Pushback

(U.S. Army photo by Paolo Bovo)

The Javelin team could hear the convoy before they could see it, so they were ready when the spotter got the message, "Juliet One, cleared hot."

As the first white-painted UN vehicle nosed its way up the rough track, Private First Class Javier Lopez Garcia put his cursor on it. A second later the missile was on its way downrange.

The missile climbed up, tipped over, then slammed down into the APC, the men aboard never knew what hit them.

Lieutenant Zhang looked up as his lead vehicle exploded. He seemed mesmerized as he stood up in the hatch, oblivious to the sound of bullets in the air passing very close. Finally he was pulled down into the vehicle by his sergeant.

"Comrade Lieutenant, you have to take charge, we should either retreat out of the range of those anti-tank missiles or deploy and attack our ambushers, there can't be that many of them!"

The lieutenant looked at his sergeant, as if seeing him for the first time. Lieutenant Zhang had never been in combat and all the combat drills and maneuvers never prepared one for the real thing.

"Damn it Comrade, make a decision!"

It was an older model Abrams, it had been passed on to the Guard years before. As the unit only had five of them, they had lovingly maintained them and kept them in fighting trim. Unfortunately when they had had to hightail it out of town, just minutes before a Chinese armored unit had shown up, they only had a single lowboy trailer available. It was only sheer luck that they had one of their tanks loaded on it.

Now it looked as if the Guard unit's luck was paying off.

Another UN APC had been hit by Juliet Two. It had suffered the same fate as the lead vehicle in the convoy. The Chinese response seemed sluggish Major Morrison thought, almost as if they had expected no opposition. As SSgt Sager had said, "The 42nd was not going to roll over to some damned peacekeeper force!"

Now the Abrams was in position, its first round hit the last APC in the column. The gunner had put a HEAT round into the aft doors of the vehicle, which went through them like a hot knife through butter. The explosion inside the vehicle was spectacular and immediately fatal to the men inside.

Zhang finally awakened to the danger his unit was in. "Sergeant Liu, deploy the squad, get on the radio to the remainder of the platoon, signal Action Plan Blue Dragon!"

Liu sprang into action, the driver of Zhang's vehicle was already on the radio. He discovered that of the other vehicles only two remained.

"Sir, Tigers Two, Three and Five are not responding. Four says he's under fire by a tank!"

Zhang spun around to look at the driver, "A tank?!?"

"Yes Sir! Coming up behind us!"

Liu had the rear doors open, the first two men out were immediately cut to pieces by machine gun fire. "Huang, close those doors, we are..."

Sergeant Liu was hit in the chest just as Tiger Four was hit by tank fire and exploded. The driver of Tiger One was mesmerized. He realized that this was it, he was never going to see his home again.

Lieutenant Zhang pulled Liu's body deeper into the APC, as he checked the man for a pulse, he looked up. He recognized the man standing behind the APC for what he was, an American infantryman, his M4 rifle pointed directly at Zhang.

Reluctantly Zhang began to raise his hands in surrender. The American didn't even blink as he fired a round into Zhang's head.

As the Guardsmen examined the wreckage of the Chinese convoy, they didn't find much worth salvaging. Four of the vehicles had suffered catastrophic damage, the fifth, the platoon leader's vehicle was a mess inside. Blood and body parts everywhere.

PFC Washington had tossed a grenade into the vehicle after shooting a man who may or may not have been trying to surrender, then slammed the doors shut. The resulting explosion killed the survivors in the back, the driver had been shot down climbing out of his own hatch moments before the grenade had detonated.

Washington's team leader, Sergeant Leroy Baker, looked at the carnage, "Damn Wash, remind me to never piss you off."

SSgt Morrison came past and shouted over, "Ain't much to salvage, let's load up and boogie, come on troopers! Let's move it!"

Colonel Xin Donghai lowered the phone to its cradle. He had expected a pacified, compliant populace. His predecessor had assured him that the troublemakers in the region were few and were quiet at the moment.

Now he had a dead sentry from the compound, seven wounded and two dead balanced against a destroyed American hamlet with thirty-three dead Yankees, but this latest news was devastating. It was only through a huge expenditure of energy that he resisted the urge to slam the phone down and immediately send a punitive expedition into the nearest big town.

The phone call had been from one of their American informants, he lived not far from a secondary road into the mountains. Upon that road he saw the remnants of five UN armored vehicles. There were also a few dead soldiers nearby.

He had asked if the man saw any survivors, the answer had been no, four of the five vehicles looked like they had blown up, the man explained, the fifth was still burning.

Xin knew that he had to report this up the chain. This was serious resistance, unexpected resistance. As he pondered how to word his report, his aide came into the office.

"Comrade Colonel, Captain Zhou has been found, he and his driver were murdered on the grounds of the American military base twenty miles from here. The American compound there is deserted, we think that there is an intact American armored unit out there. Shall I send a helicopter patrol out?"

"Whose helicopters Bolin? The South Africans? We don't have any aircraft yet, they are still in Canada with no fuel and no bombs. Get me Area Headquarters on the line, we will need reinforcements and soon. Also go and arrest the local political leaders. Bring them here, immediately!!"

As Lieutenant Chou rushed to do the colonel's bidding, the colonel spun his chair and looked out the window into the compound. The Americans still had teeth, it was his job to pull those teeth. He didn't have the right tools for that just yet, perhaps he could get one of the more pliant locals to assist him. After all, Washington DC had invited the peacekeepers in, they should help support the peacekeeper's mission.

The Colonel wanted American aircraft, especially those venerable A-10s, he knew the Americans still had at least two squadrons of them still in service.

That would be a nice touch, destroying the American rebels with their own aircraft.

He needed A-10s.