walked to the shareholder's meeting. Windowless, constructed of large blocks of stone its only openings were its gate and loopholes beginning at its second story.

The Castle Keep's gate led to a passageway lined with loopholes that ended at an amphitheatre which could double as a sniping balcony from which shareholders could fire upon any enemy foolish to break through the gate and lucky enough to have made it past the murder holes into the keep proper. It was as round as the fortress that enclosed it. Beacon stood in the wings watching the crowd as Doc outlined the situation to the assembled shareholders.

Although there were no obvious physical dividers he could see family groups seated around the empty central area with teenagers visiting between families as children ran and played everywhere.

Doc outlined the situation to the shareholders then he called Beacon still wearing his Colt forty-five, into the assembly room to answer questions. Beacon felt like the pony in a dog and pony show. Or maybe, he mused, he was the dog.

Beacon verified that everything Doc had said about the raiders was true and finished with, "Ambushes and raids while Colonel Darkin is fighting his way up hill will be less costly to you than waiting for him to blast down your wall. Failure to make a decision is a decision in favor of the status quo and right now that status quo isn't looking good."

Elaine shouted out "Why do you care what happens to us?"

Beacon answered even as Doc was banging the gavel for order. "Colonel Darkin is building a kingdom. He won't be satisfied with taking your castle homes from you, he wants a safe place from which to launch invasions and your castle is it. Once he's digested your holdings he'll move on his neighbors and that's my settlement."

Several people nodded, but Elaine looked unimpressed so Beacon continued. "Like it or not, our old way of life is gone forever. Your foresight in building this refuge will provide you and your children with a safe haven today and the groundwork for a dynasty, if you can hold it."

Molly raised her hand and Doc called on her.

Molly stood up. "In school we learned that in ancient times just aiming a cannon at a city's gates could cause the whole town to surrender without a shot being fired." Beacon knew that to be true, but was surprised to hear it from someone so young. Molly must have been one of those kids who stayed awake in class.

Molly was still talking, "If that's what these guys intend to do, so they can steal our stuff and live in our houses, they'll set up at the bottom of the valley outside of Doc's rifle range and threaten us. And if they do that we could maybe stall'em long enough to maybe raid'em some night and steal their cannon."

Molly was showing tactical wisdom beyond her young years. With the cannon the Castle Corp. could command their whole valley without having to venture outside their wall.

In a demeaning voice Elaine said, "Sit down girl and let your elders handle this."

Beacon interrupted Elaine, "This young woman has drawn the blood of your enemies, and her tactics are sound. The enemy is bringing the fight to you. To survive you'll have to bring the fight to them before they can shell your homes from the bottom of the valley. You've got to destroy or capture that cannon." If looks could kill Elaine's would have decapitated Beacon right then.

"You're an outsider, you have no say here!"

But Doc was on Molly's side too. "Let the girl continue, she at least," he said with a meaningful look at Elaine, "put her hand up and waited to be called."

Elaine bristled, "I'm a member of the board of directors! I don't have to put my hand up to speak!"

"But, by Robert's Rules of Order you do have to be recognized by the chair and that's me and I haven’t recognized you! Molly has the floor."

Molly's plan had her and her rider friends hooking up ropes from their horses to the cannon. Two horses would have a sling between them to support the "tail thingies sticking out the back of the cannon" keeping them off the ground while six other riders would pull the big gun with ropes from their horses.

The plan was risky. The citadel would be putting a major percentage of its horseflesh and their children in harms way. The plan would hinge on the raiders positioning the cannon on or near the central road near the bottom of the valley.

And that was the death of Molly's plan. To make a swift getaway with the cannon they'd need a road and at its farthest point the valley road put the castle well within the cannon's range.

Also, something would have to be done to keep the raiders from shooting the riders and their horses as they rode in the open up the straight road all the way up to the citadel gate.

A single burst from one of the machine guns at the clustered cavalry could wipe out Molly's Marauders as Beacon dubbed them in his head as he heard her plan.

Molly realized the plan was unworkable as she outlined it and withdrew it herself much to Elaine's satisfaction.

Doc thanked her for trying and pointed to Beacon's upraised hand, "Molly has the right strategy we just need to twist the tactics a bit," he said, "The soldier's paychecks have been replaced by promises of plunder while the consequences of mutiny or desertion disappeared with the government that issued the paychecks," Beacon said, "Dragging the cannon and all its thirty plus pound shells up the mountainside is hard work. If Molly's Marauders can throw ambushes and night raids into the mix the tired sleepless men might just desert in numbers that will cripple or derail Colonel Darken's plans to the point where he'll have to abandon the attack."

"Molly's Marauders?" Dock looked confused then brightened, "I like it!"

Beacon continued, "If we can hit Colonel Darkin hard enough and often enough while his men are working his way up the valley the combination of hard physical labor without immediate reward and constant ambushes might start his men deserting and even if they don't all quit every man we kill, wound or drive off down there is one less you'll have to face if Darkin gets up here."

Without experienced military leadership Molly's Marauders would experience huge losses until the survivors learned the hard lessons of warfare. Beacon didn't intend to let that happen. He stood behind Molly offering suggestions and personally reconnoitered each ambush point.

