Hicks looked away from Jeff's face and stared up the hillside again. He shuddered a little and then turned back to them. Slowly he nodded. "You never would let me live that down, would you?" he asked.
"I wouldn't give you a second thought the moment you climbed on that APC and went away," Jeff told him. "But it ain't me you gotta worry about. Would you ever let you live it down?"
"No," Hicks said. "I guess I wouldn't."
"All right then," Jeff said. "So you coming back up the hill with us, or what?"
Hicks shifted his M-24 on his shoulder. "Let's go," he said. "Maybe we can catch a little nap before they come back."
They walked back to the trench entrance and started back up. On the way they passed three more wounded being brought down.
"Casualties are higher than expected," General Jackson told the image of Laura Whiting on his screen. "We held their tanks at the Jutfield Gap, but only barely. We were actually in the process of withdrawing our forces to the blue line behind the gap when they decided they'd had enough and turned back."
"I see," she said, her eyes probing. "What are the numbers?"
"Two hundred and sixty-three dead at Jutfield," he recited. "Half that many wounded and out of action. We lost fourteen tanks and eighteen APCs. A number of the trenches and tank positions got torn up as well and are unsuitable for primary protection in the next engagement. The commanders on scene are shifting units around to plug up those holes."
"And at New Pittsburgh?" she asked.
"It's not as bad there," he told her. "The gap protecting the New Pittsburgh approach is narrower and hillier, allowing us to concentrate more troops in a smaller area. They threw them back after only ten minutes. Seventy-five were killed, ninety wounded. Only eight tanks and twelve APCs lost. We did lose two Mosquitoes and their crews there, however. They apparently crashed into a hillside while making a run. The lead underestimated a turn and went in, the wing followed right behind."
"Inexperienced pilot?" she asked.
"Yes," he confirmed. "That and the fatigue factor is probably the cause of the accident. Some of those guys have done more than a hundred sorties since the invasion started. They're trying to keep the pressure up on the Earthlings and only getting three or four hours of sleep a day."
"Anything else?" she asked.
He nodded. "We also had a hover go down while evacuating wounded out of New Pittsburgh. More than likely that was a mechanical malfunction. Everyone aboard is confirmed dead."
"What about Libby and Proctor?" she asked next.
"It seems General Wrath might have learned from the beating he took at Eden and NP. The tank units were pulled back from Libby and Proctor before they even got in range to engage. That's a mixed blessing. Proctor has the narrowest defensive gap of them all, only fifteen kilometers wide. We would've massacred them in spades there and it's doubtful they would have even got close enough to put accurate fire on our trenches. At Libby, on the other hand, we have the widest first-line defensive corridor. It's almost seventy kilometers wide and there are several places they can flank it if they choose. We're spread extremely thin through that area and we have to keep one of the ACRs uncommitted and in reserve to defend against a flank attack. They more than likely would have been able to push through and open a corridor if they would have concentrated forces on the center."
"So how bad off are we?" Laura asked, not wanting to get into a discussion about what might have happened. "Why were the casualties so high at Eden?"
"I think the very factors that we've been trying to instill in the Earthlings might have worked against us to some degree."
"What do you mean?"
"Fatigue and breakdown of command and control at the platoon and company level," he said. "We've achieved that goal quite admirably. It's apparent just by watching how their units maneuver. They're all over the place out there, in nothing like a military fighting formation. They're more like ants advancing on a piece of chicken, coming in from all directions with little order or organization."
"And that worked against us?"
"When they came in to hit the positions in the Jutfield Gap, they didn't stick to their zones when attacking. Instead, all of the individual tank platoons seemed to fire at whatever they perceived to be the greatest threat against them. As a result, some of our trenches and tank positions took three and four times the volume of fire they were designed to withstand while others remained completely untouched. We didn't count on them being so haphazard in their engagements. We expected them to spread their fire across the entire gap, which we could have easily absorbed except for the occasional lucky shot that happened to make it through a firing hole."
"Is there anything that can be done to rectify this?" she asked.
"Not much we can do about the tank and APC positions," he said. "As for the trenches, I've ordered that any position under overwhelming cannon fire hunker down and that any position not under fire expand their zones to maximum in order to draw fire away. The battalion and company commanders will be the ones to initiate this. Hopefully it'll help."
"And how is troop morale?"
"Variable," he said. "It's in the danger zone on the infantry and tank units that got hit hard and took heavy casualties. Among the units that didn't get hit hard, however, it's about as high as we could expect."
"Desertions?" she asked.
"About a hundred at Eden," he said. "All from the units that took heavy fire. As per standing orders, support battalions are transporting them back to the main line if feasible. They can walk their asses back from there."
"And they're not being persecuted in any way?"
"I know your feelings on that, Laura," he said. "There is no official persecution going on against the deserters. When they make their way back to the city we'll discharge them and note in the personnel computers that they're ineligible for further military service or benefits. As for unofficial persecution from their peers..." He shrugged. "There's not a lot I can do about that."
"Understood," she said. "What's happening out there now?"
"The peepers are showing that they're formed up just over the horizon in all cities under attack. They're re-arming the tanks by APC shuttle from the supply and refuel point."
"Should the Mosquitoes be attacking those re-supply units?" she asked.
"I considered it," he said. "It's what conventional military thinking would dictate. But I still think our air assets are best utilized for doing what they do best — killing the WestHem foot soldiers who will be climbing those hills and trying to dislodge our infantry. For now the Mosquitoes are continuing their attacks on the APCs in their staging positions and leaving the supply units alone. Mortar teams and sniper teams are in the hills surrounding these staging areas. The snipers are directing mortar fire onto the units that are re-loading."
"You're the military expert," she said. "What about the pilot fatigue and the pilot errors that caused the crash in New Pittsburgh. Anything that can be done about that?"
"The fatigue factor is something we're trying to deal with. I've commandeered as much of the coffee supply as I could get my thieving little hands on and I'm feeding it to the air crews and their maintenance crews. As for pilot error, I've sent out an order that only senior pilots with more than five hundred hours logged are allowed to fly lead in a combat sortie. Again, we do what we can."