Free The Rods and the Axe - eARC by Tom Kratman Page B

occasion. In fact, nobody in the know expected them to survive an attack for long nor much cared if they did. The turret’s main function, like that of the understrength cohorts of heavy guns off on the mainland, was to keep people from asking the wrong, which is to say the right, questions.
    Instead, the meat of Twelfth Brigade on the island was hidden. It consisted of four demi-cohorts of heavy guns, mounted on railway carriages, and four torpedo batteries, two to either side of the island. The torpedo batteries actually belonged to the classis , the Legion’s naval arm, but were attached to the Twelfth.
    Back on the mainland, the situation was considerably more dire than on the islands. For one thing, the Eleventh Legion was brand new, though most of its higher command and staff came from school brigade and were, individually, generally quite competent. The troops, however, had mostly not finished their initial entry training yet. They, still under their training cadres—in the Balboan system a rather lavish set of cadres, though—were grouped into new tercios , numbered Forty-sixth through Fifty-first Infantry, and Seventy-first Artillery, among others, The infantry were at roughly half to two-thirds strength in personnel, though the artillery was considerably stronger than a normal tercio.
    Some of those men and women, indeed, had as little as two weeks in uniform. The bright dye of their uniforms said as much. Worse, many of them were still sitting on the island, working on defenses while awaiting transportation.
    “Not for three more months, Duque ,” was Puercel’s judgment. “I don’t have the wire up or the mines laid. Christ; Cheatham’s still got Balboa Foundation and Wall pouring concrete and building obstacles and nutcrackers along the beach. And the unmanned water cooled MGs are taking a while to get out of storage and set up.”
    Nutcrackers were a kind of antilanding obstacle employing a wooden frame, a wooden lever, and a standard antitank mine to smash landing craft as they approached shore. The water-cooled machine guns were just that, except that, once someone started them firing, a curved and notched bar, to which a modified traversing and elevating mechanism was attached, caused them to fire continuously over a wide arc. The bar and T&E mechanism had been fairly easy to design and develop. Even the automatic cocking mechanism in case of a stoppage hadn’t been all that tough. The twenty-four-thousand-round drum magazine had been a bitch.
    “Plus,” Puercel continued, “I don’t have two of my five combat regiments yet. I don’t have many of the half-trained trainees off the island yet. We are still bringing in food and ammunition from the mainland where it had to be offloaded since our port facilities are not up to handing large freighters. Two more months.”
    Carrera raised one eyebrow and pointed at first the Thetis , then the other coaster impressed into being a minelayer. The implication was, This is on time. Why aren’t you ?
    “Because what he has to do,” offered Roderigo Fosa, in defense of his comrade, “is a thousand times more complex than just loading some stockpiled mines and delivering them, with crews that have spent nearly ten years learning how to do just that.
    “Can’t we do something diplomatically,” Fosa asked, “to keep the Zhong out of it? And yes, I know that would probably mean turning one of my people over to a ritual execution, but . . .”
    No , thought Carrera, because I need the Zhong to come into it. If they don’t, the TU won’t fight but will let this ceasefire drag on until we’re bankrupt.
    “No, as a matter of principle,” Carrera said. This was less than the truth but he couldn’t reveal the truth. It was also not quite a lie, since he did consider protecting his people a matter of principle.
    “How soon can you sail?” Carrera asked Fosa.
    “Anytime,” the latter replied. “But I thought you wanted me to intern my fleet in Santa