The first ambush was simple. Beacon placed five of the most athletic among Molly's Marauders at the head of a small curved valley empting out into the large valley just ahead of Colonel Darkin's men. The three boys and two girls followed orders and fired five aimed shots before retreating up the smaller valley. They got three hits and were out of sight rounding the bend behind them while Col. Darkin's men were still hugging the ground. The rogue reservists didn't fire a single return shot. The five jumped on horses held for them by their friends and were long gone before Col. Darkin could organize a defense or pursuit.

Late in the afternoon, at another intersection of valleys, Beacon ran a dress rehearsal of his planned real ambush. Again from the head of a small curved valley empting out into the larger valley. And again the five fired five shots, getting only two hits this time because the Colonel's men were ready this time and hit the dirt at the sound of the first shot instead of looking around for its source as before.

Again the five sprinted up the hill behind the cover of the bend in the smaller valley. Reaching the five waiting horsemen they again slung their rifles and attempted to mount their horses, but this time one of them slipped and fell back off.

The extra seconds it took for him to get back up and position himself next to the spooked horse gave one of the Colonel's men time to run up the valley far enough to see their ambushers riding off and fire a few shots. Except for a grazed shoulder all of Molly's Marauders got away clean this time too, but Beacon worried; the Colonel was learning.

The third and real ambush took place late the next day. This ambush was also from the head of a small valley that curved as it emptied into the large valley. And again the five fired five shots, wounding one soldier in the column and killing a picket on the Colonel's flank nearest them, before retreating behind the cover of the hill to the waiting horses. But this time the colonel was ready for the attack. The ambusher's shots had hardly died away before a squad of ten riflemen led by an NCO sprinted towards the ambusher's position hoping to get around the hill's shoulder in time to put fire into the horses and ambushers.

When the squad was within twenty-five yards the real ambushers sprang up from hiding firing until all targets were down either wounded or killed. But this wasn't so much an ambush as it was combat. A firefight ensued. Molly lost two dead and two more wounded one seriously before it was over.

They retreated under the cover of the original ambushers who'd taken up their predestinated secondary positions designed to cover their retreat. They killed the one rogue reservist who dared peruse after the second ambush. One hundred percent of Colonel Darkin's anti-ambush squad became casualties that afternoon, but the cost had been too high.

Things weren't going well on the home front either. Elaine had been pushing to withdraw the children back into the castle where she imagined they'd be safe. Her words didn't fall on deaf ears. The parents of Molly's Marauders, worried for their children, prevailed upon Doc to recall them to the castle.

Through sheer force of will Doc got the edict amended to allow Beacon two additional days before he was ordered to send the children home.

Beacon had achieved his objective. Colonel Darkin posted his two M60 machine guns at the heads of valleys from then on. Each machine gun crew thus deployed was that many less men pulling and pushing the cannon. In addition Col. Darkin had a squad out in front of his column searching for ambushers thus depleting the labor force moving the cannon up the valley even more. Between the dead, dying and wounded the unit's morale was plummeting. The added hard work caused by the reduced labor force didn't help matters.

Beacon employed a few snipers on hillsides with backup squads to cover their escape just to keep the rogue reservists heads down, but switched tactics.

Some evenings he had been sneaking to the edge of the Colonel's camp and sniping just at dusk. The Colonel's men had gone from joking and talking during evening meals around campfires after a hard day's work to eating their MRE's hunkered down behind fallen trees with no campfires to warm their bodies or their sprits.

Colonel Darkin had tried sending out counter sniping teams just before they camped each evening, but they were incompetent and Beacon easily spotted and avoided them. Still, for the teams it was one more duty piled on top of a hard days work.

But his objective was to survive so Beacon switched tactics again. Late every other night or so he'd been sneaking to the edge of Darkin's camp around midnight and shooting at a sentry from the edge of the forest. It didn't matter if he hit his target or not, the sound of the shot (or the stress of waiting for a shot) unnerved the men and cost them sleep. On moonlit nights he seldom missed.

During daylight hours Colonel Darkin began sending out ambushers and counter snipers but by this time Beacon had convinced Molly to withdraw her troops for training and drills at a point further up the valley which he hoped would keep them occupied and out of danger while preparing for their next attack.

Besides, Beacon judged it was time to add psychological warfare to the mix. The morning of the deadline to withdraw Molly's Marauders the advancing troops found small pieces of paper stuck to tree trunks in their path.

The notes each bore one of two handwritten messages: "Anyone going UP HILL will be killed." And "Anyone going DOWN HILL may pass in peace."

Colonel Darkin had halted the column while he confiscated the notes, but it was too late. Scuttlebutt had carried Beacon's messages to the troops at the rear of the column before the noon meal. Colonel Darkin wasn't the only one upset by Beacon's ploy.

Elaine had objected to Beacon's use of castle resources. Paper was one of those things so ubiquitous before The Blowup no one had thought much about it. Now, like gasoline and ammo, "they" weren't making it any more. Whatever supplies were on hand or could be scrounged from buildings would be all there was until someone could get a paper factory started again.