Sunday, June 16, 2013

Scarlet Blush

In the opening moments of most wars, there is a battle that acts as a test. A probe to feel the texture of the defenses. That happened yesterday. The UAS certainly didn't want to commit fully without knowing how far we would go in our desperation, but neither would they send enough troops at us that their loss would cripple their army. Instead they opted to move deeper and deeper into our land, coming relatively close to Haven. Just outside of artillery range. Thankfully they don't have the heavier missile weapons that could hit us from too far away to do a damn thing about it.

Sitting at the edge of the true danger zone was enough to provoke a response from us. Our people have been chipping away at them over the last few days, but that's all. Just flakes that add up to no real loss of operational capability. They waited all day for some large response from us, but other than the small attacks they didn't get one. I wonder if it came as a surprise when several hundred of our people raided all down their line of vehicles last night? The point of the assault wasn't to take lives.

It was to disable that artillery. It's an old trick and one we've used before. Stealth and surprise are something our soldiers are good at. Years in the woods give them strong abilities in that area. We might not have disabled all of them, but no one is going to fire a huge gun when a blazing gob of steel-melting thermite has been down its barrel or across its controls. Kind of amazing how much damage a baseball-sized wad of the stuff can do.

Every person who went on that raid was a volunteer. More than half of them didn't come back. We're actually pretty stunned any of them did. It was considered a suicide mission.

But that's what you get when you conscript soldiers from survivors who've lived mostly underground or, in the case of the vast numbers from Mexico, have no real experience in this kind of terrain. Word is the UAS soldiers from south and central America are by and large more efficient soldiers than those from the bunkers. Which makes sense. The southerners had to survive just like we did.

The language barriers probably helped our raid succeed. No matter how effective your people are in combat, it's nearly impossible to keep disciplined groups when half of them speak several different languages. Confusion, misunderstandings, and just plain bad information clutters up the whole thing. Basically it created good conditions to buy our people time to get the job done.

And they did. The UAS is moving in on us now, heedless of the traps and danger ahead, because their leadership realizes if they wait any longer the morale and urge to fight is going to drain out of their soldiers. Facing a guerrilla force on their home turf with unknown armaments, numbers, and capabilities who sometimes appear from the dark like ghosts is enough to make anyone walk away.

At least by mobilizing and coming right at us they know where we'll be. They know we won't run. In an hour or two the fight will be in our front yard. Then in our streets. If things go very badly, at our front door. We've got a trick or two left. We'll see.

Today is the day, everyone.

2 comments:

  1. Good luck our thoughts are with you!

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  2. Just entered your area, any where you want us to be or is just hit and run the tactic for us as I think we can do it in their rear!

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