“Alright,” Jake replied. “I’m going to head out soon, because it’s going to take awhile to circle the city far enough out to go unnoticed.”
“Perfect, I’ll see you later,” Richard said optimistically. He wasn’t sure if the Augs would attack again in the daylight, but it seemed like they were busy fortifying the city, rather than preparing for another uphill battle. In the back of his mind however, he suspected they might just be waiting for more mobile rocket launchers to be brought in, so they could attack with impunity.
Chapter 20
Once the sun started to set, Richard, Josephine, and three other clansmen headed down towards the city near the Rainbow Dam road. When they came to within a thousand yards of the enemy’s lines, Richard dropped down into a ravine on the east side of the road.
“Cover me. I’m going in for a closer look,” he whispered. Josephine gave him a disapproving look, but it was lost in the darkness. A few minutes later Richard returned. “The ravine comes out just below a land bridge that we can use to get across the river. There is quite a bit of overgrowth along the way that we can use to get past the Augs defensive line. Just beyond that, there are two damaged mobile rocket launchers located on the hill just past a small cluster of trees. Stay close, but move slowly across the rocky soil to minimize the noise.” Everyone nodded, and then Richard led them down the ravine. One by one, they cautiously crossed the land bridge and waited on the other side. Richard used hand signals to guide them around a group of Augs eating some kind of slop for dinner by the trees. Once they got past them, they made their way towards the hill where the rocket launchers were positioned. Under the artificial lights they could see two long wooden crates marked XM31 sitting between two rocket launchers. They could also see that a couple of Augs were stripping parts off of one launcher and using them to repair the other.
“What are we going to do?” Josephine whispered.
“We’ll have to wait until they finish, then hopefully they’ll go eat dinner with the other Augs,” Richard whispered back.
“Why don’t we just take them out, there are only two of them?” one of the clansmen suggested.
“The other Augs would be on us before we could get the rockets. I think we should just wait here and see what happens before we risk that kind of attention,” Richard replied.
Jake’s group of heavily armed men spotted a small caravan of Augs coming up highway 87 from the southeast. It appeared they were bringing in supplies as predicted, but it was impossible to tell if it was more weapons, or other necessities, using night vision.
“What do think?” Lukas asked as they hid next to the road in a long narrow drainage ditch.
“I don’t know… it’s so small, I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. I just wish we knew what they had on those trucks,” Jake replied as he scanned the horizon further south to see if there were any other vehicles in the distance.
“We came all this way, surely there will be something useful on one of them,” Daniel remarked.
“Yeah, what the hell, let ‘s not go back empty-handed,” Jake agreed. “Stay down and hold your fire until after they pass by us, then attack from behind so they can’t return fire as easily. After we overtake them, we’ll grab what we can and then head back.” The men nodded in agreement and then crouched down in the ditch. Once the last truck passed by, Jake rose up and shot out the tires on both trucks while Lukas and Daniel targeted the drivers the instant they jumped out. It was a surprisingly easy ambush and Jake felt a little disappointed, figuring the trucks must be carrying items of little value.
“Alright, let’s see what’s inside,” Jake remarked unenthusiastically, as he pulled the rear door open on the first truck. Lukas and Daniel covered him in case there were any Augs hiding inside the truck.
“Darn it!” Jake exclaimed after seeing the truck was filled with pulse rifles, the one weapon they already had plenty of. Then he made his way over to the other truck and pulled the door open on it half expecting to see more outdated weapons.
“What do we have here!” he exclaimed triumphantly, when he saw two long metal crates that appeared to be the correct size and shape for rockets.
“What is it?” Lukas asked as he peeked into the truck with his flashlight.
“I think found more rockets,” Jake announced. “Bring your light so I can take a closer look.” Lukas immediately jumped up into the truck while Daniel stood guard outside.
“Darn it, it’s locked,” Jake muttered under his breath. Then he whacked at the lock several times with the butt of his pulse rifle hoping it would break open. “Darn it!” he cursed again. “I guess we’ll have take the crates back with us and open them when we have some real tools… or I can just shoot the lock off?”
“Don’t do that!” Lukas and Daniel shouted in unison, fearing that the pulse rifle blast would detonate the contents and kill them all.
“Ha-ha-ha,” Jake said as he lowered his rifle and started to laugh at them. “I had you fooled,” he added between laughs.
“That was not even funny,” Lukas said as he shined his flashlight in Jakes eyes.
“Alright, grab an end and lets stack them together,” Jake suggested.
“Damn, these are heavier than they look,” Lukas remarked after they got them out of the truck.
“We’ll have to switch off carrying them, otherwise we’ll never make it back before sunrise,” Jake said as they headed back.
Richard and his crew patiently waited most of the night until the two Augs finished repairing the launcher and left to go eat.
“Cover me,” Richard said as he cautiously tiptoed over to the crate and pried it open with one of the screwdrivers the Augs left behind. Inside were four rockets nestled in a foam cutout. Richard gently lifted two of them out and slowly crept back to where the others were waiting. “I’ll be right back,” he whispered. A moment later, he returned with two more rockets. “I think we better go, it’s going to be light out soon.”
“Will four be enough?” Josephine asked.
“I hope so, but there isn’t enough time to grab more and still get back without being seen,” he replied.
“Okay,” Josephine said with a nod as she followed after him. The Augs over by the trees had fallen asleep and they quietly got past them without incident. When they reached the river and started to cross the land bridge, a dark figure approached them from the other side.
“Where are you going?” The Aug demanded, not realizing they were rebels.
“We’re on a special mission… now step aside or be reprimanded!” Richard said in an authoritative tone. The Aug started to comply with his command until he noticed the four other people standing behind Richard in the dark, all holding rockets. As he started to sling his pulse rifle forward, Richard tackled the Aug. As they were rolling around on the ground, Josephine raised the end of the rocket up and then swung it as hard as she could. A loud metallic sound rang out, and the Aug rolled off of Richard, and into a pool of water.
“Run for it!” Richard yelled, as a pulse rifle fire erupted from the riverbank behind them. As they made their way up the ravine, the Augs chased after them. “Drop the rockets and fire back!” Richard yelled when he realized they would not be able to out run the Augs with their hands full. Josephine, who was just behind him, dropped her rocket and continued up the ravine as fast as she could. The other three clansmen didn’t hear Richard’s warning, and the Augs shot them in the back before he or Josephine could save them. The Augs started firing at them, until the ridgeline overhead erupted in pulse rifle fire. The Augs immediately broke off their pursuit, apparently not wanting to face the entire rebel force on the hill above them.